Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisEarly Levy comprises two pioneering early works by Man Booker-shortlisted writer Deborah Levy.BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS Lapinski, a manipulative and magical Russian exile, summons forth a number of highly contemporary urban pilgrims. Through them, Levy explores broken dreams and self-destructive desires in a shimmering, dislocated allegory of its times.& SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY Like her namesake Jack Kerouac, J.K. is always on the road, travelling Europe with her typewriter in a pillowcase. From J.K.''s irreverent, ironic perspective, Levy charts a new, dizzying, end-of-the-century world of shifting boundaries and displaced peoples.''She storms through the back door, refusing to be weighed down with rationalist and aesthetic baggage . . . [This] is a world on the brink of destruction but it''s going down with a barnyard laugh and an explosive extravagance of imagination'' Blitz''It throbs its way Trade ReviewShe storms through the back door, refusing to be weighed down with rationalist and aesthetic baggage . . . [This] is a world on the brink of destruction but it's going down with a barnyard laugh and an explosive extravagance of imagination * Blitz *It throbs its way into the imagination like the unguided missile it decries * Observer on BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS *Distilled images of vital and unsettling power. Levy is one of the few contemporary British writers comfortable on a world stage * New Statesman *She writes like a hyperkinetic angel * The Times *

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Book SynopsisMemories of My Melancholy Whores is a powerful novel about a man who so far has never felt love from Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude. ''The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin''On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a newspaper columnist in Colombia decides to give himself ''a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent''. But on seeing this beautiful girl he falls deeply under her spell. His love for his ''Delgadina'' causes him to recall all the women he has paid to perform acts of love. And so the columnist realises he must chronicle the life of his heart, to offer it freely to the world. . . ''Márquez describes this amorous, sometimes disturbing journey with the grace and vigour of a master storyteller'' Daily Mail''Márquez is wonderful on the transformative and redemptive powers of love. . . storytelling magic'' Tatler''Márquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do'' Salman RushieTrade ReviewMárquez describes this amorous, sometimes disturbing journey with the grace and vigour of a master storyteller * Daily Mail *Profoundly haunting … one of literature's great figures pushes back the years and gives us fiction of the very highest order * TLS *There is not one stale sentence, redundant word or unfinished thought * The Times *

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Book SynopsisBlending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, this book is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.Trade ReviewThe book that sort of saved my lifeThe greatest novel in any language of the last 50 yearsShould be required reading for the entire human race * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisStrange Pilgrims is a collection of unforgettable stories about distinctive South American individuals in Europe from the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. ''The first thing Señora Prudencia Linero noticed when she reached the port of Naples was that it had the same smell as the port of Riohacha''The twelve stories here tell of Latin Americans adrift in Europe: a bereaved father in Rome for an audience with the Pope carries a box shaped like a cello case; an aging streetwalker waits for death in Barcelona with a dog trained to weep at her grave; a panic-stricken husband takes his wife to a Parisian hospital to treat a cut and never sees her again. Combining terror and nostalgia, surreal comedy and the poetry of the commonplace, Strange Pilgrims is a triumph of storytelling by our most brilliant writer.''Celebratory and full of strange relish at lifeTrade ReviewCelebratory and full of strange relish at life's oddness. The stories draw their strength from Márquez's generous feel for character, good and bad, boorish and innocent * William Boyd *

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Book SynopsisIn Evil Hour is the thrilling story of a Colombian society menaced by rumour and paranoia by the Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. As a small South American town sweats under an oppressive heat, an unknown person creeps through the night sticking malicious posters to walls and doors. When the contents of one poster lead to a murder, everyone knows that the town is threatened by a malevolent presence - but is there anything that the mayor, the doctor or the priest can do about it?''In Evil Hour was the book which was to inspire my own career as a novelist. I owe my writing voice to that one book!'' Jim Crace''Belongs to the very best of Márquez''s work...should on no account be missed'' Financial Times''A splendid achievement'' The TimesTrade ReviewA masterly book * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe General in his Labyrinth is the compelling tale of Simón Bolívar, a hero who has been forgotten and whose power is fading, retracing his steps down the Magdalena River by the Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. ''It was the fourth time he had travelled along the Magdalena, and he could not escape the impression that he was retracing the steps of his life''At the age of forty-six General Simón Bolívar, who drove the Spanish from his lands and became the Liberator of South America, takes himself into exile. He makes a final journey down the Magdalene River, revisiting the cities along its shores, reliving the triumphs, passions and betrayals of his youth. Consumed by the memories of what he has done and what he failed to do, Bolívar hopes to see a way out of the labyrinth in which he has lived all his life. . .. ''An exquisite writer, wise, compassionate Trade ReviewA fascinating tour de force and a moving tribute to an extraordinary man * Margaret Atwood *

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Book SynopsisSweeping through crumbling towns, travelling fairs and windswept ports, Gabriel García Márquez introduces a host of extraordinary characters and communities in his mesmerising tales of everyday life: smugglers, bagpipers, the President and Pope at the funeral of Macondo''s revered matriarch; a very old angel with enormous wings. Teeming with the magical oddities for which his novels are loved, Márquez''s stories are a delight.Gabriel García Márquez''s Collected Stories are re-issued on Gabriel García Márquez ''s birthday to celebrate the publication of his books as ebooks for the first time.Trade ReviewMarquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do * Salman Rushdie *

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Book SynopsisNobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez,, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, portrays a food company violating a small Colombia town in his vivid and powerful novel Leaf Storm. ''Suddenly, as if a whirlwind had set down roots in the centre of the town, the banana company arrived, pursed by the leaf storm''Drenched by rain, the town has been decaying ever since the banana company left. Its people are sullen and bitter, so when the doctor - a foreigner who ended up the most hated man in town - dies, there is no one to mourn him. But also living in the town is the Colonel, who is bound to honour a promise made many years ago. The Colonel and his family must bury the doctor, despite the inclination of their fellow inhabitants that his corpse be forgotten and left to rot.''The most important writer of fiction in any language'' Bill Clinton''Márquez is a retailer of wonders'' Sunday Times''An exquisite writer, wise, compassionate and extremely funny'' Sunday TelegraphTrade ReviewThe most important writer of fiction in any language * Bill Clinton *

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Book SynopsisTHE HILARIOUS COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ABOUT A BOY''Touching, very funny'' Guardian __________________ ''There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.''Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There''s no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam; his Mum''s got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he''s thinking about college and he''s met someone. Alicia.Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can''t run (let alone skate) away from this one. He''s a boy facing a man''s problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them?Slam is a novel about a boy who has to grow up in big, big hurry. It is The Catcher in the Rye for the Trade ReviewTruthful and funny * Sunday Times *Hornby takes the raw ironies of life and gently rubs away at them to reveal gems of bittersweet truth * Observer *A moving read for anyone * Elle *Touching, very funny * Guardian *Hornby gets his point across with the subtlety and skill of a born novelist who always deserves to be read * Independent *Warm, witty and wise * Arena *Hornby's writing is hilarious * Cosmopolitan *Hornby takes the raw ironies of life and gently rubs away at them to reveal gems of bittersweet truth * Observer *

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Book Synopsis''Ireland''s finest comic creation since Father Ted'' Hot PressI was a rugby player with a great future behind me. A 35-year-old father-of-five with an expanding waistline, who was trying to survive the bloody battlefield we call life. My son was locked in a violent turf war with a rival Love/Hate tour operator, my daughter was in love with a boy who looked like Justin Bieber, and my old dear was about to walk up the aisle with a 92-year-old billionaire who thought it was still 1936.I was, like, staring down the barrel of middle age with the contentment of knowing that I was the greatest Irish rugby player who no one in Ireland had ever actually heard of. Until a chance conversation with an old Jesuit missionary made me realize that it wasn''t enough.I was guided, as if by GPS, to a muddy field in - let''s be honest - Ballybrack. And there I finally discovered my destiny - to keep a struggling Seapoint team in Division 2B of the All Ireland League. Or die trying.''Hides a heart of darkness beneath the layers of craic and great gas and great story-telling and human warmth. Ross O''Carroll-Kelly is Ireland!'' Irish Times''A cracking and hilariously witty read'' Irish Independent''Book after book, Ross O''Carroll-Kelly delivers the goods ... Howard is in a league of his own'' Sunday Business PostTrade ReviewOur nation's great satirist ... the most sustained feat of comic writing in Irish literature * Irish Times *A national treasure * Irish Independent *Snortingly funny one-liners ... there's plenty of gas left in the Ross tank * RTÉ Guide *Side-achingly funny * Sunday Business Post *

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Book Synopsis''A whole Gothic world had come to grief . . .''Beautiful Lady Brenda Last lives at Hetton Abbey, a crumbling Gothic monstrosity that is her husband Tony''s pride and joy. Bored and restless after seven years of marriage, she drifts into an affair with a worthless young socialite. Abandoning the country for the glamorous yet shallow London scene, Brenda imagines divorce will bring happiness. Instead she and Tony feel lost and isolated - victims of the wreckless times in which they live . . .Trade Review“A vicious, witty novel.” —New York Times “Waugh’s technique is relentless and razor-edged…By any standard it is super satire.” —Chicago Daily News“The most mature and the best written novel that Mr. Waugh has yet produced.” —New Statesman & Nation “A story both tragic and hilariously funny, that seems to move along without aid from its author…Unquestionably the best book Mr. Waugh has written.” —Saturday Review

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Book SynopsisThe poets and soldiers Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen are dispatched to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland in 1917. There, army psychiatrist William Rivers is treating brutalised, shell-shocked men. It is Rivers' job to fix these men and make them ready to fight again.

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Book SynopsisI''m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill is a chilling novel that explores the extremes of childhood cruelty, now published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.''Some people are coming here today, now you will have a companion.''But young Edmund Hooper doesn''t want anyone else in Warings, the large and rambling Victorian house he shares with his widowed father. Nevertheless Charles Kingshaw and his mother are soon installed and Hooper sets about subtly persecuting the fearful new arrival.In the woods, Charles fights back but he knows that his rival will always win the affections of the adults - and that worse is still to come . . .

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Book SynopsisThe Children Of Dynmouth - a classic prize-winning novel by William TrevorWilliam Trevor''s The Children of Dynmouth (Winner of the Whitbread Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) was first published in 1976 and is a classic account of evil lurking in the most unlikely places. In it we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the bland seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy takes a prurient interest in the lives of the adults there, who only realise the sinister purpose to which he seeks to put his knowledge too late.''A small masterpiece of understatement ... a work of rare compassion'' Joyce Carol Oates, New York TimesIf you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of s

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Book SynopsisA devastating story of love, loss and one woman''s terrible choice between duty and personal freedom. Fall in love with Brooklyn ahead of its bestselling follow-up, Long Island.It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time.Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love.***''With this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibín has produced a masterwork'' Sunday Times''UnforgettaTrade ReviewWith this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibín has produced a masterwork * Sunday Times *The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time -- Zoë Heller * Guardian, Books of the Year *A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life -- Ali Smith * TLS, Books of the Year *Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times, Novel of the Year *

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Book SynopsisAward-winning author Javier Marías weaves a darkly thrilling tale of love, betrayal and lives played out in the unhappy shadow of history As a young man, Juan de Vere takes a job that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Hi employer is Eduardo Muriel: a famous film director, sophisticated and discreet. Muriel''s wife Beatriz is a soft, ripe woman who slips through her husband''s home like an unwanted ghost, finding solace in other beds. And on the periphery of their lives stands Dr Jorge Van Vechten, a old family friend with a shadowy past. Juan enters eagerly into Muriel''s world of glamour and prestige, but as time passes he is troubled by many questions that seem to have no answer. Why does Muriel hate Beatriz? How did Beatriz meet Van Vechten? And what happened in the chaotic years after the war?As Juan learns more about his employers, his own iTrade ReviewPublisher's description. From one of Spain's most acclaimed literary voices comes a rich and complex portrait of mutual deception, toxic love and cruel, lingering guilt. A youth caught in the middle of someone else's bitter marriage; a beautiful woman scorned; a man torn between conscience and will. Step into the melancholic, unforgiving world of Javier Marías. * Penguin *Marías returns with another masterful tapestry of noir-ish twists and digressive cerebration * The Millions *Elegant and beautiful, reminiscent of Proust... Magnificent * Daily Mail *One of Marias's most enjoyable and accessible novels * Financial Times *Marias is relentless in his pursuit of literary and psychological truth * Sunday Times *Ferociously addictive, troubling [and] seductive... It works as high literary fiction, constantly picking apart our assumptions about story and fiction, but also offering good old-fashioned plot' * Independent *A powerful study of history and memory from a literary giant * Sunday Times *Easily as engrossing as anything he's written before... He manages to tread the tightrope between a very literary fiction and an utterly absorbing plot * The Times *Alfred Hitchcock would be a home with Marias - but so too might Harold Pinter...It's a rare trick to pull off, this combination of suspense, analysis and metaphysics that aims both high at the brow and low at the gut * Prospect *Almodóvar-esque * New York Magazine *On the page, he is expansive and unrestrained * New Yorker *A major work from a global talent, Thus Bad Begins knits Hitchcockian suspense into a hypnotic tale crackling with erotic tension and political strife... The personal is political, as Marías' powerful, wide-ranging, yet curiously intimate novel attests * Minneapolis Star-Tribune *Marías is a master of a kind of suspense that is rare in the modern novel * NY Times *Erudite, strange, hypnotic and beautiful...One reads Marías for his ability to make the smallest parts of the world come alive * LA Times *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 20172017 PULITZER PRIZE Finalist for Fiction TIME Top Ten Novels of 2016 ''It might be the best American novel about a middle-class family since Jonathan Franzen''s The Corrections'' Independent''Exceptional, haunting, distinctive... [It] resembles the work of Anne Tyler, intertwining grief and love... Intimate and panoramic'' The Sunday Times''Dreadfully sad and hilariously funny. Literature of the highest order'' Peter CareyUniversal and essential, the heart-breaking story of an ordinary American family shaped by tragedyMichael''s father walked into the woods one day, and out of his family''s life for ever. Yet he and his brother and sister see it less as a tragedy in their past and more as a forewarning of the future. For Michael - smart, brilliant, so alive and vital - feels the darkness that drew their father away and how, given the chance, it might take the whole family. He wants to save them - but can he save himself?Trade ReviewPublisher's description. How much can any of us do to save those we love from themselves? What does the dark legacy of guilt do to a person, to a relationship, to a family? Achingly poignant and sharply witty, this portrait of a single tragedy rippling across many lives has all the makings of an American classic. * Penguin *Beautiful, elegant, harrowing... This is a book that makes you eager, once more, for the complications of the world -- Colum McCannThis beautiful, tragic novel will haunt you for the rest of your life... Michael is simply one of the finest characters I've ever come across... An extraordinary work of art -- Paul HardingMarvellously lucid and intelligent... [a] novel about family, love, and a despair that proves unbearable -- Joy Williams

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Book SynopsisFrom the Booker-shortlisted author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour comes a hilarious novel about fathers, sons, thwarted dreams and confronting the reality of who we really are''This is a fine American novel about family, love, and a decent but flawed man trying to be better. In dark times like these, I can''t recommend this book too highly. It''s strong'' Stephen King on Twitter___________________________________Charlie Barnes is a mid-century man devoted to his newspaper and his landline. But Charlie is about to get dragged into our troubled age by his storyteller son, who has a different idea of him than he has of himself. Then there are his other children, his ex-wives, present wife, business clients, friends and acquaintances, all of whom have their competing opinions of Charlie.He certainly seems simple enough: he''s a striver, a romantic, and a thoroughgoing capitalist. But suddenly blindsidTrade ReviewA hilarious skewering of the American Dream by the man who must be the funniest writer we have -- Sathnam Sanghera * Guardian, Best Books of 2021 *This is a fine American novel about family, love, and a decent but flawed man trying to be better. In dark times like these, I can't recommend this book too highly -- Stephen KingSplendid . . . it is hard to be genuinely funny in a novel but the final 50 or so pages, in which Charlie's family confront Jake Barnes, the fourth wall-breaking narrator of the novel, over the content of the tell-all memoir, was easily the most hilarious chapter of a novel I read all year -- Martin Chilton * Independent, 20 Best Books of 2021 *Until I read A Calling For Charlie Barnes, Joshua Ferris's virtuosic third novel, I couldn't recall the last time a book caused me to both laugh and gasp aloud. Madly funny and bristling with intelligence, this is the story of a man in later life wallowing in the detritus of the American Dream and of the children witnessing his decline -- Megan Nolan * New Statesman, Books of the Year *Simultaneously narratively courageous and utterly hilarious . . . where it leaves the reader feels special and unique * Sunday Times *In Ferris's admirably risk-taking hands, this novel becomes so much more than simply another story of failed American dreams. Ferris has made himself into the leading writer of the American workplace . . . He understands both its absurdities (and this is another very funny book) and its rewards, but most of all he understands how it shapes modern America * Observer *Ferris could write enthralling realist fiction in his sleep but it's the ideas and formal ingenuity that really set this novel apart . . . [he considers] the role of storytelling in families, the myths we create and the possibility that there is no such thing as telling it straight * i *Brilliant, funny, heartbreaking . . . Family, memory, ambition and death, all told with dervishing glee. Not just a daredevil of a novel, but something truly new -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of LessFerris is on his finest deadpan form here, skewering contemporary America and the shallow values it embodied in the heat of the 2008 financial crash * Spectator *Inventive and witty, tender and wise. It's a portrait of life, love and death, and much else besides * Daily Mail *This is the story of one disappointed idealist told by another, of one unreliable narrator described by another, and it is animated by filial love . . . funny, moving - and surprising * Guardian *This novel is funny - Ferris has lovely comic timing and a great way with the sheer silliness of a family's mental and physical bric-a-brac - and very moving * Guardian *Dazzling . . . A more tender novel than Ferris's others, but that doesn't keep it from being murderously funny . . . [he has found] precisely the right way to meld memoir with satire, to do this with bracing originality and to keep heads spinning from this novel's first page to its last . . . he's risen to the top of his game * New York Times *Funny, moving, and formally a work of genius, A Calling for Charlie Barnes is quite literally the book Joshua Ferris was born to write. -- Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on FireDazzling. Mind-blowing. About as much fun as you can have without risking arrest * Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls *A deeply funny, very moving book . . . Ferris's hijinks are serious; his play is profound. There is magic in these pages -- Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland ElegiesA touching tale about the love between fathers and sons * The Times *A passionate, well-constructed, often hilarious and, at times, profound plunge into grief, both civic and intimate, as well as a culmination (so far) of the literary explorations he has been undertaking since he arrived -- Sam Lipsyte * New York Times Book Review *A Calling for Charlie Barnes is wonderful: fast and deep, urgent and brilliant . . . A hilarious, intimate, and scathing takedown of so many American vanities -- Dana Spiotta, author of Stone ArabiaHe has proved that he's one of the best American authors of comic fiction working today. His humour is on full display but so are his intelligence and compassion. It's a masterpiece that shines a revealing light on both family and fiction itself * NPR *Ferris's work cuts to the heart of who we are by focusing very painfully on who one man was . . . Consider this book not just a work of grief or love or memoir, then, but a work of hope, too. * Publishers Weekly *A warmly bullish but measured and reflectful voice that brings out all the humour and wisdom of the novel * The Times, Audiobook of the Week *Intriguing and intelligent . . . the humour throughout is exquisitely judged . . . and the descent into metafiction, the novel's true crowning glory, is extremely well done without ever feeling hammy or clunky * Irish Times *A relentlessly self-reflective book * FT *Joshua Ferris has proved his astonishing ability to spin gold from ordinary air . . . As brave and adept as any writer out there * New York Times Book Review on To Rise Again at a Decent Hour *Not too many authors have written the Great American Office Novel... Then We Came to the End feels like a readymade classic of the genre. . . . A truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness * Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times on Then We Came to the End *Dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be * Guardian, on 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour' *Brilliant, funny, stomach-turningly accurate * Observer, on 'Then We Came to the End' *Very funny, intense and exhilarating * The Times, on 'Then We Came to the End' *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE 2021 A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith''s Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now. ''A maestra''s portrait of her age . . . remarkable'' GuardianIn the present, Sacha knows the world''s in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world''s in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn''t even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they''re living on borrowed time. This is a story about people on the brink of change. They''re family, but they think they''re strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they''ve got nothing in common have in common? Summer. Discover all four instalments: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Ali Smith''s new novel, Companion piece, is available now.*****''The first great coronavirus novel - a book to savour, a literary tour de force'' Evening Standard''Exquisite. Smith is in a class of her own'' Nicola Sturgeon ''An astonishing finale to a prescient series . . . Ali Smith brilliantly weaves strands of joy and celebration to end her Seasonal Quartet'' Irish TimesTrade ReviewAn astonishing finale to a prescient series . . . Ali Smith brilliantly weaves strands of joy and celebration to end her Seasonal Quartet * Evening Standard *The first great coronavirus novel - a book to savour, a literary tour de force that captures the nation's psyche exquisitely * Evening Standard *This singular writer has found her moment * Prospect *A maestra's portrait of her age. . . remarkable * Guardian *Few writers today can make a more compelling claim to singularity of innovation and sustained brilliance * TLS *The bravura performance of a writer, poised at the edge of the day's vast darkness, gathering all the warmth and light of our inner summer * The Washington Post *Smith bring[s] this brilliant quartet to a satisfying close * NPR *The final flourish of a mazy and beautiful quartet * Telegraph *Sublime * The Boston Globe *Brilliant * The Scotsman *The novel's hopeful message about the healing power of friendship ensures the quartet ends on a feel-good note * Sunday Times *A remarkable experiment with timeliness in fiction * Literary Review *

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Book Synopsis''There''s a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .''Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life. For Mona, it''s the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family''s cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss. But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it''s too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us?''Devastatingly emotional. De Waal''s storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself'' Financial Times ''Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics'' Emerald Street''An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity'' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewTender with a fierce undercurrent of tension and heartbreak -- Jane Shemilt, bestselling author of 'Daughter'The "trick to time" is that it can expand or contract at will, and in creating a mature heroine with decades of history, De Waal has herself performed a feat of skilful comprehension * Guardian Review *[An] emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity * Sunday Times *Moving and enlightening * Independent *A beautifully written, exquisitely crafted story of love, grief and the quiet courage it takes to survive great loss * S Magazine *A beautiful book -- Andrew MarrAn aching tale of love and loss * Stylist *Excellent. The novel's ending will leave you reeling * Daily Mail *An unforgettable tale of grief and life-long love * Woman's Own *The Trick to Time starts gently and ratchets up the emotional intensity until you're ugly crying into your pillow * Sunday Times *Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics * Emerald Street *It's slight but engaging. The style is simple yet artful * Evening Standard *A story that's full of care; even in its saddest moments it is tender and kind. It feels like a book about all the best parts of being human, about family and friendship, and the way that loss only hurts the way it does because it's grounded in love. -- S K PerryThese distillations of everyday life have all the beauty of a finely crafted life drawing * Financial Times *A warm and endearing book about learning to live again * Good Housekeeping *The Trick to Time proves that Kit de Waal is a writer destined for even greater things * Red *

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Book Synopsis***From the acclaimed author of My Name is Leon***''Stories of everyday lives that will resonate and move you utterly'' Stylist_______________________________________________As she walks out of her marriage, a woman remembers the day her husband rescued a boy from drowning.A blind man on his wedding day celebrates the pursuit of love.And a young man leaves prison with only one desire - to see his son again.Kit de Waal''s characters light up the page in vivid stories of thwarted desire, love and loss. With power and precision, humanity and insight, Supporting Cast captures the extraordinary moments in our ordinary lives, and the darkness and the joy of the everyday.________________________________________________''It''s so good. Full of Kit''s trademark humanity. I can feel my heart grow with every word'' Cathy Rentzenbrink''Stunning. Kit is Trade ReviewKit de Waal has written? a book that is absolutely right for the summer of 2020 . . . This is a book you could read on a journey, on a beach, in a single sitting between dinner and bedtime. And afterwards feel more connected to the world... It's a treat for her many existing fans - but new readers can very much start here * Financial Times *It's so good. Full of Kit's trademark humanity. I can feel my heart grow with every word * Cathy Rentzenbrink *Stunning. What an experience, the brightest and most beautiful break in the clouds. Kit is in utter command of language and story here, and wields them like no other writer * Donal Ryan *Kit has the most marvellous gift of getting to the marrow of her characters and this collection of vignettes from the lives of her characters, peripheral, and not so peripheral, is a magnificent study of humanity in all its various sorrows. Her writing is exquisite, not a word is wasted and the stories are beautiful in their simplicity and truth * Liz Nugent *Written with such beauty * Prima *Stories of everyday lives that will resonate and move you utterly * Stylist *Superb. [The characters] blaze into richly imagined lives full of loss, love, abandonment and heartfelt hope * Daily Mail *An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity * Sunday Times on The Trick to Time *The unforgettable story of a boy struggling to belong. Heartbreaking and uplifting - just read it * Daily Mail on My Name is Leon *Devastatingly emotional. De Waal's storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself * Financial Times on The Trick to Time *Tender and heart-breaking * Rachel Joyce on My Name is Leon *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, and published here as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Nine-year-old Suleiman is just awakening to the wider world beyond the games on the hot pavement outside his home and beyond the loving embrace of his parents. He becomes the man of the house when his father goes away on business, but then he sees his father, standing in the market square in a pair of dark glasses. Suddenly the wider world becomes a frightening place where parents lie and questions go unanswered. Suleiman turns to his mother, who, under the cover of night, entrusts him with the secret story of her childhood.Hisham Matar''s new novel My Friends is available now!

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Stanford Dolman Lifetime Contribution to Travel Writing Award 2020The Mosquito Coast - winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize - is a breathtaking novel about fanaticism and a futile search for utopia from bestseller Paul Theroux. Allie Fox is going to re-create the world. Abominating the cops, crooks, junkies and scavengers of modern America, he abandons civilisation and takes the family to live in the Honduran jungle. There his tortured, messianic genius keeps them alive, his hoarse tirades harrying them through a diseased and dirty Eden towards unimaginable darkness.''Stunning. . . exciting, intelligent, meticulously realised, artful'' Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times''An epic of paranoid obsession that swirls the reader headlong to deposit him on a black mudbank of horror'' Christopher Wordsworth, Guardian''Magnificently stimulating and exciting'' Anthony BurgessAmerican travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, My Other Life, The Collected Stories, My Secret History, The Lower River, The Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro, A Dead Hand, Millroy the Magician, The Elephanta Suite, Saint Jack, The Consul''s File, The Family Arsenal, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic The Great Railway Bazaar are available from Penguin.

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Book SynopsisA story of self-obsession narrated by the point of view of a psychiatrist, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.As a psychiatrist in a top-security mental hospital in the 1950s, Peter Cleave has made a study of what he calls ''the catastrophic love affair characterized by sexual obsession.'' His experience is extensive, and he is never surprised. Until, that is, he comes reluctantly to accept that the wife of one of his colleagues has embarked on such an affair...

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Book SynopsisLonging for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the lookout for a perfect lover. But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters had thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humourless communist, before finding real love in war-torn Paris...Trade ReviewUtter, utter bliss * Daily Mail *A dazzling comic delight * Fiona Wilson, The Times, Saturday Review *The story's genius lies in its wicked humour, which remains relentlessly uplifting even as the Blitz begin to smash all the hopes of that pre-war arcadia * Olivia Laing, The Guardian *Too spiky and intelligent, I think, to qualify as an altogether cosy read [...] beneath the brittle surface of Mitford's wit there is something infinitely more melancholy at work - something that is apt to snag you and pull you into its dark undertow when you are least expecting it * Zoë Heller, The Telegraph *Nancy Mitford taught the wonderful truth that laughter can see you through the darkest hours of your life * Daily Mail *The Millennial faint-hearted will be appalled by Mitford's depiction of class and gender. But Mitford's triumph is that, as the Radletts live and laugh and cry, we [cry] with them * Julie Parsons, The Irish Times *In her novels Nancy mastered her life, making everyone who was different or difficult into figures of mirth, moving only among the aristocracy, and infusing the world with a spirit of lazy, delightful romance * Natasha Walter, The Independent *

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Book SynopsisLove in a Cold Climate is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford''s The Pursuit of Love which is now a major BBC series and Prime Video series directed by Emily Mortimer starring Lily James, Andrew Scott and Dominic West''How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so soft and delicious, too.'' She rubbed a fold of the skirt against her cheek. ''Mine''s silver lame, it smells like a bird cage when it gets hot but I do love it. Aren''t you thankful evening skirts are long again?''Ah, the dresses! But oh, the monotony of the Season, with its endless run of glittering balls. Even fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare.Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, fearsome Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalises society by declaring her love for her uncle ''Boy'' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly elop

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Book SynopsisFanny is married to absent-minded Oxford don Alfred and content with her role as a plain, tweedy housewife. But overnight her life changes when Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris.

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Book SynopsisWigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford is a hilarious satire of the upper classes. Eugenia Malmains is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of Captain Jack and the Union Jackshirts; Noel and Jasper are both in search of an heiress (so much easier than trying to work for the money); Poppy and Marjorie are nursing lovelorn hearts; and the beautiful bourgeois Mrs Lace is on the prowl for someone near Eugenia''s fabulous country home at Chalford, and much farce ensues.One of Nancy Mitford''s earliest novels, Wigs on the Green has been out of print for nearly seventy-five years. Nancy''s sisters Unity and Diana were furious with her for making fun of Diana''s husband, Oswald Moseley, and his politics, and the book caused a rift between them all that endured for years. Nancy Mitford skewers her family and their beliefs with her customary jewelled barbs, but there is froth, comedy and heart here too.''Deliciously funny'Trade Review“Mitford has a gift for detecting the absurdities of character.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)“Devastatingly witty, Miss Mitford [was] one of Britain’s most piercing observers of social manners.” —The New York Times

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Book SynopsisLizzie Vogel''s story continues in Reasons to be Cheerful, the brilliantly comic sequel to Nina Stibbe''s hilarious books Man at the Helm and Paradise Lodge.WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION WINNER OF THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE ''I read all of Reasons To Be Cheerful in one glorious gulp'' CAITLIN MORAN***** Teenager Lizzie Vogel has a new job as a dental assistant. This is not as glamorous as it sounds. At least it means mostly getting away from her alcoholic, nymphomaniacal, novel-writing mother. But, if Lizzie thinks being independent means sex with her boyfriend (he prefers bird-watching), strict boundaries (her boss keeps using her loo) or self-respect (surely only actual athletes get fungal foot infections?) she''s still got a lot more growing up to do.From the bestselling author of Love, Nina comes a brilliantly funny and heartbreaking story of growing up and finding the independence you might not actually want . . .*****''Funny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish'' MARIAN KEYES ''Pitch perfect vintage comedy'' GUARDIAN ''Lives up to its title'' SUNDAY TIMES ''Joyful. Stibbe''s comedy probes what it means to become an adult'' DAILY TELEGRAPH ''Loved it! I so love Lizzie. She is brave and kind and funny and totally original'' KATIE FFORDE ''Comedy gold . . . Reasons To Be Cheerful is just the read you need right now'' STYLIST ''Nina Stibbe is an author of such effortless wit that she could turn a shopping list into a bestseller'' WOMEN AND HOMENINA STIBBE''S NEW NOVEL ONE DAY I SHALL ASTONISH THE WORLD IS AVAILABLE NOWTrade ReviewPitch perfect vintage comedy * Guardian *Lives up to its title * Sunday Times *My friends, you will UTTERLY ADORE Nina Stibbe's latest novel Reasons To Be Cheerful . . .It is SO SO funny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish -- Marian KeyesStibbe's comedy probes what it means to become an adult, and how we form our financial, sexual, moral and political selves * Daily Telegraph *So dense with amusing detail that I thought about holding the book upside down to see if any extra funny bits might spill from the creases between the page * New York Times * I read all of Reasons To Be Cheerful last night in one GLORIOUS gulp and it's SUCH a joy - Nina Stibbe turns out more perfect, sharp, unique sentences than anyone else in the game. It just CARTWHEELS -- Caitlin MoranIf you loved Adrian Mole you'll adore Lizzie Vogel . . . quirky and witty, it also packs an emotional punch * Sun *Comedy gold . . . Reasons To Be Cheerful is just the read you need right now, seamlessly weaving together the big themes of life with charm and warmth * Stylist *Reasons to be Cheerful's tone has been compared to Sue Townsend's but I could haul in Alan Bennett, Barbara Pym and even Jane Austen . . . she writes brilliantly * The Times *The true heir to Sue Townsend -- Caitlin MoranFull of comedy, but with moving themes of loss and grief, it's an utterly charming coming of age story. A reason to be cheerful indeed * Sunday Mirror *A joyfully meandering, episodic novel that probes what it means to become an adult * Daily Telegraph *Very few writers can find the delicate balance between heartbreak and hilarity like Nina Stibbe * Red Magazine *This made me laugh and broke my heart, it's a gorgeous, profound, tender book about growing up and discovering that other humans are charming, obnoxious, enlightening and odd. I think Stibbe is one of the all time greats -- Daisy BuchananFunny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish -- Marian Keyes'Nina Stibbe is an author of such effortless wit that she could turn a shopping list into a bestseller' -- Isabelle Broom * Women and Home *Loved it! I so love Lizzie. She is brave and kind and funny and totally original . . . I couldn't have liked it more (as I think Noel Coward said.) -- Katie FfordeA wonderfully funny novel . . . Nina Stibbe is still on sparkling form. * Oldie *There's a strong Sue Townsend/Alan Bennett flavour to it all . . . funny and sweet * Daily Mail *An idiosyncratic, bittersweet coming-of-age tale that certainly justifies its title * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUNDTwelve years ago Flora''s mother Ingrid disappeared, vanishing from a Dorset beach, presumed drowned. Everyone - especially her sister and father Gil - believes Ingrid is long dead. Everyone, except Flora. So when she hears that her father has had an accident, and is insisting that he saw his wife, Floral rushes home.But the answers she seeks are nowhere to be found - only further questions.Who did Flora's father actually see that day? Why is his house filled with towering piles of books? And might the letters hidden within them hold the truth behind her parents' extraordinary marriage? Thrilling and transporting' Sunday TimesAn eloquent tale of squandered love and seething secrets' Sunday ExpressA compelling portrait of a complicated, unconventional marriage, and of flawed humanity, with all its secrets, silences andTrade ReviewThrilling, transporting, delicately realised and held together by a sophisticated sense of suspense . . . more than matches the power of Fuller's debut . . . Powerful , pleasing and pleasurable. * Sunday Times *It's the sharp eye for detail, sometimes bizarre, that makes her writing stand out . . . A story suffused with the poignancy of miscommunication between people who love each other, of the things we can never really know. * Guardian *Claire Fuller has captured love in its fullest form, nursed on betrayal and regret and guilt . . . Swimming Lessons is so smoothly, beautifully written, and the human failures here are heartbreaking. * David Vann *Bewitching and page-turning . . . an extraordinarily smart and satisfying read. * Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife *With Swimming Lessons, Fuller confirms herself as a writer of emotional depth, technical skill and sensitive plotting . . . What Fuller evokes beautifully are the complicated dynamics between fathers and daughters, sisters, lovers, friends * Observer *A deeply moving read, with a mystery that keeps you turning pages * Oprah.com *Evocative, immersive * Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal *Extraordinary...From the opening sentence it is gripping...Fuller writes with a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror...might well have you crying out for more. * Sunday Times on Our Endless Numbered Days *Bewitching...a rivetingly dark tale...spellbinding. * Sunday Express on Our Endless Numbered Days *Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue. * The Times on Our Endless Numbered Days *Fuller's twisted tale is compulsive, treading the fine line between charming and sinister. With its disturbing twist, Our Endless Numbered Days could well become a classic. * Stylist, 'Book Wars' on Our Endless Numbered Days *Rewardingly unsettling...as warped and sinister as any Brothers Grimm fairytale, this tautly written, tense novel is brilliant at evoking both the bewitching beauty of its setting - and its inherent dangers...haunting, suspenseful and deftly written...memorably chilling. * Metro on Our Endless Numbered Days *A debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau's Walden and Emma Donoghue's Room...gripping. * Guardian on Our Endless Numbered Days *

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2019 ''An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of 20th century Europe'' The Times_________________________________ ''It''s like this, Saul Adler.'' ''No, it''s like this, Jennifer Moreau.'' In 1988, Saul Adler is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. Apparently fine, he gets up and poses for a photograph taken by his girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. He carries this photo with him to East Berlin: a fragment of the present, an anchor to the West. But in the GDR he finds himself troubled by time - stalked by the spectres of history, slipping in and out of a future that does not yet exist. Until, in 2016, Saul attempts to cross the Abbey Road again . . . _________________________________''A time-bending, location-hopping tale of love, truth and the power of seeing. Thoroughly gripping'' Sunday Telegraph ''Writing so beautiful it stops the reader on the page'' Independent ''Levy splices time in artfully believable, mesmerizing strokes'' Lambda Literary ''Skewering totalitarianism - from the state, to the family, to the strictures of the male gaze - Levy explodes conventional narrative to explore the individual''s place and culpability within history'' Guardian ''An utterly beguiling fever dream'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewAn utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel... Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist * Daily Telegraph *Writing so beautiful it stops the reader on the page * Independent *A time-bending, location-hopping tale of love, truth and the power of seeing... Increasingly surreal and thoroughly gripping * Sunday Telegraph *Exquisite... A brilliant Booker nominee... Ultimately, Levy is concerned with power – the forms it takes in our lives, the extent to which it is something we both possess and are subjected to * Guardian *One of the big stories in English fiction this decade has been the return and triumph of Deborah Levy... You would call her example inspiring if it weren't clearly impossible to emulate * New Statesman *An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe * The Times *In one short and sly book after another, she writes about characters navigating swerves of history and sexuality, and the social and personal rootlessness that accompanies both * The Atlantic *Charged with themes spanning memory and mortality, beauty and time, it's as electrifying as it is mysterious * Mail on Sunday *Intelligent and supple...a dizzying tale of life across time and borders * Financial Times *It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules * Evening Standard *Superbly crafted, enigmatic, tantalizing... Levy defies gravity in a daring, time-bending new novel... Head-spinning and playful, her writing offers sophistication and delightful artistry * Kirkus (Starred review) *One of the best books I have ever read -- Katherine Angel via Twitterplayful, consistently surprising...Levy brilliantly plumbs the divide between the self and others * Publishers Weekly Best Books 2019 *

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Book Synopsis''Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.''Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment.Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .Trade ReviewExcellent * Sunday Times *Enormously sophisticated, knowing, often very funny tragi-comedy * Financial Times *How can anything be so funny and so sad both at once? Every sentence is an object lesson in compression and wit. -- Tessa Hadley * Guardian Summer Reads, 2015 *A delight, amusing, beautifully written. * The Times *Enormously sophisticated, knowing, often very funny tragi-comedy. * Financial Times *Excellent, brilliantly drawn. * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''Once a thing is known it can never be unknown.'' By day Frances Hinton works in a medical library, by night she haunts the room of a West London mansion flat. Everything changes, however, when she is adopted by charming Nick and his dazzling wife Alix. They draw her into their tight circle of friends. Suddenly, Frances'' life is full and ripe with new engagements. But too late, Frances realises that she may be only a play thing, to be picked up and discarded once used. And that just one act in defiance of Alix''s wishes could see her lose everything . . .Trade ReviewHow can anything be so funny and so sad both at once? Every sentence is an object lesson in compression and wit. -- Tessa Hadley on 'A Start in Life' * Guardian Summer Reads, 2015 *Bewitching. * The Times *Clever and engrossing. * David Lodge, Sunday Times *Flawless. * Observer, Books of the Year *Witty, intelligent and tirelessly perceptive. * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisAnita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and worked at the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her twenty-fourth, Strangers, in 2009. Hotel du Lac won the 1984 Booker Prize. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner has published a number of volumes of art criticism.Trade ReviewTough, cogent writing, without sentimentality, and its polish never masks its realism. ... Brookner reveals herself as a European novelist and a major one.' -- Helen Dunmore * The Times *With a steelier grip than almost any other writer, Brookner always reaches out and pulls you in. Her talent for immersing you in the pinched, emotional life of her characters is unparalleled... Her understanding of female loneliness is heart-clenching. -- Julie Myerson * Mail on Sunday *Achieved with the subtle brilliance for which Booker Prize-winning Brookner has received such acclaim... It is highly unlikely you will read a finer piece of literature this year * Scotland on Sunday *What a relief it is to read this beautifully crafted prose * Daily Express *One of Brookner's most subtle, original and emotionally resonant works... She subverts expectations again * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis''Lively remains a sublime storyteller'' Guardian on How It All Began''More stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing of two about storytelling.'' The Times on How It All Began A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband; an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don''t know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and, in the story from which this collection takes its name, a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding. In this new and varied collection of short stories, Penelope Lively shows that she remains a master of her craft, and one of our finest English writers.Trade ReviewCarefully thought-out stories. . . Patterns of interaction between past and present are sounded out to good effect. * Sunday Times *Lively has guts and style. . . You are in the hands of a master * Daily Mail *Her new collection of short stories is perfect. It is a very wide range of short stories and each one has an unexpected twist in the tale. * Kirsty Lang *Thoughtful, intelligent and light of touch . . . Lively has the gift, rare and wonderful, of being able to peel back the layers one by one and set them before us, translucent and gleaming. * Sunday Telegraph *Spry and world-wise, The Purple Swamp Hen is an enchanting story that sets the tone for the rest of this stellar collection. * Observer *More stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing or two about storytelling. * The Times on How It All Began *Lively is now nearly 80 but, as How It All Began shows, there is no diminution of her skills . . . Lively is a writer of craft and sagacity and such old fashioned virtues trump the chic but meretricious every time. * Financial Times on How It All Began *Penelope Lively at her best, sharp-eyed but sympathetic, deftly steering the reader from one point of view to another. This novel should delight her regular readers and ensnare new ones. * Evening Standard on Family Album *Lively skilfully mingles past and present, as she peels away the layers to uncover a family secret of which no one speaks...Lively's astute skewering of family relations reverberates in the mind long afterwards. * Daily Mail on Family Album *Gorgeous * David Vann on Family Album, Guardian Books of the Year *Sensuous and beautiful prose...proof that the best novelists change and grow. * The Times on Consequences *Neatly constructed, lucidly written and full of admirable sentiments. * Sunday Times on Consequences *Masterful. Transforms the every day into something rich. * Time Out on Consequences *

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Book SynopsisNobel prize winner and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez tells a tale of an unrequited love that outlasts all rivals in his masterpiece Love in the Time of Cholera, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza''s impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again.When Fermina''s husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?''The most important writer of fiction in any language'' Bill Clinton''An exquisite writer, wise, compassionate and extremely funny'' Sunday Telegraph''An amazing celebration of the many kinds of love between men and women'' The TimesTrade ReviewOne of this century's most evocative writers * Anne Tyler *A delight. The interlocking of the stories, the fantastical and obsessional aspects of Márquez have never been better shown. * Melvyn Bragg *

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. ''Wonderful. Immensely moving'' Daily TelegraphAs darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final meal together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone. Tonight, as wine stirs the blood, it is time to talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting.''Extraordinary. Elegiac, sombre, musical and gripping. An immensely wise book'' Observer''A masterpiece. Works beautifully as a novel of suspense ... whose denouement is as exciting as a detective tale. It is a thrill to read something so startlingly original'' Evening Standard''Utterly compelling. An extraordinary and beautiful novel'' Scotsman ''Trade ReviewMagnificent. A spellbinding [story] driven by intense passion * The Times *Beautifully realised. Passionate and compelling. Magical * John Banville, Irish Times *A lost masterpiece - a brilliant elegy on friendship, one of the most ambitious in literature * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER ''The mirror image of Eggers''s brilliantly dystopian The Circle... [A] state of the nation novel, cleansing the spirit and lifting the heart'' Guardian A hilarious and heart-warming misadventure through modern America: it''s time for the family vacation...Josie''s life is falling apart - lawsuits raining down, her business down the drain and a feckless husband long gone - so she gathers up her two kids and lights out for the wilderness. The Alaskan wilderness, to be specific.This is a story about the trip of a lifetime. It involves one battered old RV, one highly sensitive eight year old boy, one fearless and hyperactive five year old girl, several forest fires, a large supply of pinot noir, and a deeply misguided sense of optimism. It may well be that things don''t turn out quite as Josie expected - but then again, some of the best places in the world are found at the end of a Trade ReviewPublisher's description. A brilliant new black comedy about modern America. A surreal family road trip through the Alaskan wilderness veers wildly off-course, as one mother and her two young children try to make their way back to the 'right' path - and find a new one along the way. * Penguin *

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Book SynopsisA BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick - Booker Gems THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 WINNER OF THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ''Astonishing'' Zadie Smith ''Stunning'' Spectator ''Extraordinary'' TLS An extraordinary story of love and hope from the bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist All over the world, doors are appearing. They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives. And in a city gripped by war, Nadia and Saeed are newly in love. Hardly more than strangers, desperate to survive, they open a door and step through. But the doors only go one way. Once you leave, there is no going back.*Coming soon as a major Netflix film - produced by Michelle and Barack Obama and starring Riz Ahmed* ''One of the year''s most significant literary works'' The New York Times ''A masterpiece'' Michael Chabon ''Addictively readable and brilliantly written. Fantastic'' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewAs with the very best literature, its crystalline readability fast eclipses its topicality * Mail on Sunday *[A] devastating portrait of victims of war, creating a singular parable about modernity, migration and the individual's place in the world * The Guardian *A deceptively simple conceit turns a timely novel about a couple fleeing a civil war into a profound meditation on the psychology of exile. A novel that fuses the real with the surreal - perhaps the most faithful way to convey the tremulous political fault lines of our interconnected planet * The New York Times *No conventional love story. [An] exceptionally moving and powerful novel * The Guardian *Publisher's description. In an unnamed city swollen by refugees, two young people fall in love. One day soon they will have to leave their homeland, running for their lives, searching for their place in the world. * Penguin *Powerful, vivid, poignant... Hamid is the master * Sunday Times *Writing in spare, crystalline prose, Hamid conveys the experience of living in a city under siege with sharp, stabbing immediacy * Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times *A love story as spare, haunting and spiritually powerful as a haiku. All my life I will remember Nadia and Saeed, their humanity against a surreal, broken landscape. Exit West is Hamid's finest book -- Kiran DesaiImaginative, inventive, graceful... Hamid exploits fiction's capacity to elicit empathy and imagine a better world * New York Times Book Review *A subtle and moving examination of how human relationships endure and falter under unimaginable pressures. Exit West is an instant classic * GQ *Impressive... Exit West confirms Hamid's reputation as a brilliant ventriloquist who is deeply engaged with the most pressing issues of our time -- Andrew Motion (Book of the Week) * Guardian *Astonishing -- Zadie SmithImmediately canonical * New Yorker *Part pared-down romance, part 21st-century fable, Exit West is a thought experiment that pivots on the crucial figure of this century: the migrant * Financial Times *Exit West packs such an emotional wallop you will be thinking about it for days afterwards. For Hamid is not only telling a story, he is asking what sort of a world we want to live in. * Editor's Choice, the Bookseller *It's a terrific, beautifully constructed, important novel of our time. This is what we expect fiction to do: to examine our age but also to cast an eye on the past and - very brilliantly in this case - on the future too. I love it. * Mirza Waheed *Exit West is a masterpiece. It stretches the boundaries of the real just enough to make a point about the state of immigrants and refugees in the contemporary world. But it's very much grounded in reality. It's a beautiful book. * Michael Chabon *Mohsin Hamid is one of the most talented and formally audacious writers of his generation * Telegraph *A man born to write -- Dave EggersThe voice of a changing continent. A writer at the top of his game * Metro *

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Book SynopsisA celebration of the drama and intensity of the mother-child relationship, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.It is the Swinging Sixties, and Rosamund Stacey is young and inexperienced at a time when sexual liberation is well on its way. She conceals her ignorance beneath a show of independence, and becomes pregnant as a result of a one night stand. Although single parenthood is still not socially acceptable, she chooses to have the baby rather than to seek an illegal abortion, and finds her life transformed by motherhood. ''Rosamund is marvellous, a true Drabble heroine . . . what spirit is here'' Sunday Times''One of our foremost women writers'' Guardian''The novelist who will have done for late twentieth-century London what Dickens did for Victorian London'' The New York Times

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Book Synopsis''Seated at a café table, in the syrupy warmth of out-of-season Nice, he reviewed his life and found it to be alarmingly empty.''George Bland had planned to spend his retirement in leisurely travel and modest entertainment with his friend Putnam. When Putnam dies George is left attempting to impose some purpose on the solitary end of his life. Then Katy Gibb appears as a temporary resident, perhaps even squatter, in a neighbouring apartment. Greedy, selfish, sometimes alluring, often manipulative, Katy exerts a strange influence on George, forcing him to recognize that his own careful, fastidious life has shown a distinct lack of passion and daring. As the realization takes hold, George must decide how much - or how little - he can do to transform the status quo.Trade ReviewA beautiful book that one is impelled to read at one sitting * Evening Standard *Anita Brookner is our Henry James. She is as subtle as James at conveying emotional nuances by what is left unsaid, and by indirections finding directions out. * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''Liz Nugent is a force to be reckoned with'' Lisa Jewell''Brilliantly observed family life and a plot that is part rollercoaster, part maze. Loved it!'' Graham Norton''MAGNIFICENT. Her best yet, and that''s really saying something'' Marian Keyes ______________Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin.Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother''s unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women . . .They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.But which brother killed him?______________''Dark, beautiful, devastating pure genius'' Lucy Foley''A sizzling thriller'' Heat ''A dark jewel of a novel - finely observed, swift and exciting'' AJ Finn''[An] incredible achievement . . . Genius'' Sebastian Barry''Liz Nugent has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible people'' Val McDermid''Her best book yet'' Irish Times''Creepy, compelling and totally addictive'' Erin Kelly''An uncanny ability to get under the skin of characters . . . nobody is a mere cliché in Nugent''s clear, propulsive writing'' Sunday Times''A whodunit and a Greek tragedy all in one . . . absolutely riveting'' Irish IndependentTrade ReviewLiz Nugent is a force to be reckoned withLiz Nugent has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible peopleMAGNIFICENT. Her best yet, and that's really saying somethingA dark jewel of a novel - finely observed, swift and excitingDark, beautiful, devastating - pure geniusBrilliantly observed family life and a plot that is part rollercoaster, part maze. Loved it! * via Twitter *A sizzling thriller * Heat *Fascinating ... Shows how thoroughly families can mess one another up, and how sometimes the greatest mysteries are found within the psyche * New York Times, Books of the Year 2020 *The finest psychological thriller writer currently at work -- Tammy CohenDisturbing and addictive ... You'll be desperate to get to the bottom of it all * Crime Monthly *An uncanny ability to get under the skin of characters ... nobody is a mere cliché in Nugent's clear, propulsive writing * Sunday Times *Captivating ... A contemporary psychological thriller that will leave you wondering if you ever really know what someone else is thinking - or what goes on behind closed doors * Sunday Independent *The brilliant Liz Nugent has done it again ... Creepy, compelling and totally addictive -- Erin KellyThe tight plotting and brilliant characterisation will keep you absolutely enthralled * Best *Deliciously dark and engaging writing ... Her fans are in for a real treat -- Jo SpainA proper rollicking family saga EPIC of a story shot through with black humour, toxic truths and pathos. Brava -- Sarah HilaryThis great story of toxic relationships had me up way too late trying to work out who the bad guy was. As always, Liz had me guessing until the end -- Kit de Waal * Irish Times, Best Books of 2020 *Evocative, vivid, brilliant storytelling from a novelist of powerful gifts -- Joseph O'ConnorWhat a terrific storyteller Liz Nugent is! Brilliantly structured, fluently told, rich in unsettling incident and pulsing with dark, tumultuous energy ... her best book yet * Irish Times *Stunning ... it really got under my skin like no other book -- Patricia GibneyUtterly compelling - full of terrible people doing terrible things and I could not have enjoyed it more -- Louise O'NeillUnputdownable * Irish Independent *Brilliantly written ... Highly original, with exceptionally well-drawn characters * SHOTS Crime and Thriller *A family drama tinged with thriller that explores all the quiet brutalities siblings inflict on each other. Magnificent -- Sarah PinboroughI loved this compelling read -- Dinah JeffriesThe narcissist mother and her objectionable three sons will draw you into their tangled tale of jealousy and sibling rivalry * Daily Mail *[An] incredible achievement ... I love her so much ... Genius -- Sebastian BarryThrilling, twisty, and darkly fascinating * My Weekly *[A] harrowing, and sometimes blackly comic, drama of sibling rivalry -- Sarah VaughanSmart, artful and totally gripping - LOVED IT -- Will DeanLoved it ... so addictive I read it in two sittings -- Paul BurstonGripping, occasionally horrifying and utterly entertaining -- Jane CaseyA darkly humorous tale * Hello! *A total page-turner ... The best yet from a superb and skillful writer. Loved it -- Fiona KidmanA twisted thriller, reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith * Guardian *Bloody brilliantAbsorbing, beautifully written * The Times, Crime Books of the Year (Skin Deep) *A masterful interrogation of a family's undoing ... and a ruthless examination of the pieces left behind * Sunday Business Post *Dramatic and compelling ... a whodunit and a Greek tragedy all in one ... absolutely riveting * Irish Independent *Nugent excels at creating a shocking story of a horrible family with huge issues and complexities that keep you hooked to the end * RTÉ Guide *

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