Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisFlights, a novel about travel in the twenty-first century and human anatomy, is Olga Tokarczuk’s most ambitious to date. It interweaves travel narratives and reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. From the seventeenth century, we have the story of the Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen, who dissected and drew pictures of his own amputated leg. From the eighteenth century, we have the story of a North African-born slave turned Austrian courtier stuffed and put on display after his death. In the nineteenth century, we follow Chopin’s heart as it makes the covert journey from Paris to Warsaw. In the present we have the trials of a wife accompanying her much older husband as he teaches a course on a cruise ship in the Greek islands, and the harrowing story of a young husband whose wife and child mysteriously vanish on a holiday on a Croatian island. With her signature grace and insight, Olga Tokarczuk guides the reader beyond the surface layer of modernity and towards the core of the very nature of humankind.Trade Review‘A magnificent writer.’ — Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate 2015‘A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald.’ — Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News‘One among a very few signal European novelists of the past quarter-century.’ — The Economist‘Flights works like a dream does: with fragmentary trails that add up to a delightful reimagining of the novel itself.’ — Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings‘The best novel I’ve read in years is Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights (trans. Jennifer Croft): Most great writers build a novel as one would a beautiful house, brick by brick, wall by wall, from the ground up. Or using another metaphor, a writer gathers her yarn, and with good needles and structure, knits a wonderful sweater or scarf. I tend to prefer novels where a writer weaves her threads this way and that, above and below, inside outside, and ends up with a carpet. Flights is such a novel.’ — Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary Woman‘Flights could almost be an inventory of the ways narrative can serve a writer short of, and beyond, telling a story. The book’s prose is a lucid medium in which narrative crystals grow to an ideal size, independent structures not disturbing the balance of the whole … Much of the pleasure of reading Flights comes from the essay clusters embedded between sections of narratives ... The cascades of concise interstitial passages are often satisfying riffs on time and space, bodies and language, repetition and uniqueness … Jennifer Croft’s translation is exceptionally adventurous … she can give the impression, not of passing on meanings long after the event, but of being present at the moment when language reached out to thought.’ — Adam Mars-Jones, London Review of Books‘Olga Tokarczuk is a household name in Poland and one of Europe’s major humanist writers, working here in the continental tradition of the “thinking” or essayistic novel. Flights has echoes of WG Sebald, Milan Kundera, Danilo Kiš and Dubravka Ugreši?, but Tokarczuk inhabits a rebellious, playful register very much her own.... Flights is a passionate and enchantingly discursive plea for meaningful connectedness, for the acceptance of “fluidity, mobility, illusoriness”. After all, Tokarczuk reminds us, “Barbarians don’t travel. They simply go to destinations or conduct raids.” Hotels on the continent would do well to have a copy of Flights on the bedside table. I can think of no better travel companion in these turbulent, fanatical times.’ — Kapka Kassabova, Guardian‘It’s a busy, beautiful vexation, this novel, a quiver full of fables of pilgrims and pilgrimages, and the reasons — the hidden, the brave, the foolhardy — we venture forth into the world.... The book is transhistorical, transnational; it leaps back and forth through time, across fiction and fact. Interspersed with the narrator’s journey is a constellation of discrete stories that share rhyming motifs and certain turns of phrase.... In Jennifer Croft’s assured translation, each self-enclosed account is tightly conceived and elegantly modulated, the language balletic, unforced.’ — Parul Sehgal, New York Times‘Tokarczuk is one of Europe’s most daring and original writers, and this astonishing performance is her glittering, bravura entry in the literature of ideas.... A select few novels possess the wonder of music, and this is one of them. No two readers will experience it exactly the same way. Flights is an international, mercurial, and always generous book, to be endlessly revisited. Like a glorious, charmingly impertinent travel companion, it reflects, challenges, and rewards.’ — Eileen Battersby, Los Angeles Review of Books

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER''The new Game of Thrones'' Stylist''Puts Samantha Shannon in the same league as Robin Hobb and George R.R. Martin. Shannon is a master of dragons'' StarburstEpic fantasy with added dragons. A blockbuster' Guardian, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy An enthralling, epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons - and the women who must lead the fight to save it.A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on SaTrade ReviewA tour de force, and my new absolute favourite epic fantasy * Laini Taylor, author of Strange the Dreamer *I have been waiting my whole life for this fantasy. It’s the kind of book you never want to end. Utterly unique, wild, and rich. Sheer perfection * Lisa Lueddecke, author of A Storm of Ice and Stars *The new Game of Thrones. Escapism at its finest – Shannon, we salute you * Stylist.co.uk *Allow me to introduce your newest fantasy obsession … Remarkably fresh and frankly fearless … Works so well as an intricately realised and feminist fantasy that one might even be tempted to dub Samantha Shannon ‘The female George R.R. Martin’ … As with the best of fantasy, The Priory of the Orange Tree feels less like a book than it does an experience, a true sojourn into a rich and terrible new world * Hypable *A magnificent epic … Crammed with subversion and feminism, and written with tough, poetic assurance * Metro *The Priory of the Orange Tree is a brilliant, daring, and devastating jewel. Samantha Shannon has crafted an incredible world full of depth and danger, with characters I would follow to the ends of the earth. It was a privilege to read, and I’m in awe of her talent. I can’t wait for the rest of the world to experience this book * Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Red Queen series *Sensual … Majestic … Blending politics with high adventure and the epic with the intimate, the narrative builds like a tidal wave before sweeping towards an awesome, climactic finale * Daily Mail *An entirely fresh and addicting tale … A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *A masterpiece of intricate world-building with the depth, complexity, heart and soul of a timelessly relevant classic. Brilliant, diverse, feminist, subversive, thought-provoking and masterfully told, The Priory of the Orange Tree is epic fantasy at its finest. The scope of the book is staggering, as is Shannon’s deft command of language ... An absolute must-read * Karen Marie Moning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Highlander and Fever series *Nothing short of extraordinary. An audacious, ambitious, sprawling epic, set across a world like no other, The Priory of the Orange Tree takes everything you think you know about high fantasy, rips it apart and remakes it ... Nothing short of game-changing ... An absolute masterclass in story telling, from one of the most exciting and innovative fantasy writers alive today. With it, Samantha Shannon has set the bar stratospherically high. This is the book of 2019 * Melinda Salisbury, author of The Sin-Eater’s Daughter *The Priory of the Orange Tree feels like a feminist successor to The Lord of the Rings - something I don't say lightly. Epic and awe-inspiring in its scope, its rich, diverse world captivated me. I loved each complex narrator, all wonderfully human heroes and anti-heroes, and adored sinking into the world Samantha Shannon has created with such heart and beauty. This deserves to be as big as Game of Thrones ... An expertly woven saga that feels very relevant for the contemporary world we live in * Laure Eve, author of The Graces *An epic fantasy destined to be a classic. A world crafted with such intricacy and detail, I had to remind myself it was not a real place. The Priory of the Orange Tree is one of those rare novels that captures your imagination so completely you will read it over and over, until the cover cracks and the spine breaks * Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Beautiful Creatures and author of Unbreakable *Move over, Tolkien – you had a good run, but it's high time fantasy had a Queen * Holly Roberts, bookseller *There is no doubt that Samantha is the real thing … A born storyteller * Observer *Shannon’s brilliance is that she is not afraid of change, both for her characters and her setting … A name to watch * Independent *Samantha Shannon has a hugely inventive talent and an imagination with seven league boots * Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black *An astonishing achievement. The roots of Shannon's world lie in real history, but its branches stretch far into the imagination. Many authors can paint different names onto familiar concepts; Shannon goes further, building new religions and histories and conflicts, with all the rich detail necessary to bring them to life * Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent *The Priory of the Orange Tree is the Platonic Ideal of a fantasy novel. A rich and stirring tale of magic and queens, swords and dragons, assassins and sorcerers, it is thronged with women: strong women and queer women, gorgeous women and powerful women, brilliant women and dangerous women. Men, too, of course. This story of good and evil, struggle and triumph, love and loss and return is beautifully written: complex but clear, and utterly immersive. I loved this book * Nicola Griffith, author of Hild *Shannon satisfyingly fills this massive standalone epic fantasy with court intrigue, travel through dangerous lands, fantastical religions, blood, love, and rhetoric * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisThe gripping new instalment in the William Warwick series, An Eye for an Eye, is available to pre-order now!24 hours to stop the crime of the centuryThe race against time is about to beginTHE TOWER OF LONDONImpenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armoury when they transport the Crown Jewels across London.SCOTLAND YARDFor four years, Chief Superindendent William Warwick together with his second-in-command Inspector Ross Hogan has been in charge of the operation. And for four years it's run like clockwork.THE HEISTBut this year, everything is about to change. Because master criminal Miles Faulkner has set his heart on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favour.Unless Warwick and Hogan can stop him before it's too lateAn unputdownable new thriller from the master storyteller''Archer always delivers, and this heist thriller hits the spot again'' The Sun''Archer can still tell a gripping yarn'' The Sunday Times Probably the greatest storyteller of our age'Mail on SundayIf there were a Nobel Prize for storytelling, Archer would win'Daily TelegraphPeerless master of the page turner'Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisThe story of a man undone by a culture that in part created him, Season of Migration to the North, is a powerful and evocative examination of colonization in two vastly different worlds. When a young man returns to his village in the Sudan after many years studying in Europe, he finds that among the familiar faces there is now a stranger - the enigmatic Mustafa Sa''eed. As the two become friends, Mustafa tells the younger man the disturbing story of his own life in London after the First World War. Lionized by society and desired by women as an exotic novelty, Mustafa was driven to take brutal revenge on the decadent West and was, in turn, destroyed by it. Now the terrible legacy of his actions has come to haunt the small village at the bend of the Nile.Trade ReviewWithout a doubt it is one of the finest Arabic novels of the 20th century, and Denys Johnson-Davies' translation does the original justice -- Hisham MatarThis depthless, elusive classic explores not just the corrosive psychological colonisation observed by Frantz Fanon, but a more complex two-way orientalism, in which the charms of western thought, embodied in its poetry and liberal ideals, prove irresistible, even as the novel's Sudanese narrators understand these as the tempting fruit of a poisoned tree * Guardian *Salih packed an entire library into this slim masterpiece ... It is alive with drama and incident: crimes of passion, sadomasochism, suicide. It is a novel of ideas wrapped in the veils of romance * Harper's Magazine *This is the one novel that everyone insisted I took with me. Set in a Sudanese village by the Nile, it is a brilliant exploration of African encounters with the West, and the corrupting power of colonialism. I never got this book out to read without someone coming up to tell me how brilliant it was -- Mary BeardAn Arabian Nights in reverse, enclosing a pithy moral about international misconceptions and delusions...Powerfully and poetically written and splendidly translated by Denys Johnson-Davies * Observer *The prose, translated from Arabic, has a grave beauty. It's the story of a man who returns to his native Sudan after being educated in England, then encounters the first Sudanese to get an English education. The near-formal elegance in the writing contrasts with the sly anti-colonial world view of the book, and this makes it even more interesting -- Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieDenys Johnson-Davies...the leading Arabic-English translator of our time -- Edward Said

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Book SynopsisMeadowlands Dawn is inspired by the author's own experience as a political prisoner in apartheid South Africa during the 1980s. It explores the desires and indignities of the human heart and deals with the impact of radicalisation and its aftermath.

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Book Synopsis**THE TIKTOK SENSATION**Read THE razor-sharp satire that everyone is talking about...On the surface ,our narrator has everything you could want in life. She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance.But there is a vacuum in her life and she's got the perfect solution. She's going to take a year under sedation to relax and hide away from the world.What could possibly go wrong?Blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, is the perfect read for fans of The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.PRAISE FOR MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION:'The book that everyone is talking about' The Times'Diamond-hard entertainment' Guardian'Electrifying...compelling...Moshfegh's protagonist is an unlikely revolutionary' Vanity FairTrade ReviewThe book that everybody’s talking about… I read it and was entranced. * The Times *This is the first book I couldn’t put down this year… Almost offensive with its close-to-the-bone truths, it’s shockingly relatable. And legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. Ottessa Moshfegh is sharp, savage and hilarious. -- Isabel Dexter * Elle *The superabundantly talented...Moshfegh’s sentences are piercing and vixenish… she is always a deep pleasure to read. * New York Times *My Year of Rest and Relaxation is whip-smart, continuously compelling, and acerbic in all the right ways. * Daily Telegraph *Electrifying... [Moshfegh] is adept at crafting compelling female characters who violate the rules of femininity... Moshfegh’s protagonist is an unlikely revolutionary. * Vanity Fair *

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Book Synopsis FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THIS MOURNABLE BODY, ONE OF THE BBC''S 100 WOMEN FOR 2020 ''UNFORGETTABLE'' Alice Walker ''THIS IS THE BOOK WE''VE BEEN WAITING FOR'' Doris Lessing ''A UNIQUE AND VALUABLE BOOK.'' Booklist ''AN ABSORBING PAGE-TURNER'' Bloomsbury Review ''A MASTERPIECE'' Madeleine Thien ''ARRESTING'' Kwame Anthony Appiah Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu''s journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging. ''With its searing observations, devastating exploration of the state of not being, wicked humour and astonishing immersion into the mind of a young woman growing up and growing old before her time, the novel is a masterpiece.'' Madelein Thien

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Book SynopsisAbraham Verghese is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the author of books including My Own Country and The Tennis Partner. His most recent book, Cutting for Stone, spent 107 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. It was translated into more than twenty languages and is being adapted for film by Anonymous Content. Verghese was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2016, has received five honorary degrees, and lives and practices medicine in Stanford, California where he is the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

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Book SynopsisQuick Reads 2022Helen is a retired teacher living on the Irish coast. She enjoys the peace and quiet - despite the burden of Margaret, her unpleasant sister. Margaret arrived three years ago for a short holiday, but somehow managed to stay and worm her way into Helen's life. One day, Helen sees a man struggling in the sea and decides to investigate. She doesn't quite know what it is, but something about it feels very strange...

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Book Synopsis**The Times instant Top Ten bestseller****Named a book to look out for in 2024 by the Sunday Times, Guardian and BBC****A small hardback edition featuring an afterword by the author**From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting and haunting Christmas short story_________________________________A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst and the path of her life is changed forever.''Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke has made the very notion of genre seem quaint'' Guardian''A miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling'' Madeline Miller **With exquisite illustrations by Victoria Sawdon**

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Book SynopsisWINNER of the McIlvanney Prize 2020Shortlisted for Bloody Scotland's Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2020Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2020'Hugely atmospheric, exquisitely written and utterly gripping' LUCY FOLEY, author of The Hunting Party'It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, author of Blue Ticket and The Water Cure______________They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone.In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago.Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust.In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.______________READERS LOVE PINE . . .'Stunning ... I was completely spellbound' *****'Mesmerising and addictive' *****'I raced through this one, absolutely adored it!' *****'Can't recommend it enough' *****'I could not pull myself away from the pages' *****Trade ReviewA literary gothic thriller to chill the marrow * Guardian *[A] simmering gothic thriller * Daily Mail *(A) pacey horror-tinged novel ... Even with the strange and supernatural goings-on in the woods, it’s the rage and grief and darkness of grown-ups that’s the biggest mystery of all * Telegraph, Best First Novels of 2020 *The novel's strength is its evocation of bleak landscapes and complex characters * Sunday Times *Splicing small-town domestic drama with grisly mystery and occult thrills, it’s a cleverly crafted debut * Metro *One of the standout debuts of the year * Irish Independent *As gripping as any boxset * Sunday Times Scotland *This haunting debut is a must-read for fans of eerie gothic fiction * The Skinny *An evocative read which will keep you guessing * Sunday Independent *Pine is a thrill of a book * i-D *

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Book Synopsis WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023 A GUARDIAN AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR''The most exquisite kind of literature... I''ve put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that demand to be revisited every now and then. ''OLGA TOKARCZUK, author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead''Could not be more timely... It''s funny and absurd, but it''s also frightening, because even as Gospodinov plays with the idea as fiction, the reader begins to recognise something rather closer to home... A writer of great warmth as well as skill''GUARDIAN''In equal measure playful and profound, Time Shelter renders the philosophical mesmerizing, and the everyday extraordinary. I loved it''CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Woman Upstairs ''A genrebusting novel of ideas... Gospodinov''s vision of tomorrow is the nighTrade ReviewThe most exquisite kind of literature, on our perception of time and its passing, written in a masterful and totally unpredictable style. Each page comes as a surprise, so that you never know where the author is going to take you next. I've put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that can never be fully exhausted-books that demand to be revisited every now and then. * Olga Tokarczuk, author of THE BOOKS OF JACOB and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature *In equal measure playful and profound, Georgi Gospodinov's Time Shelter renders the philosophical mesmerizing, and the everyday extraordinary. I loved it. * Claire Messud *Gospodinov is one of Europe's most fascinating and irreplaceable novelists, and this his most expansive, soulful and mind-bending book. * Dave Eggers *A powerful and brilliant novel: clear-sighted, foreboding, enigmatic. A novel in which the future gives way like a rotten beam and the past rushes in like a flood. * Sandro Veronesi, author of THE HUMMINGBIRD and twice winner of the Premio Strega *Time Shelter is Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov's third novel, and for all its focus on the apparently bygone, it could not be more timely... It's funny and absurd, but it's also frightening, because even as Gospodinov plays with the idea as fiction, the reader begins to recognise something rather closer to home. Time Shelter was written between the Brexit referendum and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both of which represent, in their own ways, the weaponisation of nostalgia and the selection of particular eras in the time clinic of the not-so-new world order... True to form, Gospodinov finds humour in the bleakness... This novel could have been a clever, high-concept intellectual game with little by way of emotional investment, but Gospodinov is a writer of great warmth as well as skill... His affection for that period is sincere but also without illusion. He can draw out fully dimensional characters from the broken details of their fractured memories. His transitions - between humour and sadness, absurd situationism and reverberating tragedy, pathos and ironic observation - are never obtrusive. Thanks to the skill and delicacy of Angela Rodel's translation, these qualities are in abundant display for the anglophone reader... The novel's title - Time Shelter - is a neologism in Bulgarian as it is in English, a grafting from the noun "bomb shelter". It's well found in its ambiguity: sheltering from time, and sheltering within time. Both are attractive but impossible. Nostalgia used to feel like a source of harmless escape, and occasional sustenance. It is starting to seem like a fossil fuel, foreshortening our future as it burns. * Guardian *A genrebusting novel of ideas. This is a book about memory, how it fades and how it is restored, even reinvented, in the imaginations of addled individuals and the civic discourse of nations . . . His vision of tomorrow is the nightmare from which Europe knows it must awake. And accident, in combination with the book's own merits, may just have created a classic -- Simon Ings * THE TIMES *The morality of artificially returning people to the past, and the broader question of whether this truly brings solace - whether indulgence in nostalgia is curative or pernicious - is the central question of Georgi Gospodinov's newly translated novel... Touching and intelligent -- Adrian Nathan West, * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (USA) *An immensely enjoyable book which achieves depth with an affable narrative voice -- Declan O'Driscoll * IRISH TIMES *Mr. Gospodinov, one of Bulgaria's most popular contemporary writers, is a nostalgia artist. In the manner of Orhan Pamuk and Andrei Makine, his books are preoccupied with memory, its ambiguous pleasures and its wistful, melancholy attraction . . . This difficult but rewarding novel concludes with an image of Europe brought to the brink of renewed conflict - an abstraction that recent events have imbued with the terrible force of reality -- Sam Sacks * WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) *Gospodinov cunningly draws attention to the violence that the past wreaks on the present. * New Yorker *Gospodinov writes like a botanist of the soul: he knows the effects that the pretty mushrooms and the hidden herbs within ourselves can do, in spite of what they look like from afar. The living beings he studies are our versions of our past, the unretrievable, the recreated, the future versions of our past, and how we imbue them with the fantasies and poisons that we cultivate in silence. * Yuri Herrera, author of SIGNS PRECEDING THE END OF THE WORLD *Georgi Gospodinov is unique in many ways. I've been reading him since the beginning and I know that no one can combine an intriguing concept, wonderful imagination and perfect writing technique like he can. This is great prose. * Olga Tokarczuk, author of THE BOOKS OF JACOB and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature *In this book, time sneaks away, and then returns, reconstituted. Franz Ferdinand is re-assassinated. The cigarettes you liked as a teenager are on sale again. Communism is back, and nice. The book is a satire, witty and scorching, but it is also wise and tender. * Joan Acocella *An extraordinary romp through time and memory, a beautifully written and wonderfully inventive meditation on what the past means to us, whether we can recapture it and how it defines our present. This is the perfect novel for these cloistered atemporal times. * Alberto Manguel, author of A HISTORY OF READING *Memory and kitsch - and their painful congruence in post-Soviet Europe - will be familiar themes to readers of Gospodinov's last book, The Physics of Sorrow. The novels share allusive, discontinuous narratives, an appetite for switching genres, an alertness to the power and the fragility of authorship and a dark humour rimed with grief. But in Time Shelter, finished shortly before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Gospodinov's sights are higher and his scope - conceptually and geographically - far wider . . . And the paradoxes that hummed quietly in the background of previous books roar into apocalyptic high gear -- Madoc Cairns * LITERARY REVIEW *Gospodinov's digressive, philosophical novel is less a work of realist literature than an allegory about the perils of looking backward . . . translator Rodel keeps the narrator's wry voice consistent . . . the story achieves a pleasurably Borges-ian strangeness while sending a warning signal about how memory can be glitch-y and dangerous . . . An ambitious, quirky, time-folding yarn * KIRKUS REVIEWS (USA) *A radical new therapy tests the power of nostalgia in the electric and fantastical latest from Gospodinov (The Physics of Sorrow). The clever prose sells the zany premise and imbues it with poignant longing . . . Thought-provoking and laced with potent satire, this deserves a spot next to Kafka * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (USA) *Georgi Gospodinov is one of the most interesting and innovative writers of this century and Time Shelter is a beautiful reflection on time, nostalgia and the soul. * Camilla Grudova *

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Book SynopsisSylish, shimmering and amoral, Sagan''s tale of adolescence and betrayal on the French Riviera was her masterpiece, published when she was just eighteen. However, this frank and explicit novella was considered too daring for 1950s Britain, and sexual scenes were removed for the English publication. Now this fresh and accurate new translation presents the uncensored text in full for the first time.Bonjour Tristesse tells the story of Cécile, who leads a carefree life with her widowed father and his young mistresses until, one hot summer on the Riviera, he decides to remarry - with devastating consequences. In A Certain Smile, which is also included in this volume, Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways.Both novellas have been freshly translated by Heather Lloyd and include an introduction by Rachel Cusk. Heather Lloyd has also written a new afterword for this edit

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Book SynopsisIrvine Welsh was born and raised in Edinburgh. His first novel, Trainspotting, has sold over one million copies in the UK and was adapted into an era-defining film. He has written thirteen further novels, including the number one bestseller Dead Men's Trousers, four books of shorter fiction and numerous plays and screenplays. Crime and The Long Knives have been adapted into a television series starring Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox. Irvine Welsh currently lives between London, Edinburgh and Miami.

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Book SynopsisJohn Boyne is the author of nineteen novels for adults, six for younger readers, a picture book and a collection of short stories. His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet, and opera. His many international bestsellers include The Heart's Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky. He has won four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year in 2022, along with a host of other international literary prizes. His novels are published in sixty languages.Twitter: @JohnBoyneBooksInstagram: @JohnBoyneAuthor

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Book SynopsisMolly the maid is used to being invisible. Now someone is watching her every move

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Book Synopsis'Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don't let you go around again until you get it right'People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it's only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. But what if, for once, the predictions are right, and the apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea? You could spend the time left drowning your sorrows, giving away all your possessions in preparation for the rapture, or laughing it off as (hopefully) just another hoax.Or you could just try to do something about it.Trade ReviewMarvellously benign, ridiculously inventive and gloriously funny * GUARDIAN *Wickedly funny * TIME OUT *A superbly funny book. Pratchett and Gaiman are the most hilariously sinister team since Jekyll and Hyde. If this is Armageddon, count me in -- JAMES HERBERTWow * WASHINGTON POST *'Heaven to read, and you'll laugh like hell' * Time Out *

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Book Synopsis Inheritance is the first in a brand new gothic trilogy from Sunday Times bestselling author Nora Roberts-a tale of tragedies, loves found and lost, and a family haunted for generations.Book 2 in the Lost Bride trilogy - The Mirror - is available for pre-order now! After finding her fiancé in a compromising position with her cousin, Sonya MacTavish needs an escape. When a lawyer turns up on her doorstep out of the blue with news that she has inherited a beautiful Victorian house, Sonya thinks maybe this is just the change of scene she needs.The house - nicknamed Lost Bride manor - is beautiful, the setting idyllic and the local town offers Sonya the smalltown comforts she craves after life in a big city. So what if there are sometimes shadows in the windows, objects move of their own accord and music starts playing out of nowhere. Sonya can live with the house being a little haunted.But things soon start to take a darker turn and it becomes clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse, and a puzzle she must solve if there is any hope of breaking it...

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Book SynopsisThe classic novel about a daring experiment in human intelligence'A masterpiece of poignant brilliance . . . heartbreaking, and utterly, completely brilliant' Guardian'A timeless tearjerker' IndependentCharlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes - until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius.But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.Readers can't stop reading Flowers For Algernon:'I am finding it hard to put into words the vast range of emotions I experienced while reading this tale of hope, perseverance, truth and humanity . . . I'm a huge fan of science fiction that doesn't seem too far away; something that I could imagine being just around the corner - and that's how I felt about Flowers for Algernon' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'You're watching Charlie, the main character, go through an experimental procedure that increases his IQ. The whole book, written in diary entries, let us see how it affects his life and how he struggles through it. I rarely cry while reading a book but I couldn't help myself here. It's a classic for a reason. Read it. You won't be able to put it down' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Heartbreaking and beautiful. Required reading, as far as I am concerned' Wil Wheaton'This book is extraordinary, one of my favorites. It is a fast read but is is very powerful and heartbreaking. I read it in the plane and I felt a little embarrassed when I started to weep at the end of the book' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'One of those stories I wish I would have read years earlier. It's simply marvellous. It's about the nature of intelligence and how intelligence can be divisive. It's a very emotional book' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Trade ReviewThis is one of the greats: a story and a central character that have stayed with me for thirty years, from the first moment I picked it up * Conn Iggulden *A masterpiece of poignant brilliance . . . heartbreaking, and utterly, completely brilliant * Guardian *A timeless tearjerker * Independent *Excellent . . . extremely moving * The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction *Unflinchingly honest . . . it will make you reflect on your own life . . . and completely and utterly break your heart * Guardian Online *A narrative tour de force, very moving, beautiful and remorseless in its simple logic * Science Fiction, 100 Best Novels *Strikingly original * Publishers Weekly *A tale that is convincing, suspectful and touching * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisColin Walsh's short stories have won several awards including the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year. His writing has been published in the Stinging Fly, the Irish Times and broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. KALA is his first novel. He is from Galway and lives in Belgium.

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Book SynopsisJilly Cooper is a journalist, author and media superstar. The author of many number one bestselling books, she lives in Gloucestershire.She has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin, and won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019. She was also appointed DBE in 2024 for services to literature and charity.Trade ReviewAppassionata - the divine Jilly Cooper's latest and greatest novel * The Sunday Times *Triumphant... a boisterous tale of sex and Chopin amongst Rutshire folk * Tatler *Sexy, dazzling protagonists... the humour comes thick and fast * Daily Express *Delicious: light as a souffle and with divine flashes of wit. I could not put the damned thing down * Sunday Express *

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Book Synopsis''One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century'' JUNOT DIAZ''Octavia Butler was playing out our very real possibilities as humans. I think she can help each of us to do the same'' GLORIA STEINEMOne woman is called upon to reconstruct humanity in this hopeful, thought-provoking novel by the bestselling, award-winning author. For readers of Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison and Ursula K. Le Guin. When Lilith lyapo wakes in a small white room with no doors or windows, she remembers a devastating war, and a husband and child long lost to her.She finds herself living among the Oankali, a strange race who intervened in the fate of humanity hundreds of years before. They spared those they could from the ruined Earth, and suspended them in a long, deep sleep. Over centuries, the Oankali learned from the past, cured disease and healed the world. Now they want Lilith to lead her people back home. But salvationTrade ReviewOne of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had -- Junot DiazButler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision * Guardian *A dark, compelling and still horribly resonant time travel story * Independent *[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human * New York Times *No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential... If you've ever tweeted "All Lives Matter", someone needs to shove Kindred into your hand, and quickly * The Pool *Kindred is that rare magical artifact . . . the novel one returns to, again and again * Harlan Ellison *One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art * Los Angeles Herald-Examiner *[A] must-read novel * BBC *Everyone should read at least one novel by the grand dame of science fiction, and Kindred is a perfect (and harrowing and disturbing and brilliant) place to start * Refinery 29 *The immediate effect of reading Octavia Butler's Kindred is to make every other time travel book in the world look as if it's wimping out... This is a brilliant book, utterly absorbing, very well written, and deeply distressing. It's very hard to read, not because it's not good but because it's so good * Tor *A searing, caustic examination of bizarre and alien practices on the third planet from the sun * Kirkus *One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity * Los Angeles Times *Impossible to turn away from once you've devoured the first few pages * Starburst *If you haven't read Butler, you don't yet understand how rich the possibilities of science fiction can be * Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction *Butler's books are exceptional * Village Voice *Few writers in our field are so good at blending page-turners with philosophical questions so seamlessly -- Cory Doctorow

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Booker PrizeWinner of 'Book of the Year' and 'Debut of the Year' at the British Book AwardsThe Million-Copy Bestseller'An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love.' – The judges of the Booker Prize'Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.' – ObserverIt is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves.It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place.Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride. For readers of A Little Life and Angela's Ashes, it is a heartbreaking novel by a brilliant writer with a powerful and important story to tell.'A heartbreaking novel' – The Times'Tender and unsentimental . . . The Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.' – Daily MailTrade ReviewA heartbreaking novel, a book both beautiful and brutal . . . All that grief and sadness and misery has been turned into something tough, tender and beautifully sad. * The Times *Leaves us gutted and marvelling: Life may be short, but it takes forever. * New York Times *I think it’s the best first book I’ve read in many years. -- Karl Ove Knausgård * Guardian *Rarely does a debut novel establish its world with such sure-footedness, and Stuart’s prose is lithe, lyrical and full of revelatory descriptive insights. -- Alex Preston * Observer *An astonishing portrait, drawn from life, of a society left to die . . . Shuggie Bain has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. In a just world, it would win. * Daily Telegraph *Shuggie Bain comes from a deep understanding of the relationship between a child and a substance-abusing parent, showing a world rarely portrayed in literary fiction . . . Admirable and important. -- Sarah Moss * Guardian *This is a dysfunctional love story . . . between a boy and his mother . . . what makes his book a worthy contender for the Booker is his portrayal of their bond, together with all its perpetual damage. * Financial Times *Douglas Stuart’s startling Glasgow-set debut novel creates a world of poverty and suffering offset by pure, heart-filling, love . . . It’s a novel that deserves, and will surely often get, a second reading. -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *Shuggie Bain is a novel that aims for the heart and finds it. -- John Self * The Times *Tender and unsentimental . . . and the Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page. * Daily Mail *Beautiful and bleak but with enough warmth and optimism to carry the reader through. -- Graham Norton (via Twitter)A boy's heartbreaking love for his mother . . . as intense and excruciating to read as any novel I have ever held in my hand . . . The book’s evocative power arises out of the author’s talent for conjuring a place, a time, and the texture of emotion . . . brilliantly written. * Newsday *An outstanding book . . . Magnificently done . . . Wonderful. -- Lee Child * Sunday Post *A debut novel that reads like a masterpiece, Shuggie Bain gives voice to the kind of helpless, hopeless love that children can feel toward broken parents. * Washington Post *This heartfelt and harrowing debut novel – which has been compared to the work of Édouard Louis, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, and which Kirkus has already called “a masterpiece” . . . is rightly being heralded for its visceral, emotionally nuanced portrayal of working class Scottish life and its blazingly intimate exploration of a mother-son relationship. * LitHub *A formidable story, lyrically told, about intimacy, family, and love. -- 12 Best Books of 2020 So Far * ELLE (US) *The way Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting carved a permanent place in our heads and hearts for the junkies of late-1980s Edinburgh, the language, imagery, and story of fashion designer Stuart's debut novel apotheosizes the life of the Bain family of Glasgow… Readers may get through the whole novel without breaking down—then read the first sentence of the acknowledgements and lose it. The emotional truth embodied here will crack you open. You will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece. -- Kirkus Reviews starred reviewA rare and haunting ode to 1980s Glasgow and its struggling communities, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a collapsing family that is lashed together by love alone. Douglas Stuart writes with startling, searing intimacy. I fell hard for these characters; when they have nothing left, they cling maddeningly—irresistibly—to humor, pride and hope * Chia-Chia Lin *Shuggie Bain is an intimate and frighteningly acute exploration of a mother-son relationship and a masterful portrait of alcoholism in Scottish working class life, rendered with old-school lyrical realism . . . I kept being reminded of Joyce's Dubliners. -- Sandra Newman, author of The HeavensThere’s no way to fake the life experience that forms the bedrock of Douglas Stuart’s wonderful Shuggie Bain. No way to fake the talent either. Shuggie will knock you sideways * Richard Russo *A dark shining work. Raw, formidable, bursting with tenderness and frailty. The effect is remarkable, it will make you cry. -- Karl Geary, author of Montpelier ParadeEvery now and then a novel comes along that feels necessary and inevitable. I’ll never forget Shuggie and Agnes or the incredibly detailed Glasgow they inhabit. This is the rare contemporary novel that reads like an instant classic. I’ll be thinking and talking about Shuggie Bain - and teaching it - for quite some time. -- Garrard Conley, New York Times-bestselling author of Boy ErasedGlasgow, Scotland, in the 1980s is the backdrop for this story of the fraught bond between a young boy and his mother. -- ‘The 22 Best Books to Read This Winter’ * Vogue (US) *Compulsively readable… As [the novel] beautifully and shockingly illustrates how Shuggie ends up alone, this novel offers a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Very highly recommended -- Library Journal starred review

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Book Synopsis‘Of course it’s a bloody lie. It’s an advertising campaign.’ James Marlowe has a gift for selling people things they don’t need. As he strives to meet the demands of rival colleagues, amoral clients and his young family, James has to raise his game. A cocktail of cocaine and alcohol fuels his ambition, but when body and mind can’t take any more, he plunges into a surreal world darker than the one he’s fallen from. ‘Grippingly dark and ultimately moving.’ Alison Moore ‘A little Mad Men and a lot American Psycho.’ The SkinnyTrade Review ‘The Zoo intrigued me from the very first page. Jamie Mollart’s debut novel is a grippingly dark and ultimately moving story about exploitation, destruction and the possibility of redemption.’‘This was a book I read quickly and avidly.’ * New Books Magazine *‘The Zoo is dark and relentless in its bleak portrayal of modern day consumerism and the effects we all ignore.’ * We Love This Book *‘The journey may be somewhat exhausting, but it feels worthwhile, and we don’t lose hope that there will be a happy ending to this human and psychological thriller.’ * Book Oxygen *‘One of those rare books that you have to read a second time the moment you reach the end – no small feat for a debut novel. This could well be the next Bret Easton Ellis.’ * Staff recommendation, Waterstones Leicester *‘A little Mad Men and a lot American Psycho.’ * The Skinny *

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Book SynopsisOn the eve of Occupy Wall Street, C is broke. Once a renowned artist, she’s now divorced, alone, stuck with a stack of bills, a new erotic interest in her oldest girlfriend, and a persistent hallucination in the form of a gnome. Darkly funny and uncannily percipient, The Visitors counts down the last days of our digital age toward a strange climax.‘It’s as if The Big Short were set in the dreamworld of Rachel Ingalls's Mrs. Caliban . . .’ Audrey Wollen, New York TimesTrade Review‘It’s as if The Big Short were set in the dreamworld of Rachel Ingalls's Mrs. Caliban . . .’ Audrey Wollen, New York Times‘The Visitors addresses it subjects through a dance of symbols and signifiers.’ Wall Street Journal‘A mordantly funny requiem for the early 21st century . . . The odd touch of magic does nothing to diminish the story’s uneasy relevance to the contemporary state of affairs. Fans of such paranoia masters as DeLillo and Pynchon should give this a look.’ Publishers Weekly‘The Visitors is a slim book with a lot going on. . . The book accepts, and even delights in, the strenuous absurdity of its characters’ efforts to index the relationship between the virtual and the material, or to locate the source of reality in imagination.’ Daisy Hildyard, The Guardian‘The Visitors is conceptually bold. Stevens threads through needles of political theory so deftly you barely feel them piercing the brain. Her work calmly suggests this: the apocalypse is coming for us all, baby – so, what are you doing about it?’ Annie Hayter, The Big Issue‘It’s both a bold, imaginative play on very recent history and a trenchant prophecy of the terrifying times we’re collectively staring down the barrel of.’ Anna Cafolla, The Face Summer Reads 2022‘As its semi-fictional world frays at every edge, we stay close with C., a deeply written character who could be any of us: beset by the stresses of debt, anxious about decisions made and decisions to come, yet filled with all the rich longing, desire, and tenderness that renews our humanity, even at the worst of times.’ Lithub, included in ‘35 Novels You Need to Read This Summer’‘Here is a refreshing novel by an author willing to take chances...The Visitors stands as a pensive and important work...rare and exciting company.’ Necessary Fiction‘“Is it possible to imagine something so fully that it takes on a life of its own? So many systems run only on belief.” It's possible that a novel, like this one, does, too.’ Star Tribune'You might not think Occupy Wall Street and prophetic garden gnomes would fit together within the confines of the same narrative. Now, here’s Jessi Jezewska Stevens’s new novel The Visitors to make the case that, yes, the two can mesh together seamlessly. It’s the kind of ambitious, madcap narrative combination that’s all too rare nowadays.’ Tobias Carroll, Tor.com‘Elements of the novel (particularly its exploration of cybernetics as a ubiquitous controller of domestic life) recall the work of such 20th-century greats as DeLillo, but Stevens’ voice – which is meticulous, wide ranging, and moored in a different perspective from the 20th century’s predominantly white male hegemonies – makes her work particularly suited for the current century’s artistic needs. Ambitious and powerful – a remarkable novel.’ Kirkus Review, starred review

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Book SynopsisFrom the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop''A delicious book that I couldn't resist devouring in one sitting. It was a delight to lose myself in the world of Edie and the mysterious baker. I would recommend to pastry lovers and book lovers alike!'' Sally Page, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of StoriesNestled among the cobblestone streets of Compiègne, there existed a bakery unlike any other. Rumours were whispered through the town that its pastries offered a taste of magic, chasing away the darkest of sorrows. Just one bite of a croissant might bring luck, unlock a precious memory or reveal hidden longings.But dark clouds were looming on the horizonFor Edie Lane, a recipe for disaster doesn't require that many ingredients. Take an unhealthy amount of wishful thinking and a sprinkle of desperation and that's how Edie left everything behind in Ireland for her dream job at a bakery in Paris. Except the bakery isn't in Paris and neither is Edie.This might not be where Edie intended to be but she soon realizes it''s exactly where she needs to bePraise for Evie WoodsBeautifully written and captures the wonder and awe that a story can bring to its readera delightful story for any book loveran ode to storytelling and the connections that books can make!' ?????Wowwww!! It's been awhile since I read something so fascinating, captivating and special all in oneIt takes you on a journey like most books do, but this one, I just want to inscribe on my back and hope that it becomes a part of me so that I can carry it with me always' ?????A must read for readers that love books' ?????A beautiful story that begs to be read in one sittinga magical story filled with beautiful prose and many surprises that readers will not soon forget' ?????This spellbinding book hooked me from the very beginning and I couldn''t put it down til the end' ?????

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Book SynopsisOVER 14M OF THE NEAPOLITAN QUARTET SOLD WORLDWIDE “Nothing quite like this has ever been published before.”—The Guardian “This is high stakes, subversive literature.”—The Daily Telegraph “With the publication of her Neapolitan Novels, (Ferrante) has established herself as the foremost writer in Italy—and the world.”—The Sunday Times “An unconditional masterpiece . . . I was totally enthralled.”—Jhumpa Lahiri “An extraordinary epic.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “To the uninitiated, Elena Ferrante is best described as Balzac meets The Sopranos and rewrites feminist theory.”—The Times “Ferrante’s writing seems to say something that hasn’t been said before, in a way so compelling its readers forget where they are, abandon friends and disdain sleep.”—London Review of Books “Stunning. An intense, forensic exploration of friendship.”—The Times Literary Supplement Set in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay continues the story of the feisty and rebellious Lila and her lifelong friend, the brilliant and bookish Elena. Lila, after separating from her husband, is living with her young son in a new neighbourhood of Naples and working at a local factory. Elena has left Naples, earned a degree from an elite college, and published a novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned and fascinating interlocutors. The era, with its dramatic changes in sexual politics and social costumes, with its seemingly limitless number of new possibilities, is rendered with breathtaking vigour. This third Neapolitan Novel is not only a moving story of friendship but also a searing portrait of a rapidly changing world. Trade Review"Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay continues Ferrante's raw exploration of female friendship and ambition, emotional violence and the enduring scars of the second world war." * The Guardian *"There is a savage honesty to the work of Elena Ferrante that is both unsettling and comforting at once. Here is an author who has poured every ounce of herself onto the page." * Irish Times *The older you get, the harder it is to recapture the intoxicating sense of discovery that comes when you first read George Eliot, Nabokov, Tolstoy or Colette. But this year it came again when I read Elena Ferrante’s remarkable Neapolitan novels, chronicling a friendship between two women, Lila and Elena, that lasts for more than six decades. * The New Statesman *"Tolstoyan in its sweep and ambition.... Novel by novel, Ferrante’s series is building into one of the great achievements of modern literature." * The Independent *"Ferrante depicts the pain of uncertainty but also its potential." * The Times Literary Supplement *"Nothing you read about Elena Ferrante's work prepares you for the ferocity of it." * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisOne of the BBC''s ''100 Novels that Shaped the World''''Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past''Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.George Orwell''s dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisA riveting selection of short stories in Spanish alongside their English translations This new dual-language edition of ten stories selected from The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories celebrates some of the very best twentieth-century literature from Spain. Each story appears in Spanish alongside an expert English translation, providing unique cultural insight and literary inspiration for language learners. Ranging from a poignant tale of betrayal to a darkly humorous exchange between wedding guests, this captivating collection includes works from authors such as Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), Cristina Fernández Cubas, Medardo Fraile, Carmen Martín Gaite, Karmele Jaio, Carmen Laforet, Javier Marías, Carme Riera, Manuel Rivas, and Esther Tusquets.

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Book SynopsisThis powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956.Trade Review"Written with beauty, refinement, and force: a work of unmistakable distinction…" -- Atlantic Monthly"All his work is worthy. Dazai was an aristocratic tramp, a self described delinquent, yet he wrote with the forbearance of a fasting scribe." -- Patti Smith

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Book SynopsisLoved by millions of readers worldwide, let the greatest children's book series of all time take you on an unforgettable journey. The hope and wonder of Harry Potter's world will make you want to escape to Hogwarts again and again. This is the perfect gift three magical adventures in one box set!Every great story has a great beginning. From the moment Harry Potter is deposited on the doorstep of number four, Privet Drive, with a swish of Albus Dumbledore's cloak and the words Good luck, Harry', J.K. Rowling's irresistible storytelling pulls readers into an unforgettable, magical adventure. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The magic starts here Harry Potter is a milestone in every child's reading journey and continues to captivate new readers all over the world. This gorgeou

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Book SynopsisThe stunning sequel to Parable of the Sower, the NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling novel.''In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler''s novel may be unmatched'' NEW YORKER''Octavia Butler was playing out our very real possibilities as humans. I think she can help each of us to do the same'' GLORIA STEINEM---In order for me to understand who I am, I must begin to understand who she was.Asha was born into a broken world. There are many things she needs to know: how her country could embrace a violent, far-right President promising to make America great again, why they turned a blind eye to the suffering - and the truth about her mother.In her journals, Lauren Olamina tells of a great love divided between her young daughter, her community and the revelation that led her to found a new faith that teaches ''God Is ChanTrade ReviewOne of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had -- Junot DiazButler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision * Guardian *A dark, compelling and still horribly resonant time travel story * Independent *[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human * New York Times *No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential... If you've ever tweeted "All Lives Matter", someone needs to shove Kindred into your hand, and quickly * The Pool *Kindred is that rare magical artifact . . . the novel one returns to, again and again * Harlan Ellison *One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art * Los Angeles Herald-Examiner *[A] must-read novel * BBC *Everyone should read at least one novel by the grand dame of science fiction, and Kindred is a perfect (and harrowing and disturbing and brilliant) place to start * Refinery 29 *The immediate effect of reading Octavia Butler's Kindred is to make every other time travel book in the world look as if it's wimping out... This is a brilliant book, utterly absorbing, very well written, and deeply distressing. It's very hard to read, not because it's not good but because it's so good * Tor *A searing, caustic examination of bizarre and alien practices on the third planet from the sun * Kirkus *One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity * Los Angeles Times *Impossible to turn away from once you've devoured the first few pages * Starburst *If you haven't read Butler, you don't yet understand how rich the possibilities of science fiction can be * Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction *Butler's books are exceptional * Village Voice *Few writers in our field are so good at blending page-turners with philosophical questions so seamlessly -- Cory Doctorow

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Book Synopsis''Spellbinding'' ELIF SHAFAK''Ingenious'' THE TIMES, Book of the Year''Sparkling''OBSERVER''A triumph'' PHILIP PULLMAN''As finely wrought as a dazzling Murano bead'' INDEPENDENT''Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon' PHILIPPA GREGORYA spectacular feat, crafted by a maestra at the top of her game' SPECTATORFROM THE GLOBALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRINGVenice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives learning to handle.Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE''A work of stunning beauty, deep insight and great originality.'' Monica Ali, New York Times''Tremendous from its opening sentence.'' Tessa Hadley, Guardian''A work of cut-glass brilliance.'' Financial TimesIn the wake of her family''s collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. The upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions personal, moral, artistic, and practical as she endeavours to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city, she is made to confront aspects of living that she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.Filtered through the impersonal gaze of its keenly intelligent protagonist, Transit sees Rachel Cusk delve deeper into the themes first raised in her critically acclaimed novel Outline, and offers up a penetrating and moving reflection on childhood and fate, the value of suffering, the moral problems of personal responsibility and the mystery of change.

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