Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Little, Brown Book Group The Book of Mother
Book Synopsis''An indelible portrait of a brilliant, beautiful, mad and maddening woman, expressing the joy of holding her mercurial attention and also the terrible cost of that intimacy...No-one who reads this captivating book will ever forget Maman'' Andrew SolomonA prize-winning tour de force when it came out in France, this brilliant translation of Violaine Huisman''s ''witty, immersive autofiction showcases a Parisian childhood with a charismatic, depressed parent'' (Oprah Daily. Beautiful and magnetic, Catherine, aka ''Maman'', smokes too much, drives too fast, laughs too hard and loves too extravagantly. During a joyful and chaotic childhood, her daughter Violaine wouldn''t have it any other way.But when Maman is hospitalised after a third divorce and breakdown, everything changes. Even as Violaine and her sister long for their mother''s return, once she''s back Maman''s violent mood swings and flagrant disregard for personal boundaries soon turTrade ReviewCaptures a filial love as fierce and frank as its central figure * New Yorker *A sparkling debut. Any sadness in the telling is countered by the panache and surprise of the writing infused in these pages. Love wins out in a life of struggle - the struggle of a monarch without a kingdom * Elle (France) *Violaine Huisman unfurls memories, facts and family myths . . . it's poignant, terribly alive . . . the grit Huisman has in retelling her story, both as a young girl and as a writer, is as beautiful as it is brave . . . dignified and devastating, the book is a superb monument to a woman who spent her whole life in flight * Le Monde *Hypnotic and searching * La Vie *A magnificent ode. Her prose abounds with literary force * Le Point *An indelible portrait of a brilliant, beautiful, mad and maddening woman, expressing the joy of holding her mercurial attention and also the terrible cost of that intimacy. This is an exquisite evocation of the passionate, reciprocal love that can illuminate its objects, or destroy them, or both. No one who reads this captivating book will ever forget Maman. -- Andrew SolomonViolaine Huisman summons her late mother's voice in order to speak with and through and for her. The result is a charged portrait of a vibrant and destructive woman as imagined by the daughter who believed it was her job to save her. The prose has the unmistakable urgency and authority of love, producing an homage without idealization, an elegy without false consolation. The Book of Mother is at once an act of radical identification and a way of letting go -- Ben LernerHuisman's excellent debut chronicles the life of a charming but volatile Frenchwoman... Huisman's storytelling ability is immense: Violaine unfurls the wide-ranging narrative like a raconteur at a party, and develops a kaleidoscopic portrait of Catherine. This thoughtful exploration of familial trauma and love will have readers riveted * PW, starred review *The names of Huisman's characters will provoke discussion of the novel as autofiction, but the story here is bigger than that. Love hurts; Huisman elegantly examines how and why * Kirkus, starred review *A powerful and emotive piece of autofiction... as raucous as it is melancholic... Huisman powerfully rebukes the idealised paradigm of motherhood that is so entrenched in our society * NB Magazine *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Turnout
Book Synopsis''A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption'' STYLISTIt was the three of them. Always the three of them. Until it wasn''t.Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara''s husband and once their mother''s prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school''s annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance.The instant New York Times bestseller''Impossible to put down, creepy and claustrophobic. It''s WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE in ballet shoes'' STEPHEN KING''Compulsively readable'' RUTH WARE ''A book you will noTrade ReviewCompulsively readable * Ruth Ware (2021) *Impossible to put down, creepy and claustrophobic. It's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE in ballet shoes * Stephen King *Imagine Black Swan by way of Virginia Andrews' cult Flowers in the Attic and you have some idea of the dark nature of The Turnout ... A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption * Stylist *Raw, real and compulsively readable. In The Turnout, Megan Abbott does what she does best - combining family tensions with simmering desire and burning professional ambition * Ruth Ware (2021) *Dark and juicy and tinged with horror * New York Times *Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension * Irish Times *Abbott's prose is dazzlingly precise and her portrayal of student rivalries razor-sharp in this taut novel * Observer *Abbott captures the blood, sweat, tears and rivalries behind the apparently effortless grace, to create a contorted and febrile world where pain is "our friend, our lover" and the feeling of menace grows stronger with every page * Guardian *The Turnout centres on a ballet school ... a hothouse ridden with suppressed hysteria, delineated so convincingly in Abbott's peerless prose that violent death, when it comes, seems not just plausible but inevitable. My thriller of the year -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph, Best Books of the Year *A story so intensely told that it will haunt your dreams * Daily Express, Best Books of 2021 *Megan Abbott is one of the finest writers working in any genre, anywhere and THE TURNOUT might well be her masterpiece. Nobody else writes so well about the darkness and damage lurking just beneath an elegant and serene surface. Brilliant and breath-taking, this is a book that you will not be able to forget * Mark Billingham (2021) *Abbott creates a dark and mesmerising world and, as always, is so brilliant at portraying women and girls and their competition and complexities ... It makes Black Swan look like a children's story * Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of Blood Orange *There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott * Tana French (2021) *Intoxicatingly intense, with a frisson of suspense and lurking disquiet throughout, those feelings will linger with you long past the last page * Heat Magazine *This dark thriller will suck you in right to the final page * Sun *All one needs to know about a Megan Abbott book is that it's a Megan Abbott book -- dreamy, sexy, a deep dive into a subculture that has been exhaustively researched. The Turnout is all those things and more, taking you so far into the world of a small ballet school that you feel the characters' aches and pains in your joints, your feet and, most dangerous of all, your heart * LAURA LIPPMAN *There is not a writer alive who is better at investigating the tension and threat of violence at the centre of women's lives than Megan Abbott-because no one else is looking at the violence from within women's lives, as opposed to outside threats on trains, planes, in windows, or on dark, shadowy streets. Megan goes into the heart of female spaces and finds the ugly in all that pretty, the dark in all that light, with breath-taking suspense. The Turnout has notes of James M. Cain and Alfred Hitchcock, but it's better because it's so fresh and unexpected, so wholly revelatory. I turned page after page, holding my breath in fear, and also excitement, about what might happen in this run-down ballet school, what blood red might be lurking behind all that pink. This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent * ATTICA LOCKE *Another great read from best-selling author Megan Abbott * Hello Magazine *Abbott has a top-notch ability to reveal the dark undercurrents of women's relationships and sexuality. Her taut, unsettling writing creates tension through the slightest actions and phrases, and keeps the pages turning. This is clever, chilling psychological suspense at its best. * Library Journal (starred review) *This is an extraordinary psychological thriller, that brilliantly delivers its narrative and atmosphere through the taut, damaged bodies of its dancer protagonists. The writing is so pungent, physical and sensuous you feel like you're right there in the room with these obsessive, damaged, seductive characters. It's like Dario Argento's Suspiria performing a pas de deux with Donna Tartt's The Secret History * Keith Stuart, bestselling author of The Boy Made of Blocks (2021) *This look at the darker side of the dance world demonstrates why Abbott has few peers at crafting moving stories of secrets and broken lives * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Megan Abbott writes at the darkest and sharpest cutting edge of psychological fiction. The Turnout is a completely standout novel of perception, mystery and style. It grips, challenges and delivers one of the finest and most disturbing stories you'll read in a very long while. It's also achingly moving. I loved it * Henry Sutton (2021) *This is simply a masterclass in great storytelling and writing, an edgy and unpredictable tale full of nuance about the violence we inflict on others and ourselves -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group Beware the Woman
Book Synopsis From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott, a chilling and compulsive novel about a family holiday that takes a terrifying turn.CHOSEN AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, NPR AND THE TABLET''Splendidly tense and atmospheric - a contemporary Rebecca'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''A novel of almost unbearable tension'' IRISH TIMES''Stunningly twisty'' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, author of The Push *******************************************************************Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy has everything she ever wanted. When she and her husband, Jed, go to visit his father in his remote cottage, Jacy feels bathed in love by Dr. Ash, if less so by his housekeeper, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.Then Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, all eyes are on Jacy''s condition, and whispers about Jed''s long-dead motherTrade ReviewA haunted, woozy, suspenseful Midwest Gothic Noir ... A slow-burning novel of almost unbearable tension ... Megan Abbott is always essential reading * Declan Hughes, Irish Times *A splendidly tense and atmospheric homage to the Gothic tradition - a contemporary Rebeccaamid the Great Lakes * John Williams, Mail on Sunday *Abbott ratchets up the menace towards an unexpected ending in a claustrophobic chiller about how men deny women agency * Guardian, Books of the Month - Crime & Thrillers *A feminist fable as well as a psychological thriller with horror hints ... What initially looks set to be areworking of Rebecca becomes instead an incisive parable of today's America, where superficially nice men are reasserting their former control over women's reproductive choices * Sunday Times *Megan Abbott is quite rightly considered to be psycho thriller royalty ... Abbott's writing is as intense andenergetic ... Every page is laced with quiet menace * Daily Mail *Megan Abbott is a masterful builder of mood, her voluptuous prose heavy with sex and weather * New York Times Book Review *Timely and terrifying * People *Imagine Get Out but with feminist themes . . . Dripping with tense confrontations, curiously dead wives, and the gendered expectations that accompany both. It's a suspenseful page-turner * Vulture *With this bewitchingly creepy tale, thriller queen Megan Abbott keeps readers questioning whether this family getaway is the stuff of anxiety dreams or Bluebeard nightmares * Oprah Daily *Do not read this brilliant (but dark) book with the lights off * The Sun *Scintillating and chilling from start to finish * Doug Johnstone, Big Issue *Terrific at finding dread around every corner, at making you see the grotesque and frightening in something previously mundane...Beware the Woman is a master class in suspense * Seattle Times *A cabin-fever suspense novel laced with menacing Rosemary's Baby-ish undertones * Philadelphia Enquirer *Extraordinary. Rosemary's Baby midwifed by Mrs Danvers. Megan Abbott is a genius. has that feeling of being a book that will be read 100 years from now and marvelled over. A true classic * Sarah Hilary, author of THORN *Sultry, subversive, shades of Rebecca in a menacing, Gothic exploration of threats to female bodily autonomy, which may be current but have been sadly ever so. I loved it * Harriet Tyce, author of It Ends at Midnight *Abbott is a superstar of the suspense genre. . . . Beware the Woman is Rebecca wedded to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Along with the feverish psychological twists and turns that Abbott's novels are celebrated for, Beware the Woman explores the timely topic of women's autonomy over their own bodies * NPR *Megan Abbott can do no wrong. Stunningly twisty, Beware the Woman so deftly holds some of the most pressing feminist issues of our time in an eerie, ominous grip. Bodily autonomy, reproduction, patriarchal power-this thriller feels terrifyingly of the moment, and perhaps that's where the truest horror lies * Ashley Audrain, author of The Push *Beware the Woman proves yet again why Megan Abbott is a literary rock star. Feverish, razor sharp, and pulsing with dread, it's a tale both timeless and terrifyingly of-the-moment * Riley Sager, author of The House Across the Lake *Is there anyone like Megan Abbott? BEWARE THE WOMAN is the work of a fearless cartographer of the darkest, seediest, most gloriously haunted landscapes of the human heart and psyche * Kelly Link *Beware the Woman is Megan Abbott at her best, which is about as good as it gets. A modern-day Gothic, it is chilling and creepy, feverish and surreal, and compulsively readable * Laura Lippman, author of Prom Mom *Spectacular. Her best yet. Kind of Rosemary's Baby meets Rebecca. Nobody, but nobody does creeping dread like Megan Abbott does * Sam Baker *Spine-tingling . . . Manipulating the sense of menace like a virtuoso violinist, Abbott expertly foreshadows the wrenching family secrets that are exposed in a ferocious finale. Sinewy prose and note-perfect pacing make this a masterful and provocative deep dive into desire, love, and gender politics. Readers will be left breathless * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Megan Abbott masterfully uses the pretext of a pregnant woman's heightened senses...to build a claustrophobic atmosphere of mistrust and insecurity reminiscent of GET OUT. You're sure to get chills. An unsettling, nightmare-inducing morsel from a master of suspense * Kirkus Reviews *An absolutely brilliant novel: I now want to read the entire Megan Abbott oeuvre -- A.N. Wilson * Tablet *
£17.09
Little, Brown Book Group Beware the Woman
Book Synopsis From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott, a chilling and compulsive novel about a family holiday that takes a terrifying turn.A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023''Splendidly tense and atmospheric - a contemporary Rebecca'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''A novel of almost unbearable tension'' IRISH TIMES''Stunningly twisty'' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, author of The Push *******************************************************************Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy has everything she ever wanted. When she and her husband, Jed, go to visit his father in his remote cottage, Jacy feels bathed in love by Dr. Ash, if less so by his housekeeper, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.Then Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, all eyes are on Jacy''s condition, and whispers about Jed''s long-dead mother seem to be intruding upon the present.
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Good Citizens Need Not Fear
Book Synopsis''Bright, funny, satirical and relevant. . . . A new talent to watch!'' MARGARET ATWOOD (via Twitter)This brilliant and bitingly funny novel-in-stories, set in and around a single crumbling apartment building in Soviet-era Ukraine, heralds the arrival of a major new talent.A cast of unforgettable characters--citizens of the small industrial town of Kirovka--populate Maria Reva''s ingeniously entwined tales that span the chaotic years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Weaving the strands of the narrative together is an unforgettable, chameleon-like young woman named Zaya: an orphan turned beauty-pageant crasher who survives the extraordinary circumstances of her childhood through a compelling combination of ferocity, intelligence, stubbornness and wit.Inspired by her own family''s history, Reva''s Good Citizens Need Not Fear takes us from paranoia to tenderness and back again, exploring what it iTrade ReviewBright, funny, satirical and relevant . . . A new talent to watch! -- MARGARET ATWOOD * from Twitter *Good Citizens Need Not Fear is the funniest, most politically astute book I've read in years. Reva's pitch perfect tone - especially at that comic junction where the absurdity of a system rigged to control human beings collides with actual humans - is bang-on brilliantMaria Reva's enthralling debut of interlinked short stories achieves the double effect of timelessness and timeliness. The emotional impact of this book is cumulative. This is partly down to her mastery of the form: the stories are connected by a unity of place, time and relationship. More importantly, they are brought to life by Reva's handling of darkness and light * Kapka Kassabova, Guardian Book of the Day *Creative, poignant, and darkly hilarious, Good Citizens Need Not Fear is full of relevant questions about resistance, corruption and maintaining dignity against the dehumanizing power of the State. This is an outstanding first bookLuminous. These stories speak with humour yet real emotion of the heaviness of totalitarian systems and show how the light of our humanity still shines through. Terrific stuffWitheringly incisive and consistently pitch-perfect, Good Citizens Need Not Fear is nothing short of a comic triumph * Globe and Mail *Maria Reva is a miracle writer: how else to explain how dark and suffused with light these stories are, how genuinely hilarious and very serious, how entertaining and thought provoking? You've never read anything like them, and together they make an incredible, strange and deeply exciting book * Elizabeth McCracken, author of BOWLAWAY *Reading this dazzling story collection, I discovered it's possible to have your heart broken while laughing loud enough to wake the baby two doors down the hall. With their big, delightful dollops of surrealism and absurdity, these stories conjure up from the old Soviet-era Ukraine a world that feels, with its hall-of-mirrors twists and torques, uncannily--alarmingly!--on point and up-to-date. Good Citizens Need Not Fear marks the beginning of what is sure to be a long, strong career for the brilliant Maria Reva * Ben Fountain, author of BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK *[A] hilarious, absurdist debut collection...Reva delights in the strange situations caused by political dysfunction, while offering surprising notes of tenderness as ordinary people learn to get by. The riotous set pieces and intelligent gaze make this an auspicious debut * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *I have never read anything like these radiant stories. They are true originals- funny, devastating, and containing a weird, wild energy. These citizens, living in the literally collapsing buildings of Ukraine, will not be crushed or silenced. They have something urgent to say about where we are today -- Deb Olin Unferth, author of WAIT TILL YOU SEE ME DANCEEverything about this book is astonishing - its breadth and depth, its wit and originality, its inventiveness and intelligence and, maybe most surprising of all, its great big heart. We've been waiting for a writer as fearless and thrilling as Maria Reva, and Good Citizens Need Not Fear confirms that she's arriving exactly when we need her most -- Bret Anthony Johnston, author of REMEMBER ME LIKE THISReva's world tips slyly from Soviet-style absurdism to a more fantastical surrealism . . . Reva has a wonderful sense of humor and an equally wonderful sense of the absurd . . . Reva is clearly a talent to watch: Her prose has a neat efficiency, and her stories are as memorable as they are unique. The world Reva creates slips fluidly from the surreal to the absurd to the grittily realistic * Kirkus Reviews *[A] witty first collection . . . Reva's tales effortlessly converge, offering well-honed portraits of her characters' realities, sensibilities and urgencies * Booklist *Good Citizens Need Not Fear showcases the best form of creative writing on the market today - the tight, powerful short story that draws one in immediately, scores its emotional points, and stuns with unforgettable, detailed word-pictures . . . There are no weaknesses in the book with its absurd situations, dark humor and human nature on full display . . . The many metaphors dazzle the mind . . . Vibrant, risky and satisfying. Reva's volume is slim, but hefty in ideas and artistry. . . Maria Reva is a towering talent and her book debut a complex work of art * The Oklahoman *Darkly funny . . . Reminded me of Christadora by Tim Murphy . . . Deeply satisfying . . . [Reva] is really great at finding dark humor in what otherwise would be bleak situations * BookRiot's All About the Books! Podcast *. . . Like a funhouse mirror. Given the setting of a Ukrainian town in the 1980s, readers might enter the collection expecting the usual westernized version of life in the late Soviet Union: corruption, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, maybe a dash of the secret police. But while these elements do make appearances in Reva's fiction, the overall tone is one of nihilistic, elated mysticism. Her stories don't have twists so much as layers, as in soil: every bit of digging uncovers something new, sometimes a treasure, sometimes a grotesquerie * Quill & Quire *[An] innovative, bitingly funny short-story collection * Entertainment Weekly *Absurd, funny, devastating . . . Strange, beautiful and so very full of life * Lara Prescott *Reva's stories are witty yet dark and foreboding, harboring bitter and biting humor that does little to veil the despair [of the good citizens] . . . The writing style and storylines are exceptional, unique to the author yet reminiscent of the classics. 'Lucky Toss' taps into Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' [and in 'Roach Brooch'] shades of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis are evident . . . Entertaining yet disconcerting and complex. [Reva] showcases the harsh reality of oppression, poverty, abandonment, fear and the constant scrabble simply to subsist and be counted as having a life worthy of acknowledgment * Lone Star Literary Life *One of the leading post-Soviet writers of her generation while breaking through the limitations of the term itself * The Nation *Striking . . . unfold[s] in the fertile space between story collection and novel . . . Good Citizens Need Not Fear uses interlinked tales centred around a crumbling apartment block in Ukraine to convey the absurdity of post-Soviet life * Guardian (Best books of the year) *
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group The Collected Stories of Shirley Hazzard
Book Synopsis'Shirley Hazzard is, purely and simply, one of the greatest writers working in the English today' (Michael Cunningham). Now at last comes the first complete book of her short stories, including those previously uncollected.Trade ReviewShirley Hazzard is an author for whom there just aren't praises high enough. Wise, elegant, generous, moving - to finish reading a book of hers is to feel bereft of something sublime -- Sarah WatersThe Australian-American writer's short fiction is full of precisely observed studies of thwarted connection . . . Often by portraying its absence, these stories assert the importance of true connection, in the elegant, scalpel-sharp prose for which Hazzard has been admired since her earliest work . . . the collection offers a fine introduction to a remarkable writer who deserves to go on finding new readers * Guardian (Book of the day) *Hazzard's stories feel timeless because she understands, as she writes in one of them: "We are human beings, not rational ones." -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *The distinctive and exacting fiction of Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016) has not lacked advocates. Her output wasn't large - just four novels and two volumes of short stories, together with non-fiction including memoirs, essays and travel writing - but her two finest novels, The Transit of Venus (1980) and The Great Fire (2003), won major prizes and have not been forgotten... This definitive collection of Hazzard's short stories is a welcome reminder of her remarkable talent -- Dinah Birch * Times Literary Supplement *Shirley Hazzard is a perfectionist's writer.... [her stories are] slender yet solid, consummate, as fascinated and affected by the mysteries of experience as they are self-assured ... Her writing requires the sort of sustained attention she believed art deserved, but her relationship with her reader is always reciprocal: she doesn't create mystery but reveals its vital place in life -- Lauren Oyler * Harper's Review *Often by portraying its absence, these stories assert the importance of true connection, in the elegant, scalpel-sharp prose for which Hazzard has been admired since her earliest work... the collection offers a fine introduction to a remarkable writer who deserves to go on finding new readers. -- Stephanie Merritt * The Observer *Now, finally, her clear-headed brilliance seems to be on a steep upward popularity curve ... Reading the stories together is a treat ... Hazzard's is the sparky, considered voice of a world-class observer of humanity -- Isabel Berwick * Financial Times *Hazzard understood the human condition in all its contradiction, all its messiness, like few others. Collected Stories is certainly essential for admirers of the author, but it's also a wonderful read for anyone who loves fiction that delights and enlightens, challenges and rewards * Boston Globe *And what an exquisitely polished writer [Hazzard] was, at once serious and bitingly funny, a master of both the plush, well-rounded sentence and the oblique takedown. Not for Hazzard the stripped-down prose and catchy conversational style that were already coming into vogue when these stories were written * LA Times *Cosmopolitan in location, exquisitely executed, and glinting with the sort of keen wit and perception found in the fiction of Margaret Drabble and Elizabeth Bowen, Hazzard's stories are startlingly fresh and revealing in their poise, sting, and compassion -- Mia Levitin * Irish Times *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Sankofa A fantastic novel about a womans search
Book SynopsisA REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKA BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION FUTURES PRIZEAN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR''A captivating story about a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew'' REESE WITHERSPOONAnna is at a stage of her life when she''s beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother - the only parent who raised her - is dead. Searching through her mother''s belongings, she finds clues about the West African father she never knew. Through reading his student diary, chronicling his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London, she discovers that he eventually became the president (some would say the dictator) of a small nation in West Africa - and he is still alive. She decides to track him down and so begins a funny, painful, fascinating jouTrade ReviewUtterly compelling ... A disarmingly moving, surprisingly hilarious and fascinating journey * Stylist *I LOVED Sankofa SO MUCH. It explores identity, duality, belonging, racism, post-colonialism ... and the writing style is beguilingly cool, wry, detached * Marian Keyes *Onuzo displays astonishing imagination and versatility in this fantastic novel about a woman's search for her personal, familial and national identity, delivered with deadpan humour in captivating prose * Sefi Atta *Captivating... A beautiful book about a woman brave enough to discover her true identity * Reese Witherspoon (2021) *Slick pacing and unpredict able developments keep the reader alert right up to the novel's exhilarating ending * Guardian Book of the Day *Onuzo's sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonization, inheritance and liberation * New York Times Book Review *A real pleasure, it's funny, thought-provoking and holds a light up to everything from cultural differences to colonialism * Stylist Unmissable 2021 Fiction *I loved venturing from London to the fictional African nation of Bamana in Sankofa, a novel I found hard to put down -- Maggie Shipstead * Daily Mail *A really great book, very poignant but also told really straight * Sara Cox, Radio Times *A stirring narrative about family, our capacity to change and the need to belong * Time *Wonderful. Poignant and powerful and so timely and the beautiful ending had me in tears, reminding me to look within as well as without for my answers * Stella Duffy, 2021 *Spellbinding . . . Onuzu's spare style elegantly cuts to the core of her themes. The balancing of Anna's soul-searching with her thrilling discoveries makes for a satisfying endeavour * Publishers Weekly *Unscrupulous politicians, irresponsible journalism, and the yawning gap between rich and poor feel deeply personal as Anna's journey unfolds . . . Fresh and new * Library Journal *A hugely compelling novel about identity and the stories we tell about ourselves * Anna James (2021) *An engagingly written journey of self-discovery * Kirkus Reviews *Uniquely layered and lovingly written * Ms Magazine *
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Peace Breaks Out
Book Synopsis''You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own'' New York TimesIt is 1945. When peace breaks out at last, familiar wartime routines are interrupted, and the residents of Barsetshire seem as disconcerted as they are overjoyed. As the country''s eligible young men return home, life regains momentum: before long, everyone is spinning in a flurry of misunderstandings and engagements. The older generation, though, sees that the world will never be the same again.Both wry and poignant, Peace Breaks Out was written in the tumultuous year in which it is set. It is an unforgettable portrait of the joy and misgivings felt in the final days of the Second World War.Trade ReviewYou read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own * New York Times *The novels are a delight, with touches of E. F. Benson, E. M. Delafield and P. G. Wodehouse -- Christopher Fowler * Independent on Sunday *Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself * Alexander McCall Smith *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Unpassing
Book SynopsisA major US debut novel in 2019Shortlisted for the Centre for Fiction First Novel PrizeA New York Times Book Review Editors'' ChoiceIn Chia-Chia Lin''s piercing debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and contractor, while the loving, strong-willed, unpredictably emotional mother holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes a week later to learn that his younger sister, Ruby, was infected too. She did not survive.Routine takes over for the grieving family, with the siblings caring for one another as they befriend the neighbouring children and explore the surrounding woods, while distance grows between the parents as each deals with the loss alone. When the father, increTrade ReviewLike the landscape it inhabits, this brilliant novel is composed of equal parts mystery, menace, and ravishment. It's difficult to think of another recent book in which emotion mounts so steadily and inexorably, nearly imperceptibly, until the last pages arrive with almost unbearable force. Chia-Chia Lin is among the best new writers I've read in years -- Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to YouThe Unpassing is a breathtaking novel, full of characters as strong and as wild as the Alaskan landscape they inhabit. Sentence after gorgeous sentence, I was pulled into their eery and beautiful world. Chia-Chia Lin is a remarkable writer -- Yaa Gyasi, author of HomegoingIn this spare, deeply felt debut novel, Lin resists received wisdom about the American Dream to craft a family saga about the difficulty of grieving far from home * Esquire *A singularly vast and captivating novel, beautifully written in free-flowing prose that quietly disarms with its intermittent moments of poetic idiosyncrasy. But what makes Lin's novel such an important book is the extent to which it probes America's myth-making about itself, which can just as easily unmake as it can uplift * New York Times Book Review *I can't stop thinking about The Unpassing. Chia-Chia Lin captures the strangeness and beauty of childhood better than any writer in recent memory, and she is a brilliant observer of physical and emotional landscapes. Readers should be excited: this debut novel, a true work of art, displays the kind of clear and uniquely-angled vision that announces the beginning of a remarkable career -- Jamel Brinkley, author of A Lucky ManLin's attention to detail is startling, and though she keeps close to Gavin's childhood experience, she also allows us to read between the lines and intuit the depth of the family's grief, financial straits and fear of belittlement from their white neighbors and colleagues. Anyone who has ever grieved - be it the loss of a person, home, country or security - will feel a sense of recognition. The Unpassing is a remarkable, unflinching debut * Washington Post *An arresting portrait of an immigrant family's pivotal moment of crisis . . . a nuanced portrayal of the American frontier . . . Lin's spare, lyric prose sets an elemental stage, a place indifferent to human suffering, cycling through life and death on a larger scale . . . The Unpassing is a powerful debut from an author to watch * San Francisco Chronicle *[A] grim, breathtakingly beautiful debut novel . . . Lin excels when she gets small, with finely observed renderings of the family's surroundings . . . The way this chilling, captivating book concludes will delight as much as it challenges, offering as it does a blend of escape, tragedy, triumph, loss and what we've expected all along * Los Angeles Times *Harrowing . . . In lyrical, intimate prose, Lin reveals the harsh realities of working class life in 1980s Alaska and the failed promises of the American dream * Wall Street Journal Magazine *Stunning . . . With powerful and poetic prose, Lin captures the uncertainty and insight of childhood . . . Lin's majestic writing immerses the reader in the bodily experiences of her characters, who writhe, paw, dig, salivate, and draw readers into their world * Booklist (starred review) *A terrifying bout of meningitis takes the life of a little girl but spares her older brother, leaving their Taiwanese-American immigrant family reeling in 1980s Alaska, navigating heartbreak and uncertainty in an unfamiliar world * TIME (Best books of 2019) *Graceful and precise * TIME *A striking debut by an unforgettable new voice * Cosmopolitan *Chia-Chia Lin's The Unpassing is a searing, open wound of a book, marvelously alive and, quite simply, remarkable. Traversing the oftentimes brutal frontier of an isolated family living in an isolated environment, I can't think of another novel as of late that relentlessly tackles headlong our deepest struggles for a sense of place, of home, and belonging. How do we push through grief? How do we find peace with not only our loved ones but ourselves? What sacrifices must we endure for friendship and connection? This is a story for our times. And a story unlike any other -- Paul Yoon, author of The MountainIt's hard to believe that The Unpassing is a debut novel, so confident and pitch-perfect is Chia-Chia Lin's portrayal of animmigrant Taiwanese family trying to settle into their new Alaskan life. Lin conjures up a compelling mystery - a young daughter's sudden fatal illness - via a cast of quirky protagonists so believable and enchanting that they dance around the page from the first chapter. Debuts often suffer from being over-written, busy with too many unnecessary adjectives, too much exposition. Lin's novel has none of these traits; whether through constant discipline or sheer talent, the graceful sentences flow, the characters grow. Delightful notions arise without a hint of enforcement or sentimentality * Big Issue *Lin is a superb chronicler of the Alaska landscape and its '19-hour nights' and 'ghost forests', where spruce 'had guzzled salt water and died. Decades later, the silvery skeletons of those trees still stood'.This stark backdrop mirrors the immigrant experience of isolation. This is powerful family saga, written in lyrical prose * Spectator *A stormy, beautiful story about loss and isolation and family that resonated deeply -- C Pam Zhang * Guardian *
£10.98
Little, Brown Book Group The Rachel Incident
Book SynopsisThe international bestseller: a hilarious, heartfelt story of all-consuming and unexpected love''I loved it'' COCO MELLORS''If you''ve ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did'' GABRIELLE ZEVIN''Funny, nostalgic, sexy'' MONICA HEISEY''Hilarious, wise and wonderfully written'' GRAHAM NORTON''Easily 13/10 . . . Funny, lovely, romantic'' MARIAN KEYES''I loved it ... had me reading with my hand over my heart'' TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER____________________________________________________________________________Everyone in Cork remembers the Rachel Incident. But what really happened? It''s simple. It''s complicated. It''s about love, sex and friendship. It''s definitely about betrayal. And, above all, it''s the story of Rachel and James, two twenty-somethings who met at a bookshop, became best friends, and spent one unforgettable year screwing up and growing up.____________________________________________________________________________Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and a TikTok Book Award - Book of the Year (UK & Ireland)''Reading it is like hearing your funniest, sexiest friend tell you the best story they know'' KATHERINE RUNDELL''Sharply witty, warm-hearted and wise'' GUARDIAN''O''Donoghue captures all the intensity of messy young love'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''A book full of love, and it is extremely easy to love reading it'' VOGUE''Chaos at its finest'' STYLISTThe Rachel Incident was a #2 bestseller in Ireland in June 2023Trade ReviewIt's funny and nostalgic and the sex scenes are actually sexy ... it's everything I want from a summer book * Monica Heisey (bestselling author of REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY), Elle Summer Reads *Funny, fond and wittily observed * Sunday Times *A book full of love, and it is extremely easy to love reading it * Vogue *Chaos at its finest * Stylist *A headlong read about being young and hopelessly in lust ... Funny, fond and wittily observed * Sunday Times, Best Summer Reads *So intimately warm and witty that reading it is like hearing your funniest, sexiest friend tell you the best story they know. It's about being a young idiot, and the glorious intensity of friendship in your early twenties * Katherine Rundell *Deeply relatable and extremely funny, and features a dinner party scene so awkward I had to put the book down and do a bit of breathing before I continued * Eva Wiseman, Observer *Sometimes the most passionate love stories are platonic. As sharply witty as it is warm-hearted and wise, this coming-of-age story about an Irish graduate and her gay best friend captures the intensity of friendship, the brittle craziness of youth and the desperation of gunning for an arts job in a recession * Guardian, Best Summer Reads *Every so often, a novel comes around that makes you excited about reading again. For me, this year that is Caroline O'Donoghue's gripping, moving The Rachel Incident, which looks like it could be branded the book of the summer ... The book is full of witty insights that get you right to the heart of the character ... O'Donoghue is a funny, smart, fearless voice who strikes the perfect balance of realism and romance, and The Rachel Incident is a stormer of a novel * Emily Bootle, i news *A deliciously complicated and very real romance with some refreshing twists. O'Donoghue captures all the intensity of messy young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit * Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday *Caroline O'Donoghue perfectly captures the intensity and high and lows of first love, and while The Rachel Incident is steeped in nostalgia and heartache, it's also very, very funny * Red Magazine *An unconventional love story filled with heart and humour ... You'll gobble up The Rachel Incident in one bite and be left hungry for more * Daily Express *The story feels slick and refined like a HBO series, but what gives it heart is O'Donoghue's raucous humour slathered on top. It's a deeply satisfying novel about friendship, love and the uncertain Ireland of 2010 * Irish Times *Caroline O'Donoghue's best work yet, a rich and nuanced read which is endlessly entertaining * Irish Independent *Will make you laugh and wince with its depiction of 20-something life * Independent - Best Romantic Summer Reads *Books by Irish women writers are hot these days, and this novel is on fire.... O'Donoghue deepens the familiar coming-of-age premise with riveting moral complications * People Magazine, Book of the Week *'O'Donoghue has a sharp eye for the tumultuous life of a young woman struggling to figure out who she is ... profoundly satisfying ... O'Donoghue has found a way to tell this story in scenes both heartbreaking and funny * Ron Charles, Washington Post *Capturing the problems and intensity of early 20-something life, with the added complications of the restrictions of Catholic Ireland, this bittersweet story is at times laugh-out-loud funny * Best Magazine *Hilarious, messy, and all the things being young and infatuated can often be, The Rachel Incidentcreates a world so vivid you feel it wrap around you ... This book won't leave you willingly, nor will you want it to * Independent *An nostalgia-drenched story about intense, 20-something love - with our friends * Grazia *The stage is set for a deliciously complicated and very real romance with some refreshing twists . . . all the intensity of messy young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit * Mail on Sunday *A compulsive, all-consuming story about love, friendship and the messiness of being young * The i, Best New Books out in June *The kind of warm-hearted and genuinely funny novel that's the perfect antidote to a bad news day * Sunday Business Post *Exuberant, bitingly satirical....Recalls the fiction of both Sally Rooney and Anne Tyler as the author interrogates the dynamics of power, from academia to publishing houses to bedrooms....O'Donoghue steers us toward reckonings large and small, her hand steady on the tiller....A gratifying, accomplished novel * New York Times *If you've ever had a literary internship that didn't really pay you; if you've ever contemplated writing a screenplay with a friend; if you've ever been unsure what to do with your degree in English; if you've ever wondered when the rug-buying part of your life will start; if you've ever avoided going home or run out of things to say to your parents; if you've ever built your life and your personality around a friend; if you've ever loved the wrong person, or the right person at the wrong time... In short, if you've ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did -- Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and TomorrowMade me realise I'd never properly understood the word 'whipsmart' till now. Hilarious, wise and wonderfully written * Graham Norton *Gorgeous, bittersweet and true * Jenny Colgan *The QFJ Index is HIGH (Queasy from Jealousy) on The Rachel Incident, easily 13/10. Funny, LOVELY, romantic, DRENCHED in nostalgia, it made me extremely happy (apart from the jealousy). I sense it'll be a BIG success * Marian Keyes *Delightful! So funny and smart * Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful *Navigates a young Irishwoman's chaotic early 20s with a cozy warmth that had me laughing out loud throughout. This is one of those catch-yourself-smiling-without-realizing-it books * NPR *Caroline O'Donoghue, where have you been all my life? The Rachel Incident is a transportive joy, a superhighway to young friendship. Big-hearted, witty and expertly crafted - I want to live inside this book -- Sloane Crosley, author of Cult ClassicStarkly funny and heartbreaking * Time Magazine *I haven't enjoyed a book as much as The Rachel Incident in a long time - so, so sharp, funny and painfully relatable. These characters defy tropes and stereotypes, they come alive on the page. I adored them * Laura Kay, author of Tell Me Everything *I really loved this book. It was gentle yet compelling and I was truly rooting for each character, even the ones I didn't like. Caroline has a talent for writing complex characters with humour and tact. The Rachel Incident kept me guessing while feeling deeply comforted the whole way through -- Emer McLysaght, author of Oh My God What a Complete AislingA book I took to my heart. . . A truly lovely read; complex in its emotional range, funny, poignant, heart-breaking, beautifully plotted, with clever, pacey dialogue, vivid characters and a shocking plot twist that left me gasping in horror -- Barbara Trapido, author of Brother of the More Famous JackI didn't know books could be this hilarious. The Rachel Incident is so warm and comforting, and the characters so real. I can't believe Rachel and James aren't people that I know -- I care about them so deeply! -- Annie Lord, author of Notes on HeartbreakI just had such a blast reading this book, honestly - it was sharp and romantic, and horribly funny, and so wise about love and youth. Glorious * Eva Wiseman *A gripping story, beautifully written, with an expertly woven plot, packed with charm and suspense that sneaks up on you and leaves you rooting for the characters and gasping for more. A masterful, mesmerising tale of the joy of obsessive and consuming friendship, the secrets that bind us, and the damage we can't help but inflict on the ones we love the most -- Justin Myers, author of The Fake-UpThe Rachel Incident worked its way under my skin and into my heart and has stayed there for months. It's such a beautifully observed, open-hearted, clever, horny, desperately funny, joy of a book. It captures, with unique eloquence, those years in our early twenties when every feeling reveals an exposed nerve, when every small event is tragedy or ecstasy, when we're trying to shape, and reshape (and reshape again), who it is we want to become. I adored it -- Kate Young, author of ExperiencedBy turns hilarious and heartfelt, breezy and bittersweet, The Rachel Incident is a full-throated, big-hearted romp through early adulthood -- Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan TrainCaroline O'Donoghue writes characters that just sort of melt from the page and into your life - they are so relatable, so likeable, so beautifully messy. Her story of twenty-somethings stumbling through life, trying to find themselves but usually finding awful rented accommodation and crappy jobs instead is instantly relatable. There is a dinner party scene so brilliantly staged and so exquisitely uncomfortable, I had to read it through my fingers, like watching some sort of horror movie. Books so rarely capture the sheer chaos, heartache, misery and euphoria of our twenties, effectively the internship stage of adulthood in so many ways, but this one does it effortlessly. A truly charming, moving, funny and sad novel * Keith Stuart, author of The Boy Made of Blocks *Has engaging central characters and relevant things to say about ghosting, student dog years, reproductive healthcare and the destructiveness of small-town gossip * Independent *Caroline O'Donoghue shines a laser beam on young adulthood, particularly the crazy intensity of those messy, beautiful friendships forged in the fires of romantic crisis. The Rachel Incident made me nostalgic for my early twenties. But even more than that, it made me wish I could go back and hug the person I was back then and tell her she'll be okay -- Lauren Fox, author of Send For MeI can't explain the sheer unadulterated glee of reading this. It's so good and absorbing and funny and honest and horny. And when I finished, I was bereft ... O'Donoghue's observant, incredibly smart writing and character work and story are just the peak of modern fiction for me right now * Lizzie Huxley-Jones, author of Make You Mine This Christmas *An absolute pleasure is the only way I can describe the sensation of losing myself in this ceaselessly charming, vulnerable, atmospheric story of human connection and self-discovery. Fans of Sally Rooney and Coco Mellors will delight in the cozy Irish vibes and glimmering voice of Caroline O'Donoghue. -- Amanda Montell, author of Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language and Cultish: The Language of FanaticismCapturing the madness and intensity of early 20-something life, with the added complications of the restrictions of Catholic Ireland, this joyful, passionate story from the author of Promising Young Women is at times spit-out-your-tea funny - and always a bittersweet delight * Bookseller, Editor's Choice *Completely engrossing, intensely intimate, full of wry wit and hard-learned insights about finding friends and holding on to love. I'm struggling to think of a single person I know who wouldn't love this book * Matthew Parker, author of One Fine Day *An amusing coming-of-age saga -- Ones to Watch * Sunday Independent *A sensational new entry in the burgeoning millennial-novel genre * Kirkus Reviews (starred) *Wry, charming and fun, O'Donoghue knocks it out of the park with her third adult novel * RTE Guide *A brilliantly entertaining, poignant novel about sex, friendship, and both losing and finding yourself * Irish Country Magazine *Sharp, wryly original ... quirky, eminently readable, funny * RTE, The best Irish books of 2023 *
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Exhibit
Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The Incendiaries, a powerful, blazing-hot novel about a woman caught between her desires and her life.
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Exhibit
Book SynopsisFrom bestselling author R. O. Kwon, a powerful, blazing-hot novel about a woman caught between her desires and her life.''Haunting and powerful'' Madeline Miller''Brisk, jolting, brilliant, beautiful, true'' Andrew Sean Greer''I tore through this'' Raven Leilani, author of Luster At a lavish party in the hills outside of San Francisco, Jin Han meets Lidija Jung and nothing will ever be the same for either woman. A brilliant young photographer, Jin is at a crossroads in her work, in her marriage to her college love Phillip, and in who she is and who she wants to be. Lidija is an alluring, injured world-class ballerina on hiatus from her ballet company under mysterious circumstances. Drawn to each other by their intense artistic drives, the two women talk all night. Cracked open, Jin finds herself telling Lidija about an old familial curse, breaking a lifelong promise. She''s been told that if she doesn''t keep the curse a secret, she risks losing everything; death and ruin could lie ahead. As Jin and Lidija become more entangled, they realize they share more than the ferocity of their ambition, and begin to explore hidden desires. Something is ignited in Jin: her art, her body, and her sense of self irrevocably changed. But can she avoid the specter of the curse? Urgent, bold, and deeply moving, this novel asks: how brightly can you burn before you light your life on fire?
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Death Goes on Skis
Book Synopsis''Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal'' Sandi ToksvigMiriam Birdseye is daring, brilliant - and a long way from The Ivy. Our dashing heroine, a famous revue artist, takes to the slopes with her coterie of admirers. Champagne flows and wherever Miriam goes she leaves a trail of gossip in her wake.Fellow ski-resort guests include the celebrated Russian ex-ballerina, Natasha Nevkorina, whose beauty is matched only by her languor, Natasha''s burly husband, nightclub owner Johnny DuVivien, and the wealthy Flahertés, a family who have made their money importing scents: handsome playboy Barney, his wife Regan, their two obnoxious children and the governess, Rosalie. Unbeknownst to Regan, Barney''s mistress, a film star, is also there with her husband.When secrets start to unravel, tensions rise, and soon amateur sleuths Miriam and Natasha have not one but two murders to solve. In the hands of Nancy Spain, for whom farce and humour are a lot more fun than a conventional detective novel, the result is a deliciously wild ride.''An either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own'' Elizabeth BowenTrade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal in leading the way -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£8.99
Little, Brown Book Group Poison for Teacher
Book SynopsisNancy Spain, a dazzling mid-century English eccentric, is back in printTrade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of the writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Cinderella Goes to the Morgue
Book SynopsisA fast-moving, Christmas crime caper from Nancy Spain. With a delightful new introduction from Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase'Trade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group R in the Month
Book SynopsisMurder most foul at an off-season English seaside resort. A fast-moving crime caper from Nancy Spain, with a delightful introduction from Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase'Trade ReviewAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth BowenHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal' -- Sandi ToksvigEver since reading R in the Month as a teenager, I've been a Nancy Spain fan. I love her juxtaposition of seedy, atmospheric settings with humour and showbiz glamour. There's still no one quite like her -- Elly Griffiths
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Black Narcissus Now a haunting BBC drama starring
Book SynopsisNOW A HAUNTING BBC DRAMA, STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON AND DIANA RIGG''A remarkable and beautiful book'' DAILY TELEGRAPH''I envy anyone reading it for the first time'' AMANDA COE''[Godden has] a genius for storytelling'' EVENING STANDARDHigh in the Himalayas, the mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General''s harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. Now it sits abandoned, windswept and haunting.The palace is bestowed to the Sisters of Mary, and what was once known as ''the House of Women'' becomes the Convent of St Faith. Close to the heavens, the nuns feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital. But as the isolation and emptiness of the mountain become increasingly unsettling, passions long repressed emerge with tragic consequences . . .Trade ReviewA remarkable and beautiful book * Daily Telegraph *A remarkable novel. One in a thousand * Observer *Like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca or Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Black Narcissus is one of those rare novels that combines huge popular appeal with emotional subtlety and literary skill -- Anne ChisholmGodden's wonderful book sets out a complex vision of the variety, necessity and danger of desire, rendered into a story that is completely pleasurable. I envy anyone reading it for the first time. -- Amanda Coe[Godden has] a genius for storytelling * Evening Standard *[A] beautiful novel * Daily Mail *All [Godden's novels] have one important thing in common: They are beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity * Los Angeles Times *
£14.24
Little, Brown Book Group The Story of the Forest
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2023''Epic and marvellously entertaining... There''s a furious energy to the novel, which constantly moves forward even as it looks sorrowfully back''FINANCIAL TIMES''Magnificent... I want to press a copy on everyone I know''NIGELLA LAWSON''Epic, magnificent, beautiful... I couldn''t put it down'' PHILIPPA PERRY''Jewel-like clarity... exceptional''RICHARD COLES''Exquisite writing [and] a triumphant, elegant ending'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''An intelligent family saga... ambitious and moving and funny'' TESSA HADLEYIt''s 1913 and a young, carefree and recklessly innocent girl, Mina, goes out into the forest on the edge of the Baltic sea and meets a gang of rowdy young men with revolution on their minds. It sounds like a fairy tale but it''s life.The adventure leads to flight, emigrTrade ReviewWhat an amazing novel.....an epic, fascinating and moving story. The sections set in Liverpool really spoke to me having grown up there, but I loved the London chapters. Vivid storytelling with complex and colourful characters. I thought it was spectacular. * David Morrissey *Epic, magnificent, beautiful. A perfect work of art and craft and such a good story... I felt I was living it. I couldn't put it down. * Philippa Perry *I'm not sure it could ever be possible to do justice to this magnificent novel in a few words: the flawless writing, wonderfully flawed characters, its epic sweep combined with a warm immediacy, indeed every page of it just bowled me over completely. I'm in awe, I'm charmed, and I want to press a copy on everyone I know. * Nigella Lawson *A major achievement... as fine as anything Linda Grant has written... maybe excelling them all * Joan Bakewell *Such an intelligent family saga, ambitious and moving and funny too... I loved it * Tessa Hadley *Epic and marvellously entertaining... Grant is a brilliant chronicler of the British-Jewish diaspora, as well as being a close observer of cities... The Story of the Forest hums with the boisterousness of family and community life... There's a furious energy to the novel, which constantly moves forward even as it looks sorrowfully back -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times *The tale is told with humour and sensitivity... Grant's own Eastern European roots in a culture with few written records and a strong tradition of storytelling informs the narrative * Independent *Like all good stories, it teems with false starts, mysterious clues and dead ends... Grant's particular gift is for the arresting scene that blends menace with comedy -- Alex Clark * Observer *Jewel-like clarity... exceptional * Reverend Richard Coles *An epic story of a young woman coming of age in the early 20th century, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous events happening in Europe at the time. It's such a joy to be in the hands of an assured, vivid storyteller like Grant * Good Housekeeping *[A] smartly compressed dynastic novel... Grant's exquisite writing shows us the Latvian immigrants who adapted to Liverpool, then London, as well as offering grainy glimpses of those who stayed in Riga, reviewing the whole saga in a triumphant, elegant ending with never a word of schmaltz -- Tom Payne * Mail on Sunday *[A] wise, sad and sometimes humorous family saga... Grant explores how families build their identity on stories and myths that mutate in the telling. It is fascinating to observe one family's changing domestic experiences and expectations in the 20th century, felt more keenly as their relatives back in the east experiences the horrors of war and dictatorship * The Times *Tracing the arc of Mina's life over the full span of the 20th century, The Story of the Forest defies expectation. It is a sprawling family epic elegantly contained... a story of Jewish assimilation from the margins of Jewish history... sharp observation tempered with humour and tenderness... the characters themselves spring from these pages, vividly, unforgettably alive -- Clare Clark * Guardian *I devoured The Story of the Forest, an engrossing family saga that spans Latvia to Liverpool and the best part of a century... a truly terrific book - with a beautiful cover -- Stephen Bush * Financial Times *Grant makes her characters talk from the heart, as does Anna Cordell's versatile and haunting narration - Audiobook of the Week * The Times *
£17.09
Little, Brown Book Group Chouette
Book Synopsis* ''A marvel'' Rumaan Alam * ''Frighteningly elegant'' iNews * ''Harrowing and magnificent'' New York Times *A FIERCE, DARK FABLE ABOUT MOTHERHOOD THAT WILL GRIP YOU IN ITS TALONS AND NEVER LET GOWhen Chouette is born, Tiny''s husband and family are devastated by her condition and strange appearance. Doctors tell them to expect the worst. Chouette won''t learn to walk; she never speaks; she lashes out when frightened and causes chaos in public. Tiny''s husband wants to make her better but Tiny thinks their child is perfect the way she is. In her fierce self-possession, her untameable will, Chouette teaches Tiny to break free of expectations - no matter what it takes.LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARDTrade ReviewClaire Oshetsky's novel is a marvel: its language a joy, its imagination dizzying. Every time I thought I had cracked Chouette's central metaphor - aha, it's about motherhood! No, marriage! No, music! - the book flew out my grasp like a wary bird. It's a truly exhilarating read. * Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind *Searing and ethereal . . . In fiction, supernatural premises are notoriously hard to land, but Chouette's final moments are among its loveliest. Human and owl meet in equal measure on the page in a crescendo of stunning lines. Just as Tiny longs for the world to meet her daughter where she is instead of forcing her into societal norms, Chouette is best met where it resides: as a harrowing and magnificent fable. -- Marie-Helene Bertino * New York Times *Frighteningly elegant, darkly funny, horrifyingly tender . . . Like all the best fables, Chouette locates a current of human darkness pulsing just below its surface. . . Oshetsky has produced a troubling triumph that is brave enough to leave its biggest questions unanswered. -- Emily Watkins * iNews *Oshetsky describes the novel as being inspired by her experience of raising "non-conforming children", and is herself autistic. Her depiction of a baby who misses its developmental milestones, doesn't speak and lashes out when frightened will be familiar to some families with experience of disability or neurodiversity. Chouette is a sublime parable of mother-love which ferociously eviscerates society's failure to accept nonconformity . . . It would not surprise me if Chouette finds a place in the feminist literary canon. It has lingered in my mind in a way that only the most original works do. -- Rhiannon Lucy Cosslet * Guardian *This wildly imagined debut presents a parable of maternal love unlike any other you'll have encountered . . . Dark wit, tenderness, music, enchantment - they're all part of a story that remains oddly relatable despite its dazzling strangeness. -- Hepzhibah Anderson * Observer *Viscous, tender, baffling, and glorious, Chouette is an unforgettable fairy tale that glitters darkly with Oshetsky's raw and soaring brilliance. Part love letter, part lament, Chouette astonishes as each perfected sentence burrows deep into the maternal shadows of love, possession, selfhood, and sanity. A bone-deep, breathtaking wonder. * Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch *Chouette is a hypnotic read that captures the strangeness and ferocity of motherhood - poetic, dark and striking. * Catherine Cho, author of Inferno *Chouette is deeply felt, linguistically gorgeous, and wonderfully disorienting up to its final breathless pages-a stunning meditation on motherhood and identity truly unlike anything I've ever read before. * Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had *An intensely strange and moving novel, Chouette is unlike anything else. It renders maternal love with mythological ferocity. Weird and darkly witty, Chouette kept drawing me deeper into its wild and dangerous territories. * Naomi Booth, author of Sealed *From the dark woods of motherhood, Chouette swoops - fierce, feral, poetic and deft. From an extraordinary beginning to its ecstatic end, I was gripped and held by this beautiful and deeply strange fable. A singular and inventive book about maternal instinct and helping the children we are gifted to find their own distinct forms of flight. * Liz Berry, poet, author of Black Country and The Republic of Motherhood *Written in perfectly balanced prose, Chouette does what the very best fantastical work does: it renders a vividly absurd picture which, as we look closer, depicts our reality more sharply than any realism could do. Exuberant, maddened, and sly, this book gives more straight-talk about the vagaries of motherhood than a dozen how-to manuals. * Brian Evenson, author of Song For the Unraveling of the World *There are many stories that address the myriad themes of motherhood, but it would be hard to find one that did it in such an utterly original way as Chouette. Drawing on her own experiences of mothering non-conforming children, Oshetsky weaves a contemporary fable so affecting, yet brimming with humour and life, that you'll probably tear through it in one sitting. * Happy Magazine, Australia *
£13.49
Little, Brown Book Group Hush
Book SynopsisA gripping, beautifully written and taboo-busting debut novel about motherhood and female identity, for readers of Anna Hope's EXPECTATION and Sheila Heti's MOTHERHOOD.Trade ReviewThis beautifully written debut explores what it really means to choose to go it alone as a single mother, as well as the unforeseen consequences of that choice... I loved everything about this emotionally intelligent, compelling, raw and original book. Fabulous * Daily Mail *An unflinching look at both work-as-identity and modern parenting * Grazia, a Hot Debut *Hush dishes out brutal honesty around motherhood and is by turns shocking and tender * Metro *Skilfully written by the fresh new voice, Kate Maxwell, this debut brilliantly explores the societal expectations put on women through the compelling Stevie, and gives us a worthy protagonist for this modern age * Harper's Bazaar *A beautifully written meditation on motherhood * The i Paper *A daring, compelling novel about motherhood * Cosmopolitan *In terms of hype, debuts don't come any hotter than Kate Maxwell's Hush, which features a new riff on motherhood in an increasingly crowded pen... Utterly compelling * Irish Independent *I devoured this book - it was so compelling * Clover Stroud *Hush is layered, rich and captures so much I can relate to. Bravo * Emma Barnett, BBC Broadcaster *A richly textured, exciting and mysterious debut novel showing the push and pull of motherhood, career identity and what it means to be a woman with multiple sides. Relatable and entertaining. I was absolutely glued to it * Emma Gannon, author of OLIVE *A vivid, compelling story about the unspoken truths of motherhood, family and feminine ideals. Tender, unflinching and beautifully evoked * Francesca Hornak, author of Seven Days of Us *An engaging parable about the ambiguity of modern motherhood, told with warmth and wit * Leah Hazard, bestselling author of Hard Pushed *Maxwell explores uncomfortable but important truths about motherhood brilliantly in her story of a mother falling apart, and piecing herself back together * Julia Bueno, author of THE BRINK OF BEING *Hush is a beautifully-written meditation on motherhood, identity and belonging - at once tender and resilient, incisive and heart-breaking. In this assured debut, Kate Maxwell captures how love grows and morphs and, ultimately, endures * Charlotte Philby, author of Edith and Kim *Kate Maxwell's debut novel explores the complexities and emotional roller-coaster of single motherhood... Well-researched and compelling * The Lady *Hush will break and remake your heart in one sitting. A wry and tender story that considers the potential for all strands of female life - friends, family, career - to become the loves of your life. This poignant tale of the blur of new motherhood will make you check in on your children if you have them - and on the woman you were before they arrived. I loved it * Harriet Walker, author of The New Girl *I ADORED Hush. I have never read anything that so accurately voiced the struggles I experienced as a new mother. It felt totally real to me and I was hooked from start to finish. I also loved all the other relationships that were so nuanced and heartfelt. I finished the book with that wonderful ache you get after reading a book that has moved you and uplifted you in equal measure * Libby Page, bestselling author of The Island Home *With sharp, perceptive, and tender prose that is at times scathing, Maxwell pushes the boundaries of what society tells us is acceptable, and perhaps what the reader feels she can forgive, then brings us back again to not only empathize with but root for her protagonist. Maxwell shows a type of motherly love seldom written about, one that's not instantaneous, but grows slowly, with difficulty, and is no less beautiful as it blossoms into something so incredible it takes your breath away * Charlene Carr, author of Hold My Girl (2023) *Longing to have a child, Stevie changes her Manhattan career-oriented life for single parenthood in her native England in Maxwell's powerful, nuanced meditation on the struggles experienced by new mothers * Waterstones *Beautifully written, with a nuanced understanding of what it means to lose sight of who you are, for whatever reason, and what it means to get yourself back or burn it all down and start again * Sophia Blackwell *
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Palmares
Book SynopsisA 2022 PULITZER PRIZE FINALISTLONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE''A once-in-a-lifetime work of literature, the kind that changes your understanding of the world'' Yara Rodriguez Fowler, Guardian ''Astonishingly rich in character and incident, filled with magic and mystery'' Sunday Times ''Intricate, mesmerizing and endlessly inventive and subversive'' Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies''A story woven with extraordinary complexity, depth and skill'', Robert Jones, Jr, author of The ProphetsAN EPIC TALE OF LOVE AND LIBERATION SET IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL BRAZILFrom plantation to plantation, Almeyda, a young slave girl, hears whispers, rumours of Palmares, a hidden settlement where fugitive slaves live free. But can this promised land exist? And what price is paid for ''freedom''?In Palmares, Gayl Jones brings to life a worTrade ReviewPalmares reinvents 17th-century Black Brazil in all its multiplicity, beauty, humanity and chaos. It is a once-in-a-lifetime work of literature, the kind that changes your understanding of the world -- Yara Rodrigues Fowler * Guardian *Palmares enfolds the reader in a bygone world, with a glance to our own, and has a great whispering lushness that is both magical and panoramic -- Diana Evans, author of ORDINARY PEOPLEA literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers -- Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGETremendous. A masterfully absorbing, mythic work from a vital voice. The gods have conspired to gift us a new book from Gayl Jones and my what a gloriously eddying read -- Irenosen Okojie, author of NUDIBRANCHJones reemerges after a 21-year hiatus with an epic and inventive saga that weaves together magic, mythology, and Portuguese colonial history . . . Jones brings her established incisiveness and linguistic flair to the horrifyingly accurate portrayal of racial struggle . . . it's a triumphant return * Publisher's Weekly *Gayl Jones conjures with deep intimacy and immediacy a brutal world that is centuries past but fully alive with spirit and mystery. Page after breathtaking page, her prose is intricate, mesmerizing, and endlessly inventive and subversive. Palmares is absolutely stunning! -- Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIESPalmares, Jones' long-awaited fifth novel, is a blistering return to form worth the two decade wait ... Gorgeously suffused with mystery, history, and magic, Palmares is a remarkable new outing from a major voice in American letters -- Adrienne Westenfeld * Esquire *Palmares is an odyssey, one woman's search first for a place, and then for a person . . . a story woven with extraordinary complexity, depth and skill; in many ways: holy . . . [it] is the first of five new works by Gayl Jones to come in the next two years. After suffering the author's absence for far too long, we - the witnesses longing for texts like hers, the borderline sacred - can rejoice at her return -- Robert Jones Jr. * New York Times *I can't tell you the last time I picked up a book and was struck dumb by the sheer beauty of its prose, and the enormity of what I don't know, but I'm here to tell you Palmares is that book -- Sam Baker * Noon Magazine *A legendary African American novelist returns with her first novel in 22 years, an epic adventure of enchantment, enslavement, and the pursuit of knowledge in 17th-century Brazil . . . Those familiar with Corregidora (1975) and Eva's Man (1976) will not be surprised by the sustained intensity of both imagery and tone. There is also sheer wonder, insightful compassion, and droll wit to be found among the book's riches. Jones seems to have come through a life as tumultuous as her heroine's with her storytelling gifts not only intact, but enhanced and enriching * Kirkus *Gayl Jones's work represents a watershed in American literature. From a literary standpoint, her form is impeccable; from a historical standpoint, she stands at the very cutting edge of understanding the modern world, and as a Black woman writer, her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humor, and incisiveness, is unmatched. Jones is a writer's writer, and her influence is found everywhere -- Imani PerryJones's feats of linguistic and historical invention are on ample display . . . Gayl Jones's new work is as relevant as ever. With monumental sweep, it blends psychological acuity and linguistic invention in a way that only a handful of writers in the transatlantic tradition have matched. She has boldly set out to convey racial struggle in its deep-seated and disorienting complexity - Jones sees the whole where most only see pieces -- Calvin Baker * Atlantic *Palmares marries magic realism to an often brutal coming-of-age tale . . . but intimate and dreamily intense in the telling -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail *Palmares conjures up an epic quest for freedom and knowledge in 17th-century Brazil. The book's narrator is a young slave named Almeyda, who hears talk of Palmares, a place of refuge for the enslaved. Escaping there herself, she discovers love with a fellow fugitive, but the community is destroyed by war and her lover disappears. Almeyda sets out in search of him and of a new Palmares. Astonishingly rich in character and incident, filled with magic and mystery . . . always intriguing -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *A sprawling, ambitious tale of racial struggle, Portuguese colonial rule, magical realism and mythology, full of imaginative plotlines and language as pungent and varied as the food in the book: everything from rolls with jelly mango and coconut, to onion soup made with wild honey . . . [Palmares is] a sublime feat of imagination -- Martin Chilton * Independent *An intricate, imaginative story of love and brutality . . . After a two-decade absence, Jones is back with a formidable novel steeped in history, magical realism, trauma and triumph -- Kadish Morris * Observer *Complex and beguiling . . . Palmares is suffused with a strange magic that no other writer possesses' -- Michael LaPointe * Times Literary Supplement *Gayl Jones, recognized since the 1970s as one of America's most important black writers, is breaking new literary ground and performing a laudable act of historical redemption . . . A work of great imagination and remarkable depth and richness -- Larry Rohter * New York Review of Books *Daring, multifaceted . . . I love the novel for its scope, its singular vision, its playfulness with form as well as the complexity of its female characters. It marks the return of a lesser-known literary giant. Discovered by Toni Morrison no less, Jones withdrew from the publishing world after a few acclaimed novels. I'm thrilled she's returned with this bold, imaginative feat. -- Irenosen Okojie * Guardian *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Love Marriage
Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICKAS HEARD ON RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME, READ BY MEERA SYAL A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, DAILY MAIL, RED MAGAZINE, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING''Absolutely terrific'' JENNY COLGAN''An utterly unputdownable exploration of modern love'' STYLIST''Gloriously readable, acute, funny and sympathetic'' DAILY MAIL------------------------------------------------------------TWO CULTURES. TWO FAMILIES. TWO PEOPLE. Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine, and a charming, handsome fiancée, fellow doctor Joe Sangster. But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin''s parents get to know Joe''s firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals.As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she''s also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a ''love marriage'' actually means.''A glorious tapestry of modern British family life'' METRO''A joy'' NAOISE DOLAN''I defy you to put this book down'' ADAM KAY''A surefire hit'' OBSERVER''Wildly entertaining ... a bold and generous book'' FINANCIAL TIMES''Big-hearted, wry and tender'' HARPER''S BAZAAR''As engrossing and enjoyable as Brick Lane'' SUNDAY TIMES''Rich, sensitive and gloriously entertaining'' TASH AW, TLSTrade ReviewAbsolutely terrific . . . genuinely touching . . . every one of its many characters, no matter how small their part, is beautifully rounded out -- Jenny Colgan * Spectator *Gloriously readable, acute, funny and sympathetic * Daily Mail *Compelling, witty and warm-hearted * Sunday Express *Ali provides an acute examination of race, class and identity in British society . . . A glorious tapestry of modern British family life * Metro *Wise, warm and utterly compelling * Red *Worth the decade it took to arrive . . . This is a proper family saga, both deliciously old-fashioned and full of surprising reversals -- Alex Preston * Observer *Every bit as compelling as her debut Brick Lane . . . Ali perfectly captures the delicate push-pull with families in this warm and intelligent family drama * Good Housekeeping *A topically freighted tale of premarital tension told with easy-reading propulsion, Love Marriage has the air of a surefire hit * Observer *Love Marriage is enormously satisfying in its inventions and observations, and its exploration of cultural diversity in Britain. At once touching and satirical . . . as engrossing and enjoyable as Brick Lane -- David Sexton * Sunday Times *Nuance is one of Ali's greatest skills; she can lay out a character's flaws, self-delusions and inconsistencies and then make you love them anyway * The Times *Monica Ali's rich, sensitive and gloriously entertaining novel . . . brim[s] with extremely funny moments of excruciating social comedy . . . For all its precise comic timing and consummate plotting, the novel's real strength lies in its depiction of complex social encounters, leaving the reader to decide which side, if any, to take . . . [A] love letter to the richness of London life -- Tash Aw * Times Literary Supplement *Wildly entertaining . . . Filled with people who are not just likeable, but loveable. This contract of sympathy, which flows between reader and characters, deepens and enriches the portrait of contemporary London that Ali creates with a confident Dickensian sweep -- Susie Boyt * Financial Times *Big-hearted, wry and tender . . . a state-of-the-nation novel in the very best sense . . . a terrific story delivered with a light touch: with dialogue that can turn a situation on a sixpence and exquisite descriptions . . . There are some extremely moving moments, and splendid cinematic scenes of high comedy * Harper’s Bazaar *The beating heart of this novel is the author's uncompromising scrutiny of the messy, heart-breaking, head-wrecking, brutal beauty of family dynamics . . . Heroes and anti-heroes fuse to create multidimensional characters who each evoke huge sympathy * Irish Times *There are riches here. All the components of modern identity are laid out: race, class, gender, faith, sexuality . . . engaging, entertaining and relevant * Guardian *Poignant and precise . . . a tribute to freedom and self-exploration, Ali's novel is, above all, a story about love - the bonds that it brings, and the shackles * New Statesman *A warm and welcoming book, styled in witty, graceful prose . . . a novel of immense brightness * Big Issue *Compulsive, tightly plotted . . . Love Marriage reveals a master storyteller playing to her strengths: a satirical eye that deftly navigates the fine line between humour and pathos; a wicked ear for dialogue; and a flair for conjuring illicit passion * Prospect *This is such a gloriously vibrant and tender novel packed with wit, intelligence and wisdom. It has everything - clashing cultures, family rifts, suppressed addictions, desire, passion. Her two junior doctor protagonists are superbly drawn - flawed, courageous, flailing, human. Just brilliant -- Rachel ClarkeI absolutely loved it. It had me gripped and I was so invested in her brilliant characters with their fallibilities and secrets! I empathised with every one of them and really felt I knew them all as individuals. I loved how she so cleverly interwove their experiences to create such a fabulous story. She writes human frailty so well, and her astute observations on family dynamics are superb. Exquisitely written with big heartedness, intelligence and passion. This will be a hit I have no doubt -- Ruth Jones, author of NEVER GREENERFunny, warm, powerful . . . Love Marriage has a warm intelligence and a sharp observational power, making the characters and the world of the story feel very alive -- Diana EvansA novel with the richness, and the throng and press and hum of life itself, Love Marriage is bold, compassionate, big-hearted, pitch-perfectly written, and utterly unputdownable. Every single character lives and breathes on the page. Make time for all of them for they are going to take up residence in your mind and soul for a long, long time -- Neel Mukherjee, Booker Prize shortlisted author of THE LIVES OF OTHERSA truly astonishing piece of writing - exquisite storytelling, featuring the most human portrayal of doctors I've ever read. I defy you to put this book down -- Adam KayA joy: drolly observant and expertly paced, with a voice that's shrewd yet compassionate. A masterclass in crafting characters who are all, in their own heads, the hero * Naoise Dolan *I have loved every one of Monica Ali's books and Love Marriage is her best. A huge, bounteous story, it is lit from end to end with human variety and storytelling brilliance. Ali writes like an angel who is not afraid of the devil. It will be a novel of the year and confirms Monica Ali as a national treasure -- Andrew O'HaganNo one captures the modern family like Monica Ali - Love Marriage is a masterful cacophony of characters, all drawn with deep empathy and sharp insight. The novel is full of surprises and unexpected twists, with an ending that will take your breath away -- Tahmima AnamExuberant, entertaining . . . at the book's close is an impressive example of a revelation that makes sense of what has gone before rather than invalidating the reader's experience * Oldie *I absolutely loved Love Marriage. It's a story about love and family, about despair and forgiveness, about trauma and recovery, about expectation and responsibility, about friendship and community. Mostly, it's about having the courage to lose yourself, in order to find yourself again. It's big-hearted and tender and it's a novel that cares about its characters so deeply that you will too -- Hannah BeckermanI loved Love Marriage, and looked forward to reading it every night. Funny, compassionate, sexy, romantic, beautifully plotted and richly peopled, it is both highly original and working within a literary tradition of novels about love and marriage. Above all it is about the way that individuals are a mystery to each other, and themselves, wounding and misunderstanding each other, yet also about how, with patience and kindness, we can change for the better -- Amanda CraigThrough the construct of a marriage, Monica Ali imagines complex modern lives tip-toeing around and defying each other's sensitivities in a warm, affectionate and hilarious novel. Love Marriage is every bit as compelling, as charming as Brick Lane. A joyous novelist at the peak of her formidable powers writing fresh lives into our literary tradition -- Daljit Nagra, author of LOOK WE HAVE COMING TO DOVER!I tore through Love Marriage. An engrossing read . . . Such a brilliant portrayal of how we can't help but be mortified by the ones we love, no matter how much we hate ourselves for it. Even in the characters' darkest and most desperate moments there is warmth - they're not perfect but you root for them all the same. I enjoyed my time peeking into their lives - and was happy to see everybody exactly where they should be (for better or worse) when it came time to leave them -- Justin MyersA brilliant exploration of the complexities of human connection ... wonderfully rich and nuanced ... packed with compelling characters and thrilling plot twists * i paper *The Brick Lane author returns to form with Love Marriage . . . There is lots of drama here, ranging from sex addiction to rampant Islamophobia, but there are also laugh-out-loud funny moments, as when Mrs Ghorami mistakes a Howard Hodgkin painting on the wall of Harriet's airy Primrose Hill mansion for a sentimental childhood artwork. The BBC is already making it into a series, and it's easy to see why -- Hayley Maitland * Vogue *Quick-footed and absorbing . . . The playful clash of cultures evolves into a subtle exploration of the ways in which both immigrant and non-immigrant families have shaped their children * New Yorker *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group What A Mothers Love Dont Teach You
Book Synopsis''An outstanding debut'' CHERIE JONES, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House''Vivid and authentic'' LEONE ROSS, author of This One Sky Day''Cacophonic, alive and heartbreaking'' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of The Mercies''A gripping page-turner'' CAMILLE HERNÁNDEZ-RAMDWAR, author of Suite as Sugar and Other StoriesAs featured on BBC''s Cultural Frontline podcast At eighteen years old, Dinah gave away her baby son to the rich couple she worked for before they left Jamaica. They never returned. She never forgot him.Eighteen years later, a young man comes from the US to Kingston. From the moment she sees him, Dinah never doubts - this is her son.What happens next will make everyone question what they know and where they belong.A powerful story of belonging, identity and inheritance, What a Mother''s Love Don''t Teach You bTrade ReviewA cacophonic, alive, heart-breaking story of a particular place and time, made universal by its truths and wisdom about love. * Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies *Pulses with the colour and cadence of Jamaican culture in a multi-layered story told with empathy and intelligence. It is both an elegy of great elegance and a testament to the resilience and optimism of Jamaican people. Sharma's skilled storytelling drew me into the heads and hearts of the residents of Jacks Hill and Lazarus Gardens and did not let me go. I'll never forget this cast of characters or the voice of this accomplished writer - an outstanding debut. * Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House *Imagine yourself on your front porch with your neighbour, in the cool of the afternoon when all your housework is done; get yourself a little coconut water and allow Sharma Taylor to tell you about all the goings-on of this neighbourhood of Kingston. Girl, if you see drama! Drama, girl! ! And this being the Caribbean, nobody's going to walk on by when they hear a good story being told, and before you know it, you have the whole cast of characters on the porch with you, everyone clamouring to tell their side of the story - the Jamaican dialogue in this novel is a particular strength. As one of the characters proclaims, about a particularly good spliff: "Is de real stuff, dis, my yute!" Rich and exuberant. * Claire Adam, author of the Desmond Elliot Prize-winning Golden Child *Truth-telling! Taylor's debut is tender, violent and uncompromising in turns. A vivid and authentic Jamaica that tells a tale too often hidden, for fantasies of sun, sea and sand. * Leone Ross, author of This One Sky Day *An arresting first novel. As if to nod to the Jamaican national motto "Out of Many One People," Taylor's novel gives voice to multiple perspectives on how class, race and gender are lived in this "exotic" Caribbean island and at what cost to human relationships. * Lisa Allen-Agostini, author of the Woman's Prize longlisted The Bread the Devil Knead *A sharp polyphonous story in which Taylor skillfully moves the reader through a world pulsing with pain, love, power, violence and tenderness. We are reminded of that tension between where we come from and what we gravitate towards, what steers us and why. An exciting read. * Yewande Omotoso, author of The Woman Next Door *Takes us on a wonderful multifaceted journey through the lives, loves, pleasures and atrocities of the folks of Lazarus Gardens and Jacks Hill. There is an impressive choral quality to What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You, with voices that shift with remarkable ease and seamlessness, between lyricism, humour and rawness. A very impressive achievement. * Jacob Ross, author of The Bone Readers *Warm, wise, unflinching. Taylor's skill with character and voice shines in this immersive story of living and loving under the shadow of betrayal. * Karen Lord, author of Redemption in Indigo *An astonishing book. In riveting, irresistible prose, Sharma Taylor's genre-crossing novel (a love story, a crime story, a yard fiction) tells a tale of Jamaica and America, of class, colour, race, history and the dignity of the dispossessed. The authenticity of its detail produces a searing truth that convicts us. The largeness of its vision challenges our ideas of what it means to be human. * Curdella Forbes, author of A Tall History of Sugar *Sharma Taylor's accomplished debut novel transports the reader from the rarefied air of Kingston's Jacks Hill to the gritty reality of inner city Lazarus Gardens. Told by an unforgettable cast of characters, each speaking searing truths of their own Jamaica, these compelling voices will linger long after the last page. What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You is a fine achievement. * Diana McCaulay, author of Daylight Come *In the opening chapter of What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You, Dinah describes her home, the tenement yard at Lazarus Gardens, as a place where, "is like everyday, the water have to decide if to come inside." In essence, the novel is about just that: choices. Written in alternating voices - sometimes Jamaican patois, sometimes Standard English - Sharma Taylor reveals how and why the choices of the denizens of Lazarus Gardens necessarily differ from the choices of Jamaica's uptown folk. Taylor's great accomplishment is how she captures the darkness of the ghetto while never dimming the vivacity, determination and exuberance displayed by its people. This is a thrilling read. * Celeste Mohammed, author of Pleasantview *This forceful novel offers a collision of pasts and present, mothers and sons and lovers, offered up in language that eloquently highlights our divisions and the (rare) possibilities of true connection. This is a character-led novel where pace is as important as tone and place comes singing off the page. Somehow Taylor has managed to create a work that is polyphony and cacophony and gloriously, simultaneously, symphony. * Stella Duffy, author of Lullaby Beach *Taylor portrays a complex web of Jamaican characters in settings ranging from tenement yards to mansions with an authenticity that radiates throughout the novel. Set in an important time in the island's history, it's a colourful portrayal of a young man searching for his soul, the two mothers desperate to claim him, and the ultimate sacrifice one has to make. A wonderful debut novel. * Gillian Royes. author of the Shad series *Sharma Taylor's live-wire debut is a crackling, earthy and colourful social realist polyphony that brings to life the bullet-strewn Jamaica of the 1980s. * Rob Doyle, author of Threshold *Sharma Taylor writes in extra high definition: colour, language, landscape and atmosphere. But it is her laser-like, yet careful study of the inner thoughts and emotions of her characters that fascinates. An astonishing first novel. * Esther Phillips, Poet Laureate of Barbados *Sharma Taylor's What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You explores essential aspects of Jamaica's Social Psychological Environment which Marlon James's A Brief History of Seven Killings leaves unpainted. In short, these two works could usefully be read together. May Sharma's work meet the kind of success that Marlon's work has. * Erna Brodber, author of Nothing's Mat *Voices are strong, resilient and compelling, right from the start, with sharp, vivid imagery. An ambitious novel about the Caribbean in the eighties, but also well before then and even now. What kind of Jamaica have we made, what may we yet inherit? * Robert Edison Sandiford, author of And Sometimes They Fly *This novel, a page-turner in every way, is skilfully plotted and brilliantly written. Taylor's unforgettable characters, vivid portrayal of human ruthlessness counterpoised with communal solidarity and generosity, and deft use of the Jamaican vernacular are some of the many striking features of this superb novel. * Nigel Thomas, author of Spirits in the Dark *Echoes the dilemma of having to give up home and family to find hope elsewhere. Precious things wagered in pursuit of better might never be regained. Taylor's intimate portrayals of this dissonance is communicated through authentic voices full of universal truth, love and forgiveness. * Roland Watson-Grant, author of Sketcher *A beautifully crafted debut, rich with rhythmic, lyrical patois and surprising revelations * Jacqueline Crooks *I was knocked out by this novel. It's a fantastic, enthralling story of clashing cultures: very funny and then utterly heartbreaking. The vibrant and terrifying world of Kingston in the eighties is totally gripping and the dialogue is so alive that I find it hard to believe it's a first novel * Mick Kitson, author of Sal *Sharma Taylor's debut novel What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You is a brilliant examination of lives in Jamaica. Taylor writes powerfully about those lives, trapped in often distressing social circumstances, with wit and a searingly analytical eye. Always, though, her empathy with the characters comes through, so the reader is ensnared by her artistry and is willing to seek to understand each character, no matter how superficially evil. The true power of the work comes from its thorough grounding in the Jamaican experience, the cascade of similes that enlighten and the descriptions of the physical landscapes. All of these combine to create an impression on the reader that is not only visual but profoundly emotional. An extraordinary first novel * Ronald A. Williams, author of A Death in Panama *Jamaican literature has a future. Her name is Sharma Taylor. * Kei Miller, author of THE CARTOGRAPHER TRIES TO MAP A WAY TO ZION *What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You is both heartbreaking and illuminating . . . Sharma's voice is vital and necessary * Shivanee Ramlochan, award-winning editor and poet, author of Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (shortlisted in 2018 for the Forward Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection) *As Sharma Taylor's debut proves with fevered intensity, some threads remain unbreakable despite the cruel vicissitudes of fate. Guiding her novel with a tension-laced economy, Taylor offers a prismatic cast of figures swirling around Dinah and her estranged son. In the voices of gang leaders and snake-tongued statesmen, redoubtable matriarchs and kiss-teeth gossips, the multiple worlds of 1980s Jamaica soar to life, vividly and dramatically realised. What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You joins a formidable contemporary canon that refuses to portray the Caribbean as idyllic pastiche. It's a tender triumph * Caribbean Beat *
£17.09
Little, Brown Book Group Daddy Was A Number Runner Virago Modern Classics
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewLouise Meriwether has told everyone who can read or feel what it means to be a black man or woman in this country . . . A considerable achievement -- James BaldwinBeautiful, timeless and relevant -- Jacqueline WoodsonA remarkable heroine. Tough, resourceful, darting around Harlem with the number slips for her father tucked in her middy-blouse pocket, she is, at the same time, vulnerable, innocent, a dreamer . . . The novel's greatest achievement lies in the strong sense of black life that it conveys: the vitality and force behind the despair. It celebrates the positive values of the black experience: the tenderness and love that often underlie the abrasive surface of relationships . . . the humour that has long been an important part of the black survival kit, and the heroism of ordinary folk . . . A most important novel -- Paule Marshall * New York Times Book Review *A tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood and survival * Publishers Weekly *Meriwether's writing is beautiful, layered, and gutting * Paris Review *
£11.69
Little, Brown Book Group My Turn to Make the Tea
Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS''I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She''s beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny'' NINA STIBBE ''Wherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerring'' OBSERVER ''Monica''s naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with'' LISSA EVANS Poppy, newly recruited cub reporter at the Downingham Post, is determined to prove to the editor that he''s wrong in his belief that ''Women are a nuisance in the office''. He certainly doesn''t think she''s a nuisance when it''s time for the tea round - a job which never fails to fall to the only female reporter.What Poppy lacks in experience, she makes up for in spirit and ambition. She''ll make the Downingham Post the best regional newspaper there is - even if she occasionally gets the names wrong in court hearings. Life for a single professional womaTrade ReviewWherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerring * Observer *I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny -- Nina StibbeOne of the most affectionate and humorous observers of the English scene, particularly of the pretensions of genteel suburban life, that we have. Not only this, but she can always tell a good story -- John BetjemanMonica Dickens is an author who needs to be rediscovered in a modern age -- Jacqui Howchin * Hunts Post *Monica's naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with, and as a narrator she always tells us what we're longing to know - it's like listening to a friend's anecdote, and egging them on -- Lissa Evans
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group A Glass Of Blessings
Book SynopsisBY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CLARE CHAMBERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' JILLY COOPER'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILIP LARKINWilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good-looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her staid husband Rodney, a civil servant, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her conventional life takes a turn when she meets the handsome brother of a close friend. Attractive, cultured and attentive, Piers Longridge is a delectable mystery Wilmet is determined to solve.Trade ReviewBarbara Pym is the rarest of treasures -- Anne TylerI'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen . . . The subtlest of her books - the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art -- Philip LarkinI'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym -- Richard Osman[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that? -- Mavis CheekThere is a thrill of humanity through all her work -- Shirley HazzardMy favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend who comforts me, extends my vision and makes me roar with laughter -- Jilly CooperA modern Jane Austen -- Alexander McCall SmithAnother instalment in America's exposure to the Pyro revival, which began in England in 1976 and happily arrived here in 1978 . . . Essential reading for Pym's growing readership on this side of the Atlantic * Kirkus Reviews *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Civil To Strangers
Book SynopsisThis volume includes an early novel and three novellas, which were discovered and published after Barbara Pym's death in 1980.Trade ReviewI'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym -- Richard OsmanI'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen -- Philip LarkinA sublime social comedy . . . It exists inside the Pym Eden of safety, silliness and a kind of subdued hilarity. Look out for one of her best curates - the starchy, spinster-dodging Mr Paladin - and a typically deliciously insensitive vicar -- KATE SAUNDERS * THE TIMES *Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English * TIME *Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life -- ANNE TYLER
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Mama Day
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group An Academic Question
Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY KATE SAUNDERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy' JILLY COOPER'Beneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip' NEW YORK TIMESIn a provincial university town, Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers to read to a blind, esteemed anthropologist in a nursing home, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers - research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague. A delightful comedy of manners with a touch of mystery, An Academic Question is prime Barbara Pym territory.Trade ReviewBeneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip * New York Times *My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy -- Jilly CooperShe is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life -- ANNE TYLERI am a huge fan of Barbara Pym -- RICHARD OSMANA splendid humorous writer -- John BetjemanA modern Jane Austen -- Alexander McCall SmithThere is a thrill of humanity through all her work -- Shirley Hazzard
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Wayward
Book SynopsisA 'furious and addictive new novel' (The New York Times) about one woman's midlife reckoning as she flees suburbia.
£13.49
Little, Brown Book Group Wayward
Book Synopsis''Furious and addictive'' New York Times ''Urgent, deeply moving, wholly original'' GEORGE SAUNDERS''A dazzling lightning bolt of a novel'' JENNY OFFILL''Fiercely funny and deliciously subversive'' YIYUN LI''Wayward reads like a burning fever dream. A virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad'' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW''***** If there''s any justice in the world, Spiotta''s firecracker of a novel, Wayward, will bring her the attention she very much deserves'' Lucy Scholes, SUNDAY TELEGRAPHSamantha Raymond''s life has begun to come apart: her mother is ill, her teenage daughter is increasingly remote, and she finds herself staring into ''the Mids'' - hours of supreme wakefulness when women of a certain age contemplate their lives. For Sam, this means motherhood, mortality and the state of an unravelling nTrade ReviewAn urgent, deeply moving, wholly original novel by one of the most wildly talented writers in America. This is Spiotta's best book yet, rich with all the joyful immersion-in-culture that characterized her earlier work, and of which she is a master, but with, it seems to me, more heart, hope, and urgency. There's not a smarter, more engaging, more celebratory writer working today than Dana Spiotta, and here she shows us to ourselves with stunning, sometimes lacerating, honesty, but also with a feeling of genuine hope for us, i.e., with kindness. I finished the book last night and woke this morning both fonder of, and more terrified for, America -- George SaundersA dazzling lightning bolt of a novel which illuminates the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes heartbreaking moments of connection and disconnection in our lives. What begins as a vertiginous leap into hilarious rabbit holes ends as a brilliant meditation on mortality and time. How does she do it? Only Dana Spiotta knows. I'm just happy to see her work her magic -- Jenny OffillWhat a thrilling experience to take a wayward journey along with Dana Spiotta's heroine, in the social landscape of America when America is probing its future, in a woman's complex internal landscape as she forges forward. Wayward is a fiercely funny and deliciously subversive novel -- Yiyun LiThrilling . . . Spiotta's novels are unfailingly dense with life-the textures, digressions, and details thereof-and Wayward is no exception. The novel is at once satirical and earnest: Sam asks what she can do to atone for her thoughtless privilege, what role she might play as an agent of change. There's much comedy in the asking, but the novel makes clear that the answers aren't straightforward. Spiotta offers grand themes and beautiful peripheral incidents . . . she writes with sly humor and utter seriousness; a rare articulation of midlife now. For this reader, there is uncommon pleasure in the paradoxes of this climacteric tale -- Claire Messud * Harper's Magazine *Dana Spiotta's novel Wayward is razor-sharp on any number of things, above all the insoluble ravages of time -- Joshua Ferris * Observer *Furious and addictive . . . Sam [is] an ideal guide, rash, funny, searching, entirely unpredictable, appalled at her own entitlement and ineffectuality-drawn with a kind of skeptical fondness . . . So much contemporary fiction swims about in its own theories; what a pleasure to encounter not just ideas about the thing, but the thing itself-descriptions that irradiate the pleasure centers of the brain, a protagonist so densely, exuberantly imagined, she feels like a visitation -- Parul Sehgal * New York Times *Exhilarating. . . Wayward reads like a burning fever dream. A virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad * New York Times Book Review *A comic, vital new novel . . . if Wayward has competition in the category of best American novel devoted to the subject of perimenopause, I am not aware of it . . . [Spiotta] is satirizing her own demographic, and with verve . . When a wife, not her husband, is the one to indulge a midlife crisis and abandon her family, her behavior is either derided as selfish or championed as subversive. A good novel shouldn't ask us to choose between those readings, and Spiotta has written a very good novel. -- Alexandra Schwartz * The New Yorker *Wayward is a strikingly human and affecting story... gloriously cool, deftly assembled, brimming with mood... a hymn to iconoclasm, a piercing novel about what we lose and gain by when we step out of life's deepest worn grooves -- Vogue's 'Best Books to Read in 2021'Wayward is about rescuing your life from the mess you've made of it so far, while your body goes haywire ... Simmering under Spiotta's deceptively breezy, fluid description of everyday life in 2017 Syracuse are large and perplexing questions about the eternal interplay of idealism and pragmatism, of the longing for a better world and the reality of human frailty. . . Sam dissects many flavors of contemporary delusion and distraction with consummate precision -- Laura Miller * Slate *Breathtaking... a strikingly intelligent book, sometimes funny, sometimes painful . . . a book that masterfully explores the pressures of being a woman in a hostile society. The characters are stubbornly defiant, and Spiotta does a wonderful job depicting [Sam and her daughter Ally] in their twin rebellions. A brilliant novel with love - never a simple subject - at its core -- Michael Schaub * Minneapolis Star Tribune *Riddled with insights into aging, womanhood, and discontent, Wayward is as elegant as it is raw, and almost as funny as it is sad * Philadelphia Inquirer *Set in upstate New York, this smartly observed tale of inter-generational strife follows Sam . . . We join the action when, angry at Donald Trump's election, she walks out on her marriage, to the ire of her teenage daughter, Ally. Spiotta tells the story from both their perspectives in a ruefully funny portrait of the difficulties of navigating womanhood -- Anthony Cummins * Mail on Sunday *If there's any justice in the world, Spiotta's firecracker of a novel, Wayward, will bring her the attention she very much deserves . . . this is the story of one woman's mid-life reckoning. [Wayward is] about mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, sex, love and freedom . . . Spiotta is a crisp and alert stylist -- Lucy Scholes * Sunday Telegraph *A slyly funny, clever and compelling story about the righteous (and rarely irrational) rage of women of a certain age -- Sarra Manning * Red magazine *A smart look at midlife, the menopause and mother-daughter dynamics * Good Housekeeping *A magnificent book, constantly surprising, fierce, sympathetic and original -- Susie Boyt
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group The Queens Of Sarmiento Park
Book SynopsisThe Argentine literary sensation that has taken the Spanish-speaking world by storm: a dark, surreal and beautiful novel about violence, exclusion and love''It''s a fragment of the future'' Edouard Louis''Ferocious and magical'' Torrey Peters, Guardian''It will break your heart'' Mariana EnriquezAuntie Encarna''s is the queerest boarding house in the world.For Camila, it is a refuge, and the travesti who gather there are like family. At night they head out to Sarmiento Park to earn money. They stand together in the cold, sharing stories and a hip flask of whiskey, waiting for a car to slow down.Until, one freezing evening, Auntie Encarna hears crying in the bushes and wades in to investigate. When she finds an abandoned baby boy, she will hear no arguments: she is bringing him home to care for him. Life for Camila and the others will never be the same again.With a cast of lTrade ReviewThe most important book I've read on sexuality since Jean Genet. It's about friendship, desire, violence. It defies all the current frames of politics and literature, it's a fragment of the future * Édouard Louis *A beautiful yet tragic story about sex work, gender identity and chosen family * Diva *In beautifully rendered language, this debut novel from Argentine actor and writer Sosa Villada challenges contemporary ideas of gender, sexuality and love with the magical touch of a fairy tale. * Wall Street Journal *A beautifully written and expertly translated work of autofiction ... Sosa Villada's tales of headless horsemen and women who turn into birds are a stunning meditation on gender, our bodies and the ties that bind * NPR *Every so often, a slim book absolutely clobbers you with its exuberance and beauty - for me, this was that book -- Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, BabyAn important book: fun, tragic, political and full of marvel ... It will break your heart and at the same time make you want to laugh and dance -- Mariana EnríquezNaked, glorious storytelling. Camila Sosa Villada's story shattered me and yet also, even in its starkest moments, convinced me that hope is stronger than despair. -- Claire Oshetsky, author of ChouetteConfronting, radical, hopeful, The Queens of Sarmiento Park does one of the most important things a book (or a life) can do. It looks at all the rubble and the dirt and asks: "Can we make anything beautiful from this?" -- Keiran Goddard, author of HourglassAn exquisite book full of poetry, warmth and magical, raw honesty. Gorgeously written stories of lives entwined and enmeshed in the toughest of spaces, stories which felt so bloody generous through the act of sharing. Simply beautiful. -- Juno Roche, author of A Working-Class Family Ages BadlyA beautiful novel, moving, disturbing, raw and honest. In skilfully rendered language, charged with poetic energy, it takes us deep into the world of trans prostitution and explores the violent and tender bonds that unite the women who inhabit it -- Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane SeasonThe Queens of Sarmiento Park blew Argentina's collective mind with its exquisite power, tenderness, and riotous imagination -- Carolina De Robertis, author of The President and the Frog and CantorasFrom a life reminiscent of a Pedro Almodóvar film, Camila Sosa Villada has drawn an incredible piece of literature * Vanity Fair (France) *A magical novel ... raw and full of love * eldiario.es (Spain) *A literary sensation * Rolling Stone (Argentina) *A deeply poetic work about a group of outcasts who try with all their might to protect themselves from violence and exclusion through sisterhood, solidarity and joie de vivre * Deutschlandfunk kultur (Germany) *This novel celebrates trans life with lyricism and wonder ... A gem to be savoured * Elle (France) *Camila Sosa Villada draws inspiration from her past in prostitution and the legend of an Argentine saint for The Queens of Sarmiento Park, a tribute to sex workers, suffused with magic * Le Monde (France) *A work of searing, confrontational beauty -- Juno Mac, co-author of Revolting ProstitutesThis unflinching novel offers a fresh take on what it means to be a modern family ... ultimately, it's a story that will have you rooting for a charming mother and son duo, despite the odds being stacked against them * Stylist *Staggering ... a dark and exuberant mythology of travesti life on the streets and in and out of the pink boarding houses of Sarmiento, Argentina. Highly visceral and audaciously real * NB Magazine *This is a book both ferocious and magical, the story of a boarding house of trans sex workers who discover and raise a baby in Córdoba, Argentina. It's a trans iteration in a long tradition of Latin American literature: stuffed with marvels, humour, political critique, and storytelling that moves from macro to micro in the course of a paragraph. And yet, for all its specificity of place and culture, it's one of the books that best illustrates the themes that link together a growing movement of global trans literature, a book that unflinchingly asks, "how do we live?" -- Torrey Peters * Guardian *Stunning... Beautiful and devastating in equal measure, this had me reading right through the night to see how the story ends * BN1 Magazine *Sosa Villada's storytelling is guttural, tender, humorous and punk ... an aesthetic that drips with the oral rhythms swept up from the dark streets of Córdoba into perfect streams of poetic prose -- Julián Lopera Delgado
£14.24
Little, Brown Book Group 8 Lives of a CenturyOld Trickster
Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER''Captivating'' New York Times''Dazzling'' Financial Times''A cracking good read'' Historical Novel SocietySLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can''t all belong to the same woman. Can they? As playful and thought-provoking as it is compelling, as brutal and harrowing as it is achingly poignant and tender, this is a novel about love and war, deceiTrade ReviewEnthralling, captivating, tantalising ... keeps readers hooked * New York Times *A gripping story set against the backdrop of Korea's turbulent history ... brilliant and original * Washington Post *Seven accounts, told achronologically and ranging from 1938 to 2006, reveal a series of startling transformations involving cross-dressing, spying, identity theft, motherhood and murder ... A dazzling feat of narrative sophistication and historical invention * Financial Times *A wild ride of a novel that embodies twentieth-century Korean history through the mesmerising, heartbreaking and deeply fractured personal history of one woman and her many incarnations. -- Monica AliA dazzling, visceral read. Intricately woven and playful, the prose has a brutal beating energy. At its heart is the fascinating Ms Mook, and the kaleidoscope of her life is a captivating history of Korea, a country torn apart -- Catherine Cho, author of InfernoIn Mirinae Lee's 8-lives of a Century-Old Trickster, a sly, flinty protagonist summons all of her charm to survive one hundred years of tumult, espionage, and war. I have never put so much trust in a verified liar. Part spy novel, part ode to storytelling, Lee's debut captivated and surprised me. -- Alyssa Songsiridej, author of Little RabbitUnflinching and tender, philosophical and mischievous, this playful novel conveys a sense of Korea's turbulent twentieth century through a charming, compelling protagonist who is not always a reliable narrator but who tells the truths that matter. I was captivated by Lee's masterful storytelling -- Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom SpringFantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating, globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible - from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration -- Junot DíazA stunning debut from Mirinae Lee, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster follows the incredible life of a woman, a shapeshifter, as she battles life near the North Korean border during the most turbulent times in Korean history. Lee is a master at storytelling, weaving the eight stories in a way that leaves you with questions, only to answer them with scenes that are sometimes horrific, sometimes touching, but always riveting -- Lyn Liao Butler, author of Red Thread of FateMirinae Lee has magically created a new literary form, one that deftly weaves political intrigue, lyrical narration, sensuous description, and subtle humour. In her heroine's tender, harrowing reclaiming of her traumatized body, the reader, too, finds healing. 8 Lives packs the spellbinding, page-turning punch of a spy thriller while quietly delivering the lilting insights of Carmen María Machado and Ocean Vuong. Lee's debut marks the arrival of a riveting new voice on the global literary stage -- Brittani Sonnenberg, author of Home LeaveMirinae Lee has created an unforgettable character and a bold, inventive narrative that takes us through history. But don't underestimate 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster; this astonishing, compassionate, and ambitious novel is more than story. Lee cares about how the story is told as much as the story itself. What an incredible debut. * Krys Lee, author of How I Became A North Korean *A turbulent novel traversing decades of Korean history, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster interrogates love, identity, betrayal, and everything it takes for one shape-shifting "trickster" to survive. Lee writes with sharp, ferocious energy, and I was riveted from the first page. An exquisitely accomplished debut -- Mira T. Lee, author of Everything Here is BeautifulChilling, bold and masterful, Lee's dazzling debut slams into the head and the heart with dizzying, visceral force and commanding skill. Intricately and inventively plotted, 8 Lives of a Century-old Trickster is hard-wired with tension and suspense and bound tight with history -- Kimberly Elkins, author of What Is VisibleReading 8 Lives is like eating earth: unapologetically rebellious, breathtakingly exhilarating, and deeply painful. Korea's turbulent modern history as its backdrop, each story is artfully told through a magnetic character who embodies the peninsula's dark and complex past. Lee's debut is a gift to all storytellers of diasporic imagination -- Joseph Juhn, director of ChosenThe atrocity and suffering interwoven in these pages tell the splintered history of war and violence in twentieth-century Korea that keeps me awake at night. Mirinae Lee unravels human intentions and actions with devastating details, reminding us of many hearts of darkness. What's most striking, however, is the trust invested in the power of storytelling. The interlocking lives in the novel read like scar tissues that reopen and close. A mutual understanding is established as we re-examine the wounds that won't heal until they find their voice, until we listen. -- Kit Fan, author of Diamond HillSoaring, fierce, bold, and intoxicating, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster draws an unforgettable portrait of a Korean woman navigating her place in the world over the course of almost a hundred years. Lives that have been ruptured by war, totalitarianism, and unexpected family discoveries are explored with razor-sharp insight and shimmering detail. The lies we tell, the particles of pleasure we find amidst the pain, and how deception and the power of storytelling can lead us to our truest selves are all explored with phenomenal skill. An absolutely astonishing work of art -- Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop of TehranOutstanding ... enticing, profound and deeply moving. By the end, the reader is left with an intensely vivid picture of both North and South Korea during the mid-20th century, throughout multiple wars and times of national chaos * Bookpage (USA) *Lee's beautiful novel is a tale of survival, trauma, and love in the midst of modern Korea's most tumultuous times. Her metaphorical and lyrical language, brutal and unsettling storytelling, and masterful prose will keep readers hooked until the very end * Booklist (USA) *Smart, complex, inventive, melancholy * Kirkus (USA) *A beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you riveted-and speculating-until the very end, thanks to Lee's brilliant talent for sleight of hand * Tor.com *Despite the darkness of the history it retells, this is primarily an adventure novel, fueled by the same righteous anger that turns ordinary mortals into masked superheroes * Wall Street Journal *Grandma Mook ... has murdered four men, deceived her husband, and is a wanted terrorist. And yet, in a dazzling feat of storytelling, she is a lovable character. Her tales of brutality, grit, hope, love, and redemption are too fantastic to be untrue. This is a cracking good read, rich with social commentary and historical detail. * Historical Novel Society *Mirinae Lee has magically created a new literary form, one that deftly weaves political intrigue, lyrical narration, sensuous description, and subtle humour. In her heroine's tender, harrowing reclaiming of her traumatized body, the reader, too, finds healing. 8 Lives packs the spellbinding, page-turning punch of a spy thriller while quietly delivering the lilting insights of Carmen María Machado and Ocean Vuong. Lee's debut marks the arrival of a riveting new voice on the global literary stage -- Brittani Sonnenberg, author of Home Leave
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group The Birdcatcher
Book SynopsisFINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDThe Birdcatcher is the new novel from a major voice in American literature, which explores artists in exile, dangerous relationships and the demands of creativity.''A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers'' - Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage''I am living on the white-washed island of Ibiza with my friend Catherine Shuger, a sculptor who has been declared legally insane, and her husband, Ernest. Standing on the terrace, sheltered in the smell of oranges and eucalyptus, washed in sunlight, you''d swear this was a paradise. But to tell the truth the place is full of dangers. You see, Catherine sometimes tries to kill her husband. It has been this way for years . . .''''My name''s Amanda Wordlaw. Wonderful name for a writer, isn''t it? . . . I guess I''m sort of a choice companion for the Shugers - professional watcher and listener that I am. It''s
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group The Birdcatcher
Book SynopsisA FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD''A fascinating meditation on Black female creativity from the author of Corregidora and Palmares . . . Vivid characters shimmer through the pages'' Suzi Feay, GUARDIAN''I am living on the white-washed island of Ibiza with my friend Catherine Shuger, a sculptor who has been declared legally insane, and her husband, Ernest. Standing on the terrace, sheltered in the smell of oranges and eucalyptus, washed in sunlight, you''d swear this was a paradise. But to tell the truth the place is full of dangers. You see, Catherine sometimes tries to kill her husband. It has been this way for years . . . My name''s Amanda Wordlaw. Wonderful name for a writer, isn''t it? . . . I guess I''m sort of a choice companion for the Shugers - professional watcher and listener that I am. It''s like they need someone else to witness the shit, the spectacle they make of themselves.''''Gayl Jones constructs a noTrade ReviewA literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers -- Tayari JonesAfter suffering the author's absence for far too long, we can rejoice at her return -- Robert Jones, Jr * New York Times *Gayl Jones is a literary legend . . . She has reimagined the lives of Black women across North, South and Central America . . . in a way no other writer has done -- Yara Rodrigues Fowler * Guardian *A fascinating meditation on Black female creativity from the author of Corregidora and Palmares . . . Vivid characters shimmer through the pages -- Suzi Feay * Guardian *Brilliant and incendiary, Jones's pairing of tragedy with dark humour cuts to the bone * Oprah Daily *This is a brilliant and unsparing examination of the burdens we place on friendship and marriage, the way that creative genius is misperceived as madness, the clumsy way mental health is addressed, the scourge of racism, and the alchemy of folklore and legacy bound in the secrets we hide * Boston Globe *Gayl Jones constructs a novel that is part mystery, part thriller, and wholly captivating . . . Jones is an outstanding writer . . . a shining segment of the American literary canon has been restored -- Kate Webb * Times Literary Supplement *With the plush scenery of a travelogue, the misshapen soul of a noir, and the anarchic spirit of a trickster tale, this novel revolves around three Black American expatriates.The narrator, Amanda, is a divorced travel writer invited to the island of Ibiza by her friend Catherine, a prize-winning sculptor, who "sometimes tries to kill her husband." Catherine is suspicious of Amanda's intentions toward her husband, but, in Jones's fearsome, fractured narrative, her potential for violence seems no more alarming than anything else that might befall these social outsiders. * New Yorker (Best books of 2022) *Jones continues her marvelous run after last year's Pulitzer finalist Palmares with the gloriously demented story of an artist who keeps trying to kill her husband . . . Jones, implicitly defiant, draws deeply from classic and global literature - a well-placed reference to Cervantes's windmills leaves the reader's head spinning. And like one of Amanda's inventive novels, this one ends on a surprising and playful turn. It ought to be required reading * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *The remarkable latest release by acclaimed novelist and poet Jones . . . Her prose is captivating, at moments coolly observational and at others profoundly intimate; the delicate balance is the mark of a truly great storyteller. An intriguing, tightly crafted, and insightful meditation on creativity and complicated friendships * Booklist, Starred Review *Jones' mercurial, often inscrutable body of work delivers yet another change-up to readers' expectations * Kirkus Reviews *A marvel about art, love, mental health, and motherhood -- Imani Perry, author of SOUTH TO AMERICA
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Butter
Book Synopsis''A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers'' Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE''Gayl Jones is a literary legend'' - Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of THERE ARE MORE THINGS''Her prose is intricate, mesmerizing, and endlessly inventive and subversive'' Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIESGayl Jones''s long career began with her blistering 1975 debut, Corregidora, which was edited by Toni Morrison, and she is increasingly recognised as one of the great literary writers of the twentieth century. In this new collection of short fiction, Jones''s unique talents are displayed in a range of settings and styles, from the hyper-realist to the mystical, in novella-length stories, intricate multi-part narratives and in compelling fragments. Endlessly inventive, challenging and surprising, Jones writes about our diverse world. Her characters are spies, photographers, baristas, Trade ReviewGayl Jones's work represents a watershed in American literature. From a literary standpoint, her form is impeccable; from a historical standpoint, she stands at the very cutting edge of understanding the modern world, and as a Black woman writer, her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humour, and incisiveness, is unmatched. Jones is a writer's writer, and her influence is found everywhere -- Imani PerryHer prose is intricate, mesmerizing, and endlessly inventive and subversive -- Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIESA literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers -- Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGEGayl Jones is a literary legend -- Yara Rodrigues FowlerJones's writing powerfully blends narrative and lyricism . . . Her imagination seems to thrive on outstripping one's expectations -- Margo JeffersonEvery Jones publication is a major event, but this one is particularly precious. This wide ranging collection of short fiction is only the second by one of our most lauded literary authors. It includes two novella-length works and short stories that are diverse in every meaningful way possible. Jones's settings, which span time and geography, vary as much as the identities of her protagonists, which include women and men, Black, brown, and Indigenous people, artists and spies. The common threads are creativity and devastating insight * Oprah Daily, 'The Books We Cannot Wait to Read in 2023' *
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Butter
Book Synopsis''A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers'' Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE''Gayl Jones is a literary legend'' - Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of THERE ARE MORE THINGS''Her prose is intricate, mesmerizing, and endlessly inventive and subversive'' Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIESGayl Jones''s long career began with her blistering 1975 debut, Corregidora, which was edited by Toni Morrison, and she is increasingly recognised as one of the great literary writers of the twentieth century. In this new collection of short fiction, Jones''s unique talents are displayed in a range of settings and styles, from the hyper-realist to the mystical, in novella-length stories, intricate multi-part narratives and in compelling fragments. Endlessly inventive, challenging and surprising, Jones writes about our diverse world. Her characters are spies, photographers, baristas, cartoonists and revolutionaries; her settings are historical and contemporary, in Europe and the Americas. With sharp observation, wit and poignancy, Jones explores complex identities and unorthodox longings. ''Jones''s writing powerfully blends narrative and lyricism . . . Her imagination seems to thrive on outstripping one''s expectations'' Margo Jefferson''Every Jones publication is a major event, but this one is particularly precious . . . Jones''s settings, which span time and geography, vary as much as the identities of her protagonists, which include women and men, Black, brown, and Indigenous people, artists and spies. The common threads are creativity and devastating insight'' Oprah Daily, ''The Books We Can''t Wait to Read in 2023''
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Unicorn Woman
Book Synopsis''A literary giant'' TAYARI JONESA richly imaginative and moving new novel from the Pulitzer finalist and acclaimed author of CorregidoraA cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he''s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he''s a man on a quest: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.Returning from the Second World War not to a hero''s welcome, but to the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws, Buddy stumbles across the Unicorn Woman, a carnival sideshow with a horn growing from her forehead, whose strange beauty he can''t forget.As he drifts across the South, from Kentucky to Memphis, Buddy encounters a dazzling array of almost mythic characters: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists and bigots - dreaming all the while of the unforgettable Unicorn Woman herself.W
£17.00
Little, Brown Book Group The Unicorn Woman
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Furies
Book SynopsisA fun and fearless anthology of feminist tales, by sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers.''Wonderful . . . all killer, no filler'' Red Magazine''Dazzling stories, as inventive as they are inspiring'' Daily Mirror''Where power and feminist rage meet'' StylistBANSHEE. DRAGON. TYGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO.For centuries past, and all across the world, there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles, fire up our blood; words that tell a story. In this blazing cauldron of a book, sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.STORIES BY: Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Annie Hodson, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O''Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, with an Introduction by Sandi Toksvig
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Black Narcissus
Book SynopsisRumer Godden''s stunning classic novel of devotion, faith and madness ''You have to be very strong to live close to God or a mountain, or you''ll turn a little mad . . .''High in the Himalayas, the mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General''s harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. Now it sits abandoned, windswept and haunting - until Sister Clodagh and her group of nuns arrive to turn ''the House of Women'' into the Convent of St Faith. Close to the heavens, the Sisters of Mary feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital. But the isolation and emptiness of the mountain begin to take a terrible toll, unleashing long-repressed passions with tragic consequences . . .Introduced by Amanda Coe''A masterly novelist'' Tessa Hadley''A remarkable and beautiful book'' DAILY TELEGRAPH''I envy anyone reading it for the first time'' AMANDA COE
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Breakfast with the Nikolides
Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR ROSIE THOMASBy the author of Black Narcissus and The River''One of our best and most captivating novelists'' Philip Hensher''[Godden has] a genius for storytelling'' Evening StandardFor Emily Pool, India is a magical place where she has the freedom to escape her mother''s suffocating influence. Her days are spent exploring the canals and gardens of East Bengal, and admiringly observing her glamorous, dignified neighbours, the Nikolides. But just as the cracks in Emily''s family home are papered over, the Pools strive to maintain an outward impression of respectability, and it is through the Nikolides that Emily is exposed to a world of adult deceit and attrition. And when her beloved dog dies, the event forces a confrontation and reveals to Emily that nothing in the town is quite as it seems . . .
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Little, Brown Book Group In this House of Brede
Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY LAUREN GROFF ''Rumer Godden''s novels have a timeless shimmer'' GUARDIAN''One hundred years after her birth, Rumer Godden''s novels still pulse with life'' MATTHEW DENNISON, TELEGRAPH''Her craftsmanship is always sure'' NEW YORK TIMES''The motto was Pax but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort . . .''Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves behind a successful career with the civil service for a new calling: to join an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love, despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters'' shared bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it, Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past . . .
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Five for Sorrow Ten for Joy
Book SynopsisBY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLACK NARCISSUS AND THE RIVER ''One of our best and most captivating novelists'' PHILIP HENSHER ''Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy is about growth, choice, struggle, and the freedom of the soul'' JOAN CHITTISTER ''[Godden''s] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal'' ROSIE THOMAS, GUARDIAN The Sisters of Béthanie, a French order of Dominican nuns, dedicate themselves to caring for the outcasts of society - criminals, prostitutes and drug addicts. Lise, an English girl who after the liberation of Paris was employed in one of the city''s smartest brothels and rose to become a successful madame, finds herself joining the sisters. An inspiring and entirely convincing conversion story that shows how the mercy of God extends to the darkest human places.Master storyteller, Rumer Godden, weaves a deeply moving ta
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Little, Brown Book Group The River
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Battle of the Villa Fiorita
Book SynopsisFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLACK NARCISSUS AND THE RIVER''One of our best and most captivating novelists'' PHILIP HENSHER ''[Godden has] a genius for storytelling'' EVENING STANDARD ''Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty'' NEW YORK TIMES When their mother leaves the country to be with her lover, Hugh and Caddie Clavering''s seemingly perfect life falls apart. Devastated by the sudden, bitter dissolution of their parents'' marriage and desperate for her to come back, the children travel alone to the Villa Fiorita on Lake Garda, determined not to leave without her. On arrival, they can tell Fanny and Rob are deeply in love, and their mother is happier than they''ve ever seen her, but the scheme lives on. Thankfully, Rob''s young daughter is only too glad to help destroy their parents'' relationship. Will Hugh and Caddie realise that their actions have consequences before it is
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Little, Brown Book Group Lost on Me
Book Synopsis The prize-winning 100,000-copy Italian bestseller A 2023 book of the year for the Financial Times, the Irish Times, the New European, Marie Claire and Largehearted Boy''Deliciously enjoyable'' Katherine Heiny''I adored it'' Naoise Dolan''Wild, funny and disturbing'' Roddy Doyle''Thrillingly original'' Monica Ali''It would be simply impossible for a book this good to go unnoticed'' Big Issue _________________________________A delightfully funny Italian novel about sex, love, family - and how a writer transforms her life into artVero has grown up in Rome with her eccentric family: an omnipresent mother who is devoted to her own anxiety, a father ruled by hygienic and architectural obsessions, and a precocious genius brother at the centre of their attention. As she becomes an adult, Vero''s neeTrade ReviewHighly entertaining, thought-provoking and one of 2023's best novels yet * Strong Words *Funny and tender * Financial Times, Best Books of the Year 2023 *Wild, funny and disturbing, all I ask of a book about mothers and their daughters. -- Roddy Doyle * Irish Times, Best Books of 2023 *Excellent ... written in a spare and precise style from the pen of a biting narrator. It would be simply impossible for a book this good to go unnoticed * Big Issue *Remarkable. A darkly funny novel of rhythm, subtlety and nuance ... a writer who deserves as wide an audience as possible * New European *Restless and sly ... intelligently spiky * The Times *I fell head over heels in love with Lost on Me. What a thrillingly original voice! Raimo writes with a tender brutality that is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking * Monica Ali, author of Love Marriage *I adored Lost on Me. With combustive prose and oxidising wit, Veronica Raimo sets fire to the Bildungsroman. A clear-eyed comedic talent who bends the novel form to her will -- Naoise DolanA uproariously funny portrait of an unconventional family from a writer who knows the sliver of ice in the heart as well as she knows love. This deliciously enjoyable novel is a true original and one to savour -- Katherine HeinyWhen the book you start reading is immediately hilarious and deeply disturbing, you know you're onto something special. Lost on Me is that book -- Roddy DoyleIs it possible, today, to completely reinvent auto-fiction? For Veronica Raimo it clearly is. Get ready to talk about this book for a long, long time -- Paolo Giordano, author of The Solitude of Prime NumbersThis book made me want to clear my calendar and read everything of Raimo's I could get my hands on. Incisive, engrossing, and deeply funny -- Julia May Jonas, author of VladimirLike a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, Veronica Raimo mocks the absurdities of her family life as well as tries to reconcile her own ambiguous feelings. A bold, provocative, and original book -- Lily Tuck, author of SistersA desecrating and tender portrait of family that reels us in from the very first lines * Io Donna: Il Corriere della Sera *Many pages in this novel are so intense and unscrupulous that one feels the apprehension of being caught spying in a stranger's mailbox * Esquire Italia *Reading this novel is a blast ... Many of the pages are jellyfish stings: they burn on and on -- Claudia Durastanti, author of Strangers I KnowVeronica Raimo is a stupendous comedian * La Stampa *A story that nails us down with a powerful first-person voice, clear and exhilarating. * Marie Claire Italia *With its stellar voice, Raimo's inquisitive and vulnerable novel proves tough to put down * Publishers Weekly *Lost on Me is the naughty grandson of Natalia Ginzburg's Family Lexicon ... Raimo has tapped the novelistic potential of her affections and has transformed them into comedy. The result deserves all of the praise flaunted on the cover * Il Corriere della Sera *Filled with humour and neuroses ... a witty and complex portrait of a woman becoming herself * Kirkus *Lost on Me was anything but; I was utterly seduced by this wry and fearless novel featuring the unforgettable voice of Vero, a young woman with a sharp sense of humour and a splendid eye for the absurd -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Dog of the NorthWhat a fresh, vivid and unpredictable voice, bursting with life, I loved it. Finally something that's not like everything else. -- Karl Geary, author of Montpelier ParadeThis bittersweet work of autofiction charts Verika's journey through her neurotic childhood to womanhood and her attempts - literal and metaphorical - to escape her family and their influence. Smart, funny ... a sharply tender portrait of a young woman's becoming * Marie Claire, Best Books of 2023 *If Sheila Heti was Italian and wrote a modern Franny & Zooey, it would approximate how powerful and magnificent Veronica Raimo's novel Lost on Me is. * Largehearted Boy *Infused with a hilarious dry wit wrung from a wry attitude to life, Lost On Me stands out as a brilliant and inventive modern novel in English thanks to an outstanding translation for which Leah Janeczko deserves much credit * New European, Best Books of 2023 *If you enjoy Deborah Levy or Natalia Ginzburg, then you'll appreciate the writing of Italian author and translator, Veronica Raimo. Deeply original and with kudos from Naoise Dolan and Katherine Heiny, this bildungsroman follows Vero, a 15-year-old girl, writer and compulsive liar as she plots various bids for freedom, all of which are thwarted by her savvy mother. The film rights have been snapped up by Fandango, so look out for news of a future movie * Rushh.com *
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Big Girl
Book SynopsisA BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTRE FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE AND THE LAMBDA AWARD*''Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever'' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of QUEENIE*''A gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself'' Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE*''Hilariously funny and quietly devastating'' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY and HERE COMES THE SUN*''There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the suns burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books'' Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVYA THING IS MIGHTY BIG WHEN TIME AND DISTANCE CANNOT SHRINK ITIt was a quote by Zora Neale Hurston. Malaya liked the words. The message was a mouthful of meaning, and it changed each time she read it. At first it had seemed ominous, Trade ReviewMecca Jamilah Sullivan has given us a gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself, filled with everyday people who in her gifted hands, show us the love and struggle of what it means to be inside bodies that don't always fit with the outside world. I found myself cheering for Percy, Nyela, the Harlem streets and of course, for Malaya -- Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONEWhat is a child's body worth when it is big, Black and female - when it is under constant demand to be something other than what it naturally is? In Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's achingly beautiful coming-of-age debut novel, Big Girl, this body carries the weight of an entire neighborhood ... Big Girl triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early - and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists * New York Times *There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the suns burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books. The sound, the expansiveness of the whispers, the critical, brilliant, sometimes bruising, beautiful Black girlness explored in this novel is literally second to none... I know I have just read and reread a new American classic that we as a culture and country desperately need. Believe that -- Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVYI ate this up in one greedy, joyous gulp. I fell in love with Malaya Clondon from the very first page. This book is hilariously funny and quietly devastating - a compelling narrative about what it means to define ourselves and make space for our bodies as women -- Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY and HERE COMES THE SUNMecca Jamilah Sullivan has delivered a singular coming of age story. A book about the vulnerabilities of living in the body of a young Black girl, Sullivan has created a portrait of young adulthood as quietly revolutionary as Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha or Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. Resetting the conversation about girlhood, desire, bodies and appetites, this book is a revelation for those who care about the rich, varied lives of Black youth -- Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of LIBERTIEAlive with delicious prose and the cacophony of '90s Harlem, Big Girl gifts us a heroine carrying the weight of worn-out ideas, who dares to defy the compulsion to shrink, and in turn teaches us to pursue our fullest, most desirous selves without shame -- Janet MockAbsolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever' -- Candice Carty-Williams, author of PEOPLE PERSON and QUEENIESullivan's talent shines most through her ability to embody character where most writers would simply observe them. The result is a thrilling, big-hearted novel by a writer of endless and remarkable promise -- Chigozie Obioma, Booker-shortlisted author of AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES and THE FISHERMEN
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