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
Faber & Faber Fullalove
Book SynopsisOne of the landmark novels of the last decade.' GuardianFeatures a new introduction by William BoydNorman Miller used to be one of Fleet Street''s finest. Now he''s a middle-aged, burned-out hack with a gift for the sensational story, the shouting tabloid lead. But as he reports on a series of brutal murders and sex crimes, he''s forced to wonder whether he is just a witness - or part of some deeper pattern of cause and effect . . .''Remarkable . . . Devastating . . . Required reading for anyone interested in what British fiction should be doing today.'' Stephen Amidon, Esquire
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Faber & Faber Born Yesterday The News as a Novel
Book SynopsisBorn Yesterday does what the media do every day: blurring the boundaries between what is real and what has been invented. In 2007, Gordon Burn took the extraordinary news headlines from that year, and wove the strands together into an essential story for our time. The characters of these long-running reality soaps the McCanns, Blair, Brown, Kate Middleton are presented here in three dimensions, their stories told through revealing glimpses and startling insights. With a new introduction by Gordon Burn''s editor, Lee Brackstone.
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Faber & Faber The North of England Home Service
Book SynopsisExtraordinary, funny, tender, poetic . . . The story that emerges is Britain's.' Times Literary SupplementWith a new introduction by George Shaw In a forensic dissection of Britain's souring landscape Gordon Burn tells the tale of Ray Cruddas, a light entertainer effecting a semi-dignified retreat from a fading career, who returns to the unnamed northern town of his youth.
£9.49
Faber & Faber And When She Was Good
Book SynopsisFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SUNBURN AND DREAM GIRLGripping' Irish Independent''Lippman writes with clarity and power.'' STEPHEN KINGA gritty story, vivid characters and a fast-moving, twisting plot.' Washington IndependentA suburban mother. A secret life.Heloise is a single mum who runs her own business and keeps herself to herself. But Heloise's business is one that takes place in discreet hotel rooms. For the right payment, she can be the woman of your dreams.But now her accountant is starting to ask questions, her long-time bodyguard is hinting at new dangers, and in the local news, a so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car.With nothing as it seems, can Heloise secure the safety of herself and her son?A riveting, engrossing, and at times, sordid story.' 5* reader reviewAMAZING! I did NOT see the twists coming at all!' 5* reader re
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Faber & Faber The Missing Hours
Book Synopsis'Gripping' Observer 'A one-sitting read' Jane Casey'Compulsively readable' Mail on SundayShe doesn't remember. He won't let her forget.From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: the famous family, the trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU's freshman class. But then one drunken night everything changes.Her memory hazy, Claudia cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship, but when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing.What readers are saying:'This book kept me up way too late, but it was totally worth it!''Intense, gritty . . . Clear your clendar as you'll want to read this book in one sitting.''A fast-paced read that gives the reader much to ponder.''Timely, taut, and gripping - an absolute must-read.'
£9.49
Faber & Faber Strange Hotel
Book SynopsisFrom the winner of the Women's Prize for FictionPowerful . . . truly a living and breathing thing.' Financial TimesMcBride is on blistering form.' Sinéad GleesonNothing else feels so fresh, so radically new.' Garth GreenwellAn emotionally enchanting novel that gets deep under the skin.' DazedA woman enters an Avignon hotel room. She's been here once before but while the room hasn't changed, she is a different person now.Forever caught between check-in and check-out, she will go on to occupy other hotel rooms, from Prague to Oslo, Auckland to Austin, each as anonymous as the last. There, amid the open suitcases, the matchbooks, cigarettes, keys and room-service wine, she will negotiate with memory, with the men she sometimes meets, and with what it might mean to return home.Trade Review'Nothing else feels so fresh, so radically new.' - Garth Greenwell'An emotionally enchanting novel that gets deep under the skin.' Dazed
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Faber & Faber I Will Crash
Book Synopsis
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Faber & Faber I Will Crash
Book SynopsisIt was a peace offering, I knew thatyou don't appear on someone's doorstep uninvited, saying Alrightunless you want to make amendsIt's been six years since Rosa last saw her brother.
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Faber & Faber A Crooked Tree
Book SynopsisMy mother made a snap decision.How could we know it would change us forever?THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER''Brimming with curiosity and wonder.'' Irish Times''Lushly atmospheric.'' Daily Mail''Thoroughly gripping.'' Lucy Caldwell''Brilliant.'' Sara BaumeRage. That''s the feeling engulfing the car as Ellen''s mother swerves over to the hard-shoulder and orders her daughter out onto the roadside. Ignoring the protests of her other children, she accelerates away, leaving Ellen standing on the gravel verge in her school pinafore and knee socks as the light fades.What would you do as you watch your little sister getting smaller in the rear view window? How far would you be willing to go to help her? The Gallagher children are going to find out. This moment is the beginning of a summer that will change everything.**Una Mannion''s latest novel, TEL
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Faber & Faber This One Sky Day
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS'Dazzling' Cosmopolitan'I deeply admire This One Sky Day - and also, not so secretly, bitterly envy it...' MARLON JAMES'Gorgeous' Financial Times'Haunting' Independent'Wonderfully fearless' New Statesman'Stunning' KEI MILLERDawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho. The world is stirring awake again, each resident with their own list of things to do:A wedding feast to conjure and cookAn infidelity to investigateA lost soul to set freeAs the sun rises two star-crossed lovers try to find their way back to one another across this single day. When night falls, all have been given a gift, and many are no longer the same.The sky is pink, and some wonder if it will ever be blue again.What readers are saying'Brimming with and life and love and just absTrade Review'A glorious shout of a novel, a sensual, saturated blend of romance, magical realism and erotic comedy . . . Bravura pieces of whimsy blend with intimate explorations of grief, childlessness and crises of sexuality in an intricate narrative set on a single day.' - Alex Clark, Guardian'A haunting story about grief and love . . . Among the many charms of the novel is the way it celebrates the oddness of life.' - Independent'Easily one of the most gorgeous and lavishly sprawling books of 2021 . . . Ross's descriptions are rich with inventiveness, colour, flavour.' - Financial Times'A bold and bizarre story set over one day on a fictional Caribbean archipelago. In Popisho, everyone has a "cors" - some small piece of magic that is entirely their own. We follow star-crossed lovers Xavier, a master chef who can flavour food through the palms of his hands, and Anise, who learns of someone's ailment simply by touching them. Ross spins delight from utter mayhem - at one point, the vulva of every woman on the island drops out of their bodies, for no apparent reason - resulting in a work that is unpredictable and wonderfully fearless.' - New Statesman'Intensely absorbing, this dazzling tale charts two lovers on the imaginary Caribbean archipelago of Popisho who must find their way back to each other over a single day. Vividly conjured, This One Sky Day brings to life a colourful cast of characters facing life-changing decisions across the island: Xavier who has a wedding feast to conjure and cook while Anise an infidelity to investigate. Love, second chances and fate, with razor-sharp postcolonial satire, this love story has already drawn comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Mrquez, Toni Morrison and Arundhati Roy.' - Cosmopolitan'One of those everyone will be talking about.' - Sara Collins'Magical. Just magical . . . a true feat of imagination and wonder.' - Nikesh Shukla'A big, carnivalesque novel that takes on desire, addiction and postcolonialism, but is also a celebration of food, love and joy.' - Guardian, 'Books to Look Forward to in 2021''I now understand why Leone Ross took so long in writing This One Sky Day. A novel this big in heart and imagination, this beautiful in prose, takes time. And my goodness it's worth it. This is a stunning novel.' - Kei Miller' A masterful blend of magical realism, satire and sheer joy: every page has something new to enchant the reader.' - The Bookseller
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Faber & Faber Wild Pets
Book Synopsis'Smart and funny... Wild Pets is an instant set text of the emerging canon of millennial fiction.'Guardian'A wickedly funny and emotionally complex novel.'Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation'An impresive, cumulatively powerful first outing.'Daily Mail'A ripe and excellent debut... funny and smart and human and true.'Andrew O'Hagan, author of MayfliesWild Pets follows Iris, Ezra and Nance in the years after university. They fall in and out of bed with each other, reread The Art of War, grieve the closing of Fabric and write book proposals on the history of salt, while submerging their nights in drink and drugs. Confronting adulthood with high wit and low behaviour against contemporary political and social turmoil, these young men and women seem to have everything going for them. So why are they still swimm
£8.54
Faber & Faber Come Join Our Disease
Book SynopsisWhy be healthy when the world is so sick? From the author of Perfidious Albion, a darkly comic and profoundly affecting novel about resistance, radicalism and redemption.'Bold, unflinching. exceptional.' Observer'Unforgettable...' Times Literary Supplement'Outstanding...' Irish Times'Enthralling. a blistering critique of 21st century life.' Financial Times'Byers's mastery of tone and attentiveness to every psychological shift confirms him as one of the most accomplished novelists of his generation.' Sunday TimesTrade Review'Bold, unflinching. exceptional.' - Observer'Unforgettable...' - Times Literary Supplement'Outstanding...' - Irish Times'Enthralling. a blistering critique of 21st century life.' - Financial Times'Byers's mastery of tone and attentiveness to every psychological shift confirms him as one of the most accomplished novelists of his generation.' - Sunday Times
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Faber & Faber Sojourn
Book Synopsis''A mysterious, subtle, haunting novel.''Chris PowerAn unnamed man arrives in Berlin as a visiting professor. It is a place fused with Western history and cultural fracture lines. He moves along its streets and pavements; through its department stores, museums and restaurants. He befriends Faqrul, an enigmatic exiled poet, and Birgit, a woman with whom he shares the vagaries of attraction. He tries to understand his white-haired cleaner. Berlin is a riddlehe becomes lost not only in the city but in its legacy.Sealed off in his own solitude, and as his visiting professorship passes, the narrator awaits transformation and meaning. Ultimately, he starts to understand that the less sure he becomes of his place in the moment, the more he knows his way.''Chaudhuri has already proved that he can write better than just about anybody of his generation.'' Jonathan Coe
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Faber & Faber Bolla
Book SynopsisDevastating in the most beautiful ways.' Torrey PetersSuperb . . . Statovci is a major talent.' New York Times Book ReviewIt is April 1995. Kosovo is a country on the cusp of a dreadful war. Arsim in twenty-two, newly married, cautious an Albanian trying to keep his head down and finish his studies in an atmosphere of creeping threat. Until he encounters Milos, a Serb, and begins a life in secret.A pitch perfect excavation of the vandalism of war, the wounds of love and the limits of the human soul.' Eimear McBride
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Faber & Faber Chaudhuri A Afternoon Raag
Book SynopsisWinner of the Encore Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for FictionA beguiling, short and yet sweeping prose-poem, Afternoon Raag is the account of a young Bengali man studying at Oxford University and caught in complicated love triangle. His loneliness and melancholy sharpen his memories of home, which come back to haunt him in vivid, sensory detail.Intensely moving, superbly written, Afternoon Raag is a testimony to the clash of the old and the new; arrivals and departures.With an introduction by James Wood
£11.69
Faber & Faber Odysseus Abroad
Book Synopsis''Delightfully witty . . . Luminously intelligent . . . Odysseus Abroad has placed itself, with erudition and playfulness, on the map of modernism.'' Guardian1985: twenty-two year old Ananda is a student adrift in Thatcher''s Britain, homesick and isolated. His eccentric uncle, Radhesh, is a magnificent failure and an eccentric virgin who has lived in genteel impoverishment in Hampstead for nearly three decades. Over the course of one day, Odysseus Abroad follows the two isolated men on one of their weekly forays, gradually revealing the background to the two men''s lives with deft precision and humour as they traverse London together, circling around their respective pasts and futures, and finding in one another an unspoken solace.
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Faber & Faber Freedom Song
Book SynopsisKhuku, a housewife, is irritated with the Muslims because their call to prayer wakes her up early every morning; her husband, a retired businessman, has been hired to cure a ''sick' sweet factory that doesn''t particularly want to be cured. Across town, Khuku''s brother worries about his son''s affiliations with the Communist Party, but only because they may affect his ever-so-gradually coalescing marriage prospects.Freedom Song is a work of fiction that plays with big ideas while evoking the smallest aspects of everyday life with acute tenderness and extraordinary beauty.
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Faber & Faber The Immortals
Book Synopsis**Includes a new foreword by Pankaj Mishra**Bombay in the 1980s: Shyam Lal is a highly regarded voice teacher, trained in the classical idiom but happily teaching more popular songs to well-to-do women, whose modern way of life he covets. Sixteen-year-old Nirmalya Sengupta is the rebellious scion of an affluent family who wants only to study Indian classical music. With a little push from her mother, Shyam agrees to accept Nirmalya as his student, entering into a relationship that will have unexpected and lasting consequences.With quiet humor and unsentimental poignancy, The Immortals is a luminous portrait of the spiritual and emotional force of a revered Indian tradition, of two fundamentally different but intricately intertwined families, and of a society choosing between the old and the new.
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Faber & Faber The Night Always Comes
Book Synopsis**THE HORSE - THE NEW NOVEL FROM WILLY VLAUTIN - IS AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW**SOON TO BE A NETFLIX FILM STARRING VANESSA KIRBY''Pacey and visceral.'' Sunday Times''Imbued with the noirish urgency of a page-turning thriller.'' Irish Times''A tear-struck revelation.'' MEGAN ABBOTTBetween looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs, and trying to take part-time college classes, Lynette is dangerously tired. Every penny she's earned for years, she's put into savings, trying to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother. Finally becoming a homeowner in their rapidly gentrifying Portland neighbourhood could offer Lynette the kind of freedoms she's never had. But, when the plan is derailed, Lynette must embark on a desperate odyssey of hope and anguish.Written with all Willy Vlautin's characteristic and heart-wrenching empathy, The Night Always Comes Trade Review'Imbued with the noirish urgency of a page-turning thriller.' - Irish Times'This is a novel that lives firmly in the melancholia of the city's gentrification, hurtling readers through one woman's desperation to keep her life afloat in a city that's pushing its working class out, one razed lot at a time.' - New York Times'The Night Always Comes is a rare example of art that matters-a rare example of a novel that is heartbreaking, but also a combative condemnation of American injustice, while also a love letter to the beleaguered working class, and still damn fun to read.' - CrimeReads'It's propulsive, moving, dark and full of hope and heart. He's a genius. My book of the year.' - Craig Silvey, Sydney Morning Herald'Vlautin's finest work to date, marrying his typical deep empathy for troubled characters with a robust and dynamic plot reminiscent of classic American noir crime fiction . . . All of this is done with a prose style that sings with simple clarity, like an arrow straight at the reader's heart. Extraordinary stuff.' - Big Issue'A tear-struck revelation - both epic and timely, intimate and clear-eyed ... Lynette will have you from the first page and put you to the test a hundred times before the last. You'll finish knowing you'll never forget her.' - Megan Abbott'I can't remember the last time I worried myself sick about a fictional character the way I did about Lynette in Willy Vlautin's terrific, big-hearted new novel The Night Always Comes. You won't soon forget either her or the fraught world she so courageously navigates.' - Richard Russo'His stories are sturdy and bighearted and full of lives so shattered they shimmer.' - Cheryl Strayed
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Faber & Faber Pincher Martin
Book SynopsisExperience a shipwrecked sailor''s disintegration into ''a naked madman on a rock'' by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Marlon James.An hour on this rock is a lifetime.Glistening limpets. Lobster claws. Wild tangles of seaweed. Slowly, his eyes open. Everywhere, there is sea. Only this jagged peak interrupts the vast expanse of the Atlantic: a tooth in a gaping jaw. But he will survive. Rainwater can be drunk; anemones eaten. He dries his oilskin beneath the screaming gulls, and discovers his papers: Christopher Hadley Martin, TY. Lieut., R.N.V.R. Weathering lightning strikes of memory, he must now reconstruct his fate - piece by terrible piece.''Wizardry of the first order.'' Observer''Terrifying Magnificently original.' Sylvia Plath''Devastating ... Violently real ... The unique kind of novel that compels you to reread it.'' Marlon James''An
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Faber & Faber The Revolt of Aphrodite
Book SynopsisWhen a genius inventor is seduced by a mysterious firm to create a robot, technology may save him - or be his undoing ...Trade Review'A virtuoso, capable of extraordinary feats.' - New York Times'Scenes of wild and deliberate fantasy...[of] peculiar and disturbing poignancy.' - New Statesman
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Faber & Faber The Snow Ball The Dazzling Cult Classic Faber
Book SynopsisWhen Anna is kissed by a mysterious stranger at a NYE masquerade ball, a dance of seduction begins.''So original and refreshing.'' Hilary Mantel''Brilliantly seductive ... A witty, sexy, sophisticated treat.'' Sarah Waters''Superb ... Sheer artistic insolence.'' Iris Murdoch''A great novel ... A swirling, sumptuous, sensual feast.'' GuardianLondon, New Year''s Eve. Snow falls on a Georgian mansion, vibrating with the festivities of a masquerade ball within. Middle-aged divorcee Anna stands alone - until the clock chimes midnight and a mysterious figure kisses her on the mouth. Thus begins a dance of seduction charged by clandestine romances swirling around them, whipping the ball into an frenzy of operatic proportions - until the night climaxes, revealing unease beneath the glitter ... A scandalous sensation in 1964, Brigid Brophy''s The Snow Ball is ripe to seduce a new generation o
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Faber & Faber The Misadventures of Margaret Finch
Book Synopsis''Original, intelligent and beautifully written. . . alive with period detail.''DAILY MAIL''A gem of a book.'' ELODIE HARPER, THE WOLF DEN TRILOGY''Such a joy.' JO BROWNING WROE, A TERRIBLE KINDNESSUtterly transporting, piercingly honest and intimate.' INGRID PERSAUD, LOVE AFTER LOVEBlackpool, 1938. Miss Margaret Finch a rather demure young woman has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation. Then, her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson), who is the subject of a national scandal. Margaret is determined to discover the truth behind the headlines: is Davidson a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret's fear that history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover that truth urgently. This deeply evocative novel ripples with the tensio
£14.99
Faber & Faber The Misadventures of Margaret Finch
Book Synopsis''Original, intelligent and beautifully written. . . alive with period detail.''DAILY MAIL''A gem of a book.'' ELODIE HARPER, THE WOLF DEN TRILOGY''Such a joy.' JO BROWNING WROE, A TERRIBLE KINDNESSUtterly transporting, piercingly honest and intimate.' INGRID PERSAUD, LOVE AFTER LOVEBlackpool, 1938. Miss Margaret Finch a rather demure young woman has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation. Then, her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson), who is the subject of a national scandal. Margaret is determined to discover the truth behind the headlines: is Davidson a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret's fear that history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover that truth urgently. This deeply evocative novel ripples with the tensio
£9.49
Faber & Faber Temporary
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2021''Terrifyingly entertaining.'' Kelly Link''Masterful.'' Washington Post''''Alice in Wonderland set in the gig economy.'' New York Times''What is this?'' Los Angeles TimesShortlisted for the Center for Fiction''s 2020 First Novel Prize18 boyfriends. 23 jobs. One ghost who occasionally pops in to give advice. Welcome to the world of the Temporary. ''There is nothing more personal than doing your job''. So goes the motto of the Temporary, as she takes job after job, in search of steadiness, belonging, and something to call her own. Aided by her bespoke agency and a cast of boyfriends each allotted their own task (the handy boyfriend, the culinary boyfriend, the real estate boyfriend) she is happy to fill in for any of us: for the Chairman of the Board, a ghost, a murderer, a mother. Even for you, and for me.Wild, hopeful, infinitely sad
£11.69
Faber & Faber Harsh Times
Book SynopsisTHE NEW NOVEL FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREA wildly enjoyable book; the 85-year-old Vargas Llosa is as sharp and mordantly funny as ever. Financial TimesGuatemala, 1954. A CIA-supported military coup topples the government. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changed the development of Latin America: that those in power encouraged the spread of Soviet communism in the Americas. Mario Vargas Llosa has written a drama on a world stage, in which some persecutors end up as victims of the very plot they helped construct. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Parasol Against the Axe
Book Synopsis''A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.'' ALI SMITH''Entirely original.''STYLIST''Oyeyemi has mastered the art of bold, expansive storytelling.''IRENOSEN OKOJIEA writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storyt
£15.29
Faber & Faber Parasol Against the Axe
Book Synopsis''A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.'' ALI SMITHA writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.
£10.80
Faber & Faber Your Show
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZEAS HEARD ON R4s FRONT ROW''The football novel is back. The TimesWonderful.' IRENOSEN OKOJIE ''A novel rich in both poetry and detail.'' DAVID PEACE''Memorable and moving . . . Your Show is a remarkable book'' Observer____________The Uriah Rennie Show? Damn right it is.From Jamaica to Sheffield to the recently formed Premier League, Uri rises through the ranks as a referee, making it to the highest level of our national game.But along the way he is confronted with tensions and prejudices, old and new, which emerge as his every move is watched, analysed and commented on.Your Show is the thrilling story of one man's pioneering efforts to make it, against the odds, to the very top of his profession and beyond.''A gripping, thought-provoking and important read.' Daily Mail ''Incredibly moving .
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Faber & Faber The Mountain Lion Faber Editions
Book SynopsisIntroduced by Hilton Als, in ''one of the best novels about adolescence in American literature'' (New York Times) two siblings come of age in a mountainous wilderness ...''One of the strangest and angriest novels of the twentieth century.'' Lauren Groff''An extraordinary, savage novel.'' Olivia Laing''I love this novel.'' Patricia LockwoodShe would not feel safe until the beautiful animal was dead.Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the world of adult authority. One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle''s Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt, roam. But this untamed wilderness soon becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire - and as the pressures of growing up drive an irrevocable rift between them, their innocent childhoods hurtle t
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Faber & Faber Fight Night
Book SynopsisFROM THE WRITER OF THE OSCAR-WININNG WOMEN TALKINGINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHORLONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARDGo Grandma Elvira!' Margaret Atwood''Wickedly funny and fearlessly honest.'' The New Yorker''Glorious.'' Sarah Moss____________You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight.Swiv has taken this advice too literally. Now she's suspended from school, in the care of her foul-mouthed, hilarious grandmother. Mom is busy being pregnant, so Grandma gives Swiv a very different education. Swiv learns maths with Amish jigsaws and How to Dig a Winter Grave. Grandma's methods may be unorthodox, but she has faced the worst of life with a wild, independent spirit and this is what she hopes to pass on. Time is running short. Grandma's health is failing and the baby is on the way can Grandma inspire this fire in Swiv, and ensure it never goes out?Poignant, hilTrade ReviewWickedly funny and fearlessly honest.' - The New Yorker'Fight Night is glorious: funny and sad and beautifully written.' - Sarah Moss
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Faber & Faber Free Fall
Book Synopsis''Marvellous.'' A.S. Byatt''Astonishing.'' John Gray''Luminous.'' Rose TremainI could take whichever I would of these paths.Sammy Mountjoy is an artist who has risen from poverty to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is captured as a German prisoner of war, threatened with torture and locked in a cell of total darkness. He emerges transfigured by his ordeal, realising how his choices have made him the author of his life, interrogating religion and rationality, early loves and formative beliefs and questioning freedom itself.
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Faber & Faber Rites of Passage
Book SynopsisIntroduced by Annie Proulx, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in this Booker Prize-winning historical novel: the first in the acclaimed Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.I grow a little crazy, I think, like all men at sea who live too close to each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under the sun and moon . . .Edmund Talbot is sailing to Australia in the early nineteenth century. In his journal, he records mounting tensions aboard the ancient, stinking warship, as officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the cramped darkness below decks. But when something happens to Reverend Colley that brings him into a 'hell of self-degradation', it seems that shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself . . .'It is the emotional veracity of life at sea that powers Golding's exceptional writing ... The fury, mystery and challenge.' Kate Mosse Trade Review'Golding writes the past as present [with] uncanny skill and tremendous intuition.' - Ben Okri'Golding's best and most accessible story since Lord of the Flies.' - Melvyn Bragg'An extraordinary novel.' - Observer
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Faber & Faber Close Quarters
Book SynopsisIntroduced by Helen Castor, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the second novel in the Booker Prize-winning historical fiction Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.This tropical nowhere was the whole world - the whole imaginable world.A decrepit warship is becalmed halfway to Australia, stilled in an ocean wilderness of heat and sea mists. In this surreal, fÃte-like atmosphere, a ball is held with a passing ship: the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them seaweed like green hair spreads omniously over the hull. Half-mad with fear, drink, love and opium, both vessel and passengers feel themselves going to pieces: and the very planks seem to twist themselves alive as the ship comes apart at the seams . . . 'Fantastic ... Gems tumble off the pages ... A strong sense of drama ... Much of the pleasure of reading his work is his original imagery.' Annie Proulx'Trade Review'Stunning . . . As exciting as any thriller.' - Sunday Times'A feat of imaginative reconstruction, as vivid as a dream.' - Daily Mail'Tells an utterly absorbing tale, in language of immense force and subtlety.' - Financial Times
£9.49
Faber & Faber Fire Down Below
Book SynopsisIntroduced by Kate Mosse, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the final novel in the Booker Prize-winning historical fiction Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.I think there has been death in my hands.On the last stretch of its epic voyage from England to Australia, a disintegrating warship inches towards land. But there are still trials ahead, as the vessel is smashed against an ice cliff and blasted by a great storm, while the claustrophobic passengers battle erotic desires, masculine rivalry and violent power struggles - all experiencing a sea change in their natures. And when an unseen fire begins to smoulder below decks, the other side of the world has never seemed further away ...''Fantastic ... Gems tumble off the pages ... A strong sense of drama ... Much of the pleasure of reading his work is his original imagery.'' Annie Proulx A truly noble achievement'. Patrick Trade Review'The best novel I've read this year ... The language fizzes and spits.' - Daily Telegraph'Awesome ... Ambivalent, unresolved, walking a tightrope between reason and spirituality, tragedy and comedy ... So compelling and disturbing.' - Victoria Glendinning
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Double Tongue
Book SynopsisMeet the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece in this transporting tale of the classical world by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Bettany Hughes.Did I believe in what I was doing? Or rather, since I was doing nothing, did I believe in what someone, something was doing to me? It begins with the half-burnt fish, miraculously restored to life, and the healing of the ill child.Young Arieka is an unloved misfit, but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest of Apollo, her life is transformed. She is taken to Delphi to become a Pythia: a mouthpiece for the god Apollo, an oracle uttering riddling prophecies from a smoky cave to frenzied crowds.But when this role is dramatically thrust upon her, the priestess must navigate political conspiracy and the threat of the Romans to preserve her belief - and sanity.'A remarkable work ... A compelling storyteller as well as a
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Faber & Faber The Scorpion God
Book Synopsis''Visionary.'' Bettany Hughes''Tremendous.'' Ben Okri''Luminous.'' Rose TremainEven when he leapt from the parapet he talked.Ancient Egypt. The Prince is set to marry Pretty Flower, his sister, in the Great House's incestuous society. But the Liar speaks a truth that transforms everything A primitive matriarchal society. While mothers raise children in the bucolic Place of Women, Chimp is tormented by the Leopard Men in their brutal hunts, until he gains new wisdom Imperial Rome. In an era of invention and exploration, the emperor realises he loves his illegitimate grandson more than his own loutish heir
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Faber & Faber The Pyramid
Book SynopsisFollow young Oliver''s rebellious coming-of-age in the village of Stillbourne in this comic novel by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Penelope Lively.Eighteen is a good time for suffering Welcome to the country town of Stillbourne. Restless teenage resident Oliver wants to enjoy himself before going to university, beginning with his pursuit of the Town Crier''s daughter. But in this claustrophobic community - stifled by the English class system, and where everybody knows everyone''s business - love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment . . .''The great unbreakable wild horse of the 1960s British literary stable.'' Rose Tremain ''A triumph of economy and pungent effect; a brilliant insight into the social rigidity of English provincial life ... A scathing, funny, occasionally tragic revenge on a time and a place.'' Penelope Liv
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Faber & Faber The Paper Men
Book Synopsis''A complex literary comedy from an extraordinarily powerful writer,.'' Malcolm Bradbury''The great unbreakable wild horse of the 1960s British literary stable.'' Rose Tremain''Rich as a compost heap.'' Melvyn BraggJoin an eccentric novelist on the run from his obsessive would-be biographer in this comic farce by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies. Why should I conceal the fact that I had found a full professor of Eng. Lit. rifling my dustbin?Fame, fortune, alcoholism, a failing marriage: for novelist Wilfred Barclay, his final unbearable irritation is his would-be-biographer, the young academic Professor Rick L. Tucker, who is determined to become The Barclay Man. Locked in a lethal relationship, the two men stumble across Europe, shedding wives, self-respect and identities in a game of literary cat and mouse - and the climax of their odyssey, when it comes, i
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Faber & Faber Cousins
Book Synopsis** With an introduction by Mariana Enríquez **A Granta Book of the Year''Cruel and strange and colourful.'' Catherine Lacey ''Brimming with life, humour and a vital twist of darkness.'' Alexandra Kleeman ''''A hellishly tender and hilariously twisted Little Women.'' Pola Oloixarac ''Ruthlessly ambitious and honest.'' Dizz TateCousins is the jewel in Venturini''s oeuvre mischievous and stylish, vital and mysterious . . . and completely original. It is the story of four women from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in La Plata, Argentina. Neighborhood mythologies, family, female sexuality, vengeance, and social mobility through art are explored and scrutinized in the voice of an unforgettable protagonist, Yuna, who stares wildly at the world in which she is compelled to live; a voice unique in its candidness, sharp edge and utterly breathtaking power.
£11.69
Faber & Faber My Heavenly Favourite
Book SynopsisSENSATIONAL WINNERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE''It''s been a long time since a novel has destroyed me like this . . . One of the boldest writers alive today.'' Max Porter''A novel of exquisite discomfort and delicious poetry . . . Made me laugh and gasp . . . I''m in awe.'' Brandon Taylor''Rejuvenating, glorious, brilliant. A book about obsession with prose that obsessed me from the first line.'' Daisy JohnsonIn the tempestuous summer of 2005, a local veterinarian becomes enraptured by a 14-year-old farmer's daughter his favourite' as he tends her father's cows. This deeply troubled soul is our narrator: a man who believes he offers the object of his love a tantalizing path out of the constrictions of her conservative rural life, a chance to escape to a world of fantasy. But the obsessive reliance he cultivates builds into a terrifying trap, with a crime and confession at the heart of it that threatens to rip their small c
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Faber & Faber The Book of the Most Precious Substance
Book Synopsis**Winner of the eDunnit Award for Crime ebook of the Year**Shortlisted for an LA Times Book Award, and a Daily Mail Book of the YearDeeply atmospheric. . . Combines intrigue, magic and antiquarian bookselling.' Observer''A marvellous, magical novel'' Irish Times''Irresistible. . . A lavish, lush quest novel.' LAUREN BEUKESRare book dealer Lily Albrecht has been given a tip-off about The Book of the Most Precious Substance, rumoured to be the most powerful occult book ever written. With some of the world's wealthiest people willing to pay a fortune for it, she embarks on a journey from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris, knowing that it could also help erase the greatest tragedy of her life.But does the book really exist at all, or will Lily lose everything in search of a ghost?What readers are saying:***** ''Erotic, thrilling, and tense all the way
£8.54
Faber & Faber Watch Us Dance
Book Synopsis**AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW**''Engrossing.'' Mail on Sunday''A powerful and compelling family saga.'' CHRISTINE MANGAN''Beautifully atmospheric.'' Financial TimesFROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LULLABYMorocco, 1968. The air is electric. Anything feels possible, and Mathilde is determined to celebrate it. Doesn't she have the right to enjoy life, after dedicating her best years to the war and then to this farm?Looking out at her elegant garden, Mathilde reflects on all she has achieved. Now in a newly independent country intoxicated by its own sense of freedom, she yearns for a radiant future. But her babies are now grown up, and Mathilde is about to learn that life can take wild and unexpected turns.Acclaim for The Country of Others:''A panoramic, ambitious tale.'' The Times''Exceptional.'' SALMAN RUSHDIE
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Faber & Faber Avalon
Book SynopsisBran's Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother abandons her and joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her common-law stepfather' on Bourdon Farms a plant nursery that doubles as a cover for a biker gang. She spends her days tending plants, slogging through high school and imagining what life could be if she had been born to a different family.Then she meets Peter a charming, troubled college student from the East Coast who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of art. The two begin a seemingly doomed long-distance relationship as Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings. She knows how to survive, but now she must learn how to live.''Avalon observes beautifully the shifting terrain of teenage intimacy: its intensity and its fragility . . . it's a hilarious, heartbreaking and of course extremely weird novel.'' Sunday Times
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Faber & Faber Shy
Book SynopsisTHE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CILLIAN MURPHYFrom the bestselling author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Shy is a novel about guilt, rage, imagination and boyhood. It is about being lost in the dark, and realising you are not alone.''Max Porter is one of my favourite writers in the world.'' George Saunders ''Beautiful and haunting.'' Kevin Barry ''The strangest, most beguiling and affecting of all his books.'' Ian Rankin''A miracle of language.'' Irish Times This is the story of a few strange hours in the life of a troubled teenage boy.You mustn't do that to yourself Shy. You mustn't hurt yourself like that.He is wandering into the night listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him.Got your special meds, n
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Faber & Faber Parade
Book Synopsis
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Faber & Faber Mistletoe Malice
Book SynopsisA dysfunctional family reunites for the Christmas holiday from hell in this rediscovered festive classic with fangs for fans of Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Taylor and Stella Gibbons.Literary comfort and joy. Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss The fire is on, sherry poured, presents wrapped, and claws are being sharpened. In a seaside cottage perched on a cliff, one family reunites for Christmas. While snow falls, a tyrannical widowed matriarch presides over her unruly brood. Her niece tends to her whims, but fantasizes about eloping; and as more guests arrive, each bringing their secret truths and dreams, the Christmas tree explodes, a brawl erupts, an escape occurs - and their midwinter madness climaxes...
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Faber & Faber Murder at Gulls Nest
Book Synopsis''HIGHLY recommended.'' Marian Keyes''Nora Breen will become a favourite character.'' Ian Moore''Nora Breen is Maria Von Trapp on steroids.'' Richard Armitage''A seaside mystery full of intrigue and secrets.'' Olivia Kiernan''A beautiful book, exquisitely written, I loved it.'' Nicola UpsonThe first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.In a house like Gulls Nest, curiosity might prove fatal . . . After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit. Her fellow sister Frieda has gone missing and it's up to Nora to find her. Nora's only clue is that Frieda was last seen at Gulls Nest boarding house. So she travels down to the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, takes a room and settles in to watch and listen. Over dubious and sometimes downright inedible dinners, Nora gathers evidence about the other lodgers. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness.When one of the lodgers is found dead, Nora decides she must find the murderer. Not least because she suspects the victim knew Frieda. Could solving this mystery help her to understand what has happened to her friend?Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character.' GuardianReaders love Murder at Gulls Nest ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A story that hooks you in and races you along. I loved it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The character observations are wonderful. Highly recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I fell in love with Nora from the moment I met her.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ She really has a magic way with words and it puts this cosy into a class of its own.
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