Contemporary Fiction Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisI write to try to see you as you were, or what you have become. You left no forwarding address: that was part of your intention. For when we wrote those letters to each other all those years ago, we wrote as much for ourselves as for each other.'More than twenty years after the end of their love affair, Gabriel receives a cryptic postcard from old flame Nina. It is the first of thirteen cards from her, each one provoking a series of reveries about their life together in 1980s Belfast.The Pen Friend is, however, much more than a love story. As Gabriel teases out the significance of the cards, his reveries develop into richly textured meditations on writing, memory, spiritualism and surveillance. The result is an intricate web of fact and fiction moving easily between such varied subjects as the Troubles, Esperanto and John Lavery a strange and wonderful novel by one of our finest Irish writers.If you enjoyed The Pen Friend, you might also enjoTrade ReviewThis man writes like an angel. -- Russell Hoban a strange and wonderful novel that confirns Carson as one of Ireland's most exciting authorsCarson is a conjurer with language… His eye lighs on an astonishing miscellany of fact and fantasy, but remains sharply focused throughout.This novel is an original creation. Technically complex but oddly simple, arcanely information, humorously puzzling, sensible, sensational, compassionate, it deserves to win whatever prizes are going. For the Man Booker jury, here's a book and a man.fascinating and absorbing from beginning to endCarson has already done for poetry in Ireland what he is now doing for fiction, changing its contours, extending its borders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHave you ever just clicked with someone?Is there a safer space for secret desires than virtual reality? Just what you need WENDY HOLDENIt begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other, and soon Emmi and Leo are sharing their innermost secrets and longings. The erotic tension simmers, and it seems only a matter of time before they will meet in person. But they keep putting off the moment - the prospect both unsettles and excites them. And, after all, Emmi is happily married. Will their feelings for each other survive the test of a real-life encounter?Translated from German by Jamie Bulloch and Katharina BielenbergTrade Review'Just what you need' Wendy Holden, Daily Mail. * Daily Mail *'Short, striking and snappily written, Love Virtually explores the brilliant premise of love by accidental e-mail' Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror. * Daily Mirror *'Perhaps the first great romantic novel of the internet age' Sunday Express. * Sunday Express *'A modern romance that feels both fresh and traditional' Rebecca Wilson, Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *'I couldn't put it down ... like a jilted lover, when I reached the end I wanted more' Danielle Goldstein, Time Out. * Time Out *'it is tense and brilliantly paced' Independent on Sunday. * Independent on Sunday *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the moment he meets Julia, Christiaan Dudok is dangerously close to love. But their first date is interrupted by S.A. Brownshirts storming into the cafe. It is 1937, and Germany is heading for war and fanaticism. Chris, a Dutchman, is both transfixed and appalled by the effect of Hitler''s manic oratory on the people of Lubeck.The independence and freedom of thought that Chris finds so attractive in Julia leads her to emphatically reject the Nazi regime, and before long her courageous stance brings them both to the Gestapo''s attention. Soon Chris is forced to make an impossible choice, the outcome of which he can only regret.Trade ReviewAn affecting study of regret . . . A compelling account of how conflicts tear apart lives -- Lucy Popescu * Tribune *What is most striking in this novel is de Kat's use of the Dutchman's slightly distanced perspective to pinpoint what was most unsettling about this time: through him we register the terrible energy and torpor of a moment when it seems impossible for ordinary Germans to stop the march or step out of line, and yet unconscionable for them not to try -- Madeleine Clements * Times Literary Supplement *''A sequence of memories beautifully linked together by the images drifting through the mind of a man waiting to die' Guardian. * Guardian *'De Kat's ambition of theme is served by astonishing tautness of construction and spareness of language' Independent. * Independent *'Emotionally shattering, it is also distinguished by logical intricacy of art and precision of detail' Paul Binding, T.L.S. Books of the Year. * Paul Binding *'A monumental little book' Roger Cox, Scotsman. * Scotsman *

Read more less

Book Synopsis1938. Hitler''s expansionist policies are arousing both anger and admiration, not least in Helsinki''s Wednesday Club. The members of this relaxed gentleman''s club are old friends of lawyer Claes Thune. But this year it is apparent that the political unrest in Europe is having an effect on the cohesion of the group.Thune has recently divorced and is at something of a loss, running his law practice with no great enthusiasm. Luckily he has the assistance of an efficient new secretary, Matilda Wiik. But behind her polished exterior Mrs Wiik is tormented by memories of the Finnish Civil War, when she experienced horrors she has been trying to forget ever since. And one evening, with the Wednesday Club gathered in Thune''s office, she hears a voice she hoped she would never hear again.She is suddenly plunged back into the past. But this time she is no longer a helpless victim . . .Trade ReviewThoughtful and knowledgeable . . . An interesting and instructive book -- Jessica Mann * Literary Review. *An extremely impressive achievement * Svenska Dagbladet *A well-constructed, taut narrative that feels fresh, and as tense as a thriller. He has created a story that reaches out through time and space, but in which every component works towards the tragic, vaguely foreshadowed yet still unexpected climax * Hufvudstadsbladet *The Nordic region's most important interpreter of the grand themes of our political history, and how they have affected people's lives and thoughts. * Sveriges Radio *The Wednesday Club is a tense, gripping thriller ... a book one cannot put down or easily forget -- Mika Provata-Carlone * Bookanista *Extremely focused and tense: Westö has turned his talent for balanced, attractive storytelling to a sharper, snappier form of crime-writing * Norrbottens Kurir *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom fatal accident to life-saving operation, Maylis de Kerangal, one of the brightest and boldest writers of modern literary fiction, returns with the epic story of a heart transplant.Trade ReviewA metaphorical and lyrical exploration of the journey of one heart and two bodies . . . Compelling, original and ambitious, this novel illuminates what it is to be human. * Val McDermid *This breathless novel has all the beauty of a Greek tragedy. It is also a hymn to creation and a meditation on the relationship between the body and consciousness, life and death. -- Astrid de Larminat * Figaro *Far from being the simple tale of a heart transplant, this novel is a true epic, a great modern saga that investigates our relationship with death as much as our relationship with language. -- François Busnel * Lire *A true novel, a great novel, an extraordinary novel. -- Bernard Pivot * Journal du Dimanche *Maylis de Kerangal navigates perfectly between the epic and the intimate; let's just say that her writing will shake you to your very core. -- Olivia de Lamberterie * Elle *Heartbreaking; I've seldom read a more moving book... De Kerangal is a master of momentum, to the extent that when the book ends, the reader feels bereft. She shows that narratives around illness and pain can energize the nobler angels of our nature and make for profoundly lovely art. One longs for more -- Lydia Kiesling * Guardian *A thrilling opening sequence, well-suited to her urgent, breathless, visceral prose ... this extraordinary novel etches itself in the mind ... There is a flamboyant artistry at work, yet Maylis de Kerangal is confronting a reality that is all too real -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *The story unfolds in an intricate lacework of precise detail. These characters feel less like fictional creations and more like ordinary people, briefly illuminated in rich language ... an exploration not only of death but of life, of humanity and fragility -- Priya Parmar * New York Review of Books *Among the most fascinating writers of her generation. With Mend the Living, Maylis de Kerangal attains even greater heights -- Raphaelle Leyris * Le Monde *A novel that goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being -- Amanda Hopkinson * Independent *From its glorious 300-word first sentence to the stately canopic imagery of its climactic scenes, Mend the Living, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, mimics the rhythm of the processes it depicts - the troughs and peaks of grief and protocol, of skills utilised and acceptance finally achieved. -- M. John Harrison * Guardian *One of the most original novels I've encountered in recent years . . . she finds an incredible poetry in the vocabulary of medicine and surgery -- Jonathan Coe * The Week *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''A tremendous novel that combines powerfully moving moments with hilarious satire'' Daily Mail''Eva Thorvald is the new Olive Kitteridge'' Elisabeth Egan''Kitchens of the Great Midwest is terrific'' Jane Smiley, GuardianHave you met Eva Thorvald?To her father, a chef, she''s a pint-sized recipe tester and the love of his life. To the chilli chowdown contestants of Cook County, Illinois, she''s a fire-eating demon. To the fashionable foodie goddess of supper clubs, she''s a wanton threat. She''s an enigma, a secret ingredient that no one can figure out. Someday, Eva will surprise everyone. One by one, they tell their story; together, they tell Eva''s. Joyful, quirky and heartwarming, this is a novel about the family you lose, the friends you make and the chance connections that make a life.On the day before her eleventh birthday, she''s cultivating chilli peppers in her wardrobe like a pro. Abandoned by her Trade ReviewAn oven-warm yet bittersweet collection of character studies circling the story of Eva Thorvald . . . Hilariously precise in its cultural geography . . . But in spite of its locavorous detail, the novel's plot is driven by a universal truth: that food brings people together * Independent on Sunday *This offbeat debut features many satisfying ingredients, including triumph over adversity, recipes and a warm Midwestern backdrop * Mail on Sunday *Stradal creates something quirky, affecting and delicious * Sunday Mirror *Fun and original * Woman and Home *Stradal's delicious debut reveals Eva's sweet, sad, funny self in a series of funny vignettes * Psychologies *A gorgeous feast that feeds both the senses and the soul * Simple Things *A tender coming-of-age story with a mix of finely rendered pathos and humour . . . Ultimately, Kitchens reveals the strong interplay among food, family and our most cherished memories . . . Stradal suggests that love - or the absence of love - is the most powerful condition of all * Washington Post *Time flew by when we sat down with Kitchens of the Great Midwest, a charming and unusual first novel . . . We were blown away by Stradal's flair for depicting messy emotions and mixed-up families, and delighted by his insightful and funny reflections on foodie culture and class dynamics * iBooks, Book of the Month *A warm and enjoyable read about life, love, food, family . . . and chilli eating contests * Stylist, book of the month *This wise and witty tale of immigrant assimilation wholeheartedly embraces a passion for food . . . Laugh-out-loud funny . . . Stradal is so good at evoking the inner lives of his characters, male and female, young and old . . . Stradal has a sharp eye for the evolution of culture and for landscape; his tone is light, always a little askew . . . Midwesterners never forget what things cost, and Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a terrific reminder of what can be wrested from suffering and struggle - not only success, but also considerable irony, a fair amount of wisdom and a decent meal -- Jane Smiley * Guardian *This lovely, poignant, hilarious book is the best thing I have read this year. Everything about it is original and wonderful . . . The writing is whipcrack smart and it's both powerfully moving and brilliantly satirical, especially about kitchen snobbery. Read it, read it! -- Wendy Holden * Daily Mail *Despite a life pockmarked by poverty and other adversities, Eva has an equally outsize heart. A warring mass of desires, talents and imperfections, she's an attractively flawed, completely likable demigoddess . . . Kitchens of the Great Midwest is not only Eva's story but also a gastronomic portrait of a region . . . It's an impressive feat of narrative jujitsu . . . This colorful, character-driven story . . . keeps readers turning the ­pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are * New York Times *Eva Thorvald is the new Olive Kitteridge * Elisabeth Egan, author of A Window Opens *Teenagers and foodies (teenage foodies especially), will love this book. It's about Eva, a bullied girl who triumphs over her adversaries to become a legendary chef. This is great in itself, but there's so much more to it than that . . . The story-within-a-story action ranges all over the U.S. and is a celebration of great American food as well as the great American underdog. A tremendous novel that combines powerfully moving moments with hilarious satire, especially about kitchen snobbery -- Wendy Holden * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisBelladonna is brutal, beautiful, and unforgettable . . . One of the truly outstanding novels of recent years EILEEN BATTERSBY, Los Angeles Review of Books** Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2018**** Shortlisted for the inaugural E.B.R.D. Prize for Literature **** Shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize **An excoriating work of fiction that references the twentieth century''s darkest hoursAndreas Ban is a writer and a psychologist, an intellectual proper, but his world has been falling apart for years. When he retires with a miserable pension and finds out that he is ill, he gains a new perspective on the debris of his life and the lives of his friends. In defying illness and old age, Andreas Ban is cynical and powerful, and in his unravelling of his own past and the lives of others, he uncompromisingly lays bare a gamut of taboos. Andreas Ban stands foTrade ReviewYou read this generous, angry, and candid novel of ideas in a continuing state of wondrous disquiet . . . Belladonna is brutal, beautiful, and unforgettable. Daša Drndic achieves her mission, proving that silence cannot erase the past. Memory stalks us, and always triumphs -- Eileen Battersby * Los Angeles Review of Books *Daša Drndic, whose razor-edged wit and outspoken courage glints and slices across every page . . . cultivates a visionary art of memory . . . In Belladonna, her writing glows with an incendiary bleakness worthy of Beckett . . . But along with that asperity and melancholy comes a gallows humour that often swings into an uproarious mood of mischief and absurdity. -- Boyd Tonkin * Arts Newspaper *This book is literature with a capital L and Drndic is a miracle maker conjuring some optimism from despair and charm amid the grisly -- M. Bartley Seigal * Words Without Borders *Drndic stares directly into the inky sins of us all and doesn't blink. Belladonna is a thrilling book. Unforgettable in the seamless way the author combines the real world and the fictional until it no longer matters because, in the end, all of it is the truth. -- Mark Haber * Quarterly Conversation *This panoramic work by Drndic is less a novel than a life's worth of reminiscences annotated with photographs and copious footnotes, reminiscent of the works of Aleksandar Hemon and W.G. Sebald . . . This work may well be the national novel of Croatia. * Publishers Weekly. *A very fine novel, wise and brave. Her fiction is very powerful statement fiction, and yet somehow the quality, the humanity, the playfulness actually counters the polemical intent. This is an extraordinary book. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *The novel is multi-faceted, sharp, surprising, darkly and grimly hilarious, relevant to our times, and possesses limitless depth. It also bristles with intelligence and defiance in every paragraph, like an exceptionally erudite and alert porcupine. Belladonna deserves major awards consideration -- Jeff Vandermeer * The Millions *A pensive, provocative novel of history, memory, and our endlessly blood-soaked times by one of the foremost writers to have emerged from the former Yugoslavia . . . An elegant novel of ideas concerning decidedly inelegant topics, empathetic but unforgiving. * Kirkus Reviews *Its own language compelling, open-ended notwithstanding its apocalyptic images, Belladonna resembles a prose Waste Land, an X-ray of our culture, Ban's fragments, like Eliot's, shored against the ruins of our age. -- Michele Levy * World Literature Today *Daša Drndic interweaves fiction, reality, history, and memory to terrific effect . . . Drndic attacks history with a novelist's sensibility and has produced a poignant meditation on love and loss, the insanity of war and the legacy of human cruelty. -- Lucy Popescu * Europe Now *

Read more less

Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017Keflavik: a town that may be the darkest place in Iceland, surrounded by black lava fields, hemmed in by a sea that may not be fished, and site of the U.S. military base, whose influences shaped Icelandic culture from the ''50s to the dawning of the new millennium. Ari - a writer and publisher - lands back in Keflavik from Copenhagen. His father is dying, and he is flooded by memories of his youth in the ''70s and ''80s, listening to Pink Floyd and the Beatles, raiding American supply lorries and discovering girls. And one girl he could never forget. Layered through Ari''s story is that of his grandparents in a village on the eastern coast, a world away from modern Keflavik. For his grandfather Oddur, life at sea was a destiny; for Margrét its elemental power brings only loneliness and fear. Both the story of a singular family and an epic that sparkles with love, pain and lifelong desire - with all of Trade ReviewPowerful and sparkling . . . Prize-winning translator Philip Roughton's feather-light touch brings out the gleaming, fairy-tale quality of the writing, making what could be a stereotypically dark Nordic novel an impassioned and lyrical read. In Fish Have No Feet, Stefánsson brings out the history of a place and its people in a way few contemporary writers ever manage. -- Nora Mahoney * Irish Times. *Stefánsson's prose - translated with craggy eloquence by Philip Roughton - rolls and surges with oceanic splendour. -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator. *A wonderful, exceptional writer . . . A timeless storyteller -- Carsen JensenVery powerful -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAged fifteen, as Franco''s forces begin their murderous purges and cities across Spain rise up against the old order, Montse has never heard the word fascista before. In any case, the villagers say facha (the ch is a real Spanish ch, by the way, with a real spit).Montse lives in a small village, high in the hills, where few people can read or write and fewer still ever leave. If everything goes according to her mother''s plan, Montse will never leave either. She will become a good, humble maid for the local landowners, muchísimas gracias, with every Sunday off to dance the jota in the church square.But Montse''s world is changing. Her brother José has just returned from Lérida with a red and black scarf and a new, dangerous vocabulary and his words are beginning to open up new realms to his little sister. She might not understand half of what he says, but how can anyone become a maid in the Burgos family when their head is riTrade ReviewImpressive ... an effective account of a hideous time of brutal politics and the desperate compromises many made to make life possible -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *The great originality of this novel ... is the blending of the universal and personal experiences of the Spanish Civil War -- Sebastian Lapaque * Figaro *An extraordinary book . . . very powerful -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *Lydie Salvayre orchestrates her story like a true maestro -- Jéròme Garcin * BibliObs *A turbulent, magnificent novel that shines a new light on the Spanish Civil War. It resonates with the power of a manifesto for modern times -- François Busnel * Express *Lydie Salvayre has cultivated a resounding anger... Cry, Mother Spain is the novel and the tribute of an impassioned voice -- Philippe Lançon * Libération *A seriously important novel ... The novel Pasolini would have written had he been the son of Spanish exiles -- Josep Lambies * Time Out Barcelona *Lydie Salvayre creates a dynamic harmony in a language that elevates grit, heroism and beauty -- Jean Birnbaum * Le Monde *Lydie Salvayre has written a novel about the Spanish Civil War unlike any other. Her approach gives her story an astonishing power and a unique perspective -- Mercedes Monmay * ABC Cultural *A magnificent novel. A brilliantly written family saga and a mesmerising study of memory and historical reconstruction -- Fran G. Matute * El Mundo *

Read more less

Book SynopsisHaunting and beautifully written first novel by the award-winning author of Battleborn, set among a cult of survivors in a dystopian American desert''A Mad Max world painted with a finer brush'' Elle''An unforgettable journey into a hauntingly imagined near-future'' Ruth Ozeki''Set in a drought-ravaged Southern California trolled by scavengers, Gold Fame Citrus burns with a dizzying, scorching genius'' Vanity Fair Desert sands have laid waste to the south-west of America. Las Vegas is buried. California - and anyone still there - is stranded. Any way out is severely restricted. But Luz and Ray are not leaving. They survive on water rations, black market fruit and each other''s need. Luz needs Ray, and Ray must be needed. But then they cross paths with a mysterious child, who needs them more than anything - and the thirst for a better life begins.Claire Vaye Watkins''sTrade ReviewAn extraordinary novel: relentlessly brilliant, utterly fearless, and often savagely funny. Watkins explores the maze of human thirst in all its forms. Here's a love story that tracks the mutating hopes of two lost souls, in prose that is fever-bright and ferociously assured. More confirmation that Watkins is one of the brightest stars in our firmament * Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia and Vampires in the Lemon Grove *A tour-de-force first novel blisters with drought, myth, and originality . . . Praised for writing landscape, Watkins' grasp of the body is just as rousing . . . Critics will reference Annie Proulx's bite and Joan Didion's hypnotic West, but Watkins is magnificently original * Kirkus *A gripping, audacious novel, plausibly imagined in all its remarkable details. With Claire Vaye Watkins there was never promise: it was achievement from the start, and this book repays her admirers in spades * Thomas McGuane *An unforgettable journey into a hauntingly imagined near-future. With her mind-bending vision, breathtaking storytelling and utterly original voice, Claire Vaye Watkins is one of my favorite writers * Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being *Set in an increasingly plausible-seeming future in which drought has transformed Southern California into a howling wasteland, this debut novel by the author of the prize-winning story collection Battleborn finds two refugees of the water wars holed up in a starlet's abandoned mansion in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon. Seeking lusher landscape, the pair head east, risking attack by patrolling authorities, roving desperadoes, and the unrelenting sun * The Millions - most anticipated books of 2015 *Exhilarating, upsetting, delirious, bold, Gold Fame Citrus is a head rush of a novel and establishes Claire Vaye Watkins as an important new voice in American literature * Louise Erdrich, author of The Round House *A sun-hammered fever dream, not unlike the shimmering, sweltering southwest it depicts. Your heart will be wrung out by the journey of Luz, Raymond, and Ig. Your imagination will feast on the assured depiction of a near-future that is burnt to a crisp. And you'll hope it's all a mirage as Watkins renders a hot and very plausible future the frightening force of a burning inevitability * Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek *The book is packed with persuasive detail, luminous writing, and a grasp of the history (popular, political, natural and imagined) needed to tell a story that is original yet familiar, strange yet all too believable * Publisher's Weekly *American odyssey: Set in a drought-ravaged Southern California trolled by scavengers, Gold Fame Citrus burns with a dizzying, scorching genius * Vanity Fair *Watkins brings a gorgeous sense of language and a native desert-dweller's understanding of California to her audacious and dystopian first novel . . . The drought, the desperation and the fantasy built by the guru all feel disturbingly real * BBC *She's sharp, at times merciless, and never above a little fun . . . The book is instantly entrancing, alluring as a mirage, and filled with peril, mystery, sandstorms, the occult, and a cast of nuanced characters * Los Angeles Magazine *Extraordinary power and beauty . . . A great pleasure of the book is Watkins's fearlessness * New York Times *Like the best stories in her 2013 Dylan Thomas Prize-winning collection Battleborn, the narrative focuses on left-behind people and left-behind places - those who exist at the periphery of destructive events . . . Which may make it surprising to say that this book is also funny. It's funny in the way that a Joy Williams or Mary Gaitskill or Flannery O'Connor story is funny. It's laughter in the dark, the comedy of unending struggle . . . The sentences in Gold Fame Citrus are alive in ways the sun-blasted landscape isn't, and therein lies the hope -- Jonathan Lee * Financial Times *Watkins's apocalyptic new novel seems a revisionist refit of McCarthy's The Road . . . that (unlike The Road) puts female characters centre-stage in a geographically vivid setting. The style hits you first . . . Formidably wrought -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Telegraph *Watkins writes with grace, wit and imagination in her first novel . . . Watkins's writing engrosses because she is mainly concerned with how people behave in extreme circumstances; no matter how strange the background, her characters stay believable -- Kate Saunders * The Times *The empty swimming pools and intense light conjure JG Ballard's environmental dystopias as well as Margaret Atwood's . . . Both nail-biting and digressive, at times lushly overwritten, at times wryly incisive, but always powerful . . . Vaye Watkins' portrait of Levi, the leader of the sand dune colony, is a tour de force: chilling, beguiling, paranoid, convincing and pathetic by turns. . . Her novel certainly cuts deep in its vision of overwhelming natural power . . . most of all in her extraordinary creation of the dune sea . . . too vast for human comprehension, yet at the same time a tabula rasa for each fragile individual's desires, it's a classic example of the Romantic sublime, as mesmerising as it is deadly -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *A wild book conveying the allure of people improvising, as well as the strange charm of the landscape . . . Vaye Watkins is well versed in the region's seductive myths . . . It is hard not to read the demise of idealogy as well as collapsing ecology as the driving force [ . . .] a contemporary distrust of power, whoever wields it [. . .] even her pleasure in language reflects back a suspicion of rhetoric that seeks to persuade . . . The complexities of emotion and power is probed so intelligently -- Kate Webb * Times Literary Supplement *California has always been the place where they went to start it big. Lured by 'gold, fame, citrus' as a character puts it, a phrase on which her book is a fascinating, dystopian fugue . . . Like McCarthy, her desert landscapes are dense as well as barren, not just in the physical detail with which they're rendered, but the significance with which characters imbue them . . . A powerful portrait of an apocalypse less the result of external catastrophe, than familiar human failings -- Sam Kitchener * Independent *A Mad Max world painted with a finer brush . . . beautiful and profoundly unsettling * Elle *

Read more less

Book SynopsisJean Daragane, writer and recluse, has purposely built a life of seclusion away from the Parisian bustle. He doesn''t see many people, he rarely goes out: he spends his life in a solitary world of his own making.His peace is shattered however, one hot September afternoon, by a threatening phone call from a complete stranger, who claims to have found Daragane''s old phone book and wants to question him about a particular name it contains. But when Daragane agrees to meet the mysterious Gilles Ottolini, he realises that - try as he might - he cannot place the name Guy Torstel at all. Yet Ottolini is desperate for any information on this man...Finding himself suddenly entangled in the lives of Ottolini and his beautiful, but fragile young associate, Daragane is drawn into the mystery of a decades-old murder that will drag him out of his lonely apartment and force him to confront the memory of a long-suppressed personal trauma.Imbued with nostalgia, subtlety, andTrade ReviewThis incessant quest, which Modiano might judge pointless, nevertheless produces - in the manner of Proust - one of the most obsessive and fascinating searches for lost time. -- Jérome Garcin * Le Nouvel Observateur *Dream-like, solemn, utterly unique and impervious to aesthetic fashions, his work defies the passage of time. -- Nathalie Crom * Télérama *A magnificent, haunting novel, whose spell lasts long after reading. * Vogue *A pure original ... you don't read Modiano for answers. You read each Modiano novel for its place in a giant sequence: a new restatement of a single unsolvable crime. -- Adam Thirlwell * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of a man who rose from peasant stock to become Estonia's most famous medieval chronicler - The third novel in a historical trilogy by Estonia's most famous writerTrade ReviewHailed as the Estonian answer to Wolf Hall -- Books of the Year 2022 * Financial Times *He's a marvellous novelist - his scope and depth make him a world writer - and they should just hurry up and give him the Nobel.He deserved a Nobel prize and would probably have got it had he written in any other language but Estonian. * Guardian. *He's almost alone in writing in the older European tradition of the large-scale historical novel. I'd argue that Kross is heir to the 'great' Russo-European 19th century novelists; his fiction has Tolstoyan sweep. On reading him, moreover, we rediscover that Estonia was always resolutely in Europe and not some obscure outpost this side of the Urals.No stranger to oppression himself, Kross writes about it with a poignancy devoid of anger.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novelisation of Youth (La Giovinezza) - an original film by Paolo Sorrentino, starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Rachel WeiszTrade ReviewNobody else is making such operatic films half so well as Sorrentino: Youth makes nearly all the other contenders for the Palme d'Or this year seem to lack conviction. ***** -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *

Read more less

Book Synopsis**Sunday Times Best Books of 2018**Funny, irreverent and scathing GuardianVirginie Despentes is a true original, a punk rock George Eliot ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN, author of You Too Could Have a Body Like MineRock star Alexandre Bleach might be dead, but he has a secret. It''s a secret that concerns several people, but the only person who can unlock it is Vernon Subutex, former record shop proprietor turned homeless messiah and guru, last seen hallucinating and feverish on a bench in the parc des Buttes Chaumont.Aïcha wants to know the truth behind the death of her mother, Vodka Satana. And if she finds the bastards responsible, she wants to make them pay, whatever Céleste thinks of her plan.Céleste wants Aïcha to get a grip and stop hanging around with Subutex''s gang of disciples. The Hyena wants to find the Bleach tapes. She wants to untangle her complicated feelings about Anaïs, her boss'' assistant. AnTrade ReviewAlternative Paris at its most compassionate, angry and funny . . . Spiky rants on the sick state of bourgeois society enliven and provoke - it's all très cool * The Sunday Times, "Best books of the last five years" *Funny, irreverent and scathing * Guardian *Virginie Despentes is a true original, a punk rock George Eliot with a keen taste for the pitiable innards of her characters: no one else has her slyly penetrating eye, her spiky sense of humor, her razor wit that cuts like wire through the accumulated crud of our age's default thought patterns. In her masterful hands,Vernon Subutex becomes a droll, hilarious, insightful record of our unfortunate times -- ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN * author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine *Vernon Subutex Two presents Paris in all its glory and its grime. Sharply translated by Frank Wynne, this is the best multi-volume fiction series since Elena Ferrante * 1843 *Virginie Despentes continues her picaresque tour de force with the same driving energy sustained by vicious wit, exasperation, stark insight and compelling empathy . . . In her seething Paris of messed-up losers and relentless operators, Despentes exposes a universal society gone mad on greed, fear and ruthlessness * Irish Times *Truthful, brash, brilliant and shocking. I was both appalled and mesmerised -- Victoria Hislop * The Week *Virginie Despentes Vernon Subutex trilogy savages contemporary life . . . Vernon Subutex Two is equally good and is my book of the year * The Sunday Times, "Best Books of 2018" *Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read . . . [It] has dupes and assholes and racists and the people they hate and a stunning diversity of internal monologues and trans true love. Like the last decade, it searches for a happy ending that isn't merely personal and can't find it . . . These novels with their depth and detail kick TV's sorry ass -- Nell Zink * Bustle, "Best Books of the 2010s" *It's bastards across the board in Virginie Despentes's brilliantly unshackled trilogy Vernon Subutex . . . What keeps you reading is the voice - acerbic, unconstrained, bitterly funny and, despite the book's intimations of enlightenment, perpetually pissed off. * Wall Street Journal *A satire on fading punk politics . . . Despentes at her most compassionate, and hopeful * The White Review *Like William S. Burroughs updated for the age of WhatsApp, Vernon Subutex Two straps our current world to a chair and interrogates the hell out of it * The Millions *A sexed-up epic * Publisher's Weekly, starred review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA modern saga spanning the whole of the 20th century, by one of Iceland''s most celebrated writers.At the beginning of this story there is death, and yet it is a celebration of life - the passion between a man and a woman, forbidden love, violence, sorrow, betrayal. Happiness and misfortune are passed down from one generation to the next. The sorrow over what was and what might have been weighs heavily on the characters and at the end of this chain, for now, stands Ari, on his way to his dying father, with a score still to be settled. The raw beauty of life is written into the dramatic Icelandic landscape, and into a society that has undergone great transformation within a century. In language both archaic and lyrical, and yet entirely contemporary and full of humour, Jón Kalman Stefánsson proves himself one of the finest European writers of his generation.A companion volume to Fish Have No Feet (longlisted for the Man Booker International PrTrade ReviewStefánsson's prose rolls and surges with oceanic splendour. -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator. *A wonderful, exceptional writer . . . A timeless storyteller. -- Carsen JensenPowerful and sparkling . . . Prize-winning translator Philip Roughton's feather-light touch brings out the gleaming, fairy-tale quality of the writing -- Nora Mahoney * Irish Times *Stefansson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy -- Eileen Battersby * Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA family story of epic scale, by the author of NORWEGIAN WOOD and THE BELL IN THE LAKE.An intricate story about war, family, secrets and,yes, wood ... An engaging, satisfying read The TimesSo cleverly plotted, and it builds up such effortless dramatic momentum as it zeroes in on its conclusion ScotsmanEdvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery - he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother. But he knows that the fate of his grandfather''s brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death - a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all. Edvard''s desperate quest to unlock the family''s tTrade ReviewMytting's book is as much a romantic historical thriller as it is a book of promise, a page-turner as it is a reflective journey into selfhood, history, life's meaning and individual moral responsibility -- Mika Provata-Carlone * Bookanista *Mytting follows up Norwegian Wood with a mystery that fits together like a piece of fine marquetry -- Christian House * Observer *The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is so cleverly plotted, and it builds up such effortless dramatic momentum as it zeroes in on its conclusion -- Roger Cox * Scotsman *The tug of this book on the heart and mind is irresistible . . . And you will, I think, struggle to find a modern novel in which the emotional, imaginative lure of trees and wood is as powerful. -- Michael Duggan * Catholic Herald Books of the Year. *Though the twists of discovery drive the plot, it is the intimacy with the natural world - as we might expect from the author of the phenomenally successful Norwegian Wood - that most compels us: potato-flowers, islets, storm petrels, walnut trees and walnut wood. -- Paul Binding * Times Literary Supplement *Mytting's novel has it all: the propulsive narrative, the human interest, the deep historical context, the gorgeously detailed descriptions of the finer things in life -- Toby Lichtig * Wall Street Journal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe most ambitious and rewarding novel to date by the acclaimed Colombian authorTrade ReviewOne of the most original new writers of Latin American Literature. -- Mario Vargas LlosaFor anyone who has read the entire works of Gabriel García Márquez and is in search of a new Colombian novelist, then Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . is a thrilling new discovery. -- Colm Tóibín * Guardian. *Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . has succeeded García Márquez as the literary grandmaster of Colombia -- Ariel Dorfman * New York Review of Books *A masterful writer . . . Juan Gabriel Vásquez has many gifts--intelligence, wit, energy, a deep vein of feeling--but he uses them so naturally that soon enough one forgets one's amazement at his talents, and then the strange, beautiful sorcery of his tale takes hold -- Nicole KraussLike Don DeLillo's JFK-themed Libra, the novel is an intoxicating blend of fact and fiction -- Malcolm Forbes * Glasgow Herald *Juan Gabriel Vásquez's The Shape of the Ruins is a highly sophisticated, fast-moving political thriller set in Colombia and an excellent read -- Alan FurstJuan Gabriel Vásquez's latest and most ambitious novel.... A dazzlingly choreographed network of echoes and mirrorings * Times Literary Supplement *With utmost skill, Vásquez has us accompany him in his detective work, proposing a reflection on ghosts from the past and the inheritance of blame, doubt and fear * El Pais *Absolutely hypnotic, a display of tense, agile, intelligent narrative, it takes conspiracy to a whole other level * El Cultural *Assembled with satisfying complexity . . . it's his most ambitious and accomplished work yet. -- Daniel Hahn * Prospect *This clever, labyrinthine, thoroughly enjoyable historical novel by the Colombian author of The Informers and The Sound of Things Falling entangles the two deaths and investigates the internecine politics that lay behind them. -- M John Harrison * Guardian *Beautifully voiced by his serial translator Anne McLean, Vásquez writes with the elliptical feints and ruses of a story-teller who admires Joseph Conrad in his most delphic moods. The result is sly, subtle, captivating. -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator. *The most famous novelist to come out of Colombia since Gabriel García Márquez. His subtle, nuanced fiction uses the tools of documentary reportage - historical sleuthing and interviews with witnesses - to steer readers through the nation's labyrinthine past * 1843 Mag (Economist) *[A] gripping novel by one of Colombia's finest authors -- Angel Gurria-Quintana * Financial Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe follow-up to the internationally acclaimed The President''s GardensAl-Ramli is a remarkable storyteller, and in Daughter of the Tigris he creates a dynamic, intricately plotted narrative, brimming with stories and a host of memorable characters Susannah Tarbush, Banipal On the sixth day of Ramadan, in a land without bananas, Qisma leaves for Baghdad with her husband-to-be to find the body of her father. But in the bloodiest year of a bloody war, how will she find one body among thousands? For Tariq, this is more than just a marriage of convenience: the beautiful, urbane Qisma must be his, body and soul. But can a sheikh steeped in genteel tradition share a tranquil bed with a modern Iraqi woman? The President has been deposed, and the garden of Iraq is full of presidents who will stop at nothing to take his place. Qisma is afraid - afraid for her son, afraid that it is only a matter of time before her father''sTrade ReviewAl-Ramli offers laughter, sorrow, and a breathtakingly grim climax. * Mail on Sunday. *Al-Ramli is a remarkable storyteller, and in Daughter of the Tigris he creates a dynamic, intricately plotted narrative, brimming with stories and a host of memorable characters. -- Susannah Tarbush * Banipal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA contemporary Berlin fairy tale that bristles with urban truths - the first novel of Germany's most successful playwrightTrade ReviewSchimmelpfennig's world is uncomfortable and cold; but in the hearts of his characters glow the flames of longing, passion and solidarity -- Martin Halter * Berliner Zeitung *The exhilarating narrative is wonderfully concise, and the imagery is intensely cinematic. -- Barry Forshaw * Guardian. *Mesmerizing . . . The narrative is wonderfully spare, rendered in clear, simple sentences . . . A satisfying and memorable story -- Alannah Hopkin * Irish Examiner *A powerful novel of extraordinary momentum and contemporaneity - its looping narrative is both gripping and unsettling * Spiegel *A moving book that delicately and expertly captures a prevailing atmosphere - of disorientation and bleakness in society, and of unexpressed feelings * Deutschland Radiokultur *As cool and incisive as its title suggests * TAZ *A looping, episodic, beguiling contemporary fable about a set of dysfunctional, seemingly disconnected characters whose fates are spun together along the mysterious wolf 's path . . . delivered crisply in Jamie Bulloch's translation. * Daily Telegraph (*****) *A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace. * Irish Times *Roland Schimmelpfennig shockingly reverses readerly expectations and conjures up for us a superbly dark comedy of manners . . . This combined quality of stage economy and theatricality accentuates what is essentially a particularly unflinching, penetrating gaze into the state of our society. * Bookanista *A vivid ensemble of nuanced characters emerge as their daily lives coincide through a cleverly multi-layered, interconnected narrative . . . Schimmlpfennig rarely says too much in a brilliantly kaleidoscopic morality tale that suggests a great deal * Financial Times *A magnificent achievement, a novel of terrific originality * New European *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe acclaimed story of a young girl's awakening - set in the the evocative, beautiful Ukrainian/Polish city of LvivTrade ReviewThe House with the Stained-Glass Window is remarkable, a gripping, Lvivian evocation of a city and a family across a long and painful century, at once personal and political, a novel of life and survival across the ages * Philippe Sands *Zanna Sloniowska writes beautifully; with empathy, sensitivity, and with real political impact. As a Ukrainian from the multicultural city of Lviv, she provides an important new voice in Polish literature. -- Olga TokarczukFew novels will engage the heart and mind as cohesively as this emphatic performance that triumphs through its depiction of the human stories overshadowed by history. * Financial Times. *Sloniowska writes subtly and beautifully - every phrase conjures up images, casting colourful lights just like the stained-glass window of the title.This story could only have happened in Ukraine. And then again it could have happened anywhere, because the blood on the blue-and-yellow flag is just the beginning of an intimate tale about four generations of women. * Zwierciadlo. *Sloniowska is a fascinating story-teller who also gives insight into the reality of life in Ukraine. This is an astonishing literary discovery. * Polityka. *A city of women's mysteries, and History, which the author constantly re-interprets. Zanna Sloniowska surprises and seduces. * Krytycznym Okiem. *This novel was written as a challenge to crushing, cruel history; it arose from a desire to give a voice to the individual experiences of women. But at a certain point it turns in a direction contrary to its original ambitions, and the counter-history disappears in the fog of exploding smoke grenades. * Gazeta Wyborcza. *A moving, incisive saga about women entangled by historical events. * Newsweek Polska. *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA writer of great subtlety and intelligence . . . a beautifully written and compelling story of how families fall apart and what remains of the aftermath Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women''s Prize for Fiction 2018 The book everyone is talking about for the summer Lorraine Candy, Sunday TimesIn my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman - so begins the story of Myshkin and his mother, Gayatri, who is driven to rebel against tradition and follow her artist''s instinct for freedom.Freedom of a different kind is in the air across India. The fight against British rule is reaching a critical turn. The Nazis have come to power in Germany. At this point of crisis, two strangers arrive in Gayatri''s town, opening up for her the vision of other possible lives. What took Myshkin''s mother from India to Dutch-held Bali in the 1930s, ripping a knife through his comfortingly familiar environment? Excavating the roots of the world in which he was abandoned, Myshkin comes to understand the connections between anguish at home and a war-torn universe overtaken by patriotism. Anuradha Roy''s enthralling novel is a powerful parable for our times, telling the story of men and women trapped in a dangerous era uncannily similar to the present. Impassioned, elegiac, and gripping, it brims with the same genius that has brought Roy''s earlier fiction international renown.One of India''s greatest living authors - O, The Oprah MagazineRoy''s writing is a joy - Financial TimesTrade ReviewFrom Sleeping on Jupiter to this book, Roy seems to be bettering her own brilliance. Though the narration is effortless, Roy's research and imagination in recreating a bygone era shines out. This is an excellent, unputdownable book -- Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar * The Hindu *Roy's writing is a joy. * Financial Times. *One of India's greatest living authors. * O, The Oprah Magazine. *Every once in a great while, a novel comes along to remind you why you rummage through shelves in the first place. Why you peck like a magpie past the bright glitter of publishers' promises. Why you read...This, you think, is the feeling you had as you read Great Expectations or Sophie's Choice or The Kite Runner. This is why you read fiction at all. -- Marie Arana * Washington Post, on An Atlas of Impossible Longing *The book everyone is talking about for the summer -- Lorraine Candy * Sunday Times *A beautifully written and compelling story of how families fall apart and of what remains in the aftermath . . . [by] . . . a writer of great subtlety and intelligence. -- Kamila Shamsie * Guardian. *Poetic, elegiac . . . Roy's eye is tender . . . The scope of All the Lives We Never Lived is vast but also personal. -- Sean Hewitt * Irish Times. *Anuradha Roy blends historical fact and remarkable real-life characters into her tale, which takes freedom, in all its messy complexity, as its theme . . . Amid the atmospheric detailing there are pin-sharp modern resonances with modern India's nationalism and punishing patriarchy. -- Siobhan Murphy * The Times. *A writer of great subtlety and intelligence . . . a beautifully written and compelling story of how families fall apart and what remains of the aftermath. -- Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018 * Guardian *[Roy] writes intelligently and elegantly, whatever the subject matter, be it love, patriarchy or the sweltering landscape. -- Anthony Cummins * Sunday Sport. *Taking in the second world war, the fight for Indian independence and occasionally fast-forwarding into the 1990s, All the Lives We Never Lived is ultimately both a work of beautifully realised history and personal narrative. The cover blurb tells us that Roy is 'one of India's greatest living authors'. On this evidence it's hard to disagree. -- David Patrikarakos * Spectator. *All the Lives We Never Lived is a moving and beautiful story of loss, of the lives of those beloved to us. What makes this novel so special is the sinuous way Anuradha Roy seamlessly and masterfully shuttles between time, overlaying the past with the present, mystery with knowledge to cumulatively create a brilliant tapestry that is the story -- Chigozie ObiomaAnuradha Roy should be on every literary Indophile's list. She's such a gorgeous writer of prose, her four novels capture small-town India with all its beauty and contradiction. -- Tishani Doshi, author of SMALL DAYS AND NIGHTS

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is the final year of the twentieth century and King Sidi is dying . . .Mohamed has been the king''s fool for thirty-five year, his closest counsel, privy to his deepest secrets and most intimate thoughts. It is an honoured position for which many would pay a hefty price. Something Mohamed understands only too well, for this closeness has indeed come at a terrible cost. The threat of imprisonment looms, even as the once-mighty monarch draws his final breaths.In the last days of this all-powerful tyrant of the twentieth century, his faithful court fool takes stock of the decades he spent in the Moroccan king''s service. For the many years of corrosive love and loyalty have left certain indelible wounds . . .Translated from the French by Ben FacciniTrade ReviewA legend, a cruel fantastical dream, and a true feat of literature -- Nicole de Poncharra * Maroc à Livre Ouvert *A beautiful novel, as tender as a gazelle's horn -- Sara Daniel * BibliObs *

Read more less

Book SynopsisLord of All the Dead is a courageous journey into Javier Cercas'' family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his parents'' village in southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel Mena. This ancestor, dearly loved by Cercas'' mother, died in combat at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode in Spain''s history. Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero whose memory is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist who happened to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge him, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation, interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the misleadingperspective of a present full of automatic answers, that fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family drama?Wartime epics, heroism and death are some of the underlying themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips, person

Read more less

Book SynopsisBY THE AUTHOR OF THE DOOR, ONE OF NYTBR''S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2015** WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE **** SHORTLISTED FOR THE WARWICK WOMEN IN TRANSLATION PRIZE 2019 **Extraordinary New York TimesQuite unforgettable Daily TelegraphUnusual, piercing . . . oddly percipient Irish TimesA gorgeous elegy Publishers WeeklyA brightly shining star in the Szabo universe World Literature TodayIn prewar Budapest three families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined. A game is played by the four children in which Bálint, the promising son of the Major, invariably chooses Irén Elekes, the headmaster''s dutiful elder daughter, over her younger sister, the scatterbrained Blanka, and little Henriette Held, the daughter of the Jewish dentist.Their lives are torn apart in 1944 by the German occupation, which only the Elekes family survives intact. The postwar regime relocates them to a cramped Soviet-style apartment and they struggle to come to terms with social and political change, personal loss, and unstated feelings of guilt over the deportation of the Held parents and the death of little Henriette, who had been left in their protection. But the girl survives in a miasmal afterlife, and reappears at key moments as a mute witness to the inescapable power of past events.As in The Door and Iza''s Ballad, Magda Szabó conducts a clear-eyed investigation into the ways in which we inflict suffering on those we love. Katalin Street, which won the 2007 Prix Cévennes for Best European novel, is a poignant, sombre, at times harrowing book, but beautifully conceived and truly unforgettable.Translated from the Hungarian by Len RixTrade Review[U]nusual, piercing, and - given Hungary's current political climate - oddly percipient -- Catherine Taylor * Irish Times *In Katalin Street, the past is never dormant, never settled. The past is an open wound, a life force busily shaping an increasingly bewildering present. In describing Henriette's plight, Szabó writes: 'From the moment she arrived she had been left to work out the rules and the customs of the place entirely by herself.' In this extraordinary novel, the same could be said for the living. -- Laura van den Berg * New York Times Book Review *This is a love story and a ghost story . . . From the height of war through to Stalinism, the 1956 Hungarian uprising and its 1968 reprise, Szabó moves us across the decades. -- Katherine Waters * The Arts Desk *The book depicts humanity at its rawest and saddest. As areminder of the impact of war on humans who survive it, Katalin Street is stark, and at times harrowing; Szabó asks us to bearwitness to a punishing postwar regime through a locally trained lens and the troubled, intimate lives of its inhabitants -- Laura Waddell * The Skinny *A gorgeous elegy for the joy and the life once shared among three neighboring families in prewar Budapest...This is a brilliant and unforgettable novel. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Szabó's quietly captivating novel excavates the tangled history of Hungary's capital from the portentous moments before the German occupation to its suffocating postwar regime...A visceral, sweeping depiction of life in the shuddering wake of wartime. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *[Katalin Street] is a brightly shining star in the Szabó universe, offering us a glimpse of Eastern Europe at a time when we need to be reminded of what happened there more than ever -- Andrew Martino * World Literature Today *Katalin Street's effect on me was so extraordinary that at first I couldn't decide what was most extraordinary about it: its gentle unpeeling of the tragic lives of the characters, or its gentle unpeeling of tragic life in general . . . quite unforgettable -- Julian Evans * Daily Telegraph *Her fiction shows the travails of modern Hungarian history from oblique but sharply illuminating angles . . . Szabo summons the cosy, closed world with a lyrical, quicksilver touch that makes the thuggish intrusions of despotic power all the more wrenching. * Economist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisImmersive, nuanced, impeccably researched IAN RANKINBeautifully written and moving ALLAN MASSIEPoignant, nostalgic and redolent of the smell of France SIMON BRETTFamily history has always been a mystery to Will Latymer. His father flatly refused to talk about it, and with no other relatives to consult, it seems that a mystery it shall always remain. Until of course, Will meets Ghislaine, his beautiful French cousin, in a chance encounter that introduces him to his grandmother, Madeleine, shut away in a quiet Breton manor with her memories and secrets.Before long, Will has been plunged headlong into the life of Madeleine''s great love, his longlost grandfather, Henry Latymer. Reading Henry''s old letters and diaries for the first time, Will discovers an idealistic young man, full of hopes and optimism - an optimism that will gradually be crushed as the realities of life under the Vichy regime become glaringly clear.But the Trade ReviewAn elegant and charming novel which provides a memorable insight into the world of Vichy France . . . The modern narrative is cleverly intermixed with the historical story . . . It is poignant, nostalgic and redolent of the smell of France * Simon Brett *Immersive, nuanced, impeccably researched - a real feeling for time, place and character. * Ian Rankin *A beautifully written and moving story of love and betrayal that casts light on the "Dark Years" of French history, 1940-44. It is a novel suffused with a love and appreciation of France and French culture, and a highly intelligent examination of the other country that is the past. -- Allan Massie

Read more less

Book SynopsisA young musician uncovers a painful family history and must confront the realities of collaboration and betrayal in Vichy FranceTrade ReviewA beautifully written and moving story of love and betrayal that casts light on the "Dark Years" of French history, 1940-44. It is a novel suffused with a love and appreciation of France and French culture, and a highly intelligent examination of the other country that is the past. -- Allan MassieAn elegant and charming novel which provides a memorable insight into the world of Vichy France . . . The modern narrative is cleverly intermixed with the historical story . . . It is poignant, nostalgic and redolent of the smell of France * Simon Brett *Immersive, nuanced, impeccably researched - a real feeling for time, place and character. * Ian Rankin *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe third novel in a historical trilogy that began with the International Booker shortlisted The UnseenTrade ReviewA fascinating study of the complex reality of postwar society . . . The novel shimmers with characteristically striking imagery . . . Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light -- Johanne Elster Hanson * Times Literary Supplement *The third part of a remarkable series of books . . . Don Bartlett and Don Shaw deserve much praise for their translation: their ingenious rendering of Ingrid's island dialect, which closely echoes the original Norwegian, is accompanied by the lyrical simplicity of Jacobsen's descriptions. -- Theodora Danek * Guardian. *Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway's experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving. -- David Mills * Sunday Times. *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Terrific . . . Easily the most purely entertaining novel I have read so far this year' - David Mills, The Sunday Times'A really excellent suspense novelist' - Stephen KingThe second volume of Pierre Lemaitre's enthralling, award-winning between-the-wars trilogyIn 1927, the great and the good of Paris gather at the funeral of the wealthy banker, Marcel Péricourt. His daughter, Madeleine, is poised to take over his financial empire (although, unfortunately, she knows next to nothing about banking). More unfortunately still, when Madeleine's seven-year-old son, Paul, tumbles from a second-floor window of the Péricourt mansion on the day of his grandfather's funeral, and suffers life-changing injuries, his fall sets off a chain of events that will reduce Madeleine to destitution and ruin in a matter of months.Using all her reserves of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and a burning desire for retribution, MaTrade ReviewAn epic inhabited by flamboyant characters and imbued with an all-consuming drama * Figaro *Literature with conviction; a furious talent * L'Obs *Confirms the genius of a great novelist and storyteller * Express *Terrific . . . Easily the most purely entertaining novel I have read so far this year -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *A perfectly orchestrated comédie humaine * Journal du Dimanche *Lemaitre is always readable and his caustic wit shines through -- Antonia Senior * The Times *Pierre Lemaitre: unleashed * Libération *

Read more less

Book Synopsis In 1927, the great and the good of Paris gather at the funeral of the wealthy banker, Marcel Péricourt. His daughter, Madeleine, is poised to take over his financial empire (although, unfortunately, she knows next to nothing about banking). More unfortunately still, when Madeleine's seven-year-old son, Paul, tumbles from a second floor window of the Péricourt mansion on the day of his grandfather's funeral, and suffers life-changing injuries, his fall sets off a chain of events that will reduce Madeleine to destitution and ruin in a matter of months. Using all her reserves of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and a burning desire for retribution, Madeleine sets about rebuilding her life. She will be helped by an ex-Communist fixer, a Polish nurse who doesn't speak a word of French, a brainless petty criminal with a talent for sabotage, an exiled German Jewish chemist, a very expensive forger, an opera singer with a handy flair for theatrics, and her own Trade ReviewAn epic inhabited by flamboyant characters and imbued with an all-consuming drama * Figaro *Literature with conviction; a furious talent * L'Obs *Confirms the genius of a great novelist and storyteller * Express *Terrific . . . Easily the most purely entertaining novel I have read so far this year -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *A perfectly orchestrated comédie humaine * Journal du Dimanche *Lemaitre is always readable and his caustic wit shines through -- Antonia Senior * The Times *Pierre Lemaitre: unleashed * Libération *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA beautifully observed novel about how individual acts of bravery can change the course of history.Trade ReviewThis is a beautiful book, a masterpiece of brevity and depth. It's rinsed in unspoken despair but what its characters never lose, despite their agonies, despite their trauma, is hope . . . Translated beautifully from the German by Jamie Bulloch, could be his best work yet . . . -- Charlie Connelly * New European *This tense novella builds to a final reckoning. Which facet of the human character will triumph- bravery, evil, or a just a sad, deadening apathy? -- Antonia Senior * The Times *Lean, incredibly vivid sentences ... the tension never lets up * Die Welt *His novels unleash a force that is rarely felt in contemporary German-language literature * Die Presse *Austria's answer to David Lynch * 3sat Kulturzeit *His work conveys a heightened awareness of the fragility of what keeps our innermost souls in check * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *Hochgatterer's great art is to transform psychological confusion into a language of extreme clarity . . . This Austrian author writes with a sparseness that builds to a powerful crescendo before the dramatic finale. * Neue Zürcher Zeitung *The final days have been reported, filmed, sung and documented a hundred times, but rarely told as vividly as in Paulus Hochgatterer's new book . . . he narrates the last act of a drama in which life and future plans were reshuffled. This could be dismissed as hubris, were Hochgatterer not such a good writer. * Profil *Paulus Hochgatterer writes about life and the chasms that swallow you when you take the wrong path * WDR *Explores the huge difficulty and danger inherent in doing the right thing at the time of Nazi occupation . . . this is a tiny book, but it contains more unbearable tension than most epic sagas can muster -- Nic Bottomley * Bath Life *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE ICELANDIC LITERATURE PRIZEThe Icelandic Dickens Irish ExaminerStefánsson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy EILEEN BATTERSBY, T.L.S. SupplementA wonderful, exceptional writer . . . A timeless storyteller CARSTEN JENSENSometimes, in small places, life becomes bigger Sometimes a distance from the world''s tumult opens our hearts and our dreams. In a village of four hundred souls, the infinite light of an Icelandic summer makes its inhabitants want to explore, and the eternal night of winter lights up the magic of the stars. The village becomes a microcosm of the age-old conflict between human desire and destiny, between the limits of reality and the wings of the imagination. With humour, with poetry, and with a tenderness for human weaknesses, Stefánsson explores the question of why we live at all.Translated from the IcTrade ReviewStefánsson's prose rolls and surges with oceanic splendour. -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator *Stefánsson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy -- Eileen Battersby * Times Literary Supplement *Powerful and sparkling . . . Prize-winning translator Philip Roughton's feather-light touch brings out the gleaming, fairy-tale quality of the writing -- Irish Times * Nora O'Mahony *A wonderful, exceptional writer . . . A timeless storyteller * Carsten Jensen *The Icelandic Dickens . . . He has the same gift of writing with great understanding, an empathy with troubled souls and a skill at laugh-out-loud comedy -- Tina Neylon * Irish Examiner *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA literary phenomenon The TimesDespentes'' writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise Times Literary SupplementTHE FINAL VOLUME IN THE EPIC ROCK AND ROLL TRILOGY BY CULT AUTHOR VIRGINIE DESPENTESAlthough it means leaving behind the community of disciples who have followed him on his travels and assembled at his raves and gatherings, Vernon Subutex is compelled to return to Paris to visit the dentist.Once back in the city, he learns that Charles, his old friend from his days on the Paris streets, has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his disciples with news of this windfall, it does not take long before his followers start to turn on each other, and his good fortune provokes ruptures in his once harmonious community.Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Aïcha and Céleste: Laurent Dopalet is determined to make them pay for their attack Trade ReviewInvigorating ... there isn't really anything else like it right now * Observer *A literary phenomenon . . . [an] outrageous, often funny and frequently foul-mouthed trilogy * The Times *Brings the story of Vernon to a sometimes bleak, often very funny and possibly optimistic conclusion * The i *Despentes' writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise * Times Literary Supplement *Raw and rewarding * New European *Oddly magnificent * The Sunday Times *Despentes' achievement is French realism rebooted: a modern-day Comédie humaine stacked with profanity and fury * The Times *Either you're already onboard with this series and need no convincing, or you've somehow missed the fact that a cool French writer has been pumping out hilarious and corrosive novels about contemporary urban life at the center and fringes of Paris. Despentes writes like Armistead Maupin, but about aging Gen-Xers instead of hippies and New Agers. -- Molly Young * Vulture *Three addictive, intelligent volumes. Comedy, a way with words, and the collision of registers of language combine to make Vernon irresistible -- RAPHAËLLE LEYRIS * Le Monde *Reflecting our chaotic times, Vernon Subutex 3 is a powerful, shocking, captivating work. Despentes completes her epic with a rare mastery. Where will she take us next? -- BRUNO CORTY * Figaro *A zigzagging novel that likes to let the intrigue wander, all the better to tug it back by the hair a few portraits later -- CLAIRE DEVARRIEUX * Libération *A final volume even more explosive than the previous ones -- NELLY KAPRIÈLIAN * Les Inrockuptibles *An analysis of a startling harshness, which does not lessen the relentless, furious humanity pulsing through every page, every sentence -- NATHALIE CROM * Télérama *One of the most striking literary epics of the early 21st century -- MARIANNE PAYOT * L’Express *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne of contemporary fiction''s most gifted sentence builders Beejay Silcox, GuardianBehind the ornate doors of 30, rue du Métal in Brussels, twenty students begin their apprenticeship in the art of decorative painting - that art of tricksters and counterfeiters, where each knot in a plank of wood hides a secret and every vein in a slab of marble tells a story.Among these students are Kate, Jonas and Paula Karst. Together, during a relentless year of study, they will learn the techniques of reproducing materials in paint, and the intensity of their experience - the long hours in the studio, the late nights, the conversations, arguments, parties, romances - will cement a friendship that lasts long after their formal studies end.For Paula, her initiation into the art of trompe l''œil will take her back through time, from her own childhood memories, to the ancient formations of the materials whose depiction she strives to master. And from theTrade ReviewAs she has so often done, de Kerangal shows there is poetry to be found in our jargon, and stories embedded in our tools . . . This is writing that defies haste, that slows the eye. It is also a mighty feat of translation . . . Cements [de Kerangal's] reputation as one of contemporary fiction's most gifted sentence builders -- Beejay Silcox * Guardian *The book is a joyful testament to the rigours of research, and to the translator's art too . . . Maylis de Kerangal is mining a rich and individual seam -- Jonathan Gibbs * TLS *Intensely alive, encompassing both the technical and the poetic, emotion and cerebrality -- Raphaëlle Leyris * Le Monde *Always brilliant, executed in flowing, lyrical prose that had already reached the firmament in [Mend the Living] . . . De Kerangal finds fiction in reality; precise, technical vocabulary is imbued with rich imagination and meaning. And mastering trompe-l'œil - isn't that the ideal metaphor for the work of a novelist? -- Frédérique Roussel * Libération *The art of painting in perfect harmony with de Kerangal's writing; visual, flamboyant, assured . . . in perfect alignment with her subject -- Marine Landrot * Télérama *Kerangal's elegant, sexy, subtly Proustian, and fluidly dimensional drama of discipline and passion, imitation andimagination is resplendently evocative and exhilarating. -- Donna Seaman * Booklist *Long looping sentences, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, are balanced by taut scene changes . . . De Kerangal conjures the same painterly realism that her characters hope to achieve in paint * London Magazine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisMeet Daisy. A picture of grace and dignity. Meet Herod. A... disappointment.Trade ReviewThe author writes beautiful, understated prose with a wry, dark humour... Highly recommended for fans of The Rosie Project and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine -- Andrew Morris * TripFiction *Never less than amusing, Henderson's tone is so guileless and inoffensive that it's barely noticeable when he strays into darker areas, and the inimitable Rod is ably backed up by a supporting cast of equally quirky characters -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald Scotland *There's compassion, joy and surprise at the heart of this quirky love story * The People's Friend *An often funny, bittersweet but a life-affirming read throughout -- Jon Wise * Sunday Sport *

Read more less

Book Synopsis* LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER * A literary master across genres, award-winning author Chris Offutt's latest novel, The Killing Hills, is a compelling, propulsive thriller in which a suspicious death exposes the loyalties and rivalries of a deep-rooted and fiercely private community in the Kentucky backwoods....Trade ReviewWith wonderful descriptives of the wildlife and the people, this is fantastically stripped back, pared down storytelling with such superbly written depth and sense of place, I'm going to call it; this is Kentucky Noir, it gleams dark, is as hard as anthracite and Offutt is its undisputed Pappy * LoveReading *Pitch-perfect in its tone and dialogue, this is what Jack Reacher wants to be when it grows up -- James Owen * Times (Best New Thrillers for November) *It's genuinely thrilling to read and written with a propulsive momentum, a poet's eye for the small detail and an expert plotter's feel for twists and turns that come naturally, rather than bolted on out of the blue. Fantastic stuff * Big Issue *Offutt writes gently and movingly about the people and the land, the history and the present, and the interior landscapes of his carefully and convincingly wrought characters * Quietus *More than just a murder case, it's a voyage into rural backwoods Kentucky that doesn't shirk from the darkness to be found there, and unfolds with drive, noir style and wry humour * Herald *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRural West Cork, Ireland, mid-1970's. Two Kids and their struggling, poet father are battling grief and poverty. A glimmer of hope in far away Dublin leads to a road trip of contradictions - dreams and nightmares, promises and disappointments, generosity and meanness, unconditional love and shocking neglect....Trade ReviewFunny and touching, The Book of the Gaels is a good story, beautifully told -- Susan Flockhart * Herald *Powerful... There are echoes of Douglas Stewart's Shuggie Bain... This slim, punchy book is extraordinarily powerful * Times (Historical Fiction Book of the Month) *James Yorkston's new novel is a dark and desperate odyssey * Scotsman *There's no denying that this is a novel in a minor key, and yet its rhythms and cadences are constantly evolving, drawing the reader closer. Listen out for it and you'll even hear a note that might be described as poetic * Observer *Funny, affectionate... The acclaimed folk singer's jewel of a novel follows a penniless poet dragging his young sons across Ireland * Telegraph *

Read more less

Book SynopsisArmy-cop-turned-small-town-investigator Mick Hardin returns to the Kentucky hills in this second vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed literary crime novelist Chris Offutt...Trade ReviewThe writing is top-notch, shot through with menace and melancholy * New York Times *Chris Offutt's mastery of sense of place is still in full bloom * Times (Thriller Book of the Month) *Another wonderfully atmospheric slice of Appalachian noir * Times & Sunday Times Crime Club (Pick of the Week) *In elegant, economical prose, Shifty's Boys is an accomplished addition to the ranks of country noir -- Val McDermidOffutt loves his characters enough to give them life. With them, we can grieve or laugh... Offutt's novel is replete with details that brand the humanity pictured within as real, because you can't make this stuff up -- Cathy Downs * Reviewing the Evidence *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe third novel in David Thomson's series inspired by movie genres - an enchanting yet haunting celebration of screwball romantic comedies....

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA vibrant, wholly original novel about identity, family, desire and love set in 1970s India....Trade ReviewTrauma, forgiveness, hope, marriage and the shame around mental health are all explored in this beautiful, complex and funny story set in 1970s New Delhi. It's the first novel from Appachana in 20 years and one to be savoured * Stylist (Big Fiction Books for 2023) *Tender and poignant * Woman's Weekly *Love, longing, terror and healing all come into play in Anjana Appachana's New Delhi set novel, Fear and Lovely * The Handbook (a 'best new book release arriving this month') *A story written with confidence and panache, sprinkled with humour * TripFiction *Some novels melt your heart. For me, this is one of them. Anjana Appachana's Fear and Lovely is beautiful, wise, funny and deeply moving. It's bursting with emotion, truth, secrets and love, all written with such insight and tenderness. I loved it -- RACHEL ELLIOTT

Read more less

Book SynopsisA vibrant, wholly original novel about identity, family, desire and love set in 1970s India....Trade ReviewTrauma, forgiveness, hope, marriage and the shame around mental health are all explored in this beautiful, complex and funny story set in 1970s New Delhi. It's the first novel from Appachana in 20 years and one to be savoured * Stylist (Big Fiction Books for 2023) *Tender and poignant * Woman's Weekly *Love, longing, terror and healing all come into play in Anjana Appachana's New Delhi set novel, Fear and Lovely * The Handbook (a 'best new book release arriving this month') *A story written with confidence and panache, sprinkled with humour * TripFiction *Some novels melt your heart. For me, this is one of them. Anjana Appachana's Fear and Lovely is beautiful, wise, funny and deeply moving. It's bursting with emotion, truth, secrets and love, all written with such insight and tenderness. I loved it -- RACHEL ELLIOTT

Read more less

Book Synopsis'An emotionally resonant debut... Welcome - and quietly groundbreaking' - New York Times Book Review Erin McCabe is a New Jersey criminal defense attorney doing her best to live a quiet life in the wake of a profound personal change - until a newsworthy case puts both her career and her safety in jeopardy......Trade ReviewAn emotionally resonant debut... Welcome - and quietly groundbreaking * The New York Times Book Review *Legal eagle Robyn Gigl clearly writes from bitter personal experience. The result is an authentic and powerful thriller. -- Mark Sanderson * The Times & Sunday Times Crime Club *An intelligent and resourceful protagonist with an unusual backstory... Erin's ability to navigate the intricacies of the law is just as fascinating as the subsequent perils she encounters. Gigl, an attorney, offers some enlightening insights into the workings of the legal world. * Publishers Weekly *Does a remarkably effective job of mixing an exciting legal thriller with the personal story of its protagonist...But the message doesn't overwhelm the medium. Readers will find that By Way of Sorrow is a compulsively riveting page-turner with a complex heroine, a captivating plot, and no easy answers. It's one of the best thrillers of the year. * Mystery Scene *This enthralling series debut features a twisty plot full of surprises and a cast of exciting characters-most notably tough, relatable defense-attorney Erin McCabe-all while diving into the mud of corrupt local politics. An original legal thriller that is sure to be among the year's best! -- Edwin Hill, author of The Missing Ones

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less