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
Oneworld Publications Leaving
Book SynopsisWhat does love demand of us, and who must pay the price?
£15.29
Oneworld Publications Leaving
Book SynopsisWhat does love demand of us, and who must pay the price?
£9.49
Canongate Books Fergus Lamont
Book Synopsis''Half Scotland sniggered and the other half scowled, when in letters to the Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald, I put forward my suggestion that prisoners in Scottish jails be allowed to wear their kilts as their national birthright if such be their wish.''From his origins as an illegitimate child in the slums of Glasgow, Fergus Lamont sets out to reclaim his inheritance and to remake his identity as soldier, poet and would-be aristocrat.Covering the years from the turn of the century to the Second World War, Fergus''s unforgettable voice recounts a tale of vanity, success and betrayal which shines its own sardonic light on Scotland and the cultural and political issues of the day.At odds with his origins and unsettled in his aristocratic pretensions, Fergus Lamont reaches middle age before he is offered at least the hope of redemption in a love affair with an island woman.How it turns out and what he learns too late, adds a t
£11.40
O'Brien Press Ltd The Scrapper
Book SynopsisDublin boxer Sparrow McCabe has the World Featherweight title for the taking: but he can't throw that final punch and suddenly it's all over. Fast forward fifteen years and Sparrow is working as a driver for gangsters. But when murder enters the picture, there's a new fight he can't afford to lose.
£9.49
WW Norton & Co Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Book SynopsisNamed one of the 100 Best Novels Ever Written in English (The Guardian) Loos’s classic tale shows that questions of women and power—more relevant today than ever—can come in the most alluring of packages.Trade Review"The great American novel." -- Edith Wharton"Lorelei Lee’s wide-eyed ditziness is nothing less than a joy forever." -- Michael Dirda"First published by Liveright in 1925—and now brought back into print by the same house—[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes] will find a new audience to delight, amaze and amuse… Lorelei is a combination of insouciance, innocence and street savvy that is irresistible." -- Valerie Ryan - Shelf Awareness
£10.99
WW Norton & Co Malcolm
Book SynopsisThe twenty-first-century revival of James Purdy continues with his classic novel of innocence and corruption.Trade Review"The most prodigiously funny book to streak across these heavy-hanging times." -- Dorothy Parker
£12.34
City Lights Books New Testaments
Book SynopsisAn NPR Best Book of the Year!A Southwest Book of the Year!A Texas Observer Book of the Year!Stories of working-class Mexican America, penned by one of the contemporary legends of Chicanx literature."Gilb''s familiar signature intimacy brings us face to face with marginal housing, gritty and exhausting jobs, street people, sex, earthquakes, fouled air, physical handicaps, racism. . . . Some of the stories are sidewinders: at first they indicate layers of something juicy and sweet but turn out to pierce the reader with painful splinters of insight."—Annie Proulx, author of "Brokeback Mountain" and The Shipping NewsDagoberto Gilb''s latest cast of characters includes a young family whose exposure to a mysterious cloud of gas alters their lives forever; a high school dropout whose choice to learn the ways of the world from the adults at work leads him into a dangerous dalliance; a former high-rise carpenter who meets up with an eager old flame; an aging Chicano, living alone, whose children watch over him for signs of decline; and more. Gilb''s distinct narrative voice offers his readers a warm welcome as he peels back the surface of everyday life to seamlessly guide us into realms of of myth and fable.
£12.34
Tarcher/Putnam,US Marva Collins Way by Marva Collins 19900901
Book Synopsis
£15.19
Persea Books Streets of Gold
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.90
Persea Books Inc Bread Givers
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Persea Books Inc Lifes Good Brother
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Printed Matter, Incorporated Five Stories for Philip Guston
Book SynopsisFive contemporary writers respond to Guston's work through imaginative fiction that proves his continual influence on today's creative cultureIn the short story collection Five Stories for Philip Guston, edited by Emmie Francis and Mark Godfrey, contemporary writers Christopher Alessandrini, Ben Okri, Thessaly La Force, Lou Stoppard and Audrey Wollen have created new fiction in conversation with Philip Guston (191380) and his painting. Christopher Alessandrini's queer, drily witty Maverick Road brings us to the contemporary environs of Guston's upstate haven. Ben Okri's Bloodymindedness is a stark portrait of violence and subversion. In Looking, Thessaly La Force writes of the lingering power of painting and reputation with a tribute to Guston's exhibition in Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia. Lou Stoppard's courtroom crucible A Verdict is a study in Kafkaesque atmosphere. Audrey Wollen works deftly with a kind of Oulipo constraint exerciseGiotto is the
£24.30
The Quince Tree Press What Hetty Did or Life and Letters
Book Synopsis
£11.46
The Quince Tree Press How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FACup
Book Synopsis
£11.46
Granta Books Granta 81
Book SynopsisThe third in the Best of Young British Novelists series, which revealed the emerging literary landscape of a new millenium.
£12.34
Oleander Press Mystic Pig
Book Synopsis
£10.40
Psychology News Press Ltd In the Blood
Book SynopsisNovel based after WW2
£13.16
Eland Publishing Ltd The Ginger Tree
Book SynopsisIn 1903 Mary Mackenzie sails for China to marry the British Military Attache, a man who turns out to be every bit as chilly as the Peking Winter. During one of his many absences, Mary has an affair with a Japanese soldier, Count Kurihama, but her pregnancy is impossible to keep secret. Rejected by husband, mother and country, and forced to leave her daughter behind, Mary flees to Japan. The Ginger Tree tells the fascinating story of her survival, isolated and alone, in this alien culture.Trade Review"By the end it is the reader who sheds the tears his heroine has kept back for almost 40 years" Nicholas Shakespeare Sunday Telegraph
£13.49
The New York Review of Books, Inc A Way Of Life Like Any Other New York Review
Book SynopsisThe hero of Darcy O'Brien's A Way of Life, Like Any Other is a child of Hollywood, and once his life was a glittery dream. His father starred in Westerns. His mother was a goddess of the silver screen. The family enjoyed the high life on their estate, Casa Fiesta. But his parents' careers have crashed since then, and their marriage has broken up too.Lovesick and sex-crazed, the mother sets out on an intercontinental quest for the right—or wrong—man, while her mild-mannered but manipulative former husband clings to his memories in California. And their teenage son? How he struggles both to keep faith with his family and to get by himself, and what in the end he must do to break free, makes for a classic coming-of-age story—a novel that combines keen insight and devastating wit to hilarious and heartbreaking effect.
£8.99
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Butterfly in the Wind
Book SynopsisThis fictionalised autobiography gives a richly woven portrait of Kamla''s life from early childhood to the point where she leaves her family, Pasea village and Trinidad to attend university in the UK. It gives a vivid and inward picture of a Caribbean community still in touch with its roots, seen from the developing perspective of a young woman at the crossroads of diverse social, cultural and religious influences. The portrait bears witness to the moral strengths of the community as well as showing Kamla''s growing awareness of the repressions and hypocrisies of its treatment of women. From early in her life Kamla is surprised by a contrary inner voice which frequently gainsays the wisdom of her elders and betters. But Kamla is growing up in a traditional Hindu community and attending schools in colonial Trinidad where rote learning is still the order of the day. She learns that this voice creates nothing but trouble and silences it. In this book the voice is freed.Set in the 1940s, Butterfly in the Wind was enthusiastically received when it first appeared in 1990. Its portrayal of a passage from childhood to young womanhood was praised by The Sunday Times as a sweet-natured book which is above all a tremendous celebration of life. The Observer praised it for the empathy with which Lakshmi Persaud writes of the natural world... and Hindu customs.Lakshmi Persaud was born in 1939 in Trinidad. She is the author of Butterfly in the Wind, Sastra and For the Love of My Name. She lives in London.Trade Review"'This unassuming and sweet-natured book is a tremendous celebration of life written with a sensuous attention to the physical world.' The Sunday Times"
£9.86
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Inkle and Yarico
Book SynopsisAs a young man of twenty, Thomas Inkle sets out for Barbados to inspect the family sugar estates. On the way he is shipwrecked on a small West Indian island inhabited by Carib Indians. He alone escapes as his shipmates are slaughtered, and is rescued by Yarico, a Carib woman who takes him as, ''an ideal, strange and obliging lover.'' So begins an erotic encounter, explored with poetic, imaginative intensity, which has a profound effect on both.Amongst the Caribs, Inkle is a mere child, whose survival depends entirely on Yarico''s favour and protection. But when he is rescued and taken with Yarico to the slave island of Barbados, she is entirely at his mercy.Inkle and Yarico is loosely based on a ''true'' story which became a much repeated popular narrative in the 17th and 18th centuries. Beryl Gilroy reinterprets its mythic dimensions from both a woman''s and a black perspective, but above all she engages the reader in the psychological truths of her characters'' experiences.As an old man, Inkle recalls the Carib''s stories as being like ''fresh dreams, newly washed, newly woven and true to the daily lives of the community''. Inkle and Yarico has the same magic and pertinence. As a narrative of deep historical insight into the commodification and abuse of humanity, Gilroy lays the past bare as a text for the present.Beryl Gilroy came to London over fifty years ago from Guyana. She wrote six novels, two autobiographical books and was a pioneering teacher and psychotherapist. Sadly, she died in 2000 at the age of 76.
£8.54
Parthian Books Tree of Crows
Book SynopsisElan has been missing for two years. Her people presume she just abandoned the mountain but Nye John, a friend of Elan, and Elan's brother Cain have lost valuable stock to unaccountable kills. The rumours grow as the winter begins and the truth decides to come down from the High Vans.
£6.23
Paddleless Press Renegade Or Halo2
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Paddleless Press The Monkey King
Book Synopsis
£6.99
Onyx Publishing The Shakespeare Thief
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Persephone Books Ltd Someone at a Distance
Book Synopsis
£16.15
Persephone Books Ltd Fidelity
Book Synopsis
£16.15
Wight Diamond Press Cutting In
Book SynopsisEighteen, a dangerous age, when you have to cut your way into life. Mirrors, a piano. Erotic reflections, practice, ritual. Not an ordinary career, ballet. And for Elaine, possessed by ambition, sees everything she craves in the exquisite Beverley Soames - success and more... Watching, imitating, borrowing. There's no threat in that, is there?Trade ReviewHard edged, striking and truthful, Novelist Julian Rathbone; Poignant and believable, Averil Ashfield, Transworld Books; A great gift for portraying the agonies and ecstasies of adolescence. A rare talent, Writer Frederick E Smith; Holds the tension like a perfect arabesque, Gill Kay Ingenu/e Magazine; I read it at a single sitting. Perceptive writing wonderfully spiked with bitchiness, Thriller writer Graham Hurley
£10.44
Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd African Love Stories
Book SynopsisA radical collection of love stories from African women. The collection combines the confidence of established and award-winning writers with the tentativeness and originality of budding writers fromAfrica and the African Diaspora.
£10.44
Sort of Books Travelling Light
Book SynopsisThis newly translated collection of stories brilliantly evokes the shifting scenes and restlessness of summer. A professor arrives in a beautiful Spanish village only to find that her host has left and she must cope with fractious neighbours alone; a holiday on a Finnish Island is thrown into disarray when a disconcerting young boy arrives; an artist returns to an old flat to discover that her life has been eerily usurped. Philosophical and profound, but with the deceptive lightness that is her hallmark, Travelling Light is guaranteed to surprise and transport.Trade ReviewJansson's prose is wondrous: it is clean, deliberate; an aesthetic so certain of itself it's breathtaking * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Bluemoose Books Ltd Gabriels Angel
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Langton & Wood The Blue Book
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Langton & Wood The Green Door
Book SynopsisClare Mallory has a Victorian mourning locket with the photograph of a girl and a curl of her hair. When Clare loses the locket in a fortune-teller's tent her quest to find it draws her into a dark episode of the family's past and the true circumstances of the girl's untimely death at Danby Hall, her Norfolk home.Trade Review'Draws the reader in immediately and has all the elements of an intriguing mystery. In short, a page-turner. The heroine, Clare, is engaging and Madame Pavonia a suitably exotic yet credibly mundane fortune teller, and throughout there is a nice balance of the chillingly supernatural with a sharply-observed contemporary England peopled by vividly painted characters - some lovely idiosyncratic touches and descriptions.' Shena Mackay 'Subtly written but still a page-turner, it is a spine-chillingly enjoyable read.' The Lady 'strange but appealing' Herald Scotland 'an interesting and unusual story. I enjoyed the blend of mystery and supernatural. It's quite the page-turner but it doesn't neglect character and detail. Absorbing and evocative, The Green Door is a truly enjoyable read.' The Bookbag
£8.54
Langton & Wood The Purple Shadow
Book SynopsisSpending time in Paris during a break in his acting career, Colin Mallory sees a striking portrait of Sylvie Charlot, once a leading fashion designer. Despite a warning not to pursue his interest in her portrait, he is determined to find out more about the painting, who painted it, and why it was hidden for many years.Trade Review"A compelling read. You're drawn into the narrative immediately by the vivid description of a startlingly captivating painting and, as a reader, you're as invested in getting to the bottom of the mystery as the main character is. Bowden is a sharp observer and I loved his descriptions of Paris and London and Sussex and the people who live in both city and country. The novel also spends time describing the lives of jobbing actors and the British film industry in the 1930s. This may be fiction but you feel, as you read, that it comes from a place of knowledge." The Bookbag "Full of idiosyncratic touches and descriptions, this is a story that will keep you guessing." France magazine "Christopher Bowden has again created an intriguing, literary tale with a well-drawn cast of characters. Actor Colin Mallory from 'The Red House' can't help but investigate a mysterious painting. The descriptive quality of the writing takes you to the back streets of Paris, and lets you really feel you are solving the mystery hand in hand with Colin." Lovereading
£8.54
Langton & Wood Mr Magenta
Book SynopsisStephen Marling thought he knew his aunt Flora. But when he inherits her house in a quiet south London square a series of discoveries among her papers brings to light another person entirely. Who, for example, is 'Mr Magenta' and what part did he play in her life?Trade Review"A very original writer." Charles Harris, Best-selling author of Room 15; “Absorbing, interesting, and with plenty of twists and turns to keep interest levels up, Mr Magenta is a fine read…” The Bookbag
£8.54
Langton & Wood The Colour of Memory
£9.49
Alcemi Twenty Thousand Saints
Book SynopsisOne hot summer, an island which is practically empty except for twitchers, becomes a bustling community of tourists, archaeologists, nuns, dolphin-watchers, a reality TV crew and two writers bursting to tell a story. This is a black comedy about spies, privacy and intrusion ... and how the most important things happen off-camera. First published October 2008.
£9.49
Twelve Acre Publishing The Faultline
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Profile Books Ltd Tell it to the Bees
Book SynopsisA spellbinding story of forbidden love in the 1950s, now a major movie starring Anna Paquin and Holliday GraingerA secret love which has a whole town talking ... and a small boy very worried. Lydia Weekes is distraught at the break-up of her marriage. When her young son, Charlie, makes friends with the local doctor, Jean Markham, her life is turned upside down. Charlie tells his secrets to no one but the bees, but even he can't keep his mother's friendship to himself. The locals don't like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer, the rumours start to fly and threaten to shatter Charlie's world.Trade ReviewEmotionally charged and compelling, Tell it to the Bees draws you into its world, a rich world of secrets and passion ... Fiona Shaw creates brilliant characters who stay with you long after the book is finished ... liberating and uplifting -- Jackie KayShaw's writing is lovely: elegant, subtle and haunting. * The Times *Powerfully exposes the wrenches of prejudice. It is a tender and unlikely page-turner * Financial Times *A memorable evocation of an era when homosexuality was a crime and abortion illegal ... a committed and thoughtful writer intent on using her gifts. * TLS *
£9.49
i2i Publishing The Dalethorpe Chronicles
Book SynopsisThere had always been Olivers living in Dalethorpe the village founded by their Viking ancestor Karl Olafsen. Read of their journey through the last two hundred years of tumultuous British history.
£7.59
CB Editions Are They Funny Are They Dead
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Peirene Press Ltd The Brothers
Book SynopsisFinland, 1809. Henrik and Erik are brothers who fought on opposite sides in the war between Sweden and Russia. With peace declared, they both return to their snowed-in farm. But who is the master? Sexual tensions, old grudges, family secrets: all come to a head in this dark and gripping saga.Trade Review'A brooding family drama that has something of the timeless quality of good soap opera.' Nicholas Lezard, GUARDIAN ------- 'Intensely visual ... A brooding, atmospheric, Scandinavian late night movie.' Brandon Robshaw, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ------- 'A heart-stoppingly intense historical novel of grand scope.' WHITE REVIEW ------- 'This short, intense novel examines concepts of home, inheritance and the connection between personal and international conflict.' Max Liu, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
£10.80
Peirene Press Ltd The Murder of Halland
Book SynopsisDenmark's foremost literary author turns crime fiction on its head. Bess and Halland live in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else. When Halland is found murdered in the main square the police encounter only riddles. For Bess bereavement marks the start of a journey that leads her to a reassessment of first friends then family.Trade Review'Bess sticks in the mind as a brilliantly drawn character.' Christina Petrie, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ------- 'Anything but a standard crime novel. The mystery at its heart is the mystery we are to each other; it is written in succinct, sometimes surreal prose.' ECONOMIST ------- 'A disturbing and painful account of a woman whose world has been knocked off its axis.' Laura Wilson, GUARDIAN ------- 'A masterclass in literary sleight of hand.' Pam Norfolk, LANCASHIRE EVENING POST ------- 'Just as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose made crime fiction appear intellectual, so Pia Juul's The Murder of Halland dismantles the rules of an entire genre.' DAGENS NYHETER ------- 'Pia Juul is a dazzling writer with natural, biting dialogue. And the descriptions of the sun's play on the fiord are so beautiful that they could have been lifted from Albert Camus' The Stranger.' EXTRA BLADET
£9.50
Feel Good Books Under the Olives
Book SynopsisUnder The Olives is a story set in the Ionian islands of Greece. If you slow down as you pass the many old olive groves, you can catch glimpses of a whole hidden world underneath the olives. I found this fascinating - hence the story of a girl coming to the island to get away from a bad relationship but with an agenda of possibilities.
£8.54
Feel Good Books Loch Island I Shall Dance At Your Wedding
Book SynopsisLoch Island is set mainly in the beautiful Scottish Highlands and on the Isle of Skye. The story revolves around a fictional, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland, but perhaps the island isn't quite deserted? A group of friends intend to have a peaceful holiday: two of the men are special forces and things are not quite as they seem.
£8.54
Bluemoose Books Ltd King Crow
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Fairfield Books First XI Eleven Stories of the World of Cricket
Book SynopsisEleven cricket-themed short stories, each set in a different country.
£7.99
Stork Press Ltd Freshta
Book Synopsis
£8.54
