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
Dialogue Meet Your Match
Book SynopsisShe thought she could survive a month with Vince Tanev... But she might have just met her match. An enemies-to-lovers hockey romance from bestselling author, sports romance aficionado and TikTok sensation Kandi Steiner.
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co A Flower Thats Free
Book SynopsisSequel to the international bestseller, THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD, this is an epic novel set amid the turbulence of the Second World War.''This is the second in the trilogy and, like the first, I cannot put it down. Sarah Harrison is such a good writer'' Amazon reviewer, 5 starsKate Kingsley remembers little of her early childhood, other than the devastation of being torn away from everything she knew in France and sent to live as the adopted daughter of Jack and Thea in Kenya.Now 20, she leaves for a new life in London. But this is 1936 - a time of decadence, but also turmoil.Kate finds an unexpected ally in her Aunt Dulcie, whose own life is anything but straightforward. When Kate falls in love she believes she has found a soul mate. But this is just the start of a journey during which Kate confronts personal danger, faces conflicting loyalties, and must make a heart-breaking choice.''Harrison is a writer with a gift for mixi
£12.99
Kensington Publishing The Arrangement
Book Synopsis#1 international bestselling author Sylvia Day, hailed as one of the most successful romance writers in the world, is joined by powerhouses Minerva Spencer and Kristin Vayden for a trio of sizzling historical romances that prove passion is timeless in...The Arrangement.Mischief and the Marquess by Sylvia Day - Available for the first time since 2007!Justin, the Marquess of Fontaine, and Lady Sophie Milton-Riley, are completely ill-suited to one another. But they will have to prove it in order to end to their mothers'' insistence that they should marry. Yet the more they attempt to demonstrate how wrong their union would be, the more surprisingly, irresistibly right things feel . . .The Duke''s Treasure by Minerva Spencer - First time in print!Plain, prickly Josephine Loman has loved Beaumont Halliwell, the Fifth Duke of Wroxton, since the first time she saw him. But the most beautiful man she''s ever met had eyes only for Jo''s erstwhile friend, who betra
£7.59
BroadStreet Publishing The Chosen Upon this Rock
Book SynopsisFrom the fate of John the Baptist to Jesus' profound teaching on inexhaustible forgiveness, in this fourth instalment of The Chosen series, we grieve with Jesus' followers at an unspeakable loss, traverse with them 'the extra mile,' facedown the Pharisees, and witness an impossible miracle.
£17.09
Headline Publishing Group Friendly Fire
Book SynopsisInsightful and full of understanding and warmth, Patrick Gale''s FRIENDLY FIRE is a richly compelling story of adolescence, sexuality and the lessons we carry forever. ''An intense tale of love, life, intellectualism and passion. Inspirational'' Daily Express''Utterly compelling from first to last'' Stephen FrySophie, an orphan in love with learning, is sure she will thrive in Tatham''s, an esteemed boarding school, having survived years of institutional living. But she soon finds herself lost among its cliques and rituals. Befriending two teenage boys, she experiences the first ache of futile love, then a brilliant teacher''s inappropriate attention to one of the trio threatens to destroy them all. Sophie swiftly realizes that there are tougher lessons to absorb outside the schoolroom - of class, sex, families and the emotional disaster they can bring to even the most privileged lives.Trade ReviewUtterly compelling from first to last -- Stephen FryAn intense tale of love, life, intellectualism and passion. Inspirational * Daily Express *Friendly Fire is another triumph for Gale. It is part of an oeuvre which looks ever more formidable * Independent *A classic tale of subversion * Sunday Times *Patrick Gale is a writer who has always seemed particularly well-attuned to the assorted agonies and ecstasies of childhood . . . the emotions ring true * Daily Mail *
£17.56
Hachette Books Ireland Letters to My Daughters
Book SynopsisLetters to my Daughters is a spellbinding story about the complicated bonds between women -- daughters, mothers, sisters -- and how love and happiness comes in many guises.Trade ReviewWise, warm and full of joy. Uplifting and magical * Cathy Kelly *Warm, intelligent and brilliant * Marian Keyes *A beautiful book by an exceptional author. Lose yourself in her wonderful writing * Sinéad Moriarty *A heart-warming tale that connects on so many levels * Woman *A beautifully written, inspiring story of hope and family bonds * Daily Express *
£10.46
Orion Publishing Co Bird Summons
Book Synopsis* A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2019 ** SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 ** LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2019 *''BIRD SUMMONS is a magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Deep and wild'' Lucy Ellmann, Booker-shortlisted author of DUCKS, NEWBURYPORTSalma, happily married, tries every day to fit into life in Britain. When her first love contacts her, she is tempted to risk it all and return to Egypt.Moni gave up a career in banking to care for her disabled son, but now her husband wants to move to Saudi Arabia - where she fears her son''s condition will worsen. Iman feels burdened by her beauty. In her twenties and already in her third marriage, she is treated like a pet and longs for freedom. On a road trip to the Scottish Highlands, the women are visited by the Hoopoe, a sacred bird whose fables from MuslimTrade ReviewBIRD SUMMONS is a magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Deep and wild -- Lucy Ellmann, author of the Guardian Fiction Prize winner SWEET DESSERTS, and MIMIBIRD SUMMONS is a Scottish-Arabic Canterbury Tales, a quest full of stories and surprises: a challenging storyteller's tour de force, uniting two radically different cultures with a handshake and a kiss. -- Patricia Duncker, author of HALLUCINATING FOUCAULT and SOPHIE AND THE SIBYL: A VICTORIAN ROMANCEBIRD SUMMONS is the story of three Arab women on a quest in the Scottish Highlands and how their experience challenges and reveals them layer by layer. It is engaging and funny and rich in narrative suspense -- Abdulrazak Gurnah, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of PARADISE and GRAVEL HEARTA wonderful book. I loved the beauty of its language and the subtle interweaving of myth with the spiritual and physical journeys of the women. I found it fascinating, powerful and profound -- Anne Donovan, author of BUDDHA DABIRD SUMMONS is a heady blend of social realism, magic, Middle Eastern folktale and Celtic myth. Above all it is the story of three women on a journey not only to the Highlands but also into themselves, as they confront their hopes, fears and deepest secrets. Leila Aboulela's is a unique and refreshing voice in contemporary Scottish fiction -- James Robertson, author of THE TESTAMENT OF GIDEON MACK and TO BE CONTINUEDLeila Aboulela is a constant inspiration to me. Her acute observations, magical realism and fine, flowing prose about women and worlds I know well but had never seen drawn in all their vivid complexity on the page before, are what make me return to her work again and again. -- Sabrina Mahfouz, editor of The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women WriteAn intensely felt novel about an extraordinary journey that peels open one unexpected world after another -- Romesh Gunesekera, author of Booker Prize-shortlisted REEFAboulela is doing much the same thing as Jane Austen did when she brought her heroines to the point of examining their feelings honestly and so realising who they should marry and on what terms. Aboulela does this very well, and always (which is just as important) interestingly ... a very good novel -- Alan Massie * THE SCOTSMAN *Tender, but unsentimental . . . rooted in everyday experience without forsaking the spiritual, told in effortlessly enjoyable style' -- Anthony Cummins * DAILY MAIL *She's so good with women's interiority, and Muslim women's subjectivity ... she gets beyond any cliché or type of the Muslim women -- Arifa Akbar * BBC Radio 4, Front Row *Aboulela's prose is restrained but warm. There is a calm amusement in her tone when the women mock the overly conservative men in their lives . . .For western readers, Aboulela offers rare and precious insight into the minds of women who believe that husbands should be obeyed - Moni's dogged devotion to the care of her disabled son, which is tenderly described early in the novel, is viewed by her friends as a betrayal of her marriage vows -- Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett * GUARDIAN *
£9.49
House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada However Far Away
Book SynopsisA sweeping family saga set against the backdrop of a Sikh wedding.On the morning of his nephew's wedding, Devinder Gill is certain the delicate balance of his life will not be upset. Dev is married to Kuldip, and together they are raising two young children in Vancouver. But Dev also has a secret: an affair with his first love, an Irish Canadian woman named Emily Rice. Today, both women will attend the wedding.As the day progresses through the traditional marriage rituals, the circumstances that led to this precarious situation are revealed through the alternating perspectives of Devinder, Emily, and Kuldip. Dev fails to recognize the building threatsan unwelcome guest, a wandering daughter, a repentant fatherand by day's end must accept that he does not have the control over his life that he imagined.A stunning debut by a talented new voice, However Far Away is an unforgettable story about family secrets, painful compromises, and the p
£14.24
Kensington Publishing The Marriage Pass
Book Synopsis
£11.99
Kensington Publishing Pink Lemonade Cake Murder
Book SynopsisFans of deliciously charming, page-turning whodunits rejoice! Beloved New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Culinary Mystery Joanne Fluke delivers the twenty-eighth mouthwatering Hannah Swensen Mystery!The Tri-County Summer Solstice Celebration has come to town, and even among local artisans, athletes, and marching bands, Hannah attracts fans of her own while serving lip-smacking pink lemonade desserts. But the mood sours when a body turns up, leading revelers to wonder if the festivities mark both the longest day of the year and the deadliest . . .A retired professional MLB player has met a terrifying end—and, considering the rumors swirling about his past, the list of suspects could fill a small stadium. Among them could soon be Delores, Hannah’s mother, who publicly held a grunge against the victim after he infamously dunked her in the tank at a previous county fair . . .Now, with her mother’s innocence on the line, a lif
£21.25
Open Road Media Natural History
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Suncatcher: Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2020
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 JHALAK PRIZE 1964. Ceylon is on the brink of change. But Kairo is at a loose end. School is closed, the government is in disarray, the press is under threat and the religious right are flexing their muscles. Kairo’s hard-working mother blows off steam at her cha-cha-cha classes; his Trotskyite father grumbles over the state of the nation between his secret flutters on horseraces in faraway England. All Kairo wants to do is hide in his room and flick over second-hand westerns and superhero comics, or escape on his bicycle and daydream. Then he meets the magnetic teenage Jay, and his whole world is turned inside out. A budding naturalist and a born rebel, Jay keeps fish and traps birds for an aviary he is building in the garden of his grand home. The adults in Jay's life have no say in what he does or where he goes: he holds his beautiful, fragile mother in contempt, and his wealthy father seems fuelled by anger. But his Uncle Elvin, suave and worldly, is his encourager. As Jay guides him from the realm of make believe into one of hunting-guns and fast cars and introduces him to a girl — Niromi — Kairo begins to understand the price of privilege and embarks on a journey of devastating consequence. Taut and luminous, graceful and wild, Suncatcher is a poignant coming-of-age novel about difficult friendships and sudden awakenings. Mesmerizingly it charts the loss of innocence and our recurring search for love — or consolation — bringing these extraordinary lives into our own.Trade ReviewWonderful ... A poignant coming-of-age novel * Mail on Sunday *Intoxicating … A lyrical and soulful voice -- Barney Norris * Guardian *Suncatcher is a dreamy, mesmerising story on the displeasures of growing up, as Jay and Kairo both long to reach a state of being that captures both the uncorrupted nature of childhood and the cool maturity of adulthood. It may be rare to find that mix in real life, but it is in full abundance in Gunesekera’s novel -- Rebecca Liu * Prospect *Vivid ... A period piece suffused with foreboding ... Gunesekera captures the first rumblings of the cataclysm that would ruinously engulf his nation and that has always compulsively engaged him * Sunday Times *A dreamy, mesmerising story on the displeasures of growing up * Prospect *Beautifully captures the excitement and confusion of teenage friendship ... A magical evocation of a world where it seems that everything should remain as it is, while you know, sadly, that it can't and won't -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *Sumptuous * Spectator *Brilliant … A wise and poignant portrait of a country caught in the moment before it loses its innocence * Financial Times *Brilliant … Pervaded by a sense of threatened beauty: the flash of fish, the flight of birds, the slant of sun on trees, a yearning for innocence * Times Literary Supplement *Gunesekera artfully renders the unequal relationship between the two boys, and the fractures within their families * New York Times *A dreamy, mesmerising story on the displeasures of growing up * Prospect *A joyous narrative of relationships across the fence … but even when it tugs at the heartstrings, Gunesekera’s elegaic prose has a curiously healing quality * The Hindu *A book … that will keep you awake at night thinking, reliving its experiences, and actually re-examining your own * Deccan Herald *For sheer pleasure and good writing, little matched Suncatcher, Romesh Gunesekera’s recovery of lost time and an intense teenage friendship in Sri Lanka when it was still Ceylon in the early years of Independence * Scotsman, Books of the Year *A haunting and poetic foray into a newly independent Sri Lanka and its social fissures * Dawn *Gunesekera’s prose is lush yet luminously clear, and Kairo — as he deciphers the world around him and his place in that world — is the perfect guide to the book’s turbulent setting * Boston Globe *Gunesekera’s gift is to foreground a story of adolescent love and rivalry against the brewing discontent of a society * Mint *A delightful book, beautifully written … Romesh Gunesekera beautifully captures Kairo’s imaginative responses to life * Newtown Review of Books *
£11.52
John Murray Press The Berliners
Book Synopsis'Sometimes I get fanciful and think the buildings speak. That all their history is locked into the walls and if you listened closely enough, you could hear all the people who'd once been there.'Sigi lived upstairs from Sara at Friedrichstrasse 19 yet before they met, Sara had no idea that Berlin could be so thrillingly irreverent or that sex could be so intoxicatingly wonderful. But then came the war, and hunger, loneliness and barbed wire. It was just as a young girl, a protegee of The Academy of Magical Arts situated in Friedrichstrasse at the start of the century, had predicted.Battered and divided, Berlin, like its people, endured. Hans yearns to be part of the boundary-breaking spirit of the age but he's haunted by his mother's part in the war and the absence of a father. Ilse, who escaped from the East, wants nothing more than the freedom she risked her life for. In 1989 in a wild act of spontaneous joy, Heike leapt from the Wall into the arms of a stranger from the West. Thirty years later, she recognises that what she'd willed to be destiny was nothing more than naivety. Recently divorced, she moves into Friedrichstrasse, to begin a new life. But it's impossible not to hear the echoes of the secrets and lies, visions and misunderstandings, lost loves and fatal mistakes, that have come before her.Time-travelling between decades, through the interlocking lives of six people, Friedrichstrasse 19 relives the tumultuous experience of a city on the frontline of history.Trade ReviewAn ingenious and ambitious debut, formally inventive, rich with character and incident * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Adas Realm
Book SynopsisSoaring, spellbinding, utterly epic MUSA OKWONGAA time-travelling wonder of a read PATERSON JOSEPHA work of fierce imagination NII AYIKWEI PARKES WHERE IS ADA? In a small village in West Africa, in what will one day become Ghana, Ada gives birth again, and again the baby does not live. As she grieves the loss of her child, Portuguese traders become the first white men to arrive in the village, an event that will bear terrible repercussions for Ada and her kin. WHEN IS ADA? Centuries later, Ada will become the mathematical genius Ada Lovelace; Ada, a prisoner forced into prostitution in a Nazi concentration camp; and Ada, a young, pregnant Ghanaian woman with a new British passport who arrives in Berlin in 2019 for a fresh start. WHO IS ADA? Ada is not one woman, but many, and she is all women - she revolves in orbits, looping from one century and from one place to the next. And so, she
£10.44
Quercus Publishing One on One
Book Synopsis ''Move over, hockey romance fans. There''s a new game in town . . . The perfect blend of romance, spice, and a healthy dollop of a serious issue that bears addressing'' Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name''I will be shouting about my love for One on One until my voice gives out . . . A new all-time favorite'' Jessica Joyce, USA Today bestselling author of You, With a View''An immersive, sexy, absolute winner of a debut . . . Jamie Harrow has a forever fan in me!'' Sarah Adler, USA Today bestselling author of Happy Medium A steamy enemies-to-lovers workplace romcom for fans of Sally Thorne, Hannah Grace and Beth O''LearyAnnie Radford swore she''d never work in college basketball again, but eight years after fleeing her job with the Ardwyn Tigers, she has no choice but to accept a role as the team''s hype woman and videographer.
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Confessions
Book SynopsisWith a new introduction by Colm ToíbínAbsolutely captivating ANDREA CAMILLERIMonumental GuardianDrawing comparisons with Shadow of the Wind and The Name of the Rose, and an instant bestseller in many languages, Confessions is an astonishing story of one man''s life, interwoven with a narrative that stretches across centuries to create an addictive and unforgettable literary symphony.At 60 and with a diagnosis of early Alzheimer''s, Adria Ardevol re-examines his life before his memory is systematically deleted. He recalls a loveless childhood where the family antique business and his father''s study become the centre of his world; where a treasured Storioni violin retains the shadows of a crime committed many years earlier. His mother, a cold, distant and pragmatic woman leaves him to his solitary games, full of unwanted questions. An accident ends the life of his enigmatic father, filling Adria''
£13.49
Quercus Publishing The Black Loch
Book SynopsisSet against the brooding landscape of the Hebrides, Peter May returns to the territory of his bestselling Lewis Trilogy, and his much-loved detective, Fin Macleod. When the lifeless body of eighteen-year-old Caitlin is discovered on a desolate beach by the Black Loch, questions of murder and secrecy shroud the tight-knit community. It soon emerges that the young woman was in an illicit relationship with Fionnlagh Macleod, a married teacher at the Nicholson Institute where she was a student. Her lover becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. He is also Fin?s son. Despite leaving the island a decade earlier to escape the haunting memories of his past, Fin is compelled to return to Lewis in a desperate attempt, despite the evidence, to clear his troubled son?s name. He will discover that the crime is connected to his own teenage years, in a tragic salmon fishing accident that had led to two deaths, and in the growth of a multi-billion pound industry on the island. The Black Loch takes us on a journey through family ties, hidden relationships and unforgiving landscapes, where suspense, violent revenge and revelation converge in the shadow of the Black Loch.
£18.70
Random House Light Over Liskeard
Book SynopsisLouis de Bernières is the bestselling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book in 1995. His most recent books are So Much Life Left Over, The Dust That Falls From Dreams and The Autumn of the Ace, the short story collection Labels, the children's book Station Jim and the poetry collection The Cat in the Treble Clef.
£9.49
Random House Sweet Mercies
Book SynopsisEven saints need second chances...Discover the new heartwarming Christmas adventure with the Sisters of Saint Philomena, about friendship, family, and forgiveness. Perfect for fans of AJ Pearce, Katie Fforde and Call the Midwife.Everyone loves Sister Bridget. The cheerful Mother Superior of St Philomena''s convent is friend to many in the town of Fairbridge and the irrepressible caller at the weekly Parish Bingo. There is nothing she can''t sort out with a kind word, a cup of tea and a slice of her amazing chocolate cake.But as the Christmas tree goes up and festive cheer rises, a visitor arrives at the convent who doesn''t like Sister Bridget one bit. Sister Bridget soon learns that secrets are bubbling to the surface back home in Ireland - especially for her younger sister Mary. She will need to face up to past deeds, however well-intended.With the help of her friends, and the power of love and forgiveness, maybe she can
£9.49
Random House The Pole and Other Stories
Book SynopsisJ.M. Coetzee's work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood, Youth, Disgrace, Summertime, The Childhood of Jesus and, most recently, The Schooldays of Jesus. He was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
£9.49
Amazon Publishing The River Knows My Name
Book SynopsisFrom award-winning writer Mortada Gzar, author of the acclaimed memoir I’m in Seattle, Where Are You?, comes an enthralling and lyrical novel about a girl’s liberating self-discovery in Iraq.Fifteen-year-old Charlotte is restlessly coming of age in early twentieth-century Basra, Iraq. The daughter of a Seattle doctor and missionary, Charlotte craves an adventure of her own making. Just the thought of the steppes, hills, valleys, and the winding river stirs Charlotte’s imagination and sends her compass of flight dancing.So, preferring the wondrous unknown to solicitude, Charlotte packs up copies of her father’s Gospels and a statue of the Baby Jesus and runs away. Then, in a desperate search to find his daughter, Charlotte’s own father goes missing. With the help of two women—the mission’s Sister Baghdadli and Shathra, a guide to the lost—Charlotte embarks on a quest steeped in local lore, and as mysterious a
£16.99
Amazon Publishing The River Knows My Name
Book SynopsisFrom award-winning writer Mortada Gzar, author of the acclaimed memoir I’m in Seattle, Where Are You?, comes an enthralling and lyrical novel about a girl’s liberating self-discovery in Iraq.Fifteen-year-old Charlotte is restlessly coming of age in early twentieth-century Basra, Iraq. The daughter of a Seattle doctor and missionary, Charlotte craves an adventure of her own making. Just the thought of the steppes, hills, valleys, and the winding river stirs Charlotte’s imagination and sends her compass of flight dancing.So, preferring the wondrous unknown to solicitude, Charlotte packs up copies of her father’s Gospels and a statue of the Baby Jesus and runs away. Then, in a desperate search to find his daughter, Charlotte’s own father goes missing. With the help of two women—the mission’s Sister Baghdadli and Shathra, a guide to the lost—Charlotte embarks on a quest steeped in local lore, and as mysterious a
£8.54
Amazon Publishing The Snow Gypsy
Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The Woman on the Orient Express comes a haunting novel of two women—one determined to uncover the past and the other determined to escape it. At the close of World War II, London is in ruins and Rose Daniel isn’t at peace. Eight years ago, her brother disappeared while fighting alongside Gypsy partisans in Spain. From his letters, Rose has just two clues to his whereabouts—his descriptions of the spectacular south slopes of the Sierra Nevada and his love for a woman who was carrying his child. In Spain, it has been eight years since Lola Aragon’s family was massacred. Eight years since she rescued a newborn girl from the arms of her dying mother and ran for her life. She has always believed that nothing could make her return…until a plea for help comes from a desperate stranger. Now, Rose, Lola, and the child set out on a journey from the wild marshes of the Camargue to the dazzling peaks of Spain’s ancient mountain communities. As they come face-to-face with war’s darkest truths, their lives will be changed forever by memories, secrets, and friendships.Trade Review“The Snow Gypsy is a jewel of a book with layers of light and depth. Through eloquent language, intriguing characters, and lavish historical detail, Lindsay Jayne Ashford brings to life two extraordinary women in post–World War II Europe and shows that although grief never completely fades, love and hope can still take us onward.” —Ann Howard Creel, bestselling author of The Whiskey Sea “Ashford drew me in from the start with her exquisite prose, then took me on a heartfelt and exotic journey through southern Spain and Provence. Moving insights into the Spanish Civil War are woven throughout the novel, and the story is told with beauty and compassion. Highly recommended.” —Ella Carey, bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say “The Snow Gypsy is a moving story of two women who have both been scarred by loss yet refuse to be defined by their pasts. Ashford immerses readers in the sights, smells, and tastes of Spain, from the sensuousness of flamenco dancing to the traditions of Gypsy culture and the lingering, tragic aftereffects of the Spanish Civil War. It’s easy to root for strong, inspiring heroines like Rose and Lola.” —Elizabeth Blackwell, bestselling author of In the Shadow of Lakecrest “An intriguing and enlightening journey viewed through the eyes of two independent and passionate women haunted by the pasts they must reconcile.” —Gemma Liviero, author of Broken Angels and Pastel Orphans
£8.54
Broadview Press Ltd Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Selections
Book SynopsisUncle Tom's Cabin may well have excited more controversy than any other work of fiction in American history. Welcomed by many abolitionists and met with indignation by supporters of slavery, it gave crucial impetus to the antislavery movement, and its characters and dramatic scenes were quickly absorbed into the nation's consciousness; at the same time, its employment of racial stereotypes and emphasis on Christian nonresistance in the face of violence left behind a troubling legacy that was debated by black Americans in the nineteenth century and that culminated in the popular tradition of 'Tom shows' that persisted well into the twentieth century. With a brief but robust introduction, judicious selection of the most essential and frequently taught portions of the novel, and examples of contemporary responses, this abridged edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery classic provides an overview of the novel's plot, themes, and rhetorical strategies, and is ideal for classroom use. This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature; like the others, it is designed to make a range of material from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts.Trade ReviewThe expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature."—Hester Blum, Penn State University"The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike."—Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University"So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come."— Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College "The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display."—Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University "Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways."—Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison"a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be."— Michael C. Cohen, UCLATable of ContentsIntroductionUncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly: SelectionsIn Context American Slavery: Contemporary Accounts from Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Sarah Grimké, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (1839) from The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada (1856) Runaway Advertisements (1820–67) Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Public William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, 26 March 1852 from William J. Wilson [Ethiop], Uncle Tom's Cabin!, Frederick Douglass' Paper, 17 June 1852 from Charles Sumner, US Senate Speech on his Motion to repeal the fugitive Slave Bill (as reprinted in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, Lisbon, Ohio), 18 September 1852 from anonymous, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The New York Observer, 21 October 1852 from Louisa S. McCord, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southern Quarterly Review, January 1853 from George Sand, George Sand and Uncle Tom, The National Era, 27 January 1853 from George Frederick Holmes, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southern Literary Messenger, June 1853 from anonymous, The North American Review, October 1853 from Mary Chesnut, Diary, 1861–62, 1981 Advertisement, New England Farmer (Boston, Massachusetts), 25 December 1852 (An Edition for the Million) Advertisement, Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), 12 August 1852 The Anti-Tom Novel from Caroline Lee Hentz, The Planter's Northern Bride (1854) Martin Delany and Frederick Douglass Debate Harriet Beecher Stowe Visualizing Uncle Tom's Cabin
£14.95
Red Wheel/Weiser Diary of a Drug Fiend
Book SynopsisWritten by Aleister Crowley, The Diary of a Drug Fiend tells the story of young Peter Pendragon and his lover Louise Laleham, and their adventures traveling through Europe in a cocaine and heroin haze. The bohemian couples'' binges produce visions and poetic prophecies, but when their supply inevitably runs dry they find themselves faced with the reality of their drug addiction. Through the guidance of King Lamus, a master adept, they use the application of practical Magick to free themselves from addiction. First published in 1922 and dubbed "a book for burning" by the papers of the time, The Diary of a Drug Fiend reveals the poet, the lover, and the profound adept that was Aleister Crowley.
£17.99
University of Scranton Press,U.S. Bruges-la-Morte
Book Synopsis"Bruges-la-Morte" is the story of one man's obsession with his dead wife and his soul's struggle between an alluring young dancer - his late wife's double - and the beautiful, melancholy city of Bruges, whose moody atmosphere mirrors his mourning. This hallmark of Belgian symbolist literature, originally published in 1892 and first translated into English by Philip Mosley to great acclaim twenty years ago, is now back in print for the next generation of English readers to discover. With penetrating psychological force and richly metaphorical language, "Bruges-la-Morte" draws a haunting picture of love, grief, and murder in what has become a "dead city," severely Catholic and once proud. The source of the famous opera Die tote Stadt and endless inspiration for Belgian and French artists, this novella will enthrall readers with its dark portrait of fin-de-siecle Europe.Trade Review"This is an iconic and indeed defining work of decadent fiction, as well as the consummate example of fin-de-siecle experimentation with sustained poetic prose." - Donald Flanell Friedman, Winthrop University"
£8.49
The New York Review of Books, Inc Boredom
Book SynopsisThe novels that the great Italian writer Alberto Moravia wrote in the years following the World War II represent an extraordinary survey of the range of human behavior in a fragmented modern society. Boredom, the story of a failed artist and pampered son of a rich family who becomes dangerously attached to a young model, examines the complex relations between money, sex, and imperiled masculinity. This powerful and disturbing study in the pathology of modern life is one of the masterworks of a writer whom as Anthony Burgess once remarked, was 'always trying to get to the bottom of the human imbroglio.'
£15.29
Histria LLC Walk the Earth as Brothers
Book SynopsisTwo Jewish brothers, Ian and Daniel are planning futures full of achievement and even fame. As World War II erupts, Ian is thrown west to Paris. There, he unexpectedly falls in love with Alicia, a mysterious woman planning a daring robbery. With the city about to fall to the Nazis, he is forced to leave her and, masquerading as a French soldier, race across France barely ahead of the German Army. To Walk the Earth as Brothers is the story of two pawns in a titanic world war. It is the story of bravery, random chance, kindness, betrayal, and love. It is the story of what happens to Daniel and Ian\u2019s hopes and dreams, and how their fight for survival changes who they become.
£21.56
Kensington Publishing Carl Weber's Kingpins: Atl
Book SynopsisA Romeo and Juliet story taken from the streets, where social class and drug wars tear young lovers apart
£6.99
Dalkey Archive Press The Garden of Seven Twilights
Book SynopsisAs if Borges wrote The DecameronDuring an atomic alarm in Barcelona in the year 2025, the thirty-year old hero takes refuge in a luxurious mansion in the mountains where he is put up, along with other guests, awaiting the outcome of the conflict. For the following seven days the residents of the mansion spend their spare time reading and taking walks , and, above all, telling stories to each other. The narrators (most of whom belong to the generation thirty years older than the hero's) are eight in number, and the stories they tell can be taken as autonomous ones, although, as the novel advances, it may soon be that when juxtaposed, they do indeed weave a web of intrigue about a family of bankers—a web that gradually involves some of the guests in the mansion.Trade Review“A succession of adventures that follow on through an endless series of stories.”—Ramon Pla i Arxé, El País“A really unconventional jewel that gives exceptional powers to those who exercise control over it.”—Isodor Cónsul, Avui“With this work, Miquel de Palol shows us that he is capable of going back to the roots of the novelistic genre to bring us back that rare flavour we always seek in fiction works. He does so with an ironic form of didacticism which appears impregnated with the empirical poise that characterizes the classics.”—Pere Rovira, La Vanguardia
£21.85
Dalkey Archive Press Mahler Erasures
Book SynopsisOnce a fêted literary figure, the former lover of B-list movie star Lucida, but now derelict, incontinent, asexual, ageing poet Harold Lime turns his back on material modernity, withdrawing to a basement in the university town of Cambridge, England. But human connections will prove difficult to sever completely, and he is drawn out of himself by a fox hunt saboteur (the sab woman), with whom he forms a poignant, uneasy relationship and who acts as his mutual confessor. In the isolation of his basement, Harold Lime obsessively listens to Mahler, whose nine symphonies, unfinished tenth, and Earth Songs, each corresponding to a separate chapter of this innovative poetic novel, will reawaken the sensitivities he has tried to erase, taking him back to his Australian childhood and youth, fostering a growing awareness of intertwined body and soul, of commitment and connectedness, of the ecology of rootedness and unrootedness in an unjust world.
£12.34
Red Hen Press Blindspot in America
Book SynopsisBlindspot in America gives a provocative depiction of some of the realities immigrants face in the United States—racism and discrimination—but also their hopes and faith in a country that promises freedom and opportunity to all.Kamao is the son of a prominent Ghanaian academic and incumbent minister of health and is devoted to all that America symbolizes. After immigrating to the United States in pursuit of higher education and the American Dream, he becomes unwittingly entangled with American politics when he meets Lindsey McAdams, the daughter of an influential, anti-immigration senator. As the couple’s feelings grow, so too does the senator’s animosity toward Kamao. Despite support from fellow immigrants Lazo, Ayefumi, and Dania—who follow American Dreams of their own—Kamao soon finds himself drawn into intrigues hidden from the American public that make him question himself and his adopted country. When Kamao i
£13.29
Red Hen Press Memento Mori
Book SynopsisDon’t look back. Did Eurydice want to return from the underworld? Did anybody ask? In this brilliant portrait of rage and resilience, a Korean woman tries to connect with her younger brother and grapple with family tragedy through bedtime stories that weave together Greek mythology, neuroscience, and tales from their grandmother’s slipping memory. Recasting the myths of Eurydice, Orpheus, Persephone, and Hades through the lens of a Korean American family, Eunice Hong’s debut novel offers a moving and darkly funny exploration of grief, love, and the inescapability of death.
£12.34
Oni Press,US The Man From Maybe
Book SynopsisAmidst the irradiated plains walks a legend who is more than man . . . BEWARE THE MAN FROM MAYBE!In the dry and dead future that''s coming soon, all life belongs to Oppenheimer-obsessed billionaire Harvard Denny and his corporate scavengers from Smile, Inc., who pillage the wastelands in search of atomic contraband. But when a hyper-advanced vessel of possibly alien origin crash lands on the outer edge of Denny''s empire of neon-lit ruins, will it bring promise or poison to a distorted world?As the race to acquire the ship''s cargo begins, our fate will be decided by a masked bandit and the cold iron of his laser rifle. He knows no name, no home, no surrenderonly the whispered hush of those in need who dare call him . . . THE MAN FROM MAYBE!Give yourself over to an upside-down world where all mutants eat lead and all dinosaurs speak truth in the postapocalyptic epic of Western-infused action from rising star Jordan Thomas (Weird Work, XINO) and psychedelic warlo
£999.99
Zando Fast Reckless
Book SynopsisRace into a sexy New Adult romance, set in the fast-paced world of Formula One. These friends-to-lovers are about to fall . . . fast and reckless.He's the one man she can't have . . . Mira Wentworth knows Will Hawley is trouble. Even if he revs her engine, flirting with the handsome new driver on her father's Formula One team is not in the cards. Mira has sworn off on-track romance after a mistake as a teen cost her everything. Now she has a chance to win back her spot in F1 as a team assistant, and she''s not going to let one cheeky, bad boy driver get in her way.She's the one woman he wants . . . After his party boy antics nearly blew up his racing career, Will is finally back in the driver's seat and determined to get onto the podium. He likes to think he's reformed, but with one look at the boss' daughter, he's willing to risk it all. As the heat builds between Mira and Will, their chemistry deepens into something more
£11.69
Deep Vellum Publishing Pontiac
Book SynopsisIn the inner sanctum of an elite 1960’s boarding school, boys test their boundaries and class when they welcome an outsider. One New England boys’ boarding school, a bastion of the WASP aristocracy, has been holding out stubbornly against pressure to diversify. Grudgingly, St. Philip’s School in New Hampshire opens its doors to its first scholarship student: young Woodrow Skaggs from Pontiac, Michigan, the tough, rough-edged son of an autoworker. Things do not go smoothly—the world portrayed in Pontiac may be shockingly inappropriate to the readers of today. The attitudes of the St. Philip’s students toward gender and sex cruelly predict the treatment girls will receive twenty years later when many of these schools become coeducational. And yet in their awkward, often violent attempts to figure each other out, the boys of St. Philip’s also provide a window to better, more tolerant times ahead. Told through m
£13.29
Kodansha America, Inc Tsugumi Project 5
Book SynopsisIn this acclaimed, postapocalyptic action manga, a soldier named Leon is taken from his family on a trumped-up charge and dropped into a suicide mission to recover a dangerous weapon froma deadly place, a place ruled by huge, irradiated, mutated monsters--a place once known, 200 years ago, as Japan. One of the scant pieces of information they have is the weapon''s codename: Tsugumi.This gory, mysterious story, which has already thrilled readers in Japan and France, is an action-suspense epic in the vein of classics like Blame!, Spriggan, and AKIRA.Enter a land of monsters and buried secrets. A land once known asJapan. More than two centuries have passed since Japan was devastated by nuclear war. Cut off from the world, the island is now a place of terror and mysteries: wonders of science some believe best forgotten, monuments to a bygone era of human decadence, and irradiated monsters ready to tear apart any humans foolish enough to set foot there.After being wrenched from his family a
£11.69
Amazon Publishing The Fake Wedding Project
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Amazon Publishing Who Loves You Best
Book SynopsisA woman drops everything to spend more time with her grandchild, only to discover new truths about herself. A humorous, heartfelt, feel-good novel from the author of Crazy to Leave You.For Jodi Wexler, a Florida doctor with a flourishing practice, only one thing’s missing: the chance to spend more time getting to know her eight-year-old granddaughter, Macallan.When Jodi’s restauranteur daughter asks her to watch Macallan in the Berkshires while she takes care of some business out of town, Jodi can’t say yes fast enough. Neither Jodi’s podiatric patients nor her just-fired, suddenly retired husband can keep her away. But when Jodi arrives, she discovers she’s not the only grandma at Lisa’s house. Lisa’s mother-in-law, Di—a hard-nosed real estate agent—has moved into the house. What’s more, there’s Grannie Annie, the twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend of Lisa’s oddball father-in-law. They
£8.54
Amazon Publishing When We Chased the Light
Book SynopsisA Hollywood legend. A legacy of secrets. An epic and emotional novel about forgiveness, fame, family, and truly unconditional love by the bestselling author of When We Were Enemies.Christie’s auction house, Beverly Hills. The effects of Hollywood icon Vivian Snow are up for bid. In the collection is a set of hand-drawn postcards spanning six decades. The sender is Antonio Trombello, a soldier, POW, priest, and Vivian’s confidant. Each postcard sheds new light on a deeply private woman the public only thinks it knows.It’s World War II. Vivian is a USO showgirl traveling the world when her husband goes AWOL, disappears, and is presumed dead. Facing increasing suspicion, she leans on her dear friend Father Trombello for support. He’s her confessor, her savior, the elusive love of her life, and when it comes to her husband’s death, the keeper of Vivian’s secrets.As Vivian rises from canteen dream girl to starlet to b
£8.54
Amazon Publishing The Witches of Santo Stefano
Book SynopsisAn investigative journalist uncovers the haunting secret history of her own ancestors in a bewitching novel by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake.When Cassie Graves discovers her husband’s affair, it’s enough to chip away at the foundation of her life. But after researching her family’s Italian ancestry, it completely crumbles beneath her.Her grandmother Gia’s often-told stories about the past are a lie. Her much-romanticized great-grandfather Giovanni may not even have existed. Most alarming of all, it appears her mysterious great-grandmother Violetta died by stregoneria—witchcraft. Now, piecing together the puzzle of her family tree in the small, centuries-old hill town of Santo Stefano, Cassie finds help from a welcoming group of locals: the accommodating Renzo; Dante, whose own family history connects with Cassie’s; and the ethereal Luna, an interpreter of dreams who gives Cassie a protective amu
£8.54
Amazon Publishing Never Ever You
Book SynopsisA happily married woman wakes up to an astonishingly different life in a funny, emotional, and twisty romantic comedy in reverse by the author of Three More Months.It’s Riley Ricci-Chase’s first wedding anniversary, and she’s living a perfect life in London with her utterly devoted husband, Tristan. So what if his parents and insufferable cousin Milo work Riley’s last nerve? She has Tristan.The next morning Riley wakes up exactly one year later. No wedding ring. It’s Milo by her side. And Tristan is a happy new father—with another woman. None of this is surprising to anyone. Except Riley. Where does she go from here? With every new tomorrow, she’s moving backward through time to face a year she’s already lived, one she’s completely unprepared for.Unless this is some cosmic prank, Riley is on a journey with a lot of questions. What went wrong with Tristan? How in this mind-blowing flip side could
£8.54
Amazon Publishing All They Need to Know
Book SynopsisA woman escaping a violent past finds new friendships, romance, and tenuous sanctuary in an emotionally gripping novel by New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge.On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a neglected dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women called the Tattooed Ladies Club. They’re there for Kyra—and for each other.The maternal Frannie is a tattoo artist struggling with a troubled daughter. Suzy is a self-described fashionista grandma bearing a painful estrangement from her son. Then there’s Jo, whose enviable marriage is coming undone. And bookstore owner Marisol. She longs for the kind of romance she only reads about. For them, and for Kyra, fortunes can change.Just as Kyra parlays her artistic talents into a new career, and finally meets a man she can trust i
£8.54
Amazon Publishing In Our Likeness
Book SynopsisThe wonders and chaos of AI converge in a powerful and thrilling novel about rewriting history, identity, love, and what it means to be human.Graham Gooding is a leader at a tech start-up when his brilliant coworker—and work crush—Nessie Locke asks for help testing a new algorithm. Graham jumps at the chance to impress her, and to improve his floundering personal life. He soon discovers that the algo is more powerful than Nessie—or anyone—realizes. It was built to detect lies on the internet, but when Graham makes a small edit to Nessie’s online profile, hoping to see if the program will catch the lie, Nessie changes in real life. The algo can alter the real world. Now, so can Graham.No one knows what Graham has done, except his boss, enigmatic tech guru David Warwick. Graham is racked with guilt, but Warwick thrills to the possibilities of what they can do next. This promises to be the innovation that will make Warwick a household
£16.99
Amazon Publishing A Borrowed Path
Book SynopsisHome is where the heartache is.Eve has always had a tricky relationship with her mother, Agatha, and returning to Fox House, the family home, hasn’t made it any easier. When Eve’s daughter, Lyra, and granddaughter, Skye, unexpectedly turn up, it becomes clear that four generations of women under one roof is a recipe for trouble. Not least because Lyra clearly needs help but refuses to say why.Lyra decides she wants to live in the ramshackle cottage in the grounds, but when Agatha announces she’s promised it to a man called Dylan, Eve and Lyra are mystified. Who is he, and what reason could Agatha possibly have for giving him the cottage?Because it seems that it’s not only Lyra hiding things. Agatha has secrets she has never had the courage to tell Eve. Is now the right time to finally reveal the truth? And if she does, will it give them the relationships they’ve all longed for—or will it drive them further apart?
£8.54
The New York Review of Books, Inc Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma
Book SynopsisThe astonishing follow-up to 2018''s Kolyma Stories.In 1936, Varlam Shalamov, a journalist and writer, was arrested for counterrevolutionary activities and sent to the Soviet Gulag. He survived fifteen years in the prison camps and returned from the Far North to write one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century literature, an epic array of short fictional tales reflecting the years he spent in the Gulag. Sketches of the Criminal World is the second of two volumes (the first, Kolyma Stories, was published by NYRB Classics in 2018) that together constitute the first complete English translation of Shalamov’s stories and the only one to be based on the authorized Russian text. In this second volume, Shalamov sets out to answer the fundamental moral questions that plagued him in the camps where he encountered firsthand the criminal world as a real place, far more evil than Dostoyevsky’s underground: “How does someone stop being human?” and “How are criminals made?” By 1972, when he was writing his last stories, the camps were being demolished, the guard towers and barracks razed. “Did we exist?” Shalamov asks, then answers without hesitation, “I reply, ‘We did.’”
£17.85
The New York Review of Books, Inc Divorcing
Book Synopsis
£14.39
The New York Review of Books, Inc Malicroix
Book SynopsisFans of the style of William Faulkner will want to read Henri Bosco, four-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Available in English for the first time, Malicroix tells the story of a recluse living in the French countryside, unraveling how he came to a life of solitude. Henri Bosco, like his contemporary Jean Giono, is one of the regional masters of modern French literature, a writer who dwells above all on the grandeur, beauty, and ferocious unpredictability of the natural world. Malicroix, set in the early nineteenth century, is widely considered to be Bosco’s greatest book. Here he invests a classic coming-of-age story with a wild, mythic glamour. A nice young man, of stolidly unimaginative, good bourgeois stock, is surprised to inherit a house on an island in the Rhône, in the famously desolate and untamed region of the Camargue. The terms of his great-uncle’s will are even more surprising: the young man must take up solitary residence in the house for a full three months before he will be permitted to take possession of it. With only a taciturn shepherd and his dog for occasional company, he finds himself surrounded by the huge and turbulent river (always threatening to flood the island and surrounding countryside) and the wind, battering at his all-too-fragile house, shrieking from on high. And there is another condition of the will, a challenging task he must perform, even as others scheme to make his house their own. Only under threat can the young man come to terms with both his strange inheritance and himself.
£14.39
