Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisShortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize 2018 On April 4th 1968, Martin Luther King was murdered by a man named James Earl Ray. Before Ray's capture and sentencing to 99 years' imprisonment, he evaded the FBI for two months as he crossed the globe under various aliases. At the heart of his story is Lisbon, where he spent ten days attempting to acquire an Angolan visa. Like a Fading Shadow traces three journeys to the city: Ray's desperate attempt to evade justice in 1968; a research trip undertaken by the young Muñoz Molina for his breakthrough novel Winter in Lisbon in 1987; and the return journey taken by the novelist as he attempts to reconstruct these twin stories from the instability of the past, and interrogates his own obsession with one of the twentieth century's most notorious figures. Aided by the recent declassification of James Earl Ray's FBI case file, Like a Fading Shadow boldly weaves a taut retelling of Ray's assassination of King, his time on the run and his eventual capture together with a highly original, fearlessly honest examination of the novelist's own past.Trade ReviewAntonio Muñoz Molina is a true original and has written a book unlike anything else: part fiction, part memoir, part meditation, in which the interiority of a murderer on the run - and not just any murderer but James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King - is set against the interiority of the writer, when young, trying to find his voice. The stories of the killer and the writer circle each other, interrogate and echo each other, and then diverge. A novel is a kind of refuge too, Muñoz Molina suggests. Only one of the two men in this terrific book will find the refuge he seeks. -- Salman RushdieExhilarating ... exceptional ... a necessary novel -- Adam Feinstein * Financial Times *Praise for In the Night of Time: 'Sweeping, magisterial ... an astonishingly vivid narrative that unfolds with hypnotic intensity by means of the constant interweaving of time and memory ... Tolstoyan in its scale, emotional intensity and intellectual honesty * Economist *An immense, luminous panorama ... one of the many wonders of this novel is how Molina integrates the personal so closely with the political ... compellingly seductive * Independent *

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Book SynopsisIt's Summer, 1991, the dawning of the New World Order; a post-MTV, pre-AOL generation. Jerome Shafir and Sylvie Green, two former New Yorkers who can no longer afford an East Village apartment, set off on a journey across the entire former Soviet Bloc with the intention of adopting a Romanian orphan. Unflinchingly dark, hilarious and moving - Torpor is at once a satire and philosophy of cultural history, social identity and failing relationships. Dipping into the trajectory of a life at different moments, Kraus interrogates convention and emotion, creating characters that are flawed, witty, and altogether true to life. Part prequel, part sequel, Torpor continues a project of life-writing; personal, unsparing, and triumphant. If I Love Dick is the book of your 20s, Torpor is the book of your 30s.Trade Review[Kraus's] use of tense and modality are exceptional ... the sense of anomie, of lethargy, of the noon day demon are palpable ... Kraus is capable of creating fascinating work. * Spectator *Praise for I Love Dick: 'I know there was a time before I read Chris Kraus's I Love Dick (in fact, that time was only five years ago), but it's hard to imagine; some works of art do this to you. They tear down so many assumptions about what the form can handle (in this case, what the form of the novel can handle) that there is no way to re-create your mind before your encounter with them -- Sheila HetiEver since I read I Love Dick, I have revered it as one of the most explosive, revealing, lacerating and unusual memoirs ever committed to the page ... I Love Dick is never a comfortable read, and it is by turns exasperating, horrifying, and lurid, but it is never less than genuine, and often completely illuminating about the life of the mind. -- Rick Moody

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Book SynopsisErin is 19. She's never really left England, but she has watched Bear Grylls and wonders why it's always men who get to go on all the cool wilderness adventures. So Erin sets off on a voyage into the Alaskan wilderness, a one-woman challenge to the archetype of the rugged male explorer. As Erin's journey takes her through the Arctic Circle, across the entire breadth of the American continent and finally to a lonely cabin in the wilds of Denali, she explores subjects as diverse as the moon landings, the Gaia hypothesis, loneliness, nuclear war, shamanism and the pill. Filled with a sense of wonder for the natural world and a fierce love for preserving it, The Word for Woman is Wilderness is a funny, frank and tender account of a young woman in uncharted territory.Trade ReviewThe Word for Woman Is Wilderness is unlike any published work I have read ... rises to its own challenges in engaging intellectually as well as wholeheartedly with its questions about gender, genre and the concept of wilderness -- Sarah Moss * Guardian *A wide wild world comes surging out of this book, flooding the space you sit in with an energy and a vastness of scope that dazzles and daunts and exhilarates. It is a quiet, sardonic, funny, fluid text, a visionary book, that shows us the future is in fact already here. * Caught by the River *A gripping feminist reimagining of Into the Wild. * Elle *Refreshing and funny and unlike anything else. I feel as if I've been waiting for this book for a long time -- Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Everything UnderClever, funny and thoughtful -- Will Ashon, author of Strange LabyrinthA thinking woman's adventure story ... [Andrews' prose has] grace and reflection ... beautiful, thoughtful, and often humorous. -- Lucy Scholes * The National *Erin is a captivating heroine - funny, feminist and intensely curious, she riffs on Bear Grylls, the beauty of the natural world and the contraceptive pill as she makes her way to a tiny cabin in desolate Denali ... brilliant. * Daily Mail *A hopeful and challenging account of a young woman in uncharted territory ... The many-coloured themes and ideas in the book are themselves painted on complex and overlapping canvases - of feminism, in an age of wilderness, but a wilderness that has been warped as it becomes embedded in the Anthropocene ... The Word for Woman is Wilderness is filled with humour and seriousness; interweaving ideas that in many other books would have a hard time sitting together, and then making that non-dualism part of the purpose of the book. It asks us to rewild not just our landscapes, but our words and ways of thinking about nature and so many other things. * Ecologist *A varied, funny, and important novel for our times * Helsinki Book Review *Sometimes, the greatest stories are the ones that generate inspiration beyond our wildest imagination ... this is an inspiring account of the unprecedented change to the social norms of young women in uncharted territory * Wired for Adventure *A good book is one that makes you think about your own life. A great book is one that challenges your thinking. But it is a truly remarkable book that changes how you think, and The Word for Woman is Wilderness had that effect on me. I can't give it higher praise than that * Bookmunch *Uplifting, with a thirsty curiosity, the writing is playful and exuberant. Riffing on feminist ideas but unlimited in scope, Andrews focuses our attention on our beautiful, doomed planet, and the astonishing things we have yet to discover. -- Ruth McKee * Irish Times *This book is a feminist, millennial manifesto about reclaiming the wilderness. Andrews' debut novel follows a 19-year-old girl on a feminist expedition in the footsteps of Chris McCandless, and is told in such a self-conscious, clever and amusing way that I haven't stopped thinking about it since * Cardiff Review *

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Book Synopsis'Simon Rich is outrageously, lavishly gifted' - Caitlin Moran 'Simon Rich is the funniest writer alive' - Matt Haig 'How fabulously funny' - Lauren Laverne 'One of my favourite authors' - B J Novak From a bitter tell-all by a horse who made a man famous and then got left behind to a gushing magazine profile of one of your favorite World War II dictators, these stories trawl through history to skewer our obsession with fame and fortune - all the way from ancient Babylon to Hollywood. What father-to-be wouldn't feel a little jealous when his baby outstrips his success from the womb? And what happens when a film critic is forced to live in the movies he so cruelly damned? Loved in the UK by celebs, writers and readers alike, from Lauren Laverne to Matt Haig and Caitlin Moran, Simon Rich is back with his funniest and most personal collection of stories to date.Trade ReviewSimon Rich is outrageously, lavishly gifted -- Caitlin MoranHow fabulously funny -- Lauren LaverneOne of my favourite authors -- B J NovakSimon Rich is the funniest writer alive -- Matt HaigGenius ... He is a Thurber, even a Wodehouse, for today. Who could ask for more? You can give his books to people and just watch them laugh. Only after you've snorted through them yourself, though * Evening Standard *With Simon Rich's new collection you will laugh out loud regularly ... The stories are very, very funny ... Read Hits and Misses if you like laughing at things. -- Patrick Freyne * Irish Times *Wildly funny -- Anthony Cummins * Metro *

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Book SynopsisThe debut novel by the bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms - but there's more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along. Who are these people? And what do they intend for John? Elegant, gently sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the author of The Essex Serpent.Trade Review'A beautiful, dream-like narrative. Rarely do debut novels come as assured and impressive as this one. * Sarah Waters *Just occasionally you pick up a novel that is inexplicably gripping from the first page - and Perry's debut is one of them -- Phil Barker * Sunday Times *What makes this novel truly remarkable is its unique vision, its skilful and sophisticated characterisations, and the creation, without unseemly effects, of an atmosphere that will haunt the reader long after the final page * John Burnside, Guardian *An original and haunting book ... a mix of elegant, alluring, but subtly sinister characters ... a talented writer * Daily Mail *A dark, marvellous novel ... Perry evokes the oppressive atmosphere in precise, elegant prose ... This mesmeric quality recalls Sebald's writing, but Gothic-smudged ... It is not good for a first novel, just very good full stop. So pour yourself a cool drink and bask in a dazzling new writing talent. -- Catherine Blyth * Sunday Telegraph *After Me Comes the Flood is written in deceptively straightforward prose that gradually yields a profound sense of foreboding. A house and the mysteries it contains; a disconcerting, dark reservoir to which everyone's attention returns; and a most unsettling sense of place - all made me think of Fowles' The Magus, Maxwell's The Chateau, and Woolf's To The Lighthouse. This is a book perhaps most deeply about the unknowability of others and of oneself - and one that, while highly disorienting and eerie, is also intensely warm. I loved it. -- Katherine Angel, author of UNMASTEREDPerry's debut successfully creates an air of real eeriness and tension ... the real pleasure here is in her insightful and convincing depiction of family. -- Lesley McDowell * Glasgow Herald *Impossible to put down * Image Magazine *Perry is a startlingly good writer. If she doesn't win the Booker prize one day, I'll be amazed. * Sophie Hannah *Unsettling, thoughtful, eerie...strange and new...It's very clever and very intriguing. * Tim Pears *

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Book Synopsis"Much With Body is modern and approachable, with an undercurrent of irony. All in all, a powerfully potent reading experience" Buzz Magazine"I was moved by this collection which places the joy of nature alongside the lived experience of those who suffer, the wild and free next to images of confinement and inaccessibility. Atkin has crafted poems in both traditional and highly experimental forms with huge success." - London Grip"This collection is a keeper, I can''t recommend it highly enough."- Caroline Bracken Atkins splits her collection into three unique parts. Atkins begins with refreshing perspective on the innocence and light-hearted descriptions of her experience with her local wildlife in Cumbria. Her next section is focused on ignored poetry from Dorothy Wordsworth, taking on an experimental style to share Atkins'' struggle with lockdown, weather and illness. In her final section, Atkins highlights the ableism she experiences, linking the medical to the personal and her identity as a long-term sufferer from a chronic illness.

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Book Synopsis"Much With Body is modern and approachable, with an undercurrent of irony. All in all, a powerfully potent reading experience" Buzz Magazine"I was moved by this collection which places the joy of nature alongside the lived experience of those who suffer, the wild and free next to images of confinement and inaccessibility. Atkin has crafted poems in both traditional and highly experimental forms with huge success." - London Grip"This collection is a keeper, I can''t recommend it highly enough."- Caroline Bracken Atkins splits her collection into three unique parts. Atkins begins with refreshing perspective on the innocence and light-hearted descriptions of her experience with her local wildlife in Cumbria. Her next section is focused on ignored poetry from Dorothy Wordsworth, taking on an experimental style to share Atkins'' struggle with lockdown, weather and illness. In her final section, Atkins highlights the ableism she experiences, linking the medical to the personal and her identity as a long-term sufferer from a chronic illness.

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Book SynopsisBorn into a world of pickets and poverty, Girlo Wolf dreams of being a poet. But mental health challenges and an underworld of sex, drugs and alcohol threaten to stand in her way - until she discovers that words are exactly what she needs. Set in post-industrial Wales, The Crazy Truth is an authentic story of one woman''s journey to empowerment.

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Book SynopsisThe Pure Gold Baby is the story of Anna, a little girl with a luminescent quality, her mother, Jess, and the community that envelops them. A happy child, Anna is the unchanging core of this journey spanning decades and continents through the lives of those that love her.This profoundly engaging portrait of family, friendship, and the way we care for each other is a powerful reminder, if one were needed, of Margaret Drabble's literary greatness.Trade ReviewExtraordinary and intriguing -- SADIE JONES * * author of The Outcast * *The Pure Gold Baby is an unexpected gift from a great author. How do we treat the child who walks among us in a different way than most? In Margaret Drabble's hands the answer is with a depth of empathy few master. Fortunately for us, Drabble has spent a lifetime doing just that in exquisitely written prose -- ALICE SEBOLD * * author of The Lovely Bones * *Moving and meditative -- MEG WOLITZER * * New Yorker * *Superb ... a richly complex narrative voice achieves a choric magnificence hardly equalled in her earlier work -- Stevie Davies * * Independent * *Involving and unexpectedly rich . . . a magnificent novel that confirms Drabble's status as a national treasure * * Daily Mail * *Subtle . . . The cadences of the prose, the kind of language used, the words that are chosen, echo the passing of the years . . . absorbing -- Kirsty Gunn * * Financial Times * *Its prose has an almost folkloric quality . . . Characters, plotlines and themes swirl and proliferate -- Alex Clark * * Observer * *Drabble's intelligence and compassion make it a hugely rewarding read * * Mail on Sunday * *A unique and profoundly stirring book -- Elizabeth Day * * Observer * *Written with compassion and bathed in a poignant glow * * Stylist * *Her distinctive narrative voice and soaring prose remain electrifying * * Spectator * *Achingly wise * * Wall Street Journal * *One of the most thought-provoking and intellectually challenging writers around * * Financial Times * *The book succeeds as both a social critique and a sensitive view of the agonies and joys of raising disabled children . . . Insightful and wise, The Pure Gold Baby chronicles the deep challenges of parenting under any circumstances - yet it also captures the almost unbearable vulnerability of being human * * Boston Globe * *Her [Drabble's] prose is graceful and flowing . . . This is a quiet, contemplative novel . . . a moving testament to love, loyalty, and friendships between women . . . a poignant but ultimately uplifting tale * * Independent * *Drabble richly recreates that place and that environment [1960's North London] . . . Contained in the story, in fact, is a history of ideas about the mentally disturbed and the treatment of them. This is a tough assignment, and Drabble's brilliance appears here . . . while it reads very easily and seductively as a naturalistic novel, it slowly builds up a sense of wide horizons that one has never seen in quite the same way before * * The Times * *A jigsaw; its ambitious themes of parenthood, innocence, wounded children, anthropology, literature, madness, ageing, illness and love juxtaposed -- Jane Shilling * * Telegraph * *The trick to reading the novel is to go with the flow as Drabble does, gliding into each event, laced with her dry, witty snaps of changing times of what was in the 1950s-'60s and what is now * * Sydney Morning Herald * *Moving . . . Thoughtful and provocative, written with the author's customary intelligence and quiet passion * * Kirkus * *[A] marvellously dexterous, tartly funny, and commanding novel of moral failings and women's quandaries, brilliantly infusing penetrating social critique with stinging irony as she considers what life makes of us and what we make of life * * Booklist, starred review * *The tone is relaxed, even chatty, narrative mixed with reflection and observations on changes in manners and moral . . . What it offers, convincingly, interestingly, and often charmingly, is a picture of a changing world . . . Margaret Drabble has written a novel in which she has resisted the temptation to form it into a pleasing work of art, instead offering a picture of life as one thing after another. Yet it is a version of a good life that she very winningly offers us, a life irradiated by kindness * * Scotsman * *This new novel by a tireless chronicler of our times returns to key Drabble themes, her voice as strong and shrewd as ever * * i * *Margaret Drabble's new novel radiates the kind of intelligent ability, breadth and wry insight that comes with a lifetime's practice of thinking and writing. Reading it as relaxingly satisfying as sinking into luxury upholstery * * Book Oxygen * *Drabble's insightful characterisation and beautifully written prose make this a deeply absorbing read * * The Gazette * *A contemplative, moving and compelling portrait of a fiercly devoted mother and her symbolic "pure gold" daughter * * The Leader * *Drabble's insightful characterisation and beautigully written prose make it a deeply absorbing read * * Aberdeen Evening Express * *Drabble's voice is both commanding and conversational * * Sunday Herald * *A London that is rather more quiet and textured than the loud and globalised bankers' capital it has become today, and described perfectly in Drabble's distinctive, finely grained prose -- KIRSTY GUNN * * Scotsman, Books of the Year * *Drabble's writing has the beautiful deep polish of the lid of a Steinway. Her social observations are often uncomfortably spot-on and there are some wonderfully wry asides * * Literary Review * *A tender, moving, wonderfully wise portrait of a family * * Saga Magazine * *She writes not about exemplary women, but about real ones * * New York Review of Books * *Shrewd, considered, many-layered in its almost anthropological examination of a culture and a period, this is a welcome return to the novel form for one of our finest writers * * Good Book Guide * *An intelligent book about the way we interpret our inner lives * * Culture, Sunday Times * *A novel of themes * * Seven, Sunday Telegraph * *

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Book SynopsisA man retires to a sun-baked Turkish town for a quiet life. What he finds is a world of suspicion, paranoia and violence. In a community of shady local officials, corrupt businessmen and a crooked police force, our narrator's life spins into chaos and criminality. The town makes a murderer of him. The question is, who did he kill?Trade ReviewIf Steinbeck had written The Godfather, it might have read like this -- DBC PIERREA deeply compelling and immersive narrative about love, desire, loneliness and landscape. Ahmet Altan is one of the foremost voices in Turkish literature and has much to say to the world -- ELIF SHAFAKAn impassioned, captivating dance, a waltz between death and desire that does not release you for even a single moment -- PHILIPPE SANDSEndgame is a complex and immensely readable book - insightful, disturbing, irritating and riveting -- ANDREA WULFExtraordinary, delicious, wise, I admire Ahmet Altan's novels * * LINN ULLMAN * *His novels and nonfiction have sold millions of copies * * THE NATIONAL * *Great author, great literature: Ahmet Altan reopens the wounds of love and history * * LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE * *

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Book SynopsisMonster. Murderer. Mother-to-be.After the death of her lover Jake, Talulla Demetriou finds herself to be the last living werewolf. Pregnant, grieving and on the run, she flees to an Alaskan hunting lodge to have her child in secret and keep the bloodline alive. It looks as if the worst is over. Until the door bursts open - and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .Trade ReviewWickedly entertaining * * The Times * *The horror genre at its best - wildly imaginative * * The Times * *Best described as a gleeful three-way between Raymond Chandler's entire oeuvre, Anne Rice's vampire novels and Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum . . . A high-calorie blast * * New York Times * *Sexy, funny, blisteringly intelligent. * * The Times * *

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Book SynopsisAS SEEN IN THE BIG MAN STARRING LIAM NEESONThe big man is Dan Scoular, a legend of physical prowess in a decaying Ayrshire mining community. When a bare-knuckle fight offers both money and a purpose, he finds it turns into a monumental struggle to keep his heritage and integrity intact.Trade ReviewInspiring and harshly funny. As in Orwell at his fiercest best, McIlvanney's outrage is all the more potent for being tranquil. Grand fiction that reads as truly as fact * * Mail on Sunday * *A vivid transcription of a small town and the people who live there . . . Wry, funny, tender, largely unsentimental and very readable * * The Times * *Confirms his reputation as the most incisive observer of working-class Scottish life * * Guardian * *

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Book SynopsisCharlie Grant, an intense young student at Glasgow University watches his father die. Overwhelmed by the memory of this humble yet dignified death, Charlie is left to face his own fierce resentment for his adulterous mother. With shades of Hamlet and Camus, William McIlvanney's first novel is a revelatory portrait of youth, of society and of family.Trade ReviewRemedy is None . . . is a strong study of a young man's mind, and has both humourous social observations and an explosive grimness -- Edwin MorganWilliam McIlvanney paints a world of harsh reality, but does so in language that is strangely beautiful and hauntingly poetic -- Craig RussellThe finest Scottish novelist of our time * * Telegraph * *

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Book SynopsisThese are the stories of the casualties of social and emotional struggle, who defy defeat with humour, resilience and inspiring faith in their dreams. The walking wounded.These are the stories of ordinary people.Trade ReviewA sad, brilliant, joyful tribute to the dreams that never make it * * Sunday Express * *McIlvanney's great skill lies not only in illuminating those fleeting events which hint at, or embody greater truths, but in evoking an entire life within the compass of a few hundred words * * Sunday Times * *

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Book SynopsisRichard Brautigan's wonderfully zany, hilarious episodic novel set amongst the rural waterways of America.Here's a journey that begins at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco's Washington Square, wanders through the wonders of America's rural waterways and ends, inevitably, with mayonnaise. With pure inventiveness and free-wheeling energy, the counterpoint to all those angry Beatniks, Brautigan tells the story of rural America, and the hunt for a bit of trout fishing. Funny, wild and sweet, Trout Fishing in America is an incomparable guidebook to the delights of exploration - of a country and a mind.Trade ReviewStreets ahead of Burroughs or Kerouac * * Observer * *A book infused with a bucolic surrealism and mournful psychedelia that has very little to do with trout fishing and a lot to do with the lamenting of a passing pastoral America. An instant cult classic * * Financial Times * *Delicate, fantastic and very funny -- Malcolm BradburyHe writes with a kind of free-wheeling, zany magic * * Guardian * *A master of American black absurdism * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisTRUE HONOUR IS ENDLESS.1935. Norfolk. War is looming in Great Britain and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. Alderberen's newest resident, Delphine Venner, is determined to uncover the secrets of the Hall's elite society, which has taken in her gullible mother and unstable father.As she explores the house and discovers the secret network of hidden passages that thread through the estate, Delphine unearths a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined. With the help of head gamekeeper Mr Garforth, Delphine must learn the bloody lessons of war and find the soldier within herself in time to battle the deadly forces amassing in the woods . . .Trade ReviewGorgeously gripping . . . the comparisons that most readily spring to mind are the wildly eccentric and benevolent imaginations of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett . . . in keeping with the best fantasy fiction. this novel is about a great deal more than creeping monsters and steampunk sensibilities * * Guardian * *An astonishing imaginative feat -- NATHAN FILERAstutely brilliant. It is rare to find such a riveting, fantastical, adventure matched by such poetic flair. A rich, gripping delight -- MATT HAIGFabulously evocative, dark and fun: Buchan meets Edgar Wallace, H.P. Lovecraft and Enid Blyton -- HELEN MACDONALDA mysterious, haunting story that builds to a thrilling climax. Part Mervyn Peake, part Aleister Crowley, it features a truly original heroine in the form of Delphine, the shotgun toting schoolgirl. Tim Clare writes with a poet's eye and a thriller writer's pace that held me spellbound till the last page -- CHRIS RIDDELLA tour de force of breathless thrills . . . one which dares you to read it in one long sitting * * Herald * *Irresistible * * Huffington Post * *A darkly compelling read * * Financial Times * *A wonderful piece of storytelling, twisted in the best way. Delphine is a fantastic heroine -- ANNA FREEMAN * * author of THE FAIR FIGHT * *Tim Clare's background in poetry sings from the pages of this dark fantasy novel . . . [Delphine is] an original, irresistible heroine * * Independent * *One of the most exciting fantasy novels of recent years * * The List * *I love this novel and I love Delphine. She is irresistible. If I were facing hordes of merciless skinwings she is the thirteen-year-old dead-eye I would want on my side -- JOE DUNTHORNE * * author of SUBMARINE * *Riotously entertaining * * Sunday Express * *A rich and poetic novel from one of the UK's most versatile writers * * Grazia * *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS"John is so many miles from love now and home. This is the story of his strangest trip."A novel of family, ghosts, love, music and the quest for truth, Beatlebone recounts a wild journey through the west of Ireland in 1978. At its helm is John, a maddened genius fleeing fame and seeking peace. With his deadpan Irish driver, Cornelius, at his side, John is hellbent on reaching the Island of Dorinish, an assignment he arranged ten years before. Lyrical, freewheeling, quixotic and fun, Beatlebone is a sad and beautiful comedy.Trade ReviewBooks like this come along once in a generation * * New York Times * *Superb . . . Beatlebone is a novel of necessary invention: profound, funny, hard to pin down * * Irish Times * *Casually lyrical, formally inventive, funny and moving, it is a small wonder * * Sunday Times * *Gloriously freewheeling . . . a tale of fame, freaks, bad liquor and bad weather * * Guardian * *Beatlebone is a rule-breaking novel, a strange and fascinating look at the mystery of creative inspiration * * Financial Times * *Maps the long-rumored territory between James Joyce and John Lennon with poetic precision and a wised-up but loving eye. It rewards the fan of both those artists yet stands on its own two (or maybe a shaggy dog's four) feet . . . Funny and sneakily informative . . . I read the final pages as slowly as I could in a vain attempt to keep the dream from being over -- MICHAEL CHABONThe most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years -- IRVINE WELSHA strange and brilliant experiment into showing your working. It's thematically dense yet supremely readable * * Metro * *I think Kevin Barry is two kinds, if not three kinds, of a genius . . . wonderful storytelling . . . enormously cinematic -- TOM SUTCLIFFE * * BBC RADIO 4 SATURDAY REVIEW * *Beatlebone is as gloriously confounding and as wondrously welcome as a hatching hawk's egg in a Christmas cracker -- NIALL GRIFFITHSMingling surreal black humour and breakdown, Beatlebone is a wild cascade of language and imagery, rich in wordplay and referential resonance. Beneath the glittering surface Barry is giving us a vanitas on fame and celebrity. Remember the date is 1978. The real-life endgame will be played out very soon * * Spectator * *As ever with Barry, the dialogue is a joy, tapping into a rich vein of humorous melancholy . . . this is a sharp, likeable book that moves deftly between warm comedy and a grimmer concern with Lennon's parentless childhood with the 'dead love stories' that 'make us' * * Sunday Times * *The kind of next-level literature that inspires, even incites another generation of natural-born wordsmiths to write big and bold * * New York Times Book Review * *A profound, mad and intriguing novel. Too often novels about great artists shy away from attending to those very creative processes that made them great. Beatlebone is a committed, brutal portrait * * Literary Review * *A genius of the language, teasing out impressionistic riffs that channel emotion into words * * Los Angeles Times * *There's music to Barry's prose: Smart rhythms dart through his sentences; taut bridges join his paragraphs; the tinge of hysteria serves to animate his characters and their surroundings. His dialogue is whimsical, sometimes hilarious, catching the idiom of the local life, and, in Beatlebone, nailing John Lennon, the wittiest and darkest Beatle, spot on * * Slate * *Beatlebone is glorious, savoury stuff - part lark, part meditation, and a tiny part excavation * * Boston Globe * *

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Book SynopsisA BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICKOne relentlessly hot summer, six children explore the scorched wheat fields that enclose their tiny Italian village. When the gang find a dilapidated farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano makes a discovery so momentous that he dare not tell a soul. It is a secret that will force Michele to question everything and everyone around him, and will bring his innocent world toppling down. An unputdownable thriller, I'm Not Scared has become a contemporary classic in Italian literature, read and celebrated the world over.Trade ReviewAn exquisite parable * * Daily Telegraph * *A deft masterpiece with never a false note * * Guardian * *Ammaniti's prose is faultless from the first * * Independent on Sunday * *The new Italian word for talent is Ammaniti * * The Times * *Beneath this simplicity, Ammaniti weaves in the fairytale metaphors we know so well, giving the novel a haunting profundity * * Sunday Herald * *

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Book SynopsisThe debut work, a short story collection from the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Under the Skin, The Crimson Petal and the White and The Book of Strange New Things.Michel Faber's short stories reveal an extraordinarily vivid imagination, a deep love of language and an adventurous versatility. Playful, yet profoundly moving, wickedly satirical yet sincerely humane, these tales never fail to strike unexpected chords. 'Some Rain Must Fall' juxtaposes the tragic circumstances of traumatised schoolchildren with the interior monologue of a teacher/psychologist enlisted to aid their recovery. In the pseudo-sci-fi 'Fish' a mother tries to protect her child in a terrifying world where fish swim through the streets and lurk in alleyways. Faber's collection is rich and assured, with a dazzling reach.Trade ReviewYou don't often see satire stirred with so humane a hand, or tragedy handled with so light a touch . . . This is a man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence * * Guardian * *A gem of inventiveness, a genre-defying, often startling debut * * Scotland on Sunday * *A rare and vivid imagination and a radical use of language * * The Times * *For sheer inventiveness and endless variety, this collection takes the prize * * Independent * *Above all Faber has the kind of wide ambition more usually found in his American counterparts * * Literary Review * *A bulging, jostling, glistening, eerie, babbling explosion of a book * * Scotsman * *The author's lightness of touch, sense of humour and capacity for wonder conspires to give far more than mere angst * * Spectator * *His prose veers sharply from a delectable descriptiveness to spikily comic insights * * The Observer * *Michel Faber is a master of the short story form * * Times Literary Supplement * *A collection of astonishingly diverse short stories and one of last year's most original debuts. * * The Independent * *Lovers of the short story take note: Somerset Maugham has shacked up with Ian McEwan, and Some Rain Must Fall is their monstrous, magnificent first-born -- Duncan McLeanMichel Faber has produced a fine first volume . . . these are well-crafted pieces of quiet and forlorn intensity in a very real world * * Mail on Sunday * *Some Rain Must Fall has an astonishing variety of themes, characters and styles, from delicate psychological probing, to nightmare science fiction, to grotesque, hilarious fable -- Duncan McLean

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Book Synopsis'I loved Fear of Dying. I found it irreverent, funny, tender and very wise and it made me feel more alive' RACHEL JOYCE, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Vanessa Wonderman is smart, sexy - and sixty. After a lifetime of crazy families, New York high society and playing a soap opera archvillain bitch, she's not ready to give up yet.But life's not so carefree any more. Her parents are dying, her husband's in hospital and her wild-child daughter is pregnant.So when she signs up to a casual encounters site, she's thinking of leaving her wifelife behind - at least for a little bit. However, the most painful parts of your past always have away of surprising you. Will she learn in time how to live, how to love, how to be fearless?Trade ReviewA hymn to love -- FAY WELDONThis bold, soaring novel tackles the big stuff * * Harper’s Bazaar * *Erica Jong is back - as fearless as ever * * Washington Post * *It made me feel more alive -- RACHEL JOYCEVividly written * * The Times * *It's going to happen to all of us and yet talking about it seems taboo. Just as she once ripped the lace modesty vest off sex, Erica Jong has now exposed death in all its immodesty -- SHIRLEY CONRAN * * author of Lace * *Trailblazing in its own right * * Time Magazine * *A wise, warm, witty take on the taboo that replaced sex * * Daily Mail * *How she was able to deal with all these sensitive issues and still make the book funny is amazing. I loved reading it -- WOODY ALLENErica Jong has done it again! Fear of Dying is a big, bawdy, beautifully-written romp through online hookups, female friendships, children grappling with adulthood and parents negotiating with death. Fear of Dying is big, warm-hearted, generous book that will satisfy Jong's longtime fans and delight her new readers -- JENNIFER WEINERMoving and deeply poetic, Fear of Dying is a compelling novel that truly understands the process of aging. With astonishing images on every page, Erica Jong gives us a veiled spiritual autobiography with an unstoppable quality, a narrative momentum that held me from first to last as it seamlessly unfolds from Jong's previous work, yet with sharp new edge, giving us a wise book, a book to savour -- JAY PARINIErica Jong has written a whip-smart, insightful, hilarious and ridiculously relatable new novel . . . Destined to be called an instant classic, I could not put this stunning book down. In 1973, Fear of Flying was the book we needed, now the book we need is Fear of Dying -- JULIE KLAMErica Jong fans, rejoice! Her new novel, the cleverly and aptly titled Fear of Dying, is a truth-teller's dream. In it, Jong and her alter egos face life's most difficult challenges, head on and all at once. As the great poet William Butler Yeats wrote, "the only two things worth writing about are sex and death," and in Fear of Dying, Jong takes on both. Along the way, she also tells the story of a marriage that grows happier despite all. This wise book, written in prose gorgeous enough to make one swoon, will delight and enrich the lives of everyone who reads it -- ROSEMARY DANIELLFear of Dying is the perfect spirited, funny bookend to Erica Jong's classic Fear of Flying. In this lighthearted, sexy and wise romp of a novel, Jong explores some deep truths about aging, family, love and marriage after sixty. This novel is a wonderful, readable blend of entertainment and wisdom. I loved it! -- Susan CheeverWhen I interviewed Jong 40 years ago, she called Fear of Flying "a declaration of independence". With its feisty violation of the verbal and sexual taboos of women's writing, and insistence that female artists should have all the freedom of male artists, "it was a counterphobic book". Fear of Dying is counterphobic too . . . a literary Joan Rivers . . . Jong has turned the page, and as a writer she still has a lot to say -- Elaine Showalter * * Guardian * *For young women of my generation, the story of Isadora Wing and her search for no-strings, satisfying sex was daring and startling and wonderful. It was like, "I am not the only woman who has fantasies - sexual or otherwise". When I met Erica Jong, not long after the book was published, I couldn't even speak because I was so in awe -- JUDY BLUME * * Elle, on FEAR OF FLYING * *Transcends being a woman's book and becomes a latter-day Ulysses, with a female Bloom stumbling and groping, but surviving * * Wall Street Journal * *Sometimes poignant, Fear of Dying left me with a sense of relaxed cheer . . . Even in her 70s, Jong remains the brash, randy adventurer whose work curs of the world may piss on, but who isn't about to let that stop her. She has what she was looking for many decades ago, the Chaucerian lust and joy of April's eternal shoures soote * * The Atlantic * *This is the novel as hall of mirrors: a piece of literary self-analysis and celebrity self-mythologisation, as well as a first-person fiction about a woman facing old age and parental decline . . . Jong does write bravely and boldly about parental loss, about sex in marriage, and about almost giving up on something and then deciding not to * * Independent * *In some ways the irrepressible Jong is just an old-fashioned girl for whom love and sex can never be entirely separated. As for the rest of us, we have to find our own sexual path. Thanks to outspoken Erica and others of her ilk, we can do so in the knowledge that sexagenarian sexuality is a celebration of life rather than a shameful secret * * Daily Telegraph * *Taps into a profound phenomenon of our times: never before has there been such a vast sea of older people (especially women) yearning for and usually gaining their freedom and independence, still in good nick and looking forward to many more years of life, love and, yes, bedroom frolics * * Daily Express * *Fear of Dying, with its twin themes of ageing and mortality, gently satirises the fact that the sex lives of the middle-aged are now fair game for multinational corporations * * Observer * *Defies the sunset of sex * * New York Times * *Hilariously undaunted . . . refreshingly smutty and emotionally warm, it boldly explores late-life sexual adventure and longing, highlighting the intricate, often difficult relationship between sex, love and death * * Sunday Telegraph * *Jong taps into a wider revolution in older women's lives . . . Fear of Dying examines in minute detail every older woman's anxiety about her body . . . Jong's creating a forum for discussion . . . Older women were also avid readers of Fifty Shades of Grey. After that, what else could shock? Only Erica Jong * * The Sunday Times * *

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Book SynopsisAlice Butler has been receiving some odd messages - all anonymous, all written in code. Are they from someone at PopCo, the profit-hungry corporation she works for? Or from Alice's long lost father? Or has someone else been on her trail? The solution, she is sure, will involve the code-breaking skills she learned from her grandparents and the key she's been wearing round her neck since she was ten. PopCo is a grown-up adventure of family secrets, puzzles, big business and the power of numbers.Trade ReviewAn anticorporate fable with enough code-breaking tips, puzzles and graphs, charts, postscripts and appendixes to satisfy Lewis Carroll * * New York Times * *This book might just change your life -- Suzi Feay * * Independent on Sunday * *A blueprint for a revolution . . . an outright amazement * * Scotland on Sunday * *Enormous fun * * Independent * *A wonderfully fresh and ambitious novel -- Jonathan Coe * * Evening Standard * *Frankly this novel is a bewitching, dizzying triumph * * Scotsman * *Ambitious, thought-provoking fun * * Sunday Times * *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE McKITTERICK PRIZEDr James Darke has expelled himself from the world. He writes compulsively in his 'coming of old age' journal; he eats little, drinks and smokes a lot; he tries to console himself with the wisdom of the great thinkers and poets, yet finds nothing but disappointment. But cracks of light start to appear in his carefully managed darkness - the tender, bruised filaments of love for his daughter and grandson. With scalding prose, ruthless intelligence and an unforgettably vivid protagonist, Darke confronts some of humanity's greatest and most uncomfortable questions about how we choose to live, and to die.Trade ReviewAn original and bleakly funny portrait of grief * * Economist * *A supreme example of a natural and skilled storyteller -- Colm ToibinSurprising . . . with a warmth that is genuinely and unexpectedly moving * * Guardian * *A wondrous book with two fathers, Kingsley Amis and Dante -- Sebastian BarryMakes for dark, thrilling reading . . . In James Darke, Gekoski has created a powerful, raging voice * * Spectator * *I was beguiled and charmed by the vivid personality being revealed. By that, and by the fact that I couldn't stop reading. Gekoski puts words together with a sure touch and deep craftsmanship -- Philip PullmanRick Gekoski's impressive debut novel . . . Darke is both a tender and hard-hitting examination of grief and the slow, singular healing process . . . A brilliantly vivid creation . . . life-affirming and life-shattering * * The Herald * *Stuffed with more wisdom, bile, wit and tenderness than many writers create in a lifetime. In James Darke we have a hero as troubled and eternal as King Lear . . . And in Rick Gekoski we have a late-flowering genius of a novelist who proves it's never too late to start a glittering career in fiction * * The Times * *An immensely enjoyable elegy . . . done with precision and patience -- Stuart Kelly * * The Scotsman * *Debut delight . . . Just how this gleefully conjured misanthrope came to wall himself off from the world is the mystery at the heart of a singular first novel that evolves into a moving meditation on loss and redemption * * Mail on Sunday * *

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Book SynopsisAn adapted and illustrated edition of Crime and Punishment, at an easy-to-read level for all ages.

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Book SynopsisFrom the moment he first gazes at Marjory across the roulette table in the Côte d'Azur Jean-Marie is entranced, and when their feverish holiday romance comes to an end he decides to take the biggest gamble of his life - to follow the beautiful Englishwoman back to rainy Edinburgh. But no sooner has Jean-Marie arrived than his luck runs out. He is drawn into an impenetrable mystery and soon, with blood on his hands, trapped in the grey-granite labyrinth of the city, he is running out of time to save his sanity and his life. The King of Fools is a fiendish tale of passion, betrayal and murder.Trade ReviewThe French master of noir The Observer Alongside the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon there is a rich vein of period French crime still to be tapped. Frederic Dard is a case in point Daily Mail At heart, The King of Fools is another Dard Noir Romance, a book about a love story gone bad, which is charming and engaging far beyond the plot details International Crime Fiction The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine Le Figaro No question: for me, he was the greatest Philippe Geluck France's most popular post-war author L'Express His language is cutting, his point-of-view original and his verdict uncompromising... One of the few twentieth-century authors to win both critical acclaim and great popularity Solidarite Militaire

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Book Synopsis'Gripping . . . twists and turns like a thriller' Sunday Times 'Brave and startling' Financial Times 'Classy . . . suspenseful' The Times 'I loved everything about it' Daily Mail 'Exhilarating' Guardian Dr Eitan Green is a good man. He saves lives. Then, speeding along a deserted moonlit road in his SUV after an exhausting hospital shift, he hits someone. Seeing that the man, an African migrant, is beyond help, he flees the scene. It is a decision that changes everything. Because the dead man's wife knows what happened. And her price is not money. It is something else entirely. A gripping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire. It looks at the darkness inside all of us to ask: what would we do? What are any of us capable of?Trade ReviewGundar-Goshen's gripping second novel twists and turns like a thriller, and it is particularly impressive in its moral ambiguities Sunday Times The great overlooked read of the summer... its real engine, one that never stops thrumming, is the idea that life can change for ever in one nauseating second -- Rachel Cooke Observer The highly anticipated second novel [by Gundar-Goshen]... proves it's not every day a writer like this comes our way Guardian Waking Lions is a classy, suspenseful tale of survival where the good guys and the bad guys are harder to distinguish than you might think. The implications of Gundar-Goshen's work extend far beyond its Israeli setting and shine a penetrating light into the dark corners of our safe lives The Times A literary thriller that is used as a vehicle to explore big moral issues. I loved everything about it Daily Mail An absorbing and atmospheric tale from an exciting literary talent Tatler Tense thriller set among Israel's illegal immigrant community -- Mariella Frostrup Observer's Best Holiday Reads 2016 If there were a literary prize for nail-biting first lines, Israeli writer Ayelet Gundar-Goshen's second novel, Waking Lions, would win...brave and startling Financial Times A sophisticated, angst-filled thriller Spectator A complex and affecting moral thriller New Statesman Waking Lions shows us that there's more mystery in who we think we are than in the narrative of any crime thriller Sunday Herald Tense thriller with serious moral dimension by a critically acclaimed Israeli writer The Sunday Times Crime Club A gripping drama... tense pageturner that should appeal to fans of film noir The Lady What gives Waking Lions its edge is Gundar-Goshen's deja-vu evoking depiction of the mental bunny hops which dominate our waking hours. Her writing on the fluctuations of selfish, guilt-ridden parental love reads like an open wound, its truth just as visceral Big Issue [Ayelet Gundar-Goshen] can take a straightforward genre - the thriller - and use it to explore big moral and political questions about secrets, lies and race in modern-day Israel... we enter a new genre: Israeli noir Jewish Chronicle A gripping novel Jewish News A daring, genre-defying literary creation... [a] remarkable novel, so layered it is with meanings, perspectives and insights Thriller Books Journal Extraordinarily assured...daring Jewish Quarterly Takes real events and fictionalises them to explore themes of self-awareness, intimacy, and the human capacity for good and evil, ignorance and indifference, concealment and deception Bookanista A gripping and tense thriller Jewish Renaissance magazine One of the best crime books to cross my desk in some time Crime Review Waking Lions personalises the situation providing insights into the uncomfortable mix of guilt and anger of the host country coupled with the helplessness and fatalism of the refugees The Bay Ultimately, about humanity. All of that wrapped in a drama that is gripping enough if you don't want to think that far into what it all means... but to be honest, I defy you not to respond to the depth Bookbag [Waking Lions] is a sharp, thoughtful, challenging novel. It makes Ayelet Gundar-Goshen out as a very talented writer indeed The Writes of Woman (blog) The synopsis of Ayelet Gundar-Goshen's second novel, Waking Lions, is like the premise for a movie Elle Thinks (blog) Gundar-Goshen's fine book explores guilt and obligation in a way that left this reader enriched but very, very uncomfortable indeed Shelf Life (blog) If it affects you as it did me you will finish it feeling slightly dirty, spoiled by whatever privileges and comforts you may enjoy, and guilty, definitely guilty in your complicity in looking away from suffering Eve's Alexandria (blog) Such an informative and surprising novel Lizzy's Literary Life (blog) A cleverly-plotted novel with a strong moral and highly contemporary sociopolitical theme Annethology (blog) I couldn't stop reading it, a book I'd recommend to everyone - it's a grenade! SFR Book Club A tense tale of life at the margins of society Bookbag's Top Ten Literary Fiction Books of 2016 A gripping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama... Gripping, provocative, original, it's stayed with me more, perhaps, than any other book I read this year Foyles Top Ten Fiction Titles of 2016 Waking Lions, in a propulsive translation from Hebrew by Sondra Silverstone, yokes a crime story to thorny ethical issues in ways reminiscent of Donna Tartt and Richard Price... it's a rare book that can trouble your conscience while holding you in a fine state of suspense Wall Street Journal Anyone who loves the magic of the printed word should read Waking Lions... Gunnar Goshen has earned, and deserves, a worldwide audience, and this magnificent novel may well be the vehicle for that Bookreporter Waking Lions is a griping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire Newsweek Vividly imagined, clever, and morally ambiguous... it's a smart and disturbing exploration of the high price of walking away, whether it be from a car accident or from one's own politically unstable homeland NPR's Fresh Air It is a literary achievement for its page-turning exploration of inconvenient empathy and culpability. Gundar-Goshen's description of pain and medicine are tender and startling, but perhaps the novel's greatest strength is the way it considers how we look at each other, the power of our gaze on strangers and on those we love. It's about seeing and being seen, about pride and power. This is a brave novel, socially aware and truly unforgettable Bookpage Immensely suspenseful... alarmingly realistic and superbly written Shelf Awareness This is a profound and moving book, sure to make all of us reassess our view of refugees in our rapidly changing world Winnipeg Free Press Exhilarating... Skillfully translated by Sondra Silverston, Waking Lions is a sophisticated and darkly ambitious novel, revealing an aspect of Israeli life rarely seen in its literature New York Times

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Book SynopsisSonja's over forty, and she's trying to move in the right direction. She's learning to drive. She's joined a meditation group. And she's attempting to reconnect with her sister. But Sonja would rather eat cake than meditate. Her driving instructor won't let her change gear. And her sister won't return her calls. Sonja's mind keeps wandering back to the dramatic landscapes of her childhood - the singing whooper swans, the endless sky, and getting lost barefoot in the rye fields - but how can she return to a place that she no longer recognises? And how can she escape the alienating streets of Copenhagen? Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is a poignant, sharp-witted tale of one woman's journey in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.

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Book SynopsisThis exquisite anthology collects together the very best fiction from across the Nordic region. Travelling from cosmopolitan Stockholm to the remote Faroe Islands, and from Denmark to Greenland, this unique and compelling volume displays the thrilling diversity of writing from these northern nations. Selected and introduced by Sjon, The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat includes both notable authors and exciting new discoveries. As well as an essential selection of the best contemporary storytelling from the Nordic countries, it's also a fascinating portrait of contemporary life across the region. The perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter's evening. Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark), Per Olov Enquist (Sweden), Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Linda Boström Knausgård (Sweden), Madame Nielsen (Denmark), Rosa Liksom (Finland), Johan Bargum (Finland), Kristín Ómarsdóttir (Iceland), Kjell Askildsen (Norway), Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Finland/Sweden), Hassan Blasim (Finland), Sørine Steenholdt (Greenland, Guðbergur Bergsson (Iceland), Sólrún Michelsen (Faroe Islands), Frode Grytten (Norway), Carl Jóhan Jensen (Faroe Islands), Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland)Trade ReviewSjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant -- Junot Diaz Sjon is an extraordinary and original writer -- A. S. Byatt

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Book Synopsis'Perceptive and exquisitely observed' Observer 'Provocative' Financial Times 'Has the momentum of a psychological thriller' Daily Mail Nofar is just an average teenage girl - so average, she's almost invisible. Serving customers ice cream all summer long, she is desperate for some kind of escape. One afternoon, a terrible lie slips from her tongue. And suddenly everyone wants to talk to her: the press, her schoolmates, and the boy upstairs - the only one who knows the truth. A heart-stopping novel about deception and its consequences, Liar brilliantly explores how far a lie can travel - and how much we are willing to believe.

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Book Synopsis'I am still unable to leave the burnt-out ruins' Akiyuki Nosaka, 2014 In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death. The shocking and blisteringly memorable stories of The Cake Tree in the Ruins are based on his own experiences as a child in Japan during the Second World War. They are stories of a lonely whale searching the oceans for a mate, who sacrifices himself for love; of a mother desperately trying to save her son with her tears; of a huge, magnificent tree which grows amid the ruins of a burnt-out town, its branches made from the sweetest cake imaginable. Profound, heartbreaking and aglow with a piercing beauty, they express the chaos and terror of conflict, yet also how love can illuminate even the darkest moment.Trade Review'These deeply intense and parable-like tales of suffering tear at the heartstrings, but also show hope and resiliency in a nation haunted by war. . . Akiyuki Nosaka offers beautiful and haunting tales of suffering and starvation in the aftermath of the Allied bombing of Japan in World War II.' - -- Nancy Powell, in Shelf Awareness 'Nosaka transmutes the pain of his personal experiences into sharp, heart-wrenching depictions of a country in desperate destitution... In each of these stories, the connections and relationships that are often taken for granted in day-to-day life are elevated alongside the stakes, shining intensely and brilliantly even as tragedy unfolds.' — World Literature Today‘Magical realism with the touch of a master… Nosaka, drawing on his own experiences, in just a few pages bringing to life a world now largely forgotten.' — The Reading Life 'Remarkable stories... They are dark but so beautiful, so profound; subtle and elegant. It is a book that will last all your life.' - Irish Times'Heart-wrenching...Tragic and imaginative... These short vignettes stand as chilling reminders of the wartime trauma inflicted upon Japanese youth during and after World War II.' - Los Angeles Review of Books 'Nosaka's hauntingly sad and beautiful stories... remind us of the full tragedy of World War II.' - Japan Times 'One can only be shaken by these cruel and magnificent tales, which are also the most eloquent plea for peace imaginable.' - L'Express 'Moving snapshot of moments in the life of a shattered nation... Unforgettable.' - Children's Books Ireland

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Book SynopsisIn these glittering, very funny stories, the acclaimed Danish writer Dorthe Nors sketches ordinary lives taking unexpected turns: a son's love for his father is tested when he suddenly discovers its fragility; a woman in an abusive relationship seeks to better understand the choices she has made; a man with dreams of self improvement is haunted by deceit; and a daughter watches on silently as her mother's search for meaning ends in madness. Blending compassion with dark delight, Nors conjures up a flawed, unsettlingly familiar world with each cautionary glance - as fresh moments of wonder, romance and frail beauty are unexpectedly infiltrated by depravity, isolation and despair.Trade ReviewBeautiful, faceted, haunting stories ... Dorthe Nors is fantastic! -- Junot Diaz Darkly funny and incisive... In these literary body-blows, Nors takes merciless aim at families, relationships and egos FT Unsettling and poetic... Some pieces, like one about a four-pound tomato, are oddly beautiful; others are brilliantly disturbing New York Times Book Review Dorthe Nors's story collection, Karate Chop, also blew me away ... these are some of the best five-page stories I've ever read. -- Thomas Morris Irish Times Dorthe Nors is a writer of moments-quiet, raw portraits of existential meditation, at times dyspeptic, but never unsympathetic Paris Review 'What We're Loving' The short-short stories in Danish sensation Nors's slim, potent collection, Karate Chop ... Evoke the weirdness and wonder of relating in the digital age Vogue Nors has found her own space away from Copenhagen's literati... Her words whip along, each idea cascading into the next: it's like having a window into someone's thoughts and makes for a stimulating... read Independent Nors illuminates an ominous world of disconnected people trying to make sense of their dislocation...Nors' affectless, matter-of-fact storytelling...is the perfect complement to the low-wattage desperation and inertia her characters feel...Karate Chop is just like that: It loves you and wants to teach you, but it also wants to harm you Los Angeles Times The intricately crafted stories in Karate Chop, from popular Danish writer Dorthe Nors, focus on ordinary occurrences ... and then twist them into brilliantly slanted cautionary tales about desire, romance, deception, and dread Elle In this collection of stories, Danish fiction comes off a little like Danish furniture, spare and sublime. Author Dorthe Nors knows how to capture the smallest moments and sculpt them into the unforgettable Oprah In the span of two pages, she is able to both build and unmake a character, achieving the same complexity that other writers require entire novels to establish. (...) Karate Chop is the first of Nors' books to be translated to English but certainly won't be the last. Lovers of the art of literary fiction, students of psychology, and everyone looking for a quick, thought- provoking read should all indulge themselves in the subversive delight of this short story collection Booklist Unpredictable, poetic and powerful, with comedy, hope and surrealism alongside mental illness, violence and tragedy Curious Animal Magazine Spare, poetic, ominously disturbing Bookanista One of Denmark's most inventive and acclaimed contemporary writers Bookanista Short, sharp stories... oblique and precise... Very striking David Hebblethwaite's Blog Pushkin Press presents a stunningly original new voice from Denmark... Dorthe Nors has the fabulous talent (...) of restraint... The stories (...) will stay with readers far beyond the page... A major new voice in European literature Booktrust [A] unique book... a fresh, brave voice... Nors creates an incredibly direct and forceful short story. Stick with her, it's worth it We Love This Book Nors is the Danish doyenne of the genre... [She] presents a hauntingly familiar world, which presents unpredicted turns that are at once astoundingly disturbing and curiously beautiful The Lady Nors has a great knack... for portraying the voids and fault lines in an unbalanced mind... crisp, quirky, jarringly funny TLS

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Book SynopsisA partisan fighting with the Red Army in Germany comes across a grand, abandoned house, seemingly untouched by the devastation sweeping the country. Exhausted, he falls asleep in the living room, but wakes to find a German patrol marching up the garden path. His only hope is to pose as the house's owner, but how will he keep up the pretence when the real owner returns? Dazzling, dark and scorchingly violent, with the breakneck pace of a thriller, this timeless classic is a vivid depiction of what happens when the mask of decency is cast aside in the savagery of war.

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Book Synopsis'Harrowing, suspenseful and convincing . . . beautiful' Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone 'Poignant . . . haunting and altoether memorable' Booklist A story of revenge and salvation Two years ago, Augusto De Boer embarked on his annual journey through the Italian Alps, attempting to smuggle his family's tobacco crop across the border to Austria. He never returned. Now Augusto's daughter Jole must retrace her father's steps alone, navigating the perilous crags and valleys surrounding the border to discover the truth about her father's disappearance. Soul of the Border is a ferocious tale of revenge, salvation, and an exhilarating journey into the wild.

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Book Synopsis"Crossing will devour you; this is some fierce, dazzling, and heartbreaking s**t" NoViolet Bulawayo "A novel that dazzles and mesmerizes, and the reader, upon finishing, may have the extraordinary sensation that his or her own dreams have been scattered along the journey, beckoning for rereading" Yiyun Li Bujar's world is collapsing. His father is dying and his homeland, Albania, bristles with hunger and unrest. When his fearless friend Agim is discovered wearing his mother's red dress and beaten with his father's belt, he persuades Bujar that there is no place for them in their country. Desperate for a chance to shape their own lives, they flee. This is the beginning of a journey across cities, borders and identities, from the bazaars of Tirana to the monuments of Rome and the drag bars of New York. It is also a search through shifting gender and social personae, for acceptance and love. But faced with marginalization at home and only precarious means of escape and survival, what chance do the young pair have of forging a new life? Pursued by memories of home and echoes of folk tales, they risk losing themselves in the struggle to leave their pasts behind.

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Book SynopsisBéla has never had much luck. His mother abandoned him at birth to go to work in Budapest, leaving him in the care of the dubious 'Aunt Rozika', a former prostitute who now runs a foster home with equal parts hauteur and cruelty. Victimised and almost starved by his guardian, Béla must fight for everything, from scraps of the other boys' food to the right to go to school. At fourteen he is caught trying to steal a pair of shoes; his mother is called and she reluctantly takes him with her to Budapest. Once in the capital Béla manages to secure a position at a grand old hotel, and it is here that a more privileged lifestyle seems to extend a hand to him. Operating the lift, Béla encounters people from across Hungarian society and beyond, including the beautiful daughter of an American businessman and a passionate revolutionary. But his new lifestyle offers both pleasures and perils, and Béla must find a way to forge his own life from the divergent influences that surround him. A picaresque classic with a rich vein of bawdy humour, Temptation is an under-appreciated masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction. Rich, varied and endlessly entertaining, the novel creates a stunning panorama of Hungarian society through the travails of its singularly charming hero.Trade ReviewTemptation is a fascinating novel set in the Horthy period, and its author, János Székely, is equally fascinating... The densely packed story is, in genre terms, a racy, filmic cross between a Picaresque and a Bildungsroman * TLS *

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Book SynopsisThis is a collection resplendent with longing. In these compact pages, people meet without actually connecting, travellers set off but never seem to find home. We meet them on the fjords of Norway, in the bustle of Los Angeles, and among the lights of Copenhagen. Outsiders yearn to be on the inside, insiders are desperate to be free. A writer befriends an ex-lover's mother. An elderly man offers his body to aging women. A woman's childhood memories of wild swimming draw her back to the water. In prose that is both elegantly spare and saturated with emotion, Dorthe Nors shines a light into forgotten corners and conjures darkness where it's least expected. Her characteristic sharpness and sense of humour is ever-present, catching us when the melancholy threatens to come too close. Love, cruelty, friendship, and loneliness are all here, in these stories that brim with life.

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Book SynopsisPaula's partner has died in a car accident - but no one knows her true grief. Only hours before his death, Mauro revealed that he was leaving her for another woman. Paula guards this secret and ploughs on with her job as a paediatrician in Barcelona, trying to maintain the outline of their old life. But all of Mauro's plants are dying, the fridge only contains expired yoghurt and her mind feverishly obsesses over this other, unknown woman. As the weeks pass, vitality returns to Paula in unexpected ways. She remembers, slowly, how to live. By turns devastating and darkly funny, Learning to Talk to Plants is a piercingly honest portrayal of grief - and of the many ways to lose someone.Trade Review"Marta Orriols debuts with a brilliant novel" -- Time Out"Marta Orriols is an exceptional writer" -- El Periódico"Marta Orriols has the ability to put into words the brevity and the unforeseen circumstances of everyday life" -- El País"A beautifully written novel about complex grief and a woman’s attempt to rebuild her life after the sudden death of her long-time partner… a small but rich and profound story, and I would strongly recommend it for anyone who loves beautiful writing and a very introspective, revealing story." --Lily Bartels of The Open Door Bookstore on Northeast Public Radio

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Book Synopsis"My mother has been dead for almost seven weeks: I had better go to work before the need to write about her, which I felt so strongly at her funeral, dies away and I fall back into the dull speechlessness with which I reacted to the news of her suicide." So begins Peter Handke's extraordinary confrontation with his mother's death. In a painful and courageous attempt to deal with the almost intolerable horror of her suicide, he sets out to piece together the facts of her life, as he perceives them. What emerges is a loving portrait of inconsolable grief, a woman whose lively spirit has been crushed not once but over and over again by the miseries of her place and time. Yet well into middle age, living in the Austrian village of her birth, she still remains haunted by her dreams.

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Book SynopsisOn the eve of the Second World War a public attorney, devastated because his Jewish lover has fled without him, runs over a young girl. He is torn by grief at the loss of his girlfriend and guilt about the accident - which is shrouded in a mystery that he attempts to unravel while the world around him collapses. In the meantime, he is watched over by a guardian angel, who whispers him warnings, and by a devil, who does the same... A Guardian Angel Recalls is a thrilling and provocative war novel, from one of the greatest Dutch authors of the twentieth century.Trade Review'Interweaves a bitter, occasionally darkly comic moral fable with an unforgettable account of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands... This should establish Hermans as a modern Dostoyevsky' - Publishers Weekly, starred review'A sly but scorching Dutch masterpiece' - Kirkus (starred review)'Praise for Hermans' novels' - ..'A shocking Dutch classic... remarkable... It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you for ever' - Guardian'Hermans is one of the most important European authors of the second half of the twentieth century' - Cees Nooteboom'I decided to politely read five pages. Next thing I knew, I was a hundred pages in. The novel, newly translated by David Colmer, is set in the first days of Hitler's invasion of Holland. The main character, speeding in his car to help a Jewish refugee flee the country, hits and kills a little girl and hides her body. The ensuing story is part thriller, part family novel, part metaphysical investigation, and also, unexpectedly, part comedy. I've since learnt that Hermans is considered one of the great Dutch writers of the 20th century. A Guardian Angel Recalls (Pushkin Press) will give you an idea why.' - Jonathan Franzen

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Book SynopsisMaría and her granddaughter Alicia have never met. Decades apart, both make the same journey to Madrid in search of work and independence. María, scraping together a living as a cleaner and carer, sending money back home for the daughter she hardly knows; Alicia, raised in prosperity until a family tragedy, now trapped in a poorly paid job and a cycle of banal infidelities. Their lives are marked by precarity, and by the haunting sense of how things might have been different. Through a series of arresting vignettes, Elena Medel weaves together a broken family's story, stretching from the last years of Franco's dictatorship to mass feminist protests in contemporary Madrid. Audacious, intimate and shot through with razor-edged lyricism, The Wonders is a revelatory novel about the many ways that lives are shaped by class, history and feminism: about what has changed for working class women, and what has remained stubbornly the same.Trade Review'The Wonders is a poet's novel, delicate but strong, impressing its images firmly on the imagination.' - Hilary Mantel'A mesmerizing read. Medel's prose is hypnotic, it's hard to believe this is her first novel. I was completely engrossed in this story, in the shadow each generation casts on the one that comes after it, in the tension between caring for oneself and caring for others' - Avni Doshi, author of the 2020 Booker Prize-Shortlisted Burnt Sugar'Completely unsentimental and with a harshness that hides the most radiant and painful of scars... brings to life several generations of working women: it's a serene and impious novel that puts class, feminism, and the eternal complexity of family ties at the fore' - Mariana Enriquez, author of the International Booker Prize-shortlisted The Dangers of Smoking in Bed'Full of brilliant moments of illumination... The effect of [the book's] fragmentation is to make of these individual women's lives a collective picture of working-class Spanish womanhood. With light touches Medel conveys gradual but tremendous change... it has a boldly ingenious structure and flashes of beauty' - The Guardian'A beautifully written novel that examines the lives of three generations of working-class women living precariously in Madrid' - Stylist

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Book SynopsisPrague, 1995: journalist Ludvík Slaný is assigned to make a documentary about a truly bizarre case. Vera Foltýnova, a middle-aged woman with no musical training, claims she has been visited by the ghost of great composer Frederic Chopin - and that he has been dictating dozens of compositions to her, to allow the world to hear the sublime music he was unable to create in his own short life. With media and recording companies taking the bait, Ludvík enlists the help of ex-Communist secret police agent Pavel Cerny? to expose Vera as a fraud. Soon, however, doubt creeps in, as he finds himself irrationally drawn towards this unassuming woman and the eerily beautiful music she plays. Could he be witnessing a true miracle? An intricately plotted mystery imbued with the dusky atmosphere of autumnal Prague, The Ghost of Frederic Chopin is an engrossing story of art, faith and the quiet accompaniment of the past.Trade Review"[The Ghost of Chopin] has the depth and elegance of a nocturne... Éric Faye makes his hero and his story alternate between the meticulous realism of the investigation and a delicate fantasy, quietly opening an unlimited field of possibilities" Le Croix"A noir novel imbued with mystery and elegance... invites us to discover a Prague, rainy and unsettling, but terribly bewitching" ActuaLitté

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