Contemporary Fiction Books

Book Synopsis'Will hold you captive until the brilliant ending' Shari Lapena, author of Someone We Know **THE UNMISSABLE THRILLER FROM THE QUEEN OF THE MODERN-DAY MURDER MYSTERY** Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the shareholders and directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a make or break corporate retreat to decide the future of the company. At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold. The clock is ticking on the offer, and with the group irrevocably split, tensions are running high. When an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and one board member goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask - would someone resort to murder, to get what they want? _________________________ PRAISE FOR RUTH WARE'S ADDICTIVE THRILLERS: 'Atmospheric and eerie with Agatha Christie vibes' Prima 'Ruth Ware just gets better and better' Lisa Jewell, author of The People Upstairs 'A dark tale by one of the best thriller writers around' Independent'The sense of dread deepens as the snow falls in Ruth Ware's tensely plotted and deliciously cast alpine thriller' Louise Candlish, bestselling author of Our House 'A real spine-chiller that confirms Ruth Ware as the true heir to Christie's crown' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said, She Said _________________________ READERS LOVE ONE BY ONE: 'I devoured this in a day...eerie and creepy' ***** 'Terrifying and captivating' ***** 'Had me on the edge of my seat' ***** 'Utterly brilliant' ***** 'Clever, chilling, addictive...a must-read!' ***** 'Strong Agatha Christie vibes' *****Trade ReviewA real spine-chiller that confirms Ruth Ware as the true heir to Christie's crown. Ingenious plotting sees the body count rise and multiple suspects eliminated until we're left with breathless game of cat-and-mouse. * Erin Kelly, author of He Said, She Said *The sense of dread deepens as the snow falls in Ruth Ware's tensely plotted and deliciously cast alpine thriller. * Louise Candlish, author of Our House *A chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Agatha Christie would have been up all night reading this one! * Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door *Chilling, claustrophobic and clever. This is Ruth Ware's best yet. * Jo Jakeman *What a read, oh my goodness, so fast paced, action packed, twisty-turny, modern, clever, scary and ingenious! * Lisa Jewell, author of The People Upstairs *

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Book Synopsis**A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF 2018**The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson, author of the groundbreaking, highly acclaimed Jesus’ Son. Written in the same luminous prose, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating mortality, the ghosts of the past, and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.Trade ReviewIn his lifetime Denis Johnson was far more highly regarded in America than in Britain… This stunning book – bleak, funny tender, despairing and ecstatic (sometimes all at the same time) – decisively proves that the Americans were right. -- James Walton * Daily Telegraph *This posthumously published book of short stories is the long-awaited follow-up to Johnson’s Jesus’ Son (1992), perhaps the most influential and beloved volume of American short stories of the past three decades... One can say about this book what one narrator says about a collection of poems he loves: “They were the real thing, line after line of the real thing.” -- Dwight Garner * New York Times, Critics' Top Books of 2018 *[W]ith his untimely death, Johnson’s canonisation as an American seer seems inevitable... The five longish pieces comprising this posthumous collection are all, to my mind, quite wonderful. -- James Lasdun * Guardian *Now Johnson is dead... we should be sorry to have lost such a wise and compassionate guide to life's darkness, but thankful to have his magnificent books. Here is another of them. -- Chris Power * New Statesman *The prose remains as deliriously alive as ever. In one story there is a rueful, lyrical, lovely paragraph that I hope is more than fictionally true because it suggests that Johnson enjoyed himself producing some of the greatest literary works of our age. -- Adam Foulds * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis**LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018**An elegiac novel set in post-WW2 London about memory, family secrets and lies, from the internationally acclaimed author of The English Patient It is 1945, and London is still reeling from the Blitz. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are apparently abandoned by their parents, left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and grow both more convinced and less concerned as they get to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women all who seem determined to protect Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? A dozen years later, Nathaniel journeys through recollection, reality and imagination to uncover all he didn’t know or understand in that time, to piece together a story that feels something like the truth. ‘A novel of shadowy brilliance’ The Times ‘Fiction as rich, as beautiful, as melancholy as life itself, written in the visionary language of memory’ Observer ‘Ondaatje brilliantly threads the mysteries and disguises and tangled loyalties and personal yearnings of the secret world... I haven’t read a better novel this year’ TelegraphTrade ReviewOur book of the year – and maybe of Ondaatje's career. * Daily Telegraph **Books of the Year** *Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight is a rare and beautiful thing – a deeply retrospective novel about war secrets that feels neither overstated nor overly ethereal. In sumptuous prose, Ondaatje limns the psyche of a man still trying to make sense of his complicated relationships and the mysteries surrounding his absent parents. One of the most absorbing books I’ve read all year. -- Esi Edugyan * Times Literary Supplement **Books of the Year 2018** *Warlight sucked me in deeper than any novel I can remember… fiction as rich, as beautiful, as melancholy as life itself. -- Alex Preston * Observer *From the very first sentence you’re desperate to find out what happens next… All is slowly, tantalisingly revealed, in flashbacks, fragments, digressions and stories within stories, narrated in majestic Ondaatjean style. -- Ian Sansom * New Statesman *In Warlight we have a writer who knows exactly what he’s doing – and has constructed something of real emotional and psychological heft, delicate melancholy and yet, frequently, page-turning plottiness. I haven’t read a better novel this year. -- Sam Leith * Daily Telegraph *The latest novel from the author of The English Patient is just glorious... rendered with Dickensian verve. My hot tip for the Booker Prize. -- Allison Pearson * Harpers Bazaar *Ondaatje’s first novel in seven years mesmerizes from start to finish. -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *I spend the months before the publication of a new Michael Ondaatje novel trying to keep my expectations in check, telling myself it's simply unfair to expect as much of any writer as I expect from Ondaatje. Then he pulls off a Warlight, and I'm embarrassed by my own lack of faith... [Warlight] is surprising, delightful, heartbreaking and written as only Ondaatje could write it. -- Kamila Shamsie * Observer *Compulsively and grippingly readable. In fact I read it first at a gallop, enthralled by the image of a city and a world distorted and all but destroyed by war, and then again slowly, determined to savour the details and extract as much as I could from it. Much remained puzzling on this second reading, but two things are clear: Michael Ondaatje is a marvellous writer, and Warlight is a novel which will continue to play in the reader’s imagination. -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *Ondaatje [is] such a thrilling writer… I loved [Warlight]. -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard *

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Book Synopsis**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn’t know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he’s proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention.As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of Britain's greatest mappers of the human heart.Trade ReviewA novelist at the height of his powers ... Quietly devastating. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Times *Exquisite. -- Kate Clanchy * Guardian *Emotionally acute, profoundly beautiful, as droll as it is deep... this has to be one of the smartest novels that 2018 has to offer. -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *A gentle, bleak, and brilliant novel. -- Jon Day * Financial Times *Immensely powerful. -- Alex Clark * New Statesman *This intense, taut, sad and often beautiful tale may well be Barnes’ best novel for years. -- Lara Feigel * Spectator *A tender and heartbreaking novel. -- Alex Preston * Observer *As quiet and aching and intimate as a James Blake ballad. -- Rupert GooldA sensitive look at what makes lovers tick. -- Robbie Millen * The Times *A vivid dramatization of the narcissism of obsessive love. * Economist *

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Book SynopsisAn odyssey of loss and salvation ranging across four generations of fathers and sons, in the finest tradition of American storytelling.The year is 1966 and a young man named Vollie Frade, almost on a whim, enlists in the United States Marine Corps to fight in Vietnam. Breaking definitively from his rural Iowan parents, Vollie puts in motion a chain of events that sees him go to work for people with intentions he cannot yet grasp. From the Cambodian jungle, to a flophouse in Queens, to a commune in New Mexico, Vollie's path traces a secret history of life on the margins of America, culminating with an inevitable and terrible reckoning.Scibona’s story of a restless soldier pressed into service for a clandestine branch of the US government unfolds against the backdrop of the seismic shifts in global politics of the second half of the twentieth century. Epic in scope but intimate in feeling, this is a deeply immersive read from a rising star of American fiction.Trade ReviewA magnificent counterpoint of four generations of fathers and sons... Like DeLillo in [Underworld], Scibona wreaks an epic from the lives of ordinary, supposedly negligible men. Scibona has built a masterpiece. * New York Times Book Review *[Scibona is] a born novelist: He conveys a world in a detail. Scibona can take us into the broken heart of a child lost in a foreign airport, the shattering chaos of a night assault during the Vietnam War and the quiet intensity of a working-class New York neighborhood... Work like The Volunteer can never be one thing only, upbeat or down. It’s teeming, brilliantly. * The Washington Post *Salvatore Scibona’s exhilarating new novel [is]… a searing record of war and the lies people live by… Despite all the destruction and despair, in this novel hope emerges as the wildest high. * Economist *What perfect pitch, what perfect rhythm. These are sentences that are in love with the world and that make us love the world, too. * The Boston Globe *Scibona is a remarkable writer and The Volunteer is a remarkable book... It is a war story unlike any other war story, a story of fathers and sons, of family (both biological and manufactured) and of generations of betrayal and abandonment... All of it — all of it — is just so ridiculously beautiful. * NPR *

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Book SynopsisREAD THE TENSE TWIST-FILLED RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE OUTCAST.Family secrets can be deadly...Newly-weds Dan and Bea decide to escape London. Driving through France in their beaten-up car they anticipate a long lazy summer, worlds away from their ordinary lives.But their idyll cannot last. Stopping off to see Bea's brother at his crumbling hotel, the trio are joined unexpectedly by Bea's ultra-wealthy parents. Dan has never understood Bea's deep discomfort around them but living together in such close proximity he begins to sense something is very wrong.Just as tensions reach breaking point, brutal tragedy strikes, exposing decades of secrets and silence that threaten to destroy them all.'A suspenseful, beautifully written thriller about the corruption of money and abuse within a dysfunctional family' GuardianTrade ReviewSadie Jones is such an enjoyable novelist to spend time with. Her books are so easy to read, while each sentence is rich in meaty observation… Elegantly atmospheric… The Snakes left me breathless -- Claire Allfree * Daily Mail *The Snakes is superbly written, each sentence punctuated by a drumbeat of menace, each word placed with a master's touch. I keep thinking about the questions it poses: about what it is to be good in these imperfect times; about how we can protect our humanity in the face of narcissism and greed. Yet for all its depth and mystery, The Snakes is also just a thrillingly good read -- Elizabeth DayThe Snakes asks serious questions about human nature, avarice and justice, wrapped in the fast-paced rhythms of a thriller. It is written with Jones’s trademark economy and a fierce attention to the nuances of familial cruelty… I finished The Snakes with a juddering heart, strangely close to tears -- Elizabeth Lowry * Guardian *The Snakes is gripping from the outset, then finally unputdownable. The writing is magnificent. One of the most powerful and uncompromising novels I've read in years. -- Jonathan CoeEver since her debut, The Outcast, Jones has peopled her propulsive plots with nuanced, dimensional creations imbued with human failings and graces. The Snakes is no exception… Jones crafts a pitiless shock ending; a denouement that refuses closure and resonates long after the book is set aside… [the ending is] bound to become a talking point -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times *I am blowing the trumpet for The Snakes to anyone who'll listen. I devoured the book, awed by its beauty and brilliance. We'll be lucky if 2019 brings us much else of this rank. This is wickedly good writing and something really special. Sadie Jones has talent to burn. -- Billy O'CallaghanA suspenseful, beautifully written thriller about the corruption of money and abuse within a dysfunctional family * Guardian *Masterful, terrifying, dangerous, with an ending that is as uncompromising as the build-up is truthful. The Snakes is as beautifully written as it is dark and honest. -- Rachel JoyceA menacing, beautifully written novel * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2019* *I was absolutely gripped by this original and beautifully-told story of a couple enmeshed in a nest of vipers -- a rich family of criminals. Its evocation of a sinister French house, the corruption of love and the powerlessness of good is both haunting and chilling. Nobody contemporary writes about unhappy families as well as Sadie Jones. -- Amanda CraigThis gripping read drips with a menace that builds of the shocking final pages -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping, *Book of the Month* *[A] menacing new contemporary thriller… a tantalising set-up, after which the plot zigzags unpredictably to a brutally stark finale that steals the breath -- Anthony Cummins * Metro *The Snakes has all of Jones’s trademark depth and layered storytelling -- Sarra Manning * Red *Sadie Jones… knows how to construct a narrative of great emotional power. Her prose is crisp and precise, studded with spiky observations -- Andrew Taylor * Spectator *An all-encompassing read from the first page to the devastating final paragraph -- Alice O’Keeffe * The Bookseller *The ending is devastating -- Jeffrey Burke * Mail on Sunday *Unsettling, thought-provoking and beautifully written, you won’t be able to get this out of your head -- Caroline Robb * Heat *Jones’s style is immediate and lively and she is particularly good at dialogue, which she uses a great deal, often to advance the fast-paced plot -- Elisa Seagrave * Literary Review *The Snakes unfolds in clean, functional prose and Jones has a lot to say about the way we live now -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard *Determined to escape the nine-to-five monotony, Bea and Dan head to France to visit Bea’s wayward brother Alex, who runs a hotel where the only guests are snakes in the attic. The peace is shattered when Bea’s parents arrive, bringingconflict and misery. From a sedate start, Jones deftly builds the tension to a horrific and powerful conclusion. * The Telegraph *Jones’s fifth novel is a fantastic read as a thriller, but where Jones excels, is in her microscopic yet compassionate scrutiny of relationships: the unconditional doting of a flawed sibling; the sickening toxicity of a vicious but powerful parent; the watchful care and explosions of irritation between spouses -- Maria Crawford * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2019* *Deliciously wicked... the perfect antidote to a relaxing summer's day... hypnotic -- like staring into the serpent's eyes just before it strikes -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *Both a cautionary tale and a pitch-black race-to-the-end thriller -- Justine Jordon * Guardian, *Books of the Year* *Sadie Jones is a talented writer. She is able to burrow down into the heart of feelings and yet does so in a matter of fact way. The ending shocked me… [The Snakes is] the sort of read I could spend ages thinking about what lies beneath the story of greed, wealth, jealousy and flawed family relationships -- Nicola Smith * NB *

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Book Synopsis'A poignant, piercing meditation on middle age and the passing of time… will linger with you long after the book is closed' Guardian *SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD 2020*On a bitterly cold winter’s afternoon, Michael and Caitlin escape their unhappy marriages to keep an illicit rendezvous. Once a month, for the past quarter of a century, Coney Island has been their haven; these precious, hidden hours their only nourishment. But now, amid the howling of an angry snowstorm, the shut-down, out-of-season resort feels like the edge of the world. And their lives, suddenly, are on the brink – with news of serious illness on one side, and a move to the Midwest on the other.Trade ReviewNovel of the year is My Coney Island Baby, by Billy O’Callaghan, a lush, precise, poetic account of a love affair that ends the way most love affairs do. We knew O’Callaghan to be a master of the short story, and here he shows the grand reach of his powers as a novelist. -- John Banville * Irish Times *Books of the Year* *Billy O’Callaghan’s new novel grips from the opening page. The stride of his sentences is long and powerful, his vision raw. A spectrum of intensities from grief to love is revealed as relationships unfold with an honesty that is utterly believable. -- Bernard MacLavertyO’Callaghan [has made a] significant achievement in this fine novel… Good books remind us of other good books and in its treatment of adultery this one calls to mind thematic ancestors such as Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina and The Scarlet Letter. -- Bert Wright * Sunday Times *A poignant, piercing meditation on middle age and the passing of time… these characters will linger with you long after the book is closed. -- Claire Kilroy * Guardian *Quiet, subtle and deeply moving… This is a fine novel, with elegance and wisdom lying beneath an unpretentious surface and O’Callaghan, a gifted writer, has managed to do that most difficult of things: take a quiet, almost everyday story and transform it into a thing of beauty. -- John Boyne * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING GLENN CLOSEA husband. A wife. A secret. Behind any great man, there’s always a greater woman.Joe and Joan Castleman are on an aeroplane, 35,000 feet above the ocean. Joe is thinking about the prestigious literary prize he is about to receive and Joan is plotting how to leave him. For too long Joan has played the role of supportive wife, turning a blind eye to his misdemeanours, subjugating her own talents and quietly being the keystone of his success. The Wife is an acerbic and astonishing take on a marriage from its public face to the private world behind closed doors. Wolitzer has masterfully created an expose of lives lived in partnership and the truth that behind the compromises, dedication and promise inherent in marriage there so often lies a secret...‘A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics’ Lorrie MooreTrade ReviewHilarious and touching -- Erica Wagner * The Times *Meg Wolitzer is so funny and clever she should be bottled and sold as tonic * Allison Pearson *It’s funny, and it’s brilliant, and I press it on everyone I know -- Rachel Cooke * BBC Radio 4, A Good Read *A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics -- Lorrie MooreWith a great lightness of touch, Wolitzer's novel satirises American literary circles of the Seventies and Eighties and traces the generation of wives who poured their own creative energies into "stoking the fires" of their husbands' reputations -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent *

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Book Synopsis***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*****SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2020****LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2020**'Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'Inspired by Mary Shelley's gothic classic Frankenstein, discover this audacious new novel about the bodies we live in and the bodies we desire.As Brexit grips Britain, Ry, a young transgender doctor, is falling in love. The object of their misguided affection: the celebrated AI-specialist, Professor Victor Stein. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with his Mum again, is set to make his fortune with a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.Ranging from 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley pens her radical first novel, to a cryonics facility in present-day Arizona where the dead wait to return to life, Frankissstein shows us how much closer we are to the future than we realise.'Intelligent and inventive...very funny' The Times 'One of the most gifted writers working today' New York TimesTrade ReviewA riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own that reanimates Frankenstein as a cautionary tale for a contemporary moment dominated by debates about Brexit, gender, artificial intelligence and medical experimentation… While the story has a gripping momentum of its own, it also fizzes with ideas. -- Daisy Hay * Financial Times *A riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own that reanimates Frankenstein as a cautionary tale for a contemporary moment dominated by debates about Brexit, gender, artificial intelligence and medical experimentation… While the story has a gripping momentum of its own, it also fizzes with ideas. -- Daisy Hay * Financial Times *Here, hard science and dreamy Romanticism exist in both tension and harmony… Frankissstein abounds with invention… this is a work of both pleasure and profundity, robustly and skilfully structured, and suffused with all Winterson’s usual preoccupations – gender, language, sexuality, the limits of individual liberty and the life of ideas. -- Sam Byers * Guardian, *Book of the Week* *A modern take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it’s a fascinating and engrossing look at AI, science, gender fluidity and, ultimately, what it really means to be human. -- Nicola Sturgeon * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *Yes, the book we have all been waiting for. Yes, everything Winterson has always done so well. Yes, above and beyond anything that is yet to be written.

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2019 A New York Times 2019 Notable Book2019 BOOK OF THE YEAR: Oprah Magazine, Time, Vulture, and Entertainment Weekly 'The Need is a profound meditation on the nature of reality, a fearless examination of parenthood, and also somehow a thriller. This is an extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and interesting writers' Emily St. John MandelShe crouched in front of the mirror in the dark, clinging to them. The baby in her right arm, the child in her left. There were footsteps in the other room...Molly is exhausted, anxious, losing her grip on reality. Her husband is away and she is running between her children and her job, where things are unravelling. She’s a paleobotanist, working at a fossil quarry, and has recently unearthed artefacts that defy understanding; the coke bottle with the lettering that leans the wrong way, an alternate version of the Bible. Where do these things come from?At home, as dusk falls, she gets jumpy. Are those footsteps out in the hall? What was that noise? She holds her two small children close to her, and tries to pull herself together. But her worlds of work and home are about to collide. She discovers that the stranger in her sitting room knows everything about her life and, as their identity becomes chillingly clear, this intruder makes a demand of Molly that upends everything, forcing her to reckon with her most unspeakable fears. The Need is a gripping, unsettling and stunningly original story that probes deep truths about motherhood, and explores grief, loss and how we treat others. It's a compulsive, reality-warping novel that makes us rethink our world, and question how far we would go to protect the ones we love.'The atmosphere is as close and taut as a thriller, but this is, in fact, both a highly original examination of grief and an extraordinarily vivid evocation of motherhood -- the moments of terror and hilarity, the visceral burden of it, and the fleeting, but almost transcendent, joy' Daily Mail'A chilling novel from a blazing talent' Observer Trade ReviewA chilling novel from a blazing talent...in addition to being a cerebral meditation on motherhood at its most elemental – fierce, beatific, sanity-thieving – it’s an adroitly executed thriller with a quasi-sci-fi twist. Mercilessly tense throughout, its opening chapter is a belter... A bracingly singular achievement, it’s surreal, blackly comic and ultimately generous. -- Hephzibah Anderson * Observer *[A] frenzied fever dream of a novel. Read it as a sci-fi thriller, or understand it instead as metaphorical; either way, it’s a page-turner… magnificent... This is a smart, sharp book that cuts to the heart of what it’s like to be a mother -- Lucy Scholes * Financial Times *Phillips can conjure pure nightmare in a single sentence… Thrillingly disturbing, frighteningly insightful about motherhood and love, and spilling over with offhand invention, The Need is one of this year’s most necessary novels. -- Sarah Ditum * Guardian *The atmosphere is as close and taut as a thriller, but this is, in fact, both a highly original examination of grief and an extraordinarily vivid evocation of motherhood -- the moments of terror and hilarity, the visceral burden of it, and the fleeting, but almost transcendent, joy -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *Helen Phillips’s novel begins to reveal itself, veering away from what looks initially like conventional suspense into something more speculative and philosophical with nods to both sci-fi and horror...the what-ifs animate this novel, the narrative splitting and looping back on itself as it tries out parallel possibilities, various fantasies and nightmares... frightening and maddening and full of dark comedy.. Phillips, as careful with language as she is bold with structure, captures many small sharp truths * New York Times *The Need is a profound meditation on the nature of reality, a fearless examination of parenthood, and also somehow a thriller. This is an extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and interesting writers -- Emily St. John MandelPhillips writes exceptionally well of the insatiable demands two young children can make on a mother... yet this is also a horror story about the vulnerability of motherhood that doubles up as a love letter to the miracle existence of children. At the same time, Phillips consistently plays tricks with the reader's perspective...and with the possibility of parallel realities, rooted in a mother's worst possible fears, playing out at the level of science fiction... One of the most heart-stopping motherhood novels you'll read all year * Metro *So smart and brave about motherhood... Molly's struggle to remain her full self while giving so much away is electrifying... Mothers will recognize so much in this fresh novel -- but they aren't the only ones who should read it. Phillips has found a way to make these experiences universal -- Bethanne Patrick * Washington Post *An enthralling book. With its short chapters, unsettling prose and riveting suspense, it feels designed for binge-reading. But keep an eye on the clock. Immersion in this novel before bedtime is a recipefor sleeplessness. * Economist *It’s a classic opening: a woman hears an intruder in her home while her husband is away, grabs her two young kids and hides in terror. But the true power of Helen Phillips’ brilliantly paced thriller emerges when Molly, a paleobotanist, comes face to face with the only person in the world who can shake her identity as a mother—a person who brings her to question her very reality. Phillips taps into the overwhelming anxiety that comes with love in its deepest, truest form, a sense of fierce protectiveness one need not be a parent to understand -- Lucy Feldman * Time's Best Fiction Books 2019 *An exciting, enjoyably eccentric novel that more than delivers as both a reality-warping thriller and a searching meditation on motherhood * Mail on Sunday *The weirdness of everyday life is beautifully explored… The Need's true subject is motherhood, rendered here as a painful, visceral, almost impossibly tender undertaking. In contrast to this extreme normality, the supernatural elements tingle like bugs against the skin. In all, a grand achievement. The novel exists on that narrow borderlinewhere strangeness merges with the mundane, and Phillips is both an explorer, and a brilliant chronicler of this murky realm. * Spectator *Sinister, existential and written in blazing prose * i *I love Helen Phillips's wild, brilliant, eccentric brain -- Lauren GroffHelen Phillips is one of the most exciting young writers working today, and I envy those who get to discover her work here for the first time -- Jenny OffillThis book held me hostage, invaded my dreams and my waking thoughts, and readjusted my brain; Phillips is, as always, doing something at once wildly her own and utterly primal. Maybe it doesn't surprise me that the strangest book I've read about motherhood is also the best, but it does thrill me -- Rebecca Makkai, author of THE GREAT BELIEVERSHelen Phillips has created an existential page-turner that captures, with perfect sharpness, the fierce delirium of motherhood, the longing to understand the workings of our universe, and the wondrous and terrifying mystery that is time. The Need is a brain-bending heartbreaker of a novel, and definitive proof that Helen Phillips is one of the most spellbindingly original writers working today -- Laura Van Den Berg, author of THE THIRD HOTELThis is a book about the biggest things you can imagine--the dreadful potentiality of life, the fierceness of love, and the terrifying and exhilarating mystery of motherhood. Helen Phillips writes at the nexus of science fiction and psychological realism, conjuring a narrative so mind-bending and immersive that it'll change what you see as real. She is an author at the height of her power, and we are so lucky to be living in her moment -- Alexandra Kleeman, author of YOU TOO CAN HAVE A BODY LIKE MINEThe Need is a spellbinding novel, both unsettling and irresistible. The best fiction finds the uncanny within the familiar; it makes us feel the fantastical undercurrent of our embodied lives. With exquisite economy and evocative prose, Phillips manifests the surreal, terrifying, and visceral experience of motherhood -- Dana Spiotta, author of INNOCENTS AND OTHERSA superbly engaging read – quirky, perceptive, and gently provocative... Suspenseful and mysterious, insightful and tender, Phillips' new thriller cements her standing as a deservedly celebrated author with a singular sense of story and style * Kirkus, starred review *

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Book SynopsisA wild and gripping novel about one woman's quest to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands at any cost.Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect?Propulsive and unforgettable, Once There Were Wolves is the spellbinding story of a woman desperate to save her family, the wild animals, and the natural world she loves, at any cost. 'Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy.' Los Angeles Times'Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel' New York Times Book ReviewTrade ReviewBlazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy -- Lorraine Berry * Los Angeles Times *So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact -- Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel * The New York Times Book Review *One of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read ... It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read ... I loved loved loved this book -- Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always IsThis heart-pounding novel digs into the complex relationships between humans and the creatures with which we share the natural world * Newsweek *Suspenseful and poignant...humans and animals alike can break our hearts * Scientific American *Far more than an old wolves' tale. Instead, it illustrates what it's like to be an outsider from both a human and animal perspective and the level of healing and acceptance it takes from within to be accepted and to accept yourself * Electric Literature *Urges us to take a lesson from the wolves, and learn to lean on one another * BookRiot *Lyrical, captivating, thought-provoking and thrilling, this immersive read will capture your attention from the first page * Good Morning America *The Australian author made waves with last summer's Migrations, a meditation on climate change and loneliness, and returns with a new story set in the Scottish Highlands, where two twin sisters join a team attempting to reintroduce a pack of wolves to their natural surroundings * Entertainment Weekly *Unflinching in its view of the harm humans inflict on the environment and on each other and insisting on the interconnectedness of the two Once There Were Wolves delivers a powerful call for hope in the face of catastrophe * Shelf Awareness *Vividly realized... Gorgeously rendered...A story full of subtle surprises...This is a stunner * Publishers Weekly *Poetic...A lovely, gripping tale about a world that could be our own * Kirkus *Once There Were Wolves is one of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read, which you do as slowly as you can because you want to savor it, except the pages keep turning furiously because the story is so thrilling and so powerful. It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read. I will be enthusiastically recommending this novel to everyone forever. Charlotte McConaghy has cemented herself as a sure-thing, must-read writer for me. I loved loved loved this book -- Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is[A] propulsive novel. * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis'Extraordinary' Maaza Mengiste'Exhilarating' Elif BatumanSelam is the youngest child in a large turbulent family. Even before she is born, her omniscience animates life in a Small Town in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the socialist military junta that recently overthrew the government seizes properties and wages civil war in the North. The Asmelashes, once an enterprising, land-owning family, are ostracized under the new regime. In the Small Town where they live, nosy women convene around coffee ceremonies multiple times a day, the gossip spreading like wildfire.As Selam's mother, the powerful and relentlessly dignified Degitu, grows ill, she embraces a persecuted, Pentecostal God and insists her family convert alongside her. The Asmelashes stand solidly in opposition to the times, and Selam grows up seeking revenge on despotic comrades, neighbourhood bullies, and a ruthless God. Wise beyond her years yet thoroughly naive, she contends with an inner fury, a profound sadness, and a throbbing, unstoppable pursuit of education, freedom, and love.The History of a Difficult Child is about what happens when mother, God, and country are at odds, and how one difficult child finds her voice.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary novel. At once a story of a sharp-witted young girl trying to hold herself together during political upheaval, and an achingly tender tale of community, family, grief and forgiveness -- Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of THE SHADOW KINGA major new writing talent. Not only does the novel confront history, masculinity and gender in refreshing but uncompromising ways, it also has a remarkably original voice, fresh and irreverent. Sibhat will soon be one of the most influential voices in the literature of Africa -- Chris Abani, author of GRACELANDA brilliant powerhouse of a novel, an incandescent read from an electrifying writer -- Patricia Hampl, author of THE ART OF THE WASTED DAYSelam, Mihret Sibhat's ferociously witty young narrator, depicts her family's religious and political struggles in Ethiopia in extraordinarily rich and original prose... Deeply moving as well as hilarious. A one-of-a-kind must-read debut -- Julie Schumacher, author of DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERSAn unexpected and hilarious voice with a velocity all its own... razor-sharp. Tender and merciless, full of human and political insight. I couldn't stop turning the pages -- V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of BROTHERLESS NIGHT

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Book Synopsis'Toni Morrison was the lodestar who inspired us' Bernadine EvaristoTwyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old, when they were thrown together as roommates in a girls' shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only to meet again later at a diner, a grocery store and then at a protest. The two women are seemingly at opposite ends of every problem but, despite their conflict, the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them is undeniable. Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage? This story is a masterful exploration of what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, of race and the relationships that shape our lives. Now with a new introduction by Zadie Smith, it is as radically compelling and relevant today as it was when first written nearly forty years ago.'Toni Morrison is the greatest chronicler of the American experience that we have ever known' Tayari Jones'Her work is an act of giving her community back to itself, so that people - African-Americans but the diaspora as well - can see and witness themselves' Diana EvansTrade ReviewThis smart slippery tale... [is] highly relevant to our times... [Recitatif] serves as a challenge to contemporary novels that prefer to take refuge in racial orthodoxy than unsettle it, as Morrison so brilliantly does here -- Claire Allfree * Daily Mail *A compelling exploration of race and relationships * i *So thought-provoking you'll want everyone you know to read it * Daily Mail, *Summer Reads of 2022* *Genius -- Bernice McFadden, author of SUGAR * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTHE SIXTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING OUTLANDER SERIES. _________________________________The long fuse of rebellion has already been lit.It's 1772, the Royal Colony of North Carolina, and the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and preserve the colony for King and Crown.One minor problem: Jamie Fraser's wife, Claire, is a time-traveller, as are his daughter and son-in-law. And Jamie knows that three years hence, the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the end of it all will be independence - with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile.Beyond present danger, though, looms the threat of a tiny clipping from the Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports the destruction of the house on Fraser's Ridge and the death by fire of James Fraser and all his family. For once, Jamie Fraser hopes the time-travelers in his family are wrong about the future. But only time will tell.Trade ReviewGripping. * OK! *The sixth instalment of the adventures of Claire and Jamie Fraser, already number one on the bestseller list, is a whopping 980 pages of action-packed escapism. It also has surprisingly melancholy and insightful views on the experience of growing old and dealing with the losses that entails... One of the things that sets Gabaldon apart from other romance writers is exhaustive research of the times in which her characters live, so evident in her attention to period detail.... plot lines and stand-alone yarns are expertly woven together with the overall theme of impending doom and the question of predetermination. * The Toronto Star *Fans of Diana Gabaldon's popular Outlander series have another rousing historical-science-fiction-romance novel to savour in A Breath of Snow and Ashes... For fans, this book is another slam-dunk hit. It's a massive, long-lasting source of entertainment. * The Gazette (Montreal) *Riveting. Gabaldon has a true storyteller's voice. * The Globe and Mail *Triumphant. . . . Her use of historical detail and truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisAs WWI begins, no family, including the Neylers, will be left untouched, and by the time the war finally finishes, nothing will ever be the same againTed and Tina Neyler's children are growing up, doomed to be drawn into the Great War: Frank will be scarred forever by one terrible day in the trenches, while Louis, the charming optimist, returns unscathed from the war to find that his wife and mistress have met up and that his misdemeanours are inexorably catching up with him.But despite the tragedy they face, the Neylers realise that even war can't break the bonds that keep them together.Trade ReviewThis is a heart warming but at the same time heart breaking story. Once again through fiction you learn about the effects of a terrible war. So much sorrow in one family but with happy endings too. You laugh and cry as the story unfolds. I loved the characters in this book. The Author, Katie Flynn – what a great storyteller. Her books are never a disappointment. I found this one very hard to put down. Well done! * Mojo Mums *Katie Flynn’s historical fiction does a brilliant job of capturing broad wartime themes. * Culture Fly *A compelling story…in her inimitable style * Peterborough Evening Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis_________________A landmark new novel from Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird.Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her.Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s own conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humour and effortless precision – a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to a classic.Trade ReviewA new work, and a pleasure, revelation and genuine literary event…Go Set a Watchman shakes the settled view of both an author and her novel…This publication intensifies the regret that Harper Lee published so little. -- Mark Lawson * Guardian *Go Set a Watchman is the more radical, ambitious and politicised of the two novels Lee has now published…It has contemporary relevance where Mockingbird is safely sealed off as a piece of American history…It does not undermine Mockingbird but it makes a reassessment of that story absolutely necessary…It is a book of enormous literary interest…Beguiling and distinctive, and reminiscent of Mockingbird…Go Set a Watchman can’t be dismissed as literary scraps from Lee’s’ imagination. It has too much integrity for that. -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *More edgy and thought provoking [than To Kill a Mockingbird] … It has a power to it beyond being a mere historical curio or more lit crit material for Harper Lee studies… Eccentric characters are brightly drawn. There is Lee’s trademark warmth, some droll lines and the sense of place and time is strong…[It has] a surprisingly provocative message — don’t airily dismiss the prejudices of others, try to understand them. -- Robbie Millen * The Times *The flashes of lyrical genius and ability to evoke the intensity of childhood play that come to fruition in To Kill a Mockingbird are in evidence…It’s nowhere near the novel Mockingbird is. It is much better than that…What Watchman tells us, and tells us rather powerfully, is that racism is not confined to people who are so clearly not like us…Watchman is for grown-ups. It asks serious questions about what racism is. And it comes at a time when American desperately needs a grown-up conversation about race. -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *I’m happy to report that most of the caveats and conspiracy theories surrounding Go Set a Watchman melt away as you read the opening chapters and reacquaint yourself with that beguiling Harper Lee narrative style — warm, sardonic, amused by male folly and social pretension, wryly funny, a sassy Southern voice, Mark Twain with a dash of Katharine Hepburn. -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisSix bodies are found on a Swedish mountain - and a cold case rapidly heats up...FROM THE ACCLAIMED CREATORS OF WALLANDER and THE BRIDGESix skeletons on a mountainside. The relics of a terrible crime committed long ago.For Sebastian Bergman, that just makes the investigation into who they are, who killed them, and why, even more complex. At first the investigation was a chance to escape his ex-girlfriend and spend some time with his daughter, Vanja. An opportunity to try and build a relationship with her before it's too late.But soon he finds that he's more involved than he would ever want to be. And his personal life is horribly, disastrously tangled up in it all . . .Trade ReviewStunning … This is a complex and compelling novel that invites comparison with Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. * Sunday Times *Fans of Scandinavian TV dramas and clever thrillers will love The Man Who Wasn’t There… I can guarantee it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. * CultureFly *It’s as good as Scandi lovers could imagine. * Peterborough evening Telegraph *The Man Who Wasn’t There isn’t just a good chunky novel – it’s a book that scores top marks for character plot and quality writing. * The Crime Wrap *

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Book SynopsisSt. Peter's Square, Rome. White smoke signals that a new Pope has been chosen.The world is watching as massive crowds gather in Rome, waiting for news of a new Pope. It's a turning point that could change the Catholic Church for ever, as one of the rumoured candidates, Brigid Fitzgerald, would be the first female Pope in history. But Brigid has made a legion of powerful enemies and is a target for all those who fear that the Church has lost its way – dangerous adversaries who won’t accept challenges to tradition.Locked in a deadly, high-stakes battle with forces determined to undermine her, Brigid must confront her enemies before she loses everything... including her life.

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Book SynopsisPRE-ORDER NOW - READY PLAYER TWO: THE SEQUEL______________________THE BOOK BEHIND THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERGNow available for the first time in a beautiful hardback edition, perfect for hardcore fans and collectorsA world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late twentieth century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.____________________________________If you loved READY PLAYER ONE and can't wait for more, check out ARMADA, Ernest Cline's geek masterpiece!'Wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut' Independent'Part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart' CNN 'Ernest Cline's novel deserves to be a modern classic' SciFiNow'Gorgeously geeky, superbly entertaining, this really is a spectacularly successful debut' Daily MailTrade ReviewAt once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired byBlade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed -- Justin Trudeau * Independent *The science-fiction writer John Scalzi has aptly referred to Ready Player One as a 'nerdgasm' [and] there can be no better one-word description of this ardent fantasy artifact about fantasy culture…But Mr. Cline is able to incorporate his favourite toys and games into a perfectly accessible narrative -- Janet Maslin * New York Times *A most excellent ride . . . the conceit is a smart one, and we happily root for [the heroes] on their quest . . . fully satisfying * Boston Globe *Gorgeously geeky, superbly entertaining, this really is a spectacularly successful debut * Daily Mail *If you grew up with an Atari or maybe had a Commodore 64 back in the day, you are going to really enjoy this one. Cline really captures the feeling of those good old days in Ready Player One * WIRED *The strength of Cline's first novel, other than its geeky referencing of 1980s pop culture, is the characterisation of the Candide-like Wade and his redemptive quest in both VR and the real world * Guardian *Ernest Cline’s novel deserves to be a modern classic…the most relevant novel of the 21st Century to date -- Steve Wright * SciFi Now *The mystery and fantasy in this novel weaves itself in the most delightful way, and the details that make up Mr. Cline's world are simply astounding. Ready Player One has it all * Huffington Post *Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets the Matrix. This novel undoubtedly qualifies Cline as the hottest geek on the planet right now. [But] you don't have to be a geek to get it * USA Today *Fascinating and imaginative...It's non-stop action when gamers must navigate clever puzzles and outwit determined enemies in a virtual world in order to save a real one. Readers are in for a wild ride * Terry Brooks, #1 New York Times bestselling author *This non-gamer loved every page of Ready Player One * Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author *Ready Player One expertly mines a copious vein of 1980s pop culture, catapulting the reader on a light-speed adventure in an advanced but backward-looking future. If this book were a living room, it would be wood-paneled. If it were shoes, it would be high-tops. And if it were a song, well, it would have to be Eye of the Tiger. I really, really loved it. * Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising and Robopocalypse *The pure, unfettered brainscream of a child of the 80s, like a dream my 13-year-old self would have had after bingeing on Pop Rocks and Coke...I couldn't put it down * Charles Ardai, Edgar Award-winning author and producer of Haven *Pure geek heaven. Ernest Cline's hero competes in a virtual world with life-and-death stakes -- which is only fitting, because he's fighting to make his dreams into reality. Cline blends a dystopic future with meticulously detailed nostalgia to create a story that will resonate in the heart of every true nerd * Chris Farnsworth, author of Blood Oath *I was blown away by this book...Ernie Cline has pulled the raddest of all magic tricks: he's managed to write a novel that's at once serious and playful, that is as fun to read as it is harrowing. A book of ideas, a potboiler, a game-within-a-novel, a serious science-fiction epic, a comic pop culture mash-up-call this novel what you will, but READY PLAYER ONE will defy every label you try to put on it. Here, finally, is this generation's NEUROMANCER * Will Lavender, New York Times bestselling author of Obedience *Completely fricking awesome...This book pleased every geeky bone in my geeky body. I felt like it was written just for me * Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Wise Man’s Fear *Pleasingly geeky novel ... No wonder there are plans to make into a film * Shortlist *Ready Player One is a fantastic adventure set in a futuristic world with a retro heart. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down and I couldn't wait to pick it back up * S.G. Browne, author of Breathers and Fated *Cline's novel is a nerdcore odyssey; engaging and fun, this Gen-X popcult thrillride drew me in like a Galaxian machine set to free play. * James Swallow *Cline [crafts] a fresh and imaginative world from our old toy box ... Cline strikes the nerves of nerd culture as expertly as Andy played that skeleton organ in The Goonies * Entertainment Weekly *Totally awesome! * Edinburgh Evening News *I would recommend this book in a heartbeat...young or old - it's just brilliant! * Books4Teens.co.uk *In the safe hands of none other than Mr. Steven Spielberg, this is your last chance to read the book before the movie hype drowns out the written word. A mixed up dystopian fantasy adventure novel with more nods to 80’s pop culture than even the biggest John Hughes fan will be able to handle, it’s just a whole lot of fun to read * 'Best books of 2015’, All in London *This is one you need to read before EVERYONE knows about it! * So Feminine *Ultimately entertaining, enthusiastic and enjoyable. A real must-have for any collection…a beautifully constructed piece of escapism which will pull you in with such vigour that you miss your train stop. * Live Magazines *Powerful and very timely message * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis**WINNER OF THE PRECIOUS LIFESTYLE MUST READ OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018**‘This will creep its way under your skin and stay there long after you finish the final few gut-twisting chapters. Brilliant’ Heat_____________________Brighton Beach, 1993Teenagers Nell and Jude find the body of a young woman and when no one comes to claim her, she becomes known as the Brighton Mermaid. Nell is still struggling to move on when, three weeks later, Jude disappears.Twenty-five years on, Nell is forced to quit her job to find out who the Brighton Mermaid really was – and what happened to her best friend that summer.But as Nell edges closer to the truth, dangerous things start to happen. Someone seems to be watching her every move, and soon she starts to wonder who in her life she can actually trust…Fast-paced and thrilling, The Brighton Mermaid explores the deadly secrets of those closest to you._____________________‘Another brilliant, suspenseful read from a master storyteller’ (Candis)‘With a cracking plot to boot – this brilliant read will hook you from the start’ (Fabulous magazine)‘This will creep its way under your skin and stay there long after you finish the final few gut-twisting chapters. Brilliant’ (Heat)‘Tense and emotional’ (My Weekly)‘Thrilling!’ (Take A Break)‘Koomson is the queen of the big reveal, and takes her time slowly building the tension in this truly gripping read’ (The Sun)‘Has all the classic elements of the big beach novel. It adds extra depths to the whodunit in terms of characterisation and emotional impact, and races to a conclusion that had me turning the pages as if they were on fire’ (Viva magazine)‘A hot read’ (Woman magazine)‘Just when you think you know what happened and you have your suspects a turn of the page will prove you wrong. This novel is fast paced and a great read’ (Woman’s Way)‘The novel simmers with tension and an undercurrent of darkness’ (Daily Express)‘The Brighton Mermaid is a breathtakingly brilliant, twisty belter of a book and you need to read it!’ (Miranda Dickinson, author of Somewhere Beyond The Sea)‘Fast-paced, dark and simmering – can’t recommend this novel enough.’ (Caroline Smailes, author ofThe Drowning of Arthur Braxton)Trade ReviewKoomson’s characters are perfectly formed yet flawed, showing acute insight into the human psyche. Thanks to their depth and intricately woven, ever changing relationships, the novel simmers with tension and an undercurrent of darkness * Daily Express *The novel simmers with tension and an undercurrent of darkness * Daily Express *Tense and emotional * My Weekly *This will creep its way under your skin and stay there long after you finish the final gut-twisting chapters. Brilliant. * Heat *Another brilliant, suspenseful read from a master storyteller. * Candis *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF HOME TRUTHS AND ONE MINUTE LATERYou never forget your first love.18 years ago, Olivia learned to live without Sean Kenyon.She moved on, building a life with her husband Richmond and their two children in the picturesque town Kesterley-on-Sea.But when Sean unexpectedly appears on Olivia’s doorstep, her world is turned upside down once more. As old feelings resurface, and new truths come to light, Olivia finds herself questioning everything.Is her husband really the person she thought he was?The past and present collide, and Olivia must uncover the truth before it’s too late. But if everyone is keeping secrets, how will she know who to trust?Trade ReviewGripping * My Weekly *

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Book SynopsisTHE POST-BREXIT EDITION - brand new chapters with extra EU chaos for Englishman Paul West.An Englishman, Paul West, goes to Brussels to work for a French MEP. There he gets an insider's view of what really goes on in the massive madhouse that is the EU Parliament. With the referendum on the horizon, things are even more hysterical than usual.When the Brexit result comes in, Paul has to make a decision. If he wants to work in Europe, should he apply for a French passport? But can an Englishman really become French? Can he sing the bloodthirsty 'Marseillaise'? Can he even pronounce the word 'Marseillaise'?And as Paul contemplates his own personal Brexit, the whole of Brussels seems to be going into meltdown …Trade ReviewStephen Clarke brings some much-needed humour to Britain’s EU referendum debate in this entertaining novel… Clarke considers both sides of the argument and makes the debate much more accessible. * France Magazine *The inside story of what life is really like behind the scenes at the European Union * Express *Humorous tale … * FRANCE Magazine *

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Book Synopsis***BY POPULAR DEMAND*** THE THIRD AND FINAL BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING NO CHILD OF MINE TRILOGY from Sunday Times bestselling author Susan Lewis. Books one and two - No Child of Mine and Don't Let Me Go - are available to buy in paperback and ebook NOW'A master storyteller' Diane Chamberlain *********Charlotte Goodman is living the dream. Surrounded by family, friends and a stunning vineyard overlooking the ocean, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that she has a troubled past. However, haunted by the theft of a young girl, Charlotte begins to realise the enormity of something she did many years ago, and soon finds herself having to make the most harrowing decision any woman would ever have to face.Praise for Susan Lewis:'Spellbinding! You just keep turning the pages' Daily Mail'One of the best around' Independent on Sunday'Heartbreakingly real family drama' Essential Trade Review***BY POPULAR DEMAND*** THE THIRD AND FINAL BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING NO CHILD OF MINE TRILOGY from Sunday Times bestselling author Susan Lewis. Surrounded by family, friends and a stunning vineyard overlooking the ocean, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that Charlotte Goodman has a troubled past. However, haunted by the theft of a young girl, Charlotte begins to realise the enormity of something she did many years ago, and soon finds herself having to make the most harrowing decision any woman would ever have to face. * from the publisher's description *Lewis has now written thirty-six gripping, gritty and compelling novels, each a fascinating exploration of how ordinary people cope in extraordinary circumstances. Using meticulous research and her remarkable empathy, she has tackled some of the most emotive and distressing human and family issues with warmth, wisdom and compassion… A master storyteller on top form… * Lancashire Post *Interesting and intelligent * The Daily Express *Susan Lewis is not afraid to tackle these difficult questions * My Weekly *

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Book SynopsisDo you believe in second chances?Leanne and her family have many issues, but they're still family. Their crazy but idyllic home in the rural hamlet of Ash Morley is a place where friends can drop in at will, and outsiders whose lives have been shattered can find shelter.When the opportunity arises to foster a child, ten-year-old Daniel Marks, Leanne is quick to open her doors. But her generosity is about to be put to the ultimate test.Because Daniel's father is in prison for a gruesome murder.Everyone deserves a place to call home, and a family to care for them, but will Ash Morley still be safe once Daniel enters their lives?_________________________Praise for Susan Lewis'A master storyteller' Diane Chamberlain'Utterly compelling' The Sun'Spellbinding' Daily MailTrade ReviewA powerful subject tackled with understanding by an author who writes from the heart * Peterborough Evening Telegraph *A heart-warming, sometimes heart-stopping read, Believe In Me will have you firmly believing in Susan Lewis’s gifts as a great story-teller * My Weekly Online *

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Book SynopsisAs a child, Luke’s mother often tells him the story of the Dumb House, an experiment on newborn babies raised in silence, designed to test the innateness of language. As Luke grows up, his interest in language and the delicate balance of life and death leads to amateur dissections of small animals – tiny hearts revealed still pumping, as life trickles away. But as an adult, following the death of his mother, Luke’s obsession deepens, resulting in a haunting and bizarre experiment on Luke’s own children.Trade ReviewCompelling reading * Scotsman *A wonderfully disturbing book - chillingly focused and lyrically amoral with moments of remarkable stillness and beauty. A poetic novel in the best and most troubling sense -- A. L. KennedyBurnside's prose is exquisite and he dissects his themes with delicacy to produce a novel resonant with poetic menace * Sunday Times *An exceptionally sinister book... It is the story of Luke, whose experiments into the nature of human language are recounted with all the beguiling reasonableness of the highly intelligent madman... The horror is tempered and fine-tuned by the exceptional beauty of Burnside's writing... In Luke, Burnside has produced one of the most chilling voices in recent fiction * Times Literary Supplement *My favourite book of the year * Jen Campbell’s vlog *

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Book SynopsisFrom the infamous Glasgow slum, the Gorbals, Tam Clay chronicles a week in his life, in the last days before the demolishers move in. Intersecting friends, old-timers and eccentrics, navigating his pregnant wife, frisky bedfellows and debt collectors, Tam stumbles through a derelict world on an odyssey of self-discovery. Wildly funny, outlandish and insanely ambitious – thirty years in the writing – Torrington’s pulverised ’60s Glasgow is crammed to the crevices with a blizzard of his unique and insatiable genius.Trade ReviewA gamey, pungent, vulgar sprawl of a novel, somewhere in the hinterland where Damon Runyon meets James Joyce * Observer *Swing Hammer Swing! is a great novel * James Kelman *A crazily good read... this [is a] fantastic first novel * Scotland on Sunday *It is such a good novel, with such energy of language and gift for striking off memorable scenes, that its appearance at any time would be welcomed . . . It prompts reflection on how much it would have benefited Scottish writers if 20 years ago a novel had been published with Jeff Torrington's absolute lack of compromise or temporising explanation in the use of Glasgow material and dialect * The Scotsman *This might be the Gorbals, and the banter might be exchanged on the steps of tramp-haunted urinals, but the reference points are Nietzsche, Pascal, Chekhov and Sartre' * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThis pride month, discover the groundbreaking and moving lesbian novel that rocked the British establishment.As a little girl Stephen Gordon always felt different.A talent for sport, a hatred of dresses and a preference for solitude were not considered suitable for a young lady of the Victorian upper-class. But when Stephen grows up and falls passionately in love with another woman, her standing in the county and a place at the home she loves becomes untenable.Stephen must set off to discover whether there is anywhere in the world that will have her.The complete and enhanced edition contains extra information and archival material that tells the fascinating story behind The Well’s controversial publication, trial and ban in 1928.Trade ReviewPassionately felt and courageous * Spectator *A pioneering lesbian novel * Daily Telegraph *Beautifully written and constructed, with delightful prose. It is the standard-bearer; the lesbian The Grapes of Wrath -- Lee Lynch

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Book SynopsisWilfred Davis, quiet, retired, respectable widower, is sitting and sobbing on a park bench. He has lost his daughter and any sense of purpose. A mysterious stranger passes him a handkerchief, and strikes up a conversation that leads to friendship and an unconventional new home for Wilfred.Mary Davis wants only four things out of life: a husband and three children, so at seventeen she runs away from school, her father and her home and moves to London to find them. Only a few months later Mary is engaged, but love and marriage promise to be very different from her childhood daydreams.For Mary and Wilfred, it seems Fate has taken a hand, or is there another kind of guiding spirit at play?Stella Gibbons' final novel, written in the 1970s but only discovered many years after her death, is published here for the first time.Trade ReviewFans of the acclaimed British author, described as the “Jane Austen of the 20th century” will be delighted that the existence of two never-before-published novels have been revealed by her daughter * Independent *Gibbons was an acute and witty observer, and her dissection of the British class system is spot-on * Mail on Sunday *Gibbons portrays her heroine with such sensitivity that this young woman and her story prove impossible to resist * Daily Express *Told with characteristic wit * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BRENDA BOWENMrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, cowed and neglected by their husbands, make a daring plan: they will have a holiday. Leaving a drab and rainy London one April and arriving on the shores of the Mediterranean, they discover a flower-filled paradise of beauty, warmth and leisure. Joined by the beautiful Lady Caroline and domineering Mrs Fisher, also in flight from the burdens of their daily lives, the four women proceed to transform themselves and their prospects.Trade ReviewAn enchanting novel, witty, touching and very perceptively written, which will sweep you into wisteria and sunshine -- Santa MontefioreElizabeth von Armin's most charming novel in every sense: it casts a spell...a sun-washed fairytale * Observer *A warm and uplifting book. (Very different from the kind I write!)...I remain in awe of a writer who can produce an enthralling story out of so little. When I'm plotting my books, I think of Von Arnim, and try to balance the dark with some lighter characterisation. -- S.J. BoltonFilled with hazy hills and fragrant flora, the novel is a dreamily sensuous description of the glories of Italian spring -- Adam Nicolson * Mail on Sunday *This delicious confection will work its magic on all * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisYoung, gay, William Beckwith spends his time, and his trust fund, idly cruising London for erotic encounters. When he saves the life of an elderly man in a public convenience an unlikely job opportunity presents itself - the man, Lord Nantwich, is seeking a biographer. Will agrees to take a look at Nantwich’s diaries. But in the story he unravels, a tragedy of twentieth-century gay repression, lurk bitter truths about Will’s own privileged existence.Trade ReviewThe first major novel in Britain to put gay life in its modern place and context... A historic novel and historic début * Guardian *Deserves first prize in every category... superbly written, wildly funny * Daily Telegraph *The tautness and energy of Alan Hollinghurst's novel derive from its ambiguous status a it shimmers somewhere between pastoral romance and sulphurous confession, between an affectionate and credible rendering of contemporary mores and lurid melodrama...classic English prose...surely the best book about gay life yet written by an English author * Sunday Times *Beautifully welds the standard conventions of fiction to a tale of modern transgressions.It tells of impurities with shimmering elegance, of complexities with a camp-fired wit and of truths with a fiction's solid grace * New York Times Book Review *The Swimming-Pool Library is a perfect debut, in that it arrives confidently, with a fully formed style and bank of themes that the author would go on to explore for years to come * Attitude *

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Book SynopsisSebastian Barnack, a handsome English schoolboy, is on bad terms with his socialist father who disapproves of his hedonistic lifestyle. He escapes to Florence in order to learn about life. His education there, thanks to the contradictory influences of his scurrilous Uncle Eustace and a saintly bookseller, is both sacred and profane. A haunting novel from one of the twentieth century's most powerful commentators.Trade ReviewA brilliant performance * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisFifty years after its first publication, discover the classic coming-of-age novel that confronts prejudice and injustice with power and humanity.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RITA MAE BROWNMolly Bolt is a young lady with a big character. Beautiful, funny and bright, Molly figures out at a young age that she will have to be tough to stay true to herself in 1950s America. In her dealings with boyfriends and girlfriends, in the rocky relationship with her mother and in her determination to pursue her career, she will fight for her right to happiness. Charming, proud and inspiring, Molly is the girl who refuses to be put in a box.Trade ReviewMolly is as vivid and funny as Huckleberry Finn. Back in the late 1970s everyone in the Women's Collective at uni had read Rubyfruit, which is why Rita in Educating Rita is so named. It provoked snobbery then, and probably still now: a book that makes you laugh so much cannot be serious literature. But Rubyfruit has a lot of serious points to make and is great fun along the way * Guardian *The breakthrough lesbian novel * Washington Post *Tough-talking, tenderhearted * New York Times *A bawdy tale about growing up lesbian * Atlanta Journal-Constitution *I found myself laughing hysterically, then sobbing uncontrollably just moments later. A powerful story... A truly incredible book * The Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisThe circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon iron gates reads:Opens at NightfallCloses at DawnAs dusk shifts to twilight, tiny lights begin to flicker all over the tents, as though the whole circus is covered in fireflies. When the tents are aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign lights up:Le Cirque des RêvesThe Circus of DreamsThe gates shudder and unlock, seemingly by their own volition. They swing outward, inviting the crowd inside.Now the circus is open.Now you may enter.Discover this amazing fantasy read with a different kind of magic.The Starless Sea, the second novel from the author of the The Night Circus, is available for pre-order now.Trade ReviewThis is a marvellous book. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for -- Audrey NiffeneggerThe only response to this novel is simply: wow. It is a breathtaking feat of imagination, a flight of fancy that pulls you in and wraps you up in its spell * The Times *Enchanting ... I was compelled by the world itself - by its saturated colours and textures, its unexpected smells and tastes. It is - a surprisingly rare thing in fiction - a strikingly beautiful world, in spite of its darkness -- Claire Messud * Guardian *A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it -- Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s WifeDark and dreamy; a captivating love story * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisEnter the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague, the steelworks run by singed men, the covered market that smells of new-born babes, the cacophonous open-air dance hall. Mr Kafka is avoiding his landlady’s blueberry wine breath, a stonemason witnesses the destruction of a monument to Stalin he risked his life to build, and factory men strain to catch a glimpse of a beautiful bathing murderess. In these newly discovered stories, Hrabal captures men and women in an eerily beautiful nightmare and their spirit in all its misery and splendour.Trade ReviewHrabal’s magical stories are comic and human... They inhabit a utopian province, the realm of laughter and tears... A great writer -- James Wood * London Review of Books *Hrabal bounces and floats. His mode is a sort of dancing realism, somewhere between fairytale and satire. He is a most sophisticated novelist, with a gusting humour and a hushed tenderness of detail. We should read him -- Julian BarnesThe discovery of Hrabal's style is very simple. It makes pleasure a principle... Each of Hrabal's novels describes a spiral, a constant intricate movement between pleasure and fear and guilt and delight: they describe the difficult effort to be a hedonist in a world where pleasure has disappeare -- Adam Thirlwell * Guardian *One of the most authentic incarnations of magical Prague, an incredible union of earthy humor and baroque imagination -- Milan KunderaWritten 50 years ago, in a country whose system of government is utterly alien to our lived experience, these stories are still laugh-aloud funny on pretty much every page * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisTHE 2017 MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF LINCOLN IN THE BARDOIn his first collection, George Saunders' vision of our near future is as black and funny as you can get. He takes us on a trip to the shopping malls and theme parks and enviromental hazards that lie just around the chronological corner, introducing us to a gang of misfits and losers struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world. Bizarre but familiar, fierce but always humane, these are stunningly original stories by a master of the form.'Saunders is a morally passionate, serious writer, who perfectly expresses the madness of the times we live in. He will be read long after these times have passed' Zadie Smith'He makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We're lucky to have him' Jonathan Franzen'There is no-one better, no-one more essential' Dave EggersTrade ReviewOne of the few living masters of the [short story] genre * Daily Telegraph *Surreal and puncturing -- Margaret AtwoodThere is no author I recommend to people more often - for ten years I've urged George Saunders onto everyone and everyone. -- Dave Eggers[A] brilliant collection of short stories -- Philip Hensher * Mail on Sunday *Strangely moving, hilariously unsettling, and unlike anything else you'll read this year * Esquire *

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Book SynopsisFor two years Solomon the elephant has lived in Lisbon. Now King Dom João III wishes to make him a wedding gift for a Hapsburg archduke in Vienna. The only way for Solomon to get to his new home is to walk. So begins a journey that will take the stalwart elephant across the dusty plains of Castile, over the sea to Genoa and up to northern Italy where, like Hannibal's elephants before him, he must cross the snowy Alps. Based on a true story, Saramago’s tale is an enchanting mix of fact, fable and fantasy.Trade ReviewIt is extremely funny. Old Saramago writes with a masterfully light hand, and the humour is tender, a mockery so tempered by patience and pity that the sting is gone though the wit remains vital... a series of contained miracles of absurdity, quiet laughter rising out of a profound, resigned, affectionate wisdom -- Ursula K Le Guin * Guardian *José Saramango wrote his final book with great panache -- Margaret Reynolds * The Times *Here is a book as serious as it is charming; amid its ironies runs a sustained pleas for the subversive workings of the imagination: "every elephant contains two elephants, one who learns what he's being taught and another who insists on ignoring it all". Thank goodness for that' * Guardian *A novel of wit, warmth and wonder -- Yann MartelHere he has seized the opportunity to turn an unlikely tale of a transalpine hike into something far larger even than its elephantine subject. -- Amanda Hopkinson * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThis deeply personal work, follows the changing fortunes of the Mau-Tempo family – poor, landless peasants not unlike the author’s own grandparents. Saramago charts the lives of the family in Alentjo, southern Portugal, as national and international events rumble on in the background – the coming of the republic in Portugal, the First and Second World Wars, and an attempt on the dictator Salazar's life. Yet, nothing seriously impinges on the farm labourers' lives until the first stirrings of communism.

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Lisbon, late-1940s. The inhabitants of an old apartment block are struggling to make ends meet. There’s the elderly shoemaker and his wife who take in a solitary young lodger; the woman who sells herself for money and jewellery; the cultivated family come down in the world; and the beautiful typist whose boss can’t keep his eyes off her.Poisonous relationships, happy marriages, jealousy, gossip and love – Skylight brings together the joys and grief of ordinary people. One of his earliest novels, it provides an entry into Saramago’s universe but was lost for decades and published, as per his wishes, after his death.

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Book Synopsis'Not since Shakespeare has love been so fully, vividly, scrupulously and directly communicated' Sunday TimesRead this stunning new translation of Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning masterpiece from Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the acclaimed translators of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.Banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, Doctor Zhivago is the epic story of the life and loves of a poet-physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Yuri Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds, and in love with the tender and beautiful nurse Lara.Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have restored the rhythms, tone, precision, and poetry of Pasternak's original, bringing this classic of world literature gloriously to life for a new generation of readers.VINTAGE CLASSICS RUSSIAN SERIES - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history.Trade ReviewThe first work of genius to come out of Russia since the Revolution -- V.S. PritchettThe English-speaking world is indebted to these two magnificent translators * New York Review of Books *One of the great events in man's literary and moral history -- Edmund WilsonBelongs to that small group of novels by which all others are ultimately judged -- Frank Kermode * Spectator *Not since Shakespeare has love been so fully, vividly, scrupulously and directly communicated -- Isaiah Berlin * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis‘A sophisticated and brilliant dissection of nihilistic power’ Times Literary Supplement From his prison cell, Antonio Martens, an interrogator for the recently fallen dictatorship, awaits execution. His charge? Multiple counts of murder; the murder of those disappeared by the state. Bereft of authority, and unable to avoid the consequences of his actions any longer, Martens turns his story to his involvement in the assassination of the high-profile Salinas family, and with it peers into the murderous mechanics of a regime bent on achieving its ends - no matter the means.Trade ReviewA dark, disturbing novel, from a writer with a profound understanding of a dictatorship's inner workings * The Times *A sophisticated and brilliant dissection of nihilistic power * Times Literary Supplement *A powerful and troubling new novella * Daily Mail *Genuinely haunting and lyrical... memorable and thought-provoking * New Statesman *A suspenceful, bleak comic parable * Observer *

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Book SynopsisKarl Ove Knausgaard explores the day to day realities of fatherhood in the ultimate literary gift for dads. How to be a good father? Children’s birthday parties, unsuccessful family holidays, humiliating antenatal music classes: the trials of parenthood are all found in Knausgaard’s compelling and honest account of family life. Contrasting moments of enormous love and tenderness towards his children with the boring struggles of domesticity, this is one father’s personal experience, and somehow, every father’s too.Selected from the book A Man in Love by Karl Ove KnausgaardVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Desire by Haruki MurakamiBabies by Anne EnrightEating by Nigella LawsonLanguage by Xiaolu GuoTrade ReviewA stunningly eloquent set of reflections on masculinity, domesticity and the artist's itch to escape * Independent *Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book Synopsis‘Liquidation, suspenseful and bleakly comic, reads like a treatise on the mystery of the end of life and the mystery of suicide… A compelling if deeply unsettling work’ Independent Kingbitter, an editor at a failing publishing house, believes himself to have been the closest friend of B., a celebrated writer and Auschwitz survivor, who recently committed suicide. Amongst the papers B. has left him, Kingbitter finds a play entitled Liquidation that uncannily predicts the behaviour of B.'s ex-wife, his mistress and Kingbitter himself. As he obsessively reads and rereads the play, Kingbitter becomes transfixed with the idea that buried within these papers is B.'s great novel: the book that will explain his relationship with Auschwitz.Trade ReviewA beautiful glimpse of the wide-open spaces of storytelling * Daily Telegraph *A masterly, subtle and constantly surprising novel, which, in this fine translation, reads as if it were written in this century, not the last * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisWhat’s the worst another drink could do? John Cheever pours out our most sociable of vices, and hands it to us in a highball. From the calculating teenager who raids her parents’ liquor cabinet, only to drown her sorrows in it, to the suburban swimmer withering away with every plunge he takes, these are stories suffused with beauty, sadness, and the gathering storm of a bender well-done. Seen through the gin-lacquered looking glass of Cheever’s writing, your next drink may have you reaching for a lime and soda instead. Selected from the book Collected Stories by John CheeverVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Swimming by Roger DeakinEating by Nigella LawsonCalm by Tim PeaksLove by Jeanette WintersonTrade ReviewJohn Cheever understood fallibility and that made for the greatness in his writing * The Times *Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisSalman Rushdie, a self-described ‘emigrant from one place and a newcomer in two’, explores the true meaning of home. Writing with insight, passion and humour, he looks at what it means to belong, whether roots are real and homelands imaginary, what it is like to reconfigure your past from fragments of memory and what happens when East meets West. Selected from the books Shame, Imaginary Homelands and East, West by Salman Rushdie VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series: Love by Jeanette WintersonLiberty by Virginia WoolfRace by Toni Morrison Sisters by Louisa May AlcottTrade ReviewImagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisHave you ever tried to learn another language? When Zhuang first arrives in London from China she feels like she is among an alien species. The city is disorientating, the people unfriendly, the language a muddle of personal pronouns and moody verbs. But with increasing fluency in English surviving turns to living. And they say that the best way to learn a language is to fall in love with a native speaker…Selected from the book A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series:Babies by Anne Enright Depression by William Styron Race by Toni Morrison Home by Salman RushdieTrade ReviewAn utterly captivating, and disorientating, journey both through language and through love * Independent *Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisHow do we love? With romance. With work. Through heartbreak. Throughout a lifetime. As a means, but not an end. Love in all its forms has been an abiding theme of Jeanette Winterson’s writing. Here are selections from her books about that impossible, essential force, stories and truths that search for the mythical creature we call Love.Selected from the books of Jeanette Winterson VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series:Eating by Nigella LawsonJealousy by Marcel ProustBabies by Anne EnrightDesire by Haruki Murakami Trade ReviewImagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisBob Slocum is anxious, bored and fearful of his job. So why is it he wants nothing more than the chance to speak at the next company convention? In this darkly satirical book, Joseph Heller takes us for a turn on the maddening hamster wheel of work. Heller’s workplace is a cradle of paranoia, bravado and nauseating banter, forever shadowed by that perennial question, who’s really running the show here? In Heller’s hands, our daily grind has never seemed so absurd.Selected from the book Something Happened by Joseph HellerVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Drinking by John CheeverSwimming by Roger DeakinLiberty by Virginia WoolfDeath by Julian BarnesTrade ReviewIt is splendidly put together and hypnotic to read. It is as clear and hard-edged as a cut diamond -- Kurt Vonnegut * New York Times *Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisEnjoy Helen Simpson’s sharply funny, humane take on the everyday joys and struggles of motherhood in this perfect Mother’s Day gift. Welcome to motherhood – a land of aching fatigue, constant self-sacrifice and thankless servitude, a land of bottomless devotion, small hands and feet like warm pink roses, and velvet kisses. Here is a land where men and women, once carefree and engrossed in work and sex, now try to solve age-old arguments and search fruitlessly for another hour in the day. Perhaps you know this land well, or perhaps you’re entering it for the first time – either way, you need these honest funny humane stories from an expert guide.Selected from Helen Simpson’s short story collections Dear George, Hey Yeah Right Get a Life and ConstitutionalVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Language by Xiaolu GuoFatherhood by Karl Ove KnausgaardEating by Nigella Lawson Drinking by John CheeverTrade ReviewHelen Simpson is a writer with such a gift for sweet tenderness that one could almost overlook the glittering sharpness of the insights... Not many writers manage to be as funny as Helen Simpson without sacrificing the honesty that her writing unmistakably has -- Philip Hensher * Mail on Sunday *Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book. * Stylist *

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