Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisSuspected of murdering their parents, sisters Lily and Della flee to a strange, unnamed island in Scotland, and their arrival puts in motion a horrifying series of events

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Book SynopsisA subtle and insightful story about boredom, passion, curiosity and memory from the Nobel Prize-winner José SaramagoSenhor José is a lonely civil servant who spends his days labouring in the labyrinthine stacks of Lisbon's central registry. Among the file-cards for the living and the dead, one – of an apparently ordinary woman – will transform his life. Breaking away from his strict routine, José resolves to track the woman down, obsessively following a thread of clues in a bid to rescue her from an oblivion deeper than the grave. 'When a very good book finds us at just the right moment in life, it can become stitched into our own identity. All the Names – a novel about identity and connection – has become stitched into mine' Samantha Harvey, IndependentTrade ReviewA novel that has soul, which Saramago offers to his readers with all his witty, intelligent, tender and magical generosity -- Samantha Harvey * Independent *Offers an unearthly, muted beauty; a freedom from the obvious, the ideological and trivial; an atmosphere of profound serenity, and a benevolent humor * Literary Review *Both delightful and unsettling which is perhaps the mark of true literature -- Anthony Daniels * Sunday Telegraph *A tantalizing novel...shifting and teasing, full of metaphorical labyrinths and false trails * Herald *It is the marriage of the living and the dying...that so strongly characterizes the writing of Jose Saramago * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisWhat if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating Spain and Portugal from the rest of Europe?In Saramago's fable, a new island is sent spinning through the ocean like a great stone raft. While the authorities panic and tourists flee, three men, two women and a dog are drawn together by omens that burden them with a peculiar responsibility. In this magical realist tale, the six take to the road, finding themselves adrift in a world now unfamiliar and forced to reckon with their relationships, human psychology and the shakiness of belief itself.Trade ReviewAn irresistible blend of shrewd detail and lyrical fantasy... A seductive novel that needs to be savoured -- Helen Dunmore * Observer *An invitation to one of the richest bodies of work by a living writer -- Amanda Hopkinson * New Statesman *Jose Saramago's brilliant evocation...is magical realism of a sort that stirs real wonder -- James Park * Time Out *Saramago's lovely and original questing story, in a lineage of others such as Don Quixote and Kipling's Kim, is a journey of the spirit told as a journey of the feet -- Richard Eder * Los Angeles Times *Tremendous wit is always apparent in his imaginative conceits, comic digression and verbal and narrative games -- Ian Critchley * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisA contemporary novel

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Book SynopsisAugust Strindberg (1849–1912) is best known outside Sweden as a dramatist, but he was also a prolific writer of novels, short stories, essays, journalism and poetry – as well as a notable artist and photographer. Although he spent many years abroad, Strindberg was born, grew up and died in Stockholm and The Red Room is perhaps the quintessential Stockholm novel. A satire of the rapidly changing society of the 1870s, it was Strindberg's first novel and marked his literary breakthrough: it offers, he said, 'a panorama of a society I don't love and which has never loved me'. It contains some of the great set-piece scenes in Swedish literature, a gallery of unforgettable caricatures in the spirit of Dickens, humour, pathos and satirical targets as apt now as they were then. The Red Room is often called Sweden's first modern novel, and it remains modern almost a century and a half later.Trade Review'...a scathing attack on every aspect of modern life.' Rosalind Porter, 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read, The Guardian

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Book Synopsis'Dark, funny and wild.'- Chloe Ashby, author of WET PAINT'As ballsy as you'd hope' - Grazia'The words just sizzle off the page' - Glamour'Another triumph for feminism' - Red'Set to be one of the best books of 2022' - Red'A thrilling, bisexual romcom that doubles as a smart skewering of social media' - Evening Standard'... enjoyable first novel...' '...easy-to-read story...' - Independent'... the voice of her generation' '... the face of the future' - The Times Magazine'It's Carrie Bradshaw's columns in Sex and the City on steroids.' - The Times'Everything is IMMEDIATE. Emphasised.' - The Times'It's a kind of rags-to-unexpected-riches-to-devastating-realisation-back-to-older-wiser-rags type tale, almost 18th century in progression, except set in a thoroughly modern, even slightly futuristic world where life online is even more all consuming than we know it now.' - Sunday Independent'A hot debut novel with a dash of relatable existential dread' - Cosmopolitan'Seriously hot' - Cosmopolitan'Girlcrush is a funny, filthy and furious exploration of sexuality, identity and the expectations on us all. It's a rare combination - a page turner with a message.' - Daisy Buchanan'It feels like a ball of energy coming right for you. I loved this debut.' - Emma GannonGIRLCRUSH is a dark feminist retelling of Jekyll & Hyde by bestselling author Florence Given.In Given's debut novel, we follow Eartha on a wild, weird and seductive modern-day exploration as she commences life as an openly bisexual woman whilst also becoming a viral sensation on Wonderland, a social media app where people project their dream selves online.The distance between her online and offline self grows further and further apart until something dark happens that leads her into total self-destruction, forcing Eartha to make a choice; which version of herself should she kill off?Warning this book does include storylines that some readers may find triggering.*Also by Florence Given*Women Don't Owe You Pretty

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Book SynopsisWith supreme skill and reverence, capturing shards, stillness and chaos, Fatin Abbas delivers a novel that gallops close and parallel to current events in Sudan.A dynamic, beautifully orchestrated debut novel connecting five characters caught in the crosshairs of conflict on the Sudanese border.A mysterious burnt corpse appears one morning in Saraaya, a remote border town between northern and southern Sudan. For five strangers on an NGO compound, the discovery foreshadows trouble to come. South Sudanese translator William connects the corpse to the sudden disappearance of cook Layla, a northern nomad with whom he's fallen in love. Meanwhile, Sudanese American filmmaker Dena struggles to connect to her unfamiliar homeland, and white midwestern aid worker Alex finds his plans thwarted by a changing climate and looming civil war. Dancing between the adults is Mustafa, a clever, endearing twelve-year-old, whose schemes to rise out of poverty set off cataclysmic events on the compound.Amid the paradoxes of identity, art, humanitarian aid, and a territory riven by conflict, William, Layla, Dena, Alex, and Mustafa must forge bonds stronger than blood or identity. Weaving a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan into the lives of these captivating characters, Fatin Abbas explores the porous and perilous nature of borders?whether they be national, ethnic, or religious?and the profound consequences for those who cross them. Ghost Season is a gripping, vivid debut that announces Abbas as a powerful new voice in fiction.Trade ReviewGhost Season is a gripping debut from Fatin Abbas about the porous and perilous nature of human made borders. * Chicago Review of Books *With supreme skill and reverence, capturing shards, stillness and chaos, Fatin Abbas delivers a novel that gallops close and parallel to current events in Sudan. The most vivid of images, the most likable of characters - Ghost Season is a compelling, detailed portrait of humanity under threat from war, climate change and personal ambition. -- Leila Aboulela, author of River SpiritGhost Season travels that narrow road between austere and gut-wrenching, and does it with incomparable grace. From the first words of this gorgeous novel to the last, Fatin Abbas holds us spellbound, immersed in the lives and the world that unfolds in its pages. Beyond the debris of war and displacement, she reminds us, rests something else that can never be truly extinguished: hope. -- Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker PrizeImmersive and astonishing, GHOST SEASON brings alive with brilliant specificity the South Sudanese border town of Saraaya, and an unforgettable cast of characters linked by circumstance and fate. Fatin Abbas is a remarkable writer, and this novel an extraordinary debut. -- Claire Messud, best-selling author of The Burning Girl and The Emperor’s ChildrenUtterly mesmerizing, and a brilliant depiction of the blurry psychological and physical borders that divide Sudan and South Sudan. An extremely promising and important first novel. -- Dave Eggers, author of The Every and What is the WhatA triumph of storytelling: richly imagined, finely wrought and filled with such vivid, wondrous characters. I finished this book and immediately wanted to read it again. Abbas is a writer of prodigious powers. -- Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, author of House of Stonea daring debut * New York Times *Abbas skillfully navigates boundaries between the disparate players and builds a fine drama out of their negotiations and bonds. Readers will be captivated by this immersive novel. * Publisher's Weekly *Abbas' first novel gets an A for its evocation of setting... * Booklist *Abbas adds just the right amount of sense of place to paint the scene and the cultures without letting it get in the way of her characters and their stories. Ghost Season is a wonderful debut from a truly talented writer. This is an author to watch and, above all, to read. -- Michael Sears * New York Journal of Books *[A] remarkable debut... The sense of place is powerful, the characters superbly drawn. -- Michael Sears * The Big Thrill *With supreme skill and reverence, capturing shards, stillness and chaos, Fatin Abbas delivers a novel that gallops close and parallel to current events in Sudan. The most vivid of images, the most likable of characters - Ghost Season is a compelling, detailed portrait of humanity under threat from war, climate change and personal ambition. -- Leila Aboulela, author of River SpiritGhost Season travels that narrow road between austere and gut-wrenching, and does it with incomparable grace. From the first words of this gorgeous novel to the last, Fatin Abbas holds us spellbound, immersed in the lives and the world that unfolds in its pages. Beyond the debris of war and displacement, she reminds us, rests something else that can never be truly extinguished: hope. -- Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker PrizeA novel that will have you gripped from the first page, Ghost Season is a haunting and necessary story, skilfully told. Fatin Abbas's writing is so evocative that it transports you to Sudan and leaves you deeply immersed and invested in the lives of each character.This is a story of war and violence, but is also one of hope and humanity. With Ghost Season Fatin Abbas joins a rare breed of writers who upon debut cement their status as a master storyteller. -- Samira SawlaniUtterly mesmerizing, and a brilliant depiction of the blurry psychological and physical borders that divide Sudan and South Sudan. An extremely promising and important first novel. -- Dave Eggers author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and The Eyes and the ImpossibleImmersive and astonishing, Ghost Season brings alive with brilliant specificity the South Sudanese border town of Saraaya, and an unforgettable cast of characters linked by circumstance and fate. Fatin Abbas is a remarkable writer, and this novel an extraordinary debut. -- Claire Messud, best-selling author of The Burning Girl and The Emperor’s Children

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Book Synopsis'You Were Summer' is a captivating, thoughtful, romantic comedy with sharp, witty twists and turns to keep you laughing until the last page. When Jo Washington's literary agent suggests a brief change of scenery, how could he know she would swap storytelling and London for a house renovation project and the Lake District? With a stray dog in tow and a handsome contractor twenty years her junior, Jo finds herself firmly inside the pages of her own hilarious and often touching tale, with her past and present showing her a future she never thought she'd write about.

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Book Synopsis** Longlisted for The Center for Fiction's best debut novel of 2019 ** With the hypnotic intensity of Emily Fridlund’s The History of Wolves and Fiona McFarlane’s The Night Guest, Katherine Forbes Riley has created a mesmerizing love story, in lush, gorgeous prose, that examines art, science, and the magic of human chemistry."Teeming with lush imagery and mystical settings, and brimming with alluring magical realism, Riley’s tale is a beguiling journey of discovery and recovery.” — BooklistHaunting and lyrical, The Bobcat is Katherine Forbes Riley’s magical debut novel in which Laurelie, a young art student who suffers in the aftermath of a sexual assault, has grown progressively more isolated and fearful. She transfers from her busy city university to a small college in rural Vermont, where she retreats into her vivid imagination, experiencing the world through her art. Most comfortable in the company of the child for whom she babysits, and most at ease in the woods, Laurelie has shunned any connection with her peers.One day, while exploring the woods, she and her young charge encounter an injured pregnant bobcat – and the hiker who has been following it for hundreds of miles. In the hiker and his feline companion Laurelie recognizes someone as reclusive and wary as herself. The hiker, too, finds human companionship painful to endure, yet he is drawn to wounded Laurelie the way he is drawn to the bobcat. As Laurelie moves toward recovery and reconnection she also finds her voice as an artist, and a sense of purpose, maybe even a future, comes into sight. Then the child goes missing in the woods, threatening the bobcat, the hiker, and the fragile peace Laurelie has constructed.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE BOBCAT: A NOVEL "Teeming with lush imagery and mystical settings, and brimming with alluring magical realism, Riley’s tale is a beguiling journey of discovery and recovery.” — Booklist“Many novels feature wild animals as central metaphors, but not many novels achieve the congruity of The Bobcat.” — LitHub "An unpredictable yet lovely exploration into healing trauma and building trust. The story centers art student Laurelie as she attempts to put the pieces of her life back together after surviving a sexual assault. Artists, nature lovers and survivors will find something here to inspire hope and healing.” — Ms. Magazine's 2019 June Reads for the Rest of Us“The Bobcat is a heartfelt, revelatory, and moving novel about how the way back to our humanity and to the humanity of others leads us sometimes through the animal world. Surprising, precise, and full of love for the immeasurable possibilities of the human heart.” — Alexander Chee, PEN award finalist and author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel “It would be easy—and true—to say that Katharine Forbes Riley’s The Bobcat moves the way that beautiful feline does: with sinuous grace, coiled wildness, and ferocious independence. Yet this novel braves more than that. It probes and tests the lines between the animal and the human, safety and threat, art and daily life, health and illness through characters and language of luminous intensity and rare, real power. Haunting, haunted, truly elegant, this novel will stalk your dreams and days in equal measure.” — Charlotte Bacon, PEN award-winning author of A Private State “In The Bobcat, Katherine Forbes Riley has created an honest, unflinching account of the aftermath of a sexual assault. There is profound empathy in the novel’s depiction of the wounded young artist Laurelie, and Riley’s great accomplishment is to show the tortured process by which this courageous woman stumblingly, imperfectly, navigates a hostile world while simultaneously recreating herself. A strange beauty pervades the novel, even in Laurelie's descriptions of her own terror—the sort of beauty born of careful design. This narrative is dead set on bringing the reader face to face with truth. By turns raw, hallucinogenic, redemptive, and always deeply intelligent, it’s a novel of the moment and one that deserves a wide audience.” — Jack Livings, PEN award-winning author of The Dog: Stories “Katherine Forbes Riley's tender artistry and elegant prose exalt one woman's painful tale of violence in a violent world to a memorable novel where people's capacity for humaneness and love pulsate from the center. The Bobcat is graceful, profound assurance of man's perpetual instincts to refuge in nature and commune with the beasts every time our own humanity or our fellowman fails us.” — Kalisha Buckhanon, author of Solemn “This novel is mesmerizing! Completely unpredictable and engaging. I loved the sentences and the descriptions and the characters.”— Sarah Blake, author of Naamah “The Bobcat is an intensely lyrical, deeply involving novel about what it means to be a human animal. Blending gorgeous nature imagery, philosophical curiosity, and a story as insistent as a heartbeat, this book will grab you by the scruff of the neck and won't let go.” — Jennie Yabroff, author of If You Were Here “Saturated with emotion, vivid and sensual, The Bobcat tells the gripping story of a young woman rebuilding her life and self after trauma. Katherine Forbes Riley takes us deep into the Vermont woods to show the power of nature, art, animal companionship, and human connection. An exquisite debut.”— Julia Phillips, author of The Disappearing Earth “Equally intimate and expansive, The Bobcat is one of the most unique books I've ever read. Riley's prose works equally as exquisite storytelling and its own thematic device to capture the isolating nature of trauma -- and the path out. All of this is wrapped in very human relationships and lush descriptions of the wilderness for a fast, distinctive read that will haunt you long after the final page.”— Mike Chen, author of Here and Now and Then “What a beautiful, thoughtful, touching debut. […] The Bobcat had me at turns flipping pages to find out what happens, and re-reading pages to soak in the expansive and lovely prose. Katherine Forbes Riley steps onto the scene like a master storyteller, comfortable in her craft and precise in her presentation. This hauntingly lovely book will be a favorite of book clubs, and people in search of a novel with genuine heart and wonder.” — Meghan Scott Molin, author of The Frame-Up “Poignant and evocative, lyrical and intimate—and above all startlingly original—Katherine Forbes Riley's mesmerizing debut The Bobcat is one of those rare novels that fully embraces the interiority of its characters while never sacrificing in story or pacing. Written in a unique and elegant style full of richly descriptive prose that captures both the physical landscape of rural Vermont and the fraught psychological territory of its protagonist, this is a beautifully crafted book that dares to access the isolation that haunts us in the aftermath of trauma; it is also a redemptive story about the power of human connection to see us through our darkest moments.”— James Charlesworth, author of The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill “Riley's riveting novel, The Bobcat, inexorably pulls readers into a strange world full of possible dangers in which the physical and the psychological are rendered in stunning detail. But she reveals, too, the beauty inherent in this world--if you can bear to let it in, if you can learn to trust again. Intense, surprising and thought-provoking, this story ultimately allows that souls and bodies can in fact heal, and that meaningful human connection is both possible and valuable.”— Katrin Schumann, author of The Forgotten Hours “With its atmospherically picturesque prose and its delicious slow burn of a plot, The Bobcat was a delightful read. Told in gorgeous, crystalline images, etched deeply with detail, the story emerges slowly and satisfyingly. The Bobcat is true literature, and a work of high art.” — Gina Guadagnino, author of The Parting Glass “You'll want to savor this read. […] Riley's prose is engaging and evocative. I absolutely loved her gift for description and imagery. I can't wait to read more from this talented author.” — Juno Rushdan, author of Every Last Breath “The Bobcat is a masterpiece of understated grace, an insightful study of trauma and healing, and a work whose narrative power shines with the strength of its skillful prose. […] This realistic portrayal of recovery is light years from the superficial takes we often see in stories, and it makes the narrative that much stronger and more engaging. An extremely impressive debut, The Bobcat is a compelling and rewarding read.”— Dan Stout, author of Titan Shade “The Bobcat is a mesmerizing lyrical novel that you don’t want to rush through. I savored every beautiful sentence and description of the natural world, the people and animals. Full of empathy and compassion, this is a story about how we heal from trauma and what it takes to begin trusting again.”— Daniela Petrova, author of Her Daughter’s Mother “A mesmerizing novel, […] Riley uses language, both precise and lushly descriptive, to show how true connection does not depend on words. In an age of tell-all stories and healing through talk therapy, it’s a radical act. Though there is plot and mystery enough to drive this novel, what really powers it is Riley’s profound sense of empathy and her gorgeous writing – about people, animals, the natural world, fear, love and hope. This is the kind of novel that makes you turn the pages to discover what becomes of the hiker, Laurelie, the bobcat and the toddler - and then makes you slow down to savor the telling itself.” — Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party “The novel is richly observed, the depth and detail of its description a particular strength. It has been described as ‘immersive’ and I’ll tell you why: you will lose yourself in this book. The words and sentences are enough to keep you turning the pages, even if the story were less than the fascinating tale that it is. […] The ending is perfect.” — Melanie Golding, author of Little Darlings “The Bobcat is deeply evocative, written in lush, delicious prose about a wounded young woman and her journey towards healing. With the help of her artwork and an unusual hiker she meets, the two come together, find love in this mystical tale that will linger with readers like a haunting dream. Highly recommend.” — Marlene Adelstein, author of Sophie Last Seen “In addition to being a moving story of healing, resilience, and love, The Bobcat includes so many lush and exquisite details that make the setting of this novel leap from the page. It also includes a line that, in my opinion, perfectly encapsulates the gift and challenge of being a teacher in the arts. As Laurelie steps into teaching duties herself, she muses how “each student was like a puzzle, finding the right artists to show, the right words to deconstruct their art and make it open up, so the student would see it working just like his or her own.”— Megan Collins, author of The Winter Sister “I read this beautiful book with my heart in my throat. The world of The Bobcat is immersive, fully saturated, and deeply interior in the best possible way. A visceral and authentic depiction of the aftermath of trauma, the novel is also a moving exploration of the power of artistic creation and its capacity to make sense of both the light and dark sides of human experience.” — Kate Hope Day, author of If, Then “This book snuck up on me, its quiet fairytale quality perfect for the story of a traumatized young woman’s search for a way out of isolation and fear. Riley’s grasp of nature and art and human psychology are on full display in this spellbinding tale of connection and chemistry. [...] A book to ponder long after the final page.”— Susan Bernhard, author of The Winter Loon

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Book SynopsisA brand new edition of the 1961 classic novel by Rumer Godden. This book is set in Cornwall, and tells the story of five generations of the Quin family, as their lives unfold at China Court, their beautiful country house.Trade Review"One of the best and most captivating novelists" Philip Hensher

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Book Synopsis*Don''t miss Emma Gannon''s brand new novel, Table for One available to pre-order now*Explores such an important topic with a lightness and warmth' Dolly AldertonThoughtful, funny, and honest' Elizabeth GilbertIt''ll give a voice to countless women' Marian KeyesOlive and her friends have shared every milestone.From first loves and first heartbreaks to flatshares and the first scary steps into the real world, they've been through it all together.But in the maze of life, through the winding paths that lead to different choices and different futures, will the bonds of friendship hold strong when Olive needs them most?Moving, memorable and a mirror for anyone at a crossroads, OLIVE is a love letter to the life raft of female friendship and reminds us how, with a little courage, we can all follow our own paths.Trade Review‘It explores such an important topic with a lightness and warmth’ Dolly Alderton ‘This tale of four young women trying to sort out the dilemmas of motherhood … will bring relief and recognition to many. It’s a lovely book — thoughtful, searching, funny, and (most importantly) honest’ Elizabeth Gilbert ‘Funny in parts, painful in others, thoughtful throughout, it explores many dilemmas, with characters who feel utterly real’ Sophie Kinsella ‘It'll give a voice to countless women . . . a profound issue wrapped inside an accessible, highly engaging novel’ Marian Keyes ‘Gutsy and refreshing’ HEAT ‘It's warm and charming and yet VERY brave in its honesty about having children and how that impacts female friendships. I suspect a lot of women will feel relieved and seen when they read it’ Holly Bourne ‘Important themes explored by a true champion of women’ Nina Stibbe ‘Thought provoking with a wonderfully relatable hero’ Good Housekeeping ‘So fresh and funny and utterly distinctive . . . I loved it’ Emma Jane Unsworth ‘A delicate, heartbreaking and delicious story that will bring a pang of delightful recognition to every woman who reads it’ Scarlett Curtis ‘A witty, tender portrayal of female friendship under pressure’ Mail on Sunday ‘Honest, relatable, and incredibly real, Olive is going to resonate with an entire generation of young women’ Louise O’Neill ‘In Gannon’s capable hands, women are not so much divided along their disparate lines – but united’ Pandora Sykes ‘Cuts rights to the heart of conversations around women and the stereotypes we either adhere to – or reject’ Cosmopolitan ‘I raced through this brilliant, brilliant book, feeling more thoroughly seen than I have in years. Olive's story is big and bright and beautiful, and holds up a much-needed mirror to society’ Lucy Vine ‘Incredibly warm and loveable, you won’t be able to put Olive down’ Bustle

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe White Girl is a black and white story about Australian colonialism's malevolent legacies, and the courage, strength, and dignity of Indigenous resistance. It's a story about strong women, with whom Birch's life has been blessed. It is also a profound allegory of good and evil, and a deep exploration of human interaction, black and white, alternately beautiful and tender, cruel and unsettling. — The Guardian "Birch is a writer with a profound gift for language and human insight. He writers with razor's edge emotional clarity and empathy about people and place--especially on those Australian margins, rural and urban. The White Girl showcases his gift." — The Guardian "The way Birch describes the day-to-day existence of his characters, so sweetly rendered, gives them a universal quality. The story is a truth even while the specifics of this novel are fiction, and this tale is a revelation of small details." — Sydney Morning Herald "[Tony Birch brings] a lifetime of knowledge about Australian history, social policy, and cultural identity to this book, a deceptively simple story about family love that is rich in humanity and purpose, and hope. The White Girl is worth your time and will reward you over and over again." — Australian Book Review "[The White Girl] explores the legacy and ongoing fallout of the Stolen Generation, and also touches on matters that are still pertinent and ongoing: the vulnerability of Indigenous women to sexual predation specifically, but on a larger scale, generational violence and toxic masculinity." — The Big Issue (Australia) "Birch's stories have always exuded a warm, lived-in feel, even in their bleakest moments, and in The White Girl his style reaches an apotheosis: there is a profound and rare clarity in the prose, and the pacing is excellent." — The Saturday Paper "The White Girl is approachable and fiercely readable, its linguistic and cultural power cloaked in deceptively simple language." — Sydney Review of Books Tony Birch is a local treasure. — Jacinta Parsons The White Girl is a tense and gripping read...an important window into a shameful period of Australia's very recent history, and a wonderful celebration of strong Indigenous women. It's a book that I hugged to my chest after reading the final page. — Claire Nichols, The Book Show Tony Birch is one of those writers who has mastered the art of storytelling... His latest novel The White Girl is no different--in fact the characters he creates and the plotlines he weaves are almost hyperreal--you know people like Odette Brown and her grandbaby Sissy. — Daniel Browning The White Girl is not given to sentimentality; instead it is a celebration of Aboriginal resilience and kinship in response to trauma. — Arts Review “With a brisk pace and lush prose, Birch breathes life into Odette’s wrenching and courageous search for her daughter and the hope of a better life for Sissy. Readers will feel the pull of this harrowing story.” — Publishers Weekly “An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Award-winning Indigenous writer and activist Birch has created a poignant novel that keenly demonstrates how the strength of family bonds can shatter societal biases." — Booklist “Set in the 1960’s in the midst of the government’s racist Stolen Generation policy, The White Girl remixes the typical genre expectations of historical fiction and noir to spin a unique and profound tale all its own.” — The Chicago Review of Books “Birch draws from his Indigenous background to craft a story that's both heartbreaking and hopeful, and focuses on the strength that comes from a family's love.” — Buzzfeed “a carefully crafted work of fiction that makes good writing seem easy.” — New York Journal of Books "Birch illustrates how Australia’s policies dehumanized not only the Indigenous people they sought to control—often by taking children from their families and placing them in white mission schools—but also the white people who were complicit in enforcing them." — The New Yorker

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Book Synopsis'A powerful, stirring read.' The Times'Typically brilliant . I loved it.' Adrian McKinty'The most stone-cold crime novel of 2021.' CrimeReadsTokyo, July 1949. President Shimoyama, Head of the National Railways of Japan, goes missing. American Detective Harry Sweeney leads the missing person's investigation.Fifteen years later, the city prepares for the 1964 Olympics and the global spotlight. Hideki Murota, a private investigator, is given a case which forces him to confront a crime he's been hiding from.Over twenty years on, late 1988. The Emperor Showa is dying. Donald Reichenbach, an ageing American, knows the final reckoning of the greatest mystery of the Showa Era is down to him.'I was knocked out, transported and lost in David Peace's Tokyo . an extraordinary novel.' Hideo Yokoyama'Many novels are hyped as "polyphonic", but Peace's now complete Tokyo trilogy truly is, brilliantly summoning

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Book SynopsisPrime Suspect meets Ashes to Ashes as we see Jane Tennison starting out on her police career . . .The fourth in the Sunday Times bestselling Jane Tennison thrillers, MURDER MILE is set at the height of the 'Winter of Discontent'. Can Jane Tennison uncover a serial killer? February, 1979, 'The Winter of Discontent'. Economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain.Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London's toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days. There are no suspects and the manner of death is different in each case. The only link between the two victims is the location of the bodies, found within a short distance of each other near Rye Lane in Peckham. Three days later another murder occurs in the same area. Press headlines scream that a serial killer is loose on 'Murder Mile' and that police incompetence is hampering the investigation.Jane is under immense pressure to catch the killer before they strike again.Working long hours with little sleep, what she uncovers leaves her doubting her own mind.'La Plante excels in her ability to pick out the surprising but plausible details that give her portrayal of everyday life in a police station a rare ring of authenticity' Sunday Telegraph'Classic Lynda, a fabulous read' Martina Cole on HIDDEN KILLERSTrade ReviewThis is the bloody-minded Tennison that we know and love, and Murder Mile will be catnip to admirers of Britain's best-known female detective * Crime Time *All the characters are perfectly written. And the plot was super intriguing as well * The Misstery *La Plante's tense, taut style, with emphasis on plot, characterisation, location and era, comes across strongly and convincingly and carries the book to an explosive and gruesome denouncement * CrimeReview.co.uk *

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Book SynopsisA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR DAILY TELEGRAPH * DAILY MIRROR * DAILY EXPRESS * WALL STREET JOURNAL * BOSTON GLOBE * LIBRARY JOURNAL * CRIMEREADSAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe mesmerising new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the bestselling and award-winning writer Megan Abbott.Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara''s husband and once their mother''s prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school''s annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance.''Compulsively readable'' RUTH WARE''A book you Trade ReviewCompulsively readable * Ruth Ware (2021) *Impossible to put down, creepy and claustrophobic. It's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE in ballet shoes * Stephen King *Imagine Black Swan by way of Virginia Andrews' cult Flowers in the Attic and you have some idea of the dark nature of The Turnout ... A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption * Stylist *Raw, real and compulsively readable. In The Turnout, Megan Abbott does what she does best - combining family tensions with simmering desire and burning professional ambition * Ruth Ware (2021) *Dark and juicy and tinged with horror * New York Times *Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension * Irish Times *Abbott's prose is dazzlingly precise and her portrayal of student rivalries razor-sharp in this taut novel * Observer *Abbott captures the blood, sweat, tears and rivalries behind the apparently effortless grace, to create a contorted and febrile world where pain is "our friend, our lover" and the feeling of menace grows stronger with every page * Guardian *The Turnout centres on a ballet school ... a hothouse ridden with suppressed hysteria, delineated so convincingly in Abbott's peerless prose that violent death, when it comes, seems not just plausible but inevitable. My thriller of the year -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph, Best Books of the Year *A story so intensely told that it will haunt your dreams * Daily Express, Best Books of 2021 *Megan Abbott is one of the finest writers working in any genre, anywhere and THE TURNOUT might well be her masterpiece. Nobody else writes so well about the darkness and damage lurking just beneath an elegant and serene surface. Brilliant and breath-taking, this is a book that you will not be able to forget * Mark Billingham (2021) *Abbott creates a dark and mesmerising world and, as always, is so brilliant at portraying women and girls and their competition and complexities ... It makes Black Swan look like a children's story * Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of Blood Orange *There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott * Tana French (2021) *Intoxicatingly intense, with a frisson of suspense and lurking disquiet throughout, those feelings will linger with you long past the last page * Heat Magazine *This dark thriller will suck you in right to the final page * Sun *All one needs to know about a Megan Abbott book is that it's a Megan Abbott book -- dreamy, sexy, a deep dive into a subculture that has been exhaustively researched. The Turnout is all those things and more, taking you so far into the world of a small ballet school that you feel the characters' aches and pains in your joints, your feet and, most dangerous of all, your heart * LAURA LIPPMAN *There is not a writer alive who is better at investigating the tension and threat of violence at the centre of women's lives than Megan Abbott-because no one else is looking at the violence from within women's lives, as opposed to outside threats on trains, planes, in windows, or on dark, shadowy streets. Megan goes into the heart of female spaces and finds the ugly in all that pretty, the dark in all that light, with breath-taking suspense. The Turnout has notes of James M. Cain and Alfred Hitchcock, but it's better because it's so fresh and unexpected, so wholly revelatory. I turned page after page, holding my breath in fear, and also excitement, about what might happen in this run-down ballet school, what blood red might be lurking behind all that pink. This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent * ATTICA LOCKE *Another great read from best-selling author Megan Abbott * Hello Magazine *Abbott has a top-notch ability to reveal the dark undercurrents of women's relationships and sexuality. Her taut, unsettling writing creates tension through the slightest actions and phrases, and keeps the pages turning. This is clever, chilling psychological suspense at its best. * Library Journal (starred review) *This is an extraordinary psychological thriller, that brilliantly delivers its narrative and atmosphere through the taut, damaged bodies of its dancer protagonists. The writing is so pungent, physical and sensuous you feel like you're right there in the room with these obsessive, damaged, seductive characters. It's like Dario Argento's Suspiria performing a pas de deux with Donna Tartt's The Secret History * Keith Stuart, bestselling author of The Boy Made of Blocks (2021) *This look at the darker side of the dance world demonstrates why Abbott has few peers at crafting moving stories of secrets and broken lives * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Megan Abbott writes at the darkest and sharpest cutting edge of psychological fiction. The Turnout is a completely standout novel of perception, mystery and style. It grips, challenges and delivers one of the finest and most disturbing stories you'll read in a very long while. It's also achingly moving. I loved it * Henry Sutton (2021) *This is simply a masterclass in great storytelling and writing, an edgy and unpredictable tale full of nuance about the violence we inflict on others and ourselves -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisSophie, a twenty-something Jim Morrison groupie gliding through a golden existence in L.A., and Lola, a German immigrant who has settled in Hollywood, know that while Los Angeles is constantly changing, it is essentially eternal. The two women dazzle - one with the promises of youth, the other with the fulfilment of nostalgia - as they wend their way through the pink sunsets and the palm trees of Los Angeles.Living out their addictively decadent lives, Sophie and Lola are cult writer Babitz's literary embodiment of the iconic L.A. Woman - more than in part inspired by her own wild and hedonistic youth.Trade ReviewPraise for Sex & Rage: As cool, sharp and delicious as a perfectly executed Mint Julep. Babitz writes with wit and clarity - and always, always with a whole lot of heart -- ELIZABETH DAYBabitz writes like no one else, but if she sounds like anyone, it is Nora Ephron writing songs for Lana del Rey. Sex & Rage is seductive, funny and infuriating - it's a slacker siren song, a novel about writers and writing and a heavenly holiday to '70s LA all at once -- DAISY BUCHANANPure pleasure - a perpetual-motion machine of no-stakes elation and champagne fizz * * New Yorker * *Babitz's style is cool, conversational, loose, yet weighted with a seemingly effortless poetry * * Guardian * *Gritty, glamorous, toxic and intoxicating * * The New York Times * *Babitz's talent is in the telling. She surfs between prose and poetry, describing tenderness and cruelty with equally weighted vividness, and lacerates with her wit. Even though the book is forty years old, the title is more resonant than ever . . . Jacaranda's greatest dilemmas feel painfully contemporary * * Independent * *Eve Babitz is to prose what Chet Baker, with his light, airy style, lyrical but also rhythmic, detached but also sensuous, is to jazz * * Vanity Fair * *A beautiful stylist . . . The joy of Babitz's writing is in her ability to suggest that an experience is very nearly out of language while still articulating its force within it * * New Republic * *The portrait of the artist as an ever-evolving young woman * * W * *

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Book Synopsis'BETH O'LEARY CRAFTS NOVELS WITH SUCH WIT, HEART AND TRUTH' SOPHIE KINSELLA'SO CHARMING, SO SWEET AND SO LOVELY' MARIAN KEYES 'BETH O'LEARY IS THAT RARE, ONE-IN-A-MILLION TALENT' EMILY HENRYLeena is too young to feel stuck.Eileen is too old to start over.It's time for The Switch...After blowing a big presentation at work, Leena takes a two-month sabbatical and escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen . . . A life swap seems the perfect solution.But with a rabble of unruly OAPs to contend with, as well as the distractingly handsome local schoolteacher, Leena learns that switching lives isn't straightforward. In London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, and with the online dating scene. But is her perfect match nearer to home than she first thought?'Blissful escapism' Daily Mail'The feel-good read we all need right now' Stylist 'Heart-warming' Bella'This delicious slice of feelgood fiction is a real tonic' Sunday Mirror'Everything you want to lift your spirits' Good HousekeepingTrade ReviewAn utterly gorgeous, beautiful book, full of feeling ... a heart-warming reminder about the importance of always keeping our hearts (and minds) open. * Lindsey Kelk *O'Leary does it again! The Switch is a warm, funny and feisty tale of generational location swapping that will have you laughing and tearing up in equal measure. Populated by a cast of characters you'll wish you knew in real life. It's an absolute joy from beginning to end * MIKE GAYLE, author of Half a World Away *Utterly charming and uplifting, The Switch is bursting with love and warmth and humour. Another wonderful book from Beth O'Leary * LOUISE O'NEILL, author of AFTER THE SILENCE *This delicious slice of feelgood fiction is a real tonic * Sunday Mirror *This sparky, upbeat romcom balances riffs on the generation gap with heavier topics including grief and infidelity * Mail on Sunday *You'll find yourself rooting for the main characters, especially Eileen, the real star of this cheerful novel. A perfect tonic for anxious times * The People *A sparkling romantic read with characters that leap off the page. It's another triumph for this talented writer * Woman & Home *ingenious plot * Prima *O'Leary's funny, heartwarming novel about finding your true self in unexpected places will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your face * Daily Mail *a lovely comedy with a special message * Sunday Post Dundee *We laughed, we cried and we loved it! * Fabulous Magazine *Utterly charming, this uplifting book is guaranteed to be another outstanding success * Hot Brands, Cool Places *The heart-warming story we all need right now * Bella *blissful escapism from our current isolated reality * Daily Mail *Fun, heart-warming and brimming with hope. Eileen and her zest for life will inspire you long after the last page * heat *A charming, uplifting read * Daily Mirror *Emotionally absorbing, witty and bursting with warmth - a treat for fans of Marian Keyes and Jill Mansell * Daily Express *This story has everything you want to lift your spirits: laughs, romance and lovely characters you connect with emotionally * Good Housekeeping *A lovely, heart-warming read * Best *I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I adored The Switch * Daily Record *Author of The Flatshare, O'Leary brings us another read that feels like a warm hug. Another triumph of a novel * Woman's Weekly *A warm, witty, weepy read * Female First *Each novel is like if Richard Curtis and Nora Ephron made a story baby * Zoella Book Club *A cosy, witty novel that will make you laugh, cry and ultimately feel inspired to live in the now * Living North *An uplifting read filled with warming laugh-out-loud moments and charming characters * The Luxe *

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of the latest official James Bond novel''Charlie Higson''s thrillers are major events'' Mark Billingham''An off-beat, atmospheric novel'' Mirror''Written with chilling perception'' Time Out''I do not believe that a man can be truly happy unless he fully understands what he is and can act accordingly... how can it be wrong to be happy?'' These lines are taken from Will''s diary, a seemingly innocuous exercise book which details his house-breaking activities. Will carefully selects houses - forty-seven so far - ensuring their owners will be in. As they cook their supper or watch television, Will (wearing surgical gloves and leaving no trace behind) enters not only their houses, but their secret lives. A secret museum, housed in his loft, is ''held together by sex''. All his trophies are carefully catalogued and he keeps a very precise diary of his activities and his thoughts.Trade ReviewCharlie Higson's thrillers are major events * Mark Billingham *Written with a chilling perception... Settle down on the sofa with this one, but make sure you've locked the back door first * Time Out *An off-beat, atmospheric novel with an underlying, quite subtle wit... Higson's a genius * Mirror *Higson manages to balance the extremely anti-social and mentally unstable characters with a very dark wit, so it's not only the macabre details which make this such compelling reading * The List *This is Iain Banks-ish territory, without the SF, but with the incest and the blood... Higson can build up a tense, nifty plot, and has the kind of ear for middle-England angst that more established writers should be jealous of -- Nicholas Lezard * GQ *

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Book SynopsisTHE TRANSFIXING TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN WHO DEFIED ALL ODDS TO CHOOSE HER OWN DESTINY "This life of the astonishing Belle Greene, the director of the Morgan Library who took the decision to "pass" as white in New York's Gilded Age, is a breathtaking and poignant work of social history."–Rebecca Fraser, author of Charlotte Brontë “Erudite, sharp, and worldly, she hid an incredible secret... The story told with panache by Alexandra Lapierre of one of the first women of the 20th century to have had the madness, and above all the courage, to choose her own destiny.”–ELLE New York in the 1900s. A young girl, fascinated by rare books, defies the odds and climbs all the ranks. She becomes the director of the fabulous library of the magnate J. P. Morgan and the darling of the international aristocracy, under the false name of Belle da Costa Greene. Belle Greene to close friends. But the flamboyant collector who turns heads and reigns over the world of bibliophiles hides a terrible secret for the violently racist America of her time. Although she looks white, she is actually African American and, moreover, the daughter of a famous black activist who sees her desire to hide her origins as a betrayal. It is this drama of a being torn between history and a woman’s choice to belong to the society which oppresses her people that Alexandra Lapierre recounts. The fruit of three years of investigation, this novel retraces the victories and heartbreaks of a woman full of life, as free as she is determined, whose astonishing daring echoes today's battles. Trade Review“Lapierre resurrects Belle’s extraordinary life and her secret struggle against society’s racism in an ambitious work.” * The Sunday Times *“Exceptional…An engaging story about a brilliant woman who risks everything.” * The Bookseller *“Thoroughly researched, extraordinarily well written, and captivating.” * Buzz Magazine *“Alexandra Lapierre’s account of Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian largely responsible for the Morgan Library in New York, will astonish and impress readers.” * Historical Novel Society *"This beautiful, exciting, feverish, angry narrative tells us about an indomitable woman whose motto pleases me: I don't belong to you." * Version Femina *

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Book SynopsisStartling, provocative stories that grapple with the online reality we all inhabit, where clicks, codes and memes shape identities, personas and reputations.

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Book SynopsisThe beloved multi-million copy bestselling author is back with a brand new novel about an injured cop fighting to bring down a pair of twisted killers.

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Book SynopsisIt’s 1994, Kurt Cobain has just died, and teenager Alex is spending the summer working in her Aunt’s Bed and Breakfast in rural Argyll. The village pace of life is slow compared to home in Edinburgh and Alex resigns herself to a quiet summer spent serving breakfasts and making beds. Everything changes however once she meets the twin brothers who live next door.Spanning the next fifteen years of Alex’s life, Fade Into You is a love letter to growing up in Scotland in the 90s and 2000s. Set against a backdrop of T in the Park and the war in Iraq, soundtracked by Britpop and Grunge mixtapes, with the sweet taste of tablet, it is a novel about growing up and growing apart. It explores the intensity of childhood friendships, how they change as we get older but how they never really leave us.Trade ReviewAs shocking as it may be for some of us, the 1990s are now part of history. Catriona Child’s ‘Fade Into You’ embraces this and promises to evoke heady nostalgia in those who were there, and offer a step back in time for others. ALISTAIR BRAIDWOOD, ‘Ten Books for 2023’, SNACK MAGAZINEMusic-obsessed Alex’s world is about to change…set against a backdrop of T in the Park, this bittersweet tale will delight music fans. SCOTS MAGAZINEWritten with depth and sensitivity, Fade Into You is a beautifully crafted novel that captures the essence of growing up in a changing world. Whether you’re a fan of Scottish fiction, coming-of-age stories or simply looking for a captivating read, this book is sure to leave you spellbound. KELLEY LACY, Award-winning book-bloggerA nostalgic journey through the 1990s and 2000s as a group of friends take the leap from teenage life to adulthood. KEVIN QUINN, Edinburgh Evening NewsIt’s a moving, insightful and thoughtful read which touches upon subjects such as mental health, grief, and that move from the keenly felt teenage years into what inevitably becomes wearier, and often more cynical, adulthood. Although Child is too good a writer to paint anything as black and white; she knows it’s in the grey areas where the real stories are told. Fade Into You will take you back to your own teenage years, no matter when they were, and remind you of the good and bad times growing up and the songs that saved you. ALISTAIR BRAIDWOOD, Snack MagazineI never expected to be left with so many thoughts. It’s left me thinking about the people I’ve known growing up, those that are still around and those that have drifted away. ADAMTRIESBOOKSCatriona Child’s Fade Into You embodies this nostalgic feeling in a coming-of-age novel documenting the increasingly mercurial changes of the late 1990s and early 2000s; changes paralleled in the contemporary music and the choices in our naive and often awkward teenage protagonists make… A beautifully raw, sometimes funny, other times bittersweet, novel. SCOTTISH FIELDIt reads like a time capsule in many ways, and it’s not just the music, it’s the telly, it’s the food, it’s everything. NICOLA MEIGHAN, The Afternoon Show, BBC Radio ScotlandThe soundtrack to Alex’s falling in and out of love is certainly a strong point of this story… Best of British Magazine

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Book Synopsis''Captures the fierceness of female friendship'' BETH O''LEARY ''The essential book on sisterhood'' NIKITA GILLShortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards 2023 Three women. One life-changing friendship. One chance to stop it all falling apart . . . Jenna, Kees and Malak have been friends for years: the three of them together against the world. But when one night changes everything, they''re left adrift from one another as their lives take different paths.Encountering new milestones and heartbreaks without each other''s support feels increasingly difficult--in the wake of heartbreaks, marriages, new careers and new beginnings, they need each other more than ever. Will they be able to forgive each other in time?These Impossible Things tells the story of three British Muslim women reconciling love, loss, womanhood, faith and how we navigate the bumps in life that can feel impossible to overcome.READERSTrade ReviewThis is the essential book on sisterhood that I needed to read. Beautifully written and gorgeous, Salma El-Wardany is a brilliant writer and this is a story I will never forget. * Nikita Gill, author of Fierce Fairytales *THESE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS is an addictive portrait of three Muslim friends moving through a pivotal time in womanhood, caught between expectation and possibility, hungry to earn wisdom of their own. Salma El-Wardany deftly reveals searing and poignant truths about the female experience, ones so rarely confronted in fiction. What a gift to be inside this author's mind through the pages of her beautiful and memorable writing. * Ashley Audrain, author of The Push *I devoured this book in three days, and was bereft when it ended because I didn't want the three women that Salma has written into life so beautifully, to leave. I have known Muslim women like this my entire life, but I have never seen them written and depicted in the way they truly are - beautiful, multi-faceted, flawed, figuring life out. These Impossible Things is such an important part of the storytelling around love, dating, career, identity - and I know it will resonate and make so many women feel seen. Lyrical in places, precise and realistic in others - how wonderful it was to see the type of women I know, preserved in words forever. * Poorna Bell, author of Stronger *Lovers of Salma's poetry will recognise her evocative voice in this heartwrenching prose, a compelling story of three women losing themselves in life's transitions, then finding themselves, with each other. El-Wardany has written a love letter to friendship of women, and its power to conquer all. A powerful, poignant tale of womanhood and friendship. * Yassmin Abdel-Magied, author of Talking About a Revolution *I can't remember the last time a book consumed me like this. I truly, truly loved it. It's so beautifully written, full of warmth and love and insight; Malak, Kees and Jenna stole into my heart and stayed there. This novel captures the fierceness of female friendship better than anything I've ever read. It is a book I know I will still be thinking about for many years to come. * Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare *A beautiful tale of friendship between three women whose lives force them apart & fate and love drive back together. Funny, relatable, gorgeous. * Sareeta Domingo, author of Who's Loving You *Salacious, incisive, and unapologetically Muslim, Salma El-Wardany's bold and brilliant story doesn't shy away from the taboo subjects of religion and sex. These Impossible Things shows that Muslim women are multifaceted and complex despite the dearth of representation we are allowed. * Blair Imani *Moving, telling, glorious; girlhood giving way to something urgent and beginning. This is a bracing, tender exploration of friendship, family and faith and their gaping complications. Irresistible. * Yrsa Daley-Ward *A beautiful, funny and heartbreaking ode to friendship and love, I devoured it! * Morgan Lloyd Malcolm *It is hard to put into words what this book did for me. How many times I had to walk away from it because of how close to the bone it was and how viscerally I wanted to reach back in time and give it to my younger self. This book would have saved me when I needed it most. It took me years to figure out some of the truths that Salma has contained in this story: this beautiful epic thing that is literally a gift to all Muslim women and all Arab girls. Salma is the voice we didn't know we needed but should never have had to live without. * Amy Mowafi *A beautifully written, thought-provoking book from a talented & feminist author. * Deborah Frances-White *A wonderful novel about family bonds, sisterhood, and home truths, that is moving and fragile and so readable. Well drawn characters, sparkling prose and excellent drama make for an exciting debut. * Nikesh Shukla *

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Book SynopsisChristos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels, including the international bestseller The Slap, which won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize among other honours.In 2021 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature for his body of work. Christos is also a playwright, essayist and screen writer. He lives in Melbourne.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDSSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZEMrs Death tells her intoxicating story in this life-affirming fire-starter of a novelMrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted by her job and now seeks someone to unburden her conscience to.She meets Wolf, a troubled young writer, who - enthralled by her stories - begins to write Mrs Death's memoirs. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced (or facilitated), their friendship flourishes. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans' fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . .Trade ReviewA fantastically imaginative story about life, death and everything in between - a potent reminder that life is short and every second should be cherished -- IDRIS ELBAA modern-day Pilgrim's Progress leavened with caustic wit . . . This is not light-hearted stuff, yet Godden has produced a miraculously light-hearted novel . . . an elegant, occasionally uproarious, danse macabre * * Guardian * *Exquisite. A daring, poetic offering that establishes Godden as one of our most exciting voices. I loved it -- IRENOSEN OKOJIEA rhythmic and powerful poetic meditation on death, life and love and the hidden mysteries of the universe; both playful and sombre, hilarious and human -- NIKESH SHUKLAIn this timely and exquisite meditation on breath and its best rhyme, we see a stunning performance poet crowding all the energy, wisdom, passion and laughs of her live work into the solid ingot of this astounding novel, as profound as Cohen, as playful as Brautigan. Salena Goddess, more like -- ALAN MOOREIt's light, it's dark, it's twisted and it's brilliant. As we all encounter life, so too we should all encounter Mrs Death. Poetry, prose, life and death. Salena Godden brings them together with ease. She is a wordsmith of the highest order -- BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAHDark at times - with compelling stories about miscarriages of justice, murder and racial oppression - it is nonetheless celebratory and life-affirming, aglow with love, fortitude and compassion * * Mail on Sunday * *I love Salena Godden and I love Mrs Death Misses Death. Salena, like the lead character, is a force to be reckoned with. If the page were a stage, Mrs Death is its star. She soaks in the spotlight, commanding the eye of the audience. It is an assured debut by a poet whom I hold in the highest regard -- LEMN SISSAYA witty, angry, warm and elemental combination of poetry and prose . . . an exhilarating combination of allegory, poetry and very real fury * * Guardian * *Salena Godden's pin-sharp ability to mine the intricacies of human nature fuels her long-awaited debut novel, a life-affirming and unflinching treatise on death and its stark realities. Always playful, infused with her trademark humour and commitment to truth, Godden reinvents the form while staying true to an emotional honesty that's as forthright as it is courageous. Mrs Death's finale is some of the most powerful writing I've read in years. Here is necessary, beautiful work. Thank God for Godden -- COURTTIA NEWLAND

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Book Synopsis''The Verdun Affair is ravishingly beautiful, and as much about love as about war . . . Dybek is a storyteller of great power. If there''s any justice, this novel will be widely read and recognized. I absolutely adored it'' Paula McLain, bestselling author of THE PARIS WIFE and CIRCLING THE SUNA sweeping, romantic, and profoundly moving novel, set in Europe in the aftermath of World War I and Los Angeles in the 1950s, about a lonely young man, a beautiful widow, and the amnesiac soldier whose puzzling case binds them together even as it tears them apart.In 1920, two young Americans meet in Verdun, the city in France where one of the most devastating battles of the war was waged. Tom is an orphan from Chicago, a former ambulance driver now gathering bones from the battlefield; Sarah is an expatriate from Boston searching for the husband who wandered off from his division and hasn''t been seen since. Quickly, the two fall into a complicated Trade ReviewAs evocative as it is unflinching in its verisimilitude . . . The identity of an amnesiac soldier is the mystery at the novel's ambiguous heart, but capturing the fragmented textures of war's afterlife, and the private desires that seem to glow with even greater intensity in memory, is Dybek's true ambition. * Vogue *A haunting, beautiful, and wholly absorbing book, that is at once a gripping story of war, a poignant coming of age, and a bittersweet romance. Dybek conjures the time period with elegance and visceral detail. I didn't want it to end! * Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe *The Verdun Affair is ravishingly beautiful, and as much about love as about war. I found myself drawn in immediately, believing the place, the characters, everything in Nick Dybek's magnificently woven story, which is as finely painted and meted out as Anthony Doerr's, All the Light we Cannot See, and yet fully its own book. Dybek is a storyteller of great power. If there's any justice, this novel will be widely read and recognized. I absolutely adored it. * Paula McLain, bestselling author of THE PARIS WIFE and CIRCLING THE SUN *I am still haunted by the images of war so deftly conjured in the midst of an elegiac love story. Dybek writes with a commanding sense of story and language. This novel will not let you go. * Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer Before The War *Sometimes the true battle begins only after the fighting is over. In this case, it's the struggle to regain feeling, memory, and love in a landscape where verdancy can flourish again over graves and trenches and bones, but not over the craters of a wounded spirit. In the end, only a story can do that, but it must be as rich and poignant and compelling as Nick Dybek's immersive and atmospheric The Verdun Affair. The meaning in life often goes AWOL, and we look to our great writers-writers like Nick Dybek-to bring it back. * Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son and Fortune Smiles *The Verdun Affair is an intensely gripping story set in the immediate aftermath of war. From a still-smoldering battlefield, Nick Dybek conjures a sweeping saga of secrets, lies, mistaken identity, love and betrayal. This is the kind of book you can't put down. * Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn *The Verdun Affair is a masterful, sweeping novel of love and war and the way we reconstruct ourselves and our stories after everything has come apart. Nick Dybek is a vivid storyteller, and this is a beautiful and exciting book. * Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and No One is Here Except all of Us *Love, war, the mysteries of who we are -- it's all in The Verdun Affair. A masterful novel that will fizz your brain and enchant your heart. * David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife *Gripping . . . a cleverly constructed page-turner . . . Dybek is a master at creating an atmosphere of war, of decadence amid the rubble, and at dipping in and out of history, teasing the reader with beguiling clues concerning the secrets each character harbors about the amnesiac. Dybek's novel is a complex tale of memory, choice, and the sacrifices one sometimes makes by doing the right thing. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *For a literary romance, try The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybek, a historical fiction that begins in 1950 in Los Angeles, where a Hollywood screenwriter runs into someone from his past. Their story stretches back to Europe in the years following the First World War, and the novel unravels a love triangle and its players' secrets * LA Times *While there are obvious comparisons to The English Patient, this book seems to be an extended metaphor showing how relationships, loves even, can be shattered beyond all recognition, just as a human body can be obliterated. The author effectively communicates the spirit of place and time. He also has a knack for sharing the feelings and intentions behind quite ordinary conversations. * Historical Novels Review *The Verdun Affair is an intensely gripping story set in the immediate aftermath of war. From a still-smoldering battlefield, Nick Dybek conjures a sweeping saga of secrets, lies, mistaken identity, love and betrayal. This is the kind of book you can't put down. -- Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of Memorial, a novel that will 'break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy.' Rumaan AlamGrowing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world.When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.Trade ReviewMasterful... Washington lays it all out with the control and artistry of a ballet choreographer * New York Times *Bryan Washington speaks for people who have too long been silenced, and the voice he has found for them is defiant, compassionate, decent and profoundly human -- Damon Galgut * Times Literary Supplement *A beautiful novel... Sensual, sometimes sad, ultimately hopeful * The Telegraph *A sensual immersion in loss, grief food and sex. Compelling... Deeply felt... Beautiful * Financial Times *Achingly and beautifully etched... Washington has a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while offering his characters - and his readers - space for self-forgiveness, hope and nourishment * Washington Post *One of the best books I've read this year. Truly masterful * Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women *Family Meal is filled with love-for the sensual pleasure of life, the places that we call home, the beauty of the people around us. This novel will break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy. It takes a generous writer to show us the world in this way, and Bryan Washington is one of our best. * Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind *Family Meal is everything that Bryan Washington's work has promised so far: a fiercely written, by turns heartbreaking, terrifying and horny gaze on American masculinity, friendship and love, always with a clear sense of place and environment. Its take on grief and desire, of selfishness and generosity, and of the ways in which the Black masc body might be dismantled, or caressed, is sex-positive and thrillingly true-to-life. I found refuge in it, and will always fall hard on anything Washington writes. * Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk *Brimming with food, sex, joy, intimacy, hella specific jokes, and the broken tools that we inherit to save our lives, Family Meal is nourishment. An absolutely gorgeous book. * Mary H.K. Choi, author of Yolk *

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Book SynopsisA masterful novel about a violent crime and its reverberations throughout a community – as timely and relevant in 2019 as it was when first published in 2001 ‘We were the Mulvaneys, remember us? For a long time you envied us, then you pitied us. For a long time you admired us, then you thought Good! that’s what they deserve.’ The Mulvaneys of High Point Farm are blessed. But then, on Valentine’s Day 1976, something happens to Marianne, the pretty sixteen-year-old daughter, and nothing will ever be the same again … .Trade Review‘This family still haunts me’ Oprah Winfrey ‘We Were the Mulvaneys works not simply because of its meticulous details and gestures…What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is something stronger and spookier: her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something on the other side that we'd swear was life itself' The New York Times Book Review 'A brilliantly detailed and varied picture of family life and a succession of dramatic set pieces…These are people we recognise, and she makes us care deeply about them' Kirkus ‘Oates’s prose contains a deep-felt rawness which hovers hovers betwee hope, despair and love’ Guardian 'Novelists such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer slug it out for the title of the Great American Novelist. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the Great American Novelist is a woman' Herald, review of Blonde

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Book SynopsisFROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NO. 1 BESTSELLERS THE WOMEN WHO RAN AWAY AND THE MISSING WIFE''A glamorous, empowering read with a glorious spin on the wedding scene'' Veronica Henry''Reading a Sheila O''Flanagan novel always feels like sitting down for a cup of tea with a friend - she writes with such warmth and empathy'' Beth O''LearyAt the first wedding, there''s a shockThe second wedding is unexpected By the third, Delphie thinks nothing could surprise her. But she''s wrong . . . Delphie is enjoying her brother''s wedding. Her surprise last-minute Plus One has stunned her family - and it''s also stopped any of them asking again why she''s still single. But when she sees all the missed calls that evening, she knows it can''t be good news. And she''s right. Delphie has been living her best life, loviTrade ReviewA glamorous, blockbusting, empowering read with a glorious spin on the wedding scene. Sheila writes with such verve and positivity and emotional intelligence - she knows just what it is to be a woman * Veronica Henry *I really enjoyed Three Weddings and a Proposal . . . Reading a Sheila O'Flanagan novel always feels like sitting down for a cup of tea with a friend - she writes with such warmth and empathy * Beth O’Leary *One of my favourite authors * Marian Keyes *A novel which celebrates strong women who can carve out their own happy endings * Linda Green *Great characters and many twists and turns make this page-turner thoroughly enjoyable. A great read! * Katie Fforde *Sheila's books always make you feel as if you've spent time with a good friend * Carole Matthews *This book had me jumping this way and that, trying to decide which characters could be trusted . . . and then changing my mind. A highly enjoyable read * Imogen Clark *Insightful, pacy and authentic, this is a terrific read * Patrica Scanlan *Believable, warmly drawn characters, a perfectly paced story and a satisfying ending; just what I've come to expect from this accomplished writer. Do I rejoice when a new Sheila O'Flanagan book hits the shelves? I do. * Roisin Meaney *As a lover of all things Irish, how is it possible that I hadn't discovered Sheila O'Flanagan's books before Three Weddings and a Proposal? Thanks to this wonderful story of a woman's journey of self-discovery, I can't wait to read more by this very talented author * Sherryl Woods *The perfect summer escape . . . Engrossing, entertaining, and emotional - and featuring a protagonist you can't help but root for - this one will keep you turning the pages * Farrah Rochon *A fascinating story, full of twists and turns... Full of tension, honesty and compassion, Sheila's wonderful novel kept me guessing right until the end' * Gill Thompson *An involving, thought-provoking novel and a masterclass in storytelling. I was drawn in from page 1 * Sue Moorcroft *

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Book SynopsisHere are libraries modest, mobile, mystical (Borges of course) and magical (Helen Oyeyemi's enchanting 'Books and Roses'); public and private, provincial and prestigious. Little that happen in Elizabeth McCracken's eccentric library did not happen in real life - even down to the murder; and it is rumoured that on 3 June 1997 the British Museum Reading Room really was visited by the ghost of Max Beerbohm's obscurest of poets, Enoch Soames...Fiction and reality merge in Cortazar's 'A Continuity of Parks'. Characters step out of their books in Fay Weldon's 'Lily Bart's Hat Shop', while Jasper Fforde's Jurisfiction operatives enter Wuthering Heights to deliver a Rage-Counselling session. Charles Lamb muses on the annoying book-borrowing habits of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the teenage Teffi is overawed by Tolstoy; Helene Hanff in Manhattan launches her famous correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road.Reading, as the Queen informs an appalled private secretary, is 'untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting'. And also, of course, a lot of fun. Sit comfortably, then, and begin.

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Book Synopsis''Best book of the year!'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''A fantastic debut'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐The brilliant, heart-warming debut novel from the Sunday Times best-selling author of Dummy and Man vs Toddler''A lovely feel-good treat'' The Times ''Simply perfect'' Daily Mirror ''Hilariously funny... and beneath it all really quite lovely'' The Metro Brilliant, just brilliant'' Huffington Post__________________Sometimes, the friend you need is the one you never saw coming.Frank and Red are a mess.Frank is a grumpy old curmudgeon. A recluse whose only company is the ''ghost'' of his dead wife, Marcie. He is estranged from his friends, his son, and the ever-changing world beyond his front gate. And then Red moves in next door.Red is six. A boy strugTrade ReviewA lovely feel-good treat . . . Matt Coyne's beautifully crafted, warmly funny book gives us Frank and Red's perspectives on navigating the upheavals in their lives and their road to friendship. Red's reckless attempt to reunite Frank with his adult son adds some high-stakes drama, but it's the little moments of connection, compassion and healing that will melt you. * The Times *His parents have split and he's the brunt of school bulling, but precocious six-year-old Leonard (Red) is a trusting soul, and when he sets out to befriend crusty, effing, blinding, grieving widower Frank - his new neighbour - he soon finds himself on a daring mission to reunite the man with his estranged son. A warm-hearted, weepy, riotously funny, feel-good novel. * Saga *Heart-warming, perceptive and empathetic, not to mention very funny, Frank and Red is a genuine joy to read. * CultureFly *Can't put this down . . . Honest, heartwarming and woven with brilliant, warm humour. -- ANNA MATHUR, Sunday Times bestselling authorAbsolutely brilliant. Anyone who reads it will be highly recommending it!! Bravo -- DAISY UPTON, Sunday Times bestselling authorWarm, tender and very funny. A triumph of heartstring-pulling. -- SARAH TURNER, Sunday Times bestselling authorWarm, heartfelt and laugh out loud funny, I adored Frank and Red and couldn't put this book down. -- BECKY HUNTER, author of One MomentIt's properly funny while packing a huge emotional punch. This is one of those books that reminds you of what it means to be human. Highly recommend. -- JENNIE GODFREY, author of The List of Suspicious ThingsHeartfelt, humorous and hugely entertaining. -- SAMUEL BURR, author of The Fellowship of PuzzlemakersThe pair are such wonderful characters and I was utterly charmed by them from the very first page. A very funny story about friendship and acceptance. * Prima *Can't put this down . . . Honest, heartwarming and woven with brilliant, warm humour. -- ANNA MATHUR, author of Raising a Happier Mother

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Book SynopsisAn Oprah Book Club selection Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize In a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, a young black man named Jefferson witnesses a liquor store shootout in which three men are killed. The only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Gaines explores the deep prejudice of the American South in the tradition of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Toni Morrison's Beloved. A Lesson Before Dying is a richly compassionate and deeply moving novel, the story of a young black man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, and a teacher who hopes to ease his burden before the execution.Trade ReviewGaines has created a powerful and loving portrait of a small, mainly cane-cutting community ... A transcendent and heartfelt novel of redemption * Guardian *This is a fine and decent book that lives in the memory for its elegance and sadness ... like the best country songs, straight and true, unafraid of sentiment and written for the people it depicts, not simply about them * Independent *A narrative of the deep pain of the south... Gaines writes from the blues and his novel has redemptive power * Morning Star *Gaines has written a novel that is not only never maudlin, but approaches the spare beauty of a classic * Kirkus *This majestic, moving novel is an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives. * Chicago Tribune *A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer * Boston Globe *Enormously moving... Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes * Los Angeles Times *A truly gripping read * Sunday Herald *

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Book SynopsisFrom the attic of Driftwood House there are stunning views of the deep green sea and sapphire sky. But Rosie can''t tear her eyes away from the faded photograph in her hands, and the words written on the back that will change everything...Back in the village of Heaven''s Cove after the death of her mother, all Rosie Merchant wants is to rent out her childhood home, and run away from the gossiping villagers and wild Devon weather she escaped years ago.But local farmer Liam is waiting on the doorstep. His kind offer to help clear isolated Driftwood House is hard to refuse... and as clouds scud across the endless sky, Rosie is reminded that nowhere is more beautiful than home.Then Rosie finds a photo in the attic which exposes the truth about how her mother came to live at Driftwood House years ago... Did Liam know this painful secret all along? Or will facing up to her family history mean Rosie can finally put down roots in this beautiful place?This book can be enjoyed as a standalone.Get whisked away to the rugged, sweeping Devon coastline in this gripping story about old secrets, learning how to trust, and finding where home is. Fans of Debbie Macomber, Barbara O''Neal and Mary Alice Monroe will adore this gorgeous and uplifting read.Read what everyone''s saying about Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea:''Wow, wow, wow!!!! I absolutely loved this book!!!... I was captivated... The tears began flowing before I got to the end of the first chapter... my heart literally broke... wonderful... stunning... kept me hooked until the very last word... Loved, loved, loved it!!!''Stardust Book Reviews, ?????''Captivating and heart-warming... A perfect summer read... I was absolutely hooked from page one until 1.30am in the morning when I finished having not been able to put it down.'' Bookworm1986, ?????''Absolutely breathtaking! From the first chapter, I was hooked and loved every moment... truly a beautiful tale... outstanding.'' Cara''s Book Boudoir, ?????''Had me gripped and wanting more... I had to tear myself away from reading to head off to work... absolutely loved this book.'' Goodreads reviewer, ?????''Gorgeous... I was mesmerised... This is a story that keeps you guessing... beautiful... idyllic... fabulous... pure escapism, heart-warming, and left me with a smile on my face.'' Whispering Stories, ?????''Liz Eeles whisked me away... vivid and gorgeous... amazing... exceptional... wonderful... delightful.'' Berit Talks Books''Put on the kettle for some tea and grab yourself a scone... because you are going to want to binge read Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea... gripping and emotional page-turner!'' Goodreads reviewer, ?????''A wonderfully addictive read... I read this book in a day and would whole-heartedly recommend it.'' Goodreads reviewer, ?????''This was a gem of a novel!... Beautiful characters in a beautiful story!'' Goodreads reviewer''A charming, cozy, uplifting book... absolutely loved.'' Goodreads reviewer

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Book SynopsisA man moves from a capital city to a remote town in the border country, where he intends to spend the last years of his life. It is time, he thinks, to review the spoils of a lifetime of seeing, a lifetime of reading. Which sights, people, books, fictional characters, turns of phrase and lines of verse will survive into the twilight? Feeling an increasing urgency to put his mental landscape in order, the man sets to work cataloguing his memories, little knowing what secrets they will yield and where his `report' will lead.Border Districts is a jewel of a farewell from one of the greatest living writers of English prose. Winner of the Australian 2018 Prime Minister's Literary Award and shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin Award, this is Murnane's first work to be published in the UK in thirty years.Trade Review`Murnane, in his unfailingly serious way, is very funny.' Lidija Haas, Harper's Magazine`Fascinating . . . Relentlessly introspective but dependably playful.' Washington Post ---- `As Murnane remarks, "My writing was not an attempt to produce something called literature but an attempt to discover meaning", and his insistence on the artifice of written enterprise bears witness to a thoroughness and integrity that far outweigh the minor virtue - or minor vice - of readability.' Adrian Nathan West, TLS ---- `As Murnane remarks, "My writing was not an attempt to produce something called literature but an attempt to discover meaning", and his insistence on the artifice of written enterprise bears witness to a thoroughness and integrity that far outweigh the minor virtue - or minor vice - of readability.' Adrian Nathan West on Border Districts and Stream System, TLS ---- `Border Districts is bound together by intersected themes of light and faith. . . Murnane's is a vision that blesses and beatifies every detail.' "Devotees of Murnane (The Plains), the exacting Australian writer of crafty, austere fictions, will find familiar themes in this prismatic work: the fascination with color, the grassy landscapes, and the obsessive compiling of a mind's 'image-history.' The aged narrator, a 'student of colors and shades and hues and tints, ' has retired to a 'district near the border' of his unnamed native land. There he explores the regions of his psyche with a monklike devotion, 'study[ing] in all seriousness matters that another person might dismiss as unworthy, trivial, childish.' Publishers Weekly ---- 'An old man ruminates on landscapes and houses, authors and religion, colored glass and memory in this drifting quasi-fiction. The unnamed narrator, age 72, has recently moved from a city to live alone in a 'quiet township' near an unspecified border in an unnamed country. In the opening pages, he recalls his school days and the religious brothers who taught him.' Kirkus, starred review ---- 'His new book, Border Districts, is weird in the way everything he has published is weird. It possesses the peculiar quality of being intimately familiar and unidentifiable. (...) Border Districts is a bit like a Wordsworthian epic in quasi-lyrical mode that has been translated from the Hungarian and reconfigured as an old codger's attempt to find his fragments in his ruins and to adjust to his obsessions a language of maniacal precision and blindness. (...) This is a book that refuses to name names, and its elaborate winding stair will preserve the wonder of a sensibility at the edge of solipsism. (...) You will not find a more intimate or more lame or more deeply wrought piece of fiction anywhere in the world.' Peter Craven, The Australian ---- 'Border Districts is a quieter, gentler book than its forebears, weighted, but not haunted, by Murnane's Catholic upbringing and its echoes. It's also a synesthetic book, heady with colour' Beejay Silcox, Australian Book Review ---- 'Border Districts is a devotional manuscript in which the intention is not the divine but a recuperation, even a restoration, of self. It is thrilling. Nothing happens, everything happens." Helen Elliott, The Monthly ---- 'Murnane's fascination is now in what appears at the edge of his vision: the border separating what is glimpsed at the very brink of sight and what is just on the far side of seeing.' Benjamin H. Ogden, New York Times ---- 'External reality does not impede here on the mental -- instead, the two are parallel or complementary realms defined by different conditions of access: the one reachable by foot or car, the other by pondering the properties of light and what might be called speculative recollection.' Adrian Nathan West, Times Literary Supplement ---- 'Border Districts, with more room to expand, feels less formally oppressive while still holding the author's signature moments of crystalline detail and uncanny observation. (...) The sequences are inscrutable and resistant to interpretation.' Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal ---- 'This is writing peppered with phrases of a purposeful stiltedness. The result is tedious -- but fascinating. (...) In the absence of plot, Border Districts is bound together by intersected themes of light and faith.' Jamie Fisher, The Washington Post ---- `Border Districts is a strange and demanding experience, but to give over to its demands, to its way of making the familiar strange, is to open oneself to the delicate power of its rhythms, the haunting depth of its images, and the irrefutable craftsmanship in every sentence.' Louis Klee, Sidney Morning Herald ---- 'Border Districts excavates a fascinating subject: the experience of encountering fiction, and what our minds unconsciously conjure for us as we read ... Murnane's books persuasively insist that the amorphous contest of our minds are as real as external "reality"' - Claire Lowdon, Sunday Times ---- `Strange and luminous ... His books ... (are) really about the mind behind (their) characters: the singular, fascinating consciousness that gives them life.' - Jon Day, The Guardian ----'From a boy following Bassett Creek to an old man patrolling the borderlands, Murnane's books are expeditions that encompass a territory unlike any other.' - Chris Powers, New Statesman ---- 'Tamarisk Row is a remarkably acute portrayal of what it is to be a bullied, confused boy, while Border Districts is dazzling for its austerity, its cruel purity. Their sentences ring in the ear, and the novels stay with you.'- Daniel Swift, The Spectator ----`Relating his [Murnane's] disenchantment with `texts intended to explain the mind', he concludes that his own mind `must have been a paradise by comparison with the drab sites where others located their selves or their personalities or whatever they called their mental territories.' Border Districts is a letter from this austere yet infinitely fertile paradise.' Christian Lorentzen, London Review of Books ----'I read Border Districts gripped by that pensive elation which alerted me to great writers when I was a reader in my adolescence. That he can bring that most precious sensation up through me now must mean that Murnane is a writer of utmost brilliance.'Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond

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Book SynopsisThe protagonist of Ti Amo is a woman who is in a deep and real, but relatively new relationship with a man from Milan. She has moved there, they have married, and they are close in every way. Then he is diagnosed with cancer. It's serious, but they try to go about their lives as best they can. But when the doctor tells the woman that her husband has less than a year to live - without telling the husband - death comes between them. She knows it's coming, but he doesn't - and he doesn't seem to want to know. Ti Amo is an incredibly beautiful and harrowing novel, filled with tenderness and grief, love and loneliness. It delves into the complex emotions of bereavement, and in less than 100 pages manages to encapsulate an extraordinary scope and depth, asking how and for whom we can live, when the one we love best is about to die.Trade Review‘This novella, sometimes hard to read for its bleakness but impossible to look away from, shows that even when we know the destination, the journey is still worthwhile.’ The Guardian ---- ‘Tender, anguished and truthful, Ti Amo recalls a line from a novel by Duras I read years ago: “There are no holidays from love” – as most of us discover, sooner or later.’ The Spectator ---- ‘What is so impressive is her ability to capture – with precision, candour and, indeed, tenacity – her shifting sense of self, as the foundations on which it rests crumble with every passing moment.’ Wall Street Journal ---- ‘The most skilful of writers…you need this Norwegian writer on your bookshelf.’ The I ---- ‘Ti Amo is a complex look at grief, love and loneliness, longing, not veiled within a wider narrative or hidden under layers.’ The Skinny ---- ‘The novel shares a compassionate vision, bridging the gulf between the one who will go on and the one who will not ... A remarkably frank and finely sieved account of two people approaching the ultimate parting of the ways.’ Kirkus Reviews, starred review ---- 'What do we really talk about when we talk about "truth" in literature? Orstavik's painful book on grief provides rich answers. Thoughtful and - even for her - enormously raw, Orstavik accomplishes an astonishing amount in very few pages.' Morgenbladet ---- 'An exceptionally good novel about grieving and waiting . . . Orstavik writes so well that the book feels essential, timeless and universal.' Aftenposten ---- 'Orstavik writes mercilessly and beautifully about losing her husband. This little novel is a heart-breaking gem. Ti Amo is an endlessly sorrowful novel, but it's written with such forceful presence, a kind of wonder and tenderness towards life and a celebration of love, that you can't help but feel enriched by reading it. It's very hard and very beautiful.' Information ---- 'One of the most powerful things about the book is its description of the process of losing someone to illness. The time it takes. That it's possible to feel bereaved even before death arrives . . . It's exhausting reading, breathless in its resignation . . . And then, midway through the book, there is a turning point. This is where the book really grabbed me, catching me off guard, brilliantly. Without revealing too much, I will say that it's one of life's ambushes deep down in the valley of death, equal parts dream and taboo, possible and impossible, an incident that gives grief a nuance it can probably only have for those who have stared into its eyes long enough.' Klassekampen ---- 'This little novel from Orstavik opens up spaces full of emotion and wise thoughts about life, love and death. All we can do is say thank you, and enter.' Klassekampen, Best of 2020 ---- 'Hanne Orstavik has written perhaps her finest novel about her life's greatest loss.' Adresseavisen, #1 on the Best of 2020 list ---- 'With Ti Amo, Hanne Orstavik rediscovers the intensity and presence of her first novel Love. Ti Amo explores the liminal experiences that a novel can contain. At the same time we see her oeuvre from a new perspective. It's a powerful novel about loving, and her best in a long time.' Astrid Fosvold, Vart Land, Best of 2020 ---- 'A tender novel about losing your closest one to cancer . . . perceptive, thoughtful and brilliantly written . . . [Orstavik's] novels are characterised by her use of language and words to create identity. She has never done it as successfully and satisfyingly as now . . . above all it's a beautiful novel. About love in a real sense.' Adresseavisen, 6/6 stars ---- 'What is true? What is real? How do you get inside another human being? These questions have been central throughout Hanne Orstavik's work. In her latest novel, Ti Amo, in a story which is her own, she takes these questions to another level . . . Orstavik has an impressive ability to expose a person's inner world, to find a way in to where it hurts the most and explore complex experiences in simple prose, without everything falling apart.' Vart Land

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Book SynopsisA delightfully funny, bestselling, prize-winning Italian novel about sex, love, family - and how a writer transforms her life into art

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Book SynopsisAn electric literary novel about a man who cannot escape his past - and role - in Argentina's Dirty War. It comes with stunning quotes from Colm Toibin and Kamila Shamsie.

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Book SynopsisThe International Bestseller of the Spanish Civil War - Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction PrizeTrade ReviewA truly wonderful, magnificent novel. It is understanding, intelligent, compassionate . . . If you were required to read only one book about Spain and its civil war, this should be that book. -- Allan Massie * Scotsman. *Very few novels have the power to alter received opinion, but this marvellous book may well be one . . . A remarkable book. -- Anne Chisholm * Sunday Telegraph *This is an important, fresh and original book ... Above all, it demonstrates how eloquent and exciting fiction is still capable of being. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *This is a masterly parable of political violence, of suffering, but also, and decisevely, of the strange logic of compassion and healing . . . should become a classic -- George SteinerWith irresistible directness and delicacy, Javier Cercas engages in a quick-witted, tender quest for truth and the possibility of reconciliation in history, in our everyday lives - which happens to be the theme of most great European fiction . . . a marvellous novel -- Susan SontagHe has succeeded, with one perfectly crafted book, in single-handedly redeeming the epic genre -- Alberto Manguel

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Book SynopsisNew York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh returns to a world devastated by change in her award-winning Psy-Changeling Trinity series, where two people defined by their aloneness hold the fate of the Psy in their hands . . .

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