Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Everyman The Adventures of Sally
Book SynopsisThe Adventures of Sally is a transatlantic comedy set in worlds Wodehouse knew well: American theatres, English country houses, and the theatrical boarding-houses where young men and women dream of finding fame and fortune. Coming into an inheritance, one of these young women, Sally, is able to leave her boarding-house at last, and looks forward to a quiet life in a small apartment. Instead, she finds herself swept up in a series of adventures with her ambitious brother, an accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman she meets on a French beach, and his supercilious cousin who pursue her across the Atlantic. While losing her inheritance backing a play, and then retrieving it, she sheds an unsatisfactory fiancé, falls in love with the accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman, rejects the supercilious cousin, and finds happiness in a kennel on Long Island.
£10.99
Everyman Mike and Psmith
Book SynopsisAn early Wodehouse novel, this is both a sporting story and a tale of friendship between two boys at boarding school. Mike (introduced in the novel Mike at Wrykyn) is a seriously good cricketer who forms an unlikely alliance with old Etonian Psmith (‘the P is silent’) after they both find themselves fish out of water at a new school, Sedleigh, where they eventually overcome the hostility of others and their own prejudices to become starsEven readers uninterested in cricket are likely to be gripped by descriptions of matches, and the plot, though slight, reaches a satisfying conclusion. But the real meat of the book is to be found in the characters, especially the elegant Psmith, one of Wodehouse’s immortal creations, who features in three of his later novels (Psmith in the City, Psmith Journalist, Leave it to Psmith).Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *It's dangerous to use the word genius to describe a writer, but I'll risk it with him * John Humphrys *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *The incomparable and timeless genius - perfect for readers of all ages, shapes and sizes! * Kate Mosse *
£12.34
Everyman Kid Brady Stories & A Man of Means
Book SynopsisThis volume reprints two of Wodehouse’s earliest books which take the form of story sequences linked by a central character, a technique he used many times thereafter. Delightful in themselves, they are interesting chiefly as windows on a great writer’s early evolution.In The Man of Means, he looks forward to Bertie Wooster and Ukridge, but also back to his Victorian models, in a fantastic tale of the little man struggling with fate. When a humble clerk comes into a fortune, he embarks on a series of misadventures which suggest that wealth is not necessarily an unmixed blessing. Here we see signs of the satirical writer Wodehouse might have become, and the spirit of Chaplin is not far away.Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughHe exhausts superlatives -- Stephen Fry
£10.44
Everyman The Handmaid's Tale
Book SynopsisThe Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed . If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs...Trade Review'Moving, vivid and terrifying. I only hope it's not prophetic' Conor Cruise O'Brien, The Listener'The Handmaid's Tale is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story' Angela Carter'Our of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit' Peter Kemp, Independent'The images of brilliant emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel about totalitarian blindness...the effect is chilling' Linda Taylor, Sunday Times'Powerful...admirable' Robert Irwin, Time Out
£12.34
Everyman Snow
Book SynopsisReturning to Turkey from exile in the West, the secular poet Ka is driven by curiosity to investigate a surprising wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden by the government to wear their head scarves in school. But the epicentre of the suicides, the bleak, impoverished border city of Kars, is also home to the beautiful Ipek, a friend of Ka's youth whom he has never forgotten and whose spirited younger sister is a leader of the rebellious schoolgirls. As a fierce snowstorm descends, cutting them off from the world, violence between the military and local Islamic radicals begins to explode, and Ka finds his sympathies drawn in unexpected and dramatic directions.Trade ReviewSnow is an in-depth tour of the divided, hopeful, desolate, mystifying Turkish soul. Not only an engrossing feat of tale-spinning, but essential reading for our times. -- Margaret AtwoodA major work ... conscience-ridden and carefully wrought, tonic in its scope, candour and humour ... In Turkey, to write with honest complexity about such matters as head scarves and religious belief takes courage. -- John Updike
£10.99
Everyman The Maples Stories
Book SynopsisIn 1956 John Updike wrote a short story about newly-weds Joan and Richard Maple. Over the next two decades he returned to this couple again and again, tracking their years together as they raise children and deal with the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement. Gathered here for the first time in hardcover - and with the addition of a later story, 'Grandparenting', that shows us the Maples after their divorce - THE MAPLES STORIES offers a nuanced portrait of two deeply flawed but moving characters and their entwined lives.'Though the Maples stories trace the decline and fall of a marriage, they also illumine a history in many ways happy, of growing children and a million mundane moments shared. That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing really succeeds. The moral of these stories is that all blessings are mixed.'- From the Foreword by John Updike
£11.69
Little, Brown Book Group The Girls
Book SynopsisI have never looked into my sister's eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to a beguiling moon. I've never used an aeroplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that... So many things I've never done, but oh, how I've been loved. And, if such things were to be, I'd live a thousand times as me, to be loved so exponentially'In twenty-nine years, Rose Darlen has never spent a moment apart from her twin sister, Ruby. She has never gone for a solitary walk or had a private conversation. Yet, in all that time, she has never once looked into Ruby's eyes. Joined at the head, 'The Girls' (as they are known in their small town) attempt to lead a normal life, but can't help being extraordinary. Now almost thirty, Rose and Ruby are on the verge of becoming the oldest living craniopagus twins in history, but they are remarkable for a lot more than their unusual sisterly bond.Trade ReviewThis unusual novel is so satisfying...a graceful meditation on partnership identity and enduring love * The TIMES *An immensely readable novel, compelling and convincing. The Girls is an enchanting blend of the extraordinary and the everyday * New Statesman *Perfectly pitched... an utterly heartwarming tale, without any traces of mawkishness. Anyone with a sister will relate to this * Book of the Month - Marie Claire *Beautifully written and deeply moving, it's unforgettable * IMAGE MAGAZINE *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Behaviour Of Moths
Book SynopsisFrom her lookout on the first floor, Ginny watches and waits for her younger sister to return to the crumbling mansion that was once their idyllic childhood home. Vivien has not set foot in the house since she left, forty-seven years ago; Ginny, the reclusive moth expert, has rarely ventured outside it. But with Vivien's arrival, dark, unspoken secrets surface. Told in Ginny's unforgettable voice, this debut novel tells a disquieting story of two sisters and the ties that bind - sometimes a little too tightly.Trade Review** 'The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams is a debut and new and emphatic voice; this story of the reunion of two batty sisters in their huge and crumbling house completely grips and the lepidopteran theme is totally convincing. * Rodney Troubridge, Waterstone’s *** 'A rewarding read. Latent rivalries resurface as the sisters secretly question which of them has the greater grip on reality in this tantalising family mystery. * Waterstones Books Quarterly *** 'Adams succeeds in carefully building up an atmosphere of penumbral suspense, creeping towards a tense climax. * LITERARY REVIEW *** 'Adam s' compelling story unfurls over a single weekend as two sisters, together again in their sixties in their dilapidated family home, are forced to confront the consequences fo the terrible chain of events that began with Vivien's near-fatal childh * PSYCHOLOGIES *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Nightingale Wood
Book Synopsis'Gibbons is superb on middle class life' SAM JORDISON, GUARDIAN 'A sharp-edged romantic comedy, we have a chance to see what we've been missing' DAILY MAIL 'What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it' SOPHIE DAHLLife is not quite a fairytale for poor Viola. Left penniless, the young widow is forced to live with her late husband's family in a joyless old house. There's Mr Wither, a tyrannical old miser, Mrs Wither, who thinks Viola is just a common shop girl and two unlovely sisters-in-law, one of whom is in love with the chauffeur. Only the prospect of the charity ball can raise Viola's spirits - especially as Victor Spring, the local prince charming will be there. But Victor's intentions towards our Cinderella are, in short, not quite honourable . . .Trade ReviewGibbons's heroines are plucky, determined and quietly hedonistic. But she can do melancholy with the best of them, too, not to mention melodrama * Guardian *What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it. It is a rare unadulterated pleasure and high time for its encore -- Sophie DahlNightingale Wood is very impressive . . . Gibbons is superb on middle class life in the years immediately before the second world war, on the erosions of class division and ongoing snobbery . . . relying on icicle wit and sharp observation to lambast conventional morality. Gibbons also displays a tender side. There is real sadness in some of her characters, instead of deliberately heightened rural dolour - and it winds up as a love story that would please Jane Austen . . . I've loved every minute -- Sam Jordison * Guardian *A sharp-edged romantic comedy, we have a chance to see what we've been missing * Daily Mail *Gibbons's heroines are plucky, determined and quietly hedonistic. But she can do melancholy with the best of them, too, not to mention melodrama * Guardian *What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it. It is a rare unadulterated pleasure and high time for its encoreNightingale Wood is very impressive . . . Gibbons is superb on middle class life in the years immediately before the second world war, on the erosions of class division and ongoing snobbery . . . relying on icicle wit and sharp observation to lambast conventional morality. Gibbons also displays a tender side. There is real sadness in some of her characters, instead of deliberately heightened rural dolour - and it winds up as a love story that would please Jane Austen . . . I've loved every minute * Guardian *NIGHTINGALE WOOD is in essence, a sprawling, delightful, eccentric fairy tale . . . There is romance galore, a transformative dress, and a ball, much dizzy kissing in hedgerows and beyond, spying, retribution and runaways, fights and a fire, poetry and heartbreak, a few weddings AND funerals, and a fairytale ending with a twist. What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it. It is a rare unadulterated pleasure and high time for its encore * Sophie Dahl *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Company She Keeps
Book SynopsisThese six brilliantly written episodes, brought together in Mary McCarthy's first novel, create a fascinating portrait of a 1930s New York social circle. Based loosely on the author's own life, the book follows a young bohemian woman, Margaret Sargent, through her experiences and lost loves in a time of coming war. On publication in 1942, its bold insight, sly wit and virtuoso style won Mary McCarthy immediate recogntion as one of the most accomplished, versatile and penetrating writers in America.Trade ReviewMary McCarthy's debut collection of short stories caused a sensation in 1942 and is no less vibrant today * Guardian *McCarthy may be best known for The Group but her debut novel made nearly as much of a splash when [first] published in 1942 . . . A jagged diamond of a book, the multifaceted parts giving a glimpse of a brilliant but fractured whole * Observer *McCarthy exposes the complex psychological workings of a brilliant, tortured and manipulative mind . . . Could have been written today. Timeless, brilliant and frighteningly insightful * Daily Mail *A consummate piece of work -- Norman MailerClever, witty, polished * New York Times *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Girl Reading
Book SynopsisAn orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena, and an artist's servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. A woman reading in a Shoreditch bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture, and a Victorian medium holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure.Trade ReviewA real wow of a first novel. The premise is alarmingly simple and yet somehow stunning: seven portraits, seven artists, seven girls and women reading . . . A wonderful, imaginative evocation of seven different worlds . . . It's very rare for a novel to have a real freshness and originality but at the same time to evoke echoes of other literary memories. This feels incredibly clever. It's a book packed full of adventures and stories and you completely lose yourself in them . . . This book's great strength: the perfect, separate, involving worlds it creates. Like Mitchell, Ward is equally adept at shifting between completely different registers and voices . . . It [has] real beating heart . . . It will be fascinating to see what she writes next * Viv Groskop, The Times *A debut of rare individuality and distinction. Katie Ward inhabits each of her seven scenes, her seven eras, with a fluent and intuitive touch, and sentence by sentence, deft and mercurial, she surpasses the readers' expectations. What is set down on the page has a rich and allusive hinterland, so that the reader's imagination has a space to work, and what is unsaid has its own fascination. The writing is full of light and shadow, alive with fresh and startling perceptions. Ward is wise, poised, and utterly original. Her eye and her words are fresh, as if she is inventing the world. * Hilary Mantel *This richly textured novel is composed of seven stories inspired by portraits -- Isabel Wolff * The Week *An impressive debut -- Holly Kyte * Sunday Telegraph *Intelligently written -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Anderby Wold
Book SynopsisMary Robson is a young Yorkshire woman, married to her solid, unromantic cousin, John. Together they battle to preserve Mary's neglected inheritance: their beloved farm, Anderby Wold. This labour of love - and the benevolent tyranny of traditional Yorkshire ways - has made Mary old before her time. Then into her purposeful life comes David Rossitur. Young, red-haired, charming, eloquent: how can she help but love him? But David is from a different England - radical and committed to social change. As their confrontation and its consequences inevitably unfold, Mary's life and that of the calm village of Anderby are changed forever.
£8.99
Penguin Books Ltd About Us
Book Synopsis'A charming, laugh-out-loud read' - SUNDAY INDEPENDENTSHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021Three couples. One therapist's couch ...Alice and Niall used to be lovers, best friends and parents, in that order. Now they're no longer on the same page or even reading from the same book.Ann thought when she and Ken retired, it would be their second spring. Instead, it feels more like an icy winter.Orla is falling in love with boyfriend Paul, but her complicated past makes her unsure if she can ever be intimate with anyone.Three couples find themselves telling a stranger about the most private part of their lives - their hopes, their disappointments, their awkward realisations.Can they learn to be honest with each other? And what life-changing decisions will be made when they do?'Such a joy to read . . . a brilliant book' - CLAIRE BYRNE'Moriarty has perfected the fine dance between light and shade, turning some of the most substantial and challenging of life's realities into compelling, companionable reads' - IRISH INDEPENDENTTrade ReviewA brilliant read and perfect for summer. Sinéad is a master when it comes to characters who you care for and storylines that feel genuine and sincere * Belfast Telegraph *Such a joy to read . . . a wonderful book -- Claire ByrneBrilliant and beautifully told -- Anna McPartlinMoriarty has perfected the fine dance between light and shade, turning some of the most substantial and challenging of life's realities into compelling, companionable reads * Irish Independent *There is a bit of each of these women in us all. A charming, laugh-out-loud read * Sunday Independent *The standout book of the summer * RSVP *
£7.59
Gwasg Carreg Gwalch Bod Rhydderch
Book SynopsisAfter a quarrel with her mother, Ana, a young girl from Patagonia, flees to Wales on her own. She travels all the way to Aberdaron, her grandmother''s birthplace to learn more about the place she''s heard so much about, without knowing how long she''ll stay. However, instead of escaping her troubles, she is drawn deeper and deeper into the turbulent story of her family.
£10.69
O'Brien Press Ltd Black Mountain: and other stories
Book SynopsisIn this collection, one of Ireland’s best-known political figures brings us new and selected stories of politics, of family, of love and of friendship. These are portraits of Ireland, and especially Belfast, old and new, in times of struggle and in times of peace, showing how our past is always part of our present. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, always moving, these are stories of ordinary people captured with wit, with heart and with understanding. Introduction by Timothy O'Grady.Trade ReviewTHE STREET AND OTHER STORIES ‘He brings a wry humour and a detailed observation to small events ... If there is a unifying strand, it is compassion for people in difficult situations.’ * The Sunday Times *Gerry Adams passes the test in relation to the question of literary talent. He observes, he describes, he knows how to maintain suspension, how to surprise, how to make one laugh, how to touch and move one emotionally, writing with authority and confidence, reflecting authentic working-class dialogue which rarely becomes sentimental … He never shies away from his plebeian Ballymurphy and West Belfast roots but gives voice to people’s struggles, domestic, political and moral * Danny Morrison *the book is a fine read. Adams is that rare revolutionary who can write humor as well as pathos and poignancy * Celtic Life International *
£11.39
New Island Books Lenny
In the Ubari Sand Sea in 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War, a mysterious pilot falls from the sky – a sky devil – and is forever changed by the little boy who rescues him. One year later, in the town of Roseville, Louisiana, in the aftermath of economic crisis and corporate environmental damage, 10-year-old Lenny Lockhart is losing the people and things dearest to him. His only friends now are his plucky, elderly neighbour, Miss Julie, and the town’s lonely librarian, Lucy Albert. Homeless and neglected, Lenny heads deep into the dark and unpredictable bayou, determined to conquer the sinkhole that is threatening to swallow his town. As time seems to be simultaneously slowing down and running out, is it really Lenny who needs saving, or the broken adults in his life? As these two timelines converge, Lenny tells a deeply affecting story of family and love, the ways we can be kind, and the power of one boy’s imagination to heal and survive.
£12.59
Quercus Publishing Only Ever Yours YA edition
Book Synopsis'Utterly magnificent . . . gripping, accomplished and dark' Marian KeyesWINNER: Newcomer of the Year at the IBAs WINNER: Bookseller YA Prize WINNER: CBI Eilis Dillon Award Buzzfeed's Best Books Written by Women in 2014The bestselling novel about beauty, body image and betrayaleves are designed, not made. The School trains them to be prettyThe School trains them to be good.The School trains them to Always be Willing.All their lives, the eves have been waiting. Now, they are ready for the outside world.companion . . . concubine . . . or chastityOnly the best will be chosen.And only the Men decide.Trade ReviewGripping ... like all the best dystopias, Only Ever Yours is about the world we live in now * Irish Times *The Handmaid's Tale meets Mean Girls' * The Vagenda *Utterly magnificent ... gripping, accomplished and dark * Marian Keyes *Deserves to be read by young and old, male and female, the world over in the same way Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were * Sunday Independent *A dark dream. A vivid nightmare. The world O'Neill imagines is frightening because it could come true. She writes with a scalpel * Jeanette Winterson *Deep, dark and frighteningly believable, this book will stay with you for a long time * Marie Claire *Compelling writing ... this only-too-real dystopia grips from beginning to end * SFX *Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with a post-millennial twist * The Journal.ie *The bleakness of The Catcher in the Rye, the satire of The Stepford Wives and it made me recall Nineteen Eighty-Four ... a fresh and original talent * Irish Independent *Terrifying but captivating * Company *A sparkling debut that will really make you think * Heat *'Compelling and frightening' * Irish Examiner *An ingenious exploration of gender roles, female identity and female competition * Buzzfeed *'Terrifying and heartbreaking, O'Neill's story reads like an heir to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and MT Anderson's Feed, and, like those two books, it's sure to be discussed for years to come' * Publisher's Weekly *'A stunning debut set in a dystopian future that has everyone talking . . . once read, will never be forgotten' * Irish Independent *Dark, gripping . . . should be mandatory reading everywhere * The F Word *
£9.86
Quercus Publishing The Ten O'Clock Horses
Book SynopsisIt is 1962. The first avocado pears are appearing at the greengrocers, people are thinking about carpeting their lavatories and boxing in their banisters, and Ronnie Glover, housepainter, husband and father, is feeling the first vague stirrings of discontent with his life. Then, out of the blue, the fabulous, sophisticated (and married) Jacqueline bursts into his life and teaches him to tango. She seems to offer everything he ever dreamt of. But is it all too good to be true? What can a woman who has traveled the world want with a man who carries a stub of pencil behind his ear? And are the Ten O'Clock horses of Ronnie's painful childhood awake and sniffing the wind?Trade Review'Turbo-charged by the palpable rage and desperation of its hero ... the narrative rips along on a tide of beautifully observed dialogue' TLS. * TLS *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing The Lonely Hearts Hotel: the Bailey's Prize
Book Synopsis'Joyful, funny and vividly alive' Emily St John Mandel'The Lonely Hearts Hotel sucked me right in and only got better and better . . . I began underlining truths I had hungered for' Miranda July'Makes me think of comets and live wires . . . raises goosebumps' Helen Oyeyemi'A fairytale laced with gunpowder' Kelly Link The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with a difference. Set throughout the roaring twenties, it is a wicked fairytale of circus tricks and child prodigies, radical chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians and brooding clowns, set in an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. It is the tale of two dreamers, abandoned in an orphanage where they were fated to meet. Here, in the face of cold, hunger and unpredictable beatings, Rose and Pierrot create a world of their own, shielding the spark of their curiosity from those whose jealousy will eventually tear them apart. When they meet again, each will have changed, having struggled through the Depression, through what they have done to fill the absence of the other. But their childhood vision remains - a dream to storm the world, a spectacle, an extravaganza that will lift them out of the gutter and onto a glittering stage. Heather O'Neill's pyrotechnical imagination and language are like no other. In this she has crafted a dazzling circus of a novel that takes us from the underbellies of war-time Montreal and Prohibition New York, to a theatre of magic where anything is possible - where an orphan girl can rule the world, and a ruined innocence can be redeemed.Trade ReviewHeather O'Neill's style is laced with so much sublime possibility and merciless actuality (and vice versa) that it makes me think of comets and live wires and william blake's tyger . . . between prose like that and a story like this, you have a book that raises goosebumps and the giddiest of grins more or less simultaneously * Helen Oyeyemi *Because this book is so filled with delightful things - bold and complex sex; heartache and wickedness and glittering hearts - it would be easy to overlook how finely it is made. The Lonely Hearts Hotel sucked me right in and only got better and better, ultimately becoming much tougher, wiser than I was prepared for. I began underlining truths I had hungered for but never before read. By the end I was a gasping, tearful mess. * Miranda July *O'Neill is an extraordinary writer, and her new novel is exquisite. She has taken on sadness itself as a subject, but it would be terribly reductive to say that this book is sad; it's also joyful, funny, and vividly alive. * Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven *A fairy tale laced with gunpowder and romance and icing sugar, all wrapped round with a lit fuse. Each of Heather O'Neill's sentences pricks or delights. If you haven't read her other books, start with this one and then read all of the rest. * Kelly Link *O'Neill at the height of her literary powers . . . her most book gripping to date . . . Ferociously direct. . . A ravishing novel, that, for all its brutality, retains a childlike appreciation for the fantastic. -- Andre Forget * Walrus *A love story of epic proportions...this novel will cast a spell upon readers from page one. * Publisher's Weekly *Walking the hypnotic line between tragedy and fairy tale ...Grotesque and whimsical at once, the love story that unfolds is a fable of ambition and perseverance, desperation and heartbreak. But while Pierrot is unforgettable, the novel belongs to Rose, a woman who - if she cannot carve out space for herself in upstanding daylight - will rise to power in the underworld of night. O'Neill's prose is crisp and strange, arresting in its frankness; much like the novel itself, her writing is both gleefully playful and devastatingly sad. Big and lush and extremely satisfying; a rare treat. * Kirkus *O'Neill is a mistress of metaphor and imagery ... This is brilliant tragicomedy ... in a melancholy love story that brings to life the bygone days of theatrical revues. It's a little weird and a lot of fun. * Booklist *O'Neill's prose is gorgeous, with arresting imagery. This simultaneously heartbreaking and life-affirming novel depicts the range of the human experience through the eyes of its almost pretenaturally charming hero and heroine . . . This is an original and unforgettable novel. * Library Journal *A romance that's straight out of a strange, prettily twisted fairytale * Psychologies *Award-winning Canadian author Heather O'Neill spins a spell-binding yarn set in the seedy worlds of pre-war Montreal and Prohibition New York . . . There are many cruel forks in the road along the way, but the novel has a magical quality that softens the blows. * Boundless *loved the world weary tone of Heather O'Neill's debut novel Lullabies For Little Criminals (shortlisted for the Orange Women's Prize) and The Lonely Hearts Hotel more than lives up to the promise of her earlier work . . . This novel has a gorgeous, gin-sodden, rain-soaked feel that reminds me of Jean Rhys. * Red *A larger-than-life, gritty love story that reads like a fable . . . The greatest strength of O'Neill's work, however, is her wholly unique narrative voice, which is at once cool and panoramic, yet shockingly intimate and wisely philosophical. The novel brims with shimmering one-liners..."THE LONELY HEARTS HOTEL is that rare find: a novel you have never before read anything quite like. O'Neill, a genius at metaphor, and who tackles graphic and delicate topics with rare tenderness and even charm, has created a sweeping story with elements of historical fiction, romance, crime and noir, yet writes in a style that authoritatively claims all terrain in her reach as her own. -- Gina Frangello * Boston Globe *An extremely unusual modern fairy tale. It shows us the dark side of how fragile our lives are and how easily damaged. Overall, it was a beautiful, magical love story * Waterstones *To read Heather O'Neill's dazzling new novel is to enter an enchanting and poetic world that is also amusing, troubling and often lascivious. O'Neill's lively style is so filled with vivid descriptions and complex characters that the reader's experience is virtually cinematic. * Washington Post *The Giller-shortlisted author's new novel has all the absurd, frightening, fantastical qualities of a midnight reverie - complete with depressed clowns, dancing bears, lunatic nuns and smitten mobsters - and with a similar power to haunt . . . O'Neill, always an original and enchanting storyteller, is at the height of her powers. The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a feat of imagination, accomplished through the tiny, marvellous details she scatters across the page. * Toronto Star *Walks a tightrope between social and magical realism . . . She grafts Angela Carter-esque fairytale darkness on to her forays into her native Montreal's gothic underbelly . . . A gritty, giddy fairyground ride of a book [involving] rapture, wonder and an unquenchable faith in the extraordinary * Daily Mail *Heather O'Neill [is] determined to see wonder in unlikely places . . . I admired the novel's big-heartedness, its defiant affirmation of the whole seedy, sad, beautiful burlesque that is the life of these characters . . . This novel is neither gritty realism nor noir, not Dickens nor commedia dell'arte nor dystopian fairytale, but a little bit of all of them. -- Molly McCloskey * Guardian *O'Neill magics up a world that's both lush and brutal. But The Lonely Hearts Hotel also shows us that the chorus girls are turning tricks, the clowns are taking heroin and the dancing children have already seen too much. It's a beguiling mix, with paragraphs you'll want to read over and over to revel in their rightness. * Emerald Street *Art, love, imagination - these values are held aloft in O'Neill's novel . . . it's achingly romantic . . . a feminist fairy tale of sorts . . . the nature of the theatrical spectacle Rose and Pierrot and company have created speaks to the mesmerizing effects of the novel itself * San Francisco Chronicle *Theatrical glitter and a romance that's straight out of a strange, twisted fairy tale . . . O'Neill's magical storytelling is packed with startling images * Mail on Sunday *A harrowing story of abuse, addiction and the loss of innocence. And yet it is charming, lyrical, magical and often funny . . . There is a fragile beauty and childish fascination and even fun within the seediest of her scenes. It reads like a poetic act of rebellion -- Anne Cunningham * Sunday Independent *
£9.49
Everyman Bleak House
Considered by many readers, including Shaw, Chesterton, Conrad and Trilling, as one of Dickens's finest achievements, Bleak House tells the complex story of a notorious lawsuit in which love and inheritance are set against the classic urban background of nineteenth-century London, where fog on the river, seeping into the very bones of the characters, symbolizes the pervasive corruption of the legal system and the society which supports it. Displaying the writer's familiar panoramic sweep and enormous cast of brilliant characters, the novel is also a bold experimental narrative in which public and private worlds are brought into sharp focus. It was first published in monthly parts, 1852-3, accompanied by the illustrations by 'Phiz' reproduced in this volume. This edition also reprints the original Everyman preface by G. K. Chesterton.
£16.20
Everyman The Moonstone
Book SynopsisThe moonstone is a yellow diamond of unearthly beauty brought from India and given to Rachel Verrinder as an eighteenth birthday present, but the fabled diamond carries with it a terrible curse.
£11.69
Everyman Sanditon And Other Stories
Book SynopsisA dazzling collection of early stories and later fragments which throw an entirely new light on Jane Austen. In particular, they reveal a precociously brilliant genius with a talent for broad comedy and even farce. Most of the pieces in this collection are very funny indeed, and several - including the novella LADY SUSAN and the unfinished novel SANDITION are also neglected masterpieces. Other material includes the celebrated HISTORY OF ENGLAND, poems, prayers, the Plan of a Novel, etc. The volume is arranged in two parts, with the mature stories in Part 1 edited for easy reading, and the juvenilia collected by Austen herself presented exactly as she wrote them in Part 2. It includes everything she wrote apart from letters and the six famous novels, and is the final volume in the complete Everyman edition of her works now available in seven uniform volumes.
£14.39
Everyman The Adventures of Augie March
Book SynopsisThe fictional autobiography of a rumbustious adventurer and poker-player who sets off his native Chicago in the spirit of a latter-day Columbus to rediscover the world-and more especially, twentieth-century America. This expansive comedy of American manners in the tradition of Twain's 'innocent abroad' is a major classic of twentieth-century American literature.
£12.34
Everyman Les Miserables
Book SynopsisTolstoy is said to have called Les Miserables the greatest novel ever written, and it exerted a powerful influence on the creation of War and Peace. At one level a detective story in which the relentless Inspector Javert obsessively pursues the escaped convict Jean Valjean, culminating in a dramatic chase through the sewers of Paris, at another level Hugo's masterpiece is a drama of crime, punishment and rehabilitation set against a panoramic description of French society in the years after Napoleon's fall from power. But this book is also about the metaphysical struggle between good and evil in the soul of every man and every community. Coloured by Hugo's distinctive philosophy, it is a plea for social justice, political enlightenment and personal charity which continues to speak with the undiminished authority more than a century after its first appearance.
£19.00
Everyman Histories
Book SynopsisTraditionally known as the Father of History, the Greek writer Herodotus(c. 484-420 BC), was the first man to tell a story in prose on the scale of the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY. His subject is the war between the Persians and the Greeks but, in order to explain how this war came about, he also describes the rise of the Persian empire and analyses the causes of its conflict with neighbouring states. Despite its remoteness from our own time, this is a fascinating story, told by a great writer. Herodotus has a powerful narrative style and penetrating eye for character. The great men of the age are vividly described and extraordinary details of customs, places and even the weather are sketched in. Herodotus is not merely an historian; he is also a political commentator, a geographer, an anthropologist and a philosopher. Yet events are described swiftly in simple sentences and drama is rarely far away. The continuing relevance of the HISTORIES to our time has been vividly highlighted by the extensive allusions to the book in Michael Ondaatje's novel THE ENGLISH PATIENT. The film of THE ENGLISH PATIENT in which the role of Herodotus' HISTORIES is even more pronounced opens in Britain in March 1997 after colossal success in the US.
£18.00
Everyman The House Of The Spirits
Book SynopsisWe begin - at the turn of the century, in an unnamed South American country - in the childhood home of the woman who will be the mother and grandmother of the clan, Clara del Valle. A warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl, Clara has distinguished herself from an early age with her telepathic abilities - she can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, the fabled Rosa the Beautiful, Clara has been mute for nine years, resisting all attempts to make her speak. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon.Her husband-to-be is Esteban Trueba, a stern, willful man, given to fits of rage and haunted by a profound loneliness. At the age of thirty-five, he has returned to the capital from his country estate to visit his dying mother and to find a wife. (He was Rosa's fiancé, and her death has marked him as deeply as it has Clara.) This is the man Clara has foreseen - has summoned - to be her husband; Esteban, in turn, will conceive a passion for Clara that will last the rest of his long and rancorous life.We go with this couple as they move into the extravagant house he builds for her, a structure that everyone calls "the big house on the corner," which is soon populated with Clara's spiritualist friends, the artists she sponsors, the charity cases she takes an interest in, with Esteban's political cronies, and, above all, with the Trueba children: Blanca, a practical, self-effacing girl who will, to the fury of her father, form a lifelong liaison with the son of his foreman, and the twins, Jaime and Nicolás, the former a solitary, taciturn boy who becomes a doctor to the poor and unfortunate; the latter a playboy, a dabbler in Eastern religions and mystical disciplines and, in the third generation, the child Alba, Blanca's daughter (the family does not recognize the real father for years, so great is Esteban's anger), a child who is fondled and indulged and instructed by them all.For all their good fortune, their natural (and supernatural) talents, and their powerful attachments to one another, the inhabitants of "the big house on the corner" are not immune to the larger forces of the world. And, as the twentieth century beats on, as Esteban becomes more strident in his opposition to Communism, as Jaime becomes the friend and confidant of the Socialist leader known as the Candidate, as Alba falls in love with a student radical, the Truebas become actors - and victims - in a tragic series of events that gives The House of the Spirits a deeper resonance and meaning.Trade ReviewThe amazing Isabel Allende, the niece of Chile's ousted President Salvador Allende, is creating the kind of literary sensation most writers only dream of. And "The House of the Spirits" is no ordinary first novel. It is an exotic vision - a brilliant, impassioned epic - and a personal coup for the young journalist who "had to write it."The book seemed to come from nowhere: a first novel by a forty two-year-old Chilean journalist that has dazzled readers throughout Europe and Latin America, making its author the most unexpected sensation since the emergence of Gabriel Garcia Márquez. -- Cathleen Medwick * Vogue *An extraordinary debut, The House of the Spirits marks the appearance of a major international writer.Rarely has a first novel catapulted a writer so suddenly to international attention and acclaim as The House of the Spirits. The author, Isabel Allende, is niece of former Chilean president, Salvador Allende Gossens; yet she was totally unknown to the world at large until the events of last year. * Alfred A Knopf *With this spectacular first novel, Isabel Allende becomes the first woman to join what has heretofore been an exclusive male club of Latin American novelists."The House of the Spirits" draws on this experience, though always in veiled terms. A meticulously detailed family saga spanning four generations, the novel is set in a mythified land of volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes, peopled by characters who seem to derive their extravagance from their natural surroundings. -- Alexander Coleman * New York Times *
£15.29
Everyman Ride A Cock Horse And Other Rhymes And Stories
Book Synopsis'The very essence of all illustration for children's books' said The Times on Christmas Eve, 1878, shortly after the publication of Caldecott's first two picture books, or Toy Books as they were called, John Gilpin and The House that Jack Built. They were an immediate success, and in Caldecott's special talent for juxtaposing words and pictures, he created a tradition of children's picture-book making that continues to the present day and has influenced many artists, in particular, Maurice Sendak. Between 1878 and 1886 Cldecott produced sixteen picture books, taking as texts traditional rhymes and songs, and illustrating them in sepia colour with great humour and feeling for the English countryside which so often provides the background. The collection reproduces eight of his books, including The Babes in the Wood, Oliver Goldsmith's Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, The Great Panjandrum Himself, The Queen of Hearts, Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross, and Sing a Song Of Sixpence.
£10.44
Brewin Books Tales of Guildford Street: A Novel of Birmingham
Book SynopsisThis first novel by Emilia Williams is a sweeping family saga of life in the working class community of the Birmingham back to backs. Set between the 1920s and the 1960s, the story of the Holtes and Hatfields of Aston and Lozells, and their friends and neighbours, is seen through the eyes of Ada, the family matriarch, Lily, her fiery shop steward daughter, and Grace and Susannah, her granddaughters. The narrative encompasses the social life, politics and fashions of the 1960s and also the winds of change that are coming - as the characters prepare to leave the back to backs, which are to be demolished, as is the entire area - houses, pubs, shops, schools, cinemas and markets - as the 1970s are about to begin. Everyone is looking forward to a brighter future, but with some regrets for leaving the old world behind and the breaking up of a tightly knit working class community.
£11.97
Norvik Press The Löwensköld Ring
Book SynopsisThe Löwensköld Ring (1925) is the first volume of the trilogy considered to have been Selma Lagerlöf's last work of prose fiction. Set in the Swedish province of Värmland in the eighteenth century, the narrative traces the consequences of the theft of General Löwensköld's ring from his coffin, and develops into a disturbing tale of revenge from beyond the grave. It is also a tale about decisive women. The narrative twists and the foregrounding of alternative interpretations confront the reader with a pervasive sense of ambiguity. Along with the narrative technique, the spell of the ring extends into the two subsequent volumes, Charlotte Löwensköld (1925) and Anna Svärd (1928).
£11.35
Saraband Making Shore
Book SynopsisNineteen-year-old merchant seaman Brian Clarke is sure the U-boats will never hit home; he won't be the one to die. But when his ship is torpedoed in the middle of the Atlantic, he quickly learns the meaning of fear. Adrift in a lifeboat with precious little to sustain the survivors, the odds of making shore gradually lengthen. Under an unrelenting sun, slowly dying of thirst, he watches in horror as his shipmates begin to abandon hope and turn to in-fighting. Except for Joe. In refusing to renounce integrity and compassion, he keeps faith with their humanity, helping Brian through an endurance test of near-impossible proportions. And in return, Brian finds himself duty-bound to honour a promise when he returns. Based on a true incident in World War II.
£8.99
Old Street Publishing Crisis of Brilliance
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£999.99
Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd Triangulum
Book SynopsisFrom the award-winning writer of The Reactive, Triangulum is an ambitious, often philosophical and genre-bending novel that covers a period of over 40 years in South Africa's recent past and near future -- starting from the collapse of the apartheid homeland system in the early 1990s, to the economic corrosion of the 2010s, and on to the looming, large-scale ecological disasters of the 2040s.In 2040, the South African National Space Agency receives a mysterious package containing a memoir and a set of digital recordings from an unnamed woman who claims the world will end in ten years. Assigned to the case, Dr. Naomi Buthelezi, a retired professor and science-fiction writer, is hired to investigate the veracity of the materials, and whether or not the woman's claim to have heard from a "force more powerful than humankind" is genuine. Thus begins Triangulum, a found manuscript composed of the mysterious woman's memoir and her recordings. Haunted by visions of a mysterious machine, the narrator is a seemingly adrift 17-year-old girl, whose father never recovered from the shock of losing his wife. She struggles to navigate school, sexual experimentation, and friendship across racial barriers in post-Apartheid South Africa. With extraordinary aplomb and breathtaking prose, Ntshanga has crafted an inventive and marvelous novel.
£8.54
BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House Cabin Pressure: A-Z: The BBC Radio 4 Airline
Book SynopsisEvery episode of the hit BBC Radio 4 airline sitcom is collected together in this special box set, including the Christmas special final episode, and several bonus features. Cabin Pressure is set in the wing and a prayer world of a tiny, one-plane charter airline, staffed by two pilots - one on his way down, and one who was never up to start with. Whether flying a cat to Abu Dhabi, dealing with a nervous bassoonist, hunting for a cleverly-hidden lemon or attempting to celebrate Christmas in seven minutes, no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. Carolyn Knapp-Shappey, MJN Air's formidable boss, has employed two of the very cheapest pilots money can buy: Captain Martin Crieff, who's always wanted to fly and won't let a little thing like lack of ability stop him, and First Officer Douglas Richardson, smooth-voiced old sky-god and eternal schemer. Passenger service is provided by the relentlessly cheery Arthur. Written by John Finnemore, Cabin Pressure stars Stephanie Cole as Carolyn, Benedict Cumberbatch as Martin, Roger Allam as Douglas, and John Finnemore as Arthur.‘The more I listen to John Finnemore's Cabin Pressure, the more I think what a stonking masterpiece it is. Perfect in every department.’ – Philip PullmanTrade ReviewCabin Pressure is one of the best written, cast, acted and directed comedies on anywhere. -- Gillian Reynolds * The Daily Telegraph *I cannot find a single flaw in it. So top marks. -- Nicholas Lezard * The Independent *The more I listen to John Finnemore's Cabin Pressure, the more I think what a stonking masterpiece it is. Perfect in every department.’ -- Philip Pullman
£54.00
Bluemoose Books Ltd Man with a Seagull on His Head
Book SynopsisUnder the intense summer sun on the Essex coast a gull falls from the sky and strikes an unassuming local council worker sitting on the beach below. From that moment on he is obsessed, a crazed visionary repeatedly depicting the scene and the unknown figure within in it which filled his view at the moment of impact. The mysterious beauty of his creations draw others to him but can they lay hold of that which possess him? And what of his anonymous muse?Trade Review'Acutely observed and generously imagined, this portrait of an accidental artist is as surprising as it is enthralling. It gripped me from the first page. Its last lines are still with me, shimmering with wise promise.' Maureen Freely;`A precious and strange thing. A bona fide gem. A book that would be a credit to any short list.' The Guardian.
£8.54
Gallic Books Wild Dog: Sinister and savage psychological
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE PRIX LANDERNEAU DES LECTEURS 2018 Described as 'eerie and sensual' by The Guardian, Wild Dog tells the story of a young couple who discover dark secrets in the remote French countryside. 'Reads like a modern fairy tale' New York Journal of Books Franck and Lise, a French couple in the film industry, rent a cottage in the quiet hills of the French Lot to get away from the stresses of modern life. In this remote corner of the world, there is no phone signal. A mysterious dog emerges, looking for a new master. Ghosts of a dark past run wild in these hills, where a German lion tamer took refuge in the First World War … Franck and Lise are confronted with nature at its most brutal. And they are about to discover that man and beast have more in common than they think. A literary sensation in France, Wild Dog is a dark, menacing tale of isolation, human nature and the infinite savagery of the wild.
£10.44
Nine Elms Books INTO THE FIRE: One Photograph Can Change A Nation
Book SynopsisPhilip Trotter's debut novel is an exhilarating and original take on the Vietnam theme, exploring less familiar aspects of the country's painful history through the generation-defining image of the Burning Monk. Saigon, 1963. With the tensions of war starting to swirl, rookie photographer Ned Rivers lands in South Vietnam, hungry for the iconic shot that will make his name. But a shocking and violent act of protest by a local Buddhist monk quickly draws Ned's focus from the battlefields and the Viet Cong. Behind the front pages, a different conflict is churning - political, religious, and cultural - which threatens to tear this fragile nation even further apart. As Ned learns more about the Buddhist community's suffering at the hands of the state, his journalistic detachment becomes harder to justify. New friendships turn to solidarity and action, leaving him open to the government's wrath. President Diem sends out his ruthless attack dog Colonel Tung to manage the interfering journalist. Meanwhile, Diem faces mounting criticism from his American allies as their stake in Vietnam deepens. With political pressures at home driving US policy, the regime seems increasingly like a liability. For Ned, caught at the centre of this international chessboard, the adventure becomes too real. With friendships, love and a career in balance, can he hope to protect it all from the conspiracy of violence, arrest and war that surrounds him?
£7.59
Daunt Books The Coming Bad Days
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£9.49
Epigram Books If It Were Up to Mrs Dada
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£9.50
Great Northern Books Ltd Lost Empires
Book SynopsisIn the months before the First World War, Richard Herncastle joins his Uncle's illusionist act on the Music Hall stage where he comes into contact with larger than life, garish and outrageous characters. Both funny and sad, Lost Empires tells of a young man's awakening to the world of love and sex, and is also a richly coloured portrait of a dying world of theatre and of lives and a society that the Great War would soon change irrevocably. Received with rave reviews when first published in 1965, this Priestley classic was later made into a major television series starring Colin Firth. Priestley delivers a captivating and authentic snapshot of a fascinating period in theatre history whilst creating a social drama with believable and absorbing characterisation.Trade Review"My favourite of all his work... a storyteller supreme, a master of his craft." from the introduction by Roy Hudd; "If you've read this before, embark on a return journey. If you haven't, I envy you."from the introduction by Barry Cryer
£9.49
Parthian Books The Blue Tent
Book SynopsisIn a lonely house deep in the Black Mountains of south Wales, a man spends insomniac nights absorbed in the ancient texts left him by his mysterious aunt. When a blue tent appears in the field at the end of his garden, his solitary life is turned inside out. But who owns the tent? And when the tent's occupants emerge, whose story are they telling? As his life unravels, the man begins to question whether he is the orchestrator or the victim of his own experiences. Are the stories that guide or steer his life - any life - real, or merely the echo of other, possible lives?
£12.40
The Book Guild Ltd Ollie & Ada
Book SynopsisOllie & Ada cross paths in a bereavement support class. There's an instant attraction but both are lost broken souls who need to find the road to recovery. Despite the tragic environment they find themselves in, they hope together that love can heal heartache but in this most delicate and challenging of environments, danger lurks at every turn. Will they push each other along, or will the demands of a new relationship cause them to crash and burn as crushing grief threatens to take over everything consuming them both? They will need to find strength, courage and rediscover their self-worth. The path of true love seldom runs smoothly. Can the pair leap from trauma to tranquillity or will fate have other ideas? One thing is for sure, life will never be the same again...
£6.74
Hajar Press You Must Believe in Spring
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£999.99
The Book Guild Ltd Thistle in the Long Grass
Book SynopsisThe thistle plant has a beautiful bloom, but it is protected by sharp barbs and prickly leaves. How many blooms would be plucked if not for those organic fortifications? Thistle, a name she adopts for herself, is an emotionally damaged young woman who experiences abuse, abandonment and loneliness in her childhood. As she attempts to move beyond her traumatic past, Thistle develops complex relationships with two other women, Hilary and Fliss. Set against the social landscape of the 1970s and 80s, this sensitive and considered psychological drama explores themes of friendship, self-discovery and the female experience. As in real life, there is humour and pathos. The novel invites the reader to consider the circumstances which lead its characters to make the decisions that they do and to empathise with their personal conflicts.
£8.09
The Conrad Press Finding Arthur
Book Synopsis‘Finding Arthur’ is a heart-warming story set in Sri Lanka and based on real-life events. In the unfolding of this highly engaging story, the reader is taken on a tour of beautiful landscapes and shores, tantalising readers’ tastebuds on the journey. Dilan, a seemingly happy young business owner, is living the bachelor life with his brother, Sujith, in the heart of Mount Lavinia. The two brothers have recently taken over a bar; it's an exciting time. Arthur, Dilan’s mischievous golden Labrador and regular frequenter of the bar, goes missing. What initially seems like a simple case of lost dog soon reveals itself to be rather more sinister. Dilan rallies his estranged parents to help him find Arthur. But hidden family secrets risk jeopardising the search…
£9.49
The Conrad Press A Sense for Silver
Book Synopsis‘A Sense for Silver’ is an intriguing mystery, setting the radiance of Paris in relief against its darker side, exploring Paris’s magic, its flavours and its diversity. Ellyn Boswell, a young silversmith with an uncanny gift of discerning precious metals by touch, escapes to Paris after her father is reported killed in a cliff fall. Her signature Byzantine bracelets help her find work with an old jeweller in the city’s best food street, where her love of sharing food helps her make friends. She hates liars and thieves, but she has something they want. Is she being followed for her sense for silver or because of some backlash from her father’s shady dealings?
£10.44
The Book Guild Ltd Dead Man Singing
Book SynopsisWhat’s a rock star to do when his talent fails him and his career has withered and died? Fed up with never-ending humiliations, Dave Masters fakes his own death in an attempt to boost his record sales, walking away from an industry that turned its back on him. But what’s a dead rock star to do when he realises too late that he can’t live without the stage? Dave decides to set up as his own tribute act, and starts all over, soon discovering that building a new life isn’t as easy as he might have thought. Dead Man Singing is a rollercoaster ride through Dave’s posthumous life; his brushes with fans, lovers, rivals, stalkers, gangsters, the law and the most dangerous enemy of all – himself. Can he come out of the other side of death alive?
£9.49
Brush Animal Books I Don't Feel Christmassy Yet
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£6.99
Ozark Mountain Publishing Beyond All Boundaries Trilogy - Book Three:
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£11.89
