Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisTwo happy couples. One dead body. A whole load of secrets. Married life wasn't meant to start like this.On honeymoon in Bali, you hit it off with another newlywed couple and celebrate your last night at a fancy cliff-side restaurant.No one predicted the evening would end with a dead body. But it was an accident, right? A tragic accident.The honeymoon may be over but it soon becomes clear that there's another side to this story . . . and your life depends on uncovering it.Many marriages can survive anything – but when it starts on a lie is it really 'til death do us part? ___________'This sizzling summer read is a breathtaking exploration of obsession and betrayal' - S Magazine'A page-turner full of secrets and lies, this is a totally addictive read' - Heat, 5-star review'Full of suspense and a whole load of secrets' - Prima'Atmospheric' - Candis'A wonderful twisty thrill ride' - Crime Monthly, lead review, 4 stars'Secrets, lies and the mother of all cover-ups...' - Louise Candlish, bestselling author of Our House and The Only Suspect'An addictive, jaw-dropping read. I loved it.' - Claire Douglas'Fantastically atmospheric and suspenseful ... Set to be one of the biggest sizzling reads of the summer!' - L.V. Matthews'A nerve-jangling tale of tension, suspicion and betrayal' - T.M. Logan'Tense, pacy, twisty and ingeniously plotted, it's going to be HUGE this summer!' - Isabelle Broom'Clever, twisty and tense, I'll be recommending The Honeymoon to friends looking for the perfect summer read.' - Nicole Kennedy'Brilliantly plotted, full of suspense and atmosphere, it had me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep.' - Lia Middleton'I really loved this book. Gripping. Atmospheric. Couldn't put it down.' - Imran Mahmood'Dark, devilish and deliciously addictive. The Honeymoon hooked me from page one and delivered twist after twist. The perfect summer thriller.' - Chris WhitakerTrade Review'A page-turner full of secrets and lies, this is a totally addictive read' * Heat, 5-star review *'Full of suspense and a whole load of secrets' * Prima *'Atmospheric' * Candis *'A wonderful twisty thrill ride' * Crime Monthly, lead review, 4 stars *'Secrets, lies and the mother of all cover-ups ... I was gripped by this twisty tale of two couples' honeymoons colliding' -- Louise Candlish, bestselling author of Our House and The Only Suspect'An addictive, jaw-dropping read. I loved it' -- Claire Douglas'Fantastically atmospheric and suspenseful ... Set to be one of the biggest sizzling reads of the summer!' -- L.V. Matthews'A nerve-jangling tale of tension, suspicion and betrayal' -- T.M. Logan'Tense, pacy, twisty and ingeniously plotted, it's going to be HUGE this summer!' -- Isabelle Broom'Clever, twisty and tense, I'll be recommending The Honeymoon to friends looking for the perfect summer read' -- Nicole Kennedy'Brilliantly plotted, full of suspense and atmosphere, it had me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep' -- Lia Middleton'I really loved this book. Gripping. Atmospheric. Couldn't put it down' -- Imran Mahmood'Dark, devilish and deliciously addictive. The Honeymoon hooked me from page one and delivered twist after twist. The perfect summer thriller' -- Chris Whitaker'I was gripped from the very beginning ... Keeps you guessing all the way' * The Breakfast Book Club *'Tense, twisty and expertly plotted' * The Unmumsy Mum *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRichly imagined and recounted in vivid prose of extraordinary beauty, this book is a stunning illustration of Ransmayr’s talent for imbuing a captivating tale with intense metaphorical, indeed metaphysical force. The world’s most powerful man, Qiánlóng, emperor of China, invites the famous eighteenth-century clockmaker Alister Cox to his court in Beijing. There, in the heart of the Forbidden City, the Englishman and his assistants are to build machines that mark the passing of time as a child or a condemned man might experience it and that capture the many shades of happiness, suffering, love, and loss that come with that passing. Mystified by the rituals of a rigidly hierarchical society dominated by an unimaginably wealthy, god-like ruler, Cox musters all his expertise and ingenuity to satisfy the emperor’s desires. Finally, Qiánlóng, also known by the moniker Lord of Time, requests the construction of a clock capable of measuring eternity—a perpetuum mobile. Seizing this chance to realize a long-held dream and honor the memory of his late beloved daughter, yet conscious of the impossibility of his task, Cox sets to work. As the court is suspended in a never-ending summer, festering with evil gossip about the monster these foreigners are creating, the Englishmen wonder if they will ever escape from their gilded cage. More than a meeting of two men, one isolated by power, the other by grief, this is an exploration of mortality and a virtuoso demonstration that storytelling alone can truly conquer time. Trade Review"Time is naturally Ransmayr’s plaything in this tale, which in Simon Pare’s whisper-quiet translation from the German calls to mind Orhan Pamuk’s charming historical contraptions. The novel explores the way that excitement can cause it to race, boredom to stretch and slow it down, grief to bring it to a halt. . . . [A] quicksilver fantasy." * Wall Street Journal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA playfully postmodern novel exploring questions of identity from a major Swiss writer. A man walks out of a bar and is later found dead at the wheel of his car. On the basis of a few overheard remarks and his own observations, the narrator of this novel imagines the story of this stranger, or rather two alternative stories based on two identities the narrator has invented for him, one under the name of Enderlin, the other under the name Gantenbein.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA unique and modern approach to money, wealth, greed, and financial ignorance presented via a story of a family in the Munich suburbs. The Federmanns live a pleasant but painfully normal life in the Munich suburbs. All that the three children really know about money is that there’s never enough of it in their family. Every so often, their impish Great-Aunt Fé descends on the city. After repeated cycles of boom and bust, profligacy and poverty, the grand old lady has become enormously wealthy and lives alone in a villa on the shore of Lake Geneva. But what does Great-Aunt Fé want from the Federmanns, her only surviving relatives? This time, she invites the children to tea at her luxury hotel where she spoils, flummoxes, and inspires them. Dismayed at their ignorance of the financial ways of the world, she gives them a crash course in economics that piques their curiosity, unsettles their parents, and throws open a whole new world. The young Federmanns are for once taken seriously and together they try to answer burning questions: Where does money come from? Why are millionaires and billionaires never satisfied? And why are those with the most always showered with more? In this rich volume, the renowned poet, translator, and essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger turns his gimlet eye on the mechanisms and machinations of banks and politicians—the human greed, envy, and fear that fuels the global economy. A modern, but moral-less fable, Money, Money, Money! is shot through with Enzensberger’s trademark erudition, wit, and humanist desire to cut through jargon and forearm his readers against obscurantism. Table of ContentsChapter 1 A Visit from Aunt FéChapter 2 The Return of Aunt FéChapter 3 Aunt Fé Moves In with the FedermannsChapter 4 Aunt Fé’s legacyFrom Aunt Fé’s vade mecumA List of Proverbs and Quotations

Read more less

Book SynopsisA glimpse into the world of young people, modern nomads, roving in search of a new and promising life.The Moon in Foil traces the stories of Petra, Natália, Anka, Mika, Juliana, and Jackie as they go out into the world in search of a better life—or maybe just a different one. In post-communist Europe, they have the freedom to study and work in places their parents couldn’t even have visited—Paris, London, Helsinki, and Budapest. But the reality of that “freedom,” they soon discover, is often nothing more than tedious work and poor living conditions. From close looks at the work of a housekeeper at a French hotel, a bartender at an Irish pub, a snowboarding instructor in Slovakia in the winter and an office worker in London in the summer, and a programmer in Helsinki, to explorations of larger topics such as marriage, divorce, and relationships, Zuska Kepplová’s novel is a millennials’ odyssey—a search for the self by the post–Cold War generation.Table of ContentsPetra, ParisAnka, LondonMika, HelsinkiNatália, ParisJuliana, BudapestTrianon–Delta

Read more less

Book Synopsis'ADDICTIVE, ORIGINAL AND BRILLIANTLY TWISTY' T. M. LOGANLisa is running.She has taken her child, Jack, and she has run from his father.Lisa thinks she's safe.She's found a remote house where no one will be able to find them.Lisa is about to wake up in her worst nightmare.And now she must face what she's tried to escape.Risking everything to protect her little boy, Lisa knows that in order to survive she will have to fight, but it's hard to face someone you loved, especially someone you still love, who knows who you really are - and what you are really capable of.Family is everything. What would you do to protect it?'A breathless and heart-stopping book that will keep you guessing until the final page' Woman's OwnTrade ReviewAn addictive, original and brilliantly twisty thriller that asks how far we might go - and how much we'd be willing to sacrifice - to do the right thing * T. M. Logan on To Keep You Safe *Fast-paced - strong . . . and a change from the usual thriller * C J Tudor on To Keep You Safe *I was gripped by this fast-paced thriller with a unique and fascinating character at the heart * Claire McGowan on To Keep You Safe *In this realistic portrayal of a family in turmoil, this is not so much a psych thriller, but a drama of tangled, tragic lives. Utterly compelling * Susi Holliday, #1 bestselling author of The Last Resort *Compulsive, chilling and so clever. I fell into every single trap Kate Bradley set. A dizzyingly fast-paced thriller oozing with mystery, divided loyalties and relationships strained to snapping point. This novel looks at the lengths one woman will go to in order to protect her family * Diane Jeffrey *Kate Bradley has created a dark and deliciously deceptive tale of a broken family, that thrills, shocks and astounds in equal measure. What I Did is an essential psychological thriller where it is impossible to predict what is going to happen next, or who to trust * Chris McGeorge *In What I Did, Kate Bradley poses the question: What is it that underpins family life? The obvious is never the answer in Kate's books, and she leads the reader into an ever-shifting reality as Lisa Law is forced to cope with the consequences of a series of abusive relationships. What I Did gripped me from the opening scene . . . the ride Kate takes the readers on is masterful * Mara Timon *Kate Bradley has written an addictive and emotional psychological thriller about the darkest family-held secrets. This intense, heart-racing story kept me reading through the night * Sharon Dempsey, author of Little Bird *What I Did is a highly immersive psychological thriller and I couldn't put it down. I felt every bit of Lisa's journey as she ran from her old life; but life catches up with a person and this novel didn't disappoint. It's not without its shockers. In fact, there are plenty. It's a twisty read. About halfway through, I'm like... 'what? Now, I wasn't expecting that,' but don't worry, everything made total sense - clever! If you enjoy psychological thrillers that will have your heart racing and are jam-packed with danger, then this is your book. Loved it! * Carla Kovach *A fast-paced, suspenseful thriller that kept me guessing to the very end. Just when I thought I'd worked it all out, another twist came along to remind me that it really was impossible to know who to trust. There was hardly time to catch my breath on this emotionally-engrossing roller-coaster of a read * Wendy Clarke *If you love complex plots with twists galore and tension ramped up to almost unbearable levels, Kate Bradley is an author you should definitely try. I zipped through this in no time at all and am off to find a copy of her debut . . . Definitely a name to remember * G. J. Minett *A breathless and heart-stopping book that will keep you guessing until the final page * Woman's Own *A switchback ride of revelations and counter-revelation * Sussex Life *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Downton with dance, perfect' Santa Montefiore'A novel that's like a hug!' Phillip Schofield A sweeping tale of love and courage against the backdrop of World War II, from Sunday Times bestselling author and King of the Ballroom, Anton Du Beke. London, 1939.As war is declared once more, a shadow falls over Britain. The staff at the luxurious Buckingham hotel must do all that they can to keep their important guests happy, but behind the scenes they are scared. Away from the glitz and the glamour of the ballroom they must face this new reality.Newlywed Nancy knows that her brave husband, debonair dancer Raymond de Guise will want to fight for his country and enlist. She loves and supports him but is heartbroken at the thought of them being apart, and the dangers he will face.With a new hotel manager at the helm, no one knows what the future holds but as fashionable society retreats from London and staff depart to sign up for service, one thing is for certain; life at the Buckingham will never be the same again . . .'A rollicking good read, the work of a gifted storyteller' Daily Mail, on One Enchanted Evening

Read more less

Book Synopsis'I laughed. I cried. I laughed again' Sinéad Moriarty'An enthralling read with . . . so many laughs along the way' Liz Nugent'A funny, poignant and moving read' My WeeklyFrom bestselling Irish writer Anna McPartlin, Waiting for the Miracle is an uplifting novel about how good friends can help you see the funny side of life, even in the darkest of days. Perfect for fans of Sheila O'Flanagan and Marian Keyes.2010Caroline can't get pregnant, Janet can't hold a pregnancy, Natalie's sperm donor is a stoner with a bad attitude and Ronnie is, well, no one knows Ronnie's story. When the women meet in an infertility group, they quicklyform a firm - if slightly odd - friendship and their lives begin to change.1976When 16-year-old Catherine's pregnancy is revealed, she's sent to a convent to give birth. Her baby is taken from her, and she re-emerges into the world, down but not out, determined to fight back. She finds work, a home and acceptance with gay hairdresser and fellow outsider and her life begins again.Waiting for the Miracle is story about finding your tribe, at any age. It's about love, loss, friendship andlaughing at yourself. It's about life.'Takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions...you'll be laughing through your tears at the sharp and funny dialogue' NFOP magazinePraise for Anna McPartlin: 'Anna McPartlin's novel is brilliant, funny and immensely moving' Catherine Isaac, author of You, Me, Everything'It's such a gorgeous examination of grief while also being honest, hilarious and totally relatable. I LOVED this book!' Fionnuala Kearney, author of The Book of Love'When I wasn't reaching for the Kleenex to wipe away a little tear, I was guffawing with laughter - Anna has the gift of being able to make you laugh and sob, and all on a single page.' Claudia Carroll, author of The Women of Primrose Square Readers love Waiting for the Miracle:'Who will have the happy ever after dream and who will settle for the dream never happening? I raced though it in 2 days to find out. I particularly loved the flitting between current day and the character Catherine's story from the past and was eager to see how the 2 would come together. Wrap yourself up in a duvet and start reading. You won't be disappointed.''You will be gripped by both stories and wonder where the book is going ... but it gets better and better.''Loved loved loved it! As always an amazing story with real life issues, read it in 3 days couldn't put it down going to work was a bit of inconvenience lol can't wait for the next one, thanks Anna''Another emotional rollercoaster read about loss, hope, courage & friendship, I was hooked right from the very start, I loved how the story changed between current day and the past with Catherine's story, have your tissues ready.''Didn't want it to end.''McPartlin excels in the one-liner, and finding something to laugh about in the darkest of times.''I do not hesitate to recommend this magnificent book to everyone. Sure to be in my top books of this year.''A story of hope over heartbreak told with Irish humour and charm.''Anna McPartlin has done it again! Another stunning read that ends with me in tears yet also smiling.'Trade Review'Takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions...you'll be laughing through your tears at the sharp and funny dialogue' NFOP magazine'Beautiful. A joy' Sinead Moriarty author of the Devlin Sisters novelsPraise for Anna McPartlin:'Anna McPartlin's novel is brilliant, funny and immensely moving' - Catherine Isaac, author of You, Me, Everything'It's such a gorgeous examination of grief while also being honest, hilarious and totally relatable. I LOVED this book!' - Fionnuala Kearney, author of The Book of Love'When I wasn't reaching for the Kleenex to wipe away a little tear, I was guffawing with laughter - Anna has the gift of being able to make you laugh and sob, and all on a single page.' - Claudia Carroll, author of The Women of Primrose Square

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is the Swinging Sixties and Kelvin Walker has moved from Scotland to London to make his fortune. Through his wanton ambition, a megalomania surfaces that is unrelieved by his insensitive attempts at friendship and romance. Yet is he all bad, or are the true villains the establishment figures who he tricks and deceives? And, ultimately, does it matter?Gray's twist on the follies of religion, the media and the imperial British centre is as relevant now as ever.Trade ReviewBawdy and exuberant * * Guardian * *A parable, a romp and, as I found, a one-compulsive-sitting read -- MELVYN BRAGGA necessary genius -- ALI SMITHOne of the brightest intellectual and creative lights Scotland has known in modern times -- NICOLA STURGEONGray is a true original, a twentieth century William Blake * * Observer * *The best Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott -- ANTHONY BURGESSOne of the most gifted writers to have put pen to paper in the English language -- IRVINE WELSHGray transformed our expectations of what Scottish literature could be -- VAL McDERMID

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Extraordinary' Naoise Dolan'Seriously good' Louise NealonPICKED AS 'ONE TO WATCH' FOR 2022 BY IRISH TIMES, STYLIST AND IRISH INDEPENDENTDublin student life is ending for Sophie and her friends. They've got everything figured out, and Sophie feels left behind as they all start to go their separate ways. She's overshadowed by her best friend Grace. She's been in love with Finn for as long as she's known him. And she's about to meet Rory, who's suddenly available to her online.At a party, what was already unstable completely falls apart and Sophie finds herself obsessively scrolling social media, waiting for something (anything) to happen.None of This Is Serious is about the uncertainty and absurdity of being alive today. It's about balancing the real world with the online, and the vulnerabilities in yourself, your relationships, your body. At its heart, this is a novel about the friendships strong enough to withstand anything.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary novel. None of This Is Serious brilliantly explores the impossibility to "come of age" in end times, where screens are so contiguous to experience that no-one is ever truly online or offline. She writes truthfully and with affectless nuance about the labyrinthine workings of friend groups and the defences women scramble for in a world that still hates us -- NAOISE DOLAN, author of EXCITING TIMESI inhaled None of This Is Serious. I've been waiting for a fictional story that reflects the all-consuming influence that the Internet has on my life. None of This Is Serious is that story. A compulsively readable, fresh and painfully accurate description of the way we live now. Don't let the title fool you. It is serious. Seriously good -- LOUISE NEALON, author of SNOWFLAKEEdgy . . . [Prasifka] has a painfully raw and acute gift for catching the way things are * * Sunday Times * *I absolutely LOVED this novel. Beautifully crafted -- EMMA GANNON, author of OLIVEFortunately, [Prasifka] doesn't need any sprinkling of Rooney's fairy dust; she makes her own magic. In the seriously good None of This is Serious, the 26-year-old author conveys what it's like to be a young woman today navigating life in Dublin and online . . . She is an astute observer of the social dynamics of her generation * * Irish Times * *A beautifully written original take on how we're all guilty of taking refuge online as the world around us becomes increasingly confusing * * Stylist, Fiction Books You Can't Miss in 2022 * *[A] funny, endearingly heartfelt debut * * Daily Mail * *As we adapt to our increasingly online lives, Catherine Prasifka's debut is the antidote we never knew we needed. We meet Sophie, Prasifka's ultra-relatable protagonist, at a precarious time in her life: leaving university. What happens next is a worthy reminder that Instagram /= reality * * Glamour, Best Books of 2022 * *None of This Is Serious is brilliant - so devastatingly precise about being a young woman living in Ireland and online today, moving deftly between sharp, hilarious observations and heartbreaking, enraging moments -- CLAIRE HENNESSY, author of LIKE OTHER GIRLSNone of This Is Serious is such a compelling novel, and Sophie is such a relatable character - reading her story felt like one of those meaningful and immersive conversations you can only have with a stranger at 3am in the toilets of a dingy club, all hearts laid bare. At times agonisingly close to the bone, Catherine Prasifka's debut novel is an exquisitely unnerving portrayal of who we are and how we live -- KATIE HALE, author of MY NAME IS MONSTER

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne hot summer afternoon in South Yorkshire, Faro sits at a lecture on genetic inheritance. She has travelled from London to the Northern mining town where generations of her family have lived and worked, to explore her own past. Decades before, in the early twentieth century, Bessie Bawtry also ponders her place in the world. A child of unusual determination and precocious intelligence, she longs for the day she will eventually escape the working-class life her ancestor would never have dreamt of leaving.The Peppered Moth explores the way we are shaped by our environment and ancestry, told with elegant prose, wry humour and captivating storytelling, through the story of one family across generations through the twentieth century.'Margaret Drabble is writing, not about an individual, but about a generation, or two, or more - of women . . . This is a sad tale, tenderly told, embedded in a robust family chronicle' - Doris LessingTrade ReviewOne of the more absorbing novels I have read in a long time, both for its sheer storytelling ability and for its powers of imaginative conjecture * * New York Times Book Review * *The conflict between instinct and morality, the rough intrusion of accident into our lives, the weakness of human will - this most especially - has been her subject * * Guardian * *This book is an important and interesting addition to the canon that links central preoccupations and stylistic devices of her early and later work . . . A thought-provoking addition to her oeuvre * * Chicago Tribune * *Spellbinding, shrewd and funny, Drabble's tale of three women is a triumph . . . An exuberant, intelligent and thoroughly entertaining saga of three generations * * Booklist * *Insightful and atmospherically convincing * * Newsday * *Praise for Margaret Drabble: I have learned so much from Margaret Drabble's work. Her prose is very beautiful, very funny, and at the same time very serious. Novels like The Millstone and Jerusalem the Golden have helped me to understand what great writing can be -- SALLY ROONEY

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor generations, Wang Changchi's family have dreamed of escaping their poverty-stricken village. When a twist of fate takes his chance away, he joins the hordes of illegal migrant workers risking their lives for a shot at city life. Still hoping for a reversal of fortune, will he risk it all for one more chance to bring success to his family?

Read more less

Book SynopsisFlatmates? Friends? Or something else entirely?Hazel and Alfie have just moved in together as flatmates. They've also just slept together, which was either a catastrophic mistake, or the best decision of their lives.Before they can decide, Hazel's sister Emily and her wife Daria arrive for a visit, setting in motion a chain of events that will reshape all of their relationships in unexpected ways.As the four of them wrestle with the challenges of modern life, they are bound together by heartache and hope in this warm, witty and devastatingly relatable story.Trade ReviewI adored this book - fresh, funny and thought provoking, I fell in love with the characters and did not want it to end.' * Sophie Cousens *Captures the intricacies of modern relationships with undeniable skill, heaps of humour and a style that fans of Sally Rooney will love. Captivating and addictively complex, this novel is full of an unshakable tension that is a delight to get entangled in. * Ashley Hickson-Lovence *A clever and insightful take on what love and family mean in the twenty-first century * Nicola Gill *Brook's enjoyable debut tackles the messiness of love and family... Heartfelt and entertaining * Publishers Weekly *A charming peek inside the messy world of modern dating, blending hard-hitting realities with frivolous fun * Booklist *Brook's ability to balance humor with explorations of heartbreak, anxiety, and betrayal is admirable....an entertaining tale from start to finish, with characters you'll miss right after finishing the epilogue. * Kirkus *

Read more less

Book Synopsis***New York Times bestseller, shortlisted for 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction!***'It's a true pleasure to sink into Shteyngart's expansive, benevolent storytelling' Sunday Times 'A masterpiece . . . There cannot be a more relevant novel for our moment, certainly not one with such beauty of description, depth of feeling, and, as always, humour.'-Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LessIt's March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.Trade ReviewOur Country Friends is a perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature. I hope the extraterrestrials who exhume it will agree. * New York Times *Reflective, earthy, humane [...] The novel's strengths abound. It upends clichés, pieties and commonplaces while also noticing salient details of the lockdown. * New York Times Book Review *A warm, empathetic novel, written with a tenderness and close observation of [its] enclosed society that pulls the reader into the novel's present and allows her to forget for a little while - as Shteyngart's cast is attempting to do - the catastrophe unfolding in the world beyond. -- Erica Wagner * Financial Times *a playful, allusive comedy of pandemic manners that triumphantly blends hilarity with soulfulness -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *Very Russian - in the best possible way -- Sam Leith * Guardian *flamboyant, theatrical, tragicomic -- Claire Lowdon * Sunday Times *Shteyngart's ability is mesmerising, almost to the point of distraction. [...] His grasp of both the minutiae and the meta of contemporary American experience reminds me of Jonathan Franzen. [...] Shteyngart brings vividly to life a group of characters who go through real, significant change, and who experience Troo Emotions (read the book to get that allusion). In fact, just read the book - no trailer necessary. -- Lucy Sweeney Byrne * Irish Times *You can retreat from global catastrophe but your private calamities will come and find you. Gary Shteyngart's most moving novel, Chekhov and Boccaccio reimagined in America in the year of the pandemic, is a powerful fable of our broken time. -- Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-winning author of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDRENIt's both tender and hilarious (frequently at once), and it's attentive to the jittery cultural and political moment inwhich it's set. [...] Shteyngart has a Nabokovian ability to enrich narrative with metaphor like some ingenious literary nutritionist . . . -- Keith Miller * Literary Review *Gary Shteyngart is a national treasure. He has always written with great humor and heart, but never more so than here. Be careful reading this book in public; it is as likely to make you laugh out loud as cry. -- Jonathan Safran Foer, bestselling author of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED and I AM HEREThere cannot be a more relevant novel for our moment, certainly not one with such beauty of description, depth of feeling, and, as always, humor. Shteyngart has written an American comic Decameron, or, to be plain: a masterpiece. -- Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LESSShteyngart's big-hearted drama is timely yet timeless with its penetrating and nuanced social commentary exploring identity, racism, celebrity culture, social media, and humanity. Above all, Shteyngart artfully exemplifies love in its many registers-parental, brotherly, romantic-in what is ultimately a 'super sad true love' story. * Booklist, starred review *The Great American Pandemic Novel only Shteyngart could write, full of hyphenated identities, killer prose, and wild vitality. * Kirkus, starred review *One of the first - and best - lockdown novels -- Laura Battle * Financial Times *It's the perfect conceit for a story: ill-matched folk crammed together with no means of escape, where the only options are to talk, fight or do what else comes naturally. -- The Times * The Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFleeing her moribund marriage in Cape Town, Beth accepts a diplomatic posting to Shanghai. In this anonymous city she hopes to lose herself in books, wine, and solitude, and to dodge whatever pangs of conscience she feels for her fealty to a South African regime that, by the 21st century, has betrayed its early promises.At night, she hears the sound of typing, and then late one evening Zhao arrives at her door. They explore hidden Shanghai and discover a shared love of Langston Hughes--who had his own Chinese and African sojourns. But then Zhao vanishes, and a typewritten manuscript--chunk by chunk--appears at her doorstep instead. The truths unearthed in this manuscript cause her to reckon with her own past, and the long-buried story of what happened to Kay, her fearless, revolutionary friend...Connecting contemporary Shanghai, late Apartheid-era South Africa, and China during the Great Leap Forward and the Tiananmen uprising--and refracting this globe-trotting and time-traveling through Hughes' confessional letters to a South African protege about the poet's time in Shanghai--How to Be a Revolutionary is an amazingly ambitious novel. It's also a heartbreaking exploration of what we owe our countries, our consciences, and ourselves.Trade ReviewOn The Blacks of Cape Town: Beautifully written and compelling. She shows how notions of belonging, of home and exile, are contingent on much more than place and history. -- James Smith * Africa in Words *How to Be a Revolutionary is a novel about the costs of remembering the past and the far more dire consequences of forgetting it. -- Eileen Gonzalez * Foreword *South African novelist Davids delivers a politically charged story of love and espionage. An intriguing story that...winds its way to an elegantly satisfying conclusion. * Kirkus Review *Deeply rewarding and pleasurable. -- Khairani Barokka * The White Review, Books of the Year 2021 *There is much to admire here: Davids is excellent on the grind of daily life under repressive regimes, whether it be the brutal terror of apartheid South Africa or the technocratic surveillance state that is present-day China. -- Peter Whittaker * New Internationalist *Kaleidoscopic...An admirably ambitious and absorbing exploration of activism, betrayal and daily life in interesting times, of increasing relevance in many parts of the world. -- Sarah Moss * New York Times *History, like revolutions, is complicated, and Davids is sensitive in her portrayal of the impossible choices that ordinary people face during moments of acute political crisis. -- Rhian Sasseen * Paris Review *C.A. Davids doesn't shy away from confronting big issues that constitute the human condition today. At its heart is the question of how the specific events and actions that comprise the lives of individuals might speak to, and indeed influence, a shared social consciousness. -- Mark Rappolt * ArtReview *Exquisite ... the sheer beauty of the prose and the shrewdness of the observations will keep the reader entranced. -- Glen Retief * Mail & Guardian *How To Be A Revolutionary is a fabulous, sometimes frightening flight of transnational imagination, a truly original debut novel by C.A. Davids. The parallel tales of these three uncertain "revolutionaries" include a fictional story of the poet Langston Hughes, and traverse across time and place, from the 1930's to the present day, circling around Shanghai, Cape Town and Harlem. This novel could be a textbook for how to write politics and history into a novel, without sentimentality or self-righteous ideology, because Davids' characters are all vital, flawed and persuasively real. As well, the narrative is rooted in a deep understanding of the political histories and worlds it portrays. This is also a profound and complex investigation of what it means to be both privileged and oppressed, and how there are no easy choices on either the "right" or "wrong" side of history. A fascinating read that takes you into many hearts of darkness. Davids is a talented new voice, and a visionary storyteller of the inescapable histories and experiences that connect us all. -- Xu Xi, author of Insignificance

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is story of Loyal Blood, a man who spends a lifetime on the run from a crime so terrible that it renders him forever incapable of touching a woman. The odyssey begins on a freezing Vermont hillside in 1944 and propels Blood across the American West for forty years. Denied love and unable to settle, he lives a hundred different lives: mining gold, growing beans, hunting fossils, trapping, prospecting for uranium and ranching. His only contact with his past is through a series of postcards he sends home – not realising that in his absence disaster has befallen his family, and their deep-rooted connection with the land has been severed with devastating consequences… ‘Postcards’ was Annie Proulx’s first novel, which received huge acclaim and marked the launch of an outstanding literary career. Her works include short story collections ‘Bad Dirt’, ‘Close Range’ (featuring ‘Brokeback Mountain’) and novels such as ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Accordion Crimes’.Trade Review‘Proulx has come close to writing “the great American novel”.’ New York Times ‘The richness of America is portrayed with memorable effect in this remarkable first novel – Faulkner springs to mind. “Postcards” is written from the heart and – for its raspy dialogue, laconic humour and beautiful description of the natural world – deserves to be widely read.’ Independent on Sunday ‘A sweeping and dramatic tale. Not since Steinbeck has the migrant worker's life been so evocatively rendered.’ Daily Telegraph ‘A remarkable novel; poetic and yet driven by a strong narrative, tragic and yet scored with deep veins of humour. Loyal Blood is one of those rare, haunted characters who continue to live in the mind after you finish the book.’ Literary Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe critically acclaimed second novel from the author of ‘The Corrections’. ‘Strong Motion’ is the brilliant, bold second novel from the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of ‘The Corrections’ and ‘Freedom’. Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of strange happenings – earthquakes strike the city, and the first one kills his grandmother. During a bitter feud over the inheritance Louis falls in love with Renée Seitchek, a passionate and brilliant seismologist, whose discoveries about the origin of the earthquakes complicate everything. Potent and vivid, ‘Strong Motion’ is a complex story of change from the forceful imagination of Jonathan Franzen.Trade Review'By sheer force of his imaginative writing and his unsheathed views of American life, Franzen succeeds in joining together a love story, a family story, and a corporate-cum-environmental story…Distinctly original.' The New York Times 'No doubt about it: Jonathan Franzen is one of the most extraordinary writers around.' Newsweek 'Ingeniously put together…His ear for American vernacular is flawless…His gift for description has a kinetic immediacy.' The Seattle Times 'Bold, layered…an elaborate construct, with the stuff of several books crammed into one…An affirmation of Franzen's fierce imagination and distinctive seriocomic voice.' New York Times Book Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdwin Muir - POOR TOM, J.F. Hendry - FERNIE BRAE, Gordon M. Williams - FROM SCENES LIKE THESE, Tom Gallacher - APPRENTICE. Growing Up in the West presents four very different and memorably vivid accounts of what it was to be young and growing up in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, from the 1930s to the 1960s.Poor Tom tells of a young man's struggle to come to terms with the slow death of his brother in the city slums of a culturally impoverished Scotland. Fernie Brae celebrates the growth and education of a sensitive in a novel reminiscent of Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Gordon Williams's novel tells a grimmer story as its young protagonist eventually succumbs to a culture of drink and violence where the harshness of life on the land sits next to industrial sprawl: 'From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs.' Set in the Clydeside shipyards, the wryly observant and humorous style of Apprentice strikes a happier note from the 1960s.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen one of those irritating self-help books actually gets it right, then unnatural and worrying times are just around the corner . . .While the rest of the country is joining the new HappinessTM cult, Edwin (the wiry, grey-suited, low-level editor at US publisher Panderic Press) is in trouble. A cartel of drug, alcohol, tobacco and drug-rehab bosses have a contract out on him.It's all the fault of the mysterious Tupac Soiree, and his book What I Learned on the Mountain. But who is Tupac? And how can Edwin stop the world from succumbing to this plague of HappinessTM?Will Ferguson has created a comic masterpiece, a brutal satire of modern times.Trade ReviewA brilliant parody . . . bright and very funny * * Mail on Sunday * *A sizzling satire on self-help culture -- Daily MailWill Ferguson's talent as a satirist is to be treasured. His wit enlivens every page, and what starts as an amusing book about publishing expands into a glorious romp though modern life * * Literary Review * *A gleeful satire on the self-help industry and a must-read -- JONATHAN COEWill Ferguson is a very gifted writer -- BILL BRYSONHappinessTM is a wonderfully assured, gleefully twisted and deeply irreligious satire which manages to be as moving as it is funny -- CHARLIE HILL * * Independent on Sunday * *A shrewd and often hilarious examination of contemporary mores, anxieties and desires. And it loudly proves the points that laughter is probably the best therapy we are likely to get -- Scotland on SundayAduous Huxley meets Carl Hiaasen (as a blurb-writer at Panderic Press might say) * * Independent * *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSweeping in scope, both historically and geographically, Vassanji weaves a rich tapestry of vivid characters (real and imagined) in a Kenya poised between colonialism and independence.Vikram Lall, like his adopted country, inhabits an 'in-between world': between the pull of his ancestral home in India and the Kenya he loves passionately; between his tragic past in Africa and an unclear future in Canada; between escape from political terror and a seemingly inevitable return home . . . a return that may cost him dearly.A master storyteller, Vassanji intertwines the political and the personal - the rise of the Mau Mau in the last days of colonialism looms large over a plot centring on two love stories and a deep friendship. The result is a sumptuous novel that brilliantly explores the tyranny of history and memory, and questions the individual's role and responsibility in lawless times.Trade ReviewOne of the most impressive things about this fine novel is that it gives voice to a people some of whose forebears were in Africa before the Portuguese. It must be one of the most faithful accounts ever written about growing up through the cruel days of a guerrilla war in Africa. -- Christopher Hope * * Daily Telegraph * *This is a fine and memorable novel that will remind us that a good family saga, complete with romance and arranged marriages, can also place before us subtle moral issues, as well as portray all the drama and agony of an Empire's dissolution, and the birth and shattering of dreams. -- Alexander McCall Smith * * The Times * *A wholly engaging and spirited novel of Africa: warm, shrewdly charming, replete with its own wry and humane wisdom. -- William BoydThe true strength of The In-Between World of Vikram Lall lies in its storytelling. What perhaps is also M G Vassanji's triumph is that in choosing Africa and this particular period of history, he demonstrates that racism, prejudice and bigotry do not belong to one group along but are party of the human condition, going hand in hand with fear, suspicion and intolerance. -- Natasha Mann * * Scotland on Sunday * *

Read more less

Book SynopsisBy 1910, Leo Tolstoy, the world's most famous author, had become an almost religious figure, surrounded on his lavish estate by family and followers alike. Set in the tumultuous last year of the count's life, The Last Station centres on the battle for his soul waged by his wife and his leading disciple.Torn between his professed doctrine of poverty and chastity on the one hand and the reality of his enormous wealth, his thirteen children, and a life of hedonism on the other, Tolstoy makes a dramatic flight from his home. Too ill to continue beyond the tiny station of Astapovo, he believes he is dying alone, while outside over one hundred newspapermen are awaiting hourly reports on his condition.Narrated in six different voices, including Tolstoy's own from his diaries and literary works, The Last Station is a richly inventive novel that dances bewitchingly between fact and fiction.Trade ReviewAn impressively knowing and sensitive performance, a wistful late twentieth-century tribute to the giant conflicts of a more titanic age. * * Observer * *One of those rare works of fiction that manage to demonstrate both scrupulous historical research and true originality of voice and perception. * * New York Times Book Review * *Jay Parini has written a stylish, beautifully paced and utterly beguiling novel. * * Sunday Times * *One of the best historical novels written in the last twenty years. -- Gore Vidal

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Children of Sisyphus is the story of Dinah, a prostitute who lives and fails to find love on the Dungle, the rubbish heap where the very poorest squat. Trapped by patriarchy and male passivity, and cursed by one of her rivals, Dinah is forced into a panicked flight to save herself. But involvement with a revival church and the favour of Shepherd John, who proposes a new life outside Jamaica, leads her to the delusion that she has found escape and meaning, a lived lie that has tragic consequences.In Patterson's brutally poetic existentialist novel, dignity comes with a stoic awareness of the absurdity of life.Introduced by Kwame Dawes.Orlando Patterson was born in Jamaica in 1940. Having studied at the University of the West Indies and at the London School of Economics, in 1970 he took the position of Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard, where he is now John Cowles Professor of Sociology. The Children of Sisyphus received the First Prize for Fiction at the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts in 1966. His other novels are An Absence of Ruins (1967) and Die the Long Day (1972). He was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 1999.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA man who has come from nothing, from poverty and loss, finds himself a beautiful wife, his dream love. When she vanishes without a trace, he sets up a small café in her favourite spot on the edge of the South China Sea, hoping she'll return. Instead, he is confronted by the man he suspects may be responsible for everything he has suffered: Luo Yiming, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who holds the small town in his sway. In the few moments the two men spend together, Luo is driven mad. So begins a story of desire and betrayal set against the tumultuous first decade of Taiwan's 21st Century. The recipient of all three of Taiwan's major literary prizes, My Enemy's Cherry Tree is a story of love, money and coercion, in which two men who have sought to acquire something unattainable, instead lose something irreplaceable.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe characters in this delicious book are pushed to the point of no return and seek retribution. But how we get even is not always the best road to redemption. On the island of Mull, it takes an incomer to make the locals realise that they need to take matters into their own hands to maintain the community’s reputation. In ‘The Principles of Soap’ the value of friendship overcomes adversity and opportunistic nepotism. In suburban Edinburgh opposing neighbours find out the hard way that the best method of dealing with a canine disturbance is not to bury one’s head in the sand. And in the final tale we meet an author on the brink of public ruin who sees the error of his ways after an act of kindness saves the day. These four tales show that the exquisite art of getting even is a skill that sees kindness win over malice. Tantalising and amusing, these stories show off a darker side but carry with them the author’s trademark warmth and humour. Trade Review'The stories all have McCall Smith’s characteristic charm, and make for easy and very pleasant reading... as in all McCall Smith’s work, we are reminded that the necessary quality in social life is kindness' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *'The final story provides a sweet coda to previous acts of comeuppance as kindness prevails' * Daily Mail *'McCall Smith’s writing is incredibly captivating and though the stories are frequently filled with feelings of sadness and guilt, the collection is bound to induce laughs' * Glasgow University Scottish Literature Society *'Charming tales of friendship, revenge and retribution' -- Jenny Itzcovtiz * Sixtyplussurfers *’Nimble tales' * Daily Mail *'Even in the darkest of moment, his warmth still comes through... I will be returning to [this collection] time and time again for its questions and discussion over revenge' * The Courier *'Told with his trademark warmth and humour' * The People's Friend *'Immediately engaging, and layered with dark humour and truths about human nature... It's a thoroughly entertaining, satisfying collection' -- Joanne Owen * LoveReading *'This delightful collection of tales by one of Scotland's most beloved writers shows that the art of getting even is a skill that sees kindness win over malice' * Scots Magazine *'Nicely twisty plots offer wryly wise reasons not to seek revenge. Massively entertaining and thought-provoking' * Booklist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRussell Jones is an Edinburgh-based writer and editor. He was the UK's first Pet Poet Laureate, has published six poetry collections, three fantasy novels, one graphic novel and has edited three writing anthologies. Russell is the deputy editor of Scotland's only sci-fi magazine, organises sci-fi cabaret nights in Edinburgh and has a PhD in Creative Writing.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmy Bloom's Away revitalizes the American road-trip novel from the perspective of a vulnerable but spirited woman. It paints a vivid, earthy and surprising picture of 1920s America, its smells and textures, its population of drifters and con artists, pimps and prostitutes. Away is storytelling at its finest - epic in sweep, but intimate and psychologically acute, moving but unsentimental. Like the novels of Sarah Waters, it is both richly authentic in its period detail and fresh and contemporary in its style. But, above all, Bloom has created an unforgettable character in Lillian Leyb - her voice, haunted, damaged yet innocent, passionate, witty and unpretentious, is so believable and strong that her presence lingers long after the novel ends.Trade Review'A tender, funny and wise novel' Marie Claire 'An urgent, riveting, fabulously entertaining road trip of a novel, Away grabs you by the throat from the first page to the last, breaks your heart and shakes all your senses awake' Emma Donoghue 'Proof that a thoroughly conventional novel can soar so long as the execution is extraordinary' Lionel Shriver, Guardian 'Celebrate mother-love with Amy Bloom's latest novel, Away' Vogue 'Harrowing, intense and deeply moving, this is a story about surviving the worst nightmares that history bequeaths us. I had to keep reading, willing Lillian to win through, and hoping that the strengths of courage, humour and kindness would prevail. Even as my hopes were realised, I was subtly reminded that this is a world where nothing can ever be quite certain or secure' Margaret Elphinstone

Read more less

Book SynopsisA wonderful warm festive treat from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Christmas Invitation Single mum Cally’s life is all about her little girl Stella. She’s resigned to the fact that the only romance she’s going to get is from the rom-coms she watches and with her busy job and her daughter; she doesn’t have time to even think about love. But when Stella gets sick, and Cally is forced to move in with her mother in the remote village of Sticklepond, to save money for Stella’s operation, Cally realizes how tough it can be to go it alone. Still, the last thing Cally wants to do is fall in love. All she wants is a Christmas miracle to save Stella. Can laid-back, charming Jago unlock Cally’s frozen heart and show her that the best gifts aren’t always found under the tree? A gorgeous festive treat, perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell Trade ReviewPraise for Trisha Ashley: ‘A warm-hearted and comforting read. Trisha at her best’ Carole Matthews ‘One of the best writers around!’ Katie Fforde ‘Full of down-to-earth humour.’ Sophie Kinsella

Read more less

Book SynopsisDon’t miss the new feel-good novel from Sarah Morgan, The Summer Seekers – out May 2021! ‘Joyful, uplifting and overflowing with love. Sarah’s writing speaks straight to my heart’ Cathy Bramley, Sunday Times bestseller ‘I adored it! I felt every character's pain, hope, and reluctant vulnerability. It forced me to open my heart right along with them. Sarah Morgan is a master storyteller’ Laura Jane Williams, bestselling author of Our Stop ‘A sparkling tale of acceptance and love’ Woman’s Weekly ‘The cast of lively characters instantly draws you in’ Woman & Home * * * * Who says you can’t choose your family? When Flora falls in love with Jack, suddenly she’s not only handling a very cranky teenager, but she’s also living in the shadow of Jack’s perfect, immortalised wife, Becca. Every summer, Becca and Jack would holiday with Becca’s oldest friends and Jack wants to continue the tradition, so now Flora must face a summer trying to live up to Becca’s memory, with not only Jack’s daughter looking on, but with Becca’s best friends judging her every move… The more Flora tries to impress everyone, the more things go horribly wrong…but as the summer unfolds, Flora begins pushing her own boundaries, and finding herself in a way that she never thought she needed to. And she soon learns that families come in all shapes and sizes. * * * * Readers have fallen in love with Family for Beginners A truly heartwarming book about love, friendships, grief, honesty and forgiveness. A definite 5 star read’ Amazon 5* ‘Family for Beginners has the ability to draw you in and keep you entertained and enthralled. I read it in one sitting and the characters are staying with me long after the book closed . . . This is another winner from Sarah Morgan, and I look forward to her next novel’ Amazon 5* ‘If I could I could give it more stars then I would! Picked this up this morning and not put it down all day until I finished it. Heart felt and touching . . .One of best feel-good books I’ve read in a long time. Can’t recommend enough!!!’ Amazon 5*Trade Review PRAISE FOR FAMILY FOR BEGINNERS ‘Joyful, uplifting and overflowing with love. Sarah’s writing speaks straight to my heart’ Cathy Bramley, Sunday Times bestselling author ‘I adored it! I felt every character's pain, hope, and reluctant vulnerability. It forced me to open my heart right along with them. Sarah Morgan is a master storyteller’ Laura Jane Williams, bestselling author of Our Stop ‘Beautifully captures the emotions and intricacies of life and relationships’ Jenny Oliver, author of The Summer We Ran Away ‘A sparkling tale of acceptance and love’ Woman’s Weekly ‘The cast of lively characters instantly draws you in’ Woman & Home PRAISE FOR SARAH MORGAN ‘A feast of a book that left me wanting more’ Penny Parkes, author of Best Practice ‘An uplifting and satisfying tale’ My Weekly ‘A warm, wonderful, rich story told with care and skill that broke my heart and then put it back together again’ Alex Brown, author of The Secret of Orchard Cottage ‘Jane Green meets Sophie Kinsella. Heart-warming, emotional, funny and real’ Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author

Read more less

Book SynopsisNew York fashion designer Jamie Nova has chosen the glitz of Las Vegas as the setting for celebrating her impending divorce. Joined by her two best friends, street-smart Madison Castelli, and Natalie de Barge, an ambitious TV reporter - Jamie plans to make the most of her hard-earned holiday and forget all about her controlling ex. When the threesome encounters Mark Blaine, the fun-loving playboy scion of a real estate billionaire, things start to heat up very quickly. Madison and Natalie receive a frantic midnight phone call telling them Mark is lying in Jamie's bed. And he's dead...Trade ReviewQuotes for Lethal Seduction UK 'Another year, another Jackie Collins. And how we love them' Daily Mail 'Jackie, we salute you!' Cosmopolitan 'Fizzing, sizzling and raunchy from cover to cover' Express US 'The scheherazade of those Hollywood nights. Even the tiniest nuances of naughtiness rarely escape the author's anthropological eye...decadence, luxury and film-land plot lines that make Collins one of the bestselling writers of our time' LA Times 'Cool as a subzero shot of designer vodka...A memorable horny cast of characters...Collins entertains in high style' Kirkus Reviews 'crackles with light, beach-ready scandal and suspense' Village Voice '...the latest bawdy, boisterous lustfest from Collins...her sex scenes are still riotous, and her wickedly warped worldview makes for laugh-out-loud summertime reading' People 'No one writes a better sex-in-the-back-of-a-Bentley scene' Talk 'Collins injects plenty of glamour into this page-flipping tale' Publishers Weekly 'Vicarious thrills' Booklist 'The literary guilty pleasure is defined once again by Jackie Collins' Lethal Seduction...a frothy romp packed with gorgeous people obsessed with sex, deception, cash and more sex...die-hard Collinsites will be clamouring for the inevitable follow-up' US Magazine

Read more less

Book SynopsisCHOSEN BY GAIL HONEYMAN ON BBC RADIO 4 A GOOD READ 'Sad, funny and full of charm - a delight' Gail Honeyman, author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD A lost little girl with her notebook and toy monkey appears on the CCTV screens of the Green Oaks shopping centre, evoking memories of junior detective Kate Meaney, missing for 20 years. Kurt, a security guard with a sleep disorder, and Lisa, a disenchanted deputy manager at Your Music, follow her through the centre's endless corridors - welcome relief from the tedium of their lives. But as this after-hours friendship grows in intensity, it brings new loss and new longing to light.Trade ReviewA superb, haunting novel from a new literary talent * Daily Mail *An exceptional, polyphonic novel * The Guardian *Contemporary literary prose at its finest * Publishing News *Sad, funny and full of charm - a delight * Gail Honeyman, author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the 2013 McKitterick PrizeShortlisted for the 2013 East Midlands Book AwardShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012Shortlisted for New Writer of the Year in the 2012 Specsavers National Book AwardsObserver Book of the Year 2012The Lighthouse begins on a North Sea ferry, on whose blustery outer deck stands Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heading to Germany for a restorative walking holiday.Spending his first night in Hellhaus at a small, family-run hotel, he finds the landlady hospitable but is troubled by an encounter with an inexplicably hostile barman.In the morning, Futh puts the episode behind him and sets out on his week-long circular walk along the Rhine. As he travels, he contemplates his childhood; a complicated friendship with the son of a lonely neighbour; his parents’ broken marriage and his own. But the story he keeps coming back to, the person and the event affecting all others, is his mother and her abandonment of him as a boy, which left him with a void to fill, a substitute to find.He recalls his first trip to Germany with his newly single father. He is mindful of something he neglected to do there, an omission which threatens to have devastating repercussions for him this time around.At the end of the week, Futh, sunburnt and blistered, comes to the end of his circular walk, returning to what he sees as the sanctuary of the Hellhaus hotel, unaware of the events which have been unfolding there in his absence.Trade ReviewA haunting and accomplished novel. -- Katy Guest * The Independent on Sunday *It is this accumulation of the quotidian, in prose as tight as Magnus Mills’s, which lends Moore’s book its standout nature, and brings the novel to its ambiguous, thrilling end. -- Philip Womack * The Telegraph *No surprise that this quietly startling novel won column inches when it landed on the Man Booker Prize longlist. After all, it’s a slender debut released by a tiny independent publisher. Don’t mistake The Lighthouse for an underdog, though. For starters, it’s far too assured ... Though sparely told, the novel’s simple-seeming narrative has the density of far longer work. People and places are intricately evoked with a forensic feel for mood. It’s title becomes a recurring motif, from the Morse code torch flashes of Futh’s boyhood to the lighthouse-shaped silver perfume case that he carries in his pocket, history filling the void left by its missing vial of scent. Warnings are emitted, too – by Futh’s anxious aunt and an intense man he meets on the ferry. It all stokes a sense of ominousness that makes the denouement not a bit less shocking. -- Hephzibah Anderson * The Daily Mail *The writing is sublime. Spare, sometimes straightforward and sometimes quite opaque. But regardless of the overall transparency, the immediate images of the room or the street or the clifftop are crystal clear, conjured from very few but very well chosen words. The people, too, feel real. They have complex emotions and don't always do logical or sensible things, but they always convince. As they move around one another in still, empty spaces they create a dramatic tension that the reader can almost touch. We wish their lives could be better. * Amazon.com *This is powerful writing likely to shine in your memory for a long time. -- Emily Cleaver * LITRO Magazine *Evocative and beautifully written in a spare and simple prose, this is a haunting, sombre and somewhat unsettling story that pulls you in quietly, yet powerfully; I downloaded this onto my Kindle early this morning and read it from the beginning to the rather surprising end in one sitting. We know it is on the longlist for the Booker Prize; it deserves to make it onto the shortlist and I, for one, very much hope it does. * Amazon.co.uk *The Lighthouse is a stunning book. Read it. Then read it again. -- Zoe King * Amazon.co.uk *Alison Moore's writing is exquisite, the prose simple and powerful, but it's the use of imagery which really marks it out as something special. -- Sue Magee * The Bookbag *In The Lighthouse Alison Moore has created an unsettling, seemingly becalmed but oddly sensual, and entirely excellent novel. -- Alan Bowden * Words of Mercury *Alison Moore's debut novel has all the assurance of a veteran, a strong contender for the prize, its sense of despair will either be its making or its undoing: 9/10. -- Roz Davison * Don't Read That Read This *Ultimately, what drew me into this bleak tale of sorrow and abandonment was the quality of the writing – so taut and economical it even looked different on the page somehow – and so effective in creating a mounting sense of menace and unease. It never flinches. -- Isabel Costello * On the literary sofa *This is an incredibly powerful, sad story. A beautiful, if austere book. And an amazingly talented writer. If it is a first novel, I guess it will not be the last because this is the kind of writing that is here to stay... -- Josephine Huys * Amazon.co.uk *Moore’s writing has a superb sense of the weight of memory. -- Kate Saunders * The Times *The Lighthouse is a spare, slim novel that explores grief and loss, the patterns in the way we are hurt and hurt others, and the childlike helplessness we feel as we suffer rejection and abandonment. It explores the central question about leaving and being left: even when it feels inevitable, why does it hurt so much, and why is this particular kind of numbness so repellent to others? The brutal ending continues to shock after several re-readings. -- Jenn Ashworth * The Guardian *The Lighthouse looks simple but isn't, refusing to unscramble what seems a bleak moral about the hazards of reproduction, in the widest sense. Small wonder that it stood up to the crash-testing of a prize jury's reading and rereading. One of the year's 12 best novels? I can believe it. -- Anthony Cummins * The Observer *The writing in The Lighthouse is spare and deceptively simple – there is in fact nothing simple about it – it is the kind of pared down writing that hides a multitude of complexities and leaves behind it an array of images and in this case scents. Upon closing this terribly bittersweet novel, the reader is assaulted by the memory of violets, camphor and cigarette smoke. There are several returning images and motifs in the novel, such as lighthouses, bathrooms, scents and abandonment which are beautifully explored. * Heavenali.wordpress.com *This is a book that might have vanished had it not been picked up by the Booker judges. It deserves to be read, and reread. No laughs, no levity, just a beautiful, sad, overripe tale that lingers in the mind. -- Isabel Berwick * Financial Times *What must have gone some way to earning The Lighthouse a place on the longlist, though, is the admirable simplicity of Moore’s prose. Like Futh, its without flourishes, yet beneath its outward straightforwardness lies a hauntingly complex exploration of the recurring patterns that life inevitably follows, often as a consequence of one’s past. -- Francesca Angelini * The Sunday Times *The Lighthouse, Alison Moore’s melancholic debut, would eventually have found admiring readers through the great network of word of mouth. That it has been shortlisted, deservedly, for the Man Booker Prize will quicken the process. This is a beautiful short novel sustained by muted urgency, nuance and the exactness with which Moore conveys the paralysing levels of depression that Futh battles. In order to deal with the present he attempts to make sense of his past, which refuses to fade away. His thoughts throb with humiliating episodes from his boyhood, cut short when his bored, dissatisfied mother left, leaving his father to voice his anger at his only audience, the bewildered boy. -- Eileen Battersby * The Irish Times *A debut novel from a high-achieving independent publisher, The Lighthouse has surprised some observers with its place on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. Disquieting, deceptive, crafted with a sly and measured expertise, Alison Moore's story could certainly deliver a masterclass in slow-burn storytelling to those splashier literary celebs who take more pains over a pyrotechnic paragraph than a watertight plot. -- Boyd Tonkin * The Independent *The originality, structure and neat prose of this first novel justify its shortlisting, but it doesn't do much to lift the soul. -- Kate Green * Country Life *I am almost reluctant to share anything about Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse at this stage, because I don’t want to spoil it in any way for others. The Lighthouse is a short novel of only 182 pages, but is – dare I say it – perfectly formed. This is a tense, suspenseful work, the plot ticking like a time bomb. -- Megan Dunn * The Listener New Zealand *"The Lighthouse," Alison Moore's debut novel, is sufficiently strange to win. The third-person narrator is distanced from, but never judges, the weird protagonist Futh, a middle-aged, not particularly attractive, recently separated man going on a walking tour in Germany. He is visiting some places he went to with his newly single father, after his mother abandoned them when he was 12. The people he meets along the way are even less prepossessing than he, but the narrator's tone of voice somehow contrives to make the reader continue to turn the pages. -- Paul Levy * Wall Street Journal *A man who is newly-separated from his wife but middle-aged, embarks on a walking trip in Germany. At one of the B n B’s that he is staying at the landlady is also contemplating her life and marriage. You could be so easily fooled into thinking that this book is mundane and just captures the hum-drum of their every-day lives, but the author, without writing what happens, is telling you really what is going on! You also have to make up your mind as to what outcomes there are at the end. I can’t tell you how brilliantly stunning this book is and I think it’s a credit to Booker that this has come from a small publishing company, yet packs one hell of a punch. * RBKC Libraries blog *The menacing atmosphere Moore builds up is masterful, in that Futh only partly perceives it, through his own preoccupations. A pair of silky knickers he finds under his bed only makes him think squeamishly that the dust on them is ‘strangers’ dead skin’. Rarely is dullness so dangerous. -- Laura Marsh * Literary Review *Highly recommended. -- Harriet HarmanThe English writer Alison Moore’s first novel, “The Lighthouse” (Biblioasis, 203 pages, $14.95), turns away from social trends to burrow into the psyche of a man known only by the slippery surname Futh. Futh puts the agon in protagonist. Having separated from his wife of nearly 15 years, he looks to recuperate by going on a solitary walking tour through Germany, but his thoughts turn incessantly back to old humiliations: his tyrannical father’s abuses, his wife’s infidelity, even his own hapless attempts at epiphany… Ms. Moore has written a short, bleak, atmospheric book full of such strange symbols that, in the murk of Futh’s confusion, suddenly come aglow with meaning. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *There’s no actual violence in “The Lighthouse,” but its taut sentences vibrate with tension. The imagery is vivid and — no doubt deliberately — often heavy-handed. Futh’s hotel room is “painted a deep pink — the color of rare meat, the color of his sunburned arm.” Venus flytraps and dead moths signal entrapment. Lighthouses flash endless warnings. Moore constructs a precise and perfectly paced psychological drama in which all our senses are on constant alert. There are many clues to what might happen but not how. This elegant novel leaves a haunting scent of camphor in the air. -- Susan Wyndham * New York Times *Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Alison Moore's The Lighthouse is both a thriller and an elegiac look at memory in the vein of W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn. Following a newly divorced man as he goes on a walking tour of Germany, Moore's novel builds in tension as it plumbs what it means to be loved, and how the small traumas of youth can last throughout one's life… Moore's triumph is that she manages to thread the needle, creating a haunting, elegiac book that is very hard to put down. Readers will most likely finish The Lighthouse quickly; its images will remain with them long after. -- Noah Cruickshank * Shelf Awareness *Table of Contents The Lighthouse Violets Breasts Beef and Onion Perfume Sun Cream Stilettos Stewed Apples Charms Oranges Memorabilia Disinfectant Romance Cigarette Smoke Venus Flytraps Coffee Moths Camphor The Ferry Acknowledgements

Read more less

Book SynopsisIrish Times Books Of The Year 2013Observer Books Of The Year 2013Guardian Readers' Books Of The Year 2013Short Listed For Guardian's Not The Booker Prize 2013Unloved sons turn their aggression on the outside world. Unloved daughters destroy the people they love, and then themselves.In this daring portrayal of Magda Goebbels – wife of Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels – Meike Ziervogel unveils an historical tale of abusive mother and daughter relationships that reaches a terrifying conclusion in the last days of Nazi Germany.Magda is born at the beginning of the 20th century, the illegitimate child of a maidservant who feels burdened with a daughter she does not want. The girl grows up to become an ambitious woman, desperate for love and recognition. When Magda meets Joseph Goebbels, he appears to answer all her needs, and together they have six children. Towards the end of the Second World War, Magda has become physically and emotionally sick. As she takes her children into the Führer’s bunker, her eldest daughter Helga experiences an overwhelming sense of foreboding.Trade ReviewA daring and intelligent debut. -- Pam Norfolk * The Lancashire Evening Post *History has painted Magda Goebbels as the Medea of the Third Reich, but that hasn't dissuaded Meike Ziervogel from constructing a psychological profile that attempts to explain how a woman can murder her own children. -- Alfred Hickling * The Guardian *A disturbing book but one I'd recommend to anyone with interests from psychological profiling to Hitler's Germany. * Our Book Reviews *9 out of 10 – I found this a truly unique, fascinating read and one which has prompted me to seek out more literary studies and research on Magda Goebbels. * The Friendly Shelf *Meet a woman who, despite praying to remain virginal, had seven children. Meet a woman whose mother thought her hoity-toity, and spoilt, and who thought she should go to work in a factory at school age to know her place better. Meet a woman of whom her oldest daughter would write I don't care what Mother says. Mother isn't always right. No, she definitely isn't. All three women are, of course, one and the same, and they're Magda Goebbels, the woman who epitomised more than anyone the Nazi wife. * The Bookbag *Ziervogel is the brave woman who set up Peirene Press five years ago ... Her own debut novel displays similar nerve ... This is an ambitious and queasily unsettling novel. -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *This frank, disturbing novel is an intriguing mix of fact and fiction and pulls no punches. The author sets out to use the story to examine the psychological theory that unloved daughters destroy the people they love and then themselves ... Ziervogel explores this disturbing theory with haunting originality and real flair. -- Christena Appleyard * The Daily Mail *Told in spare, simple prose, Ziervogel's depiction of a likely afterlife for Magda and her children, in which Helga must prostitute herself so that her family can eat, is particularly powerful. -- Lesley McDowell * The Independent *The book left me with many questions about Magda’s decisions, but filling in the gaps gave the story an enduring quality and left me wanting to know even more about the women in Hitler’s bunker. This is a brief, but powerful book. I highly recommend it. * Farm Lane Books Blog *Magda is a short, dark book, filled with unhappy people who go on to create other unhappy people. But it is also subtle and quiet and creeping. It’s the sort of book that I think would be described as ‘ambitious’, given how many different styles and how much is touched upon in its 115 pages, but ‘ambitious’ feels like a word you apply to something that doesn’t quite meet its goals. I think this does. -- Debbie Kinsey * Mischief and Miscellany *Where Ziervogel really shines is in her expert handling of the narrative’s chronology; weaving back and forth over different points in the three women’s lives, she enables the reader to piece together an innate understanding of the motives behind Magda Goebbels, the woman who was capable of murdering her six children when she knew Germany has been defeated. While this makes for uneasy, and sometimes agonising reading, the end result is worth it; one comes away unable to forget Ziervogel’s haunting insight into one of the Nazi’s most notorious female members. -- Sadie Levy Gale * Cherwell *But are Magda's own crimes committed out of love and fear, or selfish madness? Ziervogel has given us a novel which is frustratingly fragmentary, but also challenging, clever, and fascinating as an insight into how generations of Germans are summoning the courage to address the horror of the last century. -- Amanda Craig * The Independent *After initially reading Magda I was hugely impressed by it and thought it a very brave and often uncomfortable tale but one which needs to be so. Since then the book has lingered with me and my admiration of what Meike has done has grown and grown. It has made me ask myself a lot of questions about perceptions and how we look at and deal with history. It has also seen me go off and read other books, such as Laurent Binet’s HHhH (review coming soon), and documentaries and films, such as Downfall, which look at these horrendous events yet with more impartiality. A book which does that is one we should all be reading, so find a copy. It has been one of my reading experiences of the year. -- Simon Savidge * Savidge Reads *Observer Books of the Year. You might think that you've heard a lot in recent years about the dreadful final days in Hitler's bunker and Magda Goebbels's murder of her own children. I know I did when I started Meike Ziervogel's novel Magda (Salt) – but I soon realised that it still had the power to shock and surprise. This is an intelligent, acute and horrifically intense book. It didn't so much take my breath away as make me gasp for air. -- Sam Jordison * The Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NINA ALLAN Joel Lane (1963-2013) was one of the UK's foremost writers of dark, unsettling fiction, a frank explorer of sexuality and the transgressive aspects of human nature. With a tight focus on the post-industrial Black Country and his home city of Birmingham, he created a distinct form of British urban weird fiction. His debut collection, The Earth Wire was first published in 1994 by Egerton Press and is reissued in paperback by Influx Press for the first time in over twenty-five years. Love and death. Sex and despair. The Earth Wire is a thrilling, disturbing examination of the means and the cost of survival.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNo Presents Please is a vivid evocation of city life, exploring the sub-locales and spatial identities of Mumbai and the struggles of small-town migrants.Jayant Kaikini’s gaze takes in the people living on the margins – a bus driver who, when denied annual leave, steals the bus to travel home; a slum dweller who catches cats and sells them for pharmaceutical testing; a father at his wit’s end who takes his mischievous son to a reform institution. From Irani cafes to chawls, old cinema halls to local trains, the author seeks out and illuminates moments and feelings of existential anxiety, pathos and tenderness. In these sixteen prize-winning stories, cracks in the curtains of the ordinary open up to possibilities that might not have existed, but for this city, which surprises with its epiphanies, fantasies and ambitions.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSissy is an hilarious romp of epic proportions, encompassing in its burlesque scope our modern crisis of masculinity, the banality of City work, our retreat into virtual lives and the alienating effects of modern technology, with lots of variegatedsexing in-between. Sissy is an anti-hero and antidote to Don Juan. He is a modern masculine counterweight and sad manifestation of the internet-induced fright of the real: a thirty-something wimp by day – literally and surreally re-born ofhis long-suffering mother each morning – and a would-be-Weinstein by virtual night. The novel’s brilliant overall set piece is a virtuosic attack on the notion of the male Romantic Hero and it is written, appropriately, in a language that is rich andflamboyant; enjoyably, hilariously, baroque but also an extraordinary reclamation of the narrative epic form for ‘now’.Ben Borek is unique: no-one else writes like this, or can write like this. His vision is unflinchingly dark but also, almost inexplicably, obscurely warm and deeply humane.

Read more less

Book SynopsisClement Killeaton transforms his father's gambling, his mother's piety, his fellow pupils' cruelty and the mysterious but forbidden attractions of sex into an imagined world centred on horse-racing and played out in the dusty backyard of his home, across the landscapes of the district, and the continent of Australia. An unsparing evocation of a Catholic childhood in a country town in the late 1940s, Tamarisk Row's lyrical prose is charged with the yearning, boredom, fear and fascination of boyhood. First published in Australia in 1974, and previously unpublished in the UK, Tamarisk Row is Gerald Murnane's debut novel, and in many respects his masterpiece.Trade Review`The greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of . . . The next Nobel Laureate in Literature.' New York Times Magazine`Murnane, a genius, is a worthy heir to Beckett.' Teju Cole ---- `An image in Murnane's prose has the quality of an image in colored glass: One both sees the image and sees through the image simultaneously.' Benjamin H. Ogden. New York Times ---- `Murnane's writing is carefully, thoughtfully worded, his deliberations seemingly open, even as there's obviously much more hidden care and attention behind it:' M.A.Orthofer ---- `The seventy-eight-year-old Nobel Prize contender writes like a clockmaker: every sentence is a finely tooled cog, every book an exquisite machine.' Australian Book Review ---- `Impressive, sustained attention is paid to this strange dream-zone of childhood' -- Claire Lowdon, Sunday Times ---- `An authentically modernist novel ... Its themes, as well as its technique, place him in the tradition of Katherine Mansfield and James Joyce' - Jon Day, The Guardian ---- '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 ---- '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 ---- `Murnane's fantasies are many-layered, and the narration weaves between these and his mundane life in thrillingly long, lyrical sentences.’ Christian Lorentzen, London Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs she faces the open wilderness of adulthood, our young narrator finds that the world around her is coming undone. She works part-time as an emergency dispatch operator, tracking the fires and floods that rage across Australia during an increasingly unstable year. Drinking heavily, sleeping with strangers, she finds herself wandering Sydney's streets late at night as she navigates a troubled affair with an ex-lover. Reckless and adrift, she begins to contemplate leaving. Writing with down-to-earth lucidity and ethereal breeziness, Watts builds to a tightly controlled bushfire of ecological and personal crisis. This is an unforgettable debut about coming of age in a dying world.Trade Review'Watts writes with precision and great power... To call The Inland Sea 'a novel about climate change' would be to do it a disservice; it is about much else besides, capturing what it means to be young, wounded and afraid today better than anything else I've come across recently. It is a masterful debut that demands to be read' - Telegraph'Full of heat and disquiet, astute and precise, almost savage in its eloquence, illuminating about what it feels like to love, to be left, to want more' - Leslie Jamison, author of MAKE IT SCREAM, MAKE IT BURN

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis"He's back, Carrie. The Scribbler is back." DI Gayther and his rookie colleague DC Carrie have been assigned a new caseload. Or rather, an old one ... cold cases of LGBTQ+ murders dating back to the 1980s and beyond. Georgia Carrie wasn't even born when the notorious serial killer began his reign of terror across the East of England. Roger Gayther was on the force that failed to catch him and remembers every chilling detail. Now, after all these years, there's a sudden death featuring The Scribbler's tell-tale modus operandi. Can Gayther and Carrie track the murderer down and bring him to justice before the slaughter starts again?Trade Review"A brilliant read [... on] LGBTQ+ crimes that traditionally were underreported ... Thankfully, times have changed." Neil Boast MBE, former LGBT Liaison Officer, Suffolk Constabulary, and former head of task force on sexual exploitation and trafficking; "One seriously weird killer and an engaging cop-partnership dynamic. Exciting." Sunday Times; "Brilliantly creepy" Scots Magazine; "The cavalier approach to the investigation brings tragedy and further killings in its wake ... an interesting twist." Jon Morgan, Shots Magazine; "Very few authors could sustain the tension of a final scene over one hundred and eighteen pages. Maitland, however, has the reader bound up as tightly as a hostage, and he never loses that grip ... This is an outstandingly good book." Rosemary Kaye, Scones and Chaises Longues Blog; "The Scribbler is a slow burning, tense and downright creepy thriller. Likeable, engaging protagonists and an unusual villain ... shocking, providing more than one OMG moment." Suze Reviews; "I feel like I have just made one of the greatest discoveries on earth ... What a mind this author has ... a fantastic ... dark, gripping, creepy and tense read ... another book to add to my favourites of the year." A Lover of Books Blog; "I feel like I have just made one of the greatest discoveries on earth ... What a mind this author has ... a fantastic ... dark, gripping, creepy and tense read ... another book to add to my favourites of the year." A Lover of Books Blog; "The Scribbler is well-paced, engaging and punctuated by ... unexpected humour, leading to a compelling and incredibly satisfying crime read. Watch out for that ending ... Highly recommended." Raven Crime Reads; "Intriguing ... It's a great read" Cheryl MM; "A creepy read with an explosive ending, I was engrossed from start to finish." Jera's Jamboree; "A creepy read with an explosive ending, I was engrossed from start to finish." Jera's Jamboree; "Iain Maitland has a delicious and dark style of writing, he tricks you into thinking you are just meandering along nicely ... then he jumps out behind you and knocks you sideways as he delivers some dark and deadly punches, then lets you breathe before he does it all over again" Chapter In My Life Blog

Read more less

Book Synopsisucharest, before and during World War II, where Bernard Davidescou lives with his parents and his older brother on Triumph Street, in the middle of a courtyard block inhabited by a dozen Jewish families and two Christian ones. When Romania, under General Ion Antonescu's dictatorship, allies itself with Hitler and invades the USSR, the Jews in Bucharest face the threat of being sent to the Nazi extermination camps, after having survived the terror of the fascist Iron Guard. However, each Sunday morning, young Bernard, age twelve, passionate about politics and history, amazes the adults in the courtyard, Jews and Christians alike, with his analysis of the political situation in Romania and the development of the war on all fronts. 'Triumph Street, Bucharest' is the story of this young boy and his dreams and torments during this dark period of human history, while also chronicling a family in crisis, the discovery of sexuality and first loves, and the distraction offered by the cinema, religious searching and idealistic aspirations for a better world.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPristina, Kosovo, 1999. Barry Ashton, recently divorced, has been deployed as a civil engineer attached to the Royal Engineers corps in the British Army. In an extraordinary feat of ventriloquism, Adam Mars-Jones constructs a literary story with a thoroughly unliterary narrator, and a narrative that is anything but comic through the medium of a character who, essentially, is. Exploring masculinity, class and identity, Batlava Lake is a brilliant story of men and war by one of Britain's most accomplished writers.Trade Review‘No one inhabits character as intensely and subtly as Mars-Jones. Batlava Lake is therefore completely convincing as an everyman narrative – we know people exactly like Barry Ashton, and may even be exactly like him – but there’s a larger truth here too, about clashes of cultures and history, that make this an important and highly recommended book.’ — Lee Child‘Barry is a man with no friends and little sense of wonder, who’s better with things than with people, and who can’t see through the detail to what’s really going on…. And when we finally find out what he’s been skirting around, it all fits together precisely, and we look back in wonder at how we got from there to here without being able to see the join. Mars-Jones, it turns out, is an expert engineer himself. And much better at people than poor old Barry.’ — John Self, Observer‘There is something of a tradition of the novella-with-a-dark-twist in British fiction ... it isn’t until the very last pages that we can be sure what we’ve just read. But even then, the effect Mars-Jones creates is not that of a twist or revelation but a confirmation of a presentiment for which we’ve been subtly, expertly primed.’ — Nikhil Krishnan, The Telegraph‘Barry is a clever, funny and anecdotal narrator, and on one level this book is a cracking read. It is also written with a sharp social observation that could easily have made it an exercise in applied snobbery, but Barry is not just the butt of Mars-Jones’s condescension. The overall stance is more like compassion, which makes Batlava Lake a more complex and ultimately rather beautiful book.’ — Phil Baker, The Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisCollected after publication in the best magazines, Stevens's stories spy big ethical and historical questions in comic, shambolically human situations

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe subject of Menopause is just beginning to break the barrier of taboo, and become a mainstream discussion point, but that discussion has until now been very serious, medical, and, we would argue, heterosexual and white. This anthology of poems and short fiction aims to address that, with wild and wonderful writing from humour and anger, relief and distress, by women who have experienced menopause, whether naturally or as a result of surgery; with a healthy dose of views from the global majority and the lesbian, bisexual and trans communities. With contributions from Adele Evershed, Alison Habens, Alyson Hallett, Amanda Addison, Anne Caldwell, Anne Eccleshall, Anne Macaulay, Cath Holland, Cheryl Powell, Chloe Balcomb, Claire Booker, Claire Lynn, Clare Starling, Ellesar Elhaggagi, Elizabeth A Richter, Em Gray, Erica Borgstrom, Genevieve Carver, Ginger Strivelli, Helen Campbell, Jane Ayres, Jane Burn, Jane McLaughlin, Jessica Manack, Joanne Harris, JP Seabright, Julie-Ann Rowell, Karen F Pierce, Kavita A Jindal, Kim Whysall-Hammond, Lucy Lasasso, Marina Sanchez, Martha Patterson, Mary Mulholland, Rachel Playforth, Ruth Higgins, Sian Northey, Susan Bennett, Susan Cartwright-Smith, Tessa Lang, Tina Bethea Ray, Victoria Bailey, and Victoria Ekpo.Table of ContentsFrom Menarche to Menopause Cath Holland 8 Pause Rachel Playforth 13 A sudden ending Anne Macaulay 14 My Wild Fires Marina Sanchez 16 The Grandmother Hypothesis Genevieve Carver 17 Be Cool Tina Bethea Ray 18 more the use the womb is put to than the womb itself Jane Ayres 20 Flashes of Kindness Victoria Bailey 21 Women of Your Age Erica Borgstrom 22 Night Sweats Julie-Ann Rowell 24 Red Clover and Black Cohosh Days Anne Caldwell 26 A Cabin in the Woods Lucy Lasasso 27 Washing Mary Jane Ayres 32 Deja vu Sian Northey 34 Shape-shift Alyson Hallett 35 Obit: My Last Egg Susan Bennett 36 Woman's Work Cheryl Powell 37 Relieved Victoria Bailey 39 The Other Side of Nowhere Jessica Manack 40 Flush Anne Caldwell 42 Foreign Land Ellesar Elhaggagi 43 Fairy Tales for the Over Fifties Alison Habens 44 Black Armour Joanne Harris 48 Breakup Helen Campbell 52 my vulva & i used to be friends Jane Ayres 53 Menostop Kim Whysall-Hammond 54 Shamans in Luburbia Kavita A Jindal 55 A Summer Prematurely Here Victoria Ekpo 61 Nuclear Tingle Karen F Pierce 63 Ruby-Red Jewel Martha Patterson 64 HUM PBA CK JP Seabright 65 Over the Bloody Moon-a prose poem Adele Evershed 66 You have been this country I have known Jane Burn 68 Dried Susan Cartwright-Smith 70 Evorel Clare Starling 72 The Change Ginger Strivelli 73 China Anne Caldwell 77 Natural wastage Anne Eccleshall 78 Gutsy Menopausal Woman Chloe Balcomb 79 O Womb Mary Mulholland 80 Silver Swans Amanda Addison 82 Monthly Tessa Lang 84 men-oh-paused - haibun Victoria Bailey 85 Demeter Elizabeth A Richter 86 Her mid-life performance review Ruth Higgins 88 The Farmer's Fire Jane McLaughlin 89 Wilding Em Gray 93 On Discovering a New Energy Source Claire Booker 94 Enough Already Claire Lynn 95

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2013 WORLD FANTASY AWARD Episodes from the casebook of a police officer in the West Midlands: A young woman needs help in finding the buried pieces of her lover... so he can return to waking life. Pale-faced thieves gather by a disused railway to watch a puppet theatre of love and violence. Why do local youths keep starting fires in the ash woods around a disused mine in the Black Country? A series of inexplicable deaths uncover a secret cult of machine worship. When a migrant worker disappears, the key suspect is a boy driven mad by memories that are not his own. Among the derelict factories and warehouses at the heart of the city, an archaic god seeks out his willing victims. Blurring the occult detective story with urban noir fiction, Where Furnaces Burn offers a glimpse of the myths and terrors buried within the industrial landscape. First published in 2012, Joel Lane’s World Fantasy Award-winning collection is a true modern classic of weird fiction that cemented his place as one of the most important and distinctive British writers of the weird.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA disenchanted man struggles to get beyond the first chapter of the books he’s writing, and to separate fact from fiction in his own life. His friend’s suicide changes everything … The mind-blowing, heart-rending new thriller from cult bestselling author Will Carver. ‘Ambitious, dark and funny … a compelling and thought-provoking book from a highly talented writer. Bravo!’ Mike Gayle ‘One of the most exciting authors in Britain’ Daily Express 'Unflinching, blunt and brutal, Carver's originality knows no bounds. Simply brilliant' Sam Holland _________________________________________ Eli Hagin can’t finish anything. He hates his job, but can’t seem to quit. He doesn’t want to be with his girlfriend, but doesn’t know how end things with her, either. Eli wants to write a novel, but he’s never taken a story beyond the first chapter. Eli also has trouble separating reality from fiction. When his best friend kills himself, Eli is motivated, for the first time in his life, to finally end something himself, just as Mike did… Except sessions with his therapist suggest that Eli’s most recent ‘first chapters’ are not as fictitious as he had intended … and a series of text messages that Mike received before his death point to something much, much darker… _________________________________________ ‘Gave me nightmares … I loved it’ S J Watson ‘Brutal and brilliant' Lisa Hall 'Challenging, perceptive and unexpectedly enlightening' Sarah Sultoon 'Will Carver is a unique writer. I loved Suicide Thursday' Greg Mosse ‘A smart, stylish writer’ Daily Mail 'Carver's trademarked cynicism and contemptuousness run rampant here … [a] dark, dangerous novel' Jack Heath ‘One of the most compelling and original voices in crime fiction’ Alex North Praise for Will Carver ‘Deliciously fresh and malevolent story-telling’ Craig Sisterson ‘Weirdly page-turning’ Sunday Times ‘Laying bare our 21st-century weaknesses and dilemmas, Carver has created a highly original state-of-the-nation novel’ Literary Review ‘Arguably the most original crime novel published this year’ Independent ‘This mesmeric novel paints a thought-provoking if depressing picture of modern life’ Guardian ‘Most memorable for its unrepentant darkness…’ Telegraph ‘Unlike anything else you’ll read this year’ Heat ‘Incredibly dark and very funny’ Harriet Tyce ‘Wickedly fun’ Crime Monthly ‘Will Carver’s most exciting, original, hilarious and freaky outing yet’ Helen FitzGerald ‘Vivid and engaging and completely unexpected’ Lia Middleton ‘Dark in the way only Will Carver can be … oozes malevolence from every page’ Victoria Selman ‘Move the hell over Brett Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk … Will Carver is the new lit prince of 21st-century disenfranchised, pop darkness’ Stephen J. Golds ‘Carver truly at his best’ Sarah Pinborough

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe haunting and intimate account of a group of young adults trying to come to terms with a friend's premature death

Read more less