Contemporary Fiction Books

Book Synopsis‘One of the most beautiful and profound novels I’ve read in ages’ Washington Post ‘A magical take on Africa before the arrival of the Atlantic slave ships’ Independent ‘Takes on the great riddles of existence’ New York Times By a riverbank in Africa, two lovers meet for the first time. They make a promise to meet again the next day, same time, same place, but only one of them shows up. This sounds like the beginning of a love story, but it’s more than that, for this breathtaking tale takes the reader into the heart of a vibrant world, a complex and intriguing civilisation of warriors and kings, philosophers and artists, parents and lovers. A world and culture which is about to end for, glimpsed on the horizon, seen but unsuspected, beautiful ships with white sails are waiting...Trade ReviewA magical take on Africa before the arrival of the Atlantic slave ships – a world of art and artists, lovers, storytellers and philosophers... The beauty of Okri's prose is [...] the overwhelming star of the show * Independent *Told with a bracing sincerity... and gnomic wisdom expressed in supple but sturdy prose * Daily Telegraph *'[Okri's] writing takes on the great riddles of existence — freedom and consciousness, truth and illusion, suffering and transcendence — spinning them into shimmering, allegorical texts.' -- New York TimesPRAISE FOR BEN OKRI: 'Where fiction's master of enchantments stares down a real horror, and without blinking or flinching, produces a work of beauty, grace and uncommon power' Marlon James, on The Freedom Artist. 'Ben Okri is that rare thing, a literary and social visionary, a writer for whom all three – literature, culture and vision – are profoundly interwoven' -- Ali Smith

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Book SynopsisAilsa and Humphrey met as children by a grey, northern sea in post-war Britain. She, freckled and furious; he, quietly studious; both fascinated by the other. Years later, their lives collide as adults and burst into an intense yet brief love affair. Now, after thirty years apart and at the close of the 20th century, their lives are converging once again as they hurtle towards each other by plane and train - their motivations, regrets and decisions laid bare.With the gloriously astute eye that Margaret Drabble is celebrated for, The Sea Lady is an account of first and last love; of the lapping of time at our ankles, gradually eroding and shaping our lives.Trade ReviewI have learned so much from Margaret Drabble's work. Her prose is very beautiful, very funny, and the same time very serious -- SALLY ROONEYEach of Margaret Drabble's novels has been an accurate, honest record of its time in the idiom of its time -- URSULA K. LE GUINMarvellous . . . Utterly engrossing * * Guardian * *The Sea Lady proves [Drabble] remains one of the most thought-provoking and intellectually challenging writers around * * Financial Times * *Drabble excels at describing the minute detail of human behaviour . . . The Sea Lady is a potent tribute to lost dreams and harsh realities * * Independent * *A pleasure to read . . . [Drabble's] generous and unsentimental truthfulness to the condition of childhood is very rare -- URSULA K. LE GUINA touch of magic * * New York Times * *

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Book SynopsisLaisve is a refugee in a destroyed city-island, hunted in Raids and haunted by the spirits of her drowned mother and brother. She dives into the river and finds herself travelling between times and waterways that will connect her with people from the past and future. Among them are a group of workers constructing a colossal monument to freedom for a young and bustling nation. But exactly what - and whom - will that liberty represent?As Laisve drifts into their histories, she schools seekers in the ways of dreams, love and the ultimate aim of liberty: to free the next generation from the chains of this one.Trade ReviewA long, disturbing dream . . . a fascinating, unsettling ride * * Guardian * *There's so much that feels deeply present about Yuknavitch's latest novel: the ever-expanding police state, lower Manhattan under water and a woman on a mission to rescue other vulnerable women. Yuknavitch's words are incantations, and Thrust is a triumph * * Elle * *An indignant and impressive novel * * New York Times * *Moving and incisive * * Time * *This weirdly wonderful [novel] on the surveillance state, climate change, and what it means to have agency as a woman in the world will throw your mind for a loop in the best way * * Good Housekeeping * *[This] powerful, braided fable unites workers of the world across time and space and class to start conceiving of a better world . . . Yuknavitch is firmly in control * * Los Angeles Times * *Thrust is alarmingly trenchant - and a hell of a wild ride. Daring, dazzling and earth-splitting, this is a book to take in wide-eyed -- REBECCA MAKKAI, author of The Great Believers[The] most mind-blowing book about America I've ever inhaled . . . I read Thrust in a state of flustered fascination and finished longing to dream it again * * Washington Post * *A unique dystopian tale, one much more than a straightforward calamity-charged premonition * * Buzz Magazine * *A complex novel of great imagination . . . profound, thought-provoking and deeply beautiful * * Shelf Awareness * *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BERNARD SHAW PRIZEA woman's life, erupting with brilliance and promise, is fissured by betrayal and the pressures of duty. What had once seemed a pastoral family idyll has become a trap, and she struggles between being the wife and mother she is bound to be and yearning for so much more. The woman in question is Sylvia Plath in the final year of her life. As Plath's marriage to Ted Hughes unravels, Sylvia turns increasingly to writing to express her pain and loss, yet also her resilience and power. She has decided to die, but the art she creates in her final weeks will set her name, and the world, ablaze.Trade ReviewAn audacious, gripping novel . . . a book for our times * * Guardian * *Euphoria is about the fissures between motherhood, love and creativity but is also a celebration of Plath's power * * Evening Standard * *Compelling and visceral * * Irish Examiner * *A novel about the conflicted emotional underbelly of female experience - including childbirth, desire, envy, rage, insecurity, ambition . . . Brave * * Times Literary Supplement * *A sensitive and artistic account of a woman attempting to write herself out of oblivion . . . not a book about death, it is a book about art, more specifically, female art, and its resilience and endurance * * Sunday Business Post * *Compelling * * BBC History Magazine * *Imagines the hopes, fears, dreams and memoirs of [Plath's] final months, as well as the growing tensions between the worlds of creativity and domesticity. Based on archival research but explicitly a work of fiction, Elin Cullhed's book aims to focus not on Plath's death but instead on the complexities and contradictions of her life * * History Revealed * *

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Book SynopsisAbd Al-Karim Ghallab s postcolonial "We Buried the Past," originally published in 1966, was the first breakthrough Moroccan novel written in Arabic instead of French. Newly translated into English, this edition brings Ghallab s most widely read and lauded work to a new audience. Written after the country gained independence, the historical novel follows two generations of al-Tihamis, a well-to-do family residing in Fez s ancient medina. The family members lives reflect the profound social changes taking place in Morocco during that time. Bridging two worlds, "We Buried the Past" begins during the quieter days of the late colonial period, a world of seemingly timeless tradition, in which the patriarch, al-Haj Muhammad, proudly presides over the family. Here, religion is unquestioned and permeates all aspects of daily life. But the coming upheaval and imminent social transition are reflected in al-Haj s three sons, particularly his second son, Abderrahman, who eventually defies his father and comes to symbolize the break between the old ways and the new.Noted for marrying classical Arabic style and European literary form, this book also offers insight into the life of Ghallab himself, who was deeply involved in the nationalist movement that led to Moroccan independence. A pioneering work, "We Buried the Past" beautifully characterizes an influential period in the history of Morocco."

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Book SynopsisWhen the successful British mystery writer Judith Moore meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, at a birthday party on the Cornish coast, his love transforms her from a bitter, lonely young woman into a romance heroine overnight. After a whirlwind honeymoon in Paris, he whisks her away to a secluded Gothic castle. But soon she finds herself trapped in a nightmare, as her husband's mysterious nature and his alternation between charm and violence become increasingly frightening. As Judith battles both internal and external demons, including sexual ambivalence, psychological self-torture, gaslighting, family neglect, alcoholism, and domestic abuse, she becomes increasingly addicted to her wild beast of a husband. Why do women stay in abusive relationships? The answer can be found in the tortured mind of the protagonist, whose richly layered fantasy life parallels that of the female Gothic romance reader. Filled with dark humor and evocative imagery, Bluebeard's Castle is a subversive take on modern romance and Gothic erotica.Trade ReviewBluebeard's Castle [is] . a stylised retelling of the old fable that mixes self-reference and gaudy excess. Its ­heroine, Judith, a gothic-romance novelist, shacks up in a crumbling castle with a brooding husband; the sex, death and pricy cognac are of a wildly enjoyable piece. -- Cal Revely-Calder, Best Fiction Books of the Year * Telegraph *Both a fantasy and a nightmare ... [Biller] casts a chilling light on the kinds of real-world fairy tales we are all still so often encouraged to believe. -- Elizabeth Dearnley * Times Literary Supplement *A story which is as gripping as it is troubling - and as relevant now as it has ever been. -- Barry Didcock * Herald *Grippingly intense and emotionally resonant, Bluebeard's Castle plants the reader firmly in the mind of a woman being masterfully manipulated, stripping bare any clichés and misconceptions about domestic violence. The result is a brutally honest glimpse into the tragedy of intimate partner violence that millions of women around the world have experienced. -- Sirena He * Esquire *To its final page, Bluebeard's Castle is as much an excavation of the insidious tactics of abusers as it is the culture that belittles and maligns victims, that teaches them to 'fix' their abusers or suffer the consequences. -- Kylie Cheung * Jezebel *A perfect literary debut for a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. And that cover! -- Sophia Stewart, Most Anticipated Books of 2023 * The Millions *A provocative work that adds layers of meaning as one becomes addicted to this page-turner of a book, Bluebeard's Castle is a bit of Alfred Hitchcock mixed with André Breton's Nadja. -- Tosh Berman, author of Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's WorldWritten by the filmmaker of 2016's The Love Witch, this debut novel has a similar romantic haze and a retro hyper-aesthetic swirl.stylish, scary, and peak modern Gothic. -- Maggie Lange, Most Anticipated Books * Bustle *Anna Biller's sly feminist dissection of gothic tropes is as lush and layered as her cinema...Biller skillfully portrays the gaslighting and abuse that reduce her heroine to making excuses for her boorish husband. -- Molly Odintz, Most Anticipated Books * CrimeReads *Though the story is set in the present day, Biller paints a beautifully creepy atmosphere full of billowy dresses, darkened woods, burning candles, and castle corridors full of ghosts and secrets. The novel's timeless quality helps drive home the unending nature of male violence against women. * Kirkus Reviews *Apparently, there's nothing Biller can't do, because she's bringing her gothic-meets-midcentury-camp aesthetic to the page with Bluebeard's Castle, a retelling of the famous fairy tale that also seems to be in conversation with Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. * BookPage ("Most anticipated mystery and suspense") *Bluebeard's Castle is a truly great novel...it's a delightful page-turner; multilayered and multi-dimensional. While a book of this nature is a risk in any era, it's safe to say that Anna Biller can now add novelist to her sensational register of artistic achievements. * We Are Cult *Equally steeped in the traditions of the Gothic genre and the women's picture, Bluebeard's Castle follows a romance novelist, Judith, as she's dragged into a whirlwind marriage with the dangerously charming Gavin. Its horror stems not just from the crumbling and potentially haunted castle, but from the terror of being trapped with a man who is a relative stranger to her. -- Alexandra Coburn * Screen Slate *This gothic thriller cheekily transports readers to a bygone era by drawing heavily upon classic horror movies and literature, utilizing highly stylized language, tropes, and dated gender roles while generating conversation regarding contemporary issues of consent, agency, domestic abuse, and gaslighting. The author contextualizes the self-sabotage that perpetuates toxic relationships, and fans of the author's film The Love Witch (2016) will enjoy this gothic novel. * Booklist *Biller flexes her mastery of pastiche, vividly sumptuous detail, and the subversion of classic female archetypes. In this, her first novel, a tale that begins in the style of gothic romance turns legitimately terrifying, rooted in the all too real fear of sociopathic male violence. -- Rufus Hickok * BUST *[Biller has] given the classic folk tale a feminist makeover. Call it an erotic Jane Eyre - one that both revels in and subverts the genre tropes to explore, among other things, why women like her heroine, Judith, stay in bad relationships with brooding men. * Everything Zoomer *Bluebeard's Castle is clever, disquieting, and as rich artistically as it is disciplined-in other words, everything you would expect from Anna Biller. Highly recommended! -- Brian W. Walter, professor, author, and editor of The Guestroom NovelistAnna Biller's writing is full and luminous, mirroring the classic fiction of Mary Shelley and Charlotte Brontë--but with a modern bite that keeps readers going back for more. -- Dominic Charles Howarth * Shelf Awareness *[Biller] transforms the gothic narrative and its spaces into a self-reflexive game; her novel offers a humorous and horrific twist on a genre that here grotesquely folds back on itself to reveal and conceal where true intent lies and the actual bodies are buried -- Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou * Worms Magazine *Bluebeard's Castle is a sexy but subversive romance novel steeped in Gothic imagery. * The Arts Fuse *A gorgeous, distinctly female gaze-but one unafraid to depict the mainstays of women's suffering, from objectification to assault. -- Chelsea Davis * Electric Literature *

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Book Synopsis‘I laughed and cried my way through this book in all its unputdownable glory. Nancy’s writing is utterly sublime.’ Julie CaplinWhen did having it all become doing it all?Penny Baker is coping. Just about.Three kids, one dog, one lovely but sometimes oblivious husband. Tick, tick tick.She is even managing to hold her own among the competitive school mums - if you don’t look too closely. But when she finds herself also caring for her elderly mother, diagnosed with dementia, the household is thrown into disarray and Penny finds herself stretched to breaking point trying to meet everyone’s needs.Can she make the new family situation work? And is there any chance of finding some space in it all for herself?Fans of Milly Johnson, Gill Sims and Alexandra Potter will adore this funny, relatable and uplifting read.Praise for The Mother of All Problems:‘Genuinely laugh-out-loud, but also deeply moving... a warm, witty, page-turner of a book.’ Kathleen Whyman‘I absolutely loved this book... funny, heartwarming and just brilliant. If you like Motherland, this is a book for you!’ Olivia Beirne‘One of the best books I have read this year. Funny and heartbreaking by turns. One to devour, rejoice in and reflect upon. An absolute triumph.’ Jenni Keer'Hilarious, heartbreaking and so relatable - a brilliant yet poignant take on the struggles of real life.' Nina Kaye‘Frank, fun and touching... crafted beautifully to tell a story many ‘sandwiched’ readers will identify with...a very special read.’ Faye Brann‘What a glorious book - warm, hilarious and utterly relatable. Nancy Peach’s writing is delicious.’ Donna Ashcroft‘Poignant yet hilarious...Prepare to laugh out loud and be moved to tears as you read this book.’ Helga Jensen‘Brilliantly written and utterly refreshing. Nancy’s writing is inspiring, quick-witted and heartbreaking in equal measure.’ Zoe Allison‘Laugh-out-loud funny but also very moving. If you’ve ever struggled to keep all the plates spinning then this is the book for you.’ Nicola Gill‘Properly hilarious and equally heartbreaking, Nancy Peach writes her acute observations of family life in the shadow of dementia both frankly and with endearing wit... a timely and relevant portrayal of today’s Sandwich Generation, brilliantly cloaked in sparkling humour and hope.’ Pernille Hughes‘Absolutely hilarious and heartwarming all at the same time.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘Captivating, witty, hilarious, emotional, raw and real! One of the best books I’ve read in the last few months!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘What an absolutely beautiful story this was. I laughed out loud, I cried and I had many moments of self-reflection’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘Great, totally relatable read, particularly for women of a certain age…Would highly recommend this’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘What a delightful, heartwarming book…The story was compelling and entertaining’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

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Book SynopsisMo Moore, estranged daughter of a sex-aid entrepreneur, regards her father as good as dead. And then he really does die and leaves her all his wealth. Stuck in a job in elderly care, newly single, and with nothing and no-one to keep her in England, Mo does what she's always done when things get tough: she runs. It could have been anywhere, but a classified ad catches Mo's eye, and it takes her to China. She lands in Pingdi, a remote mountain village that for centuries supplied dildos to the Imperial bedchamber, and whose revived sex-aid factory is in a financial fix. Soon Mo finds herself on the wrong side of the authorities and needing all the help she can get: China is a land of pointing fingers and blind eyes, of closed doors and open secrets, of rules and recklessness - a place, she discovers, where it's not easy to be female.

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Book SynopsisThe unforgettable finale to the international, bestselling Disco Days Trilogy … Bobby, Joey and Max Mojo return in an attempt to reclaim the elusive stardom of their youth, reuniting a legendary band that didn’t quite live up to expectations, with predictable results… ‘A real new talent on the Scottish literary scene’ Press & Journal ‘By turn hilarious and heart-breaking, more than anything Ross creates beautifully rounded characters full of humanity and perhaps most of all, hope’ Liam Rudden, Scotsman ‘David Ross carved out an enduring place for himself among contemporary Scottish novelists’ Alastair Mabb, Herald Scotland –––––––––––––––––––––––– The Disco Boys and The Band are back… In the early 80s, Bobby Cassidy and Joey Miller were inseparable; childhood friends and fledgling business associates. Now, both are depressed and lonely, and they haven't spoken to each other in more than ten years. A bizarre opportunity to honour the memory of someone close to both of them presents itself, if only they can forgive ... and forget. With the help of the deluded Max Mojo and the faithful Hamish May, can they pull off the impossible, and reunite the legendary Ayrshire band, The Miraculous Vespas, for a one-off Music Festival – The Big Bang – on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island? Absurdly funny, deeply moving and utterly human, The Man Who Loves Islands is an unforgettable finale to the Disco Days trilogy – a modern classic pumped full of music and middle-aged madness, written from the heart and pen of one of Scotland’s finest new voices. –––––––––––––––––––––––– Praise for David F. Ross ‘A warm, funny consideration of reconciliation between middle-aged friends and a celebration of music’s healing powers. Suggest to fans of Nick Hornby’ Library Journal ‘Warm, funny and evocative. If you grew up in the eighties, you’re going to love this’ Chris Brookmyre ‘Dark, hilarious, funny and heart-breaking all at the same time, a book that sums up the spirit of an era and a country in a way that will make you wince and laugh at the same time’ Muriel Gray ‘An astonishing tour de force’ John Niven ’This is a book that might just make you cry like nobody’s watching’ Iain MacLeod, Sunday Mail ‘Crucially Ross's novel succeeds in balancing light and dark, in that it can leap smoothly from brutal social realism to laugh-out-loud humour within a few sentences’ Press & Journal ‘Full of comedy, pathos and great tunes’ Hardeep Singh Kohli ‘If I saw that in a store I would buy it without even looking at what was inside’ Irvine Welsh ‘Like the vinyl that crackles off every page … as warm and authentic as Roddy Doyle at his very best’ Nick Quantrill ‘A solid-gold hit of a book! The closest you’ll ever get to being on Top of the Pops’ Colin McCredieTrade Review"[A] warm, funny consideration of reconciliation between middle-aged friends and a celebration of music's healing powers . . . suggest to fans of Nick Hornby." --Library Journal

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Book SynopsisGrowing up in Saudi Arabia as a woman, Layla struggled to develop her own womanhood in a place where her desires must be concealed and regulated. Marriage is essential, and yet her own feelings must be tempered for a successful union that would please her family. Torn between love and disobedience, Layla''s youth is filled with the heart-aching trials and tribulations of dating, and her discovery of her own place in society. Now a wife and mother, Layla must balance that struggle in a society everchanging, and opening up to world less burdened by stifling norms.In the Wake of Change is a complex character study of Layla, whose reminiscence of the stolen freedoms of her youth, illuminate the significance of the freedoms of the present.

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Book SynopsisA book-length interview with the Mother of God. No questions, just answers. Mariamne is an old Jewish peasant woman from Galilee. She is visited by a young Greek man who came to see her to talk about her late son. Mariamne spins her story in a colourful and blunt language of a simple, old woman of natural intelligence and dry sense of humour.

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE 'An Island concerns itself with lives lived on the margins, through the story of a man who has exiled himself from the known world only to find himself called to the service of others, themselves exiled from the world by cruelty and circumstance. It is on these grounds that this writer deftly constructs a moving, transfixing novel of loss, political upheaval, history, identity, all rendered in majestic and extraordinary prose.' Booker Prize Judges panel. "A gripping, terrifying and unforgettable story." Elleke Boehmer Samuel has lived alone for a long time; one morning he finds the sea has brought someone to offer companionship and to threaten his solitude... A young refugee washes up unconscious on the beach of a small island inhabited by no one but Samuel, an old lighthouse keeper. Unsettled, Samuel is soon swept up in memories of his former life on the mainland: a life that saw his country suffer under colonisers, then fight for independence, only to fall under the rule of a cruel dictator; and he recalls his own part in its history. In this new man's presence he begins to consider, as he did in his youth, what is meant by land and to whom it should belong. To what lengths will a person go in order to ensure that what is theirs will not be taken from them? A novel about guilt and fear, friendship and rejection; about the meaning of home.Trade ReviewLONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE

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Book SynopsisIf Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge had a fiver for every dodgy scheme he has ever floated, he would be a rich man indeed. In these ten stories he tries every way of making money, from writing political slogans to opening a college for dogs. In his own eyes, Ukridge is a Great Man and a Visionary. In ours, he is English literature's most delightful chancer and one of Wodehouse's greatest comic creations: charming, ambitious, persuasive, optimistic and almost always disastrous. Sometimes supported by his rich Aunt Julia - but more often expelled from her house for his sins - he moves through the landscape in his eternal yellow mackintosh, dreaming of riches and borrowing shillings, an innocent abroad in a hostile world.

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Book SynopsisIn the summer of 2008, Andrei Kaplan moves from New York to Moscow to look after his ageing grandmother, a woman who survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia’s violent capitalist transformation. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can’t always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin’s Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly – but surprisingly sharp! – grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a café to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Capturing with a miniaturist’s brush the unfolding demands of family, fortune, personal ambition, ideology, and desire, A Terrible Country is a compelling novel about ageing, radical politics, Russia at a crossroads, and the difficulty – or impossibility – of actually changing one’s life.Trade Review‘Keith Gessen’s second novel is a very funny, perceptive, exasperated, loving and timely portrait of a country that its author clearly knows well.... The refreshingly artless writing belies a deep understanding of Russia, its history and literature. Andrei digresses enlighteningly on Russian as a literary language, swearing, taxis, plumbing, ice hockey and the role played by global oil prices in the breakup of the Soviet Union.... If the last two bizarre years have taught us anything, it’s that Russia is never irrelevant. I wonder how many more drugged spies, bent elections and political murders it will take for the rest of the world to realise that, for existential reasons, it would be smart for us to pay it a little more consistent and nuanced attention. A Terrible Country would be an excellent and entertaining place to begin.’ — Marcel Theroux, Guardian‘Gessen evokes not only convincingly, but indispensably, something exceedingly rare in modern American fiction: genuine male vulnerability. There’s enough heart here to redeem every recent male novel that’s aimed for it and found solipsism instead.… The novel manages to offer hard-won insight into an impossible place.… You won’t read a more observant book about the country that has now been America’s bedeviling foil for almost a century.’ — Boris Fishman, New York Times Book Review‘A cause for celebration: big-hearted, witty, warm, compulsively readable, earnest, funny, full of that kind of joyful sadness I associate with Russia and its writers. Gessen’s particular gift is his ability to effortlessly and charmingly engage with big ideas – power, responsibility, despotism of various stripes, the question of what a country is supposed to do for the people who live in it – while still managing to tell a moving and entertaining human story. At a time when people are wondering whether art can rise to the current confusing political moment, this novel is a reassurance, from a wonderful and important writer.’ — George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo‘A Terrible Country is even better than I hoped. By turns sad, funny, bewildering, revelatory, and then sad again, it recreates the historical-psychological experience of returning, for twenty-first-century reasons, to a country one’s parents left in the twentieth century. It’s at once an old-fashioned novel about the interplay between generational roles, family fates, and political ideology, and a kind of global detective mystery about neo-liberalism (plus a secret map of Moscow in terms of pickup hockey). Gessen is a master journalist and essayist, as well as a storyteller with a scary grasp on the human heartstrings, and A Terrible Country unites the personal and political as only the best novels do.’ — Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot ‘Excellent ... In its breadth and depth, its sweep, its ability to move us and philosophize ... A Terrible Country is a smart, enjoyable, modern take on what we think of, admiringly, as “the Russian novel”— in this case, a Russian novel that only an American could have written.’ —Francine Prose, New York Review of Books‘A Terrible Country tells the reader a lot about contemporary Russia and, importantly, lifts the lid on domestic political resistance to Putin. But what makes this a moving and thought-provoking novel is Andrei’s personal struggle to find his way in the world, his sense of obligation to his family and his realisation that his parents’ emigration — the very thing that has afforded him opportunities — was “the great tragedy of my grandmother’s life”.’ — Max Liu, Financial Times

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Book SynopsisWhen Bertie Wooster goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court and find himself engaged to the imperious Lady Florence Craye, disaster treatens from all sides. While Florence tries to cultivate his mind, her former fiance, hefty policeman Stilton Cheesewright, threatens to beat his body to a pulp, and her new admirer, the bleating poet percy Gorringe, tries to borrow a thousand pounds. To cap it all, Bertie has incurred the disapproval of Jeeves by growing a moustach, thus alienating the only man who can save him from his trip to the altar. Throw in a disappearing pearl necklace, Aunt Dahlia's magazine Milady's Boudir, her cook Anatole, the Drones' dart match, and Mr and Mrs L. G. Trotter from Liverpool, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Wodehouse farce.

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Book SynopsisPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good".Trade Review"Sublime comic genius" Ben Elton"The finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew" Stephen Fry"Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever" Douglas Adams

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Book SynopsisWhen George, Viscount Uffenham turns the entire family fortune into diamonds and squirrels them away, naturally he forgets where he has hidden the loot and finds himself compelled to let the family seat to stay afloat. So it is that Mrs Cork's health colony comes into being, providing the perfect setting for crime and young love to flower.

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Book SynopsisWhen Sam Marlowe falls in love with his cousin's sparky ex-fiancée he finds himself up against stiff opposition from her millionaire father, her father's best friend and the best friend's son for whom she is destined, all of them travelling together aboard the RMS Atlantic. Nothing daunted, Sam perseveres in his suit: though he fails at sea he eventually triumphs on land. This Anglo-American musical comedy in prose begins in New York, crosses the Atlantic in leisurely fashion and ends in an English country house where all manner of things go bump in the night.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisFreddie Widgeon wants the money to buy shares in a coffee plantation in Kenya so that he can marry Sally Foster. Soapy and Dolly Molloy want to get their hands on a cache of stolen jewels hidden in the house of Freddie's neighbour in the suburb of Valley Fields. When their paths cross, the ensuing misunderstandings lead to vintage Wodehouse comedy.Trade ReviewA handsome, collectable hardback edition -- Lynne Truss * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThis is the tale of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, one of Wodehouse's favourite protagonists, and his fraught attempt to establish a business farming chickens on the coast of Dorset. The story is told by Jeremy Garnet through whose bemused eyes we observe the magnificent Ukridge at work while following Garnet's own chequered romance with the daughter of a neighbouring professor.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisUpon changing his religion, a young man is denounced as an apostate and flees his country hiding in the back of a freezer lorry… After years of travelling and losing almost everything – his country, his children, his wife, his farm – an Afghan man finds unexpected warmth and comfort in a stranger’s home... A student protester is forced to leave his homeland after a government crackdown, and spends the next 25 years in limbo, trapped in the UK asylum system... Modelled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the second volume of Refugee Tales sets out to communicate the experiences of those who, having sought asylum in the UK, find themselves indefinitely detained. Here, poets and novelists create a space in which the stories of those who have been detained can be safely heard, a space in which hospitality is the prevailing discourse and listening becomes an act of welcome.Trade Review'A wonderful way of re-humanising some of the most vulnerable and demonised people on the planet.’ - Shami Chakrabarti; 'This stark short story collection will shake you to the core' - Reader's Digest

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Book SynopsisMuch married American movie mogul Ivor Llewellyn depends on his friends at Bachelors Anonymous to keep him out of romantic entanglements on his trip to London. First, they arrange for Joe Pickering to be his bodyguard. Then his lawyer, Ephraim Trout, is sent to England to help fend off the actress Vera Dalrymple who is determined to ensnare Llewellyn. All seems to be going well. But when devoted bachelor Trout takes it upon himself to thwart a romance between Pickering and a beautiful journalist, he sets in train a series of events which end in more than one marriage including his own

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Book SynopsisIn order to save his reputation and the honour of his house at school after he shames himself by running away from a fight between fellow pupils and toughs from the local town, a studious schoolboy takes up the study of boxing. This charming early novel by P. G. Wodehouse plays a series of witty variations on the standard school story of the period, balancing the minor heroics of the action against a humorously ironic commentary. The simple tale is given sparkle by vivid character drawing and the author’s sharp ear for schoolboy dialogue

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Book SynopsisWould-be painter, George Finch, with lots of money and no talent, falls for lovely Molly Waddington who falls for him. Unfortunately, Molly’s snobbish stepmother, Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, New York society queen, has grander ideas for Molly, not least because George comes from Idaho, which is in every sense beyond the pale. Based on a 1917 musical comedy script by Wodehouse and his friend, Guy Bolton, The Small Bachelor tells the story of George’s struggle to win his girl, with the willing help of Hamilton Beamish, author of self-improvement pamphlets, and the unwitting assistance of a poetic policeman, Molly’s henpecked father, and New York’s premier female pickpocket.Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisSet in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, Waterland is a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history and a family romance as tormented as any in Greek tragedy.

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Book SynopsisIn an interview, Updike once said, "If I had to give anybody one book of me, it would be the Olinger Stories." These stories were originally published in The New Yorker and then in various collections before Vintage first put them together in one volume in 1964, as a paperback original. They follow the life of one character from the age of ten through manhood, in the small Pennsylvania town of Olinger (pronounced, according to Updike, with a long O and a hard G), which was loosely based on Updike's own hometown. "All the stories draw from the same autobiographical well," Updike explained, "the only child, the small town, the grandparental home, the move in adolescence to a farm." The selection was made and arranged by Updike himself, and was prefaced by a lovely 1,400-word essay by the author that has never been reprinted in full elsewhere until now.

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Book SynopsisAn unnamed narrator visits her friend, the girl who is getting married, in her apartment on the fifth floor of an anonymous building. With each flight of steps, the narrator recalls different memories of the time they have spent together their time in high school, their first jobs, a chance encounter on the train. However, just as the building's corridor twists and turn toward the flat, we realise that the story, too, is shifting under our feet. As details go missing and memories are contradicted, we are left wondering whose eyes we re looking through.

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Book SynopsisWith its intricate rhyme scheme and dance-like pattern of repeated lines, its marriage of recurrence and surprise, the villanelle has fascinated poets ever since it was introduced almost two centuries ago. Many well-known names in the past have tried their hand at it, and the villanelle is enjoying a revival among writers today. The poems collected here range from the classic villanelles of the nineteenth century - by Thomas Hardy, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Oscar Wilde and others - to such famous and memorable examples as Dylan Thomas's 'Do not go gentle into that good night,' Elizabeth Bishop's 'One Art' and Sylvia Plath's 'Mad Girl's Love Song'. Here too are the cutting-edge works of contemporary poets, including Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Sherman Alexie and Rita Dove, demonstrating the dazzling variety that can be found within the parameters of a single strict poetic form.

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Book SynopsisMary Lavelle, a beautiful young Irish woman, travels to Spain to see some of the world before marrying her steadfast fiance John. But despite the enchanting surroundings and her three charming charges, life as governess to the wealthy Areavaga family is lonely and she is homesick. Then comes the arrival of the family's handsome, passionate - and married - son Juanito and Mary's loyalties and beliefs are challenged. Falling in love with Juanito and with Spain, Mary finds herself at the heart of a family and a nation divided.Trade ReviewA superior type of romantic novel . . . quasi-intelligent and discursive, colourful and unorthodox * Times Literary Supplement *She writes with almost poetic intensity of the ecstasy and anguish of love -- Val HennessyIts captivating account of a young Irish woman's year as a governess in Spain in 1922 bowled me over with its weave of flawless prose, in-depth casting and mesmerising plot, all in service of its heartbroken story of illicit love * Irish Times *With characteristic elegance and subtlety, Kate O'Brien, one of Ireland's most beloved writers, illuminates the anguish and ecstasies of a young woman at the heart of a family and a nation divided * Library Thing *There's some brilliant and powerful writing . . . a description of a bull-fight that rivals Hemingway . . . dramatic . . . smooth. It's a grand job. She deserves to be better known, as few are doing more significant work * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisWhen his wife returns to her parents house to have their second child, an unnamed narrator and his son are left to manage by themselves. Instead of absence, what the father and son begin to notice is a strange noise opening up between them, reverberating through their home, their television set, and the books they read at night. The wood outside their home hums with it, too: leaves fall from branches which are already naked, trees wriggle when walked past, and the hills on the horizon rise and fall in a building rhythm.Ono's stories teeter on the edge of something unsayable, exploring repetition and contradiction to sketch compelling, otherworldly characters. The strange sound which hums through the twinned narratives is distilled in Carpenter's translation, which masterfully employs the rhythms and echoes of the English language to convey Ono's sense that something is coughing, laughing, turning under the words on the page.

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Book Synopsis'The boldest of English women writers' LORNA SAGE 'Her writing is pyrotechnic - fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language' OBSERVER 'She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales' THE TIMES 'This crazy world whirled around her, men and women dwarfed by toys and puppets, where even the birds are mechanical and the few human figures went masked . . . She was in the night once again, and the doll was herself.' One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave her rural home, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: gentle Aunt Margaret, mute since her wedding day; and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn. Brooding over all is Uncle Philip, who loves only the puppets he creates in his workshop, which are life-sized - and uncannily lifelike.Trade ReviewThe boldest of English women writersHer writing is pyrotechnic - fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night sky with her starry language * Observer *She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales * The Times *Beneath its contemporary surface, this novel shimmers with blurred echoes-from Lewis Carroll, from 'Giselle' and 'Coppelia,' Harlequin and Punch . . . It leaves behind it a flavor, pungent and unsettling * New York Times *The boldest of English women writers * Lorna Sage *Her writing is pyrotechnic - fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language * Observer *

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Book SynopsisWhen Francesco decides to embark on his first trip outside his native Italy, he leaves behind a difficult relationship with his father, the narrow vistas of a small provincial town and the stifling atmosphere of a country he feels has become degraded. All he brings with him are a change of clothes, a map of Europe and the desire to discover new places, new people and, perhaps, a new life. But a chance encounter in Munich takes him off course, on an incredible journey that will see him fall in love in Sweden, lose all his money in Amsterdam, sleep rough in the streets of London, win big in Monte Carlo and get caught up in an international imbroglio.Trade ReviewInterRail is delightful, frothy and sweet as a well-sugared cappuccino. It slips down a treat. * The Scotsman *Conveying the wonderful youthful sense of the great possibilities of life all being in front of you, and freshness and openness to... experiences. * The Regency Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA schoolboy is in his senior year when he attends Comiket, a comic market in Tokyo. There, he meets a married woman ten years his senior, a cosplayer who goes by the name of Anzu. Drawn to his resemblance to a character from an anime series, he and Anzu begin an intense affair. Over time, he becomes increasingly wary of his relationship with Anzu, but, at the same time, he finds himself unable to leave her.Barton's translation masterfully captures the witty, boisterous tone in which Kubo writes, rendering for us in English the inner thoughts of a teenage boy growing up in Japan. Dealing with themes of sex, fertility and the female boy, Mikumari explores the complex relationship between private desire and popular culture in modern times.

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Book SynopsisLife is harsh in close-knit community of Dirrabeg, a community on the Dingle Peninsula facing extinction in the mid-1950's. Many of the young have left for England or America, where there are opportunities and chances for secure lives. Those remaining behind love their land and their independence but fear for the future as the bogs get thin, the yields are poor, and the children have little hope of success. ‘We never died a winter yet.’ A wickedly funny and insightful novel from the author of Sive, The Field, The Year of the Hiker, and many other classic works. In the Kerry village of Dirrabeg in the 1950s, the annual wren dance is a moment of light within the dark winter, especially for bodhrán player Donal Hallapy, whose skills are in high demand. But this paganism, and the singing, dancing and drinking that take place, are anathema to Canon Tett, who resolves to crush the old customs. Donal Hallapy, devoted father of a large family, is a bodhran player. He is always in great demand whenever the once-a-year wrendances take place, a day long festival on St Stephen’s Day, which can be traced back to pagan times. This paganism, the secret nature of the celebrations, the singing, dancing and drinking that takes place, and the fact that the church has no control over them has made them anathema to "the clan of the round collar," in the person of Canon Tett, an ultraconservative and downright sadistic priest determined to bring the free spirits of Dirrabeg to bay by ending the fun of the wrendances. Wickedly funny and full of insight into age-old conflicts and a lifestyle long passed into memory.Trade ReviewFurious, raging, passionate and … very, very funny. -- Boston GlobeAt once a rueful elegy to a vanished spirit and a comic celebration. For those who wear the green, this book will provide a bounty of tears and laughs. -- Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisAdam Palmer, determined to defy God in revenge for his detention in an asylum, embarks on a personal quest to destroy his soul, inflicting small sustained acts of cruelty and violence on those around him. His long-suffering wife, Kathleen, struggles to maintain her self-respect in the face of her husband’s gaslighting. Among the most elusive of Norah Hoult’s works, Farewell Happy Fields was published in 1948 and, like many of her books, was promptly banned in Ireland. A dark comedy full of acerbic wit, it brings searing insight into a lost post-war generation of lower-middle-class women and men as they deal with shame, financial insecurity and emotional poverty. Back in print for the first time in decades, New Island is delighted to bring this startling modern Irish classic to a new generation of readers.

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Book SynopsisSpring and summer are my mother’s time, autumn and winter are my husband’s. What is left for me? Persephone spends six months of the year under the ground with her husband, king of the dead, and six months on earth with her mother, goddess of the harvest. It has been this way for nine thousand years, since the deal was struck. But when she resurfaces this spring, something is different. Rains lash the land, crops grow out of season or not at all, there are people trying to build a road through the woods, and her mother does not seem able to stop them. The natural world is changing rapidly and even the gods have lost control. While Demeter tries to regain her powers and fend off her daughter’s husband, who wants to drag his queen back underground for good, Persephone finally gets a taste of freedom, joining a group of protestors. Used to blinking up at the world from below, as she looks down on the earth for the very first time from the treetops with activist Snow, Persephone realises that there are choices she can make for herself. But what will these choices mean for her mother, her husband, and for the new shoots of life inside her? No Season but the Summer takes a classic myth and turns it on its head, asking what will happen when our oldest stories fail us, when all the rules have changed. It is, above all, a book about choice.Trade Review‘Matilda Leyser’s novel takes the eternal polarities — love and hate, life and death, summer and winter, possibility and impossibility — and brings them crashing together in a tumultuous story of gods living alongside humanity, mother-daughter love and loss, and a glimmer of hope despite it all. In No Season but the Summer, our world is still dying, but it is putting up a hell of a fight as it does so, reminding us that we can fight too, and that fighting for our lives might start with listening to the earth.’ -- Stella Duffy, author of Theodora‘What a wonderful writer. Matilda Leyser’s work is precise, poetic, hard-edged, rhythmical. It seethes with life, and feels both ancient and brand new.’ -- David Almond, author of Skellig‘This novel did all of the things that I wish mythic reimaginings would do ... This one is heartily recommended. It’s masterfully constructed, moving, and strange in all the right ways. It’s carefully and poetically written ... There are very few writers who have succeeded in bringing an ancient myth into the contemporary world with such profound resonance for the issues which concern us. Matilda Leyser is one of them, and I’m very much looking forward to what she might do next.’ -- Sharon Blackie from The Art of Enchantment‘Matilda Leyser’s mythic characters are gods and humans all at once; her tale of love and destruction is fuelled by ancient power and rich with contemporary resonance. And what beautiful writing! This striking novel conjures our deepest emotions — our feelings for each other, for the imperilled planet that is our only home. No Season but the Summer is a memorable debut.’ -- Erica Wagner, author of Mary and Mr Eliot‘As you climb to earth with Persephone, you know you are in good hands. Leyser has an uncanny ability to make the mythic intimate and the timeless timely. She takes an ancient tale of goddesses and furious wrongs and fashions it into a passionate contemporary story that will resonate with mothers and daughters everywhere. Oh — and she writes like an angel. Her prose at once precise and lush, you can taste and smell and touch every bit of her thrilling, sensuous world. No Season but the Summer is an everyday epic with an invitation to ride.’ -- Nicky Singer, author of The Survival Game‘Artfully transporting classic myth to the present, this is the tale of Persephone, of the stories behind why our seasons change, and “how climate change is stretching and breaking the rules that have long kept the natural world in rhythm”.’ * The Bookseller *‘Deeply elegant and immensely compelling ... the writing is exceptional — every word feels chosen with care, every sentence balanced and the imagery, metaphors of ancient Greece renewed in the modern world … are breathtaking. I am genuinely astonished that this is a first novel. It feels like the work of someone who’s been doing it for decades and has found the freedom to explore the nature of our world along with the mastery of language that such depth of exploration demands. It’s utterly beautiful: a jewel of a book. Totally recommended.’ -- Manda Scott‘No Season But The Summer is strongest when it uses the conflict between immortality and decay to make us think about the climate crisis.’ -- Lily Herd * TLS *

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Book SynopsisThe Garden is dying. Once an Edenic orchid farm, it has been decimated by the worst hurricane in Florida’s living memory. Its glasshouses are shattered, the surrounding mangroves encroach, and its men are dangerously idle. When Romeo – an expert breeder of the endangered ghost orchid – arrives from Honduras, boss Blanchard and his Irish lieutenant, Swallow, believe their fortunes are on the rise. Romeo may not be all he seems though, and Swallow can sense the newcomer shaking the Garden’s creaking hierarchy. The ghost orchid they seek is infamously rare, a delicate and wildly valuable species, hidden deep in the treacherous cypress swamps of the Fakahatchee Strand. To capture the ghost, Blanchard and Swallow must strike a deal with Logan, a dangerously unpredictable member of the local Seminole tribe, whose wounded pride, and simmering web of violence threaten to uproot any hope of success. As Blanchard’s obsession distracts him from what is truly precious, Swallow’s long-buried traumas will test his ability to stop lust, betrayal and death from engulfing the Garden. Paul Perry’s first solo novel tells of smothering power, loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning against trespassing upon nature in the name of profit.Trade Review'Atmospheric and absorbing ... an exceptional novel that lingers long in the memory' -- John Boland * Irish Independent *The power of this novel is generated by an urgent evocation of place and of time. South Florida’s extremity of character emanates in part from a collision between the uncontrollable power of nature and the uncontrolled greed of humanity. -- Neil Hegarty * The Irish Times *Part modern parable, part noirish thriller, The Garden is an intriguing, atmospheric read where you can almost taste the salty sweat on every page. -- John Walshe * Sunday Business Post *a gripping and finely calibrated morality fable with dark slippery textures. -- Hilary Adam White * Sunday Independent *This is a superb read, a modern fable of exceptional depth that defies categorisation in terms of genre. From its beautiful cover to its turbulent conclusion, it’s a summer must-read. -- Estelle Birdy * Sunday Independent *When the bullets start to fly, you'll find yourself genuinely concerned about the fate of Swallow and his cohorts. This is down to Perry's compassion for his characters. He doesn't judge them for their sins, but the darkness at the heart of The Garden reminds us that someone else might. -- Joe Joyce * Totally Dublin *

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