Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
New Island Books I, Antigone
Book SynopsisAfter her father’s death in exile, Antigone returns to Thebes determined to set the record straight and restore her father’s reputation. Tracing the histories of Oedipus and his parents Laius and Jocasta, as well as the peripheral characters of the plays who had a central role in him fulfilling his destiny, Antigone’s ‘biography’ causes us to re-evaluate the extent to which any of us can be entirely blamed for the actions by which we will be defined. Ending with Antigone making a conscious choice to reclaim her brother’s corpse from the battlefield, an act of defiance which will guarantee her own death, the book ultimately meditates on the illusion of free will, and the warning that context is everything, I, ANTIGONE will be a major contribution to the reclaimed classics.
£12.59
Everything with Words This Diary (World) Belongs to Molly and Jonny
Book SynopsisDr Molly Beaujolais (Lecturer in Performing Arts and Applied Theatre) and Jonathan Nylon (Lecturer in History) both keep diaries and have offices next door to each other. Two unlikely lovers, particularly since much of Molly's time is taken up internet dating while Jonathan Nylon obsesses about his presentation of the battle of Narvik, his course on medieval disease and punishment and his impossible lodger, but life likes to play around with the impossible. Wickedly funny, clever and daring. And touching because it's all about being human in a very lonely world. 'Hilarious. I couldn't get enough of these characters. Different and moresih' DAILY MAILTrade Review'I couldn't get enough of these characters and raced through their appealingly crazy, uncensored internal monologues, wishing they could speak openly like this to each other.Different and moreish' DAILY MAIL 'Original, funny and unexpectedly moving' Harry Peacock
£9.49
New Island Books The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers
Book SynopsisNEW PAPERBACK EDITION 2015 saw the publication of The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, edited by Sinéad Gleeson. The Long Gaze Back was widely acclaimed and went on to win Best Irish-published Book of the Year 2015 at the Irish Book Awards. More importantly, it sparked lively discussion and debate about the erasure of women writers from the literary canon. One question kept arising: where was the equivalent anthology for women writers from the north? The Glass Shore, compiled by award-winning editor, broadcaster and critic Sinéad Gleeson, provides an intimate and illuminating insight into a previously underappreciated literary canon. Twenty-four female luminaries — whose lives and works cover three centuries — capture experiences that are both vivid and varied, despite their shared geographical heritage. Unavoidably affected by a difficult political past, this challenging landscape is navigated by characters who are searingly honest, humorous and, at times, heartbreakingly poignant. The result is a collection that is enthralling, stirring and quietly disconcerting. Individually, these intriguing stories make an indelible impact and are cause for reflection and contemplation. Together, they transgress their social, political and gender constraints, instead collectively presenting a distinctive, resolute and impassioned voice worthy of recognition and admiration. Featuring stories by: Rosa Mulholland, Erminda Rentoul Esler, Sarah Grand, Alice Milligan, Eithne Carbery, Margaret Barrington, Janet McNeill, Mary Beckett, Polly Devlin, Frances Molloy, Una Woods, Sheila Llewellyn, Linda Anderson, Anne Devlin, Evelyn Conlon, Mary O’Donnell, Annemarie Neary, Martina Devlin, Rosemary Jenkinson, Bernie McGill, Tara West, Jan Carson, Lucy Caldwell and Roisín O’Donnell.
£11.69
John Murray Press No Dominion: Plague Times Trilogy 3
Book Synopsis'A vivid, action-packed journey through a post-apocalyptic world. Terrifying and touching in equal measure, the novel is a love story, an adventure, a road movie, a family drama and a murder mystery rolled into one' The Times ScotlandIt is seven years after the Sweats wiped out most of the world's population. Survivors settled on the Orkney Islands are trying to build a new society but their world crashes for a second time when the islands' teenagers vanish. Stevie and Magnus are the only ones who can bring them home.Stevie hasn't been back to the mainland since she escaped to the islands after a desperate flight north from London. Magnus never saw himself leaving either. After all, what's left for him there? But Shug was born on the islands and has never known anything different; has never left them. Until now.And what starts out as a journey to bring home some young people intent on adventure soon turns into a race against time to find Shug before he comes down with the Sweats. Or worse. A pacy, page-turning ride through a post-apocalyptic world, No Dominion sets the pulse racing and doesn't let up until the last thrilling page.Trade ReviewA vivid, action-packed journey through a post-apocalyptic world. Terrifying and touching in equal measure, the novel is a love story, an adventure, a road movie, a family drama and a murder mystery rolled into one * The Times Scotland *A heart-breaking, thrilling, frightening page-turner of a chiller . . . Welsh taps into the fear of what a world is chaos would be like and that fear bursts out of every page * CrimeSquad *Most impressive is Welsh's evocative and sharp prose, and her keen observation of the darkest recesses of the human psyche, the stuff that bubbles to the top in times of stress and hardship . . . compelling * Big Issue *It's a thriller that thrills, but it's also a platform for a wry, spry discussion of civilisation, urbanism and connectedness, human and environmental * Sunday Herald *A gripping debate about politics and ethics . . . brilliantly uncomfortable reading * Scotland on Sunday *Thanks to its disconcerting plausibility and its solid heart, the gripping, immersive No Dominion makes for a deeply satisfying culmination to Welsh's contribution to the apoca-lit genre * Guardian *A horribly plausible scenario * Sunday Times *No Dominion gripped me and broke my heart in equal measure * Val McDermid *An excellent depiction of how far and how fast our so-called civilization could fall given the right stimulus * Crime Review *this gripping, immersive tale makes for a deeply satisfying culmination to Welsh's contribution to the apoca-lit genre * Guardian *a riveting final instalment which rarely stops for breath . . . this final book is arguably the best of the three, tying up all the thematic threads about society and morality in a violent, gripping race against time * The Herald *
£9.49
And Other Stories Endland
Book SynopsisKings, lords, liars, usherettes, goal-hangers, gun-men and prostitutes, Whether or not these stories bear any relation to life as it is lived in Endland (sic) is not my problem and good riddance to all those what prefer to read about truly good, lucky and nice people - you won't like this crap at all. A comical and brutal weave of parables gone wrong, Endland holds a broken mirror to England. In its garish but strangely familiar world of empty tower blocks, 24-hour cyber cafes and bomb sites, a motley collection of misfits, wanderers and charmed drunks do their best to survive. Nothing is stable in Endland and what's more, the gods have started drinking at lunchtime, which can only lead to trouble. Conjured in a mix of slang, pub anecdote, folktale and science fiction, Endland is the nightmare unfolding just outside the window - a glitchy parade of aging bikers and ghost children, cut-price assassins and witless wannabe celebs. The world fashioned by Thatcher, Google, NATO, ICANN, Brexit, Big Brother, Bin Laden and Trump needs new narratives to make sense of it. In Endland, with feverish wit and a broken compass, Etchells unpicks the myths and strange realities we're caught up in.Trade Review'This book is dangerous. This book tells it like it was & is.' Jarvis Cocker ----`Etchells has made a tough, eloquent, emotional new language of ideas about class, human fragility, lust, embarrassment and a good night out. He is a legend.' Deborah Levy---- '[Endland] is horrible, brilliant, deliberately provoking. At times I wished it was over; now I wish it had never stopped.' Ian Sansom---- 'An incisive commentary on the current social and political omnishambles. This essential book is just what we need right now, and more than we deserve.' David Collard, Literary Review----'Etchells makes sparks fly by allowing the mythic to rub against grubby everyday existence . . . scorching, bitter satire of how society is continually screwed by inequality. A cracklingly original voice.' Holly Williams, The Observer ----'Abandon all soap, ye who enter here; you won’t stay clean in “Endland.” A squalidly funny collection of short stories set in the ruined fairground of Brexit Britain, these “postcards from hell” present parochial filth as mock epic. . . . Etchells’s depravity may smell like Johnny Rotten but his linguistic flair comes from Joyce and Burgess.' Charles Arrowsmith, Washington Post----'Etchells’s stories deliver a difficult, darkly funny, sharp critique of modern England, and live up to indie rock veteran Jarvis Cocker’s description in his introduction: “They are frightening, but they’re also necessary.' Publisher’s Weekly----'A politically charged and graphic portrait of Western societies hanging on by a thread … incisive.' Kirkus Reviews----'Tim Etchells' stories perfectly capture the feeling of being-in-the-world just now, blending the demotic with the transcendental, the genuinely fantastic with the over-orchestrated real. Endland is an over-familiar place, an all-too-real projection of our fantasies, memories, dreams and fears. Etchells' commitment to art's action in and upon the world feels more urgent than ever. ' Jennifer Hodgson -----'Tim Etchells' sense of humour - black, bleak and yet, against both odds and reason, somehow warm, empathic and compassionate - is all over these stories of a country that's been living inside our own for some time now.' M John Harrison ---- 'Relentlessly unpredictable, Etchells' genius leaves nothing untouched - you will be panting and laughing and gagging for more.' Lara Pawson ---- 'Wonderful and horrible. Biker gangs and diminished gods, ruins and social collapse. Do not despair: the language is as rich as it is faltering, the tone as stoical as it is hilarious.' Adrian Searle ---- 'If Derek Jarman, Spike Milligan, J G Ballard, and Mark E Smith had all survived to frolic together in the ruins of theme-park Britain . . . if the world contained such wonders as a Hell's Angel named UNESCO and a deity sorely in need of a good #MeTooing . . . then every one of these parties would be lining up to flog Endland (sic) as the long-awaited solution to the last word in pub-quiz brain-teasers: "WHY IS MODERN LIFE SO RUBBISH?"' Jeremy M Davies ---- 'Endland is an uppercase book, a confidential shout, an ear punch, a textual road trip between orality and literacy.' Maria Fusco ---- 'As linguistically explosive as it is formally inventive as it is politically astute as it is humane. I have never lived in a moment when our country has needed its satirists more. None has delivered with more imagination and force than Tim Etchells does with Endland.' Simon Stephens ---- 'I love Tim Etchells for his apocalyptic vision, his piercing satire, his surreal poetry, but first and foremost for his wit. In Endland, he shines a fierce light on the age of anxiety and delusion we have stumbled into.' Rupert Thomson ----Praise from booksellers for Endland ----- This is a new bible for our times, of narcissistic despot gods and broken humans, their condition leading them on an endless search for love via LOLs, moments of medieval barbarity and pant-shitting fear. It is a glorious, triumphant collection of tales for us all.' Henry Layte, The Book Hive, Norwich ----Praise for the 1999 collection Endland Stories: `Surreal, compulsive... probably the most original and unsettling read you're likely to have this year.' The Big Issue----`The scenery is taken straight from a low-budget Blade Runner... brilliantly welds together archaic language with computer-speak to create a funny, caustic collection.' The Times ---- `It insists on being read, at once, and probably out loud.' Iain Sinclair ----`Reads as if written by one of Anthony Burgess's more gifted Clockwork Orange droogs.' The Guardian----`The best yet from the pulpsters!' Jeff Noon----`Though his theme is the state of the nation, Etchells has little time for the new realism of the last few years, placing himself instead in the tradition of Ballard and Moorcock. Hacking up our comforters-TV cartoons, mythologies, children's toys and board games-he deftly strips away the sentimental wadding we use as insulation from reality. A dance through the ruins of modern Britain... Etchells takes a Sadean delight in casual cruelty, creating a flippant and contorted technomedieval world whose gods are named Tesco and Blowjob, the spectre of real lives and real suffering is uncannily present.' Attitude
£10.79
Hodder & Stoughton Past the Shallows
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award, PAST THE SHALLOWS is a powerful and hauntingly beautiful novel from an extraordinary new Australian writer who is compared with Cormac McCarthy and Tim Winton. 'If you read only one book this year, make sure it's this' Sunday Times'I loved Past the Shallows' Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow BirdsEveryone loves Harry. Except his father.Joe, Miles and Harry are growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania. The brothers' lives are shaped by their father's moods - like the ocean he fishes, he is wild and unpredictable. He is a bitter man, with a devastating secret.Miles does his best to watch out for Harry, the youngest, but he can't be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasures he discovers, in shark eggs and cuttlefish bones. In a kelpie pup, a mug of hot chocolate, and a secret friendship with a mysterious neighbour.But sometimes small treasures, or a brother's love are not enough.Trade Review'Beautiful, stripped-back prose . . . there is magic here. Like Cormac McCarthy, Parrett packs a huge emotional punch thanks to the elegant brevity of her style. Stark, but unforgettable' * Marie Claire *'An assured debut . . . In powerful, visceral prose Parrett conjures the thrill of changing waves . . . elsewhere, her prose is gentle and measured' * Daily Mail *'Parrett's starkly precise evocation of Tasmania's winter landscape [is] compelling. The book's tragic outcome leaves the reader feeling genuinely bereft' * Guardian *'This well-crafted novel will leave a lasting impression' * Lady *'Favel Parrett's lean prose evokes the cruel beauty of the sea, the treasure of lost childhood freedoms, and the yearning emotions that linger beyond the last page . . . an accomplished debut addressing the frailty and determination of human existence; it's a joy to read such spare prose giving so much' * BookOxygen *'Beguiling . . . The beautiful descriptions of the untamed coast and the vivid evocation of landscape and characters make this an unputdownable read. A rather haunting and sad tale but told with such beauty it becomes totally absorbing. Past the Shallows . . . will take your breath away' * welovethisbook.com *'Past the Shallows manages to capture the devastation and pain of growing up with a parent who does nothing to hide his bitterness from his children. One of the strengths of this novel is that it shows you devastation of such a large family drama without reverting to the overtly dramatic. Rather, the writing is quiet and pondering, and the story unfolds in beautifully crafted episodes, allowing you glimpses of the larger stories and problems surrounding family life' * irisonbooks.com *'Not only are we left stunned, we are in the presence of a clever piece of work. Despite Favel Parrett's simple style, she treats readers as intelligent beings' * thebookbag.co.uk *'An utterly brilliant book about the relationship of two brothers under the thumb of their tyrannical father, set in the remote south coast of Tasmania. It is a cliché to call a book haunting but this one is' * Simon Savidge, welovethisbook *'A gripping read . . . Favel Parrett's understated approach to the difficulties of the brothers' lives is impressive and moving . . . A truly impressive debut . . . Parrett's writing is powerful and unflinching' * bookandbiscuit.com *'An impressive debut' * Sunday Business Post *'An intensely moving story, written in finely crafted and gripping prose. Utterly brilliant' * Image Magazine *'If you read only one book this year make sure it's this' * Sunday Times *'A work by a new master . . . Parrett's debut is an uncompromising and memorable tale' * Sunday Tasmanian *'Parrett's debut marks the addition of a strong voice to the chorus of Australian literature' * Canberra Times *'A finely crafted literary novel . . . genuinely moving and full of heart' * Age *'Clearly the work of a talented new novelist' * Weekend Australian *'A fresh and vital voice in Australian fiction' * Australian Women's Weekly *
£9.49
And Other Stories Love: Winner of the 2019 PEN America Translation
Book SynopsisAs clear and relentless as the cold air, Love unfolds over one winter's evening. Single mother Vibeke and her son Jon have just moved to a small, remote town in the north of Norway. Tomorrow Jon will be nine. As Vibeke gets changed after work, Jon wonders what surprises his mother has prepared for him. He leaves the house certain she will make him a cake. But preoccupied with concerns of her own, she too ventures out. Inextricably linked yet desperately at odds, mother and son make their lonely ways through the unforgiving night. Beautifully translated into English by Martin Aitken, this edition is the twenty-eighth international publication of Love. Hanne Orstavik's astonishing grasp of human fragility and her economy of form power this acknowledged masterpiece of Norwegian literature.Trade Review`Love is Hanne Orstavik's strongest book.' Karl Ove Knausgaard ----'An achingly sad, unsentimental story . . . For a short novel that spans only a few hours in time . . . Orstavik brings us remarkably close to both her characters, shifting effortlessly between them in stark, lucid prose.' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times----`[I]n Love, the closeness of the perspectives, the cramming of them together, as if the mother and son are one person, and yet clearly not, feels less about narrative, and more about the limitations of love. We think we know another person, we feel settled in another person, and yet, perhaps every other consciousness is entirely a mystery. That's the power of this particular book. The tiny emotional and atmospheric shifts are often barely perceptible, and yet they add up to much more.' Anita Felicelli, Los Angeles Review of Books ----`Orstavik's mastery of perspective and clean, crackling sentences prevent sentimentality or sensationalism from trailing this story of a woman and her accidentally untended child. Both of them long for love, but the desire lines of the book are beautifully crooked. Jon wants his mother, and to be let in out of the cold...the cold that seems a character throughout this excellent novel of near misses.' Claire Vaye Watkins, New York Times----`[A] haunting masterpiece... The deceptively simple novel is slow-burning, placing each character into situations associated with horror-entering an unfamiliar house, accepting a ride from a stranger-and the result is a magnificent tale.' Publishers Weekly, starred review ----`Prizewinning Norwegian Orstavik follows the parallel courses of a single mother and her 8-year-old son during a night that moves unrelentingly toward tragedy... A nightmarish sense of impending doom hangs over these carefully detailed, tightly controlled pages... icy cold to the core.' Kirkus Reviews ----`[A] creeping sense of unease is racheted up by the cool, lucid prose and how the paragraphs shift between mother and son, clarifying how close they should be and how close they aren't... Multi-award winner Orstavik offers an unsettling read that most will enjoy.' Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal ----`Love can change everything. And it does in this edgy, elegiac and beautifully written novel...What you think will happen doesn't-and what does breaks your heart.' Kerri Arsenault, Oprah.com ----`What was so striking to me about this slim novel was how quiet and circumspect it was given the emotional gut punch it delivered. `Deceptive' is right, sneaky even, and at the risk of falling into the trap of stereotyping Norwegian lit, the power of quietly mushrooming foreboding is strong with Orstavik. As I happen to be flying over the dark and snowy north of Norway as I write this, looking out my window at the icy fjords below, I feel the creep, even at 35,000 feet.' M. Bartley Seigel, Words Without Borders ---- `Love is a beautiful novella of beguiling simplicity, and Martin Aitken's translation has brought it over into an English that is both familiar and alien.' Erik Noonan, Asymptote Journal -----`Love is a deep and vibrantly alive novel... beautifully devastating... This is not your typical love story but rather the sharp-edged account of a boy whose need for attention from his heedless mother is heartfelt and full of yearning.' Lori Feathers, World Literature Today ----`Love is effectively atmospheric... neatly textured with its back and forths... A disturbing little read, nicely, darkly told.'Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review ----`In Hanne Orstavik's Love , the equilibrium between a tense, disquieting plot and a gently experimental binary structure sustain the reader's attention and awe from beginning to end. The aerial beauty of Martin Aitken's translation contributes to make the novel a successful rarity: a book that is at the same time a thriller and a dense literary object. "Perfect" may be the proper adjective to describe it.' National Book Foundation, 2018 Translated Literature Finalist ----`Praise from Booksellers': `Hanne Orstavik crafts an atmosphere of unease out of the ordinary. An old man giving a young boy a pair of skates, a man inviting a woman over for coffee, in Orstavik's hands these seemingly harmless moments become filled with an underlying sense of dread. Longing and loneliness fill these pages, while always there is a sense of the impossibility of real understanding and connection between people. Orstavik is a true observer of human nature and Love is her masterpiece.'Emily Ballaine, Green Apple Books on the Park ---- `Point of view works like a spot of living light in this slender book, with deft perspective shifts occurring between Vibeke, a hardworking, distracted mother, and Jon, her curious, lonely young son, on nearly every page. Mother and son are each on a separate journey, but the reader watches their whole shared life, as memories are folded expertly between breaths in Orstavik's urgent, visually vivid present tense--what a lovely shape. Nothing is wasted. And I'm astonished by the precision and poetry of Martin Aitken's translation from the Norwegian.' Gina Balibrera, Literati Bookstore ---- `Written with a precise elegance...builds to an ending as lonely as our characters. Beautiful and affecting, no word is wasted in this perfect winter read.' Kelsey Westenberg, Pilsen Community Books ----`[Q]uite simply, exceptional...If this book is an indication of Orstavik's talent, then translations of the rest of her work can't come soon enough... [Love] is a short, suspenseful winter's tale crafted in beautifully spare and precise prose. It can be read in a few hours but its singular effects haunt the reader for a long time afterward.' Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune ----`Love's impeccable English translation by Martin Aitken reflects the economy and self-possession of Nordic prose. Its seamless narration, drawn in counterpoint, reverberates beyond the eerie landscape, lingering in the mind...Love, like love, yields its own gifts.' Fani Papageorgiou, Hyperallergic ----`[Love is] driven home for American readers thanks, in large part, to the translation, by Martin Aitkin. Aitkin's translation is economic, delicate, and pliant, making the narrative shifts between Vibeke and Jon seem effortless, dreamlike.' Brianne Baker, Entropy ---- `Wondrous, uncanny... an innovative yet unassuming structure... candid, glinting prose... This is the brilliance of Orstavik's technique: that we, as readers, can see how often Jon and Vibeke's thoughts converge, while they are each left blindly to await salvation.' Will Harrison, The Hudson Review ----`[Love] is a ruthless analysis of the formal structure of dread-and while the original is two decades old now, the English translation could not have arrived at a more appropriate moment.' Nicholas Dames, Public Books ---- `In this swift, elegantly constructed novel, Hanne Orstavik masterfully conveys a sense of entwined dread and longing that doesn't let up for a second. From the opening page to the powerfully moving finale, this tale of a mother and son is riveting. The characters' inner lives are illumined by a beautiful eeriness, and the translation's precision and clarity do justice to the novel's intensities. Read it: it'll bat around your brain for a long time afterward.' Martha Cooley ----`Love is hard, clear, merciless, and utterly compelling - a prism of the many daily ways we miss each other.'- Rebecca Dinerstein ---- `[Orstavik] gives nothing away for free, there is no overdriven emotion, no sentimentality nor pandering to her public. . . . But thanks to a language rich in its precision, with no loss of simplicity, it becomes an experience to follow her to her conclusion. One knows that one has read something substantial which one would not wish to be without.' Dagbladet ----`Love explores the insurmountable distance between people, the elementary impenetrability of them, and tells us about the difficulty of reading the signals of others. In short, dry sentences, Orstavik relates all the postponed, the possibilities that hang over our lives.'Avant-critiques ---- `Once in a while, there comes a book that takes you by surprise. An unassuming, low-key, seemingly ordinary novel which turns into an experience that makes you fully understand why you love reading so much. ... Orstavik's writing is impeccable, perfect, as haunting as the beauty of her homeland...[Love] will leave you speechless, the way a well-written novella has to do..this one of the most beautiful books I've read this year.' Amalia Gavea, The Opinionated Reader----`As is often the case, sobriety is the condition of emotion: Hanne Orstavik has perfectly put into practice this principle to offer a beautiful novel simple and subtle, meditative and moving.'A.N., L'Humanite ----`Orstavik invites the readers into her two characters' innermost thoughts, seamlessly switching back and forth between their perspectives- often within the same paragraph. Their stories unfold breathlessly close together on the page, suggesting the strong link between mother and son that Vibeke's actions betray.... a creeping sense of tragedy brews within the story...Though Love is only one hundred and twenty-five pages, its careful craft and beautiful details make it worth savoring-right to its haunting but inevitable conclusion.' Samantha Aper, Zyzzyva ----`What could be a simple family story is instead filled with foreboding and anxiety, showcasing the marvels and dangers pulsating just below the surface in our everyday lives. Longing and hopefulness fills these brief pages, leaving readers with a sense of wonder for the average: how a day can be so filled with newness and potential, with menace and tragedy.' Laura Farmer, The Gazette ---- `Hanne Orstavik's exquisite Love, so elemental in its materials and technique, embodies a profound recognition - namely that every search for clarity and connection must proceed through the full awareness of what constrains us.' Ron Slate, On The Seawall ----`From the first page, Orstavik's understated prose and sparse dialogue trace a relationship between mother and son that is as dry and powdery as Jon's failed snowballs. As the novel flits effortlessly between these two points of view, the reader is swept up in two separate egos, each on a muted quest for the human connections they are unable to accept from each other....Martin Aitken is to be applauded for so conscientiously bringing this soft-spoken, full-hearted novel into the English language.' The Arkansas International ----`Love is a book that uses sophisticated literary techniques to harrow readers and keep us in a state of trepidation (and confusion) on these points, right up until its final pages, breathlessly uncertain of the outcome.' - Abe Nemon, The Old Book Appreciator ---`The effect of Orstavik's narrative, alternating abruptly between Jon's story and that of his mother, is beautifully devastating. The prose (wonderfully translated) and pacing set a tone of foreboding tension and impending doom. A short, but very deep, and vibrantly alive novel.' Lori, Interabang Books ----`Love is a book that uses sophisticated literary techniques to harrow readers and keep us in a state of trepidation (and confusion) on these points, right up until its final pages, breathlessly uncertain of the outcome.'The Old Book Appreciator ----`Orstavik reminds us in this novel that love can be a dreadful thing too - when we love we trust, we assume all will be well continue as it always has. A child's love is unquestioning and innocently trusting. Orstavik understands the evil that lies in the betrayal of that - however accidental or merely thoughtless that betrayal is.' Heavenali ----`Vibeke...opens up so many difficult questions about love, about motherhood, about empathy, and also, potentially, what it means when we "like" a fictional character in a novel and when we "hate" them, and why we like some characters and not others, and whether we tend to dislike certain types of characters more than others, and what that might mean.'Strange Bookfellows ----`[Love is] a remarkable novel that will linger long after.'SF Gate ----`[T]here is an inescapable and escalating sense of anxiety as the story unfolds... In many ways Love seems to be taking place within a threshold, an in-between time, a twilight & dawnlight moment that may or may not be completely real... [A] dreamlike adventure... poised at the brink of a looming tragedy.' Michelle Bailat-Jones, Necessary Fiction ----`It is rare to read a novel where the mundane feels so thrilling...The emotional tension Hanne Orstavik created in Love is what makes this a standout read. Martin Aitken was able to provide a brilliant translation from the Norwegian and I can see myself dipping into this one again and again.'Michael, Knowledge Lost ----`As one reads this short but compelling novel, the absence of love, or of love expressed dominates every page.'Book Word
£9.50
Little, Brown Book Group Jasmine
Book SynopsisWhen Jasmine Vijh is suddenly widowed at seventeen, she seems fated to a future of quiet isolation in a small Indian village. But, voracious for life, she flees to America. Six years on she has become Jane Ripplemeyer, resident of Iowa, married to a middle-aged banker and adoptive mother of a Vietnamese refugee. Jasmine's odyssey through America, rippling with energy and daring, reflects Mukherjee's preoccupation with the fractured lives of exiles and immigrants caught up in a painful yet exhilarating cross-cultural metamorphosis. In this uncompromising novel that draws on all the strengths of the award-winning The Middleman and Other Stories and carries them to a new level of perception and intensity, Bharati Mukherjee has given us a heroine's 'greedy with wants and reckless with hope' - and leaves us breathless with surprise.Trade ReviewAn adept chronicler of the times and places where improbable worlds meet...She also captures the moments when lives change, by violence or passion...few could record them with Mukherjee's clarity, tenderness and humour - Evening StandardTough and voluptuous...she has tapped a source which she converts to a light so bright it dazzles * Candida McWilliam *
£10.44
Everyman Gulliver's Travels: and Alexander Pope's Verses
Book SynopsisUses the narrative of a mock travel writer to explore exotic and imaginary locations. This book mounts a scathing attack on the morals, politics and learning of the 18th century, culminating in possibly the greatest satire ever written: the story of the Houyhnhnms.
£11.69
Melville House UK Underground Fugue
Book SynopsisSet against the backdrop of the tube bombings in London in 2005, Underground Fugue interweaves the stories of four characters who are dislocated by shock waves of personal loss, political violence, and, ultimately, betrayal. A powerful and moving novel, Underground Fugue skillfully weaves the stories to offer a vision of contemporary anxieties about terrorism, racial profiling, anti-Semitism, and the tensions between Muslims and Jews.
£11.69
Everyman The Mayor Of Casterbridge
Book SynopsisD H Lawrence remarked that Hardy's best novels were about 'the struggle into love and the struggle with love', and THE MAJOR OF CASTLEBRIDGE is no exception. One of the long series of Wessex tales include FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, it is the story of the brooding and sometimes brutal Michael Henchard and the women with whom he searches for happiness in the harsh world of the nineteenth-century rural England
£13.49
Everyman Heart Of Darkness
Book SynopsisIn a novella which remains highly controversial to this day, Conrad explores the relations between Africa and Europe. On the surface, this is a horrifying tale of colonial exploitation. The narrator, Marlowe journeys on business deep into the heart of Africa. But there he encounters Kurtz, an idealist apparently crazed and depraved by his power over the natives, and the meeting prompts Marlowe to reflect on the darkness at the heart of all men. This short but complex and often ambiguous story, which has been the basis of several films and plays, continues to provoke interpretation and discussion.
£13.49
The Conrad Press Blackberry Bill
Book Synopsis'Blackberry Bill' is an enchanting tale about a ten-year-old orphaned boy who bravely sets out alone upon the Kentish marshes in pursuit of a mysterious recluse. He believes that this eccentric character, a gypsy commonly known as Blackberry Bill, may hold the answers he seeks with regard to his own identity. When the two eventually meet, the boy learns that he is in fact the same person who had saved his life as a baby. A touching friendship starts to flourish between the unlikely pair as the gypsy starts to teach the boy all about the pots and bottles which he continually excavates and about the delights and dangers present on the marsh, as well as something of his Romany way of life. 'Blackberry Bill' is a gripping, beautifully written story whose wonderfully-evoked naturalistic descriptions bear comparison with Dickens’s own accounts of the mysteries of the Kentish marshes. This book is unforgettable
£9.49
Everyman The Age Of Innocence
Book SynopsisEdith Wharton's novel reworks the eternal triangle of two women and a man in a strikingly original manner. When about to marry the beautiful and conventional May Welland, Newland Archer falls in love with her very unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. The consequent drama, set in New York during the 1870s, reveals terrifying chasms under the polished surface of upper-class society as the increasingly fraught Archer struggles with conflicting obligations and desires. The first woman to do so, Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for this dark comedy of manners which was immediately recognized as one of her greatest achievements.
£14.24
Everyman Henry James Collected Stories Vol 2
Book SynopsisVolume 2 Takes us from A private Life of 1892 to James's last story, A Round of Visits, published in 1910. These are the magnificient works of James' maturity - The Death of the Lion, The Altar of the Dead, The Figyre in the Carpet, The Turn of the Screw, In the Cage, The Beast in the Jungle and many others - in which the deepening darkness of the author's own life casts a tragic but heroic shadow on the themes of his youth.
£21.25
Atlas Press Semmelweiss
Book SynopsisA semi-fictional biography of a great figure of medical development, to be adapted for stage in 2021.
£10.00
New Island Books Not Just for Christmas
£7.82
Comma Press The Iraqi Christ
Book SynopsisFrom legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim's stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real. Taking his cues from Kafka, his prose shines a dazzling light into the dark absurdities of Iraq's recent past and the torments of its countless refugees. The subject of this, his second collection, is primarily trauma and the curious strategies human beings adopt to process it (including, of course, fiction). The result is a masterclass in metaphor - a new kind of story-telling, forged in the crucible of war, and just as shocking.Trade Review'It is not his identity but the quality of his writing that makes his voice striking. It is deeply troubling and complex, the metaphors arresting and violent.' - The Spectator; 'Required reading for a real taste of life in Iraq.' - The National; 'An arrestingly vivid picture of the privation and the terrors of life in Iraq.' - Herald Scotland; 'Blasim pitches everyday horror into something almost gothic... his taste for the surreal can be Gogol-like.' - The Independent; 'Blasim's vivid prose reflects the way the fantastic and the ordinary collapse into a Kafkaesque jumble during urban conflict.' - The Financial Times
£999.99
Tangent Books Household Worms
Book Synopsis
£9.50
Daunt Books Aetherial Worlds
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Parthian Books All Things Betray Thee: v. 31
Book SynopsisWith passion, humour and remarkable insight Gwyn Thomas captures the world of South Wales in the 1830s during the turbulent years of the Merthyr and Newport Risings. As the newly-built foundries enter their first decline, a travelling harpist from the rural north arrives in one of the new towns to find his friends caught in a fiercely-fought industrial dispute, a dispute which quickly spirals out of control. A powerful and sweeping novel by one of Wales's great literary figures, 'All Things Betray Thee', tells the epic story of a people, their joys and victories, but also their sorrows and defeats.Trade Review'What we encounter here are reality and the tragic elements of dream... a remarkable achievement.' The New York Times
£999.99
Norvik Press Powderhouse
Book SynopsisPowderhouse is a novel which is set in an asylum for the criminally insane, where the narrator functions as a kind of porter, observing and commenting on the foibles of inmates and keepers alike. The patients are a motley collection, and their treatment is unorthodox to say the least; part of their treatment consists of composing and delivering a series of lectures on subjects dear to their hearts, such as the history of witchhunting and the most humane methods of execution. The doctors themselves have their own troubled history; and the narrator finds rich material amongst both for his study of the follies and evil of which mankind is capable. Yet he is not just a gloomy philosopher, but also a sensualist, and the novel is relieved by passages of lyrical beauty as he enjoys the velvety summer nights, the taste of black bread and white wine, and the gentle caresses of his lover. This is the first English translation of this novel from 1969 by the controversial Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe, a man whose irreverent provocations of the sacred cows of his society several times landed him in a court of law. Powderhouse forms the second volume of a trilogy dedicated to exploring "The history of bestiality," following Moment of Freedom (1966), though it stands on its own with a different setting and narrator from the other two.
£13.25
Norvik Press The Beauty of History
Book Synopsis1968. Riga. News of the Prague Spring washes across Europe, causing ripples on either side of the Iron Curtain. A young Estonian woman has agreed to pose as a model for a famous sculptor, who is trying to evade military service and escape to the West. Although the model has only a vague awareness of politics - her interest in life is primarily poetic - the consequences of the politics of both past and present repeatedly make themselves felt. Chance remarks overheard prompt memories of people and places, language itself becomes fluid, by turns deceptive and reassuring.The Beauty of History is a novel of poetic intensity, of fleeting moods and captured moments. It is powerfully evocative of life within the Baltic States during the Soviet occupation, and of the challenge to artists to express their individuality whilst maintaining at least an outward show of loyalty to the dominant ideology. Written on the cusp of independence, as Estonia and Latvia sought to regain their sovereignty in 1991, this is a novel that can be seen as an historic document - wistful, unsettling, and beautiful...Viivi Luik is one of Estonia's most highly-acclaimed and well-known writers. The Beauty of History has been published in eleven languages.
£13.25
Atlantic Books Improvement
Book Synopsis'Improvement is a major work of literature.' - Nick Hornby, The BelieverReyna knows her relationship with Boyd isn't perfect, yet as she visits him throughout his three-month stint in prison, their bond grows tighter. Kiki, now settled in New York after a journey that took her to Turkey and around the world, admires her niece's spirit but worries that she always picks the wrong man. Little does she know that the otherwise honourable Boyd is pulling Reyna into a scheme which violates his probation. When Reyna ultimately decides to remove herself for the sake of her four-year-old child, her small act of resistance sets into motion a tapestry of events that affect the lives of loved ones and strangers around them. A novel that examines conviction, connection and the possibility of generosity in the face of loss, Improvement is as intricately woven together as Kiki's beloved Turkish rugs and as colourful as the tattoos decorating Reyna's body, with narrative twists and turns as surprising and unexpected as the lives all around us. The Boston Globe says of Joan Silber 'No other writer can make a few small decisions ripple across the globe, and across time, with more subtlety and power.' Improvement is Silber's most shining achievement yet.Trade ReviewA novel of richness and wisdom and huge pleasure -- Kamila Shamsie * New York Times Book Review *[Improvement] daisychains several related narratives into a rich and surprising whole...Silber's superb handling of time - that Alice Munro tribute isn't wide of the mark - draws the disparate lives into a unity, and makes this compressed novel feel mysteriously capacious. -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *Silber is the genuine article, a writer of such precision, intelligence and insight that she makes you gasp...The characterisation is fantastic and the dialogue pitch-perfect. -- Cressida Connolly * Literary Review *Improvement is a major work of literature....I love [Silber's] prose even more than I love her unconventional narrative approach. The first story, written in the first person, seems to me like the perfect lesson in voice, and anyone trying to write or to teach writing should read it. Reyna, the narrator, is funny, shrewd, laconic, fatalistic, something of a fuckup, and refreshingly unbookish; there isn't a single line that lets the reader down, or that allows you to suspect even for a second that this person isn't real. -- Nick Hornby * The Believer *Silber brings the skills of a short story writer to her novels, giving her characters enough space to breathe within the confines of the larger story, and every so often one will come across a jewel of a sentence that begs to be underlined or committed to memory. * Glasgow Herald *A wise, impressive novel, utterly precise and unflinching in its portrayal of everyday human weakness, but full of kindness and hope. I loved this book. -- Sarah WatersA wonderful novel about the unknown interconnectedness of us all in ways that are invisible but matter. -- Linda Grant[I]t feels vital to love Silber's work. . . Now is the moment to appreciate that she is here, in our midst: our country's own Alice Munro. * Washington Post *Without fuss or flourishes, Joan Silber weaves a remarkably patterned tapestry connecting strangers from around the world to a central tragic car accident. The writing here is funny and down-to-earth, the characters are recognizably fallible, and the message is quietly profound: We are not ever really alone, however lonely we feel. * Wall Street Journal, top fiction titles of 2017 *I love all of Joan Silber's work for her mastery of character, her ferocious and searching compassion, and her elegant lines that make the mind hum for hours. Improvement is so crisp and resonant a novel that it made me forget the chaos of life around me; a feat for which I'm truly grateful. -- Lauren GroffAn everyday masterpiece. * Newsday *An accomplished, wise, humane book, generously graced with those fleeting but vivid moments - of puzzlement, vexation and love - in which the humanity of her characters shines through. -- Colin BarrettImprovement has the intricate beauty of the rugs around which the story is woven. I admire Joan Silber's ability to braid the narratives of objects and people lost and found into a shapely story. -- Sarah MossAn elegant, generous portrait of interconnected lives. * Tatler *Silber excels at quick, sharp portraiture...an exploration of the hopes, pains and small successes of very different people making their uncertain way through life. * Times Literary Supplement *This gentle, absorbing story glides along on frictionless, understated prose; it feels wholly natural and unforced, as if the characters are recounting their own experiences, shorn of any artifice or make-believe. * Country & Townhouse Magazine *
£8.54
Norvik Press The Silence
Book SynopsisThis volume marks the apex and the culmination of the provocative Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe's investigations into the nature of evil. Here the study moves to a broader canvas than in earlier works; the enquiring narrator explores not just European history, but the crimes committed by Europeans against the rest of humanity in the name of expansion and conquest. Cortez' destruction of the Aztec empire and Pisarro's of the Incas were crimes of genocide comparable with Hitler's against the Jews, and Columbus' glorious discovery of America becomes simply an act of colonialism: "The Indians had discovered America long before I came." His realization of European culpability and anticipation of the blood-bath that will ensue when the Third World claims its rightful share of the world's riches lead the narrator into a long plunge into the tunnel of depression, from which he emerges in a cathartic realization that human beings have not only an unfathomable capacity for evil, but also an immeasurable capacity for good; man is the destroyer of all things, but also the renewer of all things. The 25 years which have passed since this novel was first published have not diminished its relevance and its urgency.
£13.25
Norvik Press City of Light
Book SynopsisAnn-Marie is a middle-aged woman returning from Portugal to the Swedish town in which she grew up in order to sell the old house she has inherited from her father. Memories of the past are everywhere, ensnaring her. She ends up staying in the house, alone with her memories of her father, an idiosyncratic character whom only she truly understood. She is also nervously awaiting the arrival of her daughter, and now realises that she has never really tried to understand her. With this eloquent and gripping story Kerstin Ekman concludes her epic sequence of novels, Women and the City (whose earlier volumes Witches' Rings, The Spring and The Angel House are also available from Norvik Press). City of Light is an intensely moving novel about love, in a rich and unusual variety of forms, and also a sensitive and thoughtful depiction of the way in which human beings approach life and one another.
£15.15
The Indigo Press Between Dog and Wolf
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd Little Suns
Book SynopsisIt is 1903. A lame and frail Malangana - 'Little Suns' - searches for his beloved Mthwakazi after many lonely years spent in Lesotho. Mthwakazi was the young woman he had fallen in love with twenty years earlier, before the assassination of Hamilton Hope ripped the two of them apart.Intertwined with Malangana's story, is the account of Hope - a colonial magistrate who, in the late nineteenth century, was undermining the local kingdoms of the eastern Cape in order to bring them under the control of the British. It was he who wanted to coerce Malangana's king and his people, the amaMpondomise, into joining his battle - a scheme Malangana's conscience could not allow. Zakes Mda's fine novel Little Suns weaves the true events surrounding the death of Magistrate Hope into a touching story of love and perseverance that can transcend exile and strife.
£8.54
Renard Press Ltd Flagey in Winter
Book SynopsisSet in 2013, Flagey in Winter is a comedy of manners that takes place in the European Parliament itself, in bars where love and politics rub shoulders, and in the Italian Dolomites.
£9.50
Monsoon Books Death of a Coast Watcher
Book SynopsisIn 1943 New Guinea, a Japanese officer beheads Hugh Rand, an Australian spya coast watcher. The layers unfold as the author entices us through cultural, historical and intellectual curtains, deep into minds and relationships disturbed by the Pacific war and Rand's legacy in New Guinea, Gilbert Islands, Japan and Australia.
£8.54
Atlantic Books Innards
Book Synopsis'A gut punch of a collection...it astonishes as it reveals how malignant political forces can both ravage and vitalize the human spirit.' New York TimesSet in Soweto, the urban heartland of South Africa, Innards tells the intimate stories of everyday black folks processing the savagery of apartheid. Rich with the thrilling textures of township language and life, it braids the voices and perspectives of an indelible cast of characters into a breathtaking collection flush with forgiveness, rage, ugliness and beauty. Meet a fake PhD and ex-freedom fighter who remains unbothered by his own duplicity, a girl who goes mute after stumbling upon a burning body, twin siblings nursing a scorching feud, and a woman unravelling under the weight of a brutal encounter with the police. At the heart of this collection - of deceit and ambition, appalling violence and transcendent love - is the story of slavery, colonization and apartheid - and it shows in intimate detail how South Africans must navigate both the shadows of the recent past and the uncertain opportunities of the promised land.Full to bursting with life, in all its complexities and vagaries, Innards is an uncompromising depiction of black South Africa. Visceral and tender, it heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.Trade ReviewDo not miss this authoritative, urgent take on modern South Africa * Oprah *An unforgettable debut that hits with all the force of the sun. Complex and breathtaking, Innards is a book haunted by apartheid's monstrous shadow and illuminated by the radiant talent of one of our generation's most original voices. Makhene writes like liberation should feel: transcendently. * Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of This is How You Lose Her and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao *Innards by the brilliant Magogodi Makhene is a wonder. Magnificent and devastating * NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-listed author of Glory and We Need New Names *Innards reads like a relay of fearless, burning emblems, each story lit by the one before and each igniting the next. Beautiful, lethal, funny, righteous visions... ablaze with the utterly familiar and the utterly mysterious. This work is prophetic?not because it shows us what will be, but because it shows us how it all really is. Simply, marvellous. * Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of This Other Eden *A much-needed addition to contemporary fiction... Makhene's stories capture the heart and soul of the Soweto people * Booklist, starred review *Makhene shapes her debut story collection around suburban Soweto, from its inception during apartheid as the South-Western Townships until its eventual incorporation into Johannesburg proper....Makhene's vividly rendered stories are propulsive and challenging * Kirkus, starred review *
£13.49
Everyman Hopscotch and Blow-Up
Book SynopsisWith his "counter-novel" Hopscotch and his unforgettable short stories, Julio Cortázar earned a place among the most innovative authors of the twentieth century. Hopscotch follows the adventures of an Argentinean writer living in Paris with his lover and a circle of bohemian friends, and consists of 155 short chapters that the author advises us to read out of order. Blow-Up brings together the most famous of Cortázar's short fiction--stories where invisible beasts stalk children in their homes, where a man reading a mystery finds out that he is the murderer's intended victim. In Cortázar's work, laws of nature, physics, and narrative all fall away, leaving us with an astonishing new view of the world.
£18.04
Fairlight Books The Tale of Senyor Rodriguez
Book SynopsisWHAT IF YOU COULD BE SOMEBODY ELSE? Lou Gilmond's stunning debut literary mystery novel. It's 1960s Mallorca and Thomas Sebastian is an English conman on the run. Hoping to evade his creditors, he's taken an old Spanish finca as his hideout. He discovers the house untouched since the death of its last owner, the renowned and distinguished Senyor Rodriguez - with fine art on the walls, a library of books and cellar full of wine. Thomas slips easily into his new life - walking, reading and drinking; falling in love with his neighbour, the beautiful but impossibly young Isabella Ferretti. But when he puts on Rodriguez's white linen suit and heads into the city, things get a little out of hand... This literary mystery novel is a riotous tale of excess, desire and greed, set in a sultry Spanish island summer of 1964. Lou Gilmond's prose at times crackles with wit and at others is stomach-heavy with sensuality. Through it all, Thomas is thrilling if feverish company.Trade Review`A riotous tale' —Geoff Sanders, crime writer; `A joy to read and pleasingly unpredictable' —Jack D. McLean, author, via Goodreads
£8.54
Canongate Books Four Meals
Book SynopsisFour Meals is the extraordinary story of Zayde, his enigmatic mother Judith and her three lovers.When Judith arrives in a small, rural village in Palestine in the early 1930s, three men compete for her attention: Globerman, the cunning, coarse cattle-dealer who loves women, money and flesh; Jacob, owner of hundreds of canaries and host to the four meals which lend the book its narrative structure; and Moshe, a widowed farmer obsessed with his dead wife and his lost braid of hair which his mother cut off in childhood.During the four meals, which take place intermittently over several decades, Zayde slowly comes to understand why these three men consider him their son and why all three participate in raising him.Trade ReviewIt's as though the Song of Solomon had been rewritten by Gabriel Garcia Marquez . . . a master class in the storyteller's art. * * Daily Telegraph * *Shalev's novel, plump with incident and character, is structured around the four meals that Jacob, a candidate father, prepares for Zayde, but in between Shalev brings on side dishes of interlocking stories that keep the reader sated. * * Guardian * *This is a literary novel that succeeds in being neither incomprehensible nor humourless. The author writes with a light touch and an eye for amusing quirks of character. * * The Historical Novels Review * *This delicious novel . . . has been wonderfully translated. -- Penny Perrick * * The Times * *
£9.49
Canongate Books A Walk On The Wild Side
Book SynopsisWith an introduction by Richard FlanaganDove Findhorn is a naïve country boy who busts out of Hicksville, Texas in pursuit of a better life in New Orleans. Amongst the downtrodden prostitutes, bootleggers and hustlers of the old French Quarter, Dove finds only hopelessness, crime and despair. His quest uncovers a harrowing grotesque of the American Dream.A Walk in the Wild Side is an angry, lonely, large-hearted and often funny masterpiece that has captured the imaginations of every generation since its first publication in 1956, and that rendered a world later immortalised in Lou Reed´s classic song.Trade Review... a cult classic....Less of a traditional narrative and more like a poetic force of nature, Wild Side is a boisterous panegyric to the side street solitaries who dream their impossible dreams * * The Telegraph * *One of the most powerful books I have ever read. -- Alyson Rudd * * The Times * *The 1956 classic that gave Lou Reed his most famous song is republished in paperback with an introductory essay from Russell Banks - and don't be tempted to skip it: this pocket-book guide to Algren's own life of doomed love, addiction and disappointment, is a gripping read in itself. * * The Scotsman * *Mr. Algren, boy, you are good. -- Ernest HemingwayThe intensity of his feeling, the accuracy of his thought, make me wonder if any other writer of our time has shown us more exactly the basis of our democracy. His hell burns with passion for heaven. * * New York Times Book Review * *
£10.44
Saraband Dead Ringer
Book SynopsisThe idea is simple, vain, exciting. Tap the app, upload a picture, find your #deadringer – and if you like, set up a meeting in real life. When Ella and Jem connect, the resemblance is uncanny, but their lives are polar opposites. One is stuck in a rut in her Northern hometown, while the other, an aspiring actor living in a multimillion-pound mansion, is a Chelsea socialite who knows she’s skating on thin ice. Other than their looks, their only similarity is the desire to escape. Is it possible to hide in your double’s skin? And at what cost? All too believable, twisty, compelling and fast – Dead Ringer will leave you reeling.Trade ReviewA tense and compelling story that courageously embraces contemporary themes ranging from new tech consumption to mental health plays out as a treacherous and disturbing nightmare will delight fans of Killing Eve.' * Daily Mail *A serious meditation on who we are when we spend hours and hours on social media a fast-moving thriller a cracking read.' -- Judith Sullivan * Shots Magazine *[This] scintillating debut is pacy, often witty, always succinct, a credible and well-constructed tale of two young women Excellent. Buy this book. Nicola Martin is a writer to watch.' -- Bob Cornwell * Crimetime *What a cracking debut! Tense, thrilling, thought provoking.' * Alex Kane, author of No Looking Back *Dead Ringer takes you on a riotous and compelling ride. Nicola Martin delivers an accomplished debut, one that successfully captures the twisted inherent desires that surface when two differing lives become dangerously entwined. * Lloyd Otis, author of Dead Lands *A genuinely compelling thriller.' * Liz Loves Books blog *A fresh, original and captivating debut utterly riveting an addictive read from beginning to end.' * Books and Emma blog *Page-turning suspense alongside exploring the dark recesses of the human mind a taut and fast-paced thriller [and] a beautiful meditation on how opportunities offered by youth, beauty and ambition crash into the hard realities of adulthood.' * Joanne Metivier *Modern, fresh, clever and highly addictive It is genius.' -- Kelly Lacey * Love Books Group *A fantastic novel just what would it be like to live another version of your life? Littered with moments of dark humour and flawless insight.' -- Sharon Bairden * Chapter in My Life *Twists and turns its way to an emotional confrontation and a cleverly woven conclusion thoroughly enjoyable and really well written and plotted.' -- Liz Barnsley * Liz Loves Books *Captivating Dark, tense and utterly compelling, this a brilliant read.' * Bookliterati *Gripping, fast-paced and thought-provoking.' * Secret World of a Book *A brilliant and unique thriller... compelling and twisty.' * On My Bookshelf blog *Dead Ringer is a psychological thriller that is unputdownable... With lots of twists and turns ahead, you won't be disappointed.' * Rachel Bustin *This book was a wonderful read I read it in just a couple of days' time because I just couldn't put it down!' * Infinite Pages Book Reviews *The author creates a fascinating, compelling read with twists and turns throughout... An impressive debut' * Wishful Books Reviews *
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group People In Glass Houses
Book SynopsisThe 'People in Glass Houses' work for an American-based concern devoted to 'inflicting improvement' the world over. Amongst them are sloppy but erudite Algie Wyatt, Swoboda, a Slav DP, who finally rebels against a daily inflow of documentation; modest Ashmole-Brown, whose surprise best-seller unseats Sadie Graine, the all-time corridor fixer; Jaspersen, who falls in and out of love with the Organization; and Clelia Kinslake, who meets the most critical non-crisis of her career in Crete. Shirley Hazzard's eight dazzling stories are linked by a scorching contempt for the Organization.
£8.54
Granta Books The Picture Book
Book SynopsisSet against the rolling backdrop of a century of British history from WWI to the 'War on Terror', this is an intimate family portrait captured in snapshots. First there is William, the factory lad who loses his life in Gallipoli, then his son Billy, a champion cyclist who survives the D-Day Landings on a military bicycle, followed by his crippled son Will who becomes an Oxford academic in the 1960s, and finally his daughter Billie, an artist in contemporary London. Just as the names - William, Billy, Will, Billie - echo down through the family, so too the legacy of choices made, chances lost, and secrets kept. Rich in drama and sensuous in detail, The Picture Book is a beautifully crafted story about parents and children, about fate and repetition, and about the possibility of breaking free.
£8.54
Watkins Media Limited The Ruins
Book SynopsisLondon, 2010: Icelandic volcanoes have the city in gridlock, banks topple like dominoes and Brandon Kussgarten has been shot dead by gunmen in Donald Duck masks. His death draws his twin brother - shy, bookish Adam - into Brandon's underworld of deceit and desire.A miniature kingdom sprouts in a Notting Hill tower-block, LA mansions burn in week-long parties, and in a Baroque hotel suite a record is being made that could redeem its maker even as it destroys him. As Adam begins to fall for his brother's shattered family he finds that to win them for himself he'll have to lose everything that he holds dear.This intelligent, intriguing and emotionally-searing tale of fractured identities, narcissism and ambition questions how being loved for what others think we are differs from who we are to ourselves.With echoes of Performance, The Talented Mr Ripley and Mulholland Drive, The Ruins delves into the dark heart of fame: magic, music and murder.Trade Review"The Ruins reads like Raymond Chandler remixed by James Lasdun: barbed apercus and killer images flare across each page, even as unsettling elements moil below, in pursuit of more sinister ambitions. Every great noir tale is at some level a fantasia on the slipperiness of identity; Osman has written a great noir tale." - Martin Seay, author of The Mirror Thief "The Ruins is an intriguing and beautifully-written tale of two brothers, filled with music and danger. But at its heart this is a novel about being restless and lonely; about how the inability to create something transient leads to a silent despair and the desire to be someone else." - Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire "Oozes quiet sedition." - Sukhdev Sandhu, author of Night Haunts "There's a touch of Pynchon in this complex, woozily dream-like novel about music, mystery and imagined worlds..." - Ian Rankin "The Ruins is such a brilliant and idiosyncratic thing. It's hectic, soulful, elegant, and wickedly clever. It somehow approximates the immersive experience of listening to a life-changing album, and it also has some of the best line-by-line prose I've read in a really long time." - Anna Smaill, author of The Chimes "The debut from Suede founding member and bassist Mat Osman is an altered state of a novel, mixing the crime of LA noir, the ambient cityscapes of JG Ballard and dark language games of Thomas Pynchon, all imbued with a sensitivity to the magical - and powerful - properties of making and listening to music." - George Chesterton, GQ "Fantastic debut novel. Magical, surreal, disturbing. Reminded me in places of early Iain Banks and DBC Pierre." - John Niven "Redolent of The Talented Mr Ripley, Performance and Theodore Roszak's Flicker, spanning London, LA and Las Vegas, The Ruins by Suede guitarist Mat Osman contains multitudes; it has all the makings of a cult classic." - Irish Times
£11.69
Birlinn General So Many Lives and All of Them Are Yours
Book SynopsisFrom the author of the award winning The Sound of My Voice After being sacked from his day job as a business executive, Morris Magellan has cashed it all in – the house, the car, family life – to be free at last to pursue his true passion: music. He returns to his childhood home to escape city life, face his demons and compose his masterpiece. Very soon, things start to go wrong. Not only does his past catch up with him, but the future becomes more threatening by the day. Bad habits return with a vengeance. Then he meets Jess. Written with humour and compassion, this compelling novel, set in the Borders, sixties London and present-day Edinburgh, touches on music, love in later life and, most of all, how to make the most of one’s time before it is too late.Trade Review'A stunning novel about making the most of life - and love - while you still can. Darkly comic, his work is laced with compassion and optimism' * Sunday Post *'It has been a long time coming – more than thirty years – but was well worth the wait. The continuing misadventures of Morris Magellan are every bit as bleakly comic as in The Sound of My Voice. The phrase 'laughter in the dark' has never felt more fitting' -- Ian Rankin'a new, buoyant, standalone novel... taking in themes of Scottish independence and love in later life' * The Bookseller *'I loved The Sound of My Voice, and this darkly entertaining novel is a worthy sequel' -- James Robertson'A life-affirming novel' * Books from Scotland *'A funny, provocative, and compelling read highlighting a life lived with regrets while attempting to make the most of the present' * LoveReading, Book of the Month *'This follow-up to Ron Butlin’s award-winning 1987 novel The Sound of My Voice is rich in comedy while offering some melancholy truths' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *'Every bit as masterful as its celebrated 1987 predecessor... an almost painfully insightful and honest depiction of a man struggling with drink, his past and ultimately himself... But it isn’t devoid of optimism or humour either, and Morris’s awareness of his own ridiculousness mines laughter from a desperate situation' * The Herald *'an enjoyable and memorable novel following the adventures and - mainly - misadventures of Morris Magellan' -- Ken Lussey * Undiscovered Scotland *'A funny, provocative, and compelling read highlighting a life lived with regrets while attempting to make the most of the present' * LoveReading *'This follow-up to Butlin's excellent 1987 novel, The Sound of My Voice, has been a long time coming but it's been worth the wait' * Scottish Field *'One of the most engaging and diversely talented writers of his generation' -- British Council
£11.40
Alma Books Ltd The Zone
Book SynopsisBased on Dovlatov's actual experience of being a prison guard in Soviet Russia in the 1960s, and full of comic and humane detail, The Zone depicts the absurd day-to- day life of a camp in an insightful and unusual way, challenging commonly held perceptions of the relations between incarcerators and the incarcerated.A priceless chronicle of its time which highlights universal themes, Dovlatov's genre-defying novel also provides moments of high entertainment and humour, rendered in his characteristically sharp, concise and sardonic style.
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits
Book SynopsisThe Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits is a book of fictions, but they are also true. Over the last ten years, I have often stumbled over a scrap of history so fascinating that I had to stop whatever I was doing and write a story about it. My sources are the flotsam and jetsam of the last seven hundred years of British and Irish life: surgical case-notes; trial records; a plague ballad; theological pamphlets; a painting of two girls in a garden; an articulated skeleton. Some of the ghosts in this collection have famous names; others were written off as cripples, children, half-breeds, freaks and nobodies. The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits is named for Mary Toft, who in 1726 managed to convince half England that she had done just that.So this book is what I have to show for ten years of sporadic grave-robbing, ferreting out forgotten puzzles and peculiar incidents, asking 'What really happened?', but also, 'What if?
£9.49
Valley Press Motherborn
Book Synopsis
£10.20
Dedalus Ltd Music, in a Foreign Language
Book Synopsis
£7.99
Empire Publications Ltd Black Tears
Book Synopsis
£8.95
404 Ink Mayhem & Death
Book SynopsisIn the anticipated follow-up collection to 2015's awardwinning On the Edges of Vision, Helen McClory returns delving deeper into descriptively mythical yet recognisable stories woven from dark and light, human fear and fortune. Swimming and suffering. Spikes loom ever-threatening. A weight against the throat. Sea where the dead lie pressed into a layer of silt. A silent documentary through a terrible place. Mary Somerville, future Queen of Science. A coven of two. Mayhem & Death is the matured, darker companion to On the Edges of Vision and shows McClory's ever expanding ability to envelop and entrance her readers with lyrical language of lore, stunning settings and curious characters. Mayhem & Death also introduces the brand new novella Powdered Milk, a tale for the lost.Trade Review`McClory is clearly one of the best new writers to have emerged in Scotland in the last few years...' - The Herald
£8.54
Route Publishing Red Army Faction Blues
Book Synopsis
£8.99
Persephone Books Ltd Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary
Book Synopsis
£16.00
