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
Double 9 Books Children of The Mist
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£15.74
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers What We Thought We Knew
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£10.44
Double 9 Books When the Sea Gives Up its Dead a Thrilling
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£11.04
Double 9 Books Mens Wives
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£11.04
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Rise of the Lesser Heroes
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£9.49
Double 9 Books The Blue Castle a Novel
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£13.49
Double 9 Booksllp Women In Love
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£23.24
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Blue Violet No. 87
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£11.69
Penguin Putnam Inc Heart Marks the Spot
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£14.44
Mint Editions The Enchanted April
Book SynopsisDedicated to all who "appreciate wisteria and sunshine," The Enchanted April is Elizabeth Von Armin''s dreamlike celebration of womanhood, friendship, and love.Published in 1922 to critical acclaim, The Enchanted April follows the story of four strangers: Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot, two housewives whose marriages have lost their spark; Mrs. Fisher, an elderly widow who longs for the days of her youth; and the beautiful socialite, Lady Caroline. Seeking a vacation and a desperately needed change of scenery, each woman answers an ad in the Times to rent a medieval castle for the month of April. Arriving at their beautiful temporary home in the picturesque country of Italy, the women-both individually and apart-go on journeys of self-discovery; growing as friends and learning the joy and value of having a room of one''s own.An immediate bestseller upon its initial publication and never out of print since, The Enchanted April has charmed and delighted readers for over a century with its lyrical prose and endearing characters. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
£7.99
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Arnold Forbutt Esquire
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£8.54
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC Swinging Grandma
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£7.99
Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
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£11.99
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Crucible of Pain
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£7.59
Crooked Lane Books What the Dead Can Do
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£15.29
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers A Nation Beheaded
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£10.79
Crooked Lane Books Cammy Sitting Shiva
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£15.29
Saluki Publishing Fidelity
£18.04
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers The Child At The Window
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£9.49
Double 9 Booksllp Pride and Prejudice
£17.24
Crooked Lane Books Merry
£22.94
Carcanet Press Partita and A Winter in Zurau
Book SynopsisThis is Gabriel Josipovici's most melodramatic and enigmatic fiction to date, as though one of Magritte's paintings had come to life to the rhythms of a Bach partita.
£13.49
Crooked Lane Books Clementine Crane Prefers Not To
£22.94
Ashridge Publishing Northanger Abbey
£9.49
Unbound Lost & Found
Book SynopsisFolk tales take us beyond our own boundaries into unknown lands. Yet within these adventures, riddles and enchantments we find our common ground and shared humanity. Lost & Found is Elizabeth Garner’s own retelling of fifteen treasured folk tales that have nurtured, sustained, terrified and enthralled her in equal measure. Some of the stories are taken from the books of her childhood, some are remembered, and others she has discovered in her reading over the years.Garner’s tapestry of words is adorned with engraver Phoebe Connolly's beautiful woodcut illustrations that bring the friends and foes of folklore to life. Included in the collection are stories such as ‘The Riddle of the Crossroads’, ‘The Twisted Oak’, ‘The Wits of the Whetstone’ and many more. With a varied and diverse cast of characters, Garner’s retellings expertly traverse a myriad of mysterious worlds; always staying true to tradition, while simultaneously speaking to modern times.This illustrated collection is another link in the chain between storyteller, listener and our shared ancestors: tales from the past, told to enrich the present and to be carried forward into the future.Trade Review'It’s the job of each generation to make the old tales speak afresh, and in this collection Elizabeth Garner has fashioned a vibrant web' Hugh Lupton"Lost & Found recalls the darker inheritance of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, adding a new and enigmatic tone” - Times Literary Supplement
£15.29
Crooked Lane Books The Deadly Book Club
£22.94
Double 9 Books LLP To Let
£14.39
Unbound Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants:
Book Synopsis** The venue was the canteen block of the Red Hammer Cement Works. It was the usual set-up: way out of town, secretive directions to get there, and disco lights blazing… Moscow, 1993. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought unimaginable change to Russia. With this change come new freedoms: freedom to travel abroad and to befriend Westerners, freedom to make money, and even the freedom for an underground gay scene to take root.Encouraged by the new climate of openness, twenty-one-year-old Kostya ventures out of the closet and resolves to pursue his dreams: to work in the theatre and to find love as his idol Tchaikovsky never could. Those dreams, however, lead to tragedy – not only for Kostya, but for his mother and for the two young men he loves, as all three face up to the ways they have betrayed him.Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is both a gripping thriller and a poignant, very human tale of people beset by forces beyond their control, in a world where all the old certainties have crumbled and it’s far from clear what will eventually take their place.
£11.69
Syracuse University Press Remember Me to Lebanon
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£16.48
Double 9 Booksllp Tales And Fantasies
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£11.39
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Patience
Book SynopsisBooksellers Association Book of the Month and LoveReading Debut of the Month A new high-risk treatment gives you the chance to cure your child's disease. Do you take it? The Willows have been through a lot. Louise has devoted her life to caring for her disabled youngest daughter. Pete works abroad, almost never seeing his loved ones. And their eldest, Eliza, is burdened by all the secrets she's trying to keep from her overloaded family. Meanwhile, Patience observes the world while trapped in her own body. She laughs, she cries, she has opinions and knows what she wants. But those who love her most – and make every decision about her life – will never know. Or will they? When the Willows are offered the opportunity for Patience to take part in a new gene therapy trial to cure her Rett syndrome, they face an impossible dilemma. Are the very real risks worth the chance of the reward, no matter how small? Praise for Victoria Scott: 'A wonderful, smart and funny book' Louise Fein, bestselling author of People Like Us 'Warm and honest, yet heartbreaking all at the same time. I adored every minute of it' Clare Swatman 'Inspired by truth, Patience and her family come alive on the pages. I felt every single emotion with them' Alice Peterson, author of Monday to Friday Man 'An eye-opening and heartwarming tale' Woman's Own 'I adored it' Kirsten Hesketh, author of Another Us 'A poignant page-turner' LoveReadingTrade ReviewA thought-provoking, compelling and entertaining read. I could barely put the book down until its equally heart-wrenching and heart-warming ending. A wonderful, smart and funny book – I know readers will absolutely love it -- Louise Fein, bestselling author of People Like UsAn eye-opening and heartwarming tale * Woman's Own *Inspired by truth, Patience and her family come alive on the pages. I felt every single emotion with them -- Alice Peterson, author of Monday to Friday ManAn extraordinary novel about love and hope and family and what happens in the space between the words. I adored it -- Kirsten Hesketh, author of Another UsAn eye-opening, sincere and beautiful debut... A really special novel that I suspect will have a tangible effect on readers' * NB Magazine *Absorbing, poignant story of a family's emotional rollercoaster in the aftermath of participating in a risky medical trial * LoveReading *Love, hope, family, all wrapped up in Patience by Victoria Scott * Weekend Reads *
£9.49
Double 9 Books LLP Cyrano De Bergerac
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£15.00
Double 9 Booksllp Silas Marner
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£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC On the Line
Book SynopsisA celebrated French bestseller, this novel in verse that captures the mundane and the beautiful, the blood and sweat, of working on the factory floor in the processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Unable to find work in his field, Joseph Ponthus enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Day after day he records with infinite precision the nature of work on the production line: the noise, the weariness, the dreams stolen by the repetitive nature of exhausting rituals and physical suffering. But he finds solace in a life previously lived. Shelling prawns, he dreams of Alexandre Dumas. Pushing cattle carcasses, he recalls Apollinaire. And, in the grace of the blank spaces created by his insistent return to a new line of text – mirroring his continued return to the production line – we discover the woman he loves, the happiness of a Sunday, Pok Pok the dog, the smell of the sea. In this celebrated French bestseller, translated by Stephanie Smee, Ponthus captures the mundane, the beautiful and the strange, writing with an elegance and humour that sit in poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor. On the Line is a poet's ode to manual labour, and to the human spirit that makes it bearable. Praise for On the Line: 'Poetic and political, lyrical and realistic, Joseph Ponthus' spirited elegy is at once surprising, captivating and affecting' Télérama 'It is not every day that one witnesses the birth of a writer' France 5 La Grande Librairie 'A work that is powerful, clever, benevolent, optimistic even. Essential reading' Causette 'Be prepared for a battering of the senses with vivid, grisly prose' France MagazineTrade ReviewPoetic and political, lyrical and realistic, Joseph Ponthus' spirited elegy is at once surprising, captivating and affecting * Télérama *It is not every day that one witnesses the birth of a writer * France 5 La Grande Librairie *A work that is powerful, clever, benevolent, optimistic even. Essential reading * Causette *Be prepared for a battering of the senses with vivid, grisly prose * France Magazine *A lasting gift to the French – and now the English – literary landscape. You don't need to be a poetry aficionado to be stirred by the understated beauty of Ponthus's writing, and Stephanie Smee's superb translation, nor to be moved by the world that Ponthus paints and probes. A world in which the vicissitudes of factory life are illuminated with wit and wisdom, and joy can be found twinkling where you least expect it * European Literature Network *Writing from real-life experience, Ponthus details the drudgery, exhaustion, frustration, horror, stress, satisfaction and occasional joy found working in an industrial food factory. Using an experimental style that's half verse, half prose, he makes this refrigerated, sanitised, fluorescent-lit world feel beautiful, even romantic. I found myself dropping the book into my lap for minutes at a time just to process just how fucked-up his experience is. This is a powerful – but not preachy or guilt-tripping – window into an ugly, opaque system we're all part of * Broadsheet *
£9.49
Double9 Books The Aspern Papers
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£34.49
Double 9 Booksllp The Devolutionist And The Emancipatrix
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£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Big Day
Book Synopsis''THE BIG DAY is a big delight... I was rooting for Noor and Dan and their happy ever after throughout. It was a wonderful read'' - Cesca Major***A funny, heartwarming and page-turning novel about a British-Asian mother and daughter, who clash over the plans for the bride''s Big Day. Noor has no interest in getting married (much to the aunties'' distress). Growing up she saw first-hand how divorce tears families apart... But then, she falls in love.Soon, Noor's engaged and planning an intimate wedding that feels perfect for her and her fiancé Dan. But when Noor discovers her mother Leena also has grand plans for the Big Day, their once-close relationship starts to unravel. Noor can't understand why Leena is determined to have an elaborate Desi celebration when their lives have been anything but traditional. And after a lifetime following other people's dreams, Noor is determined not to back down.As Leena and Noor clash over ever
£9.49
Double 9 Books LLP Sentimental Tommy
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£16.58
Double9 Books FiftyOne Tales
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£10.46
Canelo Blood Feud
Book SynopsisThe wolves of Odin have been unleashed: the hunt has begun.Anno Domini 1040. Christianity has swept unstoppably across Scandinavia, leaving few enclaves of the old ways clinging on to their fading world as King Olof of Sweden works to convert his people.A young warrior, Halfdan, has witnessed the ‘mercy’ of the Christian lords, watched his people attacked, his village burned and the Odin stone toppled as heretical. Watched his father cut down by an ambitious Christian jarl and his zealous priest. Among the ashes of his world he vowed an oath of vengeance before all the gods. That oath will bring together an unlikely band of allies and carry them to the very edge of the world, fighting giants, dragons and wraiths, in pursuit of his father’s killer: Yngvar. The jarl is powerful, and the weaving of Fate difficult, but the blood price must be paid.A compelling and explosive novel of revenge, this is a major new series from S.J.A. Turney. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Giles Kristian and Angus Donald.Praise for Blood Feud 'Si Turney is a natural born storyteller, gifted, brilliant and utterly enthralling. Blood Feud tells the story of a young Norse warrior, Halfdan, who swears to avenge the murder of his father. The reader is almost immediately immersed into the action, swept away into the dragon-ship beside Halfdan and his tough, salty and occasionally hilarious crew of Vikings… An intelligent, fast-paced but finely crafted novel of battle, comradeship and bloody revenge – with some surprising twists along the way. Highly recommended to all those who enjoy a superior Viking adventure yarn!' Angus Donald, author of The Last Berserker'SJA Turney's new Viking epic is a bone-crunching good time! A resourceful young warrior on a quest for vengeance takes to the sea with a dragon long-ship and a motley band of new friends, fighting old enemies, foreign wars and the mysterious workings of fate at every new turn of the tide. Blood Feud is sure to thrill those mourning the end of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories' Kate Quinn, author of The Rose Code'A rich combination of saga and quest, religion and violence, with a satisfying conclusion that paves the way for further adventures' Ruth Downie, author of the Medicus series
£10.44
Double 9 Books The Law Inevitable
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£12.74
Canelo Iron and Gold
Book SynopsisThe wolves of Odin land in Italy, and the tantalising scent of gold is in the air…AD 1043. Having escaped Constantinople with their lives – barely – but not their ship, Halfdan and the wolves of Odin are now mercenaries in the Byzantine army, sailing to Apulia in Italy to help retake territory from the Normans.But cracks are beginning to show among the tight-knit wolves. Gunnhild, having forsaken the fate woven for her by the Norns in order to continue her journey with Halfdan, has lost her ability to communicate with the goddess Freyja, and so glimpse the future. And Ketil the Icelander, having watched his ship, the Sea Wolf, stolen from him yet again, grows resentful, as seemingly every decision Halfdan makes leads them further from his original promise of riches and renown.But aboard their ship is an official with secret orders for the general in charge of the Italian campaign, Maniakes. The orders will throw everything into chaos, and put a fork in the path of the wolves of Odin. Each will have a choice to make: loyalty to themselves, or to the pack?The thrilling third instalment in the Wolves of Odin series, with a gripping hunt across a war-torn Italy. Perfect for fans of Giles Kristian and Bernard Cornwell.
£9.49
Double 9 Books The FaustLegend and Goethes Faust Edition2023
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£9.89
Double 9 Books LLP Riceyman Steps a Novel Part Iv
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£10.44
Canelo The Loki Sword
Book SynopsisAn ancient blade, fit for the gods but tainted with a deadly curse.Bjarki Bloodhand has finally managed to subdue his gandr, the spirit that gives him the ferocity of a bear in battle. Yet losing his berserker prowess may leave him at the mercy of his foes.Meanwhile, his half-sister, the shield maiden Tor Hildarsdottir, has slain two warriors from the personal retinue of the new Jarl of Norrland – and now faces brutal reprisals for their deaths.Valtyr Far-Traveller claims he has a solution to their problems: a long voyage south to the wild Slav lands to find a fabled lost sword said to once belong to the Norse trickster god.The journey will prove more perilous than anything Bjarki or Tor has ever attempted before. Can all three heroes hope to survive the desperate hunt for... The Loki Sword?An epic Viking quest for a legendary sword, perfect for fans of Giles Kristian and Conn Iggulden.Praise for The Last Berserker, Volume One in the Fire Born series‘Donald has taken the legendary berserkers, those frothing-at-the-mouth shield-biters, and made them human, which once again proves that Donald is a writer not only at the top of his game, but of the game ... It is a wonderful, rich and violent brew. I welcome Angus Donald to the shield wall of Viking fiction like a thirsty man welcomes a mead-brother to the feast ... A tale worthy of the skalds’ Giles Kristian, author of the Raven series‘With The Last Berserker, Donald has given us the first cut of some serious Dark Age beef. By turns heart-racing, intriguing, and touching, this is not a book for the faint-hearted – I can’t wait for more’ Theodore Brun, author of A Burning Sea‘The Last Berserker strikes with the thundering power of Thor's hammer... rich with the earthy depth, historical detail, intrigue, violence and adventure that we expect from Donald. But it is Bjarki and Tor that make The Last Berserker stand out... Donald's masterful creations will live on in the imagination long after the final page’ Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles'A wonderful, blood-soaked tale of redemption and revenge, set amidst the eighth century clash of civilisations between Pagan Vikings and Christian Franks, by a master of the genre’ Saul David, author of Zulu Hart'Loved this tale of a berserker facing up against the tidal wave of Charlemagne’s expansion. Great characters, brilliantly paced and explosive, gritty battle-scenes. Highly recommended' John Gwynne, author of Malice‘Well researched detail and stunning battle scenes make The Last Berserker a white knuckle ride. A thrilling, up-all-night read’ C. R. May, author of The Day of the Wolf'I loved it. Bjarki and Tor are great characters, instantly relatable. The depth of the immersion in their world and their values gives the book authenticity and weight' Cecelia Holland, author of The Soul Thief
£9.49
Double 9 Books LLP Patricia Brent Spinster
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£13.49
Double 9 Books LLP The Patrician
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£14.39
Double 9 Books LLP The Princess Priscillas Fortnight
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£13.49
