Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Everyman Quick Service
Book SynopsisWhen rich and imperious American widow Beatrice Chavender eats a forkful of inferior ham at her sister's country house near London, it affects the lives of everyone around her - her sister, her brother-in-law, her sister's butler, her sister's poor relation Sally, Sally's fiance Lord Holberton, and, most of all, Mrs Chavender's own one-time fiance, 'Ham King' J. B. Duff, whose rotten product spoils her breakfast.Trade Review"Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in." Evelyn Waugh; "He exhausts superlatives" Stephen Fry; "Pure word music" Douglas Adams; "The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum" The Independent; "The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare" Evening Standard; "A handsome, collectable hardback edition" Lynne Truss, The Times"
£12.34
Everyman Big Money
Book SynopsisLORD BISKERTON, son and heir of the sixth Earl of Hoddesdon, and known to his friends as Biscuit, had red hair, a preliminary scenario for a moustache and a noble determination to escape the disgrace of work. His friend Berry Conway, however, had succumbed to economic pressure and become the secretary to T. Paterson Frisby, a dyspeptic American who had twenty million and loved every cent of it. When Biscuit and Berry pooled ideas for their mutual betterment, and one idea concerned Ann Moon, Frisby's beautiful niece and heiress, they had to lean heavily on Aunt Vera, an old campaigner in the field of love. How Uncle Paterson was caught short and rushed to cover, while Aunt Vera hedged the market with a double play and salted down two money-making engagements for the House of Hoddesdon, is one of the most irresistible tales of the one and only P. G.Trade ReviewThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without * Evening Standard *
£13.50
Everyman The Little Nugget
Book SynopsisThe Little Nugget (1913) is one of the novels in which Wodehouse found his feet, a light comic thriller set in an English prep school for the children of the nobility and gentry. Into their midst comes eleven-year-old Ogden Ford, the mouthy, overweight, chain-smoking son of an American millionaire. Ogden (whom we meet again in Piccadilly Jim) is the object of a kidnap attempt which forms the basis of the plot. The comedy arises from Wodehouse's favourite topics of Anglo-American misunderstanding and the absurdities of school life.Trade Review"Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in." -- EVELYN WAUGH"He exhausts superlatives" -- STEPHEN FRY"Pure word music" -- DOUGLAS ADAMS"The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum" * THE INDEPENDENT *"The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare" * EVENING STANDARD *
£13.50
Everyman Full Moon
Book SynopsisThe thought of being cooped up in Blandings Castle with Clarence, the Earl of Emsworth, the perennially youthful Galahad and with the Earl's younger son, Freddie Threepwood, openly appalled Colonel Wedge. It was, he grimly asserted, like being wrecked on a desert island with the Marx Brothers. But the arrival of Tipton Plimsoll at Blandings Castle considerably brightened the Colonel's horizon. For Tip-ton was a rich young American and rich young Americans were, in the Colonel's opinion, quite the most desirable companions for his daughter, Veronica, the dumbest beauty listed in the pages of Debrett. The stage was set for a great romance, or so the Colonel thought, and so it might have been had the knowledge of Freddie's erstwhile engagement to Veronica been withheld from the jealous Tipton, or if Prudence, the Earl's niece, had not been forcibly parted from her unsuitable lover, Bill Lister. On such incidents do great issues depend. However, Uncle Gaily, who combined the ready resource of a confidence trickster with the zeal of a cheerful crusader, intervened with an ingenious scheme to reunite the young lovers. It was a master-plan. How the plot miscarried at the crucial stage and in doing so caused a social and domestic revolution unparalleled in the history of Blandings Castle, is revealed in this most hilarious of chronicles.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *Nothing will ever dim the brilliance of Wodehouse's world or flatten his ever-sprightly and always entertaining prose -- John Mortimer * The Sunday Times *Pure word music * Douglas Adams *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *
£12.34
Everyman Bill the Conqueror
Book SynopsisSir George was disappointed in his son, he was not a chip off the old block and lacked the aggressive drive required of a business tycoon. So why not marry him off to Felicia she has plenty of spark and could manage any man, all was going well until the arrival from New York of Bill West.Felicia - a sprightly girl calculated to put the stuffing into any man - is about to be married off to the dreary Roderick Pyke when Bill arrives from New York and she suddenly recognizes in him the man for whom she should forsake all others.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *
£11.40
Everyman A Few Quick Ones
Book SynopsisA collection from the master, containing The Fat of the Land (Freddie Widgeon) Scratch Man (The Oldest Member) The Right Approach (Mr Mulliner), Jeeves Makes An Omelette, The Word In Season (Bingo Little), Big Business (Mr Mulliner), Leave It To Algy (Bingo Little), Joy Bells For Walter (Golf story), A Tithe For Charity (Ukridge), Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust (Freddie Widgeon)Trade ReviewThe finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew * Stephen Fry *Sublime comic genius * Ben Elton *
£12.34
Everyman Doctor Sally
Book SynopsisWhen Bill Bannister meets Dr Sally Smith, love blossoms immediately. Unfortunately there is just the small problem of Lottie Higginbotham, former actress, serial bride and human fireball, with whom Bill is already involved.The well-meaning interference of Bill's old friend, Squiffy Tidmouth, once married to Lottie, only complicates matters further, until everything is straightened out in a series of comic encounters at Bill's ancestral home and everyone lives happily ever after.
£12.34
Everyman The Man Upstairs
Book SynopsisWodehouse's well-known gift for satisfying plots and comic surprises is evident on every page, but there are also signs of his debt to earlier writers in the realistic tradition. Set mainly in London or New York, many of the stories concern ordinary people - shopassistants, schoolmasters, secretaries, servants, unsuccessful writers - living the life of rented rooms and cheap cafés Wodehouse knew well from his own experience. Yet there is nothing sad or gloomy about these tales. Far from it: they are brimming with life and energy, beautifully written and invariably delightful. And for Wodehouse addicts there is also a goodly sprinkling of goofy young men about town and their valets to satisfy the strongest appetitesTrade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *
£12.34
Everyman The Girl in Blue
Book SynopsisThe vintage plot concerns a Gainsborough miniature, a mouldering country house, an overweight solicitor, a fortune-hunter, a butler who isn't a butler, an American corporate lawyer and his kleptomaniac sister; but the heart of the story - in every sense - concerns Jerry West and his determined pursuit of air hostess Jane Hunnicutt, the eponymous Girl in Blue. When Jane unexpectedly becomes a millionairess, Jerry despairs of wooing her, but the sun never goes behind a cloud for long in Wodehouse: Jerry gets his Jane in the end, but only after a series of trials which raise the comic stakes to the author's highest level.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *A handsome, collectable hardback edition -- Lynne Truss * The Times *
£12.34
Everyman Frozen Assets
Book SynopsisThe `Frozen Assets' of the title belong to Edmund Biffen Christopher and they are the legacy of his Godfather which he will receive if he manages to avoid been arrested, something of a previous habit of Biffen's, until after his thirtieth birthday one week hence. Lord Tilbury, proprietor of the Mammoth publish company, whom we met previously in `Bill the Conqueror', `Summer Lightning' and `Heavy Weather', is keen that Biffen does fall foul of the law as he will then receive the legacy himself. Tilbury has therefore engaged his usual henchman, Percy Pilbeam, to ensure that Biffen is lead astray and that it is brought to the attention of the constabulary. Only Wodehouse can scare up a happy ending where everyone gets exactly what is coming to them.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *
£12.34
Everyman Mike at Wrykyn
Book SynopsisThis charming story of the Jackson cricketing dynasty describes the adventures of Mike Jackson at boarding school as he makes his way up the sporting ladder to the first eleven. The young P. G. Wodehouse evokes the peaceful, prosperous world of middle-class England before the Great War, a place where rich men hire private cricket professionals to coach their sons at home, and little seems to matter at school except the publishing of team lists and the taking of tea. But such is the novelist's skill that he can make excitement from the small-scale dramas of teenage life, and interest even the most unsporting reader in the cricket matches he describes so lovingly. A curiosity for those who know only the Wodehouse of Blandings and Piccadilly, but a delightful one.
£12.34
Everyman Tales of St Austin's
Book SynopsisSt Austin's school (as featured in The Pothunters) is the setting for twelve delightful early Wodehouse stories. The familiar ingredients - and some of the same characters - are present: cricket and rugby loom large, school colours are gained, tricks are played, exams avoided, revenge wreaked upon enemies, and the honour of School and House upheld. A nostalgic look at English public-school life at the turn of the twentieth century, made enjoyable today by the young Wodehouse's gentle humour and witty turn of phrase.
£11.69
Everyman Over Seventy
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1956, this collection of articles covers Wodehouse's feelings on United States, his adopted homeland all collected into one edition. Features a collection of articles originally from Punch magazine as well as America, I Like You, all with Wodehouse's usual wit and personality.
£11.40
Everyman Four Novels
Book SynopsisReaders everywhere were introduced to the work of Irène Némirovsky through the publication of her long-lost masterpiece, Suite Française. But Suite Française was only a coda to the brief yet remarkably prolific career of this nearly forgotten, yet hugely talented novelist, who fled Russia for Paris after the Revolution and died at Auschwitz at the age of 39. Here in one volume are four of Némirovsky's other novels - all of them newly translated by the award-winning Sandra Smith, and all, except David Golder, available in English for the first time. David Golder is the book that established Némirovsky's reputation in France in 1929 when she was twenty-six. It is a novel about greed and loneliness, the story of an ageing Russian Jewish businessman,an exile in France, learning to confront death and the knowledge that wealth has not brought him happiness. The Ball is both a sensitive exploration of adolescenceand a mercilessexposure of bourgeois social pretension. Snow in Autumn is an evocative tale of White Russian emigrés in Paris, while in The Courilof Affair a retired Russian revolutionary recalls an infamous assassinationcommitted in his youth. Introduced by novelist Claire Messud.Trade ReviewThe work of a genuine artist -- Julian BarnesNemirovsky has a great gift for describing the ordinariness that surrounds catastrophes... it is this ability to conjure up people, in all their moods and foibles, their selflessness or vanity, that makes Suite Francaise so remarkable * Literary Review *
£11.69
Everyman Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade, Eleven
Book SynopsisRichard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation. Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers or the heartbreak of a single mother with artistic pretensions, Yates ruthlessly examines the hopes and disappointments of ordinary people with empathy and humour.Trade ReviewRevolutionary Road: The literary discovery of the year... It's as brilliantly nuanced as Updike's Rabbit sequence, and as sad as anything by Fitzgerald -- Nick Hornby * Guardian Books of the Year *Yates is a master * Sebastian Faulks *
£15.29
Everyman O Pioneers!
Book SynopsisAt the turn of the twentieth century. When their father dies young, exhausted by the failure of his attempts at agriculture, it is left to the visionary Alexandra to guide the family to prosperity and safeguard the fortune of her brothers. Strong-willed and fiercely independent, she succeeds against all odds, but only at the cost of her own fulfilment as a woman. Central to the novel's action is the Nebraskan landscape it describes, by turns unyielding and fruitful, bitter and ecstatic.O Pioneers! joins Cather's My Antonia in Everyman's Library.
£10.44
Everyman Stories of Southern Italy
Book SynopsisWoven through all these tales are the unique histories and mythologies of the regions of Southern Italy, encompassing Sicily, Calabria, Cantania, Basilicata, Apulia and Campania. Theocritus, Virgil and Ovid evoke a Sicily populated by Cyclopes and sea monsters, while in an excerpt from The Smile of the Unknown Mariner Vincenzo Consolo depicts the island in 1860, on the frontline in Italy's war of independence. The South's legendary legacy of brigandage and organized crime enlivens the stories of Leonardo Sciascia, Carlo Levi and Joseph Conrad. Curzio Malaparte and Norman Lewis immortalize the wreckage of Naples and the indomitable spirit of its people during World War II, and Elena Ferrante paints a spectacular portrait of a poor but vibrant Neapolitan neighbourhood in an excerpt from the bestselling My Brilliant Friend. Collectively, these entertaining tales plunge readers into the sometimes harsh and troubled, but always seductive and vital world of Italy's Mezzogiorno
£11.69
Poolbeg Press Ltd Designer Genes
Book Synopsis
£8.98
Poolbeg Press Ltd The Pink Ladies Club
Book Synopsis
£8.98
Little, Brown Book Group Ice Road
Book SynopsisIrina Davydovna is a cleaner. She has no time for politics or even for that matter, people: 'rules and rulers may come and go, but dirt never changes.' Boris Aleksandrovich is a revolutionary. He thinks he understands power. But this is Leningrad in 1933 and Stalin is about to turn against their city. When the life of his beloved daughter Natasha is threatened and his old friend Anton saves a skinny little orphan he finds on a Moscow train, Boris' faith in his ideals are put to the test. While Irina, watching it all, must learn the power of loyalty and love.'Powerful and moving, Ice Road is a novel whose epic scope never obscures the individual lives that are lived in the shadow of great events. I shall never forget Natasha and Kolya's love story . . . or Irina, whose sturdy self respect and determination to survive, seems, at times, to speak for an entire people. Gillian Slovo excels in depicting complex human beings, full of passion, love, ambition, self-interest, who are caught up in their country's history and swept along by it.' Pat BarkerTrade ReviewI grew to love Slovo's powerful narrator, the redoubtable cleaning lady Irina Davydovna . . . Slovo has produced a novel which is demanding, brave and bold . . . Many writers have used the brutal effects of the Seige of Leningrad to explore courage, betrayal and survival, but Slovo adds something important.'- Charlie Lee-Potter, Observer * ‘This is a novel that explores the motivation and consequences of political events on ordinary lives . . . Ice Road brilliantly depicts, from the emotional inside, the most politically disastrous assassination in Russian history, the murder of Kirov . . . *#NAME? * 'This is a beautifully composed, expertly structured and wonderfully evocative masterpiece - Gillian Slovo's greatest achievement to date’ *Daily Mail * 'Slovo describes the death of an ideal with a passion that makes her book moving and memorable’ *Sunday Telegraph * 'Rings absolutely true… a moving and perceptive epic of utopia in darkness’ *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Life Mask
Book SynopsisA love story. A gamble. A battle. Let the games begin.It's an era of looming war, and the erosion of freedom in the name of national security. A time of high art and big business, trashy spectacles and financial disasters. Celebrities are hounded by journalists, who serve up private passions alongside public crises. Marriages stretch or break, and so do friendships; political liaisons prove as dangerous as erotic ones. In Parliament, on stage, in the bedroom, at the race track, round the dinner table, old loyalties are wrenched by the winds of change. The World - as elite calls itself - is fighting to survive these chaotic times.Trade ReviewShe. . . makes interesting parallels between the political concerns of the 1790s and those of today * Guardian *A born writer * New York Times Book Review *. . . another bright, bruising slice of eighteenth-century life in London . . . Why should Michel Faber hog the glory? * Elle *Donoghue's latest book pulsates with the vibrancy of London in an era that couldn't be more extravagant. While Mad King George was teetering on the throne, the grotesquely privileged carried on a gaudy social whirl * Time Out *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group My Antonia
Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. S. BYATT'She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers' OBSERVER' . . . a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants' XAN BROOKS, GUARDIAN 'Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent' ROBERT SLAYTON, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS'During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood . . . His mind was full of her that day. He made me see her again, feel her presence, revived all my old affection for her'My Antonia is the unforgettable story of an immigrant woman's life on the Nebraska plains, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend, Jim Burden. The beautiful, free-spirited, wild-eyed girl captured Jim's imagination long ago and haunts him still, embodying for him the elemental spirit of the American frontier.In this powerful and astonishing novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction.Trade ReviewShe is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers * Observer *In fact it's one of the warmest, most quietly rousing books that I know; a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants who came across the ocean to start afresh in the golden west -- Xan Brooks * Guardian *Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent -- Robert Slayton * Los Angeles Review of Books *Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragicHer voice, laconical and richly sensuous, sings out with a note of unequivocal love for the people she is setting down on the page
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Breakfast with the Nikolides: A Virago Modern
Book SynopsisBy the author of Black Narcissus and The River'One of our best and most captivating novelists' PHILIP HENSHER'She has distilled in simple, luminous prose the experiences of expatriate India, of childhood and its innocence' LUCY HUGHES-HALLET, SUNDAY TIMES '[Godden has] a genius for storytelling' EVENING STANDARD For Emily Pool, India is a magical place where she has the freedom to escape her mother's suffocating influence. Her days are spent exploring the canals and gardens of East Bengal, and admiringly observing her glamorous, dignified neighbours, the Nikolides. But just as the cracks in Emily's family home are papered over, the Pools strive to maintain an outward impression of respectability, and it is through the Nikolides that Emily is exposed to a world of adult deceit and attrition. And when her beloved dog dies, the event forces a confrontation and reveals to Emily that nothing in the town is quite as it seems . . .Trade ReviewShe has distilled in simple, luminous prose the experiences of expatriate India, of childhood and its innocence -- Lucy Hughes-Hallet * Sunday Times *[Godden's] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal -- Rosie Thomas * Guardian *[Godden has] a genius for storytelling * Evening Standard *All [Godden's novels] have one important thing in common: They are beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity * Los Angeles Times *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The River: A Virago Modern Classic
Book SynopsisBy the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita'The River will make you laugh, make you cry and, in its way, change you forever' JULIE MYERSON'Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' NEW YORK TIMES'Bold, beautiful . . . everyone's appetites will be satisfied' ELLEThe River is Rumer Godden's beautiful tribute to India and childhood, made into a film by Jean Renoir. And in a preface for this novel she explains how the classic tale came to be written.Harriet is caught between two worlds: her older sister is no longer a playmate, her brother is still a little boy. And the comforting rhythm of her Indian childhood - the sounds of the jute factory, the colourful festivals that accompany each season and the eternal ebb and flow of the river on its journey to the Bay of Bengal - is about to be shattered by a tragic event.Intense, vivid, and with a dark undertow, The River is a poignant portrait of the loss of a young girl's innocence.Available with Virago Modern Classics. Trade Review[Godden's] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal -- Rosie Thomas * Guardian *Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty * New York Times *The River will make you laugh, make you cry and, in its way, change you forever -- Julie MyersonBold, beautiful . . . everyone's appetites will be satisfied * Elle *A small masterpiece, a near perfect account of how childhood has to come to an end and the serpent must enter the garden . . . In The River she celebrates a passion for the people, colours, sounds and even the smells of India . . . She evokes, in simple, flawless prose, a young girl's first encounters with jealousy, sex, guilt and death -- Anne Chisholm * Spectator *The grace, the fragility, associated with Rumer Godden, again most evident in this new book * Kirkus Reviews *So intense, so quietly demanding of attention, that at the time there will be nothing in your thoughts but a small girl in India, and the people and places that were her world * Saturday Review *Compassionate wisdom and serene understanding . . . with each book she writes Miss Godden's position as one of the finest of English novelists becomes more secure -- Orville Prescott
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Engagements
Book Synopsis1947: Mary Frances Gerety, a young copywriter in an eminent advertising agency, has to convince the world of two things - that marriage means a diamond ring on every woman's finger, and that she is as good at her job as any man. And then, in one moment of brilliant inspiration, Mary Frances writes down four words which will achieve both her aims . . .Moving from a Harvard swim-meet in 1927 to the three-martini lunches of 1940s advertising, from the back streets of 1980s Boston to an exquisite Parisian music shop in 2003, The Engagements is a novel about love, marriage, commitment and betrayal; it is as sharp, as fiery and as beautiful as the stone we have taken to represent our dreams.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Once Upon a Time in . . . Donnybrook
Book SynopsisTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERIreland, Ireland - no longer standing Dáil ...Leinster House had been burned to the ground. All that was left was a smouldering ruin and the blackened remains of an Irish flag.The old man was trying to pin the blame on Brussels, but I knew the actual truth? Unfortunately, Sorcha was too angry with me for having sex with our daughter's Irish teacher to listen.But I had, like, other irons in the - pordon the pun - fire. I'd just become Head Coach of the Ireland rugby team - albeit, women.The country might well have been focked. But very soon, we had everyone believing in fairy tales again.And it all happened once upon a time in . . . Donnybrook_______'Ross is a national institution' Irish Times'In a league of his own' Business PostTrade ReviewRoss is a national institution * Irish Times *One of the funniest writers in the land * Irish Examiner *Ireland's finest comic creation since Father Ted * Hot Press *In a league of his own * Business Post *
£9.49
Gwasg Carreg Gwalch Coblyn o Sioe
Book SynopsisSuperintendent Daf Dafis''s daughter is competing with her pony Tanyfoel Tinci Winci at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells... and someone has to sleep with Tinci on site. As the body parts of famous horse breeder Joc Jehu are found around the show field, Daf has to make enquiries into the complex history of his family...
£11.57
Penguin Books Ltd Guestbook: Ghost Stories
Book Synopsis'Shapton has created a mystical territory - a performance, an exhibition, a guestbook - in which I felt the ghost within myself; the thing that will outlive me. A fearless and exquisite book' Miranda JulyGuestbook explores the glimmering, unsettling things that haunt us in the midst of life, combining stories, vignettes and an evocative curiosity cabinet of artifacts and images - found photographs, original paintings, Instagram-style portraits - to transform the traditional ghost story into something else entirely.'Leanne Shapton has a way of making books entirely new, surreal, and uncanny ... Guestbook contains ghost stories for a world of images and captions, in which the ghosts are all of us, and our strange time' Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?Trade Review'Ghost' is a good word for all the nameless longing that doesn't get resolved in this lifetime. Shapton has created a mystical territory - a performance, an exhibition, a guestbook - in which I felt the ghost within myself; the thing that will outlive me. A fearless and exquisite book. -- Miranda JulyLeanne Shapton has a way of making books entirely new, surreal, and uncanny, always experimenting with the ways image and text can be mixed to tell new stories, in new ways. Guestbook is a delicious haunting and leaves one with a chill of recognition for how we live as ghosts in this distant, distracted, and image-obsessed time. -- Sheila HetiIt looks like a book, about the strangeness and sadness of love, but is really a house, and the house is haunted, and is still haunting me. -- John Jeremiah Sullivan, writer for the New York Times and editor for Harper's Magazine and the Paris ReviewGuestbook discretely ushers us into the realms of the profound and the other worldly via the profane, the staged and the everyday. A rare and thrilling synthesis of literary sensibility and the artist's eye. The kind of picture book every grown up dreams of reading. -- Adam O'Riordan, author of 'In the Flesh' and 'The Burning Ground'Through her experimental prose, Leanne Shapton has created a unique meditation on spectrality. Both a selection of mystical ghost stories and a tracing of ephemera and archival imagery, Guestbook identifies the uncanny nature of everyday life. Shapton glides seamlessly through each of the many vignettes that make up this haunting work which is part poem, part novel, part artwork, and everything in between. -- Hans Ulrich ObristIn this astounding book, full of exquisitely disquieting narrative gestures and found ghosts, Leanne Shapton proves herself a master scrap-booker of the unconscious, a brilliant bricolage comic, and a fierce and subtle artistic provocateur. Enter these worlds at your peril, and to your guaranteed delight. -- Sam Lipsyte, author of 'Hark' and 'The Ask'Hard to describe and impossible to forget, Guestbook is genuinely haunting and wholly original: a book to be experienced more than read. -- Lottie Moggach, author of 'Kiss Me First'Shapton inventively explores the space between presence and absence, craftily blending images and text to articulate what cannot be explained, only sensed, making for a uniquely haunting and uncanny work. * Publishers Weekly *In this perfectly uncanny collection of stories, Leanne Shapton explores the many things that follow and haunt us as we go about our lives, unsettling us in sometimes terrifying and sometimes exhilarating ways. Shapton's words are interwoven with images of art and artifacts, adding to the surreal aura of each of the stories, reminding us of the always pulsing energy that imbues nearly everything around us, always, whether we feel it right away or not. * Nylon, '50 Books You’ll Want To Read In 2019' *It's fascinating to see what happens when we try to tell stories we don't quite have words for. That's why Leanne Shapton's Guestbook-comprised of vignettes, photographs, and original paintings-is the perfect medium (get it?) for these ghost stories. * LitHub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2019' *Guestbook reveals Shapton as a ventriloquist, a diviner, a medium, a force, a witness, a goof, and above all, a gift. One of the smartest, most moving, most unexpected books I have read in a very long time. -- Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric DisturbancesLeanne Shapton's "Guestbook" lifts the veil on what is unknowable, but deeply felt in periphery. Buy this book! -- Richard McGuire, graphic novelist and illustrator for the New York Times and the New YorkerA book like no other: Shapton can lift up the most everyday things - family photographs, ordinary rooms, vintage dresses, Christmas wrapping-paper - and give the reader a glimpse of the teeming ghostworld beneath. -- Joanne LimburgI can't wait to see how form and function unite here. * TOR.com, 'The Books We're Looking Forward to in 2019' *Guestbook is a profoundly sympathetic work, and one filled with yearning. That yearning, like a ghost, lingers long after the stories are done. -- NPR * Lily Meyer *The short story is an arena - or a literary gym - where writers can flex muscles that might seem out of place in a novel. Leanne Shapton has tremendous form in both genres, in fact, but her collection Guestbook pushes the envelope in the most beguiling, clever and provocative ways. Full of images, photos, wrapping paper, competing texts, and meta-meta-fictional fun and games, it's a mind-bending celebration of the form's potential. -- William Boyd * New Statesman Books of the Year *Sharp prose and visual artwork combine in these seductive modern ghost stories...this book is an artefact in itself - a tactile, mysterious and seductive one. Read it once and you'll be very likely to find yourself eyeing it every now and again, wondering whether it's exactly where you left it, and whether you could possibly have turned down the corner of this page or that -- Hephzibah Anderson * Guardian *Guestbook is a catalogue of what haunts us and, more often than not, as with Important Artifacts, it is the little things. -- Times Literary Supplement
£18.70
Cornerstone Without Fail: (Jack Reacher 6)
Book SynopsisJack Reacher walks alone.No job, no ID, no last known address. But he never turns down a plea for help. Now a woman tracks him down. A woman serving at the very heart of US power. A woman who needs Reacher's assistance in her new job.Her job?Protecting the Vice-President of the United States.Her problem? Someone wants the VP dead.
£19.82
Alma Books Ltd Death of a Superhero
Book SynopsisNow a motion picture starring Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster Donald Delpe is a troubled teenager. Not only is he a ‘terrible teen’ by default, as obsessed with sex, music, videogames and drugs as the rest of his gang, but he is also suffering from a life-threatening form of leukaemia, which makes him an even more difficult boy, both for his parents and his teachers. Escaping into his own comic-book realm of immortal superheroes, ruthless villains and sex-crazed vamps, he repeatedly dashes his family’s hopes by refusing to fight the battles facing him in the real world. As famous psychologist Dr King is brought in to help, a glimmer of hope is rekindled. But will the doctor break the rules, betray the parents’ trust and risk everything to help Donald achieve his greatest wish? Or will Donald be the one to save the doctor? Inspired by real events, Death of a Superhero is a brilliantly original fusion of novel, comic book and film script; a celebration of the transience of life, the eternal difficulty of love and a hilarious riff on our 21st-century infatuation with movies and the superhero solution.Trade ReviewOne of New Zealand’s most exciting literary exports * International Herald Tribune *McCarten burns a literary firework. Sentences, paragraphs, pages are ablaze with wonderful word creations. McCarten, with Death of a Superhero, has modelled a novel which belongs on the literary catwalk. He is super-sad, super-cool, super-witty – and deserves to be celebrated. * Bild *
£7.59
O'Brien Press Ltd The Mammy
Book SynopsisBook 1: The Agnes Browne Trilogy THE MAMMY describes the joys and sorrows of Agnes, mother of the famous Mrs. Browne's Boys from the daily radio soap. A book of hilarious incidents, glorious characters, and a passion for life.
£9.49
O'Brien Press Ltd The Granny
Book SynopsisThe final book in the Agnes Browne trilogy. At forty-seven years of age Agnes, now thirteen years happily widowed, enters the 1980s with a fruit stall in Moore Street, a French lover and six children, five of them in their twenties. Becoming a grandmother is a terrible shock to her system, especially as Agnes suffers every one of her daughter-in-law's labour pains! And as the family expands so do the problems -one son's inevitable brush with the law, the heartbreak of emigration. But Agnes Browne is nothing if not a fighter, and she squares her shoulders, offers up a quick one to her departed pal, Marion, and sets about getting things back on an even keel - or as even as things ever get in the Brown household! The same quick-fire dialogue, hilarious humour and great characterisation as in Brendan's bestselling The Mammy, filmed as Agnes Browne by Angelica Huston, and the BAFTA-winning TV series Mrs Brown’s Boys.Trade Review'a truly great read. Highly recommend' -- whatsgoodtodo.com
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Lullabies for Little Criminals
Book Synopsis'Like Angela Carter, she is relentlessly inventive' Sunday Times'Full of pathos, spirit and iridescent innocence' Independent on SundayThe first novel by the author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel12-year-old Baby is used to turmoil in her life. Her mother is long dead, her father is a junkie and they shuttle between rotting apartments and decrepit downtown hotels. As her father's addiction and paranoia grow worse, she begins a journey that will lead her through chaos and hardship; but Baby's remarkable strength of spirit enables her to survive. Smart, funny and determined to lift herself off the city's dirty streets, she knows that the only person she can truly rely upon is herself.Trade ReviewTold with shafts of wit and a lightness of touch which few novels on such themes achieve. Baby, like Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye, is totally believable. Although few people suffer a childhood like hers, everyone can identify with her feelings, on the threshold of adolescence longing for stability and recognition * Times Literary Supplement *From feisty little Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird to Sissy Spacek's blank-eyed Holly in the film Badlands, Heather O'Neill draws on the annals of knowing child narrators to shape Baby's shabby, scrappy scrabble from broken home to detention centre to pimp's lap and back again. Scabrous humour and brutal insight fairly jolt each episode into life * Observer *Vivid and poignant . . . O'Neill's novel builds to a riveting climax . . . deeply moving * Independent *O'Neill bombards the reader with piercing observations and magical imagery . . . Her story is bleak, yet not bitter; full of pathos, spirit and, overwhelmingly, an iridescent innocence * Independent on Sunday *O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Baby's precocious introspection feels pitch perfect. Tear-jerkingly effective * Publishers Weekly *Dreamy prose . . . Baby's unique voice and the glimmer of hope provided by her intelligence and imaginative spirit live on in the mind long after you have closed the book * Waterstones Book Quarterly *Heather O'Neill's style is laced with so much sublime possibility and merciless actuality that it makes me think of comets and live wires * Helen Oyeyemi *...dreamy prose...Baby's unique voice and the glimmer of hope provided by her intelligence and imaginative spirit live on in the mind long after you have closed the book - Waterstones Books Quarterly * Waterstone's Books Quarterly *...vivid and poignant...a deeply moving and troubling novel - Independent * Independent *From feisty little Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird to Sissy Spacek's blank-eyed Holly in the film Badlands, Heather O'Neill draws on the annals of knowing child narrators to shape Baby's shabby, scrappy scrabble from broken home to detention centre to pimp's lap and back again. Scabrous humour and brutal insight fairly jolt each episode into life - The Observer * Observer *O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend... Baby's precocious introspection feels pitch perfect... Tear-jerkingly effective - Publishers' Weekly * Publisher's weekly *A remarkable novel that could turn out to be huge... the very rich descriptions of a tumultuous young life and emotional reaction to each new situation add up to a cracking good read - Publishing News * Publishing News *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing An Atlas of Impossible Longing
Book SynopsisBeginning in 1907 with the founding of a factory in Songarh, a small provincial town where narrow attitudes prevail, the story is of three generations of an Indian family, brilliantly told, in which a sensitive and intelligent foundling boy orphan who is casteless and without religion and Bakul, the motherless granddaughter of the house, grow up together. The boy, Mukunda, spends his time as a servant in the house or reading the books of Mrs Barnum, an Anglo-Englishwoman whose life was saved long ago by Bakul's grandmother, by now demented by loneliness. Mrs Barnum gives Mukunda the run of her house, but as he and Bakul grow, they become aware that their intense closeness is becoming something else, and Bakul's father is warned to separate them. He banishes Mukunda to a school in Calcutta. The many strands of this intensely fashioned narrative converge when Mukunda, by now a successful businessman, returns to Songarh years after he has been exiled from the only home he knew, to resolve the family's destiny.Trade Review'A lyrical love letter to India's past - an India of innocent child brides and jasmine-scented summer evenings. Poetic and evocative. Roy's writing is a joy' Financial Times. * Financial Times *'A story to lose yourself in ... Anuradha Roy is a wonderful writer ... this tale of three generations of an Indian family, set over the span of the 20th century, is brilliantly told' Sunday Express. * Sunday Express *'Written with a soaring yet impeccably balanced lyricism, Roy's prose does not hit a single wrong note: its restrained beauty sings off the page. Above all, the book has an elusive quality, so absent from the contemporary novel, a quality that can only be described as grace' Time magazine. * Time magazine *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Late Nights on Air: A Novel
Book SynopsisHarry Boyd, a hard-bitten refugee from failure in Toronto television, has returned to a small radio station in Yellowknife, Northern Canada. There, in the summer of 1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real woman, Dido Paris, is both a surprise and even more than he imagined. Dido and Harry are part of the cast of eccentric characters who form an unlikely group at the station. Their loves and longings, their rivalries and entanglements, the stories of their pasts and what brought each of them to the North, form the centre. One summer, on a canoe trip four of them make into the Arctic wilderness, they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, threatening to displace Native people from their land. Hay brings to bear her skewering intelligence into the frailties of the human heart and her ability to tell a spellbinding story written in gorgeous prose and laced with dark humour.Trade ReviewA superb portrait of unremarkable lives, and a beautiful prose poem to vast open spaces' Joanna Kavenna, Spectator. * Spectator *The kind of emotional intelligence that marks all great literature' Lesley McDowell, Scotsman. * Scotsman *Funny, beautifully written and altogether wonderful - The Times. * The Times *Hay exposes the beauty simmering in the heart of harsh settings with an evocative grace that brings to mind Annie Proulx - Washington Post. * Washington Post *This novel has it all - tales of lust and lngings and hidden pasts, combined with utterly loveable characters..Hay's intelligent style makes this a summer must-read - Woman. * Woman *
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Sacred Bones: The page-turning thriller for
Book SynopsisAt the crossroads of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, a priceless artifact is stolen from a vault hidden beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount. With high stakes on sacred ground, time is running out . . . The violent theft leaves thirteen Israeli soldiers and policemen dead, the Palestinians up in arms over the desecration of sacred grounds, and the tension between the two groups dangerously high. Jerusalem is a stick of dynamite and the fuse has been lit . . .Meanwhile, in Vatican city, American scientist Charlotte Hennesey and Italian anthropologist Giovanni Bersei have been secretly summoned to analyse a mysterious artefact: the bones of a two-thousand-year-old unidentified, crucified man. Charlotte starts to wonder – could these be the bones of Jesus Christ?With the malevolent eye of Vatican security expert Salvatore Conte watching her every move, Charlotte must work against the clock. She knows that if the mortal remains of Christ are indeed in the burial box, there is a question to face: will the Vatican allow this information – and Charlotte – to see the light of day . . . Fast-paced and intelligent, blending historical fact with persuasive fiction, The Sacred Bones is an addictively compelling thriller, perfect for fans of Dan Brown. Following a conspiracy stretching back to the days of the Templar Knights to the shifting alliances of contemporary Middle Eastern politics, The Sacred Bones calls into question many of modern religion's most deeply-held beliefs.
£9.49
Canongate Books The Crossroads
Book SynopsisCristiano is thirteen. Home life is far from perfect. When his father and two friends come up with a plan to rob a bank, Cristiano sees the chance of a better life. As a tremendous storm brews that night, Cristiano will have to put childhood behind him once and for all, and the perfect crime will have shocking consequences.Trade ReviewAmmaniti has cranked up the volume for his blistering new novel. * * Independent * *Every scene contains a twist. * * Guardian * *Brutal but effective. * * The Times * *Energy and danger spray off it like water from a choppy sea . . . Very hard to put down. * * Daily Mail * *One of Italy's brightest literary stars . . . Combines tense horror with the blackest comedy. * * Observer * *Ammaniti fills his scenes with such rich detail, humour and surprise that it is impossible not to be drawn in . . . A forceful portrait of contemporary Italy, providing a long overdue counterbalance to the romantic, tourism-drive portraits of the country. And yet, for all the harshness of his world, warmth bubbles up between the cracks. * * Financial Times * *Offers an artful interstiching of plots and cinematic, horror-dazed images, and Jonathan Hunt's translation is exemplary. * * Observer * *Undeniably gripping . . . Indeed, this is in a surprising way a love story. * * Scotsman * *A compulsively readable tragedy with a bleakly comic underbelly, as if the Kray twins' gang had been infiltrated by a couple of Marx brothers. * * Sunday Herald * *The Crossroads is a rollicking dark horror-comic, a gruelling piece of fun. * * Independent * *
£10.44
New Island Books The Stories That Remain
Book SynopsisPart of the Open Door series of short books for emerging readers. Mr Bolton and his faithful dog, George, are just popping down to the shops. He forgot his keys, but Mrs Bolton will be there to let them in like always. But on the way back, George notices something wrong - they turned right when they should have turned left, bringing them farther from home. To make things worse, it's beginning to look like rain. The old friends set off on a journey across Dublin and through their memories, which seem to be disappearing one by one...
£999.99
New Island Books The Therapy House
Book SynopsisGarda Inspector Michael McLoughlin is trying to enjoy his retirement – doing a bit of PI work on the side, meeting up with former colleagues, fixing up a grand old house in a genteel Dublin suburb near the sea. Then he discovers the body of his neighbour, a retired judge – brutally murdered, shot through the back of the neck, his face mutilated beyond recognition. McLoughlin finds himself drawn into the murky past of the murdered judge, which leads him back to his own father’s killing, decades earlier, by the IRA. In seeking the truth behind both crimes, a web of deceit, blackmail and fragile reputations comes to light, as McLoughlin’s investigation reveals the explosive circumstances linking both crimes – and dark secrets are discovered which would destroy the judge’s legendary family name.
£9.89
New Island Books The New Frontier: Reflections From the Irish
Book SynopsisThe New Frontier is a landmark publication of writing from the Irish Border, composed of non-fiction, fiction and poetry – it is a chorus of voices from some of the island’s greatest writers, that conveys in its multiplicity the true meaning of our border. At a time when the division of our shared island has once again become an international concern, the Border now a threshold between Europe and the United Kingdom, The New Frontier seeks to explore the meaning of this partition in the 21st century for those people that inhabit that divide. This collection of writing ultimately poses the question: What does it mean to be Irish, Northern Irish, or British in the modern age, and what does it mean to live on a threshold between a kingdom and a republic? The New Frontier will undoubtedly become a key cultural and literary touchstone. This anthology considers the border, and our historical divisions, through literature, by inviting writers from border areas to respond imaginatively and instinctively. By writing the land, writing the body, writing the lived experiences of this complex and misunderstood part of Ireland, The New Frontier looks to reclaim the border region from decades of misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Featuring writing from: Conor O’Callaghan, Darran Anderson, Garrett Carr, Luke Cassidy, Nidhi Zak, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Michael Hughes, Séamas O’Reilly, Pat McCabe, Lias Saoudi, Maureen Boyle, Emily Cooper, Dean Fee, Jill Crawford, Annemarie ní Chuirrean, Peter Hollywood, John Kelly, Michelle Gallen, Marcel Krueger, Eoghan Walls, Orla McAlinden, Bronagh McAtasney, Mícheál McCann, Jess McKinney and Maria McManus
£16.99
New Island Books A Second Life
Book SynopsisFollowing a car crash, for several seconds Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead but finds his progress towards the afterworld blocked by a haunting face he only partially recognises. Restored to a miraculous second chance at life – he feels profoundly changed. He is haunted by not knowing who he truly is because this is not the first time he has been given a second life. At six weeks old he was taken from his birth mother, a young girl forced to give him up for adoption. Now he knows that until he unlocks the truth about his origins, he will be a stranger to his wife, to his children and to himself. Struggling against a wall of official silence and a complex sense of guilt, Sean determines to find his birth mother, embarking on an absorbing journey into archives, memories, dreams and startling confessions. The first modern novel to address the scandal of Irish Magdalene laundries when it was published in 1994, A Second Life continued to haunt Bolger’s imagination. He has never allowed its republication until he felt ready to retell the story in a new and even more compelling way. This reimagined text is therefore neither an old novel nor a new one, but a completely ‘renewed’ novel, that grows towards a spelling-binding, profoundly moving conclusion. Trade ReviewFor me it is Bolger's finest work ... remarkable in its sensitivity and tragic in its accuracy. -- Madeleine Keane * Sunday Independent *A marvellous, multi-faceted, fascinating read…Ireland itself (its landscape, its tensions and generational conflicts) is brilliantly realized. -- Tom Adair * Scotland on Sunday *Audacious and moving. Bolger’s brilliant conflation of detective story, ghost hunt and history lesson is compulsive. -- Alison Foster * The Times (London) *'...a devastating, brilliantly wrought novel from one of our finest.' -- Anne Cunningham * The Meath Chronicle *This beautiful novel shows Bolger at his best. The twisty, often surprising plot is driven by the characters, and as they are all empathic, and ring true, the reader is constantly rooting for them. There is a mysterious element to the novel too, which adds drama and colour. In all, this is a great achievement and a valuable addition to the canon. -- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *
£10.79
New Island Books A Little Unsteadily into Light: New
Book SynopsisNew fiction by: Suad Aldarra Caleb Azumah Nelson Jan Carson Elaine Feeney Oona Frawley Sinéad Gleeson Anna Jean Hughes Caleb Klaces Naomi Krüger Henrietta McKervey Paul McVeigh Mary Morrissy Nuala O'Connor Chris Wright To live with dementia is to develop extraordinary and various new ways of being – linguistically, cognitively and practically. The storyteller operates similarly, using words and ideas creatively to reveal a slightly different perspective of the world. In this anthology of fourteen new short stories, commissioned by Jan Carson and Jane Lugea, some of the best contemporary writers from Ireland and the UK powerfully and poignantly explore the depths and breadth of the real dementia experience, traversing age, ethnicity, class and gender, sex and consent. Each writer’s story is drawn from their own personal experience of dementia and told with outrageous and dark humour, empathy and startling insight. Here are heroes and villains, tricksters and saints, mothers, fathers, lovers, friends, characters whose past has overshadowed their present and characters who are making a huge impact on the world they currently find themselves in. They might have dementia, but dementia is only a small part of who they are. They will challenge, frustrate, inspire and humble you. Above all, these brilliant pieces of short fiction disrupt the perceived notions of what dementia is and, in their diversity, honesty and authenticity begin to normalise an illness that affects so many and break down the stigma endured by those living with it every day. Find out more about the AHRC-funded research project based at Queen's University Belfast, from which this anthology has emerged: www.blogs.qub.ac.uk/dementiafiction/ Trade ReviewRounded picture of dementia from those who know it well. -- John Walshe * Sunday Business Post *“…there is great variety in these nine fictions, not only in the character and degree of agency of the dementia sufferer, but in the degree to which the reader is challenged by the form.” -- David Butler * Books Ireland Magazine *
£13.49
John Murray Press The Chapel at the Edge of the World
Book SynopsisEmilio and Rosa are childhood sweethearts, engaged to be married. But it is 1942 and the war has taken Emilio far from Italy, to a tiny Orkney island where he is a POW. Rosa must wait for him to return and help her mother run the family hotel on the shores of Lake Como, in Italy.Feeling increasingly frustrated with his situation, Emilio is inspired by the idea of building a chapel on the barren island. The prisoners band together to create an extraordinary building out of little more than salvaged odds and ends and homemade paints. Whilst Emilio's chapel will remain long after the POW camp has been left to the sheep, will his love for Rosa survive the hardships of war and separation? For Rosa is no longer the girl that he left behind. She is being drawn further into the Italian resistance movement and closer to danger, as friendships and allegiances are ever complicated by the war.Human perseverance and resilience are at the heart of this strong debut and the small Italian chapel remains, as it does in reality on the island of Lamb's Holm, as a symbol of these qualities.Trade Review'If you only read one book this summer, though, make it The Chapel at the Edge of the World' * Sunday Herald *'Unusual, fluently written... [an] unshowy absorbing read' * Guardian *'McKenzie's book grows impressively and movingly into its author's distinct vision' * Daily Mail *'So much fascinating detail that the reader's attention never wanders for a moment.' * Morning Star *'A warm, humane and finely written debut' * The Times *A fine debut inspired by a wartime act of optimism . . . I can't imagine a finer tribute than this lovely book * The Independent on Sunday *'The two landscapes of Orkney and Italy are beautifully evoked by the author' * Greenock Telegraph *'A fine first novel' * East Riding News *'Human perseverance lies at the heart of this debut and the two landscapes or Orkney and Italy are beautifully evoked' * Cambridge Style *
£11.69
Hodder & Stoughton Kingdom: Book Two of the Saladin Trilogy
Book Synopsis1164. The young warrior Saladin joins a Saracen army headed for Egypt. He finds there a land of wonders - from the ancient pyramids and the towering lighthouse of Alexandria, to the caliph's luxurious palace - but also a land of unparalleled danger. In Egypt, no one can be trusted, not even his family. Saladin is surrounded by enemies and haunted by a secret that threatens to destroy him.Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Saladin's closest friend, the former crusader John of Tatewic, has been branded traitor. Spared execution on condition that he serves King Amalric, he soon finds himself embroiled in court intrigue. Dark forces within Jerusalem conspire to seize the throne. As John confronts them, his loyalty to Amalric, and to his old friend Saladin, is put to the test.Trade Review'Action, politics and drama are the hallmarks of this excellent series which gives a fascinating and balanced insight into one of the most turbulent periods in world history. The final showdown in the last of the trilogy should be one to savour' * Lancashire Evening Post *Praise for Jack Hight:'An ambitious book written on an ambitious scale . . . a fascinating picture of momentous events' * Daily Mail *'Fans of this genre will enjoy this excellent novel. Recommended' * Historical Novels Review *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing The Ingredients of Love
Book SynopsisThe day begins like any other Saturday for beautiful Parisian restaurateur Aurélie Bredin, until she wakes up to find her apartment empty - her boyfriend gone off with another woman. Heartbroken, Aurélie walks the streets of Paris in the rain, finally seeking refuge in a little bookshop in the Île Saint-Louis, where she's drawn to a novel titled The Smiles of Women by obscure English author Robert Miller. She buys it and takes it home, but when she begins to read she's astonished: The Smiles of Women can't possibly be about her restaurant, about her. Except, it is. Flattered and curious to know more, Aurélie attempts to get in touch with the reclusive Mr Miller, but it proves to be a daunting task. His French publishers seem determined to keep his identity secret, and while the Editor-in-Chief André Chabanais is happy to give Aurélie his time, he seems mysteriously unwilling to help her find her author. Is Robert Miller really so shy, or is there something that André isn't telling Aurélie?
£8.99
Quercus Publishing The Missing One
Book Synopsis'A gripping page-turner' Sunday Times 'Beautifully written and compelling' Sabine Durrant 'Satisfyingly creepy' Sunday MirrorThe loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena's art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcard each bearing an identical one-line message from a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena's hidden past?Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah's isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah's behaviour grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn . . .PRAISE FOR LUCY ATKINS'Wonderfully skilled' Sarah Perry'Sly, witty and gripping' Naomi Alderman'Wholly beguiling' Mick Herron'Highly intelligent' Sarah Vaughan'Beguiling, brilliantly creepy' Claire FullerTrade ReviewHorribly, horribly compulsive. Brilliant * Fiona Barton, author of The Widow *A gripping page-turner * The Sunday Times *Taut, tense, and beautifully written. I held my breath between chapters and didn't sleep until I reached the end * Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go *A complex, creepy and insidious novel * The Guardian on The Night Visitor *The rich characterisation makes for an alarmingly plausible riches-to-rags tale * Sunday Times on The Night Visitor *Elegant, clever, beautifully written. Lucy Atkins is, quite frankly, a genius * Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep *Thrillingly creepy and darkly funny, The Night Visitor set me racing through the chapters with its brilliant plotting and characters that crackle off the page. A cannot tear yourself away novel * Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat *Addictive . . . a pace so relentless that you'll want to inhale this novel in one uninterrupted sitting * Sunday Times on The Other Child *This atmospheric, propulsive novel creeps up on you like footsteps in the dead of night... a tingling layer of gothic suspense * Metro on The Night Visitor *One of the most vivid, memorable and menacing characters I've ever read...Dark, tense and menacing, I was quickly drawn into the story and couldn't put it down. Readers who enjoyed Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller will adore it * CL Taylor, author of The Lie *Wonderfully dark and intriguing. In Vivian, Atkins has created a fascinating and sinister character who will stay with you long after you've finished the book. Highly recommended * Linda Green, author of While My Eyes Were Closed *Such a sophisticated, layered read, I absolutely revelled in it. A wonderful, wonderful book. The plotting is superb but the real triumph is the characterisation. The moment I finished, I wanted to read it all over again * Clare Mackintosh on The Night Visitor *I absolutely loved this novel. The Other Child is seriously gripping, seriously scary and seriously brilliant * Clare Kendal, author of The Book of You *Atmospheric and packed with suspense, kept me on edge from start to finish * Woman & Home Magazine on The Other Child *Sinister, suspenseful and a great sense of place. It races along, as a family history is unpickedFabulously dark * Woman & Home on The Night Visitor *Sinister, utterly compulsive...will keep your pulse racing until its dramatic denouement * Red Magazine on The Night Visitor *Truly unnerving. Atkins perfectly captures the vulnerability that comes with moving overseas, away from friends and support networks, and uses it expertly in this compelling novel. Not just one-more-page gripping but perceptive and beautifully written * Lucie Whitehouse on The Other Child *An elegantly written page-turner which pulled me in from the start and held its grip until the final page * Renee Knight, author of Disclaimer *An absolute cracker...Fantastic! * Sunday Mirror on The Night Visitor *It's wonderfully creepy, in that clever way that is tied in with character, as much as plot and setting. And the beetle metaphor is just ingenious * Sabine Durrant, author of Lie With Me *The tension is immediate and unrelenting; the sense of unease palpable. Deceptive on every level, this is a gripping, Rendellesque read * Mick Herron, author of Spook Street *Enjoyably creepy * Sunday Express on The Night Visitor *Utterly gripping * Literary Review on The Night Visitor *The last book I read in one sitting like this was Louise Doughty's Apple Tree Yard. Like Louise, Lucy Atkins is brilliant at ramping up the tension so that there's not a chance of relief until the end * Polly Samson *Brilliantly believable...you will relish every page * The People on The Night Visitor *This is an enthralling, creepy and endlessly twisty story about secrets, lies and the destructive power of ambition. We galloped to the climax. Five stars * Heat on The Night Visitor *I read this book in one sitting. A tense psychological thriller which explores authenticity, fame, and lies and the depths you might sink to in order to protect your reputation. A page-turner that keeps you gripped from the very first page * Psychologies on The Night Visitor *It put me in mind of Misery, and Rebecca. Splendidly tense, creepy and enjoyable * Sarah Hilary, author of Quieter Than Killing *Characters so real you could reach out and touch them. Absorbing, exciting and full of rich detail - snap this one up! * Lucie Whitehouse, author of Keep You Close *Beautifully crafted, unsettling and utterly unputdownable, The Night Visitor explores what happens when we take someone else's story and make it our own * Nuala Ellwood, author of My Sister's Bones *Crackles with undercurrents of mistrust and menace. Tense, atmospheric and beautifully written, this unnerving tale of ambition and revenge held me captive until the last page. Brilliant * Amanda Jennings, author of In Her Wake *Clever, multilayered and morally murky. I read it with a delicious sense of dread * Tammy Cohen, author of When She Was Bad *Elegantly written with a rollercoaster of twists and turns, The Night Visitor has creepy echoes of Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal. I read it in two sittings * Elizabeth Heathcote, author of Undertow *The Night Visitor is an addictive and intricately plotted page-turner. I devoured it and I loved it * Hannah Beckermann, author and journalist *Thrilling...the sort of book you think about even when not reading, and stay up far later than you should to finish. Atkins is a master of suspense; she creates characters that you feel like you've met, and situations you never want to be in. Completely wonderful * Dr Suzannah Lipscomb, historian, author and TV presenter *It's clever, complex and compelling and grips right up to that completely unexpected twist. A chilling psychological thriller with beetles! * Fanny Blake on The Night Visitor *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing The Life Intended
Book SynopsisAfter her husband's sudden death over ten years ago, Kate Westhoven never expected to be lucky enough to find another love of her life. But now she's planning her second walk down the aisle to a perfectly nice man. So why isn't she more excited?At first, Kate blames her pre-wedding jitters on stress. But when she starts seeing Patrick, her late husband, in her dreams, she begins to wonder if she's really ready to move on. Is Patrick trying to tell her something about his death and is there a chance his nighttime visits could be more than just wishful thinking?Trade ReviewAn absorbing read...well-paced and warmhearted. - Kirkus ReviewsThe latest from Harmel...is an affecting tale about finding happiness amid grief and guilt. Some twists are telegraphed early in the novel, but that doesn't diminish the satisfying conclusion. - Booklist
£9.49
Quercus Publishing The Bickford Fuse
Book SynopsisCatch-22 meets The Brothers Karamazov in the last great satire of the Soviet EraThe Great Patriotic War is stumbling to a close, but a new darkness has fallen over Soviet Russia. And for a disparate, disconnected clutch of wanderers - many thousands of miles apart but linked by a common goal - four parallel journeys are just beginning.Gorych and his driver, rolling through water, sand and snow on an empty petrol tank; the occupant of a black airship, looking down benevolently as he floats above his Fatherland; young Andrey, who leaves his religious community in search of a new life; and Kharitonov, who trudges from the Sea of Japan to Leningrad, carrying a fuse that, when lit, could blow all and sundry to smithereens.Written in the final years of Communism, The Bickford Fuse is a satirical epic of the Soviet soul, exploring the origins and dead-ends of the Russian mentality from the end of World War Two to the Union's collapse. Blending allegory and fable with real events, and as deliriously absurd as anything Kurkov has written, it is both an elegy for lost years and a song of hope for a future not yet set in stone.Translated from the Russian by Boris DralyukTrade ReviewKurkov's style is spare and effective, drawing us with deceptive ease into a dense, complex world full of wonderful characters. -- Michael Palin.Kurkov is the real thing . . . Comparisons with Bulgakov's zany Moscow are not far-fetched. -- Kapka Kassabova * Guardian. *Some people see him as a latter-day Bulgakov; to others he's a Ukrainian Murakami. -- Phoebe Taplin * Guardian. *His bestselling novels are known for their surreal touches, but Andrey Kurkov, the Ukrainian novelist hailed as a post-Soviet Kafka, also has an uncanny ability to predict events in the real world around him. * Daily Telegraph. *Beguiling ... frequently funny ... completely its own thing. it may even be a little bit of a masterpiece -- Sam Leith * Financial Times *A kind of Ukrainian Kurt Vonnegut . . . If you want to read about the Soviet Union but can't face reading, say, Robert Service, and you have a penchant for the strange and surreal, you could do worse than reading Kurkov. -- Ian Samson * Spectator. *A sharp and funny examination of the Russian soul -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
£10.44
