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
RedDoor Press Eternal City
Book SynopsisFrom the BESTSELLING author of Dust Life can change in a split second, and so it does for twenty-eight-year-old photographer Finn Chambers. One careless decision at the Cimitero Acattolico in the eternal city of Rome, finds him falling head first onto Shelley's tomb, to his death. He awakes to a beautiful afterlife surrounded by long-dead poets, artists and thinkers, including Shelley, Keats, Gramsci, Sanchez and the delightful Lady Mary von Haas, and these luminaries test Finn's values and principles in a way they have never been tested before. Uncomfortable truths require honest assessment when the 21st century's lust for celebrity, drugs, and fifteen minutes of fame, is questioned by others from centuries past but his new life finds much in common with his previous life, with love, art, sex, music, humour and irreverence, all experienced on this different and fascinating plane. For Finn Chambers there is life after death - and it's a life worth living.
£9.49
Bluemoose Books Ltd Captain Jesus
Book SynopsisWhen three brothers find a dead magpie and peg it to the washing line, the resurrection re-enactment becomes a portent of tragedy to come, and a reminder of past guilt and trauma. In Captain Jesus we see a family struggle to cope as loss rips through their lives; through the teenage eyes of their mother, twenty years earlier, we glimpse the events that shape her response. The icons, influences and family histories that define faith connect the two narratives as the family gradually heals, thanks to the quietness of love and the natural world.
£9.49
Bluemoose Books Ltd I Am Not Your Eve
Book Synopsis'A polyphonic novel of Teha'amana, Tahitian muse and child-bride to Paul Gaugin, from her point of view conveyed through the myths and legends of the islands.'
£11.69
Lolli Editions Awake
Book SynopsisHarald Voetmann's eye-opening English debut, Awake, is the first book of his erudite and grotesque trilogy about humankind's inhuman will to conquer nature In a shuttered bedroom in ancient Italy, the sleepless Pliny the Elder lies in bed obsessively dictating new chapters of his Natural History to his slave Diocles. Wheezing, imperious, and prone to nosebleeds, Pliny doesn't believe in spending his evenings in repose. No - to be awake is to be alive. There's no time to waste if he is to classify every element of the natural world in a single work. By day, Pliny the Elder carries out his civic duties and gives the occasional disastrous public reading. But despite his astonishing ambition to catalogue everything from precious metals to the moon, Pliny the Elder still takes pleasure in the common rose. After rushing to an erupting Mount Vesuvius, Pliny perishes in the ash, and his nephew, Pliny the Younger, becomes custodian of his life's work. But where Pliny the Elder saw starlight, Pliny the Younger only sees fireflies. In masterfully honed prose, Voetmann brings the formidable Pliny the Elder (and his pompous nephew) to life. Awake is a comic delight about one of history's great minds and the not-so-great human body it was housed in.Trade Review"Awake is original, piercing, and richly exhilarating. Voetmann's text is a sharp reminder of how powerfully and succinctly well-chosen words can create a world, render experiences, and express thoughts - in short, transport us, to places and in ways we could not have imagined." - Claire Messud, Harper's; "This strange novella concerns Pliny the Elder and his drive to catalog all of nature. The fluid prose owes much to translator Ottosen. One thematic thread is the contrast between the intellectual effort to rein in nature's extraordinary variety and man's ugly, ignorant cruelty...An interesting work and a good introduction to this unusual writer." - Kirkus; "Vivid, earthy, by turns hilarious, gross, and tragic, but always powerfully engaging. Reading and rereading this book remains a rare pleasure." - Susanna Nied; "A slim novel of ideas, seemingly turning its back on the present, or rather illuminating from within a turn that leads to the very history of European mentality." - Svenska Dagbladet;"A flawless and sparkling little monument to human life." - Information; "Reading Voetmann's books makes me feel so alive. His voice is like no other, his hold on his material masterful. You will never read anything like Awake - a hardcore, pulsating portrait of a first century Roman weirdo. A wonderful and unpleasant treasure." - Olga Ravn; "No one else can describe ancient life with such beauty and humor, while never sparing you from the gross and terrifying pain of being human." - Naja Marie Aidt; "With a scholar's knowledge and a poet's playfulness, Harald Voetmann brings us into the mind and times of its protagonist, Pliny the Elder. Visceral and lyrical, entertaining and provoking, it evokes a dazzling world on the brink of destruction, resounding with our own conflicted age." - Sjon; 'This is an interesting book. The writing is beautiful. A fine translation by J.S. Ottosen.' - Patti Smith
£11.69
SPCK Publishing A Drink of Deadly Wine
Book SynopsisFather Gabriel Neville has everything going for him as vicar of St Anne’s, Kensington Gardens: intellectual prowess, physical beauty, a happy family life and the prospect of promotion to Archdeacon. But his perfect world is shattered when he receives an anonymous letter that has the power to destroy his career and marriage, by threatening to expose something that no one could possibly know. The only person Gabriel can turn to is David Middleton-Brown, an old friend and a man with a few secrets of his own. Against his better judgement, David comes to London, where his discreet enquiries bring to light a whole host of suspects. There’s the eccentric church organist, Miles Taylor; the gossip Mavis Conwell; the disapproving Dawson family; the Churchwarden, Cyril Fitzjames, who’s in love with Gabriel’s wife Emily; and the charming and talented artist Lucy Kingsley. In his efforts to help Gabriel uncover the blackmailer, David hauls numerous skeletons out of cupboards, and enters into a web of relationships that threaten to shatter his own peace of mind.Trade ReviewA stunning debut. The author . . . . brilliantly lures the reader down one track, then another, always managing to surprise. * Chicago Sun-Times *. . . the red herrings are neat, the mood is cosy . . . * The Tablet *A bloodstained version of the world of Barbara Pym . . . could make one late for Evensong. * The Guardian *
£10.44
SPCK Publishing The Light Keeper
Book Synopsis'The Light Keeper' is the debut novel by award-winning writer Cole Moreton. It is a story of faith and hope that follows themes of depression, love and loss, and redemption. Rich in prose throughout and written with sensitivity, Cole writes about difficult issues and themes with human warmth. Set in the South Coast of England, amongst the setting of Beachy Head and the South Downs National Park, 'The Light Keeper' contains compelling twists that keep the reader invested and guessing until the very end. Moreton explores the intimacy of relationships through husband and wife, Jack and Sarah. Sarah has run away from home to this wild, beautiful place to make a decision that is, for her, truly a matter of life and death. Pursued by Jack, he is desperate to find her on these hills before it is too late as the number of men and women going over the cliff edge has ominously increased of late. But does the secret lie with the Keeper who live alone in the old lighthouse, a few steps from the four-hundred-foot drop in this gorgeous, terrifying place? Cole Moreton's profound novel has endorsements from many respected authors from Matt Haig to Jane Fallon to Anthony Horrowitz.Trade ReviewThis potent debut by award-winning writer Moreton weaves a richly evocative story of heartache and secrets, set along the precarious coastline of the Sussex Downs. Pacy and packed with bittersweet lyricism, it's a multi-layered tale with a surprise ending. * The Mail on Sunday *Wonderfully written. This is a book that will stay with you. -- Anthony Horowitz, novelist and screenwriterCole writes with human warmth and bittersweet emotion. I loved this. -- Matt Haig, number one best-selling author of The Humans, Reasons To Stay Alive and Notes On A Nervous PlanetTremendous speed and pace. The ending took me completely by surprise. -- Jeffrey Archer, king of the plot twist and multi-million selling author of thrillers Kane and Abel, First Among Equals and many moreA beautifully haunting read. Evocative, spiritual and deeply immersive. -- The Revd Kate Bottley
£9.49
Lolli Editions Eunuch
Book SynopsisWang Wei has always chosen his words carefully. His unobtrusive presence has seen him through the reign of five emperors, but now, as his own time is running out, he immerses himself in an unbridled account of a life confined at court. From the early separation from his parents, sisters, and brother - who did not survive the operation into a eunuch - to the power struggles he has witnessed and endured, Wang Wei examines human relationships with precision and a catching sense of wonder. While rumours are weapons, it is love and its various forms of expression that most fascinate Wang Wei. Reaching into a secret and secluded world, Carlson's vivid prose is as delicate as it is enigmatic. A meditation on power and exclusion, love and loneliness, gender and identity, ageing and transformation, Eunuch is a compact masterpiece.Trade ReviewIn this work, Carlson explores loneliness, humanity, and the individual’s relationship with society. Its setting in a distant place and time creates a sense of defamiliarisation yet emphasises the timelessness of the ageing eunuch’s thoughts. Carlson’s clear, precise language is lyrical, often aphoristic, and the verbal snapshots are like Chinese poems or wood carvings; – Nordic Council Literature Prize Jury; Eunuch recognises the fragility of the happiness of emperors, idle officials, philosophers, and the rich who care only about their riches. Colourful and corporeal, Eunuch is a continuation of Carlson’s deep interest in science and culture – and the way in which an outsider and ageing figure regards the society he both is and isn't part of; – Kiiltomato
£10.44
Holland House Books The Sometime Embarrassments of Petty Veniz
Book SynopsisA vision, a peculiar international movement flooding the city, an Empress, and a strange artefact called the Chimaera Petty Veniz will never be the same again, for it seems the Apocalypse is at hand.
£8.24
Vintage Publishing Spring: From the Sunday Times Bestselling Author
Book SynopsisSpring is a deeply moving novel about family, our everyday lives, our joys and our struggles, beautifully illustrated by Anna Bjerger.I have just finished writing this book for you. What happened that summer nearly three years ago, and its repercussions, are long since over. Sometimes it hurts to live, but there is always something to live for.Spring follows a father and his newborn daughter through one day in April, from sunrise to sunset. It is a day filled with the small joys of family life, but also its deep struggles. With this striking novel in the Seasons quartet, Karl Ove Knausgaard reflects uncompromisingly on life's darkest moments and what can sustain us through them.Utterly gripping and brilliantly rendered in Knausgaard's famously pensive and honest style, Spring is the account of a shocking and heartbreaking familial trauma and the emotional epicentre of this singular literary series.Trade ReviewEntirely ingenious. Knausgaard isn’t afraid to be gauche, anxious, vulgar, inconsistent, portentous, sentimental. He makes virtues of what, in literary novels, are often counted faults. And he makes them moving. * Daily Telegraph *Spring features Knausgaard unbound. . . the book’s blunt, unforced telling brings the larger project’s meaning into sudden, brilliant focus… Knausgaard has assembled this living encyclopedia for his daughter with a wild and desperate sort of love, as a way to forge her attachment to the world, to fasten her to it... Fall in love with the world, he enjoins, stay sensitive to it, stay in it. * The New York Times *Heavy but not heavy-handed, this true noir of the North is dark, bleak and moody. This story about life that’s set over the course of single day will move and disturb in equal measure. * Monocle *An unexpected treat… A lovely piece of work. * Sunday Telegraph *Oodles of musing on life and art that’s by turns meandering and electrifying. * Metro *[Karl Ove Knausgaard] observes a subject so closely, mining so far into its essence – its quiddity – that the observations transcend banality and become compelling. -- Peter Murphy * Irish Times *For anyone who is curious about this writer... Spring makes for an excellent introduction. It is the shortest book he has ever written, but it is all muscle, a generous slice of a thoughtful, ruminative life. * The Washington Post *If you still haven’t tried Knausgaard... try Spring. It’s poignant and beautiful… you’ll get him and get why some of us have gone crazy for him. * Los Angeles Review of Books *A radical, thrilling departure from the first two volumes of his Seasons Quartet... this moving novel stylistically resembles his acclaimed My Struggle series... A remarkably honest take on the strange linkages between love, loss, laughter, and self-destruction, a perfect distillation of Knausgaard’s unique gifts. * Publishers Weekly *Knausgaard’s assets are on full display, including his precise writing style and his unerring sense of detail … it is all muscle, a generous slice of thoughtful, ruminative life. -- Rodney Welch * Washington Post *
£15.29
Lolli Editions Tityrus
Book SynopsisThe ideals of simple country living have captivated poets for a crow's age. But in the countryside that Tityrus knows, the beech trees tower like skyscrapers, mice wrestle each other, and the nearby island is infected by swarms of gulls. The forest is a source of energy, but also the home of a behemoth transformer substation and where a little boy has drowned. The shepherds are prescribed Ritalin, slip in the mud, cry without knowing why, and sustain themselves on mini pizza rolls. Wiese's poetry is as hilarious as it is gentle, moving gracefully between the everyday and the profound. Building with the narrative quality of a novel, Tityrus is both an elegy to a natural world that has long been overindustrialised, and a love letter to all that remains.Trade ReviewDuncan Wiese's subversive pastoral Tityrus shows how fraught life has become for the Arcadian shepherds among us. Refusing to sugarcoat Tityrus's experience of our fetid and worn-out world, Wiese uncovers the daily pathos and absurdities of contemporary life. This spare yet encompassing verse narrative, deftly translated by Max Minden Ribeiro and Sam Riviere, provides an insightful and haunting portrait of our time; - Denise Newman: I lost myself in this bittersweet sequence and it already feels like a place I've visited, a life I stowed-away in beyond the poems. A voice so compulsively readable, both tersely clear and compellingly mysterious that it gets into your head and starts narrating your own life; - Luke Kennard; A pastoral where the shepherd not only grazes his sheep, but also himself, the human - where human and animal overlap in a current of medicine, food, myth, alcohol - and love. So right on time is Tityrus; - Ursula Andkjaer Olsen
£10.44
Parthian Books Hummingbird
Book Synopsis"What you could change and alter could never be finished or complete or dead. This is what I had been told back then, and what I had tried very hard to believe in since."Beside a lake in the northern Canadian wilderness, fifteen year old Zachary Tayler lives a lonely and isolated life with his father. His only neighbours are a leech trapper, an eccentric millionaire, and an expert in snow. But then one summer the enigmatic and shape-shifting Eva Spiller arrives in search of the remains of her parents and together they embark on a strange and disconcerting journey of discovery. Nothing at Sitting Down Lake is quite as it seems. The forest hides ruins and mysteries; the past can never be fully understood. And as Zach and Eva make their way through this haunted landscape, they move ever closer towards an acceptance of what in the end is lost and what can truly be found.Trade Review"Superbly accomplished ... Hughes' prose is startling and luminous." --Financial Times
£9.50
Comma Press The Book of Reykjavik: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisIceland is a land of stories; from the epic sagas of its mythic past, to its claim today of being home to more writers, more published books and more avid readers, per head, than anywhere in the world. As its capital (and indeed only city), Reykjavik has long been an inspiration for these stories. But, as this collection demonstrates, this fishing-village-turned-metropolis at the farthest fringe of Europe has been both revered and reviled by Icelanders over the years. The tension between the city and the surrounding countryside, its rural past and urban present, weaves its way through The Book of Reykjavik, forming an outline of a fragmented city marked by both contradiction and creativity. Includes a foreword written by award-winning Icelandic author Sjon. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb, Philip Roughton, Lytton Smith, Meg Matich and Larissa Kyzer. Published with the support of the Icelandic Literature Center.
£10.99
Lolli Editions Sublunar
Book SynopsisIn the sixteenth century, on the island of Hven, the pioneering Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, is undertaking an elaborate study of the night skyA great mind and a formidable personality, Brahe is also the world’s most illustrious noseless man of his time. Told by Brahe and his assistants—a filthy cast of characters—Sublunar is both novel and almanac. Alongside sexual deviancy, spankings, ruminations on a new nose—flesh, wood, or gold?—Brahe (a choleric and capricious character) and his peculiar helpers (“I would rather watch her globes tonight than icy stars”) take painstaking measurements that will revolutionize astronomy, long before the invention of the telescope. Meanwhile the plague rages in Europe…The second in Voetmann’s triptych of historical novels, Sublunar is as visceral, absurd, and tragic as its predecessor, Awake, but with a special nocturnal glow and a lunatic-edged gaze trained on the moon and the stars.
£11.69
Comma Press The Book of Venice: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisAn inspector rages against the announcement that police HQ is to relocate - the way so many of the city's residents already have - to the mainland... An aspiring author struggles with the inexorable creep of rentalisation that has forced him to share his apartment, and life, with 'global pilgrims'... An ageing painter rails against the liberties taken by tourists, but finds his anger undermined by his own childhood memories of the place... The Venice presented in these stories is a far cry from the 'impossibly beautiful', frozen-in-time city so familiar to the thousands who flock there every year - a city about which, Henry James once wrote, 'there is nothing new to be said.' Instead, they represent the other Venice, the one tourists rarely see: the real, everyday city that Venetians have to live and work in. Rather than a city in stasis, we see it at a crossroads, fighting to regain its radical, working-class soul, regretting the policies that have seen it turn slowly into a theme park, and taking the pandemic as an opportunity to rethink what kind of city it wants to be.
£9.49
Tramp Press The Horse of Selene
Book Synopsis'Holy Mother who knows so much. Help me for I'm destroyed in the heart. Tell me is it love to be like this. That measures me on my days like the shadow on the mountain.' On a remote island off the West coast of Ireland in the 1970s, young farmer Micael catches sight of a girl on a beach with long hair so blonde it could be white. Befriending the girl and her travelling companions, a world of possibility opens up to Micael - but where there's opportunity, there is also peril ... Juanita Casey's astounding first novel is a cult classic ready to be rediscovered by a new generation of readers. Drawing on her own life and speaking for her marginalised com- munity, Casey offers a feminist and class-conscious story that explores the eternal choices of youth, between the comfort of a stifling domesticity and the promise and risk of the un- known, characterised in the incomparable wildness of the West of Ireland. The bestselling Casey takes her place alongside such writers as JM Synge and Kevin Barry - the missing connection between the two.Trade Review'A remarkable first novel by a remarkable woman.' - The New York Times
£11.69
Quercus Publishing Of Men and Angels
Book Synopsis'Arditti is a master storyteller who uses his theological literacy sparingly to deliver a challenging but enthralling read' GuardianAward-winning, bestselling author Michael Arditti's tenth novel, documenting the history of homophobia and religion.God's vengeance on the wicked city of Sodom is a perennial source of fascination and horror. Michael Arditti's passionate and enthralling new novel explores the enduring power of the myth in five momentous epochs.A young Judean exile transcribes the Acts of Abraham and Lot in ancient Babylon; the Guild of Salters presents a mystery play of Lot's Wife in medieval York; Botticelli paints the Destruction of Sodom for a court in Renaissance Florence; a bereaved rector searches for the Cities of the Plain in nineteenth century Palestine; a closeted gay movie star portrays Lot in a controversial biblical epic in 1980s Hollywood. With its interrelated narratives and interwoven documents, Of Men and Angels is both formally inventive and imaginatively rich. Abounding in characters as vivid as they are varied, from temple prostitutes and palace eunuchs, through fanatical friars and humanist poets, to Bedouin tribesmen, Russian exiles and, of course, angels, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, penetrating insight and profound human sympathy.Trade ReviewAnyone who is afraid that the English novel is sliding into a backwater of domestic anecdote should find their anxieties assuaged by the writing of Michael Arditti * The Times *A Graham Greene for our time * Spectator *Arditti succeeds in creating fiction that is morally serious, moving and intense * Times Literary Supplement *Arditti is a master storyteller who uses his theological literacy sparingly to deliver a challenging but enthralling read * Guardian *
£9.49
Everything with Words Same Same but Different Short Stories
Book Synopsis'A daring collection written in response to lockdown' Alison MacLeod 'A collection that reminds us what it is to be human. A book for right now' , Angela Readman '18 well-chosen stories, loosely based on the idea of solitude, explore loss, loneliness and love,'DAILY MAIL Brilliantly funny, terrifying, tender and sharp: the best short stories to come out of lockdown.Trade Review'A daring collection written in response to lockdown' ALISON MACLEOD 'A collection that reminds us what it is to be human. A book for right now' ANGELA READMAN '18 well-chosen stories, loosely based on the idea of solitude, explore loss, loneliness and love' DAILY MAIL
£15.29
The Book Guild Ltd The Opal Causeway
Book SynopsisAs he explores his sexuality, Pete, a gay photographer, experiences the cruelties and injustices of a world completely at odds with the tenets instilled in him during childhood. While sharing a Notting Hill squat during a seemingly endless summer with friends Mel and Baz, he meets Brad, a mysterious American, at a happening in Chalk Farm. Travelling to California in search of Brad, Pete, seeking love and adventure, ventures halfway around the world looking for answers only to find them back home once he crosses over The Opal Causeway. Set in the early 1970s, The Opal Causeway is a coming-of-age novel embracing historical, environmental, racial, social and sexual themes still so relevant today. "A pleasure to read … so pitch perfect on important social issues. The historical theme of the Gay Liberation movement is neatly told, both in US and in UK." Alan Mahar, former Publishing Director of Tindal Street Press
£9.49
The Book Guild Ltd The Find: Are some things better left
Book SynopsisWhen human remains are found deep in an Irish peat bog, the National Museum of Ireland takes charge and their bog body specialist, Carrie O’Neill, begins to investigate. She notices unexpected features on this well-preserved body and later tests suggest an intriguing history. As Carrie tries to make sense of all she learns, speculation sends people reeling. Repercussions ripple throughout the world, pulling Carrie into the ensuing controversy. She finds herself caught up in events that she has not foreseen and cannot control. The more she delves into the mystery that is the talk of every TV show, the more she is warned off. Fear and outrage mount as she prepares a much-anticipated exhibition of their precious discovery. The Find raises one almighty question that will shake up everything we think we know. "With great attention to detail, beautiful prose, and strong vivid characters – Holmes takes us on a fascinating journey where archaeology and religion meet in explosive tensions to reveal hidden dangers, historical mysteries and difficult choices. A page-turner from start to finish." Dr Emma Tollefsen, bog body scientist.
£9.02
Daunt Books A Touch of Mistletoe
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Pushkin Press Dinner Party
Book SynopsisKate has been trying to do things right. To mark an important anniversary, she plans an exquisite dinner for her family. Yet by the end of the night, the drinking games have ended in awkward silence, the guests have fled, and Kate feels herself spinning out of control. Told across the decades, this is the story of a family shattered by grief, but tied by bonds too knotty to untangle. It's the story of what happens when the past catches up with the present, and of why, despite everything, we can't help returning home. ---- READERS LOVE DINNER PARTY 'A tense, literary page-turner' 'An incredibly poignant story of a family torn by loss and grief' 'A totally compelling read about fraught family relationships, sisterhood, loss, grief and everything in between'Trade Review“Gilmartin's dialogue sparkles, and her understanding of family dynamics is sharp. "Dinner Party" is a smooth read, a true feast of dysfunction.” --The Minneapolis Star Tribune"People’s masks slip in Dinner Party, a sedulous novel in which a family confronts its demons with determination." --Foreword Reviews
£8.99
The Book Guild Ltd The Play's the Thing: Acting in a World of Great
Book SynopsisGreat loves, great theatre roles and great betrayals; rarely have the secrets and seductions of the theatre world been explored with such intensity. Michael Driscoll, the finest actor of his generation, is tempted by magnificent roles and manipulated when he accepts them. He reaches the dizzy international heights before his Faustian bargain catches up with him. Set in apartheid-era South Africa, The Play’s the Thing shows that it is when the world is at its most dishonest that we need the truth of theatre the most.
£8.09
Parthian Books Insomnia
Book SynopsisCensored in Latvia until 2003 Translated by Jayde Will. Originally written in 1967 and not released in its uncensored form until 2003, Bels’s infamous novel, Insomnia, has become a classic of Cold War writing and continues to exert a major influence over Latvian literature. The story is filtered through the thoughts, emotions and fantasies of the main character, a man of detachment who is content to observe his fellow tenants and the wider world around him from the tired luxury of his apartment and daily routines. When a young woman, fleeing some unknown threat and in desperate need of help, comes into his orbit, he’s forced out of this inertia and into the active role of protector. There begins a quest which, for both of them, has the power to jolt them into a new way of being and living. This edition contains the official transcripts of the investigative reports regarding the banning of the book, as well as a statement by Bels himself. Translated from the Latvian by Jayde Will. Insomnia is part of the Parthian Baltic project which was launched on time for the London Book Fair 2018. The poetry collections were launched at the Wheatsheaf Parthian Poetry Festival in April 2018.
£16.74
Parthian Books Hummingbird
Book Synopsis`Superbly accomplished... Hughes' prose is startling and luminous' FINANCIAL TIMES`Beautifully nuanced and utterly touching'THE DAILY MAILBeside a lake in the northern Canadian wilderness, fifteen-year-old Zachary Tayler lives a lonely and isolated life with his father. His only neighbours are a leech trapper, an eccentric millionaire, and an expert in snow. But then one summer the enigmatic and shape-shifting Eva Spiller arrives in search of the remains of her parents and together they embark on a strange and disconcerting journey of discovery. Nothing at Sitting Down Lake is quite as it seems. The forest hides ruins and mysteries; the past can never be fully understood. And as Zach and Eva make their way through this haunted landscape, they move ever closer towards an acceptance of what in the end is lost and what can truly be found.In his fourth novel, award-winning author Tristan Hughes returns to the landscape of his youth in this vivid and poetic coming-of-age story about death, life, and the changes they bring. Set against the harsh, unforgiving beauty of the forests of northern Ontario, Hummingbird unravels a moving tale of loss, absence and redemption.Trade Review`Superbly accomplished... Hughes' prose is startling and luminous' FINANCIAL TIMES `Beautifully nuanced and utterly touching'THE DAILY MAIL
£9.49
Cinder House Above Us the Sea
Book SynopsisIt''s after a night in Cardiff''s loudest gay bar that Toni first lays eyes on Gav, a retired Welsh boxer, and his boyfriend Karol, an aspiring Polish photographer. The trio soon fall into an intimate, ambiguous love triangle. After a tragic event at a beach in Swansea, the trio are ripped apart, and Toni escapes to London, becoming caught between a convenient, loveless relationship and an illicit, lustful affair. Lost halfway between the British future she has always wanted, and the Eastern European past she has been running from, Toni can only wonder where and with whom she really belongs. Above Us The Sea is an ode to the tangled remains of lost loves and the imprints left by grieving souls, yearning for connection. This is a story of aching and emerging, intimacy and distance, set against an increasingly hostile landscape.
£10.44
Parthian Books In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl
Book SynopsisDebut novel from Rachel Trezise, winner of the Orange Futures Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. The story of a brutal childhood in the Welsh Valleys. Rebecca is trying to grow up fast but the whole world’s against her. She falls in love, gets drunk and takes drugs. There are things she needs to forget. But when writing and books take hold of her life she starts to come up from the bottom.
£8.54
Parthian Books Moving On: and Other Zimbabwean Stories
Book SynopsisMoving On bristles with the talent of writers from Zimbabwe. This collection brings together twenty of Zimbabwe's finest storytellers, from within the country and without.
£8.54
Cinder House Edendale
Book SynopsisIn northeast Los Angeles, wildfires rage and coyotes stalk the neighbourhood streets. The wind blows heavy with smoke and, inside a rented bungalow on hilly Lemoyne Street, the air grows heavy with something else. Ropey closes his checking account and transfers his net worth to his sock drawer. Megan sharpens pencils and chops produce to obsession. Lyle tightens his grip on his girlfriend Egypt, whose growing dependence makes her question everything, especially Lyle. And Captain America, the cat of the house, finds his orange coat giving way to a nest of bleeding sores. As the fires burn ever closer, will the four friends wake up to their false paradise?
£10.44
Parthian Books The Element of Water
Book SynopsisIt is 1958: Isolde Dahl is a young teacher who goes to work in a British school on the shores of Lake Ploen in north-west Germany. She is returning to a country she fled as a child refugee with her mother, Renate. Her father has disappeared into the chaos of a continent ravaged by war. Isolde has grown up in a Wales both strange and familiar. 1945, Lake Ploen. Michael Quantz is an officer in what is left of a shattered German military command as they stage a last chaotic stand before the Allied armies in the final days of the World War II. Everyone has secrets. Michael wants to survive: his wife and son may still be alive. He will hide, change, become a teacher of music. As Isolde and Michael meet on the shores of a German lake, the choices they have made and the stories they have told will change their lives again.Trade Review`Truly extraordinary' - A L Kennedy, The Guardian; `Davies's fusion of past and present is masterly. A revelation' -Independent; `A timely study of race, identity, prejudice and forgiveness' -Big Issue; `Resonating with poignant imagery, this outstanding novel examines the best and worst of human nature' - The Times
£8.54
Parthian Books The Road to Zarauz
Book SynopsisThe Perseids brought it all out of the past, with a force like a blow that leaves you winded. The night lurched and seemed to swoop suddenly down. The boy still lay on his back, but when I sat up, gasping, I glimpsed the pale disc of his face as he turned to see what had startled me. 'It's all right,' I said, though it wasn't. It is the summer of 1954. Four young men, on a summer vacation buy an old car from a farmer and drive it from the hills of Wales all the way to the mountains of Spain. It is only a few years since the war, Europe is still in ruins. They are innocent and war-scarred, dreamers and realists, men but not much more than boys. They have their whole lives ahead of them. This will be their summer to remember. A beautiful, elegiac rumination on youth, friendship and the dreams that we hold. "A haunting meditation on memory and loss that takes the reader on a summer road trip to a vanished Spain. In this well-crafted, wistful novella, Sam Adams weaves his tapestry from fragments of a remembered friendship in a coming of age tale written with sixty years' bitter hindsight." - Richard Gwyn Sam Adams has created a rare novel in The Road to Zarauz, both timeless and very much of a time and a place, a past of hope and expectation erased in a moment, and what remains when hope is gone.
£8.54
The Conrad Press Spies and Scoundrels: two novellas
Book SynopsisThis fascinating and remarkable book, ‘Spies and Scoundrels’, consists of two highly imaginative novellas. The first, ‘Time to Say Goodbye’, explores how England might look in 2026. Post pandemic with many unresolved problems remaining, Government finances are dire and the country is directionless and unstable. People have gone into voluntary lockdown to avoid the violence on the streets. The scene is set for a change of Government, with a radical plan. A scapegoat group in society is identified and vilified. History does indeed repeat itself. ‘Death’s Final Wicket’ is a spy thriller set in London, Oslo, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem. Bible Codes in the Torah (first five chapters of the Old Testament), supposedly point to various modern day events such as Hitler, Yasser Arafat and a nuclear war emanating from North Korea. Governments interpret these codes for their own ends. Meanwhile, a new terrorist organization, with its own plan, complicates matters. British Intelligence has the man with the right background to sort through the c
£9.49
Parthian Books Hello Friend We Missed You
Book SynopsisHELLO FRIEND WE MISSED YOU is a deeply poignant and bleakly comic debut novel about loneliness, the 'violent revenge thriller' category on Netflix, solipsism, rural gentrification, Jack Black, and learning to exist in the least excruciating way possible. Its story of depression and death on the small Welsh island of Mon, of people armed with every social media completely failing to communicate, is far, far funnier than it has any right to be. It's also, ultimately, extremely moving. An incredible debut novel from a truly unique prose stylist.Trade Review'Richard Owain Roberts is one of the most distinctive and exciting voice in literature today. In Hello Friend We Missed You we get to see that not only is he a writer of exceptional stylistic talent but one who manages to bring characters and places into vibrant life. This is an undeniably cool book but it also has a great deal of soul. He could be the voice of our generation, I hope people are reading.' - Amy Lloyd, One More Lie (Penguin)
£9.49
Parthian Books Country Dance
Book SynopsisCountry Dance is a story of passion, jealousy and revenge centred around ayoung woman torn between the opportunities and dangers of her life who growsup in an isolated rural community on the border between England and Wales. A classic love story where the rural way of life is no idyll, but a savage andexacting battle for survival.Trade Review`Written with terse incisive power... the novels of Margiad Evans glow with a dark... passionate light..' Derek Savage
£8.54
The Conrad Press Justice Be Told
Book SynopsisA novel
£10.44
Parthian Books Martha, Jack & Shanco
Book SynopsisBound together by blood ties, Martha, Jack and Shanco live on a farm in west Wales where their lives unfold in their eerie half- presence of their dead parents. Glimmers of understanding punctuate their relationship with one another, but unspoken animosity seems to be the most potent ingredient. A lament for the prizes and the price of nurturing a landscape: an antidote for anyone impatient with those who choose to stay in one place.
£9.49
Comma Press Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020
Book SynopsisThroughout his career, M. John Harrison's writing has defied categorisation, building worlds both unreal and all-too real, overlapping and interlocking with each other. His stories are replete with fissures and portals into parallel dimensions, unidentified countries and lost lands. But more important than the places they point to are the obsessions that drive the people who so believe in them, characters who spend their lives hunting for, and haunted by, clues and maps that speak to the possibility of somewhere else. This selection of stories, drawn from over 50 years of writing, bears witness to that desire for difference: whether following backstreet occultists, amateur philosophers, down-and-outs or refugees, we see our relationship with 'the other' in microscopic detail, and share in Harrison's rejection of the idea that the world, or our understanding of it, could ever be settled.Trade Review'All [stories] are elegant and inventive... Harrison writes memorably about people who are bewildered, sidetracked, trapped or on the lookout for opportunities to change.' - The Spectator; 'Harrison excels at evoking the deadened absurdity of the everyday.' - The TLS; 'Settled... certainly doesn't mean being tucked up. Rather, again and again these works are about the settling of scores.' - The Scotsman; 'The evolution of Harrison's prose can be traced across the stories, the steely, mannered prose typical of the British New Wave giving way to the warmer, more supple sentences that mark his late style.' - The Quietus; 'Settling the World is a brilliant labyrinth of tales by one of modern fiction's most distinctive voices.' - Locus Magazine
£999.99
Galileo Publishers Herma
Book SynopsisHere is a delight: MacDonald Harris''s colourful, fanciful, and moving Herma, the story of a wilful young woman who conquers the musical world of the Belle Epoque. Herma is many things: a glamorous story of a singer who rises from the choir of a country church to stardom at the Paris Opera: the parallel adventures of her agent and friendly enemy Fred Hite, filled with the excitement of the early days of aviation; and a provocative sexual intrigue whose twinned her and heroine, not brother and sister, are forbidden to each other by the secret that lies at the centre of their odd and intimate relationship. From its evocative beginnings in the pastoral Southern California of the turn of the century, Herma moves on to larger worlds: first the brash, adolescent San Francisco of the period, then the Earthquake, then the international world of opera in Paris at the most luxurious, opulent, and decadent moment of its history. Erotic, bejewelled, crowded with incident and a big, vivid cast of c
£13.49
Comma Press All Walls Collapse: Stories of Separation
Book SynopsisThe history of walls – as a way to keep people in or out – is also the history of people managing to get around, over and under them. From the Berlin Wall and the Mexico–US border, to the barbed wire fences of Bangladesh’s refugee camps, the short stories in this anthology explore the barriers that have sought to divide communities and nations, and their traumatic effects on people’s lives and histories. At a time when more walls are being built than are being brought down, All Walls Collapse brings together writing from across national, ethnic and linguistic borders, challenging the political impulse to separate and segregate, and celebrating the role of literature in traversing division.Table of ContentsForeword vii Philippe Sands Introduction ix Will Forrester & Sarah Cleave Translucency 1 Paulo Scott Translated by Daniel Hahn These Days 11 Geetanjali Shree Translated by Daisy Rockwell The Gap 23 Maya Abu Al-Hayat Translated by Yasmine Seale Collateral Damage 29 Zahra El Hasnaoui Ahmed Translated by Dorothy Odartey-Wellington What the Cat Passed On 39 Kyung-Sook Shin Translated by Anton Hur This Side of the Wall 53 Juan Pablo Villalobos Translated by Rosalind Harvey The Fence 65 Krisztina Tóth Translated by Peter Sherwood Reunited 77 Muyesser Abdul’ehed Translated by Munawwar Abdulla Brandy Sour 89 Constantia Soteriou Translated by Lina Protopapa Between Two Infernos 107 Rezuwan Khan Translated by Hla Hla Win Mother’s MacGuffin 115 Larissa Boehning Translated by Lyn Marven
£12.34
Comma Press The American Way: Stories of Invasion
Book SynopsisCovering US foreign policy from 1945 to the present day, an anthology of specially commissioned stories by authors from across the globe addressing America's history of intervention.
£9.49
Dedalus Ltd The Celestial City
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Comma Press Collision: Stories from the Science of CERN
Book SynopsisAs part of a unique collaboration, this book pairs a team of award-winning authors with CERN physicists to explore some of the consequences of what the LHC is learning, through fiction.
£10.99
Colenso Books And my mother's bitter tears
Book SynopsisThere is no doubt that this is, to a considerable extent, an autobiographical novel. It is also clear that parts of it are fictional, but it is not possible to define with any clarity the boundary between autobiography and fiction. The author did serve in the US Army in the Korean War as an underage soldier, though he was probably not quite so young as the narrator claims to have been. The author’s second name “Toteras” is his chosen nom-de-plume, formed from two Greek words “to” and “teras”, meaning “the monster”. The novel begins with the narrator’s return from Korea suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic distress syndrome, and finding himself unable to face his family again. He falls in with a young woman who looks after him. This narrative breaks off to be resumed only in the final chapter of the book, and there follow several chapters in which his early life in San Francisco's Greektown is recounted. Conflicting demands — of their families to be Greek and of their school to become Americans — drive him and his best friend to obtain fake birth certificates, enabling them to enlist, at the age of fourteen, in the US army. Between basic training and embarkation for the Far East they take a bizarre trip to Mexico, where they become involved with a rich American couple who need to involve others in their sex-life. The two teenage soldiers are sent to the Mariana Islands where they are occupied in dismantling a World-War-Two ammunition dump. After an explosion which kills some of their colleagues, they are granted leave, and go to Japan to meet up with a sergeant (also of Greek origin) whom they had made friends with in the training camp. Through a series of mishaps they end up being sent to Korea with the first scratch-force of US troops, following the news that the North Koreans had crossed the 38th Parallel, and they are involved in the first US battles of the Korean War, battles in which the US army was repeatedly defeated with immense loss of life. The battles of Osan, the Pyongtaek Bridge and Taejon are described in graphic and horrific detail, and several subsequent battles are referred to. The novel was completed in the early 1990s, but clearly not to the satisfaction of the author, who died in 2009, leaving it unpublished. The surviving typescripts were problematic, almost unpunctuated and full of errors. They have been painstakingly edited over a number of years and some of the material in the early (Greektown) chapters has had to be rearranged to create a coherent narrative and to remove repetition. The style undoubtedly owes something to Kerouac but the content is far beyond his scope, as it brings us face to face with the insanity and the horror of war and the nature of fear; but it is not without humour, and much of the humour has to do with sex. In this the narrator and his buddy are opposites: the narrator a romantic innocent, his buddy precocious and sex-mad. Although, as noted, the narrative of the weeks after his return alone from Korea is resumed in the concluding chapter, there is no conclusion, for we are left with a final moment of dramatic suspension, not knowing what exactly has just happened and with no clue as to what the narrator’s future will be.Table of ContentsEditorial Note vii Prologue 3 PART I : COMING HOME Epigraph 10 Chapter One The bus station 11 Chapter Two The Sierra Hotel 21 Chapter Three Yet it was only last summer 35 PART II : LEAVING GREEKTOWN Chapter Four The people in Greektown 43 Chapter Five The Greek says No! 55 Chapter Six The Drunken King 65 Chapter Seven Blasphemy 75 Chapter Eight Enlistment 95 PART III : ON THE WAY TO KOREA Chapter Nine Fort Ord 105 Chapter Ten Katherine 123 Chapter Eleven The gambler 143 Chapter Twelve Mr Gregory 157 Chapter Thirteen Camp Stoneman 179 Chapter Fourteen The troopship M.A.T.S. Patrick 197 Chapter Fifteen Saipan and the Philippines 209 Chapter Sixteen The Golden Days of Occupation 221 PART IV : KOREA A note on gaps in the narrative 232 Chapter Seventeen Pusan 233 Chapter Eighteen Taejon and Pyongtaek 243 Chapter Nineteen The hills of Osan 265 Chapter Twenty The Battle of Osan 283 Chapter Twenty-one The Battle of the Pyongtaek Bridge 301 Chapter Twenty-two Retreat 311 Chapter Twenty-three Captured 321 Chapter Twenty-four Friends in a foreign land 337 Chapter Twenty-five The burning of Taejon 347 PART V : NOT HOME YET Chapter Twenty-six Kill 363
£15.91
Dedalus Ltd Tom's Version
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd The Street Hawker's Apprentice
Book SynopsisA Dickensian tale of two young boys from opposite sides of the track who form a bond of brotherhood and friendship as they survive the streets of Lagos. Temilola is a kind-hearted boy from the upper echelons of Nigerian society who wakes up alone in the middle of Lagos and discovers that he has lost his memory. He soon finds that this is the least of his problems, as he must now attempt to survive the dangerous streets of Lagos. Vipaar, who has been making a living as a hawker of random necessities on the streets of Lagos, finds Temilola and, after a violent first encounter, reluctantly takes him under his wing. They form a strong bond as they strive to make a meagre living selling mobile phone chargers to passing motorists on the dangerous highways of Lagos. The boys navigate the ruthless underbelly of Lagos and learn just how far they will go to protect themselves and each other. When tragedy strikes, their bond is broken and they are forced to separate from each other. Will the two friends find each other again after they both face increasing brutality, pain and sorrow? Or will their destinies have diverged enough to tear them apart forever?
£8.54
Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd Thinner Than Skin
Book Synopsis"Smart, fierce, and poignant: perhaps the most exciting novel yet by this very talented writer." Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West and The Reluctant FundamentalistA Young Pakistani photographer and his American born Pakistani-German lover travel from California to Pakistan in an attempt to exorcize their pasts, in order to build their shared future. Up in the glaciers of Northern Pakistan, a tragedy at a mountain lake entwines the fates of the two lovers with the people they encounter there: Miryam, a nomad, travelling with her family into the mountains to escape persecution, and Irfan, haunted by ghosts and hoping that the mountains may offer him a reprieve from his troubles. An expansive look at the intersection of cultures and what happens at those intersections, Thinner Than Skin is a powerful and moving read.
£8.54
Dedalus Ltd Jabberwock
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Watkins Media Limited Junglist
Book SynopsisBack in print after two decades, Junglist tells the compelling, comic, stream-of-consciousness story of four young Black men coming of age among the raves and Jungle music scene in London during the 1990s. Layered with poetic verse, prose and humour, this cult classic of underground British fiction documents the rollercoaster ride of a weekend spent raving during Jungle’s cultural takeover in the summer of 1994. Jungle, with its booming basslines and Jamaican patois, burst from the pirate radio stations and mixtapes into cavernous clubs, pulling a generation of Black British ravers with it. Originally written as a way to document street culture as it became a feature of London, charting a time when working-class kids, both Black and white, merged to dance as "one family", Junglist is both a testament to Black British sound system culture and a rawthentic account of inner-city life.Trade Review‘‘A brilliant, neglected text of London gnosis, backstreet Modernism.""The world's first "Jungle novel", and a real headtrip... here is a living language, taking on new and weird shapes from its concrete habitat.""An amazing document of what London and UK clubbing was like at this time... Like the best club nights, you just don't want it to end."“Junglist doesn’t just allow you to hear the sound of a subculture through its pages, it implores you to feel it.”“A text that speaks to the soul of what was nothing less than a revolutionary moment in the unfolding of British multiculturalism.”“A hypnotic, immersive novel.”“A hypnotic, immersive novel.”
£10.44
The Book Guild Ltd Poleaxed
Book SynopsisIt is 1967. A mysterious disease appears in an English town. People fall down suddenly, poleaxed, and many die. Is it caused by a bacterium, a virus, a poison? Nobody knows, and top doctors squabble over its cause. But then two junior doctors and a young anthropology student, who has recovered from the disease, join together. The three investigators continue their work to find out the cause of the disease, a virus whose worst effects are only shown in those who are very anxious. They think they have found the cause and the solution. But will they be in time? This is a gripping dystopian tale, very much relevant to events unfolding today and written by Emeritus Professor of Community Psychiatry at Imperial College, London, Peter Tyrer whose long-standing interest in the connections between mental and physical health informed the novel.
£8.09
