Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisStylist Best New Fiction of 2024A Bookseller One to Watch'Manny and the Baby stood out for me from the first few lines. The beautifully balanced prose, the wonderful story, and sumptuous detail are constructed with poetic precision and held my attention right until the very end.' Jacqueline Crooks, author of Fire RushAn incredibly special writer, thoughtful and energetic, occasionally savage, wise beyond her years, with an eye and an ear for syntax that is masterful ... Varaidzo is the future, and Manny and the Baby is a book for the ages.' Nikesh ShuklaIncluded in NetGalley's 2024 Hot List London, 1936. Two sisters are ready to take the city and the world by storm. Bath, 2012. Two young Black men are figuring out who they are, and who they want to become. Manny Powell is forthright, intellectual, and determined to make her mark on the London literary scene. Her younger sister, Rita The Baby', just wants to dance. Chasing their dreams across smoky Soho jazz clubs, they soon find them

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Book Synopsis‘Maps Full of Borders’ is a delicately and wryly written fresh take on the coming-of-age novel, exploring questions of personal identity, gender and whether we are a human being or a human doing. Fifteen-year-old Molly doesn’t understand the world around her and feels as though she doesn’t belong. By chance, she comes across an old photo album that leads to an unlikely obsession with the boy in the images – a ghost child who allows Molly to express herself more freely than ever before.

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Book SynopsisRomantic and intriguing, this story draws the reader into mystery and danger with a thrilling and surprising ending. Inheriting a ranch in Wyoming from an unknown cousin called Willard, Sandy Carson goes to investigate. On meeting Kyle, the sexy ranch foreman outside town, their instant attraction is mutual, but having expected to inherit the ranch himself, Kyle is shocked to discover Sandy is the owner. Unable to keep his hands to himself when Sandy responds, it isn’t long before things intensify. With Willard and Mary’s headstone indicating they had been parents, what secret is hidden in the barn’s locked attic and why does Sandy get abducted?

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Book SynopsisA Guardian Best Fiction Book of 2023 The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award—winning author of The Animals in That Country. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.Trade Review‘McKay’s deployment of language is as exciting and original as her manipulation of ideas. The stories in Gunflower are provocative, poetic, vibrantly alive to contemporary concerns.’ -- Nina Allan * The Guardian *‘It’s not often that a short story collection feels like more than the sum of its parts, but Gunflower is a work of rare depth and skill.’ -- Doug Johnstone * The Big Issue *‘Startling, beautiful, and dangerous. McKay is the brightest of talents. We're lucky to have her.’ -- Robbie Arnott, author of Limberlost‘Amidst a pile of shed skin and fur, McKay moulds a kaleidoscopic and horrifyingly real portrait of life at the fringes. By turns gritty, surreal, and absurd, Gunflower isn’t afraid to weigh flesh on the scales of our own judgments, a delicate balancing act between life and death, connection and disconnection. Perhaps part Kelly Link and Ottessa Moshfegh, McKay delivers an assured follow-up to The Animals in That Country in her own singular voice that zeroes in on our anxieties and existential crises with deft and often poetic flair.’ -- Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark‘Gunflower is like a swarm of small earthquakes: nothing is steady anymore, and the world feels bigger, scarier, almost transcendent in its strangeness.’ -- Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland‘[Laura Jean McKay] has another sense, an extra one that we mortals do not have. She sees and feels the world differently. So acutely, so astutely, so uncannily.’ -- Sian Prior, author of Shy‘The genre-hopping short stories in Gunflower, written over the past two decades, offer invaluable insight into the obsessions that have compelled McKay to return to the page … McKay circles around her thematic obsessions — familial fracture, social and economic liminality, negotiations with motherhood, human and nonhuman subjectivities — and approaches them from multiple angles.’ -- Jack Cameron Stanton * Sydney Morning Herald *‘The stories in Gunflower move between genres and subjects with the queasy swiftness of a fever dream. They are united, however, in their exploration of life in an increasingly changeable and precarious word.’ -- Julian Novitz * The Conversation *‘[M]any of the stories in Gunflower end just as they seem to be approaching the edge of a cliff, giving rise to an uncomfortable sense of urgency. McKay’s ability to close the apparent distances between past and present, human and nonhuman, us and them, feels vital as we approach the precipice of the Anthropocene.’ -- Megan Cheong * Meanjin *‘Gunflower is distinguished by its tonal and formal variety: its bracing sense of the weird jostling with heartfelt compassion; the audacity of brevity and the artful unfolding of detail; a keen ear for working-class vernacular and the more sophisticated language of the educated middle class … Above all, McKay’s stories challenge us to make our own meanings … [Gunflower] is one of the most inventive short story collections I have read this year. It will delight the many admirers of The Animals in that Country and readers new to McKay’s thought-provoking fiction.’ -- Susan Midalia * Australian Book Review *‘The short stories in Laura Jean McKay’s Gunflower are weird and wonderful, just as you’d expect from the author of The Animals in That Country. Some of the concerns of the earlier book are in its follow-up, with a similar dreamlike, even fabulist take on a world that’s familiar but with improbable and fantastical twists. Funny, creepy and addictive.’ -- Michael Williams * Qantas Travel Insider *‘[A] cohesive collection of dizzying, formally inventive, marvellously unique stories … Laura Jean McKay’s latest work is a poetic and mesmerising collection for the holidays.’ * Melbourne Writers Festival *‘A strange and wonderful collection of short stories, set in a slightly “wrong” version of the real world … It’s an uncomfortable view of Australia, and the world, that will really push your thinking.’ * Zee Feed *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘A fierce debut novel … Her writing about people is filthy, fresh, and funny; this is prose on high alert, hackles up and teeth bared in every sentence. The novel becomes both a stirring attempt to inhabit other consciousnesses and a wry demonstration of the limits of our own language and empathy.’ -- Justine Jordan * The Guardian *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don’t think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo’s — wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.’ -- Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the AnimalsPraise for The Animals in That Country: ‘This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I’m able to pay the highest compliment: that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.’ -- Ben Brooker * Australian Book Review *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural “body talk” of its animals … an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.’ -- Jack Callil * The Age *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘Laura Jean McKay, an expert in animal communication, has her animals speaking in hallucinogenic haikus — it’s disturbing but compelling, and somehow totally believable. I loved every bizarre, unexpected moment.’ -- Corinna Hente * Herald Sun *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘What a pertinent time to be reading The Animals in That Country … the responses and lockdown efforts of the government and authorities in this novel mirror the scenario unfolding around the coronavirus pandemic … The writing is vibrant, energetic, and refreshing, and the narrative leaps off the page. Jean is an unexpected and unforgettable main protagonist. She’s gutsy, raw, degenerate, and believable … [A] wild, engaging ride.’ -- Karen Viggers * The Australian *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘[The Animals in That Country] is disturbing and darkly comic, disrupting anthropocentric assumptions, revealing how animals might see our often violent intrusion into their lives … McKay’s innovation lies in the startling newness of the plot and the innovations in form in conveying animal voices as agentic and different … The Animals in That Country marks a striking new moment in animal representation in Australian fiction.’ * ALS Gold Medal Judges' Citation *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘What is so exciting about McKay’s novel is the way she refuses both anthropocentrism and the philosophical position that non-human animals are inevitably alien to us … [A]nother of the novel’s strengths is that its thought experiment is conducted without sentimentality, though it is always characterised by humour and warmth … The Animals in That Country will be the wildest ride you take all year.’ -- Maria Takolander * The Saturday Paper *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘As we grapple with a worldwide pandemic, Australian author McKay’s novel is incredibly timely and feels all the more real for it … filled with humour, optimism, and grace: a wild ride worth taking. An eye-opening glimpse into a world that’s turned upside down and eventually becomes its own version of whole.’ -- Carol Gladstein * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisLucy Woodrow, a life-loving Dublin girl, tries hard to make sense of her life and her family. Her romantic and personal adventures are full of charm, wit and are illuminating and highly entertaining. She goes on a worldwide adventure of self-discovery, returning to Thailand three times. Each time her experiences there are radically different. This is a story, full of soul, of one woman’s determination to find and live the life she loves. Along the way Lucy experiences the devastating loss of her older brother, Shane, and finds true love with a wonderful man, Charlie. As Lucy’s life takes off in different directions she holds on tight to her self-belief. Although at times she goes through painful personal growth, she refuses to give in and ultimately finds her very own happy ever after.

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Book SynopsisA man jumps, the platform empties, then the stories begin. Filled with tales of tragedy, love, hope and frustration, Malachi McIntosh's debut collection of short stories offers surreal and satirical accounts of the many perils of contemporary life. From resistant mothers and unexpected corporate climbers, to doomed weddings and unwelcome visitors, these dark, comedic and uncanny stories contend with timeless concerns of parenthood, family, race and identity in the here and now. Whether characters are absorbed in social media or burying their grief, raising themselves up or taking others down, Parables, Fables, Nightmares brings a light to our interactions in an ailing world and heralds the arrival of a unique new voice in fiction.

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Book SynopsisFINALIST FOR THE 72ND NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS – BOOK CLUB CATEGORY ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS OF 2022 ‘Zimler is an honest, powerful writer’ The Guardian 'A memorable portrait of the search for meaning in the shadow of the Shoah.' – The Sunday Times From the acclaimed author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams comes an unforgettable, deeply moving ode to solidarity, heroism and the kind of love capable of overcoming humanity's greatest horror. Maybe none of us is ever aware of our true significance. Benjamin Zarco and his cousin Shelly are the only two members of their family to survive the Holocaust. In the decades since, each man has learned, in his own unique way, to carry the burden of having outlived all the others, while ever wondering why he was spared. Saved by a kindly piano teacher who hid him as a child, Benni suppresses the past entirely and becomes obsessed with studying kabbalah in search of the 'Incandescent Threads' - nearly invisible fibres that he believes link everything in the universe across space and time. But his mystical beliefs are tested when the birth of his son brings the ghosts of the past to his doorstep. Meanwhile, Shelly - devastatingly handsome, charming and exuberantly bisexual - comes to believe that pleasures of the flesh are his only escape, and takes every opportunity to indulge his desires. That is, until he begins a relationship with a profoundly traumatised Canadian soldier and artist who helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen - and might just be connected to one of the cousins' departed kin. Across six non-linear mosaic pieces, we move from a Poland decimated by World War II to modern-day New York and Boston, hearing friends and relatives of Benni and Shelly tell of the deep influence of the beloved cousins on their lives. For within these intimate testimonies may lie the key to why they were saved and the unique bond that unites them.Trade ReviewPraise for The Incandescent Threads 'A memorable portrait of the search for meaning in the shadow of the Shoah.' - The Sunday Times 'AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE.' - Acoriano Oriental 'Deep [and] moving [with] an enormous emotional charge.' - Time Out 'Six magnificent narratives that are tied together by absolutely wonderful characters.' - Diario de Noticias 'Benni and Shelly Zarco, cousins who carry their guilt for having survived the Holocaust, are unforgettable characters (and) Zimler invests them with an extraordinary emotional depth.' - Jornal de Noticias 'A beautifully intricate and interwoven novel about how to go on living after the Holocaust - and most poignantly, about how to cope with the guilt of having survived. Zimler writes poetically throughout, and his extremely compelling narrative also serves to alert readers to current threats.' - O Publico Praise for Richard Zimler Unforgettable, poetic and original' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Pacey and accessible... deeply moving' - The Observer 'Scrupulously researched... Fascinating' - The Independent 'Luminously written' - Historical Novel Society 'Remarkable' - Times Literary Supplement 'Compelling' - The Spectator 'Captivating' - Publishers Weekly 'A triumph of modern fiction... absolutely gripping' - Andrew Solomon

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Book SynopsisIn February 2000, the writer Richard Zimler met a mysterious dancer at an Australian literary festival, only to witness her tragic suicide the next day. This shocking act was to trigger an investigation into her past that would alter the course of his life forever. His search initially leads him to the tranquillity and tolerance of 1950s Israel, where he learns of the powerful sisterhood forged between two girls – one Palestinian, one Israeli. But as Zimler is drawn deeper into their story, he uncovers illusion, deceit and – most shocking of all – a connection to the most horrifying atrocity of the twenty-first century. At once a memoir and a thriller, The Search for Sana sees the internationally bestselling author of the Sephardic Cycle create an unflinching exploration of lifelong friendship, loyalty, cruelty and dispossession.Trade Review‘a bold investigation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ – Michael Eaude, Tikkun

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Award 2022One of Brittle Paper''s 50 Most Notable African Books of 2021An epic tale narrated through the eyes of three women.Makhosi battles inner turmoil, unable to express her anger to her mother, Duduzile, a hardworking woman losing touch with her daughter.Nonhle, Makhosi's younger sister, watches the growing gap between them.The narrative unfolds the complex conversations within familieswomanhood, parenting, sexuality, and mental health. It's an epic tale told through the eyes of three women, navigating the delicate threads of love, pain, and resilience within the intricate dance of family bonds.

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Book SynopsisUpper-class teen Sara flees her parents' middle-England mansion after a disastrous party. She happens upon Nork, a mysterious young, orphan boy seemingly from nowhere. Together they go on the run. Evading the authorities and becoming ever more inter-dependent during their long journey, they finally land up in the Scottish wilderness. They find themselves in a small loch-side town, but will they become the victims of the ruthless, hotel owner McTavish – or can they discover a new life and purpose there? This is a coming-of-age story with comedy, romance and sexual references, that is both thought-provoking and amusing.

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Book SynopsisAnthology of Novel Extracts from The Bridport Prize Novel winners

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Book Synopsis"Precise and illuminating." - Bernardine Evaristo OBE.Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Saboteur Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Jhalak Prize.Lovelorn aliens abduct innocent coffee shop waitresses. Ghosts of errant Londoners haunt the Underground, caught between here and the hereafter. Brave young women seek erotic empowerment... at their own peril.These are the worlds of Speak Gigantular, the startling debut short story collection from acclaimed author Irenosen Okojie MBE. Understated in her humour and razor-sharp in her observations of humankind, Okojie's eclectic anthology offers an unflinching gaze into the darkest corners of the human experience.Sexy, serious, and often downright disturbing, this brilliant debut collection sizzles with originality."A work of rare confidence, luminous imagery and full of hidden sharp edges." - Nina Allan, winner of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire."Irenosen Okojie's Speak Gigantular should, if there is any literary justice, place her in a circle with writers like Shirley Jackson, Margaret Atwood, and Angela Carter." - New Orleans Review.Trade ReviewEach story featured is original, dark and with a witty but dark humour which disturbs and forces the reader to question exactly what a social norm is. This is fiction at its best, enacting change, driving the reader to act and it is spectacular. * The Reading Passport *Each story featured is original, dark and with a witty but dark humour which disturbs and forces the reader to question exactly what a social norm is. This is fiction at its best, enacting change, driving the reader to act and it is spectacular. * The Reading Passport *Speak Gigantular is a work of rare confidence, luminous imagery and full of hidden sharp edges. There are few things that bring greater joy in reading than coming upon a talent so delightful, so penetrating, so scandalous. Okojie's stories are magical in all the most interesting senses of that word: devious, enthralling, unexpected. * Nina Allan, winner of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire *A beautiful, sombre collection with deep shadows and dazzling highlights. * Mslexia *Okojie delves into the painful, the unsayable, the unknowable. Her prose is precise and illuminating: love and loneliness are recurrent themes. * Bernardine Evaristo, The Guardian *A liberatingly odd, seductive and fearless talent. * Laline Paull, author of The Bees, shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction *

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Book SynopsisWales, a mining village, pre-industrial revolution. A world of serfdom and squalor, its inhabitants oppressed by both Chapel conformist impulses and the predations of a new kind of capitalism being born. Sion, a metalworker, strikes up an illicit relationship with Katherine, the wife of the mineowner's personal dogsbody. And so begins the struggle of non-transactional and non-exploitative human love to be recognised in a place bent on the destruction and negation of that very thing. A mix of political anger, historical excavation, Celtic mysticism, praise of the human impulse to love and rage at avarice and exploitation, Of Talons and Teeth seeks to explore that moment when human beings and the natural beauties around them were turned into mere chattels; when Mammon became the only god worth worshipping.Trade Review"This unnerving tale spits and writhes off the page. Hypnotic, mythic and visceral — its prose hewn from deep beneath the soil. Griffiths is a twenty-first-century Faulkner."“Often untouchable and always utterly gripping, as British writers go Niall Griffiths is the very best in the business.”"Of Talons and Teeth affirms Griffiths as one my favorite writer’s working today. He’s a true marvel with language and in this historical exploration of man’s ongoing battle with greed and our inability to do anything but take from nature, comes the heart of a broken romantic. This is a real gem of a novel by a magician of a writer.”

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Book SynopsisTwo sisters, two nuclear power stations, one child caught in the middle... When Helen, a self-taught prepper and single mother, leaves her young son Jack with her sister for a few days so she can visit Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, they both know the situation will be tense. Helen opposes plans for a new power station on the coast of Ynys Mon that will take over the family's farmland, and Jennifer works for the nuclear industry and welcomes the plans for the good of the economy. But blood is thicker than heavy water, and both want to reconnect somehow, with Jack perhaps the key to a new understanding of one another. Yet while Helen's is forced to face up to childhood traumas, and her worst fears regarding nuclear disaster, during a trip that sees her caught up in political violence and trapped in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone during the 2014 Euromaidan revolution,, Jennifer too must discover that even the smallest decision can have catastrophic and long-lasting effects, both within the nuclear industry, and within the home. And Jack isn't like other five-year olds...as they will both discover with devastating consequences.Trade Review'A careful, tender and arresting story that explores how we're formed by the places we think we own - I was moved by this suspenseful and delicate novel.' Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted and Notes Made While Falling; 'Holloway has written a novel that shimmers with compassion, one that crosses borders of both nations and emotions. In telling the story of a mother's love for her son and an intimate, searing portrayal of survival set amidst the Ukrainian Maidan Revolution of 2014, the author has crafted a tale that will linger longer than the half-life of many other books you will read this year. Holloway's fascination with the intersection of where history meets everyday life has given us a story told with great skill, weaving together the legacy of Chernobyl and the tragedy of human arrogance. She gives us hope that each of us can act with grace and love even in the face of overwhelming disaster and a precarious world. Sadly for us, it is even more necessary for us to hear these stories today.' Alex Lockwood, author of The Chernobyl Privileges; 'I was drawn in and held until the final sentences ... a prescient, powerful and disturbing read.' Dr Phil Smith, psychogeographer; The Half-Life of Snails is that wonderful thing, a novel that can be read in several different ways. On the surface it is a gripping thriller, ripe for transfer to the big screen. But it also excels as an exploration of the geography of the human heart, which Holloway shows to be as difficult to navigate as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, for which there is no detailed and reliable map available.' Lunate; 'The author has crafted a beautiful yet unsettling story with a strong sense of place, accentuating the bond between humans and the landscapes they live in. The Half-Life Of Snails is a book to reflect on that will undoubtedly linger long after finishing.' Buzz; 'The Half-Life of Snails is a gripping story which speaks to a universal anxiety, not just about nuclear power, but about the environment as a whole. It explores the way we respond in crisis, and the things we hold onto most when everything seems under threat. More than that, it captures the genuine love of a family who, despite their flaws, care about one another deeply. A transformative read in a time of heightened complexity and division.' Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisA 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. 'A feminist masterpiece.'Trade ReviewI am thrilled to be shortlisted for Scotland's National Book Awards for my first book; Teha'amana's story is unique and was, until now, untold. This is the song of the silenced, of the abused, and the colonised. This award nomination will take her story and that of her culture's to many more readers in the western world.

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Book SynopsisA small Welsh valley community come together to form a carnival marching band in Gwyn Thomas' farcical exploration of the social, economic and political turbulence abound in twentieth century Wales.

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Book Synopsis'Needing Napoleon' is a remarkably original feat of imagination: an irresistible adventure that spirits the reader from present-day Paris to the battle of Waterloo and beyond. Can you change what has already happened? As a history teacher, Richard Davey knows the answer. At least, he thinks he does. On holiday in Paris, he stumbles across a curious antiques shop. The eccentric owner reveals a secret Richard dares not believe. Richard's conviction that Napoleon Bonaparte should have won the Battle of Waterloo could be put to the test. Accurate historical detail collides with the paradox of time travel as an ordinary twenty-first-century man is plunged into the death throes of the French empire.

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Book SynopsisGrowing up in a council house in Leeds, Wes Brown dreamed of becoming a 'real' man like the ones in his ex-pro wrestler dad's tales of heroes and villains, gods and monsters. The only problem was he never told him they were fake. In this modern-day Pinocchio story, Wes follows in his father's footsteps in the hope of coming to terms with the fictions that make a man.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThere were some very good novels this year, but they came from surprising directions. It is astonishing that one as original as Kate Barker-Mawjee’s The Coldest Place on Earth (Conrad Press, £9.99) couldn’t find a major publisher. A friend recommended this wonderfully controlled and evocatively written novel about a heart coming to life in the depths of Siberia. Philip Hensher – The Spectator. --- A sad tale’s best for winter, and tales don’t come more wintry than Kate Barker-Mawjee’s debut novel The Coldest Place on Earth (Conrad Press, £9.99), set in a remote Siberian town whose only claim to fame is its record-breaking sub-zero temperatures. These are regularly reported to Moscow from its weather station by Irina, the manager of the local motel, who is trapped in a marriage as frozen and failing as the town itself. This may sound forbiddingly bleak, but Irina’s fears and dreams are so vividly evoked that I found the book unputdownable and unforgettable. Francis Wheen – The Spectator.

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Book SynopsisIt’s not what you think, it rarely is, so flick the remains of your rubbish cigarette down the drain and don’t pay too much attention to the rumours. Things have been going missing from the bedroom of the woman with the purple eye shadow. Stewart tries to pull in the punters at the ailing nightclub by installing a car park diorama of gorillas and meerkats. Meanwhile, Yvonne gets a new job and nobody knows what’s happened to Daz. At Jonnie Rabbett’s shooting club, Barbara ‘Bunny’ Rabbett dispenses pork pies and sage advice, “It’ll be right, love.” Vincent smokes cigarettes, smells of paint and finally gets to the bottom of what exactly happened to Dame Judy. He must ring Kirsten and let her know! Paul’s life flashes before him as he drives around town in his aromatic van, “I’m here for the chickens!” he shouts. Sports and Social is a collection of short stories about the remarkable everyday things that happen when remarkable everyday people get together.

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Book Synopsis'Home Truths with Lady Grey' is an evocative, moving story about the power of friendship to unlock new ways of seeing life and self. 'My world is narrowing, constricting down to the thin end of a funnel.' When normally capable, career-minded Jennifer crumbles under a debilitating disease, she struggles with no longer being in control of her life. In the meantime, Mona, a family-oriented mother of Iranian heritage, finds out that her husband is gambling and hiding the truth from her. Can she move beyond betrayal to action? When Mona goes to work for Jennifer as a carer, Jennifer is initially defensive, but the two soon discover that despite their differences they have so much to learn from one another. Will Mona discover how to balance the conflicting loyalties of family and self? Will Jennifer learn to let others in? And most importantly, will they both survive?

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Book SynopsisFour stories of feathers, blood and eggs. A girl chases a different future on the back of a Suzuki 250. A sibling seeks her brother, hoping answers will heal. Inside the walls of her speaking house, a 'kept' wife tries to learn to be content with her identity. A young woman falls in love with a Goose and grows wings. These are journeys fuelled by love, loss and self-discovery, in which characters must fight or take flight. Stories by Helen Kennedy, Katie Hale, Louise Finnigan and Jacqueline Ward.Trade Review"An evocative and unflinching story which shines a light on fractured families, love, and regret, all seeped in Manchester's past, present and uncertain future. Incredibly moving and beautifully written, I loved it." - Gaynor Jones on 'The People's History Museum is Closed by Helen Kennedy.; "Ivy Wife is delicately spare, beautifully written and hauntingly melancholic tale about female identity in the face of a shapeless loss, that will linger long after the last line." - Lara Williams, Author of Treats, Supper Club and The Odyssey on 'Ivy Wife' by Louise Finnigan

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Book Synopsis‘The Magnificent Moustache and other stories’ is a collection of six delightful tales full of wit, quirky characters and an abundance of welcome nonsense. These innovative short stories will take you from a national moustache-growing competition to the Queen’s vexation when her usual cuppa fails to appear; and to the challenges of having a name so lengthy that it takes forever to simply introduce yourself. A 200-year-old business faces imminent collapse unless a solution can be found; a kingdom has been cut off from civilisation for 100 years; and what happened in that bitterly cold winter of 1740 in north west Wales?Table of ContentsThe Magnificent Moustache 11 Tea’s The Thing! 53 What’s In A Name? 99 Bommington’s Biscuits 137 The King And i 175 The Red Dragon Of Wales 215

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Book Synopsis‘Love in Fragments’ describes the psycho-sexual journey of Ralph Edwards, a successful barrister who has just applied to become a Queen’s Counsel, and is happily married to Virginia, an attractive and popular GP. When he meets a younger woman, Tina, he is surprised to find himself immediately physically attracted to her and then, to his bewilderment, he falls in love with her. He decides to leave his wife - who perceives a simple mid-life crisis. The narrative charts the breakdown of Ralph’s marriage, his new relationship with Tina, their respective divorces and the consequences. The story develops in parallel with an account of their formative and later sexual experiences, which suggests that, not only are they not honest with each other, but they have difficulty being honest even with themselves. The novel explores their respective issues of fidelity, possession, and jealousy. Pat Llewellyn, the creator and producer of ‘Two Fat Ladies’, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ etc said she found the novel, ‘dark, chilling and occasionally repulsive’. Malcolm McCulloch, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, and expert witness in the Yorkshire Ripper trial, commented, ‘below the bodice-ripping surface the reader is treated to a master class of psychological description. Ralph’s journey through life turns into a tragedy which touches all his circle. Those of a sensitive disposition should not reflect too deeply in front of this particular looking-glass’. Sian Reeves, the television actress, said, ‘I loved every moment’.

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Book SynopsisDelve into a world of change and reinvention. Where relationships are as delicate as turtle eggs, and just as easily smashed. This poignant short story collection explores the pivotal moments that transform our lives. Jenny, whose life is defined by small disasters, discovers a bigger, more generous version of herself. A traveller girl might just win her race and alter her life's course. A widow, cut off in a riverside backwater, opens her heart to a stranger. In this captivating collection by award-winning writer, Alice Fowler, readers will be moved by the raw vulnerability of human connection, and the resilience that allows us to grow and thrive in the face of hardship. In change, Fowler's characters find the ability to be truly free.Trade Review"Poignant and perfectly paced, these lovely stories lean towards happy outcomes, compassionate compromises, unexpectedly rewarding friendships and good deeds." - Eithen Farry, The Daily Mail, UK. "These are precious things: stories written with delicacy and heart. Chance meetings and significant moments are rendered precisely and to such moving effect, in this deeply skilful and wise collection." - Wendy Erskine; "A wonderful, flawless and fantastic collection. The one book you MUST buy this year if you want to read a masterclass of affecting writing." - Linda Hill's Book Bag; "Alice Fowler's collection of short stories capture precise and intimate moments of being. Caught out by sudden and capricious turns in emotion, Fowler asks us to observe the whimsical, often callow, responses humans make as they declare who they are in the face of grievance and loss: humans preparing to start again. Fowler's spare and modest style underscores a particular sensitivity to the relationship between individuals and their natural environment; the way in which green spaces and forms of botanical and organic life can alleviate and disperse negative emotion, entangled, unresolved habits of mind." - Sally Bayley; "Fowler has weaved a collection of stories out of fine, tender threads. Each one vibrates with her compassionate observation of life in its multitudinous forms." - Vanessa Onwuemezi; "These elegant, atmospheric short stories are filled with passion, renewal and movement. Each has a certain quiet strength all of its own, drawing us into rich histories and dramatic moments of change." - Imogen Robertson

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Book Synopsis"I have long since ceased to be surprised at how often incidents in my village end up with someone in the river..." My Village in the Valley is a quiet unassuming place where, on the whole, very little happens. Until, that is, we all get together to tackle aggressive drivers, disputed footpaths, yapping hearthrugs and the ubiquitous village fete. In my Village in the Valley, nothing is ever simple ... Original comedy from TV and radio scriptwriter Michael Bartlett (The Archers, BBC Radio Drama)Trade Review"Absolutely one of the best laugh out loud books you can treat yourself to ... IN SUMMARY- I would love this book to become a new sitcom. The writing is very visual, the characters are credible and the situations so utterly bonkers they are probably true!" ~ Goodreads reviewer

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Book SynopsisI’m anonymous. Irrelevant next to the real presence - the paint on the canvas … The hidden life of an artist is told through the work they leave behind. But every painting holds its secrets. And when your story has already been told in a painting by another's hand, sometimes it’s easier to live with the myth than admit the truth … Featuring Frida Kahlo, Laura Knight, Victorine Meurent and Suzanne Valadon, inspired by the life of Pre-Raphaelite painter Joanna Boyce. "An absorbing, modern retelling of artist Joanna Boyce. One of my favourites of the year so far"; "A book all students of art history should read"; "Definitely left its mark on me … 5 stars"Trade Review"Definitely left its mark on me ... 5 stars" -- Goodreads reviewer; "An absorbing, modern retelling of artist Joanna Boyce. One of my favourites of the year so far" -- Ems_bookscapes; "A book all students of art history should read" -- Instragram review; "Practically a feminist manifesto for women artists ... a love story about the hidden lives of artists and the urge to create ... Fabulously full of everything I didn't expect" -- Cotswold Life magazine

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Book SynopsisMalmoe, Sweden. A cellist meets a spun-out junkie. That could have been me. His mind starts to glitch between his memories and the avant-garde music he loves, and he descends into his past, hearing all over again the chaotic song of his youth. He emerges to a different sound, heading for a crash. From sprawling housing projects to underground clubs and squat parties, Wretchedness is a blistering trip through the underbelly of Europe's cities. Powered by a furious, unpredictable beat, this is a paean to brotherhood, to those who didn't make it however hard they fought, and a visceral indictment of the poverty which took them.Trade Review'An utterly phenomenal read: a masterclass in hyper-modernist experimentation, voice and form. Embracing the bitter realities of addiction, prejudice and inner-city turmoil, Tichy's rapid prose roves internal dialogues, places, vernaculars and circumstances to expose a singular, absorbed world struggling to keep itself afloat. Through a complex network of characters, friends and strangers we're made to think about the ways the human spirit can fall into despair, its ability to establish resolve, to love and remember, and the myriad philosophies it leaves us with.' Anthony Anaxagorou----'A deeply musical book . . . and it is testament to Nichola Smalley's skill that this musicality survives translation . . . Wretchedness is sensitive and compelling.' Jon Day, Financial Times----'[The] tension between polyphony and cacophony is exhilarating . . . this furious novel's brevity is deceptive; getting through it requires stamina, but our brief stay in the cellist's mind is powerfully, nightmarishly unforgettable.' Peter Brown, The TLS----'What matters [in this novel] is how it all sounds, the clashes and stresses in the language and the energy of the surface, how it strives, ascends, descends, and trembles, like a tug-of war between weight and levity (to paraphrase a description from the book of Scelsi's Fourth String Quartet).' Caleb Klaces, The White Review----'Wretchedness is a wild intoxicant of language, momentum, and voice. Andrzej Tichy is a master of despair.' Patty Yumi Cottrell ----'Some kind of holy/unholy meeting of Thomas Bernhard and The Geto Boys, Wretchedness is an anguished, brutal, beautiful piece of phantasmagoric-realism, an act of remembrance through imagination, animated by rhythm, and pouring past you with the inevitability of the tide coming in. Brilliantly written, superbly translated, this small book packs in more sadness and moments of epiphany, more hopelessness and hope, more surviving - more life! - than most writers manage in a whole career. Remarkable.' Will Ashon ----'The past is so close behind in Nichola Smalley's translation of Tichy's precise maelstrom of memory, music and survival - on the margins of this and every city - that you can smell the chemicals on its breath. There's nothing to lose and too much to lose; no escape and all our escapes. Keep going. Read it and be thankful for Andrzej Tichy.' Tony White ----'A bravura, urgent head-trip of a novel, replete with compassion, rage, and gimlet-eyed observation on every page. Essential reading - us English-speakers are lucky to have Tichy's work available in translation at last.' Luke Kennard ----'A powerful, voice-driven novel that remains in the mind long after the final page. Tichy brings everything to life: circumstances and people we'd rather ignore, with a flow resembling music.' Derek Owusu ----'The pleasures of this book are immediate, brilliant and deeply unreasonable. Every person and every thought is intensely present. It demeans nothing.' Caleb Klaces ----'Wretchedness is a red-blooded ode to the most invisible and unwanted in society - immigrant workers, the homeless, addicts, and those born into the hardest of circumstances. Tichy's gasping, polyphonic prose flies through time and space and drug-induced states, flinging us between disturbing recollections, hopeless presents, and deferred or tainted futures - all connected by bittersour camaraderies and the remedying power of music.' Jen Calleja----'Graphic depictions of crime, racism, poverty, drug use and violence are rendered through paragraph-free slabs of text that propulsively veer between voices and minds, times and locations. As well as the Swedish estates, the novel draws on Tichy's experiences of living in Hamburg and London to paint a picture of a pan-European community of the excluded passing through squats, underground clubs, petty scams and cash-only employment. [...] Tichy's early creative life centered on music and there is a sense of musicality inherent Wretchedness.' Nicholas Wroe, Guardian ----'Visceral . . . a fascinating read, the real-life details of which further bolster the fiction . . . This is nightmarish, impressionistic literature whose disjointed sentences have an associative flow that accumulates to a shocking whole.' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times ----'There is a kind of unholy music in this powerful, punchy, perceptive novel.' Eithne Farry, Daily Mail ----'The polyphony of voices is tightly interwoven . . . arranged into a narrative resembling a complex musical composition . . . The book ends abruptly, as an avant-garde piece of music might, but the vibrations continue to fill the air.'Anna Aslanyan, The Guardian ----'A blurry tornado of voices and timelines, this short novel unspools over eight paragraphs of run-on sentences swirling around the memories of a cellist raised on an estate outside Malmoe . . . the novel builds to an unexpectedly heart-stopping . . . finale, with a frame-breaking time-slip that invites us to reconsider everything we've just read as a stylistically radical expression of survivor's guilt.'Anthony Cummins, Book of the Day The Observer ----'An inventive, linguistically adept experiment.' Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisLinguistically dexterous, scintillating with intelligence and wit, and balancing incisive observation with deep compassion, the short fictions in Y Knots draw us into the lives of characters we feel completely involved with. Here we have a hall of mirrors in which the writer mines his soul for images that reflect the story. But in interrogating the self, what Omar Sabbagh produces is an engaging array of unique perspectives on all our souls.Trade ReviewIf, as Sabbagh writes, writing is always a performance and projection of a self, then Y Knots is the performance of a self breath-takingly prodigious and heterodox. That Sabbagh is able to weave this self into characters whose tussles leap off the page so compellingly shows a master at work. — Peter Salmon, author of An Event, Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida;Y Knots hold the Hanging Gardens of Babylon teleported into the tired aridity of a postmodern mind. The lushness of Sabbagh’s characters and settings is nurtured with such loving drip-irrigation precision that you'll find yourself enamored with both his beauties and his beasts. — Svetlana Lavochkina, novelist, poet, translator;Intelligent and passionate, these stories are singularities that make all the difference. Sabbagh seems to be, as he describes one of his characters, ‘an inexorably-thinking man’, but there is a certain rawness and playfulness to the stories which makes the philosophical grounding often quite hilarious. Sabbagh is also a unique chronicler of the Middle East and globalization. — Adnan Mahmutovic, author of At the Feet of Mothers

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Book SynopsisAn angry spat in a Cornish pub haunts two men, an activist and a politician, across decades, leading them onto an iceberg with a ravenous polar bear as their sole company. A heart-pounding tale of enduring love and tragedy against the backdrop of climate catastrophe.

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Book SynopsisMarianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete. Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?Trade ReviewAn interview with author Siân Hughes: ‘the heart of the mystery is this dangerous ground of motherhood’ – Lucy Writers Platform -- Rym Kechacha * Lucy Writers *

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Book SynopsisIn a town full of secrets the truth must be uncovered before it's buried forever. When a police detective is found murdered in the town of Wakestead, all clues point to local woman Amma Reynolds. Amma has a clear motive. She hates the police for failing to properly investigate her brother's death, which was written off as an accidental drowning. Amma has always believed her brother was murdered. Could she have killed DI Mark Stormont in revenge?Former detective and private investigator Erin Crane is hired to find out. As she digs deeper, Erin realises that first she needs to uncover why Amma's brother turned up dead in a river all those years ago. Even if it means tearing her friendship with DI Lewis Jennings apart. Because there are some secrets the Wakestead police force would rather stay buriedPraise for previous novel The Blame;'Searingly topical' The Telegraph on The Blame'Shocking' Heat on The Blame

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for The Women's Prize for Fiction 2019, The Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 and The People's Book Prize 2018. 'Enjoyable to read' - Dolly Alderton, The High Low. When Alina's brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her husband become persons of interest to the secret services, causing both of their careers to come grinding to a halt. As the strain takes its toll on their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for help - the wife of a communist leader and a secret practitioner of the old folk ways. Set in 1970s communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles that can't be put down. 'A story to savour, to smile at, to rage against and to weep over.' - Zoe Gilbert, author of 'Folk'Trade Review‘A story to savour, to smile at, to rage against and to weep over’ – Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk; ‘Sophie van Llewyn’s stunning debut novella shows us there is no dystopian fiction as frightening as that which draws on history’ —Christina Dalcher, author of 'VOX'; ‘A masterful blend of the political and the personal, the magical and the mundane, the historical and the hyperbolic' —Ingrid Jendrzejewski, editor-in-chief of FlashBack Fiction; ‘This is an impressive debut in the tradition of Eastern European Absurdist fiction’ —Jude Higgins, Bath Flash Fiction Award organiser; ‘Sophie van Llewyn has brought light into an era which cast a long shadow’ —Joanna Campbell, author of When Planets Slip Their Tracks; ‘The uncertainties of life and love, and the insatiable quest for freedom – bottled neatly in a set of stories that captivate and enchant’ —Michelle Elvy, coordinator of New Zealand’s Flash Fiction Day and Bath Flash Fiction Award judge; ‘A tour de force, a harrowing and ultimately triumphant story, a must-read by a masterful writer’ —Christopher Allen, author of 'Other Household Toxins'; ‘A dizzying, daring window on life in Ceausescu’s Romania’ —Stephanie Hutton, author of 'Three Sisters of Stone'; ‘A lucid and powerfully affecting story’ —Helen Rye, winner of the Bath Flash Fiction Award; ‘This stunning historical novella […] is both tense and atmospheric’ —Mslexia; 'The prose is tight, witty, vivid and atmospheric […] Every word on the page pulls its weight’ —Litro; ‘Van Llewyn’s use of language is hypnotic and the worlds she creates stark and grotesque, calling to mind Shirley Jackson or Muriel Spark’ —Smokelong magazine

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Book SynopsisModern-day New York, a subway train. David, an American-Jewish jazz musician, torn between his dreams and his parents' expectations, sees a woman across the carriage. Ameena, a British-Pakistani artist who left Manchester to escape the pressure from her conservative family, sees David. When a moment of sublime beauty occurs unexpectedly, the two connect, moved by their shared experience. From this flows a love that it appears will triumph above all. But as David and Ameena navigate their relationship, their ambitions and the city they love, they discover the external world is not so easy to keep at bay. Ami Rao's masterful debut novel picks apart the lives of two people, stripping them of their collective identities and, in doing so, facing up to the challenge of today: can love give us the freedom to accept our differences?Trade Review'Exquisite. Beautiful. Provocative. I love her writing' —Jim Lawless, author of 'Taming Tiger'; 'I've never read such an accurate and telling evocation of the additional complications of personal creative expression. Its truth makes it hard to read in places but Rao's sparkling voice leads you through' —Tim Hayward, writer, broadcaster and columnist; 'A touching story of multicultural love, desire, and achievement with "soul" at its heart. Ami writes in a way that makes you feel you are there in the story with David and Ameena, improvising jazz with David and helping Ameena find honesty in her art - an inspirational read!' —Geoffrey Horton, musician and vocalist; 'Ami Rao intricately weaves threads of love, family, politics and identity to create a beautiful, and very real, modern love story that sparkles beneath a New York skyline' —Huma Qureshi, author of How We Met; 'One of the most emotionally rich and mesmerising novels I've read in some time. Rao's gorgeous and graceful writing makes David and Ameena compulsively readable. This book will seduce you, enthral you, and change the way you think about love' —Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Ali: A Life; 'A well-drawn portrait of an adult relationship where individual fears and insecurities are as present as the couple's aspirations for mutual love, support, and future happiness' —Publisher's Weekly; 'This unexpectedly moving, in-depth love story by debut author Ami Rao explores the challenge of differences in background, faith and culture when two people fall in love' —My Weekly; 'Rao makes her solo debut with a novel rich in imagery and emotions. It challenges the reader to look deep into the characters through their actions, as an almost omniscient narrative voice hints at their future. Love or hate them, they are memorable' —Library Journal; 'Easy, sophisticated storytelling...this is a fine romance' —Foreword Reviews

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Book SynopsisA gripping story of a young woman growing up in the harsh setting of a Nevada ranch in the 1940s. No More Giants combines a deep love for the land with a bracingly honest view of family conflicts and the loss of dreams. Jenny struggles to survive and escape from the frustrations and hatred of her parents. Ignored when first published, No More Giants is now recognized as a classic work about women in the American West.

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Book SynopsisIt is 1943, and a month into their service as Land Girls, Bee, Anne and Pauline are dispatched to a remote farm in rural Scotland. Here they are introduced to the realities of 'lending a hand on the land', as back-breaking work and inhospitable weather mean they struggle to keep their spirits high. Soon one of the girls falters, and Bee and Pauline receive a new posting to a Northumberland dairy farm. Detailing their friendship, daily struggles and romantic intrigues with a lightness of touch, Barbara Whitton's autobiographical novel paints a sometimes funny, sometimes bleak picture of time spent in the Women's Land Army during the Second World War.Trade Review"Terrific." * Daily Mail (UK) *“Charming and evocative. . . . It offers a light-hearted snapshot into [Whitton’s] experiences, including the friendships and romances, as the story follows three young and inexperienced Land Girls. The author’s evident enjoyment of this period in her life shines through but those less rosy aspects are also confronted, including the back-breaking nature of the work and the sexism many women faced as they took on a variety of roles, traditionally performed by men." * Militaria & History *"Witty, warm and hugely endearing, Barbara Whitton's Green Hands is full of engaging characters, burgeoning friendships and pure hard-graft. A lovely novel for anyone interested in wartime Britain, it leaves the reader with renewed admiration for the indefatigable work of the Women's Land Army." -- AJ Pearce, author of Dear Mrs Bird"Tales from the home front are always more authentic when written from personal experience, as is the case here. Barbara Whitton evokes the highs and lows, joys and agonies of being a Land Girl in the Second World War." -- Julie Summers, author of Jambusters

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Book SynopsisBeginning with a story of an ex sex-worker drifting through a rural town in South America, and ending with a young woman's sinister wedding night, Nash writes across the complications of working class women, rendering their desires with visceral prose and psychologically dissecting the fundamental root that threads her work: craving and the conflicts within.Trade Review"Nudes is a collection that feels multigenerational. It crawls across the soggy cigarette ash carpets of single wide America to upscale apartments and the discolored bathtubs of suicide motels. Elle Nash shows the ugly venal addictions of a post-last call society." Jake Blackwood (Twitter)

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Book SynopsisA by turns humorous, touching and harrowing story concerning Yu-Jie, a Social Media Manager for a local MP facing a PR disaster in the midst of a wave of social outrage stirred up by a troubling crime.

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Book SynopsisDoppelganger consists of two stories that skillfully revisit the question of "doubles" (famously explored by Stevenson, Dostoyevsky and others), and how an individual is perpetually caught between their own beliefs and those imposed on them by society. `Arthur and Isabella' is a story of the relationship between two elderly people who meet on New Year's Eve - a romantic encounter which turns into a grotesque portrayal of the loneliness of old age. The second story `Pupi' - a strange mirror of the first - centres on the life of a man who ends up on the streets and associates only with street-sellers the rhinoceroses in the zoo. Together these tales crate the highly original atmosphere that Drndic t is famous for in all her works.Trade Review"The capacity to see the bricolage of a reticent, morally compromised, elegiac past-and, more unsettlingly, how that past might see us-is a central feature of the work of the Croatian writer Dasa Drndic." Dustin Illingworth, Paris Review; `Drndic is relentless; her righteousness is passionate. Human anguish seeps from the pages, yet her writing proves unexpectedly exhilarating.'m Eileen Battersby, LA Review of Books; `Dasa Drndic is a writer who digs tunnels and refuses to make compromises; her prose attracts the same uncompromising readers.' Zdravko Zima, Novi List

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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