Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisWhat could be more commonplace than grass, or a world covered over all its surface with a wind-whipped ocean of grass? But the planet Grass conceals horrifying secrets within its endless pastures. And as an incurable plague attacks all inhabited planets but this one, the prairie-like Grass begins to reveal these secrets - and nothing will ever be the same again ...

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Book SynopsisJames Frey isn't like other writers. He's been called a liar. A cheat. A con man. He's been called a saviour. A revolutionary. A genius. He's been sued by readers. Dropped by publishers because of his controversies. Berated by TV talk-show hosts and condemned by the media. He's been exiled from America, and driven into hiding. He's also a bestselling phenomenon. Published in 38 languages, and beloved by readers around the world. What scares people about Frey is that he plays with truth; that fine line between fact and fiction. Now he has written his greatest work, his most revolutionary, his most controversial. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible.What would you do if you discovered the Messiah were alive today? Living in New York. Sleeping with men. Impregnating young women. Euthanizing the dying, and healing the sick. Defying the government, and condemning the holy. What would you do if you met him? And he changed your life. Would you believe? Would you?The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. It will change you. Hurt you. Scare you. Make you think differently. Live differently. Enrage you. Offend you. Open your eyes to the world in which we live. We've waited 2,000 years for the Messiah to arrive. We've waited 2,000 years for this book to be written. He was here. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible is the story of his life.Trade ReviewBold, brilliant, honest * Erica Wagner, The Times *Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant: every page is great. * A N Wilson, Financial Times *This is a wonderful book, which one picks up with enthusiasm and puts down with reluctance * Lionel Shriver, The Times *Compelling as both a thriller and a provocative riposte to religious orthodoxies * Guardian *Unputdownable * Sunday Times *It's a truly brilliant book - beautiful, moving and thoughtful, yet entertaining and gripping too * Matthew Cain, Channel 4 *A gently humorous, surprisingly plausible, rather charming read * Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian *Exhilarating . . . It grabs you by the throat * Julie Myserson, New Statesman *Compulsive reading * Elle *A work of towering ambition, heartbreaking drama and devilish skill * Shortlist *A powerful page-turner that questions conventional political and religious mortality * She *

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Book SynopsisFeaturing a brand new introduction from Sunday Times bestselling author, Clare Mackintosh, talking about what Jackie and her books mean to her!  'Jackie's heroines don't take off their clothes to please a man, but to please themselves' CLARE MACKINTOSH'Jackie Collins’s daring, unapologetic stroke of the pen, combined with her glorious wit, has single-handedly given creative license to new generations of authors and storytellers.' COLLEEN HOOVER Fashion designer Jamie Nova is celebrating her impending divorce in Las Vegas with her two best friends when she meets a billionaire playboy. Things heat up quickly and her friends receive a midnight phone call telling them he’s in Jamie’s bed. The only problem? He’s dead…Don't miss this dazzling page-turner, packed with desire, sex, revenge and love. There have been

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Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times bestseller comes a warm, tender and utterly hilarious story about love and betrayal ‘The feeling you get when you read a Milly Johnson book should be bottled and made available on the NHS’ Debbie JohnsonLove can sting. Or make you fly ... Romance writer and single mum Stevie Honeywell has only weeks to go to her wedding when her fiancé Matthew runs off with her glamorous new friend Jo MacLean. It feels like history repeating itself for Stevie, but this time she is determined to win back her man. She isn't going to act as he might expect. She isn't going to wail and dig her heels in, she is simply going to pretend to let him go whilst she pursues a mad course of dieting, exercising and self-improvement. And it feels like history is repeating itself for Adam MacLean too, who is also determined to win his lady, Jo, back with the same basic psychological tactics. Then he is going to initiate his master plan: Getting together with Stevie to drive Jo wild with jealousy. So, like the Scottish country jig 'The Birds and the Bees', the couples all change partners and learn some revealing truths about each other along the way. But what happens when Adam's master plan actually starts to work? And just who will Stevie be dancing with when the music stops?Praise for Milly Johnson: 'Every time you discover a new Milly book, it’s like finding a pot of gold' heat 'A glorious, heartfelt novel' Rowan Coleman ‘Absolutely loved it. Milly's writing is like getting a big hug with just the right amount of bite underneath. I was rooting for Bonnie from the start' Jane Fallon ‘Bursting with warmth and joie de vivre’ Jill Mansell ‘Warm, optimistic and romantic’ Katie FfordTrade Review‘An irresistibly warm and romantic read’ -- Sunday Express S Magazine on Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage‘Another gem from Milly Johnson’ * The Sun on Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage *

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Book SynopsisTerrifying secrets, torn loyalties, love versus duty, the gripping story of a young actress caught up in highly dangerous events in 1930s Berlin... Berlin, 1933. Warning bells ring across Europe as Hitler comes to power. Clara Vine, an attractive young Anglo-German actress, arrives in Berlin to find work at the famous Ufa studios. Through a chance meeting, she is unwillingly drawn into a circle of Nazi wives, among them Magda Goebbels, Anneliese von Ribbentrop and Goering's girlfriend Emmy Sonnemann. As part of his plan to create a new pure German race, Hitler wants to make sweeping changes to the lives of women, starting with the formation of a Reich Fashion Bureau, instructing women on what to wear and how to behave. Clara is invited to model the dowdy, unflattering clothes. Then she meets Leo Quinn who is working for British intelligence and who sees in Clara the perfect recruit to spy on her new elite friends, using her acting skills to win their confidence. But when Magda Goebbels reveals to Clara a dramatic secret and entrusts her with an extraordinary mission, Clara feels threatened, compromised, desperately caught between her duty towards - and growing affection for - Leo, and the impossibly dangerous task Magda has forced upon her.Trade Review'The perfect fusion of history, suspense and high romance' * The Times on Black Roses *'A thoughtful but fast-moving novel' * Reader's Digest on Black Roses *'This well-researched story unfolds with utterly knuckle-whitening suspense, and it was my favourite escapist read of the year' * Saga Magazine on Black Roses *'Terrific' -- Elizabeth Buchan * The Sunday Times on Black Roses *'Jane Thynne's smooth writing, sensitive understanding of the era and sharp observations combine into an excellent historical thriller' -- Jessica Mann * Literary Review on Black Roses *'Fast-paced and gripping' * The Sunday Times on The Winter Garden *'A thoroughly enjoyable read: fast-paced, atmospheric and genuinely suspenseful' * Mail on Sunday on The Winter Garden *'Both historically fascinating and a proper thriller' * Reader's Digest on The Winter Garden *'An absolute cracker of a read...Thynne expertly maintains the suspense, while evoking the tension of Berlin as the city gathers its strength for war' * The Times on The Winter Garden *'A thumpingly good read with a strong denouement' * Mail on Sunday on The Winter Garden *'So convincing one forgets that it is a piece of fiction' * The Lady on The Winter Garden *'Pre-war Germany's atmosphere of reprehension, terror and Nazi hubris is vividly evoked in a gripping but sad tale' -- Jessica Mann * Literary Review on The Winter Garden *'A tale of suspense and intrigue...Thynne's grasp of the period is first-class, and she has woven in a tender wartime love story' * Mail on Sunday on A War of Flowers *'Darkly brooding horror hangs over Germany; an irresistible page-turner packed with historical detail and told from a most unusual perspective' * Kirkus Reviews on Faith and Beauty *‘This is the fourth of the addictive ‘Clara Vine’ novels, set in Berlin on the eve of war. Clara is a half-German British agent with access to the inner circle of Nazi wives. Portraits of women such as Magda Goebbels and Eva Braun are ruthlessly truthful, but drawn with compassion. It is early 1939, and Clara is drawn into investigating the murder of a girl at the League of Faith and Beauty finishing school. Brilliant’ * Saga magazine on Faith and Beauty *

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Book SynopsisThe irresistible new novel set between 1960s Tuscany and present-day Devon, from number one bestseller Santa Montefiore Ten-year-old Floriana is captivated by the beauty of the magnificent Tuscan villa just outside her small village, and dreams of living there someday. When Dante, the son of the villa's owner, invites her inside, she knows that her destiny is there, with him. But as they grow up they cross an unseen line, jeopardizing the very thing they hold most dear… Decades later and hundreds of miles away, a beautiful old country house hotel on England's Devon coast has fallen on hard times. Its owner, Marina, hires an artist-in-residence to stay the summer and teach the guests how to paint. The man she finds is charismatic and wise and begins to pacify the discord in her family and transform the fortunes of the hotel. However, it soon becomes clear that he is not who he seems… From the Italian countryside to the English coast, The House by the Sea is a moving and mysterious tale of love, forgiveness and the past revealed. This book has been published in the US under the title The Mermaid Garden.Trade Review‘This is Santa Montefiore at her best – an enchanting read overflowing with deliciously poignant moments. If you love a heartfelt, epic trilogy this is for you. I loved it and can’t wait for more’ -- Dinah Jefferies, author of The Tea Planter's Wife, on Songs of Love and War‘Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore. Everything she writes, she writes from the heart’ -- Jojo Moyes‘A multigenerational banquet of love: falling in, falling out, rediscovering,rekindling. The Beekeeper’s Daughter features sophisticated, irresistible backdrops and brilliantly drawn characters that made it one of the most engrossing reads of my year’ -- Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Matchmaker, on The Beekeeper's Daughter‘I raced through this feel-good romantic story, which spans continents and decades’ -- Fanny Blake * Woman & Home on The Beekeeper's Daughter *‘This deeply romantic saunter is an ideal summer read. Laced with secrets and forbidden liaisons, it is sure to keep you turning the pages’ * The Lady on The Beekeeper's Daughter *‘Santa Montefiore is the new Rosamunde Pilcher’ * Daily Mail *‘A superb storyteller of love and death in romantic places in fascinating times’ * Vogue *‘A gripping romance . . . it is as believable as the writing is beautiful’ * Daily Telegraph *‘Anyone who likes Joanne Harris or Mary Wesley will love Montefiore’ * Mail on Sunday *‘One of our personal favourites and bestselling authors, sweeping stories of love and families spanning continents and decades’ * The Times *‘Engaging and charming’ -- Penny Vincenzi

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Book SynopsisOriginally published between 1985 and 2012, these stories offer an enthralling introduction to the work of one of contemporary fiction's greatest magicians, and a map of Gerald Murnane's evolution as a writer. Spare, transparent and profane, This career-spanning volume ranges from 'Finger Web', a fractal tale of the scars of war and the roots of misogyny, to 'Land Deal', which imagines Australia's colonisation and the ultimate vengeance of its indigenous people as a series of nested dreams, to 'The Interior of Gaaldine', a story which finds its anxious protagonist stranded beyond the limits of fiction itself, and which points the way toward Murnane's later works, from Barley Patch to Border Districts. With potent style and determined vision, Murnane creates sensitive portraits of intimate relationships - with parents, uncles and aunts, and particularly children - and probes each situation for anxiety and embarrassment, shame or delight. Murnane treats emotions and thoughts as he does minor objects: he shines light through them and makes them new, remaking the vessel of literature as he goes.Trade Review`As Murnane remarks, "My writing was not an attempt to produce something called literature but an attempt to discover meaning", and his insistence on the artifice of written enterprise bears witness to a thoroughness and integrity that far outweigh the minor virtue - or minor vice - of readability.' Adrian Nathan West Times Literary Supplement ----`A voice so clear, so unaffected, that it's a voice for everyone.' Benjamin H, Ogden, The New York Times ----'The sentences are laid on like varnish, coat after coat, until the text gleams with a high shine. Immaculate in its unadorned plainness ...his prose achieves a crystalline beauty.' The New Republic

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Fiction. From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, Commonwealth and Bel Canto, Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Pen/Faulkner Award. A magician (with one memorable appearance on the Johnny Carson Show to his credit) takes the name Parsifal. He is gay. He has a Vietnamese lover, Phan. When Phan dies of AIDS, Parsifal marries the woman who has always adored him and who has lived with them both, his assistant Sabine. Then Parsifal himself dies in California, suddenly and shockingly, of an aneurysm. Parsifal always said that he had no living family and that he came from wealthy upscale Connecticut stock. The reality is very different, as Sabine learns from his lawyer. He came from a poor Nebraska family and they are very much alive. Indeed his mother and sister are on their way to California to meet Sabine, the daughter- and sister-in-law they know nothing about. It is bad that her husband has died. What Sabine must now cope with is coming to terms with his horrific past and the reason he divorced himself from his family and roots.Trade Review‘Original, sparkling, funny and sad – a book you read in one gulp and want to revisit immediately’ Penelope Lively, Daily Telegraph ‘A delicate exploration of impossible love and new-found friendship’ Guardian ‘The kindliness of The Magician's Assistant is beguiling, and Patchett is an adroit, graceful writer’ Suzanne Berne, New York Times Book Review

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Book Synopsis'Someone has written that all art aspires to the condition of music. My experience is that all art, including all music, aspires to the condition of horse-racing.' This collection of essays leads the reader into the searching and wildly fertile imagination of Gerald Murnane, one of the masters of contemporary Australian writing, author of the classics Border Districts and Tamarisk Row, and winner of the Patrick White Literary Award. He writes of himself: as a boy making racehorses of his marbles, an obsession shared with Jack Kerouac; as a writer, working his first ten years in secret; as a reader, trying to understand the mystery of the right sentence by way of Virginia Woolf and Robert Frost; as a teacher, exploring the endless ways in which words can express the contours of our thoughts. From these vantage points Murnane sees the worlds of significance that lie within, or just beyond, the everyday details of Australian life. Carrying the reader with him across the valleys, plains and grasslands of his mind, this singular author creates an immersive landscape in which every word has its own space, shape and weight.Trade Review`As a writer, Murnane is [thus] a radical idealist' J.M. Coetzee ----`Strange and wonderful and nearly impossible to describe.' New York Times ---- `Murnane, a genius, is a worthy heir to Beckett.' Teju Cole

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Book Synopsis'Midway through my fortieth year, I reached a point where the balance of the past and all it contained seemed to outweigh the future, my mind so full of things said and not said, done and undone, I no longer understood how to move forward' May is at a crossroads. Although her career as a gardener for the university is flourishing, the rest of her life has narrowed to a parched routine. Her father is elderly, her brother estranged, and she keeps her neighbours at arm's length. The missing element, she realises, might be friendship. As May sets off on a journey to visit four neglected friends one-by-one, she holds herself (and them) to humorously high standards, while at home she begins to confront the pain of her past and imagine for herself a different kind of future. May's quest becomes an exploration of the power, and perhaps limits, of modern friendship.

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Book Synopsis‘Extraordinary’ Heidi Swain‘Life-affirming’ Hazel Prior‘Big-hearted’ Caroline Day‘Beautiful’ Julietta Henderson‘Heartwarming’ Daily Mail‘Unputdownable’ My Weekly‘A joy’ Good Housekeeping  Joe loves predictability. But his life is about to become a surprising adventure. Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like his dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, he’s good at his job, good at making things and good at following the rules, and he’s learning how to do lots of things by himself. Joe’s mother knows there are a million things in life he isn’t

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Book Synopsis'A thoroughly gripping and mesmerising work of black comedy and political disaster' - GuardianWinner of the 2017 Prix GoncourtÉric Vuillard’s gripping novel The Order of the Day tells the story of the pivotal meetings which took place between the European powers in the run-up to World War Two. What emerges is a fascinating and incredibly moving account of failed diplomacy, broken relationships, and the catastrophic momentum which led to conflict.The titans of German industry – set to prosper under the Nazi government – gather to lend their support to Adolf Hitler. The Austrian Chancellor realizes too late that he has wandered into a trap, as Hitler delivers the ultimatum that will lay the groundwork for Germany’s annexation of Austria. Winston Churchill joins Neville Chamberlain for a farewell luncheon held in honour of Joachim von Ribbentrop: German Ambassador to England, soon to be Foreign Minister in the Nazi government, and future defendant at the Nuremberg trials.Suffused with dramatic tension, this unforgettable novel tells the tragic story of how the actions of a few powerful men brought the world to the brink of war.Trade ReviewA tightly paced and gripping read . . . Vuillard has written a magnificently entertaining account that manages to capture the wild and uneven emotional climate of the 1930s and speaks too to our own era of liars, demagogues and politics as farce, which, as Vuillard deftly shows us, can slide all too quickly into tragedy. -- Andrew Hussey * Observer *A thoroughly gripping and mesmerising work of black comedy and political disaster. It seems designed single-mindedly to remind us that, as it says, “Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps. * Guardian *Remarkable . . . It captures the bizarre blend of wishful thinking, clownish self-importance, and cold calculation that characterized many of the Nazis’ powerful enablers. * New Yorker *Gripping . . . The method of [The Order of the Day] is to peel away the veils of dissimulation, disguise and self-justification that conspire to make historical disasters appear as just the way things happen. * Wall Street Journal *Quietly momentous. * Evening Standard *A chilling, gripping novel – it takes a number of key moments in the run-up to the Second World War and uses tremendous skill and verve to dramatize hours and minutes in which often quite ordinary men took decisions that would destroy whole nations. -- Simon Winder, author of GermaniaOffering us a seat at the jolly lunches and country retreats where a handful of men condemned their nations to unthinkable slaughter, The Order of the Day is a powerful warning that cowardice saves no one, not even the coward. -- Alex Christofi, author of GlassBeautifully and economically crafted . . . The Order of the Day is a stark examination of the price of silence, the cost of sticking to the rules to keep the peace, and the human toll when ruling elites not only go along to get along, but support the ravings of a violent and vengeful leader. * Millions *A book whose staggering power lies in its simplicity. * Le Monde *A powerful story you read in one go, with astonishment and dread. * La Presse *Just brilliant. [ . . . ] Vuillard shows what literature is capable of in its moments of greatness: a lightning-like transformation of a tired, old, and far too often told story into a shocking new narrative. * Der Spiegel *Brief and striking . . . history behind the scenes. * L'Express *Snatched from oblivion, these scenes spring to life in our minds like a jack-in-the-box. * Le Figaro Littéraire *A fascinating novelisation of the pivotal meetings that took place in the run up to the Second World War . . . A damning indictment of politicians and those in power, with obvious resonances in today’s global political climate. * Big Issue *Striking imaginative flair . . . Vuillard explores the thoughts and feelings of his protagonists with nimble facility in this tour de force of enhanced realism. * i *Eerily resonant . . . a story of ultimatums and compromises, forced agreements and wishful thinking among European powers. * The Times *Vuillard has a good eye for issues such as war, empire, the fate of colonized peoples, and the gulf between perception and reality…[His] prose – muscular, concrete, richly inventive, ironic, sardonic, opinionated – is no doubt the feature of The Order of the Day that most appealed to the Goncourt jury. Vuillard is expert at black humor. * New York Review of Books *[The Order of the Day] scripts the awful behind-the-scenes march, with all its corporate and foreign complicity, from 1933 to Hitler’s rise to power in ways so closely observed it feels lived. -- Best Books of the Year * Boston Globe *[A] masterpiece . . . [Vuillard] illuminates in glorious and ugly precision how the concentration of wealth and power, a cult of personality, political corruption, bigotry, and narcissism are the necessary but sometimes ignored steps that lead to catastrophe. -- Favorite Books of the Year * Literary Hub *

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Book SynopsisThe Witch is dead. After a group of children playing near the irrigation canals discover her decomposing corpse, the village of La Matosa is rife with rumours about how and why this murder occurred. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, Fernanda Melchor paints a moving portrait of lives governed by poverty and violence, machismo and misogyny, superstition and prejudice. Written with an infernal lyricism that is as affecting as it is enthralling, Hurricane Season, Melchor's first novel to appear in English, is a formidable portrait of Mexico and its demons, brilliantly translated by Sophie Hughes.Trade Review'Brutal, relentless, beautiful, fugal, Hurricane Season explores the violent mythologies of one Mexican village and reveals how they touch the global circuitry of capitalist greed. This is an inquiry into the sexual terrorism and terror of broken men. This is a work of both mystery and critique. Most recent fiction seems anaemic by comparison.' — Ben Lerner, author of The Topeka School‘Fernanda Melchor has a powerful voice, and by powerful I mean unsparing, devastating, the voice of someone who writes with rage, and has the skill to pull it off.’ — Samanta Schweblin, author of Fever Dream‘This is the Mexico of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian or Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, where the extremes of evil create a pummeling, hyper-realistic effect. But the “elemental cry” of Ms. Melchor’s writing voice, a composite of anger and anguish, is entirely her own.’ — Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal‘A brutal portrait of small-town claustrophobia, in which machismo is a prison and corruption isn’t just institutional but domestic, with families broken by incest and violence. Melchor’s long, snaking sentences make the book almost literally unputdownable, shifting our grasp of key events by continually creeping up on them from new angles. A formidable debut.’ — Anthony Cummins, Observer‘Hurricane Season is a Gulf Coast noir from four characters’ perspectives, each circling a murder more closely than the last. Melchor has an exceptional gift for ventriloquism, as does her translator, Sophie Hughes, who skillfully meets the challenge posed by a novel so rich in idiosyncratic voices. Melchor evokes the stories of Flannery O’Connor, or, more recently, Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings. Impressive.’ — Julian Lucas, The New York Times‘Stomach-churning, molar-grinding, nightmare-inducing, and extraordinarily clear-eyed account of the ordinary horrors men inflict upon women. Melchor refuses to look away, refuses to indulge in fantasy or levity—even in the moments when the novel is laugh-out-loud funny. And lest the far-off reader think the horror is contained to the lives of others, Melchor repeatedly threads the reminders of the long reach of these crimes—and their causes—throughout the narrative.’ — Lucas Iberico Lozada, The Nation‘I found it impossible to look away. Hurricane Season unfurls with the pressure and propulsion of an unforeseen natural disaster, the full force of Melchor’s arresting voice captured in Sophie Hughes’ masterful translation.’ — Lucy Scholes, Financial Times‘A sprawling, heaving thing, and I loved it because I have no idea how Fernanda Melchor was able to write it. The prose has the quality of a storm.’ — Avni Doshi, Guardian Best Books of 2020‘Hurricane Season is, first and foremost, a horror story—its horror coming from rather than contrasting with the lyricism of Melchor’s prose [...] Melchor’s kaleidoscope keeps circling around the untold source of the horrors, and we are increasingly keen to unveil it. This is an effect of the structure of the novel as much as of its writing. Sophie Hughes’s translation renders the expansive, punishing spirit of Mexican slang so impressively that one wonders whether the harsher sounds of English in fact suit the novel better.’ — Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER!What if winning means losing everything?A gripping story of greed, lies and dark family secrets' Lisa JewellUtterly engrossing and brilliant' Lucy FoleyAddictive, provocative brilliantly crafted' TM LoganIt's the stuff dreams are made of a lottery win so big, it changes everything.For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they've discussed the important stuff the kids, marriages, jobs and houses and they've laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There's a rift in the group. Someone doesn't tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth 18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.Sunday Times Number One bestseller ATrade ReviewPraise for Just My Luck: ‘Adele Parks never takes her foot off the gas, every book is tighter, faster, better than the last. Just My Luck is a gripping story of greed, lies and dark family secrets. I read it in a two-day frenzy’ Lisa Jewell ‘Utterly engrossing and brilliant’ Lucy Foley ‘A compelling take on one of those “what if” scenarios that we’ve all wondered about. Addictive, provocative and thoroughly relatable – a brilliantly crafted reminder to be careful what you wish for’ TM Logan ‘An absolute joy: gripping, shocking and surprising. A cautionary tale about what one couple’s sudden wealth can do to old friendships’ Jane Fallon ‘Fabulous… her best yet’ Daily Mail ‘A dark, gripping thriller’ Woman’s Weekly ‘Stupendous! I read this totally compelling modern-day morality tale over a weekend – I couldn’t put it down. As ever, Adele Parks does not disappoint – you’ll love it’ Ruth Jones ‘Like a deft magician, this book reveals its twists only at the very end, I was completely astonished’ Rosamund Lupton ‘This tale of betrayal, envy and wealth is so packed with drama, you won’t be able to put it down’ Heat ‘Something special… Adele has hit another home run – pacy, gripping and full of suspense, this is a novel you’ll still be thinking about for days afterwards’ My Weekly ‘A modern-day tale of (dis)loyalty and toxic friendships as a dream come true turns into a nightmare. Utterly gripping and fiendishly twisty. You'll never do the lottery again' Veronica Henry ‘A brilliant page-turner about the dark side of dreams coming true. The perfect summer read’ Tasmina Perry ‘Dark, devious and twisty, with extraordinarily clever plotting, this is compulsive reading at its best’ Nicola Moriarty ‘Addictive page-turner’ Good Housekeeping ‘A perfect summer read’ Cosmopolitan ‘Turns the phrase “be careful what you wish for” into a brilliantly compelling yet cautionary tale… I loved it!’ Amanda Jennings

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Book Synopsis‘Riveting, profoundly moving’ Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven ‘Beautiful and devastating’ Red‘Thought-provoking and profound’ CosmopolitanImagine a world where sleep could trap you, for days, for weeks, for months…She sleeps through sunrise. She sleeps through sunset. And yet, in those first few hours, the doctors can find nothing else wrong. She looks like an ordinary girl sleeping ordinary sleep.Karen Thompson Walker's second novel tells the mesmerising story of a town transformed by a mystery illness that locks people in perpetual sleep and triggers extraordinary, life-altering dreams.One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her room and falls asleep. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate cannot rouse her. NeitTrade Review‘Harrowing, riveting, profoundly moving, and beautifully written… this book is stunning’ Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven ‘This beautiful and devastating novel has a dream-like quality of its own’ Red ‘Lovely, lyrical and scary… a mesmerising read’ Psychologies ‘A thought-provoking and profound story’ Cosmopolitan ‘Lyrical and beguiling… a deeply immersive novel about a community in peril… and the choices we make when our lives, and those of our loved ones, are in danger’ The Observer ‘A modern Midsummer Night’s Dream… Walker paints a haunting canvas exploring time, memory, consciousness, and youth’ Marisha Pessl, author of Night Film ‘Frighteningly powerful, beautiful, and uncanny… a love story and also a horror story’ Karen Russell, author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove ‘This is a profound novel, and a deeply moving one… she takes a terrifying situation and reveals it as a thing of beauty’ Robin Black, author of Life Drawing ‘A slow-building, philosophical and unique novel… at once a thought-provoking character study and a subtle science fiction tale’ Culturefly 'Powerful and moving... written with symphonic sweep' New York Times Book Review '[An] imaginative, disturbing and ultimately spellbinding narrative, which asks provokative questions about our concepts of time and connection, and the bounds of possibility for life on earth' Vogue 'Powerful, thoughtful and entirely original' PopSugar

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Book SynopsisTwo Women in One tells the powerful story of a modern Middle Eastern woman's quest for emancipation and dignity.Trade Review`These two women live, to some degree, in every thinking woman.' New York Times Book Review; `At a time when nobody else was talking, [El Saadawi] spoke the unspeakable.' Margaret Atwood, BBC Imagine; `The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab world' The Guardian; `El Saadawi writes with directness and passion' New York Times; `A poignant and brave writer' Marie Claire; `El Saadawi has come to embody the trials of Arab feminism' San Francisco Chronicle

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Book SynopsisDark Journey is the disturbing, fast-paced story of a young Turkish woman's descent towards moral annihilation - one part The Thousand and One Nights, two parts Maupassant. Thirty years after Irfan Orga, author of the cult memoir Portrait of a Turkish Family, died, his son opened an old attache case and found a coffee-stained typescript tied up with string. This is Dark Journey, a suffocating, Oedipal drama set against the backdrop of the nascent Turkish Republic.

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Book SynopsisIt's a pitch black, rainy night in a small Iranian town. Inside his house the Colonel is immersed in thought. Memories are storming in. Memories of his wife. Memories of the great patriots of the past, all of them assassinated or executed. Memories of his children, who had joined the different factions of the 1979 revolution. There is a knock on the door. Two young policemen have come to summon the Colonel to collect the tortured body of his youngest daughter and bury her before sunrise. The Islamic Revolution, like every other revolution in history, is devouring its own children. And whose fault is that? This shocking diatribe against the failures of the Iranian left over the last fifty years does not leave one taboo unbroken.Trade Review'This novel has what it takes to become a strong and irresistible window into Iran' - Die Zeit Die Zeit StartFragment The colonel's problem with his wits was that he had got used toliving in the past and thinking about nothing else. The past had such a hold onhim that he had grown afraid of dealing with what was happening under his nose.This fear of the present and living in the past had become a habit. Perhaps itwas just an instinctive retreat, a defence against events. Iranian author Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's The Colonel opens late at night with a knock on the colonel'sdoor. The colonel has already smoked twenty cigarettes, is old andguilt-ridden, and has become weighed down over the years by memories of thesins he has committed and the mistakes he has made. The colonel is told thathis daughter has been killed and he must pay the necessary fees and assist inher burial. Dowlatabadi makes it clear from the outset that The Colonel is a novel of violenceand guilt, concerned with Iran's long struggle against itself while outsideinfluences (primarily the US through the machinations of the CIA) seek to pushthe country in directions favourable to them and not the citizens. As thecolonel travels to bury his daughter the narrative fractures, splitting firstinto two distinct yet commingled sections - the "present" (the 1980s) in whichthe colonel attempts to bury his daughter, and the thoughts of the colonel,which anchor around significant events of the past (including but not limitedto the coups in the 1950s and the wars in the 1970s). But soon the novelfragments further, following the colonel's family members as they, too, engagein and become victims of the relentless violence of Iran's troubled history. The tragedy of our whole country is the same: we are all alienated,strangers in our own land. It's tragic. The odd thing is that we have never gotused to it. Yet, woe betide us if we do. The irony is that, if you really wantto be seen as a good Iranian, and especially if you aspire to high office inthis country, you first have to be a foreigner, someone who wasn't born here atall. On the other hand, if you were born and bred here and try to remain trueto yourself, your country and your people, then alienation is the most lenientpunishment you can expect. At times, The Colonel'sback-and-forth narrative, which shifts from the present to the past and fromcharacter to character, can be difficult to follow, particularly when coupledwith the novel's tight focus on Iranian military and political history, whichis perhaps unfamiliar to many readers. Happily, translator Tom Patterdaleprovides useful and not too intrusive footnotes to explain various culturalreferences, as well as including a reasonably lengthy essay on Dowlatabadi'stime, nation and career. The Colonel avoids- both within and without the narrative - becoming a dressed-up historicalsurvey of Iran, but the cursory introduction is welcome. The narrative itself becomes progressively nightmarish, culminatingin several vicious torture scenes which, Patterdale informs us, were takendirectly from testimonies supplied by people Dowlatabadi knew. The colonelhimself is no stranger to the low menace of Iran's history: he has committedtwo grave mistakes, the first being his refusal to participate in the DhofarRebellion, the second being that he murdered his wife for cheating on him. Bothmistakes have furthered his ostracisation, both professionally and personallyand, it seems, his daughter's murder is perhaps the last straw. He can nolonger function properly in the present and instead mulls over the mistakes he- and Iran - have made of the past. One of the most curious aspects of Dowlatabadi's novel is that,while the CIA and America are mentioned, their role is presented as somethingfar in the distance, important to Iran's recent history but not the entirecause of its problems. Instead, Dowlatabadi places the responsibility of thehope of the early 1950s fading into the violence of the intervening decades asan error to lay at the feet of the Iranians - all the dreams, all the promises,all the lives, all the possibilities - these were broken by Iranians. It is too easy to blameAmerica (or, earlier, the British; or, at times, the Soviets) for the woes thenation has inflicted upon itself, and as long as the young in their outrage andthe old in their calculation continue to blame an external source, then thereal problems will never be fixed and the cycle will continue. Dowlatabadi's novel examines the consequences of revolutions andthe unexpected (and unexpectedly violent) paths they usually take once theeuphoria of the coup has faded. Revolutions have a habit of eating the verypeople who created them, and virtually always devolve into a cycle of killing,violence and secrecy that can last generations. The colonel, while wrapped inhis own guilt, functions as a kind of witness to these horrors, both throughhis own recollections but also through the lives of his children who, asPatterdale's essay informs us, act as stand-ins for the different types ofideologies that arose out of the turmoil of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It isno accident that each of the colonel's children end up dead, just as it is noacciden that even to this day the novel remains unavailable within Iran andunpublished in the original Persian. Dowlatabadi's criticism is sharp,unsparing, and directed against everyone: you are all responsible, seems to be his message. I'm well aware that at every stage of history there have beencrimes against humanity, and they couldn't have happened without humans tocommit them. The crimes that have been visited on my children have beencommitted, and still are being committed, by young people just like them, bypeople stirring up their delusions, giving them delusions of grandeur. So whydo I imagine that people might improve? Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's TheColonel is one long argument to support the idea that a sufficientlybrutalised nation becomes a perpetual device of self-mutilation as onegeneration succeeds the next and the crimes, violence and death continues.There is no ideology or political party sufficiently coherent to withstand thepressure to commit violence in order to remain in power and, in the end, theblood of thousands stains the hands of every Iranian. The Colonel is a powerful and difficult text, brutal both inits fragmented composition and its unflinching examination of the consequencesof power and the ways in which those in power will act to keep it.EndFragment -- Damian Kelleher Damian Kelleher's Blog 20110914 A fable of the Iranian terror Mahmoud Dowlatabadi is best known in Iran for his 10-volume epic Kelidar, which at more than 3000 pages is perhaps for the moment unlikely to feature in any publisher's catalogue. We are, in the meantime, fortunate to have this passionate and informative fable of the Islamic revolution in our hands. The idealistic and relatively modernised "Colonel", a career officer in the Shah's army, has murdered his adulterous wife. Stripped of his rank, he finds himself in the same prison as his eldest son, Amir, a student who belongs to the Iranian Communist Party. Father and son are soon released in the weeks of mayhem following the Shah's departure into exile and Ayatollah Khomeini's return. Everyone's hopes are soon quashed, however, when the new regime outstrips its predecessor's brutality. Public executions follow, the universities are shut down and the new generations are "left struggling like newly-hatched chicks in this fist, which had turned into a vulture's talons". The Colonel is the tale, in the words of its translator, Tom Patterdale, of how "the revolution ate its own children". Four of the colonel's five children are executed or killed in action: three for belonging to various leftist factions, while another is "martyred" in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). No scenes are more telling of this senseless bloodshed than those involving Amir and his former interrogator Khezr Javid, whom Amir hides in his cellar when violent mobs take to the streets looking to lynch their jailers. It is an uncomfortable pairing that Dowlatabadi exploits to portray a society ravaged by a warped morality. For a fable, there is very little allegory about the novel: it is very historically accurate. The character of the Colonel draws on a historical figure, Mohammad Taqi Khan Pesyan (1892-1921), a hero even to current Iranian nationalists. This scrupulous reformer was probably the closest Iran ever got to its own Ataturk. In this novel he is a metaphor for the Iran that might have been. Patterdale is to be commended for his immaculate glossary, which does not omit a single reference in the text to Persian mythology, place-names or historical and political figures. His equally precious afterword informs us that The Colonel has "never appeared in its original language" in Iran. It was first published in Germany, after Dowlatabadi had deemed that decades of tinkering with the manuscript had come to an end. It's about time everyone even remotely interested in Iran read this novel. -- Andre Naffis-Sahely The Independent Newspaper 20111004 The author sets the scene: a pitch-black, rainy night in a small Iranian town. Inside his house, the Colonel is immersed in memories of his wife, of the great patriots of the past, all of them assassinated or executed, of his children, who had joined the different factions of the 1979 revolution.There is a knock on the door. Two young policemen have come to summon the Colonel to collect the body of his youngest daughter and bury her before sunrise. The Islamic Revolution, like every other revolution, is devouring its own children. And whose fault is that?Mahmoud Dowlatabadi does not leave one taboo unbroken in this diatribe against the failures of the Iranian left. ... The story begins with the old colonel roused in the middle of the night to come and deal with his fourteen-year-old daughter's body. As he stumbles around in confusion, guilt and dismay, his actions and interpretations of events show that the ordinary has become extraordinary in Iran, and vice versa. This death of his youngest daughter has taken place under a fundamentalist Islamic regime and yet he is being told by the authorities to bury her in the middle of the night, something we learn much later in the book is against Islamic law. The body should be laid out by women, but this can't be done either. Piecing these elements together, and discovering the betrayal that lies behind her death, however, is no easy task because past and present are muddled in the colonel's thoughts and actions, and the dead from his past come back to life and not (it seems) just in the old man's memories... ... The central theme of this work seems to be that Iran is beyond hope. The rain pours down incessantly, symbolising tears of unquenchable grief, and the (male) characters smoke incessantly, representing self-destructive behaviour. Everyone is at cross-purposes, and families are riven by political conflict. A rare moment when she isn't weeping allows Amir (on the verge of suicide) to confront his sister Farzaneh with her alienation from the family (because her husband is on the political Right, while the other siblings are on variations of the Left)... ... A while ago, round about the time that Iran was labelled part of the 'axis of evil' I saw a documentary about Iran which featured interviews with young people in their twenties. Although necessarily guarded as they spoke to journalists from the West, these English-speaking and well-travelled young people were acutely aware that reforms were needed, but they seemed optimistic. I hope they were right, and that Dowlatabadi is wrong... -- Lisa Hill ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 20111127 Key journalists and experts on Iran gathered in London on 6th September to discuss the difficulties and importance of publishing authors like Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and the role of literature at moments of revolution. This dark book, like many others, continues to be banned from publication in Iran, although it has been translated into English, French and German. Dowlatabadi, with a distinguished career that spans the 80s to the present is self taught and began life working on a farm, he remains one of the most famous realist writers in Iran today. One of those intriguing novels that cover the action of only one day while giving the reader an insight into more than one lifetime, looks at modern Iran and the personal toll politics and history have taken on one man. Surreal and Kafkaesque, the structure of the novel is reminiscent of Hedayat's The Blind Owl and the controversial nature of its critical look at several points in Iranian history: "THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION, LIKE EVERY OTHER REVOLUTION IN HISTORY, IS DEVOURING ITS OWN CHILDREN. AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? THIS SHOCKING DIATRIBE AGAINST THE FAILURES OF THE IRANIAN LEFT OVER THE LAST FIFTY YEARS DOES NOT LEAVE ONE TABOO UNBROKEN." " 6 Pillars 20110901 A page-turning panorama of Iranian mental anguish, producing visions and nightmares like dark exotic blossoms. -- A Schader Neue Zurcher Zeitung 20110901 Mahmud Doulatabadi is one of the most preeminent novelists of Iran. I discovered Dowlatabadi * when I was 17. I knew Kelidar ( ) was an important book to read. My younger sister who was always richer than I, spent all of her summer savings to buy this 5-volume novel: the love story of Maral and Gol-Mohammad; in the turbulent history of their tribes of Iran's north east province, Khorasan. I remember living with the book, reading it nonstop for 10 days, hardly eating or sleeping. I was perhaps too young for it then; but I couldn't put it down. Maral reminded me of my own grandmother; and the story taught me about the intricacies of individuality, honor, loyalty, love, passion and the cost of breaking from conformity. I read his other books later, but to date, and to author's admission, Kelidar remains his most "perfect" book! Dolatabadi * is 69, he was born in the village of Dolatabad in Khorasan. Before he became a writer, he earned life from labouring in farming, shoe making, barbering, bicycle repair, herding sheep, slaughter house, print shops, cinema projections--all range of works that are not customary for the "educated" or those with "to-be-educated-to-write" aspirations. His rural experiences set his books apart from the white-glove urban, or aristocratic settings of many of his contemporary literary figures of Iran. He paved his path to literature through theater, starting at the age of 22. His most recent book, Der Colonel, written simultaneously in Persian and German--a story awaiting 25 years to be told--has made it to German publication, and is suffering Persian censorship, thanks to Mr Ahmadinejad's Coup D'etat ... (Dolatabadi has been a vocal critic of Ahmadinejad) To German speakers, I recommend to listen to his interview Dolatabadi with Ilija Trojanow on Arte.TV about Der Colonel. He talks about his urge to write this novel, and also explains somethings about Iran's literary traditions--especially referring to legendary Ferdowsi (10th century AD), to whom he wishes to have been a devout follower; and Sa'di (12th century AD) and Naser khosrow (11th century Ad) who were globe-trotters to whom he attributes the humanitarian nature of Persian literature. Despite the fact that Dolatabadi's novels root deeply in folk, telling the most obscure of rural stories, his talent is in portraying man in the complex dynamics of his interaction with the world, thus Doulatabadi * considers literature to be a universal entity, one belonging to humanity and not to geography. He ends his interview with a message of hope: "The art of we Iranians, is to transit through death and destruction towards light; this is our entire history, and we are still a living nation ..." * The writer of this review has spelled Dowlatabadi in all possible phonetic forms. Inconsistencies are intentional. -- Naj Neo-Resistance blog 20111017 'Iranian novelist Dowlatabadi (Missing Soluch, 1979, etc.) re-imagines the life of a fabled Persian patriot against the bloody backdrop of the Islamic Revolution. We see the revolution through the eyes of the Colonel, an officer in the Shah's army, a figure largely based on Mohammad Taqi Khan Pesyan, who led a partially successful Persian revolution in 1921 and was lionized after his assassination. As the novel opens, the Colonel is taken in the dead of night to collect his daughter's body from the prosecutor's office. From there, the book jumps back and forth to show the Colonel at his height and the struggles of the officer and his son Amir as the Ayatollah returns and the Shah is forced into exile. The military man's five children represent different factions within Iranian society, and nearly all come to tortuous or violent ends. Patterdale offers up a fine translation of Dowlatabadi's book, gently guiding Western readers through its complex maze of political intrigue and moral failings with restrained footnotes, a rich glossary and a thoughtful afterword. At its core, the book is about the inherent corruption that power inspires and the toll it takes on the people under its long shadow. A demanding and richly composed book by a novelist who stands apart.' KIRKUS Book Reviews 20120319 After being arrested in 1974 by the Savak, the shah's secret police, the Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi asked his interrogators just what crime he had committed. "None," he recalled them responding, "but everyone we arrest seems to have copies of your novels, so that makes you provocative to revolutionaries." ... "The Colonel," a novel about the 1979 revolution and its violent aftermath, is a case in point. The five children of the title character, an officer in the shah's army, have all taken different political paths and paid a heavy price. The story unfolds on one rainy night as the colonel is trying to retrieve and bury the body of his youngest daughter, who has been tortured to death for handing out leaflets criticizing the new regime. "It's about time everyone even remotely interested in Iran read this novel," The Independent of London said in a review when "The Colonel" was published in Britain last fall, describing it as a powerful portrayal of "a society ravaged by a warped morality." ... "The Colonel," though available in English and German, does not yet exist in an authorized Persian-language version. Mr. Dowlatabadi said he finally submitted the manuscript three years ago to censors at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which must approve all books before publication in Iran, but received no response until Iranian readers heard about the book and began clamoring for access to it. "Mahmoud has always had a commitment to social issues, but couldn't accept the simplistic moralistic framework predominant in socialist realism," said Kamran Rastegar, a professor of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at Tufts University who has translated some of Mr. Dowlatabadi's work. "Instead he tried to examine the complexities and moral ambiguities of the experience of the poor and forgotten, mixing the brutality of that world with the lyricism of the Persian language." ... To have "The Colonel" published in Persian, Mr. Dowlatabadi could theoretically turn to one of the emigre presses that flourish in Europe and California, or even, if he were so disposed, authorize a kind of samizdat edition for circulation in Iran. But he said he did not want to do that, preferring to adhere to legal channels, frustrating though that may be. "My philosophy, my way of working, is not by confrontation," he said. "I want to keep writing and keep being an Iranian novelist in Iran, so therefore I do not have confrontations." Yes, he continued, "I have written things that if you read them they create questions in your head," but he added: "I did not do it confrontationally, against the state. In fact it's a good thing for the regime - past, present and future - to have the experience of writers who work within the system. This has to be an established norm or practice in our country: that people who have different opinions can rationally disagree. It shouldn't be that I want to kill you, I want to confront you or I want to leave." -- Larry Rohter 20120701 Dowlatabadi (Missing Soluch) is regarded as one of Iran's greatest novelists, yet this work, 25 years in the making, is banned in his native country. This fact alone is evidence of the difficulties that have long plagued Iran, and this novel stands as a testament to that struggle. Set during the Iran-Iraq War, the book follows the colonel, a devout patriot and soldier, as he grapples with the fates of his children, all condemned in one way or another by the revolution and its aftermath. On a miserably wet night, the colonel is tasked with burying his youngest daughter, 14-year-old Parvaneh, killed for handing out anti-regime pamphlets on the street. As he wanders through town in search of a pick and shovel with which to bury her, his thoughts spiral to the downfall of his family, and he wonders to what extent he bears responsibility: "The colonel felt guilty, too--guilty for the very existence of his children, or lack of it, as the case may be. He bore the burden of the offences of each one of his offspring on his shoulders." Unfortunately, for unfamiliar with Iranian history, the book is a confusion of events, names, and historical figures entwined in the colonel's personal narrative. There is no clear arc, and Patterdale's explanatory notes do little to help solve the ambiguities of the plot. The novel may be a bold statement decrying a country's troubled past, but the message will be lost on the average reader. 20120625 'By the end of this book, you feel as though you're watching a horror movie set in Iran; a political zombie novel about the dead and the walking dead, the foolish, sometimes heroic, and always pathetic victims and survivors of the Ayatollah's ghoulish revolution.' -- Alan Cheuse 20120709 'The Colonel, by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, is a masterpiece. But reader beware, it is a dark one and doesn't offer even a tiny droplet of hope. From its very beginning to its very end, it rains incessantly. Blood is spilled, children are buried in the darkness of the night, people betray themselves and one another, ghosts roam.' -- Marina Nemat 20120720 'The disorienting shifts in perspective utilized by Dowlatabadi do take some getting used to, but this is of course intentional. Foreign influences and interests have merged with and co-opted thousands of years of tradition in Iran and what has at times been a faction's weakness later becomes its strength, or least the fulcrum used to leverage control of the national dialogue. Steeped in historical references and crafted with a degree of heightened realism that comes off like a documentary, The Colonel offers a portrait of a nation that has grappled with the same problems for so long without being able to remedy them.' -- Buzz Poole 20120511 '[W]hat makes Dowlatabadi's work shine is the complexity of his characters... The allegorical nature of the novel naturally invokes a great deal of Iranian history and culture, which translator Tom Patterdale handles deftly through an informative afterward and thorough footnotes. Patterdale's decision to parallel Dowlatabadi's removal of Arab vocabulary from the Persian prose by avoiding Latinate words in the translation may detract a bit from the lyricism of the novel, but the English rendition is nonetheless a pleasure to read.' -- Ed Winstead 20120719 '[A]n affecting and beautiful novel.' 'A classic of Iranian literature.'

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Book Synopsis‘Meet girls. Take drugs. Listen to music.’ In Rave, cult German novelist Rainald Goetz takes a headlong dive into nineties techno culture. From the cathartic release on the dance floor to the intense conversations in corners of nightclubs and the after-parties in the light of dawn, this exhilarating, fragmentary novel captures the feeling of debauchery from within. Dazzling and intimate, Rave is an unapologetic embrace of nightlife from an author unafraid to lose himself in the subject of his work.Trade Review‘Goetz’s writing is a kind of dancing. Each sentence, fragment, captures the essence of what it’s like to live inside the spaces of techno music. Thoughts come and go, and return louder, later in the text, with an urgent rhythm that makes the cumulative case for the transformative power of the dance floor. This is writing of and from the body, hot, sweaty, dazed, decadent, and ultimately life-affirming.’ — Julia Bell, author of The Dark Light ‘Rave matches [Bernhard] with its pitch-black humour and philosophical intensity. Questions of interiority, the external world, language and meaning are opened up within its circuit of pills and beats and clubs, like a genuinely meaningful drug trip.’ — Financial Times‘In Rave, Goetz makes an electrifying portrait of what happens when you dedicate your life to the night, to the bass and the rhythm, when you party nonstop and rave like there is no tomorrow. [...] What makes Rave so effective is that Goetz chronicles the tenor of rave culture’s endless cycle. The reader becomes part of the weekends of excessive indulgence, the “cracked” out week after, and the intrigues that linger. [...] I often felt a contact high reading Rave’ — Shane Anderson, Los Angeles Review of Books

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Book SynopsisCuban writer Ivan Cardenas Maturell meets a mysterious foreigner on a Havana beach who is always in the company of two Russian wolfhounds. Ivan quickly names him "the man who loved dogs". The man eventually confesses that he is actually Ramon Mercader, the man who killed Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in 1940, and that he is now living in a secret exile in Cuba after being released from jail in Mexico. Moving seamlessly between Ivan's life in Cuba, Mercader's early years in Spain and France, and Trotsky's long years of exile, The Man Who Loved Dogs is Leonardo Padura's most ambitious and brilliantly executed novel yet. It is the story of revolutions fought and betrayed, the ways in which men's political convictions are continually tested and manipulated, and a powerful critique of the role of fear in consolidating political power.Trade Review"A stunning novel, chronicling the evisceration of the Communist dream and one of the most "ruthless, calculated and useless" crimes in history." Financial Times When this novel was published in Spanish, it received literary acclaim across Europe and rightly so, for it is a monumental work." Independent "Padura has entered the Latin American Modernist canon by writing a Russian novel with a Tolstoyan passion for historical trifles and Dostoyevskyan pleasure in examining the moral life of its characters" NY Times

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Book Synopsis*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016***WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016''A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage'' Financial TimesIt is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to

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Book Synopsis''A profoundly beautiful novel that infolds the political with the personal in unexpected and new ways . . . An extraordinary book'' Neel Mukherjee, New Statesman, ''Books of the Year 2016''''His stories take the reader into the labyrinth that is the mind . . . The Angel of History is digressive and daring'' the Economist''Alameddine has created a scintillating, original work whose moral complexity and detail of observation are wholly contemporary and entirely his own'' SpectatorSet over the course of one night in the waiting room of a psych clinic, The Angel of History follows Yemeni-born poet Jacob as he revisits the events of his life, from his maternal upbringing in an Egyptian whorehouse to his adolescence under the aegis of his wealthy father and his life as a gay Arab man in San Francisco at the height of AIDS. Hovered over by the presence of alluring, sassy Satan who taunts Jacob to remember hisTrade ReviewDarkly funny - Library JournalIn this provocative portrait of a man in crisis, masterful storyteller Alameddine takes on some of the most wrenching conflicts of the day. - BooklistAlameddine is excellent at weaving literary references into his storytelling . . . A feverish portrait of a mind in crisis. - Kirkus ReviewsAlameddine brilliantly captures [the protagonist] Jacob's mind as it leaps between memory and the present. - Publisher's WeeklyIn the spirit of Mikhail Bulgakov's satirical masterpiece THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, Rabih Alameddine conjures an elegiac comedy with aplomb, his incantations rich with sincerity and irreverence . . . Alameddine is an entrancing storyteller, imbuing the quotidian with magnificence and undermining solemnity with sauciness . . . THE ANGEL OF HISTORY is outstanding, a novel that leaves a lasting mark. - Shelf AwarenessA cleverly constructed novel that questions what we remember and why we forget. - San Francisco MagazineHere is a book, full of story, unrepentantly political at every level. At a time when many western writers seem to be in retreat from saying anything that could be construed as political, Alameddine says it all, shamelessly, gloriously and, realised like his Satan, in the most stylish of forms. - Aminatta Forna, The GuardianShades of THE MASTER AND MARGARITA haunt Rabih Alameddine's sixth book . . . Yet, while echoes of Bulgakov's masterpiece inform THE ANGEL OF HISTORY from first to last, Alameddine has created a scintillating, original work whose moral complexity and detail of observation are wholly contemporary and entirely his own. - John Burnside, Spectator

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Book SynopsisJACK LARK: SOLDIER, LEADER, IMPOSTER.The second book in the enthralling military adventure series for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Anthony Riches and Matthew Harffy. ''Brilliant'' Bernard Cornwell ''Jack Lark is an unforgettable new hero'' Anthony Riches ''Page-turning adventure, a hero with issues yet who''s likable, and antagonists you will love to hate... It was hard to put down and a real pleasure to read'' Historical Novel SocietyJack Lark barely survived the Battle of the Alma. As the brutal fight raged, he discovered the true duty that came with the officer''s commission he''d taken. In hospital, wounded, and with his stolen life left lying on the battlefield, he grasps a chance to prove himself a leader once more. Poor Captain Danbury is dead, but Jack will travel to his new regiment in India, under his name. Jack soon finds more enemies, but this time they''re on his own side. Exposed asTrade ReviewPage-turning adventure, a hero with issues yet who's likable, and antagonists you will love to hate... It was hard to put down and a real pleasure to read. If you enjoy books by Bernard Cornwell, you'll want to put this book on your reading list * Historical Novel Society *The story is tightly planned and written, the characters three-dimensional and appropriately sympathetic or hateful, and the language and turn of phrase thoroughly engrossing... Quite simply do yourself a favour and read these books * S.J.A. Turney *The story is well written with some very comprehensive descriptions of both people and their surroundings. In each of the actions the pace is dynamic and brutally described making it one of those books where there is always the tendency to just read one more chapter before putting it down for a while. Well worth reading * ARRSE *It's not since I first picked up Sharpe's Eagle that a single character captured my imagination so totally, this supported by a fast fluid pace of writing, and a vivid portrayal of the Indian country, people, time period, the east India company and as usual the brutal, uncompromising and occasionally morally bankrupt officer corps coupled with the efficiency of the ordinary men of the British army, all this condensed into 336 pages of explosive action, violent emotions, uncompromising unbending discipline and a man with the courage to do what is right * Parmenion Books *

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Book SynopsisSet in the Alaskan landscape that she brought to stunningly vivid life in THE SNOW CHILD (a Sunday Times bestseller 2012, Richard and Judy pick and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Eowyn Ivey''s TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD is a breathtaking story of discovery set at the end of the nineteenth century, sure to appeal to fans of A PLACE CALLED WINTER.*NOMINATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2017*''A clever, ambitious novel'' The Sunday Times''Persuasive and vivid... Breathtaking'' GuardianWinter 1885. Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester accepts the mission of a lifetime, to navigate Alaska''s Wolverine River. It is a journey that promises to open up a land shrouded in mystery, but there''s no telling what awaits Allen and his small band of men.Allen leaves behind his young wife, Sophie, newly pregnant with the child he had never expected to have. Sophie would have lTrade ReviewA clever, ambitious novel * The Sunday Times *A stunning and intriguing novel combining the epic adventurous sweep of Alaska with minutely beautifully observed details - the reader finishes it wiser and richer -- Rosamund LuptonA dazzling depiction of love, endurance, courage and wonder, and a worthy successor to THE SNOW CHILD -- Ron RashAbsorbing... a superior page turner * Daily Mail *Absorbing... their love for each other is beautifully rendered * The Times *If I read another novel this year that I love as much as this I will be entirely surprised. This is a very special book indeed and Eowyn Ivey is an incredibly gifted writer, bringing to us all the wonder, beautiful strangeness and fragility of the Alaska she loves -- Kate AthertonAbsorbing and highly imaginative... Ivey, clearly a writer of prodigious talent, effortlessly knits these elements together to create an utterly enchanting read. Part intrepid adventure, part deeply affecting romance, this first-class novel is, at its heart, a love letter to the 'vast and cold beauty' of the last frontier * Daily Express *Enchanting... a fascinating, adventurous tale * Grazia *A rich and involving story of endurance, love and the Alaskan wilderness that captured me from the off * Woman & Home *Charming, whimsical and sometimes heat-breaking * Red *Entrancing... In this splendid adventure novel, Ivey captures Alaska's beauty and brutality, not just preserving history, but keeping it alive * Publisher's Weekly *Ivey's prose glitters...if this one doesn't win her a major award, I'll eat my trapper's hat * The Tablet *Unique... absorbing * Stylist (Book Wars Winner) *Beautifully lyrical * Sunday Express *The precision of such descriptions of the natural world ground the novel in a gritty verisimilitude that then allows Ivey to build a fanciful, daring imaginative edifice: the meticulous realism of the foundation allows the fabulous elements of her fiction to soar * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisOne of the biggest names in Urban-fiction, Ashley Antoinette, is back An intense start to this new series with characters that are real and genuine. It's a story about love, trying to put the past behind and moving on with your life - Red Carpet Crash on Butterfly Morgan Atkins is used to losing, but losing Messiah Williams was the most tragic of them all. Surely, after Messiah, no other man could compare. Settling with Sebastian Fredrick didn''t seem like such an impossible task. He treated her well enough, he accepted her children, and he offered her entrance into a well-connected world. There was only one problem: he wanted to change her into someone else. The rules that went along with his lifestyle suffocated her and when Morgan reconnected with Messiah''s crew, she no longer wanted to play by Bash's rules. When she falls in love with Messiah''s best friend, Ahmeek Harris, she knows she''s headed for trouble. His presence heals her in a way that n

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Book SynopsisThe Highly Unreliable Account of the Brief History of a Madhouse is an ever-expanding novel that moves at a dizzying pace. A literary panorama of Turkey that defies boundaries spatial or temporal: one end in the 19th century, and the other in the 21st. A book of ‘human landscapes’ that startles anew with a completely unexpected turn of events, immediately after deceiving the reader into thinking the end of a plot line might be in sight. The novel starts in a small-town mental asylum with its back to the Black Sea, and weaves its way through a highly entertaining chain of interlinked lives, each link a complex and bewildering personality. The Highly Unreliable Account… follows the trails of political and social milestones left on individual lives across a span of nearly a century.

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Book SynopsisA young woman finds herself on the wrong side of the law in The Knock, a gripping gangland thriller from top ten bestselling author Jessie Keane.Dora O’Brien had a good start in life, but things went bad when she began to mix with the wrong company. Pregnant by her gangster lover, she found herself on the streets and then in the grips of a bent copper called Donny Maguire.When her daughter Angel is born, Dora is already under the influence of drink and drugs. Growing up in the shadow of her mother’s abusive relationship, Angel is nothing like her mother, but when matters turn murderous, Angel is forced to grow up fast and survival becomes the name of the game.For some, being on the wrong side of the law is the safest place to be . . .No one uncovers the underworld like Jessie Keane.Trade ReviewAnother brilliant gangland thriller * Bella Magazine *Swift-moving intrigue * Woman & Home *Perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Lynda La Plante * Glamour *

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Book SynopsisThe third in the New York-based Rune trilogy.Trade ReviewDeaver is a master of ticking-bomb suspense * People magazine *The best psychological thriller writer around * The Times *

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Book Synopsis'Absolutely breathtaking' Christy Lefteri, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo.We all have something to tell those we have lost . . .On a windy hill in Japan, in a garden overlooking the sea stands a disused phone box. For years, people have travelled to visit the phone box, to pick up the receiver and speak into the wind: to pass their messages to loved ones no longer with us.When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she is plunged into despair and wonders how she will ever carry on. One day she hears of the phone box, and decides to make her own pilgrimage there, to speak once more to the people she loved the most. But when you have lost everything, the right words can be the hardest thing to find . . .Then she meets Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking...The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is an unforgettable story of the depths of grief, the lightness of love and the human longing to keep the people who are no longer with us close to our hearts.'A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again' Sunday Times'Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour' Choice, Book of the Month'A poignant, atmospheric novel dealing with love, coming to terms with loss and the restoration of one's self' Daily Mail'A story about the dogged survival of hope when all else is lost . . . A striking haiku of the human heart' The Times'Beautiful. A message of hope for anyone who is lost, frightened or grieving' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of After the End'Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul' Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars'Mesmerising . . . beautiful . . . a joy to read' Joanna Glen, Costa shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope'Spare and poetic, this beautiful book is both a small, quiet love story and a vast expansive meditation on grieving and loss' Heat'A perfect poignant read' Woman & HomeTrade ReviewA story about the dogged survival of hope when all else is lost . . . Messina shows us that even in the face of a terrible tragedy, such as an earthquake or a loss of a child, the small things - a cup of tea, a proffered hand - can offer a way ahead. Its meditative minimalism makes it a striking haiku of the human heart * The Times *Carefully told and with great care, this feels a particularly resonating story right now * Stylist *This beautiful novel tells a story of universal loss and the power of love. It will remain engraved in my heart and mind forever. During these difficult times we face, it addresses questions that we might all have - how to connect with those we have loved and lost and how to allow ourselves to live and to love again. Beautifully written, sensitive and evocative, it paints a picture of an inner and outer world that is infused with both tragedy and hope. It moved me to tears and made me want to speak my own secret thoughts in the phone box at the edge of the world. Absolutely breathtaking and stunning * Christy Lefteri *A message of hope for anyone who is lost, frightened or grieving. Beautiful. * Clare Mackintosh *Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul * Stacey Halls *Spare and poetic, this beautiful book is both a small, quiet love story and a vast, expansive meditation on grieving and loss * Heat *Before I got started, I already loved the phone box at the edge of the world. But then I loved everything else. Especially the beautiful prose, powerful but held back, like grief. And the characters - emerging blinking from their tragedies, hurt and hesitant - but ultimately hopeful. It was a joy to read. Mesmerising! * Joanna Glen, author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope *This is a beautiful book. And a timely one. It tells a story about the aftermath of a disaster, long after the disaster. It tells of memories of the first few weeks after horror struck, but more it tells about the years after. If we're not directly affected, we lose sight of the years after that others have to endure. Or survive * Bookbag *The Phone Box at the Edge of the World has such a subtle strength to it. The power to transfer such huge emotion from the page to my heart. It felt like a balm to my soul, one I did not know I needed. For me it is easily one of my books of the year * Waterstones bookseller *Immensely moving and emotionally powerful . . . possessed of a rare empathetic pull * Waterstones bookseller *This book is one to read now * Cosmopolitan *A perfect poignant read * Woman & Home *A balm to the soul in difficult times * Good Housekeeping *All I can say is that I thoroughly recommend this book to all, even if you have not lost someone dear. This book offers a sweet and poignant story, as well as some meaningful messages and a hopeful outlook on life * Escape to the Bookshelf *This an aching sweetness about this novel, with telling details that bring the departed so alive * Saga Magazine *A quiet, elegantly told story of how life goes on after loss. * Press Association *An elegant, elegiac story ... a poignant, atmospheric novel dealing with love, coming to terms with loss and the restoration of one's self. * Daily Mail *A stylish and carefully calibrated meditation upon the nature of loss, grief and the joyously restorative power of love. * The Yorkshire Times *This was a poignant read that brings love, light and hope to a heartbreaking situation * Rea's Book Review *Messina's beautifully-written debut novel of loss and the power of love, provides hope in the most of difficult of times. * Surrey Life *A touching tale of loss and recovery. * Wiltshire Living *Beautifully moving read ... heartbreaking and poignant. * Woman's Own *A quiet, elegantly told story of how life goes on after loss * Leinster Leader *BOOK OF THE MONTH: Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour. * Choice magazine *Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour * Scottish Herald *Moving, heart-breaking, redemptive * Irish Examiner *A whimsical, moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again. * The Sunday Times *A tale of strength and hope born out of pain ... Messina has captured a grieving nation's soul. * The Lady *Beautiful in its candour ... staggering in its hold on you. More than a story of grief, it points to a fundamental hope in reforming after tragedy, and a celebration of lives well-lived. * Sunday Business Post *

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Book SynopsisA literary psychological thriller about the 'perfect' marriage.Trade Review‘On the surface the book is a highly competent, creepy little chiller, but beneath, like a silent, bolted and half-dark room, there’s a much bigger, equally disconcerting story about the nature of feminine experience.' Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize winning author of Wolf Hall‘Taut, elegant and pitch-perfect. As soon as you've read it you'll want to talk about it’. Evie Wyld, author of After the Fire, A Still Small Voice‘Compelling, edgy and dark – I read How To Be a Good Wife in one sitting’. Jane Rusbridge, author of Rook and The Devil's Music‘An impressive debut novel. Here’s hoping there’ll be more from Emma Chapman’ M. J. Hyland, Man Booker prize shortlisted author of Carry Me Down and This is How‘A tense, unnerving debut, told with precision and control. As unsettling as any ghost story’ Simon Lelic, author of Rupture and The Child Who‘A compelling debut: tightly plotted, tensely written, and subtle in its explorations of motive. Emma Chapman is very accomplished and a bright hope for the future’. Sir Andrew Motion‘Claustrophobic, startling and hauntingly beautiful. It’s that amazing, awful kind of book that will stay with you long after you wish it would let you go’ Liza Klaussmann, author of Tigers in Red Weather ‘This taut debut will have you rooting for Marta as she rediscovers who she was before her marriage. A must-read for fans of S.J.Watson’. Easy Living‘The after-effects of the dark and uncomfortable story linger long after the last page . . . a gripping piece of writing where everything is not quite as it seems’. Psychologies‘An intensifying mood of menace pervades this mesmerising debut. Is the fragile Marta slipping into paranoia? Or glimpsing agonising insights into a devastating nightmare about herself and her “perfect” marriage…?’ David Hewson, author of The Killing‘A compelling, twisty tale of deception and distrust. Beautifully written, and very clever indeed’. Elizabeth Haynes, author of Into the Darkest Corner‘Fans of Before I Go To Sleep will love this chilling debut from Emma Chapman’. Grazia‘In her first novel, Emma Chapman has managed to walk a delicate, terrifying line. How To Be a Good Wife is at once claustrophobic, startling and hauntingly beautiful. It’s that amazing, awful kind of book that will stay with you long after you wish it would let you go’. Liza Klaussmann, author of Tigers in Red Weather‘A chilling study of paranoia and doubt… Chapman builds the tension, as Marta’s behaviour becomes more erratic and her seemingly benign husband begins to appear in a sinister light. An unnerving tale, where nothing is as it seems.’ Marie Claire‘Compelling and complex, this brave novel offers no safety nets… Not just a gripping read but an essential one. It will provoke questions long after the cover is closed’. Ruth Dugdall, author of The Woman Before Me, winner of the CWA debut dagger award.‘Chilling and original with plenty of tense moments to keep the pages turning'. Simple Things‘Mesmerising. A beautiful and disturbing novel. I loved it’. Susanna Jones, author of When Nights Were Cold‘There is something about the pared-down prose, the increasingly ominous isolation and the sense of unease that our narrator feels that saves the story from melodrama – instead the reader, trapped with a sympathetic yet unreliable narrator, begins to align themselves ever more closely to Marta’s position. This is a tremendous book’. The Huffington Post‘Chapman mines this vein of claustrophobic creepiness to great effect’. The Lady‘Wonderfully assured… This is a tale of the tricks repression, denial and memory can play on us… Set in an eerie, purposefully undefined part of Scandinavia, this is an unnerving, clever read. It’s one of those novels (think Gone Girl) with a big twist. Recommended for fans of S J Watson, Rosamund Lupton and Zoe Heller’. Viv Groskop, Red‘A powerful, original and haunting debut… hard to put down and impossible to forget.’Daily Examiner, Australia‘Something of the hit TV drama The Killing pervades this absorbing and multi-layered debut novel. On one level a chilling tale of suspense among the Norwegian fjords, it offers the reader so much more… You might like to set aside a long winter afternoon for this one. The chances are that one you open it, you’ll want to finish it all in one go.' Daily Mail‘Chapman’s debut can be read both as a taut thriller and an allegory of the female experience in an unhappy marriage, the waning sense of self felt by the woman who attends to the needs of her family before her own… Marta’s gradual slide into madness is brilliantly convincing. As with Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, the narrator’s psychological torment contrasts disconcertingly with the detached language in which it is described. It makes for a darkly fascinating debut’ Financial Times‘So tense. Brilliantly written and utterly gripping. I loved it.’ Hannah Richell, author of Secrets of the Tides‘It is, on the one hand, a taut, economically written and expertly woven thriller – deceptive in its simplicity and chilling in the claustrophobia that builds with each successive page. It is also a deeply unsettling exploration of a fragile mind unravelling, either through the weight of its own paranoid delusions or painful memories too-long suppressed… How To Be a Good Wife is a highly assured, powerful and thought-provoking offering from an author whose best work is surely yet to come. It will stay with you long after you turn the final page.’ Style etc magazine‘An impressive debut’ Sun-Herald, Sydney‘Chapman’s carefully constructed plot slowly but expertly builds the tension…Chapman’s writing is so assured it is difficult to believe this is her first novel… How To Be A Good Wife is not just enthralling fiction, but also social commentary, a combination that provokes the reader to reflect on the fraught and complicated nature of human existence. Chapman has written a book as chilling as a Scandinavian fjord in winter, but also as clear, clean and compelling’The Australian‘Replete with interesting topics and there are twists aplenty. Marta’s voice is compelling and convincing and the prose often Hemingway-esque in style… There’s a narrative bravery to this debut that is rare in contemporary fiction of any genre’ The Big Issue Australia ‘The unnamed Scandinavian setting has all the familiar elements of contemporary northern lights noir, yet its claustrophobic, interior-driven narrative harks back to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s disturbing feminist classic The Yellow Wallpaper, or even Ibsen's A Doll's House… The novel is Chapman's debut, and is eerily well-handled... Chapman shows real empathy for loneliness and the cruelty of ageing… A plausible tale of trauma, a ruthless examination of the many layers of marriage, and a woman's opaque role with it.’ Guardian

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.Sweeping between India and England, from childhood and the present day. Sunjeev Sahota's unforgettable novel about illegal immigrants is a story of dignity in the face of adversity. For fans of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.'The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century' – Washington PostThe Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance.Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar. Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the chaotic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise hTrade ReviewSahota is a writer who knows how to turn a phrase, how to light up a scene, how to make you stay up late at night to learn what happens next. The Year of the Runaways is a brilliant and beautiful novel. -- Kamila Shamsie * Guardian *Writing with unsentimental candor, Mr. Sahota has created a cast of characters whose lives are so richly imagined that this deeply affecting novel calls out for a sequel or follow-up that might recount the next installment of their lives. * New York Times *An ideal antidote to a year of reductive discussions of immigration, Sunjeev Sahota's novel takes you deep into the lives of a group of Indian labourers thrown together in Sheffield . . . its lyrical prose and ability to immerse the reader in the experiences of a hidden community in Britain -- Emily Dugan * Independent on Sunday *The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century . . . the great marvel of this book is its absolute refusal to grasp at anything larger than the hopes and humiliations of these few marginal people. * Washington Post *Wryly humorous . . . The Year of the Runaways needs no affectations to announce its timeliness. As the sheer number of displaced peoples in Europe threatens to overwhelm any capacity for empathy, Mr. Sahota's superb novel helps to make the reality of migrants a little less unimaginable and a little more human. * Wall Street Journal *Novels of such scope and invention are all too rare; unusual, too, are those of real heart, whose characters you grow to love and truly care for. The Year of the Runaways has it all. You cry because of the terribleness of it, but also because you just don't want this book to end. I doubt if I'll read a better novel this year. -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *This massive book, stuffed with compelling stories, rich in characters and resoundingly authentic in its detailing of life in the harsh underbelly of this country, should be compulsory reading. A magnificent achievement. * Daily Mail *The Year of the Runaways takes place in a parallel England, a near-invisible world that rarely intersects with our own. It is familiar territory from news reports, but only in outline. Sahota has a lot to say and he says it calmly, with great moral intelligence . . . deeply impressive. * Sunday Times *A wonderfully evocative storyteller. * Independent *A sensitive and searing novel. -- Marian Ryan * Mail on Sunday *This is a rich, intricate, beautifully written novel, bursting and seething with energy. * The Times *Nothing short of an asteroid impact would have made me put the book down * Irish Times *The Year of the Runaways is never explicitly polemical, but is steered instead by humane morality. [. . .] Without flights of fancy, neither sensationalising nor preachy, its greatest asset is that it doesn't oversimplify. [. . .] Thoroughly believable, irresistibly humane and often funny. -- Lucy Daniel * Daily Telegraph *Sahota's funny, humane second novel is certainly a book for our times. * Sunday Telegraph *Richly authentic and teeming with incident . . . totally compelling. -- John Harding, 'The year's best novels', 2015 * Daily Mail *Tolstoy and Steinbeck are not exaggerated comparisons for the sweep and power of Sahota’s second novel about five immigrant men living in England illegally and what they went through to get there * Boston Globe *If you think literature is at its best when it combines the political with the personal, this is the perfect book for you. Sunjeev Sahota humanizes harrowing news headlines in the most intimate way; stories about migrant workers and so-called "Untouchables" are carefully captured with painterly details and empathy . . . an important story about duty and love, beautifully told * NPR *

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Book SynopsisWith glamorous locations and heart-breaking twists, Christmas in the Snow by Karen Swan is all you need for a truly decadent Christmas holiday. The perfect gift - even if it's just to yourself.No secret stays buried forever . . .In London, the snow is falling and Christmas is just around the corner - but Allegra Fisher barely has time to notice. She's pitching for the biggest deal of her career and can't afford to fail. And when she meets attractive stranger, Sam Kemp, on the plane to the meeting, she can't afford to lose her focus either. She learned to shut off her emotions long ago and only her sister and best friend Isobel knows why. But when Allegra finds herself up against Sam for the bid, their passion quickly turns sour.In Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, a long-lost mountain hut is discovered in the snow after sixty years and the last person expecting to become involved is Allegra - she hasn't even heard of the woman they Trade ReviewHide indoors with a glass of wine and lose yourself in this -- HeatDeliciously glamorous, irresistibly romantic -- Hello!As sassy and glamorous as a champagne cocktail -- Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisBoy, Snow, Bird is a haunting and beautiful retelling of the Snow White myth, from author of the award-winning White is for Witching.Trade ReviewA spellbinding, wholly original look at families and the secrets they keep . . . An absolutely amazing and absorbing read * Marie Claire *Gloriously unsettling . . . it's clearly the book she's been waiting for . . . the greatest joy of reading Oyeyemi will always be style: jagged and capricious at moments, lush and rippled at others, always singular, like the voice-over of a fever dream. * New York Times *Boy, Snow, Bird is a haunting, tender portrait of three women from one of our generation's most talented literary writers * Stylist *Boy, Snow, Bird is among my favorite new releases for this year already. A retelling of the Snow White fairy-tale that focuses on race, it's a sensitive, intelligent treatment of a subject most fiction still sidesteps. Fans of Adichie's Americanah who also like a little fantasy in their coffee will be enchanted, I think. * Flavorwire *You don't want to leave Boy, Snow, Bird . . . a joy; the kind of fiction where you can wallow in the language and thrill at her inventiveness. * Emerald Street *One of my favourite books this year is Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. It is a modern version of the Snow White fairy tale and challenges the origins of meaning. -- Jenni Fagan * The Herald *Vibrant, funny and poignant * Big Issue *Striking, shimmering fiction . . . Boy, Snow, Bird is an intoxicatingly immersive riff on the myth of the evil stepmother * Metro *Oyeyemi writes beautiful prose, can adopt a sassy American idiom with assurance and produces sentences that no one else would think of . . . Boy's is a unique narrative voice * The Times *An extraordinary modern fairy tale, with huge international buzz * Red magazine *A powerful intertwining of fairytale and reality . . . Boy, Snow and Bird are brilliant creation, and through these three appealing and mysterious characters Oyeyemi examines female identity in all its delightful and terrifying complexity . . . Oyeyemi is a master of language; her writing is beautiful and precise, and her ability to hide deep meaning in unassuming words is breathtaking. This is a bewitching book, in every way. * The List *Oyeyemi is the cleverest in the land * Washington Post *'Riveting, brilliant and emotionally rich . . . Dense with fully realized characters, startling images, original observations and revelatory truths, this masterpiece engages the reader's heart and mind as it captures both the complexities of racial and gender identity in the 20th century and the more intimate complexities of love in all its guises. * Kirkus *Helen Oyeyemi consolidates her position as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2013 with the publication of her fifth novel, a story about the perception and power of appearances and race, and their potential destructiveness . . . An enchanting and captivating book. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisMonument to Murder is Mari Hannah's fourth gripping crime novel in the compelling crime series featuring DCI Kate Daniels.He selects. They die . . .When skeletal remains are found beneath the fortified walls of an ancient castle on Northumberland's rugged coastline, DCI Kate Daniels calls on a forensic anthropologist to help identify the corpse.Meanwhile, newly widowed prison psychologist Emily McCann finds herself drawn into the fantasy of convicted sex offender, Walter Fearon. As his mind games escalate in intensity, is it possible that Daniels' case has something to do with his murderous past? With his release imminent, what exactly does he have in mind for Emily?As Daniels encounters dead end after dead end and the body count rises, it soon becomes apparent that someone is hiding more than one deadly secret . . .Continue the investigative series with the fifth book, Killing For Keeps.Trade ReviewThis is top-notch British crime writing from an author who writes with passion and draws you into the relentless pressure of a police murder hunt. * Evening Telegraph *

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