Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Headline Publishing Group The Second Chance Year
Book Synopsis''I could not put this one down. Just a truly fun and satisfying read from start to finish'' ANITA KELLY''[A]n adorable, swoony, beautifully written romance that I devoured in a day. Full of warmth, heart (and food), I was completely charmed by Sadie and Jacob and cried all the happy tears. I didn''t want it to end!'' CATHERINE WALSHOne disastrous year. One magical wish. One chance to change the past. In one fell swoop, Sadie Thatcher managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie longs to redo her awful year. More than a little sceptical, she makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her worst move yet, she kisses her brother''s best friend, Jacob.When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she''s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. She realises it''s January 1 . . . of l
£9.89
Transworld The Fk It List
Book SynopsisMelanie Cantor worked for many years in PR and as a celebrity talent agent. She also dabbled in interior renovations, which led to her hosting the Channel 4 series Making Space, in which she tidied up people's messy houses. She has since concentrated on writing. Her first novel, Lifeand Other Happy Endings, was published in 2019. She has two grown-up sons and lives in Dorset and London with her dog, Mabel.
£8.54
Fairlight Books Dancing in the Shallows
Book SynopsisWhen Isla Wintergreen unexpectedly inherits her reclusive grandfather's cottage on the Isle of Skye, she cannot resist the opportunity to escape her purposeless life. As she learns more about the family she never knew, her mother also reflects on her own past, and both hope to find new freedom - but can family patterns ever really be broken?
£8.54
Profile Playboy
Book Synopsis'Defiant, probing, hot' Saba Sams, author of Send NudesAt the age of forty-three, the narrator abandons her marriage, her apartment and her successful legal career as a public defender to re-emerge as an out lesbian and a writer.In a series of short, sharp vignettes, the narrator describes her first female lovers - a married woman fifteen years older than her, a model ten years her junior - punctuated by encounters with her ex-husband, her father and her son. Looking at the world through fresh eyes, she questions everything that once lay beneath the surface of her well-managed life. Unburdened by marital and familial obligations, a new woman emerges, free to examine gender and marriage, selfishness and sacrifice, money and family, even the privilege inherent in her downward mobility.A compelling chronicle of transgression, Playboy is Constance Debré's unflinching account of new bachelorhood. Laconic, aggressive and radically truthful, she chronicles the process that made her one of the
£10.44
Simon & Schuster Ltd Hotel Portofino Lovers and Liars
Book SynopsisRomance, intrigue, and dangerous ambitions combine to create the perfect escape: welcome to the beautiful Hotel Portofino on the magical Italian Riviera. ***NOW A MAJOR TV DRAMA*** It is the summer of 1927 and Hotel Portofino is prospering under Bella’s stewardship. As the season begins, Bella is keenly looking forward to her son Lucian’s imminent arrival and the chance to discuss with him her plans to convert the hotel’s basement into a spa. But then Bella’s husband Cecil turns up unannounced, Over the course of several hot weeks in the middle of the Italian summer, Bella is forced to confront the reality of her relationship with Cecil and to decide to what extent she is prepared to go against social convention to get what she wants. As she welcomes her guests, old and new, an anonymous visit from a travel guide inspector threatens to make or break the hotel&rsq
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Cometh the Hour
Book SynopsisThrilling and absorbing, Cometh the Hour is the sixth novel in international bestseller Jeffrey Archer’s the Clifton Chronicles and sees the Clifton and Barrington families navigate the 1970s in an epic tale of tragedy and hope.There are devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, her brother Giles Barrington and their arch enemy Lady Virginia when a suicide note is read out in court.Having fallen in love, Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics to try and rescue the woman he loves from behind the Iron Curtain.Lady Virginia faces bankruptcy, and can see no way out of her financial problems, until she is introduced to a rich, hapless American. Harry and Emma’s son, Sebastian Clifton, now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank, falls in love with the wrong girl even as his rivals plot to overthrow him. Meanwhile, his father remains determined to free a fellow author from a gulag in Siberia, following the internatiTrade ReviewArcher continues his storytelling magic to create characters of spellbinding substance, and readers can count on his surprising twists and shocking conclusion. Here, just when the end seems too tidy, Archer provides a killer cliffhanger * Publishers Weekly *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Juno Loves Legs
Book SynopsisAn ode to love, to the families we build when our own families fail us. It broke my heart' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie BainJuno loves Legs. She always has, ever since she fought the bullies for him in their first encounter at school. Growing up on the estate is tough for them both, but as they emerge into the possibilities and underground parties of 1980s Dublin, they find a breathing space to begin their real lives.The two of them against the world. But what if the world has other ideas?A heartbreaker, and absolutely unforgettable' Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt IslandOne of the finest writers that Ireland has produced. Juno Loves Legs will break your heart and stitch it right back up again' Irish Sunday Independent
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Before We Were Innocent
Book Synopsis''This compulsive thriller reads like true crime and had me guessing until the very end.'' Reese Witherspoon Three friends went on holiday.Only two came back.Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of any involvement in their friend Evangeline's death. Although they were found innocent, the case made them infamous and they've not seen each other since.Except now Joni wants a favour, and when she turns up at her old friend's doorstep in need of an alibi, Bess has no choice but to say yes. After all, she still owes her.But can you ever leave the past behind, when the whole world believes you're guilty?''Beautifully written, suspenseful coming-of-age story... I loved it.'' The Daily Mail''Two BFFs are accused of murder in this novel that feels like true crime.'' CosmopolitanA haunting and dazzling page-turner.'Trade Review'Characters that vibrate on the page, secrets and lies, and a summer of dreams that ends in blood. This novel vibrates with passion, innocence and crushing weight of truth. It's spellbinding.' * Rachael Blok *
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd Fruit of the Dead
Book SynopsisAn electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, exploring who holds the power in a modern underworld. Camp counsellor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island off the coast of Maine. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. When her daughter seemingly disappears, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Book SynopsisIntroducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience classics which will endure for generations to come.On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence street cricket, barbecues, painting windows A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it, not even meriting a mention on the local news, means that those who witness it will be altered for ever.Jon McGregor''s first novel brilliantly evokes the histories and lives of the people in the street to build up an unforgettable human panorama. Breathtakingly original, humane and moving, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is an astonisTrade Review‘My book of the year. A magical, spellbinding, profound novel’ Maggie O’Farrell, Daily Telegraph ‘A sensationally accomplished debut … a convincing and moving vision of contemporary Britain’ Sunday Times ‘This is a novel of wonders’ Observer ‘This novel owes as much to poetry as it does to prose in its hypnotic portrait of industrialised society … An assured debut’ The Times ‘This is an ordinary world, shabby and melancholy, but McGregor describes it with mesmeric power … you won’t read anything much more poignant than this’ Daily Telegraph ‘This is ecstatic writing, suffused with delight both at the things evoked and at the language that can recreate them … McGregor’s conviction will carry them a long way’ TLS ‘A dream of a novel … It is not every novelist who has the gift, as Jon McGregor does, of reminding his readers of that heaven in a wild flower, that infinity in a grain of sand’ The Times ‘McGregor's publishers must be openly rejoicing …If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is the work of a burning new talent’ Daily Mail ‘McGregor is an exemplary archivist of the humdrum … written by someone who detects so passionately the remarkable in the everyday’ Spectator ‘Extraordinary … McGregor’s triumphant prose-poem of ordinariness has a very contemporary kind of spirituality about it’ Sunday Times ‘Wonderful … Full of gentle wonder and blinding insight … He has annotated the miracle of life’ Glasgow Herald
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Invisible Hour
Book SynopsisFrom the beloved New York Times bestselling author of the Practical Magic series comes an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery and the enduring magic of books. Sixteen-year-old Ivy is pregnant and alone. Cast out by her family, she runs away and finds safety in the arms of Joel Davis. He offers a simpler life than the one she had in Boston, a quiet, rural life of rules, peace and community. Little does she realise, Joel is the charismatic leader of a cult known as the Community, and all is not quite as it seems. Daughter Mia has only known the claustrophobic life of the Community. While out serving the Community one weekend, she secretly commits a transgression – reading. Discovering a world beyond the edges of the Community’s property is intoxicating. But breaking rules carries serious consequences, and sends Mia on a path she could never have imagined. With two fiercely wondeTrade Review‘I was immediately immersed in The Invisible Hour. It’s a wonderful story of love and growth, but it’s also a narrative engine of great power. Alice Hoffman is wonderful on stories and writing.’ Stephen King, New York Times bestselling author of FAIRYTALE ‘What a thrill to discover Nathaniel Hawthorne in the pages of Alice Hoffman’s exquisite new novel The Invisible Hour! And what delight to experience the melding, across the centuries, of two prodigious American literary imaginations—Hoffman’s and Hawthorne’s—in this redemptive tale of daughters and mothers and one true love for a man and his book.’ Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Peabody Sisters ‘Alice Hoffman's The Invisible Hour is a rich, immersive, magical reading experience. This beautiful novel is about the stories women tell each other and the ones that save us, about the price and peril of motherhood, and the difficulties women have faced throughout history in controlling their own fates. Alice Hoffman, the reigning queen of magical realism, takes her readers on a fantastic, mystical journey that celebrates the joy and power of reading and dares to believe in the impossible.’ Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Four Winds ‘The incomparable Alice Hoffman has written a transcendent novel that will stay with you all of your reading life. Ivy Jacob is broken beyond repair when she enters a community without books. Soon, her daughter Mia is born into the same world, her fate is also sealed, until the girl steals away and finds respite in a forbidden library. As Mia reads, she disappears into the story as readers do and finds herself there, in a place and time that will unlock her destiny. Mortal Love is an inventive yet practical fairytale where the prince is Nathaniel Hawthorne, freedom is love andbooks are our salvation. And frankly, when that book is written by Alice Hoffman, we be truly redeemed.’ Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone
£15.29
Dedalus Ltd Edo's Souls
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Pnin
Book SynopsisProfessor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously perched at the heart of an American campus. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world: the ruination of his beautiful lumber-room-as-office; the removal of his teeth and the fitting of new ones; the search for a suitable boarding house; and the trials of taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has yet to master.Wry, intelligent and moving, Pnin reveals the absurd and affecting story of one man in exile.
£15.29
Bonnier Books Ltd Trouble: The new laugh-out-loud Regency romp from
Book SynopsisThere's a new governess at Fairmont House, and she's going to be nothing but trouble.Emily Laurence is a liar. She is not polite, she's not polished, and she has never taught a child in her life. This position was meant to be her sister's - brilliant, kind Amy, who isn't perpetually angry, dangerously reckless, and who does (inexplicably) like children.But Amy is unwell and needs a doctor, their father is gone and their mother is useless, so here Emily is, pretending to be something she's not.If she can get away with her deception for long enough to earn a few months' wages and slip some expensive trinkets into her pockets along the way, perhaps they'll be all right.That is, as long as she doesn't get involved with the Edwards family's dramas. Emily refuses to care about her charges - Grace, who talks too much and loves too hard, and Aster, who is frankly terrifying but might just be the wittiest sixteen-year-old Emily has ever met - or the servants, who insist on acting as if they're each other's family. And she certainly hasn't noticed her employer, the brooding, taciturn Captain Edwards, no matter how good he might look without a shirt on . . .As Fairmont House draws her in, Emily's lies start to come undone. Can she fix her mistakes before it's too late?Praise for Lex Croucher:'Bridgerton's wild little sister. So much fun!' Sarra Manning 'Witty, whip-smart and full of characters I totally fell for. I didn't want it to end' Laura Kay'Beyond entertaining - high debauchery with a feminist swing' Abigail Mann
£9.49
September Publishing Any Human Power
Book SynopsisFrom acclaimed author Manda Scott comes a visionary thriller of a lifetime. As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. A decade later her teenage granddaughter is caught up in an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole, failed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins, and soon she and her family are besieged by the press, facing the all-powerful wrath of the old establishment whose only understanding is power-over, not power-with. Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught them all to think independently, approach power sceptically and dream with clear intent. She knows that more than one generation''s hopes are on the line. Weaving together myth, technology and radical compassion, this visionary novel breaks apart all we know of life, death and the routes to hope, asking us all to dream deeply and act boldly.
£17.09
Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand The Bone Tree
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Faber & Faber No One Prayed Over Their Graves
Book SynopsisA sweeping tale of life and death, set in the Syrian capital at the turn of the twentieth century from the International prize winning author of Death is Hard Work and In Praise of Hatred.A soulful and perfectly unsentimental writer. Hisham MatarDecember, 1907: one morning after a night of drunken carousing in the city, Hanna and his friend Zakariya return home to their village near Aleppoonly to discover a scene of tragedy. A devastating flood has levelled their homes, shops and places of worship, and their neighbours, families and children are nearly all dead. Their lives will never be the same.Tracing Hanna's life before and after the floodwhen he embarks on a search for the meaning of lifeNo One Prayed Over Their Graves is a portrait of a wider society on the verge of great change; from the provincial village to the burgeoning modernity of the city, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews live and work
£13.49
Sourcebooks, Inc The Most Famous Girl in the World
Book SynopsisStarsthey're just like us! Except much, much worse.Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today.It's been two years since Rosea first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck, and reporter for online journal The Shredwrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. Normally, one of her articles going viral would be cause for celebration, but the highly publicized trial that followed turned Poppy into the internet's favorite celebrity. And Rose has been reeling from the aftermath ever since. Although Poppy served her time for defrauding some of the richest, most powerful men in the world, Rose knows this is only the tip of the iceberg for Poppy's crimes. She just can't prove it yet At least not without the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue.As Poppy's star rises as an influencer and pop-culture
£11.69
And Other Stories Mammoth
Book SynopsisA GUARDIAN BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR 2024AN OBSERVER BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR 2024A NEW STATESMAN BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR 2024Mammoth's protagonist is a disenchanted young lesbian. She's inexperienced, irritated by life, eager to gestate, and determined to strip everything else down to essentials. She seduces men at random, swaps her urban habitat for an isolated farmhouse, befriends a shepherd, nurses lambs, battles stray cats, waits tables, cleans house, and dabbles in sex work - all in pursuit of life in the raw. This small bomb of a novel, not remotely pastoral, builds to a howling crescendo of social despair, leaving us at the mercy of Eva Baltasar's wild voice.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Golden Age
Book SynopsisThe bestselling novel by cult writer Wang Xiaobo, a satire of the Cultural Revolution, in its first full English translation''Wang Xiaobo is a truly unique writer, and there are very few writers like him'' Ai Weiwei''Fills the reader with aching poignancy, and yet makes them want to laugh out loud'' Jung Chang, author of Wild SwansTwenty-one year old Wang Er, stationed in a remote mountain commune, spends his days herding oxen, napping and dreaming of losing his virginity. His dreams come true in the shape of the beautiful doctor Cheng Qinyang. So begins the riotously funny story of their illicit love affair, the Party officials who enjoy their forced confessions a little too much, and Wang''s life under the Communist regime: his misadventures as a biology lecturer in a Beijing university, and his entanglements with family, friends and lovers. Golden Age is an explosive, subversive, wild and hilarious satire, featuring one of literature''s great protagonists, a sensation when it was published in the 1990s and beloved today.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less
Book SynopsisJeffrey Archer's first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, is page-turning tale of fraud, revenge and determination as four men stop at nothing to get back what was stolen from them.One million dollars – that's what Harvey Metcalfe, lifelong king of shady deals, has pulled off with empty promises of an oil bonanza and instant riches. Overnight, four men – the heir to an earldom, a Harley Street doctor, a Bond Street art dealer and an Oxford don – find themselves penniless. But this time Harvey has swindled the wrong men. They band together and shadow him from the casinos of Monte Carlo to the high-stakes windows at Ascot and the hallowed lawns of Oxford.Their plan is simple: to sting the crook for exactly what they lost – not a penny more, not a penny less.
£9.49
Random House Wandering Stars
Book SynopsisTommy Orange is faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California. Orange's debut novel, There There, was a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize, and received the 2019 American Book Award. Wandering Stars is his second book.
£17.09
Pan Macmillan Cloudstreet
Book SynopsisTim Winton has published over twenty-five books for adults and children. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). Active in the environmental movement, he is the Patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. He lives in Western Australia.
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Must Love Flowers
Book SynopsisThe joyful and escapist new summer novel from New York Times bestselling author Debbie MacomberLove blossoms in the most unexpected places . . .Joan Sample has been content being something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she decides it''s time to get back out into the world. With her sister''s encouragement, Joan starts taking care of her overgrown lawn, adopts an energetic puppy, and even rents out her spare room.Maggie Herbert is overwhelmed, working mornings as a barista, studying to become a nurse in the afternoons, and avoiding her alcoholic father''s temper at home. When she finds Joan''s room to rent, she believes her luck has turned. Only after she moves in does she realise that her least favourite customer happens to be Joan''s son - and she''s just taken his childhood room.Despite a rocky start, a friendship blooms between the two women and they wonder if they''ve found the home they''ve been
£8.54
Fairlight Books With or Without Angels
Book Synopsis'The thought in my head does not yet have shape or form, only direction, one picture leading into another.' An ageing artist, faced with his own mortality, embarks on one final artwork. As he battles to complete the project, working with an enigmatic young photographer, he finds his past and present blurring. Through the act of creation and the memories it excavates, the artist comes to a realisation about what matters most, and what he will leave behind when he is gone. This hybrid and innovative short novel responds through fiction to 'The New World', the final artwork by the late artist Alan Smith - which is in turn a response to an eighteenth-century fresco, Giandomenico Tiepolo's 'Il Mondo Nuovo'. With sparkling, dreamlike prose, Bruton weaves a story around these artworks, arriving at both a profound exploration of the creative process and a timeless love story told in a new way.Trade Review'Experimental yet accessible, serious but playful, provocative but moving. Douglas Bruton is a writer of boundless invention' —Stephen May, author of 'Sell Us The Rope'; 'a work of seriousness, empathy and beauty' —The Scotsman; 'With lyrical and succinct prose, Douglas Bruton writes tenderly about the quest to capture memories and understand what makes a life. His writing really stays with me' —Julie Corbin, author of 'A Lie For A Lie'; 'A work of spare and brittle loveliness. With or Without Angels is a deeply moving depiction of art and the people who make it, at once visceral and restrained. I admired it enormously' —Nell Stevens, author of 'Briefly, A Delicious Life'; 'This book does not leave its readers unmoved. More compelling than a biography, Douglas Bruton's narrative once again immerses us in a life that shimmers through the delicate fabrics of art. The hero of the story is an artist who can no longer hold a brush. He uses a camera to take pictures that turn into collages. Each collage modifies hazy memories and takes us to a new colorful world full of mystery, longing, and invisible angels' —Julia Nemirovskaya the editor of 'Disbelief: 100 Anti-War Poems'
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Next in Line
Book SynopsisThe gripping new instalment in the William Warwick series, An Eye for an Eye, is available to pre-order now!THE UNPUTDOWNABLE THRILLER FROM THE MASTER STORYTELLEROnly someone like Jeffrey Archer . . . could have written a compelling story like this. Every page bristles with suspense and the ending comes at you with the force of a tank round' DAVID BALDACCILondon, 1988. Royal fever sweeps the nation as Britain falls in love with the people's princess'.Which means for Scotland Yard, the focus is on the elite Royalty Protection Command, and its commanding officer. Entrusted with protecting the most famous family on earth, they quite simply have to be the best. A weak link could spell disaster.Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick and his Scotland Yard squad are sent in to investigate the team. Maverick ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan is charged with a very sensitive and unique responsibility. But it soon becomes clear the problems in Royalty Protection are just the beginning. A renegade organization has the security of the country and the Crown in its sights. The only question is which target is next in lineOver My Dead Body hit #4 in the Sunday Times bestselling charts on 4th June 2022.Trade Review Praise for Jeffrey Archer: ‘Probably the greatest storyteller of our age’ Mail on Sunday 'Peerless master of the page turner' Daily Mail 'If there were a Nobel Prize for storytelling, Archer would win' Daily Telegraph ‘Archer is a master entertainer’ Time
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co Marry Me in Italy
Book Synopsis''The ultimate escapist read!'' VERONICA HENRY on To Italy, with Love''Deliciously romantic'' ERICA JAMES on P.S. Come to Italy ''Knowing, compassionate and moving'' CATHERINE ROBERTSON The scenery is swoonsome'' STEVE BRAUNIAS on P.S. Come to Italy A dream wedding in Italy? It''s the chance of a lifetime! Skye has been with Tim forever and the last thing she''s thinking about is saying ''I do''. It''s Tim that enters the dream wedding competition - he''s longing to win an all-expenses-paid trip to romantic Montenello. An escape to a beautiful Italian hill town might be just what they need to find love again... Ana definitely isn''t interested in getting married - she doesn''t need a man to make her happy. But when she loses her job at a glossy food magazine, she jumps at the chance of a new life, renovating a crumbling Italian farmhouse. Her handsome (and
£15.29
Pan Macmillan A Few Green Leaves
Book Synopsis‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ - Jilly Cooper, author of The Rutshire Chronicles series‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ - Richard Osman, author of The Thrusday Murder Club Barbara Pym was an incomparable chronicler of ordinary, quiet lives. With warmth, humour, precision and great vividness, she gave her best characters an independent life we recognize as totally familiar. In A Few Green Leaves, her last novel, her heroine is Emma Howick, anthropologist. Through her eyes Barbara Pym examines in her own ironic and individual style the quiet revolution in English village life, combining the rural settings of her earliest novels with the themes and characters of her later works. The result is a compelling portrait of a town that seems to be forgotten by time, but which is unmistakably affected by it. Romance shares the pages with death in this engaging novel that is the culmination of Barbara Pym’s acclaimed writing career.'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' - Philip Larkin, author of A Girl in Winter'Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heart-breaking silliness of everyday life' - Anne Tyler, author of The Accidental Tourist'A modern Jane Austen' - Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency seriesTrade ReviewMy favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy -- Jilly CooperI'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym -- Richard OsmanI'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen -- Philip LarkinBarbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life -- Anne Tyler'Brilliant, hilarious and so very, very English * Daily Mail *Her best [novels] are sheer delight, and all of them companionable. Quiet, paradoxical, funny and sad, they have the iron in them of permanence too -- John UpdikeBrilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English * Time Magazine *[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and, above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that? -- Mavis CheekBeneath the gentle surfaces of her novels is a slow-building comedy, salt wit in a saline drip * New York Times *A splendid humorous writer -- John BetjemanA modern Jane Austen -- Alexander McCall Smith
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Very Nice Girl
Book Synopsis**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2023** **A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR** **A GRAZIA BOOK OF THE YEAR** **SELECTED FOR MALALA'S BOOK CLUB** 'Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People' MEG MASON, author of SORROW AND BLISS 'Haunting and bleakly compelling ... A writer of promise' SUNDAY TIMES 'An absorbing debut about sex and power' GUARDIAN 'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES ‘One of the buzziest debut novels this spring’ VOGUE _____________________________________________________________________________ Anna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet. Here she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna’s intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city. But Anna’s fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly – whether he necessarily wills it or not – so does Max… _____________________________________________________________________________ 'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES 'A beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love' DAILY MAILTrade ReviewThis is a haunting, bleakly compelling debut ... An unflinching study of male-female power dynamics, grimly plausible ... A deftly structured commercial literary debut by a writer of promise * SUNDAY TIMES *An absorbing debut about sex and power ... This gripping debut about an opera singer’s relationship with an older man explores issues of financial and sexual inequality * GUARDIAN *This promising debut charts the edgy relationship of a young woman and older man... Crimp’s prose is elegant and witty... a precursor to great things from an interesting new voice in fiction * THE TIMES *Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People -- MEG MASONWonderful ... A beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love and it’s particularly brilliant on being insecure about who you are * DAILY MAIL *In A Very Nice Girl, Imogen Crimp explores complicated relationships, the creative life, and the challenges of living in London in your twenties, with precision and subtlety. Touching on feminism, power, finances, and the pleasures and dangers of a new relationship, this book is an assured debut -- CLAIRE FULLERFans of Fleabag will find lots to like here in this tale of a young woman who needs to get the hell out of her own way * RED *British newcomer Imogen Crimp delivers a witty tale of finance and romance * VOGUE, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2022 *Meg Mason called it "tender, devastating and witty. And deeply true... Sweetbitter meets Normal People" * SUNDAY TIMES STYLE, CULT BOOKS FOR SPRING *Crimp's debut novel will perhaps earn the author comparisons to Sally Rooney, but A Very Nice Girl feels truly distinct ... An alluring romance * ESQUIRE, Books of the Year 2022 *Brilliant * SUNDAY TIMES, 42 BEST BOOKS TO READ ON YOUR COMMUTE *Imogen Crimp captures the glittering thrill of being young and choosing your own life with a dark, unflinching undercurrent of desire, power and control -- JESSICA ANDREWSA blazing, darkly funny debut that captures a young woman’s search to find herself both through love and performing opera - and the way one fights to cancel out the other. It has an honesty and tenderness that will stay with me for a long time -- RACHEL JOYCETransfixing from the start, A Very Nice Girl steals the show. Gorgeous prose, bone-dry humor and brutally shrewd observations make Imogen Crimp’s debut sing in this perilous love story about a talented young woman learning to wield her voice. Intimate and intoxicating, A Very Nice Girl absolutely dazzles -- BECK DOREY-STEINAn exquisitely detailed novel - Crimp absolutely nails the intricate inner workings of the opera world. Humorous, biting, and unnervingly honest, the story explores one young woman’s path to finding herself -- ADDIE WOOLRIDGEAn absorbing, bittersweet debut about love, longing and relationship power-play. Darkly funny and emotionally engaging … a gripping coming of age story that explores a young woman’s shift from a state of lonely drifting to one of self-determination with enthralling compassion, wit, and considered pace * LOVEREADING *Explores themes of feminism, power, and the sacrifices of an artistic career – and who pays for it. For those who loved Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, but with a prod at the underbelly of capitalist systems’ * COUNTRY & TOWNHOUSE *It's no surprise that this girl-meets-boy story has earned Crimp comparisons to Sally Rooney. Fans of the latter will take comfort in how A Very Nice Girl paints a realistic picture of the everyday, and documents a relationship with tumultuous highs and the lowest of lows. While Rooney's focus is on the dynamic of her character's relationships, Crimp triumphs in how close we get to her protagonist * TATLER *A bitingly honest and darkly funny tale about love, sex, power and desire ... If you like Sally Rooney this is the book for you * TAKE A BREAK *Dazzling and insightful * HARPER'S BAZAAR *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Rapture
Book SynopsisCarol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. She was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 2009. In 2011 The Bees won the Costa Poetry Award, and in 2012 she won the PEN Pinter Prize. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list.
£10.44
Mira Books Magical Meet Cute
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co The Physics of Sorrow
Book Synopsis''Compulsively readable'' New York Times''Utterly original'' Alberto ManguelIn the small and the insignificant - that''s where life hides, that''s where it builds its nest.Our unnamed narrator is not well. He suffers from attacks of ''pathological empathy'', which cause him to wander unbidden into other people''s memories. He moves from recollection to recollection - from a Bulgarian country fair in 1925, where he meets a Minotaur, to inside the mind of a slug, as it is swallowed by his own Grandfather.Part family history, part coming-of-age story, part meditation on life in Communist Europe, The Physics of Sorrow is a dazzlingly inventive, mind-expanding novel from one of Europe''s most important writers.TRANSLATED FROM THE BULGARIAN BY ANGELA RODEL
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd Foe
Book Synopsis'Reads like a house on fire' - the extraordinary new novel by Iain Reid, the acclaimed author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things You think you know everything about your life. Long-married couple Junior and Henrietta live a quiet, solitary life on their farm, where they work at the local feed mill and raise chickens. Their lives are simple, straightforward, uncomplicated.Until everything you think you know collapses. Until the day a stranger arrives at their door with alarming news: Junior has been chosen to take an extraordinary journey, a journey across both time and distance, while Hen remains at home. Junior will be gone for years. But Hen won't be left alone.Who can you trust if you can't even trust yourself? As the time for his departure draws nearer, Junior finds himself questioning everything a
£9.87
Random House The Bookbinder of Jericho
Book SynopsisAs World War One brings women unexpected new freedoms, bookbinder Peggy has the chance at a new future.''Vivid and moving ... I absolutely loved it!'' Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things''Charming, original and beautifully researched'' Rachel Hore, author of A Beautiful Spy''When the men leave for the Western Front, Peggy and her friends must shoulder the burden at home.As she moves between her narrowboat full of memories and the demands of the bookbindery where she works, Peggy's dreams of escaping for a new life feel ever more remote.But the war brings people together in unexpected ways. New friends and lovers offer new opportunities but also present difficult choices and Peggy must write her own story.''A fresh, exciting new voice in historical fiction'' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife''A compelling homage to the transformational power of books
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Bad Summer People
Book SynopsisSUN. SCANDAL. SECRETS. IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO END IN MURDER . . .Get ready for the most scandalous read of the summer . . . ''It is DELICIOUS'' MARIAN KEYESSuch gossipy, naughty fun' LUCY FOLEY Wicked, clever, sinfully good' KEVIN KWAN --- The island's where you go to have fun. Miles of beaches and boardwalks. The sun's hot. The games are competitive. And the best liaisons are illicit. The same rich families have been coming every summer for years. And whether it's on the tennis court, or in the bedroom, old rivalries gain a new frisson. Then the body is found. Is it murder? Has it all, finally, gone too far? But if so how do you stop?---Brilliantly written, wryly funny, excitingly paced' DAILY MAIL A sizzling sin-fest. The perfect page-turning read' GRAZIA An addictive thriller' NEW
£8.54
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Send Nudes: By the winner of the BBC National
Book Synopsis**A Sunday Times Paperback of the Year** **A Granta Best of Young British Novelist** **Winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2022** **Winner of the BBC National Short Story Award 2022** **Shortlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2023** SELECTED FOR STYLIST'S BOOKS YOU CAN'T MISS IN 2022 - 'A MUST READ' 'An exhilarating debut' GUARDIAN 'A fresh new voice in fiction, wry and sharp and raw' EMMA CLINE 'I still remember where I was when I first encountered a Saba Sams story' NICOLE FLATTERY 'I fell for this stunning collection with a rare, consuming passion' MEGAN NOLAN ____________________________________________________________ In ten dazzling stories, Saba Sams dives into the world of girlhood and immerses us in its contradictions and complexities: growing up too quickly, yet not quickly enough; taking possession of what one can, while being taken possession of; succumbing to societal pressure but also orchestrating that pressure. These young women are feral yet attentive, fierce yet vulnerable, exploited yet exploitative. Threading between clubs at closing time, pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays, these unforgettable short stories deftly chart the treacherous terrain of growing up – of intense friendships, of ambivalent mothers, of uneasily blended families, and of learning to truly live in your own body. With striking wit, originality and tenderness, Send Nudes celebrates the small victories in a world that tries to claim each young woman as its own. _____________________________________________________________________ 'A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting ... I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next' PANDORA SYKES 'A seriously impressive debut. Saba Sams digs into the chaos, euphoria and menace of sexual attraction, friendship and family with bravery and wit' CHRIS POWER CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN, STYLIST, VOGUE, GLAMOUR, COSMOPOLITAN, EVENING STANDARD, IRISH INDEPENDENT, AnOTHER, FOYLES, BOOKSHOP.ORG Trade ReviewSaba Sams is a fresh new voice in fiction, wry and sharp and raw -- EMMA CLINESaba Sams is adept at wrongfooting our assumptions, creating a set of unique, multi-dimensional characters with rich internal lives -- ELIZABETH DAYSaba Sams’s unsettling, full-throated Send Nudes captures girls and young women on the brink of change * GUARDIAN, Best Fiction of 2022 *Ten startlingly original stories that … seem to come out of nowhere and clamp their jaws shut around you. Exploring the uneven, hazardous terrain between girlhood and womanhood, Sams expertly reveals its inherent contradictions – the rawness and intense vulnerability of teetering on the edge of something new coupled with the power and euphoria that come with self-discovery … Sams’ unflinching observation yet tender empathy for each of her characters sets her apart as a bold new talent * STYLIST, BOOK OF THE WEEK *The earthy resilience and joie de vivre of these stories make for an exhilarating debut ... Sams joins the ranks of writers such as Megan Nolan and Frances Leviston with these acute portraits of the fragile intimacies and euphoric moments snatched by a generation of women coming of age into a precarious future ... In spare, rhythmic sentences, this exhilarating collection captures the light and dark of negotiating relationships, solitude, sexuality and loss * GUARDIAN *An ode to the women you drunkenly befriend in club toilets, Send Nudes is an astonishing selection of short stories charting the ebb and flow of girlhood. Saba Sams' authoritative yet witty tone of voice shines through, rendering this one of the most exciting books to come out of 2022 * GLAMOUR, THE BEST BOOKS COMING OUT IN 2022 *Girlhood, womanhood and everything in between. Ten glorious stories – set in clubs at closing time, pub toilets, sweaty music festivals and hazy beach holidays – of young, feral women who are navigating the complexities of growing up, friendships and truly living in their own bodies * REFINERY29, The Ultimate Gen Z Book Guide For Surviving 2022 *A collection of short stories that speak to the female experiencer * COSMOPOLITAN, BEST BOOKS OF 2022 *In ten quickfire stories, Brighton-born Saba Sams conjures up the spaces between lovers, the visceral attraction and the damning rejection. Read in one sitting and you’ll be transported to moments in your past, to scenes you instantly recognise but may have deliberately forgotten; a must-read for 2022 * STYLIST, The fiction books you can’t miss in 2022 *A visceral and compulsive writer, Saba Sams’ ten short stories slalom through the pulsing veins of romance, rejection, and resistance to a world that attempts to box in every young woman. Painfully familiar feelings are dredged up, but it’s so utterly compelling it can be consumed in one sitting. I have fallen in love with Sams’ feral women, found in club toilets, on beach towels, in ferocious friendships, navigating tense family dynamics and body politics * AnOTHER, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2022 *A razor-sharp debut * VOGUE, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2022 *I still remember where I was when I first encountered a Saba Sams story. She is an instinctive storyteller attuned to the ordinary details that make up a life. A highly perceptive and intelligent writer -- NICOLE FLATTERYAcclaimed by Emma Cline, Nicole Flattery and Megan Nolan, this debut short story collection from 25-year-old British author Saba Sams announces the arrival of a striking new talent … Wry, visceral, astute, they capture the intensity of adolescent self-consciousness and fledgling experience * CULTURE WHISPER *If you’ve made it your 2022 mission to cut down on screen time, there’s no shortage of brilliant new fiction to scratch the escapist itch that social media has left. Send Nudes by Saba Sams is a collection of short stories perfect for those who are pressed for time (and attention span), all focused on the world of girlhood and growing up as a woman (fans include Emma Cline and Megan Nolan) * EVENING STANDARD, CLASS OF 2022 *Beautiful, compressed, fleeting -- SALLY ROONEY on 'Overnight'A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting. Sams conveys the suffocation of being and the longing to break free - from parents, partners, children, convention, your own self - in tender, spare prose. I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next. -- PANDORA SYKESSend Nudes is a seriously impressive debut. Saba Sams digs into the chaos, euphoria and menace of sexual attraction, friendship and family with bravery and wit. The balance her prose strikes between observation and empathy is remarkable, and its rhythms irresistible -- CHRIS POWERSaba Sams’ writing is dark and glittering. Her collection twists the world on its axis and filters it through an unsettling light. Her precise, wry sentences and sticky, uncompromising characters got beneath my skin -- JESSICA ANDREWSI really liked Saba Sams' spare, blunt style and her quirky take on adolescence and young womanhood. The stories covered such a wide range of moods and experiences and the various humiliations and disappointments were treated with a wonderfully clear and unsentimental eye ... I hope this collection brings her lots of new readers -- CLARE CHAMBERSUnfalteringly different, ensnaring, often frightening stories about characters caught between childhood and adulthood, who are feeling out their boundaries, desires and limits for the first time. Sams’ writing is intoxicating -- CLAIRE KOHDAIn Send Nudes Saba Sams provides an alluring glimpse into contemporary life by presenting familiar experiences in entirely new and electrifying prose -- ZEBA TALKHANITen short stories about the treacherous terrain of growing up, learning to live in your body, friendships, mothers and blended families introduce a promising debut author, whose work has appeared in The Stinging Fly * IRISH INDEPENDENT, HOTTEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR *
£9.49
Profile Books Ltd The Essex Serpent: Sunday Times bestselling
Book SynopsisLondon, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge. On arrival, they hear rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist, is enthralled, convinced that what the locals think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, who is also deeply suspicious of the rumours, but thinks they are a distraction from true faith. As he tries to calm his parishioners, Will and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both.Trade ReviewThe Essex Serpent is a novel to relish: a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author -- Sarah WatersHad Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker come together to write the great Victorian novel, I wonder if it would have surpassed The Essex Serpent? No way of knowing, but with only her second outing, Sarah Perry establishes herself as one of the finest fiction writers working in Britain today. -- John BurnsideA big, warm, generous novel that wears its considerable wisdom lightly, The Essex Serpent is an absolute pleasure from start to finish - I truly didn't want it to end. -- Melissa HarrisonThe Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry [is] a joyous and beguiling book that wrapped itself around me rather like its eponymous monster. -- Cathy RentzenbrinkA blissful novel of unapologetic appetites, where desire and faith mingle on the marshes, but friendship is the miracle. Sarah Perry has the rare gift of committing the uncommittable to prose - that is to say: here is a writer who understands life. -- Jessie BurtonA book to make you want to be a better person. -- Justine Jordan, The GuardianI loved this book. At once numinous, intimate and wise, The Essex Serpent is a marvellous novel about the workings of life, love and belief, about science and religion, secrets, mysteries, and the complicated and unexpected shifts of the human heart - and it contains some of the most beautiful evocations of place and landscape I've ever read. It is so good its pages seem lit from within. As soon as I'd finished it I started reading it again. -- Helen MacDonaldA sinuous historical novel by the genius that is Sarah Perry -- Lucy Mangan * Stylist *An historical novel with real depth ... Perry writes fantastically, and this deserves attention for the rest of the year. -- Steven Cooper * The Bookseller *One day this book will make a fine BBC period drama ... Perry is a wonderful descriptive writer with a remarkable talent for making the familiar strange ... Her accounts of open-heart surgery carried out half a century before antibiotics, or an autistic child questioning the nature of sin, or a soldier's wedding in the phthisic slums of Bethnal Green, snatch the breath in your throat. Perry bleeds light into darkness and back again with a mastery born of her deep professional acquaintance with the gothic tradition. -- Oliver Moody * Times *The Essex Serpent is a work of historical fiction, set in the 1890s, which, for originality, richness of prose and depth of characterisation is unlikely to be bettered this year ... a remarkable novel. Although Will and Cora provide the focal points for her story, Perry has packed The Essex Serpent with a rich array of equally rounded characters to hold our attention. The novel is full of vivid set pieces ... it is Perry's ability to conjure up a sense of entire lives unfolding before our eyes that is most impressive. Filled with wisdom about human behaviour and motivations, and written in a distinctive, stylish prose, The Essex Serpent is one of the most memorable historical novels of the past decade. -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *One for the holiday suitcase. A historical romance with a gothic twist ... expect to spot a copy on beach towels this summer. * Vogue *An irresistible novel that taps the vein of Victorian gothic and British myth * Daily Telegraph *It's prompted comparisons to both Dickens and Bram Stoker and marries the former's abhorrence of injustice with the latter's genius for unsettling atmosphere ... Hardy-esque ... a rich and complex novel but also a deeply enjoyable read, with warm humanity at its core. -- Jeff Robson * iPaper *An irresistible novel ... Perry's Victoriana is the most fresh-feeling I can remember ... Her prose is often beautiful ... the tone is a masterstroke ... You feel the influences of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Hilary Mantel channelled by Perry in some sort of Victorian séance. This is the best new novel I've read in years. It's the kind of work that makes you alive to the strangeness of the world and of our history. -- Charlotte Runcie * Daily Telegraph *Engaging ... On the book's cover, John Burnside compares The Essex Serpent to Dickens and Stoker. But it was one of my favourite novels, Alasdair Gray's Poor Things (1992), that kept coming back to me ... Perry takes apart our preconceptions of prim Victorian mores with similar gusto ... The Essex Serpent is a historical novel with an entirely modern consciousness, and is every bit as gripping and unusual as its predecessor. -- Alex Preston * FT *The Essex Serpent is frightfully good. -- Susan Hill * Twitter *An intelligent, lushly written gothic yarn ... Reading it makes you want to hotfoot it to the Essex coast. -- Claire Allfree * Metro *Everything they're saying is true: sumptuous, beautiful, powerful, engrossing, brilliant. -- Nina Stibbe * Twitter *A lovely book ... it sets out unashamedly to lift the spirits ... The writing has a gorgeous lilt ... The method is itself Victorian - an omniscient narrator scattering sackfuls of sympathy - but the message never gets old: the world is poorer if we don't put ourselves in each other's place once in a while. -- Anthony Cummins * Spectator *Sarah Perry's new novel The Essex Serpent is a thing of beauty inside and out. I don't think I've ever mentioned a book's cover in a review before, but Peter Dyer's William Morris-inspired design is stunning, a tantalizing taste of the equally sumptuous prose that lies within ... When it comes to historical fiction, Perry's achieved the near impossible; she's created a novel and within it a world that seems to have sprung complete and fully formed directly from the period in question - a long lost fin-de-siècle Gothic classic - but her characters are as enticingly modern as they are of their period ... Perry also showcases the most beguiling evocations of landscape ... For only a second novel it's a stunning achievement, one for which I predict prize nominations galore, from the Wellcome to the Man Booker -- Lucy Scholes * Independent online *A richly themed and exhilarating novel ... this poetically written story dramatises the clash between rationality and resurgent superstition, between desire, morality and the intellect, and the struggle of reformers to redress the poverty of late-Victorian society. -- Elizabeth Buchan * Daily Mail *Sarah Perry has written an exquisitely absorbing, old-fashioned page-turner peopled by memorable characters, particularly the magnificent, stubborn and wilful Cora. Perry also captures a society on the brink of a profound shift, uncomfortably reassessing its view of the world through the prism of scientific progress. The Essex Serpent is shot through with such a vivid, lively sense of the period that it reads like Charles Dickens at his most accessible and fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will also find much to love in this engaging, entertaining Gothic novel. -- Charlotte Heathcote * Daily Express *A novel of ideas, and flexes its muscles in addressing multiple concerns of the period ... The novel probes at both private emotion and public concerns, and is engrossing and immersive. The grime of London is only surpassed by the murk of Aldwinter. Cora makes for an indelible heroine: uncompromising, funny and smart, and not unlike Alma Whittaker in Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. There will also be whispers of Dickens or a gamut of 19th century novels of similar size and scale, but Perry's voice and story are her own. Her language is exquisite, her characterisation finely tuned. Based on The Essex Serpent and its predecessor, it's clear that Perry is a gifted writer of immense ability. -- Sinéad Gleeson * Irish Times *A Victorian-era gothic with a Dickensian focus on societal ills, Perry's second novel surprises in its wonderful freshness. There's a sense of Llareggub about close-knit Aldwinter, its flint church, historic oak and ribby shipwreck instantly present, while the tapestry of voices that results from the use of letters amplifies the Under Milk Wood echo. Perry's singular characters are drawn with a fondness that is both palpable and contagious, and the beautifully observed changing seasons permitted space to breathe, all making for pure pleasure. -- Stephanie Cross * Observer *An eerie tale of science and superstition ... gothically good. -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express *It's 1893, and Cora Seabourne is a young widow whose husband's death has released her from a miserable marriage. Finally free to follow her own interest in natural history, Cora heads to Essex, hoping the recent reports of a mysterious ancient serpent may possibly turn out to be proof of a "living fossil . . . a species outwitting extinction". There she meets the local vicar, Will Ransome, and despite his scepticism about science and her lack of faith in religion, the two forge an unlikely bond. A bewitching and luminous book about science, faith and different kinds of love. -- Anna Carey * Irish Times *Dazzling * Woman and Home *The Essex Serpent is rare in being a novel that is both highly diverting and intellectually rewarding, in taking its thematic interests seriously while playing delightedly with romance and the Gothic. -- Sarah Moss * The Lancet *Sarah Perry...beautifully and deeply...elucidates friendships of all kinds in her books...I must recommend the delicate beauty and sinuous power. -- Lucy Mangan * Stylist *It's a brilliantly written story of one woman's life and relationships in late Victorian England and my favourite historical novel since Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. -- John Meagher * Irish Independent *A graceful and intelligent book. -- Maria Croce * Daily Record *The Essex Serpent is probably the best novel I have read this year. It is the right kind of literary fiction: full of ideas, challenge, and intrigue, but with a compelling narrative that tows you through the pages like a freight train...Perry has created an ensemble of characters so richly drawn that each could warrant a novel in his or her own right...invigorating, fascinating, and hugely enjoyable. -- Malcolm Doney * Church Times *My stand-out novel of the year is The Essex Serpent...It's about love, faith and myth. I loved it. -- Jenni Murray * Radio Times *The eponymous serpent makes its presence felt throughout, but this novel is about much, much more than a winged demon terrorising the Essex countryside, and is all the richer for it. -- Kate Foley * Living North *One of the most-loved books of the last two years...Perry's descriptions of Essex bring to life the beauty of one of our more under-appreciated counties. * Emerald Street *The Essex Serpent has been hailed as a modern classic, and for good reason. It's an esoteric, whimsical book that joins the ranks of generations of Victorian and Gothic novels from Doyle to Shelley, all the while defying the very traditions these books have set down... The perfect book to read as you sit in an overgrown garden, or while tramping through the heath. * The Edinburgh Reporter *A Notable Book of 2017 * New York Times *
£9.49
Profile Books Ltd Fifteen Dogs
Book SynopsisWinner of the Giller Prize 2015 Winner of the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize 2015 It begins in a bar, like so many strange stories. The gods Hermes and Apollo argue about what would happen if animals had human intelligence, so they make a bet that leads them to grant consciousness and language to a group of dogs staying overnight at a veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of complex thought, the dogs escape and become a pack. They are torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into unfamiliar territory, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks. Engaging and strange, full of unexpected insights into human and canine minds, this contemporary take on the apologue is the most extraordinary book you'll read this year.Trade ReviewSpry... Impressive... I loved this smart, exuberant fantasy from start to finish -- Jonathan Gibbs * Guardian *An elegant cross-breed of magical realism, moral fable, owner's handbook and philosophical treatise -- Frances Wilson * New Statesman Books of the Year *Intensely moving and heartbreaking in turn...An original idea brilliantly executed * The Lady *Alexis excels at sparking drama from collisions between the canine and the human. He is also well versed in Greek myth and legend, yet where Fifteen Dogs really succeeds is on an allegorical level. There are superficial similarities in approach to Animal Farm, but Alexis's dogs are drawn with greater depth than Orwell's menagerie and he goes beyond politics, using them to look at human issues of fulfilment, happiness, and love. These sensitive explorations help to make this startlingly original novel as thought-provoking as it is enjoyable. In sum, this is the dog's bollocks -- Peter Carty * Independent *Thought-provoking and moving...a canine version of Lord of the Flies * Good Housekeeping *A powerful story about what it means to have consciousness, and the good and the bad that comes with it * CBC Books Spring Preview *André Alexis has established himself as one of our preeminent voices * Toronto Star *Following his Rogers Writers' Trust-nominated Pastoral, protean novelist André Alexis returns to reclaim another almost-forgotten genre, the apologue (defined as an allegory in which animals adopt human consciousness. * Quill & Quire’s Spring Preview *
£8.54
Oneworld Publications Beasts of a Little Land
Book SynopsisAs the Korean independence movement gathers pace, two children meet on the streets of Seoul. Fate will bind them through decades of love and war. They just don’t know it yet.Trade Review'Beasts of a Little Land is a stunning achievement. Juhea Kim wrestles with the chaos of a half-century of love, idealism, war and violence, and does so with courage and wisdom.' TLS'Full of Korean myth and historical detail, it’s an immersive read for a long weekend.' Stylist'This is historical fiction at its very best! I am astonished by Juhea's talent.' Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing'Stunning... Profound... This novel will devastate you and then still you with its wise meditations on love and loss. I couldn’t put it down.' Alexis Schaitkin, author of Saint X'Beasts of a Little Land is a heartbreaking story rendered mythic by Kim’s gorgeous prose.' Jing-Jing Lee, author of How We Disappeared'A magnificent, mesmerizing story of love and war… Cinematic in its scope, this is the type of novel that the reader finishes both with pleasure (for its satisfying denouement and pleasing circularity) and with sadness (at having to leave the story behind).' New Internationalist'Some people say that all stories are about either love or war. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Korea, Kim’s epic debut novel is about both.' Harper's Bazaar US, 'Best Books of 2021''Gorgeous prose and unforgettable characters combine to make a literary masterpiece.' Kirkus, (starred review)'Kim's dreamy, intense debut is both a sure-footed historical account of the Korean struggle for independence from Japan and the emotionally fraught story of several people whose lives are inextricably tied together... The prose is ravishing.' Publishers Weekly'An immersive historical novel set in occupied Korea with a sweeping cast of characters whose lives intersect over half a century.' Lit Hub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2021''This epic historical novel offers an entrancing glimpse into a colourful world of love and conflict.' Daily Mail, 'Must Reads'
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd Flight
Book Synopsis'Suspenseful, dazzling and moving' Rumaan Alam'Arresting and powerful' Lily King'Breathtakingly propulsive and insightful' Leslie Jamison It’s 22 December and siblings Henry, Kate and Martin have converged with their spouses on Henry’s house in upstate New York. This is their first Christmas since their mother passed. Without her once ever-present advice and gentle nudges to connect with each other when they need it most, they’ve grown distant. Over the course of the next three days, old resentments and instabilities arise as the siblings, with a gaggle of children afoot, attempt to perform familiar rituals while also trying to decide what to do with their sole inheritance, their mother’s house. As each tries and fails and tries again to figure out how to reconcile their various needs and impulses around the house, they must also see whether they can and will remain a famiTrade Review‘Lynn Steger Strong is a master of family life, a wise chronicler of economic struggles real and imagined, of dreams versus responsibilities, and of nuances in relationships of all kinds. Arresting and powerful, Flight examines the possibility and pain of fierce love and hope in our time of looming existential threats’ Lily King, author of Writers and Lovers ‘A fateful few days in the life of two families becomes in Lynn Steger Strong’s hands a clear-eyed examination of our current moment. Flight probes deeply into grief and its aftershocks, what binds us to one another, the meaning of art itself. It's a book whose fleet movements belie its ambition. Suspenseful, dazzling and moving’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind ‘A gorgeous novel, both intimate and expansive. Flight is packed full of wisdom about family, marriage, class, climate, love and loss. Lynn Steger Strong is a master of creating characters so funny, flawed and true that they feel like people you know. I couldn’t put it down’ J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Friends and Strangers ‘Breathtakingly propulsive and insightful, Flight gripped me from the very first page and didn’t let go. It asked my heart to pay better, closer attention to the world, because it pays such exquisite attention to the world: from botched gingerbread houses to cigarette breaks, every scene bristles and pulses with nuance. Strong is a writer who makes me feel reconfigured, more sharply attuned to the business of being alive; as if I have nerve endings that didn’t exist before reading her. Flight is a story about how we lose and find each other again – and how this finding is never done, because we are, all of us, many selves at once’ Leslie Jamison, author of The Recovering and Make it Scream, Make it Burn ‘With razor-sharp pacing and luminous prose, Lynn Steger Strong aims her keen eye on the complexities of siblings, marriage, motherhood and grief. Flight is a wonderfully alive look at the ways we try – defiantly and sometimes perilously – to love one another. You will want to gulp this book down in one sitting, but I urge you to slow down because its charms should be savored’ Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company ‘With deft, discerning prose, Strong writes beautifully about mothers and the struggles, fears, and joys of motherhood... A quiet domestic novel that soars’ Kirkus Reviews ‘A compelling portrait of how love and resentment are often twin sides of the same coin. Flight is its own portrait of struggle and strife, and yet a smooth and utterly compelling read’ Vogue ‘Strong’s writing soars effortlessly… True reconciliation, safety, stability, fulfillment: These are destinations along a flight path forever uncertain — though shot through, like this novel, with moments of transcendence’ Los Angeles Times ‘Strong is adept as characterizing this loss in all its manifestations, and in rendering the challenges inherent in three families trying to celebrate together… Once again, Strong demonstrates her talents for perception and nuance’ Publishers Weekly 'Part of the sense of life in the book comes from Strong’s distinctive prose style — compressed, telegraphic and gestural, one in which the sharp noticing of what might otherwise seem like ordinary details about a character or an exchange takes on a resonating depth' New York Times 'Strong is an exacting observer of families and their idiosyncrasies, in the mode of Anne Tyler and Jonathan Franzen... Strong keeps Flight in motion with twists of language and revelation' Washington Post ‘Three siblings face their first Christmas without a mother in this moving novel about grief and family. As they attempt to navigate the new dynamic and perform familiar festive rituals, old resentments and tensions between them are revealed and it takes an emergency in the local community to pull them together’ Good Housekeeping 'Flight doesn’t just juggle the interior lives of six protagonists with great dexterity; it also carefully delineates who these people are to each other, and where anger and jealousy might clip the wings of their better angels... Tightly plotted and vividly rendered' USA Today 'With compassion and a deep sense of understanding, Flight explores the nature of belonging, and what it means to truly be part of a community' Buzzfeed ‘Intricate and moving... reminiscent of Anne Tyler, that great chronicler of American families’ Irish Times 'Consoling and unsettling… Add enforced cheer, choreographed feasting and stifling expectations – not to mention the swirl of memories that it all triggers – and you’ve a combustible combination' Observer
£11.99
Quercus Publishing The Book of Chameleons
Book Synopsis'Ingenious, consistently taut and witty' TLS 'Humorous and quizzical, with a light touch on weighty themes, the narrative darts about with lizard-like colour and velocity' Independent'Strange, elliptical, charming' Guardian 'A poetic, beguiling meditation on truth and storytelling . . . from the dreamscapes of magical realism to a gripping political thriller and even a murder mystery' New InternationalistFélix Ventura trades in memories, a slippery character selling new pasts to people whose bright futures lack only a good lineage, and wiping clean the slate of their identity.In a narrative that darts between past and present Angola, a bookish albino man, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner and a witty talking lizard come together to discover their real origins. For theirs is a world where the truth seems to shift from moment to moment and where history itself is up for grabs . . .WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE'A work of fierce originality' Independent'Without doubt one of the most important Portuguese-language writers of his generation' ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES'Cross J. M. Coetzee with Gabriel García Márquez and you've got José Eduardo Agualusa' ALAN KAUFMANTranslated from the Portuguese by Daniel HahnTrade ReviewFierce originality, vindicating the power of creativity to transform the most sinister acts. Not since Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis have we had such a convincing non-human narrator, brought vividly home to us by Daniel Hahn -- Amanda Hopkinson * Independent *Strange, elliptical, charming * Guardian *Humorous and quizzical, with a light touch on weighty themes, the narrative darts about with lizard-like colour and velocity -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Witty and perceptive. Agualusa has the distinction of being the first Angolan writer to be translated into English * Herald *A curious tale of memory and how it can be shaped, threaded with literary nods, where dreams and reality interweave, and reality itself is interpreted in myriad ways . . . with truths shifting against a vividly drawn sense of place * Metro *A magical tale of metamorphosis, friendship and revenge. Hahn's English translation matches the original's playful inventiveness with language. I loved this book. -- margaret jull costaA subtle, beguiling story of shifting identities * Kirkus Review *A poetic, beguiling meditation on truth and storytelling, a political thriller and a wholly satisfying murder mystery. * New Internationalist *Lovers of stylish literary fiction will rejoice at this charming tale by Angolan writer Agualusa * Publishers Weekly *
£9.49
Canongate Books Above the Waterfall
Book SynopsisNothing else comes so I set the notebook beside me. What else is here? I ask myself and listen. This section of stream purls and riffles amid small stones. What word might be made for what I hear . . .Les Clary's final case has broken the still surface of his backwater town.Becky, a park ranger with her own mysterious past, shares Les's consolation in the natural world that lies just beyond their hopelessly broken town. As Les and Becky explore of the county's lyrically beautiful landscape, they finds themselves led deeper into the heart of the town's corruption, and into the darkness of their own ruptured histories. This haunting novel is a poetic journey into the wilderness of the heart.Trade ReviewA writer's writer who writes for others -- Colum McCannA gorgeous, brutal writer -- Richard PriceOne of the great American authors at work today -- Janet Maslin * * New York Times * *Ron Rash is a writer of both the darkly beautiful and the sadly true . . . One of our very finest novelists -- Richard RussoMagnificent is suddenly too small a word * * Irish Times * *Finds a narrow sweet spot between Raymond Carver and William Faulkner. * * Washington Post * *Rash's prose is elegant, suggestive, and Hardyesque. * * Boston Globe * *Combining suspense with acute observations and flashing insights, Rash tells a seductive and disquieting tale about our intrinsic attachment to and disastrous abuse of the land and our betrayal of our best selves * * Starred Booklist * *Alternates between traditional prose and a poetic voice * * Wall Street Journal * *The book begins as a lyrical, far-reaching reflection on nature and modern-day loneliness . . . Beneath the surface, the novel contemplates more timeless questions about human frailty, the divinity of nature and the legacies of our native landscapes . . . A hybrid of prose poetry, nature writing and literary mystery . . . Exhilarating and beguiling * * Atlanta Journal * *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan A Matter of Honour
Book SynopsisThe opening of a letter leads to a desperate chase across Europe in A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, one of the world’s bestselling novelists.Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father’s will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel, after all, had nothing to leave – except a letter he had never opened himself, a letter that can only bring further disgrace to the family name.Against his mother’s advice, Adam opens the letter, and immediately realizes his life can never be the same again. The contents leave him with no choice but to follow a course his father would have described as a matter of honour.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Last Summer in the City
Book SynopsisA cult classic of Italian literature, published in English for the first time, with an afterword by André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name.'A masterpiece' - Le Figaro'Dazzling in every detail' - ElleIn the late 1960s, Leo Gazzara leads a precarious life in Rome. He spends his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between hotels, bars, uninspiring jobs, romantic entanglements and the homes of his rich friends. Leo drifts, aimless and alone.But on the evening of his thirtieth birthday, he meets Arianna. All night they drive the city in Leo’s run-down Alfa Romeo, talking and talking. They eat brioche for breakfast, drink through the dawn, drive to the sea and back. A whirlwind beginning. What follows is the story of the year Leo fell in love and lost everything.Intense, romantic, witty and devastating, Last Summer in the City is a forgotten classic of Italian literature which offers an intoxicating portrait of two lonely people, pushing and pulling each other away and back again.'The most beautiful love story of the year' - Il GiornaleTrade ReviewThe true quality of this novel is the way it enlightens, with a desperate clearness, a relationship between a man and a city, that is, between crowd and loneliness -- Natalia GinzburgThe most beautiful love story of the year * Il Giornale *A masterpiece * Le Figaro *Dazzling in every detail * Elle *[A] sublime text, of extraordinary languid beauty and sadness * Sud Ouest *Calligarich’s time capsule of love and existential drift in a lost Rome, translated into sparkling prose by Curtis, is ripe for a rediscovery * New York Times Book Review *A sad, seductive declaration of love for Rome * Il Messaggero *A short, gorgeous, moving and magnificent story of love and solitude -- Il Sole 24 OreThis book, at once painful and ironic, remains a small gem * La Repubblica *A heartrending marvel * L’Echo *Charming, decadent, and emotionally ruthless . . . equal parts Fitzgerald and Antonioni . . . It's wonderful to have this devastating gem at large in the world again -- Andrew Martin, author of Cool for AmericaDeeply haunting . . . A marvel of a novel * Booklist *Calligarich’s rendering turns la dolce vita into something more akin to Camus’s L’Etranger in a contemporary-ish urban setting. Out of print for years, this welcome new translation is elegiac and heart-rending * Vogue, Best Books to Read This Summer 2021 *The account of a lost generation in Rome in the early 1970s (possibly the children of the children of Hemingway’s lost generation) carries the weight of both family history and generational saga * Kirkus *Evocative . . . Calligarich conjures Italy’s piazzas, parties, beaches, and bars with a mood reminiscent of A Movable Feast . . . the feeling that Leo is alone in the world is poignantly conveyed * Publishers Weekly *
£9.49
Canongate Books Animals
Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR NEW FILMRECOMMENDED ON THE HIGH LOW PODCAST'There's no ceremony for friendship, is there?''Believe me, if I could marry you too, Tyler, I would.'Laura and Tyler are best friends and drinking buddies. But things are set to change when Laura gets engaged to the man of Tyler's nightmares. Can their friendship survive? Or will growing up mean growing apart?Trade ReviewI wish I had written this book . . . Withnail with girls -- CAITLIN MORANSavagely funny, clever and wise. If it's not an instant cult classic I'm leaving the cult -- NATHAN FILERHilarious, moving and poetic * * Glamour * *Animals is a riot. A kind of drunker, swearier Girls. I loved it -- MATT HAIG[A] wham-bam, helter-skelter account of female friendship, featuring two women in their early thirties whose voracious appetite for wine makes Dionysus look like a lightweight * * Independent * *A hilarious, madcap meditation on grown ups who are not quite ready to grow up. Her writing is as brilliantly inventive as her characters' transgressions -- HELEN WALSHBrutally funny and heartfelt. I loved it -- LAUREN BEUKESA devilish tale, spun in angelic prose -- JOHN NIVENStunningly brilliant -- JENN ASHWORTHCasually high on insight, mercifully low on decorum, Animals is vital, funny, poignant and true. If you're looking for talent, style and the deep wisdom of misbehaviour, read it -- GLEN DUNCANA gloriously over-the-top account of female friendship * * Guardian * *A fresh, albeit slightly fevered, depiction of female friendships and modern femininity in which traditional romantic entanglements take second place * * Observer * *It's not exactly subtle, but there is an irrepressible energy and verve to Animals, a veracity to Unsworth's no-bullshit prose and her main characters' barfly pseudo-philosophising, that makes the whole thing crack along like a Friday night pub crawl. Laura and Tyler are such engaging characters that it's hard to read Animals without cracking open a bottle of wine and joining the madness * * Big Issue * *Animals beautifully navigates the complexities of intimate relationships. Never cloying or mawkish, it communicates vulnerability, dependence and tenderness, often in a single dazzling line * * Guardian * *A speedy, exciting tale of female friendship * * Bath Chronicle * *Gloriously debauched and wonderfully touching...a gripping, raucous read from one of Britain's most promising young writers * * The List * *This is a book that will make you laugh and make you think. It's a story about friendship and growing up, and the fun that can be had and the shit that you sometimes have to leave behind * * BookCunt blog * *What also makes Animals so fresh - apart from Emma Jane Unsworth 's lovely turn of phrase and ability to resuscitate the worst hangover you've ever had - is just how filthy these girls are * * Stylist * *Animals looks like a New Order record, its narrative fuelled by cheap white wine, the non-logic of the always-intoxicated and the sensuously evocative language of a writer who's been there....but it's ultimately a sobering and tender read * * Twin Magazine Blog * *Unsworth is a name to watch . . . Animals is more than a hymn to partygoing - it is a sharp study of the endurance of female friendship over romantic entanglements and life's challenges...alternately bleak and comic, Animals gives us the pain of the morning after the night before in all its unvarnished awfulness * * Financial Times * *Unsworth is a bright talent * * New Statesman * *Told through wild nights and the chaos of life as a thirty-something, this ode to female friendship is number one on my summer reading wish list * * Red Online * *Like a riotous, careening night out, full of laughter and absurd details, this book marks its authors as a tremendous talent * * Guardian * *
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Look Who's Back
Book SynopsisTHE SMASH-HIT HITLER SATIRE - MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD"A brilliant book" RUSSELL KANE "Brilliant and hilarious" KEN FOLLETT A box-office-hit film now available on NETFLIXA two-part BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation directed by and starring David Threlfall (Shameless)Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman. People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights. Look Who's Back stunned and then thrilled 1.5 million German readers with its fearless approach to the most taboo of subjects. Naive yet insightful, repellent yet strangely sympathetic, the revived Hitler unquestionably has a spring in his step.Translated from German by Jamie BullochTrade ReviewBe warned. This book is funny. Very funny -- Rebecca K Morrison * Independent *Worryingly believable (time travelling despots aside) and unsettling. But also very funny -- Nathan FilerA brilliant book -- Russell KaneBrilliant and hilarious -- Ken FollettIncredible . . . Very funny -- Alastair CampbellLaugh-out-loud funny . . . An uproarious, disturbing book that will resonate long after you turn the final page * Daily Express *Both funny and frightening . . . A powerful and important book * Independent on Sunday *Peculiar, provocative and very funny . . . It makes you laugh and forces you to think * Irish Independent *Wonderfully inventive, very funny and superbly written * We Love This Book *The Hitler of Look Who's Back has aged not a whit: his fascist views are intact, and he is as foul-tempered and misanthropic as ever * Sunday Times *There's no question that the novel has hit upon the key paradox of our modern obsession with Hitler * Observer *The jokes are very funny . . . rollicking, enjoyable * Financial Times *A satire on the cult of personality . . . nicely played * Monocle *This uproariously funny satire will have you in stitches * Shortlist *'An uproarious, disturbing book that will resonate long after you turn the final page' Caroline Jowett, Daily Express. * Daily Express *'Be warned. This book is funny. Very funny' Rebecca Morrison, Independent. * Rebecca Morrison, Independent *'Both funny and frightening, this is a subtle, historical study of the commanding nature of the fanatical demagogue, as well as a savage critique of contemporary western culture. It is a powerful and important book' Sue Gaisford, Independent. * Independent *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing After Many a Summer
Book SynopsisJo Stoyte is afraid of death. But Stoyte is also a millionaire, and so he pours his riches into scientific research, desperate to find the secret of immortality. This ruthless quest will enmesh everyone around him in a web of greed, seduction, murder and debasement. Written while he was living in California, this is Huxley’s response to Hollywood’s superficiality and obsession with youth, a powerful cautionary tale which employs all his customary wit and merciless insight.Trade ReviewThis is Mr. Huxley's Hollywood novel, and you might expect it to be fantastic, extravagant, crazy and preposterous. It is all that, and heaven and hell too....It is the kind of novel that he is particularly the master of, where the most extraordinary and fortuitous events are followed by contemplative little essays on the meaning of life....The story is outrageously good * New York Times *A highly sensational plot that will keep astonishing you to practically the final sentence * New Yorker *Mr. Huxley's elegant mockery, his cruel aptness of phrase, the revelations and the ingenious surprises he springs on the reader are those of a master craftsman; Mr. Huxley is at the top of his form * Times Literary Supplement *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Astonishing the Gods
Book SynopsisSelected as one of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'. From Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, a deceptively simple modern fable with an ancient origin. A young man finds himself living among invisible beings who have built a utopia based on one principle: that we must repeat or suffer every experience until we experience it properly and fully for the first time. 'A modern day classic' Evening Standard 'Beautiful. A new creation myth' Daily Telegraph 'Amazing. I think this is as close as you can get to reliving the experience of a bedtime story' GuardianTrade ReviewA modern-day classic * Evening Standard *Beautiful. A new creation myth * Daily Telegraph *Amazing. I think this is as close as you can get to reliving the experience of a bedtime story * Guardian *Genuinely fresh insight... the invisibility theme is a good one, for the multiple associations it carries, especially for an African writer' * The Herald *
£6.99
