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
Bedford Square Publishers Blood Pact
Book SynopsisDetective Superintendent Jack Hawksworth and his team have to untangle a terrorist threat from a possible serial killer in the latest book in the series by million-copy bestseller Fiona McIntosh.
£9.49
Bedford Square Publishers People Watching
£9.49
G&D Media Notes From The Underground
Book Synopsis?To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise? ? Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the UndergroundThe darkly fascinating novella Notes From The Underground was written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1864, shortly before he penned his lengthier later novels, including The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment.Considered by many to be one of the first existentialist novels it follows the complicated mind of a bitter, retired civil servant (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who lives alone in St. Petersburg, Russia in the mid 19th century.Able to retire after recently inheriting some money, the narrator in full retreat from society has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In full retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory rambling narrative that runs the gamut from human morality, to logic and reason and serves as a devastating attack on emerging Western and contemporary Russian philosophy, as well as social utopianism and an assertion of man?s essentially irrational nature. These memoirs or confessions describe and explain his alienation from modern society and the work can be viewed as an attack on and rebellion against determinism, the idea that everything, including the human personality and will, can be reduced to the laws of nature, science and mathematics.One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the narrator is a doubting, alienated protagonist in a novella that introduces the moral, religious, political and social themes that dominated Dostoyevsky?s later masterworks.
£10.44
Penguin Publishing Group In the Company of Witches
Book Synopsis
£15.38
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Green Island A Novel Please Use This Code
Book SynopsisBEST BOOK AWARD IN FICTION BY THE ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES • A stunning, lyrical novel that tells the story of how the Tsais, a Taiwanese family, survive the 'February 28 Incident' of 1947 and precariously navigate the decades that follow (The New York Times).As an uprising rocks Taiwan, a young doctor in Taipei is taken from his newborn daughter by Chinese Nationalists, on charges of speaking out against the government. Although the doctor eventually returns to his family, his arrival is marked by alienation from his loved ones and paranoia among his community. Years later, this troubled past follows his youngest daughter to America, where, as a mother and a wife, she too is forced to decide between what is right and what might save her family—the same choice she witnessed her father make many years before. The story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, Green I
£13.49
Rebellion Publishing Ltd. The Sludge 60th Anniversary
Book SynopsisA strange and terrible living jelly-like substance the product of nuclear weapons testing emerged from the depths of the sea near Canada in 1965. Known by the human world as The Sludge', this unique monster posed a threat to anything that stood in its way. Anything it covered became possessed of a frightening, malignant power aimed against Mankind!
£17.09
Valley Spring Press Go Swift and Far a Novel of Bath
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Peirene Press Ltd Iron Lung
Book SynopsisSet in Copenhagen during the terrifying polio epidemic of the early 1950s,Iron Lung is a poetic allegory of adolescence, and an unsettling and subtle commentary on sexuality, medicine, and technology.
£11.69
Fitzcarraldo Editions My Documents
Book SynopsisMy Documents is the latest work from Alejandro Zambra, the award-winning Chilean writer whose first novel was heralded as the dawn of a new era in Chilean literature. My Documents is unflinchingly human and essential evidence of a sublimely talented writer working at the height of his powers.Trade Review‘People kept mentioning his name, but I was slow to encounter the Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra. I hadn’t read anything by him before opening his new story collection, My Documents […] My Documents is the fourth book by Alejandro Zambra to be translated into English (this one very ably by Megan McDowell). All of them are very short and strikingly original, and display a wry self-consciousness about the obligations, difficulties, and pleasures of writing fiction. […] In his new book, Zambra returns to the twin sources of his talent—to his storytelling vitality, that living tree which blossoms often in these pages, and to his unsparing examination of recent Chilean history. These come together magnificently.’ — James Wood, New Yorker ‘[An] excellent collection […] rich and thought-provoking […] If you are going to read Alejandro Zambra, which you should, don't just read My Documents, read everything he's done.’ — Chris Power, Guardian‘These stories are graceful, grave, comical, disabused. I guess what I mean is: My Documents represents a new form. When I think about Alejandro Zambra, I feel happy for the future of fiction.’ — Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute‘Alejandro Zambra’s My Documents is also his best: an eclectic, disconcerting, at times harrowing read. His voice is unique, honest and raw, and there is poetry on every page. Zambra’s fiction doubles as a kind of personal history, full of anguish, humour and verve. A truly beautiful book.’ — Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in Circles ‘Zambra is the author of small classics – short in length, but enormous in every other way. My Documents elevates him to a entirely new level.’ — Valeria Luiselli, author of Faces in the CrowdTable of ContentsPart I My Documents | Part II Camilo, Long Distance, True or False, Memories of a Personal Computer | Part III National Institute, I Smoked Very Well | Part IV Thank You, The Most Chilean Man in the World, Family Life, Artist's Rendition
£11.69
Olympia Publishers King of Broadway
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Nordisk Books You Cant Betray Your Best Friend and Learn to
Book Synopsis
£8.55
Canongate Books Ltd. Swallows
Book Synopsis
£14.39
Pan Macmillan The Minds Eye
Book SynopsisHåkan Nesser is one of Sweden's most popular crime writers, receiving numerous awards for his novels featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, including the European Crime Fiction Star Award (Ripper Award), the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize (three times) and Scandinavia's Glass Key Award. The Van Veeteren series is published in over twenty-five countries and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Håkan Nesser lives in Gotland with his wife, and spends part of each year in the UK. In addition to the popular Van Veeteren series, his other books include the psychological thriller The Living and the Dead in Winsford and The Barbarotti series.
£8.99
Penguin Putnam Inc Peach Tea Smash
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Ecstasy
Book SynopsisIrvine Welsh was born and raised in Edinburgh. His first novel, Trainspotting, has sold over one million copies in the UK and was adapted into an era-defining film. He has written thirteen further novels, including the number one bestseller Dead Men's Trousers, four books of shorter fiction and numerous plays and screenplays. Crime and The Long Knives have been adapted into a television series starring Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox. Irvine Welsh currently lives between London, Edinburgh and Miami.Trade ReviewA pure writer, producing staggering feats of storytelling... The skill of a master * Independent *Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing to have happened to British writing for decades * Sunday Times *Urgent, violent, bleakly funny prose -- Nick Hornby * Times literary Supplement *Welsh's world is spiky, trashy and brutal. It is also brilliant, hilarious and infused with a kind of punkish morality * Sunday Express *The poet laureate of the chemical generation * Face *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Therapy
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewFull of delights... His view of our neuroses is sane, intelligent and amused -- John Mortimer * Sunday Times *Energetic, comic...a highly ingenious games-board of moves and counter-moves * Sunday Telegraph *Lodge remains one of the very best English comic novelists of the post-war era; and Therapy is good for you * Time Out *Takes off on wings of humour and pathos which would not have disgraced Lodge's great hero Dickens... A splendid novel * Daily Express *A real treat...a joy - a sobering joy, but a joy none the less * Observer *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Anils Ghost
Book SynopsisAnil''s Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of a bloody civil war. Enter Anil Tissera, a young woman and forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka but educted in the West, sent by an international human rights group to identify the victims of the murder campaigns sweeping the island.When Anil discovers that the bones found in an ancient burial site are in fact those of a much more recent victim, her search for the terrible truth hidden in her homeland begins. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity - a story driven by a riventing mystery.Trade ReviewThere is much to astonish, to disturb and to admire in this dense book... a rare triumph * Guardian *This is why I read, this is why literature matters, this, in short, is IT!... By the closing pages Anil's Ghost has come as close to a holy book as a novel ever should * Independent *A deeply felt and highly accomplished survey of devastated paradise... which both plunges you into the carnage of Sri Lanka's civil war and keeps you aware of the island's past splendours of civilisation. Barbarity and art hauntingly mingle in this fine book * Sunday Times *It is Ondaatje's extraordinary achievement to use magic in order to make the blood of his own country real... Nowhere has he written more beautifully * New York Times Book Review *A truly wondrous book... I was as enthralled as I have not been since The English Patient -- Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Norwegian Wood
Book SynopsisIn 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, which turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, were translated into many languages, including English, and the door was thrown wide open to Murakami's unique and addictive fictional universe.Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages a day, after which he runs ten kilometres (he began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races), works on translations, and then reads, listens to records and cooks. His passions colour his non-fiction output, from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to Absolutely On Music, and they also seep into his novels and short stories, providing quotidian moments in his otherwise freewheeling flights of imaginative inquiry. In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Men Without Women, his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring Murakami's place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.Trade ReviewNorwegian Wood is Japan's The Catcher in the Rye * Daily Telegraph *Everyone who reads Norwegian Wood runs out to buy copies for friends and lovers... Drawing on Fitzgerald, Capote, Chandler and the Japanese tradition, his books are at once disarmingly direct and slyly, charmingly evasive. They are playful and melancholy; full of wrong turns and red herrings, corridors that lead nowhere and - above all - girls who disappear * Guardian *A masterly novel. . . . Norwegian Wood bears the unmistakable marks of Murakami's hand * The New York Times Book Review *This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows * Independent on Sunday *Catches the absorption and giddy rush of adolescent love... It is also, for all the tragic momentum and the apparently kamikaze consciousness of many of its characters, often funny and quirkily observed. Quietly compulsive and finally moving * Times Literary Supplement *
£9.49
Cornerstone NYPD Red 2
Book Synopsis____________________________NYPD Red - the task force attacking the most extreme crimes in America''s most extreme city - hunts a killer who is on an impossible mission.A vigilante serial killer is on the loose in New York City, tracking down and murdering people whose crimes have not been punished. The number of victims grows, and many New Yorkers secretly applaud the idea of justice won at any price.NYPD Red Detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald are put on the case when a woman of vast wealth and even greater connections disappears. Zach and Kylie have to find what''s really behind this murderer''s rampage while political and personal secrets of the highest order hang in the balance. But Kylie has been acting strange recently - and Zach knows whatever she''s hiding could threaten the biggest case of their careers.
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Past
Book SynopsisRivalry, unruly desire and ugly secrets poison a family holiday in this gripping novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Free Love and Late in the Day.''Few writers give me such consistent pleasure'' Zadie SmithFour siblings meet up in their grandparents'' old house for three long, hot summer weeks. But under the idyllic surface lie shattering tensions.Roland has come with his new wife, and his sisters don''t like her. Fran has brought her children, who soon uncover an ugly secret in a ruined cottage in the woods. Alice has invited Kasim, an outsider, who makes plans to seduce Roland''s teenage daughter. And Harriet, the eldest, finds her quiet self-possession ripped apart when passion erupts unexpectedly. Over the course of the holiday, a familiar way of life falls apart forever.''Exquisite'' The Times''Wonderful'' Guardian''Magnificent'' Sunday TimTrade ReviewOne of the best novels of 2016. -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *I find Tessa Hadley’s work genuinely helpful, especially when it comes to the big subjects: love and marriage, the political versus the personal, children, friendship. And then there are the sentences themselves, so precise and beautiful, often sly, sometimes devastating, always expertly paced. Few writers give me such consistent pleasure. -- Zadie SmithShe has such great psychological insights into human beings, which is rare. She is one of the best fiction writers writing today -- Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieA new Tessa Hadley is a pleasure to be savoured… The Past is a hugely enjoyable and keenly intelligent novel, brimming with the vitality of unruly desire. -- Sameer Rahim, four stars * Daily Telegraph *Hadley is an exquisite writer, with a fine eye for detail and a way of crafting sentences that make you stop and inhale * The Times *Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts. -- Hilary MantelTessa Hadley has become one of this country’s great contemporary novelists. She is equipped with an armoury of techniques and skills that may yet secure her a position as the greatest of them. -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *My favourite contemporary novelist... Nobody explores the mystery of relationships better than Hadley. -- Deborah MoggachA masterful novel * Spectator *Tessa Hadley is funny, precise, sensuous, and one of the best writers of family life that you are ever likely to encounter – simultaneously sympathetic and penetrating * Daily Mail Books of the Year *She deserves all the prizes. Hadley is psychologically acute, drily witty and…absolutely wonderful on place * Observer *Splendid… Hadley’s gift for depicting the interior lives of children and adults rivals Ian McEwan’s * Chicago Tribune *Tessa Hadley excels at presenting the contrasting viewpoints of children, teenagers and adults, and her evocative descriptions of the English countryside are a delight. -- Anthony Gardner * Mail on Sunday *Poetic, tender and full of wry humour. A delight * Sunday Mirror *Tender dissection of a certain sort of English middle-class life is magnificently done: half celebration, half elegy. -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *Tessa Hadley has an exquisite eye for detail. -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping *Full of wonders * Observer *A brilliant British take on two generations of family inhabiting the same house. -- Tim Martin * Daily Telegraph *An astute and finely written novel * Stylist *Exquisite… For anyone who cherishes Anne Tyler and Alice Munro, the book offers similar deep pleasures. Hadley crystallizes the atmosphere of ordinary life in prose somehow miraculous and natural.... Extraordinary * Washington Post *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Some Rain Must Fall
Book SynopsisAn exhilarating story of ambition, joy and failure in early manhood from the international phenomenon, Karl Ove Knausgaard.* Karl Ove Knausgaard''s dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *As the youngest student to be admitted to Bergen''s prestigious Writing Academy, Karl Ove arrives full of excitement and writerly aspirations. Soon though, he is stripped of his youthful illusions. His writing is revealed to be puerile and clichéd, and his social efforts are a dismal failure. He drowns his shame in drink and rock music.Then, little by little, things begin to change. He falls in love, gives up writing and the beginnings of an adult life take shape. That is, until his self-destructive binges and the irresistible lure of the writer''s struggle pull him back.''Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating'' The TimesTrade ReviewBracing, maddening and utterly compelling -- Robert Collins * The Sunday Times *Tremendous, maddening, addictive, gripping * Observer *It is a pen-and-paper virtual reality; after reading it you feel that another past has been downloaded into your mind -- Laurence Scott * Financial Times *Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating * The Times *For Knausgaard's obsessive fans, this cycle is the most exciting literary project of our times... Knausgaard is the most humane writer in the world… He writes beautifully… It is precisely in the commonness of the lovingly recorded details that these books spin their magic -- Daniel Swift * Spectator *Raw, fast, improvisatory, unfettered. It’s addictive high-wire writing in which he unflinchingly reveals everything about himself * Shortlist *[Some Rain Must Fall] is Knausgaard at his best… It’s a rare novelist who writes about student bars and the Happy Mondays at the same time as yearning for spiritual salvation -- Max Liu * Independent *Part of Knausgaard’s appeal is believability: his books may be called novels but we read them as memoirs. The meticulous detail seems to guarantee their authenticity… Childhood, sex, love, art, work and death are there too, writ small from his own perspective, but compellingly observed -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *Reverberates with life’s core questions… In its depiction of the torment of writer’s block and a young adult’s struggle to construct a sense of self, both on and off the page, it is brilliant -- Anita Sethi * Mail on Sunday *
£12.34
Vintage Publishing In a Dark Dark Wood
Book SynopsisNora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back. Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare's hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote cottage - the perfect opportunity for Nora to reconnect with her best friend, to put the past behind her. But something goes wrong. Very wrong.Trade Review"A slickly plotted, whip smart thriller - genuinely chilling and totally compulsive" Sunday Mirror, Book of the Week "[A] chilling psychological thriller...a tense, claustrophobic marriage of secrets, tequila shots and shotguns" Sunday Express "If the premise might be the sort that Agatha Christie would have toyed with had she been a 21st-century graduate, Ware's analysis of the power-games some women revel in - and the toxicity in the undertow of some female friendships - is more reminiscent of Sophie Hannah, Christobel Kent, or even Gillian Flynn and Harriet Lane" -- Patricia Nicol Independent "You won't be able to put down this creepy page-turner" Closer "Thrilling, gripping & well-written" Metro, Book of the Week "Toxic friendships, an isolated house, a dark snowy wood... Everyone's worst nightmare, and the perfect ingredients for this tense, terrifying novel" -- Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Ballad of a Small Player
Book SynopsisSOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM, STARRING COLIN FARELL AND TILDA SWINTONI waited patiently for the next hand to be played out, and I had a feeling it was going to be a Natural, a perfect nine.'His name is Lord Doyle.His plan: to gamble away his last days in the dark and decadent casino halls of Macau.His game: baccarat punto blanco -- ''that slutty dirty queen of casino card games.''Though Doyle is not a Lord at all. He is a fake; a corrupt lawyer who has spent a career siphoning money from rich clients. And now he is on the run, determined to send the money and himself up in smoke.So begins a beguiling, elliptical velvet rope of a plot: a sharp suit, yellow kid gloves, another naughty lemonade and an endless loop of small wins and losses. When Lady Luck arrives in the form of Dao-Ming, a beautiful yet enigmatic lost soul, so begins a spectacular and unnatural winning streak in which millionsTrade ReviewA modern Graham Greene.... into this relatively quiet period for British fiction, someone remarkable and unexpected has emerged fully armed with a formidable, masterly grip on the British novel. At precisely the point where most novelists start to show signs of flagging, Osborne has hit his creative, fictional stride...and has arrived as a thrilling, exceptional talent in British fiction's landscape. -- Robert Collins * Sunday Times *A perfectly written existential thriller, a spooky, gripping, heart-in-your-mouth read that has profound things to say about the only god who rules human affairs – chance. -- Neel Mukherjee * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2014 *Damn. Another writer I have to care about… dark, brilliant and about as ignorable as a switchblade. * New York Times *The Ballad of a Small Player shares the exoticism and East-West disconnect of The Quiet American, the unresolved supernaturalism of The Heart of the Matter and Loser Takes All's bittersweet relationship with the gaming tables. If Osborne's book is a love letter to gambling, it's the kind written at 3am to an indifferent ex after an evening at the bar -- an ode to self-destruction. A brisk, electrifying read... the most ambiguous, and therefore the most enjoyable, kind of ghost story. The Ballad of a Small Player remains elusive, and is all the better for that. -- Adrian Turpin * Literary Review *Hypnotic, razor-sharp in its insights, compelling... in Osborne's hands, the moments of suspense are handled with so much skill that we sometimes read them more as memoir than elements of a thriller. -- Tash Aw * NPR *A searing portrait of addiction and despair set in the glittering world of Macau’s casinos.... the novel’s energetic portrait of the highs and lows of a gambler’s fortunes are as good as anything in the literature of addiction. Osborne’s intriguing Chinese milieu and exquisite prose mark this work as a standout. -- Starred review * Publisher's Weekly *With its ex-pat angst and debauched air of moral ambiguity set amid the sinister demi-monde of the Far East’s corrupt gambling dens, Osborne’s darkly introspective study of decline and decay conjures apt comparisons to Paul Bowles, Graham Greene, and V. S. Naipaul. * Booklist *The beauty of this novel is in the elegance and precision of its prose, which renders the glaring kitsch of Macau into a series of exquisite miniatures, and draws on Osborne's reserves as a travel writer. -- Gerard Woodward * Guardian *Lawrence Osborne’s latest will leave you breathless… [It] will screw up your guts with anxiety, fill you with hope and then kick you hard in the b****cks all in one well-weighted read. No need to gamble -- it's an absolute winner of a book. -- Jon Wise * Weekend Sport *A brisk, electrifying read, as elegant in negotiating the rackety world it depicts as its bow-tied narrator -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Compelling… following Doyle’s drift from card table to hotel to humid streets is immersive and will leave you restless, looking for stamps in your passport… * Emerald Street *A bleak and enjoyable account of someone who, perhaps through unacknowledged guilt, finds bitter solace in losing and in driving himself towards extinction. -- Simon Baker * Spectator *Just as Doyle’s game of choice, Baccarat, urges him to keep turning over one hand after another, Osborne’s sharp, compelling prose is equally addictive – just one more page, one more page -- Jim Dempsey * Bookmunch *Osborne shows an impeccable facility for capturing the sweat-soaked suspense of the high-stakes card table * New Yorker *This is a good, fast read about what it is to win, and what it is to lose -- William Leith * Evening Standard *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Point Omega
Book SynopsisDon DeLillo is the acclaimed author of bestselling novels and plays. His work includes White Noise, Libra, Point Omega and Underworld. He has won the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.Trade ReviewPoint Omega is a treat: the most satisfying and least cryptic of DeLillo's late novels. * Sunday Telegraph *Another formidable construction by a very distinctive writer. * Evening Standard *A pared, intense anti-parable . . . so rigorous and so precise. * Observer *Impossible to forget. * Sunday Times *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan W is for Wasted
Book SynopsisSue Grafton has become one of the most popular female writers, both in the UK and in the US. Born in Kentucky in 1940, she began her career as a TV scriptwriter before Kinsey Millhone and the 'alphabet' series took off. Two of the novels B is for Burglar and C is for Corpse won the first Anthony Awards for Best Novel. Sue wrote twenty-five novels in her alphabet series, the last was Y is for Yesterday, before her death in California in December 2017.
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Panther In The Basement
Book SynopsisBorn in Jerusalem in 1939, Amos Oz was the internationally acclaimed author of many novels and essay collections, translated into over forty languages, including his brilliant semi-autobiographical work, A Tale of Love and Darkness. His last novel, Judas, was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017 and won the Yasnaya Polyana Foreign Fiction Award. He received several international awards, including the Prix Femina, the Israel Prize, the Goethe Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize and the 2013 Franz Kafka Prize. He died in December 2018.Trade ReviewCountries need writers as their voices of conscience; few have them. Israel has Oz * Washington Post *One of the greatest prose writers in contemporary fiction * The Times *Amos Oz is a great writer because he tells stories about real people in a way that no one else can -- Alan SillitoeHe has that mixture of lyrical intensity, utter seriousness and capacity for describing life in a few words which characterises some of the best Russian authors -- Melvyn BraggThere are times when you are reminded what it means to be in the presence of a genius...with Amos Oz you have to add wisdom and hope too * Scotsman *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Tar Baby
Book SynopsisToni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, in 2012 by Barack Obama. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.Trade ReviewWonderful... A triumph * New York Times *Toni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don’t seem to come close to explaining her * Guardian *Deeply perceptive...Returns risk and mischief to the contemporary American novel * New York Times Book Review *Toni Morrison's writing is a train that knows where it's going, fierce and fast-moving in narrative, lyrically showy in description * Sunday Times *Toni Morrison has made herself into the D. H. Lawrence of the black psyche, transforming individuals into forces, idiosyncrasy into inevitability * New York Times *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Honeybee
Book Synopsis*Bold, brilliant and for anyone who''s looking to belong, HONEYBEE is the must-read book of the summer from the Sunday Times bestseller*A gorgeous celebration of female friendship'' ELIZABETH DAYI love the way Dawn writes'' MATT HAIG''A lot of fun a fabulous confection'' JACQUELINE WILSON______________________________________________________________A woman needs her hiveRenée is chasing a dream career, and feels like an imposter.Flo is hiding a secret shame, and feels like a failure.As their lives collide over one hot summer, and they ride the chaos of work, sex and love, an unbreakable bond is formed between them.They might be lost, but they're not alone because women stick together.JOIN THE BUZZ FOR HONEYBEE:????? Truly an amazing read'????? A laugh-out-loud book with strong female characters'????? A brilliant book about friendships'????? Once again Dawn O'Porter has knocked it out of the park'????? I was hooked on this book and devoured it in one sitting'????? Another brilliant, hilarious, moving and relatable novel by Dawn O''Porter'????? It's brilliantly written, consuming and a damn good read'
£17.00
Hodder & Stoughton Separate Rooms
Book Synopsis''A novel of dignified beauty''OBSERVER''A masterly piece of writing, rich with insight and detail, and a curiously moving optimism''GAY TIMES''A discreet, lyrical meditation on the nature of male love''EDMUND WHITEThomas, a young German musician, is dying. Leo, a renowned Italian writer and Thomas''s boyfriend, finds it impossible to mourn his loss and condemns himself to wandering the Earth, in the hope of finding the dividing line between the living and the dead.He travels through a Europe where past and present overlap, roads intersect, years merge and faces emerge - and tries in vain to bring into focus the blurred lines of their relationship. Believing he could protect himself, Leo had forced Thomas to live in a separate room, a separate city, a separate life. And now he will have to cross the ocean to find - after a descent into hell - the strength to live on.Structured in three musical mov
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY is a heart-wrenching story of escape, love and comic-book heroes set in Prague, New York and the Arctic.One night in 1939, Josef Kavalier shuffles into his cousin Sam Clay's cramped New York bedroom, his nerve-racking escape from Prague finally achieved. Little does he realise that this is the beginning of an extraordinary friendship and even more fruitful business partnership. Together, they create a comic strip called The Escapist', its superhero a Nazi-busting saviour who liberates the oppressed around the world. The Escapist' makes their fortune, but Joe can think of only one thing: how can he effect a real-life escape and free his family from the tyranny of Hitler?Michael Chabon's exceptional novel is a thrilling tightrope walk between high comedy and bitter tragedy. In Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay he has created two unforgettable characters bound together by love, family and cartoons.
£10.44
Oxford University Press Cousin Bette Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisTrade Review'Appended to the text is a summary of its financial plots, the complications of which appear even more marvellous when extrapolated in this way. This is an introduction which is consistently enthusiastic about the complexity of a novel which, 'in its rich ambiguity, allows every reader to explore his or how own imagination of what life is really like'.' Robert Lethbridge, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, French Studies, Vol. 47, Part 3'Three Classic tales of sexual passion, perversion, and corruption have been added to the rapidly increasing World's Classics collection, whose repertoire of nineteenth-century French novels is now impressive. The price and format of these volumes make them an obvious choice for the reader approaching them in translation, the more so since each is accompanied by a helpful general introduction ... the reader is likely to get better vaqlue here than from other translation currently in print.' Timothy Unwin, University of Western Australia, MLR, 89./2, 1994'... translated here into lucid, straightforward, easily readable contemporary English.' Forum for Modern Language Studies Vol. XXX
£10.44
Canelo The Grown Up ToDo List
Book Synopsis'An absolutely perfect rom-com! Laugh-out-loud funny, and packed to the brim with Jennifer Joyce's wit, humour, and warmth. I loved every second of this gorgeous book!' Jaimie AdmansHer friends are bossing life - is she being left behind?25-year-old Cleo is happy enough. She likes her job in the fish and chip shop in the North West seaside town where she grew up. But her world has become very small - all her friends couldn't wait to leave home and are off, apparently crushing life. They have shiny careers and creative side-hustles, while she is still living with her mum and dad. But when she learns that her dream childhood boyfriend is coming back to town for a party in three months, she decides she needs to start adulting to win him. But what does being a grown-up really mean? And can she become one in three months?A funny, life-affirming romcom perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlaneReaders are loving A Grown Up To-Do List:Loved loved loved! This was de
£9.49
Oxford University Press Under Western Eyes
Book Synopsis''Whenever two Russians come together, the shadow of autocracy is with them...haunting the secret of their silences.''First published in 1911, Under Western Eyes traces the experiences of Razumov, a young Russian student of philosophy who is uninvolved in politics or protest. Against his will he finds himself caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing directed against the Tsarist authorities. He is pulled in different directions - by his conscience and his ambitions, by powerful opposed political forces, but most of all by personal emotions he is unable to suppress. Set in St Petersburg and Geneva, the novel is in part a critical response to Dostoevsky''s Crime and Punishment but it is also a startlingly modern book. Viewed through the ''Western eyes'' of Conrad''s English narrator, Razumov''s story forces the reader to confront the same moral issues: the defensibility of terrorist resistance to tyranny, the loss of individual privacy in a surveillance society, and the demands t
£9.99
Oxford University Press Winesburg Ohio Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd French short stories Nouvelles Francaises Volume
Book SynopsisThese eight stories by leading 20th century French writers offer fascinating insights into French life and literature and are accompanied by a parallel English text, making them valuable for both French and English language students.Among the diverse and entertaining stories in the collection are the wistful masterpiece Green Tobacco' by Clair Sainte-Soline; the exuberant tale of The Ants' by the post-war king of café society, Boris Vian, and a suspense in the nineteenth-century erotic tradition from Andre de Mandiargues.Table of ContentsGreen tobacco, Claire Sainte-Soline; the ants, Boris Vian; the dead man's return, C.F. Ramuz; a house in the Place des Fetes, Roger Grenier; Jimmy, Francoise Mallet-Joris; the unknown saint, Blaise Cendrars; Sabine, Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues; traffic in horses, Jacques Perret.
£10.44
Inkandescent All the Young Queers
Book SynopsisEvans' debut short story collection explores our youthful years through a character of each of the ages between sixteen and twenty-fourages routinely tick-boxed together. Set in shiny cities, stuffy universities and other alternative universes, they explore issues from class to climate-crisis and chemsex with tenderness, humour and inventiveness.
£11.77
St. Martin's Publishing Group All the Water in the World
Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York?s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent. ?Library Journal (starred)All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city?s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they''ve saved. Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story?with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most ? love and work, community and knowledge ? will survive.
£21.75
Text Publishing Company No One Will Know
Book Synopsis
£10.79
Yale University Press After the Circus
Book SynopsisA classic novel from recent Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, now available to English-language readers in a superb new translationTrade Review“Mr. Modiano’s novels are pervaded by a sexual and moral ambivalence and by social and political ambiguity. Improbable aristocrats, likeable eccentrics, would-be actresses, circus performers and cabaret workers—no one is ever who they appear to be. And Paris features as a character in her own right, refusing to surrender the secrets of her past.”—The Economist“A timely glimpse at [Modiano’s] fixations. . . . In Mark Polizzotti’s spare and elegant translation, the writing conveys a sense of dreamy unease in which the real, the hypothesized, and the half-forgotten blend into a shimmering vagueness.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal“Elegant . . . quietly unpretentious, approachable. . . . Though enigmatic and open-ended, Modiano’s remembrances of things past and his probings of personal identity are presented with a surprisingly light touch. He is, all in all, quite an endearing Nobelist.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post“Mr. Modiano writes clear, languid, and urbane sentences in Mr. Polizzotti’s agile translation. . . . These novellas have a mood. They cast a spell.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times“[After the Circus] transposes Modiano’s favorite themes into a taut, hard-boiled crime story. . . . Modiano is writing metaphysical mystery stories, in which the search for answers is never afforded an easy solution. The more of Modiano’s work you read, the more familiar and inevitable his peculiar set of obsessions starts to feel—which is one sign of a major writer.”—Adam Kirsch, Daily Beast“This brief, polished, ultimately poignant story is classic Modiano . . . superbly lean . . . moody, even noir . . . smart and strangely moving. . . . Modiano at his best.”—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal (starred review)“After the Circus is a little masterpiece in the French minimalist and ironic noir tradition, reminiscent of Godard’s Breathless or Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player.”—Colin Nettelbeck, Australian Book Review“At its opaque centre, this is the story of two lovers pitting themselves against the world in the vein of Faulkner’s The Wild Palms or Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. . . . In keeping with the territory, Modiano’s syntax is closer to Hemingway than Faulkner. A simple sentence can hold a beautiful heaviness. . . . The overall effect is like staring through the shutters of a gambling den and watching a seedy mystery unfold.”—Nick Major, Glasgow Herald“Modiano’s understated prose, which is beautifully translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti, truly captures the exhilaration and confusion of young love. . . . It’s a wonderful read, the kind of novel you can get completely caught up in as it transports you to another time and place, helped in part by the lovely languid writing and the dreamlike recollection of a different era.”—Reading Matters“After the Circus is a beautifully detailed evocation of an era and a state of mind. . . . Modiano is a master at exploring the emotions that resonate and remain with us. After the Circus is an excellent place to start if you want to discover this most private and subtle of French authors. If you already like his work, this new translation will only increase your admiration.”—Shoshi Ish-Horowicz, Jewish Renaissance"What makes the novel distinctive is its atmosphere of mystery and elusiveness… gripping throughout."—David Herman, Jewish Chronicle
£13.29
Penguin Publishing Group Of Mice And Men Penguin Great Books of the 20th
Book SynopsisA controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression They are an unlikely pair: George is small and quick and dark of face; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a family, clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him. A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick. —The New York Times
£999.99
Orion Publishing Co A Court of Betrayal
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Penguin Publishing Group Old Enough
Book Synopsis
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Woman at 72 Derry Lane
Book SynopsisA complete page-turner and an emotional rollercoaster. Tissues will be required' Sinead Moriarty A wonderfully life-affirming bookCarmel Harrington writes with such honesty' New York Times bestselling author, Hazel GaynorOn a leafy suburban street in Dublin, beautiful, poised Stella Greene lives with her successful husband, Matt. The perfect couple in every way, Stella appears to have it all. Next door, at number 72 however, lives Rea Brady. Gruff, bad-tempered and rarely seen besides the twitching of her net curtains, rumour has it she's lost it allincluding her marbles if you believe the neighbourhood gossip.But appearances can be deceiving and when Stella and Rea's worlds collide they realise they have much in common. Both are trapped in a prison of their own making.Has help been next door without them realising it?With the warmth and wit of Maeve Binchy and the secrets and twists of Liane Moriarty, this is the utterly original and compelling new novel from Irish Times bestseller Carmel Harrington.Praise for The Woman at 72 Derry Lane:I both cried and laughedone of the best books I have ever read' Woman's WayBoth heart-wrenching and uplifting. The perfect summer read' Irish Times Bestseller Fionnuala KearneyTrade Review‘Will make you see life in a different way’Woman’s Way ‘Heartwrenching and heartwarming’Evening Herald ‘Guaranteed to brighten your day’Novelicious ‘Carmel Harrington has done it again! Brilliantly written … it surpasses all expectations’Chicklit Club ‘A bittersweet, quietly brilliant novel that will make you cry, laugh and cry all over again’Female First ‘Funny, poignant and bursting with heartfelt humour’I Heart … Chick Lit ‘Completely stunning’Reviewed the Book ‘It will stay with you well after, you have turned the last page’Bleach House Library
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Big Brother
Book SynopsisA NEW EDITION WITH EXTRA MATERIAL FROM THE AUTHOR''So moving it will make you want to gasp or cry' Sunday TimesGlorious, fearless possibly her very best' Observer''Pandora is a masterly creation'' New York Times Pandora has looked up to her older brother Edison since they were children. Now she revels in the anonymity of her suburban Iowa life, while her brother basks in the limelight as a New York jazz musician. But when Edison arrives in Iowa, suddenly in need of a place to stay, Pandora literally doesn''t recognize him. The once slim, hip pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?With Shriver''s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother asks: just how much should you sacrifice for someone who refuses to be saved?A surprising sledgehammer of a novel' The TimesShriver is brilliant on the novel shock that is hunger glorious, fearless, almost fanatically hard-working prose' Guardian?Lionel Shriver''s Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a convers
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Cosy Christmas Teashop
Book SynopsisCakes, castles and oodles of charm: this book is huge fun and pure escapism' Cathy BramleyFrom sleigh bells to wedding bells . . .After a rocky start, Ellie Hall baked her way into everyone's hearts at Claverham Castle even the miserly Lord Henry was won over and the run-down teashop regained its old sparkle.Now Ellie has upgraded cupcakes for fairytale masterpieces as the proud caterer for an ever-growing list of weddings at the castle. The teashop team love baking to the tune of happy ever afters, but can they pull together when a certain bridezilla pushes them all to boiling point?Christmas is just around the corner, and a last minute booking threatens to snow the team under. Ellie and her hunky hubby Joe have their own Christmas dreams to chase, but they're determined to pull through and give this special couple the winter wonderland wedding they deserve.Will Christmas at the Cosy Teashop be a showstopper to remember?Trade Review'A top-rated romance which I devoured quicker than a slice of Victoria Sponge. Beautifully written, warm, funny, cosy, romantic and sweeter than a tray full of cookie dough' Bookaholic Confessions 'I found myself racing through to the end . . . A lovely book, one to be enjoyed over a few chilly evenings with your own cup of tea and cake' Chick Lit Chloe 'A warm and cosy read for a cold winter's day . . . will have you longing to be served in the tearoom' Rachel's Random Reads
£11.07
HarperCollins Publishers Inca Gold Clive Cussler
Book SynopsisThe twelfth hair-raising Dirk Pitt thriller sees the adventurer hunt for a fabulous hoard of Inca gold, before the richest prize known to man is lost forever.ACTION-PACKED ADVENTUREA call for help from a stricken archaeological expedition brings Dirk Pitt to a sacred well, high in the Andes. There he confronts a band of ruthless art thieves, who plunder ancient sites for their precious artefacts.But soon Dirk Pitt faces even graver danger, as he searches for a lost Spanish galleon and hunts for a fabulous hoard of Inca gold. And in a desperate race against time, Pitt must track down a sacred site before the richest prize known to man is lost to the world foreverTrade ReviewPraise for Clive Cussler: ‘Just about the best storyteller in the business’ New York Post ‘Cussler is hard to beat’ Daily Mail ‘The Adventure King’ Sunday Express ‘Frightening and full of suspense … unquestionably entertaining’ Daily Express ‘Much fun, crisply told, with exciting special effects’ Kirkus Review ‘Clive Cussler is the guy I read’ Tom Clancy ‘No holds barred adventure … a souped-up treat’ Daily Mirror ‘Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt are the first names in adventure’Stephen Coonts ‘Clive Cussler has no equal’ Publishers Weekly
£9.99
HarperCollins Focus The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Quercus Publishing The Winter Visitor
Book SynopsisEssex in February. Cold enough to catch your death.
£9.49
