Contemporary Fiction

Finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in FictionOne of Vulture's Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2022One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2022One of The Observer's Fiction to Look Out for in 2022One of MS Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of 2022One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2022An Indian Express Book to Look Out for in 2022'A brilliant and beautifully written book about capitalism and the patriarchy, about Dalit India and digital America, about power and family and love' Alex Preston, Observer, 'Fiction to look out for in 2022'Vauhini Vara's lyrical and thought-provoking debut novel begins in India in the 1950s, following a young man born into a Dalit family of coconut farmers in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh. King Rao, as he comes to be known, later moves to the US, where he studies in Seattle, meeting the love of his life and his business partner, the smart and self-assured Margie. King Rao ultimately rises up through Silicon Valley to become the most famous tech CEO in the world and the leader of a powerful, corporate-owned global government. Yet he ultimately ends up living on a remote island off the coast of Washington state, an exile from the world which he has helped build.There, in a beautiful home on an otherwise deserted island, he brings up his brilliant daughter, Athena. Shielded from the world's glances, in many ways she has an idyllic childhood, but she will be forced to reexamine her father's past and take steps to try to decide her own future. She is unlike other girls, and she will find the outside world much more hostile than her father did when he left the coconut grove he called home.A profound and moving novel about technology, consciousness and revolution, The Immortal King Rao asks how we build the worlds in which we live, and whether we ever have the power to leave them?

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Shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize. Filmed for the television and the inspiration for The HandmaidenLondon 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.Beautiful hardback 20th Anniversary Edition - with lovely endpapers, a ribbon and a new afterword by this celebrated author. Fingersmith remains one of her most successful and best-loved novels.

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Winner of the Booker Prize, the beautiful, romantic and gorgeously philosophical Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner is part of our Penguin Essential series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics'The Hotel du Lac was a dignified building, a house of repute, a traditional establishment, used to welcoming the prudent, the well-to-do, the retired, the self-effacing, the respected patrons of an earlier era'Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating loneliness is renewed . . .'A classic . . . a book which will be read with pleasure a hundred years from now' Spectator'Humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever' The Times'Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart' Observer'So sure and so quietly commanding' Hilary Mantel, Guardian

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LONGLISTED FOR THE WARWICK PRIZE FOR WOMEN IN TRANSLATION 2023"One of Hungary's most important twentieth-century writers" New York Times"Magda Szabo's fiction shows the travails of modern Hungarian history from oblique but sharply illuminating angles" EconomistEszter Encsy is an acclaimed actress, funny and outrageous, quick-witted but callous. Yet even flushed with the success of adulthood, Eszter craves acceptance of herself as she really is and of the person she has been. The only child of an impoverished aristocrat and a harried music teacher failing to make ends meet, Eszter grew up poor and painfully aware of it in a provincial Hungarian town. The feelings of resentment and envy acquired during her fraught childhood have hardened into an obsessional hatred for one person, the beautiful, saintly and pampered Angela, Eszter's former classmate and the wife of the man who becomes her lover. Set against newly communist 1950s Hungary, The Fawn embraces the lies and falsehoods people were obliged to live with in those nightmarish times, and displays Szabo's uncanny ability to convey how the past can haunt and consume us.Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix.

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An irresistible story of a woman remaking her life after her husband’s betrayal leads to a year of travel, art, and passion in Paris, from the award-winning author of This Close to Okay.   Vincent, having grown up as the privileged daughter of artists, has a lovely life in many ways. At forty-four, she enjoys strolling the streets of Paris and teaching at the modern art museum; she has a vibrant group of friends; and she’s even caught the eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal: her husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about their marriage and his own past, hinting that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin—before he moved to California and never returned.   Now estranged from her husband, Vincent has agreed to see Cillian again at their son’s wedding the following summer, but Lo

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For readers of David Wong, Paul Beatty, and George Saunders, an electrifying and wholly original collection of satirical stories that create a bitingly funny portrait of American racism, capitalism, and politics—now in paperback!Framed as a reference work of humorous “entries” that offer trenchant social commentary, Everything Abridged presages a dark vision of the near future but tells jokes in the face of it: An intelligence agency operative uncovers a conspiracy to generate conspiracies and realizes his participation in the scheme. A Caribbean monarch meets four decades of American presidents and adjusts his country’s foreign policy accordingly. Experiment participants are asked to bring back a gun as quickly as possible. A copywriter on a space colony advertises a weapon with the potential to destroy his home during an intergalactic war.These and other linked stories, many of which feature a speculative bent—about being Black in America, law enforcement practices in an android society, Olympic speed walking, consumerism, nuclear war, and more—are interspersed with hilarious, one-line definitions for words ranging from abolition to zygote, creating a sharply humorous portrait of American inequality. With his singular wit, sharp prose, and shrewd observations, Dennard Dayle captures the struggles his characters face to keep hold of their sanity in a society collapsing into chaos and absurdity.

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Marjorie Hemming, marriage guidance counsellor, craves concord and harmony the way other people need cigarettes. But cracks are starting to show in the world she's so carefully remade after her early widowhood. Some of her couples refuse to kiss and make up: even Nurse Rose, the TV heroine who looks so like Marjorie, seems about to make a foolhardy blunder. When her adored teenage daughter unexpectedly moves out, this professional expert on human affairs is forced to look at matters a little closer to home.

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_________________ THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JOHNNY DEPP _________________ ‘Remarkable - a genuine, 100% proof discovery of great literary importance' - Mail on Sunday ‘Hilarious, utterly real and tragic ... A lithe, well-crafted gem of a novel which leaves the reader disturbed and grinning in a way that makes people sitting nearby change seats' - Scotland on Sunday ‘Crackling, twisted, searing, paced to a deft prose rhythm ... a shot of Gonzo with a rum chaser' - San Francisco Chronicle _________________ The sultry classic of a journalist's sordid life in Puerto Rico Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point. _________________ ‘Wild, witty, angry, cynical and sarcastic ... A funny book that will make your life seem boring by comparison' - Scene

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In the aftermath of the First World War, the painter Walter Cox cherishes the place of his childhood to keep the pulse of his art alive. Haunted by his work, his young daughter Meredith has her own fight: to quell the power of her inner life.Deeply affecting, shot through with a shimmering apprehension of the natural world, EARTH AND HEAVEN is about life's fragility, and the power of love and painting to disturb, renew and reveal us to ourselves.

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A busy night in a fashionable restaurant. Minutes later, carnage. 13 people dead and dozens wounded. As Lieutenant Decker, in charge of the police on the scene says, it's your worst nightmare. But at least the culprit seems clear - an embittered ex-employee, Harlan Manz, who ambled up to the bar and opened fire, finally turning the gun on himself. But why did Manz do it? Deck finds that things don't quite add up. Then he questions Jeanine Garrison, daughter of millionaire parents killed in the outrage, and find himself slapped with a sexual harassment suit. Now Decker knows she's involved, and after her brother, who shared the inheritance, is found dead he's sure. But he's not allowed near the woman. Meantime, he can feel her slipping through his fingers and getting away, quite literally, with murder.

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The Prince of Darkness has been given one last chance: he will be readmitted to the company of his fellow angels if he agrees to live out a human life. Highly sceptical (naturally), the Old Deal-maker negotiates a trial period - a summer holiday in a human body, with all the delights of the flesh. The body, though, turns out to be that of Declan Gunn, a depressed writer living in Clerkenwell, interrupted mid-suicide. Making the best of a bad situation, Luce himself takes to writing - to explain, to strip back the Biblical spin, to help us see the whole thing from his point of view. And to knock that Jesus off his perch. Beset by distractions, miscalculations and all the natural shocks that flesh is heir to, Lucifer slowly begins to learn what it's like to be us. Glen Duncan's brilliantly written new novel is an investigation of the world of the senses - the seductiveness of evil, and the affection which keeps us human.

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When an Anglo-Indian love triangle ended in murder, it sent shockwaves through 1950s Bombay. The Nanavati trial split Indian high-society, its effects reaching as far as the Nehru government. In modern-day London, Bhalu's dying mother leaves him a trunk of letters and a mystery: was there a second crime connected with the murder, one that has gone untold and unpunished, but that has shaped the lives of Bhalu and his family? Together with his childhood friend Phoebe, Bhalu returns to India to discover the truth, and write the last chapter of The Death of Mr Love.

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Supremacy Software is the world’s largest video-game developer and publisher. If you’ve played games, you’ve played one of theirs at some point. They’re the shining light, a dream job for many aspiring game developers.Who Hunts the Whale tells the story of a newly hired PA taking a seat in the executive boardroom. An out-of-towner who risked it all to come to the big city and live her dream of working for a company she’s idolised for years.But she soon discovers the cynical side of things. Stolen ideas, long hours, managerial impropriety – will she risk her ideal career and take a stand for those who dare not speak, or keep quiet in the face of a powerful, litigious corporation?Written by industry insider Laura Kate Dale and (small ‘g’) gamer Jane Aerith Magnet, Who Hunts the Whale takes a witty, satirical look at the human cost of a rapacious market that must constantly be fed new content.

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Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien''s hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human.After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth’s gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious.Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey’s sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien’s existence begins to unravel one nigh

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"Solà pushes past the limits of human experience to tell a story of instinct and earth-time that is irresistible in its jagged glory." - C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills is Gold When Domenec - mountain-dweller, father, poet, dreamer - dies suddenly, struck by lightning, he leaves behind two small children, Mia and Hilari, to grow up wild among the looming summits of the Pyrenees and the ghosts of the Spanish civil war. But then Hilari dies too, and his sister is forced to face life's struggles and joys alone. As the years tumble by, the inhabitants of the mountain - human, animal and other - come together in a chorus of voices to bear witness to the sorrows of one family, and to the savage beauty of the landscape. This remarkable English-language debut is lyrical, mythical, elemental, and ferociously imaginative.

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'Blow Your House Down is swift, spare and utterly absorbing - you'll probably read it, as I did, in one tense sitting' NEW YORK TIMES 'A courageous and disturbing novel' ELIZABETH WARD, WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD 'Despite its black humour, it is a deeply political book' BELINDA WEBB, GUARDIAN A serial killer stalks prostitutes with profound and unexpected consequences in this riveting novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Ghost Road. A city and its people are in the grip of a killer who is roaming the northern city, singling out prostitutes. The face of his latest victim stares out from every newspaper and billboard, haunting the women who walk the streets. But life and work go on. Brenda, with three children, can't afford to give up while Audrey, now in her forties, desperately goes on 'working the cars'.And then, when another woman is savagely murdered, Jean, her lover, takes desperate measures . . .

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Acknowledged as Rebecca West's fictional masterpiece, The Fountain Overflows introduces the crisis-ridden Aubrey family. This Real Night continues their remarkable story.It is the early 1900s. With the disappearance of Piers, her feckless and gambling husband, and the sale of some valuable paintings, Clare Aubrey has a firmer grip on the purse strings. Rose and Mary are at music college, struggling for artistic perfection, while the self-assured Cordelia has fallen into the role of art dealer's assistant. Richard Quin, beloved younger brother, is contemplating Oxford. The children's coming of age, with its gradual acceptance of love and loss, becomes all the more poignant as the events of the First World War gather pace...

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A long summer holiday on the beautiful island of Corfu is just what Izzy Jordan needs, but is she prepared for the romance and drama? New edition of one of Erica James' very best.Torn between struggling to live up to the expectations of being a Modern Woman and ridding herself of the effect of a repressed upbringing, Izzy Jordan would be the first to admit that it's time to take stock of her life. She's thirty-one, with a teaching career on the skids - not surprising, really, given that she harbours a strong desire to lock her pupils in the art room cupboard and throw away the key. She also has a manipulative mother and an ex-boyfriend whose parting shot was to tell her she was boring in bed!So when she's invited to spend the summer on Corfu and is offered the chance of a no-strings holiday romance with the irresistible Theo, what should she do? Go for it, or listen to the voice of Modern Woman and tell him to sling his hook? Just as she thinks she's made up her mind, along comes Mark, whose turbulent past sets in motion a series of dramatic events...

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Brendan Behan’s genius was to strike a chord between critic and common man. When he died, at the age of 41, he was arguably the most celebrated Irish writer of the twentieth century. After the Wake is a collection of seven prose works and a series of articles. It includes all that exists of an unfinished novel, ‘The Catacombs’, and pieces together items whose comic and fanciful accounts evoke Flann O’Brien. Also featured are works of acknowledged excellence, ‘The Confirmation Suit’ and ‘A Woman of No Standing’. This writing bears all the hallmarks of the author’s talent – an ability to bring characters to life quickly and unforgettably, a sharp ear for dialogue and dialect, and a natural vocation for story-telling. This diverse collection is a delightful and entertaining windfall from one of Ireland's most colourful writers. An essential complement to Behan's master works.

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Animals go mad and men die (accidentally and not) at a slaughterhouse in an impoverished, isolated corner of Brazil.In a landscape worthy of Cormac McCarthy, the river runs septic with blood. Edgar Wilson makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of a cow, then stuns it with a mallet. He does this over and over again, as the stun operator at Senhor Milo’s slaughterhouse: reliable, responsible, quietly dispatching cows and following orders, wherever that may take him. It’s important to calm the cows, especially now that they seem so unsettled: they have begun to run in panic into walls and over cliffs. Bronco Gil, the foreman, thinks it’s a jaguar or a wild boar. Edgar Wilson has other suspicions. But what is certain is that there is something in this desolate corner of Brazil driving men, and animals, to murder and madness.

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We are invisible: we clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets… Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen. But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own. After all, no-one knows the secrets of Singapore’s elite quite like the women who work in their homes… Readers LOVE Now You See Us: ‘Respectfully and masterfully written. A must read!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I am emotionally exhausted – what a wonderful book! A must read!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A wonderful read, that kept me captivated until the end’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved it’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A joyous book’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘What a fabulous book! Balli Kaur Jaswal’s writing transported me to Singapore … I thoroughly enjoyed this’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Some things shouldn’t be left to chance Victoria Madaris is focused on her career and doesn’t have time to even think about her love life, let alone look for a ‘perfect man’. Knowing her great-grandmother, and known matchmaker, Mama Laverne is vetting unsuitable candidates like Roman Malone makes things easy. But Roman unexpectedly ticks all of Victoria’s boxes. The longtime family friend is outrageously sexy, and every time they meet, their chemistry crackles. But her matchmaker’s expert opinion keeps pointing to the charming and handsome Tanner Jamison. And everybody knows, Mama Laverne is never wrong. Suddenly, as if by fate, Victoria sees Tanner everywhere but there’s no attraction. Yet the more Victoria gets to know Roman, the harder it is to resist him. When her head is telling her to play safe, is her heart strong enough to go against her better judgment…and Mama Laverne’s?

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An Ojibwa woman has been found dead on the outskirts of the Minnesota Red Earth Reservation. The coroner ruled the death a suicide, but after an ex-lover comes back into her life saying foul play was involved, Renee LaRoche wants to prove otherwise.

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'Beautiful, haunting.' LOUISE KENNEDY'Vividly real . . . There's love here as well as pain.' MARIAN KEYES'A sure-footed and emotionally complex novel . . . absorbing.' IRISH TIMES'I loved it.' LIZ NUGENTFROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERTwo women, wrenched apart by a terrible crime, must find a way back to each otherWhen Deena Garvey disappears in 2004, she leaves behind a daughter and a sister.Deena's daughter grows up in the country. She learns how to hunt, when to seed the garden, how to avoid making her father angry. Never to ask about her absent mother.Deena's sister stays stuck in the city, getting desperate. She knows the man responsible for her sister's disappearance, but she can't prove it. Not yet.Over fourteen years, four hundred miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the secrets and lies at the heart of their family, and the history of power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways.But can they reach each other in time? And will the truth finally answer the question of their lives:What really happened to Deena Garvey?'Haunting and deeply moving.' OBSERVER'Propulsive and richly atmospheric.' IRISH INDEPENDENT'An engrossing, deftly-told story with an aching secret at its heart, this is a profoundly moving novel of family and women standing strong together.' LISA BALLANTYNE'Sharp, poignant, thrilling and moving.' CHRIS WHITAKER'Compelling . . . Mannion writes with a lyrical economy that stands out, and always shows a deep empathy for her well-drawn characters.' IRISH EXAMINER'A wrenching portrait of the umbilical bond between mother and child and, more powerfully still, an icily persuasive account of the subtle dark arts of male coercion and abuse.' DAILY MAILWHAT READERS ARE SAYING:'A brilliantly told story, engrossing, with love, pain, heartbreak and darkness. The characterisation was excellent and the plot was moving and gently woven.' 5* reader review'I raced through... Well-written, incredibly tense and chilling in parts.' 5* reader review'A book to savour and appreciate as well as enjoy.' 5* reader review'This is such a powerful story of love and family. It kept me awake desperate to find out what had happened to affect them all so badly.' 5* reader review'This is a beautifully written novel with powerfully drawn characters.' 5* reader review'Had me hooked... Loved it.' 5* reader review'Wow what a book!' 5* reader review**Una Mannion's first novel, A Crooked Tree, is available now**

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**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 MAIL

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Stories do not have to be long. In the space of a couple of sentences – or even a page or two – we can see the human heart exposed in a way that is more powerful than in a novel. In Tiny Tales Alexander McCall Smith explores romance, ambition, kindness and happiness in thirty short stories that range in length from the short to the tiny. The settings are as diverse as the characters – Scotland, England, Australia, the United States – combining to create a rich and always surprising selection. An Australian pope?. A persuasive cosmetic surgeon? The world’s laziest cat. A group of students living together and getting romantically entangled? All human and animal life is here – in miniature.

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Latif's life changes when he is appointed bellboy at the Paradise Lodge - a hotel where people come to die. After his father's death, drowned in the waters surrounding their small Island, it is 17 year-old Latif's turn to become the man of the house and provide for his ailing mother and sisters. Despite discovering a dead body on his first day of duty, Latif finds entertainment spying on guests and regaling the hotel's janitor, Stella, with made-up stories. However, when Latif finds the corpse of a small-time actor in Room 555 and becomes a mute-witness to a crime that happens there, the course of Latif's life is irretrievably altered. The Bellboy is as much a commentary on how society treats and victimizes the intellectually vulnerable as it is about the quiet resentment brewing against religious minorities in India today. With a mix of wry humour and heart-wrenching poignancy, the book narrates a young boy's coming-of-age on a small island, and his innocence that persists even in the face of adversity and inevitable tragedy.

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The grandson of Prince Genji lives outside of space and time and wanders the grounds of an old monastery in Kyoto. The monastery, too, is timeless, with barely a trace of any human presence. The wanderer is searching for a garden that has long captivated him. This novel by International Booker Prize winner László Krasznahorkai - perhaps his most serene and poetic work - describes a search for the unobtainable and the riches to be discovered along the way. Despite difficulties in finding the garden, the reader is closely introduced to the construction processes of the monastery as well as the geological and biological processes of the surrounding area, making this an unforgettable meditation on nature, life, history, and being.

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Eva Kennedy is in a rut. Whatever happened to the Eva who was going to be someone? Hoping to shake things up and find inspiration, Eva ventures to Melbourne, Australia, to visit an old friend who, for fun, gives Eva an exciting new identity. Eva is now exotic and adventurous and . . . not herself.Joseph Wheeler is a successful London designer. Unfortunately, his firm is thriving so he doesn't have time to actually design anymore. And his love life is non-existent. In Australia on business, Joseph meets Eva, and the sparks fly - even as Eva is stuck pretending to be someone she's not. Little does she know that Joseph has some secrets of his own . . .As a holiday fling quickly blossoms into something more, Joseph and Eva discover that romance can turn life upside down and inside out at the bottom of the world.Praise for Monica McInerney:'Monica McInerney is at the very top of her game . . . If you've yet to read her books, treat yourselves IMMEDIATELY!' Patricia Scanlan, bestselling author of A Time For Friends'You'll be laughing out loud one minute and crying the next' Cosmopolitan'Heart-warming . . . A lovely read' Hello! Magazine'McInerney is a must-read author for women's fiction fans around the world' Huffington Post'McInerney's bewitching multigenerational saga lavishly and lovingly explores the resiliency and fragility of family bonds' Booklist

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It is M''s funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M''s murder - James Bond.Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion''s den - but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.

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'This is a hell of dull talk...How about some of that champagne?'Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drift to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the Bullfight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies, and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman that he loves.VINTAGE DECO: Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on.

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From bestselling crime novelist and renowned Irish TV journalist Sinéad Crowley, gripping dual timelines entwine in this heart-stopping story of old secrets and forbidden passion. An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, Belladonna. If you know the way through, it's magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don't, it's a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again. Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her. Who is the woman she sometimes glimpses in an upstairs window? Or the apparition who keeps showing up unexpectedly, pleading, 'Find me'. And how can she fight her growing attraction to Skye's father? Praise for Sinéad Crowley: 'Everything you'd want from a suspenseful mystery: vivid characters, a sumptuous setting and an expertly crafted thread of malevolence.' Irish Times 'Beautifully written, and deftly plotted... So compelling that the pages almost turned themselves. A terrific novel.' Liz Nugent 'Compelling, clever and deeply romantic, the plot has more twists and turns than the maze itself... A welcome return to fiction by one of Ireland's most accomplished crime writers... A joy to read.' Jane Casey 'Atmospheric, creepy, utterly engrossing and as twisty-turny as the maze itself.' Tammy Cohen

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