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
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No
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£15.29
Faber & Faber Universality
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025From the author of Assembly THE MUST-READ NOVEL OF 2025 in the GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, GQ, ELLE, OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT, RADIO TIMES, BBC, HARPER'S BAZAAR, and GOOD HOUSEKEEPING''An instant classic.'' ELLE''Utterly phenomenal.'' ELIZABETH DAY''Smart, twisty and original.'' DAVID NICHOLLSA sharp, clever take on contemporary culture.' DAILY MAILIn a class of her own.' FINANCIAL TIMESOn an abandoned Yorkshire farm, a group of hippie-anarchists have taken up residence to build a new society. When their leader is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar, an ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind the attack. The longread exposé she writes goes viral but is there more to the story than meets the eye?Universality unravels the messy aftermath of that exposé through the perspective of each of the mystery's key players: a self-pitying banker, a columnist with secrets, a cult leader with dreams, and a fugitive with nothing left to loseThe follow-up to Natasha Brown's Assembly is a twisty, slippery story of media, class, power and truth. Cutting through the noise, it reveals British society today for what it is.A searing, state-of-the-nation novel.' STYLISTConfirms Natasha Brown as a major talent.' OBSERVER''A brilliant, unusual social x-ray of modern Britain.'' ANDREW O''HAGANIt is impossible to not get utterly sucked in.' JENNY MUSTARDOne of the most intelligent voices writing today.' GUARDIANOriginal, vital, and unputdownable.' TESS GUNTYBrown is an astute political observer, easily dismembering cancel culture and our media circus.' NEW STATESMAN
£14.62
HarperCollins Publishers Inc THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY the Definitive
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£12.44
Penguin Books Ltd What a Carve Up
Book SynopsisThe hilarious 1980s political satire by Jonathan Coe, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.It is the 1980s and the Winshaw family are getting richer and crueller by the year: Newspaper-columnist Hilary gets thousands for telling it like it isn''t; Henry''s turning hospitals into car parks; Roddy''s selling art in return for sex; down on the farm Dorothy''s squeezing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators.But once their hapless biographer Michael Owen starts investigating the family''s trail of greed, corruption and immoral doings, the time growing ripe for the Winshaws to receive their comeuppance. . . This wickedly funny take on life under the Thatcher government was the winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize''A sustained feat of humour, suspense and polemic, full of twists and ironies'' Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times''A riveting social satire on the chattering and all-powerful upper classes'' Time Out''Big, hilarious, intricate, furious, moving'' GuardianWritten with his signature wit, Jonathan Coe''s unmissable new novel, The Proof of My Innocence is available now!
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd This Charming Man
Book Synopsis*** CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS AUTHOR OF THE YEAR 2022***Relish the wit and wisdom of Marian Keyes in this story of four women caught up in what seems like love, but may be something much darker . . . from the No. 1 bestselling author of Grown Ups''So funny, so perceptive, so real . . . I changed my life for this book'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''An emotional tour de force with genuine human warmth'' INDEPENDENT___________''Everybody remembers where they were the day they heard that Paddy de Courcy was getting married''Slick, handsome politician Paddy de Courcy is on the up. His party is set to do well in the elections and he''s just announced his engagement to the beautiful Alicia.Which is news to his girlfriend, Lola, who, within hours, finds herself dumped and warned not to talk to the press.Yet journalist Grace is on the prowl. She has been after Paddy ever since he ruined her sister Marnie''s life way back in college.Grace is looking for the inside story and thinks Lola holds the key . . .But do any of them know the real Paddy?___________''The laughs come fast and furious . . . a gripping, compelling tale'' Sunday Independent''The queen of page-turners . . . brimming with her trademark down-to-earth wit'' Cosmopolitan''Gripping from the start . . . the master at her best'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewThis is an emotional tour de force, with a plot that packs great power but is lifted, as always, by genuine human warmth * Independent *The laughs come fast and furious . . . a gripping, compelling tale * Sunday Independent *The queen of page-turners . . . brimming with her trademark down-to-earth wit * Cosmopolitan *Gripping from the start . . . the master at her best * Daily Telegraph *Keyes' multi-layered plotting has never been as ingenious as in this . . . It's her best book yet * Irish Times *
£8.99
Hodder & Stoughton BLOB
Book Synopsis''Witty and wild''Harper''s Bazaar''A strange but uniquely beautiful concept of a love story that delves into care, compassion and what it is to be human''Stylist''This is a sharp, funny and poignant look at what it means to connect with another being, and yourself''Weike Wang, New York TimesA hilarious and moving debut novel about a young woman who decides to turn a sentient blob into her perfect man...Vi Liu''s life is a mess. Having dropped out of college, she''s stuck in a job she hates at a local hotel. Her ex-boyfriend has blocked her and she''s lashing out at her family and co-workers. One night, drunk outside a drag club, she stumbles across a mysterious sentient blob. She takes it home, where she feeds it a diet of sugary cereal and reality TV. Slowly, she realises that she can shape the blob into her perfect man: someone attentive, outgoing and with more than a passing resemblance to Ryan Gosling.But is Bob the blob really the answer to all her problems, or a catalyst for further disaster? Sharp, strange and very funny, BLOB is a delightful story about growing up, fucking up and learning how to be a real person.''Maggie Su''s debut novel is nothing if not surprising.''The Times *Book of the Month*''A modern-day Mrs. Caliban, BLOB is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways''Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here''Just brilliant -- utterly original, charming and funny, weirdly real and really weird. I can''t stop thinking about this book and I''m telling everyone I know to read it''Kate Davies, author of In at the Deep End
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd The Penguin Book of English Short Stories
Book SynopsisIntroducing a beautifully-designed collection of sixteen short stories from some of the best English writers over two hundred years of our history.The Penguin Book of English Short Stories celebrates the shorter format through some of the most widely known writers of all time. Though many are known for their novels, they provide a mesmerizing, multi-faceted portrait of a country and its people. Some stories are classics, such as James Joyce''s The Dead; others - like Mr Loveday''s Little Outing by Evelyn Waugh - are relatively unknown and a joy to discover.Covering a wide range of genres and writers, each of these concise, evocative, subtle and satisfying stories is a little jewel, providing a small window into another world.Featuring short stories from classical English authors including Charles Dickens, Katherine Mansfield, H.G. Wells, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf and many more.
£10.44
Random House USA Inc Sharp Objects
Book SynopsisNOW AN HBO® LIMITED SERIES STARRING AMY ADAMS, NOMINATED FOR EIGHT EMMY AWARDS, INCLUDING OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIESFROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GONE GIRLFresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family''s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.Praise for Sharp Objects“Nasty, addictive reading.”—Chicago Tribune “Skillful and disturbing.”—Washington Post “Darkly original . . . [a] riveting tale.”—People
£13.60
Penguin Books Ltd The Book of Disquiet
Book SynopsisFeatures a complete translation of The Book of Disquiet.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Cry Freedom
Book SynopsisUnder South Africa''s brutal apartheid regime, black activist Steve Biko has been working tirelessly for years to undermine the system when he meets white journalist Donald Woods. Initially suspicious of Biko and his motives, Woods finds himself united with Biko in common cause after Biko reveals to him the true extent of police atrocities in the black townships. And when tragedy strikes, the powerful bond that has been forged between them leads Woods to make a courageous stand on his friend''s behalf, risking everything to expose the horrors of this murderous regime.
£9.49
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc Role Play
Book SynopsisRole Play is a fresh satire narrated by a wealthy young woman in Rio on the verge of a class-consciousness awakening.Vivian is a curator, not just at her gallery gig in Rio de Janeiro, but in every aspect of her life. Her apartment has designer armchairs. Her wallet is Comme des Garçons. Everything is selected and arranged, even her lovers and friends. In Vivian's world, everything comes in excess, including her own caustic selfawareness. As she informs us, I'm a misandrist and a misogynist, but she is fond of gay men, the one type of human you can properly get along with as equals.Role Play examines the superabundances of Brazilian elites their art, ethics, and monied ambivalence in the face of social inequality, machismo, and violence. As sharp and sparkling as broken champagne flutes, Clara Drummond's prose is seductively frank and unflinching in its depiction of wealth's power to warp the self.
£11.69
HarperCollins Warrior of the Light
Book SynopsisRise to Your DestinyWarrior of the Light is a timeless and inspirational companion to The Alchemist—an international bestseller that has beguiled millions of readers around the world. Every short passage invites us to live out our dreams, to embrace the uncertainty of life, and to rise to our own unique destiny. In his inimitable style, Paulo Coelho helps bring out the Warrior of the Light within each of us. He shows readers how to embark upon the way of the Warrior: the one who appreciates the miracle of being alive, the one who accepts failure, and the one whose quest leads to fulfillment and joy.
£8.09
John Murray Press North Woods
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£9.49
Penguin Random House LLC A Werewolfs Guide to Seducing a Vampire
Book SynopsisBen Rosewood never meant to be bound to a vampire succubus, especially one as sexy-yet-terrifying as Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux, but he has to admit there are some fang-tastic perks…. Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful yet angry vampire. Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times.
£11.13
New River Books Ltd Polar Vortex
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£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers A Postcard from Puffin Island
Book SynopsisPuffin Island when the tides turn, true friends are never apart 'Full of warmth' #1 Sunday Times Bestseller Katie Fforde
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Kepler
Book SynopsisJohn Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many highly acclaimed novels including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize and two further novels on scientific subjects, Doctor Copernicus and The Newton Letter. He has received a literary award from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Dublin.Trade ReviewNarrative art at a positively symphonic level. * Guardian *One knows one is in the presence of a writer extraordinary. Wearing his vast research lightly, Mr Banville not only summons Kepler and his company of vivid souls but leads us into the small dark rooms. * Sunday Telegraph *This very distinguished novel . . . is done with very considerable skill; it suggests that this is what such a life must indeed have been like and the result is a wonderfully human figure, rife with feelings, principles, regrets and courage. * Sunday Times *An outstandingly good novel . . . a novel that dramatizes and celebrates intellectual passion. Which makes it a very rare novel indeed. * Irish Press *
£9.49
St. Martin's Publishing Group The Coop
Book SynopsisA Library Reads Pick!Sexy, smart, playful, and poignant, DeWitt has created pure romance magic! -Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Love and Other WordsThe all-new renovated edition with expanded scenes and bonus content!They say love and construction don't mix. By that logic, hate and construction may as well be condemned.LaRynn Lavigne and Deacon Leeds had one short and contentious summer fling when they were teens-certainly nothing to build a foundation on. But a decade later, when their grandmothers have left them with shared ownership of their dilapidated Santa Cruz building, they're thrust back together and have to figure out how to brace up the pieces.LaRynn has the money, but in order to access her trust, she has to be married. Deacon has the construction expertise, but lacks the funds. A deal is struck: Marry for however long it takes to fix up the prop
£11.70
Headline Publishing Group Somewhere Someday
Book SynopsisOne of the nation''s best-loved storytellers brings us an unforgettable drama about love, loss and facing the demons from your past.Only when she has layed the ghosts to rest can she set herself free . . .Barney craves adventure, and though he will always love Kelly, he cannot stay. For one long, agonising moment, Kelly watches the man she adores walk away, left wondering if she will ever see him again.Alone with her memories, Kelly begins to look to the past and the fateful autumn of 1877, when she was just a girl, recalling all that happened to tear her family apart. Now, filled with regrets, Kelly realises she must face the past she has hidden from for so long.She must go back to where it all began, face her demons and lay to rest the ghosts that haunt her. Only then will her heart be free.
£9.89
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Held
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**The international bestseller****A Guardian Book of the Year****Chosen as a book of the year by the independent.co.uk**Her prose is a thing of wonder' TELEGRAPH''Michaels's writing continues to stand head and shoulders above most other fiction'' OBSERVER''Through luminous moments of chance, change, and even grace, Michaels shows us our humanity'' MARGARET ATWOOD''Michaels is exceptionally open to beauty'' GUARDIAN The triumphant new novel from the author of the Orange Prize-winning Fugitive Pieces: a soaring and luminous story of chance and change_________________________________________________1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast as the snow falls. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river alive, but not still whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts whose messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations, moments of connection and consequence igniting and re-igniting as the century unfolds. In luminous moments of desire, comprehension, longing, transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later. Held is a novel like no other, by a writer at the height of her powers: affecting and intensely beautiful, full of mystery, wisdom and compassion.''I am blown away by the scale, beauty, weave and thinking of this book ... It dances with words, time and ideas in a way that seems to reinvent everything I know about the novel'' RACHEL JOYCE
£9.49
Cornerstone Eaters Of The Dead
Book SynopsisThe Eaters of the Dead is a brilliant, stirring tale of historical adventure which deserves a place on readers bookshelves alongside Michael Crichton''s bestselling techno-thrillers. It is AD922 and Ibn Fadlan is sent north from Baghdad as a peaceful ambassador. But before he reaches his destination, he falls in with some Vikings and when they are attacked by mystical bloodthirsty creatures in the midst of a terrible fog, he reluctantly agrees to become the prophesied 13th warrior in order for them to survive.Later turned into a major Hollywood film, Eaters of the Dead is an imaginative and breathlessly exciting retelling of the Beowulf myth that rescues the story from dry academic analysis and resurrects it as an action-packed story of adventure.Trade ReviewCrichton certainly has the Midas touch * Spectator *A giant of a writer * Daily Express *
£9.49
Kodansha America, Inc Blue Lock 15
Book SynopsisA mad young coach gathers soccer players from across the country to compete in a series of bizarre challenges in a high-tech colosseum he calls Blue Lock. It's a no-balls-barred battle to become Japan's next top striker, in this Squid GamemeetsWorld Cup manga, now available in print! Anime airing now!After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan's team struggles to regroup. But what's mising? An absolute ace striker. The Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, so Blue Lock -- a rigorous training ground for 300 of Japan's best and brightest youth players -- is created. To survive this battle royale, the last striker standing will have to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in his way!
£11.69
Cornerstone L.A. Noir The Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy Blood on the
Book SynopsisThree of Ellroy''s most compelling novels featuring Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins in one volume. Blood On The Moon: 20 random killings of women are unconnected in police files. But Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins sees a pattern. As he is drawn to the murderer, the two men face a confrontation pitting icy intelligence against white-heated madness. . . Because The Night: Jacob Herzog, hero cop, has disappeared. A multiple murder committed with a pre-Civil War revolver remains unsolved. Are the two cases connected? As Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins pieces the puzzle together he discovers the darker threat of John Haviland, a psychiatrist whose pleasure comes from the manipulation of the weak and lonely. Suicide Hill: Duane Rice leaves jail with good news and bad news: two adulterous bank managers are ripe for squeezing, but Vandy, who he is obsessed with making a rock star, has disappeared. An orgy of violence erupts as Duane''s partner goes beserk and Duane settles scores with kTrade ReviewThe most distinctive crime writer of his generation * John Williams, Sunday Times *Ellroy is the author of some of the most powerful crime novels ever written * Frank Rich, New York Times *The most original crime writer of our time * Michael Carlson, Spectator *One of the best and most important writers in America today * VOX *Ellroy has produced some of the best crime fiction written this century, Hammett and Chandler included * Chris Sullivan, Loaded *
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Meet Me In A Mile
Book Synopsis''I had a ball reading this book'' Reader Review ?????Ready. Set. Go!Lydia McKenzie is not a runner. Not even close. But in her quest to be taken seriously at work and catch the eye of her office crush she signs up for the New York City Marathon as part of her architectural firm's outreach program. Now she just needs to avoid making a fool of herself.Personal trainer Luke Townsend is definitely a runner, and he's exactly what Lydia needs to get in shape. But nothing can prepare them for when their training time intensifies from hitting the pavement to hitting the sheets.Suddenly, everything Lydia thought she wanted feels less clear. And when her project proposal suddenly hangs in the balance, and her office crush offers some awfully tempting one-on-one help, she'll have to decide which direction her heart wants to runTropes:?? Workplace romance?? Sports romance?? Love triangle
£12.12
Cornerstone The Grass Crown
Book SynopsisThe second book in the epic Masters of Rome series.Rome. 97 BC. Gaius Marius is one of the greatest generals Rome has ever known. under him, Rome has conquered the Western world, withstood invasion and crushed its enemies. But when the ageing Marius grows weak, the stability of the mighty Republic looks uncertain.Ambitious, tormented Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once Marius''s right hand man, withdraws from his commander''s circle to prepare his own bid for power. Marius is determined not to relinquish his control over the Republic, but with his closest ally now his most dangerous rival, the stakes are higher than ever before. And as a deadly enmity develops between the two men, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.Trade ReviewA master storyteller * Los Angeles Times *
£13.49
Cornerstone Fortunes Favourites
Book SynopsisThe third novel in the epic Masters of Rome series.Fortune''s Favourites witnesses the power, mastery and cunning of two enigmatic rulers of Rome - Sulla, returning from exile, and the 22-year-old Pompey, who designates himself Magnus ''the Great''. And in the background is the young soldier, Caesar, who begins to show the expert qualities that will one day culminate in him becoming an unparalleled leader of ancient Rome. And at the heart of this sumptuous tale is the unforgettable story of Spartacus and his doomed slave revolt - the true story, as no modern reader has ever before encountered it.Trade ReviewMcCullough spins a stupendous tale of murderous ambition, guile, assassination, tragedy, love and lust...a magnificent tour de force * Publishers Weekly *
£14.39
Vintage Publishing The Bridge On The River Kwai
Book SynopsisPierre Boulle was born in 1912 at Avignon. Boulle studied as an engineer but ended up moving to Malaysia where he worked as both a soldier and a planter. Boulle fought in Yunnan, Calcutta and Indo-Chine during the Second World War until he was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned in a POW camp. It was this experience that would later form the basis of his infamous novel, The Bridge on the River Kwai. Upon his departure from Asia, Boulle's literature made a turn towards the fantastic and science fiction while contemplating the political and cultural upheaval experienced by the modern man. His most famous science fiction novel, Monkey Planet (its film adaptation was renamed The Planet of the Apes) has been adapted eight different times for either television or film. Boulle died in 1994.Trade ReviewA fine ironic novel, that is yet another French tribute to British eccentricity * Observer *Stirring and imaginative * New Statesman *Unforgettable * New Statesman *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Collected Short Stories Volume 2
Book SynopsisThe stories in this collection move from Malaya to America and England, and include some of Maugham''s most famous tales; ''Flotsam and Jetsam'', the story of an old woman trapped for years in a loveless marriage in the remote rubber plantations; ''The Man with the Scar'', and notably the opening story ''The Vessel of Wrath'', a tale of the unexpected love that grows between a devout missionary nurse and a drunken reprobate. In this second volume of his collected stories, Maugham illustrates his characteristic wry perception of human foibles and his genius for evoking compelling drama from an acute sense of time and place.Trade ReviewA brilliant entertainer * New York Times *A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents * Spectator *As clever a craftsman as the cleverest * Observer *
£11.69
Cornerstone Staying On
Book SynopsisPaul Scott was born in London in 1920. He served in the army from 1940 to 1946, mainly in India and Malaya. He is the author of thirteen distinguished novels including his famous The Raj Quartet. In 1977, Staying On won the Booker Prize. Paul Scott died in 1978.Trade ReviewStaying On covers only a few months but it carries the emotional impact of a lifetime, even a civilisation * Philip Larkin *Certainly his funniest and, I think, his best. it is a first-class book and deserves to be remembered for a long time * Evening Standard *One of the most cherished books of the last quarter-century. It is good to re-read it for its humour and pathos as well as its wonderful description of the legacy of the Raj * Sunday Telegraph *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Book SynopsisYukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppTrade ReviewA dark vision...a beautiful, disturbing novel * Los Angeles Times *Mishima writes with a fury that seldom flags * Glasgow Herald *Glitters with images of beauty and destruction, cruelty and sacrifice, dedication and betrayal * The Times *An amazing literary feat * Chicago Tribune *I adore Mishima's prose and vivid descriptions. They pull me out of my daily reality -- Amanda Harlech * Harpers Bazaar *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Temple of Dawn
Book SynopsisYukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku Trade ReviewThe four novels remain one of the outstanding works of 20th-Century literature and a summary of the author's life and work... Like the Divine Comedy and Remembrance of Things Past, "The Sea of Fertility" gives the reader the sensation of being carried to a great height...but Mishima abandons the reader at the edge of the precipice, revealing the abyss beneath the degraded life of the post-war world * Los Angeles Times *Surpassingly chilling, subtle, and original * New York Times *Japan's foremost man of letters * Spectator *Tremendous...evocative and poetic * Los Angeles Times *
£9.49
Cornerstone Riotous Assembly
Book SynopsisTom Sharpe was born in 1928 and educated at Lancing College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He did his national service in the Marines before moving to South Africa in 1951, where he did social work before teaching in Natal. He had a photographic studio in Pietermaritzburg from 1957 until 1961, and from 1963 to 1972 he was a lecturer in History at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.He is the author of sixteen bestselling novels, including Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape, which were serialised on television, and Wilt, which was made into a film. In 1986 he was awarded the XXIIIème Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret, and in 2010 he was awarded the inaugural BBK La Risa de Bilbao Prize. Tom Sharpe died in June 2013 at his home in northern Spain.Trade ReviewThe funniest writer now working in the English language . . . His humour has bite and an angry underside that puts him in the great tradition of English satirists -- Stephen KingRiotous Assembly is a masterpiece of black farce, and makes me suppose that there is a true comic genius here -- Auberon Waugh * Spectator *Savagely hilarious * Sunday Mirror *Riotous Assembly has done to the South African police what Catch-22 did to the American Air Force -- Piers Brendon * Books & Bookmen *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Foucaults Pendulum
Book SynopsisThree book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel to have some fun. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truthTrade ReviewBrilliant, funny, encompassing everything you ever wanted to know about practically everything (including numerology, James Bond's foes, and the construction of sewers), this book is both extraordinarily learned and well plotted. * Sunday Times *Endlessly diverting... Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose. * Time *Brilliant... A novel that is deeper and richer than The Name of the Rose. * New York Times *An intellectual adventure story, as sensational, thrilling, and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo. * The Washington Post *Umberto Eco is literature's great magician... He offers us many passages of brilliance, and treats us to a Shakespearean alternation of paroxysm and intimacy, madness and wisdom. There is something here for everyone. His genius affords his readers a selection of delights that will make their heads spin. * Le Monde *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Timequake
Book SynopsisTimequake is sweet, wild and cock-eyed... Vonnegut has always had a true comic ear... A beautifully fastidious writer, utterly original' - GuardianAccording to science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a global timequake will occur in New York City on 13th February 2001. It is the moment when the universe suffers a crisis of conscience. Should it expand or make a great big bang? It decides to wind the clock back a decade to 1991, making everyone in the world endure ten years of deja-vu and a total loss of free will not to mention the torture of reliving every nanosecond of one of the tawdiest and most hollow decades. With his trademark wicked wit, Vonnegut addresses memory, suicide, the Great Depression, the loss of American eloquence, and the obsolescent thrill of reading books.Trade ReviewUtterly original...capable of moving from irony to lament within a sentence * Guardian *Reading Timequake... I feel privileged to have spent several hours in the company of a most genial, affable and upbeat soul indeed...a wise, winning and utterly charming concoction of fiction, commentary and autobiography * Literary Review *Timequake is sweet, wild and cock-eyed... Vonnegut has always had a true comic ear... A beautifully fastidious writer, utterly original * Guardian *Fascinating digressions, epigrams and memories, vitalised by Vonnegut's irrepressible intelligence and comic imagination, creating a movingly intimate work * Harper's Bazaar *Highly entertaining... The portraits of Vonnegut's first wife, brother and sister are beautiful, sharp, critical, loving * New York Times Book Review *
£9.49
Cornerstone Dance To The Music Of Time Volume 1
Book Synopsis_________________________The first three volumes of Anthony Powell''s remarkable A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME sequence: A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING; A BUYER''S MARKET; THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD''One of the greatest pleasures of my reading life. The cool elegance of the prose, the deliciously dry humour, the confident choreography of his characters make for an incomparable treat.'' - Michael PalinAnthony Powell''s brilliant twelve-novel sequence chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations. These first three novels in the sequence follow Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles which stand between them and the ''Acceptance World''.
£18.00
Cornerstone A Question of Upbringing
Book Synopsis''He is, as Proust was before him, the great literary chronicler of his culture in his time.'' GUARDIAN''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Reissued now in this definitive edition, it stands ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.In this first volume, Nick Jenkins is introduced to the ebbs and flows of life at boarding school in the 1920s, spent in the company of his friends: Peter Templer, Charles Stringham, and Kenneth Widmerpool.Though their days are filled with visits from relatives and boyish pranks, usually at the expense of their housemaster Le Bas, a disastrous trip in Templer's car threatens their new friendship. As the school year comes to a close, the young men are faced with the prospects of adulthood, and with finding their place in the world.Trade ReviewOne of the great novel-sequences in English Literature – a wonderful portrait of society, full of insight into the complexities of human behaviour, richly detailed and shrewdly funny.Discovering Anthony Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time” has been one of the greatest pleasures of my reading life. The cool elegance of the prose, the deliciously dry humour, the confident choreography of his characters make for an incomparable treat. -- Michael Palin“A Dance To The Music of Time” is an epic, elegant masterpiece, so full of lightness and comedy that you're unprepared for how it quietly wrecks your heart. -- Lauren GroffPowell’s novel sequence is at once a rich chronicle of 20th-century English social life and an intricately wrought work of art. It is also extremely funny, in its sly fashion.The novels of Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time” themselves move hand in hand in intricate measure through the last century, bearing wisdom and understanding for the present. In an ever-quicker, ever-shallower world, his steadiness and wit reliably escort the reader into depth and patience. Nobody gives pattern to the spectacle of human existence like Powell. -- Louisa YoungA masterful stylist and a wise, often hilarious observer of human nature and his times, Anthony Powell is an under-appreciated literary gem. The pleasures and dramas of the “Dance” continue to illuminate daily life. -- Claire MessudReading “A Dance to the Music of Time” was such a joyous experience, I remember wishing there'd been more than twelve volumes. -- Roddy DoyleI re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life. -- Daisy GoodwinHe has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply * The New York Review of Books *A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu ... Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's. * New York Times *
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Vintage Publishing Operation Shylock A Confession by Roth Philip
Book Synopsis''Subtle, funny and furious'' ObserverWhat if a lookalike stranger stole your name, hijacked your biography, and went about the world pretending to be you? Startlingly, Philip Roth meets a man in Jerusalem called Philip Roth who has been touring Israel - riding high on the author''s reputation - preaching a bizarre reverse-exodus of the Jews, encouraging them to return to their ancestral homes in Europe. Roth decides to stop him, even if that means impersonating the impersonator.Operation Shylock is at once spy story, political thriller, meditation on identity and unfathomable journey through a volatile, frightening middle-east.Trade ReviewSubtle, funny and furious * Observer *An astoundingly accomplished piece of work * Guardian *Nothing short of stunning * London Review of Books *A very buoyant book, part truth, part fiction, combining sophistication with an equally beguiling vulgarity...it does leave one relishing it and wanting to read more * Spectator *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Time of Our Singing
Book SynopsisFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory, an enthralling, wrenching novel about the lives and choices of one family, caught on the cusp of identities.Jonah, Ruth and Joseph are the children of mixed-race parents determined to raise them beyond time, beyond identity, steeped in song. Yet they cannot be protected from the world forever. Even as Jonah becomes a successful young tenor, the opera arena remains fixated on his race. Ruth turns her back on classical music and disappears, dedicating herself to activism and a new relationship. As the years pass, Joseph the middle child, a pianist and our narrator must battle not just to remain connected to his siblings, but to forge a future of his own. This is a story of the tragedy of race in America, told through the lives and choices of one family caught on the cusp of identities.An epic novel of modern America that weaves ideas of race, music and science into a mysteriouTrade ReviewThere is no contemporary American writer quite like Richard Powers... It is rare to find a novel as intellectually and emotionally engaging as this * Guardian *Formidable...rewarding * Sunday Times *An epic novel of modern America that weaves ideas of race, music and science into a mysterious but satisfying tapestry... Endlessly fascinating * Independent *A great hurtle of a book, telling several powerful stories at once... Strangely subtle and moving...an astonishing performance... Prodigious, illuminating and exhilarating * New York Times *
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Vintage Publishing The Seville Communion
Book SynopsisArturo Pérez-Reverte was born in Cartagena in 1951. Since the publication of The Fencing Master, his first novel, Pérez-Reverte has become one of Europe's bestselling authors. The Flanders Panel was awarded the Grand Prix Annuel de Litterature Policiere in France. His novel, The Dumas Club, has been made into the film The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.Trade ReviewClassy and brimming with panache * Independent *Energetic, atmospheric writing -- Ben Farrington * Literary Review *Recounted with panache and subtlety, The Seville Communion is one of those infrequent whodunnits that transcend the genre * Time *A beautifully and intricately written noir in which unique plots and counterplots abound * San Francisco Examiner *
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Vintage Publishing Earthly Possessions
Book SynopsisAnne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her bestselling novels include Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Ladder of Years, Back When We Were Grown-ups, Digging to America, A Spool of Blue Thread, Clock Dance, Redhead by the Side of the Road and French Braid.In 1989 she won the Pulitzer Prize; in 1994 she was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as 'the greatest novelist writing in English'; and in 2012 she received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. In 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize; and in 2020 Redhead by the Side of the Road was longlisted for the Booker Prize.Trade ReviewMy favourite writer, and the best line-and-length novelist in the world, is Anne Tyler... Brilliant, funny, sad and sensitive * Independent on Sunday *Funny and moving * The Times *A skilful novel by a writer in full flight from the obvious * Observer *Wickedly good
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Cornerstone Wilt on High
Book SynopsisWilt is back - in form, and in a good deal of trouble.Henry Wilt is still teaching at the Fenland Tech, attempting to drill English into plasterers, dozing through tedious committee meetings and occasionally getting mildly plastered in ''The Pig in a Poke'' with one of his few bearable colleagues. But the even tenor of his days is rudely interrupted when the shadow of drug dealing flickers across the Tech. Suddenly Wilt becomes the target of suspicion. His colleagues believe him to be responsible for triggering a departmental inquiry, and his old adversary Inspector Flint, knowing that he''s guilty of something, sees a chance to settle a number of scores. What starts with an accusation of voyeurism in the staff lavatory (of the wrong gender to boot) leads, more or less directly, to a massive confrontation at a nearby US airbase with the forces of law and order on both sides and Wilt in his usual place - in the middle.Trade ReviewThe funniest writer now working in the English language -- Stephen KingTom Sharpe serves up the loudest laughs in literary comedy ... He is the great post-Waugh humorist, the Wodehouse who dares plunge into the botomless vulgarity and hysteria of our times, and a rattling good companion on a train journey * Mail on Sunday *A very funny book ... it is perfect stuff, vintage Sharpe * Punch *Tom Sharpe is back on form ... he stays Sharpe to the bottom of the glass * Sunday Times *Tom Sharpe is one of the funniest things that has happened to fiction recently * Financial Times *
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Cornerstone Practically Perfect
Book SynopsisA cottage renovation. A good-looking but impossible stranger arrives. A life adventure awaits. . . from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Wedding Season, A Wedding in Provence and One Enchanted Evening.''The queen of uplifting, feel good romance'' AJ Pearce''Top-drawer romantic escapism'' Daily Mail''Delicious - gorgeous humour and the lightest of touches'' Sunday Times___________________Anna has risked everything to buy and renovate her tiny but beautiful cottage set in the sleepy village of Amberford.The outside is perfect, but inside all is chaos: with a ladder for a staircase, no downstairs flooring, and only candles for lighting.It''s no wonder that Anna''s soon wondering whether she''s bitten off more than she can chew.Her neighbour Chloe comes to the rescue: providing wine, sympathy and a rescue greyhound: Caroline!But just Trade ReviewPerfect for the beach * Bella *Fun summer read * Choice *A fun helping of chick-lit * OK! *Funny and heartwarming * Newmarket Journal *I can see this being carried in many a beach bag because fans simply adore her humorous, lively and character-driven stories. They will certainly warm to Anna * Peterborough Evening Telegraph *
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Cornerstone Dance To The Music Of Time Volume 4
Book SynopsisAnthony Powell''s brilliant twelve novel sequence chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations.Volume 4 contains the last three novels in the sequence: Books do Furnish a Room; Temporary Kings; Hearing Secret Harmonies.
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St Martin's Press Death in the Long Grass A Big Game Hunters
Book SynopsisAn account of the adventures of a big-game hunter offers glimpses of man-eating leopards, fear-maddened elephants, charging buffalo, cunning hyenas, and other great killers of the African bush country.
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Duckworth Books Murder in Gray and White
Book SynopsisThe death of Mrs Amy Kinseth was considered no great loss by the residents of the beach retirement community. For Angela and Caledonia, the case offers a glorious opportunity to have some fun as they help their handsome detective friend, Lieutenant Martinez, with a bit of on-site snooping.
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Cornerstone Life Skills
Book Synopsis_________________Thank goodness for Katie Fforde, the perfect author to bring comfort in difficult times. She really is the queen of uplifting, feel good romance.' AJ PEARCE_________________Julia''s learning some lessons in love. A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.Sometimes you can't escape the pastWhen Julia realises she holds more affection for a Labrador than she does for her actual fiancée, Oscar, Julia decides to change her life. She quits her job, dumps Oscar, and starts a new career as a cook on a couple of narrowboats.Finally feeling like she's keeping her head above water, Julia is appalled when her past comes back to haunt her.Oscar is persistent, her mother is a matchmaking nightmare and to top it all off her childhood enemy, the enigmatic, Fergus Grindley, arrives on the scene.
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Vintage Publishing Far Eastern Tales
Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.Trade ReviewIf all else perish, there will remain a storyteller's world...that is exclusively and forever Maugham, a world of verandah and prahu which we enter as well as we do that of Conan Doyle's Baker Street, and with a happy and eternal homecoming * The Times *Maugham teases out buried secrets as mesmerising as the heat and as menacing as the surrounding jungle * Observer *Ideally you should listen to these stories lying in a long cane chair on the veranda of a dark bungalow sipping a gin and bitters - not that Maugham's writing needs any further atmospheric embellishment. Like Kipling and Conrad, Maugham transports us to a long-since-vanished and distinctly non-PC world of hard-drinking colonial planters and traders and their frosty memsahibs * Guardian *
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Cornerstone True At First Light
Book SynopsisThe book opens on the day Hemingway''s close friend Pop, a legendary hunter, leaves him in charge of the camp. Tensions have heightened among the various tribes and news arrives of a potential attack on the hunters, forcing Hemingway not only to take on his new role of leader but, equally important, to assist his wife Mary in pursuing the great lion she is determined to kill before Christmas. Passionately detailing the African landscape, the excitement of the chase, and the heartfelt relationships with his African neighbours, Hemingway, a master of dramatic fiction, weaves a tale that is rich in laughter, beauty and insight.Written when Hemingway returned from his 1953 safari, and edited by his son Patrick, True At First Light is a rich blend of autobiography and fiction, a breathtaking final work from one of this century''s most beloved and important writers.Trade ReviewCaptures the beauty of the African landscape and the thrill of the hunt, in true Hemingway style * Red *This is writing of a high order; sympathetic, luminous, hypnotic, humane * Caledonia *
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