Contemporary Fiction

Two women. Two eggs. One switch. It'll take a custody battle like no other to decide who really deserves to be the baby's mother - a battle that will push both women to the brink.

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In these stories of Indian life in Trinidad in the 1940s and 50s, Ismith Khan brings to vivid life the morning smells of eggplant frying in coconut oil, and herrings baking in the embers of the earthen fireplace; childhoods such as Pooran's, who has to make his way between the poetic mythology of the pundit and the cold, rationalistic materialism of his science teacher, or 'Thiney Boney' who, newly arrived in Port of Spain from the country, has to choose between his new Creole friends and his father's harsh moral certainties. These are not comfortable childhoods, and several stories show the pressures of poverty and despair leading to the abuse of children by their parents. Stories deal with the trauma of urbanisation as Indians are drawn from the country to Port of Spain, though even in the villages, where the shining metal of the oil refineries dwarfs the grasscutter tending his oxen, old ways must change. Ismith Khan brings a tender and affecting style to stories of troubled childhoods, questioning youth and adult struggle. This is beautiful writing to savour beyond place and time."The brilliant short story 'A Day in the Country' has a home in my heart. It reminded me of the intense, uplifting genius of Thomas Wolfe's (1900-1938) short story 'Circus at Dawn'. In both stories the concentration on life, on living, on things seen, heard and felt, is so full and rich that plot becomes unnecessary. But 'A Day in the Country' is much more than a generous slice of life, and it does much more than revel in secure country childhood, or celebrate boyhood in the countryside. It makes a moving, ominous communication about the unsheltering of Trinidad, about its unprepared journey, from the 'Drinking Rum and Coca Cola' years of the 40s and 50s to the bewildering, homogeneous brutality of the 20th century."Keith Jardim, The Trinidad GuardianIsmith Khan was born in Trinidad in 1925. He is the author of The Jumbie Bird and The Obeah Man. He lived in New York until his death in 2002.

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'Festers in glorious style' Telegraph'Magnificently spiky' Guardian'Utterly enthralling' Times Literary Supplement When Holly applies for a job at the Paradise - one of the city's oldest cinemas, squashed into the ground floor of a block of flats - she thinks it will be like any other shift work. She cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, avoids the belligerent old owner, Iris, and is ignored by her aloof but tight-knit colleagues who seem as much a part of the building as its fraying carpets and endless dirt. Dreadful, lonely weeks pass while she longs for their approval, a silent voyeur. So when she finally gains the trust of this cryptic band of oddballs, Holly transforms from silent drudge to rebellious insider and gradually she too becomes part of the Paradise - unearthing its secrets, learning its history and haunting its corridors after hours with the other ushers. It is no surprise when violence strikes, tempers change and the group, eyes still affixed to the screen, starts to rapidly go awry...

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It’s 1994, Kurt Cobain has just died, and teenager Alex is spending the summer working in her Aunt’s Bed and Breakfast in rural Argyll. The village pace of life is slow compared to home in Edinburgh and Alex resigns herself to a quiet summer spent serving breakfasts and making beds. Everything changes however once she meets the twin brothers who live next door.Spanning the next fifteen years of Alex’s life, Fade Into You is a love letter to growing up in Scotland in the 90s and 2000s. Set against a backdrop of T in the Park and the war in Iraq, soundtracked by Britpop and Grunge mixtapes, with the sweet taste of tablet, it is a novel about growing up and growing apart. It explores the intensity of childhood friendships, how they change as we get older but how they never really leave us.

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Trisha Ashley's Sunday Times bestselling novels have sold over one million copies in the UK and have twice been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan award for Romantic Comedy. Every Woman for Herself was nominated by magazine readers as one of the top three romantic novels in the last fifty years. Trisha lives in North Wales. For more information about her please visit www.Facebook.com/TrishaAshleyBooks or follow her on Twitter @trishaashley.

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This intensely remembered, partly autobiographical novel, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989, describes the childhood of Billi, a girl growing up in Europe between the wars. When her father dies, she swaps life in a run-down German château for an exhilarating existence with her beautiful, talented and unreliable mother on the French Riviera. Sent away to England for schooling, the gypsy-like Billi ricochets between short-lived tutors and a life of reading, friends and public lectures. Returning to the Mediterranean, her unorthodox education – intellectual, emotional and sexual – continues among the vibrant community of artists, exiles and intellectuals who have colonised the coast, coaxing her towards a life of literature.

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In one new volume, an irresistible collection of stories from two previous works, SMILE and CHANGING BABIES, with additional stories, previously unpublished in book form.'What informs Moggach's excellent stories is not just the exactness of her observation, but the quality of warmth and affection' Sunday Times From swimming on Hampstead Heath to house-sitting with troublesome dogs, or illicit afternoon trysts in Soho to pedicures in Florence with recalcitrant teenagers, this collection of short stories includes some previously unpublished in book form, and covers the gamut of human nature - our foibles, our loves, our desires, hopes, ambitions and failures. Rich in observation and speckled with a delicious dark humour, FOOL FOR LOVE: THE SELECTED SHORT STORIES confirms Deborah Moggach's place as one of our finest observers of human life.'I love clever books that make me laugh. Deborah Moggach, queen of social comedy, is on top form' Cathy Rentzenbrink

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They wondered if they would ever find their way back—back to the village, back to a life of meaning, back to each other.Corfu, 1946—In a poor Greek community, ten-year-old Marco is perhaps the poorest of them all. But it wasn’t always that way. His grandmother once worked for the royal family where Marco’s mother played alongside young Prince Phillip himself. Now Greece is on the brink of civil war, and Marco’s mother still clings to the desperate hope that somehow the royal family will save her own.As the war turns deadlier, Greece’s Queen Frederica takes a defiant stand against the communists, announcing that she will save her country’s most innocent by opening children’s villages. When the communists erect camps of their own, children are ripped from their mothers’ arms; entire villages are emptied.Young Katerina has been best friends with Marco for as long as she can remember, cementing their bond by stealing scraps from her family’s table to sneak to him. But when the communists reach their village, loyalties are tested as devastating secrets threaten to emerge. Katerina and Marco are separated just before her family flees on foot. At their final goodbye, Katerina and Marco promise to find their way back to the village, and to each other. This haunting childhood vow launches events that will take decades to unravel.Set among Corfu’s picturesque lanes, hamlets, and villas where kings, villagers, and saints all walk the same cobblestone paths, Where the Wandering Ends reminds us of the tenacity of those who have lost everything and the enduring power of home.“[A] magically crafted story combining history and mythology.” —Heather Morris, New York Times bestselling author A heart-wrenching yet hopeful story that spans decades: from post-World War II to early 2000s Stand-alone novel Book length: approximately 112,000 words

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Daniel Brennan, approaching the premature end of his life, retreats to a room in his brother's suburban house. To divert himself and to entertain Ellen, his carer, he writes the journal that is Telescope, blurring truth, gossip and fiction in vignettes of his own life and the lives of those close to him. Above all he focuses on his siblings: mercurial Celia, whose life as a teacher in Italy seems to have run aground, and kindly Charlie, the entrepreneur of the family. Enriched with remarkable anecdotes and observations on topics ranging from tattoos and Tokyo street fashion to early French photography, Telescope is a startlingly original and moving book, a glimpse of the world through the eyes of a connoisseur of vicarious experience.

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Dominic Pattison's life is one of level contentment: his marriage has proved happy and durable; his business, too, is successful.And then Sam Williams, a builder and ex-squaddie, enters his life. Sam claims to be his son. Yet is Sam who he says he is? After almost thirty years, Dominic can remember little of the affair with Sam's mother. His instinct is to recoil from this aggressive and volatile stranger, who could, with just a few words, take his life apart. But Sam refuses to be dismissed. With its deft switches of sympathy between menaced 'father' and rebuffed 'son' and its exploration of the intricacies of memory, Contact will resonate long with its readers.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of MALIBU RISING, DAISY JONES & THE SIX and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO''There''s something about Carrie I will take forward with me in my life, and be a little better for. This book comes out in a few short weeks and you should preorder it. It made me cry twice, and when I finished reading, I had to sit for a minute with the hole it left in my chest . . . just order it'' EMILY HENRY''This Nineties tennis romp is a crowd-pleaser. Taylor Jenkins Reid captures all the sweat, rivalry and glamour of elite sport'' THE TIMES''A portrait of female ambition in all its raw and divine glory, Carrie Soto will stay with you long after the last page is turned'' ERIN KELLYCarrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.By the time Carrie retires from ten

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This novel about the twentieth century begins when time was linear and ends when the notion of progress becomes less well defined. "It strikes me that Josef Brehme lived in an epoch when time still proceeded in a straight line from the past to the future," muses his grandson, the talented, handsome, and cynical Alex Brehme, in his diary in late 2001. The Brehmes' story guides the reader through revolution, war, the Holocaust, and ultimately exile and return. A novel about what man does to man and whether God intervenes. Translated by Gerald Turner. "remarkable"-Vaclav Havel.

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‘Set in Sydney’s diverse Western suburbs, this tender coming-of-age story about love, loyalty and what home means also functions as a visceral love letter to the glorious, foliage-filled melting pot of its location… The author exposes various cultural stereotypes but then challenges and disrupts them, leaving us with a more nuanced view of the immigrant community she so evocatively describes. I rooted for Nicole and raced straight through to the end.’ – Daily Mail UKTwenty-six-year-old Nicole Najim is struggling to find herself after a painful breakup, just when she thought she was going to settle down. Working a dead-end job in the family car dealership and at a loose end, she picks up her camera and returns to the melting pot of Sydney’s West to rediscover her roots. When she catches up with childhood friend, Danny, who makes his living in a shadowy underworld, their relationship intensifies just as the law starts to close in. Nicole must weigh her feelings against her deepest fears, all while chasing her own dreams and capturing the hidden truths around her. Something Blue is a novel about loving home and leaving home, but never escaping your roots. Or your footy colours.

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A spellbinding story of forbidden love in the 1950s, now a major movie starring Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger A secret love which has a whole town talking ... and a small boy very worried. Lydia Weekes is distraught at the break-up of her marriage. When her young son, Charlie, makes friends with the local doctor, Jean Markham, her life is turned upside down. Charlie tells his secrets to no one but the bees, but even he can't keep his mother's friendship to himself. The locals don't like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer, the rumours start to fly and threaten to shatter Charlie's world.

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Forced back to her remote hometown by the war, Giulia is immediately drawn to a couple in a similar situation: graceful, spontaneous Ada and her husband Paolo, a sickly teacher and partisan in hiding. Joined from Turin by Giulia's husband Stefano, the two couples form an intense bond; as the Germans begin to occupy Italy, a subtle dance of attractions begins, intensified by their shared isolation and the muffled hum of threat over a long, hard winter. In prose of subtle, enigmatic atmospheres and acutely precise images, Lalla Romano evokes both the tension and the stillness of life in occupied Italy. Translated into English for the first time, A Silence Shared is a captivating classic novel that inhabits the silent spaces between historic events, depicting the mysterious luminosity of human relationships in extraordinary circumstances.

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"What exquisite stories these are, each of them immaculately composed, each of them powerfully transporting... This book deserves prizes." —Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They CarriedEach of the ten stories in Have Mercy on Us is an illuminating window into a human life. In the way of all the best fiction, these stories enlarge our understanding of what it means to be alive and to love, with characters who leap off the page. In this award-winning collection, the people are varied in age, race, and origin. An old man travels to a village in Kenya in an attempt to bring his estranged son home; against her mother’s wishes, a young woman attends the funeral of the father she never met, hoping to forge a relationship with her eight siblings; a woman long married to a renowned artist whose infidelity is nearly blatant, takes things into her own hands in a brilliantly realized moment of independence; in an imagined, loving portrait, the writer Zora Neale Hurston is shown near the end of her life in 1948, working as a maid in a motel in Ft. Pierce, Florida. These stories are spare and romantic without being sentimental.

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Autumn in Peking takes place in an imaginary desert called Exopotamie, where a train station and a railway line are under construction. Homes are destroyed to lay the lines, which turn out to lead nowhere. In part a satire on the reconstruction of postwar Paris, Vian’s novel also conjures a darker version of Alice in Wonderland.

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FROM THE AUTHOR OF KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 'There is laughter and joy to be found in these pages, along with the kind of laughter that sets two women over 50 rolling in the snow with tears streaming down their frozen cheeks and the aurora borealis dancing above them.' The Observer ‘A thought-provoking, nuanced read’ Sarah Manning, Red 'Dazzling prose' Elle Eight women. Eight stories. One reality. A woman is born. A woman is filmed in public without consent. A woman suffers domestic violence. A woman is gaslit. A woman is discriminated against at work. A woman grows old. A woman becomes famous. A woman is hated, and loved, and then hated again. Written in Cho Nam-Joo’s masterful, razor-sharp prose, Miss Kim Knows brings together the lives of eight Korean women, aged 10 to 80. Contained in each of these biographies is a microcosm of contemporary Korea, and the challenges and injustices that women face from childhood to old age. As with Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, the fates of these eight women are the fates of women the world over. And under Cho Nam-Joo’s precise, unveiled gaze, nothing and nobody escapes scrutiny--not even herself.

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The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes readers to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good.In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers. Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.

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DISCOVER THE GRIPPING NO. 1 BESTSELLER BEHIND THE AWARD WINNING HBO SENSATION STARRING REESE WITHERSPOON, NICOLE KIDMAN & MERYL STREEP____________Perfect families, perfect houses, perfect lives.Three mothers, Jane, Madeline and Celeste appear to have it all, until they find out just how easy it is for one little lie to spiral out of control . . .Single mum Jane has just moved to town. She's got her little boy in tow - plus a secret she's been carrying for five years.On the first day of the school run she meets Madeline - a force to be reckoned with, who remembers everything and forgives no one - and Celeste, the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare, but is inexplicably ill at ease.They both take Jane under their wing - while careful to keep their own secrets under wraps.But a minor incident involving the children of all three women rapidly escalates: playground whispers become spiteful rumours until no one can tell the truth from the lies . . .It was always going to end in tears, but how did it end in murder?_____________'Blame and guilt, forgiveness and retribution, love and betrayal. A tense, page-turning story . . . a great read' Mail on Sunday'Blending romance, comedy and mystery, this is a wonderful book - full of brains, guts and heart' Sunday Mirror'A hell of a good book. Funny and scary' Stephen King'Brilliant, standout, superbly clever. Moriarty writes vividly, wittily and wickedly' Sunday Express

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The riveting new novel from the author of The Great Believers, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past: the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the 1995 murder of a classmate, Thalia Keith. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletics coach, Omar Evans, are the subject of intense fascination online, Bodie prefers-needs-to let sleeping dogs lie. But when The Granby School invites her back to teach a two-week course, Bodie finds herself inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought-if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case. One of the most acclaimed contemporary American writers, Rebecca Makkai reinvents herself with each of her brilliant novels. Both a transfixing mystery and a deeply felt examination of one woman's reckoning with her past, I Have Some Questions for You is her finest achievement yet.

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This is a revision of Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, a best seller for 30 years. Retold by griots, the guardians of African Culture, this oral tradition has been handed down from the thirteenth century and captures all the mystery and majesty of medieval African kingship. It is the epic tale, based on an actual figure, of Sundiata (Sunjata). Part history and part legend, it tells how Sundiata fulfilled the prophesies that he would unite the twelve kingdoms of Mali into a powerful empire. This Revised Edition includes background information which provides a geographical, religious, social, and political context for the story. A ‘who’s who of characters’ and ‘a glossary of places’ will enhance the reader’s experience.

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The Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl in the second of two unsettling and sinister volumes.'Dahl finds the child in the adult and the adult in the child and, with a little smile, he sticks the knife in both' Anthony Horowitz, from his introductionRoald Dahl is one of the world's most popular writers, equally at home writing for both children and adults. In this, the second of two volumes chronologically collecting all his published adult short stories, we experience Dahl's dark and powerful imagination in full flight in 28 stories written between 1954 and 1988 (including eight tales which are not available in any other printed edition).Here, in 'Parson's Pleasure', a piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful bargain; in 'William and Mary', a wife revenges herself on her dead husband; and in 'Royal Jelly' some new parents find an unusual and unsettling way to give their newborn its start in life.Whether you're young or old, once you've stepped into the brilliant, troubling world of Roald Dahl, you'll never be the same again. 'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation' The Times 'The absolute master of the twist in the tale' Observer Look out for Volume One, introduced by Charlie Higson. Roald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.

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Discover the delightfully heartwarming and life-affirming bestseller about one man's unlikely journey through love, perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely FineTHE INTERNATIONAL MILLION COPY BESTSELLER'I couldn't put this book down. It's one of the most quirky and endearing romances I've ever read. I laughed the whole way through' SOPHIE KINSELLA'Brilliant, important, good-hearted' GUARDIAN'Original, clever and perfectly written' JILL MANSELL'Superb. Endearing, charming and fascinating' THE TIMES'Funny, charming and heart-warming. A gem of a novel' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING'Adorable' MARIAN KEYES________Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman.A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner.Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos.But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling? . . .If you loved The Rosie Project, find out what happens next in The Rosie Effect and The Rosie Result!________'All three of the Rosie novels made me laugh out loud. Ultimately the story is about getting inside the mind and heart of someone a lot of people see as odd, and discovering that he isn't really that different from anybody else' BILL GATES'Exuberantly life-affirming' SUNDAY TIMES'A completely charming story that is as engaging as it is funny' INDEPENDENT'Compulsively readable. A poignant universal story' OBSERVER'Such a joy to read - I honestly can't think of many books that I've enjoyed more. The definition of a comfort book. It made me laugh out loud more than any book before' MARIE CLARE'Full of quirky humour and touching tenderness. Imagine the love child of Eleanor Oliphant ad Bridget Jones and you have this book' CULTUREFLY'Marvellous' JOHN BOYNE'Charming and hilarious' LUXE'Hilarious, unlikely and heartbreaking' EASY LIVINGJoin the thousands of readers who have fallen in love with Don and Rosie . . .'Touching and funny. There was not a page I turned where I was not rooting for the characters or smiling' 5* Reader Review'Warm, wonderful and laugh out loud funny. Stays with you long after you have finished' 5* Reader Review'Wonderful, touching, funny, very romantic. Glorious' 5* Reader Review'Funny, poignant and original. The best romantic comedy I've read since Bridget Jones' 5* Reader Review'Utterly, utterly brilliant! Captured my heart' 5* Reader Review'A truly wonderful, warm-hearted story. Read it, you won't regret it!' 5* Reader Review'If I could have given this book 6 stars, I would. Brilliant' 5* Reader Review

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A man with a borrowed name steps from a flashy red sports car also borrowed onto the estate of his youth. But all is not as it seems. There is a new family living in the drafty old house: the Godleys, descendants of the late, world-famous scientist Adam Godley, whose theory of existence threw the universe into chaos. And this mystery man, who has just completed a prison sentence, feels as if time has stopped, or was torn, or was opened in new and strange ways. He must now vie with the idiosyncratic Godley family, with their harried housekeeper who becomes his landlady, with the recently commissioned biographer of Godley Sr., and with a wealthy and beautiful woman from his past who comes bearing an unusual request. With sparkling intelligence and rapier wit, John Banville revisits some of his career s most memorable figures, in a novel as mischievous as it is brilliantly conceived. The Singularities occupies a singular space and will surely be one of his most admired works.

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THE 12 MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEWIS TRILOGY, THE ENZO FILES AND THE CHINA THRILLERSAWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY 2021'Peter May is one of the most accomplished novelists writing today.' Undiscovered Scotland'No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of BooksPETER MAY MIXES MURDER, MYSTERY and MEMORY . . . AND MARKS HIS RETURN TO THE OUTER HEBRIDESA man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him.A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock twenty miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why.A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her scientist father's suicide. Two years on, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. She does not yet know his secret.Coffin Road follows three perilous journeys towards one shocking truth - and the realisation that ignorance can kill us.LOVED COFFIN ROAD? Read the first book in Peter May's acclaimed China thrillers series, THE FIREMAKERLOVE PETER MAY? Buy his new thriller, THE NIGHT GATE

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'Expansive, explosive and epic' Marlon James'A courageous book' New York Times Book ReviewA BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020Neither Mason, a US Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has emerged from America's long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unscathed. Yet, for them, war still exerts a terrible draw - the noble calling, the camaraderie, the life-and-death stakes. Where else in the world can such a person go?All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with the local government to stamp out a vicious civil war and keep the predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it.

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Based on personal experience, survivor testimony, and documentary research, Invasion 14 portrays the German occupation of northern France during World War I. Regarded by critics as Maxence Van der Meersch's finest work, the novel is set in Lille, Roubaix, and nearby villages along the Belgian border, with the front lines just miles away and the shelling routinely audible. An antiwar novel that goes beyond the trenches, this book is not about combat but its consequences, providing remarkable insights on the plight of French civilians and German soldiers as each group struggles to survive. A gripping epic that weaves together a vast range of characters, Invasion 14 provides a sweeping account of life under German rule and explores collaboration, resistance, and the grey areas between these stark choices, foreshadowing dilemmas the entire French nation would later face during World War II. Though originally published to great renown in 1935 - and considerable regional controversy - Invasion 14 was neglected after World War II, when national discourse focused predominantly on heroes of anti-Nazi resistance movements. As more nuanced understandings of war and occupation have evolved, Van der Meersch's masterful rendition of life along the Western Front has enjoyed a well-deserved renaissance. Presenting a new translation along with an introduction and explanatory notes, W. Brian Newsome captures the moving imagery of Van der Meersch's narrative, situates Invasion 14 in the context of the author's life experience, addresses issues of postwar remembrance, and positions the novel amid literary movements of the time.

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