Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisFrom the prize-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, a daring, riotous, sweeping novel that spins the tale of two friends and their adventures in late 20th-century America.This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They live in Brooklyn and are friends and neighbours; but since Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple.This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the simplest decisions - what music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch money - are laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is also the story of 1990s America, when nobody cared anymore.This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: they would screw up their lives.Trade Review"'Jonathan Lethem's novel is the best New York City novel of the past 10 or 15 years... Probably the one American novel this year you absolutely must read.' Rick Moody; 'One of those rare books that felt as though it had to be written.' Nick Hornby; 'A phenomenal book, with the pace of Scorsese or Spike Lee.' Uncut"

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Mayflies ''There is no page on which there is not something surprising or quotable or pleasurable of thought-provoking.'' Hilary Mantel''One of the few truly essential works of fiction to emerge from this country during the past 20 years or more.'' John Burnside, Daily TelegraphLonglisted for the Booker Prize, Be Near Me is a brilliantly moving story of art and politics, love and change, and the way we live now.When an English priest takes over a small Scottish parish, not everyone is ready to accept him. He makes friends with two local youths, Mark and Lisa, and clashes with a world he can barely understand. The town seems to grow darker each night. Fate comes calling, and before the summer is out his quiet life is the focus of public hysteria. Meanwhile a religious war is unfolding on his doorstep . . .Trade Review"'One of the few truly essential works of fiction to emerge from this country during the past 20 years or more.' John Burnside, Daily Telegraph"

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Book SynopsisAn elegiac story of two young cousins coming of age at the Japanese seaside, Goodbye Tsugumi is an enchanting novel from one of Japan''s finest writers.Banana Yoshimoto''s novels have made her an international sensation. Now she returns with a magical, offbeat story of a deep and complicated friendship between two female cousins that ranks among her best work.Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled and occasionally cruel. Now Maria''s father is finally able to bring Maria and her mother to Tokyo, ushering Maria into a world of university, impending adulthood, and a ''normal'' family. When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love, and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi''s inner strength and the real possibility

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2003WINNER OF THE 2003 WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL PRIZEMeet fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little. Desperate times call for the most unlikely of heroes. Startling . . . explosive and extravagantly satisfying.' GuardianDangerous, smart, ridiculous and very funny.' New York Times

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Book SynopsisA woman is trying to contact Kasama Tsuneo at a crisis point in his life. But she won''t reveal her identity. Kasama is an immigration officer in Tokyo, struggling to live a ''normal'' life after an event that happened eight years previously, when he lived in the USA. His arranged marriage is looming, and he''s seized by a strange emotional fit. And then the disembodied voice begins. All Tsuneo can do is desperately chase this woman, and the mystery behind what happened eight years earlier over the sea.Trade Review"'Highly recommended.' David Mitchell"

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Book SynopsisNarrated by the twin voices of the artist Butcher Bones, and his ''damaged two-hundred-and-twenty-pound brother'' Hugh, Theft: A Love Story once again displays Peter Carey''s extraordinary flair for language. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Tokyo, it is a brilliant and moving exploration of art, fraud, friendship and redemption.Trade Review"'A funny, gorgeous steal of a book.' Ali Smith"

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Book SynopsisSophie Kinsella is an internationally bestselling writer. She is the author of many number one bestsellers, including the hugely popular Shopaholic series. She has also written seven bestselling novels as Madeleine Wickham and several books for children. She lives in the UK with her husband and family.Visit her website at www.sophiekinsella.co.uk and find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SophieKinsellaOfficial. You can also follow her on Twitter @KinsellaSophie and Instagram @sophiekinsellawriter.Trade ReviewA welcome return to this lovable character. * Good Housekeeping *A laugh-a-minute read * Glamour *Witty and hilarious * Cosmopolitan *Kinsella comes good with lots of light-hearted laughs and a mushy ending to die for * Mirror *Fast, funny and slick, this is a sure-fire bestseller * Sunday Mirror *

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Book SynopsisThe soldier turns out to be a two-star general.The situation is bad enough, then Reacher finds the body of the general's wife.This stomach-churning thriller turns back the clock to a younger Reacher, in dogtags.Trade ReviewComplex, classy crime * Mirror *One of the best writers in this genre ... And nobody does it better * The Sunday Telegraph *The thing about Lee Child's books is that you can't put the damn things down... there's something about his writing that's addictive. The Enemy is no exception...Superb * Independent on Sunday *Lee Child fans will love this prequel to the bestselling Jack Reacher novels. At last Child shares the events that shaped the maverick hero of his last six novels into an ass-kicking, irreverent good guy. If you're one of the few people who haven't sampled the sublime thrill of a Child novel, this blast from the past is the best place to start * Scottish Daily Record *An unforgettable hero...may be the best Reacher book yet * Newsweek *

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Book SynopsisPeter Carey''s novel of the undeclared love between clergyman Oscar Hopkins and the heiress Lucinda Leplastrier is both a moving and beautiful love story and a historical tour de force set in Victorian times. Made for each other, the two are gamblers - one obsessive, the other compulsive - incapable of winning at the game of love.Oscar and Lucinda is now available as a Faber Modern Classics edition.

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Book SynopsisA mesmerizing love story with a cast of beguiling characters, from the Nobel prizewinning author Orhan PamukWinner of the Nobel Prize for LiteratureA magnificent novel.' Wall Street JournalPowerful and moving.' TLS ''Books of the Year''Prepare to fall in love' Mail on Sunday''As head-exploding as War and Peace, and more comforting' Elif BatumanAs a child, Mevlut always felt like he was missing out. When he moves to Istanbul the centre of the world' he is immediately enthralled. He wanders through its alleys for forty years, working as a street vendor and gaining a unique perspective of a radically changing city.Mevlut watches his friends and relatives settle down and make their fortunes, while he stumbles toward middle age in a series of jobs leading nowhere. He never manages to shake the strangeness in his mind', until at last fortune conspires to let him understand what it is he yearns for . . .

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for THE UNDOING -- a major new HBO TV series in 2020, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, from the producer of Big Little Lies.''A great psychological thriller ... I couldn''t put it down.'' Daisy Goodwin''A plot that thrills all the way to the end. It kept me up far too late!'' Lucie WhitehouseA New York Times bestsellerGrace Sachs, a happily married therapist with a young son, thinks she knows everything about women, men and marriage. She is about to publish a book called You Should Have Known, based on her pet theory: women don''t value their intuition about what men are really like, leading to serious trouble later on.But how well does Grace know her own husband? She is about to find out, and in the place of what she thought she knew, there will be a violent death, a missing husband, and a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a very public disaster, a

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Book SynopsisOne life-changing war. A love story that would echo across the decadesOn the cusp of the Second World War in Europe, Nicolas and Alex are two widowed men raising their children alone. They lead contented, peaceful lives, until a long-buried secret about Nicolas's ancestry threatens his family's safetyTo survive, they must flee to America. The only treasures Nicolas and his sons can take are eight purebred horses, two of them dazzling Lipizzaners gifts from Alex. These magnificent creatures are their ticket to a new life, securing Nicolas a job with the famous Ringling Brothers Circus. There, he and the white stallion, Pegasus, become the centrepiece of the show, and a graceful young high-wire walker soon steals his heart.But as the years of war take their toll, Nicolas struggles to adapt to their new life while Alex and his daughter face escalating danger in Europe. When tragedy strikes on both sides of the ocean, what will become of each family when

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Book SynopsisThe impressively versatile Joanne Harris in her psychological thriller mode, at her darkest and most unsettling. Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Susan Hill, Nicci French and Val McDermid.''A magnificently plotted and twisty journey to the heart of a 24-year-old crime...darkly humorous...constantly wrongfoots and misdirects...up to a satisfyingly eccentric conclusion.'' -- Observer''Classy writing, sensitive and moving.'' -- The Times''Harris pulls off an impeccable thriller denouement...consistently entertaining.'' -- Sunday Times''Just fabulous'' -- ***** Reader review''An absolute triumph of a book'' -- ***** Reader review''Twists, turns and droll humour - a great read!'' -- ***** Reader review''Absorbing'' -- ***** Reader review*************************************************************Trade ReviewA magnificently plotted and twisty journey to the heart of a 24-year-old crime...darkly humorous...constantly wrongfoots and misdirects...up to a satisfyingly eccentric conclusion. * Observer *Slowly, Harris reveals tiny clues, withholding full explanations until the startling denouement. Classy writing, sensitive and moving. * The Times *Harris pulls off an impeccable thriller denouement...consistently entertaining. -- John Dugdale * Sunday Times *It's Goodbye, Mr Chips meets The Bad Seed. Joanne Harris' latest has a killer elevator pitch and, what's more, it delivers on its intriguing premise...a rich, dramatic tale that builds to a surprising conclusion. * Washington Post *A masterpiece of misdirection. -- Val McDermid

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Book SynopsisIn this brilliant collection of stories Lorrie Moore addresses herself to a contemporary emotional dilemma - the widening gulf between men and women, and the simultaneous yearning for and fear of closeness.

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Book SynopsisA collection of stories containing a range of emotional force and dark humour. It unfolds a series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of America.

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Book SynopsisConfessions of a Wild Child takes you on trip and navigates the teenage years of a wild child who will eventually rule an empire. Lucky Santangelo is a powerful and charismatic woman. But how did she become the woman she is today? Many people have asked, and in Confessions of a Wild Child we discover the teenage Lucky, and follow her on her trip to discover boys, love and how she fought her father, the infamous Gino Santangelo, to forge her own individual and strong road to success. Even at fifteen Lucky follows her own path, and it's a crazy ride taking the reader from a strict girls school in Switzerland to an idyllic Greek island, a Bel Air estate, a New York penthouse, and a shuttered villa in the South of France. Nobody can control Lucky. She knows what she wants and she goes for it with no holds barred. Lucky at fifteen – a true revelation.

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Book SynopsisThe first time she saw Lost Lake, it was just a picture on a postcard, but she knew she was seeing her future.That was half a lifetime ago. Now all that''s left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own secret dreams and desires.It''s not quite enough to keep Eby Pim from selling up and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door.Kate spent her best summer at Lost Lake, at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Perhaps, if she returns, her young daughter can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago.One by one, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something: a second chance, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they fTrade ReviewAbsolutely lovely. Warm, touching, quirky, magical, with writing that manages to be lyrical and accessible at the same time. * Nora Roberts *You will love going to 'Lost Lake' with Sarah Addison Allen and meeting all the fascinating characters that live there. This book is filled with mystery, magic and wonderful surprises! * Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe *[Sarah Addison Allen is a] surefire star of feel-good fiction . . . this endearing tale of surprising second chances may just be her wisest work yet. * Booklist starred review on LOST LAKE *A real and rare talent . . . an absolutely enchanting read * www.novelicious.com on THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON *It's a bewitching read in every sense, taking you to a world of regrets, missed opportunities and lost loves found again. Magical * Glamour Must Read on THE SUGAR QUEEN *'A bewitching tale laced with magic, hope and wit, a pure delight' * Bookseller on THE SUGAR QUEEN *Beguiling . . . leaves a magical spell that enchants as it draws you in. An absolute gem. * Now on GARDEN SPELLS *This compelling book has it all - passion, romance and sibling rivalry. This is Sarah Addison Allen's first novel - she's definitely one to watch * My Weekly on GARDEN SPELLS *

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER''Picoult has been incredibly successful in dissecting the pain that family members go through when faced with sensitive and emotional issues . . . a touching read'' Daily ExpressFifteen years ago, Daniel Stone''s drinking and stealing sent him into a spiral of self-destructiveness which threatened to consume him entirely. Today, life has given him a second chance, and he''s reinvented himself as a respected artist, loving husband, and doting father to teenage daughter Trixie, to whom he''s never revealed his past.But when Trixie falls victim to an act of unspeakable violence at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Jason, Daniel''s old self resurfaces, stronger than ever. How far can you go to avenge the ones you love?MAD HONEY, the stunning and compelling Sunday Times bestseller by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan is available now

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Book Synopsis''Rosamunde Pilcher has the unique ability to transfer the reader into her lovely world. So vivid, simply mesmerising!!!!'' Reader review ?????An emotive and timeless collection of short stories by the much-loved Rosamunde PilcherThrough thick mist and a cold east wind, Lavinia returns to Scotland. Up at the big house Mrs Farquhar is dying. Seeing Lachlan again, Lavinia remembers her childhood holidays there: swimming in the loch, the picnics, bottle-feeding the lambs down at the farm and the evenings when they danced reels. Most of all, she remembers Mrs Farquhar''s grandson Rory.As the old lady lies serene and beautiful in the bed she has slept in since coming home to Lachlan as a bride, Lavinia meets Rory once again.Flowers in the Rain is one of sixteen stories, each giving another magical glimpse into Rosamunde Pilcher''s world.READERS LOVE FLOWERS IN THE RAIN:''I loved Trade ReviewHer genius is to create characters you really care for * Daily Express *Pilcher's storytelling skills are serene and beguiling * The Times *It is never too soon to discover Rosamunde Pilcher * Good Housekeeping *Whether she is being poignant, wry or perceptive, Rosamunde Pilcher is always gentle * Woman's Realm *

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Book SynopsisBy the acclaimed author of Winter's Bone, the dark, glittering story of two families divided by class and linked by a mysterious tragedy.Trade ReviewDaniel Woodrell is the American writer we increasingly look to for the latest urgent news on the American soul. The Maid's Version is a beautiful engine of a novel, whose cogs were not entirely made by human agency, one might hazard to say. * Sebastian Barry *A captivating, almost operatic narrative of how tragedy and grief can transform places and people . . . a stunning story of one small town, and all of its profound complexities and opaque mysteries. * New York Times Book Review *The Maid's Version is stunning. Daniel Woodrell writes flowing, cataclysmic prose with the irresistible aura of fate about it. * Sam Shepard *Under the grisly, seductive, colloquial tone is a very unusual thing - a communitarian novel: a novel concerned with how we live - and sometimes die - together, how we share experiences through the rituals of speaking and writing, because that is the fundamental spirit and purpose of language. * Sarah Hall, Guardian *Woodrell's majestic gifts create an unforgettable impression of one woman's life played out against a horrific crime that was never solved but remained to haunt all involved. * Irish Times *Blends the folkloric with Southern gothic, historical recapitulation with fictional investigative journalism, all suffused in his matchless tenderness of feeling * Independent *Woodrell's unique prose - laconic and yet possessed of an offbeat lyricism all its own - is well suited to a story reminiscent of a folk tale passed down through the generations. * The Sunday Times *Woodrell's distinctive qualities are his very puckish humour and the way he drapes extravagantly writerly prose on the bones of a ferociously exciting whodunit * Literary Review *Set in a small town festering with anger and ancient slights, it is an eerie, wondrous elegy. Daniel Woodrell understands the essential menace residing deep within human nature and although only 164 pages this is indeed a huge book * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Love All is a heartfelt story of love and adulthood in the 1960s.'Graceful, moving' – Daily ExpressThe late 1960s. For Persephone Plover, the daughter of distant and neglectful parents, the innocent, isolated days of childhood are long past. Now she must deal with the emotions of an adult world.Meanwhile in Melton, in the West Country, Jack Curtis – a self-made millionaire – has employed Persephone's aunt. A garden designer in her sixties, she is to deal with the terraces and glasshouses of the once beautiful local manor house – one that he has acquired at vast expense. He also has plans to start an arts festival, as a means to avoid the loneliness of divorce.Also in Melton are the Musgrove siblings, Thomas and Mary, whose parents originally owned and lived in Melton House. They are still trying to cope with emotional Trade ReviewHer talent seemed so effervescent, so unstoppable, that there was no predicting where it might take her -- Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf HallGraceful, moving . . . Howard's elegant prose, keen eye for detail and ability to make the reader care about her characters are second to none * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisA stunning novel, spanning generations and continents, Ghana Must Go is a tale of family drama and forgiveness, for fans of Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.Meet the Sais, a Nigerian-Ghanaian family living in the United States. A family prospering until the day father and surgeon Kweku Sai is victim of a grave injustice. Ashamed, he abandons his beautiful wife Fola and their little boys and girls, causing the family to fracture and spiral out into the world - New York, London, West Africa, New England - on uncertain, troubled journeys until, many years later, tragedy unites them. Now this broken family has a chance to heal - but can the Sais take it?''Ghana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family''s fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut'' Teju Cole, author of Open CityTrade ReviewThis book is rich and deep, mesmerizing and spectacular. At times I felt it opened a portal onto something grand and profound about love and blood and the ties that bind. Read it and you will feel what great literature can do: you will feel you are more vividly alive -- Anna FunderGhana Must Go is both a fast moving story of one family's fortunes and an ecstatic exploration of the inner lives of its members. With her perfectly-pitched prose and flawless technique, Selasi does more than merely renew our sense of the African novel: she renews our sense of the novel, period. An astonishing debut -- Teju Cole, author of * Open City *An eye for the perfect detail . . . an unforgettable voice on the page . . . miss out on Ghana Must Go and you will miss one of the best new novels of the season * The Economist *Taiye Selasi is the woman the literary world is drooling over . . . [Ghana Must Go] is technically ambitious, poetically dense . . . an unpredictable family story of love, abandonment, aspiration and migration -- Claire Allfree * Metro *Taiye Selasi writes with glittering poetic command, a sense of daring, and a deep emotional investment in the lives and transformations of her characters . . . a powerful portrait of a broken family -- Diana Evans * Guardian *A most impressive first novel. . . She manages a generous coverage of time and space with adroit concision, along with a vibrant range of characters. The family is so convincing, with those telling problems of divided culture. Very much a novel of today -- Penelope LivelyTaiye Selasi is a young writer of staggering gifts and extraordinary sensitivity. Ghana Must Go seems to contain the entire world, and I shall never forget it -- Elizabeth Gilbert, author of * Eat, Pray, Love *With mesmerizing craftsmanship and massive imagination [Taiye Selasi] takes the reader on an unforgettable journey across continents and most importantly deeply into the lives of the people whom she writes about. She de-"exoticizes" whole populations and demographics and brings them firmly into the readers view as complicated and complex human beings. Ghana Must Go is a big novel, elemental, meditative, and mesmerizing -- Sapphire, author of * The Kid and Push *In Ghana Must Go, Selasi drives the six characters skillfully through past and present, unearthing old betrayals and unexplained grievances at a delicious pace. By the time the surviving five convene at a funeral in Ghana, we are invested in their reconciliation--which is both realistically shaky and dramatically satisfying ... Narrative gold * Elle *Selasi's ambition - to show her readers not "Africa" but one African family, authors of their own achievements and failures - is one that can be applauded no matter what accent you give the word -- Nell Freudenberger * The New York Times *The first line of Taiye Selasi's buoyant first novel, Ghana Must Go, captures the book in miniature: "Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs." The springy dactylic meter of the prose (KWEku dies BAREfoot on a . . .), the sly internal rhymes (Sunday, sunrise, doorway), the surprising twist on a cliché (to die like a dog), the invigorating mixture of darkness and drollery are a big part of what makes this book such a joy... It's an auspicious how-do-you-do to the world, and nearly every page of the novel displays the same bounce and animation... rapturous. * Wall Street Journal *

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Book SynopsisIn this luminous novel about a modern Don Juan, John Berger relates the story of G., a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of the last century as Europe teeters on the brink of war. With profound compassion, Berger explores the hearts and minds of both men and women, and what happens during sex, to reveal the conditions of the libertine''s success: his essential loneliness, the quiet cumulation in each of his sexual experiences of all of those that precede it, the tenderness that infuses even the briefest of his encounters, and the way women experience their own extraordinariness through their liaisons with him. Set against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi''s attempt to unite Italy, the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War and the dramatic first flight across the Alps, G. is a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in the turmoil of history.Trade ReviewFascinating ... an extraordinary mixture of historical detail and sexual meditation ... G. belongs in the tradition of George Eliot, Tolstoy, D. H. Lawrence and Norman Mailer * New York Times *Its energy and invention remains alive ... Michael Ondaatje, most notably, seems to have learned an awful lot from this book, both in terms of its fractured narrative techniques and the way the fleshy frailty of human characters is so exposed by the technology of the early modern age ... Berger also shares Ondaatje's ability to produce wonderful set pieces -- Sam Jordison * Guardian *The most interesting novel in English I have read for many years ... It is one of the few serious attempts for our time to do for the novel what Brecht did for drama: to reshape it in the light of twentieth-century experience ... A fine, humane and challenging book * The New Republic *

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Book SynopsisA unique and utterly charming book that is at once a novel and a work of art.Trade ReviewAbsolutely brilliant ...You look at the photographs and you get it immediately: this is a world of first editions, Dr Hauschka Rose Cream, Smythson diaries ... vintage clothing - but also of letters, scribbled-in paperbacks, postcards, takeaway menus, home-made presents ... Get it for your girlfriends - it's *the* perfect Christmas present' India Knight 'The task is daunting: How to render the dissolution of a romantic relationship in a new way? Leanne Shapton succeeds against all the odds with this wildly romantic and erudite book' Dave Eggers 'The biggest word-of-mouth sensation of the year' Independent

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Book Synopsis''Binchy weaves her magic once again in an addictive story about families and people who aren''t always quite what they seem'' Woman & HomeBaby Frankie is born into an unusual family. Her mother is desperate to find someone to take care of her child and she doesn''t have much time.Noel doesn''t seem to be the most promising of fathers but despite everything, he could well be Frankie''s best hope. As for Lisa, she is prepared to give up everything for the man she loves; surely he''s going to love her back?And Moira is having none of it. She knows what''s right, and has the power to change the course of Frankie''s life...but Moira is hiding secrets of her own.Trade ReviewBinchy weaves her magic once again in an addictive story about families and people who aren't always quite what they seem. * WOMAN & HOME *I love her novels -- Elizabeth DayOne of our best-loved novelists weaves an intriguing story. * WOMAN'S OWN *An absolute delight from the most loved of storytellers. Maeve Binchy works her usual magic as we unravel the truth and joy - and sadness too - behind the story of two young people as they grow up to find fulfilment. * MY WEEKLY *This highly acclaimed Irish author has produced yet another heart-warmer ... a lovely story of unconventional relationships and the importance of children. * SOUTH WALES ARGUS *A delightful book about an unusual family * IRISH NEWS *A heart-warming tale of how affection and determination can deliver the love a child needs to flourish in an unconventional environment. * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *In 27 years Maeve Binchy has sold more than 40 million books. MINDING FRANKIE is a reminder of the author's savvy ability to delivery what her loyal following has come to expect. * IRISH TIMES *Maeve Binchy is a sublime storyteller, and with MINDING FRANKIE you are captured from the very first page until the final poignant last sentence. Her characters are always well drawn and this book is no exception, you are taken inside their lives and relationships. If you are looking for a book for a very satisfying weekend, or autumn read, this is absolutely perfect! Highly Recommended! * HOT BRANDS COOL PLACES *Binchy ... is a class act. * DAILY EXPRESS *It'll restore your faith in humanity. * ESSENTIALS *Maeve Binchy's novel are just the kind of comforting companions so many women can't wait to take to bed. ...Binchy's prose flows as naturally as conversation with a good friend. * THE LADY *Populated by a huge cast of completely believable characters, Minding Frankie is a delight of a book. * THE UNIVERSE *A must read book * WOMAN'S WAY *Maeve Binchy is a master storyteller * NEW YORK TIMES *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Kiriyama Prize and the Encore Award, and shortlisted for the IMPAC Prize.In an unnamed English town, Jugnu and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community and then, on a snow-covered January morning, Chanda''s brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story of the next twelve months, Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion.

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Book SynopsisFROM THE WRITER OF BBC SMASH HIT DRAMA CROSSFIRESHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARDLONGLISTED FOT THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2011Whatever You Love, from Louise Doughty - the bestselling author of Apple Tree Yard, now a major BBC 1 series - is a heart-wrenching psychological thriller about bereavement and revenge, desire and infidelity.Two police officers knock on Laura''s door and her life changes forever. They tell her that her nine-year old daughter Betty has been hit by a car and killed. When justice is slow to arrive, Laura decides to take her own revenge and begins to track down the man responsible. Laura''s grief also re-opens old wounds and she is thrown back to the story of her passionate love affair with Betty''s father David, their marriage and his subsequent affair with another woman. Haunted by her past, and driven to breaking point by her desire for retribution, Laura discoveTrade ReviewDoughty creates a haunting, heart-wrenching portrait. Psychologies The opening chapter is electrifyingly painful. From then on the reader is spellbound ... the book is hauntingly believable ... so powerful is the evocation of raw emotion that, the day after i finished it, I woke up with that same feeling. It was some minutes before I realised I was still inside Doughty's book. -- A N Wilson Readers Digest It is an extraordinarly opening, written with such taut understatement that the mother's grief is given a visceral power: we empathise with it immediately ... Whatever You Love is a masterfully constructed novel, at once gripping and tender ... The emotional power of Doughty's prose is such that the reader is complicit in Laura's journey from loss to retribution. Doughty forces us to confront the darkness that lies beneath the skin. The result is a brilliant and brutal novel that continues to unsettle long after the final page has been turned. Observer Absorbing Grazia A stunning tale of grief and the lengths to which a woman must go to come to terms with it. Woman and Home Brilliant, disturbing, heart-wrenching. Daily Mirror

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize ''Good God, thought Oliver, as he saw the smile. She thinks I''m him! And all at once he knew it was so. He was Dr Norman Wilfred.'' On the sunlit Greek island of Skios, the Fred Toppler Foundation''s annual lecture is to be given by Dr Norman Wilfred, the world-famous authority on the scientific organisation of science. He turns out to be surprisingly young and charming - not at all the intimidating figure they had been expecting. The Foundation''s guests are soon eating out of his hand. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the attractive and efficient organiser.Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki''s old school-friend Georgie waits for the notorious chancer she has rashly agreed to go on holiday with, and who has only too characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped in the villa with her, by an unfortunate chain of misadventure, is a balding old gent called Dr Norman Wilfred, who

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Book SynopsisWinner of the US National Book Award 2012''A powerful novel'' New York Times''An extraordinary, engrossing novel, which should live long in the memory'' Independent on Sunday One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. As Geraldine slips into an abyss of solitude, young Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to find some answers of his own.The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece -- at once Trade ReviewThe Round House is an extraordinary, engrossing novel, which should live long in the memory. * The Independent on Sunday *The Round House showcases [Erdrich's] extraordinary ability to delineate the ties of love, resentment, need, duty and sympathy that bind families together...[a] powerful novel. * New York Times *Erdrich has achieved an impressive trick; a spellbinding read, an earnest message and fierce emotional punch. * Sunday Telegraph *A rare insight into the dilemma of an adolescent caught between two cultures. * Mail on Sunday *A compelling coming-of-age story ... [Erdrich] is a gifted storyteller who brings all these characters and tales together with sureness and grace. * Indpendent *Echoes of Stand By Me ... a classic coming-of-age narrative. * The Observer *Detailed and nuanced, it is Erdrich's portrayal of the Native American reservation that makes The Round House stand out as a work of literary fiction. * Sunday Express *Emotionally compelling...Joe is an incredibly endearing narrator, full of urgency and radiant candor...the story he tells transforms a sad, isolated crime into a revelation about how maturity alters our relationship with our parents, delivering us into new kinds of love and pain. * Washington Post *A powerful novel worth reading. * The Scotsman *Erdrich is brilliant at using dialogue to capture the teenage psyche....The parallels with To Kill a Mockingbird are obvious, but it is the soundtrack to Rob Reiner's classic coming-of-age film Stand by Me that spooled through my mind as I followed Joe and his mates through their long, hot, life-changing summer. * The Economist *Erdrich threads a gripping mystery and multilayered portrait of a community through a deeply affecting coming-of-age novel. * O, the Oprah Magazine *Brilliant. * Saga *The Round House is filled with stunning language that recalls shades of Faulkner, Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison. Deeply moving, this novel ranks among Erdrich's best work, and it is impossible to forget. * USA Today *A gripping mystery with a moral twist: revenge might be the harshest punishment, but only for the victims. * Entertainment Weekly *Steeped in American folklore, rituals and tradition, Erdrich’s rite-of-passage masterpiece is raw and compelling. * Good Book Guide *A young man grapples with his mother's rape in a most unexpected, powerful and haunting coming of age story. * Roxane Gay, Esquire - 80 Books Every Person Should Read *

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Book SynopsisThe phenomenal New York Times Number One bestseller about the unbreakable bond between a dog and their human. Now a major film starring Dennis Quaid.This is the remarkable story of one endearing dog's search for his purpose over the course of several lives. More than just another charming dog story, A Dog's Purpose touches on the universal quest for an answer to life's most basic question: Why are we here?Surprised to find himself reborn as a rambunctious golden-haired puppy after a tragically short life as a stray mutt, Bailey's search for his new life's meaning leads him into the loving arms of eight-year-old Ethan. During their countless adventures, Bailey joyously discovers how to be a good dog.But this life as a family pet is not the end of Bailey's journey. Reborn as a puppy yet again, Bailey wonders – will he ever find his purpose?Heartwarming, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny, W. Bruce Cameron's A Dog's Purpose is not only the emotional and hilarious story of a dog's many lives, but also a dog's-eye commentary on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man's best friend. This moving and beautifully crafted story teaches us that love never dies, and that every creature on earth is born with a purpose.

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Book Synopsis**From the co-author of the No.1 bestselling Wilbur Smith novel, WAR CRY**The fate of England hangs in the balance of a fight between brothers...In DEVIL, David Churchill writes with the immediacy of Conn Iggulden, the epic ambition of Bernard Cornwell and the plotting of CJ Sansom. The Leopards of Normandy trilogy tells the story of William the Conqueror in all its wild, intoxicating, unfailingly dramatic glory.The noble families of Europe are tearing themselves apart in their lust for power and wealth.Emma, Queen of England, is in agony over the succession to her husband Canute''s throne ... while her brother, the Duke of Normandy''s sons battle in the wake of his death.Robert, the younger son, has been cheated of Normandy''s mightiest castle and sets out to take it by force. He emerges from a bloody siege victorious and in love with a beautiful - and pregnant - peasant girl.Robert''s Trade ReviewCleverly adds layers of blood and flesh to our skeletal knowledge of the people whose invasion of England changed our island for everAudacious, authentic, full of tension and tradecraft ... I loved it - Lee Child on Tom Cain's The Accident ManThe most audacious and timely thriller for years - Daily Mirror on The Accident ManWith subtlety and intelligence, Thomas joins the historical dots to produce a novel with plenty to say - eloquently - about the brutalising effects of the Holocaust - Guardian on Ostland by David ThomasThis nightmare-inducing new novel stretches crime fiction to its limits ... a compelling read - Mail on Sunday on OstlandAn intriguing mix of detection, thriller, courtroom drama, fact and fiction - The Times on Ostland

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Book SynopsisThe award-winning debut thriller from the bestselling author of Kolymsky Heights''Quite simply the best thriller writer around.'' SpectatorNicolas Whistler is young, bored and in debt. When an opportunity to make some money arises, he can''t turn it down. He is sent to Prague to carry out a simple assignment, but he soon finds himself trapped between the secret police and the clutches of the mysterious Vlasta. Whether he likes it or not, Nicolas is now a spy.''Fast-moving, exciting, often extraordinarily funny.'' Sunday Times''Brilliant. Don''t miss it.'' Observer

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Book SynopsisFROM FLYNN BERRY, AUTHOR OF REESE WITHERSPOON''S BOOK CLUB PICK NORTHERN SPY How do you find your sister''s killer when no one will help you?When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the Oxfordshire countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel''s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.Stunned and adrift, Nora is haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, and as her fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognisable as the sister her investigation uncovers.WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL ''Thrilling'' New York Times''Berry transfixes the reader'' Guardian''A literary take on the psychological thriller'' Elle''Exquisitely taut and intenTrade ReviewThe book's triumph is Nora's voice. Strangely but mesmerisingly combining dreamy musings and memories with a tenacious quest for the truth, her first-person story leaves you continually uncertain whether it is innocently incomplete, actively distortional or entirely reliable * Sunday Times *Under the Harrow has been prompting word-of-mouth enthusiasm and it's easy to see why.. Berry transfixes the reader... rarely has the device of the unreliable narrator been used so effectively. * THE GUARDIAN *In carefully measured prose, at once spare and haunting, Nora's obsession with finding the truth drives her on, and the reader must go with her * SUNDAY TIMES *Once I started reading Under the Harrow, I couldn't stop. It's like Broadchurch written by Elena Ferrante. I've been telling all my friends to read it-the highest compliment. Flynn Berry is a deeply interesting writer * Claire Messud, author of THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN and THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS *Under the Harrow is a compulsively readable and atmospheric novel that I consumed almost in one sitting. The portrayal of the two sisters is subtle, original, and compelling * Rosamund Lupton, author of SISTER *Flynn Berry's writing is clear and spare yet textured and instantly immersive. You know from the get-go that something is not quite right, and this sense of unease and mystery grows and grows as you discover more about Nora's complex relationship with her sister. I read Under the Harrow very quickly and when I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it * Harriet Lane, author of HER and ALYS, ALWAYS *What grabbed me by the bones and hurled me through this read-in-one-sitting novel wasn't the plot, as compelling and tenacious and suspenseful as it is. Rather, it was Flynn Berry's perfect, unrelenting prose. This is flawless storytelling * Jill Alexander Essbaum, author of HAUSFRAU *A nail-biter that fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will no doubt love, Under the Harrow is swiftly carried along by a momentum of unraveling certainties that ramp up with every page, building to the end's thrilling crescendo. I loved this dark, chilling book and couldn't put it down * Suzanne Rindell, author of THE OTHER TYPIST *I read Under the Harrow through the night-I couldn't put it down. Berry's deft touch with atmosphere and emotion are sure to make this a stand out * Alex Marwood, author of THE WICKED GIRLS and THE KILLER NEXT DOOR *[A] compulsively readable novel of psychological suspense, narrated in a striking, original voice * NEW YORK TIMES - 9 Thrillers that TIMES Editors Think You Should Read this Summer *Under the Harrow offers exactly the kind of voracious, absorbing, one-sitting read that readers love. Taut with suspense, it is full of insight and suffused with emotions that will move you. The central relationship between two adult sisters is a heartbreaker, the tenderness, the loyalty, and the sorrow all ringing so true * Robin Black, author of LIFE DRAWING *Under the Harrow airdrops the reader into the unsettling aftermath of trauma, where shifting memories collide with obsession in a propulsive story of love, grief, and murder. Gripping and nuanced, this stylish thriller is not to be missed * Koethi Zan, author of THE NEVER LIST *An exquisitely taut and intense debut . . . There's a subtle strain of Daphne du Maurier's classic, Rebecca, in Under the Harrow . . . In both works -- if a reader is attentive enough -- the truth can be glimpsed in the shadows; lurking within the bare facts of what our narrator discloses . . .. A superbly crafted psychological thriller, it deserves to be celebrated for its own singular excellence * WASHINGTON POST *'Thrilling . . . underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original voice all Berry's own . . . [Berry's] precise sentences call to mind Hitchcock's meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope . . . Nora's casual, seemingly arbitrary observations bring vivid tension to the prose and signify a truly intelligent writer at work . . . riveting and surprising' -- Elizabeth Brundage * New York Times Book Review *a thriller to be gulped down in one sitting. * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *

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Book SynopsisAn elderly caretaker at a large outdoor exhibition, called Art in Nature, finds that a couple have lingered on to bicker about the value of a picture; he has a surprising suggestion that will resolve both their row and his own ambivalence about the art market. A draughtsman''s obsession with drawing locomotives provides a dark twist to a love story. A cartoonist takes over the work of a colleague who has suffered a nervous breakdown only to discover that his own sanity is in danger.In these witty, sharp, often disquieting stories, Tove Jansson reveals the fault-lines in our relationship with art, both as artists and as consumers. Obsession, ambition, and the discouragement of critics are all brought into focus in these wise and cautionary tales.Trade ReviewThat there can still be as-yet untranslated fiction by Jansson is simultaneously an aberration and a delight, like finding buried treasure. -- Ali SmithTove Jansson was a genius -- Philip Pullman

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Book SynopsisFrom the twice Man Booker longlisted author of From a Low and Quiet Sea'Donal Ryan, one of our most remarkable writers, has produced a book of short stories of such visceral power that they hit you in the solar plexus. He deals with the dark side of modern Irish life and produces sentences of titanic impact.' IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAYAn old man looks into the fearful eyes of a burglar left to guard him while his brother is beaten; an Irish priest in a war-torn Syrian town teaches its young men the art of hurling; the driver of a car which crashed, killing a teenage girl, forges a connection with the girl's mother; a squad of broken friends assemble to take revenge on a rapist; a young man sets off on his morning run, reflecting on the ruins of his relationship, but all is not as it seems.Donal Ryan's short stories pick up where his acclaimed novels The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December left off, dealing with the human cost of loneliness, isolation and displacement. Sometimes this is present in the ordinary, the mundane; sometimes it is triggered by a fateful encounter or a tragic decision. At the heart of these stories, crucially, is how people are drawn to each other and cling on to love, often in desperate circumstances.In haunting and often startling prose, Donal Ryan has captured the brutal beauty of the human heart in all its hopes and failings._________'Donal Ryan is a heartbreaker, his quicksilver prose laced with ... wistful rhythms ... These breathtaking stories explore human love against an uneasy landscape of violence and desperation... Donal finds hope in dark corners.' DAILY MAIL'Donal Ryan is a master of the magnetic first line ... His faithful subject is rural despair; the poetry of adversity, the baffling fortitude of intrinsically decent people ... This collection shows Ryan adding his own elastic yet distinctive voice to O'Connor's impeccable tradition.' GUARDIANTrade Review"Donal Ryan's ambition is to evoke the marginal or washed-up existences of people in a global but very non-metropolitan Ireland as the 21st century dawns... He channels their voices with consummate ventriloquism ... Ryan's ear for an authentically crackling colloquialism is as sharp as ever... Ryan's skill with language flicks out slang and abuse with a masterly touch ... his ear is sharply attuned and his sense of irony remains mordant." -- Roy Foster The Irish Times "Donal Ryan, one of our most remarkable writers, has produced a book of short stories of such visceral power that they hit you in the solar plexus. He deals with the dark side of modern Irish life and produces sentences of titanic impact." -- Joe Duffy Irish Mail on Sunday "Outstanding stories ... There's a bracing - indeed, sometimes saving - humour ... and there's a tenderness, too, towards many of the collection's lost souls... Ryan is already such a master of the short form that even when you dread the outcome, you can't stop reading." -- John Boland Irish Independent "Donal Ryan is a heartbreaker, his quicksilver prose laced with ... wistful rhythms ... These breathtaking stories explore human love against an uneasy landscape of violence and desperation... Donal finds hope in dark corners. 'Sky' [is] a story about everything - life, loss and loneliness - but also just about one man's love for his nephew. [The title story's] gentle and redemptive ending leaves you gaping with wonder." Daily Mail "Donal Ryan is a master of the magnetic first line... His faithful subject is rural despair; the poetry of adversity, the baffling fortitude of intrinsically decent people... These are plain-speaking stories, and in spite of the pervasive woe, this plain speech lends itself to blunt, bleak, brilliant humour... Each unit of language has been scrupulously positioned, though the overall effect is of effortlessness... This collection shows Ryan adding his own elastic yet distinctive voice to O'Connor's impeccable tradition." -- Sara Baume The Guardian

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Book SynopsisPreviously uncollected pulp fiction by the 20th century American master.Trade Review"The brevity of the pieces collected here, some no more than two or three pages, suit Bukowski well. ... Best to think of his work as a series of dirty Road Runner cartoons in which Bukowski is the coyote taking one damn kick in the pants--front- and backside--after another. At its worst (the hijack fantasy "Fly the Friendly Skies"), Bukowski's sensibility is ugly and coarse. But when he is swinging, there is a companionable ease to his blunt, profane vernacular. Bukowski's gift was a sense for the raunchy absurdity of life, his writing a grumble that might turn into a belly laugh or a racking cough but that always throbbed with vital energy."--Kirkus Reviews "Bukowski's world is hostile, full of runaway dysfunction, and populated by alcoholics, gamblers, adulterers, and abusers, all with few, if any, redeeming qualities ... It is Bukowski's embrace of this world, his insistence on its validity if not its value, that makes him unique ... Bukowski can be honest and direct, and he is capable of embedding meaningful observations in the most sordid of stories."--Publishers Weekly Bukowski's The Bell Tolls for No One, recently released in a comic-book-like paperback, follows the hardboiled genre bent that reached its surreal apotheosis in his final novel, Pulp. The obvious influence is to Hemingway--see: the title--but perhaps more interestingly, the editor David Stephen Calonne notes Bukowski's debt to the crime writer James M. Cain, who had also, unbeknownst to me, shaped the style of Camus's The Stranger. The book includes some of Bukowski's roughly drawn illustrations, which fall somewhere close to pornographic Ziggy or adult-themed New Yorker cartoons. One features an asthmatic customer at an adult bookstore asking the cashier to inflate his blow-up doll for him; another shows an expressionistically drawn party girl surrounded by gawking men with the caption 'God, a woman could get bored.' The subject matter is a more amplified version of the usual Bukowski fare--stalwart, sleazebag protagonists; spectral, deathly women with emphatically described upper legs. As always, the most one can hope for in Bukowski's universe is 'a grim yet comfortable isolation.'"--Casey Henry, The Paris Review "Like Robert Crumb, whose art appears on the cover of The Bell Tolls For No One, Charles Bukowski represents a kind of brazenly counterculture spirit that holds in contempt anything that represents the Establishment. Read in this light, this newest compilation can be viewed as more than the self-admitted 'notes of a dirty old man,' but as the further works of an iconoclast who, much like the underground comics artists and punk rock bands of the late '70s, waged war against all that was supposedly 'decent' and conventional for the sake of getting at the grit of human experience."-ZYZZYVA These are tales from the lower class and underclass, in all their glorious craziness and absurdity. It's not pretty, and yet, somehow, there is joy in reading these stories, and somehow too, Bukowski ends up being a good buddhist, finding the larger beauty in these dismal lives ... [For those] who already love Buk, this book will leave content, drunk, smiles on our faces."--Entropy Magazine

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Book SynopsisThe Shielding of Mrs Forbes Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn't all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people's predilections. The Greening of Mrs Donaldson Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating...Trade ReviewBeautiful and filthy -- Simon Hattenstone * Guardian *Amusingly peculiar ... tender and comic ... joyous anarchism ... It is good, old-fashioned British humour with the lightest of subversive twists -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *Artfully entertaining ... The stories have a dark, knowing shrewdness about erotic mischief, young and old ... As always the writing is tonally perfect, laced with deadpan as well as bedpan comedy -- Simon Schama * FT *Smut offers plenty of Bennett's trademark pleasures ... consistently amusing and full of witty turns of phrase -- Sarah Churchwell * Guardian *All Bennett's work seems to me a dreamy evocation of an imaginary world in which he'd like to dwell, full of jokes and queerness. These days, he seems to be getting steadily smuttier, ever more disinhibited. But more strength to his elbow, I say. -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *Marinated in subtleties. He's never as simple as he likes to appear ... That peculiarly British maladroitness - the perennial blush, wince and averted eye - and how adroitly it is grappled with, can make for great storytelling -- John Sutherland * The Times *Hilarious * The Times *In these two stories he applies his elegant literary gifts to his territory with the unabashed glee of one watching Benny Hill getting it on with Anita Brookner ... Bennett's talent for the honed quip is securely in place -- Adam Lively * Sunday Times *Unmitigated delight -- Christina Hardyment * The Times *Alan Bennett continues to surprise and delight -- John Banville * Sunday Telegraph *You can always rely on Alan Bennett to capture the intricate nuances of English Life and his latest offering is no exception * Good Housekeeping *Frank, funny and entertaining * Financial Times *A marvellous little book, small enough to put in a jacket pocket and so delightful that you'll want to keep taking it out again ... Part of the pleasure here is the unexpected mis-match between respectability and unseemly behaviour, but there's much more to it than that. These novellas are good enough to re-read and enjoy even when the events are no longer unexpected, and the reason is Bennett's sweet, easy prose. There is no sense of effort at all here. It's like watching an expert dancer dance, or an expert ice-skater skate. He just knows how to do it, and that's that * Independent on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisFor Claire Roth, an established psychotherapist with an adoring husband and children, her new patient - Jody Goodman, a witty and attractive young filmmaker - is a welcome diversion from her predictable life. Jody, successful, yet uncertain, is disarmed by Claire's interest and approval. Gradually, the boundaries between friendship and family, between love and compulsion, start to blur - especially when one of them starts to believe fanatically that some things simply cannot be coincidences, and that what they share, in fact, is the deepest bond of all. In a Country of Mothers is a transfixing psychological thriller, and with it A.M. Homes forces us to confront our own judgements about sanity, danger and desire.

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Book SynopsisThe heady, political tale of one man's search for identity and meaning after the loss of his memory.

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Book SynopsisThe chance to join 'the Revival of the Great Lucia Berlin' (New York Times)From the author of A Manual for Cleaning Women.Ranging from Texas, to Chile, to New Mexico and New York, in Evening in Paradise Berlin writes about the good, the bad and everything in between: struggling young mothers, husbands who pack their bags and leave in the middle of the night, wives looking back at their first marriage from the distance of their second . . .The publication of A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin’s dazzling collection of short stories, marked the rediscovery of a writer whose talent had gone unremarked by many. The incredible reaction to Lucia’s writing – her ability to capture the beauty and ugliness that coexist in everyday lives, the extraordinary honesty and magnetism with which she draws on her own history to breathe life into her characters – included calls for her contribution to American literature to be as celebrated as that of Raymond Carver.Evening in Paradise is a careful selection from Lucia Berlin’s remaining stories – a jewel-box follow-up for her hungry fans.Trade ReviewWonderful . . . Brilliant * Times *[Evening in Paradise] shines with compassion and dark wit . . . raw, elliptical, devilishly funny tales. * Observer *A writer of tender, chaotic and careworn short stories. Her work can remind you of Raymond Carver's or Grace Paley's or Denis Johnson's . . . One thing that makes Berlin so valuable is her gift for evoking the sweetness and earnestness of young women who fall in love . . . Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize. -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *A fearless storyteller . . . [Berlin's] work is testimony to a kaleidoscopic life that would scare the sh*t out of most writers alive today. I adore her. -- Eli Goldstone, author of Strange Heart BeatingLucia Berlin is a genius and the swerves of her sentences sublime. -- Lucy CaldwellThank god for the posthumous revival of Lucia Berlin – how sad it would be to have never experienced her distinctive, vibrant voice . . . utterly captivating. * Buzzfeed (Best Books of Fall 2018) *Berlin’s stories, largely autobiographical tales of working class life in the American West, slipped beneath the radar in her lifetime but galvanized contemporary readers. Now we have a second, smaller volume that is every bit as good as its predecessor. If you’ve never read Berlin, now’s your chance. * Newsday *Berlin . . . is a master at capturing women in states of disintegration: those who are being damaged, physically or emotionally, by men; those who are immersed in scandal or disdained by society; and those who are intentionally self-destructing. Her oeuvre contains, among lots of other things, a profound record of what shame, trauma, and hanging on by your fingernails looked like on a particular woman—or a particular kind of woman—half a century ago. * Atlantic *Wonderful . . . Berlin’s writing achieves a dreamy, delightful effect as it provides a look back through time. This collection should further bolster Berlin’s reputation as one of the strongest short story writers of the 20th century. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Blessedly, a second volume with 22 more stories is in no way second rate but rather features more seductive, sparkling autofiction with narrators whose names echo the author's in settings and situations that come from her roller-coaster biography . . . No dead author is more alive on the page than Berlin: funny, dark, and so in love with the world. * Kirkus (starred review) *Any publication of hers is a major cause for celebration, as far as I’m concerned. -- Maggie O’Farrell * Guardian, Best summer books 2018 *[Berlin's] spare evocative language and lithe turn of phrase make each phrase quietly extraordinary. * The Scotsman *In Evening in Paradise – which reads like novel-in-stories—Berlin shows that she was a master of the short story . . . This book is so transportative, so wonderful. -- Favourite Books of 2018 * LitHub *There’s always an audacious humour and humanity to [Berlin's] writing. * Red *Berlin expertly balances beauty and bleakness, and finds drama, joy or revelation in humdrum experiences . . . Berlin once again makes original art from her chequered life . . . When the words flowed, Berlin managed to perform small miracles with them. * Economist *You might assume that these represent the crumbs from the table, the ones not good enough to make the first volume, but that’s not the case . . . you can’t keep a good stylist down, and an authentic voice begins to come through. -- John Self * Irish Times *Lucia Berlin writes in colour. Not wishy-washy pastels, or hues described with copious adjectives, but instead saturated colour . . . Berlin looks for other ways to think about women’s lives, freed from simple explanations. * TLS *Berlin’s fiction subtly complicates what it meant to be an American in the latter half of the last century . . . The stories in Evening in Paradise, Berlin’s second posthumous collection, are filled again with shabby rooms and shabbier lives . . . There is no wallowing, no bathos. Instead there is an acute and varied awareness of the meaning of America, both at home and in the world. * Guardian *More marvellous musical stories from Lucia Berlin who has an eye for the unexpected loveliness in ordinary lives as vivid, vital, impulsive women pitch themselves into the merry, melancholy, messy business of living. * Sunday Express *There is something withholding about the way she mixes minimalism with excess that keeps those of us with the taste for it coming back . . . Berlin’s gifts are not ones you have ever tried or been told to cultivate. The details she chooses are those you have purposely eliminated, with that hitch in your ear that tells you to keep everything timeless . . . It’s the reason I felt so resentful at first to be shut out, because the intimacy on offer was so great. -- Patricia Lockwood * London Review of Books *Berlin is not only a soulful chronicler of the lost corners of America, whose semi-autobiographical stories brim with red caliche clay, arroyos, drainage ditches and smelter towns. She is not only a writer of vivid bursts of language . . . She is also a distinctly female voice, a raspy Marlene Dietrich. * New York Times Book Review *There’s still plenty in Evening in Paradise to conjure the original thrill of reading Berlin. * Financial Times *Long before the current autofiction craze, Lucia Berlin was spinning her day-to-day into powerfully spare prose that ached with brutal authenticity . . . these new volumes become a jigsaw-puzzle portrait of a long-neglected literary legend, baring the autobiographical material that filtered so forcefully into her fiction. The mystery of her fiction is not, it turns out, in the source of its inspiration. It is in how Berlin transformed her life into art that is as vital as the thing itself. * Vogue *[Evening in Paradise] reveals just how full a body of rich work Berlin left behind . . . Time and again, the stories reveal that her subject wasn’t domestic life but life itself, which for her often happened to be filtered through the domestic. * Los Angeles Times *What molds the fiction is Berlin’s artistic sensibility ? her global perspective, the shrewd compassion with which she scrutinizes her characters, and the absurdity ? not to mention the flora ? that populates the many landscapes of her world. * San Francisco Chronicle *This never-before-published memoir and new collection are cause for jubilation. In part because they make it clear Berlin's gifts were vast, complex, and full of tonal warmths . . . Like Chekhov, Berlin was a beautiful framer of stories. * Boston Globe *Prepare to fall in love all over again . . . the cunning, beautiful creation of a genius of the form. * NYLON *Table of ContentsUnit - 1: The Musical Vanity Boxes Unit - 2: Sometimes in Summer Unit - 3: Andado: A Gothic Romance Unit - 4: Dust to Dust Unit - 5: Itinerary Unit - 6: Lead Street, Albuquerque Unit - 7: Noël. Texas. 1956 Unit - 8: The Adobe House with a Tin Roof Unit - 9: A Foggy Day Unit - Cherry Blossom Time: 10 Unit - 11: Evening in Paradise Unit - 12: La Barca de la Ilusión Unit - 13: My Life Is an Open Book Unit - 14: The Wives Unit - 15: Noël, 1974 Unit - 16: The Pony Bar, Oakland Unit - 17: Daughters Unit - 18: Rainy Day Unit - 19: Our Brother’s Keeper Unit - 20: Lost in the Louvre Unit - 21: Luna Nueva Unit - 22: Sombra

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Book Synopsis From the bestselling Italian author comes a novel based on the true story of a priest who refused to surrender... The school year is finished, exams are over and summer stretches before seventeen-year-old Federico, full of promise and opportunity. But then he accepts a request from one of his teachers to help out at a youth club in the destitute Sicilian neighbourhood of Brancaccio. This narrow tangle of alleyways is controlled by local mafia thugs, but it is also the home of children like Francesco, Maria, Dario, Totò: children with none of Federico's privileges, but with a strength and vitality that changes his life forever. Written in intensely passionate and lyrical prose, What Hell Is Not is the phenomenal Italian bestseller about a man who brought light to one of the darkest corners of Sicily, and who refused to give up on the future of its children. Perfect for fans of Elena Ferrante and Roberto Saviano.Trade Review‘A beautifully written novel, translated from the Italian, with a heartwarming story... The language soars like a symphony. The notes are in perfect pitch.’ * New York Journal of Books *‘If, like me, you are a fan of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet, I urge you to check out What Hell is Not.’ * Literary Hub *‘A mature work that looks the theme of evil and violence in the eye.’ * Libero *‘Rich in figurative language... [the story is] equally rich in characterization and setting.’ * Booklist *‘D'Avenia convincingly conveys the extent of the deprivation and of the reach of the Mafia's influence and control... [He] has a lyrical touch amid the violence and the squalor.’ * Herald Scotland *‘The dark story of Father Pino’s passion and death is a long shriek of grief, but it is not in vain: it is also a hymn to love that becomes beauty.’ * Antonia Arslan, author of Skylark Farm *‘What Hell Is Not celebrates resilience in the face of deprivation and the transformative power of small acts of love.’ * Fra Noi, Chicago *‘Each short chapter of this book is a work of poetic beauty, some showing the transformative power of love and some showing the devastation that hate brings into the world.’ * Marjorie's World of Books, blog review *

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Book SynopsisIf you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surpriseExceptional' A.J. FinnA smart thriller' Gillian McAllisterCreepy, absorbing and unnerving' T.M. LoganKitty Marchland has always known that her family aren't like others. But when her father uproots them to a remote cottage in the woods, she realises that her parents are keeping secrets from her secrets that could unravel everything.Years later, Kitty starts to question what really happened out in the forest. When the police revisit a suspicious death, she must examine her most painful memories and this time, there's nowhere to hideA gripping and suspenseful thriller that will captivate you from first to last page. Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and The Widow's Cabin by L.G. Davis.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR HOLD YOUR BREATH: ‘To open B P Walter’s exceptional new thriller is to step through a cellar door: the air cools, your vision dims… and just a few steps later, you’re tiptoeing across the floor, desperate to switch on a torch — yet frightened of what the light might reveal. Attention, readers of Lucy Foley and Lisa Gardner: Hold Your Breath is your next favourite read’ A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window ‘Creepy, absorbing and thoroughly unnerving’ T.M. Logan, author of The Holiday ‘A smart thriller with a difference’ Gillian McAllister ‘I was gripped by this harrowing and disturbing novel. Beautifully written’ Emma Curtis ‘Wonderfully creepy’ Fiona Cummins PRAISE FOR B P WALTER: ‘Devilishly well-plotted, crisply written – and a hell of a lot of fun. What a smashing debut!’ A.J. Finn ‘Beguiling, surprising and sometimes shocking. Cleverly crafted with characters who stay with you. A highly-polished debut’ Jane Corry ‘Day one of my holiday lost to B P Walter and his intriguing thriller A Version of the Truth. If you like Peter Swanson, this will be right up your dark, twisted alley’ John Marrs ‘A Version of the Truth is engaging and sinister in places. Walter has created wonderfully authentic characters, and the writing is superb. Highly recommended’ Elisabeth Carpenter ‘Walter's debut is an assured piece of world-building, with characters both flawed and real, and a crescendo that sweeps you up then crashes you down. Unpredictable, clever and subtly twisted. Loved it’ Helen Fields ‘A dark and sometimes disturbing debut; a compelling story with credible characters. Walter emerges as a powerful new voice in the world of thriller writing’ Diane Jeffrey

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Saltire Literary Award Fiction Book of the Year''Literary gold . . . Morrison has published his masterpiece'' Sunday Times''Sensational. Like nothing I''ve ever read. A tour de force'' Ian RankinNina X has never been outside. She has never met another child.Nina X has no books, no toys and no privacy.Nina X has no idea what the outside world is like.Nina X has a lot to learn.Nina X has no mother and no father; she has Comrade Chen, and Comrades Uma, Jeni and Ruth. Her closest emotional connection is with the birds she sees when she removes the plasterboard that covers her bedroom window. Comrade Chen has named her The Project; she is being raised entirely separated from the false gods of capitalism and the cult of the self. He has her record everything in her journal, to track her thoughts. To keep her ideology pure, her words are erased, over and over again. But Trade ReviewCompelling. Chilling -- Lionel ShriverSensational. Like nothing I've ever read. A tour de force -- Ian RankinI think it's brilliant. I really enjoyed it. I found it very funny and often moving -- Alex Preston * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *I think it's such an intellectually fair book. Refreshingly honest . . . moving. I'm very impressed -- John Tusa * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *Fascinating . . . a very high concept book -- Oliver Jones * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *Convincing, moving and successful. It's also extremely funny * Observer *[An] amazing book. There are few writers left in Britain who have his ambition, vision and empathy. Nina is marvellous creation and this is an important novel -- Irvine WelshA parable for our times. His most brutal and innovative novel . . . his best to date. Challenging, horrific and visceral. Most importantly, apart from being humane and experimental, it is also deeply, deeply serious . . . Judges of Prizes take note -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *Nina X is intelligent and demanding: a study of a mind-bending cult and the difficulty a survivor has in adjusting to the world of normality . . . you're not likely to forget it * Scotsman *

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