Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Vintage Publishing Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Book SynopsisWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHORWhen Pearl Tull’s husband, Beck, abandons her she pours her energies into preserving normality. Now, as Pearl lies on her deathbed, the impact of Beck’s abrupt departure unspools: on Cody who can’t overcome his anger, on mild Ezra who must always keep the peace, and on bright, errant Jenny.Trade ReviewHer best novel * Guardian *Anne Tyler is a brilliant writer * Observer *A book to be settled into fully, tomorrow be damned. Funny, heart-hammering, wise…superb * New York Times Book Review *The most impressive American novelist of her generation * Sunday Telegraph *A classic of contemporary Americana…variously funny and horrifying and finally, quietly, terribly moving * Los Angeles Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Between Friends
Book SynopsisEight interlinked family dramas set on an Israeli kibbutz from the masterful storyteller behind A Tale of Love and Darkness‘On the kibbutz it’s hard to know.Trade ReviewLucid and heartbreaking… Explores the always uncertain relationships between men and women, parents and children, friends and enemies, in a clear, clipped language perfectly suited to the laconic tone of the narrative and impeccably rendered into English by Sondra Silverston -- Alberto Manguel * Guardian *Between Friends is arguably something new, a collection of stories, but so interlinked by theme, setting and its rolling cast that it boasts the sense, scope and unity of a novel… The writing, tight and delicate, is technically breathtaking -- Billy O'Callaghan * Irish Examiner *Oz is brilliant at compact images in which a small action expresses a complexity of unarticulated emotion -- Rebecca Abrams * Financial Times *There’s a beautiful economy and simplicity to Oz’s storytelling * The Times *Oz lifts the veil on kibbutz existence without palaver. His pin-point descriptions of individuals and spaces…are pared to perfection in order to resonate. His people twitch with life -- Tom Adair * Scotsman *Oz is a quiet, plain, compelling writer -- Alan Taylor * Herald *Deeply affecting chamber piece… -- Ben Lawrence * Daily Telegraph *Engaging collection… Beautiful, spare prose -- Lucy Popescu * Independent on Sunday *Presents us...with a complex and melancholic vision of people stuggling to transcend their individuality for the sake of mundanely idealistic goals -- Michael Sayeau * Times Literary Supplement *All Israeli life is here, rendered in loving detail * Mail on Sunday *
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Vintage Publishing Falling Out of Time
Book SynopsisIn Falling Out of Time, David Grossman has created a genre-defying drama - part play, part prose, pure poetry - to tell the story of bereaved parents setting out to reach their lost children. It begins in a small village, in a kitchen, where a man announces to his wife that he is leaving, embarking on a journey in search of their dead son.The man - called simply the ''Walking Man'' - paces in ever-widening circles around the town. One after another, all manner of townsfolk fall into step with him (the Net Mender, the Midwife, the Elderly Maths Teacher, even the Duke), each enduring his or her own loss. The walkers raise questions of grief and bereavement: Can death be overcome by an intensity of speech or memory? Is it possible, even for a fleeting moment, to call to the dead and free them from their death? Grossman''s answer to such questions is a hymn to these characters, who ultimately find solace and hope in their communal act of breaching death's hermetic separateness. For Trade ReviewGrossman raises questions about the nature of grief and mourning and demonstrates, once again, his rare gift of storytelling, a realm where loss is not merely an absence but a life force of its own. * Jewish Chronicle *A harrowing testimony to grief… It’s a measure of Grossman’s clarity of thought and his theatrical timing that one reaches its end and feels, in some small way, glad to have been in his characters’ company however grim the road they travel. -- Rosemary Goring * Glasgow Sunday Herald *A book that needed to be written. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *On the page the book resembles a play, or a prose poem, possessing at times the qualities of a religious or mystical text... Falling Out of Time is short, and clearly a deeply personal book, but its importance and impact ought not to be underestimated. -- Ian Sansom * Guardian *The greatest Israeli writer of his generation. -- Lucy Daniel * Telegraph *
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Vintage Publishing Some Rain Must Fall
Book SynopsisAn exhilarating story of ambition, joy and failure in early manhood from the international phenomenon, Karl Ove Knausgaard.* Karl Ove Knausgaard''s dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *As the youngest student to be admitted to Bergen''s prestigious Writing Academy, Karl Ove arrives full of excitement and writerly aspirations. Soon though, he is stripped of his youthful illusions. His writing is revealed to be puerile and clichéd, and his social efforts are a dismal failure. He drowns his shame in drink and rock music.Then, little by little, things begin to change. He falls in love, gives up writing and the beginnings of an adult life take shape. That is, until his self-destructive binges and the irresistible lure of the writer''s struggle pull him back.''Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating'' The TimesTrade ReviewBracing, maddening and utterly compelling -- Robert Collins * The Sunday Times *Tremendous, maddening, addictive, gripping * Observer *It is a pen-and-paper virtual reality; after reading it you feel that another past has been downloaded into your mind -- Laurence Scott * Financial Times *Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating * The Times *For Knausgaard's obsessive fans, this cycle is the most exciting literary project of our times... Knausgaard is the most humane writer in the world… He writes beautifully… It is precisely in the commonness of the lovingly recorded details that these books spin their magic -- Daniel Swift * Spectator *Raw, fast, improvisatory, unfettered. It’s addictive high-wire writing in which he unflinchingly reveals everything about himself * Shortlist *[Some Rain Must Fall] is Knausgaard at his best… It’s a rare novelist who writes about student bars and the Happy Mondays at the same time as yearning for spiritual salvation -- Max Liu * Independent *Part of Knausgaard’s appeal is believability: his books may be called novels but we read them as memoirs. The meticulous detail seems to guarantee their authenticity… Childhood, sex, love, art, work and death are there too, writ small from his own perspective, but compellingly observed -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *Reverberates with life’s core questions… In its depiction of the torment of writer’s block and a young adult’s struggle to construct a sense of self, both on and off the page, it is brilliant -- Anita Sethi * Mail on Sunday *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing Ecstasy
Book SynopsisIrvine Welsh was born and raised in Edinburgh. His first novel, Trainspotting, has sold over one million copies in the UK and was adapted into an era-defining film. He has written thirteen further novels, including the number one bestseller Dead Men's Trousers, four books of shorter fiction and numerous plays and screenplays. Crime and The Long Knives have been adapted into a television series starring Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox. Irvine Welsh currently lives between London, Edinburgh and Miami.Trade ReviewA pure writer, producing staggering feats of storytelling... The skill of a master * Independent *Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing to have happened to British writing for decades * Sunday Times *Urgent, violent, bleakly funny prose -- Nick Hornby * Times literary Supplement *Welsh's world is spiky, trashy and brutal. It is also brilliant, hilarious and infused with a kind of punkish morality * Sunday Express *The poet laureate of the chemical generation * Face *
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Vintage Publishing Grimus
Book SynopsisSalman Rushdie is the author of sixteen novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen's last Birthday Honours list in 2022.Trade Review"Thunderous and touching" Financial Times "Engrossing and wonderful" Los Angeles Times "Ambitious, strikingly confident" Times Literary Supplement "Stimulating, funny, a thoroughly good read" Harpers & Queen "A mixture of science fiction and folktale, past and future, primitive and present day... Grimus is a parallel form of life, and conjuring of an alternative society" Financial Times
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Cornerstone Alert
Book Synopsis_______________________Every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality.New York has seen more than its fair share of horrific attacks, but the city is about to be shaken in a way it never has before.Two devastating catastrophes hit in quick succession, putting everyone on edge.
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Vintage Publishing The Past
Book SynopsisRivalry, unruly desire and ugly secrets poison a family holiday in this gripping novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Free Love and Late in the Day.''Few writers give me such consistent pleasure'' Zadie SmithFour siblings meet up in their grandparents'' old house for three long, hot summer weeks. But under the idyllic surface lie shattering tensions.Roland has come with his new wife, and his sisters don''t like her. Fran has brought her children, who soon uncover an ugly secret in a ruined cottage in the woods. Alice has invited Kasim, an outsider, who makes plans to seduce Roland''s teenage daughter. And Harriet, the eldest, finds her quiet self-possession ripped apart when passion erupts unexpectedly. Over the course of the holiday, a familiar way of life falls apart forever.''Exquisite'' The Times''Wonderful'' Guardian''Magnificent'' Sunday TimTrade ReviewOne of the best novels of 2016. -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *I find Tessa Hadley’s work genuinely helpful, especially when it comes to the big subjects: love and marriage, the political versus the personal, children, friendship. And then there are the sentences themselves, so precise and beautiful, often sly, sometimes devastating, always expertly paced. Few writers give me such consistent pleasure. -- Zadie SmithShe has such great psychological insights into human beings, which is rare. She is one of the best fiction writers writing today -- Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieA new Tessa Hadley is a pleasure to be savoured… The Past is a hugely enjoyable and keenly intelligent novel, brimming with the vitality of unruly desire. -- Sameer Rahim, four stars * Daily Telegraph *Hadley is an exquisite writer, with a fine eye for detail and a way of crafting sentences that make you stop and inhale * The Times *Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts. -- Hilary MantelTessa Hadley has become one of this country’s great contemporary novelists. She is equipped with an armoury of techniques and skills that may yet secure her a position as the greatest of them. -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *My favourite contemporary novelist... Nobody explores the mystery of relationships better than Hadley. -- Deborah MoggachA masterful novel * Spectator *Tessa Hadley is funny, precise, sensuous, and one of the best writers of family life that you are ever likely to encounter – simultaneously sympathetic and penetrating * Daily Mail Books of the Year *She deserves all the prizes. Hadley is psychologically acute, drily witty and…absolutely wonderful on place * Observer *Splendid… Hadley’s gift for depicting the interior lives of children and adults rivals Ian McEwan’s * Chicago Tribune *Tessa Hadley excels at presenting the contrasting viewpoints of children, teenagers and adults, and her evocative descriptions of the English countryside are a delight. -- Anthony Gardner * Mail on Sunday *Poetic, tender and full of wry humour. A delight * Sunday Mirror *Tender dissection of a certain sort of English middle-class life is magnificently done: half celebration, half elegy. -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *Tessa Hadley has an exquisite eye for detail. -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping *Full of wonders * Observer *A brilliant British take on two generations of family inhabiting the same house. -- Tim Martin * Daily Telegraph *An astute and finely written novel * Stylist *Exquisite… For anyone who cherishes Anne Tyler and Alice Munro, the book offers similar deep pleasures. Hadley crystallizes the atmosphere of ordinary life in prose somehow miraculous and natural.... Extraordinary * Washington Post *
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Vintage Publishing In a Dark Dark Wood
Book SynopsisNora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back. Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare's hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote cottage - the perfect opportunity for Nora to reconnect with her best friend, to put the past behind her. But something goes wrong. Very wrong.Trade Review"A slickly plotted, whip smart thriller - genuinely chilling and totally compulsive" Sunday Mirror, Book of the Week "[A] chilling psychological thriller...a tense, claustrophobic marriage of secrets, tequila shots and shotguns" Sunday Express "If the premise might be the sort that Agatha Christie would have toyed with had she been a 21st-century graduate, Ware's analysis of the power-games some women revel in - and the toxicity in the undertow of some female friendships - is more reminiscent of Sophie Hannah, Christobel Kent, or even Gillian Flynn and Harriet Lane" -- Patricia Nicol Independent "You won't be able to put down this creepy page-turner" Closer "Thrilling, gripping & well-written" Metro, Book of the Week "Toxic friendships, an isolated house, a dark snowy wood... Everyone's worst nightmare, and the perfect ingredients for this tense, terrifying novel" -- Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go
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Vintage Publishing Sudden Death
Book SynopsisÁlvaro Enrigue (Author) Álvaro Enrigue is a prize-winning Mexican writer whose most recent novel is You Dreamed of Empires. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the London Review of Books, El País, and n+1, among other publications. A former Fellow at the Cullman Center and at Princeton University, he teaches Latin American Literature at Hofstra University and lives with his family in New York City.Natasha Wimmer (Translator) Natasha Wimmer's translations include Álvaro Enrigue's You Dreamed of Empires and Sudden Death and Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and 2666. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.Trade ReviewA complex historical pageant of astonishing richness * Guardian, Best Books of 2016 *Engaging, audacious, and flat-out fun... Sudden Death marks the arrival of a major player on the capital-L courts of literature * Vice *Intellectually formidable… Enrigue is a cerebral and sanguine Spanish-Language postmodernist… It takes literary bravery to be this candid as a writer * New Statesman *Dazzlingly clever and thrillingly original * Mail on Sunday *Exhilarating, funny, and surprisingly sexy... Enrigue turns historical figures into real, flesh-and-blood people and really gets you thinking about art and history: what qualifies as either — and why * Buzzfeed *Brilliant... Enrigue has crafted a tennis allegory for the modern age: a heady, raucous meditation on chaos, power, language and the ways in which history is created and preserved... Enrigue blends historical elements with fantasy to conjure a light, knowing and very funny history in which the present is always lurking beneath the surface... Enrigue's prose is endlessly inventive, full of aphorisms, wry anecdotes and swaggering declarations. * Financial Times *
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Vintage Publishing The Ballad of a Small Player
Book SynopsisSOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM, STARRING COLIN FARELL AND TILDA SWINTONI waited patiently for the next hand to be played out, and I had a feeling it was going to be a Natural, a perfect nine.'His name is Lord Doyle.His plan: to gamble away his last days in the dark and decadent casino halls of Macau.His game: baccarat punto blanco -- ''that slutty dirty queen of casino card games.''Though Doyle is not a Lord at all. He is a fake; a corrupt lawyer who has spent a career siphoning money from rich clients. And now he is on the run, determined to send the money and himself up in smoke.So begins a beguiling, elliptical velvet rope of a plot: a sharp suit, yellow kid gloves, another naughty lemonade and an endless loop of small wins and losses. When Lady Luck arrives in the form of Dao-Ming, a beautiful yet enigmatic lost soul, so begins a spectacular and unnatural winning streak in which millionsTrade ReviewA modern Graham Greene.... into this relatively quiet period for British fiction, someone remarkable and unexpected has emerged fully armed with a formidable, masterly grip on the British novel. At precisely the point where most novelists start to show signs of flagging, Osborne has hit his creative, fictional stride...and has arrived as a thrilling, exceptional talent in British fiction's landscape. -- Robert Collins * Sunday Times *A perfectly written existential thriller, a spooky, gripping, heart-in-your-mouth read that has profound things to say about the only god who rules human affairs – chance. -- Neel Mukherjee * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2014 *Damn. Another writer I have to care about… dark, brilliant and about as ignorable as a switchblade. * New York Times *The Ballad of a Small Player shares the exoticism and East-West disconnect of The Quiet American, the unresolved supernaturalism of The Heart of the Matter and Loser Takes All's bittersweet relationship with the gaming tables. If Osborne's book is a love letter to gambling, it's the kind written at 3am to an indifferent ex after an evening at the bar -- an ode to self-destruction. A brisk, electrifying read... the most ambiguous, and therefore the most enjoyable, kind of ghost story. The Ballad of a Small Player remains elusive, and is all the better for that. -- Adrian Turpin * Literary Review *Hypnotic, razor-sharp in its insights, compelling... in Osborne's hands, the moments of suspense are handled with so much skill that we sometimes read them more as memoir than elements of a thriller. -- Tash Aw * NPR *A searing portrait of addiction and despair set in the glittering world of Macau’s casinos.... the novel’s energetic portrait of the highs and lows of a gambler’s fortunes are as good as anything in the literature of addiction. Osborne’s intriguing Chinese milieu and exquisite prose mark this work as a standout. -- Starred review * Publisher's Weekly *With its ex-pat angst and debauched air of moral ambiguity set amid the sinister demi-monde of the Far East’s corrupt gambling dens, Osborne’s darkly introspective study of decline and decay conjures apt comparisons to Paul Bowles, Graham Greene, and V. S. Naipaul. * Booklist *The beauty of this novel is in the elegance and precision of its prose, which renders the glaring kitsch of Macau into a series of exquisite miniatures, and draws on Osborne's reserves as a travel writer. -- Gerard Woodward * Guardian *Lawrence Osborne’s latest will leave you breathless… [It] will screw up your guts with anxiety, fill you with hope and then kick you hard in the b****cks all in one well-weighted read. No need to gamble -- it's an absolute winner of a book. -- Jon Wise * Weekend Sport *A brisk, electrifying read, as elegant in negotiating the rackety world it depicts as its bow-tied narrator -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Compelling… following Doyle’s drift from card table to hotel to humid streets is immersive and will leave you restless, looking for stamps in your passport… * Emerald Street *A bleak and enjoyable account of someone who, perhaps through unacknowledged guilt, finds bitter solace in losing and in driving himself towards extinction. -- Simon Baker * Spectator *Just as Doyle’s game of choice, Baccarat, urges him to keep turning over one hand after another, Osborne’s sharp, compelling prose is equally addictive – just one more page, one more page -- Jim Dempsey * Bookmunch *Osborne shows an impeccable facility for capturing the sweat-soaked suspense of the high-stakes card table * New Yorker *This is a good, fast read about what it is to win, and what it is to lose -- William Leith * Evening Standard *
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Vintage Publishing Tar Baby
Book SynopsisToni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, in 2012 by Barack Obama. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.Trade ReviewWonderful... A triumph * New York Times *Toni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don’t seem to come close to explaining her * Guardian *Deeply perceptive...Returns risk and mischief to the contemporary American novel * New York Times Book Review *Toni Morrison's writing is a train that knows where it's going, fierce and fast-moving in narrative, lyrically showy in description * Sunday Times *Toni Morrison has made herself into the D. H. Lawrence of the black psyche, transforming individuals into forces, idiosyncrasy into inevitability * New York Times *
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Vintage Publishing Panther In The Basement
Book SynopsisBorn in Jerusalem in 1939, Amos Oz was the internationally acclaimed author of many novels and essay collections, translated into over forty languages, including his brilliant semi-autobiographical work, A Tale of Love and Darkness. His last novel, Judas, was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017 and won the Yasnaya Polyana Foreign Fiction Award. He received several international awards, including the Prix Femina, the Israel Prize, the Goethe Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize and the 2013 Franz Kafka Prize. He died in December 2018.Trade ReviewCountries need writers as their voices of conscience; few have them. Israel has Oz * Washington Post *One of the greatest prose writers in contemporary fiction * The Times *Amos Oz is a great writer because he tells stories about real people in a way that no one else can -- Alan SillitoeHe has that mixture of lyrical intensity, utter seriousness and capacity for describing life in a few words which characterises some of the best Russian authors -- Melvyn BraggThere are times when you are reminded what it means to be in the presence of a genius...with Amos Oz you have to add wisdom and hope too * Scotsman *
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Vintage Publishing Cal
Book SynopsisFor Cal, some choices are devastatingly simple... He can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella. Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story in a land were tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.Trade ReviewSimple humanity, eloquently caught....Though Cal is a bleak novel, there is a flicker of lyricism running through it, like the sun shining through the shattered windows of a ruined church * New York Times *To fashion a short, telling novel out of the hideous complexities of Northern Ireland takes narrative skill of a high order. In Cal Bernard MacLaverty has managed to do it superbly -- Nina BawdenIt performs the remarkable feat of compressing into its short span both a doomed love affair and an account of the impossibility of living, in the circumstances of that doomed province, without redemption and without punishment… MacLaverty has a true feeling for tragedy’ -- Anita Brookner
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Vintage Publishing Karoo
Book SynopsisSteve Tesich wrote many plays and screenplays, including the Academy Award-winning Breaking Away and The World According to Garp. His first novel, Summer Crossing, was published in 1982. He died in 1996 at the age of fifty-three.Trade ReviewKaroo has all the ingredients of a truly great novel. Its plot has the pathos of a Greek tragedy and enough twists and turns to satisfy the most avid Raymond Chandler fan. The characters come alive as soon as they appear on the page. Fantastic * Literary Review *Utterly wonderful... This novel does supremely what novels were invented to do - it confronts the most unbearable sadness with a comic exhilaration that makes you almost pleased that life is tragic -- Howard JacobsonMordantly funny, unexpectedly moving and brutally honest about the business of making movies -- Richard E GrantFascinating. A real satiric invention, loaded with wise outrage -- Arthur MillerTerrific. Nakedly honest, a tour de force of self-destruction. As Saul spirals into free-fall we're with him all the way, because he's so furiously funny -- Deborah Moggach
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Penguin Books Ltd 31 Dream Street
Book SynopsisThe compelling Sunday Times bestseller about two neighbours brought together by fate, from the million-copy bestselling author of The Family Upstairs''Another jewel from Lisa'' HEAT''Perfect to curl up on the sofa on a Sunday and read in one delightful sitting!'' 5***** READER REVIEW''A big warm-hearted book'' MARIE CLAIRE_______For years, Toby has opened his door to the people who needed his help.For years, Leah has been fascinated by the mysterious house across the street and its unusual mix of occupants.They''ve never met - until Toby receives a letter that draws Leah inside.Finally, Leah gets to know the lives of the people she''s wondered about for so long - a group of artists who have each lost their way.When Toby decides he needs to move on with his life, he knows he needs to help his tenants, too.Leah insists on helping his plan to bring them all happinTrade ReviewWinner of the Melissa Nathan Award for Best Comedy Romance * - *A life-affirming tale studded with Jewell's trademark warmth and humour * Red *The kind of modern romance that rainy weekends were made for . . . another jewel from Lisa * Heat *Another gem from the modern-classic queen * Company *A great one to read while you're curled up in your duvet * Cosmopolitan *A big warm-hearted book * Marie Claire *Could this be her best yet? We think so * Eve *Praise for Lisa Jewell * - *Addictively readable * The Times *Terrific * Sunday Times *A joy . . . a fun summer read * Guardian *The best romantic comedy we've read in ages * Company *Tackles serious issues with humour - proving that chick-lit can be intelligent, interesting and huge fun * Sunday Express *A triumph * Hello *Top marks. Fantastic * Heat *Lovely * Daily Telegraph *Moving and intelligent * Independent *Magnetic, unpretentious and bursting with one-liners * Cosmopolitan *Jewell's readability and emotional intelligence make her the cream of pop fiction * Glamour *Fans of chick-lit will understand when I say that this is a book you simply disappear into * Sunday Telegraph *
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Penguin Books Ltd The Jane Austen Book Club
Book SynopsisA moving, wise and delightfully modern comedy of manners from the bestselling, Man Booker shortlisted author Karen Joy Fowler.Six people - five women and a man - meet once a month in California''s Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen''s novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them is wounded in different ways, they are all mixed up about their lives and relationships. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable - under the guiding eye of Jane Austen a couple of them even fall in love...''If I could eat this novel, I would'' Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones''A thoroughly delightful comedy of contemporary manners'' Entertainment Weekly''We defy you not to fall head over heels for this lovely novel'' Mail On Sunday
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Penguin Books Ltd Swing Time
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSatisfying and thoughtful * Daily Telegraph *Publisher's description. Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is Zadie Smith's most ambitious novel yet: a story about friendship and music and true identity, how they shape us and how we can survive them. Moving from north-west London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time. * Penguin *Endlessly satisfying... [Zadie Smith] has never written better. Pitch-perfect, masterful and sophisticated * Telegraph *Zadie Smith is the best writer of our generation, and Swing Time is her best book to date. As the title promises, the novel swings and pulsates with life, filled with emotion, excited by intellect and haunted by sadness. What a miracle that literature can still do things other forms of art cannot. What a miracle that Zadie Smith is among us, writing. -- Gary ShteyngartClever, funny, confident and kind. Her gift for language is a pleasure and her character shines through * Evening Standard *[Smith] packs more intelligence, humour and sheer energy into any given scene than anyone else of her generation * Sunday Telegraph *Zadie Smith's finest novel. Extraordinary, virtuosic... [It] does what only literature can and what only great literature will: forces us to assess the very vocabulary with which we speak of human experience * Observer *Zadie Smith at her finest... [An] unflinching portrait of friendship... [A] triumph * Guardian *Ingenious, inspired... Zadie Smith's new novel is very good indeed * Sunday Times *Shrewd observation and sly satire, profundity and genuine purpose, as well as some of the most heart-stoppingly lyrical writing of her career * Scotland on Sunday *A powerful story of lives marred by secrets, unfulfilled potential, the unjustness of the world...and the dances people do to rise above it all * Economist *A sweeping meditation on race and identity... [Smith's] most ambitious work yet * Esquire *A nuanced, richly rewarding tale * Mail on Sunday *
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Penguin Books Ltd Two Lives
Book SynopsisPortrays two women with distinct backgrounds in two novels--Reading Turgenev and My house in Umbria--that describe how the imagination and the written word can comfort people in desperate hoursTrade ReviewAs rich and moving as anything I have read in years. When I reached the end of both of these marvellous novels, I wanted to start right again at the beginning * Guardian *These novels will endure. And in every beautiful sentence there is not a word out of place -- Anita Brookner * Spectator *Inquisitive and loving. Trevor's is among the most subtle and sophisticated fiction being written today * New York Review of Books *A writer at the peak of his powers; it reminds you what good reading is all about * Chicago Sun Times *Reading Turgenev is one of the most beautiful and memorable things he has written. It stays in your memory -like Turgenev * Independent on Sunday *He writes like an angel, but is determined to wring your heart. Trevor at his most evocative and haunting * Daily Mail *
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Penguin Books Ltd At Swimtwobirds
Book SynopsisFlann O''Brien''s innovative metafictional work, whose unruly characters strike out their own paths in life to the frustration of their author, At Swim-Two-Birds is a brilliant impressionistic jumble of ideas, mythology and nonsense published in Penguin Modern Classics.Flann O''Brien''s first novel tells the story of a young, indolent undergraduate, who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dubin and spends far too much time drinking with his friends. When not drunk or in bed he likes to invent wild stories peoples with hilarious and unlikely characters - but somehow his creations won''t do what he wants them to. A dazzling work of farce, satire, folklore and absurdity that gives full rein to its author''s dancing intellect and Celtic wit, At Swim-Two-Birds is both a brilliant comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, and a portrayal of Dublin to compare with Joyce''s Ulysses.Brian Ó Nualláin, (1911-1966), better known by his pseudonym Flann O''Brien, was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, and studied at University College Dublin before joining the Irish Civil Service. Ifyou enjoyed At Swim-Two-Birds, you might like Vladimir Nabokov''s Pale Fire, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.''This is just the book to give your sister if she''s a loud, dirty, boozy girl''Dylan Thomas''That''s a real writer, with the true comic spirit''James Joyce, author of Ulysses''A brilliant, beer-soaked miniature masterpiece''Time
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Penguin Books Ltd A Handful of Dust
Book SynopsisEvelyn Waugh''s celebrated tale of decadence and social disintegration, with an introduction by Philip EadeAfter seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. Brilliantly combining tragedy, comedy and savage irony, A Handful of Dust captures the irresponsible mood of the ''crazy and sterile generation'' between the wars. This breakdown of the Last marriage is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh''s own divorce, and a symbol of the disintegration of society.''One of the twentieth century''s most chilling and bitter novels; and one of its best''Nicholas Lezard, Guardian''One of the most distinguished novels of the century''Frank Kermode''This is a masterpiece of stylish satire, and is funny, too ... a marvello
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Penguin Books Ltd Typhoon and Other Stories
Book SynopsisContains four stories, written between 1900 and 1902. One of them reveals the differences between instinct and intelligence in a partnership vital to human survival; and the other contains 'land-stories' that explore the utter isolation of an East European emigrant in England and in the other, the plight of a woman.Trade Review“My own conviction, sweeping all those reaches of living fiction I know, is that Conrad’s figure stands out from the field like the Alps from the Piedmont plain.” —H. L. Mencken
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
Book SynopsisRyünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan's foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. Rashömon' and In a Bamboo Grove' inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as The Nose', O-Gin' and Loyalty' paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as Death Register', The Life of a Stupid Man' and Spinning Gears', Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Haunting of Hill House
Book SynopsisA stunningly creepy deluxe hardcover edition with spot gloss, black sprayed edges, black-stained pages, and black endpapers.Part of a six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by Academy Award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro. Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro?s favorites, from Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein and Ray Russell?s short story ?Sardonicus,? considered by Stephen King to be ?perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written,? to Shirley Jackson?s The Haunting of Hill House and stories by Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Ted Klein, and Robert E. Howard. Featuring original cover art by Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, these stunningly creepy deluxe hardcovers will be perfect additions to the shelves of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal aficionados everywhere.The Haunting of Hill HouseThe classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre. First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson''s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a ?haunting;'' Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers?and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.Trade ReviewPraise for Penguin Horror Classics:“The new Penguin Horror editions, selected by Guillermo del Toro, feature some of the best art-direction (by Paul Buckley) I've seen in a cover in quite some time.” – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing"Each cover does a pretty spectacular job of evoking the mood of the title in bold, screenprint-style iconography." – Dan Solomon, Fast Company
£18.69
Oxford University Press Mrs Dalloway ne Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis''Fear no more the heat of the sun.'' Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf''s fourth novel, offers the reader an impression of a single June day in London in 1923. Clarissa Dalloway, the wife of a Conservative member of parliament, is preparing to give an evening party, while the shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith hears the birds in Regent''s Park chattering in Greek. There seems to be nothing, except perhaps London, to link Clarissa and Septimus. She is middle-aged and prosperous, with a sheltered happy life behind her; Smith is young, poor, and driven to hatred of himself and the whole human race. Yet both share a terror of existence, and sense the pull of death. The world of Mrs Dalloway is evoked in Woolf''s famous stream of consciousness style, in a lyrical and haunting language which has made this, from its publication in 1925, one of her most popular novels. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the Trade ReviewVirginia Woolf's writing takes considered reading but the reader is richly rewarded, the prose is wonderfully lyrical and she explores her characters brilliantly. * Heavenali Blog *
£9.93
Oxford University Press BETWEEN THE ACTS REISSUE OWC PB
Book SynopsisBetween the Acts is Virginia Woolf''s last novel, and in her own opinion it was `more quintessential'' than any of her others. Set in the summer of 1939 on the day of the annual village pageant at Pointz Hall, the book weaves together the musings of several disparate characters and their reactions to the imminence of a war which is to change the pattern of history. Before the book was published in the spring of 1941, Virginia Woolf had taken her own life. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade Review'Together these ten volumes make an attractive and reasonably priced (the volumes vary between £3.99 and £4.99) working edition of Virginia Woolf's best-known writing. One can only hope that their success will prompt World's Classics to add her other essays to the series in due course.' Elisabeth Jay, Westminster College, Oxford, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLV, No. 178, May '94
£7.59
Oxford University Press Cousin Bette Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisTrade Review'Appended to the text is a summary of its financial plots, the complications of which appear even more marvellous when extrapolated in this way. This is an introduction which is consistently enthusiastic about the complexity of a novel which, 'in its rich ambiguity, allows every reader to explore his or how own imagination of what life is really like'.' Robert Lethbridge, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, French Studies, Vol. 47, Part 3'Three Classic tales of sexual passion, perversion, and corruption have been added to the rapidly increasing World's Classics collection, whose repertoire of nineteenth-century French novels is now impressive. The price and format of these volumes make them an obvious choice for the reader approaching them in translation, the more so since each is accompanied by a helpful general introduction ... the reader is likely to get better vaqlue here than from other translation currently in print.' Timothy Unwin, University of Western Australia, MLR, 89./2, 1994'... translated here into lucid, straightforward, easily readable contemporary English.' Forum for Modern Language Studies Vol. XXX
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of English Short Stories
Book SynopsisThe Oxford Book of English Short Stories , edited by A. S. Byatt, herself the author of several collections of short stories, is the first anthology to specifically take the English short story as its theme. The 37 stories featured here are selected from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ranging from Dickens, Trollope, and Hardy to J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, and Ian McEwan, though many draw ingeniously from the richness of earlier English literary writing.There are all sorts of threads of connection and contrast running through these stories. Their subjects vary from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the momentous to the trivial, from the grim to the farcical. There is English empiricism, English pragmatism, English starkness, English humour, English satire, English dandyism, English horror, and English whimsy. There are examples of social realism, from rural poverty to blitzed London; ghost stories and tales of the supernatural; surreal fantasy and science fiction. There arTable of ContentsIntroduction ; The Sacristan of St Botolph ; The Haunted House ; Relics of General Chasse, A Tale of Antwerp ; A Mere Interlude ; Little Brother ; Two Doctors ; Behind the Shade ; Wireless ; Under the Knife ; A White Night ; The Toys of Peace ; The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown ; Some Talk of Alexander ; The Reverent Wooing of Archibald ; Solid Objects ; The Man who Loved Islands ; A Tragedy in Green ; A Widow's Quilt ; Nuns at Luncheon ; Landlord of the Crystal Fountain ; On the Edge of the Cliff ; A Dream of Winter ; An Englishman's Home ; The Destructors ; The Waterfall ; The Troll ; The Blush ; At Hiruharama ; My Flannel Knickers ; Enoch's Two Letters ; Dream Cargoes ; Telephone ; My Story ; The Kiss ; The Beauty of the Dawn Shift ; Solid Geometry ; Dead Languages
£11.39
Penguin Books Ltd How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia
Book SynopsisA sharp, fresh satire for the ruthless modern world - for fans of Dave Eggers, Ben Lerner and Gary Shtenygart''Mohsin Hamid is one of the best writers in the world, period. Only a master could have written this propulsive tale of a striver living on the knife''s edge, a noir Horatio Alger story for our frenetic, violent times'' Ben FountainThis book is a self-help book. Its objective, as it says on the cover, is to show you how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. And to do that it has to find you, huddled, shivering, on the packed earth under your mother''s cot one cold, dewy morning. Your anguish is the anguish of a boy whose chocolate has been thrown away, whose remote controls are out of batteries, whose scooter is busted, whose new sneakers have been stolen. This is all the more remarkable since you''ve never in your life seen any of these things . . .''Even more intriguing, compelling and moving than The Reluctant Fundamentalist. A marvelTrade ReviewDazzling, addictive, tremendous. A writer at the height of his powers with a hell of a story to tell * Guardian *Beautifully conceived and exquisitely executed * Sunday Times *The new voice of a changing continent. A writer at the top of his game * Metro *No story could be more of our time than this one. Conceptually brilliant and truly empathic -- Nell Freudenberger * Metro *An ultra-intelligent and knowing account of life in the developing world. Simply brilliant * Daily Mail *Isn't this the definition of great fiction, that even when it begins with a character . . . who's nothing like you, by the end you are convinced that it really is about you? That's a kind of miracle * Salon *Even more intriguing, compelling and moving than The Reluctant Fundamentalist. A marvellous book * Philip Pullman *A dazzling stylistic tour de force; a love story disguised as a self help parody freighted with sly social satire. As timely and timeless a novel as I've read in years -- Jay McInerney
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Catcher in the Rye
Book Synopsis''If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you''ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don''t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.''The first of J. D. Salinger''s four books to be published, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most widely read and beloved of all contemporary American novels.''The handbook of the adolescent heart'' The New YorkerTrade ReviewI liked it very much indeed, more than anything for a long time. -- Samuel Beckett
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Sushi for Beginners
Book Synopsis*** CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS AUTHOR OF THE YEAR 2022***Dive into the blissfully funny No. 1 bestseller about three women who find themselves criss-crossing the line between success and failure, happiness and sadness, sanity and madness, from the No. 1 bestselling author of Grown Ups''Totally addictive . . . a real page turner'' SUNDAY EXPRESS''Brilliantly written and fabulously well-observed'' INDEPENDENT___________''Dammit,'' she realized. ''I think I''m having a nervous breakdown.''Lisa Edwards'' career as a hot-shot magazine editor is destined for high-rise New York, when suddenly she''s blown off-course into the delights of low-rise Dublin. But what on earth can she do about it?Ashling Kennedy, Lisa''s super-organized assistant, is good at worrying. Too good. She''s even terrified of a little bit of raw fish . . .Clodagh Kelly is AshTrade ReviewMarian Keyes' Sushi for Beginners is the blissfully funny, smart tale of three women who discover that the line between success and failure, happiness and sadness, sanity and madness is finer than they ever thought . . . 'Dammit,' she realized. 'I think I'm having a nervous breakdown.' * from the publisher's description *Classic Keyes. Constantly surprising, gloriously entertaining, and has a dark underbite that makes it irresistible * The Pool *Nails the joy and pain of the working world . . . a brilliantly written and fabulously well-observed romantic comedy * Independent *Should come with a health warning. It's totally addictive . . . a real page turner * Sunday Express *Chatty and warmhearted, Keyes's talent is to tell it how it is * Independent *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton A Son of War
Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Booker Prize After the upheavals of the Second World War, the Richardson family - Sam, Ellen and their young son Joe - settle back to working-class life in the Cumbrian town of Wigton. Yet for them, as for so many, life will never be the same again. As the old order begins to be challenged and new vistas open, Sam and Ellen forge their future together with differing needs and desires - and conflicting expectations of Joe, who grows up with his own demons to confront.Trade Review[A] deeply humane and acutely truthful novel * Peter Kemp, Sunday Times *A compelling sequel to his award-winning tour de force, THE SOLDIER'S RETURN * Frank Egerton, Financial Times *Full of a simple poetry that is deeply evocative . . . even better than THE SOLDIER'S RETURN * Carol Birch, Independent *A novel of remarkable power and grace . . . his authenticity is astounding * Roy Hattersley, The Times *Shot through with blazing integrity and authenticity * Val Hennessy, Daily Mail *
£10.44
Hodder & Stoughton Long Summer Day
Book Synopsis'He built an imposing artistic social history that promises to join those of his great forebears in the long, noble line of the English novel. His narratives belong in a tradition that goes back to John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett' Life MagazineTrade ReviewMr Delderfield's manner is easy, modest, heartwarming * Evening Standard *R F Delderfield is a born storyteller * Sunday Mirror *'It is always a pleasure to read R F Delderfield, because he never seems to be ashamed of writing well' * Books and Bookmen *Highly recommended. Combines tension with a splendid sense of atmosphere and vivid characterisation. An excellent read * Sunday Express *He built an imposing artistic social history that promises to join those of his great forebears in the long, noble line of the English novel. His narratives belong in a tradition that goes back to John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett * Life Magazine *Sheer, wonderful storytelling * Chicago Tribune *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton The Point of Rescue
Book SynopsisAgatha Christie fans will love Queen of Crime Sophie Hannah''s third stunning psychological suspense novel. Also perfect for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Paula Hawkins.''Addictive'' Marie Claire''Irresistible'' GuardianIt began with an affair. And ended in murder.Sally is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she ought not to recognise: Mark Bretherick. Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was cancelled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from her busy life juggling work and a young family, Sally didn''t tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she booked a week off work and treated herself to a secret holiday. All she wanted was a bit of peace - some time to herself - but it didn''t work out that way. Because Sally met a man. Mark Bretherick. All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the man on Trade ReviewFor those who demand emotional intelligence and literary verve from their thrillers, Sophie Hannah is the writer of choice. THE POINT OF RESCUE, her third, combines a creepily irresistible page-turner with an exploration of motherhood's taboos * Guardian *Tension, thy name is Sophie Hannah. In THE POINT OF RESCUE, murder, false identity and infidelity are thet tools Hannah deploys to create a plausible but edge-of-your-seat read * Independent *The tension is screwed ever tighter until the final shocking outcome * Daily Express *Hannah doesn't allow the tension to slacken for a second in this addictive, brilliantly chilling thriller. * Book of the Month, Marie Claire *Sophie Hannah just gets better and better, with experience adding rocket fuel to her already high-octane yarns . . . Brilliantly cunning and entirely unpredictable * Guardian *Sophie Hannah's ingenious, almost surreal mysteries are so intricately constructed that it's impossible to guess how they will end . . . A compelling and disquieting story, told with the author's usual panache * Sunday Telegraph *Every so often a writer comes along whose freshness and originality blows the competition out of the water...Genuinely gripping, full of the unseen and yet fitting twists and turns that make good quality crime fiction such a pleasure * Yorkshire Post *Brilliantly creepy * Red Magazine *I'm surprised I had any nails left by the end of this addictive thriller * Eve *This disturbing tale is a cut above the average crime thriller, with an intelligent and inventive plot that raises questions about identity, guilt and the taboo of unfulfilling motherhood * Psychologies *A great read and an involving thriller * She *Hannah is an expert in creepy scenarios and plot twists that keep you guessing until the last page. The tension doesn't slacken for a second * Grazia *Hannah has established herself as a writer of offbeat thrillers that skillfully play on contemporary anxieties about motherhood and marriage. What keeps one reading is the creepy plausibility the author brings to her portrayal of a mind unhinged by the demands of parenthood * The Times *Hannah constructs a thriller that twists and turns satisfyingly through a series of ever-more surprising revelations * The Sunday Times *Statistics show that more and more women are committing acts of "family annihilation". In THE POINT OF RESCUE Sophie Hannah tackles this distressing subject with sensitivity, while spinning a cracking story * Daily Telegraph *
£8.54
Hodder & Stoughton Indemnity Only
Book SynopsisThe stunning first novel in the V.I. Warshawski series, introducing one of the world's best-loved private investigators.Trade ReviewHow enjoyable to settle down with a new book by Sara Paretsky. * Sunday Telegraph *With the creation of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky did more than anyone to change the face of contemporary women's fiction. * Express on Sunday *Warshawski's darkest outing, with no sign that her creator is flagging. Paretsky has written a novel in which a great deal is stripped bare, including Warshawski's innermost anxieties about herself, producing a narrative as gripping as it is emotionally wrenching. * JOAN SMITH, Sunday Times *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton Garden Spells
Book SynopsisWelcome to Bascom, North Carolina, where it seems that everyone has a story to tell about the Waverley women. The house that''s been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumours of dangerous loves and tragic passions. Every Waverley woman is somehow touched by magic.Claire has always clung to the Waverleys'' roots, tending the enchanted soil in the family garden from which she makes her sought-after delicacies - famed and feared for their curious effects. She has everything she thinks she needs - until one day she waked to find a stranger has moved in next door and a vine of ivy has crept into her garden . . . Claire''s carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control.Trade Reviewmesmirising * Choice magazine *'An unusual but mesmirising read' * Choice *A lovely tale of desire and gastronomy * Irish Tatler *'Definitely one to put in your suitcase this summer - a warm, sunny holiday read.' * newbooks magazine *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton The Missing
Book SynopsisAn enthralling tale of abduction, guilt and redemption set in Jazz Age Louisiana, unanimously acclaimed by the critics.Trade Review'Remarkable...a rip-roaring adventure novel with a true depth of feeling' * Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times *A beautifully written, enthralling saga . . . a compelling novel * James Urquhart, Independent *Gautreaux writes action-packed novels that stand out for the extraordinary calibre of their prose * Andrew Rosenheim, The Times *Has the impact of a book twice its length . . . a dramatic, theatrical meditation on law and lawlessness * Alan Warner, Guardian *Tim Gautreaux's redemptive novel is a joy to read * Barclay McBain, Herald *Gautreaux brings a long-gone era to life in lush, fresh detail . . . this novel about the intricacies of the human heart has a great, beating one of its own. Life may be harsh and fleeting, but the missing are still missed. * Heather Thompson, Sunday Telegraph *Tim Gautreaux has managed to write a fine novel about a child's abduction without making it too upsetting. This isn't to say that the book is lightweight; nor does it duck the fear and trauma of the events it narrates. It has all the insight and metaphors you could wish for, but you end up zipping through it . . . impressively thrilling, and pleasingly complete * Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph *Gautreaux writes with sustained grace and creates memorable characters . . . What really sets THE MISSING apart, though, is his remarkable ability to realise the period . . . a rare and rather uncanny achievement: a novel about the South in the early Twenties that reads as though it was actually written there and then * John Dugdale, Literary Review *Full of vivid evocations of the sights, sounds and smells of the South. As Simoneaux pursues his morally driven detective mission the scent of the steaming mud of the cypress swamps and the sound of 1920s New Orleans jazz rise off the page * Claire Prentice, Scotsman *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Mendels Dwarf
Book SynopsisLike his great-great-great uncle, the early geneticist Gregor Mendel, Dr Benedict Lambert is struggling to unlock the secrets of heredity. But for Benedict the mission is particularly urgent and personal, for his is afflicted by achondroplasia. He is a dwarf. When a chance meeting leads him to the acceptance that he craves, he begins a journey towards correcting the injustice of his own capricious genes, with devastating consequences.As intelligent as it is entertaining, this witty novel is a gripping tale of scientific intrigue and moral uncertainty.Trade ReviewThis is a rare read: a scientifically informed, passionately intelligent novel which is also deeply moving * Telegraph *A serious novel shot through with laugher, it is also a love story . . . Impressive * The Times *Dark, funny and bitter . . . the ethical dilemmas of modern genetic research in a love story that lurches from sharp humour to jaw-dropping sadness . . . Marvellous * Independent *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Girl Who Fell From The Sky
Book SynopsisAn ''utterly gripping'' tale of love and espionage in Occupied France by the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Glass Room (Daily Mail)Marian Sutro is an outsider: the daughter of a diplomat, brought up on the shores of Lake Geneva and in England, half French, half British, naive yet too clever for her own good. But when she is recruited from her desk job by SOE, the Special Operations Executive, to go undercover in wartime France, it seems her hybrid status - and fluent French - will be of service to a greater, more dangerous cause.Trained in sabotage, dead-drops, how to perform under interrogation and how to kill, Marian parachutes into south-west France, her official mission to act as a Resistance courier. But her real destination is Paris, where she must seek out family friend Clément Pelletier, once the focus of her adolescent desires. A nuclear physicist engaged in the race for a new and terrifying weapon, he is of urgent significanTrade ReviewI read late into the night and cried a little when I was done. Mawer's set pieces are so beautiful you want to read them two or three times over. He writes about fear and about bravery better than any contemporary novelist I know * Observer - Rachel Cooke *Combines a stirring adventure with a potent reflection on the allure of desire, duty and danger * Evening Standard *Such rewarding reading . . . Mawer is a genuinely great contemporary writer * Financial Times - Simon Schama *Where his last Booker-shortlisted novel, The Glass Room, gave an expansive overview of a whole country over the course of 50 years, Mawer's latest is a more intense and tightly-focused story. Radiating an atmosphere of tense suspicion and claustrophobia, it is utterly gripping from start to finish * Daily Mail *Masterly . . . A tour de force that grips and never lets go * Mail on Sunday - Max Davidson *There are many shades of Graham Greene here...delivers its story with the same delicate, stropped-razor deadliness that creeps up on you like Harry Lime in the shadows, nastily irresistible * Financial Times *If you only read one book this year, read this one * Scotsman - Allan Massie *[A] skillfully and intelligently executed thriller * Washington Post *Incorporating many of the finest elements of spy thrillers... a fascinating tale of and homage to the resistance fighters and members of the SOE * New York Journal of Book *Full of the fascinating minutiae of espionage - aircraft drops, code-cracking, double agents, scrambled radio messages...Mawer exhibits a great feeling for suspence, and produces memorable episodes in dark alleyways, deserted cafes, and shadowy corners of Père Lachaise * The New Yorker *A smart, well-paced spy thriller based on the true, extraordinary story of the SOE recruiting French-speaking British women during World War II to go undercover. Marian's journey from a young naïve school-girl to a cunning spy is well-developed and realistic, making her a memorable heroine * An Amazon.com Best Book of the Month *A fascinating WWII novel based in fact...Coming-of-age story meets old-fashioned tale of adventure * Publishers Weekly *Much-lauded British author Mawer vividly describes the deprivations in a war occupied country and its once-vibrant capital and provides testimony to the courage of countless members of the French Resistance. But this is primarily a masterfully crafted homage to the 53 extraordinary women of the French section of the SOE on whose actual exploits the novel is based. With its lyrical yet spare prose and heart-pounding climax, this is a compelling historical thriller of the highest order * Booklist, starred review *Masterly . . . A tour de force that grips and never lets go -- Max Davidson * Mail on Sunday *I read late into the night and cried a little when I was done. Mawer's set pieces are so beautiful you want to read them two or three times over. He writes about fear and about bravery better than any contemporary novelist I know -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Such rewarding reading . . . Mawer is a genuinely great contemporary writer -- Simon Schama * Financial Times *If you only read one book this year, read this one -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *
£8.99
Little, Brown Book Group Heat And Dust
Book SynopsisThe beautiful, spoiled and bored Olivia, married to a civil servant, outrages society in the tiny, suffocating town of Satipur by eloping with an Indian prince. Fifty years later, her step-granddaughter goes back to the heat, the dust and the squalor of the bazaars to solve the enigma of Olivia''s scandal.''A superb book. A complex story line, handled with dazzling assurance . . . moving and profound. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has not only written a love story, she has also exposed the soul and nerve ends of a fascinating and compelling country. This is a book of cool, controlled brilliance. It is a jewel to be treasured'' THE TIMES
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group This Sweet Sickness A Virago Modern Classic
Book SynopsisBY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN ''The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer'' THE TIMES'' I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is'' GILLIAN FLYNN ''Highsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes'' J. G. BALLARD, DAILY TELEGRAPHDavid Kelsey has an invincible conviction that life is going to work out just as he has planned it - if he can just fix ''the situation''. His one true love, the brilliant, beautiful Annabelle, has married another man. But that doesn''t mean they can''t still be friends. And even though she is pregnant with her husband Gerald''s baby, that surely doesn''t mean she won''t one day get back together with David. She still loves him, of that he is certain. David is sure she''ll take him back, and, under an alias, is setting up a wonderful home for the two of them in a town close by. Trade ReviewThe No.1 Greatest Crime Writer * The Times *Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense -- Mark BillinghamHighsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes, and didn't seem to mind if everyone knew it -- J. G. Ballard * Daily Telegraph *No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying * Vogue *I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is -- Gillian FlynnFor eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith * Time *Terrific book, very wry humour, and a great unreliable narrator -- Sarah HilaryA writer who has created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger . . . Miss Highsmith is the poet of apprehension -- Graham GreeneA cracker . . . a compellingly creepy novel that foreshadowed much of what Highsmith would explore in The Talented Mr Ripley * Sydney Morning Herald *A writer who has created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger . . . Miss Highsmith is the poet of apprehension -- Graham GreeneHighsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense -- Mark Billingham'Highsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes, and didn't seem to mind if everyone knew it' -- J. G. Ballard * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Owls Do Cry
Book Synopsis''Owls Do Cry remains innovative and relevant'' GUARDIAN ''Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious'' HILARY MANTEL''Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart '' JANE CAMPIONOwls Do Cry is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich, poetic imagination condemns her to a life in institutions.It is one of the classics of New Zealand literature and has remained in print continuously for fifty years. A fiftieth anniversary edition was published in 2007.Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame''s first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography:''Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a chilTrade ReviewJanet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious because they were snatched from the jaws of the disaster of her early lifeOwls Do Cry remains innovative and relevant; Frame's idiosyncratic and startlingly visual style means that the book's immense power to unnerve, astonish and impress endures * Guardian *This is the era that saw the emergence of novelists including Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch, and Frame's place alongside them would be assured if she never published anything but this one novel * Independent on Sunday *Owls Do Cry is a devastating reflection on the character of conventional society and the dangers that await those who reject its narrowness - and as such, is profoundly chilling. It is also a vivid social document, capturing the language and texture of the postwar period * Irish Times *Janet Frame's first novel, Owls Do Cry, created a sensation in New Zealand when it was published in 1957 . . . Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart . . . Frame gave Daphne this inner world of gorgeously imagined riches, but also affirmed it in me, and in countless other sensitive teenage girls: we had been given a voice - poetic, powerful and fated.Frame's tormented personal story was reflected in much of her fiction, which centered on the inadequacy of language to convey emotions * Los Angeles Times *An unforgettable and startlingly original work, a true and timeless classic of enduring power -- Margaret DrabbleJanet Frame is the greatest New Zealand writer. She is utterly herself. Any one of her books could be published today and it would be ground-breaking -- Eleanor Catton
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Strangers on a Train
Book SynopsisFrom the ground-breaking noir fiction writer Patricia Highsmith comes her propulsive, engrossing debut, Strangers on a Train. The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1951 film.Trade ReviewTo call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability * Sunday Times *Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense -- Mark BillinghamThe No.1 Greatest Crime Writer . . . A true original in crime fiction and a superb writer * The Times *One closes most of her books with a feeling that the world is more dangerous than one had ever imagined * New York Times Book Review *Her novels, with their mysterious non sequiturs, weird pairings and attractions and moments of stifled comedy, have an unearthly sheen all their own . . . Highsmith was a genuine one-off, and her books will haunt you * Daily Telegraph *I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is -- Gillian FlynnTwo women become entangled in a gothic exit strategy from unhappy marriages * Financial Times *The sphere of suspense for the story of a strange, parasitic attachment and the unbelievable events which follow * Kirkus Reviews *A gem . . . A magnificent suspense * Daily Mail *A tightly-plotted psychological thriller that serves as a masterclass in how it's doneA writer who created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger -- Graham GreeneA tightly-plotted psychological thriller that serves as a masterclass in how it's done -- S. J. Watson
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Betty Blue
Book SynopsisThey were predicting storms for the end of the day but the sky stayed blue and the wind died down. I went to take a look in the kitchen - make sure things weren''t getting clogged up in the bottom of the pot. Everything was just fine. I went out onto the porch armed with a cold beer and stayed there for a while, my face in the sun. It felt good. It had been a week now that I''d been spending my mornings in the sun, squinting like some happy idiot - a week now since I''d met Betty.''BETTY BLUE remains a cult book and film nearly twenty years since its first outing. The extraordinary story of an erotic, doomed love affair has transfixed hundreds of thousands of readers around the world.Trade ReviewA brilliant, painful account of a doomed love affair. While the storm clouds are gathering, the teller of the story belives the picnic is forever. * Carlo Gebler *A story of love found and thwarted that also becomes a remarkable journey backward: from modernist narrative resignation and ennui into full-fledged emotional engagement, complicaiton, deepening of character and resolution... * Kirkus Reviews *Djian is a major writer. A page of his prose reads like nothing else, except perhaps another page of his. His writing is the real thing. * Le Monde *An atmosphere reminiscent of, by turns, Diva and Paris, Texas... Dijan's books soar above those of his contemporaries. * Paris Match *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group The Queen Of The Tambourine
Book SynopsisA wonderful bittersweet story about a misguided do-gooder.Trade Review** 'Brilliant' SUNDAY TIMES ** 'Marvellously subtle and moving' THE TIMES ** 'An ingenious, funny, satirical, sad story...Vivid and poignant' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ** 'Excellently done ... manic delusions were never so persuasive ... very moving when it is not being exceedingly funny' ANITA BROOKNER ** 'Wickedly comic ... masterly and hugely enjoyable' DAILY MAIL
£9.49
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group The Familiar Volume 3
Book SynopsisThe Familiar Volume 1 Wherein the cat is found . . . The Familiar Volume 2 Wherein the cat is hungry . . .The Familiar Volume 3 Wherein the cat is blind . . .Released for the summer from the perils of school, Xanther and her nameless cat are settling into a comfortable routine at home. However, the rest of the Ibrahim family is growing more and more unsettled. Astair fears their stretched finances are already at a breaking point. Not even a visit from an old friend can mitigate Anwar’s feeling that he’s failing to support those he loves and that even worse things are to come. The twins, Freya and Shasti, sense something too and blame their older sister. Honeysuckles haunt the air and smell of offerings . . . Meanwhile, Cas and Bobby’s survival may depend on facing the one person they fear most. And on the other side of t
£19.80
Methuen Publishing Ltd Jesus Son
Book SynopsisA collection of linked stories narrated by a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict, Jesus' Son is a disturbing portrayal of loneliness and hope. He travels through an American underworld of burnt-out sports stars, hospital waiting rooms, doomed relationships and senseless violence.
£8.99
Cornerstone The Dirk Gently Omnibus
Book SynopsisTwo quirky detective stories from Britain''s best sci-fi writer and author of The Hitch Hiker''s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams.Dirk Gently is a detective - well, a sort of detective. There is a long and honourable tradition of great detectives and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. Dirk Gently calls himself a ''holistic detective'' and above all, he believes in ''the interconnectedness of all things''. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Dirk Gently, however, does not like to eliminate the impossible. In Dirk Gently''s Holistic Detective Agency a simple search for a missing cat reveals two ghosts, a dodo, an Electric Monk, the devastating secret that lies behind the whole of human history and threatens to bring it to a premature close, and, finally, the utterly terrifying reason why Richard MacDuff has had a sofa stuck on his stairs for three weeks.
£18.00
