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 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.
Book SynopsisThe revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times
£10.04
Book SynopsisIn this New York Times and USA Today bestselling sensation that enraptured readers everywhere, a women hiding from her past has all of her secrets laid bare. Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover, Samantha Young''s blockbuster New Adult series is riveting and sexy!Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he''s determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. He knows she has a past, one that has made her skittish about getting into a relationship, so he proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached. But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, Braden decides he won''t be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her...down to the very soul.
£9.89
Book SynopsisFrom legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize.Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Now an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Denzel Washington, along with Academy Awa
£12.00
Book SynopsisJonathan and Drew Scott have taken HGTV by storm with their four hit shows, Property Brothers, Property Brothers at Home, Buying & Selling, and Brother vs. Brother and My Dream Home.Trade Review “It’s about time these guys published a book! In Dream Home, Drew and Jonathan Scott prove to be an authority on all things related to the home space. It’s very informative, easy to navigate, and answers all the questions for those looking to fix or find their perfect home. Drew and Jonathan’s personalities shine throughout, giving the guide a fun energy while also providing relatable advice and solutions for the homeowner.” —Rachael Ray, American television personality, businesswoman, celebrity cook, and author “Jonathan and Drew have cornered the ‘market’ on dreams: dreamboats, the dream team, and now Dream Home. It’s what we all wish for, and the brothers show us how to achieve it, mixing professional advice with inspiring photos and plenty of humor. I love these guys because they’re the real deal. And so is Dream Home.” —Meredith Vieira "You’ve seen them on HGTV on programs such as Property Brothers, performing fabulous transformations on rundown homes to the delight of picky clients. In their first book, the Scott brothers reveal what you don’t see in the shows. The decision-making process is dissected—what factors to consider when selling or buying a house. Solid advice on how to choose among those expensive selections is the highlight of this title. There are recommendations to make a home more sellable, perform fixes yourself, or call in the experts. Also included are lists of simple projects for homeowners and tips on style. Covering methodology more than DIY, it serves as a great foundation to make those costly real-estate decisions and supports homeowners in their pursuit of home improvement. VERDICT An excellent choice for potential home buyers, this essential guide informs readers on how to sell, buy, and potentially remodel any residence. A must read." —Library Journal, STARRED review —
£23.30
Book SynopsisReckless Whitney MacAllister possesses all the wealth and beauty every woman dreams of. Streetwise Douglas Lord has the good looks and quick wits to be a success at his chosen profession: larceny.She has the cash and the connections.He has the stolen documents leading to a fabulous hidden fortune.It is a business proposition, pure and simple.But the race to find the treasure, from Manhattan to Madagascar, is only part of the game. For their fierce and dangerous attraction to each other soon threatens to overwhelm them-unless their merciless and shadowy rivals kill them first.
£8.62
Book SynopsisNOBEL PRIZE WINNER • Twenty-three political essays that focus on the victims of history, from the fallen maquis of the French Resistance to the casualties of the Cold War.In the speech he gave upon accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Albert Camus said that a writer cannot serve today those who make history; he must serve those who are subject to it. Resistance, Rebellion and Death displays Camus' rigorous moral intelligence addressing issues that range from colonial warfare in Algeria to the social cancer of capital punishment. But this stirring book is above all a reflection on the problem of freedom, and, as such, belongs in the same tradition as the works that gave Camus his reputation as the conscience of our century: The Stranger, The Rebel, and The Myth of Sisyphus.
£10.50
Book SynopsisJessamy Harrison is eight years old. She spends hours writing, reading or simply hiding in the dark warmth of the airing cupboard. As the half-and-half child of an English father and a Nigerian mother, Jess just can't shake off the feeling of being alone wherever she goes. This is a novel about spirits, twins and an extraordinary little girl.Trade Review'This is a beautiful, haunting story of precocious eight-year-old Jessamy ... This compelling tale of folklore and cultural differences is sure to top the bestseller lists' Daily Mail 'A moving study of alienation' Guardian 'An astonishing achievement ... simple, well-drawn characters, crisp dialogue and an enviable grasp of the rudiments of storytelling' David Robson, Sunday Telegraph 'The author plays numerous sophisticated games with notions of twinship and identity ... A highly auspicious fictional debut' Sunday Times
£9.99
Book SynopsisMy Documents is the latest work from Alejandro Zambra, the award-winning Chilean writer whose first novel was heralded as the dawn of a new era in Chilean literature. My Documents is unflinchingly human and essential evidence of a sublimely talented writer working at the height of his powers.Trade Review‘People kept mentioning his name, but I was slow to encounter the Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra. I hadn’t read anything by him before opening his new story collection, My Documents […] My Documents is the fourth book by Alejandro Zambra to be translated into English (this one very ably by Megan McDowell). All of them are very short and strikingly original, and display a wry self-consciousness about the obligations, difficulties, and pleasures of writing fiction. […] In his new book, Zambra returns to the twin sources of his talent—to his storytelling vitality, that living tree which blossoms often in these pages, and to his unsparing examination of recent Chilean history. These come together magnificently.’ — James Wood, New Yorker ‘[An] excellent collection […] rich and thought-provoking […] If you are going to read Alejandro Zambra, which you should, don't just read My Documents, read everything he's done.’ — Chris Power, Guardian‘These stories are graceful, grave, comical, disabused. I guess what I mean is: My Documents represents a new form. When I think about Alejandro Zambra, I feel happy for the future of fiction.’ — Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute‘Alejandro Zambra’s My Documents is also his best: an eclectic, disconcerting, at times harrowing read. His voice is unique, honest and raw, and there is poetry on every page. Zambra’s fiction doubles as a kind of personal history, full of anguish, humour and verve. A truly beautiful book.’ — Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in Circles ‘Zambra is the author of small classics – short in length, but enormous in every other way. My Documents elevates him to a entirely new level.’ — Valeria Luiselli, author of Faces in the CrowdTable of ContentsPart I My Documents | Part II Camilo, Long Distance, True or False, Memories of a Personal Computer | Part III National Institute, I Smoked Very Well | Part IV Thank You, The Most Chilean Man in the World, Family Life, Artist's Rendition
£11.69
Book SynopsisThe Orchid House tells the story of three white sisters who return to their Caribbean island home to find their family living in poverty and mental anguish. Each sister responds to the family's plight in different ways - seeking change through romance or politics or money. A new edition of an acclaimed Caribbean classic.
£9.49
Book Synopsis
£8.55
Book SynopsisSizzling hockey romance from the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author: Book 2 in the Pucking Wrong Series, where heartbreak and happy endings rule.
£9.49
Book Synopsis
£14.39
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Book SynopsisThe spellbinding classic that started it all, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author—the inspiration for the hit television series “A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago TribuneHere are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
£16.00
Book Synopsis“The Cider House Rules is filled with people to love and to feel for. . . . The characters in John Irving’s novel break all the rules, and yet they remain noble and free-spirited.”—The Houston PostFirst published in 1985, The Cider House Rules is set in rural Maine in the first half of the twentieth century. The novel tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch—saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud’s, ether addict and abortionist. This is also the story of Dr. Larch’s favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted.Praise for The Cider House Rules“ [Irving] is among the very best storytellers at work today. At the base of Irving’s own moral concerns is a rare and lasting regard for human kindness.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer“ Superb in scope and originality, a novel as good as
£17.10
Book SynopsisThe debut novel from the internationally acclaimed author of Wild weaves a searing and luminous tale of a family's grief after unexpected loss. • A deeply honest novel of life after catastrophe, of intimacy lost and found. —O, The Oprah MagazineWork hard. Do good. Be incredible! is the advice Teresa Rae Wood shares with the listeners of her local radio show, Modern Pioneers, and the advice she strives to live by every day. She has fled a bad marriage and rebuilta life with her children, Claire and Joshua, and their caring stepfather, Bruce. Their love for each other binds them as a family through the daily struggles of making ends meet. But when they received unexpected news that Teresa, only 38, is dying of cancer, their lives all begin to unravel and drift apart. Strayed's intimate portraits of these fully human characters in a time of crisis show the varying truths of grief, forgiveness, and the beautiful terrors of learning how to keep living.
£15.30
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Book SynopsisBANCROFF PRIZE WINNER • King Philip's War, the excruciating racial war—colonists against Indigenous peoples—that erupted in New England in 1675, was, in proportion to population, the bloodiest in American history. Some even argued that the massacres and outrages on both sides were too horrific to deserve the name of a war.The war's brutality compelled the colonists to defend themselves against accusations that they had become savages. But Jill Lepore makes clear that it was after the war—and because of it—that the boundaries between cultures, hitherto blurred, turned into rigid ones. King Philip's War became one of the most written-about wars in our history, and Lepore argues that the words strengthened and hardened feelings that, in turn, strengthened and hardened the enmity between Indigenous peoples and Anglos. Telling the story of what may have been the bitterest of American conflicts, and its reverberations over the centuries, Lepore has enabled us to see how the ways in which we remember past events are as important in their effect on our history as were the events themselves.
£15.99
Book Synopsis
£14.40
Book Synopsis
£14.45
Book SynopsisThe Ravishing of Lol Stein is a haunting early novel by the author of The Lover. Lol Stein is a beautiful young woman, securely married, settled in a comfortable life—and a voyeur. Returning with her husband and children to the town where, years before, her fiancé had abandoned her for another woman, she is drawn inexorably to recreate that long-past tragedy. She arranges a rendezvous for her friend Tatiana and Tatiana’s lover. She arranges to spy on them. And then, she goes one step further . . .
£11.47
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Period detail, adroit characterizations, and lively dialogue add to the pleasure of this labyrinthine tale."—Publishers Weekly"This mystery is so rich with place and time that they become characters in the story. Dame Frevisse is a stalwart, appealing sleuth and the cold, dark priory and the squalor of Medieval England are fascinating backdrops."—New Orleans Times-Picayune"The writing is seamless...The atmosphere of the book is cold and blustery, danger afield. A well-steeped sense of history prevails...They make this novel more than a mystery, but a wonderful historical dark tapestry. We are transported back to the 14th century. One of the 10 best mystery novels of 1993."—Minneapolis Star Tribune
£7.59
Book SynopsisLucas Davenport has met his match-a brilliant, wanton killer who knows more about mind games than Lucas himself. This man is more depraved and intelligent than anybody Lucas has tracked before-and with a female psychiatrist in his trap, he's already one step ahead of Lucas...Trade ReviewPraise for John Sandford’s Prey Novels “Relentlessly swift...genuinely suspenseful...excellent.”—Los Angeles Times “Sandford is a writer in control of his craft.”—Chicago Sun-Times “Excellent...compelling...everything works.”—USA Today “Grip-you-by-the-throat thrills...a hell of a ride.”—Houston Chronicle “Crackling, page-turning tension...great scary fun.”—The New York Daily News “Enough pulse-pounding, page-turning excitement to keep you up way past bedtime.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “One of the most engaging characters in contemporary fiction.”—Detroit News “Positively chilling.”—St. Petersburg Times “Just right for fans of The Silence of the Lambs.”—Booklist “One of the most horrible villains this side of Hannibal.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch “Ice-pick chills...excruciatingly tense...a double-pumped roundhouse of a thriller.”—Kirkus Reviews
£9.89
Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestselling author of Ming Tea Murder serves up heists, homicides, and herbal blends in the latest in the Tea Shop mysteries. Catering a trunk show at Heart’s Desire Jewelry is a shining achievement for Theodosia and the Indigo Tea Shop. After all, a slew of jewelers, museum curators, and private collectors will be there to sip some of Theo’s best blends. Unfortunately, the party is crashed by a gang of masked muggers who steal the precious gems on display, and then disappear almost as quickly as they arrived—leaving a dead body in their wake. Theo gets involved in the case after her friend Brooke, aunt of the victim and owner of Heart’s Desire, begs for help in figuring out who committed the brutal burglary. Though the FBI believes this smash and grab is the work of an international gang of jewel thieves, Theo is convinced that the felon is someone much closer to home...<
£7.59
Book SynopsisAmerica’s #1 bestseller • First time in paperback! There are some places you visit, and some places you never leave behind. Danielle Steel’s new novel follows a devoted father and the daughter he raises in the fascinating upstairs-downstairs world of a glamorous Manhattan hotel. HOTEL VENDÔME The hotel was old, run-down. But to Swiss-born hotelier Hugues Martin, it is a rough diamond tucked away on a quiet New York City street. So Hugues scrapes together everything he has to purchase the building—and transforms it into one of the world’s finest luxury hotels. Under Hugues’s exacting supervision, the Hotel Vendôme is soon renowned for its unparalleled service and discretion—the ideal refuge for the rich and famous—and a perfect home for Hugues’s family, until his young wife abandons him, leaving Hugues the single parent to the
£7.99
Book Synopsis
£8.99
Book SynopsisA poignant, coming of age novel about an Irish gypsy boy’s childhood in the 1950’s from the national bestselling author of A Rip in Heaven and American Dirt.Ireland, 1959: Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother’s death in childbirth.The wandering life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle briefly, in a town, where Christy and his cousin can receive proper schooling and prepare for their first communions. But still, always, they are treated as outsiders.As Christy struggles to find his way amid the more conventional lives of his new classmates, he starts to question who he is and where he belongs. But then the discovery
£15.30
Book SynopsisA classic by a Russian master Prince Myshkin, the idiot, is an almost comically innocent Christ figure in a land of sinners, one whose faith in beauty contrasts sharply with that of his society''s.
£8.20
Book Synopsis
£11.79
Book SynopsisCuando era niña, para ayudarla a superar la muerte de su padre, a Blanca su madre le contó un cuento chino. Un cuento sobre un poderoso emperador que convocó a los sabios y les pidió una frase que sirviese para todas las situaciones posibles. Tras meses de deliberaciones, los sabios se presentaron ante el emperador con una propuesta: “También esto pasará”. Y la madre añadió: “El dolor y la pena pasarán, como pasan la euforia y la felicidad”. Ahora es la madre de Blanca quien ha muerto y esta novela, que arranca y se cierra en un cementerio, habla del dolor de la pérdida, del desgarro de la ausencia. Pero frente a este dolor queda el recuerdo de lo vivido y lo mucho aprendido, y cobra fuerza la reafirmación de la vida a través del sexo, las amigas, los hijos y los hombres que han sido y son importantes para Blanca, quien afirma: «La ligereza es una forma de elegancia
£14.40
Book Synopsis
£16.20
Book SynopsisThe second book in nationally bestselling Songs of the Seraphim series is a gripping metaphysical thriller in which angels partner up with assassins, from the author of Interview with the Vampire.Barely recovered from his previous divine mission, former contract killer Toby O'Dare is once again summoned by the angel Malchiah to investigate the poisoning of a prominent nobleman and stop the haunting of a diabolical dybbuk. Together, they travel back to fifteenth-century Italy—the age of Michelangelo, the Holy Inquisition, and Pope Leo X—and this time Malchiah has Toby pose as a lute player sent to charm and calm this troublesome spirit. But Toby soon discovers that he is in the midst of plots and counterplots, surrounded on all sides by increasingly dangerous threats as the veil of ecclesiastical terror closes in around him.
£19.96
Book Synopsis
£18.02
Book SynopsisIn her final novel, Willa Cather departed from her usual Great Plains settings to plumb the turbulent relationships between slaves and their owners in the antebellum South. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is set in Virginia just before the Civil War. Sapphira is a slave owner who feels she has come down in the world and channels her resentments into jealousy of her beautiful mulatto slave, Nancy. Sapphira’s daughter Rachel, an abolitionist, opposes her mother’s increasingly shocking attempts to persecute Nancy. The struggles of these three strong-willed women provide rich material for Cather’s narrative art and psychological insight.
£13.50
Book SynopsisHåkan Nesser is one of Sweden's most popular crime writers, receiving numerous awards for his novels featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, including the European Crime Fiction Star Award (Ripper Award), the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize (three times) and Scandinavia's Glass Key Award. The Van Veeteren series is published in over twenty-five countries and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Håkan Nesser lives in Gotland with his wife, and spends part of each year in the UK. In addition to the popular Van Veeteren series, his other books include the psychological thriller The Living and the Dead in Winsford and The Barbarotti series.
£8.99
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Book Synopsis''Engaging, thoughtful and bang up-to-date.'' The Times''A stone cold fox of a second novel.'' PANDORA SYKES''Fizzy dialogue and killer comic timing . . . Cole takes the temperature of modern America.'' Daily MailYou ever wake up and wonder how you got to a place?Emmett and Joel are half-brothers, but they couldn't be more different: Emmett is single and working in a vast Cargo Distribution Centre in Kentucky, while Joel is a married academic and published writer. For the first time in years, the two of them are back together in the family home, just as Joel''s wife, Alice, starts to yearn for a different kind of lifestyle.An absorbing portrayal of three people's changing hopes and dreams, Fulfillment offers an unforgettable portrait of America today.
£17.09
Book Synopsis
£14.62
Book Synopsis''A novel of dignified beauty''OBSERVER''A masterly piece of writing, rich with insight and detail, and a curiously moving optimism''GAY TIMES''A discreet, lyrical meditation on the nature of male love''EDMUND WHITEThomas, a young German musician, is dying. Leo, a renowned Italian writer and Thomas''s boyfriend, finds it impossible to mourn his loss and condemns himself to wandering the Earth, in the hope of finding the dividing line between the living and the dead.He travels through a Europe where past and present overlap, roads intersect, years merge and faces emerge - and tries in vain to bring into focus the blurred lines of their relationship. Believing he could protect himself, Leo had forced Thomas to live in a separate room, a separate city, a separate life. And now he will have to cross the ocean to find - after a descent into hell - the strength to live on.Structured in three musical mov
£15.29
Book SynopsisA stunning and evocative novel set on a gorgeous Cornish estate packed with heart, relationships and mysteries from the past.
£17.00
Book SynopsisIn 1760, Guillaume le Gentil, astronomer to King Louis XV, sets sail for India. He hopes to record the transit of Venus, but rough seas - and war with the British - make his quest more complicated than he could have imagined. Two hundred and fifty years later, anxious, lonely Xavier Lemercier chances upon Guillaume's telescope. As he looks out across the rooftops of Paris, he glimpses an intriguing woman with a zebra in her apartment. Then she walks into his office, and his life changes forever...
£9.49
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Book SynopsisCaught between the cliffs and an unforgiving storm, Rosalie becomes trapped in a cave overlooking the sea. She grapples with the weight of her own losses, heartbreak, as memories of her son come back unbidden. With time slipping through her fingers, she faces the ultimate question: can she find a way back-not just to safety, but to herself?
£11.39
Book SynopsisSet in Copenhagen during the terrifying polio epidemic of the early 1950s,Iron Lung is a poetic allegory of adolescence, and an unsettling and subtle commentary on sexuality, medicine, and technology.
£11.69
Book SynopsisStunning statuesque Brittany Callaghan isn''t used to seeing Nordic gods in her tiny California town. But when the spectacular blond Viking—whose name is Dalden—turns up at her doorstep, Brittany knows her dream man is very real. Dalden claims to be a barbarian warrior—since Brittany''s passion has been running red-hot since she first saw him, the sexy giant can fancy himself anything he pleases!The truth is a very rude awakening—for Dalden is exactly what he claims to be: a warrior to the depths of his soul from a place where the women always obey. Intelligent, independent Brittany isn''t about to be subservient to any male—not even one who''s everything she ever wanted in a lover. But the proud, powerful barbarian is accustomed to fighting for what he wants—and winning. And what her wants most of all . . . is Brittany.
£8.54
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Book Synopsis
£9.49