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
Not Stated Coming Home for Christmas STP MB Collection
Book SynopsisThree brand-new seasonal novellas by three international bestselling authors: 'A Christmas Marriage Ultimatum', 'The Millionaire's Christmas Wish' and 'A Prince for Christmas'.
£7.49
Penguin Books Ltd Just Above My Head Penguin Modern Classics
Book Synopsis''This is the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers'' Edmund White, Washington Post When Arthur Montana, world-renowned ''Emperor of Soul'', is found dead in a London pub, his grief-stricken brother looks back over thirty years in the lives of their group of friends: from their childhood spent preaching and singing in Harlem churches, to their struggles with war and poverty, and their encounters with wealth, love and fame. Set against a vividly drawn background of the civil rights movement of the sixties, Baldwin''s last novel is a monumental saga that ranges from New York to Paris, Korea to Africa to portray how profoundly racial politics can shape life, especially in the private business of love. ''Warm, melancholy . . . Hall Montana''s voice is the conduit for Baldwin''s most distinctive quality as a writer, his abundant tenderness'' The New York TimesTrade ReviewThe best of his work ... stands comparison with any of its period to come out of the United States * The Times *This is the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers -- Edmund White * Washington Post *If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one -- Michael OndaatjeBaldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers * Saturday Review *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Voyage Out Penguin Twentieth Century Classics
Book SynopsisA party of English people are aboard the Euphrosyne, bound for South America. Among them is Rachel Vinrace, a young girl, innocent and wholly ignorant of the world of politics and society, books, sex, love and marriage. She is a free spirit half-caught, momentarily and passionately, by Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer who she meets in Santa Marina. But their engagement is to end abruptly, and tragically. Virginia Woolf's first novel, published in 1915, is a haunting exploration of a young woman's mind, signalling the beginning of her fascination with capturing the mysteries and complexities of the inner life.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by d
£9.49
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories
Book SynopsisIreland has long been a nation of story-tellers. What began as a lively form of entertainment has grown into an unrivalled literary genre. Although Ireland may mourn the loss of the seanchaí, the old hearthside story-teller, the Irish art of story-telling is by no means lost. This varied anthology traces the development of the Irish short story from the early folk-tales of the oral tradition through Oliver Goldsmith, Maria Edgeworth, James Joyce, and Liam O''Flaherty, and on to the rising stars of the modern generation, such as Bernard Mac Laverty and Desmond Hogan.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition The very best of centuries of Irish short fiction...A classic, take-your-breath-away collection cannily assembled by a master of the medium William Trevor * Observer *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INDEX OF AUTHORS
£11.39
Penguin Books Ltd My Name is Asher Lev
Book SynopsisAsher Lev is the artist who painted the sensational ''Brooklyn Crucifixion.'' Into it her poured all the anguish and torment a Jew can feel when torn between the faith of his fathers and the calling of his art. Here Asher Lev plunges back into his childhood and recounts the story of love and conflict which dragged him to this crossroads.
£999.99
Oxford University Press Contemporary Fiction
Book SynopsisContemporary fiction is a wide and diverse field, now global in dimension, with an enormous range of novels and writers that continues to grow at a fantastic speed. In this Very Short Introduction, Robert Eaglestone provides a clear and engaging exploration of the major themes, patterns, and debates of contemporary fiction. From genre, form, and experimentalism to the legacies of modernism and postmodernism, the relationship between globalization and terrorism, and the impact of technology, Eaglestone examines how works both reflect the world in which we live and the artistic concerns of writers and readers alike. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewA very interesting little book. * Lisa Hill, AMZ LitLovers LitBlog *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Form ; 3. Genre ; 4. The past ; 5. The present ; 6. The future ; 7. Conclusion
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers About Grace
Book SynopsisBeautifully written and compelling, About Grace is the brilliant debut novel from Anthony Doerr.Growing up in Alaska, young David Winkler is crippled by his dreams. At nine, he dreams a man is decapitated by a passing truck on the path outside his family's home. The next day, unable to prevent it, he witnesses an exact replay of his dream in real life. The premonitions keep coming, unstoppably. He sleepwalks during them, bringing catastrophe into his reach.Then, as unstoppable as a vision, he falls in love, at the supermarket (exactly as he already dreamed) with Sandy. They flee south, landing in Ohio, where their daughter Grace is born. And then the visions of Grace's death begin for Winkler, as their waterside home is inundated. Plagued by the same horrific images of Grace drowning, when the floods come, he cannot face his destiny and flees.He beaches on a remote Caribbean island, where he works as a handyman, chipping away at his doubts and hopes, never knowing whether Grace survived the flood or met the doom he foretold. After two decades, he musters the strength to find outTrade Review‘'I loved this wonderful book – its strangeness, its obsessiveness, its beautiful sentences.' Monica Ali ’Doerr's sublime renditions of Winkler's attunement to the world around him turn his story into a prolonged epiphany, a blissful parable about grace. This is a formidable literary achievement that, link Winkler's snow crystals, integrates facets and dimensions into near-perfect whole.' Independent ‘Doerr's gifts as a stylist are powerfully in evidence: his writing is crystalline, his attention to detail intense and evocative. That Doerr is a writer of exceptional gifts is not in question,and there is much to admire in this novel.' Daily Telegraph 'Doerr writes wonderfully, lyrically, of the natural world, and his observations of water, snowflakes and clouds illuminate this impressive debut.' Guardian ‘Exceptional first novel. I hesitate to say this book will take your breath away because it's such a cliché; but, really, I promise you, it will… I can't remember when a novel so entranced me. The only criticism I can really muster – and it is rather a limp one – is that About Grace is almost inhumanely faultless; almost, but, even then, not quite.' Evening Standard ’In careful, measured prose conjures a sense of awe both humbling and salutary. It has the bleak, lucid beauty of a day of midwinter light. At its best when describing the minute, disregarded miracles of the natural world, it lingers in the mind like one of the protagonist's eerie dreams.' Daily Mail ‘About Grace is an intriguing exploration of fate and chance’ The Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Blind to the Bones Book 4 Cooper and Fry Crime
Book SynopsisA death in the family-from-hell bring Detectives Fry and Cooper to a remote and unfriendly rural community in their fourth psychological thriller.Trade ReviewPraise for Blind to the Bones: ‘He has got better with each book. This is another very fine book, masterfully plotted and filled with real flesh-and-blood personalities’ Daily Telegraph ‘Another of Booth’s fine Derbyshire mysteries’ Scotsman Praise for Stephen Booth: ‘Stephen Booth creates a fine sense of place and atmosphere … the unguessable solution to the crime comes as a real surprise’ Sunday Telegraph ‘The complex relationship between [Cooper and Fry] is excellently drawn, and is combined with an intriguing plot and a real sense of place: Stephen Booth is an author to keep an eye on’ Evening Standard ‘Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter’ Val McDermid ‘A dark star may be born!’ Reginald Hill 'A leading light of British crime writing' Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers The Delicate Storm
Book SynopsisStylish, atmospheric psychological thriller following on from the Silver Dagger Award winner, Forty Words for Sorrow.A gruesome discovery in the wilderness above Algonquin Bay leads detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme to a remote cabin that has served as an abattoir for a cold-blooded killerBut the woods hide other horrors and soon a second body is discovered, naked and shrouded in ice. When one of the victims is identified as an American the Mounties have to be called in, but it''s the Canadian Secret Service that arouses the most mistrust. Is their interference due to a suspected terrorist link, or is there something even more sinister behind it?With Northern Ontario in the grip of an ice storm of once-in-a-hundred years severity, the woods take on a glittering, lethal beauty. And in this winter wonderland John Cardinal must hunt down and confront a killer.Trade ReviewPraise for Forty Words for Sorrow ‘Extraordinary for its psychology and tensions. Giles Blunt manages to inhabit the minds of killer, victim and investigator alike, a feat that very few writers can manage. It moves his work to a different level’ Jane Jakeman, Independent ‘A taut and enthralling tale that is as dark as the Canadian winter setting is cold. Humane, intelligent and gripping, Forty Words for Sorrow is a haunting journey into the human heart in all its complexities’ Val McDermid ‘This Canadian novel is as fine a police procedural as any written in the USA and doesn’t rely on others for ideas – it comes across as fresh as morning dew … never less than fascinating throughout’ Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday ‘A highly professional tour-de-force: excellently plotted, with fleshed-out characters and a well-portrayed, interesting setting’ TJ Binyon, Evening Standard
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Fludd
Book SynopsisFrom the double Man Booker prize-winning author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light , this is a dark fable of lost faith and awakening love amidst the moors.Fetherhoughton is a drab, dreary town somewhere in a magical, half-real 1950s north England, a preserve of ignorance and superstition protected against the advance of reason by its impenetrable moor-fogs. Father Angwin, the town's cynical priest, has lost his faith, and wants nothing more than to be left alone. Sister Philomena strains against the monotony of convent life and the pettiness of her fellow nuns. The rest of the town goes about their lives in a haze, a never-ending procession of grim, grey days stretching ahead of them.Yet all of that is about to change. A strange visitor appears one stormy night, bringing with him the hint, the taste of something entirely new, something unknown. But who is Fludd? An angel come to shake the Fetherhoughtonians from their stupor, to reawaken Father Angwin's faithTrade Review‘“Fludd” is a funny, exquisitely written story of priests and nuns in fifties England, but it is also a questioning, intellectual book that applies a profound thoughtfulness to various abtruse areas of religious (or supernatural) belief … A faultless comic masterpiece.’ Literary Review ‘Good morality tales are unusual; but rarer still are books that genuinely make you laugh out loud.’ Spectator ‘Hilary Mantel brings together the miraculous and mundane, the dreadful and the ridiculous in a novel of imagination and skill.’ Financial Times ‘In “Fludd”, Mantel draws on her own imagination, inventing a dark universe which works to laws of her own making. The effect is dazzling, and establishes her in the front ranks of novelists writing in English today.’ Guardian ‘An excellent and ambitious novel.’ Sunday Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers A CHANGE OF CLIMATE
Book SynopsisFrom the double Man Booker prize-winning author of Wolf Hall' and Bring Up the Bodies', this is an epic yet subtle family saga about broken trusts and buried secrets.Ralph and Anna Eldred live in the big Red House in Norfolk, raising their four children and devoting their lives to charity. The constant flood of good souls and sad cases', children plucked from the squalor of the East London streets for a breath of fresh countryside air, hides the growing crises in their own family, the disillusionment of their children, the fissures in their marriage.Memories of their time as missionaries in South Africa and Botswana, of the terrible African tragedies that have shaped the rest of their lives, refuse to be put to rest and threaten to destroy the fragile peace they have built for themselves and their children.This is a breathtakingly intelligent novel that asks the most difficult questions. Is there anything one can never forgive? Is tragedy ever deserved? Can you ever escape your own pasTrade Review‘A beautifully crafted novel’ Guardian ‘There are very few novels that not only bristle with ideas but leave you asking questions about those ideas, again and again, your world turned upside down. Mantel has managed to do this.’ Sunday Times ‘The best book she’s written … She writes about punishing subjects so freshly it is as if they had never been written about before.’ Observer ‘It has the tension of a first-rate thriller and the breadth of a family saga … Its compassion and its intellectual energy mark her as the novelist of her generation who will achieve a lasting greatness.’ Literary Review ‘A complex and highly intelligent portrayal of injustice, bereavement and the loss of faith … Hilary Mantel has created that rare thing, a page-turner with a profound moral dimension.’ Daily Telegraph ‘A work of exquisite craftsmanship that asks enormous questions.’ Independent
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Daughters of Fire Discover a new favourite read
Book SynopsisThe sweeping new novel from the bestselling author of LADY OF HAY switches between Roman Britain and the present day where history dramatically impacts on the lives of three women.The Romans are landing in BritanniaCartimandua, the young woman destined to rule the great Brigantes tribe, watches the invaders come ever closer. Her life has always been a maelstrom of love, conflict and revenge, but it only becomes more turbulent and complicated with power. Her political skills are threatened by her personal choices, and Cartimandua finds she has made formidable enemies on all sides as she faces a decision which will change the futures of all around her.In the present day, historian Viv Lloyd Rees has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. Viv struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua and her conviction that they are real. But her obsession becomes more persistent when she finds an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Bitter rivalries and overwhelming passions areTrade ReviewPraise for ‘Daughters of Fire’: ‘Riveting timeslip novel.’ Fanny Blake, Woman and Home ‘A fascinating spotlight on a dark age.’ Bella Praise for Barbara Erskine: 'Her forte is mood, atmosphere and the toe-curling frisson.' Sunday Times ‘Readers of Barbara Erskine are held in thrall.’Woman’s Realm ‘Stephen King meeting Ruth Rendell.’ Frank Delaney 'Barbara Erskine's storytelling talent is undeniable.' The Times
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Birds Nest
Book SynopsisThe unsettling story of a young woman''s descent into mental illness, from the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived at the Castle. ''An amazing writer'' Neil GaimanElizabeth Richmond is almost too quiet to be believed, with no friends, no parents, and a job that leaves her strangely unnoticed. But soon she starts to behave in ways she can neither control nor understand, to the increasing horror of her doctor, and the humiliation of her self-centred aunt. As a tormented Elizabeth becomes two people, then three, then four, each wilder and more wicked than the last, a battle of wills threatens to destroy the girl and all who surround her. The Bird''s Nest is a macabre journey into who we are, and how close we sometimes come to the brink of madness. Shirley Jackson''s chilling tales of creeping unease and casual cruelty have the power to unsettle and terrify unlike any other. She was born in California in 1916. When her short story The Lottery was first published in The New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by five more: Hangsaman, The Bird''s Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. Shirley Jackson died in her sleep at the age of 48. ''The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse'' - A. M. Homes Shirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders'' - Dorothy Parker ''Shirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers ... whose work exerts an enduring spell'' - Joyce Carol OatesTrade ReviewThe world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse -- A. M. HomesShirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders -- Dorothy ParkerShirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers ... whose work exerts an enduring spell -- Joyce Carol Oates
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd London Belongs to Me Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisAlso known as Dulcimer Street, Norman Collins''s London Belongs to Me is a Dickensian romp through working-class London on the eve of the Second World War. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ed Glinert, author of The London Compendium.It is 1938 and the prospect of war hangs over every London inhabitant. But the city doesn''t stop. Everywhere people continue to work, drink, fall in love, fight and struggle to get on in life. At the lodging-house at No.10 Dulcimer Street, Kennington, the buttoned-up clerk Mr Josser returns home with the clock he has received as a retirement gift. The other residents include faded actress Connie; tinned food-loving Mr Puddy; widowed landlady Mrs Vizzard (whose head is turned by her new lodger, a self-styled ''Professor of Spiritualism''); and flashy young mechanic Percy Boon, whose foray into stolen cars descends into something much, much worse...Norman Collins (1907-1982) was a BritisTrade Review'The capital's great vernacular novel ! a joyous romp through a slice of London life' - Ed Glinert
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Women in Love Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisTwo of D. H. Lawrence's most renowned novels - now with new packages and new introductions Widely regarded as D. H. Lawrence's greatest novel, Women in Love continues where The Rainbow left off, with the third generation of the Brangwens. Focusing on Ursula Brangwen and her sister Gudrun's relationships-the former with a school inspector and the latter with an industrialist and then a sculptor-Women in Love is a powerful, sexually explicit depiction of the destructiveness of human relations.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translatiTrade Review"His masterpiece. . . . An astonishing work that moves on several levels. . . . Lawrence compels us to admit that we live less finely than we should, whatever we are." -The New York Review of Books
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Lawrence D Fox The Captains Doll The Ladybird
Book SynopsisThese three novellas display D. H. Lawrence''s brilliant and insightful evocation of human relationships - both tender and cruel - and the devastating results of war. In The Fox, two young women living on a small farm during the First World War find their solitary life interrupted. As a fox preys on their poultry, a human predator has the women in his sights. The Captain''s Doll explores the complex relationship between a German countess and a married Scottish soldier in occupied Germany, while in The Ladybird a wounded prisoner of war has a disturbing influence on the Englishwoman who visits him in hospital.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Book SynopsisA compelling and perceptive tale of intimacy, memory and relationships from the No.1 bestselling author.Trade Review'The key to Ahern's success is her ability to not just tell a good story, but sprinkle it with plenty of laughs, tears and a little bit of magic' Mirror 'Cecelia Ahern is queen of the modern fairytale . . . Ahern has given her readers exactly what they want: love, magic, happy endings. And most of all, hope' Irish Times ‘Unputdownable' Grazia
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Ballard J Kingdom Come
Book SynopsisWith a new introduction by Deborah Levy and a striking new cover design by the artist Stanley Donwood, Ballard's final novel sees consumerism evolve into something even more sinister.A gunman opens fire in a shopping mall. Not a terrorist, apparently, but a madman with a rifle. Or not, as he is mysteriously (and quickly) set free without charge.One of the victims is the father of Richard Pearson, unemployed advertising executive and life-long rebel. Now he is driving out to Brooklands, the apparently peaceful town on the M25 which has at its heart the very shiny shoppers' paradise where the shooting happened the Metro-Centre.Then the main suspect is released thanks to the testimony of self-styled pillars of the community like the doctor who treated Richard's father on his deathbed. Richard, determined to unravel the mystery, starts to believe that something deeply sinister lurks behind the pristine facades of the labyrinthine mall, its 24-hour cable TV and sports clubTrade Review‘“Kingdom Come” is important, germaine, timely and creepy, a tidal wrack of ideas washed up on the artificial beach of our resort culture.’ Will Self ‘As outré as ever, and still as keen to understand the national psyche … Ballard retains a clear-sighted, almost vatic quality’ Spectator ‘As fertile as ever … “Kingdom Come” is impressively packed with brilliant apercus’ Observer ‘Ballard’s vision is scary and utterly real … compelling’ Financial Times
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Witch of Portobello
Book SynopsisFrom one of the world''s best loved storytellers, Paulo Coelho, comes a riveting novel tracing the mysterious life and disappearance of Athena dubbed the Witch of Portobello'.This is the story of Athena, or Sherine, to give her the name she was baptised with. Her life is pieced together through a series of recorded interviews with those people who knew her well or hardly at all parents, colleagues, teachers, friends, acquaintances, her ex-husband.The novel unravels Athena''s mysterious beginnings, via an orphanage in Romania, to a childhood in Beirut. When war breaks out, her adoptive family move with her to London, where a dramatic turn of events occursAthena, who has been dubbed ''the Witch of Portobello'' for her seeming powers of prophecy, disappears dramatically, leaving those who knew her to solve the mystery of her life and abrupt departure.Like The Alchemist, The Witch of Portobello is the kind of story that will transform the way readers think about love, passion, joy and sacTrade ReviewPraise for the Witch of Portobello: ‘Filled with Coelho’s recurring themes – spirituality, destiny, freedom – this is a riveting and inspiring read.’ Belfast Telegraph ‘Paulo Coelho successfully defines the undefinable and possesses the skill to handle the abstract without being too confusing or vague.’ Irish Mail on Sunday Praise for Paulo Coelho: ‘An exceptional writer.' USA Today ‘His books have had a life-enhancing impact on millions of people.’ Times ‘One of the few to deserve the term “Publishing Phenomenon”.’ Independent on Sunday ‘Coelho’s writing is beautifully poetic but his message is what counts…he gives me hope and puts a smile on my face.’ Daily Express
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers Ring
Book SynopsisStunning Japanese thriller with a chilling supernatural twist. The novel that inspired the cult Japanese movie and the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name.Asakawa is a hardworking journalist who has climbed his way up from local-news beat reporter to writer for his newspaper's weekly magazine. A chronic workaholic, he doesn't take much notice when his seventeen-year-old niece dies suddenly until a chance conversation reveals that another healthy teenager died at exactly the same time, in chillingly similar circumstances.Sensing a story, Asakawa begins to investigate, and soon discovers that this strange simultaneous sudden-death syndrome also affected another two teenagers. Exactly one week before their mysterious deaths the four teenagers all spent the night at a leisure resort in the same log cabin.When Asakawa visits the resort, the mystery only deepens. A comment made in the guest book by one of the teenagers leads him to a particular vidoetape with a portentous message at the Trade Review‘The pace doesn't slacken for a moment … a guaranteed page-turner’ Observer ‘Suzuki builds tension brilliantly’ Guardian ‘Bristles with menace and fear’ Uncut ‘The translation is wonderful, the spare and sleek prose making for an easy read, while the dark currents of the story build up to a mind-boggling climax’ Outland
£11.69
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Skin
Book SynopsisThis is the first unexpurgated English edition of Curzio Malaparte’s legendary work The Skin. The book begins in 1943, with Allied forces cementing their grip on the devastated city of Naples. The sometime Fascist and ever-resourceful Curzio Malaparte is working with the Americans as a liaison officer. He looks after Colonel Jack Hamilton, “a Christian gentleman . . . an American in the noblest sense of the word,” who speaks French and cites the classics and holds his nose as the two men tour the squalid streets of a city in ruins where liberation is only another word for desperation. Veterans of the disbanded Italian army beg for work. A rare specimen from the city’s famous aquarium is served up at a ceremonial dinner for high Allied officers. Prostitution is rampant. The smell of death is everywhere.Subtle, cynical, evasive, manipulative, unnerving, always astonishing, Malaparte is a supreme artist of the unreliable, both the product and the prophet of a world gone rotten to the core.
£16.19
The New York Review of Books, Inc Talk
Book SynopsisTalk is a hilariously irreverent and racy testament to dialogue: the gossip, questioning, analysis, arguments, and revelations that make up our closest friendships. It’s the summer of 1965 and Emily, Vincent, and Marsha are at the beach. All three are ambitious and artistic; all are hovering around thirty; and all are deeply and mercilessly invested in analyzing themselves and everyone around them. The friends discuss sex, shrinks, psychedelics, sculpture, and S and M in an ongoing dialogue where anything goes and no topic is off limits. Talk is the result of these conversations, recorded by Linda Rosenkrantz and transformed into a novel whose form and content put it well ahead of its time. Controversial upon its first publication in 1968, Talk remains fresh, lascivious, and laugh-out-loud funny nearly fifty years later.
£14.39
HarperCollins Publishers The Glass Palace
Book SynopsisThe International Bestseller from the Man Booker Prize shortlisted authorAn absorbing story of a world in transition' J. M. Coetzee''A Doctor Zhivago for the Far East'' The IndependentRajkumar is only another boy, helping on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and all the Court into exile. He is rescued by the far-seeing Chinese merchant, and with him builds up a logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled.The story follows the fortunes rubber estates in Malaya, businesses in Singapore, estates in Burma which Rajkumar, with his Chinese, British and Burmese relations, friends and associates, builds up from 1870 through the Second World War to the scattering of the extended family to New York and Thailand, London and Hong Kong in the post-war years.Trade Review‘A distinctive voice, polished and profound.’ TLS ‘Ambitious, multigenerational, “The Glass Palace” is akin to a 19th-century Russian novel…a rich, layered epic that probes the meaning of identity and homeland.’ LA Times ‘An absorbing story of a world in transition, brought to life through characters who love and suffer with equal intensity.’ J.M. Coetzee ‘A “Doctor Zhivago” for the Far East.’ Independent
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers THE BOOKSHOP
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Booker Prize.In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result, she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important, but natural and even supernatural forces too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.Trade Review‘Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window.’ Sebastian Faulks ‘Wise and ironic, funny and humane, Fitzgerald is a wonderful, wonderful writer.’ David Nicholls ‘Its stylishness, and this low-voiced lack of emphasis are a pleasure throughout, its moral and human positions invariably sympathetic. But it is astringent too: no self-pity in its self-effacing heroine, who in a world of let-downs and put-downs and poltergeists, keeps her spirit bright and her book-stock miraculously dry in the damp, seeping East Anglian landscape.’ Isabel Quigley, Financial Times ‘Penelope Fitzgerald’s resources of odd people are impressively rich. Raven, the marshman, who ropes Florence in to hang on to an old horse’s tongue while he files the teeth; old Brundish, secretive as a badger, slow as a gorse bush. And this is not just a gallery of quirky still lives; these people appear in vignettes, wryly, even comically animated…On any reckoning, a marvellously piercing fiction.’ Valentine Cunningham, TLS
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Memoirs of a Survivor
Book SynopsisA compelling vision of a disorietating and barbaric future from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.Many years in the future, city life has broken down, communications have failed and food supplies are dwindling. From her window a middle-aged woman our narrator watches things fall apart and records what she witnesses: hordes of people migrating to the countryside, gangs of children roaming the streets. One day, a young girl, Emily, is brought to her house by a stranger and left in her care. A strange, precocious adolescent, drawn to the tribal streetlife and its barbaric rituals, she is unafraid of the harsh world outside, while our narrator retreats into her hidden world where reality fades and the past is revisited Trade Review'Original and astonishing … Brilliant persuasive and circumstantial in its imagination, so that each step towards barbarism seems completely necessary.' New Statesman 'For some years and books now [we] have been reading Doris Lessing to find out what's going on - what is happening to our society's nervous system and how it affects the way we live with each other … She is one of those acute emotional intelligences whose stories provide keys to our personal dilemmas.’ Guardian ‘An extraordinary and compelling meditation about the enduring need for loyalty, love and responsibility in an unprecedented time.’ Time
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Lessons Naomi Alderman
Book SynopsisFrom the author of The Power, winner of the Baileys Women''s Prize for Fiction 2017James, always the outsider, enters Oxford - high seat of privilege, wealth and ambition. There he meets Mark Winters - dissolute, astonishingly, heartbreakingly rich, and pitilessly cruel - and the fellow students he has gathered around him: untouchable Emmanuella; on-again/off-again Simon and Franny; and passionate, true Jess.The nights - and many of the days - become one long party. Friendships are made, and broken. Lovers swapped, or dropped. It is all beguiling and bewitching. Everything James dreamed of but never quite believed in.But after university they are each cast out into an indifferent world. Free of Mark and his dark influence, they are lost to one another, until one night tragedy strikes . . .Trade ReviewA world as beautiful and sinister as any in a fairytale. A pleasure to read * Independent *A glittering style, a compulsive pleasure. A seductive homage to Donna Tartt and Brideshead Revisited * Metro *Remarkable. Alderman is a supremely talented writer * Joanne Harris *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Stolen
Book SynopsisDark secrets will be revealed in this unputdownable novel from international NO.1 BESTSELLING author Lesley Pearse''Gripping from start to finish'' 5***** Reader Review________A woman washes up on a Sussex beach, barely alive.She''s wearing an old-fashioned dress and her hair has been hacked off.There are signs she has been bound by her wrists and ankles.She doesn''t know how she ended up there, or even her own name.The police are baffled and when the doctors examine her, they make a shocking discovery: She has recently given birth.Who is she?And where is her baby?________''Storytelling at its very best'' Daily Mail''Lose yourself in this epic saga'' Bella''An emotional and moving epic you won''t forget in a hurry'' Woman''s WeeklyTrade ReviewShe's half-drowned, her memory lost . . . who is she? Shocking secrets will come out in the unputdownableStolen . . . This is just one of many thrilling novels from the international NO.1 BESTSELLING author Lesley Pearse. * from the publisher's description *Praise for Lesley Pearse * - *Evocative, compelling, told from the heart * Sunday Express *Utterly riveting, brilliant * Closer *Full of love, passion and heartbreak * Best *Glorious, heartwarming * Woman & Home *
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HarperCollins Publishers No Bones Author of the Man Booker Prizewinning
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2002A stunning debut novel about a little girl growing up in Belfast, from the author of the Man Booker Prize winning novel, Milkman. 'Marvellous: shocking, moving, evocative' Daily MailEvery single night and every single day Amelia goes upstairs to look at her treasure: a miniature plastic sheep, a Black Queen chess piece, a penny prayer for serenity, a tube of glitter and thirty-seven black rubber bullets she's collected ever since the British Army started firing themTrade Review'Not only hilarious but also terribly tragic and awful and human and wonderful… No Bones is the best book I've read for ages. The world Burns creates is utterly convincing and surreal at the same time. I love the writing, the way she rolls the words around… No Bones is absolutely fantastic, and explores really exciting territory… the tone and timbre of the novel feel quite different to anything I've read before.' Julia Darling 'A chilling recognition that most survived the Troubles intact but some people will never be the same again…This account of a girl's life growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, which examines madness and sanity and questions our interpretation of both, is scary. Scarily well written, too… No Bones tears chunks out of our Peace Process comfort blankets. For it questions how a peaceful, mundane existence can be superimposed on a society inured over decades to violence.' Martina Devlin, Irish Independent ‘Not only hilarious but also terribly tragic and awful and human and wonderful … No Bones is absolutely fantastic, quite different from anything I’ve read before’ Julia Darling, author of Crocodile Tears
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Autonomedia Salvation Army
Book Synopsis
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Penguin Books Ltd My Fathers Tears and Other Stories
Book SynopsisJohn Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He is the author of over fifty books, including The Poorhouse Fair; the Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest); Marry Me; The Witches of Eastwick, which was made into a major feature film; Memories of the Ford Administration; Brazil; In the Beauty of the Lilies; Toward the End of Time; Gertrude and Claudius; and Seek My Face. He has written a number of collections of short stories, including The Afterlife and Other Stories and Licks of Love, which includes a final Rabbit story, Rabbit Remembered. His essays and criticism first appeared in publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and are now collected into numerous volumes. Collected Poems 1953-1993 brings together almost all of his verse, and a new edition of his Selected Poems is forthcoming fr
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Penguin Books Ltd The Magician of Lublin
Book SynopsisYasha the magician - sword swallower, fire eater, acrobat and master of escape - is famed for his extraordinary Houdini-like skills. Half Jewish, half Gentile, a free thinker who slips easily between worlds, Yasha has an observant wife, a loyal assistant who travels with him and a woman in every town. Now, though, his exploits are catching up with him, and he is tempted to make one final escape - from his marriage, his homeland and the last tendrils of his father''s religion. Set in Warsaw and the shtetls of the 1870s, Isaac Bashevis Singer''s second novel is a haunting psychological portrait of a man''s flight from love.Winner of the Nobel Prize for LiteratureTrade ReviewA spellbinder as clever as Scheherazade; he arrests the reader at once, transports him to a far place and a far, improbable time and does not let him go until the end * New Republic *Singer writes with a love and passion unequalled in contemporary fiction * Washington Post *
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Penguin Books Ltd The Black Cloud Fred Hoyle Penguin Modern
Book SynopsisA 1959 classic ''hard'' science-fiction novel by renowned Cambridge astronomer and cosmologist Fred Hoyle. Tracks the progress of a giant black cloud that comes towards Earth and sits in front of the sun, causing widespread panic and death. A select group of scientists and astronomers - including the dignified Astronomer Royal, the pipe smoking Dr Marlowe and the maverick, eccentric Professor Kingsly - engage in a mad race to understand and communicate with the cloud, battling against trigger happy politicians. In the pacy, engaging style of John Wyndham and John Christopher, with plenty of hard science thrown in to add to the chillingly credible premise (he manages to foretell Artificial Intelligence, Optical Character Recognition and Text-to-Speech converters), Hoyle carries you breathlessly through to its thrilling end.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest works of science fiction ever written -- Richard DawkinsHoyle's enduring insights into stars, nucleosynthesis, and the large-scale universe rank among the greatest achievements of 20th-century astrophysics ... His theories were unfailingly stimulating, even when they proved transient. He will be remembered with fond gratitude not only by colleagues and students, but by a much wider community who knew him through his talks and writings. -- Sir Martin Rees * Obit in Physics Today *
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Penguin Books Ltd That Uncertain Feeling
Book SynopsisIn That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis, competition is stiff for the position of sub-librarian in Aberdarcy Library. For John Lewis, the situation is complicated by the attentions of daunting and desirable village socialite, Elizabeth Gruffyd-Williams, who is married to a member of the local Council. Pursuing an affair with her whilst keeping his job prospects alive is John''s predicament, as he finds himself running down Welsh country lanes at midnight in a wig and dress, resisting the advances of local drunks and suffering the long speeches of a ''nut-faced'' clergyman.At times tenderly satirical and at times riotously slap-stick, Amis sends up an array of rural stereotypes in this story about a man who doesn''t know what he wants.Kingsley Amis''s (1922-95) works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially in the period following the end of World War II. Born in London, Amis explored his disillusionment in novels such as Th
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Penguin Books Ltd The Last Picture Show
Book SynopsisSam the Lion runs the pool-hall, the picture house and the all-night café. Coach Popper whips his boys with towels and once took a shot at one when he disturbed his hunting. Billy wouldn''t know better than to sweep his broom all the way to the town limits if no one stopped him. And teenage friends Sonny and Duane have nothing better to do than drift towards the adult world, with its temptations of sex and confusions of love.The basis for a classic film, The Last Picture Show is both extremely funny and deeply profound. And, with the eccentrically peopled Thalia, Texas, Larry McMurtry made a small town that feels as real as any you''ve ever walked around.Trade Review'An alchemist who converts the basest materials into gold' * The New York Times Book Review *'There aren't many writers around who are as much fun as Larry McMurtry' * Boston Globe *
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Penguin Books Ltd The Room
Book Synopsis''It is quite an experience to be locked up all by yourself in any size room'' says the anonymous narrator of Hubert Selby Jr.''s second novel. What follows is a startling series of recollections and fantasies that illuminate the workings of a prisoner''s unhinged mind. He yearns for his violent childhood, rages against obscure authorities, and imagines enacting horrible revenge on those who imprisoned him. The prisoner''s remand cell becomes the scene of a surreal mental torture.Disorienting, nightmarish and structurally inventive, The Room is a shocking examination of the suffering humans can inflict on each other.Trade ReviewSelby's best book * The TLS *A terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the psyche * Guardian *Selby deploys street slang, common speech, argot and scatology to create a high poetic art...it seems to derive from the greatest American poetry--Whitman, Pound, Williams, and Olson * The Nation *One must be grateful to Selby for his fatal vision and strong, original talent * Newsweek *'Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.' * New York Times Book Review *It's absolutely horrific ... but just about the most powerful novel I've ever read * The Times *
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Pan Macmillan Nameless
Book SynopsisNameless is a gripping underworld thriller by bestselling author Jessie Keane.She never forgot, and she'll never forgive . . .In 1941, mixed race Ruby Darke is born into a family that seem to hate her, but why? While her two brothers dive into a life of gangland violence, Ruby has to work in their family store. As she blossoms into a beautiful young woman she crosses paths with aristocrat Cornelius Bray, a chance meeting that will change her life forever. When she finds herself pregnant, and then has twins, she is forced to give her children away. At that point she vows never to trust another man again. As the years pass, Ruby never forgets her babies, and as the family store turns into a retail empire, Ruby wants her children back. But secrets were whispered and bargains made, and if Ruby wants to stay alive she needs to forget the past, or the past will come back and kill her.Nameless is followed by theTrade ReviewGripping Thriller * Look Magazine *Fans of Martina Cole will enjoy Nameless * Daily Express *This is a fast-moving story full of drama with a lot of twists and turns. If you like Martina Cole, you'll love Jessie Keane * Bella *THIS WEEK'S HOT READ...This book combines tales of gangster underworld with history, romance and a little bit of mystery too * Woman *Fast moving, intriguing and a jolly good read. * Shropshire Star *Fans of Martina Cole should try Keane's tough gangster family sagas. They'll love her latest which introduces Ruby Darke * The Local (Bourne) *Jessie Keane gives us a fascinating insight into the rivalries and lifestyles of those who make fortunes out of a criminal way of life and of the lowlifes that carry out their orders. * Lincolnshire Echo *This is the sort of competition Martina Cole could do without and if Keane does hit the No. 1 spot it could be handbags, or more likely knuckledusters, at dawn * The Northern Echo *The book is incredibly well written and the author allows you to develop a real empathy for the characters... The only disappointment I had was when I had finished the book, I wanted more! This is not the usual sort of material that I would read but I was gripped from the very beginning right through to the end. I would thoroughly recommend it. * www.Mojomums.co.uk *I didn't want this story to end and it certainly didn't end as expected. The last sting in the tails tears it all apart and the final chapter made me want to shout out in anger and dismay. A brilliant book. I really hope a sequel is written as so many questions are left unanswered. * jayneanderson.blogspot.co.uk *All I can say is that Jessie Keane is a force to be reckoned with in the crime genre now. Not only has she produced a great series (Annie Carter) she has also written some absolutely blinding stand alones. With this latest addition, Jessie Keane is quickly proving herself to be un-stoppable. Nameless has only made me want to read more (I sincerely hope this is going to have a follow up!) and as usual Jessie Keane does not disappoint. BLINDING!!! * www.bestcrimebooks.co.uk *Nameless is great at proving that a woman's strength should never be underestimated and a mothers love is eternal. I cannot wait for the next book!!!! * nicolemcmanusreviews.wordpress.com *
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Penguin Books Ltd Rabbit Redux Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisIt''s 1969, and the times are changing. America is about to land a man on the moon, the Vietnamese war is in full swing, and racial tension is on the rise. Things just aren''t as simple as they used to be - at least, not for Rabbit Angstrom. His wife has left him with his teenage son, his job is under threat and his mother is dying. Suddenly, into his confused life - and home - comes Jill, an eighteen-year-old runaway who becomes his lover. But when she invites her friend to stay, a young black radical named Skeeter, the pair''s fragile harmony soon begins to fail ...
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Penguin Books Ltd The Fountainhead
Book SynopsisTells the story of Howard Roark, a brilliant architect who dares to stand alone against the hostility of second-hand souls. First published in 1943, this novel presents a view of man's creative potential. It is about ambition, power, gold and love.
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Penguin Books Ltd Henderson the Rain King Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisBellow evokes all the rich colour and exotic customs of a highly imaginary Africa in this comic novel about a middle-aged American millionaire who, seeking a new, more rewarding life, descends upon an African tribe. Henderson''s awesome feats of strength and his unbridled passion for life earns him the admiration of the tribe - but it is his gift for making rain that turns him from mere hero into messiah.
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Penguin Books Ltd The Witches of Eastwick
Book SynopsisThe air of Eastwick breeds witches - women whose powerful longings can stir up thunderstorms and fracture domestic peace. Jane, Alexandra and Sukie, divorced and dangerous, have formed a coven. Into the void of Eastwick breezes Darryl Van Horne, a charismatic magus of a man who entrances the trio, luring them to his mansions...
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Penguin Books Ltd The Book of Daniel Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisBased on the trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted of delivering information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union E.L. Doctorow''s The Book of Daniel includes a new introduction by Jonathan Freedland in Penguin Modern Classics.As Cold War hysteria inflames America, FBI agents pay a surprise visit to a Communist man and his wife in their New York apartment. After a trial that divides the country, the couple are sent to the electric chair for treason. Decades later, in 1967, their son Daniel struggles to understand the tragedy of their lives. But while he is tormented by his past and trying to appreciate his own wife and son, Daniel is also haunted, like millions of others, by the need to come to terms with a country destroying itself in the Vietnam War. A stunning fictionalization of a political drama that tore the United States apart, The Book of Daniel is an intensely moving tale of political martyrdom and the search for meaning.
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Penguin Books Ltd The Western Lands
Book SynopsisA fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs''s final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, The Western Lands confirms his status as one of America''s greatest writers. The final novel of the trilogy containing Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads, this is a profound meditation on morality, loneliness, life and death.
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Penguin Books Ltd The Graduate
Book SynopsisAs far as Benjamin Braddock''s parents are concerned, his future is sewn up. Now he has graduated from college, he will go to Yale or Harvard, get a good job and enjoy a life of money, cocktails and pool parties in the suburbs, just like them. For Benjamin, however, this isn''t quite enough. When his parents'' friend Mrs Robinson, a formidable older woman, strips naked in front of him and they begin an affair, it seems he might have found a way out. That is, until her daughter Elaine comes into the picture, and things get far more complicated.Trade ReviewHe writes with this lovely, spare style -- Nick Hornby
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Penguin Books Ltd Half a Lifelong Romance
Book SynopsisFrom one of twentieth-century China''s greatest writers and the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai. Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shijun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart. When they are reunited after a separation of many years, can they start their relationship again? Or is it destined to be the romance of only half a lifetime? This affectionate and captivating novel tells the moving story of an enduring love affair, and offers a fascinating window onto Chinese life in the first half of the twentieth century.Eileen Chang was born in Shanghai in 1920. She studied literature at the University of Hong Kong but returned to Shanghai in 1941 during the Japanese occupation, where she estTrade ReviewIt took 46 years, but at long last English-language readers are now able to enjoy one of Eileen Chang's most popular works, Half a Lifelong Romance. A dramatic story of love, betrayal, opportunism and family oppression set in 1930s Shanghai, it is an enveloping, haunting and insightful read, rich in Chang's trademark passionate prose * Wall Street Journal *Eileen Chang is the fallen angel of Chinese literature -- Ang LeeA dazzling and distinctive fiction writer * New York Times Book Review *Chang's world is a stark and mysterious place where people strive to find their way in love but often fail under the pressures of family, tradition, and reputation * New Yorker *Karen S. Kingsbury's capable new translation of the novel * The Times Literary Supplement *
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Penguin Books Ltd Nineteen EightyFour Anniversary Edition Penguin
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1949, George Orwell''s Nineteen Eighty-Four has lost none of the impact with which it first hit readers.Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101. . .
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Penguin Books Ltd Things I Want My Daughters to Know
Book Synopsis''Honest and beautifully written'' Woman & HomeThe heartwarming classic about love and family from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Love, Iris will make you both laugh and cry._________How would you say goodbye to those you love most in the world?it''s time for Barbara to say a final farewell to her four daughters. But how can she find the words? And how can she leave them when they each have so much growing up to do? There''s commitment-phobic Lisa. Brittle, unhappily married Jennifer. Free-spirited traveller Amanda. And teenage Hannah, stumbling her way towards adulthood.Barbara''s answer is to write each daughter a letter, finally expressing the hopes, fears, dreams and secrets she couldn''t always say. These words will touch the girls in different - sometimes shocking - ways, unlocking emotions and passions to set them on their own journey of discovery throughTrade ReviewEnchantingly clever. I cried, I laughed, I couldn't put it down -- Penny VincenziHer stories strike a genuine chord . . . an irresistible comfort read * Glamour *Honest and beautifully written * Woman & Home *It would be a hard heart indeed that remained unmoved . . . the tender feelings Noble engenders in her readers are to be cherished * Daily Express *Incredibly thought-provoking and poignant * Sun *This powerful tale packs an emotional punch * Closer *An emotional rollercoaster * Now *A journey through emotionally-charged mother-daughter territory . . . it may just kickstart the practice of letter-writing again * Good Housekeeping *Praise for Elizabeth Noble * - *Noble is the mistress of the tearjerking message of love * Express *A wonderfully well-written book, full of emotion * Daily Mail *Deliciously readable * Times *Impossible to finish without tears streaming down your face * Daily Express *Honest and beautifully written * Woman & Home *Witty, affectionate and unashamedly tear-jerking * Red *Witty, pacy and immediately engaging * Glamour *So fluid, the pages turn themselves * Daily Mirror *Tissues are essential. You'll ricochet between delicately watering eyes at the romance of it all and howling sobs at the unbearable tendernes * Heat *
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Penguin Books Ltd The Darling Buds of May Inspiration for the ITV
Book Synopsis''Home looks nice. Allus does though, don''t it? Perfick''And so the Larkins - Pop, Ma, Mariette, Zinnia, Petunia, Primrose, Victoria and Montgomery - return from an outing for fish and chips and ice cream one May evening. There, amid the rustic charms of home, they discover a visitor: one Cedric Charlton, Her Majesty''s inspector of taxes.Mr Charlton is visiting to find out why junk-dealer Pop hasn''t paid his tax - but nothing''s that simple at the Larkins. Mariette takes a shine to ''Charley'' - as Pop calls him - and before long the family have introduced the uncomplaining inspector to the delights of country living: the lusty scents of wild flowers, the pleasures of a bottle of Dragon''s Blood, cold cream dribbled over a bowl of strawberries and hot, hot summer nights.In fact, soon Charley can''t see any reason to return to the office at all . . .Trade ReviewA pulsing comedy of country manners. A five-alarm blaze of a book. Just about perfick. * Time *A gently, anarchic wish-fulfilling daydream * The Times *A perfick piece of entertainment * New York Times *A wistful daydream about innocence and happiness * Spectator *Pop Larkin, Ma and their progeny . . . are essentially English of the rich and ribald England of Chaucer and Shakespeare. A superb and timeless comedy * Scotsman *As funny as Evelyn Waugh and as enchanting as Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie. Don't miss it * Herald *They are absolute comfort books * The Lady *Pop is as sexy, genial, generous, and boozy as ever. Ma is a worthy match for him in all these qualities -- - * The Times *As funny as Evelyn Waugh and as enchanting as Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie. Don't miss it -- - * Herald *Pop Larkin, Ma and their progeny . . . are essentially English of the rich and ribald England of Chaucer and Shakespeare. A superb and timeless comedy -- - * Scotsman *A perfick piece of entertainment -- - * New York Times *A wistful daydream about innocence and happiness -- - * Spectator *A pulsing comedy of country manners. A five-alarm blaze of a book. Just about perfick -- - * Time *A gently, anarchic wish-fulfilling daydream -- - * The Times *The Larkins live - these novels please us by escaping definition -- - * Guardian *
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Penguin Books Ltd Brazzaville Beach
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE ''A brilliant storyteller . . . a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights'' Financial Times_____________________________________On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband John, and his mathematical obsessions, in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps. But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn''t right. That behind Mallabar, and his obsessive work, there lies another, more sinister truth: one that might also help explain Hope''s reasons for leaving England . . ._____________________________________''A most extraordinary parable about mankind. Quite unlike anything else I have read'' Sunday Express''Brilliant, daring. A gripping and compulsive storTrade Review'As intelligent as anything you're likely to read... slips by like a thriller' Time Out 'A brilliant storyteller... a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights' Financial Times 'A most extraordinary parable about mankind... quite unlike anything else I have ever read' Sunday Express 'Brazzaville Beach exudes confidence; Boyd has grown in authority from book to book. Things are by turn hilarious and edgy but always under control' Sunday Times
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