Dystopian & Alternative History Fiction Books

Book SynopsisEdited by Niall Ferguson, Virtual History applies ''counterfactual'' arguments to decisive moments in modern history.What if Britain had stayed out of the First World War?What if Germany had invaded Britain in 1940?What if Nazi Germany had defeated the Soviet Union?How would England look if there had been no Cromwell?What if there had been no American Revolution?And what if John F. Kennedy had lived?In this acclaimed book, leading historians from Andrew Roberts to Michael Burleigh challenge the complacency of traditional accounts, exploring what might have been if nine of the most decisive moments in modern history had never happened.''Quite brilliant, inspiring for the layman and an enviable tour de force for the informed reader ... A wonderful book ... lucid, exciting and easy to read'' - Literary Review''Ferguson constructs an entire scenario starting with Charles I''s defeat of the Covenanters, running through three revolutions that did not happen and climaxing with the collapse of the West, ruled by an Anglo-American empire, in the face of a mighty transcontinental, tsarist Russian imperium ... A welcome, optimistic assault on an intellectual heresy'' - Sunday Times''A talented and imaginative team who tackle with counterfactual verve a series of turning points'' - Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewQuite brilliant, inspiring for the layman and an enviable tour de force for the informed reader ... A wonderful book ... lucid, exciting and easy to read * Literary Review *Ferguson constructs an entire scenario starting with Charles I's defeat of the Covenanters, running through three revolutions that did not happen and climaxing with the collapse of the West, ruled by an Anglo-American empire, in the face of a mighty transcontinental, tsarist Russian imperium ... A welcome, optimistic assault on an intellectual heresy * Sunday Times *A talented and imaginative team who tackle with counterfactual verve a series of turning points * Daily Telegraph *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Doesn''t come any more stylish than this'' Sunday Telegraph-----THE FIRST BOOK IN THE BRIDGE SERIES - READ IDORU AND ALL TOMORROW''S PARTIES FOR MORESan Francisco in the nearish future.Ex-cop Berry Rydell''s lost one job he didn''t much like and landed another he likes even less. Some sunglasses - actually high-end kit infused with super-sensitive data - were stolen from a courier, and a man named Warbaby''s been charged with retrieving them. And Warnaby needs Rydell''s help.But, with SFPD Homicide involved, an abandoned bridge populated by freaks and misfits, and some weirdness involving the Republic of Desire and a ''Death Star'', it''s turning out to be a very strange and dangerous scene indeed . . .Can Rydell navigate this unsteady reality in time to save the city . . . and himself?William Gibson, author of the classic Neuromancer and creator of cyberpunk, Trade ReviewAn American Ballard, using the tropes of science fiction to satirical and productively alienating effect * Guardian *One of the first authentic and vital novels of the 21st century * Washington Post on Pattern Recognition *A major novelist who seems to be hitting his peak * Chicago Tribune *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFlynne Fisher lives in rural near-future America where jobs are scarce and veterans from the wars are finding it hard to recover. She scrapes a living doing some freelance online game-playing, participating in some pretty weird stuff. Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse.Trade ReviewSuperb . . . frantic with imagination and frantic with the appetite to see what happens next -- Ned Beauman, ObserverWhat a glorious ride! Like the woman said: brain 'splode -- Sam Leith * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhilip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928, but lived most of his life in California, briefly attending the University of California at Berkeley in 1947. Among the most prolific and eccentric of science fiction writers, Dick's many novels and stories all blend a sharp and quirky imagination with a strong sense of the surreal. By the time of his death in 1982 he had written 36 science fiction novels and 112 short stories. Notable titles amongst the novels include The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968, later used as the basis for the film Blade Runner), Ubik (1969) and A Scanner Darkly (1977). The Man in the High Castle, perhaps his most painstakingly constructed and chilling novel, won a Hugo Award in 1963.Trade ReviewThe most brilliant sci-fi mind on any planet * Rolling Stone *California's own William Blake. Visionary and prophet. Novelist of ideas * Daily Telegraph *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick - Booker Gems THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 WINNER OF THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ''Astonishing'' Zadie Smith ''Stunning'' Spectator ''Extraordinary'' TLS An extraordinary story of love and hope from the bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist All over the world, doors are appearing. They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives. And in a city gripped by war, Nadia and Saeed are newly in love. Hardly more than strangers, desperate to survive, they open a door and step through. But the doors only go one way. Once you leave, there is no going back.*Coming soon as a major Netflix film - produced by Michelle and Barack Obama and starring Riz Ahmed* ''One of the year''s most significant literary works'' The New York Times ''A masterpiece'' Michael Chabon ''Addictively readable and brilliantly written. Fantastic'' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewAs with the very best literature, its crystalline readability fast eclipses its topicality * Mail on Sunday *[A] devastating portrait of victims of war, creating a singular parable about modernity, migration and the individual's place in the world * The Guardian *A deceptively simple conceit turns a timely novel about a couple fleeing a civil war into a profound meditation on the psychology of exile. A novel that fuses the real with the surreal - perhaps the most faithful way to convey the tremulous political fault lines of our interconnected planet * The New York Times *No conventional love story. [An] exceptionally moving and powerful novel * The Guardian *Publisher's description. In an unnamed city swollen by refugees, two young people fall in love. One day soon they will have to leave their homeland, running for their lives, searching for their place in the world. * Penguin *Powerful, vivid, poignant... Hamid is the master * Sunday Times *Writing in spare, crystalline prose, Hamid conveys the experience of living in a city under siege with sharp, stabbing immediacy * Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times *A love story as spare, haunting and spiritually powerful as a haiku. All my life I will remember Nadia and Saeed, their humanity against a surreal, broken landscape. Exit West is Hamid's finest book -- Kiran DesaiImaginative, inventive, graceful... Hamid exploits fiction's capacity to elicit empathy and imagine a better world * New York Times Book Review *A subtle and moving examination of how human relationships endure and falter under unimaginable pressures. Exit West is an instant classic * GQ *Impressive... Exit West confirms Hamid's reputation as a brilliant ventriloquist who is deeply engaged with the most pressing issues of our time -- Andrew Motion (Book of the Week) * Guardian *Astonishing -- Zadie SmithImmediately canonical * New Yorker *Part pared-down romance, part 21st-century fable, Exit West is a thought experiment that pivots on the crucial figure of this century: the migrant * Financial Times *Exit West packs such an emotional wallop you will be thinking about it for days afterwards. For Hamid is not only telling a story, he is asking what sort of a world we want to live in. * Editor's Choice, the Bookseller *It's a terrific, beautifully constructed, important novel of our time. This is what we expect fiction to do: to examine our age but also to cast an eye on the past and - very brilliantly in this case - on the future too. I love it. * Mirza Waheed *Exit West is a masterpiece. It stretches the boundaries of the real just enough to make a point about the state of immigrants and refugees in the contemporary world. But it's very much grounded in reality. It's a beautiful book. * Michael Chabon *Mohsin Hamid is one of the most talented and formally audacious writers of his generation * Telegraph *A man born to write -- Dave EggersThe voice of a changing continent. A writer at the top of his game * Metro *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES #1 BESTSELLER OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK''One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I haven''t felt this way since I first read Beloved . . .'' Oprah Winfrey Lose yourself in the stunning debut novel everyone is talking about - the unmissable historical story of injustice and redemption that resonates powerfully todayHiram Walker is a man with a secret, and a war to win. A war for the right to life, to family, to freedom.Born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, he is also born gifted with a mysterious power that he won''t discover until he is almost a man, when he risks everything for a chance to escape. One fateful decision will carry him away from his makeshift plantation family and into the heart of the underground war on slavery... ''A transcendent work from a crucial political and literary artist'' Diana Evans ''I''ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates'' Toni MorrisonTrade ReviewAny writer tackling slavery needs to do something different with it, and The Water Dancer does just that. Coates' rhapsodic prose spins a soaring, scorching, supernatural tale of the imagination that sets this history alight and turns it into an original work of art. -- Bernardine EvaristoOne of the best books I have ever read in my entire life . . . I was enthralled, I was devastated. -- Oprah Winfreya remarkable story about inequality, slavery, memory, freedom and dignity. I found it important and universally relevant -- Elif Shafak * Guardian *a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. * New York Times *a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance . . . timeless and instantly canon-worthy. * Rolling Stone *A tale of slavery and mysterious power in this debut novel from one of America's most exciting young writers. * The Times *An arresting story of fantastical power in the brutal world of human bondage . . . A transcendent, arresting work from a crucial political and literary artist -- Diana EvansEagerly anticipated . . . The Water Dancer merges historical and fantasy fiction in a slavery story that Oprah Winfrey says is one of the best books she has read in her life. * Observer *In prose that sings and imagination that soars, Coates further cements himself as one of this generation's most important writers, tackling one of America's oldest and darkest periods with grace and inventiveness. This is bold, dazzling, and not to be missed * Publisher's Weekly *Beautiful prose and wonderful characters . . . an important book written by one of the great thinkers of our times. It's a thriller, a historical how-to, a love story and a warning. I read it one long night and the next day pressed it into everyone's hands. Brilliant.This potent book about America's most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist. * San Francisco Chronicle *Ta-Nehisi Coates has emerged as an important public intellectual and perhaps America's most incisive thinker about race. * New York Times *Slavery, forgetting and memory are at the heart of Coates's ambitious, compelling first novel... * TLS *

Read more less

Book SynopsisBRITISH VOGUE ''STAR OF THE FUTURE''INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE''A gripping, sinister fable'' Margaret Atwood''An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise'' Guardian''Bold, inventive, haunting . . . With shades of Margaret Atwood and Eimear McBride, you''ll be bowled over by it'' StylistA hypnotic coming-of-age story for fans of The Power, The Vegetarian, I Who Have Never Known Men and The GirlsGrace, Lia and Sky live in an abandoned hotel, on a sun-bleached island, beside a poisoned sea. Their parents raised them there to keep them safe, to make them good. The world beyond the water is contaminated and men are the contamination. But one day three strangers wash ashore - men who stare at the sisters hungrily, helplessly. Men who bring trouble.*****''A feminist fable set by the sea, a female Lord of the Flies. It felt like a book I''d been waiting to read for a long time'' Emma Jane Unsworth''Visceral, hypnotic, with one of my favourite endings I''ve read in a long while'' The Pool''An unsettling dark fantasy... [It] lingers long after the final page'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewCompulsive, eerily gorgeous, [it] will have you gripped until the end... A film adaptation feels inevitable... As far as debuts go, this is superb * Irish News *A feminist dystopian fairy tale, a sexual coming-of-age story and a survival-of-the-fittest tale. Evocative, suspenseful and bleak - in short, everything this age seems to be demanding * NPR *[An] eerie, uncanny literary debut... Beautifully written, pared down and hypnotic * Sunday Times Culture *Bewitching... [An] ambiguous utopia * Guardian *In raw, visceral prose, Mackintosh probes at ideas of the threat of male violence, the ways women are told to protect ourselves, love and sisterhood and survival. A hypnotic, stormy book, with one of my favourite endings I've read in a long while * The Pool *Stunning... A haunting story of abuse, death, and desire... Chilling and topical, a breathtaking debut * Dazed *Eerily beautiful, this strange, unsettling novel creeps up and grabs hold of you -- Paula Hawkins, author of 'The Girl on the Train'Darkly gratifying, dreamy, primal, and arresting [as] a fairy tale... The overgrown grounds, with their perimeter of rusty barbed wire and shark-infested waters, resemble Sleeping Beauty's castle * New Yorker *Searing, richly drawn, eerily compelling... As foreboding in what it holds back as in what it reveals * Stylist *Elemental... [A] utopia portrayed in spectral, organic prose... Mackintosh is a wonderful stylist; the full scope of her imagination, as well as the cohesion of her vision, is evident on every page... A seriously impressive feat * Irish Times *[A] wildly confident debut... Take the strange social ceremonies of The Lobster and the pheromone-rich claustrophobia of The Beguiled and you come close to the world Sophie Mackintosh conjures * AnOther Magazine *The Water Cure is eerily still and pure - with saline bite... Mackintosh asks if it is the traumas of our pasts that ultimately pose the greatest threat to our futures * New Statesman *Powerfully unsettling, immensely assured, calmly devastating. It conjures a world both alien and familiar, exploring the physical and psychological cruelties enacted on women, by men, in the name of their protection, and the noble and ignoble uses to which anger can be put in a perverse world. This is a gem of a novel, and I was bowled over by it -- Katherine Angel, author of 'Unmastered'Electric [and] beautifully strange... Her novel is an exercise in minimalism * Times Literary Supplement *A hypnotic read... This extraordinary debut is a feminist, quasi-dystopian read - great for fans of Hot Milk, The Girls and The Vegetarian * Elle *A work of cool, claustrophobic beauty. Sophie Mackintosh writes devastatingly well about the complexities that women face in loving men, and in loving each other -- Eli Goldstone, author of 'Strange Heart Beating'Uneasy, mythic, lawless... The atmospheric landscapes cloak trauma and violence in wisps of uncertainty, where bad feelings coalesce as both presciently felt and strangely unknowable * Frieze *Otherworldly, brutal and poetic: a feminist fable set by the sea, a utopia gone awry, a female Lord of the Flies. It transported me, savaged me, filled me with hope and fear. It felt like a book I'd been waiting to read for a long time -- Emma Jane Unsworth, author of 'Animals'[A] lyrical debut, original and very atmospheric * Good Housekeeping *Eerie, electric, beautiful. It rushes you through to the end on a tide of tension and closely held panic. I loved this book -- Daisy Johnson, author of 'Fen'Creepy and delightful, a portrayal of post-apocalyptic puberty, intermingling desire and despair. It has a pinch of Shirley Jackson, a dash of chlorine, and an essence all of its own -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of 'Harmless Like You'Powerful, mythic, seductively sinister... Her alternative world is as carefully imagined as one of Margaret Atwood's... [Sophie Mackintosh] is a writer to be reckoned with * Book Oxygen *Eerie and unsettling, the novel exerts a hypnotic grip as the tension builds * Daily Mail *A superb debut * i *The Water Cure deserves a Sofia Coppola-style big-screen treatment, although its cultish overtones and sinister denouement are as reminiscent of The Wicker Man as The Virgin Suicides * The Literary Review *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''We defy you to pick up The Last and put it back down'' Stylist ''Extraordinary'' Emily St John Mandel, Station ElevenTWENTY SURVIVORS. ONE HOTEL. ONE KILLER.------ The world as we know it has ended. You and nineteen other survivors hole up in an isolated Swiss hotel. You wait, you survive. Then you find the body. One of your number has blood on their hands. The race is on to find the killer. Before the killer finds you.... Finished Station Eleven and Contagion and looking for your next pulse-pounding, speculative read? Look no further than The Last. This Waterstones Thriller of the month will sweep you into a world of fascinating characters and compulsive mystery.------ ''One of those books you can''t stop reading, but don''t want to end'' TM Logan, The Holiday''Dark, compelling, original'' CJTrade ReviewThe Last is a brilliantly executed novel, and the questions Jameson poses-who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?-are as haunting as the plot itself. This is a chilling and extraordinary book -- Emily St John Mandel, author of 'Station Eleven'Dark, original, compelling -- CJ Tudor, author of The Chalk ManIt is Jameson's portrayal both imaginative and plausible, of how her characters adapt to their new life that makes her novel such compulsive reading * Daily Telegraph *A clever, original, scarily plausible white-knuckle read -- Erin Kelly, bestselling author of 'He Said, She Said'A brilliantly imagined tale of suspicion, betrayal and survival in a world on the brink of extinction. One of those books that you can't stop reading - but don't want to end -- TM Logan, bestselling author of 'Lies'Stephen King meets Agatha Christie, in this fantastic and highly original novel that I'll be recommending to readers for a long time to come. I loved every second of it! This is *the* book of 2019 -- Luca Veste, author of 'The Bone Keeper'Chillingly nightmarish - a gripping read -- Sophia Tobin, author of 'The Silversmith's Wife'Gripping, and thoroughly and frighteningly believable. I could not put this book down -- Jennie Melamed, author of 'Gather the Daughters'Jameson does an excellent job of exploring what nuclear war would mean for us . . . exploring what it would mean to live in a place where consequences no longer existed. * Observer *We defy you to pick up The Last and put it back down * Stylist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the author longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women''s Prize for Fiction and selected as one of the Best Young British Novelists of the Decade:An unsettling and addictive feminist fable for fans of I Who Have Never Known Men, Hot Milk, Unsettled Ground and Klara and the Sun Recommended by Stylist, Evening Standard, Esquire, Red, Daily Mail, Oprah Magazine, LitHub, and Belletrist Book Club''Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes'' Deborah Levy''Definitely don''t miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh'' StylistCalla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the lottery station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. Or, to put it another way, you have no choice. And once you''ve taken your ticket, there is no going back.But what if the life you''re given is the wrong one?Blue Ticket is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.''Dreamlike, tense, compelling, [with] a pitch-perfect ending'' The New York Times''Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric'' Sunday Times''Thoughtful and haunting'' Observer''Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure'' LitHub''Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams'' RedTrade ReviewDefinitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh... Blue Ticket gets to the root of women's ambivalence and confusion around becoming mothers set against an unsettling dystopia; she's amazing * Stylist, Best Autumn Reads 2020 *Dreamlike, tense, compelling... Blue Ticket adds something new to the dystopian tradition set by Orwell's 1984 or Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale... Piercing moments of wisdom and insight drive toward a pitch-perfect ending * The New York Times *The cool intensity and strange beauty of Blue Ticket is a wonder - be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes -- Deborah Levy, author of 'Hot Milk'Even more hallucinatory and spiralled than her first [novel]... Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure * Lit Hub, Best New Books to Read This Summer *The Handmaid's Tale as told by David Lynch... A bona fide chase narrative as well as a polyvalent, dream-like allegory of pregnancy and bodily change - not to mention the vortex of judgement that surrounds womanhood... Mackintosh is part of an exciting generation of writers, including Daisy Johnson and Julia Armfield... Blue Ticket stands apart from the crowd -- Anthony Cummins * iNews *One of the most disquieting novels I've read in a long time, Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams * Red, 'Best Books of August' *Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric... Mackintosh handles haziness deliberately and with poise, demonstrating the near impossibility of trying to articulate or rationalise maternal desire * Sunday Times *Mackintosh writes with a language drawn from the body.... Impressionistic and haunting in equal measure -- Annabel Nugent * Independent *Visceral, primal, striking... This is a potent exploration of biology and agency, motherhood and childlessness, which confirms [Mackintosh] as a writer of note * Daily Mail *Mackintosh is part of a new generation of female writers creating feminist fictions that relate uncannily to our dystopian times... [Her] fiction lives, to an unusual extent, in its musicality, in the rhythm and spareness of its sentences -- Claire Armitstead * Guardian Review *For anyone currently waiting with bated breath for the new season of 'The Handmaid's Tale', Booker-longlisted author Sophie Mackintosh's new novel is a feminist dystopia to quench your thirst * Evening Standard *A thoughtful and haunting exploration of freedom, fate and a woman's right to choose her destiny * Observer *Chilling, timely, thought-provoking * Esquire, Best Books of Summer 2020 *[Mackintosh] writes with an ethereal lyricism that is equally capable of fragility and violence * Spectator *Blue Ticket offers a completely different angle on a familiar subject... Like all good speculative fiction, [it] reminds us of a truth in the real world * New Humanist *A compelling, unsettling tale... Part-horror, part thriller, and part pregnant-lesbian love story * i *A dark fable... Mackintosh sensitively conveys resonant questions about motherhood, female solidarity, queer love, and bodily autonomy * New Yorker *Cool, disturbing, it deals with emotionally fraught material. Mackintosh traffics in ambivalence and ambiguity... What Calla really wants, the author shows us, isn't necessarily a baby; it's an answer * Washington Post *A spare, haunting tale of autonomy and free will -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *Both claustrophobic and expansive, dream-like and heart-stoppingly tense. You will want to languish in its world for a very long time -- Lara Williams, author of 'Supper Club'This book left me breathless - it is gloriously subversive in its exploration of motherhood and desire. I'll be pressing it on everyone -- Angela Chadwick, author of 'XX'Strange and luminous, spare and precise... A thrilling exploration of what it means to follow one's own longing to the point of destruction and beyond -- Rosie Price, author of 'What Red Was'Utterly exquisite - clever and brilliant and heartbreaking. From the dusty road to the salving forest, I absolutely adored it -- Emma Jane Unsworth, author of 'Adults' and 'Animals'Chilling, haunting, heartbreaking... Mackintosh brings a new sense of pathos to the dystopian novel... A moving and original meditation on freedom, fate, and women's rage * Kirkus, Starred Review *A dreamlike exploration of free will and desire * Monocle *A must for Handmaid's Tale aficionados * Booklist *Powerful, Ishiguro-esque... Sophie Mackintosh lays bare many of the fears and realities that face any society's women as they contemplate when their choices begin, and where they might end * Boston Globe *Told with ragged prose that catches the breath, [Blue Ticket] articulates the irrepressible desires and wounds that can lie deep within, marked by a claustrophobia that never stops pressing in from the margins. This unsettling reimagining of the anxieties and pressures around motherhood lays bare the alienation that comes when your body is not truly yours * Irish News *A darkly brilliant allegory... Astute, revelatory and heartbreakingA rich, sharp, and daring book. To read Blue Ticket is to feel so vigorously alert you can feel the world turningMesmerising * Daily Nerd *Mackintosh poses urgent questions about social expectations and free will that are relevant to all realities * Poets and Writers *

Read more less

Book SynopsisGRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTSLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE 2023LONGLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2024From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure comes a chilling new feminist fable based on the true story of an unsolved mystery . . .''A shimmering fever-dream of a novel'' TelegraphSpring, 1951. Four people meet in a small French town: the baker and his wife; the ambassador and his wife. Two belong to the town, two are outsiders.Some time later, strange things start happening. Horses drop dead in the fields. Children grow wild and unbiddable. Ghosts are sighted after dark. Someone is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse but who is the predator and who their prey?Audacious and mesmerizing, Cursed Bread is a darkly erotic mystery about a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.''A dreamy sapphic romp'' The Times''Gauzy [and] gripping, a quietly rich maturation of Mackintosh''s skill'' GuardianThe Spectator Book of the Year 2023Trade ReviewA shimmering fever-dream of a novel, teasing the reader [..] while finding a fresh narrative framework for the relationship between monotonous small-town life and repressed female desire. Cursed Bread contains more riches than many a novel twice its length * Telegraph *A quietly rich maturation of Mackintosh's skill... This is a book about the power desire and greed exert over reality and memory... Mackintosh has entered a brilliant new stage of writing * Guardian *Nimble, terrifying... Mackintosh is a wonderful prose stylist and she uses many of the resources that served her well in her Booker prize-nominated debut, The Water Cure: the slow unravelling of sanity, the isolated and mysterious setting, that feeling of panting, crawling, unfulfilled desire... A dreamy sapphic romp * The Times *Remarkable, sensuous, thrillingly written . . . Mackintosh's evocation of desire is so tangible that you can smell the aroma of illicit sex * Observer *A richly atmospheric tale of greed, desire and vainglorious ambition, the plot centres around Elodie, wife of the village baker, who projects the wants and desires from her own unfulfilling marriage onto the arrival of two glamorous newcomers to the village... Shimmering with an almost hallucinatory quality throughout, closing its pages at The End feels like waking up from a fever dream. Fascinating. * Marie Claire *A sun-scorched fever dream . . . Mackintosh's top-notch phrasemaking and knack for forming uncanny images generate a baleful atmosphere of lust and dread in this splendidly peculiar tale * Daily Mail *Sensual, luminous, transcendent... This tale of obsession, desire and betrayal has a timeless, dreamlike quality. It confirms Mackintosh as one of our finest young writers * The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *As in her previous novels, Mackintosh's prose is eerie but minimalist - dreamlike yet grounded. Her style elevates plot to the status of fable or allegory without resorting to straightforward metaphor. This a story shrouded in mist, thick with meaning * New Statesman *This novel is a masterclass in observation, of fracturing personalities but also in its tight and nuanced portrait of the rituals and minutiae of small-town life. Afterwards, you'll want to devour it all over again * Independent *Mackintosh's dark imagination and precision as a prose stylist combine to devastating effect, as unsettling as it is unpredictable * Financial Times *Sensual, brilliant... This strange fable takes place in a 20th-century French village (and, remarkably, is based on a true story). It is the sort of tale that you will want to sneak a chapter of at the dinner table before food is served. The book details the progress of a maddening, hot summer... Be warned: you will never look at a boulangerie in the same way again * Daily Telegraph (Summer Reads) *A thrilling and subversive fable * i-D *Distinctive, cool, sparse... An eerie ambiguity fills Cursed Bread * i *Intoxicating, sumptuous and savage, Cursed Bread has a gothic sensibility that is entirely original. In Mackintosh's hands, the strange, compulsive machinations of desire become luminous and ghastly all at once -- Alexandra Kleeman, author of 'You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine'Sensuous and haunted, like Madame Bovary reworked as a ghost story - an incredible book about desire, pleasure, beauty. Sophie's fiction always has a gauzy quality, filled with strange, languid images, which rise to a narrative crescendo like clues in a detective novel. She makes it look effortless -- Jo Hamya, author of 'Three Rooms'Cursed Bread floored me on the first page and didn't let up for the rest of the journey. It always feels like a true privilege to spend time with Sophie Mackintosh's brilliant mind and she is only getting better and weirder and wilder. A knockout -- Megan Nolan, author of 'Acts of Desperation'Macabre and sensuous... [It] packs a punch * Mail on Sunday *Her writing is so sleek, the characters mysterious and yet indelible - a taut, seductive, thrilling gem of a novel -- Olivia Sudjic, author of 'Asylum Road'Sophie Mackintosh takes a true story and asks what any of us really know about what is true? Our desires poison us. Shame and longing intertwine. We hide even from ourselves... This novel is subtle and devouring; reading it is like being slowly swallowed by the night -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of 'Starling Days'Vivid and shocking, written with stunning, incantatory prose, Cursed Bread is the kind of book that upends your nervous system -- Julia May Jonas , author of VladimirBloody, sexy, sinister, strange. This book will take hold of you -- Saba Sams, author of 'Send Nudes'Everything Sophie Mackintosh is so febrile and tactile, when you read her books you feel as if you live in them. The world felt so eerie after finishing Cursed Bread. I didn't feel quite the same as I was before, but in the best way -- Annie Lord, author of 'Notes on Heartbreak'A story of love, lust and appetite . . . a book I haven’t been able to stop thinking about * The Spectator 'Best Books of 2023' *Pristine, visceral & wild. She's a master. You won't be disappointed -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of 'The Book of X'Gorgeously atmospheric and feverishly compulsive [on] amorphous longings and desires, and the hot shame of wanting more than you deserve -- Lara Williams, author of 'Supper Club'Sophie Mackintosh has given her strange and intriguing imagination the opportunity to flourish. There is tension on every page * Prospect *A thrilling and feverish fable of secret desire * Monocle *

Read more less

Book Synopsis-Will be promoted by Indiana Review -Explores universal human need to create narrative out of disparate events -Perfect for readers who like literary realism or speculative fictionTrade Review"I found The Devil and the Dairy Princess to be strikingly original. Each piece is distinctive, innovative, and full of fresh surprises. Yet the collection as a whole is cohesive in tone and voice, evocative, playful, haunting spaces both dreamy and nightmarish."—Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown, Blue Light Books Prize Judge, author of Interior Chinatown"Ponce's stories are filled with vivid topographies, moving reveries, and quiet wonders. A little bit Calvino, and a little bit Borges, this collection is like a strange and haunting museum: the perfect place to get lost in for a while."—Lincoln Michel, author of The Body ScoutTable of ContentsAcknowledgements1. The Piazza de Chirico2. The Discovery of Dr. James Osborne Beckett3. The Presentation4. The Well at Founders Grove5. The Abbreviated Life of Whitney Bascombe 6. Divination by Water7. Nuptial Superstitions of the West8. The Possession of Charles Ignatius De Leon9. The Devil and the Dairy Princess10. In the Empire of CetaceansCredits

Read more less

Book Synopsis1. This is a powerful and engaging novel that resonates with current fears about climate change. 2. Sanders is an award-winning author, well known for his environmental writing.Trade ReviewA keen eye, a sensuous and exact imagination, and a buoyant spirit. -- Ursula K. Le Guin

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn entire month has gone missing from Chinese records. No one has any memory of it, and no one seems to care except for a small circle of friends who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that have possessed the nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn—not only about their leaders, but also about their own people—stuns them to the core.  The Fat Years is a complex novel of ideas that reveals all too chillingly the machinations of the postmodern totalitarian state and sets in sharp relief the importance of remembering the past in order to protect the future.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis Children of Men meets The Handmaid's Tale in this 'smartly written' and 'splendid' thriller about how far a mother will go to protect her son from a hostile world transformed by the absence of men (Stephen King).Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues—but a world run by women isn't always a better place.Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie—all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxu

Read more less

Book Synopsis A gripping look at the way humanity handles crisis. --Newsweek In the midst of a devastating epidemic, how far will a desperate mother go to keep her loved ones safe? There is a deadly virus spreading around the world. At first it is a distant alarm bell in the background of Hannah''s comfortable suburban life. Then suddenly, it has arrived on the doorstep. The quarantine traps Hannah, her husband, and their young sons in their home and forces them to rely on their own resourcefulness as water and power supplies are cut, food reserves dwindle, and their formerly idyllic backyard and quiet street become battlefields. Hannah is convinced that if she keeps her wits about her, she can protect her family, even as one threat after another looms just on the other side of the door.Compulsively readable and deeply personal, Before This Is Over forces us to grapple with disa

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis On the battlefields of America, even our children will have to fight. In his most powerful novel to date, acclaimed author Craig DiLouie presents a near future in which America is entrenched in civil war. After his impeachment, the president of the United States refuses to leave office, and the country erupts into a fractured and violent war. Orphaned by the fighting and looking for a home, 10-year-old Hannah Miller joins a citizen militia in a besieged Indianapolis. In the Free Women militia, Hannah finds a makeshift family. They''ll teach her how to survive. They''ll give her hope. And they''ll show her how to use a gun. An instant classic that will join the ranks of dystopian futures that at times feel all too real. - Nicholas Sansbury Smith, USA Today Bestselling Author

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThey say the war''s over when the surrender is signed. It''s a lie.America''s bloody Second Civil War lasted for years. When the surrender is signed, it''s supposed to be over; refugees flood the highways, trying to get back home. For Swann''s Riders-especially their newest addition Lara Nelson, snatched from certain death in the Firster kamp system-there''s no such thing as a home to return to.Swann and his crew of partisans work for the Federal Army now, hunting through the wreckage for war criminals and kamp officials. Their next quarry is carrying something explosive, something that can level the nascent Federal government and turn the entire continent into a hellscape- well, more than it already is.Across America, working against time and chaos, Swann''s Riders are back in the fight. And Lara, whose secrets may well end up consuming her too, has a vengeance of her own to deliver...

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisPerfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Boleyn Reckoning heralds the triumphant conclusion of Laura Andersen’s enthralling trilogy about the Tudor king who never was: the son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn—Henry IX—who, along with his sisters and those he holds most dear, approaches a dangerous crossroads.   The Tudor royal family has barely survived a disastrous winter. Now English ships and soldiers prepare for the threat of invasion. But William Tudor—known as Henry IX—has his own personal battles to attend to. He still burns for Minuette, his longtime friend, but she has married William’s trusted advisor, Dominic, in secret—an act of betrayal that puts both their lives in danger. Princess Elizabeth, concerned over her brother’s erratic, vengeful behavior, imperils her own life by assembling a shadow court in an effort to protect England. With war on the horizon, Elizabeth must decide

Read more less

Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. “Red Rising ascends above a crowded dys­topian field.”—USA TodayONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.” “I live for you,” I say sadly. Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe classic fantasy series from “one of alternative-history’s stalwarts” (The New Yorker) continues in the adventure of a lifetime.   Harry Turtledove’s brilliant re-imaginings of major world events have thrilled fans for decades, but he first captured readers’ attention with the Videssos Cycle, a unique blend of fantasy and speculative history. In this two-book volume, a Roman legion, thrown into another world, fights its way through sorcery, intrigue, and epic conflict.   THE LEGION OF VIDESSOS   Since the legion was mysteriously transported to this magical realm, Roman military tribune Marcus Aemilius Scaurus has valiantly served the rulers of the war-torn city of Videssos. However, Fortune is a fickle goddess. Returning in triumph after defeating a well-entrenched army of rebel mercenaries, Marcus is betrayed by a friend, seized as a traitor, and dragged before the Emperor. Only

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend, the moving and eerily relevant novel that imagines the aftermath of a flu pandemic as seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy uncertain of his destiny.In an America devastated by a flu pandemic, orphaned thirteen-year-old C ole finds safety and stability with an evangelical pastor and his wife. Happiness becomes disquiet as he realises the cost at which this peace comes, and the extent to which it challenges everything he knows.Salvation City is a story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, blending a deeply affecting portrait of one young boy''s transformation with a profound meditation on belief, heroism, and the true meaning of salvation.''A tale of an American near-apocalypse that ... reads beautifully, at time joyously, and makes one reconsider the ordering of our world'' Gary Shteyngart''Not only timely and thought-provoking but also generous in its Trade ReviewA tale of an American near-apocalypse that ... reads beautifully, at time joyously, and makes one reconsider the ordering of our world * Gary Shteyngart *Not only timely and thought-provoking but also generous in its understanding of human nature. When the apocalypse comes, I want Nunez in my lifeboat * Vanity Fair *Nunez's writing is gorgeously spare, and she gets the life and the lingo of a teenage boy just right.... A gorgeously strange novel * Boston Globe *A satisfying, provocative and very plausible novel * Abraham Verghese, New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice *A wise and richly humane coming-of-age novel * O Magazine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Sigrid Nunez, the National Book Award-winning and bestselling author of The Friend, comes this mesmerising story about the tangled nature of relationships between parents and children, between language and love.''A pleasure from the first page to the last'' JONATHAN FRANZEN***With an introduction by Susan Choi***A young woman looks back to the world of her immigrant parents: a Chinese-Panamanian father and a German mother, who meet in postwar Germany and settle in New York City. Growing up in a housing project in the 1950s and 1960s, the narrator escapes into dreams inspired both by her parents'' stories and by her own reading and, for a time, into the otherworldly life of ballet. A yearning homesick mother, a silent and withdrawn father, the ballet-these are the elements that shape the young woman''s imagination and her sexuality.''A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent'' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWTrade ReviewThis strange, lucid story of the unwished-for child of unassimilated immigrants takes us well beyond the particulars of 'mixed ethnicity'--beyond even the experience of 'America'--into deep paradoxes of identity and love. Both old-fashioned and subversive, stringent and redemptive, it's a pleasure from the first page to the last * Jonathan Franzen *This strange, lucid story of the unwished-for child of unassimilated immigrants takes us well beyond the particulars of 'mixed ethnicity'--beyond even the experience of 'America'--into deep paradoxes of identity and love. Both old-fashioned and subversive, stringent and redemptive, it's a pleasure from the first page to the last * Jonathan Franzen *A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent * New York Times Book Review *A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent * New York Times Book Review *A remarkable, often disturbing portrait . . . Nunez's language throughout is spare, utterly lacking in sentimentality * Los Angeles Times Book Review *A remarkable, often disturbing portrait . . . Nunez's language throughout is spare, utterly lacking in sentimentality * Los Angeles Times Book Review *An intelligent and poignant examination of social and erotic displacement, and written with such extraordinary and seemingly unstudied conviction that one accepts every word of it as truth * Atlantic Monthly *An intelligent and poignant examination of social and erotic displacement, and written with such extraordinary and seemingly unstudied conviction that one accepts every word of it as truth * Atlantic Monthly *A Feather on the Breath of God brilliantly succeeds in describing a life on the fringe, outside the conventional categories of cultural and personal identity ... A remarkable book, full of strange brilliance, trembling with fury and tenderness * Philadelphia Enquirer *A Feather on the Breath of God brilliantly succeeds in describing a life on the fringe, outside the conventional categories of cultural and personal identity ... A remarkable book, full of strange brilliance, trembling with fury and tenderness * Philadelphia Enquirer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisGore Vidal''s fictional recreation of the Roman Empire teetering on the crux of Christianity and ruled by an emperor who was an inveterate dabbler in arcane hocus-pocus, a prig, a bigot, and a dazzling and brilliant leader.

Read more less

Book Synopsis* A literary event: one of the world's greatest novelists confronts the greatest story ever told - and in the first personTrade ReviewIt's penetration into Jesus's human heart rivals Dostoyevsky for depth and insight * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *A compellingly beautiful performance * - IRISH TIMES *His gospel is written in a direct, rather relaxed English that has an eerie, neo-Biblical dignity - the tone as a whole is quietly penetrating. -- John UpdikeHypnotically engaging * - TLS *Mailer has studied the gospels with great care, and his imaginging of Jesu s' story is both respectful and respectfully inventive. Most compelling, he has tried to make sense of Jesu s' full humanity, shrewdly giving us a son of God whose evolving unders * BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific'' Sarah Waters''If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man'' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton''s novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne''s new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.Impromptu in Moribundia is a satirical fable about one (nameless) man''s trespass (through a fantastical machine called the ''Asteradio'') into a parallel universe on a far-off planet where the ''miserably dull affairs of England'' are mirrored and transformed into an apparent idyll of bourgeois English imagination.Moribundia is the ''physical enactment of the stereotypes and myths of English middle-class culture and consciousness.'' Yet the narrator comes to discover that he has stumbled among a people characterised by ''cupidity, ignorance, complacence, meanness, ugliness, short-sightedness, cowardice, credulity, hysteria and, when the occasion called for it . . . cruelty and blood-thirstiness.

Read more less

Book Synopsis''It''s impossible not to be moved'' Stephen King''Stunning...this novel will break your heart and fire up your courage'' Mail on SundayThe New York Times bestseller, a deeply heart-wrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child and a TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF APRIL 2023Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn''t know what happened to her-only that her books have been banned-and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him. Then one day, Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of heroic librarians, and finally to New York City, where he will finally learn the truth about what happened to his mother, and what the future holds for them both. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It''s about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and the power of art to create change.Trade ReviewA stunning story of injustice and resistance...Lyrical, intricate, unsparing: this novel will break your heart and fire up your courage * Mail on Sunday *A lyrical and touching testimony to maternal love, it's also a salutary reminder of how easily freedoms can be lost and of the power of words to change lives * Daily Mail *One of the biggest books of the year...deeply moving * Stylist *Beautifully stirring and heart-wrenching, this powerful novel from the author of Little Fires Everywhere is a homage to love and will tug at your heartstrings * Heat, Book of the Month *A beautiful, thoughtful book...Brilliant and moving * Hello magazine *Ng's compelling writing paints a picture of a world so real you can almost touch it. Despite the darkness of the story, the love of a family stands out. * Independent *[A] feat of meaty storytelling...Ng effortlessly combines a character-led family story with a detective tale, a tribute to books and storytelling and a confrontation with history...a story that is exceptionally powerful and scaldingly relevant * Observer *Remarkable and deeply moving... as moving as it is gripping. [Ng] is an astute writer...her writing feels gorgeously supple * The i *Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching...I was so invested in the future of this mother and son, and I can't wait to hear what you think of this deeply suspenseful story! * Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club October ’22 Pick) *On another level, Our Missing Hearts is a meditation on the sometimes accidental power of words... I won't give away the splendid conclusion of Ng's book; suffice it to say the climax deals with the power of words, the power of stories and the persistence of memory. It's impossible not to be moved by Margaret Miu's courage, or to applaud her craftiness * Stephen King, New York Times *Powerful and brilliant * Vogue *Thought-provoking... My heart broke and was remade several times over by this book * Good Housekeeping *Ng, whose previous novels subtly probed tensions surrounding race,class, and gender, boldly tacklesanti-Asian racism head-on * Time magazine, 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 *Shot through with vivid color and rising hope, an unflinching yet life-affirming drama about the power of art and love to push back in dangerous times...Ng's brilliance lies in leaving the reader with an unshakable belief that against all odds, people will find the courage to resist, revolt, and defend . . . remarkable * Oprah Daily *[Ng] has really hit her authorial stride in her eagerly anticipated third novel, Our Missing Hearts... It's her masterful weaving huge themes of race, class, privilege and identity with the simplicity of everyday lives that has made her a deserved international phenomenon * Daily Mirror *Ng's third novel is eagerly awaited and does not disappoint...Our Missing Hearts deftly weaves together a coming-of-age story with a threatening vision of a heavily censored future * Daily Express *Little Fires Everywhere became a global phenomenon and now author Celeste Ng is back with another gripping tale * Irish Mail on Sunday *Tense, poignant and chilling * Grazia *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''On the shield, one of seven forged in the timeless past to hold back the dark, fell a single drop of blood. So the shield weakened, and the dark, spider-patient, waited as the decades passed, and the wound spread under the grass and ground.''The brilliant conclusion to the Chronicles of the One trilogy - an epic story of love, war, family and magic.Fallon Swift has spent all her life preparing for this moment. No longer can she stand by whilst her fellow Magicks are hunted by the fanatical Purity Warriors or rounded up and experimented on by the government.Fallon must follow her destiny to restore the magical shield that once protected them all. But she can''t do it alone. It is time to build her army, to take on her nemesis and take down the enemy.She has learned to fight, now she must restore the light and banish the dark forever. The final battle has begun...Series praise: ''A match for end-of-the-world classics Trade ReviewA match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King's The Stand - New York Times Review of BooksBreathtaking - Heat MagazineYou'll be hooked - People MagazineRoberts knows exactly how to spellbind an audience - The Washington Post

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Rich people behaving badly'' BooklistThe battle lines are drawn . . .Following the scandalous revelations about his love life, disgraced media mogul Harry Rose is searching for redemption. His daughters - bright, winsome Eliza and dark, difficult Maria - have taken over his beloved company and are making some major changes. Guided by Harry, Eliza navigates life as Rose Corp''s new queen. But Maria is standing in her way. And then there''s the distraction of Eliza''s childhood playmate, the twinkly-eyed Rob Studley, and the unresolved death of her mother . . . After a stellar start, things take a turn for the worse and ultimately Eliza will have to make a choice: career, or love?Loosely based on the turbulent reigns of Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth, this is a scandalous tale of love, power and betrayal . . .Praise for Olivia Hayfield ''Ingenious and addictive'' Francesca Hornak 'Trade ReviewRacy & pacy! -- Nicky Pellegrino, bestselling author of A Dream of ItalyA fun and entertaining read . . . non-stop Tudor intrigue! * An Historian About Town *Even if you're not an aficionado of Tudor history, there is lots to love in this racy romp about the lives of the rich and fabulous. The historical factor is fun though, and adds another layer to an addictively readable novel ... if you're a fan of Jilly Cooper or something of a history buff, then you're really not going to want to miss out * New Zealand Woman’s Weekly *The skill of Hayfield in creating a believable modern storyline that maintains the essence of the historical characters and events makes this book more than simply a light-hearted version of the television show Succession . . . in a turbulent summer, Sister to Sister is the perfect escape * The Listener *The ingenious way Hayfield re-casts and contemporises the Tudor court gives her a chance to have some fun but there remain perceptive observations of modern life, from the influence of the religious right to the relationship problems caused by family dysfunction . . . an amusing, smart and oddly thought-provoking read with glamour and great heart -- Kete: New Books from AotearoaA must-read for history buffs * Woman’s Day *A fun read but also packed quite an emotional punch for me (I'm not too proud to admit I cried my eyes out!) * Royalcentral.co.uk *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WRITERS'' GUILD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2020ELLE ONES TO WATCH 2019''Not since Holden Caulfield have I been so captivated by a first-person voice as the one Season Butler creates in Cygnet'' Blake Morrison''A bright new voice in literature'' Bernardine Evaristo''Terribly moving'' China Miéville''A beautiful book, a meander through the fluid anxiety of youth'' Uzodinma Iweala''[A] potent debut . . . A strange, promising beginning'' Observer The Kid doesn''t know where her parents are. They left with a promise to come back months ago, and now their seventeen-year-old daughter is stranded on Swan Island. Swan isn''t just any island; it''s home to an eccentric old age separatist community who have shunned life on the mainland for a haven which is rapidly sinking into the ocean. The Kid''s arrival threatens to burst the Trade ReviewComing-of-age fiction is a well-established genre but I doubt there's ever been a novel in which the narrator turns 18 on an island exclusively occupied by oldsters. And not since Holden Caulfield have I been so captivated by a first-person voice as the one Season Butler creates in Cygnet: 'kiddo' or 'small-fry' as the Wrinklies call her is super-bright but also naive, tough-minded but also vulnerable, self-reliant but also adrift. How long will she remain on the island? How long will the island itself remain, increasingly eroded by the ocean as it is? Will her parents arrive in time to celebrate her birthday? We don't know, but this sad, funny, highly original novel keeps us turning the pages to find out * Blake Morrison, Author of Things my Mother Never Told Me *Season Butler is an extraordinary writer. In this wonderful novel the narrative voice is rhythmic and compelling, telling a coming of age story which resonates with our times. Like Colson Whitehead, her work is fearless in its inventiveness. I've always thought Season was the real deal, this book proves that she has arrived * Julia Bell, Author, The Dark Light *Terribly moving. A clear-sighted, poignant rumination on loneliness, love, the melancholy of age and of youth - and, in its quiet way, the end of the world * China Miéville *Season Butler has written an imaginative, atmospheric and original novel that lingers in the memory long after reading . . . A bright new voice in literature * Bernardine Evaristo *An original novel with a memorable narrator * Elle (Eight Books to Devour) *An uncanny meditation on mortality and intergenerational distrust * Metro *[A] potent debut . . . A strange, promising beginning * Observer *[A] vivid, poetic debut * Daily Mail *As sixteen-year old environmental activist Greta Thunberg has shown us, teenagers are the ideal candidates for raising consciousness about our planetary plight. Kid's ardent voice powers Cygnet. Her expression of the loneliness, boredom and rage she feels at her circumstances is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield . . . the characters have real emotional depth . . . Cygnet is both very funny and convincingly tragic, its young narrator memorably charismatic and self-aware * Literary Review *Season Butler (in her novel Cygnet) describ[es] an island occupied, with one exception, by geriatrics - the exception being the narrator, whose wise reflections on age, race, class and global warming belie her tender youth -- Blake Morrison * New Internationalist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WRITERS'' GUILD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2020ELLE ONES TO WATCH 2019''Terribly moving. A clear-sighted, poignant rumination on loneliness, love, the melancholy of age and of youth'' China Mieville ''An imaginative, atmospheric and original novel that lingers in the memory long after reading'' Bernadine Evaristo ''A sad, funny, highly original novel'' Blake Morrison''Wholeheartedly enjoy(able)'' Lauren Wilkinson, The Millions ''Season Butler is an extraordinary writer. Like Colson Whitehead, her work is fearless in its inventiveness'' Julia Bell__________________________________________________________It''s too hot for most of the clothes I packed to come here, when I thought this would only be for a week or two. My mother kissed me with those purple-brown lips of hers and said, we''ll be back, hoTrade ReviewComing-of-age fiction is a well-established genre but I doubt there's ever been a novel in which the narrator turns 18 on an island exclusively occupied by oldsters. And not since Holden Caulfield have I been so captivated by a first-person voice as the one Season Butler creates in Cygnet: 'kiddo' or 'small-fry' as the Wrinklies call her is super-bright but also naive, tough-minded but also vulnerable, self-reliant but also adrift. How long will she remain on the island? How long will the island itself remain, increasingly eroded by the ocean as it is? Will her parents arrive in time to celebrate her birthday? We don't know, but this sad, funny, highly original novel keeps us turning the pages to find out * Blake Morrison, Author of Things my Mother Never Told Me *Season Butler is an extraordinary writer. In this wonderful novel the narrative voice is rhythmic and compelling, telling a coming of age story which resonates with our times. Like Colson Whitehead, her work is fearless in its inventiveness. I've always thought Season was the real deal, this book proves that she has arrived * Julia Bell, Author, The Dark Light *Terribly moving. A clear-sighted, poignant rumination on loneliness, love, the melancholy of age and of youth - and, in its quiet way, the end of the world * China Miéville *Season Butler has written an imaginative, atmospheric and original novel that lingers in the memory long after reading . . . A bright new voice in literature * Bernardine Evaristo *An original novel with a memorable narrator * Elle (Eight Books to Devour) *An uncanny meditation on mortality and intergenerational distrust * Metro *[A] potent debut . . . A strange, promising beginning * Observer *[A] vivid, poetic debut * Daily Mail *As sixteen-year old environmental activist Greta Thunberg has shown us, teenagers are the ideal candidates for raising consciousness about our planetary plight. Kid's ardent voice powers Cygnet. Her expression of the loneliness, boredom and rage she feels at her circumstances is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield . . . the characters have real emotional depth . . . Cygnet is both very funny and convincingly tragic, its young narrator memorably charismatic and self-aware * Literary Review *Season Butler (in her novel Cygnet) describ[es] an island occupied, with one exception, by geriatrics - the exception being the narrator, whose wise reflections on age, race, class and global warming belie her tender youth -- Blake Morrison * New Internationalist *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I''VE READ IN RECENT YEARS . . . PACKS A HELL OF AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH'' Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of TimeFrom one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future.Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age - a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven''s world, such material must be closely guarded, so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated.But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he''s willing to go to save this new world, and how much he is willing to lose.Notes from the Burning AgeTrade ReviewOne of the best books I've read in recent years. Thought provoking, imaginative and packs a hell of an emotional punch * Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of CHILDREN OF TIME *A gripping, utterly involving, dystopian eco-thriller that balances the intimacies of betrayal against global climate collapse * DAILY MAIL *A riveting tale . . . North's convincing view of post-apocalyptic society captivates, and the political intrigues will keep readers hooked right up until the explosive close * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *An impassioned, urgent and compelling new work that burns as bright as the fires of our own burning age. This is not to be missed -- Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award-winning authorClaire North depicts a startling, richly developed postapocalyptic world in this beautiful and riveting novel * BUZZFEED *Notes is compelling because it is beautiful . . . It felt seamless . . . When North was done and Notes reached its explosive conclusion, I just wasn't ready to leave. Her world was such a fragile, beautiful, doomed place, I felt like I should stick around just to make sure it would all be okay * NPR *A passionate and committed vision of what we do to nature, and what it can do to us * LOCUS *Mesmeric, terrifying and wonderful. North is practically her own genre at this point. -- M. R. Carey, author of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTSAn irresistible, haunting thrill * Joe Hill, author of HORNS and LOCKE AND KEY *A clever and thought-provoking conceit * GUARDIAN *North's latest once again displays her mastery of lyrical prose . . . The author presents a fascinating testament to humanity's fallibility and tendency towards denial, merged with the potency of truth and the power of love * BOOKLIST *Claire North's most ambitious novel to date * LOCUS *Remarkable . . . one of the most moving, horrifying and gut-wrenching novels of the year * NPR *A suspenseful tale of the truths that lie hidden in the human heart . . . This is a world-spanning cat-and-mouse chase that tackles big questions about the nature of truth and whether we can ever really know one another or ourselves. True love, life, and death, what's worth dying - or killing - for: It's all here in this gripping, bloody, and haunting novel * KIRKUS *In rich, compelling prose, North weaves together the threads of imperial control, ideological conviction, love and the thrill of power . . . A lyrical and sometimes surreal approach to espionage and its thrills * SHELF AWARENESS *North's talent shines out -- SUNDAY TIMESClaire North is a true original, a master of ingenious plotting and feats of imagination -- Alex Marwood, author of THE WICKED GIRLSClaire North's writing is terrific, smart and entertaining -- Patrick NessNorth demonstrates skill in creating a terrifying setting that feels rooted to the present day . . . Every aspect of life in Theo's Britain is imbued with a menace that feels both recognizable and urgent, and the decisions the characters make as a result feel uncomfortably real. * RT BOOK REVIEWS on 84K *The truly scary thing about 84K is how convincing this dark, brutal class-divided Britain is * SFX (4 1/2 stars) *North is an original and even dazzling writer, and fans of her work will enjoy this grim tale of capitalism taken to a terrifying extreme * KIRKUS on 84K *Another captivating novel from one of the most intriguing and genre-bending novelists * BOOKLIST on 84K *An extraordinary novel that stands with the best of dystopian fiction, with echoes of The Handmaid's Tale -- Cory Doctorow on 84K

Read more less

Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIn the aftermath of the First World War, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline''s extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.''Brimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild and Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book'' Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf''A lush and evocative story that transports reaTrade ReviewBrimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book -- Hannah Whitten, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of FOR THE WOLFViciously enchanting, with a spell woven onto every page. Francesca May has given us a cast of wild and wicked women who dare to hold a mirror to the darkest, and most tender, parts of our souls. I couldn't get enough! -- Heather Walter, author of MALICEWild and Wicked Things ticked all my boxes. . . . I couldn't put it down -- Genevieve Gornichec, author of THE WITCH'S HEARTAn intoxicating blend of secrets and glamour, romance and scandal, blood magic and dark pasts. If you've ever thought the Jazz Age would have been better with witchcraft, this book is for you -- H. G. Parry, author of THE UNLIKELY ESCAPE OF URIAH HEEPHaunting, immersive and seething with dark magic, Wild and Wicked Things cast it's spell on me -- Alexis Henderson, author of THE YEAR OF THE WITCHINGEven after the last page is turned, this intoxicating story lingers like a deep dark wine. Sparkling and deadly, Wild and Wicked Things enchanted me, and if you're feeling dangerous, it will enchant you too -- Lucy Holland, author of SISTERSONGEntrancing, seductive, and decadently beautiful, Francesca May weaves an intoxicating spell. Here is a deep, sensuous exploration of the bonds between three very different, complex women that readers won't soon forget -- Gwenda Bond, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authora lush and evocative story that transports readers far away from reality and into a witchy world full of damning secrets, unbreakable bargains, intoxicating love and found family. Add to this a little murder cover-up and you've got yourself the perfect Spring/Summer read -- CULTUREFLYThe extravagance and extremes of the Roaring Twenties combines with witchcraft, corruption and violence in this heady, absorbing read -- LoveReading

Read more less

Book SynopsisA visionary alternate history of the United States filled with enough conspiracy theories to thrill the most hardened paranoid, Radio Free Albemuth is proof of Dick’s stature as our century’s greatest science fiction writer.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNamed one of NPR''s Best Books of 2021From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.Security consultant Jane Smith receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina's footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running outfor her and possibly for the world.Hummingbird Salamander i

Read more less

Book SynopsisA 2020 LOCUS AWARD FINALISTJeff VanderMeer''s Dead Astronauts presents a City with no name of its own where, in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earthall the Earths.A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Shimon Adaf''s Lost Detective Trilogy, what begins as conventional mystery becomes by degrees a brilliant deconstruction not just of genre but of our own search for meaning. Both profound and compulsively readable, these books demand to be devoured. Lavie Tidhar, author of By Force AloneIn the summer of 2014, at the height of the Gaza-Israel conflict, Elish Ben-Zaken met the poet and librarian Nahum Farkash in the border town of Sderot. They spoke only briefly, but in that brief encounter, Elish might have missed the key to unraveling the case of a Sderot woman who disappeared for two days, only to reappear with no memory of her time away. In Take Up and Read, Shimon Adaf returns to Farkash's story. Attempting to defend the legacy of the singer Dalia Shoshanwhose murder Elish investigated several years beforeFarkash tries to impede the production of a new documentary about her life. Meanwhile, he reminisces about his past, reflecting on his ex

Read more less