Dystopian and utopian fiction

Book Synopsis'Original, timely, terrifying' CHRIS WHITAKER'Brilliant, profoundly unsettling' DAILY MAILWHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WATER RUNS OUT?THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER.With supply in the cities drying up, Aida is forced back home to live with her mum at their rural Scottish farm. The border is closed. Tensions are close to breaking point. For now, Aida and her mother have just enough to get by.But then suspicious strangers arrive asking for help, Aida and her family face a terrible decision. How much water can they afford to share? AND THEN THE TAPS ARE TURNED OFF.Can they survive long enough for the rain to come?Completely compelling, devastating and thought-provoking, Thirsty Animals takes us on a captivating journey of survival and self-discovery.'Beautifully written, vivid and unflinching, it confirms Atalla as a real talent' DOUG JOHNSTONE'A master of slow-burning tension and unease . . . The pace of the story builds to an unputdownable conclusion, and the characters will stay with the reader for a long time' CAILEAN STEEDTrade ReviewThirsty Animals is a hard-hitting speculative thriller, equal parts terrifying and compassionate. Beautifully written, vivid and unflinching, it confirms Atalla as a real talent * Doug Johnstone *Original, timely, terrifying. Thirsty Animals takes a brutal yet deeply heartfelt look at survival, and kindness, and just how difficult it can be for the two to coexist at the extremes * Chris Whitaker *Rachelle Atalla's second novel has shown her once again to be a master of slow-burning tension and unease. Thirsty Animals is terrifyingly believable, and functions both as a warning against overconsumption and division, while also providing a hopeful message about the redemptive possibilities of community. The pace of the story builds to an unputdownable conclusion, and the characters will stay with the reader for a long time * Cailean Steed *this is one seriously brilliant and thought-provoking read * Heat *This brilliant, profoundly unsettling second novel will secure Atalla's place as an extraordinary writer, and a poet of controlled bleakness * Daily Mail *Atalla knows how to ramp up tension expertly, and Thirsty Animals comes to a dramatic, unexpected but satisfying conclusion * Big Issue *Compelling, unsettling and emotive, this is an exciting story of survival and self-discovery * Candis *A disturbing and compelling book * SFX *A prophetic book, offering the reader both a deeply unsettling glimpse into our possible future and a comforting reminder of how resilient humans can be. I was utterly captivated by the story, especially Atalla's characters who are richly drawn and incredibly relatable. Atalla has an uncanny knack of both revealing the best and the worst of humanity. She's quickly establishing herself as a writer for these unsettling times * Jan Carson *Thirsty Animals is one of those perfect reads. Compulsive and profound in equal measure, it is both page-turning thriller and philosophical disquisition on what it means to be human rolled into one. A dystopian triumph that confirms Atalla as a major talent, this chilling and believable second novel is horrifyingly brilliant in the best possible way * Mary Paulson-Ellis *Atalla writes with humanity and with such pace that at times, you find yourself gasping for breath. Even if you think apocalyptic fiction is not your bag, you might be surprised by Thirsty Animals. I was. * The Herald *

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Book SynopsisAfter a fateful confrontation with her former ally, Tony Barlow, Amira Valdez is on the run, pregnant with her own clone and desperate. The fundamentalist Trinity Compound has grown in strength and numbers, and with the help of the powerful mind-controlling drug Tiresia, is ready to march on the city of Westport. All of Amira’s hopes lie with finding Nova, the first human clone, and solving the greatest riddle in human history – how to preserve human consciousness after death. Only Amira and Nova, together, can stand in the face of a world on the brink of disaster.Trade ReviewPraise for The Sentient, Book 1 in the series: "Afifi’s staggering and un-put-downable debut offers a fresh and feminist-forward take on cloning [...] This riveting debut is a must-have for any sci-fi fan." — Publishers Weekly starred review "Afifi’s first novel is a science fiction noir [...] The worldbuilding is a particular strength, as every locale feels well-realized and lived-in. This is an excellent book for fans of Mira Grant and Michael Crichton, or readers who love a thrilling narrative and welcome moral and philosophical questions in their science fiction." — Booklist "Nadia Afifi is a brand-new voice, and one you should become familiar with [...] Exciting, mesmerizing, and full of cutting-edge science, 'The Sentient' is an excellent beginning to what’s sure to be a successful career." — Analog SF “Honestly, this book was big on character, big on plot, and a well written science fiction piece, all good things I love as a bookworm and a scientist!” — The Nerd Daily "A piece of ethical excellency, a cry of freedom, and a thought-provoking debut is what Nadia Afifi has delivered for those who love to plunge into the gray morality of stories, as well as the riveting explorations of science fiction and the theory of the multiverse." — Bookwyrm's Guide to the Galaxy

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Book SynopsisThe gripping story of what it's like to be the daughter of a woman who changed the world - perfect for fans of The Power and VoxA BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK AND KINDLE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 'Engrossing and original. The Silence Project will get people talking' Bernardine Evaristo Mother. Martyr. Murderer. On Emilia Morris's thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word.Inspired by Rachel's example, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers shock the world as they silence themselves forever.In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community's global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel - whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr - but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now. Readers can't stop shouting about The Silence Project: 'A true masterpiece' ***** 'One hell of a book!' ***** 'Had me hooked' ***** 'Red-hot' ***** 'I don't think I've ever read a book as quickly' ***** 'Gave me the shivers' *****Trade ReviewAn utterly compelling page-turner, you'll keep thinking about this novel long after you've put it down. * Glamour *A page-turner * Scotland on Sunday *Carole Hailey has conjured a gripping tale of transformation; its protagonist's clear-eyed, arresting voice is impossible to ignore. This striking debut grounds itself in a world we recognize in order to invite us to imagine both darkness - and hope. The Silence Project marks the arrival of a sophisticated and compelling new voice. -- Erica WagnerTotally unique, gripping, compelling and immersive -- Nell Hudson, author of Just For Today'Multilayered and philosophical ... grippingly compulsive ... reminiscent of writers such as Margaret Atwood, Naomi Alderman and Miriam Toews ... inventive and original * Nation Cymru *A slow burn that leads up to an incendiary conclusion. It holds a mirror up to our cultural compulsion to have a take on every tragedy that passes our screens, and the way that movements can spiral out of control. But it's also a deep dive into the divide between a mother and a daughter, and the struggle to understand who your parents are outside their identity as your parents. * Readers Digest *Compulsive reading ... so timely in its considerations of the ownership of narrative and truth -- Jane Fraser, author of AdventA big novel, a story for our age that asks the central question: how to save an endangered world when there can no longer be heroes? Love and power burn through The Silence Project. A terrifying and beautiful coming of age story. What an achievement! -- Isabelle Dupuy author of Living the DreamReaders who enjoyed The Power or The Handmaid's Tale will be absorbed by the novel's exploration of dystopian themese -- The School LibrarianA gripping, intelligent, multi-layered triumph -- Andy Charman, author of Crow CourtA ferociously smart page turner, exploring how idealism curdles into fanaticism, silence into violence. Brilliantly original and inventive. -- Alan Bilton, author of The Known and Unknown SeaArresting ... pins down the zeigeist as if with a rivet gun and is so good on the subject of cults that it might well become the focus one. Bravo. -- Jon GowerCaptivating ... a nimble and fascinating page-turner * Buzz *A remarkable novel ... illustrates the evil that lies in the heart of men's (and women's) hearts when they decide their way is the only way * Meath Chronicle *

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Book SynopsisCan we ever be wholly free? In this book of breathtaking imaginary leaps that conjure dystopias and magical islands, Margaret Atwood holds a mirror up to our own world. The reflection we are faced with, of men and women in prisons literal and metaphorical, is frightening, but it is also a call to arms to speak and to act to preserve our freedom while we still can. And in that, there is hope.Selected from The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

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Book SynopsisPrepare to meet what lurks beneath .'Macabre, fantastic and haunting . In her vision of intimacy and interdependence, you're simply not safe until everybody else is dead . ' Guardian'Idiosyncratic, haunting, masterly .

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Book SynopsisA passionate, tender and terrifying story of a mother's fight to protect her daughterTrade Review'The New Wilderness is a virtuosic debut, brutal and beautiful in equal measure.' Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel'Soulful, urgent... Supremely well-crafted... What lingers, though, beyond the awesome power of Bea and Agnes as heroines, is pure wonderment at all in this world of ours that is not human.' Observer'Wonderfully imagined and written, this is a tense future-shock novel that's also a tender exploration of a mother-daughter relationship under extreme pressure... An urgent novel reflective of what is happening in society right now.' Booker Prize judges'A wildly imaginative and terrifying dystopian story... Touching on humanity and our contempt for nature, this is a timely and compelling novel.' Independent'This Booker-longlisted novel's driving questions – who will live and who will die? And which kind of leadership will triumph along the way? – remind us, in a compelling fashion, why we read at all: to learn how better to survive.' New Statesman'A visceral, elemental performance... Dense with believable detail.' The Sunday Times'Riveting... Bleakly compelling, and leavened by wry, sparkling humour that Cook combines seamlessly with existential dread.' Daily Telegraph'This gut-wrenching story of survival, danger, power, control and, most importantly, love is one you won’t want to put down.' CNN'This Booker-longlisted novel’s driving questions – who will live and who will die? And which kinds of leadership will triumph along the way? – remind us, in a compelling fashion, why we read at all: to learn how better to survive.' New Statesman'It is the anthropological acuity in Cook's writing that makes it so persuasive… The chief power of The New Wilderness, and what distinguishes it from less successful environmental dystopian fiction, is Cook’s talent for world-building.' TLS'Cook leavens her satire with sly wit and real wisdom, expertly deconstructing the borderline separating human beings and other animals.' Guardian, 'Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books 2020' 'Cook's is a fresh and vivid voice; it's unsurprising the likes of Miranda July and Roxane Gay are fans.' Observer'Cook has a keen eye for the relentless weigh-ups of parenthood... The tale of a hazardously self-denying lifestyle pursued on health grounds, it has uncanny resonance.' Metro'Urgent and inventive... This quietly raging novel deserves its place on the Booker longlist. People who switch off when they hear the phrase "climate change" should read it. And so should everyone else.' Irish Times'As close to experiencing a Picasso as literature can get.' Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife (on Man V. Nature)'A big book full of characters and rich in imagination... The only debut novel on the shortlist that never feels like one.' Irish Times'5 of 5 stars. [A] gripping, fierce, terrifying examination of what people are capable of when they want to survive in both the best and worst ways. Loved this.' Roxane Gay'A damning piece of horror cli-fi, but it's also a gripping and profound examination of love and sacrifice.' BuzzFeed'The New Wilderness left me as stunned as a deer in headlights. Gut-wrenching and heart-wrecking, this is a book that demands to be read, and urgently.' Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin‘Propulsive... The New Wilderness is a well-formed and powerful piece of writing.’ The Times

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Book SynopsisTHE TENTH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION, FULLY UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL A lavishly reimagined tenth anniversary edition of the first novel in the sensational Bone Season series, by the Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree. 'A fabulous, epic fantasy thriller ... Lavish, ebullient, escapist' The Times ________________________________________________ Welcome to Scion. No safer place. The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe. In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing. When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal – and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy. The Bone Season 10th Anniversary Edition ranked #6 in Sunday Times bestseller chart week ending 03/09/2023 Trade ReviewDon’t just suspend your disbelief – send it to the pictures and sink into this fabulous, epic fantasy thriller ... Lavish, ebullient, escapist * The Times *The Bone Season, set in 2059, stems from Shannon's interest in works such as The Handmaid's Tale and A Clockwork Orange, which have backdrops of repressive regimes, and in John Donne's poetry * Sunday Times *Shannon writes so well that you stay interested, intrigued by the knife-edge motivation of character’s with “six-seater lips” whose “high-collard dresses always made her think of the gallows”. And although many of the paths walked by The Bone Season will already have been well travelled by fantasy readers, Shannon shows real skill in combining them so easily into an original and enjoyable escapist fictional world.... The ending certainly gripped me to the marrow * Daily Telegraph *The Bone Season plots out a criminal underworld in a future where clairvoyancy exists; part fantasy, part dystopia, all intrigue. It’s a world of impressive scope, accompanied by Tolkienesque appendices, glossaries, maps and all * Vogue *A Hunger Games vibe and a few Shades of Grey * Vanity Fair *Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season is my perfect cup of tea * Daily Mail *Plenty for readers to get absorbed in * Wall Street Journal *Frightening and well-imagined ... fascinating ... The large talent on display here suggests just how good Shannon could get in the next six books of this promising series * Washington Post *A rapid-fire wonder of a book, where clairvoyants and humans battle it out against scary monsters and super-creeps * Marie Claire *The Bone Season is more like the novel that JK Rowling and William Gibson never teamed up to write * Wired *A complex and epic dystopia * Bookseller *The book invokes both the political tyranny of George Orwell and the bucolic mythmaking of J.R.R. Tolkein * USA Today *A dark, embattled, highly wrought fantasy ... Whatever the future holds, there is no doubt that Samantha is the real thing, her own sternest critic and a born storyteller * Observer *A Hunger Games-esque debut * Irish Daily Mail *It has conviction in spades ... The Bone Season has the kids vs dystopia kick of The Hunger Games, but while it’s better written ... It’s also got the star-crossed romance of Twilight * SFX Magazine *A dazzlingly brainy, witty and bewitching tale of outrageous courage, heroic compassion, transcendent love and the quest for freedom ... the first in a thoughtful fantasy series by a brilliant young writer * Booklist *Dynamic and direct ... There is an exciting breadth to Shannon’s world * Evening Standard *Had me gripped as if in a vice * Stylist *There’s a great imagination at work here, and Shannon’s just getting started * People *Shannon’s world is meticulously detailed and has a strong internal logic ... Plenty of entertaining action ... The pace of The Bone Season seldom slacks off, and the strong and resourceful Paige is a memorable heroine. This is one buzz book that just might merit its hype * BookPage *On the quite wonderful style and craft of words Samantha displays I really cannot heap enough praise – it is remarkably self-assured writing, most especially for a debut ... the most engrossing read I have had so far this year and frankly the most absorbing and compelling debut I’ve read since the superb Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Hugely recommended * Forbidden Planet International Blog *Marks the arrival of an extraordinarily talented British writer set to challenge the worldwide bestseller list domination of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games * The British Fantasy Society *With echoes of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy, this is an excellent debut that will keep the reader gripped all the way to the end – and leave them asking when book two will be released * Irish Examiner *The Bone Season is enough to transport even hardened sceptics of the fantasy genre into its imaginative realm * Metro *In this special edition of her critically acclaimed debut, Samantha Shannon performs the remarkable feat of improving upon the original beloved text. The story is impossibly richer and more insightful, assuringly accessible, more moving than ever, and glitters with exclusive content. The Bone Season is why fantasy exists. This is a hypnotic journey that crackles with dreamlike energy. Of all the Oxfords that literature has conjured, Shannon’s Sheol I intrigues and terrifies me the most. Her London is a fever dream. And I would linger in the aether forever if it meant spending longer with Paige Mahoney and Arcturus Mesarthim. Darkly thrilling, and dense with inventive detail, this lyrical dreamscape demands your presence. Come, dreamers - I dare you to lose yourselves in this one -- London Shah, award-winning author of the Light the Abyss seriesTruly extraordinary and thrilling -- Andy SerkisA richly dramatic and unadulterated pleasure, filled with horrors, wonders and charm -- Justina Robson, author of the Quantum Gravity seriesEpic, surprising, and impeccably imagined, The Bone Season seamlessly melds a near-future dystopian world, with high fantasy stakes, and a truly unique brand of magic. Perfect for those who enjoy intricate plots and eclectic casts of nuanced characters. Ten years on from its original release, Shannon’s debut remains one of the most accomplished and original SFF novels I’ve ever read -- Kate Dylan, author of MindwalkerA dark and exquisitely rendered fantasy unlike anything out there. The Bone Season is a must read -- Kami Garcia, No. 1 New York Times bestselling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures seriesSamantha Shannon has a hugely inventive talent and an imagination with seven league boots. She's hit the ground running * Susan Hill *The original version of The Bone Season was brilliant – but the new ‘Author’s Preferred Text’ edition is incredible. Samantha Shannon is a master storyteller and wordsmith, and the care she has taken in the revision shines through on every page. It is a richly rewarding reading experience. -- Katherine Webber, bestselling author of Twin Crowns

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Book Synopsis'. . . seethes with love and brutality, violence and hope . . . a remarkable and timely story of the bonds between women' Sabaa Tahir'An incredibly important and empowering read' Natasha Ngan_____________________________________________THE RESISTANCE STARTS HERE.No one speaks of the grace year.It's forbidden.We're told we have the power to lure grown men from their beds, make boys lose their minds, and drive the wives mad with jealousy. That's why we're banished for our sixteenth year, to release our magic into the wild before we're allowed to return to civilisation.But I don't feel powerful.I don't feel magical.Tierney James lives in an isolated village where girls are banished at sixteen to the northern forest to brave the wilderness - and each other - for a year. They must rid themselves of their dangerous magic before returning purified and ready to marry - if they're lucky.It is forbidden to speak of the grace year, but even so every girl knows that the coming year will change them - if they survive it...A critically acclaimed page-turning feminist dystopia about a young woman trapped in an oppressive society, fighting to take control of her own life.'Beautiful, devastating, and deeply moving' Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Internment and Love, Hate & Other Filters'A visceral, darkly haunting fever dream of a novel . . . I couldn't stop reading' Libba Bray, New York Times bestselling author of The Diviners and A Great and Terrible BeautyTrade ReviewPart coming-of-age tale, part adventure story; this is not a cry against oppression - it's a bold, beautiful howl. * Heat Magazine *An incredibly important and empowering read * Natasha Ngan, New York Times bestselling author of Girls of Paper and Fire *A crazy mash-up of Vox, The Hunger Games, Lord Of The Flies and The Handmaid’s Tale. * Daily Mail *A must-read for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and The Power * Bustle *Harrowing and absolutely riveting, an insidious journey from reason to madness that manages to completely refresh the concept of the patriarchal dystopia, with a beautifully realised ending. * Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author of THE HAZEL WOOD *

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Book SynopsisThey say wickedness lies in the sea.To touch the water - to even look at it - will stir up the sin that naturally lives in the heart of each woman. The only path to salvation is obedience, marriage and motherhood. Those women on the isle of Eden who fail in their duty will be cast back into the dark water, without mercy.But the sea calls to Esta. It always has.When danger forces Esta beyond the shallows, she uncovers a different world. One of freedom and power. It sets her on a course to uncover a secret sunk beneath the waves and the truth that will tear Eden apart.The Seawomen is a fiercely written and timely feminist novel, at once gothic, fantastical and truly unforgettable, for fans of Margaret Atwood and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.'A gripping tale of love and bravery' SOPHIE WARD, author or The Schoolhouse'Unsettling and lushly written' KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Now She is Witch'A powerful, enchanting novel' ANNA BAILEY, author of Tall Bones'Mesmerising and moving' SUSANNAH WISE, author of The Fragile EarthTrade ReviewBeautifully written ... a great concept, brilliantly executed, and it is essential reading for dystopian fiction fans -- Sunday Business PostIf you're looking for your next Handmaid's Tale-esque fix, this is it -- Belfast TelegraphTimms unmasks organised religion as a gleaming façade for misogynistic cults, and explores how easily whispered rumours can spiral into mass hysteria. Bonus points for her shockingly nasty villain, Father Jessop * SFX *An unsettling and lushly-written reimagining of witch trials, exploring fertility, control and how what we believe can save us - or destroy us. The Handmaid's Tale meets The Shape of Water -- Kirsty LoganA gripping tale of love and bravery; The Seawomen immerses you in its watery world. -- Sophie WardThis book sucked me under and held me in its gorgeous, terrifying embrace. It's a rare treat to read a story so gripping told in such beautiful prose. Dive in and don't look back. -- Zoe GilbertRichly atmospheric, powerful and provocative. A raw and beautiful coming of age story. -- Caroline LeaI read this beautiful novel in a fever dream, its sweeping prose carrying me away like a boat out at sea. Chloe Timms has written an extraordinary tale of one woman's desire for freedom, for love. Mesmerising and moving, I couldn't put it down. -- Susannah WiseA powerful, enchanting novel, with prose so vivid you can taste the salt in the air on your tongue -- Anna BaileyTimms' writing is at once lyrical and measured, bold and tender. The lens she offers us to look through is an unusual and passionate love story, which renders The Seawomen as gripping as it is haunting. -- The Swansea Bay

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Book SynopsisReturn to the startlingly original dystopian world of The Record Keeper in this stunning sequel. For readers of Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nnedi Okorafor and Tade Thompson comes this Afrofuturist tour de force. General Arika Cobane, beloved leader of the worker rebellion, makes a bold-but illegal-move to ensure the people's freedom. When her scheme fails and her co-conspirator hangs for treason, Arika-overworked and overwrought-blacks out. When she awakens, everything has changed. She's been stripped of her rank and power and the new leader of the Kongo, Kira Swan, is a charismatic traitor bent on consigning the Kongo under the guise of peace. Desperate, Arika reunites with Hosea Kahn and seeks treatment for her blackouts at the Compound, deep in the deadly Obi Forest. Arika is determined to regain her influence, stop Kira Swan, and continue leading the Kongo to freedom, but time is running out and she's still unwell. Control is slipping from her fingers. When a new source of strength presents itself, an ancient authority reserved for the One destined to save the Kongo, Arika gives up everything, including Hosea Khan, to grasp the power, but-all alone, and sick and tired-can she muster the will to hold it?Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE RECORD KEEPER: "A spellbinding, hypnotic read. Highly imaginative, The Record Keeper is an absolute triumph." - Irenosen Okojie, award-winning author of Butterfly Fish "A fierce and absorbing tale of a heroine finding her own power, set in an exquisitely crafted world...The Record Keeper deserves a place on your must-read list." - Christina Henry, author of Alice "The Record Keeper is a dazzling book, with prose that stuns and a story that captivates from start to finish. Readers of speculative and non-speculative alike will appreciate the intricate world-building and expert eye for language. Dystopian is well-trod territory, but Gomillion's take is as refreshing as it is powerful and Arika's voice is deeply compelling. This is an important and exquisitely rendered novel. Both timely and timeless, The Record Keeper is one you won't want to miss." - Rivers Solomon, author of An Unkindness of Ghosts "To read The Record Keeper is to embark on a journey of hard truths and revelation. You will grieve and rage as Gomillion unravels the secrets of past and future." - Olivia Cole, author of A Conspiracy of Stars "Grips you from the first page, this moving story... challenges us to begin the fight for freedom in our community and in ourselves." - L. Penelope, author of Song of Blood & Stone "This intellectually rich, emotional, and ruthlessly honest confrontation of racism proves Gomillion is a critically important new voice." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Gomillion writes with the elegance and insight that pervades Octavia E. Butler's work... Here is a writer whose work will survive genre fads and shifting cultural attention to reveal persistent, crucial truths." - New York Journal Review of Books "This is a rousing, red-blooded tale of revolution, topically savage in its demolition of the false, unsustainable ideology of apartheid." - The Morning Star "In a sea of dystopian, post-apocalyptic future tales, The Record Keeper stands out." - Booklist

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Book Synopsis The boy and the girl walk on and on, past the desolate landscape and broken people, past their own trauma and grief. But all roads must come to an end. What awaits them at the conclusion of their journey?

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Book SynopsisWAR IS PEACEFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Winston Smith is a good worker. He supports the Party. He is good at his job rewriting history to Government specification. Big Brother watches him, but there is nothing to see.Winston''s struggle against the totalitarian world he inhabits is a closely guarded secret. It exists only in his mind until he begins a secret love affair with Julia, a fellow worker. Is this enough to push him to revolution? Or is it the beginning of his downfall?A masterwork of dystopian fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is harrowingly prescient, and its impact has stretched around the globe.With a new introduction by political editor and writer Ian Dunt, this brand new edition of a science fiction classic is a must-have for any collector.

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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 *

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Book Synopsis''A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant'' VIOLA DAVIS on Wild Seed''Butler''s evocative, often troubling novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human'' NEW YORK TIMESA PATTERNIST NOVEL: BOOK THREE Blake Maslin is a doctor. In an alternate America marked by volatile class warfare, he and his twin daughters are taken captive by armed men demanding urgent medical care.In an isolated desert compound, the family encounter a collective of people suffering from an unknown and deadly disease. They appear sickly yet possess unnatural strength, torn between the dangerous compulsion to infect others or to hold on to their own humanity.In the following hours, Blake and his daughters each must make a vital choice: risk everything to escape infection and warn the rest of the world, or accept their place in this strange new society.Trade ReviewOne of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had -- Junot DiazButler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision * Guardian *A dark, compelling and still horribly resonant time travel story * Independent *[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human * New York Times *No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential... If you've ever tweeted "All Lives Matter", someone needs to shove Kindred into your hand, and quickly * The Pool *Kindred is that rare magical artifact . . . the novel one returns to, again and again * Harlan Ellison *One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art * Los Angeles Herald-Examiner *[A] must-read novel * BBC *Everyone should read at least one novel by the grand dame of science fiction, and Kindred is a perfect (and harrowing and disturbing and brilliant) place to start * Refinery 29 *The immediate effect of reading Octavia Butler's Kindred is to make every other time travel book in the world look as if it's wimping out... This is a brilliant book, utterly absorbing, very well written, and deeply distressing. It's very hard to read, not because it's not good but because it's so good * Tor *A searing, caustic examination of bizarre and alien practices on the third planet from the sun * Kirkus *One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity * Los Angeles Times *Impossible to turn away from once you've devoured the first few pages * Starburst *If you haven't read Butler, you don't yet understand how rich the possibilities of science fiction can be * Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction *Butler's books are exceptional * Village Voice *Few writers in our field are so good at blending page-turners with philosophical questions so seamlessly -- Cory Doctorow

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Book SynopsisIn a near future, where civilisation has collapsed, a government of youth has taken power in North America. All older people deemed responsible for the cataclysmic climate emergency are relocated, but a breakaway group escapes exile to seek freedom … at devastating cost… 'The dystopian future landscape of The Forcing comes with a heightened realism that grips and shakes you … provocative and insightful, visceral and terrifying' SciFi Now Book of the Month ‘A superbly handled tale of struggle and survival in a maimed world’ The Times 'Smart, gripping, and all too plausible … announces Paul E. Hardisty as the true heir to John Christopher' Tim Glister The jaw-dropping, passionate and provocative climate-emergency thriller from one of the world's leading environmental scientists. ___________ Civilisation is collapsing… Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off disaster, a government of youth has taken power in North America, and a policy of institutionalised ageism has been introduced. All those older than the prescribed age are deemed responsible for the current state of the world, and are to be 'relocated', their property and assets confiscated. David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to 'new accommodation' in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable. As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again… _________ 'A compelling, moving story of survival in a dying world … a novel that might have actually predicted our future' Ewan Morrison 'A bold, beautifully written and imagined novel about an all-too plausible future – Paul Hardisty is a visionary' Luke McCallin 'Hardisty is a fine writer' Lee Child 'An excellent blend of deep suspense, thriller and – to be honest – horror. The message within it is all too plausible, the solution to the problem distinctly chilling' James Oswald 'Fierce, thoughtful, deeply humane and always compelling … the tension builds from page one and never relents' David Whish-Wilson 'Outstanding! Thrilling and thought provoking. If there's any justice, this book will be HUGE!!!' Michael J Malone ‘A clear-eyed reckoning with social and political currents we don't like to examine … tough, suspenseful and action-packed’ Jock Serong 'The book I've been waiting and hoping for…' Paul Waters What readers are saying… ‘Stark, gripping, often poignant’ ‘Riveting and suspenseful’ ‘A twist I didn’t see coming’ ‘Dark and disturbing’ ‘I got a real Atwood vibe’ ‘A masterpiece’ ‘Powerfully told’ ‘Full of pace’ ‘An author at the very top of his craft’ ‘The biting intensity of a thriller and the majestic world-building of a classic dystopian tale’

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR FILMIF YOU'VE SEEN WHAT'S OUT THERE IT'S ALREADY TOO LATEMalorie raises the children the only way she can: indoors, with the doors locked, the curtains closed, and mattresses nailed over the windows.The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall, but soon she will have to wake them and blindfold them.Today they will risk everything. Today they will leave the house.Josh Malerman's New York Times bestselling Bird Box is a terrifying psychological thriller that will haunt you long after reading.Trade Review‘BIRD BOX turns the old Hollywood cliché of facing down the demon inside out – then tears it into little pieces’Daily Mail ‘A book that demands to be read in a single sitting, and through the cracks between one's fingers'Hugh Howey ‘A lean, spellbinding thriller that Stephen King fans will relish.’Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) ‘You wonder whether that brush against your shoulder was some unspeakable horror or merely a falling leaf’SFX ‘This completely compelling novel contains a thousand subtle touches but no mere flourishes – it is so well, so efficiently, so directly written I read it with real admiration’Peter Straub ‘Nailbiting … will keep you gripped till the last chapter’SciFiNow 'Unflagging suspense and ever-present dread’Adam Nevill 'Uniquely disturbing, exceptionally compelling and beautifully written, I defy anyone not to read it in one sitting'Sarah Pinborough ‘An unsettling thriller, earns comparisons to Hitchcock's The Birds, as well as the finer efforts of Stephen King and cult sci-fi fantasist Jonathan Carroll.’– Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)

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Book SynopsisBrimming with alternative universes, futuristic landscapes and gleeful metaphysics... Yu's spirit of invention is infectious. - Sunday TimesHighly inventive and hilarious - The Times_______________________________________________________________________________________With only TAMMY - a slightly tearful computer with self-esteem issues - a software boss called Phil - Microsoft Middle Manager 3.0 - and an imaginary dog called Ed for company, fixing time machines is a lonely business and Charles Yu is stuck in a rut. He's spent the better part of a decade navel-gazing, spying on 39 different versions of himself in alternate universes (and discovered that 35 of them are total jerks). And he's kind of fallen in love with TAMMY, which is bad because she doesn't have a module for that. With all that's on his mind, perhaps it's no surprise that when he meets his future self, he shoots him in the stomach. And that's a beginner's mistake for a time machine repairman. Now he's stuck in a time loop, going in circles forever. All he has, wrapped in brown paper, is the book his future self was trying to press into his hands. It's called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. And he's the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could save him.Trade ReviewA complex, brainy, genre-hopping joyride of a story * New York Times *Brimming with alternative universes, futuristic landscapes and gleeful metaphysics... Yu's spirit of invention is infectious. * Sunday Times *A man with a time machine shoots a future version of himself... The old time-travel paradox becomes a witty and plangent enquiry into the nature of memory. It's SF - but not as we know it. * Financial Times *If sci-fi is the literature of ideas, Charles Yu is already a master of the form: there are more fascinating, bizarre and clever concepts per page than most writers manage in an entire novel. * Time Out *A fantastic time travel story, one that blends fiction and reality, a sharp style of storytelling that blew my mind... this is one of the most important books of the genre to be published this year * SF Signal *Highly inventive and hilarious * The Times *pretty superb: involving, clever, perky, properly science fictional and above all funny... a most excellent debut * The Guardian *A complex, brainy, genre-hopping joyride of a story, far more than the sum of its part, and smart and tragic enough to engage all regions of the brain and body * International Herald Tribune *Buzzes with ideas, takes stylistic risks successfully, and is tightly focussed on the emotional impact of the story... Yu's enthralling debut makes me yearn for his next one * Scotland on Sunday *'A small wonder of a novel.' * Time Magazine, ‘Top 10 Books of the Year 2010’ *

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Book SynopsisPaul Auster''s dystopian future from the author of contemporary classic The New York Trilogy: ''a literary voice for the ages'' (Guardian) ''That is how it works in the City. Every time you think you know the answer to a question, you discover that the question makes no sense . . .''This is the story of Anna Blume and her journey to find her lost brother, William, in the unnamed City. Like the City itself, however, it is a journey that is doomed, and so all that is left is Anna''s unwritten account of what happened.Paul Auster takes us to an unspecified and devastated world in which the self disappears amidst the horrors that surround us. But this is not just an imaginary, futuristic world: like the settings of Kafka stories, it is one that echoes our own, and in doing so addresses some of our darker legacies. In the Country of Last Things is a tense, psychological take on the dystopian novel. It continues Auster''s deep

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE INAUGURAL ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTIONIntense, beautifully crafted . . . Her talent is electric. Get ready for a shock' GuardianThis is a work of fiction. Keep telling yourself that.America has changed. For women, it has changed for the worse.Ro, a single high-school teacher, is desperate to become a mother. But with IVF now illegal along with abortion and other reproductive rights parenthood looks increasingly unlikely for her. Her best friend Susan is trapped in a failing marriage with two children, her star student Mattie is unwillingly pregnant and Gin, an outcast offering other women natural remedies, has become the centre of a modern-day witch-hunt.With warmth, wit and ferocious inventiveness, Red Clocks shows us an all-too plausible near-future: like The Handmaid's Tale, it is a call to arms, set to become a modern classic.Trade Review‘Intense, beautifully crafted…Her talent is electric. Get ready for a shock’ Guardian ‘Timing is everything – and the release of Red Clocks couldn’t be more apt’ Grazia ‘A fearless novel with a frightening premise that seems plausible. One for fans of Naomi Alderman’s The Power’ Stylist ‘Lyrical and beautifully observed … highly absorbing’ Naomi Alderman, author of The Power ‘Necessary and so of the moment … this is your go-to book in 2018’ Elle ‘Terrifyingly real’ The Pool ‘Vividly imagined’ Sunday Times ‘Sharp, bold, funny’ Esquire ‘Powerful, beautifully written (and, at times, wry and funny) … Red Clocks is set to become one of the essential reads for 2018’ Emerald Street ‘This provocative exploration of female longing, frustration and determination couldn’t be more timely, and yet there’s nothing fleeting about it … Zumas has written a novel that’s political without being doctrinaire, that expands the dimensions of our most pressing social debate’ Washington Post ‘The dystopian feminist novel for a new generation and a story that will rev you up to be part of the resistance’ Refinery29 ‘In bristling sentences that strike with stunning efficiency, Leni Zumas shows girls and women defying the excruciating restrictions imposed by both law and culture. This is not only timely but necessary fiction—uncannily prescient, unabashedly political, and fiercely humane. We so desperately need books like this’ Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves ‘Hilarious, terrifying, and masterful–this pitch-perfect, timely novel reflects the horror and absurdity of our political landscape with a brilliance that ensures the book's timelessness. It's as riotously fun as it is chilling. Zumas has produced a poignant, wickedly sharp classic’ Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa

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Book SynopsisLook anyone who invents something really great has a moment where they think it''s going to destroy the world.For the first time in her life, Fin is off the network. A few months ago, she was the inventor of a programme so powerful, so unusual that she was untouchable.Until she wasn''t.Meanwhile, people have started disappearing from the streets of the city and the technology she created might be implicated. Square Eyes is a graphic novel about a future where the boundaries between memory, dreams and the digital world start to blur. It's a kaleidoscopic mystery story which asks: in a city built on digital illusion, who really holds the power? What is weakness? And when is it most dangerous?Trade ReviewThe book I keep going back to for its peerless haunting art… is Anna Mill’s and Luke Jones’s Square Eyes… it’s utterly confident and audacious in its space, aesthetics, innovation and design, and I could page through it from now until next Christmas with the same sense of wonder. A thing of beauty, indeed. -- Tim Martin * Spectator *This exquisite book… may scare you half to death… [but] what truly sets this book apart is its extraordinary illustrations… on every beautiful, teeming, phantasmagorical page… it fairly takes the breath away. -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *[An] instantly gripping work with an important point to make. -- James Smart * Guardian, **Books of the Year** *A spiky tale set in a dystopian near-future… [Square Eyes] certainly is a wild ride. -- Siobhan Murphy * The Times *A remarkable, prophetic graphic novel debut. Through 286 deliriously colourful pages, [Anna Mill and Luke Jones] plunge us into an all-too-plausible future, where the real and the digital are blurring and dangerous powers want to control them both. * Bookseller *Whatever you put on your head to stop your mind from exploding, make sure it’s fitted properly before immersion in Square Eyes. Just the volume and quality of work alone defies belief, and that’s before you get onto the disconcerting psychedelia of the graphics and the story. * Strong Words *A big, bleak yet gorgeous dystopia... Square Eyes comes at you in a disorienting rush… This immersive, inventive graphic novel offers its own brand of escapism. -- James Smart * Guardian *The digital dystopia presented by Square Eyes is scarily busy and psychedelic, contrasted by the grey near-ruins of the modern age. The world building in this book is extraordinary. Take your time to absorb the crowd details and bits of characterisation layered into Anna Mill's art. * Shortlist *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD 2020''Tinged with melancholy and yearning, this novel is wry and frequently beautiful, and its culmination is surprising and deeply moving'' Guardian''Both an acute satire of our social-media dominated times, and a haunting examination of depression and anxiety rendered in diamond sharp prose. It deserves to be on every prize longlist this year'' i____________________________________________You wake up. You go to work. You don''t go outside for twelve hours at a time. You have strategy meetings about how to use hashtags. After work you order expensive drink after expensive drink until you''re so blackout drunk you can''t remember the circumstances which have led you to waking up in bed with your colleague. The next day you stay in bed until the afternoon, scrolling through your social media feeds and wondering why everyone else seems to be achieving so much. Sometimes you don''t get out of bed at all.Then you hear about Life on Nyx, a programme that allows 100 lucky winners the chance to escape it all, move to another planet and establish a new way of life. One with meaning and purpose. One without Instagram and online dating. There''s one caveat: if you go, you can never come back.But you aren''t worried about that. After all, what on Earth could there possibly be to miss? ____________________________________________''Sauma has the horrors of the workplace nailed with satirical precision'' Sunday Times Culture''Weird, wonderful and beautifully written'' Daily Mail''What Sauma captures so excellently is the low level anxiety that hums through everyday life'' Telegraph''Uplifting, unputdownable and mordantly funny'' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti''I''d follow Sauma''s voice down any wormhole'' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan''For fans of Black Mirror'' Elle''Sublime'' Otegha UwagbaTrade ReviewSauma skewers the falsities and disappointments of contemporary life and work with rare sensitivity, unfolding an evocative narrative of unearthly escape. I loved it -- Megan Hunter, author of 'The End We Start From'Every now and then, a book comes along and pins down the wild thoughts that have been circling around in your brain as you question the meaning of your life in the bath at midnight. Manages to sensitively unpack the frustrations of modern life while appreciating how funny the banality of it all is * Refinery29 *An important and poignant novel that captures the ennui, panic and stubborn optimism of the zeitgeist with spirit, humour and a fearless portrayal of human truth -- Helen Cullen, author of 'The Lost Letters of William Woolf'Beautifully written . . . Everything You Ever Wanted explores our current obsession with a meaningful life * Bookseller *Everything You Ever Wanted is one of the most original and urgent novels I've read this year. Sauma dives under the skin of the way we live now and makes it into an astonishing new shape. Funny, heart-breaking and thought-provoking - a novel that talks about all the things we are most afraid to talk about. Read it! -- Clare Fisher , author 'All the Good Things'Sauma's wondrous novel could not be more timely. Captures the era of social media addiction and status anxiety perfectly. . . . with echoes of The Truman Show and 1984 * The Gloss *Uplifting, unputdownable and mordantly funny, Everything You Ever Wanted is the dystopian beach read you didn't know you needed. It's a love letter to London from outer space. It's both a speculative dystopian drama and a deadpan office satire. It's a brilliantly relatable and ambitious ode to the humdrum and the sublime; a truly original novel that captures the pleasures and displeasures of modern, earthly life. -- Sharlene Teo, author of 'Ponti'Everything You Ever Wanted is so sharp-eyed about our hidden hopes and tiny hypocrisies. Even the most fantastical elements feel painfully, perfectly true. I'd follow Sauma's voice down any wormhole -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of 'Harmless Like You'A daring and original novel that asks profound questions about the way we live today whilst being simultaneously playful and fun. Sauma is brilliant at nailing the details of contemporary life in a way that is recognisable to anyone who has suffered the mundanity of office jobs. -- Laura Kaye, author of 'English Animals'Courageous, haunting, and beautiful-with EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED, Luiza Sauma takes us on a breathtaking voyage through both the farthest reaches of space and the innermost depths of the human soul -- Peng Shepherd, author of 'The Book of M'Tinged with melancholy and yearning, this novel is wry and frequently beautiful, and its culmination is surprising and deeply moving * Guardian *What Sauma captures so excellently is the low level anxiety that hums through everyday life * Telegraph *Her writing is beautiful * Rachel Seiffert, author of Dark Room and A Boy in Winter *Weird, wonderful and beautifully written * Daily Mail *Sauma has the horrors of the workplace nailed with satirical precision * Sunday Times Culture *Absorbing and ambitious. Filled with sharp observations about the way in which we live now, Everything You Ever Wanted is both an acute satire of our social-media dominated times, and a haunting examination of depression and anxiety rendered in diamond sharp prose with barely a wasted word. . . It deserves to be on every prize longlist this year * i *For fans of Black Mirror * Elle *Millennial angst meets sci-fi * Stylist *Sublime -- Otegha Uwagba, author of 'The Little Black Book'

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Book SynopsisIn a city that could well be New York, a series of identical women are found dead in suspicious circumstances. Magazine photographer Johnny Farthing, who is reporting on the suspected murders, is chilled to discover that his fiancée looks identical to the victims too - and then she disappears. As his investigations spiral beyond his control, he finds himself at the heart of a sinister plot that uses cloning to revive the Nazi vision of a world-powerful master race...Part detective noir, part dystopic thriller, Plan for Chaos reveals the legendary science fiction novelist grappling with some of his most urgent and personal themes.Trade ReviewPerhaps the best writer of science fiction England has ever produced -- Stephen KingRemains fresh and disturbing in an entirely unexpected way * Guardian *

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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 *

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Book SynopsisWalter Tevis is the acclaimed author of The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Queen's Gambit. 'A moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Superman and Star Wars' LA TIMESTrade ReviewA moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Superman and Star Wars * LA TIMES *Science fiction's great neglected master, one of the definitive bridges between sf and literature -- Al Sarrantonio[Tevis's novels] are at once fables, parables, social satire - adventure stories of a kind. They are also simultaneously, as is much of our greatest literature, comic and tragic ... they're uniquely of their time and of all times -- James TallisA moving examination of people discovering the wonders of human thought and human love * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAN OBAMA'S 2022 SUMMER READING PICKA BETWEEN THE COVERS NOVEMBER 2022 PICK'Will resonate with fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere' ELLE'Destined to be a feminist classic - kept me up at night' PANDORA SYKES'The Handmaid's Tale for the Squid Game generation' TELEGRAPHFrida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying.Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?The School for Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about love, perfectionism and parenthood.A riveting, thought-provoking read' DAILY MAIL'A remarkable, propulsive novel' VOGUE'A portrait of our fanatical culture of judgement against women, and mothers in particular' METROTrade ReviewA remarkable, propulsive novel * Vogue *A gripping debut * Mail on Sunday *A wry, thoughtful novel * Spectator *The School For Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan . . . has become all too resonant given the rumblings behind Texas' anti-trans directive and it explores just how far the state could go when it comes to deciding what makes 'a good mother' * Stylist UK *A haunting tale of identity and motherhood - as devastating as it is imaginative -- Afua Hirsch

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Book SynopsisIt's never been easier to attack Attack on Titan than with these new, giant-sized 3-in-1 omnibus editions! If you've been waiting for the final anime season to check out the do-or-die shonen adventure that defined a decade, now's your chance. These new books tuck almost 600 pages of manga behind a specially-embossed cover, all in a larger size than the regular version. Includes Vol. 33-34 of Attack on Titan. Eren's titanic Rumbling claims thousands of lives beyond the walls of Paradis, and the boy who once lived in fear of the Titans becomes the world's most feared man. Determined to stop the destruction wrought by their childhood friend, Armin, Mikasa, and their surviving comrades reach the Attack Titan and decide to face him head on in an ultimate showdown. Will humanity finally be set free from the cycle of fear, oppression, and destruction, or will the Titans outlive their victims?

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Book SynopsisUnder a persistent rain, which seems destined to never subside, Stavros lives and moves through the streets of dark and gloomy nameless city; he has a job and a fiancée, his life is normal. Yet several, different voices talk to him - sometimes whispering, sometimes whining or yelling – whenever he hears the water running. One day, Stavros wanders the city under a heavy rain; voices become insistent, revealing his deepest, unspeakable secrets as well as his dreams and memories. He is tormented by these mysterious voices, perhaps a sign of his madness. Or perhaps of a wider, collective madness, which infects everyone around him, to the point of being transmitted to the entire universe. "I hear voices." "It's called schizophrenia." "No ... I only hear them when the water runs." "It's always called schizophrenia." A dramatic graphic novel full of black humor, spectacular and disturbing, written with visionary power and extraordinary narrative impetus by an absolute master of comics, Tiziano Sclavi, the creator of Dylan Dog. And illustrated by one of the most important Italian comics artists of the last decade, Werther Dell'Edera, co-creator of the bestselling Something Is Killing The Children. THE VOICES OF WATER is a dystopic, dark yet magnificent graphic novel. THE VOICES OF WATER is a classic metaphor: The Wandering Hero, The Inner Journey. THE VOICES OF WATER is a thought-provoking ride, as it conveys the frenzy and the feelings of our modern society.

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Book SynopsisIn the mountainous city of Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lacklustre career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who tantalizingly springs to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the sinister forces encroaching on his city and the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty. Thrumming with secrets and shape-shifting geographies, Dorothy Tse’s extraordinary debut novel is a boldly inventive exploration of life under repressive conditions.Trade Review‘[A] surreal fantasy and the reading experience is demanding ... you might ask yourself if it's worth the effort. On reaching the end you will surely conclude that it is...a very brave book.’ — David Mills, The Times‘It’s tempting to call Owlish a fantasy, or an anti-fairytale. The book is not shy of drawing in references, including to Mephistopheles, Kant, the Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll, Kafka, Orwell and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. However, Tse’s acerbic, freewheeling spirit is generically flirtatious, rather than genre-bound. She steals from the western canon with chutzpah and panache to create a subversive tale about perilous desire, high-rise bureaucracy and sophisticated corruption in a defenceless city under siege… Owlish wittily captures a recent crisis moment in Hong Kong, exploring a discombobulating state caught between civilization and its discontents.’ —Kit Fan, Guardian‘In Owlish, nimbly translated by Natascha Bruce, there are several nods to Franz Kafka and Tse offers a powerful vision of government repression.... Tse combines the banal and the fantastic to terrific effect. Full of striking imagery, Owlish is a vertiginous tale of a people sleepwalking into catastrophe.’ — Lucy Popescu, Financial Times‘Beguilingly eerie, richly textured, the pages of Owlish are drenched in strange beauty and menace. Like all the best fairy tales, it reveals the dark truths that we would rather not look at directly, and does so with a surreal and singular clarity.’ — Sophie Mackintosh, author of Cursed Bread‘Dorothy Tse is a magnificent historian of unreal places. Her sage and serious characters are cast adrift in realities that are neither sage nor serious at all – and possibly impossible. Her parallel worlds and paradoxes brilliantly illuminate our own reality, with all its fictions masquerading as facts (and vice versa). Boundlessly creative, richly philosophical – I loved this book.’ — Joanna Kavenna, author of Zed‘A magical and potent tale for these tyrannical times.’ — NoViolet Bulawayo, author of Glory‘Tse joins the ranks of artists currently remaking the world, from Yoko Tawada to César Aira.’ — Joyelle McSweeney, author of Toxicon and Arachne‘Owlish is so delightfully creepy, wonderful and strange.’ — Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise‘A bold, brilliantly absorbing read. This clever, mercurial portrait of an alternate Hong Kong lingers long after the last page.’ — Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch‘Owlish [is] a darkly sexual sociopolitical fable…Tse’s excellent novel becomes increasingly bizarre.’ — Hal Jensen, TLS‘Owlish is the story of a city as much as it is the story of Q. Between his correspondence with a strange figure known only as Owlish and a ballerina figurine who has come to life, the professor is immersed and distracted enough not to notice the city and his university emptying out around him as the political situation deteriorates and falls into chaos. Tse’s style in Owlish, with its magical elements, suggests a more overtly political Italo Calvino, or Salman Rushdie with a lighter touch…the story is engrossing and the prose, translated by the always satisfying Natascha Bruce, a delight.’ — Jessa Crispin, Telegraph‘Owlish … has been translated into a playful and sinuous English by Natascha Bruce… the book, with its ellipses and obstructed messages, were depicting the reality-warping effects of an uncanny, constraining force—a force like state censorship.’ — Katy Waldman, New Yorker‘[A] brilliantly unsettling fairytale.’ — Katie Goh, i-D‘In Owlish Tse makes a compelling spectacle; demonstrating the price of apathy during oppressive administrations, suggesting how we might resist the unspeakable mechanisms of regime. She crafts a wondrous hinterland in her writing, imagining the waiting worlds we might dream ourselves into – if we try.’ — Annie Hayter, BIG ISSUE‘Owlish bears witness to a dream state, to a place where language doesn’t always work quite how it should, where the boundaries of deviance, obedience, and desire blur. Caught within these shades of reality, the automata whirs. A cranking becomes faintly audible. Tse weaves a kind of visceral, bodily syntax full of openings and shrouded things; tantalising always, whether for us or for our hero.’ — Marguerite Carson, The Skinny‘In short, glimmering chapters, Owlish; nimbly translated by Natascha Bruce, reveals how the loss of freedom divides people from one another and from themselves. Tse’s novel is playful, poetic and devastating – a reminder that surrealist writing is not unreal, but the most real way of depicting the nightmare of living under tyranny.’ — Irina Dumitrescu, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisAs far his men are concerned, Vivian is fully recovered from his accident and long coma. An opinion that is not fully shared by Rachel, the team's new psychologist... and Vivian's ex-girlfriend! Personal entanglements aside, the team leader does still have those disturbing apocalyptic dreams - and then there's that 'Blue Parrot' sign that seems to haunt him. A new mission to the Middle East might bring some answers at last... but will they be welcome? Ages 12+

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Book SynopsisPre-empting novels such as the Booker Prize-winning Time's Arrow' by as much as twenty years, Counter-Clock world is a story of racial tensions told against the background of the year 1998 in which time flows in reverse as people are born old only to grow younger and younger.Time runs backwards in the Counter-Clock World. Old people emerge from their graves, grow to middle age, youth, adolescence and childhood to be finally unborn in their mothers wombs. The most powerful and most feared organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the written records of events, which have no longer happened.When a powerful black leader is reborn, the Library''s one concern is to eliminate him before the renewal of racial violence tears the country apart. But in this counter-clock year of 1998 it isn''t that simpleThis eerie and unforgettable premise encapsulates Philip K Dick''s ambitious and inimitable approach to fiction writing. The attempts of his characters to cope with the bizarre reality of a world that runs backwards while their minds run forwards like ours, operate as a stunning critique of the way in which we perceive our own civilization.Trade Review'One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction'Sunday Times 'Dick quietly produced serious fiction in a popular form and there can be no greater praise' Michael Moorcock 'No other writer of his generation had such a powerful intellectual presence. He has stamped himself not only on our memories but in our imaginations' Brian W. Aldiss 'The most consistently brilliant SF writer in the world' John Brunner

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Book SynopsisA morbid assassination – or something even darker? A Quantum Murder is the thrilling second book featuring Greg Mandel, the cyberpunk detective with psychic powers, from Peter F. Hamilton. Dr Edward Kitchener was a brilliant researcher into quantum cosmology. When he is found dead, lungs spread on either side of his open chest, his employers, Event Horizon, want to know what happened – and fast. Many were anxious to stop Kitchener's work, and could have paid an assassin’s fee. And only a mercenary could’ve breached Launde Abbey’s premier-grade security system. Yet why would a professional waste time ritually slaughtering the target?Greg Mandel, the psi-boosted ex-private eye, is enticed out of retirement to track the killer. He launches himself on a convoluted trail which will mean confronting the past. But – according to Kitchener's theories – this past might never have happened . . .A Quantum Murder is followed by The Nano Flower to complete the Greg Mandel trilogy.Trade ReviewThoroughly engrossing . . . immensely satisfying. An excellent book. One that engages the intellect as well as the emotions. A tale that drags the reader on a corkscrew rollercoaster ride of dazzling imagination and electrifying excitement -- StarburstA genuine unalloyed pleasure: I really cannot recommend this too highly, apart from dragging you out into the bookshops and sticking it under your nose -- Ian McDonald, author of New MoonA genuinely fresh talent -- Stan Nicholls, author of OrcsPeter Hamilton manages a very neat trick, combining deft scientific and social speculation with the page-turning appeal of the best thrillers -- Tad Williams, author of The Dragonbone ChairHard SF at its best . . . Get this and read it -- Critical Wave

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Book SynopsisA terrifying vision of the future from one of the twentieth century's most renowned writers J. G. Ballard, author of Empire of the Sun' and Crash'.Following the energy crisis of the late twentieth-century America has been abandoned. Now, a century later, an expedition from Europe returns to the deserted continent. But America is unrecognisable the Bering Strait has been dammed and the whole continent has become a desert, populated by isolated natives and the bizarre remnants of a disintegrated culture.The expedition sets off from Manhattan on a cross-continent journey, through Holiday Inns and abandoned theme parks. They will uncover a shocking new power in the heart of Las Vegas in this unique vision of our world transformed.This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Ned Beauman, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.Trade Review‘Mordant and inventive, Ballard at his best’ New Statesman ‘It is futile to have expectations of Ballard: he will inevitably subvert them. All we know for certain is that the novels he will write could not be written, could not even be guessed at, by anyone else’ Martin Amis, Observer ‘Enter Mr Ballard’s worlds and you become entranced in a séance difficult to break out of, so powerful is his method’ The Times ‘This is a very clever fiction, and – yes – another amazing improvisation on Ballard's basic theme’ Guardian

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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 *

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Book Synopsis*DON'T MISS RACHELLE ATALLA'S NEW THRILLING BOOK THIRSTY ANIMALS - OUT NOW****SHORTLISTED FOR THE SCOTTISH FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR***'Rachelle Atalla nails the claustrophobic atmosphere and brings this world to life convincingly in her impressive debut' THE SUNDAY TIMES, PAPERBACK OF THE WEEK'This horrendously claustrophobic, utterly absorbing debut. The fiercely controlled narrative beautifully translates the horrendous grip of dismal routines and tiny, stolen pleasures' DAILY MAIL'There are shades of George Orwell in this stunning writing debut, but Rachelle Atalla's voice is highly original. And wholly her own' THE HERALD'A compulsive, claustrophobic but wonderfully compassionate read, beautifully written and set within a brilliantly realised world. Rachelle Atalla is a major talent and I can't wait to see where her mind goes next' KIRSTIN INNES, AUTHOR OF SCABBY QUEEN'Atalla's speculative literary thriller debut draws you in with its mounting sense of tension, disquiet and desperation' CULTUREFLYTHE BUNKER IS DESIGNED TO KEEP THEM ALL SAFE.In the end, very few people made it to the bunker. Now they wait there for the outside world to heal. Wolfe is one of the lucky ones. She's safe and employed as the bunker's pharmacist, doling out medicine under the watchful eye of their increasingly erratic and paranoid leader.BUT IS IT THE PLACE OF GREATEST DANGER?But when the leader starts to ask things of Wolfe, favours she can hardly say no to, it seems her luck is running out. Forming an unlikely alliance with the young Doctor Stirling, her troubled assistant Levitt, and Canavan - a tattooed giant of a man who's purpose in the bunker is a mystery - Wolfe must navigate the powder keg of life underground where one misstep will light the fuse. The walls that keep her safe also have her trapped.How much more is Wolfe willing to give to stay alive?Beautifully written and utterly gripping, The Pharmacist will be a guaranteed conversation starter when it is published.'An unflinching portrayal of what we might all be capable of, Atalla's stunning debut is essential reading for our times' HELEN SEDGWICK'Though set in a speculative future, The Pharmacist is very much a book for our own broken times. Its story grips and never lets go, unflinching in its portrayal of abused power, moral confusion and betrayal, but also fully alive to the redemptive possibilities of compassion, resistance and love. This is a powerful and memorable debut from an exciting new voice' WAYNE PRICE'A triumph of a book. Character-led but taut and purposeful with action' LIAM MURRAY BELLTrade ReviewA compulsive, claustrophobic but wonderfully compassionate read, beautifully written and set within a brilliantly realised world. Rachelle Atalla is a major talent and I can't wait to see where her mind goes next * Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen *An unflinching portrayal of what we might all be capable of, Atalla's stunning debut is essential reading for our times * Helen Sedgwick, author of Where the Missing Gather *Atalla's speculative literary thriller debut draws you in with its mounting sense of tension, disquiet and desperation * CultureFly *There are shades of George Orwell in this stunning writing debut, but Rachelle Atalla's voice is highly original. And wholly her own * The Herald *This horrendously claustrophobic, utterly absorbing debut. The fiercely controlled narrative beautifully translates the horrendous grip of dismal routines and tiny, stolen pleasures * Daily Mail *Sitting somewhere on the spectrum between Paul Auster's heart-rending In the Country of Last Things and Bong Joon-ho's pulse-thumping film Snowpiercer, The Pharmacist is a slow-burn nightmare about how ordinary human decency gets eroded - and also how it perseveres * The Times *Rachelle Atalla is obviously a talented and gifted writer * On Magazine *Reminiscent of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, this unsettling story is a nightmare for our times of end-of-the-world prepping, increased nuclear insecurity and political inequality * Guardian *A breathtaking, tense debut. ***** * The Sun *It's really remarkable how she makes this bland, bleak, limited world so vivid and engrossing * SFX *Rachelle Atalla's debut is a thought-provoking addition to the post-apocalyptic genre * Press Association *The twists and turns in this brilliantly written, post-apocalyptic tale make for compulsive reading * Woman's Weekly *Atalla nails the atmosphere of claustrophobia and brings this world to life convincingly, as well as fostering sympathy for her protagonist, despite her flaws. This debut author is one to watch * The Sunday Times *Dystopian fiction, yes, but so much more. This book forces its readers to consider what it means to be good or evil, what motivates us to act as we do, and what matters to us in the end. A wonderful mix of tense drama and provocative ideas, I loved it * Elissa Soave, author of Ginger and Me *The Pharmacist is the perfect dystopian novel. Post-apocalyptic fiction masterfully handled. Addictive, claustrophobic, tense. I'm obsessed with this novel. Easily in my top reads this year * Chloe Timms, author of The Seawomen *The Pharmacist is a confident debut, in which Rachelle Atalla fully lives up to the promise of her New Writers Award . . . This literary thriller is highly original, asking difficult questions about morality and motherhood. And its claustrophobic atmosphere perfectly reflects the setting. * The List *Rachelle Atalla's elegant debut novel is a compelling account of a society whose rigid inhumanity is pierced with glimmers of hope * Daily Mail *Rachelle Atalla nails the claustrophobic atmosphere and brings this world to life convincingly in her impressive debut * The Sunday Times, PAPERBACK OF THE WEEk *Highly original * The Herald, Best Scottish Books of 2022 *This elegant debut novel is a compelling account of a society whose rigid inhumanity is pierced with glimmers of hope * Sunday Mail *

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Book SynopsisAn eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.‘A wonderful novel. Big ideas wrapped in a plot that moves like a freight train’ Stuart Turton'Compelling and complex, but still emotionally charged and devastating' Helen Fields'A Clockwork Orange for the modern cohort. A terrifying near future imagined perfectly' Imran MahmoodThe future of law enforcement has arrived, courtesy of private health contractor Janus Justice. Their ground-breaking ‘Offender Treatment Programme’ has been hailed as the most effective way of tackling crime yet.As offenders move through the four-tiered system, their needs are dealt with, each tier more drastic in its methods:Tier One: Low-risk crimes. Physical therapy encouragedTier Two: Trauma and addiction. Emotional and psychological reasons for offending are examinedTier Three: Aversion therapy & moral punishmentTier Four: Siberia, where all hope is lostBut Grace Gunnarsson, one of Janus’ most highly regarded rehabilitation psychiatrists, has uncovered a terrible flaw in the system, one that is allowing people to get away with murder...‘A high-octane, spine-shivering thriller, in which neuropsychology, crime, ethics and justice are melded in a mind-stretching concoction’ Philippa EastPraise for The Treatment 'My favourite kind of thriller: intriguing, intelligent and with a complex moral question at its core' Simon Lelic'Tense and thought-provoking, The Treatment has a bold narrative that's startlingly relevant' Sarah Ward'In The Treatment, Sarah Moorhead takes a stunningly original and frighteningly plausible premise of a twisted criminal justice system, and creates a page-turning thriller with characters readers will love and hate. Brilliantly done!' Guy Morpuss‘Thoughtful and chilling, The Treatment offers a terrifying glimpse into a wholly believable dystopian future of crime and the justice system' Brian McGilloway'A great plot, very nasty villains but more importantly tackles moral and societal issues you rarely see in crime fiction' Trevor Wood'Intelligent futuristic thriller writing at its very best. The central idea is mind-blowing and the characters beautifully realised' Victoria Dowd'Intense and unsettling, this Orwellian tale had me gripped to the very last page' Marion Todd

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Book Synopsis‘She belongs to me – property rights would prevail.’ Evie is a near-perfect bioengineered human. In a broken-down future England where her kind has been outlawed, her ‘husband’ Matthew keeps her safe but hidden. When her existence is revealed, she must take her chances on the dark and hostile streets where more than one predator is on the hunt.Trade ReviewWritten with flair and humanity... mesmerising. * The Times *‘Not since Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep have I felt so strongly about where artificial intelligence might lead us. Highly recommended.’‘Consistently engaging, fast-moving and surprising, The Actuality gives familiar science fiction themes a fresh and compassionate look, and makes of them something new.’The Actuality is smart, literary science fiction. * Infinite Speculation *The Actuality offers a rich contemplation of ethical and philosophical questions about artificial life and intelligence. * BBC Culture *

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Book SynopsisThe children of the Grace Field House orphanage must escape a macabre fate before it’s too late. Life at Grace Field House has been good for Emma and her fellow orphans. While the daily studying and exams they have to take are tough, their loving caretaker provides them with delicious food and plenty of playtime. But when they discover the horrifying truth about why they are being kept at the orphanage, their lives change forever… The complete Promised Neverland saga in one stunning box set! In addition to all 20 volumes of the suspense hit, the box set contains an exclusive booklet and a double-sided full-colour poster.

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Book SynopsisThe Future Is Oppression.Scions, sonko, landlords: whatever you call them, they're the super rich, the princes of capitalism, living off the labour – and the deaths – of the swarming masses and all too happy to see the world burn to preserve their luxurious lives.In three critically-acclaimed novellas, the "British master of science fiction" (Tor.com) takes you down into the mud and horror of a future battlefield, into the dust and burning heat of a scorched equator, into the grinding poverty of a newly-feudal village, with the folk who give their lives every day in the service of undeserving masters... and sows the seed of revolution.Collecting Tchaikovsky's critically acclaimed novellas Ironclads (2017), Firewalkers (2020) and Ogres (2022) for the first time, Terrible Worlds: Revolutions gives you three glimpses of hope for a better future.

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Book Synopsis‘Frightening and timely, Bradley’s The Sisterhood is the book everyone should read this year. If you thought it ended with Orwell, think again . . .' CHRISTINA DALCHERVox meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this feminist reimagining of 1984   In Oceania, whoever you are, Big Brother is always watching you and trust is a luxury that no one has. Julia is the seemingly perfect example of what women in Oceania should be: dutiful, useful, subservient, meek. But Julia hides a secret. A secret that would lead to her death if it is discovered. For Julia is part of the underground movement called The Sisterhood, whose main goal is to find members of The Brotherhood, the anti-Party vigilante group, and help them to overthrow Big Brother. Only then can everyone be truly free.   When Julia thinks she’s found a potential member of The Brotherhood, it seems like their goal might fin

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Book SynopsisMother of Eden has been shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Novel of the Year Award, 2015.'We speak of a mother's love, but we forget her power. Power over life. Power to give and to withhold.' Generations after the breakup of the human family of Eden, the Johnfolk emphasise knowledge and innovation, the Davidfolk tradition and cohesion. But both have built hierarchical societies sustained by violence and dominated by men - and both claim to be the favoured children of a long-dead woman from Earth that all Eden knows as Gela, the mother of them all. When Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no idea that she will be a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela's ring on her own finger. And she has no idea of the enemies she will make, no inkling that a time will come when she, like John Redlantern, will choose to kill...Trade ReviewEvery bit as compelling as Dark Eden was... Eden is building into one of most vivid and fascinating places in modern SF -- Eddie Robson * SFX *Mother of Eden is a masterpiece * Guardian *A classic theme, beautifully told * Sunday Telegraph on DARK EDEN *This is a world I'm desperate to return to * Guardian on DARK EDEN *There's no justice if Dark Eden, with its beautiful, terrifying planet, slowly revealed, fails to bring Beckett awards * The Sunday Times on DARK EDEN *A captivating and haunting book * Daily Mail on DARK EDEN *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WEEKEND''Savage: think Atwood in the outback''Paula Hawkins''An unforgettable reading experience''Liane Moriarty''Ferocious... recalls the early Elena Ferrante''NPR''A masterpiece''Guardian''Devastating'' EconomistShe hears her own thick voice deep inside her ears when she says, ''I need to know where I am.''The man stands there, tall and narrow, hand still on the doorknob, surprised.He says, almost in sympathy, ''Oh, sweetie. You need to know what you are.''Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a brokendownproperty in the middle of a desert.Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be therewith eight other girls, their heads shaved, guarded by Trade ReviewExposing the threads of misogyny, cowardice and abuses of power embedded in contemporary society, this is a confronting, sometimes deeply painful novel to read. With an unflinching eye and audacious imagination, Charlotte Wood carries us from a nightmare of helplessness and despair to a fantasy of revenge and reckoning. * Guardian *One of those unforgettable reading experiences. -- Liane Moriarity, author of Big Little Lies * The New York Times *Beautiful and savage - think Atwood in the outback. -- Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train * Guardian *A haunting parable of contemporary misogyny, The Natural Way of Things . . . is The Handmaid's Tale for our age . . . Ms Wood's writing is direct and spare, yet capable of bursting with unexpected beauty. * The Economist *A prescient feminist horror novel you need to read: The girls of Wood's novel are in no dystopia. Instead, they are imprisoned by present policing of their bodies, the corrosive discrimination of political and economic systems that turns women's bodies against them, rebuilding them as flesh and blood prisons. -- Stassa Edwards * Jezebel.com *You can't shake off this novel; it gets under your skin, fills your lungs, breaks your heart. As allegory, as a novel, as vision and as art it is stunning. -- Christos TsiolkasThe Natural Way of Things is a brave, brilliant book. I would defy anyone to read it and not come out a changed person. -- Malcolm Knox, author of The Wonder Lover and The LifeA fully imagined dystopian parable, vivid, insightful, the voices of young women echoing through the gum trees . . . -- Joan London, author of The Golden AgeThis is a stunning exploration of ambiguities - of power, of morality, of judgement . . . It will not leave you easily; it took my breath away. -- Ashley Hay, author of The Railwayman’s WifeFew other novels have captured the stain of misogyny quite like Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things . . . Terrifying, remarkable and utterly unforgettable. -- Clementine FordThe Natural Way of Things is both harrowing and gorgeous. It feels, at times, like a nightmare; but one in which women make serious pacts, take serious pleasures, and reimagine what it might mean to live in the world. I feel as if I've been witness to the most terrible injustice, but also the most astonishing beauty. -- Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest and The High PlacesAt once brutal and beautiful . . . Surreal yet intensely vivid, the novel is disturbing and enthralling . . . An absorbing plot, lyrical prose, and discomfiting imagery makes Wood's novel decidedly gripping. * Kirkus Reviews *A confronting and blazing read . . . A novel to provoke thought, conversation, disgust, anger and concern, a work that will haunt the reader with its poetry and the stark truths buried within Wood's brilliant exploration of a toxic culture in extremis. * Weekend Australian *A virtuoso performance, plotted deftly through a minefield of potential traps, weighted with allegory yet swift and sure in its narrative advance. -- Rosemary Sorensen * Sydney Review of Books *Wood's prose is beautiful, but it doesn't coddle. The Natural Way of Things is an unapologetic confrontation of misogyny and rape culture. It's a tough and necessary read. -- Jakob Vala, Tin House * The Portland Mercury *A dystopian fable, both gripping and lyrical. * Saturday Age *This is an extraordinary novel: inspired, powerful, at once coherent and dreamlike. -- Kerryn Goldsworthy * Sydney Morning Herald *A moving, mesmerising and brilliantly topical interrogation of misogyny that demands to be read at a sitting. * Adelaide Advertiser *Bold, provocative, startling and insightful. The Natural Way of Things is what fiction should be. * Newton Review of Books *The latest from Australian novelist Wood is allegory at its best, a phantasmagoric portrait of modern culture's sexual politics textured by psychological realism and sparing lyricism. * Publisher's Weekly *A ferocious new novel by the Australian Charlotte Wood whose writing recalls the early Elena Ferrante - it's tough, direct, and makes no attempt to be ingratiating . . . what keeps all this from seeming doctrinaire is the book's sheer imaginative intensity. Wood's writing crackles with vivid precision . . . Yolanda and Verla strip away the historical veneer of female subservience. They recreate themselves based on a deeper, more complicated vision of the natural order, one that grasps the bond between all living beings. I'd like to tell you that this is a happy ending, but Wood is too honest to offer anything so reassuringly easy. Even as her heroines begin a radical new way of living, Wood knows that the natural way of things is as risky and wild as it is free. -- John Powers * NPR Fresh Air *Vicious and prescient and astonishingly visceral. The Natural Way Of Things resonates with you long after you've read the final pages. A Handmaid's Tale for end times, this is an important book about contemporary femininity. * The Believer *What sets Wood's The Natural Way of Things apart, what makes it a truly urgent read is that it is not an allegory and it is not a dystopian novel: it is a reality. As such, The Natural Way of Things, a work that takes the reality of misogyny and toxic cultural notions about women's sexuality and very bluntly bulldozes those ideas, is exactly what we should be reading right now. * Full Stop *With echoes of Kafka and The Lord of the Flies . . . Wood's raw and complex story delves into themes of friendship as two of the imprisoned form a strong yet unconventional bond through their survival efforts. It also depicts the tyranny of misogyny with the same coarse grit and degradation that scours women around the globe, while simultaneously spotlighting their courage and fortitude. Uncomfortably bold, The Natural Way of Things is an everywoman's hero tale. * Shelf Awareness *It's like digesting a living creature, one with claws still intact . . . if Wood is concerned with investigating and condemning masculine violence, both in its overt manifestations and those encoded in the structure of contemporary culture, she is too much of an artist to reduce her critique to a simple binary . . . the final effect is stunning. * The Saturday Paper *

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Book Synopsis'Compelling' GUARDIAN'Incredibly well written . . . I really enjoyed it' MARIAN KEYES'One of the most sophisticated works of science fiction I've read recently' NEW YORK TIMES The promise at Nepenthe is simple: they will erase the memories you cannot live with.After the procedure, psychologist Noor will assess you for two things: your mental wellbeing, and the successful erasure of the memory. But there is no assessment if you choose to delete the memory of the Nepenthe procedure itself. If you do that, you're on your own.And what if one day, out of the blue, your memory is offered back to you - would you want to remember what you've chosen to forget?'Extraordinary' EMMA STONEX 'Riveting' KAREN THOMPSON WALKER 'Utterly captivating' LUCY CLARKE Thought-provoking. I loved it' MARCEL THEROUX Trade ReviewHarkin's characters are drawn with wit and economy, and watching their stories dovetail is pure pleasure * The Times *Incredibly nicely written . . . [Jo Harkin] writes really well about human beings. I really enjoyed it -- Marian KeyesThis compelling cautionary tale is set in an alternative present where it's possible to have painful memories removed . . . Interconnecting narratives by multiple character . . . weave into an ensemble piece that raises fascinating questions about how we use memory both to create and dismantle ourselves, and the ultimate mystery of who, or possibly what, "myself" actually is * Guardian *A narrative that is as page-turning as a thriller, and as thought-provoking as an inquiry into the human mind should be * i Paper *An extraordinary novel-- intelligent and searching, with deep questions about humanity, history and self. Expansive in its scope and themes, but never losing touch with its characters' hearts and minds, Tell Me an Ending is gripping, inventive, and a memory I'll never forget -- Emma Stonex

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Book SynopsisSoon to be a film from Netflix and Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow.Fantastic story, a real page-turner. Impossible to put down' Stephen KingForget a good night's sleep. Aurora is epic' Linwood BarclayWhen the lights go out no one is safeWhen a solar storm hits the earth, electrical power is knocked out across the planet, and the blackout could last for years. Soon food becomes scarce, and the rule of law begins to collapse. In their small community, Aubrey and her teenage stepson now face the biggest challenge of their lives.Across the country, Aubrey's estranged brother Thom, a self-made billionaire, retreats to a desert bunker where he can ride out the crisis in perfect luxury. But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over.As Aubrey struggles to live, what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of a long-overdue reckoning , and not everyone can surviveTrade Review‘Fantastic story, a real page-turner. Impossible to put down’ Stephen King 'Forget a good night’s sleep. Aurora is epic, but personal and poignant, horrifying and darkly funny, and flat-out suspenseful’ Linwood Barclay ‘With Aurora, David Koepp has firmly staked his ground as one of the best thriller writers working today’ Blake Crouch ‘Aurora contains two great narratives on a collision course. When, where and how they collide will you keep you turning pages right up to The End’ Brian De Palma ‘David Koepp does it again! Mixing humour, terror, and an all-too-believable doomsday scenario, Aurora is at the top of my list this year’ Christina Dalcher ‘There’s a reason David Koepp is the most successful screenwriter of all time. It’s because he’s one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Aurora is up there with his best: scary, funny, and thought provoking. Buy it immediately’ Scott Frank, writer and director of The Queen’s Gambit ‘Everything a great novel, and great thriller, should be . . . Frightening, surprising, wildly entertaining, but also full of heart’ Mike Lupica, co-author of The Horsewoman with James Patterson, and Robert B. Parker’s Revenge Tour ‘Terrifyingly plausible, this apocalyptic tale focusses on one family and their trials and triumphs in the face of horrifying odds. Moving, thrilling, and thoughtful, it's a high-velocity thriller with heart and soul.’ Tim Lebbon, author of The Last Storm ‘This techno-thriller is a real page-turner: diving into the devastating consequences of an all-too-plausible “end of life as we know it” event… Koepp keeps the reader in constant suspense while making the fall-out of these epic events both relatable and poignant… you won't be able to put it down!’ Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

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Book SynopsisShion accidentally learns that his childhood friend Safu is under arrest-and all because of him! Not wanting to get Rat involved, Shion sets out alone to save her. But how can he possibly infiltrate No. 6's secure correctional facility and escape with a high-priority prisoner all on his own? Includes volumes 4-6.

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Book SynopsisAn absolute must-read for fans of Shadow and BoneIn a world where the Roman Empire never fell, two starcrossed lovers fight to ignite the spark of rebellionLondinium, the last stronghold of the Romans left in Britannia, remains in a delicate state of peace with the ancient kingdoms that surround it. As the only daughter of a powerful merchant, Cassandra is betrothed to Marcus, the most eligible bachelor in the city.But then she meets Devyn, the boy with the strange midnight eyes searching for a girl with magic in her blood.A boy who will make her believe in soulmatesWhen a mysterious sickness starts to leech the life from citizens with Celtic power lying dormant in their veins, the imperial council sets their schemes in motion. And so Cassandra must make a choice: the Code or Chaos, science or sorcery, Marcus or Devyn?Panem meets the Grishaverse in this explosive new YA trilogy perfect for readers of Sarah J Maas, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare.Praise for The Once and Future Queen SeTrade ReviewPraise for The Once and Future Queen Series: ‘OH MY HEART AND SOUL … I am still reeling … seriously I would put this series up with the big ones, like Throne of Glass and The Cruel Prince’ Richelle, 5* NetGalley review ‘OMG. I will forever be in love with this series … this author has me as a fan for life’ Penelope, 5* NetGalley review ‘Beautifully written and one of the best dystopian novels I’ve read … an epic journey you won’t forget. I would love to see this made into a film’ Zoe, 5* NetGalley review ‘I couldn’t put it down. There were times when I gasped, when I cried and when I felt my jaw drop. The world Clara O’Connor has woven together is so intricate and real and the storytelling is flawless. Absolutely my favourite series I have read this year’ Jessica, 5* NetGalley review ‘If you want to immerse yourself in an Arthurian-inspired fantasy world, you need to look no further than this immersive, emotional, and wondrous one’ Tessa, 5* NetGalley review

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Book Synopsis''A compelling, prescient tale of an alternate world with far too many scary similarities to our own.'' Angela ClarkeLet me repeat myself, so we can be very clear. Women are not the enemy. We must protect them from themselves, just as much as we must protect ourselves.Imagine a world in which witchcraft is real. In which mothers hand down power to their daughters, power that is used harmlessly and peacefully.Then imagine that the US President is a populist demagogue who decides that all witches must be imprisoned for their own safety, as well as the safety of those around them - creating a world in which to be female is one step away from being criminal...As witches across the world are rounded up, one young woman discovers a power she did not know she had. It''s a dangerous force and it puts her top of the list in a global witch hunt.But she - and the women around her - won''t givTrade ReviewA gripping and vividly drawn dystopian fantasy about the power and potential of women which feels easier to enjoy now Trump has gone. * Heat *Vivid and urgent... an immersive and fast-paced must for fans of The Power and The Handmaid's Tale * Woman & Home *A chase thriller with magical elements, and good fun it is too * Morning Star *A great read ... you'll be glad you picked up a copy * Independent *

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