Fiction: literary and general non-genre
Graywolf Press The Gulf
Book Synopsis
£15.04
Theatre Communications Group Inc.,U.S. The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One
Book Synopsis
£20.39
Workman Publishing Remind Me Again What Happened
Book Synopsis“There is a smudge where my memory is supposed to be.” Claire wakes in a hospital room in the Florida Keys. She has no idea how she got there or why. The loss of so many memories is paralyzing. Some things she can piece together by looking at old photos saved by her husband, Charlie, and her best friend, Rachel, and by combing through boxes of letters and casual jottings. But she senses a mystery at the center of all these fragments of her past, a feeling that something is not complete. Is Charlie still her husband? Is Rachel still her friend? Told from alternating points of view that pull the reader into the minds of the three characters, the story unfolds as the smudge that covers Claire’s memory is gradually, steadily wiped away, until finally she can understand the why and the how of her life. And then maybe she and Charlie and Rachel can move forward, but with their lives forever changed. In Remind Me Again What Happened, debut novelist Joanna Luloff has written a moving and beautifully nuanced story of transience, the ebb and flow of time, and how relationships shift and are reconfigured by each day, hour, and minute.
£19.80
Interlink Publishing Group, Inc Unholyland: The Trilogy
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Interlink Books Just Another Jihadi Jane
Book Synopsis
£13.50
Interlink Books Swallow
Book Synopsis
£14.25
Interlink Publishing Group, Inc So Good In Black
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Ivan R Dee, Inc Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas
Book SynopsisThese artful new translations of nine of Schnitzler's most important stories and novellas reinforce the Viennese author's remarkable achievement.Trade ReviewSimply masterful...These clear, uncluttered translations are dreamlike. * The Review of Higher Education *Startlingly...life's universal themes are all here: the craving for erotic fulfillment, the fragility of love, the yearning for wealth, and the abruptness of death...these stories are rock-solid. * Publishers Weekly *One of the most distinctive and compelling voices of the early modernist movement is heard again in this elegant collection of nine urbane, perversely comic, deeply disturbing stories. * Kirkus *Margret Schaefer's fresh translation of nine stories and novellas brings most back into print for the first time in decades. * The Dallas Morning News *Table of ContentsPart 1 Foreword vii Part 2 Night Games 3 Part 3 The Dead Are Silent 83 Part 4 Blind Geronimo and His Brother 101 Part 5 A Farewell 125 Part 6 The Second 141 Part 7 Baron von Leisenbohg's Destiny 161 Part 8 The Widower 179 Part 9 Death of a Bachelor 190 Part 10 Dream Story 202
£999.99
Coffee House Press The Cry of the Sloth
Book SynopsisLiving on a diet of fried Spam, vodka, sardines, cupcakes, and Southern Comfort, Andrew Whittaker is slowly being sucked into the morass of middle age. A negligent landlord, small-time literary journal editor, and aspiring novelist, he isquite literally authoring his own downfall. From his letters, diary entries, and fragments of fiction, to grocery lists and posted signs, this novel is a collection of everything Whittaker commits to paper over the course of four critical months. Beginning in July, during the economic hardships of the Nixon era, we witness our hero hounded by tenants and creditors, harassed by a loathsome local arts group, and tormented by his ex-wife. Determined to redeem his failures and eviscerate his enemies, Whittaker hatches a grand plan. But as winter nears, his difficulties accumulate, and the disorder of his life threatens to overwhelm him. As his hold on reality weakens and his schemes grow wilder, his self-image as a placid and slow-moving sloth evolves into that of a bizarre and frantic creature driven mad by solitude. In this tragicomic portrait of a literary life, Sam Savage proves that all the evidence is in the writing, that all the world is, indeed, a stage, and that escape from the mind’s prison requires a command performance.
£14.06
Coffee House Press Comemadre
Book SynopsisIn the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, a doctor becomes involved in a misguided experiment that investigates the threshold between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object. How far are we willing to go, Larraquy asks, in pursuit of transcendence? The world of Comemadre is full of vulgarity, excess, and discomfort: strange ants that form almost perfect circles, missing body parts, obsessive love affairs, and man-eating plants. Darkly funny, smart, and engrossing, here the monstrous is not alien, but the consquence of our relentless pursuit of collective and personal progress.
£12.34
Barricade Books Inc The Ghost
Book SynopsisA group of avengers set out on a mission to find and assassinate escaped Nazi war criminals.
£21.59
Prometheus Books The Turn of the Screw and The Lesson of the
Book SynopsisHenry James (1843-1916) is one of America's premier writers of fiction. His famous novella The Turn of the Screw (1898), concerning the governess of two small children who thinks that her charges are being haunted by ghosts, brilliantly illustrates James's theory of the horror story: to suggest rather than state horror. A true psychological thriller as well as an acute study of obsession, The Turn of the Screw leaves open whether the children are being "corrupted" by malevolent spirits or by their neurotic governess.
£11.39
Hal Leonard Corporation Polly and the Piano: With Online Resource
Book Synopsis
£18.99
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Old Man and Me
Book Synopsis
£14.36
The New York Review of Books, Inc In Love
Book Synopsis
£15.26
Soft Skull Press The Garbage Times/white Ibis: Two Novellas
Book Synopsis
£14.39
Large Print Press Six Years
£18.39
Large Print Press Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Book Synopsis
£17.10
Penguin Putnam Inc The Kite Runner
Book Synopsis
£12.63
Penguin Putnam Inc How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel
Book Synopsis"Mr. Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generation''s most inventive and gifted writers." –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "A globalized version of The Great Gatsby . . . [Hamid''s] book is nearly that good." –Alan Cheuse, NPR "Marvelous and moving." –TIME Magazine From the internationally bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, the boldly imagined tale of a poor boy’s quest for wealth and love His first two novels established Mohsin Hamid as a radically inventive storyteller with his finger on the world’s pulse. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia meets that reputation—and exceeds it. The astonishing and riveting tale of a man’s journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over “rising Asia.” It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is a striking slice of contemporary life at a time of crushing upheaval. Romantic without being sentimental, political without being didactic, and spiritual without being religious, it brings an unflinching gaze to the violence and hope it depicts. And it creates two unforgettable characters who find moments of transcendent intimacy in the midst of shattering change.
£12.75
Penguin Putnam Inc The Interestings: A Novel
Book Synopsis“Remarkable . . . With this book [Wolitzer] has surpassed herself.”—The New York Times Book Review"A victory . . . The Interestings secures Wolitzer''s place among the best novelists of her generation. . . . She''s every bit as literary as Franzen or Eugenides. But the very human moments in her work hit you harder than the big ideas. This isn''t women''s fiction. It''s everyone''s."—Entertainment Weekly (A)The New York Times-bestselling novel by Meg Wolitzer that has been called "genius" (The Chicago Tribune), “wonderful” (Vanity Fair), "ambitious" (San Francisco Chronicle), and a “page-turner” (Cosmopolitan), which The New York Times Book Review says is "among the ranks of books like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot."The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.
£10.80
Penguin Putnam Inc Fates and Furies: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£11.25
Penguin Putnam Inc All Adults Here: A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
Book SynopsisAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!"In a time when all we want is hope, it’s a beautiful book to reach for." -Jenna Bush Hager“Literary sunshine.”—New York Times“The queen of the summer novel.”—Entertainment Weekly"Brimming with kindness, forgiveness, humor and love and yet (magically) also a page turner that held me captive until it was finished. This is Emma Straub''s absolute best and the world will love it. I love it." —Ann Patchett “An immensely charming and warmhearted book. It’s a vacation for the soul.”—Vox A warm, funny, and keenly perceptive novel about the life cycle of one family--as the kids become parents, grandchildren become teenagers, and a matriarch confronts the legacy of her mistakes. From the New York Times bestselling author of Modern Lovers and The Vacationers.When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she''d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?Astrid''s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid''s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most. In All Adults Here, Emma Straub''s unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight come together in a deeply satisfying story about adult siblings, aging parents, high school boyfriends, middle school mean girls, the lifelong effects of birth order, and all the other things that follow us into adulthood, whether we like them to or not.
£13.50
Penguin Putnam Inc City of Girls: A Novel
Book SynopsisAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don''t have to be a good girl to be a good person."A spellbinding novel about love, freedom, and finding your own happiness." - PopSugar"Intimate and richly sensual, razzle-dazzle with a hint of danger." -USA Today"Pairs well with a cocktail...or two." -TheSkimm"Life is both fleeting and dangerous, and there is no point in denying yourself pleasure, or being anything other than what you are."Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest. Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. "At some point in a woman''s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time," she muses. "After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is." Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.
£21.00
Penguin Putnam Inc Awayland: Stories
Book Synopsis
£15.30
The Library of America Bernard Malamud: Novels & Stories Of The 1940s &
Book Synopsis
£37.99
The Library of America Future Is Female!: 25 Classic Science Fiction
Book Synopsis
£20.24
The Library of America John Updike: Novels 1959-1965 (LOA #311): The
Book Synopsis
£42.75
Kensington Publishing The Dopefiend:: Part 2 of the Dopeman's Trilogy
Book SynopsisIn the second installment in the Dopeman''s Trilogy, JaQuavis Coleman chillingly chronicles the life and crimes of Harlem resident Hazel Brown, as she rises to the highest highs and spirals into an inevitable, devastating downfall. Hazel has nothing and no one in her life; the only thing she "owns" is an insatiable addiction to heroin. Her addiction brings her to the slums, where she quickly learns the tricks of surviving—of hustling and getting her street smarts. She''ll do anything to feed her habit, even if that means robbing and conning and selling her own body. Yet no matter how much heroin she does, the pain that''s cut so deep within her never goes away in this story so intimate and compellingly written, you''ll feel like you''re walking in her shoes.
£999.99
University of New Orleans Press My Good Son
Book Synopsis
£16.11
Bloomsbury USA Ru
Book Synopsis
£14.45
Insight Editions Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan
Book SynopsisPlan your next trip to the planet Vulcan with Hidden Universe: Star Trek: A Travel Guide to Vulcan! Find restaurants that serve the best fried sandworms and Vulcan port. Take a trip to the Fire Plains or experience spring break at the Voroth Sea. Learn all about the native Vulcan people and their unusual customs. Discover how to correctly perform the traditional Vulcan salutation (you really don’t want to get this wrong). Learn key Vulcan phrases such as Nam-tor puyan-tvi-shal wilat: “Where is your restroom?” Find out what to do if you suddenly find yourself host to a katra—a Vulcan’s living spirit—at an inconvenient moment. All this and more can be found within the pages of this essential travel guide to one of the most popular—and logical—destinations in the known universe.Hidden Universe: Star Trek: A Travel Guide to Vulcan draws on 50 years of Star Trek TV shows, films, and novels to present a comprehensive guide to Spock’s iconic home world. Modeled after real-world travel guides, the book will explore every significant region on Vulcan with fascinating historical, geographical, and cultural insights that bring the planet to life like never before. Also featuring a dynamic mixture of classic Star Trek imagery and original illustrations created exclusively for the book, Hidden Universe: Star Trek: A Travel Guide to Vulcan is the perfect way to celebrate 50 years of Star Trek and will thrill pop culture fans and hardcore Star Trek fans alike.
£15.29
Seven Stories Press,U.S. Passage
Book SynopsisPassage tells the story of Warrior, a young black man navigating the snowy winter streets of Harlem and Brooklyn in 1993.
£14.24
Seven Stories Press,U.S. Infidels
Book SynopsisThe son of a witch doctor finds himself on the surprising path to Jihad in this novel by an award-winning author and civil rights hero.
£11.78
Seven Stories Press,U.S. Passage
Book SynopsisPassage tells the story of Warrior, a young black man navigating the snowy winter streets of Harlem and Brooklyn in 1993.
£11.39
Seven Stories Press,U.S. Things To Do When You're Goth In The Country
Book SynopsisA short story collection about drugs, UFOs and the dykes and weirdos who live in America's contemporary underbelly.
£12.34
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press The Veins of the Ocean
Book SynopsisBy the author of Infinite Country, a Reese's Book Club pick 2021WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE 2017Reina Castillo's beloved brother is serving a death sentence for a crime that shocked the community - a crime for which Reina secretly blames herself. When she is at last released from her seven-year prison vigil, Reina moves to a sleepy town in the Florida Keys seeking anonymity.There, she meets Nesto, a recently exiled Cuban awaiting with hope the arrival of the children he left behind in Havana. Through Nesto's love of the sea and capacity for faith, Reina comes to understand her own connections to the life-giving and destructive forces of the ocean that surrounds her as well as its role in her family's troubled history. Set in the vibrant coastal and Caribbean communities of Miami; the Florida Keys; Havana, Cuba; and Cartagena, Colombia, The Veins of the Ocean is a wrenching exploration of what happens when life tests the limits of compassion, and a stunning and unforgettable portrait of fractured lives finding solace in the beauty and power of the natural world, and in one another.Trade ReviewEngel has an eye for detail. She knows how to drown the reader in a sense of enchantment... She writes exquisite moments. -- Roxane Gay * The Nation *This, mercifully, is a book as concerned with transforming the human condition as it is with the unflinching examination of its wounds... In short, it is our world, mirrored back to us, revealed anew. * San Francisco Chronicle *Engel's voice is lyrical, in a no nonsense sort of way. Her descriptive powers have improved greatly; she has an all-seeing eye that misses nothing of importance for the reader. * Miami Herald *Beautifully wrought and vibrant, The Veins of the Ocean is a compelling meditation on guilt, nature, redemption, and the immigrant experience. * Buzzfeed *Patricia Engel's sumptuous second novel...is no wild revenge tragedy; instead, it examines a tragedy's aftermath... Engel writes with a raw realism that elevates her characters' mundane existence - their failures and failings, hopes and dreams, pleasures and pains - to something majestic. * New York Times *The Veins of the Ocean is an indelible novel of loss, grief, and redemption. Patricia Engel has created a world that is at once sensuous and dangerous, authentic and poetic, harrowing and hopeful. * Laila Lalami *In a novel that is vitally relevant today when the word refugee has such loaded connotations, Engel delivers a pulsating . . . and deeply introspective take on how family, love, and guilt can both 'chain us together' and set us free. * Booklist *Engel is able to find a lightness in a disturbing story to carry the reader through the novel... Engel has crafted a detailed, rich world of vivid atmosphere and imagery . . . A dark comedy with unexpected heart. * Kirkus *
£8.54
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press The White Van
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel DaggerAt a dive bar in San Francisco's edgy Tenderloin district, the dishevelled Emily Rosario is drinking whiskey and looking for an escape. When she is approached by a mysterious and wealthy Russian, she thinks she has found an exit from her drifter lifestyle and drug-addict boyfriend. A week later she finds herself drugged, disoriented and wanted for robbery. On the other side of town, cop Leo Elias is broke, alcoholic and desperate. When he hears about an unsolved bank robbery, the stolen money proves too strong a temptation. Elias takes the case into his own hands, hoping to find the criminal and the money before anyone else does.With sharply drawn characters and twists that surprise until the end, The White Van introduces a strong new talent.Trade ReviewFilled with epic twists and savage turns, the pace is relentless, and Hoffman's drive sets fire to the pages as he crawls across the sinister black underbelly of the Californian dream... Exhilarating and powerful. * Daily Mail *Exhilarating crime debut... Hoffman's crime plot doesn't just thicken, it boils with surprise after surprise and suspense as tight as a noose. * San Francisco Chronicle *The White Van, with its quick and scary turns, provides a hell of a ride; the action never stops - even after the final page. * Wall Street Journal *A nifty bit of noir set in the mean streets of San Francisco... a juicily dark thriller. * Weekend Sport *A heist propels Hoffman's outstanding first novel... Hoffman, who spent years working as a PI in San Francisco, writes with great authority about the city's seamy side and the grim realities of life for its down-on-their-luck denizens. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *My favourite debut of 2015 so far... His careful, pared-down prose is a delight... The White Van is a caperish delight, channelling Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake to exhilarating and unexpected effect. -- John O'Connell * Guardian *Stuffed with truly shocking twists. * Entertainment Weekly *
£7.99
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Say Her Name
Book SynopsisCelebrated novelist Francisco Goldman married a beautiful young writer named Aura Estrada in a romantic Mexican hacienda in the summer of 2005. The month before their second anniversary, during a long-awaited holiday, Aura broke her neck while body surfing. Francisco, blamed for Aura's death by her family and blaming himself, wanted to die, too. But instead he wrote Say Her Name, a novel chronicling his great love and unspeakable loss, tracking the stages of grief when pure love gives way to bottomless pain. Suddenly a widower, Goldman collects everything he can about his wife, hungry to keep Aura alive with every memory. From her childhood and university days in Mexico City with her fiercely devoted mother to her studies at Columbia University, through their newlywed years in New York City and travels to Mexico and Europe - and always through the prism of her gifted writings - Goldman seeks her essence and grieves her loss. Humour leavens the pain as he lives through the madness of utter grief and creates a living portrait of a love as joyous and playful as it is deep and profound. Say Her Name is a love story, a bold inquiry into destiny and accountability, and a tribute to Aura - who she was and who she would have been.
£8.54
Workman Publishing Guests on Earth: A Novel
Book Synopsis“Reading Lee Smith ranks among the great pleasures of American fiction . . . Gives evidence again of the grace and insight that distinguish her work.” —Robert Stone, author of Death of the Black-Haired GirlIt’s 1936 when orphaned thirteen-year-old Evalina Toussaint is admitted to Highland Hospital, a mental institution in Asheville, North Carolina, known for its innovative treatments for nervous disorders and addictions. Taken under the wing of the hospital’s most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evalina witnesses cascading events that lead up to the tragic fire of 1948 that killed nine women in a locked ward, Zelda among them. Author Lee Smith has created, through a seamless blending of fiction and fact, a mesmerizing novel about a world apart--in which art and madness are luminously intertwined.Trade Review“[An] elegant historical novel . . . Lee Smith is an assured and accomplished writer, and her use of Zelda as a subject in Guests on Earth is brilliant . . . This is a carefully researched, utterly charming novel. By the time you finish it, you fall in love with these fascinating lives, too.” —The Washington Post“Guests on Earth is a mesmerizing novel about a time and place where creativity and passion, theory and medicine, fact and fiction, are luminously intertwined.” —BookPage“Indeed, most of the high spirited, rebellious, outspoken women who populate Guests on Earth would not now be considered insane at all. Smith’s imaginative, layered story illuminates the complexity of their collective plight—to be put in towers until they had no choice but to behave—and rescues them one by one.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution“[An] engaging and engrossing novel . . . Smith’s well-developed characters, rich historical detail and easy prose create a novel that some may call her best yet, and which it just may be.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“Those who enjoyed Smith’s previous work (e.g., Fair and Tender Ladies; The Last Girls) will certainly appreciate this absorbing book, as will those interested in the history of treating mental illness in the United States and fans of Southern or Appalachian fiction.” —Library Journal“With Guests on Earth, Lee Smith shines new light on a shadowy, complex subject . . . She offers a broader historical perspective--and with it, a captivating, inimitable voice.” —The Raleigh News and Observer“Treading the fine line between sanity and insanity, this historical novel imagines the 12 years proceeding the 1948 fire that engulfed a North Carolina mental hospital and killed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s estranged wife, Zelda.” —Ms. Magazine“Engaging . . . Touching.” —Publishers Weekly“This is Lee Smith at her powerful best, writing the South she knows through the eyes of a woman who lived it.” —Adriana Trigiani, author of Big Stone Gap and The Shoemaker's Wife“In Guests on Earth Lee Smith gives evidence again of the grace and insight that distinguish her work. Her characters are realized with singular intensity, the most vivid interior life, and flawless dialogue. Reading Lee Smith ranks among the great pleasures of American fiction.” —Robert Stone, author of Death of the Black-Haired Girl and Dog Soldiers * Review quotes *“[An] elegant historical novel . . . Lee Smith is an assured and accomplished writer, and her use of Zelda as a subject in Guests on Earth is brilliant . . . This is a carefully researched, utterly charming novel. By the time you finish it, you fall in love with these fascinating lives, too.” —The Washington Post“Guests on Earth is a mesmerizing novel about a time and place where creativity and passion, theory and medicine, fact and fiction, are luminously intertwined.” —BookPage“Indeed, most of the high spirited, rebellious, outspoken women who populate Guests on Earth would not now be considered insane at all. Smith’s imaginative, layered story illuminates the complexity of their collective plight—to be put in towers until they had no choice but to behave—and rescues them one by one.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution“[An] engaging and engrossing novel . . . Smith’s well-developed characters, rich historical detail and easy prose create a novel that some may call her best yet, and which it just may be.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“Those who enjoyed Smith’s previous work (e.g., Fair and Tender Ladies; The Last Girls) will certainly appreciate this absorbing book, as will those interested in the history of treating mental illness in the United States and fans of Southern or Appalachian fiction.” —Library Journal“With Guests on Earth, Lee Smith shines new light on a shadowy, complex subject . . . She offers a broader historical perspective--and with it, a captivating, inimitable voice.” —The Raleigh News and Observer“Treading the fine line between sanity and insanity, this historical novel imagines the 12 years proceeding the 1948 fire that engulfed a North Carolina mental hospital and killed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s estranged wife, Zelda.” —Ms. Magazine“Engaging . . . Touching.” —Publishers Weekly“This is Lee Smith at her powerful best, writing the South she knows through the eyes of a woman who lived it.” —Adriana Trigiani, author of Big Stone Gap and The Shoemaker's Wife“In Guests on Earth Lee Smith gives evidence again of the grace and insight that distinguish her work. Her characters are realized with singular intensity, the most vivid interior life, and flawless dialogue. Reading Lee Smith ranks among the great pleasures of American fiction.” —Robert Stone, author of Death of the Black-Haired Girl and Dog Soldiers—Review quotes
£13.29
Workman Publishing We Love You, Charlie Freeman: A Novel
Book SynopsisA FINALIST FOR THE 2016 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE 2017 YOUNG LIONS AWARDDon't miss Kaitlyn Greenidge's second novel, Libertie, which is available now! “A terrifically auspicious debut.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Smart, timely and powerful . . . A rich examination of America’s treatment of race, and the ways we attempt to discuss and confront it today.” —The Huffington Post The Freeman family--Charles, Laurel, and their daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie--have been invited to the Toneybee Institute to participate in a research experiment. They will live in an apartment on campus with Charlie, a young chimp abandoned by his mother. The Freemans were selected because they know sign language; they are supposed to teach it to Charlie and welcome him as a member of their family. But when Charlotte discovers the truth about the institute’s history of questionable studies, the secrets of the past invade the present in devious ways. The power of this shattering novel resides in Greenidge’s undeniable storytelling talents. What appears to be a story of mothers and daughters, of sisterhood put to the test, of adolescent love and grown-up misconduct, and of history’s long reach, becomes a provocative and compelling exploration of America’s failure to find a language to talk about race. “A magnificently textured, vital, visceral feat of storytelling . . . [by] a sharp, poignant, extraordinary new voice of American literature.” —Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s WifeTrade Review“Terrifically auspicious . . . Ms. Greenidge has charted an ambitious course for a book that begins so mock-innocently. And she lets the suspicion and outrage mount as the Freemans’ true situation unfolds. This author is also a historian, and she makes the '1929' on Toneybee plaque tell another, equally gripping story that strongly parallels the Freemans’ 1990 experience.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “…witty and provocative… Greenidge deftly handles a host of complex themes and characters, exploring not just how (literally) institutionalized racism is, but the difficulty of an effective response to it. … Greenidge doesn’t march to a pat answer; the power of the book is in her understanding of how clarity wriggles out of reach. For all the seriousness of its themes, though, Charlie Freeman is also caustically funny.” —USA Today “Kaitlyn Greenidge’s masterful debut novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman is at heart an examination of race and language — an African-American family is hired by a New England research institute to raise and teach sign language to a chimpanzee, but the institute has a shockingly dark past. We Love You, Charlie Freeman skillfully tackles history and heavy subjects with both humor and thoughtfulness; this book proves Greenidge will be a literary force to be reckoned with.” —Buzzfeed.com “When you first step into the pages of Kaitlyn Greenidge’s wonderfully audacious debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, you’re not quite sure where she’s going. Well, buckle up for an unforgettable journey.” —Essence “This fantastic debut novel tackles important subjects—race and culture, language and communication—frankly and with grace. Kaitlyn Greenidge's story follows an African-American family hired to teach sign language to a chimp, but a dark history follows the institute behind the experiment. Charlie Freeman has so many elements of a great read: thoughtful construction, precise prose, and a beating heart.” —Elle.com "[Greenidge] succeeds in large part because her voices are so dead-on. Whether it is Charlotte, swooning and conflicted over Adria or her sister, or Nymphadora trying to be clear-eyed about Gardner, these narratives are convincing and utterly engaging.” —Boston Globe “…Greenidge pulls together the multiple story lines and strong perspectives of Charlotte and Nymphadora with her descriptive powers, lively dialogue and a fluid, engaging style. With this ambitious, compelling novel, she brings an original and thoughtful voice to the exploration of the complexities and ambiguities of race and gender, what it means to be a family, the relationship between humans and wild animals in domestic settings and the failures of communication across cultures and species.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“We Love You, Charlie Freeman is a gripping and gratifying read. Greenidge tackles the risky terrain of ethnicity and race relations with confidence and grace, and has proven herself a writer to watch.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “Greenridge’s wondrous first novel pits the sins of the past against the desire for the future in a multifaceted narrative that challenges concepts of culture and communication.” —Booklist, starred review “Greenidge proves herself a master of dialogue, which helps her craft engaging, well-drawn characters. …with humor, irony, and wit, Greenidge tackles this sensitive subject and crafts a light but deeply respectful take on this heavy aspect of America's treatment of black people. This is a timely work, full of disturbing but necessary observations. A vivid and poignant coming-of-age story that is also an important exploration of family, race, and history.” —Kirkus Reviews “This sharp and powerful debut novel will floor you. The Freeman family moves to rural Massachusetts to participate in a research study in which they live with and teach sign-language to a chimpanzee. But in their new home, they find themselves isolated in a community of white people, both by their race and their experiment. As they struggle not to come undone, the pressure mounts as one family member begins to uncover the dark secrets of the Institute's past.” —Bustle.com“Terrifically auspicious . . . Ms. Greenidge has charted an ambitious course for a book that begins so mock-innocently. And she lets the suspicion and outrage mount as the Freemans’ true situation unfolds. This author is also a historian, and she makes the '1929' on Toneybee plaque tell another, equally gripping story that strongly parallels the Freemans’ 1990 experience.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “…witty and provocative… Greenidge deftly handles a host of complex themes and characters, exploring not just how (literally) institutionalized racism is, but the difficulty of an effective response to it. … Greenidge doesn’t march to a pat answer; the power of the book is in her understanding of how clarity wriggles out of reach. For all the seriousness of its themes, though, Charlie Freeman is also caustically funny.” —USA Today “Kaitlyn Greenidge’s masterful debut novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman is at heart an examination of race and language — an African-American family is hired by a New England research institute to raise and teach sign language to a chimpanzee, but the institute has a shockingly dark past. We Love You, Charlie Freeman skillfully tackles history and heavy subjects with both humor and thoughtfulness; this book proves Greenidge will be a literary force to be reckoned with.” —Buzzfeed.com “When you first step into the pages of Kaitlyn Greenidge’s wonderfully audacious debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, you’re not quite sure where she’s going. Well, buckle up for an unforgettable journey.” —Essence “This fantastic debut novel tackles important subjects—race and culture, language and communication—frankly and with grace. Kaitlyn Greenidge's story follows an African-American family hired to teach sign language to a chimp, but a dark history follows the institute behind the experiment. Charlie Freeman has so many elements of a great read: thoughtful construction, precise prose, and a beating heart.” —Elle.com "[Greenidge] succeeds in large part because her voices are so dead-on. Whether it is Charlotte, swooning and conflicted over Adria or her sister, or Nymphadora trying to be clear-eyed about Gardner, these narratives are convincing and utterly engaging.” —Boston Globe “…Greenidge pulls together the multiple story lines and strong perspectives of Charlotte and Nymphadora with her descriptive powers, lively dialogue and a fluid, engaging style. With this ambitious, compelling novel, she brings an original and thoughtful voice to the exploration of the complexities and ambiguities of race and gender, what it means to be a family, the relationship between humans and wild animals in domestic settings and the failures of communication across cultures and species.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“We Love You, Charlie Freeman is a gripping and gratifying read. Greenidge tackles the risky terrain of ethnicity and race relations with confidence and grace, and has proven herself a writer to watch.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “Greenridge’s wondrous first novel pits the sins of the past against the desire for the future in a multifaceted narrative that challenges concepts of culture and communication.” —Booklist, starred review “Greenidge proves herself a master of dialogue, which helps her craft engaging, well-drawn characters. …with humor, irony, and wit, Greenidge tackles this sensitive subject and crafts a light but deeply respectful take on this heavy aspect of America's treatment of black people. This is a timely work, full of disturbing but necessary observations. A vivid and poignant coming-of-age story that is also an important exploration of family, race, and history.” —Kirkus Reviews “This sharp and powerful debut novel will floor you. The Freeman family moves to rural Massachusetts to participate in a research study in which they live with and teach sign-language to a chimpanzee. But in their new home, they find themselves isolated in a community of white people, both by their race and their experiment. As they struggle not to come undone, the pressure mounts as one family member begins to uncover the dark secrets of the Institute's past.” —Bustle.com
£13.29
Workman Publishing Shadow of the Lions: A Novel
Book Synopsis“My lungs began to burn as I started sprinting. It wasn’t just that I wanted to catch Fritz. I had the distinct feeling that I was chasing him, that I had to catch up with him, before something caught up with me.” How long must we pay for the crimes of our youth? That is just one question Christopher Swann explores in this compulsively readable debut, a literary thriller set in the elite—and sometimes dark—environs of Blackburne, a prep school in Virginia. When Matthias Glass’s best friend, Fritz, vanishes without a trace in the middle of an argument during their senior year, Matthias tries to move on with his life, only to realize that until he discovers what happened to his missing friend, he will be stuck in the past, guilty, responsible, alone. Almost ten years after Fritz’s disappearance, Matthias gets his chance. Offered a job teaching English at Blackburne, he gets swiftly drawn into the mystery. In the shadowy woods of his alma mater, he stumbles into a web of surveillance, dangerous lies, and buried secrets—and discovers the troubled underbelly of a school where the future had once always seemed bright. A sharp tale full of false leads and surprise turns, Shadow of the Lions is also wise and moving. Christopher Swann has given us a gripping debut about friendship, redemption, and what it means to lay the past to rest.Trade ReviewSouthern Living Best Books of the Year • Publishers Weekly Best Summer Books 2017 “Comes alive with action and intrigue.”—The Wall Street Journal “A promising, well-crafted debut. Flashes of lyrical agility suggest a bright new talent ready to roar.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “An engrossing and entertaining read. Swann deftly manages a dual narrative . . . It’s a swift tale well told, and at times eloquently so.”—Seattle Times “Swann’s tightly knit debut novel is a moving coming-of-age story with a noir twist that will appeal to readers of John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, N.H. Kleinbaum’s Dead Poets Society, and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —Library Journal, starred review “A wonderful coming of age story, a taut emotional rollercoaster, and a hell of a debut. Christopher Swann hits the sweet spot with a novel that has a gripping plot, beautifully rendered characters, and an accomplished style. I loved it.” —David Liss, author of The Day of Atonement “Both a poignant coming-of-age tale and a suspenseful mystery. Set in the persistently alluring environs of an elite prep school, where the idealistic image of striving achievement is always in conflict with the dark realities that trouble even the most privileged of lives, Shadow of the Lions illuminates the complexities of friendship, love, loyalty, and duty with remarkable wisdom and compassion.” —Ed Tarkington, author of Only Love Can Break Your Heart "Witty, fast paced, and satisfying, Shadow of the Lions is the perfect literary thriller for back-to-school season.”—Foreword Reviews, starred review “Swann steps on the gas for the last 100 pages, [and] the mystery takes off . . . ”—Kirkus Reviews “A twisty tale that surprises at every turn, Shadow of the Lions will keep you turning pages compulsively into the wee hours, cursing Christopher Swann for the inconvenience.” —Jonathan Evison, author of This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! “Fast-paced and full of unexpected turns, Christopher Swann’s Shadow of the Lions pulls readers into the dark underworld looming beneath a prestigious boys’ boarding school.” —Mira Jacob, author of The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing “Swann is a gifted storyteller, a master at the twisty tale . . . Under Swann’s deft hand, ultimately, Shadow of the Lions explores the timeless complexity of deep friendship--how it shapes us, destroys us and sometimes remakes us.” —Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Idea of Love “A riveting literary mystery about power, privilege and the need to find the truth no matter how devastating it might be . . . This mystery is so well observed: its richly drawn characters are motivated by circumstances that feel true to life, and they speak with a rare authenticity. Swann also demonstrates a talent for setting—his Virginia woods feel either menacing or soothing depending on who enters them. Unsettling and beautifully written, Shadow of the Lions challenges the idea that we ever truly leave high school behind.”—Shelf Awareness for Readers
£13.29
Soho Press Inc The Usual Santas: A Soho Crime Holiday Anthology
Book SynopsisSixteen delightful holiday short stories by some of your favorite Soho Crime authors!
£15.29
Tachyon Publications Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka
Book Synopsis
£13.49
Tachyon Publications Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
Book Synopsis
£13.49
Akashic Books,U.S. Baghdad Noir
Book SynopsisOne of the world's most war-torn cities is portrayed though a noir lens in this chilling story collection.
£13.49
Akashic Books,U.S. Sao Paulo Noir
Book SynopsisOn the heels of Rio Noir, beloved Brazilian rock star and best-selling novelist Tony Bellotto ushers another world-class city into the Akashic Noir Series.
£13.49
Akashic Books,U.S. The Book Of Love And Hate
Book SynopsisA literary international espionage novel set between Israel and New York.
£14.36
