Fiction: literary and general non-genre

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE FLAHERTY-DUNNAN FIRST NOVEL PRIZEFire Support Base Matterhorn: a fortress carved out of the grey-green mountain jungle. Cold monsoon clouds wreath its mile-high summit, concealing a battery of 105-mm howitzers surrounded by deep bunkers, carefully constructed fields of fire and the 180 marines of Bravo Company. Just three kilometres from Laos and two from North Vietnam, there is no more isolated outpost of America's increasingly desperate war in Vietnam.Second Lieutenant Waino Mellas, 21 years old and just a few days into his 13-month tour, has barely arrived at Matterhorn before Bravo Company is ordered to abandon their mountain and sent deep in-country in pursuit of a North Vietnamese Army unit of unknown size. Beyond the relative safety of the perimeter wire, Mellas will face disease, starvation, leeches, tigers and an almost invisible enemy. Beneath the endless jungle canopy, Bravo Company will confront competing ambitions, duplicitous officers and simmering racial tensions. Behind them, always, Matterhorn. The impregnable mountain fortress they built and then abandoned, without a shot, to the North Vietnamese Army...Trade ReviewOne of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam - or any war -- Sebastian Junger * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisForced to move from the rural tranquillity of southern England to the turbulent northern mill town of Milton, Margaret Hale takes an instant dislike to the dirt and noise that seems to characterize her new home and its inhabitants - even the handsome and charismatic cotton mill owner, John Thornton. But as she begins to settle in, and to understand the nature of the surrounding poverty and injustice, events conspire to throw her and Thornton together. Amidst the chaos of industrial unrest, they must learn to overcome the prejudices of class and circumstance and admit their feelings for one another.One of literature's greatest romances, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is both an incisive social commentary and an electric portrayal of all-conquering love.This Macmillan Collector's Library edition of North and South features an afterword by Kathryn White.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisAn enthralling collection of new and classic tales of the fearsome Djinn, from bestselling, award-winning and breakthrough international writers. Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; tormenting us, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them. They are the Djinn. With stories from Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine Faris King, Claire North, E.J. Swift, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Saad Hossain, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.Trade Review"Exquisite and audacious, and highly recommended." -- The New York Times * The New York Times *"Entertaining, sexy and mischievous" -- Marina Warner -- Marina Warner"A treasure chest of literally wonderful and marvelous stories, with a kind of richness that fantasy only rarely achieves." -- Tim Powers -- Tim Powerrs"Opens quietly with an intense, thrumming poem from Egyptian poet Hermes, and then ignites like the creature it profiles... a rich and illuminating cultural experience." -- Washington Post * The Washington Post *"Gorgeous." -- Tor.com * Tor.com *"The sheer variation of interpretation is what makes this a superior collection, as well as, of course, the superior writing." -- BookRiot * BookRiot *"Vivid, enthralling and endlessly varied. A wonderful collection." -- Mike Carey -- Mike Carey"A sparkling array of talent and imagination" -- SFX * SFX Magazine *"A superb collection of superior stories by some of my favorite writers. This is the must-have anthology of the year." -- Lavie Tidhar -- Lavie Tidhar"Readers looking for stories set in a variety of locales (even outer space) and arrayed over various cultures and religions will find much to like." -- Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *"Not only one of short stories, but of real narratives... will let readers enter a world that they have no idea about" -- New York Journal of Books * New York Journal of Books *"Lovely and complex" -- Strange Horizons * Strange Horizons *"A range of terrific stories in a variety of styles, all of them effective... Fall in love with djinn! Read this book." -- Geek Syndicate * Geek Syndicate *Table of Contents Introduction - Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin The Djinn Falls in Love – Hermes The Congregation – Kamila Shamsie How We Remember You – Kuzhali Manickavel Hurrem and the Djinn – Claire North Glass Lights – Neon Yang Authenticity – Monica Byrne Majnun – Helene Wecker Black Powder – Maria Dahvana Headley A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds – Amal El-Mohtar The Sand in the Glass is Right – James Smythe Reap – Sami Shah Queen of Sheba – Catherine Faris King The Jinn Hunter’s Apprentice – E.J. Swift Message in a Bottle – K.J. Parker Bring Your Own Spoon – Saad Z. Hossain Somewhere in America – Neil Gaiman Duende 2077 – Jamal Mahjoub The Righteous Guide of Arabsat – Sophia Al-Maria The Spite House – Kirsty Logan Emperors of Jinn – Usman T. Malik History – Nnedi Okorafor

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Book Synopsis1941: In Communist-ruled, war-ravaged Estonia, two men are fleeing from the Red Army - Roland, a fiercely principled freedom fighter, and his slippery cousin Edgar. When the Germans arrive, Roland goes into hiding; Edgar abandons his unhappy wife, Juudit, and takes on a new identity as a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime... 1963: Estonia is again under Communist control, independence even further out of reach behind the Iron Curtain. Edgar is now a Soviet apparatchik, desperate to hide the secrets of his past life and stay close to those in power. But his fate remains entangled with Roland's, and with Juudit, who may hold the key to uncovering the truth... In a masterfully told story that moves between the tumult of these two brutally repressive eras - a story of surveillance, deception, passion, and betrayal - Sofi Oksanen brings to life both the frailty, and the resilience, of humanity under the shadow of tyranny.Trade ReviewA powerful, angry work * Mail on Sunday *Superb... Over it hangs a Graham Greene-like atmosphere of human wretchedness and compromised political faith * Sunday Telegraph, ***** *A thrilling page-turner but equally a shattering family drama and an unsparing deconstruction of history... Oksanen is a serious novelist in all ways * Independent *Betrayal, secrecy and memory are the haunting themes of Oksanen's accomplished novel... Her insights and intuition mean that she is fast becoming one of the foremost voices in the ex-communist world * The Economist *

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Book SynopsisWinner of BEST HORROR NOVEL (August Derleth Award) at British Fantasy Awards 2016She comes in the night. She looks into your eyes. One by one, she has taken us all.For generations they have died young, and now fifteen-year-old Iris and her father are the last of the Villarca line. Confined to their lonely mansion on Dartmoor, they suffer their disease in isolation. But Iris breaks her promise to hide from the world and dares to fall in love.It is only then that they understand the true horror of the Villarca curse, the curse of the bone-white woman who visits in the night, leaving death in her wake.''With a ghostly face at the window, inexplicable events and a sense of menace hanging over every page, this is one chilling gothic novel'' Daily MailTrade ReviewFrom Victorian ghost story to anti-war polemic and back again: I raged, wept and hid under the bed covers. As full of science as it is the supernatural, this is a hauntingly brilliant virtuoso performance. -- Emma Healey author of ELIZABETH IS MISSINGGloriously dark and claustrophobic, Rawblood is a haunting gothic novel of intelligence and complexity. It has many echoes of the classics but is entirely its own book. * Essie Fox, author of THE SOMNAMBULIST *A gothic tale of love and madness, this atmospheric and chilling story drew me in from the first page, and kept me up at night, until I reached the last -- Claire Fuller, author of OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYSThe story crosses generations, from Victorian England to World War I, and is told by a number of different voices, going back and forth in time and drawing the reader into their thrall. With a ghostly face at the window, inexplicable events and a sense of menace hanging over every page, this is one chilling gothic novel -- Fanny Blake * Daily Mail *plenty of twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat. * WOMAN AND HOME *Chillingly good -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express S Magazine *As a meta-examination of the Gothic genre (it's mostly set in the 19th Century( and as a straightforward tale of grisly haunting, Ward's novel is remarkably successful. * THE SPECTATOR *carried off in fine style * LITERARY REVIEW *an impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Rawblood makes a powerful contribution to the British literature of the fantastic. It's an epic family saga incorporating a great Gothic house, built upon a lyrically rendered regional landscape, from which the numinous rises as if it is a natural function of the setting. There's a touch of Ted Hughes here, Emily Bronte and M.R James in this eerie and by turns moving story that spans generations. It filled my head for several evenings, and will linger there too . . . A definite book of the year for me -- Adam Nevill, author of THE RITUALBeautifully written, in equal parts both terrifying and heart-breaking, RAWBLOOD is a dazzlingly brilliant Gothic masterpiece. Reminiscent of FRANKENSTEIN but better -- Sarah Pinborough, author of 13 MINUTESElegiac in its prose and haunting in its imagery, Rawblood is a precisely and beautifully woven tapestry through which threads of darkness wind their inevitable way. Ward has crafted a sweeping saga of madness in all its forms that will chill you to the bones and draw you into its murky depths -- Charlie Lovett, author of 'The Bookman’s Tale' and 'First Impressions'A story to satisfy the most gothic of hearts. I was hooked on the very first page and [RAWBLOOD] never let me go. Sentence by sentence, Catriona Ward made herself one of my very favorite writers -- Kelly Link, 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, author of GET IN TROUBLEElegiac in its prose and haunting in its imagery, [Rawblood] is a precisely and beautifully woven tapestry through which threads of darkness wind their inevitable way. Ward has crafted a sweeping saga of madness in all its forms that will chill you to the bones and draw you into its murky depths -- Charlie Lovett, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE BOOKMAN'S TALE and FIRST IMPRESSIONSBeautifully written Gothic. It is rare to find such sumptuous prose -- A.K. Benedict, author of THE BEAUTY OF MURDERRAWBLOOD weaves a spell that both terrifies and mesmerizes. As each layer of mystery is peeled away, more haunting truth is revealed. The book leaves the reader breathless in its gothic tale of fear, family, blood, and love -- Simone St. James, author of THE HAUNTING OF MADDY CLAREBrilliant -- RAWBLOOD is the old-school gothic novel I have been waiting for. While it delivers everything I want from a "haunted house/family curse" story it is still stunningly original. I have never read anything like it and that's saying something. -- Mike Mignola, creator of HELLBOYA lush, macabre, chillingly good tale. From the modern horrors of man - medical experiments, war - to the ancient power of the natural world,The Girl from Rawblood is not only a ghost story of the highest order, but a sublime meditation on the things that hold us captive: fidelity, fear, memory, love -- Leslie Parry, author of THE CHURCH OF MARVELS

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Book SynopsisA novel of social and moral themes, Hard Times is the archetypal Dickens novel, filled with family difficulties, estrangement, rotten values and unhappiness. Published in 1854, it is set in the imaginary Coketown, an industrial city inspired by Preston, and tells the story of the family of Thomas Gradgrind, a man obsessed with misguided 'Utilitarian' values that make him trust facts, statistics and practicality over emotion. Based on James Mill (the Utilitarian leader), Gradgrind raises his own children, Louisa and Tom, in line with these same views, forcing an artless existence on them. Contemporary critics such as Macaulay savaged the book for its supposed 'sullen socialism' but it has become well regarded since earning the favour of George Bernard Shaw.This Macmillan Collector's Library edition is illustrated by Harry French, with an afterword by David Stuart Davies.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisFor readers of Madeleine Miller and Natalie Haynes comes the story of the most infamous monster of Greek mythology: Medusa.First, they loved her. Then, they abused her. Finally, they made her a villain.Gifted and burdened with stunning beauty, young Medusa seeks sanctuary with the Goddess Athena. But when she catches the eye of the lecherous but mighty Poseidon, she is beyond protection. Powerful men rarely answer for their actions, after all.Meanwhile, Perseus embarks on a seemingly impossible quest, equipped with only bravado and determination...Medusa and Perseus soon become pawns of spiteful and selfish gods. Faced with the repercussions of Athena's wrath, blamed for her assault, Medusa has no choice but to flee and hide. But can she do so without becoming the monster they say she is?Medusa's truth has long been lost. History tells of conquering heroes, of men with hearts of gold. Now it is time to hear the story of how history treats women who don't comply.

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Book SynopsisWith this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story.Trade ReviewCarver is the king of short fiction. His writing hits you in the pit of your stomach, and haunts you with its disenchantment. It's almost visceral. -- Natasha Lunn * Red *Carver has made himself the natural successor to his true mentor, Chekhov * Financial Times *He is alert to the unique, inconspicuous incident, when a life or a marriage may change course decisively * Sunday Telegraph *Carver's stories celebrate some lasting aspects of the human condition, however minimal, conjuring up a quality of fellow feeling which gives the stories a compelling, dry-eyed poignancy, a melancholy but intensely moving authenticity -- William Boyd * Daily Telegraph *There is nobody else like him. In some ways his pared-down style is an extreme development of the Hemingway style, but Carver writes about women and the ways men relate to them far more convincingly than Hemingway ever did * Frank Kermode *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, GRACE PALEY''Grace Paley''s is exceptional'' KASIA BODDY, GUARDIAN ''Her unladylike gutsiness and friendliness are nonpareil'' EDMUND WHITE, OBSERVER ''They are stories full of the stories we all tell and live by, tall stories as well as short'' SALMAN RUSHDIE Here are all Grace Paley''s classic stories in one volume. From her first book The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) to Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and Later the Same Day (1985), Grace Paley''s quirky, boisterous characters and rich use of language have won her readers'' hearts and secured her place as one of America''s most accomplished short story writers. Her stories are united by her signature interweaving of personal and political truths, her extraordinary capacity for empathy and her pointed depiction of the small and large events that make up daily lifTrade ReviewPaley is as clever a mimic as Philip Roth, as cheerfully zany and aleatory in her vision of New York as Christina Stead, as serendipitous as Donald Bartheleme, but her unladylike gutsiness and friendliness are nonpareil -- Edmund White * Observer *This is a collection full of energy and stunning, quiet innovation . . . it spills over with contempt, raucous humour, sadness and generosity. In it, life and language are synonymous, and there is no higher praise. What a wonderful bookAn understanding of loneliness, lust, selfishness and fatigue that is splendidly comic and unladylikeGrace Paley makes me weep and laugh - and admire. She is that rare kind of writer, a natural, with a voice like no one else's: funny, sad, lean, modest, energetic, acuteThese stories, brief and extended, burn with a high-energy commitment to the great work of being alive. They are stories full of the stories we all tell and live by, tall stories as well as short . . . And they are stories in which the whole of a world, its children, its dead, its furniture, its snacks, is lovingly and unsentimentally named. Named, and not forgivenGrace Paley is one of the great writers of voice of the last century. There's an experience one has reading a stylist like her that has to do with how rich in truth the phrase-or-sentence-level bursts are and how quickly they follow upon one another . . . A writer like Paley comes along and brightens language up again, takes it aside and gives it a pep talk, sends it back renewed, so it can do its job, which is to wake us upGrace Paley's work makes the novel as a form seem virtually redundant. Each one of her stories has more abundant inner life than most other people's novels . . . Her prose presents a series of miracles of poetic compressionGrace Paley is the most intelligent, generous, incorruptible writer I ever knew. Her daughter says, 'I learned from her that precision requires a warm eye, not a cold one,' and so did we all. Keen wit and real modesty seldom occur in such happy alliance. Who she was is what she writes. She never shows off, never bullies. She asks us what do you think about this? and is interested in our answer. She takes nothing for granted and everything as worth rethinking. Her writing on social issues remains timely because it was never superficial; she held understanding more useful than judgment. Very few writers can match the offhand voice, with its unmistakable oral cadence, in which her poignant, funny short stories are toldAs long as there are human beings wondering who they are, and how they can be better - looking for a more full-hearted way of being In the world - there will be readers for the great, beloved, much-missed Grace Paley

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Book SynopsisVidal''s historical novel set in the 5th century BC and narrated by Cyrus Spitama, son of a Persian prince and Greek sorceress, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster, and ambassador to the courts of India, China and Greece. Pericles, Thucydides, Sophocles and Confucius are among the book''s characters.Trade ReviewOur greatest living historical novelist. * ANTHONY BURGESS *An historical novel of awesome scope and scholarship. * OBSERVER *Highly absorbing, rich in history, irony and erudition. * GUARDIAN *Splendid, serene, magisterial. * SUNDAY TIMES *

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Book SynopsisDarcy Coates brings you a brand-new horror novel that'll take your breath away... From Below is: Perfect for fans of Jennifer McMahon and Wendy Webb For lovers of ghost stories and anyone mesmerized by the depths of the ocean-and what hides in the darknessNo light. No air. No escape.Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean's surface, a graveyard waits...Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course...a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean's surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia's rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.Because once they're trapped beneath the ocean's waves, there's no going back.Also By Darcy Coates:The Haunting of Leigh HarkerThe Haunting of Ashburn HouseThe Haunting of Blackwood HouseCraven ManorThe House Next DoorVoices in the Snow

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Book SynopsisFROM THE WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014Once upon a time that was called 1828, before all fishes in the sea and all living things on the land were destroyed, there was a man named William Buelow Gould, a white convict who fell in love with a black woman and discovered too late that to love is not safe. Silly Billy Gould, invader of Australia, liar, murderer and forger, condemned to the most feared penal colony in the British Empire and there ordered to paint a book of fish.Trade ReviewA masterpiece * The Times *Flanagan's masterpiece * Washington Post *Lyrical and hilarious, tender and wildly angry by turns, it dazzlingly reconceives the form of the novel * Observer *Gould's Book of Fish is a novel about fish in the way that Moby-Dick is a novel about whales, Ulysses is a novel about the events of a single day * New York Times *A vivid, voluptuous, exhilarating writer * Sunday Telegraph *Hugely original... Passages burn with the intense pleasure of story-making, of the abandon that comes from a seething of ideas and their joyful mutation into words -- Alex Clark * Guardian *A seamless masterpiece of the grotesque * Independent on Sunday *Outstanding -- Robert Macfarlane * Spectator *As beautiful to look at as it was enthralling to read * Independent *Hugely involving, clever, witty and tender * Metro *

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly GorgeousBenson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted...Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love.NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY:SUNDAY TIMES THE TIMES DAILY MAIL THE TELEGRAPH RADIO 4 IRISH TIMESTrade ReviewA tender, wistful, often profound story about a deteriorating romance between two twentysomething men... Lo-fi and intimate * Sunday Times *Funny and moving... Memorial confirms Washington as a writer not just to watch, but to read now * The Times *A masterclass in empathy... Washington transforms revelations into cliff-hangers, like Elena Ferrante. He writes layered sex scenes, like Garth Greenwell * Guardian *A tender and moving story about the ties that bind us to those we love, sometimes against our better judgment or our strongest will * The Telegraph *Washington is a technically dazzling writer * Alan Hollinghurst, New York Review of Books *A triumph * Paul Bailey, Literary Review *Dazzling... With crackling dialogue and gimlet-eyed humour, Washington paints a vivid, poignant portrait of how love, romantic and familial, is weathered and ultimately deepened by time * Esquire *A fresh, vibrant love story that interweaves race, queerness, nationality, family, and intimacy with narrative ease * Vogue *Brilliantly details the smallest moments that mean the absolute most, the heartbreakingly human limitations of how we love one another * Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age *Memorial casts a fresh take on the American family that becomes truer because of its disparate origins, the queerness of its genesis, and the buoyed wonder it finds in surviving grief and loss towards the rare and forgiving ground of difficult, hard-won love. * Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous *A tour de force, truly unlike anything I've read before. Bryan Washington's take on love, family, and responsibility is as complicated and true as life itself. I can't stop thinking about it. * Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto *Stunning. Everything happening in Memorial is so intimate, sensual, and wise. I love this book. * Tommy Orange, author of There There *A true page-turner. I was entranced. * Jacqueline Woodson, author of Another Brooklyn *Made me think about the nature of love, and family, and anger, and grief, and love again. * Jasmine Guillory, author of The Proposal *Bryan Washington is an expert in illuminating the way we love. It is a beautiful heartbreak. * Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk *It is about everything that matters in life. * Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation *Wryly funny, gently devastating * Entertainment Weekly *A beautiful, unusual examination of the difference between love and care, and what happens when they merge * Washington Post *This book is so poignant and beautiful, asking questions about what it means to live a life and what it means to love * LitHub *Implicit in a book about changing relationships and titled Memorial is the question of what is being preserved. The book preserves Houston and Osaka. It preserves the feeling of being young and lost. It preserves the food that gives us comfort and nourishment and purpose. * The New York Times *Wonderfully irreverent and heart-meltingly tender * Oprah Magazine *A very different kind of love story... Washington's deeply touching (and deeply funny) look at love, sex, family, grief, and the ways in which we take care of each other is a revelation, a reminder of how powerful a novel can be * Refinery29 *Bryan Washington writes some of contemporary fiction's most tender stories... Queer love, family dynamics, Houston settings, and cooking... the young writer has brilliantly united them all in his new novel * New York Observer *Big-hearted and moving * Harper's Bazaar *Bryan Washington writes quiet. His characters methodically chop cabbage, or slide silently from room to room. Then, bam. A quick, elliptical conversation will smack you sideways with its heft and resonance. * Vulture *This sensitive novel illustrates the deeply individual ways we search for a sense of home. * RealSimple *This intimate story is about the families we are born into and the families we choose for ourselves... a quiet, sensual exploration of how we decide who we stick around for. * Mashable *Not only an exploration of a kaleidoscopically diverse America... but a moving portrait of two young men who are figuring out exactly who they are in this world. Anyone who enjoyed Washington's dreamlike yet textured meditations on life in Houston in Lot will be enchanted with Memorial. * The Millions *At once a love story, a tale of self-actualization, and an ode to family in every sense of the word. * Popsugar *Washington creates two men so real it feels like even though the book ended, they will keep on living and figuring it out and making mistakes and falling down and getting back up again. * Alma *With wit and humor, Washington tackles race, class, identity and queerness... In a story about first loves and family, both men will change as they discover their own truths. * Parade *At once fresh and new and daring, while also feeling wholly familiar * The Advocate *A love story so multifaceted and emotionally nuanced as to feel transformative * Seattle Times *Bryan Washington writes some of contemporary fiction's most tender stories. . . . Queer love, family dynamics, Houston settings, and cooking . . . . the young writer has brilliantly united them all in his new novel. * New York Observer *[Washington's] ability with writing the sensual pleasures of making and eating food is a good way of understanding his ability as a novelist to write about the human mind. It's such a beautiful book . . . a pure pleasure. * Rumaan Alam, The Maris Review *Extraordinary. . . . Washington writes with ease, like a juggler who is adding in new objects all the time, except the book ends with everything aloft instead of in hand. . . . It can be difficult to share your life with someone; Washington somehow explains this anew. Memorial, on the other hand, is easy to share. * The Paris Review *I really loved this book. It's tender and touching * David Nicholls *Brilliant * Evie Wyld *Set between Houston, Texas, and the Japanese city of Osaka, this is a tender, wistful, often profound story about a deteriorating romance between two twentysomething men. It deepens themes from Washington's short stories: the meaning of community, the power of food to bring people together and the impact of absent fathers. * Sunday Times *

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'One of the best novels about growing up fast' GUARDIAN 'One falls for Sally Jay Gorce from a great height from the first sentence' OBSERVER'Scandalous and entertaining . . . Both funny and true' EVENING STANDARDThe Dud Avocado gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living. Sally Jay Gorce is a woman with a mission. It's the 1950s, she's young and she's in Paris. Having dyed her hair pink, she wears evening dresses in the daytime and vows to go native in a way not even the natives can manage. Embarking on an educational programme that includes an affair with a married man (which fizzles out when she realises he's single and wants to marry her); nights in cabarets and jazz clubs in the company of assorted "citizens of the world"; an entanglement with a charming psychopath and a bit part in a film financed by a famous matador. But an education like this doesn't come cheap. Will our heroine be forced back to the States to fulfill her destiny as a librarian, or can she keep up her whirlwind Parisian existence?

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Book SynopsisA retelling of Disney The Little Mermaid, accompanied by art from the original Disney Studio artists. Collect the whole Animated Classics series!This beautiful hardback features premium cloth binding, a ribbon marker to match the cover, gold foil stamping and illustrated endpapers, making this the perfect gift for all those who have been enchanted by the magic of The Little Mermaid and a book to be treasured by all.A family favourite for over thirty years, Disney The Little Mermaid is one of the best-loved films of all time. Relive the magic through this retelling of the classic animated film, accompanied by paintings, sketches and concept art from the original Disney Studio artists. Also featured is a foreword by Brittney Lee, a visual development artist at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Turn to the back of the book to learn more about the artists who worked on this iconic animated film.Trade ReviewMost Disney fans would be able to tell you the stories of 'The Little Mermaid,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' and 'Snow White' according to the Walt Disney Animation Studios - they've become so ingrained in the public consciousness. These beautiful new hardback editions offer new insights into these animated classics.As well as retelling these beloved stories, the books contain a wealth of paintings, sketches and concept art from the original Disney Studio artists.It was fascinating to see how characters developed from the first sketches to finished articles and to learn about the artists who created them in a special section at the end of the book.I am sure that fans of the Disney films would be absolutely thrilled to have one of these special hardback editions for their book collections, and they would make a great gift for younger fans to keep and enjoy as they grow up. * Library Girl and Book Boy *

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Book SynopsisA truly phenomenal, breathtaking debut science-fiction novel of the highest order.

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Book SynopsisDive into Tom Lake - the breathtaking new novel from Ann Patchett * THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * * SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 * * A REESE WITHERSPOON AND BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK * * A 2023 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES * ‘Filled with the moments I live for in a story’ BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry ‘[Tom Lake] has it all ... Young love, sibling rivalry and deep mother-daughter relationships’ REESE WITHERSPOON ‘One of the most beloved authors of her generation’ SUNDAY TIMES This is a story about Peter Duke who went on to be a famous actor. This is a story about falling in love with Peter Duke who wasn’t famous at all. It’s about falling so wildly in love with him – the way one will at twenty-four – that it felt like jumping off a roof at midnight. There was no way to foresee the mess it would come to in the end. It’s spring and Lara’s three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the one story they’ve always longed to hear – of the film star with whom she shared a stage, and a romance, years before. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents lead before their children are born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. ‘One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage … Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers’ ELLETrade ReviewA bittersweet tale of family, heartbreak and hope ... Those who want fiction to soothe, bolster and cheer will love it * Guardian *A beautiful, stirring book that sneaks up on you and makes a deep impression ... The moment I finished it, I wanted to go back and start again * Sunday Times *Few authors can dig into the minutiae of human emotion quite like the Women’s Prize-winning author, and Tom Lake is one of her best ... Flitting between past and present, the novel spools out like a film, and ponders timeless questions about love, family and destiny * i *Thoughtful and elegiac in its descriptions of first love and motherhood ... Patchett celebrates not just the smallest events of our lives, but 'small' lives themselves * Financial Times *Patchett is always great on family dysfunction, and these scenes prickle to life * The Times *A twinned narrative of a past young love, present day nostalgia and the complex, intertwined connections between mothers and daughters ... Enchanting and bittersweet, it is another tour de force from Patchett * Harper's Bazaar *A deeply American story of love, heartbreak and wistful old age ... We’re in nostalgic summer romance territory, and Tom Lake delivers the expected emotional pay-off * Telegraph *Completely absorbing * Grazia *Elegant, gloriously immersive, beautifully imagined, funny and tender, this is an elegy to family love, even when the world is in a state of crisis and uncertainty. Ann Patchett leads us with the intelligence, detail, wit and nuance of the greatest chroniclers of human nature and relationships. Nothing escapes her -- Rachel JoyceFilled with the moments I live for in a story – careful, compelling insights into human nature, the most effortless humour, and the kind of vivid descriptions that reveal exactly how something is -- Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRYOne of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage – and its resounding impacts over generations – is back this summer ... Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers * Elle *Patchett’s intricate and subtle thematic web ... enfolds the nature of storytelling, the evolving dynamics of a family, and the complex interaction between destiny and choice ... These braided strands culminate in a denouement at once deeply sad and tenderly life-affirming. Poignant and reflective, cementing Patchett’s stature as one of our finest novelists * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Masterly ... A love letter to both storytelling itself and the bonds that tie family and friends together, Patchett has once again worked her unique brand of magic with this gentle, tender story that glows with heart and humanity * Bookseller, Book of the Month *Few authors can match Patchett in her skill for creating quietly profound novels that stay with readers long after the final page * Good Housekeeping, Book of the Year Pick *Dazzling … Secrets are withheld in a story that offers small plot twists and reveals that pack the power of a defibrillator shock. The characters are varied and astutely drawn and the way Patchett – who has been writing great fiction for decades – handles Lara’s inner life is sublime * Independent, Book of the Year Pick *

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Book SynopsisThe second original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon. The second original novel from the much-missed Space Western Firefly, produced with Joss Whedon as consulting editor, set between the TV series and the movie Serenity. A cosmic cry for help Captain Mal Reynolds is in a fix. He'd like nothing more than to find honest smuggling work that stays under the Alliance's radar and keeps the good ship Serenity in the sky. But when an old flame of Jayne Cobb's sends a desperate plea across the galaxy, his crew has other ideas. A cut-throat bandit On the arid, far-flung world of Thetis, the terrifying Elias Vandal is threatening to overrun the town of Coogan's Bluff with his trigger-happy army. He wants control of the only thing standing between its people and dustbowl ruin: their water supply. The Magnificent Nine When the crew land at the hardscrabble desert outpost, they discover two things: a savage outlaw gang who will stop at nothing to get what they want, and that Jayne's former girlfriend, Temperance, is singlehandedly raising a teenage daughter, born less than a year after she and Jayne parted ways. A daughter by the name of Jane McCloud...Trade Review"charming" - SyFy "Titan Books is two for two as far as I'm concerned...they are doing a killer job of leaving you wanting whatever comes next." - Nerds on Earth "What a sheer delight of a book!" - The Frumious Consortium "I love that the series is continuing in novels. And this latest installment is a great addition" - SciFi Chick

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Book SynopsisRichard Russo's slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected workings of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New York - and in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years.Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps. With its sly and uproarious humour and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.Trade ReviewNobody's Fool is big, funny and richly human, a garrulous book that buttonholes you in the first few pages and does not let you go... In Sully, Russo has created a character you cannot resist. * Financial Times *Like Anne Tyler, Russo is interested in how people rub along; in kindness and responsibility; in cutting slack without being asked...Russo makes an enormous job of story-telling look effortless. He is, in all the best senses of the word, a natural. * Sunday Times *A rude, comic, harsh, galloping story of four generations of small-town losers, the best literary portrait of the backwater burg since Main Street. -- Annie ProulxRusso lifts a generous slice of middle America in all its flavours... Nobody's Fool is a great-hearted, unforgettable comedy in the best tradition of John Irving and Anne Tyler. * Vogue *This is a novel of charm and wit, akin to the works of Alice Hoffman, Anne Tyler and Garrison Keillor. * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisNancy Mitford meets Clueless, with a touch of Agatha Christie, in this tale of cocktails, murder and mayhem in 1980s OxfordOxford, 1985. Ursula Flowerbutton, a Fresher and wide-eyed country girl, arrives for her first term at the famous university. What she hasn't bargained on is finding a body. Oh, crumpets. Who killed the beautiful India Brattenbury? With the help of her fellow fresher, glamorous American Nancy Feingold, Ursula sets off to unravel the mystery. The girls' investigations lead them into a world of black-tie parties and dining societies, sex and secrets. Ursula soon realises that Oxford's not all Pimm's and punting. From broken-hearted boyfriends to snobby Sloanes, lovelorn librarians to dishy dons, none can be presumed innocent.Trade ReviewWonderfully written and deliciously moreish * Daily Mail *An escapist beach read to savour * i *Thoroughly fabulous * Vogue *A frothy soufflé of a tale in which Agatha Christie and Nancy Mitford are given a 1980s spin … * i *Terrific fun and really clever! -- Katie FfordeA total hoot ... Easily the best thing she has ever written * Sunday Times *A masterpiece: never has intelligence been so wickedly dark, on-point and outright funny * Alain de Botton *The wild and hysterical adventures of crime solving Nancy and Ursula turned loose on Oxford University. Plum Sykes knows her world, skewers it, and serves it up as murder. Delicious -- Delia Ephron, author of SIRACUSAA riot and very page turning and written with terrific panache -- Barbara Trapido, author of BROTHER OF THE MORE FAMOUS JACKBright and funny, Bergdorf Blondes is haute couture chick lit -- Candace BushnellPlum Sykes channels Nancy Mitford and Holly Golightly with great charm and sweetness -- Jane Green, author of Mr. Maybe and Jemima J.Sykes has a distinctive, wily and well-deployed comic voice … Into the blender go Bridget Jones, Anita Loos, Sex and the City and Clueless; out comes a diabolically amusing concoction -- Janet Maslin * New York Times *Perfectly pitched – playful, funny, satirical and sweet. I laughed out loud many times -- Anna Wintour * Vogue *Sparkling, bliss, glitteringly honest … I haven’t had so much fun since rereading the Mitford novels -- Rachel Johnson * Spectator *Highly entertaining and intelligent … whips along at an exhilarating speed * Mail on Sunday *Savagely funny * Observer *Plum Sykes dishes the dirt on upper crust girls in this murder mystery comedy … Sykes has a ball recreating the strict hierarchy of social types – and the 1980s fashions – in this delightful, daft-as-a-brush-caper as effervescent as the champagne everyone in the novel keeps necking * Metro *wickedly funny ... Grab this for a spot of unashamed escapism by the pool * Saga *This smart, stylish and fun read is the perfect companion on any holiday. Sykes studied at Oxford and is now an editor at American Vogue, which plays beautifully into this comic murder mystery set in the dreaming spires of the Eighties and populated by aristocrats throwing endless parties … Beautifully written and deliciously moreish from start to finish * Sara Lawrence, Daily Mail, Summer Reading *This comic murder-mystery is like Nancy Drew for grown-ups. The vibe is akin to a less angst-ridden Brideshead Revisited meets a young Downton Abbey, before embarking upon a whimsical, Pimm’s-fuelled adventure … Fun and frothy, it is packed with laugh-out-loud moments and wry, whip smart observation * Sunday Herald, Summer Reading *She’s back: the author of Bergdorf Blondes has written the first in a series of murder mysteries set at Oxford University during the Eighties … This jolly book has everything: a beguiling heroine, dishy dons, the champagne set and even spiky footnotes. Yes, footnotes * Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler, Summer Reading *Gently mocking its cast of stock Oxford types, Party Girls is a fun and easy-read romp that has two university freshers trying to discover whodunnit after the dead body of the glamorous Lady India Brattenbury is discovered in the room of dishy don Dr Dave * Townswoman *

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Book SynopsisDeep in an Estonian forest, two women, one young, one old, are hiding.Zara is a prostitute and a murderer, on the run from brutal captors - men who know how to punish a woman. Aliide offers refuge but not safety: she has her own criminal secrets - traitorous crimes of passion and revenge committed long ago, during the country's brutal Soviet years.Both women have survived lives of abuse. But this time their survival depends on revealing the one thing history has taught them to keep safely hidden: the truth.A haunting, intimate and gripping story of suspicion, betrayal and retribution against a backdrop of Soviet oppression and European war.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, ELLE, TIME, SPECTATOR'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICENT' Aminatta Forna, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times, 'REMARKABLE' New York TimesEthiopia, 1935.With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade.Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers?The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.Trade ReviewA beautifully crafted account of the female soldiers resisting Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and their own oppression in Ethiopian society. Lyrical, furious and meticulously researched, it is a necessary act of historical reclamation * * Guardian, Best Books of the Year * *The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories -- MARLON JAMESUnforgettable. I suspect I won't read anything more moving this year * * The Times, Book of the Month * *Lyrical, remarkable . . . Breathtakingly skillful . . . The reader feels . . . In the steady hands of a master . . . Hirut [is] as indelible and compelling a hero as any I've read in years * * New York Times * *With epic sweep and dignity, Mengiste has lifted this struggle into legend, along with the women who fought in it. Beautiful, horrifying, elegant and haunted, The Shadow King is a modern classic -- ANDREW SEAN GREER, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of LESSSet during Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, this absorbing novel spotlights the African women who went to war . . . [Mengiste's] achievement in The Shadow King is to bring to life those women, and to depict them as dynamic entities, their capabilities, limitations and beliefs evolving under duress in as fully complex a way as those of their male counterparts * * Guardian, Book of the Day * *A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth. It's also compulsively readable. I devoured it in two days -- SALMAN RUSHDIEA must-read . . . The Shadow King is a masterpiece . . . Brilliant . . . [Mengiste] is simply an outstanding writer, with an uncanny ability with words, metaphor, history and truth . . . I simply cannot recommend this remarkable book highly enough to anyone who looks for the best writing to tell compelling stories * * Washington Post * *A gripping story . . . Intelligently structured, beautifully written . . . So compelling -- KAMILA SHAMSIEUrgent and propulsive but also lyrical and meditative . . . An inspiring, harrowing portrait of an overlooked aspect of an overlooked conflict * * Metro * *

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY HILARY MANTELElizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth - Sarah WatersWriting stories that are extravagant and fanciful, fifteen-year old Angel retreats to a world of romance, escaping the drabness of provincial life. She knows she is different, that she is destined to become a feted authoress, owner of great riches and of Paradise House . . .After reading The Lady Irania, publishers Brace and Gilchrist are certain the novel will be a success, in spite of - perhaps because of - its overblown style. But they are curious as to who could have written such a book - an elderly lady, romanticising behind lace curtains? A mustachioed rogue? They were not expecting it to be the pale, serious teenage girl, sitting before them without a hint of irony in her soul. *'Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience' Elizabeth Bowen 'No writer has described the English middle classes with more gently devastating accuracy' Rebecca Abrams, Spectator Trade ReviewJane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all * Anne Tyler *One of the most underrated novelists of the twentieth century * Antonia Fraser *I envy those readers who are coming to her work for the first time. Theirs will be an unexpected pleasure * Paul Bailey *Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning point in one's own experience * Elizabeth Bowen *Elizabeth Taylor's tender, funny, exquisitely stylish novel keeps us on Angel's side, even though we are appalled by her narcissism and shocked into laughter by her self-delusion. She is a monster, but a delicious monster, and the novel poses, for writers, questions that don't date. That's why I'm so drawn to the book and have loved it for years; there's a bit of Angel in every writer, I fear. * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWhimsical and sinister, each story by Silvina Ocampo is like a knife of spun sugar that can still pierce between your ribs. A thief breaks into the house of a psychic with disastrous results, a bride has her personality subsumed by the previous occupant of her home, and two men switch destinies for a change of pace. The Impostor offers a comprehensive collection from one of the twentieth century's great forgotten woman writers. Here are tales of doubles and living dolls, angels and demons, a beautiful seer who writes the autobiography of her own death, and much else that is mad, sublime, and delicious. With an array spanning the length of Ocampo's career, these haunting stories are among the world's strangest and best.Trade ReviewSilvina Ocampo is one of our best writers. Her stories have no equal in our literature. -- Jorge Luis BorgesNo other writer better captures the magic inside everyday rituals, the forbidden or hidden face that our mirrors don't show us. -- Italo CalvinoFew writers have an eye for the small horrors of everyday life; fewer still see the everyday marvellous. Other than Silvina Ocampo, I cannot think of a single writer who at any time or in any language, has chronicled both with such wise and elegant humour. -- Alberto ManguelThe black satire of her stories spares almost no one... eerily prescient * Daily Telegraph *Ocampo captures mundane events in a whimsical, slightly sinister style * Monocle *A comprehensive collection of surreal tales * i paper *The allure of Silvina Ocampo's short fiction lies in the raising of unexpected questions again and again. * Tablet *Comparable to the mighty César Aira, the most surreal stories of Murakami, and her great admirers Borges and Calvino, Ocampo's unnervingly hypnotic, frequently macabre stories are clever, funny, and brilliantly, hauntingly strange. * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT HISTORICAL PRIZE FOR FICTION, 2020WINNER OF THE DALKEY LITERARY AWARD FOR NOVEL OF THE YEAR, 2020SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS, 2019An Irish Independent and Irish Times Book of the Year, 2019From the author of Tatty, the Dublin: One City One Book 2020 choice________________________'It is a long time since I have read such a fine novel or one that I have enjoyed quite so much.' Irish Times1950: late summer season on Cape Cod. Michael, a ten-year-old boy, is spending the summer with Richie and his glamorous but troubled mother. Left to their own devices, the boys meet a couple living nearby - the artists Jo and Edward Hopper - and an unlikely friendship is forged.She, volatile, passionate and often irrational, suffers bouts of obsessive sexual jealousy. He, withdrawn and unwell, depressed by his inability to work, becomes besotted by Richie's frail and beautiful Aunt Katherine who has not long to live - an infatuation he shares with young Michael.A novel of loneliness and regret, the legacy of World War II and the ever-changing concept of the American Dream.'A brilliant portrait... With a beguiling grace and a deceptive simplicity, Christine Dwyer Hickey reminds us that the past is never far away - rather, it constantly surrounds us, suspends us, haunts us.' Colum McCann Trade ReviewI loved this book. Christine Dwyer Hickey writes such beautifully poised prose. Flawed lives played out in a postcard perfect setting. * Graham Norton *With a beguiling grace and a deceptive simplicity, Christine Dwyer Hickey reminds us that the past is never far away - rather, it constantly surrounds us, suspends us, haunts us. This is a brilliant portrait of America as we journey with Edward Hopper and his marvellously eccentric wife, Josephine Nivison, through the years shortly after the Second World War. Two young boys, one German, one American, negotiate the ongoing perils of loss, while Hopper's wife poses searing questions, and Hopper himself attempts answers on canvas. The world, as so powerfully evoked by Christine Dwyer Hickey, is bridged by small acts of mercy and hope. * Colum McCann *Everything about the writing is so carefully balanced - thought and action, feeling and movement, drama and suspense. She leaves space on the page, giving her characters the freedom to behave unexpectedly and to occupy the mind of the reader even when they are offstage. It is a long time since I have read such a fine novel or one that I have enjoyed quite so much. * Irish Times *Tender * The Times Literary Supplement *Christine Dwyer Hickey's breathtakingly beautiful novel The Narrow Land is about the marriage of Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine, but builds into a meditation on all marriages and on creativity, in sentences that have the poise and beauty of a great picture. * The Times *The novel is set up like an artwork itself, with broad brushstrokes and fine lines, layer upon layer, scene upon scene...This is no plot-driven page-turner, rather a slow, ethereal thing, where you stop after each paragraph and let the achingly beautiful words resonate. You feel the weight of history but with a lightness of touch. * Irish Independent *Hickey's writing is gorgeously lyrical, whether describing the beauty of the Massachusetts landscape or the often painful life of the creative soul...like an American version of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. It's beguiling and compelling. * Sunday Business Post *[Christine Dwyer-Hickey] is nuanced and exceptional at character and voice. * Sinéad Gleeson, Twitter *A wonderful read - thought provoking and compelling - and, to my mind, Christine's best to date. * Irish Examiner, praise for The Lives of Women *A big, bold, remarkably assured narrative... A powerfully accomplished work of art. * Joseph O'Connor, Guardian, praise for Last Train to Liguria *Beautiful and heartbreaking. * Independent on Sunday, praise for Last Train to Liguria *Stunning... Extraordinary. * Independent on Sunday, praise for Cold Eye of Heaven *A beautifully written novel... that confirms Hickey's status as a major talent. * Mail on Sunday, praise for Last Train to Liguria *[Christine Dwyer Hickey's] writing shows a deep understanding of human weakness, longing and regret. * Laois Today *

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Book Synopsis1501: the turbulence of Henry VIII''s reign brings passion and pain to the Morlands as they achieve ever greater wealth and prestige.Paul, great-grandsom of Elanor Morland, has inherited the Morland estates, and his own Amyas is set to be his heir. But Paul fathers a beloved illigitimate son, and bitter jealousy causes a destructive rift between the two half-brothers which will lead to death.Paul''s niece, Nanette, becomes a maid-in-waiting to Anne Bolyen, and at the court of Henry VIII she becomes embroiled in the King''s bitter feud with Rome.Through birth and death, love and hatred, triumph and heartbreak, the Morlands continue proudly to claim their place amongst England''s aristocracy.

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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 SynopsisPeople Person is a triumph. Caleb Azumah Nelson Wonderful. Marian Keyes I loved it. Sara CollinsTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE BRITISH BOOK AWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF QUEENIEIf you could choose your family, you wouldn''t choose the Penningtons Dimple, Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce are half-siblings who don''t have much in common except abandonment issues. But when a catastrophic event forces them to reconnect with each other and with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things start to get complicated fast . . . People Person is a propulsive story of heart, humour and homecoming, about the true nature of family and the complexities of belonging.Trade ReviewWonderful. People Person is about 5 half-siblings (1 dad, 4 mothers) who, in response to a crisis, meet as adults and start shaping themselves into a family. It's a warm novel, funny and full of emotional intelligence. The tone is light-hearted, even comic at times, but underneath there's an undertow, a steady drumbeat reminding us of all the microaggressions black people experience on a daily basis - and that white people are mostly oblivious of. I cannot recommend it highly enough. * Marian Keyes *People Person is a triumph. I was so moved by this tender, often humorous, portrait of these five siblings, their burgeoning relationships and all their complexities. I loved every one of these beautifully rendered characters and I'm sure the world will too. I couldn't put it down. * Caleb Azumah Nelson *People Person is fresh, funny and tender - Candice is the voice British fiction needs. * Pandora Sykes *People Person is a portrait of a family that is as poignant as it is hilarious. It had me belly-laughing, then picking up my jaw from the floor, then nodding in delighted agreement. Candice is a writer who is not only revealing modern Britain with each of her novels; she is defining it. Cyril Pennington is a character for the ages, but this story truly belongs to the children he never managed to parent. I loved it. * Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton *I loved People Person. Candice is so gifted at pulling you in as a writer. The storyline is hugely arresting and I was gripped immediately. Candice is remarkably perceptive in the way she writes people; her characters that are so well drawn, and so believable. When I wasn't reading People Person I was thinking about it and I had to finish it at the earliest opportunity. * Annie MacManus, author of Mother, Mother *People Person is more than just the title of this phenomenal second novel. It's a statement of intent. It's a declaration that when Candice Carty-Williams writes she captures the hearts and minds of readers everywhere. * Melissa Cummings-Quarry, Black Girls Book Club *The Pennington's are a large, messy family and I got to know each member intimately. This is an expertly crafted novel about family secrets that kept me on my toes from start to finish. * Liv Little *A dark comedy full of zinging dialogue and all the consolations and complications of family. A treat. * Jesse Armstrong *As warm and infectious, as familiar and true as Queenie. A funny and touching study of sibling relationships. * Diana Evans *It's a funny, heartwarming story of inheritance, kinship and influencer culture, told through one dysfunctional south London family, and as with Queenie, a maddening but loveable protagonist. Candice puts in print the word on the street; her eye is on a thriving Afro-Caribbean social and lyrical tradition. * Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk *People Person is a fresh blend of brilliant wit, delicious drama, and all the ways family ties can be strained and strengthened. I fell head over heels for the Penningtons, quirks, flaws, and all. * Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl *People Person makes explicit the extremity of inheritance. It's a funny, vibrant exploration of the failures that happen among family and it asks difficult questions about healing and what we owe blood. * Raven Leilani, author of Luster *Carty-Williams has written another big-hearted blockbuster that will make her many fans smile and ache. She paints a vivid picture of the pressures on young people in modern Britain and a poignant one of how a vulnerable outsider can, with the right network, find a sense of belonging and self-acceptance. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Where Candice reigns is in writing humorous speech... poignant. * OBSERVER *Funny, tender, poignant...everything you'd expect from Carty-Williams * EVENING STANDARD *Delivering a great second novel after a stellar debut is a big ask, but Queenie author Carty-Williams has done just that. * HEAT, Book of the Week *Carty-Williams's prose is snappy and propulsive, full of busy, telegenic set-pieces * GUARDIAN *

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Book SynopsisFour short novels from the author of THE FIREMAN and HORNS, ranging from creepy horror to powerful explorations of our modern society.One autumnal day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails, splinters of bright crystal that tear apart anyone who isn''t safely under cover. ''Rain'' explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as clouds of nails spread out across the country and the world. Amidst the chaos, a girl studying law enforcement takes it upon herself to resolve a series of almost trivial mysteries . . . apparently harmless puzzles that turn out to have lethal answers.In ''Loaded'' a mall security guard heroically stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun movement. Under the hot glare of the spotlights, though, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it... ''Snapshot, 1988'' tells the story of an kid in Silicon Valley who finds himself threatened by The Phoenician, a tattooed thug who possesses a PTrade ReviewIf you haven't yet grabbed a copy of Joe Hill's THE FIREMAN, you need to. Original and gripping, a page-turner * George R.R.Martin *In these four novellas, Joe Hill shows himself to be a high-concept übermaster. From a single idea, he weaves brilliantly inventive and character-driven stories that enthral and thrill. -- Jamie Buxton * Daily Mail *Hill really embraces the shorter format to really grab the reader by the throat. This is a must. -- SFXI devoured this book as if the pages themselves were on fire...an end of the worldtale with a blazing heart of hope at its core. A contender for book of the year * Sarah Pinborough, author of 13 MINUTES *Joe Hill really could set the world on fire with this book: cleverly imagined and a compulsive read * Katherine Cowdrey, The Bookseller *Joe Hill has always been good, but he's created something incandescent here, soaring and original. He's a master storyteller who writes with fire in his veins * Lauren Beukes, author of Broken Monsters *'Very well-drawn characters, some serious shocks, a great sense of humour and a willingness to break hearts as well as raise pulse rates.' * SciFiNow *I would put money on this being huge. Can't put it down * Sam Baker, The Pool *You'll be instantly hooked if you're obsessed with The Walking Dead. It's got the whole post-apocalyptic world nailed...there is a brilliant humour amid the darkness, and the action scenes feel like a movie * Cosmopolitan *Taps into fears we all have about the world coming to an end, as Donald Trump stokes the fires of racial hatred in America, wars continue across the planet and diseases such as Zika and Ebola spread with shocking speed. * The Mail on Sunday *Hill's writing has matured along with his ideas. He plays out the apocalypse so quickly and efficiently, through small-town witnesses and television broadcasts, that it feels absolutely devastating. And in the aftermath, he juggles a huge cast of characters with aplomb, giving each their time to shine, yet still managing to keep the tension high throughout * The Guardian *Original, compulsive and very frightening * Woman & Home *Clever - but The Fireman isn't just clever, it's also a book with real soul... the deeper truths of The Fireman lie in the way it explores how we slowly build connections with those closest to us...a brave, bold and big hearted take on the end of the world * SFX *Set to blaze through bestsellers lists....exhilarating * Stuff *Beautiful and aching and striking, a poignant exploration of human relationships and an ode to the simple things * Ars Technica *A Lord of the Flies for the Twitter generation. Clever, gripping and packs a hell of a punch * Joanne Harris *Ominously superb * Nick Harkaway *This book is incredible * Lev Grossman *Joe Hill (aka Stephen King Jnr) proves he's a chip off the old block with this epic post-apocalyptic adventure * The Sunday Mirror *The Fireman by Joe Hill is a thrilling, long-lingering, morally-striking book that set my heart and mind alight. A must read. * Delve into Dystopia *Breathless adventures, pulsing emotions, things that go bump in the night and so much more, with surprises lurking on the corner of every page * Lovereading.co.uk *This is a huge cauldron of a novel that pulses with life, hope and decency as well as extreme fear and constant devastation * BestChickLit.co.uk *The Fireman is a large book but you hardly notice the pages turning and you certainly wouldn't want to rush it. There are moments of extreme and violent action, fought by real people, there are other passages that are so evocative, memorable and beautifully written, with characters to match. There are also jawdropping moments. It's the most atmospheric read I've had in a long time. * For Winter's Nights *Even though The Fireman is primarily an Apocalyptica, the human issues of corrupt power, personal strength, family, friendship and forgiveness added a level that enhanced my ability to feel invested in the story.Forget The Walking Dead- a book where you actually care for the characters' survival, The Fireman is the next big thing in Dystopian Fiction. * The Book Addict *this is a book about engagement with the world, about love, and about the need to survive in the worst of circumstances. Hill has been well known in the genre community for a while now, but I'd love to see him break out with this one. It's a terrific book, one which deserves to be read. * The Afterword *In our opinion, this book is right up there with the likes of Swan Song, Blood Crazy and, yes, even The Stand. (Yup, we went there, it's that damn good.) * The Eloquent Page *The Fireman is an exceptional novel, it's moving and thoughtful, drawing you in and not letting you go right up to the superb ending. It's an engaging, emotional journey written by a master of their craft. * SF Book *Hill creates a fast paced thriller, with twists in every chapter * The Sunday Express *A Fantastically compelling read, Hill making the end of the world into a real and visceral thing with the deftest of touches. * OBSERVER *The book most likely to be spotted on sun loungers this Summer... a gripping end-of-the-world epic. * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *This is a book that starts with a bang and then relentlessly builds. Joe managed to make my skin crawl in the first chapter, turning what should be a time for celebration into something decidedly creepy. At the mid-point of a lengthy book it became near un-putdownable, in that horrifying 'can't look away from a car crash' kind of way. Although the details are dark and even horrible, the narrative pull is relentless and unstoppable. -- Mark Yon * SFFWORLD.COM *Take the ideas, characters, and tone of Station Eleven (2014) and add a large helping of the action, villains, and unrelenting menace from Doctor Sleep (2013) and you have The Fireman, an excellent example of the very best that genre fiction has to offer readers today -- BooklistLike his father, Stephen King, Hill has a talent for depicting fascinating characters caught in terrible situations . . . With a full cast of characters and multiple story lines to keep the reader hooked, Hill's enthralling fourth thriller hits another home run -- Starred Library Journal ReviewJoe Hill has always been good, but he's created something incandescent here, soaring and original. He's a master storyteller who writes with fire in his veins * Lauren Beukes, author of Broken Monsters *Every decade must have a great story of how we fail, how our society comes apart. Joe Hill has just written ours - which makes us all refugees seeking a safe haven in the wreckage of a world made brutal and hostile. Ominously superb * Nick Harkaway *If you haven't yet grabbed a copy of Joe Hill's THE FIREMAN, you need to. Original and gripping, a page-turner * George R. R. Martin *

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Book SynopsisBOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, FT, METRO AND MAIL ON SUNDAY''The new master of menace'' Sunday TimesAfter the blizzard of a century ago, it was weeks before anyone got in or out. By that time, what had happened there, what the Devil had done, was already fable.Devil''s Day is a day for children now, of course. A tradition it''s easy to mock, from the outside. But it''s important to remember why we do what we do. It''s important to know what our grandfathers have passed down to us.Because it''s hard to understand, if you''re not from the valley, how this place is in your blood.That''s why I came back, with Kat; it wasn''t just because the Gaffer was dead.Though that year we may have let the Devil in after all . . .Trade ReviewHurley is a superb storyteller. He leads you up on to the moors, into the eye of a snowstorm, dropping little clues, sinister hints at devilment and demonic possession. Then he changes course, scuffs over the prints in the snow, springs new villainies on you, abandons you overnight in the hills * The Times *The nebulous presence of the Devil is evoked so palpably in this novel that at times I hardly dared look up when reading for fear of seeing him grinning at me from the chair next to mine * Literary Review *The new master of menace. This chilling follow-up to The Loney confirms its author as a writer to watch * Sunday Times *Chilling and captivating; read at your peril * Stylist *Beautifully captures a bleak landscape and the feeling of something evil and unknowable in the moors, the hills and the byways * Sunday Express *Hurley is a fine writer, with concerns that place him a little to the left of the literary mainstream, a remove that makes him extremely interesting -- John Boyne * Irish Times *This impeccably written novel tightens like a clammy hand around your throat * Daily Mail *This is a story with pull. Its lively, building sense of evil is thoroughly entangled with the assumptions of the way of life depicted, that apparently timeless relationship of the smallholder and the moor * Guardian *Makes for impressively uncomfortable reading * TLS *A gorgeously written novel that leaves the reader wondering and perturbed * Metro *Devil's Day is evocative and unsettling, exploring the potency of tradition, place and allegiance in a brutal rural environment * Daily Express *The follow up to The Loney deploys myth, landscape and the tropes of horror to chilling effect * FT *Andrew Michael Hurley's The Loney was one of the surprise stand-outs of last year, and a worthy winner of the Costa First Novel Award. His new novel, Devil's Day is equally good . . . it is a work of goose-flesh eeriness . . . Hurley's work is like a reincarnation of novels such as John Buchan's Witch Wood or the stories of M.R. James. His prose is precise and his eye gimlet * The Spectator *A master of flesh-creeping menace. Around macabre happenings in a remote farming community on the bleak moors of the Lancashire-Yorkshire border, he weaves a terror tale of human vulnerability. Hidden horrors surface. Eerie malevolence flickers. Nature's routine cruelties are caught with a fierce accuracy that Ted Hughes would have admired * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *Andrew Michael Hurley is adept at making his readers' spines tingle * The Times, Books of the Year *Hurley's first novel was The Loney, a prize-winning gothic triumph produced by a Yorkshire press, later picked up by John Murray. Devil's Day shares the same dark sense of foreboding . . . laced with menace * Financial Times, Books of the Year *Expect pastoral lyricism - snowstorms sweeping in across an ancient landscape - spliced with gothic shivers * Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year *The devil is everywhere in this deliciously creepy second novel from the author of The Loney . . . Andrew Michael Hurley combines the eerie power of folk memory with a much more modern manifestation of horror and the final pages are among the most unsettling you'll read this year * Metro, Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisTales of the Jazz Age features eleven of F. Scott Fitzgerald's best-loved short stories and 'novelettes' including 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'. Set in the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald's own term for the Roaring Twenties of newly confident, post-war America, this collection shows a comic genius at work, fashioning every genre from low farce to shrewd social insight, along with fantasy of extraordinary invention. These stories illuminate the unique talent who went on to write The Great Gatsby, and to become one of the enduring icons of American literature.This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'It is hard to imagine a more timely novel. A fascinating exploration of all sides of a particularly knotty, politicized issue.' Jodi Picoult'A knock-out twist' Gillian McAllister'Will have book clubs across the country in hot debate! Brilliant.' Clare Mackintosh****Two best friendsElizabeth and Bryony are polar opposites but their unexpected friendship has always worked. They're the best of friends, and godmothers to each other's daughters - because they both trust that the safety of their children is their top priority.One little secretLittle do they know that they differ radically over one very important issue. And when Bryony, afraid of being judged, tells what is supposed to be a harmless white lie before a child's birthday party, the consequences are more catastrophic than either of them could ever have imagined.Every parent's worst nightmare . . . ****'Compelling and nuanced. A hugely impressive page-turner' Ashley Audrain'Really beautifully written, compassionately told and incredibly thought provoking. A truly immersive telling of both sides of a story' Susan Lewis'Insightful, compassionate and nuanced. The Herd is so good.' Louise O'Neill'A genuine rollercoaster that asks big moral questions with beautifully drawn characters.' Sharon Horgan, co-creator of CATASTROPHEHere's what readers are saying about The Herd:'A timely and dramatic novel showing both sides of an ongoing debate. Loved this read!' *****'Such a genuine tale with such high stakes emotion and sensitivity' *****'A fantastic, thought-provoking and gripping book which would make a cracking book club read' *****'A complex, layered, wholly character-driven look at a complicated and controversial subject' *****Trade ReviewIt is hard to imagine a more timely novel. A fascinating exploration of all sides of a particularly knotty, politicized issue * Jodi Picoult, NYT bestselling author of WISH YOU WERE HERE *Controversial, addictive and clever, and the characters are so multi-layered and complex they are wholly believable. * Woman & Home *Wow! What an incredible book, and so timely. I was riveted! Really beautifully written, compassionately told and incredibly thought provoking. A truly immersive telling of both sides of a story. * Susan Lewis *Fans of Liane Moriarty will love it! * Stella *Will have book clubs across the country in hot debate! Brilliant. * Clare Mackintosh *

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Book SynopsisMetro Best New Books to Read in Spring Pick Glossary Magazine Highly Anticipated Fiction Pick A road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world? Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program. Every week they feed him data, starting from the beginning of written history, era by era, and ask him to predict what will happen next to the human race. At the same time they're involved in an increasingly fraught philosophical debate about why human life is sacred and why the purpose for which he was built - to predict threats to human life to help us avoid them - is a worthwhile and ethical pursuit. These two strands come together in a way that is always suspenseful, surprising and intellectually provocative: this is an extraordinarily prescient and vital work of fiction - an apocalyptic road novel to frighten and thrill.Trade ReviewChilling, cryptic-apocalyptic, and highly thought-provoking -- Andrew Hunter Murray, Sunday Times Best-selling author of The Last DayHighly readable and hugely important ­- an apocalyptic road trip into our near future informed and shaped by the most pressing issues of our present * Owen Sheers *Achingly believable, unsensational, and chilling * The Times *A book of insight and foresight, lit with wit and gorgeous with intelligence -- Jay Griffiths, author * Wild: An Elemental Journey *Under the Blue is a novel with a terrible beauty. Oana Aristide gives us so much to think about: environmental destruction, the melting of the polar ice, eco-terrorism, but all within a heart-stopping story of three survivors travelling through Europe alone. I couldn't look away -- Claire Fuller, author * Bitter Orange *A super-smart and relentlessly gripping addition to the ecofiction genre, Under the Blue is by turns chilling, incisive, and casually hilarious. It also features one of the most convincing sentient-AI characters in recent fiction -- Sandra Newman, author * The Heavens *The discussions between human and AI are fascinating, revealing different ways of perceiving reality ... a beautifully written, emotionally gripping book. -- GuardianOana Aristide has woven deep questions about ethics, artificial intelligence, our treatment of the natural world and the prospect of human extinction into a page-turning thriller with a surprising ending -- Peter Singer, author * The Most Good You Can Do *Chillingly evocative and relentlessly unsettling. A compelling battle for humanity's survival fought simultaneously on both the physical and intellectual fronts. -- Chris BrookmyreHighly readable and chilling. Threads together a pandemic storyline with the implications of AI in a way that is very intriguing and especially relevant today -- Mark Lynas, author * Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency *Under the Blue fuses the 'keep moving' urgency that drives apocalyptic road novels with a restrained love story and a science fiction that is at once unnerving, tender and credible -- Cynan Jones, author * The Dig *Terrifying but hopeful, smart, vital and urgent: the ultimate must-read. -- Charles Foster, author * Being a Beast *What an extraordinary book this is; ostensibly a compelling, addictive post-apocalyptic thriller, but also a ferociously intelligent examination of artificial intelligence, a highly accomplished treatise on the function of art, and a lyrical, moving, vitally urgent plea for expanded ecological awareness. It is a book with the force of prophecy -- Niall Griffiths, author * Broken Ghost *A clear-eyed, unstinting challenge to all our complacencies that is unsettling, brave, philosophical, and as fast-paced as a thriller. A Frankenstein for modern times that, maybe, if we are lucky and if we listen to what it has to say, just might be the book to change our lives * Laura Beatty *A startling, intellectual, post-Covid adventure * New Scientist *Under the Blue's depth of thought shows through in its parallels with real events, and its angle on the subject emerges gradually but resonantly... a sad, angry novel with a surprising note of hope * SFX *

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Book SynopsisTwo sisters: Madeleine and Dinah. One husband: Rickie Masters. For many years now, Dinah, exotic and sensual, has conducted a clandestine affair with Rickie. Madeleine, calm and resolute, has accepted that her marriage has been of limited success. Rickie's sudden death makes widows of both sisters in this highly imaginative novel that explores with extraordinary insight the sublimity, the rivalry and the pain of personal relationships. 'She makes a mood, an atmosphere, which is never forgotten ...The inner voice of women talking to themselves about their love affairs, knowing that it is hopeless, having to go ahead anyway, expecting the end as soon as it begins. That, of course, is what Rosamond Lehmann does best' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewShe makes a mood, an atmosphere, which is never forgotten . . . The inner voice of women talking to themselves about their love affairs, knowing that it is hopeless, having to go ahead anyway, expecting the end as soon as it begins. That, of course, is what Rosamond Lehmann does best * Sunday Times *Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own peculiar acumen -- Elizabeth Jane HowardLehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes -- English PENA novelist in the grand tradition . . . The first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions -- Anita BrooknerLehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love -- Margaret Drabble

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY HILARY MANTEL WITH A BEAUTIFUL COVER BY TEXTILE DESIGNER FLORENCE BROADHURST'The perfection of its tone and prose is matched by an anguished wit' AMANDA CRAIG, GUARDIAN 'Wonderfully sinister, so enchantingly written and so sad. Everyone should read it' JILLY COOPER'A subtle and beautiful book . . . Very few authors combine her acute psychological insight with her grace and style' HILARY MANTEL, SUNDAY TIMESImogen, the beautiful wife of barrister Evelyn Gresham, is facing the greatest challenge of her married life. Their neighbour Blanche Silcox, competent, tweedy, middle-aged and ungainly - the very opposite of Imogen - seems to be vying for Evelyn's attention. And to Imogen's increasing disbelief, she may be succeeding - for in affairs of the heart the race is not necessarily won by the swift or the fair.Trade ReviewAs smooth and seductive as a bowl of cream -- Hilary Mantel * Sunday Times *The perfection of its tone and prose is matched by an anguished wit -- Amanda Craig * Guardian *My best book of almost all time is The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins . . . wonderfully sinister, so enchantingly written and so sad. Everyone should read it -- Jilly CooperOne of my favourite classics. Elegant and ironic, its continuing charm lies in its quirky and enigmatic love story which becomes more beguiling with each re-reading -- Carmen CallilDeliciously subtle . . . A lost world of tweeds and twin-sets . . . a classic novel of the fifties * Daily Mail *A subtle and beautiful book ... Very few authors combine her acute psychological insight with her grace and style. There is plenty of life in the modern novel, plenty of authors who will shock and amaze you - but who will put on the page a beautiful sentence, a sentence you will want to read twice? * Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis'If we want to understand what has been lost to time, there is no way other than through the exercise of imagination ... imagination applied with delicate rather than broad strokes'. So wrote the award winning Japanese author Kyoko Nakajima of her story, Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, a piece that illuminates, as if by throwing a switch, the layers of wartime devastation that lie just below the surface of Tokyo's insistently modern culture. The ten acclaimed stories in this collection are pervaded by an air of Japanese ghostliness. In beautifully crafted and deceptively light prose, Nakajima portrays men and women beset by cultural amnesia and unaware of how haunted they are - by fragmented memories of war and occupation, by fading traditions, by buildings lost to firestorms and bulldozers, by the spirits of their recent past.Trade ReviewThese impressive stories bridge past and present, the familiar and the otherworldly, the lost and the found. -- David Mitchell, author of Number9DreamWonderful stories ... a perfect introduction to the quiet, subtle brilliance of Kyoko Nakajima. -- David Peace, author of Tokyo Year Zero

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Book SynopsisJim Francis has finally found the perfect life – and is now unrecognisable, even to himself. A successful painter and sculptor, he lives quietly with his wife, Melanie, and their two young daughters, in an affluent beach town in California. Some say he’s a fake and a con man, while others see him as a genuine visionary.But Francis has a very dark past, with another identity and a very different set of values. When he crosses the Atlantic to his native Scotland, for the funeral of a murdered son he barely knew, his old Edinburgh community expects him to take bloody revenge. But as he confronts his previous life, all those friends and enemies – and, most alarmingly, his former self – Francis seems to have other ideas.When Melanie discovers something gruesome in California, which indicates that her husband’s violent past might also be his psychotic present, things start to go very bad, very quickly. The Blade Artist is an elegant, electrifying novel – ultra violent but curiously redemptive – and it marks the return of one of modern fiction’s most infamous, terrifying characters, the incendiary Francis Begbie from Trainspotting.Trade ReviewBack to his violent best… Dark, gruesome and captivating. -- Sam Parker * Esquire *It’s a thriller in the mode of Tarantino making war films or westerns; hiding grand themes within genre. -- Alan Bett * Skinny *Intense, electrifying… Welsh has delivered a tremendously entertaining book – a whodunit, a thriller, and a probing character study – that’s obsessed with conflict, both physical and mental… A surprisingly poignant, evocative read – highly recommended. * Mr Hyde *In a year when filming begins on Danny Boyle’s sequel of sorts to Trainspotting, it seems perfect timing to revisit its most visceral force. * Skinny *[Begbie’s] intelligence and instinct make him compelling, and Welsh keep the plot roaring along… This is a dark, guilty pleasure and written with – it seems to me – the cinema screen in mind. -- Kate Muir * The Times *

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Book Synopsis *SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ENDEAVOUR HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD 2017* LONDON 1885 – A woman’s body is discovered on Edgware Road. Ten miles away, her head is pulled from the dark muddy waters of the Thames. For two men, this event will push them to the very brink. DETECTIVE WILLIAM PINKERTON – ‘Thirty-nine years old, already famous and already lonely’. In an attempt to solve this case, he must descend into the seedy, gas-lit streets, opium dens, sewers and séance halls of Victorian London. ADAM FOOLE – A gentleman without a past, haunted by a love affair ten years gone. What he learns from his lover’s fate will force him to confront a past, and a grief, he thought long buried.Trade Review‘[A] rollicking read…Wonderfully melodramatic and well-written. The story is told over some 700 pages, and yet not a word feels wasted.’ * Cosmopolitan, Best Books of 2017 *‘Entertaining…as vast as the three-decker Victorian novels it so cleverly echoes’. -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *‘[A] darkly mesmerising tale worthy of any of the great Victorian thriller writers.’ * Crime Review *‘For long winter evenings…By Gaslight seems like an excellent choice’. * New Books *‘Guaranteed to grip.’ * Vogue *‘Rich in characterisation and description as well as evidently well-researched material.’ * Historical Novels Review *‘Reads like a resurrected Conan Doyle has created a high-quality thriller for a Sky Atlantic series… breathtakingly atmospheric.’ * Peterborough Telegraph *‘A formidable mystery.’ * Buffalo News *‘I found myself returning to passages . . . because I wanted to revisit the somber music of the telling. . . Spinning fiction out of fact, Price creates an evocative world, cast not in shades of stark black and white, but rather in morally complex herringbone . . . [R]aw and beautiful . . . always expressing the complexities of the human heart. . . By Gaslight can be seen as Arthur Conan Doyle by way of Dickens by way of Faulkner. Intense, London-centric, threaded through with a melancholy brilliance, it is an extravagant novel that takes inspiration from the classics and yet remains wholly itself.’ * NPR *‘Canadian poet Price turns to fiction with this lively visitation to the foggy streets of Victorian Blighty…the story is utterly Sherlock-ian – read Moriarty for Shade and Irene Adler for Reckitt – and postmodernly so, full of sly nods and winks and allusions. If it is derivative in the bargain, Conan Doyle by way of Nicholas Meyer and Benedict Cumberbatch, then Price's yarn is also a lot of fun. Fans of steampunk and Victorian detective fiction alike will enjoy Price's continent-hopping romp in time.’ * Kirkus *‘A postmodern take on noir mysteries…The real highlight of the novel, though, is the mesmerizing writing style, which is difficult to decipher but lyrically rewarding and intensely evocative of setting and character. Intense, frustrating, and magical, this fragmented, paradoxical suspense story will appeal to particular readers who love Dickens or who relish the complexities of Martin Seay’s The Mirror Thief and David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.’ * Booklist *‘Steven Price has done a daring thing: taken a long, complex, but utterly fascinating 19th Century crime tale and applied to it the rules of modern mystery writing. The result is something unique, but it is his gift for unraveling a terrific yarn, in whatever manner, that shines through. Do not be daunted by length: give this book a try.’ * Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist *‘Price’s naturalism is unsentimental, adding verisimilitude to a book already thrumming with emotional and psychological realism. The author’s blend of quest, grief, betrayal, and the mysteries of identity will appeal to readers of literary crime fiction’ * Library Journal *‘Price’s elegantly written, vividly evoked second novel marries historical suspense with literary sophistication…With its intricate cat-and-mouse game, array of idiosyncratic characters, and brooding atmosphere, By Gaslight has much to please fans of both classic suspense and Victorian fiction. Yet Price’s novel is entirely contemporary, and assuredly his own: a sweeping tale of hunter and hunted in which the most-dangerous pursuer is always the human heart.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘By Gaslight is Steven Price's extraordinary historical novel, finely written and deeply researched, about the period just following the Civil War, the son of America's most famous detective (Allen Pinkerton), and a cast of truly powerful characters, half-mad and all dangerous.’ * Alan Furst, author of The Foreign Correspondent *‘This sweeping tale of the unforgettable William Pinkerton and Adam Foole thrusts the reader into smoky Victorian London with all its grit and glitter. Uniting the literary grace and depth of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy with the intrigue and momentum of a Sherlock Holmes story, By Gaslight is completely absorbing – an epic, brilliantly written novel to rank with the world’s best.’ * Jacqueline Baker, author of The Broken Hours *‘This darkly mesmerizing tale is worthy of the great Victorian thriller writers, but Steven Price brings to his prose a sensibility and dazzling skill all his own. The gruesome, eerie events that unfold during the search for Charlotte Reckitt are given enthralling life in a book that is perfectly grounded in period and rich in incident and image. Haunting and deeply satisfying.’ * Marina Endicott, author of Close to Hugh *‘A dark tale of love, betrayal and murder that reaches from the slums of Victorian London to the diamond mines in South Africa, to the American Civil War and back. Superb storytelling.’ * Kurt Palka, author of The Piano Maker *‘A poetic, persuasive pea-souper. Think Dickens with Maigret’s whiskers.’ * Anakana Schofield, author of Martin John *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2019 Hearst Big Books Award - Cosmopolitan's Book of the Year A Mirror 'Best Books to Read This Summer' pick______________A big-hearted, captivating, modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice, with hijabs instead of top hats and kurtas instead of corsets. Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been overtaken by a demanding teaching job. Her boisterous Muslim family, and numerous (interfering) aunties, are professional naggers. And her flighty young cousin, about to reject her one hundredth marriage proposal, is a constant reminder that Ayesha is still single.Ayesha might be a little lonely, but the one thing she doesn't want is an arranged marriage. And then she meets Khalid... How could a man so conservative and judgmental (and, yes, smart and annoyingly handsome) have wormed his way into her thoughts so quickly?As for Khalid, he's happy the way he is; his mother will find him a suitable bride. But why can't he get the captivating, outspoken Ayesha out of his mind? They're far too different to be a good match, surely...'A clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original.' CosmopolitanTrade ReviewA clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original. * Cosmopolitan *Compassionate, warm, and wholly satisfying * The Skinny *It's unpredictable, even if you've read Pride and Prejudice... love -- Jasmine Guillory, author of 'The Proposal' * O, The Oprah Magazine *A sparkling love story... The criss-crossing sub-plots - both gritty and comic - keep the pages turning, and make this a treat for fans of romance with extra bite. * Love Reading *Charming, heartwarming * Dazed *An enthralling adaptation of the classic Pride and Prejudice... This version of the well-loved novel is innovative, relevant and so very relatable... complete with cross-culture nuances, wit, humour and classic romance. A must read for Jane Austen fans. * Asian Image *This is the book I've been waiting for since my long-running Jane Austen obsession. Move over Darcy, Khalid's in town. * S. K. Ali, author of Saints and Misfits *Uzma Jalaluddin blazes a brilliant new trail with Ayesha At Last, a captivating romance set in the Muslim community, brimming with humour and heart. You will fall in love with Ayesha and Khalid - an Elizabeth and Darcy for our times. * Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of A Dangerous Crossing *Ayesha At Last is a cross-cultural pleasure, a romp, a modern, Muslim salute to Pride and Prejudice. The lovely, witty writing is testimony to an excellent eye and ear at work. * Elinor Lipman, author of On Turpentine Lane *Enchanting, achingly funny and uplifting, Ayesha at Last is a must read! * Randa Abdel-Fattah, author of Does My Head Look Big in This? *An excellent modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. With humor and abundant cultural references, Jalaluddin cleverly illustrates the social pressures facing young Indian-Muslim adults. A highly entertaining tale of family, community, and romance. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *A lively and raucous story that mixes a zany cast of characters with a tightly wound plot... Delicious, adorable and entertaining. * Kirkus, starred review *Delightful. Innovative, relevant and so very relatable. * Asian Life Magazine *Interesting family dynamics, diverse characters, and a sweet romance make this a quick yet satisfying read for a winter weekend indoors. * Lake Minnetonka Magazine *This gratifying, big-hearted story seamlessly weaves together Shakespearean comedy, saag paneer, gossipy aunties, pro wrestling, spoken-word poetry, Ikea furniture, Fajr prayer, AA meetings and every variety of love. * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisKent Haruf's honours include a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. Haruf's 2013 novel, Benediction, was shortlisted for the Folio prize. He died in 2014 at the age of seventy-one.Trade ReviewHaruf ’s heroes are small people weighed down with big hearts . . .He manages to find magic in the minutiae of ordinary lives. -- Mariella Frostrup on Plainsong * Mail on Sunday *Haruf ’s deceptively artless prose and unsentimental tales are driven by individuals, not incidents, as they choose between decency and cowardice, degradation and rectitude. -- Praise for The Tie That Binds * Times Literary Supplement *Haruf is one of the finest novelists at work today. * Time Out *

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Book Synopsis'A universal story, and a testimony to the struggle to find meaning, grace, and humanity, even amid the most unimaginable horrors.' Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite RunnerSnipers in the hills overlook the shattered streets of Sarajevo. Knowing that the next bullet could strike at any moment, the ordinary men and women below strive to go about their daily lives as best they can. Kenan faces the agonizing dilemma of crossing the city to get water for his family. Dragan, gripped by fear, does not know who among his friends he can trust. And Arrow, a young woman counter-sniper must push herself to the limits - of body and soul, fear and humanity. Told with immediacy, grace and harrowing emotional accuracy, The Cellist of Sarajevo shows how, when the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.Trade ReviewGalloway's style is sparse, pared down; his prose has the deceptive simplicity of a short story. The work of an expert, The Cellist of Sarajevo is a controlled and subtle piece of craftsmanship. * Observer *Startlingly good... With prose as unsentimental and deadly as gunfire, Galloway superbly captures the tense existence of a city under siege where daily tasks become a gamble between life and death, yet where a single note of music can exert a power equal to any bomb or bullet. * Metro *

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY RACHEL COOKE''Virginia Woolf''s roving consciousness lies behind the prose in Novel on Yellow Paper, but the tone owes more to Dorothy Parker . . . When first published in 1936, it overnight turned Smith into a celebrity . . . the subversiveness of this novel has never lost its appeal, its greatness lying in its exuberant celebration of the uncircumscribed spirit'' - Frances Spalding, IndependentStevie''s alter ego Pompey is young, in love and working as a secretary for the magnificent Sir Phoebus Ullwater. In between making coffee and typing letters for Sir Phoebus, Pompey scribbles down - on yellow office paper - her quirky thoughts. Her flights of imagination take in Euripedes, sex education, Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church, shattering conventions in their wake.Trade ReviewA more individual talent than Stevie Smith's you don't get. An artist of utmost sophistication... Her pre-war Novel on Yellow Paper is an unforgettable work that has nevertheless needed to be rediscovered several times since the day it was first greeted, correctly, as a masterpiece - Clive James, the New YorkerVirginia Woolf's roving consciousness lies behind the prose in Novel on Yellow Paper, but the tone owes more to Dorothy Parker . . . There are distinct intentions behind Smith's engagingly idiosyncratic manner, and every new reading uncovers further depths. When first published in 1936, it overnight turned Smith into a celebrity. It was swiftly followed by the first two collections of her poetry for which, today, she is better known. But the subversiveness of this novel has never lost its appeal, its greatness lying in its exuberant celebration of the uncircumscribed spirit -- Frances Spalding * Independent *Stevie Smith captures, with exquisite stillness and delicacy, all the pains of love -- Lee Rourke * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2017When I finished Sara Baume's new novel I immediately felt sad that I could not send it in the post to the late John Berger. He, too, would have loved it and found great joy in its honesty, its agility, its beauty, its invention. Baume is a writer of outstanding grace and style. She writes beyond the time we live in.' Colum McCannStruggling to cope with urban life and with life in general Frankie, a twenty-something artist, retreats to the rural bungalow on turbine hill' that has been vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier. It is in this space, surrounded by nature, that she hopes to regain her footing in art and life. She spends her days pretending to read, half-listening to the radio, failing to muster the energy needed to leave the safety of her haven. Her family come and go, until they don't and she is left alone to contemplate the path that led her here, and the smell of the carpet that started it all.Finding little comfort in human interaction, Frankie turns her camera lens on the natural world and its reassuring cycle of life and death. What emerges is a profound meditation on the interconnectedness of wilderness, art and individual experience, and a powerful exploration of human frailty.Trade ReviewWhen I finished Sara Baume’s new novel I immediately felt sad that I could not send it in the post to the late John Berger. He, too, would have loved it and found great joy in its honesty, its agility, its beauty, its invention. Baume is a writer of outstanding grace and style. She writes beyond the time we live in. -- Colum McCannA fascinating portrait of an artist’s breakdown in rural Ireland … a remarkable ability to generate narrative pace while eschewing plot, making it enough for the reader to observe a mind observing the world … it’s fascinating, because of the cumulative power of the precise, pleasingly rhythmic sentences, and the unpredictable intelligence of the narrator’s mind … Art may also require a willingness to question the ordinary that is incompatible with conventional criteria of sanity. One of the most radical aspects of this novel is its challenge to received wisdom about mental illness … There are no answers here, but there is a reminder of the beauty that can be found when you allow yourself to look slowly and sadly at the world. * Guardian *After a remarkable and deservedly award-winning debut, here is a novel of uniqueness, wonder, recognition, poignancy, truth-speaking, quiet power, strange beauty and luminous bedazzlement. Once again, I’ve been Baumed. -- Joseph O'ConnorExtraordinarily compelling … What makes it so gripping as that the reader is trapped in Frankie’s mind as much as she is; every tiny detail is magnified into metaphysical significance that she cannot understand and that the reader cannot parse … Frankie’s surreal and yet understandable mind-patterns are eloquent as well as awful … On the dust-jacket Joseph O’Connor says that Baume is a ‘writer touched by greatness.’ I think she is bruised by it. -- Stuart Kelly * The Spectator *Unflinching, at times uncomfortable, and always utterly compelling, A Line Made By Walking is among the best accounts of grief, loneliness and depression that I have ever read. Every word of it rings true, the truth of hard-won knowledge wrested from the abyss. Shot through with a wild, yearning melancholy, it is nevertheless mordantly witty. It felt, to me, kindred to Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City: not just on a superficial level, a young woman seeking solace in art, but in the urgent depth of its quest to understand and articulate what it means to make art, and what art might mean for the individual, lost and lonely; how it might bring us out of, or back to, ourselves. -- Lucy Caldwell

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