Magical realism

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Just like all the genius designs they created for the Potter films...Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima have truly outdone themselves in creating a book that is not only gorgeous but also uniquely fun." -- MuggleNet.com "Unique and imaginative in their style, MinaLima has created a Peter Pan that will become a beloved attention to any library. Hook a copy now!" -- Examiner.com "Seriously, the new Peter Pan volume is just a delight. Not only is it a beautifully bound hardcover, but every page looks just stunning." -- io9 "This lovely hardcover of Peter Pan is designed to look like something from an earlier era, with off-white paper and a limited color palette of mostly orange and green for the illustrations." -- Geek Dad "Take a tour through the magical story of JM Barrie's Peter Pan with gorgeous maps, fairy clap charts, crocodiles, mermaids and fairy dust galore via these stunning illustrations by Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima-AKA Minalima-from their beautiful new illustrated version of the classic tale." -- The Guardian

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Book Synopsis‘Full of Hoffman’s bewitching and lucid prose and vivid characters, The Book of Magic is ultimately about the very human magic of family and love and actions that echo through generations… it casts a spell’  —Matt HaigTHE STUNNING, UNFORGETTABLE CONCLUSION TO THE BELOVED PRACTICAL MAGIC SERIES For centuries, the Owens family has been cursed in matters of love. When beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the sound of the deathwatch beetle, she knows that it is a signal. She has finally discovered the secret to breaking the curse, but time is running out. She has only seven days to live. Unaware of the family’s witchcraft lineage and all it entails, one of the young sisters of the new Owens generation has fallen in love. As the curse strikes once again, her love’s fate hangs in the balance, spurring three generations of Owens to venture back to where it all began and use their Trade ReviewPraise for the Practical Magic series ‘Her books are a real pleasure – practical magic’ Kate Atkinson ‘[A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible’ Cosmopolitan ‘Dripping with pathos and otherworldly possibility’ Vogue ‘Dark comedy and a light touch carry the story along to a truly Gothic climax, complete with heaving skies and witchery on the lawn’ New York Times ‘A master of magical realism, draws us back into the spellbinding universe of the Owens family with gorgeous prose set against a backdrop of vivid imagery’ Marie Claire ‘A delightful confection – witty, imaginative, unexpectedly touching’ The Times ‘Reading an Alice Hoffman book is like falling into a deep dream where senses are heightened and love reigns supreme… I never wanted to awaken’ Jodi Picoult ‘Hoffman’s classy prose imbues this modern fairy tale with bite as well as beauty’ Mail on Sunday ‘Storytelling is in Hoffman’s bones’ New York Times Book Review ‘Vivid and enchanting… another sublime entry in an arresting series’ Esquire ‘I got so swept up in this enchanting story’ Reese Witherspoon ‘A vivid and evocative tale – prepare to be spellbound’ Woman ‘Full of Hoffman’s bewitching and lucid prose and vivid characters, The Book of Magic is ultimately about the very human magic of family and love and actions that echo through generations… it casts a spell’ Matt Haig

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Book Synopsis'Lynette Noni is a marvelous and inventive storyteller, whose books are absolutely impossible to put down' Sarah J Maas, #1 New York Times bestselling authorThe magical and exciting sequel to The Prison Healer from Australia's #1 YA author Lynette Noni.Kiva Meridan is a survivor.She survived not only Zalindov prison, but also the deadly Trial by Ordeal. Now Kiva's purpose goes beyond survival to vengeance. For the past ten years, her only goal has been to reunite with her family and destroy the people responsible for ruining their lives. But now that she has escaped Zalindov, her mission has become more complicated than ever.As Kiva settles into her new life in the capital, she discovers she wasn't the only one who suffered while she was in Zalindov-her siblings and their beliefs have changed too. Soon it's not just her enemies she's keeping secrets from, but her own family as well.Outside the city walls, tensions are brewing from the rebels, along with whispers of a growing threat from the northern kingdoms. Kiva's allegiances are more important than ever, but she's beginning to question where they truly lie. To survive this time, she'll have to navigate a complicated web of lies before both sides of the battle turn against her and she loses everything.*** PRAISE FOR LYNETTE NONI ***'Lynette Noni is a master at her craft' James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner'A very talented writer' Terry Brooks, author of The Sword of Shannara'Lynette Noni's compelling stories keep readers turning pages to the very end' Juliet Marillier, author of the Sevenwaters series'A masterful storyteller' Maria V. Snyder, author of the Poison Study series'When Lynette Noni opens the door to another world, don't hesitate: jump in and enjoy' Trudi Canavan, author of The Black Magician trilogyTrade Review*** PRAISE FOR LYNETTE NONI ***Lynette Noni is a marvelous and inventive storyteller, whose books are absolutely impossible to put down. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! * Sarah J Maas, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author *Lynette Noni is a master at her craft. The Medoran Chronicles have richly developed characters, superb world-building that makes you feel like you're actually there, and stories that pack a punch, full of emotion and thrills. Highly recommended! * James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner *Lynette Noni is a very talented writer. Her books tell stories that draw you in and refuse to let go. Her characters are memorable and quick to surprise. I cannot wait to see what she will do next * Terry Brooks, author of The Sword of Shannara *Lynette Noni's compelling stories keep readers turning pages to the very end * Juliet Marillier, author, the Sevenwaters series *Lynette Noni is a masterful storyteller. Her characters steal into your heart and won't let go! * Maria V. Snyder, author, the Poison Study series *When Lynette Noni opens the door to another world, don't hesitate: jump in and enjoy * Trudi Canavan, author, The Black Magician trilogy *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023 Now with added author content - a Map of Colombo as viewed from the afterlife + Dramatis Personae A magical realism whodunnit set amid Sri Lanka's civil war Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's foremost author delivers a rip-roaring epic, full of mordant wit and disturbing truths. 'Recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Gogol and Bulgakov.' Guardian 'Outstanding... the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade.' New EuropeanTrade ReviewFizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars. * The Booker judges *Recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls or Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita ... Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country's history * Guardian *Brilliant ... rollicking ... a pleasure to read. Karunatilaka writes with tinder-dry wit and an unfaltering ear for prose cadences. -- Kate McLoughlin * Times Literary Supplement *Outstanding ... the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade * New European *An exuberant whodunnit ...There can't be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie and John le Carré - but this one does * The Times *This magic realist (and often funny) novel fizzes with energy and ideas... Imagine a mash-up of Stranger Things and Salman Rushdie -- Robbie Millen * The Times *Shehan Karunatilaka's epic novel is a powerful evocation of Sri Lanka's dark and brutal past -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times *The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is dazzling. Shehan Karunatilaka's use of Sri Lankan folk mythology is truly original ... human and non-human monsters equally terrify. And yet Karunatilaka's exuberant language and humour keeps this book buoyant and a joy to read -- Shyam Selvadurai, author of Funny BoyA brave and brilliantly inventive novel, full of energy, about a mad bad world in a dark time -- Romesh Gunesekera, author of Reef and Monkfish MoonShehan Karunatilaka's narrative is breathtakingly kaleidoscopic * Financial Times *Audacious, original and perfectly formed -- Suzanne Harrington * Writers Mosaic *

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Book SynopsisTHE RIOTOUSLY FUNNY AND JOYOUSLY ROMANTIC SECOND INSTALLMENT IN THE DANGEROUS DAMSELS SERIES THAT TIKTOK CAN''T GET ENOUGH OF!The Princess Bride meets Jane Austen in this swoony second novel in The Dangerous Damsels series - an enemies-to-lovers historical romance with a magical twist . . .''OBSESSED. If you love playful dialogue and language, fun characters, and interesting worlds, I recommend'' 5**** Reader Review!--- Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret society skilled in witchcraft. When rumours of the Amulet of Black Beryl start to circulate, Charlotte is determined to find the jewel before it falls into the wrong hands. Which is what happens when the evil Lady Armitage reaches it first. Demanding the help of rakish pirate, Alex O''Riley, Charlotte sets off to find the jewel. There''s just one problem: pirates and witches are sworn enemies. But little do theTrade ReviewThe whimsical worldbuilding forms a perfect backdrop to the angsty couple, and Holton's winking narration, which puts her in cahoots with the reader, makes her exaggerated characters work. Overflowing with heart, humour, and hyperbole, this clever romance enchants * Publishers Weekly *Holton provides plenty of chuckles...a fun-filled romp in a topsy-turvy world of corset-wearing, knife-wielding, magic-casting women and gun-wielding, light-fingered, charming pirates * Kirkus Reviews *Clever word play, delightful double entendres, and adventurous high jinks will delight fans of smart, witchy romances * Booklist *Sexy, funny, and utterly charming . . . Buckle up, readers, because this is a ride you won't want to miss * Lynn Painter, author of Mr. Wrong Number *The League of Gentlewomen Witches has punch and verve, and makes for one heck of ride. It's romantic, sensual and a lot of fun, too * All About Romance *A brilliant mix of adventure, romance, and Oscar Wildesque absurdity - one of the wittiest, most original rom coms I have read all year * Evie Dunmore, USA Today bestselling author of Bringing Down the Duke *Filled with wit and an intriguing enemy-to-lovers romance. For fans of Jane Austen and Evie Dunmore * LibraryReads *Holton takes readers on a wild ride through a fun, limitless world, where frivolity and whimsy reign supreme and skilled swordwork and grand displays of magic abound * Bookpage *India Holton's joyous, swoony, genre-exploding novel is a marvel, bristling with wit (and weaponry!) and brimming with love. The League of Gentlewomen Witches will steal your heart, fly it to the moon, and return it to your chest, sparking with magic and just in time for tea * Joanna Lowell, author of The Runaway Duchess *Another wickedly funny romp through this glorious world created by India Holton * Harper St. George, author of The Devil and the Heiress *Fantastical, romantic fun! Sparkling with witty allusions to Shakespeare and Austen, whimsical adventure, and tenderhearted romance. A book lover's dream come true * Chloe Liese, author of the Bergman Brothers series *A wild, rollicking, delicious carnival ride of a story . . . You've never read Victorian romance like this before and it'll ruin you for everything else * Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author of Payback's a Witch *

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Book SynopsisThe magical, internationally bestselling debut novel from Eowyn Ivey, THE SNOW CHILD is a fairy-tale for adults that brings the Alaskan landscape to unforgettable life.Trade Review'A magical, heartbreaking story... gorgeous' * Marie Claire *'It's the harsh beauty of the landscape that gives this stunning first novel its unique shape and atmosphere' * The Times *'It is an exceptional book that deserves to melt millions of hearts' * Sunday Express *'A story about finding love in unexpected places... full of fire and ice' * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This is not your ordinary campus novel or another Groundhog Day. In magical, irreverent, and often humorous prose that calls up both Murakami and Moshfegh, The Tatami Galaxy repeatedly reimagines the existential crises of a college misfit in a kaleidoscopic display of imagination, character, and genre. There is no question why this mash-up of multiverse adventure and philosophy has already become a new classic." — Sequoia Nagamatsu, national bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark "The team of Tomihiko Morimi and Emily Balistrieri is unbeatable: this novel vibrates with a voice that is sharp and funny, wacky and winning. It's a perfect slice of contemporary Japanese pop: a tangle of fates, simultaneously cosmic and comic. I loved my voyage through The Tatami Galaxy." — Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough "Rich, unusual, and surprisingly profound, The Tatami Galaxy is a gorgeous application of the fantastic to celebrate the precious parts of life that we often forget." — Ada Palmer, award-winning author of Too Like the Lightning Tomihiko Morimi’s novel of burned out gods and misanthropic students jumping between alternate dimensions as they face their regrets proves to be just as touching and hilarious as the anime series it spawned. A surprisingly timely mash-up of Catcher in the Rye and Russian Doll, The Tatami Galaxy will resonate with anyone that’s found themselves too often stuck in looping isolation. — Tim Maughan, Locus Award-nominated author of Infinite Detail “Morimi’s delightful campus novel follows the quixotic adventures of an unnamed student dreaming of the perfect college experience…Light and sweet in its confection, this satisfies like a spongy piece of castella.” — Publishers Weekly "Beautiful and satisfying...Pick it up when you have the chance" — Tor.com "Translator Balistrieri meticulously deciphers the protagonist’s ' "rotten" university student voice' for English readers...anime aficionados will greatly appreciate the prose original that inspired the award-winning celluloid series of the same title." — Booklist “Who can deny the pleasures of a good time-loop narrative?... there’s a memorable payoff to several ongoing threads when the novel reaches its climax; you also may never look at moths the same way again.” — Words Without Borders "[The Tatami Galaxy] is a frolicking novel packed with slacker hijinks and escapades. At its core lies pithy wisdom about choice and destiny... Morimi’s sci-fi fusion of fun and the unfathomable offers a light touch that makes a lasting impression." — The Japan Times "[A] treat better left unspoiled." — The New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisFrom the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Raven Cycle,the mesmerizing story of those who can bring parts of their dreamsinto reality . . . and those who will stop at nothing to destroythem.

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Book SynopsisFew books have been as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince.A beautiful gift edition for adults of this touching and wise classic book. Featuring the original translation by Katherine Woods and full-colour illustrations by the author.A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see the most extraordinary little fellow standing before him. Please' asks the stranger, draw me a sheep'And the pilot realises that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out a pencil and paper and thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed the world forever for its readers.This stunning new edition for adults of the classic book The Little Prince, includes the classic English translation by Katherine Woods and original colour illustrations which will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.This beautiful cloth-bou

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Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER ? ?Lush with secrets, magic, and a past that won?t stay where it belongs, this novel is (quite fittingly) spellbinding.??JODI PICOULT, author of Wish You Were HereA deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true loveONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: She ReadsEmery Blackwood?s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family?s business, Blackwood?s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings. But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget.August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother?s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed?Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily?s mysterious death once and for all.

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Book SynopsisDiscover a world where Violet became an agent of Syndrome, perfect for fans of The Incredibles

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Book SynopsisThe International BestsellerWithin the boroughs of London, nestled among its streets, hides another city, filled with magic.Magic and love. Love and magic. They destroy everything in the end 'Anna's Aunt has always warned her of the dangers of magic. Its twists. Its knots. Its deadly consequences.Now Anna counts down the days to the ceremony that will bind her magic forever.Until she meets Effie and Attis.They open her eyes to a London she never knew existed. A shop that sells memories. A secret library where the librarian feeds off words. A club where revellers lose themselves in a haze of spells.But as she is swept deeper into this world, Anna begins to wonder if her Aunt was right all along.Is her magic a gift or a curse?Trade Review‘An enthralling and original fantasy, woven inside a magical web of lies’Jay Kristoff, Sunday Times bestselling author of NEVERNIGHT and EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE ‘The magic both gleams and threatens. There are riddles and puzzles to be solved and there’s a library – trust me, it’s a good one. You’ll want to give this a try.’Sunday Times bestselling author Robin Hobb ‘In this beautiful coming-of-age book, Thomas tackles big issues, family secrets and heartbreak in a brilliantly imagined, yet authentic world.’Woman’s Weekly ‘There’s magic in every nook and cranny – as well as shops selling memories – in this fantastical novel that stalks the streets of London’s underbelly’METRO ‘A bewitching tale of magic, family secrets and twisted affections, of finding your true self in a world of treacherous mystery. Prepare to be charmed!’David Wragg, author of THE BLACK HAWKS ‘THREADNEEDLE had me spellbound – a luminous, captivating fantasy that left me longing to return to Thomas’s vividly imagined magical world. With teen witches, hidden libraries, secrets and lies, it’s a dream of a book, and I loved it.’Katie Lowe, author of THE FURIES ‘The first in a new fantasy trilogy, Anna's aunt has always warned her of the dangers of magic and now, aged 16, she is counting down the days to a ceremony that will bind her magic forever. That is, until her eyes are opened to a London she never knew existed one with a shop that sells memories, a secret underground library and nightclubs full of magic.’Woman Magazine ‘An enthralling and inventive story you’ll enjoy getting lost in’Woman & Home

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Book SynopsisMany truths lie hidden beneath the desert sands… You are an orphan with a strange gift for magic. Hunted by the church, you have fled south to the desert lands of Khitesh, lured by tales of exotic adventure and fabulous riches. However, a simple treasure-seeking mission quickly turns sour, plunging you into the heart of a criminal underworld, where shady dealings and poisoned blades hide a deadly secret. Do you have what it takes to survive on the cut-throat tides of the Dune Sea? You decide in this epic fantasy adventure – one where you make the decisions.

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Book SynopsisThis is a story about a snow-covered island you won''t find on any map.It''s the story of a girl, Minou. A year ago, her mother walked out into the rain and never came back.It''s about a magician and a priest and a dog called No Name. It''s about a father''s endless hunt for the truth.It''s about a dead boy who listens, and Minou''s search for her mother''s voice. It''s a story of how even the most isolated places have their own secrets.It''s a story you will never forget.Trade ReviewThe best stories change you. The Vanishing Act is that kind of tale * Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus *A strange poetic and ghostly story... There are echoes of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe but otherwise there is a rare freshness to her storytelling. She relies on using sophisticated but sparse language to create a magical world and story about the grown-up themes of love, loss and - intriguingly - philosophy that can be read and enjoyed by both grown-ups and young adults. And not a vampire in sight * Daily Mail *Works just as well as a one-dimensional story as it does a thought provoking fable as the beautifully written, haunting set pieces testify -- Ani Johnson * Bookbag *It is abundant in terms of atmosphere and the beautiful innocence of childhood * PA Review – South Wales Argus *A perfectly poised, fable-like tale of loss, written with delightful whimsy, deep empathy and a beguiling sense of innocence * Graeme Base *

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Book SynopsisThe Cat Who Saved Books is a heartwarming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books. 'Enchanting' – Observer__________Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .Sosuke Natsukawa’s international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.Trade ReviewA charming and heartwarming tale of the power of books * Manx Independent *Quirky and heartwarming in equal measure, The Cat Who Saved Books invites us to remember the joy of curling up with a favorite book * Japan Times *

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Book SynopsisThe million-copy bestselling series about a small Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time.Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s moving Before the Coffee Gets Cold, translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the cafe’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by Alzheimer's, see their sister one last time, and meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .Continue the beautiful storytelling with Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, and Before We Say Goodbye.

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Book SynopsisFew books have been as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince.A beautiful gift edition of this touching and wise classic children''s book, with the original translation by Katherine Woods and full-colour illustrations.A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see the most extraordinary little fellow standing before him. Please, asks the stranger, draw me a sheep.And the pilot realises that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out a pencil and paper and thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed the world forever for its readers.This stunning new edition of the classic children''s book The Little Prince, includes the classic English translation by Katherine Woods and original colour illustrations which will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) was

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Book SynopsisHaruki Murakami's third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase is the mystery hybrid which completes the odyssey begun in Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973.The man was leading an aimless life, time passing, one big blank. His girlfriend has perfectly formed ears, ears with the power to bewitch, marvels of creation. The man receives a letter from a friend, enclosing a seemingly innocent photograph of sheep, and a request: place the photograph somewhere it will be seen. Then, one September afternoon, the phone rings, and the adventure begins. Welcome to the wild sheep chase.'Mr. Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving' New York TimesTrade ReviewWonderfully easy to read and just as wonderfully difficult to make sense of...like the narrator, who slowly accepts the presence in his life of mystery, we slowly recognize the possibility of a new kind of world. Like him, we lean forward and topple headlong into magic * Washington Post *It begins as a detective novel, dips into a screwball comedy, and at its close becomes a tale of possession...A highly accomplished piece of craftsmanship * New Yorker *Mr. Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving * New York Times *A Wild Sheep Chase has the conventional hull of a thriller - a quest, a mystery, an extraordinary woman, and plenty of elegant duress - but its fantastic superstructure transforms it into something quite different...a science fiction fantasy, a romance, a metaphysical tease, or a dramatisation of philosophical ideas * Independent *If you consider yourself an intelligent, sensitive common reader but wish to accommodate something a little removed from your experience, and probably your imagination, I dare you to turn your eyes towards Murakami and head off on a wild sheep chase. * Glasgow Herald *

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Book SynopsisAn enchanting new novella set in the magical world of Sunday Times bestseller Threadneedle.Rowan is visiting her aunt Winne the hedge witch in the Welsh countryside, to get back to nature and hone her skills, as well as taking a break from her annoying sisters and enjoying some peace and quiet. However, Rowan soon comes to realise that hedges are a serious business and this isn't quite the opportunity to rest and escape she thought it might be.Not only that, but mysterious events around the town are causing panic in the secret magical community and cowans non-magical folk are starting to take notice.Can Rowan hone her hedge craft, try to make some friends and solve the riddle of the mysterious goings-on, or is magic about to be revealed to the world or at least Wales?Pre-order the stunning sequel SHADOWSTITCH now coming June 2024.Trade ReviewPraise for THREADNEEDLE: ‘An enthralling and original fantasy, woven inside a magical web of lies’Jay Kristoff, Sunday Times bestselling author of NEVERNIGHT and EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE ‘The magic both gleams and threatens. There are riddles and puzzles to be solved and there’s a library – trust me, it’s a good one. You’ll want to give this a try.’Sunday Times bestselling author Robin Hobb ‘In this beautiful coming-of-age book, Thomas tackles big issues, family secrets and heartbreak in a brilliantly imagined, yet authentic world.’Woman’s Weekly ‘There’s magic in every nook and cranny – as well as shops selling memories – in this fantastical novel that stalks the streets of London’s underbelly’METRO ‘A bewitching tale of magic, family secrets and twisted affections, of finding your true self in a world of treacherous mystery. Prepare to be charmed!’David Wragg, author of THE BLACK HAWKS ‘THREADNEEDLE had me spellbound – a luminous, captivating fantasy that left me longing to return to Thomas’s vividly imagined magical world. With teen witches, hidden libraries, secrets and lies, it’s a dream of a book, and I loved it.’Katie Lowe, author of THE FURIES ‘The first in a new fantasy trilogy, Anna's aunt has always warned her of the dangers of magic and now, aged 16, she is counting down the days to a ceremony that will bind her magic forever. That is, until her eyes are opened to a London she never knew existed one with a shop that sells memories, a secret underground library and nightclubs full of magic.’Woman Magazine ‘An enthralling and inventive story you’ll enjoy getting lost in’Woman & Home

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Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2020* *LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020* “If ever there was a book that needs to be read more than once, this is it.”—ArtsHub “A book that keeps on giving.”—Brona’s Books “Extraordinary.”—The Irish Times “Compelling, delightful and powerful.”—David’s Book World A family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Bahar’s mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime. "Not only richly imaginative but also emotionally powerful." - 1st Reading's Blog “Her novel ... embodies Iranian life in a state of constant “oscillation”, bringing into play “opposing poles” — like life and death, religion and politics ... — to evoke the extent of damage by an oppressive political regime.” - The Indian ExpressTrade Review“A fiercely clever book.” * The New Statesman *“A Farsi Isabel Allende.” * The Guardian *“It takes a special writer – and Azar is one such – to avoid faltering when the harshest experiences are interlaced with scenes of fantastical interventions in the routine experiences of the characters. The lives created within this novel and the conditions to which they must adapt, lead to extraordinary scenes.” * The Irish Times *“A sumptuous meditation on the practice of interpretation.” * Asymptote Journal *“A mesmerizing and richly textured novel about Iranian history post Islamic Revolution. A sublime tale about how a nation’s past defines its national and personal narratives, written by one of Iran’s rising literary talents.” * BookRiot *“If ever there was a book that needs to be read more than once, this is it.” * ArtsHub *“[Azar’s] book is a great journey. It moves places and it moves us as readers, in an emotional and intellectual sense.” * The Los Angeles Review of Books *“The plot is intricate…the writing is ravishing: shimmeringly poetic…so mesmerizing is the storytelling.” * The Weekend Australian *“Azar delves deep into the mythological spirit realm and pre-Islamic Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia . . . [taking] us into breathtaking worlds of imagination and allegory . . . Astonishing.” * Backstory *

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Book SynopsisWhen seven-year-old Jedza witnesses a tragic incident involving a train and the death of his close boyhood friend in his hometown Miner’s Drift, he is convinced that his life is haunted. Now in his mid-20s, Jedza is a down-and-out electrician, moving to Harare in the hopes that he will escape the darkness and superstitions of the small town. But living in the shadowy restless atmosphere of the Avenues with its mysterious pools of water rising under musasa trees, he is tormented by the disappearance of his sister and their early encounters with ancestral spirits, the shapeshifting power of the njuzu and a vengeful ngozi. To move forward, he must stop running away and confront the trauma of his past. An eclectic, experimental novel, Avenues By Train is a brash and confident debut by an exciting new voice

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Book SynopsisWith an introduction by the writer and critic Viv Groskop.In this imaginative extravaganza the devil, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow, along with a talking cat and an expert assassin. This riotous band succeed in fooling an entire population of people who persistently deny the devil’s existence, even as they are confronted with the diabolic results of a magic act gone wrong. The devil’s project soon becomes involved with The Master, a man who has turned his back on his former life and sought sanctuary in a lunatic asylum, and his former lover, Margarita.A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita has been translated into more than twentylanguages. Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel is now considered one of the seminal works of twentieth-century Russian literature. By turns acidly satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, this story constantly surprises and entertains.Trade ReviewFunny and frightening * London Review of Books *Incandescent . . . one of those novels that, even in translation, make you feel that not one word could have been written differently . . . it has too many achievements to list, but the way it keeps faith in love and art even in moments of unspeakable humiliation and cruelty must be the greatest * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAlso known as Journey to the West, Wu Ch''êng-ên''s Monkey is one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature, translated by Arthur Waley in Penguin Classics. Monkey depicts the adventures of Prince Tripitaka, a young Buddhist priest on a dangerous pilgrimage to India to retrieve sacred scriptures accompanied by his three unruly disciples: the greedy pig creature Pipsy, the river monster Sandy - and Monkey. Hatched from a stone egg and given the secrets of heaven and earth, the irrepressible trickster Monkey can ride on the clouds, become invisible and transform into other shapes - skills that prove very useful when the four travellers come up against the dragons, bandits, demons and evil wizards that threaten to prevent them in their quest. Wu Ch''êng-ên wrote Monkey in the mid-sixteenth century, adding his own distinctive style to an ancient Chinese legend, and in so doing created a dazzling combination of nonsense with profundity,

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Book Synopsis When you are ready, seek, and you shall find. It is your gift. Gwen Harper left Pendleford thirteen years ago and hasn’t looked back. Until an inheritance throws her into the mystical world she thought she’d escaped. Confronted with her great-aunt’s legacy, Gwen must finally face up to her past.

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Book SynopsisRoused by a single drop of blood, Rosie Daniels wakes up to the chilling realisation that her husband is going to kill her. And she takes flight - with his credit card. Alone in a strange city, Rosie begins to build a new life: she meets Bill and she finds an odd junk shop painting, ''Rose Madder'', which strangely seems to want her as much as she wants it. But it''s hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder. Norman is a corrupt cop with the instincts of a predator. A man almost mythic in his monstrosity. For Rosie to survive, she must enter the myth and become a person she never knew she could be - Rose Madder.Because Norman is getting close. Rosie can feel how close he is getting . . .Trade ReviewRelentlessly paced and brilliantly orchestrated . . . one of King's most engrossing and topical * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *A superb suspense novel * THE SUNDAY TIMES *Rousing . . . vivid and sensitive * THE NEW YORK TIMES *

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Book SynopsisIn a small Aboriginal town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both ecological disaster and a gathering of the ancestors, Cause Man Steel is chasing a mad vision: a national donkey transport scheme that will guarantee his people’s independence forever. He finds, however, as he bundles feral donkeys into his Ford Falcon and dumps them en masse in the cemetery, that not all of Praiseworthy agrees. Outrage ferments at his desecration of traditional land, while Cause’s wife Dance seeks refuge with butterflies and dreams of moving their family to China. Bad feelings reach fever pitch when citizens catch wind of the suicide of Aboriginal Sovereignty, Cause’s eldest son. All are distraught – all, that is, except eight-year-old Tommyhawk Steel, who, with his brother gone, gleefully pursues his dream of becoming white and powerful. Told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned, Praiseworthy is a marvel of explosive sentences, a shock to allegory, an outraged cry against oppression, and a biting satire for the end of days.y for which Alexis Wright has become renowned.Trade Review'The great Moana Jackson declared the doctrine of discovery a legal fiction. In Praiseworthy, farce, satire, tragedy, the colloquial, myth, pun, repetition, elegy, and the epic expose the absurdity of the doctrine and the everyday lies, habits and horrors keeping it in place. Praiseworthy is simply astonishing.' Judges of the 2023 Queensland Award for Literary Fiction ---- 'I'm awed by the range, experiment and political intelligence of Alexis Wright's work. She is vital on the subject of land and people.' Robert Macfarlane, New York Times Book Review ---- 'Monumental. Praiseworthy blew me away. If you think you know what assimilation is, you should read Praiseworthy and think again.' Tony Hughes-d'Aeth, Australian Book Review ---- ‘Linguistically commodious, panoramically plotted, Praiseworthy’s 700-plus-page scale would have given Henry James a heart attack: it is a baggy monster, and more monstrous than most. Its vision is dark, humour tar-black, narration irrepressible, language roiling and rococo. All life, as in Balzac, is here … Wright gives us the living and the dead, material and non-material, Country and people; all the masters dreamed of, and all they neglected to; the entire human (and non-human) comedy … Long after the lesser concerns of contemporary fiction have ceased to matter, the work of Alexis Wright will remain.’ Declan Fry, The Guardian ---- 'The rich interrelations of ancestral spirits, larger-than-life characters, and Country all derive from the Aboriginal traditions of storytelling. But there are also signs of literary influence from every compass point on the map, including, most notably, the surrealism and magic realism of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.' Jack Cameron Stanton, The Age ---- 'Praiseworthy is Alexis Wright's most formidable act of imaginative synthesis yet . . . A hero's journey for an age of global warming, a devastating story of young love caught between two laws, and an extended elegy and ode to Aboriginal law and sovereignty.' Jane Gleeson-White, The Conversation

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Book Synopsis**Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2023** **Shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize** **Chosen as a book of the year 2023 by The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and New Statesman** ‘An epic the north has long deserved’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘A sensational piece of storytelling … A singular and significant achievement’ GUARDIAN ‘Marvellous, artful, enchanted’ DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.Trade ReviewIt’s been a while since I’ve reacted as emotionally to a novel ... An epic the north has long deserved: ambitious, dreamy, earthy, dark, welcoming and not ... There are readers like me who will not just enjoy this book but feel deeply grateful for its existence * FINANCIAL TIMES *A millennium-spanning polyphonic flight through history ... Myers creates characters and voices so absorbing that when the timeline jumps forward you are reluctant to leave them, only for the next protagonist to become the centre of your world until it is time to move on again. A phenomenal achievement, Cuddy is by some distance my novel of 2023 * NEW EUROPEAN *A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape * GUARDIAN, Best books of the year *This bold, experimental novel, which uses poetry as much as prose, won this year’s Goldsmiths prize * THE TIMES, Books of the Year *A polyphonic hymn to a very specific landscape and its people. At the same time, it deepens his standing as an arresting chronicler of a broader, more mysterious seam of ancient folklore that unites the history of these isles as it’s rarely taught * OBSERVER *A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape. * GUARDIAN, Books of the Year 2023 *A genre-blending, millennia-straddling history ... A bold story about faith and nationhood that upends preconceptions of the ’’historical novel” * NEW STATESMAN, Books of the Year *Myers’ playful, form- and genre-bending tale about St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ... The author is known for his grasp of language and elegiac take on history and the natural world – all of which are put to excellent use in a novel that spans poetry, prose, historical accounts and more * MARIE CLAIRE, The best books of 2023 *A dizzyingly inventive retelling of St Cuthbert’s life * TELEGRAPH, Books of the Year *Myers is maturing into a serious writer rather than just a sombre one. Cuddy is an ambitious and accomplished novel that shows it’s not — necessarily — grim up north * THE TIMES *A bold novel that whirls us through a dizzying range of poetic and prosaic styles * Daily Telegraph, The 75 best books for summer 2023 *One of the best books I have ever read, easily top 5 status … Innovative, clever, engaging and fresh – and my book of the year * NEW WRITING NORTH, What we're reading 2023 *There’s much to enjoy in the novel’s linguistic beauty ... Cuddy explores the endurance of goodness and grace * SPECTATOR *A sensational piece of storytelling … The symbiosis of poetry and story, of knowledge and deep love, marks out Cuddy as a singular and significant achievement * GUARDIAN *Five atmospheric episodes – and an interlude – illustrate the mystical hold that Cuthbert has exerted over the north * STRONG WORDS, Books of the Year *Mesmerising, lyrical ... Stands in a genre of its own ... Serves as a reminder that we are but custodians of a world we inherited. Cuddy cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers * I NEWS *Myers traces … the manifold threads of history to remarkable effect * IRISH TIMES *The cathedral is a wonder … in its elegance and grotesquery, its shimmering and its solidity, Myers captures it accurately. Indeed, that could be a description of his book * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY *As a work of literature and as a tribute to a man and his region, it will endure * INDEPENDENT.CO.UK *Marvellous, artful, enchanted ... With power and pathos, this novel follows the cult of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne from the 7th century to the present day * DAILY TELEGRAPH *One of the best books I have ever read -- TESS DENMAN-CLEAVERBrave, bold and brilliantly alive, Cuddy calls forth the voices and the places of the north in a kaleidoscopic portrait through time. Myers at his best: dark, sharp, earthy and superbly funny. Cuddy isn’t a novel, it’s an invocation -- ROB COWEN, author of Common GroundSpare, poetic, haunting, tenderly observed ... Myers is a natural storyteller ... [with] a poetic sensibility, and as a writer he enjoys the snap and crunch of words, and the way they can summon an atmosphere * PROSPECT *A wonder ... An accomplished and very moving novel * SCOTSMAN *Incorporates poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other * NORTHERN LIFE *Myers employs competing voices and different literary styles to pull together an ephemeral yet somehow tangible narrative that is both sweeping in its history and arresting in its style * YORKSHIRE LIFE *Myers chisels a cohesive and engaging portrait of a place laden with history * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *An absorbingly beautiful book ... There aren't many writers as attuned to the present state of this country and the history and landscape that made it as Myers, who succeeds repeatedly in harnessing time with compassion, kindness and a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era * NEW EUROPEAN *Cuddy is a work of art. Ben Myers has pulled off a kind of magic trick ... Daring, expansive and deeply satisfying, Cuddy is a truly original piece of writing which weaves a special kind of magic. I was left completely spellbound. I loved every minute of this dazzling and deeply original novel -- CLOVER STROUD, author of The Red of My BloodOnce again Ben Myers has built another time machine in words and I thoroughly enjoyed being humped around early medieval northern England alongside St Cuthbert's holy corpse via centuries of fisticuffs and up Durham Cathedrals tower to a sensitive take on issues of our own time. Most of all I appreciated how Myers explores faith and belief without the usual eyeroll and cynicism of our excessively secular age – I feel St Cuthbert's monks and masons looking down through history with a certain sense of pride -- LUKE TURNER, author of Out of the WoodsCuddy is another milestone marking Myers’ versatility as a writer * BUZZ *Rich, rewarding, dark and comic, Cuddy is, like that cathedral, a magnificent construction * BUZZMAG *To be able to move from the Dark Ages, to the Middle Ages, to the Victorian Era to Modern Times and so ably capture the zeitgeist of each is a rare feat of imagination -- GABRIELLE DRAKEPraise for Benjamin Myers: A writer of extraordinary and incandescent talent -- ALEX PRESTONA genre-melding experimental novel * GUARDIAN, Best Books of 2023 *Here is a strong, spiritual writer who sees and loves every dewdrop, old oak, soft little animal and buried sword, and offers them up to us like the precious treasures they are * THE TIMES *No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Benjamin Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art -- WENDY ERSKINEOne of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation * DAILY MAIL *No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Ben Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art -- WENDY ERSKINEShot through with a romantic, even mystical radicalism of the kind that William Blake would have approved of * DAILY TELEGRAPH *What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous -- MAX PORTERBenjamin Myers is fast making the contested boundary between history and folklore his own -- JOHN MITCHINSONA powerful new voice * GUARDIAN *Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our times -- DAVID PEACEA draft of cool, clear water ... He’s such a good and brave writer * MONOCLE *Benjamin Myers is fast making the contested boundary between history and folklore his own -- JOHN MITCHINSONPowerful and moving * LITERARY REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisA literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita is considered a masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor, and features an introduction by Orlando Figes.In Mikhail Bulgakov's imaginative extravaganza, Satan, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow in the 1930s with his riotous band, which includes a talking cat and an expert assassin. This visit has several aims, one of which concerns the fate of the Master, an author who has written a novel about Pontius Pilate and is now in a mental hospital. By turns satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, The Master and Margarita constantly surprises and entertains as the action switches back and forth between twentieth-century Moscow and first-century Jerusalem.Trade ReviewFunny and frightening * London Review of Books *Incandescent . . . One of those novels that, even in translation, make you feel that not one word could have been written differently . . . It has too many achievements to list, but the way it keeps faith in love and art even in moments of unspeakable humiliation and cruelty must be the greatest * New York Times *It had everything: Satan and a wise-cracking cat, Jesus as a wise simpleton, doomed love, hints of sex, blasphemy -- Jonathan Grimwood * Independent *I read it as a book about how to go on living when your spirit is broken -- Viv Groskop * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisA BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB CHOICESHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARDLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARDUnintentional psychic Maud Drennan arrives to look after Cathal Flood, a belligerent man hiding in his filthy, cat-filled home.Her job is simple: clear the rubbish, take care of the patient. But the once-grand house has more to reveal than simply its rooms. There is a secret here, and whether she likes it or not, Maud may be the one to finally uncover what has previously been kept hidden . . .* In the US, this book is published under the title Mr Flood's Last ResortTrade ReviewThis dark but comical tale of haunting and hoarding ensnares . . . [Kidd's] imagination is vivid . . . Brilliant * * The Times * *A lyrical gothic detective saga . . . Wonderfully enigmatic and complex . . . [Kidd] is a writer with a poet's skill of balancing clarity and inventive flair -- ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY * * Guardian * *A brilliantly imaginative tale of secrets and lies, grief and guilt . . . Kidd's writing is gorgeous, the story is enthralling and emotions are sorrowfully raw and vivid in this funny, dark and original literary mystery * * Sunday Express, S Magazine * *Excellent . . . The observations are sharp and humorous . . . with pages of inventive and colourful description . . . The Hoarder is a strong follow-up from a very talented writer who seems to be honing her skills * * Sunday Times * *An arresting talent . . . Executed with irresistible panache, Kidd's novel is as full to the brim with the fantastic as Cathal's Gothic lair is with junk . . . A galloping yarn that entertains even as it disturbs * * Daily Mail * *Superb . . . Kidd writes brilliantly . . . A rather impressive second novel, whose imaginative prowess marks its author as one to watch -- JOHN BOYNE * * Irish Times * *Eerie, engrossing . . . The strong story and compelling characters shine through . . . utterly grips -- Anita Sethi * * Observer * *Engaging and beautifully judged . . . delivered with a lightness of touch and a sensibility that brings all the characters to life fully and believably . . . Excellent -- Doug Johnstone * * The Big Issue * *Riveting . . . Kidd's intelligent plotting and structure caper to a satisfying resolution: this is a twisting, fully original slice of literary horror, and one not to be missed * * Financial Times * *I tore through Kidd's debut, Himself, and I'm finding more of the same beautiful, funny and dark twistiness here. It reads like a grown up fairy tale, with none of the Disneyfied touches -- KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

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Book SynopsisThe first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl's fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar's cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger. Khadija Abdalla Bajaber's debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2023 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE New Yorker • Best Books of 2022 An award-winning international sensation—with a second-act dystopian twist—Time Shelter is a tour de force set in a world clamoring for the past before it forgets.Trade Review"In this antic fantasy of European politics, narrated by a fictionalized version of the author, an enigmatic friend of his designs 'a clinic of the past,' which soothes Alzheimer’s patients with environments from a time they can still remember.... 'History is still news,' Gospodinov writes, cunningly drawing attention to the violence that the past wreaks on the present." -- New Yorker, "Best Books of 2022""The morality of artificially returning people to the past, and the broader question of whether this truly brings solace — whether indulgence in nostalgia is curative or pernicious — is the central question of Georgi Gospodinov’s newly translated novel… Adroit execution of such wordplay is a testament to the talent of the novel’s translator, Angela Rodel. [Gospodinov] is sympathetic to the poignancy of things from before — obsolete objects, old brands of coffee, the skipping of antique records — but rebuffs the scapegoats of globalism, immigration and modernization that supposedly killed them off; we are all complicit in the destruction of history, and going backward can only mean intolerance and the exaltation of traditionalist kitsch. It’s impossible, when reading all this, not to think of the reactionary sentiments behind Brexit and MAGA and even Putin’s Greater Russia irredentism, but Gospodinov is too delicate to resort to crude political satire.… Touching and intelligent." -- Adrian Nathan West - New York Times Book Review"Mr. Gospodinov, one of Bulgaria’s most popular contemporary writers, is a nostalgia artist. In the manner of Orhan Pamuk and Andreï Makine, his books are preoccupied with memory, its ambiguous pleasures and its wistful, melancholy attraction....This difficult but rewarding novel concludes with an image of Europe brought to the brink of renewed conflict—an abstraction that recent events have imbued with the terrible force of reality." -- Sam Sacks - Wall Street Journal"A chronicle of time itself: this is the ambitious task undertaken by Georgi Gospodinov, Bulgaria’s greatest living writer and annalist of an entire nation’s endless complaints and missed chances, in his Strega Prize–winning novel Time Shelter.... Finished in Berlin just as COVID was on the verge of sweeping through Europe, the novel is at times unnervingly prescient as it issues warnings against the perils of infection — physical, political, even metaphysical.... A poet at heart, Gospodinov can also write a novel in a single sentence: ‘The past is my home country….’ He uses the absurdities of the very specific universe of Bulgarian pain, of Bulgarian provincial poverty, to unveil deep wounds…. Angela Rodel, the most prolific and accomplished translator of Bulgarian literature into English, carries over Gospodinov’s grand, flowing Bulgarian sentences… into vivid English…. Rodel is part of a grouping of extraordinary women translators working to preserve linguistic diversity.... who are today producing and exporting some of the most compelling and interesting contemporary literature from Bulgaria." -- Isadora Angel - Astra"[An] antic fantasy of European politics.... 'History is still news,' Gospodinov writes, cunningly drawing attention to the violence that the past wreaks on the present." -- The New Yorker"Gospodinov’s digressive, philosophical novel is less a work of realist literature than an allegory about the perils of looking backward and attempting to make Switzerland (or Sweden or Germany...) great again . . . translator Rodel keeps the narrator’s wry voice consistent . . . And in its brisker latter chapters, the story achieves a pleasurably Borges-ian strangeness while sending a warning signal about how memory can be glitch-y and dangerous . . . An ambitious, quirky, time-folding yarn." -- Kirkus Reviews"A radical new therapy tests the power of nostalgia in the electric and fantastical latest from Gospodinov (The Physics of Sorrow).The clever prose sells the zany premise and imbues it with poignant longing: 'Everything happens years after it has happened.... Most likely 1939 did not exist in 1939, there were just mornings when you woke up with a headache, uncertain and afraid.' Thought-provoking and laced with potent satire, this deserves a spot next to Kafka." -- Publishers Weekly"The elegant translation and the short, lyrical chapters in this dystopian tale offer a poignant ode to the dual tragedies of personal and universal memory loss." -- Lucy Lockley - Booklist

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Book SynopsisINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! A Studio Ghibli-esque work of Japanese translation “that lays bare the anxieties and desperation—and the small triumphs—of adolescence” (Locus), for fans of Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven.Seven students find unusual common ground in this warm, puzzle-like Japanese bestseller laced with gentle fantasy and compassionate insight.Bullied to the point of dropping out of school, Kokoro’s days blur together as she hides in her bedroom, unable to face her family or friends. As she spirals into despair, her mirror begins to shine; with a touch, Kokoro is pulled from her lonely life into a resplendent, bizarre fairytale castle guarded by a strange girl in a wolf mask. Six other students have been brought to the castle, and soon this marvelous refuge becomes their playground. The castle has a hidden room that can grant a single wish, but there are rules to be followed, and breaking them will have dire consequences. As Kokoro and her new acquaintances spend more time in their new sanctuary, they begin to unlock the castle’s secrets and, tentatively, each other’s. Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a mesmerizing, heart-warming novel about the unexpected rewards of embracing human connection.Trade Review★ “This sweet, kindhearted, and deeply sympathetic magical realist novel about middle school dropouts pulling each other back from the brink will resonate with readers of all ages.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review“[A] moving psychological journey . . . blazingly honest . . . Tsujimura is a master at projecting these young anxieties onto the page, offering hints and shadows and silhouettes of what the world might be like once we finally grow up, and how difficult it is to take that first step.” —Tor.com“A gorgeous, wrenching fantasy that lays bare the anxieties and desperation – as well as small triumphs – of adolescence.” —Locus“In a world where there is so much untruth, so much altered reality, so many superficial existences forming even more superficial relationships, this book turns back the clock and reminds us of what is real, and what truly matters: compassion and kindness, the strength in our bonds, and how we can find those right beside us.” —The Yorkshire Times“A moving, reflective and surprising novel . . . Anyone who has ever struggled with feeling isolated, had difficulties at school, or had mental health struggles, will find this novel to be a cleansing balm.” —Culturefly“[A] respectful, moving novel about teenage bullying in the Tokyo suburbs . . . Tsujimura shows how easily misunderstandings and miscommunications can escalate, and treats everyone—even the bullies—with nuance.” —The Japan Times“An innovative and tender blend of social commentary and magical realism.” —The Japan Society Review “Genuinely affecting . . . a story about collaboration, empathy and sharing truths, a modern, all-ages fairy tale that should appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Studio Ghibli animations.” —The Financial Times“Hopeful and heartbreakingly sweet without ever being saccharine, this character-focused tale of finding unexpected community unfolds remarkably gently, eschewing a typical Western plot structure. Readers will leave with their faith in humanity restored.” —Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of 2022”“Part Miyazaki fairytale, part teen romance, it’s strange and beautiful – imagine the offspring of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and The Virgin Suicides.” —The Guardian

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Book SynopsisToshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. He formerly produced, directed and wrote for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song and Family Time. The novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is adapted from a 1110 Productions play by Kawaguchi, which won the 10th Suginami Drama Festival grand prize. It was followed by Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye and Before We Forget Kindness.Trade ReviewThe third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Having read the first two, we can attest it will be just the thing to curl up with on a rainy afternoon. * Sheerluxe *

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Book SynopsisBoy, Snow, Bird is a haunting and beautiful retelling of the Snow White myth, from author of the award-winning White is for Witching.Trade ReviewA spellbinding, wholly original look at families and the secrets they keep . . . An absolutely amazing and absorbing read * Marie Claire *Gloriously unsettling . . . it's clearly the book she's been waiting for . . . the greatest joy of reading Oyeyemi will always be style: jagged and capricious at moments, lush and rippled at others, always singular, like the voice-over of a fever dream. * New York Times *Boy, Snow, Bird is a haunting, tender portrait of three women from one of our generation's most talented literary writers * Stylist *Boy, Snow, Bird is among my favorite new releases for this year already. A retelling of the Snow White fairy-tale that focuses on race, it's a sensitive, intelligent treatment of a subject most fiction still sidesteps. Fans of Adichie's Americanah who also like a little fantasy in their coffee will be enchanted, I think. * Flavorwire *You don't want to leave Boy, Snow, Bird . . . a joy; the kind of fiction where you can wallow in the language and thrill at her inventiveness. * Emerald Street *One of my favourite books this year is Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. It is a modern version of the Snow White fairy tale and challenges the origins of meaning. -- Jenni Fagan * The Herald *Vibrant, funny and poignant * Big Issue *Striking, shimmering fiction . . . Boy, Snow, Bird is an intoxicatingly immersive riff on the myth of the evil stepmother * Metro *Oyeyemi writes beautiful prose, can adopt a sassy American idiom with assurance and produces sentences that no one else would think of . . . Boy's is a unique narrative voice * The Times *An extraordinary modern fairy tale, with huge international buzz * Red magazine *A powerful intertwining of fairytale and reality . . . Boy, Snow and Bird are brilliant creation, and through these three appealing and mysterious characters Oyeyemi examines female identity in all its delightful and terrifying complexity . . . Oyeyemi is a master of language; her writing is beautiful and precise, and her ability to hide deep meaning in unassuming words is breathtaking. This is a bewitching book, in every way. * The List *Oyeyemi is the cleverest in the land * Washington Post *'Riveting, brilliant and emotionally rich . . . Dense with fully realized characters, startling images, original observations and revelatory truths, this masterpiece engages the reader's heart and mind as it captures both the complexities of racial and gender identity in the 20th century and the more intimate complexities of love in all its guises. * Kirkus *Helen Oyeyemi consolidates her position as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2013 with the publication of her fifth novel, a story about the perception and power of appearances and race, and their potential destructiveness . . . An enchanting and captivating book. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84 In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art—as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby—Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers

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Book SynopsisWhen a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in thismoving, subversive national bestselling debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology. Angrboda?s story begins where most witches'' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love. Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin?s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life?and possibly all of existence?is in danger. With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she?ll accept the fate that she?s foreseen for her beloved family...or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.

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Book SynopsisThis is a modern-day adventure story featuring Paulo’s supernatural encounter with angels – who appear as warrior women and travel through the Mojave desert on their motorbikes.Trade Review‘Coelho’s writing is beautifully poetic but his message is what counts… he gives me hope and puts a smile on my face.’DAILY EXPRESS ‘One of the few to deserve the term“publishing phenomenon”’INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ‘His books have had a life-enhancing impact on millions of people.’THE TIMES

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Book SynopsisIan McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award; The Cement Garden; Enduring Love; Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize; Atonement; Saturday; On Chesil Beach; Solar; Sweet Tooth; The Children Act; and Nutshell, which was a Number One bestseller. Atonement and Enduring Love have both been turned into award-winning films, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach are in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation of The Child in Time.Trade ReviewExhilarating * Independent *Ian McEwan writes stories of exquisite precision and clarity * Evening Standard *As far-fetched and funny as anything by Roald Dahl * Vogue *Perfectly judged, scary, poignant, meaningful; he makes it look easy, but this is brilliantly achieved * Guardian *These stories are so good, as acute about childhood preoccupations, and at times as disturbing as you would expect * Harpers & Queen *

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Book Synopsis A spellbinding story from the Sunday Times-bestselling author of The Girl of Ink & Stars, winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. 'A story bursting with imagination, sparkle and tender heart ... I adored it!' JASBINDER BILAN 'Both souful poetry and thrilling adventure; powerful and delicate, chilling and comforting' SOPHIE ANDERSON 'Ripping propulsive plot, gorgeous imagery, floating fairytale prose ... absolutely loved it' ROSS MONTGOMERY In an Italian city ravaged by plague, Sofia's mother carves beautiful mementoes from the bones of loved ones. But one day, she doesn't return home. Did her work lead her into danger? Sofia and her little brother Ermin are sent to the convent orphanage but soon escape, led by an enigmatic new friend and their pet crow, Corvith. Together they cross the city underground, following clues in bones up to the towers of Siena, where - circled by magpies - the children find the terrible truth ... The fourth children's novel by Times number one bestselling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave, winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year From the author of The Island at the End of Everything, The Way Past Winter, Julia and the Shark and The Mercies - chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club A darkly beautiful historical novel featuring Kiran's trademark magical realism and an enthralling mystery, presented as a gorgeous flapped paperback with stunning cover foil Longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards 2021

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Book SynopsisPRESENT. PAST. SPELLBOUND. Sybil and Blake Gregory live a well-ordered, predictable Manhattan life — she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high-tech investments — raising their teenagers Andrew and Caroline and six-year-old Charlie. But when Blake is offered a dream job as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco, he accepts it, without consulting his wife, and buys a magnificent, historic mansion as their new home in Pacific Heights.Past and present collide at their elegant mansion, when they meet the large and lively family who lived there a century ago. All long dead but very much alive in spirit—visible to the Gregorys and no one else. Within these enchanted rooms, it is at once 1917 and a century later. Have the Gregorys been given a perfect gift; beloved friends, a chance to relive the past and the wisdom and grace to shape the future?

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Book SynopsisThe stories collected in What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another.The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.Trade ReviewOyeyemi's imagination is impressive and vast . . . Her ability to conceive her stories on such a grand scale is what makes her work so magnetic, sucking the reader into any number of netherworlds. Perhaps it's this ability to consume and be consumed that keeps Oyeyemi constantly, and prolifically, at work. * Guardian *Transcendent . . . the pleasurable awareness of a story being told courses through the collection like electricity . . . Oyeyemi expertly melds the everyday, the fantastic and the eternal . . . with each story I had the delightful and rare experience of being utterly surprised . . . Oyeyemi has created a universe that dazzles and wounds * New York Times *Alluring . . . the style and peculiar authority of this exceptional young writer will carry you carefully through thelabyrinth and into a new and exciting literary landscape . . . If you are seduced by magical realism - particularly the novels of Allende and Marquez - you will savour Oyeyemi's inventive tales. * Daily Mail *Wild, luscious and startling . . . Oyeyemi glides seamlessly across time, space and genre . . . Oyeyemi's observations are as sharp as they are humorous. But she is equally at home in a more lyrical mode, her writing warm and sensuous . . . these gorgeously baroque stories are full of humour, tenderness, wisdom and strange delights -- Rebecca Abrams * Financial Times *Enchanting . . . the breadth of Oyeyemi's imagination is impressive, teetering, as ever, on the edge of magical realism. Her use of fairytales, folklore and ghost stories is distinctly reminiscent of the work ofAngela Carter . . . inviting, luscious prose. -- Lucy Scholes * Guardian *Curious, erotic, by turns dark and humorous; like the many secrets these stories reveal, Helen Oyeyemi's imagination is ripe to be unlocked, revelled in and treasured. * Literary Review *Ethereal beauty and unexpected humour * Independent on Sunday *Boasts ambitious stories written masterfully by an adventurous author, and is another example of Oyeyemi's skill at finding inspiration in the smallest and most ephemeral details. * New York Times Live *What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours illustrates the necessity and power of private, written confessions. * New Yorker *This is a truly exceptional work of fiction, by a writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary. -- Stuart Evers * Independent *Oyeyemi's fireworks illuminate a world in which other people are always more mysterious and strange than we might think * Spectator *[Oyeyemi] has come up with something unique, keeping pace with a modern mixed-up world * Daily Telegraph *Oyeyemi takes the classic folk tale on a sometimes dark, often erotic, always fantastic, journey. The book itself is a thing of beauty, too. * Pool *Oyeyemi captures the off-kilter fairy-tale magic of her 2014 masterwork, Boy, Snow, Bird . . . [she] writes with mastery, sometimes keeping her prose sparse and declarative only to unleash a bounty of description and humor a sentence later. * Entertainment Weekly *Beautifully broken tales with wonderfully flawed characters . . . a fascinating glimpse into a world built on our fears, hopes and desires . . . articulating such disorder proves Oyeyemi as the painstakingly masterful writer that she is. * Stylist *The best teller of fairy tales we've got . . . [Oyeyemi's] first collection of short stories is obviously a bit of a treat . . . allowing for more invention, more sexiness and more beautiful sentences that lead you round the corner to something surprising . . . brilliant * Emerald Street *Witty and tender . . . simple and beautiful . . . hers is a rare talent -- Kate Clanchy * Guardian *These short stories are pure, sensuous enjoyment, packed with colour and passion * Times *A collection of short stories, which will suck the reader into Oyeyeymi's wild and surreal imagination. * Red Magazine *Occasionally gothic, sometimes fantastical, always captivating. * Radio Times *Oyeyemi has created a universe that dazzles and wounds. * Scotland on Sunday *It is Oyeyemi's boundless inventiveness which drives these stories . . . stylistically bold, fantastical, disorientating and ruthlessly defying convention. Oyeyemi, one of the Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2013, now effortlessly outpaces most of her peers. In this short fiction we can discern hints of Angela Carter and hear notes of Aimee Bender but on the whole what rings out is Oyeyemi's singular, magical voice. * National *Her arguments, about identity, about sexuality, are more fluid than [Angela] Carter's . . . Reading What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is like settling into a rollercoaster: you must abandon yourself * New Statesman *What is Not Yours is Not Yours is like a charmed set of Russian dolls: spellbound, we are gripped by the seamlessly joined stories unfolding from-and into-one another, as we wait for Oyeyemi to reach for her next bit of magic. * Londonist *Dizzying, baffling, and beguiling . . . unruly in the best way, drawing on pre-modern modes of story-telling (fairy tales, Boccaccio, The Arabian Nights) to show they've lost none of their power in the present * Vulture *Imaginative, playful and entirely unique, this collection of short stories is magical realism at its finest * Time Out (US) *The stories in this collection are poetic and puzzling . . . get ready to tumble through the doors of this beautifully challenging and satisfying collection * NPR *

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Book Synopsis2018 NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION''S 5 UNDER 35 HONOREEA fevered, lyrical debut about two young women drawn into an ever-intensifying friendship set against the stark, haunted landscape of the Sonoran desert and the ecstatic frenzy of New York City.Ahlam, the daughter of a Palestinian refugee and his Israeli wife, grows up in the arid lands of desert suburbia outside of Phoenix. In a stark landscape where coyotes prowl and mysterious lights occasionally pass through the nighttime sky, Ahlam’s imagination reigns. She battles chronic fever dreams and isolation. When she meets her tempestuous counterpart Laura, the two fall into infatuated partnership, experimenting with drugs and sex and boys, and watching helplessly as a series of mysterious deaths claim high school classmates.The girls flee their pasts for New York City, but as their emotional bond heightens, the intensity of their lives becomes unbearable. In search of love, ecstasy, oblivion, and belonging, Ahlam and Laura’s drive to outrun the ghosts of home threatens to undo them altogether.

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