Narrative theme: coming of age

Book SynopsisIn 1933, Bella Stuart leaves her quiet London life to move to Italy to tutor the child of a beautiful Jewish heiress and an elderly Italian aristocrat. Living at the family's summer home, Bella's reserve softens as she comes to love her young charge, and find friendship with Maestro Edward, his enigmatic music teacher.But as the decade draws to an end and fascism tightens its grip on Europe, the fact that Alec is Jewish places his life in grave danger. Bella and Edward take the boy on a terrifying train journey out of Italy - one they have no reason to believe any of them will survive...Trade Review"'A wrenchingly affecting love story' Joseph O'Connor, Guardian 'This is a big, bold, remarkably assured narrative... A powerfully accomplished work of art.' Joseph O'Connor, Guardian 'The best book of the year... Extraordinary' Glasgow Herald 'Beautiful and heartbreaking' Independent on Sunday 'A beautifully written novel...both impressive and enjoyable... sensual and accurate... You can feel the light and heat of Italy as you read... A significant achievement that confirms Hickey's status as a major talent.' Mail on Sunday (****) 'Christine Dwyer Hickey's novels know how the slings and arrows of fortune leave scars long after their initial impact... A complex tale of courage and resilience.' Irish Independent"

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Book Synopsis'I was running on happily because it was so good to be able to watch him under cover of my own talk, knowing exactly now what I wanted of him - mind, body, everything' Lallie is one of four children of the eccentric, quintessentially English Rush family. Boating, bird watching and inter-family rivalry are the focus of life in their village - Pin Mill, on the Suffolk marshes. Brought up on fair play and the 'family sense of humour' the Rush children soon learn to fend for themselves - on water and on dry land. We watch as Lallie grows to adulthood; loving and hating her 'ordinary' family, carving a space for herself in the shadow of her beautiful sister Margaret, who claims the lion's share of everything. But Lallie is special too, clear, clear-sighted, sexually aware. Just as well, for to keep the man she loves she faces the biggest family fight of all...

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Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. S. BYATT'She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers' OBSERVER' . . . a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants' XAN BROOKS, GUARDIAN 'Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent' ROBERT SLAYTON, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS'During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood . . . His mind was full of her that day. He made me see her again, feel her presence, revived all my old affection for her'My Antonia is the unforgettable story of an immigrant woman's life on the Nebraska plains, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend, Jim Burden. The beautiful, free-spirited, wild-eyed girl captured Jim's imagination long ago and haunts him still, embodying for him the elemental spirit of the American frontier.In this powerful and astonishing novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction.Trade ReviewShe is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers * Observer *In fact it's one of the warmest, most quietly rousing books that I know; a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants who came across the ocean to start afresh in the golden west -- Xan Brooks * Guardian *Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent -- Robert Slayton * Los Angeles Review of Books *Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragicHer voice, laconical and richly sensuous, sings out with a note of unequivocal love for the people she is setting down on the page

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Book SynopsisNanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.Trade ReviewFrost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail -- Hermione Lee * Observer *Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves -- Carol ShieldsIntense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... IT is not the only school story to be a classic; but I can think of no other that is a work of art * Elizabeth Bowen *A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul -- Selina HastingsA small masterpiece, the compelling and passionate story of young girls at a repressive religious school, told with such lyricism and elegant economy, such subtle understanding -- Tessa Hadley

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ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NOVELS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 'This novel is a packet of surprises as we have no idea what's going to happen next' GUARDIAN 'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON 'Devilishly funny and academically solid: delicious mixture' MAYA ANGELOU'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITHWhen, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams - who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.With a cover design by Harlem renaissance artist, Lois Mailou Jones

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Book Synopsis'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?Trade ReviewReaders turn to it again and again for its jokes, which are very funny and remain so after a dozen readings -- Rachel Cooke * Guardian *A champagne cocktail . . . Rich, invigorating, and deceptively simple to the taste . . . One falls for Sally Jay Gorce from a great height from the first sentence * Observer *As delightful and delicate an examination of how it is to be twenty and in love and in Paris as I've ever read * Sunday Times *I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm)For a highly likeable and amusing narrator, who throws herself into Parisian life. A cult classic to reconnect me with France and feed my love of sharp observational humour . . . a hedonistic whirlwind in Paris and the South of France, pulled along by its whip-smart American heroine, Sally Jay Gore (out of the way, Emily In Paris). This is someone I am desperate to drink Pernod with. Where life has felt so constrained, this was such a liberating read -- Emma Reed * Daily Telegraph *Scandalous and entertaining . . . Both funny and true * Evening Standard ***'A champagne cocktail ... Rich, invigorating, and deceptively simple to the taste ... One falls for Sally Jay Gorce from a great height... * OBSERVER *** 'As delightful and delicate an examination of how it is to be twenty and in love and in Paris as I've ever read’ *SUNDAY TIMES ** 'Both funny and true * EVENING STANDARD *

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Book SynopsisBy the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita'The River will make you laugh, make you cry and, in its way, change you forever' JULIE MYERSON'Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' NEW YORK TIMES'Bold, beautiful . . . everyone's appetites will be satisfied' ELLEThe River is Rumer Godden's beautiful tribute to India and childhood, made into a film by Jean Renoir. And in a preface for this novel she explains how the classic tale came to be written.Harriet is caught between two worlds: her older sister is no longer a playmate, her brother is still a little boy. And the comforting rhythm of her Indian childhood - the sounds of the jute factory, the colourful festivals that accompany each season and the eternal ebb and flow of the river on its journey to the Bay of Bengal - is about to be shattered by a tragic event.Intense, vivid, and with a dark undertow, The River is a poignant portrait of the loss of a young girl's innocence.Available with Virago Modern Classics. Trade Review[Godden's] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal -- Rosie Thomas * Guardian *Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty * New York Times *The River will make you laugh, make you cry and, in its way, change you forever -- Julie MyersonBold, beautiful . . . everyone's appetites will be satisfied * Elle *A small masterpiece, a near perfect account of how childhood has to come to an end and the serpent must enter the garden . . . In The River she celebrates a passion for the people, colours, sounds and even the smells of India . . . She evokes, in simple, flawless prose, a young girl's first encounters with jealousy, sex, guilt and death -- Anne Chisholm * Spectator *The grace, the fragility, associated with Rumer Godden, again most evident in this new book * Kirkus Reviews *So intense, so quietly demanding of attention, that at the time there will be nothing in your thoughts but a small girl in India, and the people and places that were her world * Saturday Review *Compassionate wisdom and serene understanding . . . with each book she writes Miss Godden's position as one of the finest of English novelists becomes more secure -- Orville Prescott

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN MCGAHERN PRIZE 2022This critically acclaimed debut will be a guaranteed hit with literary fiction lovers this Christmas._____________A young woman comes of age in the shadow of her family's tragic pastWhen Beth Crowe starts university, she is shadowed by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. Free to create a fresh identity for herself, she finds herself among people who adore the poetry of her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, who died tragically before she was born. She embarks on a secret relationship - and on a quest to discover the truth about Benjamin and his widow, her beloved grandmother Lydia. The quest brings her into an archive that no scholar has ever seen, and to a person who knows things about her family that nobody else knows.Holding Her Breath is a razor-sharp, moving and seriously entertaining novel about complicated love stories, ambition and grief - and a young woman coming fully into her powers.SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O'BRIEN AWARD 2022__________'A stunning debut from this new Irish talent' STELLAR'A beautiful coming-of-age story told with impressive skill and lightness of touch . . . I absolutely loved it' LOUISE O'NEILL'Whip smart observations and addictive prose' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read' RODDY DOYLE'A moving debut with a satisfying conclusion' IRISH INDEPENDENT'Brilliant, vivid - I enjoyed this book ENORMOUSLY' MARIAN KEYES'Enthralling' IMAGE'A nimble account of student life with a darkly enjoyable undercurrent of secrecy and emotional turmoil' SARA BAUME'A truly compelling read, and one I wholeheartedly recommend' BUZZ'Through the dark sky of our times, Eimear Ryan arrives like a comet, a bright talent scorching through every page' DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA, author of A Ghost in the Throat'Brilliantly realised, gripping, and moving . . . This is absolutely the real thing' KEVIN POWER'Written with a wonderful clarity and insight, Holding Her Breath lingers in the imagination. Beth's unravelling and re-ravelling is drawn with great skill and empathy. A brilliant debut' DONAL RYANTrade ReviewFunny, dark and unexpected -- Kevin Power * The Last Word with Matt Cooper *A stunning debut from this new Irish talent, as well as being an exciting page turner it's also a perfect depiction of how it feels to be lost as you embark on a new chapter of your life * Stellar *From the first sentence to the last, this is a great piece of writing - precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read -- Roddy DoyleRichly accomplished . . . a true pleasure to read -- Dermot Bolger * Business Post *A moving debut with a satisfying conclusion * Irish Independent *Through the dark sky of our times, Eimear Ryan arrives like a comet, a bright talent scorching through every page. To read this book is to feel it blaze to life. I can't stop thinking about it -- Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

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Book SynopsisPublishing in English for the very first time, Japan's beloved coming-of-age classic on what really matters in life The streets of Tokyo swarm below fifteen year-old Copper as he gazes out into the city of his childhood. Struck by the thought of the infinite people whose lives play out alongside his own, he begins to wonder, how do you live? Considering life's biggest questions for the first time, Copper turns to his dear uncle for heart-warming wisdom. As the old man guides the boy on a journey of philosophical discovery, a timeless tale unfolds, offering a poignant reflection on what it means to be human.The favourite childhood book of anime master Hayao Miyazaki, How Do You Live? is the basis a highly anticipated film from Studio Ghibli. Trade ReviewAn important, worthwhile and surprisingly of-the-moment novel ... as timely now as it was in 1937 * Asian Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for The Boy & The Heron, the major new Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli film and Golden Globe Award winner 2024A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'In How Do You Live?, Copper, our hero, and his uncle are our guides in science, in ethics, in thinking. And on the way they take us, through a school story set in Japan in 1937, to the heart of the questions we need to ask ourselves about the way we live our lives. We will experience betrayal and learn about how to make tofu. We will examine fear, and how we cannot always live up to who we think we are, and we learn about shame, and how to deal with it. We will learn about gravity and about cities, and most of all, we will learn to think about things - to, as the writer Theodore Sturgeon put it, ask the next question' - from the foreword by Neil GaimanTrade ReviewAn important, worthwhile and surprisingly of-the-moment novel ... as timely now as it was in 1937 * Asian Review of Books *Heartwarming and empathetic. . . Like the best Miyazaki films, [the] lessons are often deceptively simple, but they have implications for every person who comes of age through adversity. * Vulture *Not easily forgotten. . . Some may feel inclined to affirm an unusual truth: 'I am wiser for having read this book.' * The New York Times Book Review *How Do You Live? is that rare thing . . . It asks its young readers to think about the person they want to be, and its adult readers to reflect on the person they've become. * Wired *A quiet, introspective look at life and how to be human. * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisRandom House presents the audiobook edition of Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak. Loved THE BOOK THIEF? take a look at this!Ten years in the making the epic new novel from the acclaimed, prize-winning, bestselling author of THE BOOK THIEFHere is a story told inside out and back to front:The five Dunbar brothers are living – fighting, dreaming, loving – in the perfect squalor of a house without grownups. Today, the father who walked out on them long ago is about to walk right back in.But why has he returned, and who have the boys become in the meantime?At the helm is Matthew, cynical, poetic; Rory, forever truanting; Henry, the money-spinner; and Tommy, the pet collector who has populated the house with dysfunctional pets, including Achilles the mule and Rosy the border collie. And then there’s Clay, the quiet one, his whole young life haunted by an unspeakable act.From a grandfather, whose passion for the ancient Greeks still colours their lives, to a mother and father fell in love over a mislaid piano, to a present day, where five sons dwell in a house with no rules, BRIDGE OF CLAY is an epic portrait of how a ramshackle family, held together by stories and by love, come to unbury one boy’s tragic secret. Markus Zusak's epic new novel BRIDGE OF CLAY is due out this October 2018Trade Review[Zusak] flings his readers straight into the deep end of his new vast, teeming novel . . . Warm and heartfelt . . . This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and insight, and ultimately moving. -- Kate Saunders * Times *If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show... [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life. -- Alfred Hickling * Guardian *The wait is over. * New York Times *This vast novel is a feast of language and irony. There is sly wit on every page... it is hard not to fall a bit in love with it. -- Michael McGirr * Sydney Morning Herald *Bridge of Clay has been more than a decade in the making, and it shows: The characters are clearly loved, and the artistry of language will leave you gasping at times. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisBasil and Josephine charts the coming of age of two privileged youths from quiet Midwestern towns, Basil Duke Lee and Josephine Perry - based on Fitzgerald himself and a combination of his first love Ginevra King and his wife Zelda. As one struggles to gain the acceptance of his peers and becomes consumed by ambition, the other finds herself obsessed by teenage crushes and has to confront the pitfalls of popularity. Written for the Saturday Evening Post while the author was working on Tender Is the Night, these stories form a realistic and entertaining portrait of two young adults in the 1910s, fascinating both for the autobiographical insights they provide and the timeless satire that Fitzgerald's fiction has become synonymous with.Trade ReviewHe was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a generation. * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisMusil's limpid, psychological evocation of adolescent sexuality and its often sadistic eroticism which anticipates the carnage of both World Wars. As the nineteenth century draws to an end, young Törless is sent to a military boarding school for the sons of the nobility on the eastern outreaches of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Far from his comfortable, free-thinking bourgeois home and left to his own devices, he experiences the joy, pain and self-doubt of adolescence. He is confronted with desire and love, but also his own cruelty, as he finds himself participating in his fellow pupils’ bullying campaigns. A dark Bildungsroman which shocked its readership at the time, Robert Musil’s first novel is a fresco of psychoanalysis, philosophy, eroticism, snobbery, sado-masochism and schoolboy humour, a hothouse of alternately repressed and unchained desires that prefigure the carnage of both World Wars.

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Book SynopsisA novel of high romance and great intensity, Jane Eyre has enjoyed popular success and critical acclaim ever since its first publication in 1847. Jane's journey from a troubled childhood to independence - and her turbulent love affair with the enigmatic Mr Rochester - electrified Victorian readers with its narrative power. With characters that are as unforgettable as the story they enact, and a striking use of language that amazed the readers of the day, Jane Eyre ranks among the most influential English novels ever written.Trade ReviewOne of the most perfectly structured novels of all time. -- Sarah Waters My all-time favourite classic is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. -- Jacqueline Wilson Jane Eyre is the first fictional heroine to give women permission, as it were, to have an intense inner life. -- Joanna Trollope At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Bronte... It is the red and fitful glow of the heart's fire which illuminates her page. -- Virginia Woolf

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Book SynopsisCharles Dickens's second novel is the tale of a young orphan who faces the gruelling conditions of a Victorian workhouse before finding himself sucked into the criminal underworld of London. Teeming with unforgettable characters such as the villainous Fagin, the virtuous Nancy and the brutal Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist combines dark humour, elements of melodrama and social polemic. At once a ferocious indictment of the author's era and a timeless story of coming of age, this classic has enthralled readers and inspired countless adaptations and imitations since it was first published in 1838.Trade ReviewThe power of [Dickens] is so amazing that the reader at once becomes his captive. -- William Makepeace Thackeray

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Book SynopsisOne of Dickens's finest novels, Great Expectations chronicles the fortunes of its young protagonist Pip as he is unexpectedly endowed by a mysterious benefactor with the life of a gentleman, enabling him to escape to London from the prospect of a humble blacksmith's career in rural Kent. In the bustling, unforgiving capital he must learn for himself the pitfalls of love and wealth, and how to sort his friends from his enemies. Through the lives of its unforgettable and iconic characters - such as Magwitch, Miss Havisham and Estella - Great Expectations charts the course of an England undergoing rapid social and economic change, and tells a tale that is among the foremost classics of the English language.Trade ReviewAll his characters are my personal friends - I am constantly comparing them with living persons, and living persons with them. -- Leo Tolstoy Dickens's figures belong to poetry, like figures of Dante or Shakespeare, in that a single phrase, either by them or about them, may be enough to set them wholly before us. -- T.S. Eliot

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Book SynopsisThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer charts the escapades of a thirteen-year-old boy growing up on the banks of the Mississippi. Testing the patience of his aunt Polly, the bold and sharp-witted Tom Sawyer frequently skips school in search of excitement, and the scrapes he gets into with his friend Huckleberry Finn range from innocent japes to more serious events such as the witnessing of a murder. One of the most popular and influential American novels, Mark Twain's masterpiece is at the same time a highly entertaining romp which celebrates youth and freedom and a more profound investigation of his times, touching on themes such as race, revenge and slavery. This volume includes Tom Sawyer, Detective, a sequel and pastiche of the detective genre, first published in 1896.Trade ReviewThe father of American literature. -- William Faulkner

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Book SynopsisWidely considered one of the greatest American novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of Huck Finn and his companion, the slave Jim, as they journey down the Mississippi river after running away from Huck’s alcoholic father and Jim’s owners. As they travel, they encounter a floating house, feuding families and cunning grifters, but more importantly Huck gets to know Jim and regard him as a friend and equal, overcoming the racial prejudices of the time, in a landmark narrative which poignantly addresses the issues of growing up and finding freedom.Trade ReviewThe father of American literature. -- William Faulkner

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Book SynopsisHelen and Ridley Ambrose are preparing to set off for an exotic resort off the coast of South America on the Euphrosyne, a ship belonging to Helen’s brother-in-law Willoughby Vinrace. Travelling with them is his daughter Rachel – a quiet, unremarkable girl raised in the London suburbs by her spinster aunts after the death of her mother. Along the way other people come aboard, such as the upper-class Clarissa and Richard Dalloway. As Rachel interacts with the passengers, intrigued by their different personalities, it becomes clear that what started for her as a mere sea voyage is turning into a journey of self-discovery and a rite of passage that will change her for ever. Published in 1915 after a long period of gestation and several drafts, The Voyage Out marks Virginia Woolf’s debut as a novelist. Perhaps the most accessible of her major works, it is essential both for understanding the early development of her style and for the light it sheds on her own biography and artistic vision.

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Book SynopsisThe story of young Henry, who struggles to fulfil his ambitions to become a successful painter and is torn between the gentle Anna and the proud and sensual Judith, is one of the most outstanding and personal Bildungsroman writ¬ten in the German language. Composed between 1846 and 1855, Keller’s poetic, semi-autobiographical novel draws on the author’s own youth, artistic studies and development as a man, as well as providing a comprehensive portrait of his country and his times. Green Henry is one of the most important novels in European literature, and undoubtedly the greatest work of fiction by a Swiss writer.

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Book SynopsisA pair of novellas, set over two pivotal summers in the lives of two young men from Belfast, recall the constraints of the place where they were born and the times in which they are living. Summer on the RoadIt's 1980 and in the last summer before his A levels Mark lands a job he didn't even know he had applied for, sweeping streets for Belfast City Council. Called binman' by his schoolfriends, snooty' by his workmates, he can't imagine anything less like a holiday. Day by day, though, navigating bomb scares, punishing hangovers, broken television sets and a loving but chaotic home life, he begins to glimpse a path all his own, even if he can't see yet where exactly it is going to lead. Last Summer of the Shangri-LasThree years earlier Gem has driven his mother to the brink. She packs him off to stay with his aunt in New York during the infernal heat of the summer of 1977. It's the summer too of disco, of punk, the summer of Sam, and Elvis dead on the bathroom floor. For Gem though it will forever after be the summer he met Vivien as rooted in the city as he is adrift; the summer he stumbled on Mary, Liz and Margie, three-quarters of the greatest New York group of all (and they'd fight anyone who said otherwise); the summer he learned how to go home. Capturing the innocence of adolescent boys, their passion, confusion and yearning, Two Summers is for anyone who has ever been young.

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Book SynopsisDon't look at Them Don't speak of Them Never enter Their world Those are the rules that Ethan Chase lives by when it comes to the dark fairies that robbed him of his sister. But they are still on his trail and Ethan can't fight fate forever. Now the deadly fey are at his school, colliding with his real life, Ethan will sacrifice everything to keep his mortal friends safe, even if it means becoming entangled in the world he's spent his whole life trying to deny. His destiny and birthright are calling. And now there's no escape.

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Book SynopsisA kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, James Frey's explosive new novel, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2017.At its centre are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, and deeply in love. Twenty-five years later, the writer is rich, famous and numb, and he wants to drive his car into a tree, when he receives an anonymous message that draws him back to the life, and possibly the love, he abandoned years prior. Written in the same percussive, propulsive, dazzling, breathtaking style as A Million Little Pieces, Katerina echoes and complements that most controversial of memoirs, and plays with the same issues of fiction and reality that created, nearly destroyed, and then recreated James Frey in the global imagination.

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Book Synopsis'Utterly magnificent . . . gripping, accomplished and dark' Marian KeyesWINNER: Newcomer of the Year at the IBAs WINNER: Bookseller YA Prize WINNER: CBI Eilis Dillon Award Buzzfeed's Best Books Written by Women in 2014The bestselling novel about beauty, body image and betrayaleves are designed, not made. The School trains them to be prettyThe School trains them to be good.The School trains them to Always be Willing.All their lives, the eves have been waiting. Now, they are ready for the outside world.companion . . . concubine . . . or chastityOnly the best will be chosen.And only the Men decide.Trade ReviewGripping ... like all the best dystopias, Only Ever Yours is about the world we live in now * Irish Times *The Handmaid's Tale meets Mean Girls' * The Vagenda *Utterly magnificent ... gripping, accomplished and dark * Marian Keyes *Deserves to be read by young and old, male and female, the world over in the same way Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were * Sunday Independent *A dark dream. A vivid nightmare. The world O'Neill imagines is frightening because it could come true. She writes with a scalpel * Jeanette Winterson *Deep, dark and frighteningly believable, this book will stay with you for a long time * Marie Claire *Compelling writing ... this only-too-real dystopia grips from beginning to end * SFX *Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with a post-millennial twist * The Journal.ie *The bleakness of The Catcher in the Rye, the satire of The Stepford Wives and it made me recall Nineteen Eighty-Four ... a fresh and original talent * Irish Independent *Terrifying but captivating * Company *A sparkling debut that will really make you think * Heat *'Compelling and frightening' * Irish Examiner *An ingenious exploration of gender roles, female identity and female competition * Buzzfeed *'Terrifying and heartbreaking, O'Neill's story reads like an heir to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and MT Anderson's Feed, and, like those two books, it's sure to be discussed for years to come' * Publisher's Weekly *'A stunning debut set in a dystopian future that has everyone talking . . . once read, will never be forgotten' * Irish Independent *Dark, gripping . . . should be mandatory reading everywhere * The F Word *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE 2009LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2010'A tremendously vital book in every sense.' - Sunday TimesAt a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but the slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. Christos Tsiolkas presents the impact of this apparently minor domestic incident through the eyes of eight of those who witness it. The result is an unflinching interrogation of the life of the modern family, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...Trade ReviewThe must-read novel of the summer. * Guardian *Honestly, one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium. * John Boyne *Now and then a book comes along that defines a summer. This year that book is The Slap... The writing has shades of Martin Amis, Nick Hornby and Anne Tyler... The ideal summer read. * Daily Telegraph *As addictive as the best soap opera. * Daily Mail *A tremendously vital book in every sense. * Sunday Times *Dazzling. * Independent *Tsiolkas is a true storyteller and a hundred sentences could be plucked from the text to demonstrate his genius for establishing place, mood and character in a handful of words * Sydney Morning Herald *Brilliantly compelling and utterly fresh... Fiercely fantastic, you won't be able to put this down. * Grazia *Nothing short of a tour de force. Tsiolkas outs a microscope to family life and presents us with a vision both of unflinching honesty and great tenderness. Here is a novel of immense power and scope, reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Don De Lillo's Underworld. * Colm Toibin *Brilliant, beautiful, shockingly lucid and real, this is a novel as big as life built from small, secret, closely observed beats of the human heart. A cool, calm, irresistible masterpiece. * Chris Cleave *

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Book Synopsis***J. M. G. Le Clézio is the Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Fiction***On the isle of Mauritius at the turn of the century the young Alexis L'Etang enjoys an idyllic existence with his parents and beloved sister - sampling the pleasures of privilege, exploring the onstellations and tropical flora, and dreaming of treasure buried long ago by the Unknown Corsair. But with his father's death, Alexis must leave his childhood paradise and enter the harsh world of privation and shame.Years later, Alexis has become obsessed with the idea of finding the Corsair's treasure; and through it, the lost magic and opulence of his youth. He abandons job and family, setting off on a quest that will take him from the remote tropical islands to the hell of the First World War, and from a love affair with the mysterious Ouma to a momentous confrontation with the search that has consumed his life.By turns harsh and lyrical, pointed and nostalgic, The Prospector is a 'parable of the human condition' (Le Monde) by one of the most significant literary figures in Europe today.Trade ReviewLe Clézio expresses an unusual sensibility towards a dimension wherein human beings can breathe naturally in response to the seasonal rhythms of the planet, and thereby recover some hope of achieving ultimate wholeness and serenity * Times Literary Supplement *With its echoes of other famous quests, Alexis's search takes on mythical proportions and brings him face-to-face with the elemental forces of nature... A novel of intense beauty * Review of Contemporary Fiction *The Prospector offers a wonderful one-volume compendium of all the grand myths rooted in the European colonial experience, combining elements from Paul et Virginie, Robinson Crusoe, and Indiana Jones * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisNestling on India's southern coast lies the town of Kittur. Ranging through the city's streets and schoolyards, bedrooms and businesses, its inner workings and its outer limits, through the myriad and distinctive voices of its inhabitants, Aravind Adiga brings an entire world vividly and unforgettably to life.

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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 SynopsisKipling's masterpiece is perhaps the most remarkable literary product of British India. The story of a half-caste boy, part Indian part Irish who journeys throughout the subcontinent with an aged lama in search of religious enlightenment, the nominal plot revolves around the Great Game: the struggle between Britian and Russia for control of Afghanistan. But the glory of the book lies less in the amusing picaresque adventures than in the unsurpassed panorama of Indian life they evoke: brilliant, moving and intensely alive.

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Book SynopsisA story of one girl 's struggle with herself, her life and her family. And the story of a family's struggle with a daughter/sister they can never hope to understand. She lies in the bed and she is sick. Sicker than she's ever been before. But with the sickness comes a pain and in that pain she finds a glory. And it's the glory that gets her through. When her body heals and she is out of the hospital and home with her family, she finds she needs to seek out a new glory, a stronger glory. She finds it in starvation. But her family, her friends, and her teachers intrude, and she decides she needs a different life, one where her glory is truly safe. A story of one girl's struggle with herself, her life and her family. And the story of a family's struggle with a daughter/sister they can never hope to understand. An impressive new voice in youth literature, Sarah Brill's novel Glory tells the powerful story of a fifteen-year-old girl, who has just woken up in a hospital after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Sarah Brill began writing for the theatre at the age of 15. She attended four National Young Playwrights Workshops before graduating to the National Playwrights Conference.Since then she has had several plays produced and broadcast on the ABC. Glory is her first novel.

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Book SynopsisThe first published novel by the award-winning, bestselling and acclaimed Michael Arditti'It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read' Gregory Woods, Times Literary Supplement'An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual' Sunday Times'An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion' Candia McWilliam, Independent on SundayThe Celibate is the story of a young man with a mind full of God, but a heart closed to love. While studying at the theological college, he is confused by his feelings for a fellow ordinand and suffers a nervous collapse at the altar. His college principal sends him on a placement to London, where he enters an unfamiliar world of outcasts, down-and-outs, rent boys and religious fundamentalists.In increasing despair, he embarks on a journey through the world of Jack the Ripper, the devastation of the Great Plague and the mysteries of his own family. As the past and present come full circle, he finally understands the true meaning of Passion.This is an intelligent and emotive novel, potent with atmosphere and rich in ideas and insights. It employs a unique fictional structure which integrates the contemporary and the historical, the personal and the theological, the comic and the polemic in a revelatory way. On its initial publication, it was hailed as the debut of a major literary talent.Trade ReviewIt takes courage to write about faith in this faithless world, particularly from a homosexual viewpoint. But in The Celibate, Michael Arditti's first novel, the author's anger, conviction and sharp observation hold the reader's attention throughout -- Alistair Bruton * The Times *An ambitious first novel, which traces the liberation of a human soul through a gradual revelation of the meaning of passion and the Passion -- Candia McWilliam * Independent on Sunday *This deeply spiritual novel ... a carefully crafted, intensely analytical and deeply honest theological quest where the storyline becomes consumed in a broader faith journey -- Peter Stanford * Catholic Herald *A bold and multi-layered first novel and one which negotiates a remarkably taut high-wire between frailty and ardour -- Graham Anderson * City Limits *A fine political novel. Michael Arditti's eloquently beautiful style burns with passion and commitment. My mind and emotions were engaged for all of its 341 pages. A brave, unique book, this deserves the widest possible readership -- John Roman Baker * Rouge *It is unusual to find an English first novel of such unflinching moral seriousness ... a varied and involving read -- Gregory Woods * Times Literary Supplement *I found Arditti's heartfelt, even desperate, plea for tolerance and acceptance moving and honourable, not to mention timely -- Karen Lewis * Literary Review *An exceptional book - at its core it combines the sexual with the spiritual * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisFelix walks the same way to work through Southampton every morning, and the same way home again in the evenings. His life up to this point feels like one day repeated over and over; a speck of silt caught in the city's muddied waters. Sometimes it is all he can do to sit and watch while the urban sprawl races indifferently around him. But when the city stares back at him, one evening after work, everything changes.He doesn't see the statue's head move, but he feels its eyes on him, studying him from its lofty perch in East Park. From then on he continues to glimpse it, or something like it, encroaching with every visitation. With it come memories, spilling through the streets, crawling through the dark, haunting his night-time flat, until he isn't quite sure what is real anymore and what is imagined, in this hard, grey place where the gulls watch him sleep...Trade Review“...a unique story and I appreciated that, along with the beautiful writing. Very thought provoking novel.” - Ana Carter, Reviewer, Canada“Featherbones ... is beautifully written, with almost lyrical prose. It’s the kind of book that sets the mood early and it can be a bit overwhelming in its greyness. Stay with it and you will be rewarded by a well plotted story that twists and wanders so many places. If you like Magical Realism with a touch of Psychological Suspense, this book will delight you. I think it would make an interesting book discussion selection.” - Janet Kinsella, Tacoma Public Library, USA"Featherbones is an ethereal love song to a city by the sea. Thomas Brown's beautiful novel depicts a liminal world of statues, drownings and winged creatures. It's also a real page turner. I love this book."- Rebecca Smith, author of The Bluebird Cafe"This is an exquisitely written novel; deft, poised, and with a writer's ear for the rhythms of the world around us.Featherbones does the always-difficult job of making the strange familiar, while asking us to attend again to the things we think we know." - William May, author and lecturer"I loved the use of language, I loved the story and above all I loved the constant sensation that I was walking on the top of the dividing wall between reality and dream and imagination and past and present and future. I want to live on that wall for the rest of my life." Bookrazy blog"What to call this experience? Magical realism doesn't quite fit right. Magical-psychological-philosophical-realism. Maybe. This is a book that will be unlike any other that you have read. "There are some very well crafted passages in this book, and some amazing uses of language. It is really the beautiful language, in my opinion, that makes this a book worth the time to read and share with others. I liked the characters ... the way the story developed and the way the reader is never quite sure if what is happening is actual reality or just the imaginings of a confused mind. "If you enjoy reading books that make you think, and make you wonder at the author's ability to turn every day ordinary into something else, something a bit more extraordinary, then I recommend this book to you." - Ionia Martin, Readful things blog“In Southampton, England, a grey, rain-filled place, the story of Felix, and Michael’s set. Repeating patterns, like grey days, the same walk through the city every morning and evening, and the sight of birds, characterize the book. What if birds were human, or humans became birds? Remember the classic on Icarus and his father Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth?“It’s exactly this fate and circumstance that Thomas Brown as author throws his readers in while reading Featherbones. There seems no way out of this storyline. Dream and reality converge. It’s difficult to stay concentrated. Is the reference to the Titanic a clue? Will one of the main characters commit suicide, or turn into a bird at full moon? “...I’m impressed by the psychologically laden plot and the way a small world becomes even smaller throughout Featherbones.” - Henk-Jan van der Klis, Reviewer, Netherlands"'Featherbones' is the second of Thomas Brown's novels that I have read and I think that I enjoyed this more than "Lynnwood", which I loved. Having made this statement, however, the book is going to be hard to review without telling readers too much about the plot. "Felix, the main character, is a young graduate, living his rather mundane life in Southampton. The highlight of his week is his Friday night drinking binge with his workmate and long-time friend, Michael. All seems fairly commonplace, until an event acts as a trigger for Felix to fall, swoop, descend into unreality. "The novel looks back to Felix's traumatic childhood - so many events that could lead to an uncertain future for Felix's mental health. Looking into the past, we meet Felix's father, his teacher, his very best friend, Harriet and a man who was supposed to be helping Felix overcome his disturbed childhood. "What I love about this novel is that it works on several levels and is open to different interpretations. For me, it is about guilt, repression, sexuality and the need for each of us to know ourselves. It is about acceptance, love and trust. "Thomas Brown writes such beautiful prose; 'Featherbones' is worth reading for this alone. However there is much more to appreciate - a fine, thought-provoking novel." - Angela Thomas, Reviewer, UK

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Book SynopsisIn post-soviet Georgia, on the outskirts of Tbilisi, on the corner of Kerch St., is an orphanage. Its teachers offer pupils lessons in violence, abuse and neglect. Lela is old enough to leave but has nowhere else to go. She stays and plans for the children's escape, for the future she hopes to give to Irakli, a young boy in the home. When an American couple visits, offering the prospect of a new life, Lela decides she must do everything she can to give Irakli this chance.Trade Review'Nana Ekvtimishvili has written a merciless book that gives voice to those left behind whilst crying out against apathy and brutality.' HOLGER HEIMANN, WDR 5 'This novel becomes more complicated, more poetic, more nuanced from page to page (...) with characters that could be in any Dickens novel.' STEFAN MESCH, SPIEGEL ONLINE 'This is more than just a cleverly designed novel. The book is the sharp-sighted portrait of a society that loses its humanity on its way to a new era. A moving debut.' MIRKO SCWANITZ, NDR

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Book SynopsisIt's a warm summer's afternoon when young Alice first tumbles down the rabbit hole and into the adventures in Wonderland that have kept readers spellbound for more than 150 years. 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 brought to life by Sir John Tenniel's legendary illustrations in black and white, and with an afterword by Anna South.Collected here are Lewis Carroll's two classics - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - in which Alice encounters the laconic Cheshire Cat, the anxious White Rabbit and the terrifying Red Queen, as well as a host of other outlandish and charming characters.Trade ReviewI revelled in all the logical games, and the wordplay. It made me laugh till my sides hurt -- Richard Cohen * Independent *‘Alice’ makes the logic of the everyday world appear nonsensical and the absurd make glorious sense -- Mark Hudson * The Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisIt's a warm summer's afternoon when young Alice first tumbles down the rabbit hole and into the adventures in Wonderland that have kept readers spellbound for more than 150 years. Collected here are Lewis Carroll's two classics - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - in which Alice encounters the laconic Cheshire Cat, the anxious White Rabbit and the terrifying Red Queen, as well as a host of other outlandish and charming characters.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 brought to life by Sir John Tenniel's legendary illustrations in colour, and with an afterword by Anna South.Trade ReviewI revelled in all the logical games, and the wordplay. It made me laugh till my sides hurt -- Richard Cohen * Independent *‘Alice’ makes the logic of the everyday world appear nonsensical and the absurd make glorious sense -- Mark Hudson * The Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisElusive online journalist Scott King investigates the murder of a teenager at an outward bound centre, in the first episode of the critically acclaimed, international bestselling Six Stories series…For fans of Serial‘Bold, clever and genuinely chilling’ Sunday Mirror‘Haunting, horrifying, and heartrending. Fans of Arthur Machen, whose unsettling tale The White People provides an epigraph, will want to check this one out’ Publishers Weekly’Wonderfully horrifying … the suspense crackles’ James Oswald‘A complex and subtle mystery, unfolding like dark origami to reveal the black heart inside’ Michael Marshall Smith________________One bodySix storiesWhich one is true?1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame…As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth.A chilling, unpredictable and startling thriller, Six Stories is also a classic murder mystery with a modern twist, and a devastating ending.________________Praise for the Six Stories series ‘A genuine genre-bending debut’ Carla McKay, Daily Mail'Impeccably crafted and gripping from start to finish’ Doug Johnstone, The Big IssueMatt Wesolowski brilliantly depicts a desperate and disturbed corner of north-east England in which paranoia reigns and goodness is thwarted … an exceptional storyteller' Andrew Michael Hurley‘Beautifully written, smart, compassionate – and scary as hell. Matt Wesolowski is one of the most exciting and original voices in crime fiction’ Alex North‘Original, inventive and dazzlingly clever’ Fiona Cummins‘It’s a relentless & original work of modern rural noir which beguiles & unnerves in equal measure. Matt Wesolowski is a major talent’ Eva Dolan‘Endlessly inventive and with literary thrills a-plenty, Matt Wesolowski is boldly carving his own uniquely dark niche in fiction’ Benjamin Myers‘Disturbing, compelling and atmospheric, it will terrify and enthral you in equal measure’ M W Craven‘Readers of Kathleen Barber’s Are You Sleeping and fans of Ruth Ware will enjoy this slim but compelling novel’ Booklist‘A relentless and original work of modern rural noir which beguiles and unnerves in equal measure. Matt Wesolowski is a major talent’ Eva Dolan‘With a unique structure, an ingenious plot and so much suspense you can’t put it down, this is the very epitome of a must-read’ Heat ‘Wonderfully atmospheric. Matt Wesolowski is a skilled storyteller with a unique voice. Definitely one to watch’ Mari HannahTrade Review'Impeccably crafted and gripping from start to finish’ * The Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisI am Eve. Collector of words. I look them up. I write them down. I knead them into sentences. I am the story. When her mum rescues a book from a garbage can, Eve's life changes. She reads her way into the stories, into a place in the world, worlds she never knew existed. Eve becomes the story. Everything is possible. But with adulthood comes deception and betrayal; to survive Eve strips life bare. No stories, no people, no connection. But the stories are determined to win her back.

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Book SynopsisTwenty-four-year-old Billy is beautiful and sexy. Albert—The Pharmacist—is a compelling but damaged older man, and a veteran of London’s late 90s club scene. After a chance meeting in the heart of the London’s East End, Billy is seduced into the sphere of Albert. An unconventional friendship develops, fuelled by Albert's queer narratives and an endless supply of narcotics. Alive with the twilight times between day and night, consciousness and unconsciousness, the foundations of Billy's life begin to irrevocably shift and crack, as he fast-tracks toward manhood. This story of lust, love and loss is homoerotic bildungsroman at its finest. 'At the heart of David's The Pharmacist is an oddly touching and bizarre love story, a modern day Harold and Maude set in the drugged-up world of pre-gentrification Shoreditch. The dialogue, especially, bristles with glorious life.' -JONATHAN KEMP, author of London Triptych "An exploration of love and loss in the deathly hallows of twenty-first century London. Justin David's prose is as sharp as a hypodermic needle. Unflinching, uncomfortable but always compelling, The Pharmacist finds the true meaning of love in the most unlikely places." -NEIL McKENNA, author of Fanny and Stella.Trade Review"'There they are in the dark, men standing in circles … while the rest of London goes about its business.' Much crucial action takes place in a club's toilets in Justin David’s The Pharmacist, now republished as a standalone novella after having gained cult success when it was released digitally in 2014. It is here that the twenty-four-year-old artist Billy Monroe – the novel's narrator – finds himself with his lover Jamie, both 'dewy eyed and loose-limbed' on MDMA; only Billy is secretly seeing another man, one three times his age, the Polari-speaking drug dealer Albert Power – a louche veteran of the club scene, still in possession of a jawline reminiscent of Marlon Brando's.; It is Albert – the pharmacist of the book's title – who first introduces Billy to ecstasy. Meeting by chance on a London street, Billy and Albert are instantly attracted to one another. 'Billy feels a knowledge pass between them … the kind of cruisy look he only gets from young guys'. It is only later that Billy discovers that Albert is a neighbour in the block of Victorian maisonettes in Shoreditch where he lives. Their first encounter is described with a nuanced sensitivity, alive to the pathos of a vigorous and innocent young man beginning an affair with someone more experienced. When Billy asks Albert about his life, he’s told: 'I am all your failed expectations in a man'. Yet the panama hat-wearing septuagenarian is more adventurous than his young lover. 'I’ve done some acting. Used to be a singer', he confesses. An eccentric and an aesthete, Albert tells Billy that his 'favourite authors are Genet and Proust, and that he never eats red meat on a Sunday and that he once had dinner with Dusty Springfield'. When Albert confesses to losing the love of his life after a thirty-year relationship, Billy begins to paint the man’s portrait from Albert's description of him. When he unveils this picture for Albert, Albert’s lies begin to unravel, leading to the book's tragic conclusion. ; A novella, as many great nineteenth-century European writers knew, is the perfect vehicle for depicting a love affair, and The Pharmacist's concise portrayal of Albert and Billy's doomed love recalls both Turgenev's First Love and Benjamin Constant's Adolphe. But the book is sharply contemporary. David has a painterly eye for the urban landscape of east London: 'Above the flats, a texture-less bruise of luminous grey-yellow spreads itself across the sky, like a patch of backlit vellum … The cobblestones look like rivets in brown PVC'. The galleries, artists' studios and pre-gentrification pubs of Shoreditch are brought vividly to life. As lubricious as early Alan Hollinghurst, The Pharmacist is a welcome reissue from Inkandescent, and the perfect introduction to a singular voice in gay literature." – Jude Cook, The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisAs a boy growing up in the Black Country—drained grey by Mrs Thatcher’s steely policies—Jamie dreams of escape to a magical metropolis where he can rub shoulders with the mythical creatures who inhabit the pages of his Smash Hits. Though his hometown is not without characters and Jamie’s life not without dramas—courtesy of a cast of West Midlands divas led by his mother, Gloria. Her one-liners are as colourful as the mohair cardies she carries off with the panache of a television landlady. We follow Jamie through secondary school, teenage troubles and away to art school; there he experiences the flush of first love with Billy, and the rush of the big city. But what then? Will he return to the safety of Welston, or risk everything on a new life in London? These flamboyantly funny stories of self-discovery, set against the shifting social scenery of the 80s and 90s, are for everybody who’s ever decided to be the person they are meant to be.

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Book SynopsisThe Perseids brought it all out of the past, with a force like a blow that leaves you winded. The night lurched and seemed to swoop suddenly down. The boy still lay on his back, but when I sat up, gasping, I glimpsed the pale disc of his face as he turned to see what had startled me. 'It's all right,' I said, though it wasn't. It is the summer of 1954. Four young men, on a summer vacation buy an old car from a farmer and drive it from the hills of Wales all the way to the mountains of Spain. It is only a few years since the war, Europe is still in ruins. They are innocent and war-scarred, dreamers and realists, men but not much more than boys. They have their whole lives ahead of them. This will be their summer to remember. A beautiful, elegiac rumination on youth, friendship and the dreams that we hold. "A haunting meditation on memory and loss that takes the reader on a summer road trip to a vanished Spain. In this well-crafted, wistful novella, Sam Adams weaves his tapestry from fragments of a remembered friendship in a coming of age tale written with sixty years' bitter hindsight." - Richard Gwyn Sam Adams has created a rare novel in The Road to Zarauz, both timeless and very much of a time and a place, a past of hope and expectation erased in a moment, and what remains when hope is gone.

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Book SynopsisA Man Who Is Not A Man recounts the personal trauma of a young Xhosa initiate after a rite-of-passage circumcision goes wrong. With frankness and courage, this powerful novel details the pain and lifelong shame this protagonist experiences as a result not only of the physical trauma, but the social ostracism from being labeled 'a failed man.' He decodes the mysteries of this long-standing cultural tradition and calls to account the elders for the disintegrating support systems that allow such tragic outcomes. But it is also through this life-changing experience that the protagonist is forced to find his strength and humanity, and reassess what it really means to be a man.Trade Review"Highly original." - Nadine Gordimer "His straightforward no-frills prose tells an effective story of a botched circumcision and its consequences." - Zakes Mda, Sunday Independent "A brave book, triumphant and a testament to the indefatigable will to live." - Mail & Guardian

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Book SynopsisSingle-mother Fran returns to her sleepy hometown to care for her dying father when a devastating bush fire breaks out. A heartbreaking, nail-biting disaster-noir thriller from the bestselling author of The Cry and Worst Case Scenario. ‘Urgent, angry, absolutely terrifying, yet suffused with the humanity and humour you expect from a Helen Fitzgerald novel’ Erin Kelly ‘Tantalisingly powerful’ The Times ‘Ash Mountain is the author at her masterly best … I loved it!’ Louise Candlish ________________ Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway. She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants… Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget… ________________ ‘A new novel from Helen Fitzgerald is always a major event, and Ash Mountain is magnificent’ Mark Billingham ‘There is plenty of human depravity in the plot but none of that is as terrifyingly overmastering as the fire’ Literary Review ‘Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this – but that only makes you hungry for more’ The Sun ‘Dark, atmospheric and terrifying’ Ambrose Parry ‘Compelling’ Independent ‘A hugely entertaining writer, with lovingly constructed landscapes and so-real-you-can-actually-hear-it dialogue but the thing she does best of all is create a little warm and cosy microcosm of life, then throw in a bloody great firecracker of a detail that sends the whole thing off into a completely different direction’ Crime Fiction Lover Praise for Helen FitzGerald ***Worst Case Scenario was Shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020*** ‘The plotting is intricate and beautifully handled, and the narrative pace is absolutely breakneck … a wonderful, energetic, hard-hitting and deeply funny novel’ The Big Issue ‘The main character is one of the most extraordinary you’ll meet between the pages of a book’ Ian Rankin ‘A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh out loud funny at the same time’ Mark Edwards ‘The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist’ Heat ‘FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth’ Daily Telegraph ‘Domestic life is rarely served up quite so dark as this – but that only makes you hungry for more’ The SunTrade Review'The plotting is intricate and beautifully handled, and the narrative pace is absolutely breakneck ... a wonderful, energetic, hard-hitting and deeply funny novel' The Big Issue;'Shocking, gripping and laugh-out-loud hilarious' Erin Kelly;'The main character is one of the most extraordinary you'll meet between the pages of a book' Ian Rankin;'A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh out loud funny at the same time' Mark Edwards;'Outrageous, extremely funny and ultimately devastating' Ambrose Parry;'Fabulously transgressive and completely unique' Mark Billingham;'The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist' Heat;'FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth' Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisEstranged brothers are reunited over plans to develop the tower block where they grew up, but the desolate estate becomes a stage for reliving the events of one life-changing summer, forty years earlier … the exquisitely written, moving new novel from West Camel.‘Unfolds like a spell’ Carol Lovekin, author of Ghostbird‘A deceptively complex and layered story; beautiful, traumatic and ultimately uplifting’ Louise Beech, author of This Is How We Are Human'A mesmerising portrait of toxic family relationships: one that perfectly captures a turbulent era in a changing Britain. I was gripped' Caroline Wyatt_____________________________Twins Aaron and Clive have been estranged for forty years. Aaron still lives in the empty, crumbling tower block on the riverside in Deptford where they grew up. Clive is a successful property developer, determined to turn the tower into luxury flats.But Aaron is blocking the plan and their petty squabble becomes something much greater when two ghosts from the past – twins Annette and Christine – appear in the tower. At once, the desolate estate becomes a stage on which the events of one scorching summer are relived – a summer that shattered their lives, and changed everything forever…Grim, evocative and exquisitely rendered, Fall is a story of friendship and family – of perception, fear and prejudice, the events that punctuate our journeys into adulthood, and the indelible scars they leave – a triumph of a novel that will affect you long after the final page has been turned.Illustrations by David F. Ross–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––**Shortlisted for the POLARI Prize**‘Fall’s characters will haunt me, its story will stay with me and I will return again and again’ Katie Allen‘Beautifully written, perfectly executed, a drama that captures your heart and mind’ Anne Coates'Architecture and morality: the only subjects worth writing about, and West Camel does so exquisitely through the eyes of people profoundly affected by both' David F. Ross‘A book about families, racism and the differences that bind us or push us apart …all bound up in West Camel's elegant prose’ Michael J. Malone‘Suspense and twists keep you turning the pages, while the unfolding of complex characters and relationships draws you in’ Valeria Vescina‘Both charming and conflicting … the author’s enticing storytelling has totally, utterly hooked me’ Sarah Sansom‘A page-turner and a literary delight, a book you devour’ Liz Loves Books‘Immersive, beautiful, and haunting … I adored it’ Live & Deadly‘A novel of mystic style and sensibility. West Camel tackles timeless themes of truth, power, family and justice … an extraordinary read’ Richard Fernandez‘A book to be embraced, a book to be kept in your heart … West Camel writes beautifully’ The Reading ClosetPraise for West Camel’s debut novel Attend‘From its opening gambit to its final line, Attend demands and rewards attention’ Foreword Reviews’With its blend of dark, gritty themes and gorgeous imagery, this is a book to make you believe there’s still magic in the world’ Heat ‘I’ve fallen in love with this absolutely glorious, spell-binding tale’ LoveReading‘It’s a genuinely pleasurable experience to encounter something couched in such alert and transparent language as West Camel’s Attend … In three hundred finely judged pages, West Camel leaves the reader eager for more from his pen’ Barry Forshaw, CrimeTime For fans of Sarah Moss, Bernadine Evaristo, Colm Toibin and Selina Godde

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Book Synopsis'I’d always known that I was Brown. Black was different though; it came announced. Black came with expectations, of rhythm and other things that might trip me up.' Imani is a foundling. Rescued as a baby and raised by nuns on a remote Northumbrian island, she grows up with an ever-increasing feeling of displacement. Full of questions, Imani turns to her shadow, Amarie, and her friend, Harold. When Harold can’t find the answers, she puts it down to what the nuns call her “greater purpose”. At nineteen, Imani answers a phone call that will change her life: she is being called to Accra after the sudden death of her biological mother. Past, present, faith and reality are spun together in this enthralling debut. Following her transition from innocence to understanding, Imani's experience illuminates the stories we all tell to make ourselves whole.Trade Review‘From start to finish, I was spellbound by the characters (especially Imani), the narrative voice, and the vivid imagery. Mensah intricately weaves complex characters, vivid descriptions, universal topics of love, loss, identity, religion, with themes like the search for a place to belong, into a well spun tapestry, a mind-spinning tale, a heart-pounding novel – and I'm hooked. I absolutely love this book.’ * Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Remembered, longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019 *Real beauty and clarity in the prose … powerful and unique.' * Chitra Ramaswamy *‘A compelling exploration of memory, race, mothers and the fractured self, Mensah questions the frameworks through which we understand the world and interrogates how to put disparate parts of our identities together to become the most true version of ourselves.' * Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater, winner of the Portico Prize 2020 *'[An] extraordinary debut … changes with every reading, like the sea, deep and light, or the flicker of spidersilk … a book to be cherished and shared.' * Vahni Capildeo *'Lyrical and magical … a powerful and very readable novel.' * Louise Maskill *'Mensah doesn’t shy away from tough subjects … a well-crafted debut … an extraordinary literary talent and … a thoroughly recommended read.' -- Emma Yates-Badley * Northern Soul *'A strong debut.' * The Feminist Nook *'Brilliance and beauty … The writing is exquisite, the plot is thoughtful and complex, and the characters are deeply lovable. This story will be told like folklore, passed on from person to person. And this is me passing it onto you.' * Kate Baguley *'A sensitive ear for language and observational detail … offers a unique blend of magical realism and social commentary – the past and the present intermingle with colonial history, displacement and family ties to form a rich narrative tapestry.' -- Reshma Ruia * Words of Colour *‘Strong storytelling crafted from a fine delicate web of themes … wonderfully vivid.’ * Busy Mama Book Club *'In … Castles from Cobwebs, we gain insight into how identity is not necessarily set in stone, nor is it straightforward or well defined. But rather how it can be complex, ever evolving and and simultaneously painful yet liberating to piece together.' * Blackbooksandnotes *'A stunning debut … immersive and captivating … all the threads come together to form the perfect cobweb.' * Literary Lucie blog *

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Book Synopsis'A beautifully written book with a charming, young narrator, combined with a surprisingly dark and unusual whodunnit. It's a touching, powerful and twisty read, packed with intrigue. Will appeal to fans of Joanna Cannon's The Trouble With Goats and Sheep.' S.J. Harris, author of The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder'Powerful writing...' Woman's Way Magazine'With devastating purity and clarity, nine year old Frankie Appleton is likely to enter your hearts in this poignant and emotional read.' Love Reading Nine-year-old Frankie Appleton likes to count gates.One day she hopes to design the perfect gate - a gate to keep the bad things out.Little does she know that the bad things have already got in.Now her mother is dead, and the only other person with a house key has disappeared.Frankie thinks she knows who it is. But first she has to prove it.A delicately brutal exploration of what lies behind closed doors, and of the secrets and lies that form the fabric of every family, The Weight of Small Things is as charming as it is chilling.Trade Review'A beautifully written book with a charming, young narrator, combined with a surprisingly dark and unusual whodunnit. It's a touching, powerful and twisty read, packed with intrigue. Will appeal to fans of Joanna Cannon's The Trouble With Goats and Sheep.' S.J. Harris, author of The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder'One of the best books I've read this year' Dave, 5 stars'Extremely current and highly readable' Beverley, 5 stars'Brutally honest, frank and beautiful' Natalie, 5 stars

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Leipzig Book Fair Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Shortlisted for the 2022 Prix Femina etranger #1 on the Spiegel Bestseller List November 1989. The Berlin Wall has just fallen when the East German couple Inge und Walter, following a secret dream they've harboured all their lives, set out for life in the West. Carl, their son, refuses to keep watch over the family home and instead heads to Berlin, where he lives in his father's car until he is taken in by a group of squatters. Led by a shepherd and his goat, the pack of squatters sets up the first alternative bar in East Berlin and are involved in guerrilla occupations. And it's with them that Carl, trained as a bricklayer, finds himself an initiate of anarchy, of love, and above all of poetry. Winner of the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize and a bestseller in German already with 150,000 copies sold, Star 111, musical and incantatory, tells of the search for authentic existence and also of a family exploded by political change which must find its way back together.Trade Review‘There aren’t many books that can be cited as the missing link between Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries and Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives, and still fewer that could live up to the comparison, but Lutz Seiler (with impeccable assistance from Tess Lewis) makes it look easy. Star 111 is a brilliant, immersive, sometimes funny, slyly moving book with a main character who walks through the new reality he finds himself in like an astronaut exploring alone beneath a strange, harsh, beautiful sun. A stellar achievement.’ Will Ashon ---- 'It took Lutz Seiler, born in East Germany, thirty years to give to the moment [of the Fall of the Berlin Wall] the full richness of fertile and ambiguous human experience. With its ample narrative and powerful imagination, Star 111 is the "Wenderoman" par excellence, the great novel of the "turn", as German reunification is called.' Christine Lecerf, Le Monde des livres ---- 'The Berlin of Star 111 wakes a longing for a city like no other. You want to linger there in the squatted Assel bar where workers, hookers and departing Soviet soldiers cross paths with anarchists full of ideas.' Frederique Fanchette, Liberation ---- 'The presence of objects have is no doubt one of the most extraordinary things about Star 111. Everything is unique, everything has a price, everything is respected because it is the fruit of work or of making. Nothing is thrown away, everything kept. What if the objects have a soul? Read Star 111 (the title is the name of an East German transistor radio) and understand the real value of an object.' Cecile Dutheil de la Rochere, AOC ---- 'Lutz Seiler reaches the level of a Thomas Pynchon here. [...] This is atmospherically rich, true world literature. World literature is, after all, that which lets me see the world with different eyes, which shows me a part of the world I have not seen before. And this is what Seiler manages to do in Star 111.' Denis Scheck, SWR lesenswert ---- 'Star 111 reveals the fiery nucleus of everything political, its dual nature: the unity of poetic rapture and the mysticism of the revolution. [...] Lutz Seiler has the ability to describe the ridiculous, overheated and even the unconscionable of that political romanticism without having to denounce the original impulse. That's what makes Star 111 great literature.' Ijoma Mangold, Die Zeit ---- 'Star 111 is a novel full of hard-hitting, deeply moving psychology, full of scenes in which people shake the foundations of a reality that is in the process of creating new laws for itself.' Paul Jandl, Neue Zurcher Zeitung ---- 'The [goat in the novel], the reader understands, knows neither longing nor nostalgia. The fact that the novel shares, in this regard, the view of a goat, is its last and biggest virtue.' Thomas Steinfeld, Suddeutsche Zeitung ---- 'For the second time now Lutz Seiler has achieved something rather extraordinary: to talk about how one actually leads a poetic existence, a matter that is as euphoric as it is cruel, in a novel that is "accessible" in the best sense of the word.' Jan Wiele, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ---- 'Lutz Seiler talks about a city and a time that seemed to have been exhausted in fiction. But he creates a new fascination.' Jona Nietfeld, Der Tagesspiegel ---- 'It has been a long time since anyone has talked about those foggy years, glossed over with garish colours by other writers scores of times, more movingly than Lutz Seiler.' Anja Maier, die tageszeitung ---- 'Seiler tells a story of freedom in a poetically-precise style.' Der Spiegel ---- 'This is much more than a historical novel. It condenses an era and invokes the great panoramas of consciousness of modernity in a highly independent way.' Helmut Boettiger, Deutschlandfunk Kultur ---- 'This unexpected novel about post-reunification from the partially decayed, far from gentrified Berlin convinces with its unique atmospheric density, its gentle irony and the devotion to the matter at hand.' Bayerischer Rundfunk ---- 'With Star 111, Lutz Seiler presents a great novel that talks enchantingly about departures and downfalls, about social utopias and societal realities, about humiliation and pride. Fascinating.' Katja Weise, NDR Kultur ---- 'What distinguishes it from the many Berlin-Reunification-books is that there is not a trace of caricature, no manipulative narrative, but still captivating entertainment.' Roland Gutsch, Nordkurier ---- ‘Drawing on a history at once recent and ever more distant, Seiler's dazzling novel recounts just what must be lost for an artist to be made.’ Roland Bates, Kirkdale Books

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Book SynopsisRecently bereaved Jamie is staying at a rural steading in the heart of Scotland with his actor boyfriend Alex. The sudden loss of both of Jamie’s parents hangs like a shadow over the trip. In his grief, Jamie finds himself sifting through bittersweet memories, from his working-class upbringing in Edinburgh to his bohemian twenties in London, with a growing awareness of his sexuality threaded through these formative years. In the present, when Alex is called away to an audition, Jamie can no longer avoid the pull of the past: haunted by an inescapable failure to share his full self with his parents, he must confront his unresolved feelings towards them. In spare, evocative prose, Allan Radcliffe tells a wistful coming-of-age story and paints a tender portrait of grief in all its complexities.Trade Review'Equally heart-warming and sorrowful. Each and every sentence has been so elegantly penned' -The Scots Magazine; 'Written with an honesty and understanding that is rare, it's a novel full of love, kindness, and compassion' -Skinny Magazine; 'A rippling, multifaceted jewel of a novel - Poignant and compelling, it is resonant with vivid images' -Kevin MacNeil, author of 'The Brilliant & Forever'; 'Allan Radcliffe's debut touched my heart. Both insightful and observant, warm and infinitely relatable' -Henry Fry, author of 'First Time for Everything'; 'This poignant Bildungsroman is at once a tender tale of queer awakening in the Edinburgh of the 80s and 90s and a heartbreaking love letter' -Mary Paulson-Ellis, bestselling author of 'The Other Mrs Walker', 'The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing' and 'Emily Noble's Disgrace'

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Book SynopsisThis gorgeous, funny novel paints a picture of a bygone era, depicting the changing society in Ceylon after Independence from the British in 1948. Three Tamil girl cousins, Gowry, Saratha and Buvana, grow up in the old-fashioned village of Kolavil in Eastern Sri Lanka near the beautiful River Thillai. As they approach womanhood, they each struggle in their own way to assert themselves in opposition to the strict traditions of Tamil culture and their powerful Grandma. Their idyllic village life is threatened by people and by events beyond their control. Meanwhile, the reader can get lost in a colourful world of flamingos, temple bells and coconut prawn curry.

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