Narrative theme: coming of age
The Story Plant Impacted
Book SynopsisWith every trip he makes to the dentist, Wade''s pain only gets worse. His smile has faded. He''s clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth more, not because of bad oral hygiene or any mishaps in orthodontics. Wade''s teeth don''t need straightening out, but the rest of his life could use that kind of adjustment. Wade has fallen in love with handsome Dr. Emmett, and their office visits in the afternoon have become decidedly more personal than professional. And poor Wade is sure his girlfriend Jessa would punch him in the mouth if she found out.After all, Jessa did just abandon her church and her family to be with him. And she did just have Wade''s baby. So their relationship has already caused enough gossip in the small Georgia town of Waverly.When Wade tries to end the affair, the breakup takes a brutal turn, leaving Wade in a state of panic. His life is under threat. His secrets could be exposed, and his family may fall apart before he realizes what kind of person he wants to be.
£11.35
The Story Plant Old Music for New People
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£11.39
The Story Plant Eternal Graffiti
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£12.59
The Story Plant Night Swim
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£13.29
Strategic Book Publishing The Island of Lote
£17.10
Bywater Books Dear Miss Cushman
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£15.26
Workman Publishing Lawn Boy
Book SynopsisRecipient of the 2019 Alex Award??“Mike Muñoz Is a Holden Caulfield for a New Millennium--a '10th-generation peasant with a Mexican last name, raised by a single mom on an Indian reservation' . . . Evison, as in his previous four novels, has a light touch and humorously guides the reader, this time through the minefield that is working-class America.” --The New York Times Book ReviewFor Mike Muñoz, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew--he’s smart enough to know that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how? He’s not qualified for much of anything. He has no particular talents, although he is stellar at handling a lawn mower and wielding clipping shears. But now that career seems to be behind him. So what’s next for Mike Muñoz?In this funny, biting, touching, and ultimately inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man determined to achieve the American dream of happiness and prosperity--who just so happens to find himself along the way.
£11.99
SMK Books An Old-Fashioned Girl
£13.79
Counterpoint Kill Me Now: A Novel
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£19.99
Black Lawrence Press American Gospel
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£18.95
Greenleaf Book Group LLC The Essence of Nathan Biddle
Book SynopsisThe Essence of Nathan Biddle is a coming-of-age novel set in the American South in the 1950s. Narrator Kit Biddle, near the end of his high school career, finds himself tangled in a web of family secrets, including a crazy uncle who hears God and literally sacrifices (murders) his own son, Kit's cousin-landing him in a mental institution. Kit is also vexed by the pressing questions that haunt all teenagers: Who am I? Why am I here? When Anna, the beautiful, brilliant object of his affections, rejects him, Kit spirals into despair. Even his witty best friend, Lichtman, is of no help. Kit's impulsive decision to steal the golf club's maintenance truck one night and speed down the highway ends in a horrific accident and months of convalescence, including interesting hours spent in a therapist's office where Kit tries to piece his life together. Yet tragedy leads to light in this gentle tale; even a new girlfriend appears. "It was calamity that gave me a moment of pause, an occasion for reassessment and redirection. I suffered both a breakdown and a breakthrough," Kit says near the end of his ordeal. Readers will rejoice as Kit closes in on answers to his search for the meaning of life
£20.48
Arcade Publishing Year of the Orphan
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£19.99
Turner Publishing Company Our Daily Bread
Book SynopsisFrom renowned playwright Jackie Alexander comes a captivating, masterfully told coming-of-age novel of a young man struggling through his haunting past to discover and save himself. Stigmatized at birth due to his interracial parentage and reared in a household poisoned by domestic abuse, Kevin Matthews is orphaned at age ten after losing his mother to a violent attack at the hands of his father, who is jailed for the crime. Raised by his paternal grandfather, a Baptist Minister who instills values of the church as a base for recovery, Kevin is content with life in rural Louisiana during the 1970s until disturbing news surfaces regarding his mother's attack—news that sheds doubt on his father's guilt, and leads Kevin to relive painful memories. As Kevin grows up, the emotional scars of his childhood cast dark clouds over his relationships with women, and his life begins to spiral out of control. Faced with losing all that he loves, Kevin is forced to confront the man who holds the key to his salvation, his father. Our Daily Bread is a rich and compelling coming-of-age story of a young boy whose journey takes us from the bayous of Louisiana to the big city lights of New York and Paris. Examining family, race, religion, and the lingering effects of domestic abuse, Our Daily Bread questions what defines one's legacy: the surroundings we are born into, or the choices we make thereafter.Trade Review“Engaging in its lyricism and piercingly honest . . . Alexander’s voice is distinctive, fluid, and captivating. His keen sense and talent for dialogue; his narrative style, simple but profound; and his humor make Our Daily Bread compelling and irresistible.” —Mohammed Naseehu Ali, author of The Prophet of Zongo Street “Alexander’s characters stay with you long after reading the last page of Our Daily Bread, so much so that you miss them and find yourself wondering how they’re doing in life. With dialogue so skillfully constructed that conversations feel as if they are being eavesdropped on rather than read, this story becomes a part of you.” —Jill Sorensen, founder of Knock-Out Abuse
£19.79
Xulon Press Walking Under His Wings: God Perfect Keys for a
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£9.50
WW Norton & Co Arturo's Island: A Novel
Book SynopsisOnce considered the greatest writer of Italy’s postwar generation—and admired by authors as varied as John Banville and Rivka Galchen—Elsa Morante is experiencing a literary renaissance, marked not least by Ann Goldstein’s translation of Arturo’s Island, the novel that brought Morante international fame. Imbued with a spectral grace, as if told through an enchanted looking glass, the novel follows the adolescent Arturo through his days on the isolated Neapolitan island of Procida, where—his mother long deceased, his father often absent, and a dog as his sole companion—he roams the countryside and the beaches or reads in his family’s lonely, dilapidated mansion. This quiet, meandering existence is upended when his father brings home a beautiful sixteen-year-old bride, Nunziatella. A novel of longing and thwarted desires, filled with Morante’s “brutal directness and familial torment” (James Wood), Arturo’s Island reemerges in this splendid translation to take its rightful place in the world literary canon.Trade Review"The book’s themes — incest, misogyny, narcissism, homosexuality — slide across the pages like lava. Morante delivers epic emotions. Her people don’t talk so much as they exclaim 'with a contemptuous sneer' or 'a loud, haughty cry of derision.' They tremble with violent disgusts and savage attitudes. They strike poses of fear, loathing and, in the words of one character, 'aggressive, insolent vehemence.' They rattle the cutlery and they rattle each other. Arturo’s Island kept calling out to me, however. It had set its brutal hooks.... [Morante’s writing] has the power of malediction." -- Dwight Garner, New York Times"I am pleased that Arturo’s Island is having a second life, as, no doubt, the novel will garner its neglected author the new readers she deserves. A coming-of-age story—often compared to Alain-Fournier’s “Le Grand Meaulnes”—it had struck me, when I first read it at age 18, as a celebration of childhood, an homage to the power of myth and the redemptive goodness of nature and animals." -- Lily Tuck, Wall Street Journal"Ann Goldstein's deft translation is an exception; it gives a clear sense of Morante's love of the romantic, while preserving a lightness of tone that prevents the lyrical prose from calcifying." -- Madeline Schwartz, New York Review of Books"This lovely new translation by Goldstein, known for her work on Elena Ferrante and Primo Levi, will hopefully go a long way toward re-establishing Morante's reputation among English-speaking readers. It's a magnificent novel, breathtaking in its psychological acuity. Arturo’s maturation—and accompanying disappointments, even betrayals—is deeply painful. ...But there are moments, too, of striking beauty.... The book is brimful with insight. By turns devastating and otherworldly, Morante's novel is a classic, and Goldstein's new translation should return to it the attention it deserves." -- Kirkus Reviews [starred review]"In this translation of Morante's arresting, febrile tale of abjection and adoration, originally published in 1957, Goldstein captures the blustery voice of an adolescent boy on Procida.... Morante's style is well-suited to the adolescent narrator who, marooned on an island, experiences particularly intense bouts of enchantment and disillusionment, making for a captivating novel." -- Publishers Weekly
£20.89
WW Norton & Co Home After Dark: A Novel
Book SynopsisWildly kaleidoscopic and furiously cinematic, Home After Dark is a literary tour-de-force that renders the brutality of adolescence in the so-called nostalgic 1950s, evoking classics such as The Lord of the Flies. Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to California in search of a dream. Forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell for being “queer”. Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays them by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds. Told through thousands of spliced images, Home After Dark is a new form of literature, a shocking graphic interpretation of cinema verité.Trade Review"David Small’s tale of a sad, isolated teenager and his angry father is timely in the age of Donald Trump... All of the power of Home After Dark lies with his meticulous pen and waterproof ink drawings... Among his influences, besides the work of Egon Schiele, which he loved as a younger man, are directors such as Hitchcock, Polanski, Bergman and Antonioni, and his exquisite holding shots, stunning closeups and extended silent sequences do bring the movies immediately to mind; at times, you fancy you might almost hear the whirr of the projector." -- Rachel Cooke, Graphic Novel of the Month - The Observer"A master graphic storyteller who has certainly captured male adolescence in 1950s America. Having to think about dodging high school bullies every day sure resonated with me! And Russell’s sexual predicament was handled in a very original way." -- Robert Crumb"... [In] the profound and moving Home After Dark... Small subtly tackles unsubtle themes—gender roles, sexual awakening, immigration, racism—in spare prose and beautiful Hitchcockian-angled panels. Home After Dark is touching, heartbreaking and one of the more nuanced looks at male adolescence in American literature since Holden Caulfield was expelled from Pencey Prep." -- Times Literary Supplement"Small’s forte lies in the silent, cinematic montage, where each image echoes with Russell’s loneliness. It’s a hauntingly harsh coming-of-age tale." -- Siobhan Murphy - The Times"This is not a California – or a childhood – that anyone in their right mind would ever dream of... This book is utterly superb. Only a person with no feelings at all could fail to buy it." -- Strong Words"... Home After Dark is well crafted. Small is a talented cartoonist and the opening sequence particularly impressive as Russell stares at his reflection in a Christmas bauble, trying to recognise himself. And the dream sequence in which his desire for Kurt breaks through is as clever as it is truthful." -- The Scotsman"Set in America in the years after the Korean war it’s a coming-of-age story that takes in parental separation, bullying, and sexual awakening. Nothing new there, you might say, but Small’s vision of his protagonist Russell Pruitt is starkly told, dark in mood and action. The art is scratchy but the scratches cut deep." -- The Herald
£15.19
WW Norton & Co Boys of Alabama: A Novel
Book SynopsisIn this bewitching debut novel, a sensitive teen, newly arrived in Alabama, falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. While his German parents don’t know what to make of a South pining for the past, shy Max thrives in the thick heat. Taken in by the football team, he learns how to catch a spiraling ball, how to point a gun, and how to hide his innermost secrets. Max already expects some of the raucous behavior of his new, American friends—like their insatiable hunger for the fried and cheesy, and their locker room talk about girls. But he doesn’t expect the comradery—or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” That is until he meets Pan, the school “witch,” in Physics class: “Pan in his all black. Pan with his goth choker and the gel that made his hair go straight up.” Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair embarks on a consuming relationship: Max tells Pan about his supernatural powers, and Pan tells Max about the snake poison initiations of the local church. The boys, however, aren’t sure whose past is darker, and what is more frightening—their true selves, or staying true in Alabama. Writing in verdant and visceral prose that builds to a shocking conclusion, Genevieve Hudson “brilliantly reinvents the Southern Gothic, mapping queer love in a land where God, guns, and football are king” (Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks). Boys of Alabama becomes a nuanced portrait of masculinity, religion, immigration, and the adolescent pressures that require total conformity.Trade Review"Hudson’s writing is magnetic. It’s like the Kristen Stewart of prose – chameleon-like, layered, funny and serious and sad, really gay, and so attractive.... It wrecked me, just like I wanted.... Hudson grew up in Alabama, and their complex relationship with the place shines through in this story, which quietly and then loudly hurtles toward a climax that had me staring into space for a full 10 minutes after I read it." -- Sarah Neilson, Them, "5 Queer Books We Loved in 2020""Debut novelist Hudson sets her unique coming-of-age tale in a hot, swampy Alabama steeped in football and God. . . . This is a little southern gothic, a little supernatural, and a little reminiscent of Wiley Cash’s suspenseful A Land More Kind than Home (2012)." -- Kathy Sexton, Booklist"Boys of Alabama brilliantly reinvents the Southern Gothic... An absolutely magical novel." -- Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks"A gripping, uncanny, and queer exploration of being a boy in America, told with detail that dazzles and disturbs." -- Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir"Genevieve Hudson dismantles and spins a new category of fairy tale for us, one that’s equal parts dirt and splendor. A glinting, dark beauty. An incantation." -- T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girl"This novel is a love song to outsiders of all kinds, a queer love story about the ways we find to heal ourselves and each other, and proof that there can be magic amid the burdens of masculinity." -- Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me"Genevieve Hudson has conjured a novel that sets place as a touchstone. Every field is alive: every leaf, every insect, every crawling thing. Hands beget love, words set like sweetness on the tongue. The magic contained in Boys of Alabama's pages isn't just fixed in the beauty of its sentences; it's seen in the way that Hudson carefully crafts the intimacy between people and how she tenderly exposes queerness. This book is a fragile web, full of longing and ache and regret." -- Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things"Genevieve Hudson creates a new American erotics of longing and belonging, flush with want and desire, hope and home, translation and transformation." -- Matt Bell, author of Scrapper"Hudson goes right to a place where violence comes from—uncomfortably close to desire for magic, God, sex, whatever might actually heal us—and doesn’t turn away." -- Kristin Dombek, author of The Selfishness of Others"One of the finest—and weirdest!—first novels I’ve read in quite some long time." -- Tom Bissell, author of Apostle and coauthor of The Disaster Artist"Boys of Alabama perfectly captures the magic and inevitable heartache of young lust." -- Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light"[Depicts] a brand of Southern-fried masculinity that is immediately recognizable and startlingly fresh. This is an exquisite book." -- Nick White, author of How to Survive a Summer"Reminds us that behind so many of America’s most rigid beliefs lies the lonely human heart: twitchy, slippery, alive." -- Mikkel Rosengaard, author of The Invention of Ana
£19.94
WW Norton & Co Thomas Mann: New Selected Stories
Book SynopsisA towering figure in the pantheon of twentieth-century literature, Thomas Mann has often been perceived as a dry and forbidding writer—“the starched collar,” as Bertolt Brecht once called him. But in fact, his fiction is lively, humane, sometimes hilarious. In these fresh renderings of his best short work, award-winning translator Damion Searls casts new light on this underappreciated aspect of Mann’s genius. The headliner of this volume, “Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow” (in its first new translation since 1936)—a subtle masterpiece that reveals the profound emotional significance of everyday life—is Mann’s tender but sharp-eyed portrait of the “Bigs” and “Littles” of the bourgeois Cornelius family as they adjust to straitened circumstances in hyperinflationary Weimar Germany. Here, too, is a free-standing excerpt from Mann’s first novel, Buddenbrooks—a sensation when it was first published. “Death in Venice” (also included in this volume) is Mann’s most famous story, but less well known is that he intended it to be a diptych with another, comic story—included here as “Confessions of a Con Artist, by Felix Krull.” “Louisey”—a tale of sexual humiliation that gives a first glimpse of Mann’s lifelong ambivalence about the power of art—rounds out this revelatory, transformative collection.Trade Review"Searls infuses the prose of Nobel laureate Mann (1875–1955) with momentum and energy in this excellent collection. English-language readers will find the humor and digressive appeal of Mann’s prose enhanced... A well-chosen excerpt from the novel Confessions of a Con Artist, by Felix Krull exhibits a connection between the title character, a peripatetic young man, and Mann’s other protagonists: “What a royal gift the imagination is, and what pleasure it affords us!” Felix narrates. Throughout, the characters are linked by their unspeakable desires, and their inner worlds are just as significant as, and often more so than, their actions. Scholars as well as those new to Mann will find much to appreciate in Searls’s stimulating approach." -- Publishers Weekly"Searls' superb translations of Mann’s most essential short works emphasize moments of despair and levity, breathing fresh humanity into the stories of the famously solemn German literary giant . . . Searls is meticulous in his attention to German-language nuance but intuitive in channeling the tensions and rhythms of his source material. His introduction reveals a deep fascination with Mann’s complexities, and an anxiety that Mann might soon be dismissed as a twentieth-century relic with little relevance to today’s readers. His work here goes a long way toward preventing that from happening." -- Brendan Driscoll - Booklist"In his witty, insightful, and charming introduction, Searls makes some useful observations about why Mann’s personal life is worth addressing . . . It’s a useful reminder of the subversive power of cultural hybridity — a writer whose Germanness was central to his public identity in fact contained multitudes." -- Matt Hanson - Arts Fuse"[A] trip into timeless themes of youthful innocence; the perpetual struggle between discipline and desire; and more. Readers turn to Mann not for lickety-split action but to take a literary amble through poetic sentences; those in the market for old-school leisure won't be disappointed." -- Michael Magras - Shelf Awareness"I have long loved Thomas Mann's subtlety, erudition, and elegant mind, but it wasn't until reading these newly translated stories that I picked up the range of the author's irony and humor. The art of translation seems to me the most delicate and precise of literary arts, and Damion Searls stands at the very apex of translators into English." -- Lauren Groff, author of Matrix"Damion Searls has produced the perfect Mann translation; the author’s erudition and aesthetic sensibility are mutually enhanced instead of one being sacrificed for the other. Mann has never been more readable in English, and the English reader never more aware of the shining beauty of the source." -- Anton Hur, translator"Although Mann’s stories are more than a century old, Damion Searls’s new translations capture the writer’s sly humor and warmth, making these short masterpieces feel wholly modern. Readers who know Mann will see him anew; for those who haven’t read him yet, this collection is a superb introduction to one of the greats." -- Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind"Searls’s selections of this funny, ironic, exceptionally readable 20th-century writer’s work are as inspired as his engaging and lucid translations: here we have the slow-burning torment and humiliation of 'Louisey,' the charming irony of 'Confessions of a Con Artist, By Felix Krull,' the startling emotional acuity of 'A Day in the Life of Hanno Buddenbrook,' and the great rediscovery, 'Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow,' which condenses a novel’s worth of empathy, family conflict, and fine-grained observation into a riveting story less than forty pages long. Towering above all is 'Death in Venice'—the extraordinary pandemic tale, refreshed and haunting in its best-ever translation. I’ve spent years waiting for the Mannaissance—the publication of New Selected Stories will, at last, bring it into being." -- Mark Krotov, coeditor, n+1"In this vigorous new version . . . Searls takes pains to bring Mann’s decades-old prose to life without anachronism or false breeziness . . . A well-chosen, confidently translated gathering of stories that casts new light on its author." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
£21.59
She Writes Press The Black Velvet Coat: A Novel
Book SynopsisTwenty-eight-year-old struggling San Francisco artist Anne McFarland is determined to get a one-woman show, even though no one, including herself, believes she can do it. But when she buys a coat at a thrift shop with a key in its pocket, strange, even magical, occurrences begin to unfold, and she is inspired to create her best work ever. Fifty years earlier, it’s 1963, and the coat’s original owner, young heiress Sylvia Van Dam, is headed toward a disastrous marriage with a scoundrel. In a split-second reaction she does the unimaginable, which propels her on a trip of self-discovery to nature-filled Northern Arizona. When Anne and Sylvia’s lives intersect, they are both forced to face their fears―and, in the process, realize their true potential.Trade Review2021 Next Generation Indie Awards Winner in Series (Fiction) 2021 CIBA Fiction Series Book Awards First Place Winner 2016 International Book Award Finalist, Best New Fiction “In Jill G. Hall’s lovely debut novel, a vintage coat and the brass key discovered in its pocket provide the foundation for the alternating stories of two women from different eras. As we read, we follow Anne and Sylvia as they navigate love and loss, heartbreak, and triumph. The Black Velvet Coat is an absolute delight.” —Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English “Jill G. Hall creates a novel with two unforgettable characters whose lives, though generations apart, are inexplicably intertwined, which gives you the qualities you want in a great story—mystery, suspense, and romance.” —Judy Reeves, author of Wild Women, Wild Voices “The Black Velvet Coat is a story about fate and friendship and love. These characters will break your heart in all the best ways.” —T. Greenwood, author of Two Rivers, Bodies of Water, and The Forever Bridge “Jill G. Hall’s book is a real page-turner! Artists everywhere will especially enjoy reading about the artistic process and the inspiration behind creating new work.” —Jane LaFazio, mixed media artist and feature writer for Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts magazines “Readers looking for a simple story will find charming elements in this blend of mystery and historical fiction.” —Library Journal “Spellbinding. Readers will feel they are watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie as they turn the pages of this vivid, fast-paced novel about how uncovering the past can lead to discovering oneself. You’ll never look at vintage clothes quite the same way again.” —Jennifer Coburn, author of We’ll Always Have Paris
£12.34
She Writes Press The Silver Shoes: A Novel
Book SynopsisIn her second novel, Jill G. Hall, author of The Black Velvet Coat, brings readers another dual tale of two dynamic women from two very different eras searching for fulfillment. San Francisco artist Anne McFarland has been distracted by a cross-country romance with sexy Sergio and has veered from her creative path. While visiting him in New York, she buys a pair of rhinestone shoes in an antique shop that spark her imagination and lead her on a quest to learn more about the shoes’ original owner. Almost ninety years earlier, Clair Deveraux, a sheltered 1929 New York debutante, tries to reside within the bounds of polite society and please her father. But when she meets Winnie, a carefree Macy’s shop girl, Clair is lured into the steamy side of Manhattan—a place filled with speakeasies, flappers, and the beat of “that devil music”—and her true desires explode wide open. Secrets and lies heap up until her father loses everything in the stock market crash and Clair becomes entangled in the burlesque world in an effort to save her family and herself. Ultimately, both Anne and Clair—two very different women living in very different eras—attain true fulfillment . . . with some help from their silver shoes.Trade Review2021 Next Generation Indie Awards Winner in Series (Fiction) 2021 CIBA Fiction Series Book Awards First Place Winner 2018 New York City Big Book Award, Historical Fiction Distinguished Favorite “The crash of 1929, speakeasies and musical reviews, artistic challenges, family secrets, secret desires, romantic complications—these are just a few of the ingredients in Jill G. Hall’s wonderful new novel, The Silver Shoes. Clair and Anne are two compelling characters born decades apart into drastically different circumstances. Each must face her own dilemmas and neither has an easy solution.” —Judy Reeves, author of Wild Women, Wild Voices “A pair of glittery shoes links two women nearly a century apart in this enchanting story by Jill G. Hall.” —Janice Steinberg, author of The Tin Horse and dance journalist “What a delight! Hall captivates and pulls the reader in; the story is as sparkling and fun as the silver shoes that connect the two women together—pure entertainment!” —Michelle Cox, Author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series "You’ll be cheering for both of these heroines as they insist on finding their own way as artists, no matter what the men in their lives want them to be. Hall's descriptions of Anne's visual art, inspired by the silver shoes, are delicious." —Janice Steinberg, art journalist and author of The Tin Horse
£12.34
She Writes Press Sky Queen: A Novel
Book SynopsisIt's 1967, and Katherine Roebling is a Chicago-based stewardess caught between the hold of highflying travel and the call of her Native American ancestors just as the women’s movement is taking the US by storm. As she vacillates between an ever-present mystical ancestral feather and her alluring stewardess life of excitement and travel, she embarks on a journey from one adventure to the next—each episode bringing her closer to her predestined calling. A chance meeting with a college student from Athens, Greece at a Chicago Playboy Mansion Press Party and her visit to the Oracle of Delphi intertwine with Katherine's discovery of the treasure inside herself. Ultimately, she gains wings that allow her to glide over society’s barriers; she abandons the so-called glamorous life she’s been living, creates her own path, and embarks upon a new career at the Smithsonian in DC—one that will take her on a miraculous experience of personal growth and uncharted paths.
£12.34
She Writes Press Chasing North Star: A Novel
Book SynopsisGermany, 1940. While struggling to survive at an orphanage, young Didi crosses paths with a rebellious, quirky girl who will either help her escape a life of abuse and uncertainty or lead her down an even darker path.Fast-forward to 1970. With help from a worn leather journal, another young girl learns the story of Didi, who escaped war-torn Germany for a better life in America—except her life didn’t turn out as expected. The stories of these two girls intertwine and eventually collide one Christmas night when Didi, all grown up, finally remembers the secret she buried long ago.Chasing North Star looks back at a time when four free-range siblings, cigarettes in hand, roamed the streets ’til sunrise and hid from a gun-toting, mentally ill mother who couldn’t help herself. Stingray bicycles, transistor radios, and late nights in the cemetery—just another day in Alamo. That is, until the youngest sibling stumbles upon Didi’s story.Trade Review“Chasing North Star has heart and is packed with nostalgic cultural references from the Wonder Years era. Inspired by a true story, Heidi McCrary’s novel is no one’s fantasy of the perfect childhood. Part horror story, part love story, it keeps the reader engaged and lays bare what it’s like to grow up with a mentally ill mother who broke her children’s 45s but couldn’t break their spirits.” —Lori Moore, TV/radio personality and actress “Chasing North Star explores universal themes of abandonment, isolation, grief, mental illness, and forgiveness in an authentic and engaging manner. The narrative is familiar, like a close friend sharing a secret. Heidi McCrary’s novel sheds light on the ways we are taught to hide or ignore the pain we see in others and just how much one person’s kindness can make all the difference to a person in their life journey.” —J. Dylan Yates, author of The Belief in Angels and Szaja’s Story “Heidi McCrary’s debut novel, Chasing North Star, is a moving story about secrets and survival and enduring sibling ties, bound by a mother’s mental illness. This heartfelt tale lingers long after the final page.” —Linda Kass, author of Tasa’s Song and A Ritchie Boy “Chasing North Star is a poignant novel that beautifully captures the small-town childhood of four siblings trying to survive their mother’s frightening mental illness. The author sharply renders the generational impact of trauma by including shifts to the mother’s difficult past in wartime Germany.” —Elise Schiller, author of Watermark “Heidi McCrary delivers an unforgettable and unflinching coming-of-age novel about the ties that bind siblings in their complicated family struggles. Chasing North Star examines the pain—often terror—of growing up with a narcissistic, mentally ill mother and the fact that the love we all crave has to ultimately be found in ourselves.” —Diana Y. Paul, author of Things Unsaid
£12.34
She Writes Press Boop and Eve's Road Trip: A Novel
Book SynopsisEve Prince is done—with college, with her mom, with guys, and with her dream of fashion design. But when her best friend goes MIA, Eve must gather together the broken threads of her life in order to search for her. When Eve’s grandmother, Boop, a retiree dripping with Southern charm, finds out about the trip, she—desperate to see her sister, and also hoping to alleviate Eve’s growing depression—hijacks her granddaughter’s road trip. Boop knows from experience that healing Eve will require more than flirting lessons and a Garlic Festival makeover. Nevertheless, Boop is frustrated when her feeble efforts yield the same failure that her sulfur-laced sip from the Fountain of Youth wrought on her age. She knows that sharing the secret that’s haunted her for sixty years might be the one thing that will lessen Eve’s growing depression—but she also fears that if she reveals it, she’ll lose her family and her own hard-won happiness. Boop and Eve’s journey through the heart of Dixie is an unforgettable love story between a grandmother and her granddaughter.Trade Review2020 American Fiction Awards Winner in Coming of Age 2021 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal Finalist 2021 Eric Hoffer Category Finalist Buzzfeed's "12 Most Anticipated Books of Fall" Popsugar's “The 21 Most Exciting New Releases Hitting Bookshelves Throughout October” Parade's “Highly Anticipated Books of Fall” Frolic's “Ten Books Perfect for Your Book Club” “A touching intergenerational romp through the coastal South.” —Kirkus Reviews “Book and Eve's Road Trip will touch your heart. A beautiful and emotional story of sisterhood, family, and friendship. From the first page, Mary Helen Sheriff’s lush and lyrical writing draws you in. Fans of Patti Callahan Henry and Kristy Woodson Harvey will adore this debut.” —Kerry Lonsdale, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Last Summer “Boop and Eve’s Road Trip is warm, witty, and wise, with characters I loved and characters I loved to hate. Filled with twists and turns and many a bump in the road, this trip is a delight from beginning to end.” —Han Nolan, National Book Award–winning author of Dancing on the Edge “Debut author Mary Helen Sheriff has woven a contemporary, heartwarming saga about women, for women. Peppered with surprises and humor, her story follows three generations of a dysfunctional family through their hurt, anger, and regret and toward reconciliation and hope.” —Pam Webber, best-selling author of The Wiregrass and Moon Water “Boop and Eve’s Road Trip is a delightful, funny, poignant ride filled with laughter, tears, and mystery. It is both a physical and emotional journey that Boop and Eve undertake, and the healing they both experience is something that might just heal a little part of everyone.” —Kathy Hepinstall, author of The Book of Polly “Three generations of women, one agonizing secret. Boop and Eve will steal your heart as they travel together—one seeking her future and the other forced to face her past. Sheriff’s novel will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the very same page.” —T. Greenwood, award-winning author of Keeping Lucy and Rust & Stardust
£11.69
She Writes Press Jenna Takes The Fall: A Novel
Book SynopsisTwenty-four years old and newly employed in Manhattan, Jenna McCann agrees to place herself under the dead body of a wealthy, prominent New Yorker—her boss—to hide the identity of his real lover. But why? Because she is half in love with him herself; because her only friend at Hull Industries asked her to; because she feared everyone around her; because she had no idea how this would spin out into her own, undeveloped life; because she had nothing and no one? Or just because? Deftly told and sharply observed, Jenna Takes the Fall is the story of someone who became infamous . . . before she became anybody at all.
£12.34
She Writes Press Playground Zero: A Novel
Book SynopsisIt’s the season of siren songs and loosened bonds―as well as war, campaign slogans, and assassination. At the height of the Vietnam War protests, Washington lawyer Tom Rayson uproots his family for the freewheeling city of Berkeley. While Tom pursues a romance with a sexy colleague in the Marin County woods, Marian joins a peace party that’s running a Black Panther for president and meets the Berkeley revolution. But for young Alice, her parents’ liberating forays become a blind leap in a city marked by beauty and social change―and for a girl, that’s no Summer of Love. Feeling estranged from her family, Alice embraces the moment and falls in with Jim and Valerie Dupres. Jim and Valerie have been learning the ropes on Telegraph Avenue, cadging meals at a nearby communal house and camping out in People’s Park. Soon they’re confronting National Guardsmen. As family and school fade away in a tear-gas fog, Alice feels an ambiguous freedom. Caught up in a rebellion that feels equally compelling, scary, and absurd, Alice could become a casualty—or she could defy the odds and become her own person. One thing is sure: there’s no going back. Trade Review2021 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Literary2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Social Issues “This intense retrospective on people yanked out of the strait-laced Fifties and tossed into a culture of anything goes will appeal to readers wanting to learn more about Berkeley’s days of rage.” —Historical Novels Review “Like the writing of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Relyea has the ability to build a particular drama into a compelling plot, unveiled through multiple points of view. . . . Through music, literature, and actual events, the author creates a clear picture of the 1960s, especially the tumultuous events and the free-love flower power that swept the west coast in particular. This is a powerful, historical drama. Well constructed.” —Readers’ Favorite, five-star review “An eerily compelling déjà vu of the free, wild, and jeopardy-ridden kid scene in late-1960s Berkeley. Uncanny and powerful.” —Charles Degelman, Editor, Harvard Square Editions “Like a trip through the Looking Glass, Sarah Relyea’s engrossing debut novel takes you by the hand back to the sixties, where social rules were being challenged and political upheaval was the norm.” —Patricia Hurtado, Brooklyn writer and journalist with Bloomberg News “A fascinating exploration of a strange and exciting time in US history . . . I was totally immersed in the story as Alice grows and develops in a world in which freedom has many different outcomes.”—NetGalley
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing A Good Country
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£14.45
Bloomsbury Publishing USA We Shall Not All Sleep: A Novel
Book SynopsisAn utterly compelling novel from a brilliant new voice. --M. L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans For generations they've shared the small Maine island of Seven, but the Hillsingers and the Quicks have always kept apart, even since before Jim Hillsinger and Billy Quick married sisters. When Jim is ousted from the CIA under suspicion of treason, he begins to suspect that he has been betrayed--by his brother-in-law, Billy, and also by his own wife, Lila. In retaliation, he decides to carry out an old threat: to send their twelve-year-old son, Catta, to a neighboring island to test his survival skills.Set over three summer days in 1964, Estep Nagy''s debut novel moves among the communities of Seven--the families, the servants, and the childrenas longstanding tensions become tactical face-offs in which love, loss, and long-held secrets become brutal ammunition. Vividly capturing the rift between the cold warriors of Jim''s generation and the rebellious seekers of Catta''s, We Shall Not All Sleep is a richly told story of American class, family, and manipulation, and a compelling portrait of a unique and privileged enclave on the brink of dissolution.
£9.49
Mango Media Monster: The Early Life of Mary Shelley
Book SynopsisMary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Book That Changed the WorldMonster: Publishing to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and a movie starring Elle Fanning as Mary Shelley, Monster is a brilliant fictionalized biography akin to The Other Boleyn Girl. Frankenstein: Two centuries ago this year, the young woman who invented science fiction was only 20 when she wrote the book that became Frankenstein. Mary Shelley said, “People ask how I, then a young girl, could think of, and dilate upon, so hideous subject?” Gothic Romance: Her father gave her a far better education than any woman of the age could hope for and made her the victim of ongoing incest. At 15, she became involved with one of the greatest poets in England and made love to him on her mother’s grave. When she was 16, she escaped from home by running away for a six week walking tour of Europe and formed a ménage a trois with Shelley and her sister. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein: Her immediate influences were two of the greatest poets of the age. Her lover, Percy Shelley, coached her to expand her understanding of writing. Her mentor, Lord Byron, challenged her to prove she was as good a writer as the best poet-philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both men admired her mind, and both wanted more. By the time she was 20, she published the book that changed the world.Trade Review"Monster offers a sincere and well-crafted tribute to a brilliant woman and her enduring masterpiece." - The Historical Novel Society of Devon England
£12.59
Other Press LLC What You Need from the Night: A Novel
Book SynopsisA CrimeReads Best International Fiction Book of Fall 2023A powerful, intimate portrait of grief and radicalization that grapples with the conundrum of having loved ones we no longer recognize.After the death of his wife, a father raises his two sons alone. His bond with Fus, the elder, and Gillou, the younger, is a close one. But their town is not a place of opportunity, and it soon becomes clear that the boys are heading down different paths. Gillou sets his sights on university in Paris. Fus, despite his socialist upbringing, falls in with the local far-right group. Though he joins mostly for the camaraderie, their activities, which might on the surface appear harmless, lead to a violent confrontation.How can a father and son find common ground when everything seems set to break them apart? A sudden tragedy will force them to find an answer.Tense, sharp, and ultimately heartbreaking, What You Need from the Night asks what acts can truly be forgiven, and shines a spotlight on the forgotten corners of a country where white supremacy has taken hold much like in the US.
£13.59
Bloomsbury Publishing The Great Passion
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£22.40
Bloomsbury Publishing The Great Passion
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£14.40
Bloomsbury Publishing Brother
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£13.60
Bloomsbury Publishing This Is Happiness
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£22.50
Bloomsbury Publishing Nothing Special
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£21.59
Bloomsbury Publishing This Is Happiness
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£15.30
Bloomsbury Publishing We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
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£21.60
Bloomsbury Publishing The Mysteries
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£20.80
Bloomsbury Publishing A Saint from Texas
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£16.20
Bloomsbury Publishing The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa
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£22.40
Bloomsbury Publishing USA Apartment
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£13.60
Bloomsbury Publishing A Day of Fallen Night
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£30.60
Bloomsbury Publishing Cyclorama
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£24.30
Bloomsbury Publishing The House of Fortune
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£23.80
Akashic Books, Ltd. Swanna in Love
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£23.96
Akashic Books, Ltd. Swanna in Love
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£15.26
Morgan James Publishing llc Catherine’s Dream: A Story of Spirit and Courage
Book SynopsisInspired by real events, Roxanne Bocyck’s debut novel Catherine’s Dream is a testament to the power and possibility of nurturing one’s dreams against all odds and overcoming fear and doubt with faith and determination. Catherine Soból is a Polish peasant woman in the early 1900s, who lives on an orchard outside of Kraków, Poland, and dreams of being an artist. Raised by an iron fist, Catherine is an old-world girl with new world aspirations. But how will she pursue her dreams of artistry when she must conceal her drawings from her father, a pragmatic peasant-farmer, who demands she work to support the family? In fact, much to Catherine’s dismay, he plans to marry her to a local village boy and settle into a life of security on the small apple orchard that is her dowry.Over and above her personal turmoil, the Great War has ended but the fighting over Poland’s border with Ukraine continues. Tension rises in Catherine’s family when she falls in love with Józef, a young, local blacksmith who creates beautiful jewelry and encourages her to follow her heart despite her family’s resistance to her artistic dreams. But the plans others force upon her, along with Józef’s disappearance - and probable death - on the war front, send her life skidding in a direction she must now tolerate but is unable live wholeheartedly.Sold as a “bride” to a crude lout of a man and shipped off to a mountain town in backwoods America, Catherine faces the cold winds of bad chance and other forces that seek to control her destiny, and learns that knowing what she wants, taking risks, and having faith are the keys to unlocking any obstacle that stands in the way of her living the life of her dreams.
£16.10
Post Hill Press Kennedy's Goodbye
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£14.45
Permuted Press New Millennium Boyz
Book SynopsisBrad Sela is living an apathetic suburban life in his affluent neighbourhood until two new friends drag him down a destructive path toward self-discovery.“My favourite millennial provocateur.” —Bret Easton Ellis Freshly seventeen and entering his Y2K senior year, Brad is feeling fatigued by the cookie-cutter image his new-agey Oprah-loving mom and corporate-Boomer dad expect him to maintain, so when the new transfer students, Lu and Shane, invite him out to the woods, he agrees to see what this Baphomet-worshipping goth kid and classic-rock stoner have to offer.“There's no way a robot wrote this book. A no-holds-barred tour of the Millennial mindset's spiritual DNA. Anything goes.” —Douglas Coupland Soon, he’s dealing with the delicate balance of a double life, forsaking old friends for his new ones, and secretly embarking on a journey of indulging his darkest impulses—even documenting some of their most dangerous and disturbing exploits on their Handycams. But as their hijinks increase and threaten to expose him, Brad is forced to reconcile who he really is or risk drowning in his downward spiral.“There is some twisted shit in this book that will likely fuck with your head and break your heart. Remember Woodstock ’99, and how a sick, profit-driven media culture pushed boys to their worst impulses? Think Larry Clark or Bret Easton Ellis by way of Charles Bukowski or J.G. Ballard. These kids are not all right. Kazemi’s prose produces the same visceral response as an early Tarantino movie. Proceed with caution.” —Douglas Rushkoff At turns hair-raising and harrowing, Alex Kazemi’s thrilling debut novel is an unnerving examination of the collision of traditional masculinity, the early internet, and irresistible pop culture that shaped the turn of the century and transformed the way boys engage with the world. The bastard love child of Bret Easton Ellis and Gregg Araki, New Millennium Boyz presents an uncensored and unsettling portrait of the year 2000 that never could have aired on MTV.“I walked a path parallel to my own, and it was honest, authentic and awful. New Millennium Boyz is an intrusively intimate narration of someone who lived in familiar coordinates yet a different social stratum. That wholly un-unique alienation and emptiness is one that fills me with a nostalgia for a past that was, and was not, my own.” —Brooks Brown, Columbine Survivor and Author“In New Millennium Boyz, Alex Kazemi dissects the post-Columbine generation with wit and a sharp scalpel. His characters are damaged products of their time. While this is a dark chronicle, there's also a cozy High School Confidential feel to the tale and the various media Kazemi employs to tell it, resulting in a compulsively readable novel.” —Poppy Z. Brite“Alex Kazemi is a boy wonder.” —Shirley MansonTrade Review“…a raw, raunchy, alternately sickening, sweet, maddening and heartbreaking read that immerses you in the lives of three privileged high school boys living out their senior year of 1999-2000, staving off boredom via increasingly depraved adventures. I could hardly put the book down, partly because it’s an addictive page-turner but also because it is set in such a specific time and through events that I reported on during my time as a correspondent for MTV News.” -- John Norris, Daily Beast“New Millennium Boyz reads like a script for an American high school classic, taking the familiar characters and concepts of She’s All That, Heathers, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bring It On, American Pie and The Craft. Kazemi, having been born in 1994, is only just a millennial himself. And yet he writes with such vivid candour that you can practically smell the fresh paint coming off the white picket fences of the wide suburban streets, Stars and Stripes waving in the breeze and the engines of Jeep convertibles revving into high school car parks.” -- The Face“Millennial boyhood was way more messed up than we’d like to remember. Alex Kazemi’s debut novel won’t let us forget. Against the backdrop of our current Y2K nostalgia overload and the creeping manosphere discourse, New Millennium Boyz connects the dots back to the Columbine generation.” -- Vanity Fair“I walked a path parallel to my own, and it was honest, authentic and awful. New Millennium Boyz is an intrusively intimate narration of someone who lived in familiar coordinates yet a different social stratum. That wholly un-unique alienation and emptiness is one that fills me with a nostalgia for a past that was, and was not, my own.” -- Brooks Brown, Columbine Survivor and Author“In New Millennium Boyz, Alex Kazemi dissects the post-Columbine generation with wit and a sharp scalpel. His characters are damaged products of their time. While this is a dark chronicle, there's also a cozy High School Confidential feel to the tale and the various media Kazemi employs to tell it, resulting in a compulsively readable novel.” -- Poppy Z. Brite“Alex Kazemi is a boy wonder.” -- Shirley Manson"Please consider adding Mr. Kazemi’s tome to your personal library." -- Dennis Cooper“New Millennium Boyz is one of the most depraved, horrifying and upsetting novels I’ve ever endured. And I hope that people see this book for what it is: an unnerving uncensored peek into the dangerous reality of Y2K boy culture and the horrible racist, misogynistic and violent behaviors that are normalized amongst young men. I understand why Alex Kazemi wrote this novel, but I’m also deeply saddened and frustrated that the many fraternal themes that are presented in the book are not idiosyncratic to the time period and are being embraced today, although occasionally, strategically, in a more sanitized insidious form. Male culture is only getting more difficult for young boys and men to navigate. They deserve better, and this book, in all of its violence, depravity and desperation should be read as a demand to change our collective culture that strips so many young men of their humanity… to all of our detriment. You will want to put this book down many times, similar to the way we turn our heads or click away from news that overwhelms us. But we all, whether we are aware of it or not, are in this world that Kazemi is forcing us to look at.” -- Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes“...a corporate branded love letter to the late 90s/early 2000s in diary form; its characters overenthusiastic, repellent with coming-of-age sentiment. I soon realized what was actually unfolding: an unfiltered yet sharp satire of that very thing, an endurance piece I was unable to put down…” -- LitReactor“New Millennium Boyz, the debut novel by Alex Kazemi, reveals a group of American boys for everyone to see, and does so with a driving, honest, and almost frightening narrative style. Readers are immersed in the minds and hearts of American teen boyz who are trying to understand—and live—in our desperate adult world. Kazemi's almost musical dialogue, and his novelist's craft capture the potential loneliness of these boyz with passionate intensity. While certain graphic aspects of the novel require that I do not recommend it for our youngest readers, I highly recommend it for middle and older teens and all adults who are raising boys.” -- Michael Gurian, New York Times bestselling author of Saving Our Sons and The Stone Boys
£19.00
