Narrative theme: death, grief, loss
Fantagraphics In The Pines 5 Murder Ballads
Book SynopsisA Dutch cartoonist adapts five murder ballads - some of which have been covered by modern masters like Nick Cave, Steve Earle, and Gillian Welch - into ruthless graphic narratives
£19.79
Fantagraphics Books Walt Disneys Donald Duck The Black Pearls of Tabu
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£28.00
Fantagraphics Books Walt Disneys Donald Duck
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£28.00
Fantagraphics Books Walt Disneys Donald Duck Gift Box Set the Ghost
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£62.99
Fantagraphics Books Disney Masters Collectors Box Set 3 Vols 5 6 0
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£47.99
Fantagraphics Books Disney Masters Collectors Box Set 4
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£50.99
Fantagraphics Books The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
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£187.50
Fantagraphics Books WALT DISNEYS DONALD DUCK BALLOONATICS
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£26.94
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS The Hand of Black and Other Stories
£19.99
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS Corona Bible
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£42.50
Fantagraphics Books Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck in Les Misérables
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£25.49
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS Nudism Comes to Connecticut
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£24.00
Fantagraphics Books The 7th Voyage of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
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£19.54
Fantagraphics Books The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers High Times and
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£16.17
Idea & Design Works The Grave
Book SynopsisDrawn one panel per day over a year, follow the story of three boys who discover a shallow grave while on a weekend camping trip.But that''s just where the mystery begins. The unexpected find reveals a cigar box containing seven mysterious items: a knife, a coin, a pocket watch, a rare baseball card, a gold ring, a silver spoon, and a strange manga comic. How are these items connected? Whose body lies buried? Find out as IDW and Dan Fraga bring you a once in a lifetime tale of friendship, mystery, suspense, and growing up: The Grave.
£14.39
Boom! Studios Alice From Dream to Dream
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£10.44
Boom! Studios Grass Kings Vol. 2
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£12.82
Archaia Studios Press Big Black Stand at Attica
Book SynopsisA graphic novel memoir from Frank “Big Black” Smith, a prisoner at Attica State Prison in 1971, whose rebellion against the injustices of the prison system remains one of the bloodiest civil rights confrontations in American history.FOUR DAYS IN 1971 CHANGED THE COURSE OF AMERICAN HISTORY. THIS IS THE TRUE STORY FROM THE MAN AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL. In the summer of 1971, the New York’s Attica State Prison is a symbol of everything broken in America – abused prisoners, rampant racism and a blind eye turned towards the injustices perpetrated on the powerless. But when the guards at Attica overreact to a minor incident, the prisoners decide they’ve had enough – and revolt against their jailers, taking them hostage and making demands for humane conditions. Frank “Big Black” Smith finds himself at the center of this uprising, struggling to protect hostages, prisoners and negotiators alike. But when the only avenue for
£13.49
Sourcebooks, Inc The Ones We Keep: A Novel
Book SynopsisAn emotional debut for fans of Elizabeth Strout and Diane Chamberlain, The Ones We Keep follows the splintered lives of four family members in the years following an unthinkable tragedy, and the choices they must make to find their way back to each other.One family. One tragedy. One incredible decision to change their fate.A quiet lakeside resort in Vermont seems like the perfect summer getaway for Olivia and Harry Somerville and their three young boys. But in a single moment, their idyllic family retreat becomes a mother's worst nightmare. Returning from a solo hike one afternoon, Olivia learns from a passing stranger that one of her sons has drowned—but not which one.In that moment, Olivia makes a panicked decision that will change her family forever.If she never knows which son has drowned, can Olivia convince herself that none of them have? By shielding herself from reality, can she continue to live in a world where all three boys are still alive?An emotional and heartfelt meditation on the nature of loss, the gift of recovery, and the bonds of love, The Ones We Keep tells the story of one family as they learn to face their grief and fight for hope.Your next gripping book club read exploring the depths of a mother's love, the endurance of family, and the mind-bending paths we take to shield ourselves from heartache.Trade Review"An elegantly written examination of our ability to control our memories and our grief for the sake of survival." - Jamie Harrison, award-winning author of The Widow Nash and The Center of Everything"In one calamitous moment of loss and denial, Olivia Somerville walks out the back door of grief into a life untethered but far from free. The Ones We Keep tracks her journey, interspersed with the journeys of those she left behind, until a second momentous calamity cracks opens the door to a possibility of return. Bobbie Jean Huff thinks us through the unthinkable with grace and unwavering confidence in this riveting story that is wrenching and tender in equal parts, and in the end so deeply satisfying." - Tim Wynne-Jones, author of The Emperor of Any Place"Bobbie Jean Huff leads the reader sure-footedly through three decades in the life of a family torn apart by a tragic accident, to a moving and uplifting ending." - Jane Rogers, author of Mr. Wroe's Virgins
£11.69
Tammera Lynn Cooper Drenched Sunflowers
Book Synopsis
£10.24
Drawn and Quarterly Make me a Woman
Book SynopsisMake Me a Woman offers charming vignettes about being young, Jewish, and singleIt''s easy to understand why Vanessa Davis has taken the comics industry by storm and is poised to do the same with the world at largeher comics are pure chutzpah, gorgeously illustrated in watercolors. No story is too painful to telllike how much she enjoyed fat camp. Nor too off-limitslike her critique of R. Crumb. Nor too personallike her stories of growing up Jewish in Florida. Using her sweet but biting wit, Davis effortlessly carves out a wholly original and refreshing niche in two well-worn territories: autobio comics and the Jewish identity.Davis draws strips from her daily diary, centering on her youth, mother, relationships with men, and eventually her longtime boyfriend. Her intimacy, self-deprecation, and candor have deservedly earned her many accolades and awards. Her deft comedic touch, lush color, and immediacy will set Davis apart not only as one of the premier carto
£15.29
Drawn and Quarterly Scenes from an Impending Marriage
Book SynopsisMAKING LIGHT OF NUPTIAL NARCISSMAt the behest of his soon-to-be wife, Adrian Tomine set out to create a wedding favor for their guests that would be funnier and more personal than the typical chocolate bars and picture frames. What started out as a simple illustrated card soon grew into a full-fledged comic book: a collection of short strips chronicling the often absurd process of getting married. A loose, cartoony departure from Tomine''s previous work, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a sweet-natured, laugh out-loud skewering of the modern marriage process, including hiring a DJ, location scouting, trips to the salon, suit fittings, dance lessons, registering for gifts, and managing familial demands. The most personal and autobiographical work of Tomine''s career, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a charming, delightful token of love.
£8.96
Drawn & Quarterly The Wayside
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£16.14
Drawn & Quarterly Panther
£18.40
Drawn and Quarterly Paul At Home
Book SynopsisPaul at Home is Quebecois superstar Michel Rabagliati s most personal book yet, a riveting, emotional, and frequently amusing take on the losses and loneliness of being closer to retirement than to university. Paul is in his mid-50s, a successful cartoonist with an achy shoulder living in a house he once shared with his wife and daughter. The backyard is unkempt, full of weeds. A swing set sits idle, slowly rusting beside a half-dead tree Paul planted with his then-five-year old daughter. The room that belonged to his now-18-year-old daughter is mostly unused, especially once she decides to move overseas. Left unspoken but lingering in the background is Paul s divorce after a three decade relationship with his high school sweetheart. Amid all of this emotional turmoil, Paul visits his ailing mother in the final months of her life. Like Paul, she divorced in mid-life after a long marriage. She spent most of her remaining years alone or in unfulfilling relationships, which Paul implicitly fears might happen to him. Online dating only seems to make the world worse. Rabagliati doesn t shy away from these intimate issues, approaching them as much with self-deprecating humor as with sorrow or pain. Characterized by both a deep insight and a willingness to poke fun at life s shortcomings, Paul at Home is a playful and poetic rumination on loss and the sometimes unsettling changes that come with middle age.
£16.80
Drawn & Quarterly Publications WinniethePooh
Book SynopsisThe beloved children's classic appears as a graphic novel for the first timeLynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize winner Travis Dandro takes a left turn from his detailed autobiography and returns with the charming tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. In 2015, the A. A. Milne childrens' classic, long since viewed as the benchmark for intelligent and whimsical storytelling, slipped into the public domain. The beloved series now gets the comics treatment from a gifted artist at the peak of his cartooning prowess.Dandro expands the world of Hundred Acre Wood in all directions, creating stunning full-page tableaus where Pooh and everybody's favorite charactersPiglet, Eeyore, Owl, Tigger, and of course, Christopher Robinto romp, argue, fail, and love. Indebted to the unforgettable pen-and-ink drawings of E. H. Shephard, this addition to the canon of timeless literature for all ages encompasses all of Winnie-the-Pooh's original adventures.
£23.96
Drawn and Quarterly Forces of Nature
Book SynopsisThe arrival of the greatest single panel cartoonist since Charles AddamsOne swing trapeze artist prepares to receive a newborn child from another all the while shrieking Support the head! A hopeful, naked Adam reaches high for the largest leaf while a frustrated Eve hands him a smaller, more-appropriately sized leaf. A dejected squid stands in a doorway, shock and dismay on his face, as a ruined surprise party lies in wait before himguests, presents, and birthday cake covered in a blast of ink in mid-Sur as loose balloons butt against the ceiling.Once in generation, a distinctly new perspective emerges from the pages of The New Yorker. In our times, that perspective belongs to Ed Steed. Steeped in the classic formalist tradition of the single-panel gag, Steed possesses a shocking and macabre talent for drawings guaranteed to make even the most composed of casual readers laugh out loud. At times reminiscent of Charles Addams, George Booth, William Steig,
£16.00
Drawn & Quarterly QA
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£12.22
Drawn and Quarterly Aya
Book SynopsisThe young and restless of Yop City just can't seem to catch a break.
£18.71
Conundrum PR About the Little Ones
£28.35
University of Calgary Press Flight Risk
Book SynopsisWorld War II veteran Hank Dunfield is about to turn one hundred years old. The staff at Ponderosa Pine Lodge have recruited Sarah, a young nursing student, to keep Hank safe, comfortable, and in the building while they plan a grand centenarian celebration. There’s one problem: Hank doesn’t want to live that long.Seemingly opposites, Hank and Sarah kindle a deep friendship. Sarah fears the future with multiple sclerosis will be even more isolated, difficult, and painful than the isolated, difficult, and painful present. Hank, a tail gunner during the Second World War, opens his heart to share the deep knowledge of fear, luck, and flying into battle he learned over his. combat missions. Sarah and Hank find strength in each other as they face their deepest fears.Based on interviews with veterans in Alberta seniors’ homes and the skilled nurses who care for them, Flight Risk is the story of finding exactly who you need when you least expect it. An empathetic exploration of grief, friendship, and hope, this play asks what we lose when we ignore the knowledge of our elderly, challenges the way that we think about aging and death, and inspires a brighter, more compassionate future.
£32.25
University of Calgary Press Flight Risk
Book SynopsisWorld War II veteran Hank Dunfield is about to turn one hundred years old. The staff at Ponderosa Pine Lodge have recruited Sarah, a young nursing student, to keep Hank safe, comfortable, and in the building while they plan a grand centenarian celebration. There's one problem: Hank doesn't want to live that long.Seemingly opposites, Hank and Sarah kindle a deep friendship. Sarah fears the future with multiple sclerosis will be even more isolated, difficult, and painful than the isolated, difficult, and painful present. Hank, a tail gunner during the Second World War, opens his heart to share the deep knowledge of fear, luck, and flying into battle he learned over his. combat missions. Sarah and Hank find strength in each other as they face their deepest fears.Based on interviews with veterans in Alberta seniors' homes and the skilled nurses who care for them, Flight Risk is the story of finding exactly who you need when you least expect it. An empathetic exploration of grief, friendship, and hope, this play asks what we lose when we ignore the knowledge of our elderly, challenges the way that we think about aging and death, and inspires a brighter, more compassionate future.
£22.46
Canongate Books Best Laid Plans
Book SynopsisIn the first of a new mystery series, we meet Nora Best as she flees her old life - cheating husband and all - and takes to the road with an Airstream trailer. Nora Best is the envy of her friends. She''s just turned fifty and has traded in her home with The Perfect-Ass Husband for an Airstream trailer and an adventure of a lifetime across the US. But during their leaving party, Nora finds her husband in a compromising position with a friend. Storming out of the party she jumps into her truck with no idea how to tow the Airstream or where she''s going. Nora ends up in a campground in the mountains of Wyoming, drowning her sorrows with its managers, Brad and Miranda. When she is woken by a frantic Miranda after Brad has disappeared and bloodstains have been found around the campsite, Nora finds herself caught up in an adventure she could never have expected . . . facing a charge of murder.
£20.69
Short Books Ltd Don't Put Yourself on Toast
Book Synopsis"A startling debut... This book will make you want to hold everyone you love close, reminding you that life may be fleeting but the people in it never are." PICKED FOR ESQUIRE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF 2022Best Books of 2022 - Picked by Readers - FINANCIAL TIMES When Freddy was 21 years old, his dad, a larger-than-life, successful TV producer, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain cancer. In vivid snapshots, Freddy recalls the ups and downs of an impossible time - from the entertaining antics of a wine-gum tossing competition in a hospital ward, to the comi-tragedy of trying to decipher his father's muddled riddles as his speech disintegrates, to painful moments of regret and self-loathing as he squanders precious time.Don't Put Yourself on Toast is a bittersweet coming-of-age memoir which shows how the power of humour and laughter can provide, even in our darkest moments, sustenance, comfort and hope.Trade Review'A book close to my heart. A tragicomic triumph told with love and humour, revealing how out of darkness comes so much light.' -- TOM DALEY'A startling debut... This book will make you want to hold everyone you love close, reminding you that life may be fleeting but the people in it never are.' -- Olivia Ovenden * Esquire magazine *'It takes quite a talent to make a reader smile and cry at the same time. This is exactly what Freddy Taylor manages to do in Don't Put Yourself on Toast. This book is light and deep, funny and sad, but, essentially, full of love.' -- Sonia Delesalle-Stolper, chief foreign editor * Libération *'An utterly fresh, unconventional memoir about realising what is important in life - and seizing it while it is still there.' -- Iona McLaren * The Telegraph *Life-affirming... Don't Put Yourself on Toast faces mortality head-on - and teaches us how to live... I read [the last] lines in tears, then found myself humming along and laughing. -- Helen Brown * Telegraph Review *'[Taylor] intersperses humorous anecdotes that he jotted down at the time, with more sobering medical notes taken by his stepmother. His writing is fresh, never sugar-coated, and full of hope, and the love and comfort of family shines through the fear and desperation.' * The Tablet *'Comedy and tragedy exist side by side and, in this snappy memoir, Freddy Taylor conveys both the utter awfulness of his father's two-year descent from diagnosis to death, and the moments of hilarity the family had on the way.' -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *'Powerful snapshots of love and grief... Always sad, often uplifting, this will stay with you.' -- Phoebe Luckhurst * Evening Standard *'[The book] reads like a Beckettian tragi-comedy, dark and light in equal measure, paired with a coming-of-age spirit, all the while peering through a grim foreboding.' -- Kate Demolder * The Irish Independent *'Deeply moving and, surprisingly, very funny' -- JACK WHITEHALL'It is so engaging that I challenge anyone to read the book in more than one sitting.... Taylor is funny because he observes the absurdity of human behaviour so accurately. But there are also moments of profound tear-jerking sadness.' -- Olenka Hamilton * Catholic Herald *
£11.69
Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales From
Book SynopsisMischief, Magic, Love and War.It is the Year of Our Lord 1601. The Tuscan War rages across the world, and every lord from Navarre to Illyria is embroiled in the fray. Cannon roar, pikemen clash, and witches stalk the night; even the fairy courts stand on the verge of chaos.Five stories come together at the end of the war: that of bold Miranda and sly Puck; of wise Pomona and her prisoner Vertumnus; of gentle Lucia and the shade of Prospero; of noble Don Pedro and powerful Helena; and of Anne, a glovemaker’s wife. On these lovers and heroes the world itself may depend.These are the stories Shakespeare never told. Five of the most exciting names in genre fiction today – Jonathan Barnes, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Foz Meadows and Kate Heartfield – delve into the world the poet created to weave together a story of courage, transformation and magic.Including an afterword by Dr. John Lavagnino, The London Shakespeare Centre, King's College London.Table of Contents Note From the Editor Prologue Coral Bones, by Foz Meadows The Course of True Love, by Kate Heartfield The Unkindest Cut, by Emma Newman Even in the Cannon’s Mouth, by Adrian Tchikovsky On the Twelfth Night, by Jonathan Barnes Afterword, by Dr. John Lavagnino About the Authors Woodcut Illustrations
£7.59
Pushkin Children's Books Wildful
Book SynopsisDiscover the magic of the wild in this breathtaking graphic novel reminiscent of The Secret Garden.
£15.29
Unbound One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days
Book Synopsis'Superb, moving, beautiful' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and SheepHe will be allowed to visit his mother soon. His mother who is terminally ill, his mother who he has been barred from seeing as he recovers from his own bout of pneumonia.Until then, with the help of his physiotherapist Freya, he must navigate his increasingly empty and isolated existence: his father, who finds solace in the bottom of a glass; his Nana Q, whose betting-slip confetti litters her handbag; his friends, who simply wouldn’t understand.Time passes with the promise of soon, but one hundred and fifty-two days later the boy will come face to face with his grief, and move beyond to a world full of possibility, hope and love.Trade Review 'Oh God, a novel made up of poems about a teenage boy whose mother is dying and it captures so much sorrow and confusion. It's BRILLIANT' Marian Keyes 'Giles Paley-Phillips has written a beautiful honest heartstopping bookpoem about grief. His enormous gorgeous heart is laid bare. Thoroughly recommend' Dawn French 'This book is superb, moving and beautiful' Nick Offerman 'It is superb. So moving. So beautiful. Giles writes with such elegance, he finds the very pinpoint of a scene and conveys it so precisely, it feels as though you are standing there alongside him. Just wonderful' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 'Will resonate with anyone who has suffered a loss' Julia Bradbury 'A soul-stirring exploration of loss, grief, and hope; its raw melody will stay with me for a long time' Susie Dent 'A beautiful, perfect book' Kate Mosse 'A moving, honest and thought-provoking account of losing someone you love' Natasha Harding, The Sun 'Utterly heart-rending but also healing. You cry but you feel uplifted, cleansed' Katie Fforde 'Superb ... moved to tears several times' John Simpson
£11.69
Unbound Johnny Ruin
Book Synopsis‘Strange, intense, brilliant’ S. J. Watson‘A witty, zappy fable ... Powerful’ GuardianDepression can be hell.Heartbroken and lonely, the narrator has made an attempt on his own life. Whether he meant to or not he can't say. But now he’s stuck in his own head, and time is running out.To save himself, he embarks on a journey across an imagined America, one haunted by his doomed relationship and the memory of a road trip that ended in tragedy.Help arrives in the guise of Jon Bon Jovi, rock star and childhood hero. An unlikely spirit guide, perhaps, but he's going to give it a shot...Trade Review 'A witty, zappy fable ... Powerful' Guardian 'A strange and rather lovely debut novel ... What begins as a witty, playful idea grows into a convincing and touching salutary tale of broken love' Big Issue
£10.78
Transworld Publishers Ltd Slow Motion Ghosts
Book Synopsis'Noon's storytelling is assured and compelling ... it's a belter' Guardian‘Constantly surprising’ SpectatorA viciously occult murder.A curious clue left on the body.The soundtrack to the murder still playing...It is 1981 and Detective Inspector Henry Hobbes is still reeling in the aftermath of the fire and fury of the Brixton riots. The battle lines of society - and the police force - are being redrawn on a daily basis. With the certainties of his life already sorely tested, a brutal murder will shake his beliefs to their very core once more. The manner of the death and its staged circumstances pose many questions to which there are no obvious answers. To track the murderer, Hobbes must cross boundaries into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday world he thought he knew. His investigation takes him into a twisted reality, which is both seductive and devastating, and asks him the one question he has been dreading: How far will he go in pursuit of the truth?Jeff Noon is the author of six acclaimed novels, Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation, Needle in the Groove and Falling Out of Cars, as well as two collections of short fictions, and is also the crime fiction reviewer for The Spectator. He lives in Brighton.Trade ReviewThe obsessive world of pop culture becomes a dangerous, dark, bewitching place in Noon’s utterly brilliant crime fiction debut. * William Shaw *Constantly surprising, the novel takes the form of the police procedural and pushes it in a variety of unexpected directions * Spectator *Noon's storytelling is assured and compelling ... it's a belter * Guardian *Slow Motion Ghosts is a triumph … an ingeniously-plotted and multi-layered tale * Independent *The enjoyably convoluted plot encompasses a heartfelt and moving examination of the other-worldly appeal of glam rock for nerds and outsiders. If you weren't poleaxed by Bowie's death, this very absorbing novel will help to explain why others were. * The Telegraph *
£11.39
Vintage Publishing After the Fire
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018The final novel from the bestselling author of the Inspector Wallander mysteriesFredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire.Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself.Trade ReviewThis strange, beguiling book...gives closure to a substantial career without becoming maudlin or overly bleak. The waters around Welin’s island may freeze in the winter, but there is human warmth to be found in these pages, along with glimmers of hope and consolation... The bell may have tolled for one of Scandinavia’s finest writers, but his connection to those left behind is unbroken. -- Ian Rankin * Guardian *A powerful reminder that [Mankell] was also a literary writer of considerable accomplishment... After the Fire is a life-enhancing novel... a suitable final curtain for a much-missed modern novelist -- Barry Forshaw * i *It is very moving and rather beautiful * Sunday Express *The novel’s atmosphere is bleak and elegiac, suggesting that Mankell wrote it with his own impending death in mind -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times *After the Fire is full of regret, loneliness and the melancholy of growing old, but there is also hope and love. * The Times *
£7.99
Vintage Publishing My Year of Rest and Relaxation: The cult New York
Book Synopsis**THE TIKTOK SENSATION**Read THE razor-sharp satire that everyone is talking about...On the surface ,our narrator has everything you could want in life. She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance.But there is a vacuum in her life and she's got the perfect solution. She's going to take a year under sedation to relax and hide away from the world.What could possibly go wrong?Blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, is the perfect read for fans of The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.PRAISE FOR MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION:'The book that everyone is talking about' The Times'Diamond-hard entertainment' Guardian'Electrifying...compelling...Moshfegh's protagonist is an unlikely revolutionary' Vanity FairTrade ReviewThe book that everybody’s talking about… I read it and was entranced. * The Times *This is the first book I couldn’t put down this year… Almost offensive with its close-to-the-bone truths, it’s shockingly relatable. And legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. Ottessa Moshfegh is sharp, savage and hilarious. -- Isabel Dexter * Elle *The superabundantly talented...Moshfegh’s sentences are piercing and vixenish… she is always a deep pleasure to read. * New York Times *My Year of Rest and Relaxation is whip-smart, continuously compelling, and acerbic in all the right ways. * Daily Telegraph *Electrifying... [Moshfegh] is adept at crafting compelling female characters who violate the rules of femininity... Moshfegh’s protagonist is an unlikely revolutionary. * Vanity Fair *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Volunteer
Book SynopsisAn odyssey of loss and salvation ranging across four generations of fathers and sons, in the finest tradition of American storytelling.The year is 1966 and a young man named Vollie Frade, almost on a whim, enlists in the United States Marine Corps to fight in Vietnam. Breaking definitively from his rural Iowan parents, Vollie puts in motion a chain of events that sees him go to work for people with intentions he cannot yet grasp. From the Cambodian jungle, to a flophouse in Queens, to a commune in New Mexico, Vollie's path traces a secret history of life on the margins of America, culminating with an inevitable and terrible reckoning.Scibona’s story of a restless soldier pressed into service for a clandestine branch of the US government unfolds against the backdrop of the seismic shifts in global politics of the second half of the twentieth century. Epic in scope but intimate in feeling, this is a deeply immersive read from a rising star of American fiction.Trade ReviewA magnificent counterpoint of four generations of fathers and sons... Like DeLillo in [Underworld], Scibona wreaks an epic from the lives of ordinary, supposedly negligible men. Scibona has built a masterpiece. * New York Times Book Review *[Scibona is] a born novelist: He conveys a world in a detail. Scibona can take us into the broken heart of a child lost in a foreign airport, the shattering chaos of a night assault during the Vietnam War and the quiet intensity of a working-class New York neighborhood... Work like The Volunteer can never be one thing only, upbeat or down. It’s teeming, brilliantly. * The Washington Post *Salvatore Scibona’s exhilarating new novel [is]… a searing record of war and the lies people live by… Despite all the destruction and despair, in this novel hope emerges as the wildest high. * Economist *What perfect pitch, what perfect rhythm. These are sentences that are in love with the world and that make us love the world, too. * The Boston Globe *Scibona is a remarkable writer and The Volunteer is a remarkable book... It is a war story unlike any other war story, a story of fathers and sons, of family (both biological and manufactured) and of generations of betrayal and abandonment... All of it — all of it — is just so ridiculously beautiful. * NPR *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Graceland
Book SynopsisWhat if your son was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll?From the moment she first holds him, Gladys Presley loves her son Elvis ferociously. She is the one by his side when his father is in the jailhouse; as they move from place to place skirting poverty; as Elvis’s obsession with music grows and he begins his whirlwind rise to never-before-seen success. But while he brings audiences across the land to their knees and achieves unimagined wealth and fame, there is another story – of drinking and diet pills, loneliness and loss – and at the height of his power Elvis finds that even kings must go on alone.‘Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer, and the story of Elvis Presley and his relationship with his mother is one ripe for her skills… both epic and intimate’ GraziaTrade ReviewAn immediately convincing evocation of time and place, as well as character, colour, sultry heat and complex emotions... Moving effortlessly between the late 1950s and Elvis's straitened upbringing, it vividly conveys his world * Sunday Times *This is an impressive, deceptively gentle novel, full of quiet music and even quieter tragedy -- Claire Allfree * Daily Telegraph *One of the best books about a rock star I've ever readBethan Roberts grew up in a house filled with Elvis’s music and pored over her mother’s Elvis annuals and scrapbooks as a child… its emotional range rings true and its fidelity to a certain strain of wistful melancholy might go deeper than facts... an understated, thoughtful novel about a man who wore suits fashioned from gold leaf on stage, which occasionally prompts the reader to burst into song. -- Susie Boyt * Financial Times *Graceland is an astonishing literary achievement. Bethan Roberts somehow manages to unlock the mystery to that beautiful sadness in the voice of Elvis. Utterly heartbreaking. -- Jake Arnott
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Boatman and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThe breathtaking short story collection from the Costa-shortlisted Irish writerThree gunshots on the Irish border define the course of a young man's life; a writer clings fast to a star-crossed affair with a woman who has never been fully in his reach; a fisherman accustomed to hard labour rolls up his sleeves to dig a grave for his child; a pair of newly-weds embark on their first adventure, living wild on the deserted Beginish Island. Spanning a century and two continents - from the muddy fields of Ireland to a hotel room in Paris, a dingy bar in Segovia to an aeroplane bound for Taipei - these densely layered tales reveal the quiet heroism and gentle dignity of ordinary life. Ranging from the elegiac to the brutally confrontational, Billy O'Callaghan's stories explore the resilience of the human heart and its ability to keep beating even in the wake of grief, trauma and lost love.'The best fiction I have read this year... Taut, subtle and moving, and brought off beautifully' John Banville, Best Books of 2020, Irish TimesTrade ReviewThe best fiction I have read this year is Billy O'Callaghan's short-story collection The Boatman. The book is old-fashioned in the best sense, in that it is written by a grown-up for grown-up persons, as Virginia Woolf said of Middlemarch. The stories are taut, subtle and moving, and brought off beautifully. -- John Banville * Irish Times *Best Books of 2020* *Wonderful stories… A masterclass... The reader is lulled into a false sense of ordinariness that gives way — sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly — to a moment of cataclysm…that leaves the reader reeling… There is no denying the power of his words… O’Callaghan’s stories are beautiful, plain and simple, and each one is devastatingly good. -- Kathleen MacMahon * Sunday Times *Billy O'Callaghan writes beautifully... In evoking atmosphere, such a key element in the short story, he is matchless... His prose is a feast after a famine... The luxuriance of the language, the agility of the sentences, and the depth of the reflections. These stories are like classical sonatas... The writing is invariably delightful. -- Eilis Ni Dhuibhne * Irish Times *A shining example of how [short stories] can distil and intensify a writer’s gifts… These 12 stories confirm [O’Callaghan’s] delicate craftsmanship, unflashy narrative and descriptive skill, and his deep understanding of powerful and universal emotions… Breathtaking… Masterly… Irish writing has put out many new and more consciously modernist shoots in recent years, all welcome. But Billy O’Callaghan belongs now in the recognised front rank, along with Bernard MacLaverty, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor and Colm Tóibín. -- Ann Chisholm * Tablet, *Novel of the Week* *[Billy O’Callaghan] makes epics out of the unspoken, the barely said, the half-hinted at, the wordless nod… This is O'Callaghan's quest, to reveal who his characters really are, especially when they're burdened with life's cruelties. And in chronicling the bravery sometimes required in simply putting one foot in front of the other, he makes heroes of the humblest of us. -- Anne Cunningham * Sunday Independent *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing My Coney Island Baby
Book Synopsis'A poignant, piercing meditation on middle age and the passing of time… will linger with you long after the book is closed' Guardian *SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD 2020*On a bitterly cold winter’s afternoon, Michael and Caitlin escape their unhappy marriages to keep an illicit rendezvous. Once a month, for the past quarter of a century, Coney Island has been their haven; these precious, hidden hours their only nourishment. But now, amid the howling of an angry snowstorm, the shut-down, out-of-season resort feels like the edge of the world. And their lives, suddenly, are on the brink – with news of serious illness on one side, and a move to the Midwest on the other.Trade ReviewNovel of the year is My Coney Island Baby, by Billy O’Callaghan, a lush, precise, poetic account of a love affair that ends the way most love affairs do. We knew O’Callaghan to be a master of the short story, and here he shows the grand reach of his powers as a novelist. -- John Banville * Irish Times *Books of the Year* *Billy O’Callaghan’s new novel grips from the opening page. The stride of his sentences is long and powerful, his vision raw. A spectrum of intensities from grief to love is revealed as relationships unfold with an honesty that is utterly believable. -- Bernard MacLavertyO’Callaghan [has made a] significant achievement in this fine novel… Good books remind us of other good books and in its treatment of adultery this one calls to mind thematic ancestors such as Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina and The Scarlet Letter. -- Bert Wright * Sunday Times *A poignant, piercing meditation on middle age and the passing of time… these characters will linger with you long after the book is closed. -- Claire Kilroy * Guardian *Quiet, subtle and deeply moving… This is a fine novel, with elegance and wisdom lying beneath an unpretentious surface and O’Callaghan, a gifted writer, has managed to do that most difficult of things: take a quiet, almost everyday story and transform it into a thing of beauty. -- John Boyne * Irish Times *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Keep Him Close: A moving and suspenseful mystery
Book Synopsis'A SUSPENSEFUL MYSTERY...DEEPLY MOVING AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY AFFECTING' ALEX MICHAELIDES, AUTHOR OF THE SILENT PATIENT PRAISE FOR KEEP HIM CLOSE:'A tense drama' Sunday Times'A beautiful and heart-breaking story that I can't stop thinking about. Simply stunning.' Jo Jakeman, author of Safe House'Powerfully written and packs a real emotional punch.' Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home'A magnetic, all consuming read. A heart-breaking suspense which deals with love in all its forms.'Gytha Lodge, author of She Lies in Wait_____________________________ONE SON LIED. ONE SON DIED.Alice's son is dead. Indigo's son is accused of murder.Indigo is determined to prove her beloved Kane is innocent. She is helped by a kind stranger who takes an interest in her situation. But little does she know that her new friend has her own agenda...Alice can't tell Indigo who she really is. She wants to understand why her son was killed. But how long will it take for Indigo to discover her identity? And what other secrets will come out as she digs deeper?No one knows a son like his mother. But neither Alice nor Indigo know the whole truth about their boys, and what happened between them on that fateful night.Trade ReviewKeep Him Close was a magnetic, all-consuming read. A heart-breaking suspense which deals with love in all its forms, however it is expressed. * Gytha Lodge, author of She Lies in Wait *A moving account of family relationships and mainly low-level but devastating criminality -- Natasha Cooper * Literary Review *Keep Him Close isn't just a suspenseful mystery about two women's determination to discover the truth about the night that left one of their sons dead. It's also a really well-written, deeply moving and psychologically affecting study of motherhood and heartbreak. Highly recommended. * Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient *Powerfully written and packs a real emotional punch. * Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home *A gripping, dark domestic drama with motherhood at its heart. Beautifully written and emotionally charged, the characters leaped off the page and stayed with me. * Ruth Mancini, author of In the Blood *
£7.59
Vintage Publishing Signal Fires
Book SynopsisA heart-stopping, magical story about human connection, for fans of THE PAPER PALACE and LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.When retired doctor Ben Wilf comes across ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman in the middle of the night under Division Street's old oak tree, he is treated to an unexpected and magical tour of the stars. But this is not the first time the boy and old man have met. In fact, they go way back, to the night of Waldo's birth, and further still.Secrets preside over the neighbourhood along with the majestic oak. One night in particular has been kept buried. Following it, the Wilfs -- parents and children -- change and grow, but each is haunted by what they choose to forget. Then the young Shenkmans move in across the street: a couple with their own secrets and a lonely, brilliant son who is captivated by the night sky. As their stories collide in ways they never could have imagined, the past comes hurtling back to Division Street, setting in motion a spellbinding chain of events that will transform both families forever.Signal Fires is an exquisite portrait of two families, and a testament to the human capacity to experience love and loss. With wry tenderness it shows how we are all connected through time in ways that are at once beautiful, mysterious, profound and full of hope.* HUNDREDS OF 5-STAR READER RESPONSES * 'Was both devastated and wowed at the end' * 'The best novel that I've read all year! I couldn't put it down' * 'Profoundly moving, deeply relatable and so beautifully written' * 'Gorgeous, deeply moving and captivating' * 'Beautiful, full of emotion and magic'Trade ReviewSignal Fires is a great novel, but it's also something rarer: a good novel, one that shines with deep truths about what it is to love someone, lose them, and live on -- Alex Preston * Financial Times *A stunning future classic -- LISA TADDEOTender and philosophical * Observer *Gripping * People Magazine *Lyrically examines the ways a single event can alter many lives for ever . . . wonderful -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping BOOK OF THE MONTH *Shapiro weaves a compulsive, tender narrative that flits between viewpoints and time frames in its quest for connectivity * Mail on Sunday *A wonderful novel, full of insight and compassion -- MARY LAWSONHaunting, moving, and propulsive -- MEG WOLITZERBeautifully written, Dani Shapiro explores time, memory and our human interconnectedness to create a moving portrayal of the ripple effect one event and one person's actions can have on many lives * Woman's Weekly *Beautiful... a family saga, but a book about destiny too, the unavoidable push and pull of choice and chance -- Francesca Steele * i News *Lyrical and propulsive . . . hard to put down * Oprah Daily *Masterful and poignant * Today Show US *Wise, deeply perceptive, suffused with light -- CLAIRE MESSUDSignal Fires is an urgent and compassionate meditation on memory, time, and space. In Shapiro's elegant convergence of narrative threads, she creates a world that's as wrenching as it is wondrous -- RUTH OZEKIA subtle, compelling and expansive book about family, love and the devastating power of secrets. I love the way Shapiro writes relationships, the ambition of having so many concurrent narratives and the deft way she draws her characters. -- NELL FRIZZELL
£15.29
Vintage Publishing Liquidation
Book Synopsis‘Liquidation, suspenseful and bleakly comic, reads like a treatise on the mystery of the end of life and the mystery of suicide… A compelling if deeply unsettling work’ Independent Kingbitter, an editor at a failing publishing house, believes himself to have been the closest friend of B., a celebrated writer and Auschwitz survivor, who recently committed suicide. Amongst the papers B. has left him, Kingbitter finds a play entitled Liquidation that uncannily predicts the behaviour of B.'s ex-wife, his mistress and Kingbitter himself. As he obsessively reads and rereads the play, Kingbitter becomes transfixed with the idea that buried within these papers is B.'s great novel: the book that will explain his relationship with Auschwitz.Trade ReviewA beautiful glimpse of the wide-open spaces of storytelling * Daily Telegraph *A masterly, subtle and constantly surprising novel, which, in this fine translation, reads as if it were written in this century, not the last * Sunday Times *
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