Narrative theme: death, grief, loss

Book SynopsisAfter spending several years in a sanatorium recovering from an illness that caused him to lose his memory and ability to reason, Prince Myshkin arrives in St Petersburg and is at once confronted with the stark realities of life in the Russian capital – from greed, murder and nihilism to passion, vanity and love. Mocked for his childlike naivety yet valued for his openness and understanding, Prince Myshkin finds himself entangled with two women in a position he cannot bring himself to resolve. Dostoevsky, who wrote that in the character of Prince Myshkin he hoped to portray a “wholly virtuous man”, shows the workings of the human mind and our relationships with others in all their complex and contradictory nature. Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters, from the beautiful, self-destructive Nastasya Filippovna to the dangerously obsessed Rogozhin and the radical student Ippolit, The Idiot is one of Dostoevsky’s most personal and intense works of fiction.

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Book SynopsisThe undisputed pioneer of the horror, detective and science-fiction genres, Edgar Allan Poe was an accomplished poet as well as a celebrated writer of short stories. The present edition contains all of his works in verse, from the major poems of his maturity – such as his famous ballads ‘The Raven’ and ‘Lenore’ – to those he published in his youth and those that were collected immediately after his premature death in 1849. Also included in this volume is a selection of Poe’s essays on poetical composition and prosody, revealing that poetry was at the core of the American master’s vision of literature – something also demonstrated by the significant and enduring body of work he left behind in this field.

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Book SynopsisDETECTIVE JOHNNY MANN IS BACK Missing children. An evil racket. A race against time … Summoned to meet his boss, rebellious Detective Johnny Mann expects to be told that he is being demoted. Instead he is ordered to lead the investigation into the kidnapping of Amy Tang - the illegitimate daughter of a major player in the skin trade, CK Leung. Mann is reluctant to help - he has crossed paths with CK before- but he has no choice. Nine-year-old Amy is the third child to be kidnapped and held for a vast sum of money, but while the other two children were released after the vast ransom was paid, Amy is still being held captive. Mann's investigation takes him to London, where he teams up with DC Becky Stamp. Within days of his arrival, an arson attack kills twelve women and children. The charred bodies of the victims are found chained to their beds - their injuries rendering them identifiable… What is the link between the kidnapping of Amy in Hong Kong and the deaths of these women and children and can Mann discover the truth before it's too late. Prepare to be terrorised all over again with this disturbingly addictive thriller from the writer hailed as the female James Patterson.Trade Review‘A gritty and atmospheric read.’Closer magazine ‘A fast-moving thriller.’East Anglian Daily Times

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Book SynopsisA fast-paced thriller from Alafair Burke, where no-one in Manhattan is safe. And no-one is innocent. In New York City nights are dangerous. Days are numbered. When New York University student Megan Gunther is brutally murdered, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and partner J.J. Rogan discover that Megan has been on the receiving end of some sinister online threats. Is her death the result of a campus feud that got out of hand or could there be a twisted cyber fanatic at work? And when a link is revealed between Megan and a murdered real-estate agent, Ellie comes to wonder if there was something else behind the student’s death. Ellie learns that the dead woman shared a secret connection to a celebrity mogul whose bodyguard was mysteriously killed a few months earlier. When Megan's roommate disappears, the hunt for the killer is really on… With fans including everyone from Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child to Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs, Alafair Burke gives us another nail-biting thriller to keep us on the edge of our seats.Trade ReviewPraise for City of Fear: ‘[Ellie Hatcher] is warm, funny and engaging, and City of Fear is efficient and briskly paced’ Laura Wilson, THE GUARDIAN Praise for Alafair Burke: ‘These are characters I’d follow forever.’ Tess Gerritsen ‘Alafair Burke just keeps getting better and better.’ Harlan Coben ‘She’s got what it takes and will be sticking around.’ Michael Connelly ‘Suspenseful and entertaining.’ Kathy Reichs ‘Alafair Burke delivers a first-rate thriller.’ Lisa Gardner ‘Terrific.’ Laura Lippman ‘Burke’s brisk and ultimately suspenseful narrative offers wily and intricate plotting and sharply etched major and minor characters.’ Kirkus Reviews ‘Burke leaves her principle characters little time to sleep; her readers will relate.’ Publishers Weekly ‘Alafair Burke is a wonderful writer with the kind of skill and confidence I admire. I’m a big fan.’ Sue Grafton ‘Alafair Burke has been on the front lines in the courtroom and on the streets, and brings her world alive.’ Linda Fairstein Praise for City of Lies: ‘Entertaining, full of suspense and really enjoyable. A great read.’ Closer Magazine

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Book SynopsisGet ready to embark on the ride of your life with this thrill-fuelled thriller, for fans of Karin Slaughter and Karen Rose. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? The victims are found face-down in the murky waters of Cherokee Pointe, Tennessee. The murders all share the same characteristics: the victims are found naked except for a black, satin ribbon tied around they're necks – and they're all redheads. Meanwhile, Reve Sorrell has come to Cherokee Pointe seeking answers about her connection to bad girl Jazzy Talbot. With their stunning looks, the two redheads are mirror images of each other – but raised in very different worlds. As the serial killer leaves another chilling calling card, Reve turns to Sheriff Jacob Butler to help her unravel the deadly secrets of her past. But one person will do anything to stop her – and they are closer than she could ever imagine…Trade Review"Not for the faint of heart! Shocking and terrifying, it will chill you to the bone." Tess Gerritsen “A good, tense read.”Yorkshire Evening Post ‘This gripping crime novel … [is] not for the faint-hearted … you’ll be guessing until the very end.’Closer Magazine

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In the Ubari Sand Sea in 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War, a mysterious pilot falls from the sky – a sky devil – and is forever changed by the little boy who rescues him. One year later, in the town of Roseville, Louisiana, in the aftermath of economic crisis and corporate environmental damage, 10-year-old Lenny Lockhart is losing the people and things dearest to him. His only friends now are his plucky, elderly neighbour, Miss Julie, and the town’s lonely librarian, Lucy Albert. Homeless and neglected, Lenny heads deep into the dark and unpredictable bayou, determined to conquer the sinkhole that is threatening to swallow his town. As time seems to be simultaneously slowing down and running out, is it really Lenny who needs saving, or the broken adults in his life? As these two timelines converge, Lenny tells a deeply affecting story of family and love, the ways we can be kind, and the power of one boy’s imagination to heal and survive.

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Book Synopsis Robyn Carr returns to the beloved town of Virgin River with a brand new story about fresh starts, new friends and the magic of Christmas. Warm-hearted characters, a stunning setting – what more could you want for a cosy Christmas read?’ Women’s Weekly Now a Netflix orginal series Struggling with grief after the death of her mother, successful author Kaylee Sloan needs a distraction, to come to terms with life and meet her looming deadline. With Christmas approaching, Kaylee rents a cabin in Virgin River. She knows the isolation will help her writing and as she drives north through the mountains she immediately feels inspired. Until she arrives at a building that has just gone up in flames. Devastated, she heads to Jack’s Bar to plan her next steps. The local bar is the heart of the town and once she crosses the threshold, she’s surprised to be embraced by people who are more than willing to help a stranger in need. Welcomed by those in Virgin River, Kaylee starts to see her life in a new light. And as she becomes more involved in the town and the people in it, especially local artist and dog trainer Landry Moore, Kaylee realises she may have found her peace. As Christmas approaches, Kaylee’s dread turns to wonder. Because there’s no better place to mend a broken heart than Virgin River. Check out the rest of the Virgin River series! Book 1: Mel and Jack’s story! Virgin RiverBook 2: Preacher and Paige's story! Shelter MountainBook 3: Whispering RockBook 4: A Virgin River ChristmasBook 5: Second Chance PassBook 6: Temptation RidgeBook 7: Paradise ValleyBook 8: Forbidden FallsBook 9: Angel's PeakBook 10: Moonlight RoadBook 11: Promise CanyonBook 12: Wild Man CreekBook 13: Harvest MoonBook 14: Bring Me Home for ChristmasBook 15: Hidden SummitBook 16: Redwood BendBook 17: Sunrise PointBook 18: My Kind of ChristmasBoom 19: Return to Virgin RiverBook 20: ´Tis the SeasonTrade Review Readers LOVE the Virgin River series: ‘Laden with suspense, love and drama… a real page turner’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Very gripping story, full of suspense and anticipation’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved going back to Virgin River and meeting all people I already knew from first book’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘As one book finishes you’re reaching for the next’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Much better than the show – which I loved!’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Moving and beautiful, Robyn takes us along on the journey with the characters, whom you grow to love more with each book’ Amazon reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Book Synopsis'Joyful, funny and vividly alive' Emily St John Mandel'The Lonely Hearts Hotel sucked me right in and only got better and better . . . I began underlining truths I had hungered for' Miranda July'Makes me think of comets and live wires . . . raises goosebumps' Helen Oyeyemi'A fairytale laced with gunpowder' Kelly Link The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with a difference. Set throughout the roaring twenties, it is a wicked fairytale of circus tricks and child prodigies, radical chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians and brooding clowns, set in an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. It is the tale of two dreamers, abandoned in an orphanage where they were fated to meet. Here, in the face of cold, hunger and unpredictable beatings, Rose and Pierrot create a world of their own, shielding the spark of their curiosity from those whose jealousy will eventually tear them apart. When they meet again, each will have changed, having struggled through the Depression, through what they have done to fill the absence of the other. But their childhood vision remains - a dream to storm the world, a spectacle, an extravaganza that will lift them out of the gutter and onto a glittering stage. Heather O'Neill's pyrotechnical imagination and language are like no other. In this she has crafted a dazzling circus of a novel that takes us from the underbellies of war-time Montreal and Prohibition New York, to a theatre of magic where anything is possible - where an orphan girl can rule the world, and a ruined innocence can be redeemed.Trade ReviewHeather O'Neill's style is laced with so much sublime possibility and merciless actuality (and vice versa) that it makes me think of comets and live wires and william blake's tyger . . . between prose like that and a story like this, you have a book that raises goosebumps and the giddiest of grins more or less simultaneously * Helen Oyeyemi *Because this book is so filled with delightful things - bold and complex sex; heartache and wickedness and glittering hearts - it would be easy to overlook how finely it is made. The Lonely Hearts Hotel sucked me right in and only got better and better, ultimately becoming much tougher, wiser than I was prepared for. I began underlining truths I had hungered for but never before read. By the end I was a gasping, tearful mess. * Miranda July *O'Neill is an extraordinary writer, and her new novel is exquisite. She has taken on sadness itself as a subject, but it would be terribly reductive to say that this book is sad; it's also joyful, funny, and vividly alive. * Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven *A fairy tale laced with gunpowder and romance and icing sugar, all wrapped round with a lit fuse. Each of Heather O'Neill's sentences pricks or delights. If you haven't read her other books, start with this one and then read all of the rest. * Kelly Link *O'Neill at the height of her literary powers . . . her most book gripping to date . . . Ferociously direct. . . A ravishing novel, that, for all its brutality, retains a childlike appreciation for the fantastic. -- Andre Forget * Walrus *A love story of epic proportions...this novel will cast a spell upon readers from page one. * Publisher's Weekly *Walking the hypnotic line between tragedy and fairy tale ...Grotesque and whimsical at once, the love story that unfolds is a fable of ambition and perseverance, desperation and heartbreak. But while Pierrot is unforgettable, the novel belongs to Rose, a woman who - if she cannot carve out space for herself in upstanding daylight - will rise to power in the underworld of night. O'Neill's prose is crisp and strange, arresting in its frankness; much like the novel itself, her writing is both gleefully playful and devastatingly sad. Big and lush and extremely satisfying; a rare treat. * Kirkus *O'Neill is a mistress of metaphor and imagery ... This is brilliant tragicomedy ... in a melancholy love story that brings to life the bygone days of theatrical revues. It's a little weird and a lot of fun. * Booklist *O'Neill's prose is gorgeous, with arresting imagery. This simultaneously heartbreaking and life-affirming novel depicts the range of the human experience through the eyes of its almost pretenaturally charming hero and heroine . . . This is an original and unforgettable novel. * Library Journal *A romance that's straight out of a strange, prettily twisted fairytale * Psychologies *Award-winning Canadian author Heather O'Neill spins a spell-binding yarn set in the seedy worlds of pre-war Montreal and Prohibition New York . . . There are many cruel forks in the road along the way, but the novel has a magical quality that softens the blows. * Boundless *loved the world weary tone of Heather O'Neill's debut novel Lullabies For Little Criminals (shortlisted for the Orange Women's Prize) and The Lonely Hearts Hotel more than lives up to the promise of her earlier work . . . This novel has a gorgeous, gin-sodden, rain-soaked feel that reminds me of Jean Rhys. * Red *A larger-than-life, gritty love story that reads like a fable . . . The greatest strength of O'Neill's work, however, is her wholly unique narrative voice, which is at once cool and panoramic, yet shockingly intimate and wisely philosophical. The novel brims with shimmering one-liners..."THE LONELY HEARTS HOTEL is that rare find: a novel you have never before read anything quite like. O'Neill, a genius at metaphor, and who tackles graphic and delicate topics with rare tenderness and even charm, has created a sweeping story with elements of historical fiction, romance, crime and noir, yet writes in a style that authoritatively claims all terrain in her reach as her own. -- Gina Frangello * Boston Globe *An extremely unusual modern fairy tale. It shows us the dark side of how fragile our lives are and how easily damaged. Overall, it was a beautiful, magical love story * Waterstones *To read Heather O'Neill's dazzling new novel is to enter an enchanting and poetic world that is also amusing, troubling and often lascivious. O'Neill's lively style is so filled with vivid descriptions and complex characters that the reader's experience is virtually cinematic. * Washington Post *The Giller-shortlisted author's new novel has all the absurd, frightening, fantastical qualities of a midnight reverie - complete with depressed clowns, dancing bears, lunatic nuns and smitten mobsters - and with a similar power to haunt . . . O'Neill, always an original and enchanting storyteller, is at the height of her powers. The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a feat of imagination, accomplished through the tiny, marvellous details she scatters across the page. * Toronto Star *Walks a tightrope between social and magical realism . . . She grafts Angela Carter-esque fairytale darkness on to her forays into her native Montreal's gothic underbelly . . . A gritty, giddy fairyground ride of a book [involving] rapture, wonder and an unquenchable faith in the extraordinary * Daily Mail *Heather O'Neill [is] determined to see wonder in unlikely places . . . I admired the novel's big-heartedness, its defiant affirmation of the whole seedy, sad, beautiful burlesque that is the life of these characters . . . This novel is neither gritty realism nor noir, not Dickens nor commedia dell'arte nor dystopian fairytale, but a little bit of all of them. -- Molly McCloskey * Guardian *O'Neill magics up a world that's both lush and brutal. But The Lonely Hearts Hotel also shows us that the chorus girls are turning tricks, the clowns are taking heroin and the dancing children have already seen too much. It's a beguiling mix, with paragraphs you'll want to read over and over to revel in their rightness. * Emerald Street *Art, love, imagination - these values are held aloft in O'Neill's novel . . . it's achingly romantic . . . a feminist fairy tale of sorts . . . the nature of the theatrical spectacle Rose and Pierrot and company have created speaks to the mesmerizing effects of the novel itself * San Francisco Chronicle *Theatrical glitter and a romance that's straight out of a strange, twisted fairy tale . . . O'Neill's magical storytelling is packed with startling images * Mail on Sunday *A harrowing story of abuse, addiction and the loss of innocence. And yet it is charming, lyrical, magical and often funny . . . There is a fragile beauty and childish fascination and even fun within the seediest of her scenes. It reads like a poetic act of rebellion -- Anne Cunningham * Sunday Independent *

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Book Synopsis‘The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day …’ Thomas Gray’s 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' has been loved and admired throughout the centuries. First circulated to a select group of friends, it was rushed to official publication in 1751 in order to avoid pirated copies being sold without the young poet’s permission. Praised by Samuel Johnson, reprinted over and over again in Gray’s lifetime and recited by generations of school children, it is one of the most famous poems in the English language. This edition reproduces the exquisite wood engravings made by Agnes Miller Parker in 1938. Parker visited the churchyard at St Giles, Stoke Poges, where the poem is set, in order to make her sketches, and all thirty-two stanzas of the poem are accompanied by detailed full-page illustrations. Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the poet’s death, this edition will not only bring new readers to the 'Elegy' but will also appeal to those already familiar with its riches.Table of ContentsContents Loss Transformed - Carol Rumens Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

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Book SynopsisMany cultures identify mourning as the very source of poetry and music, what Elizabeth Bishop calls the art of losing. That might well be the title of this collection. Not every poem is cornered with death, but all are about loss. The poems chosen traverse a surprisingly wide range of emotions from despair to joy, resignation to anger, all articulated in language of the greatest power and beauty . All the major verse forms of mourning are represented here: epitaph, requiem and lament. Three great elergies by Milton, Whitman and Rilke are surrounded by a wide variety of shorter poems. Naturally, the pathos of death predominates, but its comedy has not been neglected, whether in the savage poems of World War I or the gentle teasing of seventeenth-century satire. Poets include: Akhmatova, Auden, Bishop, Brodsky, Browning, Carew, Cory, Cowley, Dickinson, Donne, Dryden, Dyer, Fletcher, Graves, Gurney, Hardy, Harrison, Herrick, Hopkins, Horace, King, Leopardi, Lowell, MacCaig, Mandelstam, Milosz, Philips, Propertius, Roethke, Smith, Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, Edward Thomas and Wordsworth.

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Book SynopsisRon Regé is one of a handful of cartoonists in the history of the medium not only to reinvent comics to suit his own idiosyncratic impulses and inspirations as an artist, but also to imbue it with his own peculiar, ever-changing emotional energy. To me, he is unquestionably one of the greats.'' Chris WareSkibber Bee ByeRon Regé, Jr., creates his own visual poetry that sets him apart from other cartoonists as one of the most original artists to enter the medium in the past decade. His storytelling is neither linear nor altogether accessible; however, his recognizable thin line and cute characters draw you into a dreamlike, sensitive fantasy world that, as odd as it seems, is entirely realistic.

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Book Synopsis1999: On the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him?1935: Writers Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives forever.Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you'll come to love.

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Book Synopsis"A bright book and a brilliant book." - Robert Macfarlane. Peter MacAulay sits down to write his will. The process sets in motion a compulsive series of reflections: a history of his own lifetime and a subjective account of how key events in the post-war world filter through to his home, Stornoway. He reveals his passions for history, engines and fish, and witnesses changing times – and things that don’t change – in the Hebrides. The novel is driven by its idiosyncratic narrator, but with counterpoints from people he engages with – his father, mother, wife, daughter, friends. It’s all about stories, a litany of small histories witnessed during one very individual lifetime.Trade Review“It is a Waterland for the Outer Hebrides...it’s a major landmark in fiction of the islands...it’s a landmark in Scottish literature and contemporary fiction more broadly...makes cunning shifts into para-memoir, pseudo-biography, hints of the documentary, but it’s always mobile, always moving. Line for line, the voice was so lively, so inventive, that I relished each paragraph ... Story within story, concentrically nested, or maybe hung like hooks on a line to catch the readers... It’s a bright and vivid and true book, and a work of literature, unmistakably.” -- Robert Macfarlane.“It’s absorbing and riveting. There’s not a single paragraph in A Book of Death and Fish when we are not engaged by the vigour and jump and insistence of his voice.”"Stephen brings a contained concentration and intensity to his chapters that is mesmerizing and true in a deeper way.""Dense, compelling and wildly idiosyncratic, it’s a novel that splits the form open like a fresh catch, glistening and raw and singing with the sea.” -- Kirsty Gunn"A Book Of Death And Fish may well take its place beside Moby-Dick...It will, I suspect, be one of those books I will not put down all my days." -- Candia McWilliam"A fine, far-reaching and and sensitive book.""An excellent, enjoyable and engaging read.”"Ian Stephen has excavated the life and the places that he knows to write a big, sprawling kaleidoscopic and often brilliant book. It is an heir to Neil Gunn as well as to Kevin MacNeil’s 'The Stornoway Way'. -- Roger Hutchinson * West Highland Free Press *

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Book SynopsisFour strangers from around the world arrive in India for a wedding. Together, they climb a mountain — but will they see the same thing from the top? Londoner Reema, who left India before she could speak, is searching for a sign that will help her make a life-changing decision. In pensioner Jackson’s suitcase is something he must let go of, but is he strong enough? Together with two unlikely companions, they take a road trip up a mountain deep in the Himalayas, heading for the snow line, where the ice begins. But even standing in the same place, surrounded by magnificent views, they see things differently. As they ascend higher and higher, they must learn to cross the lines that divide them.Trade Review‘Tessa McWatt is one of our greatest living writers. The Snow Line, her new novel, is a profound meditation on love, ageing, and what it is to be a woman of mixed racial identity and culture. Profoundly moving and epic in its scope, this book provides us with wisdom and reckoning on today’s world, one that is ecologically fragile and only just coping with a pandemic. Like all mature writers, McWatt’s range of reference is vast and her understanding of humanity plunges us into depths we all long to inhabit. She writes her characters with such intimacy we are thunderstruck by the book’s final pages. I closed this book and shed tears.’ -- Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch‘Vivid, rich, and melodic ... Layers of images, memories, and facts ask questions of connections, accountability, and desire — political and personal — and how we meet the complexities that make us. A beautiful read!’ -- Olumide Popoola, author of When We Speak of Nothing‘Tessa McWatt’s writing is tender, unforgettable, utterly precise. Like performing surgery on a peach.’ -- Leone Ross, author of This One Sky Day‘A profound meditation on the music that strangers in a place can make together, and on how the music of a strange place can get inside us, and change us forever. I loved the journey the book takes us on, revisiting some of the geographies readers will remember from The Far Pavilions, while the echoes of King Lear provide an undercurrent of nature’s aloofness, its potential for violence.’ -- Preti Taneja, author of We That Are Young‘An exceptional, riveting read. Tessa McWatt's rare gifts never fail to enthrall me.’ -- Irenosen Okojie, author of Butterfly Fish‘The Snow Line holds up a mirror to the ways India is reflected in today’s diaspora.’ -- Anjali Joseph, author of Saraswati Park‘Tessa McWatt’s The Snow Line reveals life in overlapping panels: consciousness, memory, scenes of violence, and of untenable beauty, “everything dangerous enfolded into everything else.” Her prose has Michael Ondaatje’s elliptical exactitude, Jane Gardam’s terse confidence, but it accumulates, on behalf of her characters — a young woman and an old man, friends — a singular, lingering effect. The Snow Line is a small marvel.’ -- Padma Viswanathan, author of The Ever After of Ashwin Rao‘McWatt is a writer who tackles race and identity with great nuance, and from a very broad reach ... The Snow Line suggests that she has done a lifetime of thinking and reading about structural injustice … The Snow Line is about the displacement of people, the stories that never get told, the commonality of our humanity, and the ever presence of God. We don’t feel the full effect of its rare wisdom and gravitational pull until we are finished. The final pages had me in tears.’ -- Monique Roffey * The Guardian *‘Delicate and ruminative … A sympathetic and serious-minded exploration of how well-meaning individuals can abet the misery of others.’ -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *‘Tessa McWatt has constructed a moving epic that rises from intimate, complex character portraits written with tenderness and precision.’ -- Cameron Woodhead * The Sydney Morning Herald *‘At its core … The Snow Line is a book about belonging. It conveys a message that many migrants to Australia will understand — carrying feelings of longing and displacement even as they try to carve their place in a new landscape.’ -- Rhea L Nath * IndianLink News *‘The Snow Line has wonderful moments of contemplation and compassion for the complexity of lives lived. We are reminded of the beauty of life, in the place where strangers’ lives may intersect. Throughout the book, we are transported, in our minds, to the smells, sounds, beauty, and madness of India.’ -- Brid Conroy * Mayo News *‘In itself this is an excellent story, but it’s the way it’s told that makes the novel stand out … you’ll have to read this beautiful, subtle, keenly observed novel to see how things develop in the end.’ * Shiny New Books *‘UK-based author Tessa McWatt’s narrative is densely, nay immersively detailed, both bleak and rich. Overarching is an intimate understanding of India with a nod to the magnanimity of Sikhs.’ -- Samela Harris * The Herald Sun *

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Book SynopsisSwinging from South Africa to England: one woman’s hunt for her birth mother in an all-too-believable near future in which an antibiotic crisis has decimated the population. A prescient, thrilling debut. ‘Combines the excitement of a medical thriller à la Michael Crichton with sensitive characterisation and social insight in a timely debut novel all the more remarkable for being conceived and written before the current pandemic’ Guardian ‘STUNNING and terrifying … The Waiting Rooms wrenches your heart in every way possible, but written with such humanity and emotion’ Miranda Dickinson ‘Chillingly close to reality, this gripping thriller brims with authenticity … a captivating, accomplished and timely debut from an author to watch’ Adam Hamdy ________________ Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’ … hospitals where no one ever gets well. Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too. Sweeping from an all-too-real modern Britain to a pre-crisis South Africa, The Waiting Rooms is epic in scope, richly populated with unforgettable characters, and a tense, haunting vision of a future that is only a few mutations away. ________________ ‘Engrossing and eye-opening, with heart-stopping plot twists … a stunning medical thriller set in a terrifying possible future’ Foreword Reviews ‘A touching, gut-wrenching story of family mystery and tragedy … a thriller that punches on two fronts – heart AND mind’ The Sun ‘Gripping and disturbing … the medical research is convincing, the scenarios plausible, and the story is emotionally engaging. This is an incredible debut!’ Gill Paul ‘If the themes are dark and topical, the writing is exquisite. Breath held, I got to the finale with my heart in my mouth. Eve Smith weaves a complex and clever tale, merging countries and timelines; the result is a superb and satisfying novel’ Louise Beech ‘Margaret Atwood is one of my all-time writing heroes and The Handmaid's Tale is probably the best book I’ve ever read. Eve Smith and The Waiting Rooms really do challenge that long-held crown…’ Random Things through My Letterbox ‘Thoroughly engaging … an eye-opening read’ Crime Fiction Lover ‘A novel of our times’ Trip Fiction ‘Haunting, honest and horrifying in its reality … An epic and thrilling read’ Book Literati ‘Stunning dystopian debut. A prescient and alarming tale that seems just a whisper from reality’ Suzy Apsley ‘The Waiting Rooms will certainly distract us from the real world for a few hours and this is the immeasurable value of fiction. It gives hope that, as in Eve Smith’s fictitious world, the possibility of a happy ending still exists’ Die Burger ‘The Waiting Rooms is a seriously impressive debut, a novel that is intuitive and chilling, one that will resonate with all in this current climate’ Swirl & Thread

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

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2021 NORTHBOUND BOOK AWARD 'Adam Farrer is a bold new voice in nonfiction writing. His keen observations are as gentle as they are wry, as attentive to the bleak truths of loss and deprivation as they are to the eccentric humour of humans being entirely themselves ... Witty, charming, moving and real.' Jenn Ashworth Before Adam Farrer’s family relocated to Withernsea in 1992, he’d never heard of the Holderness coast. The move represented one thing to Adam: a chance to leave the insecurities of early adolescence behind. And he could do that anywhere. What he didn’t know was how much he’d grow to love the quirks and people of this faded Yorkshire resort, in spite of its dilapidated attractions and retreating clifftops. While Adam documents the minutiae of small-town life, he lays bare experiences that are universal. His insights on family, friendship, male mental health and suicide are revealed in stories of reinvention, rapacious seagulls, interdimensional werewolves, burlesque dancing pensioners, and his compulsion towards the sea. Cold Fish Soup is an affectionate look at a place and its inhabitants, and the ways in which they can shape and influence someone, especially of an impressionable age. Adam’s account explores what it means to love and be shaped by a place that is under threat, and the hope – and hilarity – that can be found in community.Trade Review'Vividly documents the minutiae of small-town life on the margins … captures it beautifully.' * The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice *‘In a book as laced with humanity as it is with the presence of the North Sea, Adam Farrer asks that you fall in love with the overlooked, with that which is crumbling and destined to be lost to the sea. I fell for it hard.’ * Wyl Menmuir, Booker-listed author of The Draw of the Sea *'Cold Fish Soup is such a wide-ranging and thought-provoking essay collection, covering masculinity, mental health, werewolves and alien sightings, sense of belonging, the difficulties of carving out a creative life in a geographically marginalised place, coastal erosion and burlesque, amongst other things. It drew me in, and kept me hooked, through all diversions and detours in time and narrative, and made me both cry and laugh heartily and fully. It is a love letter to Withernsea and all the people in it, its crumbling cliffs, its strange beauties and its losses, that made me love Withernsea too.' * Polly Atkin *'Cold Fish Soup understands the oddity, tenderness and brutal ordinariness of small town life. Adam Farrer is a bold new voice in nonfiction writing. His keen observations are as gentle as they are wry, as attentive to the bleak truths of loss and deprivation as they are to the eccentric humour of humans being entirely themselves ... Witty, charming, moving and real.' * Jenn Ashworth *'What a glorious book! Just beautiful. Adam dances down that line between happy and sad with such sure-footed grace. It underlines that there is no such thing as 'an ordinary life' or indeed an 'ordinary place'.' * Catherine Simpson *'Witty, moving, wry, insightful and caring in how it deals with its subject matter.' * The Bookseller, Category Highlight, annual preview *'Witty and introspective … moving … elegiac … vivid evocations of the landscape … Echoing the canny writing of David Sedaris, Farrer has a knack for wringing hilarity from life’s grim moments … this meditation on the beauty of impermanence charms.' * Publishers Weekly *'[Farrer] documents his own personal history with guile and candour, but it is the tenderness with which he introduces his family that enriches the reading experience … Farrer has an uncanny grasp of his chosen form’s mechanics … he writes with a suppleness that gifts his stories a winning momentum … [The book] emerges as a gnarly companion piece to Amy Liptrot’s delicate ode to Orkney The Outrun … and Adam Buxton’s Ramble Book … Cold Fish Soup is like nothing else you will read this year: a lyrical and courageous exercise in uncovering one’s own personal history.' -- Gary Kaill * Lunate magazine *

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Book SynopsisAfter her ex-husband dies unexpectedly, Nora García travels to the funeral, back to a Mexican village from her past and the art and music of their life together.The way you hold a cello, the way light lands on a Caravaggio, the way the castrati hit notes like no one else could—a lifetime of conversations about art and music and history unfolds for Nora García as she and a crowd of friends and fans send off her recently deceased ex-husband, Juan. Like any good symphony, there are themes and repetitions and contrapuntal notes. We pingpong back and forth between Nora’s life with Juan (a renowned pianist and composer, and just as accomplished a raconteur) and the present day (the presentness of the past), where she sits among his familiar things, next to his coffin, breathing in the particular mix of mildew and lilies that overwhelm this day and her thoughts. In Glantz’s hands, music and art access our most intimate selves, illustrating and creating our identities, and offering us ways to express love and loss and bewilderment when words cannot suffice. As Nora says, “Life is an absurd wound: I think I deserve to be given condolences.”Trade Review"An erudite meditation on the link between mortality and the nature of art." —Publishers Weekly"An original and highly recommended masterstroke." —Library Journal"A fine novel, full of engaging curiosities." —Irish Times"Reading Margo Glantz's virtuoso novel is like letting oneself go while listening to Glenn Gould interpret Mozart."" —Ilan Stavans , author of ON BORROWED WORDS: A MEMOIR OF LANGUAGE and DICTIONARY DAYS: A DEFINING PASSION

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Book SynopsisOllie & Ada cross paths in a bereavement support class. There's an instant attraction but both are lost broken souls who need to find the road to recovery. Despite the tragic environment they find themselves in, they hope together that love can heal heartache but in this most delicate and challenging of environments, danger lurks at every turn. Will they push each other along, or will the demands of a new relationship cause them to crash and burn as crushing grief threatens to take over everything consuming them both? They will need to find strength, courage and rediscover their self-worth. The path of true love seldom runs smoothly. Can the pair leap from trauma to tranquillity or will fate have other ideas? One thing is for sure, life will never be the same again...

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Book SynopsisApril 21, 1923. The SS Metagama is inching out of Stornoway harbour on the Isle of Lewis, bound for Canada. On board are Finlay and Mairead; they are young and hopeful, leaving behind a community that has been touched by tragedy to change their lives foreverOn the other side of the Atlantic, though, they face the realities of an uncaring industrial society. The effects of the Great Depression are inescapable, prejudice and division are rife, and though they remain bound by a shared past, their own lives soon diverge.In an adopted country that is tense with both opportunity and loss, social progress and violent backlash, can Mairead and Finlay keep their promises to one another, to look only forward, and resist the constant pull of home?From the author of the prize-winning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes a poignant and deeply evocative novel of the 20th-century emigrant experience in the New World. With lyrical prose and masterful storytelling, Murray paints a vivid portrait of the resilient Hebrideans-in-exile who struggled between holding on and letting go.

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Book SynopsisA bittersweet love story exploring why good people sometimes do bad things… Millie Malone, a spirited, thirty-something journalist returns home to Northern Ireland after a life-changing decision leaves her London life in ruins. A family reunion soon unravels, opening old wounds and igniting new grievances regarding the murder of her father by the IRA decades earlier. Retreating to the family cottage in Donegal, Millie soon meets Finn McFall, a fisherman originally from west Belfast, who loves to paint and recite Irish poetry. In the new modern Ireland, Millie believes religion is no longer a barrier for love. But she soon finds home is a place still struggling with a fragile peace and simmering sectarianism. As events unfold, Millie is forced to decide between love and loyalty, eventually having to ask herself the ultimate question: can love really conquer all?

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Book SynopsisNATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLISTThe first English-language story collection from “one of Iran’s most important living fiction writers” (Guardian), “a playful, whip-smart literary conjuror: a Kundera or Rushdie of post-Khomeini Iran” (Wall Street Journal)In Seasons of Purgatory, the fantastical and the visceral merge in tales of tender desire and collective violence, the boredom and brutality of war, and the clash of modern urban life and rural traditions. Mandanipour, banned from publication in his native Iran, vividly renders the individual consciousness in extremis from a variety of perspectives: young and old, man and woman, conscript and prisoner. While delivering a ferocious social critique, these stories are steeped in the poetry and stark beauty of an ancient land and culture.Trade ReviewNational Book Award LonglistPublishers Weekly “Best Books of the Year” selectionLibrary Journal “Best Books of the Year” selectionWorld Literature Today “Notable Translations of the Year” selection“Mandanipour served as a frontline officer in the Iran-Iraq war: a writer’s baptism of fire whose flames light up several stories here. . . . Seasons of Purgatory unites storytelling subtlety with scenes of visceral emotional impact.” —Wall Street Journal“A hauntingly nuanced and provocatively impressive collection.” —World Literature Today“Cause for celebration. . . . Mandanipour provides readers with a vivid and idiosyncratic map of [Iran’s] people and places, effortlessly translated by Sara Khalili whose close collaboration with the author is palpable on every gleaming, blade-sharp page.” —Chicago Review of Books“Read[s] like dispatches from the front. . . . [Mandanipour] sifts through military conflict, the repression of women, the forbidden graves of the state-executed, and the shattered minds of children. Storytelling and remembering are subversive acts when power benefits from forgetting.” —Los Angeles Review of Books“Bewitching and disorienting. . . . Mandanipour has been compared to Milan Kundera and to the artist M.C. Escher for the way his fictions require the reader to put them together like a puzzle. . . . The stories in Seasons of Purgatory are stunning.” —Washington Independent Review of Books“Each mesmerizing story . . . put[s] us into a state of disequilibrium in a way that highlights the complexities of the human experience in the fallout of war and revolution.” —Litro Magazine“Enchanting, unnerving, and resonant. . . . The prose is beautiful, the characters feel real, and the situations they find themselves in are haunting.” —Shelf Unbound“Mandanipour respects his reader by esteeming resonance over facile moralism or plot-shock. . . . The psyche in his stories gnaws at an actual world and eludes purgatory for the moment by giving that world an obsessively resonant sound, rendered with a keen ear for urgency and strife by translator Sara Khalili.” —On the Seawall“Stunning. . . . Deserves a much wider readership.” —Literary Hub“Rich with enigma, asking to be read, then read again.” —Full Stop“A must read for lovers of the short story.” —North of Oxford“A scorchingly beautiful collection in elegant, icepick-sharp prose.” —Library Journal (starred review)“While the turmoil and danger of everyday life in Iran are the backdrop, Mandanipour focuses on the personal struggles of the characters and their hardscrabble lives. . . . These haunting, urgent works are as nuanced and provocative as the lives they depict.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“A stunning collection of stories about Iran’s traditions, its violent recent history, and how the memory of both influences daily life.” —Foreword Reviews (starred review)“Dostoyevskian in their density and black humor, Mandanipour’s stories capture the Iranian experience of constant upheaval in a brilliant translation that allows the English-speaking world to experience this gem of Iranian literature.” —Booklist“Altogether subversive. . . . [Mandanipour is] a skilled storyteller with a bent for the quietly macabre and the burdens of those crushed by totalitarian rule.” —Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisA nightmare, anxiety attack, or bad trip?A woman is seemingly trapped in a feverish dream, attempting to navigate through a distorted world in a stumbling language, struggling to comprehend what's happening around her:No one speaks my language here... I'm sweating, even though it's actually quite cold. I think I have a fever...I see their smiles, I hear their friendly voices, but I KNOW what they feel!Wretched is written by Henrik Rehr, one of the most active Danish series creators of the last 30 years, and illustrated by Jan Solheim, whose superior line work demonstrates why he is one of the country's most sought-after illustrators.

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Book SynopsisOne year after the passing of their friend, two young musicians return to the summer home where they used to record with their trio DiSCONNECT. When discovering an unfinished song written by their departed friend, the two decide to work together to finish it. With different ideas on what being back together means, they both project their sadness onto each other. The creative process and their relationship is at stake as their grief looms underneath. DiSCONNECT is the debut graphic novel by Danish artist Magnus Merklin, blending traditional and digital techniques to explore grief, friendship, and creative healing.

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