Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction

Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON READERS' MOST LOVED BOOK OF 2021WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR FICTION'BEAUTIFUL' Jodi Picoult, 'UPLIFTING' i, 'BRILLIANT' Daily Mail, 'AMAZING' Joanna Cannon, 'ABSORBING' New York Times, 'THOUGHT-PROVOKING' IndependentNora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?Trade ReviewA beguiling read, filled with warmth and humour, and a vibrant celebration of the power of books to change lives * * Sunday Times * *A beautiful fable, an It's a Wonderful Life for the modern age - impossibly timely when we are all stuck in a world we wish could be different -- JODI PICOULTA celebration of life's possibilities . . . A beautiful concept . . . Charming * * Guardian * *A rare and welcome light of hope and wisdom in the darkness -- JOANNE HARRISA wonderful story . . . Such a beautiful book to get lost in -- Zoe Ball, BBC Radio 2I can't describe how much his work means to me. So necessary . . . The king of empathy -- JAMEELA JAMILWarm and humorous * * The Times * *A brilliant premise and great fun to have so many stories within one book * * Daily Mail * *Amazing and utterly beautiful, The Midnight Library is everything you'd expect from the genius storyteller who is Matt Haig -- JOANNA CANNONAbsorbing . . . A vision of limitless possibility, of new roads taken, of new lives lived, of a whole different world available to us somehow, somewhere, might be exactly what's wanted in these troubled and troubling times * * New York Times * *

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Book Synopsis''Lolita is comedy, subversive yet divine'' Martin Amis, ObserverPoet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, ''to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets''. Is he in love or insane? A tortured soul or a monster? Humbert Humbert''s fixation is one of many dimensions in Nabokov''s dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich, elaborate verbal textures. Filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne, Lolita has lost none of its power to shock and awe.''There''s no funnier monster in literature than poor, doomed Humbert Humbert'' IndependentTrade ReviewHe did us all an honour by electing to use, and transform, our language. * Anthony Burgess *Nabokov can move you to laughter in the way that masters can - to laughter that is near to tears. * The Guardian *There's no funnier monster in modern literature than poor, doomed Humbert Humbert. * The Independent *

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Book Synopsis''I''m not exaggerating when I say this novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship. It''s one of those books that stays with you forever'' Dua LipaThe million-copy bestseller, Hanya Yanagihara''s A Little Life, by the author of To Paradise, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book AwardsShortlisted for the Booker PrizeShortlisted for the Women''s PrizeFinalist for the US National Book Award for FictionWhen four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they''re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he''ll not only be unable to overcome but that will define his life forever.''Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind'' The TimesTrade ReviewA singularly profound and moving work . . . It's not often that you read a book of this length and find yourself thinking "I wish it was longer" but Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind. * The Times *A Little Life makes for near-hypnotically compelling reading, a vivid, hyperreal portrait of human existence that demands intense emotional investment . . . An astonishing achievement: a novel of grand drama and sentiment, but it's a canvas Yanagihara has painted with delicate, subtle brushstrokes. * Independent *Here is an epic study of trauma and friendship written with such intelligence and depth of perception that it will be one of the benchmarks against which all other novels that broach those subjects (and they are legion) will be measured. * Wall Street Journal *It's not hyperbole to call this novel a masterwork - if anything that word is simply just too little for it * San Francisco Chronicle *A Little Life feels elemental, irreducible-and, dark and disturbing though it is, there is beauty in it * New Yorker *Utterly compelling . . . quite an extraordinary novel. It is impossible to put down . . . And it is almost impossible to forget. * Daily Express *A darkly beautiful tale of love and friendship... I've read a lot of emotionally taxing books in my time, but A Little Life . . . is the only one I've read as an adult that's left me sobbing. * Los Angeles Times *Capacious and consuming . . . Boasts a scale and immersive power to rival the recent epics of Donna Tartt and Elizabeth Gilbert. * Boston Globe *Astonishing . . . tender, torturous and achingly alive to the undeniable pain that can scar a life. * Psychologies *It's Entourage directed by Bergman; it's the great 90s novel a quarter of a century too late; it's a devastating read that will leave your heart, like the Grinch's, a few sizes larger. -- Alex Preston * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBy turns love letter to and critique of language itself, Greek Lessons is a brief yet, in its concision and finesse, lapidary work . . . one of Han's most intimate works * Financial Times *In Greek Lessons Kang reaches beyond the usual senses to translate the unspeakable . . . Han Kang turns the well-worn idea of the mind-body disconnect into something fresh and substantial * Los Angeles Times *This novel is a celebration of the ineffable trust to be found in sharing language . . . [Han] is an astute chronicler of unusual, insubordinate women * The New York Times *Han Kang is a writer like no other. In a few lines, she seems to traverse the entirety of human experience -- Katie KitamuraHan Kang's vivid and at times violent storytelling will wake up even the most jaded of literary palates * Independent *An elliptical, enigmatic book . . . Han's style creates mystery * The Economist *Han Kang's hypnotic Greek Lessons probes the limits of language * The Straits Times *Han Kang is what most writers spend their lives trying to be: a fearless, unsentimental teller of human truths . . . Han Kang is a genius -- Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious HeresiesAnother stunning gem: quiet, sharply faceted, and devastating * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisCharlotte Brontë's moving masterpiece – the novel that has been teaching true strength of character for generations (The Guardian). Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadA novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre has dazzled generations of readers with its depiction of a woman's quest for freedom. Having grown up an orphan in the home of her cruel aunt and at a harsh charity school, Jane Eyre becomes an independent and spirited survivor-qualities that serve her well as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him whatever the consequences or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving her beloved? This updated Penguin Classics edition features a new introduction by Brontë scholar and awarTrade Review"At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Brontë."--Virginia Woolf

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Book Synopsis'I'm not exaggerating when I say this novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship. It's one of those books that stays with you forever.' - Dua LipaThe million-copy bestseller, Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, by the author of To Paradise and The People in the Trees, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book AwardsShortlisted for the Booker PrizeShortlisted for the Women's PrizeFinalist for the US National Book Award for FictionWhen four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life forever.'Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind.' – The TimesTrade ReviewA singularly profound and moving work . . . It's not often that you read a book of this length and find yourself thinking "I wish it was longer" but Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind. -- Fiona Wilson * The Times *A Little Life makes for near-hypnotically compelling reading, a vivid, hyperreal portrait of human existence that demands intense emotional investment . . . An astonishing achievement: a novel of grand drama and sentiment, but it's a canvas Yanagihara has painted with delicate, subtle brushstrokes. * Independent *One of the pleasures of fiction is how suddenly a brilliant writer can alter the literary landscape . . . Ms. Yanagihara's immense new book . . . announces her, as decisively as a second work can, as a major American novelist. Here is an epic study of trauma and friendship written with such intelligence and depth of perception that it will be one of the benchmarks against which all other novels that broach those subjects (and they are legion) will be measured. * Wall Street Journal *How often is a novel so deeply disturbing that you might find yourself weeping, and yet so revelatory about human kindness that you might also feel touched by grace? Yanagihara's astonishing and unsettling second novel . . . plumbs the rich inner lives of all of her characters... You don't just care deeply about all these lives. Thanks to the author's exquisite skill, you feel as if you are living them . . . A Little Life is about the unimaginable cruelty of human beings, the savage things done to a child and his lifelong struggle to overcome the damage. Its pages are soaked with grief, but it's also about the bottomless human capacity for love and endurance . . . It's not hyperbole to call this novel a masterwork - if anything that word is simply just too little for it * San Francisco Chronicle *Martin Amis once asked, "Who else but Tolstoy has made happiness really swing on the page?" And the surprising answer is that Hanya Yanagihara has: counterintuitively, the most moving parts of "A Little Life" are not its most brutal but its tenderest ones, moments when Jude receives kindness and support from his friends . . . "A Little Life" feels elemental, irreducible-and, dark and disturbing though it is, there is beauty in it -- Jon Michaud * New Yorker *Hanya Yanagihara's no-holds-barred second novel A Little Life has established her as a major new voice in US fiction. -- Tim Adams * Observer *Utterly compelling . . . quite an extraordinary novel. It is impossible to put down . . . And it is almost impossible to forget. -- Mernie Gilmore * Daily Express *[The] spring's must-read novel . . . Her debut . . . put her on the literary map, her massive new novel . . . signals the arrival of a major new voice in fiction . . . Her achievement has less to do with size than with her powerful evocation of the fragility of self . . . the pained beauty that suffuses this novel, an American epic that eloquently counters our culture's fixation with redemptive narratives. * Vogue US *[A] wholly immersive unforgettable read . . . You won't stop reading. And it's a novel that changes you. * Evening Standard *The triumph of A Little Life's many pages is significant: It wraps us so thoroughly in a character's life that his trauma, his struggles, his griefs come to seem as familiar and inescapable as our own. There's no one way to experience loss, abuse, or the effects of trauma, of course, but the vividness of Jude's character and experiences makes the pain almost tangible, the fall-out more comprehensible. It's a monument of empathy, and that alone makes this novel wondrous * Huffington Post *Often painful but thoroughly brilliant . . . Yanagihara's massive new novel . . . is hurtful. That's because, among other things, it is the enthralling and completely immersive story of one man's unyielding pain. It also asks a compelling question: Can friends save us? Even from ourselves? . . . Yanagihara's close study of [her characters'] lives and Jude's trauma makes for a stunning work of fiction * New York Daily News *This spellbinding, feverish novel sucks you in . . . One of the most compassionate, moving stories of our time . . . An exquisitely written, complex triumph * Oprah.com *A darkly beautiful tale of love and friendship... I've read a lot of emotionally taxing books in my time, but A Little Life . . . is the only one I've read as an adult that's left me sobbing. I became so invested in the characters and their lives that I almost felt unqualified to review this book objectively . . . There are truths here that are almost too much to bear - that hope is a qualified thing, that even love, no matter how pure and freely given, is not always enough. This book made me realize how merciful most fiction really is, even at its darkest, and it's a testament to Yanagihara's ability that she can take such ugly material and make it beautiful * Los Angeles Times *Capacious and consuming . . . Boast[s] a scale and immersive power to rival the recent epics of Donna Tartt and Elizabeth Gilbert . . . Alternately devastating and draining, A Little Life floats all sorts of troubling questions about the responsibility of the individual to those nearest and dearest and the sometime futility of playing brother's keeper. Those questions, accompanied by Yanagihara's exquisitely imagined characters, will shadow your dreamscapes * Boston Globe *An extraordinary book . . . A Little Life is quite deliberately a fable, not social realism . . . and all the more powerful for it. The truths it tells are wrenching, permanent. -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *This is an impressive and moving novel. -- Hannah Rosefield * Literary Review *A Little Life is Jude's story and it's his sorrow that colours this devastating, exhausting, strangely exhilarating novel. It's not in any way consoling but it is vitally compelling. -- Eithne Farry * Daily Express *How many times a year are you blown away by a book? That feeling that you can't stop reading, that your life might be a little bit changed? . . . I felt in the presence of genius, and 14 sleepless hours later I inhaled the last few sentences knowing I had found a masterpiece . . . Objectively, parts of this are a gruelling read, but such is the author's skill that the pages do seem to turn themselves as we race towards finding out the terrible secrets of Jude's dark trauma... I will be heading to the barricades if this doesn't win prizes galore -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * The Bookseller *Has so much richness in it - great big passages of beautiful prose, unforgettable characters, and shrewd insights into art and ambition and friendship and forgiveness * Entertainment Weekly *Astonishing . . . tender, torturous and achingly alive to the undeniable pain that can scar a life. * Psychologies *The clarity of Yanagihara's prose is perfect for dissecting blind ambition, the consolations of work and money, and how these paper over the cracks of fragile, fractured individuals . . . A Little Life is unlike anything else out there . . . Quite simply unforgettable. -- James Kidd * Independent on Sunday *This new book is long, page-turny, deeply moving, sometimes excessive, but always packed with the weight of a genuine experience. As I was reading, I literally dreamed about it every night . . . The book's driven obsessiveness is inseparable from the emotional force that will leave countless readers weeping . . . A wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship. With her sensitivity to everything from the emotional nuance to the play of light inside a subway car, Yanagihara is superb at capturing the radiant moments of beauty, warmth and kindness that help redeem the bad stuff. In A Little Life, it's life's evanescent blessings that maybe, but only maybe, can save you * National Public Radio *Once she has you, Yanagihara is not going to let you go . . . Yanagihara . . . contains multitudes. She seems able to imagine anything . . . A Little Life . . . is, in its own dark way, a miracle * Newsday *At its heart A Little Life is a fairy tale that pits good against evil, love against viciousness, hope against hopelessness. The cruelty of the life Ms Yanagihara describes is trumped only by the tenacity with which she searches for an answer. * The Economist *The reader is pulled along by its express-train pace . . . it's certainly a great book. -- John Harding * Daily Mail *The first must-read novel of the year . . . The way to describe a novel you like, maybe the quickest way, is to say that you can't put it down. People say that all the time. There are also novels that compel trickier, but no less passionate, emotions. They are books that confront you and make you wrestle with them. You might feel protective of the characters and their fates; maybe you feel like the writer is talking directly to, or about, you and you are delighted but spooked about what the writer might reveal. There is no shorthand phrase for a novel that seduces you even as it frightens, guts, exhausts, and disgusts you. A Little Life is the most devastating but satisfying novel published so far this year . . . Finishing its 720 pages is like finishing one of the doorstop novels of 19th-century Russia: you feel worn out but wide awake -- (Cover Story) * Kirkus *Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life is the thinking person's big book of the year so far, a long, complex and pretty dark look at the intertwined lives of four college friends. It reminds me of The Corrections, or a starker The Interestings, or a more linear work by David Foster Wallace. Really. It's that huge and important * Amazon.com *Set to become one of the year's most talked-about novels . . . The narrative is transporting. -- Alex Clarke * ES Magazine *A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, will be one of those books people ask you if you've read yet. Beat 'em to the punch * South Coast Today *Utterly enthralling . . . The phrase "tour de force" could have been invented for this audacious novel * Kirkus (Starred Review) *Emerging from horror, persistent and enduring, is a touching, eternal, unconventional love story. -- Maria Crawford * Financial Times *A Little Life asks serious questions about humanism and euthanasia and psychiatry and any number of the partis pris of modern western life. It's Entourage directed by Bergman; it's the great 90s novel a quarter of a century too late; it's a devastating read that will leave your heart, like the Grinch's, a few sizes larger. -- Alex Preston * Observer *Transporting . . . A Little Life is not to be missed. -- Alex Clark * Evening Standard *Deeply moving . . . A Little Life interrogates notions of value and happiness as espoused by the 21st century American dream . . . Extraordinarily rich. * The National *A book that demands to be read. -- James Daunt * Wall Street Journal *A remarkable tale of love, friendship and the difficulties of embracing life when everything conspires against your right to happiness. * Sunday Herald *

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Book SynopsisFyodor Dostoyevsky''s powerful meditation on faith, meaning and morality, The Brothers Karamazov is translated with an introduction and notes by David McDuff in Penguin Classics. When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Mitya, the sensualist, whose bitter rivalry with his father immediately places him under suspicion for parricide; Ivan, the intellectual, whose mental tortures drive him to breakdown; the spiritual Alyosha, who tries to heal the family''s rifts; and the shadowy figure of their bastard half-brother Smerdyakov. As the ensuing investigation and trial reveal the true identity of the murderer, Dostoyevsky''s dark masterpiece evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur and everyone''s faith in humanity is tested. This powerful translation of The Brothers Karamazov features and introduction highlighting Dostoyevsky''s recurrent themes of guilt and salvation, with a new chronology and further reading. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow. From 1849-54 he lived in a convict prison, and in later years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt. His other works available in Penguin Classics include Crime & Punishment, The Idiot and Demons. If you enjoyed The Brothers Karamazov you might like Nikolai Gogol''s Dead Souls, also available in Penguin Classics. ''There is no writer who better demonstrates the contradictions and fluctuations of the creative mind than Dostoyevsky, and nowhere more astonishingly than in The Brothers Karamazov'' Joyce Carol Oates ''Dostoyevsky was the only psychologist from whom I had anything to learn: he belongs to the happiest windfalls of my life'' Friedrich Nietzsche ''The most magnificent novel ever written'' Sigmund FreudTable of ContentsThe Brothers KaramazovChronologyIntroductionFurther ReadingA Note on the TextThe Brothers KaramazovNotes

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Book SynopsisWhen her cousin and wife fail to return from a walk, this story takes a sinister turn to a quest of survival A woman takes a holiday in the Austrian mountains, spending a few days with her cousin and his wife in their hunting lodge. When the couple fails to return from a walk, the woman sets off to look for them. But her journey reaches a sinister and inexplicable dead end. She discovers only a transparent wall behind which there seems to be no life. Trapped alone behind the mysterious wall she begins the arduous work of survival.This is at once a simple account of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and the use of one's name, and simultaneously a disturbing dissection of the place of human beings in the natural world.**PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, STATION ELEVEN AND THE MARTIAN**VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit - and must protect. Discover great writing on the most urgent story of our times.Trade ReviewIt's a novel that contrives to be, by turns, utopian and dystopian, an idyll and a nightmare... Every joint and sinew of the story is restless with a sense of threat * London Review of Books *Brilliant in its sustainment of dread, in its peeling away of old layers of reality to expose a raw way of seeing and feeling. Doris Lessing once remarked that only a woman could have written this novel, and it's true... I've read The Wall three times already and am nowhere near finished -- Nicole KraussIt makes you sick, because, if she wasn't a woman, everyone would be reading it, like Robinson Crusoe -- Sheila Heti, author of 'Motherhood' and 'Pure Colour'Totally gripping -- Daniel Swift * Spectator, *Books of the Year* *An extraordinarily interesting writer, always underappreciated -- Elfriede Jelinek

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Book Synopsis''One of the best books I''ve ever read'' Richard Osman''Tender and elegant'' Guardian''Unlike anything else in modern English literature'' D.J. Taylor, SpectatorA damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years. Adapted into a film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh, A Month in the Country traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War.With an introduction by Penelope FitzgeraldTrade ReviewThe book I keep coming back to, it's one of the best books I've ever read. I've never met anyone who didn't love it. -- Richard OsmanTender and elegant * Guardian *Unlike anything else in modern English Literature -- D.J. Taylor * Spectator *Carr's blessedly small tale of lost love is also a small hymn about art and the compensating joy of the artist, both in giving and receiving. It stays with us, too, and is oddly haunting * New Yorker *Carr has the magic touch to re-enter the imagined past -- Penelope Fitzgerald

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Book Synopsis**Order the paperback of Bella Mackie''s latest hilarious novel, WHAT A WAY TO GO, now**THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERI loved this book' RICHARD OSMANFunny, sharp, dark and twisted' JOJO MOYESChilling, but also laugh-out-loud funny. Another corker' SUNDAY TELEGRAPHThey say you can't choose your family. But you can kill them.Meet Grace Bernard.Daughter, sister, serial killerGrace has lost everything.And she will stop at nothing to get revenge.-Funny and furious and strangely uplifting. Grace is a bitter and beguiling anti-hero with a keen eye for social analysis even in her most grisly deeds, you never stop rooting for her' PANDORA SYKESDeliciously addictivebrilliantly executed' i PAPERAddictive Grace Bernard is one of the most intriguing and bewitching protagonists I''ve read in years' EMMA GANNONA funny, compulsive read about family dysfunction and the media's obsession with murder' SUNDAY TIMES STYLEYou'll be gripped Grace's emotional detachment throughout will give you chills' Rated 5 stars by COSMOPOLITAN?????Hilarious and dark' ELLEIronic twists and caustic commentary on everything from liberal guilt to the consumerist con that is selfcare sharpen this debut novel' OBSERVERBrilliantly tongue-in-cheek stuff from the Vogue columnist' IRISH INDEPENDENTWitty, waspish satire of a murderer with no regrets' GRAZIAOriginal, funny, unique and such a refreshing read' PRIMAA deliciously dark debut novel' REDOne very entertaining read' WOMAN'S WAYHow To Kill Your Family was number 1 in the Sunday Times paperback chart on 26/04/2022Trade Review‘Funny and furious and strangely uplifting. Grace is a bitter and beguiling anti-hero with a keen eye for social analysis – even in her most grisly deeds, you never stop rooting for her’ PANDORA SYKES ‘I loved this book’ RICHARD OSMAN ‘I’ve struggled to recover my reading mojo since lockdown. This turned out to be the thing that sparked it back to life… Funny, sharp, dark and twisted, Grace is a character I found myself rooting for even as she committed the most vile misdeeds’ JOJO MOYES ‘Addictive… one of the most intriguing and bewitching protagonists I've read in years’ EMMA GANNON ‘A funny, compulsive read about family dysfuction and the media’s obsession with murder’ SUNDAY TIMES STYLE ‘You’ll be gripped… Grace’s emotional detachment throughout will give you chills’ Rated 5 stars by COSMOPOLITAN⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Hilarious and dark’ ELLE ‘Ironic twists and caustic commentary on everything from liberal guilt to the consumerist con that is “selfcare” sharpen this debut novel’ OBSERVER ‘Brilliantly tongue-in-cheek stuff from the Vogue columnist’ IRISH INDEPENDENT ‘Original, funny, unique and such a refreshing read’ PRIMA ‘A deliciously dark debut novel’ RED ‘This smart revenge comedy is told through the eyes of the Villanelle-esque anti-hero Grace Bernard… Chilling, but also laugh-out-loud funny. Another corker of a debut’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ‘Deliciously addictive… brilliantly executed’ i PAPER ‘Witty, waspish satire of a murderer with no regrets’ GRAZIA ‘Darkly hilarious’ IRISH TIMES MAGAZINE ‘Deliciously dark and twisted’ You magazine, MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘Bella Mackie’s debut novel is by turns pitch-dark and laugh-out-loud funny, with an outrageous final twist’ DAILY MAIL ‘hilarious… skilfully plotted’ Adele Parks The Sun

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Book SynopsisA group of people have little in common except that they are all hopelessly lonely. A young girl, a drunken socialist and a black doctor are drawn to a gentle, sympathetic deaf mute, whose presence changes their lives.Trade ReviewThe greatest prose writer that the South produced ... She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass -- Tennessee WilliamsA remarkable book ... [McCullers] writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming * The New York Times *Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure -- Gore VidalAgain [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in men's hearts and minds * New York Herald-Tribune *

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Book SynopsisAn instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellerSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 DYLAN THOMAS AWARD''A package of dynamite'' Stephen KingPowerful, compulsive, brilliant' Marian KeyesAn era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacherALL HE DID WAS FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND THE WORLD TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTERVanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher.She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn''t abuse. It was love. She''s sure of that.Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life her great sexual awakening as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold and powerful, My Dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues of our age.Trade Review‘A hard story to read and a harder one to put down … a package of dynamite’ Stephen King ‘The book that scared Weinstein’ Metro ‘Compulsive. I burned through the first half in such a fever that I lost sleep, I missed meals … a lightning rod’ Washington Post ‘A brilliant and stunning debut … utterly truth-rattling, humane in its clarity and chilling in its resonance. An absolute must-read’ Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl ‘A skilled, terrifying depiction of grooming … we should all read it’ Marian Keyes ‘Once in a while, a book comes along that consumes your waking hours, unmoors you from your lived reality, grips the very core of you and doesn’t let go. My Dark Vanessa is that book’ Esquire ‘Clever, unsettling … this novel stands out for its elusiveness, its exceedingly complex, inventive, resourceful examination of harm and power’ New Yorker ‘The #MeToo novel that’s as gripping as any thriller’ Grazia ‘Gripping and unsettling… a bracingly uncompromising book. It will doubtless be devoured with an ache of recognition by large numbers of women. But it really ought to be read by men’ Economist ‘Superb … a book that asks what we have lost and gained in an era that has revolutionised the way we think about sex and power’ Observer ‘Addictively disturbing’ Red Magazine

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Book SynopsisIn Água Viva Clarice Lispector aims to ''capture the present''. Her direct, confessional and unfiltered meditations on everything from life and time to perfume and sleep are strange and hypnotic in their emotional power and have been a huge influence on many artists and writers, including one Brazilian musician who read it one hundred and eleven times. Despite its apparent spontaneity, this is a masterly work of art, which rearranges language and plays in the gaps between reality and fiction.Trade ReviewA bewitching, jewel-like book unlike anything in modern literature. Agua Viva baffles and inspires me ... Each word of the book lands with the sweet force of a blade ... crystalline -- Carlos Valladares * Gagosian Quarterly *An emblematic twentieth-century artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce * Edmund White *Lispector stands at the pinnacle of Brazil's impressive literary achievement * Washington Post Book World *One of the very great writers of the last century * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHe is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him -- Vladimir NabokovKafka described with wonderful imaginative power the future concentration camps, the future instability of the law, the future absolutism of the state, the paralysed, inadequately motivated, floundering lives of the many individual people; everything appeared as a nightmare and with the confusion and inadequacy of a nightmare -- Bertolt Brecht

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Book SynopsisChuck Palahniuk is the bestselling author of fifteen fictional works, including Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, Choke, Lullaby, Diary, Haunted, Rant, Pygmy, Tell-All, Damned, Doomed, Beautiful You, and most recently Make Something Up. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.Trade ReviewHypnotic, pitiless and told brilliantly -- Bret Easton EllisAn outrageously suspenseful apocalyptic comedy of horrors...with acid clarity...Fight Club only achieves something only terrifying books do - it tells us: this is how we live now. Maybe our generation has finally found its Don DeLillo * Bret Easton Ellis *Like a noxious Doug Coupland, Palahiuk charts new-felt and totally contemporary categories of despair -- Ali Smith * Guardian *An immensely skillful writer * Daily Telegraph *Short, sharp and savage, this haunting and strikingly original American urban nightmare is the most impressive US fiction début I can remember in years * Glasgow Herald *

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Book SynopsisThe heroic story of the only female Argonaut, told by Jennifer Saint, the bestselling author of ATALANTA (UK, Sunday Times, April 2023) ELEKTRA (UK, Sunday Times, May 2022) and ARIADNE (UK, Sunday Times, April 2021).''Brilliantly evocative'' Women & Home ''A spirited retelling'' Times ''Beautiful and absorbing'' Fabulous ''A vivid reimagining of Greek mythology'' Harper''s Bazaar ''Jennifer Saint has done it again'' Red ''Jennifer Saint can do no wrong'' GlamourWhen a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment.Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta, is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forTrade ReviewA stunning retelling filled with breathtaking adventure, Atalanta brings to life a heroine who stands tall among the ancient gods and heroes of legend. -- Sue Lynn Tan, Sunday Times bestselling author of DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESSJennifer Saint deftly draws the reader into the legends of Atalanta, swift huntress and favorite of Artemis, bringing the world of ancient Greece alive. The detail and description is lush: you can hear the rustle of the green leaves and taste the salty spray of the sea as the Argo rides forth on its quest. A story of adventure and love against all odds, this is an ancient tale limned with gold. -- Luna McNamara, author of PSYCHE AND EROSAbsolutely beautiful. This is a retelling that fully inhabits the magical realm of myth while losing none of its human heart. The way Jennifer Saint dealt with the ending was absolutely inspired - staying true to the mythology yet giving it an emotional twist that felt completely true to the heroine she had created. Atalanta is a lyrical, exciting and deeply poignant tale of one woman's remarkable life - and I cannot wait to read it again. -- Elodie Harper, author of THE WOLF DEN and THE HOUSE WITH THE GOLDEN DOORThrough the eyes of a strong and unbending heroine, Atalanta weaves together some of the most exciting myths: the Argonauts' quest, Hypsipyle and the women of Lemnos, Hippomenes's footrace. Beautifully written and crafted with magic, this is an unforgettable retelling. -- Costanza Casati, author of CLYTEMNESTRAAtalanta is an absolute joy of a novel. As always Saint brings Ancient Greece to life with deft story-telling and lyrical imagery, but with her third outing we are drawn into a truly empowering story - a novel of strength and resilience, love and friendship, skillfully enthused with the addictive magic of timeless myth. A beautifully written retelling. -- Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of PANDORA

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Book SynopsisClarice Lispector''s sensational, prize-winning debut novel Near to the Wild Heart was published when she was just twenty-three and earned her the name ''Hurricane Clarice''. It tells the story of Joana, from her wild, creative childhood, as the ''little egg'' who writes poems for her father, through her marriage to the faithless Otávio and on to her decision to make her own way in the world. As Joana, endlessly mutable, moves through different emotional states, different inner lives and different truths, this impressionistic, dreamlike and fiercely intelligent novel asks if any of us ever really know who we are.Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her innovation in fiction brought her international renown. References to her literary work pervade the music and literature of Brazil and Latin America. She was born in the Ukraine in 1920, but in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Civil War, the family fled to Romania and eventually sailed to Brazil. In 1933, Clarice Lispector encountered Hermann Hesse''s Steppenwolf, which convinced her that she was meant to write. She published her first novel, Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three, and the next year was awarded the Graça Aranha Prize for the best first novel. Many felt she had given Brazillian literature a unique voice in the larger context of Portuguese literature. After living variously in Italy, the UK, Switzerland and the US, in 1959, Lispector with her children returned to Brazil where she wrote her most influential novels including The Passion According to G.H. She died in 1977, shortly after the publication of her final novel, The Hour of the Star.Trade ReviewBrilliant ... Lispector should be on the shelf with Kafka and Joyce * Los Angeles Times *The first fiery novel by the Brazilian national treasure -- Carlos Valladares * Gagosian Quarterly *A genius -- Colm Tóibín * Guardian *A truly remarkable writer -- Jonathan FranzenLispector's novels offer a stark counterpoint to much of modern life's focus on individual fame * The Boston Globe *One of the twentieth century's most mysterious writers -- Orhan PamukThe originality of Near to the Wild Heart lies in its technique and language: self conscious, bleakly humourous, but poetic ... We now finally have a translation worthy of Clarice Lispector's inimitable style. Go out and buy it. -- JS Tennant * Observer *

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Book SynopsisLiving in the slums of Rio and eking out a living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola and her philandering rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly and unloved. Yet telling her story is the narrator Rodrigo S.M., who tries to direct Macabéa''s fate but comes to realize that, for all her outward misery, she is inwardly free. Slyly subverting ideas of poverty, identity, love and the art of writing itself, Clarice Lispector''s audacious last novel is a haunting portrayal of innocence in a bad world.Trade ReviewHer last and perhaps greatest novel -- Barbara Mujica * Americas *Her finest book * The Nation *Her searing last novel ... mesmerizing * Vogue *

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce (1882-1941) was born and educated in Dublin. Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much of the subject matter for all his fiction. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916).

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.From the acclaimed author of Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss' Summerwater is a devastating story told over twenty-four hours in the Scottish highlands . . . 'Superb' - The Times'Sharp, searching . . . utterly of the moment' - Hilary Mantel'So accomplished' - GuardianIt is the summer solstice, but in a faded Scottish cabin park the rain is unrelenting. Twelve people on holiday with their families look on as the skies remain resolutely grey. A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a teenage boy chances the dark waters of the loch in his kayak; a retired couple head out despite the downpour, driving too fast on the familiar bends.But there are newcomers too, and one particular family, a mother and daughter with the wrong clothes and the wrong manners, start to draw the attention of the others. Who are they? Where are they from? Should they be here at all? As darkness finally falls, something is unravelling . . .'A masterpiece' - Jessie Burton'One of her best' - Irish Times'Beautifully written, intense, powerful' - David NichollsTrade ReviewSharp, searching, thoroughly imagined, it is utterly of the moment, placing its anxious human dots against a vast indifferent landscape; with its wit and verve and beautiful organisation it throws much contemporary writing into the shade! -- Hilary Mantel, Man Booker winning author of Wolf HallNothing escapes her sly humour and brilliant touch. Deft and brimming with life, Summerwater is a novel of endless depth. A masterpiece. -- Jessie Burton, author of The MiniaturistMoss’s ability to conjure up the fleeting and sometimes agonised tenderness of family life is unmatched . . . there is an artfulness to her writing so accomplished as to conceal itself. -- Melissa Harrison, GuardianSummerwater is a triumph and confirms Sarah Moss as one of the best writers at work in Britain today. -- Fiona Mozley, author of ElmetMoss is a writer who can say more than most others in half the space. Her latest, a haunting story of alienation set on a Scottish campsite, is the summer’s most interesting read * Independent *Summerwater is a beautiful book, written with delicacy and grace, yet with an undertow as dark as the Scottish loch by which its characters are holidaying in ignorance of the tragedy to come. If you are a huge fan of Moss's work, as I am, you will find yourself parceling it out, to read a chapter a day, like a gift. -- Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree YardSuffused with fascination . . . this latest display of Moss’s imaginative versatility shine[s] with intelligence * The Times *This novel - about crisis and isolation in its own ways - moved and encouraged me in difficult times. Another deft, sensitive, crystalline book by Sarah Moss; I loved it. -- Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start FromA masterful and immerse exercise in tension; here are the many conflicting voices of modern Britain in microcosm. Sarah Moss reminds us that society is only ever two short steps away from collapse. -- Benjamin Myers, author of The OffingFor more than a decade, Sarah Moss has been crafting quiet, complex novels that make an indelible impression on the reader. This is one of her best, and most accessible, and should bring her work to a wider audience. * Irish Times *I read this brilliant novel in one greedy gulp. Sarah Moss is an acute observer of modern life and puts humanity on the page with deep understanding and wit. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love With delicate precision, Summerwater takes the moral and emotional temperature of a whole society. It is matchless, too, in its blending of steely insight with humour and compassion. -- Pankaj Mishra, author of The Age of AngerMoss is the most brilliant writer. She deserves to win all the prizes. -- Joanna Trollope, author of City of FriendsMoss has quietly, and it must be said remarkably quickly, been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years. * Financial Times *One of our very best contemporary novelists. * Independent *Moss’s star is firmly in the ascendant * Guardian *One of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today * Stylist *A brilliant, confounding writer * New Yorker *A brilliant story of dysfunctional families * The Times *

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Book SynopsisWe could tell you the year is 1944, that the main character is called Tyrone Slothrop and that he has a problem because bombs are falling across Europe and crashing to earth at the exact locations of his sexual conquests. But that doesn't really begin to cover it.Trade ReviewThe best seller described as the kind of Ulysses which Joyce might have written if he had been a Boeing engineer with a fetish for quadrille paper * Irish Examiner *Pynchon’s masterpiece. -- John Sutherland * Guardian *Thomas Pynchon gives us 20th-century fiction's finest memento mori. -- John Sutherland * The Times *[A] masterpiece -- Marc Chacksfield * ShortList *I read this at 19 or so and just thought, like, f*ck, wow: this is the marker, the pace-setter for the contemporary novel -- Tom McCarthy, author of 'C'

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Book Synopsis'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read' Emily St. John MandelA dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.As animal populations plummet, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool.Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from.From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic, moving story of the possibility of hope against all odds.______________READERS LOVE MIGRATIONS:'Wrenchingly beautiful''Visceral, heart-breaking''Simply phenomenal''Raw and gripping''Riveting''Here's your next favourite''A story...about love, passion, wandering'*Previously published as The Last Migration*Trade ReviewCompulsive stuff, driven at a cracking pace by the power of the elements and the fierce will of its single-minded narrator * Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail *The Last Migration is as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read. This is an extraordinary novel by a wildly talented writer * Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven *There's a brooding lushness to this novel's prose that belies its stark premise... this keening lament of an adventure is compelling * Hephzibah Anderson, Observer *An adventure of a wilder sort * Vogue, US *A fascinating hybrid of nature writing and dystopian fiction... gripping... by merging cli-fi and nature writing, the novel powerfully demonstrates the spiritual and emotional costs of environmental destruction * Economist *

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Book SynopsisONE OF BARACK OBAMA''S BEST BOOKS OF 2017From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling and Booker long-listed author of My Name is Lucy Barton Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Anything is Possible tells the story of the inhabitants of rural, dusty Amgash, Illinois, the hometown of Lucy Barton, a successful New York writer who finally returns, after seventeen years of absence, to visit the siblings she left behind.Reverberating with the deep bonds of family, and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout''s place as one of America''s most respected and cherished authors.Lucy''s story continues in Oh William! and Lucy by the Sea, available to read now!***''A terrific writer'' Zadie Smith''A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own'' Hilary MantelElizabeth Strout''s new novel Tell Me Everything is out now!Trade ReviewIt's hard to believe that a year after the astonishing My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout could bring us another book that is by every measure its equal, but what Strout proves to us again and again is that where she's concerned, anything is possible. This book, this writer, are magnificent. -- Ann Patchett, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 'Commonwealth'This is a shimmering masterpiece of a book...Strout is a brilliant chronicler of the ambiguity and delicacy of the human condition. Anything is Possible is a wise, stunning novel * Observer *The words appear on the page as if breathed there * Sunday Telegraph *Anything is Possible is wonderfully readable because Strout really can write you into a world until you feel you are there with her, in that house, that life, that little Podunk of a place * The Times *Strout's compassion for her fellow creatures, as these anguished, lean stories prove, is as keen as a whip and all the more painful for it * Guardian *The work of Elizabeth Strout suggests that she pays a similar quality of unseparate attention to life, which she - not passively, but actively - takes in, listening to, looking into it, reflecting up on and freeing it once more, remade, in beautifully placed words, onto the page to live again for us, her fortunate readers * Daily Telegraph *Anything is Possible is absolutely wonderful. Here is a writer at the peak of her powers: compassionate, profoundly observant, laser-cut diamond brilliant * Literary Review *Anything Is Possible confirms Strout as one of our most grace-filled, and graceful, writers * Boston Globe *There is immense humanity in Strout's writing....her masterful economy of prose creates a rich tapestry infused with emotional wisdom...Anything is Possible is a masterpiece * Sunday Express *A quietly gripping deception of some of the ordinary, messy, interwoven lives that Lucy and her mother discussed in the earlier book * Radio Times *Strout, always good, just keeps getting better * Vogue US *In her latest work, Strout achieves new levels of masterful storytelling. * Publisher's Weekly *[F]ull of searing insight into the darkest corners of the human spirit... 'Anything Is Possible' is both sweeping in scope and incredibly introspective. That delicate balance is what makes its content so sharp and compulsively readable... With assuredness, compassion and utmost grace, her words and characters remind us that in life anything is actually possible * San Francisco Chronicle *The epic scope within seemingly modest confines recalls Strout's Pulitzer Prize winner, Olive Kitteridge, and her ability to discern vulnerabilities buried beneath bad behavior is as acute as ever. Another powerful examination of painfully human ambiguities and ambivalences-this gifted writer just keeps getting better. * Kirkus Reviews *If you miss the charmingly eccentric and completely relatable characters from Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout's best-selling My Name is Lucy Barton, you'll be happily reunited with them in Strout's smart and soulful Anything is Possible * Elle US *Strout once again shows her talent for adroitly uncovering what makes ordinary people tick * Booklist *Strout pierces the inner worlds of these characters' most private behaviors, illuminating the emotional conflicts and pure joy of being human, of finding oneself in the search for the American dream * Nylon *Amgash, Illinois, will be familiar to Elizabeth Strout fans as the hometown of the protagonist of her 2016 novel, My Name is Lucy Barton. In Anything is Possible... Lucy's legend looms large... but no prior reading is required to enjoy Strout's powerful writing and empathy * Real Simple *We devoured Strout's last novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, and her latest-which is loosely linked to Lucy Barton-is no different. Told from multiple points of view, it's about residents of a small town in Illinois struggling with the most relatable and quotidian problems... you'll swear you know these characters. (In fact, it reminds us a bit of another of Strout's masterpieces, the excellent Olive Kitteridge.) * PureWow *Elizabeth Strout's prose is like words doing jazz -- Rachel JoyceI am deeply impressed. Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue. -- Hilary Mantel on 'My Name is Lucy Barton'A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships -- Observer on 'My Name is Lucy Barton'Tender, elegiac, this is the story of a single life that also manages to tell the story of many -- Independent on 'My Name is Lucy Barton'The writing is wrenchingly lovely. It almost always is with Strout, whether she's knitting metaphors or summarizing, with agonizing economy, whole episodes. * New York Times *There are not many novelists out there producing writing as good as this * Daily Mail *Down to every sentence, it's wise, touching and quietly powerful * Grazia *As always, Strout treats even the most difficult characters with rare understanding. "It made me feel much less alone," says on reader of Lucy's memoir. The same will surely be said of Anything Is Possible * People (Book of the Week) *Gorgeous... Strout is in that special company of writers like Richard Ford, Stewart O'Nan and Richard Russo, who write simply about ordinary lives and, in so doing, make us readers see the beauty of both their worn and rough surfaces and what lies beneath -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR / Fresh AirHighly enjoyable * Sunday Times *A subtle, disturbing and touching book that is a miracle of wisdom and perception * Mail on Sunday *A beautifully told story of small-town Americans dealing with big life issues * Good Housekeeping *Utterly beautiful in the way that these characters were flawed to their core yet brimful of keeping it together no matter what...I loved it, there wasn't a moment when I didn't believe it. -- Barb Jungr * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *In all her novels, including this one, "the kindness of strangers is a fierce sun than can pierce the cloud" * The Week *Every chapter has depth, nuances, restrained descriptions and luminous characterisation. A wonder of a book * i Newspaper *Elizabeth Strout is a novelist in whose hands anything really is possible, and if you've yet to discover her, make this holiday the one you do * Daily Mail *This glimmering, profound, beautiful novel is modern American writing at its best' -- Clare AllfreeJust as understated and as full of horrifyingly elisions and surprising epiphanies as its predecessor * TLS Books of the Year *This audacious novel is about small-town characters struggling to make sense of past family traumas * New York Times Books of the Year *Strout turns her clear, incisive gaze on the intricacies and betrayals of small town life -- Maggie O'FarrellAnything is Possible is predictably great because it's written by Elizabeth Strout, and brilliantly unpredictable - because it is written by Elizabeth Strout -- Roddy Doyle

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewUnsettling, challenging and gloriously written, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy is the multi-generational story of a hallucinatory sort of summer * Juliet Nicolson, Evening Standard *Leaves the reader enraptured and unnerved * Jackie Annesley, Evening Standard *Publisher's description. Shortlisted for the Man Booker and Goldsmiths prizes, a hypnotic tale of female sexuality and power under the scorching midday sun. Sofia and her mother arrive on the Spanish coast looking for answers - what they find there will be strange, seductive and fearsome beyond their wildest dreams. * Penguin *

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Book SynopsisOne of Elena Ferrante''s Top 40 Books by Women G.H., a well-to-do Rio sculptress, enters the room of her maid, which is as clear and white ''as in an insane asylum from which dangerous objects have been removed''. There she sees a cockroach - black, dusty, prehistoric - crawling out of the wardrobe and, panicking, slams the door on it. Her irresistible fascination with the dying insect provokes a spiritual crisis, in which she questions her place in the universe and her very identity, propelling her towards an act of shocking transgression. Clarice Lispector''s spare, deeply disturbing yet luminous novel transforms language into something otherworldly, and is one of her most unsettling and compelling works. Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her innovation in fiction brought her international renown. References to her literary work pervade the music and literature of Brazil and Latin America. She was born in the Ukraine in 1920, but in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Civil War, the family fled to Romania and eventually sailed to Brazil. She published her first novel, Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three, and the next year was awarded the Graça Aranha Prize for the best first novel. Many felt she had given Brazillian literature a unique voice in the larger context of Portuguese literature. After living variously in Italy, the UK, Switzerland and the US, in 1959, Lispector with her children returned to Brazil where she wrote her most influential novels including The Passion According to G.H. She died in 1977, shortly after the publication of her final novel, The Hour of the Star.Trade ReviewBrilliant ... Lispector should be on the shelf with Kafka and Joyce * Los Angeles Times *One of the twentieth century's most mysterious writers -- Orhan PamukThe premier Latin American woman prose writer of this century * The New York Times Book Review *

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Book Synopsis''One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century'' Michael CunninghamClarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Smith''s day interweaves with that of Clarissa and her friends, their lives converging as the party reaches its glittering climax. Virginia Woolf''s masterly novel, in which she perfected the interior monologue, brings past, present and future together on one momentous day in June 1923.Edited by Stella McNichol with an Introduction and Notes by Elaine Showalter.Trade ReviewOne of the few genuine innovations in the history of the novel * New Yorker *One of her greatest achievements, a book whose afterlife continues to inspire new generations of writers and readers * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2015 WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2014WINNER OF THE 2014 COSTA NOVEL AWARD''I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul'' Evening Standard How to be both is a novel all about art''s versatility. Borrowing from painting''s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it''s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There''s a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There''s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life''s givens get given a second chance.*****''Brims with palpable joy'' Daily Telegraph''She''s a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense'' Alain de Botton''A delight. A masterpiece. Magical'' Sunday TimesWINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY LITERARY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2014SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014Ali Smith''s new novel, Companion piece, is available now.Trade ReviewDizzyingly good and so clever that it makes you want to dance * New Statesman *A delight. A masterpiece. Magical. * Sunday Times *I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul * Evening Standard *Exciting, full of joy and wryly funny... [Ali Smith is] one of the most inventive writers alive * Emerald Street *A remarkably easy and immensely enjoyable read... Ali Smith is a one-off. Her imagination and originality make her one of the most exciting novelists of her generation. Both George and Francesco touch the heart and linger in the mind long after the final page. * Daily Express *Smith is the brightest spark in a recent explosion of female novelists taking dizzying risks with form and voice . . . most contemporary male authors feel Jurassic by comparison. * Metro *Rich, funny and moving. Smith's writing really catches fire * Financial Times *Dazzling * Independent *This warm, funny book deserves to be read at least one-and-a-half times -- Honor Clerk * Spectator *Radical, dazzling . . . Those writers making doomy predictions about the death of the novel should read Smith's re-imagined novel/s, and take note of the life it contains * Independent *Ms. Smith's writing is inventive and delighted. She cannot help being exuberant * New York Times *Inventive, playful, compassionate. An immensely enjoyable read * Daily Express *I was utterly transported by Ali Smith's How to Be Both, a novel built from two stories that speak across six centuries. I'm about to read it for the fourth time -- Helen Macdonald * Irish Times *Smith is dazzling in her daring. Her inventive power pulls you through, gasping, to the final page * Observer *Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most exciting writers today * Daily Telegraph *She's a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense -- Alain de BottonSmith's fervent, vital, incantatory prose is entirely her own . . . How to be both reads as if she has summoned words from some region of the unconscious and released them in a trance -- Joanna Kavenna * Prospect *Utterly contemporary and vividly historical -- Holly Williams * The Independent *Smith has created a stunning work that is as rewarding as it is challenging * The List *One of the things she does so well, and that is particularly evident in 'How to Be Both,' is the way she can create an extremely sophisticated, complex, multileveled novel that reads beautifully -- Erica WagnerA marvellous exploration of what it means to look, then look again. Spiralling and twisting stories suggest the ways in which we can transcend walls and barriers - not only between people but between emotions, art forms and historical periods. It is a jeu d'esprit about a girl coming of age and coming to terms with her mother's death, a ghosting of a Renaissance fresco painter in a 21st-century frame and an exhortation to do the twist. -- Sarah Churchwell * New Statesman Books of the Year 2014 *A revelation. It blasts the doors open for the novel form and in a Woolf-like way makes all things possible. I imagine it will be one of those rare books that changes the way writers write novels -- Jackie Kay * Observer *Ali Smith's novels soar higher every time and How to be both doesn't disappoint -- Julie Myerson * Observer *Brilliant. No one combines experimentalism and soulfulness like Ali Smith -- Craig Taylor * Observer *One of the most intelligent, inventive, downright impressive writers working anywhere in the world today. In Ali Smith we have a writer whose dazzling sophistication will surely be celebrated, studied and argues over hundreds of years after we're gone -- Nick Barley * The Scotsman *Ali Smith is a master of language. Vigorous, vivid writing that is Ali Smith incarnate -- Alice Thompson * Herald *Ingeniously conceived, gloriously inventive * NPR *Dizzyingly ambitious . . . endlessly artful, creating work that feels infinite in its scope and intimate at the same time. [A] swirling panoramic * Atlantic *Brilliant . . . the sort of death-defying storytelling acrobatics that don't seem entirely possible * Washington Post *Having read this now twice, in both directions so to speak, I've decided - and I do not write this flippantly - that Ali Smith is a genius -- Susan McCallum * LA Review of Books *Approaches the world as only a novel can. The book moves not so much in a straight line as in a twisting helix pattern . . . delivers the heat of life and the return of beauty in the face of loss -- Kenneth Miller * Everyday Ebook *A unique conversation between past and present * Milwaukee Journal *Wildly inventive . . . lyrical, fresh * Bustle Magazine *

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Book Synopsis''Everybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century'' Anthony Burgess, ObserverFollowing the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and even been deemed blasphemous, but remains an undisputed modernist classic: ceaselessly inventive, garrulous, funny, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive. It confirms Joyce''s belief that literature ''is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man''.''The most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape'' T. S. Eliot''Intoxicating ... a towering work, in its word play surpassing even Shakespeare'' Guardian

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Book SynopsisWhen Mrs Ramsay tells her guests at her summer house on the Isle of Skye that they will be able to visit the nearby lighthouse the following day, little does she know that this trip will only be completed ten years later by her husband, and that a gulf of war, grief and loss will have opened in the meantime. As each character tries to readjust their memories and emotions with the shifts of time and reality, this long-delayed excursion will also prove to be a journey of self-discovery and fulfilment for them. Rich in symbolism, daring in style, elegiac in tone and encapsulating Virginia Woolf's ideas on life, art and human relationships, To the Lighthouse is a landmark of twentieth-century literature and one of the high points of early Modernism.

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Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithCelebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of the past.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautiful, shattering novel about desire and shame, about passionate youth and the regrets of age. -- Olivia Laing, bestselling author of 'Crudo' and 'The Lonely City'A stunning and heart-gripping tale -- André Aciman, author of 'Call Me by Your Name'An intense, unforgettable novel, alive with the ache of longing and loss. -- Sarah Waters, bestselling, award-winning author of 'The Little Stranger'It has been years since anything moved me as much as Lie With Me. It will become a classic -- Jonathan Coe, bestselling author of 'Middle England'A deeply moving depiction of first love, both tender and elegiac. -- John Boyne, bestselling author of 'A Ladder to the Sky'A timeless love story. Molly Ringwald's translation is as clear and beautiful as the story it depicts. You'll read it in a night, but its exquisite heartbreak will linger. -- David Ebershoff, author of 'The Danish Girl'The uncanny thrill of Philippe Besson's Lie With Me rises up from Molly Ringwald's elegant translation with the intensity of meeting a stranger on a train who tells you a single unforgettable story and then leaves. And his voice haunts me still -- Alexander Chee, author of 'How to Write an Autobiographical Novel' and 'The Queen of the Night'An elegiac tale of first, hidden love between two teenage boys who have no chance of a shared future, "Lie with Me" sold more than a hundred thousand copies in France, where it won several prizes and is being made into a movie. -- Lauren Collins * New Yorker *Lie With Me is an exquisite whisper that lingers long after you've finished reading it -- Kevin Kwan, author of 'Crazy Rich Asians'Devastating and tender; this is the book I wish I'd read when I was 15, and a book I'm glad to have as a companion now -- Andrew McMillan, award-winning author of 'Physical'A lovely novel, a painful story of love and loss. . . Lie with Me succeeds as a novel because of Besson's graceful writing, beautifully translated by Ringwald. Besson is a gifted stylist, and he infuses Philippe's story with the right notes of sadness and longing. * NPR *This gorgeous, aching novel captures all of the fear and freedom of young desire. . . may well be the best gay love story in contemporary fiction. I dare you to read it without crying. -- Christopher Bollen, author of 'The Destroyers'This is a gorgeous fever dream of a book. Ringwald's translation does elegant justice to Besson's balance of beauty and despair, and to his interrogations of memory and longing. Lie With Me positively glows in the dark. -- Rebecca Makkai, author of 'The Great Believers'A bittersweet love story, told from the perspective of a gay man remembering his first romantic affair as a teenager in a small town in the south of France in 1984. * Wall Street Journal *At first erotic and joyous, ultimately elegiac and haunting, Lie With Me is a deceptively slender book as big as life itself -- Rumaan Alam, author of 'That Kind of Mother' and 'Rich and Pretty'In spare yet evocative prose, elegantly translated by Molly Ringwald, Philippe Besson relates the erotic awakening of two adolescent boys in a small French town in the 1980s. Lie With Me captures their world with the grainy poignancy of an old high school yearbook, while movingly conveying the quintessential human dramas of longing, love, and letting go. -- Caroline Weber, author of 'Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-siècle Paris'The French Brokeback Mountain * Elle *A man looks back at his first love, a forbidden homosexual affair during his last year of high school in a small French town in the 1980s. Though a screenwriter and playwright, Mr. Besson does not rely on direct dialogue but reconstructs conversations from a fog of memories in this coming-of-age story. A French best seller likened to "Call Me By Your Name" and "Brokeback Mountain," the novel marks the first English translation by the actress and writer Ms. Ringwald, a longtime Francophile. * Wall Street Journal, The 10 Books You’ll Want to Read This Spring *Molly Ringwald translated this French Call Me By Your Name-esque novel about two teenagers in 1984 Bordeaux as they fall in love in the shadows, leaving one of them to reflect on the relationship many years later * OprahMag.com, 30 of the Best LGBTQ Books in 2019 *There's much book-to-filmstar appeal in this moving, well-plotted tale: Elle dubbed it "the French Brokeback Mountain"; there's something of Call Me by Your Name's Elio in Philippe, who lives in the books he reads and writes; and actress and writer Ringwald ably translates. * Booklist *Moving ... Besson's writing and Ringwald's smooth translation provide emotional impact. * Publishers Weekly *Universally touching * Le Parisien *Besson is a thoughtful writer who can strike home with vivid imagery. . . [and] deftly translated [by Ringwald]. * Booklist *This Year's Call Me by Your Name... While the starring peach of Call Me by Your Name was the perfect metanym for that lush and gauzy tale, Lie With Me unpeels like a springy orange. The boys' relationship is bare but segmented, each encounter entirely isolated from the others, with only a thin membrane to keep all that tart juice from bursting out. . . [A] moving and graceful novel * Vulture *A story of queer adolescence in rural France in the 1980s, Besson's "Lie With Me" is a primer on the tenacity of desire... Molly Ringwald, by delightful coincidence an icon of '80s John Hughes films, provides a limpid translation that preserves all the earnest mystery of teenage sex... Besson keeps his study in intimacy fresh through nimble plot twists, in which the present disturbs a certain version of the past, creating repercussions for the future. Equal parts André Aciman and Marguerite Duras, "Lie With Me" poignantly reflects on why some memories fade and others do not. * New York Times *A slender, sad, acute novel... absolutely excellent -- Sarah Perry, bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT and MELMOTHFull of Proustian echoes, this story of gay adolescence deals with complex issues of class, shame and secrecy * Guardian *A poignant tale that captures the intensity of first love with all its sadness, longing and regret * Daily Mail *A clear-sighted and passionate coming-of-age narrative. Detailing in elegant and plain prose the anxious and intense first falling-in-love between two schoolboys, Lie With Me has a tenderness and insight that is reminiscent of the writings of Garth Greenwell. This novel can be read in a matter of hours, but its impact, like the love affair it details, will echo in the mind * Irish Times *Moving, intense, sad and sensuous * Attitude *

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Book SynopsisGeorges Perec (1936-82) won the Prix Renaudot in 1965 for his first novel Things: A Story of the Sixties, and went on to exercise his unrivalled mastery of language in almost every imaginable kind of writing, from the apparently trivial to the deeply personal. He composed acrostics, anagrams, autobiography, criticism, crosswords, descriptions of dreams, film scripts, heterograms, lipograms, memories, palindromes, plays, poetry, radio plays, recipes, riddles, stories short and long, travel notes, univocalics, and, of course, novels. Life: A User's Manual, which draws on many of Perec's other works, appeared in 1978 after nine years in the making and was acclaimed a masterpiece to put beside Joyce's Ulysses. It won the Prix Medicis and established Perec's international reputation.Trade ReviewRequired reading for anyone interested in the evolution of this modern master -- Andrew Motion * Observer *As a witty attack on consumerism Things is as much a parable of the Nineties as it is a story of the Sixties * Sunday Times *Perec's first novel is a masterpiece of elegaic mockery * Financial Times *Things, Perec's first novel, is an innovative, perceptive and even moving study of corrosive consumerism * Independent *[A Man Asleep is] grimly obsessing...one turns the pages with unlikely fascination -- Euan Cameron * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Number One New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton''A terrific writer'' Zadie Smith''A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own'' Hilary Mantel ''A novel to treasure'' Sunday TimesOlive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes - sometimes welcome, sometimes not - in her own existence and in those around her.Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son and his family to accept him, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine - and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life.''A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships'' Observer''She gets better with each book'' Maggie O''Farrell ''Her writing is exquisite; her vision is boundless. What a sublime book.'' Rachel Joyce''Glorious'' The Times''A perfect novel'' Financial TimesElizabeth Strout''s new novel Tell Me Everything is available out now!Trade ReviewA novel to treasure... Olive, Again, like Strout's first book, delivers roughly five hours of spine-tingling pleasure. * Sunday Times *Olive, Again is a tour de force. With extraordinary economy of prose - few writers can pack so much emotion, so much emotion, so much detail into a single paragraph - Strout immerses us in the lives of her characters, each so authentically drawn as to be deserving of an entire novel themselves. Compassionate, masterly and profound, this is a writer at the height of her powers * Observer *Emotionally honest, psychologically piercing and ultimately life-affirming * The i *Her writing is exquisite; her vision is boundless. What a sublime book.A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own. In Olive, Again, she teaches us that there is always more to know about human beings, even the ones we are closest to.There's no simple truth about human existence, Strout reminds us, only wonderful, painful complexity. 'Well, that's life,' Olive says. 'Nothing you can do about it.' Beautifully written and alive with compassion, at times almost unbearably poignant. A thrilling book in every way. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience * Publishers Weekly, starred review *She gets better with each bookGlorious * The Times *A perfect novel * Financial Times *In Olive Kitteridge, Strout has created one of those rare characters...so vivid and humorous they seems to take on a life independent of the story framing them * Guardian *Elizabeth Strout is... one of the undisputed heavyweights of generous, clear-eyed domestic realism * Daily Mail *A special, precious book...full of hope and humanity * Red *Funny, sad, tender and truthful, this is pure joy * Stylist *A terrific writer -- Zadie Smith

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Book Synopsis''The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude''When ''The Awakening'' was first published in 1899, charges of sordidness and immorality seemed to consign it into obscurity and irreparably damage its author''s reputation. But a century after her death, it is widely regarded as Kate Chopin''s great achievement. Through careful, subtle changes of style, Chopin shows the transformation of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother, who - with tragic consequences - refuses to be caged by married and domestic life, and claims for herself moral and erotic freedom.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers'' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

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Book Synopsis Virginia Woolf''s masterpiece, now in a beautiful clothbound edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith''One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century'' Michael CunninghamClarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Smith''s day interweaves with that of Clarissa and her friends, their lives converging as the party reaches its glittering climax. Virginia Woolf''s masterly novel, in which she perfected the interior monologue, brings past, present and future together on one momentous day in June 1923. Edited by Stella McNichol with an Introduction and Notes by Elaine ShowalterTrade ReviewOne of the few genuine innovations in the history of the novel—New YorkerOne of her greatest achievements, a book whose afterlife continues to inspire new generations of writers and readers—Guardian

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Book Synopsis''Lolita is comedy, subversive yet divine'' Martin Amis, ObserverPoet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, ''to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets''. Is he in love or insane? A tortured soul or a monster? Humbert Humbert''s fixation is one of many dimensions in Nabokov''s dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich, elaborate verbal textures. Filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne, Lolita has lost none of its power to shock and awe.''There''s no funnier monster in literature than poor, doomed Humbert Humbert'' Independent

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Book SynopsisRediscover one of Virginia Woolf's greatest works in this beautiful new gift edition from Vintage Classics. 'My mind was warped into a new shape by her prose and it will never be the same again' Greta GerwigMr and Mrs Ramsay and their eight children have always holidayed at their summer house in Skye, surrounded by family friends. The novel's opening section teems with the noise, complications, bruised emotions, joys and quiet tragedies of everyday family life that might go on forever. But time passes, bringing with it war and death, and the summer home stands empty until one day, many years later, the family return to make the long-postponed visit to the lighthouse.One of the great literary achievements of the 20th century, To the Lighthouse, is at once an intensely autobiographical and universally moving masterpiece about changing relationships and attitudes amongst the early 20th-century middle class.'To The Lighthouse is one of the greatest elegies in the English language, a book which transcends time' Margaret Drabble 'Thrillingly introspective' The IndependentTrade ReviewIt is an elegy for lost times and family life * The Week *

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Book SynopsisA modernist work of profound wisdom that continues to enthral readers with its subtle blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Hermann Hesse''s Steppenwolf is revised by Walter Sorell from the original translation by Basil Creighton.At first sight Harry Haller seems a respectable, educated man. In reality he is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, alienated from society and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn into a series of dreamlike and sometimes savage encounters - accompanied by, among others, Mozart, Goethe and the bewitching Hermione - the misanthropic Haller discovers a higher truth, and the possibility of happiness. This blistering portrayal of a man who feels himself to be half-human and half-wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture, capturing the mood of a disaffected generation, and remains a haunting story of estrangement and redemption.Herman Hesse (1877 - 1962) suffered from depression and weathered series of personal crises which led him to undergo psychoanalysis with J. B. Lang; a process which resulted in Demian (1919), a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence and the turbulent and enticing world of sensual experience. This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse''s subsequent novels, including Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) and his magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game (1943). Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.If you enjoyed Steppenwolf, you might like Hesse''s Siddhartha, also available in Penguin Classics.''A savage indictment of bourgeois society ... the gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man''s soul''The New York TimesTrade ReviewThe gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man's soul * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAny Human Heart is William''s Boyd''s classic, bestselling novel, now available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart''s - lived from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century - contains more than its fair share of both. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in ''60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness. Here, then, is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart.Any Human Heart will be enjoyed by readers of Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby and Hilary Mantel, as well as lovers of the finest British and historical fiction around the world. It was recently adapted for a major Channel 4 four-part drama series scripted by William Boyd and starring Kim Cattrall, Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent and Tom Hollander. This edition features beautiful cover artwork from the television series.''Astonishing, touching, extremely funny. A brilliant evocation of a past era and an immensely readable story'' Sunday Telegraph''Superb, wonderful, enjoyable'' Guardian''A terrific journey through the twentieth century. Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable'' Jeremy PaxmanTrade ReviewA terrific journey through the twentieth century. Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable -- Jeremy PaxmanWise, profound and moving. Only the very best novels make you look at your own life and imagine your own future with fresh eyes -- William Sutcliffe * Independent on Sunday *Superb, wonderful, enjoyable * Guardian *This fabulous book all about life... is the journey of anyone with a heart... I think of Any Human Heart often - the sign of a truly great book -- Fi Glover * Spectator *Sheer, truly brilliant storytelling. He has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries * Daily Telegraph *Astonishing, touching, extremely funny. A brilliant evocation of a past era and an immensely readable story * Sunday Telegraph *Astounding. One of Boyd's greatest achievements * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEverybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century -- Anthony Burgess * Observer *The most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape -- T.S. EliotIntoxicating ... a towering work, in its word play surpassing even Shakespeare * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewScott Moncrieff's [volumes] belong to that special category of translations which are themselves literary masterpieces ... his book is one of those translations, such as the Authorized Version of the Bible itself, which can never be displaced—A. N. WilsonFor the reader wishing to tackle Proust your guide must be C K Scott Moncrieff ... There are some who believe his headily perfumed translation of À la recherche du temps perdu conjures Belle Époque France more vividly even than the original—TelegraphI was more interested and fascinated by your rendering than by Proust's creation—Joseph Conrad to Scott Moncrieff

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**______________________________________________As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother''s life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family''s story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.______________________________________________________''Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place'' Roxane Gay''A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis . . . There''s bravery as well as beauty here'' ObserverTrade ReviewA brilliant novel, with not a word out of place -- Caleb Azumah Nelson * Guardian, Best Books of 2021 *A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis . . . Transcendent Kingdom really sings. There's bravery as well as beauty here * Observer *Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for all timesAbsolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place. I am quite angry this is so good * Roxane Gay *Transcendent Kingdom is a quietly magnificent novel - vivid, touching and beautifully written, and also unafraid to be, and to remain, really very sad. * i *Her equally outstanding second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, smaller in scale, is another graceful exploration of trauma reverberating through a family...introspective and intimate * Sunday Telegraph *This novel is an unflinching account of loss, but it is also a moving tribute to the ability of the human spirit to endure such tragedies * The Times *Gyasi's novel is a thoughtful analysis of a pressing social problem * Mail on Sunday *Among other things [Transcendent Kingdom] is a sharp reckoning with the tensions between race, science and religion...its scope is pared back, its register intimate - not many writers can switch style like this * Sunday Times Culture *A powerful portrayal of love and faith that reminds us how our parents' actions can ripple through generations * Telegraph *[A] mightily enjoyable novel * Daily Mail *Perhaps neither science nor religion alone could capture transcendence, but Gyasi has proved, once again, that a novel can * Guardian *A book of blazing brilliance . . . A double helix of wisdom and rage twists through the quiet lines of this novel. Yaa Gyasi is one of the most enlightening novelists writing today * Washington Post *A compelling look at a woman's struggle to move on from the devastating effects of her family falling apart in front of her eyes * Stylist *The must-read book of the year so far * Elle *A powerful, wholly unsentimental novel about family love, loss, belonging and belief that is more focused but just as daring as its predecessor, and to my mind even more successful * Wall Street Journal *Gyasi's second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, is a very different book, and, I think, a better one - contemporary, personal, acutely focused on a single family, and intensely felt * New Yorker *Exquisitely written with a lightness of touch despite its difficult themes; this novel is a triumph * Red *Raw, powerful storytelling that tackles race, religion, addiction and grief in a thoughtful way * Good Housekeeping *With deft agility and undeniable artistry, Gyasi's latest is an eloquent examination of resilient survival * Booklist *The Ghanaian-American has become a firm literary favour...Transcendent Kingdom is sure to cement her spot further * Stylist *Meticulous, psychologically complex ... At once a vivid evocation of the immigrant experience and a sharp delineation of an individual's inner struggle, the novel brilliantly succeeds on both counts * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Transcendent Kingdom is quiet in the way a wise soul will sit in the corner, clear their throat and when they speak, everyone listens...Transcendent Kingdom is a book always asking this question: how did we get here? * Bad Form Review *The range Gyasi displays in just two books is staggering * USA Today *Remarkable, a devastating account of America . . . explores horror without ever losing sight of humanity or hope * Sunday Times on 'Homegoing' *A stirringly gifted writer. It's impossible not to admire the ambition and scope of Homegoing * New York Times *If you want to know why the world is this way, try this book for starters * Naomi Alderman, author of The Power *I need a book like this to remember what is possible Beautifully written . . . a raw look at the personal destruction caused by the opioid crisis * Scotsman *A poignant story of family love, loss and ambition * Radio Times *Yaa Gyasi's writing is shining even as the tangled traumas of the past come to the surface * Sainsbury's Magazine *'Yaa's depiction of these illnesses; substance addiction and depression and the family's deep-rooted tangled traumas, is skilful . . . Transcendent Kingdom is a story of love, loss and redemption, and holds a mirror up to one version of the first-generation immigrant experience that will sadly seem familiar to many of us * Melan Mag *

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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 SynopsisA philosophical novel described by fellow existentialist Sartre as ''perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood'' of his novels, Albert Camus'' The Fall is translated by Robin Buss in Penguin Modern Classics.Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen a compelling, self-loathing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy and alienation pours forth. The Fall (1956) is a brilliant portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man''s disillusionment, Camus''s novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - for our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured ...Albert Camus (1913-60) is the author of a number of best-selling and highly influential works, all of which are published by Penguin. They include The Fall, The Outsider and The First Man. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus is remembered as one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, but beyond that, his fame has been international.If you enjoyed The Fall, you might like Jean-Paul Sartre''s Nausea, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.''An irresistibly brilliant examination of modern conscience''The New York Times''Camus is the accused, his own prosecutor and advocate. The Fall might have been called The Last Judgement ''Olivier Todd

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Book Synopsis''She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day''On a June morning in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party and remembering her past. Elsewhere in London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering climax. Here, Virginia Woolf perfected the interior monologue and the novel''s lyricism and accessibility have made it one of her most popular works.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers'' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.Trade ReviewOne of the few genuine innovations in the history of the novel—New YorkerOne of her greatest achievements, a book whose afterlife continues to inspire new generations of writers and readers—Guardian

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Book Synopsis'ANDREW MILLER'S WRITING IS A SOURCE OF WONDER AND DELIGHT' Hilary Mantel 'ONE OF OUR MOST SKILFUL CHRONICLERS OF THE HUMAN HEART AND MIND' Sunday Times'Sublime' Independent 'Masterful' Sunday Times 'Beautiful' Spectator A profound and tender tale of guilt, the search for atonement and the hard, uncertain work of loving from the critically acclaimed author of PureAn ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic living quietly in Somerset, Stephen Rose has just begun to form a bond with Maggie, the daughter he barely knows, when he receives a summons - to an inquiry in Belfast about an incident during the Troubles, which he hoped he had long outdistanced. Now, to testify about it could wreck his fragile relationship with Maggie. And if he loses her, he loses everything. He decides instead to write her an account of his life - a confession, a defence, a love letter. Also a means of buying time. But as time runs out, the day comes when he must face again what happened in that distant summer of 1982. PRAISE FOR ANDREW MILLER 'Unique, visionary, a master at unmasking humanity' Sarah Hall 'A writer of very rare and outstanding gifts' Independent on Sunday 'A highly intelligent writer, both exciting and contemplative' The Times 'A wonderful storyteller' SpectatorTrade ReviewThe theme is handled in a way that is bolder and more exquisitely menacing than anything he's done before . . . It's all real, and all fictional, gorgeously so. You read what might have been a perfectly commonplace story of failure and redemption with your pulse racing, all your senses awake . . . restrained, beautifully written -- Elizabeth Lowry * Guardian *I spent the first half of The Slowworm's Song in a sort of ecstasy, marvelling at Miller's masterful characterisation; his confident evocation of army life and sensitive depiction of the Troubles; the nuanced exploration of alcoholism; the clean, well-made prose style studded with moments of descriptive beauty . . . Stephen is an unforgettable character, and Miller has pulled off the miraculous feat of sketching a full human life in a few hundred pages -- Claire Lowdon * Sunday Times *A beautiful, lambent, timely novel that admits our worst capacities while insisting on accountability and our ability to improve. Andrew Miller is among those brave male writers steering a progressive course. Yet he remains, as ever, unique, visionary, a master at unmasking humanity * Sarah Hall *Gorgeously written . . . it approaches the Troubles from a unique angle . . . Since his debut, Ingenious Pain, Miller has shown a knack for historical immersion, and he continues to excel in it here -- Ethan Croft * Literary Review *The focused interiority of Stephen's narration, together with the slowburning fuse of a plot, make for a quiet intensity that stretches the nerves . . . this empathic and artful novel is about both the mysteries we are to ourselves, and the power of speech -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *A painful yet beautiful novel . . . Miller is a wonderful storyteller, as comfortable writing about the Napoleonic wars as the Troubles . . . In this novel, Stephen's reckoning may be extreme but his message is universal -- Susie Mesure * Spectator *The multiple award-winning author of Pure returns with a tender, compelling and exquisitely written novel of extraordinary power . . . Exploring a brutal chapter in the unhappy and sometimes shameful history of Northern Ireland, this wonderful novel is also a story of atonement and redemption -- Edward Argyle * Daily Express *Miller tackles big themes and weaves a profound and poignant tale about shame, trauma and the possibility of redemption -- Lucy Popescu, Summer Reading * Tablet *Andrew Miller's gentle, beautifully crafted sentences belie the often brutal truths behind the narrative. The image of the slowworm, silent and sinister, finding its way into the precious earth, is set against a song of light and life that won't be silenced -- Victoria Barry * Scotsman *Andrew Miller is one of our finest writers. Few can match his sensitivity of touch, eye for telling detail and acute feel for setting . . . The passages describing Rose's military duty are impeccably researched and viscerally real -- Peter Carty * i *The sections detailing Stephen's army life, and particularly those covering his tour of duty in Belfast, are excellent: immersive in their detail and atmosphere . . . [Miller] has sufficient decorum, talent and sensitivity to do justice to his delicate subject matter -- Rob Doyle * Observer *His evocation of squaddie life rings absolutely true . . . It's deeply moving to see how this self-torturing individual gradually learns that he's surrounded by helpers, often in the unlikeliest of guises, while tiny flowers of grace spring up in stony places -- Suzi Feay * Tablet *There is no easy resolution, and that is why The Slowworm's Song . . . is so affecting. It is about truth, objective or otherwise, and about the attempts of flawed human beings to live with it -- Nicholas Clee * Times Literary Supplement *A poignant and profound tale of a man seeking atonement -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping *A stunning work of fiction, a beautifully written tale of conflict and family fracture . . . The Slowworm's Song is a sublime reminder of how a great novel can have such a deep impact -- Martin Chilton * Independent *Moving and compassionate * Reader's Digest *It's difficult not to be moved by Stephen's heartfelt words as he comes face to face with what happened in that 1982 summer * Belfast Telegraph *It reads truer than memoir . . . A state-of-the-nation novel, in elegiac prose * New York Times Book Review *Expertly paced . . . as taut as a thriller . . . Miller, with his acute eye for detail and his practiced sense of timing, describes these Belfast streets and this soldier's experience so plainly and yet so evocatively that both become new again * Wall Street Journal *

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Book SynopsisJade isn't even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name.'A raw, compulsive and nuanced novel' i newspaper‘Ela Lee is a remarkable new voice in fiction ... JADED made me laugh, cry and really bloody furious’ Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars'One of 2024's hottest reads' Sunday Times'Authentic' Daily Mail------------------ Jade has become everything she ever wanted to be. Successful lawyer. Dutiful daughter. Beloved girlfriend. Loyal friend. Until one night after a work event she suffers an unspeakable attack. As she tries to confront what happened to her, she finds herself caught between her parents who can’t understand, her boyfriend who feels betrayed, and her job that expects silence. The world Jade has constructed starts to crumble. This raw, darkly funny novel explores the ‘grey-area’ of consent and recovery that’s far from linear, and will leave you asking yourself: what would you have done in Jade’s situation?'JADED is a thoughtful, hard-hitting exploration of race, identity, and the rippling effects of sexual assault. Ela Lee writes with an urgency and clarity that will have you hooked until the last page.' Cecile Pin, Women's Prize longlisted author of Wandering Souls 'This raw, dark novel explores racism, class and sexism and you'll want to savour every word on every page' Refinery 29'Moving' CosmoContent warning: this novel features themes of sexual assault and violence. Trade ReviewEla Lee is a remarkable new voice in fiction. I tore through JADED – it made me laugh, cry and really bloody furious * Stacey Halls *JADED is a thoughtful, hard-hitting exploration of race, identity, and the rippling effects of sexual assault. Ela Lee writes with an urgency and clarity that will have you hooked until the last page. * Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS *A raw, compulsive and nuanced novel about identity, race and consent * i *One of 2024's hottest reads * Sunday Times *This raw, dark novel explores racism, class and sexism and you'll want to savour every word on every page * Refinery 29 *

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Book SynopsisVladimir Nabakov''s shocking masterpiece, now in a beautifully designed clothbound edition''Lolita is comedy, subversive yet divine'' Martin AmisPoet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, out of love, ''to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets''. Is he in love or insane? A tortured soul or a monster? Humbert Humbert''s seduction is one of many dimensions in Nabokov''s dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich, elaborate verbal textures. Filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 starring James Mason and Peter Sellers, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne starring Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith, Lolita has lost none of its power to shock and awe.

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