Narrative theme: politics / economics

Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice?inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago ? A HELLO SUNSHINE x REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKAt the height of the Cold War, Irina, a young Russian-American secretary, is plucked from the CIA typing pool and given the assignment of a lifetime. Her mission: to help smuggle Doctor Zhivago into the USSR, where it is banned, and enable Boris Pasternak?s magnum opus to make its way into print around the world. Mentoring Irina is the glamorous Sally Forrester: a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit, using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Under Sally?s tutelage, Irina learns how to invisibly ferry classified documents?and discovers deeply buried truths about herself. The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story?the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who inspired Zhivago?s heroine, Lara?with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk. Told with soaring emotional intensity and captivating historical detail, this is an unforgettable debut: a celebration of the powerful belief that a work of art can change the world.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A truly sensational read! In fact, Damascus Station is the best spy novel I have ever read. David McCloskey experienced Syria firsthand as a CIA analyst, and he delivers a thrilling, graphic, gripping, and realistic—albeit fictional—portrayal of the CIA and the bloody, tragic Syrian uprising. I lived this extraordinarily frustrating episode in Agency history, and I could not put this book down." -- General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former director of the CIA, and former commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and International and US Forces in Afghanistan"The nightmare of the Syrian civil war is vividly portrayed by David McCloskey in Damascus Station. He captures the places and people—and most of all, the sickening feeling in the gut—of this war that shattered poor Syria while America mostly watched. As a former CIA officer, McCloskey gets the details right—not just the little ones about mistimed clocks on the wall at Headquarters but the big ones about trying to keep faith with people in a faithless business. This isn’t just a realistic spy novel, it’s real life." -- David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post and author of The Paladin"[An] exciting spy thriller." -- Washington Post"Damascus Station is simply marvellous storytelling...a stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." -- Financial Times"[A] gripping, well-written page turner that is part-thriller, part-love story, part-spy tale, and part-historical fiction concerning Syria and the Arab Spring. Any one of those elements on their own makes it well worth reading; the combination makes it compelling." -- Foreign Policy"[T]his propulsive thriller is at once a master class in spy craft and a poignant story of forbidden love set during the brutal Syrian civil war." -- People"I'm a fan of spy thrillers, and I just read the best one I've consumed in decades …. I’ve never known a writer as good at the spy novel as John LeCarre, but McCloskey approaches. We're watching the emergence of a remarkable talent." -- Nick Kristof - On the Trail with Nick Kristof"I could not put down McCloskey’s gripping spy novel Damascus Station.…A must-read for anyone interested in Syria or espionage." -- Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent"[T]ruly one of the finest entries into the modern spy thriller genre. In a field groaning with ludicrous plots, absurd characters, and laughable “espionage,” McCloskey—a former CIA analyst—has crafted a book that goes back to the roots of what makes a spy thriller great, the spying." -- Diplomatic Courier"[A] swift dive into the lethal, nebulous world of CIA operations in the Middle East…Damascus Station is a breathless ride." -- SpyTalk"An extremely effective modern espionage novel, filled with action and incident but also a profound knowledge of the people and factions of Syria, the complex maneuvers of spycraft, the gray areas, competing egos and overlapping priorities that make every day a journey through the minefield….[A] dazzling debut." -- Neil Nyren - Booktrib"A volatile mix of traditional espionage plotlines intertwined with a modern level of violence that had me flipping pages until the early morning hours." -- Best Thriller Books"[A]n uncommonly gripping first novel....Damascus Station combines an insider’s account of tradecraft—detailed enough to satisfy the most demanding geeks—with compassion for the Syrian people, outrage at the Assad regime, and an up-to-the-minute old-fashioned love story." -- First Things"Damascus Station is a great espionage novel." -- The Cipher Brief"The most realistic and authentic depiction of modern-day tradecraft in nonpermissive and hostile environments you will find in print. I am shocked the CIA’s Publication Review Board allowed David McCloskey’s Damascus Station to see the light of day. Read it now, before it is banned!" -- Jack Carr, Navy SEAL sniper and New York Times best-selling author of The Devil's Hand"For an authentic representation of what it’s like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointments, the thrill of a hard-won victory." -- Alma Katsu, author of Red Widow and former CIA and NSA analyst"A sweeping spy thriller packed with tension, twists, and true-to-life detail. There’s no doubt that McCloskey is a CIA veteran." -- Karen Cleveland, New York Times best-selling author of Need to Know"Damascus Station tells the tragic story of Syria's descent into chaos and the price paid by its people during the Assad regime's brutal crackdown. The power of this book is that it tells this devastating story through the eyes of those who suffered and survived because of love, the human relationship, and the power of what makes life worth living." -- Leon E. Panetta, former Director of the CIA and former secretary of defense"From an exfiltration gone awry to a stunning endgame, Damascus Station takes the reader on a breathtaking journey in war-torn Syria. McCloskey delivers a thrilling page-turner that is marked by his exceptional understanding of the country and matched by his sophistication in the ways of CIA tradecraft." -- Dan Hoffman, former Chief of CIA Middle East Operations and three-time Chief of Station"Damascus Station is simply intoxicating. A vortex of love, loyalty, murder and damn good espionage." -- Don Hepburn, former CIA Chief of Station"[An] exhilarating debut.…McCloskey portrays the brutal inner functioning of the Assad regime, as well as the CIA’s occasional ineptitude, while detailing such elements of spy craft as avoiding tails, maximizing dead drops, and operating safe houses. Refreshingly, as shown in the relationship between Sam and Mariam, he dares to be sentimental. Espionage fans will eagerly await his next." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Richard Powers is one of our country’s greatest living writers. He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read. I’m in awe of his talent." -- Oprah Winfrey"Extraordinary.…Powers’s insightful, often poetic prose draws us at once more deeply toward the infinitude of the imagination and more vigorously toward the urgencies of the real and familiar stakes rattling our persons and our planet." -- Tracy K. Smith, New York Times Book Review (cover review)"A heartrending tale of loss.…Powers continues to raise bold questions about the state of our world and the cumulative effects of our mistakes." -- Heller McAlpin - NPR"Nothing short of transportive." -- Newsweek"[A]stounding.…a must-read novel.…It’s urgent and profound and takes readers on a unique journey that will leave them questioning what we’re doing to the only planet we have." -- Rob Merrill - Associated Press"As in The Overstory, Powers seamlessly yet indelibly melds science and humanity, hope and despair." -- Dale Singer - St. Louis Post-Dispatch"Bewilderment is a big book about what matters most.…a brilliant, engrossing, and ultimately heartbreaking book." -- David Laskin - Seattle Times"[P]oignant…Bewilderment is a cri de coeur.…this is a hauntingly intimate story set within the privacy of one family trapped in the penumbra of mourning." -- Ron Charles - Washington Post"You could think of it as ‘The Innerstory’: It is about how and whether we see the world we inhabit.... It is enchanting, and it is devastating." -- Ezra Klein - The Ezra Klein Show"Immersive and astonishing.…Powers captures the tragedy of a species that could, but perhaps won’t, become a lasting part of a cosmic menagerie. But in this absorbing and effortlessly readable tale he seems to have also found uplifting poetry in our despair." -- Caleb Scharf - Nautilus"A moving depiction of filial love, as father and son confront a world of ‘invisible suffering on unimaginable scales." -- The New Yorker"In Bewilderment, [Powers's] mastery strikes a new vein.…it raises goosebumps and breaks our hearts." -- John Domini - The Brooklyn Rail"Achingly current and wise." -- Bethanne Patrick - Washington Post"[Powers] wants to challenge our innate anthropocentrism, both in literature and how we live." -- Alexandra Alter - New York Times"Remarkable.... Bewilderment channels both the cosmic sublime and that of the vast American outdoors, resting confidently in a lineage with Thoreau and Whitman, Dillard and Kerouac." -- Rob Doyle - The Guardian"One of America’s most ambitious and imaginative novelists.... In a year of unprecedented worldwide drought, fire, and flooding, [Bewilderment] couldn’t be timelier.... Whether concerning family or nature, this heart-rending tale warns us to take nothing for granted." -- Alexander C. Kafka - Boston Globe"The tenderness between father and son seem[s] so real and heartfelt that the novel becomes its own empathy machine. What’s more powerful, though, is how the emotions Bewilderment evokes expand far beyond the bond of father and son to embrace the living world." -- Ellen Atkins - Minneapolis Star Tribune"Powers [has] an emotional core to everything he writes, and this sets him apart from nearly everyone." -- David Yaffe - Air Mail"An unabashed tearjerker.... The most moving and inspiring of all Powers’s books." -- Gish Jen - The New Republic"Intimate.…Powers is an essential member of the pantheon of writers who are using fiction to address climate change." -- Carolyn Kellogg - Los Angeles Times"Powers succeeds in engaging both head and heart. And through its central story of bereavement, this novel of parenting and the environment becomes a multifaceted exploration of mortality." -- The Economist

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Book SynopsisA Best Book of the Year by Financial Times and BloombergFilled with real political insight and intrigue, this thrilling novel explores the nature of power through the inner workings of Putin’s regime.Known as the “Wizard of the Kremlin,” the enigmatic Vadim Baranov was a TV producer before becoming a political advisor to Putin, aka “The Czar.” After his resignation from this position, legends about him multiply, with no one able to distinguish truth from fiction. Until one night, when he tells his story to the narrator of this book…He immerses us in the heart of the Russian state, where sycophants and oligarchs have been engaging in open warfare, and where Vadim, now the regime’s main spin doctor, turns an entire country into an avant-garde political stage. Yet Vadim is not as ambitious as the others. Entangled in the increasingly dark secrets of the regime he has helped create, he will do anything to get out, guided by the memory of his grandfather, an eccentric aristocrat who survived the Revolution, and the mesmerizing, merciless Ksenia, whom he has fallen in love with.Giuliano da Empoli, once a senior advisor to Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, draws on his experience behind the scenes to create an authentic, compelling portrait of power and how it corrupts.

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Book Synopsis_____________________An intimate telling of the wild days of the 2011 Egyptian RevolutionAhdaf Soueif was born and brought up in Cairo. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 erupted on January 25th, she, along with thousands of others, called Tahrir Square home for eighteen days. She reported for the world''s media and did, like everyone else, whatever she could.Cairo tells the story of the Egyptian Revolution, of how on the 28th of January when The People took the Square and torched the headquarters of the hated ruling National Democratic Party, The (same) People formed a human chain to protect the Antiquities Museum and demanded an official handover to the military; it tells how, on Wednesday, February 2nd, as The People defended themselves against the invading thug militias and fought pitched battles at the entrance to the Square in the shadow of the Antiquities Museum, The (same) People at the centre of the square debated political structures and laughed at stanTrade ReviewCaptures the intoxicating romance of the weeks when anything seemed possible. Souief writes with verve and passion, offering the authentic voice of the liberal Egyptian who risked everything because she wanted her country to have freedom and democracy * Daily Telegraph *Should serve as a heartening reminder of what people are capable of achieving when united and courageous * The Economist *There's a passionate immediacy to Soueif's febrile descriptions of those halcyon first days of revolution ... Soueif is an excellent observer * Metro *Soueif is a political analyst and commentator of the best kind * London Review of Books *

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Book Synopsis*The most unusual novel you will read all year, where you create your own story*'An ingenious choose-your-own-adventure challenge' Lauren Elkin, GuardianLonglisted for the 2021 Stella PrizeYou've grown roots, you're gathering moss. You're desperate to escape your boring life teaching English in Jakarta, to go out and see the world. So you make a Faustian pact with a devil, who gives you a gift, and a warning. A pair of red shoes to take you wherever you want to go.Turn the page and make your choice.You may become a tourist or an undocumented migrant, a mother or a murderer, and you will meet other travellers with their own stories to tell. Freedom awaits but borders are real. And no story is ever new. 'Sets you free to roam the Earth... an incisive commentary on the cosmopolitan condition' Tiffany Tsao'An electrifying novel about cosmopolitanism and global nomadism that keeps readers on their toes' Book RiotWinner of an English PEN Translates Award, and a Heim Translation Fund Grant from PEN AmericaTrade ReviewAn ingenious choose-your-own-adventure challenge... Questions such as: “Where am I going?”... “Which choice will make my life worthwhile?” feel existential and urgent... Who can travel, and on what conditions, is one of the primary human rights questions of our era, and The Wandering skilfully takes it on. -- Lauren Elkin * Guardian *With its choose-your-own adventure structure, The Wandering is fiction at its most lifelike, presenting the reader with choices and inevitable misgivings... It is also fiction at its most untethered, where readers can hurl themselves across time zones, selves and situations, free of risk, danger or discrimination. -- Matthew Janney * Guardian *An ingeniously crafted debut which lets you make your own choices about where you want the story to go. This is an electrifying novel about cosmopolitanism and global nomadism that keeps readers on their toes. -- Rabeea Saleem * Book Riot *Sets you free to roam the Earth... an incisive commentary on the cosmopolitan condition. -- Tiffany TsaoThe perfect match of theme and genre...impeccably executed... This book is escapism taken to the next level, while still making serious and significant comments about modern societies... Paramaditha excels at mordant observations about migration, the brutality of Trump’s America, the falsehood of the American dream, and the personal dimension of the 'refugee crisis'... [It] made me think about the world, about chance and fate and the choices we make. -- Helen Vassallo * Translating Women *

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Book SynopsisDark deeds in the Peak District refuse to stay buried… When a skeleton is unearthed at a building site in the village of Meresham, the police immediately link the case to a notorious missing persons investigation. Jayne Arnold was sixteen when she disappeared in the long, hot summer of 1976, and has not been seen since. Soon after the bones are found, a tragic accident occurs at an elite boarding school nearby. The young victim fell to her death from the roof of a building. Digging into the girl’s background links her to an attempted expose of donations from unsavoury individuals. When further deaths follow, does it suggest a cover up is underway? Who stood to lose most from the truth coming out? And how do recent crimes link to events from more than 45 years ago? DI Annie Delamere and her team are tasked to answer these questions, but her own mother may stand between Annie and the truth.A new instalment in the gripping and atmospheric DI Annie Delamere series that fans of Roz Watkins, Stephen Booth and Cara Hunter will love.

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Book Synopsis''An exquisitely observed story of passion and friendship'' Observer Cate is a stage designer in Chicago, caught up in an unconventional web of friends and lovers, when her life is suddenly overturned. Walking into her best friend''s kitchen one day, she witnesses an act of violence that forces her to do something she never thought she could do. Nothing will ever be the same again.Wry, compassionate and startlingly beautiful, Right After the Weather explores the mess of trauma and love, and the reverberations of our actions. ''Smart and often funny, perceptive and brilliantly observed. I loved being submerged in Cate''s chaotic life'' Claire Fuller ''I loved it so much. Thought-provoking, emotionally intelligent and beautifully written'' Daily Mail''An exquisitely written, psychologically sophisticated novel, rich in insight and sensitivity to human vulnerability'' NY Journal of BooksTrade ReviewAn exquisitely observed story of passion and friendship * Observer *I loved this so much. Thought-provoking, emotionally intelligent and beautifully written * Daily Mail *Carol Anshaw has written a wonderful character in Cate, who is juggling a series of events and relationships, none of which quite connect or overlap with each other. The writing is smart and often funny, and the detail, perceptive and brilliantly observed. I loved being submerged in Cate's chaotic life, and even as I closed the last page, I was completely sure that she and all the other characters were alive and well, and continuing to muddle through, somewhere in Chicago * Claire Fuller *Anshaw crafts an engaging narrative with her customary precision and tart humor. Another treat from the great Anshaw: sharply observed, unsentimentally compassionate, always cognizant of life's complexities * Kirkus starred review *Anshaw brings a fresh, keen voice to this story of modern lesbian life...[it] will captivate readers * Publishers Weekly starred review *Here's passion and addiction, guilt and damage, all the beautiful mess of family life, Carry the One will lift readers off their feet and bear them along on its eloquent tide * Emma Donoghue, on Carry the One *Superb . . . Anshaw sees her characters with startling clarity, an acute alertness to nuance, and no small helping of warmth and humour. A marvellous novel, grown-up, smart and emotionally intelligent * Patrick Ness, Guardian, on Carry the One *Her deftly episodic novel of love, time and off-beat family life is warm, generous and wise. Enormously engaging * Daily Mail on Carry the One *Beautifully observed . . . intimately dissects how one event or choice can alter the trajectory of a life, how a fork in the road can lead to wholly unexpected and divergent outcomes * The New York Times on Carry the One *

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Book SynopsisA historical romance with an activist heart, and an impassioned critique of U.S. expansionism—with an introduction by Ana Castillo, author of So Far from GodA fiercely partisan novel based on the author’s own experiences, The Squatter and the Don follows two families living near San Diego shortly after the United States’ annexation of California: the Alamares of the landed Mexican gentry, and the Darrells, the New Englanders who seek to claim the Alamares’ land. When young Clarence Darrell falls in love with Mercedes Alamar, the stage is set for a conflict that blends the personal with the political.  A scathing critique of corporate capitalism, this story exposes the true historical plight of californios as their lands are taken away by a government with incestuous ties to the railroad monopoly—institutions laced with the greed and racism of nineteenth-century America&rsqu

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Book SynopsisReturn Specialist Simon Fisk is about to go on his most dangerous mission: rescuing the granddaughter of the US Secretary of State from terrorists. Simon Fisk, a specialist in recovering abducted children, is on a routine case in Cape Town when he suddenly finds the body of the suspect he has been following. Believing he is being framed for murder, he runs and soon discovers the job was merely a ruse to lure him to the continent. There, Simon will be tasked with his most dangerous mission yet: trekking through the African bush to locate a group of terrorists responsible for abducting the granddaughter of the US Secretary of State. Although Simon prefers to work alone, he is accompanied by university professor Jadine Visser, an old flame, who quickly proves adept at survival. But why is she involved? And how will they locate the underground militant group bent on using the girl in a high-profile terror attack before it''s too late?

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWonderfully musical prose. * Guardian *A great and powerful literary personality. -- Auma ObamaAn amalgam of prose and poetry. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisAN OF-THE-MOMENT NOVEL FOR READERS OF FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE'Timely, risky and dazzling' Polly Clark, author of Tiger'Sharply funny, perceptive, and surprising at every turn, The Smash-Up is a story that's acid-etched and full of heart, intimate, and relevant' Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses and Away'Every woman should read this book. Every woman, every feminist, every activist' Jane Harris, author of Orange Prize shortlisted The ObservationsAfter years spent in the city, working with his business partner Randy on Bränd media, Ethan finds himself in the quiet, closed-off town of Starkfield. His wife Zenobia is perpetually distracted by the swirling #MeToo politics, the Kavanaugh hearings, and her duties to the feminist activism group she formed: All Them Witches. Ethan finds himself caught between their regular meetings at his home and the battle to get his livewire daughter Alex to sleep.But the new, stilted rhythm of his life is interrupted when he receives a panicked message. Accusations. Against Randy. A slew of them. And Ethan is abruptly forced to question everything: his past, his future, his marriage, and what he values most.Unrelenting in its satire, The Smash-up jolts you into the twisted psyche of successful brand advertising, where historic exploitation is only ever a panicked phone-call away. With magnetic energy and doses of comic wit, Benjamin creates a world of social media algorithms, extreme polarization, the collapsing of identity into tweet-sized spaces, and the spectre of violence that can be found even in the quietest places.Trade ReviewThe Smash-Up is an incandescent meteor of a novel, blazing through the preoccupations of our time with wit, originality and compassion. Timely, risky and dazzling. -- Polly Clark, author of TIGERSharply funny, perceptive, and surprising at every turn, The Smash-Up is a story that's acid-etched and full of heart, intimate, and relevant as it explores the impact on a family of the collapse of everything in this unsettled, unsettling world. Ali Benjamin is Edith Wharton with fresh eyes. -- Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses and AwayA great page-turner, this book could only have been written now. It made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me think. Every woman should read this book. Every woman, every feminist, every activist. And then, together we should all go and Burn It All Down. -- Jane Harris, author of Orange Prize shortlisted THE OBSERVATIONSBenjamin's immediately engaging writing captures the complicated emotions and biting humour of these bruising times and their impact on relationships. * Booklist *Funny, compelling and utterly relatable, this is the novel for you. * Stylist *Benjamin is an absolutely brilliant satirist and deftly juxtaposes the battlegrounds of marriage, parenthood and middle-class aspiration with the fight for truth and justice in the bigger political picture. * Daily Mail *A fun, timely novel that's unexpectedly full of hope. * People's Pick *An exhilarating ride .... hilarious .... there are no heroes here; I got whiplash trying to figure out who I trusted and what I was rooting for, and the sensation was mesmerizing.... Benjamin is like an overly chatty but skilled magician .... a modern and energetic story about a marriage on the skids. * The New York Times *Smart, funny and topical, this is an astute story of a once-happy couple dealing with temptation, familiarity, fury and the very real chance that their relationship will be smashed to smithereens under the pressure. * Daily Mirror *Ambitious, startling, funny, furious, and wise, Ali Benjamin's debut novel offers the shock of recognition as it deftly tackles some of the biggest issues of our time. Taking inspiration from Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton's classic tale about a small-town love triangle, The Smash-Up explores a world Wharton couldn't have imagined in 1911. . . but it's ultimately a story that explores the same themes as her original: duty vs. passion; confinement vs. escape; the staggering tragedy of lost potential. * Grazia (Best Books of 2021) *Smart, funny and topical, this is an astute story of a once-happy couple dealing with temptation, familiarity and fury. * S Mag *

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Book SynopsisMost everything has dried up: water, the womb, even the love among lovers. Hunger is rife, exceptacross the border. One night, a village is bombed after its men attempt to cross the border.Nine-year old Amedea is buried underground and sleeps to survive. Ten years later, she wakes with a locust embedded in her brow. This political fable is a girl’s magical journey through the border. The border has cut the human heart. Can she repair it with the story of a small life? This is the Locus Girl’s dream, her lovesong—For those walking to the border for dear life And those guarding the border for dear lifeTrade ReviewWinner of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the 2016 NSW Premiers Literary Awards! The judges described the author's lyrical prose as "transfiguring fiction". "There were many fine and stylistically accomplished works among this year's entries, but the distinctiveness, sweep and visual power of this short novel set it apart.""It is no surprise that a dystopian novel about climate change has won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards." Susan Wyndham, SMH"Bobis story resonates not only in todays Australia but throughout an environmentally and politically disrupted world where repression and violence are rife; where huge numbers of people leave their homes to undertake dangerous journeys in the search for life." Alfred Yuson, The Philippine StarOn her speaking events in Melbourne and Sydney last week, feminist, journalist and commentator Gloria Steinem congratulated Spinifex Press on 25 years of feminist publishing. "Can I say thank you to Spinifex Press which is now in its 25th anniversary. Its been such an inspiration to us." Gloria Steinem

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Book SynopsisI remember how you were, not how you are. We were we until we became you and I. Midori and u Cô are international university students tasting freedom from family for the first time. They discover Melbourne and each other. All is well until the tsunami that swamps their world...

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Book SynopsisLies and double-crosses, secret police and explosions, a carriage chase, a mattress stuffed with cash and a one-eyed master of disguise…In 1907, the revolutionary Joseph Djugashvili – who would later take the name Joseph Stalin – met with an old friend, a clerk at the Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, for a glass of milk. Over talk of national pride, the spirit of the new century and Djugashvili’s poetry, they agreed the beginnings of a plan. With the aid of the Outfit, Djugashvili’s hardened crew of “expropriators,” they would pull off the biggest, bloodiest and most daring robbery in Georgia’s history, and ruthlessly change the direction of the Bolshevik revolution forever...Trade Review"A well-written and cleverly imagined crime thriller with a knife-sharp edge." -- Crime Review on The Bad Neighbour * Crime Review *"Exciting, gritty, and dramatic, this book has it all." -- Telegraph & Argus * Telegraph & Argus *"A deceptively-written thriller that captures the mood of modern society." -- SFBook on The Bad Neighbour * SFBook *"A compelling, dark, and gritty book." -- Audio Killed the Bookmark on The Bad Neighbour * Audio Killed the Bookmark *"An absolutely ripping novel; rollicking, thrilling, twisty; in short, one of the best heist novels I’ve read this decade, without qualification." -- Kit Power'David Tallerman brings one of the Twentieth Century's lesser-known incidents - masterminded by one of its greatest monsters - vividly to life.' -- Dave Hutchinson

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Book Synopsis 2016. The world is on the brink of crisis. Who could have predicted how events would play out? In this satirical thriller, Stanley Johnson, former MEP and father to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, just might have. In Britain, the British Prime Minister Jeremy Hartley is fighting a referendum he thought couldn’t be lost. In the USA, brash showman, Ronald Craig is fighting a Presidential Election nobody thought he could win. In the USSR, Igor Popov, the Russian President, is using both events as part of his plan to destabilise the West.Trade Review'I wish we had been able to take this book into the jungle. Stanley's Kompromat is a superbly funny satire on recent events!' * Georgia Toffolo ('Toff'), ITV's Queen of the Jungle 2017 *'Brilliant.' * The Sunday Times *‘Perfect beach material.’ * Independent *‘It’s brilliant and, who knows, maybe it’s true.’ * Ken Livingstone *'A rollicking work of fiction that sets conniving caricatures of real-life figures amid a diorama of recent world events...Mr. Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament and the father of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, clearly knows all the drills. The author of 25 earlier works of fiction and nonfiction, he has a lifetime’s expertise that adds comic credibility to a caper combining the antic action of Mad magazine’s old "Spy vs. Spy" cartoons with the gonzo humor of Carl Hiaasen.' * Wall Street Journal *‘There are some novelists who, by instincts or study, understand perfectly the independent components of a thriller. Stanley Johnson is one of them.’ * Daily Telegraph *‘This thriller has the makings of a gleeful romp through geopolitical skullduggery, but Johnson (The Commissioner) has laid out something that looks more like an alternative history for our grim and disrupted times.' * Publishers Weekly *‘An enjoyable satire…while still being all too scarily believable.’ * Crime Novel Reader *‘This is a brilliant alternative account of recent and current events.’ * The Chronicle *‘In its complex plotting and intrigue, Kompromat not only suggests that Russia was influencing the US election campaign, but behind the scenes bolstering the fortunes of the Leave campaign. Of course, Kompromat is an entertainment but Johnson is quite chuffed that some of his plot twists have proved prescient.’ * Sydney Morning Herald *

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Book Synopsis‘A strange, original and unusual novel, which takes two unlikely worlds and yokes them together. Remarkable … I’ve never read anything quite like it’ Carlo GeblerDolly Considine runs a late-night drinking establishment catering to the needs of thirsty politicians and theatricals in Dublin's legendary drinking area, the Catacombs.Julian Ryder (aka Paddy Butler) is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer in need of shelter from his bullying older brother.As the new live-in lounge assistant at Dolly Considine’s Hotel, Julian soon embroils himself in the shebeen’s gossip – and the guests’ bedsheets – and turns Dolly’s entourage into fodder for his literary ambitions. Reality quickly becomes difficult to separate from fantasy…Set against the run-up to the Pro-life Constitutional Amendment of September 1983 and moving fluidly between the 1950s of Dolly’s youth and Julian’s Summer of Unrequited Love, the hotel becomes a stage for farce and tragedy. Between Julian’s fictions, Dolly’s Secrets, and narrow party politics – and featuring a papier-mâché figure of Mother Ireland giving birth and clashing sword-wielding dancers – this rich cocktail threatens to blow them, and even Ireland itself, wide apart.Trade Review‘A strange, original and unusual novel, which takes two unlikely worlds and yokes them together. Remarkable … I’ve never read anything quite like it’ Carlo Gebler

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Book Synopsis***'Tense, lyrical, intelligent' - The Big Issue******A heart-wrenching human story - Saga***Exit West meets An American Marriage in this breathtaking and evocative novel about a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love, on the cusp of their bright future...when a travel ban rips them apart on the eve of their son's birth.Boston, 2017: When Hadi returns to his heavily pregnant partner Sama after a trip to Jordan to bury his father, he is stopped at border control - a hostile new immigration law has just been enacted - while she awaits him on the other side. Worlds apart, suspended between hope and disillusion as hours become days become weeks, Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they'd dreamed up together. But does that life exist any more, or was it only an illusion? Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught up in forces beyond their control, fighting for the freedom and home they found in one another.Trade ReviewZgheib writes so lyrically about rootlessness, separation and a fierce longing for home that it makes the tragedy of war that much easier to bear. Sama and Hadi will always hold a special place in my heart. -- ALKA JOSHI, author of The Henna Artist and The Secret Keeper of JaipurA masterful story of tragedy and redemption, an entire history told through the prism of a single Syrian couple, beginning and ending with love. -- HALA ALYAN, award-winning author of Salt Houses and The Arsonists' CityThrough a heart-wrenching human story runs a narrative about avian migration, the urge to take flight felt even by a caged bird - but all birds of passage need land to light on. -- Rose Shepherd * Saga Magazine *In elegant prose, Zgheib skillfully mingles her protagonists' memories with a nail-biting account of their 2017 ordeal to craft a narrative rich in metaphors and complex, believable characters. -- Washington Post * Washington Post *[in] glittering language that brings emotional resonance to the effects of monstrous policies [...] The separation comes in like thunder to break a happy story apart. Zgheib's poetic language serves her well in conveying that story. But much of its power lies also in the playful way Sama and Hadi experience new love, the sense of open possibility that immigration can still represent. This happiness is embedded within her story of suffering - and vice versa. -- Lorraine Berry * L.A. Times *Zgheib has created a tense, moving novel about the meaning of home, the risks of exile, the power of nations, and the power of love. * Kirkus *Her devastating second novel, No Land to Light On, is an illuminating, intimate look at the Syrian refugee crisis and the immigrant experience in America during the Trump administration [...] Zgheib offers nuanced insights into the complex psychology of and challenges faced by displaced people, and effectively makes the consequences of anti-immigrant sentiments and policies feel personal to all readers.Written in soul-searing prose, No Land to Light On is an essential, compassionate story that reinstates a sense of humanity for the countless people affected by U.S. travel bans. * BookPage *a graceful tale of imperiled lovers -- Kirkus * Kirkus *If you can handle suspense and heartache then add this one to your list. -- Elizabeth Walsh * Muse *An ongoing travel ban threatens every hope [Hadi and Sumi] ever shared, and through a chronicle of their torn-up plans, Zgheib deftly addresses pertinent issues of identity, homeland, exile and loss. This is a tense, lyrical, intelligent novel. -- Jane Graham * The Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisA man arrives at a house on the coast to write a book. Separated from his lover and family and friends, he finds the solitude he craves in the pyrotechnic beauty of nature, just as the world he has shut out is experiencing a cataclysmic shift. The preoccupations that have galvanised him and his work fall away and he becomes lost in memory and beauty. He begins to tell us a story ... A retired porn star who is made an offer he can't refuse for the sake of his family and future. So he returns to the world he fled years before, all too aware of the danger of opening the door to past temptations and long-buried desires. Can he resist the oblivion and bliss they promise? A breathtakingly audacious novel by the acclaimed author of The Slap and Damascus about finding joy and beauty in a raging and punitive world, about the refractions of memory and time and, most subversive of all, the mystery of art and its creation.Trade ReviewA genuinely brave counter-cultural novel... It's terrific, like everything he writes. * Johann Hari, author of STOLEN FOCUS *Rejecting the rage of contemporary politics for a tender celebration of sensuality, nature, memory and love, 7½ makesa defiant claim: that even now, as the world burns, beauty is worth our attention. In this thrilling mashup of autobiography, homage, film and fiction, Tsiolkas presents a rebellious paean to joy and artistic freedom. I've admired the risk and power of all his novels, but this might be riskiest of all-so personal, so delicate and true-and I love it. * Charlotte Wood, Stella Prize-winning author of The Weekend *

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Book SynopsisMariposa Intersections is the love story of Rafael and Gabriela, two young idealists from different social strata who find themselves at opposite ends of a defining cause, which is the Mexican Utilities proposal of a nuclear power plant on Lago Patzcuaro in Michoacan, Mexico. It is also the story of a group of international individuals who, like the Monarch butterflies, are drawn together to form an organism that is bigger then the sum of its parts. Their common cause unites them for a short but intense time. Together they fight the proposed nuke plant in this historic region in the center of Mexico. It''s a universal story about the fight for the preservation of a way of life and the environment against the insatiable appetite for money, jobs and the need for electricity.

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Book SynopsisThe whole Communist world is in the middle of a democratic revolution. Hall Gardner's novel depicts the protests taking place prior to the June 1989 Tiananmen Square repression-a subject still taboo in China.Hired to teach English, Mylex H. Galvin records his experience in his "Anti-Marco Polo" journal after he meets expats from around the world, while trying to come to grips with the Chinese language, history, and politics.Galvin becomes disillusioned with the poverty and environmental destruction that he finds in China; his barefoot doctor heroes are not capable of treating AIDS; Chinese and African students clash in Nanjing-with no sense of international solidarity.As the democracy movement heats up, he is torn between the love of Tao Baiqing, a Daoist, and Mo Li, a student of English Lit, and unwittingly betrays the ties between the journalist, Hayford, and the democracy activist, Chia Pao-yu-accused of leaking "top secrets" to Hayford.As Galvin studies China's relations with the Western world since Marco Polo, with emphasis on the "hundred years of humiliation," he becomes haunted by nightmares of a "clash of civilizations" and warns against a coming Apocalyptic Color War between the Balding Eagle and the Chinese Dragon-as the latter transmogrifies from Red into shades of Red-Brown-Black.

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Book SynopsisIn his daily cartoon for the Guardian and his long-running strip, IF, in the same paper, Steve Bell has proved that he is without equal in Britain as political cartoonist. Savage, funny, rude, constantly transgressing the rules of good taste, and of course beautifully drawn his cartoons are hated by those they lampoon and loved by everyone who likes to see authority subverted. In his new collection he covers the years of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, 2010-2015, fertile ground for Bell's genius. From George Osborne in his bondage gear, the Quiet Man' zombie Ian Duncan Smith, Cable the elephant, Cameron the talking condom and Clegg the butler to Kipling and the IF penguins, every awful moment of the coalition years is re-run before your eyes but Steve Bell style: outrageous, anarchic, brilliant, sometimes inexplicable and a bit mad (not really)' to quote John Pilger.Trade Review"Something to sing and shout about." -- Neel Mukherjee Independent

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Book SynopsisTHE ICONIC BESTSELLING NOVEL, WINNER OF THE WOMEN''S PRIZE, AND NOW AMAZON TV SERIES STARRING TONI COLLETTE AND AULI?I CRAVALHO ''She throws her head back and pushes her chest forward and lets go a huge blast right into the centre of his body. The rivulets and streams of red scarring run across his chest and up around his throat. She''d put her hand on his heart and stopped him dead.''Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death. With this single twist, the four lives at the heart of Naomi Alderman''s extraordinary, visceral novel are utterly transformed, and we look at the world in an entirely new light.What if the power to hurt were in women''s hands?''Electrifying'' Margaret Atwood''A big, brash, page-turning, thought-provoking thriller'' GuardianTrade ReviewElectrifying -- Margaret AtwoodA big, brash, page-turning, thought-provoking thriller * Guardian *A fascinating look at what the world might be like if millennia of sexism went the other way. Ingenious . . . deserves to be read by every woman (and, for that matter, every man) * The Times *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis“One of the most adventurous and rewarding collections since the publication of Cortázar’s own Blow-up.” —Los Angeles TimesTrade Review"The noted Argentinian author’s incomparable elegance shines through these eight stories." -- Publishers Weekly""In this playful and scintillating set of fabulist tales by Argentine master Cortázar, characters are shuffled through shifting realities. Cortázar fans will devour these affecting stories."" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him." -- Gabriel García Márquez"Anyone who doesn’t read Cortázar is doomed." -- Pablo Neruda"I’m permanently indebted to the work of Cortázar." -- Roberto Bolaño

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis'It's a clever book ... [Im Seong-sun] offers readers his razor-sharp observations on consumerism, capitalism and what it means to feel anonymous' M.W. Craven _______________ Sometimes work can be murder... The Consultant is very good at his job. He creates simple, elegant, effective solutions for… restructuring. Nothing obvious or messy. Certainly nothing anyone would ever suspect as murder. The ‘natural deaths’ he plans have always gone well: a medicine replaced here, a mechanism jammed there. His performance reviews are excellent. And it’s not as though he knows these people. Until his next ‘customer’ turns out to be someone he not only knows but cares about, and for the first time, he begins to question the role he plays in the vast, anonymous Company. And as he slowly begins to understand the real scope of their work, he realises just how easy it would be for the Company to arrange one more perfect murder... But how far will he go to escape The Company? And how far will they go to stop him? The electrifying first novel from award-winning Korean thriller-writer Im Seong-Sun – now in English for the first time – combines the tension of the best crime fiction with searing social criticism to present a searing take-down of global corporate life. Trade ReviewThe Consultant is not only a hugely entertaining book, it’s a clever book. As the morally ambiguous consultant goes about his business of arranging natural deaths to streamline corporate restructuring, he offers readers his razor-sharp observations on consumerism, capitalism and what it means to feel anonymous. It’s also damn funny -- M. W. Craven author of the Sunday Times bestselling Washington Poe seriesAn epic satire of society and power, The Consultant charms and shocks, luring you in to its sizzling plot with no mercy, until you're petrified of how it can possibly end. A blistering indictment of our modern world, this thriller will make you question everything. Brilliant -- Eve SmithAn intriguing premise, cleverly executed, makes for a brilliant read. For The Consultant, a killer who never meets his victims, it all starts to go wrong when he’s told to kill someone he knows. Darkly funny, with a fascinating protagonist, it’s excellent! -- Guy Morpuss, author of Five Minds and Black Lake ManorWow … Such a fresh take. Perfect murders in the imperfect world of business and power. Quietly and stylishly told. There’s an honesty in the simplicity and brutality that is enlightening and thought-provoking. I’ll be thinking about it for a while -- Will CarverA spicy and pacey Korean crime novel in translation… the reader is brought along on a thrilling journey that probes the cracks in capitalism by exploring what people would really do for money * Huffington Post, 23 Brilliant New Books for 2023 To Get Your Reading List Started *Consultant unfurls from the perspective of a first-person narrator who writes scenarios of perfect crimes. It examines ... the violence of modern anonymity and capitalism. * Readers News *The details and specifics of murder consulting are intriguing, and the plot propelled by its cerebral narrative and reasoning is refreshing ... it's a page turner, reminiscent of the American show, CSI. -- Segye Ilbo Literary Prize JudgesThese facts about Sung-soon Lim might astound you ... Every book of his boasts a drastically different sensibility, prose, and subject matter. His world building is unparalleled, his prose precise, and you can see the echo of extensive research that must have gone into the storytelling. * Channel Yes *This tale of an accidental accomplice to serial murder spellbindingly combines the eerily affectless, morally ambiguous tone of a Patricia Highsmith novel with John Dickson Carr’s fecundity in devising “impossible” crimes * Telegraph *[The Consultant] is toweringly the most interesting of the autumn bunch ... beautifully crafted, witty, slick novel has a profound meta-physical basis * Tablet *

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