Narrative theme: sense of place

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK*****You don''t fall in love in Cyprus in the summer of 1974. Not here, not now. In 1974, two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided Cyprus, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek, and Defne who is Turkish, can meet in secret, hidden beneath the leaves of a fig tree growing through the roof of the tavern. This tree will witness their hushed happy meetings, and will be there when the war breaks out and the teenagers vanish.Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada has never visited the island where her parents were born. She seeks to untangle years of her family''s silence, but the only connection she has to the land of her ancestors Is a fig tree growing tin the garden of their home . . .*****''This book moved me to tears . . . in the best way. Powerful and poignant'' Reese Witherspoon''A brilliant novel -- one that rings with Shafak''s characteristic compassion'' Robert Macfarlane''This is an enchanting, compassionate and wise novel and storytelling at its most sublime'' Polly Samson*** ELIF SHAFAK''S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ***Trade ReviewAn outstanding work of breathtaking beauty -- Lemn SissayA writer of important, beautiful, painful, truthful novels -- Marian KeyesLovely heartbreaker of a novel centered on dark secrets of civil wars & evils of extremism: Cyprus, star-crossed lovers, killed beloveds, damaged kids -- Margaret Atwood on TwitterElif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature -- Ian McEwanOne of the best writers in the world today * Hanif Kureishi *A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. The Island of Missing Trees is balm for our bruised times -- David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue

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Book SynopsisTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ‘Devastating’ Daily Telegraph ‘Heartbreaking’ The Times ‘Unforgettable’ Isabel Allende ‘Haunting’ Independent Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.Trade ReviewA gripping read and a haunting story of love, loss and betrayal. Guaranteed to move even the hardest heart * Independent *Shattering … devastating and inspiring * Observer *Hosseini is a truly gifted teller of tales … he’s not afraid to pull every string in your heart to make it sing * The Times *Rings true with tenderness and truth * Daily Mail *A devastating, masterful and painfully honest story of a life crippled by an act of childhood and cowardice and cruelty … It speaks the harrowing truth about the power of evil, personal and political, and intoxicates, like a high-flying kite, with the power of hope * Daily Telegraph *Stunning and heartbreaking in its quiet intensity * Guardian *This is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honour, guilt, fear, redemption … It is so powerful that for a long time after, everything I read seemed bland * Isabel Allende *The novel that made Afghanistan the talking-point of every book group * Guardian, 50 Books that Defined the Decade *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain ‘Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive’ Sunday Times ‘A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone’ Irish Independent After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain. But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish – the electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel’s home, Christy McMahon. Though he can’t explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As Noel navigates his coming-of-age by Christy’s side, falling in and out of love, Christy’s buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.Trade ReviewAdmirers of Niall Williams’s Booker-longlisted History of the Rain will not be disappointed to learn that his latest novel is possibly even better … What makes this so compelling and enjoyable is Williams’s transparent love of his characters and delight in his setting -- Alexander Larman * Observer *Charming is one word for Williams’ prose. It is also life-affirming and written with a turn of phrase that makes the reader want to underline something on every page. I suggest we all buy his books, pushing him into that realm of globally fashionable Irish writers, but more importantly, sharing with a vast audience his humane and poetic world view -- Isabel Berwick * Financial Times *Williams has the eye of a poet and the raconteur’s knack for finding a tale in the most unpromising nook of everyday life, as a now-adult Noel, summoning the Faha of his nostalgic imagination, narrates an elegiac novel that’s careful always to offset the antic rural eccentricity with darker notes of loss * Daily Mail *This is Happiness returns to the beguiling gloom of Faha … [A] wise and redemptive novel … It dares, in addition, to be wildly comic … With his silver ear for speech and extreme attentiveness to the Heaneyesque “music of everyday”, Mr Williams treads softly on the dreams of youth and memories of old age -- Caroline Jackson * Country Life *Lovingly written, the text is brimming with humanity, truth and humour – and then there’s the pitch perfect language, with not a word out of place … Magnificent -- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *Sharp as a tack, bright as a button, and engorged with rich humour, this is a love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone * Irish Independent *A surge of language, beautiful and enchanting, a novel that weaves a love of literature into its own moving tale -- Praise for 'History of the Rain' * Guardian *Extremely moving, poignantly capturing Ruth’s doomed childhood relationship with her twin brother. By the final chapter I was weeping -- Praise for 'History of the Rain' * Sunday Times *Deeply allusive, infectiously hopeful … Somewhere between bildungsroman, epic and family saga, History of the Rain is an unashamedly unfashionable, lyrical paean to the pleasure of reading and to serendipity -- Praise for 'History of the Rain' * Daily Telegraph *A delicate and graceful love story that is also an exaltation of love itself . . . A luminously written, magical work of fiction -- Praise for 'Four Letters of Love' * New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisToshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971. He formerly produced, directed and wrote for the theatrical group Sonic Snail. As a playwright, his works include COUPLE, Sunset Song and Family Time. The novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is adapted from a 1110 Productions play by Kawaguchi, which won the 10th Suginami Drama Festival grand prize. It was followed by Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye and Before We Forget Kindness.Trade ReviewThe third novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Having read the first two, we can attest it will be just the thing to curl up with on a rainy afternoon. * Sheerluxe *

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.There was a star riding through clouds one night, and I said to the star, Consume me'Six friends traverse the uneven road of life together in Virginia Woolf's most unconventional classic. Bernard, Jinny, Louis, Neville, Rhoda and Susan first meet as children by the sea, and their lives are forever changed.A poetic novel written in a lyrical way only Woolf could master, these narrators face both triumph and tragedy that touches them all. Throughout their lives, they examine the relationship between past and present, and the meaning of life itself.A landmark of innovative fiction and the most experimental of Virginia Woolf's novels, The Waves is still regarded as one of the greatest works ever written in the English language.

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Book SynopsisBook of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, Economist, Observer, The Spectator, Financial Times, Vogue, The Times, The Oldie, i Paper, The Standard, Washington Post, Independent, Daily ExpressSHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024A writer at the peak of her powers' The TelegraphTruth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story? Zadie Smith returns with her first historical novel.Kilburn, 1873. The ''Tichborne Trial'' has captivated the widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet and all of England. Readers are at odds over whether the defendant is who he claims to be - or an imposter.Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her novelist cousin and his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects England of being a land of façades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.Andrew Bogle meanwhile finds himself the star witness, his future depending on telling the right story. Growing up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica, he knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realise.Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about how in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what''s true can prove a complicated task.It's difficult to give any idea of how extraordinary this book is. One of the great historical novels, certainly. But has any historical novel ever combined such brilliantly researched and detailed history with such intensely imagined fiction? Or such a range of living, breathing, surprising characters with such an idiosyncratically structured narrative?' Michael FraynAs always it is a pleasure to be in Zadie Smith's mind, which, as time goes on, is becoming contiguous with London itself. Dickens may be dead, but Smith, thankfully, is alive' New York TimesZadie Smith's Victorian-set masterpiece holds a mirror up to Britain . . . The Fraud is the genuine article' IndependentSmith's dazzling historical novel combines deft writing and strenuous construction in a tale of literary London and the horrors of slavery' GuardianInstant Sunday Times bestseller, September 2023Trade ReviewNo one understands humans better. As this novel shows, there is no better guide to people and their bottomlessness than Smith herself * iNews *This was really delightful. 10/10. Zadie Smith is a genius -- Brandon Taylor author of The Late AmericansA novel full of people, ideas, humour, feeling and something like moral truth – the stuff of life * Evening Standard *Searingly original [and] virtuosic . . . the book masterfully depicts post-emancipation Britain as it ruptures along faultlines of class and race * Vogue *Brilliant. A Dickensian delight * Los Angeles Times *The Fraud is unlike anything you’ll read this year: a charismatic, cerebral novel that asks us to consider the greatest fraud of all, that of one man claiming to hold the key to another’s freedom * Irish Times *A wonderful meditation on truth and falsehood, and the boundaries between fact and fiction * Spectator *A big, rich saga, tumbling with characters and big issues (feminism, slavery, truth) * The Times, 'Best Novels of 2023' *The Fraud is a complex mosaic of interweaving plots . . . The novel pulls off the trick of being both splendidly modern and authentically old and the characters are varied and entertaining * Independent, ‘Best Books of 2023’ *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE 2022SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG FICTION AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2022LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2022''Diamond-sharp, timely and urgent'' Observer, Best Debuts of 2021''Subtle, elegant, scorching'' Vogue''Virtuosic, exquisite, achingly unique'' Guardian''I''m full of the hope, on reading it, that this is the kind of book that doesn''t just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible'' Ali Smith''Exquisite, daring, utterly captivating. A stunning new writer'' Bernardine EvaristoCome of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Step out into a world of Go Home vans. Go to Oxbridge, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy a flat. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going.The narrator of Assembly is a Black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend''s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can''t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?''One of the most talked-about debuts of the year . . . You''ll read it in one sitting'' Sunday Times Style''Expertly crafted, remarkable, astonishing... A literary debut with flavours of Jordan Peele''s Get Out'' Bookseller, Editor''s Choice''Virginia Woolf''s Mrs. Dalloway meets Citizen by Claudia Rankine... As breathtakingly graceful as it is mercilessly true'' Olivia Sudjic''Bold and original, with a cool intelligence, and so very truthful about the colonialist structure of British society'' Diana Evans ''This marvel of a novel manages to say all there is to say about Britain today'' Sabrina MahfouzTrade ReviewDiamond-sharp, timely and urgent... Written in a distilled, minimalist prose, Assembly is illuminating on everything from micro aggressions in the workplace, to the reality of living in the "hostile environment", to the legacy of British colonialism * Observer, Best Debuts of 2021 *A quiet, measured call to revolution. It's about everything that has changed and still needs to change, socially, historically, politically, personally... Its impact is massive; it strikes me as the kind of book that sits on the faultline between a before and an after. I could use words like 'elegant' and 'brilliantly judged' and literary antecedents such as Katherine Mansfield/Toni Morrison/Claudia Rankine. But it's simpler than that. I'm full of the hope, on reading it, that this is the kind of book that doesn't just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible -- Ali Smith, author of 'How to be both' and 'Summer'In just 100 pages Natasha Brown delivers a body blow of a book. Assembly is extraordinary, each word weighed, each detail meticulously crafted... Brown is mercilessly clear-eyed in her delineation of how British culture is also "assembled" - its history whitewashed and arguing against it near-impossible when "the only tool of expression is the language of this place". Yet she wields that language like a weapon and hits her mark again and again with devastating elegance * The Times *Incredible. [Assembly] moves the English novel on. Slim book, massive importance -- Max Porter, author of 'Grief is the Thing With Feathers'Stunning, blisteringly eloquent... Assembly heralds a powerful new voice in British literature * The Sunday Times *Assembly is brilliant. Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway meets Citizen by Claudia Rankine. Natasha Brown's ability to slide between the tiniest, most telling detail and the edifice of history, the assemblage of so many lives in so many times and places, is as breathtakingly graceful as it is mercilessly true -- Olivia Sudjic, author of 'Asylum Road'Daring and distilled... A hauntingly accurate novel about the stories we construct for ourselves and others... A completely captivating read you won't be able to put down * Independent *Assembly fulfils, with exquisite precision, Virginia Woolf's exhortation to "record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall... [It] calls to mind Frantz Fanon's work on the psychic ruptures caused by the experience of being colonised, or W. E. B. Du Bois's idea of double consciousness. Assembly is the kind of novel we might have got if Woolf had collaborated with Fanon... Brown nudges us towards an expression of the inexpressible - towards feeling rather than thought, as if we are navigating the collapsing boundaries between the narrator's consciousness and our own * Guardian *I read it compulsively in a single sitting. Assembly expertly draws out the difficulties of assembling a coherent self in the face of myriad structural oppressions. Casting a wry look at faded aristocrats, financial insiders and smug liberals, Natasha Brown takes the conventional tics of the English novel - the repressed emotion and clipped speech - and drains away the nostalgia. What's left is something hard and true -- Will Harris, author of 'Mixed Race Superman' and 'Rendang'It more than lives up to the hype. Propulsive, devastating, unflinching and deft... This is a heartbreaking novel that offers glimmers of hope with its bold vision for new modes of storytelling... Brown's voice is entirely her own - and Assembly is a wry, explosive debut from a coruscating new talent * inews *A powerhouse of a book * Stylist *Set over 24 hours as an unnamed Black British woman prepares to attend a garden party hosted by her boyfriend's wealthy parents. With a clear eye she assesses her experience of corporate culture with its embedded racism, her awful boss, the myth of true social mobility... A short but exceptionally powerful novel from a gifted new writer * Bookseller (Editor's Choice pick) *In this excoriating indictment of the white supremacy underpinning the office space, Natasha Brown shows us the triple bind under which Black British Women live. How can there be wholeness in a society which demands so often that Black women melt parts of themselves down so that the machinery can shape them anew? I have scarcely read a work of fiction which confronts me so clearly and viscerally with the nature of injustice in our contemporary moment. This is an important work from a writer I hope we'll be hearing from for a long, long time -- Kayo Chingonyi, author of 'A Blood Condition'One of the buzziest debuts of the summer * Vogue *Natasha Brown's exquisite prose, daring structure and understated elegance are utterly captivating. She is a stunning new writer -- Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize winning author of 'Girl, Woman, Other'This marvel of a novel manages to say all there is to say about Britain today in the most precise, poetic prose and within the story of one complicated, compelling woman. Formally thrilling, politically captivating, endlessly absorbing... I will never forget where I was when I read it, how I felt at the start of it and by the end - it takes you on a complete carousel of a life lived both in dread and in defiance. Superb. -- Sabrina Mahfouz, poet & playwright, ‘A History of Water in the Middle East’Like the fictional companion to Jamaica Kincaid's nonfiction masterpiece A Small Place... A book like a finely honed scalpel - marking a new and electrifying dawn -- Elaine Castillo, author of 'America is Not the Heart'Tightly conceived and distinctively written, perceptive, precise and unsparing... An elegiac examination of a Black woman's life and an acerbic analysis of Britain's racial landscape. Brown's rhythmic, economic prose renders the narrator's experiences with breathless clarity * New York Times *Stunningly good -- Elizabeth Day, presenter of the 'How to Fail' podcastAssembly is an astonishing work. Formally innovative, as beautiful as it is coolly devastating, urgent and utterly precise on what it means to be alive now -- Sophie Mackintosh, author of 'The Water Cure'Searing... A rousing, inspired voice demanding to be recognized and heard * Washington Post *Deft, essential, and a novel of poetic consideration, Assembly holds (the Black-British) identity in its hands, examining it until it becomes both truer and stranger - a question more than an answer. I nodded, I mhmmed, I sighed (and laughed knowingly, bitterly) -- Rachel Long, Folio Prize-shortlisted author of 'My Darling From the Lions'Bold and original, with a cool intelligence, and so very truthful about the colonialist structure of British society: how it has poisoned even our language, making its necessary dismantling almost the stuff of dreams. I take hope from Assembly, not just for our literature but also for our slow awakening -- Diana Evans, author of 'Ordinary People'Mind-bending and utterly original. It's like Thomas Bernhard in the key of Rachel Cusk but about black subjectivity -- Brandon Taylor, author of 'Real Life'Brilliantly sharp and curiously Alice-like... It centres on a gifted and driven young Black woman navigating a topsy-turvy and increasingly maddening modern Britain... Her indictment is forensic, clear, elegant, a prose-polished looking glass held up to her not-so-post-colonial nation. Only one puzzle remains unsolved: how a novel so slight can bear such weight * Times Literary Supplement *A piercing, cautionary tale about the costs of assimilating into a society still in denial about its colonial past. Brown writes with the deftness and insight of a poet -- Mary Jean Chan, author of 'Flèche'Bold, elegant, and all the more powerful for its brevity, Assembly captures the sickening weightlessness which a Black British woman, who has been obedient to and complicit with the capitalist system, experiences as she makes life-changing decisions under the pressure of the hegemony -- Paul Mendez, author of 'Rainbow Milk'This is a stunning achievement of compressed narrative and fearless articulation * Publisher's Weekly *One of the most talked-about debuts of the year . . . you'll read it in one sitting * Sunday Times Style *Thrilling... Brown gets straight to the point. With delivery as crisp and biting into an apple, she short-circuits expectation... This is [the narrator's] story, and she will tell it how she wishes, unpicking convention and form. Like The Drivers' Seat by Muriel Spark, it's thrilling to see a protagonist opting out and going her own way * Scotsman *A nuanced, form-redefining exploration on class, work, gender and race * Harper’s Bazaar *Across 100 lean pages, Brown deftly handles a gigantic literary heritage... Her style rivals the best contemporary modernists, like Eimear McBride and Rachel Cusk; innocuous or obscure on a first reading, punching on a second... Assembly is only the start * Daily Telegraph *There's something of Isherwood in Brown's spare, illuminating prose... A series of jagged-edged shards that when accumulated form an unhappy mirror in which modern Britain might examine itself * Literary Review *A debut novel as slender and deadly as an adder * Los Angeles Times *A razor-sharp debut... This powerful short novel suggests meaningful discussion of race is all but impossible if imperialism's historical violence remains taboo * Daily Mail *Bold, spare, agonisingly well-observed. An impressive debut * Tatler *Excoriating, unstoppable... The simplicity of the narrative allows complexity in the form: over barely a hundred pages, broken into prose fragments that have been assembled with both care and mercilessness * London Review of Books *Beguiling and beautifully written, this is the work of an author with a bright future * Tortoise *Coruscating originality, emotional potency, astonishing artistic vim... This signals the arrival of a truly breathtaking literary voice... A scintillating tour de force * Yorkshire Times *Fierce and accomplished, Assembly interrogates the high cost of surviving in a system designed to exclude you * Economist *I was blown away by Assembly, an astonishing book that forces us to see what's underpinning absolutely everything -- Lauren Elkin, author of 'Flaneuse'Coiled and charged, a small shockwave... Sometimes you come across a short novel of such compressed intensity that you wonder why anyone would bother reading longer narratives... [Assembly] casts a huge shadow * MoneyControl *A masterwork . . . it contains centuries of wisdom, aesthetic experimentation and history. Brown handles her debut with a surgeon's control and a musician's sensitivity to sound -- Tess Gunty * Guardian *An extraordinary book, and a compelling read that had me not only gripped but immediately determined to listen again... Highly recommended * Financial Times on 'Assembly' in audiobook *'As utterly, urgently brilliant as everyone has said. A needle driven directly into the sclerotic heart of contemporary Britain. Beautiful proof that you don't need to write a long book, just a good book' -- Rebecca Tamas, author of 'Witch'Every line of this electrifying debut novel pulses with canny social critique * Oprah Daily *Devastatingly eloquent, bold, poignant * Shelf Awareness *An achievement that will leave you wondering just how it's possible that this is only the author's very first work... Brown packs so much commentary and insight inside of every single sentence... Original and startling all at once. After reading Assembly, I cannot wait to see what Natasha Brown does next * Shondaland *[Brown's] work is like that of an excellent photographer - you feel like you are finally seeing the world sharply and without the common filters. That is hypnotising -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan * Guardian *A brilliantly compressed, existentially daring study of a high-flying Black woman negotiating the British establishment -- Guardian, 'Best Fiction of 2021' * Justine Jordan *

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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 SynopsisMeet Detective Matthew Venn. From Ann Cleeves, the Sunday Times bestselling creator of Vera and Shetland, The Long Call is the No.1 bestselling first novel in the Two Rivers series.Now a major ITV series, The Long Call, starring Ben Aldridge.In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father's funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.Now he's back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew's new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.Finding the killer is Venn’s only focus, and his team’s investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.'A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter' – David Baldacci, author of The 6:20 ManThe Long Call is the first entry in the Two Rivers series. Continue the mysteries with The Heron's Cry.Trade ReviewAs a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves’ latest. She easily exceeded those expectations with The Long Call. Matthew Venn is a keeper. A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter -- David Baldacci, author of The 6:20 ManHad me hooked — a promising beginning to another fine chapter in the Ann Cleeves story * The Times *Clever, compassionate and atmospheric, with a great cast of new characters to love. I am already a Matthew Venn fan -- Elly Griffiths, author of the Ruth Galloway MysteriesA triumph that cements Cleeves' status as one of Britain's best crime writers * Daily Express *Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engaging -- Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski seriesBrilliant - a page-turning and sensitively told tale, with a vividly evoked North Devon setting, a powerful emotional heft and a new detective hero in Matthew Venn who you will want to follow for book after book. Wonderful! -- Chris Ewan, bestselling author of Safe HouseAnn Cleeves’ new series gets off to a terrific start with The Long Call – her native Devon is wonderfully evoked, and Matthew Venn is a very appealing new detective. Another sure-fire hit -- Martin Edwards, author of Gallows CourtCleeves combines a flair for evoking sense of place with a thoughtful, complex plot * Mail on Sunday *The troubled Venn is a great protagonist, and Cleeves may well have created her next top TV cop * Heat *A traditional mystery of the best sort * Guardian *Unputdownable series debut! With an evocative setting, a gripping plot, and beautifully drawn characters, The Long Call is a terrific read—and Matthew Venn is my new favorite detective -- Deborah Crombie, New York Times bestselling author of Garden of LamentationsWho knew there could be a third detective as compelling as Vera and Jimmy? Matthew Venn is a triumph of Cleeves’ particular blend of compassion and toughness and I already love him -- Catriona McPherson, national bestselling author of Strangers at the GateAnn Cleeves has done it again! A new detective, a new series, another terrific puzzle of a story that won’t let you go until the very end. Matthew Venn quickly earns his place beside Vera and Jimmy in a debut you don’t want to miss: The Long Call -- Charles Todd, bestselling author of The Black Ascot In The Long Call, Ann Cleeves builds a prism of a world, multi-faceted, complex, and as brilliant as a diamond. Fans of Vera and Jimmy will love Matthew Venn -- Lori Rader-DayAnn Cleeves is a phenomenal talent. With unfailing skill, gorgeous setting, flawless plot and seamless voice, she brilliantly conjures new worlds in crime fiction. Her instantly iconic Detective Matthew Venn is a treasure—and we will all follow him anywhere -- Hank Phillippi RyanCleeves writes of the left-behind and the unfortunate with intelligence and compassion * Literary Review *Murder, mystery and a great new cast of characters mean you won't be able to put this one down! * My Weekly *Hauntingly written, it evokes every possible emotion with Ann's gripping narrative * Woman *Evocative and gripping – an absolute triumph * Daily Mirror *

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Book Synopsis''Deeply compelling... sexy.'' Roxane Gay''Takes you on a dizzying tour of love addiction, rehab, homophobia, betrayal, obsession and the aching need for a mother''s unconditional love. At different times throughout, you''ll find the protagonist needy, reckless and selfish but also smart, intuitive and trapped between two cultures - because as we all know, humans are nothing if not complicated. Roxane is right: this deserves five stars.'' StylistTold in vignettes that flash between the US and the Middle East, Zaina Arafat''s powerful debut novel traces her protagonist''s progress from blushing teen to creative and confused adulthood.In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. Soon, her longings, so deeply hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people, which results in her seekinTrade ReviewA wonderfully written queer coming-of-age story * i newapaper *Navigating queerness, bisexuality, love, and addiction, this captivating story takes readers on a journey to find two of the things we all long for the most: love, and a place we can call home. If you're looking for a captivating, first-person read, this really is one you don't to want to miss * Happiful *Switching between New York, Beirut, Florence, Washington DC and the West Bank, You Exist Too Much takes you on a dizzying tour of love addiction, rehab, homophobia, betrayal, obsession and the aching need for a mother's unconditional love. At different times throughout, you'll find the protagonist needy, reckless and selfish but also smart, intuitive and trapped between two cultures - because as we all know, humans are nothing if not complicated. Roxane is right: this deserves five stars * Stylist *The first-person narrator has a distinctive voice and is a magnetic presence on the page; the scenes with her mother are electric . . . A nuanced, sparky debut * Observer *Powerful . . . With You Exist Too Much, Arafat announces herself as a provocative and insightful writer * Irish Times *A wonderful illustration of how our most significant formative relationships can be simultaneously the most positive and negative force in our lives -- The Arts DeskReal, non-fetishised bisexual characters can be few and far between in literature, but You Exist Too Much isn't just worth reading for its efforts in representation. It's a stunning debut . . . It's a devastating portrayal of what it's like to feel as though you never fit in - both in terms of the narrator's sexuality and racial identity. Arafat handles these weighty topics with real compassion * Press Association *Arafat's writing is fresh, witty and packs a heavy punch * The Skinny *An elegantly written debut . . . a thought-provoking exploration of love and belonging, and how the two come together to create a sense of self * New European *A stunning debut . . . Arafat handles . . . weighty topics with real compassion * Scotsman *You Exist Too Much is a first novel that is exquisitely written and crafted with a compelling lightness of touch * Living Magazine *

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Book SynopsisOne rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I need to have an abortion', she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life. Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul.Trade ReviewUnquestionably an ambitious book, exuberant and teeming . . . a novel crammed with characters and themes, not unlike Istanbul itself * Guardian *Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking . . . will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages * Sunday Express *Heartbreaking . . . the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book * Vogue *A writer whose artistry matches her ambition . . . she has taken on a subject of deep moral consequence * New York Times *A brave and passionate novel * Paul Theroux *Tremendous exuberance . . . I do like a writer with a purpose * Margaret Forster *An astonishingly rich and lively story ... handled with an enchantingly light touch' * Kirkus Reviews *Overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters ... an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence -- (starred review) * Publishers Weekly *

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Book Synopsis‘For fans of Agatha Christie’ Mail on Sunday The new DI Richard Poole mystery Two dead bodies. A family of suspects. And one very disgruntled detective. Reluctantly stationed on the sweltering Caribbean island of Saint-Marie, Detective Inspector Richard Poole dreams of cold winds, drizzly rain and a pint in his local pub. Just as he is feeling as fed up as can be, a mysterious vagrant is found dead in the grounds of the historic Beaumont plantation. Immediately assumed to be suicide, DI Poole is not so convinced and determined to prove otherwise. Never mind that the only fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to the victim. Or that the room was locked from the inside. Before long, death knocks twice and a second body turns up. The hunt is on to solve the case – despite the best efforts of the enigmatic Beaumont family… Praise for Robert Thorogood: ‘Very funny and dark with great pace. I love Robert Thorogood’s writing’Peter James ‘This second DEATH IN PARADISE NOVEL is a gem’DAILY EXPRESS ‘Deftly entertaining … satisfyingly pushes all the requisite Agatha Christie-style buttons’Barry Forshaw, THE INDEPENDENT ‘For fans of Agatha Christie’MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘A treat’RADIO TIMES ‘This brilliantly crafted, hugely enjoyable and suitably goosebump-inducing novel is an utter delight from start to finish’HEAT ‘Plenty of red herrings and twists to keep readers guessing’ DAILY EXPRESS 'Fans will enjoy returning to DI Richard Poole… just switch off and relax'LOVE READINGTrade Review‘Very funny and dark with great pace. I love Robert Thorogood’s writing’Peter James ‘This second DEATH IN PARADISE NOVEL is a gem’DAILY EXPRESS ‘Deftly entertaining … satisfyingly pushes all the requisite Agatha Christie-style buttons’Barry Forshaw, THE INDEPENDENT ‘For fans of Agatha Christie’MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘A treat.’RADIO TIMES ‘This brilliantly crafted, hugely enjoyable and suitably goosebump-inducing novel is an utter delight from start to finish’HEAT ‘Plenty of red herrings and twists to keep readers guessing’ DAILY EXPRESS 'Fans will enjoy returning to DI Richard Poole… just switch off and relax'LOVE READING

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Book SynopsisA remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose. There is no escape for Inspector Jimmy Perez in Blue Lightning, the fourth Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves.Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall.Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming, as he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancée to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world. Then a woman’s body is discovered at the renowned bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair. Perez has no support from the mainland and must investigate the old-fashioned way – alone. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion, but a murder of cold and calculated intention.There will be no way to escape the island until the storms abate. And so the killer is also trapped, just waiting for the opportunity to strike again . . .Ann Cleeves will be donating her royalties from the sale of this edition of Blue Lightning to support the Fair Isle Bird Observatory.Continue the thrilling crime series with Dead Water.Trade ReviewAn excellent series * Guardian *Cleeves is excellent not just on the mystery, but on the atmosphere of Fair Isle * Independent *

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Book SynopsisA compelling family drama from the nation's favourite storyteller.Florence Stanville is a woman with a past. When she moves to Guisethorpe on the east coast of England, the townsfolk are intrigued by the glamorous and mysterious stranger.Florence doesn't care about the gossips she's drawn to the peaceful seaside town by the pull of her childhood, when she lived for a brief but happy time with her beloved late mother. The riddle of those days remains and now Florence can only snatch at half-remembered memories and shadowy figures in her dreams.As Florence is drawn into the lives of her new neighbours, the layers of her own life are revealed, but far from finding peace, Florence has found instead turmoil and secrets. Can she put the pieces of her past together, or will it remain a closed book forever?Trade ReviewPraise for Blood Brothers: 'Thanks to her near faultless writing, sympathies will lurch from one character to another, and as events reach their dramatic conclusion readers will find it impossible to tear themselves away.' News of the World 'Another hit for Josephine Cox' Sunday Express Praise for Josephine Cox’s previous novels: ‘Cox's talent as storyteller never lets you escape the spell' Daily Mail 'Another masterpiece' Best ‘Another beautifully spun family epic' Scottish Daily Echo 'A born storyteller' Bedfordshire Times ‘A surefire winner' Woman's Weekly

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR FILM'... with air in its lungs and love in its heart' Guardian *****An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, about two boys who meet in the same village every summer, and the men they grow up to become.Pietro, an impressionable city boy, spends his summers in a secluded valley in the Alps. There, surrounded by meadows and peaks, he begins to learn of his father's dreams and passions. There, too, he meets Bruno, the son of a local stonemason. As the pair run wild, they form a once-in-a-lifetime friendship.Then one year, the summer visits stop. Pietro is drawn to cities around the world. But the memory of the mountains never leaves him and, after his father dies, he returns in search of the freedom and camaraderie that he once knew.'Exquisite... A rich, achingly painful story'ANNIE PROULX, author of The Shipping News'ENCHANTING' Guardian'BRILLIANT' New York Times'ABSORBING' Irish TimesWinner of the 2017 Strega Prize, the Prix Médicis étranger, and the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.Trade ReviewA fine book, a rich, achingly painful story that is made for all of us who have ever felt a hunger for the mountains. Few books have so accurately described the way stony heights can define one’s sense of joy and rightness. And it is an exquisite unfolding of the deep way humans may love one another. -- Annie ProulxCould Cognetti be the new Elena Ferrante? * The Bookseller *A great story about friendship and about what it means to become a man * Vanity Fair Italia *There are no more universal themes than those of the landscape, friendship, and becoming adults, and Cognetti’s writing becomes classical (and elegant) to best tell this story…a true novel by a great writer * Rolling Stone Italia *A beautifully crafted piece of writing... Absorbing... The power of nature to transform the individual, for good and for bad, is seen through each of the characters -- Sarah Gilmartin * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisNow a major ITV series, The Long Call, starring Ben Aldridge.The number one Sunday Times bestselling series featuring Detective Matthew Venn, from author and creator of the Vera and Shetland series, Ann Cleeves.‘Matthew Venn is a keeper . . . stunning’ – David BaldacciNorth Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coast-line. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder – Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed. His daughter, Eve, is a glassblower, and the murder weapon is a shard of one of her broken vases.Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He’s a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved though to find that Eve is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.Then another body is found – killed in a similar way. Matthew finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home . . .The Heron’s Cry is the second novel in Ann Cleeves’ Two Rivers series following her Sunday Times bestseller, The Long Call.Praise for The Long Call:‘Had me hooked . . . a promising beginning to another fine chapter in the Ann Cleeves’ story’ – The Times‘A triumph that cements Cleeves’ status as one of Britain’s best crime writers’ – Daily Express‘Clever, compassionate and atmospheric . . . I am already a Matthew Venn fan’ – Elly Griffiths‘Cleeves combines a flair for evoking sense of place with a thoughtful, complex plot’ – Mail on Sunday‘A traditional mystery of the best sort’ – GuardianTrade ReviewAs a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves’ latest. Matthew Venn is a keeper. A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter -- David Baldacci on The Long CallHad me hooked — a promising beginning to another fine chapter in the Ann Cleeves story * The Times on THE LONG CALL *Clever, compassionate and atmospheric, with a great cast of new characters to love. I am already a Matthew Venn fan -- Elly Griffiths on THE LONG CALLA triumph that cements Cleeves' status as one of Britain's best crime writers - Daily Express * Daily Express on THE LONG CALL *Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engaging -- Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski series on THE LONG CALLAnn Cleeves’ new series gets off to a terrific start with The Long Call – her native Devon is wonderfully evoked, and Matthew Venn is a very appealing new detective. Another sure-fire hit - -- Martin Edwards, author of Gallows Court, on THE LONG CALLCleeves combines a flair for evoking sense of place with a thoughtful, complex plot - * Mail on Sunday on THE LONG CALL *The troubled Venn is a great protagonist, and Cleeves may well have created her next top TV cop * Heat Magazine on THE LONG CALL *A traditional mystery of the best sort * The Guardian on THE LONG CALL *Evocative and gripping – an absolute triumph * Daily Mirror on THE LONG CALL *

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Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX FEMINA AND THE PRIX MEDICIS SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARD WINNER OF THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRES ETRANGER WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2020 BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, i PAPER, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SCOTSMAN, IRISH TIMES, BBC.COM, WATERSTONES.COM ‘A wondrous book. It left me hopeful; this is its gift’ Elizabeth Strout ‘An empathy engine ... It is, itself, an agent of change’ New York Times Book Review ‘A quite extraordinary novel’ Kamila Shamsie ______________________ How do we continue living once we have lost our reason to live? Rami and Bassam live in the city of Jerusalem – but exist worlds apart, divided by an age-old conflict. And yet they have one thing in common. Both are fathers; both are fathers of daughters – and both daughters are now lost. When Rami and Bassam meet, and tell one another the story of their grief, the most unexpected thing of all happens: they become best of friends. And their stories become one story, a story with the power to heal – and the power to change the world. ______________________ ‘The book goes anywhere and everywhere. It is a delirious and thrilling improvisation, a jazz solo spun out of that meeting … A spectacular structure of stories about everything’ Bryan Appleyard, Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA work that is both spectacularly inventive and grounded in brutal fact. It is about grief and forgiveness, about family and politics. If you can read it without sobbing, you’re a monster * Observer *A profound account of pain and healing * Guardian *Colum McCann’s transcendent book is full of hundreds of thought-provoking, emotional segments … McCann turns these haunting true stories into engrossing fiction, and he does so with poetic power * independent.co.uk *Apeirogon is an empathy engine, utterly collapsing the gulf between teller and listener ... It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact. But it’s undisputably a novel, and, to my mind, an exceedingly important one. It does far more than make an argument for peace; it is, itself, an agent of change * New York Times Book Review *Nothing like any book you’ve ever read ... Think of discovering an entirely unprecedented, and profoundly true, narrative form. Think about feeling that the very idea of the novel, of what it can be and what it’s capable of containing, has been expanded, forever ... All I can really tell you is, read McCann’s book. It’s an important book -- MICHAEL CUNNINGHAMNow you have to read Apeirogon ... Delirious and thrilling, spectacular * Sunday Times *Weaves documentary and imagination into its tough physical fabric . .. Frequently beautiful … Often dazzles … At the core of this fractal fiction is a simple, radiant myth: "The hero makes a friend of his enemy" * Economist *A jagged, fractured, teeming novel … Apeirogon is a daring structural feat, a conspicuously elaborate and multivalent piece of novelistic engineering … The distilled and fractured form has a glistening poetry * Times Literary Supplement *In the spirit of Picasso’s Guernica, Apeirogon reminds us that such incandescent art evokes humility and light in the face of oppression and loss * O Magazine *A loving, thoughtful, grueling novel * Washington Post *Powerful novel about the shared grief of a Palestinian and Israeli * Sunday Times, Books of 2020 *The tale of a friendship between an Israeli and a Palestinian … Composed of 1,001 chapters, it has won effusive praise from early readers * New Statesman *Colum McCann seems to shape-shift with each new book; Apeirogon examines the friendship between Israeli and Palestinian fathers who have each lost children to the conflict * Financial Times, 2020 visions: the year ahead in books *His most ambitious work yet, chronicling the human cost of the Israeli Palestinian conflict in a tale of love and loss that crosses fiction and non-fiction * RTE Guide *A novel inspired by a true story about two men – one Israeli and one Palestinian – who both lost daughters in the conflict and who form an unexpected friendship * Scotsman *McCann’s epic, involving novel follows the slow-blooming friendship between two men, an Israeli and a Palestinian, linked by the loss of their daughters * i paper *The advance word on this novel suggests a level of ambition we may not have encountered yet from the Dublin native. It explores the Palestine-Israel conflict through the unlikely friendship of two men from either side * Irish Examiner, 20 Books for 2020 *McCann’s epic involving novel follows the slow-blooming friendship between two men, an Israeli and Palestinian, linked by the loss of their daughters -- Sarah Hughes * i, Books of 2020 *A glorious storytelling hybrid … Apeirogon is a brilliant novel, formally intriguing, profoundly human -- BBC.comA masterpiece of characterisation and subtle political commentary -- Waterstones.comTeeming with gorgeous prose; a sweeping look at the paradoxical relationship between history and private life; a penetrating examination of the deficiencies and marvels of the human spirit ... Propulsive, muscular, swerving through details of life - real and imagined - with urgency, borne along on prose that is some of McCann’s finest, fully displaying his powers as a storyteller of just about supernatural ability. This book will break your heart and make you rethink how storytelling works -- TEA OBREHTA quite extraordinary novel. Colum McCann has found the form and voice to tell the most complex of stories, with an unexpected friendship between two men at its powerfully beating heart -- KAMILA SHAMSIEDistinguished by empathy and intelligence, this book marks a new threshold of writing ... Apeirogon will have a strong effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place. Sometimes books can do this -- RAJA SHEHADAHA work of incredible magnitude. McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope. It is greater than a novel in more than one sense, and will both touch and enrich readers, wherever they live and whatever they know about the region -- ASSAF GAVRONColum McCann loves a high-wire act, and Apeirogon is a powerful, political tightrope walk of a novel. It’s the story of modern Israel and the story of modern Palestine. This beautiful, deeply felt book is first and foremost an extraordinary act of listening -- NATHAN ENGLANDERDistinguished by empathy and intelligence, this book marks a new threshold of writing ... Apeirogon will have a strong effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future ... Sometimes books can do this -- RAJA SHEHADAHThe latest novel from the National Book Award winner blends fiction with history to examine how two men channel their grief into political power as they become advocates for peace in the Middle East * TIME Magazine *

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Book SynopsisAnn Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet againA Bird in the Hand is the first novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series.In England’s birdwatching paradise, a new breed has been sighted – a murderer . . .Young Tom French is found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom had put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they?George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher who decides quietly to look into the brutal crime, discovers mixed feelings aplenty. Still, he remains baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether.But as he and his fellow ‘twitchers’ flock from Norfolk to Scotland to the Scilly Isles in response to rumours of rare sightings, George – with help from his lovely wife, Molly – gradually discerns the true markings of a killer. All he has to do is prove it . . . before the murderer strikes again.Trade ReviewA fine debut . . . Watertight and exciting -- Susan HillIt’s splendid . . . a classic whodunnit -- Bill OddieCleeves is carving out a reputation as the new queen of crime * Sunday Mirror *Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves -- Val McDermidAnn Cleeves is a skilful technician, keeping our interest alive and building slowly up to the denouement. Her easy use of language and clever story construction make her one of the best natural writers of detective fiction * Daily Express *Ann Cleeves has enviable talent . . . I love these books * CrimeSqaud *A fine writer * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisThe Secrets of the Lake is a gripping wartime novel, by the author of The Silk Weaver, Liz Trenow.'Masterful storytelling, immersive locations, and characters that inhabit your heart from the first page' – Gill Paul, author of The Secret Wife.The war may be over, but for Molly life is still in turmoil. Uprooted from London after the death of her mother, Molly, her father and younger brother Jimmy are starting again in a quiet village in the countryside of Colchester. As summer sets in, the heat is almost as oppressive as the village gossip. Molly dreams of becoming a journalist, finding a voice in the world, but most of the time must act as Jimmy’s carer. At just ten years old he is Molly’s shadow, following her around the village as she falls under the spell of local boy Kit. Kit is clever, funny and a natural-born rebel. Rowing on the waters of the lake with him becomes Molly’s escape from domestic duty. But there is something Kit is not telling Molly.As the village gossip starts building up with whispers against Molly’s father over missing church funds, everything Molly thought she knew is turned upside down. And on one stormy night, when she sneaks out of the house to try to put things right, Jimmy vanishes. Never to be seen again.Decades later, Molly is an elderly woman in sheltered housing, still haunted by the disappearance of her brother. When two police officers arrive to say that the remains of a body have been found at the bottom of the lake, it seems like Molly will at long last have her answer . . .Trade ReviewI loved it. I loved how it made me feel and I didn’t want it to the end. It is beautifully layered, and I found the story moving, magical and original. A book with a mystery at its heart, solved very cleverly -- Dinah JefferiesMasterful storytelling, immersive locations, and characters that inhabit your heart from the first page: this is a novel I know will stay with me for a long time -- Gill PaulAtmospheric and compelling, it's set during a post-war summer in a small village. I loved the touches of myth & fairytale & the wonderful characters of Jimmy & Molly -- Tracy ReesA wonderful story of love, family and the things we do to protect both. I loved the post-war setting of a small village rife with secrets and whispers, and Molly, Jimmy & Kit’s story stayed with me long after the last page was turned. A brilliant read for anyone who enjoys books by Pam Jenoff and Rachel Hore -- Nikola ScottWonderfully atmospheric, and with an intriguing mystery running through its pages, The Secrets of the Lake is a haunting and compelling tale of family, folklore, and the lingering ripples of tragedy in a quiet English village. Liz Trenow writes such authentic characters you feel as if you know them personally. I enjoyed every beautifully-written page -- Hazel GaynorThis atmospheric book is, on the surface, gently beguiling and evocative, but beneath float sinister undertones. Jimmy was a delight and my sympathies were with Molly from the beginning. The fusion of local legend into the plot, and the story Molly wrote for Jimmy were both clever and charming. I loved it, right up to the poignant end -- Louise FeinLiz is an utterly brilliant story-teller and, with her beautiful prose and page-turning plot, has given us another winner. I shall be highly recommending! -- Jenny AshcroftA great summer read * S Magazine *A compelling tale * Woman's Own *

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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 journalist working on a story. Now his murder is a headline. Inspector Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate in Dead Water, the fifth Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves.Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall.When the body of a journalist is found in a traditional Shetland boat, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation.Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed and he decides to help the inquiry. Originally a Shetlander, the journalist had left the islands years before to make a name for himself in London, leaving a scandal in his wake. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that he was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface. One that must have been significant enough to kill him for . . .Continue the captivating crime series with Thin Air.Trade ReviewFinely crafted and satisfying * The Times *Beautifully written and cleverly plotted thriller, made all the more special by the setting * Sunday Mirror *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Elif Shafak''s The Flea Palace is a moving and highly original novel about a group of individuals who live in the same building and who together become embroiled in a mystery.By turns comic and tragic, The Flea Palace is an outstandingly original novel driven by an overriding sense of social justice.Bonbon Palace was once a stately apartment block in Istanbul. Now it is a sadly dilapidated home to ten wildly different individuals and their families.There''s a womanizing, hard-drinking academic with a penchant for philosophy; a ''clean freak'' and her lice-ridden daughter; a lapsed Jew in search of true love; and a charmingly naïve mistress whose shadowy past lurks in the building. When the rubbish at Bonbon Palace is stolen, a mysterious sequence of events unfolds that result in a soul-searching quest for truth.''Picaresque'' Guardian''Hyperactive and hilarious''

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Book Synopsis** FEATURED ON BBC TWO'S BETWEEN THE COVERS **'Unlike anything else you'll read this year, Sixteen Horses is a deeply disconcerting ride. Irresistible' - Val McDermid, author of Still Life'Totally gripping from start to finish' - Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient'Original, beautifully written, terrifying and haunting' - Sophie Hannah, author of Haven't They GrownNear the dying English seaside town of Ilmarsh, local police detective Alec Nichols discovers sixteen horses’ heads on a farm, each buried with a single eye facing the low winter sun. After forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen travels to the scene, the investigators soon uncover evidence of a chain of crimes in the community – disappearances, arson and mutilations – all culminating in the reveal of something deadly lurking in the ground itself.In the dark days that follow, the town slips into panic and paranoia. Everything is not as it seems. Anyone could be a suspect. And as Cooper finds herself unable to leave town, Alec is stalked by an unseen threat. The two investigators race to uncover the truth behind these frightening and insidious mysteries – no matter the cost.Sixteen Horses is the debut literary thriller from an extraordinary talent, Greg Buchanan. A story of enduring guilt, trauma and punishment, set in a small seaside community the rest of the world has left behind . . .Trade ReviewUnlike anything else you’ll read this year, Sixteen Horses is a deeply disconcerting ride. Irresistible -- Val McDermidDark, visceral and disturbing, this highly suspenseful and beautifully written thriller is totally gripping from start to finish. A hugely impressive debut -- Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent PatientOriginal, beautifully written, terrifying and haunting. I won't forget this novel -- Sophie Hannah, author of Haven't They GrownA breath-taking debut . . . written with immense panache. This is crime writing of a striking calibre, which constantly surprises as it takes unexpected twist after twist — leaving you desperate for more * Daily Mail *Utterly gripping, exquisitely written [. . .] Haunting and very dark, this is certainly worth the read * Guardian *Sometimes you come across a work of fiction so staggeringly good, it’s almost impossible to find words that can do justice to its brilliance and adequately describe how it made you feel. In the end, all that needs to be said is this: read it, read it, read it -- B. P. Walter, author of The Dinner GuestCompelling . . . The corkscrew twists leave you begging for more * Daily Mail *Utterly brilliant. Poetry and cinema at once. If this isn’t one of the biggest titles of 2021 I’ll eat my hat -- CJ Cooke, author of The NestingPoignant, chilling, eerie, and gruesome, Sixteen Horses is a thriller with a literary soul, perfect for fans of Netflix's Dark or BBC's Top of the Lake. Buchanan impressively balances horror and empathy, showing real evil while also exploring the human cost of economic collapse. A unique, ambitious debut that left me shocked and enthralled -- Sara Sligar, author of Take Me ApartA dark, ambitious, and highly intelligent thriller . . . This complex, often gothic tale is definitely an eye-opener * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for the 2023-2024 Gordon Burn Prize Longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner of the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them. An Inuk girl grows up in Nunavut, Canada, in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this. In this acclaimed debut novel - haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once - Tanya Tagaq explores the grittiest features of a small Arctic town and the electrifying proximity of the worlds of animals and of myth.Trade Review'Tagaq's surreal meld of poetry and prose transmutes the Arctic's boundless beauty, intensity, and desolation into a wrenching contemporary mythology.' The New Yorker ---- 'Though the protagonist's coming-of-age story, generously and lovingly documented by Tagaq, is the anchor, Split Tooth is not a book that can be fully absorbed in one sitting. It's possible to sink deeper and deeper into the narrative with each successive reading. Like a smirking teenager, Split Tooth blithely gives typical literary expectations the finger, daring us to see and experience narrative as chaotic, emotional, and deeply instinctive. And it succeeds.' Quill and Quire ---- 'A raw, powerful voice breathes fresh air into traditional Inuit folklore to create a modern tale of mythological proportions.' Kirkus ---- '[Split Tooth] straddles the line between memoir and fiction, prose and poetry, magic and harsh reality. . . [and] is infused with Tagaq's intimate knowledge of life in the Arctic.' Oprah Magazine ---- '[A] forceful coming-of-age tale.' Toronto Life magazine ---- 'In [Tanya Tagaq]'s forthcoming novel, Split Tooth, there's a chapter called "Ritual" that is such a distillation of childhood magic and refuge that it made me feel like I was reading Tove Jansson or Roald Dahl for the first time.' Sean Michaels ---- 'Tanya Tagaq has written a book that should re-arrange the reader's mind and very being in her astounding Split Tooth. She uses the narrative arc of a coming of age story to tell of coming of age in a northern, indigenous community that includes close experience of abuse, village violence, colonial exploitation, and also close kin ties, birth, death, a knowing of how we are really fed, an awareness of how small life can be, and how large ... I look forward to putting this book in people's hands.' Rick Simonson, owner of Elliott Bay Book Company ---- 'In simplest terms, Split Tooth is a punch to the throat...a stellar first novel; an incredible work of Canadian, indigenous, and world literatures.' PopMatters ---- 'Tagaq has broken a new trail for all future Inuit writers to tread upon, describing the lived world of an Inuk child with writing that is breathtaking and singular...With this work Tagaq has reshaped what Inuit literature is... it is impossible to stop reading. It is delicious. And offers a new way forward for Inuit authors.' Inuit Art Quarterly

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Book SynopsisBurial of Ghosts is a page-turning standalone crime novel from Ann Cleeves, author and creator of the three astounding TV series Shetland, Vera and The Long Call.Abandoned as a baby, twenty-five-year-old Lizzie Bartholomew spent her childhood moving between foster homes and has had more than her fair share of troubles.Now a holiday in Morocco seems to be the perfect escape. Especially when she meets Philip, a fellow tourist. After a brief affair, Lizzie returns to England, only to find a solicitor's letter waiting for her.Philip Samson has died and has left Lizzie a gift of £15,000 in his will. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy that will soon force Lizzie to confront terrifying secrets from her past life . . .Trade ReviewCleeves combines a flair for evoking sense of place with a thoughtful, complex plot * The Mail on Sunday *A traditional mystery of the best sort * The Guardian *Hauntingly written, it evokes every possible emotion with Ann’s gripping narrative’ * Woman *Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engaging -- Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V. I. Warshawski seriesAnn Cleeves is a phenomenal talent. With unfailing skill, gorgeous setting, flawless plot and seamless voice, she brilliantly conjures new worlds in crime fiction. -- Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of The Murder ListCleeves writes of the left-behind and the unfortunate with intelligence and compassion’ * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIt is tremendously comforting to be in the hands of Child and his hero - a good man who we know will save the day in the end before moving on, toothbrush in pocket, "just the clothes on his back. No particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there." * Observer *Lee Child is the absolute master of the story of a lone stranger arriving in town to save the innocent, and this is one of the best of his series...as always, the violence is ferocious and fast-moving. Anyone feeling hard done by or facing insuperable odds will be comforted by this novel, which is also the best advertisement for the NHS I have ever seen. * Literary Review *Forget Marvel - we all know Jack Reacher is the only avenger that matters...Child has found his mojo again. * Sun *There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.Jack Reacher, the 21st-century knight errant who over 23 books has proved himself the most reliable excellent basher of bad guys since [James]Bond...And good work, Lee Child. If you're at all partial to his revenge fantasies, this is one of the best for a while...your hands keep turning those pages, drawn in by storytelling that knows fancy words count for less than clarity and rhythm...It's nonsense. Yet it's compelling nonsense, a vicarious clearing away of life's obstacles via a hero who has no moral qualms, no physical or emotional vulnerability and no interest in what shampoo he uses. * The Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN''S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Swing Time, White Teeth and On Beauty - a masterful and intimate novel of modern London life''A triumph. Every sentence sings'' Guardian''Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece'' Daily Telegraph''Smith''s most satisfying novel. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy. She''s up there with the best around'' Evening StandardZadie Smith''s brilliant tragicomic NW follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they''ve left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they''ve made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION''To tell the story of a country or a continent is surely a great and complex undertaking; but the story of a quiet, unnoticed place where there are few people, fewer memories and almost no reliable records - a place such as Glen Conach - may actually be harder to piece together. The hazier everything becomes, the more whatever facts there are become entangled with myth and legend. . .''Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time.In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book ofTrade ReviewA haunted, haunting, and deeply humane book -- Robert CrawfordIt's like some beautifully ornate kist or jewel-box that for most of the encounter you admire for its own sake, only to find a key, near the end, that opens onto even more treasure -- Gavin FrancisIt is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years of life in a single glen. It has all the makings of a timeless classic in its own right. -- Professor Gary WestJames Robertson is an extremely fine novelist . . . This is a superb book. . . It is not a book anyone will forget quickly. * Scotland on Sunday *One of Robertson's skills as a novelist is to make both events real and imagined feel equally convincing. * Prospect *Subtly explores the relationship between place and identity * The Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis'A deliciously dark tale of ambition, seduction and literary theft . . . an ingeniously conceived novel that confirms Boyne as one of the most assured writers of his generation.' Hannah Beckerman, Observer*You’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, that it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. It can lead to a long and painful fall.If you look hard enough, you will find stories pretty much anywhere. They don’t even have to be your own. Or so would-be-novelist Maurice Swift decides early on in his career.A chance encounter in a Berlin hotel with celebrated author Erich Ackerman gives Maurice an opportunity. For Erich is lonely, and he has a story to tell; whether or not he should is another matter.Once Maurice has made his name, he finds himself in need of a fresh idea. He doesn’t care where he finds it, as long as it helps him rise to the top. Stories will make him famous, but they will also make him beg, borrow and steal. They may even make him do worse.This is a novel about ambition.*'Maurice Swift, the novelist protagonist of John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky, is a bookish version of Patricia Highsmith’s psychopathic antihero Tom Ripley' The Times'A dark morality tale in the mould of Patricia Highsmith . . . consistently intriguing' Daily MailTrade ReviewA deliciously dark tale of ambition, seduction and literary theft . . . compelling and terrifying, powerful and intensely unsettling. In Maurice Swift, Boyne has given us an unforgettable protagonist, dangerous and irresistible in equal measure. The result is an ingeniously conceived novel that confirms Boyne as one of the most assured writers of his generation. -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer *Maurice Swift, the novelist protagonist of John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky, is a bookish version of Patricia Highsmith’s psychopathic antihero Tom Ripley. * The Times *A dark morality tale in the mould of Patricia Highsmith . . . consistently intriguing * Daily Mail *Everything the wonderful Irish novelist John Boyne writes is special . . . a highly entertaining read -- Jake Kerridge * S Magazine, Sunday Express *Gripping . . . John Boyne is a master storyteller and fans will doubtless be captivated by this chilling and darkly comic tale of unrelenting ambition * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisSometimes the best things in life happen when you dare to get out of your depth.Abby lives and works in the heart of the Lake District. She splits her time between bringing up her daughter, working in the Plum Pie Bakery and dreaming of the time before her husband, Ben, left.Lori is on holiday from the States, hoping to find her way to the lake that she's looked at for years in a picture on her wall back home.Rebecca is contemplating taking the plunge too. Despite her immaculate appearance Rebecca is keeping quiet about a childhood trauma which has left her scared of the water.Clarissa is the founder of The Wildwater Women. An all-year-round open-water swimming veteran, and with a fearsome manner, she knows the lakes like no one else and her boundless energy defies her years.Four women, all from very different lives, all with reason to step into the water and wash away their past. But will the friendship they build be enough to keep them afloat when they each must face their fears?Trade Review'It's a beautiful, warm, touching and evocative read.' Phillipa Ashley ‘An unusual book, beautifully written, full of gentle undercurrents that bring floods of emotion. The gorgeous setting is exactly right for the strong theme of friendship, making this a real curl-up-in-your-armchair read.’ Sue Moorcroft ‘Wonderful…the perfect mix of love, loss, friendship and family. I now have an overwhelming urge to go wildswimming!’ Helen Phifer, author of Lake View House

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Book SynopsisAnn Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again.Come Death and High Water is the second mystery novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series.The picturesque privately owned island of Gillibry off the North Devon coast turns out to be the perfect site for a murder . . .A routine weekend visit by the Gillibry Bird Observatory Trust is made memorable by the owner’s announcement that he is going to sell the island. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory, which for some of the birders makes life worth living. A fire in Charlie Todd’s cottage adds to their distress. And when, next morning, after a fierce storm, they find Charlie dead in a bird hide, their pleasant September weekend assumes a dangerous new face.Charlie Todd’s murder could have been the deed of any member of the Trust. And it falls to one of their own, George Palmer-Jones, to unravel the identity of a killer within their midst . . .Trade Review[A] perfectly fresh, contemporary crime story meshing interesting characters with plenty of fascinating ornithological detail * Crime Fiction Catalogue *A fine writer * Sunday Telegraph *Cleeves is quietly carving out a reputation as the new Queen of Crime * Sunday Mirror *Ann Cleeves is a skilful technician, keeping our interest alive and building slowly up to the denouement. Her easy use of language and clever story construction make her one of the best natural writers of detective fiction * Daily Express *Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves -- Val McDermidAnn Cleeves has an enviable talent . . . I love these books * CrimeSquad *

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Book SynopsisOne rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor''s surgery. ''I need to have an abortion'', she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life.Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse, all the Kaznci men die in their early forties, so it is a house of women, among them Asya''s beautiful, rebellious mother Zeliha, who runs a tattoo parlour; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as clairvoyant; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. And when Asya''s Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long hidden family secrets connected with Turkey''s turbulent past begin to emerge.''Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking...will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages'' Sunday Express''A beautiful book, the finest I have read about Turkey'' Irish Times''Heartbreaking...the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak''s book'' VogueTrade ReviewA brave and passionate novel * Paul Theroux *Tremendous exuberance . . . I do like a writer with a purpose * Margaret Forster *An astonishingly rich and lively story … handled with an enchantingly light touch' Kirkus Reviews Overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters … an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence -- (starred review) * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisMulti-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly depicts how grief can tip the family balance head over heels in this beautifully written novel about change and hope through adversity. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse.''Extraordinarily powerful'' -- Mail on Sunday''A devastatingly acute picture of a harsh rural world'' -- The Sunday Times''Certainly one of her best'' -- Daily Telegraph''A richly satisfying novel ... compulsively readable'' -- Sunday Express''Kept me interested - twists and turns - great character development - well written'' -- ***** Reader review''I couldn''t put it down and finished the book in just a couple of days'' -- ***** Reader review''Excellent'' -- ***** Reader review''A wonderful book, a wonderful story, wonderful characters - a must haTrade ReviewExtraordinarily powerful * Mail on Sunday *A devastatingly acute picture of a harsh rural world * The Sunday Times *Certainly one of her best * Daily Telegraph *A richly satisfying novel, sometimes dark, but compulsively readable, and imagined with a warmth that makes its determined realism oddly uplifting * Sunday Express *Her fine, gripping and unflinching novel * The Times *

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Book SynopsisAnn Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet againA Prey to Murder is the fourth mystery novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series.The huge and powerful hawk dominated the scene. Its talons pierced the woman’s flesh and the beak pointed towards her eyes . . .The sight is a particularly horrible shock for George Palmer-Jones, ornithologist and amateur detective, as he was an old friend of the victim Eleanor Masefield. George and his wife Molly are staying at Eleanor’s family-run hotel, and whilst George believed Eleanor was a beautiful and charming widow, Molly has other ideas.Is Molly a little jealous? Or was Eleanor more a black widow – a ruthless manipulator of all those caught in her far-reaching web? Can Molly prove it in time to prevent another death?Trade ReviewA fine writer * Sunday Telegraph *Cleeves is quietly carving out a reputation as the new Queen of Crime * Sunday Mirror *Ann Cleeves is a skilful technician, keeping our interest alive and building slowly up to the denouement. Her easy use of language and clever story construction make her one of the best natural writers of detective fiction * Daily Express *Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves -- Val McDermid, author of the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan and Karen Pirie seriesAnn Cleeves has an enviable talent . . . I love these books * CrimeSquad *

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Book SynopsisTHE SPECIAL 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ‘Devastating’ Daily Telegraph ‘Heartbreaking’ The Times ‘Unforgettable’ Isabel Allende ‘Haunting’ Independent Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

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Book SynopsisMuriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh. She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950, when she won a short-story writing competition in the Observer, and her many subsequent novels include Memento Mori (1959), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Girls of Slender Means (1963) and Aiding and Abetting (2000). She also wrote plays, poems, children's books and biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993, and died in 2006.

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Book SynopsisThe new novel from the author of March' and Year of Wonders' takes place in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, as a young book conservator arrives in Sarajevo to restore a lost treasure.When Hannah Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of wartorn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring The Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival. But the trip will also set in motion a series of events that threaten to rock Hannah's orderly life, including her encounter with Ozren Karamen, the young librarian who risked his life to save the book.As meticulously researched as all of Brooks's previous work, People of the Book' is a gripping and moving novel about war, art, love and survival.Trade Review'Brooks expertly guides us to the conclusion that the world is made up of only two types of people: those who would destroy books and those who would give their lives to save them. This illuminating novel, like its predecessor, is well worthy of both Pulitzer and prime-time approbation.' Independent on Sunday 'These stories have a raw and visceral power. The book is full of historical detail.' Naomi Alderman, F.T. Magazine 'An irresistible subject, given urgency by its timeliness and poignancy by its paradoxicality: for the novel is based on the true story of an ancient Jewish codex saved from the fire by a Muslim librarian. Her performance will satisfy many readers.' Guardian 'The epic themes of love and war are her preferred canvas and here she sets up multiple narrative strands to tell the turbulent story of this Haggadah. Anti-Semitism is the momentum propelling the book's extraordinary journey forwards and Brooks evokes her various fraught historical-religious conflicts vividly.' Metro ‘Even more compelling than the detective plot is the novel's portrayal of the harrowing lives of its historical characters. Brooks is a compassionate writer. “People of the Book” is a powerful account of individual resistance to intolerance and the precious value of history. It is also a gripping story.' TLS 'The descriptions are sensuous and the story fascinating.' The Times' “Lively historical novel…Brooks enlivens her page-turner with a clever, urbane narrator…the engrossing details of Heath's book-detecting skills make her a truly likable heroine.” Observer

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Book SynopsisA BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick'A love letter to Japan and its literature' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan'Ingenious... Touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking' Guardian'An ideal tonic for anyone craving far-flung adventure' Mail on Sunday'If you're itching to read a new novel by David Mitchell...try this' The Times_______________In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways.But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer.'Masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat.' David Peace, author of THE TOKYO TRILOGYOne of the Independent's best debutsLonglisted for the DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD, 2021Trade ReviewNick Bradley's ingenious choreography of a constantly moving city, is touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking. * Guardian *The key pleasure of reading this book is its sprightly vigour - cool but not hipsterish, ambitious but not pretentious - that evokes a similar liveliness in the reader. It makes you feel young again. * John Self, The Times *Inventive, beguiling. * Sunday Times *An ideal tonic for anyone craving far-flung adventure. * Mail on Sunday *Intriguing...explores the dark underbelly of Japan. * Independent *I wolfed down these interlocking stories of cats, Tokyo, loneliness and redemption. Congratulations to Nick Bradley on this vibrant and accomplished debut. * David Mitchell, via Twitter *The Cat and The City is a love letter to Japan and its literature. Bradley's passion for everything from onigiri to Tanizaki's short stories is woven into this book. Bradley was for a time an ex-pat and his insight into their perching state is particularly intriguing. He is also very clearly a man with a great tenderness for cats. * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of HARMLESS LIKE YOU *In a very impressive, finely observed debut, Nick Bradley masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat. * David Peace, author of THE TOKYO TRILOGY *An inventive, clever and beguiling read. With Tokyo as the backdrop, this is a beautifully written novel about belonging and loneliness, about escape and destruction, where the enmeshed narratives (and a magical cat) bind the city together. * Elizabeth Macneal, author of THE DOLL FACTORY *Like the street cat that slinks through this, Nick Bradley is endlessly resourceful, full of invention, full of surprises. * Andrew Cowan, author of PIG *Tender, delicate, and surprising, The Cat and The City is a lovely, rare progeny of a meeting between the English and the Japanese imagination. * Amit Chaudhuri, author of THE IMMORTALS *The Cat and The City is fiercely vivid, darkly comic and exquisitely mesmerising. Prepare to be transported across a sprawling metropolis; intercepting lives, as culture, history and identity interweave in a novel that will stay with you indelibly. Utterly brilliant writing. * Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of THE 392 *Reading The Cat and The City is a rare experience of immersion in a world so complete that you will feel you know Tokyo like a character all its own, and feel homesick for it once you turn the final page. I loved the playfulness of form, the patience and skill of the storytelling and above all, the jolts of delighted and poignant recognition as narratives connected in subtle and powerful ways. * Eleanor Wasserberg, author of FOXLOWE *Bradley has produced a vivid urban map where "lifers" of all nationalities are trapped in a dark place. Hosts of readers will already be looking forward to what he serves up next in the fiction stakes. * Japan Today *Bradley's storytelling is artful and thickly allusive... For those who love tales of cats, cities or both, it makes for a charming wander. * Straits Times *

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Book SynopsisPowerful and visionary, Keri Hulme has written the great New Zealand novel of our times.Trade Review'In this novel, New Zealand's people, its heritage and landscape are conjured up with uncanny poetry and perceptiveness' Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisA woman disappears under ghostly circumstances, and Inspector Jimmy Perez must separate fact from fiction in Thin Air, the sixth Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves.Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall. A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London, travelling to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a local. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears – apparently into thin air. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor’s disappearance than they first thought. Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that many years later someone would kill to protect it? Continue the thrilling mystery series with Cold Earth.Trade ReviewWhat a fine writer she is * Sunday Times *Ann’s characterization is worthy of the best writers in the field * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisFans of police procedurals will want to read all in the series after this compelling, twisted story - Library Journal Starred ReviewA murder of an Icelandic man during a Full Cold Moon reminds Lauren Riley of a previous case she failed to solve. She is determined not to let it happen again.Since her partner on the Cold Case team has been out of action after being shot in the line of duty, Lauren Riley has been working Homicide. Her latest case involves an Icelandic man murdered on the streets of Buffalo mere feet from his hotel. The brutality of the case hits Lauren hard. When she realizes the murder was committed on the night of a Full Cold Moon, it triggers memories of the first cold case she investigated that she''s been unable to solve.Lauren is determined not to fail again but when she is involved in a shooting with a suspect, she finds the case may be taken out of her hands . . . especially when it gains attention fro

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO'Thank you Taylor Jenkins Reid for the escapism we all need- a sex-on-the-beach cocktail (quite literally) of a book' PANDORA SYKES'I LOVE it . . . I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so fun' DOLLY ALDERTON'It's 365 pages of pure exhilaration' THE TIMESAugust,1983, it is the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone who is anyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: surfer and supermodel Nina, brothers Jay and Hud, and their adored baby sister Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over - especially as the children of the legendary singer Mick Riva.By midnight the party will be completely out of control.By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames.But before that first spark in the early hours of dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family will all come bubbling to the surface.'The perfect, literal, beach read, with the emotional depth of the ocean' HOLLY BOURNE'It's a full on escapist delight' STYLIST'This summer's must-read novel' REDTrade ReviewCompletely slick and compelling, but also has such warmth and psychological insight. The characters were so real I almost found myself checking out their Wikipedia pages afterwards! It's the perfect, literal, beach read, with the emotional depth of the ocean. I was such a fan of Daisy Jones & The Six and this certainly didn't disappoint.Heart-wrenching and utterly compelling, Malibu Rising is a story about the fierce bonds between four fascinating siblings. The novel immerses us in a glamorous, star-studded world but at its heart it's full of raw human emotion. Its characters felt completely real to me - each one is flawed and messy and impossible not to love.Thank you Taylor Jenkins Reid for the escapism we all need- a sex-on-the-beach cocktail (quite literally) of a book. * Pandora Sykes *It's a full on escapist delight. * Stylist, Best Fiction of 2021 *Unapologetically escapist beach read fiction, it's urgent style evocative of Hollywood Wives era Jackie Collins. * Sunday Times *This summer's must-read novel. * Sarra Manning, Red *Oh, how I longed to be in California with the glamourous Riva siblings when I was reading this [...] I did not want this book to end! * Prima, Book of the Month *With Malibu Rising - a novel as redolent of California dreamin' as a Lana del Rey track - Jenkins Reid has lost none of her touch ... A stroke of genius ... Imagine Blue Water High and Selling Sunset had a lovechild, or Jackie Collins rewrote The O.C. , then combine these ingredients with warm, propulsive storytelling, and you'll get an inkling of this family saga's escapist magic ... Immersive and relaxing, as every great beach read should be. * Evening Standard *When the party starts, it's celebrity mayhem but the heart of the book is family, love and loyalty. I adored everything about this punchy and incisive take on fame and its consequences, from the sympathetic characters to the salty surf atmosphere. * Daily Mail *Think Selling Sunset with knobs on as Taylor Jenkins Reid again plunges us into the intoxicating, heat-heavy realm of intrigue of Malibu, this time amidst the world of the filthy rich. * BBC News *Perfect pure escapism. * Simon Savidge *A beautifully touching and thought provoking novel interspersed with Jenkins Reid's trademark wit and humour. * Essential Marbella Magazine *Malibu Rising is as much an impressionistic whirl of neon sunsets, acid-wash denim and high-cut bikinis as it is a grand set piece about a glamorous party ... Jenkins Reid has an easy, breezy style that serves melodrama on a daring scale . . . Never has so much sex, tragedy, celebrity and tanned skin been crammed into one thinking person's beach read. It's 365 pages of pure exhilaration. * The Times *Perfect for whatever holiday you hopefully get to take this summer. * Irish Independent *A riveting, propulsive bookwith characters that stayed with me, not because they are complicated but because they are so vivid ... Full of warmth and tenderness ... Deliciously escapist, conjuring the sun and the sand. * i paper *A gorgeous, sun-soaked novel that delves into the glamour and desperate hope of 1980s Malibu. * The Skinny *Fast-paced and addictive, Reid's vivid world-building provides the ultimate in summer escapism. With touches of 1980s glamour and scandal, Malibu Rising is another thrilling read from a talented writer, sure to delight old fans, as well as winning her new ones. * Independent *Perfectly evoking the sun-drenched and debauched backdrop that made Daisy Jones and The Six so immersive ... Addictive and fun, it's an essential addition to your summer reading list. * Stylist *Hot off the success of the immensely enjoyable 1970s band story Daisy Jones & The Six comes Taylor Jenkins Reid's latest, a superfun foray into the 1980s ... Delicious. * Sunday Telegraph, Novel of the Week *Simmering with sexual tension, this hugely enjoyable ensemble narrative turns on a raucous party. * Mail on Sunday *Malibu Rising is finely crafted commercial fiction, escapism in high definition, a quintessential beach read... If Nina Riva's party is the hottest ticket of the summer, then Malibu Rising is a front-row seat at the main event. * Irish Times *A gorgeous, sun-soaked novel that delves into the glamour and desperate hope of 1980s Malibu, and the saga of a family that will never be the same again. * The Skinny *The perfect summer novel, a vibrant story filled with sun, surfing, and flawed but lovable characters. * Daily Beast *After a year where most people stayed home, it's a great time to escape to the beach, even if only through Reid's writing. * Independent *This glamourous, compulsive novel is best enjoyed from your sun lounger with a cocktail in hand. * Good Housekeeping *A deliciously decadent tale of sex, tragedy, celebrity, surfboards and tanned skin in 1980s Malibu. * The Times *I absolutely loved her book.... It's an absolute blast to readJACKIE COLLINS, BUT BETTER Sacrilege to say "better", I know, but there we are. Set in the 1980s, Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising is wonderfully written, intensely evocative and concerns the model/ surfer children of a rock star. Tons of glamour, tons of sharply observed insights about sibling relationships, plus a massive party. Beach read par excellence. See also her brilliant Daisy Jones & the Six, which is heaven (more rock stars). * Anonymous *When we picked up Malibu Rising, the new novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, we could barely put it down * That's Life *You'll never want this book to end, it will suck you in and spit you out! * Muddy Stilettos *

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Book SynopsisA body is found in the wreckage of a destroyed home. Consumed by the investigation, Inspector Jimmy Perez struggles for the truth in Cold Earth, the seventh Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves.Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall.In the black days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea.At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Inspector Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez becomes obsessed with finding out her identity and what she was doing there. Then it emerges that she was already dead when the landslide hit the house and, suddenly, Perez finds himself with a murder to solve . . .Continue the atmospheric crime series with Wild Fire, the final Shetland novel.Trade ReviewThe new queen of crime * Sunday Mirror *One of the most memorable entries in the series * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis'The Last Summer is meticulously researched and beautifully told . . . a wonderfully satisfying read' – Santa MontefioreThe Sunday Times Bestselling Historical FictionSummer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island. In the 1930s, two strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . .Wild-spirited Effie Gillies has lived all her life on the small island of St Kilda. But when Lord Sholto, heir to the Earl of Dumfries, visits, the attraction between them is instant. For one glorious week she guides the handsome young visitor around the isle, falling in love for the first time – until a storm hits and her world falls apart.Three months later, St Kilda lays silent as the islanders are evacuated for a better life on the mainland. With her friends and family scattered, Effie is surprised to be offered a position working on the Earl’s estate. Sholto is back in her life but their differences now seem insurmountable, even as the simmering tension between them grows . . .Then, when a shocking discovery is made back on St Kilda, all her dreams for this bright new life are threatened by the dark secrets Effie and her friends thought they had left behind.Opposites attract in this epic and spellbinding novel, which transports us from the untamed beauty of St Kilda to the glamour and intrigues of high society in the 1930s.The Last Summer is the first book in the Wild Isle series by Sunday Times bestseller Karen Swan, inspired by the true history of St Kilda and its small island community. It is followed by The Stolen Hours.'The most exciting, enchanting and evocative story of forbidden love I’ve ever read. I truly loved it and am waiting feverishly for the second instalment' – Cathy Bramley'Powerful writing and a wonderful premise make this a novel you’ll simultaneously want to savour and race through. I loved it and can’t wait for the next in the series!' – Jill Mansell'A delicious romantic tale of wild 1930s Scotland . . . perfect for everyone dreaming of summer' – Rachel HoreTrade ReviewA dramatic start to a gripping new series set on the Scottish island of St Kilda. The Last Summer is meticulously researched and beautifully told by one of our most prolific and talented writers. It contains all the ingredients of a wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with - and some you hate! Happily, this is the start of a series so your longing for more will be fulfilled. -- Santa Montefiore, author of An Italian Girl in BrooklynThis sweeping love story gripped us from the start, so we can’t wait for the next in the series. Best historical romance of 2022 * Independent *I so enjoyed The Last Summer by Karen Swan, which provides fascinating details about life on St Kilda prior to the evacuation of its inhabitants from the island. Powerful writing and a wonderful premise make this a novel you’ll simultaneously want to savour and race through. I loved it and can’t wait for the next in the series! -- Jill Mansell, author of Should I Tell You?The most exciting, enchanting and evocative story of forbidden love I’ve ever read. I truly loved it and am waiting feverishly for the second installment. -- Cathy Bramley, author of The Summer That Changed UsA delicious romantic tale of wild 1930s Scotland . . . perfect for everyone dreaming of summer -- Rachel Hore, author of One Moonlit NightA sweeping page-turner with an engrossing love story at its heart, this is an absolute treat for historical fiction fans. Swan is a superb storyteller. I loved it. -- Eve Chase, author of The Glass HouseThe queen of destination books...exciting...beguiling...The first in a new series, we're already looking forward to meeting these characters again . . . * Woman and Home *Vividly drawn and beautifully atmospheric, this is a book to savour. * Heat Magazine *Wonderfully romantic and epic in feel, this beautiful historical novel is a fascinating and deliciously escapist read -- Tasmina Perry, author of Guilty Pleasures and Perfect StrangersWhat a great adventure! The perfect way to tell the tale of the St Kilda's population in fiction form. History fans will love the fascinating St Kilda detail woven throughout this thrilling romance. Wonderful! -- Jennifer Ryan, author of The Chilbury Ladies Choir and The Kitchen FrontA promising new series from Swan . . . The vivid beauty and danger of St. Kilda only enhances Swan’s effortlessly intricate plotting. Toeing the line between romance and historical fiction, this gorgeous story and its unconventional heroine are sure to win hearts. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisA tense, evocative, portrait of love and deceit set during one long hot summer in France, The Greengage Summer is a hauntingly beautiful coming-of-age story by from Rumer Godden, the author of Black Narcissus, now a major BBC drama series.When their mother is suddenly taken ill on holiday, five siblings are left to fend for themselves at the elegant, faded hotel, Les Oeillets. Under the increasingly jealous gaze of the glamorous patronne, Mademoiselle Zizi, the children gravitate towards her mysterious and charming lover, Eliot, for comfort. And, amongst the gnarled trees of the old orchards, thirteen-year-old Cecil watches from the sidelines as her achingly beautiful sister, Joss, is drawn into the heart of a toxic affair.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 EDWARD STANFORD ''FICTION WITH A SENSE OF PLACE'' AWARDPlaces remember us... ''An important, ambitious, and accomplished novel. Sudbanthad deftly sweeps us up in a tale that paints a twin portrait: of a megacity like those so many of us call home and of a world where sanctuary is increasingly hard to come by'' Mohsin HamidA missionary begs to be sent home. A jazz pianist is hired to perform for ghosts. An army colonel smells the food of home for the last time. A girl designs herself a new face. An old woman uploads her consciousness. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an intricately plotted novel where characters and stories are linked by place, not time. As the novel builds to a futuristic crescendo, moments of intimacy serve to remind us that no matter what the ebb of time may change, we humans persevere.Praise for Bangkok WakTrade ReviewAn important, ambitious, and accomplished novel -- Mohsin HamidBeautifully textured and rich with a sense of place -- Karen Walker ThompsonBeautifully textured and rich with a sense of place, this is a big, ambitious book. I love the way Sudbanthad so compellingly captures not only the long arcs of these lives-but also the smallest moments, and how those moments linger in memory, how they haunt. -- Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of MiraclesThere's a simple, ingenious conceit to this book - the stories a house can contain, from Bangkok's colonial past to its antediluvian future. This is a bold and tender novel about the unforgivable and the unforgiven, and how to live past what you thought you could survive. Sudbanthad arrives to us already a masterful innovator of the form-a startlingly original debut. -- Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the NightPitchaya Sudbanthad's beautiful, ambitious first novel Bangkok Wakes To Rain moves with an elegant restlessness that seems to match the city's own. Reading this book feels like waking to a singular and important new voice -- Rajesh Parameswaran, author of I Am An Executioner

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERIlja Leonard Pfeijffer's moving and addictive masterpiece of European identity, nostalgia and the end of an era.A masterpiece: grandiose style, brilliant and rich. It will defy the ages' Trouw (The Netherlands)The love of my life lives in my past. That is, despite the alliteration, a terrible sentence to write. I do not want to come to the conclusion that, as it is the case for the hotel where I am staying and the continent after which it is named, the best time is behind me and that I have little more to expect from the future than to live on my past.'A writer takes residence in the illustrious but decaying Grand Hotel Europa, to think about where things went wrong with Clio, with whom he fell in love in Genoa and moved to Venice. He reconstructs a compelling story of love in times of mass tourism, about their trips to Malta, Palmaria, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre and their thrilling search for the last painting of Caravaggio. Meanwhile, he becomes fascTrade Review‘It wants to impress, and it impresses. It is that big-bigger-biggest grip which makes the novel into an astounding masterpiece. It is also a wonderful book, which you will read with increasingly feverish eagerness. Pfeijffer captures the zeitgeist and serves it up irresistibly. He wrote the novel of the year’ NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands) ‘A masterpiece: grandiose style, brilliant and rich. It will defy the ages’ Trouw (The Netherlands) ‘Grand Hotel Europa is not only an overwhelming reading experience, but Pfeijffer also gives you lots of food for thought. Who else in contemporary Dutch literature could do what he does, to turn up the heat on our zeitgeist in such a great way and to thumb the nose at all those timid, tiny novels full of first world problems?’ De Morgen (Belgium) ‘A pageturner. The most admirable thing about the novel is Pfeijffer’s fascination with these subjects, his involvement. […] Grand Hotel Europa is not only an reflection on our identity, but also a contribution to its continuation’ de Volkskrant (The Netherlands) ‘A lively, clever and sometimes malicious book. […] Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer conceived his Grand Hotel Europa not only as a homage to the aged, mythically charged continent, but also as a stage and forum for debate for the contradictions and upheavals of our time. […] The pleasure of reading it all for yourself, right up to the amazing end, shouldn’t be taken away from you anyway’ Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) ‘The new Magic Mountain is perhaps called Grand Hotel Europa’ Neue Ruhr Zeitung (Germany) ‘A powerful and intriguing novel that one doesn’t forget easily’ La Stampa (Italy) ‘A great novel, brilliantly told and absolutely worth reading’ Ruhr Nachrichten (Germany)

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