Narrative theme: sense of place
And Other Stories Praiseworthy
Book SynopsisIn a small Aboriginal town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both ecological disaster and a gathering of the ancestors, Cause Man Steel is chasing a mad vision: a national donkey transport scheme that will guarantee his people’s independence forever. He finds, however, as he bundles feral donkeys into his Ford Falcon and dumps them en masse in the cemetery, that not all of Praiseworthy agrees. Outrage ferments at his desecration of traditional land, while Cause’s wife Dance seeks refuge with butterflies and dreams of moving their family to China. Bad feelings reach fever pitch when citizens catch wind of the suicide of Aboriginal Sovereignty, Cause’s eldest son. All are distraught – all, that is, except eight-year-old Tommyhawk Steel, who, with his brother gone, gleefully pursues his dream of becoming white and powerful. Told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned, Praiseworthy is a marvel of explosive sentences, a shock to allegory, an outraged cry against oppression, and a biting satire for the end of days.y for which Alexis Wright has become renowned.Trade Review'The great Moana Jackson declared the doctrine of discovery a legal fiction. In Praiseworthy, farce, satire, tragedy, the colloquial, myth, pun, repetition, elegy, and the epic expose the absurdity of the doctrine and the everyday lies, habits and horrors keeping it in place. Praiseworthy is simply astonishing.' Judges of the 2023 Queensland Award for Literary Fiction ---- 'I'm awed by the range, experiment and political intelligence of Alexis Wright's work. She is vital on the subject of land and people.' Robert Macfarlane, New York Times Book Review ---- 'Monumental. Praiseworthy blew me away. If you think you know what assimilation is, you should read Praiseworthy and think again.' Tony Hughes-d'Aeth, Australian Book Review ---- ‘Linguistically commodious, panoramically plotted, Praiseworthy’s 700-plus-page scale would have given Henry James a heart attack: it is a baggy monster, and more monstrous than most. Its vision is dark, humour tar-black, narration irrepressible, language roiling and rococo. All life, as in Balzac, is here … Wright gives us the living and the dead, material and non-material, Country and people; all the masters dreamed of, and all they neglected to; the entire human (and non-human) comedy … Long after the lesser concerns of contemporary fiction have ceased to matter, the work of Alexis Wright will remain.’ Declan Fry, The Guardian ---- 'The rich interrelations of ancestral spirits, larger-than-life characters, and Country all derive from the Aboriginal traditions of storytelling. But there are also signs of literary influence from every compass point on the map, including, most notably, the surrealism and magic realism of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.' Jack Cameron Stanton, The Age ---- 'Praiseworthy is Alexis Wright's most formidable act of imaginative synthesis yet . . . A hero's journey for an age of global warming, a devastating story of young love caught between two laws, and an extended elegy and ode to Aboriginal law and sovereignty.' Jane Gleeson-White, The Conversation
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers THE HOTEL ON THE RIVIERA escape this summer with
Book SynopsisFrom Sunday Times bestselling author and the nation's best loved TV presenter Carol Kirkwood comes a glittering escape to the French Riviera.Deliciously escapist' Cathy KellyA stunning holiday read with passion and heart, perfect!' Anton Du BekeBy the sapphire blue waters of the French Riviera, a decades-long secret is about to be revealedWayward Greek heiress, Ariana Theodosis, inherits the Hotel du Soleil as part of a mysterious legacy. Captivated by its faded glamour, she hopes it offers her the chance to start again.Hotelier Gabriel du Lac's family have owned the hotel for decades and he has no intention of giving it up for a beautiful stranger.Madame du Lac has watched the rich and famous pass through the doors of the hotel for almost half a century, and she has kept its secrets too.As the past finally catches up with them all, will this summer reveal a forgotten secret, and change their lives forever?Praise for Carol Kirkwood:Sizzles with secrets and passion' Jo ThomasIntrigue and drama a great sunshine read' ChoiceA real treat marvellous!' Anton du BekeTrade Review ‘Soak up the glamour … A great summer read’ Prima ‘Expect plenty of glamour and dramas in this sunshine read’ – Choice Praise for Carol KIrkwood: ‘Loved it! It sizzles with secrets and passion.’ Jo Thomas ‘Utterly engaging, deliciously escapist, with a heart as warm as its author's’ Cathy Kelly, bestselling author of The Family Gift ‘A real treat, wonderfully escapist with heart and drama – marvellous!’ Anton du Beke ‘An exquisite tale of love lost and found that’s full of intriguing characters and romantic locations. A perfect summer read.’ Judy Murray ‘An absolute cracking read – it’s brilliant!’ Steph McGovern presenter of Packed Lunch ‘Sun-soaked, glamorous escapism.’ Cressida McLaughlin ‘A sizzling summer read. I couldn’t put it down.’ Alex Brown, bestselling author of The Secret of Orchard Cottage
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Last Kind Words Saloon
Book SynopsisThis is Larry McMurtry's ballad in prose: his heartfelt tribute to a bygone era of the American West.Larry McMurtry has done more than any other living writer to shape our literary imagination of the American West. With The Last Kind Words Saloon, he returns to the vivid and unsparing portrait of the nineteenth-century and cowboy lifestyle made so memorable in his classic Lonesome Dove. Evoking the greatest characters and legends of the Old Wild West, McMurtry tells the story of the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Long Grass, Texas. Once hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge - more often with a mean look than a pistol - the taciturn Wyatt now idles away his time between bottles, while the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc is more adept at poker than extracting teeth. With the buffalo herds gone, the Comanche defeated, and vast
£10.78
Pan Macmillan Summerwater
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 *
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers A Thousand Acres
Book SynopsisThe Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling novel from one of America's greatest contemporary writers.Larry Cook's farm is the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa, and a tribute to his hard work and single-mindedness. Proud and possessive, his sudden decision to retire and hand over the farm to his three daughters, is disarmingly uncharacteristic.Ginny and Rose, the two eldest, are startled yet eager to accept, but Caroline, the youngest daughter, has misgivings. Immediately, her father cuts her out.In A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley transposes the King Lear story to the modern day, and in so doing at once illuminates Shakespeare's original and subtly transforms it. This astonishing novel won both of America's highest literary awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics' Circle Award.Trade Review‘A Thousand Acres is a strong, gnarled shocker of a novel… superb. Its success is down to Smiley’s ambitious gusto, her intuitive handling of the relationship between character and landscape, and her willingness to haul genuine moral freight across the panorama she has so expertly painted.’ Sunday Times ‘Epic fiction of the very highest order, naturalistic , penetrating and wholly absorbing.’ Literary Review ‘Superlative, extraordinary, amazing. A Thousand Acres is a great American tragedy about the failure of a family’s land and the failure of its love. There may have been better novels than A Thousand Acres, but I fear I didn’t read them – a haunting inquisition into the decline and fall of a family.’ Independent ‘A studied, ingenious variation on the brutal clashing of sexes and generations in King Lear. Its style is relaxed, conversational, unhurried; the novel flows gently onwards like a broad river. In its solidity and poise, A Thousand Acres is a book that will outlast this year’s rainy season.’ Vogue‘Powerful, poignant, intimate and involving.’ New York Times
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Memory Wood
Book SynopsisSam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His first three thrillers, The Memory Wood, The Rising Tide and The People Watcher were published to great critical acclaim.Trade ReviewBeautifully told, with two superbly drawn young protagonists, Lloyd is a rare new thriller talent. * Daily Mail *Remarkable. Stunning prose and compulsive reading. It's undoubtedly the best thriller I've read in a long, long time. * Lesley Kara *What makes this book special is the marvellously executed subterranean power game. Superbly creepy, with an unexpected twist, this is a very grim modern fairytale. * Guardian *I was pulled into The Memory Wood from the very first page—it grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go. It’s an intense, atmospheric, and truly original thriller. Put everything else aside when you enter the Memory Wood, including your expectations… * Shari Lapena *Forget everything you think you know about thrillers. The Memory Wood is a compulsive page-turner where visceral horror meets Grimm fairytale – a story that’s guaranteed to burn itself into your brain . . . Every twist and distortion evokes a physical response – you’ll be breathless with anticipation, tingling with hope, and numb with dread from beginning to end. * Press Association *
£9.49
The American University in Cairo Press The Coffeehouse: A Novel
Book SynopsisMahfouz's last novel, an evocative depiction of life in Egypt in the twentieth century as told through the lives of a group of friends, is now available in paperback for the first time On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby café, Qushtumur, their favorite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian, and classically Mahfouzian, quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed place. In a seamless stream of personal triumphs and tragedies, their lives play out against the backdrop of two world wars, the 1952 Free Officers coup, the defeat of 1967 and the redemption of 1973, the assassination of a president, and the simmering uncertainties of the transitional 1980s. But as their nation grows and their neighborhood turns from the green, villa-studded paradise of their youth to a dense urban desert of looming towers, they still find refuge in the one enduring landmark in their ever-fading world: the humble coffeehouse called Qushtumur. The Coffeehouse is a powerful and timeless novel of loss and memory from one of Egypt's most celebrated literary masters.Trade Review"The Arab world's foremost novelist"—The New York Times"Mahfouz's work is freshly nuanced and hauntingly lyrical."—The Los Angeles Times"A towering literary figure"—The Economist"Egypt's greatest living writer and one of the world's most humane literary figures"—Laila Lalami, The Nation"Timeless.' —New Statesman"A master of both detailed realism and fabulous storytelling"—The Guardian"Mahfouz is a storyteller of the first order in any idiom." —Vanity Fair"An affectionate evocation of lost youth and life's passage by a seasoned storyteller."—Kirkus
£13.67
HarperCollins Publishers The Collectors Daughter A gripping and sweeping
Book SynopsisFrom the internationally bestselling authorcomes a tale of long-buried secrets and a discovery that will change everything, perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies and Lucinda Riley.An unforgettable discoveryIn 1922, Lady Evelyn Herbert's dreams are realised when she is the first to set foot inside the lost tomb of Tutankhamun for over 3,000 years.A cursed lifeBut the months after the discovery are marred by tragedy, when Eve's father dies suddenly and her family is torn in two. Desperate to put the past behind her, Eve retreats into a private life with her new husband.A deadly choiceBut she is harbouring a dark secret about what really happened in Egypt. And when a young woman comes asking questions years later, the happiness Eve has finally found is threatened once morePraise for The Collector's Daughter:Wonderfully compelling from beginning to end. An absolute delight!' Hazel Gaynor, author of The Bird in the Bamboo CageThis is a compelling story, impeccably researched, with a deliciousTrade Review Praise for Gill Paul’s books: ‘I can't rave highly enough about this book – it's my favourite Gill Paul novel to date. A dazzling yet moving portrait of two very different iconic women, it's brilliantly researched, compellingly told and completely fascinating. I just loved it.’ Tracy Rees ‘Addictive and so well-researched. I read it in a day.’ Kate Riordan ‘The novel brilliantly evokes the world of the jet-set, rich and famous of the sixties so well I felt I was living it all alongside them.’ Kathleen McGurl ‘A truly compelling story… This is the best of historical fiction – leaving you wanting to learn more.’ Liz Trenow ‘I was completely enthralled, wholly swept up in the characters, the glamour, and the fascinating story of these iconic women. An utter treat from beginning to end – readers far and wide will fall under its spell.’ Jenny Ashcroft ‘Glamorous and highly seductive, this compelling story explores the lives of two complex, powerful women complete with all their talents and flaws.’ Dinah Jefferies ‘Surprising and devastating… perfect historical fiction.’ Hazel Gaynor ‘Simply stunning. I really can’t stop thinking about these two women now. This will be HUGE!’ Louise Beech ‘An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the rivalry between two of the world’s most glamorous women.’ Stephanie Thornton ‘Beautiful, tender, and humane storytelling.’ Kate Thompson ‘An intoxicating mix of glamour, scandal and fascinating insight into the lives of two of the twentieth century’s most iconic women – and the man they both loved.’ Tammy Cohen ‘A deep dive into glitz, glamour and heartbreak. Gill Paul’s emotionally turbulent, amazing novels never disappoint.’ Karen Harper ‘A delectable novel about the lives and romantic rivalry of two female icons—such a juicy page-turner!’ Kris Waldherr
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers A Daughters Return a gripping family drama from
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
£7.59
Cornerstone Before My Actual Heart Breaks
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD__________________________________________________'Fresh, entertaining, funny and moving' RODDY DOYLE'A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs' ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said__________________________________________________'If I could go back to being sixteen again, I'd do things differently.''Everyone over the age of forty feels like that, you total gom,' says my best friend Lizzie Magee.When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her.But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned.Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for. Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?Trade ReviewThis is in many ways a familiar story but it is told in such a fresh, entertaining, funny and moving way, it felt like I was reading something brand new. * Roddy Doyle *Two pages into this book you know you've unlocked something special . . . the book is brightened up plenty by sunshine characters and the magnificence of Tyrone nature . . . Tish knows what she's talking about. * Irish Examiner *A really lovely book. I loved reading it. -- Mariella FrostrupDelaney's writing is a beautiful wave flowing lyrically through the life of Mary Rattigan. A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs. -- Anne Griffin author of WHEN ALL IS SAIDI did not expect this debut to turn into the most exquisite love story, but it did, and I was besotted. * Red *
£9.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Brutal Tide
Book SynopsisTHE ISLES OF SCILLY MYSTERIES #6 'An absolute master of pace, plotting and character' ELLY GRIFFITHS REVENGE DI Ben Kitto made many enemies in his time working as an undercover officer for the Met police, none more ruthless and calculating than gang leader Craig Travis.IS WORTH Travis has longed to make Kitto pay for his role in getting him convicted – and that day has finally arrived. Now, a dark and twisted killer is heading for the Scilly Isles, one who has waited a long time for revenge.WAITING FOR . . . With Kitto busy investigating the discovery of a body on the islands and distracted by the imminent arrival of his first child, his defences are down. He has so much to lose.And Travis will stop at nothing to take it all from him. PRAISE FOR KATE RHODES: ‘Gripping, clever and impossible
£9.49
Zaffre Cruel Tides: The riveting new case in the
Book SynopsisThe eagerly awaited next case for DI Karen Eiken Hornby from the global bestselling author, Maria Adolfsson. Perfect for fans of Shetland, Broadchurch and Ann Cleeves.A secluded island. A missing woman. An impossible choice.Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby is not the only person to have returned to her native island nation, Doggerland, after years abroad. Following a ten-year hiatus, Luna has chosen to secretly record her comeback album where she was born and raised. Spirits are high among her team at the wrap party, though Karen is less than impressed with the simpering singer. The next morning, Luna is nowhere to be found.Nothing goes unnoticed in the tight-knit community - certainly not the arrival, or disappearance, of a world-famous singer. So, while the rest of the force is frantically searching for a suspect whose brutal attacks on women are increasing in intensity and frequency, a reluctant Karen is tasked with discreetly looking into Luna's whereabouts.As time ebbs away so does the possibility of finding Luna alive, while Karen faces seemingly impossible choices, ones that could spell life or death, both for herself and others.Trade ReviewThis first novel in a proposed trilogy has terrific characters as well as effectively inventing a new genre, Anglo-Nordic noir -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times on Fatal Isles *A cracking police procedural set in a richly described isolated island community * Irish Independent on Fatal Isles *An excellent police procedural - she does detail brilliantly - but also really thrilling. I love books that send me somewhere completely new and I really enjoyed Doggerland. She captured it perfectly, and held me there for the whole thing * Jo Spain on Fatal Isles *Karen Eiken reminds me a bit of Jane Tennison: a strong, feminine and dedicated woman confronted by sexism within the police force while doing her job. At the same time striving not to be eaten up by the pressure of duties, struggling to quit smoking and not drinking too much. The island is a cool setting too, a bit Shetland-like . . . a good debut * Kjell Ola Dahl on Fatal Isles *A suspenseful and intriguing story that combines the best of British crime writing tradition with Nordic noir. Doggerland is a unique and alluring universe that I can't wait to revisit * Camilla Grebe on Fatal Isles *Fatal Isles has everything I want from nordic noir - a spellbinding plot, atmospheric setting and a wonderfully flawed protagonist. I loved it * Sarah Ward on Fatal Isles *Fatal Isles is an impressive debut combining an empathetic main character tormented by her past, with a detailed, complex police procedural. Adolfsson's main achievement, however, is Doggerland, a believable island nation where everyone knows everyone else and the mistrust of outsiders runs deep * Canberra Times on Fatal Isles *
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers A Beautiful Rival
Book SynopsisThe world is at war, but on the gilded streets of Fifth Avenue, New York, a battle of a different kind is brewingNew York, 1915.Elizabeth Arden has been New York's golden girl since her beauty salon opened its famous red door five years prior. Against all odds, she's built an empire.Enter Helena Rubinstein: ruthless, revolutionary and the rival Elizabeth didn't bargain for.With both women determined to succeed no matter the personal cost a battle of beauty is born. And as the stakes increase, so do the methods: poaching employees, planting spies, copying products, hiring ex-husbands.But as each woman climbs higher, so too does what she stands to lose.Because the greater the height, the harder the fallIn this stunning new novel, internationally bestselling author Gill Paul reveals the unknown history of cosmetic titans Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein and their infamous rivalry that spanned not only decades, but also broken marriages, personal tragedies, and a world that was chaTrade Review Praise for Gill Paul: ‘A great historical read for fans of strong female characters who have something to prove.’ Booklist (US) 'TERRIFIC! Deadly one-liners and killer cocktails combine in this compelling portrait of three fascinating women. Unputdownable.' Veronica Henry, bestselling author of The Impulse Purchase ‘Completely stole me away… Paul slips inside her characters brilliantly, blending fact and fiction so seamlessly it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. A total treat… I loved it.’ Eve Chase, author of The Birdcage ‘A stunning tour de force. A potent cocktail of brilliant characterisation, pacy elegant writing, and mesmerising drama as four wildly clever, talented women negotiate the perils of Jazz Age New York. LOVED it!’ Tracy Rees, author of The Rose Garden ‘The Manhattan Girls pulled me into the dazzling world of prohibition New York and didn’t let me go… an utterly brilliant, entirely compulsive read. A seductive, heady triumph.’ Jenny Ashcroft, author of Under the Golden Sun ‘If ever we needed escapism it is now, and The Manhattan Girls does that perfectly, whisking you instantly away to the glittering world of 1920s New York… A sparkling read in so many ways!’ Liz Trenow, author of Under a Wartime Sky ‘I loved this funny and moving novel about the bonds of friendship.’ Fiona Valpy, author of The Storyteller of Casablanca
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing USA Float Up, Sing Down
Book Synopsis
£20.24
Pan Macmillan Before Your Memory Fades
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 *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Cover Story
Book SynopsisTrade Review“It’s Catch Me if You Can meets Sweetbitter, from the woman who blew the whistle on Uber’s software engineering team—what’s not to love?” — Entertainment Weekly “[A] page-turner that’s hilarious in its dedication to vamping on viral news stories about real-life strivers and cons from Delvey to Instagram personality Caroline Calloway … a delicious read.” — TIME magazine “Taking inspiration from the Anna Delveys of the world, Cover Story is a delicious read about a young intern who gets caught up in a breathtakingly opulent—if claustrophobic—scheme (or four).” — Marie Claire “Rigetti's fiction debut has a roller-coaster plot that gives off huge Anna Delvey vibes and an ending that will leave you with your jaw on the floor…. If you're a fan of tales about scams, grifters, and mysterious schemes, Cover Story needs to be on your TBR list.” — Popsugar “Cover Story is a good read … man oh man, it’s got suites at the Plaza, the FBI closing in, Russian hackers, designer clothes and a plot that stays ahead of the reader. Rigetti has written a need-to-read story.” — San Francisco Chronicle “[A] ridiculously fun romp.” — E! Online “A clever epistolary novel with an elegant con woman at its center—in other words, perfect escapism for this moment.” — Seattle Times “[C]inematic…Rigetti’s propulsive narrative, which includes Instagram posts, text messages, and FBI case files, keeps the pages turning, and there’s a juicy twist.” — Publishers Weekly “Inspired by the stories of Anna Sorokin, Caroline Calloway, and others, Cover Story is a captivating novel that readers won’t be able to put down.” — Shondaland “Journalist Rigetti's debut kicks off beach-read season with a bang…. Drawing heavy inspiration from the true story of Anna Delvey, who conned New York's elite for several years in the mid-2010s, this book will be a must-read for the legions who followed Delvey's story with bated breath.… It’s The Devil Wear’s Prada meets Gone Girl, and it’s delightful.” — Booklist (starred review) “[E]ntertaining…clever, fast-paced…the crafty Rigetti makes fraud a lot of fun. An entertaining shell game of a novel.” — Kirkus Reviews “Cover Story by Susan Rigetti is an unforgettable tale of scams and double-crosses told through emails, diary entries, and FBI correspondence.” — Popsugar “I just loved Susan Rigetti's Cover Story, which is an insightful, tense story that's exactly what you want from a twisty thriller about a hustler (think Anna Delvey) who isn't what she appears.” — Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author of Evie Drake Starts Over “This juicy tale of stolen identities and ever-increasing fraud, set against a tony Manhattan backdrop, is told entirely through original documents—Instagram posts, FBI transcripts—that place the reader in the role of detective. But even self-styled Poirots won't see what's coming: the book ended with a wallop that made me literally gasp—and admire debut author Susan Rigetti's sure-handed, inventive page-turner all the more.” — Stephanie Clifford, New York Times bestselling author of Everybody Rise "The grifter gets a glow up in Susan Rigetti’s crafty caper. Devilish, innovative, and lightning-paced, Cover Story is like an internet rabbit hole you can hold in your hands. What fun!" — Lauren Mechling, author of How Could She “Cover Story is pure delight from its deceptively sweet start to its shocking finish—an ingénue tale unlike any I've read before. I audibly gasped at the end. Unpredictable, satisfying, and full of surprises." — Mary Adkins, author of Palm Beach “A cleverly constructed caper which beneath its charming exterior keenly examines grifter culture, the power dynamics of friendship, and the allure of the American dream. A deeply satisfying read which perfectly reflects today’s society.” — Kathy Wang, author of Impostor Syndrome “Every con woman needs a mark, and Susan Rigetti's clever telling of the friendship between sweet, naïve, ambitious Lora and the probably sociopathic Cat Wolff is a con woman/mark relationship for the ages. Cat may have seduced Lora, but Cover Story seduced me.” — Doree Shafrir, author of Thanks for Waiting and Startup “A breathless ride through a New York City of starving writers, glamorous con women, fashion magazines, and luxury hotels, Cover Story is irresistible and impossible to put down, a fast-paced tale of what we are willing to risk to make our dreams come true.” — Iris Martin Cohen, author of The Little Clan "Wow, I have to untangle my brain after reading this book! Rigetti's debut novel is compulsively readable and FUN. Well-crafted and irresistible, this caper will have readers gasping!" — Elissa R. Sloan, author of The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes
£10.44
Orenda Books The Pain Tourist: The nerve-jangling, compulsive
Book SynopsisA young man wakes from a coma to find himself targeted by the men who killed his parents, while someone is impersonating a notorious New Zealand serial killer … the latest chilling, nerve-shredding, twisty thriller from the author of The Quiet People… ‘Paul Cleave is an automatic must-read for me’ Lee Child ‘Riveting from start to finish. Smart and twisty, this book will get under your skin’ Liz Nugent ‘Shocking and chilling. A literary ice plunge. I absolutely loved it’ Helen Fields ‘Almost three books in one! Multiple murders, dedicated detectives – past and present. Complex, detailed and oh, so clever’ Sam Holland _______________How do you catch a killer…When the only evidence is a dream? James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma. When he does, nine years later, Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with closing the case that her now retired colleague, Theodore Tate, failed to solve all those years ago. But between that, and hunting for Copy Joe – a murderer on a spree, who’s imitating Christchurch’s most notorious serial killer – she’s going to need Tate’s help. Especially when they learn that James has lived out another life in his nine-year coma, and there are things he couldn’t possibly know, including the fact that Copy Joe isn’t the only serial killer in town… _______________ ‘An absolute thrill ride. Precise and swift and a joy to read … storytelling at its best’ James Oswald ‘Such a unique concept, with wonderful, emotional writing ... I hooked on the story from the word go. BRILLIANT’ Lisa Hall ‘The most original and intense thriller ever!’ Michael Wood ‘I’d forgotten how good Paul Cleave is!’ Sarah Pinborough ‘You can’t be a true fan of crime fiction if you’re not reading Cleave’s books’ Tom Wood ‘Uses words as lethal weapons’ New York Times ‘Cleave writes the kind of dark, intense thrillers that I never want to end’ Simon Kernick What readers are saying… [FIVE STARS] ‘A masterpiece’ Café Thinking ‘A heart-pounding, jaw-dropping thrill ride’ Emma’s Bibliotreasures ‘A brilliantly executed thrilling, twisty, nerve-shredding serial-killer chiller’ Live & Deadly ‘A red-hot, sleep-stealing, pulse-pounding read’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews ‘An addictive trip!’ The First Eleven Minutes ‘I am absolutely lost for words’ PRDG Reads ‘Number-one TOP read of the year’ Ian Dixon ‘Cleave has made my heart pound, pulse race and jaw drop’ Little Miss Book LoverPraise for Paul Cleave ‘The sense of dread builds unstoppably in this gripping page-turner … an intense, chilling read’ Gilly Macmillan ‘You may think you know where it’s going, but you couldn’t be more wrong. A true page-turner filled with dread, rage, doubt and more twists than the Remutaka Pass’ Linwood Barclay ‘A true page-turner, with an intriguing premise, a rollercoaster plot and a cast of believably flawed characters’ Guardian ‘This merits comparison with the work of Patricia Highsmith’ Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW ‘Tense, thrilling, touching. Paul Cleave is very good indeed’ John Connolly ‘An intense adrenaline rush from start to finish’ S J Watson ‘A riveting and all too realistic thriller’ Tess Gerritsen ‘A gripping thriller …I couldn’t put it down’ Meg Gardiner ‘Did my head in time and again’ Michael Robotham ‘One to remember’ New York Journal of Book
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Circus of Wonders
Book SynopsisStep right up for the most captivating read of the year . . .Filled with the sights and sounds of Victorian England, Circus of Wonders is the instant Sunday Times bestseller from Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory.‘Intensely satisfying’ – Stacey Halls, author of The FamiliarsEngland, 1866. When Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in a coastal village, Nell soon catches the showman’s eye. Shunned by her community because of the birthmarks speckling her skin, to Jasper she is a prize – she could be his very own leopard girl. But how to make her his?Soon Nell finds herself the star of Jasper’s show. Suddenly she is famous. Crowds rush to watch her soar through the air. Figurines are cast in her image. Even Queen Victoria wants to see her perform. But is Nell free to live and love as she chooses? And when her fame begins to eclipse Jasper’s own, could she be in danger? After all, the higher you fly, the steeper the fall . . .‘Filled with character and life’ – The Times‘Utterly beguiling’ – Daily Mail‘Brilliantly involving’ – Daily Express‘Exhilarating’ – Sunday Times, Books of the Year‘An immersive gem’ – Red‘Joyous, frightening, heartbreaking’ – Independent‘Deliciously vivid’ – Woman & HomeThe Burial Plot, Elizabeth's latest cat-and-mouse thriller, is available to pre-order now!Trade ReviewA glittering follow-up to The Doll Factory . . . a mark of Macneal's subtlety and originality * Guardian *Elizabeth Macneal’s marvellous debut, The Doll Factory, was a bestselling success. This second book, beautifully written and filled with character and life, cements her reputation as a new talent * The Times *Elizabeth Macneal has done it again . . . Entrancing, tender, captivating. A marvel. I couldn’t put it down. -- Sara Collins, author of Costa First Novel Award winner The Confessions of Frannie LangtonWonderful . . . Glitters and gleams with the grimy stories of a travelling circus . . . Utterly beguiling * Daily Mail *Spectacular . . . A brilliantly involving story, vivid with the sights and sounds of Victorian England. A fantastic read * Daily Express *Exhilarating . . . shows the same rich imagination Macneal revealed in her debut novel, The Doll Factory * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *An absolute triumph. Exquisitely written, intensely satisfying -- Stacey Halls, author of The FamiliarsDark but tender, evocative and compelling. I loved it -- Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of Blood & SugarAn equally satisfying exploration of some of the odder corners of Victorian life . . . a novel that again highlights Macneal’s rich imagination and vivid prose * Sunday Times Ireland, Historical Fiction Book of the Month *A fantastical, absolutely immersive gem of a read * Red *Macneal’s complex characters allow her to question how society treats difference, the price of power and vanity, and the pursuit of self-determination. At turns dark, joyous, frightening and heartbreaking, Circus Of Wonders makes for an absorbing read * Independent *A tremendous read. Richly imagined, vividly rendered, each scene is like an old painting in which light gleams off the detail . . . The story is full-bodied and addictive from the outset, told with pace and verve but never compromising style . . . Circus of Wonders displays in abundance everything readers loved about The Doll Factory . . . an ambitious, enlightening novel -- Emma Stonex, author of The LamplightersDeliciously vivid . . . every bit as atmospheric as you’d expect . . . A hopeful story of a girl taking charge of her destiny * Woman & Home *Set in the same Victorian London as her stunning debut, The Doll Factory, Macneal's second novel is both thrilling and humane, bringing to life the brutal world of the freak show * Mail on Sunday *You can’t help but be drawn into the exciting and sometimes macabre world of the circus, with its colourful cast of characters * Good Housekeeping *Another seductive slice of Victorian noir * Sunday Times Scotland *Circus of Wonders is confident and beautifully written -- Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a ScandalA glittering, begrimed tale of love and self-determination flush with richly detailed prose. Sumptuous, macabre, enthralling; a perfect slice of Victoriana. -- Jane Healey, author of The Animals at Lockwood ManorElizabeth Macneal's novel is spectacular - a book of wonders! -- Alix Nathan, author of The Warlow ExperimentA beautifully told and immersive look at a complex dance between exploitation and empowerment, and the question of what it really means to have control over your own life. I adored its characters, I was utterly gripped throughout, and I loved having my eyes opened to the troubling yet fascinating world of Victorian circuses -- Naomi Ishiguro, author of Escape RoutesCircus of Wonders is a soaring, tumbling, whip-cracking book. Elizabeth Macneal has brought an extraordinary group of characters together in these pages; the result is a glittering world, a story as moving as it is deeply entertaining -- Daniel Mason, author of The Piano TunerExpansive and tender . . . it really pulls you into this fascinating world. -- Beth Underdown, author of The Witchfinder's SisterI loved The Doll Factory and I loved Circus Of Wonders just as much . . .An intriguing and beautifully written love story as well as an exploration of the journey from rejection to adoration . . . Elizabeth Macneal explores the nature of exploitation, pride and vanity through her vibrant and believable characters -- Jenny Quintana, author of The Missing GirlAt turns dark, joyous, frightening and heartbreaking, Circus of Wonders is an absorbing read * Sunday Life *A glittering, soaring, magical exploration of showmanship, voyeurism and storytelling, Circus of Wonders is also a wonderful, sumptuously-written love story. Visceral & cerebral. I loved it. -- Caroline Lea, author of The Glass WomanEngaging and enjoyable * Scotsman *I loved it. Circus of Wonders is a terrific successor to The Doll Factory. I adored the vibrant cast of characters - they are tenderly drawn yet dazzle off the page -- Rachel Hore, author of Last Letter HomeI was dazzled by it from beginning to end. What a fabulous, riveting, engrossing story! There's such a creepy undercurrent of dread and violence running just beneath the surface of everything she writes, yet there's humanity and kindness, a palpable love for Nell and the other circus performers that makes all the characters come to life -- Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of LightAn enjoyable and engrossing novel, which captivates from beginning to end * Historical Novel Society *The gritty glamour of the circus and the horrors of war. Macneal’s characters are finely drawn, their entwined stories playing out against the backdrop of the big top * Daily Mirror *Wonderful * Woman's Weekly *The author of The Doll Factory returns with more high Gothic Victoriana * i newspaper *Deliciously vivid . . . every bit as atmospheric as you'd expect * Woman's Own *The kaleidoscopic world of the Victorian circus, at once enchanting and grotesque, is vividly brought to life . . . a gripping tale * Northern Echo *Fantastic * Psychologies *Packed with atmosphere * Prima *Wonderful * My Weekly *I loved this story for its plot, its characters and its beautiful writing. The author engages all our senses to explore illusion versus reality, keeps us on a tightrope of emotions and presents us with a truly dazzling show * NFOP Magazine *A gripping exploration of fame, love, hope, friendship and whether we can ever own our own stories * New European *[Macneal's] great strength is in imagining vivid inner lives and narratives for people usually sidelined, who in the historical great-man theory merely provide delicacies and amusements for the rich * Catholic Herald *Brilliantly involving, vivid with the gritty glamour of the circus and horrors of war. * Sunday Express *
£8.54
Pan Macmillan The Long Call: Now a major ITV series starring
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 *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Year of the Runaways
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.Sweeping between India and England, from childhood and the present day. Sunjeev Sahota's unforgettable novel about illegal immigrants is a story of dignity in the face of adversity. For fans of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.'The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century' – Washington PostThe Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance.Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar. Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the chaotic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise hTrade ReviewSahota is a writer who knows how to turn a phrase, how to light up a scene, how to make you stay up late at night to learn what happens next. The Year of the Runaways is a brilliant and beautiful novel. -- Kamila Shamsie * Guardian *Writing with unsentimental candor, Mr. Sahota has created a cast of characters whose lives are so richly imagined that this deeply affecting novel calls out for a sequel or follow-up that might recount the next installment of their lives. * New York Times *An ideal antidote to a year of reductive discussions of immigration, Sunjeev Sahota's novel takes you deep into the lives of a group of Indian labourers thrown together in Sheffield . . . its lyrical prose and ability to immerse the reader in the experiences of a hidden community in Britain -- Emily Dugan * Independent on Sunday *The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century . . . the great marvel of this book is its absolute refusal to grasp at anything larger than the hopes and humiliations of these few marginal people. * Washington Post *Wryly humorous . . . The Year of the Runaways needs no affectations to announce its timeliness. As the sheer number of displaced peoples in Europe threatens to overwhelm any capacity for empathy, Mr. Sahota's superb novel helps to make the reality of migrants a little less unimaginable and a little more human. * Wall Street Journal *Novels of such scope and invention are all too rare; unusual, too, are those of real heart, whose characters you grow to love and truly care for. The Year of the Runaways has it all. You cry because of the terribleness of it, but also because you just don't want this book to end. I doubt if I'll read a better novel this year. -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *This massive book, stuffed with compelling stories, rich in characters and resoundingly authentic in its detailing of life in the harsh underbelly of this country, should be compulsory reading. A magnificent achievement. * Daily Mail *The Year of the Runaways takes place in a parallel England, a near-invisible world that rarely intersects with our own. It is familiar territory from news reports, but only in outline. Sahota has a lot to say and he says it calmly, with great moral intelligence . . . deeply impressive. * Sunday Times *A wonderfully evocative storyteller. * Independent *A sensitive and searing novel. -- Marian Ryan * Mail on Sunday *This is a rich, intricate, beautifully written novel, bursting and seething with energy. * The Times *Nothing short of an asteroid impact would have made me put the book down * Irish Times *The Year of the Runaways is never explicitly polemical, but is steered instead by humane morality. [. . .] Without flights of fancy, neither sensationalising nor preachy, its greatest asset is that it doesn't oversimplify. [. . .] Thoroughly believable, irresistibly humane and often funny. -- Lucy Daniel * Daily Telegraph *Sahota's funny, humane second novel is certainly a book for our times. * Sunday Telegraph *Richly authentic and teeming with incident . . . totally compelling. -- John Harding, 'The year's best novels', 2015 * Daily Mail *Tolstoy and Steinbeck are not exaggerated comparisons for the sweep and power of Sahota’s second novel about five immigrant men living in England illegally and what they went through to get there * Boston Globe *If you think literature is at its best when it combines the political with the personal, this is the perfect book for you. Sunjeev Sahota humanizes harrowing news headlines in the most intimate way; stories about migrant workers and so-called "Untouchables" are carefully captured with painterly details and empathy . . . an important story about duty and love, beautifully told * NPR *
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Atlantic Books The Lost Lights of St Kilda: *SHORTLISTED FOR THE
Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE RNA HISTORICAL ROMANCE AWARD 2021**LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2020*'Desperately romantic, lyrically written and with a fascinating plot' Katie FfordeChrissie Gillies comes from the last ever community to live on the beautiful, isolated Scottish island of St Kilda. Evacuated in 1930, she will never forget her life there, nor the man she loved and lost who visited one fateful summer a few years before. Fred Lawson has been captured, beaten and imprisoned in Nazi-controlled France. Making a desperate escape across occupied territory, one thought sustains him: find Chrissie, the woman he should never have left behind on that desolate, glorious isle. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a sweeping love story that crosses oceans and decades, and a testament to the extraordinary power of hope in the darkest of times. 'A gorgeous, melancholy love story.' The Times'An undeniably haunting love story.' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA gorgeous, melancholy love story * The Times *An undeniably haunting love story * Sunday Times *Desperately romantic, lyrically written and with a fascinating plot. * Katie Fforde, author of A Rose Petal Summer *I loved this book. Beautifully written and descriptive * Sarah Maine, author of The House Between Tides *A real jewel * Gill Paul, author of The Secret Wife *As gorgeously written as it's quietly devastating * Kate Riordan, author of The Girl in the Photograph *Richly detailed and evocative * Kat Gordon, author of An Unsuitable Woman *Atmospheric... moving * Lorna Cook, author of The Forgotten Village *Compelling... beautiful and haunting * Gill Thompson, author of The Oceans Between Us *A beautifully written and heart-rending story of love, loss and redemption * Sophia Tobin, author of The Silversmith's Wife *A glorious novel * Suellen Dainty, author of The Housekeeper *Moving and beautifully told * Tim Pears, author of The Redeemed *Days after finishing this deeply moving story, written with such a simple yet lyrical prose, I still feel haunted by it. * New Books Magazine *Compelling... vivid... powerful * Church Times *
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Pan Macmillan Dry Bones That Dream: The 7th novel in the number
Book Synopsis‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong’ – Stephen KingFrom the master of police procedural and bestselling author of Standing in the Shadows comes Dry Bones That Dream, book seven in Peter Robinson’s the Inspector Banks series.A contract killing. A secret past. Banks is pushed to his limit.2.47 a.m. Chief Inspector Alan Banks sees the body of Keith Rothwell for the first time. Only hours earlier two masked men had walked the mild-mannered accountant out of his farmhouse to the barn. They then clinically executed him with a shotgun.Clearly this is a professional hit – but Keith was hardly the sort of person to make deadly enemies. Or was he? The police investigation soon raises more questions than answers.The more Banks scratches the surface, the more he wonders what lies beneath the veneer of the apparently happy Rothwell family. And when his old sparring partner Detective Superintendent Richard Burgess arrives from Scotland Yard, the case takes yet another unexpected twist . . .Now a major British ITV drama DCI Banks, this novel is followed by the eighth book in this Yorkshire-based crime series, Innocent Graves.Trade ReviewRobinson excels in the depiction of character . . . He is steadily ascending toward the pinnacles of crime fiction * Publishers Weekly *
£9.89
Black Cat Small Things Like These Oprahs Book Club
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Pan Macmillan Playing With Fire: The 14th novel in the number
Book Synopsis'A writer at the very height of his powers' – Ian RankinPlaying With Fire is the fourteenth novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from The Summer That Never Was.In the early hours of a cold January morning, two narrowboats catch fire on a dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal. When signs of accelerant are found at the scene, DCI Banks and DI Annie Cabbot are summoned. But by the time they arrive, only the smouldering wreckage is left, and human remains have been found on both boats.The evidence points towards a deliberate attack. But who was the intended victim? Was it Tina, the sixteen-year-old who had been living a drug-fuelled existence with her boyfriend? Or was it Tom, the mysterious, lonely artist?As Banks makes his enquiries, it appears that a number of people are acting suspiciously: the interfering 'lock-keeper', Tina's cold-hearted stepfather, the wily local art dealer, even Tina's boyfriend . . .Then the arsonist strikes again, and Banks's powers of investigation are tested to the limit . . .The Inspector Banks books became the major British ITV crime drama DCI Banks. Continue the series with Strange Affair.Trade ReviewThe Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong. -- The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong. -- Stephen KingNear, perhaps even at the top of, the British crime writers' league * The Times *An award-winning writer with ideas that are imaginative and plots that are refreshingly cliché-free * Time Out *Robinson also has a way of undercutting the genre's familiarity. With a deceptively unspectacular language, he sets about the process of unsettling the reader. * Independent *A writer at the very height of his powers -- Ian Rankin
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Pan Macmillan A Necessary End: Book 3 in the number one
Book Synopsis‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong.’ – Stephen King.From the master of police procedural and bestselling author of Standing in the Shadows comes A Necessary End, book three in Peter Robinson’s the Inspector Banks series.Peace destroyed. Lives in ruin. Banks must race to find the killer . . .Everyday life in Eastvale is shattered when a policeman is stabbed to death after an anti-nuclear demonstration turns violent. Superintendent ‘Dirty Dick’ Burgess, Banks’s nemesis, descends with vengeful fury on those he deems responsible.Inspector Banks is uneasy about Burgess's mishandling of the case, but despite being warned off he puts his career in jeopardy to continue his search for the truth, knowing if he is to keep his job, he must beat Burgess to the killer . . .Now a major British ITV drama DCI Banks, this novel is followed by the fourth book in this Yorkshire-based crime series, The Hanging Valley.Trade ReviewInspector Banks – a man for all seasons, he knows that often the answers to the clues he seeks are hidden in his own heart -- Michael ConnellyAn award-winning writer with ideas that are imaginative and plots that are refreshingly cliché-free * Time Out *If you haven't caught up with Peter Robinson already, now is the time to start * Independent on Sunday *
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Pan Macmillan My Heart’s in the Highlands: Classic Scottish
Book SynopsisMy Heart’s In the Highlands: Classic Scottish Poems is a glorious celebration of poetry and verse by the greatest classic Scottish poets, and introduced by the acclaimed poet John Glenday.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. The poems in this collection are selected by editor, Gaby Morgan.With poems from famous Scottish writers such as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Mary Queen of Scots herself there is plenty here to enjoy and inspire. The collection roams across so many aspects of Scottish life and culture; its landscape and its history, its people and its celebrations. It’s a country that has always inspired poets to write about love, nature and heritage, and to reflect on the important things of life.
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Pan Macmillan The Summer Without You
Book SynopsisSet in New York's exclusive Hamptons seaside resort, The Summer Without You is a gorgeously escapist read from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rome Affair, Karen Swan.'Pure escapism' – Marie ClareRowena Tipton isn't looking for a new life, just a new adventure, something to while away the months as her long-term boyfriend presses pause on their relationship before they become engaged. But when a chance encounter at a New York wedding leads to an audition for a coveted houseshare in The Hamptons – Manhattan's elite beach scene – suddenly a new life is exactly what she's got.Stretching before her is a summer with three eclectic housemates, long days on white sandy beaches and parties on gilded tennis courts. But high rewards bring high stakes, and Rowena soon finds herself caught in the crossfire of a vicious intimidation campaign.Alone for the first time in her adulTrade ReviewThe Summer Without You is delicious, glamorous and purely sinful. * I Heart Chick Lit blog *The perfect summer read * Novelicious.com *I truly managed to escape into the novel . . . it's the perfect read for summer day at the beach (or the Hamptons!) * GirlsLovetoRead.com *This is a glamourous, sexy read that you really can't miss, it is absolutely one of this summer's must-reads! * On My Bookshelf blog *Bright, breezy, escapist fun * Sunday Mirror *A perfect read for lazing around the pool * Bella *Great escapism * Red magazine *Great beach read. * Sunday Express *Pure escapism * Marie Claire *
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Pan Macmillan In a Free State
Book SynopsisV. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.In 1990, V. S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 20Trade ReviewA book of such lucid complexity and such genuine insight, so deft and deep, that it somehow manages to agitate, charm, amuse and excuse the reader all at the same pitch of experience -- Dennis Potter * The Times *Naipaul's travel writing is perhaps the most important body of work of its kind in the second half of the century -- Martin Amis
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Pan Macmillan Shallows
Book SynopsisTim Winton has published twenty-six books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.Trade ReviewAll this is dazzling, dazzling. It makes the heart pound. * Los Angeles Times *A moving and powerful elegy . . . Winton writes vividly, and with courage, about serious matters in a cynical world. * Observer *A major work by anyone’s standards . . . mysterious, painful and beautiful. * Washington Post *
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Cornerstone Fatal Remedies
Book Synopsis''Leon is a skilful plotter . . . Brunetti is a nicely shaded creation, a moral man who is also all too human'' The ObserverA sudden act of vandalism has been committed in the chill Venetian dawn and Commissario Guido Brunetti soon finds out that the perpetrator is no petty criminal. For the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene of the crime is none other than Paola Brunetti, his wife.As Paola''s actions provoke a crisis in the Brunetti household, Brunetti himself is under increasing pressure at work: a daring robbery with Mafia connections is linked to a suspicious death and his superiors want quick results. As his professional and personal lives clash, Brunetti''s own career is threatened and the conspiracy which Paola has risked everything to expose draws him inexorably to the brink . . .''Donna Leon has established Commissario Guido Brunetti as one of the most engaging of fictional detectives'' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewDonna Leon has established Commissario Guido Brunetti as one of the most engaging of fictional detectives ... Brunetti is ... back on track, sadder perhaps, but wiser and wittier than ever * Sunday Times *A splendid series ... with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can smell it * Sunday Telegraph *One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever * The Washington Post *No one knows the labyrinthine world of Venice . . . like Leon's Brunetti * Time *[Brunetti's] humane police work is disarming, and his ambles through the city are a delight * The New York Times Book Review *
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Vintage Publishing Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Book SynopsisRobert Poste''s child is back at Cold Comfort Farm. But all is not well. Flora finds the farm transformed into a twee haven filled with Toby jugs and peasant pottery, and rooms labelled ''Quiete Retreate'' and ''Greate laundrie''. It is, Flora winces, ''exactly like being locked in the Victoria and Albert Museum after closing time''. Worse, the farm is hosting a conference of the pretentious International Thinkers Group - a group made up of the ''sadistic owl'' Mr Peccavi, loathsome Mr Mybug and the overpowering Mrs Ernestine Thump. And worst of all, there are no Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm. All the he-cousins have gone abroad to make their fortunes and the female cousins are having a pretty thin time of it. Once again the sensible Flora decides to take the situation in hand.Trade ReviewGibbons was an acute and witty observer, and her dissection of the British class system is spot-on. * Mail on Sunday *Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the twentieth century * Lynne Truss *Most of us wish we knew a real Flora Poste who could put straight our pretzeled lives -- Julie Birchill * Sunday Times *
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HarperCollins Publishers People of the Books
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
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Selected Poems
Book SynopsisJohn Keats is regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic movement. But when he died at the age of only twenty-five, his writing had been attacked by critics and his talent remained largely unrecognized. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Dr Andrew Hodgson.This volume, Selected Poems, reflects his extraordinary creativity and versatility, drawing on the collections published during his lifetime as well as posthumously. He wrote in many different forms – from his famous Odes to ballads such as ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, and the epic Hyperion. Together, they celebrate a poet who wrote with unsurpassed insight and emotion about art and beauty, love and loss, suffering and nature.Trade ReviewThe imaginative impact of Keats’s life – his “orphaned” childhood, his letters, his poetry, his friendships, his illness, his agonizing love affair – has continued unbroken for nearly two hundred years * New York Review of Books *Keats’s jazz-like improvisations, which give us, like no other writing in English, the actual rush of a man thinking, a mind hurtling forward unpredictably and sweeping us along -- Morris Dickstein * New York Times *He left behind him some of Britain’s best-loved poetry -- Alison Flood * Guardian *A truly radical poet -- Lesley McDowell * Independent *Table of ContentsIntroduction - i: Introduction Chapter - 1: ‘I am as brisk’ Chapter - 2: Song (‘Stay, ruby-breasted warbler, stay’) Chapter - 3: ‘Give me Women, Wine, and Snuff’ Chapter - 4: ‘To one who has been in long city pent’ Chapter - 5: ‘O! how I love, on a fair summer’s eve’ Chapter - 6: To my Brother George (‘Full many a dreary hour have I passed’) Chapter - 7: To Charles Cowden Clarke Chapter - 8: ‘How many bards gild the lapses of time!’ Chapter - 9: On First Looking in To Chapman’s Homer Chapter - 10: On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour Chapter - 11: ‘Keen, fitful gusts are whispering here and there’ Chapter - 12: ‘Great spirits now on earth are sojourning’ Chapter - 13: ‘I stood tip-toe upon a little hill’ Chapter - 14: from Sleep and Poetry Chapter - 15: Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition Chapter - 16: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket Chapter - 17: ‘After dark vapours have oppressed our plains’ Chapter - 18: Written on a Blank Space at the End of Chaucer’s Tale of ‘The Floure and the Leafe’ Chapter - 19: On Seeing the Elgin Marbles Chapter - 20: On the Sea Chapter - 21: from Endymion: A Poetic Romance Chapter - 22: ‘In drear-nighted December’ Chapter - 23: On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Again Chapter - 24: ‘Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port’ Chapter - 25: Robin Hood Chapter - 26: ‘Lines on the Mermaid Tavern’ Chapter - 27: ‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’ Chapter - 28: The Human Seasons Chapter - 29: To J. H. Reynolds, Esq. Chapter - 30: Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil Chapter - 31: On Visiting the Tomb of Burns Chapter - 32: ‘Old Meg she was a gipsy’ Chapter - 33: Lines Written in the Highlands after a Visit to Burns’s Country Chapter - 34: ‘Where’s the poet? Show him, show him’ Chapter - 35: ‘And what is Love? It is a doll dressed up’ Chapter - 36: Hyperion. A Fragment Chapter - 37: Fancy Chapter - 38: Ode (‘Bards of passion and of mirth’) Chapter - 39: Song (‘I had a dove and the sweet dove died’) Chapter - 40: Song (‘Hush, hush! tread softly! hush, hush my dear!’) Chapter - 41: The Eve of St Agnes Chapter - 42: ‘Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell’ Chapter - 43: A Dream, After Reading Dante’s Episode of Paulo and Francesca Chapter - 44: La Belle Dame Sans Merci. A Ballad Chapter - 45: To Sleep Chapter - 46: ‘If by dull rhymes our English must be chained’ Chapter - 47: Ode to Psyche Chapter - 48: Ode on a Grecian Urn Chapter - 49: Ode to a Nightingale Chapter - 50: from Ode on Melancholy Chapter - 51: Lamia Chapter - 52: ‘Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes’ Chapter - 53: To Autumn Chapter - 54: The Fall of Hyperion. A Dream Chapter - 55: ‘The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone’ Chapter - 56: ‘What can I do to drive away’ Chapter - 57: ‘I cry your mercy, pity, love – ay, love!’ Chapter - 58: ‘Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art’ Chapter - 59: To Fanny Chapter - 60: ‘This living hand, now warm and capable’ Index - ii: Index of Poem Titles Index - iii: Index of First Lines
£10.44
Hodder & Stoughton The Diver and The Lover: A novel of love and the
Book Synopsis'The lives of the characters get entangled in this powerful read' WOMAN'S OWN'A pacy, gripping tale... written with skill and colour. It gave me enormous pleasure to read such a satisfying novel.' SANTA MONTEFIORE 'If you're in desperate need of a far-flung getaway, indulge in this slice of escapist fiction' HEAT'Being transported to a Spanish summer in 1951... I feel the cool of the shadows under the trees and hear the sea as it glistens in the rippling heat.' FERN BRITTON'This absorbing, poignant rollercoaster of a read is utterly satisfying and will stay with you long after you've put it down.' PATRICIA SCANLAN 'Keeps up the pace and excitement to the very end.' JOAN BAKEWELLSoaked in sunlight, love and the mysteries surrounding a famous artist The Diver and the Lover is a novel inspired by true events.It is 1951 and sisters Ginny and Meredith have travelled from England to Spain in search of distraction and respite. The two wars have wreaked loss and deprivation upon the family and the spectre of Meredith's troubled childhood continues to haunt them. Their journey to the rugged peninsula of Catalonia promises hope and renewal. While there they discover the artist Salvador Dali is staying in nearby Port Lligat. Meredith is fascinated by modern art and longs to meet the famous surrealist. Dali is embarking on an ambitious new work, but his headstrong male model has refused to pose. A replacement is found, a young American waiter with whom Ginny has struck up a tentative acquaintance. The lives of the characters become entangled as family secrets, ego and the dangerous politics of Franco's Spain threaten to undo the fragile bonds that have been forged. A powerful story of love, sacrifice and the lengths we will go to for who - or what - we love.
£8.99
Pan Macmillan The Last Summer: A wild, romantic tale of
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 *
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Belle of Belgrave Square
Book SynopsisThe sizzling historical romance perfect for fans of Bridgerton and Jilly Cooper''A page-turner that swept me off fairytale-style and kept up the enchantment right through to the end'' 5* READER REVIEW''Swooningly romantic! From the moment I picked it up, I was hooked'' 5* READER REVIEW''No one writes historical romance like Mimi Mathews. I just can''t get enough'' 5* READER REVIEWA marriage of convenience. An unlikely couple. Sparks will fly in the English countryside . . .__________Captain Jasper Blunt requires a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.Julia finds navigating London''s high society torture. So she decides to swap the ballrooms for the countryside - she''ll marry the Captain. In exchange for her dowry and her hand, the Captain must promise to grant her freedom. This is to be no marriage of love, and Trade ReviewMimi Matthews never disappoints, with richly drawn characters and couples whose individual shortcomings become strengths, when paired together. In this Beauty and the Beast retelling, we get to root for two underdogs who get to rewrite their own stories * Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here *Shiveringly Gothic...Watching Julia blossom away from prying eyes is almost as satisfying as seeing Jasper Blunt pine for her from nearly the first page...For best effect, save this one for a windy night when trees scrape against the windowpanes * New York Times Book Review *The Belle of Belgrave Square is such tremendous good fun: a heroine with a big horse, an even bigger novel-reading habit, and a hidden anxiety; a hero with a crumbling estate, a trio of wary children, and a literary secret-what's not to love? Mimi Matthews paints Victorian England with vivid humor, and her Belles of London is set to go on for at least a few more much-anticipated installments. Julian Fellowes fans will rejoice! * Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye *Mimi Matthews just doesn't miss. The Belle of Belgrave Square is exquisite; a romance that delivers the perfect balance of passion, tension, and tender moments * Evie Dunmore, USA Today bestselling author *This story unfolds like a rose blooming, growing more and more beautiful as each delicate layer is revealed. A tender, luminous romance. I loved it more and more with every chapter! * Caroline Linden, USA Today bestselling author *Absolutely enthralling: an endearing, novel-reading heroine who's in dire danger; a swoon-worthy war hero with a scandalous past; and secrets, lots of secrets. Mimi Matthews's The Belle of Belgrave Square is a thrilling, emotion-packed read from start to finish. I loved it! * Syrie James, USA Today bestselling author *[C]ombines deception, risk, and a resourceful heroine to create an intoxicating, suspenseful romance. Highly recommended * Library Journal (starred review) *A grand cross-class romance, a twisty mystery, and emotional internal struggles combine to excellent effect...fans and new readers alike will root for this well-earned love story * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Past Perfect: A spellbinding story of an
Book SynopsisPRESENT. PAST. SPELLBOUND. Sybil and Blake Gregory live a well-ordered, predictable Manhattan life — she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high-tech investments — raising their teenagers Andrew and Caroline and six-year-old Charlie. But when Blake is offered a dream job as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco, he accepts it, without consulting his wife, and buys a magnificent, historic mansion as their new home in Pacific Heights.Past and present collide at their elegant mansion, when they meet the large and lively family who lived there a century ago. All long dead but very much alive in spirit—visible to the Gregorys and no one else. Within these enchanted rooms, it is at once 1917 and a century later. Have the Gregorys been given a perfect gift; beloved friends, a chance to relive the past and the wisdom and grace to shape the future?
£17.09
Pan Macmillan The Greengage Summer
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.
£9.89
Vintage Publishing Chinaman
Book SynopsisShehan Karunatilaka is the multi-award winning author of two novels. He won the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for his debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. He won the Booker Prize 2022 for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. In addition to his novels he has written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories.Trade ReviewThe strength of the book lies in its energy, its mixture of humour and heartwrenching emotion, its twisting narrative, its playful use of cricketing facts and characters, and its occasional blazing anger about what Sri Lanka has done to itself... * Guardian *Carries real weight...a mixture of, say, CLR James, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fernando Pessoa and Sri Lankan arrack...essential to anyone with a taste for maverick genius * The Times *Karunatilaka has a real lightness of touch. He mixes humour and violence with the same deftness with which his protagonist mixes drinks * Observer *Chinaman is a debut bristling with energy and confidence, a quixotic novel that is both an elegy to lost ambitions and a paean to madcap dreams * Sunday Times *Chinaman's free-wheeling, zany tempo is part of its charm too. Its picaresque action, mainly based in Colombo and narrated in short bite-sized chunks, gives a vibrant comic pulse to Sri Lankan life, even though Karunatilaka's portrait of the country is scathing...it confirms that cricket, a game that is largely played in the head and inhabits a bizarrely detailed parallel world to our own, is ideally suited to the purposes of fiction * Financial Times *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers A CHANGE OF CLIMATE
Book SynopsisFrom the double Man Booker prize-winning author of Wolf Hall' and Bring Up the Bodies', this is an epic yet subtle family saga about broken trusts and buried secrets.Ralph and Anna Eldred live in the big Red House in Norfolk, raising their four children and devoting their lives to charity. The constant flood of good souls and sad cases', children plucked from the squalor of the East London streets for a breath of fresh countryside air, hides the growing crises in their own family, the disillusionment of their children, the fissures in their marriage.Memories of their time as missionaries in South Africa and Botswana, of the terrible African tragedies that have shaped the rest of their lives, refuse to be put to rest and threaten to destroy the fragile peace they have built for themselves and their children.This is a breathtakingly intelligent novel that asks the most difficult questions. Is there anything one can never forgive? Is tragedy ever deserved? Can you ever escape your own pasTrade Review‘A beautifully crafted novel’ Guardian ‘There are very few novels that not only bristle with ideas but leave you asking questions about those ideas, again and again, your world turned upside down. Mantel has managed to do this.’ Sunday Times ‘The best book she’s written … She writes about punishing subjects so freshly it is as if they had never been written about before.’ Observer ‘It has the tension of a first-rate thriller and the breadth of a family saga … Its compassion and its intellectual energy mark her as the novelist of her generation who will achieve a lasting greatness.’ Literary Review ‘A complex and highly intelligent portrayal of injustice, bereavement and the loss of faith … Hilary Mantel has created that rare thing, a page-turner with a profound moral dimension.’ Daily Telegraph ‘A work of exquisite craftsmanship that asks enormous questions.’ Independent
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Ragtime
Book SynopsisSet in turn-of-the-century New York, E.L. Doctorow''s Ragtime seamlessly blends fictional characters and realistic depictions of historical figures to bring to life the events that defined American history in the years before the First World War. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Al Alvarez.Welcome to America at the turn of the twentieth century, where the rhythms of ragtime set the beat. Harry Houdini astonishes audiences with magical feats of escape, the mighty J. P. Morgan dominates the financial world and Henry Ford manufactures cars by making men into machines. Emma Goldman preaches free love and feminism, while ex-chorus girl Evelyn Nesbitt inspires a mad millionaire to murder the architect Stanford White. In this stunningly original chronicle of an age, such real-life characters intermingle with three remarkable families, one black, one Jewish and one prosperous WASP, to create a dazzling literary mosaic that brings to life an era of dire poverty, fabulous wealth, and incredible change - in short, the era of ragtime.E.L. Doctorow (b.1931) is one of America''s most accomplished and acclaimed living writers. Winner of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Humanities Medal, he is the author of nine novels that have explored the drama of American life from the late 19th century to the 21st, including Ragtime, The Book of Daniel and Billy Bathgate.If you enjoyed Ragtime, you might like John Dos Passos'' U.S.A., also available in Penguin Classics.''In its perfection it stuns and holds from beginning to end''Daily Mail''Witty, lyrical, put together with admirable craft ... dazzling economy and insight ... Mr Doctorow knows what he is doing and has done it beautifully''Guardian''One of the best American novels for years''Economist
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Turning
Book SynopsisTim Winton has published over twenty books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). Active in the environmental movement, he is the Patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. He lives in Western Australia.Trade Review‘Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line after line of perfect music . . . To read Winton is to be reminded not just of the possibilities of fiction but of the human heart’ The Times ‘The laureate of Western Australia is back . . . this is like Carver, happily with a very large dose of Winton’ Time Out 'These stories are threaded through with subtleties and oblique connections; to be fully appreciated, they need to be read more than once. But Winton's writing – vigorous, vivid, precise – is so good that you'd want to do that anyway’ Sunday Times‘Sublime. Winton is a great writer’ Daily Mail‘Vivid, elegiac and humorous . . . and told in a relaxed prose that frequently strikes sparks’ Daily Telegraph‘Winton is marvellous at locating the small moment of crisis. His prose is leavened throughout by a kind of poetry . . . so exquisitely written, so precise in its construction, that it is a joy to read’ Sunday Telegraph‘Winton is a poet of baffled souls . . . Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line after line of perfect music. His unbounded humanity and his sympathy for his characters descend on them like grace as they struggle to salvage their lives’ The Times
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Atlantic Books Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 DEBUT CATEGORY - KITCHIES PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE 2013 IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARDSA New York Times bestseller, Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore is an entirely charming and lovable first novel of mysterious books and dusty bookshops; it is a witty and delightful love-letter to both the old book world and the new.Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a Web-design drone and serendipity coupled with sheer curiosity has landed him a new job working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. And it doesn't take long for Clay to realize that the quiet, dusty book emporium is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few fanatically committed customers, but they never seem to actually buy anything, instead they simply borrow impossibly obscure volumes perched on dangerously high shelves, all according to some elaborate arrangement with the eccentric proprietor. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has plugged in his laptop, roped in his friends (and a cute girl who works for Google) and embarked on a high-tech analysis of the customers' behaviour. What they discover is an ancient secret that can only be solved by modern means, and a global-conspiracy guarded by Mr. Penumbra himself... who has mysteriously disappeared.Trade ReviewThe story is gripping, the characters are terrific and the writing is clever and funny. As intelligent as it is enjoyable * Daily Mail *It's a proper novel. By which I mean, not that it has pages you actually turn - that is optional with novels nowadays - but pages that you actually want to turn, which is getting rarer and rarer.... Charming, gently comedic, sweetly nerdy and enthusiastic about media both old and new * Irish Times *Rollicking... an ode to the beauty of dead-tree books * New York Times *Delightful... Smart, hip and witty * Washington Post *The pages swell with Mr Sloan's nerdy affection and youthful enthusiasm for both tangible books and new media... A clever and whimsical tale with a big heart * The Economist *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Bridge Over the Drina
Book SynopsisIn the small Bosnian town of Visegrad the stone bridge of the novel's title, built in the sixteenth century on the instruction of a grand vezir, bears witness to three centuries of conflict. Visegrad has long been a bone of contention between the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, but the bridge survives unscathed until 1914, when the collision of forces in the Balkans triggers the outbreak of World War I.The bridge spans generations, nationalities and creeds, silent testament to the lives played out on it. Radisav, a workman, tries to hinder its construction and is impaled alive on its highest point; beautiful Fata leaps from its parapet to escape an arranged marriage; Milan, inveterate gamble, risks all in one last game on it. With humour and compassion, Andric chronicles the lives of Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox Christians unable to reconcile their disparate loyalties.Trade ReviewIn high school, one Saturday, I started reading a book by the Yugoslav novelist Ivo Andric: The Bridge on the Drina. By the time I finished it something in me had shifted forever * New Statesman *Despite its scale, what makes the book extraordinary is the tender insight with which it treats these individual lives, whether Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim or Jewish * Independent *Perhaps the most widely translated Yugoslav book since the last war is Ivo Andric's The Bridge on the Drina... No better example could have been selected with which to introduce the American public to contemporary Yugoslav prose * New York Times *The best kind of fictionalised history * Daily Telegraph *The wealth and variety of its fictional elements carry it so far beyond the confines of a straightforward novel, it cannot be limited to such a description. It puts one in mind of a collection of tales, but no collection of tales (not even A Thousand and One Nights or Washington Irving's stories) ever possessed such a unity and continuity of theme * Le Monde *
£11.69
Pan Macmillan A Dedicated Man: Book 2 in the number one
Book Synopsis‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong’ - Stephen King.From the master of police procedural and bestselling author of Standing in the Shadows comes A Dedicated Man, book two in Peter Robinson’s the Inspector Banks series.A dead body. Hidden secrets. Banks will find the truth.The brutally murdered body of a supposedly well-liked local historian is found half-buried under a dry stone wall. But who would kill such a thoughtful, dedicated man?Young Sally Lumb, locked in her lover's arms on the night of the murder, tries to find the killer herself. But her good-intentions only leads to more danger. And when Chief Inspector Alan Banks is called to investigate and soon discovers that disturbing secrets lie behind the seemingly untroubled façade . . .A Dedicated Man is followed in the gripping Inspector Banks crime series by A Necessary End.Trade ReviewThe novels of Peter Robinson are chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art -- Dennis LehaneIf you haven't encountered Chief Inspector Alan Banks before, prepare for a crash course in taut, clean writing and subtle psychology. And watch for those twists - they'll get you every time -- Ian RankinInspector Banks - a man for all seasons, he knows that often the answers to the clues are hidden in his own heart -- Michael Connelly
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Hanging Valley: Book 4 in the number one
Book Synopsis‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong’ – Stephen KingFrom the master of police procedural and bestselling author of Standing in the Shadows comes The Hanging Valley, book four in Peter Robinson’s the Inspector Banks series.TWO MURDERS. A MISSING PERSON. A VILLAGE WITH A TERRIBLE SECRET.A faceless corpse is found in a tranquil, hidden valley below the village of Swainshead, the victim’s identity deliberately obscured. And when Chief Inspector Alan Banks arrives, he finds that no-one is willing to talk. Banks's frustration only grows when he suspects his latest case might be connected with an unsolved murder and a missing local woman, which occurred in the same area five years ago.Among the silent suspects are the Collier brothers, the wealthiest and most powerful family in the area. When they start using their influence to slow down the investigation, Banks finds himself in a race against time . . .The Hanging Valley is followed by Past Reason Hated in the Inspector Banks series.Trade ReviewThe novels of Peter Robinson are chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art -- Dennis LehaneIf you haven't caught up with Peter Robinson already, now is the time to start * Independent on Sunday *
£9.49
Orenda Books Bitter Flowers: The breathtaking Nordic Noir
Book SynopsisFresh from rehab, Norwegian PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues…‘As searing and gripping as they come’ New York Times ‘One of my very favourite Scandinavian authors’ Ian Rankin‘The Norwegian Chandler’ Jo Nesbø ***Now a major TV series starring Trond Espen Seim***________________________PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when a challenging assignment arrives on his desk.A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Varg Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found.As the threads of these apparently unrelated crimes come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Varg Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.________________________ 'Every inch the equal of his Nordic confreres Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø' Independent‘Staalesen continually reminds us he is one of the finest of Nordic novelists’ Financial Times ‘There are only two other writers that I know of have achieved the depth of insight in detective writing that Staalesen has: Chandler, and Ross MacDonald …’ Mystery Tribune ‘Employs Chandleresque similes with a Nordic Noir twist … simply superb’ Wall Street Journal‘Masterful pacing’ Publishers Weekly 'The Varg Veum series is more concerned with character and motivation than spectacle, and it’s in the quieter scenes that the real drama lies’ Herald Scotland ‘Unsettling, moving, sad, hopeful and hopeless … it’s rich and it’s sharp and it’s cynical and sentimental all at once’ NB Magazine ‘A complex, layered plot in which human tragedy and mystery combine to play out beautifully in a classic Nordic noir with a touch of Christie’ Live & Deadly For fans of Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Jorn Lier Horst, Harlan Coben and Jussi Adler-Olse
£8.54
Pan Macmillan Gallows View: The first novel in the number one
Book Synopsis‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ - Stephen KingFrom the master of police procedural and bestselling author of Standing in the Shadows comes Gallows View, the first book in Peter Robinson’s the Inspector Banks series.New Town. New Cases. New Danger . . .Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has recently relocated with his family from stressful London to the Yorkshire Dales, but soon finds that life in the countryside is not quite as idyllic as he had imagined.Three cases come to the fore: a voyeur is terrorizing the women of Eastvale; two thugs are breaking into homes; and an old woman is dead, possibly murdered. As the tension mounts, Banks must also deal with his attraction to a young psychologist, Jenny Fuller – and when both Jenny and Banks’s wife are drawn deeper into events, Banks realizes that his cases are weaving closer and closer together . . .Gallows View is followed by A Dedicated Man in the DCI Banks series.'If you haven’t encountered Chief Inspector Alan Banks before, prepare for a crash course in taut, clean writing and subtle psychology. And watch for those twists – they’ll get you every time' - Ian Rankin, author of A Game Called MaliceTrade ReviewIf you haven’t encountered Chief Inspector Alan Banks before, prepare for a crash course in taut, clean writing and subtle psychology. And watch for those twists – they’ll get you every time -- Ian RankinThe novels of Peter Robinson are chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art -- Dennis LehanePeter Robinson is a master -- Tess GerritsenAn author with amazing empathy, a snare trap ear for dialogue and a clear eye for the telling detail -- Michael ConnellyPeter Robinson’s first, and extremely well-fashioned, police procedural. An expert plotter with an eye for telling detail, Mr. Robinson can also make acute social observations * New York Times Book Review *
£9.49
