Some satirical novels have major political & cultural significance. Think Animal Farm & Slaughterhouse 5. Others are just plain silly.
Satire & Humour Books
Pan Macmillan In A New York Minute: The laugh out loud romantic comedy and must read debut
‘A sweet, hilarious treat’ – Christina Lauren, author of The Soulmate EquationTheir love story has gone viral. But it hasn’t even begun . . .Franny Doyle is having the worst day. She’s been sacked, the subway doors ripped her favorite dress to ruins, and now she’s flashed her unmentionables to half of lower Manhattan. On the plus side, a dashing stranger came to her rescue with his (Gucci!) suit jacket. On the down side, he can’t get away from her fast enough.Worse yet? Someone posted their (entirely not) meet-cute online. Suddenly Franny and her rescuer, Hayes Montgomery, are the newest social media sensation, and all of New York is shipping the #SubwayQTs.Only Franny and Hayes couldn’t be a more disastrous match. She’s talkative, and creative. He’s serious, shy, and all about numbers. Yet somehow, Hayes and Franny keep running into each other. It seems fate isn't done with the subway sweethearts just yet . . .Kate Spencer’s In a New York Minute is a fresh, modern take on romantic comedy for fans of The Flatshare, Our Stop and One Day in December.‘Spencer writes with a wry lilt and a gift for dialogue’ – Entertainment Weekly
£8.54
Duckworth Books Tropical Issue
Book SynopsisRita, a small, tough Scottish make-up artist, is on Madeira investigating who killed Kim-Jim, an American make-up supremo. Also anchored off the island is Dolly, the yacht of Johnson Johnson with whom Rita teams up to get to the bottom of this foul deed. Rita’s fighting spirits are aroused despite the danger. She is not one for quitting, even when she learns she is caught up in an international drug-smuggling ring. But she also discovers that dealing with the maddeningly enigmatic Johnson Johnson is, by no stretch of the imagination, plain sailing.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE DOLLY MYSTERY SERIES ‘The Dolly novels are… delicious, funny, ingenious, glamorous, clever’ Listener'Dunnett tempts her fans with buried clues and red herrings that keep them reading and rereading the books’ New York Times'[Dunnett’s] women are among her strongest characters' Guardian
£8.54
Little, Brown & Company The Godparent Trap
Book SynopsisColby's living her best life: as a popular food blogger, she gets to fulfill her dreams of exploring the globe. But her world comes crashing down when a tragic accident leaves her co-guardian of her best friend's two adorable children. Not only does she need to put down roots-fast-but she'll be sharing custody with the one man she can't stand sharing a continent with, let alone a house. Accountant-extraordinaire Rip values rules and plans. But when he loses his sister and his best friend and becomes an insta-guardian all in one night, Rip sees his organized life imploding. What he really doesn't need is his sister's irresponsible, flighty-albeit kind and gorgeous-best friend making it worse.Rip doesn't trust Colby to take their new responsibilities seriously, while Colby can't believe Rip thinks children will thrive under his rigid control. Yet soon Rip and Colby discover they need each other more than they hate each other. Could it be possible that following their hearts is just what their new little family needs?
£13.29
Forever Part of Your World
Book Synopsis
£11.78
Headline Publishing Group Hollow Kingdom
Book SynopsisA humorous, big-hearted romp through the apocalypse, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero. Perfect for fans of Dawn of the Dead and Isaac Marion''s Warm Bodies.''A thoroughly enjoyable account of the end of the world as we know it. The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead.'' Karen Joy Fowler''It''s transformative, poignant, and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite apocalyptic hero.'' Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for HawkS.T. is a domesticated crow. He is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle''s wild crows (those idiots) and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos.But when Big Jim''s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to feel like something isn''t right. His Trade ReviewHollow Kingdom is a nature book for our own age, an exuberant, glittering, hard-hitting mashup of Dawn of the Dead and The Incredible Journey. It's an adventure lit by strange myths, brand-names, television and smartphone screens, a fable with teeth and claws about animals making new lives amongst the ruins of humanity. It's transformative, poignant, and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite apocalyptic hero. * Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk *Part ecological fable and part adventure story, but it's all very good * SciFi Now, ***** *A quirky zombie apocalypse romp * SFX *A plucky hero, a boisterous tale, startling prose and eerie events combine for a thoroughly enjoyable account of the end of the world as we know it. The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead. * Karen Joy Fowler, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves *A funny and heartwarming book that stays with you long after you finish it * Gill Sims, author of Why Mummy Drinks *A wholesome and humorous tale of unlikely heroism. * Daily Express *Funny and sad, Buxton's fable is also full of purpose and meaning, and ultimately hopeful * Morning Star *Beguilingly different * Booklist, starred review *One of our favourite wacky reads this year * Magic Book Club *I love this book so much! I wanted to set it on fire while hugging it. I wanted to hasten the apocalypse just to see how my own pets fare in a more humane world without humans. Kira Jane Buxton's voice is fresh, like a newly dug grave, but so joyful and honest you'll laugh out loud, and then check to make sure you haven't lost an eyeball. Hollow Kingdom is a wildly original debut and a paean to my favorite city. * Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet *Everything you're hearing about Kira Jane Buxton's Hollow Kingdom--that it's wildly original and inventive, funny and profane--is wonderfully true. But even better, this book is timely, smart, movingly written, and beautifully concluded. * Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is *If you've ever thought that humans were the ones in charge, Kira Jane Buxton's groundbreaking novel will have you thinking otherwise. Full of unforgettable humor, insight and beauty, Hollow Kingdom enriches our human experience by inhabiting the minds (and bellies!) of our non-human animal companions and reminding us that we're not alone here on this earth. * Ruth Ozeki, nationally bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being *Buxton's quirky ideas and compelling nonhuman characters will satisfy literary fiction and zombie genre enthusiasts alike who are looking for something beguilingly different. * Booklist, starred review *The human apocalypse as only a crow can tell it. * Publishers Weekly *
£11.69
Little, Brown & Company A Sister's All You Need., Vol. 11 (light novel)
Book SynopsisAs the 16th annual GF Bunko New Authors Contest approaches, Itsuki’s girlfriendNayuta gently supports him while a major slump is preventing him from writing anynovels. Toki and Miyako try to find a way to snap him out of it, but the results areanything but good. Meanwhile, Chihiro undergoes a huge change now that she is nolonger hiding her gender...
£12.34
Scribner Book Company Milk Fed
Book SynopsisNamed a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Time, Esquire, BookPage, and more This darkly hilarious and “delicious new novel that ravishes with sex and food” (The Boston Globe) from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today is a “precise blend of desire, discomfort, spirituality, and existential ache” (BuzzFeed).Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, through obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey. “A ruthless, laugh-out-loud examination of life under the tyranny of diet culture” (Glamour) Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is “riotously funny and perfectly profane” (Refinery 29) from “a wild, wicked mind” (Los Angeles Times).
£15.30
Transworld Publishers Ltd Raising Steam
Book SynopsisTo the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork – a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water.Trade ReviewLaugh-out-loud funny...A chuffing wonderful book. * SFX *Terry Pratchett’s creation is still going strong after 30 years as Ankh-Morpork branches into the railway age…There are sly nods to the history of railways and a cheeky reference to The Railway Children. Most aficionados, however, will be on the look-out for in-jokes and references from previous novels – of which there is no shortage…It is at the level of the sentence that Pratchett wins his fans. * The Times *The genius of Pratchett is that he never goes for the straight allegory. . .he remains one of the most consistently funny writers around; a master of the stealth simile, the time-delay pun and the deflationary three-part list. . .I could tell which of my fellow tube passengers had downloaded it to their e-readers by the bouts of spontaneous laughter. -- Ben Aaronovitch * The Guardian *
£14.24
Mariner Books Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
Book SynopsisA handsome stranger. A dead billionaire. A citywide treasure hunt. Tuesday Mooney's life is about to change in ways sheand no readercould never expect in this rollicking (Star Tribune), award-winning novel. A Kirkus Reviews Best Book An Indie Next Pick A Library Reads Selection A New York Post Best Book of the Week A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week A Buzzfeed Best Paperback and more! Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, begrudgingly socializes, and spends much of her time watching old Twin Peaks and X-Files DVDs. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston's most eccentric billionaire, diesleaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan PoeTuesday's adventure finally begins. Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew: a wisecracking friend, an adoring teen neighbor, and a handsome, cagey young heir. The hunt tests their me
£18.89
Unnamed Press Exalted
Book Synopsis
£21.60
Penguin Random House Children's UK How Not To Be A Twit and Other Wisdom from Roald
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£7.59
Urbane Publications Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong
Book SynopsisMeet Mavis Upton. As mummy to 7-year old Ella, surrogate to far too many pets and with a failed marriage under her belt, Mavis knows she needs to make some life-changing decisions. It''s time to strike out into the world, to stand on her own two feet to pursue a lifelong ambition to become a Police Officer. I mean, what could go wrong? Supported by her quirky, malapropism-suffering mum, Mavis throws herself headlong into a world of uncertainty, self-discovery, fearless escapades, laughter and extra-large knickers. And using her newly discovered investigative skills, she reluctantly embarks on a search to find her errant dad who was last seen years before, making off with her mum''s much needed coupon for a fabulous foam cup bra all the way from America. Follow Mavis as she tackles everything life can throw at her, and revel in Gina Kirkham''s humorous, poignant and moving story of an everyday girl who one day followed a dream.
£6.39
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial El día del ajuste /Adjustment Day
Book Synopsis
£28.81
Pan Macmillan Mother for Dinner
Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021‘Outrageous satire . . . extremely funny, weirdly touching’ – Guardian‘A work of genius’ – Scotsman‘Close-to-the-knuckle farce with a big beating heart’ – Daily MailThis is the story of an unusual family. Though they are nothing like yours, you will recognize them. They are the last Cannibal-Americans. And they have a problem.When their mother dies, twelve children gather to dispose of the body in the traditional manner . . . by eating it. But can they follow the ancient rituals of consumption? Is their unique cultural heritage worth preserving if it's this gross? And what about dietary requirements - one of them is vegan. Surely it can't be this hard to do the right thing?Mother for Dinner is a dark comedy about modern life and its many difficulties.Trade ReviewBad taste has a purpose in this outrageous satire . . . grotesque, extremely funny, weirdly touching and acute * Guardian *Daring, provocative and controversial . . . the outrageous nature of the comedy is done perfectly . . . This is a work of genius * Scotsman *I loved [it] . . . I devoured it in one sitting . . . I recommend you dig in * The Times *Laugh-out-loud funny . . Underlying the dark humour, it is, dare I say, a tender tale * Financial Times *A terrifically funny book . . . Close-to-the-knuckle farce with a big beating heart * Daily Mail *A grotesque family comedy . . . Written in fast-moving, deadpan prose * New Stateman *[A] laugh-out-loud, gravely serious satire * Economist, The Best Books of 2021 *Auslander is an enfant even more terrible than Philip Roth . . . it provides plenty of dark laughs and inspired comic riffs * TLS *A virtuoso humorist, and a brave one * New York Times Book Review *You’re unlikely to read anything funnier this year * Big Issue *Auslander’s greatest strength is the zip and ping of his dialogue . . . uproariously funny * Literary Review *Brilliantly written, often hilarious but also deeply thoughtful * Jewish Chronicle *Consistently funny, consistently wise and consistently disturbing in ways that probably only Shalom Auslander could arrange. It is a rare and agile narrative . . . Perhaps not a perfect gift for Mother’s Day, but then again, it could be just the thing -- A. L. Kennedy, Costa Prize-winning author of DayPortnoy-era Roth couldn't hold a candle to Shalom Auslander * Entertainment Weekly *Blends tragedy, comedy and satire in the mold of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka. * The Wall Street Journal *Auslander turns his taboo-shattering satiric gaze to cannibalism in this outrageous, salty take on contemporary culture . . . more effective is the riotous dissection of cultural formation and a community's hunger for meaning * Publishers Weekly *A book that’s funny enough not just to make you nod to show you got the joke, but to make you laugh and laugh * The Critic *Dead funny and dead serious. A deliciously appalling satire on the hazards of tribalism, religion and tradition – and eating your relatives -- Rhidian Brook, author of The Killing of Butterfly JoeIrreverent and written with Auslander's incomparable humor, Mother for Dinner is an exploration of legacy, assimilation, the things we owe our families, and the things we owe ourselves * The Jewish Book World *
£8.54
Transworld Publishers Ltd Monstrous Regiment
Book SynopsisTerry Pratchett was the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. In all, he was the author of over fifty bestselling books which have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood for services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.www.terrypratchettbooks.comTrade Review'Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable.' * The Times *'A true original among contemporary writers - a fantasist who loves naff humour and silly names, and yet whose absurd world is, at heart, a serious portrait of the jingoistic fears that keep us at each other's throats.' * The Times *'The great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody as opposed to derivative manipulation of past motifs, who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences.' -- A.S. Byatt * The New York Times *
£13.49
Pilot Productions Ltd Comrade Don Camillo: No. 4 in the Don Camillo
Book SynopsisIn No. 4 of the newly translated Don Camillo series, Peppone loses out on a matter of conscience and must accept the presence of Don Camillo among a group of communist activists on a trip he is organising to Mother Russia. Travelling incognito, the battling priest becomes the life and soul of the Party and picks off his totalitarian comrades one-by-one in a hilarious riot of shrewd manipulation.Trade Review'Those who read The Little World of Don Camillo will need no more than the news of this new volume to send them quickly to their bookshops - so lovely, so humorous, so wise.' Harper's & Queen
£8.99
Forever Satisfaction Guaranteed
Book Synopsis For fans of Casey McQuiston and Abby Jimenez comes a bold, hilarious, and out-of-the-box novel about mixing business with battery-operated pleasure . . .When it comes to her career, Cade Elgin has it all figured out. Only “professional talk” has become her default mode, relationships are nonexistent, and don’t even mention the word “orgasm.” All work and no play makes Cade a dull human. But when she inherits a sex toy store, Cade is caught between business and a store filled with every imaginable kind of pleasure—including her infuriatingly irresponsible and deliciously sexy new co-owner.Selena Mathis learned the hard way that she can have too much of a good thing. Which is precisely why she’s taken an oath of celibacy and is focusing on how to make Satisfaction Guaranteed a success. She won’t mess this up. Not this time. But once again, Selena’s emotions are getting in the way and tempting her with a serious attraction to buttoned-up Cade.But the shop isn’t exactly vibe-ing, and Cade and Selena are on the verge of losing both their income and the possibility of love. Can they find a way to work together . . . before Satisfaction Guaranteed runs out of batteries?
£13.59
Alma Books Ltd Utopia
Book SynopsisIn Thomas More's hugely influential Utopia, a traveller recounts his discovery of an island nation in which the inhabitants enjoy unprecedented social cohesion and justice. The book imagines a community in which laws, personal relations and professional ambition are based on reason, in contrast with the tradition-bound superstitions of Europe, which were, in More's eyes, impediments to equality and peaceful coexistence.One of the indicators of the profound cultural and political influence of More's masterpiece is today's common use of the word "Utopia" - a term he invented. This extraordinary treatise on the values of rationality and reason - here presented in a sparkling new translation by Roger Clarke and accompanied by copious notes and additional texts - questions what a philosopher can do to enact change in society, and how idealized visions can inform political practice.Trade Review"Astonishingly radical stuff." - Terry Eagleton
£7.59
Little, Brown & Company A Sister's All You Need., Vol. 9 (light novel)
Book SynopsisThe winners of GF Bunko's competition for industry newcomers are finally having their works published, but some of the rookies are faring better than others. Meanwhile, the All About My Little Sister anime adaptation is facing its own share of troubles, Miyako is considering her future career path, and Chihiro has finally found a rival...?!
£12.34
Little, Brown Book Group Squeeze Me
Book Synopsis''One of the world''s funniest novelists''SUNDAY TIMES ''Scabrous and unrelentingly hilarious . . . the Trump era is truly Carl Hiaasen''s moment''WASHINGTON POSTFrom the highly acclaimed author of Bad Monkey and Razor Girl comes this hilarious new novel of social and political intrigue, set against the glittering backdrop of Florida''s gold coast. It''s the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every good cause, there''s a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink (maximally), and be seen. But when prominent high-society dowager Kiki Pew suddenly vanishes during a swanky gala, and is later found dead, panic and chaos erupt.Kiki was an ardent fan of the Winter White House resident just down the road, and a founding member of the POTUSSIES, a group of women dedicated to supporting their President - who immediately declares that Kiki was the victim of rampagingTrade ReviewCarl Hiaasen remains the undefeated, unscored-upon conscience of Florida, maybe the conscience of the whole country. I laughed and laughed and laughed while I read Squeeze Me - until I remembered, hey, I live in Palm Beach! * James Patterson *Scintillating, driven and very, very funny. Sheer comic genius * Metro *Hiaasen is wondrously fertile in devising fizzing plots and zany characters, but also as a comic prose stylist he can give Wodehouse and Waugh a run for their money * The Sunday Times *Creating laughter in a tough world may be Hiaasen's hallmark * Independent *If you could use some wild escapism right now, Hiaasen is your guy. In its themes and its wild imagination, Squeeze Me offers some familiar pleasures, akin to a Greatest Hits collection. Anyone who's read him will know what a prime recommendation that is * New York Times *By the evidence of the scabrous and unrelentingly hilarious Squeeze Me, the Trump era is truly Carl Hiaasen's moment * Washington Post *Rampagingly funny satire * Kirkus *Splendid satire [...] One of his best * Crime Club *Will have you crying with laughter * Best *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Under the Table
Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestselling author of Big Girl Panties puts a modern twist on My Fair Lady in this funny, romantic confection in which a canny young woman makes over her awkward millionaire client . . . with some hot, sexy, and surprising results.Suffocating in a dead-end marriage, Midwesterner Zoey Sullivan fled to New York and moved in with her older sister Ruth, a carefree, vivacious beauty with a string of eligible bachelors at her beck and call. Giving herself three months in the city to clear her head and find a direction, Zoey dodges calls from her ex Derek, and distracts herself by cooking and catering a few private dinners and parties. Pursuing her passion for cooking was never an option when she was with Derek, and now Zoey relishes her independence.When Zoey’s meets reclusive millionaire Tristan Malloy, she’s blown away by his kitchen—a marble and stainless steel temple worthy of the culinary gods—and
£22.94
Penguin Books Ltd Lake Success a novel
Book Synopsis*Over 50 Best of 2018 listings worldwide* ''Gary Shteyngart hears America perfectly; its fatuity, its poignant lament, its boisterous self-loathing. Its heartbeat. Reading him sometimes makes me want to scream - with recognition and with pure hilarity'' - Richard FordA riotously satirical road trip through modern America from the brilliant author of Super Sad True Love Story and AbsurdistanBarry Cohen, master of the universe, has just had a very public meltdown involving a dinner party, an insider trading investigation and a $30,000 bottle of Japanese whisky. So he flees New York City, leaving behind his beautiful young wife and son, but remembering to bring his six favourite designer watches. Zig-zagging south through Trump''s America on a Greyhound Bus pilgrimmage he is singularly unprepared for, Barry heads to Texas - to find his old college girlfriend and, with her, a shot at a second chance...LaTrade ReviewShteyngart, perhaps more than any American writer of his generation, is a natural. The wit and the immigrant's sense of heartbreak just seem to pour from him * The New York Times *Uproariously funny, bitingly satiric, yet also warm and big-hearted * Boston Globe *SPECTACULAR... More than just an artistic tour de force, Lake Success succeeds in saying something big about America today. By turns compassionate and mournful, wickedly satirical and ultimately aspirational. He captures what Philip Roth once called the 'indigenous American berserk' * NPR/Fresh Air *A novel in which comedy and pathos are exquisitely balanced * Washington Post *Gary Shteyngart hears America perfectly; its fatuity, its poignant lament, its boisterous self-loathing. Its heartbeat. Reading him sometimes makes me want to scream - with recognition and with pure hilarity -- Richard FordAn unforgettable road trip through an America that's ominously divided, wildly diverse, and weirdly familiar. Gary Shteyngart writes with brutal honesty, virtuoso wit, and stubborn compassion for his deeply flawed but still somehow lovable characters -- Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of 'The Leftovers'The funniest book you'll read all year. A rollicking and zinger-filled road trip [and] a poignant tale of a man trying to outrace his problems. Epic, melancholy, staggeringly beautiful -- Maria Semple, author of 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?'A trip through the American wasteland - from the people who have too little, to the people who have too much. Incredibly smart, incredibly funny, incredibly tragic, and therefore incredibly human, this is the perfect novel for these dysfunctional times -- Nathan Hill, author of 'The Nix'A novel reflecting with perfect comedy and horrible tragedy exactly what America feels like right this minute. I barked with laughter, at the same time as wincing in pain. Shteyngart has held up a mirror to American culture that is so accurate and so devastating... Stupendous -- Elizabeth GilbertLake Success is a genial and warm-hearted book...a virtuoso piece of work, full of brilliant noticings...an unhysterical novel about a hysterical country at a hysterical time - the work of a novelist who believes in the power of fiction to illuminate out shared world. * Literary Review *Shteyngart does slapstick as well as ever, but he stakes out new terrain in the expert way he develops his characters' pathos.... A stylish, big-hearted novel. Shteyngart made his name as a sharp satirist, and he'll undoubtedly widen his appeal with this effort * Publisher's Weekly *The satirical layering is masterful. Dark - so dark - yet delicious. * Esquire *Lake Success is undeniably enjoyable, rattling along with good jokes and sharp set pieces, and shot through with Shteyngart's good-natured melancholy. * The Times *Referencing classic novels like The Great Gatsby and On the Road, Shteyngart whips up a novel that's part-satire and part-comedy of manners, humanising the super-rich while casting a critical eye over their world. It's funny, cutting, but above all compassionate * The Herald Magazine *Shteyngart's comic energy is well deployed on the ridiculously rich, especially amid Trump's campaign and his election by, perhaps, many Greyhound riders. * Daily Mail *
£8.99
Vintage Publishing Adjustment Day
Book SynopsisThe author of Fight Club takes America beyond our darkest dreams in this timely satire. People pass the word only to those they trust most: Adjustment Day is coming. They’ve been reading a mysterious blue-black book and memorising its directives. They are ready for the reckoning. In this ingeniously comic work, Chuck Palahniuk’s first novel in four years, he does what he does best: skewer the absurdities in our society. Smug, geriatric politicians hatch a nasty fate for the burgeoning population of young males; working-class men dream of burying the elites; and professors propound theories that offer students only the bleakest future. When it arrives, Adjustment Day inaugurates a new, disunited states. In this mind-blowing novel, Palahniuk fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact, and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche.‘His best book in years’ Irish IndependentTrade ReviewHis best book in years… Mashing up the current febrile mood in America and the destructive impulses of Fight Club, Adjustment Day… skewers every tribe in the identity politics rainbow… Welcome back, Chuck. -- Ian O'Doherty * Irish Independent *An heir to Chuck Palahniuk's most famous novel, Fight Club, Adjustment Day is one of the most ingeniously fucked-up and enticingly original novels to be published this year... Think Will Self, George Orwell, Stephen King and William Burroughs mixed up in a Molotov cocktail. * attitude *There is more than a mere whiff of Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Purge in Palahniuk’s latest novel, and it could be read as a treatise on contemporary America. * Irish Times *The Fight Club author is on a mission to offend everyone with his new satire about America… his humour expresses a genuine anger, and that gives his book a crackling energy… This is one of those books that is best enjoyed in a bad mood, when you’re thinking that a good cull is really what the human race needs, although even when feeling quite sunny, I found the glee Palahniuk takes in his Book of Revelation-esque scenario rather infectious. -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *Timely… with crosshairs fixed on the absurdity of both sides of the political divide. Set in contemporary America, the novel seizes hold of dark separatist ideas and drags them to their ultimate conclusion. * iNews *
£9.49
Gallery Books Eunuchs and Nymphomaniacs
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£16.19
Duckworth Books The Riddle of the Fractal Monks
Book SynopsisA mystery lands – literally – at Tom Winscombe’s feet, and another riotous mathematical adventure begins… Tom Winscombe and Dorothy Chan haven’t managed to go on a date for some time, so it’s a shame that their outing to a Promenade Concert is cut short when a mysterious cowled figure plummets from the gallery to the floor of the arena close to where they are standing. But when they find out who he was, all thoughts of romance fly out of the window. Just who are the Fractal Monks, and what does Isaac, last of the Vavasors and custodian of the papers of famed dead mathematical geniuses Archie and Pye, want with them? How will other figures from the past also demand a slice of the action? And what other mysteries are there lurking at the bottom of the sea and at the top of mountains? The answers lie in The Riddle of Fractal Monks.Trade ReviewPraise for Jonathan Pinnock: ‘Lovely stuff’ Ian Rankin'A series of humorous, riotous mathematical mysteries' David Nicholls ‘He makes funny and self-deprecating company’ The Herald‘Jonathan Pinnock writes compelling tales with a deliciously wicked glint in his eye’ Ian Skillicorn, National Short Story Week‘Jonathan Pinnock is Roald Dahl’s natural successor’ Vanessa Gebbie‘Funny, clever, and sometimes brilliantly daft. A comedy that I am sure would have made Pythagoras, Archimedes and Douglas Adams all laugh out loud’ Scott Pack on The Truth About Archie and Pye
£8.54
Headline Publishing Group The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal The Cat Who Mysteries
Book SynopsisBack home in sleepy Pickax, Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese companions, Koko and Yum Yum, are looking forward to country peace and quiet. But their newly converted apple barn home turns out to be not quite the refuge they were hoping for when a corpse turns up in the orchard outside . . . No one in Pickax is sorry to learn that the local headmaster is dead. Though reputedly brilliant, Hilary Van Brook was also arrogant and manipulative, an outsider who managed to offend teachers, pupils and parents alike - just about everybody in town has a motive for murder. Only when a good friend becomes a chief suspect does Qwilleran''s instinct for mystery overtake his desire for privacy - and Koko''s obsession with a set of antique printing blocks is the first clue to a mystery which takes Qwill and his Siamese sleuths on a day out to the races . . .
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Shylock is My Name
Book SynopsisA re-envisaging of Shakespeare''s The Merchant of Venice, from the Man Booker Prize-winner and our great chronicler of Jewish life. Who is this guy, Dad? What is he doing here?' With an absent wife and a daughter going off the rails, wealthy art collector and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch is in need of someone to talk to. So when he meets Shylock at a cemetery in Cheshire's Golden Triangle, he invites him back to his house. It's the beginning of a remarkable friendship ...Jacobson is quite simply a master of comic precision. He writes like a dream' Evening Standard''The funniest British novelist since Kingsley Amis or Tom Sharpe'' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewInspired...It does what any good literary subversion should do: deepens and enhances one's appreciation of the original. -- James Lasdun * Guardian *Jacobson’s writing is virtuoso. He is the master of shifting tones, from the satirical to the serious. His prose has the sort of elastic precision you only get from a writer who is truly in command … There's also deep and sincere soul-searching going on here -- Lucasta Miller * Independent *A brilliant conceit… A powerful reimagining and reinvention of Shakespeare’s character. -- Adam Lively * The Sunday Times *Howard Jacobson’s reworking of The Merchant of Venice is a sly success… Irascible, eloquent Shylock is a man transplanted from the play to today. -- Tim Martin * Daily Telegraph *Shylock is My Name has much to tell us about loss, identity and modern antisemitism ... Simon's debates with Shylock, snapshots of a man haranguing his literary Creator, are the heart of this book, knowing and humane -- Kate Maltby * The Times *
£9.49
Zando Butcher & Blackbird: The Ruinous Love Trilogy
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd The Cyberiad
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA giant of 20th-century science fiction * Guardian *A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age * New York Times *The linguistic inventiveness is extraordinary ... Lem has created a curious world in which robots and rockets rub shoulders with kings, dragons, witches and pirates * Independent on Sunday *
£8.54
