Satirical fiction and parodies
Penguin Putnam Inc From the Memoirs of a NonEnemy Combatant
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Penguin Books Ltd Black No More
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEach page unleashes a fusillade of gags and comic sequences, careening from slapstick to blood bath and back again. . . . To borrow a line from Schuyler, the plot twists get 'more complicated than a flapper's past'-and about as fun. . . . Black No More is unsparing on the madness of racial classification but frank, and very beautiful, on the lure of racial belonging * The New York Times *Extraordinary . . . A satiric tour de force that rips into myths of white supremacy, black nationalism and the American Dream -- Maureen Corrigan
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd The Hanging on Union Square Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisA subversively comic, genre-bending satire of bourgeois life by an essential Chinese American voice, featuring an introduction by New Yorker writer Hua Hsu, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir Stay TrueA Penguin ClassicIt's Depression-era New York, and Mr. Nut, an oblivious American everyman, wants to strike it rich, even if at the moment he's unemployed, with no job prospects in sight. Over the course of a single night, in a narrative that unfolds hour by hour, he meets a cast of strange characters—disgruntled workers at a Communist cafeteria, lecherous old men, sexually exploited women, pesky authors—who eventually convince him to cast off his bourgeois aspirations for upward mobility and become a radical activist. Absurdist, inventive, and suffused with revolutionary fervor, and culminating in a dramatic face-off against capitalist power in the figure of the greedy businessman Mr. System, The Hanging on UnTrade Review“A surreal overnight journey . . . Thirty-year-old bestseller The Joy Luck Club perennially provides irrefutable proof Asian American stories warrant shelf space. That Penguin Classics—their venerable list considered a significant barometer of what comprises the Anglophone literary canon—has added this . . . is, undoubtedly, long-awaited, long-deserved recognition.” —The Christian Science Monitor“I finished H. T. Tsiang's masterpiece a few hours ago and I'm still not sure where I am and what day this is. My mind has been picked apart and reassembled. I need a drink.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story“[Tsiang] was radiant, boisterous, unforgettable.” —The New Yorker“A portrait of a New York City for the rich and the poor, the immigrant and the native-born, the newly homeless and the seasoned itinerant . . . Tsiang . . . tried to tell America what it really looked like. . . . [Unlike his] social-realist contemporaries—the Steinbecks and the dos Passoses— . . . Tsiang had little interest in steely, self-serious misery. In the book, as in his life, he is constantly cheeky and self-deprecating. . . . Tsiang’s manic spirit animates his voice. . . . Though the book’s formal aspects range from jarring to quaint to delightful, they all reflect the infectious freedom with which Tsiang wrote. His flinging disregard for the fashionable and the novelistic are thrilling, but so are the serious, deep convictions underlying them. For anyone with revolutionary sympathies, it’s an emotionally stirring book.” —The Nation“This is a voice to which the white world . . . will have to listen more and more as time passes.” —Upton Sinclair “[The Hanging on Union Square] felt like slipping into another person's hallucination.” —Hua Hsu, from the Introduction“[A] masterwork.” —Floyd Cheung, from the Afterword“Tsiang's writings are quintessentially of the intermingled (and dangerous) public street culture of downtown Manhattan creative life. He carried the mantle, unknowingly, of Wong Chin Foo—who five decades earlier challenged Denis Kearney to a duel with Irish potatoes at Cooper Union's Great Hall. And we, the Mr. Nut faction of the Asian American movement, carry on Tsiang's spirit!” —John Kuo Wei Tchen, author of New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882“An artist of distinction, H. T. Tsiang created a genre unto itself in 1935 with The Hanging on Union Square. Its republication after seventy-five years rescues—from an outlaw existence—a strangely and beautifully evocative satiric allegory.” —Alan Wald, author of American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War“[The Hanging on Union Square] is original in form without being labored; and it's remarkable for its whimsical insights into various strata of society and for its flashing counterpoint of almost savage sensuality and delicate pity. Throughout, it is alive and evocative. Mr. Tsiang's fanciful and often fantastic visions . . . convey more truth than a shelf of reportorial novels.” —Waldo Frank
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Black Empire
Book SynopsisA pioneering work of Afrofuturism and antiracist fiction by the author of Black No More, about a Black scientist who masterminds a worldwide conspiracy to take back the African continent from imperial powers?for fans of the Oscar-nominated film American FictionA Penguin Classic?An amazing serial story of Black genius against the world? is how Black Empire was promoted upon its original publication as a serial in The Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 to 1938.It tells the electrifying tale of Dr. Henry Belsidus, a Black scientific genius desperate to free his people from the crushing tyranny of racism. To do so, he concocts a plot to enlist a crew of Black intellectuals to help him take over the world, cultivating a global network to reclaim Africa from imperial powers and punish Europe and America for white supremacy and their crimes against the planet?s Black population.At once a daring, high-stakes science fiction adventure and a strikingly innovative Afrofuturist classic, this controversial and fearlessly political work lays bare the ethical quandaries of exactly how far one should go in the name of justice.For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Trade Review“An incredible science fiction novel . . . It’s just a fantastic book, filled with romance and war and politics. I loved this book, and I couldn’t have been more surprised by it.” ―Bill Goldstein, NBC’s Weekend Today in New York“Imagine W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Marcus Garvey rolled into one fascist superman, and there you have Dr. Henry Belsidus. . . . [Black Empire is] an Afrocentrist’s dream.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New York Times Book Review“Indispensable reading for anyone interested in early Afrofuturism . . . Searing in its indictment of entrenched racism . . . Rip-roaring yarns with sharp satirical points.” ―Publishers Weekly“Fascinating . . . A proto-Afrofuturist potboiler poised between Black Panther and the works of Percival Everett . . . Lurid, pulpy fun.” ―Library Journal“A fascinating piece of work . . . Fast-paced, action packed . . . A solid read―there’s good adventure here, and Schuyler tells his story quite well―and it’s also of literary-historical interest. The Penguin Classics edition is also an excellent one, from editor Brooks E. Hefner’s useful Introduction to the interesting appendices.” ―The Complete Review
£14.39
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Book SynopsisA pre-cursor to his more famous works of Animal Farm and 1984, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is Orwell’s social commentary on capitalism’s constraints.
£12.80
Penguin Books Ltd Cold Comfort Farm
Book SynopsisOne of the BBC''s ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''''Brilliant ... very probably the funniest book ever written'' Sunday TimesWhen sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and ruthless parody of rural melodramas and purple prose, Cold Comfort Farm is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.''Screamingly funny and wildly subversive'' Marian Keyes, GuardianThe Penguin Classics edition of Stella Gibbons''s Cold Comfort Farm is introduced by Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.If you enjoyed Cold Comfort Farm you might like George and Weedon Grossmith''s Diary of a Nobody, also available in Penguin Classics.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Animal Farm
Book SynopsisWhen the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master, Mr Jones, and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless elite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another. Orwell''s chilling ''fairy story'' is a timeless and devastating satire of idealism betrayed by power and corruption.
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd Lolly Willowes
Book Synopsis''A great shout of life and individuality ... an act of defiance that gladdens the soul'' Guardian Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft. ''The book I''ll be pressing into people''s hands forever . . . It tells the story of a woman who rejects the life that society has fixed for her in favour of freedom ... tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness'' Helen Macdonald''Witty, eerie, tender ... her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it'' John UpdikeTrade ReviewA great shout of life and individuality. -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *The book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever is Lolly Willowes [. . .] Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, it tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness -- Helen Macdonald * The New York Times Book Review *Sylvia Townsend Warner moves with sombre confidence into the realm of the supernatural, and her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it -- John UpdikeMy comfort read -- Tracey Thorn
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd CloseUp Penguin Modern Classics
Book Synopsis''Stylish and stimulating'' The TimesAgeing Hollywood star Marshall Stone is scared. Scared that the parts are drying up. Scared of being forgotten. So when he hears an eminent author is writing his biography, Stone siezes the chance of immortality. But painful memories and suppressed scandals soon threaten to destroy the carefully-constructed fiction of his life. Inspired by Len Deighton''s own experiences of the film industry, Close-Up is a brilliant exposé of the sleaze, venality and betrayals of the studio machine.''The richness, the sardonic humour, the wheeling and dealing ... the power of the book is undoubted'' Evening StandardTrade ReviewThe film industry is in many ways the ideal subject for Mr Deighton's talents. * Times Literary Supplement *Immense skill ... a stylish and stimulating performance. * The Times *The richness, the sardonic humour, the wheeling and dealing world of the films with its parties, its highly coloured characters ... The power of the book is undoubted. * Evening Standard *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and
Book Synopsis''A liberating and lacerating critique of American racial madness, capitalism and white superiority ... Schuyler''s wild, misanthropic, take-no-prisoners satire of American life seems more relevant than ever ... Afrofuturist before such a term existed'' New York Review of Books Telling the extraordinary story of a mysterious process that can turn black skin white in 1930s America, Black No More is a pioneering and caustic work of Black speculative fiction from one of the great Harlem Renaissance authors.''A clever and biting satire'' Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times Book Review''No one is safe from Schuyler''s biting mockery'' The New York TimesTrade ReviewA liberating and lacerating critique of American racial madness, capitalism, and white superiority . . . Black No More resists the push toward preaching and the urge toward looking backward into history. Afrofuturist before such a term existed, it insists, instead, on peering forward into what could come to be. * The New York Review of Books *
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Book Synopsis''L-d! said my mother, what is all this story about? - A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick - And one of the best of its kind, I ever heard''One of the greatest novels ever written, now in a wonderful new clothbound edition Laurence Sterne''s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it, with a rich metafictional narrative that might classify it as the first ''postmodern'' novel. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate ''hero'' Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida E
£18.00
Penguin Books Ltd The Master And Margarita
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Lolly Willowes
Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world''s greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft.''The book I''ll be pressing into people''s hands forever is Lolly Willowes . . . Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, it tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness'' Helen MacdonaldTrade ReviewThe book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever is Lolly Willowes . . . Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, it tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness -- Helen Macdonald * The New York Times Book Review *A great shout of life and individuality ... an act of defiance that gladdens the soul -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *My comfort read -- Tracey Thorn
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Decline and Fall
Book SynopsisEvelyn Waugh''s hilarious debut novel, now in a beautiful hardback edition with a new Introduction by Barbara CookeSent down from Oxford in outrageous circumstances, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze. As the farce unfolds and the young run riot, no one is safe, least of all Paul.''His first, most perfect novel ... ruthlessly comic'' John Mortimer, Guardian
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd Reginalds Christmas Revel
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Indiana University Press Blue White Red A Novel Global African Voices
Book SynopsisA searing commentary on the lives of Africans in FranceTrade ReviewAlain Mabanckou counts as one of the most successful voices of young African literature in the French language. -- Ulrich Schreiber * Internationales literaturfestival berlin *Alain Mabanckou can be defined as the 'clear guide' of a new generation of Congolese writers. * Infopagecongo *Blue White Red stands at the beginning of the author's remarkable and multifaceted career as a novelist, essayist and poet...this debut novel shows much of his style and substance in remarkable ways...Dundy's translation is excellent. * Africa Book Club *Mabanckou's provocative novel probes the many facets of the 'migration adventure,' including the shame that accompanies migrants home when their foreign sojourn ends in failure. * Booklist *Mabanckou dazzles with technical dexterity and emotional depth. Vulnerability beckons in this masterful story about a world we always knew was too good to be true, yet reminds us that new skies appear and new seasons begin. (Starred review) * Publishers Weekly *
£12.34
Indiana University Press The Negro Grandsons of Vercingetorix
Book SynopsisSet in the imaginary African Republic of Vietongo, The Negro Grandsons of Vercingetorix, begins when conflict breaks out between rival leaders and the regional ethnic groups they represent. Award-winning author Alain Mabanckou is at his satiric best in this novel that catalogues the pain and suffering caused by the ravages of civil war. Trade ReviewNearly twenty years removed from its French publication, Mabanckou's aptitude for characterization and his unflinching glimpse of plight echo within every movement of Vercingetorix. With The Negro Grandsons of Vercingetorix, Mabanckou stresses that even as violence is an accomplice to life, perseverance is synonymous. * World Literature Today *
£15.19
Random House USA Inc Unusual Uses for Olive Oil
Book SynopsisWelcome to the insane and rarified world of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology. Von Igelfeld is engaged in a never-ending quest to win the respect he feels certain he is due—a quest which has the tendency to go hilariously astray. In Unusual Uses for Olive Oil, von Igelfeld experiences a series of new adventures. First, he finds that his academic rival Detlev-Amadeus Unterholzer has been winning undeserved recognition, a situation that must be addressed. Then von Igelfeld stumbles toward a romance with Frau Benz, a charming widow who owns her very own Schloss and a fleet of handsome cars—that is, until a faux pas lands him on the curb. Later, while on the annual student study retreat in the Alps, von Igelfeld fearlessly plunges 3000 feet into mountaineering history, and turns his survival into the subject of inspirational lectures. Finally, at a dinner party, he is the only kind soul who ca
£12.75
Little, Brown & Company Unconditional Surrender
Book Synopsis
£22.49
Lee Boudreaux Books Less
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Back Bay Books Less
Book SynopsisA struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of arresting lyricism and beauty (The New York Times Book Review).WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZENational BestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2017A Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2017A San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Book of 2017Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Lambda Award, and the California Book AwardWho says you can''t run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can''t say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can''t say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitation
£15.29
Little, Brown & Company Startup A Novel
Book SynopsisFrom the veteran online journalist Doree Shafrir, a sharp, hugely entertaining story of youth, ambition, love, money and technology's inability to hack human nature.
£12.34
Little, Brown & Company Startup
Book Synopsis From veteran online journalist and BuzzFeed writer Doree Shafrir comes a hilarious debut novel that proves there are some dilemmas that no app can solve. Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech and he''s about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business -- in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn. Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news. Sabrina Choe Blum just wants to stay afloat. The exhausted mother of two and failed creative writer is trying to escape from her credit card debt and an inattentive husband-who also happens to be Katya''s boss-as she rejoins a work force that has got
£18.00
Little Brown and Company How I Won a Nobel Prize A Novel
Book SynopsisNamed One of the Best Books of the Year by VOGUE and VOX. The Free Press's August Book Club pick. A 'very funny, very good' (B. J. Novak) debut novel about a graduate student who follows her disgraced mentor to a university that gives safe harbor to scholars of ill repute, igniting a crisis of work and a test of her conscience (and marriage) Helen is one of the brightest minds of her generation: a young physicist on a path to solve high-temperature superconductivity (which could save the planet). When she discovers that her brilliant adviser is involved in a sex scandal, Helen is torn: should she give up on her work with him? Or should she accompany him to a controversial university, founded by a provocateur billionaire, that hosts academics other schools have thrown out? Helen decides she must go—her work is too important. She brings along her partner, Hew, who is much less sanguine about living on an island where t
£20.25
Hodder & Stoughton The Life and Loves of a She Devil
Book Synopsis''ONE OF OUR VERY BEST WRITERS'' Sunday Times''A tour de force''The Times''Intoxicating''Daily Telegraph''Devilishly delightful''New York Times Book Review''Beautifully and compellingly written''Sunday Express''Audacious''Times Literary SupplementTHE BESTSELLING CLASSIC TALE OF A WOMAN SCORNED, FROM A MUCH-LOVED BRITISH AUTHORRuth Patchett never thought of herself as particularly devilish.Rather the opposite in fact - simply a tall, not terribly attractive woman living a quiet life as a wife and mother in a respectable suburb. But when she discovers that her husband is having a passionate affair with the lovely romantic novelist Mary Fisher, she is so seized by envy that she becomes truly diabolic. Within weeks she has burnt down the family home, collected the insurance, made love to the local drunk Trade ReviewA tour de force: a macabre, fast-moving moral fable * The Times *More audacious and striking in design than anything that has gone before . . . carried out with such dash and glitter * Times Literary Supplement *Rousing . . . stimulating . . . the fun grows steadily blacker and wilder * Guardian *A savage, sadistic even, but beautifully and compellingly written satire * Sunday Express *Intoxicating * Daily Telegraph *A novel of blazingly hot revenge, one that amply illustrates the saying about heaven having no rage like love turned to hate, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned * New York Magazine *Devilishly delightful . . . It affords a scintillating, mindboggling, vicarious thrill for any reader who has ever fantasised dishing out retribution for one wrong or another * New York Times Book Review *What makes this a powerfully funny and oddly powerful book is the energy of the language and of the intellect that conceived it, an energy that vibrates off the pages and that makes She Devil as exceptional a book in the remembering as in the reading . . . . a small, mad masterpiece * Washington Post *Fantastic . . . a carefully worked-out fable, satiric and finally bitter . . . it's very funny * Chicago Tribune *
£9.49
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Beautiful You
Book SynopsisPenny Harrigan is a low-level associate in a big Manhattan law firm. She has an apartment, but no love life. When C. Linus Maxwell, a mega-billionaire and international playboy, invites her to dinner and then whisks her off to a hotel in Paris, where he brings her to undreamed-of heights of sexual gratification for days on end, Penny is, well, pleased. However, when Penny discovers she is a test subject for a line of female sex toys so effective that women by the millions are lining up outside the stores to buy it on opening day, she understands the gravity the situation. A billion husbands are about to be replaced. What is Maxwell really up to? Erotically enabled world domination? Penny sets out to discover his motivations, and with a little help, stop him before it is too late.
£16.20
Random House USA Inc Make Something Up
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£15.30
Little, Brown Book Group Hollywood
Book SynopsisContinuing what has been dubbed his ''revenge on two hundred years of American history'', Gore Vidal locates this novel in Washington. But this is 1917, and Hollywood is now competing with America''s capital as the nation''s power-base, just as it fights for centre-stage in this book. Caroline Sanford, erstwhile newspaper magnate, launches herself into the West Coast land of celluloid dreams and becomes, overnight, an international star. Not for nothing, on the dawn of World War One, is Caroline making films like the Huns from Hell. She is a government agent. But in Washington, that government isn''t doing awfully well. Weighed down by his League of Nation''s failure, by Roosevelt, Clemenceau, a stroke and the ship-like tonnage of his wife Edith, President Woodrow Wilson is on the wane - and Warren Harding is on the up. A popular, handsome, toothpick-chomping philanderer and dimwit whose wife is given to consulting spiritualists, he is about to usher in a new era. One of unprecedented Trade ReviewAddictive ... almost indecently entertaining * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW *Rich, readable stuff, and only Vidal could make it work * FINANCIAL TIMES *Gore Vidal's magnificent series of historical novels or novelised histories' Gabriel García Márquez
£13.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Broom Of The System
Book SynopsisA visionary, a craftsman, a comedian and as serious as it is possible to be without accidentally writing a religious text. He can do anything with a piece of prose, and it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what has passed up till now as modern fiction. He''s so modern he''s in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him'' Zadie SmithThe mysterious disappearance of her great- grandmother and twenty-five other elderly inmates from a Shaker Heights nursing home has left Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman emotionally stranded on the edge of the Great Ohio Desert. But that is simply one problem of many for the hapless switchboard operator, seriously compounded by her ongoing affair with boss Rick Vigorous; the TV stardom of her talking cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler; and other minor catastrophes that threaten to elevate Lenore''s search for love and self-detemination to new heights of spasmodic weirdness.Trade Review'Daring...hilarious...enigmatic...wonderfully odd... a zany picaresque adventure of contemporary America run amok' NEW YORK TIMES 'Dazzling...exhilarating...bizarre...sweepingly successful...engaging and haunting... a remarkable book with lots of prestidigitation in it... Wallace's talent is consistently impressive' SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
£11.69
Little, Brown Book Group The Deer Park
Book SynopsisDesert D'Or is the fashionable Californian resort where Hollywood's elite converge when they need a break. When Sergius O'Shaughnessy, recently discharged from the Air Force, arrives, he finds his burning ambition as a novelist is weakened by the depravity and recklessness of the resort.Trade ReviewThe Deer Park ranks with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon and Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust * Newsweek *Brilliant and illuminating * New York Times *
£22.52
Little, Brown Book Group Hearts And Minds
Book Synopsis''A novel written with passion and moral outrage'' Sunday Times''Sympathetic, thought-provoking and often deeply moving'' Daily Telegraph''You can''t put this down'' Independent Rich or poor, five people, seemingly very different, find their lives in the capital connected in undreamed-of ways. Job, the illegal mini-cab driver whose wife in Zimbabwe no longer answers his letters; Ian, the idealistic supply teacher in exile from South Africa; Katie from New York, jilted and miserable as a dogsbody at a political magazine, and fifteen-year-old Anna, trafficked into sexual slavery. Polly Noble, an overworked human rights lawyer, knows better than most how easy it is to fall through the cracks into the abyss. Yet when her au pair, Iryna, disappears, Polly''s own needs and beliefs drag her family into a world of danger, deceit and terror.Riveting, humane, engaging, Hearts and Minds is a novel that is Trade ReviewA novel written with passion and moral outrage. It is a vivid portrait of a city that is at once familiar and disconcertingly strange * The Times *A novel written with passion and moral outrage. It is a vivid portrait of a city that is at once familiar and disconcertingly strange * The Times *Skilfully mixes skilled reportage (once a journalist, always a journalist) with a filmic sensibility...You can't put this novel down, even if babies are yelling and the pots are boiling over * Independent *Skilfully mixes skilled reportage (once a journalist, always a journalist) with a filmic sensibility...You can't put this novel down, even if babies are yelling and the pots are boiling over * Independent *Craig's excellence lies in her ability to underpin everything with hope and the promise of redemption...She has written a sympathetic, thought-provoking and often deeply moving account of the strange, shifting beast that is our capital * Telegraph *Craig's excellence lies in her ability to underpin everything with hope and the promise of redemption...She has written a sympathetic, thought-provoking and often deeply moving account of the strange, shifting beast that is our capital * Telegraph *She is a humane writer as well a waspish one and it is the plight of London's migrant workers and sink-school pupils with which she is primarily concerned here, and her passion and care are affecting * Observer *She is a humane writer as well a waspish one and it is the plight of London's migrant workers and sink-school pupils with which she is primarily concerned here, and her passion and care are affecting * Observer *Acutely observed, purposeful, dynamic...Perfectly conjures the capital's beautiful, broken carousel * Times Literary Supplement *Acutely observed, purposeful, dynamic...Perfectly conjures the capital's beautiful, broken carousel * Times Literary Supplement *A large kindness overarches the novel * Guardian *A large kindness overarches the novel * Guardian *Very special...ambitious, compelling and utterly gripping * Maggie O'Farrell *Very special...ambitious, compelling and utterly gripping * Maggie O'Farrell *** 'This is a novel written with passion and moral outrage. It is a vivid portrait of a city that is at once familiar and disconcertingly strange * THE TIMES Joan Smith *** 'Rich, Dickensian * SUNDAY TIMES Penny Perrick *** 'She is a humane writer as well a waspish one and it is the plight of London's migrant workers and sink-school pupils with which she is primarily concerned here, and her passion and care are affecting * OBSERVER Lisa O’Kelly *** 'There is much in HEARTS AND MINDS to praise . . . The book displays the author's relentless compassion. A large kindness overarches the novel * GUARDIAN Stevie Davies *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Oblivion Stories
Book SynopsisA visionary, a craftsman, a comedian ... He can do anything with a piece of prose, and it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what has passed up till now as ''modern fiction''. He''s so modern he''s in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him'' ZADIE SMITHA recognised master of form and a brilliant recorder of human behaviour, David Foster Wallace has been hailed as ''the most significant writer of his generation'' (TLS). Each new book confirms and extends his genius, and this new short story collection is no exception. In the stories that make up OBLIVION, David Foster Wallace conjoins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite convolutions of self-consciousness - a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his.''Wallace''s talent is such that you can''t help wondering: how good can he get?'' TIME OUTTrade ReviewA visionary, a craftsman, a comedian ... He's so modern he's in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him * Zadie Smith *The heir apparent to Thomas Pynchon * Douglas Kennedy, THE TIMES *David Foster Wallace comes with a high reputation to live up to, and in these superbly written stories, he does ... there is a strong element of jokiness in these tales, but it is a deadpan, cumulative humour, not satire of the stand aloof, easily mocking variety ... Here he has shown once again that his is a major and entirely distinct talent * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *With the exception of Don DeLillo, no writer better depicts the crushing effect of the information age on the soul. His strangely dignified characters fight desperately to maintain sovereignty over their inner lives against the onslaught of high technolo * Stephen Amidon, SUNDAY TIMES *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group The Gorse Trilogy
Book SynopsisErnest Ralph Gorse''s heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and panache with which he swindles his victims. With great deftness and precision Hamilton exposes how his dupes'' own naivete, snobbery or greed make them perfect targets. These three novels are shot through with the brooding menace and sense of bleak inevitability so characteristic of the author. There is also vivid satire and caustic humour. Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.
£12.34
Little, Brown Book Group Hangover Square
Book SynopsisThe seventy-fifth anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Anthony Quinn.''I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific'' Sarah Waters''If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man'' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton''s novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne''s new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.London, 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation. Netta is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in a drunken hell, except in his ''dead'' moments, when something goes click in his head and he realises, without a doubt, that he must kill her. In the darkly comic Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton brilliantly evokes a seedy, fog-bound world of saloon bars, lodging houses and boozing philosophers, immortalising the slang and conversational tone of a whole generation and capturing the premonitions of doom that pervaded London life in the months before the war.Trade ReviewIt captures the dynamics between the characters in a brilliantly observed way. It's captivating -- Konnie Huq
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group The Outsorcerers Apprentice
Book Synopsis''Satisfying and entertaining.'' - RT Book Reviews''Entertaining.... Holt has a zany humor that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett and Christopher Moore.'' - Library JournalA HAPPY WORKFORCE, IT IS SAID, IS A PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE.Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing revenue and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call ''the Wizard.'' Until now.Because now a perfectly good business model-based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe-iTrade ReviewLike the deep-fried snack after which it's named, this sci-fi novel is sweet and fun - SUN on DOUGHNUTA light read from the prolific humourist; a romp round the multiverse - SFX on DOUGHNUTA great mix of the fantastical and the funny . . . another great satirical offering from Tom Holt that entertains thoroughly while effortlessly moving between the silly and the smart - BOOK GEEKS on LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGESCrazy, absurd, complex and hilarious . . . His writing is in the same mould as that of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde - BOOKBAG on LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGES
£9.49
Fsg Originals Vernon Subutex 2
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£14.45
Fsg Originals Vernon Subutex 3
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Holy Cow
Book SynopsisA rollicking, globe-trotting adventure with a twist: a four-legged heroine you won't soon forgetElsie Bovary is a cow, and a pretty happy one at that--her long, lazy days are spent eating, napping, and chatting with her best friend, Mallory. One night, Elsie and Mallory sneak out of their pasture; but while Mallory is interested in flirting with the neighboring bulls, Elsie finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer's family gathered around a bright Box God--and what the Box God reveals about something called an industrial meat farm shakes Elsie's understanding of her world to its core.There's only one solution: escape to a better, safer world. And so a motley crew is formed: Elsie; Jerry--excuse me, Shalom--a cranky, Torah-reading pig who's recently converted to Judaism; and Tom, a suave (in his own mind, at least) turkey who can't fly, but who can work an iPhone with his beak. Toting stolen passports and s
£14.40
WW Norton & Co Girlfriend on Mars A Novel
Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize • One of Scientific American's Best Staff Reads of 2023 A funny, poignant, and page-turning debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.Trade Review"[Deborah] Willis [knows] how to tell a story with the grip of a good drama series... While the setup could have made for a breezy read, Willis cuts deep with insight... Every detail is sharply placed by Willis, who has a scorching sense of humor and a soft spot for humanity down here on Earth." -- Alex Beggs - New York Times Book Review"A sharp, funny take on capitalism, climate change, and our lifelong mission to be loved." -- People"Part disaffected-slacker rom-com, part social satire, part wistful end-of-the-world eulogy for ordinary, unscripted love... Winsome, sweet, and apocalyptic—a perfect blend for the end of days." -- Kirkus Reviews"Both satirical and sobering, Willis’s gimlet-eyed debut spares no one, skewering both apathy and misplaced ambition while keeping the pages turning at a furious pace." -- Booklist (starred review)"Willis keeps up a light tone and a fast pace even while getting deep into the science behind the Mars voyage, and her satire yields plenty of clever insights on celebrity culture. Readers are in for a treat." -- Publishers Weekly"How did Deborah Willis manage to write about love, grief, corporate greed, climate change, and a reality show that sends two people to Mars with such grace and humor and compassion? Girlfriend on Mars blew my mind! This is one of the most original novels I’ve read in a long time." -- Ann Hood, author of Fly Girl"A perfectly observed satire that captures the absurdity—and beauty—of twenty-first century life. It reminded me of so many favorite novelists, from Margaret Atwood to Dave Eggers to Alexandra Kleeman. I loved it." -- Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year"Girlfriend on Mars veers giddily on the brink between satire and tragedy, transporting us to places we never dreamed we’d go... However fantastic, nutty and corrupt this all sounds, we are reminded that [Elon] Musk and his fellow billionaires are already deep into space travel. And that reality, together with Willis’ witty writing, entangles us in the quagmire of comedy, love and fear portrayed in these pages." -- Nancy Wigston - Toronto Star"Girlfriend on Mars is out of this world. Deborah Willis pushes the absurdly miserable, deeply addictive pleasure of reality TV to its only possible end, zooming from euphoria past satire to slam into real life and death. Prescient and poignant, Amber’s reality is an inch from coming true." -- Marina Endicott, author of The Voyage of the Morning Light"A deeply moving, deeply funny novel about love and loyalty in the midst of the paralyzing effects of eco-anxiety and the seductive toxicity of reality entertainment... Girlfriend on Mars is propulsive and surprising in the very best ways—Deborah Willis writes with a combination of pathos and humor that entrances and lights a way forward in this troubled time." -- Suzette Mayr, author of The Sleeping Car Porter"A fresh take on the break-up narrative, mixed with the existential angst of today’s world." -- Library Journal
£21.59
WW Norton & Co A Childrens Bible
Book SynopsisA brilliant, indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in a world whose climate and culture are unravelling.Trade Review"An American author steps out of the shadows with a dystopian novel of great power." -- Adam Begley - The Sunday Times"The pandemic amplifies the resonance of this brilliant end-of-days escapade… if the conclusion doesn’t leave you with goosebumps, then you should probably check your pulse." -- Stephanie Cross - The Daily Mail"New England children caught up in an apocalyptic storm have to fend for themselves in this powerful novel by a talented American writer who has often flown under the literary radar." -- 100 Best Holiday Reads - The Sunday Times"... in A Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet maps the consequences of an environmental apocalypse with unnerving, fable-like simplicity." -- The Best Novels of 2020 - The Telegraph"A haunting dystopia about climate change denial... Funny and sobering, Millet's 13th novel sees a group of adults settle into a mansion for a heady summer, idling away their time with drugs and sex." -- Best Paperbacks: March 2021 - The Guardian"A Children’s Bible... begins in a crumbling mansion where a group of bored, surly, privileged teens are spending the summer sequestered with their ne’er do well parents. Just as it begins to seem like a summer teen romp, the story takes a dramatic turn in the shape of a cataclysmic storm. What follows is brilliant—and feels both inevitable and strangely magical. How those teens tell the story, which transforms this climate emergency into a brutally honest, funny and moving indictment of the generations leaving a broken world for them to inherit, is especially refreshing." -- Diane Cook, The Best Books of 2020 - The Evening Standard"This superb novel begins as a generational comedy — a pack of kids and their middle-aged parents coexist in a summer share — and turns steadily darker, as climate collapse and societal breakdown encroach. But Millet’s light touch never falters; in this time of great upheaval, she implies, our foundational myths take on new meaning and hope." -- 100 Notable Books of 2020 - The New York Times Book Review"Here's an idea: As the world falls apart all around us, why not read a book about the world falling apart in a totally different way? Not just any book, though, it kind of has to be A Children's Bible, the brilliant Lydia Millet's latest, in which the oblivious destructiveness of a certain self-indulgent generation of adults is rightfully skewered, as a new generation of hyper-mature teens must figure out how to live without any concrete kind of guidance." -- Best Books of 2020, So Far - Refinery29"A perfect novel for now." -- Metro
£12.34
Grand Central Publishing Bad Monkey
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£15.99
Penguin Random House LLC Strip Tease
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From “Florida’s most entertainingly indignant social critic” (New York Times Book Review)—an inventive tale yet of savage appetites and sweet justice. Only in America could an innocent, if drunken, guest of honor at a strip joint bachelor party become a mortal threat against Big Money and Big Government. Only in south Florida, land of roadside honky-tonks and sinister pleasure boats—not to mention blackmail and murder—would a virtuous topless dancer join forces with a cool but clueless cop. And only in the fiction of Carl Hiaasen do readers experience riveting suspense and razor-sharp characters along with the most wicked humor imaginable.
£15.30
Random House USA Inc The Shakespeare Requirement
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£14.40
Random House USA Inc The Glitch
Book SynopsisA fast, funny, deeply hilarious debut--The Glitch is the story of a high-profile, TED Talk-ing, power-posing Silicon Valley CEO and mother of two who has it all under control, until a woman claiming to be a younger version of herself appears, causing a major glitch in her overscheduled, overstaffed, overworked life.Shelley Stone, wife, mother, and CEO of the tech company Conch, is committed to living her most efficient life. She takes her me time at 3:30 a.m. on the treadmill, power naps while waiting in line, schedules sex with her husband for when they are already changing clothes, and takes a men's multivitamin because she refuses to participate in her own oppression. But when she meets a young woman also named Shelley Stone who has the same exact scar on her shoulder, Shelley has to wonder: Is she finally buckling under all the pressure? Completely original, brainy, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Glitch introduces one of the most memorable charac
£13.60
Random House USA Inc First Person
Book SynopsisKif Kehlmann, a young, penniless writer, thinks he’s finally caught a break when he’s offered $10,000 to ghostwrite the memoir of Siegfried “Ziggy” Heidl, the notorious con man and corporate criminal. Ziggy is about to go to trial for defrauding banks for $700 million; they have six weeks to write the book. But Ziggy swiftly proves almost impossible to work with: evasive, contradictory, and easily distracted by his still-running “business concerns”—which Kif worries may involve hiring hitmen from their shared office. Worse, Kif finds himself being pulled into an odd, hypnotic, and ever-closer orbit of all things Ziggy. As the deadline draws near, Kif becomes increasingly unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Ziggy is rewriting him—his life, his future, and the very nature of the truth. By turns comic, compelling, and finally chilling, First Person is a haunting look at an age where fact is indistinguishable from fiction, and freedom is traded for a false idea of progress.
£15.30
Random House USA Inc Liberation Day
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character. . . . An exquisite work from a writer whose reach is galactic.”—Oprah Daily Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, NPR, Time, USA Today, The Guardian, Esquire, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library JournalThe “best short-story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.“Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In “Mother’s Day,” two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In “Elliott Spencer,” our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory “scraped”—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And “My House”—in a mere seven pages—comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
£21.00
Putnam Publishing Group,U.S. A Short Film About Disappointment
Book SynopsisAn ingenious novel about art and revenge, insisting on your dreams and hitting on your doctor, told in the form of 81 movie reviews.
£17.84
Random House USA Inc Lorna Mott Comes Home
Book SynopsisFrom the author of the best-selling Le Divorce and Le Mariage, a comedy of contemporary manners, morals, (ex)marriages, and motherhood (past, present, and future)--about an American woman leaving her 20-year marriage to her French second husband, returning to her native San Francisco and to the entwining lives of her children and grandchildren. “Delightful”--Claire Messud (Harper’s Magazine); “Razor-sharp prose and astute observations … a treat”--Publishers Weekly (starred review).Lorna Mott Dumas, small, pretty, high-strung, the epitome of a successful woman--lovely offspring, grandchildren, health, a French husband, a delightful house and an independent career as an admired art lecturer involving travel and public appearances, expensive clothes. She's a woman with an uncomplicated, sociable nature and an intellectual life.But in an impulsive and planned decision, Lorna has decided to l
£14.45
