Satirical fiction and parodies
HarperCollins The Heap
Book Synopsis
£29.99
HarperCollins The Heap
Book Synopsis
£29.99
HarperCollins The Motion of the Body Through Space
Book Synopsis
£29.99
Hogarth Press The Invoice
Book SynopsisA heartfelt exploration of the cost of life and love—and the importance of the little things—from the author of the international bestseller, The Room Hilarious, profound, and achingly true-to-life, The Invoice explores the true nature of happiness through the eyes of hero you won’t soon forget. A passionate film buff, our hero’s life revolves around his part-time job at a video store, the company of a few precious friends, and a daily routine that more often than not concludes with pizza and movie in his treasured small space in Stockholm. When he receives an astronomical invoice from a random national bureaucratic agency, everything will tumble into madness as he calls the hotline night and day to find out why he is the recipient of the largest bill in the entire country. What is the price of a cherished memory? How much would you pay for a beautiful summer day? How will our carefree idealist, who is content with so little
£19.20
Random House USA Inc The Heart Goes Last
Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments—in the gated community of Consilience, residents who sign a contract will get a job and a lovely house for six months of the year...if they serve as inmates in the Positron prison system for the alternate months.“Captivating...thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review Stan and Charmaine, a young urban couple, have been hit by job loss and bankruptcy in the midst of nationwide economic collapse. Forced to live in their third-hand Honda, where they are vulnerable to roving gangs, they think the gated community of Consilience may be the answer to their prayers. At first, this seems worth it: they will have a roof over their heads and food on the table. But when a series of troubling events unfolds, Positron begins to look less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled. The Heart Goes Last
£10.35
Random House USA Inc The Plague Dogs
Book Synopsis
£17.10
Random House USA Inc Meddling Kids
Book Synopsis
£14.40
Penguin Publishing Group Romeo andor Juliet
Book Synopsis
£20.40
Cambridge University Press The Cambridge Companion to Gullivers Travels
Book SynopsisApproaching Gulliver's Travels from a variety of critical perspectives, this Cambridge Companion provides students and researchers with a multifaceted understanding of the enduring legacy of one of literature's most profound and provocative works of fiction in the lead-up to the 300th anniversary of its first publication.Table of ContentsPart I. Contexts: 1. Politics Joseph Hone; 2. Religion Ian Higgins; 3. Bodies and Gender Liz Bellamy; 4. Science, Empire, and Observation Gregory Lynall; Part II. Genres: 5. Popular Fiction J. A. Downie; 6. Satire Pat Rogers; 7. Travel Writing Dirk F. Passmann; 8. Philosophical Tale Paddy Bullard; Part III. Reading Gulliver's Travels: 9. Advertisements and Authorship Brean Hammond; 10. A Voyage to Lilliput Melinda Alliker Rabb; 11. A Voyage to Brobdingnag Nicholas Seager; 12. A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, &c. Barbara M. Benedict; 13. A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms Judith Hawley; Part IV. Afterlives: 14. Critical Reception Jack Lynch; 15. Further Voyages Daniel Cook; 16. Visual Culture Ruth Menzies; 17. Screen Media Emrys Jones.
£21.84
St Martin's Press Western Alliances
Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times-bestselling author of Lookaway, Lookaway, Wilton Barnhardt's Western Alliances is a vivid portrait of a wealthy family set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis. This laugh-out-loud, darkly funny novel follows the Costa familywhose members are every bit as richly absurd as the characters in HBO's Succession.Salvador, the patriarch, runs one of Wall Street's biggest banks the summer before everything collapses; Roberto and Rachel, his two children, have never worked a day in their lives; and Lena, his ex-wife, is a scheming hypochondriac. Part travelogue, part epic family drama, the novel follows Roberto and Rachel across Europe as the two dilettantes come to terms with their father's choices and the repercussions of his actions.Oozing with his signature satire and biting wit, Barnhardt invites readers on a literary romp from an elegant Paris apartment to a hilariously-inept London hotel, ancient church
£23.74
Picador USA Severance
Book SynopsisMaybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance.A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring. Michael Schaub, NPR.orgA satirical spin on the end times-- kind of like The Office meets The Leftovers. --Estelle Tang, ElleNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR * The New Yorker (Books We Loved) * Elle * Marie Claire * Amazon Editors * The Paris Review (Staff Favorites) * Refinery29 * Bustle * Buzzfeed * BookPage * Bookish * Mental Floss * Chicago Review of Books * HuffPost *
£15.20
Roaring Brook Press Bubble
Book SynopsisBased on the smash-hit audio serial, Bubble is a hilarious high-energy graphic novel with a satirical take on the gig economy.Built and maintained by corporate benevolence, the city of Fairhaven is a literal bubble of safety and order (and amazing coffee) in the midst of the Brush, a harsh alien wilderness ruled by monstrous Imps and rogue bands of humans. Humans like Morgan, who's Brush-born and Bubble-raised and fully capable of fending off an Imp attack during her morning jog. She's got a great routine goingshe has a chill day job, she recreationally kills the occasional Imp, then she takes that Imp home for her roommate and BFF, Annie, to transform into drugs as a side hustle. But cracks appear in her tidy life when one of those Imps nearly murders a delivery guy in her apartment, accidentally transforming him into a Brush-powered mutant in the process. And when Morgan's company launches Huntr, a gig economy app for Imp extermination, she finds herse
£14.39
Picador USA The White Boy Shuffle
Book SynopsisA bombastic coming-of-age novel....The White Boy Shuffle has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh and cry at the same time.--Los Angeles Times The first novel from National Book Critics Circle Award and Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sellout Paul Beatty''s hilarious and scathing debut novel is about Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward, black surfer bum who is moved by his mother from Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighborhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a divided, downtrodden people.
£16.20
St Martin's Press I Was the Presidents Mistress
Book SynopsisBrilliant . . . Miguel Syjuco is his country's most original and unflinching literary voice. Salman RushdieIt's a rare novel that leaves you reeling simultaneously with admiration, exhaustion, amazement at its author's reach and skill, and desolation at the world it spreads out before you . . . [A] raging protest of a book. James Lasdun, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)From Miguel Syjuco, the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize for Ilustrado, I Was the President''s Mistress!! is an unflinching satire about power, corruption, sex, and all the other topics you were told never to discuss in polite company.How much would you sacrifice for what you believe? Is what you believe even true? And what if you secretly recorded the crimes of your once-trusted loverwho also happens to be the president? For Vita Nova, introverted megastar, such a conundrum could ruin everything. All
£14.39
St Martin's Press Empty Theatre A Novel
Book Synopsis
£17.00
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"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"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 - 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"... 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
£18.89
WW Norton & Co Dinosaurs
Book SynopsisThe stunning new novel from the author of the National Book Award–finalist A Children’s BibleTrade Review"Tender but never sentimental, wearing its intelligence in a low-slung style, Dinosaurs is a garden of earthly delights." -- Laura Mechling - Vogue"Deceptively simple and quietly lovely, Dinosaurs is a compassionate character study of a loner who discovers community. " -- Adrienne Westenfeld - Esquire"Effortlessly readable... there is something new and unusual about Dinosaurs." -- Sam Sacks - The Wall Street Journal"Quietly powerful" -- Adam Begley - The Spectator"This gentle, redemptive novel follows a damaged, trusting man as he heals through human connection and requited love… it leaves a warm afterglow and an optimism that lingers." -- Sally Morris - Daily Mail"Dinosaurs’ solidifies a new phase of Millet’s career. . . . The spaciousness of the style makes the sense of loss richer and the questions posed — what constitutes moral action, how best can we help one another — at once simpler and more profound." -- Christine Smallwood - The New York Times"Millet has perfected charged, science-based prose that takes a surgeon’s loupe to how people interact with nature." -- The San Francisco Chronicle"Dinosaurs is sharp and implacably funny; it evades the sanctimony you’d expect." -- Katy Waldman - The New Yorker
£15.74
WW Norton & Co The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Karunatilaka’s novel breaks with conventional modes of storytelling to reveal humanness in a strange, sprawling, tragic situation... Like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Grass’s Tin Drum and Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Karunatilaka’s book is supremely confident in its literary heterodoxy, and likewise in offering idiosyncratic particularities of ordinary Sri Lankan life well beyond the serious matters of politics, history, religion and mythology... Readers everywhere will find in such demanding specificity what we all seek from great books: the exciting if overwhelming fullness of an otherwise unknown world told on its own terms, and that frisson of unexpected identification and understanding that comes from working to stay in it." -- Randy Boyagoda - New York Times Book Review"A staggering achievement." -- Anjum Hasan - New York Review of Books"Comic, macabre, angry and thumpingly alive... [Maali’s voice] has bite, brilliance, and sparkle... Still, the furious comedy in Mr. Karunatilaka’s novel never courts despair." -- Economist"There can’t be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie, Raymond Chandler, John le Carré and Stranger Things—but this one does... Karunatilaka respects the conventions of all the genres that he piles up so extravagantly...The result is an unexpectedly exhilarating read." -- James Walton - Times [UK]"A mix of mischievous magic realism and absurdist humour... [A] wild, uncategorisable [novel]." -- Claire Allfree - Telegraph"The obvious literary comparisons are with the magical realism of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. But the novel also recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls or Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita... Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history." -- Tomiwa Owolade - Guardian"This book is difficult to categorise. With ghosts and spirits in the afterlife, it is part supernatural. But it also gives you a thorough grounding in Sri Lankan politics. And as the narrative gathers pace it becomes a whodunnit. The result is a thrilling read." -- Rebecca Jones - BBC"The most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade... Amid the dryness, satire and weary lamentations on the state of Sri Lanka there is genuine heart to this novel." -- Charlie Connelly - New European Review
£13.77
WW Norton & Co About Face
Book SynopsisA tragicomic novel of a fame-obsessed American society yet again on the brink.Trade Review"[A] perceptive tragicomedy... Chaos, violence, and aspirations to fame abound." -- New York Times Book Review"Fame is both empty and destructive in About Face, the razor-sharp literary thriller by William Giraldi (American Audacity; Hold the Dark)... The labyrinthine bureaucracy of assistants and the absurdity of life as part of a celebrity entourage would have been plenty of material alone for a comic novel. The dialogue is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, such as in a discussion between Jovi and Face--argued with the seriousness of the First Council of Nicaea--about the best Bruce Springsteen album. But as Jovi begins to develop a strange sympathy for Face, it also becomes clear that the star has a potentially violent stalker. This gripping tale will keep readers on the edge of their seats while leaving them pondering what makes celebrity--and what it costs." -- Kristen Allen-Vogel - Shelf Awareness
£20.89
WW Norton & Co Mrs. March
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Feito] manages to capture this world entirely, while simultaneously ratcheting up the tension caused by Mrs. March’s increasingly fractured psyche, in a way that recalls novels by Patricia Highsmith and Margaret Millar. And like these predecessors, Feito explores issues of autonomy, insecurity and madness, all wrapped up in the domestic life of a housewife whose whole being has been shaped and molded by how she believes others view her. Feito works hard to make sure readers know that there is something amiss in this character’s fragile mind.... The final pages are shocking... readers may find themselves tempted to return to the beginning in order to understand just what Feito has so convincingly managed to achieve within her accomplished debut." -- Christine Mangan - New York Times Book Review"Essential reading for the social media era.... [A] brilliant debut novel.... A brilliantly tense psychological study from a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes – Du Maurier, for one.... It’s also a fine addition to the current wave of feminist-inflected horror.... But what makes Mrs March most unsettling of all is that Feito’s meticulous construction of a collapsing mental world is underpinned by piercing insight into “normal” minds. The chilly paranoia that Mrs March experiences, the belief that everyone is judging her as she is judging them, the appalling prospect that she is known not on her own terms, but as someone else has portrayed her – all these are the regular nightmares of the regular status-hungry person in the social media hall of mirrors.... Feito has done that most horrible, wonderful and truly novelistic of things: she has seen right through Mrs March and into the shameful, petty, maggotty secrets that everybody carries." -- Sarah Ditum - The Guardian"As literary as it is pulpy, Mrs. March straddles the line between psychological thriller and social satire — think HBO’s The Undoing or The Talented Mr. Ripley. Like those blockbuster titles, Mrs. March portrays a rarefied world as hellish Grand Guignol. The pleasure of the book is in watching all that psychotic menace come out into the open, and in trying to figure how much of it is actually real. Mrs. March might think she sees a woman across the street drenched in blood—but what if she’s simply had too much wine? She might believe the figures in a painting have turned their backs on her—but what if she’s just crazy?.... Indeed, for all its gleeful nastiness, Mrs. March is very much a comedy of manners—one where every Vicuna scarf and monogrammed napkin signifies something greater than itself." -- Harrison Hill - Vogue"Feito’s noirish debut novel left me rapt, gleefully ambivalent about her eponymous protagonist: did I like her? Did I find her funny? Did I want to hug her? Was I bit a scared of her? Did I relate to her? To all of the above: yes.... This is an elegant, claustrophobic psychological thriller that bears the influence of a handful of brilliant writers, from Shirley Jackson to Daphne du Maurier to Patricia Highsmith, but feels incredibly original. The film is bound to be gorgeous – the Hitchcockian foreboding and stifling, velvety interiors feel made for the screen – but read the book first. Mrs March is the most beguiling protagonist I’ve encountered in a long time; I can’t remember when I was last so excited about a new voice in fiction." -- Jessie Thompson - Evening Standard"[A] vicious, gorgeous thriller.... A little bit Hitchcock, a little bit Patricia Highsmith, a little bit “The Yellow Wallpaper”.... There’s a relentless build to this book, a gnawing dread that sets in early and never quite lets up. And between Feito’s silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen, you don’t want it to." -- Constance Grady - Vox"Mrs. March is painfully aware of [genre] tropes and leans into them so far as to subvert them.... By initially setting up Mrs. March as a domestic thriller that comments on the relegation of women to the home and the elevation of men’s careers and creative pursuits, the perfect foundation is laid for Mrs. March to escape all of that and fantasize—and materialize—that she’s in her own crime novel, taking the dead girl muse trope into her own hands.... Masterful." -- Scarlett Harris - Observer"I delighted in every page of this clever, twisted debut.... Feito’s fiendish narrator presents Mrs. March to readers like a fine wine, uncorked, zooming in and out of Mrs. March’s paranoia as her psyche unravels. This book is an intoxicating experience." -- Carole E. Barrowman - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"Mrs. March is window-dressed to perfection as a psychological thriller-cum-cosmopolitan grotesque.... [Mrs. March] could be describing Feito's novel when she refers to the life of the prostitute in George's book as ‘something so ugly described so beautifully." -- Nell Beram - Shelf Awareness"In a horror-laced psychological drama, the wife of a bestselling New York novelist learns his latest protagonist is modeled on her . . . Abandoning her purchases, [Mrs. March] bolts from the store, never to return, and immediately confronts an advertisement featuring a woman smiling knowingly under the words 'SHE HAD NO IDEA.' Even the billboards know! This is just one of innumerable creepy details that speed Mrs. March's descent into a spiraling vortex of psychosis . . . Feito is Spanish and lives in Madrid, but somehow she is the love child of Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson. On her way to the screen played by Elisabeth Moss, Mrs. March is absolutely right—everyone is talking about her." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Feito locks the reader up inside the fracturing psyche of a woman of privilege ... through excruciatingly precise renderings of grotesque delusions... Feito masterfully orchestrates the bewildering horrors of Mrs. March’s breakdown... Feito's bravura gothic thriller brilliantly exposes monstrous consequences of covert neglect and cruelty." -- Donna Seaman, Booklist"[An] elegantly written, unflinchingly observed debut." -- Publishers Weekly"Mrs. March’s flights of fantasy... progress to psychotic episodes and flashbacks to her stoic upbringing; even readers will begin to question what is real and what is imagined." -- Edward Goldberg - Library Journal"Mrs. March is just the Madame Bovary-meets-Patricia Highsmith feminist psychoanalytic comedy-of-manners thriller that I didn't know I so desperately needed. I almost destroyed my life by staying up so late reading. I am lucky my house is still standing." -- Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot"Like Mrs. March herself, I spent most of Virginia Feito’s trippy novel wondering, What the devil is going on? When she figured it out, I was haunted for days." -- Helen Ellis, author of American Housewife"This crisp, delicious portrait of a woman coming apart is a brutal, darkly funny, sharp blade of a book. I loved it." -- Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You
£12.34
WW Norton & Co About Face
Book SynopsisA tragicomic novel of a fame-obsessed American society yet again on the brink.Trade Review"[A] perceptive tragicomedy... Chaos, violence, and aspirations to fame abound." -- New York Times Book Review"Fame is both empty and destructive in About Face, the razor-sharp literary thriller by William Giraldi (American Audacity; Hold the Dark)... The labyrinthine bureaucracy of assistants and the absurdity of life as part of a celebrity entourage would have been plenty of material alone for a comic novel. The dialogue is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, such as in a discussion between Jovi and Face--argued with the seriousness of the First Council of Nicaea--about the best Bruce Springsteen album. But as Jovi begins to develop a strange sympathy for Face, it also becomes clear that the star has a potentially violent stalker. This gripping tale will keep readers on the edge of their seats while leaving them pondering what makes celebrity--and what it costs." -- Kristen Allen-Vogel - Shelf Awareness
£14.24
Houghton Mifflin Friday Black
Book Synopsis
£15.19
Orion Publishing Co The Sirens Of Titan
Book SynopsisWelcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fictionWhen Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy and only materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every fifty-nine days and then only for an hour.But at least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will be. He knows, for instance, that his wife is going to Mars to mate with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. He also knows that on Titan - one of Saturn''s moons - is an alien from the planet Tralfamadore, who has been waiting 200,000 years for a spare part for his grounded spacecraft . . . A finalist for the 1960 Hugo Award, The Sirens of Titan was Vonnegut''s second novel. It received wide acclaim, and played with Trade ReviewThe Sirens of Titan is a tour-de-force of sci-fi literature * Empire *
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co All the Fun of the Fair
Book SynopsisOne summer her sister never came home from the fair. This summer she''s determined to find out why. ''Quirky, original and charming'' Sarah Turner ? The Unmumsy Mum ''Fresh, unique, powerful and incredibly poignant. And, of course, hilarious too!'' Beth O''Leary The fair is the only good thing that happens every year. And Fiona Larson is the only kid in town who''s never been. She''s pretended to go - but she''s never been allowed. Because, before Flora was even born, her sister died there.This year everything will be different. And Fiona Larson will find out what really happened.Set in the summer of 1996, All The Fun of the Fair is a bittersweet, nostalgic, hilarious and heartbreaking mystery, perfect for Beth O''Leary, Ruth Jones and Marian Keyes.Trade ReviewSometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking, it's compelling and beautifully written -- Sara Lawrence * Daily Mail *A nostalgic trip down memory lane with a heroine it's impossible not to love. * The Sun *Always such a treat to read a Caroline Hulse novel! I loved The Adults and Like A House On Fire, but I think this is my fave of them all. Quirky, original and charming, with plenty of school years nostalgia. I could not love Fiona more. -- Sarah Turner * The Unmumsy Mum *All the Fun of the Fair is an absolute JOY. Funny, clever, and with its mid-90s setting, brilliantly nostalgic. The hilarious, beleaguered protagonist, Fiona Larson, is the new Adrian Mole. Though she'd probably say Adrian had it easy, being a boy and all... * Nicola Mostyn *Fiona Larson is one of the most memorable characters I've read for a long time. If you liked Adrian Mole or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time then you'll love All the Fun of the Fair. * Emma Cooper *Fresh, unique, powerful and incredibly poignant. And, of course, hilarious too! Fiona is a wonderful character, completely three-dimensional and real, who will no doubt capture many hearts * Beth O'Leary *I LOVED this book SO much. I defy anyone not to fall completely in love with Fiona Larson. Even when she's being a bit awful. Especially then. I laughed out loud throughout. Read it. It makes everything feel that bit better. * Charlotte Levin *How can something be so completely hilarious, and so utterly heartbreaking? From page one of All the Fun of the Fair I was totally enthralled by Fiona and her tragically relatable (and relatably tragic) life. The immensely compelling writing would be enough to make this one of my books of 2021, but the captivating and brilliant story makes Hulse's newest novel something extra special. I can't recommend it enough. * LUCY VINE *Caroline Hulse at her absolute best... I defy anyone not to fall in love (and empathy) with Fiona Larson. I haven't felt so moved by a narrator since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Nostalgic, moving, hilarious and heartbreaking, this painfully astute book has it all. I demand a sequel please. * CHARLOTTE DUCKWORTH *Quirky, funny and touching. Sheer joy from the first page to the last.Another absolute belter from Caroline Hulse. * CATHY BRAMLEY *
£8.54
Orion Publishing Co Sad Janet
Book SynopsisA whip-smart, dark comedy for fans of Sally Rooney, Fleabag and My Year of Rest and Relaxation''Janet is my soulmate'' LUCY MANGAN''Surprising and irreverent'' NEW YORK TIMES***If there was a pill that promised happiness... Would you take it?Meet Janet. Janet is sad. Not about her life, about the world. Have you seen it these days?The thing is, she''s not out to make anyone else sad. She''s not turning up to weddings shouting that most marriages end in divorce. She just wants to wear her giant coat, get rid of her passive-aggressive boyfriend, and avoid human interaction at the rundown dog shelter where she works.That is, until word spreads about a new pill that promises cynics like her one day off from being sad. When her family stages an intervention, and the prospect of making it through Christmas alone seems like too much, Janet finally decides to gTrade ReviewTold in Janet's distinctive voice, I found this engaging satirical novel very funny * Daily Mail *Surprising and irreverent...Be prepared for edginess, dark humor and profanity * NEW YORK TIMES *BRILLIANT. Janet is my soulmate. If ever there was a year you needed a brutally hilarious story abt the need for dedicated anti-depressants to deal with an oncoming Christmas THIS IS IT. I loved it deeply * LUCY MANGAN *Britsch's tart debut is a wicked satire of our obsession with happiness * i NEWS *As I was reading this, my partner kept asking why I was laughing. This book is dark and hilarious and will speak to everyone who's ever wondered why they spend time with humans and not just dogs * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan *Sharp, sad, hilarious * CLARE BEAMS *A strangely exuberant meditation on sadness * REFINERY29 *Sharply observed, dark and full of wit * HALEH AGAR *A whipsmart, biting piece of tragicomedy which manages to inspire real laughter while celebrating sadness. Hilarious, profound and deeply refreshing * HUFFPOST *I am LOVING this book! Sentence after sentence of funny lil gems * ANNIE HARTNETT *A narrator like a grown up Daria, still trying to live authentically while wracked with depression. Funny and sharp as hell. * HELEN MCCLORY *
£8.99
Abrams This Little Light
Book Synopsis
£20.00
Abrams Everything Abridged
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Dennard Dayle’s 17 speculative tales, girdled by a Devil’s Dictionary of 501 satiric definitions (literary, political, what-have-you), are by turns prescient of our anxious, conspiracy-fraught times and mournful of majestic worlds to come ruined by all too familiar hatreds. But the post-WWIII stand-up riffs? Truly funny stuff.” * Vulture *“Slyly defiant and blazingly imaginative, like the best modernist literature, Everything Abridged is a powerful celebration of flaw and failure. It’s a book that revels in the timelessness of obsolescence and the freedom of powerlessness. Dayle’s a genre-shattering writer, whose wit and intellect never cease to entertain. This refreshingly original and powerfully funnycollection is a debut to remember.” * Paul Beatty, New York Times bestselling author of The Sellout *“Written as a dictionary, with hilarious and so-blunt-they're-sharp definitions of terms like ‘LimeWire,’ ‘mouse utopia,’ and ‘Perry, Tyler,’ Dayle's debut collection of stories is as likely to stun as it is to inform... incredibly entertaining and so damn illuminating.” * Entertainment Weekly *“Everything Abridged: Stories by Dennard Dayle:Miscategorized. Calling this addictively book-shaped act of language subversion “stories” is like calling New York City “buildings” The nonstandard reference to all sorts of things it would have been disturbing to learn if you hadn’t been laughing so hard Herald of a major new talent—what more do you need to know? Why are you still reading the cover and not the inside?” * Susan Choi, National Book Award–winning author of Trust Exercise *“With Everything Abridged, Dennard Dayle innovates form as much as he does content, creating a work that is funny and familiar, no matter if he’s writing about comedians from Mars, battery-powered humans, or radicalized comic book writers. Combining wit, humor, and an uncanny ability to get to the heart of what can both plague and save us, Dayle is a writer who isn’t ruffling feathers, but plucking the bird bare, and I am grateful as hell for it. Without a doubt one of the best collections I’ve ever read.” * Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck *“This is one of the most useful books on the current American berserk that I have read in a long time. Kudos, Dennard. You said what we were all trying to say while we were very (angrily) chewing on our kale salads.” * Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story *“Funnier and smarter than pretty much everything else you’ve read in your lifetime.” * Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances and Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch *“Dayle has broken every rule to create a rollicking satire skewering American hypocrisy. A short story collection that artfully manages to be part dictionary and part joke book, Everything Abridged is a must-read for anyone who still believes humor is the fast track to truth.” * Jessi Jezewska Stevens, author of The Exhibition of Persephone Q *
£11.69
Large Print Press My Sister the Serial Killer
Book Synopsis
£15.19
Pan Macmillan Christie Malrys Own DoubleEntry
Book SynopsisChristie Malry is a simple man. As a young accounts clerk at a confectionery factory in London he learns the principles of Double-Entry Bookkeeping. Frustrated by the petty injustices that beset his life - particularly those caused by the behaviour of authority figures - he determines a unique way to settle his grievances: a system of moral double-entry bookkeeping. So, for every offence society commits against him, Christie exacts recompense. ‘Every Debit must have its Credit, the First Golden Rule’ of the system. All accounts are to be settled, and they are - in the most alarming way.Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry, the last novel to be published in B S Johnson's lifetime, is undoubtedly his funniest.Trade ReviewDelightful to read, highly amusing, and clever -- Daily TelegraphJohnson has undoubtedly written a masterpiece -- Auberon WaughThe most accessible, exuberant and despairing of all his works -- John Lanchester
£11.69
Pan Macmillan The Making of Zombie Wars
Book Synopsis'A raucous, hilarious book . . . deadly funny.' Chicago MagazineScript idea #142: Aliens undercover as cabbies abduct the fiancée of the main character, who has to find a way to a remote planet to save her. Title: Love Trek.Script idea #185: Teenager discovers his girlfriend's beloved grandfather was a guard in a Nazi death camp. The boy's grandparents are survivors, but he's tantalizingly close to achieving deflowerment, so when a Nazi-hunter arrives in town in pursuit of Grandpa, he has to distract him long enough to get laid. A riotous Holocaust comedy. Title: The Righteous Love.Script idea #196: Rock star high out of his mind freaks out during a show, runs offstage, and is lost in streets crowded with his hallucinations. The teenage fan who finds him keeps the rock star for himself for the night. Mishaps and adventures follow. This one could be a musical: Singin' in the Brain.Josh LevTrade ReviewAleksandar Hemon is a gifted crafter of sentences . . . a rambunctious farce that includes zombies, a lot of slapstick, comedic violence, allusions to the Bible and Spinoza, and a climactic showdown involving a stoned Desert Storm veteran and a samurai sword . . . brilliant * Guardian *Dreadfully, wrigglingly, antisocially funny . . . Hemon's work often crackles with humour, but it's never been this uproarious. * Spectator *What soon becomes clear is that the jokes in Hemon's novel are not just jokes, but about something larger, whether political, philosophical, or moral. Like all the best comedy, the novel makes it impossible not to sense the melancholy beneath the sullenness and absurdity . . . A troubling, mysterious, lyrical elegy to the world in which the living struggle to maintain their fragile truce with the undead. * New York Review of Books *Exhilaratingly astute. * Sunday Times *What is exceptionally impressive about this novel is the deft control of different registers. It is like watching someone juggle with Sabatier knives. While wisecracking . . . Caustic and tender, enraged and forgiving, giggly and plaintive. * Scotland on Sunday *It's not every day you read a novel that moves effortlessly between references to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, eruptions of the crazed undead, a po-faced TV image of George Bush, sidewinding literary references . . . The Making of Zombie Wars, the new novel from the Bosnian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon, doesn't so much move as whizz the reader from the heights of creative whimsy to the depths of human tragedy - and back again - with barely time to draw breath. * Irish Times *The Making of Zombie Wars doesn't have much to do with the undead, but it's a comic novel with BRAAAINS. That intellectual heft is to be expected . . . But Hemon is also a master at camouflaging the deeper elements of this novel amid its tomfoolery. * Washington Post *Brutal but darkly hilarious . . . Hemon has always had a gift for humor, but he's never written anything as raucously funny and surreal as this . . . Endlessly entertaining . . . The Making of Zombie Wars is crazy in the best sense of the word, and very few authors could have pulled it off. * NPR *Spinozan philosophy meets screwball comedy in this eccentric, subtly experimental novel by Hemon. * Publishers Weekly *A fast-paced, darkly comic tale set in Chicago . . . ends with a transmutational flourish that is deeply and comically satisfying. * Chicago Tribune *
£8.54
Read Books BonBon the Bargain Lost
£10.99
Simon & Schuster The Lawgiver
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Grand Central Publishing Ill Eat When Im Dead
Book Synopsis
£13.59
Dundurn Group Ltd Lump
Book SynopsisA dark, satiric novel about a woman whose attempt to escape crises in her health and marriage ends up causing more chaos.Cat''s career has stalled, her marriage has gone flat, and being a stay-at-home mom for two young kids has become a grind. When she finds out, all within a few days, that she is pregnant, that a lump in her breast is the worst thing it could be, and that her husband has done something unforgivably repulsive, she responds by running away from her marriage and her life a life that, on the outside, looks like middle-class success. Her actions send waves of chaos through the lives of multiple characters, including a struggling house cleaner, a rich and charismatic yoga guru, and even an ailing dog. What follows is a dark comedy about marriage, motherhood, privilege, and power.A RARE MACHINES BOOKTrade ReviewLump is both a page-turner and a disquieting and complex take on marriage, illness, and privilege. Whitlock is wry, smart, and never boring. * Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People *Parenthood, money, marriage, illness — everyday mini-tragedies morph into snort-worthy comedy when put under Nathan Whitlock's microscope. Lump drives in shivs of self-recognition on every page, along with lines you'll want to share with the stranger sitting next to you on the subway. * Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence *In Lump, things fall completely, often hilariously, apart for a seemingly perfect Toronto family. With a keen eye and plenty of verve and humour, Nathan Whitlock peels back the facades of a cast of urbanites to reveal messy truths, ugly appetites, and highly questionable decision-making. * Elyse Friedman, author of The Opportunist *You might call Nathan Whitlock’s sense of humour the gallows kind: he readily locates the brutal and exposes its ridiculous underside. * Winnipeg Review, for Congratulations On Everything *
£12.34
FriesenPress The Freedom of Will
Book Synopsis
£24.64
Little, Brown Book Group The Crossed Out Notebook
Book SynopsisFrom the Academy Award-winning co-writer of Birdman, a wonderfully eccentric, suspenseful debut in the tradition of Misery and Kiss of the Spiderwoman about a screenwriter kidnapped by a world-famous director who orders him to compose a masterpiece.Trade ReviewNicolas Giacobone has done the impossible. The Crossed-Out Notebook is a meta-fictional page-turner that grapples as much with Beckett as with Pretty Woman, as much with The Beatles as with Fellini. Also hidden in these pages are gems about what it takes to sit down in your pajamas everyday and attempt to put worlds to words. * Daniel Magariel, author of One of the Boys *A deceptively straightforward slack-wire act of a novel that probes the hairline crack between selling art and selling out. * Nell Zink, author of Mislaid *This stylish debut novel by an Oscar-winning Argentine screenwriter (he co-wrote Birdman) is a suspenseful, darkly funny exploration of the creative process and the porous boundary between reality and fiction. Highly recommended * The Mail on Sunday, 'The Best New Fiction' *
£6.74
Headline Publishing Group Which Way to Happiness
Book SynopsisGuaranteed to make you smile, if you love Sophie Kinsella, Beth O''Leary and Nicola May, you''ll LOVE Christina Bradley''s hilarious and life-affirming novel of the search for happiness!''Packed with humour, friendship and romance . . . it has a real life-affirming, self-affirming message that left me with a spring in my step'' SOPHIE RANALD''Christina Bradley shows real talent in creating a novel with pace and humour and uplifting self-discovery'' HOT BRANDS COOL PLACES*Previously published as Thirty*''Well-written, witty and totally original'' 5 star reader review''Hilarious, very entertaining and you don''t want to stop reading!'' 5 star reader review''Cheeringly good'' 5 star reader review''Laugh-out-loud funny'' 5 star reader review''Funny, easy, addictive read'' 5 star reader review''Hilarious, on point about being singl
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Making Nice
Book SynopsisThe deliciously sharp new novel from Ferdinand Mount, author of the Sunday Times Book of the Year Kiss Myself GoodbyeFerdinand Mount's stinging satire plunges into the dubious world of London PR firms, the back rooms of Westminster and the campaign trail in Africa and America. We follow the hapless Dickie Pentecost, redundant diplomatic correspondent for a foundering national newspaper, together with his stern oncologist wife Jane, and their daughters Flo, an aspiring ballerina, and the quizzical teenager Lucy.The whole family find themselves entangled in an ever more alarming series of events revolving around the elusive Ethel (full name Ethelbert), dynamic founder of the soaring public relations agency Making Nice.With echoes of Evelyn Waugh and The Thick of It, Making Nice is a masterly take on the madness of contemporary society and the limitless human capacity for self-deception.Trade ReviewFerdinand Mount’s exquisite writing draws you into a gorgeously horrid world of lies, where all authenticity is faked, and where the biggest deceptions are the ones we practise upon ourselves. Perhaps you recognise the place he’s talking about. He exposes such cold truths with such warmth – I am in eternal awe of his writing, wherever I find it. -- Marina HydeMount’s storytelling is irresistible * Literary Review *One of our finest prose stylists * Daily Telegraph *Making Nice is the funniest, shrewdest, most elegant novel I have read in years. What will Mount conjure up next? * The Oldie *…like all his novels…show his gifts for comedy, physical description and for capturing idiosyncratic mannerisms. * Wall Street Journal *...This pacey book is great fun to read. * Sunday Times *At Making Nice’s heart is a serious lesson about the fine line between success and scandal, truth and lies. -- Chloe Ashby * The Spectator *A razor-sharp comedy of political misfortunes. * Literary Review *Mr Mount has written a satire to be consumed in one sitting, a pointed critique of the modern world delivered with pluck and verve. * The Economist *[Mount] is very good on behavioural quirks, often evoking them with unexpected analogies… Making Nice is a comedy of manners with satirical trappings, and highly enjoyable, too. -- Nicholas Clee * Times Literary Supplement *Seldom can a satirical novel have proved more pertinent. -- Sarah Meyrick * The Church Times *So begins a rollicking rollercoaster ride through modern politics…showcasing Mount’s pitch-perfect comic ear and a keen eye for caricature. * Catholic Herald *A razor-sharp political satire from the author of The Sunday Times Book of the Year Kiss Myself Goodbye… This book is exceptionally well-written… a feast of shrewd observations… the prose is often deliciously rich in description and imagery. * Press & Journal *Table of Contents1 Champing 2 Smiley Face 3 Hi-Vis 4 The Real Greek 5 Board Games 6 On Safari 7 Flo Flown 8 Jerrybuilt 9 Ghosting 10 Spinland 11 In the Cockpit 12 The Golden Jacket 13 The Locator 14 Lost and Found Thanks
£8.99
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Making Nice
Book SynopsisThe deliciously sharp new novel from Ferdinand Mount, author of the Sunday Times Book of the Year Kiss Myself GoodbyeFerdinand Mount's stinging satire plunges into the dubious world of London PR firms, the back rooms of Westminster and the campaign trail in Africa and America. We follow the hapless Dickie Pentecost, redundant diplomatic correspondent for a foundering national newspaper, together with his stern oncologist wife Jane, and their daughters Flo, an aspiring ballerina, and the quizzical teenager Lucy.The whole family find themselves entangled in an ever more alarming series of events revolving around the elusive Ethel (full name Ethelbert), dynamic founder of the soaring public relations agency Making Nice.With echoes of Evelyn Waugh and The Thick of It, Making Nice is a masterly take on the madness of contemporary society and the limitless human capacity for self-deception.Trade ReviewFerdinand Mount’s exquisite writing draws you into a gorgeously horrid world of lies, where all authenticity is faked, and where the biggest deceptions are the ones we practise upon ourselves. Perhaps you recognise the place he’s talking about. He exposes such cold truths with such warmth – I am in eternal awe of his writing, wherever I find it. -- Marina HydeMount’s storytelling is irresistible * Literary Review *One of our finest prose stylists * Daily Telegraph *Making Nice is the funniest, shrewdest, most elegant novel I have read in years. What will Mount conjure up next? * The Oldie *…like all his novels…show his gifts for comedy, physical description and for capturing idiosyncratic mannerisms. * Wall Street Journal *...This pacey book is great fun to read. * Sunday Times *At Making Nice’s heart is a serious lesson about the fine line between success and scandal, truth and lies. -- Chloe Ashby * The Spectator *A razor-sharp comedy of political misfortunes. * Literary Review *Mr Mount has written a satire to be consumed in one sitting, a pointed critique of the modern world delivered with pluck and verve. * The Economist *[Mount] is very good on behavioural quirks, often evoking them with unexpected analogies… Making Nice is a comedy of manners with satirical trappings, and highly enjoyable, too. -- Nicholas Clee * Times Literary Supplement *Seldom can a satirical novel have proved more pertinent. -- Sarah Meyrick * The Church Times *So begins a rollicking rollercoaster ride through modern politics…showcasing Mount’s pitch-perfect comic ear and a keen eye for caricature. * Catholic Herald *Table of Contents1 Champing 2 Smiley Face 3 Hi-Vis 4 The Real Greek 5 Board Games 6 On Safari 7 Flo Flown 8 Jerrybuilt 9 Ghosting 10 Spinland 11 In the Cockpit 12 The Golden Jacket 13 The Locator 14 Lost and Found Thanks
£10.49
Orion Publishing Co The Light Fantastic
Book SynopsisThe eye-wateringly funny fantasy romp across the Discworld, featuring the most incompetent wizard you''ll ever find . . .''The Discworld novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies'' Independent It is known as the Discworld. It is a flat planet, supported on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on the back of the great turtle A''Tuin as it swims majestically through space. And it is quite possibly the funniest place in all of creation...As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one possible saviour. Unfortunately, this happens to be the singularly inept and cowardly wizard called Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world.Readers love The Light Fantastic:''Five zany stars for this fantastic romp through the twisted imagination of Sir Terry Pratchett that made me smirk, giggle,Trade ReviewOne of the best, and one of the funniest English authors alive - INDEPENDENTHe is screamingly funny. He is wise. He has style - DAILY TELEGRAPHHis spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction - MAIL ON SUNDAY
£13.49
Hodder & Stoughton The Unspeakable Skipton
Book Synopsis''Witty, satirical and deftly malicious'' Anthony BurgessDescribed by the New York Times upon her death as ''one of Britain''s best-known novelists'', delve into the sparkling and satirical world of Pamela Hansford Johnson with this wickedly funny tragicomedy about a destitute English author living in Bruges. ''A maliciously witty account of literary skulduggery and loft pretensions.'' TLS ******************Daniel Skipton is a literary genius - at least, that''s what he''ll tell you. A tortured artist living in Bruges on money donated by others (a distant relative, the daughter of his landlady, his exasperated, long-suffering publishers), he dreams of the time his talent will once again be truly appreciated and spends days working on his masterpiece. Between charitable bequests, he preys on tourists, accepting hospitality and tricking them into parting with their money; and when an Italian arisTrade ReviewVery funny - IndependentRemarkable - GuardianWitty, satirical and deftly maliciousA maliciously witty account of literary skulduggery and lofty pretensions - TLSA remarkable craftswomanMiss Johnson is one of the most accomplished of the English women writers - KirkusHansford Johnson at her wittiest is Waugh mingled with Malcolm BradburyA writer whose memory fully deserves to be kept alive
£8.99
Gallery Books Less Than Hero
Book Synopsis
£14.40
Scribner Book Company The Way of All Fish
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Simon & Schuster Thank You Goodnight
Book SynopsisSynopsis coming soon.......Trade Review“Soul-searching . . . Fun and unfailingly heartfelt.” * Washington Post *“Read if: You’ve got a secret hobby you wish was your job.” * Businessweek (“Seven Books Worth Your Summer Downtime”) *"Think High Fidelity and About a Boy with a dose of Music & Lyrics thrown in." * Billboard Magazine (“This Summer’s Music Must-Reads”) *“The literary equivalent of a good Cameron Crowe romantic comedy . . . There's an undeniable charm and gentle wit to this book.” * Arkansas Democrat Gazette *“A novel for those of us who longed to be rock ’n’ roll stars while settling for our routine day jobs.” * Fort Worth Star-Telegram *“An edgy, funny story about the lead singer of a one-hit-wonder ‘90s rock band now working as a lawyer who ends up getting the band back together—with surprising results.” * DuJour Magazine *“Very funny, deftly done . . . With a good deal of compassion and a great eye for the comic detail, Abramowitz delves a little deeper here. . . . A pleasure to behold.” * Booklist *"The pacing is quick, the emotional current soars, and the dialogue rings true. Abramowitz's debut is both funny and compassionate, using the world of the music industry to illustrate the questions of life and legacy that so many of us ponder." * Kirkus Reviews *“Thank You, Goodnight is a hilarious send-up of the music industry, late-onset adulthood, and where the two often uncomfortably meet. It’s also a sage novel for anyone who believes that our talents don’t fade as we get older, they only get better.” -- Rick Springfield, author and Grammy Award-winning musician“What do you do when you’ve given up on your dreams at age 25? When you’ve flamed out embarrassingly after a brief stint as a rock star? When you’re now nearing 40 and have nothing and no one? You put the band back together. In the character of Teddy Tremble, Andy Abramowitz has created a kind of 21st century Binx Bolling, a man in desperate search for meaning, maturity, and redemption. Funny, tender, and moving, Thank You, Goodnight is a debut from a writer to watch.” -- John Kenney, author of Truth in Advertising“Andy Abramowitz nails it with Thank You, Goodnight, a novel that is both comic and serious—just like real life. The characters are mordant and funny, the dialogue is crisp, and the story surprised me in delightful ways. What an accomplishment!” -- David Small, author of Almost Famous“A wild and spirited story about dreams lost, found, and broken. After all the reading fun it didn't have to be wise, but it was.” -- Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish
£15.20
Simon & Schuster Quicksand
Book Synopsis
£14.45
House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada The Swells
Book Synopsis
£12.34
House of Anansi Press Goddess
Book Synopsis
£15.29
iUniverse The Odyssey of the AOR
Book Synopsis
£18.99
