Search results for ""atlantic books""

Shortlisted for the Hearst Big Books Award, 2019'Oh my goodness this book... [A] beautiful book about a marriage & life long friendship, told movingly & slightly mysterious. Highly recommend.' Cecilia Ahern, author of PS. I Love You____________________________Sometimes a promise becomes a prison.Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul made a vow that if they didn't find love by thirty, they would marry each other. Years later, about to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, Kate and Paul start to wonder, will this be their last? Is friendship really enough to make a marriage? As Kate struggles with a secret that reaches far into their past, the couple's vow has become the very thing that threatens their future...Love Will Tear Us Apart is a moving and heart-breaking exploration of modern love and friendship, from the bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe.

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'Punchy... it could transform millions of meetings, doing away with all those mushy , consensus-driven hours wasted by people too scared of disagreement.' - Wall Street Journal'Beautifully written and important.' - Adam Alter, bestselling author of Irresistible and Drunk Tank PinkWe've decided by consensus that consensus is good. In this essential book, psychologist Charlan Nemeth argues that this principle is completely wrong: left unchallenged, the majority opinion is often biased, unoriginal, or false. It leads planes and markets to crash, causes juries to convict innocent people, and can quite literally make people think blue is green. We can make better decisions by embracing dissent: it forces us to question the status quo, consider more information, and engage in creative decision-making. From Twelve Angry Men to Edward Snowden, lone objectors who make people question their assumptions bring groups far closer to truth. By studying these examples and bringing a little trouble-maker spirit to our own lives, we can radically change the way we think, listen, and make decisions.'A timely tome on the perils of silence and the value of voice.' - Adam Grant, bestselling author of Originals

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We like to get along, at home or in the workplace. We don't want to hurt people or offend. Therefore, it is no surprise that numerous famous psychological experiments have proven that we don't tend to go against authority or the majority view. Famous management gurus share the view that harmony, cohesiveness and agreement are the building blocks for effective decision-making and creativity. But they are wrong.In No!, Charlan Nemeth, the world's leading expert on dissent, uses her 35 years of research to show why we need rebels - and how fostering more disagreement can dramatically improve decisions and the production of good ideas. Using examples from Twelve Angry Men to brainstorming, she explains how people with minority opinions need the space to express themselves uncompromisingly, even if it causes discomfort. Explaining why the devil's advocate technique doesn't work and why authentic disagreement is necessary to open our perspectives, this book has the power to revolutionise business, creative organisations, and society.

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It's not what you know, it's who you know. Or so the adage goes. Professor Matthew Jackson, world-leading researcher into social and economic networks, shows us why this is far truer than we'd like to believe.Based on his ground-breaking research, The Human Network reveals how our relationships in school, university, work and society have extraordinary implications throughout our lives and demonstrates that by understanding and taking advantage of these networks, we can boost our happiness, success and influence. But there are also wider lessons to be learnt. Drawing on concepts from economics, mathematics, sociology, and anthropology, Jackson reveals how the science of networks gives us a bold new framework to understand human interaction writ large - from banking crashes and viral marketing to racism and the spread of disease. Filled with counter-intuitive ideas that will enliven any dinner party - e.g. how can our popularity in school affect us for the rest of our lives? - The Human Network is a "big ideas" book that no one can afford to miss.

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Esme: eldest child, control-freak, perfect wife. In fact, her husband has run off with his dentist and their teenage daughter is live-tweeting the entire mess to her 3,000 followers. Liv: middle child, fiancé stealer, squatter. Holed up in her ex-husband's apartment with her acupuncturist and a bottle of whiskey.Ru: youngest child, writer, runaway. Hopes to find inspiration for her second novel whilst fleeing her fiancé. One-by-one the siblings return to the family home, where a box of old letters awaits them containing the answer to the mystery they have all lived with, until now: who was their father, and why the hell did he disappear?

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'Astonishing' Herald, Books of the Year'Sublime' Irish Times, Book of the Year'Wonderful' Guardian, Books of the YearDuring a sweltering South American summer, a family convenes for dinner at a restaurant. Midway through the meal, Carlos disappears. An experienced, semi-retired inspector takes the case, but what should be a routine investigation becomes something strange, intangible, even sinister. The corporation for which Carlos worked seems to serve no purpose; the staff talk of their missing colleague's alarming, shifting physical symptoms; a forensic scientist uncovers evidence of curious abnormalities in the thriving microorganisms that shared Carlos's body. As the inspector relives and retraces the missing man's footsteps, the trail leads him away from the city sprawl and deep into the country's rainforest interior, where he encounters both horror and wonder.

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Science is on the cusp of a revolutionary breakthrough. We now understand more about ageing - and how to prevent and reverse it - than ever before. In The Telomerase Revolution, Dr Michael Fossel, who has been at the cutting edge of ageing research for decades, describes how telomerase will soon be used as a powerful therapeutic tool, with the potential to intervene in age-related disease, dramatically extend life spans and even reverse human ageing. Telomerase-based treatments are already on offer, and have shown early promise, but much more potent treatments will become available over the next decade.This is the definitive work on the latest science of human ageing, covering both the theory and the clinical implications, taking readers to the forefront of one of the most remarkable advances in human medicine.

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THE TENTH INSTALMENT IN THE HANNE WILHELMSEN SERIES.Don't miss this unforgettable, explosive finale to Anne Holt's bestselling Hanne Wilhelmsen series.In 2001, three year old Dina is killed in a tragic car accident. Not long thereafter Dina's mother dies under mysterious circumstances, and Dina's father Jonas is convicted of her murder.In 2016, the cold case ends up on the desk of Detective Henrik Holme, who tries to convince his mentor Hanne Wilhelmsen that the father might have been wrongly convicted. Holme and Wilhelmsen discover that the case could be connected to the suicide of an eccentric blogger as well as the kidnapping of the granddaughter of a EuroJackpot millionaire.

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Rich in plot and full of characters that have been neglected by Irish literature. - GuardianAt the start of the twentieth century, a young girl and her family emigrate from the continent in search of a better life in America, only to pitch up in Ireland by mistake. In 1958, a mute boy locked away in a mental institution outside of Dublin forms an unlikely friendship with a man consumed by the story of the love he lost nearly two decades earlier. And in present-day London, an Irish journalist is forced to confront her conflicting notions of identity and family when her Jewish boyfriend asks her to make a true leap of faith. Spanning generations and braiding together three unforgettable voices, Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan shows us what it means to belong, and how storytelling can redeem us all.

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For readers of Putin's People by Catherine Belton comes the stunning story of Russia's slide back into a dictatorship led by Vladimir Putin - and how the world is now paying the price. 'Brave, trenchant and convincing' Sunday Times'Ferocious and unforgiving' Financial TimesThe ascension of Vladimir Putin - a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB - to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years - as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him - Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the centre of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order.For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin's intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putin's Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world.As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint - only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgement, winter is once again upon us.Argued with the force of Kasparov's world-class intelligence, conviction and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.

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Perhaps only the animals can tell us what it is to be human. The souls of ten animals caught up in human conflicts over the last century tell their astonishing stories of life and death. In a trench on the Western Front a cat recalls her owner Colette's theatrical antics in Paris. In Nazi Germany a dog seeks enlightenment. A Russian tortoise once owned by the Tolstoys drifts in space during the Cold War. In the siege of Sarajevo a bear starving to death tells a fairytale. And a dolphin sent to Iraq by the US Navy writes a letter to Sylvia Plath. Exquisitely written, playful and poignant, Only the Animals is a remarkable literary achievement by this bright young writer. An animal's-eye view of humans at our brutal, violent worst and our creative, imaginative best, it asks us to find our way back to empathy not only for animals, but for other people, and to believe again in the redemptive power of reading and writing fiction.

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The most talked about psychological suspense novel of the 2016, loved by Marian Keyes and Tess Gerritsen. Once you start reading TRY NOT TO BREATHE you will be hooked on this gripping, fast-paced thriller.You won't be able to put it down.Just remember to breathe. Alex is sinking. Slowly but surely, she's cut herself off from everything but her one true love - drink. Until she's forced to write a piece about a coma ward, where she meets Amy.Amy is lost. When she was fifteen, she was attacked and left for dead in a park. Her attacker was never found. Since then, she has drifted in a lonely, timeless place. She's as good as dead, but not even her doctors are sure how much she understands. Alex and Amy grew up in the same suburbs, played the same music, flirted with the same boys. And as Alex begins to investigate the attack, she opens the door to the same danger that has left Amy in a coma...Look out for Holly's new novel, DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES, available to pre-order now!

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There are many, many more things that nobody knows...!Why do we have five fingers? Do animals have a sense of humour? Did the universe have a beginning? What causes déjà vu? Why do cats purr? How fast did dinosaurs move?In Even More Things That Nobody Knows, William Hartston once again explores the limits of human knowledge, revealing 501 further mysteries in subjects as diverse as cosmology, mathematics, animal behaviour, medical science, music, art, language and literature.From the trivial to the profound, this is an enthralling and enlightening investigation into the things we just don't know, and which lurk tantalizingly beyond the bounds of our understanding.

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Britain in the nineteenth century saw a series of technological and social changes which continue to influence and direct us today. Its reactants were human genius, money and influence, its crucibles the streets and institutions, its catalyst time, its control the market.In this rich and fascinating book, James Hamilton investigates the vibrant exchange between culture and business in nineteenth-century Britain, which became a centre for world commerce following the industrial revolution. He explores how art was made and paid for, the turns of fashion, and the new demands of a growing middle-class, prominent among whom were the artists themselves. While leading figures such as Turner, Constable, Landseer, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Dickens are players here, so too are the patrons, financiers, collectors and industrialists; lawyers, publishers, entrepreneurs and journalists; artists' suppliers, engravers, dealers and curators; hostesses, shopkeepers and brothel keepers; quacks, charlatans and auctioneers. Hamilton brings them all vividly to life in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the business of culture in nineteenth-century Britain, and provides thrilling and original insights into the working lives of some of our most celebrated artists.

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A masterful re-imagining of the lives and loves of Harry Houdini, from the author of the Richard and Judy bestseller The Cellist of Sarajevo.The whole world knows me as the man who killed Harry Houdini, the most famous person on the planet. But there is a secret that no one knows, save for myself and one other person who likely died long ago...This is the spellbinding story of Harry Houdini - his life, his loves, his feats of daring - and misfit Martin Strauss, the man who killed him with an ill-timed punch to the stomach. But in magic, nothing is quite what it seems. Is Strauss the killer of the greatest showman the world has ever seen, or is faking his own death the greatest trick Houdini ever pulled?

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Natasha, a lonely congressional aide, meets Michael Faulk, a priest struggling with his faith. Love blossoms over the spring and summer of 2001. A month before their wedding, Natasha is on a trip in Jamaica and Michael is in New York when the World Trade Center is attacked. That same day, Natasha endures a private trauma of her own: she is raped by a young man on the shores of the Caribbean. She and Michael are soon reunited, but the horror of that day, and Natasha's inability to speak of it, means that there will forever be a sharp line that divides their relationship into before and after.

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From Murdoch's media empire to Trump's 'fake news', John Lloyd explodes the myths and misinformation of the Post-Truth age, providing a panoramic overview of the state of journalism as it faces the biggest crisis of its history.Is journalism in jeopardy? How can the press respond to the threats of social media, fake news and an increasing hostility towards journalists? And are we really in the post-truth age?John Lloyd answers these questions and more in this panoramic survey of the global news media. Journeying from Putin's Russia to Trump's America, from Saudi Arabia to Israel, from Mexico to China, Lloyd shows how the power of investigative journalism matters now more than ever.With passion and expertise, Lloyd argues that a free world is only possible with a free press, and offers fascinating insight into the responsibilities of a profession - perhaps the only one left - that can truly hold power to account.

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The stunning new novel from Christine Dwyer Hickey, bestselling author of Last Train from Liguria.'One of Ireland's most lauded modern writers, Christine Dwyer Hickey teases out the strands of her story... It leaves the reader with the aftertaste of regret for their own what might have been...' - Daily MailFollowing a long absence spent in New York, Elaine Nichols returns to her childhood home to live with her invalid father and his geriatric Alsatian dog. The house backing on to theirs is sold and as she watches the old furniture stack up on the lawn, Elaine is brought back to a summer in the 1970s. She is almost sixteen again and this small out-of-town estate is an enclave for women and children while the men are mysterious shadows who leave every day for the outside world. The women are isolated but keep their loneliness and frustrations hidden behind a veneer of suburban respectability. When an American divorcee and her daughter move into the estate, the veneer begins to crack. The women learn how to socialise, how to drink martinis in the afternoon, how to care less about their wifely and maternal duties. While the women are distracted, Elaine and her friends find their own entry into the adult world and the result is a tragic event that will mark the rest of Elaine's life and be the cause of her long and guilt-ridden exile.Insightful and full of suspense, this is an uncompromising portrayal of the suburbs and the cruelties brought about by the demands of respectability.

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Nigel Watson is the Executive Director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. The Trust cares, on behalf of the international community, for the first expedition bases left in Antarctica's Ross Sea Region. This includes the iconic expedition bases left by expeditions led by Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary. Nigel is an authority on Antarctic history and is the co-author of the acclaimed Still Life: Inside the Historic Huts of Scott and Shackleton with Jane Ussher and a contributor to Assouline's South Pole.Jane Ussher is highly respected for her documentary work as a photographer, and is regarded as one of New Zealand's foremost portrait photographers. She photographed the images for Still Life: Inside the Historic Huts of Scott and Shackleton, and her other published books include the award-winning Coast: A New Zealand journey, Face to Face, Worship: A history of New Zealand church design and Islands: A New Zealand Journ

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Alex Miller has twice won the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's premier literary prize; the first occasion in 1993 for The Ancestor Game, and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He is also an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, for The Ancestor Game, in 1993. British by birth, he now lives in Victoria.

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Ten years after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus's army is on the march again. His slave Croesus, no longer a young man, accompanies him as always, as does the king's son and heir Cambyses, who has inherited none of his father's diplomacy or charisma and all of his vanity and violence. When the warriors of Persia are unexpectedly crushed in battle Cyrus is put to death, and Cambyses assumes the throne. Croesus, once a king himself, is called upon to guide the young man; but the young man cannot be guided, and after taking offence at an insult by an Egyptian ruler, Cambyses takes the full force of his father's empire to Africa for bloody and brutal vengeance...

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Burt Bacharach is one of the most celebrated and legendary song-writers of the twentieth century. Throughout his sixty year career he has worked with artists from Dionne Warwick to Dr Dre, Marlene Dietrich to Elvis Costello.In Anyone Who Had a Heart, Bacharach steps out from behind the music to take an honest, engaging look at his life. It traces the life and times of the man who created the music that has become the sound track for the lives of his millions of devoted fans all over the world.Bacharach's songs include: 'Magic Moments' - Perry Como, ' Baby It's You' - The Shirelles / The Beatles, 'Please Stay' - The Drifters / Marc Almond, 'Wishin' and Hopin'' - Dionne Warwick / Dusty Springfield / Ani DiFranco, 'Walk On By' - Dionne Warwick / The Stranglers, 'I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself' - Dusty Springfield / The White Stripes, '(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me' - Sandie Shaw, 'A Message to Martha' - Adam Faith, 'What's New Pussycat?' - Tom Jones, 'Trains and Boats and Planes' - Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, 'Alfie' - Cilla Black / Cher / Rumer, 'I Say a Little Prayer' - Dionne Warwick / Aretha Franklin, 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose?' - Dionne Warwick, 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' - B.J. Thomas / Sacha Distel / Johnny Mathis, 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' - Bobby Gentry, 'Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)' - Burt Bacharach / Barry Manilow / Shirley Bassey.

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THE THIRD INSTALMENT IN THE HANNE WILHELMSEN SERIES.The manager of a children's home is dead and a twelve-year-old tearaway is on the run.In an orphanage outside Oslo, a twelve-year-old boy is causing havoc. The institution's ageing director, Agnes Vestavik, sees something chilling in Olav's eyes: sheer hatred. When Vestavik is found murdered at her desk late at night, stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife - with Olav nowhere to be found - the case goes to Hanne Wilhelmsen, recently promoted to superintendent in the Oslo police. Hanne suspects that Olav witnessed the murder and fled, and she orders an investigation of the orphanage staff. But this, however, is one case where her instincts are leading her astray.Meanwhile, Olav makes his way to his mother's apartment in central Oslo. When police finally catch up to him, Olav will lead them on a chase that will upend all of their assumptions.

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THE SIXTH INSTALMENT IN THE HANNE WILHELMSEN SERIES. A high-profile murder brings Hanne back to the city she fled in the wake of heartbreak.When celebrity chef Brede Ziegler is discovered stabbed to death on the steps of the Olso police headquarters it sends a shockwave through the city's in-crowd. Ziegler had lots of famous friends, is there a culprit among them - or was this a random act of violence?Police investigator Billy T. takes on the case, but is met with conflicting information about what kind of man Ziegler was. It seems nobody really knew the dead man - including his glamorous wife, the restaurant co-owner and the editor of his memoir. While Billy T. struggles to break the case, Hanne Wilhelmsen returns to Oslo after a six-month absence. Since the death of her partner Cecilie, Hanne has been in self-imposed exile. Hanne discovers that not only had Ziegler been stabbed, but he had also ingested a lethal dose of painkillers. As the plot thickens, Hanne and Billy T. are pulled deeper into the nefarious world in which Ziegler lived. Was he who he said he was? And can those who claim to have known him best be trusted?

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Sister Bernard has lived in a grey-stone convent in rural France for more than seventy years. In that time, a once youthful and lively cloister has gradually emptied, until only Bernard and two other nuns remain, a knot of survivors facing the creeping challenges of old age - ailing bodies and worn-thin friendships, slips of mind and, in their most secret moments, slips of faith. Now, the halls will fall silent as the three women pack away their few possessions into wooden boxes, preparing to leave the building that has been their home for decades. For the nuns, the closing of the convent means more than losing a home: the crumbling walls have shielded them from a changing modern world; for Sister Bernard, the quiet monotony of the religious life has protected her from memories of the past - the disgrace of when, as a young woman in wartime France, she became the unwitting prize of a cruel wager; when her devotion to God faded in the face of her need for a young Nazi soldier; and when she experienced the full horror and violence of war.Rich and complex, Obedience is a story of betrayal and divided loyalties; a powerful portrait of conflicted love, which goes beyond the veil to reveal a woman who feels adoration and fear, guilt and pride, and all too rarely, peace. Sister Bernard is a remarkable creation: a woman torn between her irreconcilable private passions - her love for Christ and her blistered memories of physical desire.

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For the past six years, Whitney Dafoe has been confined to a bedroom in the back of his parents' home, unable to walk, eat or speak. His diagnosis? The mysterious disease myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) which affects 20 million people around the world who largely suffer in silence because the condition is little known and much misunderstood. Waiting for Superman follows Whitney's father, groundbreaking geneticist Ron Davis, as he uncovers new possibilities for treatments and potentially a cure. At its heart, this book is about more than just cutting-edge research or a race to find an answer - it's about the lengths to which a parent will go to save their child's life.

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A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICKA KINDLE TOP 5 BESTSELLER'Fast, funny and furious, this book has bags of humour, bags of heart and a proper murder mystery at its core' Janice HallettClaire and Sophie aren't your typical murder investigators . . .When 30-something freelance medium Claire Hendricks is invited to an old university friend's country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire's side, because she's been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of seventeen.On arrival at The Cloisters it quickly becomes clear that this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire learns someone has recently met an untimely end at the house.Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage radical Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when.Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer - before the murderer finds them... in this funny, modern, media-literate mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation.

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Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick 2023'Not since Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has the rotten core of modern India been exposed in quite such blackly antic fashion as Parini Shroff manages here in this intermittently absurd, feminist revenge caper about a group of snarky, much-abused, predominantly Hindu wives...sheer gutsy verve.' The Times'A darkly funny revenge drama rooted in the reality of rural India . . . [A] vivid, unsentimental story that succeeds in being both satirical and moving.' Guardian'A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good husbands by a cast of unsinkable women' - New York Times'Mordantly humoured, pacey feminist revenge thriller' - The Sunday Times__________________________________For Geeta, life as a widow is more peaceful than life as a wife...Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too.Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband - a rumour she hasn't bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she's approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village....A darkly irreverent and fresh take on a feminist revenge thriller, perfect for readers of My Sister the Serial Killer, How To Kidnap The Rich and the Sharon Horgan series Bad Sisters.'Tender, unpredictable, brimming with laugh-out-loud moments' Téa Obreht, author of THE TIGER'S WIFE'Original, memorable, and endearing' Charmaine Wilkerson, author of BLACK CAKE'A rollicking mash-up of adventure story, thriller, dark revenge, and comedy' Cristina García, author of DREAMING IN CUBAN

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'Great fun... the suspense slips its slow coils around you' Daily MailDaddy, there's a man in our room... This is the chilling announcement Alfie hears one night, when he wakes in his quiet, suburban house to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed. It's been nine months since Pippa - their mother - suddenly died and they've been unsettled ever since, so Alfie assumes they've probably had a nightmare. Still, he goes to check to reassure the girls. As expected he finds no man, but in the following days the girls begin to refer to someone called Black Mamba. What seemingly begins as an imaginary friend quickly develops into something darker, more obsessive, potentially violent. Alfie finds himself struggling to cope, and so he turns to Julia - Pippa's twin and a psychotherapist - for help. But as Black Mamba's coils tighten around the girls, Alfie and Julia must contend with their own unspoken sense of loss, their unacknowledged attraction to one another, and the true character of the presence poisoning the twins' minds... A darkling tale of tragedy, hauntings and sexual desire, Black Mamba is a novel of a father's love for his struggling daughters, and a widower's growing love for a woman after his wife's death. With smart, gothicky touches and a large and generous challenge to our assumptions of what and who constitutes a modern family, it explores both the limits we'll go to for our children and the sunken taboos of grief - of how erotics can still exist, and can even be life giving, after suffering loss.

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'A cyclone of a novel' GuardianAn absolute marvel' Max Porter, bestselling author of Lanny'Dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerney, bestselling author of The Rules of RevelationFIRST VOICE: Why are we listening? SECOND VOICE: I dunno, I mean, what else is there to do? Tony Cooney, a local-radio DJ, spends his days on air, talking to the listeners of Cork. They call in to tell him about overturned sewage trucks and nuisance graffiti artists, each story a small testimony to the bustle of life that goes on in the county. Off air, however, Tony is beginning to feel unsettled. His long marriage is strained, his teenage daughter is struggling with her mental health, and then out of the blue an old girlfriend gets in touch and suggests he come to visit. Lou Fitzpatrick, Tony's young radio-show producer, is having her own off-air problems. She wants children, but her girlfriend has other ideas; they've lost their beloved cat and her father's drinking is way past problematic. Which is why both Tony and Lou are relieved to leave Cork and drive across Ireland as part of a radio publicity stunt organized by a local car dealership. Their aim is to give away the Mazda 2 that they're driving, the catch being that it must go to one of the many emigrants who have recently returned home to escape a wave of escalating terror attacks in London. But as they navigate dual-carriageways and Travelodges, giving airtime and narrative to the great cacophony of voices calling into the show, the car competition transforms into a surreal quest: Tony to find his first love, Lou to find answers to impossible questions, and all the while two mysterious voices listen in, making their own estimations... A mighty tale of radios, road trips and of the noisy static of life, All Along the Echo asks us whether our lives ever add up to more than the stories we tell ourselves. Funny, warm and in the wilding spirit of George Saunders or Samuel Beckett, Danny Denton's novel is a bravura capturing of modern Ireland, one that shows us the possibilities of fiction, the nature of love and death, and what it is for each of us to be only the briefest signal in life's splendid broadcastttzchidhcmxc [static].

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'Oh, you're not crazy, Denise. I think this is probably the sanest you've ever been...'Two women. An open road. The trip of a lifetime.Thea is confident, sorted, determined to have fun, but there are sorrows beneath the surface of her life.Denise is struggling under the weight of her many commitments and in desperate need of some excitement.When these polar opposites meet, and unexpectedly become friends, they realise they're both looking to escape.So begins a road trip that leads them far from home and yet closer to their true selves.But they can't outrun their pasts forever and when things start to become complicated, both women have an important decision to make. Do they give up or keep going? Turn around or drive on?

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Elizabeth's reign is reaching its winter and England's old adversaries are fading. But in a world on the brink of change, showing any weakness can be fatal...1598. Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and reluctant spy for Robert Cecil, has brought his wife Bianca and their child home from exile in Padua. Welcome at court, his star is in the ascendancy. But he has returned to a dangerous world.Two old enemies are approaching their final reckoning. England and Spain are exhausted by war. In London, Elizabeth is entering the twilight of her reign. In Madrid, King Philip of Spain is dying. Perhaps now is the time for one last throw of the dice.Elizabeth has seen off more than one Spanish attempt at invasion. But still she is not safe. In Ireland, rebellion against her rule is raging. And if Spain can take Ireland, England will be more vulnerable than ever.When England's greatest living poet, Edmund Spenser, sends Robert Cecil an enigmatic and mysterious plea for help from his Irish fastness, Cecil dispatches Nicholas to investigate. Soon he and Bianca find themselves caught up not just in bloody rebellion, but in the lethal power-play between Cecil and the one man Elizabeth believes can restore Ireland to her, the unpredictable Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

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'A vivid, gripping story, beautifully handled, with a gem on every page' - Tracy Chevalier'Once again J.C. Harvey has cleared the high bar in historical fiction by a mile.' - S. W. Perry'Vibrant, twisting and compelling' - Minette WaltersSummer 1630. The Swedish army is fighting its way down through Germany, with Jack Fiskardo and his company of scouts, or 'discoverers', fighting the guerrilla war ahead of the main advance. There are new allies to be made, new perils to overcome, new enemies to outwit and new adventures to pursue; but there is also a fortune for the taking, a mystery to be solved, and a destiny to fulfil - one that will see Jack brought face-to-face at last with his sworn enemy, Carlo Fantom. And in the wintry forests of Bohemia, that destiny will present Jack with an almost impossible choice - does he pursue his final vengeance, or does he turn aside, to help a child as helpless as he once was himself?

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'A funny and touching insight into music, autism and motherhood' Dawn French'A truthful book that dives headfirst into the realities of motherhood that will make you laugh out loud and touch your heart in equal measure' Izzy Judd________________________________Your family doesn't fit the mould. So what?Since giving birth to her second child, Lucy's life is totally unrecognisable: the romance in her marriage is officially dead and so is the career it took her years to build.Instead of playing the cello behind superstars at packed-out arenas, Lucy now spends most days mopping up broccoli vomit whilst listening to her four-year-old recite facts about the gallbladder. Something needs to change.With a little help from her friends, Lucy comes up with a plan to get her life on track, claw back her career and help her extraordinary son to find his place in an ordinary world.

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The inaugural title from Roxane Gay Books, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a searingly honest debut from a Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist, exploring what love and freedom cost in a society steeped in homophobia.August is a talented athlete who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. It's his first semester and, pressures aside, he's making friends and doing well. He even almost has a girlfriend. There's only one problem: he can't stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé. Their connection is undeniable, but Segun is reluctant to open himself up to August. He wants to love and be loved by a man who is comfortable in his own skin, who will see and hold and love Segun, exactly as he is.Despite their differences, August and Segun forge a tender intimacy that defies the violence around them. But there is only so long Segun can stand being loved behind closed doors, while August lives a life beyond the world they've created together.And when a new, sweeping anti-gay law is passed, August and Segun must find a way for their love to survive in a Nigeria that was always determined to eradicate them. A tale of rare bravery and profound beauty, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is an extraordinary debut that marks Ani Kayode Somtochukwu as a voice to watch.

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Tessa is a successful writer who develops a friendship, first by correspondence and then in person, with Charlie, a ruggedly handsome philosopher and scholar. Sparks fly as they exchange ideas about Camus and masculine desire, and their intellectual connection promises more - but there are obstacles to this burgeoning relationship.While Tessa's husband Milton enjoys Charlie's company, Charlie's wife Wah is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah's traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa's martini-fueled declaration that Wah is 'an insult to womankind.' As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether.An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection - and the perils of feminine rivalry - My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer.

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'A wonderful book... Delightfully varied... As with all the best science writing, this book doesn't just give answers, it also asks interesting questions.' Daily Mail'Captivating and intelligent! Who knew death could be this much fun?' Richard OsmanAsteroids, killer sharks, nuclear bombs, viruses, deadly robots, climate change, the apocalypse - why is Hollywood so obsessed with death and the end of the world? And how seriously should we take the dystopian visions of our favourite films? With wit, intelligence and irreverence, Rick Edwards and Dr Michael Brooks explore the science of death and mass destruction through some of our best-loved Hollywood blockbusters. From Armageddon and Dr Strangelove to The Terminator and Contagion, they investigate everything from astrophysics to AI, with hilarious and captivating consequences. Packed with illustrations, fascinating facts and numerous spoilers, Hollywood Wants to Kill You is the perfect way into the science of our inevitable demise.

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'Entertaining and insightful' -- Evening Standard'One of the most important books of the year... Compelling' Jamie Bartlett, Literary Review'Timely' -- New StatesmanAs the world becomes better connected and we grow ever more dependent on technology, the risks to our infrastructure are multiplying. Whether it's a hostile state striking the national grid (like Russia did with Ukraine in 2016) or a freak solar storm, our systems have become so interlinked that if one part goes down the rest topple like dominoes.In this groundbreaking book, former government minister Oliver Letwin looks ten years into the future and imagines a UK in which the national grid has collapsed. Reliant on the internet, automated electric cars, voice-over IP, GPS, and the internet of things, law and order would disintegrate. Taking us from high-level government meetings to elderly citizens waiting in vain for their carers, this book is a wake up call for why we should question our unshakeable faith in technology. But it's much more than that: Letwin uses his vast experience in government to outline how businesses and government should respond to catastrophic black swan events that seem distant and implausible - until they occur.

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***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick***'David Haslam is uniquely placed to reflect on how healthcare has lost its way, what needs to be done to fix it and why all of us are responsible for doing so... The importance and timeliness of his messages shines through.' Dr Phil Hammond'A fascinating and important book.' Dr Amanda BrownWith a single drug in the UK currently costing £340,000 per patient per year, or a gene therapy in the USA being costed at $1.2million, who should get such treatments, and how can we begin to afford them? Should we all be entitled to timely mental health therapy? How should we care for our old? As we grapple with the world's worst pandemic for a century, our minds are on our health more than ever. But what should we rightfully expect of doctors? In this original and thought-provoking book, Sir David Haslam explores what good healthcare should achieve and asks how we pay for it. Informed by patient stories and data from across the world - from US big pharma to Britain's NHS - this is an urgent and often moving examination of our most important asset: our health.

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An exquisitely moving novel of sorrow, love, and the miracle of human connections. - Kamila Shamsie, author of Home FireFor ten years, a secret has slept with Oliver Loving.One moonless November night, Oliver shyly joined his classmates at Bliss County Day School's annual dance, hoping for a glimpse of the object of his unrequited affections, an enigmatic Junior named Rebekkah Sterling. But as the music played in the gymnasium, a troubled young man snuck in through the school's back door with a gun. It was all over in a few terrible minutes; the dire decisions this man made that night, and the unspoken story he carried, forever transformed Oliver's world and tore the town of Bliss, Texas apart.Nearly ten years later, Oliver Loving still lies wordless and paralyzed at Crockett State Assisted Care Facility, the fate of his mind unclear. Meanwhile, his parents and his brother try to cope in their own disparate self-destructive ways, whilst Rebekkah, who left Texas long ago, still refuses to speak about her own part in that tragic night. Oliver Loving is a brilliant and beautifully told story of family, as heart-breaking as it is profound. It is a novel of the myths we make; the ties that bind us and the forces that keep us apart.

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Despite a thousand years of glorious history, the people of England know surprisingly little of the facts and fables, people and places and events and emblems that have shaped their country and its heritage. * Where did John Bull come from? * What is the Long Man of Wilmington? * Who abolished Christmas? * When did roast beef become a national dish? From the White Cliffs of Dover to MG Rover, from Newcastle Brown Ale to Royal Mail, and from John Milton to blue stilton, Nicholas Hobbes explains and celebrates the many facets of Englishness for today's readers. The result is as entertaining as it is essential.

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For most people in England today, the church is simply the empty building at the end of theroad, visited for the first time, if at all, when dead. It offers its sacraments to a population that lives without rites of passage, and which regards the National Health Service rather than the National Church as its true spiritual guardian.In Our Church, Scruton argues that the Anglican Church is the forlorn trustee of an architectural and artistic inheritance that remains one of the treasures of European civilization. He contends that it is a still point in the centre of English culture and that its defining texts, the King James Bible and theBook of Common Prayer are the sources from which much of our national identity derives. At once an elegy to a vanishing world and a clarion call to recognize Anglicanism's continuing relevance, Our Church is a graceful and persuasive book.

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The warm, rich and fascinating memoir of beloved broadcaster Tommie Gorman.When Tommie Gorman was growing up in Sligo in the 1960s, struggle was never far away but his household had a surplus of love and warmth. From modest beginnings as a local reporter at the Western Journal, where his deadlines were dependent on the bus schedule, Tommie landed at RTÉ, taking up the post of North-West correspondent in 1980. Over the next four decades he became a familiar presence in Irish homes, known for his coverage of Europe and Northern Ireland, as well as his unforgettable interviews with controversial figures including Gerry Adams, Roy Keane, Ian Paisley and Arlene Foster.While revelling in his life as a journalist, he was also coping with the cancer diagnosis he received in 1994 and seeking ways to access life-saving treatments for patients who shared his rare form of the disease.In this insightful and generous book, Tommie takes readers behind the scenes and shares some of his memories from Sligo to Stormont, via Brussels and Sweden, as he recounts forty extraordinary years of Irish history from his front-row seat and looks at what may lie ahead for the island.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION'Blistering... The most truthful exploration of sisterhood I have enjoyed since Fleabag' The Times'So, so clever and so concise yet just goes into the most profound issues in such depth' Vick Hope, Women's Prize for Fiction Judge 2021 '[A] gripping read about sisters, guilt, grief and revenge... I couldn't put it down.' Daily Mail'Compelling... A brave, even dangerous book.' Preti Taneja, author of We That Are YoungSaskia and Jenny are twins, alike in appearance only: Saskia has a single-minded focus on her studies, while Jenny is glamorous, thrill-seeking and capricious. Still, when Jenny is severely injured in an accident, Saskia puts her life on hold for her sister.Sara and Mattie are sisters with another difficult dynamic: Mattie needs almost full-time care, while Sara loves nothing more than fine wines, perfumes and expensive clothing, and leaves home at the first opportunity. But when their mother dies, Sara must move Mattie in with her. Gradually, Sara and Saskia learn that both their sisters' lives, and indeed their own, have been altered by the devastating actions of one man...In turns razor-sharp, provocative and precise, Consent is a blistering novel of sisters and their knotty relationships, of predatory men and sexual power, of retribution and the thrilling possibilities of revenge.LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE

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'Clever, sharp, and deliciously dark... A one-sitting read.' Andrea Mara_____________________________When you fake it for a living, the truth is hard to find...Former child star Lily Thane is now a struggling thirty-something actress. Her old stage-school buddy, Adam Harker, is on the brink of making it big, but he needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal, and Lily fits the bill.Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam's dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic. But when Adam winds up dead in a swimming pool, Lily is the only person who cares enough to find out why. She's convinced someone was out to get Adam - and now they're after her...

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'Historical fiction at its most sumptuous' Rory Clements'S. J. Parris fans will be pleased' Publishers WeeklyFrom the bestselling, CWA Historical Dagger Award-nominated author of The Angel's Mark comes a gripping and atmospheric new mystery . . . ______________The Elizabethan world is in flux. Radical new ideas are challenging the old. But the quest for knowledge can lead down dangerous paths...London, 1594. The Queen's physician has been executed for treason, and conspiracy theories flood the streets. When Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and unwilling associate of spymaster Robert Cecil, is accused of being part of the plot, he and his new wife Bianca must flee for their lives. With agents of the Crown on their tail, they make for Padua, following the ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena. But the pursuing English aren't the only threat Nicholas and Bianca face. Hella, a strange and fervently religious young woman, has joined them on their journey. When the trio finally reach relative safety, they become embroiled in a radical and dangerous scheme to shatter the old world's limits of knowledge. But Hella's dire predictions of an impending apocalypse, and the brutal murder of a friend of Bianca's forces them to wonder: who is this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?More praise for S. W. Perry's Jackdaw Mysteries: 'Engaging' Sunday Times'Beautiful writing' Giles Kristian'Brilliantly evokes the colours, sights and sounds of the Elizabethan era' Goodreads review'Gripping, packed with twists and turns!' Goodreads review'Spellbinding . . . I fell in love with every character' Goodreads review

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'Jim Fraser has been at the forefront of forensic science in the UK for decades... A superb story of real-life CSI.' Dr Richard Shepherd, bestselling author of Unnatural Causes'Powerful... Fascinating' Independent Most murders are not difficult to solve. People are usually killed by someone they know, there is usually abundant evidence and the police methods used to investigate this type of crime are highly effective. But what about the more difficult cases, where the investigation involves an unusual death, an unusual killer, or is complex or politically charged? In these cases, bringing the accused before the courts can take many years, even then, the outcome may be contentious or unresolved. In this compelling and chilling memoir, Jim Fraser draws on his personal experience as a forensic scientist and cold case reviewer to give a unique insight into some of the most notable cases that he has investigated during his forty-year career, including the deaths of Rachel Nickell, Damilola Taylor and Gareth Williams, the GCHQ code breaker.Inviting the reader into the forensic scientist's micro-world, Murder Under the Microscope reveals not only how each of these cases unfolded as a human, investigative and scientific puzzle, but also why some were solved and why others remain unsolved or controversial even to this day.

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At 2 a.m. on the morning of her fortieth birthday, Sophie wakes to find an intruder in her bedroom. The stranger hands Sophie a letter and issues an threat: open the letter at her party that evening, in front of family and friends, at exactly 8 p.m., or those she loves will be in grave danger.What can the letter possibly contain? This will be no ordinary party; Sophie is not the only person keeping a secret about the evening ahead. When the clock strikes eight, the course of several people's lives will be altered for ever.

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