The perfect gift this Christmas season: a generous selection of some of the greatest festive stories of all time This is a collection of the most magical, moving, chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world, taking us from frozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris, a New York speakeasy to an English country house, bustling Lagos to midnight mass…
What can Alice in Wonderland teach us about childhood? Could reading Conversations with Friends guide us through first love? Does Esther Greenwood’s glittering success and subsequent collapse in The Bell Jar help us understand ambition? And, finally, what can we learn about death from Virginia Woolf? Literature matters. Not only does it provide escapism and entertainment, but it also holds…
All over the world women are discovering they have the power. With a flick of the fingers they can inflict terrible pain - even death. Suddenly, every man on the planet finds they've lost control. The Day of the Girls has arrived - but where will it end?
Explore the social and cultural history of 100 of the world's most important cities. From the first towns in Mesopotamia to today's global metropolises, cities have marked the progress of civilisation. Written in the form of illustrated "biographies", Great Cities offers a rich historical overview of each featured city, brought to vivid life with paintings, photographs, timelines, maps, and artefacts.…
In over a year of on-the-ground reportage, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled across the US to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the scale of the response to Michael Brown's death and understand the magnitude of the problem police violence represents, Lowery conducted hundreds of interviews…
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 & SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A tour de force... A spectacular demonstration of how the novel can make us see and think afresh' Booker Judges, 2021 'A masterpiece - a moving, brilliantly told family epic' Elizabeth Day Discover the powerful prizewinning story of a family in crisis. On a farm outside Pretoria, the Swarts are…
In this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr. blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity. The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers…
From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them. 'Beautiful, compassionate ... Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.' MAGGIE O'FARRELL 'One of the finest novelists writing today... a haunting, exquisite masterpiece.' RACHEL JOYCE ___________ This is a story about family, about all…
When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the…
It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other. As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and fearful disarray. Hannah, ever…
The Rings of Saturn begins as the record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia. From Lowestoft to Bungay, Sebald's own story becomes the conductor of evocations of people and cultures past and present: of Chateaubriand, Thomas Browne, Swinburne and Conrad, of fishing fleets, skulls and silkworms.
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016 Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Observer and Daily Telegraph When you travel across the ocean on a boat, all your memories are washed away and you start a completely new life. That is how it is. There is no before. There is no history. The boat docks at…
A personal and powerful essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. ‘I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we…
A brilliant collection of short stories in from Orange-Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Adichie straddles the cultures of Nigeria and the West. Her characters battle with the responsibilities of modern life, a world in which identity is too often compromised. These are the stories of one of the most…
In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato—a novel about the Vietnam War—won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of…
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY - WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SUSAN HILL Agatha Christie called her ‘a shining light’. Have you discovered Margery Allingham, the 'true queen' of the classic murder mystery? A fog is creeping through the weary streets of London - so too are whispers that the Tiger is back in town, undetected by the law, untroubled by…
WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR On his third birthday Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures is post-war Germany.
A newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife's beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these precisely observed tales of love, marriage and family life in mid-century Copenhagen pulse currents of desire, violence and despair, as women and men dream of escaping their conventional roles and…
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells…
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the…
Previously adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola starring Kirsten Dunst, this is the story of the five Lisbon sisters – beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the entire neighbourhood. The boys that once loved them from afar are now grown men, determined to understand a tragedy that has always defied explanation. For still, the question remains –…
'Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. She plays many roles round here. And never Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life Story to whoever has ears and eyes...' Zadie Smith's first play is a joyous re-imagining of Chaucer's classic, The Wife…
Single, in her mid-forties and having experienced a sudden early menopause, a realisation comes to Peggy quietly, and clearly: she decides to adopt a child. But the preparation is arduous and the scrutiny intense. There are questions about past lives, about capability and expectations. Asking big questions about identity and belonging, as well as about what makes a mother -…
The Handmaid's Tale meets The Village in this stunning feminist debut . . . Shortlisted for the GoodReads Choice Awards 2020 for Best Debut Novel and Best Horror Novel . . . 'A magnificent, raw slice of folk horror, dark with threat and clenched with suspense . . . a brilliant debut to chill the brightest summer day' DAILY MAIL…
Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is…
'Will make you laugh, cry, and call the people you love. Exceptional' EMILY HENRY'Nostalgic, wise, funny, and filled with love' GABRIELLE ZEVIN'Her most emotionally resonant work yet' VOGUE'Has the makings of a dreamy, witty, contemporary classic' EVENING STANDARD'I just finished and I'm crying at its message and its honestly and its utter beauty' JODI PICOULT'A tender, witty David Nicholls-esque tale…
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020, an enthralling Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance from one of Japan's greatest writers. 'Beautiful... Haunting' Sunday Times 'A dreamlike story of dystopia' Jia Tolentino Hat, ribbon, bird rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown…
'I want you to make a promise to me that you will always take care of your sisters. That you will always be there for one another. That you will not allow anyone to take you away from each other, ever. Do you understand?' When they are little girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father -…
'I've been telling everyone I know about Mary Lawson . . . Each of her novels is just a marvel' Anne Tyler Clara's rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened. Liam, newly divorced and newly unemployed, moves into the house next door and within hours gets a visit from the…
As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away. Years…
In 1960, when he was almost sixty years old, John Steinbeck set out to rediscover his native land. He felt that he might have lost touch with its sights, sounds and the essence of its people. Accompanied only by his dog, Charley, he travelled all across the United States in a pick-up truck. His journey took him through almost forty…
A producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs,…
Our choices can help alleviate the most pressing issues we face today: the climate crisis, infectious and chronic diseases, human exploitation and, of course, non-human exploitation. Undeniably, these issues can be uncomfortable to learn about but the benefits of doing so cannot be overstated. It is quite literally a matter of life and death. Through exploring the major ways that…
Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armour against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance. But when Dot dies…
‘Nothing like Vertigo is likely to be encountered in the course of one's regular reading. One emerges from it shaken, seduced, and deeply impressed’ Anita Brookner, Spectator What could possibly connect Stendhal's unrequited love, a series of murders by a clandestine organisation, the Great Fire of London, a story by Kafka and a closed-down pizzeria in Verona? Part fiction, part travelogue, the narrator…
Owen Mackenzie's life story abounds with sin and seduction, domesticity and debauchery. His marriage to his college sweetheart is quickly followed by his first betrayal and he embarks upon a series of affairs. His pursuit of happiness, in a succession of small towns from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, brings him to the edge of chaos, from which he is saved by…
'This has bestseller written all over it. Fast-paced, funny, shocking, unputdownable. I loved it' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train 'I just raced through Wahala. Nikki May writes so well about friendship, food, fashion and the many ways modern women can stumble in their careers and personal lives' CLARE CHAMBERS, author of Small Pleasures ______________ Ronke, Simi…
'A remarkably accomplished, polished debut.' MALORIE BLACKMAN 'Rightfully tipped for greatness' SUNDAY TIMES 'This moving tale of love and loss ... is well worth the wait' INDEPENDENT '[W]hat's distinctive is the modern, multi-ethnic vision of masculinity she presents and the solidarity that emerges from it ... undeniably powerful too.' GUARDIAN '[A] sprawling and epic dual narrative ... woven together with…
Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate…
A heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York - perfect for fans of It's a Sin and Adam Silvera. It's 1990 in New York City. Adam is falling in love for the first time. Ben is leaving home for the last. Drawn by the city's irresistible energy, the boys are swept up into the queer…
Jen has finally got her daughter home. But why does fifteen-year-old Lana still feel lost? When Lana goes missing for four desperate days and returns refusing to speak of what happened, Jen fears the very worst. She thinks she's failed as a mother, that her daughter is beyond reach and that she must do something - anything - to bring…
Trans people in Britain today have become a culture war 'issue'. Despite making up less than one per cent of the country's population, they are the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarized 'debate' which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in…
Discover Ali Smith's dazzling, once-in-a-generation series, SEASONAL, a tour-de-force quartet of novels about love, time, art, politics, and how we live right now The final instalment in the Seasonal quartet is out in August 2020. Catch up with Winter now - Summer is coming... CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR by: The Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, New York Times . .…
THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my book, Yearbook, for the inside cover flap (which is a gross phrase) and for websites like this one, so… here it goes!!! Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best.…
‘Prepare your hearts, for Douglas Stuart is back. After the extraordinary success of Shuggie Bain, his second novel, Young Mungo, is another beautiful and moving book, a gay Romeo and Juliet set in the brutal world of Glasgow’s housing estates.’ – The Observer The extraordinary, powerful second novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo is both…
