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Eleanor Oliphant meets Killing Eve in gloriously unhinged New Zealand sensation, longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023. ALICE: 30-something, IQ of 159 (almost a genius), only communicates with her mother in Morse code. Her imaginary friend is back. ERIKA: 15, daughter of hot 'wealthugee' who loves Russian literature, genuine genius, killer eyeliner and killer instincts. The climate is in crisis and wealthy immigrants are flocking to New Zealand for shelter, stealing land, driving up food prices and taking over. But Alice has far more important things to worry about: hating her best friend's husband, getting free wine and quiet-quitting her dull day job. Until she meets Erika. Now, Alice is about to find herself drawn into action of the most radical - and dangerous - kind. Just what is a slacker to do? Bold and brilliantly bizarre, She's a Killer is the satirical dystopian cli-fi thriller you never knew you needed. Until now. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
When Gilles Principaux walks into Maitre Susane's legal practice seeking representation for his wife, his presence triggers memories from her childhood she had long buried. Gilles' wife is charged with drowning their three children, a case that will be splashed across the news media in Bordeaux and beyond. So why has he entrusted his wife's fate to her small, unremarkable practice? Maitre Susane can't shake the feeling that she has met him before, that something happened between them one afternoon when she was barely ten and he was fourteen, something sinister she has never known how to remember. But Gilles seems so at ease her in presence that Maitre Susane begins to believe that her memory must be playing tricks on her. Haunted by a past that both escapes and consumes her, Maitre Susane fights to hold on to her memory, her identity and the chance she's been given to avenge herself. Translated from the French by Jordan Stump. Published 26th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A life without freedom to choose is not worth having. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of the beautiful Bella, who he brings back to life in a Frankenstein-esque feat. But his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for his creation... But what does Bella think? This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church. 'A magnificently brisk, funny, dirty, brainy book' London Review of Books 'A brilliant marriage of technique, intelligence, and art.' Kirkus Reviews -
Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby. But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones - the most elusive of all faeries - she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all - her own heart... 'Forget dark academia: give me instead this kind of winter-sunshined, sharp-tongued and footnoted academia, full of field trips and grumpy romance' Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light 'Enchanting in every sense of the word... This book is real magic' H. G. Parry, author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Sifting through memories, simple scenes nestled into one another like her own beloved wooden doll, the Matryoshka, Maja struggles to unearth her identity. She is marked by a lingering absence - of homeland, mother tongue, mother, warmth. Raised in an unfamiliar country by her taciturn aunt, Maja has brief moments of connection with her fading past such as through her childhood friendship with Marek, a Polish refugee with his own stories of love and loss in the face of war and displacement. An adult Maja finds herself again and again on the outside of her relationships with others, and with herself. This poetic, yet unadorned, account invites an open-ended exploration of the relationship between language and identity. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Where better to start again than New York? Iris arrives in the city of dreams, intent on restarting her culinary career, and leaving her recent heartache behind. Wandering the streets at a famous food festival, Iris feels like she's living in a movie. Then she stumbles upon a gelateria that looks strangely familiar. Inside, she meets Gio: a perfect leading man with an irresistible smile - and a crisis of his own. As fate would have it, Iris is the one person with the answer to his problem. She just can't tell him that... So, can Iris finally let go of the past - and let herself fall in love? A sumptuously cosy seasonal love story set in sparkling New York, from the queen of the 'what if?' romance Josie Silver. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner treats its customers to wonderfully extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason to stop by... The father-daughter duo have started advertising their services as 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are capable of recreating a dish from their customers' pasts - dishes that may well hold the keys to unlocking forgotten memories and future happiness. From the widower looking for a specific noodle dish that his wife used to cook, to a first love's beef stew, the restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to the past - and a way to a more contented future. A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
FROM THE CREATORS OF THE HAUNTING SEASON COMES A DAZZLING COLLECTION OF NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN GHOSTLY TALES. Featuring new and original stories from: Bridget Collins, author of The Binding. Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies. Andrew Michael Hurley, author of The Loney. Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars. Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory. Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions. Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora. Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of The Square of Sevens. Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street. The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries. These twelve stories - authored by some of today's most loved and lauded writers of historical and gothic fiction - are all centred around Christmas or Advent, boldly and playfully re-imagining a beloved tradition for a modern audience. Taking you from a haunted Tuscan villa to a remote Scottish island with a dark secret,, these vibrant haunted stories are your ultimate companion for frosty nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of winters past... 'I absolutely devoured The Winter Spirits. Every story is a gem' LAURA SHEPPERSON 'Another dazzling collection. Chilling, moving and incredibly satisfying' AMANDA MASON 'Eerily macabre, hauntingly propulsive' JOANNE BURN Published 19th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A brand-new steamy billionaire romance from the bestselling author of the Twisted series. He had her, he lost her... and he'll do anything to win her back. Powerful, brilliant, and ambitious, Dominic Davenport clawed his way up from nothing to become the King of Wall Street. He has everything - a beautiful home, a beautiful wife and more money than he could spend in a lifetime. But no matter how much he accumulates, he's never satisfied. In his endless quest for more, he drives away the only person who saw him as enough. It isn't until she's gone that he realizes there may be more to life than riches and glory... but by then, it may be too late. Kind, intelligent, and thoughtful, Alessandra Davenport has played the role of trophy wife for years. She stood by her husband while he built an empire, but now that they've reached the top, she realizes he's no longer the man she fell for. When it becomes clear that she'll always come second to his work, she finally takes charge of her life and puts herself first - even if it means leaving the only man she's ever loved. But what she didn't count on was his refusal to let her go... or for him to fight for their marriage, no matter what it takes. Published 24th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who or where he is. He's not alone - there are six others, each with a unique set of skills. None of them can remember their names. All of them possess a gun. When a message appears on the onboard computer - Proceeding to Point A - the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can't they remember anything? And what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist? Internationally bestselling fantasy author Anthony Ryan - writing as A. J. Ryan - delivers a nerve-shredding thriller in which seven strangers must undertake a terrifying journey into the unknown. 'Bursts onto the page like a riveting ride into a monstrous heart of darkness, starting out as a locked-room mystery and steadily stomping the gas to become an edge-of-your seat thriller' Craig DiLouie 'A madly entertaining amalgam of locked-room mystery, heart-racing thriller, and terror-inducing horror show that will keep you up late into the night and darken your dreams long after you turn the last page' Philip Fracassi Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the bestselling author of Golden Hill. In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth. The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Rose used to love Christmas - until the year everything changed. She hasn't been home to visit her family for the holidays since. Charlie is facing his first Christmas alone. It may be the most wonderful time of the year for some, but not for him. Not this year. In search of comfort and seclusion, Rose escapes to a cottage in rural Donegal to hunker down for the festive season by herself. But when Charlie opens the door to Seaview Cottage, the two strangers realise that their holiday rental has been double-booked. Both of them expected to spend this Christmas alone. But their lives could be changed forever if they agree to spend it together... Published 26th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A follow up to the hugely successful Why The Moon Travels, Twiggy Woman is a collection of Irish Traveller folklore ghost stories with eerie illustrations throughout by Helena Grimes. Publishing in time for Halloween, the stories here have never really been written or brought into mainstream English before. A collection of traveller folk tales and tales of the supernatural. -
On their arrival in Trieste in 1904, James Joyce left Norah Barnacle outside a railway station while he went to scare up money. He got embroiled in a fight with a couple of sailors and was locked up for his troubles. A penniless Norah was left alone for almost an entire day and night sitting on their suitcases at the station in a city where she knew no one and where she didn't speak the language. In real life, Norah waited for him. This novel asks - what if she hadn't? In Penelope Unbound, one of our greatest living novelists weaves a spellbinding speculative history. By unhooking Norah from her famous husband, Morrissy gives her a compelling new voice, with heartbreak and humanity all her own. Sensual, inventive and uproariously funny, Penelope Unbound reimagines a Joycean heroine for the 21st century. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
The uplifting new Japanese cat novel from the million-copy bestselling author of The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Against changing seasons in Japan, seven cats weave their way through their owners' lives. A needy kitten rescued from the recycling bin teaches a new father how to parent his own human baby - An elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be together for ever - A colony of wild cats on a holiday island shows a young boy not to stand in nature's way - A family is perplexed by their cat's devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father - A woman curses how her cat constantly visits her at nightBursting with empathy and love... THE GOODBYE CAT explores the unstoppable cycle of life as we see how the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, every page is a joyous celebration of cats and how we cannot resist sharing our lives with them. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Immy Brooks, personal shopper at Shillington's luxury department store in Dublin, has a gift for knowing what people want, even before they do. The countdown to Christmas is on and Immy is busier than ever, even going the extra mile to pair up the perfect couples among her clients. Unfortunately, her own match is nowhere to be found. Immy's best friend Lando Shillington is about to leave for Paris to learn the ropes before taking over the store. Radical changes are needed if Shillington's is to return to its former glory, otherwise this Christmas will be its last. But the night before Lando's departure, things with Immy get very complicated ... leaving them both questioning their friendship, and if it could be something more. When Lando returns from Paris with a gorgeous new girlfriend and a plan to save Shillington's, Immy is more than sceptical of both. But if she gets in the way, will she lose Lando forever? As Christmas Eve approaches and the future of Shillington's hangs in the balance, will everyone find what they are looking for beneath the Christmas tree? Published 19th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Emily loves the festive season. This year she's hosting a special Christmas lunch at her restaurant to celebrate with family and friends. But as the big day draws near, her plans begin to unravel ... Emily and her partner Bill are happily raising his grandson Pip when Bill's troubled daughter Christine turns up out of the blue. She wants to pick up the pieces of her life, and to reclaim her son. Can Emily give up the boy she's come to love as her own? And how can she ask Bill to choose between the two women he loves?Emily's best friend Heather is also dealing with unexpected arrivals: the mother she left behind as a teenager, who now needs her help, and a man she thought she'd never see again. But Heather wonders if these reunions will heal past wounds, or only disrupt the happiness she has now. As Emily and Heather's lives become more and more complicated, will they find their way back to happiness and the people they love in time for Christmas Day? Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
"I'm not asking you to build something impossible. I'm asking you to build something that contains all the strangeness and confusion that you can muster." Samuel Etherstone, a penniless artist, is adrift in London. His disturbing art is shunned by patrons and critics alike, his friend Oscar Wilde is now an exile living in Paris, and a personal tragedy has taken its toll. So when he is contacted by a mysterious heiress, Mrs Chesterfield, and asked to work on a commission for the house she is building on the desolate Smugglers' Coast of North Yorkshire, he accepts the offer. Staying overnight in the local village pub, Samuel is warned not to spend too much time there. He is told of the fate of the house's original architect, Francisco Varano, chilling tales of folk driven mad by the house, of it being built on haunted land where young girls have vanished, their ghosts now calling others to their deaths... It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of Varano's disappearance. And yet its owner keeps adding wing upon wing, and no one will tell him the reason behind her chilling obsession... But as Samuel delves deeper into the mysteries that swirl about the house, the nature of the project becomes terrifyingly clear. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Bruised and bloodied by an epic battle at Crecy, six soldiers of fortune known as the Essex Dogs pick through the wreckage of the fighting and their own lives. Now a new siege is beginning, and the Dogs are sent to attack the soaring walls of Calais. King Edward has vowed no Englishman will leave France til this city falls. To get home, they must survive a merciless winter in a lawless camp deadlier than any battlefield. Obsessed with tracking down the vanished Captain, Loveday struggles to control his own men. Romford is haunted by the reappearance of a horrific figure from his past. And Scotsman is spiralling into a pit of drink, violence and self-pity. The Dogs are being torn apart but this war is far from over. It won't be long before they lose more of their own. From a vast siege camp built outside Calais' walls, to pirate ships patrolling the harbour, and finally into the darkest corners of oligarchs houses inside a starving city, this captivating and darkly comic story brings the fourteenth century vividly to life. Praise for Essex Dogs: 'Oddly joyous rolling action, fast-paced, a book that draws you in page by page. The way Dan Jones writes enemies reminds me of Cornwell at his best, turning up tension click by click.' CONN IGGULDEN. 'A testosterone fuelled, blood soaked rampage across the Middle Ages, this is the Hundred Years' War as directed by Oliver Stone with a historian's eye for detail' ELODIE HARPER. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
If any man can do the impossible it's Richard Sharpe . . .And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Captain Sharpe is asked to do when he's sent on an undercover mission to a small village in the Spanish countryside, far behind enemy lines. For the quiet, remote village, sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, is about to become the centre of a battle for the future of Europe. Two French armies march towards the bridge, one from the North and one from the South. If they meet, the British are lost.Only Sharpe's small group of men - with their cunning and courage to rely on - stand in their way. But they're rapidly outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and as the French edge ever closer to the frontline, time is running out... SHARPE'S COMMAND is the brand new novel in the bestselling historical series that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Published 10th October 2023 - Order Now. -
The first weapon I ever held was my mother's hand. On a slave plantation in the Carolinas, Annis has survived in the light of her mother s resilience, comforted by stories of her African warrior grandmother. Everything she knows, she learned from her mother how to fight, how to be strong, how to grow up in a world shrouded in darkness. When she is sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, Annis must venture onward through the rich but unforgiving landscapes of the American South alone: from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans, and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Searching for relief in memories of her mother, she opens herself to a world beyond her own, teeming with spirits of earth, water, history and myth. A reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching, Let Us Descend offers a magnificent portrait of the strength of the human spirit and its ability to emerge from darkness into light. This is a story of beauty, love, rebirth and reclamation a masterwork for the ages. Gripping, mythic, bone-pulverising ... A spectacular achievement ANTHONY DOERR. Jesmyn Ward is one of the greatest writers of all time. And Let Us Descend, once again, proves it JACQUELINE WOODSON. Transcendent ... The best book I ve read in years LOUISE KENNEDY. Published 24th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Our lives are digital, exposed and always-on. We track our friends and family wherever they go. We have millennia of knowledge at our fingertips. We know everything about our world. But we know nothing about theirs. We have changed, but our ghosts have not. They've simply adapted and innovated, found new channels to reach us. They inhabit our apps and wander the metaverse just as they haunt our homes and our memories, always seeking new ways to connect. To live amongst us. To remind us. To tempt us. To take their revenge. These stories are not ours to tell. They are the stories of the dead - of those we've lost, loved, forgotten... and feared. Some are fiction. But some may not be. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Jordan Peele, the visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of brand new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but also the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our world. Featuring an introduction by Jordan Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a masterclass in horror, and - like his spine-chilling films - its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world, and redefine what it means to be afraid. Very afraid... A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes in place of the headlights of cars that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama, where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the watery depths in search of the demon that killed her parents. Here you'll find monster-hunters fighting monsters, humanoid AIs fighting for their rights, and an Igbo woman standing up to a powerful spirit. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele's anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djeli Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor and Cadwell Turnbull. Published 3rd October 2023 - Order Now. -
Sixty years later, Hill House is occupied again Playwright Holly Sherwin is close to her big break. Having received a grant to develop her new play, all she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. Then on a weekend away, she stumbles upon Hill House - an ornate if crumbling gothic mansion, near-hidden outside a small town. Soon Holly's troupe of actors - each with ghosts of their own - arrive at Hill House for a creative retreat. But before long they find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. For something has been waiting patiently in Hill House all these years. Something no longer content to walk alone. 'Scary and beautifully written, imbued with the same sense of dread and inevitability as Jackson's original' NEIL GAIMAN. 'It's so vivid, full of totemic menace and with a heart-in-your-mouth, can't-look-away frisson' BRIDGET COLLINS 'Hill House is back and as haunting as ever. Some of the most striking scares I've read in years' ANA REYES Published 3rd October 2023 - Order Now. -
It's 1986 and a nuclear reactor has exploded in Chernobyl. Syvert Loyning returns home from military service to live with his mother and brother on the outskirts of a town in Southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, he finds a cache of letters that lead to the Soviet Union. In present-day Russia, Alevtina is trying to balance work and family. She has always sought the answers to life's big questions, but is preoccupied with care of her young son. Her friend Vasilisa offers some nourishment: she is writing a book about an ancient feature of Russian culture, the belief in eternal life. Meantime, Alevtina is heading towards a meeting that will redraw the contours of her world. A searching and humane novel, The Wolves of Eternity is an intimate journey into the experiences of a half-brother and half-sister in their two different - yet deeply connected - lives. The second novel in Karl Ove Knausgaard's extraordinary new series, it expands the universe of The Morning Star in the decades before the blazing and mysterious star descends. Published 5th October 2023 - Order Now. -
The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, white-haired pianist who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his Barcelona concert. Although Beatriz, who is married, is initially unimpressed by Wittold, she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into his world. As he sends her letters, extends countless invitations to travel, and even visits her husband's summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though only on her terms. As the power struggle between them intensifies -- Is it Beatriz who limits their passion by controlling her emotions? Or is it Wittold, trying to force into life his dream of love? Evocative of Joyce's 'The Dead,' The Pole is a haunting work, evoking the 'inexhaustible palette of sensations, from blind love to compassion' (El Pais) typical of Coetzee's finest novels. Published 19th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Q wants a simpler and safer life. His work as a quantum cryptographer for the government has led him to believe a crisis is imminent for civilisation and he's looking for somewhere to ride out what's ahead. He buys a ruined farmhouse in Cornwall and begins to build his own self-sufficient haven. Over the course of this quest he meets the eccentric characters who already live on the moors nearby - including the park ranger in charge of the reintroduced lynxes and aurochs that roam the area; a holy man waiting for the second coming on top of a nearby hill; an Arthurian knight on horseback and the amorous ghost of an Edwardian woman who haunts the farmhouse. As life in the cities gets more complicated, and our systems of electronic control begin to fall apart, Q flourishes in the wild Cornish countryside. His new way of life brings him back in tune with his teenage children, his ex-wife, and his own sense of who he is. He also grows close to Eva, energetic and enchanting, who is committed to her own quest for love and meaning. In this entertaining and heart-warming novel Louis de Bernieres pokes fun at modern mores, and makes us reconsider what is really precious in our short and precarious lives. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Sasha is well and truly over it all: work (all-consuming), friendships (on the back burner), sex-life (non-existent). Sasha has hit a brick wall (literally). Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child. But it's off-season, the hotel is falling apart and now she has to share the beach with someone else: a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn. How can she commune with nature when he's sitting on a rock, watching her? Especially when they don't agree on burnout cures. Sasha: manifesting, wild swimming, secret Mars bars; Finn: drinking whisky. But when curious messages start appearing on the beach, Sasha and Finn are forced to begin talking - about everything. What's the mystery? Why are they both burned out? What exactly is 'manifesting', anyway? They might discover that they have more in common than they think... 'I'll drop anything for a new Sophie Kinsella. The Burnout is hilarious, sparky and joyful - just the book you need if you're desperate for a break' BETH O'LEARY. 'I devoured The Burnout in one greedy gulp. Funny, sad, relatable, and so brilliantly done. Sophie Kinsella is the queen of romantic comedy' JOJO MOYES. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Minoru Aose is an architect whose greatest achievement is to have designed the Yoshino house, a prizewinning and much discussed private residence built in the shadow of Mount Asama. Aose has never been able to replicate this triumph and his career seems to have hit a barrier, while his marriage has failed. He is shocked to learn that the Yoshino House is empty apart from a single chair, stood facing the north light of nearby Mount Asama. How can he live with the rejection of the work he had put his heart and soul into, the dream house he would have loved to own himself? Aose determines that he must discover the truth behind this cruel and inexplicable dismissal of the Yoshino house and in doing so will find out a truth that goes back to the core of who he is. Plotted with the subtlety of his bestselling masterpiece Six Four, The North Light is Yokoyama at his elusive, tantalising and surprising best. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
From the internationally bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies comes an exquisitely crafted work of fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri sets her gaze on the eternally beautiful city, illuminating the frailties of the human condition and dissecting lives lived on the margins. A man recalls a summer party that awakens an alternative version of himself. A couple haunted by a tragic loss return to seek consolation. An outsider family is pushed out of the block in which they hoped to settle. A set of steps in a Roman neighbourhood connects the daily lives of the city's myriad inhabitants. This is an evocative fresco of Rome, the most alluring character of all: contradictory, in constant transformation and a home to those who know they can't fully belong but choose it anyway. Rich with Lahiri's signature gifts, Roman Stories is a masterful work from one of the finest writers of our time. Translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A darkly funny debut novel about work, debt and how we live now, from a thrilling new voice in fiction. Jonathan Abernathy is a loser. Unemployed and behind on his student loan repayments, the only thing Abernathy has in abundance is debt. When a secretive government loan forgiveness programme offers him a job he can literally do in his sleep, Abernathy thinks he's found his big break. He finds himself auditing the dreams of white-collar workers, flagging their anxieties for removal at night so they'll be more productive in the day. If Abernathy can at least appear competent at this new job, might he have a chance at a new life? As Abernathy tries to find his footing in this new gig, reality and morality begin to warp around him. Soon, the lines between life and work, right and wrong, and even sleep and consciousness, have blurred and Abernathy begins to wonder just what he might have signed away... Wildly imaginative, laced with black humour and full of close-to-the-bone truths, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is the cult workplace novel that's like nothing else you've read before. 'Trippy, incisive and riotously funny' Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine. 'A wonder ... Precision, humour, heart, this is a stunner' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, bestselling author of Chain-Gang All-Stars. Published 26th October 2023 - Order Now. -
London, chief city of Airstrip One, the third most populous province of Oceania. It's 1984 and Julia Worthing works as a mechanic fixing the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Under the ideology of IngSoc and the rule of the Party and its leader Big Brother, Julia is a model citizen - cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics. She routinely breaks the rules but also collaborates with the regime whenever necessary. Everyone likes Julia. A diligent member of the Junior Anti-Sex League (though she is secretly promiscuous) she knows how to survive in a world of constant surveillance, Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublethink, child spies and the black markets of the prole neighbourhoods. She's very good at staying alive. But Julia becomes intrigued by a colleague from the Records Department - a mid-level worker of the Outer Party called Winston Smith - when she sees him locking eyes with a superior from the Inner Party at the Two Minutes Hate. And when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston, she impulsively hands him a note - a potentially suicidal gesture - she comes to realise that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world. Seventy-five years after Orwell finished writing his iconic novel, Sandra Newman has tackled the world of Big Brother in a truly convincing way, offering a dramatically different, feminist narrative that is true to and stands alongside the original. For the millions of readers who have been brought up with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, here, finally, is a provocative, vital and utterly satisfying companion novel. -
Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling. Tunde, the man at the centre of this novel, reflects on the places and times of his life, from his West African upbringing to his current work as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, and a traveller drawn to many different kinds of stories: from history and the epic; of friends, family, and strangers; those found in books and films. One man's personal lens refracts entire worlds, and back again.A weekend spent shopping for antiques is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speak out from a pulsing metropolis. Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst "history's own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles" - but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. This is narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature. Published 19th October 2023 - Order Now. -
There was only one thing on her mind. 'I must start a bookshop.' Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live. A heart-warming story about finding comfort and acceptance in your life and the healing power of books. 'An incredibly exciting debut novel. At once gentle and invigorating. I devoured it' Sarah Crossan. Published 26th October 2023 - Order Now. -
A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant. This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley. 'A journey unlike any you've read before' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars. 'Vulnerable, witty, trippy and conceptually dazzling all at once' Kimberly King Parson, author of Black Light. Published 24th October 2023 - Order Now. -
Growing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore. Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world. When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family. Published 12th October 2023 - Order Now.