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Fiction
Fiction, literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of making, fashioning, or molding.”
- Encyclopedia Britannica -
What's New?
The Girl From Moscow, Julia Levitina
1983, Moscow
Twenty-one-year-old Ella dreams of stardom and playing Natasha Rostova in War and Peace at the Moscow Theatre Academy. One day when meeting her friend Vlad in the city, she finds herself in the middle of a protest and attracts the glare of the KGB.
aitor, she must withdraw from the academy and she soon yearns to escape the cruel and oppressive Soviet regime. However, her hopes of leaving the country are smashed when her husband Roman is sentenced to two years' labour camp for selling American jeans with the intent to make a profit.
As she looks for another way out, Ella is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a KGB general, who has the power to secure her freedom. Will she risk everything and leave behind those she loves to pursue a life in the West?
A gripping, passionate and heart-stopping tale packed with twists and turns for fans of The Spy's Wife, The Girl from Munich and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
'A stunning debut novel. Julia has beautifully crafted characters and given us a tale of intrigue set against the backdrop of 1980s Russia. She has created a thrilling atmosphere of the insidious threat communist Russia posed, not to its enemies, but its own citizens. I lost sleep devouring this page-turner.' Heather Morris, author of Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’sJourney
'A unique new voice in historical fiction' Belinda Alexandra
'Embark on an exhilarating Cold War journey with Julia Levitina's brilliant debut, THE GIRL FROM MOSCOW. I was hooked by Ella's story from the very first page. This is a must-read for fans of fast-paced, engrossing historical fiction.' Kelly Rimmer
Twenty-one-year-old Ella dreams of stardom and playing Natasha Rostova in War and Peace at the Moscow Theatre Academy. One day when meeting her friend Vlad in the city, she finds herself in the middle of a protest and attracts the glare of the KGB.
aitor, she must withdraw from the academy and she soon yearns to escape the cruel and oppressive Soviet regime. However, her hopes of leaving the country are smashed when her husband Roman is sentenced to two years' labour camp for selling American jeans with the intent to make a profit.
As she looks for another way out, Ella is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a KGB general, who has the power to secure her freedom. Will she risk everything and leave behind those she loves to pursue a life in the West?
A gripping, passionate and heart-stopping tale packed with twists and turns for fans of The Spy's Wife, The Girl from Munich and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
'A stunning debut novel. Julia has beautifully crafted characters and given us a tale of intrigue set against the backdrop of 1980s Russia. She has created a thrilling atmosphere of the insidious threat communist Russia posed, not to its enemies, but its own citizens. I lost sleep devouring this page-turner.' Heather Morris, author of Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’sJourney
'A unique new voice in historical fiction' Belinda Alexandra
'Embark on an exhilarating Cold War journey with Julia Levitina's brilliant debut, THE GIRL FROM MOSCOW. I was hooked by Ella's story from the very first page. This is a must-read for fans of fast-paced, engrossing historical fiction.' Kelly Rimmer
Chloe, Katrina Kell
A riveting novel based on the true story of the brave, enigmatic young woman who modelled for one of Australia's most famous paintings.
Taking the reader from Victoria's wild shipwreck coast to the artists' studios of revolutionary Paris and the bloody battlefields of Flanders, this sweeping novel reimagines the volatile history of the beautiful and enigmatic young woman immortalised in one of Australia's most iconic paintings. Created in Paris in 1875, Chloé, Jules Lefebvre's depiction of a naked water nymph, was brought to Melbourne's Young & Jackson Hotel in 1909, where it has hung ever since.
In this passionate, luminous retelling, Katrina Kell seeks to unlock the riddle behind the girl on the canvas, known to history only as Marie. In doing so, she weaves the compelling story of an incandescent spirit - a woman with the strength to defy the boundaries of class and convention in order to survive, and an enduring power to influence the lives of others across time and distance.
Taking the reader from Victoria's wild shipwreck coast to the artists' studios of revolutionary Paris and the bloody battlefields of Flanders, this sweeping novel reimagines the volatile history of the beautiful and enigmatic young woman immortalised in one of Australia's most iconic paintings. Created in Paris in 1875, Chloé, Jules Lefebvre's depiction of a naked water nymph, was brought to Melbourne's Young & Jackson Hotel in 1909, where it has hung ever since.
In this passionate, luminous retelling, Katrina Kell seeks to unlock the riddle behind the girl on the canvas, known to history only as Marie. In doing so, she weaves the compelling story of an incandescent spirit - a woman with the strength to defy the boundaries of class and convention in order to survive, and an enduring power to influence the lives of others across time and distance.
Tilda Is Visible, Jane Tara
A gorgeous, witty and wise novel celebrating older women and what it takes to embrace ourselves as we age, from Better Reading's Jane Tara.
'Pitch-perfect'. Kathy Lette
'There aren't many original story ideas, but Jane Tara has pulled off the almost impossible feat of writing one. Tilda Is Visible is fresh, funny, smart and warm.' Rachael Johns
'Honest, funny and delightfully original. I will be pressing a copy of this uplifting novel into the hands of all my invisible friends.' Joanna Nell
When Tilda Finch is diagnosed with invisibility, she's not overly surprised - she's felt invisible for years. She has a good life and a successful business selling inspirational quotes on merchandise. But she's never really recovered from her divorce. Or, if she's honest, her childhood. Tilda's past has taken a toll and she's lost sight of herself. Now, with the possibility of completely disappearing, she must face the trauma of her past and rewrite the way she perceives the world, and herself.
Entertaining, hilarious and poignant, Tilda Is Visible addresses the power of our thoughts and how childhood trauma shapes our adult experience.
'Pitch-perfect'. Kathy Lette
'There aren't many original story ideas, but Jane Tara has pulled off the almost impossible feat of writing one. Tilda Is Visible is fresh, funny, smart and warm.' Rachael Johns
'Honest, funny and delightfully original. I will be pressing a copy of this uplifting novel into the hands of all my invisible friends.' Joanna Nell
When Tilda Finch is diagnosed with invisibility, she's not overly surprised - she's felt invisible for years. She has a good life and a successful business selling inspirational quotes on merchandise. But she's never really recovered from her divorce. Or, if she's honest, her childhood. Tilda's past has taken a toll and she's lost sight of herself. Now, with the possibility of completely disappearing, she must face the trauma of her past and rewrite the way she perceives the world, and herself.
Entertaining, hilarious and poignant, Tilda Is Visible addresses the power of our thoughts and how childhood trauma shapes our adult experience.
The Women, Kristin Hannah
'Astonishing. Compelling. Powerful' - Delia Owens, bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing
‘Stuns with sacrifice. Uplifts with heroism’ - Bonnie Garmus, Number One worldwide bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
From the worldwide bestselling author of The Four Winds, The Nightingale and Firefly Lane (a Number One series on Netflix), The Women is a story of devastating loss and epic love. It is both an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and a story of a nation divided by war.
It would be the journey of a lifetime . . .
‘Women can be heroes, too’. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause.
The Women is the story of one woman who goes to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has been all too often forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyrical beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define an era.
Praise for Kristin Hannah:
‘Powerful and compelling’ Christy Lefteri, bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo
‘You would be hard-pressed to find a book club that has not discussed one of her novels’ New York Times
‘A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival’ – Kate Morton
‘A masterclass’ – Karen Swan
‘Powerful’ – Matt Haig
‘Stuns with sacrifice. Uplifts with heroism’ - Bonnie Garmus, Number One worldwide bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
From the worldwide bestselling author of The Four Winds, The Nightingale and Firefly Lane (a Number One series on Netflix), The Women is a story of devastating loss and epic love. It is both an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and a story of a nation divided by war.
It would be the journey of a lifetime . . .
‘Women can be heroes, too’. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause.
The Women is the story of one woman who goes to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has been all too often forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyrical beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define an era.
Praise for Kristin Hannah:
‘Powerful and compelling’ Christy Lefteri, bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo
‘You would be hard-pressed to find a book club that has not discussed one of her novels’ New York Times
‘A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival’ – Kate Morton
‘A masterclass’ – Karen Swan
‘Powerful’ – Matt Haig
Cool Water, Myfanwy Jones
'Why this novel? Because we need empathy, understanding, some magic and hope more than ever in our lifetimes.' HOLLY RINGLAND
'Most novels leave us with learnings, but very few refine your character. I left more astute, more empathic, and somehow wiser after I read these pages.' HILDE HINTON
Frank feared a reckoning, but what he feared more was that all the men in his family were cursed.
Frank Herbert's family has gathered at Tinaroo Dam for his daughter Lily's wedding - the first time he's been back since the death of his father, Joe, a year earlier. Like Frank, the dam is at an all-time low and as the water recedes, objects begin to emerge - abstract and disquieting.
Joe's father Victor - Frank's grandfather - was the butcher of Tinaroo during the dam's construction, but Joe refused to speak of him. Joe was not a talker, but he could roar. And he could smash things. What sorrow was his fury, and this place, concealing? And can Frank find a way into a future of his own making?
Moving between the weekend of the wedding and the explosive year in the 1950s that would shape the Herbert men's destiny, Cool Water is an unforgettable novel about fathers and sons, what it means to be a good man, and the damage that can ripple through generations.
A breathtaking story brimming with insight and emotional power by Miles Franklin-shortlisted author Myfanwy Jones.
'Myfanwy Jones has become one of my favourite authors and Cool Water should make her one for any Australian reader. This is a generational novel imbued with grace and grit.' A.S. PATRIC
'Cool Water leaves an enduring imprint. A vivid and profound novel that conjures old hurts from the depths and brings them to the light. I loved this novel.' KATE MILDENHALL
'Crystal-clear prose . . . [An] accomplished novel' SATURDAY PAPER
'Most novels leave us with learnings, but very few refine your character. I left more astute, more empathic, and somehow wiser after I read these pages.' HILDE HINTON
Frank feared a reckoning, but what he feared more was that all the men in his family were cursed.
Frank Herbert's family has gathered at Tinaroo Dam for his daughter Lily's wedding - the first time he's been back since the death of his father, Joe, a year earlier. Like Frank, the dam is at an all-time low and as the water recedes, objects begin to emerge - abstract and disquieting.
Joe's father Victor - Frank's grandfather - was the butcher of Tinaroo during the dam's construction, but Joe refused to speak of him. Joe was not a talker, but he could roar. And he could smash things. What sorrow was his fury, and this place, concealing? And can Frank find a way into a future of his own making?
Moving between the weekend of the wedding and the explosive year in the 1950s that would shape the Herbert men's destiny, Cool Water is an unforgettable novel about fathers and sons, what it means to be a good man, and the damage that can ripple through generations.
A breathtaking story brimming with insight and emotional power by Miles Franklin-shortlisted author Myfanwy Jones.
'Myfanwy Jones has become one of my favourite authors and Cool Water should make her one for any Australian reader. This is a generational novel imbued with grace and grit.' A.S. PATRIC
'Cool Water leaves an enduring imprint. A vivid and profound novel that conjures old hurts from the depths and brings them to the light. I loved this novel.' KATE MILDENHALL
'Crystal-clear prose . . . [An] accomplished novel' SATURDAY PAPER
The Revenge Club, Kathy Lette
A subversive, irreverent revenge romp from the wickedly witty mind of Kathy Lette. Perfect for fans of Jane Fallon and Dawn O'Porter.
Best friends Matilda, Penny, Sofia and Jo are approaching their sixties with flair until, one by one, their bubbles are burst. Matilda, a bestselling novelist, is dropped by her publisher; Penny is cut from her prime-time TV show in favour of her male co-host; Sofia's acting agent can only offer her menopause adverts and Jo... well Jo realised it's still a man's world a while ago.
Confronted by a society that believes they're all past their amuse-by dates, the friends vow to face their non-entity crises together. Each has been trampled on by men, so – as the saying goes – if you can't beat them, join them. Let the revenge games begin!
Best friends Matilda, Penny, Sofia and Jo are approaching their sixties with flair until, one by one, their bubbles are burst. Matilda, a bestselling novelist, is dropped by her publisher; Penny is cut from her prime-time TV show in favour of her male co-host; Sofia's acting agent can only offer her menopause adverts and Jo... well Jo realised it's still a man's world a while ago.
Confronted by a society that believes they're all past their amuse-by dates, the friends vow to face their non-entity crises together. Each has been trampled on by men, so – as the saying goes – if you can't beat them, join them. Let the revenge games begin!
My Friends, Hisham Matar
By the Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Return comes an astonishing new novel about friendship, set between London and Libya in the 1980s and the present
Khaled and Mustafa meet at university in Edinburgh- two Libyan eighteen-year-olds expecting to return home after their studies. In a moment of recklessness and courage, they travel to London to join a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy. Government officials open fire, killing a policewoman and wounding eleven Libyan demonstrators. Both friends are critically injured and their lives are forever changed.
Over the years that follow, Khaled, Mustafa and their friend Hosam, a writer, are bound together by their shared history. If friendship is a space to inhabit, theirs becomes small and inhospitable when a revolution in Libya forces them to choose between the lives they have created in London and the lives they left behind.
Khaled and Mustafa meet at university in Edinburgh- two Libyan eighteen-year-olds expecting to return home after their studies. In a moment of recklessness and courage, they travel to London to join a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy. Government officials open fire, killing a policewoman and wounding eleven Libyan demonstrators. Both friends are critically injured and their lives are forever changed.
Over the years that follow, Khaled, Mustafa and their friend Hosam, a writer, are bound together by their shared history. If friendship is a space to inhabit, theirs becomes small and inhospitable when a revolution in Libya forces them to choose between the lives they have created in London and the lives they left behind.
The Wartime Book Club, Kate Thompson
Jersey, 1943. Once a warm and neighbourly community, now German soldiers patrol the cobbled streets, imposing a harsh rule on the people of the island.
Grace La Mottee, the island's only librarian, is ordered to destroy books which threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along with her headstrong best friend, postwoman Bea Rose, she wants to fight back. So she forms the wartime book club: a lifeline, offering fearful islanders the joy and escapism of reading.
But as the occupation drags on, the women's quiet acts of bravery become more perilous - and more important - than ever before. And, when tensions turn to violence, they are forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance . . .
Based on astonishing real events, The Wartime Book Club is a love letter to the power of books in the darkest of times - as well as a moving page-turner that brings to life the remarkable, untold story of an island at war.
EVERYONE LOVES THE WARTIME BOOK CLUB:
'Wish I could give it more stars' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I was utterly enthralled . . . it reminds us how strong we can be in the face of adversity' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Tears, laughs and genuine love for all the characters in this book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A heartwarming tale . . . shows against all odds and hardships people can survive' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Full of wonderful characters and their determination to get through the worst times' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
AND SO DO YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS...
'One of the very best books I've read in a long time' PETER JAMES
'Engaging' RACHEL HORE
'Both heartwarming and heartbreaking' GILL PAUL
'A poignant masterpiece' MADELINE MARTIN
'A book to be savoured and remembered' GILL THOMPSON
Grace La Mottee, the island's only librarian, is ordered to destroy books which threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along with her headstrong best friend, postwoman Bea Rose, she wants to fight back. So she forms the wartime book club: a lifeline, offering fearful islanders the joy and escapism of reading.
But as the occupation drags on, the women's quiet acts of bravery become more perilous - and more important - than ever before. And, when tensions turn to violence, they are forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance . . .
Based on astonishing real events, The Wartime Book Club is a love letter to the power of books in the darkest of times - as well as a moving page-turner that brings to life the remarkable, untold story of an island at war.
EVERYONE LOVES THE WARTIME BOOK CLUB:
'Wish I could give it more stars' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I was utterly enthralled . . . it reminds us how strong we can be in the face of adversity' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Tears, laughs and genuine love for all the characters in this book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A heartwarming tale . . . shows against all odds and hardships people can survive' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Full of wonderful characters and their determination to get through the worst times' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
AND SO DO YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS...
'One of the very best books I've read in a long time' PETER JAMES
'Engaging' RACHEL HORE
'Both heartwarming and heartbreaking' GILL PAUL
'A poignant masterpiece' MADELINE MARTIN
'A book to be savoured and remembered' GILL THOMPSON
The Book Of Doors, Gareth Brown
These books are like weapons. And possession is power. . . With a perfect combination of dark magical books, unforgettable characters, and a storyline that grabs the reader and simply doesn't let go, this is the heart-stoppingly exciting contemporary fantasy debut of 2024.
'A stunning fever dream of a story.' LEE CHILD
'Full of magic, wonder and heart.' ANITA FRANK
'A beautiful, unputdownable love letter to books.' BETH LEWIS
'A magical, mesmerising adventure from the very first page.' A. J. WEST
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Because some doors should never be opened.
New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she's doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message-
This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.
Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book - a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous - or dreadful and terrifying - things.
Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it.
Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox who has a secret library of magical books hidden in the shadows for safekeeping, a man fleeing his own demons. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .
Because this book is worth killing for.
Addictive, brilliantly written and utterly irresistible, The Book of Doors is the spell-binding, mind-bending, heart-pounding new adventure that is perfect for fans of The Binding, The Midnight Library and A Discovery of Witches . . .
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'A clever and beautiful novel about the power of book.' SUNYI DEAN
'A real page-turner - incredibly ambitious and inventive.' ROSIE ANDREWS
'A stunning fever dream of a story.' LEE CHILD
'Full of magic, wonder and heart.' ANITA FRANK
'A beautiful, unputdownable love letter to books.' BETH LEWIS
'A magical, mesmerising adventure from the very first page.' A. J. WEST
----------------------------------
Because some doors should never be opened.
New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she's doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message-
This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.
Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book - a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous - or dreadful and terrifying - things.
Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it.
Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox who has a secret library of magical books hidden in the shadows for safekeeping, a man fleeing his own demons. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .
Because this book is worth killing for.
Addictive, brilliantly written and utterly irresistible, The Book of Doors is the spell-binding, mind-bending, heart-pounding new adventure that is perfect for fans of The Binding, The Midnight Library and A Discovery of Witches . . .
----------------------------------
'A clever and beautiful novel about the power of book.' SUNYI DEAN
'A real page-turner - incredibly ambitious and inventive.' ROSIE ANDREWS
Compassion, Julie Janson
‘You can’t enslave us all, Captain!’ I yelled into his face. ‘We will resist, and you will die a beaten man. Our Blackfellows will rise...’
From the acclaimed author of the Miles Franklin longlisted Madukka: The River Serpent (UWA) and the Barbara Jefferis Award shortlisted Benevolence, Compassion continues Julie Janson’s emotional and intense literary exploration of the complex and dangerous lives of Aboriginal women during the 1800s in colonial New South Wales, which she began in Benevolence as a counter narrative to colonial history in Australian literature.
Compassion is the dramatised life story of one of Julie Janson’s ancestors who went on trial for stealing livestock in New South Wales, and it is an exciting and violent story of anti-colonial revenge and roaming adventure. A gripping fictive account of Aboriginal life in the 1800s, Compassion follows the life of Duringah, AKA Nell James, the outlaw daughter of the Darug hero of Benevolence, Muraging.
From the acclaimed author of the Miles Franklin longlisted Madukka: The River Serpent (UWA) and the Barbara Jefferis Award shortlisted Benevolence, Compassion continues Julie Janson’s emotional and intense literary exploration of the complex and dangerous lives of Aboriginal women during the 1800s in colonial New South Wales, which she began in Benevolence as a counter narrative to colonial history in Australian literature.
Compassion is the dramatised life story of one of Julie Janson’s ancestors who went on trial for stealing livestock in New South Wales, and it is an exciting and violent story of anti-colonial revenge and roaming adventure. A gripping fictive account of Aboriginal life in the 1800s, Compassion follows the life of Duringah, AKA Nell James, the outlaw daughter of the Darug hero of Benevolence, Muraging.
Literary Fiction:
A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2015
Shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction 2016
Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book Awards 2016
Finalist for the National Book Awards 2015
The million-copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life for ever.
Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.
Shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction 2016
Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book Awards 2016
Finalist for the National Book Awards 2015
The million-copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life for ever.
Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.
Baumgartner, Paul Auster
A late masterpiece of love, memory and grief by Paul Auster, 'one of the great American prose stylists of our time'.
Baumgartner's life has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna. But now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is embarking on his seventies whilst trying to live with her absence. Rich with compassion, wit and Auster's keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, Baumgartner is a tender late masterpiece of the ache of memory. It asks: why do we find such meaning in certain moments, and forget others?
Baumgartner's life has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna. But now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is embarking on his seventies whilst trying to live with her absence. Rich with compassion, wit and Auster's keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, Baumgartner is a tender late masterpiece of the ache of memory. It asks: why do we find such meaning in certain moments, and forget others?
Chai Time At Cinnamon Gardens, Shankari Chandran
WINNER OF THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD
‘Deftly traversing time, culture and continent to weave a tale of both home and unbelonging, this is truly a novel not to be missed.’ - Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race
‘Chandran is an excellent storyteller.’ - The Weekend Australian
‘This is an engaging story that feels both urgent and necessary. It is also a terrific read.’ - The Daily Telegraph
‘this story burns with anger and sings with optimism, sprinkled through with moments of levity and humour.’ - The Canberra Times
Welcome to Cinnamon Gardens, a home for those who are lost and the stories they treasure.
Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule.
But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided.
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how our stories shape who we are.
'Wise and dignified.' - The Australian Women's Weekly
‘An engrossing, urgent, warm, wise and utterly, utterly beautiful novel.’ - Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident and Love Objects
‘This is a book that requires concentration and full immersion – but it will reward the reader for that investment.’ - The Guardian
‘a powerful, compassionate novel about friendship, family, community-building, and the racism faced by members of diasporic communities in this country.’ - The AU Review
‘Deftly traversing time, culture and continent to weave a tale of both home and unbelonging, this is truly a novel not to be missed.’ - Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race
‘Chandran is an excellent storyteller.’ - The Weekend Australian
‘This is an engaging story that feels both urgent and necessary. It is also a terrific read.’ - The Daily Telegraph
‘this story burns with anger and sings with optimism, sprinkled through with moments of levity and humour.’ - The Canberra Times
Welcome to Cinnamon Gardens, a home for those who are lost and the stories they treasure.
Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule.
But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided.
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how our stories shape who we are.
'Wise and dignified.' - The Australian Women's Weekly
‘An engrossing, urgent, warm, wise and utterly, utterly beautiful novel.’ - Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident and Love Objects
‘This is a book that requires concentration and full immersion – but it will reward the reader for that investment.’ - The Guardian
‘a powerful, compassionate novel about friendship, family, community-building, and the racism faced by members of diasporic communities in this country.’ - The AU Review
Family Baggage, Ilsa Evans
Packing up her mother's life, George instead unpacks her own... A deeply insightful and wryly funny story perfect for readers of Meredith Jaffe and The Weekend by Charlotte Wood.
Things you might be surprised to find when cleaning out your deceased mother's house:
a secret diary
a family mystery
a new lease on life.
Grief-stricken middle-aged sisters George, Kat and Annie give themselves a week to pack up their childhood home and divide their mother's belongings. Beloved items are contested: an Eames chair, a collection of war medals, a learn-to-read book. The sisters - bossy Kat, mediator George and petulant Annie - are hampered by sibling rivalry, the prickly demands of their own offspring, the needs of their disabled younger brother and, in George's case, the after-effects of a spot of adultery.
The discovery of a decades' old diary divides the women further: not only do they learn what their mother really thought of them, they learn that she had a life entirely of her own. They are not the family they thought they were - and their mother was so much more than she seemed. This revelation might be the key to George's freedom ...
PRAISE FOR ILSA EVANS:
'The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer is a heartfelt and thought-provoking read, which will appeal to lovers of family dramas while also providing some laughs along the way.' - Weekend Australian
'A heartfelt and very witty novel that explores in an entertaining, and occasionally amusing way, some very real and poignant issues in today's society. Recommended.' - Canberra Weekly
'This is such a clever novel ... a terrific and heart-warming read.' - Tasmanian Bibliophile
'A compelling read that is hard to pin down to one genre, as it is entertaining whilst touching on serious themes ... It's great to see older female protagonists absolutely lead this novel and shake it up.' - Better Reading
Things you might be surprised to find when cleaning out your deceased mother's house:
a secret diary
a family mystery
a new lease on life.
Grief-stricken middle-aged sisters George, Kat and Annie give themselves a week to pack up their childhood home and divide their mother's belongings. Beloved items are contested: an Eames chair, a collection of war medals, a learn-to-read book. The sisters - bossy Kat, mediator George and petulant Annie - are hampered by sibling rivalry, the prickly demands of their own offspring, the needs of their disabled younger brother and, in George's case, the after-effects of a spot of adultery.
The discovery of a decades' old diary divides the women further: not only do they learn what their mother really thought of them, they learn that she had a life entirely of her own. They are not the family they thought they were - and their mother was so much more than she seemed. This revelation might be the key to George's freedom ...
PRAISE FOR ILSA EVANS:
'The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer is a heartfelt and thought-provoking read, which will appeal to lovers of family dramas while also providing some laughs along the way.' - Weekend Australian
'A heartfelt and very witty novel that explores in an entertaining, and occasionally amusing way, some very real and poignant issues in today's society. Recommended.' - Canberra Weekly
'This is such a clever novel ... a terrific and heart-warming read.' - Tasmanian Bibliophile
'A compelling read that is hard to pin down to one genre, as it is entertaining whilst touching on serious themes ... It's great to see older female protagonists absolutely lead this novel and shake it up.' - Better Reading
If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE
‘Dazzling’ GUARDIAN
‘Blistering’ THE TIMES
'A delight' DIANA EVANS
‘Fiction written at the highest level’ ANN PATCHETT
'Hilarious, revelatory' MARLON JAMES
An electrifying, hilarious and deeply moving tragicomic debut novel following a Jamaican family grappling with a new life in the US.
‘What are you?’
This is the puzzled question that greets a young Trelawny growing up in a Miami where his racial ambiguity is regarded with confusion and suspicion. It’s not just his neighbours, his Jamaican parents Topper and Sanya don’t seem to understand him either. Then there’s his stubborn older brother Delano, who is determined to secure a better future for his own children, no matter what it takes.
As both brothers navigate the challenges littered in their path – a woefully unreliable father, racism, recession and even a hurricane – they find themselves increasingly at odds. Will they make it through together or must one brother’s future come at the cost of the other?
‘An astonishingly assured debut novel … clarity, variety and fizzing prose’ BOOKER PRIZE JUDGES
‘So damn funny’ RUMAAN ALAM
‘Astonishing’ I NEWSPAPER
'Utterly unstoppable’ IRISH TIMES
What readers say:
‘So good it was hard to put down’
‘Humour, real feeling … totally recommend’
‘So engrossing and entertaining’
‘A must read’
‘Dazzling’ GUARDIAN
‘Blistering’ THE TIMES
'A delight' DIANA EVANS
‘Fiction written at the highest level’ ANN PATCHETT
'Hilarious, revelatory' MARLON JAMES
An electrifying, hilarious and deeply moving tragicomic debut novel following a Jamaican family grappling with a new life in the US.
‘What are you?’
This is the puzzled question that greets a young Trelawny growing up in a Miami where his racial ambiguity is regarded with confusion and suspicion. It’s not just his neighbours, his Jamaican parents Topper and Sanya don’t seem to understand him either. Then there’s his stubborn older brother Delano, who is determined to secure a better future for his own children, no matter what it takes.
As both brothers navigate the challenges littered in their path – a woefully unreliable father, racism, recession and even a hurricane – they find themselves increasingly at odds. Will they make it through together or must one brother’s future come at the cost of the other?
‘An astonishingly assured debut novel … clarity, variety and fizzing prose’ BOOKER PRIZE JUDGES
‘So damn funny’ RUMAAN ALAM
‘Astonishing’ I NEWSPAPER
'Utterly unstoppable’ IRISH TIMES
What readers say:
‘So good it was hard to put down’
‘Humour, real feeling … totally recommend’
‘So engrossing and entertaining’
‘A must read’
Isaac And The Egg, Bobby Palmer
*THE INSTANT SATURDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER*
*A PANDORA SYKES/FANE BOOK CLUB PICK*
*AS FEATURED ON BBC R4 OPEN BOOK*
'A tender story of love, grief and the transformative power of friendship' GUARDIAN
'Truly one of the most beautiful stories you'll ever read' JOANNA CANNON
'Unique and tender' PANDORA SYKES
'An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way' REVEREND RICHARD COLES
Heartbreaking and heart-stealing, this modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love.
It is early. A young man stands on a bridge and lets out a heart-wrenching scream. From deep in the woods, something screams back.
It sounds improbable. But this is how Isaac meets the egg.
The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac's life in ways he cannot yet imagine.
Maybe he will finally understand why he went there that morning. Maybe he will find a way to tell the truth.
Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them.
'I laughed, I cried, I sat quietly and thought about what I'd read... a future classic' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'Just magic' KATE SAWYER
*A PANDORA SYKES/FANE BOOK CLUB PICK*
*AS FEATURED ON BBC R4 OPEN BOOK*
'A tender story of love, grief and the transformative power of friendship' GUARDIAN
'Truly one of the most beautiful stories you'll ever read' JOANNA CANNON
'Unique and tender' PANDORA SYKES
'An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way' REVEREND RICHARD COLES
Heartbreaking and heart-stealing, this modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love.
It is early. A young man stands on a bridge and lets out a heart-wrenching scream. From deep in the woods, something screams back.
It sounds improbable. But this is how Isaac meets the egg.
The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac's life in ways he cannot yet imagine.
Maybe he will finally understand why he went there that morning. Maybe he will find a way to tell the truth.
Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them.
'I laughed, I cried, I sat quietly and thought about what I'd read... a future classic' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'Just magic' KATE SAWYER
Lola In The Mirror, Trent Dalton
Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, Lola in the Mirror is the irresistible new novel from international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton.
SHORTLISTED FOR 2023 DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INDIE BOOK AWARDS
'Unpredictable, fantastic ... It takes a charged narrative, like Dickens achieves, and as Dalton does too, to reach the heart and the brain - writing that is able to carry both stories, the individual and the political/personal ... To tell you more would spoil this complicated and surprising story. You should read it.' Sydney Morning Herald
'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?'
A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.
The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who's waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river. A life beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror.
From international bestselling author Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror is a big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror: all our past, all our present, and all our possible futures.
'Trent Dalton's third novel reminds me of the 1980s advertising slogan for the author's home state of Queensland: Beautiful one day, perfect the next ... Lola in the Mirror is a bold, big-hearted, hopeful, humorous, dark, reflective, truthful, superbly written novel that confirms Dalton's place in all the shimmering skies (to borrow the title of his second novel) of Australian literature. He is not a rising star but a star full stop.' The Australian
'Wonderful ... An original, heart-thumping novel ... you are right there with the protagonists, feeling and believing every word and every raindrop. It is the type of novel you read filled with pure hope and sorrow for the characters. You want to believe that everything is going to work out just fine, and that there will be dancing, and art, and delight. You won't know until the end, and by that time you, too, are running through the streets, turning the pages, and trusting that love wins.' Readings
SHORTLISTED FOR 2023 DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INDIE BOOK AWARDS
'Unpredictable, fantastic ... It takes a charged narrative, like Dickens achieves, and as Dalton does too, to reach the heart and the brain - writing that is able to carry both stories, the individual and the political/personal ... To tell you more would spoil this complicated and surprising story. You should read it.' Sydney Morning Herald
'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?'
A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.
The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who's waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river. A life beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror.
From international bestselling author Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror is a big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror: all our past, all our present, and all our possible futures.
'Trent Dalton's third novel reminds me of the 1980s advertising slogan for the author's home state of Queensland: Beautiful one day, perfect the next ... Lola in the Mirror is a bold, big-hearted, hopeful, humorous, dark, reflective, truthful, superbly written novel that confirms Dalton's place in all the shimmering skies (to borrow the title of his second novel) of Australian literature. He is not a rising star but a star full stop.' The Australian
'Wonderful ... An original, heart-thumping novel ... you are right there with the protagonists, feeling and believing every word and every raindrop. It is the type of novel you read filled with pure hope and sorrow for the characters. You want to believe that everything is going to work out just fine, and that there will be dancing, and art, and delight. You won't know until the end, and by that time you, too, are running through the streets, turning the pages, and trusting that love wins.' Readings
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
** The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller **
Brilliant, heartbreaking and highly original, Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling.
'A marvel' MARLON JAMES
This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family's struggle to forge a new future. And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog's life his mother has never known - episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion - all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020**
**A FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD 2020**
'A masterpiece'
MAX PORTER
'Luminous, shattering, urgent, necessary'
CELESTE NG
'Deeply moving... Little Dog's story is the story of modern America'
Daily Telegraph
'Vuong has originality running through his veins'
The Times
NOW LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020
Brilliant, heartbreaking and highly original, Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling.
'A marvel' MARLON JAMES
This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family's struggle to forge a new future. And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog's life his mother has never known - episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion - all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020**
**A FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD 2020**
'A masterpiece'
MAX PORTER
'Luminous, shattering, urgent, necessary'
CELESTE NG
'Deeply moving... Little Dog's story is the story of modern America'
Daily Telegraph
'Vuong has originality running through his veins'
The Times
NOW LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020
Sea Of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
SELECTED AS ONE OF THE OPRAH DAILY'S BEST BOOKS OF 2022
'So wise, so graceful, so rich. I loved Sea of Tranquility' Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
The award-winning author of Station Eleven returns with a story of time travel that precisely captures the reality of our current moment . . .
In 1912, eighteen-year-old Edwin St. Andrew crosses the Atlantic, exiled from English polite society. In British Columbia, he enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and for a split second all is darkness, the notes of a violin echoing unnaturally through the air. The experience shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later Olive Llewelyn, a famous writer, is traveling all over Earth, far away from her home in the second moon colony. Within the text of Olive's bestselling novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in time, he uncovers a series of lives upended: the exiled son of an aristocrat driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a novel that investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, that plays with the very line along which time should run. Perceptive and poignant about art, and love, and what we must do to survive, it is incredibly compelling.
'So wise, so graceful, so rich. I loved Sea of Tranquility' Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
The award-winning author of Station Eleven returns with a story of time travel that precisely captures the reality of our current moment . . .
In 1912, eighteen-year-old Edwin St. Andrew crosses the Atlantic, exiled from English polite society. In British Columbia, he enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and for a split second all is darkness, the notes of a violin echoing unnaturally through the air. The experience shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later Olive Llewelyn, a famous writer, is traveling all over Earth, far away from her home in the second moon colony. Within the text of Olive's bestselling novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in time, he uncovers a series of lives upended: the exiled son of an aristocrat driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a novel that investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, that plays with the very line along which time should run. Perceptive and poignant about art, and love, and what we must do to survive, it is incredibly compelling.
So Late In The Day, Claire Keegan
An exquisite new short story from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Small Things Like These and Foster.
'A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.' - The Times
'Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' - Hilary Mantel
'Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.' - Colm Toibin
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude - and the true significance of this particular date is revealed. From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women. Is it possible to love without sharing?
'A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.' - The Times
'Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' - Hilary Mantel
'Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.' - Colm Toibin
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude - and the true significance of this particular date is revealed. From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women. Is it possible to love without sharing?
Historical Fiction:
Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight, Steven Carroll
From one of our finest writers - winner of the Miles Franklin, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award - comes a wistful and emotional story that imagines a happier ending for the mercurial and complicated Vivienne Haigh-Wood, first wife of the great poet, TS Eliot.
London, June 1940. With help from friends, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the wife of celebrated poet TS Eliot, is about to effect a daring escape from Northumberland House, the private insane asylum where she has been held for the past four years. Her family, and most particularly her husband, think she's insane - and maybe she has been, in the past, Vivienne thinks, mad with love, that is, but she is starting to finally feel like herself again.
There is an old law, Vivienne has been told, that if a person can break out of an asylum and stay free for thirty days, proving they can look after themselves, they can't make you go back. But closing in on Vivienne is the young Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, a man with a hidden past of his own, who has orders to track her down...
With Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight, Steven Carroll completes his critically acclaimed, award-winning and much-loved Eliot Quartet. This novel is a poignant, deeply felt and intensely moving novel of beginnings, endings and reinvention, about the aftermath of a marriage and the reassembling of a broken woman. A delicate dance between what was and what might have been, between fact and fiction, the novel tells a daringly revisionary story of Vivienne - TS Eliot's first wife, the 'mad woman in the attic' - imagining a wholly different and entirely satisfying ending to her story.
Longlisted for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize
Longlisted for the 2023 Voss Literary Prize
London, June 1940. With help from friends, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the wife of celebrated poet TS Eliot, is about to effect a daring escape from Northumberland House, the private insane asylum where she has been held for the past four years. Her family, and most particularly her husband, think she's insane - and maybe she has been, in the past, Vivienne thinks, mad with love, that is, but she is starting to finally feel like herself again.
There is an old law, Vivienne has been told, that if a person can break out of an asylum and stay free for thirty days, proving they can look after themselves, they can't make you go back. But closing in on Vivienne is the young Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, a man with a hidden past of his own, who has orders to track her down...
With Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight, Steven Carroll completes his critically acclaimed, award-winning and much-loved Eliot Quartet. This novel is a poignant, deeply felt and intensely moving novel of beginnings, endings and reinvention, about the aftermath of a marriage and the reassembling of a broken woman. A delicate dance between what was and what might have been, between fact and fiction, the novel tells a daringly revisionary story of Vivienne - TS Eliot's first wife, the 'mad woman in the attic' - imagining a wholly different and entirely satisfying ending to her story.
Longlisted for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize
Longlisted for the 2023 Voss Literary Prize
The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon
From the bestselling author of Code Name HÉlÈne comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who investigates a shocking murder that unhinges her small community.
Maine, 1789: When a man is found entombed in the frozen Kennebec River, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth, death and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she has also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred by one of the town’s most esteemed gentlemen – the same man who has now been found dead in the ice.
While certain townspeople are eager to put both matters to rest, Martha suspects that the two crimes are linked, and that there is more to both cases than meets the eye. Over the course of one long, hard winter, whispers and prejudices mount, and Martha’s diary lands at the centre of the scandal, threatening to tear both her family and her community apart.
In her newest offering, Ariel Lawhon brings to life a brave and compassionate unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice on behalf of those no one else would protect. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense and tender story of a remarkable woman who had the courage to take a stand, and in the process wrote herself into history.
Maine, 1789: When a man is found entombed in the frozen Kennebec River, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth, death and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she has also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred by one of the town’s most esteemed gentlemen – the same man who has now been found dead in the ice.
While certain townspeople are eager to put both matters to rest, Martha suspects that the two crimes are linked, and that there is more to both cases than meets the eye. Over the course of one long, hard winter, whispers and prejudices mount, and Martha’s diary lands at the centre of the scandal, threatening to tear both her family and her community apart.
In her newest offering, Ariel Lawhon brings to life a brave and compassionate unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice on behalf of those no one else would protect. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense and tender story of a remarkable woman who had the courage to take a stand, and in the process wrote herself into history.
The Escapades Of Tribulation Johnson, Karen Brooks
From the author of The Good Wife of Bath comes this brilliant recreation of the vibrant, optimistic but politically treacherous world of London's Restoration theatre, where we are introduced to the remarkable playwright Aphra Behn, now a feminist icon but then an anomaly, who gravitated to the stage - a place where artifice and disguise are second nature and accommodates those who do not fit in.
'Karen Brooks demonstrates her considerable talent for capturing the historical moment in this richly told, immersive read that will acquaint readers with a woman whose name we should all know. ' Pip Williams, author of The Bookbinder of Jericho
It's 1679 and into the tumult, politics and colour of Restoration London and its lively theatre scene comes the fierce and opinionated Tribulation Johnson. Cast out from her family as ungodly and unworthy, Tribulation is determined to forge her own remarkable path.
Arriving in London, Tribulation is astonished to discover that the widowed cousin she's been sent to live with is none other than the most infamous woman in London: the former spy and traitor's mistress, the playwright and polemical poetess, Aphra Behn. Tribulation cannot believe her good fortune as she is thrust into city life and the heady, mercurial milieu of the theatre. Under Aphra's guidance, Tribulation is encouraged to write, think and speak for herself. But women aren't supposed to have a voice, or ideas, let alone wield a pen and write for a living, and there are harsh consequences for those who don't obey society's rules.
Together, Aphra and Tribulation must not only face vilification and mockery but terrible danger as plots to overturn the monarchy gather pace. When someone from Aphra's complicated past reappears, the women's loyalties - to King, country, and ultimately each other - are bitterly tested. Can their relationship survive the burning fires of religious hatred, suspicion and deceit?
When everyone plays a part, and all the world's a stage, who you trust?
Praise for Karen Brooks
'So damn readable and fun ... This is the story of a woman fighting for her rights; it breaches the walls of history.' The Australian
''All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn'. Karen Brooks has done better. She has revived Aphra and her words.' The Newtown Review of Books
'Karen Brooks demonstrates her considerable talent for capturing the historical moment in this richly told, immersive read that will acquaint readers with a woman whose name we should all know. ' Pip Williams, author of The Bookbinder of Jericho
It's 1679 and into the tumult, politics and colour of Restoration London and its lively theatre scene comes the fierce and opinionated Tribulation Johnson. Cast out from her family as ungodly and unworthy, Tribulation is determined to forge her own remarkable path.
Arriving in London, Tribulation is astonished to discover that the widowed cousin she's been sent to live with is none other than the most infamous woman in London: the former spy and traitor's mistress, the playwright and polemical poetess, Aphra Behn. Tribulation cannot believe her good fortune as she is thrust into city life and the heady, mercurial milieu of the theatre. Under Aphra's guidance, Tribulation is encouraged to write, think and speak for herself. But women aren't supposed to have a voice, or ideas, let alone wield a pen and write for a living, and there are harsh consequences for those who don't obey society's rules.
Together, Aphra and Tribulation must not only face vilification and mockery but terrible danger as plots to overturn the monarchy gather pace. When someone from Aphra's complicated past reappears, the women's loyalties - to King, country, and ultimately each other - are bitterly tested. Can their relationship survive the burning fires of religious hatred, suspicion and deceit?
When everyone plays a part, and all the world's a stage, who you trust?
Praise for Karen Brooks
'So damn readable and fun ... This is the story of a woman fighting for her rights; it breaches the walls of history.' The Australian
''All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn'. Karen Brooks has done better. She has revived Aphra and her words.' The Newtown Review of Books
Anam, André Dao
Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.
A grandson tries to learn the family story. But what kind of story is it? Is it a prison memoir, about the grandfather imprisoned without charge or trial by a revolutionary government? Is it an oral history of the grandmother left behind to look after the children? Or is it a love story? A detective tale?
Moving from 1930s Hanoi through a series of never-ending wars and displacements to Saigon, Paris, Melbourne and Cambridge, Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.
Anam blends fiction and essay, theory and everyday life to imagine that which has been repressed, left out, and forgotten. The grandson mines his family and personal stories to turn over ideas that resonate with all of us around place and home, legacy and expectation, ambition and sacrifice. As he sifts through letters, photographs, government documents and memories, he has his own family to think about- a partner and an infant daughter. Is there a way to remember the past that creates a future for them? Or does coming home always involve a certain amount of forgetting?
A grandson tries to learn the family story. But what kind of story is it? Is it a prison memoir, about the grandfather imprisoned without charge or trial by a revolutionary government? Is it an oral history of the grandmother left behind to look after the children? Or is it a love story? A detective tale?
Moving from 1930s Hanoi through a series of never-ending wars and displacements to Saigon, Paris, Melbourne and Cambridge, Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.
Anam blends fiction and essay, theory and everyday life to imagine that which has been repressed, left out, and forgotten. The grandson mines his family and personal stories to turn over ideas that resonate with all of us around place and home, legacy and expectation, ambition and sacrifice. As he sifts through letters, photographs, government documents and memories, he has his own family to think about- a partner and an infant daughter. Is there a way to remember the past that creates a future for them? Or does coming home always involve a certain amount of forgetting?
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
‘A dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books’ Guardian
‘There is magic in this place … You just have to sit and breathe and wait and it will find you’
Fifteenth-century Constantinople. Present day Idaho. The future, and humanity’s last hope.
Across time and space, five young dreamers are bound by a single ancient text. Together, they tell a story of a world in peril; of the power of words, of resilience, and of hope against all odds.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See returns with a heart-breaking, magnificent epic of human connection and a love letter to storytelling itself.
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
‘Ingenious, hopeful and totally absorbing’ Financial Times
‘This engagingly written, big-hearted book is a must-read’ Daily Mirror
‘A dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books’ Guardian
‘There is magic in this place … You just have to sit and breathe and wait and it will find you’
Fifteenth-century Constantinople. Present day Idaho. The future, and humanity’s last hope.
Across time and space, five young dreamers are bound by a single ancient text. Together, they tell a story of a world in peril; of the power of words, of resilience, and of hope against all odds.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See returns with a heart-breaking, magnificent epic of human connection and a love letter to storytelling itself.
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
‘Ingenious, hopeful and totally absorbing’ Financial Times
‘This engagingly written, big-hearted book is a must-read’ Daily Mirror
All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
National Book Award finalist
New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Fiction
A "TikTok Made Me Buy It" title
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.
In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
National Book Award finalist
New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Fiction
A "TikTok Made Me Buy It" title
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.
In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Atlas: The Story Of Pa Salt, Lucinda Riley
Spanning a lifetime of love and loss, crossing borders and oceans, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, co-authored by her son Harry Whittaker, draws Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series to its stunning, unforgettable conclusion.
1928, Paris
A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.
As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more.
2008, the Aegean
The seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.
To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And even more shockingly: that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.
1928, Paris
A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.
As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more.
2008, the Aegean
The seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.
To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And even more shockingly: that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.
Benevolent Society Of Ill-Mannered Ladies, Alison Goodman
A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an 'old maid' to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.
Longlisted for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize
Welcome to the secret life of the Colebrook twins: unnoticed old maids to most, but unseen champions to those in need - society be damned.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, 'Gus', is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend's goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline's country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. With Lord Evan injured and unconscious, the sisters have no choice but to bring him on their mission to save Caroline. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan.
And so begin the beguiling adventures of the Colebrook twins ...
'Goodman's ladies are the undercover Regency heroes we've been waiting for! This is sparkling, thrilling, romantic fun.' Toni Jordan
'Witty and poignant, this is a clever twist on historical romance and mystery. The Colebrook twins are the Regency's answer to Holmes and Watson!' Belinda Alexandra
'A joyous romp through Regency England that is equally entertaining, revealing, feminist, heartbreaking and humorous' Books+Publishing
'Heroines can appear out of nowhere and soon become indispensable, and such is the case with Lady Augusta Colebrook, who, with her twin sister Lady Julia, is at the heart of this compelling, enthralling, unforgettable novel. You will be very glad you've let Gus into your life then wonder how you ever did without her.' Sophie Green
'Such an unexpected book. A Regency romp, like a 21st-century Georgette Heyer, with gay characters, people of colour and a feisty and independent heroine in her 40s. Just wonderful and delicious.' Maggie Alderson
'Fresh and fearless, Alison Goodman's exquisitely written, impeccably researched genre-blending novel shines a light in the darkest corners of Regency England. The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is part heart-racing adventure, part gothic mystery, part tantalizing romance, and wholly wonderful. I can't wait for the next instalment!' Joanna Lowell, author of Artfully Yours
'Fierce, funny, and often dark, this is an eye-opening portrait of a colorful yet misogynistic period in English history. Readers will be eager to return for the duo's next adventure.' Publishers Weekly
'A truly delightful feminist adventure story that will have you cheering on the unconventional Colebrook sisters in all their exploits.' Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words
Longlisted for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize
Welcome to the secret life of the Colebrook twins: unnoticed old maids to most, but unseen champions to those in need - society be damned.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, 'Gus', is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend's goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline's country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. With Lord Evan injured and unconscious, the sisters have no choice but to bring him on their mission to save Caroline. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan.
And so begin the beguiling adventures of the Colebrook twins ...
'Goodman's ladies are the undercover Regency heroes we've been waiting for! This is sparkling, thrilling, romantic fun.' Toni Jordan
'Witty and poignant, this is a clever twist on historical romance and mystery. The Colebrook twins are the Regency's answer to Holmes and Watson!' Belinda Alexandra
'A joyous romp through Regency England that is equally entertaining, revealing, feminist, heartbreaking and humorous' Books+Publishing
'Heroines can appear out of nowhere and soon become indispensable, and such is the case with Lady Augusta Colebrook, who, with her twin sister Lady Julia, is at the heart of this compelling, enthralling, unforgettable novel. You will be very glad you've let Gus into your life then wonder how you ever did without her.' Sophie Green
'Such an unexpected book. A Regency romp, like a 21st-century Georgette Heyer, with gay characters, people of colour and a feisty and independent heroine in her 40s. Just wonderful and delicious.' Maggie Alderson
'Fresh and fearless, Alison Goodman's exquisitely written, impeccably researched genre-blending novel shines a light in the darkest corners of Regency England. The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is part heart-racing adventure, part gothic mystery, part tantalizing romance, and wholly wonderful. I can't wait for the next instalment!' Joanna Lowell, author of Artfully Yours
'Fierce, funny, and often dark, this is an eye-opening portrait of a colorful yet misogynistic period in English history. Readers will be eager to return for the duo's next adventure.' Publishers Weekly
'A truly delightful feminist adventure story that will have you cheering on the unconventional Colebrook sisters in all their exploits.' Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words
Homecoming, Kate Morton
The highly anticipated new novel from the worldwide bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter, a spellbinding story that begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generations.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959:
At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.
Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.
At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true-crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event - a murder mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.
An epic story that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home. Above all, it is an intricate and spellbinding novel from one of the finest writers working today.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959:
At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.
Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.
At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true-crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event - a murder mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.
An epic story that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home. Above all, it is an intricate and spellbinding novel from one of the finest writers working today.
Legends Of The Lost Lilies (Miss Lily, #5), Jackie French
The final and thrilling conclusion to the popular and bestselling Miss Lily series
A mysterious telegram that says, 'Lily needs you' arrives just before a plane from war-ravaged England lands in one of Sophie Greenman's paddocks.
Sophie, Countess of Shillings, has been living a quiet life on her property in Australia, until love and loyalty draw her back to England where she once trained to become one of Miss Lily's 'Lovely Ladies'. Now, in 1942, Shillings Hall trains women to become espionage agents.
Sophie's mission? To seek out disaffected German officers prepared to kill Hitler.
Across Europe women like Sophie, or Parisian couturier Violette, or Hannelore, German Prinzessin and spy, must determine where their deepest loyalty lies. And as Europe slowly disintegrates, Miss Lily must also decide her final fate.
Based on real-life events, this is the story of the women who wielded immense, yet secret, power. And in this fifth and final book in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French tells the story of the remarkable women who have been carefully left out of our war histories: those lost lilies of allied espionage.
A mysterious telegram that says, 'Lily needs you' arrives just before a plane from war-ravaged England lands in one of Sophie Greenman's paddocks.
Sophie, Countess of Shillings, has been living a quiet life on her property in Australia, until love and loyalty draw her back to England where she once trained to become one of Miss Lily's 'Lovely Ladies'. Now, in 1942, Shillings Hall trains women to become espionage agents.
Sophie's mission? To seek out disaffected German officers prepared to kill Hitler.
Across Europe women like Sophie, or Parisian couturier Violette, or Hannelore, German Prinzessin and spy, must determine where their deepest loyalty lies. And as Europe slowly disintegrates, Miss Lily must also decide her final fate.
Based on real-life events, this is the story of the women who wielded immense, yet secret, power. And in this fifth and final book in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French tells the story of the remarkable women who have been carefully left out of our war histories: those lost lilies of allied espionage.
Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction):
Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton
A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Luminaries.
FROM THE WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
Birnam Wood is on the move...
Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.
But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker - or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?
A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
FROM THE WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
Birnam Wood is on the move...
Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.
But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker - or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?
A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy
'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read.' Emily St John Mandel
'This novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairytale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend The Last Migration with my whole heart.' Geraldine Brooks
For readers of Station Eleven and Everything I Never Told You, a debut novel set on the brink of catastrophe, as a young woman chases the world's last birds - and her own final chance for redemption.
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.
How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool. A daughter's yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from.
The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and deeply moving novel from a brilliant young writer. From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, through crashing Atlantic swells to the bottom of the world, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic story of the possibility of hope against all odds.
'Transporting' (New York Times) 'Hopeful' (Washington Post) 'Powerful' (Los Angeles Times) 'Thrilling' (TIME) 'Tantalizingly beautiful' (Elle) 'Suspenseful' (Vogue) 'Aching and poignant' (Guardian)
'This novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairytale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend The Last Migration with my whole heart.' Geraldine Brooks
For readers of Station Eleven and Everything I Never Told You, a debut novel set on the brink of catastrophe, as a young woman chases the world's last birds - and her own final chance for redemption.
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.
How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool. A daughter's yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from.
The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and deeply moving novel from a brilliant young writer. From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, through crashing Atlantic swells to the bottom of the world, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic story of the possibility of hope against all odds.
'Transporting' (New York Times) 'Hopeful' (Washington Post) 'Powerful' (Los Angeles Times) 'Thrilling' (TIME) 'Tantalizingly beautiful' (Elle) 'Suspenseful' (Vogue) 'Aching and poignant' (Guardian)
Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy
From the author of the international bestseller Migrations comes a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands
'So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact.'
Jeff Vandermeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)
'Blazing . . . Visceral . . . Stunning.'
Los Angeles Times
Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.
As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.
But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect?
Propulsive and unforgettable, Once There Were Wolves is the spellbinding story of a woman desperate to save her family, the wild animals and the natural world she loves, at any cost.
'So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact.'
Jeff Vandermeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)
'Blazing . . . Visceral . . . Stunning.'
Los Angeles Times
Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.
As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.
But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect?
Propulsive and unforgettable, Once There Were Wolves is the spellbinding story of a woman desperate to save her family, the wild animals and the natural world she loves, at any cost.
North Woods, Daniel Mason
'Truly outstanding' Mail on Sunday
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty
The Hummingbird Effect, Kate Mildenhall
An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault.
One of the lucky few with a job during the Depression, Peggy’s just starting out in life. She’s a bagging girl at the Angliss meatworks, a place buzzing with life as well as death, where the gun slaughterman Jack has caught her eye – and she his.
How is her life connected to Hilda’s, almost a hundred years later, locked inside during a plague, or La’s, further on again, a singer working shifts in a warehouse as her eggs are frozen and her voice is used by AI bots? Let alone Maz, far removed in time, diving for remnants of a past that must be destroyed? Is it by the river that runs through their stories, eternal yet constantly changing – or by the mysterious Hummingbird Project, and the great question of whether the march of progress can ever be reversed?
Propulsive, tender and engrossing, this genre-bending novel is a feast for the heart as well as the mind and senses. For fans of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Michelle de Kretser’s The Life to Come and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, it confirms Mildenhall as one of the most ambitious and dynamic writers in the country.
One of the lucky few with a job during the Depression, Peggy’s just starting out in life. She’s a bagging girl at the Angliss meatworks, a place buzzing with life as well as death, where the gun slaughterman Jack has caught her eye – and she his.
How is her life connected to Hilda’s, almost a hundred years later, locked inside during a plague, or La’s, further on again, a singer working shifts in a warehouse as her eggs are frozen and her voice is used by AI bots? Let alone Maz, far removed in time, diving for remnants of a past that must be destroyed? Is it by the river that runs through their stories, eternal yet constantly changing – or by the mysterious Hummingbird Project, and the great question of whether the march of progress can ever be reversed?
Propulsive, tender and engrossing, this genre-bending novel is a feast for the heart as well as the mind and senses. For fans of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Michelle de Kretser’s The Life to Come and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, it confirms Mildenhall as one of the most ambitious and dynamic writers in the country.
The Overstory, Richard Powers
Moving through America’s history and its landscape, this is a wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe
‘Really, just one of the best novels, period’ Ann Patchett
‘The best book I’ve read in ten years’ Emma Thompson
‘Dazzlingly written’ Robert Macfarlane
‘Breathtaking’ Barbara Kingsolver
An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.
This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.
‘It’s not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book’
Margaret Atwood
‘The best… Should be mandatory reading the world over’
Emilia Clarke
‘It’s a masterpiece’
Tim Winton
‘Radical and exciting’
Jessie Burton
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe
‘Really, just one of the best novels, period’ Ann Patchett
‘The best book I’ve read in ten years’ Emma Thompson
‘Dazzlingly written’ Robert Macfarlane
‘Breathtaking’ Barbara Kingsolver
An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.
This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.
‘It’s not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book’
Margaret Atwood
‘The best… Should be mandatory reading the world over’
Emilia Clarke
‘It’s a masterpiece’
Tim Winton
‘Radical and exciting’
Jessie Burton
The Lost Cause, Cory Doctorow
It’s thirty years from now. We’re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who can’t let go?
For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it.
Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.
But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam.
And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth.
The Lost Cause asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?
For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it.
Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.
But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam.
And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth.
The Lost Cause asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
‘A dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books’ Guardian
‘There is magic in this place … You just have to sit and breathe and wait and it will find you’
Fifteenth-century Constantinople. Present day Idaho. The future, and humanity’s last hope.
Across time and space, five young dreamers are bound by a single ancient text. Together, they tell a story of a world in peril; of the power of words, of resilience, and of hope against all odds.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See returns with a heart-breaking, magnificent epic of human connection and a love letter to storytelling itself.
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
‘Ingenious, hopeful and totally absorbing’ Financial Times
‘This engagingly written, big-hearted book is a must-read’ Daily Mirror
‘A dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books’ Guardian
‘There is magic in this place … You just have to sit and breathe and wait and it will find you’
Fifteenth-century Constantinople. Present day Idaho. The future, and humanity’s last hope.
Across time and space, five young dreamers are bound by a single ancient text. Together, they tell a story of a world in peril; of the power of words, of resilience, and of hope against all odds.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See returns with a heart-breaking, magnificent epic of human connection and a love letter to storytelling itself.
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
‘Ingenious, hopeful and totally absorbing’ Financial Times
‘This engagingly written, big-hearted book is a must-read’ Daily Mirror
Dune, Frank Herbert
Dune is the bestselling science fiction novel of all time, with nearly ten million copies in print. This all-new edition of Dune features wholly reset text and an incredible new cover.
Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
When stewardship of Arrakis is transferred to his house, Paul Atreides must travel to the planet's dangerous surface to ensure the future of his family and his people. But as malevolent forces explode into conflict around him, Paul is thrust into a great destiny beyond his understanding.
And in this game of power, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
When stewardship of Arrakis is transferred to his house, Paul Atreides must travel to the planet's dangerous surface to ensure the future of his family and his people. But as malevolent forces explode into conflict around him, Paul is thrust into a great destiny beyond his understanding.
And in this game of power, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
A Psalm For The Wild-Built, Becky Chambers
In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk & Robot series gives us hope for the future.
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.
One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.
But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They're going to need to ask it a lot.
Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.
One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.
But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They're going to need to ask it a lot.
Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
Translated Literature:
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
THE BESTSELLING GLOBAL PHENOMENON
Meet Lisbeth Salander - the iconic character who has captivated 100 million readers worldwide.
"As vivid as bloodstains on snow . . . a perfect introduction to the unique strengths of
Scandinavian crime fiction"LEE CHILD
Lisbeth Salander gets under the skin of her targets like no-one else. Those who underestimate her live to regret it. If they're lucky . . .
Mikael Blomkvist - disgraced journalist, womanizer - is everything she ought to hate. But when she is hired by a security firm to investigate him, her report on his life reveals an integrity that fascinates her.
Then she discovers that Blomkvist is cracking open the cold case of a missing girl - uncovering secrets that have poisoned a family through generations.
And only one thing gives Salander greater satisfaction than exposing a liar: stopping a killer.
With an introduction by Val McDermid
Meet Lisbeth Salander - the iconic character who has captivated 100 million readers worldwide.
"As vivid as bloodstains on snow . . . a perfect introduction to the unique strengths of
Scandinavian crime fiction"LEE CHILD
Lisbeth Salander gets under the skin of her targets like no-one else. Those who underestimate her live to regret it. If they're lucky . . .
Mikael Blomkvist - disgraced journalist, womanizer - is everything she ought to hate. But when she is hired by a security firm to investigate him, her report on his life reveals an integrity that fascinates her.
Then she discovers that Blomkvist is cracking open the cold case of a missing girl - uncovering secrets that have poisoned a family through generations.
And only one thing gives Salander greater satisfaction than exposing a liar: stopping a killer.
With an introduction by Val McDermid
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy, Coralie Bickford-smith, Anthony Briggs, Orlando Figes
"At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself. InaWar and Peacea(1868-9), Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and fate - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur. "
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
War looms in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, and when Napoleon invades Russia in 1812 it forever changes those whose lives it engulfs. Although told on a panoramic scale Tolstoy's epic novel focuses the chaos of battle, the horror of death and bloodshed, and the expression of the noble virtues of love and valor through their impact on the lives of three principal characters: the courageous Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov, and the nobly born beauty Natasha Rostov.
Anna Karenina (Vintage Classic Russians Series), Leo Tolstoy, Louise Maude, Aylmer Maude
TRANSLATED BY LOUISE AND AYLMER MAUDE Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads her to ruin. But her story is also about a search for meaning, and by twinning it with that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials form the backdrop for a similar quest, Tolstoy creates a rich and complex masterpiece that has captured the imagination of readers for decades. The Vintage Classic Russians Series- Published for the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, these are must-have, beautifully designed editions of six epic masterpieces that have survived controversy, censorship and suppression to influence decades of thought and artistic expression.
1Q84: The Complete Trilogy, Haruki Murakami
The year is 1Q84.
This is the real world, there is no doubt about that.
But in this world, there are two moons in the sky.
In this world, the fates of two people, Tengo and Aomame, are closely intertwined. They are each, in their own way, doing something very dangerous. And in this world, there seems no way to save them both.
Something extraordinary is starting.
This is the real world, there is no doubt about that.
But in this world, there are two moons in the sky.
In this world, the fates of two people, Tengo and Aomame, are closely intertwined. They are each, in their own way, doing something very dangerous. And in this world, there seems no way to save them both.
Something extraordinary is starting.
The Factory, Hiroko Oyamada
From the author of Weasels in the Attic, here is a modern fable about the all-consuming world of work.
From the award-winning author of Weasels in the Attic, a modern fable about the world of work
Beyond the town, there is the factory. Beyond the factory, there is nothing.
Within the sprawling industrial complex, three new employees are each assigned a department. There, each must focuses on a specific task: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. As they grow accustomed to the routine and co-workers, their lives become governed by their work--days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while--it could be weeks or years--the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here?
With hints of Kafka and Beckett and unexpected moments of creeping humour, The Factory is a vivid, and sometimes surreal, portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.
From the award-winning author of Weasels in the Attic, a modern fable about the world of work
Beyond the town, there is the factory. Beyond the factory, there is nothing.
Within the sprawling industrial complex, three new employees are each assigned a department. There, each must focuses on a specific task: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing all over the expansive grounds. As they grow accustomed to the routine and co-workers, their lives become governed by their work--days take on a strange logic and momentum, and little by little, the margins of reality seem to be dissolving: Where does the factory end and the rest of the world begin? What's going on with the strange animals here? And after a while--it could be weeks or years--the three workers struggle to answer the most basic question: What am I doing here?
With hints of Kafka and Beckett and unexpected moments of creeping humour, The Factory is a vivid, and sometimes surreal, portrait of the absurdity and meaninglessness of the modern workplace.
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - following on from the success of Vintage Russian Classics and European Classics, these are covetable new editions of the best Japanese writers on the Vintage list
'Mishima's greatest novel, and one of the greatest of the past century' The Times
A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic.
They regard this disillusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
'Mishima's greatest novel, and one of the greatest of the past century' The Times
A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic.
They regard this disillusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Murakami's most acclaimed novel in a highly covetable gift edition
Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami
Toru Okada's cat has disappeared.
His wife is growing more distant every day.
Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.
As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.
'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami
Toru Okada's cat has disappeared.
His wife is growing more distant every day.
Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.
As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.
'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
The Snow Ghost And Other Tales, Various
A spine-tinglingly beautiful hardback collection of some of Japan's scariest yet still compelling classic ghost stories
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.
From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms- the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.
From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms- the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto
Kitchen juxtaposes two tales about mothers, transsexuality, bereavement, kitchens, love and tragedy in contemporary Japan. It is a startlingly original first work by Japan's brightest young literary star and is now a cult film.
When Kitchen was first published in Japan in 1987 it won two of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, climbed its way to the top of the bestseller lists, then remained there for over a year and sold millions of copies. Banana Yoshimoto was hailed as a young writer of great talent and great passion whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of modern literature, and has been described as 'the voice of young Japan' by the Independent on Sunday.
When Kitchen was first published in Japan in 1987 it won two of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, climbed its way to the top of the bestseller lists, then remained there for over a year and sold millions of copies. Banana Yoshimoto was hailed as a young writer of great talent and great passion whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of modern literature, and has been described as 'the voice of young Japan' by the Independent on Sunday.
Chic Lit:
A Brief Affair, Alex Miller
A moving novel about storytelling, about truths, and love, from twice Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller.
'More than one ghost haunts this tender novel about love in its many guises, condoned and illicit. In his deceptively simple, lucid prose, Alex Miller examines the emotional contradictions inherent in apparent opposites as his central character learns to draw strength and inspiration from unlikely places. Hauntingly beautiful, A Brief Affair will resonate long after its pages are closed.' Sylvia Martin, author of Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen Palmer
From the bustling streets of China, to the ominous Cell 16 in an old asylum building, to the familiar sounds and sight of galahs flying over a Victorian farm, A Brief Affair is a tender love story.
On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all-a loving family and a fine career - until a brief, perfect affair reveals to her an imaginative dimension to her life that is wholly her own.
Fran finds the courage and the inspiration to risk everything and change her direction at the age of forty-two. This newfound understanding of herself is fortified by the discovery of a long-forgotten diary from the asylum and the story it reveals.
Written with humour, sensitivity and the wisdom for which Miller's work is famous, this exquisitely compassionate novel explores the interior life and the dangerous navigation of love in all its forms.
'More than one ghost haunts this tender novel about love in its many guises, condoned and illicit. In his deceptively simple, lucid prose, Alex Miller examines the emotional contradictions inherent in apparent opposites as his central character learns to draw strength and inspiration from unlikely places. Hauntingly beautiful, A Brief Affair will resonate long after its pages are closed.' Sylvia Martin, author of Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen Palmer
From the bustling streets of China, to the ominous Cell 16 in an old asylum building, to the familiar sounds and sight of galahs flying over a Victorian farm, A Brief Affair is a tender love story.
On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all-a loving family and a fine career - until a brief, perfect affair reveals to her an imaginative dimension to her life that is wholly her own.
Fran finds the courage and the inspiration to risk everything and change her direction at the age of forty-two. This newfound understanding of herself is fortified by the discovery of a long-forgotten diary from the asylum and the story it reveals.
Written with humour, sensitivity and the wisdom for which Miller's work is famous, this exquisitely compassionate novel explores the interior life and the dangerous navigation of love in all its forms.
Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney
The new novel from the author of Normal People.
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young-but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young-but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the bestselling author of MALIBU RISING, DAISY JONES & THE SIX and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
'It made me cry twice, and when I finished reading, I had to sit for a minute with the hole it left in my chest . . . just order it' EMILY HENRY
'A crowd-pleaser. Taylor Jenkins Reid captures all the sweat, rivalry and glamour of elite sport' THE TIMES
'Jenkins Reid has written yet another page turner . . . it will have you hooked' INDEPENDENT
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to- Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
In spite of it all- Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
'It artfully combines the heady glamour of elite sport with questions about what happens when we find ourselves winning professionally, but losing personally' STYLIST
'A portrait of female ambition in all its raw and divine glory, Carrie Soto will stay with you long after the last page is turned' ERIN KELLY
From the bestselling author of MALIBU RISING, DAISY JONES & THE SIX and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
'It made me cry twice, and when I finished reading, I had to sit for a minute with the hole it left in my chest . . . just order it' EMILY HENRY
'A crowd-pleaser. Taylor Jenkins Reid captures all the sweat, rivalry and glamour of elite sport' THE TIMES
'Jenkins Reid has written yet another page turner . . . it will have you hooked' INDEPENDENT
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to- Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
In spite of it all- Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
'It artfully combines the heady glamour of elite sport with questions about what happens when we find ourselves winning professionally, but losing personally' STYLIST
'A portrait of female ambition in all its raw and divine glory, Carrie Soto will stay with you long after the last page is turned' ERIN KELLY
Daisy Haites, Jessa Hastings
All 20-year-old Daisy Haites has ever wanted is a normal life, but as the heiress to London's most notorious criminal empire, it's just not on the cards for her.
Raised by her older brother Julian since their parents were murdered, Daisy has never been able to escape the watchful gaze of her gang-lord brother. But Julian's line of work means that Daisy's life is... complicated.
And things don't become any easier when she falls hard for the beautiful and emotionally unavailable Christian Hemmes, who also happens to be one of the few men in London who doesn't answer to Julian.
Christian's life is no walk in the park either, since he's in love with his best friend's girlfriend, Magnolia Parks.
He's happy enough to use Daisy to throw off the scent of his true affections - until she starts to infiltrate those too.
As their romance blossoms into something neither were anticipating, Daisy, Christian, and Julian must come to terms with the fact that in this life everything comes at a price. As their relationships intersect and tangle, they all learn that sometimes life's most worthwhile pursuits can only be paid in blood.
READER REVIEWS
'I will never get over Daisy and Christian... I miss them so much already.' (FIVE STARS)
'I am obsessed. Totally consumed. This universe has me all sorts of messed up.' (FIVE STARS)
'Jessa Hastings has created a world of pure magic.' (FIVE STARS)
'You will fall in love with Daisy Haites a million times over and be desperate for more of her story when it ends.' (FIVE STARS)
Raised by her older brother Julian since their parents were murdered, Daisy has never been able to escape the watchful gaze of her gang-lord brother. But Julian's line of work means that Daisy's life is... complicated.
And things don't become any easier when she falls hard for the beautiful and emotionally unavailable Christian Hemmes, who also happens to be one of the few men in London who doesn't answer to Julian.
Christian's life is no walk in the park either, since he's in love with his best friend's girlfriend, Magnolia Parks.
He's happy enough to use Daisy to throw off the scent of his true affections - until she starts to infiltrate those too.
As their romance blossoms into something neither were anticipating, Daisy, Christian, and Julian must come to terms with the fact that in this life everything comes at a price. As their relationships intersect and tangle, they all learn that sometimes life's most worthwhile pursuits can only be paid in blood.
READER REVIEWS
'I will never get over Daisy and Christian... I miss them so much already.' (FIVE STARS)
'I am obsessed. Totally consumed. This universe has me all sorts of messed up.' (FIVE STARS)
'Jessa Hastings has created a world of pure magic.' (FIVE STARS)
'You will fall in love with Daisy Haites a million times over and be desperate for more of her story when it ends.' (FIVE STARS)
Dinner With The Schnabels, Toni Jordan
'I loved every page of this funny, warm, delightful novel!' LIANE MORIARTY
'Told with great humour and pathos. It is a tonic and a delight' PIP WILLIAMS
Things haven't gone well for Simon Larsen lately. He adores his wife and children, but since his business failed and he lost the family home, he can't seem to get off the couch. His larger-than-life in-laws, the Schnabels, won't get off his case. To keep everyone happy, Simon needs to do one little job: he has a week to landscape a friend's backyard for an important Schnabel family event.
But as the week progresses, Simon is derailed by an unexpected house guest. As his world spins out of control, who can Simon really count on when the chips are down?
'A smart, funny novel about love, marriage and family' Weekend Australian
'With sharply observed characters and comic set-pieces to make you laugh out loud, Dinner with the Schnabels is great fun to read and casts a more mature and acerbic eye on modern masculinity' Sydney Morning Herald
'Laughs all the way . . . a charmer of a book' Daily Telegraph
'Once again proving why Jordan is one of this country's most exceptional writers' Better Reading
'Dinner with the Schnabels is a contemporary comic masterpiece. Practically every page boasts lines redolent of humour, wit and sarcasm that will make you snigger if not laugh out loud' ArtsHub
'A cheeky, fun read' Vogue Australia
'Hilarious' The Bookshelf (ABC Radio)
'Toni Jordan at her finest - brilliantly observed and highly entertaining. I inhaled her words then snorted them out laughing!' JOANNA NELL
'Terrific . . . Dinner with the Schnabels is warm and quintessentially Australian yet extensively engaging' Sydney Arts Guide
'Just delightful . . . a modern comedy of manners that pokes affectionate fun at contemporary Australia - all with Toni's trademark warmth, sensitivity and tenderness. I am pressing it into the hands of everyone I know' KATE FORSYTH
'Told with great humour and pathos. It is a tonic and a delight' PIP WILLIAMS
Things haven't gone well for Simon Larsen lately. He adores his wife and children, but since his business failed and he lost the family home, he can't seem to get off the couch. His larger-than-life in-laws, the Schnabels, won't get off his case. To keep everyone happy, Simon needs to do one little job: he has a week to landscape a friend's backyard for an important Schnabel family event.
But as the week progresses, Simon is derailed by an unexpected house guest. As his world spins out of control, who can Simon really count on when the chips are down?
'A smart, funny novel about love, marriage and family' Weekend Australian
'With sharply observed characters and comic set-pieces to make you laugh out loud, Dinner with the Schnabels is great fun to read and casts a more mature and acerbic eye on modern masculinity' Sydney Morning Herald
'Laughs all the way . . . a charmer of a book' Daily Telegraph
'Once again proving why Jordan is one of this country's most exceptional writers' Better Reading
'Dinner with the Schnabels is a contemporary comic masterpiece. Practically every page boasts lines redolent of humour, wit and sarcasm that will make you snigger if not laugh out loud' ArtsHub
'A cheeky, fun read' Vogue Australia
'Hilarious' The Bookshelf (ABC Radio)
'Toni Jordan at her finest - brilliantly observed and highly entertaining. I inhaled her words then snorted them out laughing!' JOANNA NELL
'Terrific . . . Dinner with the Schnabels is warm and quintessentially Australian yet extensively engaging' Sydney Arts Guide
'Just delightful . . . a modern comedy of manners that pokes affectionate fun at contemporary Australia - all with Toni's trademark warmth, sensitivity and tenderness. I am pressing it into the hands of everyone I know' KATE FORSYTH
Done and Dusted, Lyla Sage
She's off-limits, but he's never been good at following the rules...
Discover the sizzling brother's-best-friend, small town romance that went viral on TikTok – now in a special edition with an exclusive sneak peek at the next book in the series and a Q&A with the author!
'A sweet slow burn . . . sunshine in written form' – Lana Ferguson, USA Today bestselling author
For the first time in her life, Clementine 'Emmy' Ryder has no idea what she's doing. She's accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming, went to college, and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.
Luke Brooks is Meadowlark's most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He's also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy's older brother's best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It's been years since he's seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can't take his eyes off her. Against his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.
As things between Emmy and Brooks heat up, it gets more difficult for him to keep his hands off of her. Can he help her get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?
About the Author
Lyla is a hopelessly romantic twenty-something who lives in the Wild West with her loyal companion - a sweet, old, blind rescue pitbull. She writes romance that feels like her favorite things: sunshine and big blue skies. When she's not writing, she's reading, usually about cowboys or hometown heroes, but she's been known to dabble with mob bosses, monsters, and billionaires, too. You can usually find her under her heated blanket, at her favorite local bookstore, or in the mountains.
Discover the sizzling brother's-best-friend, small town romance that went viral on TikTok – now in a special edition with an exclusive sneak peek at the next book in the series and a Q&A with the author!
'A sweet slow burn . . . sunshine in written form' – Lana Ferguson, USA Today bestselling author
For the first time in her life, Clementine 'Emmy' Ryder has no idea what she's doing. She's accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming, went to college, and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.
Luke Brooks is Meadowlark's most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He's also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy's older brother's best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It's been years since he's seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can't take his eyes off her. Against his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.
As things between Emmy and Brooks heat up, it gets more difficult for him to keep his hands off of her. Can he help her get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?
About the Author
Lyla is a hopelessly romantic twenty-something who lives in the Wild West with her loyal companion - a sweet, old, blind rescue pitbull. She writes romance that feels like her favorite things: sunshine and big blue skies. When she's not writing, she's reading, usually about cowboys or hometown heroes, but she's been known to dabble with mob bosses, monsters, and billionaires, too. You can usually find her under her heated blanket, at her favorite local bookstore, or in the mountains.
Five Bush Weddings, Clare Fletcher
As a photographer, Stevie's been to enough bush weddings to last a lifetime. When's it going to be all about her?
With her ex soon to be married, her mum back on the dating scene, and her best friend threatening to settle down with the Most Boring Man Alive, Stevie is feeling left behind.
To top it off, her old uni mate Johnno West, whom she hasn't seen for years, keeps turning up as best man at Stevie's jobs. And he is looking so good.
Perhaps their youthful pact - that if they were both still single in their early thirties they'd get together - is not so crazy after all?
Then the enigmatic Charlie Jones walks into the frame ...
Capturing the heartbeat of rural Australia, Five Bush Weddings is an uplifting romantic comedy about looking for love, second chances, and what really matters when the bouquet has been thrown, the swag's been rolled up and the party's over.
With her ex soon to be married, her mum back on the dating scene, and her best friend threatening to settle down with the Most Boring Man Alive, Stevie is feeling left behind.
To top it off, her old uni mate Johnno West, whom she hasn't seen for years, keeps turning up as best man at Stevie's jobs. And he is looking so good.
Perhaps their youthful pact - that if they were both still single in their early thirties they'd get together - is not so crazy after all?
Then the enigmatic Charlie Jones walks into the frame ...
Capturing the heartbeat of rural Australia, Five Bush Weddings is an uplifting romantic comedy about looking for love, second chances, and what really matters when the bouquet has been thrown, the swag's been rolled up and the party's over.
Good Material, Dolly Alderton
The eagerly anticipated new novel from the bestselling and beloved author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love
Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved.
As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.
Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.
Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton's highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together - and what pulls us apart - the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.
Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved.
As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.
Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.
Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton's highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together - and what pulls us apart - the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.
Higher Education, Kira McPherson
'Funny, sharp and tender, McPherson brings great insight to the struggle to reconcile where we’ve come from with who we want to be.'—Diana Reid
There’s who she is, where she’s from, and who she could become.
Sam is struggling to find her place at university. There are so many parts of her that don’t seem to fit—her family doesn’t understand her new life, and her new friends don’t know the secrets that she carries with her: the sudden death of her father, her brother’s trouble with the law, and her sense that she feels things that make her different.
That changes when a lecturer introduces Sam to Julia, his charming wife and a corporate lawyer who agrees to mentor Sam through law school. Their closeness provides a way for Sam to understand who she is, and who she wants to become.
With time, this unspools into a dynamic of mutual preoccupation and boundary crossing, as they navigate their feelings for one another, the appropriateness of their relationship, and where it might be heading.
Higher Education is a story about identity, intellectualism and class, and the transformative power of education from an exceptional new voice in Australian literary fiction.
Praise for Higher Education
‘Higher Education is a beautifully written debut. In deceptively clear-cut prose, McPherson deftly unravels what it means to be young, dazed and seeking the outline of a maturing self.’ - ArtsHub
'Higher Education is brilliantly sharp, comedic and insightful comment on class and growing up. This highly accomplished debut, from an author to watch, is a book for everyone’s to-read lists for 2023.'—Sara Jafari, author of The Mismatch
'Intelligent and funny, a book about being young and feeling old, and feeling smart and being dumb. Higher Education is an outsider story with a twist, a millennial novel with a playful quality as it subverts expectations. Beautiful, sharp writing about desire and confusion.'—Jarred McGinnis, author of The Coward
'Higher Education is a stimulating, witty and life-enhancing read. McPherson navigates the nuances between societal expectations and reality. Her characters remain with you, and the slow reveal of people and their privacies is a gift in McPherson's writing.'—Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House
There’s who she is, where she’s from, and who she could become.
Sam is struggling to find her place at university. There are so many parts of her that don’t seem to fit—her family doesn’t understand her new life, and her new friends don’t know the secrets that she carries with her: the sudden death of her father, her brother’s trouble with the law, and her sense that she feels things that make her different.
That changes when a lecturer introduces Sam to Julia, his charming wife and a corporate lawyer who agrees to mentor Sam through law school. Their closeness provides a way for Sam to understand who she is, and who she wants to become.
With time, this unspools into a dynamic of mutual preoccupation and boundary crossing, as they navigate their feelings for one another, the appropriateness of their relationship, and where it might be heading.
Higher Education is a story about identity, intellectualism and class, and the transformative power of education from an exceptional new voice in Australian literary fiction.
Praise for Higher Education
‘Higher Education is a beautifully written debut. In deceptively clear-cut prose, McPherson deftly unravels what it means to be young, dazed and seeking the outline of a maturing self.’ - ArtsHub
'Higher Education is brilliantly sharp, comedic and insightful comment on class and growing up. This highly accomplished debut, from an author to watch, is a book for everyone’s to-read lists for 2023.'—Sara Jafari, author of The Mismatch
'Intelligent and funny, a book about being young and feeling old, and feeling smart and being dumb. Higher Education is an outsider story with a twist, a millennial novel with a playful quality as it subverts expectations. Beautiful, sharp writing about desire and confusion.'—Jarred McGinnis, author of The Coward
'Higher Education is a stimulating, witty and life-enhancing read. McPherson navigates the nuances between societal expectations and reality. Her characters remain with you, and the slow reveal of people and their privacies is a gift in McPherson's writing.'—Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House
Honey & Spice, Bolu Babalola
Sisters, beware the 'Wasteman of Whitewell' . . .
As host of radio show Brown Sugar, Kiki Banjo's mission is to protect her listeners from heartbreak. Which puts Whitewell College's newest student, handsome 'player' Malakai Korede, at the top of her hitlist.
But when Kiki's dream summer internship in New York depends on finding a fresh angle for her radio show, she must make an unlikely bargain with Malakai himself - to put their simmering clashes aside to form a fake relationship, something sweet and spicy enough to win over the whole campus.
However, close proximity to the notorious heartbreaker brings everything Kiki thought she knew about her own heart into question. Why does throwing out her stringent romantic rulebook suddenly so tempting?
Will she find it in her to resist?
A fresh, utterly addictive rom-com from Sunday Times bestselling author Bola Babalola, Honey & Spice is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.
'Romance will never be dead, as long as Bolu is writing it' JESSIE BURTON
'Everything you could ever want from a romance and more - the vibes are simply immaculate' ZOELLA
'Charming and funny' OBSERVER
'The book many have been waiting for' LIZZIE DAMILOLA BLACKBURN
'Kiki compares her feelings for Malakai as like swallowing a star. That's a bit how I felt after reading this messy but joyful book' THE TIMES
'Breathes new life into the genre with its vibrant characters and sexy, authentic voice' RED
'Smart, sexy and energetic' EMMA GANNON
'This book is so addictive' ANNIE LORD
WHY READERS LOVE HONEY & SPICE
'Sweet and spicy'
'How modern chick flicks should, and probably will, look like'
'Warm, funny and sweet. I see a lot of myself & experiences in the main character Kiki - and we love that kind of representation'
'Funny, hot, thought-provoking'
As host of radio show Brown Sugar, Kiki Banjo's mission is to protect her listeners from heartbreak. Which puts Whitewell College's newest student, handsome 'player' Malakai Korede, at the top of her hitlist.
But when Kiki's dream summer internship in New York depends on finding a fresh angle for her radio show, she must make an unlikely bargain with Malakai himself - to put their simmering clashes aside to form a fake relationship, something sweet and spicy enough to win over the whole campus.
However, close proximity to the notorious heartbreaker brings everything Kiki thought she knew about her own heart into question. Why does throwing out her stringent romantic rulebook suddenly so tempting?
Will she find it in her to resist?
A fresh, utterly addictive rom-com from Sunday Times bestselling author Bola Babalola, Honey & Spice is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.
'Romance will never be dead, as long as Bolu is writing it' JESSIE BURTON
'Everything you could ever want from a romance and more - the vibes are simply immaculate' ZOELLA
'Charming and funny' OBSERVER
'The book many have been waiting for' LIZZIE DAMILOLA BLACKBURN
'Kiki compares her feelings for Malakai as like swallowing a star. That's a bit how I felt after reading this messy but joyful book' THE TIMES
'Breathes new life into the genre with its vibrant characters and sexy, authentic voice' RED
'Smart, sexy and energetic' EMMA GANNON
'This book is so addictive' ANNIE LORD
WHY READERS LOVE HONEY & SPICE
'Sweet and spicy'
'How modern chick flicks should, and probably will, look like'
'Warm, funny and sweet. I see a lot of myself & experiences in the main character Kiki - and we love that kind of representation'
'Funny, hot, thought-provoking'
Short Stories:
Night Side Of The River, Jeanette Winterson
A masterful and modern collection of ghost stories from Sunday Times bestselling author Jeanette Winterson
A masterful and modern collection of ghost stories from Sunday Times bestselling author Jeanette Winterson
'The best living writer in this language' Evening Standard
'Always passionate and provocative' New Statesman
'A master of her material' Vanity Fair
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.
A masterful and modern collection of ghost stories from Sunday Times bestselling author Jeanette Winterson
'The best living writer in this language' Evening Standard
'Always passionate and provocative' New Statesman
'A master of her material' Vanity Fair
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.
We All Lived In Bondi Then, Georgia Blain
From the author of the multi-award-winning bestseller Between a Wolf and a Dog, a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories.
A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother's memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life.
In We All Lived in Bondi Then, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain's final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.
Praise for Between a Wolf and a Dog-
'Blain just gets better and better. The clarity, warmth and precision of Between a Wolf and a Dog brings to mind the formal beauty of an exquisitely cut gemstone. Blain looks at the big questions - mortality, grief, forgiveness - through the lens of one family's everyday struggle to love each other. This portrait of marriage and work, of sisterhood, mothers, and daughters is resolute and clear-eyed; so commanding and beautifully written it made me cry.'
-Charlotte Wood, author of The Natural Way of Things
Praise for Museum of Words-
'Museum of Words is not a memoir of dying, although it is about illness and treatment, and the impossibility of saying goodbye. It moves between its subjects, using the writer's illness reflexively, leading into description of the things most important to her ... A fine book that looks chaos directly in the face and attempts to record it.'
-Tegan Bennett Daylight, Sydney Morning Herald
Praise for The Secret Lives of Men-
'Told with subtlety, tenderness and skill, The Secret Lives of Men displays Georgia Blain's superb ability to convey both the joys and struggles of daily life and its impact on each of us. Blain is a gifted writer- through her storytelling we come to know ourselves better.'
-Tony Birch, author of Ghost River
A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother's memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life.
In We All Lived in Bondi Then, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain's final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.
Praise for Between a Wolf and a Dog-
'Blain just gets better and better. The clarity, warmth and precision of Between a Wolf and a Dog brings to mind the formal beauty of an exquisitely cut gemstone. Blain looks at the big questions - mortality, grief, forgiveness - through the lens of one family's everyday struggle to love each other. This portrait of marriage and work, of sisterhood, mothers, and daughters is resolute and clear-eyed; so commanding and beautifully written it made me cry.'
-Charlotte Wood, author of The Natural Way of Things
Praise for Museum of Words-
'Museum of Words is not a memoir of dying, although it is about illness and treatment, and the impossibility of saying goodbye. It moves between its subjects, using the writer's illness reflexively, leading into description of the things most important to her ... A fine book that looks chaos directly in the face and attempts to record it.'
-Tegan Bennett Daylight, Sydney Morning Herald
Praise for The Secret Lives of Men-
'Told with subtlety, tenderness and skill, The Secret Lives of Men displays Georgia Blain's superb ability to convey both the joys and struggles of daily life and its impact on each of us. Blain is a gifted writer- through her storytelling we come to know ourselves better.'
-Tony Birch, author of Ghost River
The Snow Ghost And Other Tales, Various
A spine-tinglingly beautiful hardback collection of some of Japan's scariest yet still compelling classic ghost stories
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.
From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms- the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.
From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms- the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar And Six More, Roald Dahl
Seven tales of the bizarre and unexpected told by the grand master of the short story, Roald Dahl.
Enter a brilliant, sinister and wholly unpredictable world. Here you will find the suggestion of other-worldly goings on in a dark story about a swan and a boy; the surprising tale of a wealthy young wastrel who suddenly develops a remarkable new ability; and meet the hitchhiker whose light-fingers save the day.
'An unforgettable read, don't miss it'
Sunday Times
'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation'
The Times
Enter a brilliant, sinister and wholly unpredictable world. Here you will find the suggestion of other-worldly goings on in a dark story about a swan and a boy; the surprising tale of a wealthy young wastrel who suddenly develops a remarkable new ability; and meet the hitchhiker whose light-fingers save the day.
'An unforgettable read, don't miss it'
Sunday Times
'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation'
The Times
Tiny Tales, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain McIntosh
Stories do not have to be long. In the space of a couple of sentences — or even a page or two — we may see the human heart exposed in a way that is more powerful than occurs in many much longer narratives.
In Tiny Tales Alexander McCall Smith explores romance, ambition, kindness and happiness in thirty short stories that range in length from the short to the minuscule. The settings are as diverse as the characters — Scotland, England, Australia, the United States — combining to create a rich and surprising tableau. An Australian pope? A persuasive cosmetic surgeon? The world's laziest cat. A group of students living together and getting romantically entangled? All human and animal life is here — in miniature.
These stories are inspired and accompanied by the thirty magnificent strip Tiny Tales created by McCall Smith and illustrated by the brilliant Iain McIntosh — each cartoon a little gem of observation.
'This may be a small book in size, but it is mighty of heart and the most wonderful gift for someone who would appreciate a smile or hug. Short and sharp, yet bountiful and considerate — fabulous' — Liz Robinson, loverreading.co.uk
'Exquisitely funny ... I can't think of any other writer who could come up with anything like this, because as well as being among the funniest he has ever written, these stories are also moving, respectful and kind' — The Scotsman
In Tiny Tales Alexander McCall Smith explores romance, ambition, kindness and happiness in thirty short stories that range in length from the short to the minuscule. The settings are as diverse as the characters — Scotland, England, Australia, the United States — combining to create a rich and surprising tableau. An Australian pope? A persuasive cosmetic surgeon? The world's laziest cat. A group of students living together and getting romantically entangled? All human and animal life is here — in miniature.
These stories are inspired and accompanied by the thirty magnificent strip Tiny Tales created by McCall Smith and illustrated by the brilliant Iain McIntosh — each cartoon a little gem of observation.
'This may be a small book in size, but it is mighty of heart and the most wonderful gift for someone who would appreciate a smile or hug. Short and sharp, yet bountiful and considerate — fabulous' — Liz Robinson, loverreading.co.uk
'Exquisitely funny ... I can't think of any other writer who could come up with anything like this, because as well as being among the funniest he has ever written, these stories are also moving, respectful and kind' — The Scotsman
North Woods, Daniel Mason
'Truly outstanding' Mail on Sunday
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty
New Australian Fiction 2023
A new collection of short fiction from Kill Your Darlings.
An opera singer loses her voice. Sex releases memories. A lake monster captures a town's attention. Two young men take their vapes and big ambitions and go On The Road.
New Australian Fiction showcases the strength and diversity of Australian short fiction at its best. Now in its fifth year, these stories will move, entertain and enlighten you.
Featuring:
Daniel Alwan
Chris Ames
Shaeden Berry
André Dao
Chris Flynn
Natasha Hertanto
Hope Loveday
Eleanor Kirk
Julie Koh
Kalem Murray
Allee Richards
Madeleine Rebbechi
Praise for the 2022 edition:
‘A high-quality volume with an arresting assortment of new voices…It’s essential reading to keep abreast of emerging local talent.’ — The Age/Sydney Morning Herald (2022)
'New Australian Fiction 2022 is packed full of incredible talent. This year’s exciting assortment of stories are, by turns, brilliant, strange, clever, devastating and delightful.’ — Mykaela Saunders
An opera singer loses her voice. Sex releases memories. A lake monster captures a town's attention. Two young men take their vapes and big ambitions and go On The Road.
New Australian Fiction showcases the strength and diversity of Australian short fiction at its best. Now in its fifth year, these stories will move, entertain and enlighten you.
Featuring:
Daniel Alwan
Chris Ames
Shaeden Berry
André Dao
Chris Flynn
Natasha Hertanto
Hope Loveday
Eleanor Kirk
Julie Koh
Kalem Murray
Allee Richards
Madeleine Rebbechi
Praise for the 2022 edition:
‘A high-quality volume with an arresting assortment of new voices…It’s essential reading to keep abreast of emerging local talent.’ — The Age/Sydney Morning Herald (2022)
'New Australian Fiction 2022 is packed full of incredible talent. This year’s exciting assortment of stories are, by turns, brilliant, strange, clever, devastating and delightful.’ — Mykaela Saunders
The Long Weekend, Judy Nunn
Together in print for the first time - including two brand new stories - this collection is an intoxicating mix of suspense, history, romance, supernatural and mystery!
Six short stories from Australia's master storyteller Judy Nunn.
The Long Weekend Tracy, Eve, Jet, Mel and Danielle are looking forward - if a little nervously - to their upcoming digital detox. No phones, no laptops - just a quiet weekend in a remote mountain shack. What could go wrong?
The Wardrobe When journalist Nancy buys a rundown terrace house she knows nothing about the previous owner - until a discovery in an old wardrobe reveals the lives, loves and losses in the world of Emily Roper.
The Otto Bin Empire- Clive's Story To the homeless men and women who gather near the docks, the newly arrived Clive cuts an enigmatic figure. 'I'm just a bloke going through a period of adjustment,' he tells himself, 'I'll be back on my feet soon . . .'
Changes As she celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday, actor turned film producer Jackie looks back on her seven decades - and all the many changes in her life. Not least the most recent and most surprising one of all . . .
The House on Hill Street It was such a respectable address - the perfect home for Professor Jameson and his family. But the neighbours are becoming concerned. Eileen Jameson and the boys haven't been seen for quite some time...
Just South of Rome On her way to England, actor Jane Prescott makes a quick stopover in Italy. When she stumbles upon the Hotel Visconti, a grand eighteenth-century villa, she has no idea that it will change her life.
Six short stories from Australia's master storyteller Judy Nunn.
The Long Weekend Tracy, Eve, Jet, Mel and Danielle are looking forward - if a little nervously - to their upcoming digital detox. No phones, no laptops - just a quiet weekend in a remote mountain shack. What could go wrong?
The Wardrobe When journalist Nancy buys a rundown terrace house she knows nothing about the previous owner - until a discovery in an old wardrobe reveals the lives, loves and losses in the world of Emily Roper.
The Otto Bin Empire- Clive's Story To the homeless men and women who gather near the docks, the newly arrived Clive cuts an enigmatic figure. 'I'm just a bloke going through a period of adjustment,' he tells himself, 'I'll be back on my feet soon . . .'
Changes As she celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday, actor turned film producer Jackie looks back on her seven decades - and all the many changes in her life. Not least the most recent and most surprising one of all . . .
The House on Hill Street It was such a respectable address - the perfect home for Professor Jameson and his family. But the neighbours are becoming concerned. Eileen Jameson and the boys haven't been seen for quite some time...
Just South of Rome On her way to England, actor Jane Prescott makes a quick stopover in Italy. When she stumbles upon the Hotel Visconti, a grand eighteenth-century villa, she has no idea that it will change her life.
Roman Stories, Jhumpa Lahiri
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
Gunflower, Laura Jean McKay
The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Animals in That Country.
A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men.
With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers hallucinogenic glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans.
The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don't think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo's - wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.'
-Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the Animals
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I'm able to pay the highest compliment- that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.'
-Ben Brooker, Australian Book Review
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural 'body talk' of its animals ... an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.'
-Jack Callil, The Age
A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men.
With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers hallucinogenic glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans.
The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don't think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo's - wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.'
-Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the Animals
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I'm able to pay the highest compliment- that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.'
-Ben Brooker, Australian Book Review
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural 'body talk' of its animals ... an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.'
-Jack Callil, The Age
Classical Literature:
1Q84: The Complete Trilogy, Haruki Murakami
The year is 1Q84.
This is the real world, there is no doubt about that.
But in this world, there are two moons in the sky.
In this world, the fates of two people, Tengo and Aomame, are closely intertwined. They are each, in their own way, doing something very dangerous. And in this world, there seems no way to save them both.
Something extraordinary is starting.
This is the real world, there is no doubt about that.
But in this world, there are two moons in the sky.
In this world, the fates of two people, Tengo and Aomame, are closely intertwined. They are each, in their own way, doing something very dangerous. And in this world, there seems no way to save them both.
Something extraordinary is starting.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Murakami's most acclaimed novel in a highly covetable gift edition
Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami
Toru Okada's cat has disappeared.
His wife is growing more distant every day.
Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.
As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.
'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami
Toru Okada's cat has disappeared.
His wife is growing more distant every day.
Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.
As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.
'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times
VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.
Slaughterhouse 5: 50th Anniversary Edition, Kurt Vonnegut
50th anniversary hardback edition of the bestselling cult US classic - with extra material
50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION
As a young man and a prisoner of war, Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the 1945 US fire-bombing of Dresden in Germany, which reduced the once proudly beautiful city to rubble and claimed the lives of thousands of its citizens. For many years, Kurt tried to write about Dresden but the words would not come. When he did write about it, he combined his trademark humour, unfettered imagination, boundless humanity and keen sense of irony to create one of the most powerful anti-war books every written, and an enduring American classic.
This special edition is published with notes of appreciation from some of the book's ardent fans (Kate Atkinson, Richard Herring, Robin Ince) as well as fascinating extra material from Vonnegut's archive which casts light on the genesis, reception and enduring influence of an iconic American classic.
Design
DIEGO BECAS
50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION
As a young man and a prisoner of war, Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the 1945 US fire-bombing of Dresden in Germany, which reduced the once proudly beautiful city to rubble and claimed the lives of thousands of its citizens. For many years, Kurt tried to write about Dresden but the words would not come. When he did write about it, he combined his trademark humour, unfettered imagination, boundless humanity and keen sense of irony to create one of the most powerful anti-war books every written, and an enduring American classic.
This special edition is published with notes of appreciation from some of the book's ardent fans (Kate Atkinson, Richard Herring, Robin Ince) as well as fascinating extra material from Vonnegut's archive which casts light on the genesis, reception and enduring influence of an iconic American classic.
Design
DIEGO BECAS
Breakfast At Tiffany's, Truman Capote
Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.
Holly Golightly is a glittering socialite mover and shaker: generally upwards, sometimes sideways and, every now and then, down. She's up all night drinking cocktails and breaking hearts. She's a shoplifter, a delight, a drifter, a tease. In short, an icon. Truman Capote's most famous work,Breakfast at Tiffany'sis the ultimate ode to dreamers.
Holly Golightly is a glittering socialite mover and shaker: generally upwards, sometimes sideways and, every now and then, down. She's up all night drinking cocktails and breaking hearts. She's a shoplifter, a delight, a drifter, a tease. In short, an icon. Truman Capote's most famous work,Breakfast at Tiffany'sis the ultimate ode to dreamers.
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
Introducing Little Clothbound Classics- irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back - and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, but their hopes are dashed as Lennie becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes of friendship and shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossessed, Of Mice and Men remains Steinbeck's most popular work, achieving success as a novel, Broadway play and three acclaimed films.
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back - and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, but their hopes are dashed as Lennie becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes of friendship and shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossessed, Of Mice and Men remains Steinbeck's most popular work, achieving success as a novel, Broadway play and three acclaimed films.
The Return Of Sherlock Holmes (Pretty Book Edition), Arthur Conan Doyle
Thirteen stories involving Sherlock Holmes, one of literature's most beloved characters, are now available in an exclusive collector's edition. Featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler and decorative interior pages, this giftable book is ideal for fiction lovers and book collectors alike.
Beloved by fans across the globe, this collection features thirteen riveting adventures, including an explanation of Holmes’s supposed murder at the hands of his nemesis Dr. Moriarty in Doyle’s 1893 short story "The Final Problem". This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, and The Great Gatsby
Literature's beloved private detective returns from the grave in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and his ever-loyal physician and devoted best friend Dr. John Watson is there to welcome him back and assist him in cracking thirteen absorbing and adventurous mysteries. First published in 1905, this volume includes the stories "The Adventure of the Empty House," "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez," "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist," and ten more absorbing cases to baffle and challenge the crime-solving duo.
This unique collector’s edition presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fascinating mysteries in a giftable new way.
Beloved by fans across the globe, this collection features thirteen riveting adventures, including an explanation of Holmes’s supposed murder at the hands of his nemesis Dr. Moriarty in Doyle’s 1893 short story "The Final Problem". This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, and The Great Gatsby
Literature's beloved private detective returns from the grave in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and his ever-loyal physician and devoted best friend Dr. John Watson is there to welcome him back and assist him in cracking thirteen absorbing and adventurous mysteries. First published in 1905, this volume includes the stories "The Adventure of the Empty House," "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez," "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist," and ten more absorbing cases to baffle and challenge the crime-solving duo.
This unique collector’s edition presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fascinating mysteries in a giftable new way.
The Great Gatsby (Pretty Book Edition), F Scott Fitzgerald
One of literature's most decadent stories is now available in an exclusive collector's edition, featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler and decorative interior pages, making it ideal for fiction lovers and book collectors alike.
Beloved by fans across the globe, Fitzgerald's third novel The Great Gatsby exposes the dark side of the American Dream. This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Great Gatsby has been casting its hypnotic spell on readers since 1925, unveiling every decadence and overindulgence the "Roaring Twenties" label implies. Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and of course, Jay Gatsby himself weave a sordid tale of love and betrayal.
Exploring the themes of social division, wealth and materialism, and excess, this unique collector’s edition presents Fitzgerald’s classic tale in a giftable new way.
Beloved by fans across the globe, Fitzgerald's third novel The Great Gatsby exposes the dark side of the American Dream. This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Great Gatsby has been casting its hypnotic spell on readers since 1925, unveiling every decadence and overindulgence the "Roaring Twenties" label implies. Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and of course, Jay Gatsby himself weave a sordid tale of love and betrayal.
Exploring the themes of social division, wealth and materialism, and excess, this unique collector’s edition presents Fitzgerald’s classic tale in a giftable new way.
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Pretty Book Edition), Frank L Baum
This beloved classic tale is now available in an exclusive collector's edition, featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler and decorative interior pages, making it ideal for fiction lovers and book collectors alike.
Delighting readers for more than 120 years, this time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler's distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz follows Kansas farmgirl Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto as a violent cyclone transports them to a faraway magical place called Oz, land of the Munchkins and witches. To make it home, Dorothy dons her famous slippers and must follow the Yellow Brick Road to seek help from the Great Wizard in the Emerald City. Soon she is joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, each on his own unique quest for a better self.
Exploring the time-honored themes of good versus evil, the beauty of friendship, the value of self-sufficiency, and why home is where the heart is, this unique collector's edition presents L. Frank Baum's beloved tale of otherworldly adventures in a giftable new way.
Delighting readers for more than 120 years, this time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler's distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz follows Kansas farmgirl Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto as a violent cyclone transports them to a faraway magical place called Oz, land of the Munchkins and witches. To make it home, Dorothy dons her famous slippers and must follow the Yellow Brick Road to seek help from the Great Wizard in the Emerald City. Soon she is joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, each on his own unique quest for a better self.
Exploring the time-honored themes of good versus evil, the beauty of friendship, the value of self-sufficiency, and why home is where the heart is, this unique collector's edition presents L. Frank Baum's beloved tale of otherworldly adventures in a giftable new way.
Frankenstein (Pretty Book Edition), Mary Shelley
This frightening classic tale is now available in an exclusive collector's edition, featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler and decorative interior pages, making it ideal for fiction lovers and book collectors alike.
Beloved by horror fans across the globe, Frankenstein explores the terror of what happens when humanity plays God. This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Shattered by grief, the unstable Victor Frankenstein conducts a bizarre experiment, using electricity to shock inanimate matter and create an enormous man-like monster. Terrified by his own actions, Victor abandons his creation to the wilderness. Years later, the intelligent and hideous Creature finds his creator and demands his right to happiness. A tragedy of murderous rage and the fatal consequences of revenge, Mary Shelley's iconic novel has been terrifying readers since the nineteenth century.
Exploring the dark themes of birth and creation, loneliness, ambition, and the destructive power of revenge, this unique collector’s edition presents Shelley’s frightening tale of otherworldly adventures in a giftable new way.
Beloved by horror fans across the globe, Frankenstein explores the terror of what happens when humanity plays God. This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.
Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:
A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art
Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
Part of a 4-volume collection including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Shattered by grief, the unstable Victor Frankenstein conducts a bizarre experiment, using electricity to shock inanimate matter and create an enormous man-like monster. Terrified by his own actions, Victor abandons his creation to the wilderness. Years later, the intelligent and hideous Creature finds his creator and demands his right to happiness. A tragedy of murderous rage and the fatal consequences of revenge, Mary Shelley's iconic novel has been terrifying readers since the nineteenth century.
Exploring the dark themes of birth and creation, loneliness, ambition, and the destructive power of revenge, this unique collector’s edition presents Shelley’s frightening tale of otherworldly adventures in a giftable new way.
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