Showing 1–16 of 173 resultsSorted by latest
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£9.99
It’s the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war, and everybody knows it. On a final night of abandon, Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young financial secretary (and ‘not an entirely good girl’), pursues a one-night stand. Some people, if you make the mistake of sleeping with them, leave you with a rash, or regrets. It seems that sleeping with young Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC’s nascent television unit, leaves you pursued by a creature from another world. As Britain threatens to fall apart and the Nazi bombs descend, Iris finds herself stepping off the known world’s edge, into a reality where otherworldly powers lurk and act, where spirits can be called and enslaved, where time can be warped and rewound, and where a magical fascist is plotting her path back in time, gun in hand, in search of Churchill, to fire a shot that will end the war before it ever began. Naturally, only Iris can stop her.
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£9.99
1899. As the new century approaches, English hack-writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt. As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice at Palazzo Dioscuri – the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo – a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed nerves: is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind?
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£20.00
A man and a woman, who have only known each other for a few hours and must soon part, sit in an airport café and invent an entire shared life together. A girl born with two different eyes – one seeing only the past and the other only the future – strives for the unattainable now. Late at night a father conspiratorially hangs laundry between two cherry trees in a tiny Bulgarian town in the 1970s and sets off a series of events that will turn absurdly historic. A woman on a train passing through the poppy-filled Central European countryside waves at everyone she passes, unaware that a single gesture can ripple through another’s life like fate. A lonely drifter on a snowy New Year’s Eve sees himself mirrored in a shop window TV, every move presumably watched by unseen millions and a world that had forgotten him. Here is a collection of Gospodinov’s finest short stories.
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£10.99
Tom Shift and Oliver Keele are pen-pals. They were introduced through their cancer clinics. From reading Oliver’s letters, Tom has deduced that Oliver is lonely and somewhat nomadic. He appears to live hand to mouth at a series of cheap B&Bs. When Oliver suggests they meet up, Tom agrees. Neither of them have long left. While Saltwash seems an unlikely kind of place for a holiday, he goes with it. The Castle Hotel is one of the few places still open in an off-season seaside town that has definitely seen better days but it’s surprisingly busy. It becomes clear that the guests are all there for some kind of reunion, and that they know Oliver. Little by little it becomes clear that all the guests have dark and troubled histories. They are drawn to the hotel for the opportunity to win the lottery. Which for them, is the chance to have the memories of their wrongs to be eradicated.
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£12.99
When Ludwig Bemelmans encounters the dashing yet penniless Comte de St. Cucuface aboard a Paris train, he is swept into a deliciously absurd adventure across postwar France. Under the Count’s gleeful tutelage, Bemelmans adopts the persona of a German prince, mastering the art of hoodwinking strangers with immaculate manners and effortless charm. Together, the unlikely duo embark on a run of outlandish escapades, living extravagantly on nothing at all. They dine in grand hotels, befriend millionaires, outwit restaurateurs and regale nouveau-riche Americans with fantastical tales of their aristocratic pasts. First published in 1952, this autobiographical travelogue from the beloved creator of Madeline brims with quick wit and whimsical illustrations. Bemelmans captures a France poised between eras, where fading old-world elegance mingles with the glitter of the new.
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£18.99
A propulsive feminist gothic novel blending Indonesian folklore with Islamic mysticism; violence with complicity; care with harm, and familial love with the limits of sisterhood
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£9.99
A wise, tender, life-affirming return to the beloved town of Faha by the award-winning master of Irish literature
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£25.00
George Washington Jonson has been in the Atlanta police force for a decade, patrolling the streets he grew up on and managing to build relationships within the force – especially with Tucker, the veteran police officer and self-described ‘redneck’ who taught Jonson the ropes. Now it’s 2005 and Jonson himself is tasked with training hot-headed rookie recruits. One night out on patrol with his trainee, Utner, a split-second confrontation with a white teenager takes a violent turn and Utner shoots the teenager dead. As the resulting furore mounts to a fever pitch, it threatens to expose the complex nest of lies that seethes beneath the entire city, and order must be restored. So far, so Hollywood. But then a dizzying somersault in the novel’s structure upends the narrative and begins an even darker, more complicated and provocative story about racism, power and corruption – building to an unforgettable portrait of a nation divided.
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£16.99
A daughter uncovers the secrets of her mother's past in this profound and darkly funny novel
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£10.99
Petra doesn’t like books anymore – not since her career as a literary agent imploded after a social media typo went viral. Now she is stuck for six months, babysitting a little bookshop by the sea, surrounded by books that just remind her of her failure. Ross McCloud’s award-winning debut novel blew the minds of the world’s literati, but that was five years ago. Now Ross and his keenly awaited second work have vanished. Something has gone wrong – horribly wrong – and Ross doesn’t want to talk about it. Marooned in Capelthorne’s Bookshop miles from London, Petra can’t stop thinking about all the ways she has let people down. Then she discovers Ross lurking, incognito, in the second-hand books section. Misery loves company it seems, and a kinship tentatively forms.
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£9.99
Every house has a story. This one might change her future. All Zoe Copeland has ever wanted is somewhere to call home. Years in foster care has seen her move from place to place, and now as she faces eviction, Zoe’s determined not to let eleven-year-old daughter grow up the same way. So when a too-good-to-be-true cottage comes up for sale, Zoe takes the leap and moves them to a tiny seaside town she’s never even heard of. The catch? It’s a treasure house packed floor-to-ceiling with clutter. While Florence is falling in love with the various knick-knacks, Zoe becomes convinced she’s made a huge mistake, especially when her grumpy neighbour Jake says exactly that – even as he keeps showing up to help. As they start clearing the house, Zoe slowly pieces together the story behind its former owner, Marly. And the deeper she digs, the more it starts to feel uncomfortably close to home.
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£9.99
In the cult classic novel ‘Bunny’, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracised and then seduced by a clique of her saccharine sweet, rich girl cohort (who call one another ‘Bunny’). An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus Workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with wondrous yet deadly consequences. When ‘We Love You, Bunny’ opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story.
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£12.99
A beautiful and emotionally devastating short novel that is both a standalone masterpiece and a sequel to A Long Winter, from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island.
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£20.00
Continuing the story of one of the most beloved families in British literature, The Golden Hours is the brilliant new novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s iconic Cazalet Chronicles written by her niece, and bestselling author, Louisa Young.
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£18.99
The film star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time. Her image is everywhere. It has been like that since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the same places as real people. She may meet her friends or collect her children from school or walk her dogs as they do. But it seems the rules of reality have melted away. Now, a writer has decided to pay close attention to M’s life, in the hope of understanding who she really is.
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£16.99
Every September, the spirits of the dead return before vanishing four weeks later in a puff of ash – a phenomenon known as Ghost Month. Four strangers prepare for this year’s haunting, not realising their fates are connected by a dark secret. Schoolteacher Jane rents a husband for the month, in the hope of convincing her deceased mother that she is interested in men. Lil, sleeping rough on the streets, drinks herself into oblivion. She is terrified to see the ghost of the little girl she lost, and terrified that she might never see her again. Nestled within his wealthy bubble, Gideon hires body doubles in a bid to shake off unwanted spectres. Little Eddie lives in his older brother’s shadow, which wouldn’t be so bad if his brother wasn’t dead. As the haunting wears on, and a hidden truth rises to the surface, each of them will end the month changed in ways they never imagined.
