Modern & contemporary fiction

Showing 25–36 of 511 resultsSorted by latest

  • The Passengers on the Hankyu Line

    £9.99

    Trundling through the scenic countryside of Kyoto and Osaka is the Hankyu Line, a burgundy-coloured electric train that has been carrying its commuters to their destinations for decades. Over the course of a single journey in springtime, and the return journey six months later just as the leaves begin to fall: a young man meets the woman who happens to take out the last copy of the library book he was about to borrow; an angry wedding guest dresses in a white gown to upstage the bride; a university student leaves home for the first time; a twenty-something finally grows the courage to walk away from an abusive partner- a widow learns independence, as she and her granddaughter meet their new dog. As the seasons and the landscapes change, passengers jostle and connect, as this gentle timeless train carries each one forward towards the person they intend to become.

  • Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age

    £9.99

    Saints and sinners, emperors and embezzlers, barmaids and balalaikas all play their part in the bawdy reminiscences of Hrabal’s cobbler as he charms an audience of young beauties with his tale.

  • Distant Star

    £9.99

    Alberto Ruiz-Tagle was once the quiet, unknowable, unpromising member of Chile’s young poetry scene. But the military coup of 1973 sees Alberto reborn as Chile’s leading celebrity poet, Carlos Wieder. Known for his daring sky poems, penned in smoke high above the cities, Weider’s dazzling trajectory is a cause for astonishment and speculation amongst his old poetry friends. Where did this talent suddenly spring from? And, how is it connected to the disappearance of the beautiful Garmendia twins? Told from across the years in exile in Europe, the narrator’s attempts to trace the fate of his old circle will lead him to one last confrontation with the brutality of their generation.

  • A Souvenir of Japan

    £9.99

    An Englishwoman muses on her affair with a younger Japanese man. A spurned lover seeks intimacy in another chance encounter. A boy stumbles upon a mirror world while walking in the woods. In five mesmerising, fantastical tales of 1970s Japan, Angela Carter explores what it means to arrive in a world different from one’s own, and to transform profoundly – sometimes terrifyingly – in the process.

  • The Phoenix Pencil Company

    £9.99

    ‘Absorbing’GUARDIAN

    ‘Magical’GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

    ‘Suspenseful’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

    ‘Wildly inventive’ LIZ MOORE

    A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK

    In this dazzling debut novel, a young reclusive coder unearths the story of a lost Shanghai pencil company and a legacy of magic, espionage and family secrets that will alter the path of her life forever.

  • Icarus 17

    £20.00

    FROM SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR CHARLES CUMMING, THIS IS THE ENTHRALLING NEW ESPIONAGE THRILLER FOLLOWING CAREER SPY, LACHLAN KITE

    'Nobody writes more enjoyable spy thrillers’ ANTHONY HOROWITZ

    ‘Charles Cumming has breathed new life into the spy novel’ BEN MACINTYRE

    'The rightful inheritor of John le Carré's crown' OBSERVER

  • Like Family

    £9.99

    Radclyffe, New York, is an idyllic upstate town, nestled in the hills away from the city. Ruth, Caroline and Tobi are living the dream; Ruth has a wife she loves, sprawling land and wonderful children. Caroline, an ex-Manhattanite, is enjoying a slower pace, time to focus on her music. Tobi runs an Instagram-famous pottery business that is constantly expanding. But cracks are appearing beneath the surface. After an unexpected death rocks their community, these friends are forced to confront tensions that have long been buried and reveal the secrets they never shared. An exquisite portrait of friendship, love and loyalty, ‘Like Family’ captures the joy and heartbreak of growing older and the richness and pain of knowing and being known.

  • The Hamilton Case

    £10.99

    Stanley Obeysekere, a wealthy lawyer in colonial Ceylon, is a staunch believer in British justice. When the murder of a tea planter baffles the island, he seizes the chance to solve the case, securing fame as ‘our Sherlock Holmes’. But his triumph comes at a price. With devastating precision, Michelle de Kretser traces the disintegration of a man, a family and a society as change arrives and the empire crumbles.

  • Contrapposto

    £20.00

    Cricket is just a shy kid who likes drawing when he first meets Olympia. She’s older, more confident; she bullies him into some light vandalism and instantly he’s in love. When they’re together, they talk about their futures, how they’re going to travel the world, the beauty and rapture of art. Then those futures start to arrive in unexpected ways, the years and decades pile up between them, the art world seduces and disappoints and frustrates them. And they have to figure out, again and again, what it is to be an artist, and who and what to love. This is a wild and beautiful novel about two friends who believe they can change the world, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.

  • Roman Mornings

    £18.99

    A glorious novel of hope and healing for fans of Armistead Maupin, Fredrik Backman, Kate Atkinson and Sarah Winman. 

  • The Scandalous Ladies Football Club

    £18.99

    Meet Minnie Newton – spinster, troublemaker and founder of the first ever women's football club – in a story inspired by real-life Victorian trailblazers, who showed the world that women can do anything they put their minds to, even if they are ridiculed for it at first…

  • SIGNED COPIES: Queenie Is Working on It

    £20.00

    How is it possible for one woman to hold it together when she’s: Confronted with a racing biological clock when she doesn’t even know if she wants kids. Trying to act normal when her heart is smashed into a million pieces. Ten times smarter than the people she’s working for. Priced out of the housing market in the place she grew up. Stuck in a situationship when all she wants is the love of her life back. Bigger. Not better. Older. Not wiser. Queenie Jenkins is working on it.