Narrative theme: Sense of place

Showing 17–32 of 108 resultsSorted by latest

  • Happiness and Love

    £9.99

    Years after escaping her unbearable artworld life, an unnamed writer finds herself attending a dinner party hosted by Eugene and Nicole – an artist-curator couple – and attended by their pretentious circle. It’s the evening after the funeral of a mutual friend, and if the narrator once loved and admired Eugene and Nicole and their important friends, she now despises them all. Most of all, however, she despises herself for being lured back to this hollow, bourgeois social setting. As the guests sip at their drinks, the narrator, from her vantage point in the corner seat of a white sofa entertains herself – and us – with a silent, tender, merciless takedown.

  • Villa Coco

    £16.99

    Andrew Sean Greer showcases his wit and warmth in this magical tale set amidst the Tuscan hills. Broke and directionless, our young protagonist takes a job in the Italian countryside as the all-purpose assistant to Lisabetta, known to her friends as Coco – a strong-willed, wealthy widow of great local renown. Trained as an archivist, he thinks he’s been hired to catalogue the contents of the beautiful, crumbling mansion nestled in the green Tuscan hills – but what are his actual duties? Days are spent ridding the house of a marten – whatever that is – locating the antediluvian septic system, entertaining an endless carousel of guests (from bohemian painters to elderly princesses to unnervingly handsome nephews), attending a funeral in order to make off with the urn, and not inadvertently sabotaging Coco’s great and final plan – to locate the lost love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late.

  • Bad Boy Era

    £9.99

    Everly is the matchmaking mastermind of her family, but her own love life is a bit of a flop. Back from four years in Dublin, she’s ready for a quiet summer on Fletcher Mountain helping launch her aunt’s animal rescue centre – until Conri ‘Wolf’ Reilly shows up. Wolf is her college roommate’s infuriating twin brother. He’s brooding, Irish, and college rugby’s resident bad boy with thighs that could crack a watermelon. His red card reputation has trashed his rugby prospects, until a training camp in Denver comes calling. As a favour, Everly reluctantly gets Wolf a place to stay if he volunteers at the rescue centre. Now Everly’s finds herself working and living next door to the Irish tattooed grump who treats her like a nuisance, but looks at her like he could press her up against a hay bale until they forget their own names.

  • The Chateau

    £10.99

    It is 1948 and a young American couple arrive in France for a holiday, full of anticipation and enthusiasm. But the countryside and people are war-battered, and their reception at the Chateau Beaumesnil is not all the open-hearted Americans could wish for.

  • I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness

    £9.99

    Nestled among rugged mountains, in a remote part of Catalonia frequented by wolf hunters, bandits, witches, deserters, ghosts, beasts and demons, sits the old farmhouse called Mas Clavell. Inside, an impossibly old woman lies on her deathbed while family and caretakers drift in and out. All the women who have ever lived and died in that house are waiting for her to join them. They are preparing to throw her a party. As day turns to night, four hundred years’ worth of memories unspool, and the house reverberates with the women’s stories. Stories of mysterious visions, of those born without eyelashes and tongues or with deformed hearts. But it begins with the story of the matriarch Blanca who double-crosses the devil, heedless of what the consequences might be.

  • The Book Game

    £9.99

    ‘A wonderfully clever and howlingly funny thriller’ The Spectator

    'Glitters with secret agendas, hidden lies and sun-soaked desires' Emma Stonex

    'Whip-smart and made me laugh out loud. Magnificent' Joanna Cannon

    'Thorny and sexy' Beth Morrey

    'Pulsing with heat and intrigue' Marianne Levy

  • Mother, Ghost, Mango Seed

    £16.99

    Set in Thailand from 1976 to the present, Mother, Ghost, Mango Seed is a haunting yet hopeful exploration of grief, motherhood, and cultural identity

  • Salty

    £10.99

    Captain Denise is more comfortable facing down a stingray than a party guest, though she’s punched both in recent memory. After spending half her life at the helm of yachts across the Caribbean, she’s risen through the ranks thanks to one rule: never, ever mix with the owners. Her sister, Helen, is a walking HR violation, one of many reasons the two haven’t seen each other in years. Recently fired after burning all her bridges, Helen returns home to work for Denise. The clashing sisters’ first charter is for the Falcon family, shady real estate developers who mowed down Helen and Denise’s childhood home to build condos. But then the latest Falcon building collapses – and a dead body turns up beside it. Helen and Denise comb through the wreckage to uncover just how low the Falcons will sink in order to stay afloat – before the big storm wipes out the evidence.

  • Ripeness

    £9.99

    From 1960s Italy to present-day Ireland, Ripeness is the story of a family secret that rips apart a teenage girl’s world, only for her to discover its meaning decades later.

  • Fulvia

    £9.99

    Fulvia is the daughter of a wealthy but unimportant Roman family. Raised in the countryside, she longs for a life of intrigue and influence. When her father dies and her inheritance is threatened, Fulvia makes her way to the city of Rome to secure her future. There she marries a young aristocrat named Clodius, who is more interested in partying with his hedonistic friends than politics. Fulvia is drawn into their world of debauchery, and learns just how precarious the balance of power in the Republic is. Her ambition drives them both to political power that draws the attention of the senate, and more seedy underworld opponents. But Rome is a dangerous place, and power can become notoriety overnight. Fulvia soon learns just how high the stakes really are, and that her ambitions may come at a terrible cost.

  • Dream State

    £10.99

    When Charlie asks Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate, Cece can’t imagine anyone less appropriate for the task. Garrett doesn’t believe in love, much less marriage. But as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, her long-held expectations for her life with Charlie begin to crumble, leading to an impulsive decision that will alter the three friends’ lives forever – the events of that July reverberating through marriage, parenthood and across generations.

  • Before I Knew I Loved You

    £14.99

    The sixth book in the unstoppable, multi-million bestselling Japanese series; four guests with four poignant stories get another chance at lasting happiness.

  • Albion

    £9.99

    The Brooke family are gathering in their ancestral home to bury Philip: the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember. Frannie has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defence against the coming climate catastrophe. Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn. Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other. Isa has long suspected that her father thought only of himself, and hopes to seek out her childhood love, who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage. And then there is Clara, who arrives from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.

  • A Cornish Legacy

    £9.99

    Escape to Cornwall this summer with the new emotional and uplifting novel from Sunday Times #1 bestselling author Fern Britton

  • Fun and Games

    £9.99

    INSTANT TOP 10 IRISH BESTSELLER

    SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR

    AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST

    ‘A triumph … the funniest novel I've read in years’ SALLY ROONEY

    ‘A brilliant and bittersweet ode to young love’ IRISH TIMES

    'One of my favourite books of the year’ JULIA ARMFIELD

    ‘A funny and frank coming-of age-drama'OBSERVER

  • Twelve Post-War Tales

    £10.99

    A new work of fiction by Booker Prize-winning author Graham Swift