A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times.STEP INTO THE CITY. . . When a young man s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own.When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he s willing to lose.A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times.'A love letter to books, libraries and librarians' Financial Times, Books of the YearPRAISE FOR HARUKI MURAKAMI'The world's most popular cult novelist' Guardian 'Wild and thrilling. . . Murakami is a master storyteller and he knows how to keep us hooked' Sunday Times'Totally gripping' Daily Express'It s safe to say that there s no one like Murakami' Literary Review'No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades' Financial Times
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 WINNER OF THE 2024 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 * SHORTLISTED FOR THE STREGA EUROPEAN PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE AN AMAZON TOP 10 BOOK OF DECEMBER 2023 A Book of the Year for 2023 according to the Guardian, FT, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Sunday Independent, Economist, Big Issue, Daily Telegraph, Irish Times and Waterstones 'A CRUCIAL BOOK FOR OUR CURRENT TIMES... BRILLIANTLY HAUNTING.' OBSERVER The explosive literary sensation: a mother faces a terrible choice as Ireland slides into totalitarianism On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland's newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, Larry, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling. Soon, she must decide just how far she is willing to go to keep her family safe. Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Paul Lynch's Booker Prize-winning novel is a devastating vision of a country falling apart and a moving portrait of the resilience of the human spirit when faced with the darkest of times. 'A compassionate, propulsive and timely novel that forces the reader to imagine what if this was me?' FT
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Exhilarating' GUARDIAN'Her writing has a timeless quality' THE TIMES'[Has] a visionary quality' OBSERVERA profound and explosive novel about a spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to surviveA servant girl escapes from a settlement. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief of everything that her own civilization has taught her.The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how -and if - we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.
The electrifying follow-up to Dave Eggers' New York Times Bestseller The Circle'Gulpable fictive entertainment . . . Eggers is a wonderful storyteller with an alert and defiant vision' ObserverWhen the world's largest search engine / social media company merges with the planet's dominant e-commerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous-and, oddly enough, most beloved-monopoly ever known: The Every.Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Kavakian, they look for the company's weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?Studded with unforgettable characters and lacerating set-pieces, The Every blends satire and terror, while keeping the reader in breathless suspense about the fate of the company - and the human animal.'More playful and satirical than Orwell . . . it scores as a series of brilliant set pieces and a devastating overall critique.' Sunday Times'Part of the genius of this remarkable piece of satire, riven as it is with horribly plausible ideas and horribly good jokes. . . . What Eggers does so well is make The Every alluring as well as alarming...' The Times'You read it and think: yes, this is set in the future but it is actually going on here and now. It is an urgent and necessary book. It's also fun. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar' The ScotsmanThe Circle was a New York Times bestseller in 2013
'Filled with completely relatable yearning and achingly beautifully written, Evil Eye is a wonderful, moving and absorbing story of identity and belonging and learning to love yourself. I thought it was excellent' Reader review ?????'I loved this book, Yara's bravery and courage are inspirational. I found myself rooting her on. Yara's story gave me a deeper understanding of the plight of the Palestinian people or any people forced from their homeland ... Cheers to Etaf Rum' Reader review ?????'Thought-provoking and emotionally rich storytelling. Etaf Rum's ability to navigate the depths of trauma, prejudice, and cultural identity with sensitivity and grace is truly commendable. This novel will leave you with a profound understanding of the human experience and a renewed sense of empathy' Reader review ?????* * *The powerful and poignant new novel from the author of the much-loved A Woman is No Man.Raised in a conservative Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur. Now, she has a good job at the local college, and balances that with raising her two daughters and taking care of their home. Yara knows that her life is more rewarding than her mother's - so why doesn't it feel like enough?After Yara responds to a colleague's racist provocation, she is put on probation at work and must attend mandatory counselling. Her mother blames a family curse for Yara's troubles, and while Yara doesn't believe in superstitions, she still finds herself growing increasingly uneasy about falling victim to the same mistakes as her mother.Yara's carefully constructed world begins to implode and suddenly she must face up to the difficulties of her childhood, not fully realising how that will impact not just her own future, but that of her daughters too.* * *Praise for Etaf Rum:'A love letter to storytelling' New York Times'Garnering justified comparisons to Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns ... a must-read about women mustering up the bravery to follow their inner voice' Refinery 29'[A] masterfully written story ... An absorbing tale of a woman who wants more for her daughters and for herself, it's a five-star read' Woman's Weekly'A powerful novel about motherhood, belonging and culture' Prima 'A complicated mother-daughter drama that looks at the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and what it takes to break the cycle of abuse' Time magazine, 'The Most Anticipated Books of the Year'
'A wise and witty drama of small-town life . . . delivering the generous humour, keen ear for dialogue, and deep appreciation for humanity's foibles that have endeared the author to his readers for decades' Publishers WeeklyTen years after the death of the magnetic Donald 'Sully' Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is taken over by its much wealthier neighbour, Schuyler Springs. Peter, Sully's son, is still grappling with his father's tremendous legacy as well as his relationship to his own son, Thomas, wondering if he has been all that different a father than Sully was to him. Meanwhile, the towns' newly consolidated police department falls into the hands of Charice Bond following the resignation of Doug Raymer, the former North Bath police chief and Charice's ex-boyfriend. When a decomposing body turns up in the abandoned hotel situated between the two towns, Charice and Raymer are drawn together again and forced to address their complicated attraction to one another. Across town, Ruth, Sully's married ex-lover, struggles to understand her granddaughter, Tina, and her growing obsession with Peter's other son, Will. Amidst the turmoil, the town's residents speculate on the identity of the unidentified body and wonder who among their number could have disappeared unnoticed. Brimming with warmth, wisdom and Russo's signature wry humour, Somebody's Fool is another classic from a modern master of storytelling.
The breathtaking new novel from Ann Patchett a Sunday Times and No. 1 New York Times bestseller'Filled with the moments I live for in a story'BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry'[Tom Lake] has it all ... Young love, sibling rivalry and deep mother-daughter relationships'REESE WITHERSPOON'One of the most beloved authors of her generation'SUNDAY TIMESThere's more to every love story than what we choose to tell...It's spring and Lara's three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the one story they've always longed to hear of the film star with whom she shared a stage, and a romance, years before.Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents lead before their children are born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.'One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers' ELLE* SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 ** A REESE WITHERSPOON AND BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK ** A 2023 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES *
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024****INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**'Imagine Slow Horses Jackson Lamb in the body of Jodie Comer s character in Killing Eve' SUNDAY TIMES'Compulsively readable... Kill Bill written by John le Carr ' OBSERVERSeductive and cunning American spy-for-hire Sadie Smith has been sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France.Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected civilisation, lives in a Neanderthal cave, and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism.Sadie casts her cynical eye over this region of ancient farms and sleepy villages, and finds Bruno s idealism laughable, but just as she is certain she s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.Beneath this a taut, dazzling story of espionage and intrigue lies one of a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future, and a profound treatise on human history.'The most exciting writer of her generation' BRET EASTON ELLIS'Reinvents the spy novel in one cool, erudite gesture' HERNAN DIAZ*A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, INDEPENDENT, DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE ATLANTIC, GUARDIAN, VULTURE, THE ECONOMIST*
Longlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Award'This is escapist fiction at its best. Grisly, addictive fun . . . I devoured it in 24 hours' - Emilia Hart, author of WeywardAn addictive Gothic thriller set in the macabre world of Victorian London. Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook follows an intrepid heroine, ready to risk it all for her missing sister.London, 1850. Constance Horton has disappeared and her sister Maude is determined to find out what's happened.She discovers that Constance has disguised herself as a boy and boarded a ship bound for the Arctic, but when the ship returns without her the truth about her fate is buried by sinister forces.To find answers - and deliver justice for her sister - Maude must step into London's dark underbelly, and into the path of dangerous, powerful men. The kind of men who seek their fortune in the city's horrors, from the hangings at Newgate to the ghoulish waxworks of Madame Tussaud's.It is a perilous task. But Maude has dangerous skills of her own . . .'Brilliant! Stuffed with adventure' - Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle'Victorian gothic at its very very best' - Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora
From 'one of our most thrilling and singular innovators on the page' (Laura Van Den Berg), a tightly wound, consuming tale about a 1950s American housewife, for fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen and Taffy Brodesser-AknerLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024A Barnes & Noble BEST BOOK of 2024COSMOPOLITAN Novella of the Year 2024'Clever, moving and unexpected. A brilliantly deft and subtle story.' - Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing---A warm Sunday in November 1957. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day.Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn t particularly happy in his job but he fulfils the role, playing golf with the partners, drinking in the bar, chasing the women. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion, with a key shot up her sleeve called The Most , is now a mother and homemaker.Somehow these two, who have been together since college, have fallen into the roles expected of them the prescribed suburban dream they have been sold as something to covet, something that will fulfil their lives. But on this unseasonably warm, early November Sunday, Kathleen wakes up and decides that she will not be accompanying her family to church.No, she feels like a swim.She unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the apartment complex pool no other resident uses. And she doesn t want to come out ___Praise for Jessica Anthony's ENTER THE AARDVARK'A truly fresh piece of art' Percival Everett'Fresh, witty, smart' Kate Atkinson'Highly inventive' Joshua Ferris'A writer possessed of mind-bending talents' Heidi Julavits
Eskimo and white culture collide in this national bestselling novel of life in the contemporary Alaskan wilderness: “A magnificently realized story” (New York Times Book Review). Ordinary Wolves depicts a life different from what any of us has known: Inhuman cold, the taste of rancid salmon shared with shivering sled dogs, hunkering in a sod igloo while blizzards moan overhead. But this is the only world Cutuk Hawcley has ever known. Born and raised in the Arctic, he has learned to provide for himself by hunting, fishing, and trading. And yet, though he idolizes the indigenous hunters who have taught him how to survive, when he travels to the nearby Inupiaq village, he is jeered and pummeled by the native children for being white. When Cutuk ventures into the society of his own people, two incompatible realities collide, perfectly capturing "the contrast between the wild world and our ravaging consumer culture”. In a powerful coming of age story, a young man isolated by his past must choose between two worlds, both seemingly bent on rejecting him (Louise Erdrich). Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize “As a revelation of the devastation modern America brings to a natural lifestyle, it's a tour de force and may be the best treatment of the Northwest and its people since Jack London's works.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Sister Perpetue is not to move. She is not to fall asleep. She is to sit, keeping guard over the patient's room. She has heard the stories of his hunger, which defy belief: that he has eaten all manner of creatures and objects. A child even, if the rumours are to be believed. But it is hard to believe that this slender, frail man is the one they once called The Great Tarare, The Glutton of Lyon. Before, he was just Tarare. Well-meaning and hopelessly curious, born into a world of brawling and sweet cider, to a bereaved mother and a life of slender means. The 18th Century is drawing to a close, unrest grips the heart of France and life in the village is soon shaken. When a sudden act of violence sees Tarare cast out and left for dead, his ferocious appetite is ignited, and it's not long before his extraordinary abilities to eat make him a marvel throughout the land. Following Tarare as he travels from the South of France to Paris and beyond, through the heart of the Revolution, The Glutton is an electric, heart-stopping journey into a world of tumult, upheaval and depravity, wherein the hunger of one peasant is matched only by the insatiable demands of the people of France.
From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed.___________________ A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends. On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs.He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London.While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words which formed in his head. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage.This book takes these hospital dispatches edited, expanded and meticulously interwoven with new writing and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss, but animated by new feelings of gratitude, humility and love. Moving, funny, remarkable Richard Eyre'Extraordinary, unique and unputdownable' Independent
***THE GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023***THE TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF THE MONTH*** ***MAIL ON SUNDAY BEST NEW FICTION***FINANCIAL TIMES BEST NEW THRILLERS***'Powerful' THE GUARDIAN 'A gritty, authentic triumph, one howling to be turned into a film or TV series' FINANCIAL TIMES'Atmospheric and tense thriller that has TV series written all over it.' THE SUN'Eli Cranor is that rare writer who can make you gasp, cry and cheer often in the same paragraph' S. A. COSBYAfter his son is convicted of murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory.He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend-or in some cases, destroy it.'Ozark Dogs tunnels into your brain with feverish power... thrillingly told, deeply wrenching, not to be missed.' MEGAN ABBOTTPraise for Eli Cranor:'Southern noir at its finest, a cauldron of terrible choices and even more terrible outcomes . . . one of the best debuts of 2022' NEW YORK TIMES'A gripping novel about rage and trauma, redemption and damnation,. . . Cranor's characters bristle with desperation and frustrated masculinity, a volatile cauldron of emotion that brings tension to every page' STEPH CHA'A major work from a bright, young talent' USA TODAY
Alison Mills Newman's innovative, genre-bending novel has long been out of print and impossible to find. A "e;fluently funky mix of standard and nonstandard English,"e; as the poet and scholar Harryette Mullen once put it, Francisco is the first-person account of a young actress and musician and her growing disillusionment with her success in Hollywood. Her wildly original and vivid voice chronicles a free-spirited life with her filmmaker lover, visiting friends and family up and down California, as well as her involvement in the 1970s Black Arts Movement. Love and friendship, long, meaningful conversations, parties and dancing-Francisco celebrates, as she improvises in the book, "e;the workings of a positive alive life that is good value, quality, carin, truth ... the gift of art for the survival of the human heart."e;
The Girl with the Louding Voice - Abi DareThe Girl with the Louding Voice is a 2020 coming of age novel and the debut novel of Nigerian writer Abi Dare. It tells the story about a teenage Nigerian girl called Adunni who becomes a maid and struggles with many things growing up, including her limited education, poverty and her ability to speak up for herself.
In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner was at the head of a convoy of 3,500 US soldiers as they entered the Iraqi desert. Now, still stalked by conflict, he retraces his war experience and meditates on the echoes between his story and those of generations of soldiers marching to battle before him. Spanning pre-deployment to combat zone, World War I to Vietnam, boredom to bloodlust, roadside bombs to open mic nights, My Life as a Foreign Country asks what it means to be a soldier and a human being. The most haunting book I read this year Irish Times His shrapnel-like chapters come at you from all angles Compulsive Guardian Turner is a soldier with the soul of a poet Daily Telegraph Wrathful, wry and incantatory Erica Wagner, New Statesman Beautiful, electrifying and full of pain Washington Post
