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'Phenomenally powerful and beautifully written' the GuardianThe women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls' fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America.'Gay brings the powerful voice that flows through her work as a novelist and cultural critic to the 21 short stories in her first collection . . . Gay's "e;difficult women"e; are unforgettable' BBC.com'Gay's signature dry wit and piercing psychological depth make every story mermerisingly unusual and simply unforgettable' Harper's Bazaar

The third title in Genevieve Cogman's clever and exciting The Invisible Library series, The Burning Page is an action-packed literary adventure! When it's your job to save the day - where do you start?Librarian spy Irene has standards to maintain, especially while on probation. And absconding from a mission via a besieged building doesn't look good. But when her escape route home goes up in flames, what's a spy to do? However, it seems Gates back to the Library are malfunctioning across dozens of worlds. Worse still, her nemesis Alberich is responsible - and he plans to annihilate the Library itself.Irene and assistant Kai are posted to St Petersburg, to help combat this threat. Here Alberich emerges, as Irene tries to save her friend Vale and foil assassination attempts. Then one incredibly dangerous opportunity to save the Library emerges. Saving herself would be a bonus . . .Irene's adventures feature stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who but with librarian spies! Continue the bookish magic with The Lost Plot.

ELEVEN ROMANTIC STORIES TO WARM YOUR HEART, FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS ME BEFORE YOU AND STILL ME In Paris for One, Nell is deserted by her boyfriend minutes before setting off on what was supposed to be a fantastic romantic weekend away to Paris. Can she forget him and find herself? Honeymoon in Paris is a tale of the early days of two marriages in both 1912 and 2012, featuring Liv and Sophie from Jojo Moyes' bestselling romance The Girl You Left Behind.Beth is faced with a difficult decision in Bird in the Hand when she bumps into an old flame at a party, with her husband . . . You'll love this unmissable collection of stories about love, family and relationships. _________ 'A beautiful read' Hello 'Funny, heart-warming and pure escapism' The Pool 'Like her peers David Nicholls and Marian Keyes, Moyes possesses the enviable gift of making the reader laugh' Independent on Sunday

These poems are about gardens, particularly the seventeenth-century French baroque gardens designed by the father of the form, Andre Le Notre. While the poems focus on such examples as Versailles, which Le Notre created for Louis XIV, they also explore the garden as metaphor. Using the imagery of the garden, Cole Swensen considers everything from human society to the formal structure of poetry. She looks in particular at the concept of public versus private property, asking who actually owns a garden? A gentle irony accompanies the question because in French, the phrase "e;le notre"e; means "e;ours."e; Whereas all of Le Notre's gardens were designed and built for the aristocracy, today most are public parks. Swensen probes the two senses of "e;le notre"e; to discover where they intersect, overlap, or blur.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A Telegraph Book of the Year * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A Washington Post Book of the Year * A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year * A Slate Book of the Year'Probably Chabon's greatest, a piece of sustained writing that will be hard to see outdone in 2017' The Times'Entirely sure footed, propulsive, the work of a master at his very best. The brilliance of Moonglow stands as a strident defence of the form itself, a bravura demonstration of the endless mutability and versatility of the novel' Observer'The world, like the Tower of Babel or my grandmother's deck of cards, was made out of stories, and it was always on the verge of collapse.'Moonglow unfolds as a deathbed confession. An old man, his tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, his memory stirred by the imminence of death, tells stories to his grandson, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried. Why did he try to strangle a former business partner with a telephone cord? What was he thinking when he and a buddy set explosives on a bridge in Washington, D.C.? What did he feel while he hunted down Wernher von Braun in Germany? And what did he see in the young girl he met in Baltimore after returning home from the war?From the Jewish slums of pre-war Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of a New York prison, from the heyday of the space programme to the twilight of 'the American Century', Moonglow collapses an era into a single life and a lifetime into a single week.

Winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, China Mieville's astonishing Embassytown is an intelligent and immersive exploration of language in an alien world.Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.

'Shriver's intelligence, mordant humour and vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining' FINANCIAL TIMESThe brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.It is 2029.The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families.Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also - as the effects of the downturn start to hit - the challenge of sheer survival.Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can't buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that's unrecognizable.Perhaps only Florence's oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets.This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and topical author of our times.

A CD edition of this popular Christie mystery. Read by Hugh Fraser, Captain Hastings in the popular TV series. The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot's declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?...

Fair Play: novel by Tove Jansson Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal. INTRODUCED BY ALI SMITH "e;So what can happen when Tove Jansson turns her attention to her own favourite subjects, love and work, in this novel about two women, lifelong partners and friends? Expect something philosophically calm - and discreetly radical. Its publication is cause for huge celebration."e; Ali Smith, from her introduction to Fair Play. The writer and artist TOVE JANSSON (1914-2001) is best known as the creator of the Moomin stories, which have been published in thirty-five languages. However, from 1968, she turned her attention to writing for adults. Fair Play was her last novel, written when she was seventy-five. Sort of Books have also published Tove Jansson's classic The Summer Book (2003) and A Winter Book: Selected Stories (2006), which draws from five collections to present the best of her short fiction. A charming, quietly radical and inspiring book, introduced by Ali Smith. First ever publication in English, in a translation by Thomas Teal.

Skinheads were dead, man. Phased out. Home had never appealed. All his life he had dreamed about a plush flat somewhere in the West End of London. So now he would make the leap from poverty street into the affluent society. In one gigantic jump. Fresh out of stir after kicking a police sergeant's head in, former skinhead Joe Hawkins is heading for the big time - a job in a firm of stockbrokers, a swanky flat and (hopefully) plenty of money. A whole new style is called for - so Joe becomes a Suedehead. The hair is a few millimetres longer, the uniform a velvet-collared crombie coat, bowler hat and neatly-furled umbrella - with razor sharp tip. For while Joe might be playing the establishment pet, he remains the unrepentently vicious, cunning hooligan from Skinhead, intent on pulling women, stealing and putting the boot in. It's not long before he finds some other Suedes willing to commit mayhem under cover of respectability... but can Joe and respectability ever really get along? Suedehead is the second of Richard Allen's era-defining cult novels featuring anti-hero Joe Hawkins. First published in 1971, this new edition features an introduction by Andrew Stevens. "e;I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult... suedeheads and skinheads and smoothies were very much part of daily life. There was a tremendous air of intensity... something interesting grabbed me about the whole thing."e; Morrissey "e;(Richard Allen's) work shouldn't require a theoretical summing up, once enough of those to whom it appeals understand its attraction we will have superceded this society."e; Stewart Home

Her desire for revenge is ice cold...In the frozen wilds of the Alaskan interior, former state trooper Jenna Darrow was taken hostage by a deadly vampire who terrorized her for hours, feeding on her blood and leaving her more dead than alive. But Jenna did survive - albeit as an altered being...Now Jenna wants revenge on that vampire, and for that she must turn to the very race of beings who terrify her the most: the Breed. But of all the Breed warriors it is Brock, the immense, forbidding male who makes Jenna feel most at ease. Even more unsettling are the unbidden emotions Brock stirs within her. And the affair that begins as a physical understanding devoid of emotional strings soon blazes into something much deeper - but just as their passion flares white hot so does a ghost from Brock's past threaten to break their fragile, forbidden love.

5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down a terrifying enemy: an insect life-form known only as 'Bugs.' This is the story of trooper Johnny Rico, from his idealistic enlistment in the infantry of the future through his rigorous training to the command of his own platoon. And his destiny is a war that will span the galaxy. Robert A. Heinlein announced himself as a master of modern science fiction with Starship Troopers, his controversial take on modern military politics. His best-known novels include The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land

The stunning, RNA shortlisted novel by Jojo Moyes, internationally bestselling author of Me Before You, After You and the new bestseller Still Me. 'Compelling tale' - HeatLiza McCullen will never escape her past. But the unspoilt beaches and tight-knit community of Silver Bay offer the freedom and safety she craves - if not for herself, then for her young daughter, Hannah.Until Mike Dormer arrives as a guest in her aunt's hotel, and the peace of Silver Bay is shattered. The mild-mannered Englishman with his too-smart clothes and disturbing eyes could destroy everything Liza has worked so hard to protect: not only the family business and the bay that harbours her beloved whales, but also her conviction that she will never love - never deserve to love - again.

THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR'Picoult is a master manipulator, weaving gripping, dramatic plotlines. We defy you not to be gripped.' GlamourA woman is found in a graveyard in Los Angeles, unable to remember anything about herself or her life. No one is more surprised than she when her husband comes to the police station to take her home - and turns out to be Hollywood's leading film star. Bewildered by the perfect life that has been suddenly thrust upon her, Cassie finds herself living a dream. But there is something dark and disturbing behind this glamorous fa ade - and it is only as her memory gradually returns that it will all come crumbling down . . .Jodi's brand new novel, A SPARK OF LIGHT is publishing soon and is now available to pre-order!

Bestselling author Lucy Dillon's heartwarming tale of unconditional love. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Katie Fforde. ROMANTIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2010.'Heart-warming, fun and romantic. Marley and Me fans will love it.' - CloserWhen the abandoned strays from a local dogs' home are matched with brand new owners, it turns out it might not just be the dogs who need rescuing.Rachel's aunt has left her a house, a Border Collie and, despite knowing nothing about dogs, a crowded kennel. But since her life has collapsed she's not sure she can deal with any more lost souls.Zoe's ex-husband has given their children a puppy. The kids are in love, but she's the one stuck training Toffee the impossible Labrador. She's nearly at the end of her tether - until Toffee leads her to a handsome doctor . . .Meanwhile Natalie and Johnny's marriage hasn't been easy since they started trying for a baby. But is a fridge-raiding, sofa-stealing Basset hound like Bertie really the child substitute they're looking for? As the new owners' paths cross on the town's dog-walking circuits, their lives become interwoven. And they - and their dogs - learn some important lessons about loyalty, companionship and unconditional love . . .

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014 One drowsy summer's day in 1984, teenage runaway Holly Sykes encounters a strange woman who offers a small kindness in exchange for 'asylum'. Decades will pass before Holly understands exactly what sort of asylum the woman was seeking . . . The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.Metaphysical thriller, meditation on mortality and chronicle of our self-devouring times, this kaleidoscopic novel crackles with the invention and wit that have made David Mitchell one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. Here is fiction at its most spellbinding and memorable best.

The first battle was a victory. But the war is just beginning . . .Earth is a radioactive ruin. But the initial campaign of the Butlerian Jihad has given new hope to mankind. SerenaButler, whose murdered child has become a symbol for oppressed humanity, inspires a war against the thinking computers led by Xavier Harkonnen and Vorian Atreides.But four of the Titans murderous machines with human brains and human cunning still remain. And the universal computer mind, Omnius, still wields most of its power. Such vile villains...and such a fascinating description of splendid places.' Anne McCaffrey on HOUSE HARKONNEN

Over one hundred years have passed since Dirk Struan founded Hong Kong's oldest trading company. But now, the Noble House is in danger. As Hong Kong itself becomes the deadly playground of the CIA, the KGB and the People's Republic of China, rival tai-pans, seeking revenge for blood feuds over a century old, gather for the kill.

Whirlwind is the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979: three weeks of fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice and heartbreak. Caught between the revolutionaries and the forces of international intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee to safety with their helicopters. Two of them, both Europeans, have Iranian wives whom they love beyond safety and politics.

Rachel Cutler loves her job and her kids, and remains civil to her ex-husband, Paul. But everything changes when her father dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind clues to a treasure called the Amber Room, one of the most intriguing mysteries of the last century.Desperate for the truth, Rachel takes off for Germany, with Paul close behind. Before long, they're in over their heads. Locked into a treacherous game with professional killers, Rachel and Paul find themselves on a collision course with the forces of greed, power and history itself...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Incredibly thought-provoking SunAfter years of cruel bullying from his classmates, Peter Houghton snaps one morning, and in nineteen minutes, ten residents of the town of Sterling are dead. When the case goes to trial, the reeling town is determined to seek justice for the innocents Peter killed. But as the trial unfolds, Peter's testimony casts light on the terrible role the residents of Sterling have played in turning a sweet, loving boy into a killer, and it isn't long before Sterling's illusions of innocence find themselves shattered forever. . .

The brilliant bestseller by the much-loved Rosamunde Pilcher.As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life.The oldest, strongest and wisest of them all, she sees Alexa, her vulnerable granddaughter, find love for the first time, while the decision to send her little grandson away to school is driving parents Edmund and Virginia even further apart. Far from them all is Pandora, the glamorous, exciting girl who ran away twenty years before. All will converge on Scotland this September, bringing their stories with them.

THE DARK TOWER is the seventh volume in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series. The Dark Tower is now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.The final book in King's epic The Dark Tower series, sees gunslinger Roland on a roller-coaster ride of exhilarating triumph and aching loss in his unrelenting quest to reach the dark tower.Roland Deschain and his ka-tet have journeyed together and apart, scattered far and wide across multilayered worlds of wheres and whens. The destinies of Roland, Susannah, Jake, Father Callahan, Oy, and Eddie are bound in the Dark Tower itself, which now pulls them ever closer to their own endings and beginnings and into a maelstrom of emotion, violence, and discovery.And as he closes in on the Tower, Roland's every step is shadowed by a terrible and sinister creation. Finally, he realises, he may have to walk the last dark strait alone... JOIN THE QUEST FOR THE DARK TOWER...THE DARK TOWER SERIES:THE DARK TOWER I: THE GUNSLINGER THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE THE DARK TOWER III: THE WASTE LANDS THE DARK TOWER IV: WIZARD AND GLASS THE DARK TOWER V: WOLVES OF THE CALLA THE DARK TOWER VI: SONG OF SUSANNAH THE DARK TOWER VII: THE DARK TOWER THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE: A DARK TOWER NOVEL

SONG OF SUSANNAH is the sixth volume in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series. The Dark Tower is now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.The pivotal sixth novel in Stephen King's bestselling epic fantasy saga provides the key to the quest that defines Roland's life.Susannah has used the power of Black Thirteen to get to New York where she can give birth to a child fated to grow up as Roland's nemesis. Jake and Father Callahan set out to break her date with destiny and to find Calvin Tower, owner of the vacant lot where a magical rose grows - a rose that must be saved at all costs.Meanwhile, Roland and Eddie tumble into Maine in the Summer of 1977. Here they are greeted by the gangster Balazar and must face their maker, a man called Stephen King... JOIN THE QUEST FOR THE DARK TOWER...THE DARK TOWER SERIES:THE DARK TOWER I: THE GUNSLINGER THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE THE DARK TOWER III: THE WASTE LANDS THE DARK TOWER IV: WIZARD AND GLASS THE DARK TOWER V: WOLVES OF THE CALLA THE DARK TOWER VI: SONG OF SUSANNAH THE DARK TOWER VII: THE DARK TOWERTHE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE: A DARK TOWER NOVEL

The name on the covers was Bachman. But the imagination could only belong to one man. This is a compelling collection of three spellbinding stories of future shock and suspense. It includes: "e;The Long Walk"e;, "e;Roadwork"e;, and "e;The Running Man"e; - in which Stephen King also explains 'Why I was Richard Bachman'.

Every night the whole nation watches the ultimate live game show on TV, as the contestants try to beat annihilation at the hands of the hunters in order to win the billion dollar jackpot. And now there is a new contestant, the latest "e;Running Man"e;, staking his life while a nation watches.

'Thinner' - the old gypsy man barely whispers the word. Billy feels the touch of a withered hand on his cheek. 'Thinner' - the word, the old man's curse, has lodged in Billy's mind like a fattening worm, eating at his flesh, at his reason. And with his despair, comes violence

Roused by a single drop of blood, Rosie Daniels wakes up to the chilling realisation that her husband is going to kill her. And she takes flight - with his credit card. Alone in a strange city, Rosie begins to build a new life: she meets Bill Steiner and she finds an odd junk shop painting, 'Rose Madder', which strangely seems to want her as much as she wants it. But it's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder. Rose-maddened and on the rampage, Norman is a corrupt cop with a dog's instinct for tracking people. And he's getting close. Rosie can feel how close he is getting . . .A brilliant, dark-hued fable of gender wars, a haunting love story, and a hold-your-breath triumph of suspense, ROSE MADDER is Stephen King at his electrifying best.

Every marriage has two hearts, one light and one dark. Lisey knew it when she first fell for Scott. And now he's dead, she knows it for sure. Lisey was the light to Scott Landon's dark for twenty-five years. As his wife, only she saw the truth behind the public face of the famous author - that he was a haunted man whose bestselling novels were based on a terrifying reality. Now Scott has gone, Lisey wants to lock herself away with her memories. But the fans have other ideas. And when the sinister threats begin, Lisey realises that, just as Scott depended on her strength - her light - to live, so she will have to draw on his darkness to survive.

Based on the translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.' the shadow turned round; and I saw a terrible death's-head, which darted a look at me from a pair of scorching eyes. I felt as if I were face to face with Satan'Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera House, is one of the great icons of horror literature. This tormented and disfigured creature has made his home in the labyrinthine cellars of this opulent building where he can indulge in his great passion for music, which is a substitute for the love and emotion denied him because of his ghastly appearance.It is in the Opera House that he encounters Christine Daa whom he trains in secret to become a great singer. Erik's passionate obsession with a beautiful woman beyond his reach is doomed and leads to the dramatic tragic finale.Gaston Leroux's novel is a marvellous blend of detective story, romance and spine-tingling terror which has fascinated readers ever since the work was first published.