THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2018 WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2019 Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life-changing begins. Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can't.
On March 3, 1947 Archibald Isaac Ferguson is born. From that single beginning, his life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Fergusons story rushes on across twentieth-century America. A sweeping story of birthright and possibility, of love and the fullness of life itself.
A story of a sudden and powerful romance that blooms between seventeen-year-old Elio and his father's house guest Oliver during a restless summer on the Italian Riviera. It tells how unrelenting currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire threaten to overwhelm the lovers who at first feign indifference to the charge between them.
The new novel by the legendary Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls (dramatised on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019). Captured, abducted and married into Boko Haram, the narrator of this story witnesses and suffers the horrors of a community of men governed by a brutal code of violence. Barely more than a girl herself, she must soon learn how to survive as a woman with a child of her own. Just as the world around her seems entirely consumed by madness, bound for hell, she is offered an escape of sorts - but only into another landscape of trials and terrors amidst the unforgiving wilds of northeastern Nigeria, through the forest and beyond; a place where her traumas are met with the blinkered judgement of a society in denial. How do we love in a world that has lost its moorings? How can we comprehend the barbarism of our enemies, and learn forgiveness for atrocities committed in the name of ideology? Edna O'Brien's new novel pierces to the heart of these questions: and the result is her masterpiece.
Based on a Middle Eastern fable, this title tells the story of Dodola, who escapes being sold into slavery and rescues an abandoned baby she names Zam.
'' Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney''s best novel.'' THE TIMES ***PRE-ORDER NOW*** *The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller* *Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards* *A Book of the Year in The Times , the Guardian , the Irish Times and the Financial Times* ''A tour de force.'' Anne Enright, Guardian ''Rooney''s best novel yet.'' Brandon Taylor, New York Times ''Get ready to have your heart broken all over again.'' Red ''The book moved me to tears more than once.'' The Times Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he''d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
A masterpiece in storytelling from the global bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behaviour. WINNER OF THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2010 THE MULTI-MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHOR ''It''s EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving, wholly immersive, totally convincing and exquisitely written.'' MARIAN KEYES ''A fantastic read.'' EMILY MAITLIS ____________ Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can. Demon''s story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking ''like a little blue prizefighter.'' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise. In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn''t an idea, it''s as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn''t an abstraction, it''s neighbours, parents, and friends. ''Family'' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he''s willing to travel to try and get there. Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between. ____________ What readers are saying: ***** ''An amazing, beautifully written story I cannot wait to recommend to everyone I know.'' ***** ''Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.'' ***** ''A must read and heart-opening book.'' ***** ''This book is not to be missed.'' ***** ''Amazingly complex. . . [Kingsolver] is, by far, one of the greatest living authors''
The story of Walt, an irrepressible orphan from the Mid-West. Under the tutelage of the mesmerising Master Yehudi, Walt is taken back to the mysterious house on the plains to prepare not only for the ability to fly, but also for the stardom that will accompany it.
'This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I'm not alone.' - Sarah Jessica Parker (Instagram) WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES / PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018 SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2018 SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2018 A SUNDAY TIMES , OBSERVER AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed and observant. A student in Dublin and an aspiring writer, at night she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are interviewed and then befriended by Melissa, a well-known journalist who is married to Nick, an actor, they enter a world of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence, beginning a complex menage-a-quatre. But when Frances and Nick get unexpectedly closer, the sharply witty and emotion-averse Frances is forced to honestly confront her own vulnerabilities for the first time.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018 WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE ROGERS WRITERS TRUST FICTION PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2019 New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year 2018 'A masterpiece' Attica Locke 'Strong, beautiful and beguiling' Observer 'Destined to become a future classic ... that rare book that should appeal to every kind of reader' Guardian When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an eleven-year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of them. The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist, whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him. Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered and Washington finds himself in mortal danger. They escape together, but then Titch disappears and Washington must make his way alone, following the promise of freedom further than he ever dreamed possible. Inspired by a true story, Washington Black is an extraordinary tale of a world destroyed and made whole again.
THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK ''An uplifting, poignant novel about regret, hope and second chances'' David Nicholls ''A wonderful story'' Zoe Ball, BBC Radio 2 Nora''s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In Klara and The Sun , Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? ''A masterpiece of great beauty, meticulous control and, as ever, clear, simple prose.'' Sunday Times ''Another masterwork, a work that makes us feel afresh the beauty and fragility of our humanity.'' Observer ''People will absolutely love this book, in part because it enacts the way we learn how to love.'' Anne Enright, Guardian
Baumgartner''s life has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna. But now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is embarking on his seventies whilst trying to live with her absence.
Rich with compassion, wit and Auster''s keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, Baumgartner is a tender late masterpiece of the ache of memory. It asks: why do we find such meaning in certain moments, and forget others?
My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost... The hero of Hanif Kureishi's debut novel is dreamy teenager Karim, desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer.
Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters are addressed, with just two exceptions, to Sylvia Plath, the American poet to whom he was married. They were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963, and represent Ted Hughes's only account of his relationship with Plath and of the psychological drama that led both to the writing of her greatest poems and to her death. The book became an instant bestseller on its publication in 1998 and won the Forward Prize for Poetry in the same year. 'To read [ Birthday Letters ] is to experience the psychic equivalent of "the bends". It takes you down to levels of pressure where the undertruths of sadness and endurance leave you gasping.' Seamus Heaney 'Even if it were possible to set aside its biographical value . . . its linguistic, technical and imaginative feats would guarantee its future. Hughes is one of the most important poets of the century and this is his greatest book.' Andrew Motion
Modern fictionA moving novel of love, solitude and violence, following a man who lives alone in the Maine woods and is disturbed by the shooting of his dog. From the author of Schopenhauer's Telescope. 'A devastatingly good novel.' Observer
Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Invisible opens in New York City in the spring of 1967 when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life. Three different narrators tell the story, as it travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from New York to Paris and to a remote Caribbean island in a story of unbridled sexual hunger and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us to the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, authorship and identity to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.
An exquisite new short story from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Small Things Like These and Foster.
''A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.'' The Times After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude - and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.
From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan''s new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women. Is it possible to love without sharing?
''Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.'' Hilary Mantel ''Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.'' Colm Toibin
''Exquisite.'' Damon Galgut ''Masterly.'' The Times ''Miraculous.'' Herald ''Astonishing.'' Colm Toibin ''Stunning.'' Sunday Independent ''Absolutely beautiful.'' Douglas Stuart A Book of the Year in The Times and The New Statesman It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. ''A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.'' The Times ''[A] snowglobe of a story that fits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages.'' Sunday Times ''Powerful and affecting and very timely . . . deeply moving.'' Hilary Mantel ''Stunning . . . A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.'' Sinead Gleeson ''Remarkable . . . Truly exquisite.'' Daily Telegraph ''A restrained and intensely moral book, full of hope and love.'' Observer ''Marvellous - exact and icy and loving all at once.'' Sarah Moss
The top ten bestseller from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize In one of the most acclaimed novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.
On March 3, 1947 Archibald Isaac Ferguson is born. From that single beginning, his life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Fergusons story rushes on across twentieth-century America. A sweeping story of birthright and possibility, of love and the fullness of life itself.
