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Showing 1 - 20 of 28 items
By Suzanne Kamata. 2007
A young mother fights impossible odds to be reunited with her child in this acutely insightful first novel about an…
intercultural marriage gone terribly wrong.Jill Parker is an American painter living in Japan. Far from the trendy gaijin neighborhoods of downtown Tokyo, she's settled in a remote seaside village where she makes ends meet as a bar hostess. Her world appears to open when she meets Yusuke, a savvy and sensitive art gallery owner who believes in her talent. But their love affair, and subsequent marriage, is doomed to a life of domestic hell, for Yusuke is the chonan, the eldest son, who assumes the role of rigid patriarch in his traditional family while Jill's duty is that of a servile Japanese wife. A daily battle of wills ensues as Jill resists instruction in the proper womanly arts. Even the long-anticipated birth of a son, Kei, fails to unite them. Divorce is the only way out, but in Japan a foreigner has no rights to custody, and Jill must choose between freedom and abandoning her child.Told with tenderness, humor, and an insider's knowledge of contemporary Japan, Losing Kei is the debut novel of an exceptional expatriate voice. Suzanne Kamata's work has appeared in over one hundred publications. She is the editor of The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan and a forthcoming anthology from Beacon Press on parenting children with disabilities. A five-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she has twice won the Nippon Airways/Wingspan Fiction Contest.By Wayne P. Lammers, Junzo Shono. 2000
A masterpiece of quiet lyricism set against a backdrop of change and renewal in suburban Tokyo "A delicate, sad novel…
that never admits to sadness."-The Atlantic"Junzo Shono, one of Japan's best kept literary secrets, challenges readers to rethink what constitutes a novel... Not unlike the trees, plants, flowers and vegetables that are so central to many of his images, Shono's style is alive and organic in the way it slithers, twists, and turns in an effort to capture the moment."-PersimmonBy Cinzia Rizzotto, Núria Añó. 2018
Anna è una scrittrice di mezz’età che ha cresciuto sua figlia da sola. Ora Berta è cresciuta e i dubbi…
che comporterebbe conoscere suo padre, che ha visto solo in foto, sembrano sollevarsi proprio quando il rapporto col suo fidanzato entra in crisi. Hans lavora in fabbrica e ha una sorella, Clara, una ragazza incompresa che vive con l’ossessione per un ragazzo che guida una moto gialla. Ma questa è, innanzitutto, la storia di Anna Flieder; quando decide di scrivere un’opera dallo stile più biografico, l’ispirazione le fa visita assumendo la forma dell’uomo che ha abbandonato molti anni prima. "La storia riflette il processo creativo dell’autrice. [...] È un’opera rivolta a coloro che amano leggere e che si lasciano assorbire dalla lettura, lasciando grande spazio all’immaginazione e molto all’intuizione" –Recensione del quotidiano La Mañana. Il romanzo catalano L'escriptora morta di Núria Añó è stato pubblicato in formato cartaceo da Editorial Omicron nel 2008.By Kim Hood. 2014
Shortlisted for the Bookseller YA Prize 2015! Jo could never have guessed that the friendship she so desperately craves would…
come in the shape of a severely disabled boy. He can’t even speak. Maybe it is because he can’t speak that she finds herself telling him how difficult it is living with her eccentric, mentally fragile mother. Behind Chris’ lopsided grin and gigantic blue wheelchair is a real person — with a sense of humour, a tremendous stubborn streak and a secret he has kept from everyone. For a while it seems life may actually get better. But as Jo finds out just how terrible life is for Chris, and as her own life spirals out of control, she becomes desperate to change things for both of them. In a dramatic turn of events, Jo makes a decision that could end in tragedy. This is the story of how an unusual friendship unlocks the words that neither knew they had.By Linda Thompson. 2014
A dramatic bush plane crash in coastal Alaska leaves the pilot injured. The passengers, a team of Special Olympic Athletes,…
must fend for themselves to survive. An Alaska storm first threatens to overwhelm them during the night as they care for their unconscious pilot. Each must confront the challenges of survival in the wilderness, while transcending their limitations. Forced to overcome their habits of dependency and help each other, the group finds courage in the Olympic oath: "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."By Elizabeth Goudge. 1974
When orphan Maria arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels like she's come home. Her new guardian is kind, like an…
old friend. However, beneath the beauty and comfort lies a tragedy. Maria is determined to find out about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending.By Sylvia Brownrigg. 2006
It is 1998. In the safe haven of her London office—a room her husband jokingly calls "The Delivery Room"—therapist Mira…
Braverman listens to the stories of her troubled patients, including an aristocratic woman going through an intense infertility drama, an American journalist who is eager to have a baby, and an irritable divorcé who likes to taunt Mira about her Serbian nationality. As the novel unfolds, Mira discovers she is not as distant from her patients' pain as she might once have been: her husband Peter struggles with illness, NATO's threats against her country grow more serious, and submerged truths from her own past seem likely to erupt.Compelling, complex, and always deeply human, The Delivery Room is an engaging examination of the incomplete understandings that course between therapist and patient, and a set of variations on the theme of motherhood—as well as a timely meditation on the meanings of wars fought from a distance, when ordinary citizens have to measure their personal griefs against the outrages experienced by those under attack.By Alex Allison. 2019
'A bold, unflinching debut' GUARDIAN'Brutal, tender, philosophical, visceral, complex and so well written' EMMA JANE UNSWORTHMaintaining one person's dignity comes…
nearly always at the expense of someone else's. I have learned this for you.Janet is caught between care work and caring for herself. Her life revolves around Sean, a talented fine art student, living and working with cerebral palsy. Both Janet and Sean are new to London and far from their families. Both are finding a means of escape through pushing their bodies to the limit.When Sean is faced with an unexpected and deeply personal tragedy, Janet must let her guard down at last and discover what she's prepared to fight for. The Art of the Body is a novel about dignity and intimacy, tenderness and brutality, unafraid to explore uncommon bodies in unusual ways.'Raw and powerful' IMAGEBy Jenny Ashcroft. 2019
'An epic love story full of exotic charm and rich historical detail . . . Meet Me In Bombay will…
sweep you away to another time and place.' Red Magazine'Powerful and evocative' Woman & HomeAll he needs is to find her. First he must remember who she is. An injured soldier has lost everything, even his past. His dreams hint at his old life; flashes of a woman. His only wish is to return to her, but will his broken mind let him? And will she still be waiting for him, if it does?Back at the start of 1914, at a party on the shores of Bombay, Madeline Bright and Luke Devereaux meet. Strangers in a foreign world, in the sweltering heat and colour of colonial India they fall in love. They want to believe nothing can come between them, not even the disapproval of Maddy's mother. But war looms and Luke, like so many, has no choice but to fight.Maddy's mother urges her to move on. Yet still she clings to the promise Luke left her with: that the two of them will meet again in Bombay...Meet Me in Bombay is a story of fierce love set against the exotic and colourful world of colonial Bombay and the tragedy of the First World War. Perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies, Lucinda Riley and Kate Furnivall. 'Moving and beautifully written, this enchanting story of love and loss touched my heart' DINAH JEFFERIES'Emotional, evocative and enthralling' KATE FURNIVALL'An epic, bittersweet love story that will draw you in and grip you to the last page' GILL PAUL'An exquisite love story, sumptuous and so moving. A WONDERFUL book!!' TRACY REESBy Natsume Soseki, Pico Iyer, William F. Sibley. 2013
An NYRB Calssics OriginalA humble clerk and his loving wife scrape out a quiet existence on the margins of Tokyo.…
Resigned, following years of exile and misfortune, to the bitter consequences of having married without their families' consent, and unable to have children of their own, Sōsuke and Oyone find the delicate equilibrium of their household upset by a new obligation to meet the educational expenses of Sōsuke's brash younger brother. While an unlikely new friendship appears to offer a way out of this bind, it also soon threatens to dredge up a past that could once again force them to flee the capital. Desperate and torn, Sōsuke finally resolves to travel to a remote Zen mountain monastery to see if perhaps there, through meditation, he can find a way out of his predicament. This moving and deceptively simple story, a melancholy tale shot through with glimmers of joy, beauty, and gentle wit, is an understated masterpiece by one of Japan's greatest writers. At the end of his life, Natsume Sōseki declared The Gate, originally published in 1910, to be his favorite among all his novels. This new translation captures the oblique grace of the original while correcting numerous errors and omissions that marred the first English version.By Kelli Maine. 2014
Return to the irresistibly seductive setting of Turtle Tear Island in this sexy new novella in Kelli Maine's bestselling Give…
& Take series.Taken to paradise. Given to passion. A man never wanted a woman as much as he wants her.Merrick Rocha is the kind of man who makes a woman yearn for more. And for Rachael DeSalvo, he's the kind of man who could easily fit into her picture of happily-ever-after. With each touch, each kiss, her body is thrilled as she never knows what to expect next. Their wedding day - and night - are no exception. Now, as they come together as one, free to trust as deeply as their bodies connect, Rachael is finally ready to...take this man.Don't miss the rest of the sensual series: Taken, No Takebacks, Taken By Storm, Take Me Back and Given.By Elias Khoury. 2012
Why did he return to Beirut? Why did Karim leave his wife and children and the life he had built…
in France to return to a homeland still reeling from civil war? Was it to answer his brother Nasim's call to raise a hospital out of the ashes? Was it to kick over the traces of past love affairs? Or to establish the truth behind his father's death? Or was it to confront at last the ghost of the man known only as "Sinalcol", a legendary phantom of the civil war, and a broken mirror of himself? In Beirut, Karim will learn the fate of old comrades, and face a brother who shares a past as divided as the city itself. And he will find that peace is only ever fleeting in a war without end.By Isabella Bradford. 2015
For fans of Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Sarah MacLean, comes Isabella Bradford's enthralling new trilogy of London's most scandalous…
rakes, the Breconridge Brothers, who are about to lose their hearts... Lord Geoffrey Fitzroy leads a charmed existence. The second son of the Duke of Breconridge and an infamous, incorrigible and inconceivably handsome rake, he ruthlessly leaves hearts fluttering all over London.That's until he locks eyes with the mysterious Miss Serena Carew, a noble-born heiress raised in India. Impossibly beautiful and dripping in diamonds, Serena is the most sought after belle of the ball. But her exotic past masks a perilous secret, and in the hope of saving herself she deftly deflects Geoffrey's curiosity.Soon her plan is thwarted by her hungry heart, and Lord Geoffrey's passionate seduction reveals her dark secret. Will deception destroy her one chance at happiness?Before the Breconridge Brothers, came the Wylder sisters. Don't miss a moment of the romantic and captivating debut trilogy from Isabella Bradford: When You Wish Upon a Duke, When The Duchess Said Yes and When The Duke Found Love.By Jude Deveraux. 2014
For All Time continues New York Times bestselling author Jude Deveraux's breathtaking Nantucket Brides trilogy, introducing characters from a new…
generation of Montgomery-Taggerts, the beloved family from her classic novels.At the wedding of Alix Madsen and Jared Montgomery, Jared's cousin Graydon can't look away from bridesmaid, Toby Wyndam. It's not just her quiet beauty or humour - Toby possesses the truly remarkable ability of being able to distinguish Graydon from his identical twin brother, Rory. According to family legend, such a gift marks her as Graydon's True Love.Graydon is heir to the Lanconian throne and must to marry a noble woman who has been chosen for him. Yet, intrigued by Toby, he asks her to help him hide on Nantucket for a week away from regal responsibilities. Knowing their union to be impossible, they promise to simply be friends.But there are forces at work beyond their control, which are ruled by time itself and a seductive spell is cast over Graydon and Toby. If they are to be together, they must change what once was, as well as what will be.Jude Deveraux. Love stories to enchant you.Read Alix and Jared's unforgettable love story in True Love, the first in the Nantucket Brides trilogy and look for the third gorgeous romance in Ever After.By Alex Allison. 2019
'A bold, unflinching debut' GUARDIAN'Brutal, tender, philosophical, visceral, complex and so well written' EMMA JANE UNSWORTHMaintaining one person's dignity comes…
nearly always at the expense of someone else's. I have learned this for you.Janet is caught between care work and caring for herself. Her life revolves around Sean, a talented fine art student, living and working with cerebral palsy. Both Janet and Sean are new to London and far from their families. Both are finding a means of escape through pushing their bodies to the limit.When Sean is faced with an unexpected and deeply personal tragedy, Janet must let her guard down at last and discover what she's prepared to fight for. The Art of the Body is a novel about dignity and intimacy, tenderness and brutality, unafraid to explore uncommon bodies in unusual ways.'Raw and powerful' IMAGEBy Jenny Ashcroft. 2019
'An epic love story full of exotic charm and rich historical detail . . . Meet Me In Bombay will…
sweep you away to another time and place.' Red Magazine'Powerful and evocative' Woman & HomeAll he needs is to find her. First he must remember who she is. An injured soldier has lost everything, even his past. His dreams hint at his old life; flashes of a woman. His only wish is to return to her, but will his broken mind let him? And will she still be waiting for him, if it does?Back at the start of 1914, at a party on the shores of Bombay, Madeline Bright and Luke Devereaux meet. Strangers in a foreign world, in the sweltering heat and colour of colonial India they fall in love. They want to believe nothing can come between them, not even the disapproval of Maddy's mother. But war looms and Luke, like so many, has no choice but to fight.Maddy's mother urges her to move on. Yet still she clings to the promise Luke left her with: that the two of them will meet again in Bombay...Meet Me in Bombay is a story of fierce love set against the exotic and colourful world of colonial Bombay and the tragedy of the First World War. Perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies, Lucinda Riley and Kate Furnivall. 'Moving and beautifully written, this enchanting story of love and loss touched my heart' DINAH JEFFERIES'Emotional, evocative and enthralling' KATE FURNIVALL'An epic, bittersweet love story that will draw you in and grip you to the last page' GILL PAUL'An exquisite love story, sumptuous and so moving. A WONDERFUL book!!' TRACY REESBy Stephanie Draven, Jeannie Lin, Shawntelle Madison, Amanda Berry. 2015
If you adore Tracy Bloom, Cathy Bramley, Holly Martin and Lindsey Kelk, then this delighfully fun and flirty book is…
for you. At this wonderfully wacky wedding, you'll be treated to stolen kisses, saucy secrets, and happy endings when you least expect them... A perfectionist wedding planner and a troublemaking uncle end up in a sticky situation, and more than sparks fly...Two lifelong best friends are accidentally trapped in a wine cellar, and resort to sampling the wine - and each other...After years of covering the groom's many misdeeds, the best man must choose between loyalty and the love of a wedding singer.And a runaway bride, a hunky caterer and a stolen wedding cake hit the road in a hijacked van, and head towards a happy-ever-after. Don't miss the wedding of the year, where everyone has the chance of falling in love.By Gayl Jones. 1975
'No novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this' TONI MORRISON'Corregidora is the most brutally honest…
and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women' JAMES BALDWINUpon publication in 1975, Corregidora was hailed as a masterpiece, winning acclaim from writers including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and John Updike. Exploring themes such as race, sexuality and the long repercussions of slavery, this powerful novel paved the way for Beloved and The Colour Purple. Now, this lost classic is published for a new generation of readers.Blues singer Ursa is consumed by her hatred of Corregidora, the nineteenth-century slave master who fathered both her mother and grandmother. Charged with 'making generations' to bear witness to the abuse embodied in the family name, Ursa Corregidora finds herself unable to keep alive this legacy when she is made sterile in a violent fight with her husband. Haunted by the ghosts of a Brazilian plantation, pained by a present of lovelessness and despair, Ursa slowly and firmly strikes her own terms with womanhood.AS HEARD ON THE BACKLISTED PODCAST'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGEAlso new to the VMC list: Eva's Man and The Healing by Gayl Jones.'An American writer with a powerful sense of vital inheritance, of history in the blood' JOHN UPDIKE'Gayl Jones's first novel, Corregidora (1975), was both shocking and ground-breaking in its probing of the psychological legacy of slavery and sexual ownership through the life of a Kentucky blues singer ... it predated Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Toni Morrison's Beloved, revealing an unfinished emancipation and the power of historical memory to shape lives. It also marked a shift in African-American literature that made women, and relationships between black people, central' MAYA JAGGI, Guardian'Corregidora's survey of trauma and overcoming has become even better and more relevant with the passage of time. It remains an indispensable point of entry into the tradition of African American writing that Gayl Jones reshaped and enriched' PAUL GILROYBy Keith Stuart. 2016
THE RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB 2017 BESTSELLER AND NUMBER ONE AMAZON BESTSELLER'The publishing sensation of the year: a compelling,…
uplifting and heart-rending debut novel'Mail on SundayA Boy Made of Blocks is a funny, heartwarming story of family and love inspired by the author's own experiences with his son, the perfect latest obsession for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. A father who rediscovers loveAlex loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn't understand him. He needs a reason to grab his future with both hands.A son who shows him how to liveMeet eight-year-old Sam: beautiful, surprising - and different. To him the world is a frightening mystery. But as his imagination comes to life, his family will be changed . . . for good.*Keith Stuart's magical and moving second novel Days of Wonder is available to pre-order now.*'One of those wonderful books that makes you laugh and cry at the same time'Good Housekeeping'Funny, expertly plotted and written with enormous heart. Readers who enjoyed The Rosie Project will love A Boy Made of Blocks - I did'Graeme Simsion'Very funny, incredibly poignant and full of insight. Awesome.'Jenny Colgan'Heartwarming'The Unmumsy Mum'A wonderful, warm, insightful novel about family, friendship and love'Daily Mail'A great plot, with a rare sense of honesty'Guardian'A truly beautiful story'Heat'A heartwarming and wise story'Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of LoveBy David Thewlis. 2021
'A riotously good novel, witty and earnest, brimming with sharply drawn characters and creeping suspense. David Thewlis is a fabulous…
writer' Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall BonesCelebrated director Jack Drake can't get through his latest film (his most personal yet) without his wife Martha's support. The only problem is, she's dead...When Jack sees Betty Dean - actress, mother, trainwreck - playing the part of a crazed nun on stage in an indie production of The Devils, he is struck dumb by her resemblance to Martha. Desperate to find a way to complete his masterpiece, he hires her to go and stay in his house in France and resuscitate Martha in the role of 'loving spouse'.But as Betty spends her days roaming the large, sunlit rooms of Jack's mansion - filled to the brim with odd treasures and the occasional crucifix - and her evenings playing the part of Martha over scripted video calls with Jack, she finds her method acting taking her to increasingly dark places. And as Martha comes back to life, she carries with her the truth about her suicide - and the secret she guarded until the end.A darkly funny novel set between a London film set and a villa in the south of France.A mix of Vertigo and Jonathan Coe, written by a master storyteller.PRAISE FOR DAVID THEWLIS'S FICTION 'David Thewlis has written an extraordinarily good novel, which is not only brilliant in its own right, but stands proudly beside his work as an actor, no mean boast' Billy Connolly'Hilarious and horror-filled' Francesca Segal, Observer'A fine study in character disintegration... Very funny' David Baddiel, The Times'Exquisitely written with a warm heart and a wry wit... Stunning' Elle'Queasily entertaining' Financial Times'A sharp ear for dialogue and a scabrously satiric prose style' Daily Mail'Laugh-out-loud, darkly intelligent' Publishers Weekly'This is far more than an actor's vanity project: Thewlis has talent' Kirkus