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I, Mona Lisa
By Natasha Solomons. 2022
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR'A beautifully written, literary tour-de-force' John Ironmonger, author of Not Forgetting the Whale'A wonderfully written story…
of art, but also of obsession, friendship and love - I absolutely adored this novel' Jillian CantorThe Mona Lisa has hung in the Louvre for over two-hundred years. She has watched alone in silence as millions of people have admired her behind the glass.Now, she is finally ready to tell her own story.Over five centuries, from da Vinci's bustling Florentine studio to the opulent French court, Mona will be desired, stolen, heartbroken, curious, furious, and above all, she will be heard.'Solomons' prose is lyrical and her detail immense. No longer can I look at the Mona Lisa without hearing her. But more, now I know her' PRESS ASSOCIATIONInishowen
By Joseph O'Connor. 2000
From the bestselling author of Star of the Sea and Shadowplay, 'a powerful, moving adventure of raw fate and betrayed…
love' (Independent on Sunday).Inspector Martin Aitken's life is a mess. He's divorced, his career's in chaos, and the last thing he needs this Christmas Eve is a strange woman collapsed on a Dublin street. Ellen Donnelly is a woman on a mission, coming to Ireland to find her mother and escape her marriage. Dr Milton Amery, a New York plastic surgeon, is her unfaithful husband. The three are beginning new journeys, each of which lead to Inishowen.'A page-turner, full of compassion, laughter and zest for the human condition' Irish Times'Tremendous... A love story, a realistic thriller and an account of grief and loss' SpectatorI Love You, But ...: 40 Fights Between Husbands and Wives
By Colm Liddy. 2009
Couples.Couples at war.Couples apparently at peace - with war simmering beneath the surface.Desire frustrated.Desire, satisfied - but in surprising ways.Revenge…
at its most creative.Reconciliation at its most tender.Love. Perhaps.Here is the story of how couples are forever tripped up by the missteps of love and sex.This delightfully playful and highly original work gets under the skin of relationships through the ages - showing the infinity of ways men and women drive each other crazy, yet remain essential to one another.I am a Chechen!
By German Sadulaev. 2006
I Am a Chechen! offers a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories of Chechnya: a land of wondrous…
beauty, site of genocides past and present, and the author's ancestral home.Haunted by memories of the land he deserted, Sadulaev tells the stories of those who stayed behind. He brings dead friends back to life again, revisiting their first loves, their passion for rock music, their quests for martyrdom. And he immerses us in the intoxicating beauty of his homeland's mountains, blossoms and the flocks of migratory swallows that fill its skies. This is an intensely personal journey through the carnage of the war, exploring the pain, the challenge, and above all the meaning of being a Chechen.Javascotia
By Benjamin Obler. 2010
Melvin Podgorski is young, naïve, American - and a coffee fanatic. It's this passion that leads him from his native…
Chicago to 1990s Glasgow to scout out the prospects for a US coffee franchise. Looking for an escape from his suffocatingly suburban parents and the tangled wreckage of a divorce, he finds himself floundering in an alien land of Glaswegian dialect and radical student politics. As he becomes increasingly entangled with one particularly charming local and her militant ex-boyfriend, his efforts to keep the past and the present separate are put to the test, and soon his old life in Chicago and his recently found freedom in Glasgow are set for an emotional and catastrophic collision . . . Imbued with dark, mournful notes, dashes of warm humour and the bittersweet tang of learning the hard way, Javascotia combines a feel-good flavour with a deep substance.Identity Crisis
By Ben Elton. 2019
Why are we all so hostile? So quick to take offence? Truly we are living in the age of outrage.…
A series of apparently random murders draws amiable, old-school Detective Mick Matlock into a world of sex, politics, reality TV and a bewildering kaleidoscope of opposing identity groups. Lost in a blizzard of hashtags, his already complex investigation is further impeded by the fact that he simply doesn’t ‘get’ a single thing about anything anymore.Meanwhile, each day another public figure confesses to having ‘misspoken’ and prostrates themselves before the judgement of Twitter. Begging for forgiveness, assuring the public “that is not who I am”.But if nobody is who they are anymore - then who the f##k are we?Ben Elton returns with a blistering satire of the world as it fractures around us. Get ready for a roller-coaster thriller, where nothing - and no one - is off limits.In the Absence of Men
By Philippe Besson. 2002
'An astonishing love story, beautifully told' Time Out'I am sixteen. I am as old as the century'It is 1916. Vincent…
is sixteen, on the brink of manhood. Vincent is aristocratic and privileged, frequenting the salons of Paris while France is at war and the city almost deserted of men. In that brutal summer, Vincent's beauty and precocity captivate two men: Marcel, thirty years his senior, a writer and celebrated socialite; and Arthur, the twenty-one year old son of one of the servants, who is now a soldier at the front. As both relationships develop Vincent intuitively tries to keep his passions separate, but over the weeks of indolent Parisian summer and far-off war, confidences are made, absences endured, secrets revealed. All of these men will suffer, and Vincent will lose the last vestiges of his childhood innocence. In the Absence of Men is a stunning first novel to discover this pride season: in its daring in representation and celebration of gay sexuality, in the beauty of its prose and in its delicacy of feeling.The Hollow Sea: The unforgettable and mesmerising debut inspired by mythology
By Annie Kirby. 2022
THE ISLANDERS SAY IT'S CURSED. BUT THAT'S ONLY ONE SIDE OF THE STORY . . .'A bold, magical story' JO…
BROWNING WROE, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Terrible Kindness'A majestic work of the imagination . . . I woke up thinking about it' ROSIE ANDREWS, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Leviathan'An atmospheric tale, shot through with folklore. The writing shimmers' KATE SAWYER, Costa shortlisted author of The Stranding_______They say the Hollow Sea is cursed. A wild expanse separating the remote islands of St Hía, not even the locals brave its treacherous waters.But new arrival Scottie feels a pull she can't ignore. Because behind the curse is the legend of Thordis: a woman whose story feels eerily familiar. No one knows what became of her, but Scottie believes Thordis's fate may answer questions about her own past.Despite the islanders' warnings, Scottie sets out to discover the truth. But as she dares to cross the Hollow Sea, will its secrets give her the answers she needs?Or will the past drag her under?_______'A heart-rending atmospheric novel of finding what makes one whole' Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring'Mesmerising' Good Housekeeping'A poetic tale' PrimaThe Island (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Ana María Matute. 1959
'This is an old and wicked island. An island of Phoenicians and merchants, of bloodsuckers and frauds'Expelled from her convent…
school for kicking the prioress, and abandoned by her father when her mother dies, rebellious teenager Matia is sent to live with her domineering grandmother on the scorching island of Mallorca. There she learns to scheme with her cousin Borja, and finds herself increasingly drawn to the strange outsider Manuel. But civil war has come to Spain, tearing communities apart, and it will teach Matia about the adult world in ways she could not foresee.This feverish 1959 coming-of-age novel by one of the greatest Spanish writers of the 20th century depicts Mallorca as an inferno, a lost Eden and a Never Land combined, where ancient hatreds and present-day passions collide.Hurricanes in Perfect Power: Tales of Modern Motherhood
By Various. 2009
A stunning new collection of short stories about motherhood, selected and introduced by Candice Brathwaite.______________'To describe my mother would be…
to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow' MAYA ANGELOUThe story of motherhood is an endlessly rich one: it's one of love - and all the highs and lows that come with that world-turning emotion - and, in the purest sense, of life itself. Within these pages, some of the finest writers in the world explore motherhood in wildly varying modes, from single parenthood to sisters coparenting, from the deepest hardships to the biggest celebrations.Selected and introduced by Candice Brathwaite, author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother.Stories by Lydia Davis, Anita Desai, Mary Gaitskill, Tessa Hadley, Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Irenosen Okojie, Casey Plett, Tabitha Siklos, Helen Simpson, Ali SmithHunters & Collectors
By M. Suddain. 2016
John Tamberlain is The Tomahawk, the universe’s most feared food critic – though he himself prefers the term ‘forensic gastronomer’.…
He’s on a quest, in search of the much-storied Hotel Grand Skies, a secretive and exclusive haven where the rich and famous retreat to bask in perfect seclusion. A place where the waiters know their fish knife from their butter knife, their carotid from their subclavian artery, and are trained to enforce the house rules with brutal efficiency. Blurring the lines between detective story, horror and sci-fi, Hunters & Collectors is a mesmeric trip into the singular imagination of M. Suddain – a freewheeling talent whose poise, invention and sensational sentences have already earned him comparisons to Vonnegut, Pynchon and Douglas Adams.The Hunter And The Whale
By Sir Laurens Van Der Post. 1967
This is the story of a South African boy, Peter, who grows to manhood through a hard course of physical…
and emotional experiences.The scene, a heroic one, is set both on sea and on land. Peter is exposed to the conflicts set up by other characters, chief amongst whom are a dedicated and fanatical whaling captain, a Zulu stoker, a famous white hunter and his daughter. He learns how men can become obsessed by greed and the will to power; and he witnesses the struggle of natural man to come to terms with the demands of contemporary life.Peter's developing relationship with captain and crew; the fury and beauty of the chase; the fanaticism of the two great hunters - these are the leading motifs in Laurens van der Post's stirring narrative. His remarkable knowledge of whaling, and the force of his imagination sounding deeper then leviathan himself, carry the reader irresistibly forwards.How It Ends
By Dan Collins. 2003
Following a stint as a Las Vegas showgirl and an early botched marriage, Lee Annis has finally found some definition…
and success as part of Anaconda, the band she fronts alongside the enigmatic Billy. But all is set to change as Billy announces that he's about to marry and pull the plug on the band and his life with Lee. Over the course of a restless summer, Lee moves between London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Rome and Berlin, rediscovering a hapless instinct for misadventure. Unable to shake off the bizarre, sometimes macabre, grip of the past, she resorts to the usual analgesics of sex and drugs, as she probes the true nature of her complex, troubled relationship with Billy.Hell Screen (Little Clothbound Classics)
By Ryunosuke Akutagawa. 2006
Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by…
the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Akutagawa was one of the towering figures of modern Japanese literature, and is considered the father of the Japanese short story. This paradigmatic selection, which includes the stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, showcases the terrible beauty, cynicism, sublime pain and absurd humour of his writing.'One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works. The elegantly spare style has a truly spine-tingling brilliance' - Haruki MurakamiHarris’s Requiem
By Stanley Middleton. 1960
From Booker-Prize winning novelist Stanley Middleton. Thomas Harris is on the cusp of success as a classical composer with a…
growing reputation.When his father, a coal miner, dies Thomas decides to write a requiem for him which is also a thinly veiled attack on the powerful elite. In spite of opposition he finally succeeds in getting his work performed but how will the critics react?House with No Doors: A creepy and atmospheric psychological thriller
By Jeff Noon. 2020
At first glance, Leonard Graves’ death was unremarkable. Sleeping pills, a bottle of vodka, a note saying goodbye. But when…
Detective Henry Hobbes discovers a grave in the basement, he realizes there is something far more sinister at work. Further investigation unearths more disturbing evidence. Scattered around the old house are women’s dresses. All made of the same material. All made in the same colours. And all featuring a rip across the stomach, smeared in blood. As the investigation continues and the body count rises, Hobbes must also deal with the disappearance of his son, the break-up of his family and a growing sense that something horrific happened in the Graves’ household. And he’s running out of time to find out what.The House on the Hill (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Cesare Pavese. 2021
'Pavese's novels are works of an extraordinary depth where one never stops finding new levels, new meanings' Italo CalvinoJune, 1943.…
Allied aircraft are bombing Turin; fascist Italy is on its knees. Every evening, after a day's teaching in the city, Corrado returns to the safety of the hills and the care of his two doting landladies. He has no attachments, no obligations. Yet against his better judgement he is drawn to the easy warmth of a circle of anti-fascists who congregate at a nearby tavern, and confronted with a painful choice: emotional and political commitment, with all its dangers - or devastating retreat. Pavese's extraordinary semi-autobiographical novel is a lucid portrayal of missed opportunities and human weakness, set against the seductive intensity of the Italian countryside.Translated with an introduction by Tim ParksShortlisted for The Society of Authors Translation Award 2022The House of Mirth
By Edith Wharton. 2012
The House of Mirth follows the tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the…
savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century.Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality and missed opportunity.‘Edith Wharton's 1905 novel gave literature one of its most complicated tragic heroines’ IndependentHe was meant to be the perfect man, until she discovered the hidden truth . . . The gripping story…
of love, heartbreak and one devastating confession that changes everything FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THURSDAYS IN THE PARK AND THE AFFAIR'A story that twists and turns. I couldn't put it down' 5***** READER REVIEW'An engrossing story. Exciting and full of heart. Her characters are brilliantly envisaged' 5***** READER REVIEW'Keeps you turning the pages' 5***** READER REVIEW________ Sara Tempest never expected to meet a man like Bernard.Charming and captivating, over the course of one hot summer he and Sara fall desperately in love.Without a second's thought, Sara moves into his beautiful home on the wind-battered cliffs of Hastings, ready for her new life to begin. But soon she begins to wonder if Bernard is all he seems . . . He's barely in touch with his children. Stifling reminders of his late wife appear everywhere Sara looks. And then comes Bernard's confession. All too quickly, Sara's newfound happiness starts to crumble around her . . . ________ Praise for Hilary Boyd 'Hilary Boyd nails family dynamics and misplaced loyalties with pin-sharp precision in an impressively well-written tale' Daily Express 'I was ripping through this book . . . addictive' Evening Standard 'Boyd is as canny as Joanna Trollope at observing family life' Daily MailThe Penguin English Library Edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad'The mind of man is capable of anything -…
because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, rage - who can tell? - but truth - truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder - the man knows, and can look on without a wink'Marlow, a seaman, tells of a journey up the Congo. His goal is the troubled European and ivory trader Kurtz. Worshipped and feared by invaders as well as natives, Kurtz has become a godlike figure, his presence pervading the jungle like a thick, obscuring mist. As his boat labours further upstream, closer and closer to Kurtz's extraordinary and terrible domain, so Marlow finds his faith in himself and civilization crumbling. Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been considered the most important indictment of the evils of imperialism written to date.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.