Contemporary fiction Books 1320 results

James Meek

An explosive modern novel from the award-winning writer of The People's Act of Love Mr Burman is unmoored. Still reckoning with the death of his wife Ada, and struggling to understand his grown-up daughter Leila, he finds himself on a train to London, at the invitation of the police. He is to meet Raf, a young man suspected of trying to blow up St Paul's cathedral - and a m...

Daniel Kehlmann

'Supple, horrifying and mordantly droll' New York Times 'Nothing short of brilliant' Wall Street Journal 'A subtle, often darkly funny novel about the relationship between art and power' Sunday Times 'A dazzling performance and a real page turner' Salman Rushdie From 'one of the brightest, most pleasure-giving writers at work today' (Jeffrey Eugenides), a visionary tale ins...

Douglas Stuart

The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo.'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it has an urgency, an immediacy, a brilliant sense of place, the drama of fierce emotion repressed, concealed and volcanically exposed' - Colm Tóibín'To r...

Chloe Michelle Howarth

January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings - Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy - arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tightlipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start. After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they're taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan, who offer them work, compan...

Lily King

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Touching, thoughtful, a deeply affecting love story about time and regret' DAVID NICHOLLS'Steeped in yearning, melancholy and the reckoning with mortality that must come to us all . . . King's writing still pierces you' The Times'Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, here is a novel of piercing clarity' Independent'Beautifully written ...

Wendy Erskine

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 'What a joy it is to read' Michael Magee, author of Close to Home 'I couldn't put this book down' Sheena Patel, author of I'm A Fan 'Powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling' Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 'A prodigiously t...

William Boyd

'Extravagantly enjoyable' THE TIMES 'William Boyd once again brings to the spy novel his particular storytelling genius' MICK HERRON 'Boyd is one of my favourite authors - he never disappoints' KATE ATKINSON 'The Predicament is ingenious, thrilling and wonderfully entertaining' JOHN BANVILLE 'Boyd's addictive storytelling is at its very best as he navigates a collision of chanc...

Ahana Virdi

'Feverish, devouring and provocative' LUCY ROSE, author of The Lamb 'Dark, sexy, addictive and beautifully written' KATE DAVIES, author of In at the Deep End 'Hot, hungry and aching with desire, this book will bite down into you and it won't let go' TOBI COVENTRY, author of He's the Devil Love can really eat you up Avni is done with the meaningless carousel of tame sex. Tende...

Emma Gannon

*SELECTED AS ONE OF APPLE'S BEST BOOKS FOR 2025* *PEOPLE MAGAZINE FICTION BOOK OF THE WEEK* Funny, fierce and life-affirming, TABLE FOR ONE is a love letter to you. If in doubt, date yourself. *** 'It's funny, sharp ... All about championing self-love' DAILY MAIL 'A fast-paced, funny and touching story about smart young women' ELIZABETH GILBERT 'It's a fabulous read' RUTH JON...

Caro Claire Burke

'EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS BOOK' BELLA MACKIE 'NIGHTMARISH, SHOCKING, BRILLIANT' STYLIST 'THE BOOK THAT WILL BE EVERYWHERE' INDEPENDENT 'INTELLIGENT, INCISIVE, INSANELY READABLE' JENNIE GODFREY 'BOLD, BITING. WILL LEAVE YOU GASPING' NITA PROSE 'WICKEDLY FUNNY' ABIGAIL DEAN 'INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE' ASHLEY AUDRAIN 'SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR, LACED WIT...

Hisashi Kashiwai

The Menu of Happiness, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the third book in the delightful, bestselling Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Welcome to the Kamogawa Diner, where every meal is a mystery ready to be solved. This unique establishment is run by a father-daughter duo who offer more than just mouth-watering meals. They act a...

Kenan Orhan

*One of the Guardians top 10 debuts to watch out for in 2026* A dazzlingly original new voice in literary fiction for fans of Ali Smith, Mohsin Hamid and Elif Shafak The Renovation is a heart-breaking portrait of one family caught in the tides of history, grappling with grief, exile, politics and the painful absurdity of love Dilara's father is disappearing. He has dementia...

Holly Brickley

It was the love story of the decade... Or it should have been ------------------------------------------------ SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM A24, FILMING IN SPRING 2026 'Tender as a ballad and pleasurable as a pop song' COCO MELLORS 'Clever and heart-wrenching and addictive' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER 'An incredibly special book' BETH O'LEARY -------------------------------...

John Patrick Mchugh

THE INSTANT TOP 10 IRISH BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025 AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025 'A triumph ... the funniest novel I've read in years' SALLY ROONEY 'One of my favourite books of the year' JULIA ARMFIELD 'A funny and frank coming-of age-drama' OBSERVER 'Gorgeous ... a writer of immense talent' MICHAEL MAGEE John Masterson has no id...

Mieko Kawakami

From the International Booker Prize-Shortlisted author of Heaven and Breasts and Eggs Hana has nothing but she's hopeful. She's fifteen years old. She lives in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar. They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears. Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana's dark world. Together they set ...

Uketsu , Uketsu

Eleven strange buildings. One terrible secret. A lonely hut in the woods. A murder house. A hidden chamber. A mysterious shrine. A home in flames. A nightmarish prison... Each of the buildings in this book tells a chilling story. Each one is part of a puzzle. Look closely... and you'll see that everything is connected. All leading to a revelation so horrifying you won't w...

John Lanchester

'A great read. A box of delights which is also a thrilling satirical torture chamber.' Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession 'An absolute riot . . . totally compulsive.' Observer 'A modern master of funny, penetrating satire.' GQ 'If Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a score to settle.' Stylist The new novel from the bestselling author of Capital What if the year's most talked about ...

Asako Yuzuki

'Tender and thrilling it's Yuzuki at her best' ELLE 'I couldn't stop reading' COSTANZA CASATI 'Unsettling, compelling, richly written' JODIE HARSH 'Dark, tender, unforgettable' JANE CASEY The unmissable new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global bestselling sensation Butter. Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged,...

Jan Saenz

Selected for the March 2026 Indie Next List! One tiny pill. The promise of a mind-blowing orgasm. Are you coming? What if there was a pill that gave you the most intense sexual release of your life - would you take it? On the brink of graduation, Arvy Keening is ready for her life to begin. The problem? She just found 200 pills in her recently-deceased mother's closet. When two...

Carys Shannon

In a small estuary village on the Welsh coast, Catrin is mourning the anniversary of her mother's drowning when a teenage girl disappears on the same mudflats. Terrified of history repeating itself and driven by unresolved grief, Catrin becomes obsessed with finding Emily. Her search dredges up secrets from the village's past and present, uncovering far more than the missing gi...

Clare Leslie Hall

u200b*****AMAZON'S BOOK OF THE YEARu200bu200bu200b***** INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER REESE WITHERSPOON'S BOOK CLUB PICK FEARNE COTTON'S HAPPY PLACE BOOK CLUB PICK 'An unforgettable story of love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives . . . but it's also a masterfully crafted mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Seriously, tha...

Eduardo Halfon

Winner of the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Premio de la Critica in Spain Conversation-starting and prize-winning international fiction: an extraordinary meditation on violence, conspiracy and the many complex afterlives of the Holocaust Eduardo and his brother have been living in the US for three years when their parents send them back to Guatemala for the holidays. ...

David Szalay

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** 'Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls 'I was tearing through [Flesh], I never once slowed down' Jennette McCurdy 'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey 'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer Through chance, luck and choice, one man's life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the ...

Brandon Taylor

Over a hot summer in New York a painter falls for a priest, in this captivating modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted Brandon Taylor 'A genuinely swoony summer romance' New York Times 'Stunning... an inquiry into desire, faith and what it costs to create beauty' Observer, *Best of 2026* Wyeth is a newcomer to New York, a young Black painter who is trying to fin...

Sara Torres

A searching, buoyant novel about queer love, mothers and daughters, and making a life in the face of the only constant: loss. Every story is a love story. In a Barcelona redolent with Almodóvar vibes, the love is between women: overlapping and messy attachments between friends, young lovers, mothers and daughters. As Sara's mother dies, her daughter is in bed with a new obsessi...

Susan Choi

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean emigre, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned. The disappearance of Louisa's ...

Hannah Lillith Assadi

'Miraculous' OMAR EL AKKAD 'Stunning' MAAZA MENGISTE 'Heartbreakingly urgent' JUSTIN TORRES 'Quite astonishing' JOY WILLIAMS 'Read it, read it, read it' RABIH ALAMEDDINE The intimate, sweeping tale of one man's restless search for home, as the pendulum of fate swings between loss and life, grief and euphoria, regret and hope. A New Arab most anticipated book of 2026. All his ...

Rosie Hewlett

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY NEVER TOLD. 'This is Rosie Hewlett's masterpiece' JENNIFER SAINT 'As dazzling as Madeline Miller's reimagining of the Iliad in The Song of Achilles' ELODIE HARPER 'The fury, the power, the cadence of this story will stay with me for years to come [...] Sappho herself would be proud.' NIKITA GILL 'A stunning tale of defiance, integrity and enduring lov...

Stephanie Sy-Quia

His grandfather had been a Catholic priest. A story in seven words, and his life the unsolved mystery.Rome, 1953. David is young, handsome, charismatic, and sworn to celibacy. He is freshly ordained, and about to return to England to begin life as a priest. Devotion to God is all he's ever known, and all he thinks he ever will.In London, Margaret is entangled in an impossible l...

Michiko Aoyama

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING ORIGINAL HEALING AUTHOR _________________ Much-loved modern classic by the author of WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY for fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD Readers love HOT CHOCOLATE ON THURSDAY: 'Slipped into my heart and warmed me, just like a cup of cocoa' ***** 'I definitely recommend this book!' ***** 'Thursday is the b...