Contemporary fiction Books 1499 results

Rachel Joyce

Corgi

Family is everything, even when it falls apart. There is a heatwave across Europe. Goose and his three sisters gather at the family's house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting. Alhough the siblings have alwa...

Alexandra Potter

Pan

So, I Met This Guy . . . Well, isn't that how every love story starts? But how does it end - a happily ever after? Or with the discovery that the supposed love-of-your-life has stolen your life savings and your home, trashed your heart and demolished your self-esteem? Maggie is barely fifty years-old, and she's not one to give up on herself. So when she meets Flick, a young re...

Rebecca Fallon

Harper

Susan Bliss is torn between two lives. Her husband Alcott has decided only one will be remembered. 'A magnificent debut' CLARE LESLIE HALL 'Bruisingly gorgeous' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE 'A truly sublime novel' HANNAH BEER 'Delivers heartache, euphoria and the unfathomable puzzle of family' SIERRA GREER It's the 1990s. Susan Bliss is trying to make it all work. In L.A., she's a...

Emily Austin

Penguin

Emily Austin, the bestselling "queen of darkly quirky, endearingly flawed heroines" (Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus), returns with a luminous new novel following a librarian who comes back to work after a mental breakdown only to confront book-banning crusaders in an empowering story of grief, love, and the power of libraries. Darcy's life turned out better than she could...

Daniyal Mueenuddin

Bloomsbury

Intimate and epic, elegiac and profoundly moving: a tour de force destined to become a classic of contemporary literature 'Set to be a standout novel of 2026 ... Brutal, funny and brilliantly told' Patrick Gale, Guardian 'All the makings of a classic' Vogue 'Expect to see this novel all over prize lists in 2026 ... Mueenuddin is a literary magician' The Times 'Masterful storyt...

Bryan Washington

Atlantic Books

'Such a joy' Ocean Vuong 'It'll break and remake your heart' Andrew Sean Greer 'A gorgeous book' RO Kwon In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor, drinking his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He's entangled in a sexual relationship with a married man, and while he has built a chosen family in Japan, he is estranged from his family in America, particularly his mother, ...

Olivia Laing

Hamish Hamilton

'It is dangerous to want someone this much. He has always known it, from the very first night.' It is September 1974. Two men meet by chance in Venice. One is a young English artist, in panicked flight from London. The other is Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema, the designer responsible for realising the spectacular visions of Fellini and Pasolini. Donati is in Ven...

Mia Ballard

Wildfire

Sometimes, the only way to heal is to rage . . . to go absolutely FERAL. 'The craziest thing I've ever read' ? ? ? ? ? 'Made me sick to my stomach yet stay up late finishing it' ? ? ? ? ? 'Nightbitch wishes it was Shy Girl' ? ? ? ? ? 'Absolutely feral' ? ? ? ? ? 'An unforgettable read' ? ? ? ? ? 'A punch in the throat' ? ? ? ? ? 'Mia Ballard writes like she's pee...

Mona Awad

Penguin

THE TIKTOK SENSATION, NOW REISSUED AS A BEAUTIFUL SPECIAL EDITION FEATURING BUNNY SPRAYED EDGES Meet BUNNY: the darkly funny, spellbinding trip of a novel that EVERYONE is talking about 'No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled. O Bunny you are sooo genius!' MARGARET ATWOOD 'We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other. Seriously. Bunny.' ...

Olga Ravn

Ladybird

It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet - it watches and listens. It looks on as Christenze is haunt...

Eliza Dumais

831 Stories

"The characters are just as vivid as the setting . . . an addictive contemporary that will delight hopeless romantics and armchair travelers alike." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "For readers who want their love stories effervescent but also substantive, Grape Juice offers a glass worth savoring to the last drop." —The Masters Review A gorgeous, seductive fiction debut fr...

Chloe Michelle Howarth

Pocket Essentials

January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings - Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy - arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped 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, compa...

Jungeun Yun

Corgi

The NEXT irresistibly uplifting read for fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD set in a magical laundry The #1 International word-of-mouth bestseller Heartwarming and inspirational, MARIGOLD MIND LAUNDRY will remind you there is always a reason to feel positive 'A life-changing novel' ***** reader review 'A book that makes me reflect on my life' ***** 'Even better when you rea...

Jaquira Díaz

Algonquin Books

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL AWARD * From the Whiting Award-winning author Jaquira Díaz, an epic novel of a mother and daughter wrestling with the aftermath of a murder, set against the backdrop of a tightknit, working-class barrio in Puerto Rico. When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begin...

Hilda Lewis

Penguin

Joan Flower is long dead when she first appears to Samuel Fleming, a priest plagued by doubts about her and her daughters' execution for witchcraft. Did he do all he could to rescue them from damnation? From beyond the grave, Joan reveals to him the spine-chilling tale of her seduction by Satan, her temptation of her own daughters to the Devil's coven, her murderous sacrifices,...

Satoshi Yagisawa / Eric Ozawa

Manilla

Chris Kraus

Scribe

An unforgettable new novel from the author of the modern classic I Love Dick-- a witty, probing journey into a fractured America, culminating in the investigation of a teenage murder. On the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, at the end of the last decade, three teenagers shot and killed an older acquaintance after spending the day with him. In a cold, rundown town, the three yo...

Qntm / Qntm

Del Rey

'Astonishing' M. R. Carey, author of Infinity Gate 'Utterly unique, constantly surprising, genuinely unsettling... may very well take its place among the best sci-fi novels of the century so far.' Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter 'Incredibly compelling' 5* reader review 'I cannot recommend this book enough' 5* reader review ---------- An antim...

Tessa Hadley

Puffin

An exhilarating winter tale of two sisters drawn into a new life of risk, passion and possibility, from the Sunday Times bestseller.`Tessa Hadley is my favourite author' KATE ATKINSON On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art students' party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose ...

Elaine Castillo

Atlantic

'Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech... breathtakingly funny...and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book.' Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time Girlie, a thirty-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, f...

Lucy Rose

Penguin

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A gripping, sinister folktale set in contemporary Cumbria for fans of Sophie Mackintosh, Angela Carter, Daisy Johnson, Margaret Atwood and Julia Armfield 'A new generation of literary horror begins with Lucy Rose' GENEVIEVE JAGGER 'Deliciously dark and shockingly bold. One of my favourite debuts in a long time' KIRSTY LOGAN 'Superbly creepy . ...

Kiran Desai

Penguin

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her ...

T. J. Klune

Tor

'I loved it. It is like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket. Simply perfect' - V. E. Schwab, Sunday Times bestselling author of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil A cosy, enchanting story about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place. The House in the Cerulean Sea is an uplifting, heart-warming queer fantasy from TJ Klune, a Sunday T...

Susan Stokes-Chapman

Penguin

A beautiful collection of seasonal stories inspired by the Christmas carol, from the Sunday Times No. 1 Bestselling Author The air glitters with hope as the snowy village of Merrywake celebrates the Christmas season after the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. As the Viscount's famous Twelfth Night Ball draws closer, many of the villagers have a story to tell - we meet a lovelorn...

Mona Awad

Simon & Schuster

The highly-anticipated follow up to the viral sensation Bunny, a brilliantly written, laugh-out-loud funny, dark and delirious novel set in the Bunny-verse - a world that Margaret Atwood declared 'soooo genius'. In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracised and then sed...

Margaret Atwood

Penguin

A stunning deluxe edition for the fortieth anniversary of an unparalleled cornerstone of feminist literature, featuring the original cover art and a short, unpublished essay penned in 1986 by Margaret Atwood, "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (The New York Times).In Margaret Atwood's dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a...

Nikita Gill

Simon & Schuster

'Atmospheric, engrossing, beautiful and sad, one of those books you find yourself wanting to be back inside when you've had to put it down' NATALIE HAYNES, author of A Thousand Ships and Stone Blind 'A vivid and imaginatively wrought divine world that is monstrous, magical and beautiful' JENNIFER SAINT, bestselling author of Hera and Ariadne 'Wholly original, incandescent... T...

M L Rio

Headline

Elizabeth Day

Harper

'Intelligent, darkly humorous and brilliantly written' STANLEY TUCCI 'This is Elizabeth Day's writing at its finest' DOLLY ALDERTON 'A tantalising portrait of privilege and power' THE TIMES In this compulsive story of betrayal, old bonds and buried scandals, one British establishment family comes face to face with the consequences of privilege and the true cost of power. Mart...

Elizabeth Day

Harper

'Intelligent, darkly humorous and brilliantly written' STANLEY TUCCI 'This is Elizabeth Day's writing at its finest' DOLLY ALDERTON 'A tantalising portrait of privilege and power' THE TIMES In this compulsive story of betrayal, old bonds and buried scandals, one British establishment family comes face to face with the consequences of privilege and the true cost of power. Mart...