Contemporary fiction Books 1240 results

John Le Carré

The classic Cold War thriller, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Alec Leamas is tired. It's the 1960s, he's been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at last - but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart ...

Edmund White

MODERN & CONTEMPORARY FICTION (POST C 1945). With an introduction by Alan Hollinghurst. It was his power that stupefied me and made me regard my knowledge as nothing more than hired cleverness he might choose to show off at a dinner party. A Boy's Own Story traces an unnamed narrator's coming-of-age during the 1950s. Beset by aloof parents, a cruel sister, and relentless mockin...

Laszlo Krasznahorkai

'War & War' begins at a point of danger: on a dark train platform Korim is on the verge of being attacked and robbed by thuggish teenagers. From here, we are carried along by the insistent voice of this nervous clerk. Desperate, at times almost mad, but also keenly empathic, Korim has discovered in a small Hungarian town's archives an antique manuscript of startling beauty: it ...

Fredrik Backman

'A touching, sometimes funny, often wise portrait of grief' Kirkus Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, this novel by the author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon A Man Called Ove will charm and delight anyone who has ever had a grandmother. Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house. Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother told the...

J. G. Ballard

Now a major film: J. G. Ballard s compelling and unnerving tale of what happens when life in a luxury apartment building descends into chaos. Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Within the walls of an elegant forty-storey high-ri...

Kakuzo Okakura

'Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle.' In this charming book from 1906, Okakura explores Zen, Taoism, Tea Masters and the significance of the Japanese tea ceremony. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celeb...

Hanya Yanagihara

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning "portrait of the enduring grace of friendship" (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZEA Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoy...

Max Porter

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WINNER OF THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES/PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER OF THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER AWARD WINNER OF THE EUROPESE LITERATUURPRIJS 'Amazing and unforgettable.' THE TIMES 'Dazzlingly good.' ROBERT MACFARLANE 'Unlike anything I've read before.' GUARDIAN 'Captivating, poetic, a...

Jojo Moyes

This is a new novel for 2015 from the number one bestselling author of The One Plus One and Me Before You. Praise for Jojo Moyes: Moyes is the queen of the classy weepy. A masterclass in story-telling. (Elle). Moyes does a majestic job of conjuring a cast of characters who are charismatic, credible and utterly compelling. (Independent on Sunday). Jojo Moyes's poignantly romanti...

Hanya Yanagihara

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015, A Little Life is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance. 'A singularly profound and moving work ... Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind.' Fiona Wilson, }The Times{ Shortlisted for the Man Booker Priz...

Margaret Atwood

'It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge' Offred is a Handmaid. She has only one function: to breed. If she refuses to play her part she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. She may walk daily to the market and utte...

Fredrik Backman

"Britt-Marie can't stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge o...

Edwidge Danticat

Discover the 20th Anniversary edition of Edwidge Danticat's unforgettable National Book Award Finalist story collection—complete with a new story.Arriving one year after the Haitian-American's first novel (Breath, Eyes, Memory) alerted critics to her compelling voice, these 10 stories, some of which have appeared in small literary journals, confirm Danticat's reputation as a re...

Colleen Hoover

A gripping tale of love, secrets, and betrayal perfect "for fans of Gillian Flynn" (Library Journal, starred review) from the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of Verity and It Ends with Us.When Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, their connection defies logic, sparking an instant bond that seems almost too perfect. But perfection often hides cracks, and as their...

Michael Palin

The third volume of Michael Palin's celebrated diaries. TRAVELLING TO WORK is a roller-coaster ride driven by the Palin hallmarks of curiosity and sense of adventure. Michael was not the BBC's first choice for the travel series AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, but after its success, the public naturally wanted more. Palin, however, had other plans. There was his film AMERICAN FRI...

Anthony Doerr

"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of t...

Emily St. John Mandel

How far would you go for someone you love? The Lola Quartet: Jack, Daniel, Sasha and Gavin, four talented musicians at the end of their high school careers. On the dream-like night of their last concert, Gavin's girlfriend Anna disappears. Ten years later Gavin sees a photograph of a little girl who looks uncannily like him and who shares Anna's surname, and suddenly he finds ...

Kenko Yoshida

'It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met...' Moonlight, sake, spring blossom, idle moments, a woman's hair - these exquisite reflections on life's fleeting pleasures by a thirteenth-century Japanese monk are delicately attuned to nature and the senses. Introducing Little B...

Nadia Hashimi

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and...

Harper Lee

'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' Meet Scout, the narrator of this book. Her story is one of Deep South summers, fights at school and playing in the street. The spooky house of her mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley, sags dark and forbidding nearby. Her brother, Jem, and her friend, Dill, want to make Boo come out...

Colleen Hoover

From bestselling author Colleen Hoover, comes a new novel about risking everything for love - and finding your heart somewhere between the truth and lies. Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there's no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn't expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmati...

Fredrik Backman

There is something about Ove. At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his dai...

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different--and far more satisfying--than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the ...

Elif Shafak

From one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken writers comes a novel about the tangled histories of two families. In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and...

Liane Moriarty

From the bestselling author of the award-winning HBO sensation BIG LITTLE LIES comes a captivating story of family, love, and the secrets that refuse to stay in the past . . . One abandoned baby. Two sisters with a secret. A last chance to rewrite the past. NOW ON BBC ONE AND iPLAYER ______________ 70 years ago, the Munro family disappeared without a trace, leaving behind the...

Kurt Vonnegut

Since its original publication in 1968, Welcome to the Monkey House has been one of Kurt Vonnegut's most beloved works. This special edition celebrates a true master of the short-story form by including multiple variant drafts of what would eventually be the title story. In a fascinating accompanying essay, "Building the Monkey House: At Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Table," noted Vo...

Clarice Lispector

Clarice Lispector's sensational, prize-winning debut novel Near to the Wild Heart was published when she was just twenty-three and earned her the name 'Hurricane Clarice'. It tells the story of Joana, from her wild, creative childhood, as the 'little egg' who writes poems for her father, through her marriage to the faithless Otávio and on to her decision to make her own way in ...

Clarice Lispector

Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola and her philandering rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly and unloved. Yet telling her story is the narrator Rodrigo S.M., who tries to direct Macabéa's fate but comes to realize that, for all her outward misery, she is inwardly free. Slyly sub...

Simon Rich

Having skewered the problems of falling in and out of love in 'The Last Girlfriend on Earth', Simon Rich's next book is another subject we can all relate to: parents and their kids. From the perils of raising an actual monster in Manhattan - it's pretty hard to find teachers who really understand the talents of a five-year-old with horns and a taste for blood - to Sell Out, the...

Paul Lynch

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED PROPHET SONG. 'Paul Lynch is peerless' Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers Spring 1832: Donegal, north west Ireland. Coll Coyle wakes to a blood dawn and a day he does not want to face. The young father stands to lose everything on account of the cruel intentions of his landowner's heedless son. Although reluctant, Coll sets ou...