Contemporary fiction Books 1151 results

Benjamin Wood

A mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature. 'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel 'Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written' Douglas Stuart Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life w...

Marina Yuszczuk

A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America's feminist gothic. Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires, on the run from the Church. She must adapt, int...

Mary Renault

'Mary Renault is a shining light' HILARY MANTEL 'Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent' MADELINE MILLER The sequel to The King Must Die. The Bull from the Sea continues the story of the hero Theseus after his return from Crete. Having freed the city of Athens from the terrible tribute demanded by the ruler of Knossos - the sacrifice o...

Alison Espach

The #2 New York Times bestseller A Read With Jenna book club pick 'UTTERLY CHARMING' PANDORA SYKES 'WICKEDLY FUNNY' JENNY JACKSON 'A PERFECT NOVEL' CATHERINE NEWMAN 'THE BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately sh...

Alan Hollinghurst

A 'Book of the Year' for The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, Daily Express, The Spectator, The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and the I Featured on Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime' 'The best novel that's been written about contemporary Britain in the past ten years. It's funny but desperately moving too' - The Sunday Times Alan Hollinghurst, the Booker Prize-w...

A. J. West

Set in the buried streets of Georgian London and the outrageous underworld of the molly houses, a carpenter hiding a double life searches for a traitor who is betraying the secrets of the mollies. The visceral, raucous, tender and utterly enchanting historical thriller by the award-winning author of The Spirit Engineer. 'Heartbreaking, beautiful, lyrical. I was captivated fr...

Aisling Rawle

** A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK ** 'Lord of the Flies meets Love Island - dark, thrilling, and delightfully twisted' LOUISE O'NEILL 'So gripping and propulsive that it beats reality TV at its own game. Why watch TV when Aisling Rawle does it better?' TORREY PETERS 'THIS is the book to read this summer... 10 out of 10' CECELIA AHERN --------------------------------------------...

Rufi Thorpe

SOON TO BE A MAJOR A24 TV SHOW STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND ELLE FANNING 'Gorgeous' Pandora Sykes 'Inappropriately funny' The Times 'I was immediately hooked' Jacqueline Wilson 'Enormously entertaining and lovable' Nick Hornby, New York Times 'Very funny' India Knight, Sunday Times STYLE 'Funny' Celeste Ng 'A gas!' RuPaul As the child of an ex-pro wrestler and a Hooters w...

Aisha Muharrar

'THE FUNNIEST BOOK YOU'LL EVER READ ABOUT GRIEF' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD 'PERFECTLY CAPTURES THE MESSINESS, HEARTACHE AND BEAUTY OF GRIEF' RED MAGAZINE 'For years I'd known exactly who I was to Gabe. It was a long story but I could tell it confidently, like a bartender sharing a recipe for her signature cocktail. Now things were so jumbled, I didn't know where to begin...' When Juli...

Garth Greenwell

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 'My book of the year . . . Rarely has illness made for such a compelling read' - John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 'Marvelous: exceptionally vivid, real, and true' - Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island 'Fundamentally about the beauty of life' - Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam 'Exquisite. Utterly mesmerizing' - Ma...

Larry Mcmurtry

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Immerse yourself in the gritty realism of the American Frontier in Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty - a powerful, triumphant tribute to the American West and a masterful epic from the screenwriter of Brokeback Mountain. This is the story of a group of audacious cowboys on a perilous cattle drive across the sprawling wilderness, from Texa...

Xenobe Purvis

'Extraordinary . . . clever, strange and beautifully written' THE TIMES 'Prompts thoughts of both THE CRUCIBLE and THE VIRGIN SUICIDES . . . Purvis is an exquisitely accomplished wordsmith.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A taut, tense tale, impeccably told' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Feverish, finely wrought and unforgettable.' DAILY MAIL 'An unflinchingly strange and savage novel - a rare and tw...

August Thompson

'This new novel is a real heart-squeezer' - Matt Berninger of The National 'Genuinely powerful' - The Irish Times 'Electric' - Vogue IT TOOK THREE CAR CRASHES TO KILL JAKE The first crash. New Hampshire. Teenagers Theron and Jake meet in the heat of the summer. Jake is everything Theron wants to be - hot, cool, interesting. Drunk in Jake's van on their last night together, th...

Aysegül Savas

Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. Removed from the web of family and its obligations, what traditions and rituals should they establish together? As they dream about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days gathering footage from the neighbourhood park like an anthropologist obser...

Claire Adam

In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago. ...

Min Jin Lee

**FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF PACHINKO** 'This big, beguiling book has all the distinguishing marks of a Great American Novel..' The Times 'Exquisitely evoked.' USA Today 'Ambitious and accomplished.' New York Times 'Could have been penned by Austen herself.' Daily Mail 'An insight into the secret world of Korean America.' Observer Casey Han is a strong-willed, Queens-bred d...

Kim Jiyun

*THE HEARTWARMING KOREAN BESTSELLER* *A new book from Shanna Tan, translator of Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop* Situated at the heart of a rapidly gentrifying district of Seoul, the Yeonnam-dong Smiley Laundromat is a place where the extraordinary stories of ordinary residents unfold. It is already a haven of tranquility and reflection for locals, but when someone leave...

Lauren Elkin

'Scaffolding is like a perfect French movie of a novel...elegant, original and often very funny' Kevin Barry, New Statesman Books of the Year Two couples inhabit the same apartment in Paris, almost fifty years apart... 2019. When David takes a job in London, Anna is left alone in their Paris apartment. It's August and the city is deserted but when Clémentine moves into the bu...

Annie Garthwaite

JULY 24 TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTHFrom the critically acclaimed author of CECILY comes an intimate and gripping novel perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel, Madeline Miller and Maggie O'Farrell. 'A triumph' The Times'Electrifying' Daily Mail'History at its most powerful' Jennifer Saint 1461. Through blood and battle Edward has gained England's throne - king by right and conquest - eig...

Bobby Finger

From the beloved author of The Old Place comes a tender, funny, and fresh novel about a gay writer in New York City whose life is irrevocably altered once in the '90s, and then again thirty years later.For Artie Anderson to truly live, he'll need to take a chance on himself. Again. In 1992, on his thirtieth birthday, Artie Anderson meets the man who will change his life. Artie...

Fredrik Backman

The beautiful new novel that will make you laugh and cry, from the global bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove. Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger's life twenty-five years later... * ONE OF GOODREADS READERS' MOST ANTICIPAT...

Rosanna Pike

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Striking, darkly funny and heartfelt ... Grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go' Ferdia Lennon, author of Glorious Exploits 'Crisp, transportive, uplifting ... I loved it!' Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry 'A bold, funny and imaginative journey through Tudor England ... A real treat' Joanna Quinn, author of The Whal...

Alana S. Portero

'I urge you to read Bad Habit' PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 'Had me hooked from the first page ... Savour every word' DUA LIPA 'The book that everyone is reading' NEW YORK TIMES 'Sublime' ÉDOUARD LOUIS A SERVICE95 BOOK CLUB PICK Beautifully written and told in an irresistible voice, Bad Habit is a powerfully moving coming-of-age novel following a young trans woman in 1980s Madrid. An unna...

Rachel Cusk

WINNER OF THE 2024 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 'A brilliant, stark and unsettling feat.' OBSERVER 'Thoughtful and true ... Cusk is a disciple of the truth and she helps us to see.' INDEPENDENT 'Cusk's most formidable, radical and compelling novel yet.' THE CONVERSATION A path-breaking novel of art, womanhood and violence, from the author of the Outline trilogy. Midway through his life,...

Matt Haig

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A beautiful novel full of life-affirming wonder and imagination' BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH'What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet . . .'When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way tick...

Michelle Tea

The 25th anniversary edition of Michelle Tea's classic coming-of-age story, now with a foreword by Maggie Nelson, award-winning author of The Argonauts ...

Jodi Picoult

They Never Met. But Their Lives Are Bound by a Secret, a Sacrifice, and a Story That Demands to Be Told... The #1 New York Times Bestseller 'Her best one yet' JOJO MOYES 'A timeless classic' CHRIS WHITAKER '[An] inspiring work of feminist literature' ELLE - New York playwright Melina Green has never seen her work on stage. In a man's world, only through a lie can she get ...

Clare Chambers

From the author of bestselling sensation Small Pleasures comes an extraordinary story of love, family and the joy of freedom. 'Clare Chambers is a genius' INDIA KNIGHT 'Just as good - if not better - than Small Pleasures' INDEPENDENT 'As compelling as you want fiction to be' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of our most talented authors' GUARDIAN 'Extraordinary' FINANCIAL TIMES It all sta...

Caroline Blackwood

Discover Caroline Blackwood's darkly brilliant debut - a perfect rediscovered classic for fans of Shirley Jackson and Ottessa Moshfegh 'A bracingly nasty book . . . Splendid, dark, often very funny' MEGAN NOLAN, Telegraph A lavish Upper West Side apartment is the site of a familial cold war about to enter a phase of dangerous escalation. J is a lonely woman without the luxur...

Taylor Jenkins Reid

'Thrilling ... heartbreaking ... uplifting. Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel Atmosphere is the fast-paced, emotionally-charged story of one ambitious young woman, finding both her voice and her passion ... I loved it' KRISTIN HANNAH, author of The Women 'NASA? Space missions? The 80s? This is a collection of all the things I love. Great story, excellent research and accuracy, and a...