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Standard Deviation: ‘The best feel-good novel around’ Daily Mail
Standard Deviation: ‘The best feel-good novel around’ Daily Mail
Katherine Heiny
¥66.22
‘I have rarely seen modern marriage reproduced so faithfully in print. It’s about love once the early romance has subsided. Hilarious’ Jojo Moyes, Woman and Home ‘Standard Deviation is a marvel’ Kate Atkinson ‘Addictive reading’ Mail on Sunday ‘A comic masterpiece’ Observer A divinely funny novel about the challenges of a good marriage, the delight and heartache of raising children, and the irresistible temptation to wonder about the path not taken. Graham Cavanaugh’s second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son’s Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting. In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger’s, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham’s life. Former spouses are hard to categorize – are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?
The Transition
The Transition
Luke Kennard
¥66.22
“The sort of book that cuts you off from your family and has you walking blindly through seven lanes of traffic with your face pressed obliviously to the page.” ―James Marriott, The Times (London) Do you or your partner spend more than you earn? Have your credit card debts evolved into collection letters? Has either of you received a court summons? Has either of you considered turning to a life of a crime? You are not alone. We know. We can help. Welcome to the Transition. While taking part in the Transition, you and your partner will spend six months living under the supervision of your mentors, two successful adults of a slightly older generation. Freed from your financial responsibilities, you will be coached through the key areas of the scheme―Employment, Nutrition, Responsibility, Relationship, Finances, and Self-respect―until you are ready to be reintegrated into adult society. At the end of your six months, who knows what discoveries you’ll have made about yourself? The “friends” you no longer need. The talents you’ll have found time to nurture. The business you might have kick-started. Who knows where you’ll be?
Night of Error
Night of Error
Desmond Bagley
¥66.22
The only discernable bond in the relationship of brothers Mark and Mike Trevelyan is their fascination with the sea and its secrets. When Mike hears of his brother's death, during an expedition to a remote Pacific atoll, the circumstances are suspicious enough to force him to investigate, and when he is the victim of a series of violent attacks, his search for the truth becomes even more desperate. Mike has only two clues - a notebook in code and a lump of rock - enough to trigger off a hazardous expedition and a violent confrontation far from civilisation.
Fireside Gothic
Fireside Gothic
Andrew Taylor
¥66.22
Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed TV drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, The Scent of Death and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club Choice. He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger, awarded for sustained excellence in crime writing. He also writes for the Spectator. He lives with his wife Caroline in the Forest of Dean.
The Black Painting
The Black Painting
Neil Olson
¥66.22
An enthralling well-written mystery for readers who enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Things and The Improbability of Love. A dead body. A family torn apart. Someone is lying. Years ago, a forgotten Goya masterpiece was stolen from Teresa’s family home, a crumbling mansion at Owl’s Point. Ever since, Teresa has stayed away, terrified of the rumours surrounding the Black Painting and the jealous accusations that tore apart her family. Now her grandfather has summoned his descendants back to the mansion to discuss his will, and Teresa knows she has no choice except to return. But when she arrives, she finds the door hanging open and her grandfather dead, his eyes open and staring at the empty space where the Goya once hung. Someone in the family is lying, but will Teresa unravel the mystery of the missing painting before it is too late?
The Blue Flower
The Blue Flower
Penelope Fitzgerald,Candia McWilliam
¥66.22
From the Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Offshore’ comes this unusual romance between the poet Novalis and his fiancée Sophie, newly introduced by Candia McWilliam. The year is 1794 and Fritz, passionate, idealistic and brilliant, is seeking his father’s permission to announce his engagement to his heart’s desire: twelve-year-old Sophie. His astounded family and friends are amused and disturbed by his betrothal. What can he be thinking? Tracing the dramatic early years of the young German who was to become the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis, ‘The Blue Flower’ is a masterpiece of invention, evoking the past with a reality that we can almost feel.
The Favoured Child (The Wideacre Trilogy, Book 2)
The Favoured Child (The Wideacre Trilogy, Book 2)
Philippa Gregory
¥66.22
The second novel in the bestselling Wideacre Trilogy, a compulsive drama set in the eighteenth century. By Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin’s Lover. The Wideacre estate is bankrupt, the villagers are living in poverty and Wideacre Hall is a smoke-blackened ruin. But in the Dower House two children are being raised in protected innocence. Equal claimants to the inheritance of Wideacre, rivals for the love of the village, they are tied by a secret childhood betrothal but forbidden to marry. Only one can be the favoured child. Only one can inherit the magical understanding between the land and the Lacey family that can make the Sussex village grow green again. Only one can be Beatrice Lacey’s true heir. Sweeping, passionate, unique: 'The Favoured Child' is the second novel in Philippa Gregory's bestselling trilogy which began with 'Wideacre' and concluded with 'Meridon'.
Beyond Black
Beyond Black
Hilary Mantel
¥66.22
A comically sinister tale of wicked spirits and suburban mediums from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring Up the Bodies’. Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London’s orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, passing on messages from beloved dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona hides a desperate woman: she knows the terrors the next life holds but must conceal them from her wide-eyed clients. At the same time she is plagued by spirits from her own past, who infiltrate her body and home, becoming stronger and nastier the more she resists… Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Hilary Mantel’s supremely suspenseful novel is a masterpiece of dark humour and even darker secrets.
Briefing for a Descent Into Hell
Briefing for a Descent Into Hell
Doris Lessing
¥66.22
A study of a man beyond the verge of a nervous breakdown, this is a brilliant and disturbing novel by Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Penniless, rambling and incoherent, a man is found wandering at night on London’s Embankment. Taken to hospital and heavily sedated, he tells the doctors of his incredible fantastical voyage, adrift on the ocean, landing on unknown shores, flying on the back of a huge white bird. Identified as Charles Watkins, a Cambridge Classics professor, he is visited by family and friends, each revealing clues to the nature of his breakdown. As the doctors try to cure him, Watkins begins a fierce battle to hold on to his magnificent inner world, as it gradually acquires a greater reality than the everyday… ‘Briefing for a Descent into Hell’ is one of Doris Lessing’s most brilliantly achieved novels, linking her early work, which explored the nature of subjectivity, with her later experiments in science fiction. Its indictment of the tyranny of society is powerful, disturbing and, as always, magnificently rendered.
The Stone Book Quartet
The Stone Book Quartet
Alan Garner
¥66.22
A classic work of rural magic realism from one of Britain’s greatest children’s novelists. Through four interconnected fables of a way of living in rural England that has now disappeared, Alan Garner vividly brings to life a landscape situated on the outskirts of industrial Manchester. Smiths and chandlers, steeplejacks and quarrymen, labourers and artisans all live and work hand in hand with the seasons, the elements, and the land. There is a mutual respect and a knowledge of the magical here that has somehow, somewhere been lost to us. These fables beautifully recapture and restore that lost world in simple, searching prose.
Miss Garnet’s Angel
Miss Garnet’s Angel
Salley Vickers
¥66.22
Salley Vicker’s sensational debut novel, ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’ is a voyage of discovery; a novel about Venice but also the rich story of the explosive possibilities of change in all of us at any time. Julia Garnet is a teacher. Just retired, she is left a legacy which she uses by leaving her orderly life and going to live – in winter – in an apartment in Venice. Its beauty, its secret corners and treasures, and its people overwhelm a lifetime of reserve and caution. Above all, she’s touched by the all-prevalent spirit of the Angel, Raphael. The ancient tale of Tobias, who travels to Media unaware he is accompanied by the Archangel Raphael, unfolds alongside Julia Garnet’s contemporary journey. The two stories interweave with parents and landladies, restorers and priests, American tourists and ancient travellers abounding. The result is an enormously satisfying journey of the spirit – and Julia Garnet is a character to treasure.
Warhost of Vastmark (The Wars of Light and Shadow, Book 3)
Warhost of Vastmark (The Wars of Light and Shadow, Book 3)
Janny Wurts
¥66.22
Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer arrives at the tiny harbour town of Merior, to find that his brother’s ship yards have been meticulously destroyed and abandoned. But where is Arithon? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer, Lord of Light, arrives at the tiny harbour town of Merior to find that Arithon’s ship yards have been abandoned and meticulously destroyed, and that the Master of Shadow has disappeared as if into thin air. Meanwhile Arithon and the Mad Prophet Dakar are travelling on foot through the treacherous Kelhorn Mountains towards the Vastmark clans, there to raise further support for his cause. But raising a warhost is a costly business. Is it mere coincidence that Princess Talith – Lysaer’s beautiful, headstrong wife – is taken captive and held for a vast ransom by a master brigand? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. And in the background the Fellowship of Seven Sorcerers and the Koriani Enchantresses watch and plan, and wait…
The Night Brother
The Night Brother
Rosie Garland
¥66.22
‘A rich and ambitious tale … Garland's prose is a delight: playful and exuberant’ THE TIMES From the author of The Palace of Curiosities and Vixen comes a dazzling and provocative novel of adventure and belonging. Rich are the delights of late nineteenth-century Manchester for young siblings Edie and Gnome. They bicker, banter, shout and scream their way through the city’s streets, embracing its charms and dangers. But as the pair grow up, it is Gnome who revels in the night-time, while Edie wakes exhausted each morning, unable to quell a sickening sense of unease, with only a dim memory of the dark hours. Confused and frustrated at living a half-life, she decides to take control, distancing herself from Gnome once and for all. But can she ever be free from someone who knows her better than she knows herself? Perfect for fans of Angela Carter, Sarah Waters and Erin Morgenstern and with echoes of Orlando and Jekyll & Hyde, this is a story about the vital importance of being honest with yourself. Every part of yourself. After all, no-one likes to be kept in the dark…
Dragon Teeth: From the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of the original W
Dragon Teeth: From the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of the original W
Michael Crichton
¥66.22
From Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, comes a thrilling adventure set in the Wild West that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last! The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. Against this backdrop two paleontologists pillage the Wild West for dinosaur fossils, while deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, and abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. Soon William joins forces with Cope and stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. The struggle to protect this extraordinary treasure, however, will test William’s newfound resilience and pit him against some of the West’s most dangerous and notorious characters…
Fresh Complaint
Fresh Complaint
Jeffrey Eugenides
¥66.22
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR AN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘What was it about complaining that felt so good? You and your fellow sufferer emerging from a thorough session as if from a spa bath, refreshed and tingling?’ The first-ever collection of short stories from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet Kendall, a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; and Mitchell, a lovelorn liberal arts graduate on a search for enlightenment; and Prakrti, a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her family leads to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged academic. Jeffrey Eugenides’s bestselling novels Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot have shown him to be an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, self-discovery and family love. These stories, from one of our greatest authors, explore equally rich and intriguing territory. Narratively compelling and beautifully written, Fresh Complaint shows all of Eugenides’s trademark humour, compassion and complex understanding of what it is to be human.
House of Spies
House of Spies
Daniel Silva
¥66.22
From the No.1 New York Times bestselling author of The Black Widow comes the thrilling new summer blockbuster featuring legendary spy, assassin and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Legendary spy, assassin, and art restorer Gabriel Allon is back and out for revenge – determined to hunt down the world’s most dangerous terrorist, a shadowy ISIS mastermind known only as Saladin. Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread: the French-Moroccan street criminal and ISIS operative who supplied the combat assault rifles. The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team to the south of France and to the doorstep of Jean-Luc Martel and Olivia Watson. A beautiful former fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know that the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth is drugs. And Martel, likewise, turns a blind eye to the fact he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terror.
Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool, Book 3)
Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool, Book 3)
Robin Hobb
¥66.22
The much-anticipated final conclusion to the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Prince FitzChivalry Farseer’s daughter Bee was violently abducted from Withywoods by Servants of the Four in their search for the Unexpected Son, foretold to wield great power. With Fitz in pursuit, the Servants fled through a Skill-pillar, leaving no trace. It seems certain that they and their young hostage have perished in the Skill-river. Clerres, where White Prophets were trained by the Servants to set the world on a better path, has been corrupted by greed. Fitz is determined to reach the city and take vengeance on the Four, not only for the loss of Bee but also for their torture of the Fool. Accompanied by FitzVigilant, son of the assassin Chade, Chade’s protégé Spark and the stableboy Perseverance, Bee's only friend, their journey will take them from the Elderling city of Kelsingra, down the perilous Rain Wild River, and on to the Pirate Isles. Their mission for revenge will become a voyage of discovery, as well as of reunions, transformations and heartrending shocks. Startling answers to old mysteries are revealed. What became of the liveships Paragon and Vivacia and their crews? What is the origin of the Others and their eerie beach? How are liveships and dragons connected? But Fitz and his followers are not the only ones with a deadly grudge against the Four. An ancient wrong will bring them unlikely and dangerous allies in their quest. And if the corrupt society of Clerres is to be brought down, Fitz and the Fool will have to make a series of profound and fateful sacrifices. ASSASSIN’S FATE is a magnificent tour de force and with it Robin Hobb demonstrates yet again that she is the reigning queen of epic fantasy.
The Book of Swords
The Book of Swords
Gardner Dozois
¥66.22
An epic collection of fantasy tales in the grand tradition, including a never-before-published A Song of Ice and Fire story by George R.R. Martin and an introduction by Gardner Dozois. Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a cornerstone of fantasy fiction, and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own tales of magical adventure. Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an anthology of sixteen original epic stories by a stellar cast of modern masters, including George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Garth Nix, Ken Liu, Daniel Abraham, Scott Lynch, Cecelia Holland, Ellen Kushner, and more on journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid adventure, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel.
The Reservoir Tapes
The Reservoir Tapes
Jon McGregor
¥66.22
As broadcast on BBC radio 4: the fifteen ‘prequel’ stories to the Costa Award-WinningReservoir 13. ‘He leaves behind all other writers of his generation’ Sarah Hall Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home. But the aftershocks of Becky Shaw’s disappearance have origins long before then, and those in the village have losses, and secrets, and stories of their own… A woman remembers a son’s inexperience – and a father’s rage; a young wife pushes against the boundaries of her marriage, whilst an older one finds ways to ensure the survival of hers. A hunt for a birthday present takes an alarming turn, and a teenage game grows serious. Fresh hurts open old wounds, salvation comes from unexpected quarters and chance encounters release long-buried memories. First broadcast as a series of specially commissioned stories on BBC Radio 4, The Reservoir Tapes returns to the territory of the Booker-longlisted Reservoir 13, revealing the web of connections that bind us, and the many layers on which we all build our truths.
Sora
Sora
Lupton Rosamund
¥66.22
n vreme ce alte adolescente viseaz cu ochii deschii la biei, Calla Tor i cunoate deja destinul: la terminarea liceului, fata-lup va deveni partenera masculului alfa Ren Laroche, alturi de care va conduce o nou hait de lupi Gardieni, luptnd umr la umr pentru a apra, chiar cu preul vieii, locurile sacre ale Pzitorilor.Dar, dup ce ncalc legile strvechi ale stpnilor ei salvndu-l de la moarte pe frumosul muritor Shay, ncetul cu ncetul, Calla ncepe s pun la ndoial soarta care i-a fost hrzit, propria existen i ntreaga ei lume. Secrete adnc ngropate ies uor-uor la suprafa i, odat cu ele, devine tot mai clar c nimic nu este ceea ce pare a fi. Ea tie c, dac ascult chemarea inimii, va pierde totul – poate chiar i propria via. Merit oare o iubire interzis sacrificiul suprem O lume seductoare, complicat, n care oamenii sunt pionii unei puternice haite de vrcolaci i nimic nu este ceea ce pare. Am stat cu sufletul la gur pn la ultima pagin.“ – Becca Fitzpatrick, autoarea seriei ngerul Nopii
Suicide's Girlfriend
Suicide's Girlfriend
Evans, Elizabeth
¥66.18
Elizabeth Evans traces the complex and often painful threads of human relationships in Suicide's Girlfriend, her most inspired work to date. In these richly textured stories, you'll meet:Oyekan, a confused young Nigerian student who wrestles with feelings his U.S. friends cannot understand.Marie, an adolescent who makes a carefully philosophized, end-of-the-rope stab at salvation for herself and her seven abused siblings.Jenny and Heather, two girls whose friendship has suffered from the distractions of adolescence and the cruelty of one moving on while the other must sit idly by and watch.A group of college boys, whose discovery of a dead body on the side of the road leaves one of them changed in ways he never thought possible.Elegant, acute, and engaging, Suicide's Girlfriend will introduce you to these characters and more, their stories, and an incredible new voice in fiction.