Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Kate Atkinson

The perfect Christmas stocking filler: three festive tales from the brilliant pen of Kate Atkinson. 
 
'Lucy would have challenged anyone not to cry at the sight of their child in a Nativity play. Even a sheepish Maude, even a scowling Beatrice – currently attempting a Chinese burn on an adjacent angel. A shepherd shouted something incomprehensible to Joseph. One of the Wise Men wet himself. Beatrice waved enthusiastically – a little too enthusiastically – at Lucy from the angelic choir. It was better than any religion, Lucy thought.' 
 
From the award-winning author of LIFE AFTER LIFE, SHRINES OF GAIETY and DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK

Festive Spirits

Three Christmas Stories

Donal Ryan

From the winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction and the Irish Book of the Year... 
 
Jack is just twelve years old when he rushes down the hill after his mother's car on his bike, desperate to reach her before she reaches the lake. 
 
What happens next cannot be undone. Jack's life changes just at the moment he is entering those dizzying years when he will transition from boy to man; when nothing makes sense at the best of times. 
 
Yet Jack is not alone. Enveloped as he is by his extended family - his ferociously loving Nana; Grandad, given to sudden bursts of rage; his earthy uncles Haulie and Theo who want to show him what it means to be a man, and the irascible JJ who resents him deeply. Then there is beautiful aunt Rose, whose mere presence ignites every atom in his changing body. 
 
But how can a boy with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, understand the person he is becoming? Without his mother to ground him on the earth, will he spin off into the stars?

Where are the Kings

Madeline Cash

‘A voice like no other’ Lena Dunham 
 
‘Hilarious’ Megan Nolan 
 
‘Fiendishly readable’ Financial Times 
 
== 
Think your family is dysfunctional? Meet the Flynns. 
 
For the three Flynn daughters, it’s been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed ‘War Crimes Wes’. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. And the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens. 
 
Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. 
 
The instant Sunday Times bestseller 
 
Readers are loving LOST LAMBS 
‘What a ROMP! The best way to start your reading year for 2026.’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘The hype is real!’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘Hilarious, weird, original and addictive!’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘Sheesh! The dysfunction. This read was a ride and I was here for it!’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘I’m shouting it from every rooftop: THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘Perhaps the funniest book I’ve ever read.’&#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
 
‘If the Royal Tenenbaums were middle-class and likable, they’d be this madcap family.’ The New York Times 
 
‘Manages to capture something we can all universally relate to: how normal it is to have a dysfunctional family’ Sunday Times 
 
A National bestseller. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Vulture, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Playboy, The Times, Our Culture, Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Harper's Bazaar. Belletrist's January Book Club pick.

Lost Lambs

John Boyne

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. 
 
But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes? 
 
Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

Water

A haunting, confronting novel from the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies

Sonoko Machida

The mega-bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers' Award and author of THE CONVENIENCE STORE BY THE SEA: a deeply moving story of survival and found family. 
 
Readers adore THE WOMAN, THE BOY AND THE WHALE: 
 
'If you have to work tomorrow, don't read this, since your eyes will be swollen up the next day. I read this in a single sitting and it saved me from the loneliness I had in my heart' Reader review ***** 
 
'A wonderful, beautiful story of what is both ugly and precious about humanity, filled with what we need most' Reader review ***** 
 
HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD 
THE BESTSELLING WINNER OF THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS' AWARD 
MADE INTO AN AWARD-NOMINATED FILM 
 
Emotional rescue is a two-way street 
 
Kiko has run away from her Tokyo life to a rural village by the sea and rumours are flying among the locals about this mysterious newcomer. When she comes across an abandoned boy who is unable to speak, an unusual bond develops as she shares a tale of the lonely whale whose song is too high-pitched for others to hear. While she unpicks the boy's story, and he unravels hers, a gripping and powerful history of strength, survival and finding your voice begins to unfold.

The Woman, the Boy and the Whale

James McBride

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK 
From author of NYT bestseller, THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE 
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD winner & WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION 
TOP TEN books of the year, NEW YORK TIMES & WASHINGTON POST 
 
'Brilliantly imagined, larger than life, a tragicomedic epic.' JOYCE CAROL OATES 
 
'Deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane.' JUNOT DIAZ 
 
'Among the greatest American storytellers of our time.' BOOKPAGE 
 
'A modern day Mark Twain' NYT Book Review 
 
*** 
 
The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots - for no apparent reason - the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church's baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat's best friend - Hot Sausage - to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. 
 
DEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital. 
______________________ 
 
'When I met James McBride, I felt like I'd had coffee with a hysterically funny Leo Tolstoy' Ethan Hawke 
 
'A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year's best novels.' The Washington Post 
 
What Goodreads readers are saying: 
 
***** 'Deacon King Kong is one of those novels whose brilliance sneaks up on you. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a while.' 
 
***** 'I do believe I just finished one of my all time favorite books. I loved every minute spent with Sportcoat and his community. A good old fashioned yarn shot through with truth, spirit, and humor. I LOVED it!' 
 
***** 'This book was a balm for my soul, a portrait of a black church community circa 1969 with sweet characters (well, most of them), interconnections that stretch back decades, and a plot with more than one mystery at its heart.' 
 
***** '"Deacon" has the texture of folk lore and fable mixed with the unexpected rhythms of jazz and the noisy streets of late 1960s Brooklyn.' 
 
***** 'The ending was one of those where you clutch your heart and want to hug the book (or your Kindle).' 
 
Author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, a Waterstones Book of the Month 2024

Deacon King Kong

A Novel

Jan Carson

From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a magically surreal novel about history, identity and redemption 
 
'A stunningly original novel... one of the most imaginative and talented Irish writers at work today' Roisín O’Donnell, author of Nesting 
 
'No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like [Jan Carson] does' Sara Baume, author of Seven Steeples 
 
‘Warm, sharp and gloriously funny' Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness 
 
‘Her best book yet’ Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow 
___ 
 
It’s summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years. 
 
Robert-John and Marion Connolly came to the islands as children in the 1970s, following their mercurial father, an anthropologist studying the unique society that had developed there. For many, the Neagh Archipelago represented a utopia, a chance to be free of the prejudices and history of Troubles era Northern Ireland. But perhaps this utopia wasn’t all that it seemed. 
 
Marion and Robert-John have grown accustomed to their haunted existence on the Ark, monitoring the mysterious Far Side, where ghostly figures linger and the land swallows secrets whole. How will they cope with a new life on the Mainland? Is it possible to leave the past behind? And will the Ark ever let them go... 
 
_____ 
 
‘No one writes like Jan Carson. Surreal times call for surreal stories, and Few and Far Between packages history, horror and redemption in her signature combination of humour and grace.’ Sheila Armstrong, author of Falling Animals 
 
'Jan Carson is a born storyteller: her work is so imaginative, whimsical, mischievous and brave, but tender and curious too — you never know where she's going to take you next, so reading her is always an adventure.' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies 
 
'Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists' Donal Ryan, author of Heart be at Peace 
 
'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times

Few and Far Between

Catherine Newman

The NEW YORK TIMES bestseller. A wonderful novel full of laughter and heart, about marriage, family and what happens when life doesn’t go as planned… 
 
'The kind of book that pulls up a chair, pours the wine, and dives deep... like spending hours with the friend who sees your mess and loves you more for it.' ALISON ESPACH, author of The Wedding People 
 
'I LOVE her work... the antidote to these times' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'A gorgeously human, tender-hearted, and delightfully funny exploration of the anxieties that beset all of us, and the loving relationships and irrepressible joy that gets us through' NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS, author of Fundamentally 
 
_______ 
 
Rachel (Rocky) is seemingly living her best life as the irreverent, funny beating heart of her family. Her ageing father is his unique, adorable self; daughter Willa is prone to bouts of existential angst whilst berating the fact that her mother has zero filter; husband Nick is steady, logical, sometimes infuriating. 
 
They are messy, they are flawed, they are completely, ridiculously normal. 
 
And like most normal people, Rocky worries about what might happen next. So when a former classmate of her son Jamie dies in a seemingly random accident, Rocky becomes obsessed. 
 
For if accidents can happen – and they do – is it truly safe to love anyone? 
 
Fresh, honest, laugh out loud funny and genuinely relatable, WRECK follows Rocky and her family through one rollercoaster year as they negotiate the unpredictable and beautiful messiness of life. 
 
_______ 
 
Readers say: 
 
'Wreck feels like Newman was writing directly to me. And what's so impressive is, I think many, many, many readers will feel like it was just for them too.' 
 
'Feels like meeting up with old friends' 
 
'It’s like Catherine Newman knows exactly how I feel' 
 
'I feel seen every time I read [Catherine Newman's] words' 
 
'There is just some kind of magic in Catherine Newman’s writing that makes me want to dog-ear every page' 
 
Reviews say: 
 
'Hugely enjoyable, absolutely real and thoughtful...Newman has an Ephron-esque gift for blending the sharp and the sad and an ability to let us love her creations.’ Observer 
 
'Darkly funny, achingly emotional' Woman & Home 
 
‘Insightful and totally relatable’ Good Housekeeping 
 
‘The new queen of the bittersweet novel’ Independent

Wreck

Kate Hope Day

'A gorgeous literary novel that asks us to imagine all the possible versions of ourselves that we can imagine' J COURTNEY SULLIVAN 
'A suburban srama build to leap form page to screen' Kirkus Reviews 
'Fascinating and moving' EOWYN IVEY 
----------------------- 
In a sleepy Oregon town at the base of a dormant volcano, four neighbours find their lives upended when they see visions of themselves in an alternate reality, and have to question the choices they’ve made as natural disaster looms. 
 
For fans of Celeste Ng's LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and TV serial SIX FEET UNDER. 
 
In the shadow of a dormant volcano in Oregon lies a small town much like any other – though mistier perhaps, and greener. Look closely and you’ll see four neighbours plagued by strange visions. 
 
 Ginny, a devoted surgeon, is troubled by thoughts of a beautiful colleague in her bed. 
 
 Mark, a wildlife scientist, foresees imminent and devastating natural disaster. 
 
 Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of a small baby, envisages herself pregnant once more – just as she is returning to her game-changing research. 
 
 And then there’s Samara, a young estate agent, who glimpses images of her dead mother alive again, healthy and vibrant. 
 
 As the volcano begins to rumble, it becomes clear that these visions mean more than at first it seemed, and that the fate of this close-knit community hangs in the balance.

If, Then

Anna Bailey

Wasteland Girls is a collection of lyrical, incisive and luminous stories by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days. 
 
These stunningly powerful stories explore the wildness and beauty of the American heartlands, a place where lives are lived on the margins, but also where there is dignity, hope, revenge and restitution. 
 
In 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Texan man Ready drives through a divided US to see his dying brother. Wasteland Girls, the title story, is a powerful tale of a family of hoarders, of magic and revenge. In Yukon 1940, a woman sits beside the body of her husband in a remote cabin, trapped by the frozen sea. The Girl in the Ground follows a woman who suddenly reappears after twenty years of absence, but for whom the past is a void. A widower meets a man who should died many times. 
 
Deeply atmospheric and soulful, the stories in Wasteland Girls are inspired by the author's experience of living amid the beautiful but often ferocious remote landscapes of the US, and among the wild and secretive people who inhabit them. In the vastness of the wilds, anything can happen...

Wasteland Girls

Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed? 
 
When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: ‘For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite’. The most feted playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death. 
 
But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne’s extraordinary new novel, The Weight of Angels. 
 
Rather than dying in penury in Paris at the age of forty-six, what if he had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as celebrated, dramatic, tumultuous and exhilarating as the first? 
 
In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the great Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.

The Weight of Angels

M L Stedman

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans, A Far-Flung Life is a sweeping historical family saga set against the rugged Australian outback, an epic novel of love, loss and resilience. 
 
____________ 
 
'Heart-wrenching and beautifully set. A gorgeous feast of a novel about family, community, love and the lengths we will go to save them all’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Homemade God 
 
‘A big, bold story of resilience and hope. I was completely swept away’ BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry 
 
‘Utterly glorious. I have so much love for these characters. A truly brilliant novel’ FLORENCE KNAPP, author of The Names 
 
'A world, a story, a cast of characters I truly lost myself in' JENNIE GODFREY, author of The List of Suspicious Things 
 
____________ 
 
Outback Western Australia, 1958. 
 
For generations, the MacBrides have lived on a remote sheep station, Meredith Downs. A million arid acres, it’s an ocean of land, where the weather is a capricious god, and time still roams untamed. 
 
One ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. 
 
Instead of leaving wounds to heal, Fate comes for them yet again, in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. 
 
Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide, as he is forced to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. 
 
A sweeping novel of family and belonging, of compassion and hope, A Far-flung Life is an epic novel about people trying to do their best, each seeking shelter from the storm of life – and a powerful testament to the enduring strength of love. 
________ 
 
‘Truly a masterpiece. The kind of book you will remember for the rest of your life, and I love the very bones of it’ JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 
 
'Epic, intimate and aching. I loved it’ MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of The Paper Palace 
 
‘Mesmerising and unforgettable, this sweeping novel aches with life’s impossible choices, thrums with love and pain, and imprints itself on your heart. I loved it.’ JOANNA GLEN, author of ALL MY MOTHERS 
 
'One of those rare books that fill the soul' DONAL RYAN, author of Heart be at Peace and The Spinning Heart

A Far-flung Life

On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness. 
 
Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being? 
 
In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?

Fire

Philippe Collin

An Immediate Bestseller | A Bloomberg Best Book of 2025 
 
'Philippe Collin is a magnificent storyteller. This novel fascinates at every turn.' Elle 
 
When the Ritz becomes the Nazis’ favourite spot, its Jewish bartender has no choice but to keep working. 
 
Paris, 1940. Despite the Occupation, the prestigious Ritz Hotel has managed to remain open. Its bar becomes a favourite spot for Nazis eager for a taste of French refinement. Its celebrated barman, Frank Meier, is forced to adapt to this new clientele. But he is hiding a secret that no one can find out: he is Jewish. 
 
With every word and smile, the atmosphere becomes more and more suffocating. Yet Frank refuses to flee. With the unwitting help of the Nazis, Frank eventually uncovers secrets that help keep him and his loved ones alive — especially Luciano, his young apprentice, and Blanche, wife of the director of the Ritz and Frank’s impossible love — both of whom are Jewish too. 
 
Betrayal, lies, and backstabbing raise the stakes for the bartender — with Frank always just one step ahead of fate. 
 
Based on a true story, The Barman of the Ritz is as chilling as it is fascinating.

The Barman of the Ritz

Kang Jiyoung

Discover the Korean cult thriller, for fans of Butter and Killing Eve. A hilariously unsettling tale of love, food and one woman's unconventional quest to support her family by becoming a contract killer. 
_____________ 
 
I am no ordinary ajumma. I am a killer 
 
Recently widowed and unemployed, Mrs Shim and her two children face an empty fridge. As her job options run out, she answers an ad for the Smile Detective Agency. 
 
Within weeks, she has turned it around. For Mrs Shim is sharp as a blade, handles business cleanly and is like a padlock when it comes to keeping secrets. 
 
By day, she prepares kimchi for her family and her neighbour with dementia; by night Mrs Shim is out on a contract. 
 
But what starts as a need for survival escalates into a thirst for vengeance. For Mrs. Shim is done with being everyone’s doormat. 
 
Diving headfirst into her new career among petty criminals, ghosts and assassins, Mrs Shim's past soon comes hurtling towards her. 
 
Savage and unexpectedly moving, Kang Jiyoung paints a comedic world of twisted love, unhinged loathing and hopeful reinvention. Among the misfits and the meals is a powerful statement about class, capitalism and the role of women.

Mrs Shim is a Killer

It’s the summer of 1951 and everyone is looking to put the dark days of the war behind them. The government’s solution: The Festival of Britain, a celebration of the country’s creativity, grit and ingenuity. 
 
For foreign correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn, it might offer the chance of redemption after a bad war in the Far East and a peace that is proving no easier to negotiate. Having failed to resume his journalistic career, he reluctantly joins an oddball team of misfits, ne’er-do-wells and downright chancers helping to ready the Festival of Britain for launch. 
 
Flynn’s attempts to resume some semblance of a romantic life also founder when one of his dates goes missing and he is deemed to be the last person to have seen her alive. Could he have been in some way responsible for her disappearance? 
 
Little does he realize that the answer to some of his mounting problems may lie in the hands of a precocious, straight-talking thirteen-year-old called Veronica and a rather scruffy terrier who goes by the name of Mrs Betty… 
 
Brilliantly plotted, witty and compelling, Our Noble Selves reaffirms Kate Atkinson’s place as one of the greatest chroniclers of our times.

Our Noble Selves

John Crace

John Sutherland

Cease I say, cantankerous old fools / 
Thy deeds hath made our streets a no go zone / 
No more shall Montagues and Capulets / 
Enact their West Side Story Sharks and Jets / 
Or else shall pay the forfeit of the peace.To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this is the second of a new collection of the Bard's greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words with invaluable footnotes from John Sutherland. Funny and incredibly clever, these parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, perfect for the theatre goer needing a quick recap, and a massive relief for those just desperate to pass their English exam.

Incomplete Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet

Being in limbo, 30,000 feet in the air, offers time to reflect and take stock. For Aaron Umber, it’s an opportunity to connect with his 14-year-old son as they travel halfway across the world to meet a woman who isn’t expecting them. 
 
Unsettled by his past, and anxious for his future, Aaron is at a crossroads in life. The damage inflicted upon him during his youth has made him the man he is, but now threatens to widen the growing fissures between him and his only child. This trip could bind them closer together, or tear them further apart. 
 
In this penetrating examination of action and consequence, fault and attribution, acceptance and resolution, John Boyne gives us a redemptive story of a father and a son on a moving journey to mend their troubled lives.

Mizuki Tsujimura

Book Two in the LOST SOULS series of a young man with special powers to connect the living with the afterlife. For fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD and LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR 
____ 
 
The much-anticipated follow-up novel to Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon picks up seven years later with go-between Ayumi, a young man caught between the demands of everyday life and his extraordinary gift: reuniting the living with the dead. 
 
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain. Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten 16th-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love. 
 
Luminous, magical, and deeply heartwarming, How to Hold Someone in Your Heart is an unforgettable novel from bestselling storyteller Mizuki Tsujimura and a profound meditation on living without regret, embracing the unexpected, and cherishing the fleeting moments we’re given. 
 
Readers adore it: 
‘Warms your heart’ ***** 
‘I can’t express how good this is. Made me feel the weight of human life’ ***** 
‘The relationship with the dead, the messengers, the clients, and the existence of fate – it all felt so intimate to me’ ***** 
'As good as the first book'*****

How to Hold Someone in your Heart

Francine Toon

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Pine, comes a haunting and atmospheric new gothic thriller, set in the brooding Scottish landscape. 
 
In this corner of Fife, summer nights meant parties on wind-blown beaches, wrapped in hoodies and denim jackets, pretending you weren’t cold in the stubborn evening light. 
 
JOANIE, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has been looking forward to her big escape. But at the eleventh hour this dream slips through her hands. Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – a pair of charismatic academics at the town’s university – who offer her a new kind of freedom. 
 
CAMERON, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas, a question burns in his mind: whatever happened to Joanie? It’s been a decade since he saw his former friend. But as he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs. How far should he go in pursuit of the truth? 
 
Praise for Francine Toon: 
 
'Dark, beguiling, and steeped in menace, Francine Toon spins a brooding mystery which shimmers with unease' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb 
 
'A chilling, slow-burn novel' i Newspaper 
 
'A taut, eerie exploration of memory, belief, and the treacherous edges of girlhood. Francine Toon has a knack for getting deep under the skin' Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark 
 
‘Toon’s gift for creating an otherworldly atmosphere in small towns with big secrets is present once again in a novel that explores the desire to escape the ordinary’ Scotsman 
 
'A menacing, wind-swept thriller that creeps up on you as stealthily as a figure in the dark' Anna Bailey, author of Tall Bones

Bluff

Eliana Ramage

A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK | A LITHUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 | AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2025 
 
The astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel about a young woman whose quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most. 
 
‘Will break your heart and take you to the stars. I loved it.’ Kiley Reid, bestselling author of Such a Fun Age 
 
‘A breathtaking debut about family, identity, and love across generations.’ Reese Witherspoon 
 
‘A powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family.’ Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time 
 
Steph Harper is on the run. 
 
When she was five, her mother ran – with Steph and her younger sister in tow – from an abusive husband into the arms of a small Cherokee community, where she hoped they might finally belong. 
 
But Steph soon sets her sights as far away as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing interfere with her dream to become an astronaut, and ultimately, to go to the moon. 
 
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with the three women who know and love her most dearly: her younger sister Kayla, an artist whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; her college girlfriend Della, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her family as a young girl through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and her mother Hannah, who has held up her family’s history as a beacon of inspiration to her kids, all the while keeping the truth about her own past a secret. 
 
Told through these women’s interwoven lives, and spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find a little space for herself. 
 
Praise for To The Moon and Back 
'A singular, sonorous, wholehearted novel, one I wanted to devour and savour at once.’ Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had 
 
‘A brilliant, faceted, warm-hearted novel, with characters to love and truly root for, and pages that seem to turn themselves.’ Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of the National Book Award Finalist All This Could Be Different 
 
‘A captivating debut about family, queer identity, love, career and heritage. This novel has something for everyone.’ De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills 
 
‘A soaring masterpiece… Every character in this novel will stay with you forever. I love this book.’ Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman 
 
‘A passionate and compulsively readable novel. Dare I say, a stellar debut.’ Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven

To the Moon and Back

Hye-Young Pyun

Fall into the chilling and claustrophobic psychological novel and Korean bestseller from the award-winning author, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Olga Ravn. 
 
WINNER OF THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD 
SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING THEO JAMES AND SQUID GAME'S HOYEON 
 
'A superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear' Guardian 
 
‘Korea's answer to Stephen King . . . a thoughtful and elegant exploration of a relationship . . . increasingly unnerving’ Observer 
 
‘Beautifully haunting… Probably my favourite book I’ve ever read.’ 5-star reader review 
 
Following a devastating car crash that killed his wife, Oghi wakes in hospital to find himself trapped in his own body and under the control of his vengeful mother-in-law as she grieves the loss of her only child. 
 
Isolated from his friends and neglected by his nurse, Oghi’s world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his wife, a sensitive woman who found solace in cultivating her garden. 
 
But as Oghi remains alone and paralysed, his mother-in-law is hard at work in the now-abandoned garden, uprooting what her daughter had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes… 
 
A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms. 
 
Praise for The Hole 
 
‘A gripping read for fans of literary horror’ The Bookseller 
 
‘Will stay with you long after you turn the last page’ Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow and Orpheus Builds a Girl 
 
‘Masterfully unsettling.’ Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells 
 
'Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief' Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000 
 
'A Korean take on Misery' Time 
 
'Suspenseful, eerie and surprisingly profound' Big Issue 
 
'While reading The Hole, you’ll find yourself suddenly doubting everything' Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother 
 
‘A chilling psychological thriller . . . the reader is drawn in deeper with each new revelation’ PA Media

The Hole

Carmella Lowkis

'A gloriously entertaining gothic novel' The Times 
'Carmella Lowkis has done it again with this deeply satisfying and gothic stunner' ALLY WILKES 
'One of the best gothic novels the genre has to offer' JOHANNA VAN VEEN 
 
'We are cursed, here at Harfold, whether you believe in it or not.' 
 
1922, Wiltshire. When Vee Morgan accepts the job of gardener at a crumbling stately home, she's hoping for a fresh start where nobody knows her troubled history. 
 
But Harfold Manor is shadowed by grief and the memories of long-faded glory, its rooms haunted by the only surviving member of the family, Lady Arabella Lascy. Vee is fascinated by her enigmatic new employer, a woman obsessed with the curse she believes has killed her family one by one. A curse that is coming for her next. 
 
As Vee immerses herself in the world of Harfold, she finds herself increasingly entranced by Arabella and the secrets that poison her. 
 
But Vee has her own things to hide: secrets that caused her to flee Cardiff, secrets that estranged her from her own family, secrets that might finally catch up to her… 
 
'Full of rich gothic decay and ratcheting tension ... twist after twist left me reeling' DANIELLE GILES

A Slow and Secret Poison

‘Give me the daggers and I’ll pin the blame/ On Duncan’s grooms who both are also slain. /A little water clears us of this deed /Though a large scotch might also do the trick...’  To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this is the first of a new collection of the Bard's greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words with invaluable side notes from John Sutherland.  Funny and incredibly clever, these parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, perfect for the theatre goer needing a quick recap, and a massive relief for those just desperate to pass their English exam.

Incomplete Shakespeare: Macbeth

Kate Riley

A 'Book of the Year' in the Washington Post, Vulture, Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire and Vanity Fair 
 
‘It will become an underground classic’ New York Times 
‘A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait… Standout’ Wall Street Journal 
‘An irresistibly smart and funny novel’ Jenny Offill, author of Weather, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction 
 
Ruth is raised in a snow globe of Christian communism, a world without private property, television, or tolerance for idle questions. Every morning she braids her hair and wears the same costume, sings the same breakfast song in a family room identical to every other family room in the community; every one of these moments is meant to be a prayer, but to Ruth they remain puzzles. 
 
Her life is seen in glimpses through childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as she tries to manage her own perilous curiosity in a community built on holy mystery. Is she happy? Might this in fact be happiness? Ruth immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs.

Ruth

Lissa Evans

I am fourteen years old and I’m called MacKenzie Bly. It’s a good name, isn’t it? Unfortunately, I just made it up, I’m actually called Philip Stephens which, if there was ever a competition for the world’s most boring name, would be a clear winner. ‘We didn’t want to call you something that would mean you’d get teased’ is what Mum B says. 
 
But given that I’m the size of a vending machine, hate sport, live with my Mums, one of whom teaches biology at my school, and don’t live with my Dad who plays air guitar, has ginger plaits down to his waist and writes random notes on Rizlas instead of using a diary, they might as well have called me ‘Fattus Butticus’ for all the difference it would have made…. 
 
Oh, and my best friend Sy has just moved to New Zealand. 
 
Life is terrible. 
 
I hope you enjoy reading this.

My Name is MacKenzie Bly

Kim Ryeo-ryeong

**NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX TV SERIES, STARRING GONG YU AND SEO HYUN-JIN ** 
 
Read the gripping international feminist satire for fans of KIM JIYOUNG BORN 1982, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN and YELLOWFACE. 
 
‘So this is the world we live in, where even spouses can be rented’ 
 
Meet Noh Inji: thirty years old, five wedding rings so far, and she’s never once been in love. 
 
When Inji takes a job at Wedding & Life, the popular matchmaking service, she never imagines her role will be with NM, their secretive marriage division that rents out ‘field spouses’ for a fixed period to their elite clientele. Just like a real marriage, Inji’s assignments involve a wedding, some sex and a spot of housework. It’s all tailored exactly to the client’s desires - no legal battles, no fights, no emotional baggage. 
 
In no way is Inji interested in finding real love, because accidents happen when you mistakenly assume that you are somehow special. 
 
When one of Inji’s old husbands, a mysterious high-profile music producer, requests her back for another year of marriage, Inji’s own dark past will begin to unravel – as well as the sinister underbelly of the NM management, who will stop at nothing to preserve their reputation - and that of their wealthiest clients … 
 
Readers love THE TRUNK!!!: 
 
‘It enraged me, it made me laugh, it was everything’ 
‘Intriguing and gripping’ 
‘Unique and intriguing and perfect for fans of Kim Jiyoung, born 1982’ 
‘Absorbing and consistently fascinating’ 
‘Really interesting book full of social commentary, rich characters … I had vibes of The Handmaid's Tale meets Convenience Store Woman’ 
___________

The Trunk

Michiko Aoyama

THE GLOBAL BESTSELLER 
 
By the multi-million-copy author of WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY for fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD 
_______________ 
Tucked behind the trees in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, the beloved Marble café offers a cup of warm, healing matcha to all who pass through its doors. 
 
Customers flock all week to Café Marble, tucked away behind the cherry trees. But Monday is a special day: the enigmatic owner hosts a tea tasting. The ritual invites its clientele to pause, reconnect with their inner peace, and rediscover the value of simplicity, allowing the bitterness of matcha to soothe their troubles. 
 
Following the twelve calendar months, Matcha on Monday follows people from all walks of life: a woman who needs to change her attitude, a couple facing a crisis, an artist who has lost her purpose, and a young woman struggling to break free from family expectations. As each customer frequents Café Marble’s cosy haven, they start their week with a warm sip of matcha and the joys of everyday human connection. 
 
Warm and luminous, this heart-warming story brings together a community of untold unfolding lives. As a snow-white cat peacefully puzzles over the surrounding humans, Café Marble becomes the setting for unexpected encounters that will change everything for those who walk through its doors—all starting with a cup of matcha. 
 
Loving praise from international readers for MATCHA ON MONDAY: 
‘These words resonate in my heart’ ***** 
‘I felt the depth of each relationship and burst into tears a few times’ ***** 
‘A miraculous story that shows the importance of giving things perspective’ ***** 
‘It would be a great idea to read this together with HOT CHOCOLATE ON THURSDAY’***** 
‘The same taste and feeling as drinking a cup of matcha’ *****

Matcha on Monday

It’s the tabloid sensation of the year: two well-known footballers standing in the dock, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt. 
 
As the trial unfolds, Evan Keogh reflects on the events that have led him to this moment. Since leaving his island home, his life has been a lie on many levels. He’s a talented footballer who wanted to be an artist. A gay man in a sport that rejects diversity. A defendant whose knowledge of what took place on that fateful night threatens more than just his freedom or career. 
 
The jury will deliver a verdict but, before they do, Evan must judge for himself whether the man he has become is the man he wanted to be.

Earth

Nick Bradley

When Professor Takahashi accepts a visiting post in a quiet English university town, he imagines a year of research and solitude, hoping to close the widening gulf he feels with his teenage daughter, Kaori. Instead, he finds himself adrift: a single father far from Tokyo, struggling to comprehend this strange land which he’s long idolised. 
 
Recently, Kaori has found refuge in a new videogame: its worlds dazzling, its logic unsettling. As she plays, the borders between reality and the virtual blur, drawing her closer to a story she doesn’t yet understand. She feels disconnected from her father, and has begun to wonder if she should, instead, embark on a quest to search for her long-lost mother. Might this fix everything? 
 
Meanwhile, a trench-coated Technician navigates a futuristic cyberpunk city with his robotic sidekick cat. They inhabit a world where ordinary people have chosen to live in their fantasies over reality, but even the Technician is blind as to what fate has in store for him. 
 
And then there is Elena: a young and gifted computer scientist; brilliant, bruised and searching for connection in all the wrong places. 
 
Told across four intertwining strands – a lonely professor, his restless daughter, the game she can’t stop playing, and the woman who draws them together – The Second Life of Professor Takahashi explores the fault lines between cultures and generations. Bold and playful, it is a novel about what it means to be seen, and what it costs to reach for someone across the silence.

The Second Life of Professor Takahashi

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