A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy and is known as @agatharoza on Wattpad.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, specialising in terrorism and counter-insurgency. He is the author and editor of several books, including Defending the Realm: The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars Since 1945, and has lectured all over the world on aspects of national and international security. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Aaron Edwards

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Kate Atkinson

The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson. 
 
'Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns' Observer 
 
Once it had been the great forest of Lythe. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor. 
 
But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees. The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all. 
 
But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpège and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

Human Croquet

I can think of few writers who can make the ordinary collide with the extraordinary to such beguiling effect...left me so fizzing with admiration' Observer 
 
A stunning collection of short stories by the three-times Costa prizewinner 
 
Not the End of the World is Kate Atkinson's first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality. 
 
From Charlene and Trudi, obsessively making lists while bombs explode softly in the streets outside, to gormless Eddie, maniacal cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who may just have discovered the secret to eternal life, each of these stories shows that when the worlds of material existence and imagination collide, anything is possible.

Not The End Of The World

Barney Norris

'Shot through with compassion . . . this dreamlike, winding tale is a joy.' A. L. KENNEDY 
 'Moving and unconventionally wise.' Guardian 
________________________ 
 
This was how I heard the most important story of my life, the thing that decided me, the story that determined who I was in the end. 
 
As snow begins to fall outside, two strangers meet by chance in a bar. She is trying to make sense of a life shaken by heartbreak and ruined dreams. He is on a desperate quest to find something he lost in his youth. 
 
From the blustery cliffs of Dover to the confines of a nuclear bunker; from the courtroom witness box to the West End stage, he flits from one life to another, never able to stand still. 
 
Extraordinary though his story is, the secret she is keeping is even more surprising, and will take them to a place neither of them - or you - expected. 
 
From the bestselling author of FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN comes this captivating novel about love, abandonment, and the power of stories to help us find our way in the world. 
 
________________________ 
 
What readers are saying: 
 
***** 'I absolutely loved this book - it's beautifully written, very emotional and full of wonderful flights of imagination.' 
***** 'Unlike anything I've read before.' 
***** 'A deeply moving account of fragile memory and lost love.' 
***** 'A completely beautiful book . . . I adored it.'

The Vanishing Hours

Jo Baker

---A GUARDIAN BEST SUMMER READ--- 
 
'A very modern interrogation of violent fiction. Fiendishly readable' SARAH MOSS, GUARDIAN 
'Powerful and moving' ERIN KELLY, author of He Said/She Said 
______________ 
 
When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start. But when one of her students starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate. 
 
Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late? 
 
At once a breathless battle-of-wits and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times. 
___________________ 
 
'Outstanding' CLARE MACKINTOSH 
 
'A literary exploration of consent, entitlement and how narratives can be bent, misappropriated and wrested back. I loved it' SARAH VAUGHAN 
 
'A propulsive #MeToo thriller.' GUARDIAN 
 
'Gripping. The perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller' MARIA SEMPLE 
 
'Page-turning thriller and examination of how women's bodies are treated, in life and in fiction.' THE BOOKSELLER 
 
'A novelist with a gift for intimate and atmospheric storytelling' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'Baker's heroine is one of the most believable I've seen on the page in a long time...nuanced, non-linear, lifelike' TLS 
 
'Gripping and fast-paced' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

The Body Lies

‘A propulsive #Metoo thriller’ GUARDIAN

Anna Hope

THE MUST-READ SUMMER 2020 RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK 
 
'If you wished Normal People had tackled female friendship, try Expectation' GRAZIA 
'Profoundly intelligent and humane. Deserves to feature on many a prize shortlist' GUARDIAN 
'A brilliant exploration of friendship, feminism and thwarted ambition' PANDORA SYKES 
______________________ 
 
What happened to the women we were supposed to become? 
 
Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry - and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends. 
 
Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life? 
 
The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year, EXPECTATION is a novel about finding your way: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel. 
 
___________________ 
'Thoughtful, beautifully written, honest. A sensual book. I URGE YOU TO READ IT' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'Beautiful, sharp, moving. I urge you to read it'' ELIZABETH DAY 
 
'A brilliant exploration of friendship, feminism and thwarted ambition' PANDORA SYKES 
 
'I loved it ... 10 out of 10' BRYONY GORDON 
 
'Will resonate with approximately 99% of women' RED MAGAZINE summer pick 
 
'One of the most intensely readable novels this year' METRO 
 
'One of our most gifted contemporary writers' WATERSTONES 
 
'SO GOOD. A 'What they did next' story of characters from a Sally Rooney novel' SARAH FRANKLIN 
 
'The story of 3 college friends, if you're a fan of Sally Rooney, you'll love EXPECTATION' IRISH EXAMINER 
 
'A must-read' FABULOUS MAGAZINE 
 
'A generation-defining book on motherhood, ambition and sex. Like NORMAL PEOPLE with female friendship under the microscope.' ERIN KELLY 
 
'Few novels leave me so genuinely breathless with their brilliance' HANNAH BECKERMAN 
 
'Sublime' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Book of the Year 
 
'A marvellously tangy London novel' DAILY MAIL 
 
'A grown-up, honest take on female camaraderie. Packed with talking points' MAIL ON SUNDAY 
 
'Hugely absorbing, massively enjoyable' LISSA EVANS 
 
'Totally unputdownable, immersive, sharp, FAB' HARRIET EVANS 
 
'Beautifully observed study of female friendship and a moving account of the collision between aspiration and reality' DAILY MAIL MUST-READ 
 
'Fantastically well-realised portrait of female friendship's joys and pains from an exciting new voice in British fiction' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Expectation

Melanie Cantor

From the author of The F**k It! List, the ultimate feelgood fiction which asks big questions: If your life was going to end tomorrow, what would you do today? 
 
'Brilliantly funny and thought-provoking - an absolute joy' Rosie Walsh, author of The Man Who Didn't Call 
 
'I LOVE this book! It is full of heart and hope' Cathy Kelly Cathy Kelly 
__ 
 
Three letters. Two mistakes. One Last chance. 
When Jennifer Cole is told she has three months to live she decides to write three letters sharing the desires, fears and frustrations she has always kept to herself. And at first she finds that telling the truth makes her feel free and liberated. 
 
But three months later, Jennifer's secrets are alive and out in the world . . . and so is she. As she discovers, sometimes the truth has a way of surprising you . . . 
__ 
 
Readers are falling in love with Life & Other Happy Endings! 
 
***** 'Incredibly funny and immensely moving.' 
***** 'I couldn't put this book down. Witty, touching and uplifting with a plot full of twists and turns.' 
***** 'This book was like a breath of fresh air from start to finish.' 
__ 
 
Life & Other Happy Endings was first published as Death & Other Happy Endings

Life and other Happy Endings

The witty, hopeful and uplifting read for Summer

Curtis Sittenfeld

By the Sunday Times bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY and PREP 
 
'Honest, wonderful and smart as hell' Guardian 
'Curtis Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Observer 
 
All I did is marry him. You are the ones who gave him power. 
 
Quiet, bookish Alice Blackwell never dreamed of being First Lady. Much less to a President whose politics she doesn't believe in. On perhaps the most important day of her husband's presidency, Alice looks back on the strange and unlikely path that led her to the White House, and to a decision - both treacherous and long overdue - that could jeopardise everything. 
 
Taking inspiration from real life, AMERICAN WIFE is a remarkable portrait of a woman caught between her feelings for her husband, her country, and herself. 
 
'My favourite book of the century' HADLEY FREEMAN, GUARDIAN

American Wife

The acclaimed word-of-mouth bestseller

Matias Faldbakken

Exquisitely observed and wickedly playful, The Waiter is a novel for lovers of food, wine, and of European sensibilities, but also for anyone who spends time in restaurants, on either side of the service. 
 
'Delicious.' New York Times 
 
'As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis . . . brilliantly exquisite . . . This book is a meal you won't want to finish.' J. Ryan Stradal 
 
'A sly amuse bouche of a novel . . . its atmosphere and observations are deliciously rich.' Mail on Sunday 
 
Welcome to The Hills, Oslo's most esteemed restaurant, an institution stewed in tradition and clinging to the faded grandeur of old Europe. 
 
 A neurotic waiter tends to the desires of his clientele. Aristocrats and artistes, wealthy widows and roguish entrepreneurs, he observes all their dramas with a wit as sharp as a filleting knife. 
 
 At table ten sits the impeccable Mr Graham, impatiently awaiting a special guest. When at last she arrives - young, beautiful, mysterious - she will prove to be a challenging new flavour, threatening both our waiter's nerves, and the delicately balanced ingredients of the room.

The Waiter

The unforgettable, award-winning debut novel and modern classic from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Life After Life and Shrines of Gaiety. 
 
'Delivers its jokes and its tragedies as efficiently as Dickens...outrageously funny...will dazzle readers for years to come' - HILARY MANTEL, bestselling author of Wolf Hall 
 
Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. 
 
Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with her children - sensible and sardonic Patricia aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby... 
 
In Behind the Scenes at the Museum, young Ruby tells the story of ‘The Family’, from the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life. 
 
Praise for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year: 
 
'An astounding book...without doubt one of the finest novels I have read for years' The Times 
 
'Little short of a masterpiece...Fizzing with wit and energy, Kate Atkinson's hilarious novel made me laugh and cry' Daily Mail 
 
‘A really gripping, emotionally satisfying family saga written with warmth and wit. I've re-read it countless times.’ Red 
 
‘A debut novel of astonishing confidence and skill...Acutely observant, overflowing with good jokes, it is the work of an author who loves her characters and sets them playing with gleeful energy’ Spectator 
 
‘Written so fluently and wittily that I sailed through it as though blown by an exhilarating wind… It lifted my spirits enormously. I loved it.’ Margaret Forster

Behind The Scenes At The Museum

The unforgettable prizewinning debut novel

Natsu Miyashita

Philip Gabriel

OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD 
''A mesmerising reading experience for all of us seeking a meaningful life' JAPAN TIMES 
 
What he experienced that day wasn’t life-changing . . . It was life-making. 
 
Tomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more. 
 
Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one jovial, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question: do I have what it takes? 
 
Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling – and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one’s purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation. 
 
Mega-bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, selected by bookshop staff as the book they most wanted to hand-sell: A tender and uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler. 
 
[Contains 5 exquisite hand-drawn illustrations]

The Forest of Wool and Steel

Winner of the Japan Booksellers’ Award

Livia Franchini

'Shelf Life is whip-smart, slyly heartbreaking, and I felt the truth of it in my bones.’ Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure 
 
Ruth is thirty years old. She works as a nurse in a care home and her fiancé has just broken up with her. The only thing she has left of him is their shopping list for the upcoming week. 
 
Starting with six eggs, and working through spaghetti and strawberries, apples and tea bags, this inventive novel builds a picture of a woman defined by the people she serves; her patients, her friends, and, most of all, her partner of ten years. Without him, Ruth needs to find out – with conditioner and single cream and a lot of sugar – who she is when she stands alone. 
 
With her fresh unpredictable style, Franchini skewers modern relationships and toxic masculinity, moving effortlessly between humour and heartbreak to tell the story of a woman rebuilding herself on her own terms.

Shelf Life

Anne Youngson

**As read on BBC Radio Four** 
 
Uplifting, joyous, hopeful - a novel about late love and second chances, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and winner of the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 
 
'A moving tribute to friendship and love, to the courage of the ordinary, and to starting again' RACHEL JOYCE, author of Miss Benson's Beetle 
'Full of grace and humanity' Sunday Times 
________________________ 
 
This story begins with a letter 
From a housewife 
to the gentle curator 
Of an extraordinary museum 
Where lies peacefully 
An ancient exhibit 
That holds the key 
To Everything 
We are. 
 
Meet Me at the Museum tells of a connection made across oceans and against all the odds. Through intimate stories of joy, despair, and discovery, two people are drawn inexorably towards each other, until a shattering revelation pushes their friendship to the very edge. 
 
This deeply affecting debut novel by seventy-three year-old Anne Youngson won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize and was dramatized on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour 
 
******************************* 
'Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.' JOHN BOYNE 
 
'Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing' DAILY EXPRESS 
 
'Beautiful and affecting' NINA STIBBE 
 
What readers are saying: 
'I loved this book. It was so different from anything else I have read'***** 
'I just loved this book and read it in one sitting. There were times when I felt like underlining the sentences that resonated with me'***** 
'I read this book one letter at a time, just to let the contents sink in. Tears came to my eyes'*****

Meet Me at the Museum

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2018

Lissa Evans

When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he winds up in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thiry-six, drowning in debts. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. 
 
The war's thrown up all manner of new opportunities but what Vee needs is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team. 
 
Together they cook up an idea. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't actually safe at all . . . 
 
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2015

Crooked Heart

‘My book of the year’ Jojo Moyes

Diane Setterfield

'I was completely spellbound' - Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things 
'Setterfield is a master storyteller' - Madeline Miller, author of Circe 
 
 Some say the river drowned her... Some say it brought her back to life 
 
 On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child. 
 
 Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. 
 
 Is it a miracle? 
 
 Is it magic? 
 
 And who does the little girl belong to? 
 
 An exquisitely crafted historical mystery brimming with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Victorian age. 
 
____________________ 
 
 Praise for Diane Setterfield: 
 
'An absolute feast of a book, which will keep you engrossed' RED magazine 
'Brimming with folklore, intrigue and romance, this is a story to savour' Woman &amp; Home 
'Once Upon a River continues to demonstrate [Setterfield's] mastery of the Gothic genre in a way that will appeal to modern readers' The Independent 
 
Readers are captivated by Once Upon a River: 
 
 ***** 'Pure escapism, a beautifully written story.' 
 ***** 'It felt as comforting as the fantastical stories you read as a child yet with a darker edge.' 
 ***** 'I was entranced from the beginning to the end.'

Once Upon a River

The Sunday Times bestseller

The spellbinding Sunday Times bestseller

Ben Elton

Why are we all so hostile? So quick to take offence? Truly we are living in the age of outrage. 
 
A series of apparently random murders draws amiable, old-school Detective Mick Matlock into a world of sex, politics, reality TV and a bewildering kaleidoscope of opposing identity groups. Lost in a blizzard of hashtags, his already complex investigation is further impeded by the fact that he simply doesn’t ‘get’ a single thing about anything anymore. 
 
Meanwhile, each day another public figure confesses to having ‘misspoken’ and prostrates themselves before the judgement of Twitter. Begging for forgiveness, assuring the public “that is not who I am”. 
 
But if nobody is who they are anymore - then who the f##k are we? 
 
Ben Elton returns with a blistering satire of the world as it fractures around us. Get ready for a roller-coaster thriller, where nothing - and no one - is off limits.

Identity Crisis

Markus Zusak

‘Achingly moving, delightfully funny, and thoroughly uplifting.’ M L STEDMAN, author of THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS 
‘This book BLEW ME AWAY' JODI PICOULT 
‘Rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and insight, and ultimately moving’ TIMES 
 ___ 
 
 Our mother was dead. Our father had fled 
 
Five Dunbar brothers are living – fighting, loving, grieving – in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups. 
 
This is a family rocked by tragedy and long buried secrets. To understand his family’s story, Matthew Dunbar must travel to find three things. A lost typewriter -- A dead dog -- The bones of the snake that killed it. 
 
He will learn of a mother who crosses continents for a new home; of a father searching for love in the keys of an old piano; and, finally, of a brother named Clay, who will make the most challenging journey of them all, and change their lives for ever. 
___ 
 
Readers love Bridge of Clay: 
 
***** ‘Page upon glorious page left my heart bruised, but gratefully beating’ 
***** ‘A book rarely touches me so emotionally’ 
***** ‘Original, compelling and richly resonant’ 
 
 
'One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time' WASHINGTON POST 
'This book blew me away' JODI PICOULT 
'Devastating, demanding, deeply moving' WALL STREET JOURNAL 
'Moving and epic' STYLIST

Bridge of Clay

The redemptive, joyous bestseller by the author of THE BOOK THIEF

The PRIZE-WINNING BESTSELLER, now a major BBC1 DRAMA SERIES starring Thomasin McKenzie, Sian Clifford and James McArdle, directed by BAFTA award-winning John Crowley. 
 
'Dazzling, witty, moving, joyful, mournful, profound... one of the best novels I've read this century' Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of GONE GIRL 
 
'A box of delights ... it grips the reader's imagination on the first page and never lets go.' HILARY MANTEL, author of THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT 
___________________________________ 
 
What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? 
 
During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. 
 
During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. 
 
What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? 
 
Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life's bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves. 
 
____________________ 
 
'Merging family saga with a fluid sense of time and an extraordinarily vivid sense of history at its most human level. A dizzying and dazzling tour de force' Daily Mail 
 
'Absolutely brilliant...it reminded me a bit of her first book Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which is one of my most favourite books ever.' Marian Keyes, author of Rachel, Again 
 
'An exceptional writer' Guardian 
 
'[A] magnificently tender and humane novel' Observer 
 
'A ferociously clever writer...a big, bold novel that is enthralling, entertaining' New Statesman 
 
'Exceptionally captivating' New York Times 
 
'Truly brilliant...Think of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife or David Nicholl's One Day.. a rare book that you want to start again the minute you have finished.' The Times

Life After Life

The global bestseller, now a major BBC series

Amanda Berriman

Jesika is four and a half. She lives in a flat with her mother and baby brother and she knows a lot. 
 
She knows their flat is high up and the stairs are smelly. She knows she should not draw on the wall where the wallpaper is peeling or touch the broken window. And she knows she loves her mummy and Toby. 
 
She does not know that their landlord is threatening to evict them and that Toby’s cough is going to get much worse. Or that Lauren, her new best friend, has a secret that will explode their world.

Home

John Boyne

'A deliciously dark tale of ambition, seduction and literary theft . . . an ingeniously conceived novel that confirms Boyne as one of the most assured writers of his generation.' Hannah Beckerman, Observer 
 
* 
 
You’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, that it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. It can lead to a long and painful fall. 
 
 
If you look hard enough, you will find stories pretty much anywhere. They don’t even have to be your own. Or so would-be-novelist Maurice Swift decides early on in his career. 
 
 
A chance encounter in a Berlin hotel with celebrated author Erich Ackerman gives Maurice an opportunity. For Erich is lonely, and he has a story to tell; whether or not he should is another matter. 
 
 
Once Maurice has made his name, he finds himself in need of a fresh idea. He doesn’t care where he finds it, as long as it helps him rise to the top. Stories will make him famous, but they will also make him beg, borrow and steal. They may even make him do worse. 
 
 
This is a novel about ambition. 
 
* 
 
'Maurice Swift, the novelist protagonist of John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky, is a bookish version of Patricia Highsmith’s psychopathic antihero Tom Ripley' The Times 
 
'A dark morality tale in the mould of Patricia Highsmith . . . consistently intriguing' Daily Mail

A Ladder to the Sky

From the bestselling author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies

The deeply moving second novel from the author of the award-winning FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN. 
 
'Courageous...memorable...moving' - Guardian 
'One of our most exciting young writers' - The Times 
'Life-affirming, beautiful and achingly poignant' - Donal Ryan 
 
'Isn’t the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tape’s breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.' 
 
Every year, Robert's family comes together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and nor, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all. 
 
As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.

Turning for Home

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA NOVEL AWARD AND BESTSELLING LITERARY PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 
 
'Atkinson's finest work, and confirmation that her genre-defying writing continues to surprise and dazzle' Observer 
 
A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd – would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have. 
 
This gripping, often deliriously funny yet emotionally devastating book looks at war – that great fall of Man from grace – and the effect it has, not only on those who live through it, but on the lives of the subsequent generations. It is also about the infinite magic of fiction. Few will dispute that it proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the most exceptional novelists of our age. 
 
'A dazzling read...ends on one of the most devastating twists in recent fiction' DAILY TELEGRAPH

A God in Ruins

Costa Novel Award Winner 2015

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fans of Jodi Picoult, Susan Lewis, Mitch Alborn and Alice Sebold will love this compelling, emotionally charged and unforgettable novel from international bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. 
 
'A heroic, superbly crafted novel worth reading again and again and again' - The Denver Post 
'Ryan Hyde spins her tale so effortlessly that the reader closes the book with a quiet sense of elation' -- San Francisco Chronicle 
'I couldn't put it down' -- ****** Reader review 
'Pure emotion' -- ***** Reader review 
'This book held me spellbound to the end' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely loved this book' -- ***** Reader review 
 
**************************************************************** 
THERE'S A SPLIT SECOND BETWEEN HAVING IT ALL, AND LOSING EVERYTHING. 
 
Hayden briefly has it all: a wife and daughter he adores and a baby on the way. But when his son dies at birth, a deep anger emerges, robbing Hayden of everything. 
 
Years on, Hayden is living in self-imposed exile. He's just lost his beloved dog and is now losing Laurel, the only woman he's loved since... 
 
But just as Hayden's rage rises again, a young figure from the past emerges, forcing him to re-visit his long-buried childhood...

The Hardest Part of Love

a powerful and thought-provoking novel from bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club author Catherine Ryan Hyde

Anne Ostby

I’ve planted my feet on Fijian earth and I intend to stay here until the last sunset . Why don’t you join me? Leave behind everything that didn’t work out! 
 
When recently-widowed Kat writes to her four old school friends, inviting them to live with her on a cocoa plantation in the South Pacific, they swap icy pavements and TV dinners for a tropical breeze and an azure-blue ocean. Leaving behind loneliness, dead-end jobs and marriages that have gone sour, they settle into the Women’s House, surrounded by palms and cocoa trees; and locals with the puzzling habit of exploding into laughter for no discernible reason. 
 
Each of the women has her issues to resolve, and secrets to keep. But together the friends find a new purpose, starting a business making chocolate: bittersweet, succulent pieces of happiness. As they embrace a new culture that views ageing so differently from their own, will they learn to accept and forgive: to discover the value of friendship, and a better way to live?

Pieces of Happiness

A Novel of Friendship, Hope and Chocolate

John Boyne's acclaimed quartet, THE ELEMENTS, is available now. 
 
'A bold, funny epic' Observer 
'Compelling and satisfying . . . At times, incredibly funny, at others, heartrending' Sarah Winman, author of Still Life 
___ 
 
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery. At least, that's what his parents make sure to remind him. Adopted as a baby, he feels more and more disconnected with the family that treats him more as a curious pet, rather than a beloved son. 
 
So, as a young adult, Cyril decides to embark on a quest to find his place in the world. Sometimes misguided and often in the wrong place at the wrong time, life has dealt him a difficult hand but Cyril is resolute that he can change things, and find the courage to be himself. 
 
And in doing so, his story will come across that of Catherine Goggin, a young, pregnant woman finding herself alone and isolated at only sixteen. There is a place in the world for both of them, and Cyril is determined to find it. 
___ 
 
What readers are saying: 
 
'The story of the life of one man, told against the backdrop of twentieth century Ireland' 'Simultaneously heart-breaking, funny and life-affirming.' 
'Fantastic eccentric characters and dark humour is underpinned by a touching love story, perfect.' 
'The saddest and happiest book I have read . . . told with great compassion and ultimately a great love of life.'

The Heart's Invisible Furies

Roland Vernon

The unexpected suicide of an apparently happy family man; a woman held captive for three years in a forgotten underground bunker; a middle aged clergyman at a crisis point in his life, drawn into an uncomfortable relationship with a teenaged girl. Against the backcloth of these interwoven tales comes the story of two very different men who meet accidentally and are dramatically thrown together. 
 
Piet Steyn and Granville St Clair happen both to be out walking at dawn on a country lane when they unintentionally become joint witnesses of a domestic tragedy. There is one aspect of what they see that morning which they feel compelled to keep secret - a decision that will later have appalling repercussions for them both. As the layers of their private lives begin to peel away, they find themselves unwillingly bound together in a conspiracy with deadly consequences. 
 
The Good Wife's Castle is a tense thriller that explores a clash of human evil and goodness, of despair, murderous obsession and twisted spirituality, all of which co-exist beneath the veneer of seemingly respectable people in a quiet rural community.

The Good Wife's Castle

Dean Bakopoulos

When I was sixteen, my father went to the moon. 
&nbsp; 
When Michael was sixteen his father left home. He wasn't the first to go. One by one other men in the blue-collar neighbourhood outside Detroit where Michael lives vanish. One props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. 'I'm going to the moon,' it reads, 'I took all the cash'. 
 
The wives are left behind, and with few jobs and fewer opportunities they drink, brawl, sleep around, and gradually make new lives knowing their husbands are never coming back. Michael and his friends grow up. They try to get an education, start their first jobs, fall in love and begin to build families of their own. Until one night the restlessness of their fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away. 
 
This is a haunting, unforgettable début novel of fathers and sons, and of growing up the hard way. Shot through with magic and brimming with humanity, it is a novel for anyone who has even been left longing.

Please Don't Come Back from the Moon

Gavin Chait

A strange craft falls from the stars and crashes into the jungle near an isolated West African community. Inside, the locals discover the broken body of a man unlike any they have seen before – a man who is perhaps something more than human. 
 
His name is Samara and he speaks with terror of a place called Tartarus – an orbiting prison where hope doesn’t exist. 
 
As Samara begins to heal, he also transforms the lives his rescuers. But in so doing, he attracts the attention of a warlord whose gunmen now threaten the very existence of the villagers themselves – and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home. 
 
And all the while, in the darkness above, waits the simmering fury at the heart of Tartarus . . .

Lament for the Fallen

Peter Gardos

An uplifting true story of finding love after the horrors of war. For fans of THE TATTOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, SCHINDLER'S LIST and THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS 
 
 
'Dramatic, compassionate and deeply moving.' Jennifer Clement, author of award-winning novel PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN 
 
It's 1945, and Miklos is looking for love... 
 
He whistles up a list if 117 Hungarian women from his village, and in his beautiful handwriting, he writes to each of them. 
 
But what's the catch? 
 
Miklos has just emerged from Belsen, and is recovering in a refugee camp in Sweden. He is so weak that he has only six months to live. 
 
But Miklos is not going to allow a small thing like that stand in the way of love... 
 
 
Spoiler Alert: FEVER AT DAWN is inspired by the true story of the author's parents, which may give you an idea of how Miklos' plan unfolds... 
 
 
'A magnificent novel, tonally flawless, its humour defiant in the face of vast tragedy.' Joan London, author of GILGAMESH

Fever at Dawn

The heartbreaking true story of a boy from the concentration camp of Belsen

John Irving

Juan Diego’s little sister is a mind reader. As a teenager, he struggles to keep anything secret – Lupe knows all the worst things that go through his mind. And sometimes she knows more. What a terrible burden it is to know – or to think you know – your future, or worse, the future of someone you love. What might a young girl be driven to do if she thought she had the power to change what lies ahead? 
 
Later in life, Juan Diego embarks on a journey to fulfil a promise he made in his youth. It is a long story and it has long awaited an ending, but Juan Diego is unable to write the final chapters. 
 
This is the story of what happens when the future collides with the past.

Avenue of Mysteries

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LONGBOURN 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2017 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2017 
 
'Skilful . . . daring . . . extraordinary' The Guardian 
 
'A fascinating fictional account of Samuel Beckett's wartime years' IAN RANKIN 
 
'Beautifully written, empathetic and unflinching, it is very, very good' Daily Mail 
 
'Marvellous, spare, moving' FRANCIS SPUFFORD 
 
'Insightful . . . beautifully paced . . . authentic’ The Irish Times 
 
Paris, 1939: The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs Elysees. A young writer, recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon, he will put is own life and those of his loved ones in mortal danger by joining the Resistance... 
 
Spies, artists, deprivation, danger and passion: this is a story of life at the edges of human experience, and of how one man came to translate it all into art. 
 
Sunday Express Book of the Month 
 
Praise for Jo Baker's LONGBOURN: 
'Intoxicating' Guardian 
'Engrossing' Sunday Times 
'Audacious' New York Times

A Country Road, A Tree

Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Memorial Prize for Historical Fiction

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

Filters

Category

Age

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter