Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

Ajay Chowdhury

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Carys Green

'How would you react to sharing your home with your clone?... Gripping and haunting' Tess Mackey 
 
‘It will be all right,’ Nellie assured her with startling confidence. 
‘I’m here to make things better. You’ll see.’ 
 
Elena and Stu are barely holding it together. Their newborn screams through the night, their nerves are frayed, and their marriage is hanging by a thread. 
 
Then comes More You: a company offering an impossible solution — a clone. For a price, they can have another Elena. One who is fresh. Alert. 
 
At first, it feels like salvation. The clone is calm, capable, perfect. But soon she starts to pick up Elena’s habits. Her voice. Her smile. And in the quiet hours of the night, something in the house begins to shift. 
 
When the cracks finally split wide open, Elena is forced to confront a terrifying question: if someone takes your place, what happens to you? 
 
'Clever and thought provoking...profoundly chilling' Ajay Chowdhury

The Other You

Janet Tay

Every morning before sunrise, Lim Ah Hock opens the shutters of his small kitchen on Carpenter Street, lights an incense stick and prepares the best laksa soup in all of Kuching. According to Lim family legend, the laksa’s secret ingredient – their ancestral broth – was gifted to them by a deity, who promised the family prosperity as long as the broth is passed down through the generations. 
 
But Ah Hock is aging, and the broth’s quality is fading. His only son, Wei Ming, has no interest in the family business, having spent eight years in Hong Kong trying to prove himself as a chef. Now, he's struggling with gambling debts, embroiled in a love triangle, and the restaurant he's been left to run has lost its Global Restaurants Guild star. 
 
Invited home to Malaysia for his father's 60th birthday, Wei Ming sees a chance to escape his troubles. But when old conflicts resurface and a local businessman threatens to destroy the family legacy, father and son are forced to ask themselves what truly matters.

Early Mornings at the Laksa Cafe

Álvaro Enrigue

In the contested borderlands between Mexico and the United States, a Mexican woman flees into the desert after a devastating raid on her dead husband’s ranch. Meanwhile, a lieutenant colonel of the fledgling Republic, sent in pursuit of cattle rustlers, will soon discover he’s on the trail of a more dramatic abduction.Decades later, with political ambitions on the line, the American and Mexican militaries try to manoeuvre Geronimo, the most legendary of Apache warriors, into surrender. And in our own day, a family travels through the region in search of a truer version of the past. 
 
Now I Surrender is Álvaro Enrigue’s most impassioned novel yet. Part epic, part alt-Western, it weaves past and present, myth and history, into a searing elegy for a way of life that was an incarnation of true liberty – that still sparks in us the thrill of almost unimaginable freedom.

Now I Surrender

Ela Lee

The night the baby without a surname was born, the army rolled into his mother’s town 
 
Incheon, South Korea, 1985. The country is revolting against a dictatorship, but in the local boarding-house, the chaos inside is only just beginning. When Hana is pulled from school to work in her family’s minbak, all she wants is to escape her small town. When she finally does, she leaves as an exile, a ruin, or a martyr, depending on who you ask. Her mother Youngia is left behind with the torment of both of their decisions. 
 
London, 2008. Ada knows little about her mother, Hana. When tragedy hits, Hana has no choice but to move her daughter and ailing mother into a single room and turn the rest of their home into a minbak. As the past collides with the present, Ada is determined to unearth her mother’s secrets. But her obsession will lead to a discovery that unravels not just her family’s dark past, but that of an entire country’s. 
 
From Korea’s industrial estates to London’s suburbs, the three women cross continents and generations to find truth, forgiveness and compassion. 
 
‘Had me utterly engrossed. An incredible story of love, conflict and heartbreak.’ Rosie Price 
 
‘Lyrical and devastating MINBAK is a flawless meditation on memory, love and misunderstanding.’ Ella King 
 
‘A poignant and precise novel by a writer of great skill.’ Nicola Dinan

Minbak

Josie Lloyd

Emlyn Rees

One couple. One past. A million tomorrows. Adam and Jules have been married for 25 years when they discover a time machine in their shed - can it bring back their romantic spark? Or will it unravel everything? 
 
Meet Adam and Jules. Married for nearly twenty-five years and stuck in a rut, their future looks, well, boring. 
 
Then Adam stumbles across a pile of old mixtapes he and Jules made for each other when they were young and falling in love. He dusts off his vintage stereo, inserts one of the cassettes, presses play…and the unbelievable happens. 
 
With the power to travel back in time, he and Jules can revisit pivotal moments in their pasts. Is this the key to getting their sparkle back? They embark on an epic hunt through the multiverse for their perfect love story. But as they visit the past, they realise that time travel could be as dangerous as it is addictive, because the temptation to change just a few tiny things is irresistible. 
 
As the consequences start to spiral out of control, can they find a way back to their messy, imperfect, glorious real life? Or will they lose each other forever? 
 
Funny, heart-warming and honest, You & Me & You & Me & You & Me is a time travel rom-com with all the joyful hallmarks of an instant feel-good classic.

You & Me and You & Me and You & Me

Édouard Louis

Édouard’s brother spends much of his life dreaming. He lives in a poor, working-class world, where he imagines that he will become one of the finest butchers in France, that he will travel, that he will make his fortune, that he will restore cathedrals, and that he will earn his father’s love. 
 
But his reality allows him none of this. There is no way to escape, no one who can show him how, and everything about him – his drinking, his violence, his behaviour with women and with others – condemns him. 
 
At thirty-eight he is found dead on the floor of his small studio apartment. This book is the story of his collapse.

Collapse

Robin Brookes

Leo and Viv's Friday night starts out like any other. A bottle of wine, a takeaway from their favourite Chinese restaurant, a movie, then an early night. But when Leo wakes up, he finds he's not in London anymore; he's naked and alone in an unfamiliar bed, in an anonymous hotel, on the other side of the world. 
 
Viv wakes up to a ringing phone. It's Leo - he claims that he's in Australia, despite the impossibility of it. An emergency passport is arranged. A return flight to London is booked, but before Leo can make it onto the plane, there's a flicker in the corner of his vision, and he wakes up in another bed, in another hotel room, in another country. 
 
Disoriented, Leo soon discovers he's not alone. Someone with access to a groundbreaking technology and an axe to grind is beaming a group of individuals around the globe - and hunting them down, one by one, committing perfect, untraceable murders. 
 
As Leo fights for his life, back in London, Viv is struggling to understand what's happening. But as her investigation deepens she starts to unearth secrets from Leo's past. Dark secrets. Secrets that might be enough to make someone want to kill him. And the more she learns about Leo, the less she seems to know - and the less certain she is that her husband is a man worth saving.

The Arrival

Amil

In a future Korea, the world has been ravaged by dust clouds and the deadly Akanta virus. Rather than live in their nightmarish present, people slip on virtual reality headsets to indulge in simulations of the past. 
 
Eighteen-year-old Soop - stigmatised by her brush with Akanta, which causes VR Rejection – is bullied at school for having to live solely in the real world. Her only solace comes from the K-pop music she listens to on repeat. When Soop comes face to face with her idol, Yichae, whose new music video is being filmed at Soop's high school, she hopes this might be her chance at real connection. 
 
But Yichae has her own troubles. She is one of the few remaining ‘real’ human idols, forced to live up to unattainable standards while being celebrated for her supposed authenticity. 
 
The Forest Called You is a love letter to K-pop, romance and high school politics – a novel about staying true to our passions and loving ourselves and each other in an increasingly artificial world.

The Forest Called You

Karl Ove Knausgaard

'[An] almost dangerously immersive reading experience that will completely take over your life. . . by turns bleak, funny and horrifying, but never less than utterly captivating' Martin MacInnes, Booker longlisted author of IN ASCENSIONLondon. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all. 
 
Kristian Hadeland, newly arrived in the city, seethes with ambition and contempt. His family in Norway never understood him; his fellow photography students bore him. But he knows he and his art are destined for more. 
 
Then he meets Hans, an eccentric Dutch artist. With Hans, the future Kristian yearns for is tangible. All art is possible. Any line can be crossed. 
 
But success comes at a price. And when Kristian does the unthinkable, will he be prepared to pay it? 
 
Electrifying and unflinching, The School of Night is a singular novel about artistic creation and human corruption. It is the story of one terrible man's rise and fall, and a reckoning with the darkest parts of human nature. 
 
PRAISE FOR KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD: 
 
‘Absorbs you utterly’ Sunday Times 
‘One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read’ Brandon Taylor 
‘Addictive’ Daily Telegraph 
‘Brilliant storytelling . . . Epic’ Independent 
‘As accessible and creepy as anything by Stephen King and as addictive as your favourite TV drama’ Spectator 
‘Knausgaard is among the finest writers alive’’ New York Times 
 
 
 
The School of Night is set in the Morning Star universe.

The School of Night

Out of the World is Karl Ove Knausgaard's award-winning debut novel. 
 
 26-year-old Henrik Vankel works as a teacher in northern Norway. At the school, he becomes infatuated with Miriam. But she is a student in his class. 
 
 Out of the World was the first ever debut novel to win the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature.

Out of the World

Kim Jee Hye

Welcome to Soyangri Book Kitchen 
 
In a peaceful village in the countryside, far from the bustling heart of Seoul, lies a book lovers’ paradise. With its wafts of delicious food and book-filled shelves, Soyangri Book Kitchen is dotingly managed by its plucky proprietor Yoojin. Her aim? To create a sanctuary for weary souls like herself. 
 
But the book kitchen is more than just a place to eat or read – it’s a place which offers its guests a true escape, not just inside the pages of its many books, but in the warm embrace of an overnight bookstay. 
 
Over the course of a year, seven individuals, all at a crossroads in their lives, find their way to Yoojin’s book kitchen. Among them are Da-in, a singer grappling with an identity crisis, Sohee, a promising lawyer confronted with a daunting medical diagnosis, and Soohyuk, a young musical director whose dreams have been stifled by failure. 
 
As they arrive in Soyangri, each of them will find their life subtly transformed by the magic of its books and the kindness of its people.

Soyangri Book Kitchen

Nagi Shimeno

After a long and happy life with a loving human family, tabby cat Fuuta has passed into the afterlife. But he is not as far from his owner Michiru as it seems. Sometimes the divide between the lands of the living and the dead can be traversed. 
 
Eager to see Michiru again, Fuuta interviews for a position at Café Pont, which sits in the liminal space between the two worlds. The café is known for its unique service: its living customers can request meetings with the person they'd most like to see again, through the specially selected spirits of messenger cats. 
 
Fuuta must investigate and deliver his messages without unnerving the living, or worse, upsetting the balance of the universe itself. It is a weighty task for a tabby cat, but Fuuta rises to the challenge. After all, the job offers a special reward: he will get to see Michiru again. And he'll do anything to reunite with his family.

Messenger Cat Café

Rebecca Lehmann

Anne Boleyn returns from the dead to seek justice in this compelling, entertaining and original novel 
 
Disgraced. Beheaded. Revived . . . 
 
When Anne Boleyn wakes up after her execution she finds she is not yet ready for death. She has unfinished business with the king who had her murdered and is determined to secure her daughter, Elizabeth’s, future. Discarded by Henry for failing to produce a male heir, reviled by the court for being too smart for her own good and beheaded on trumped-up charges, Anne has one last chance to turn her fate around. She escapes the tower, sews her head back on, and sets out on a quest for justice. 
 
But Anne’s path will not run smoothly as she encounters the dangers of London and the countryside, and rumours start to swirl about sightings of her ghost. Luckily for her, she will find help from a chance meeting with fenlander Alice, who offers her the possibility of a different future. 
 
The Beheading Game takes you into the heart and mind of one of the most talked-about women of all time and finally gives her the chance to tell her side of the story. 
 
‘Magic, romance, revenge, and an utterly irresistible heroine – this book is an instant classic’ Lev Grossman, author of The Bright Sword 
 
'Fabulous! A marvelously inventive and mythic reworking of the story of Anne Boleyn. I loved it' Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

The Beheading Game

Haruki Murakami

‘What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real.’ A lavishly illustrated edition of Murakami’s classic story. 
 
Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment. It was powerfully built, standing over six feet tall on its hind legs. A skinny little man no more than five foot three, Katagiri was overwhelmed by the frog's imposing bulk. 
‘Call me “Frog,”’ said the frog in a clear, strong voice. 
Katagiri stood rooted in the doorway, unable to speak. 
‘Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you. Just come and close the door. Please.’ 
Briefcase in his right hand, grocery bag with fresh vegetables and canned salmon cradled in his left arm, Katagiri didn't dare move. 
‘Please, Mr. Katagiri, hurry and close the door, and take off your shoes.’ 
 
Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this special edition of Murakami’s celebrated short story sees the bewildered Katagiri find meaning in his humdrum life through joining forces with Frog in an effort to save Tokyo from an existential threat. 
 
‘No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades’ Financial Times 
 
‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times

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