Evelyn Waugh was born in Hampstead in 1903 and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1928 he published his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). During these years he also travelled extensively and converted to Catholicism. In 1939 Waugh was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, experiences which informed his Sword of Honour trilogy (1952-61). His most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945), was written while on leave from the army. Waugh died in 1966.

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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 
 
'Hugely enjoyable, absolutely real and thoughtful...Newman has an Ephon-esque gift for blending the sharp and the sad and an ability to let us love her creations.’ Observer 
 
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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. 
 
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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: 
 
'I LOVE her work... the antidote to these times' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'Darkly funny, achingly emotional' Woman & Home 
 
'Infectiously funny' RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Homemade God 
 
‘Insightful and totally relatable’ Good Housekeeping 
 
‘The new queen of the bittersweet novel’ Independent

Wreck

Laura Barnett

From Sunday Times Number 1 bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, The Versions of Us, a beautiful novel about six lifelong friends and one unforgettable year, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. 
 
‘This is exactly the book I want to hold me…gentle, moving, immensely readable’ Pandora Sykes 
 
‘A perfect, can’t-put-down read!’ Red 
 
‘A beautifully written story about second chances…couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’ Heat 
 
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Six friends who were inseparable at university find themselves reunited at an engagement party twenty years later... 
 
Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay-at-home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business. 
 
When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. 
 
Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose? 
 
Births, Deaths And Marriages is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. 
 
It’s about births, deaths, marriages... and everything in between. 
 
Praise for Laura Barnett and Births Deaths and Marriages: 
 
‘My first read by Laura Barnett and won’t be my last…richly written and so moving’ Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things 
 
‘I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors’ Georgina Moore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Garnett Girls 
 
'A compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family' Kate Sawyer, Costa Prize shortlisted author of The Stranding 
 
‘Barnett has that rare talent, like Curtis Sittenfeld or Kate Atkinson, of building up the mundane aspects of everyday life until they acquire meaning’ The Times 
 
Readers love Births, Deaths & Marriages: 
 
‘Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day...I couldn't put it down.’ 
 
'A rich, emotional read. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself rooting for each of them.' 
 
'An emotional, heartfelt book about the joys and sorrows of life. It is about love in all its forms, the friendships that shape us, and the quiet moments that define who we become.' 
 
‘Wow! Just wow! A book for anyone who has loved, for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one, for anyone who has contemplated or been married, for every parent, indeed, for anyone who has lived.’ 
 
'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful — a fantastic, life-affirming read.' 
 
'Characters so real you feel they could be your friends.'

Births, Deaths and Marriages

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. 
 
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'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

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

Zoe Dubno

The funny, propulsive new novel about hating your friends, hating what they bring out in you, hating how you pander to them, the perfect satirical summer read for fans of Emma Cline, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Ottessa Moshfegh. 
 
A LitHub most anticipated book of 2025 
 
‘Exceptionally funny and entertaining’ Katy Hessel, bestselling author of The Story of Art Without Men 
 
‘A gorgeous book on being a hater, and I inhaled this in one sitting’ Stylist 
 
 
Years after escaping her unbearable artworld friends in New York for a new life in London, an unnamed writer finds herself once more at their dinner table for a single, hideous evening. 
 
It’s the day after the funeral of their mutual friend, a failed actress and – Eugene and Nicole, an artist-curator couple – are hosting a dinner party. If the narrator once loved and admired the couple and their important friends, she now despises them all. 
 
Most of all, however, she despises herself for being lured back to this cavernous apartment, to this hollow, bourgeois social set, for a dinner party that isn’t even being thrown in their deceased friend’s honour, but in the honour of an up-and-coming actress who is by now several hours late. 
 
As the guests sip at their drinks and await the actress’s arrival, the narrator, from her vantage point in the corner seat of a white sofa entertains herself - and us - with a silent, tender, merciless takedown. 
 
A satire about friendship, capitalism, culture, and art, Happiness and Love is the razor-sharp new novel from an exciting literary voice. 
 
 
‘Bracing and funny and fiercely clever’ Orlando Whitfield, Nero-award listed author of All that Glitters 
 
‘An ecstatic performance of heightened perception’ Chris Kraus, bestselling author of I Love Dick 
 
‘Zeitgeist and timeless, cynical but not soulless. Fabulous!’ Melissa Broder, author of Milk Fed and The Pisces

Happiness and Love

Kate Atkinson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jane Flett

'A battle hymn to the chaos goblin that lurks within us all' Leon Craig, author of The Decadence 
 
The year that Florida fell into the sea, I killed a man and joined a cult and ran away to Mexico. I ate human flesh for the first time. 
 
It’s another sticky summer in New Orleans, and the world is ending. Tourists are descending on the city, natural disasters abound, and Marcy’s old boxing scar has reopened. It’s enough to make any girl want to take her seemingly perfect life and set it all on fire. 
 
So when Marcy meets a crew of degenerate filmmakers hell-bent on summoning the apocalypse, she lets herself be swept into their world of filth, arson and debauchery. 
 
They think her scar might mark her as their Chosen one, and she's never been able to resist a bit of flattery. Who wouldn't want to bring about a revolution? But the more entangled she becomes in their world, the harder it is to resist the very power she swore to burn . . . 
 
Praise for Freakslaw 
'A transgressive, inventive dark fantasy' Guardian 
'Cracking with desire, hedonism, angst, violence and sex' Heat 
'A celebration of the marginalised' Observer 
'As frightening as it is seductive' Herald

Welcome to the Chaoskampf

E Y Zhao

'A staggeringly good debut, written with élan, compassion and wit' Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time 
'Challengers, but make it table tennis' Lit Hub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2025' 
'An eruption of a debut . . . with meticulous precision and tremendous heart' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars 
'A superior force to be reckoned with' Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others and Choice 
 
Ryan Lo begins playing table tennis aged eight. His brilliant but ruthless coach sees a talent in him that might be nurtured into greatness. 
 
Through an adolescence marked by hours of practice, matches away from home, clandestine relationships and a determination to win, Ryan ascends to the highest echelons of the game, just as he was supposed to. 
 
But here he is now, dead before his twenty-fifth birthday, leaving grief and confusion in his wake. 
 
Ryan Lo was meant to be great. What happened? 
 
Underspin delves beneath the pressure that forges a champion, and the vulnerability that makes a coming of age: the crackling intensity of a match, the push and pull of first love, and the great injustices committed within our closest relationships. 
 
 
'A kaleidoscopic novel . . . Zhao's prose is a marvel' Rob Franklin, author of Great Black Hope 
'Leaves a trail of fire in its wake . . . An electric debut' Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky 
'An unconventional and stylish portrait of a table tennis wunderkind . . . this book will immerse you in its high-stakes world until the very last page' Alina Grabowski, author of Women and Children First

Underspin

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

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

Livia Franchini

Summer, 1992. Peter, a promising young artist, vanishes off the coast of Tuscany. Ten days later, his body washes ashore, bloated and unrecognisable. For one sweltering summer, his death grips the public imagination, before fading into the haze of nineties lore. 
 
Thirty years on, Peter’s widow, Marie, has become infamous in her own right. A cult but reclusive horror writer, her novels are celebrated for their dark brilliance – but no one knows the woman behind the pen name, or the memories she’s spent a lifetime suppressing. 
 
When a retrospective of Peter’s work is announced at a prestigious London gallery, an old friend resurfaces who seems determined to drag Marie from the shadows and unmask her. Drawn back to Italy, she feels the past begin to stir: the heat, the secrets, the girl she once was. What does she owe the dead – and how far will she go to protect the living?

High Tide

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

Caryl Lewis

From the multi award-winning author of Drift, winner of the Welsh Book of the Year 
 
'Extraordinary…this book will absolutely tug at your soul. One to re-read and treasure….glorious, heart-breaking, yet ultimately full of hope.' Liz Hyder, author of The Twelve 
 
'A gentle and tender novel about the power of forgiveness and how humans might thrive when given the space to grow. Richly rewarding fiction.' Kirsty Capes, author of Careless and Girls 
____ 
 
‘A seed in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible’ Old Welsh Proverb 
 
Hannah has lived at Berllan Deg all her life, her husband came to live at the orchard when they got married. Tonight, she prepares for his funeral as he lies in the parlour. Over fifty years of marriage, a lifetime of memories dissipating in the impossibility of his stillness. He was a writer and a beekeeper who came to understand the world through the language of bees. He has left her eleven letters; the exact same number as there are frames in a bee’s nest. Each letter is an examination of an aspect of their marriage. The morning of the funeral, Sadie, Hannah’s estranged little sister comes back home for the service. As the letters unfold, they reveal a devastating secret that will make Hannah have to re-evaluate her whole life. 
 
Bitter Honey is a novel which brings three very different women together into a broken Eden and examines how they rebuild it on their own terms.

Bitter Honey

Hiro Arikawa

THE INSTANT TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
DISCOVER YOUR NEXT FEELGOOD JAPANESE NOVEL, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES 
 
Over 1.4 million copies sold in Japan 
 
'You will be wrapped in laughter and tears' Reader review***** 
'What I love about it is its Kindness' Reader review***** 
'I wanted to tap the shoulders of the characters' Reader review***** 
‘Imagine Murder on the Orient Express without the untimely fatalities and you'll be halfway towards this cosy and affecting read' Harper's Bazaar 
_________ 
 
The contents of each traveller's heart is a mystery known only to themselves 
 
Trundling through the scenic countryside of Kyoto and Osaka is the Hankyu line, a burgundy-coloured electric train that has been carrying its commuters to their destinations for decades. 
 
Over the course of a single journey in springtime, and the return journey six months later just as the leaves begin to fall: 
 
- a young man meets the woman who happens to take out the last copy of the library book he was about to borrow; 
- an angry wedding guest dresses in a white gown to upstage the bride; 
- a university student leaves home for the first time; 
- a twenty-something finally grows the courage to walk away from an abusive partner 
- a widow learns independence, as she and her granddaughter discuss their new dog. 
 
As the seasons and the landscapes change, passengers jostle and connect, as this timeless train carries each one forward towards the person they intend to become.

The Passengers on the Hankyu Line

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

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