Contemporary Fiction

I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo. Sylvia Plath's groundbreaking semi-autobiographical novel offers an intimate, honest and often wr…

A hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-shortlisted author. It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess h…

THE NEW NOVEL BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE WEEKEND, NOW LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small re…

Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs' only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesq…

EVERY FAMILY HAS SECRETS. SOME ARE JUST BETTER AT HIDING THEIRS... MEET THE TOBIN FAMILY ... Conor, the high-achieving CEO and media darling walking a fine line between self-promotion and self-destruction.  Frances, the 'perfect'…

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to sa…

Wild Decembers charts the quick and critical demise of relations between Joseph Brennan and Mick Bugler-"the warring sons of warring sons"- in the countryside of Western Ireland. With her inimitable gift for describing the occasio…

In A Pagan Place, Edna O'Brien returns to Ireland, the uniquely wonderful, terrible, and peculiar place she once called home. After leaving to join a religious community in Belgium, a young woman remembers her childhood on the wes…

In the Forest is a newly reissued edition of the terrifying novel from "one of the greatest writers in the English-speaking world" (The New York Times), Edna O'Brien.O'Brien takes her reader into the mind of Michen O'Kane, a murde…

Love and tragedy converge in a seaside town in The High Road, a newly reissued novel from Edna O'Brien, the author of Girl and "one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition)This richly peopled…

Taking his inspiration from biographical facts, novelist Colum McCann tells the erotically charged story of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev through the cast of those who knew himThere is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teache…

Dear Dickhead,I read the piece you posted on Insta. You're like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It's shitty and unpleasant.Congratulations: you've had your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? Here I am writ…

The darkly comic new novel from the bestselling author of The Portable Veblen. Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over, she’s quit her job, her parents have been missing in the Australian outback for five years and now she’s…

The hottest debut novel of 2023 from Schitt’s Creek and Smothered screenwriter and an Observer debut author of the year, Monica Heisey.  Maggie’s marriage has ended just 608 days after it started, but she’s fine – she’s doing real…

Ama Torres is a great wedding planner. Ama Torres does not believe in happily-ever-afters… When Ama lands the job of her dreams, a headline-grabbing wedding for a glamorous Instagram star and her fiancee, it’s her biggest job yet.…

First comes lust. An hour after meeting a hot stranger at a bar, Max is with him on the rooftop of his Manhattan apartment, making out.Then comes hate. Just five minutes later, Max is bolting back down twelve flights of stairs, h…

Plotters are just pawns like us. A request comes in and they draw up the plans.There’s someone above them who tells them what to do. And above that person is another plotter telling them what to do. You think that if you go up the…

From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of the families we forge and the friendships that make us. 1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cella…

ONLINE RUMOURS. REAL LIFE TROUBLE. Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is marrying the love of her life in one month's time. She and her fiance Michael seem to have it all.That is, until one morning when th…

The latest novel from the Women's Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Power, The Future is a white-knuckle tour de force and dazzling exploration of the world we have made and where we are going. Lai Zhen is about to die. As …

From the New York Times bestselling author of EVERY DAY, this is a queer love story for the ages–told over the course of a couple’s first ten dates.When a blue-haired boy (Ryan) meets a pink-haired boy (Avery) at a dan…

Anjir and Zal have been lovers in Iran since they were young, but must keep this secret or risk execution. When Zal is attacked after being caught with another man, Anjir is heartbroken by the betrayal but chooses to forgive, as t…

Booker-Prize winner Roddy Doyle's spectacular return to his iconic heroine, Paula Spencer At sixty-six, Paula Spencer - mother, grandmother, widow, addict, survivor - is finally living her life. A job at the dry cleaners she enjoy…

Whatever happened to beloved Girls series characters Ellie, Magda and Nadine?They're all grown up now - but if they think they know what's coming, they'd better think again...Adulthood isn't quite what Ellie Allard dreamed it woul…

No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean? Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day. …

1979. In the vast and often unforgiving city of London, two Irish outsiders seeking refuge find one another: Milly, a teenage runaway, and Pip, a young boxer full of anger and potential who is beginning to drink it all away.Over t…

Meet the wedding party: THE BRIDE AND GROOM: Celine and Luke are meant to get married and live happily ever after. But Celine's more interested in playing the piano, and Luke's a serial cheater. THE BRIDESMAID: Phoebe, Celine's s…

When X - an iconoclastic artist, writer and polarizing shape-shifter - dies suddenly, her widow, wild with grief, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognised as a crucial creative force…

Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love had its limits.It couldn't save their marriage. Yasmen wasn't prepared for how her life fell apar…

Lily has never forgotten the man that got away, but she certainly hasn't forgiven him either! As the daughter of a notorious treasure hunter, Lily makes ends meet using her father's coveted hand-drawn maps, guiding tourists on fak…