When Mary Adams sees Millais’ depiction of the tragic Ophelia, a whole new world opens up for her. Determined to find out more about the beautiful girl in the painting, she hears the story of Lizzie Siddal – a girl from a modest background, not unlike her own, who has found fame and fortune against the odds. Mary sets out to become a Pre-Raphaelite muse, too, and reinvents herself as Persephone Lavelle. But as she fights her way to become the new face of London’s glittering art scene, ‘Persephone’ ends up mingling with some of the city’s more nefarious types and is forced to make some impossible choices.
Will Persephone be forced to betray those she loves, and even the person she once was, if she is to achieve her dreams?
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.
Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, Under the Harrow marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
The most powerful weapon on the planet is hidden right behind your eyes.
Your mind is capable of things you've hardly dared to dream about.
Controlling others.
Travelling through time and space.
Even altering the very fabric of reality.
The evidence is in this book.
Muffin was a rescue dog, an ordinary mongrel who joined the Bardsley McGee family in Leeds in 1999. She was three years old, a 'little shipwreck' of a dog who had been badly neglected, undernourished and contained in a high-rise flat for whole of her young life. The family she came into was also under pressure, as the writer's husband Tim was in the middle of a long struggle with cancer and had been told earlier that year that his illness was terminal. Never having previously shown interest in animals, Tim bonded almost instantly with chaotic little Muffin, who became a steadfast companion during his final months. And during the dark days after Tim's death, and when the author's daughter left for university, Muffin became a loyal friend with an uncanny ability to display empathy around times of illness and loss. With Muffin reaching the end of her days, author Barney Bardsley looks back over the eventful years they have shared, to remember the joy and laughter that this loving, soulful creature brought to her family. Her story will strike a chord with anyone who has ever loved, and been loved, by a pet.
Ove (Rolf Lassgård) is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife's grave, Ove has given up on life. After a boisterous young family moves in next door and accidentally flattens Ove's mailbox, an unlikely friendship forms.
A crime you’ll always remember. A detective you’ll never forget.A young girl is found dead. A prostitute is murdered. And the strangest, youngest detective in the South Wales Major Crimes Unit is about to face the fiercest test of her short career.A woman and her six-year-old daughter are killed with chilling brutality in a dingy flat. The only clue: the platinum bank card of a long-dead tycoon, found amidst the squalor.DC Griffiths has already proved herself dedicated to the job, but there’s another side to her she is less keen to reveal. Something to do with a mysterious two-year gap in her CV, her strange inability to cry – and a disconcerting familiarity with corpses.Fiona is desperate to put the past behind her but as more gruesome killings follow, the case leads her back into those dark places in her own mind where another dead girl is waiting to be found…
The stories in Julian Barnes' long-awaited third collection are attuned to rhythms and currents: of the body, of love and sex, illness and death, connections and conversations. A divorcee falls in love with a mysterious European waitress; a widower relives a favourite holiday; two writers rehearse familiar arguments; a couple bond, fall out and bond again over flowers and vegetable patches. And at a series of evenings at 'Phil & Joanna's', the topics of conversation range from the environment to the Britishness of marmalade, from toilet graffiti to smoking, as we witness the guests' lives in flux. Ranging from the domestic to the extraordinary, from the vineyards of Italy to the English seaside in winter, the stories in Pulse resonate and spark.
The novel is a powerful, compact exploration of memory, aging, and remorse. The story follows Tony Webster, a retired middle-aged man who is forced to reexamine his past, his flawed recollections of his youth, and the tragic actions of his tightly knit school group—specifically his brilliant, tragic childhood friend Adrian Finn—after receiving a mysterious legacy in a will. Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011
A “playful, witty, and entertaining” book (The New York Times Book Review) that offers an exhilarating vision of the world, starting with the voyage of Noah’s ark and ending with a sneak preview of heaven—from the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending. It’s a hilariously revisionist account of Noah’s ark, narrated by a passenger who doesn’t appear in Genesis. It’s a sneak preview of heaven. It encompasses the stories of a cruise ship hijacked by terrorists and of woodworms tried for blasphemy in sixteenth-century France. It explores the relationship of fact to fabulation and the antagonism between history and love. In short, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a grandly ambitious and inventive work of fiction, in the traditions of Joyce and Calvino, from the author of the widely acclaimed Flaubert’s Parrot.
The heroine this novel is a tomboy. She loves her Doc Martens, heavy metal, and hanging out with her best friend, Ollie. She may have been born on a Tuesday, but graceful she isn't. However, Grace's world is about to change. Ollie gets engaged, and her new boss wants her to smarten up. Grace tries to turn herself into the kind of girl she thinks they want her to be - with hilarious and unexpected results.
In this tense, gripping thriller which explores the implications of revolutionary brain research in the hands of the unscrupulous, the author takes his readers into a world of nightmare and intolerable suspense.
Lisa Costello is leading a charmed life - until she wakes up the morning after her glamorous Thailand wedding to find her new husband Josh dead in their bed, the murder weapon in her hand. She remembers learning at the wedding that Josh had been unfaithful, but she certainly doesn't remember killing him. As Lisa flees the scene for Europe, ex-FBI trainee Sam Murray is on her trail. Catching up with her, he's quickly convinced she's been set up, and they start to work out which of movie producer Josh's many enemies could be behind the hit. It's a race against time to unearth the truth and keep Lisa out of jail - or gunned down by the professional assassin tailing them. And the danger only adds to the excitement of the passion brewing between them...
The novel explores the interconnected lives of various men and women living and working in a busy city. The story emphasizes how everyday encounters—whether with family, coworkers, or strangers at a bus stop—unintentionally impact each individual's day. The narrative features a diverse ensemble cast, including a stressed working mother, a grieving shop assistant, a stand-up comic, and a journalist, all telling their stories through a series of interwoven first-person perspectives.
Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never stepping out the door. That is until he sees something in a street view of downtown New York City. Thomas's keen eyes have detected an image in a window...an image that looks like a woman being murdered.
Thomas's brother, Ray, takes care of him, cooking for him, dealing with the outside world on his behalf, and listening to his intricate and increasingly paranoid theories. When Thomas tells Ray what he has seen, Ray humors him with a half-hearted investigation. But Ray soon realizes he and his brother have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy.
And now they are in the crosshairs...
Dee Melvin is tired of being the mistress and never the wife. But how does she find Mr Single? A lonely hearts ad brings no luck and just as she is about to give up hope, she realizes Mr Single has been under her nose all the time. However only then do the real problems start.
The book is a thinly veiled autobiographical coming-of-age story that tracks the life of a young man named Ben Janis during the 1960s. Growing up in a Chicago suburb, Ben is caught between his own teenage desires and his father's high-brow cultural expectations.
A romantic new thriller - an open-and-shut case of love and murder turns out to be altogether more deadly for an idealistic California lawyer and her lover.
