Showing titles in City Life

Situated in a rapidly gentrifying district of Seoul, Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat is a place where the extraordinary stories of ordinary residents unfold. Furnished with a coffee machine, a full bookshelf, and warm lighting, it is a haven from the world for many locals. And when a notebook is left behind there, it becomes a place that brings people together. One by one, customers start jotting down candid diary entries, opening their hearts and inviting acts of kindness from neighbours who were once just faces in the crowd. But there is a darker story behind the notebook...

Brought to you by Penguin. To those who think they know her, Eliza Curran has it all: two healthy children, a stunning home and a wealthy, adoring husband. No one would guess the reality of her life: trapped in an unhappy marriage to a controlling man, she longs for a way out. When she takes on...

This is a satellite-dish-free zone of tall houses, standing shoulder to shoulder with big front doors, five floors apiece. You could almost be in Kensington. This is where the actors, writers and media types live, where small children wearing smart uniforms and shoes in the shape of lightbulbs get ferried every day to schools that are not local. Some people are luckier than others; fortune smiles on some and gobs on the rest. Jo Metcalf smokes and spies on the smug Cunninghams down the street as they play their bile-inducing game of happy families.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE TWISTY NEW THRILLER FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE RUMOUR As a child, it was just a game. As an adult, it was a living nightmare. When teenage friends Lizzie and Alice decide to head off for a walk in the countryside, they are blissfully unaware...

The girls of Dressmaker’s Alley are busier than ever and Lady Diane’s business continues to thrive. New recruit Janice Williams is one of the new seamstresses Miss Susie hires to cope with the work but on the day of her interview, Janice is injured in a roadside accident that will change her life forever. Poor Winnie Collins’ pregnancy is beset with problems and under Doctor’s strict orders she is confined to bed rest. How will she cope when there is so much to do?

Grace can’t believe it when her husband of 25 years announces he doesn’t want to join her on their anniversary trip to Paris - instead, he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock, Grace makes the bold decision to go on this holiday of a lifetime alone. Audrey leaves behind heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no money and no knowledge of the French language, her summer adventure seems doomed to fail. Until she meets Grace, and everything changes....

Elio Rossi is a dream on paper. He's rich, handsome, and head of his family's multi-billion-dollar business. He's also a ruthless Mafia Don and my older brother's best friend. But even that isn't a huge issue to me. No, Elio is my nightmare because he used to be my dream man. We've been betrothed since childhood. But the night of our engagement years ago, our parents died in a tragic accident. One that I'm sure Elio's family planned.

Following the death of her controlling husband, Margaret Routledge is no longer the downtrodden church mouse she once was. Now she’s the talk of the Close, frequenting seedy pubs and clubs where men gather to pick up good-time girls. It seems Margaret is past redemption until she sees neighbour Jenny Crawford’s headstrong 16-year-old daughter Gloria on the arm of a man of ill repute, and her motherly instincts return. By contrast, Jenny's eldest, land girl Tilly, has a heart of gold, but trouble brews when she helps a vulnerable mother and child with a dangerous past...

The fifth book in the multi-million-copy bestselling series about a cosy Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time. Curl up with the fifth book in the sensational Before the Coffee Gets Cold series translated from Japanese, the cosy Tokyo café where customers...

Two lonely people. One note in the window. And what happens when they reach out.... Lachlan Wallace is stuck at home after a car accident stalled his army career. With months of physiotherapy still to endure and only his rescue dog and cat for company, he’s taken to gazing out of the window, watching the world spin on without him. And then he notices a vase of flowers on the windowsill of the apartment opposite his. Drawn to their hope and colour, he decides to reach out and sticks a message in his window.... 

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Andrew Scott, star of Sherlock, Fleabag and Black Mirror, also known for his on-stage roles in Present Laughter and Hamlet. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Terence Brown. Joyce's first major work, written when...

Brought to you by Penguin. The uplifting and escapist new romcom and perfect holiday read for summer from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Island in the Sun and One Enchanted Evening. In a city full of dreams, will she find her own…? It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in...

Amjad cradles his baby daughter in the middle of the night. He has no time to mourn his wife’s death. Saahil and Zahra, his two small children, are relying on him. Amjad vows to love and protect them always. Years later, Saahil and his best friend, Ehsan, have finished university and are celebrating with friends. But when the night turns dangerous, its devastating effects will ripple through the years to come. Zahra’s world is alight with politics and activism. But she is now her father’s only source of comfort, and worries she’ll never have time for her own aspirations.

'Ingenious and intriguing' BA PARIS 'I devoured this Londoner in LA story in a day’ CAROLINE KEPNES 'I loved it' TM LOGAN 'Engaging and suspenseful' NEW YORK TIMES ‘Stylish, riveting, hugely atmospheric — I couldn’t put it down’ LUCY FOLEY THE NEW GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FROM...

Dublin-born Sean O’Connor rules the streets of Kilburn with his charm and his fists. But the locals don’t take kindly to an Irishman muscling in on their patch—and they’re out for blood. As a turf war heats up, Sean digs in deeper, determined to protect his empire and his family. But every move he makes pulls him further from the life he promised his wife, Josie, and their young daughter, Orla. Josie just wants out—a quiet life far from the violence and vendettas. But with Sean risking it all, escape might no longer be an option.

Brought to you by Penguin. York, 1988. Dr Tom Frith is beginning his first term as a tutor at the University of Eboracum. After teaching primary school children for several years, he's sure shaping the minds of young adults will be a welcome change. But that's before considering the pressures...

A new series from bestselling author Kate Thompson. 'Kate Thompson's wartime novels always strike a chord and Secrets of the Homefront Girls is no exception. You can almost smell the Yardley violets drifting over the factory as the girls live lives complicated by the trials and tribulations of...

Anthony Patch, a young yet unambitious graduate from Harvard University, moves to New York and soon meets fellow socialite and flapper, Gloria Gilbert. Infatuated by her beauty, Anthony soon proposes to Gloria, and the pair embark on a doomed whirlwind romance. Their marriage is combative and tense; Anthony expects Gloria to be more domesticated while Gloria expects Anthony to fund her extravagant lifestyle.

It's the turn of the millennium and, landing in London with nothing but her CD collection and demo tape, Orla Quinn moves into a squalid Kilburn house with her best mate and a band called Shiva. Orla wants to make music, but juggling two jobs and partying every night isn't helping. Back in Ireland her parents' marriage has crumbled, she's not speaking to her father, and her mother and sister are drinking too much.

In the heart of Dressmakers' Alley, Madame Pauline’s sweatshop is rumoured to be a particularly unpleasant place to work. Filled with seamstresses paid a pittance who turn a blind eye to what darker activities are hidden behind locked doors. Young Winnie Brown is keen to prove her value to the Women Movement and secures a job as a seamstress to investigate the whispers of some unsavoury goings on. Her concerns are soon justified when she hears a desperate cry for help.