Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Marigold Green calls herself ‘hideous, quaint and barmy’. Other people call her Bilgewater, a corruption of Bill’s daughter. Growing up in a boys’ school where her father is housemaster, she is convinced of her own plainness and peculiarity. Groomed by the wise and loving Paula, upstaged by bad, beautiful Grace and ripe for seduction by entirely the wrong sort of boy, she suffers extravagantly and comically in her pilgrimage through the turbulent, twilight world of alarming adolescence.

Denise Hilton, a young single mother, is driving through Edenton, North Carolina, when her car skids off the road during a storm. With her is her four-year-old son, Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities for whom she has sacrificed everything. When volunteer fireman Taylor McAden finds her she is unconscious and bleeding, but when she wakes an even more chilling truth becomes clear: Kyle is gone.

Tory Brennan - great niece of Dr Temperance Brennan - and the Virals return for their most terrifying adventure yet. Life appears peaceful on Loggerhead Island – rescued from financial disaster, the research institute is flourishing once more. But the tranquillity is quickly shattered when Tory Brennan and her technophile gang discover a mysterious box buried in the ground.

Marta and Hector have been married for a long time – so long that she finds it difficult to remember her life before him. He has always taken care of her, and she has always done everything she can to be a good wife. But when Hector comes home with a secret, their ordered domestic life begins...

When two best friends decide to share their wedding day, what could possibly go wrong? Jade is over the moon to be tying the knot alongside her best friend, Sarah, at the stunning Bluebell Cliff Hotel in Dorset—a venue where no detail is too small and no expense is spared in the pursuit of perfection. But as the big day draws closer, so do the complications. A long-lost relative, a troublesome brother, and some wildly unexpected animal antics all threaten to derail the brides' dream celebration. With emotions running high and chaos around every corner, their perfect day begins to unravel.

Antwerpen, Hauptbahnhof, Salle des pas perdus im Jahr 1967. Dem Erzähler fällt ein Mann auf, der eingehend die Architektur des Gebäudes betrachtet. Die beiden Herren kommen ins Gespräch und verabreden sich für den nächsten Tag. Aus dem zufälligen Zusammentreffen wird ein über 30 Jahre andauerndes Gespräch an verschiedensten Orten Europas. Zwischen London, Paris und Prag erzählt der Kunsthistoriker Austerlitz seine Geschichte.

Twelve years in America and Eziafa Okereke has nothing to show for it. Desperate to rewrite his story, Eziafa returns to Nigeria to find a woman he can mold to his taste. Eighteen-year-old Zina has big dreams. An arranged marriage to a much older man isn't one of them. Trapped by family expectations, Zina marries Eziafa, moves to Houston, and trains as a nurse. Buffeted by a series of disillusions, the couple stagger through a turbulent marriage until Zina decides to change the rules of engagement.

'You need to get back in the saddle…' Alice despises that phrase. She's fine being single – with two slothful teenage boys and a meringue business to run, she has enough on her plate without negotiating the troublesome world of modern dating. However, Alice's three best friends have other ideas. Each one will present her with an utterly delicious, eligible man – all Alice has to do is pick her favourite.

'I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine'. Jessica Vye's 'violent experience' colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her - a confining world of wartime restrictions, Viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica has been told that she is 'beyond all possible doubt', a born writer.

For 13 years Pen and Cara have had a tumultuous relationship crammed with bickering and intimacy, recrimination and desire. When Cara dies in a car crash, Pen is left to cope with a secret widowhood. Along with that burden comes a hidden story of painful and pleasurable memories. With humour and poignancy, Hood follows Pen through the week of Cara’s death; through the paralysis of grief and the ecstasy of nostalgia to a point where mourning and making a new life melt into one.

A silver brumby is special, but he will be hunted by man and horse alike, and must be stronger than both... Thowra's speed and courage have always saved him from the men who want to capture him - until now, when the men come on skis quickly and silently over the mountains. This time Thowra must protect his daughter from the hunters who prize the silver brumbies above any other horse.

鳴りやまぬ拍手と眩しいほどの光、人生の境地がここにある。

Von den Wagnissen des Aufbruchs und der Heimkehr. Die 33-jährige Silvia Borowski fährt in einem geklauten Polo aus Westberlin in Richtung Süden. Immer wieder lauscht sie auf das leise unregelmäßige Atmen neben sich: Auf dem Beifahrersitz, in einem Wäschekorb, liegt ihre kleine Tochter Hannah. Sie ist erst wenige Wochen alt. Silvia hat genug von ihrem Leben in einer Kreuzberger Hausbesetzer-WG, und der Vater ihres Kindes will nichts von ihr wissen.

With the Rector Peter Harris and his family arrive back from Africa, the villagers of Turnham Malpas heave huge sighs of relief, everything is back to normal. But Peter has other ideas. He decides to return to Africa and fulfil his promise of working there for a year. The family he leaves behind is a very troubled one. Caroline's emails to Peter hide the fact that the twins, Beth and Alex, are traumatised by their experiences in Africa and her own distress that they will not share their feelings with her.

Tutti vorrebbero la vita di Anna e Tom. Un lavoro creativo senza troppi vincoli; un appartamento a Berlino luminoso e pieno di piante; una passione per il cibo e la politica progressista; una relazione aperta alla sperimentazione sessuale, alle serate che finiscono la mattina tardi. Una quotidianità limpida e seducente come una timeline di fotografie scattate con cura. Ma fuori campo cresce un’insoddisfazione profonda quanto difficile da mettere a fuoco. Il lavoro diventa ripetitivo. Gli amici tornano in patria. Il tentativo di impegno politico si spegne in uno slancio generico.

When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful and unforgettable novel by the author of The Lovely Bones . For years, Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic...

In this prize-winning poetry collection, we watch as the cartographer, used to assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognise a wholly different understanding of place as he tries to map his way to the rastaman’s eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that every place name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

Dora ist mit ihrer kleinen Hündin aufs Land gezogen. Sie brauchte dringend einen Tapetenwechsel, mehr Freiheit, Raum zum Atmen. Aber ganz so idyllisch wie gedacht ist Bracken, das kleine Dorf im brandenburgischen Nirgendwo, nicht. In Doras Haus gibt es noch keine Möbel, der Garten gleicht einer Wildnis, und die Busverbindung in die Kreisstadt ist ein Witz. Vor allem aber verbirgt sich hinter der hohen Gartenmauer ein Nachbar, der mit kahlrasiertem Kopf und rechten Sprüchen sämtlichen Vorurteilen zu entsprechen scheint.

How long does it take to fall in love? For twenty years, Laura has been a good wife and a good mother. She's supported her husband through redundancy, she's worried about her son, she's encouraged her daughter. She's stopped thinking about all the places she'd like to go and all the books she'd like to talk about. She's not unhappy, exactly. She's not that self-indulgent. As anyone would tell you, Laura is wonderfully constant, caring, selfless.

Im achtzehnten Jahrhundert lebte in Frankreich ein Mann, der zu den genialsten und abscheulichsten Gestalten dieser an genialen und abscheulichen Gestalten nicht armen Epoche gehörte. Seine Geschichte soll hier erzählt werden.