Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, specialising in terrorism and counter-insurgency. He is the author and editor of several books, including Defending the Realm: The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars Since 1945, and has lectured all over the world on aspects of national and international security. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Aaron Edwards

Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Aaron Robertson

Aaron Shapiro

Aaron T Beck

Aaron Vallance

Aaron Young was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and read Politics and Communications at The University of Liverpool. He is a BAFTA-nominated director, producer and executive producer with over 20 years of experience across projects for the BBC, PBS, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, UK Film Council and Arts Council England. A long-time collaborator of acclaimed historian, James Holland, he is the producer and director of the BAFTA-shortlisted BBC titles ‘Battle of Britain: The Real Story’ and, ‘Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams’, as well as ‘The Battle for Malta’, ‘Normandy ’44: The Battle Beyond D-Day’, the RTS-nominated ‘Imphal &amp; Kohima: Britain’s Greatest Battle.’, and the 3-part series, 'Normandy '44: D-Day and the Battle for France. His most recent credits include 'Hidden Histories of WWII', 'Lost Temples of Cambodia', the RTS-winning ‘Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany’, and ‘Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter’. Aaron was named in the inaugural list of BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch.’ He is the co-owner of award-winning film and television production company, Bright Button Productions, and lives with his wife and children in Poundbury, Dorset.

Aaron Young

Aatish Taseer

Abbe Prevost

Abbey Bryant is an NYC-based award-winning illustrator. With her BFA in Children's Book Illustration, her notable illustrated books include Nautilus award winner Hazel Mist, Hypnotist as well as an Enchanted Fairy House Kit with Scholastic's Klutz! 
 
As a queer illustrator, LGBTQ+ themes and stories hold a spot near to her heart. Most days she can be found around the city drawing New Yorkers or sketching trees at the park.

Abbey Bryant

Abbey Clancy is a model, television presenter and the host of chart-topping podcast The Therapy Crouch. She was the runner-up of Britain's Next Top Model in 2006, winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and went on to present Britain's Next Top Model. Later this year she will host Celebrity Homes on ITV.

Abbey Clancy

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years. She was inspired to write her first novel, The Silent Treatment, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. 
 
Abbie lives in Brighton with her boyfriend.

Abbie Greaves

Abbie Ross is a British author and psychotherapist. Her first book, Hippy Dinners, a funny and poignant memoir of her bohemian childhood in 1970s North Wales, has been optioned by Baby Cow, who are developing it into an 8-part television series. 
Before turning to writing, Abbie had a successful career as a producer at Aardman Animations, the acclaimed studios behind Wallace &amp; Gromit and the film Chicken Run. 
Today, she divides her time between her thriving psychotherapy practice in Bristol, and her writing, and finds that the two careers complement each other perfectly.

Abbie Ross

Abbie Spallen

Abbie Taylor lives in Dublin. She works as a doctor and has two daughters.

Abbie Taylor

Abby L Yates co-founded the Ghostbusters with Erin Gilbert. Ghosts from Our Past was her first book, now finally back in print.

Abby L Yates

Abby Lee

Abby Rawlinson is an integrative therapist with a private practice based in east London, UK. Her work mixes traditional psychotherapeutic theories with cutting-edge, evidence-based techniques into a style that feels relatable, down-to-earth, and compassionate. Abby regularly contributes to articles, including but not limited to Stylist, Elle, BBC, Harpers Bazaar, Sheerluxe, Women's Health, and Psychologies. She can be found on Instagram @therapywithabby or online at therapywithabby.co.uk

Abby Rawlinson

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, FIFA World Cup champion, six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award and one of Time’s Most Influential People. She is a founder of Treat Media, an award-winning media company that makes art for humans who want to stay human. Abby is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wolfpack and the New York Times bestseller Forward. Named one of the ‘50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting,’ she is co-host of the chart-topping podcast We Can Do Hard Things, which has received over a half billion plays. Abby is an executive producer of the Sundance award-winning film Come See Me in the Good Light, part owner of the NWSL’s Angel City Football Club and sits on multiple boards. Her most recent book, We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions, created with Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle and Treat Media, is being hailed as ‘the guidebook for being alive.’

Abby Wambach

Abel &amp; Cole’s story starts in 1988 with Keith Abel flogging potatoes door-to-door. ‘Of course potatoes are organic,’ he thought, ‘they’re vegetables’. However, he quickly discovered how unnecessarily complicated our food system had become and, consequently, realised the huge benefits of going organic and never looked back. In fact, Abel &amp; Cole still get veg from the farm where Keith's first organic spuds came from. 
To this day, their priorities remain the same. Now, selling 100% organic produce, Abel &amp; Cole believe that organic farming (a holistic system that encourages biodiversity) is the very best way to go. It protects our countryside and the critters that inhabit it, insists on the very best animal welfare, supports your local community and, frankly, tastes heaps better. Abel &amp; Cole think so anyway.

Abel & Cole Limited

Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In 2011, he was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 global thinkers. Banerjee served on the U.N. Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Abhishek Mukherjee, 30, is a Delhi-based journalist. He holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Delhi University, a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Raipur. He also likes dogs.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Africa, Berkshire and London. She is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of RUMBLESTAR (first in The Unmapped Chronicles), SKY SONG &amp; THE DREAMSNATCHER TRILOGY, published by S&amp;S. When she's not writing, Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story.

Abi Elphinstone

Abi Falase is a Black British writer and director, reimagining fundamental societal concepts in inventive new worlds. Abi has written and directed a number of plays, including The Village and Rush with the Almedia Theatre, as well as Rift for Immediate Theatre and was shortlisted for the BBC Scriptworks ‘A Thousand Stories’ scriptwriting competition in 2021.

Abi Falase

Abi Titmuss

Abie Longstaff is the eldest of six children and grew up in Australia, Hong Kong and France. She knows all about squabbling, chaos and bossing younger sisters around. So she logically began her career as a barrister. She started writing when her children were born. Her favourite childhood books were Hating Alison Ashley, A Little Princess, Maura's Angel and The Black Stallion and she sneakily reads them again sometimes. Abie lives in Hove with her family.

Abie Longstaff

Abigail Ahern

Abigail Balfe is a queer, auDHD author-illustrator and Emmy award-winning creative based in Brighton. Before writing books full-time, Abigail led digital campaigns for pop stars such as One Direction and Little Mix, and for TV broadcasters including Channel 4 and Netflix. She also performed stand-up comedy and won several small trophies for her onstage humour, which featured life-size illustrations, ridiculous songs, and rambling stories about her family. In 2023, Abigail was named one of the Top 50 Influential Neurodivergent Women in the UK.

Abigail Balfe

Abigail Docherty

Abigail Foster is a Chartered Accountant and founder of Elent Finance, a financial education company designed to demystify the world of finance and empower you to achieve financial wellbeing. 
 
Abigail has worked with leading financial institutions across the UK, including HMRC, the Bank of England and Downing Street, and global companies such as Google and Goldman Sachs. She hosts a weekly money segment on LBC radio and has also appeared as a finance expert on ITV, Channel 5 and Sky News.

Abigail Foster

Abigail Owen is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of 30+ books that range from upper YA (18+) epic romantasy to new adult modern mythic romantasy to super spicy adult paranormal romance. She loves magical worlds with plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include: wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, AuDHD, spreadsheet lover, Jeopardy! fanatic, organizational guru, true classic movie buff, linguaphile, wishful world traveller, and chocoholic. Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own swoon-worthy hero, their (mostly) angelic teenagers, and an adorable fur baby. abigailowen.com

Abigail Owen

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Heather Parry

‘A gruesome, provocative, stylish fairytale’ Kaliane Bradley, internationally bestselling author of The Ministry of Time 
 
‘Magnificent and devastating’ Alan Moore, author of Watchman 
 
‘As mesmerizing as it is surreal, a haunting gothic tapestry’ Lucy Rose, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamb 
 
‘I loved it’ Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under The Sea 
 
‘Will win awards’ Observer 
 
‘A worthy entrant into the contemporary gothic hall of fame’ Financial Times 
 
Marguerite Périgord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames. For company she has a sewing machine, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs Beeton’s advice and longing for her life outside. 
 
Cécile Périgord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good. Cécile is concerned that Marguerite’s engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name – her husband’s name, that is – into disrepute. And for Cécile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply won’t do. Cécile’s life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall. 
 
Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerite’s patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray. And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.

Carrion Crow

Elif Shafak

'My mother died twice. I promised myself I would not let her story be forgotten' 
 
And so begins the story of Esma, a young Kurdish woman in London trying to come to terms with the terrible murder her brother has committed. Esma tells the story of her family stretching back three generations; back to her grandmother and the births of her mother and Aunt in a village on the edge of the Euphrates. 
 
Named Pembe and Jamila (meaning Pink and Beautiful rather than the names their mother wanted to call them, Destiny and Enough), the twin girls have very different futures ahead of them, all of which will end in tragedy on a street in East London in 1978. 
 
Honour is a powerful, brilliant and moving account of pain and loss, loyalty and betrayal, the clash of tradition and modernity, as well as the love and heartbreak that can tear any family apart.

Honour

Bonbon Palace was once a stately apartment block in Istanbul. Now it is a sadly dilapidated home to ten wildly different individuals and their families. 
 
There's a womanizing, hard-drinking academic with a penchant for philosophy; a 'clean freak' and her lice-ridden daughter; a lapsed Jew in search of true love; and a charmingly naïve mistress whose shadowy past lurks in the building. When the rubbish at Bonbon Palace is stolen, a mysterious sequence of events unfold that result in a soul-searching quest for truth. 
 
By turns comic and tragic, The Flea Palace is an outstandingly original novel driven by a powerful sense of social justice.

The Flea Palace

An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go, and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make-up and the woman draws a moustache on her face. But while the woman wants to hide away from the world, the man meets the stares from passers-by head on, compiling his 'Dictionary of Gazes' to explore the boundaries between appearance and reality. 
 
Intertwined with the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s, The Gaze is a humorous and carnivalesque exploration of what it means to look and be looked at...

The Gaze

Jonathan Coe

Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly, living with her parents and working a zero-hours contract at Heathrow Airport, while her budding plans of becoming a writer are going nowhere. 
 
That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been investigating a radical think tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in an ever more extreme direction. When he follows this story to a conference in a rambling old hotel deep in the Cotswolds, events take a bizarre and sinister turn. Soon he is caught up in a world of cryptic clues, secret passages and, eventually, murder. 
 
In the end, despite the efforts of a suitably eccentric detective, it falls to Phyl herself – ably assisted by Chris’s outspoken adopted daughter Rashida - to look for answers to the fatal mystery. But will they lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

The Proof of My Innocence

Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love - Peri had tried desperately to forget. 
 
The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford, where she was sent at eighteen, abroad for the first time: to her dazzling, rebellious professor and his life-changing course on God, to her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity and, finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart. Over one desperate night she tries to make sense of a past she has tried to forget – but can we ever escape who we once were?

Three Daughters of Eve

Richard Powers

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 
 
THE POWERFUL NEW NOVEL FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE OVERSTORY AND BEWILDERMENT 
 
‘Ascends to the plane of true, indisputable greatness' OBSERVER 
'An ambitious, rapturous epic' GUARDIAN 
‘Magisterial, moving and thought-provoking … a beautiful love letter to our oceans’ NEW SCIENTIST 
 
Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites at an elite high school. As adults, Rafi gets lost in literature, while Todd’s enters the world of AI. Elsewhere, Evie sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs; Ina grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. 
 
All of these people meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, marked for humanity’s next great adventure. 
 
Set in the world’s largest ocean, Playground interweaves profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity. 
 
'Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep and live' PERCIVAL EVERETT 
 
'Brilliant, captivating and important' ANDREA WULF 
 
'An extraordinarily immersive journey through lives linked in mysterious ways - gripping, alarming and uplifting' EMMA DONOGHUE 
 
Praise for Richard Powers: 
 
'Powers has extraordinary gifts as a writer' GUARDIAN 
'Impressively precise in its scientific conjectures, Bewilderment is no less rich or wise in its emotionality' OBSERVER 
'He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. I'm in awe of his talent' OPRAH WINFREY 
'It is impossible to deny the importance of Powers's message' SUNDAY TIMES 
'Refreshing, original and moving' EVENING STANDARD

Playground

Susan Barker

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances. 
 
Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared. 
 
Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw. 
 
And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice. 
 
But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

Old Soul

Sash Bischoff

Famous film star Lila Crayne is America's Sweetheart: she's generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. A golden girl. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning New York apartment, and are embarking on a new movie: a modern feminist adaptation of a classic twentieth-century novel. 
 
To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins work with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila's impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch - and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, no one is quite who they seem, and before long, careers, reputations and lives are in danger of being irrevocably destroyed . . .

Sweet Fury

Hilary Boyd

Peggy Gilbert wasn’t quite ready to leave London behind. But partner Ted’s yearning for a fresh start has led to a leap into the unknown.Life on the Cornish coast hasn’t quite been what she expected; despite the healing sea breeze, she yearns for the bright lights of the city.But when neighbour Lindy offers her a lifeline, she finally begins to embrace village life, basking in the friendship of someone who seems to be its beating heart. But beneath Lindy’s seemingly perfect surface simmer secrets that are soon threatening Peggy’s future in Pencarrow Bay.Can she fight to remain in the community she has come to love? And save her future with Ted?

New Beginnings At Pencarrow Bay

Yeon Somin

She rubbed the spoiled clay with her fingertips. Like a wound as it heals, the traces faded, and had soon vanished completely, as if they’d never been there at all. 
 
Burnt out by her newswriting job, Jungmin abruptly quits; she’s worked tirelessly for years and she needs to make a change. 
 
Now, after months of hibernation, it’s time to put her life back together. Venturing out into the streets near Seoul, she stumbles upon the Soyo pottery workshop. Drawn in by its light and warmth, and the smell of clay and coffee, Jungmin feels something unfurl within her… 
 
Here, everyone has a story to share, and as the seasons change, Jungmin returns to herself. Pot by pot, plate by plate, Jungmin discovers that as her hands become busier, her mind becomes calmer, and her heart opens up like never before. 
 
From a rising talent, this is an uplifting story of new friends and old practices, of finding community, and of what happens when you finally slow down in this fast-paced world.

The Healing Season of Pottery

Rie Qudan

Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of a radical sympathy toward criminals has become the norm – and a grand skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house wrongdoers in compassionate comfort. Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city's new centrepiece, but is riven by doubt. As she casts her mind to the terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might think against the grain of her time: could it be that criminals deserve the punishment and disdain of the past? In search of solace, in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot… 
 
Awarded Japan's highest literary prize, Sympathy Tower Tokyo is an extraordinary novel from one of the most exciting new voices in world literature. Partly inspired by conversations with an artificial intelligence, it offers an extraordinary defence of the power of language written by humans, a touching exploration of the imaginative impulse, and an often hilarious send up of our modern world's unrelenting conformity.

Sympathy Tower Tokyo

Melanie Cantor

When Jennifer Cole is told she has three months left to live, she knows her life is f*cked. With nothing to lose, she decides it’s time to set out everything she’s always longed to say but never dared. She writes three letters: one to her overbearing, selfish sister, one to her spineless, cheating ex-husband, the third to her charming but unreliable ex-boyfriend. 
 
At first it feels great to have finally found her voice. But as things start to unravel, she discovers that the truth has its own consequences…

Happy Endings

Bea Setton

'I just loved it – it truly wedged itself into my brain. Absolutely vile and brilliant. Plaything is an unhinged melody, and it will serenade fans of the darkest narratives.' Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller 
 
Anna is smart. Smarter than you, probably. But when she falls for the beautiful, enigmatic Caden, her need to get under his skin, to truly know him becomes overpowering. 
 
Anna’s new life in Cambridge is full of promise – she’s the top student in her PhD cohort, she has great friends and she has met an exhaustingly attractive man – but something is a little off. Perhaps it’s the routine violence of her lab work with animals, or maybe it’s something to do with her boyfriend’s icy reserve but it seems there is a kind of menace hiding beneath the Cambridge dream. 
 
When Anna and Caden's lives become tightly entangled, her obsession with Caden’s seemingly ever-present ex-girlfriend reaches a dangerous pitch… Just how far will she go to satiate her curiosity? 
 
------------------- 
 
'Pleasingly unpredictable' Daily Mail 
'A gloriously tense tale of obsession' Financial Times 
'One that will remain with me . . . the final page made me shudder' John Boyne, Irish Times 
'A seductive tale of infatuation and the complexities of romance' Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures

Plaything

Gabriel García Márquez

Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover. 
 
Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart. 
 
Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.

Until August

Richard Osman

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. 
 
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. 
 
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. 
 
Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

The Thursday Murder Club

(The Thursday Murder Club 1)

Harper Lee

ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS EVER WRITTEN 
 
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 
 
'No one forgets this book' Independent 
'One of the best first novels I remember ... uniquely unsentimental' Guardian 
'There is humour as well as tragedy in this book, besides its faint note of hope for human nature; and it is delightfully written' Sunday Times 
'A rare literary phenomenon' Vogue 
 
The iconic modern classic and coming-of-age novel exploring racism in the American South. 
 
'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' 
 
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with a serious crime. 
 
Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. 
 
The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. 
 
But the weight of history will only tolerate so much. 
 
'Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable.' Truman Capote

To Kill A Mockingbird

Ewan Gass

'A truly original literary mystery . . . A humane work that really seeks to understand… Like the best really serious novels, it’s profoundly uncomfortable, avoids easy dramatic answers and forces you to really think and question – yourself as much as its own narrative' Luke Kennard, author of The Transition 
 
--- 
 
S was a good person. Such a good person. They all told me that – so it had to be true. 
 
S is unique. It seems that most people think so – his mother, his sister, his best friend, but relative strangers too. In fact, they and others all have much to say in the inquiry into S. When prompted, when the tape recorder in front of them clicks, a succession of family, friends and professional contacts in turn describe his shapeshifting charisma. All struggle to account for the enigmatic figure who has wandered through their lives, doing some good things – and some bad. Yet as they talk, it becomes apparent that they are not so much telling his story, as they are their own – of their common need for love, touch, retribution, closure. Together, their tissue of voices reveal the complexity of care. 
 
In a series of intimate snapshots charting the relations of one ordinary yet extraordinary man, Clinical Intimacy explores the emotional conditions and moral consequences of a life lived in service of satisfying others.

Clinical Intimacy

Olivia Gatwood

'Built on simmering tensions at the precipice of boiling over . . . vivid storytelling' VOGUE 
 
'An intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time' YRSA DALEY-WARD 
 
'Sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive . . . So propulsive and atmospheric' JENNY MUSTARD 
 
*** 
 
BEHIND THIS GLASS, EVERYTHING IS MORE BEAUTIFUL 
 
On the Santa Cruz waterfront, every house is as perfect as the people inside. Not so for Mitty and Bethel, the oddball pair in the dilapidated bungalow – they are the last vestiges of a town now housing the tech elite. But Mitty is about to cross the threshold. Someone has arrived next door who finally wants to know this forgotten girl. 
 
Lena is different and she knows it. Reliant on her entrepreneur boyfriend Sebastian, her life is oddly limited for someone bathed in wealth. But when she sees Mitty, Lena begins to recognize a part of herself she has yet to face, something anxious, something broken – something real. 
And in this salt-blasted town, friendship will bleed into obsession, minds and bodies will betray, and the past will come back with a howl and a bite. 
 
Thrilling, seductive and prescient, WHOEVER YOU ARE HONEY is a blazing debut that dissects perfection, examines how women are made and explores the intersection of passion, technology, and power.

Whoever You Are, Honey

Biyi Bandele

'Run, Àjàyí, run!' 
 
The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two. 
 
Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family. 
 
From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, Biyi Bándélé's kaleidoscopic reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.

Yorùbá Boy Running

For Leila, each minute after her death brings a vivid memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which women use to wax their legs while men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends Leila made at each key moment in her life – friends who are now desperately trying to find her . . .

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

Sixteenth-century Istanbul: a stowaway arrives in the city bearing an extraordinary gift for the Sultan. The boy is utterly alone in a foreign land, with no possessions, except Chota, a rare white elephant destined for the palace menagerie. 
 
So begins an epic adventure that will see young Jahan rise from lowly origins to the highest ranks of the Sultan’s court. Along the way, he will meet deceitful courtiers and false friends, gypsies, animal tamers and the beautiful, mischievous Princess Mihrimah. He will journey with Chota to the furthest corners of the kingdom and back again. And one day, he will catch the eye of the royal architect, Sinan, a chance encounter destined to change Jahan’s fortunes for ever. 
 
The Architect’s Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant, caught up in a world of wonder and danger.

The Architect's Apprentice

One rainy afternoon in Istanbul a woman walks into a doctor’s surgery. ‘I want an abortion,’ she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that day will change her life, and the lives of everyone around her. 
 
Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. A mysterious curse causes all the men to die by the age of forty-one, so it is a house of women, among them her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha, clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye. But when Asya’s Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long-hidden family secrets connected with Turkey’s turbulent past begin to emerge.

The Bastard of Istanbul

Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of her life – an emptiness once filled by love. 
 
So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and his mentor Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is ready to look at her life anew. Compelled to embrace change, she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into a faraway world where faith and doubt are heartbreakingly explored. The Forty Rules of Love is a mesmerizing tale of discovery, language, truth and, of course, love itself.

The Forty Rules of Love

Jack Sheffield

York, 1989. 
 
Beginning his second year as a tutor at the University of Eboracum, Dr Tom Frith is surprised to be paired as a ‘buddy tutor’ for a new member of staff. At first, Dr Rosie Tremaine appears staunchly independent, and even standoffish. But as Rosie and Tom navigate the trials and tribulations of life on campus, they soon become firm friends. 
 
Whether they’re investigating the shady practices of the new bursar or chasing down a rogue student suspected of being a Peeping Tom, university life is always full of surprises. 
 
Off campus, the whole faculty must rally together to support a colleague through a difficult time, while Tom has an important question for his girlfriend, Inger . . . 
 
A hilarious, nostalgic and heart-warming novel about the ups and downs of life at a fictional Yorkshire university, perfect for fans of James Herriot and Tom Sharpe.

University Challenges

Poorna Bell

'I will read anything Poorna Bell writes!' Taylor Jenkins Reid 
'Gorgeous, affirming, an exploration of why and how we nurture' Pandora Sykes 
____________________________ 
 
It might not be the stuff of dreams, but Padma and Wallace have spent ten years building a relationship that feels . . . fine. Until Wallace gives Padma an ultimatum about starting a family she's not sure she even wants. 
 
Padma's fifteen-year-old niece Myra is reaching her own crisis point. When she falls in with the wrong crowd and her life ends up in danger, it's the final straw for her parents. 
 
Now Padma will spend the summer with her niece - in a ramshackle, ivy-clad house on the Kent clifftops - running a DIY rehab of sorts. 
 
Will this be a pressure too far for her and Wallace? And how will she spend six weeks with a niece who, thanks to her sister, she barely knows? 
 
It's the last place they want to be. 
 
But this could just be the summer that changes everything . . . 
 
Praise for This Is Fine: 
 
'This Is Fine is so much better than fine, it’s totally genius. The writing is compelling and insightful – not to mention hilarious – and the story moved me to tears more than once. I LOVE THIS BOOK!’ Lucy Vine 
 
'A perfect summer novel with endless entertainment and escapism. Warm, funny, charming and so brilliantly executed' Salma El-Wardany 
 
'This witty, warm, beautifully written novel will both gladden and sadden; it'll crack open your heart and pour gold into it' Catherine Gray 
 
'A sweet, smart story about sisterhood, exploring complex themes courageously. I fell in love with Padma and Myra’' Daisy Buchanan 
 
'Light, funny and gorgeous - but also at times gritty and profound' Good Housekeeping 
 
‘A brilliant, highly relatable look at complex family dynamics and womanhood, This is Fine is a must-read this summer’ Olivia Petter 
 
'Warm, witty, wise and brimming with heart' Zing Tsjeng 
 
'[Poorna] taps into the crevice of every human emotion and brings out pure light and joy. A must read' Poppy Jay 
 
'Funny, insightful and ranges thoughtfully over all manner of subjects that matter' Natasha Poliszczuk 
 
'A thought provoking and delicate read with a great deal of warm humour too!' Stephanie Yeboah

This Is Fine

Emet North

'An explosion of creative beauty and heart . . . a massively talented writer arriving ready to awe' NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, author of CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS 
 
'Dazzling and inventive . . . a breathtaking introduction to a brilliant new voice' DANIELLE EVANS, author of THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS 
 
'A soul-stirring debut' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 
 
*** 
 
Raffi is a physicist who spends their days removing stars from pictures of the night sky, dreaming about parallel universes. In this one, they’re falling for a queer sculptor named Britt who they almost met when they were kids – if only they’d had the courage to say hello. 
 
What if Raffi had said hello? The question catapults Raffi across alternate universes, each an answer to the question of what their life might be like if things had happened just a little differently. 
 
Each universe is beautiful and dangerous for Raffi. Where apocalyptic landscapes teem with bears, mothers fracture into hordes of animals, and glistening sandcastles stand tall enough to live inside. Across them all, Raffi searches for a life that feels their own. But everything eventually leads them back to Britt: the girl they loved and lost. 
 
IN UNIVERSES is a kaleidoscopic and tender navigation of love, queerness and belonging that bursts with imagination and hope.

In Universes

'If you have children or will have children, if you know children or can remember being a child, dare to read Operation Wandering Soul ... it is bedtime reading for the future' USA TODAY 
 
'Powers' prose soars like the most magnificent of choirs' WASHINGTON POST 
 
'The most intellectually stimulating novelist at work in the English language today' DAILY TELEGRAPH 
 
In the paediatrics ward of a public hospital, a group of sick children gather, their lives brightened only by the power of imagination. The surrogate parents of this group - Kraft, a tired, overworked surgical resident, and Espera, a dedicated therapist - are charged with prolonging their lives using storytelling and make-believe alone. 
 
Using the boundless reach of imagination, Operation Wandering Soul is a novel that celebrates the wonder of childhood. Both social indictment and emotional account of intimate needs, it asks how we might keep alive a little longer the enduring magic of childhood dreams.

Operation Wandering Soul

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014 
 
'A virtuoso performance' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'Extraordinary and confounding, mind-spinning and wonderful' INDEPENDENT 
 
'A magnificent and moving novel' LOS ANGELES TIMES 
 
Seventy-year-old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab - where he is conducting the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to find musical patterns in surprising places - has aroused the suspicions of Homeland Security. 
 
Panicked by the raid, Els turns fugitive, earning him the moniker 'Bioterrorist Bach'. He hatches a daring plan to transform this disastrous collision with the security state into an unforgettable work of art that will reawaken its audience to the sounds all around it. 
 
A gripping escape narrative filled with lyrical wonder, Orfeo is both a portrait of a creative, obsessive man, and a reflection on finding melodies in everyday life.

Orfeo

'A love story of charm and substance, brimming over with ideas, yet anchored in emotional truth' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 
 
'Powers has triumphantly restored ... the philosophical novel' OBSERVER 
 
'A heroic tour de force' NEW YORK TIMES 
 
In 1957, brilliant biologist Stuart Ressler sets out to crack the genetic code. Yet his efforts are sidetracked by other, more complex codes - social, moral, musical, and spiritual - as he falls in love with a member of his research team. 
 
Years later, another young man and woman investigate a different mystery: why did the promising Ressler suddenly vanish from the world of science? 
 
Strand by strand, these two love stories intertwine in a double helix of desire in an enthralling tale about new love and the mysteries of science.

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