Showing titles in City Life

Zadie Smith's deeply funny, subversive and splendidly entertaining The Autograph Man is a whirlwind tour of celebrity and our fame-obsessed times. Following one Alex-Li Tandem - a 20-something, Chinese Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion - it takes in London and New York, love and death, fathers and sons, as Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer to his heart's desire. Exposing our misconceptions about our idols - about ourselves - Zadie Smith delivers a brilliant, unforgettable tale about who we are and what we really want to be.

It's 1999, and Eira Hart and Ru Tattersall are set up to co-host The Lonely Harts Club, a new late-night radio show to help New Yorkers find love. It's a last chance attempt for both Eira, expert in Celtic mythology and amateur Welsh matchmaker, and Ru, once-hot-shot Aussie DJ, to achieve their New York dreams. The thing is, you either click with a co-host, or you don’t. It’s a bit like falling in love. There’s co-host chemistry, or there isn’t. With the countdown to a new millennium, it feels like the world as they know it is about to end.

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.

Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen. Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner she put in her front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It's a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss.

Daddy’s girl Samantha Reynold hadn’t bargained on unexpectedly needing to step into her father’s shoes and take over the family casino business. Pampered and spoiled, Sam knows nothing about the rules of this glamorous but deadly new world. She has a lot to learn and even more to prove. But she won’t let her family down, especially when it looks like they could lose everything to their biggest rivals - the Stoker family.

Innocent Phoebe has only known a life of privilege. Street-smart Paula has had to make her own way in the world. When the two girls meet as teenagers, they form a deep sisterly bond, recognising in one other a yearning for love and for lives that are different from the ones into which they were born. But when they each suffer a personal trauma, they are torn apart and set out on very different paths.

For 30-somethings Lindy, Ailbhe and Roe, the move to the new hyper-polished, luxury housing development, Monteray Valley, feels like slow death by Netflix, neighbourhood Whatsapp groups and Saturday nights in. Potential for exciting possibilities seem to be withering faster than you can say 'postnatal dryness' as their lives are consumed by other halves, domestic drudgery and obligations. Compiling a snag list to send to their builder sees the new friends contemplating their own personal snag lists and inspires a business idea that will change the course of all their lives.

Sophy Stevens is moving to Australia. Turning thirty has found her unexpectedly out of a job, out of a relationship, and just in need of Something Different - and Australia, where she can finally meet her grandparents and surprise them on their wedding anniversary, looks like the perfect answer...if she can save up the money for the plane ticket. So when her feckless, absent dad Johnno offers her a job at his vintage clothes shop in Primrose Hill, she can't turn it down.

No one should have a grudge against a meditation-loving yoga teacher, but my bank-robbing father’s associates seem to believe that I know where he hid his missing fortune... and they’ll do anything to get their hands on it. Gruff giant Kade Campbell is determined to protect me, but I don’t want him in the firing line. The rugged former special forces soldier may be a badass—and able to give me butterflies like nobody’s business—but he isn’t immune to bullets.

A teenager with flaming orange hair, Ginger’s so brave she’s wearing a coat that isn’t even waterproof. For the first time, Wendy has a real best friend. But as they begin the summer of their lives, Wendy wonders if her life would be simpler if she hadn’t met Ginger. And that’s before she realises just how much of a mess Ginger is about to get them in.

Recently dumped and stuck with the mortgage, artist Esther Ray wants to burn the world, but instead, she reluctantly accepts a scrapbooking job from the deliriously wealthy Naomi Duncan. The scrapbooks, a secret birthday gift for Naomi's husband Bryce, trace the Duncan's twenty-five-year marriage. As Esther binges true-crime podcasts and works through the near-two hundred-boxes of Duncan detritus, she finds herself infatuated with the gilded family - until, mid-project, Naomi dies suspiciously.

Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, divorces her husband, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married housewife, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past.

After serving a 10-year bid in prison, Taye "City" Savage was finally freed. However, once he was released, there was no time to chill and enjoy the riches that his brothers had acquired at his left and right hand at the king’s throne of the Savage empire. No sooner than City was released, complete mayhem ensued. His brother, Shon, and his greed causes the Savage empire to be in debt with the Columbian cartel of over a million dollars.

An unambitious 22 year-old, Darren lives in a Brooklyn brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Manhattan office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya and eating his mother's home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC's hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the 36th floor.

Trapped in an abusive marriage to Lord Caraway with her beloved daughter Melissa, 24-year-old Lady Elodie Caraway knows she has to escape before her deepest and darkest secrets are revealed giving her husband every reason to seek his revenge. But time is of the essence, if she is to save herself and Melissa. With the help of lifelong friend Aiden Newman, they swiftly leave Oakland Hall for a new life in Liverpool's docklands. On arrival, Elodie and Melissa are welcomed as lodgers by Molly Haywood’s family, Aidens aunt – no questions are asked.

Kitty Wilson, who, after losing her father, rejects the unsuitable suitor her mother has chosen. Abandoned by her mother, Kitty faces the challenges of navigating life alone. Amidst the turmoil, Kitty finds solace and support from friends, securing a promotion at Harpers Emporium. However, tragedy looms, threatening to shatter her newfound stability. Sally and Ben Harper face their own challenges. A decision by Ben regarding the restaurant, made without consulting his partner Jack Burrows, jeopardizes not only their friendship but also the stability of Harpers itself.

Esther is out with her two friends, bemoaning her lack of relationship, when she finds a magazine from the noughties. Seeking comfort – and a laugh – she turns to the dating advice only to find an article that feels a little too close to home. According to the journalist, there are seven people a woman will date before finding the one: The First Love, The Work Mistake, The Friend with Benefits, The Overlap, The Missed Chance, The Bastard and The Serious One. Her friends laugh but Esther realises each of her exes fits these roles perfectly.

Summer 1999: Twentysomething Sawyer is striving to make it in New York. Between her assistant job in publishing, her secret dreams of becoming a writer, and her upcoming wedding to her college boyfriend, her is plate full. Only one problem: She is facing an incredibly lonely summer as her fiancé has been spending longer and longer hours at work...with an all-too-close female colleague, Kendra. When Kendra's boyfriend, Nick, invites Sawyer to meet up and compare notes about their suspicions, the meeting goes awry.

London, Burning is a novel about the end of the 1970s and the end of an era. It concerns a nation divided against itself, a government trembling on the verge of collapse, a city fearful of what is to come and a people bitterly suspicious of one another. In other words, it is also a novel about now. Vicky Tress is a young policewoman on the rise who becomes involved in a corruption imbroglio with CID. Hannah Strode is an ambitious young reporter with a speciality for skewering the rich and powerful.

Daisy Hastings has always thought she was born in the wrong era. So when she bags a summer job at the Tower of London helping to run their Knight school, it feels like a step in the right direction. Theodore ‘Teddy’ Fairfax is a loose cannon. A disgraced distant relative of the royal family, he’s tall, dark and now (begrudgingly) helping with the Tower of London’s summer programme – and there’s nowhere he’d like to be less. When Teddy’s oath to be an obstruction almost gets Daisy fired, she declares war. But as the two cross swords, they start to discover they both need a little rescuing.