Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as 'Hen') has always haunted Bridget. Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more, it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed.

Five years ago, three-year-old Dillon disappeared. For his father Harry - who left him alone for ten crucial minutes - it was an unforgivable lapse. Yet Dillon's mother Robyn has never blamed her husband: Her own secret guilt is burden enough. Now they're trying to move on, returning home to Dublin to make a fresh start. But their lives are turned upside down the day Harry sees an eight-year-old boy in the crowd. A boy Harry is convinced is Dillon. But the boy vanishes before he can do anything about it.

Just after dawn Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the historic plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for the past four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. Not long after, he calls her to say it's something else. Something terrible. A young woman lying face down in a shallow grave, her throat cut clean.

Birgit ist zu Kaspar in den Westen geflohen, für die Liebe und die Freiheit. Erst nach ihrem Tod entdeckt er, welchen Preis sie dafür bezahlt hat. Er spürt ihrem Geheimnis nach, begegnet im Osten den Menschen, die für sie zählten, erlebt ihre Bedrückung und ihren Eigensinn. Seine Suche führt ihn zu einer völkischen Gemeinschaft auf dem Land - und zu einem jungen Mädchen, das in ihm den Großvater und in dem er die Enkelin sieht. Ihre Welten könnten nicht fremder sein. Er ringt um sie.

Pru's husband has walked out, leaving her alone to contemplate her future. She's missing not so much him, but the life they once had - picnicking on the beach with small children, laughing together, nestling up like spoons in the cutlery drawer as they sleep. Now there's just a dip on one side of the bed and no one to fill it. In a daze, Pru goes off to a friend's funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy but...it doesn't sound like the friend Pru knew. And it isn't. She's gone to the wrong service.

A funny and tender story about family, friendship, grief, love and...Richard Gere. Bartholomew Neil is thirty-eight and lost. He's lived his whole life, up till a few weeks ago, with his devoted mum, but now she has died Bartholomew has no idea how to be on his own. His grief counsellor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded learn how to fly?

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabitte, brilliantly coached by Joel 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from Paris Hall to immortality on vinyl. But can The Commitments live up to their name?

The novel is set in Varanasi. Chetan Bhagat initiates the story through the central character of Gopal. It is through Gopal's narration of his life to the author that we are introduced to Raghav and Aarti. The story revolves around these three characters. While Gopal comes from a poor family, Raghav comes from a well-off family. Both set out to achieve success and realise their dreams.

Catherine Cookson's well-loved novels Hamilton and Goodbye Hamilton tell the story of Maisie, who invented an imaginary horse to keep her company through the long years of an unhappy marriage and before she became a best-selling author. In this engaging sequel, Hamilton has vanished from Maisie’s life, and in the days after the death of her second husband she takes comfort from the company of a cheerful, bright-eyed little cockney boy named Harold.

Now a major film written and directed by the Coen Brothers. There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by Torn Chancy, who shoots him down for a horse, $150 cash, and two gold pieces. Ross's single-minded teenage daughter, Mattie, travels to claim his body... Then she meets Rooster - a man with grit - and persuades him to join her on a deadly quest to avenge her father's murder.

When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available, it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative.

Den sydkoreanske forfatter Han Kang fik tildelt den internationale Man Booker Pris 2016 for dette litterære mesterværk. Yeong-Hye og hendes mand er helt almindelige mennesker. Han arbejder på kontor, hun er en pligtopfyldende, men lidt uengageret husmor. Så tager Yeong-Hye en beslutning om at blive vegetar. "Jeg havde en drøm", lyder hendes eneste forklaring. Et umiddelbart uskyldigt valg, men ikke i Sydkorea, hvor omgivelserne synes det er chokerende og skamfuldt ikke at spise kød.

The first time Martha sees the house, she knows it's evil. So she's not surprised when she finds out that someone was murdered in it. She also thinks that someone is watching her. Martha's pretty certain that this Halloween is going to be the scariest of her life, and possibly her last.

Dartmouth Circle is quiet and exclusive - just the way its residents want it to stay, especially arch busybody Sheila Colby. When she hears that the house next door to her has been bought for a student and four friends to rent, she is incandescent. Nothing in this outwardly serene little cul-de-sac is quite as it seems - will the arrival of Madeleine 'Mad' Richmond and her friends bring seething tensions and dark secrets bubbling to the surface?

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery, but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison.

Den vackra, föräldralösa Millie får en enkel och kärleksfull uppfostran av den barska men godhjärtade lumphandlerskan Agnes "Tras-Aggie" Winkowski. Möjligheten att jobba som barnflicka på en herrgård gör att Millie kan bidra till uppehället, tills en dramatisk och skrämmande händelse förändrar allt. Catherine Cookson föddes 1906 i South Shields och dog 1998 i Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "Kate Hannigan", hennes första roman, utkom 1949.

Until Darren Booth moves in at number 1, Lowland Way, the neighbourhood is a suburban paradise. But soon after his arrival, disputes over issues like loud music and parking rights escalate all too quickly to public rows and threats of violence. Then, early one Saturday, a horrific crime shocks the street. As the police go house to house, the residents close ranks and everyone’s story is the same: Booth did it. But there’s a problem. The police don't agree with them.

Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.

Neil Munro's captivating Tales of Para Handy, captain of the "Vital Spark", the "smertest" steamboat ever to sail the River Clyde. Whatever happened to the shaggy dog story? Very few, if any seem to be published these days. Maybe our lives are all too pressurised and full-on to allow us to kick back and listen to an engaging, diverting, well-told tale.

Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize. A Guardian Fiction Book of the year. Sometimes discovery brings destruction. "When We Cease to Understand the World" shows us great minds striking out into dangerous, uncharted terrain. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger: these are among the luminaries into whose troubled minds we are thrust as they grapple with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, they alienate friends and lovers, they descend into isolated states of madness.