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A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, Oscar's sweet but disastrously overweight. With dazzling energy and insight Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar; and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back.'The Best Novel of the 21st Century to Date' - BBC Culture.
Junot Diaz's new collection, This Is How You Lose Her, is a collection of linked narratives about love - passionate love, illicit love, dying love, maternal love - told through the lives of New Jersey Dominicans, as they struggle to find a point where their two worlds meet.
From the bestselling author of After The Crash, comes an enchanting crime mystery that interweaves the timeless paintings of Claude Monet. When Jerome Morval is found dead in the stream where Monet did his famous paintings, there are three women who are all entangled in the mystery but what is their secret and what is the connection with the Black Water Lillies - a rumoured Monet masterpiece that has never been uncovered. 'An enchanting tale that kept me absolutely hooked as Bussi cleverly breaks all the perceived rules of plotting in a story containing riddles within riddles... Stunning' Daily Express
'So extraordinary that it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the very first time . . . I doubt I'll read a more brilliant crime novel this year' Joan Smith, Sunday Times. The runaway bestseller about an air crash and its sole survivor, a baby girl. But who is she?
Those eyes are fixed on someone. But who? What is she thinking as she stares out from one of the world’s best-loved paintings? Johannes Vermeer can spot exceptional beauty. When servant girl Griet catches his eye, she soon becomes both student and muse. But then he gives her his wife’s pearl earrings to wear for a portrait, and a scandal erupts that could threaten Griet’s future. Vivid, captivating and much emulated, Girl With A Pearl Earring is a timeless modern classic and an international bestseller.
The stunning new novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn ideas into actions.
In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways. But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer. 'Masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat.' David Peace, author of THE TOKYO TRILOGY One of the Independent's best debuts
A heartwarming and profound novel about the power of books and connection between generations, that is also a love letter to Japan and its literature. Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as the two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge, and it soon becomes clear that Flo’s journey is just beginning…
Addie thinks she knows everything about her mother. But when a stranger appears claiming to be her sister, she realises that her life so far has been a lie. But why? 'Intriguing, twisting... I loved it' Dinah Jefferies. 'A gripping family mystery told in lush, evocative prose' Erin Kelly. 'A well-written, intriguing read full of family secrets... Brilliant' Fabulous
It's 1953. Memories of the war are beginning to fade. Young Queen Elizabeth has just ascended to the throne. Isobel McIntyre is a doctor-in-training at a London teaching hospital. It's not easy being a woman working in medicine. And Isobel carries the additional burden of a shocking secret . . . One night three years ago, Isobel took on the identity of someone else. By the time she understood the implications, it was too late to turn back. Now the secret she's been hiding for so long threatens everything - her career, new-found friendships, and a love affair that promises the kind of joy Isobel thought was only for others. Love and happiness can't thrive in a world of lies. But does Isobel have the courage to tell the truth, whatever the consequences?
Reminiscent of Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting," this audacious debut novel is a fresh and surprising portrait of marginalized fatalistic post-Communist youth. It is the story of Andrzej "Nails" Robakoski who unravels after his girlfriend, Magda, dumps him. "Nails" Robakoski is unraveling after his girlfriend Magda dumps him. A tracksuited slacker who spends most of his time doing little more than searching for his next line of speed and dreaming up conspiracy theories about the Polish economy, Nails ricochets from Magda, a doomed beauty who bewitches men, to Angela, a proselytizing vegetarian Goth, to Natasha, a hellcat who tears his house apart looking for speed, to Ala, the nerdy economics-student girlfriend of the friend who stole Magda. Through it all, a xenophobic campaign against the proliferating Russian black market escalates, to the point where the citizens have to paint their houses in national colors and one of these girls will be crowned Miss No Russkies Day--or is that just in Nails' fevered mind?