Showing results for "everything" in Contemporary Fiction

The latest novel in Alexander McCall Smith's much-loved Isabel Dalhousie series. Recently distracted by the arrival of her and Jamie's second son, Magnus, Isabel Dalhousie - philanthropic editor of the Review of Applied Ethics - is anxious. The next issue of the Review is far from ready, her eldest, Charlie, is jealous, and their housekeeper, Grace, has an officious approach to childcare. With some relief, Isabel returns to helping out at her niece Cat's delicatessen, where surely the most taxing duty is the preparation of sandwiches.

Flora Goldwasser is private school perfection - all wrapped up in a vintage Grace Kelly dress. But when she leaves elite Manhattan for an academy of unwashed hippies and ironic hipsters in the Hudson Valley, Flora discovers that when it comes to popularity and approval there is no commutative property. Her love of Maison Kayser macaroons, perfect French conjugation, Jackie Kennedy sunglasses and Audrey Hepburn movies make her the ultimate outsider in a land of kale, quinoa and tattered tunics.

It's four innings into an Orioles victory, when Emma meets Mabel. Their flirty first encounter ends abruptly when Mabel's longtime boyfriend steals her away. This is the start of the sweetest of summers. One of Blue Ridge Mountain hiking, river floating, and steamy, coffee-fueled mornings. But as the summer closes, Mabel's insecurities about her same-sex attraction emerge. She heads back to college. Without Emma. Over the next four years, Emma juggles temporary loves, a big move, and new jobs, all while trying to shove down an imagined fairytale outcome with Mabel. I

Dazzlingly inventive, witty and mysterious: a writer pieces together the story of a young man's death in an exhilarating narrative puzzle reminiscent of the hit podcast Serial. A young man dies in a car crash - accident or suicide? An unnamed writer with an agenda of his own sets out to piece together Samuel's story. From friends, relatives and neighbours, a portrait emerges of a loving son, reluctant bureaucrat, contrived poser, loyal friend. But who was Samuel really, and what happened to him?

Margaret O'Shea never thought she'd find herself praying for the life of an English soldier. But with her grandson Eoin fighting in Iraq, Margaret can't do anything but say the rosary and hope that he comes home unscathed. His fiancée Katarzyna is a good Catholic girl, even if she goes to Nottingham's Polish church rather than its Irish one. What Margaret doesn't know is that Kathy's way of coping with Eoin's absence goes beyond prayer or reading horoscopes.

Mallory Keswick is a woman with the world at her feet. Then, out of the blue, that world is shattered by tragedy and she loses all that she holds dear. Torn by grief, Mal knows that she must find a way to rebuild. She flees to a village on the Yorkshire moors where she learns to draw on the deepest reserves of her spirit. Returning to Connecticut, Mal opens a cafe and shop selling gourmet food and kitchenware and turns it into a highly successful venture. >But there still remains an aching void - a grief that no individual, nor her new-found business acumen, can assuage.

Ella, an author suffering writer's block after a tragic accident, comes to Florence hoping to flesh out a novel based on a mysterious story her father told her. There she encounters another lost soul and develops a sensual alter ego that allows her to experience life.