Showing titles in City Life

Award-winning novelist Vikram Seth is renowned worldwide for his magnum opus A Suitable Boy. But his dazzling debut, though less well-known, is equally innovative, masterly and ambitious. First published in 1986 and inspired by Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, it is written entirely in verse, comprising almost 600 stanzas of rhyming sonnets. This epic poem focusses on the interconnected stories of five young professionals, as they make their way in the 'unfettered city' of San Francisco in the '80s.

New Delhi, three a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the kerb, and in the blink of an eye five people are dead. It's a rich man's car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.

Cat has a dangerously dwindling bank balance. She also has: a month before her landlord kicks her out, a surprise wedding invitation from rich mean girl, Louisa, a secret talent for con artistry. A priceless jewel the size of a cocktail olive is glinting on Louisa’s finger. And when Cat meets her ideal plus one, Jake–who’s gifted at hustling and posing as the perfect boyfriend–this wedding becomes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After all, how hard can a diamond heist be?

One night in New York City's Chinatown, Lola is at a dinner with former colleagues when she excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. The next night, she runs into another ex. And then…another. The city has become awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past. What might have passed for coincidence becomes something far stranger when the recently engaged Lola must contend not only with the viability of her current relationship, but the fact that her best friend and her former boss might have an unhealthy investment in its outcome.

The dark, doomy humour of Care of Wooden Floors mixed with the fantastical, anarchic sense of possibility of The Way Inn, brought together in a fast moving story set in contemporary London. Jack Bick is an interview journalist at a glossy lifestyle magazine. From his office window he can see a black column of smoke in the sky, the result of an industrial accident on the edge of the city. When Bick goes from being a high-functioning alcoholic to being a non-functioning alcoholic, his life goes into freefall, the smoke a harbinger of truth, an omen of personal apocalypse.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country: digging the tunnel far beneath the Hudson that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the bowels of the riverbed, the workers—black, white, Irish and Italian—dig together, the darkness erasing all differences. But above ground, the men keep their distance until a dramatic accident on a bitter winter's day welds a bond between Walker and his fellow workers that will both bless and curse three generations.

First published in 1920, This Side of Paradise proved to be a best-selling novel in Fitzgerald’s own lifetime. The book follows the early life and education of Amory Blaine and is, in fact, a thinly disguised account of Fitzgerald’s own experience as an undergraduate at Princeton and as an aspiring writer. Brilliantly original in its experimental narrative, it comprises a series of contrasting styles and structures.

Old Michael Snowdon returns to London with an inheritance that he determines should go towards helping the poor—but goodness and charity are not to play a part here. Everyone has an agenda, and scheming spreads through the story like a disease. Gissing’s own experience of London as an outsider in a vast city that both fascinated and appalled him gave him the tools and the drive to create a visceral sense of place. Life is unremittingly grim for just about everyone, from the weak and well-intentioned Jane to the coarse, cunning Clem Peckover and her feckless rival Pennyloaf Candy.

Se croire seule pour traverser une épreuve, et découvrir qu'on ne l'est pas... Aujourd'hui, on guérit du cancer du sein s'il est pris à temps. C'est ce qu'on dit à Lucie, et c'est vrai. Sauf que, si on est maman célibataire d'une petite Léa de onze ans qu'on tient à protéger, et si on se retrouve seule dans une nouvelle ville ou on ne connaît personne... ou trouve-t-on le soutien pour traverser vaillante l'espace incertain qui sépare le diagnostic de la fin du traitement ?

Eight-year-old TC skips school to explore the city’s overgrown, forgotten corners. Sophia, 78, watches with concern as he slips past her window, through the little park she loves. She’s writing to her granddaughter, Daisy, whose privileged upbringing means she exists in a different world from TC - though the two children live less than a mile apart.

Melbourne, 1945. Born into a well-to-do family, Maggie Johnson wants freedom from her parents' strict conservative beliefs and their unbending desire for her to marry the right sort of man. Instead, Maggie longs to forge her own path in life. Lil Kelly, who lives in the slums, works tirelessly to care for her mother and sister. Lil looks for contentment wherever she can find it, not daring to dream of more. When their paths cross during the exhilarating celebrations of Victory in the Pacific Day, they form a secret friendship.

Bailey Flanigan is finally leaving her small-town home of Bloomington, Indiana, for the adventure of a lifetime: she has gotten a part in a Broadway musical in New York City. She's determined to take advantage of this unbelievable opportunity, but is she really ready to leave family and friends for the loneliness of the big city? And what about Cody, her former boyfriend? His disappearance has her worried about their future and praying that their love can survive.

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.

Elsie is out of options. She's exhausted from being pushed in and out of social housing, she's deflated by debt and she's disturbed by the dark reality of having bailiffs show up at her door. With nowhere to go, there's only one person left to turn to: her best friend, Juliet. She finds friendship and safety in Juliet's flat, but when Elsie loses her bar job and all creative inspiration for her poetry dries up, she hits rock bottom.

Powerful and enigmatic billionaire Braden Black doesn't do relationships. He doesn't fall in love. But ever since meeting Skye Manning, he's breaking every one of his careful rules. He just can't get enough of her fierce independence and the white-hot sizzle of attraction between them. Of course, there are still lessons Skye has yet to learn . . . Only Braden isn't sure Skye is ready. Falling in love is one thing. Inviting her completely into his world—and the reality of his darker, most forbidden appetites—is quite another. It's about trust. His and hers.

This is a story of a London you won’t find in any guidebooks. This is a story about what it’s like to exist in the moment, about boys too eager to become men, growing up in the hidden war zones of big cities - and the girls trying to make it their own way. This is a story of reputations made and lost, of violence and vengeance - and never counting the cost. This is a story of concrete towers and blank-eyed windows, of endless nights in police stations and prison cells, of brotherhood and betrayal.

Twenty-six-year-old Nicole Najim is struggling to find herself after a painful breakup, just when she thought she was going to settle down. Working a dead-end job in the family car dealership and at a loose end, she picks up her camera and returns to the melting pot of Sydney’s West to rediscover her roots. When she catches up with childhood friend, Danny, who makes his living in a shadowy underworld, their relationship intensifies just as the law starts to close in.

The narrator of Rob Doyle's Threshold has spent the last two decades traveling, writing, and imbibing drugs and literature in equal measure, funded by brief periods of employment or "on the dole" in Dublin. Now, stranded between reckless youth and middle age, his travels to far-flung places have acquired a de facto purpose: to aid the contemporary artist's search for universal truth.

Meet five bachelor brothers and the women who bring them to their knees in this USA Today best-selling series! When Cole North volunteers to be his boss Sierra’s fake date, nothing goes as expected. Can the lifelong loner evolve from her right-hand man at work to the right man for her forever? Carefree Drake North is fully aware his best friend’s little sister is off-limits, but when she sets her sights on him, he can’t get her off his mind. Can he give up his noncommittal ways and become the caring man she deserves?

In the smart Parisian suburb of Maisons-Larue, in the wake of the Paris 2015 terrorist attacks, an au pair is arrested after the sudden and suspicious death of her nine-year-old charge. The truth behind what happened is unravelled through six women, and all of them play a part in nine-year-old Julien's death.