Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Melina Marchetta's brilliant, heart-wrenching new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from her best-selling, much-loved book Saving Francesca – only this time it's five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving.

Welcome to the Rose Harbor Inn, where every room has an inspiring new view, and every guest finds a second chance...Jo Marie has started to feel at home running the Rose Harbor Inn. Now it’s springtime, and in memory of her late husband, Paul, Jo Marie has designed a beautiful rose garden for the property and enlisted handyman Mark Taylor to help make it happen. Jo Marie and Mark don’t always see eye-to-eye but deep down, she finds great comfort in his company.

On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It's her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she's just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.

At St Oswald’s, a long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally – reluctantly – contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs.

Joey Cooley is a golden-curled child film star, the idol of American motherhood. Reginald, Third Earl of Havershot, is a boxing blue on a mission to save his wayward cousin from the fleshpots of Hollywood. Both are under anaesthetic at the dentists when something strange happens - and their identities are swapped. Suddenly Joey can use his six-foot frame to get his own back on his Hollywood persecutors. But Reggie has to endure everything Joey had to put up with in the horrible life of a child star - including kidnap.

It was a preference for cricket over schoolwork that united Mike and Psmith in their reluctance to attend their new school, Sedleigh. The school insists that its attendees be keen, but it is sorely unprepared for boys of such foresight and resources as Mike and Psmith who have decided to indulge in all manner of high-jinks and adventures.

In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life--great friends, family, and successful career--aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, including quitting her job as an optometrist and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love. Georgia’s bravery reminds us that it’s never too late to become the person you want to be, and that taking chances, with your life and your heart, are always worthwhile.

Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, 2007.
Laura Chase's older sister Iris, married at 18 to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and 82, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once-prosperous family before the First War. While bewailing her unreliable body and deriding those who try to help her, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life and her perilous times, but in particular on the events surrounding her sister's tragic early death.

"My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.” So begins this remarkable novel by Amy Bloom, whose critically acclaimed Away was called “a literary triumph” (The New York Times). Lucky Us is a brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny novel of love, heartbreak, and luck. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey through 1940s America in search of fame and fortune.

The rich are different. But fate is blind. A private jet plunges into the sea. The only survivors are down-on his luck artist Scott Burroughs and JJ Bateman, the four-year-old son of a super-rich TV executive. For saving the boy, Scott is suddenly a hero. And then, as the official investigation is rapidly overtaken by a media frenzy, it seems he may also be a villain. Why was he on the plane in the first place, and why did it crash?

After facing a truth she never imagined, Beulah has to find a new path. Build a life without help and take care of her sister alone. Or does she...?

Anna Cole grew up poor, but her mother's love made her feel rich every day. Then her mother died, and Anna was sent to a care home. As a teenager, Anna vowed that one day she would have children of her own and create the happy, noisy family life she always craved. Then, one day, Anna meets Theo Montgomery in a lift. Theo has kind eyes but a sad past. His family were rich, but his childhood was full of neglect. Theo can't imagine bringing a child into this cruel world, but he does want a soul mate. Someone to love him unconditionally; someone with whom he can share his family's wealth.

Bestselling author Torey Hayden's novel is a fascinating study of a fractured family, a troubled child, and a psychiatrist's attempts to rescue them. Conor, aged nine, arrives in the play therapy room of child psychiatrist James Innes with the diagnosis "autistic". His mother Laura, an aloof, enigmatic novelist, can't handle him. His rancher father, embroiled in divorcing Laura, does not feel there is anything wrong with Conor. His six-year-old sister Morgana insists he really does see ghosts.

The last few years have been punishingly dry, especially for the farmers, but otherwise, it's all Neralie Mackintosh's fault. If she'd never left town then her ex, the hapless but extremely eligible Mitchell Bishop, would never have fallen into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy, who now lords it over everyone as if she owns the place.

Tutti vorrebbero la vita di Anna e Tom. Un lavoro creativo senza troppi vincoli; un appartamento a Berlino luminoso e pieno di piante; una passione per il cibo e la politica progressista; una relazione aperta alla sperimentazione sessuale, alle serate che finiscono la mattina tardi. Una quotidianità limpida e seducente come una timeline di fotografie scattate con cura. Ma fuori campo cresce un’insoddisfazione profonda quanto difficile da mettere a fuoco. Il lavoro diventa ripetitivo. Gli amici tornano in patria. Il tentativo di impegno politico si spegne in uno slancio generico.

From Booker Prize winner Ben Okri: a deceptively simple modern fable with an ancient origin. A young man finds himself living among invisible beings who have built a utopia based on one principle: that we must repeat or suffer every experience until we experience it properly and fully for the first time.

Meet Yumi Fuller. A Japanese-American prodigal daughter, Yumi (aka Yummy) is returning home to the Idaho potato farm she ran away from 25 years earlier. Then a freewheeling hippie chick, Yumi is now a fairly responsible parent and a professor with a side gig selling lava lots in Hawaii. But can she possibly be prepared to face her dying father, her Alzheimer's-devastated mother, and Cass, the best friend she left behind?

Set in Australia in the 1840s, A Fringe of Leaves combines dramatic action with a finely distilled moral vision. Returning home to England from Van Diemen's Land, the Bristol Maid is shipwrecked on the Queensland coast and Mrs Roxburgh is taken prisoner by a tribe of Australian Aboriginals, along with the rest of the passengers and crew. In the course of her escape, she is torn by conflicting loyalties - to her dead husband, to her rescuer, to her own and to her adoptive class.

Hierdie aangrypende roman oor ’n ongeletterde Nama-vrou van die Richtersveld speel af in die 1950’s. Katryn Jonis word van moord aangekla, maar sy kom agter die pro deo advokaat glo nie in haar onskuld nie en besluit dan om haar eie verdediging in die hof te behartig. Die vindingryke en berekende wyse waarop die reguit en passievolle Katryn die waarheid uit die staat se getuies in die hof trek, boei die leser deurgaans. Daar is baie vrae: Wie het dan die moord gepleeg, en hoekom?

October 1944. The tide is turning in the Pacific War - American forces have made Sydney a gaudy, hectic garrison town. The gamblers and the good time Charlies converge on the South Pacific Hotel, Sydney's finest. This is the story of one week in their lives, as they play the game of chance for the highest stakes…survival, security and the opportunity of happiness and love.