Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Mai 1506, Michel Ange débarque à Constantinople. A Rome, il a laissé inachevé le tombeau que lui a commandé Jules II, au risque de s'attirer la colère de ce pape particulièrement irascible. Mais comment résister à l'invitation du Sultan Bajazet, qui veut lui confier la conception d'un pont enjambant l'estuaire du Bosphore, la Corne d'Or ? Pont entre deux rives, mais aussi entre deux mondes, deux civilisations.

A razor-sharp portrait of a morally bankrupt and gleefully wicked modern man, Worst. Person. Ever. is Douglas Coupland's gloriously filthy, side-splittingly funny and unforgettable novel. Meet Raymond Gunt. A decent chap who tries to do the right thing. Or, to put it another way, the worst person ever: a foul-mouthed, misanthropic cameraman, trailing creditors, ex-wives and unhappy homeless people in his wake. Men dislike him, women flee from him.

The Gropes are an old English family based in Northumberland, separated from the rest of society and as eccentric as they come. It is a line dominated by strong-willed and oversexed women, determined to produce more female heirs regardless of whether their desired partners are willing.... At the dawn of the new millennium, timid and gormless teenager Esmond is abducted and lured to Grope Hall by a descendant of the Gropes.

Even though he is still young, Kenny has just weeks to live. Before he dies, he wants to find his childhood friend Callie Barton and thank her for the kindness she showed him. When Kenny discovers that Callie has gone missing, he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. And knowing that time is running out on him, he's prepared to do whatever it takes....

When Anna takes on the role of companion to the owner of Wynthorpe Hall on the outskirts of Wynbridge, she has no idea that her life is set to change beyond all recognition. A confirmed ‘bah humbug’ when it comes to Christmas, Anna is amazed to find herself quickly immersed in the eccentric household, and when youngest son Jamie unexpectedly arrives home it soon becomes obvious that her personal feelings are going all out to compromise her professional persona.

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.

For five years, Sally and Clive have been lost in a passionate affair. Now he has dumped her, to devote himself to his wife and family, and Sally is left in freefall. It starts with a casual stroll past his house, and popping into the brasserie where his son works. Then Sally befriends Clive's wife and daughter on Facebook. But that's alright isn't it? I mean, they are perfectly normal things to do. Aren't they?

Cécile et Raymond coulent des jours heureux dans l'insouciance enivrante de l'été. Le père enchaîne les conquêtes faciles et se lasse déjà de la belle Elsa quand sa fille échange ses premiers baisers avec le jeune Cyril. Arrive Anne, âme superbe et cultivée, qui subjugue Raymond. Installée chez le veuf et sa fille, elle se donne pour mission d'ordonner ce chaos. Fascinée mais blessée qu'elle juge leur mode de vie frivole inférieur au sien, Cécile tire les ficelles pour lui jouer un tour qu'Anne paiera très cher.

Fairacre is a village of cottages, a church and the school, and at the heart of the school, its head mistress, Miss Read. Through her discerning eye, we meet the villagers of Fairacre and see their trials and tribulations, from the irascible school cleaner Mrs. Pringle, to the young school children, with their scraped knees, hopeful faces, and inevitable mischief.

Mara was the demon who tried to distract Lord Buddha with the help of his three daughters—Raga, Arati and Tanha. Paroosh believes Mara’s three daughters have been strayed in this world wearing skins of teenage girls. And he seeks to deliver to Mara, by sacrificing the girls against the peepal tree, for he wants the father to reunite with his daughter.

Das perfekte Rezept gegen sinnlose Planeritis: neue Alltagsgeschichten vom Meister der guten Laune. Jetzt neu mit der Alpaka-Formel! Warum unternehmen alle anderen immer mehr als man selbst? Hat die Künstliche Intelligenz eine Chance gegen die Natürliche Dummheit? Und wo zum Teufel ist der rote Aufreißfaden der Prinzenrolle hin? Da müsste man doch mal... Tommy Jaud stellt sich dem täglichen "Man müsste mal": Er kämpft um Payback-Punkte, Rückenmuskulatur, Spülmaschinen-Ästhetik und geistige Gesundheit.

Susie Moran is a success. She has founded and run her own highly profitable company, and now her three daughters are all involved in the business. Rooted in the traditions of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries, and producing charming, useable objects of distinctive design, Susie is justly proud of her family and her achievement – and has no intention of letting it change. But what of the men in the family? Susie’s husband, a musician and artist, has always seemed happy to take a back seat.

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.

Annie's put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she'd like her money back, please. It's time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked. Is she really going to find real, proper, fell-it-deep-down-in-your-boots love on a damp and windy seafront? Or perhaps she should follow her heart and pursue Tucker, the reclusive American rock star, who keeps emailing her his smart advice. But between Annie and her second chance lie a few obstacles.

Josie and Frank Moore are happy...at least Josie thinks they are. As parents of two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than the driven career woman she once was.

Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam's 'research' becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections?

Sophie knows she should count herself lucky when she finds herself catapulted into the A-list after the surprise hit of a budget movie, but she just wishes she could be a proper actress, in proper, serious films. As Sophie’s career begins to decline her fate seems to be entwined with that of her favourite actress, Eve Noel: the epitome of 50s Hollywood glamour…

On two remote islands off the coast of Maine, the local lobstermen have fought savagely for generations over the fishing rights to the ocean waters between them. Young Ruth Thomas is born into this feud, the daughter of one of the greediest lobstermen in Maine. Eighteen years old, as smart as a whip and irredeemably unromantic, Ruth returns home from boarding school determined to throw her education overboard and join the 'stern men'.

When their father is critically injured, foreign correspondent Mandy and her siblings return home. Mandy's head is filled with terror and war, and her homecoming only heightens her disconnection from ordinary life. Cathy, her younger sister, has stayed in contact with her parents, unlike their brother Stephen who, has distanced himself from the family for years. In the hospital the children sit, struggling to connect with their emotions, their past and each other.

For Meridian Wallace - and many other smart, driven women of the 1940s - being ambitious meant being an outlier. Ever since she was a young girl, Meridian had been obsessed with birds, and she was determined to get her PhD, become an ornithologist, and make her mother's sacrifices to send her to college pay off. But she didn't expect to fall in love with her brilliant physics professor, Alden Whetstone. When he's recruited to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to take part in a mysterious wartime project, she reluctantly defers her own plans and joins him.