Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892-1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll, who sold her son to her sister for £500. Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood.

Mr Phillips wakes on the morning of July 31st in his modest, nearly mortgage-free home, in the bed he has contentedly shared with his wife of 30 years - though to be honest, at night he lies beside her and dreams of other women. He's ready to face another ordinary day. Except that for Mr Phillips, it is not an ordinary day, for on July 28th, he was summarily sacked. Nonetheless, he rises at his usual hour and prepares himself as he has done his entire working life for the office he no longer has.

青豆に言わなくてはならないことがいくつもあった。しかし今ここで天吾にできるのは、ただ名前を口にすることだけだ。青豆、と彼は呼びかけた。

Als sein Intercity gewaltsam zum Stehen kommt, ahnt Jonas Brand noch nicht, in welches Abenteuer er gerade gerät. Die Weiterfahrt ist blockiert, draußen liegt ein Toter. Brand schultert die Kamera, hält die beklemmende Situation fest und befragt die Mitreisenden. Er ist freischaffender Videojournalist, der allerdings von Höherem träumt: Er möchte Filme machen - wenn ihm nur jemand eine Chance geben würde.

Inspired by an old photograph album to investigate the life of a lost relative, a man finds himself on a journey that traverses the 20th century, leading him from an American asylum to the shores of the Dead Sea. Adapted by Edward Kemp from W G Sebald's acclaimed novel about the experiences of Jewish emigrants.

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.

They lived worlds apart. Jenny was the girl from the cat-meat shop, born into squalor and defeat. Paul Tunsatall was a soldier and a gentleman, arrogant and charming with his silver-light eyes and boyish smile. And yet from the moment they met there was a spark between them.

These two women's lives have been shaped by the decisions they made back in 1968 – when they were young, idealistic and naïve. In a world that was a whirl of politics and protest, consciousness raising and sexual liberation, Zoë and Julia were looking for love, truth and their own happy endings. They soon discover that life is rarely that simple, as their bad behaviour leads them down paths that they can never turn back from.

破綻か。救済か。これは、銀行の威信を賭けた闘いだ！

「お前ら、そんな仕事して恥ずかしいと思わないのか。目をさましやがれ！」　漢字の読めない政治家、酔っぱらい大臣、揚げ足取りのマスコミ、バカ大学生が入り乱れ、巨大な陰謀をめぐる痛快劇の幕が切って落とされた。

「恋愛なんて、ただの確率のゲーム。正しい方法論があるんだ」。恋人に捨てられ、気になる女性には見向きもされない二十七歳の弁理士、渡辺正樹は、クライアントの永沢にそう告げられる。

出会いのトライアスロン、会話のルーティン、セックスへのＡＣＳモデル。テクニックを学び非モテから脱した渡辺だが――。恋に不器用な男女を救う戦略的恋愛小説。

When X - an iconoclastic artist, writer and polarizing shape-shifter - dies suddenly, her widow, wild with grief, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognised as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora's box of secrets, betrayals and destruction.

Philipp und Tobias wachsen in der Provinz Sachsens auf. Im Sommer flirrt hier die Luft über den Betonplatten, im Winter bricht der Frost die Straßen auf. Der Hausbau der Eltern scheint der Aufbruch in ein neues Leben zu sein. Doch hinter den Bäumen liegen vergessen die industriellen Hinterlassenschaften der DDR, hinter der Gleichförmigkeit des Alltags schwelt die Angst vor dem Verlust der Heimat. Die Perspektivlosigkeit wird für Philipp und Tobias immer bedrohlicher. Als es zu Aufmärschen in Dresden kommt und auch ihr Heimatort Flüchtlinge aufnehmen soll, eskaliert die Situation.

The recent death of one of the descendants of Dr. Watson has brought to light his personal papers. These include a number of stories that Dr. Watson suppressed at the time for various reasons. As all involved are long dead, the inheritor has agreed to the publication of a set of eight of the most interesting adventures.

うちは「下流」の家庭…

Nineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is home from war. Back in Texas, he has become a national celebrity. A Fox News crew filmed Billy and the rest of Bravo squad defeating Iraqi insurgents in a ferocious fire fight. Now Billy is a decorated soldier and Bravo's three minutes of extreme bravery under fire is a YouTube sensation. Seizing on this PR gift, the Bush administration has sent the surviving members of Bravo on a nationwide 'Victory Tour' to reassure the folks at home. Tomorrow, they must go back to war.

Julian Treslove and Sam Finkler are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick. Now all three are recently widowed, in their own way, and spend sweetly painful evenings together reminiscing. Until an unexpected violent attack brings everything they thought they knew into question.

Det økonomiske kollaps og finanskrisen forårsager farlige spaendinger mellem indbyggerne i en lille by. Grådighed graver grøfter mellem tidligere venner. Arbejdsløshed, sorte penge, et mord og en barnebortførelse sender chokbølger gennem det lille samfund.

京都市中京区の薄暗い路地にある「中京こころのびょういん」。心の不調を抱えてこの病院を訪れた患者に、妙にノリの軽い医者が処方するのは、薬ではなく、本物の猫だった！？

On the day that Homes was born in 1961, she was given up for adoption. Her birth parents were a twenty-two year old woman and an older married man with whom she was having an affair. Thirty years later, out of the blue, Homes was contacted by a lawyer on behalf of her birth mother and they began to correspond; her biological father contacted her soon after. These two individuals and their effect on the adult Homes are strange and unexpected and the story spirals into something utterly raw and hilarious.