Showing titles in Psychological

Elle never dreamed she’d end up with a man like Dom. He’s handsome, successful, the perfect father to their baby girl. But Elle doesn’t feel the joy she knows she should. She's struggling with being a mum, failing at work, even her post-baby body doesn’t feel like her own. Not that Dom cares. He worships Elle and craves intimacy as deeply as troubled Elle wants to shy away from it. Elle starts relying on red wine and the attention of new colleague Gabriel to get through her day. But the morning after a team away day, a bewildered and hungover Elle wakes up with a lifeless body in her bed.

From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected audiobook of his darkest stories, read by Richard Griffiths, Andrew Scott, Derick Jacobi, Mark Heap, Juliet Stevenson and Stephen Mangan. Why do we lie? Why do we deceive those we love most? What do we fear revealing? In these 10 tales of deception, master storyteller Roald Dahl explores our tireless efforts to hide the truth about ourselves.

In the middle of the night, Claire wakes up to discover that her beloved daughter, Julia, is dead - and life, as she knows it, is over. Searching for answers, Claire stumbles upon a pile of letters, hidden under Julia’s bed in an old, battered shoebox, and feels closer to her daughter than ever before. They tell her that Julia was happy, that she was thriving at university, that she was in love. But as the letters go on, Claire starts to feel uneasy at something hidden between the lines. Even as she grieves, she must prepare to face a shocking discovery.

Eighteen-year-old Aaron is charismatic, resourceful and addicted to heroin. His mum has kicked him out of home in a last-ditch move to help him get straight, and he wanders the streets of South Melbourne, living on his wits and sleeping rough–all the while chasing drugs, dreams and love. Desperate to fund his addiction, Aaron climbs into the car of The Man, a distinguished elderly gentleman willing to pay for a certain kind of relationship.

For four years Jessica has never doubted that her sister Isabel’s death was an accident. But when Jessica’s young daughter seems to know long-forgotten details about her aunt’s past, Jessica can’t shake the feeling that there’s a more sinister truth behind the tragedy. As Jessica unearths disturbing revelations about her sister, and about the people she loved and trusted most, it becomes clear Isabel’s life was less than perfect and that Jessica’s might also be at risk.

Die neunzehnjährige Katharina und Hans, ein verheirateter Mann Mitte fünfzig, begegnen sich Ende der achtziger Jahre in Ost-Berlin, zufällig, und kommen für die nächsten Jahre nicht voneinander los. Vor dem Hintergrund der untergehenden DDR und des Umbruchs nach 1989 erzählt Jenny Erpenbeck in ihrer unverwechselbaren Sprache von den Abgründen des Glücks - vom Weg zweier Liebender im Grenzgebiet zwischen Wahrheit und Lüge, von Obsession und Gewalt, Hass und Hoffnung. Alles in ihrem Leben verwandelt sich noch in derselben Sekunde, in der es geschieht, in etwas Verlorenes.

She's the victim. But is she so innocent? Sophie McCarthy is known for her determination, ambition and brilliance at work. She's tough, but only because she wants to get the best out of people. Aidan Ryan is strong, honourable and a family man. He's tough, too; the army requires it. When these two strangers are brought together in a devastating incident, Sophie's life is left in ruins. Her family wants to see Aidan pay for what he did. Aidan's prepared to sacrifice everything - including his marriage and his child - to fix the mess he's made.

The community along Oregon’s Deschutes River is one of successful careers and perfect families. For years, up-and-comers Liz and Owen have admired their good friends and neighbors, Carole and David. They appear to have it all - security, happiness, and a beautiful young son, Charlie. Then Charlie vanishes without a trace, and all that seemed safe is shattered by a tragedy that is incomprehensible - except to Liz.

Orkney 2024: a terrible discovery on an idyllic beach in Fynhallow Bay: a teenage boy has been burned to death, a girl is missing, and another girl, Erin, is in hospital and remembers just one thing – she is Nyx. Her mother, Clem, waits by her bed, desperate to bring her daughter back to reality. Orkney 1594: accused of witchcraft, Alison Balfour awaits trial. The punishment? Death by burning. Separated by four hundred years but united by the ancient clan of magic-wielders, the Triskele, two women stand imperiled.

Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well lived, fulfilling for ourselves and for those we touch. But for others life is arduous. There is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore and achieve a stability and a growth to their lives. Indeed their lives, in their own eyes, become almost meaningless, their sense of themselves subsumed under a myriad of problems, whether real or imagined. Seismic events in a life might crush them; the loss of a loved one for instance. Coping is difficult, support hard to find and isolation abounds.

Paulette's the kind of woman who likes the future all mapped out: the wedding to Denton, the Caribbean honeymoon, the gingham quilt on the baby's crib. Until one morning Garfield, Denton's friend, arrives at her door with the news that Denton won't be coming around any more, that there won't be time for her to say goodbye. Somehow Garfield finds his way into her bed, and sooner than anyone can believe there is a baby, and suddenly giving Bird, her son, the best of everything is what gives Paulette's life meaning.

We had it all—a lake house, two kids, and twenty years of marriage. Except, our marriage was no longer exciting. We scheduled intimacy, ate meals in silence, and became strangers. Our kids went off to college, and we were now empty-nesters, trying to reconnect. But my husband, a psychology professor and thriller novelist, had other plans. Perhaps writing a fictional novel had him living in a false reality? Perhaps he was having a mid-life crisis? He didn't want to reconnect with me; he just wanted to replace me. Worst of all, the girl he was having an affair with was our son's girlfriend.

Malli has an anxiety disorder that renders her unable to speak outside her own home. The highlight of her life is a long-standing weekly phone call with her younger brother, Surya, who is studying in Australia, and whose updates bring colour to her days. When Surya misses their weekly call for the first time, Malli's quiet life is thrown into disarray. Seeking answers online, Malli is grateful when a user on a missing persons forum, Nayan, offers to help. As days pass without word from Surya, Malli decides she must travel to Australia to find out what has happened to him.

The son of a schizophrenic, Jared Gordon has lived his entire life with a genetic time bomb coded into his DNA. So when the night terrors and hallucinations arrive in force, it seems undeniable that the same disease responsible for his father’s suicide is to blame.

After a traumatic car accident, Ava Durant wakes up in hospital not remembering how she got there. However, that's not all she's forgotten. The last ten years of her memory are gone and she's not a thirty-year-old woman anymore, she's forty. Struggling to come to terms with everything she's lost, she tries to live in her new reality but everything is foreign and unfamiliar. Her husband has gone, her friends are different and life is unrecognisable. In order to move forward she has to go backwards to unearth her forgotten past and the secrets that have shaped her.

This is the day my life changes forever. It started so normally. The alarm went at 7am. My husband made bacon and pancakes for me and our seven-year-old daughter, the kitchen full of chatter and laughter. He gave me a quick kiss, told me he loved me, grabbed his wallet, and rushed off to work. Just an ordinary day. Until I get the call from the school. It was Tom’s turn to pick up our daughter. He must be held up for some reason. I find Tom’s phone under our bed. Now I know there’s something seriously wrong. I scroll through his messages. A text sent late last night: I KNOW EVERYTHING.

It's 1984. Winston Smith lives alone in London. He is a secret rebel plotting his escape from the Party: the deadly dictatorship led by Big Brother. Winston dreams of finding freedom, love and peace: everything that is outlawed. His act of defiance will get him killed—but his courage is unshaken. He risks everything in his desperate search for truth and humanity as he once knew them. The story of Winston's rebellion, and his need to love others, reveals the strength of the human spirit against the darkest sides of human nature.

When Natalie Powers returns home for the first time in 13 years, she must convince everyone she has fully recovered from the mental illness that has seen her institutionalised for most of her young life. But instead of being welcomed back, Natalie enters a baffling world of deception. In the village of Little Downey, everybody appears to harbour a mysterious secret, including her father, Frank, the village butcher, who refuses to discuss the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s mother's disappearance. But who can Natalie trust if not her own father?

Millie is in her final year at a Catholic girls' school, subdued by the conformity of her life and her parents' quiet pain. But when her schoolmate Olive moves in next door, it marks the beginning of an intoxicating friendship that changes everything. In all the ways Millie feels unsure and half-formed, Olive, an aspiring actor from a devoutly Catholic family, seems at ease with her place in the world. On the precipice of freedom, the two young women seize nights out and a school retreat as opportunities to further their own increasingly uncertain ends

To be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worst—but Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job working for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens. Yet Kayleigh is good at her job, and in her colleagues she finds a group of friends, even a new girlfriend—and for the first time in her life, Kayleigh’s future seems bright.