Showing results by narrator "Alix Dunmore" in All Categories

An emotionally powerful novel about four women and the incredible strength it takes to live a life made invisible by others. In a nondescript building in a gentrifying corner of London, Penny is doing daily battle with her mind. She is convinced that the world beyond her door is too dangerous for her, though her heart knows it isn't. Penny's neighbour Carla, an American expat and single mother of two teens, has lived in a coercive relationship for many years, too worn down by her controlling husband to escape her situation.

A new work by the author of “In Defense of Witches” that seeks to redefine heterosexual relationships and give women back their voice.

From the whistling languages of La Gomera in the Canary Islands and the Hmong people in East and Southeast Asia, to the wars and clashes in Sri Lanka and the conservation efforts in Hawaii and New Zealand, Rare Tongues draws attention to how language and culture are becoming increasingly homogenous, and what we risk losing as a result.

A schoolyard stabbing sends wingbeats echoing from the past. One shocking event. Two teachers risk their careers to help a boy who has nothing. Three worlds intersect and collide. The best way to avoid trouble, thinks Ayisha Emmanuelle, is to avoid confrontation. As an inner-city schoolteacher, she does a whole lot of avoidance. 14-year-old Shamayal Thomas trusts no one. Not the family, not the gang. And at school, trusting people is forbidden. Jim Stevens teaches history. Haunted by his own, he still believes everyone can learn from the past. History doesn’t always have to repeat itself.

Watch what happens when 17-year-old Hannah disappears without a trace. See how the family rallies when a ransom note demands half a million pounds for Hannah's safe return. Now observe what happens to a family when they lose their house, their status, all their wealth. Note how they disintegrate under the pressures of guilt and poverty and are forced to confront their true selves.

Set in colonial New Zealand, The Aloe captures a moment of transition for the Burnell family as they move into a new home. At the heart of it all is Kezia, a perceptive young girl whose sharp eyes and quiet curiosity offer a child's view of adult tension, familial love, and the quiet dramas of everyday life. Through lush, lyrical prose, Mansfield explores the unspoken complexities of women's roles, family expectations, and inner longing—all from the inside out.

Pip always worries about fitting in—which is tougher than usual when his new neighbors are vampires, banshees and ghosts. Worst of all is the mysterious spirit snatcher, which appears out of nowhere and sucks away people's personalities. When it attacks Pip's parents, the only way to save them is to destroy it. But first Pip has to find it. Along with his new friend Fliss and her dog Splodge, they set out to solve the monstrous mystery, facing murderous ghouls, werewolf attacks and an incredibly mouldy cheese along the way.

Kate Wareing is astonished when she secures a place in a televised dance competition. Especially as it means she’ll be paired with a professional dancer to compete for a life-changing cash prize. When she’s matched with gorgeous French dancer Merle, it quickly becomes clear that he’s just as keen to work on their chemistry as their routine. But when the competition is rocked by a scandal, Kate’s forced to switch to a new partner, Aleksis, who is just as devastatingly attractive as Merle – but seems to hate her.

Worn out by poverty, Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy grasp at the offer of their very own smallholding - part of a Government scheme to put the unemployed back to work on the land. When she comes down to Essex to join him, it's not Tommy who greets her, but their new neighbours. Overbearing and unkempt, Jean and Adam Dell are everything that Lettie can't abide. But as Lettie settles in, she finds an unexpected joy in the rhythms of life. She's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets.

Millie loves her city life, her city friends and writing her true(ish) confessions column—but she’s starting to wonder if the grass really is greener on the other side, or if her heart really belongs back in Northumberland, with her mum who is struggling after the death of Millie’s dad.

From the Siberian permafrost to balmy California, scientists across the globe are working to resurrect all kinds of extinct animals, from ones that just left us to those that have been gone for many thousands of years. Their tools in this hunt are both fossils and cutting-edge genetic technologies. Some of these scientists are driven by sheer curiosity; others view the lost species as a powerful weapon in the fight to preserve rapidly changing ecosystems. It seems certain that these animals will walk the earth again, but what world will that give us? And is any of this a good idea?

Paris, 1940. A woman in a red hat and a black fur coat hurries down a side-street. She is Mathilde Carré, codenamed 'the cat', known as Agent Victoire. She is a charismatic spy; her story is one of resistance and survival. These are the darkest days for France, half occupied by Nazi Germany, half run by the collaborationist Vichy regime; and dark days for Britain - isolated and under threat of invasion.

Sheffield. 2019. Evie and her husband wait in a shopping centre coffee shop for a woman they have only ever spoken with online. When she arrives, they go to a motorway hotel together and have sex with the casual promise afterwards to meet again sometime. When they took their marriage vows, they had meant every word. So how had they drifted so far from the life they had imagined?

Since his adventure in Grunsby-on-Sea, Steven Percival has been thriving. He's kept his powers under control, come out of the closet, and been with his handsome American boyfriend, Troy, almost every day this summer. He can't wait to start uni in London with his best friend, Freya, especially as Troy is going to a different university just a quick train ride away. But Grunsby won't let him go. Around every corner, he's convinced that he's seeing Zachary, the evil emomancer who tried to leech his powers away.

Puk is 26 years old, preparing for the birth of her second child, when her husband has a heart attack while out running. She leaves their toddler with a friend and dashes to the hospital, where Lasse lies unresponsive in a coma. He dies a few hours later. Into a Star follows Puk and her young family in the first year after this tragedy, which has shattered the ordinary life she imagined for them. As the days turn to weeks and months, Puk's second son is born, her sister moves in, her relationship with her in-laws fractures and evolves.

A mother's secret past collides with her daughter's present in this intoxicating novel from Jane Healey, the author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor. In the summer of 1973, teenage Ruth and her four friends are obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings, and a little bit obsessed with each other...

London, 1936: At twenty-one, Kate Grifferty is a press photographer in a Fleet Street agency, an unusual job for a young woman. But Kate is both talented and daring, recklessly going wherever the story might be—including, one October day, to an anti-fascism protest in East London. There, she meets David Rabatkin, a brilliant Jewish medical student. While his idealistic brother is eager to go to Spain and join the fight for the Republic, David knows where his path lies: at home, fulfilling the expectations of his profession and his family.