Modern fiction

For four characters the five hundred-quid worry bead in their pocket may be both a blessing and a curse. For elderly Dr Zachary Busner it's his life line to his autistic grandson Ben, whose own connection with technology is, in turn, a vital one. For Jonathan De'Ath , aka 'the Butcher,' MI6 agent...

Three years after Hear the Wind Sing, in 1973, the narrator has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator and live with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to leave both the town and his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of his ...

A decomposing body . a severed head in a closet . a macabre meeting with "Mother"-mystery writer Lorinda Lucas tosses yet another paperback in the trash, appalled at the gruesome direction of today's crime fiction. She's even more disturbed at the half-starved state of Roscoe, the cat next door. ...

Jack Bick is an interview journalist at a glossy lifestyle magazine. From his office window he can see a black column of smoke in the sky, the result of an industrial accident on the edge of the city. When Bick goes from being a high-functioning alcoholic to being a non-functioning alcoholic, his...

Teddy is a gifted dog, raised in a cabin by a poet named Sylvan. Sylvan always told him there are only two kinds of people in the world who can hear Teddy speak: poets and children. One day, when Teddy finds Nickel and Flora trapped in a snowstorm, he speaks and they understand him. They follow h...

The sequel to the bestselling phenomenon The Note – based on the true story of one girl and her 'train man'. A year after the kiss that brought them together, Maya and James are embarking on another journey - this time around the world. The trip starts promisingly, with an opulent and romantic In...

Penny Leighton, TV Producer and wife of the local vicar Simon Canter, is struggling to cope with motherhood. When Simon engages the services of a nanny, Ella, as a way of helping Penny, it only serves to push her further away from him and from their only child, Jenna. After the death of the woman...

It's been seven years since Holly Kennedy's husband died – six since she read his final letter, urging Holly to find the courage to forge a new life. When a group inspired by Gerry's letters, calling themselves the PS, I Love You Club, approaches Holly asking for help, she finds herself drawn bac...

In the summer of 1968, the year of Prague Spring with a Cold War winter, Oxford students James Borthwick and Eleanor Pike set out to hitchhike across Europe, complicating a budding friendship that could be something more. Having reached southern Germany, they decide on a whim to visit Czechoslova...

Topical and timely, Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri's new collection of short stories blur parallel realities and walk the line between darkness and magic.Is what you see all there is? Look again. Playful, frightening, even shocking – the stories in this collection blur the lines between ill...