Modern fiction

Big Billy Brennan has suffered the greatest tragedy a parent can know, he has just lost his son. His marriage is a partnership in name alone and at nearly 30 stone, Billy is also obese. So, Billy decides to take on the two things weighing him down - his grief, and his fat - and in doing so he's g...

Valentino Achak Deng is just a boy when conflict separates him from his family and forces him to leave his small Sudanese village, joining thousands of other orphans on their long, long walk to Ethiopia, where they find safety for a time. Along the way Valentino encounters enemy soldiers, liberat...

Lexie lives in London with her colourful Greek-Cypriot family. After the death of their grandmother, she tells a terrible, instinctive, jealous lie about an heirloom necklace, a lie that splits the family apart. It's up to her to bring the family back together ...

We’re teaching our sons about money; about heartbreak; and philosophy. We’re teaching them about the big bang and the abominable snowman and what happens when you get struck by lightning. We’re teaching them about the importance of having friends who’ve known you longer than you’ve known yourself...

In a world prone to violent flooding, Britain, ravaged 20 years earlier by a deadly virus, has been largely cut off. Survivors are few and far between, most of them infertile. Children are a rare commodity. For 22-year-old Roza Polanski, life with her family in their isolated tower block is relat...

Compelling, heart-breaking, and emotionally vivid, When You’re Gone will break your heart and fix it anew. A gripping and emotional novel about family, love and sacrifice. 1958: In a small town like Athenry, people talk. Everyone’s noticed that the injury which stopped Annie Fagan’s father from w...

On a small island off the south coast of France, Robert Hendricks, an English doctor, is forced to confront the events that made up his life. His host and antagonist is Alexander Pereira, a man whose time is running out, but who seems to know more about his guest than Hendricks himself does. The ...

It’s every parent’s nightmare – the start of the school holidays – and instead of sitting in the sun, reading a book over a cold, crisp glass of Pinot Grigio, Mummy has two bored moppets to attend to. After frantically booking sports camps, child minder slots, not to mention time off work, Mummy ...

From the author of A Room Full of Chocolate comes a heartwarming story about identity and courage, and a tremendous young girl who cares for her alcoholic mother. For fans of Jacqueline Wilson and Sarah Lean.Nell Hobson lives with a tortoise called Bob Marley, guinea pigs Asbo and Chaos, goldfish...

Poppy Day is an ordinary woman. She's a 32 year old stay-at-home mum with two gorgeous children, while her husband Mart tours with the army. Her simplest pleasure is having her family together in a happy home. But Poppy is too busy to notice the fatigue in her body and the menacing lump growing o...