Modern fiction

It is 1950, and Willa's mother has a new beau. The arrival of his blue-eyed, sun-kissed sons at Willa's summer home signals the end of her safe childhood. Willa is drawn to the strange and solitary younger brother, Patrick. As they grow up, their encounters become increasingly charged with sexual...

Born into a wealthy family in northern England and sent to boarding school to be educated by nuns, Ivory Frame rebels. She escapes to inter-war Paris, where she finds herself through art, and falls in with the most brilliantly bohemian set: the surrealists. Torn between an intoxicating love affai...

If there’s one thing worse than being fired, it’s coming home to find your boyfriend in bed with someone else. Reeling from the indignity, Georgina snatches the next job that she’s offered – barmaid in a newly opened pub, which just so happens to be run by the boy she fell in love with at school:...

Funny, moving and sharply observed, these stories are confirmation of Boyd's status as one of English fiction's finest writers. Here are twenty-four gripping tales told in bold, distinct voices from Brazil to Africa and from Nice to Hollywood. This eclectic collection by the acclaimed author of R...

Since her parents' mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her Grandmother Etta's dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta's charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passers-by, but the colourfull...

Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, a farmer turns his gun on his family and then himself. As questions mount and suspicion casts a long shadow over the parched town, specialist investigator Aaron Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier.

Sean has returned to Dublin from Berlin. He feels a constant dislocation, never quite arriving in his place of birth. Everything comes to him in a confusion of three languages.Irish: the ghost language, the one his father spoke, the one added to road signs, the one in which they sing the old song...

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal for lunch and buys the same two bottles of vodka every weekend. Nothing is missing from her life... Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleano...

When pickpocket Danny accidentally bids for Maharajah the elephant at an Edinburgh auction, he's swept up on an unforgettable journey. His new employer, a zookeeper, transforms Danny into a bejewelled Indian prince. As he rides Maharajah from Scotland to his new home in England, even Queen Victor...

Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn’t remember to drink it. She sometimes thinks her daughter Helen is a total stranger. But there’s one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about ...