Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Isabel Dalhousie thinks often of friends, sometimes of lovers, and on occasion of chocolate. As an Edinburgh philosopher she is certain of where she stands. She can review a book called In Praise of Sin with panache and conviction, but real life is... well, perhaps a bit more challenging...

The mid-'70s: at an all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne, Timothy Conigrave falls wildly and sweetly in love with the captain of the football team. So begins a relationship that weathers disapproval, separation and ultimately death. With honesty and insight, Holding the Man explores the highs and lows of any partnership and the strength of heart both men have to find when they test positive for HIV. This is a book as refreshing and uplifting as it is moving - a funny and sad and celebratory account of growing up gay.

Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to...

The novel is set in Varanasi. Chetan Bhagat initiates the story through the central character of Gopal. It is through Gopal's narration of his life to the author that we are introduced to Raghav and Aarti. The story revolves around these three characters. While Gopal comes from a poor family, Raghav comes from a well-off family. Both set out to achieve success and realise their dreams.

第155回（2016年）芥川龍之介賞受賞作

36歳未婚女性、古倉恵子。
大学卒業後も就職せず、コンビニのバイトは18年目。
これまで彼氏なし。
オープン当初からスマイルマート日色駅前店で働き続け、
変わりゆくメンバーを見送りながら、店長は8人目だ。
日々食べるのはコンビニ食、夢の中でもコンビニのレジを打ち、
清潔なコンビニの風景と「いらっしゃいませ！」の掛け声が、
毎日の安らかな眠りをもたらしてくれる。
仕事も家庭もある同窓生たちからどんなに不思議がられても、
完璧なマニュアルの存在するコンビニこそが、
私を世界の正常な「部品」にしてくれる――。

ある日、婚活目的の新入り男性、白羽がやってきて、
そんなコンビニ的生き方は
「恥ずかしくないのか」とつきつけられるが……。

現代の実存を問い、
正常と異常の境目がゆらぐ衝撃のリアリズム小説。

It's the May Day holiday, and a fair has come to the village of Thrush Green. The residents of Thrush Green all have their own views about the fair. For young Paul, just recovered from an illness, it is a joy to be allowed out to play at the fair; for Ruth, who returned to the soothing tranquility of Thrush Green nursing a broken heart, the fair is a welcome distraction from her own problems. And for Dr Lovell, the fair brings an unexpected new patient.

When 26-year-old Ayan is sent to live with his grumpy old grandfather Gopal Shanker in a tiny village in Kerala, he is understandably devastated. What can a sleepy, idyllic village without even internet connectivity offer a young man?

A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers. 'A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking...terrific' WASHINGTON POST Anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author. A worldwide bestseller since its publication, Irving's classic is...

"A charming and heartwarming story."-Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cafe by the Sea A warm, feel-good novel about the importance of finding a place where you belong - perfect for fans of Maeve Binchy. Local librarian Hanna Casey is wondering where it all went wrong...

📚 An intriguing, twisting and heart-warming novel set in a bookshop that has an unexpected impact on people's lives. From the author of The Second Chance Book Club and Found in a Bookshop 📚 When the Lost for Words bookshop in York hosts an event for a new reading project, four strangers'...

'A wonderful storyteller' Ciara Geraghty 'Meaney is utterly credible, utterly authentic, utterly irresistible' Irish Independent 'Roisin Meaney is a skilful storyteller' Sheila O'Flanagan The new novel from No.1 bestselling author Roisin Meaney. Another summer is in full swing on the island of...

Paradise has been home to generations of Trevannions: paradise, the house at the head of a sheltered Cornish valley where Mrs Trevannion lives, surrounded by her family. Frail and elderly, Honor Trevannion, bedridden following a nasty fall, is inexplicably anxious and distressed by the arrival of a young American bearing an old black and white photograph of a double wedding and looking for a long-lost relation.

Five reasons why Hary, Ryan and Alok's lives are a complete mess: 1. They've messed up their grades big time. 2. Alok and Ryan can't stop bickering with each other. 3. Hary is smitten with Neha, who happens to be his professor's daughter. 4. As students of IIT, they're expected to conquer the world - something they know isn't likely to happen. 5. They only have each other.

If you read The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul and enjoyed The Beekeeper of Aleppo, you will love The Stationery Shop of Tehran 1953, Tehran. In a small shop in a country on the brink of unrest, two people meet for the very first time. Roya loves nothing better than to while away the hours in the...

Once more, we catch up with the delightful goings-on in the fictitious 44 Scotland Street from Alexander McCall Smith. With customary charm and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith gives us another installment in this popular series, now running in its ninth season in the Scotsman. Anything could happen to Bertie and the gang....

Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize: Could modernity be an illness? Umbrella follows the story of Audrey Death, who fell victim to the encephalitis lethargica, sleeping sickness epidemic at the end of the First World War and has been in a coma ever since. Arriving at the asylum she still...

It was a preference for cricket over schoolwork that united Mike and Psmith in their reluctance to attend their new school, Sedleigh. The school insists that its attendees be keen, but it is sorely unprepared for boys of such foresight and resources as Mike and Psmith who have decided to indulge in all manner of high-jinks and adventures.

Leningrad, September 1941. German tanks surround the city, imprisoning those who live there. The besieged people of Leningrad face shells, starvation, and the Russian winter. Interweaving two love affairs in two generations, The Siege draws us deep into the Levin's family struggle to stay alive during this terrible winter.

Essays in Love is a stunningly original love story. Taking in Aristotle, Wittgenstein, history, religion and Groucho Marx, Alain de Botton charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak.

When the rector, Peter, and his wife Caroline, decide to go to Africa for a year to work in a mission, they take their twins with them. The village inhabitants whose lives revolve around the church and this family are bereft. They don't immediately take to the woman locum, Anna, who has modern ideas, happy clappy hymns and so forth, but she does fill the church with parishioners determined to keep an eye on her.