Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

From a small town outside Edinburgh comes the news that a young boy has been recounting vivid recollections of a past life: a perfect description of an island off the coast of Scotland which he couldn't possibly know and a house there where he claims to have spent his former life. When the boy's mother asks Isabel to investigate his claims, she feels she must - of course! - help them learn the truth, and she and her husband, Jamie, set off for the island.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of M.M. Kaye’s epic novel of love and war. M.M. Kaye’s masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that spans over twenty years, moving from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the burning plains, to the besieged British Mission in...

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling-actor husband, Guy, move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Neighbours Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome them; despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband starts spending time with them.

'A big, bustling novel about love, friendship, money, ambition and the 21st century, packed with humour and intelligent observations ... I finished it tear-stained' Sunday Times 'Will have you hooked ... an ode to the enduring power of male friendship' The Times Best Summer Books For the first...

Incidence & its consequence is a typical cycle, however the interpretation of consequence might be different for each individual. An absconding neighbor is normally a trivial event. This is a story that makes the listener think through a lot of mysterious links.

Mujtaba Husain is considered as a prolific and critically acclaimed humorist and satirist of Urdu literature.

Julian Treslove and Sam Finkler are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick. Now all three are recently widowed, in their own way, and spend sweetly painful evenings together reminiscing. Until an unexpected violent attack brings everything they thought they knew into question.

One day Meera's husband fails to come home after a party, and she becomes responsible not just for her children but for her mother and grandmother and the running of Lilac House, their rambling old family home in Bangalore. Enter professor J. A. Krishnamurthy, or Jak, a renowned cyclone studies expert on a very different trajectory in life. In a bedroom in his house lies his 19-year-old daughter Smriti, left comatose after a vicious attack on her while she was on holiday at a beachside town.

Nisha Kulkarni justifies every reason to be the favourite child of Pune's premier school - be it her academic brilliance, her exceptional facility with music, or simply her unassuming charm. With his daughter showing promising signs of a stellar success story, Vaibhav Kulkarni has made peace with own unrequited dreams of the past. But when the girl mysteriously starts losing mojo and spirals into despair and seclusion, Vaibhav faces the toughest test of his life as single father - to reclaim his child's trust and happiness.

Brought to you by Penguin Meet the Londons, a family in need of a friend ... Gerry and Bernie London are proud parents of Tony, Sean and Ned, three wayward lads whose lives have suddenly reached crisis points: Newly divorced Tony is fantasizing about someone he really shouldn't; prize-winning...

Emilia var aldrig nära vän med Theresia, tjejen som blev påkörd av tåget förra våren. Det var en fruktansvärd olycka och hela skolan är i sorg. Men Emilia kan inte skaka av sig känslan av att det är något med Theresias död som inte stämmer. Hennes farhågor går dessutom ut över den nya vänskapen med Theresias bror Viktor. Emilia har aldrig riktigt blivit sig själv sedan olyckan och ingen av hennes vänner förstår varför hon har förändrats så mycket eller varför hon känner sig så obekväm runt Viktor.

For Meridian Wallace - and many other smart, driven women of the 1940s - being ambitious meant being an outlier. Ever since she was a young girl, Meridian had been obsessed with birds, and she was determined to get her PhD, become an ornithologist, and make her mother's sacrifices to send her to college pay off. But she didn't expect to fall in love with her brilliant physics professor, Alden Whetstone. When he's recruited to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to take part in a mysterious wartime project, she reluctantly defers her own plans and joins him.

A poignant story about friendship, betrayal, obsession and second chances – this novel is an immensely powerful portrayal of human resilience. Sierra Leone: civil war has left an entire population with terrible secrets to keep. In the capital's hospital Kai, a gifted young surgeon, is plagued by demons. Elsewhere in the hospital lies Elias Cole, a university professor who recalls the love that drove him to acts that are far from heroic. As past and present intersect, Kai and Elias are drawn unwittingly closer and into the path of one woman at the centre of their stories.

Maurice Denham stars as John Mortimer's famous comic creation Rumpole of the Bailey. Defender of the underdog, friend of South London villains and scourge of QCs, much-loved barrister Horace Rumpole was first brought to life on television, and in 1980 BBC Radio 4 introduced him to the airwaves for a 13-episode series.

Three sisters, one birthday, one little problem... The three Kettle sisters have had a mortifying mishap. Their raucous, champagne-soaked birthday dinner has come to an abrupt end following a violent argument and an emergency dash to the hospital. So who started it this time? Was it angry, hurt Cat, still recovering from the 'night of the spaghetti'? Was it Lyn, so serenely successful, at least on the outside? Or was it quirky, dreamy Gemma, the sister who can't keep a secret except for the most important one of all?

Frank hasn't spoken to his wife Maggie for six months. For weeks they have lived under the same roof, slept in the same bed and eaten at the same table – all without words. Maggie has plenty of ideas as to why her husband has gone quiet. But it will take another heart-breaking turn of events before Frank finally starts to unravel the secrets that have silenced him.  

Der Weltbesteller von Fredrik Backman als ungekürzte Lesung. Ove ist 59. Er fährt Saab. Und wir alle kennen jemanden wie ihn: den grummeligen Nachbarn von nebenan, der kontrolliert, ob der Müll richtig getrennt ist, und heimlich die Falschparker aufschreibt. Doch niemand wird als grummeliger alter Nachbar geboren, und einst war auch Ove glücklich. Bis das mit seiner Frau passierte, und dann das mit der Arbeit. Jetzt macht nichts mehr wirklich Sinn. Noch einmal richtig aufräumen, dann ist Ove bereit, für immer zu gehen.

限りない喪失と再生を描く究極の恋愛小説!暗く重たい雨雲をくぐり抜け、飛行機がハンブルク空港に着陸すると、天井のスピーカーから小さな音でビートルズの『ノルウェイの森』が流れ出した。

Ein Teenager, ein soeben aus dem Gefängnis entlassener Großvater und eine geladene Pistole. Frank ist vierzehn, er lebt in Wien. Er kocht gern und liebt die gemeinsamen Abende mit seiner Mutter. Aber dann gerät sein Leben durcheinander. Der Großvater ist nach achtzehn Jahren aus dem Gefängnis entlassen worden. So viel kriegt einer für ein Kapitalverbrechen. Frank kennt ihn nur von wenigen Besuchen. Der alte Mann reißt den Jungen an sich, einmal tyrannisch, dann zärtlich. Frank ist fasziniert von ihm.

Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule. But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many.