Showing titles in City Life

Life is waiting to happen to Hubert Bird. But first he has to open his front door and let it in. In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship and fulfilment. But Hubert Bird is lying. The truth is...

Award-winning novelist Vikram Seth is renowned worldwide for his magnum opus A Suitable Boy. But his dazzling debut, though less well-known, is equally innovative, masterly and ambitious. First published in 1986 and inspired by Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, it is written entirely in verse, comprising almost 600 stanzas of rhyming sonnets. This epic poem focusses on the interconnected stories of five young professionals, as they make their way in the 'unfettered city' of San Francisco in the '80s.

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Andrew Scott, star of Sherlock, Fleabag and Black Mirror, also known for his on-stage roles in Present Laughter and Hamlet. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Terence Brown. Joyce's first major work, written when...

'Razor-sharp and deliciously wry' COCO MELLORS 'Funny, tender, thrillingly dark' HEATHER DARWENT 'Exhilarating, beguiling, beautiful' OLIVIA PETTER An astonishing portrait of a city on the brink of a dizzying new era and a story about a young woman who will do anything to infiltrate the rarefied...

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Gripping' Curtis Sittenfeld * 'Electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid * 'Remarkable' Kevin Kwan * 'Stunning' Sunday Times * 'Brilliant' Pandora Sykes In South Korea, where impossible beauty standards and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move, four women are...

Would you take a second chance at love if an app matches you up? '[Changle is known for her] relatable characters and inspiring message ... [her books make for] a popular read for those seeking guidance and inspiration on their own life journeys.' -The Economic Times 'Stuti Changle wants to...

Brought to you by Penguin. three boyz drive & dream of an impossible night on an endless street. . . a white bimmer hurtles down manchester’s curry mile, carrying three brown boys in pursuit of a wild night out, oi oi oi! there’s IMMY (23) – nursing mad heartbreak but tryna get over it by...

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE 2022 AKUTAGAWA PRIZE The power dynamics of the office are never more obvious than when it comes to food: mandatory lunches with the boss, the colleague who tries to curry favour with home-baked goods, discovering the discarded remnants of someone else's...

Brought to you by Penguin. Who was Gertrude Stein? Avant-garde American poet and art collector who made her home in Paris, godmother of modernism, queer icon, friend to Picasso and Hemingway, self-declared genius — a writer who has baffled readers and critics for a century. And why does she...

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL NPR KIRKUS REVIEWS TIME AMAZON THE WASHINGTON POST THE TIMES (UK) DAILY HIVE THE TELEGRAPH FINANCIAL TIMES THE GUARDIAN LITERARY HUB THE HERALD (UK) READER’S...

Grand Life Apartments is a middle-class apartment block surrounded by lush gardens in the coastal city of Chennai, India. It is the home of Kamala, a pious, soon-to-be retired dentist who spends her days counting down to the annual visits from her daughter who is studying in the UK. Her neighbour, Revathi, is a thirty-two-year-old engineer who is frequently reminded by her mother that she has reached her expiry date in the arranged marriage market. Jason, a British chef, has impulsively moved to India to escape his recent heartbreak in London. 

When Aleisha discovers a crumpled reading list tucked into a tattered library book, it sparks an extraordinary journey. From timeless stories of love and friendship to an epic journey across the Pacific Ocean with a boy and a tiger in a boat, the list opens a gateway to new and wonderful worlds - just when Aleisha needs an escape from her troubles at home. And when widower Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha introduces him to the magic of the reading list.

It's 1999, and Eira Hart and Ru Tattersall are set up to co-host The Lonely Harts Club, a new late-night radio show to help New Yorkers find love. It's a last chance attempt for both Eira, expert in Celtic mythology and amateur Welsh matchmaker, and Ru, once-hot-shot Aussie DJ, to achieve their New York dreams. The thing is, you either click with a co-host, or you don’t. It’s a bit like falling in love. There’s co-host chemistry, or there isn’t. With the countdown to a new millennium, it feels like the world as they know it is about to end.

NOW A LILLY'S LIBRARY PICK! ""The most heartfelt read...a surprising delight of a novel.""--Shondaland An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb...

A page-turning, addictive psychological thriller from the UK Top 50 bestselling author of The Bride Can she escape the man she married? Kathy thought she’d met her soulmate. But Police Inspector Michael Conner’s behavior changes on the day of their wedding. Showing his true colors for the...

Bloomsbury presents Please Don't Touch the Body by Emily Doyle, read by Alice Dodd and Daniel Henning “A magnificent debut” (Laila Lalami) that explores loneliness and community, religion and repression, and the pleasure and pain of womanhood. By turns tender and irreverent, the 11...

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2021 WINNER OF DEBUT OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2022 WINNER OF BAD FORM BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD NO.1 BESTSELLER IN THE TIMES SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE AND THE...

'Sexy and self-assured, Skin Contact is irresistible' Ada Calhoun, author of Crush Unmoored by her mother's sudden death, Frances has never felt so diminished, so lost, or so old. She's painfully aware that strangers no longer look at her the same way - and that she's now, at thirty-two, older...

Brought to you by Penguin. London, 1990. Zivoin is newly arrived in a strange country. The dependable oldest son, he works all hours of the day and night, sending every penny he can save back to his family. On the news, he watches his homeland, Yugoslavia, slowly fracturing. Thousands of miles...