Showing titles in City Life

"Utterly charming . . . I would read a hundred of these stories" Shelby Van Pelt, bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures Is three days with a cat enough to change your life? The troubled and anxious of Tokyo are desperate to find out. They all have their problems - and they all want...

Spanning four decades in the mid-19th century, the interconnected novellas of Old New York lay out in vivid detail the complex and inscrutable codes, customs, and taboos of New York society in classic Wharton style.

Raised in a conservative Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur. Now, she has a good job at the local college, and balances that with raising her two daughters and taking care of their home. Yara knows that her life is more rewarding than her mother’s–so why doesn’t it feel like enough?

Grace can’t believe it when her husband of 25 years announces he doesn’t want to join her on their anniversary trip to Paris - instead, he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock, Grace makes the bold decision to go on this holiday of a lifetime alone. Audrey leaves behind heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no money and no knowledge of the French language, her summer adventure seems doomed to fail. Until she meets Grace, and everything changes....

On this journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden corners of one of the world's most fascinating cities, everybody is searching for something, and maybe searching in the wrong places. Elements of the fantastical and the surreal abound, as they tend to do in the early predawn hours of the morning, yet the settings, the human stories, and each character's search are all as real as can be.

Comedy drama set in Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London For three decades, Rupert Hardacre was one of the big beasts of advertising: he worked hard, played hard, and lived hard. But he fell harder... Driven out of every reputable agency in town for drinking all their whiskey and...

Brought to you by Penguin. It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at a university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a charming young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself...

A spicy meet-cute that will delight your rom-com palate! Wedding planner Tanvi Bedi is all fired up about her latest project, the $100 million wedding of a media heiress. The only hitch is her high-profile client’s wishlist chef, Nik Shankar. Weddings are a complete no-no for Nik, but there...

Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she's never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva's hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats and the ever-wilder thrills of a city where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please.

When Margaret Hale is forced to leave her home in the tranquil rural South of England for the industrial Northern town of Milton, she finds herself in a very different country run by men, like mill owner John Thornton, with very different beliefs to her own. Margaret is sickened by the working conditions she witnesses and, sympathetic to the poor workers, clashes with their boss, Thornton.

Anthony Trollope was one of Victorian England’s most popular and prolific authors. He worked for the Post Office while establishing himself as a writer, and is credited with introducing the pillar box to Britain. Best known for his ‘Barsetshire’ and ‘Palliser’ novels, he wrote over 50 works in total, including short stories, travel books, biographies and a posthumously published autobiography. Collected here are a selection of superb adaptations of his much-loved novels, as well as a fascinating documentary and an original radio play by Patricia Cumper.

Joachim von Hartmann is born into a wealthy Argentine banking family and spends his early years in Buenos Aires. Blond-haired and blue-eyed, he has inherited the looks of his German ancestors, while his twin brother, Javier, could not be more different. Following the death of their father and when details emerge about Joachim’s maternal grandfather’s wartime activity, both boys and their mother, Liese, are cast out from the family. After the years of glamour and luxury, she must raise them alone with no financial support.

Brought to you by Penguin. Her life is so full, so why is she hungry? For Piglet – an unshakable childhood nickname – getting married is her opportunity to reinvent. Together, Kit and Piglet are the picture of domestic bliss – effortless hosts, planning a covetable wedding ... But if a...

Brought to you by Penguin. Discover this surprising gem - the sharp, funny and irresistible debut novel from the bestselling author of Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist 'You know you're in trouble when you can't meet a woman's eye, particularly if the woman happens to be your best...

Brought to you by Penguin. A BBC, Financial Times and Cosmopolitan What to Read in 2024 pick Set in a New York apartment building, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of neighbours has been secretly written by a...

Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions. This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

A cult classic of Italian literature published in English for the first time, with a foreword by André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name In the late 1960s, Leo Gazzara left his family in Milan and moved to Rome for work. Soon unemployed, he has spent his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing...

The ultra-luxe Black Rose Underground Club used to be Mary Sandusky's favorite place to play. She was happy to slip into her role as seasoned submissive Blossom and relinquish control to an expert Dom. But when a scene gets out of hand, she can no longer trust her own dark appetites. She's ready to walk away from Black Rose for good . . . until she meets a hot Highlander who pushes all the right buttons. Nothing makes Ronan O'Connor's blood heat more than commanding a submissive in a scene, but forming a relationship outside the club was an urge lost long ago.

“This is such a love story to cities & people & heartbreaks, death & loss. It's not at all corny, it's smart. But I just finished it & it made me cry.” — Eileen Myles "Signals the arrival of a novelist sure to resonate with young people who endeavor to make intimate connections." —The...

Her daughter has just flown the nest and her pensioner mum has dived headlong into internet dating - can Hattie hold on to her sanity? Hattie is a 47-year-old mother whose daughter, Layla, is just about to head off to university. She's not coping terribly well (Hattie that is - Layla seems to be...