Literary Friendships

Twenty-five-year-old Takano has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Ojisan, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoki left him five years earlier. When Takano's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takano is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

Brought to you by Penguin. Another undisclosed facet of her million secrets glittered before us... Emerence is a domestic servant – strong, fierce, eccentric, and with a reputation for being a first-rate housekeeper. When Magda, a young Hungarian writer, takes her on to help around the house...

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...

Najeeb s dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape...

"Kaveri is thirty; single; knows seven languages; is an interpreter by profession; has read all the books about men and how to get a date. Yet; she has not been able to figure out the language of love. Since the ‘THE ONE GREAT LOVE’ of her life has eluded her for thirty years and...

Ruskin Bond’s simple characters, living amidst the lush forests of the Himalayan foothills, are remarkable for their quiet heroism, courage and grace, and age-old values of honesty and fidelity. Residents of nondescript villages and towns, they lead lives that are touched by natural beauty as...

Brought to you by Penguin. The story of two couples who live in the same apartment in north-east Paris almost fifty years apart. In 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst, is processing a recent miscarriage. Her husband, David, takes a job in London so she spends days obsessing over renovating the kitchen...

A city teeters on the edge of chaos. A society lies fractured along fault lines of faith and ideology. A playground becomes a battleground. A looming silence grips the public.First published in Hindi in 1998, Our City That Year is a novel that defies easy categorization―it's a time capsule, a...

Maryam and Zahra. In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome.

Read by Anna Popplewell, known for her role in The Chronicles of Narnia. Richard & Judy Book Club Pick Sunday Times Bestseller Set during London's blitz and filled with warmth, wit and heartbreak, Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce is a wartime story about the power of friendship, the kindness of...

Breathing Lessons covers the events of a day in the life of Maggie Moran, nearing fifty, married to Ira and with two children. Her eternal optimism and her inexhaustible passion for sorting out other people's lives and willing them to fall in love is severely tested one hot summer day. Maggie...

Eliza Moss's intoxicating debut novel is a dark, intense, and compelling account of what happens when a young woman falls in love with the wrong kind of man. Enola is approaching 30 and everything feels like a lot. The boxes aren’t ticked and she feels adrift in a way she thought she would...

“Passionate, personal, insightful, testy, and unique.” —Kirkus (starred review) "Verdelle offers us testimony in praise and consideration of life as a literary citizen and Black woman alongside the guiding light of Toni Morrison. This is a holy testimony, indeed, one that deserves to be...

After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this "searing and timely" novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from the author of the beloved bestseller The Life We Bury (Kristin Harmel, author of The...

Nestled within the walls of a home in a north Indian town, a vibrant microcosm thrives—a tapestry intricately woven by a joint family, their attendants and a continuous flow of visitors. Across three generations, women and men employ varied strategies of adaptation and achievement, choosing...

Sometimes, love is just an illusion. Sometimes, it becomes the sole purpose of your life. While stories on social media were trending, Raghu was lost in books. For him, even the idea of falling in love was limited to books-until he met Ruhi. As their love plays out against the backdrop of the...

Unwilling to yield to familial expectations, an aspiring screenwriter attempts to pursue her dreams during an unforgettable night of chaos in this hilarious and heartfelt novel by Sajni Patel. Isha Patel is the black sheep of the family. She doesn’t have a “prestigious” degree or a...

The gripping tale of sabotage at sea, from the acclaimed master of action and suspense. In the heart of the Aegean Sea, a luxury yacht is on fire and sinking fast. Minutes later, a four-engined jet with a fire in its nose-cone crashes into the sea. Is there a sinister connection between these...

Longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Anita Rau Badami's acclaimed novel Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? chronicles the stories of three women, linked in love and tragedy, over a span of fifty years, sweeping from the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 to the explosion of Air...

"Combining the suspense and razor-sharp outlook of a Gillian Flynn novel, Maureen Connolly's debut sizzles. I finished Little Lovely Things in one heartbreaking, tear-batting gulp."—Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author of Wicked River A mother's chance decision leads to a twist of fate...