Tom is Dead

Tom is Dead

Marie Darrieussecq

Marie Darrieussecq

In its original French, Tom Est Mort was nominated for the Prix Femina and the Prix Goncourt. This edition is translated by Lia Hills.Tom died when he was four.To stop herself from forgetting him, his mother tries to write Tom's story, the story of his death. She strives to describe it all as precisely as possible. It's the details that will lead her and the reader to the truth. Set in the Blue Mountains and in Sydney, Tom is Dead is a suspense novel in which Darrieussecq takes us to the core of grief and drives this narrator's experience into our hearts.'There are very few writers who may have changed my perception of the world, but Darrieussecq is one of them.' The Times
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  • 5
The Reinvention of Love

The Reinvention of Love

Helen Humphreys

Helen Humphreys

When Charles Sainte-Beuve, an ambitious French journalist, meets Victor Hugo, a young writer on the vergeof fame, he finds himself in a world of great passions, a world where words can become swords. But, to his surprise, he is more attracted to Victor’s long-suffering wife, Adèle. When the two lovers create a scandale in Paris, Victor exacts his price for betrayal.Set during the tumultuous reign of Napoleon III, and sweeping from France to the Channel Islands, to Halifax and back, The Reinvention of Love draws a rich portrait of the old city, where duels are fought in its parks and cholera-ridden bodies float in the Seine. Along its narrow, crime-filled streets, noble families and artists—Frédéric Chopin, Georges Sand,Alexandre Dumas—mix with ordinary citizens, who remainrestless with ideas of revolution. Towering over all is the enormous talent of Victor Hugo, who is rapidly becoming the voice of France to the world.Review"'In order to ventriloquize a long-forgotten, peculiar Frenchman, Humphreys has added to her trademark exquisite prose a stylish wryness. Witty, sad and gorgeous in equal measure, this story of a man like no other probes love like a wound' (Emma Donoghue, author of Room) 'Humphreys' pacing and story-telling are well-honed... an engaging novel told with wit and imagination.' (Nathan Brooker, FT)" Review"'In order to ventriloquize a long-forgotten, peculiar Frenchman, Humphreys has added to her trademark exquisite prose a stylish wryness. Witty, sad and gorgeous in equal measure, this story of a man like no other probes love like a wound' (Emma Donoghue, author of Room) 'Humphreys' pacing and story-telling are well-honed... an engaging novel told with wit and imagination.' (Nathan Brooker, FT)"
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  • 5
In a Strange Room

In a Strange Room

Damon Galgut

Damon Galgut

A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels with little purpose, letting the chance encounters of the road dictate his path. But although he knows that he is drifting, he is unable to settle. It is as if, without these encounters, the person he is cannot exist. And yet each journey ends in disaster. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is an extraordinary evocation of one man's search for love, and a place to call home.
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  • 5
What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

James, Henry

James, Henry

Maisie's parents go through an acrimonious divorce when she is very young, and the court decrees that she will travel between them, spending time with each. They do not hesitate to use her in their war against each other, and she is neglected and abandoned by them as they each remarry and then take further lovers. The story follows her to maturity, when she is able to decide her own fate.
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  • 5
Topdog / Underdog

Topdog / Underdog

Suzan-Lori Parks

Suzan-Lori Parks

A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, forettling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.
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  • 5
The Darwin Awards 6: Countdown to Extinction

The Darwin Awards 6: Countdown to Extinction

Wendy Northcutt

Wendy Northcutt

The newest installment of the human race's most "devastatingly" popular humor series.The Darwin Awards are more than just a brand. They're a pop culture phenomenon. With six books and a website that draws in more than a million unique visitors every month, the Darwin Awards rivals The Onion and The Simpsons as one of the biggest humor franchises in the world.Fully illustrated and featuring all-new tales of the marvelously macabre, The Darwin Awards Countdown to Extinction chronicles the astonishing acts of individuals who have taken a swan dive into the shallow end of the gene pool. From attaching a five-horsepower engine to a barstool, to hammering a metal hook into an explosive device, to using a taser to treat a snake bite, these gloriously gruesome incidents prove that the countdown (to human extinction) is well under way. And we won't exit this mortal coil without one last laugh.
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  • 5
Gently Down the Stream

Gently Down the Stream

Alan Hunter

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction / Contemporary

Time spent messing about on the river isn't supposed to end with a brutal murder. The staff at Stoley's Boatyard were used to holidaymakers returning their pleasure cruisers a little late after a week or so exploring the network of waterways around Norchester. They were not used to finding their yachts burned almost beyond recognition with the charred remains of a client still aboard. Taking on the murder investigation, Chief Inspector George Gently faces an enquiry like no other he has ever handled. Somewhere beneath the lies of the victim's wife, somewhere obscured by the brittle edge of her daughter's fear, somewhere hidden by her son's hysteria, lies the truth. Gently's only hope is to sweep aside the litter of chaos and confusion to uncover the identity of the killer.
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  • 5
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