Dark, unnerving and wickedly funny, Patrick McGrath's acclaimed short stories deal in the bizarre, the erotic and the unexpected. A failed writer meets an ageing gin-queen who claims he was once visited by an angel; a little girl finds a delirious, dying explorer from the Congo at the bottom of her back garden; a night-club is terrorized by a strange libidinous hand; and a young Victorian lady sails to India to find her fiance Cecil horribly transformed...

Three haunting and brilliant tales from the hand of master storyteller Patrick McGrath'Sharp and haunting ... McGrath's prose is clean, lucid and utterly transfixing' Sunday Times'Like a latter-day Edgar Allan Poe, McGrath probes the insanity and violence lurking beneath the skin of daily life' Financial TimesA man is haunted by the memory of his mother with a rope round her neck. It is the American...

A story of self-obsession narrated by the point of view of a psychiatrist, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.As a psychiatrist in a top-security mental hospital in the 1950s, Peter Cleave has made a study of what he calls 'the catastrophic love affair characterized by sexual obsession.' His experience is extensive, and he is never surprised. Until, that is, he comes reluctantly to accept that the wife of one of his colleagues has embarked on such ...

“A stormy tale of obsession…this is a haunting portrayal of a man broken by passion” (Library Journal).Dr. Edward Haggard is a lonely, pain-racked romantic, standing at the window of his house on the edge of a cliff, watching as the clouds of war draw near, and reflecting on the nature of love, death, medicine, war—but most of all on the wife of the senior pathologist, and the few brief months of bliss they shared.Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, a fight...

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION***From the bestselling author of Asylum, Trauma and Spider'Ghosts of the theatre and the spectre of fascism haunt cold and grimy London in this atmospheric tale from a master of the grotesque.' GuardianJANUARY 1947.London is in ruins, there’s nothing to eat, and it’s the coldest winter in living memory.

The acclaimed Costa-shortlisted author of Trauma and Asylum brings us a masterful novel of psychological suspense and marriage in 1960s America'A tour de force ... Unforgettable' New York Times**'An e**legant psychological thriller' The TimesThe aloof and enigmatic Constance Schuyler lives alone in Manhattan when s...

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ASYLUM, TRAUMA AND THE WARDROBE MISTRESS'Wonderful, thrilling' JOHN BANVILLE'Has pleasure on every page' TIMESIt's 1975 and Francis McNulty, ageing poet, retired, is living in his childhood home in Cleaver Square with his daughter Gilly. Haunted by memories of the Spanish Civil War, in which he drove an ambulance, he sees awful visions o...

Brought to you by Penguin.'Let there be no more of this clucking and wheedling. Oh Pa, are you sure? Or: Oh Francis, is this really a good idea? Let me be clear. I am always sure, and it is always a good idea.'An old man is sleeping fitfully. It's too hot. The air is thick with Spanish Jasmine floating in from his overgrown garden. And he's not sure whether he'll be woken by General Franco sitting on the end of his bed.It'...

The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver‘Genius’ Stylist‘Phenomenal’ Observer‘Brilliant’ The TimesIn her first ever story collection, Lionel Shriver illuminates one of the modern age’s most enduring obsessions: property.A woman creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend; a thirty-something son refuses to leave ho...

Brought to you by Penguin.From the bestselling author of A Spool of Blue Thread: an offbeat love story about mis-steps, second chances and the elusive art of human connectionMicah Mortimer isn’t the most polished person you’ll ever meet. His numerous sisters and in-laws regard him oddly but very fondly, but he has his ways and means of navigating the world. He measures out his days running errands for work – his TECH HERMIT sign ch...

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller'Superb' The Times'Sharp, searching . . . utterly of the moment' Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall'So accomplished' Guardian'A masterpiece' Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist'One of her best' Irish Times'Beautifully written, intense, powerful' Da...

From CWA Gold Dagger winner Mick Herron comes a shocking, twisted novel of psychological suspense about one woman's attempt to be better than ordinary.Something's happened.A lot of things have happened.If she could turn back time, she wondered how far she would go.Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in London, wi...