Cath Barton's melancholic novella Between The Virgin and the Sea is set in an unnamed city which has fallen off the map of the world, and is accessible now only by sea. Violence has broken out in the city and the people, fearing that the church is involved, pray instead at roadside shrines. The story tells the events of a day at the end of which the white statue of the Virgin which stands on a hill overlooking the city may ― or may not ― come to life to restore peace to its people. Central...

Edition #3 of Novella Express A New Dawn for the Novella featuring: • Bluebird by Sonia Hadj Said • Between the Virgin and the Sea by Cath Barton • Dear FIN by Andrea Layne Black Novella Express is a book series publishing novellas submitted from around the world. CONTRIBUTING TO EDITION #3: Bluebird starts on a morning that the protagonist believes to be the end of her life. An immigrant from Eastern Europe, the narrator has spent the last ten years thriving to be a writer or a journalist...

In this atmospheric novella, the mysterious Plankton Collector visits members of a family torn apart by grief and regret. he comes in different guises. For ten year-old Mary, he is Mr Smith who takes her on a train journey to the seaside. Her mother, Rose, meets him as Stephen, by her son's graveside. Rose's youngest, Bunny, encounters him as the gardener. For husband and father David, meanwhile, the meeting is with a love from his youth. And long-lost Uncle Barnaby takes the children for ...

Humour, fantasy, tragedy, drama, romance... Startling and original, the stories selected for this mouth-watering anthology are guaranteed to satisfy your appetite for the unique pleasure of reading.From a sad tagine to vintage blood, bottled light to luminous water, the theme of nourishment lets you sample a spread of excellent writing which will only make you want to come back for more. Let the feast begin!The proceeds from this book go to the Against Malaria Foundation.

In her prize-winning fourth collection, Mean Time, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy dramatizes scenes from childhood, adolescence and adulthood, finding moments of grace or consolation in memory, love and language amid the complexities of life. These are powerful poems of loss, betrayal and desire.

'Salman Rushdie's greatest novel' Sunday TimesMoraes 'Moor' Zogoiby is the last in line of a crooked and fantastical dynasty of spice merchants and crime lords from Cochin. He is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile. As we travel with him on a route that takes him from India to Spain, he spins his labyrinthine family tale of mad passions and volcanic family hatreds.But does the India of his parents - populated by extravagant artists, piratica...

'ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY' INDEPENDENT ⭐ Longlisted for the Booker Prize ⭐ Longlisted for the Folio Prize ⭐ Winner of the World Fantasy Award'A triumph'GUARDIAN'Epic'EVENING STANDARD'Mind-spinning'INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY'Dazzling'NEW YORK TIMESRun away, one drow...

'I must confess my devotion immediately: I read every word this man writes. I wait for every new novel and the wait has been worth it: this is gorgeous. I simply love the way this man writes' – Russell T. DaviesAlan Hollinghurst, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty, brings us a dark, heartbreaking but wickedly funny portrait of England spanning six decades. It is a story of race and class, theatre and sexuality, love and the cruel...

Dionisio Vivo, a South American lecturer in philosophy, is puzzled by the hideously mutilated corpses that keep turning up outside his front door. To his friend, Ramon, one of the few honest policemen in town, the message is all too clear: Dionisio's letters to the press, exposing the drug barons, must stop; and although Dionisio manages to escape the hit-men sent to get him, he soon realises that others are more vulnerable, and his love for them leads him to take a colossal revenge.

‘Gorgeous’ Observer * **‘Profoundly moving’ Financial Times * 'Electrifying' Daily MailHow do you find the courage to make your own life? An unputdownable novel about first love set in 1960s London from Sunday Times bestselling Rose TremainMarianne is fifteen when she falls helplessly and absolutely in love with Simon. Simon owns a Morris Minor, is in his final year at school and has a dazzling ...

While the economy of his small South American country collapses, President Veracruz joins his improbable populace of ex-soldiers, former guerrillas, unfrocked priests and reformed - though by no means inactive - whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfilment.But for Cardinal Guzman, a man tormented by his own private daemons, their stupendous, hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies.Heresies that must be challenged with a horrifying new inquisition destined to...

The Gospel According to Blindboy is a surreal and genre-defying collection of short stories and visual art exploring the myths, complacencies and contradictions at the heart of modern Ireland. Covering themes ranging from love and death to sex and politics, there's a story about a girl from Tipp being kicked out of ISIS, a van powered by Cork people's accents and a man who drags a fridge on his back through Limerick.Whip-smart, provocative and animated by the author's unmi...