Download or read book A Song for Issy Bradley written by Carys Bray and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2015 AND THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2015 Meet the Bradleys. In lots of ways, they’re a normal family: Zippy is sixteen and in love for the first time; Al is thirteen and dreams of playing for Liverpool. And in some ways, they’re a bit different: Seven-year-old Jacob believes in miracles. So does his dad. But these days their mum doesn’t believe in anything, not even getting out of bed. How does life go on, now that Issy is gone?
Download or read book The Museum of You written by Carys Bray and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clover Quinn was a surprise. She used to imagine she was the good kind, now she’s not sure. She’d like to ask Dad about it, but growing up in the saddest chapter of someone else’s story is difficult. She tries not to skate on the thin ice of his memories. Darren has done his best. He's studied his daughter like a seismologist on the lookout for waves and surrounded her with everything she might want - everything he can think of, at least - to be happy. What Clover wants is answers. This summer, she thinks she can find them in the second bedroom, which is full of her mother's belongings. Volume isn't important, what she is looking for is essence; the undiluted bits: a collection of things that will tell the full story of her mother, her father and who she is going to be. But what you find depends on what you're searching for.
Download or read book Sweet Home written by Carys Bray and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They say there's no place like home. It's where the heart is... Meet the little boy who believes in miracles. Meet the mother who loves to bring babies home from the newborn aisle of her supermarket. Meet the husband who carves a longed-for baby out of ice as a gift for his wife. Meet the widow who is reminded of romance whilst pegging out the washing. Awarded the Scott Prize for short story writing, Sweet Home weaves together moments of joy, heartache, sadness and unwavering love as told through seventeen very different notions of home.
Download or read book When the Lights Go Out written by Carys Bray and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A powerful and truthful story about hope and how to find it' The Times 'A gem of a book' Emily Maitlis Emma's husband Chris is fretting about starvation and societal collapse. He's turned off the heating and is stockpiling off-label medicines and tins of baked beans. Chris, certain that society will soon spiral to its doom, finds Emma's optimism exasperating. Emma finds Chris's obsession with disaster relentless. She's beginning to wonder whether relationships, like mortgages, should be conducted in five-year increments. But when Chris's mother turns up for a visit, the cracks begin to show. Will Emma and Chris be able to find their way back to each other?
Download or read book The Girl Who Slept with God written by Val Brelinski and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fine, carefully wrought . . . reading this novel [is] a heartening experience.” —The New York Times Book Review “Brelinski’s page-turning debut is full of humor, insight, and imaginative sympathy. Think of it as the annunciation of a new talent.” —The Wall Street Journal “A revelation.” —Vanity Fair “[Brelinski] had readers hooked from page 1.” —Elle For Fans of Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You and Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings, an entrancing literary debut about religion, science, secrets, and the power and burden of family from recent Wallace Stegner Fellow Val Brelinski Set in Arco, Idaho, in 1970, Val Brelinski’s powerfully affecting first novel tells the story of three sisters: young Frances, gregarious and strong-willed Jory, and moral-minded Grace. Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother’s depression and Grace’s religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip to Mexico and discovers she’s pregnant with—she believes—the child of God. Distraught, Oren sends Jory and Grace to an isolated home at the edge of the town. There, they prepare for the much-awaited arrival of the baby while building a makeshift family that includes an elderly eccentric neighbor and a tattooed social outcast who drives an ice cream truck. The Girl Who Slept with God is a literary achievement about a family’s desperate need for truth, love, purity, and redemption.
Download or read book See What I Have Done written by Sarah Schmidt and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of America’s most notorious murder cases inspires this feverish debut” novel that goes inside the mind of Lizzie Borden (The Guardian). On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone’s killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. In this riveting debut novel, Sarah Schmidt reimagines the day of the infamous murders as an intimate story of a family devoid of love. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell―of a father with an explosive temper, a spiteful stepmother, and two spinster sisters desperate for their independence. As the police search for clues, Lizzie’s memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? When did she last speak to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now? Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.
Download or read book The Lie written by Helen Dunmore and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A British World War I veteran returns to Cornwall in this “enthralling novel of love and devastating loss” from an Orange Prize winner (Good Housekeeping). Cornwall, 1920: Infantry officer Daniel Branwell has returned to his coastal hometown after the war. Unmoored and alone, Daniel spends his days in solitude, quietly working the land. However, all is not as it seems in the peaceful idylls of the countryside; and although he has left the trenches, Daniel cannot escape his dreadful past. As former friendships reignite, Daniel is drawn deeper and deeper into the tangled traumas of his youth and the memories of his best friend and his first love. Old wounds reopen, and old troubles resurface—though none so great as the lie that threatens to ruin Daniel’s life, the lie from which he cannot run. Told with breathtaking poise and exacting suspense, The Lie is a haunting journey through the mind of a tormented man as he tries to fit the pieces of his shattered past together. “Devastating and triumphant . . . wholly satisfying. Endings are often the hardest beast for an author to tame, but Dunmore does it, with elegance, vigor and clarity.” —The Denver Post
Download or read book Baring Witness written by Holly Welker and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Baring Witness, Holly Welker and thirty-six Mormon women write about devotion and love and luck, about the wonder of discovery, and about the journeys, both thorny and magical, to humor, grace, and contentment. They speak to a diversity of life experiences: what happens when one partner rejects Church teachings; marrying outside one's faith; the pain of divorce and widowhood; the horrors of spousal abuse; the hard journey from visions of an idealized marriage to the everyday truth; sexuality within Mormon marriage; how the pressure to find a husband shapes young women's actions and sense of self; and the ways Mormon belief and culture can influence second marriages and same-sex unions. The result is an unflinching look at the earthly realities of an institution central to Mormon life.
Download or read book The Finding of Martha Lost written by Caroline Wallace and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liverpool, 1976: Martha is lost. She’s been lost since she was a baby, abandoned in a suitcase on the train from Paris. Ever since, she’s waited in lost property for someone to claim her. It’s been sixteen years, but she’s still hopeful. Meanwhile, there are lost property mysteries to solve: a suitcase that may have belonged to the Beatles, a stuffed monkey that keeps appearing. But there is one mystery Martha has never been able to solve – and now time is running out. If Martha can’t discover who she really is, she will lose everything...
Download or read book One Night in Winter written by Simon Sebag Montefiore and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by a true story, prize-winning historian and acclaimed novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore explores the consequences of forbidden love in this heartbreaking epic of marriage, childhood, danger, and betrayal that unfolds in Stalin's Moscow during the bleak days after World War II. As Moscow celebrates the motherland's glorious victory over the Nazis, shots ring out on the crowded streets. On a nearby bridge, a teenage boy and girl—dressed in traditional nineteenth-century costumes—lie dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy, because these are no ordinary teenagers. As the son and daughter of high-ranking Soviet officials, they attend the most elite school in Moscow. Was it an accident, or murder? Is it a conspiracy against Stalin, or one of his own terrifying intrigues? On Stalin's instructions, a ruthless investigation begins into what becomes known as the Children's Case. Youth across the city are arrested and forced to testify against their friends and their parents. As families are ripped apart, all kinds of secrets come spilling out. Trapped at the center of this witch-hunt are two pairs of illicit lovers, who learn that matters of the heart exact a terrible price. By turns a darkly sophisticated political thriller, a rich historical saga, and a deeply human love story, Montefiore's masterful novel powerfully portrays the terror and drama of Stalin's Russia.
Download or read book All the Good Things written by Clare Fisher and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Betty Trask Award winner: A young female convict recounts her life to discover the good in it, and in herself, in this “moving, compassionate” novel (The Sunday Times). Twenty-one-year-old Beth has done plenty of good, grown-up sorts of things—including having a baby. But she’s also done something bad enough to land her in prison. At the urging of her counselor, she begins to make a list of all the good things that have happened to her. It’s difficult at first, as she was abandoned by her mother and shuffled from one foster home to another. Hers is a life that veered from a brilliantly artistic childhood to rough boyfriends and thankless jobs. As she writes, however, she begins to understand that every life has moments of peace, friendship, and triumph. From sharing silence with someone she loves, to feeling so happy it hurts, she begins to see her life—and herself—anew. But Beth must also acknowledge the act that sent her to jail, and confront the question: Is there a chance for her redemption?
Download or read book The Orange Blossom Special written by Betsy Carter and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 1994-01-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we first meet Tessie Lockhart in 1958, she is pinning her hair into a French twist, dabbing Jean Naté on her wrists, and getting ready to change her life. This widowed mother of a thirteen-year-old has decided it's time for a fresh start for both of them, time to leave behind Carbondale, Illinois, and the pain of loss. Tessie and her daughter move to Gainesville, Florida, where they discover that they aren't the only ones struggling to move forward in the wake of tremendous grief. Betsy Carter has perfectly captured both the innocence of the 1950s, when even the complex events of our lives seemed somehow easier to endure, and the startling and irreversible changes of the 1960s. A story about the relationships people develop in the face of loss, The Orange Blossom Special introduces us to a remarkable cast of characters, all of whom are tested—and transformed—by the changes in their midst. In her own touching and funny style, Carter shows us the unexpected ways in which strangers can become family.
Download or read book The Invincible Kingdom written by Rob Ryan and published by Crocodile Books. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third title in the stunningly illustrated fairytale trilogy for all ages from internationally-acclaimed papercut artist Rob Ryan. Born into the royal family, John has always known he doesn’t want to be King. To escape his destiny he’s run away and built a different kind of future for himself. But just when everything seems to be going right for John, his past catches up with him: Lord Von Dronus, the palace’s senior courtier, is determined to hunt him down. Forced into hiding with his best friend, June, it seems as though John will never be able to live an ordinary life. Until one night he decides to put an audacious plan into place. Inspiring, funny, and moving, The Invincible Kingdom is about following your dreams and creating your own happily ever after.
Download or read book Daughter of the Blood written by Anne Bishop and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1998-03-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dark and alluring first novel in New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s beloved Black Jewels series introduces Jaenelle Angelline, a witch with astonishing power and a dangerous destiny, and Daemon Sadi, the lethal Warlord Prince born to be her lover. Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence—and corruption. Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men—sworn enemies—know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love—and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...
Download or read book The Trouble with Goats and Sheep written by Joanna Cannon and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and utterly charming debut about a community in need of absolution and two girls learning what it means to belong.
Download or read book Live Girls written by Beth Nugent and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-13 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following her critically acclaimed collection of short stories, City of Boys, Beth Nugent brings her dark and eerie vision to a powerful first novel. Live Girls is the story of Catherine, in her twenties, who sells tickets in a run-down porn theater in a decrepit port city, A sign in the window of the seedy hotel where she lives reads Transients Welcome. Her only friend is Jerome, an anorexic drag queen who searches for love among the sailors. As Catherine and Jerome set out for Hollywood, we witness -with equal horror and fascination -- their desperate attempt to find redemption in a world that offers them so little. In haunting, stylized prose, Nugent takes us deep into her protagonist's psyche while painting a bizarre -- yet oddly familiar -- picture of a dissociated, disconnected America. Live Girls is a tour de force that will leave no one who reads it unshaken.
Download or read book Mexican High written by Liza Monroy and published by Liza Monroy. This book was released on 2008 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monroy's memorable debut novel is an eye-opening, coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and first love. In a setting rife with sex, drugs, and political corruption, it is also a revealing look at elite Mexican society and its freedoms and excesses.
