Discover the Books of the Month for September – there’s something for everyone!
MODERN FICTION
Autumn – Ali Smith
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017! Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. That's what it felt like for Keats in 1819. How about Autumn 2016?
Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer. Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever.
CLASSICS
Kim – Rudyard Kipling
Kipling’s epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Kim is considered to be one of the first spy novels, and gives a knowledgeable portrait of both India at the time, of the Anglo-Indian relationship and of The Great Game.
Paperback 100:-
SHORT STORIES
How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love
Love is not a singular concept. In this collection, seven award-winning authors explore seven concepts of love: from Philautia, self-love, to Agape, love for humanity; and from Storge, a natural affection for family, to Mania, a frenzied, obsessive love. Seven authors; seven short stories; seven flashes of love.
Paperback 150:-
BRITISH CRIME
She Be Damned – M.J. Tjia Longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger
London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate.
Paperback 150:-
TOUGH CRIME
The Black Country – Kerry Hadley-Pryce
Maddie and Harry: she’s an estate agent, he’s a teacher. They’ll say they live in the Black Country. They’ll say how they met Jonathan Cotard, explain how they later argued, had a car accident, thought they’d killed someone. The Black Country. For Maddie and Harry, it’s darker than it should be.
Paperback 150:-
SCIENCE FICTION
All the Birds in the Sky – Charlie Jane Anders
Winner of the 2017 Nebula award! Finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award Best Novel and Locus Award 2017!
Patricia is a witch who can communicate with animals. Laurence is a mad scientist and inventor of the two-second time machine. As teenagers they gravitate towards one another, sharing in the horrors of growing up weird, but their lives take different paths... When they meet again as adults, Laurence is an engineering genius trying to save the world and live up to his reputation in near-future San Francisco. Meanwhile, Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the magically gifted, working hard to prove herself to her fellow magicians and secretly repair the earth's ever growing ailments. As they attempt to save our future, Laurence and Patricia's shared past pulls them back together.
Paperback 130:-
FANTASY
The House of Shattered Wings – Aliette de Bodard
The House of Shattered Wings is many things. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a post-apocalyptic survival tale. It’s a steel-cold look at protagonists who are antiheroes. It’s a slow-burn Gothic narrative with plenty of tension and a sense of impending doom that retains elegance and poise and never comes crashing down. It is also a story about imperialism, about displacement and belonging, about loyalties and the desperate desire to simply return to your own tribe.
Paperback 150:-
URBAN FANTASY/PARANORMAL
Alice – Christina Henry
Inspired by the wonderous works of Lewis Carroll, this is the tale of Alice, who has been stuck in a mental health hospital for years, although she can’t remember why. All she can remember is a tea party long ago. Long ears and blood. Until one night she escapes, free to uncover the truth about what happened to her. When she escapes, something escapes with her, but the truth she desperately seeks is so much stranger than any madman’s ranting.
Paperback 130:-
TEEN / YOUNG ADULT
This Raging Light – Estelle Laure
A teenage girl falls for her best friend's brother in Estelle Laure’s soulful debut that’s perfect for fans of Gayle Forman, Jandy Nelson, and Rainbow Rowell. A heartbreakingly beautiful book that you'll devour in one sitting, but remember forever.
Paperback 130:-
NON-FICTION
Treasure Palaces: Great Writers Visit Great Museums – Maggie Fergusson
A collection of moving, lyrical essays that speak to the enduring power of museums in our cultural life, and will leave you longing to revisit your favourite treasure palace or looking for a new one to explore.
From a stunning villa on sunny Capri with Ali Smith to an unlikely temple in the heart of Copenhagen with Alan Hollinghurst, Treasure Palaces brings together over twenty of the world's greatest writers to give their own personal tours of the museums that have awed, haunted and inspired them.
Paperback 150:-