Cliff

  A return to form for Jonathan Franzen in this addictive (and huge) novel. Set at the beginning of the changing winds of the 1970s, pastor and patriarch Russ Hilderbrand is struggling to hold the strands of his life together. His disgrace at work, his shaky marriage, his relationship with his unruly kids and his own self-doubt all add up to trouble as Christmas looms over the horizon. Following these events, the secrets and lies of the Hilderbrand family are … Read more

  You’ve probably heard of her – the hideous Gorgon with snakes for hair who turns all that look at her to stone. But this brilliant new Young Adult novel from Jessie Burton (author of The Miniaturist) compels us to look again.  ‘You should be careful who tells your story’, Medusa warns us. In this breath-taking and powerful reclaiming of the ancient Greek myth, Medusa finally tells her own story.  18-year-old Medusa lives on a lonely but beautiful island, with her Gorgon sisters, … Read more

  The long-awaited and hugely original follow-up to the phenomenally successful Wonder was worth waiting for! There are moments when you realise that the decision you’re making will reverberate for the rest of your life. This is a story about making brave choices. It’s 1860s America, the sheriffs and their deputies have a perilously thin grip on the prospectors, bounty-hunters and criminal gangs hiding in the unmapped land. Tensions between abolitionists and slavers are about to blow up into the … Read more

  “This is the story of the summer I almost lost my mum, and found a shark older than the trees….” In the beginning, we meet ten-year-old Julia relocating with her parents from their home in Cornwall to a lighthouse in Shetland. Julia’s mum, a marine biologist, is using the trip to search for an elusive and 400-year-old Greenland Shark. While her parents are settling into their temporary home, Julia meets a shy and soulful boy called Kin. The new … Read more

  Ingredients: 1 school plagued with curses; 1 young witch who can’t do magic; 1 talking cat sleuth on holiday. Method: Place the ingredients in a big cauldron and stir well over a low fire at midnight. Dancing and chanting optional. Raven Charming has always known magic is real – she comes from a family of witches. And although she doesn’t seem to have any magical ability of her own yet, she knows how important it is to keep magic … Read more

  Lying on the ground at the edge of a ripe wheat field, John Lewis-Stempel describes in loving detail all the life he observes: flowers, insects, birds, a field mouse even a toad waddles past; he is mesmerised and stays there for hours. For 30 years from 1930, Lewis-Stempel’s grandparents ran Woodston farm. It was primarily a hop farm but mixed with sheep, milking cows, wheat and other crops for animal feed.  ‘Poppop’ was hired because he was a good … Read more