Cliff

  Jane, somewhere around a mid-point in life, finds herself at a moment of reckoning. A creative writing tutor, she suffers from both an unsteady sense of conviction in her task and acute, shifting physical pains that strike at unpredictable moments. Reflecting on the formative relationships in her life, she recalls the conflicts and currents of childhood and family life – stumbling attempts at intimacy, and in particular an early, shattering encounter that lead to a life-long connection with a … Read more

If you’ve been suffering from a reading slump, this is the ideal book to get you back on a reading roll. Featuring the same cast of characters that stole our hearts in Dear Mrs Bird, Yours Cheerfully continues the tale of the spirited Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty as they navigate their way through 1941. This is Number 2 in the Emmeline Lake Chronicles but you do not need to have read Dear Mrs Bird to enjoy it. And if … Read more

  Scarlet’s mum has moved out, and taken Scarlet with her. Of course, no-one is telling Scarlet the whole story. Is she expected to just accept this massive upheaval to her life without complaint? The adults in her life seem outraged if she expresses even the smallest amount of dissatisfaction or even curiosity. They’re treating her like a little kid, and she’s got every right to be angry. Fuming, in fact. At least, that’s how it feels to her. Anne … Read more

  Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF) intended to be bought for children as a companion. She spends her days staring out of a store window observing the humans and surroundings, dreaming of the life outside. When she is eventually purchased for an ill teenage girl and uprooted to the remote countryside, her unique and questioning nature is put to the test under challenging circumstances. Probably most in in common with one of his previous novels, Never Let Me Go, … Read more

  Danny, a young Sri Lankan man is determined to escape the brutality of his homeland’s security forces and a manipulative father. He pays a lot of money to start a dubious course at an Australian college but when he drops out, disillusioned that it is just a way to exploit migrant workers, he makes the desperate choice to stay as an ‘illegal’ and take his chances making a living as a cleaner and hoping he can avoid detection. Smart, … Read more

  Set in a fictionalised West Africa, sixteen-year-old Deka lives in an intensely patriarchal empire (think Afghanistan under the Taliban) where women’s choices are utterly proscribed by religion and society. She’s about to undergo the ritual of purity, which is as sinister as it sounds, when her village is attacked by monsters whose terrifying shriek can kill anyone who hears it. But when Deka cries out desperately for them to go away, the monsters seem to listen to her. It’s … Read more

  It is very cold and dark in northern Iceland but Inspector Ari Thor is looking forward to a rare visit over the Easter weekend from his partner and young son who now live in Sweden. In the early hours he is shocked to be told the body of a young woman has been found in the street, and suddenly his plans are in jeopardy. Was the victim murdered or did she commit suicide? Her mother claims she was a … Read more