Robert Harris in Conversation - Monday 9th September

Bestselling Robert Harris will be in conversation with broadcaster and book fanatic, Howard Bentham, at the Amey Theatre, Abingdon, on Monday 9th September.  

Join Robert Harris, author of bestselling novels such as Fatherland, Pompeii and Munich, as he talks about his new book, The Second Sleep, which will be published on 5th September.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts - coins, fragments of glass, human bones - which the old parson used to collect.

Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes - about himself, his faith and the history of his world - is tested to destruction.

Tickets are £20 and include a copy of The Second Sleep (RRP £20).  Tickets will be available from the Amey Theatre Box Office from 5th June.

Doors open at 6.45pm for a 7.30pm start. Robert will be signing copies of his book after the event.  Refreshments will be available to purchase at the Amey theatre bar. 

The Amey Theatre, Park Road, Abingdon OX14 1DE.

Christmas Ideas: Adult Fiction

Blue Dog, Louis de Bernieres - £7.99

When a family tragedy means Mick is sent to the outback to live with his Granpa, it looks as if he has a lonely life ahead of him. The cattle station is a tough place for a child, where nature is brutal and the men must work hard in the heat and dust. However, after a cyclone hits, things change for Mick.

Exploring the floodwaters, he finds a lost puppy covered in mud and half-drowned. Mick and his dog immediately become inseparable as they take on the adventures offered by their unusual home, and the business of growing up, together. In this charming prequel to the much-loved Red Dog, Louis de Bernieres tells the moving story of a young boy and his Granpa, and the charismatic and entertaining dog who so many readers hold close to their hearts.

The One, John Marrs - £7.99

How far would you go to find THE ONE? One simple mouth swab is all it takes. A quick DNA test to find your perfect partner - the one you're genetically made for. A decade after scientists discover everyone has a gene they share with just one other person, millions have taken the test, desperate to find true love. Now, five more people meet their Match.

But even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking - and deadlier - than others...

The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, P.D. James - £7.99

P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a short story for Christmas, and four of the best have been drawn from the archives and published here together for the first time.

From the title story about a strained country-house Christmas party, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, plus two cases for detective Adam Dalgliesh, these are masterfully atmospheric stories by the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime'.

As A God Might Be, Neil Griffiths - £12.99

Proctor McCullough is 44 years old. When he decides to desert his comfortable, middle class life in London and build a church on a clifftop, nobody knows what to make of it; McCullough is not religious. Is it a midlife crisis? Has he gone mad? Is he a man who is suffering a spiritual crisis in a secular age, where identity is shaped by wealth and social media? Or has he really been chosen by God for a new revelation? 

McCullough finds himself torn between love for his family and group of local drifters who help him to build his church. When one of these drifters commits a shocking and devastating act to test his beliefs, McCullough finds himself pushed to the very limits of understanding and forgiveness.

The Furthest Station, Ben Aaronovitch - £12.99

There's something going bump on the Metropolitan line and Sergeant Jaget Kumar knows exactly who to call.It's PC Peter Grant's speciality . . .Only it's more than going 'bump'.

Traumatised travellers have been reporting strange encounters on their morning commute, with strangely dressed people trying to deliver an urgent message. Stranger still, despite calling the police themselves, within a few minutes the commuters have already forgotten the encounter - making the follow up interviews rather difficult. So with a little help from Abigail and Toby the ghost hunting dog, Peter and Jaget are heading out on a ghost hunting expedition. Because finding the ghost and deciphering their urgent message might just be a matter of life and death.

The Rules of Magic, Alice Hoffman - £16.99

Everyone needs a little magic in their lives... The Rules of Magic is the long-awaited prequel to Practical Magic. The Rules of Magic is a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon's October Book Club pick! In this sparkling prequel we meet the Aunts from Practical Magic, sisters Frances and Jet and Vincent, their brother.

From the beginning their mother Susanna knew they were unique: Franny with her skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, who could commune with birds; Jet as shy as she is beautiful, who knows what others are thinking, and Vincent so charismatic that he was built for trouble. Susanna needed to set some rules of magic: no walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles and certainly, absolutely, no books about magic... But the Owens siblings are desperate to uncover who they really are.

Each heads down a life-altering course, filled with secrets and truths, devastation and joy, and magic and love. Despite the warning handed down through the family for centuries - Know that for our family, love is a curse - they will all strive to break the rules and find true love.

Munich, Robert Harris - £20

September 1938, Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace.

The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there. Munich. As Chamberlain's plane judders over the Channel and the Fuhrer's train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own.

Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain's private secretaries; Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven't seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again.

When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience?

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood - £14.99

A stunning bespoke gift package featuring an iconic design from the prize-winning artist, Noma Bar, eye-catching sprayed edges and ribbon. The perfect present for those who like their beauty with a bit of bite. The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed.

If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.

Team Reads: Cat

What book are you reading right now?

The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath. 

What are you enjoying about the book?

Set in and around London's West End in the aftermath of the Second World War, there's a sense that victory has come at a huge cost. Instead of a country ready to rebuild and embrace happier times, the author conveys a grey, gloomy and bitterly cold London with skeletal bombed-out buildings and people struggling to get by on meagre rations. 

I'm enjoying the author's skill at describing the city and evoking historical details. London provides a wonderful backdrop to the sinister events of the plot, dangerous political ideologies, and secrets harboured by the main characters. The book is creepy and unsettling, full of haunting echoes of the past and raw grief, perfect for reading on an Autumn evening.

What book(s) that have arrived into the shop this week are you looking forward to reading and why?

I'm a fan of Robert Harris, and enjoyed Conclave earlier in the year so I've had my eye on the lovely signed hardback copies of Munich that came in this week. I'm also interested in reading The Growing Season by Helen Sedgwick after hearing her discuss her novel with such enthusiasm on Radio 4's Open Book.

Books for Christmas 2016 - Haunted mountains, popish plotting and serpent slaying - simply the best new fiction of 2016

In the 1740s, in a little village in England, a group of excited people sat in a blacksmith's forge. The blacksmith himself sat on his anvil, and read aloud to the crowd from a newly-published novel, 'Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'. Over a number of nights the villagers listened in rapt attention, and when - at the novel's end, and almost overcome with emotion at the book's happy ending - they flocked to the church to set the bells ringing.

Now, we can't promise that any of the following books will make you want to set bells ringing, but we all know that feeling that comes from finishing a really good book. Samuel Richardson would, we feel, approve - and we know (anecdotally, much like the story above) that novels are increasingly how we take a break from the always-on, screen-addicted, Internet-of-everything, twittering world in which we live.

Here are some of our favourites from 2016. Think of it as therapy, entertainment, deep thinking and digital firebreak all wrapped up in a centuries-old piece of communications technology. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you...the novel.

Himself - Jess Kidd
There is a freshness and lightness of touch here that collides brilliantly with the dark story of Mahony - drop-dead gorgeous, abandoned as a baby, his mother long-since disappeared - returning to his place of birth on a mission of discovery, conquest and (possibly) revenge.

Mulderrig is a rain-sodden speck of a place on Ireland's west coast, and Mahony brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the lies of his past. Playing against stereotypes, this darkly funny mystery has a cast of great characters (alive and dead), with a twisting plot and a shocking secret at its core. This feels like a bold new talent announcing herself - via Himself - to the world.

Don't miss out other debuts of the year - on a dedicated shelf in the shop (as shown above) - including 'The Girls' by Emma Cline, 'The Trouble with Sheep and Goats' by Joanna Cannon and 'A Boy Made of Blocks' by Keith Stuart

Cartes Postales from Greece - Victoria Hislop
This is a book which really does do justice to the phrase 'sumptuous'. At its heart it's the story of a young woman, who starts to receive a mysterious series of postcards from Greece. Initially wary, eventually beguiled, when the postcards abruptly stop - and a journal arrives detailing a young man's journey across Greece - the young woman sets off to discover the country - and investigate the mystery - for herself.. 

This is the latest novel from the bestselling author of 'The Island' and is a love-letter to a country Hislop has fallen in love with (she has even learned Greek, and has been doing book events locally in the language - now that is courageous). But it's the postcards themselves that are, in a way, the real star of this book. A lovely gift for any reader who wants to have their heart stolen...

Smoke - Dan Vyleta
Smoke is a visible manifestation of vice and sin, and provide a powerful metaphor for class division in this bold, original and compelling novel which weaves fantasy and superb characterisation throughout.

The working class pour Smoke freely and their vice and sin are shown openly and often revelled in - but aristocrats are taught from a young age to control their Smoke. In an Oxford boarding school, two young boys develop a bond as they receive their instructions in a world where the upper class are spotless. But on a trip to London, they witness something that seems to challenge all of their beliefs - and what follows is a tense, suspenseful and entrancing story with three young characters who are beautifully drawn and suck you into their world. One of Julia's big picks of 2016 - and definitely an author to get excited about!

Conclave - Robert Harris
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth...

If there is one writer who can be guaranteed to deliver a thriller that combines page-turning tension, intellectual heft and world-shaking events, it Mr Harris. Last year he completed the Cicero trilogy, and this year he takes us deep into the mysterious world of a papal Conclave (literally from a Latin phrase "room that can be locked up") where a new pope is going to be elected. It was - in part - inspired by the revelation of an unpublished 'secret diary' of the 2005 papal conclave, Claustrophobic, gripping and all about the nature of power - and the opportunities that can arise to take it.

Thin Air - Michelle Paver
What could be more Christmassy than a good ghost story? Well, forget cosy fireside warmth, this is a ghost story which is chilling in every possible way, from a legendary children's author now making a reputation in the world of adult fiction. It weaves natural - and supernatural - terrors with the dizzying vertigo and oxygen-deprived heights of a pitiless mountain. And inspired by a true story...

The Himalayas, 1935. Kangchenjunga. Third-highest peak on earth. Greatest killer of them all. Five Englishmen set off from Darjeeling, determined to conquer the sacred summit. But courage can only take them so far - and the mountain is not their only foe. Rivalry, class divisions, ego and pride. As the wind dies, the dread grows. Mountain sickness. The horrors of extreme altitude. A past that will not stay buried. And sometimes, the truth does not set you free...

To be read late at night, with the window opened, in the depth of winter. We don't think. Seriously unsettling.

Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
When her debut 'After Me Comes the Flood' was published, we loved it, recommending it to readers (and on BBC Radio Oxford back in 2014). We recognised a major new talent arriving on the scene, and her new novel 'The Essex Serpent' cements it. Here's Nicki's review from earlier this year:

"The friends of newly-widowed Cora Seaborne in Victorian England are indulging their passions for science, medicine and social reform. Cora is just happy to be out of an abusive relationship and finding herself both independent and wealthy, she is determined to follow in the footsteps of her heroine, Mary Anning, and discover fossils. 

Her amateur geology draws her to a tiny village in Essex and rumours of a giant sea serpent, perhaps still living from prehistoric times. Science and Darwin have yet to penetrate the mud and the salt marshes and fear and rumour about the serpent means every crop failure, every death, is attributed to the creature. Local pastor, William, is having trouble convincing his flock and not allow myth and hysteria to take over.

A finely-tuned cast of characters get drawn to the beguiling Cora and her quest for science to be able to answer every question with reason. They all do battle on her behalf as she argues against superstition, pagan fear and religion. But whether it’s a community increasingly troubled by fear of the unknown, or the urban squalor Cora’s friends back in London are struggling to reform, the ideals of science have much to contend with in this rich and wonderfully human story of the clashes of the Victorian age. 

As rumours and sightings of the serpent persist, will the ideals of science triumph in this rich and wonderfully human story of the clashes of the Victorian age."

(And 'The Essex Serpent' wins the prize for book with the most exquisite cover as well!)

Nutshell - Ian McEwan
This is - very loosely - a retelling of Hamlet, from the perspective of an unborn child in the womb, who - in this rather privileged position - listens in as a murder plot which is seemingly unfolding.

It's also daring, original and darkly funny - full of McEwan's trademark humour, social observation and focus on small, key events. With a great twisting plot, and played with tongue firmly in cheek, this is great entertainment from a master novelist.

Golden Hill - Francis Spufford
Francis Spufford is a publisher's marketing nightmare - everything he writes is so completely different. He's written a series of historical vignettes charting the rise and fall of Khrushchev's Soviet Union (Red Plenty), a book on why Christianity makes emotional sense (Unapologetic) or how re-reading the books he read as a child gave him insight into the man he became (The Child That Books Built). But his erractic brilliance is our huge gain, because 'Golden Hill' is a fresh, original book - and one of Mark's favourite books of this (or any) year.

A young man arrives in the fledgling city of New-York in 1746, seemingly in possession of a fortune. Tongues are wagging, conspiracies are imagined but what is the truth? This book will utterly transport you to the very different time and place of America a generation before the Revolution, when Dutch and English settlers maintained an uneasy relationship with the British Crown. Foreshadowing the America to come, written in an 18th century novelistic style that shouldn't work but does, this is breathtaking, brilliant - you should read it!

Divine Countenance - Michael Hughes
In 1999 a programmer is trying to fix the millennium bug, but can't shake the sense he's been chosen for something. In 1888 five women are brutally murdered in the East End by a troubled young man in thrall to a mysterious master. In 1777 an apprentice engraver called William Blake has a defining spiritual experience; thirteen years later this vision returns. And in 1666 poet and revolutionary John Milton completes the epic for which he will be remembered centuries later. But where does the feeling come from that the world is about to end?

Computer nerd Chris is working on the Millennium bug problem when he meets Lucy. What starts out as a boy meet girl story slowly transforms itself into a tangled web, with letters from Jack the Ripper, a journal from the time of William Blake and a story from Milton’s time seaping into each other. As Michael Hughes uses these four different voices to tell four interlinked stories which rub off each other and weave together to create an apocalyptic thriller.  This is a book of poetry, creation, obsessions and visions of the end of the world. A huge work of imagination!

Books For Christmas Part 7- Fantastic Fiction and where to find it...

As booksellers, we have to have favourites. Part of our job is to curate and select, but of course we have our own favourite authors (and those we simply don't get on with) so we are always selecting books with our customers in mind: and you'd be amazed at how often we have a specific customer in mind when selecting a title: "We think Mr Jones/Ms Smith would really like this title".

But we also have favourite 'genres' of books. Of course, we'll get excited about a great cookbook or history title. But when push comes to shove, it has to be fiction. The novel is the most exciting - and challenging - canvas for any writer, literally (pun intended) anything is possible, and that freedom can be thrilling, terrifying and take years to perfect.

We've already told you about our favourite books for younger readers and middle grade - job number one in the book world is recruiting the readers of the future - but here are our favourite fiction titles for adults. We treat all fiction equally: science fiction, crime and thrillers, literary, popular. These are to inspire - come in for a personalised recommendation and let us find you and your family your next favourite book to read!

Dictator - Robert Harris (£20)
We'll start with one of our very, very favourite authors - and one day we'll manage to entice him to Abingdon for a very special event! In the meantime, ‘Dictator’ is the long-awaited final book in the ‘Cicero’ trilogy. The first two books in the trilogy ('Imperium' and 'Lustrum') were huge achievements - how satisfying to then read the final book which somehow manages to trump the first two?

The great orator Cicero ended ‘Lustrum’ in exile, with his protégé Caesar dominant and Cicero’s life in ruins. Tormented by the knowledge that he has sacrificed power for the sake of principle, his comeback will require wit, skill and courage - and for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But no statesman is ever safe when supreme power is at stake...

Harris has again used the machinations and power-plays of ancient Rome to make comments about the politics of our own time – it’s a superbly wrought and tumultuous tale, rising to a gripping ending that leaves you in no doubt that Cicero, for all his flaws, is a hero for his time - and ours.

The Gap of Time – Jeanette Winterson (£16.99)
'The Gap of Time' is a rewriting of Shakespeare's 'The Winter Tale', which Winterson has always declared as being 'a personal text for her'. Here, she cleverly updates Shakespeare's tale (which he took from another earlier romance by the 16th century author Robert Greene) and places it in the contemporary world.

Taking 'Time' as a central player, and replacing Siciliy and Bohemia with London and 'New Bohemia' (a storm-ravaged city in the US), her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, video games and the elliptical nature of time. It tells in a hyper-modern way - full of energy and beauty, and of course Winterson's natural poetry and wit - the consuming power of jealousy on the one hand, and love, redemption and a lost child on the other.

Rewrites of classics don't always deliver - this one does. It's the first in 'The Hogarth Press Shakespeare Project' and we're eager to see whether future books in this series live up to this one.

The Lake House – Kate Morton (£18.99)
Not to be confused with the Sandra Bullock film in the noughties, this is the title of the new novel from the bestselling author of 'The House at Riverton' and 'The Secret Keeper'.

The 'Lake House' in question lies abandoned, surrounded by mystery, rumour...and a missing child. After a particularly troubling case, Sadie Sparrow is sent on an enforced break from her job with the Metropolitan Police and retreats to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall. There she finds herself at a loose end, until one day she stumbles upon the abandoned house surrounded by overgrown gardens and dense woods, and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace. When she puts her cold-case experience to work, concocting an implausible scenario for how the child disappeared, she unexpectedly stirs long-hidden memories, as well as someone who is still keen for the truth to stay hidden. Satisfying and will definitely delight fans.



Slade House – David Mitchell (£12.99)
'The Bone Clocks' was one of our favourite books of last year, and this spooky and compelling short novel inhabits the same universe. It's a beautiful, illustrated small hardback (we love the effort that has gone into its production!) and an idea gift for a book-lover.

"Walk down narrow, clammy Slade Alley. Open the black iron door in the right-hand wall. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't exactly make sense. A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Too late, you find you can't..."

A great twist on the annual Christmas 'Ghost Story' tradition, updated and full of David Mitchell's wonderful storytelling gifts.

Thirteen Ways of Looking – Colum McCann (£16.99)
Another favourite book from last year was Colum McCann's 'TransAtlantic', this novella and four stories contain all McCann's formidable talents of teasing out the connections and multiple perspectives that add depth to ordinary lives. This novel has added poignancy, as McCann explores his own feelings after a a real-life attack and vicious on the streets on Harlem in 2014.

'Thirteen Ways of Looking' explores the varied consequences that can derive from a simple act. Accompanied by three equally powerful stories set in Afghanistan, Galway and London, this is a tribute to humanity's search for meaning and grace, from a writer at the height of his powers.

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances – Neil Gaiman (£7.99)
Less an author, more a rock star, Gaiman is often at his imperious best rapid-firing short fiction packed with ideas, extrapolations and razor-sharp writing. And following 'Smoke and Mirrors' and 'Fragile Things', Gaiman returns to dazzle and entertain with 'Trigger Warning', which includes a never-before published 'American Gods' story, 'Black Dog'. Horror and ghost stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry. It will open your eyes to the inexhaustible supply of darkness around you, the magic and the monsters, the myths and the miracles, and to finding truths in the most extraordinary of places. Bow down mortals!

Arcadia – Iain Pears (£18.99)
A story of three worlds. One present (1970s), one future and the third an invention from the mind of a writer called Henry Lytten. When these worlds collide a whole heap of trouble occurs...

A schoolgirl from the nineteen seventies is mistaken for a fairy. Security officers from the future are arrested as Soviet spies and Lytten enters his own story and is worshipped as a deity. This is an eclectic mix of fantasy, history, science fiction and dystopian future which together make an engrossing - and hugely original - read. We love it!

The Winter War – Philip Teir (£7.99)

On the surface, the Paul family are living the liberal, middle-class dream in Helsinki. Max Paul is a renowned sociologist and his wife Katrina has a well-paid government job. They live in a beautiful apartment in the centre of the city. But look closer and the cracks start to show. As he approaches his sixtieth birthday, the certainties of Max's life begin to dissolve. His wife no longer loves him, and his grown-up daughters - one in London, one in Helsinki - have problems of their own. So when a former student turned journalist shows up and offers him a seductive lifeline, Max starts down a dangerous path from which he may never find a way back...

Funny, sharp, and brilliantly truthful, Teir's debut has the feel of a big, contemporary, humane American novel, but with a distinctly Scandinavian edge.

The Well – Catherine Chanter (£7.99)When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London in their grime-encrusted car and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place, a farm that appears to offer everything the family are searching for. An opportunity for Ruth. An escape for Mark. A home for their grandson Lucien. But The Well's unique glory comes at a terrible price.  The locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours' produce withers and dies.

Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth is less and less sure who she can trust. As The Well envelops them, Ruth's paradise becomes a prison, Mark's dream a recurring nightmare, and Lucien's playground a grave.

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy - Rachel Joyce – £7.99

From the author of the 2 million+ copy, worldwide bestseller, 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry', an exquisite, funny and heartrending parallel story. 

When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait? A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.' Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning. 

Told in simple, emotionally-honest prose, with a mischievous bite, this is a novel about the journey we all must take to learn who we are; it is about loving and letting go. And most of all it is about finding joy in unexpected places and at times we least expect.

Sweet Caress – William Boyd (£18.99)Amory's first memory is of her father doing a handstand. She has memories of him returning on leave during the First World War. But his absences, both actual and emotional, are what she chiefly remembers. It is her photographer uncle Greville who supplies the emotional bond she needs, and, when he gives her a camera and some rudimentary lessons in photography, unleashes a passion that will irrevocably shape her future. A spell at boarding school ends abruptly and Amory begins an apprenticeship with Greville in London, living in his flat in Kensington, earning two pounds a week photographing socialites for fashionable magazines.

But Amory is hungry for more and her search for life, love and artistic expression will take her to the demi monde of Berlin of the late 1920s, to New York of the 1930s, to the Blackshirt riots in London and to France in the Second World War where she becomes one of the first women war photographers. Her desire for experience will lead Amory to further wars, to lovers, husbands and children as she continues to pursue her dreams and battle her demons.

In this enthralling story of a life fully lived, William Boyd has created a sweeping panorama of some of the most defining moments of modern history, told through the camera lens of one unforgettable woman,

The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood (£18.99)
In Consilience, Sam and Charmaine share a house with another couple that they have never met. but when their lives begin to overlap things start to become complicated. In an orwellian society where your every move is watched interesting questions are raised about what we might be willing to give up in exchange for comforts like a warm bed and plush towels.

After You – Jojo Moyes (£20)
This is the sequel to the worldwide phenomenon Me Before You. Jojo Moyes says: "I hadn't planned to write a sequel to Me Before You. But working on the movie script, and reading the sheer volume of tweets and emails every day asking what Lou did with her life, meant that the characters never left me.
It has been such a pleasure revisiting Lou and her family, and the Traynors, and confronting them with a whole new set of issues. As ever, they have made me laugh, and cry. I hope readers feel the same way at meeting them again."




The Ninth Life of Louis Drax – Liz Jensen - £8.99
Nine-year-old Louis Drax is a problem child: bright, precocious, deceitful, and dangerously, disturbingly, accident prone. When he falls off a cliff into a ravine, the accident seems almost predestined. Louis miraculously survives - but the family has been shattered. Louis' father has vanished, his mother is paralysed by shock, and Louis lies in a deep coma from which he may never emerge. In a clinic in Provence, Dr Pascal Dannachet tries to coax Louis back to consciousness. But the boy defies medical logic, startling Dannachet out of his safe preconceptions, and drawing him inexorably into the dark heart of Louis' buried world. Only Louis holds the key to the mystery surrounding his fall - and he can't communicate. Or can he?


City on Fire – Garth Risk Hallberg (£18.99)
I think it's fair to say that this book has split opinion in the shop - is it too long? Is it less a novel, more a write-up of a television min-series. What's fair to say is this: Hallberg - a well-established literary critic - shows admirable ambition and incredible scope in one of the most talked-about debuts for years.

It's New Year's Eve, 1976, and New York is a city on the edge. As midnight approaches, a blizzard sets in - and gunshots ring out over Central Park. The search for the shooter will bring together a rich cast of New Yorkers, bound up in a story where history and revolution, love and art, crime and conspiracy are all packed into a single shell, ready to explode. Then, on July 13th, 1977, the lights go out.

We recommend buying this book and 'Spuntino', knocking up some classic New York food, and settling in for a very long evening...

Happy Christmas!