Since quitting work to look after his eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, Thomas Bradshaw has found solace and grace in his daily piano study. His pursuit of a more artistic way of life shocks and irritates his parents and in-laws. Why has he swapped roles with Tonie Swann, his intense, intellectual wife, who has accepted a demanding full-time job? How can this be good for Alexa? Tonie is increasingly seduced away from domestic life by the harder, headier world of work, where long-forgotten memories of ambition are awakened. She soon finds herself outside their tight family circle, alive to previously unimaginable possibilities. Over the course of a year full of crisis and revelation, we follow the fortunes of Tonie, Thomas, and his brothers and their families: Howard, the successful, indulgent brother, and his gregarious wife, Claudia; and Leo, lacking in confidence and propped up by Susie, his sharp-tongued, heavy-drinking wife. At the head of the family, the aging Bradshaw parents descend on their children to question and undermine them. The Bradshaw Variations reveals how our choices, our loves, and the family life we build will always be an echo — a variation — of a theme played out in our own childhood. This masterful and often shockingly funny novel, Rachel Cusk’s seventh, shows a prizewinning writer at the height of her powers

Never had he seen anything like what was happening to Hank Stransky. Red blotches formed on the skin across his face. They darkened into shiny pustules — which broke like ripe boils, discharging a gooey liquid. Hank jumped up from the barstool and span completely around like a man in some mad dance… First a workman goes crazy in a public bar with a broken bottle… A taxi-driver murderously slams his cab into a crowd of pedestrians… A newly-wed bride slaughters her husband in a restaurant and plunges through a plate-glass window. Three strange, violent deaths, three different cities, and all on the same day. But these are only the first of thousands… For something has gone terrible, horribly wrong

The breakout book from "the funniest writer in America" — not to mention an official Genius — a trade paperback original and his first nonfiction collection ever. George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is composed of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker

She was everything, and most of all she was the earth’s most tempting woman in a way that was peculiarly her own... but I could hear her rich, provocative voice saying softly that everything would be so very simple if only the man named Kirby would die... and as that summer grew, in desire and in terror, my world no longer had the familiar features of a fine and comforting thing, but the strange remnants of an ugly, threatened place...　 ...and the root of it all lay hidden in the secret of THE BRASS BED

Philip St. Ives is a top professional go-between who mediates between the owner of stolen goods and the thieves who stole them. In this exciting new novel, his assignment is to recover a rare and politically important tenth century brass Shield stolen from a Washington, D.C. museum

Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent’s killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent’s killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together. Bringing together Michael Connelly’s two most popular characters, The Brass Verdict is sure to be his biggest book yet

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This story is about a young girl called Helena who helps out at the local vet surgery where her older cousin, Lucy works. On the way to the surgery one day, they find an injured kitten under a car. They feel sorry for the kitten and take him straight to the clinic. Helena loves this cat and takes care of him as longs as he's at the surgery. There he is operated on and gets a cast. Caramel (as Helena calls him) has no chip or collar. He has nobody to claim him. He's homeless. Caramel is fed up of being stuck in the clinic! Will anyone give this poor kitten a home? Who will claim him? Find out in The Brave Kitten

Thomas M. Disch is a long-time F&SF contributor whose stories have been included in several of these collections. His latest story (which made the final Hugo and Nebula ballot as best novella of 1980) is about the adventures of five electrical appliances. They are minor appliances, which implies a degree of innocence, loyalty, and dependability often missing from, say, a TV or a washing machine. We venture to say that it has been a long time since such a cheerful and diverting group appeared in the pages of any magazine or book, and we guarantee that all of you will be charmed

They're bold, courageous, resolute… ex-officers of the Crown united against a deadly traitor known only as the Black Cobra. Shipwrecked, wounded, he risks all to pursue his mission – only to discover a partner as daring and brazen as he. Fiery, tempestuous, a queen in her own realm, she rescues a warrior – only to find her heart under siege. Bound by passion, linked by need, together they must brave the enemy's gauntlet to win all their hearts' desire

In this panoramic novel of Friar Roger Bacon, John Cowper Powys displays his genius at its most fecund. First published in 1956, this novel, set in thirteenth-century Wessex, is an amalgam of all the qualities that make John Cowper Powys unique. The love-story of Lil-Umbra and Raymond de Laon, and the quest of the Mongolian giant, Peleg, for Ghosta, the girl seen, loved, and lost on the battlefield, are intermingled with the historical, theological and magical threads which form the brocade of this novel. Dominating all is the mysterious creation of Roger Bacon one of the boldest as well as most intricate of Powys' world-changing inventions. Professor G. Wilson Knight called this 'A book of wisdom and wonders

Subterranean Press proudly presents a major new collection by one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Catherynne M. Valente, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and other acclaimed novels, now brings readers a treasure trove of stories and poems in The Bread We Eat in Dreams

The Break is an adventure story in which the Byzantine Empire and the Catholic Church take on the British State. Which side wins? No one knows what caused The Break eleven months ago, but there’s no sign of its end. England is settling into its new future as a reindustrialising concentration camp. The rest of the world is watching… waiting… curious… It’s Wednesday the 7th March 2018—in the mainland UK. Everywhere else, it’s some time in June 1065. Jennifer thinks her family survived The Hunger because of their smuggling business—tampons and paracetamol to France, silver back to England. Little does she know what game her father was really playing, as she recrosses the Channel from an impromptu mission of her own. Little can she know how her life has already been torn apart. Who has taken Jennifer’s parents? Where are they? What is the Home Secretary up to with the Americans? Why is she so desperate to lay hands on Michael? Will Jesus Christ return to Earth above Oxford Circus? When will the “Doomsday Project” go live? Can the Byzantine Empire and the Catholic Church take on the British State, and win? All will be answered—if Jennifer can stay alive in a post-apocalyptic London terrorised by cannibals, by thugs in uniform, and by motorbike gangs of Islamic suicide bombers

Some sixteen-year-olds babysit for extra cash. Some work at the mall. Becca Williamson breaks up couples. Becca knows from experience the damage that love can do. After all, it was so-called love that turned Huxley from her childhood best friend into a social-world dictator, and love that left Becca's older sister devastated at the altar. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Becca strikes back—for just one hundred dollars via PayPal, she will trick and manipulate any couple's relationship into smithereens. And with relationship zombies overrunning her school and treating single girls as if they're second-class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even Becca's best friend, Val, has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend. One night, Becca receives a mysterious offer to break up the most popular couple in school: Huxley and raw football team's star player, Steve. To succeed, she'll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date—starting rumors, sabotaging cell phones, breaking into cars...not to mention sneaking back into Huxley's good graces. All while fending off the inappropriate feelings she may or may not be having for Val's new boyfriend. No one said being the Break-Up Artist would be easy

Shapeshifters, vampires, and all manner of monstrosities are raining hell down on a small western town - which is why Skinner Paige Strobel is headed there with a band of Old World Skinners who have been battling monsters for centuries using antiquated, yet oddly effective weaponry. Meanwhile, Paige's sometime-partner/sometime-lover Cole Warnecki is being held prisoner by persons - or things - unknown: framed, tortured, and beaten for the slaughter of cops at a vampire warehouse in Denver. For Paige and Cole, a search for answers has become a battle for survival. The future of unsuspecting humankind is balanced on a knife blade. And the Apocalypse is a certainty unless they can uncover the truth behind a terrible force powering monsters and hunters alike …and find out why - after horrific werewolf attacks in KC and bloody carnage in Philly - Skinners are suddenly, inexplicably, turning against Skinners …

Breaking up with someone is a major pain unless you can hire someone else to do it for you! And Amelia demands top dollar for her professional break-up services. Everything's business as usual until David, one of the boys she's been hired to dump, throws her for a loop. she must decide if David's intentions are genuine, or if there's something sinister behind his flirting

Fourteen years ago Mary Breeze was killed by lightning — it should have been all the bad luck that the Breeze family were due but, as John Breeze is about to find out, this couldn't be further from the truth. ‘The Breezes’ is John Breeze's account of his family's most hellish fortnight — when insurance policies, security systems and lucky underpants are pitted against redundancy, burglary and relegation — and lose. John (a failing chair-maker) and his father (railway manager and rubbish football referee) are only feebly equipped with shaky religious notions, management maxims and cynical postures as they try to come to terms with the absurd unfairness of lightning striking twice… From the conflict between blind optimism and cynicism, to the urge to pretend that things just aren't happening, ‘The Breezes’ is wonderfully clever and comic novel about desperately trying to cope with the worst of bad luck

There is nothing more powerful than a bad idea whose time has come. And there can be few ideas less bad or more potentially apocalyptic than that hatched by genetic scientist Dr Stephen Malone. Using DNA strands extracted from the dried blood on the Turin Shroud, Dr Malone is cloning Jesus

A sequel to "The Antipope", this is the second novel in "The Brentford Trilogy". All over Brentford electrical appliances were beginning to fail, could it be that it had been chosen as the first base in an alien onslaught on planet Earth?

It gets into your bones. You don't even realise it, until you're driving through it, watching all the things you've always known and leaving them behind. Young Londoners Becky, Harry and Leon are escaping the city in a fourth-hand Ford Cortina with a suitcase full of stolen money. Taking us back in time — and into the heart of London — The Bricks that Built the Houses explores a cross-section of contemporary urban life with a powerful moral microscope, giving us intimate stories of hidden lives, and showing us that good intentions don't always lead to the right decisions. Leading us into the homes and hearts of ordinary people, their families and their communities, Kate Tempest exposes moments of beauty, disappointment, ambition and failure. Wise but never cynical, driven by empathy and ethics, The Bricks the Built the Houses questions how we live with and love one another

By edict of the king, the mighty Scottish laird Alec Kincaid must take an English bride. His choice was Jamie, youngest daughter of Baron Jamison...a feisty, violet-eyed beauty. Alec ached to touch her, to tame her, to possess her...forever. But Jamie vowed never to surrender to this highland barbarian. He was everything her heart warned against—an arrogant scoundrel whose rough good looks spoke of savage pleasures. And though Kincaid's scorching kisses fired her blood, she brazenly resisted him...until one rapturous moment quelled their clash of wills, and something far more dangerous than desire threatened to conquer her senses

FBI Special Agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has killed four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he's picking up his pace. Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellbeing and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extraordinarily gifted.It's there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person's life when she touches the dead body.In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise 's help. In an effort to win her trust, he befriends this strange young woman and begins to see in her qualities that most 'sane people' sorely lack. Gradually, he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls…or inside.As the Bride Collector increases the pace and volume of his gruesome crucifixions, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector's next target. The FBI believes that the killer plans to murder seven women. Can Paradise help before it's too late?

HAS ENGLAND'S MOST INFAMOUS BRIDE THIEF FINALLY MET HIS MATCH? At six-and-twenty, Samantha Briggeham knew her marital prospects were fading by the season and she was pleased by the thought. She had no intention of being betrothed-especially against her will-to a man she did not love. She had a plan…and it didn't include being swept into a pair of powerful arms and spirited away by a masked rider. News of Sammie's heroic rescue from undesired wedlock turned her into the toast of the ton, wooed by suitors far and wide. But she couldn't forget the swashbuckling brigand who'd abducted her-something about him intrigued her completely. Then she met Eric Landsdowne, the dashing and seductive Earl of Wesley. His exploits were legendary, his life filled with danger. He was the elusive Bride Thief, who had his own reasons for helping young women escape the unhappy fate of arranged marriages, and whose true identity was a scrupulously guarded secret. But from the moment he rescued Sammie-only to discover she'd already managed to get herself un-betrothed-Eric knew he couldn't lose her a second time. Marriage was out of the question. Which left only one option: A clandestine affair that might lead to scandal, social ruin, and the unmasking of a love-bested legend…

De Maupassant once wrote: “There is nothing more beautiful and honorable than killing.” The Bride Wore Black offers grim and absorbing proof of that idea. Four men are murdered. Each time a woman they have never known comes into their lives. She appears briefly — she strikes — and disappears. There is never a trace of her left — not a fingerprint, not a clue. Four men are murdered. Four men whose lives do not touch, for whose deaths there is no conceivable reason. The police say, “Homicidal Maniac.” And yet — twice the woman risks her life to save another’s. Four men are murdered. And slowly, very slowly, the picture of the woman grows clearer to the police. She is beautiful, for only a beautiful woman would have worn the filmy black veil found clutched in the hand of the first man who dies. She is clever, for only a clever woman could have escaped from the hotel bedroom of her second victim. She is ruthless, for only a ruthless woman could have used a child’s toy to kill that child’s father. She is strong, for only a strong woman could have used such a weapon for her fourth murder. Four men are murdered. Then comes the fifth. And with it a denouement as breathtakingly exciting as a parachute jump and as extraordinary as the woman herself. The Bride Wore Black is a macabre and brilliant tour de force of crime fiction. It employs none of the usual tricks, yet the reader is enthralled. There are no suspects, no clues, yet the reader is tensely aware of mystery. There is only the woman, her victims, and the relentless drama of her life — a pale shadow that comes gradually into focus and is seen at last in brilliant outline

In the secret heart of London, under the cover of endless darkness, the Nightside caters to anyone with any unusual itch that needs to be scratched. But enter at your own risk. The party animals who live here may be as inhuman as their appetites... My name is John Taylor. The Nightside is my home. I didn't plan it that way. In fact, I once tried to get away. But I came back. And now it seems I'm settling down, with a full-time job (in addition to my work as a very private eye) as Walker—the new Voice of the Authorities in the Nightside—and a wedding in the offing. I'm marrying the love of my life, Suzie Shooter, the Nightside's most fearsome bounty-hunter. But nothing comes easy here. Not life. Not death. And for certain, not happily-ever-after. Before I can say "I do," I have one more case to solve as a private eye—and my first assignment as Walker. Both jobs would be a lot easier to accomplish if I weren't on the run, from friends and enemies alike. And if my bride-to-be weren't out to collect the bounty on my head

The wedding of the season! Events manager Sylvie Smith is organizing a glittering fund-raising event: a wedding show in a stately home. She has even been roped into pretending to be a bride… a bride who's five months pregnant! The bride everyone is talking about! It should be every girl's dream to design a wedding with no expense spared, but it's not Sylvie's. Longbourne Court was her ancestral home, and she's just discovered that the new owner is Tom McFarlane-her baby's secret father. Now Tom's standing in front of her, looking at her bump…

From the remarkable Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award for his celebrated novel Waiting, a collection of comical and deeply moving tales of contemporary China that are as warm and human as they are surprising, disturbing, and delightful. In the title story, the head of security at a factory is shocked, first when the hansomest worker on the floor proposes marriage to his homely adopted daughter, and again when his new son-in-law is arrested for the "crime" of homosexuality. In "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town," the workers at an American-style fast food franchise receive a hilarious crash course in marketing, deep frying, and that frustrating capitalist dictum, "the customer is always right."Ha Jin has triumphed again with his unforgettable storytelling in The Bridegroom

When Philip Wardman's feminine ideal, a Greek goddess, appears in the flesh as Senta Pelham, Philip thinks he has found true love. But darker forces are at work, and Senta is led to propose that Philip prove his love by committing murder

A hot, new contemporary romance novella from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia London. In a twist on Planes, Trains and Automobiles, two strangers--Kate's en route to be a bridesmaid, Joe's en route to a life-altering job interview--battle a storm, a transportation strike, and each other in a cross-country race to make it to the wedding on time

Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are back in Appaloosa, where their work enforcing the law has been exceptionally quiet. All that is about to change. An ominous storm rolls in, and along with it a band of night riders with a devious scheme, who show up at the Rio Blanco camp, where a three-hundred-foot bridge is under construction. Appaloosa’s Sheriff Sledge Driskill and his deputies are the first to respond, but as the storm grows more threatening, news of troubles at the bridge escalate and the Sheriff and his deputies go missing. Virgil and Everett saddle up to sort things out but before they do the hard drinking, Beauregard Beauchamp arrives in Appaloosa with his Theatrical Extravaganza troupe and the promise of the best in lively entertainment west of the Mississippi. With the troupe comes a lovely and mysterious fortune-teller who is set on saving Everett from imminent but indefinable danger. The trouble at the bridge, the missing lawmen, the new arrivals, and Everett’s shoot-out in front of Hal’s Cafe aren’t the only things on Cole and Hitch’s plate as a gang of unsavory soldiers ease into town with a shady alibi, shadier intentions, and a soon-to-be-discovered wake of destruction. As clouds over Appaloosa continue to gather, things get much worse for Cole and Hitch

Did the dead exist? Were they watching? Were they ghosts? Not the kind he’d imagined as a child, draped with white sheets, with the ability to walk through walls, but the kind that lodged themselves in your heart, in your memories, the kind that came to you in dreams, that you could see when you closed your eyes and sometimes even when your eyes were opened. In 1970s Melbourne, 22-year-old Italian migrant Antonello is newly married and working as a rigger on the West Gate Bridge, a gleaming monument to a modern city. When the bridge collapses one October morning, killing 35 of his workmates, his world crashes down on him. In 2009, Jo and her best friend, Ashleigh, are on the verge of finishing high school and flush with the possibilities for their future. But one terrible mistake sets Jo’s life on a radically different course. Drawing on true events of Australia’s worst industrial accident — a tragedy that still scars the city — The Bridge is a profoundly moving novel that examines class, guilt, and moral culpability. Yet it shows that even the most harrowing of situations can give way to forgiveness and redemption. Ultimately, it is a testament to survival and the resilience of the human spirit

The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside. Nik is still in high school but is destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn't chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik. But Nik is on the run, with Sol’s sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he had never dared to ask. The Bridge is a gritty adventure set in a future world where fear of outsiders pervades everything. A heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage from an exciting. A heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage from an exciting new voice in young-adult fiction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWbxx9t1JNM

A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before? 'Iain Banks of THE WASP FACTORY eclipses that sensational debut...a real dazzler' Daily Mail 'Great artistry, great virtuosity ... great exuberance' New Statesman 'This one's his best yet' New Musical Express 'THE BRIDGE is serious, but playful; it is full of throwaway jokes, minor tangles for the reader to sort out, political/cultural references to the kind of reality that rarely gets into British literature, and nuggets of surprising truth juxtaposed with outrageous lies... convincing in a way too little fantasy or mainstream literature is' City Limits

Lauren has a secret. Colby has a problem. But when they find each other, everything falls into place. In alternating chapters of verse and prose, new girl Lauren and football hero Colby come together, fall apart, and build something stronger than either of them thought possible -- something to truly believe in

“On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.” The citizens of Peru crossed themselves and whispered prayers of thanks for their deliverance. But in the mind of Brother Juniper, a humble monk who witnessed the catastrophe, burned the question, “Why did this happen to those five?” As Brother Juniper’s investigations illuminate the possibility of an Intention to the disaster—involving the lives left behind as well as those lost on the bridge—the reader rediscovers the one “bridge” between the land of the living and the land of the dead that does not fall

Colonel Nicholson was an exemplary British officer. When his Japanese captors ordered him to build a strategic assault bridge in southeast Asia, the colonel’s code of military honor left him no choice but to obey. Though they were sick and wounded, he set his men to work, toiling in the jungle heat. He intended to complete a perfect bridge in record time—even though his Imperial Majesty’s Army would use it for the invasion of India. Meanwhile, half across the continent, “Force 316” of British Intelligence was already plotting how to blow up the bridge…

The Bridges of Madison County is a 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller which tells the story of a married but lonely Italian woman, living in 1960s Madison County, Iowa, who engages in an affair with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham, Washington who is visiting Madison County in order to create a photographic essay on the covered bridges in the area. The novel is presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact entirely fiction. However, the author has stated in an interview that there are strong similarities between the main character and himself. The novel is one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century, with 50 million copies sold worldwide. It was originally published in the UK under the title Love in Black and White. The Bridges of Madison County was made into a 1995 film of the same name, adapted by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood and Meryl Streep. An epilogue entitled A Thousand Country Roads was published in 2002. It tells the remainder of the two main characters' story after their four-day affair. They never meet again, but their lives are interlocked until death. According to San Francisco Chronicle the novel is “lyrical…sensuous and sensitive…a tale of lasting love”

"Remember me when I'm gone" just took on a whole new meaning. The City is inhabited by the recently departed, who reside there only as long as they remain in the memories of the living. Among the current residents of this afterlife are Luka Sims, who prints the only newspaper in the City, with news from the other side; Coleman Kinzler, a vagrant who speaks the cautionary words of God; and Marion and Phillip Byrd, who find themselves falling in love again after decades of marriage. On Earth, Laura Byrd is trapped by extreme weather in an Antarctic research station. She's alone and unable to contact the outside world: her radio is down and the power is failing. She's running out of supplies as quickly as she's running out of time. Kevin Brockmeier interweaves these two stories in a spellbinding tale of human connections across boundaries of all kinds. The Brief History of the Dead is the work of a remarkably gifted writer

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukú—the curse that has haunted the Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time

Tsukiko, thirty-eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, “Sensei” in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him “Sensei” (“Teacher”). He is thirty years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship–traced by Kawakami’s gentle hints at the changing seasons–develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to an enjoyable sense of companionship, and finally into a deeply sentimental love affair. As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time’s passing comes across through the seasons and the food and beverages they consume together. From warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms, the reader is enveloped by a keen sense of pathos and both characters’ keen loneliness

Sword arm blasted off, Sar Bahadur sought the slaughterer of his family, to find that the ways of justice are indeed remarkable

Curious events almost seem to cry out for the Saint's intervention, and in these stories he is faced with enough peculiar crimes to keep him well occupied. The various adventures he gets himself into lead him to kiss a policewoman, buy a racehorse, invest in bootlegging, dabble in antiques, rent a flat, recover a treaty, get arrested, demonstrate an invention — and always come out on top

A brilliant, inventive debut story collection in the vein of Kevin Wilson and Wells Tower. Brimming with life and unforgettable voices, the stories in Austin Bunn’s dazzling collection explore the existential question: what happens at “the end” and what lies beyond it? In the wry but affecting “How to Win an Unwinnable War,” a summer class on nuclear war for gifted teenagers turns a struggling family upside down. A young couple’s idyllic beach honeymoon is interrupted by terrorism in the lush, haunting “Getting There and Away.” When an immersive videogame begins turning off in the heartbreaking “Griefer,” an obsessive player falls in love with a mysterious player in the final hours of a world. Told in a stunning range of voices, styles, and settings — from inside the Hale-Bopp cult to the deck of a conquistador’s galleon adrift at the end of the ocean — the stories in Bunn’s collection capture the transformations and discoveries at the edge of irrevocable change. Each tale presents a distinct world, told with deep emotion, energizing language, and characters with whom we have more in common that we realize. They signal the arrival of an astonishing new talent in short fiction

The British Study Edition of The Urantia Papers is a translation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation (also known as “The Urantia Book”) from American to British English as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English. It has the following main features: 1. The Standard Reference Text (SRT) has been used as a base of this work. 2. All significant changes to the text (present also in SRT) are documented in the critical apparatus, together with a brief explanation of the reason for the change. 3. Study notes have been added. 4. The symbol ¶ marks the first paragraph in the group as in the 1955 first printing, where such groups were delimited by blank lines. 5. All distance and temperature measures have been converted to metric units, except where there was even the slightest potential for error, such as in the use of “Jerusem miles”, which was left intact. The idiomatic expressions like “carry his pack for a mile” were also left intact, obviously. 6. Long and hard to memorise phrases like “three hundred and forty-five thousand” have been converted to a more compact form “345,000”. Likewise, for phrases like “seventy-five per cent”, a more compact form of “75%” was chosen. Likewise, the time designations like “fifteen minutes past four o’clock” now read “16:15”. 7. The designation of the author of each paper (and Foreword) is printed in italics on a line by itself just before the text. 8. SRT paragraph numbering is used both in the superscript and in the paragraph ranges printed in the header of every page. 9. Possible textual corruptions are indicated in the footnotes. For deriving etymology of the words coined by the revelators, I acknowledge the use of the notes by Dr Chris Halvorson. Many thanks to my friend Mitch Austin for helpful suggestions and comments, some of which have been incorporated into the study notes of the present edition. Tigran Aivazian, London

The British Study Edition of The Urantia Papers is a translation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation (also known as “The Urantia Book”) from American to British English as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English. It has the following main features: 1. The Standard Reference Text (SRT) has been used as a base of this work. 2. All significant changes to the text (present also in SRT) are documented in the critical apparatus, together with a brief explanation of the reason for the change. 3. Study notes have been added. 4. The symbol ¶ marks the first paragraph in the group as in the 1955 first printing, where such groups were delimited by blank lines. 5. All distance and temperature measures have been converted to metric units, except where there was even the slightest potential for error, such as in the use of “Jerusem miles”, which was left intact. The idiomatic expressions like “carry his pack for a mile” were also left intact, obviously. 6. Long and hard to memorise phrases like “three hundred and forty-five thousand” have been converted to a more compact form “345,000”. Likewise, for phrases like “seventy-five per cent”, a more compact form of “75%” was chosen. Likewise, the time designations like “fifteen minutes past four o’clock” now read “16:15”. 7. The designation of the author of each paper (and Foreword) is printed in italics on a line by itself just before the text. 8. SRT paragraph numbering is used both in the superscript and in the paragraph ranges printed in the header of every page. 9. Possible textual corruptions are indicated in the footnotes. For deriving etymology of the words coined by the revelators, I acknowledge the use of the notes by Dr Chris Halvorson. Many thanks to my friend Mitch Austin for helpful suggestions and comments, some of which have been incorporated into the study notes of the present edition. Tigran Aivazian