A sweeping epic in the vein of Philipp Meyer’s The Son and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and inspired by a true story, this stunning US literary debut captures the never-before-told journey of the Baleine Brides: a ship full of young women plucked from a Paris asylum and sent to marry settlers in North America's rough Louisiana Territory.

Paris, 1720. La Salpêtrière hospital is in crisis: too many occupants, not enough beds. Halfway across the world, France's colony in the wilds of North America has space to spare and needs families to fill it. So the director of the hospital rounds up nearly a hundred female “volunteers” of childbearing age—orphans, prisoners, and mental patients—to be shipped to New Orleans.

Among this group are three unlikely friends: a sharp-tongued twelve-year old orphan, a mute ‘madwoman,’ and an accused abortionist. Charlotte, Pétronille, and Geneviève, along with the dozens of other women aboard La Baleine, have no knowledge of what lies ahead and no control over their futures. Strangers brought together by fate, these brave and fierce young women will face extraordinary adversity—pirates, slavedrivers, sickness, war—but also the private trauma of heartbreak and unrequited love, children born and lost, cruelty and unexpected pleasure, and a friendship forged in fire that will sustain through the years.

At once a gorgeously written work of startling depth and emotion and a gripping drama marrying high-seas adventure with pioneer grit, Pelican Girls is a powerful, thought-provoking novel about female friendship and desire and the daunting compromises women are forced to make to survive.

She’s human in every way that matters.

Annie is a robot, created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Playful and eager to please, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the outfits he buys for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his whims. Maybe the apartment isn’t always spotless, but she’s trying to be good enough for Doug. She’s trying really hard.

But as Annie grows more self-aware, she begins to chafe against the borders of her life: the empty weeks spent confined to the apartment, the fitness regimens designed to keep her part-organic body toned, the service appointments to increase her bra size and shave inches off her waistline. Worst of all are Doug’s unpredictable moods, and the way he can punish her without even raising his voice.

Annie starts to imagine the impossible – what would life be like outside Doug’s apartment? What could she be like without Doug?

This powerful, provocative novel from a bold new voice examines the intricate relationship between creator and creation, between human and AI, exploring issues of trust, intimacy, power and autonomy.

Is a human soul something we are born with? Or is it something – through love, pain and other people – we can learn?

A ghostly tale of magic and wickedness, set on the Yorkshire moors in the 1800s.

When Annie marries widower Edward Stonehouse and arrives at his estate on the Yorkshire moors, she thinks she's put darkness behind her. She is mistaken.

Edward's sister, Iris, still lives in the family home. A taxidermist and medium, she urges Annie to look for black feathers - claiming that they mark the spot where a spirt has visited.

Initially, Annie dismisses her warnings. But, before long, she begins to feel haunted.

What happened to Edward's first wife? Why is Iris so disturbed? And should Annie really be watching for signs from the dead? Or is she the one being watched..?