WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008 Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master. The White Tiger presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.

'Secrets and stones have settled in Hawden where everything stays as it is; the past is hidden, or rewritten. Lauren lives with her dad and Mr Lion after her mother left her when she was three months old. Her boyfriend Peter is struggling with his identity. When Meg and her son Richard arrive, both dangerously attractive, and Ali too, angry and on the run from drug dealers, old stories resurface, creating new tensions. After seventeen years Lauren's mother comes back into her life and nothing is quite what it seems any more, but love, however tainted, can sometimes heal.' TAINTED LOVE is a modern gothic tale of how old stories can unravel people's lives.

Barry Desmond is an only child and his sheltered upbringing leaves him ill-equipped to cope with life. In middle age, following redundancy and the death of his parents, he ventures into the world determined to form relationships and start afresh.

Tommy Mutch is a working-class lad from the slums of West London, eager to escape the mean streets of Notting Dale. Boxing is in its 1930s heyday and, like many in his position, Tommy sees it as an escape route from poverty.

With Twitter and Elon Musk grabbing the headlines lately, and with all the rage about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Chatgpt chatbot, the time for a virtual reality novel has finally arrived.

About ten years ago, then still writing as Koos Kombuis, the author started writing a short story on Twitter, tweet by tweet. It soon turned into a novel... a short novel, but a novel nonetheless! It was a challenge because tweets were limited to 140 digits in those days. It took Joe a few years to complete his story, and it attracted a lot of attention at the time.

This ‘micro-novel’ describes an imaginary future society and the role of social media where people are literally living inside virtual reality to the extent that they are unable to distinguish virtual reality from real life. The story unfolds in the now somewhat archaic terminology of 2013, at a time before Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans to create Meta!

‘Twitter Dawn’ is an evocative, humorous and thought-provoking story which fits right into the present-day debate about all things IT and AI!

From the New York Times number one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah, comes Wild, a remarkable story about the resilience of the human spirit, the triumph of hope and the promise of new beginnings.

In the rugged Pacific Northwest of the United States lies the Olympic National Forest – a vast expanse of impenetrable darkness and impossible beauty. From deep within this mysterious woodland, a six-year-old girl appears. Speechless and alone, she offers no clue as to her identity, no hint of her past.

Having retreated to her hometown after a scandal left her career in ruins, child psychiatrist Dr Julia Cates begins working with the extraordinary little girl. Naming her Alice, Julia is determined to free her from a prison of unimaginable fear and isolation, and discover the truth about Alice’s past. The shocking facts of Alice’s life test the limits of Julia’s faith and strength, even as she struggles to make a home for Alice – and find a new one for herself.

'The problems started the day we moved to Hastings...' When Gareth E. Rees moves to a dilapidated Victorian house in Hastings he begins to piece together an occult puzzle connecting Aleister Crowley, John Logie Baird and the Piltdown Man hoaxer. As freak storms and tidal surges ravage the coast, Rees is beset by memories of his best friend's tragic death in St Andrews twenty years earlier. Convinced that apocalypse approaches and his past is out to get him, Rees embarks on a journey away from his family, deep into history and to the very edge of the imagination. Tormented by possessed seagulls, mutant eels and unresolved guilt, how much of reality can he trust? THE STONE TIDE is a novel about grief, loss, history and the imagination. It is about how people make the place and the place makes the person. Above all it is about the stories we tell to make sense of the world.

Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he's willing to travel to try and get there.

Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.

Five women. Twenty-two years of friendship. One annual holiday that promises escape, connection and chaos in equal measure.

No matter how hectic their careers, relationships or family lives become, they keep their tradition alive: one week away together EVERY year. This time, the Mini Breakers are heading to Portugal. But as the sun comes out, so do the secrets.

Between complicated love lives and the messy realities of middle age, this getaway might just be their most dramatic yet.

Scandals, revelations and questionable decisions are guaranteed when this group of gloriously imperfect, perimenopausal and fun-loving friends reunite.

THE MINI BREAKERS is a warm, sharp, wickedly funny story about the friendships that shape us.

Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu's journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging.

Okonowo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most powerful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. Determined not to be like his father, he refuses to show weakness to anyone - even if the only way he can master his feelings is with his fists. When outsiders threaten the traditions of his clan, Okonowo takes violent action. Will the great man's dangerous pride eventually destroy him?

Best friends and sisters, the four Padavano girls bring loving chaos to their close-knit Italian American neighbourhood. William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So, when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano, it's as if the world has lit up around him.

With Julia comes her family: Sylvie, the family's dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who becomes his closest confidante. The result is a catastrophic rift that leaves the family inhabiting two sides of a fault line.

Can they find their way back to each other? Can love make a broken family whole?

In 1930s British India, a humble servant learns the art of chaturanga, the ancient Eastern ancestor of chess. His natural talent soon catches the attention of the maharaja, who introduces him to the Western version of the game. Brought to England as the prince's pawn, Malik becomes a chess legend, winning the world championship and humiliating the British colonialists. His skills as a refined strategist eventually drag him into a strange game of warfare with far-reaching consequences.

A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of Mr. Know-It-All.

Marsha Sprinkle: Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She's smart, she's desperate, she's disturbed, and she's on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her "Liarmouth" - until one insane man makes her tell the truth.

John Waters's first novel, Liarmouth, is a perfectly perverted "feel-bad romance," and the reader will thrill to hop aboard this delirious road trip of riotous revenge.

An international bestseller and one of The Times' "Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century," Claire Keegan's piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the USIt is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end.Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers.

A food story to binge. A ghost story to devour. A love story to savour.

When dead-end dishwasher Kostya discovers the ability to summon spirits through the food he cooks, he embarks on a journey to open a New York City restaurant that serves closure – something he's craved for as long as he can remember.

There are just three problems:

1. Kostya has some ghosts of his own.

2. His advancing menu of spirit cuisine is threatening the stability of the Afterlife itself.

3. He's falling in love with Maura, a party psychic with her own secret connection to the Afterlife – who also happens to be the one person who knows he must be stopped.

A bittersweet cocktail of humour and heart, Aftertaste is an imaginative odyssey through food and love, life and death: the things that sustain us, connect us, transport us, and remind us who we are.