The world is dancing on theedge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra,where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled bythe writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled queen and king ofbohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic,destructive writer Axel Jensen; his dazzling wife, Marianne Ihlen; and theyoung Canadian poet Leonard Cohen...

Five short stories by the novelist and short story writer Polly Samson.A Rose for Paul: A story giving hope to anyone who has to move on from a difficult relationship.The Morning After: A romantic tryst turns sour after an animal rights activist discovers the murderous taste of his lover in the form of her exotic Shatoosh shawl.The Itch: Playing on the idea of 'The Seven Year Itch', this is an unusual story about regeneration and recovery, set to the tale of a coupl...

A collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season – from the No. 1 bestseller Stuart MacBrideOn the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…Twelve days, twelve stories.Meet Fat Billy Partridge, possibly the worst cat-burglar ever; newbie drug-dealer Brian, who probably shouldn’t be taking advantage of the job’s fringe benefits; Philippe, a chef with anger-management issues and lo...

We could tell you about the bodies. We could tell you their names, where they were found, the state they were in. We could tell you about the suspects too, the evidence, the investigators; join a few dots, even throw you a motive. But what would be the point? You're going to make your own assumptions anyway. After all, you know these people, don't you? You went to school with them. We all did. Granted, that was twenty years ago, but how much does anybody really change? Exactly. So if you r...

On the night that Carla Reid plans on celebrating her wedding anniversary with her husband Kevin and their grown son Jack, their New Zealand farmstead has never felt more like home. But when Ben Toroa and another aspiring gang member brutally force their way into the house with robbery and more on their minds the night and the rest of both their lives take a radically different direction. As Carla struggles to come to terms with the aftermath and bereavement of different kinds, and Ben fac...

Lillis leaves behind 1980s Dublin for a summer job working at a lodge in a small lochside village in the Scottish Highlands. Leaving Dublin is a way to escape her sorrow and despair following the death of her boyfriend and a testy relationship with her mother, Verity. In Scotland she encounters love and excitement but when a series of unexpected events turn her new found life on its head, she is forced to make a life-changing decision, one that will stay with her for her whole life. The Cl...

In the few seconds after the crash, something strange happens. There's a sudden change in the atmosphere of the material world. And in nearby Evanton the light flattens so anything unbeautiful becomes sinister and pretty things seem slightly surreal.When Alison Ross loses her son Calum in a car crash, her world turns upside down. In her struggle to cope, she does some strange and uncharacteristic things - starting with a one-night stand with her ex-best friend, Neal - and sets in mo...

Book 1 in the fantastic four-book series about taking risks and flying high. A unique collaboration from children's book legend Paul Jennings and brilliant cartoonist Andrew Weldon.The other kids don't see things the same way as me. I spend a lot of time imagining things. I just don't get it. Inside my head I am not the same as other kids.Ricky is an ordinary boy, who dreams of being famous. And he has a secret that might just help him realise his ...

A heartbreaking, darkly funny and deeply moving memoir from a fearlessly talented writerDelivered on the banks of the Mainoru River by her two full-blood grandmothers, Marie Munkara was born with light skin which meant one thing - it would only be a matter of time before she would be taken by the authorities and given to a white family to be raised.Then twenty-eight years later an old baptismal card falling out of a book changed the course of her life forev...

PERFECT FOR FANS OF SUSIE STEINERYou are a police officer. This is what you do. You speak for the dead, and the desperate living.When Anna Cameron is promoted to Chief Inspector and moved to a new division, it should be a turning point for her. But if she thought having a female boss would make things easier, she'd reckoned without the fearsome 'JC' Hamilton.Then, her mother goes into a coma in a foreign co...

Winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award 2007.'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'Tolstoy wasn't thinking specifically of the Harrison family when he wrote those words, but maybe he should have been. George Harrison is twenty-eight and afraid of the dark. His father is dead and his mother lives in la-la land. Reeling from a broken heart, and still coping with the trauma of a childhood home invasion, George works in ...

May 4th, 1970. A week earlier President Nixon has ordered American ground forces into Cambodia to pursue the Vietcong. By the end of the day four students will be shot dead by the National Guards in the grounds of Kent State University. On the other side of the Atlantic, it's a brilliant sunny morning after an April of heavy rain, and at the "Concept House" therapeutic community he has set up in the London suburb of Willesden, maverick psychiatrist Dr Zack Busner has been tricked into join...