This "delightfully whimsical novel riffs on the premise that ordinary lives stubbornly resist the tidy order that a fiction narrative might impose on them" ( Publishers Weekly).Can a story save your life?Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life ...

"The code-breaking and -making heroine of [this] smart, engaging novel takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool . . . a captivating heroine." — Publishers WeeklyTwentysomething Alice Butler is a bit of an introvert, but it hasn't stopped her from landing a job at the UK office of globally successful—if slightly sinister—toy company PopCo. There's no dress code, but that doesn't keep Alice's coworkers from commenting on her "Bletchley Park lo...

Could a story save your life?If Kelsey Newman's theory about the end of time is true, we are all going to live forever. But who would want that?Certainly not Meg, a bright spark trapped in a hopeless relationship. But if she can work out the connection between a wild beast on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe, she might just find a way out.

IF YOU HAD SECRET MAGICAL POWERS, HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?After the Worldquake, Effie knows about magic - time in her grandfather's library has made sure of that. But there's still much she has to learn. About the Otherworld. And about the Diberi, a secret organisation with plans to destroy the entire universe.Effie and her school-friends are the only ones who can stop them . . . and time is running out.

Luke is allergic to everything. He spends his days in a sterile safe-haven designed to keep out all light and dirt, while everything he knows about the world comes from books, movies, the internet and whatever his best-friend Julie tells him. He would do anything to go outside.Julie, brilliant and kind, could be out changing the world. Unfortunately, she’s too afraid of airplane crashes, highway accidents, and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her hometown, her pointle...

'Ingenious and original' Philip PullmanIf you knew a book was cursed, would you still read it?When Ariel Manto uncovers a copy of The End of Mr. Y in a second-hand bookshop, she can't believe her eyes. She knows enough about its author, the outlandish Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas, to know that copies are exceedingly rare. And, some say, cursed.With Mr. Y under her arm, Ariel finds herself thrust into a thrillin...

Luke is twenty-five and allergic to the sun. He is stuck in his bedroom, where the world comes to him through TV, the internet and Julie's visits. Julie, meanwhile, is brilliant, kind and could be changing the world. Unfortunately she is too terrified of aeroplane crashes, road accidents and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her home town.When someone contacts Luke and claims that he can cure him, Luke and Julie have to deal with their fears and face the world outside....

A darkly funny sports memoir about a mid-life crisis, exercise addiction, tennis, and how to grow up when you really, really don't want toAt forty-one, Scarlett Thomas was a successful novelist and a senior academic. She’d quit smoking, gotten healthier, settled down in a lovely house with a wonderful partner. She’d had all the therapy. Then her beloved dog died. Her parents started to get sick right around the time she realized she was never going to be a mother h...

PopCo tells the story of Alice Butler—a subversively smart girl in our commercial-soaked world who grows from reclusive orphan to burgeoning vigilante, buttressed by mystery, codes, math, and the sense her grandparents gave her that she could change the world.Alice—slight introvert, crossword compositor—works at PopCo, a globally successful and slightly sinister toy company. Lured by their CEO to a Thought Camp out on the moors, PopCo's creatives must inve...

PopCo tells the story of Alice Butler—a subversively smart girl in our commercial-soaked world who grows from reclusive orphan to burgeoning vigilante, buttressed by mystery, codes, math, and the sense her grandparents gave her that she could change the world.Alice—slight introvert, crossword compositor—works at PopCo, a globally successful and slightly sinister toy company. Lured by their CEO to a Thought Camp out on the moors, PopCo's creatives must inve...

THERE IS MAGIC BEYOND THE REALWORLD . . .EFFIE TRUELOVE has learned to travel through magical books to the Otherworld.MAXIMILIAN UNDERWOOD, Effie's classmate, is more interested in the dark and forbidden Underworld.When Effie and Maximilian both mysteriously vanish, their friends Raven, Lexy and Wolf don't know where to turn for help. Raven is a witch and her horse, Echo, has revealed that Effie is in deep danger and time is running out.To ma...

'Bright Young Things wanted for Big Project.'They're in the prime of their lives but our bright young things are all burnt out. Six sparky twenty-somethings just out of university and working dead-end jobs, they are all bored to tears with their lives and looking for a way out. When a mysterious job is advertised in the newspaper, they all apply.What they least expect is to find themselves prisoners on a deserted island. There's food in the fridge and they have a be...