Transworld Fiction Jul-Dec 2020
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FICTION CATALOGUE JULY - DECEMBER 2020 1 Island of Secrets An absolute must for everyone’s summer reading list Rachel Rhys MYSTERY, ROMANCE, SCANDAL in bestselling Rachel Rhys' atmospheric new novel set in the exotic city of Havana on the cusp of revolution. For all fans of DINAH JEFFRIES, LUCINDA RILEY and SANTA MONTEFIORE. 'Iris is a heroine you’ll absolutely root for in this escapist tale of murder, intrigue and romance' SARRA MANNING, Red 'Transports us to another time and place! I loved it’ NINA POTTELL, Prima 'Intoxicating and thrilling' VERONICA HENRY Set in the exotic city of Havana on the cusp of revolution, an English woman discovers mystery, romance and scandal in the atmospheric new novel by Rachel Rhys for fans of DINAH JEFFRIES, LUCINDA RILEY and SANTA MONTEFIORE 1957: Iris Bailey is bored to death of working in the typing pool and living with her parents in Hemel Hempstead. A gifted portraitist with a talent for sketching party guests, she dreams of becoming an artist. So she can’t believe her luck when socialite Nell Hardman invites her to Havana to draw at the wedding of her Hollywood director father. Far from home, she quickly realizes the cocktails, tropical scents and azure skies mask a darker reality. As Cuba teeters on the edge of revolution and Iris’s heart melts for troubled photographer Joe, she discovers someone in the charismatic June 2020 Hardman family is hiding a terrible secret. Can she uncover the 9781784164898 ugly truth behind the glamour and the dazzle before all their £7.99 : Paperback lives are torn apart? 368 pages OUTSTANDING PRAISE FOR RACHEL RHYS: 'Intoxicating' SANTA MONTEFIORE 'Transporting' SUNDAY TIMES 'A fabulous summer read' DAILY EXPRESS 'Escapist fun' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Delicious' SARRA MANNING RACHEL RHYS is the pen-name of a much-loved psychological suspense author. She is the author of the Richard and Judy bookclub pick, Dangerous Crossing and the bestselling A Fatal Inheritance. Her latest novel is the immersive Island of Secrets. 2 Rodham What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill? Curtis Sittenfeld What if Hillary hadn't married Bill? The sensational long- awaited new novel by the acclaimed bestselling author of American Wife. WHAT IF HILLARY RODHAM HAD TURNED DOWN BILL CLINTON'S PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE? ‘Startlingly good. One of my favourite writers.’ Kate Atkinson ‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that’s the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader— and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No. The rest, as they say, isn’t history. How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton? With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence and iron determination that characterise the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition July 2020 in a world ruled by men. 9780857526120 £16.99 : Hardback Uncannily astute, scorchingly witty, RODHAM is a brilliant 432 pages reimagining – an unmissable literary landmark and truly a novel of our times. Curtis Sittenfeld pulls no punches in her scathing and hilarious indictments of the American middle classes. Her Sunday Times bestselling novel American Wife was longlisted for the Orange Prize, as was her debut novel Prep. Her other books include The Man of My Dreams, Sisterland, Eligible, the acclaimed short story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It and her latest novel Rodham. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Oprah Magazine and the New York Times magazine. Sittenfeld is also the guest editor for the 2020 Best American Short Stories anthology. She lives with her family in the American Mid-West. 3 Tennis Lessons Susannah Dickey The dark, funny, fiercely honest debut novel about a spirited young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way. 'This is a raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story.' LOUISE O'NEILL 'Incredibly funny and honest . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL The darkly funny, fiercely honest debut novel about a spirited young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way. You’re strange and wrong. You’ve known it from the beginning. This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You’re a disappointment to everyone. You’re a far cry from beautiful – and your thoughts are ugly too. You seem bound to fail, bound to break. But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body. You just need to find your place. From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and July 2020 misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalizing debut 9780857526861 novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman £14.99 : Hardback as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood. 256 pages Susannah Dickey grew up in Derry and now lives in Belfast. She is the author of two poetry pamphlets, I had some very slight concerns (2017) and genuine human values (2018). Her poetry has been published in Ambit, The White Review, Poetry Ireland Review and Magma, amongst others. In 2018 she was shortlisted for The White Review short story prize, and in 2017 she was the winner of the inaugural Verve Poetry Festival competition. Her debut novel, Tennis Lessons, will be published in June 2020. 4 Ann Devine: Handle With Care Colm O'Regan She only wanted to save the village, but sometimes even saviours need saving from themselves. Just once, Ann Devine would like life to be straightforward. But there’s just too much drama knocking about for that to happen. Ann’s family is proving a handful at the moment. Her mother moves in after having a fall, her sister Ger is off ‘finding herself’ in India leaving Ann to look after her teenage, wide a-woke, niece Freya. Her daughter Jennifer is dealing with a love triangle that involves her mother-in-law-to-be. It’s all far from simple. Now Rory, her youngest, has set his sights on a future as a local TD and it’s all Ann can do not to box him up and post him off to the backend of wherever is furthest away from his local ‘mentor’, politician, and all-round chancer Patsy Duggan. Just to save him from himself. Of course, that’s not even an option because now the post office is closing down. The locals are up in arms, but what do the powers-that-be care about rural Ireland? Without really meaning to be, Ann finds herself in the thick of things – and things are getting dodgier by the minute. She only wanted to save the village, but sometimes even saviours need saving from themselves. Colm O’Regan is a columnist, broadcaster, comedian and author. He has published four books of non-fiction – the three bestselling books of Irish Mammies and Bolloxology – and July 2020 published his first novel, Ann Devine: Ready for Her Close-Up in 9781848272484 2019. Ann Devine: Handle with Care is in second novel. £12.99 : Trade Paperback Originally from Cork, he now lives in Dublin with his wife Marie 368 pages and daughters Ruby and Lily. 5 Bryant & May - Oranges and Lemons Christopher Fowler Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, assisted by the oddballs and eccentrics of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, return to break rules, infuriate officialdom and maybe, just maybe, catch the criminal in this hugely entertaining and unorthodox new investigation. One Sunday morning, the outspoken Speaker of the House of Commons steps out of his front door only to be crushed under a mountain of citrus fruit. Bizarre accident or something more sinister? The government needs to know because here's a man whose knowledge of parliament’s biggest secret could put the future of the government at stake? It should be the perfect case for Bryant & May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit, but unfortunately one detective is in hospital, the other is missing and the staff have all been dismissed. It seems the PCU is no more. But events escalate: a series of brutal crimes seemingly linked to an old English folk-song threatens the very foundation of London society and suddenly the PCU is offered a reprieve and are back in (temporary) business! And if the two elderly detectives, ‘old men in a woke world’, do manage to set aside their differences and discover why some of London’s most influential figures are under life-threatening attack, they might not just save the unit but also prevent the entire city from descending into chaos . 'The most consistently brilliant, entertaining and educational voice in contemporary British crime fiction, the utterly fabulous Christopher Fowler.' Cathi Unsworth, CRIMESQUAD Christopher Fowler is the author of more than forty novels (sixteen of July 2020 which feature the detectives Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes 9780857525703 Unit) and many short story collections. A multiple award-winner, £16.99 : Hardback including the coveted CWA ‘Dagger in the Library’, Chris has also 448 pages written screenplays, video games, graphic novels, audio plays and two acclaimed memoirs, Paperboy and Film Freak. His most recent non- fiction book is The Book of Forgotten Authors.