When the young Ian Wharton first meets Mr Broadhurst, he is completely unaware of the influence he will come to exert over his life as 'The Fat Controller' - a constant companion and confidant and also the obese, erudite manifestation of Ian's mental illness. As Ian's idea of fun becomes increasingly extreme, the reader is taken to a place where morality is eroded by the dull grind of modernity and everything becomes admissable.

Four university friends, obsessed with a fantasy, role-playing game delve into the darkest parts of their minds and carry the game one terrible step too far

In cool, precise prose, and with an unerring sense of the absurd, the four novellas of "Compulsory Happiness" create a picture of everyday life in a grotesque police state, expressing terror and hope, fear and solidarity, the humorous triviality of the ordinary, and the painful search for an ideal. "Norman Manea's four novellas, written during the later Ceausescu years, offer a comparable contrast to other Eastern European dissident writing. Instead of the energetic irony, the ebullient absurdism, the sharp-eyed wit, we find a dreamy disconnection, a voice that shock has lowered, an air of sweetness driven mad."--Richard Eder, "Los Angeles Times" "Mr. Manea's voice is radically new, and we are blessedly awakened and alerted by the demand his fiction makes on our understanding."--Lore Segal, "New York Times Book Review"

Your Mouth Is Lovely is a grand and glorious novel, greeted with ecstatic reviews in Canada and on the international scene. The story of a family caught between the rich yet rigid traditions of the past and the unfamiliar and often frightening ways of a society poised on the precipice of change, Your Mouth Is Lovely centers around Miriam, a young Jewish woman caught in the 1905 Russian Revolution. The kind of book that simply won't be put down, this is literary fiction at its very best.

Product Description A tale based on the life of Hollywood's first black sex goddess. Rising to the ranks of "the black Monroe" and receiving an Oscar nomination, Irene then descends into drunkenness and derangement. After her mysterious "death", she rises from the ashes to live out her days in tranquility. Review Reviews of Repossessing Ernestine 'An amazing story, full of twists and turns, Dickensian coincidences and discoveries ... Repossessing Ernestine moves the reader to anger but should remind most people of what being human and humane is really about' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times 'No anger over the wrongs of the past could be as eloquent as this cool truth-telling. Let this book get a grip on you - you won't regret it' Jill Paton Walsh, Sunday Express 'I was moved to tears' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons--and the unpredictable forces of nature and society--he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery. A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.

"Scruples, Judith Krantz's electrifying, world wide bestseller appeared fifteen years ago and made book publishing history. Now that unforgettable story, a story that marks an era, a story that millions of readers wish had never ended . . . continues. Only a single night's sleep seperates the lives of the characters in "Scruples from this mesmerizing sequel. Billy Ikehorn is a contemporary woman living on a grand scale. A self-made beauty and the exquisite owner of a fabled Beverley Hills boutique called Scruples and married to the Oscar-winning producer Vito Orsini. To those who only know her from afar, she seems to lead a dream existence, wrapped in all the power of glamout, riches, and success. Then a stranger arrives in Billy's life--Gigi Orsini, Vito's sixteen-year-old daughter by an early marriage. Independent, deeply interesting, street-smart, and enchantingly humorous, Gigi captures Billy's heart and sets in motion a train of utterly unexpected events. Life with Gigi hold both joy and pain for Spider Elliot and Valentine O'Neill, Billy's partners in Scruples. The many new freinds Gigi makes during the next five years will grow important to Billy in ways she could never have forseen. "Scruples Two moves swiflty and unexpectadly, filled with breathtaking change, from California to New York to Paris, following two of the most fascinating and touching females in modern fiction, Billy Ikehorn and Gigi Orsini. "From the Paperback edition.

Book by Krantz, Judith

These stories are dark & diverting.They move effortlessly between wildly differ-ing locations.They explore subjects contemporary & complex.Best of all they gleam with intelligence and sardonic wit.

A CIA research station in London is attacked, its members murdered, and their potentially lethal biological research is stolen, setting iconoclastic agent Richard McGinnis off in pursuit of the enemy agents and their deadly bacteria

fiction

When Harry begins to receive tormented letters from his childhood friend Agnes, a struggling sculptress, it reawakens his past. Harry begins to seek out Agnes, believing he can help her. After all he was the only one closest to understanding the mysterious source of her art. Ten years after her death, faced with a young, soulful girl reminiscent of Agnes, Harry feels trapped, threatened and chastened. Agnes' story encompasses his own youth, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the breadth of the American dream.

A compelling novel from a major cult author, mixing crime, thriller and the supernatural

Critics in Britain are already raving about Charlotte Mendelson’s excoriatingly funny yet deeply humane novel about a glamorous London family that happens to be falling apart. The Rubins are the perfect family. They’re wonderfully happy and very glamorous. The mother, Claudia, is the ultimate Jewish a powerful rabbi known for her charm, brains, and determination. Now this dynastic Jewish family is getting ready to marry off the perfect eldest son. History, community, and even gastronomy unite the guests lucky enough to attend this joyous occasion. But when the groom -- one minute before exchanging vows -- bolts with the wrong woman, the myths that have defined this family take on darker overtones. Mendelson’s astonishing eye for detail, as well as her just-right balance of plot and character, makes the unfolding of this story an uncommon treat. In a marvelously compressed style that also bursts with life, she reveals how all four adult Rubin children, and their parents, struggle with huge secrets, sexual frustration and sexual experimentation, and many betrayals. Charlotte Mendelson opens a window on a realm rarely explored in British the complicated world of English Jewry. But to watch this seemingly blessed family drastically, disastrously fall apart before regaining balance is to understand that their struggles -- like all of ours -- are universal ones.

A young writer obsessed by the past finds himself involved in an odyssey of violence, tragedy, and a search for a murderer

A new novella and four new short stories from Will Self (his first since 1999's Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys), which see him return to the disturbing and ruckled terrain of his bestselling first collection. Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe is another warped window on the wibbly-wobbly world of fear and fun that Self - like some malevolent deity - has fashioned over the years.