Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit & romance at once a literary detective novel & a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters journals & poems they uncover a web of passion deceit & tragedy & their quest becomes a battle against time. ...

Terence Cave intellectual music-lover & owner of Cave Antiques has experienced more than his share of tragedies. His mothers suicide & his young wifes death at the hands of burglars left him to bring up his young twins alone. & now one of them has died in a grotesque accident as a result of bullying. Bryony the remaining twin has always been the familys great hope: a golden teenager in love with her cello & her pony clever sweet & eager to please. Now that she is all Terence has left he realises that his one duty in life is to keep her safe from the worlds malign forces whatever that may take. As he starts to follow his grieving daughters movements & enforces a draconian set of rules purely for her own safety the voices in his head convince him to protect her innocence at any cost. The Possession on Mr Cave" is both a nightmare of Gothic proportions & a story of distorted love with chilling resonance for anyone who has been a parent or a frustrated teenager. In this compulsive novel the characteristic black humour of " The Last Family in England" & " The Dead Fathers Club" moves even further onto the dark side. Matt Haig lays bare the process by which Terences love for Bryony becomes a possessive force that will lead to destruction & ultimately murder." ...

Who among you deserves eternal life? Daniel is a highly successful st&-up comedian who has made a career out of playing outrageously on the prejudices of his public. But at the beginning of the twenty-first century he has begun to detest laughter in particular & mankind in general. Despite this Daniel is unable to stop himself believing in the possibility of love. A thousand years on war drought & earthquakes have decimated the earth & Daniel 24 lives alone in a secure compound
- his only companion a cloned dog named Fox. Outside the remnants of the human race roam in packs while Daniel 24 attempts to decipher his predecessor's history. In a nightmarish vision of the implosion of the modern world he like his predecessor attempts to fathom the meaning of love sex suffering & regret.
...

Terrified a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes & pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull. Soldiers & lovers parents & children scientists & musicians risk their bodies & hearts in search of connection
- some key to understanding what makes us the people we become. Provocative & profound Sebastian Faulks dazzling novel journeys across continents & time to explore the chaos created by love separation & missed opportunities. From the pain & drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone elses life.
...

Terrified a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes & pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull. Soldiers & lovers parents & children scientists & musicians risk their bodies & hearts in search of connection
- some key to understanding what makes us the people we become. Provocative & profound Sebastian Faulks' dazzling novel journeys across continents & time to explore the chaos created by love separation & missed opportunities. From the pain & drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone else's life.
...

Patrick OBrians Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Patrick OBrian is regarded by many as the greatest historical novelist now writing. Post Captain the second novel in his remarkable Aubrey/ Maturin series led Mary Renault to write: Master & Commander raised dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them. This tale begins with Jack Aubrey arriving home from his exploits in the Mediterranean to find England at peace following the Treaty of Amiens. He & his friend Stephen Maturin surgeon & secret agent begin to live the lives of country gentlemen hunting entertaining & enjoying more amorous adventures. Their comfortable existence however is cut short when Jack is overnight reduced to a pauper with enough debts to keep him in prison for life. He flees to the continent to seek refuge: instead he finds himself a hunted fugitive as Napoleon has ordered the internment of all Englishmen in France. Aubreys adventures in escaping from France & the debtors prison will grip the reader as fast as his unequalled actions at sea. ...

Henry Chinaski is a lowlife loser with a h&-to-mouth existence. His menial post office day job supports a life of beer one-night stands & racetracks. Lurid uncompromising & hilarious Post Office is a landmark in American literature & over 1 million copies have been sold worldwide. The new edition is augmented with an anecdotal introduction by the modern Welsh cult-literary author Niall Griffiths
- a writer who was working in a British post office when he first read Bukowskis Post Office.
...

Cinderella meets Bonnie & Clyde in this 1930s tale of the boom & bust of capitalism by one of Europe's most revered authors. Like Neil Tennant we were bowled over by this deeply humane story about a post office girl offered a fleeting taste of unimaginable wealth
- only to have it snatched away...A young Austrian woman Christine toils away in a provincial post office when out of the blue a telegram arrives inviting her to join an American aunt she's never known in a fashionable Swiss resort. She accepts & is swept up into a world of almost inconceivable wealth & unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed. Then just as abruptly her aunt cuts her loose & she has to return to the post office where
- yes
- nothing will ever be the same. Christine meets Ferdinand a bitter war veteran & disappointed architect forced to work on construction sites. They are drawn to each other just as they are crushed by a sense of deprivation anger & shame. Inevitably their attempts at love look set to flounder until in one desperate & decisive act they find a way to remake their world from within.


...

The new novel from the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina Mc Govern does or does not lean in to a specific pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with her disciplined intellectual partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey a hard-living snooker player. Using a parallel universe structure we follow Irinas life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men. Lawrence is Irinas partner of nearly ten years. Ramsey is the ex-husband of a sometime friend a once-a-year acquaintance to whom Irina has never paid a great deal of attention. Where Lawrence is supportive & devoted; Ramsey is flighty & spontaneous. Lawrence is emotionally withdrawn to the point of repression; Ramsey is fiery & passionate but volatile. The contrasts between the two men have ramifications for Irinas relationships with friends & family for her career as an illustrator & more importantly for the texture of her daily life. This love is about trade-offs. Both men in Irinas dual future are worthy of her affection but deeply flawed. The answer is that there is no perfect answer: one of the things that draws us to our mates is what is wrong with them. The Post-Birthday World is written with all the subtlety perceptiveness & drama that made We Need to Talk About Kevin an international bestseller. ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a term were hearing a lot of these days as members of our military return home shell shocked by battle experiences. But you dont have to have been on the battlefield to suffer from PTSD in fact anyone whos been in a very stressful situation can develop it. Stressful conditions can range from a terrorist attack to a serious car accident to sexual abuse or even bullying at school or work. If you think that you or someone you care about may have been affected by PTSD then this book will help you understand what caused your problem what the symptoms are & where to get help. Most importantly of all it suggests ways for you to help yourself & a sense of empowerment is important in an illness that leaves a person feeling helpless. In this book weve put together the information that will help you make the decisions & find the help you or your loved one will need to reclaim your life & happiness. ...