Showing titles in City Life

Libby Cooper hasn’t celebrated Christmas since the night her parents died in a terrible accident. She wants to forget that the season of goodwill even exists; but her grandmother has other ideas. It’s time for Libby to start living her life just as her parents would have wanted her to do. First stop New York! What better way to immerse herself in the celebrations, than working in her great aunt’s Christmas shop, just a few blocks from Central Park? Making new friends in the Big Apple is the easy bit, but leaving the past behind proves much harder than Libby imagined.

Tommy Jr might be one of the youngest members of the Carter family, but he has plans to one day step into his Uncle Jonny’s shoes as head of the family. But when his young girlfriend Aimee announces she’s pregnant, everything changes. Although only nineteen, Tommy’s determined to be the best dad he can. Aimee’s dad Kevin Fox feels the Carters owe him big time and now he’s going to part of the family it’s time to pay up. But publicly rejected by the Carters, Kevin plots his revenge and Tommy Jr is firmly in his sights.

When Another Country appeared in 1962, it caused a literary sensation. James Baldwin's masterly story of desire, hatred and violence opens with the unforgettable character of Rufus Scott, a scavenging Harlem jazz musician adrift in New York. Self-destructive, bad and brilliant, he draws us into a Bohemian underworld pulsing with heat, music and sex, where desperate and dangerous characters betray, love and test each other to the limit.

'I hope the lights are on when we finally have sex so he can see how young I am compared to his wife.' Readers are loving Everyone I Know is Dying: 'An important, electric portrayal of mental health' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Brutally relatable' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'One of the most powerful books I've ever...

'Spiky, clever, funny' – Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters 'Brilliant, propulsive . . . A riot'– Maddie Mortimer, author of Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies 'A delicious gallop through 90s tabloid London' – Sam McAlister, author of Scoops It’s peak 90s London. Shoulder pads are out...

For Damir, time is money. He bikes around the city collecting food orders, rushing through the cycle lanes next to Uber drivers and grocery vans – and all the other people delivering your every desire. He arrives with your sushi rolls and fries and disappears into the night – Ping! Onto the next drop. He is invisible; one player in the boardgame of the city. But one summer’s evening, a chance encounter changes all the rules. Damir arrives on Decca’s doorstep with a bag of spilled edamame beans, in a postcode that could be another universe, and there’s an immediate connection.

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Andrew Scott, star of Sherlock, Fleabag and Black Mirror, also known for his on-stage roles in Present Laughter and Hamlet. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Terence Brown. Joyce's first major work, written when...

Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez?

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother’s belief she isn’t good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling. Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job – Freda and Veronica – she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes ever more vital.

Everything is changing for Gabe. His writing career is seeing some traction, his relationships are blossoming, and the time has come to move to a new, bigger house. Krystal and Liz are ready to commit to a new life living with and dating him. But Gabe was never under the impression that loving five women simultaneously was ever going to be easy.

Glasgow for Bertie is the promised land. The city of pies and Irn Bru, far from his controlling mother, Irene, – his place of escape. But how will he respond to the news of the proposed merging of Edinburgh and Glasgow? A new member of Bertie’s class at school is causing ripples in his social circle. She is called Galactica MacFee and is going to be a match for Olive and her lieutenant, Pansy. And an incredible new discovery: a Pictish stone that is said to have the first-know written poem carved into it is the talk of the town.

Long-suffering child genius Bertie Pollock has much to contend with in the latest instalment of life at 44 Scotland Street, not least the birth of his brother Ulysses. Bertie had hoped that caring for a new baby would command all of his mother's attention, but he quickly sees that his dream of being left to his own devices is not destined to come true.

The moment Zoe notices Jack in their Harvard chemistry class, with his scruffy clothes and casual self-assurance, she knows he’s the one to beat. When Zoe starts trying to outsmart Jack in chemistry, he knows she’s the person he’s been looking for. Because Jack has dreams that go far beyond the classroom. And while he and Zoe might be from different worlds, they share the same thirst for knowledge and fierce ambition. When he invites her to partner with him on some research, she puts aside her pride, and joins him.

To the casual observer, the great enlightened city of Edinburgh, home of no-nonsense sermons and cream teas, might appear immune to the rollercoaster of strong emotions. But at 44 Scotland Street, as Matthew and Elspeth embark on the risky enterprise of married love, the raffish portrait painter Angus Lordie has a premonition of disaster. Soon enough Irene Pollock is shocked to learn that her small son Bertie harbours a highly unsuitable ambition; and Angus finds himself facing a large Glaswegian gangster.

London, 1927. On the morning of Friday 5th February, 1927, Miss Agnes Humphries – the landlady of the attractive, if-slightly shabby, white-fronted townhouse at Number 23 Burlington Square – has a decision to make. The rooms of the second floor lie empty, since poor Mr Blandford’s unfortunate demise, God rest his soul. And Agnes must make up her mind as to who will be her new lodger. Agnes must choose between them. But what will her decision lead to? One of the choices could result in scandal, one in devastation, and one could even lead to happiness. If only she gets it right.

Robert Doughten Savile, aka "Doughty," is the son of a once-wealthy, now hard-up family from Darien, Connecticut. Doughty lives in a perpetual cloud of delusion, convinced of his own genius and status. While he has little capacity to accurately assess his own abilities or prospects, he cruises through life on the sheer force of his own sense of entitlement, dropping out of college and landing in the early '90s in New York City, a place brimming with both prosperity and desperation.

Thirteen-year-old Alice Truelove can’t take another day of her father’s cruelty. Better a life on the streets than being constantly blamed for her mother’s sad death, or that’s what Alice thinks as she packs up her meagre possessions. But fending for herself in the Black Country town of Wednesbury is not as easy as she expected, and it soon hits her that without help she will quickly be hungry and cold.

The fourth book in the multi-million-copy bestselling series about a cosy Tokyo cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time. Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s poignant Before We Say Goodbye, translated from Japanese, explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel...

Brought to you by Penguin. The uplifting and escapist new romcom and perfect holiday read for summer from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Island in the Sun and One Enchanted Evening. In a city full of dreams, will she find her own…? It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in...

Portia Daniels' life is sorted. She has a perfect man (Jason, a hot TV producer from Ireland), a perfect apartment (in lower Manhattan), a perfect job (writing for TV). Best of all for her, unlike the rest of her family, she lives in perfect obscurity. On the other hand, it's all drama with her mother, Dessie, Kerry-born queen bee of hit reality show, Ladies of Los Angeles, and sisters, Vinnie, a supermodel-turned-Insta-guru and Ariel, a Tik-Tok teen sensation. When Jason drops a bombshell that leaves her life in tatters, Portia flees to be with her family.