Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman in her twenties, moves to East Mole, a quaint market town in middle England, to start a new job as a children's librarian. But the apparently pleasant town is not all it seems. Sylvia falls in love with an older man - but it's her connectionto his precocious young daughter and her neighbours' son which will change he...

Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question. First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, th...

Frances, Bobbi, Nick and Melissa ask each other endless questions. As their relationships unfold, in person and online, they discuss sex and friendship, art and literature, politics and gender, and, of course, one another. Twenty-one-year-old Frances is at the heart of it all, bringing us this tale of a complex m‚nage-…-quatre and her...

Robbie and Emily they have been together for decades. Now, their joints are creaking and their eyesight is failing - but their love for each other is as fresh and fierce as the day they first met. They have had children and grandchildren, lived full and happy and intimate lives. But they have been keeping a secret since the day they met, when their...

When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. As passions flare and the conflict escalates, the who...

Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine's struggled to make ends meet. To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackt...

Anna and Austen MacDonald, an Irish couple, are preparing to enjoy their retirement to the full. But the demands of family cause problems they have never foreseen and shake their marriage to the core. Sally-Ann Connolly Cooper, a feisty Texan mother of two young teenagers, is reeling from her husband's infidelity. La Joya becomes a place of solac...

On a road trip through Africa, two English people-Bobby, a civil servant with a guilty appetite for African boys; and Linda, a supercilious "compound wife"-are driving back to their enclave after a stay in the capital. But in between lies the landscape of an unnamed country whose squalor and ethnic bloodletting suggest Idi Amin's Uganda. And the fa...

Eimear McBride's award-winning debut is an unforgettable novel from a major new literary talent. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. It is a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerab...

Quentin and Lottie Bredin can't afford to divorce, so must downsize and move their three children from London to Devon. Arrogant, adulterous Quentin can't understand Lottie's anger; while Lottie feels intolerably wounded. Why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beautiful landscape conceals a dark si...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, read by Kimberly Farr. An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling and Man Booker long-listed author of My Name is Lucy Barton Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness,...

Can you define your life by a single song? Adam Sharp - former pianist in a hip Melbourne bar, now a respectable IT consultant in Norwich - can. And it's 'You're Going to Lose that Girl' . . . On the cusp of fifty and a happy introvert, Adam is content. He's the music expert at his local pub-quiz and he and his partner Claire rumble along. Life may...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Faking Friends by Jane Fallon, read by Sally Scott and Kristin Atherton. Best friend. Soulmate. Confidante. Backstabber. Amy thought she knew who Melissa was - then again, Amy also thought she was on the verge of the wedding of her dreams to her long-distance fianc‚. When her career begins to unravel, she p...

Two sisters ... two very different lives. Alison's American dream is in tatters. Her highflying career is on the skids and her Upper East Side apartment is now way beyond her means. But pride prevents her from telling her family back home just how bad things are. Olivia is fraught trying to juggle family, career, preparations for Christmas and orga...

If your boss was the hottest rock star on the planet, would you mix business with pleasure? Celebrity PA to wild boy of rock Johnny Jefferson, Meg Stiles's glam new life in sun-drenched LA is a whirlwind of showbiz parties and backstage passes. Cool, calm Christian, in town to write his famous friend's biography, helps keep Meg's feet firmly on the...

Will Elliott is out of a job. The lighthouse he's been manning on Prince Albert Rock, off the wild Cornish coast, is about to become automated. So Will decides to fulfil his lifelong ambition - to sail round the coastline of Britain. Determined to continue his solitary existence, Will begins his preparations for his epic voyage. But before he has t...

Behind every successful man is a busy assistant and Tina's boss is very successful. But Tina is tired of being overworked and underpaid. She's bored of her damp flat and her mounting debts. Then a blip in the expenses system sends Tina a cheque. She's a good person. But she's desperate. This isn't stealing. It's an administrative error...

It's 1979: Dallas is enthralling the nation on TV, Mrs Thatcher has just become prime minister, Abba is top of the pops, and in the small Yorkshire village of Ragley-on-the-Forest, Jack Sheffield returns for his third year as headmaster of the village school. Jack and his staff struggle to keep a semblance of normality throughout the turbulence...

Farouk's country has been torn apart by war. Lampy's heart has been laid waste by Chloe. John's past torments him as he nears his end. The refugee. The dreamer. The penitent. From war-torn Syria to small-town Ireland, three men, scarred by all they have loved and lost, are searching for some version of home. Each is drawn towards a powerfu...

The Liar's Gospel is the story of Yehoshuah, a Jewish man who wandered Roman-occupied Judea giving sermons and healing the sick. Now, a year after his death, four people tell their stories, recalling their memories of a man battling with a loss of faith in a land on the brink of conflict. It was a time of brutal tyranny and occupation, of rumour an...

Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn't? Nina's mum isn't so sure. But she's busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. And Nina's almost an adult after all. And if Nina sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before , then her friends are all too happy to fill i...