Literature

ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'As dramatised on BBC Radio 4, Edna O'Brien's iconic trilogy of novels - The Country Girls, The Lonely Girl and Girls in their Married Bliss - depicts the lives and loves of two girls in rural 1950s Ireland. Edna O'Brien's debut novels revolutionised Irish literature in the 1960s. Banned by the authorities as 'indecent and obscene' and burned by the clergy, they were instantly notorious for their frank portrayal of sexual desire: but scandal soon became fame, and made this coming-of-age story a bestseller and instant classic. Caithleen 'Kate' Brady and Bridget 'Baba' Brennan have grown up in the repressive atmosphere of a small Irish village after World War II. Kate is a romantic, looking for love; Baba is a reckless survivor. After being expelled from convent school, they dream of conquering the bright lights of Dublin - but are rewarded with bad faith, bad luck, and bad sex; marry for the wrong reasons, then betray for the wrong reasons; and fight - in their unique ways - the expectations forced upon young 'girls' of every era that dictate the women they become. Published in an omnibus edition with a new foreword by Eimear McBride, Edna O'Brien's portrait of innocence and youth, love and despair, hope and reality, continues to inspire new generations of readers with its bravery, lyricism, humour, and courage. Edna O'Brien's stunning new novel Girl will be published by Faber in September 2019: available for pre-order now.

Entertaining short stories from the foremost science-fiction writer of the early 20th century include the title fable as well as "The Star," a gripping story about a massive celestial object hurtling toward the Earth, "The New Accelerator," "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," "Under the Knife," and others.

Andreas Franghias' novel "The Courtyard" gives us a picture of Athens not found in the guidebooks. Set in the ruins of post-World War II Greece, the story revolves around the inhabitants of a single courtyard in one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. Officially, the civil war has been over for years, but its devastating effects continue to haunt the survivors as, driven by fear, hunger and greed, they try to wrangle a way out of their poverty and pent-up lives. We follow them as they scheme and pursue their dreams through the backstreets of Monastiraki and the coffeehouses of Omonia Square. There is Eftihis, a street-peddler who dreams of making it big on money from an extorted dowry. There is Lucia, the wife of a country school-teacher who returns to look for a past that no longer exists. There is Andonis, one-time resistance fighter, now small-time operator. And there is Angelos, a political fugitive on the run from himself. "The Courtyard", tells their stories with humor and drama. It is the portrait of a city rebuilding and reshaping itself; of a society torn out at the roots, suspended between the uncertainties of its future and the nightmares of its past.

Compiled and published after Fitzgerald's death by his friend, the prominent critic and editor Edmund Wilson, The Crack-Up is a collection of writings that chronicle the author's state of mind and personal perspective on events, fellow writers and public figures of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to articles and essays such as the celebrated title piece, this volume includes a selection of Fitzgerald's notebooks, which - as well as being a repository of anecdotes and witty lines - provide a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the novelist's creative process, with passages that would be reworked into his fiction.

Dickens's delightful evocations of a Victorian Christmas include the title story, a heartwarming fable of home life; "The Holly-Tree," concerning love reclaimed at a country inn; and "The Haunted House," an entertaining account of a belligerent ghost. Combining realism and fantasy, these tales attest to their author's flair for characterization and the picturesque.

Presents the story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax.

SOME PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING FOR MONEY Mavis St. Paul had been a rich man's mistress. Now she was a corpse. And every cop in New York City was hunting for the two-bit punk accused of putting a knife in her. But the punk was innocent. He'd been set up to take the fall by some cutie who was too clever by half. My job? Find that cutie - before the cutie found me.

When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day. The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and the man-made apocalypse. However, with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more relevant today than ever before. John Wyndham was born in 1903. After a wide experience of the English preparatory school he was at Bedales from 1918 to 1921. Careers which he tried included farming, law, commercial art, and advertising, and he first started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. During the war he was in the Civil Service and afterwards in the Army. In 1946 he began writing his major science fiction novels including "The Kraken Wakes", "The Chrysalids" and "The Midwich Cuckoos".

"Stunning... the raging, torrential voice of the author is something rare." - The New York TimesSOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING NATALIE PORTMANTHE BREAK-OUT NOVEL BY THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF MY BRILLIANT FRIENDRarely have the foundations upon which our ideas of motherhood and womanhood rest been so candidly questioned. This compelling novel tells the story of one woman's headlong descent into what she calls an "absence of sense" after being abandoned by her husband.

Olga's "days of abandonment" become a desperate, dangerous freefall into the darkest places of the soul as she roams the empty streets of a city that she has never learned to love. When she finds herself trapped inside the four walls of her apartment in the middle of a summer heat wave, Olga is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal again. "Ferrante puts hammer to flesh and invites her reader to penetrate the page." - Financial Times "Extraordinary." - The London Review of Books