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Katabasis – R.F. Kuang
Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.
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Jane A Murder – Maggie Nelson
Part elegy, part true crime story, this memoir-in-verse from the author of the award-winning The Argonauts expands the notion of how we tell stories and what form those stories take through the story of a murdered woman and the mystery surrounding her last hours.
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The God Of The Woods – Liz Moore
When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn’t just any camper, she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp–as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara’s older brother also went missing 16 years earlier, never to be found. How could this have happened yet again?;
Out of this gripping beginning, Liz Moore weaves a richly textured drama, both emotionally nuanced and propelled by a double-barreled mystery. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded drama brings readers into the hearts of characters whose lives are forever changed by this eventful summer.
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Circe – Madeline Miller
The Sunday Times and New York Times number one bestseller. Scorned, rejected and at last exiled from her father’s house for her dark gifts, Circe arrives on the remote island of Aiaia with nothing but her wits and magic to help her. Complicated and wounded, gifted and passionate, Madeline Miller’s captivating Circe steps out of myth and into the present as a heroine for our time, and all times.
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The Song Of Achilles – Madeline Miller
The god touches his finger to the arrow’s fletching. Then he breathes, a puff of air – as if to send dandelions flying, to push toy boats over water. And the arrow flies, straight and silent, in a curving, downward arc towards Achilles’ back. Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, the boys develop a tender friendship, a bond which blossoms into something deeper as they grow into young men. But when Helen of Sparta is kidnapped, Achilles is dispatched to distant Troy to fulfil his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
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Blue Sisters – Coco Mellors
The Blue sisters have always been exceptional – and exceptionally different.
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The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna
She found magic in the most unlikely of places.
The House in the Cerulean Sea meets Practical Magic in this cosy, heartwarming, and uplifting magical romance about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family – and a new love – changes the course of her life.
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The Housemaid’s Secret (2) – Freida Mcfadden
As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can »t risk losing this job – not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .
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The housemaid – Freida Mcfadden
An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won »t be able to put this down!
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Yellowface – R.F. Kuang
Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June »s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else »s fault. -
Babel – R. F. Kuang
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
Oxford, 1836.
The city of dreaming spires.
It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.
And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.
Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.
Until it became a prison…
But can a student stand against an empire?
An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.
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One Hundred Flowers – Genki Kawamura
The fragrance of a single stem in a vase.
The shimmering reflection of fireworks in a lake.
The quiet of a bookshop as evening falls.
The feeling of opening a brand-new diary and beginning to write …Moments of beauty endure. But what happens when you begin to forget?
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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
The only way to survive is to open your heart.
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Mongrel – Hanako Footman
Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing not only her heritage but her growing desire for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Far from home and in an unfamiliar city, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo’s nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in the city’s sex district. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . . Shifting between three intertwining narratives, Mongrel reveals a tangled web of desire, isolation, belonging and ultimately, hope.
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Newcomer – Keigo Higashino
An intriguing mashup of police procedural and golden age puzzle mystery. When fortysomething divorcee Mineko Mitsui is discovered strangled at her home, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga […] begins tracing items found in the dead woman’s flat to shops in the neighbourhood, using a mixture of Sherlockian deduction and legwork to lead him to the killer. What initially appears to be a chain of short stories coalesces into an investigation, as Kaga, in a delightfully low-key style, painstakingly builds up a picture of the dead woman’s past and the events of the last days of her life.