Showing titles in City Life

The “Metro” of the title of this brilliant and mordant social comedy refers to the Moscow underground - the sparkling subway system that enchants its young hero, seven-year-old Sasha, on his first visit to Moscow. The vaulted ceilings and gleaming escalators appear to his young eyes as emblems of a higher life, of beauty, harmony, and hidden strength. Years later, Sasha escapes the jaws of a provincial ammunition factory and returns to Moscow as an aspiring actor, whereupon he enters quite another “Moscow underground”.

La vie d'Olivia Waldorf se passe exactement comme elle l’avait toujours rêvé. Elle est la fille la plus populaire du lycée, contrôle son gang d'une main de fer et le beau Nate Archibald est son petit copain.

A mystery novel set in early 20th century New York City. Amidst the towering skyscrapers and shadowy alleyways, Lawrence Carl Wilson finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue that spans generations. When a stranger mistakenly hands him a letter and a key meant for another man, Lawrence's life takes an unexpected turn. As Lawrence delves deeper into the enigma surrounding his uncle's past, he uncovers hidden family secrets, romantic entanglements, and personal ambitions that could alter the course of his family forever. Each page is filled with suspense, drawing readers into a world where...

2011, Syria. The Arab Spring is underway, and after a wave of peaceful protests, President Assad agrees to a release of political prisoners. Freed after 30 years, Dr Mahmoud is taken in by Taghreed and Emad Daffar, and brought to England by his old friend Jarvis Lorry and the daughter he has never met, foreign correspondent Lina. But his years of suffering have left him a broken man. Back in London, Jarvis convinces his nephew Sid Carton, a feckless but brilliant barrister, to defend a young Syrian émigré doctor, Shwan Dahkurdi, against charges of supporting terrorism. 

Meet Frankie Marks: the world's least likely fashion PR. She doesn't know the first thing about designers, she's always hungry, and she can't learn to think before she speaks. When Frankie lands a job at the prestigious GGC agency, her friends and family can't believe it - least of all her long-suffering boyfriend James. Frankie quickly realises she must fight with everything she's got to survive life behind the scenes of the glamorous and chaotic industry - with its eccentric characters, towering expectations, and quite frankly ridiculous requests.

The Second Chance Convenience Store has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek have been a couple for a long time, with all the requisite lulls and temptations, yet they remain unmarried and without children or a mortgage, as their Midwestern values (and parents) seem to require. Now on the cusp of 40, they are both working jobs that they're not even sure they believe in anymore, but with significantly varying returns. Ana is successful; Joe is floundering; both are in limbo, caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development.

Summer 1999: Twentysomething Sawyer is striving to make it in New York. Between her assistant job in publishing, her secret dreams of becoming a writer, and her upcoming wedding to her college boyfriend, her is plate full. Only one problem: She is facing an incredibly lonely summer as her fiancé has been spending longer and longer hours at work...with an all-too-close female colleague, Kendra. When Kendra's boyfriend, Nick, invites Sawyer to meet up and compare notes about their suspicions, the meeting goes awry.

Twenty years of addiction to cloud, a drug which wipes the user’s short-term memory, have left single mom Mellie with her mind in fragments. With the help of a tough-minded sponsor, and motivated by her own medically challenged daughter, Mellie clings to a fragile sobriety. Then, on the evening of her 29th day sober, a stranger pulls into her driveway and her heart surges. However, when Mellie’s pursuit of this man and the past they may share threatens her sponsor, Mellie will have to put her tiny family and her recovery at risk in hopes of saving the woman who saved her first.

Bridget O'Connor was one of the great short story writers of her generation. She had a voice that was viscerally funny and an eye for both the glaring reality and the absurdity of the everyday. In After A Dance, we meet a selection of O'Connor's most memorable characters often living on the margin of their own lives: from the anonymous thief set on an unusual prize to the hungover best man clinging to what he's lost, to the unrepentant gold-digger who always comes out on top. From unravelling narcissists to melancholy romantics all human life is here - at its best and at its delightful worst.

Lorsque la mère d'Olivia présente son nouveau petit ami à sa fille, il n'est pas du tout ce qu'Olivia avait prévu. Elle avait pensé que l'élégante et célèbre créatrice de mode Eleanor tomberait amoureuse d'un bel homme d'affaires à renommée internationale. À place, Olivia se retrouve coincée avec... Cyrus. Il est petit, aux cheveux fins et bedonnant. Tout va de mal en pis quand Eleanor annonce qu'ils vont se marier, un évènement qui risque bien d'éclipser la fête d'anniversaire d’Olivia.

New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York.

It is the mid-'80s, two decades into the kleptocratic, brutal rule of Ferdinand Marcos. The Philippine economy is in deep recession, and civil unrest is growing by the day. But Primi Peregrino has her own priorities: tracking down books and pursuing romantic connections with their authors.

What will be will be. Belinda Marshall’s idyllic teenage life in Brittany, France, fell apart when her parents dramatically separated and her mother took her back to England. Fast forward 35 years when Belinda’s world is once again turned upside down. It’s the week before Christmas and her employer 'surprises’ Belinda by asking for her help to rejuvenate their latest investment, a run-down campsite in Brittany.

It is the evening of 16-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents - from the 1921 Tulsa massacre to post-9/11 New York....

Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life.

Maggie Hoyt is a quick-witted, house-sitting LA actress who’s dated one too many DJs for her liking. An incorrigible insomniac, she desperately needs more than four hours of sleep, according to her therapist. One night, while still grieving the death of her ex-boyfriend, Maggie reluctantly attends her friend’s boat party. There she meets Rob, a charming British tattoo artist who makes her feel like her best self for the first time in a while. Their attraction to each other is instantaneous and electrifying. There’s just one glaring problem: he’s wearing a wedding ring.

Dinner is served - with a little something on the side. A Brooklyn wife is too sharp to allow her husband’s wandering eye to get the best of her in this witty short story of a dinner party with a delicious comeuppance. Eleanor and Jonathan have joined a few of their most irritating best friends for an intimate catered gathering. Through all the intellectual chatter, Eleanor’s on watch. Jonathan has already confessed to wanting an open marriage, and tonight, Eleanor has decided to accommodate him. Just not quite the way he expects.

When Maybelle Crabtree, a God-fearing farm girl from Kentucky, has a chance encounter with a charismatic stranger, her life changes forever. With an invitation to join the infamous Alla Nazimova and her Sewing Circle, Maybelle’s eyes are opened to a life of decadence and glamour.

When she steps into her first yoga class after a 30-year hiatus, Tess Rose is unaware that her life is about to transform. After decades devoted to her thriving career and its seeming success, the serenity she experiences in the yoga room causes Tess to question her path. What has her fast-paced New York City life been about? Where is she heading? Her intersection with the mysterious Neal Clay, whose quiet simplicity and joy for life simultaneously unnerves and fascinates her, fuels her personal transformation. After years of searching for love, in Neal she finds a comrade.