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A sensational new novel from the bestselling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer strikes across the city. His first novel in 13 years, The Shards is Bret Easton Ellis at his inimitable best. LA, 1981. Buckley College in heat. 17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends, even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equalled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. Can he trust his friends or his own mind to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, Bret spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between The Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting and often darkly funny, The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at 17 sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage.

Hop, skip and jump into this wonderfully curious grand tour of the world of sports, brought to you by QI Elves and No Such Thing As a Fish podcast hosts James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski. From sport's weirdest rules to its most unlikely heroes, each chapter of Everything to Play For is brimming with surprising facts and intriguing stories, including the psychology of soccer chants, comically large cricket bats, pole-vaulting priests and professional pillow-fighting. Even if you've never asked yourself what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of "bicycle face," or what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed, this book will give you the astonishing answers, and plenty more besides.

Simon Armitage turns Hansel & Gretel into a darkly glittering fairy tale for grown-ups. In vivid and trenchant language, he puts a contemporary spin on the tale we know from the Brothers Grimm. Here is a twenty-first century story, whose preoccupations are poverty and hunger, war and flight, a shifting dystopian landscape where nothing is quite as it seems. Text and illustration fuse beautifully to summon a nightmarish vision that nonetheless contains humour and humanity and the possibility of a more hopeful future to come.

When my species has destroyed itself, we may need yours to start it all again. In London Zoo, Professor Darrylhyde is singing to the apes again. Outside their cage, he watches the two animals, longing to observe the mating ritual of this rare species. But Percy, inhibited by confinement and melancholy, is repulsing Edwina's desirous advances. Soon, the Professor's connection increases as he talks, croons, befriends - so when a scientist arrives on a secret governmental mission to launch Percy into space, he vows to secure his freedom. But when met by society's indifference, he takes matters into his own hands . . . A trailblazing animal rights campaigner, Brigid Brophy's sensational 1953 novel is as provocative and philosophical seventy years on. An electric moral fable, it is as much a blazingly satirical reflection on homo sapiens as the non-human - on our capacity for violence, red in tooth and claw, not only to other species, but our own.

This is poetry for our times. The Forward Book of Poetry is the indispensable annual guide to contemporary poetry. In bringing together the best new work published in the UK and Ireland, as chosen by the jury of the annual Forward Prizes, this anthology offers a vital overview of the literary landscape to seasoned poetry lovers and new readers alike.

In Hollywood, nobody talks. But everybody whispers. Welcome to Mae Pruett's LA. A 'black-bag' publicist at one of Hollywood's most powerful crisis PR firms, Mae's job isn't to get good news out, it's to keep the bad news in and contain the scandals. But just as she starts to question her job and life choices, her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and everything changes. Investigating with the help of an ex-boyfriend, Mae dives headlong into a neon joyride through the jungle of contemporary Hollywood. Pitted against the twisted system she's worked so hard to perpetuate, she's desperately fighting for redemption, and her life.

Discover the exciting and dangerous lives of spies and secret agents from Blue Peter Award-winning David Long and rising star Terri Po. A single spy can save thousands of lives. Spies and secret agents have been hard at work for centuries, risking their lives, and sometimes changing the course of history. Discover twenty-seven of the most courageous and daring, including Britain's first female spy, a teacher turned saboteur, the spy who sang for Hitler and the man who never was... An unputdownable collection of real life adventures, stunningly illustrated by Terri Po.

An epic and playful mystery of passion, fear, scandal and murder, from one of history's master storytellers. 1901. Night draws in. With the stealth of a spy vessel, the royal ship Aziziye approaches the famous vistas of Mingheria, the twenty-ninth state of the ailing Ottoman Empire. The ship carries Princess Pakize, the daughter of a deposed sultan, her doctor husband, and the Royal Chemist, Bonkowski Pasha. Not all of them will survive the weeks ahead. There are rumours of plague - rumours some in power will try to suppress. But plague is not the only killer. Mingheria is on the cusp of catastrophe, and the future of a fragile empire is at stake.

Never more timely, the complete guide to professional spying for 8-to-80- year-olds - 20th Anniversary Edition! With brand new content - how to become a master of disguise! Whether you're just a bit nosy, or you want to launch a full-scale investigation of your neighbours, this indispensable handbook will teach you everything you need to know. There are practical sections on codes, ciphers, invisible ink and signalling, as well as guidance on drops and safe houses. This book teaches you how to spot when somebody is lying, and how to lie effectively yourself. There are sections on successful disguise and how to structure a spy ring, including psychological recruitment strategies, psychic surveillance, and spotting moles. And there's technical advice too about constructing bugging devices and setting traps. Herbie Brennan interlaces the facts with anecdotes about real-life spies, making this unique handbook an entertaining armchair read as well as an essential tool for any budding (or currently serving) MI6 operative.

Introduced by Hilton Als, in 'one of the best novels about adolescence in American literature' (New York Times) two siblings come of age in a mountainous wilderness ... She would not feel safe until the beautiful animal was dead. Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the world of adult authority. One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle's Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt, roam. But this untamed wilderness soon becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire - and as the pressures of growing up drive an irrevocable rift between them, their innocent childhoods hurtle towards a devastating end...

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief meets Bunny vs Monkey in this joyous epic fantasy graphic novel where twelve-year-old Meesh and her band of outcasts must save the underworld. How far would you go to save your home - and find yourself? Bullied by the other demons, twelve-year-old Meesh is more likely to be reading magazines from Plumeria City - the fairy realm - and fangirling about the fairy princesses. But when disaster strikes and all of demon-kind is threatened, Meesh must journey to other worlds in search of help. As luck would have it, she meets a fairy princess right away. Things in the fairy realm aren't so perfect either, though. As Meesh makes surprising new friends and unites a band of outcasts, she learns there's much more to being a demon than she ever realised. And learning to love herself might just uncover the secret to saving her home.

You can't escape the shadows... The Elite are imprisoned, the Reaper King is once again banished from the world and the city of Nubis is trying to return to normal. So is Mia, but it's not so easy. Coming to terms with new powers and being the tamer of two umbra, she's also plagued by nightmares. Is the fear all in her imagination? Or are the agents of darkness somehow planning another assault? Once again, Mia's skills and resilience will be tested to their limit. This is the second book in the sensational Umbra Tales series, illustrated by Ana Latese.

Ven has her future all planned out. Her dance group is going places and so is she . . . Then she collapses. On stage. In hospital, Ven discovers that she has a medical condition – one that threatens to ruin everything. No more dancing . . . walking is challenging enough. But she doesn’t want your pity. Ven is determined to have a big, exciting life. Sure, her future might be different, but it’s not over . . . Because if you can’t dance, you can always sing! Refreshing, uplifting and original, Sing if you Can’t Dance is the unforgettable story of a teenager living life on her own terms.

Finn is in the grip of middle-age and on an enforced break from work: it might be that he's too emotional to teach history now. He is living in an America hurtling headlong into hysteria, after all. High up in a New York City hospice, he sits with his beloved brother Max, who is slipping from one world into the next. But when a phone call summons Finn back to a troubled old flame, a strange journey begins, opening a trapdoor in reality. It will prompt a questioning of life and death, grief and the past, comedy and tragedy, and the diaphanous separations that lie between them all.

Dive into the deep and join Indiana and Aisha in their twistiest adventure yet! As the slithery Serpent reveals his plan to plunge the world into peril, our hairy hero and his pal Aisha are in a race against time to unravel the clues to stop him. Not even six million skeletons and an invisible enemy can stop these brave badgers! Or can they? Because Indiana's mind is on something else - and unless his friends can help, they'll all end up in very deep water...

‘How do you know this is all real and happening? How can you be sure you haven’t already died in the earthquake and are just living in the afterlife?’ In her highly anticipated English-language debut, Yan Ge explores isolation in nine iridescent, witty and wondrous tales. Both contemporary and ancient, real and surreal, the stories in Elsewhere range from China to Dublin to London and Stockholm. From a group of writers lounging on the edge of a disaster zone to a mandarin ostracised from his old court trying to avoid assassination, and from a woman who inexplicably loses her voice to a couple who meet all too fleetingly at a cinema in Dublin, these are strange and beguiling stories of dispossession, longing and the diasporic experience.