The Borough Press strana 2 z 2

Henry dreams of silence. A world without the clattering of carriages through cobbled streets, the distant cries of drunken brawls, the relentless ticking of the clock. Then he meets a fascinating, mysterious gentleman who sells just that. Precious silk that can drown out the clamour of the world – and everything Henry is so desperate to escape. Summoned to Sir Edward’s secluded factory to try to cure his young daughter’s deafness, Henry is soon drawn deeper and deeper into the origins of this otherworldly gift: a gift that has travelled from ancient Mediterranean glades to English libraries. Ignoring repeated warnings from the girl's secretive governess, he allows himself to fall under the spell of Sir Edward and his silk… but when he learns its true cost, will it be too late to turn back?

A Nice, Normal House Linda has lived around here ever since she fled the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is - pushing the Hoover round and cooking fish fingers for tea is a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy catalogues coming through the door for the house's previous occupant. A Nice, Normal Husband Terry isn't perfect - he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard - until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women start to go missing in the neighbourhood. A Nice, Normal Life... If Linda could just track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before them, maybe some of that perfection would rub off on her. But the grass isn't always greener: you can't change who you really are, and there's something nasty lurking behind the net curtains on Cavendish Avenue...

From the Number 1 bestselling author of THE BINDINGIf everything in your life was based on a lieWould you risk it all to tell the truth?At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Leo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters. Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu's highest office of Magister Ludi. When Leo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he's sure they have never met before. Both Leo and Claire have built their lives on lies. And as the legendary Midsummer Game, the climax of the year, draws closer, secrets are whispering in the walls...

'Brimming from start to finish with sly humour and gothic mischief...a brilliant piece of exuberant storytelling' SARAH WATERS'Atmospheric, sexy, creepy, full of lesbians and wasps, disturbing and funny and totally addictive' KATE DAVIES, author of In At The Deep End'It's a terrible story and one way to tell it is this: two girls in love and a fog of wasps cursed the place forever after...'1902, Brookhants School for Girls: students Flo and Clara are madly in love with each other, as well as completely obsessed with The Story of Mary MacLane, the scandalous debut memoir by 19 year old MacLane. A few months later they are found dead in the woods, after a horrific wasp attack, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. Within five years the school is closed. But not before three more people die on the property, each in a troubling way.Over a hundred years later, Brookhants opens its doors once more, when a crew of young actresses arrive to film a high-profile movie about the rumoured Brookhants curse. And as past and present become grimly entangled, it's soon impossible to tell quite where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins...For fans of Sarah Waters, Curtis Sittenfeld and Shirley Jackson, Plain Bad Heroines is by turns sharply witty and deeply unsettling: a modern gothic novel that is utterly immersive and hugely compelling. 'Buzzing with wickedness...sly, wry and dangerous to know' Rosie Garland'Ingenious, jaw-dropping...a queer roar and it's terrifying and it's a goddamned triumph' Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World'Wears its brilliance lightly...it's dark, sweet, and addictive.

Imagine you could erase your grief.Imagine you could forget your pain.Imagine you could hide a secret.Forever.Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there's something you want to forget, he can help. If there's something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.In a vault under his mentor's workshop, row upon row of books - and memories - are meticulously stored and recorded.Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it.THE BINDING is an unforgettable, magical novel: a boundary-defying love story and a unique literary event.

16 modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy. Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love. Sixteen stories inspired by Wuthering Heights. In ‘Terminus’ a young woman hides in an empty Brighton hotel; in ‘Thicker Than Blood’ a man sits in a hot tub stalking his newly-married love on social media; and in ‘A bird half-eaten’ an amateur boxer prepares for a match. A woman recalls the ‘Heathcliffs I Have Known’ and the physical danger she has borne at their hands; in ‘Anima’ a child and a fox are unified in one startling moment of violence; and in ‘One Letter Different’ two teenagers walk the moors and face up to their respective buried secrets. Curated by Kate Mosse and commissioned for Emily Brontë’s bicentenary year in 2018, these fresh, modern stories pulse with the raw beauty and pain of love and are as timely as they are illuminating. The full list of contributors is: Leila Aboulela, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Joanna Cannon, Alison Case, Juno Dawson, Louise Doughty, Sophie Hannah, Anna James, Erin Kelly, Dorothy Koomson, Grace McCleen, Lisa McInerney, Laurie Penny, Nikesh Shukla, Michael Stewart and Louisa Young.

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher New England, The 1890s When a young doctor begins work at an isolated mental asylum, he is expected to fall in with the shocking regime for treating the patients. He is soon intrigued by one patient, a strange amnesiac girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read. He embarks upon a desperate experiment to save her but when his own dark past begins to catch up with him, he realises it is she who is his only hope of escape. In this chilling literary thriller from a master storyteller, everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

How far would you go to save your family from an invisible threat? A terrifyingly original thriller from the author of The Machine. Soon, we'll be able to predict everything. We'll predict weather patterns, traffic jams. We'll predict who is going to run countries. Laurence Walker wants to be President of the United States. He's a sure thing: adored by the public, ex-military, a real family man. A good man. But then ClearVista, the world's foremost prediction software, tells the world his chances. And not only will he not be President, but it predicts that he's going to do the worst thing he can imagine. But can he change that destiny? Or is ClearVista simply showing him the man that he's always meant to be? It will predict that Laurence's life is about to collapse in the most unimaginable way.

Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to the Austen classic, Emma. 'It's comfort reading at its most soothing' Independent Prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything. Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse triumphantly arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with a splash. Not only has her sister, Isabella, been whisked away on a motorcycle up to London, but her astute governess, Miss Taylor is at a loose end, abandoned in the giant family pile, Hartfield, alongside Emma's anxiety-ridden father. Someone is needed to rule the roost and young Emma is more than happy to oblige. As she gets her fledging design business off the ground, there is plenty to delight her in the buzzing little village of Highbury. At the helm of her own dinner parties and instructing her new little protegee, Harriet Smith, Emma reigns forth. But there is only one person who can play with Emma's indestructible confidence, her old friend and inscrutable neighbour George Knightly - this time has Emma finally met her match? You don't have to be in London to go to parties, find amusement or make trouble. Not if you're Emma, the very big fish in the rather small pond. But for a young woman who knows everything, Emma has a lot to learn about herself. Ever alive to the uproarious nuances of human behaviour, and both the pleasures and pitfalls of village life, beloved author Alexander McCall Smith's Emma is the busybody we all know and love, and a true modern delight.

Rosie Garland's extraordinary tale is a story of superstition and devotion in the time of the Black Death and will bewitch both new readers and fans of her much-loved debut, The Palace of Curiosities. Devon, 1349. In Brauntone, where seagulls screech across the fields and the wind has a mind to change, Father Thomas arrives as the new priest. Determined to impress his congregation, he quells fears of the coming pestilence with promises of protection. For Anne, the priest's arrival is an opportunity that at sixteen, she feels all too ready for. Convinced a grand fate awaits, she moves in as Thomas's housekeeper, though hopeful of something more. But his home is a place without love or kindness. So when a strange, mute Maid is discovered, washed up in the marshes, and taken in, Anne is grateful for the company. Their friendship is to give Anne the chance of a happiness she thought she'd never know. But soon the plague strikes Brauntone, spreading panic. And as the villagers' fear turns to anger, Thomas must sacrifice everything to restore their faith in him.

One perfect family. Too many perfect lies. In every glossy picture of the American society pages, there's an Ev Winslow. Disarmingly beautiful, and - naturally - tall, athletic, with a smile that's perfect. Small-town Mabel Dagmar has never known anyone like Ev, and now she's sharing her college dorm - even if she is completely ignored. But suddenly they're friends and Mabel can hardly believe her luck when she finds herself summering at the Winslow family's luxurious estate, Winloch, in Vermont. Winloch is like a small village, with each of the perfect Winslow children inhabiting a pretty white cottage. Days spent swimming in watery coves evaporate into nights at glamorous cocktail parties where Mabel sits alongside the scions and the fountainhead of this prestigious family. And as the formality melts away with one particular Winslow brother, Mabel is left to think that her summer has all but become a golden dream. But when Mabel meets a disgruntled member of the family, she can't help looking a little closer at the Winslows, probing beneath their glossy exterior. And what she uncovers in their past is almost as shocking as what she finds out about their present. Beneath the beauty is a rotten core. And not everyone is quite as they seem.

To coincide with the launch of The Austen Project this is a pocket-sized hardback collection of Jane Austen's timeless novels - perfect for Austen fans everywhere. 'Northanger Abbey! These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's feelings to the highest point of ecstasy.' Considered the most light-hearted and satirical of Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey tells the story of an unlikely young heroine Catherine Morland. While staying in Bath, Catherine meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor who invite her to their family estate, Northanger Abbey. A fan of Gothic Romance novels, naive Catherine is soon letting her imagination run wild in the atmospheric abbey. A coming-of-age novel, Austen expertly parodies the Gothic romance novels of her time and reveals much about her unsentimental view of love and marriage in the eighteenth century.

The new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Pandora has looked up to her older brother Edison since they were children. Now she revels in the anonymity of her suburban Iowa life, while her brother basks in the limelight as a New York jazz musician. But when Edison arrives in Iowa, suddenly in need of a place to stay, Pandora literally doesn't recognize him. The once slim, hip pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? Soon Edison's appalling diet and know-it-all monologues are driving Pandora and her husband Fletcher insane. And it's only a matter of time before Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum, it's him or me. With Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother not only examines why we overeat, but asks more pressingly still: just how much should you sacrifice for someone who refuses to be saved?