'Like Donna Tartt's haunting, brilliant novel The Secret History, there's a feeling of this feels like it actually happened, but of course it can't have done...Can it?' **** SFX<

<div><div>The story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. In a story where past and present confuse, she relives scenes of Japan's devastation in the wake of World War II. </div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Review:</b></div><div>Ishiguro achieved this incredible debut novel by holding in the reins and managing to tell only what he felt necessary. The story tells of a Japanese lady, Etsuko, now living in England. Her first daughter, Keiko, has committed suicide by hanging herself, alone, in a flat in Manchester. It is the story of Etsuko looking back through her memories, trying to make sense of what happened, trying to pull some ends together. But we, just like she, are left unsure. She finds some answers but even more questions. Ishiguro has brilliantly transported us into the world of memory, dream, illusion. In her search for answers, Etsuko looks back at her life in Nagasaki less than a decade after the devastation of the atomic bomb. Typically, Ishiguro chooses not to look at this event directly. Instead he presents us with the disturbed and confused lives of those who survived. There is Mrs Fujiwara, bravely running a noodle shop, trying to be positive even though her husband and nearly all her children were killed. There is Etsuko's father-in-law, a teacher before and during the war who is struggling to come to terms with living in a society where everything he lived for is written off as evil brainwashing. Japan is trying to wash its hands clean of his type, and yet he appears such a decent and fair person. These characters are just the background to the main story but they are so brilliantly drawn. I shall not even try to clarify Etsuko's search for reasons. Let yourself be taken into her elegaic but ultimately futile look at her life in Japan before she left. The main issue underlying this story is the question of searching for self-fulfilment or submitting oneself to the restrictions of the society in which one lives. This is a dark novel, and I felt the pain in this novel so much more on a second reading. This should however by no means deter you from reading it. The language is so beautiful and delicate that it will carry you through. It is not a novel to try to solve, instead it is one to submit yourself to, and let it work its wonders on you. Like me, you may well find yourself returning to it a second time. I'm very sure I will be returning to it again, and I'm also sure there will be yet more there for me next time. </div></div><

SUMMARY: Amazon.com Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom. John Irving's novel, which inspired the 1998 Jim Carrey movie Simon Birch, is his most popular book in Britain, and perhaps the oddest Christian mystic novel since Flannery O'Connor's work. Irving fans will find much that is familiar: the New England prep-school-town setting, symbolic amputations of man and beast, the Garp-like unknown father of the narrator (Owen's orphaned best friend), the rough comedy. The scene of doltish the doltish headmaster driving a trashed VW down the school's marble staircase is a marvelous set piece. So are the Christmas pageants Owen stars in. But it's all, as Highlights magazine used to put it, "fun with a purpose." When Owen plays baby Jesus in the pageants, and glimpses a tombstone with his death date while enacting A Christmas Carol, the slapstick doesn't cancel the fact that he was born to be martyred. The book's countless subplots add up to a moral argument, specifically an indictment of American foreign policy--from Vietnam to the Contras.<

"Where Darkness Lives" by Alexandra Ivy - No one's more surprised than Sophia when she's struck by anunfamiliar maternal urge to move near her daughters. But instead of being greeted by a welcome committee, she's targeted by kidnappersżand saddled with a gorgeous bodyguard on a mission to protect and seduce "Murder on Mysteria Lane" by Angie Fox - When a werewolf trophy wife is found dead in Vampire County, Heather McPhee goes undercover to investigate. Heather's never been a mascara-and-manicures sort of girl, but she's willing to learn. Especially with sexy vampire detective Lucien Mead posing as her husband "What's Yours is Mine" by Jess Haines - Still Waters is like many other exclusive gated communities except that it's home to one of the largest werewolf packs in the state. But Tiffany Winters isn't frightened of her big, bad new neighbours. In fact, she intends to take her place among the pack "Werewolves in Chic Clothing" by Tami Dane - Ever since Christine Price moved in with her fiancé, Jonathan, and his twelve-year-old son, she's worked hard to fit in with a cadre of local women whose lives seem picture-perfect. Except no one in Jon's upscale neighbourhood is quite who they appear to be. Least of all Jon.<

SUMMARY: A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book. From the Trade Paperback edition.<

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Shrouded in mist, the hidden shoreline near her family's Maine estate is a place of refuge for Claire Bishop. There, she can forget the physical limitations imposed by a tragic accident and escape judgmental eyes. Yet someone is watching from the depths of the sea, a being who senses her inner despair and is drawn to help her. Prince Morgan, risen from the waves and as perfect a man Claire has ever laid eyes on. She is sure she has dreamed him into existence - Morgan's masculine beauty and sensual tenderness cannot be real. Then the dream overtakes reality...With Morgan at her side, Claire is suddenly freed, swimming with him to a lost paradise, a fantastic underwater world with a sunken stone city at its heart. Soon the lovers find that their union has aroused the wrath of his warring clan - but Claire would rather die than return to her crippling life on earth, and Morgan will not live without the woman he adores... </p><

Downtrodden Detective Erlendur and his team must once again investigate Reykjavik’s hidden past to unravel a case of human nastiness.Construction work in an expanding Reykjavik uncovers a shallow grave. Years before, this part of the city was all open hills, and Erlendur and his team hope this is a typical Icelandic missing person scenario; perhaps someone once lost in the snow, who has lain peacefully buried for decades. But things are never that simple. While Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, his case unearths many other tales of family pain. The hills have more than one tragic story to tell: tales of failed relationships and heartbreak; of anger, domestic violence and fear; of family loyalty and family shame. Few people are still alive who can tell the story, but even secrets taken to the grave cannot remain hidden forever.Alive with tension and atmosphere, and disturbingly real, this is an outstanding continuation of the Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.<

<p class="description">Cassie Burdette used to carry clubs on the PGA tour-now she's swinging them at the Qualifying School for the LPGA Tour. The  ompetition is fierce, but the standout so far is Kaitlin Rupert-whose talent and beauty are eclipsed only by her attitude. Cassie is shocked to find Kaitlin's psychiatrist murdered-and even more shocked to be identified as a prime suspect.<br>Will the killer tee her up next?</p><

<p class="description">A Hindi film star . . . an American missionary . . . twins separated at birth . . . a dwarf chauffeur . . . a serial killer . . . all are on a collision course. In the tradition of A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving's characters transcend nationality. They are misfits—coming from everywhere, belonging nowhere. Set almost entirely in India, this is John Irving's most ambitious novel and a major publishing event.<br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i></p><

<h3>Product Description</h3><p>"Vampire Fight Club" by Larissa Ione: When a wave of violence forces shape shifter Vladlena to go undercover, her first stop is a haven of vice - with a dangerously sexy vamp in charge. Both Vladlena and Nathan are hiding something, but they can't conceal the lust that simmers between them..."Darkness Eternal" by Alexandra Ivy: After being held captive by one vampire for four centuries, Kata had no intention of taking another one to the underworld with her. Yet even in the pits of hell, there's no ignoring the intoxicating desire awakened by his touch..."Kane" by Jacquelyn Frank: Kane knows Corrine was meant to be his...just as he knows that truly possessing the lovely human is forbidden. But on the night of the Samhain moon, the beast in every demon in stronger than reason, and Kane's hunger is more powerful than any punishment..."Dragon on Top" by G.A. Aiken: Escorting the highborn Bram through deadly Sand Dragon territory will try Ghleanna's patience...and her resolve. For Bram is determined to enhance the journey with a seduction no female could resist... </p><

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Delving into a murdered man’s life, Detective Erlendur discovers that forty years ago he was accused of an appalling crime. Did his past come back to haunt him? Erlendur uses all the forensic sources available including Iceland’s Genetic Research Centre in order to find the answers.*From the Trade Paperback edition.* <

Welcome to Draven’s Crossing, where fantasies and nightmares walk among us…<BR><BR>Vampire Mayor Draven desires mortal Rose. Her rebuffs excite him. When she finally gives in to his advances, their coming together is explosive, and their passion is more than he could’ve anticipated.<BR><BR> <P>But a serial killer divides his attention. Can he keep his town safe from this mysterious menace and convince Rose that they belong together despite her reservations?<BR><BR>As a new resident of Draven's Crossing, all Rose wants to do is her job. Draven could be&nbsp;a distraction she can't afford, but she can't ignore him or her arousal.&nbsp;<BR><BR></P><

<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>At over 800 pages, John Irving's <em>Until I Find You</em> is a daunting proposition at best. Anyone who finishes it will have acquired forearm muscles, sore shoulders, and not much else. The story is self-indulgent, repetitive and, ultimately, boring, that cardinal sin that readers can't forgive. Longtime Irving readers have stayed with him through a few hits and a miss or two, but this is an all-time low. We are accustomed to Irving's work as quirky, bizarre, and off-the-wall and have forgiven all by calling such high-jinks and characters "imaginative" or "absolutely original." The only thing original about this tome is the descent into soft porn.</p><p>Jack Burns, the hero of the tale, is four years old when it all begins. He is the illegitimate son of Daughter Alice, a tattoo artist and, guess what, daughter of a tattoo artist. She takes Jack on a pilgrimage to find his womanizing father, William, a church organist and "ink addict." By seeking out church organs and tattoo parlors, she expects to find him. She doesn't, and by now we have spent more than a hundred pages in Northern European cities doing an imitation of <em>Groundhog Day</em>. Same story, different day: a little prostitution for Alice, a few questions asked; alas, no daddy.</p><p>Alice and Jack return to Toronto so that Jack may enter a previously all-girls school, which will admit little boys for the first time. There begins another 200 pages of the girls and the teachers abusing Jack, over and over again. By now, he is five and is, for some unfathomable reason, eminently interesting to girls and women. His "friend" Emma keeps careful track of "the little guy," as she calls Jack's penis, looking for signs of life. The worst part of all this is that none of it is funny or sad or even clever. There are wrestling vignettes, of course, and prep school tedium, but no bears. Maybe bears would have saved it. There were funny parts in <em>The World According to Garp</em> and <em>The Cider House Rules</em> as well as poignant, horrific parts in both of those and other Irving novels. This story is flat. The voice never changes; it just drones on.</p><p>Jack becomes an actor. First, he is a boy in drag because he is so pretty, then he takes transvestite parts. He and Emma, now a published novelist, live together in LA, which provides endless opportunity for name-dropping. His career eventually takes off and he gets recognition and awards, but still no daddy. Irving, it turns out, never knew his father, either. Perhaps this exercise will exorcise that demon once and for all and Irving's next book will be about something more compelling than a little boy's penis and his trashy mother's antics. If you do make it through to the book's snapper of an ending, you deserve to find out what it is on your own. Call it a reward. <em>--Valerie Ryan</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Actor Jack Burns seeks a sense of identity and father figures while accommodating a host of overbearing and elaborately dysfunctional women in Irving's latest sprawling novel (after <em>The Fourth Hand</em>). At the novel's onset (in 1969), four-year-old Jack is dragged by his mother, Alice, a Toronto-based tattoo artist, on a year-long search throughout northern Europe for William Burns, Jack's runaway father, a church organist and "ink addict." Back in Toronto, Alice enrolls Jack at the all-girls school St. Hilda's, where she mistakenly thinks he'll be "safe among the girls"; he later transfers to Redding, an all-boy's prep school in Maine. Jack survives a childhood remarkable for its relentless onslaught of sexual molestation at the hands of older girls and women to become a world-famous actor and Academy Award–winning screenwriter. Eventually, he retraces his childhood steps across Europe, in search of the truth about his father—a quest that also emerges as a journey toward normalcy. Though the incessant, graphic sexual abuse becomes gratuitous, Irving handles the novel's less seedy elements superbly: the earthy camaraderie of the tattoo parlors, the Hollywood glitz, Jack's developing emotional authenticity, his discovery of a half-sister and a moving reunion with his father. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p></div><

<p class="description">With this stunning and original debut, Ian Irvine begins the saga of The View from the Mirror, a brilliant epic fantasy that rivals the works of Robert Jordan and J. V. Jones. "Once there were three worlds, each with its own human race. Then, fleeing from out of the void came a fourth race, the Charon. Desperate, on the edge of extinction, they changed the balance between the worlds forever..." The Tale of the Forbidding In ancient times the Way Between the Worlds was shattered, leaving bands of Aachim, Faellem, and Charon trapped with the old humans of Santhenar. Now Llian, a Chronicler of the Great Tales, uncovers a 3,000-year-old secret too deadly to be revealed-while Karan, a young sensitive, is compelled by honor to undertake a perilous mission. Neither can imagine they will soon meet as hunted fugitives, snared in the machinations of immortals, the vengeance of warlords, and the magics of powerful mancers. For the swelling deluge of a millennial war is rising, terrible as a tsunami, ready to cast torrents of sorcery and devastation across the land...</p><

<p class="description">In this second volume, Karan, a young Sensitive carrying the blood of all three Worlds, comes into possession of the Mirror of Aachen, which holds the power to heal--or destroy--World relations. But as war rages, Tensor, the leader of the Aachim people, steals the mirror and flees with the young chronicler, Lilan, leaving all to wonder how they plan to use this magic.</p><

<div><h3>Review</h3><p>'In Dark is the Moon, the third volume of Ian Irvine's "The View from the Mirror" quartet, the web of intrigue and magical betrayal that passes for politics in the world of Santhenar has reached a point of complexity where even its master players are feeling the strain. One of the few constants in Irvine's imagined world--the passionate erotic love between scholar/chronicler Llian and woman warrior Karan--starts to become unravelled when they are trapped with the evil mage Rulke in his semi-material place of exile, the Nightland; his seduction of the obsessional Llian with eye-witness testimony of the past is painful to watch. Nor is Rulke the cliche dark lord of much fantasy writing, he is a man who thinks what he does is justified by greater good, and not so different from many of his officially virtuous enemies. Irvine's evocation of landscapes tortured into strangeness by aeons of magical intervention and cities wrecked by civil strife is crisply visualised; his set pieces of action--a fight with pirates, a trek through desert, a magical duel--are involving and viscerally exciting; his characters are complex individuals who grow and change--the semi-villainous Magraith has become almost a secondary heroine.' - Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Ian Irvine lives in the mountains of NSW, Australia. </p></div><

<p class="description">In the astonishing finale to the The View from the Mirror series, Karan -- the young Sensitive who holds the Mirror of Aachen, which has the power to heal or permanently destroy the rift between Worlds -- is held captive in desolate Carcharon Tower. Her lover, Llian, is in chains, falsely accused of betraying her to the enemy. And, with the dark moon rising, the Charon Rulke is now unstoppable as he prepares to open the Way between the Worlds. If he succeeds, the World will be overwhelmed by the demonic creatures of the Void, and the lands will be ravaged in the ultimate clash of a 3,000-year-long war. There is only one solution left: Karan must make the most unbearable sacrifice.</p><

<p>Following the huge success of <I>Silence of the Grave</I>, another spellbinding thriller from the winner of the CWA Gold Dagger.<p>Detective Erlendur encounters memories of his troubled past in this gripping and award-winning continuation of the Reykjavík Murder Mysteries.<p> At a grand Reykjavík hotel the doorman has been repeatedly stabbed in the dingy basement room he called home. It is only a few days before Christmas and he was preparing to appear as Santa Claus at a children's party. The manager tries to keep the murder under wraps. A glum detective taking up residence in his hotel and an intrusive murder investigation are not what he needs.<p> As Erlendur quietly surveys the cast of grotesques who populate the hotel, the web of malice, greed and corruption that lies beneath its surface reveals itself. Everyone has something to hide. But most shocking is the childhood secret of the dead man who, many years before, was the most famous child singer in the country: it turns... SUMMARY: The third novel in the award-winning Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.The Christmas rush is under way in a big Reykjavik hotel when the police are called to the scene of a murder. The hotel doorman (and long-time resident of its basement) has been stabbed to death. With the hotel fully booked, the manager is desperate to keep the murder under wraps and his reputation intact.Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli discover that the dead man had had a childhood brush with fame and that two old 45s on which he had sung have become prized collectors’ items. Estranged from his family for decades, why had the man continued to pay secret visits to his boyhood home?As Detective Elinborg investigates a separate case of child abuse, and Erlendur continues to struggle both with his troubled family relationships and the ghosts of his own youth, their parallel stories probe deeper into the riddle of this latest Reykjavik Murder Mystery.From the Trade Paperback edition.<

SUMMARY: Two hundred years after the Forbidding was broken, Santhenar is locked in war with the lyrinx - intelligent, winged predators who will do anything to gain their own world. Despite the development of battle clankers and mastery of the crystals that power them, humanity is losing. Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is experimenting with an entirely new kind of crystal when she begins to have extraordinary visions. The crystal has woken her latent talent for geomancy, the most powerful of all the Secret Arts - and the most perilous. Falsely accused of sabotage by her rival, Irisis, Tiaan flees for her life. Struggling to control her talent and hunted by the lyrinx, Tiaan follows her visions all the way to Tirthrax, greatest peak on all the Three Worlds, where a nightmare awaits her . Find out more about this title and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk<

SUMMARY: Santhenar is on its knees. The war with the alien lyrinx drags on, and humanity is losing it, but there is worse to come. The Aachim have invaded with an irresistible force: a fleet of battle constructs. Cursing humanity for the loss of Aachan and his own clan, the embittered Aachim leader, Vithis, demands half the world in reparation. The council is in no position to resist. But even if they agree to his demands, can anything satisfy his thirst for vengeance?Tiaan is in despair. Her life lies in ruins, and now she is being hunted through the abandoned city of Tirthrax by an implacable Nish, who blames her for the attack.The future of the world rests in the hands of three flawed people: Tiaan, whose geomancy holds the key to the power that can save or destroy them; Nish, who has sworn to bring her to justice; and Irisis, whose great talents are hidden even from herself.<

SUMMARY: Fantasy fiction. All resistance has been crushed. In a few minutes of overwhelming violence the Council's air-dreadnought fleet has destroyed Fiz Gorgo's defences. Xervish Flydd, Irisis and their rallies have been condemned to die in a brutal aerial spectacle designed to reinforce Chief Scrutator Ghorr's power and majesty. The only one left uncaptured is Nish, but he is trapped in a burning watchtower, and hunted by both the scrutators and his former lover, Ullii, whose twin brother he accidentally killed. Before Nish can hope to rescue his friends, he must convince Ullii to spare him, then overcome the most powerful cabal of mancers in the world as well as the Council's four hundred crack guards. And even if he succeeds, to win the war the allies still have to defeat the scrutators and overthrow Nennifer, the corrupt Council's dread bastion, before the rampaging lyrinx overwhelm all Santhenar.<

It's been a hell of a day for Abby Barlow. In just a few hours, she's survived an explosion, watched her employer die, had a startling dream, and now she finds herself in a seedy Chicago hotel with the sexy, unearthly Dante, a man she both desires and fears. For 341 years, Dante has stood as guardian to The Chalice, a mortal woman chosen to hold back the darkness. A terrible twist of fate has now made Abby that woman. Three hours ago, Dante would have used all his charms to seduce her. Now she is his to protect. And he will do so until his very death. A terrifying plan has been set in motion, one that will plunge Dante and Abby into an epic battle between good and evil<

<p>Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character--a "difficult" woman. By no means is she conventionally "nice," but she will never be forgotten.<br><br>Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her--on Long Island, in the summer of 1958--Ruth is only four.<br><br>The second window into Ruth's life opens in the fall of 1990, when Ruth is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason.<br><br><b>A Widow for One Year</b> closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She's about to fall in love for the first time.<br><br>Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing <b>A Widow for One Year</b> is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief.<br><br><i>From...</i></p><

<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>"For fans of zombie fiction, this is an absolute MUST FUCKING READ!" - <strong>JEFF BURK</strong>, author of <em>Shatnerquake</em><br><em></em>_<br>Battle Royale_ meets <em>Return of the Living Dead</em> in this post-apocalyptic action adventure.<em></em> </p><p>Twenty people wake to find themselves in a boarded-up building in the middle of the zombie wasteland. They soon discover they have been chosen as contestants on a popular reality show called <em>Zombie Survival</em>. Each contestant is given a backpack of supplies and a unique weapon. Their goal: be the first to make it through the zombie-plagued city to the pick-up zone alive. But because there's only one seat available on the helicopter, the contestants not only have to fight against the hordes of the living dead, they must also fight each other. </p><p><em>Zombies and Shit</em> is Mellick's craziest book to date. A campy, trashy, punk rock gore fest that is as funny as it is brutal, as sad as it is strange. An edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that twists the zombie genre into something you've never seen before, but always wanted to. </p><p><strong>This edition features an introduction by master of horror BRIAN KEENE.</strong></p><h3>From the Back Cover</h3><p>"It's fucking exhilarating--a tight, breakneck narrative and lots of awesome ultra-violence and quirky, distinct characters." - <strong>BRIAN KEENE</strong>, author of <em>The Rising</em> and <em>Dead Sea</em> </p><p>"Unlike any zombie apocalypse novel you've ever read, <em>Zombies and Shit</em> takes the zombie mythology and reimagines it in a brutal reality game show like no other. Filled with sentient zombies, zombie smart cars, mechanized zombie dogs, and a cybernetic Mr. T, Zombies and Shit is part <em>Running Man</em>, part <em>Battle Royale</em>, part <em>Lost</em>, and all Carlton Mellick III." - <strong>S. G. BROWNE</strong>, author of <em>Breathers</em> </p><p>"Easily the craziest, weirdest, strangest, funniest, most obscene writer in America." - _<strong>GOTHIC MAGAZINE</strong>_ </p><p>"Carlton Mellick III has the craziest book titles... and the kinkiest fans!" - <strong>CHRISTOPHER MOORE</strong>, author of <em>The Stupidest Angel</em> </p><p>"Carlton Mellick III is one of bizarro fiction's most talented practitioners, a virtuoso of the surreal, science fictional tale." - <strong>CORY DOCTOROW</strong>, author of <em>Little Brother</em> </p><p>"Carlton Melick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves, Mellick is a true artist." - _<strong>THE GUARDIAN</strong>_ </p><p>"Just as Pop had Andy Warhol and Dada Tristan Tzara, the Bizarro movement has its very own P. T. Barnum-type practitioner. He's the mutton-chopped author of such books as <em>Electric Jesus Corpse</em> and <em>The Menstruating Mall</em>, the illustrator, editor, and instructor of all things Bizarro, and his name is Carlton Mellick III." - _<strong>DETAILS MAGAZINE</strong>_ </p><p>"Mellick's writing almost defies description...  It's gory, weird, raunchy and sometimes hilarious and well-worth trying to track down." - <strong><em>AFFAIRS MAGAZINE</em></strong></p> </div><