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With war on the horizon, everything is at stake in this scintillating new novel from Shauna Lawless, the next volume in the critically acclaimed GAEL SONG historical fantasy series.THE OLD WORLD WILL DIE IN FLAMES...Ireland, 1011 AD. The mortal kingdoms rise up against High King Brian Boru as they seek to wrest his crown from him. Yet the real struggle is between the two magical races of Ireland, the Fomorians and the Descendants, eternal enemies who both now seek dominion over the mortal world. Gormflaith, queen of King Brian, remains unmasked as the powerful Fomorian she is. Gormflaith plans to establish control over Ireland and destroy the Descendants in one fell swoop... but she cannot do it alone. The Descendants are divided, for not all their kind wish to dominate the mortals. Fódla, a Descendant who was once part of King Brian's inner circle, must use this division to thwart treacherous plots that have been long in the making - even if it means sacrificing herself. But with other lives on the line, can Fódla reveal the evil in time?As secret schemes come to deadly fruition, the only possible outcome is war. Ireland has bled red and often, but the coming clash will change the course of history for ever. Reviewers on Shauna Lawless' Gael Song series'Lawless blends fantasy with historical fiction to great effect.' SFX'Lawless's writing is absolutely luminous.' Irish Independent'Swept me along and refused to be put down.' H.M. Long

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD WOMAN DOWN...KATIE MAGUIRE IS BACK.A DEADLY CAMPAIGNInner-city Cork is going about its day when a bomb goes off. A house blown to pieces with two people inside suggests a gas explosion. But the victims' pasts suggest otherwise.A HISTORY OF TERRORThe target is clear: the Dripsey Dozen, a group created by descendants of five local IRA soldiers who were executed for their crimes in 1921.A POLICE CONSPIRACYDespite the surviving members of the Dozen being relocated to safe houses, the bombing continues. Which means a leak at Anglesea Street Garda station is supplying confidential information to this new terrorist. This is suspended officer DS Katie Maguire's chance to get back on the force - and stop a traitor from burning Cork to the ground.Pay Back the Devil is the gripping twelfth instalment of million-copy-bestselling Graham Masterton's police-procedural series.Praise for the Katie Maguire series:'One of this country's most exciting crime novelists. If you have not read one, read them all now' Daily Mail'A tough and gritty thriller with an attractive principal character' Irish Independent'Graham Masterton is a natural storyteller' New York Journal of Books'Any fan of mysteries should grab this book' Irish Examiner

A gripping, propulsive and atmospheric crime thriller perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Peter James and Elly Griffiths. Your new Norfolk crime obsession starts here...Nobody ever knew what happened to the Brindleys. One summer they were there - flashy, loud and beautiful - and then they were gone. A mother, father and two children, vanished into the East Anglian night. Some said the family never made it home from the party; their speeding car thrown off the tracks and the four of them silently buried in the marshes. Others said they had simply moved on. For thirty years, the case remained as cold as the freezing waterways of the Norfolk broads. Until Cam Killick found the car. An ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick's PTSD has made the return to civilian life a living nightmare. The only place he can find peace is underwater, where the world is muffled to white noise. As a cold case diver it is his job to scour the waterways of the country for the lost, the submerged, the drowned, laying their stories to rest alongside them. Except when Cam throws open the doors to the Brindley car, all four bodies are missing. And Cam will soon learn that some secrets, once submerged, are better off staying that way.

Infused with the dark and strange against the landscapes of Northern England, an unforgettable debut about violence, resilience - and survivalThe three women flinch: feel something pass outside. A reek of singed fur, scorching damp. Flaming eyes. A creature. It knows these women. They feel its wanting.From the river it comes.To the river it always returns.Alex is trying to hold her growing family together with a husband who is becoming more and more difficult to keep happy. Lauren hopes that the new man in her life might present a fresh start for her and her two boys. And Nancy's son has moved her into a care home where she feels entirely out of place, longing for her lost dog while dreaming of her own escape. But there is something else at play here. Something lurking in the water or at the end of an unlit street; a shadow in a bag of strangers' clothing; a chorus of voices calling in the distance. As each woman's world spirals from her grasp, they feel it getting closer, revealing the truth of what binds them together, and what must be done to set each of them free . . .

Picks and Shovels explores Marty's first adventure after he comes west to San Francisco and ends up working for the bad guys. The villains are an affinity scam PC company called 'Three Wise Men' that's run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an orthodox rabbi who fleece their faithful with proprietary, underpowered computers and peripherals, and front for some very bad, very violent money-men.

It's not the lies that kill you. It's the truth. They predicted Ivo would become a tycoonThey predicted Ayda would go on to become a hotshot lawyerThey didn't predict that Lily would be dead Twenty years ago, nine university friends made a series of predictions about what would happen to each of them after college. Now they've all gathered together for the weekend. Not for a reunion but for a reveal. Some of them have gone on to staggering success, others to more mundane lives. And one of them is missing. Before her death Lily seemed agitated. Even scared. In the weeks before her death, she called Maggie, wanting to talk but then refusing to say what was frightening her. Now Maggie is beginning to realise that not everyone at the house this weekend is who they appeared to be. And those who are lying are prepared to do anything to stop the truth coming out. An unputdownable page turner about old friends and new betrayals from an award winning thriller writer at the very top of her game, this is unmissable reading group suspense fiction.

A spectacular, vivid, groundbreaking work of history which takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women.What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear the stories of women from this period? Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Those women were: Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a no-good wife. Four women, writing hundreds of years ago, long before feminism existed - yet in their own ways these four, very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each of them broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics. Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical insight that challenges what we hold to be common knowledge about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife paints a portrait of the world in which these women lived, and the ways their lives speak to us in the present.

A haunted record of a life devoted to the visual art of the cinema and the written word, by Ireland's greatest director and one of her finest novelists.In this vivid, moving and strange memoir, Neil Jordan - the author of classic fiction like The Past, Sunrise with Sea Monster and Night in Tunisia, and the creator of celebrated movies like Angel, Mona Lisa, The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire - reaches deep into his own past and that of his family. His mother was a painter, his father an inspector of schools who was visited by ghosts, and Jordan grew up on the edge of an abandoned aristocratic estate in north Dublin whose mysterious ruins fed his imagination. Passionate about music, he played in bands and theatre groups and met, at University College Dublin, a young radical called Jim Sheridan. Together they staged unforgettable dramatic productions that hinted at their future careers. His first collection of stories and first novel, Night in Tunisia and The Past, were met with acclaim, but Jordan was also drawn to the freedom and visual richness of film, and worked with the great English director John Boorman on his Arthurian epic Excalibur. His own first movie with Stephen Rea, Angel, was a brilliant angular take on the horrific violence of the Troubles, and in the years since then his films have combined in a unique way, intense supernatural elements with reflections on violence and sexuality. Jordan describes his work with Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Bob Hoskins, Tom Cruise and many others, but this is not a conventional story of life in the movies. The book is an eerie meditation on loss, love and creativity, on inspiration and influence, by one of the most unusual artists Ireland has produced.

When Jack Taylor wakes up, he finds himself in a different world... yet it hasn't changed at all.When Jack Taylor awakes from a coma following an attack that left him in hospital, much of the world has changed. The Covid pandemic has devastated the lives of many in his beloved city of Galway and beyond. As Jack tries to absorb the incredible changes, a woman approaches him with a particularly distressing case. Two local nuns have been bludgeoned by a mysterious man wielding a hammer. As the police fail to act while the violence against the Sisters escalates, Jack seems like their only hope. Initially wary of getting involved, Jack finds he cannot stay away from the mystery surrounding these vicious attacks. He also cannot shake a feeling of darkness that has haunted him since he awoke from his coma: a darkness that is far too close for comfort...

When secrets from Jason Bourne's past come to light, he may be the next thing that's buried. The latest thrilling instalment in the legendary New York Times bestselling series from the world of Robert Ludlum.It's been over a decade since Nash Rollins recruited a brilliant, talented, but disaffected young man named David Webb to join Treadstone. Webb became the agent known as Cain - and later took on the identity of Jason Bourne. That violent winter - which included Cain's first mission for Treadstone - was also a story of betrayal in ways that David never knew. So after the injury that erased Bourne's whole life, Nash lied about the circumstances of David's recruitment to Treadstone. He was afraid that learning the truth might drive Bourne out of the agency forever. But now, when Bourne meets a woman who recognises him as David Webb, the secrets of those days begin to come out - and Bourne is forced to confront the dangerous ghosts of a past he doesn't even remember.

'The best book you'll read this year' KILEY REID'So beautiful' SARAH JESSICA PARKER'One of those books I will read again and again' JOJO MOYES'Moving, absorbing, evocative' SARA COLLINSA crackling, comical, tender, and highly original novel about mental health, the certainties of medicine, buried trauma, love, death and time lost in the crushing - and comical - hopes of modern life_______________________________________________________Vita Woods is on the brink. She has a good job and a successful doctor boyfriend, Max, with whom the sex is great and the chat sufficient; a vivacious and charming sister Gracie, her verbal sparring partner and best friend for life; and she's even got a goldfish called Whitney Houston, who brightens her days by showing her she's not the only one going round in circles. Because it's the days that are Vita's problem. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, Vita rarely exits the basement apartment where she lives, since Vita is in "The Pit" - a place of deep exhaustion and semi-consciousness where she spends much of her time, dead to the world and to herself. She has been sick for months, with an illness that no doctor, not even Max, can medically diagnose. One day an unexpected courier delivery forces Vita upstairs, into the light - and into a chance encounter with her neighbours upstairs. Suddenly, Vita finds herself faced with an even trickier dilemma. She likes her new friends; she'll even sneak upstairs to see them while Max is out, against all medical advice but something about her "condition" is nagging at the borders of her mind. After all, what is a house-bound girl to do when she can't keep the light, her new friendships, or - worst of all - her memories out? The problem might be Vita herself but as far as anyone can prove... there's nothing wrong with her.'Encompasses so many things: a whole life - sorrows, damage, hopes' RICHARD CURTIS'Surreal, magical, totally original' SATHNAM SANGHERA'Deep and dark and beautiful' ESTHER FREUDPRAISE FOR KATE WEINBERG AND THE TRUANTS'One of the standout books of the summer' Stylist'Magical in every way . . . One of the best novels I've ever read' Fearne Cotton'As much a coming-of-age tale as a murder mystery . . . An impressive debut' The Times

Bestselling Irish writer, Faith Hogan, has created another gripping saga of friendship, betrayal and secrets in this story of a widow in search of answers to a shocking confession by her dying husband.Joy Blackwood has no idea why her French art dealer husband has left a valuable painting to a woman called Robyn Tessier in Ballycove, a small town on the west coast of Ireland, but she is determined to find out. She arrives in Ballycove to find that Robyn runs a rather chaotic and unprofitable bookshop. She is shy, suffering from unrequited love for dashing Kian, and badly in need of advice on how to make the bookshop successful. As Joy gets drawn into the dramas of everyday life in the town, she finds it more and more difficult to confess why she really came, let alone find the truth about the painting she brought with her. When she does finally summon up the courage, it sets the cat amongst the pigeons in the close-knit, friendly community she has come to love. PRAISE FOR THE GUEST HOUSE BY THE SEA:'Utterly enchanting! I would wholeheartedly welcome a week or two being looked after by Esme in beautiful Ballycove.' Heidi Swain'Once again Faith pulls you into her world instantly and never lets you go, with such an incredibly real cast of characters who you feel actually exist. A Life affirming and unputdownable read.' Phillipa Ashley'I LOVED it. There is a glow that comes from all of Faith's books that warms every part of me. ' Cathy Kelly'A beautiful and intriguing story celebrating self-discovery, friendship and family bonds.' Phaedra Patrick, bestselling author of The Library of Lost and Found'What a delight this book is. A gorgeous cast of characters, the perfect seaside setting and Faith Hogan's wonderful talent for dialogue all come together to make this a lovely feel-good story with an ending that will cheer your heart.' Imogen Clark, bestselling author of Impossible to Forget

**A Guardian book to look out for in 2024**A powerful, evocative and deeply personal journey into the refugee crisis past and present In 2015, journalist Aamna Mohdin travelled to Calais to report from the frontlines of the refugee crisis. It was on her return to London, when she discussed her experiences with her parents, that she came face-to-face with a reality she had been outrunning for nearly two decades: that she had been a refugee herself. Aamna herself had arrived in the UK aged seven, after her parents fled war-torn Somalia. Determined to piece their scattered family history together in the present, she set off on a mission: first into the past, to uncover her parents' experience of displacement in their own words; and then on the road, first to Somalia, and then to the refugee camp in Kenya that was her home in early childhood. Along the way, Aamna would not only confront the history and legacy of the devastations of war and displacement, but also came face-to-face for the first time with her identity: as a Somalian coming back to her homeland for the first time; as a refugee; and as a black British woman, and a journalist. Scattered is a young woman's exploration of where she came from; a powerful reportage from the frontlines of a refugee crisis in the past and present; an epic journey of returns and reunions, of facing the past and reckoning with trauma; and above all, a defiant and joyful celebration of family and the third culture kid experience.

Inspired by faery myth and folklore, the haunting, heart wrenching tale of a girl called Nettle in a dark, foreboding faery kingdom.A wild misfit in the human world, Nettle is enthralled by the glamour of the faery realm, with its two moons and scarlet stars. She grows close to Conor, a human stolen centuries before, and she also falls under the spell of mysterious Ellion, a Shadow Faery. To try to help her beloved grandmother who is fading in her world, Nettle makes a pact with the faery king. He'll heal her grandmother in exchange for Nettle completing three tasks. She agrees, not realising that deception lurks in this enchanted place, and that she has been tricked...In this dangerous fantasy kingdom Nettle discovers, too late, her part in an age-old love story and the price she will pay.

Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets Who gets to leave a legacy? 1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn't. By 1998 Anita's name has been all but forgotten - certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by progeny of film producers, C-Suite executives, and international art-dealers, most of whom float through life knowing that their futures are secured, Raquel feels herself an outsider. Students of colour, like Raquel, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret. But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita's story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist. Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.

From critically acclaimed Irish horror writer A.M. Shine, the sequel to The Watchers, now a major motion picture produced by M. NIght Shyamalan.The nightmare is only just beginning...After her terrifying experience at the hands of the Watchers, Mina has escaped to a cottage on the west coast of Ireland. She obsessively researches the Watchers, desperate to find any way to prolong the safety of humankind.When Mina encounters a stranger near her home, she fears the worst - for she knows the figure is not what it seems. She soon discovers her elderly landlords have disappeared. But someone - something - is inhabiting their home...Fleeing for her life, Mina finds clues to the Watchers' presence at every turn. Their power is growing... but when Mina reports her fears to the police, she finds her sanity questioned.Mina must convince staff at the psychiatric hospital where she is taken that her stories of malevolent beings are not fantasy but fact - but that will soon be the least of her troubles...A chilling modern twist on the Gothic horror novel, perfect for fans of Kealan Patrick Burke, T. Kingfisher and classic horror.

A thrilling historical western set in 1890s Oregon, from the author of the critically acclaimed Bernicia Chronicles. An English soldier turned policeman escapes to the American West for a new future, but life on the frontier proves far harder than he ever imagined...A man can flee from everything but his own nature.1890. Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes of the British Army left behind the horrors of war in Afghanistan for a role in the Metropolitan Police. Though he rose quickly through the ranks, the squalid violence of London's East End proved just as dark and oppressive as the battlefield. With his life falling apart, and longing for peace and meaning, Gabriel leaves the grime of London behind and heads for the wilderness and wide open spaces of the American West. He soon realises that the wilds of Oregon are far from the idyll he has yearned for. The Blue Mountains may be beautiful, but with the frontier a complex patchwork of feuds and felonies, and ranchers as vicious as any back alley cut-throat in London, Gabriel finds himself unable to escape his past and the demons that drive him. Can he find a place for himself on the far edge of the New World?

SIX LIVESSix lives, connected through blood and history, each rooted in the dirt of their inheritance, look to the future, and what it might hold.THE GUANO MERCHANTIn 1855, Edward Feebes travels to the guano islands of South America, to investigate an irregularity in the accounts of the House of Feebes & Co.MOMENTO MORIIn 1912, post-mortem photographer and reluctant blackmailer Annie Connolly plots her escape from Ireland to America on board the Titanic. THE COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERIn 1933, idealistic Edgar Waverley faces a choice of the heart when he becomes embroiled in a country house murder. THE SPYIn 1964, hapless KGB agent Vasily Sokolov makes his career conjuring valuable information from worthless detritus.ZABBALEENin 1987, actor Mariam Khouri looks back at 'Black Dirt', the movie that lifted her from the streets of Cairo. NEW YORKIn 2012, Isabelle Feebes attempts to break with her poisonous heritage once and for al. Can she forge a new life for herself in the New World? Can you ever truly escape your past?

A dazzling historical debut set in eighteenth-century Venice, about the woman written out of the story of one of history's greatest musical masterpieces'Enthralling, passionate, vivid. The Instrumentalist is a marvel' Kiran Millwood Hargrave'I was swept away by this searing portrait of ambition and betrayal' Elizabeth Macneal_________________________________________________________Venice. 1704. In this city of glittering splendour, desperation and destitution are never far away. At the Ospedale della Pietà, abandoned orphan girls are posted every through a tiny gap in the wall every day. Eight-year-old Anna Maria is just one of the three hundred girls growing up within the Pietà's walls - but she already knows she is different. Obsessive and gifted, she is on a mission to become Venice's greatest violinist and composer, and in her remarkable world of colour and sound, it seems like nothing with stop her. But the odds are stacked against an orphan girl - so when the maestro selects her as his star pupil, Anna Maria knows she must do everything in power to please this difficult, brilliant man. But as Anna Maria's star rises, threatening to eclipse that of her mentor, the dream she has so single-mindedly pursued is thrown into peril...From the jewelled palaces of Venice to its mud-licked canals, this is a story of one woman's irrepressible ambition and rise to the top, of loss and triumph, and of who we choose to remember and leave behind on the path to success.

London, 1944. The air raid sirens are blaring, the bombers are hovering. England has been at war with Germany for four years, and there's no sign of peace coming. Dot Gallagher, newly arrived from Liverpool to offer her services as a nurse, hurries from her Red Cross hostel to the tube station to join the crowds of people taking shelter. A group of GIs have started dancing around a wind-up gramophone, and it doesn't take long for Dot to join them. As she jives along with one of the American soldiers, he tells her about Rainbow Corner, a social club in Piccadilly for US troops. There is always a demand for dance hostesses there, women who know how to jitterbug and rock'n'roll, to dance with the soldiers. Would Dot like to apply?As Dot discovers, Rainbow Corner is like no other place, an oasis in London where, once inside, the constraints of wartime Britain disappear. There is no rationing, all luxuries are available, including a constant stream of donuts, chewing gum and cola. There are restaurants and cafes, boxing matches and movies, and, much to Dot's delight, a huge dance hall. Rather like an Embassy, Rainbow Corner is essentially a plot of America in central London.It is there that Dot becomes firm friends with many of the other hostesses, and in particular with Lilly, who works for the Colonel. Meet Me at Rainbow Corner follows the lives of Dot, Lilly and their friends, as they dance the nights away, fall in and out of love, and navigate the horrors of war. Lilly goes on a secret mission with her Colonel to France, and Dot becomes pregnant and returns to Liverpool. When the war is over, they are re-united, having travelled by boat to the US with countless other war brides to meet their repatriated fiancés again. Along the way, they uncover a case of inside espionage and learn the true meaning of love.

An entertaining guide to history's most influential and inspiring poets - from Homer and Sappho to Shakespeare and Frank O'Hara - and how they can teach us to better understand the world around us.How did the greatest poets in history make the world anew? And what can we learn from the magic, wisdom and humour of their poetry? From the genius of the Greeks and Romans through the love and metaphysics of the Middle Ages, through to the Beat Poets of San Francisco, this is the ultimate guide to the greatest writers of the human age.Through short, biographical portraits, poet and teacher Dai George provides an entertaining introduction to how to think like a poet, and how we can weave that thinking into our everyday lives. He addresses questions poets have grappled with: What is it to describe the world? How can we express love, grief, or friendship? How can we rise above the misery of the world and see the beauty in the everyday?This book paints vivid pictures of a global assortment of renowned poets throughout history: from Sappho, Juvenal and LiXu, to William Shakespeare and John Donne, to Frank O Hara, Pablo Neruda and Sylvia Plath. George also seeks to re-examine the canon, in which overwhelmingly Western, white and male poets have been held up as pillars of the art, and bring to light major figures from other important cultures and communities, including China, pre-colonial America and Japan.

A young woman's life is forever changed in the summer after World War I when she befriends a group of independent, motorcycle-riding women in a seaside town on the English coast 'Written with great humour and compassion, it is an absolute delight' - PIP WILLIAMS 'An absolute joy of a book ... Historical fiction of the highest order' - ANN NAPOLITANOIt is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped to run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or (horror) a governess, she's sent as a lady's companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea and its colorful inhabitants, most notably, Poppy Wirrall.Poppy, the daughter of a land-owning baronet, wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women and runs a ladies' motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy's recalcitrant but handsome brother - a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle - who warms in Constance's presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.With sharp humor, biting wit and a warm heart, Simonson captures the mood of a generation facing the seismic changes brought on by war. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is a timeless comedy of manners, refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside.'Beautifully written and brimming with charm' - CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE'Utterly captivating ... A perfect blend of historical charm, courage, and camaraderie' - JAMIE FORD

The Inner Temple: a warren of shaded courtyards and ancient buildings forming the hidden heart of London's legal world. A place where tradition is everything, and murder belongs only in the casebooks. Until now...When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case - the disputed authorship of bestselling children's book Millie the Temple Church Mouse - that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep. But even he cannot fail to notice the judge's dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest.The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn't answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple's heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he'd ever imagined.The first in a brand-new series introducing a wonderfully eccentric sleuth, perfect for fans of S.J. Bennett and Richard Coles.

A first contact SF novel, from the Hugo Award-winning author of Folding Beijing.2080, the world is divided, dominated by two antagonistic factions, the Pacific League and the Atlantic Alliance. Tensions are high and the smallest disturbance in the status quo could set the world on fire.And a signal flickering through deep space could be just that spark. As three young scientists form an alliance to decode the signal, they realise that the answers don't only lie in deep space, they also lie deep in humanity's past.What they discover will change everything: our past, present and future. If we have one.

If he suddenly found what surrounded him unbearable, it was because it was artificialEverything had been designed and manufactured, and he was trapped in itPhilip Notman, an acclaimed historian, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life.Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn''t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on the south coast of Crete. Is he thinking of leaving his wife, whom he claims he still loves, or is he trying to change a reality that has become impossible to bear? Is he on a quest for a simpler and more authenticexistence, or is he utterly self-deluded?As he tries to make sense of both his personal circumstances and the world surrounding him, he finds himself embarking on a course of action that will push him to the very brink of disaster.