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For as long as I can remember, I've had one dream. Go to the same college as my friends, become the starting quarterback of a division one team, and hear my name announced to the world come draft day. The path was clear, and things were falling in place perfectly. And then she came along. Now I'm in love with a girl . . . whose heart was buried alongside the boy she gave it to. The ghost I can't compete with. The father of her newborn son. She wants me to walk away, to focus on my love for football, but I can't, because I have a new dream. And it begins and ends with them. The angsty, hotly anticipated follow-up novel to SAY YOU SWEAR, featuring more of all your favourite tropes: - He falls first - Slow burn - Forbidden/off-limits - Love after loss - Found family

For as long as I can remember, I've had one dream. Go to the same college as my friends, become the starting quarterback of a division one team, and hear my name announced to the world come draft day. The path was clear, and things were falling in place perfectly. And then she came along. Now I'm in love with a girl . . . whose heart was buried alongside the boy she gave it to. The ghost I can't compete with. The father of her newborn son. She wants me to walk away, to focus on my love for football, but I can't, because I have a new dream. And it begins and ends with them. The angsty, hotly anticipated follow-up novel to SAY YOU SWEAR, featuring more of all your favourite tropes: - He falls first - Slow burn - Forbidden/off-limits - Love after loss - Found family

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy's one-liners? If your answer to these questions is "Yes Please!" then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend," "Plain Girl Versus the Demon" and "The Robots Will Kill Us All" Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy's one-liners? If your answer to these questions is "Yes Please!" then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend," "Plain Girl Versus the Demon" and "The Robots Will Kill Us All" Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.

A wickedly smart, funny, and irresistibly off-kilter account of an improbable thousand-mile journey on foot into the heart of modern Florida, the state that Russell calls "America Concentrate." In the summer of 2016, Kent Russell--broke, at loose ends, hungry for adventure--set off to walk across Florida. Mythic, superficial, soaked in contradictions, maligned by cultural elites, segregated from the South, and literally vanishing into the sea, Florida (or, as he calls it: "America Concentrate") seemed to Russell to embody America's divided soul. The journey, with two friends intent on filming the ensuing mayhem, quickly reduces the trio to filthy drifters pushing a shopping cart of camera equipment. They get waylaid by a concerned citizen bearing a rifle; buy cocaine from an ex-wrestler; visit a spiritual medium. The narrative overflows with historical detail about how modern Florida came into being after World War II, and how it came to be a petri dish for life in a suddenly, increasingly diverse new land of minority-majority cities and of unrivaled ethnic and religious variety. Russell has taken it all in with his incomparably focused lens and delivered a book that is both an inspired travelogue and a profound rumination on the nation's soul--and his own. It is a book that is wildly vivid, encyclopedic, erudite, and ferociously irreverent--a deeply ambivalent love letter to his sprawling, brazenly varied home state.

WINNER of the Junior Juries Award and Judges Special Award - KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards 2024 WINNER of the UKLA Book Awards 2024 SHORTLISTED for The Oscar's Book Prize 2024 'A beautiful, gentle, rhyming exploration of grief and mourning.' - Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children's Laureate 22-24 The Hare-Shaped Hole is a beautiful, touching and poignant picture book that gently explores themes of grief and loss. Hertle and Bertle were always a pair, though one was a turtle and one was a hare. They were utterly buddies, and best friends forever, and whenever you looked, you would find them together... until quite unexpectedly... the end came. When Hertle disappears for good, Bertle can only see a Hertle-shaped hole where his friend should be. He pleads with it, get angry with it, but the hole still won't bring his Hertle back. It seems like hope is lost... until Gerda the kindly bear finds him. She explains that he must fill the hole with his memories of Hertle. And slowly... Bertle begins to feel a little bit better. Powerful and moving text from children's author and poet John Dougherty is paired perfectly with warm illustrations from the wonderfully talented Thomas Docherty in a thoughtful and sensitive approach to this difficult topic. This moving picture book will be loved and treasured by children and adults alike. With kids, it can be used to start a gentle conversation about death and grief. And as a gift for a grieving friend, it's the ideal gesture. Anyone who has lost a pet or loved one will be comforted by Bertle's journey to acceptance and reassured by the fact that, eventually, things do get better.

If the past came knocking, would you open the door? Abigail has spent twenty years holding her life together with stubborn determination and strong tea. But her small cafe is struggling, her daughter is about to leave for university, and the future feels suddenly uncertain. Then the man she thought she'd never see again walks back into her life. Jack Chance was once her best friend. The boy she trusted with everything. The person she's been in love with since she was a teenager - and the one who disappeared without explanation twenty years ago. His return stirs up old wounds, and Abigail begins questioning everything she thought she knew about her life and her family. With her daughter leaving home, her livelihood under threat, and her heart pulled in a direction she never expected, she must decide whether to stay safe in the life she knows - or risk everything for the truth, and a second chance at love.

Ten days. Too many secrets. No way back.White sand. Blue sea. Absolute privilege.Charlotte settles back in her sun lounger with her baby daughter as her husband and two sons play nearby. Their surroundings could not be more exclusive, the location idyllic. The company though, is less than idyllic: her husband's business partner and the woman he left his wife for.And then Charlotte catches sight of someone she has not seen in years.Gemma was once her closest school friend. Now she's a journalist, mysteriously on a press trip at the very same exclusive resort — and asking questions Charlotte would rather not hear.Because despite her claims, Gemma didn't come for a review.She came for the truth.And these ten days will change everything.A masterclass in exquisitely plotted summer suspense, Katherine Faulkner's new book is a must-read. Twisty, taut and as essential for your holiday as your sunglasses and sun cream. Pre-order it now.

Lena Walsh has a one-day-only plan for surviving the office's newest hire: a $1.99 vending-machine ring and her best fake-married smile. Because the dazzling new in-house counsel her company just spent a fortune to import from overseas? He's Caleb Sutton — the ex-boyfriend who ghosted abroad, broke her heart, and apparently came back with a Mercedes and a vendetta. When Caleb confronts her in the parking lot, Lena does the only logical thing: she announces she's happily married. With a toddler. She did not factor in: getting reassigned as Caleb's personal assistant, her well-meaning brother accidentally playing pretend-husband, or her own uncle (her actual boss) trying to bribe her into marriage to keep his star lawyer from leaving the country. A snappy, swoon-worthy second-chance romcom about the one who got away — and the one who's not letting her get away again.

In the westernmost province of the Kingdom of the Isles, upon the world of Midkemia, an orphan kitchen boy named Pug was made apprentice to the magician Kulgan. Here starts an adventure that will span lifetimes and worlds. Discover where the story begins. The world had changed even before I discovered the foreign ship wrecked on the shore below Crydee Castle, but it was the harbinger of the chaos and death that was coming to our door. War had come to the Kingdom of the Isles, and in the years that followed it would scatter my friends across the world. I longed to train as a warrior and fight alongside our duke like my foster-brother, but when the time came, I was not offered that choice. My fate would be shaped by other forces. My name is Pug. I was once an orphaned kitchen boy, with no family and no prospects, but I am destined to become a master magician...

Brand NEW from No1 multi-million copy bestselling author Shari LowWhat would you do if you had just twenty-four hours to change your life?Ailish Ryan has been in hiding since her husband's affair ended their marriage. But when a friend forces her to face her new reality, will she choose to revisit the past or embrace a brand-new future?Ailish's daughter, Emmy, thought her boyfriend was nothing like her cheating father, but now she's not so sure. As the hours pass, she turns detective to find out if she picked the right man, or if history is repeating itself.Grandmother, Minnie Ryan is on a mission to deliver a very special gift to a lifelong friend. But will dogged determination and a touch of divine intervention be enough to overcome the obstacles that fate puts in her way?Dario Moretti has spent his whole life working in the family business, but now it's in trouble and he's all out of options. Will he have the strength to let it go, even if it means hurting the people he loves?The clock is ticking... but will twenty-four hours be long enough to heal four broken hearts?#1 bestseller Shari Low is back with her brilliant new release about love, life and the countdown to the new year. Perfect for the fans of Beth Moran and Debbie HowellsPraise for Shari Low:'I devoured One Midnight With You. It's brimming with emotion, humour and heart - and as ever, Shari's loveable characters leap off the page. A novel that's as heady as Hogmanay itself!' - Fiona Gibson'Shari Low does it again - a fun and fizzing tale of friendship, lost love, trust and hope - an easy five stars from me' - Zoe Folbigg'Feel-good and fabulous, another smasher from Shari Low, I didn't want the story to end' - Samantha Tonge'Hilarious and heartbreaking with a cast of characters that leap off the page and feel like friends. Shari's best book yet, the perfect pick-you-up and should be on everyone's New Year reading list'. - Alex Brown'An absolute treat of a book... Cleverly plotted with wonderfully warm characters & plenty of surprises!' - Helen Rolfe'Funny, warm and insightful' - Dorothy Koomson'Great fun from start to finish' - Jenny Colgan'More fun than a girl's night out!'- OK! Magazine'A brilliant read with some fabulous twists and turns' - Bookbag'Highly recommended' - The Sun'Totally captivating and it felt like I'd lost a new best friend when it came to the end' - Closer Magazine'Touching stuff' - Heat Magazine

If you think that making a guitar is impossible, then this book is for you. The only one of its' kind, this book will teach you how to make a laminated archtop guitar. It can be done in a relatively small space and does not require many tools or expensive machinery, just a desire to do it. The book came about as the result of a suggestion and urging of my friend, Bob Benedetto. Because no other book is available for this type on construction, it is written in an easy to understand format and is priced so that almost anyone can afford it. It contains drawings and pictures with step by step easy to follow instructions so as to eliminate any guesswork. This book took four years to complete and is designed to help someone who wants to make this kind of guitar. It should serve as an excellent guide.

In 2015, a Hollywood film was released that flipped the concept of how movies can be made: in the thriller "Remove from Friends," all the audience saw was a computer screen. The action of the film unfolded on the desktop among folders and open tabs on the Internet, social networks and search engines. Director and producer Timur Bekmambetov came up with the idea of transferring our life on the screens of devices - computers and smartphones - into the movies, he also gave the name to the new format of cinema - screenlife. Since then, films in the new format have grossed tens of millions of dollars at the worldwide box office and awards at the most prestigious film festivals - from Berlinale to Sundance. Screenlife ideologist Timur Bekmambetov, along with Russian and Hollywood colleagues will talk about how to create a movie on your computer screen and phone - from the idea and script to shoot and edit.

In the westernmost province of the Kingdom of the Isles, upon the world of Midkemia, an orphan kitchen boy named Pug was made apprentice to the magician Kulgan. Here starts an adventure that will span lifetimes and worlds. Discover where the story begins. The world had changed even before I discovered the foreign ship wrecked on the shore below Crydee Castle, but it was the harbinger of the chaos and death that was coming to our door. War had come to the Kingdom of the Isles, and in the years that followed it would scatter my friends across the world. I longed to train as a warrior and fight alongside our duke like my foster-brother, but when the time came, I was not offered that choice. My fate would be shaped by other forces. My name is Pug. I was once an orphaned kitchen boy, with no family and no prospects, but I am destined to become a master magician...

Eight hundred kilometres from the sea, Lake Otway is dying. Heat, drought, and thirst-crazed animals take their toll. When Ray Gillen, lucky lottery winner, went for a swim one night and never came back, some thought it was an accident, or was it murder? As the water level drops, five men and two women wait beside the shrinking lake - for the body, the money, or neither. And watching it all, Bony… Death of a Lake is as intense and unremitting story as Upfield ever wrote. It should be, for it is very close to Upfield's personality ... being the real Albermarle Station where Upfield was first hired as a cook in the 1920s and where he began his writing career ... In a hut at Wheeler's Well Upfield was inspired to write his Bony after a visit by Upfield's friend tracker Leon Wood. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne. Bony - a unique figure among top-flight detectives - BBC

Full of thrills, mystery and danger, Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters is the second title in the fast-paced fantasy adventure series for children of 10+ by bestselling master storyteller David Baldacci.Everything Vega Jane has ever known is a lie. But if she and her best friend Delph are to find the truth about who they are and where they came from, they must first survive the Quag, a wild, enchanted place filled with monsters and dark sorcery. It will stretch their courage to the limit.The Quag will throw everything at Vega. It will try to break her. It will try to kill her. And survival might come at a price not even Vega is willing to pay.Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters (previously published as The Keeper) is the second installment in master storyteller David Baldacci's bestselling Vega Jane series for children, now in a revised edition.

Bloomsbury presents Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, read by Blair Brown with Isabel Allende'If you like your passions grand and your views panoramic, then Daughter of Fortune will be irresistible' The TimesIn colonial Chile, 1832, the infant Eliza is found on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company. Adopted by the maternal Miss Rose, she is raised dutifully, with Victorian piety and propriety. But as a young woman, Eliza falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta – and when he leaves for the gold-laden hills of California, she can't help but follow.With the aid of newfound friends, Eliza finds a place for herself in this burgeoning society; and while she came to California for someone else, what was once a search for love transforms into a profound discovery of her own freedom.'An extravagant tale by a gifted storyteller whose spell brings to life the 19th century world' Los Angeles Times

My son is in trouble. And the only men who can save him...don't even know he exists. At 18, I lost my v-card to my two best friends. And then came the fall out. I ran from Hannsett Island. It's been me and my son against the world ever since. I told myself I'd never go back, but my son is sick. And the two doctors who could save his life...? Jason and Donovan. The same two men I shared one hot, steamy night with over ten years ago. Can I keep my secret safe...even though it threatens to slip out every time their lips touch mine? The Doctor's Truth features a single mom and two hot, dominant doctors. This full length novel includes MF, MMF, and MM scenes, comedy, over the top drama, and a dash of angst...and, of course, a satisfying HEA.

Luigi went out one morning and never came back. Without him, Anna feels worthless, losing all sense of all she is. Only the fear of the darkness closing in drives her to attempt some kind of normality. But Gigi's unseen presence is powerful and inhibits Anna from making a new life. Even her attraction to musician Greg feels like a betrayal. An encounter with a friend leads to a new teaching job, offering a chance to find herself. But the school is driven by fear and unsuspecting Anna is exploited by the manipulative headmaster and at the same time cruelly undermined by a jealous colleague. Now the fragile new life she's building threatens to collapse. It is a chance meeting with a stranger who helps her to see that there are lights on dark water. Perfect for fans of fans of Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, and Irish Murdoch.

Monte Carlo means different things to different people; a billionaires playground, overflowing with glitz and glamour but also where dangerous secrets hide. For Nanette Weston, and her then fiancé, F1 racing driver Zac Ewart, their dream life came to an abrupt halt 3 years ago following a car accident which Zac walked away from, but left Nanette being airlifted back to the UK, never to return and never to see her fiancé again. Monte Carlo was a place she wanted to forget, not revisit. But when her friend and employer, Vanessa asks Nanette to look after her children in the Principality for a few months, Nanette knew she had no choice but to return. As the F1 circus once again comes to town, with Zac in pole position, mistakes of the past, leave legacies for the future... This book was previously published as Follow Your Star by Jennifer Bohnet.

Woman-woman. Man-man. Bisexuality. Flexible. Queer. Some people have never questioned whether or not they're gay. Others are in a straight marriage with kids when suddenly their best friend makes their nipples erect, or a touch from their best mate makes their cock hard. This is an erotic short story collection from Cupido. The collection includes the following short stories: "He'd just moved into a flat share, in 3 A. It was a new life in many ways." The Metaphor by Metafore "A young man visits a buddy in Lisbon and meets liberated, young sexuality." - Unbelievable, but true by RO "She came home sooner than expected and jumped as she heard whispering voices in the bedroom. Was there another woman in his bed? She cracked the door and was surprised even more." - A Surprising Return" by Katrine, Bergen "The two boys became sauna regulars. The others were The others were too busy finishing quickly and getting away from school." - Bjørn by Roy, Oppland

Woman on woman. Man on man. Bisexuality. Queer. Some people have never questioned whether they're gay or not. Others are in a straight marriage with kids when suddenly their best friend makes their nipples harden or their cock erect. This is an erotic short story collection from Cupido. The collection includes the following short stories: "They were both about 20 years old and were just as tall as each other. Despite having different skin colours, they both shared a common interest." Towards the Sun by Manu Seppänen "He thought about how little he had spoken to her younger brother over the past few years. When the opportunity came up to hang out alone together, he took it." The Boy with the Motorbike by Tarald Stein "He went to work on Saturday expecting nothing out of the ordinary. Then Kjetil showed up and changed everything." - Boy Sex at Work by Bisexual, Sørlandet

Books are a lot harder to write than Twitter posts. @davidspade (free plug) David Spade is Almost Interesting This is my memoir . . . . It’s me telling you about my fake problems in life and a few real ones. It’s a book about comedy, and how I came up from the dusty roads of Arizona with my OP shorts and my blond fluffy hair, to the mean streets of Beverly Hills, with nothing but a few props in my mom’s old honeymoon suitcase and a couple of dry jokes. These are the stories I tell my friends at dinner when I’m drunk, and they dart their eyes around hoping a waiter will interrupt me. Me blabbering on about how I lost my virginity, how I got into stand-up, meeting Johnny Carson, making Tommy Boy with Farlz, and getting beat up while wearing a Coneheads T-shirt. Sound stupid? Maybe! Read and find out.

'Sarah has woven a beautiful story into the tapestry of Paris, and the little book shop...A very worthwhile read' Reader review, _____ 'A story for all ages as everyone will relate to at least one of the main characters. I shall be recommending it to all my friends ' Reader review, _____ 'Just when I think Sarah's books can't get any better along comes this absolute gem of a book . . . Sarah really makes you feel part of the story, felt that I was there with the characters experiencing the story with them' Reader review, _____ * * * One charming bookshop, two unlikely friends, and a summer in Paris that will change their lives forever... Grace can't believe it when her husband of twenty-five years announces he doesn't want to join her on their anniversary trip to Paris - instead, he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock, Grace makes the bold decision to go on this holiday of a lifetime alone. Audrey leaves behind heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no knowledge of the French language, her summer adventure seems doomed to fail. Until she meets Grace, and everything changes... Living in neighbouring apartments above the bookshop, Grace and Audrey form an unlikely friendship. They came to Paris to find themselves, but finding each other might be the best thing that's ever happened to them. * * *

This New York Times bestseller from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood. When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street, a moment of childhood trauma that would define their lives. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened—something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay —demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy’s daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the murder mystery. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy’s daughter died covered in someone else’s blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic work of crime fiction about love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

This New York Times bestseller from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood. When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street, a moment of childhood trauma that would define their lives. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened-something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the murder mystery. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic work of crime fiction about love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

This New York Times bestseller from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood. When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street, a moment of childhood trauma that would define their lives. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened—something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay —demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy’s daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the murder mystery. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy’s daughter died covered in someone else’s blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic work of crime fiction about love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

This New York Times bestseller from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood. When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street, a moment of childhood trauma that would define their lives. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened—something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay —demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy’s daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the murder mystery. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy’s daughter died covered in someone else’s blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic work of crime fiction about love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

This New York Times bestseller from Dennis Lehane is a gripping, unnerving psychological thriller about the effects of a savage killing on three former friends in a tightly knit, blue-collar Boston neighborhood. When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street, a moment of childhood trauma that would define their lives. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened—something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay —demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy’s daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the murder mystery. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy’s daughter died covered in someone else’s blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic work of crime fiction about love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

The Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist from the provinces who has come to conquer Paris and is conquered by the flaws in his own genius. While his boyhood friend Pierre Sandoz becomes a successful novelist, Claude's originality is mocked at the Salon and turns gradually into a doomed obsession with one great canvas. Life - in the form of his model and wife Christine and their deformed child Jacques - is sacrificed on the altar of Art. The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cézanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemia world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despit the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.