Fiction > American Fiction

Vincent has always known, deep down inside, that he was gay. He was fine with that. The problem was that his faith told him he was a sinner and damned to hell. Every Sunday after Vincent's father preached his sermon and called on his flock to come to the altar and accept salvation Vincent tried but it never helped. First published 2008.

These ten stories offer a stunning vision of contemporary American suburbia, littered with tension, heartbreak and revelations. They take readers across the country - from rural Pennsylvania to Southern California to the quiet streets of Connecticut. At the heart of each story, characters struggle to find meaning in their daily lives.

Claire Donovan always dreamed of visiting Venice, though not as a chaperone for a surly teenager. But she can't pass up this chance to complete her PhD thesis on Alessandra Rossetti, a mysterious courtesan who wrote a secret letter to the Venetian Council warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow the Venetian Republic in 1618. Claire views Alessandra as a heroine and harbours a secret hope that her findings will elevate Alessandra to a more prominent place in history. But an arrogant Cambridge professor is set to present a paper at a ... read more

David is nine. He knows all the bones. When he was born, his father Dr Franklin Church hung a skeleton in his room and taught him the names, bone by bone by bone. David is going to be a doctor like his father. David's best friend is Malcolm. Malcolm knows the bone names too. But this is Tennessee in the 1950s-the deep south of America, and a time of brutal racial intolerance and tension. It's the territory of the Ku Klux Klan. And Malcolm is black. Drawing on her own childhood memories, Tony Johnston brings us a universal s... read more

As a teenager, it was never Sam's intention to torch an American landmark or kill the two people inside. After serving 10 years for his crime, Sam is released and is determined to put the past behind him, until the a number of other American landmarks go up in flames and he becomes the prime suspect First published 2007.

When he was 15, Kevin murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker, and a teacher. Here, our narrator, Kevin's mother, Eva, tells the story of his upbringing to her estranged husband through a series of letters. Who is to blame for teenage atrocity?

Jack's wife has disappeared. She was in the car when they stopped for gas, he knows that much. He walked back to the counter, and then...Jack can't remember. But Anne has gone. First published 2005.

For fifty years Anna Schlemmer has kept silent about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter Trudy was still a toddler when they were liberated by an American soldier and moved to Minnesota to live with him. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmf

A new thriller about stealing the American presidential election by the author of Wag the Dog.

Oryx & Crake meets Douglas Coupland. An unforgettable vision of the future of America. Years from now America finds itself split between the rich and the poor. The haves live in luxury within the small regions that remain unpolluted while the have-nots inhabit a toxic suburbia full of terrorism, crime and genetic mutations. Perhaps not all that different from today then? They Is Us tells the story of one family from the poor side as they go about their daily lives. Julie has a job as a summer intern at an animal laboratory. She ... read more

A witty tale about the unlikeliest of friends. When an American mother-of-three finds herself overwhelmed in her new home in Switzerland, a visitor pops up offering to cure her son's asthma, her husband's growing indifference, and her own resentment of life. Is he the village nutter or - as he claims to be - the greatest mind of the eighteenth century? This talkative character wearing kneebreeches and wig is the last straw. Though she begs him to go home, he unpacks his mouldy trunk instead. Slowly V. becomes her warmest friend a... read more

The first ever collection of short fiction and nonfiction essays from one of the world's most beloved and original bestselling authors, WILD DUCKS FLYING BACKWARD is classic Tom Robbins - and a must for fans and newcomers alike. A treasure trove of all new fiction, published here for the first time, and a selection of nonfiction, some in print for the first time and some not in print for decades, it ranges from tributes such as odes to redheads, kissing, Diane Keaton, Leonard Cohen and Ray Kroc - the founder of McDonald's - to musi... read more

Seemingly out of the blue, tiny documentary company Tied to the Tracks is handed the opportunity of a lifetime: a personal invitation from reclusive literary legend Miss Zula Bragg to make a film about her life. For Angie Mangiamele and her award-winning team, it's almost too good too be true - and impossible to pass up.But for Angie, the prospect of visiting Miss Zula's home town in the Deep South is a mixed blessing because it means coming face to face with the man she once thought was the love of her life. Now head of Ogilvie Un... read more

Meet Faye, Alice, Marilyn and Shirley. Four strangers who are poles apart, but when they find themselves sharing their stories over double servings of dessert one night, there is an immediate connection. At last someone they can trust with their problems, hopes and dreams, from expanding waistlines, chocolate cake and sex (or lack of it!) to the other big questions of life. All four have reached a crossroad where they have been made to feel over the hill and out of the race. But as the newly formed Hot Flash Club they decide that t... read more

"Like all great masters of comedy, McCauley has a deadly serious eye on the human predicament. For my money, his prose is some of the best around - graceful and sturdy and blessedly free from pretension" - Armistead Maupin

This tender, funny novel is a salute to a great city's enchantment and the sweet, frustrating mysteries of life - by one of today's most richly inventive writers. The doctor delivers bad news. What's a man to do, with the life he has left to live? He can cry, he can wonder which particular cigarette did it - the 564,119th or the 976,835th - or which brand. Kent? Pall Mall? Or (and as well) he can call the friend he loves in the city he loves and then set out down the avenues and streets of New York to meet him. He walks, he runs,... read more

"Whip-smart, weird, and dangerously readable..[a] beautiful monster of a book - detonating your funny bone, showing you fear in a handful of dust." Village Voice

Josie came to Los Angeles to escape her run-down family with its sad history of trouble and abuse; when she met Michael - brilliant, musical, handsome - she thought she'd found her first chance for real love and a new life. But Michael, despite a youth filled with every material advantage, was an emotional trainwreck, with an apathetic, distant father and a mother who stayed all too close. As the novel begins, Josie has just learned of Michael's suicide. Alone, grieving, in shock, Josie is trying to understand what happened when Mi... read more

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A landmark in feminist literature, THE WOMEN'S ROOM is a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today, this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely. 'Today's desperate housewives" eat your heart out! This is the original and still the best, a page-turner that makes you think. Essential reading' Kate Mosse 'They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine' Jenni Murray... read more