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Fiction

bookcover Monsoon by Wilbur Smith
In an historical palimpsest of fraternal rivalry set in the swashbuckling high seas of the 18th century, Wilbur Smith's "Monsoon" follows Sir Hal Franklin's mission to rid the Indian Ocean of notorious pirate, al-Aouf. Read an interview with Wilbur Smith

bookcover The Business by Iain Banks
An all-powerful organisation simply known as "The Business" attempts to manipulate its way into politics in Iain Banks's gripping thriller, resulting in an unsettling effect on the life of employee Kate Telman. Coming soon in hardback: Iain M Banks's Look to Windward

bookcover Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason Now out in paperback!
Picking up where Bridget Jones' Diary left off, everyone's favourite singleton has finally landed her love, Mark Darcy. However, she's finding, among other things, that her dreamboat is less than ideal. Click on this link for the Hardback edition

bookcover The Brethren by John Grisham
John Grisham's novels have all been so systematically successful that it is easy to forget he is just one man toiling away silently with a pen, experimenting and improving with each book. The Brethren is in many respects his most daring and accomplished book yet. The novel grows from two separate subplots. In the first, three imprisoned ex-judges (the "brethren" of the title), frustrated by their loss of power and influence, concoct an elaborate blackmail scheme preying on wealthy closeted gay men. The second story traces the rise of presidential candidate Aaron Lake, a man essentially created by CIA directory Teddy Maynard to fulfil Maynard's plans for restoring the power of his beleaguered agency.

bookcover The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
One of the great crime novels of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a blend of the narrative subtlety of Henry James and the self- reflexive irony of Vladimir Nabokov. Like the best modernist fiction, Ripley works on two levels. First, it is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, whose nihilistic tendencies lead him through a deadly passage across Europe. On another level, the novel is a commentary on fiction making and techniques of narrative persuasion. Like Humbert Humbert, Tom Ripley seduces readers to empathise with him even as his actions defy all moral standards.

bookcover Chocolat by Joanne Harris
An exotic stranger opens a chocolate boutique in a French village at the beginning of Lent, the traditional season for self-denial, dividing the community and causing a conflict that escalates into a "Church not Chocolate" battle.

bookcover Friends Like These by Victoria Routledge
Out of university and doing one of those "Look, no hands!" jobs in a PR firm, Rachel is persuaded to join some old friends on a celebratory weekend in the Lake District - with mixed feelings. She remembers the good old days - the fun, the laughs, the gossip - but also remembers the bad bits.

bookcover Straight Talking by Jane Green
Tasha, the anti-heroine of Jane Green's Straight Talking, is sassy, sexy and out for all she can get, or so she would have you believe. Straight Talking aims its arrows of truth directly at you, as its narrator, Tasha, openly discusses issues as if you were part of the world on the page and could answer back. The book is a no-holds-barred, frank take on sex, friendship and relationships for the single thirtysomething.

bookcover Jemima J by Jane Green
Jemima Jones is overweight - about seven stone overweight. Treated like a slave by her thin and bitchy flatmates, lorded over at the "Kilburn Herald" by the beautiful Geraldine, her only consolation is food. That and a passion for her charming, sexy colleague Ben. Her life needs to change and soon.

bookcover Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting clichés about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty, and frequent death and illness, and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings of a compelling memoir.

bookcover Last Chance Saloon by Marion Keyes
Author of the hugely popular Rachel's Holiday and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Marian Keyes is back swinging the doors of heartache and hilarity with Last Chance Saloon. Meet Tara, the rapidly expanding food-loving shopaholic; Katherine, the neat, male-ego-destroying singleton; Fintan, the fashion-conscious lovely, and Lorcan, the gorgeous but rotten redheaded womaniser. Marian Keyes deliberately deploys stereotypical characters and situations, then attempts to subvert the stereotypes, though perhaps in rather obvious ways.

bookcover Jilly Cooper's Score!
The latest novel from Jilly Cooper featuring Rupert Campbell-Black and Roberto Rannaldini. This story is about the opera Don Carlos which is being made into a film. Rannaldini is conducting and financing the film which is being made on location at his country house Valhalla. It also includes a murder, can you guess whodunnit before the end?


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Kathy Byrne
E-mail: kathy@byrneuk.com
Url: www.byrneuk.com
Last Modified : 8th July 2000
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