Book picks similar to
Wreckage by Niall Griffiths


british
lets-get-fucked
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Seven for a Secret


Mary Webb - 1922
    Although she was acclaimed by John Buchan and by Rebecca West, who hailed her as a genius, and won the Prix Femina of La Vie Heureuse for Precious Bane (1924), she won little respect from the general public. It was only after her death that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Stanley Baldwin, earned her posthumous success through his approbation, referring to her as a neglected genius at a Literary Fund dinner in 1928. Her writing is notable for its descriptions of nature, and of the human heart. She had a deep sympathy for all her characters and was able to see good and truth in all of them. Among her most famous works are: The Golden Arrow (1916), Gone to Earth (1917), and Seven for a Secret (1922).

Sari Caste


Catherine Kirby - 2001
     Manasa is abandoned by the man she should marry. He marries her sister instead. Meanwhile Manasa finds herself pregnant with his child. She flees her Bengali village wondering where to go. Eventually, she finds herself wandering the streets of Calcutta. Without money or food, life is a daily struggle. Finally, she is taken on by a brothel. She is desperately unhappy until she meets a different sort of man. This man she marries in secret and together they plan her escape from the brothel. Murder, corruption, and intrigue threaten to swallow up the new life they attempt to establish in the beautiful hill country of Darjeeling.

Birdcage Walk


Helen Dunmore - 2017
    Soon his plans for a magnificent terrace built above the two-hundred-foot drop of the Gorge come under threat.Diner believes that Lizzie’s independent, questioning spirit must be coerced and subdued. She belongs to him: law and custom confirm it, and she must live as he wants.In a tense drama of public and private violence, resistance and terror, Diner’s passion for Lizzie darkens until she finds herself dangerously alone.

The Informers


Juan Gabriel Vásquez - 2004
    The subject seems inoffensive enough: the life of a German Jewish woman (a close family friend) who arrived in Colombia shortly before the Second World War. So why does his father attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly hide some dangerous secret? As Gabriel sets out to discover what lies behind his father's anger, he finds himself undertaking an examination of the duplicity, guilt and obsession at the heart of Colombian society in World War II, when the introduction of blacklists of German immigrants corrupted and destroyed many lives. Half a century later, in a gripping narrative that unpacks like a set of Russian dolls, one treacherous act perpetrated in those dark days returns with a vengeance, leading the reader towards a literal, moral and metaphorical cliff edge. With a tightly honed plot, deftly crafted situations, and a cast of complex and varied characters, The Informers is a fascinating novel of callous betrayal, complicit secrecy and the long quest for redemption in a secular, cynical world. It heralds the arrival of a major literary talent.(front flap)

Limited Damages (Boston Law #1)


John W. Dennehy - 2020
    An aggressive courtroom brawler on the rise, he makes his living in the trenches of personal injury and criminal defense matters. Supported by a diverse team of lawyers, the small law firm desperately seeks to pin liability on a new defendant with deep pockets. Dwyer takes on a criminal case to help pay the bills. His investigation into both matters leads him into the dealings of a Balkan criminal syndicate. Will he uncover the cause of the wrongful death or become another casualty of street crime?"A refreshing legal thriller packed with courtroom drama, scrappy litigation, and a whodunit that will surprise even the most perceptive readers." -- BestThrillers.com

The Butcher's Hook


Janet Ellis - 2016
    Summer 1763.Anne Jaccob is coming of age, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. When she is taken advantage of by her tutor — a great friend of her father’s — and is set up to marry a squeamish snob named Simeon Onions, she begins to realize just how powerless she is in Georgian society. Anne is watchful, cunning, and bored.Her saviour appears in the form of Fub, the butcher’s boy. Their romance is both a great spur and an excitement. Anne knows she is doomed to a loveless marriage to Onions and she is determined to escape with Fub and be his mistress. But will Fub ultimately be her salvation or damnation? And how far will she go to get what she wants?Dark and sweeping, The Butcher’s Hook is a richly textured debut featuring one of the most memorable characters in fiction.

The Leader


Guy Walters - 2003
    He and his new bride, Wallis Simpson, are preparing for their coronation.Winston Churchill is a prisoner on the Isle of Man.The Prime Minister, Oswald Mosley consults the new Chancellor of Germany, and his close ally, Adolf Hitler on a more 'permanent' solution to the 'Jewish problem'.The secret police have Britain in an iron grip.But one man, James Armstrong , a hero of the Great War, is organising the resistance against the government . While 'the leader' is determined to see him hang, Armstrong, constantly on the run, is every bit as clever and resolute as his enemy.

The Missing Person


Alix Ohlin - 2005
    What she finds when she arrives is more unsettling and frustrating than she could have predicted. Wylie is nowhere to be found, not in the tiny apartment he shares with a grungy band of eco-warriors, or lingering close to his suspiciously well-maintained Caprice. As Wylie continues to evade her, Lynn becomes certain that Angus, one of her brother’s environmental cohorts, must know more than he is revealing. What follows is a tale of ecological warfare, bending sensibilities, and familial surprises as Lynn searches for her missing person.

A Gun for Sale


Graham Greene - 1936
    His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes and when the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him and attempts to elude the police, he becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice. In doing so, he sets the stage for Greene’s next novel, Brighton Rock. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Samuel Hynes.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Deadkidsongs


Toby Litt - 2001
    With this poignant, odd, confusing, moving, heartfelt, troubling book he's tried to do an even trickier thing: extend his range and readership upmarket. The tenor of deadkidsongs is Just William meets Lord of the Flies with a nod to the latter-day works of Nick Hornby, which gives you some idea of what a different-but interesting-book it is. The story concerns four pre-pubescent boys, all members of a gang called Gang, growing up in darkest Devon in the 70s. Against a background of Cold War rumours and Last War memories they play their conkers and cowboys an' injuns, their war and show-us-yer-willy games. Then their clumsy and wistfully innocent Arcadia is overturned when one of them dies; from there the narrative unravels until the reader is not sure who is telling what to whom, nor quite how reliable the teller might be. To recapture a lost childhood is ambitious enough; Litt's aim is to do that and then some: he wants to say profound things about masculinity, nostalgia, violence and nationhood. Whether he succeeds or not is moot; anyone sincerely interested in the modern British novel will want to read this to decide for themselves. --Sean Thomas

The Teleportation Accident


Ned Beauman - 2012
    If you're living in Germany in the 1930s, it probably isn't. But that's no consolation to Egon Loeser, whose carnal misfortunes will push him from the experimental theatres of Berlin to the absinthe bars of Paris to the physics laboratories of Los Angeles, trying all the while to solve two mysteries: whether it was really a deal with Satan that claimed the life of his hero, the great Renaissance stage designer Adriano Lavicini; and why a handsome, clever, charming, modest guy like him can't, just once in a while, get himself laid. From the author of the acclaimed Boxer, Beetle comes a historical novel that doesn't know what year it is; a noir novel that turns all the lights on; a romance novel that arrives drunk to dinner; a science fiction novel that can't remember what 'isotope' means; a stunningly inventive, exceptionally funny, dangerously unsteady and (largely) coherent novel about sex, violence, space, time, and how the best way to deal with history is to ignore it. LET'S HOPE THE PARTY WAS WORTH IT

An Unfinished Story


Boo Walker - 2020
    Claire finally finds the courage to move on; then she discovers among the remnants of her shattered world her husband’s last manuscript. It’s intimate, stirring—and unfinished. An idea comes to her…What if she can find someone to give David’s novel the ending it deserves?Whitaker Grant is famous for his one and only bestselling novel—a masterpiece that became a hit film. But after being crippled by the pressure of success and his failed marriage, Whitaker retreated from the public eye in his native St. Petersburg, Florida. Years later, he’s struggling through a deep midlife crisis. Until he receives an intriguing request from a lonely widow. To honor David’s story, Whitaker must understand, heart and soul, the man who wrote it and the woman he left behind.There’s more to the novel than anyone dreamed. Something personal. Something true. Maybe, in bringing a chapter of David’s life to a close, Claire and Whitaker can find hope for a new beginning.

Suddenly Lily


Deborah Nolan - 2009
    Michael Frescato, a sheriff in Paterson by day and a brownstone renovator by night, teaches Lily that heroes are often where you least expect them but where they are most needed. He is there for her when she needs a home and when she looks for help protecting children and their caseworkers. But Lily is committed to her long-term boyfriend, even though the spark has gone out of their relationship. As Lily gets to know Michael, she has to decide if he and his warm, close-knit family are exactly what she has always been looking for.

Christmas at the Inn


Andrea Twombly - 2015
     Heading north for the holidays, things certainly hadn’t gone as she had planned. A snowstorm, an apple pie, and an old friend, all conspire to bring her to a crossroads. Will a Christmas Eve detour send her back to her snug village home, or will she forge ahead and let a turn in the road lead her to a newfound happiness? In this, the first entry in her new Rose and Briar Inn series, From Women’s Pens author Andrea Twombly weaves a warm story of the Christmas season, rich in challenges overcome and courage discovered along a twisting road to love. You won’t want to miss this one!

Lying Game Complete Collection: The Lying Game; Never Have I Ever; Two Truths and a Lie; Hide and Seek; Cross My Heart, Hope to Die; Seven Minutes in Heaven; First Lie; Truth Lies


Sara Shepard - 2014
    This collection contains all six Lying Game novels, plus two digital original novellas, The First Lie and True Lies.Separated at birth, twin sisters Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer never had a chance to meet. And now they never will. Someone murdered Sutton and forced Emma into taking her place. Sutton can only watch from beyond the grave as Emma tries to figure out who killed her—and why.But as Emma digs deeper, the girls discover that the truth may be far more terrible than they'd ever imagined—and the killer may be a lot closer to home….