Tim Glencross

'A dazzling debut' The Times It is 2008, late capitalism is in crisis, and the great and the good are gathered at an Islington house party. Hosting proceedings are waspish Sherard Howe, scion of a publishing dynasty and owner of a left-wing magazine, and his wife, Daphne Depree, whose feminist work The Third Sex is seen - to her increasing discomfort - as an intellectual cornerstone of the Blair era. The guests include cabinet ministers, celebrated artists and peers of the realm; but somehow it's doubtful that any number of grandees would overshadow Afua, the Howes' beautiful and supremely ambitious adopted daughter, already a rising star of the Labour Party. Into this world arrives twenty-four-year-old Elizabeth "Buzzy" Price, an aspiring poet only too aware of her suburban background. Moral support is at hand from shy but devoted Henry, the Howes' biological son - though perhaps Buzzy is most grateful for her friend's connection to her own unrequited love, Afua's boyfriend, the worldly Marcel. As the years pass and a coalition government takes office, Buzzy's fortunes rise and the elder Howes' lives threaten to unravel. But do the civilising possibilities of art involve enlarging Buzzy's romantic ambitions, or revealing their moral complacency? And could meek and gentle Henry, having angered his family by going to work for the political enemy, turn out to be steelier than anyone thought - as steely, even, as his formidable adopted sister? Barbarians is a debut of extraordinary scope and confidence; a fresh, contemporary novel about love, art and politics, told with a 19th century sensibility.

Barbarians

'Might have been written by P.G. Wodehouse's evil twin ... impeccably plotted' Daily Telegraph William Hoffer - handsome, refined, a little cold perhaps - is an established figure in London society. But Hoffer has secrets. He is vague about his Midwestern origins. The counsel he offers a Russian billionaire may extend to murkier topics than art investments. Then there is his Kensington flat, which is only rented, and the broader question of his money, which is running out. When a ghost from his past in Mexico surfaces, Hoffer is forced to revive brutal instincts for self-preservation . . . Days of the Dead is an amoral thriller of intelligence, wit and style, and a coruscating commentary on the world we live in now.

Days of the Dead

Kate Hamer

James Hannah

They tie our lives together. The only way to learn them is by getting them wrong. But just because they're not written down doesn't mean you won't be judged by them. Welcome to the anthology of stories where hidden forces are at play. Welcome to The Book of Unwritten Rules... would you have known them? The authors met on the Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing course in 2011. This is their first short-story collection.

Tim Glencross

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