Modern & contemporary fiction

A wife compulsively digs in her garden. Two brothers, long estranged, reunite for a terse, heady summer. A woman flies to Krakow to see her adult son. At dusk, a teenage girl pushes her dying mother out into the sea. A small boy sits on his own in the cinema, entranced by the cowboys who light up...

A wife compulsively digs in her garden. Two brothers, long estranged, reunite for a terse, heady summer. A woman flies to Krakow to see her adult son. At dusk, a teenage girl pushes her dying mother out into the sea. A small boy sits on his own in the cinema, entranced by the cowboys who light up...

Nestled in the Devon countryside, the Keep has always been a refuge for the Chadwick family: forever warm and welcoming through the challenges life has thrown at them. And the current occupants have certainly seen their share of challenges. Lulu and her small son, Oliver, are staying at the Keep ...

She turned the picture of the Christmas card over with her frozen hands, a pretty picture of a family gathering at Yuletide. How different from her own life. When her father dies leaving Alice and her ailing mother with only his debts, the two grieving women are forced to rely on the begrudging c...

A boy decides to become a writer when he discovers that his inventions hold the power to entice the rich girl who has stolen his heart. An architect flees Constantinople with plans for an impregnable library. A strange gentleman tempts Cervantes to write a book that has never existed. And Gaudí,...

A little girl throws up Gloria-Jean's teeth after an explosion at the custard factory; Pax, Alexander, and Angelo are hypnotically enthralled by a book that promises them enlightenment if they keep their semen inside their bodies; Victoria is sent to a cursed hotel for ailing girls when her perio...

In the spirit of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Shilpi Somaya Gowda comes this powerful debut from a talented new voice-a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night. India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old vi...

Jasper is not ordinary. In fact, he would say he is extraordinary. Synaesthesia paints the sounds of his world in a kaleidoscope of colours that no one else can see. But on Friday, he discovered a new colour - the colour of murder. He's sure something has happened to his neighbour, Bee Larkham, b...

Here are the BBC Radio adaptations of Ursula K. Le Guin's famous fantasy saga and her ground-breaking science fiction masterpiece - plus bonus material. Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the most revered and influential writers of the 20th century. Her 'Earthsea' books have sold millions of copies and...

Roald Dahl is one of the most popular writers of the modern age, effortlessly writing for children and adults alike. In this, the first of two volumes chronologically collecting all his published adult short stories, we see how Dahl began by using his experiences in the war to write fiction but q...