Das Einzige Kind / The Only Child

Christian is the epitome of the modern working youth who goes out with the love of his life, Yolanda. He finds meaning in the realm of family relationships, where he reconnects with his half-sister Amelia on a holiday to Sweden. Through his working relationship, he meets his boss, who is his uncle when he works as a scientist. As he gains in popularity with his acting career, he is able to forge his career as a scientist too at the same time. The book emphasizes the importance of real day romance and family relationships in a modern working world.

Transcending Me

This breathlessly compulsive novel, by turns savage and tender, funny and wise, horrifying and uplifting, tells the story of Aloisio, born male in Latin America, who is convinced from an early age that she is a woman in a man’s body. Moving to the United States to work in the theatre, the butterfly emerges; she finds love and her place in the world, but also depravity and danger, as the book’s narrator, Aloisio—Holly to her friends—navigates the ups and downs of her life with style, wit, perceptive intelligence and blazing honesty.Taking inspiration from the impact of transgenderism on the women’s movement, Elba Barnes has created a wonderfully rich, fully alive protagonist and surrounded her with a supporting cast of vividly realised characters.

The Smallest Show on Earth

From the 60s through to the present day Patrick Church has worked in the cinema from Peterborough through to Bury St Edmunds. In The Smallest Show on Earth he takes us through that experience in an autobiography that draws the reader into the trials and joys of a being a projectionist screening blockbusters like ‘Jaws' and a curious period of Indian films where half the time is spent splicing the films back together.The role of projectionist was always a low paid, but with the advent of TV and bingo and other demands on people's time it also became a precarious one as the decades rolled by. Sometimes Patrick had to plead his case as cinemas changed hands from ABC, to Odeon and bingo conglomerates, just to keep his job going and the buildings in operation. The fact that he succeeded is testament to his love for cinema and this passion shines through in this engaging book.

The Painting

Using a shoreline for the book’s landscape, The Painting is about re-emergence from a crisis of confidence. It uses the metaphor of a young water-skiing artist painting his life with his beliefs, inspired by a muse. All ages will enjoy identifying with the insight into peer connections and society, reflecting on the wrecked confidence that is pieced back together in reinventing ourselves. Younger readers will appreciate the colourful symbols littered throughout the story for the simple pleasure of reading unpredictable sentences assembled to meet needs not satisfied by daily conversation. This is entertainment sympathetic to the journey of self-healing. Every word has been carefully chosen for its sound, shape (and colour!) which can be interpreted in ways that are as individual as those reading it. 

The Foreseen

Jodie has finally managed to move on from her violent husband, Jack, and is forming new relationships and establishing her own business. With CJ, her son, she has a new home"”the whereabouts of which are unknown to Jack"”and the prospect of a normal life.Jack, however, feels differently. He is the victim and he wants Jodie back to play the part of the dutiful wife with her life centred around his needs and desires. He is prepared to go to any length to find her and get her back under his control.But not only is he frustrated by Barry, who was involved in getting Jodie away, he is also up against forces beyond his understanding. CJ's best friends, Thomas and Kelly"”killed in a hit and run incident"”are still not at peace. They establish contact with CJ and a medium, Mable, and are instrumental in trying to thwart Jack.

The Final Fence: Sophomores In The Saddle

Fair Questions for a Feature Story Is a disability something that is subjective or is it objective? Is a diagnosis opinion or fact? The Final Fence: Sophomores in the Saddle authored by Marc O'Brien takes a creative and honest look into a life filled with support due to well meaning individuals that think before they speak. When Eddie Patrick meets up with Danielle Lynne on a college campus, a love of horses triggers a classroom discussion. When their professor - a large chestnut pony named The Great Satan - starts the lecture, the relationship skills make the grade, with the ribbon only being a decorative award. Using a backdrop of the elegant and classy world of the hunter jumper horse shows during the second Ronald Reagan presidential administration, the setting for this novel is a perfect way for the future generations to learn about respect. 

Raineland

Nothing could have been lovelier... than the vision of Raineland Lodge presented to her by imagination and memory.'The ruins of an ancient priory, some lost church silver and a tale of the English Civil War are all a part of Raineland's long story. Joy Fleetwood returns to her old family home hoping it can provide refuge and can restore a way of life she knew before her days as a nurse and missionary. Perhaps too she can find once more her weakened faith and renew here her love for Tim Wenlock whom she has known from childhood and whose family and hers have long been close.But family tragedy has played its part during her absence. The deaths of her uncle in Africa and of her brother have affected her mother and grandfather who safeguard her little nephew at the old home.Secrets and personal feelings it seems, refuse to be left untouched as the story unfolds.'He did not come. It could never again be as it was.'

Narcissist

No family is free of secrets. In a dramatic tale of intrigue, the Johnson family struggles to overcome the threat of the skeletons in their closets. French-born Céline has led a satisfactory and happy life with her older English husband, Thomas, and their two surviving children. One of two twin boys, Luke, suffers from lifelong guilt from the fate of his brother, and his sister, Alexis, attempts to care for everyone she meets, naïve but compassionate. Once the Johnson children are adults, one a teacher and the other a nurse, they appear to have come to grips with their past troubles. Upon meeting Elizabeth, however, Luke introduces a dangerous variable to the happiness of his family. Marriage, fidelity, and the opportunity for giving Céline and Thomas grandchildren are all tested. But one can only wonder, what destructive truths could have been revealed to trigger the heart attack and death of Thomas?  

Miriam

Miriam is a story that explores the impact of bequeathed memories and experiences on identity, behaviour and attitudes. It charts the life of a daughter of Holocaust survivor parents as she comes to grips with her parents' past and the constraints it applies to her living her life freely and without recrimination. It highlights post Holocaust attitudes and a state of mind that so often inhibits the milieu of her parents and their friends, who owe their outlook and perception of the world, to their struggle for survival. In the shadow of the shambles of their lives, Miriam seeks joy, romance and a fresh beginning, but to do so, she first needs to understand who she is and what comprises her cultural identity. It is not a story of the Holocaust per se but primarily a story of discovery - from despair to enlightenment, romance and freedom, as Miriam strikes out in new relationships and experiences that feed her quest. The story is an emotional roller-coaster ride encompassing sadness and humour, forever thoughtful, informative and often philosophical, as it takes the reader on Miriam's journey.

Invisible Ink

London lawyer Max Rivers has it all - a burgeoning career, a beautiful girlfriend, an exclusive address - but he harbours a long-buried secret that threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world.Invisible Ink is a mesmerising novel of guilt, loss and betrayal within a family - of sibling jealousy that threatens to run out of control, a mother's life all-but forgotten through the fog of dementia and a son who longs to, but cannot, escape his past. Pippa Kelly's haunting debut offers a deft exploration of the complex emotions hidden beneath the surface of our lives; drawing its readers into Max's story and leading them, step by careful step, towards its inevitable dénouement.

A Game of Consequences

Miles 'Tiger' O'Toole, the bank's new Chief Executive, is determined to make his mark. He unleashes a roller coaster expansion drive where profit targets are everything, and no prisoners taken. Ethical standards go out the window. It's time for customers, staff and shareholders to buckle their safety belts.As tensions mount, his steadfast deputy Des Peters realises he faces a stark choice. Should he remain loyal to his employers, or wave goodbye to his rewarding career?Narrated with humour and wry observation by an experienced former investment banker, A Game of Consequences is an engrossing contemporary exploration of organisational power, greed, and corruption.

Yaad, the Girl With No History

It’s 1987. Namo, the politically active bookseller, is preparing to save his marriage after his wife left to stay at her mum’s after an argument. Nazdar is at home, preparing for her wedding which will be taking place in her home village the next day. Friba, the pregnant Peshmerga, is on her way to the city’s hospital, together with her husband. They don’t know one another, but destiny will bring them together.

Sarwar Joanroy follows the fates of these people from the moment their daily lives are interrupted and they end up in the desert.

The novel is a journey through the black pages of the history of the Kurds in Iraq, before the invasion of the United States. Yaad, the girl with no history makes you face the facts about what Saddam Hussein’s regime did to the country and its citizens. It makes you understand why this country is still in turmoil, even today. Sarwar Joanroy based the events in his book on true events, some of which he experienced himself.

Yaad, the girl with no history is a story that is as moving as it is fascinating and educational.