Fantastic Fiction (with a smidge of non-fiction)
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The Twyborn Affair
by Patrick White
Eddie Twyborn is bisexual and beautiful, the son of a Judge and a drunken mother. His search for identity, self-affirmation and love takes us into …
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The Tenant
by Roland Topor
This is the tale of Monsieur Trelkovsky, an ordinary man, against whom apparently ordinary circumstances conspire until he is enmeshed in an extraordinary and terrifying …
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Music for Chameleons
by Truman Capote
This collection of 14 short stories includes Handcarved Coffins which, like the novel In Cold Blood, is based on the brutal crimes of a real-life …
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Lovesong
by Nikki Gemmell
On the day she turns twenty-one Lillie Bird brims with imminent escape and longs to find the world that she has only read about: of …
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Bad Behavior
by Mary Gaitskill
Powerful stories of dislocation, longing and desire which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation that is groping for human connection. (Or, more simply …
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Cloudstreet
by Tim Winton
Hailed as a classic, Tim Winton's masterful family saga is both a paean to working-class Australians and an unflinching examination of the human heart's capacity …
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Stonedogs
by Craig Marriner
In between drug deals and binge-drinking, reckless driving and street fights, the delinquents of the Brotherhood wage the holiest of wars. Yes, they will derail …
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The Bone People
by Keri Hulme
Set in the harsh environment of the South Island beaches of New Zealand, this masterful story brings together three singular people in a trinity that …
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Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith
With an autobiographical Afterword by the author, "The Price of Salt" is now recognized as a masterwork, the scandalous novel that anticipated Nabokov's "Lolita."
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Good Behaviour
by Molly Keane
I do know how to behave - believe me, because I know. I have always known...' Behind the gates of Temple Alice the aristocratic Anglo-Irish …
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The Collected Short Stories
by Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys was one of the twentieth century's foremost writers, a literary artist who made exqusite use of the raw material of her own often …
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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
by Winifred Watson
A governess is sent by an employment afency to the wrong address, where she encounters a glamourous night-club singer, Miss LaFosse.
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The Grass is Singing
by Doris Lessing
Author's first novel often considered her best. Relationship between a white woman and a black man.
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Nights at the Circus
by Angela Carter
Angela Carter has invented a new, raucous, Cockney voice for her heroine Fevvers, taking us back into a rich, turn of the 19th century world, …
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We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates
An Oprah Book Club® selection A New York Times Notable Book The Mulvaneys are blessed by all that makes life sweet. But something happens on …
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Ex Libris
by Anne Fadiman
This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. Writing with humour and erudition, Fadiman moves easily from anecdotes about …
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The Portable Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker
The second revision in 60 years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the 20th century's most quotable …
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Paper Moon
by Joe David Brown
Eleven-year-old Addie and her father are a pair of swindlers who make their way around the Southern states during the Depression bilking people out of …
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The Conformist
by Alberto Moravia
Secrecy and Silence are second nature to Marcello Clerici, the hero of The Conformist, a book which made Alberto Moravia one of the world's most …
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What a Carve Up!
by Jonathan Coe
Michael is a lonely writer, obsessed by a film featuring a mad knifeman. When he is commissioned to write the family history of the Winshaws …
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Ghostwritten
by David Mitchell
Ghostwritten is a novel set at the fugitive edges of Asia and Europe, and features a host of characters. A Mongolian gangster, a redundant English …
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The Quiet American
by Graham Greene
With a new introduction by Zadie Smith Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through …
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The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and …
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My Uncle Napoleon
by Iraj Pezeshkzad
The most beloved Iranian novel of the twentieth century “God forbid, I’ve fallen in love with Layli!” So begins the farce of our narrator’s life, …
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Amongst Women
by John McGahern
Moran is an old Republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerrilla leader in the War of Independence. Now, …
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An Angel at My Table
by Janet Frame
Autobiografie van de Nieuwzeelandse schrijfster die na een reeks moeilijke jaren haar wil om te schrijven zag overwinnen.
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Beware of Pity
by Stefan Zweig
Wes Anderson on Stefan Zweig: "I had never heard of Zweig...when I just more or less by chance bought a copy of Beware of Pity. …
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Georgiana
by Amanda Foreman
The winner of Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize and a bestseller there for months, this wonderfully readable biography offers a rich, rollicking picture of late-eighteenth-century British …
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Paradise
by A. L. Kennedy
Hannah Luckraft sells cardboard boxes for a living. Her family is so frustrated by her behavior they can barely stand to keep in touch with …
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Bastard Out of Carolina
by Dorothy Allison
Ruth Anne Boatwright--a South Carolina bastard who is attached to the indomitable women in her mother's family--is tired of being labeled white trash and longs …
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The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
First published in 1905, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on …
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The Wings of the Dove
by Henry James
Emerging from the grit and stigma of poverty to a life of fairytale privilege under the wing of her aunt, the beautiful and financially ambitious …
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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
A widow's sudden suicide sparks rumors that she murdered her first husband, was being blackmailed, and was carrying on a secrey affair with the wealthy …
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Letty Fox
by Christina Stead
One hot night last spring, after waiting fruitlessly for a call from my then lover, with whom I had quarreled the same afternoon, and finding …
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The Long-winded Lady
by Maeve Brennan
First published in 1969, 'The Long-Winded Lady' is a celebration of one of The New Yorker's finese writers.