The Internal Revenue Service Regional Examination Centre in Peoria, Illinois, 1985. Here the workers fight a never-ending war against the urgency of their own boredom. Here then, squeezed between the trivial and the quotidian, lies all human life.

Palmares is the long-awaited book from 'the best American novelist whose name you may not know' (Atlantic). A sweeping, magnificent historical epic, set in 17th-century Brazil, that has its basis in extraordinary historical events.

Eliot described as a 'creepy crawly imagination', The Palm-Wine Drinkard is regarded as the seminal work of African literature. 'Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching.' Dylan Thomas, Observer 'Tutuola's art conceals - or rather clothes - his purpose, as all good art must do.' Chinua Achebe

A devilish story written in English by a West African.

Written with an immediacy and sense of place, this title traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism.

Fifteen-year-old Pamela Andrews, alone in the world, is pursued by her dead mistress' son. Although she is attracted to Mr B, she holds out against his demands and threats of abduction and rape, determined to protect her virginity and abide by her moral standards.

From the creator of Falco comes Falco: the new generation, featuring her unforgettable heroine Flavia Albia in her sixth novel.

In the many retellings of the Greek myths, the focus is generally on gods and heroes, but Natalie Haynes refocuses our gaze on the remarkable women at the centre of these ancient stories.

Panenka has spent 25 years living with his disastrous mistakes and begins to rebuild an improvised family life with his estranged daughter and her seven year old son. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, and together, they find resonance in each other's experiences and learn new ways to let love into their broken lives.

Fifteen-year old Anais Hendricks is smart, funny and fierce, but she is also a child who has been let down, or worse, by just about every adult she has ever met. Sitting in the back of a police car, she finds herself headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders where the social workers are as suspicious as its residents.

The whole world is beginning to fall in love with Atlantica. With a thriving economy based on global waste disposal and an infrastructure run by advanced software, politician-free Atlantica is the envy of other nations and a consumer paradise. This title asks a question: is the system about to discover that it spat out its difficult customer soon?

Now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award-nominated Lee Daniels and starring Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray.

The new Roman-era historical adventure by Simon Turney, set in the fourth century AD.

Written in a chilling torrent of prose by one of our most thrilling new writers, Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society - fractured by issues of race, class and violence - and how the myths, desires, and hardships of teenagers can tear life apart at the seams.

A path-breaking novel of art, womanhood and violence, from the author of the Outline trilogy. Midway through his life, an artist begins to paint upside down. In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. A mother dies.

The Great War changes everything. In this tale, spanning over a decade, war turns the world of privileged, English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens upside down. It forces him to question everything he holds dear - social order, morality, marriage and loyalty. And it rocks the very foundations of English society.

Some Do Not ... is an unforgettable exploration of the tensions of a society facing catastrophe, as the energies of sexuality and power erupt in madness and violence.

Paradise is Abdulrazak Gurnah's fourth novel, a beautiful story of African life.

Four young women are brutally attacked in a convent near an all-black town in America in the mid-1970s. Spanning the birth of the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, the counter-culture and politics of the late 1970s, deftly manipulating past, present and future, this novel reveals the interior lives of the citizens of the town with clarity.

This work is part of the "Continuum Contemporaries" series giving readers accessible and informative introductions to 30 of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential contemporary novels. It contains a biography of the novelist and a full-length study of the novel.

An irresistibly strange debut short story collection set in a crumbling tower block.