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.

The beginning of the 20th century - 13-year-old Conxa has to leave her village in the Pyrenees to work for her aunt. After years of hard labour, she finds love with Jaume - a love that will be thwarted by the Spanish Civil War. Approaching her own death, Conxa looks back on a life in which she has lost everything except her own indomitable spirit.

Jim Dodge's unforgettable outlaw epic. Introduced by Thomas Pynchon

For five hundred years a statue of the Madonna has watched over Venice. Now, dulled by time and pollution, she is prepared for restoration. As Simon Raikes immerses himself in the painstaking task of cleaning and repairing, he is inexorably drawn to the stories of violence and lust which have surrounded this stone virgin.

The new novel by Charlotte Wood, the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. A fearless exploration of forgiveness, grief and the complicated beauty of female friendship.

Iain Banks at his very best - his funniest, grittiest and most exciting novel yet.

William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely.

Originally published as The Collected Works of A. J. Fikry. The little book with the big heart - the New York Times bestseller that has won passionate fans around the world.

A treasure trove of short stories from the beloved author of the Old Filth trilogy.

First published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series, this comprehensive selection of Kipling's stories and poems covers the full range of his career. It displays Kipling's comic mastery as well as his bleak insights into human behaviour, from the days of British India to the aftermath of the First World War. With Introduction and full notes.

True classics of Western literature, these stories have delighted young and old for generations. This unique collection features more than 80 of Andersen's best loved tales and many original illustrations by A.W. Bayes.

Stories for Winter is a collection of short stories that take their inspiration from this cold, snowy season, whether it's winter holidays, weather-related predicaments or seasonal celebrations.

Presents stories that take us around the globe and into the intimate lives of the author's characters and the dilemmas and temptations they face. This title tells the little-known history of the only enemy attack on Australian soil during the Great War, when, in January 1915, the outback town of Broken Hill was rocked by horrifying events.

The captivating collection of short fiction, beautifully repackaged for the first time on the Scribner list, from the internationally bestselling author of The Japanese Lover

Includes tales such as 'Sound of Thunder', 'The Veldt', and 'The Fog Horn'. This title also contains the Irish stories, the Martian stories and the Mexican stories.

Ways to connect with the sun through story, folklore and journal extracts, inspiring a deeper connection with the earth

Trees have starred in stories ever since Ovid described the nymph Daphne's metamorphosis into a laurel, and the landscape of literature has long been enlivened by wild woodlands, sacred groves, and fertile orchards.

These stories cover the whole span of Kafka's writing career, from "Looking to See" written in his twenties, to his last work, "Josephine", and culminating in "The Metamorphosis"

Offers a meditation on how our love for one another and the stories we tell ourselves allow us to endure.

An action-packed case file from Harry Dresden, private investigator and wizard, by international bestselling author Jim Butcher