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Published 08:00 11 Jul 2020 BST
Updated 17:13 6 Jul 2020 BST
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Lola Nox, the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker, thinks nothing can scare her. That is, until her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment -- and she soon finds herself packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot.
The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map – and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And there’s someone – or something – stalking Lola’s every move.
The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. It doesn't help that Lola’s got secrets of her own - and if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her…
Jean Swinney, the feature writer on a local paper, is disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother.When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud.
But the more she investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen herself, her husband Howard - with his dry wit and gentle disposition - and her charming daughter Margaret.
But they are the subject of the story Jean is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness. But there will be a price to pay - and it will be unbearable.
Ailsa Tilson moves with her husband and children to Trinity Fields in search of the new. New project - a house to renovate. New people - no links to the past. New friends - especially her next-door neighbour, the lonely Verity, who needs her help.
Verity has lived in Trinity Fields all her life. She's always resisted change. Her home and belongings are a shield, a defence to keep the outside world at bay. But something about the Tilsons piques her interest. Just as her ivy creeps through the shared garden fence, so Verity will work her way into the Tilson family.
And once they realise how formidable she can be, it might well be too late.
Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over the course of three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways.
They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of.
Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on.
This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.
There haven't been many details released about Malorie just yet, but if it's anything like Birdbox, we can only imagine how terrifying it will be. Definitely one to add to the TBR pile.
Maggie O’Farrell’s Land is one of the most important books I’ve ever read
Her Book Club met with Maggie O’Farrell to discuss her #1 novel Land There is one book taking the country by storm, and that is Land by Maggie O’Farrell. It has unsurprisingly hit the top spot of the Irish book charts, and trust me when I say it is worthy of all the hype and […]
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Maggie O’Farrell shared her top book recommendations with Her Book Club At Her Book Club, if there’s one person in the world we’re going to take book recommendations from, it’s legendary author Maggie O’Farrell. Last week, we had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Maggie to discuss her new release, Land. Selling a whopping […]
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Books