Recommendations based on "The Nowhere Girl"

'I was in the story, feeling everything. I cared about every character . . . She writes beautifully. It was a total pleasure' Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had ReadSusie Boyt writes with a mordant wit and vivid style which are at their best in Loved and Missed.When your beloved daughter is lost in the fog of addiction and you make off with her baby in order to save the day, can willpower and a daring creative zeal carry you through ?Examining the limits, disappointments and excesses of love in all its forms, this marvellously absorbing novel, full of insight and compassion, delights as much as it disturbs.~'She takes the study of love into uncharted territory and every sentence has its depth and pleasure' Linda Grant'I am so moved: it carries a huge emotional power... I ache for them all. Poignant, witty, lyrical and perceptive' Joan Bakewell

“I loved this novel truly, madly, deeply.” ―Nina George, bestselling author of The Book of Dreams and The Little Paris BookshopIn this international bestseller by the award-winning novelist Mariana Leky, a heartwarming story unfolds about a small town, a grandmother whose dreams foretell a coming death, and the young woman forever changed by these losses and her loving, endearingly oddball communityOn a beautiful spring day, a small village wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die.Luisa, Selma’s ten-year-old granddaughter, looks on as the predictable characters of her small world begin acting strangely. Though they claim not to be superstitious, each of her neighbors newly grapples with buried secrets and deferred decisions that have become urgent in the face of death.Luisa’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when the prophesied death finally comes, the circumstances fall outside anyone’s expectations. The loss forever changes Luisa and shapes her for years to come, as she encounters life’s great questions alongside her devoted friends, young and old.A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of small towns and the wider world that beckons beyond, this charmer of a novel is also a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person but a community. Mariana Leky’s What You Can See from Here is a moving tale of grief, first love, reluctant love, late love, and finding one’s place in the world, even if that place is right where you started.

Soon A Major Netflix Series - From Director Shawn Levy, Starring Louis Hofmann, Lars Eidinger And Marion Bailey, With Hugh Laurie And Mark Ruffalo, And Introducing Aria Mia Loberti. Winner Of The 2015 Pulitzer Prize For Fiction National Book Award Finalist New York Times Bestseller Winner Of The Carnegie Medal For Fiction A Beautiful, Stunningly Ambitious Novel About A Blind French Girl And A German Boy Whose Paths Collide In Occupied France As Both Try To Survive The Devastation Of World War Ii. Marie-laure Has Been Blind Since The Age Of Six. Her Father Builds A Perfect Miniature Of Their Paris Neighbourhood So She Can Memorize It By Touch And Navigate Her Way Home. But When The Nazis Invade, Father And Daughter Flee With A Dangerous Secret. Werner Is A German Orphan, Destined To Labour In The Same Mine That Claimed His Father's Life, Until He Discovers A Knack For Engineering. His Talent Wins Him A Place At A Brutal Military Academy, But His Way Out Of Obscurity Is Built On Suffering. At The Same Time, Far Away In A Walled City By The Sea, An Old Man Discovers New Worlds Without Ever Setting Foot Outside His Home. But All Around Him, Impending Danger Closes In. Doerr's Combination Of Soaring Imagination And Meticulous Observation Is Electric. As Europe Is Engulfed By War And Lives Collide Unpredictably, All The Light We Cannot See Is A Captivating And Devastating Elegy For Innocence. 'sublime' The Times 'such A Page-turner, Entirely Absorbing ... Magnificent' Guardian 'a Masterpiece' Financial Times 'epic ... A Bittersweet And Moving Novel That Lingers In The Mind' Daily Mail 'a Vastly Entertaining Feat Of Storytelling' New York Times

Meet Isobel, Jen and Zelda.Three women whose bodies and minds are not their own.They belong to the Church.Life and death decisions are taken by others on their behalf.Who they might marry.Whether they start a family.Isobel and Jen know nothing of the world.But when Isobel's husband leaves her and Jen challenges those in charge, the Church turns its back on them.Zelda - never one for doing what is expected - dares to find hope on the outside.Meet Isobel, Jen and Zelda.Three women desperate to find a life to call their own . . .This is a novel about what it is like to live inside a prison of the mind and how to break out of it - if you can.____________Praise for Jodie Chapman:'Beautifully written...I couldn't put it down' EMMA GANNON'An astounding debut about sibling grief, religion and sliding doors love' PANDORA SYKES'Deep, rich, thoughtful' GILLIAN MCALLISTER'This beautiful tale of love, loss and sacrifice will break your heart . . . With echoes of David Nicholls' One Day and Sally Rooney's novels, it perfectly captures the agony of falling in love and the razor-sharp reality of pain and loss' DAILY MAIL

The highly anticipated new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, a sweeping novel that begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generationsAdelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in the hospital.At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event – a mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.An epic story that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home. Above all, it is an intricate and spellbinding novel from one of the finest writers working today.

'I can't remember ever reading anything so moving . . . It's so beautiful.' MARIAN KEYESThey say boys don't cry.But Finn's seen his Da do it when he thinks no one's looking, so that's not true.And isn't it OK to be sad, when bad things happen?They say boys don't cry, but you might . . .'Unforgettable.' Donal Ryan'Authentic to the bone' Kit de WaalIt will break your heart in a million different ways.' Louise O'Neill'Powerful and poignant.' Ruth Hogan'Hilarious and heartbreaking.' Louise NealonWhat readers are saying:'Fiona Scarlett is certainly up there with the likes of Roddy Doyle . . . A beautifully written, authentic novel, that will make you both laugh and cry, I just want to recommend this book to everyone.''This is a heartbreaking and very emotional novel that is exquisitely written. Fíona's writing style helps to bring such raw emotion to the text that it was impossible to not shed a tear!''I cried so much reading this book . . . A stunning read that I'll be thinking about for a long time.''There is a lot of humour to balance the heartache . . . All humanity is here, in all its shades, and that's what stays with you long after you finish reading. A brilliant debut.'

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book, National Book Award finalist, more than two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller listA blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). Open your eyes, and see what you can with them before they close forever. Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When she is twelve, the German Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner Pfennig grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an master at building and fixing these crucial new radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. The story Illuminates the ways, against all odds, that people try to be good to one another.At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

Winner of the Carnegie Medal * Winner of the YA Book Prize * Winner of the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year AwardTippi and Grace share everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi Picoult, and Jandy Nelson.Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it's normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. Each of the sixteen-year-old girls has her own head, heart, and two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery.But the girls' body is beginning to fight against them. And Grace doesn't want to admit it. Not even to Tippi. How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?Carnegie Medal–winning author Sarah Crossan gives us a story about unbreakable bonds, hope, loss, and the lengths we will go to for the person we love most.

Longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for FictionA New York Times Best Book of the Year So Far | Editors’ ChoiceNamed a most anticipated book of summer by Vulture | The Boston GlobeOne of the BBC’s 10 Best Books of the Summer | A Times (London) Best Book of the Year“One gawps . . . at its breadth and ambition. [The Sisters is] a transnational tour de force.” —Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review“One of this summer’s most buzzed-about novels.” —Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times“A classic story about sibling rivalry . . . One of the best novels I've ever read about the complexities of mixed heritage.” —Fredrik Backman, The New Yorker“[The Sisters] generates every kind of heat . . . If you welcome this novel into your mind, it will warm and transform you.” —Tess Gunty, National Book Award–winning author of The Rabbit Hutch“Astonishing . . . Every character—every sentence—is startlingly, indubitably alive.” —Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and IntimaciesAn addictively entertaining family saga by a National Book Award finalist.Meet the Mikkola sisters: Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia. Their mother is a Tunisian carpet seller, their father a mysterious Swede who left them when they were young. Ina is tall, serious, a compulsive organizer. Evelyn is dreamy, magnetic, a smooth talker. And Anastasia is moody, chaotic, a shape-shifting presence, quick to anger.Ina meets her future husband when she’s dragged to a New Year’s rave by her sisters, only to suffer the ultimate betrayal. Evelyn drifts through life before embarking on a wild career as an actress. And Anastasia runs off to Tunisia, where she falls in love with a woman who, years later, will transform her life.Following the sisters from afar is Jonas, the son of a Swedish mother and a Tunisian father. Over the course of three decades, his life intersects with the sisters, from a chance encounter in Tunis to the scene of a fighter jet crash in Stockholm. When Evelyn disappears on a trip to New York, Jonas manages to track her down—and helps her to break the curse that has been looming over the Mikkolas for decades. In the process, a shocking revelation changes everything about who they think they are.Narrated in six parts, each spanning a period ranging from a year to a day to a single minute, Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Sisters is a big, vivid family saga of the highest order—an addictively entertaining tour de force.

"When Emma discovers the first spot, 'like a tiny bright moon' on her left foot, she's at the funeral of her grandmother, who had been her best friend as well. The diagnosis is vitiligo, a skin condition triggered by stress. Creating a large multigenerational cast, Standish knits an absorbing story of loss, identity, and human connections. A rewarding, realistic novel, illuminated by magical elements." --Booklist (starred review) Wonder meets Some Kind of Happiness in this powerful tween novel from Ali Standish, author of the Carnegie Medal nominee The Ethan I Was Before and August Isle. While her grandmother was alive, Emma's world was filled with enchantment. But now Gram is gone, and suddenly strange spots are appearing on Emma's skin. Soon, she's diagnosed with vitiligo--a condition that makes patches of her skin lose their color--and the magic in her world is suddenly replaced with school bullies and doctor appointments. But when Emma writes one last story in the journal she shared with Gram, something strange happens. Someone writes back to her, just like Gram used to. Who's writing to Emma? And just what is her story going to be, now that everything is so different? Award-winning author Ali Standish explores the ways life transforms us, and how we learn to let go of what we must while still holding fast to who we are. "Seamlessly blending childhood wonder with the slow lessons of maturity, this tale succeeds in celebrating curiosity, thoughtfulness, and collaboration, centering on relatable characters who welcome readers into their world." --Publishers Weekly