“When Hitler came to power I was in the bath. The wireless was turned up loud so Hans could hear it in the kitchen, but all that drifted down to me were waves of happy cheering, like a football match. It was Monday afternoon.”
A novel based on true events and told in a sparkling original style. Follow Ruth, Toller, Hans, and Dora as they discover both bravery and betrayal in their lives, resisting and ultimately fleeing Hitler’s long reach.
“Love, friendship, and betrayal – Ruth’s story reminds us that there were some who challenged Hitler’s rise from the start. And paid the price for doing so.”
content.
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
"As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I’m still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me.”
Christine wakes up each day not knowing who she is or where she’s from, and is entirely reliant on the man who shares her life. Then she begins to write a diary and realises that he may only be telling her half the story. How can she trust him?
“Mesmerising and unsettling... The best debut thriller for years.”
Sunday Times
Sam says:
“It is a great achievement to write an involving and unputdownable bestseller. But to write so well on top is very rare."
Before I Go To Sleep is perfect for fans of Stephen King and
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
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Read an extract from
Before I Go To Sleep
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Before I Go To Sleep
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Before I Go To Sleep Summer Reads Book Club page
• Discuss B
efore I Go To Sleep online with the WCN Book Club on
Twitter or
Facebook. (21st May-10th June)
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Before I Go To Sleep.
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Open City by Teju Cole
A young Nigerian doctor wanders the streets of Manhattan, musing on work, a recent breakup and his own isolation. Along the way he encounters people from all over town; some of whom make him feel even lonelier. But others transport him to new cultures, to the Nigeria of his youth and even to the trickier zones of his own soul.
Enjoy this award-winning, intelligent work on identity, dislocation and surrender.
"Strikingly original … Open City is a book that can be read and read again, with each bringing the reward of further insights."
Observer
Sam says:
“An heir to the great WG Sebald. Teju Cole’s debut is a major work of fiction.”
Open City is perfect for fans of The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald and The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.
• Author biography and book synopsis
• Read an extract from Open City
• See what reviewers thought of Open City
• Visit the Open City Summer Reads Book Club page
• Discuss Open City online with the WCN Book Club on Twitter or Facebook. (11th June- 1st July)
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Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott
“Look up to catch eclipses, gold leaf, comets, angels, chandeliers... folksong, human sacrifice, mortality, flying, fishing, sex without touching much.”
Costa winner Jo Shapcott’s beautiful poems feature illness, mortality, love, change, all the big stuff –but with an eye for detail and the uplifting moment that will draw you back again and again.
Whether you read poetry rarely or savour it regularly, don’t miss this chance to muse upon some of the ’strange secrets‘ of life and death.
Full of wisdom and joy, a book for a lifetime.”
Carol Ann Duffy
Sam says:
“Looks mortality bullet-straight in the iris but emerges as an uplifting and witty celebration of life.”
Of Mutability is perfect for fans of Carol Ann Duffy or Seamus Heaney.
• Author biography and book synopsis
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• Visit the Of Mutability Summer Reads Book Club page
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Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos
Holed up in his Mexican castle, Tochtli is getting along playing with his collection of hats and taking daily lessons. But when his teacher disappears and Tochtli finds out that his gangster father has been lying to him, even the promise of a Liberian pygmy hippopotamus doesn’t help.
This delicious, neatly written short novel reveals the hectic world of precocious, likeable seven-year old Tochtli just as it starts to unravel.
“Villalobos creates Tochtli’s half-corrupt, half-innocent world with a brilliant, tragic-comic touch.”
Daily Mail
Sam says:
“Tochtli is a brilliant narrator. I defy you not to be charmed by his tale of a world that, for all his young awe, is far from innocent.”
Down The Rabbit Hole is perfect for fans of
Room by Emma Donoghue or
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.
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Down The Rabbit Hole
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Down The Rabbit Hole
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Down The Rabbit Hole Summer Reads Book Club page
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Down The Rabbit Hole online with the WCN Book Club on
Twitter or
Facebook. (16th-27th July)
• Meet
translator Rosalind Harvey and publisher Stefan Tobler.
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Down The Rabbit Hole content.
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