{"title":"Recommended Reads","description":"Here you can explore books that we love and think you might love, too!","products":[{"product_id":"the-fraud-zadie-smith","title":"Emma recommends... The Fraud - Zadie Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFiercely intelligent, Dickensian in scope, and massively thought-provoking. Smith has always been a talent but there is something even more astounding in this book, her historical fiction debut. A substantial and serious book, it is also lively (and funny!), with short chapters transporting you seamlessly between times and places, interweaving narratives and creatively stitching together fiction with real people and events.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTruth and fiction. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eZadie Smith returns with her first historical novel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eKilburn, 1873. The 'Tichborne Trial' has captivated the widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet and all of England. Readers are at odds over whether the defendant is who he claims to be - or an imposter.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her novelist cousin and his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAndrew Bogle meanwhile finds himself the star witness, his future depending on telling the right story. Growing up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica, he knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnd that people are more easily manipulated than they realise.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBased on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about how in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what's true can prove a complicated task.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIndie bookshop exclusive edition with an orange sprayed edge!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41824460046381,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780241983096.jpg?v=1719561781"},{"product_id":"western-lane-chetna-maroo","title":"Emma recommends... Western Lane - Chetna Maroo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is just the most beautiful book - so much being conveyed in so few, but exquisitely chosen, words. If you are a fan of Claire Keegan then this is definitely one for you. If you don't know anything about squash, don't worry - me neither! But we all know something about loss, about growing up, about family, about identity. And this wonderful book explores all of that and more in an astonishing 176 pages...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLonglisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLonglisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA beautiful and moving novel about grief, sisterhood, squash and a teenage girl's struggle to transcend herself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSlowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShe is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShe is in awe.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAn unforgettable coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo's first novel is a moving exploration of the closeness of sisterhood, the immigrant experience, and the collective overcoming of grief.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41824478625837,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529094640.jpg?v=1709738172"},{"product_id":"all-the-little-bird-hearts-viktoria-lloyd-barlow","title":"Emma recommends... All the Little Bird-Hearts - Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is a stunning novel about class, vulnerability, neurodiversity, and a mother and daughter whose world is turned upside down by a pair of manipulative new neighbours. The book brilliantly evokes the 80s without feeling like a period piece, and Sunday is a beautifully written, completely unforgettable main character in this very special book.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLonglisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHer etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home. Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSoon they are in and out of each others' homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41824497664045,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781472288042.jpg?v=1709738065"},{"product_id":"the-centre-ayesha-manazir-siddiqi","title":"Emma recommends... The Centre - Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI devoured this book (you'll just have to read it to gauge whether that's a pun or not...!). It is weird and dark, sometimes funny, sometimes deeply questioning. An uncomfortably great read.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWelcome to The Centre. You'll never be the same...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnisa Ellahi spends her days writing subtitles for Bollywood films in her London flat, all the while longing to be a translator of 'great works of literature'. Her boyfriend Adam's extraordinary aptitude for languages only makes her feel worse, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAdam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only programme that guarantees total fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre's strange and rigorous processes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBut as she enmeshes herself further within the organization, seduced by all that it's made possible, she soon realizes the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy turns dark, funny and surreal, The Centre takes the reader on a journey through Karachi, London and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation and appropriation with biting specificity, and ultimately asking: what price would you be willing to pay for success?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA remarkable debut from Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, announcing the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41824522797101,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529097849_The_Centre.jpg?v=1721319674"},{"product_id":"black-butterflies-priscilla-morris","title":"Emma recommends... Black Butterflies - Priscilla Morris","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe list of nominations says it all. This is a very real contender for my book of 2023; I just loved it. Shedding light on a conflict that I imagine many of us remember but probably few of us know or understand much about, there is an extraordinary empathy and deftness to the writing that renders difficult - and potentially heavy - subject matter unforgettable and beautiful. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH PRIZE 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents - whether Muslim, Croat or Serb - push the makeshift barriers aside. When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eReluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41824542359597,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780715654613_BlackButterflies.jpg?v=1698082312"},{"product_id":"mary-or-the-birth-of-frankenstein","title":"Emma recommends... Mary : or, The Birth of Frankenstein - Anne Eekhout","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eDeeply unsettling but beautifully realised, this is a reimagining of the creation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that delivers a modern Gothic tale every bit as terrifying and gripping as the novel itself! Full of dark hints and settings in which emotions and imaginations are fired first by adolescent longing and later by laudanum, this is a brilliant take on the origins of one of literature's most mythologised monsters. Doesn't hurt that it is also a gorgeous thing to behold!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere is a beast inside her, a monster. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt wants to scream, it wants to tear things apart.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e1816. Mary, eighteen years old, is staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with her lover Percy Shelley. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShe is tormented by his infidelities; haunted by the loss of her baby daughter. Then one evening with friends, as storms rage outside and laudanum stirs their imaginations, Lord Byron challenges everyone to write a ghost story, and something fierce and wild awakens in Mary. Memories surface of the long, strange summer she once spent with a family in Scotland, where she found herself falling in love with the enigmatic Isabella Baxter. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShe learned tales of mythical beasts, witches and spirits. And she encountered real monsters - both in the rocky wilds, and far, far closer to home...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIlluminating the past like a flash of lightning, this brilliant reimagining of the birth of Frankenstein takes us into a feverish world of waking dreams - where grief mingles with desire, and the veil between beauty and horror grows thin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41844588773421,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/Mary_9781782278993.jpg?v=1734356411"},{"product_id":"roman-stories-jhumpa-lahiri-signed-1","title":"Emma recommends... Roman Stories - Jhumpa Lahiri","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003e I just LOVE Jhumpa Lahiri, especially her incredible short-form writing - and this new collection of short stories do not disappoint! Full of the typically beautiful and unique handling of language that we expect from Lahiri, these are stories full of feeling in which the everyday is made to shine. Particularly brilliant is the series of linked short stories in Part II: The Steps. Simply wonderful.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFrom the internationally bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies comes an exquisitely crafted work of fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri sets her gaze on the eternally beautiful city, illuminating the frailties of the human condition and dissecting lives lived on the margins.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA man recalls a summer party that awakens an alternative version of himself. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA couple haunted by a tragic loss return to seek consolation. An outsider family is pushed out of the block in which they hoped to settle. A set of steps in a Roman neighbourhood connects the daily lives of the city's myriad inhabitants. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is an evocative fresco of Rome, the most alluring character of all: contradictory, in constant transformation and a home to those who know they can't fully belong but choose it anyway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRich with Lahiri's signature gifts, Roman Stories is a masterful work from one of the finest writers of our time. Translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41847221289005,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781035017577_Roman_Stories.jpg?v=1720772783"},{"product_id":"death-of-a-bookseller-alice-slater-signed-christmas-edition","title":"Ellen recommends... Death of a Bookseller - Alice Slater","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEllen recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis thriller is loads of fun and just the right amount of unsettling. A perfect winter read that those with an interest in the modern phenomenon of true crime and its complexities will devour. There are plenty of shocking and downright gross moments! If you enjoyed the obsessive edge and intense female friendships in Calla Henkel's \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOther People's Clothes\u003c\/strong\u003e, or the wit and darkness of Eliza Clark's \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBoy Parts\u003c\/strong\u003e, you're sure to get on well with this book.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBookshops at Christmas can be magical. But for booksellers, it's murder. But the long hours and festive window displays are the least of Roach's worries this year. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBecause the shop has a new bookseller. With her cute literary tote bags and helpful smile, Laura is seemingly perfect in every way. But true crime-obsessed Roach knows Laura is hiding something - something dark.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAll Laura wants is for Roach to leave her alone. But as the snow begins to fall and the Christmas party approaches, Roach's morbid curiosity makes her more and more determined to become part of Laura's story. At any cost. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA deliciously dark bestseller that will make your skin crawl and your heart pound this festive season. If you thought bookshops were a safe haven at Christmas - think again.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41861885755437,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529385373.jpg?v=1720517680"},{"product_id":"children-of-paradise-camilla-grudova","title":"Ellen recommends... Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEllen recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI absolutely loved this deep dive into the strange world of the Paradise cinema. This book is wildly original, gross, dark, and totally enthralling. It's also packed full of film references so if you're a bit of a cinephile you must read immediately!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhen Holly applies for a job at the Paradise - one of the city's oldest cinemas, squashed into the ground floor of a block of flats - she thinks it will be like any other shift work. She cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, avoids the belligerent old owner, Iris, and is ignored by her aloof but tight-knit colleagues who seem as much a part of the building as its fraying carpets and endless dirt. Dreadful, lonely weeks pass while she longs for their approval, a silent voyeur.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSo when she finally gains the trust of this cryptic band of oddballs, Holly transforms from silent drudge to rebellious insider and gradually she too becomes part of the Paradise - unearthing its secrets, learning its history and haunting its corridors after hours with the other ushers. It is no surprise when violence strikes, tempers change and the group, eyes still affixed to the screen, starts to rapidly go awry...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41861889392685,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781838956349.jpg?v=1699459775"},{"product_id":"the-fifth-season-n-k-jemisin","title":"Ellen recommends... The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEllen recommends... \u003c\/span\u003eI truly believe N. K. Jemisin is the greatest science fiction \u0026amp; fantasy writer working today, and this trilogy, starting with The Fifth Season, is her masterpiece. Taking place in a world where extreme weather events, known as 'seasons', last for years at a time, and certain people with special abilities are an oppressed minority, Jemisin builds a stunningly imagined world that feels complete and wholly original. In the tradition of Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia E. Butler, she weaves big ideas about feminism and colonialism into a brilliant story. She's one of these authors that makes you re-evaluate what the genre can do and I can't recommend this book enough.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is the way the world ends… for the last time.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt starts with a great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41861954666541,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780356508191.jpg?v=1699464612"},{"product_id":"ellen-recommends-wandering-souls-cecile-pin","title":"Ellen recommends... Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEllen recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis is a beautifully written and accomplished debut novel. I found it profoundly affecting, and there are certainly parallels to be drawn between the way refugees were treated in the 1980s, when this book is largely set, and Britain today. Despite heavy themes and subject matter, I found it very easy to read and could hardly put it down.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAn extraordinary story of the journey of one young family through love, loss and unwavering hope. There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies - everything in between is speculation. One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTheir parents and four younger siblings make the crossing in another vessel but as weeks go by it becomes clear that only one party has survived the voyage. Anh, Thanh and Minh suddenly find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. They travel on, navigating refugee camps and resettlement centres until, by a twist of fate, they arrive in Thatcher's Britain.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHere they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn't seem to want them? In this piercing debut, the siblings' faltering journey is deftly interwoven with the voice of their lost younger brother, Dao, following them from a place between the living and the dead, and the records of an unknown researcher intent on gathering the strands of their story.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41866580262957,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780008528812.jpg?v=1709738867"},{"product_id":"frankie-recommends-indelicacy-amina-cain","title":"Frankie recommends... Indelicacy - Amina Cain","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFrankie recommends... \u003cspan data-contrast=\"auto\" lang=\"EN-US\" class=\"TextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA novel told in entirely formless, timeless, pl\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eaceless way that\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e still captures the peculiarity and gentility of what it means to be a woman\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, what it means to form friendships and what \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003epossibly can\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e come from a lifelong devotion to the written word. An \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ee\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003enchanting and beguiling\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e book that I drank like a rich wine – it is astounding how much the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003enovel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ewithholds\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e in\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003edetail but\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e makes up for in\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e deeply stirring\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003efeeling.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"EOP SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-ccp-props='{\"201341983\":0,\"335559739\":160,\"335559740\":259}' data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"EOP SCXW156200826 BCX8\" data-ccp-props='{\"201341983\":0,\"335559739\":160,\"335559740\":259}' data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAn elegant, haunting debut from an exciting new voice that reads like a modern classic\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn an undefined era and place, a cleaning woman at a museum of art aspires to do more than simply dust the paintings around her.  She dreams of having the liberty to explore them in writing, and so must find the way to win herself the security and time to use her mind. She escapes her lot by marrying a rich man, but having gained a husband, a house, high society and a maid, she finds that her new life of privilege is no less constrained. Not only has she taken up different forms of time-consuming labour — social and erotic — but she is now, however passively, forcing other women to clean up after her. Perhaps another and more drastic solution is necessary?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIndelicacy\u003c\/em\u003e is an exquisite gem of a novel about class, desire, friendship, art, and the battle to find one’s true calling.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41919233851437,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781911547587_Indelicacy.jpg?v=1701272563"},{"product_id":"frankie-recommends-strange-weather-in-tokyo-hiromi-murakami","title":"Frankie recommends... Strange Weather in Tokyo - Hiromi Murakami","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrankie recommends... \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA story of the blossoming relationship between an irritatingly demure teacher and his gauche and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003emaladroit former\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e student\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. While she stumbles through an uncertain start in adulthood, the consistency of the bond formed in the murky bars of Tokyo are elevated by a sophisticated treatment of commitment, enduring \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003elove\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ecoincidence. Stayed with me like the buzz of a glass of wine after a long day\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW257125576 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love. Strange Weather in Tokyo is perfectly constructed, warmly funny and deeply moving.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41919252660269,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781803513140_Strange_Weather_in_Tokyo.jpg?v=1767951462"},{"product_id":"frankie-recommends-supper-club-lara-williams","title":"Frankie recommends... Supper Club - Lara Williams","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrankie recommends... \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGet swept up with an invitation to a club that will probe into what you think it means to eat; eating socially, eating alone, eating, consuming, digesting, growing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. All these verbs pack Williams’s novel with unabashed energy, political \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003evitality\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e and grotesque honesty that every young woman can relate to.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Her style is candid, her content real and message clear; coming of age is infinitely problematic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI f\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eelt heard, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003es\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eeen\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eand listened to in this fictional supper club, an\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ed I would take\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eg\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ereat pleasure\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ein throwing cake across the room too.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIf you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTwenty-nine year old Roberta has spent her whole life hungry. So she invents Supper Club: a secret society for women sick of bad men and bad sex. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFed up of being told to talk less, take less, be less, they gather after dark to feast and dance through the night. But as their bodies expand, so do their horizons, their desires - and their urge to break the rules.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW118032511 BCX8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYou look hungry. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJoin the club. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41919254986797,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780241984109_SupperClub.jpg?v=1701273126"},{"product_id":"book-of-the-month-emma-recommends-orbital-samantha-harvey","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Emma recommends... BOOKER PRIZE 2024 WINNER | Orbital - Samantha Harvey","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI loved Samantha Harvey's \u003c\/em\u003eThe Western Wind \u003cem\u003eand have loved reading something else from her - especially something so different. Harvey draws us into the lives of her six astronaut characters, through glimpses into their presents and pasts, while taking us with them through 16 orbits of Earth in 24 hours. There is something enthralling about the prose in this book, reading completely beautifully whether the author is describing the views of the planet below or the mundane routine of the astronauts on board the International Space Station. The Guardian named \u003c\/em\u003eOrbital\u003cem\u003e a Book of the Year at the end of 2023, describing it as \"an uplifting book, in every sense.\" It is a simply wonderful, deceptively clever book, was Collected's first Book of the Month in 2024 and I'm delighted that it is now winner of this year's Booker Prize!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLife on our planet as you’ve never seen it before: in this spellbinding and uplifting novel six astronauts rotate in the International Space Station. They are there to do vital work, but slowly they begin to wonder: what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTogether they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents, and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42024102461485,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529922936_Orbital.jpg?v=1720772645"},{"product_id":"emma-recommends-the-vulnerables-sigrid-nunez","title":"Emma recommends... The Vulnerables - Sigrid Nunez","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eThe Vulnerables is the latest from Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend and many other novels. Set in the time of international crisis that was the first lockdown period of the Covid pandemic, this is a beautiful, funny, vibrant, and vital novel about connection. It isn’t necessarily easy to read about and think back to those lockdown days, but Nunez helps us to do just that in this book - with hope and humour, with generous intellect and gorgeous writing.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree strangers are thrown together in one Manhattan apartment: a solitary writer; a Gen Z college drop-out; and a spirited parrot named Eureka. As the world outside descends into turmoil, the three of them must learn how to live with and care for one another. The Vulnerables reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another’s distress.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCushioned from the harsher, physical realities of the pandemic, there is nonetheless an atmosphere or unease and anxiety conveyed by the narrator – the writer – as she struggles to write, communicates with her group of friends, and tries to navigate life in this strangest of flatshares. Often written through quotes and thoughts from other writers, the book unfolds as a reflection on and rumination about empathy and the part played by writing and reading in how we develop it – how our knowledge and understanding of ideas support us in our daily lives, even in lives under stress, lives in unprecedented circumstances.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42102759784493,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/The_Vulnerables_PB_9780349018126.jpg?v=1744298673"},{"product_id":"neon-roses-rachel-dawson","title":"Neon Roses - Rachel Dawson","description":"\u003cspan\u003eA bold coming-of-age story set during the Miners' Strikes, that doesn't hold back on being unapologetically queer and Welsh! A little about the story...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEluned Hughes is stuck. It's 1984 in a valley in south Wales: the miners' strike is ravaging her community; her sister's swanned off with a Thatcherite policeman; and her boyfriend Lloyd keeps bringing up marriage. And if they play '99 Red Balloons' on the radio one more time, she might just lose her mind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen the fundraising group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners comes down from London, and she meets June, a snaggle-toothed blonde in a too-big leather jacket. Suddenly, Eluned isn't stuck any more - she's in freefall. June's an artist and an activist.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith June, Eluned can imagine a completely different life for herself. But as her family struggles with the strike, and her relationship with her sister deteriorates, should she really leave it all behind?\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42178408316973,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781399801935.jpg?v=1709725148"},{"product_id":"emma-recommends-the-night-alphabet-joelle-taylor","title":"Emma recommends... The Night Alphabet - Joelle Taylor","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eMoving every which way in time and space, \u003c\/em\u003eThe Night Alphabet \u003cem\u003eis a bold and brilliant debut from award-winning poet Joelle Taylor. Both totally engaging and beautifully expressed (you can tell Taylor is a poet!), this is a rich and shocking story of the many violences enacted upon women and the strength and resilience found in female community.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe tattoo was a reclamation, a flag we mounted in the centre of our own landscape. A woman walks into a tattoo parlour. But this is no ordinary woman, and this is Hackney in 2233.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJones' body is covered in tattoos but she wants to add one final inking to her gallery - a thin line of ink mixed with blood that connects her body art together, creating a unique map. As the two artists set to work, Jones tells them the story behind each tattoo. As Jones is no ordinary woman, these are no ordinary stories: each one represents a doorway to a life Jones fell into, a 'remembering'.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSome of these lives were in the past, others in the future, some are sideways, but each of them connects Jones to the two tattoo artists in some way, though they are unaware of it. We visit the dystopian cities of the Quiet Men, the coal mines of 19th century Lancashire, join a gang of vigilante sex workers, enter the world of an INCEL murderer, haunt the old Maryville gay bar, and uncover plans to genetically modify female children. Each of the stories brings us closer to Jones' truth, and how her life is intricately interwoven with that of the women tattooing her body.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSet across geographies and timespans, The Night Alphabet is a dazzlingly bold and original work, a deep investigation into human nature and violence against women.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42178993815597,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/The_Night_Alphabet_PB_9781529430974.jpg?v=1744298595"},{"product_id":"a-bookshop-of-ones-own-jane-cholmeley-signed","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Emma recommends... A Bookshop of One's Own - Jane Cholmeley","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eThe fascinating, often funny, and completely vital story of the beginning, life, and sad end of Silver Moon Bookshop - a feminist bookshop, open on London's Charing Cross Road from 1984 to 2001. Full of inspiration, determination, and the hard lessons of running an independent bookshop in Thatcher's Britain and still today, this is an important story, brilliantly told. Jane was with us in March and gave a sell-out crowd at Durham Distillery a fantastic evening of literary anecdotes, behind the scenes glimpses, and giggles galore.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe captivating true story of an underdog business – a feminist bookshop founded in Thatcher’s Britain – from a woman at the heart of the women’s liberation movement. An Independent and Stylist Best Non-Fiction Book for 2024 What was it like to start a feminist bookshop, in an industry dominated by men? How could a lesbian thrive in Thatcher’s time, with the government legislating to restrict her rights? How do you run a business when your real aim is to change the world? Silver Moon was the dream of three women – a bookshop with the mission to promote the work of female writers and create a much-needed safe space for any woman. Founded in 1980s London against a backdrop of homophobia and misogyny, it was a testament to the power of community, growing into Europe’s biggest women’s bookshop and hosting a constellation of literary stars from Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to Angela Carter.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhile contending with day-to-day struggles common to other booksellers, plus the additional burdens of misogyny and the occasional hate crime, Jane Cholmeley and her booksellers created a thriving business. But they also played a crucial and relatively unsung part in one the biggest social movements of our time. A Bookshop of One’s Own is a fascinating slice of social history from the heart of the women’s liberation movement, from a true feminist and lesbian icon.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWritten with heart and humour, it reveals the struggle and joy that comes with starting an underdog business, while being a celebration of the power women have to change the narrative when they are the ones holding the pen.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42216502755373,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/A_Bookshop_of_One_s_Own_PB_9780008651077.jpg?v=1744298139"},{"product_id":"ellen-recommends-8-lives-of-a-century-old-trickster-mirinae-lee","title":"Ellen recommends... 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster - Mirinae Lee","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEllen recommends... \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster\u003c\/strong\u003e is an extraordinary book, taking the form of tales told by Ms Mook, an elderly resident in a retirement home. At first, the carer writing the residents' obituaries is sceptical of Ms Mook's wild stories, which span many decades and countries. But in twentieth century Korea, a country fractured by war, there is no such thing as ordinary, and identities can be assumed and discarded...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMirinae Lee has a voice that is immediately engaging. This novel pulls no punches, and although this is fiction, it still opened my eyes to the brutality and bleakness that clouded this turbulent era of Korea's history. The cruelty of war and the trauma inflicted upon ordinary people, especially women and girls, was harrowing to read at times, but I still could not put this book down. Ms Mook is someone who shape-shifts to survive, and she makes a fascinating protagonist. I was really impressed with this debut novel.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTERRORIST. SPY. LOVER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMOTHER. TRICKSTER. At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42433760624685,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780349016771.jpg?v=1712931275"},{"product_id":"event-book-cloistered-catherine-coldstream","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Jessica recommends... Cloistered - Catherine Coldstream","description":"\u003cp\u003eJessica recommends... \u003cem\u003eEver wondered what life is really like in a religious order? Well it turns out that not even nuns are immune to power struggles, and personal ambition. What is remarkable about Catherine Coldstream's account of her time within the closed order is the charity with which she writes about the women who made her life miserable and drove her to question her vocation. She acknowledges their humanity and fallibity. More remarkable still is the fact that, despite everything that happens, she did not lose her faith!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter the shock of her father’s death, twenty-four-year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and the nuns of Akenside Priory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHere she found a tight-knit community of dedicated women and peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt – with far-reaching consequences for those within.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCatherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma: should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?A love song to a lost community and an honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCatherine Coldstream was born in London, and grew up loving music, words, and books. After converting to Roman Catholicism in her twenties, she spent twelve years in a Carmelite monastery where she lived the life of a silent contemplative nun. Since leaving her community she has studied at the Universities of Oxford, East Anglia, and London, and taught theology, philosophy, and ethics in schools. The effects of her years as a nun have never left her and continue to inspire and inform her writing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42536502493229,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/Cloistered_PB_9781529931518.jpg?v=1744298509"},{"product_id":"event-book-a-woman-of-influence-vanessa-wilkie","title":"A Woman of Influence - Vanessa Wilkie","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet your copy of A WOMAN OF INFLUENCE by Vanessa Wilkie ahead of our event with the author at the shop on Wednesday 22 May - tickets \u003ca rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Vanessa Wilkie event tickets\" href=\"https:\/\/collectedbooks.co.uk\/products\/vanessa-wilkie-a-woman-of-influence-the-spectacular-rise-of-alice-spencer-in-tudor-england-wednesday-22-may-6-30pm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e---\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis “engrossing, fast-paced, extremely well-researched biography” (\u003cem\u003eBooklist\u003c\/em\u003e) transports us to Tudor and Stuart England as Alice Spencer, the daughter of an upstart sheep farmer, becomes one of the most powerful women in the country and establishes a powerful dynasty that endures to this day. Perfect for fans of \u003cem\u003eThe Duchess Countess\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eGeorgiana\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlice Spencer was born in 1560 to a family on the rise. Her grandfather had amassed a sizeable estate of fertile grazing land and made a small fortune in sheep farming, allowing him to purchase a simple but distinguished manor house called Althorp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith her sizable dowry, Alice married the heir to one of the most powerful aristocratic families in the country, eventually becoming the Countess of Derby. Though she enjoyed modest renown, it wasn’t until her husband’s sudden death that Alice and her family’s future changed forever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFaced with a lawsuit from her brother-in-law over her late husband’s fortune, Alice raised eyebrows by marrying England’s most powerful lawyer. Together, they were victorious, and Alice focused her attentions on securing appropriate husbands for her daughters, increasing her land ownings, and securing a bright future for her grandchildren and the entire Spencer family. But they would not completely escape scandals, and as the matriarch, Alice had to face an infamous trial that threatened everything she had worked so hard for.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA woman both ahead of and part of her time, Alice’s ruthless challenging of the status quo has inspired future generations of Spencers and will change the way you view Tudor women.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDr Vanessa Wilkie is the Head of the Library Curatorial department at The Huntington Library, California, where she curates the Library's renowned collections of medieval manuscripts and British History. She earned her PhD in British history from the University of California at Riverside and was a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Redlands before going to The Huntington in 2013. Wilkie has curated two exhibitions:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMagna Carta: Law \u0026amp; Legend\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Reformation: From the Word to the World\u003c\/em\u003e. She has published on female editorial practices, patronage, and death rituals. Her book\u003cem\u003e A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England\u003c\/em\u003e (Atria\/Simon \u0026amp; Schuster) was published in April 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42536658567213,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781982154295_AWomanofInfluence_915089fb-b113-4f52-a4c5-ec3c8f2c7e9d.jpg?v=1714064740"},{"product_id":"pre-order-scaffolding-lauren-elkin","title":"Scaffolding - Lauren Elkin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe story of two couples who live in the same apartment in north-east Paris almost fifty years apart.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst, is processing a recent miscarriage. Her husband, David, takes a job in London so she spends days obsessing over renovating the kitchen while befriending a younger woman called Clémentine who has moved into the building and is part of a radical feminist collective called \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eles colleuses.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMeanwhile, in 1972, Florence and Henry are redoing their kitchen. Florence is finishing her degree in psychology while hoping to get pregnant. But Henry isn’t sure he’s ready for fatherhood…\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBoth sets of couples face the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy, against a backdrop of political disappointment and intellectual controversy. The characters and their ghosts bump into and weave around each other, not knowing that they once all inhabited the same space.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA novel in the key of Éric Rohmer, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eScaffolding\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e is about the bonds we create with people, and the difficulty of ever fully severing them; about the ways that people we’ve known live on in us; and about the way that the homes we make hold communal memories of the people who’ve lived in them and the stories that have been told there.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42536679637037,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529932942_Scaffolding.jpg?v=1750265206"},{"product_id":"pre-order-event-book-spoilt-creatures-amy-twigg","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Caly recommends... Spoilt Creatures - Amy Twigg","description":"\u003cp\u003eCaly recommends... \u003cem\u003eSpoilt Creatures is lush, hazy and cultish in all the best ways. Set on an all women's commune, the novel follows Hazel's attempts to escape her painful and disappointing past through the seductive and sun-soaked life at Breach House. This read is full of a feral female rage and growing insanity that I absolutely loved. Following obsession, desire, and matriarchy reading this feels like watching a car crash in slow motion - it is gloriously addictive and intimately moving.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmy Twigg is one of the most exciting new novelists around: winner of the BPA Pitch Award, longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition, and selected as one of the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eBest New Novelists. It is a real privilege for us to be one of the venues hosting her to talk about \u003cem\u003eSpoilt Creatures\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e- novel described by Alice Slater (author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeath of a Bookseller\u003c\/em\u003e) as \"compelling, cultish, and utterly feral.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e---\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThey thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt was a place for women. A remote farm tucked away in the Kent Downs. A safe space.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhen Iris – newly single and living at home with her mother – meets the mysterious and beguiling Hazel, who lives in a women’s commune, she finds herself drawn into the possibility of a new start away from the world of men who have only let her down. Here, at Breach House, the women can be loud and dirty, live and eat abundantly, all while under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBut even among the women, there are power struggles, cruelty and transgressions that threaten their precarious way of life. When a group of men arrives on the farm, the commune’s existence is thrown into question, hurtling Iris and the other women towards an act of devastating violence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmma says...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"An all-female community. A powerful matriarch. The women are there to escape the claustrophobia and misogyny of \"normal\" society - but are they really more free? \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWritten with great insight about loneliness, disconnection, vulnerability, and the opportunities and dangers that come with being isolated from the world. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStriking and compelling. Don't miss it!\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFierce and unapologetic,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSpoilt Creatures\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eis an intoxicating debut about transgression, sisterhood and the seductive nature of obsession. It pulls back the skin of patriarchal violence and examines the female rage that lurks beneath.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42536722530349,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/Spoilt_Creatures_9781035407958.jpg?v=1744274034"},{"product_id":"pre-order-all-fours-miranda-july-signed-edition","title":"Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 | Emma recommends... All Fours - Miranda July","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eWhat to say! This book is simply incredible and should be a must-read for basically everyone but perhaps especially for anyone thinking about what life could be if we were all a bit more honest and a LOT more free. \u003cspan\u003eFunny, moving, and a deeply honest exploration of family, marriage, parenthood, menopause, and female freedom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e---\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMiranda July's hilarious, surprising second novel.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eAll Fours\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of one woman's quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, \u003cem\u003eAll Fours \u003c\/em\u003etranscends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42625200357421,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781838853488_All_Fours.jpg?v=1748879724"},{"product_id":"one-girl-began-kate-murray-browne","title":"One Girl Began - Kate Murray-Browne","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTHREE WOMEN. ONE BUILDING. 111 YEARS...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEast London, 1909.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen her family fall on hard times, Ellen finds work in a box factory and is drawn into a tight-knit circle of friendship, one that will transform her life and test her in unexpected ways. In 1984, the factory is now derelict. Eighteen-year- old Frances moves in with a group of squatters and activists who have taken over the abandoned building.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs she tries to build a new life, an unsettling relationship develops, forcing her to question who she is and where her loyalties lie. In 2020, the squat is now a gentrified conversion in a fashionable corner of the city. Amanda feels trapped in her tiny flat, overwhelmed by the demands of new motherhood and unsure of what the future holds - until the possibility of an alternative life presents itself...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom acclaimed author Kate Murray-Browne, \u003cem\u003eOne Girl Began\u003c\/em\u003e is a vibrant, enthralling and moving novel about three women across three very different moments in time, connected by the same building and the forces that shape our lives.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42625525481517,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/OneGirlBegan_jacketimage.jpg?v=1715608166"},{"product_id":"pre-order-shes-always-hungry-eliza-clark","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Caly recommends...She's Always Hungry - Eliza Clark","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCaly recommends... \u003cem\u003eEliza Clark's weird and wonderful collection of short stories. Adopting her usual transgressive writing style, they are full to the brim with horror, humour, and INSATIABLE HUNGER. I loved seeing her lean further into sci-fi territory as she uniquely narrates varying versions of modern-day desire and disaster. These stories were funny, surreal and gross - a stroke of genius.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the author of \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBoy Parts\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEach of these characters has a desperate desire. Can any of them be sated?Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humour, Eliza Clark's debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42633020669997,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780571371815_She_s_Always_Hungry.jpg?v=1721812079"},{"product_id":"pre-order-private-rites-julia-armfield","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Caly recommends... Private Rites - Julia Armfield","description":"\u003cp\u003eCaly recommends... \u003cem\u003eJulia Armfield's utterly immersive Private Rites. Set in a dystopian near-future of never ending rain and flooding, this is a tense , sensitive, and haunting read that beautifully navigates sisterhood, familial dysfunction, grief and queerness. It's a complex blend of literary horror and fraught interpersonal relationships in the face of devastating climate catastrophe . Her prose is beautiful and the way she builds her dystopian landscape is vivid and unparalleled. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eOur Wives Under the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e, a haunting novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSoon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42751069028397,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/Private_Rites_pb_jacket.jpg?v=1750265347"},{"product_id":"pre-order-wife-charlotte-mendelson","title":"Emma recommends... Wife - Charlotte Mendelson","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmma recommends... Sharply funny but also deeply sad, thought-provoking, and surprisingly gripping. Zoe is such an empathetically drawn character and I genuinely could not put this book in the final part, as the full extent of how she has been manipulated unfolded - willing her on as my heart broke for her. Can't wait to welcome Charlotte to the shop and hear her talk about this fabulous book!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen Zoe moves in with Penny, their relationship looks perfect; after all, everyone wants a wife, don’t they? But this is the story of how love can become a disaster.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZoe Stamper, junior researcher in Ancient Greek Tragedy, meets fellow academic Dr Penny Cartwright at a faculty flute recital. Dr Cartwright seems impossibly glamorous to Zoe, who is, after all, several rungs down the academic pecking order – and a nervous ingénue as far as Penny’s sophisticated circle is concerned. But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues. Once Penny confesses all to her live-in lover, Justine, her and Zoe’s happiness seems assured. But there is something else Penny needs as badly in her life as Zoe’s adoration, and thus the beginning of their affair might also have signalled its end.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWife\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eis an acutely observed and coruscating novel about the joys of passionate love and motherhood, and those left behind in its wake when passion curdles. It is heartbreaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42850104901677,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529052817.jpg?v=1719842912"},{"product_id":"pre-order-the-instrumentalist-harriet-constable-signed-indies-exclusive-edition","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Jessica recommends... The Instrumentalist - Harriet Constable","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJessica recommends... \u003cem\u003eReclaiming a woman who has been lost to history - Anna Maria della Pieta, pupil of Vivaldi and one of the greatest violinists of the 18th century. A vivid and fascinating picture of the social and cultural life of Venice at the time, and the experience of the girls at the Ospedale della Pieta - an orphanage, convent and music school where Anna grew up and succeeded Vivaldi as Maestro. Incredible and insightful piece of historical fiction.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnna Maria may have no name, no fortune, no family. But she has her ambition, and her talent. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHer best hope lies in her teacher, Antonio Vivaldi. Soon she is his star pupil. But as Anna Maria’s star rises, not everyone is happy. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBecause Anna Maria’s shining light is threatening to eclipse that of her mentor…\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe will leave her mark, whatever it takes. And her story will be heard.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42867702136877,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781526674609_The_Instrumentalist.jpg?v=1752826197"},{"product_id":"pre-order-mother-state-a-political-history-of-motherhood-helen-charman","title":"Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood - Helen Charman","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet your tickets for our event with Helen, discussing \u003cem\u003eMother State\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003ca rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Mother State, Helen Charman - event tickets\" href=\"https:\/\/collectedbooks.co.uk\/products\/helen-charman-mother-state-monday-21-october-6-30pm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\" class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\"\u003e“The care of children is a social responsibility that rightly should be shared by all of us. Still, though, this isn’t the case: in the UK today, mothering is frequently \u003cu\u003epoliticised\u003c\/u\u003e, but rarely acknowledged in all its fullness to be political.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\"\u003eCharman has written an impassioned and highly researched first political history of motherhood in the UK and Ireland in the last fifty years, in order both to recapture and propose the idea of motherhood as a collective, political act – to consider the bearing and\/or raising of children to be the responsibility of society as a whole. We are all the children of mothers whose social circumstances and political experiences have moulded us as much as her care. In this sense, mothering has always been collective and political. But it is seldom seen that way. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\"\u003eArguing that we need to understand motherhood itself as an inherently political state, one that poses a serious challenge to the status quo, here are stories from the front lines of mothers’ fights for alternative futures. From Women's Liberation to austerity, Margaret Thatcher to Kat Slater, we meet communities of lesbian squatters and anti-nuclear campaigners, the wives of striking miners and teenage mothers protesting housing cuts: groups who believed that if you want to nourish your children, you have to nourish the world around them too\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\"\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\"\u003eGrowing up the daughter of a ‘single mum’ in the 1990s, Helen Charman believed in the notion of a ‘maternal’ state. Was that notion of the state or of motherhood ever a reality? Could we imagine, today, a world where mothering ceases to be a solely individual responsibility and becomes one of shared possibility – a term to organize under, for people of any gender, with or without children of their own? If so, it begins with an understanding: that to mother is a political act.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42874708000813,"sku":"","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9780241512821.jpg?v=1720102615"},{"product_id":"ellen-recommends-silver-nitrate-silvia-moreno-garcia","title":"Ellen recommends... Silver Nitrate - Silvia Moreno-Garcia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEllen recommends... \u003cem\u003eI absolutely loved this occult thriller set in 1990s Mexico City. When undervalued sound editor Monserrat and her actor friend Tristán agree to help their neighbour\/washed-up film director finish a 'cursed' film, they get more than they bargain for... \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eI loved the characters, relatable even with their flaws. The horror-cinema themes and setting made this such a fun read for me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMontserrat has always been overlooked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's a talented sound editor, but she's left out of the boys' club running the film industry in '90s Mexico City. Then her best friend Tristán introduces her to his new neighbour - cult horror director Abel Urueta, who promises that he can change all of their lives, if only they'll help him finish what he claims is a cursed film by a Nazi occultist. Disbelieving, but with nothing to lose, Montserrat and Tristán agree to help.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever, as they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and its obscure creator, the pair might find out that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA breathtaking blend of Mexican horror movies and dark occultism from the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Collected","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42896526835757,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/5662\/2637\/files\/9781529418064.jpg?v=1720773624"},{"product_id":"pre-order-there-are-rivers-in-the-sky-elif-shafak-signed-edition","title":"Collected's 24in24 - Emma and Frankie recommend... There are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEmma and Frankie recommend... \u003cem\u003eShafak's inimitable storytelling talent shines beautifully - if tragically - in this ambitious, cross-century novel, weaving three fascinating narratives with a dexterity that will leave you speechless. Heartbreaking retellings but all the more necessary - these characters will stay in your heart, and that is the way to honour them.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe breathtaking new novel from the Booker-shortlisted, bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eThe Island of Missing Trees\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003e10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water. In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh. 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Rosarita - Anita Desai","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmma recommends... \u003cem\u003eRosarita is the latest from the incredible, long-established (now in her 90s!) Anita Desai. An exquisite short novel - haunting and, possibly, haunted - about personal and national legacies of trauma and violence, self-expression, and finding your own way. Imagine Claire Keegan transported to Mexico via India. This is a moving and mesmerizing read - a perfect piece of writing.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e---\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA young student sits on a bench in a park in San Miguel, Mexico. Bonita is away from her home in India to learn Spanish. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe is alone, somewhere she has no connection to. It is bliss. And then a woman approaches her.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe woman claims to recognize Bonita because she is the spitting image of her mother, who made the same journey from India to Mexico as a young artist. No, says Bonita, my mother didn’t paint. She never travelled to Mexico.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut this strange woman insists, and so Bonita follows her. 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