Modern Fiction

What if you gave birth to someone else's child? A gripping family drama inspired by a real-life case of an IVF laboratory mix-up.

With World War II looming over Paris, an American woman becomes entangled in the intense rivalry between iconic fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in this fascinating (Hazel Gaynor) novel from the acclaimed author of The Beautiful American. Paris, 1938. Coco Chan...el and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs- Chanel's are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli's are bold, experimental, and surreal. When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he wants to buy her a couture dress-a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie's socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli's designs, too, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps. Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved in the designers' personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and World War II bear down on Paris.
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The second novel in Camilleri's savagely funny Sicilian crime series

The perfect quirky nostalgic crime read - a tale of steam trains, giant squid, missing screenplays, missing mothers and a quest for the truth, from the inimitable Malcolm Pryce It's the winter of 1948. The four great railway companies have just been nationalised and Jack Wenlock ...- the last of a fabled cadre of railway detectives - is thrown out onto the street. Penniless, with new bride Jenny to support, and hiding from a murderous organisation called Room 42, Jack's prospects look bleak. But then a letter arrives from a mysterious Cornish Countess revealing that Jack's mother - long believed to be dead - may have survived a shipwreck off the coast of Java. Seizing the opportunity to track down his only remaining family member, Jack and Jenny board a boat heading East. The trail takes them to a run-down Siamese hotel where a motley assortment of drifters has washed up. Here a spy, an assassin, a deserter, an old soldier and a fading Hollywood movie star all await the arrival of a missing part for a flying boat and a journey that will take them into the realm of myth. But if Jack is ever to see his mother again, he has to stop them...
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