Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore 

Author : Robin Sloan 

Synopsis extract: A small bookshop in San Fransisco is one gateway to an organisation (The Unbroken Spine) of bibliophiles dedicated to decoding the mysterious codex vitae of their founder. ...

Synopsis 65 words

1 Dec '15

Half of a Yellow Sun 

Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Synopsis extract: Story of Biarfan war 1967-1970 seen through eyes of middle class biafran family, twin sisters, their partners (one english) and a houseboy.

Synopsis 22 words

10 Oct '15

Seven Days in December 

Author : Sebastian Faulks 

Synopsis extract: A number (possibly seven) main characters intertwining lives through a week in December 2007/8 as the banking crash unfolds and another Muslim fundamentalist attack on a target in the UK is planned.

Synopsis 31 words

27 Aug '15

The Invisible Library 

Author : Genevieve Cogman 

Synopsis extract: The invisible library exists in between alternate realities and the librarians are dedicated to collecting works that are unique to each particular alternate. ...

Synopsis 45 words

21 Aug '15

The Shock of the Fall 

Author : Nathan Flier 

Synopsis extract: 9 year old Matt's older brother Simon who has Downs Syndrome dies on a family holiday. ...

Synopsis 40 words

9 Aug '15

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane 

Author : Neil Gaiman 

Synopsis extract: The narrator revisits his childhood home and remembers an extraordinary series of event when he was 7 involving a family of three female ageless generations of farmers (a girl his age, a mother and a grandmother) who it seems can do magic

Synopsis 41 words

2 Aug '15

Elements of Resistance 

Author : Jeriah Bowser 

Synopsis extract: An analysis of resistance from pacifism through violence to active non-violence on the path from colonisation through decolonisation and active non-violence to total liberation avoiding the traps of the fearful warrior, the lackey and the ...

Synopsis 40 words

22 Jul '15

• ecologer

Dark Eden 

Author : Chris Beckett 

Synopsis extract: Descendents of astronauts marooned on a strange world have become a community of 300+ over 5 generations sustained by the myth of the creation story and belief that Earth will come to rescue them. ...

Synopsis 41 words

2 Jul '15

The Last Citadel 

Author : Kevin Ashman 

Synopsis extract: A flooded world where people are confined to a citadel with a ring of outlying towers connected by causeways which are only revealed once a month when the waters recede for a day. ...

Synopsis 47 words

20 Jun '15

Snowblind 

Author : Ragnar Jonasson 

Synopsis extract: Icelandic Crime. ...

Synopsis 27 words

13 Jun '15

Elizabeth Is Missing 

Author : Emma Healey 

Synopsis extract: An account of the development of a woman's Altzheimers seen through her eyes as she struggles to remain on top of things and uncover the mystery of what has happened to her friend Elizabeth (this is not a crime story)

Synopsis 40 words

5 Jun '15

This Changes Everything 
Capitalism vs. the Climate

Author : Naomi Klein 

No summary or synopsis available

2 Jun '15

• ecologer

Into the Wild 

Author : Jon Krakauer 

Synopsis extract: True account of Chris McCandless's travels from college graduate to death in wilds of Alaska from starvation four years later

Synopsis 20 words

26 Apr '15

History of the Rain 

Author : Niall Williams 

Synopsis extract: Told from point of view of a young woman with a debilitating (?bone marrow/blood) condition story of her parents and grandparents and life in a West Clare village on the banks of the Shannon. ...

Synopsis 37 words

12 Apr '15

Elephant Moon 

Author : John Sweeney 

Synopsis extract: Schoolteacher escorts a group of anglo-burmese children fleeing the invading Japanese overland from Rangoon to India. ...

Synopsis 30 words

28 Feb '15

Cypress Grove 

Author : James Sallis 

Synopsis extract: Turner ex US detective hiding away from demons in retirement in the Southern USA is called on to help by the local cops with an unusual murder

Synopsis 27 words

26 Jan '15

A Swarming of Bees 

Author : Theresa Tomlinson 

Synopsis extract: Synod of Whitby and yellow plague as experienced by a 'herbwife'.

Synopsis 11 words

22 Jan '15

The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau 

Author : Graeme Macrae Burnet 

Synopsis extract: Manfred Bauman lives in a french town on the german swiss border and is a social misfit. ...

Synopsis 50 words

16 Jan '15

The Physic Garden 

Author : Catherine Czerkawska 

Synopsis extract: A poor gardener for Glasgow college at start of 19th century develops a relationship with a young professor which affects both their lives.

Synopsis 23 words

8 Jan '15

The Photographer's Wife 

Author : Nick Alexander 

Synopsis extract: Childhood in the blitz connects through events in the 50s and 60s to life today (2010) as daughter uncovers truths about her famous father.

Synopsis 23 words

14 Dec '14

The Empress Emerald 

Author : J.G. Harlond 

Synopsis extract: Leo born about 1900 in India with Russian father and Indian mother stolen as a baby in India then brought up in a British orphanage and taken into employ of British Secret Service. ...

Synopsis 63 words

27 Nov '14

The Making of a Counter Culture 

Author : Theodore Roszak 

Synopsis extract: Starts as a discussion of the meaning of the rise of youth rebellion in the 60's and ends as a critique of scientific objectivity (which is then explored in more detail in Where The wasteland Ends)

Synopsis 36 words

5 Nov '14

• ecologer
• green-history

The Wake 

Author : Paul Kingsnorth 

Synopsis extract: Buccmaster leads a war band of Greene Men against the French invaders in 1066-68.

Synopsis 14 words

2 Nov '14

• ecologer

A History of the World in Twelve Maps 

Author : Jerry Brotton 

Synopsis extract: Each of the 12 maps is used to centre a discussion on aspects of world-view at the time it was produced

Synopsis 20 words

15 Oct '14

• ecologer

Only Planet 

Author : Ed Gillespie 

Synopsis extract: Travelling around the world by surface transport with reflections on environmentalism

Synopsis 11 words

11 Oct '14