Showing titles in Psychological

Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.

A powerful, compressed masterwork for fans of Shirley Jackson and Claire-Louise Bennett. A woman moves from the place of her birth to a remote northern country to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has just left him. The youngest child of many siblings - more than she cares to remember - from earliest childhood she has attended to their every desire, smoothed away the slightest discomfort with perfect obedience, with the highest degree of devotion. The country, it transpires, is the country of their family's ancestors, an obscure though reviled people.

On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature. All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural – a Summoning as the Inions call it.

Christopher would never hurt anyone. Not intentionally. Even after everything that’s happened, I still believe that... Christopher Harris is a lonely boy. A boy who has never fit into his family. Who has always felt something was missing from his life. Until one day, when he discovers a suitcase in his family’s attic, and a secret about his mother that changes everything.... Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train, The Sister, and Apple Tree Yard.

Producer Mara Bolt is the queen of reality TV. Ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, Mara will do anything - anything - for ratings. When she meets Kristy Shaw, Mara is certain she's found the star of her newest series, The Shot. Kristy is languishing away in her small hometown and a dead-end job, pining for her first love, Max Irving. The Shot offers her a Total Body Transformation - extreme plastic surgery to render her unrecognisable - as a way to recapture Max's affections under a new identity. But there's a catch

The perfect daughter. The perfect girlfriend. The perfect murder? Jenna is seriously ill. She's lost all hope of getting the heart transplant she needs to live. But just as her life is ebbing away, she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. Who was Callie and how did she die? Jenna is determined to find out.

When she’s having sex with her boss, Iris likes to have the lights on so he can see how much younger she is than his wife. She likes watching her colleagues eat unhealthy lunches at their desk while her stomach aches with emptiness. She likes coasting at work knowing she’s going to land a big promotion anyway. So why when it arrives does she find herself sprawled on her hallway floor, crying uncontrollably? Why, instead of a sense of triumph, does a crippling depression threaten to overwhelm her? Why does the support and stability of her family and friends feel so suffocating?

What is VALIS? This question is at the heart of Philip K. Dick's groundbreaking novel, the first book in his defining trilogy. When a beam of pink light begins giving a schizophrenic man named Horselover Fat (who just might also be known as Philip K. Dick) visions of an alternate Earth where the Roman Empire still reigns, he must decide whether he is crazy or whether a godlike entity is showing him the true nature of the world.

Edward is living in a world he can't afford and to which he doesn't belong. To camouflage himself, he has catered to his friends' needs – fetching drycleaning, sorting flowers for premieres. It's a noble effort, really – anything to keep his best pals Robert and Stanza happy. In return, his proximity to them might sponge the shame of his birth and violent past cleanly away. But the chink in his armour is his painfully unrequited love for Stanza. When he realises Stanza and Robert are an item, Edward is pushed too far.

One of the most beloved and best-selling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special 25th anniversary edition features a new foreword and afterword by the author.

Tessie's four-year-old son was attacked and killed by an alligator in the summer of 1991. A few months later, what she believes to be the same alligator appears in Tessie's backyard. Her family and friends believe Tessie is coming apart, but for Tessie, bringing the alligator inside her house is the first step in a cosmic journey to find meaning in her suffering.

Thirty years ago, Nicola Watson lived with her parents and older brother in a respectable suburb. Now a successful lawyer in the city, with a life poles apart from her dark beginnings, Nicola has returned home for her mother’s funeral. All Carol wanted was to protect her children, but escaping her husband was only the beginning of the story. And when Nicola learns the truth of what her mother did, it will change everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. A gripping, emotional story of family secrets, and the strength of a mother’s love in the darkest times.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

Liadain never dreamed of being a hero. Trapped in a failing body, she's learned to expect nothing from life except pain and disappointment. She knows better than to hope for a miracle. When an unexpected savior offers her the power to become a Keeper, she's torn between the allure of survival and the fear that she's just trading one pain-filled existence for another.

In a small room in an Oxford college, cold and dim and full of quiet, an undergraduate student works on an essay about Shakespeare's sonnets. Annabel has a meticulously planned routine for her day - work, yoga, meditation, long walks; no apples after meals, no coffee on an empty stomach - but finds it repeatedly thrown off course. Despite her efforts, she cannot stop her thoughts slipping off their intended track into the shadows of elaborate erotic fantasies. And as the essay's deadline looms, so too does the irrepressible presence of other people.

When Sarah Haywood rescues a young girl in trouble, she expects nothing in return. But her instinctive act of bravery puts her in the debt of a powerful and dangerous man, and he has other ideas. He lives by his own brutal code, and all debts must be repaid - in the only way he knows how. He offers Sarah a way to solve an impossible situation with her intolerable boss.

They say your memory can't be trusted. They say your story doesn't check out. They say you were never blindfolded...starved...or imprisoned in a filthy shed like an animal. But you know it happened. And you know it can happen again. This masterful novel of brilliantly drawn characters and harrowing suspense will shock you at every turn and force you to walk the fine line between madness and fear. Nicci French is the pseudonym for the writing partnership of journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.

A nail-biting, breath-taking story about the disappearances of two young women - a decade apart - told in reverse. It's been 10 years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared without trace. Then a letter from her father arrives - 'I need to talk to you. That girl. I saw that girl.' Has her father's dementia worsened, or has he really seen Corinne? Returning home, Nicolette must finally face what happened on that terrible night all those years ago.

Alex, Lucy, River and Bridget. Four people with one thing in common: they are all being stalked. Their lives are filled with daily terror. Always watching. Always waiting. And never knowing what – or who – is hiding in the shadows. But this group of four used to be five, until the terrible day their friend Nat was followed home by her stalker. Coming together for Nat’s funeral, they are handed a wreath saying RIP. However, this isn’t a wreath in memory of Nat – it’s for them, with a card dated in ten days’ time. It’s a clear message: in ten days, one of them will die.

Maria wants to be friends. But Maria is dead. Isn't she? When Louise Williams receives a message from someone left long in the past, her heart nearly stops. Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Maria Weston has been missing for over 25 years. She was last seen the night of a school leavers' party, and the world believes her to be dead. Particularly Louise, who has lived her adult life with a terrible secret. As Maria's messages start to escalate, Louise forces herself to reconnect with old friends....