Showing titles in Friendship

Three strangers are thrown together in one Manhattan apartment: a solitary writer; a Gen Z college drop-out; and a spirited parrot named Eureka. 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. Smart, funny and provocative, Sigrid Nunez's novel explores the nature and purpose of friendship, love and art in our complicated current times.

1939. After the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Helen is returning home to her mother’s house in Biggin Hill, Kent - the one place she vowed she’d never go back to again. Alone and not knowing where to turn, Helen finds herself joining the local women’s sewing circle despite being hopeless with a needle and thread. These resourceful women can not only make do and mend clothes, quilts and woolly hats, but their friendship mends something deeper in Helen, too.

The Kamanga Kings, a Khartoum jazz band of yesteryear, is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime when a surprise letter arrives inviting them to perform in Washington, DC. The only problem is...the band no longer exists. Rushdy is a disaffected secondary school teacher and the son of an original Kamanga King. Determined to see a life beyond his own home, he sets out to revive the band. Aided by his unreliable best friend, all too soon an unlikely group are on their way, knowing the eyes of their country are on them.

When all seems lost, hope remains...Val Murray has mislaid her most precious mementoes of the people she’s loved and lost. Can her family, the wonders of technology and a little divine intervention somehow mend her shattered heart? Sophie Smith had to take a rain check on a marriage proposal. Will her bid to turn back the clock lead her to her greatest love or yet another heartbreak?

When Leonie Baxter finds herself out of a job and out of a relationship, she’s at her wits end. Her life has just been turned upside down and she needs a plan, fast. By chance, on a walk with her rescue puppy, Leonie stumbles across a striking house in the woods; fully furnished but unoccupied. As a journalist, she is determined to find out more, after all, reporting is in her nature. But her attempts are thwarted by Lily Cruickshank who lives in the cottage next door.

Joni’s always felt like an outsider in her blended family, and as an adult she’s done all she can to avoid them. The only person she’s remained close to is her beloved Nana. When Nana dies, she leaves behind something unexpected: an itinerary of pre-arranged activities for the whole family to complete over the course of a week. After years of trying but failing to bring Joni back into the fold, this appears to be Nana’s parting shot. After all, nothing says ‘family bonding’ quite like abseiling and ballroom dancing.

She is a beautiful, affluent, self-involved and mildly neurotic London socialite. He is Britain's most photographed bad-boy who broke her heart. Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine are meant to be, and everyone knows it. She dates other people to keep him at bay; he sleeps with other girls to get back at her for it. But at the end of their every sad endeavour to get over one another, it's still each other they crawl back to. But now their dysfunction is catching up with them, pulling at their seams and fraying the world they've built; a world where neither has ever let the other go completely.

For the courageous Bletchley Park girls, the fourth Christmas of the war is approaching fast. It should be a happy time, yet life throws them challenges they could never have imagined. Lily's heart is torn in two when her boyfriend, Grant, is badly injured in an air raid. As he spirals into despair, she must find a way to give him hope again. Bronwyn has a new romance on the horizon. But will the widower's young daughter accept her, or will she jeopardise Bronwyn's hopes for love?

By all accounts, Lucy’s handled her divorce well. She’s finally in the cozy, plant-filled house of her dreams. And although she doesn’t fit in with the other divorcées—all busy looking for their next ex—she’s excited to get down to earth and savor the small joys of life. When Lucy meets Elle, a hip younger woman who shares her same passions, their connection is instant. Taking a chance on kismet, Lucy forges a friendship that fills her days with meaning. She and Elle are inseparable, from sunup to sundown, enjoying the immediate ease and familiarity of each other’s company.

A funny and heartwarming debut for fans of Celia Imrie and Dawn French. Evie Gallagher is regretting her hasty move into a care home. She may be 75 and recently widowed, but she’s absolutely not dead yet. And so, one morning, Evie walks out of Sheldon Lodge and sets off on a Great Adventure across Europe. But not everyone thinks Great Adventures are appropriate for women of Evie’s age, least of all her son, Brendan, and his wife, Maura, who follow a trail of puzzling text messages to bring her home.

Rosie Burrows loves being part of the Foyles team, and outwardly, she’s a happy young woman, engaged to the love of her life. But inside, Rosie faces a horrible dilemma. When Alfie enlisted, she promised to wait for him to return from France. And she has waited, quietly preparing for him to come home so they can marry. But for years her letters to him have gone unanswered, and now she doesn’t know where she stands. To keep occupied, Rosie starts volunteering at the local school.

Ann is a reluctant Vicar's wife. She tries her best but her husband only has eyes for God, her son is asking questions she struggles to answer, and it is all too easy to displease the congregation. It may only be a matter of time before she makes the headlines of the local gazette: Vicar's wife gets giggles in church. Vicar's wife refuses to bake scones. Vicar's wife does not care about other people. When her brother needs her help, Ann travels from Cornwall up to London.

Paris, 1944: The war is nearly over, but for members of the Resistance in occupied France, it is more dangerous than ever before. Twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher loathes the Nazis, though as the concierge of 10 rue Royale, she does her best to avoid conflict - unlike her bolder sister Yvette, who finds trouble at every turn.

Kitty Cox is adjusting to a new life alone. She’s spent several years caring for her ailing husband but now she’s having to adjust to a life without him.When Kitty’s old friend Vee reappears in the village in desperate need of a place to stay, Kitty quickly sees an obvious solution to both their dilemmas. She invites Vee, her new partner Raf and young son Bear to move in with her for the summer.

Billy and Dawnie may be in their seventies, but that won’t stop them taking chances or starting again. Their grown-up children have families and lives of their own, so now it’s Billy and Dawnie’s turn and a life near the sea in Devon beckons. But the residents of Margot Street (or Maggot Street as Dawnie insists on calling it), don’t quite know what to make of their new neighbours.

Midwife Ella Mehenick left the small Cornish town of Port Agnes for London and never looked back. But when her seemingly perfect life crashes down around her, there’s only one place she can heal her battered heart - the place she once called home. Ella is quickly welcomed into the small community midwife team and loves her new job caring for mums and their precious babies - it’s what she does best! But being back also means facing ex-flame Dan Ferguson...the first man to break her heart.

1979. In the vast and often unforgiving city of London, two Irish outsiders seeking refuge find one another: Milly, a teenage runaway, and Pip, a young boxer full of anger and potential who is beginning to drink it all away. Over the decades their lives follow different paths, interweaving from time to time, often in one another's sight, always on one another's mind, yet rarely together.

Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favour to ask. Daphne hasn't spoken one word to Drue in all this time - she doesn't even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media - so when Drue asks if she will be her maid of honour at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.

Carl may be 72 years old, but he's young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the perfect story for each person. One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him - and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books. When Carl's job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl's way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little town?

Jessica Jackson has hit all her personal milestones for turning thirty – the career, the loving boyfriend and a cosy London flat they share with their cat. But a breast cancer diagnosis turns Jess’s world upside down, and her contented life implodes with it. Around her, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script, with the big white weddings and the baby scans. With her own future so uncertain, the only thing Jess is sure of is that she’s being left behind.