National Network for Equitable Library Service

When social attitudes researcher Bill Harcourt puts an advertisement in the newspaper for 'listeners' to work on an unconventional project, he anticipates that his team of eavesdroppers will discover previously untapped insights into public opinion. But as five eager listeners begin eavesdropping in the cafes, dentist waiting rooms, public toilets, tube trains and launderettes of London, discreetly noting the details of unguarded conversations, Bill starts to notice subtle changes in their behaviour and realises he has underestimated the compulsive nature of his group.

Twenty-nine-year-old Natasha Bell went for an evening jog, just like any other night - except now no one knows where she is. Not her sister, Abby - eighteen, eight months pregnant, and without a game plan. Not her childhood sweetheart, now ex-boyfriend, Greg, an introverted academic who could never bring himself to commit. Not her best friend Josie, a newlywed, born-again Christian, with whom Natasha recently had a falling out. And not detective Reuben Blake, who thought this case would be open 'n shut - a quick way to prove himself and move up the ranks.

Craig Forrester is newly home following World War I, newly married, and newly mired in social upheaval. Will he choose complacency alongside his peers, or his personal moral code? Originally published in 1923, The Magpie is a social commentary turned novel about the disillusionment that developed after the war.

Rotten Peaches is a gripping epic filled with disturbing and unforgettable insights into the human condition. Love, lust, race and greed. How far will you go? Two women. Two men. One happy ending. It takes place in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. Nature or nurture. South Africa, racism and old prejudices - these are hardly old topics but what happens when biological half-siblings meet with insidious intentions? Can their moral corruption be blamed on genetics - were they born rotten to begin with? And what happens when they meet up with more of their ilk?

He calls himself your husband. But you're the only one who knows the truth. Several years ago, your husband, and the father of your young son, disappeared. Since then, you've dreamt of his return; railed against him for leaving you alone; grieved for your marriage; and, finally, vowed to move on. One morning, the phone rings. When you answer, a voice at the other end tells you your husband's on a plane bound for home, and that you'll see him tomorrow. You've imagined this reunion countless times. Of course you have. But nothing has prepared you for the reality.

Winner, Roehampton Poetry Prize, Finalist, Man Booker Prize, Finalist, Goldsmiths Prize. Walker is a D-Day veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder; he can't return home to rural Nova Scotia, and looks instead to the city for freedom, anonymity, and repair. As he finds his way from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, we witness a crucial period of fracture in American history, one that also allowed film noir to flourish. The Dream had gone sour but - as those dark, classic movies made clear - the country needed outsiders to study and dramatize its new anxieties.

From the attic of a dilapidated English country house, she sees them - Cara first: dark and beautiful, clinging to a marble fountain of Cupid, and Peter, an Apollo. It is 1969 and they are spending the summer in the rooms below hers, while Frances writes a report on the follies in the garden. But she is distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she discovers a peephole which gives her access to her neighbours' private lives. To Frances' surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to spend time with her.

Ramya, an immigrant from India, is nearing her 50th birthday. But there's no cause to cheer. Recently separated, and laid off from work as well, she feels lonely, alienated, and despondent. Then one day she chances upon a sandalwood box containing her cherished childhood treasures, and this triggers the need to review her present circumstances. In a bid to bring herself out of the quagmire of depression, she examines the relationships she has had--filial, marital, quasi-maternal, societal, professional, et al.

Joseph, the tactician behind the Piccadilly Circus bombing and many other such events, finds himself in a nursing home in Pierrefonds, Quebec, where he is losing his mind but regaining his conscience. In Radius Islamicus we see minds that cannot be located by drones carrying Hellfire missiles. These non-state actors, led by Joseph, do not live in caves. They live in Moose Jaw, Toronto, Amsterdam, London, New York and the Isle of Jura.

Mouth of Truth is a gripping account of impossible choices , divided loyalties and unimaginable horrors. Batya Lightenberg , a Canadian wife and mother tries to live a normal life in oblivion of her troubled past while carrying a legacy of guilt and buried secrets inherited partly from her father, a successful lawyer, turned Jewish policeman in the Warsaw Ghetto. Compelled by a need to unearth the truth about her family, Batya sets out for Eastern Canada, Italy and Poland on a mission of discovery and healing.