Boyle, T. Coraghessan – The Bell Bookshop

Blue skies

Emma — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The joyfully freewheeling, funny and profound new novel from ‘one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today’ (Lionel Shriver)Welcome to America. On the east coast, homes are being swallowed by the ocean; on the west coast, California is engulfed with wildfire. But for one family, the impending environmental disaster is the least of their worries. Party girl Cat just impulse-purchased a snake; her pious brother Cooper is wrestling with a tic bite; and their mom Ottilie has resorted to cooking with crickets. Everyone is drinking too much – and the bugs seems to be disappearing. It seems as if it’s anything but blue skies ahead…A delightfully dark comedy of manners about family life at the end of the world, Blue Skies is a masterful new adventure from one of the America’s great comic writers._______________‘Always enjoyable, virtually incapable of dullness or slack sentences ? His stories reveal truths about modern life while still feeling beautifully invented’ – NEW YORK TIMES‘A virtuoso craftsman’ – ANNIE PROULX‘Boyle is a writer who chooses a large canvas and fills it to the edges’ – BARBARA KINGSOLVER

I Walk Between the Raindrops

Emma — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A joyful, freewheeling, funny and profound new collection from ‘one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today’ (Lionel Shriver)For one woman, a cross-country train ride becomes a parallel journey into the dark psyche of American manhood. An old man and his neighbour enter strike up a friendship that might a more sinister battle of wits than he first thinks. A man, waiting for his wife in a bar on Valentine’s Day, is plagued by a stranger who claims to be clairvoyant.In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters’ minds with a ventriloquist’s flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

Talk to Me

Emma — Thu, 26 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘Howlingly marvellous … Gripping and inescapably bittersweet’ Boston Globe‘Hits the mark … Real and relevant’ BookTrib____________________Guy Schermerhorn, brilliant young professor of psychology and disciple of the pioneering Dr Moncrieff, is making a name for himself on the talk show circuit with an unusual protégé in tow: a chimp by the name of Sam. Sam lives in Guy’s apartment, wears diapers and neckties, devours pizza and Macdonalds – and, through Guy’s careful training, can communicate through sign language. But living with Sam is wreaking havoc on Guy’s personal life, and when shy, meek undergraduate Aimee Villard volunteers to take on babysitting for him, he can’t believe his luck. Aimee and Sam have an immediate rapport, and before Guy knows it she’s moved in, proudly devoting herself to Sam’s care and Guy’s project. Aimee has never known purpose and happiness like this; but when Guy’s funding is imperilled, and Sam is taken away by the sinister Moncrief, her world falls apart. Aimee discovers just how far she’ll go to, and just what she’ll risk, to be united with the chimp she’s come to love so much._____________‘Boyle tells this story with clear-eyed, flinty intelligence’ Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald‘An engaging tale’ The Blurb, Australia