Daunt Books – The Bell Bookshop

Dad Had a Bad Day

Emma — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Since losing his job, Ned's sole responsibility has been to look after his six-year-old son while his wife works. When he one day finds his old tennis racquet buried in the garage, he also unearths a part of his former self. On a whim, and without his wife's knowledge, Ned rejoins his former tennis club - and finds life outside the realm of domesticity. He becomes the captain of a local men's team, reconnects with his old partner, former tennis-prodigy Roland, and commits himself body and soul to building a winning team. But when Roland disappears, Ned's search for his friend threatens not only the path to glory, but his relationship with his son, his marriage, and his mind.

Over the Water

Emma — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There's something about islands: the way they shift and change with the weather, the promise of escape, the pull of the sea. Often remote, almost always idyllic, they lend themselves to metaphor and marvel as well as to escape and indulgence. In these essays, 13 writers capture the magic and mirage of islands. Taking us from the glimmering coast of Cornwall's St Ives to the populated archipelagos off the coast of Ireland, from the warm water and glowing sun of Phuket to feasts of halloumi and chilled watermelon along the shores of Cyprus, 'Over the Water' urges us to consider: what is an island?

Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives

Emma — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Art student Isogai first models for one of his tutors, the much older Yuri, then begins a passionate affair with her. As he gets to know her better, he struggles to understand his own emotions and his place in the world, just as he yearns to be closer to her and for her to share more of herself with him.

Beautiful Distance

Emma — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An unnamed narrator sits in a cafe overlooking a train station, sipping a green juice and people-watching. A small white butterfly flutters through the air; a calico cat jumps onto a wall; cherry blossom petals fall, softly, to the ground. Life stands still for one moment. He is preparing to visit his terminally ill wife in hospital. So begins this moving novel exploring the distance between people, places and memories in simple and elegant prose, as Yamazaki raises questions around what family means, how we think about death, and how we express love; particularly in a society where work is often prioritised.

An Awfully Big Adventure

Emma — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Liverpool, 1950. Sixteen-year-old Stella is hired as assistant stage manager by a repertory theatre company and soon falls into a heady infatuation with the director, Meredith – failing to notice how he shows not only no interest in her, but in any woman. When the celebrated actor O’Hara arrives to take the lead in their production of Peter Pan, it sets in motion a drama offstage of lost innocence, tragedy and miscommunication.

The Bottle Factory Outing

Emma — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Freda and Brenda spend their days working in an Italian-run wine bottling factory and their nights in a dismal bedsit. Little wonder, then, that the works outing offers such promise to Freda, and such terror for Brenda.

Jean

Emma — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One afternoon in 1976, teenagers Jean and Tom share an almost imperceptible look across the grounds of Compton Manor, a boarding school for boys with problems. Their gaze marks a secret intimacy, one defined as much by violence as by friendship and desire. As the boys' connection deepens, so too does the risk that surrounds it. Jean - son of a single mother, Jewish, on a scholarship, forever an outsider - wonders whether the relationship might offer a way out of a life marked by alienation. But what if the only true path to freedom is to disappear altogether?

The Old Fire

Emma — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the wake of her father's death, Agathe leaves New York and returns to her childhood home in the French countryside, after fifteen years away. Agathe and her sister VÃ©ra have not seen each other in all that time apart. Now, they must empty their home before it is knocked down. VÃ©ra stopped speaking when she was six, and as the pair clean and sift through a lifetime's worth of belongings, old memories and resentments surface.

Called by the Hills

Emma — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When novelist Anuradha Roy and her husband stumble upon a derelict cottage in the hill station of Ranikhet, they decide it is where they will now live. After the frenetic city of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains but then won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of their sometimes recalcitrant neighbours and adopted by four mountain dogs and counting. Written with unsentimental clarity, humour and poignancy, 'Called by the Hills' is a tender and intimate portrait of a home, a community and a rugged, extraordinary landscape.