FICTION · FAMILY SECRETS
Harriet Evans
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Kate.
— from Happily ever after
Most acclaimed
Happily ever after
"A poignant, romantic, and delightful new novel about a young woman who refuses to believe happy endings are real, from internationally bestselling author Harriet Evans. At twenty-two, Eleanor Bee is sure about three things: she wants to move to London and become a literary superstar, she wants to be able to afford to buy a coffee and croissant every morning, and she doesn't believe in happy endings. She saw what divorce did to her parents, especially her mum--happily ever after's fine on the last page of a book, but it just doesn't happen in real life. Elle moves to London. She gets a job at Bluebird Books, a charmingly old-fashioned publisher. She falls out of pubs, wears too-short skirts, makes lots of mistakes, and feels like she's learning nothing and everything at the same time. And then, out of the blue, she falls in love and realizes just how much growing up she has to do. Ten years later, Elle's life has changed in ways she could never have predicted, from moving to New York to becoming a highly successful editor. Because no matter where you go and how much you try to run away, the past has a funny way of catching up with you, and happy endings come in all shapes and sizes"-- "A poignant, romantic and delightful new novel from international favorite and bestseller Harriet Evans"--
The butterfly summer
What magic is this? You follow the hidden creek towards a long-forgotten house. They call it Keepsake, a place full of wonder - and danger. Locked inside the crumbling elegance of its walls lies the story of the Butterfly Summer, a story you've been waiting all your life to hear. This house is Nina Parr's birthright. It holds the truth about her family - and a chance to put everything right at last.
A Place For Us
1998
In our crowded, noisy world - too many people, too much crime, too many wars, not enough time - it seems almost impossible to locate and preserve the common ground where a civil society might flourish. Where can we be ourselves and live our lives, arbitrate our differences, be something more than mere consumers, take charge of things? Everywhere we look there is conflict, alienation, bureaucracy, unbridled marketeering capitalism, loss of individual control. Whatever happened to the civic virtue and community life that nourished true democracy? In this book, Benjamin Barber tackles these questions head-on and, in answering them, retrieves the ideals of "civil society" from the nostalgists who want to re-create old-fashioned (and discriminatory) small communities and from the free-marketeers who associate it with unfettered commercial activity. Barber proposes practical strategies for making civil society real, for civilizing public discourse and promoting civic debate, and for envisioning an America where we honor values beyond those of work and leisure, commerce and bureaucracy.