Urban Commentary

"The many characters, who come from a variety of socioeconomic, racial and ethnic scales, are all captured convincingly by narrator Edoardo Ballerini."—The Washington Post "This novel is way better than good...Cynical, tender, sharp, dense, funny, and loaded with inside dope about how New York...

Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! By James Bachman When the outbreak spreads to the City of Angels, chaos reigns. Los Angeles descends into a nightmare as wildfires blaze, the infected roam the streets, and survivors scramble to escape a city consumed by death. In a world where the rich hide behind gates and the poor are left to fend for themselves, the lines between life and death blur—and survival comes at an unimaginable cost. Fast-paced, gritty, and unrelenting, Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! plunges readers into a city where every moment is a fight to stay alive. Perfect for fans of ...

In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem. "Novelist Richard Price has as fine an ear for American speech as anyone writing today..."—AudioFile East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a...

AD 114: NICOPOLIS In the depths of the desert on the empire's Eastern Frontier, the Roman army lays siege to the city of Nicopolis. Estranged from his beloved Enica to keep her safe, centurion Flavius Ferox has secured his freedom after being framed once again. His next quest: to uncover...

As a kid growing up in Manhattan, William Helmreich played a game with his father they called "Last Stop." They would pick a subway line and ride it to its final destination, and explore the neighborhood there. Decades later, Helmreich teaches university courses about New York, and his love for exploring the city is as strong as ever. Putting his feet to the test, he decided that the only way to truly understand New York was to walk virtually every block of all five boroughs - an astonishing 6,000 miles.

Encircling London like a noose, the M25 is a road to nowhere, but when Iain Sinclair sets out to walk this asphalt loop - keeping within the 'acoustic footprints' - he is determined to find out where the journey will lead him. Stumbling upon converted asylums, industrial and retail parks, ring-fenced government institutions and lost villages, Sinclair discovers a Britain of the fringes, a landscape consumed by developers. London Orbital charts this extraordinary trek and round trip of the soul, revealing the country as you've never seen it before.

Pepys Road: an ordinary street in the Capital. Each house has seen its fair share of first steps and last breaths, and plenty of laughter in between. Today, through each letterbox along this ordinary street drops a card with a simple message: We Want What You Have. Following the residents of...

An exhilarating satire of Eighties excess that captures the effervescent spirit of New York, from one of the greatest writers of modern American prose Sherman McCoy is a WASP, bond trader and self-appointed 'Master of the Universe'. He has a fashionable wife, a Park Avenue apartment and a...

BECAUSE THE QUEEN AIN'T NO NIGGA, AND THE KING AIN'T NO BITCH........ When the man behind a once-iconic, now infamous TV character is asked to don the wig one last time, he’s torn between a check with too many zeroes… and the legacy his community desperately needs. With the cameras rolling, egos clashing, and corporate culture hungry for easy laughs, one man decides to stop playing the role — and start changing the narrative. Cinderfella is a gritty, gripping, and unapologetically Black satire that blurs the line between entertainment and exploitation. Bold dialogue, electric tension,...

A true story of how a middle-aged married couple abandon lucrative white-collar professional careers to become long-haul truck drivers for Schneider National in Green Bay, Wisconsin. David Hamel, a mechanical engineer, and Shelley Hamel, past Director of Product Development for the American Girl doll company, decide to ditch their urban life and go to truck-driving school. For David, driving school was a piece of cake. For Shelley, it was murder. Nearly flunking out of truck driving school, Shelley successfully faces her twin demons of double-clutching and 10 nasty gears.

Diego de la Corte is essentially a robot. Just like you. He works a dead-end job like you; goes to the same hypnotizing clubs you frequent; drinks the same bitter beer you chug; buys the same trendy technology you also can’t live without. He keeps dreaming the same dreams, but he desperately wants to wake up. His best friend, Ketrick Woodward, is wide-awake and ready to open Diego’s eyes. In this American society controlled by a new kind of government called the Enforcers of Democracy, Diego becomes Ketrick’s student, learning and gradually accepting his teacher’s mantra that having...

Everyone says fourteen-year-old Billie is nothing but trouble. A fighter. A danger to her family and friends. But her care worker sees someone different. Her classmate Rob is big, strong; he can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate. And Chris is...

Walter has a rubbish job, so has Margaret. But when they meet through a dating agency, neither is who they seem. Margaret's married for a start and Walter's encounter with her husband Billy leaves him black and blue. Billy's a dodgy accountant for politician and racketeer Pink Harrison, who is...

Performed by Richard Armitage, Anthony Boyle, Emila Fox and Hugh Quarshie HOUSEHOLD GIZMOS WITH A MIND OF THEIR OWN. THE WRONG KIND OF COLD CALLS. AND THE CREEPING SUSPICION THAT NONE OF THIS IS REAL. Reality, and Other Stories is a gathering of deliciously chilling entertainments – stories to...

Chicago: Metropolis of the Mid-Continent provides a comprehensive portrayal of the growth and development of Chicago from the mudhole of the prairie to today's world-class city. This completely revised fourth edition skillfully weaves together the geography, history, economy, and culture of the city and its suburbs with a special emphasis on the role of the many ethnic and racial groups that comprise the "real Chicago" of its neighborhoods.

Ten years after its original publication, this is the third edition of D’Lacey’s cautionary eco-thriller, containing an introduction by David Moody plus a brand new foreword by the author. Shreve, a no-hope town beside the UK’s largest landfill. There’s nothing Shreve’s jaded residents...

‘An enthralling guide one of the world’s great cities – that blends history and insights into the present day from one of the most astute commentators on the politics of Istanbul. A book that is as informative as it is enjoyable' PETER FRANKOPAN Walking along the crumbling defensive walls...

In a city where silence speaks louder than words and human connection flickers under the neon haze of nightlife, FRENZY follows the unravelling of Tristan—a mute young man haunted by love, loss, and the noise of a world that refuses to listen. When Ayla, the woman he once loved, moves on, Tristan’s quiet desperation boils into a final act of chaotic clarity. As social media vultures circle and city lights blur into oblivion, a single name, etched in desperation, becomes the story’s heart. Raw, poetic, and unflinchingly modern, FRENZY is a searing portrait of emotional collapse and the...

In a world where the social order has violently flipped overnight, former journalist Evan Carter becomes an unlikely witness to a new regime built on fear, retaliation, and absolute control. When the powerful rise to enforce their own version of justice, the marginalized are pushed into the shadows—and Evan is forced to navigate a society where he is now the hunted. But everything changes when he crosses paths with Nia Brooks, a fierce resistance leader fighting to expose the truth behind the government’s brutal new system. As unrest spreads and the city fractures, Evan is pulled into a...

Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize: Could modernity be an illness? Umbrella follows the story of Audrey Death, who fell victim to the encephalitis lethargica, sleeping sickness epidemic at the end of the First World War and has been in a coma ever since. Arriving at the asylum she still...