Fiction

There is no rest for Inspector Maigret when his seaside holiday leads him to a troubling discovery At what point in the day could the note have been slipped into...

An entrancing, otherworldly collection of short stories from one of Europe's most accomplished 20th century writers, new to Penguin Modern Classics A counter-prophet attempts the impossible to prove his power;...

'How often, honestly, does the unveiling in translation of a 'forgotten genius' live up to the hype? Well here's one that does: Raduan Nassar' Times Literary Supplement 'I felt the...

A collection of chilling tales, ironic, unsettling, imbued with dread and with droll humour A dapper Paris doctor dispenses a treatment for dissatisfied wives. A mother auditions for her first...

A forgotten masterpiece of Turkish literature, championed by Orhan Pamuk and translated into English for the first time 'Just as she was being lowered into the earth - following the...

The charming novel that inspired the classic New Wave film In free-spirited Paris, Jules and Jim live a carefree, bohemian existence. They write in cafes, travel when the mood takes...

Thousand Cranes exemplifies Kawabata's mastery of the nuances of human psychology Kikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father. He is shocked to...

From the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she...

First time in Modern Classics and for Penguin to publish one of the great American writers of the last 50 years. Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, to be published alongside THE WOMAN IN THE DUNES The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident - a man who has...

New translation by the poet Jamie McKendrick This is a haunting, elegiac novel which captures the mood and atmosphere of Italy (and in particular Ferrara) in the last summers of...

A powerful, stirring novel of clashing destinies and lust for power The sixth century was not a peaceful time for the Roman empire. Invaders threatened on all fronties, but they...

The Story of the Stone (c. 1760), also known by the title of The Dream of the Red Chamber, is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into...

Turgenev is an author who no longer belongs to Russia only. During the last fifteen years of his life he won for himself the reading public, first in France, then...

Galdos's four-part Fortunata and Jacinta (1886-7), the masterpiece among his almost 80 novels, tells the turbulent story of two women, their husbands and their lovers, set against the intricate web...

The secrets of the past never die. But they can kill- August Penrose created the stained glass 'Lady Window' to adorn the chapel of the university he founded for the...

Claymore Straker is trying to forget a violent past. Working as an oil company engineer in the wilds of Yemen, he is hijacked at gunpoint by Islamic terrorists. Clay has...

'Palpable tension. Charming characters who self-reflect. Laugh out loud moments. A plot with so many emotional layers. The Next Best Fling has absolutely everything I want in a romance book....

'A worthy and frightening sequel to Chizmar's Chasing the Boogeyman. Terrific storytelling' - Stephen King Back in the summer of 1988, a young Richard Chizmar was catapulted into the centre...

An official tie-in edition to accompany Sofia Coppola's highly anticipated new film based on this atmospheric novel of sexual tension and Southern gothic When an injured Union soldier is found...

One of the most chilling and compassionate of Simenon's extraordinary psychological novels 'One sensed in him neither flesh nor bone, nothing but soft, flaccid matter, so much so that his...

An erotic and intricate novella from one of the most enigmatic and important figures in Brazilian literature 'Yes, bastard, you're the one I love' A pair of lovers - a...

A tense and thrilling novel of death and love, new to Penguin Modern Classics Victor, a ghostwriter, is just about to have an affair with Marta, a married woman, when...

One of Isaac Bashevis Singer's most personal works, new to Penguin Modern Classics It is Warsaw in the 1930s. Aaron Greidinger is an aspiring young writer and the son of...

Published in 1972,Enemies, A Love Storyis an astonishing novel that blends humour and pathos to create a rich, humane portrayal of a man who cannot escape his past. Herman Broder,...

Singer's haunting second novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics Yasha the magician - sword swallower, fire eater, acrobat and master of escape - is famed for his extraordinary Houdini-like skills....

A powerful 1931 portrayal of a German town on the brink of chaos, from bestselling author Hans Fallada It is summer, 1929, and in a small German town a storm...

Sabato's wonderful noir detective novel with a new introduction by Colm Toibin in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time Infamous for the murder of Maria Iribarne, the artist Juan...

Reissued in Modern Classics in the run up to the 50th anniversary of its first publication The novel tells the story of a middle-class UNESCO engineer called Walter Faber, who...

First time published individually in Modern Classics, together with I, CLAUDIUS Claudius has survived the murderous intrigues of his predecessors to become, reluctantly, Emperor of Rome. Here he recounts his...

Primo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from the twentieth century- a man who survived one of the ugliest times in history, yet who was able...

"While a single sentence can turn a novel, a single word can turn a short story," writes guest editor Don Winslow. The pieces featured in this collection hinge on those...

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK 'Sheer joy' Graham Norton, author of Home Stretch 'Utterly beautiful ... filled with hope' Joanna Cannon, author...

A gripping new psychological thriller from S. J. Watson Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people. It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. Now, ravaged by the...

YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE... Kate Irving arrives at her grandfather's cottage at Frenchman's Creek in the dead of night with her young son, a small suitcase and...

It's the spring of 1943, and the tiny hillside village of Santa Cecilia is about to be overrun by German soldiers. But Vito Leone has his own personal campaign to...

Forensic investigator Reilly Steel, Quantico-trained and California-born and bred, imagined Dublin to be a far cry from bustling San Francisco, a sleepy backwater where she can lay past ghosts to...

On a cold January evening in 50BC, two strangers enter Rome - one an Egyptian ambassador and the other a eunuch priest. Both are seeking Gordianus the Finder, who has...

Only edition in print First published in 1861, Humiliated and Insulted plunges the reader into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma, unrequited love and irreconcil able relationships. At the...

Only edition in print Found in the Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci's writings and drawings, 'The Prophecies' are a collection of enigmatic divinatory pronouncements, some punning and playful, others...

We takes place in a distant future, where humans are forced to submit their wills to the requirements of the state, under the rule of the all-powerful Benefactor, and dreams...

A blistering thriller from acclaimed author Craig Robertson about a vigilante killer with revenge on his mind-and an entire city in his sights-for fans of Stuart MacBride. A series of...

First novel in a new historical trilogy set in Ancient Pompeii. Amara is a slave at the Wolf Den - the city's infamous brothel. But just because she's a slave...

When Paul enters university in early 1970s Pittsburgh, it's with the hope of moving past the recent death of his father. Sensitive, insecure, and like a stranger to his family,...

Germany, 1940: "Can't I say goodbye?" I cry, cupping my hands over my mouth, my heart pummeling my chest. Tears cloud my eyes as the Nazis dragging away my beloved...

'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it'. Twenty-three-year-old Frits -...

Jo is in a strange new country for university and having a more peculiar time than most. In a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no...

A young woman named Izumi, details her turbulent twenties in thirteen disarmingly candid vignettes, set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo. Seamlessly delivering ennui alongside snark,...