Modern Fiction (post 1945)

'Liz Nugent has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible people' Val McDermid Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin. Will,...

'A rich, sensual novel that gives voice to the invisible' Financial Times - shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019 'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began...

Reissued on the 70th anniversary of the first publication of The Pursuit of Love by Hamish Hamilton 'How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so...

Reissued on the 70th anniversary of its first publication by Hamish Hamilton 'Obsessed with sex!' said Jassy, 'there's nobody so obsessed as you, Linda. Why if I so much as...

'The novel of the year is obviously Ali Smith's Autumn... Expansive, shape-shifting, at once more stringent and more consoling than anything I've read this year' Olivia Laing, Observer Autumn 2016-...

Now a majo 2020 Hulu series starring Zoe Kravitz Nick Hornby's first novel, an international bestseller and instantly recognized by critics and readers alike as a classic, helps to explain...

A stunning bestseller from the superstar of women's fiction 'Dammit,' she realized. 'I think I'm having a nervous breakdown.' Hot-shot magazine editor Lisa Edwards' career is destined for high-rise New...

The bestselling novel by cult writer Wang Xiaobo, a satire of the Cultural Revolution, in its first full English translation 'Life is but a slow, drawn-out process of getting your...

Based around a series of blistering confessions, The Fall was described by Sartre as 'perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood' of Camus' novels Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul...

Baldwin's fourth novel recounts a lifetime of grappling with love, loss and identity 'Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it' At the...

Mailer's classic account of the 1967 anti-Vietnam War rally in Washington D.C., and one of the best 'nonfiction novels' ever written October 21, 1967, Washington, D.C. 20,000 to 200,000 protesters...

A rifle-shot of a novel - crisp, fast, shocking - The Shepherd's Hut is an urgent masterpiece about solitude, unlikely friendship, and the raw business of survival. In one terrible...

The Spy tells the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to break the conventions of her time, and paid the price. When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was...

The Riders, the novel that brought Tim Winton his first Booker Prize shortlisting, charts an odyssey across Europe, a transfixing journey through the underworld of every lover's nightmare. Fred Scully...

First new English translation since 1959 by acclaimed translator Robin Buss When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and...

Fully restored edition of Anthony Burgess' original text Edited by Andrew Biswell With a Foreword by Martin Amis Fifteen-year-old Alex likes lashings of ultraviolence. He and his gang of friends...

A spy story, a love story, and a fable for our time Barley Blair is not a Service man- he is a small-time publisher, a self-destructive soul whose only loves...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, as part of our Achebe relaunch Ezeulu, headstrong chief priest of the god Ulu, is worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. But he is...

First new translation since publication of Albert Camus's story collection The stories of Exile and the Kingdom explore the dilemma of being an outsider - even in one's own country...

New translation by Robin Buss Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and...

Reissuing in Penguin Modern Classics as part of our Paul Bowles relaunch, with a new introduction by Paul Theroux 'The Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge...

Famously associated with the term 'magical realism', Marquez is probably South America's most famous literary export An acknowledged masterpiece, this is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family...

Anais Nin's classic exploration of love and sex in 1930s Paris The brilliant tale of Anais Nin's true love affair with Henry Miller, and her ambiguous, charged relationship with his...

'Rarely has emotional turbulence been so delicately conveyed' The New York Times With delicacy of perception and memory, humour and pathos, Carson McCullers spreads before us the three phases of...

'The most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.' - the New York Times On the...

Evelyn Waugh's masterpeice, Brideshead Revisted is an extraordinary mediation on a lost world The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age...

NADJA is a Surrealist romance, and has come to be known as a book which defined that movement's attitude towards life. With its blend of intimate confession and sense of...

Brilliant reception for the hardcover edition- 'The latest Penguin Proust is a triumph, and will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world.' Sunday Telegraph Since the...

A heartbreaking stunner of a novel from the UK's biggest-selling writer of women's fiction "I employ this thing called The Shovel List." "A shovel...?" "No. A Shovel List. It's more...

A brand new imprint from Penguin Classics Okonowo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most...

That Eye, the Sky is Tim Winton's luminous novel about a boy's vision of the world beyond, and about finding a way through cataclysm. That Eye, the Sky is Tim...

'Extraordinary - a remarkable and satisfying book' Observer Bruce Chatwin provides a fascinating background to indigenous Australian life. The songlines are the invisible pathways that criss-cross Australia, tracks connecting communities...

The gripping new thriller from the number-one Sunday Times bestselling author of The Thirst. THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER He's the best cop they've got. When a drug bust turns...

The ingenious, hilarious new novel from award-winning writer Elif Batuman - 'It's a novel about being young and stupid that's both wise and clever - and it's a treat' Evening...

A chillingly powerful dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from...

The first title in the acclaimed Inspector Wallander series. One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches...

The exquisitely told, tragic tale of thwarted love that will stop you in your tracks Discover the exquisitely told tragic tale of thwarted love behind the major new film adaptation...

A feast for the senses, a fantasia of magic, mischief and love, The Night Circus is an extraordinary blend of fantasy and reality that will dazzle readers young and old....

A wonderful, epic story that tells the history of the greatest city in the world, from Roman times to the present day. A grand, epic story that tells the history...

An international classic for fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, set in an unnamed Latin American country over three generations. A magnificent epic of a proud and passionate family, secret loves...

An enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family where one before did not exist. He is...

An eclectic, eccentiric and altogether brain-bending collection of short stories *PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI'S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW* An eclectic, eccentric and altogether brain-bending collection of...

Re-jacketed in a stunning new series style for 2023, Saturday is a gripping novel centering around the London anti-war protest in 2003 from the Booker prize-winning Sunday Times-bestselling Ian McEwan....

'This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met' J K Rowling 'This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met' J K Rowling...

'Wondrous - brilliantly inventive, full of dazzling set pieces. Not simply the most original novel I've read in years - it's also one of the best' The Times OVER TEN...

'The last major event in the history of the novel' Italo Calvino In this ingenious book Perec creates an entire microcosm in a Paris apartment block. Serge Valene wants to...

An assault on the senses, part murder mystery, part metaphysical speculation; a fable for our times as catchy as a rock song blasting from the window of a sports car....

Hemingway's classic portrait of the pageantry of bullfighting Ernest Hemingway's classic portrait of the pageantry of bullfighting. 'I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and...