Blog

The Best Books of 2023: Fiction

Posted on 18th October 2023 by Mark Skinner

Across literary fiction, romance and historical novels, 2023 has seen some truly exceptional publishing. Beloved authors returned with career-best work and exciting new voices made themselves heard loud and clear, as is only too evident from our definitive roundup of the year's best fiction.

Please note that whilst this blog does feature a smattering of dystopian fiction and some titles with a crime or literary thriller element, many more books in this vein can be found on our dedicated Best Books of 2023: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror and Best Books of 2023: Crime & Thrillers blogs.    

 

From the epic voyages of Ancient Greece to changing attitudes on the cusp of the twentieth century, the best historical fiction of 2023 has seen widely lauded work from Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, A.K. Blakemore and many others, proving that past centuries make for increasingly relevant and engrossing settings to modern readers.    

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Taking inspiration from a real-life nineteenth-century imposture trial, Smith's immersive first historical novel weaves together the stories of a Scottish housekeeper with a novelist cousin, a formerly enslaved valet unexpectedly thrust into the limelight of a legal case and the missing heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A novel with the quality of a spell, this mesmeric tale from the award-winning author of The Piano Tuner takes a single house in the woods of Massachusetts and those who inhabit it across four centuries to explore the countless ways in which the past lives on in nature, memory, language and the human heart.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the masterly pen of the acclaimed author of Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses comes a luminous epic that spans a quarter of a millennium and begins in fourteenth-century India where a girl is tasked by a goddess with giving women agency in a patriarchal world.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
In this rich and absorbing tale of depravity, pleasure and class, the author of the former Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month The Manningtree Witches serves up another glorious evocation of the past, as a hungry peasant embarks on a curious crusade in revolutionary France.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The master of historical military fiction delivers another unputdownable entry in the mega-selling Sharpe series as Britannia puts her faith in our maverick hero to defend her troops from French forces in early nineteenth-century Spain.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A tender and powerful tale of passion, progress and personal freedom that re-imagines the lives of the two men who published the first English medical textbook on homosexuality, Crewe’s beautiful novel is filled with nuance and forensic insight into love.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the author of the captivating former Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month Matrix comes a tour de force of historical storytelling, as a fleeing servant girl finds herself adrift in a world she can scarcely comprehend.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Returning to the bestselling Kingsbridge saga, master storyteller Follett weaves a sweeping story of industrial unrest, oppressive government and the spectre of revolution in the tinderbox of the late eighteenth century.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The siege of Calais and pirate ships spell new dangers for the Essex Dogs as the Hundred Years' War rages on in the second part of the gripping trilogy from the popular historian and broadcaster.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra brings the formidable Atalanta and her adventures amidst the Argonauts to vivid life in another sweeping re-imagining of Greek myth.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A woman fleeing an abusive relationship heads for Weyward Cottage and makes a startling discovery about her ancestors in this bewitching debut perfect for fans of Bridget Collins.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Taking inspiration from real-life seventeenth-century East Anglian witch hunts and chronicling their treacherous effect on the community, this dark and spellbinding debut announces the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The bestselling historical novelist follows up Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose with an enthralling retelling of the life of one of Britain's most infamous monarchs - Henry VIII.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Inspired by the real-life diaries of Eliza Raine and Anne Lister - 'the first modern lesbian,' also known as Gentleman Jack - Donoghue's mesmerising historical novel is a tour de force of rich characterisation and period detail.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Original and fresh, this wildly entertaining retelling of the Hercules myth presents the titular Greek hero in a wholly new light as it’s time for his friends, enemies, wives, lovers, rivals and victims to give their side of the story.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
One of the most infamous figures of Greek myth is reimagined and reinterpreted in this compelling study of a woman forced to terrible measures by the horrific actions of her husband.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the author of Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones comes a tour de force of historical recreation as enslaved Annis tells her harrowing yet ultimately hopeful story from the Carolina rice fields to the Louisiana sugar plantations.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Harper's scintillating Wolf Den trilogy reaches its explosive conclusion as Amara's inexorable rise through Roman society coincides with the notorious eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the author of The Silent Companions and The Shape of Darkness comes a thrilling gothic tale of dangerous bargains and vaulting ambition, as an actress makes a pact with an ancient Greek muse to become the greatest performer of all time.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Cato and Macro return in another rollicking Roman adventure in the Eagles of Empire series, as the two friends brave the brutal uprising of Boudica's rebels.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Ranging from France to the Canary Islands, the third engrossing instalment of the Joubert Family Chronicles follows a courageous band of mariners committed to rescuing those enslaved by pirates.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Perfect reading for all lovers of Bridgerton, the giddily irresistible sequel to the Regency smash A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting finds the formerly level-headed Eliza drawn to a spot of misbehaviour despite the promise of a fortune.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Combining prose, poetry, play, diary and real historical events, this audacious tour de force from the author of The Gallows Pole and The Perfect Golden Circle traces the story of St Cuthbert - unofficial patron saint of the North of England - through the centuries and the voices of ordinary people.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

 

Kicking off with our magnificent Novel of the Year and Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize winner In Memoriam by Alice Winn, readers this year have been spolit for choice for stunning novels set during the last century. Stories of love and war, social liberation and systemic racism, the promises of utopia and the horrors of colonialism; it's all here and more in novels by Rose Tremain, Paul Harding, Jacqueline Crooks and many others.  

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Tracing the love story between two WWI soldiers, In Memoriam is a luminous, heartbreaking meditation on the tragedies of war and the precious sanctuary that can be found in deep human connection.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Based on real-life events from the author's family history, the debut novel from the Stranger Things star is a sweeping and evocative tale of star-crossed love and tangled secrets in wartime.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the Hollywood legend and author of Uncommon Type comes a panoramic debut novel spanning eight decades, as a multimillion-dollar superhero movie inspired by a classic comic nears completion.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
An exquisitely constructed novella from the celebrated author of Restoration and Islands of Mercy, Absolutely and Forever introduces a beguiling unreliable narrator and an ill-fated first relationship.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
With echoes of Where the Crawdads Sing, Read's hypnotic debut traces the path of a lifetime in lyrical prose as young Torie Nash absorbs the transformative words of a mysterious stranger.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Incantatory and immersive, Crooks’ triumphant debut is an expansive story about love, freedom, raving and the impact of police violence on Black communities, told with immense musicality and emotional honesty.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad spins an irresistible sequel to the bestselling Harlem Shuffle, as Ray Carney's perpetual attempts to stay on the straight and narrow backfire spectacularly after one of his tenants is badly injured in a fire.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Heartbreaking and exquisitely constructed, Pin's accomplished debut follows a group of Vietnamese refugees as they navigate their way through the cold individuality of Thatcher's Britain, guided only by the voice of their deceased younger brother.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Based on a true unsolved mystery and suffused with Mackintosh's deft use of dark atmospherics and gothic tone, Cursed Bread tracks a town gripped by macabre events and mass hysteria whilst uncovering the role of a simple baker's wife in the unfolding madness.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Perfect for fans of Marilynne Robinson, this lyrical and thought-provoking novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author explores home, heredity and redemption through an arresting narrative about an island utopia in its final days.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the author of Golden Hill comes an exhilarating story of murder by the Mississippi as the fictitious town of Cahokia spills over into recrimination and violence when a corpse is found on the roof of a skyscraper.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A series of linked stories comprising a breathtaking literary debut, Escoffery's searching, humane novel follows the fortunes of a Jamaican family as they face an uncertain future in late 70s America.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Set in colonial Trinidad and steeped in a brooding, ominous atmosphere, Hosein's powerful novel charts the increasingly toxic interrelationship between the wealthy and entitled Changoors and the poverty-stricken families that work the land in the shadow of their farm.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes an intensely powerful novel of courage and resilience set in a World War II Japanese prisoner of war camp, as two women fight side by side to survive unbearable hardship.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The International Booker-shortlisted author of When We Cease to Understand the World deftly intertwines fact and fiction in this captivating reimagining of the life of the Hungarian-American polymath.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Following a woman exiled from her Polish village to a work camp in the freezing abyss of Siberia, The Snow Hare is a haunting, passionate and stunningly told story of survival against all odds and finding love in the most unexpected places.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99 £9.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Expanding the universe of The Morning Star, the Norwegian maestro delivers a captivating story of two half-siblings that crosses between the Soviet Union, Southern Norway and present-day Russia and doubles as a suspenseful meditation on familial bonds, human connection and the way the past keeps shaping the present.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the celebrated author of The Heavens and The Men comes a bravura retelling of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four from the perspective of Julia Worthing, bringing a brilliantly evoked feminist narrative to an established literary classic.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Spanning the 1930s to the present day, this masterly exploration of migration and belonging from the author of Violeta tracks the paths of two children in the wake of Kristallnacht and Trump's family separation policy.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

 

Environmental awareness, millennial angst, the pernicious influence of social media and the rise of A.I.; there are certainly plenty of contemporary issues for novels set in the present day to address. Authors such as Rebecca Kuang, Yomi Adegoke, Max Porter and Eleanor Catton have risen to the challenge superbly, whilst Naomi Alderman, Sebastian Faulks and Claire Fuller all present plausible future visions which should spark concern in us all.  

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The bestselling author of Babel harnesses her satirical powers in this tantalising and deliciously humorous literary thriller that investigates ambition, greed and white privilege with deadly precision.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Featuring a glorious cast of characters from George Orwell and Martha Gellhorn to an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales, this spellbinding collection of short fiction from the award-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale showcases Atwood’s narrative genius and boundless imagination at their very best.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
With boundless empathy and psychological precision, the award-winning author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny delivers a breathtaking vignette of a troubled young boy caught between the ghosts of his past and the enormous questions about his future.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries comes a dazzling psychological thriller about a guerrilla gardening group and their compromised existence working the land of an abandoned farm, rich in profound characterisation and prescient, thought-provoking themes.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A group of misfits plan an audacious heist with the future of the world at stake in this imaginative tour de force from the Women's Prize for Fiction-winning author of The Power.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Confronting prescient issues of surrogacy and medical ethics, the acclaimed author of Birdsong and Snow Country weaves a literary thriller revolving around a megalomaniacal tech entrepreneur and a very special – and unusual – child.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A retired police officer is dragged back into a perplexing case from his past in this haunting, meditative novel of memory and survival from the author of Days Without End.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the acclaimed author of The Dutch House and Bel Canto comes a characteristically nuanced and emotionally intelligent novel of family, storytelling and the lives mothers lived before the births of their children.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The debut novel from the author of Friday Black spins a blistering dystopian vision of prison brutality played for capitalist entertainment, as inmates fight for their freedom from the US private jail system.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
With extraordinary emotional sensitivity, the 2023 Granta Best of Young British Novelists alumnae Sarah Bernstein paints a sinister, haunting portrait of hostility and disquiet as a woman returns to her wealthy but often absent brother as his housekeeper.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
At once knife-sharp, tender and powerfully moving, Magee’s debut is a striking tale of poverty, love and trauma told through the lens of two working-class brothers in post-conflict Belfast.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
One of the greatest living comic novelists follows up Skippy Dies and The Mark and the Void with a beautifully crafted bittersweet delight about one family desperately attempting to get through the most trying of times.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A woman discovers a collection of invaluable antiquities in her late-grandparents' flat in Athens, in this luminous, searching novel about passion, injustice and redemption from the bestselling author of The Island.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A tender, psychologically acute short novel from the great American writer and author of The New York Trilogy that explores the inner life of a septuagenarian embarking on life without his beloved wife.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The bestselling author of Rodham and American Wife returns with an enthralling, humorous and subversive tale set in the world of a live TV comedy show, as a script writer who has given up on romance finds her world upended by an unexpected encounter.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A moving, haunting tale of sisterly love and creeping evil from the author of the acclaimed Betty, this evocative page-turner based on true events finds two women questioning the games of their past as female corpses begin to appear in their rural Ohio town.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Set in London and Ghana across three summers, Small Worlds is an intimate and powerful exploration of a son-father relationship, music, and searching for meaning from the acclaimed author of Open Water.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Deftly blending queer romance with Dark Academia, Patrick's slow-burning debut chronicles the burgeoning love affair between a boarding school matron and the wife of the establishment's headmaster.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A coming-of-age filled with melancholy and beauty, Maroo’s mesmerising debut about a squash-obsessed teenager and a family reeling from loss explores the themes of grief and sisterhood with sublime force.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The bestselling author of Life After Life and Shrines of Gaiety spins a set of bewitching, wildly imaginative short stories where unusual occurrences infiltrate everyday life.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
An exquisitely written miniature from the author of former Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month Small Things Like These, So Late in the Day finds an unsatisfied man on his bus journey home reflect on the love that got away.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Shimmering with danger and strange beauty and following a young drifter on sun-drenched Long Island, The Guest is an extraordinary dissection of desire, deception and risky choices that might cause you to sink or swim.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Using witness accounts, interviews and correspondence as part of the narrative, Clark’s cleverly constructed novel delves into the shocking murder of a 16-year-old in a sleepy seaside town, exploring just how slippery the quest for truth can become.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Charting the lives of the soon-to-be-married couple, the best man, the bridesmaid and a guest for an approaching wedding, this supreme comedy of errors from the bestselling author of Exciting Times is as deviously clever as it is entertaining.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Set in 1990s London, this searing novel from the acclaimed author of Acts of Desperation follows a reporter who begins to investigate an Irish family implicated in an atrocious crime.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Rachel, set on seducing her married professor, drafts in her best friend James to help her in her mission in this funny, poignant and addictive tale of friendship and impossible choices from the author of Scenes of Graphic Nature.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
As a strange smog ravages food crops and livestock around the world, a chef secures a position at an exclusive safe haven for the elite set in the Italian mountains in this virtuosic, sensuous meditation on finding pleasure amidst tragedy.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The acclaimed author of The Vegetarian delivers a spellbinding exploration of grief, intimacy and the power of language, as a student who has lost her voice and her teacher who is losing his sight begin a journey out of silence and darkness together.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Following a middle-aged history teacher who embarks on a road trip with the great lost love of his life, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home is a masterfully crafted meditation on what it means to learn to live with your choices.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A loose sequel to the award-winning Ordinary People set in the harrowing aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy, this powerful and moving novel follows the titular protagonist and her three daughters, as they search for a place Alice would be happy to call her last home.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Following a scientist whose husband is taken away by the newly formed Irish secret police, the award-winning author of Beyond the Sea and Grace spins a finely-wrought and terrifying vision of Ireland in the grip of a tyrannical government.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering comes an exquisitely crafted generational novel of women's resilience, as the footloose Nell sets off on adventure with the shadows of her formidable parents looming over her.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A tour de force of both style and substance from the author of Hot Milk, this hypnotic novel of fragmented identity and the desperate search for belonging in the world finds two women chasing their doubles across Europe.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The masterful chronicler of contemporary American life and the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted Real Life delivers a powerful tale of sex, politics and volatile journeys of self-discovery in Iowa City.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A highly topical, clever and intricately plotted debut novel from the bestselling co-author of Slay in Your Lane, The List mines the dark side of social media and its influence on even our closest personal relationships in page-turning prose.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The award-winning author of Unsettled Ground returns with a masterly evocation of isolation and the dangerous allure of memory, as a volunteer in a vaccine trial is introduced to a powerful new drug that can help her revisit moments from her past.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Marrying dark gothic fairytale with a thrilling contemporary setting, this irresistible novel from the acclaimed author of Bunny follows a beauty-obsessed woman who discovers the lavish, cultish spa her late, estranged mother was devoted to.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The author of the bestselling Child 44 delivers a taut, chilling tale of a group of apocalypse survivors determined to forge a society in a hostile sub-zero corner of the world where life is still possible.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A gorgeous novel that effortlessly nails the both the exhilarating rush and trepidation of first love, Daverley's debut charts the burgeoning romance between Will and Rosie.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Compassionate, prescient and compelling, Dinan's mesmerising debut centres on the relationship between young graduates Tom and Ming and how their connection fluctuates in the wake of Ming's transition.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

 

The perfect counterpoint to searching state-of-the-nation novels, feelgood stories are like a warm hug in literary form and refuge from the pressures of modern life. Whether its sizzling romcoms from Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood, soothing fables from Japan courtesy of Toshikazu Kawaguchi and Michiko Aoyama or uplifting comedies by Jojo Moyes and Jilly Cooper, shut out the world with these wonderful escapist reads.

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Fizzing with romance, wit and characters to fall head over heels for, Happy Place is a gloriously feelgood novel of fake relationships and awkward holidays from the bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the bestselling and beloved author of Ghosts, Dear Dolly and Everything I Know About Love comes a deliciously witty and wise novel about love, relationships and heartbreak that only Dolly Alderton could write.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The eleventh instalment in Cooper's iconic Rutshire Chronicles finds Rupert Campbell-Black buying the local football team and taking a shine to the club's ravishing secretary.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Perfect reading for fans of Toshikazu Kawaguchi and Hiro Arikawa, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is an irresistibly sweet-natured tale revolving around the quirky owner and customers of the titular literary emporium.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99 £9.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A fresh set of visitors place their orders in the time-travelling Cafe Funiculi Funicula in the fourth heartwarming volume of Kawaguchi's gently uplifting series.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Like a big warm - and terrifically tasty - hug, Kashiwai's enchanting story centres on father and daughter restaurant owners who investigate how to recreate their patrons' favourite dishes
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Perfect reading for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Aoyama's heartwarming novel introduces Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian and his mission to soothe the souls of five visitors with books.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £8.49
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Stressed-out Sasha heads to a Devon retreat only to find her attempts to recharge stymied by a grumpy interloper in this hilarious feel-good romp from the bestselling author of the Shopaholic series.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
When two sworn rivals hit upon a scheme to save their failing hotel, sparks fly and hearts flutter in this irresistibly witty romcom from the bestselling author of The Flatshare and The Road Trip.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
A mix-up at the gym leads two women to walk in each other's shoes - literally - in this characteristically witty and uplifting novel from the author of Me Before You.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the popular comedian and author of Sex Power Money comes a side-splitting debut novel centred on the hapless Sophie and her desperate attempts not to stuff up her second chance at love.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
From the author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain comes another sharp and witty STEMinist romcom as theoretical physicist and fake-girlfriend-for-hire Elsie prepares to do battle with her physics department head.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99 £7.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
The atmosphere is decidedly chilly when competitive figure skater Anastasia is forced to share the rink with hockey captain Nate, but their sizzling chemistry soon melts the ice in Grace's terrific romcom.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Bailey's sexy and hilarious Vine Mess series continues with the story of a business venture, a trust fund clause and a sham wedding which is simply unputdownable.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout


Christmas at Waterstones

Best Books of 2023

Comments

There are currently no comments.