New Release Books by Monica Ali

With nationalism and the far right on the rise across Europe and North America, there has never been a more important moment to face up to what we, in Britain, are doing to those who seek sanctuary. Still the UK detains people indefinitely under immigration rules. Bail hearings go unrecorded, people are picked up without notice, individuals feel abandoned in detention centres with no way of knowing when they will be released. In Refugee Tales III we read the stories of people who have been through this process, many of whom have yet to see their cases resolved and who live in fear that at any moment they might be detained again. Poets, novelists and writers have once again collaborated with people who have experienced detention, their tales appearing alongside first-hand accounts by people who themselves have been detained. What we hear in these stories are the realities of the hostile environment, the human costs of a system that disregards rights, that denies freedoms and suspends lives. ‘We hear so many of the wrong words about refugees – ugly, limiting, unimaginative words – that it feels like a gift to find here so many of the right words which allow us to better understand the lives around us, and our own lives too.’ – Kamila Shamsie All profits go to the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group and Kent Help for Refugees.

An Englishwoman named Lydia is living in a small, nondescript town somewhere in the American Midwest. She has a circle of friends: one owns a dress shop; another sells houses; another is a frenzied stay-at-home mother. Lydia works at an animal shelter and swims every morning. Her lover, who adores her, feels she won''t let him know her. Who is she? Imagine if this woman was once one of the most famous living on our planet? A woman who captivated the entire world? A woman whose sudden death was mourned by millions. Who is she?

Struggling to maintain his culinary integrity in a hotel restaurant, executive chef Gabriel Lightfoot finds his secret ambition to become the hotel''s owner compromised by the murder of a porter and pressure from his girlfriend and investors.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELER A RICHARD AND JUDY PICK SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE ''Written with a wisdom and skill that few authors attain in a lifetime'' Sunday Times Still in her teenage years, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed older man. Away from her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block in London''s East End. Nazneen knows not a word of English, and is forced to depend on her husband. Confined in her tiny flat, Nazneen sews furiously for a living, shut away with her buttons and linings - until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life. On a background of racial conflict and tension, they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate. ''A brilliant evocation of sensuality'' Daily Telegraph ''A novel that will last'' Guardian ''Highly evolved and accomplished'' Observer

A new collection of short stories set in the Alentejo province of Portugal features a range of colorful characters, linked by a vivid sense of place and time, including Teresa, a beautiful young girl from the village engaged to a suitable man, who yearns to see the world, and Vasco, a café owner who is losing business to the new Internet café down the road. By the author of Brick Lane. Reprint. 60,000 first printing.