What Becomes

A. L. Kennedy's remarkable new collection of stories shows us exactly what becomes of the broken-hearted. She reveals the sadness, violence, hurt, and terror, but also the redemption of love, and she does so with enormous human compassion, wild leaps of humour, and the brilliantly original linguistic skill that distinguishes her as one of the world's finest writers. Always attuned to the moment of epiphany, these twelve stories are profound, intimate observations of men and women whose lives ache with possibility. Each story is a dramatization of the instant in a life that exposes it all; love and the lack of love, hope and the lack of hope. These men and women are perfectly ordinary people whose marriages flounder; who sit on their own in a cinema watching a film with no soundtrack; who risk sex in a hotel with an anonymous stranger. They conceal tenderness and disappointment, vulnerability and longing, griefs and wonders. Devastating and funny, intimate and profound, the stories in What Becomesare further proof that Kennedy is one of the most dazzling and inventive writers of her generation.

"Being a man, like being a woman, is something you have to learn," Aaron Raz Link remarks. Few would know this better than the coauthor of What Becomes You, who began life as a girl named Sarah and twenty-nine years later began life anew as a gay man. Turning from female to male and from teaching scientist to theatre performer, Link documents the extraordinary medical, social, legal, and personal processes involved in a complete identity change. Hilda Raz, a well-known feminist writer and teacher, observes the process as both an "astonished" parent and as a professor who has studied gender issues. All these perspectives come into play in this collaborative memoir, which travels between women's experience and men's lives, explores the art and science of changing sex, maps uncharted family values, and journeys through a world transformed by surgery, hormones, love, and . . . clown school. Combining personal experience and critical analysis, the book is an unusual--and unusually fascinating--reflection on gender, sex, and the art of living.

For almost a decade, beloved storyteller E. Lynn Harris has welcomed you into his family with his passionate, warm and trail-blazing novels. Now, he invites you into the most intimate world ever--his own. Since his first book Invisible Life was published in the early 1990s, New York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris has wowed, charmed and romanced millions of readers. As a master storyteller, E. Lynn Harris has created an intimate and glamorous world centered around his signature themes of love, friendship and family. People all over the world have fallen in love with his characters and laughed and cried with them. Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life–from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, E. Lynn Harris shares an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more important, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams–and more–come true.

Originally published in 1987, this volume examines the ideals and realities of river use in 19th Century Britain and the failure of legal and technological remedies for river pollution. It deals with the involvement of scientists, particularly chemists, in pollution inquiries and considers the effects on the normal workings of the scientific community of scientists’ participation in the adversary forums in which water and sewage policy was made. It discusses 19th ideas of decomposition, disease causation and purification and examines the gap between the abilities of science and the needs of society that developed as the existence of water-borne disease became increasingly clear. It also deals with the politicization of water bacteriology and the emergence of a technology of biological sewage treatment from a political context.

Douglas and Alice are convinced their spouses are cheating...with each other! Teaming up, they take their entirely inept investigation on the road. Following their spouses across the UK, the spurned twosome take one epic road trip that turns out nothing like they expected. Their detective work makes them a team, the fun and adventure makes them into something more. For fans of Sophie Kinsella and Jenny Colgan.

When Maria Mills flees London with only a suitcase and her young daughter, she is intent on a new life. To hide from her past, she has carefully constructed a story based on a lie even her child believes is true. It is 1965 and Dublin is a city on the cusp of change. As the country prepares to commemorate the 1916 Rising, Maria meets Tess McDermott, a former member of Cumann na mBan. Tess saw active service during the Rising and Maria soon realises that she, too, is closely guarding a secret. Set against the backdrop of stifling social mores alongside a defiant new wave of women's liberation, What Becomes of Us is a beautifully told story of the delicate balance between risk and survival, of nationhood and of the struggle to carve out a new identity when the past refuses to let go.

The prize-winning, passionate and uncompromising sequel to the blistering classic novel, Once Were Warriors 'She always came the following day for a second visit on this yearly remembering; in fact, Polly Heke came several times a year and had done for the last two, from when she herself hit the same age as Grace’d been when she, uh, when she killed herself.' The searing power of Alan Duff’s masterpiece Once Were Warriors rocked a nation and was acclaimed around the world. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? is the challenging, poetic sequel, taking up the story of the Heke family six years after Grace’s suicide. The novel won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and was made into a film.

'Heartwarming and uplifting' Heidi Swain Poignant and uplifting, this is a story to remind hopeless romantics that you never know when true love might strike... Perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond, Heidi Swain, Laura Kemp and Holly Martin. Cassie Montgomery can remember a time where her life seemed pretty perfect. By day she was setting up her own little business in her sleek penthouse apartment, and by night sleeping on gazillion-count Egyptian cotton sheets next to her fiancée, once reputed to be Glasgow's most eligible bachelor. And yet one ordinary, fateful day, Cassie uncovers a secret that shatters her heart into tiny pieces, and changes her life forever... Escaping to a rural and idyllic coastal village, Cassie finds a cottage that, from the moment she steps through the rose-surrounded door, feels instantly like home. And then there's Mac, the cool surf teacher, who makes her question what really makes her happy – and makes her wonder if maybe, she might already have found the answer...