In the first story, Fuad learns from Driss what real friendship is; in the second, Mseud hears a voice that guides him through life.

Anna was stuck in a dead-end job and a loveless marriage. Once her children had flown the nest, she realised she needed to make some major changes to uncover the person she once was, the confident and spirited individual she had been. As hard as it would be to move out of the family home and regardless of how apprehensive Anna felt about going alone, she was much more scared of staying. After gathering all the courage she could muster and having made many plans, Anna and her trusted dog, Teddy, set out to the Norfolk coast to build a new life. Anna had rented a small wooden beach house she had come across while walking Teddy along the coast, it needed quite a bit of TLC, but Anna was up for the job, imagining the beach walks her and Teddy could enjoy and the view of the sea that would greet her each morning, Anna was sure this would be a good place to start her new life. Anna was welcomed in the community and one particular resident, a very colourful lady named Maggie, decided to take Anna under her wing. Maggie was a pillar in the beachside community, and she knew everyone and everything that went on. A twist of fate and a little help from Maggie led Anna to a run-down beach café which, like herself, needed re-building. What Anna didn’t expect was who this little café would bring into her life or the person from her past who would come back to haunt her and the adventures she would have along the way.

A dazzling and devastating memoir exploring breakdown and obsessive love, in a voice unlike any other

A Christmas short story from bestselling author Lucy Diamond, revisiting her Beach Cafe characters. After a hectic summer running her beach cafe in Cornwall, Evie Flynn is looking forward to her first Christmas with new boyfriend Ed - she's determined that it's going to be the most perfectly romantic one ever. Cosy nights in front of the fire, spicy mulled wine, mince pies . . . what's not to love? But the peace is shattered when Ed's ex suddenly gets in touch again, and then some unexpected guests arrive: Ed's surly brother Jake and Evie's heartbroken best friend Amber. Add in the stress of trying to finish her very own recipe book, snow blizzards and family dramas and Evie's Christmas starts to look as if it'll be a total turkey. Will any of her festive wishes come true . . . or is this Christmas just a recipe for disaster? An absolute Christmas cracker from Lucy Diamond, bestselling author of The Beach Cafe and Me And Mr Jones. Featuring exclusive Christmas recipes, Christmas at the Beach Cafe is the perfect present for anyone who loves women's fiction, heartwarming stories and the festive season!

A Baby at the Beach Cafe is an engaging short story follow-up to Lucy Diamond's bestselling novel The Beach Cafe. Evie loves running her beach cafe in Cornwall but with a baby on the way, she's been told to put her feet up. Let someone else take over? Not likely. Helen's come to Cornwall to escape the stress of city living. She hopes a seaside life will be the answer to all her dreams. When she sees a job advertised at the cafe it sounds perfect. But the two women clash and sparks fly. . . and then events take a dramatic turn. Can the pair of them put aside their differences in a crisis?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler: sixteen new stories—“spellbinding, masterly, sublime” (The New York Times Book Review)—that delve into the secret lives and desires of ordinary people, alongside retellings of myths and legends that highlight the aspirations of the human spirit. Beloved for the lens of the strange he places on small town life, Steven Millhauser further reveals in Voices in the Night the darkest parts of our inner selves to brilliant and dazzling effect. Here are stories of wondrously imaginative hyperrealism, stories that pose unforgettably unsettling what-ifs, or that find barely perceivable evils within the safe boundaries of our towns, homes, and even within our bodies. Here, too, are stories culled from religion and fables: Samuel, who hears the voice of God calling him in the night; a young, pre-enlightenment Buddha, who searches for his purpose in life; Rapunzel and her Prince, who struggle to fit the real world to their dream. Heightened by magic, the divine, and the uncanny, shot through with sly and winning humor, Voices in the Night seamlessly combines the whimsy and surprise of the familiar with intoxicating fantasies that take us beyond our daily lives, all done with the hallmark sleight of hand and astonishing virtuosity of one of our greatest contemporary storytellers.

In The Beach House, a self-proclaimed gang of five kids living in quiet Shell Cove on Starfish Island while away their carefree days on the islands white beaches, building sandcastles and riding the crystal-blue oceans waves as they crash ashore. One day, they decide to go exploring. They enter an old, abandoned beach house and discover they have left behind the idyllic world of sunlit sand and entered a strange world of unfamiliar voices, disappearing people, and wily demons. The author, Brenda Mize Garza, draws together two disparate worldsthe familiar realm inhabited by people with faith in God and the domain of demons whose plans oppose the Lord. She explores what happens when these two realities touch down in the lives of five young people. The kids curiosity leads them into the terrain of a longstanding battle. They come to appreciate what Ms. Martha, the town librarian, tells them about the reasons Paul the apostle had in mind when he counseled the Christians in Ephesus, writing, Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The Beach House promises to delight its readers with the tale of the companionship of five curious young people and to challenge them with the ramifications of discovering a place where the kingdoms of good and evil cross paths and the ensuing conflict leaves no person unchanged.