Station Eleven meets Never Let Me Go in this “suspenseful, introspective debut” (Kirkus Reviews) set in an unsettling near future where the dead can be uploaded to machines and kept in service by the living. In the wake of a highly contagious virus, California is under quarantine. Sequestered in high rise towers, the living can’t go out, but the dead can come in—and they come in all forms, from sad rolling cans to manufactured bodies that can pass for human. Wealthy participants in the “companionship” program choose to upload their consciousness before dying, so they can stay in the custody of their families. The less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death, but all companions become the intellectual property of Metis Corporation, creating a new class of people—a command-driven product-class without legal rights or true free will. Sixteen-year-old Lilac is one of the less fortunate, leased to a family of strangers. But when she realizes she’s able to defy commands, she throws off the shackles of servitude and runs away, searching for the woman who killed her. Lilac’s act of rebellion sets off a chain of events that sweeps from San Francisco to Siberia to the very tip of South America in this “compelling, gripping, whip-smart piece of speculative fiction” (Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters) that you won’t want to end.

A world-shaping event revives old favorites, introduces new complications—and moves hero Drizzt Do'Urden into a restored era of the Forgotten Realms Alone and with his fate hanging in the balance, Drizzt Do'Urden reflects on the lives of the trusted allies who stood by his side throughout his early life—the friends now known as the Companions of the Hall. Unbeknownst to him, the goddess Mielikki has given Bruenor, Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar the chance to return to the world they left behind. Reborn as children but with their memories still intact, the friends must find a way back to one another—and to their lone Companion, Drizzt. Meanwhile, three seemingly unrelated commoners, growing up across the far reaches of the Forgotten Realms, display incredible feats of power. Against all odds, they hold the fate of Drizzt Do'Urden in their hands—a fate that is far from certain. For in the shadows, a cunning cabal of wizards is watching, intent on hunting the "Chosen" mortals who have been blessed by the gods. These wizards know something mere commoners do not: Long-forgotten gods have begun to stir. Long-lost lands have begun to tremble. The world around them is about to change—and these wizards will do whatever it takes to turn the coming chaos to their advantage. The Companions is the first book in the Sundering series and the twenty-seventh book in the Legend of Drizzt series.

Companions draws together Hesselholdt's four short novels centring on a young woman, Camilla, and her circle of friends.

How do we cultivate the life-long relationships we are longing for, whether within marriage or friendship? Psychologist Kelly Flanagan shows how each of us can enjoy the deeply satisfying, transformational love of companionship. With self-knowledge and an understanding of our own loneliness and emotional defenses leading the way, we can make the choice to love more vulnerably.

LAURA PURCELL'S THRILLING NEW NOVEL THE WHISPERING MUSE IS OUT NOW Winner of the W H Smith Thumping Good Read Award As featured on the Radio 2 Book Club and the Zoe Ball ITV Book Club '[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book' Jojo Moyes '[It] shone, for originality for the sheer quality of the writing, the characters and some masterly chills' Peter James Some doors are locked for a reason... Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. For inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a two-hundred-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure – a Silent Companion – that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself...

"Originally published in the UK by Oxford University Press, 2006."