Nuri is a beekeeper, his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo - until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape. But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and so they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain. 

When Jonah and Raff wake up on Monday, their mother, Lucy, isn’t there. Although Jonah is only nine, he is the big brother and knows enough about the world to keep her absence a secret. If anyone found out she’d left them alone, it could be disastrous for him and Raff, and she'll be back, he’s nearly sure. With growing unease, he puzzles over the clues she’s left behind. Who sent her the flowers? Why are all her shoes still in the house? Why is her phone buried in a plant pot?

From prize - winning short - story writer Cate Kennedy comes a new collection to rival her highly acclaimed Dark Roots. In Like a House on Fire, Kennedy once again takes ordinary lives and dissects their ironies, injustices and pleasures with her humane eye and wry sense of humour. In Laminex and Mirrors, a young woman working as a cleaner in a hospital helps an elderly patient defy doctor's orders. In Cross - Country, a jilted lover manages to misinterpret her ex's new life.

Irene Dalila Mwathi comes from Kenya with a brutally violent personal history. Once she wanted to be a journalist; now all she wants is to be safe. When she finally arrives, bewildered, in London, she is attacked by the very people paid to protect her, and she has no choice but to step out on her own into this strange new world. Through a dizzying array of interviews, lawyer's meetings, regulations and detention centres, she realises that what she faces may be no less dangerous than the violence she has fled.

Jody’s in love with a rock star. At Jackson Gatlin’s concert, she’s right at the front. But when she’s caught in the crush, Jody’s carried backstage. Throw in concussion, a super-wired superstar and a Curly Wurly - and she finds herself taking home more than a poster. OMG! Jody’s kidnapped him. But what happens when the rock god in her garage doesn’t want to leave? Jody’s stuck between a rock idol and a hard place!

Jo returns to South Africa after ten years in the UK to cover the riots sweeping the Jo’burg township of Alex. Nico, her estranged Afrikaner father, reappears and asks her to help prove his innocence in the murder of a black man, abducted by the security forces decades earlier. As they set off on a road trip through South Africa’s now-unfamiliar landscape, it becomes clear that Nico knows more about the murder than he is letting on, and Jo begins to wonder whether she is his accomplice, or his captive.

Dolores is the youngest of six daughters. Growing up in the 1960s in Cardiff's poverty stricken Tiger Bay, her life is cursed from the start when, on the day of her birth, her father gambles and loses everything on a bet that Dolores will be a boy. As Dolores grows older, we see this strange underworld through her eyes: Tiger Bay is a place of gaming rooms and cafes, of crumbling houses and burning secrets, and for Dolores and her sisters, their home is a dangerous place, filled equally by fear and love.

The beginning of a relationship is usually all about getting to know each other. Not so for Dave and Alena. He's from London; she's from Siberia. They meet in a slick Bond Street department store, where she's up to no good, and it's his job to catch her. So begins an unlikely relationship between two people with pasts, with secrets. But despite everything they don't have in common, they’re still fighting for a future together.

Bailey is 17, mixed race, lives with his mum and dad and spends all his time playing guitar or tending to his luscious afro. Indigo is 17 and newly returned to London, having grown up in the care system after being found by her mum's dead body as a toddler. All Indigo wants is to know who she really is. When Bailey and Indigo meet, sparks fly. But when Bailey becomes the target of a homeless man who seems to know more about Indigo than is normal, Bailey is forced to make a choice he should never have to make.

From the suburban disorder of 1980s southern England, 13-year-old Jake watches his world unravel as his father and older brother leave the family home and his mother increasingly finds solace in drink. Even as Jake outwardly shrugs off doubts about his paternity, the question hangs over him like an invisible spectre.

Maureen O'Donnell is facing the darkest episode in her life. She owes more than she makes in a year in back taxes; Angus Farrell, the psychologist who murdered her boyfriend, is up for trial; and her abusive father has arrived back in Glasgow. On top of it all, she has become embroiled in someone else's family feud. Ella McGee, an elderly stallholder at the fleamarket where Maureen is selling illegally imported cigarettes, is bringing a case against her son in the small claims court.

When Janie Ryan is born, she is destined to be the latest in a long line of Aberdeen fishwives. Ahead of her lies a life filled with feckless men, filthy council flats, and bread & marge sandwiches. But Janie isn’t like the rest of them. She wants a different life. And Janie, born and bred for combat, is ready to fight for it.

When recently widowed Deborah Maxwell is assigned by the Scottish Refugee Council to act as mentor to Abdi Hassan, a Somali refugee, the two are drawn into an awkward friendship. They must spend a year together, meeting once a month in different parts of Glasgow. As recently-widowed Deborah opens Abdi's eyes to her beloved city and its people, he teaches her about the importance of family – and of laying your ghosts to rest.

After the horrors of the past, Louisa Williams is desperate to make a clean start. Her husband, Sam, is dead. Her children, too, are gone, victims of the car accident in which he died. Sam said that she would never get away from him. That he would hound her to death if she tried to leave. Louisa never thought that he would want to harm their children, though. But then she never thought that he would betray her with a woman like Sophie. And now Sophie is determined to take all that Louisa has left.

The number 1 international bestseller. Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back. Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.