Kate Atkinson Books

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of award-winning, bestselling author Kate Atkinson’s debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a deeply moving and deeply funny family story of happiness and heartbreak National Bestseller Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year Ruby Lennox begins narrating her own life at the moment of her conception and from there takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a girl determined to learn more about her family and the secrets it keeps. Kate Atkinson’s dazzling first novel, named the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year in England, is a darkly comic, deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.

Ruby Lennox Was Conceived Grudgingly By Bunty And Born While Her Father, George, Was In The Dog And Hare In Doncaster Telling A Woman In An Emerald Dress And A D-Cup That He Wasn'T Married. Bunty Had Never Wanted To Marry George, But He Was All That Was Left. She Really Wanted To Be Vivien Leigh Or Celia Johnson, Swept Off To America By A Romantic Hero. But Here She Was, Stuck In A Flat Above The Pet Shop In An Ancient Street Beneath York Minster, With Sensible And Sardonic Patrica Aged Five, Greedy Cross-Patch Gillian Who Refused To Be Ignored, And Ruby...Ruby Tells The Story Of The Family, From The Day At The End Of The Nineteenth Century When A Travelling French Photographer Catches Frail Beautiful Alice And Her Children, Like Flowers In Amber, To The Startling, Witty, And Memorable Events Of Ruby'S Own Life.Behind The Scenes At The Museum Is A Multi-Faceted, Richly Comic, Richly Tragic Tour-De-Force, An Epic Family Chronicle That Introduces A Wonderfully Original Narrative Voice.

WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in lifeâe(tm)s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

Kate Atkinson's 'Life After Life' explored the possibility of infinite chances, as Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In 'A God in Ruins', Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy - would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father - as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

A BRILLIANT NEW LITERARY CRIME NOVEL FROM NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER KATE ATKINSON- JACKSON BRODIE MAKES A HIGLY ANTICIPATED RETURN Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an ageing Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It's picturesque, but there's something darker lurking behind the scenes. Jackson's current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network-and back across the path of someone from his past. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.

The Sunday Times bestseller: another triumph from the author of Case Histories and One Good Turn

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a purchase she hadn’t bargained for. One moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy’s humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER The first story collection from Kate Atkinson in twenty years, Normal Rules Don't Apply is a dazzling array of eleven interconnected tales from the bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him. With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination, a constantly changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems. 'What really binds these stories is their underlying theme, which has perhaps always been Atkinson's true subject- the nature of storytelling itself' Times Literary Supplement 'Life in all of its surreal, tragic and comic glory is perfectly captured within these pages' Red 'Sublime' Good Housekeeping 'Dazzling' Reader's Digest ____________ Praise for Kate Atkinson- 'Inexhaustibly ingenious' HILARY MANTEL 'Simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world' GILLIAN FLYNN 'A brilliant and profoundly original writer' RACHEL CUSK 'Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill' FINANCIAL TIMES 'One of the country's most innovative, exciting and intelligent authors.' SCOTSMAN

In "Shrines of Gaiety," bestselling author Kate Atkinson takes us to 1926 London, a vibrant yet perilous city post-Great War. Amidst Soho's nightlife, Nellie Coker rules, striving to elevate her six children, especially her enigmatic son Niven. As success invites danger, the story unfolds with humor, keen observation, and intricate plotting.

It is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect.