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.

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA NOVEL AWARD A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd âe" would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather âe" 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. This gripping, often deliriously funny yet emotionally devastating book looks at war âe" that great fall of Man from grace âe" and the effect it has, not only on those who live through it, but on the lives of the subsequent generations. It is also about the infinite magic of fiction.Those who loved the bestselling Life After Life will recognise Teddy as Ursula Toddâe(tm)s adored younger brother âe" but for those who have not read it, A God in Ruins stands fully on its own. Few will dispute that it proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the most exceptional novelists of our age.

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging 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 his old friend Reggie.

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

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost. With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems.

Following her mystery debut Case Histories with this percipient, funny, and totally satisfying read, Atkinson once again features ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Brodie--except this time he is the prime suspect in a deadly crime.

The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburgh Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .