Scarlett Thomas Books

Some people think opening a book is a simple thing. It's not. Most people don't realise that you can get truly lost in a book. You can. Especially you. After the worldquake, magic is seeping into our world Effie Truelove is a new pupil at the Tusitala School for the Gifted, Troubled and Strange, with its twisted grey spires and an English teacher so frightening she gives the class nightmares. When her beloved grandfather is brutally attacked, Effie promises to look after his magical books. But when shady book-collector Leonard Levar gets his hands on them and Effie has to embark on the most dangerous adventure of her life . . . Effie must travel to the mysterious Otherworld, unlock the hidden meaning of an old book called Dragon's Green, and brave the terrifying Diberi, a secret organisation with plans that could destroy the entire universe. But Effie can't face the Diberi alone. Can her new school-friends Maximilian, Wolf, Lexy and Raven combine their gifts and discover their true powers in time?

In a magical library filled with Midwinter spells, Effie and her friends face the challenge of reuniting to avert the universe's destruction. As they navigate the mystery of disappearing cats, their adventure intertwines elements of fantasy and friendship, highlighting the importance of collaboration in overcoming dire threats.

Alice is quietly becoming the star of PopCo's 'ideation' team. Now she's been called to a mysterious 'thought camp' in Devon where they are brainstorming over the toy market for teenage girls. Alice thinks she's cracked it, but suddenly she's not sure she wants to unleash it on the world.

Ariel Manto has a fascination with 19th-century scientists--especially Thomas Lumas and "The End of Mr. Y," a book no one alive has read. When she mysteriously uncovers a copy at a used bookstore, Ariel is launched into an adventure of science and faith, consciousness and death, space and time, and everything in between.

A girl has been found dead on campus - raped, murdered, and headless. Lily Pascale had come to the university for a bit of peace and quiet, but she can't help getting involved in the murder enquiry.

Alice Butler has been receiving some odd messages - all anonymous, all written in code. Are they from someone at PopCo, the profit-hungry corporation she works for? Or from Alice's long lost father? Or has someone else been on her trail? The solution, she is sure, will involve the code-breaking skills she learned from her grandparents and the key she's been wearing round her neck since she was ten. PopCo is a grown-up adventure of family secrets, puzzles, big business and the power of numbers.

'A modern take on The Wizard of Oz that will be thoroughly enjoyed by all fans of Douglas Coupland.' Daily Mail

"First published in Great Britain by Canongate Books, Ltd., 2010" --T.p. verso.

Oligarchy is Scarlett Thomas's fierce and brilliant new novel about power, privilege, and peer pressure. When Natasha, daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives for her first day at an all-girl British boarding school, she finds herself thrown into a world of fierce pecking orders, eating disorders, and Instagram angst. Then her friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, and the world of the school gets ever darker and even weirder. Scarlett Thomas's first adult fiction since 2015 is a major return. Wildly frank, funny, and full of humanity, Oligarchy reminds us how insightful, vulnerable, brilliant, and misunderstood teenagers are, never more so than now.

A darkly funny sports memoir about a mid-life crisis, exercise addiction, tennis, and how to grow up when you really, really don't want to. At forty-one, Scarlett Thomas was a successful novelist and a senior academic. She'd quit smoking, gotten healthier, settled down in a lovely house with a wonderful partner. She'd had all the therapy. Then her beloved dog died. Of her three fathers (she'd acquired a stepfather at ten), one died of a heroin overdose and the other two were diagnosed with cancer. Her sister-in-law became pregnant at the same time that she realized that she really was never going to become a mother. For the first time in her life, maintaining her ideal weight had become nearly impossible.She was supposed to grow up, but she didn't know how. So instead, she decided to regress: to go back to the thing she'd loved best as a child but had inexplicably abandoned: tennis. Thomas knows she's not the only person to have wondered if you throw enough money and time and passion at something, whether you can make your dream come true. 41-Love is heartbreaking but frequently darkly funny as Scarlett finds she'll do anything to win--almost anything.