 | Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow
Buy new: £11.25 / Used from: £7.58 Wacky yet endearing (read my review on the book page)
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 | Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
Buy new: £14.62 / Used from: £9.00 Bleak yet fascinating visions about our world if pollution, consumption and global heating continues. The best kind of SF that makes us think about the here and now. Marvelously written.
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 | Explorers of the New Century by Magnus Mills
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.01 Darkly funny tale about a doomed expedition to find the "Agreed Furthest Point". With a sudden twist the story gets truly sinister. Special!
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 | The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Buy used from: £0.01 Another splendid Magnus Mills book - again a deadpan comical story that gets progressively weirder and darker. Splendid.
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 | A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £5.07 / Used from: £3.04 Murakami had to be on this list. I discovered him with this book, already 20 years ago and it's still my favourite.
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 | The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant
Buy new: £5.21 / Used from: £2.37 A town in panic because of missing children - as experienced by a child (read my review on the book page)
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 | Pnin (Penguin Modern Classics) by Vladimir Nabokov
Buy new: £5.73 / Used from: £3.48 I prefer this bittersweet tale to the more widely read Lolita. As always with Nabokov it seems readable yet there are fiendish puzzles and layers. Did you get it about Pnin's birthday?
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 | The Shadow at the Bottom of the World by Thomas Ligotti
Buy used from: £39.95 I hesitated to put this on the list as its nihilism can be tiring. But read the stories at intervals and you'll be impressed by the atmosphere and Ligotti's formidable style.
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 | The Swedish Cavalier by Leo Perutz
Buy used from: £7.00 A masterful book by an unjustly forgotten master. Very readable tale with hints of the supernatural, and sly Leo Perutz guides the reader merrily along towards a true tragedy
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 | Leonardo's Judas by Leo Perutz
Buy used from: £10.00 Another Perutz gem. Leonardo Da Vinci is stuck on "the last supper" and he can't find a suitable model for Judas...
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 | The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner
Buy new: £5.62 / Used from: £2.08 This books is 100 years old and still eminently readable. It's an atmospheric mystery. Something different, really.
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 | The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 Stylish first book about master detective Fandorin, set in Russia before the revolution. Witty, amusing and special.
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 | The Music of Chance by Paul Auster
Buy new: £4.82 / Used from: £2.53 One of my fave books by Auster. Existentialist story about two guys who have to build a big, long wall in a lawn. The movie is great as well.
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 | Travels with My Aunt (Vintage Classics) by Graham Greene
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £1.03 One of Graham Greene's most entertaining tales.
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 | Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Buy new: £4.76 / Used from: £2.13 Superior character-driven SF by a top writer. Not only for SF readers, but for everyone who likes a good story with interesting characters.
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 | Morbid Tales by Quentin S. Crisp
Buy used from: £35.00 Excellent short story collection by a unique talent. Readable yet a true original.
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 | Ask the Dust by John Fante
Buy new: £4.48 / Used from: £1.75 A classic tragic love story. A writer whose work merits investigation, as most of his stories are splendid.
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 | The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi (Vintage classics) by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
Buy new: £8.09 / Used from: £0.25 About the strange obsession of a Japanese Samurai. I've only read great stories by Tanizaki and this one is really special.
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 | Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Buy new: £4.92 / Used from: £3.20 Yes, a graphic novel in my list. It's a masterpiece. An autobiography about growing up in conservative Iran.
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 | BLINDSIGHT by Peter Watts
Buy new: £7.41 / Used from: £2.85 I rarely read hard SF. But this dazzling first contact story impresses with its ideas, style and implications. Mind, this book is a cold as interstellar space - yet equally fascinating!
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 | No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Buy used from: £1.64 Excellent, subtly written novel about greed. Realistic dialogue and introspection. The movie's excellent as well.
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 | Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.52 Every avid reader should try at least one Elmore Leonard novel. Incredibly lively and juicy dialogue, and the plot of this one is among his most entertaining ones.
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 | L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
Buy new: £6.74 / Used from: £0.01 Still my favourite James Ellroy book. Intense, manic writing.
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 | The Wine-dark Sea by Robert Aickman
Buy new: £12.60 A nice introduction to Aickman's unique strange stories. After this, you'll probably want to buy the Tartarus complete collection.
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| Gangrene by Jef Geeraerts
Buy used from: £5.97 The list ends with a Belgian masterpiece. An immoral drug, alchohol and sex-induced frenzy set in 1960s Congo. You'll barely breathe when reading this.
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Listmania!
