Amanda Craig

'A brilliant piece of storytelling that revels in the world of expat old ladies in Tuscany, and should be the book that everybody's reading this summer' Andrew O'Hagan'In the Tuscan hilltop village of Santorno, the setting for Amanda Craig's entertaining and bracing new novel, the Three Graces of her title are preparing for a spring wedding. Adorning this idyll Craig's Graces - Ruth, Marta and Diana - are a trio of elderly expatriates with a total of "four breasts, five eyes and three hip replacements" between them... witty, sharp-eyed and ridiculously enjoyable' Christobel Kent, GuardianWhen Enzo, a local villager, shoots an illegal immigrant from his bedroom window one night it triggers a series of events that embroil old and young, rich and poor, native and foreign. 'Enjoyable and provocative... romantic and realistic' Emily Rhodes, Spectator'I absolutely LOVED The Three Graces. It's about Tuscany and Umbria and Italy and immigration and ageing and generational divides and art and beauty and music and suffering and love and joy and life. It's bursting with compassion and wisdom' Christina Patterson

So you have a Tween! What now? Dr. Amanda Craig knows what it's like to watch your child go from sweet elementary student to moody tween in the span of just a few years and she's here to help navigate you through it!How do we keep our kids close while cultivating the confidence they'll need to grow up? How do we navigate the inevitable dips, divides, and potholes? Where do we find the strength, self-awareness, and wisdom that amount to a path forward?Despite the parenting opportunities in the tween years, we often spend time focused on academics and the social concerns of elementary school then quickly pivot to worries about safety, drugs, sex and the rebellious behavioral issues of the teen years. We think we're connecting but we're not. We miss the neurological explosion that is taking place before us as tweens experience four significant changes that shake them (and us) to their core.- Their brains are changing.- They feel and experience emotions they do not recognize.- They're hyperaware of themselves.- They do not know how to express themselves.Most importantly, parents still have a "seat at the table" to make positive impressions on their tweens as they prepare them for the teenage years.

Mustan huumorin sävyttämä trilleri rahasta, avioliitosta ja synkistä salaisuuksista. Englannin maaseutu ei aina ole silkkaa idylliä.”Craigin energinen satiiri keskiluokan elämästä sulautuu saumattomasti jännittävään murhamysteeriin.” - Daily MailQuentin ja Lottie Bredinin avioliitto on karilla, mutta heillä ei ole varaa erota. Molemmat ovat menettäneet työpaikkansa, joten heidän on jätettävä Lontoon asuntonsa ja muutettava kolmen lapsensa kanssa pieneen taloon Devonin syrjäiseen kolkkaan.Elämä mudan, hiirten ja riitojen keskellä koettelee koko perhettä. Talo on surkeassa kunnossa, mutta sen vuokra on silti epäilyttävän alhainen. Mikä on heidän uuteen kurjaan kotiinsa liittyvä mysteeri?Hurrnaavan kauniin maalaismaiseman taakse kätkeytyy köyhyyttä, kostoa, hyväksikäyttöä ja väkivaltaa., joiden varjo nousee uhkaamaan myös Bredinin perhettä.Amanda Craig (s. 1959)on useasti palkittu englantilainen kirjailija ja kirjallisuuskriitikko. Hän syntyi Etelä-Afrikassa ja kasvoi Italiassa. Ennen täysipäiväiseksi kirjailijaksi ryhtymistään hän työskenteli journalistina Sunday Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph ja Independent -lehdissä. Synkkä sopimus on Amanda Craigin yhdeksäs teos. Brittilehdet The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Financial Times ja The Observer nimesivät sen vuoden kirjaksi.

Kaksi avioliitossaan katkeroitunutta naista tekevät sopimuksen, jonka on tarkoitus ratkaista molempien ongelmat.Kun Hannah ja Jinni kohtaavat toisensa junassa, he huomaavat pian, että heillä on paljon yhteistä. Molemmilla on kerrottavanaan tarina petollisesta ja julmasta aviomiehestä. Matkan aikana he sopivat tappavansa toistensa miehet.Naisten suunnitelma vaikuttaa täydelliseltä. Molemmilla olisi murhan ajalle alibi, eikä kukaan osaisi yhdistää naisia toisiinsa.Se, mikä vielä junassa tuntui selväpiirteiseltä, muuttuu kuitenkin monimutkaiseksi, kun tulee aika toteuttaa synkkä sopimus. Jinnin aviomiehen kotoa Hannah löytää Stanin, valtavan, karvaisen, likaisen juopon, jolla on kerrottavanaan aivan toisenlainen tarina. Stan väittää Jinnin olevan aivan erilainen ihminen kuin se tyylikäs ja ystävällinen nainen, joka sai Hannahin suostuteltua karmeaan rikokseen.Kuka puhuu totta - ja kuka onkaan oikea uhri?”Amanda Craigin yhdeksännessä kirjassa on kaikki vastustamattoman lukuelämyksen elementit: railakas juoni, ajatuksia herättäviä sosiaalisia kysymyksiä sekä sankaritar, joka selviää kaikesta, mitä kirjailija keksii hänen eteensä heittää.” - The GuardianAmanda Craig (s. 1959)on useasti palkittu englantilainen kirjailija ja kirjallisuuskriitikko. Hän syntyi Etelä-Afrikassa ja kasvoi Italiassa. Ennen täysipäiväiseksi kirjailijaksi ryhtymistään hän työskenteli journalistina Sunday Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph ja Independent -lehdissä.

A fabulous new novel by Amanda Craig, acclaimed author of The Lie of the Land and The Golden Rule, longlisted for the Women's Prize

How do we keep our kids close while cultivating the confidence they'll need to grow up? How do we navigate the inevitable dips, divides, and potholes? Where do we find the strength, self-awareness, and wisdom that amount to a path forward?Despite the parenting opportunities in the tween years, we often spend time focused on academics and the social concerns of elementary school then quickly pivot to worries about safety, drugs, sex and the rebellious behavioral issues of the teen years. We think we're connecting but we're not. We miss the neurological explosion that is taking place before us as tweens experience four significant changes that shake them (and us) to their core.- Their brains are changing.- They feel and experience emotions they do not recognize.- They're hyperaware of themselves.- They do not know how to express themselves.Most importantly, parents still have a "seat at the table" to make positive impressions on their tweens as they prepare them for the teenage years.

Kaksi avioliitossaan katkeroitunutta naista tapaa sattumalta junassa. Syntyy sopimus, jonka on tarkoitus ratkaista molempien ongelmat.Kun Hannah ja Jinni kohtaavat toisensa junassa, he huomaavat pian, että heillä on jotain yhteistä. Molemmilla on kerrottavanaan tarina petollisesta ja julmasta aviomiehestä. Matkan aikana he sopivat tappavansa toistensa miehet.Naisten suunnitelma vaikuttaa täydelliseltä. Molemmilla olisi murhan ajalle alibi, eikä kukaan osaisi yhdistää naisia toisiinsa.Jinnin aviomiehen kotoa Hannah löytää Stanin, valtavan, karvaisen, likaisen juopon, jolla on kerrottavanaan aivan toisenlainen tarina. Stan väittää Jinnin olevan aivan erilainen ihminen kuin se tyylikäs ja ystävällinen nainen, joka sai Hannahin suostuteltua karmeaan rikokseen.Kuka puhuu totta - ja kuka onkaan oikea uhri?”Amanda Craigin yhdeksännessä kirjassa on kaikki vastustamattoman lukuelämyksen elementit: railakas juoni, ajatuksia herättäviä sosiaalisia kysymyksiä sekä sankaritar, joka selviää kaikesta, mitä kirjailija keksii hänen eteensä heittää.” - The GuardianAmanda Craig (s. 1959)on useasti palkittu englantilainen kirjailija ja kirjallisuuskriitikko. Hän syntyi Etelä-Afrikassa ja kasvoi Italiassa. Ennen täysipäiväiseksi kirjailijaksi ryhtymistään hän työskenteli journalistina Sunday Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph ja Independent -lehdissä.

Thirty-nine, divorced, jobless: Benedick Hunter is going nowhere, heading in the exact opposite direction he expected. So when he comes across a children's book that his mother, Laura, wrote, he decides that her life and work - haunting stories replete with sinister woods, wicked witches and brave girls who battle giants - hold the key to finding out why his own life is such a mess.Setting out to discover why Laura killed herself when he was six, Benedick travels to the US. As he grows more obsessed with what happened to his mother, Benedick enters into a dark wood - one that is both hilariously real and terrifyingly psychological. Dark humorous and inventive, In a Dark Wood casts light on the nature of depression, genius and of the healing power of storytelling.

At eighteen, Emma Kenward runs away from her dull Sloane home to try her luck as a painter in Tuscany. Waspish, idealistic and far too clever for her own good, she is at the awkward age when women choose their futures - and their identities.Once in Italy, Emma blossoms and is taken up by a a mixture of characters including the local Contessa; Sylvia, her volatile American mentor; Dr Evenlode, an Oxford don she'd hoped never to see again; and Lucio, a seductive and anarchic young Italian, as interested in Emma's body as in her mind. Santorno, however, is not merely a picturesque town set in the golden landscape of the Tuscan countryside. Hidden among the malicious tongues of the provincial gossips and the walls of the mysterious Palazzo Felici lie secrets, long buried, but not forgotten. Emma, ever curious, delves deep and discovers the truth about her new world, her old self - and a gruesome murder.

A stunning collection of seventeen stories by a vibrant mix of established and emerging writers. The best short story collection to come out of lockdown! Contributors include A L Kennedy, Helen Simpson, Alison Moore, Stephen S.Thompson and Amanda Craig.

'A highly enjoyable story about female resilience... with a twist that is all the more compelling for its unexpectedness' Sunday Times'She's such a skilful storyteller, who vividly dramatizes our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' Bernardine Evaristo'Amanda Craig anatomises the state of the nation with wit and empathy' Jonathan Coe'An irresistible summer read' Guardian'A typically sharp and hugely satisfying page-turner' Daily MailWhen Hannah is invited into the first-class carriage of the London to Penzance train, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, she once escaped Cornwall to go to university, but after marriage to Jake her dreams turned to bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for a rich woman, and Hannah has survived by working as a cleaner. Jinni is equally angry, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them?But when Hannah goes to Jinni's house she meets its shambolic caretaker, who claims Jinni is very different to the person Hannah had been led to believe. Who is telling the truth - and what will become of the women's pact to commit a terrible crime?

'Part Trollope and part Jilly Cooper, and as satisfying a novel as I have read in years. It is a wickedly observant comedy of manners, very alert to the way we live now, but somehow never cruel or judgmental' Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent

A funny, moving and brilliantly characterised novel about what happens when the metropolitan dream goes sour.

Savagely funny, compelling and a cult classic, A Private Place has struck a chord with generations. It's now available with a new afterword by the author.

A gripping novel that breaks open the inner heart of London