Cult Fiction

Feckless, unwashed, charming, penurious Sebastian Balfe Dangerfield, Trinity College Law student, Irish American with an English Accent, maroon in the ould country and dreaming of dollars and ready women, stumbles...

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing...

Isherwood's short, poignant novel is a tender and wistful love story Celebrated as a masterpiece from its first publication, A Single Man is the story of George, an English professor...

First published on the anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut's death, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve new writings - a fitting tribute to the author, and an essential contribution...

Victor Mancini has devised a complicated scam to pay for his mother's hospital care: pretend to be choking on a piece of food in a restaurant and the person who...

John Grady Cole is the last bewildered survivor of long generations of Texas ranchers. Finding himself cut off from the only life he has ever wanted, he sets out for...

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, Mao II is the work of an ingenious writer at the height of his powers.Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when...

The bold and boundlessly original debut novel from the Oscar (R)-winning screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York. 'Riotously funny' New York...

A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of Mr. Know-It-All.Marsha Sprinkle: Suitcase thief....

The post-apocalyptic modern classic with an introduction by novelist John Banville.In a burned-out America, a father and his young son walk under a darkened sky, heading slowly for the coast....

Scare yourself silly this Halloween with fourteen terrifying ghost stories chosen by the master of the macabre, Roald Dahl'Spookiness is the real purpose of the ghost story. It should give...

'One of the most disturbing novels I've read in a long time. It possesses an unnerving air of documentary reality' - Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times". In 1985, Bret Easton...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'A Hay Festival and The Poole VOTE 100 BOOKS for Women SelectionMuriel Spark's classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie features...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'A worldwide bestseller and the first part of Achebe's African Trilogy, Things Fall Apart is the compelling story of one man's...

Harry Goldfarb, heroin addict and son of lonely widow Sara, cares only about enjoying the good life with girlfriend Marion and best friend Tyrone C Love, and making the most...

He became a bestselling novelist while still in college, immediately famous and wealthy. He watched his insufferable father reduced to a bag of ashes in a safety-deposit box. He was...

Transgressive, foulmouthed, and wildly funny, Brontez Purnell's 100 Boyfriends is a filthy, unforgettable, and brutally profound ode to queer love in its most messy of variations. From one-night stands to...

Mary Gaitskill's tales of desire and dislocation in 1980s New York caused a sensation with their frank, caustic portrayals of men and women's inner lives. As her characters have sex,...

Every day from nine to five I sit at my desk facing the door of the office and type up other people's dreams.An office assistant in a hospital pursues a...

A towering philosophical novel that is the summation of her Objectivist philosophy, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is the saga of the enigmatic John Galt, and his ambitious plan to 'stop...

Fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little is in trouble, and it has something to do with the recent massacre of 16 students at his high school. Soon, the quirky backwater of Martirio,...

'This book is a total pleasure to read, a bright burst of colour in a grey winter season' Sunday TimesShe will whisper an empire into existence - but all stories...

I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.Sylvia Plath's groundbreaking semi-autobiographical novel offers...

ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction.Under the despotic rule of...

Los Angeles, 1981 ?17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and...

'A masterpiece . . . as mature and finished as Henry James's The Turn of the Screw' TimeSet on a Southern army base in the 1930s, Reflections in a Golden...

'One of the greatest American novels of this or any other time' - GuardianGOD. TRUTH. EXISTENCE.Stella Maris is the story of a mathematician, twenty years old, admitted to the hospital...

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021Shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Critics' Circle John Leonard Prize for best first bookAs heard on BBC Radio 4's Front Row'A voraciously...

Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published.'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New...

Set in a small, remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, The Orchard Keeper is an early classic from one of America's finest and...

"To be blunt: I must escape." 1893. Henry Nettleblack has to act fast or she'll be married off by her elder sister. But leaving the safety of her wealthy life...

Manhattan has become the Island of Death. The former President of the United States stands barefoot in a purple toga around a cooking fire in the lobby of the Empire...

'Funny about death, real about anxiety, witty about the things that worry us the most' Emma Gannon, author of Olive 'So fundamentally kind that you can feel the warmth coming...

This bestselling collection of stories extols the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners Here are subversive tales - by Ama Ata Aidoo, Jane Bowles, Angela Carter, Colette,...

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador Books How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to...

Few novels have caused as much debate as Hubert Selby Jr.'s notorious masterpiece, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh, author...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''My favourite book of all time... it stays with you long after you have read it - for your whole life,...

The definitive cult, post-modern novel - a shocking blend of violence, transgression and eroticism - reissued with a new introduction from Zadie Smith. When Ballard, our narrator, smashes his car...

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience - classics which will endure...

'India has produced a great novelist...a master of perpetual storytelling' V.S. Pritchett, New YorkerBorn at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined...

Shocking, banned and the subject of obscenity trials, Henry Miller's first novel Tropic of Cancer is one of the most scandalous and influential books of the twentieth century -- new...

Introduced by ZADIE SMITH'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITH'A wonderful writer and a fabulous person' MAYA ANGELOU'There is...

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF PICADOR BOOKS I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane? Patrick Bateman has it all: good looks, youth, charm, a job on Wall...