Literary Fiction – Free & Bargain Priced!
Sci Fi stories have a unique place in the world of fiction. They contain all the imaginative elements that all fiction contains, and requires – but they have one element that none others have. And that one element elevates them, in some people’s minds, to a higher status of creativity – to the status of prediction, of prophecy, and of creative theoretical science itself. The best science fiction books do more than simply spin a yarn (although there are very many great story tellers in the sci fi book world) – they stretch, imaginatively, into scientific knowledge as it stands today and imagines where that knowledge may take us tomorrow. And then they make it human – and, therefore, ‘real’.
What will I find in a ‘Literary Fiction’ Book?
Fantasy Novels contain unrealistic settings, or magic, and are often set in a medieval universe, or involve mythical or magical beings as a primary element of the plot, theme, or setting. Magic is a mainstay of fantasy, in the setting or plot, or being practiced by the characters. Fantasy stories are closely related to fairy stories and couldn’t happen in real life.
Some examples of books you’ll find in this category, are: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings; T.H. White’s The Once and Future King; George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones…
Back in 1953, in what was still the early days of the Science Fiction genre, the great sci fi author Isaac Asimov defined it as “that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings”. It is a branch of literature which has grown exponentially, hand-in-hand with the growth of human advances in science and technology and, by the 1970s its purpose, as evidenced in the new style of writing that had developed, had matured into one which wasn’t only concerned with science, but with consequences of scientific and technological advancement. Sci fi author Pamela Sargent then defined it as “the literature of ideas.”
But even that definition doesn’t go far enough. ‘Ideas’ and ‘consequences of ideas’ are now, almost too-limited a way of looking at what science fiction has become. Not only do authors project the advancement of science into the future and calculate the consequences – they assess, in advance, the moral consequences of these advances. They seek to pre-empt the kind of philosophical, moral and ethical issues that might ensue, and consider how to react. Or how our philosophical reasoning might also advance, along with technologies. As such, the best science fiction books are works of the philosophy of technology, and ethics. As new scientists, studying at university, have their work and theories swayed by the latest sci fi novel they read – so, philosophers may find themselves re-reading the self-same novels to obtain a head-start on the new frontiers of philosophy.
But not all science fiction is heavy with tech and theses on the human condition! There is something for everyone in this wide and deep genre of ideas. For pure action and adventure enthusiasts, thriller aficionados, and those wishing to, simply, be entertained – there are books and authors a plenty to go around. And you can start by looking in our list of books below…
One of the Great Classics of Literary Fiction Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Modern Classic of Literary Fiction: Black Swan by David Mitchell
These are our most recent Literary Fiction books, at cut-priced deals – scroll down the page for more…
Our Latest Literary Fiction Book Deals!
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David Mitchell and Neil Gaiman talk books!
Two bestselling contemporary authors, Neil Gaiman and David Mitchell, on stage together For their ever first meeting. Topics from the audience vary from philosophy and politics, to which tree they most identify with. If you like either author, or simply enjoy hearing authors discuss books, buckle in for an hour and a quarter of priceless discussion and readings. (Chaired by Erica Wagner, literary editor of The Times.)
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Delicious!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Includes an exclusive conversation between Ruth Reichl and Emily Giffin Ruth Reichl is a born storyteller. Through her restaurant reviews, where she celebrated the pleasures of a well-made meal, and her bestselling memoirs that address our...
Girl A
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Dark Places
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Don Quixote
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, in an expanded P.S. edition Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the...
Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The beloved classic that turned Carson McCullers into an overnight literary sensation and one of the Modern Library's top 20 novels of the 20th century. “A remarkable book…From the opening page, brilliant in its establishment of mood, character, and suspense, the book...
Pigeon English
Man Booker Prize Finalist: A “winning and ingenious” novel about an eleven-year-old immigrant boy trying to solve a murder (The Plain Dealer). Lying in front of Harrison Opoku is a body. It is the body of one of his classmates, a boy known for his incredible...
Black Mischief
"A hilarious and still timely tale of emerging Africa and declining England" (Time), Evelyn Waugh's third novel helped to establish his reputation as a mater satirist. "We are Progress and the New Age. Nothing can stand in our way." When Oxford-educated Emperor Seth...
Until I Find You
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The Last Picture Show
“McMurtry is an alchemist who converts the basest materials to gold.” — New York Times Book Review The Last Picture Show (1966) is both a rambunctious coming-of-age story and an elegy to a forlorn Texas town trying to keep its one movie house alive. Adapted into the...
Living with Gusto
2014 National Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist Let's begin at the end. The final words from Ophelia, the narrator: "I sometimes wonder if I did it on purpose, if I consciously broke everything in my life that was working. And if so, if I had known how it would...
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd,...
Empire Falls
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “Russo writes with a warm, vibrant humanity.... A stirring mix of poignancy, drama and comedy.” —The Washington Post Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts...
The Kite Runner
The #1 New York Times bestselling novel beloved by millions of readers the world over. “A vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people [of Afghanistan] have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence—forces that continue to threaten them...
All the Pretty Horses
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER •The first volume in theBorder Trilogy, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers,...
Jane Austen Made Me Do It
Stories by: Lauren Willig • Adriana Trigiani • Jo Beverley • Alexandra Potter • Laurie Viera Rigler • Frank Delaney & Diane Meier • Syrie James • Stephanie Barron • Amanda Grange • Pamela Aidan • Elizabeth Aston • Carrie Bebris • Diana Birchall • Monica Fairview •...
The Sea
*Winner of the Man Booker Prize* A luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory. In this “extraordinary meditation on mortality, grief, death, childhood and memory" (USA Today), John Banville introduces us to Max Morden, a middle-aged...
Who Is Vera Kelly?
Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award – G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards An NPR Best Book of the Year "Gripping, subtle, magnificently written." —The New York Times Book Review "A delectable page-turner . . . Vera Kelly...
Life and Times of Michael K
From author of Waiting for the Barbarians and Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. J.M. Coetzee's latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus, is now available from Viking. Late Essays: 2006-2016 will be available January 2018. In a South Africa turned by war, Michael K. sets...
Crime and Punishment (New Translation)
A celebrated new translation of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece reveals the “social problems facing our own society” (Nation). Published to great acclaim and fierce controversy in 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment has left an indelible mark on global literature...
My Year Abroad
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book * Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, TIME, and Marie Claire “A manifesto to happiness—the one found when you stop running from who you are.” –New York Times Book Review “An extraordinary book, acrobatic on...
The Little Friend
The second novel by Donna Tartt, bestselling author of The Goldfinch (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize), The Little Friend is a grandly ambitious and utterly riveting novel of childhood, innocence and evil. The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s...
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
The complete early work of the renowned African-American poet. “Nikki Giovanni is one of our national treasures.”—Gloria Naylor This omnibus includes her first seven volumes of poetry from her early years, 1967 to 1983: Black Feeling Black...
The Double
A “wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality” from a Nobel Prize–winning author who pushes fiction to its very limits (The Boston Globe). As this novel by the author of Blindness and All the Names begins, Tertuliano...
The Book of Illusions
A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a...
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comesan exquisite love story about Queenie Hennessy, the remarkable friend who inspired Harold’s cross-country journey.“This lovely book is full of joy. Much more than...
Had a Good Time
”Gloriously imaginative and utterly hypnotizing short stories” inspired by vintage twentieth-century postcards, from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Booklist, starred review). For many years, author Robert Olen Butler has collected picture postcards...
The Hired Man
An award-winning Scottish and Sierra Leonean novelist “brilliantly portrays the atmosphere” of Croatia in this haunting tale of war, history, and secrets (The Guardian). Visitors are not common in the small Croatian village of Gost, so Duro is...
Mama Day
A “wonderful novel” steeped in the folklore of the South from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Women of Brewster Place (The Washington Post Book World). On an island off the coast of Georgia, there’s a place where superstition...
The Lieutenant
A young astronomer in colonial Australia faces tragedy on the ground in this follow-up to the award-winning The Secret River—“A triumph. Read it at once” (The Sunday Times, UK). A stunning follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’...
Let Me Tell You
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • From the renowned author of “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill House, a spectacular volume of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, essays, and other writings. Features “Family...
Beartown
Now an HBO Original Series “You’ll love this engrossing novel.” —People Named a Best Book of the Year by LibraryReads, BookBrowse, and Goodreads From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People, a dazzling and profound novel about a small town with a...
Maurice
Written in 1914 by the Nobel Prize–nominated author of Howard’s End, this intimate portrait of homosexual desire “seems as relevant as ever” (The Guardian). From early adolescence to his college years at Cambridge and into...
A State of Freedom
A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 A devastating novel of multiple narratives, “a mark of Neel Mukherjee’s range and force and ambition” (New York Times Book Review). A State of Freedom wrests open the central, defining events of our century:...
The Temple of My Familiar
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple weaves a “glorious and iridescent” tapestry of interrelated lives in this New York Times bestseller (Library Journal). In The Temple of My Familiar, Celie and Shug from The Color Purple subtly...
The Cat Who Saved Books
AN INDIE NEXT PICK! From the #1 bestselling author in Japan comes a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about...
Atlas Shrugged
Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s...
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