Indie publisher of lively literature and intriguing images
All our titles are available wherever you normally buy your books.
And also directly from us, signed by the author, and with free postage if you are in the UK.
Smart, poignant, funny, and wholly original, Lillian on Life is as fresh and surprising as fiction gets.
Paperback - ISBN: 978-1-7385341-9-7
Lillian on Life
By Alison Jean Lester
On a New York morning after a lot of red wine, 57-year-old Lillian wakes up next to her married lover and takes stock.
How did she get here?
Where is she going?
Can this be as good as it is going to get?
With her own hard-won brand of wisdom, Lillian reflects on a life which began in 1930s Missouri and developed in Munich, Paris, and London. She draws a vivid picture of the unpaved road between traditional and modern opportunities for women, of societal expectations and parental disappointment, of wins and losses in love, and of professional and personal choices, all of which have led to her solitary breakfast this morning.
In Lillian, Alison Jean Lester has created an indelible and brutally honest portrait of a witty, charming, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heartbroken woman becoming herself during the decades of change following World War II.
I absolutely loved Lillian on Life. It was a delight. The style of it so fresh and clever and subversive and there’s something very brave about it.
Kate Atkinson, #1 New York Times best selling author of Life After Life
What a great voice, what energy and wit. I enjoyed Lillian's travels, her various jobs, and her lovers. She had moments of great wisdom and I was drawn especially to those. In the midst of the humor and the happenings, a sentence or two of such profundity. I thought the book was very original and often extremely funny, but always with an edge. I completely loved it!
Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times best selling author of The Jane Austen Book Club and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
A beautifully written, deft debut; edgy, elegant Lillian will stay with you.
Adele Parks, best selling author of Spare Brides and Husbands
In a remarkably confident debut, a woman’s life is revealed through fragments and meditations hinting at a life of great daring and unrealized dreams. ... A slim novel that feels just perfect—each thought measured, each syllable counted, a kind of haiku to an independent woman.
Kirkus
Lester’s novel about a tenacious, well-traveled heroine of a certain age is replete with the profound and comical observations of a vivacious spirit.
O, The Oprah Magazine
Murder at Palito Point
£9.95
The surf is rough, the mezcal is strong, the animals are wild . . . but not as wild as the people.
Paperback - ISBN - 978-1-7385341-3-5
Ebook - ISBN - 978-1-7385341-4-2
Murder at Palito Point
By A J Myrth
For Annabel Ross, a five-day assignment to write about the trendy Mexican seaside village of Palito sounds like a relaxing gig. And it is, until a sudden and mysterious death sends shockwaves through the peace. Her job has her scoping out the village highlights and interviewing eccentric expat residents, nomadic surfers, and overlooked locals. But clever, curious Annabel begins to piece together the bewildering mix of rumor, gossip, and undercurrent that just might lead her to a killer.
Or might lead a killer to her.
This one has a sting in the tale. See what I did there?
A. Scorpion Esq.
Why did you publish this? No one is going to come to Palito now.
Asociación de Turismo de Palito
I told you it wasn’t me.
Suspicious incidental character number 3
Who done it?? This story keeps you guessing. The colorful characters are believable and their faults relatable. The descriptions of the sun, sand, water, dusty roads, and rose jam makes me want to visit a not-so-sleepy beach village like Palito Point. This book is a delightful first effort by these two collaborators. I eagerly await their next killing.
Charlotte Doolittle on Amazon
A great story that had me guessing until the end. An exotic location. And an eccentric cast of lovable characters.
A thoroughly enjoyable read all round. I hope its the first of many by this author.
Anna Mendham on Amazon
An absorbing and powerful novel about blended families, love and betrayal.
Paperback - ISBN: 978-1-8381124-5-5
The Sound of It
By Alison Jean Lester
When Su, a divorced mother of one daughter, falls in love with Jeremy, a widowed father of two sons, they want to build a life together, but neither of their houses in Worcester is big enough for a family of five. They decide to build a dream house in farmland outside the city, in which to live happily ever after. For sound designer Su, it’s an opportunity to create an embracing home and heal past wounds of betrayal and loss, while failed entrepreneur Jeremy sees a chance to impress his overbearing father.
But what happens when financial misjudgements cloud the horizon? What happens when some family ties grow strong and others don’t grow at all?
The Sound of It looks at parenting and at step-parenting, when expectations are high, dreams are big, and the Internet is very dangerous.
It’s wonderful on relationships, parenting and deception, and especially piercing on the consequences of moving too fast.
The Daily Mail
An honest and gripping look at parenting, step-parenting and later-in-life love.
#1 bestselling author Adele Parks
An absorbing and powerful novel about blended families, love and betrayal.
Louisa Treger, author of Madwoman
Lester paints a fascinating picture of the trajectory of a modern relationship in this mesmerising novel. This sensitive, clever and, above all, believable portrayal will have you gripped from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Kerry Hadley-Pryce, author of The Black Country
I’ve never read anything quite like it. Hilarious, desperately sad, and utterly compelling. An extraordinary and extremely readable novel.
Fiona Mitchell, author of The Swap and The Maid’s Room
An unputdownable story of suspense, secrets and lies.
Paperback - ISBN: 978-1-8381124-3-1
Glide
By Alison Jean Lester with photographs by Andrew Gurnett
It’s November in Massachusetts. Leo Coffin is making a birthday cake for his wife, Liv, due home soon from a trip to Norway, when a stranger comes to the door claiming to be Liv’s half-brother, Morten. Too polite to make the stranger wait until Liv is home before letting him in, Leo unleashes a troubling, fascinating force into his quiet life.
When Liv returns, unable to separate fact from fiction, Leo is forced to live with mystery upon mystery, as well as a secret he’s been keeping himself. Can his marriage survive the fiction? Can it survive the truth?
This psychologically sharp, suspenseful drama is a fascinating look at the fragility of marriage and kept me guessing until the very end. A fine mystery indeed.
Neil Humphreys - Author of Bloody Foreigners
An unputdownable story of suspense, secrets and lies. Alison Jean Lester is a wonderful writer and Glide is a wonderful novel.
Anne-Marie Casey - Screenwriter and author of An Englishwoman in New York
Glide is a novel with all the building menace of the best Stephen King told with the style and compassion of Ann Patchett. The book is as revealing as one of Leo’s photographs: full of choices, perfectly observed details, and, at the core, a deeply human truth.
Chris Huntington - Author of Mike Tyson Slept Here
There is a mystery and a mysteriousness to Glide. It is a perfect example of Lester’s gift for making you feel like she’s sharing secrets. She conjures up richness and depth from the simplest of sentences, and takes you far beyond the corners of the setting into the complex heart of human relationships.
Niall Johnson - Screenwriter and director of Keeping Mum