The Book Case

Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 Shortlist

The Very Thought of You
The Very Thought of You
The Very Thought of You - Rosie Alison
31st August 1939: the world is on the brink of war. As Hitler prepares to invade Poland,
thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn
from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large
Yorkshire estate which has been opened up to evacuees. (£7.99)
The Lacuna
The Lacuna
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
Born in the US and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-
climbing flapper mother, Salome. Making himself useful in the household of the famed
Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky,
young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution. (£7.99)
Black Water Rising
Black Water Rising
Black Water Rising - Attica Locke
On a dark night, out on the Houston bayou to celebrate his wife's birthday, Jay Porter
hears a scream. Saving a distressed woman from drowning, he opens a Pandora's Box.
(£7.99)
Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political
genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in
manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as
ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in
the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic
passions and murderous rages. (£8.99)
A Gate at the Stairs
A Gate at the Stairs
A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore
With America gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a
'half-Jewish' farmer's daughter from the plains of the Midwest, escapes to university and
takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous.
(£7.99)
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle - Monique Roffey
When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England George instantly
takes to their new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the
racial segregation and the imminent dawning of a new era. Her only solace is her growing
fixation with Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of Trinidad's new national
party.(£7.99)