Fires in the Dark: A Novel

His breathing was so slight she could scarcely detect it, even when she lowered her face to his. The smell of him, like new bread, or was it her smell? She could not tell. He and I smell identical, she thought, smiling in the darkness. The barn was softly warm, and the warmth and softness wrapped around mother and child as they curled together in the gloom, breathed together, smelled the same.'Yenko,' Anna whispered in her son's ear.'Your real name is Yenko.'
It is 1927. In the heart of Central Europe, a son is born to Josef, leader of a nomadic group of Coppersmith Gypsies, and his wife, Anna. For the benefit of most people he is named Emil, but his real name, known only to his mother, is Yenko.
Born in a time of peace and prosperity, Yenko grows up during the Great Depression of the 1930s and is then caught up in the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and in World War II. Soon he and his family are fugitives. . . . Their flight will end in tragedy for some and miraculous escape for others. . . .
From the inter war years through the drama of the Prague uprising of 1945, Fires in the Dark is a breathtaking novel of epic scope. Louise Doughty has created an authentic and compassionate portrayal of Romany life -- and a celebration of a greatly misunderstood culture, told through the story of one family living in an extraordinary time in history.

Literature & Fiction

Doughty, Louise

Contemporary

Harper

Fires In the Dark reveals the highly secretive and misunderstood world of the coppersmith gypsies. In 1927, when prosperity still reigns in Central Europe, Yenko is born to two Coppersmith Gypsies. His parents, Josef and Anna, are nomads who raise their son during the relative calm of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Soon, though, dangerous times threaten to unsettle their family, as their heritage makes them vulnerable targets for ethnic cleansing. As Germany invades Czechoslovakia and the conflicts of World War II begin to unfold, Yenko and his parents become fugitives, forced on a journey that promises only great uncertainty and offers survival as a remote possibility. In the course of their flight, the burden of an ancient tradition rests entirely on Yenko's shoulders. In capturing the desperation and perseverance of one family during an extraordinary time in history, Louise Doughty pays powerful homage to an insular and little-known culture.

United States

Harper-perennial

An essential guide for every aspiring novelist!
The thought of writing a full-length novel can be daunting. But in A Novel in a Year, Louise Doughty makes a seemingly vast and unconquerable task manageable by walking aspiring authors through the different aspects of writing technique in eminently accessible bite-size chunks. Here are fifty-two chapters offering useful advice on all the facets of writing and exercises designed to help writers of all levels develop confidence and style. Read a chapter a week, and by year's end, you will have accomplished your goal and made it to "the End."

A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks

Arts & Photography

Longlisted for the Orange Prize and Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, Louise Doughty’s hauntingly beautiful investigation of love, loss, and revenge is a literary page-turner that will linger in your mind far after the cover closes. When a hit-and-run car crash claims Laura’s daughter Betty, her life is turned upside down. But when the courts rule the death an accident, the lines dividing justice from punishment will blur as Laura embarks on her own quest for vengeance. Sure to captivate fans of Antoinette van Heugten and Sophie Hannah, as well as readers of Doughty’s previous books Fires in the Dark and A Novel in a Year, among others, Whatever You Love is a poignant psychological story in which life’s greatest questions hang in the balance.

Whatever You Love

Literary

Perennial

Apple Tree Yard: A Novel by Louise Doughty

Apple Tree Yard

Genre Fiction

Sarah Crichton Books

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2016
From the author of Apple Tree Yard comes a masterful thriller about espionage, love, and redemption.
John Harper is in hiding in a remote hut on a tropical island. As he lies awake at night, listening to the rain on the roof, he believes his life may be in danger. But he is less afraid of what is going to happen than of what he’s already done. 
In a nearby town, he meets Rita, a woman with her own tragic history. They begin an affair, but can they offer each other redemption? Or do the ghosts of the past always catch up with us in the end?
Flashing back from late 1990s Indonesia to Cold War Europe, Harper’s childhood in civil rights-era California, and Indonesia during the massacres of 1965 and the subsequent military dictatorship, Black Water explores some of the darkest events of recent history through the story of one troubled man. 
In this gripping follow-up to Apple Tree Yard, Louise Doughty writes with the intelligence, vivid characterization, and moral ambiguity that make her fiction resonate in the reader’s mind long after the final page.

Black Water: A Novel

When the bodies of the Cowpers, a reclusive middle-aged couple, are discovered brutally slaughtered — and their teenage daughter goes missing — the tiny village of Nether Bowston reels in shock. And as the townspeople mull over the first murder in a century, everyone is asking the same question: Where is Gemma Cowper? Just down the road from the murder scene, Alison Akenside divides her time between cultivating her roses and reporting for the Rutland Record. Like Gemma, Alison grew up in the village — and knows what it's like for a young girl whose dreams are far grander than her prospects. Alison searches for inside information on the murder, hoping finally to sell a story to a national newspaper. But as the case leads her into the darkest corners of this bucolic town, she realizes that not everything is what it seems. And soon Alison, like the rest of Nether Bowston, will discover what really went on behind the tightly drawn curtains of the Cowper home — and find out if Gemma is the victim of a madman ... or something much worse.

An English Murder: A Novel

Dell

Coming to BBC One, as a flagship four part series, starting at 9pm on Sunday 22nd January. Part psychological thriller and part courtroom drama, Apple Tree Yard is a dark, smart, and undeniably sexy page turner. With her trademark intelligence, award-winning author Louise Doughty weaves an intricate tale of adultery, murder, sex, and deception that will keep readers in suspense until the very end. Yvonne Carmichael has worked hard to achieve the life she always wanted: a high-flying career in genetics, a beautiful home, a good relationship with her husband and their two grown-up children. Then one day she meets a stranger at the Houses of Parliament and, in the dark, secret corners of London, begins an impulsive and passionate affair with him-a decision that will put everything she values at risk. At first she believes she can keep the relationship separate from the rest of her life, but a life-changing act of violence sends Yvonne's carefully crafted plans into a downward spiral of deceit, betrayal, and murder. Full of surprising twists, Apple Tree Yard is a compelling psychological mystery about one woman's adultery as well as a deeply literate and insightful examination of the values by which we live and the choices we make, from an acclaimed writer working at the height of her powers. Apple Tree Yard was shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards Crime &amp; Thriller of the Year. 'Once you start you can't stop reading. Terrific.' - Helen Dunmore

Faber&Faber

Black Water

John Harper lies awake at night in an isolated hut on an Indonesian island, listening to the rain on the roof and believing his life may be in danger. But he is less afraid of what is going to happen than of something he's already done. In a local town, he meets Rita, a woman with her own troubled history. They begin an affair - but can he allow himself to get involved when he knows this might put her at risk? Moving between Europe during the cold war, California and the Civil Rights struggle, and Indonesia during the massacres of 1965 and the decades of military dictatorship that follow,Black Water is an epic novel that explores some of the darkest events of recent world history through the story of one troubled man. Black Water confirms Louise Doughty's position as one of our most important contemporary novelists. She writes with fierce intelligence and a fine-tuned sense of moral ambiguity that makes her fiction resonate in the reader's mind long after the final page has been turned.

Erotica

Faber & Faber Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Doughty, Louise. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Doughty, Louise

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Doughty, Louise. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fires in the Dark: A Novel

Fires in the Dark: A Novel

A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks

Whatever You Love

Apple Tree Yard

Black Water: A Novel

An English Murder: A Novel

Apple Tree Yard

Black Water

Apple Tree Yard