Paper Towns

It began as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person.

Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead--to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse--though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating the choppy waters of new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven't forgiven?

It's not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has began to see her sister as the person she was--lovely and amazing and deeply flawed--can she truly start to discover her own path.

In a voice that's as lyrical and as true as a favorite song, Ava Dellaira writes about one girl's journey through life's challenges with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty.

Winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize

A Guardian, Spectator, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Evening Standard Book of the Year

'What a stunning novel.' Graham Norton

'Funny, passionate, heartbreaking.' Tracey Thorn

'Life-enhancing.' Scotsman

'Unforgettable.' Cólm Toibín

'Spectacular.' Books of the Year, Spectator

'An incredible book . . . about men and how important friendship can be to men.' Douglas Stuart

'My god this is gorgeous. Wild, wise, wonderful . . . Absolutely brilliant.' Russell T Davies

Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.

In the summer of 1986, James and Tully ignite a friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over, they rush towards a magical weekend of youthful excess in Manchester played out against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded. And there a vow is made: to go at life differently.

Thirty years on, the phone rings. Tully has news.

The story of an awful, universe-gone-mad-mistake, and one girls emotional battle for clarity and forgiveness Looking for socks in the dresser in her moms bedroom, sixteen-year-old Tiger Tolliver finds a pile of envelopes marked URGENT. Her and her mom have always been a team, but suddenly Tiger starts to wonder if their well-oiled machine is really so well-oiled after all. Because, come to think of it, her mom needs to control everything. The songs on the radio. The truth about the dad shes never met. Whether or not she goes to school dances. She can never just be on her own. And this doesnt even cover the rest of the sixteen million nerve-wracking, day-killing OTHER things shes got going on. Lupe Hidalgo at school for instance, whos only mission in life seems to be making hers a living hell. Band practice with Broken Cradle. The fact that dreamy Kai from Bio is moving to Deutschland for the whole. summer. But then something terrible happens. And Tiger realises that being on her own isnt something she really wants. Not at all. And so begins her quest. To find her dad. To find herself. And a whole heap of others along the way.