THE IMPOSSIBLE ON THE RUN
Hector and his friends are on the run, chased by a super-strong, super-angry 13 year old girl, and the army. And zombies. And a horse. The Impossible just got real – again.
THE IMPOSSIBLE
This is a warm, funny novel, about four teenagers coping with awkward relationships and dysfunctional families. And it’s also a science-fiction thriller with aliens, mutations and some serious scares. Think Stranger Things, Stephen King, John Wyndham. It’s all impossible, obviously. Except, perhaps, it’s not ...
This book is quite something ... A great and unique addition to teen sci-fi.'
THE BOOK TRUST
Part thriller, part adventure story, part teenage angst comedy, part alien invasion sci-fi story - and all brilliant. I absolutely loved it and a huge number of teen readers will love it, too.
THE SCHOOL LIBRARIAN
'This is one of the weirdest books I have read - I loved it! ... A sort of cross between super-hero story, sci-fi, detective story, love story ... More like this, please.'
MELVIN BURGESS
THE LAST WORD
Who’s sending anonymous, vicious letters to Stephen? Is it something to do with his friend Max’s sudden, unexplained death? Max’s sister, Gloria thinks so, and she intends to find out what’s going on. The Last Word is sad, shocking and almost romantic. An unforgettable novel.
Gloria 'is marvellously original … this is an engaging novel of flawed and vulnerable individuals edging towards each other, and away again,in a lobster quadrille of tentativeness.'
THE GUARDIAN
Shortlisted for the Portico Prize
TENDER
TENDER is the story of the Dax family. Over thirty years we watch their lives unfold in ordinary and extraordinary ways as they try to cope with life, and each other. They're a family with a history that develops in front of your eyes. A family with stories to tell.
'Illis has an engaging style and his prose is vivid and inventively colloquial'
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
'These ordinary people are not cut out to set the world on fire, yet so vitally charged with the messy, fraught business of staying alive and sane that they exert a fierce emotional pull on the reader.'
THE INDEPENDENT
'It has the benefits of a wonderful novel, as well as the joy of reading a collection of short stories ... It is tender, funny, startling, sad, and resonates with truth.'
THE SHORT REVIEW
A CHINESE SUMMER
A CHINESE SUMMER follows the chain of events that brings a young man through an emotional and physical crisis. Simon's life falls apart when Helen leaves; it's as if the world has turned Chinese and he hasn't got the phrasebook.
‘Excellent first novel … marks the debut of a very impressive new writer'
LITERARY REVIEW
‘rich in passion and promise'
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘Illis at his best has a rhythmic command and a genuinely individual feeling for language which enables him to be unusually searching and honest'
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
THE ALCHEMIST
THE ALCHEMIST is the story of a child's nightmarish quest for truth. Billy Gunn believes he is surrounded by mysterious, ill-wishing people, and his greatest fear is that he will be abandoned by his parents. Soon, his fears come true, and a disorientated Billy is left with the challenge of creating a new world, out of the frightening ingredients of the old.
‘Freely enjoyable, smart, wry-humoured, even poetic'
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
‘the main attraction is Illis's ability to dazzle with character and imagination'
EVENING STANDARD
‘Illis has the gift of the philosopher's stone'
THE TIMES
THE FEATHER REPORT
In THE FEATHER REPORT, Paul Feather may be paranoid, but he's also right – someone is out to get him. Paul has been preparing a report on patterns of violent behaviour, but he soon discovers that unwelcome forces are spreading into his life, carried like a virus with the information he has gathered. Meanwhile, the peculiar Mr Walsh, who has pressing motives of his own, can hardly wait to see what will become of the experiment he has designed, involving Paul, and Paul's sister, and a certain Edmund Staples, a man who unfortunately killed his own father.
‘Within its limited range – emotional growth, coping with its all-too-much unhappiness – The Feather Report could not be more convincing or moving'
THE OBSERVER
‘this very intelligent book is refreshingly sane, and it gives a funny but compassionate picture of the human need for order, the different ways that people try to cope with life, and the almost universal madness involved in reading the world'
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT