Big Table Publishing

Making other books jealous since 2004

Coming Soon

After the sudden death of her husband a pampered housewife discovers
that having it all is success but losing it all is freedom

Claire Barrett should have known her marriage was in trouble but she ignored the signs for years, and it wasn’t until after her husband died that she discovered he’d squandered their savings on another woman. Facing foreclosure and the gloomy probability of moving back into her parents’ house, she seeks escape in the arms of a new man. But a stunning turn of events forces her to examine the role she played in her husband's infidelity as a spoiled wife who spent all her time tending to 26 bonsai trees. Finally she realizes that what she lost was something she never had, and what she found was something she always wanted.

“Sitting in an East End pub on a bleak November day, you got carried away talking about the wonderful light of Kenya. Here, on a bluff overlooking a thicket, it was sweat, flies, fear, and one minor catastrophe after another. Maybe it had been foolish to come back...”

When Richard Goodwin returns to Kenya after 15 years, he’s shocked to see that the peaceful colony he left as a child is gripped by bloody rebellion: the vicious Mau Mau are murdering settlers, burning villages, and slaughtering livestock in their bid to take back the land. Swept into the ruthless fighting as the killings mount, Richard wonders if he has another enemy, too—an insider who knows all about his plan to build the dam that will save his family’s farm. Is it someone among the decadent, drug-addled settler aristocracy, or one of the two women he’s in love with?

“Sinister and suspenseful and masterfully crafted.”
~ Thomas Bransten, A Slight Case of Guilt

In this collection of short stories Thomas Bransten reveals the inner workings of every man who has ever grown up, fallen in love, run up a huge debt, or been crushed by a woman. All the angst and deepest inquiries into morality are here: a young man in Vienna chooses a prostitute over a pal, a visit to a concentration camp brings up unbearable memories, a reporter covers a grisly murder, a satirical romp pokes fun at today’s political process, and a weary businessman comes face to face with the toughest decision of his life.

“ Exquisitely crafted… belongs on every book lover’s shelf.”
~ Dr. Merle P. Martin, Nomad’s Chant