Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisA hilarious, heart-warming read from the No.1 bestselling author of The Christmas Invitation… Life is sweet for chocolate maker Chloe Lyon… In the picture-perfect Lancashire village of Sticklepond, Confectioner Chloe dispenses inspirational sweet treats containing a prediction for each customer. If only her own life was as easy to forecast – perhaps Chloe could have foreseen being jilted at the altar… But when a new Vicar arrives in the village, the rumour mill goes into overdrive. Not only is Raffy Sinclair the charismatic ex-front man of rock band 'Mortal Ruin', he's also the Chloe's first love and the man who broke her heart. Try as she might, Chloe can't ignore this blast from her past. Could now be the time for her to make a wish – and dare to believe it can come true? A charming novel for chocoholics everywhere, perfect for fans of Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell and Carole Matthews. Trade ReviewPraise for Trisha Ashley: ‘Trisha Ashley writes with remarkable wit and originality – one of the best writers around!’ Katie Fforde ‘Full of down-to-earth humour.’ Sophie Kinsella ‘Fresh and funny.’ Woman’s Own ‘Packed with romance, chocolate and fun, this indulgent read is simply too delicious to put down.’ Closer

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Book Synopsis**A gritty and emotional family drama, from the Sunday Times bestseller. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Katie Flynn.** You can never leave a bad man behind… Mavis Pugh has had a hard life. Despised and abused throughout her teenage years, she turned to the first man who showed her kindness. But her new husband, Alec, quickly revealed himself to be a violent bully. When Mavis escapes from Alec, she thinks the worst is behind her. Moving to a large family house with her two children is more than she ever dreamed of, and when handsome sign-writer Tommy takes an interest in her, she can't believe her luck. But Alec is far from a distant memory and, unbeknown to Mavis, he’s watching her and her happy family closely. Just waiting for the right time to make his next – and final – move…Trade ReviewPraise for Kitty Neale: 'Heartbreakingly poignant and joltingly realistic.’ Annie Groves ‘A moving tale of love, hope and family…full of drama and heartache.’ Closer

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Book SynopsisWhen Theo Griepenkerl happens upon the fifth Gospel in a war-torn Iraqi museum, he can't believe his luck. Driven by greed and a lust for fame, he capitalises on his find by publishing it. His book is a sensation. But he can hardly imagine the incendiary consequences his discovery will have for Christians, Arabs, homicidal maniacs and Amazon customers alike.The Fire Gospel is a brilliant piece of storytelling, dazzlingly outrageous and utterly gripping.Trade ReviewThe satire is so entertaining, the pace so sharp, the writing so witty . . . * * Observer * *A hilariously entertaining read * * Sunday Telegraph * *A thriller of a story * * The Times * *[A] playful narrative [with] a serious question at the heart. * * Sunday Times * *Beautifully written . . . it might just be the best novel you'll read this year. * * London Lite * *In writing this playful noir thriller-cum-The Da Vinci Code pastiche, the versatile Faber shows he can pen an off-the-cuff satire. -- Arifa Akbar * * Independent * *Faber's cautionary tale about the perils of literary fame also works very well as a spoof of The Da Vinci Code phenomenon. -- Colin Waters * * Sunday Herald * *

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Book SynopsisThe setting for this magical fable is Eldorado, the Enchanted city that inhabited the fevered dreams of European navigators and conquistadors, but eluded all attempts to find it on the map. Some have linked it to Manaus in the Amazon Basin, and it is here that Arminto Cordovil lives with his father Amando in a white mansion.Theirs is a relationship full of passion and limitless ambition. Separating father and son is a remarkable cast of characters, from Angelina, the dead mother, to Denisio, the infernal boatman, and at the centre, Dinaura, a girl who betwitches Arminto and dreams of Eldorado...Orphans of Eldorado is a rich and magical fable that beautifully captures the atmosphere of the steamy, lush Amazonian world.Trade ReviewThe story is universal, though sensuously anchored in Manaus, gripping in both its particular twists and its tragic inevitability, it is a human story told in a world made real by a very good writer -- A.S. Byatt on Hatoum's THE BROTHERSA profoundly textured work that is sophisticated, elegant, unusually vivid and intriguingly convincing. -- Irish Times on Hatoum's TALE OF A CERTAIN ORIENTClear in each particular but tantalisingly elusive in its overall meaning, Orphans of Eldorado does what every good telling of a myth should. -- Adrian Turpin * * Financial Times * *Delicately crafted and dreamlike. * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisGwenni Morgan is not like any other girl in this small Welsh town. Inquisitive, bookish and full of spirit, she can fly in her sleep and loves playing detective. So when a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, and no one seems to be asking the right questions, Gwenni decides to conduct her own investigation. Mari Strachan's unforgettable novel was one of the most acclaimed and successful debuts of 2009. It is a heart-breaking and hugely enjoyable story.Trade ReviewThe Earth Hums in B Flat is a richly evocative, warm but unsentimental tale of a child detective struggling to piece together clues about the lives around her ... extremely compelling. I loved this novel. * * Catherine O'Flynn, author of What Was Lost * *I loved this debut, which manages to give a young girl's narrative an authentically quirky aspect, without ever resorting to cutesiness or cosiness . . . Strachan eschews whimsy for reality in a beautifully written story about growing up. -- Lesley McDowell * * Independent on Sunday * *A fondness for unorthodoxy gives [Strachan's] girl-growing-up story its unique flavour . . . A warm and touching, but blessedly unsentimental, novel. -- Kate Saunders * * The Times * *Strachan's prose is pitch perfect. A gorgeous debut. -- Eithne Farry * * Marie Claire * *At a time when many panic-stricken publishers want their debut novelists to resemble junior celebs fresh out of stage school, Mari Strachan - and Canongate - are proving that the words still matter most. ... Strachan has a voice and a vision all her own. -- Boyd Tonkin * * Independent * *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2011 Young Jaffy Brown never expects to escape the slums of Victorian London. Then, aged eight, a chance encounter with Mr Jamrach changes Jaffy's stars. And before he knows it, he finds himself at the docks waving goodbye to his beloved Ishbel and boarding a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. With his friend Tim at his side, Jaffy's journey will push faith, love and friendship to their utmost limits.Trade ReviewAn imaginative tour-de-force encompassing the sights and smells of 19th-century London and the wild sea. . . Gripping, superbly written and a delight. * * Times * *Riveting. Birch is masterful at evoking period and place . . . A teeming exhibition of the beautiful and the bizarre. * * Sunday Times * *A captivating yarn of high seas and even higher drama. * * Guardian * *Magical . . . A sustained feat of imagination and diligent research. * * Daily Mail * *One of the best stories I've ever read . . . A completely original book. -- A. S. ByattCarol Birch's fiction continues to stretch bodies and minds to breaking point . . . marvelous and terrifying. * * Sunday Times * *Never mind not being able to put it down-there is a 100-page section in Jamrach's Menagerie in which you will not be able to breathe. Rarely have I read a book that so deftly marries high literary value with unbearable suspense. -- Robert Hough, author of THE FINAL CONFESSION OF MABEL STARKSucks you into a world of the senses, from the filthy streets of Victorian London to the rolling hills of the South Seas. Jaffy Brown, the gifted narrator at the center of this mythic tale, rivals David Copperfield and Ishmael of Moby-Dick with his gift for storytelling. His 'rare old time' becomes, in due course, a fable of friendship, and a tribute to human survival. What a beautifully written and engaging novel! -- Jay Parini, author of THE LAST STATIONBirch is a naturally literary writer who can, with a simple image, evoke the deepest emotion. * * Guardian * *Whenever I read of people moaning on about the dire state of British fiction, I think of Carol Birch (and people like her) who are writing such good novels . . . her forte is feelings , about which she is so acute. * * Margaret Forster * *An epic tale of seafaring, friendship and danger. * * London Review of Books * *Put Moby Dick, Treasure Island and The Rime of The Ancient Mariner into a pot, add a pinch of Dickens, and you will get the flavour of Carol Birch's hugely entertaining novel. * * Scottish Mail on Sunday * *Everything you could want in a rousing adventure is here: a plucky hero, wild animals, salty sailors, whaling, a perfect storm, dragons, cannibalism - and it culminates in a satisfyingly redemptive ending. . . a remarkable acheivement, full of poetry and poignancy, adrenalin and anguish. . . i know i'll be spreading the word. -- Lee Randall * * Scotsman * *A spellbinding adventure on the high seas and a great salty historic epic. * * Lythan St Annes Express * *The final, elegiac section of Jamrach's Menagerie lifts the narrator's voice, enabling Jaffy to reach another level in his understanding, just as it permits Birch the freedom to set her beautiful, eloquent prose to a new emotional register, at once wistful, wanting and ultimately satisfyingly serene. * * Times Literary Supplement * *A teeming exhibition of the beautiful and the bizarre, and its erious ideas about the relationship between mankind and the natural world are communicated with such delicacy of thouch that they never slow down the propulsive telling of the story or dim the brilliance of the prose. * * Sunday Times, Culture * *An exuberant tale of seafaring, exotic fauna and drunken shore leave . . . Jamrach's Menagerie puts its characters through the mangler and invites us to inspect the damage . . . the classiest penny dreadful in the history of literature . . . [Birch's] words sing on the page. * * Financial Times * *A fearless storyteller of rare and sparkling originality. * * Metro * *As good as anything Peter Carey has done in this line and, in certain exalted moments, even better. -- DJ Taylor * * Independent * *Following a young boy's adventures from a pungently evoked 19th-century Wapping to seafaring calamity in the South Pacific, Birch's Booker-shortlisted novel is lush, poignant and beguilingly strange * * Sunday Telegraph * *A gripping, gruelling seafaring tale of rivalries and friendships forged in adversity. * * Daily Telegraph * *A dark yarn of high seas and low deeds. * * Sunday Herald * *Quite wonderful... Birch's powers of evocation really bring life to the sights, sounds and smells of Jaffy's adventures. * * The Crack * *A wild, wondrous tale that deftly melds high-seas action with high drama. * * Time Out * *Utterly mesmerising. * * Good Book Guide * *This is a book of wonder and wonders, great beauty and horror . . . this is a book about how we make sense of life and the hands it deals us * * The Lady * *

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil.It is also the story of an extraordinary journey undertaken by a man named Henry. It begins with a mysterious parcel, and it ends in a place that will make you think again about one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. Once you have finished reading it, it is impossible to forget.Trade ReviewA provocative and fiercely brave novel. It grips the reader with teeth as sharp as a Bengal tiger's -- John Boyne * * author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas * *A sophisticated fable...Beatrice and Virgil is so imbued with passionate moral and intellectual ardor that even the cynical should find it engaging. * * Wall Street Journal * *It's a masterpiece, no question. -- A N Wilson * * Reader’s Digest * *An explosion of ideas that keep the pages turning...a wild, provocative novel * * Independent on Sunday * *Audaciously original, never less than engrossing, often disturbing, and in its denouement truly horrifying. -- Mick Brown * * The Telegraph Magazine * *A slim but potent exploration of the nature of survival in the face of evil. -- Nina Sankovitch * * The Huffington Post * *It is awe-inspiring when a writer hits a high note; goes dancing along the edge of something; hurls himself against enormous questions again and again...Writers such as Martel are a kind of human sacrifice. It cannot be easy to imagine a way into suffering, come out, lead others into it and through it. * * Los Angeles Times * *For page after page it held my attention, and the atmosphere of foreboding is impressively done. * * Irish Sunday Independent * *Imaginative and innovative novel about the Holocaust, including taxidermists, talking donkeys and the best ever description of a pear. It's weird, wonderful and impressively short. * * Financial Times * *Strikingly impressive . . . It is the kind of book that you can read only in short bursts, while telling yourself that you will re-read it immediately . . . It has the wit, charm and hectic strangeness of a painting by Chagall. * * Times * *Sings with rich and bleak poetry. * * Guardian * *

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Book Synopsis'TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS, YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL. . .'Remshi is the oldest vampire in existence. He is searching for the werewolf named Talulla, whom he believes is the reincarnation of his long lost - and only - love. But he is not the only one seeking Talulla. Hunted by the Militi Christi, a religious order hell-bent on wiping out werewolves and vampires alike, Remshi and Talulla must join forces to protect their families, fulfil an ancient prophecy and save both their lives.Trade ReviewPraise for THE LAST WEREWOLF trilogy: The cleverest literary horror merchant since Bram Stoker * * The Times * *A sexy, blood-spattered page-turner * * NICK CAVE * *Like an updated version of Dracula, only for werewolves, and as rewritten by Bret Easton Ellis * * Guardian * *Sexy, funny, blisteringly intelligent * * The Times * *Loaded with beautifully constructed lunatic ravings . . . A sublime study in literary elegance. It is bloody (and) brilliant * * Independent on Sunday * *

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Book Synopsis‘An utter joy to read’ NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars The brand-new novel from the 2020 CILIP Carnegie medal nominee and New York Times bestseller, Robin Talley. ************************************************************* ‘I’m just so sick of blending in…’ It’s 1977, and the USA is tearing itself apart. And so is Tammy Larson. Seventeen and scared, Tammy has a secret that her strict community and conservative family must never find out; one that she’s only ever shared in unposted letters to her hero, Harvey Milk. She’s gay. Hundreds of miles away, Tammy’s new pen pal is dealing with a few secrets of her own. Sharon Hawkins lives in foggy San Francisco, an exciting city full of protests and punk music. But as the letters pile up in her desk drawer, Sharon begins to realise that her world might not be that different to Tammy’s after all… Set to a soundtrack of Bowie, Blondie and a whole lot of Patti Smith, the girls’ worlds converge in ways they could never have imagined. With a fierce sense of rebellion and a feminist attitude to boot, Tammy and Sharon soon discover what it means to be their true selves, and one thing’s for sure: they’re both sick of blending in. The perfect empowering and life-affirming read for fans of Caitlin Moran, Becky Albertalli and Meredith Russo. *************************************************************Praise for Music from Another World: ‘Difficult to put down… an empowering read with a powerful message’ Paper Lanterns ‘Absolutely LOVED it! So funny and romantic and incredibly tense’ Tom Ellen Praise for Robin Talley’s previous novels: ‘The main characters are terrific in what is a moving novel. And an important one.’ The Telegraph ‘absolutely loved it – romantic and funny and gripping and just generally excellent!’ Tom Ellen, author of Freshers ‘touching, clever and absolutely hilarious’ The Herald ‘I really loved the book… it was just a lovely, refreshing read for me, and I’m so glad there are authors like Robin Talley out there.’ Bookseller ‘One of the most interesting and informative LGBT books I've read recently!’ Reader ‘a must-read for anyone interested in LGBTQ+ history’ NetGalley reviewerTrade Review‘Difficult to put down… an empowering read with a powerful message’ Paper Lanterns Praise for Robin Talley’s previous novels: ‘The main characters are terrific in what is a moving novel. And an important one.’ The Telegraph ‘absolutely loved it – romantic and funny and gripping and just generally excellent!’ Tom Ellen, author of Freshers ‘touching, clever and absolutely hilarious’ The Herald ‘I really loved the book… it was just a lovely, refreshing read for me, and I’m so glad there are authors like Robin Talley out there.’ Bookseller ‘One of the most interesting and informative LGBT books I've read recently!’ Reader ‘I read it in one sitting!’ NetGalley reviewer ‘a must-read for anyone interested in LGBTQ+ history’ NetGalley reviewer ‘a very timely novel’ NetGalley reviewer

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Book SynopsisIn this dazzling finale ? both of the Ghorba Ghost Story Series and award-winning author Massoud Hayoun?s brief career as a novelist ? Darf Publishers brings you a Jewish Egyptian Wizard of Oz, radiating ?crushed velour and luxury? and ?sensuality, once more?. Sam Saadoun, not to be confused with the gay Jewish Arab protagonist of Building 46 ????? of the same name, had planned to spend a final night in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn with the last of many lovers. But amid their frolicking through that American immigrant enclave?s Post-Soviet attractions, Sam finds himself cast back to the heart of the matter: Alexandria, Egypt in the 1930s. With the biting satire and folly of a Luis Buñuel film and the delicious melancholy of a Beach House ballad, Hayoun offers us a striking last look at the Ghorba Ghost World?s longing, love, and lust as well as the political intimacies that have shaped the 21st Century Arab world and North African diaspora. This is a parting glance that is bound to haunt and delight.

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Book SynopsisSix generations of the Sephardi Mani family are chronicled in thisprofound and passionate Mediterranean epic, which moves backwardsfrom the 1980s to the mid-nineteenth century. The story comprises of five conversations, each centering on the fate of adifferent member of the Mani family, and in each the responses of oneperson are absent.Mr. Mani is surprisingly humorous, full of extraordinary historicalperspectives, and deeply wise and compassionate. It is an imaginativetour-de-force.

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Book SynopsisYehuda Kaminka, a retired teacher, returns to Israel from the U.S. to divorce his estranged wife who is in a mental asylum, having tried to kill him a few years earlier. The impending divorce of their parents throws into turmoil the lives of the couple's three children and grandson, revealing the complexity of their relationships. Yehuda's nine days, leading up to Passover, are remembered by different members of the family: A.B. Yehoshua's brilliance reveals itself in these different voices, each a minor masterpiece.A picture slowly emerges of what happened as memories are revived, hopes expressed and dreams articulated. The narrative gathers pace as Yehuda's visit draws to an end and he changes his mind about the divorce agreement.

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Book SynopsisThis hilarious, colourful portrait of a prostitute navigating life in modern Morocco introduces a promising new literary voice.

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Book SynopsisThe publication of "Short Stories 1895-1926" celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. De la Mare's earliest published works were stories, and he continued writing and rewriting stories throughout the rest of his life. There was always a creative counterpoint between the themes and imagery of his prose and his poetry - such as the dream, childhood, the house, night, love lost and regained, solitude and the traveller. A full understanding of either is impossible without knowledge of both.Trade Review"'What strikes one most about [them] is how truly peculiar they are... it is good to see these dark and disquieting stories back in print.' TLS on Short Stories 1895-1926 and Short Stories 1927-1956 'He was so... "great" that, like all the greatest, his greatness functions as an assumption that goes hardly even recognized...the chief emotion is, as it should be, one of immense gratitude.' Martin Seymour-Smith in Scotland on Sunday on Short Stories 1895-1926 'Beautiful, enigmatic and disquieting stories.' Lord David Cecil 'De la Mare is a master of mise-en-scene...Prose with the most vivid and unsettling intensity, which resembles some of what the surrealists were producing in France...' Angela Carter"Table of Contents"The Riddle" and other stories (1923): "The Almond Tree"; "The Count's Courtship"; "The Looking-Glass"; "Miss Duveen"; "Selina's Parable"; "Seaton's Aunt"; "The Bird of Travel"; "The Bowl"; "The Three Friends"; "Lispet, Lispett and Vaine"; "The Tree"; "Out of the Deep"; "The Creatures"; "The Riddle"; "The Vats". Ding, dong bell (1924): "Lichen"; "Benighted"; "Strangers and Pilgrims"; "Winter". "The Connoisseur" and other stories (1926): "Mr Kempe"; "Missing"; "The Connoisseur"; "Disillusioned"; "The Nap"; "Pretty Poll"; "All Hallows"; "The Wharf"; "The Lost Track". Uncollected stories, 1895-1920: "Kismet"; "The Hangman Luck"; "A Mote"; "The Village of Old Age"; "The Moon's Miracle"; "The Giant"; "De Mortuis"; "The Rejection of the Rector"; "The Match-Maker"; "The Budget"; "The Pear-Tree"; "Leap Year"; "Promise at Dusk"; "Two Days in Town".

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Book SynopsisThe publication of "Short Stories for Children" celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But, the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. The third and last volume, "Short Stories for Children", starts with "Broomsticks and Other Tales" of 1925, with its twelve stories, and continues with "The Lord Fish" of 1933 with seven stories. It includes three distinctive stories, 'Pigtails, Ltd', 'The Thief' and 'A Nose', that have never been reprinted since they originally appeared in Broomsticks. Quirky, disparate, unpredictable, acutely observed, sometimes frightening, and often preoccupied with states of mind and personal identity, these stories have much in common with the adult stories. Some of them are peopled with giants, witches, kind elves, evil and spiteful fairies, and imprisoned maidens in castles, but most are not.We find ourselves in railway trains, a mansion in the City of London, another Elizabethan one in a mysterious tract of country, a remote farm house near the sea, a waterlogged forest, a drawing-room being watched by a fly; and, among other things, we encounter a wise monkey, a haunted cat, a fish magician, a baron transmogrified into a donkey, a thief desperate to be burgled, a man who believes he has a wax nose, and a godmother celebrating her 350th birthday. As in de la Mare's poems, everyday reality may at any time become undercut by disturbing uncertainty and dark, though not always malign, forces. A full understanding of the poems and stories is impossible without knowledge of both. Vivid and timeless, Bold's original woodcut designs and Rex Whistler's original engravings have been used to illustrate the two parts of the book.Trade Review"'What strikes one most about [them] is how truly peculiar they are... it is good to see these dark and disquieting stories back in print.' TLS on Short Stories 1895-1926 and Short Stories 1927-1956 'He was so..."great" that, like all the greatest, his greatness functions as an assumption that goes hardly even recognized...the chief emotion is, as it should be, one of immense gratitude.' Martin Seymour-Smith in Scotland on Sunday on Short Stories 1895-1926 'Beautiful, enigmatic and disquieting stories.' Lord David Cecil 'De la Mare is a master of mise-en-scene...Prose with the most vivid and unsettling intensity, which resembles some of what the surrealists were producing in France...' Angela Carter"Table of ContentsIntroduction, vii; Abbreviations, ix; STORIES IN COLLECTIONS; BROOMSTICKS AND OTHER TALES (1925); Pigtails, Ltd, 3; The Dutch Cheese, 18; Miss Jemima, 24; The Thief, 43; Broomsticks, 52; Lucy, 70; A Nose, 91; The Three Sleeping Boys of Warwickshire, 118; The Lovely Myfanwy, 135; Alice's Godmother, 158; Maria-Fly, 177; Visitors, 187; THE LORD FISH (1933); The Lord Fish, 197; A Penny a Day, 222; The Magic Jacket, 237; Dick and the Beanstalk, 261; The Scarecrow, 288; The Old Lion, 305; Sambo and the Snow Mountains, 329; Bibliographical Appendix, 349.

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Book SynopsisCollection of short stories which draw heavily upon Jessie Kesson's own experiences of growing up in a small town in Scotland. The title story, Where the Apple Ripens, is the story of Isabel Emslie, a young girl facing up to her last day at school and an uncertain future in service in the town. On the very threshold of womanhood, Isabel's overwhelming zest for life and desire for new experiences leads her to the door of the local Lothario. An intense, highly charged view of rural Scotland, where sensuality wars against Calvinistic repression, this novella is one of Jessie Kesson's finest achievements.

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Book SynopsisThis is a mixture of folk-tale, magic, myth, love story and hymn of praise to the natural world of Scotland's high and low lands, their landscapes and creatures, and the poet-guardians who timelessly maintain their care for them. It is the legend-story of the mysterious Wanderer, who comes from the North to Striveling (Stirling) and its great Castle Rock, and the tales he tells to the five men and a woman who befriend him there. Who is this Wanderer, who seems ageless, who has profound affinities with animals and birds, who can take on the shape of swans and what is his mission to the South? Who are these friends, whose friendship becomes more, as they begin to realize that they are part of the strange, timeless and mythic destiny of a country older than civilization? What is the meaning of the unearthly love of the Wanderer and the mysterious Bella?

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Book SynopsisEqual parts wartime political intrigue, detective story, psychological thriller and religious mystery, Pastor's debut follows a German army captain and a Chicago priest as they investigate the death of a nun in Nazi-occupied Poland. Stunned by the violence of the occupation and by the ideology of his colleagues, Bora's sense of Prussian duty is tested to the breaking point.Trade Review"Lumen is a work of promise and fulfillment. A mystery, it rivets the reader until the end and beyond, with its twist of historical realities. A historical piece, it faithfully reproduces the grim canvas of war. A character study, it captures the thoughts and actions of real people, not stereotypes.A"The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star One of Pastor's many startling accomplishments here is to render this man, Bora, as simultaneously cutthroat in pursuit of Hitler's expansionist aims and consistently humane in his choices and concrete leanings within the situation that presents itself. Lumen succeeds on all levels a magnificent achievement.A" -- Christopher Noel, author of Spoils and In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing: A Geography of Grief

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Book SynopsisIrrational ambition, despair, suppressed desires and secrets are woven into the heft of each of Aguirre’s ten profound stories; whether it's a boy trapped at the age of fourteen after a botched attempt to capture time in a capsule, an organic seed distributor entrapping an errant lover with a replica pre-Columbian Aztec artifact bought in Chicago, or a woman attempting to drown herself in a water aerobics class in London, the tales in 29 Ways to Drown grip by their absolute logic and the sheer absurdity of the inevitable truths they unravel.Trade Review"...with a mystical sense of universal magic, Aguirre brings her literary world to vivid life. [These] characters haunt and intrigue..." — Courttia Newland; "...brings to mind the work of Borges and Cortazar but with a wholly contemporary twist." — Julia Bell; "Niki Aguirre is that rarest of writers, one who possesses an exuberant imagination, but who also casts a devastatingly sharp eye on human reality." — Laila Lalami

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Book SynopsisIs Jerusalem the centre of the world or the place where it will end? For the people of this novel set around 1960 in the divided city, it is the end. There is no way out. In front of them lies the border and no man's land; behind lies a nondescript little town and the road they won't take away to normality and the sea. They are a colourful crew: refugees, Jews, Christians, run-away monks, nuns, a restless polyglot kind of family - intellectual, artistic, theatrical - who, by choice or accident, find themselves living at a dead end, near or even right on top of the volatile border that cuts the city in two. The wound is still new and won't heal. So their lives, loves and jealousies are shadowed by the ghosts of the people who, ten years before, abandoned the houses where they now live, and the instability they experience in their lives grows out of this landscape and its history. The Eichmann trial, and preparations for it, pervades the book, as do preparations for an outdoor staging of the medieval mystery play Noah's Flood, adapted and set in contemporary Jerusalem. The play contains a turbulent, quixotic, but also serious warning. The waters could be here any day and who knows how to build an ark?

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Book SynopsisSince his first public appearance in the late 1590s, Shylock has been synonymous with antisemitism. Many of his bon mots remain common currency among Jew-haters; among them "3000 ducats" and the immortal "pound of flesh". But Shakespeare, being Shakespeare, was incapable of inventing anyone so uninteresting; instead he affords Shylock such ambiguity that some of his other lines have become keynotes for believers in shared humanity and tolerance. Following Shakespeare's example these stories - all inspired by The Merchant of Venice - range from the comic to the melancholic. Many pivot on significant productions of the play: Stockholm in 1944, London in 2012, and Venice in 2016. Some are concerned with domestic matters, others with the political, including one - more outrageous than the others - that links Shylock via Israel with the American presidency; most combine both. Running through these linked stories - of which there are seven, like the ages of man - is the cycle of family life, with all its comedy and tragedy.

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Book SynopsisSalim the coachman tells enchanting tales, but suddenly he is struck dumb. Just as Scheherazade told tales to save her life, Salim's friends must spin yarns to save his speech. Set in Damascus in 1959, the novel alternates the real lives of our storytellers with stories from the distant past. These are neither fables nor fairy tales with everlasting, happy endings, and they often require readers to suspend their disbelief. Each chapter is preceded by a one-line hint of what is to come, such as 'How one person's true story was not believed, whereas his most blatant lie was.'

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Book SynopsisAn Archive of Happiness is set in the Scottish Highlands over the course of one day during the Avens family's annual get-together. It's the summer solstice and theirs is a fractured family, broken by arguments, by things said and not said, by a mother who has left and a father who was left behind. What happens on this day will force them to cleave together to survive and redraw the traditional bonds of family. * Longlisted for the 2020 Highland Book Prize* "This is such a big-hearted, intricate and compelling novel: it is as robust and delicate as the landscapes it inhabits. Reeder tells a story of loss, fracture and repair, every sentence infused with both clear-sightedness and love." -Jenn Ashworth "An Archive of Happiness is a poignant, multi-layered exploration of family relationships brilliantly revealed. A haunting story told in exquisite prose." - Ruth HoganTrade Review'An Archive of Happiness is a poignant, multi-layered exploration of family relationships brilliantly revealed. A haunting story told in exquisite prose.' Ruth Hogan ; 'This is such a big-hearted, intricate and compelling novel: it is as robust and delicate as the landscapes it inhabits. Reeder tells a story of loss, fracture and repair, every sentence infused with both clear-sightedness and love.' Jenn Ashworth

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Book SynopsisThe new Bulgarian ambassador to London is determined to satisfy the whims of his bosses at all costs. Putting himself at the mercy of a shady PR-agency, he is promised direct access to the very highest social circles. Meanwhile, on the lower levels of the embassy, things are not as they should be. With criminal gangs operating in the kitchens, police on the trail of missing ducks from Hyde Park and a sexy Princess Diana impersonator employed as the cleaner, how is an ambassador supposed to do his job?Combining the themes of corruption, confusion and outright incompetence, Popov masterly brings together the multiple plot lines in a sumptuous carnival of frenzy and futile vanity, allowing the illusions and delusions of the post-communist society to be reflected in their glorious absurdity!"A big European novel… his humour is the weapon of a merciless social critic, such as we have seen in the works of Jaroslav Hashec and Ilf and Petrov…" Miljenko Jergović"This is a true European comic novel in the best tradition of P.G. Wodehouse, Roald Dahl and Tom Sharp. An excellent narrative; a great awareness for detail; a fresh sense of humour and most importantly – a sense of moderation. The situations are typically Bulgarian, yet the irony brings a taste of Englishness." 24 HoursThis book is also available as a eBook. Buy it from Amazon here.Trade Review"This is a true European comic novel in the best tradition of P.G. Wodehouse, Roald Dahl and Tom Sharp. An excellent narrative, a great awareness for detail, a fresh sense of humour and most importantly - a sense of moderation. The situations are typically Bulgarian, yet the irony brings a taste of Englishness." 24 hours "Finally a novel has appeared that, in my opinion, is the long awaited revenge for all the humiliations experienced by Bulgarian citizens in their relations with the Bulgarian authorities abroad. A grotesque and dazzling flight over habits, left to us from the recent past. I fervently recommend the book - the sardonic laugh is the only defense we have at that moment." Sega "The novel Mission London is the funniest book in contemporary Bulgarian Literature. So funny that in the end the reader feel like crying - After several books of short stories bursting with black humour, Alek Popov proved his talent as novelist." Gueorgi Tzankov "Mission London is not only a very entertaining read, it also gives insight into the sensitivities prevalent in the Balkans at the beginning of the 21st century. Alek Popov succeeds with his fulminant debut novel. With great wit he presents a grotesque story that, in its exaggeration, sharpens one's view of the essential." Neue Zuricher Zeitung "Alek Popov presents a magnificently unmasking satire of European East/West relations. With competence he toys with cliches and truths, then lets them merge into one another. A multitude of interesting characters are gathered around ambassador Dimitrov. They are all filled out very well, and they all - from the East and from the West alike - succumb to the absurdities of everyday life. Mission: London" is worth the read for many reasons. Last but not least, apart from all the comic, linguistic virtuoso descriptions like this: The vodka was ice-cold and smooth like a snowflake on Christmas day". - 3sat, Christina Merklenbach

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Book SynopsisLong description: This novel is based on the life of Linnaeus, the eighteenth-century, Swedish enlightenment figure famous for his taxonomy or scientific classification still used in biology. It principally concerns the different ways Linnaeus and his gardener interpret the world around them. The gardener perceives plants for what they are in themselves and Linnaeus for what they are in relation to other things. They never understand each other and the dialogues are wonderfully inconclusive.Trade Review"Large stretches of Florin's precise prose read less like a narrative than like a magic theatre from the early days of the Enlightenment, an odd and cruel eighteenth-century goggle-box, a screenplay for the cinema in our heads. Its tense is not the imperfect of the novel but the watchful present. What Florin lets us see is the lustre and eventual downfall of an infinite Enlightenment optimism, and, in enchanting and dazzling verbal images, its transformation into a dark mysticism." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9 May 2013 "The reader will be reminded of the once well-tended, narrow flower-beds of the Nouveau Roman, or perhaps of the rather more colourful beds of Kurt Vonnegut or Italo Calvino - beds, not for novels with a bent towards realism or psychology but for blooms dedicated to the adventure of thought and its grounding in the emotions." Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 7 November 2013 "Magnus Florin's The Garden, which was published in Sweden in 1995 and which has long been regarded there as a classic of contemporary literature, is about not only the erosion of the doctrine of the Creation, but even more about the painful loss of the comforting certainty that went with that doctrine, and, most of all, about the unpredictability of the world. - Magnus Florin, literary director at 'Dramaten', the national theatre of Sweden, has cultivated a distinctive poetic tone in his books, at once elegant and austere and distinguished by a strong musicality." Die Welt, 18 May 2013

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Book SynopsisAs the First World War comes to an end, chaos takes over in much of Europe and even the victors sense that the old certainties have been lost in the massacre. In Latvia it appears that two centuries of Russian rule are coming to an end, but other powers and destabilising factors persist. Pauls Bankovskis's novel examining this most important of years in his country's history reveals how a new republic emerged from disorder and chance, gradually but also erratically. Painstaking in his research, he even walked himself the full length of the escape route to Finland taken by his protagonist. This is the story of a year and its far from unified people. Two different Latvias, almost a century apart, one looking uncertainly to the future and the other uncomprehendingly to the past, inhabit very different eras and use each other to inform their own actions.Trade Review"Two Latvians, two different periods, with almost a century between them. One of them, in the autumn of 1917, is not entirely sure whether it is worth it for Latvians to attempt and establish their own country. There is still time until November 18th, and his thoughts on it could change, if one could give him an answer to the question 'Why?' The second comes upon this same question today. That which seemed already self-evident to many in 1918 suddenly doesn't seem that way anymore. This is a story about an improbable encounter between these two characters." - Text from the Annual Latvian Literature Award

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Book SynopsisLevas Ciparis, the anti-hero of this masterly critique of life in the late Soviet Union, is a man alone and he desperately wants to belong. He is obstructed in this quest by his own innocence and decency, which occasionally cause him to act with absurd inflexibility. In fact, the irresolvable tension between moral probity and necessary compromise is one of the many themes of this novel: "Yes, I truly did believe that if I took up the work of the Komsomol, I would, being an honest, sufficiently pure, persistent person, most certainly be capable of changing and enriching that community." In part, the first-person narration describes the process of being disabused of that delusion. Ciparis is dead and writes letters to his estranged friend Tomas Kelertas, with whom he has something of a love-hate relationship, which became more obsessive after their estrangement. The randomness of life does not always work against Ciparis, as he recounts his experiences from sickly child in a basement flat to his final moments in Leningrad when all options fall away. The system can work in his favour - primarily through a marriage that gains him a father-in-law who is a powerful, intelligent and utterly corrupt politician at the very top of the Soviet regime in Lithuania - but ultimately there is no place for him in that society or perhaps anywhere. Memoirs of a Life Cut Short is full of ideas, doubts and insightful observations on human behaviour borne along on a helter-skelter plot.

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Book SynopsisSet in the 1960s, Nakedness is the tale of a young man who has just completed his military service and gone straight to Randava to surprise Marika, the beautiful woman with whom he’s been corresponding for some time. The two have never met in person however, and when the young man arrives at her door, he quickly becomes entangled in a bizarre mystery: Marika claims that she has never written to him; in fact, she appears to be involved with someone else. And none of her flatmates will admit to sending the letters. Humiliated, he prepares to return to Riga, but is convinced by one of Marika’s flatmates to stay a little longer – a decision that throws him even deeper into the web of conflicting relationships he has unwittingly entered. Each clue he uncovers only makes things more confusing, and eventually the young man’s own secrets and mendacity are also revealed. The nakedness that results from being deprived of our deceptions can be unpleasant, but it may be a necessary part of growing up and facing the world. Skujiņš is an original stylist capable of deploying acute psychological observation as well as clever and often witty imagery, and Uldis Balodis has managed to retain this in his excellent English translation. This novel will introduce the reader to a different world precisely because of the writing and the freshness of the dialogue, and not so much for the society it depicts, which resembles in some ways the mass society that also existed in Western Europe at the time, reminding us that even in those more hopeful times, the human condition was still a struggle with desires, ambitions and the image of ourselves we wish to project.

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Book Synopsis"The fact of the matter is Joseph Kirkland was afraid. Afraid of not being Saved. Afraid of being Saved. Afraid of the transformation that would occur the moment he uttered those words, Jesus! God! I want you to come into my heart!" Blessed Assurance is a coming-of-age novel. It is set against the backdrop of a small close-knit evangelical community in the fictional Scottish village of Kilhaugh during a fog-bound December in the late nineteen-sixties when the Cold War was on the brink of turning hot. The story takes place over six soul-searching days in the life of Godfearing dog-thief and pyromaniac, eleven-year-old Joseph Kirkland, and his godless, devil-may-care best friend, Archie Truman, as the perpetually guilt-ridden Joseph attempts to put right what he believes to be the most terrible of lies. It is peopled with colourful characters, peppered with moments of tenderness, tragedy and occasional surreal humour. At its heart though, Blessed Assurance is an exploration of family, friendship, faith, loneliness and grief, and the compromises that sometimes have to be made to remain part of our community.Trade ReviewStewart Ennis's debut novel hovers constantly between comedy and tragedy. Small-town Scotland is seen in perceptive detail through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. Characters, like his fundamentalist Gran, like the unforgettable itinerant preacher, Benjamin Mutch, leap into our heads and take us over. Steeped in matters of faith and rejection the book offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into a past world which makes you turn the pages in a quest for answers. - Bernard MacLaverty; This, in a nuanced and theological sense, is a sectarian novel that manages to make life within a scripture-centred household appealing rather than appalling as stereotype would so often have it. We meet characters Mark Twain or Flannery O'Connor would have been proud to have begotten. ... Blessed Assurance's antecedents include The House with the Green Shutters, Gillespie and Docherty. More recent sources for comparison would be the work of Jeanette Winterson, James Robertson and the poet Iain Bamforth. The earnest, scab-scouring schoolboy dreamer and precocious would-be missionary, Joseph Kirkland, takes his well earned place amongst the many youthful savants and seers populating the coming-of-age stories that predominate in Caledonian letters. - Donny O'Rourke

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Book SynopsisThe first days of summer: Jim Praley is home from college, ready to unlock Tulsa’s secrets. He drives the highways in his parents’ car. Finally he makes himself stop and walk into a bar. He’s invited to a party. And there he meets Adrienne Booker, a girl who rules Tulsa, in her way. A high-school dropout and promising artist with a penthouse apartment, she takes a special interest in Jim. Through her eyes, he will rediscover his hometown: its wasted sprawl, the beauty of its late nights and, at the city’s centre, the unsleeping light of its skyscrapers. Five years later, Jim comes home again, to face the truth about that summer. A novel in two parts, A Map of Tulsa is love story and elegy, a meditation on mobility and its consequences, a book about the distances inside America.Trade Review'Fearless, serious, and impressive ... Lytal asks the essential questions.' Gary Sernovitz, The New York Times Book Review -------- 'A Map of Tulsa deserves comparison with the very best novels of its kind, from James Salter's A Sport and a Pastime to Scott Spencer's Endless Love. It's also one of the most insightful books about the comforts (and traps) of small-city parochialism I've ever read.' Tom Bissell, Harper's Magazine -------- 'Depicted with an Updike-esque lyricism - the prose is near flawless. - Lytal is clearly going to be a name to watch.' WB Gooderham, the Guardian -------- 'A Map of Tulsa is superbly evocative of Jim and Adrienne's discoveries of sex, love and jealousy. Mr. Lytal's exhilarating writing is reminiscent of winsome, confessional bildungsromans like Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (2011) or John Cotter's Under the Small Lights (2010).' Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal -------- 'Ambitious... Witty... Wise... A joyous elegy to the great, passed-over cities of middle America... Like Bret Easton Ellis's Clay from Less Than Zero, another kid on break from college, Jim has the freedom to remake himself... And with good old Jim as our eyes and ears, we experience the ecstasy of that first, 20-something romance.' The Boston Globe -------- 'Mr. Lytal, a Tulsa native, gets the push and pull of home just right.' The New York Times -------- 'This lyrical slow burn of a book is ... a meditation on place, destiny, and fate.' The New Yorker -------- 'Tender and engaging... A memorable coming-of-age tale about hometown ambivalence and finding a place in the world... The tension between the cosmopolitan and provincial, the sensuous and the chaste, is a big reason why A Map of Tulsa is so memorable... [Lytal's] great achievement in A Map of Tulsa is to bring his hometown to life as a place where all sorts of American ghosts can be found living amid the seemingly generic landscape of a midsized, middle-American city.' Hector Tobar, The Los Angeles Times -------- ' - a story of love for a time, a place and an ideal.' Carl MacDougall, The Warwick Review -------- ​'Benjamin Lytal's debut novel is a Bildungsroman that works against genre, dismantling conceits about youth and personal history in the style of Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station - A Map of Tulsa is an ecstatic romance and a comment on the mythologies we build out of our beginnings.' New Statesman -------- 'A Map of Tulsa is infused with the poignancy that comes of being too naive and narcissistic to value what you already have - A Map of Tulsa has a drifting, and somewhat aimless quality in keeping with the rudderless desires of youth. Lytal's strongest gifts lie in the offbeat, lyrical way he conjures up the emptiness of Tulsa - ' Patrick Langley, TLS -------- 'The reader comes to realise that Jim Praley is not so much an unreliable narrator as a hopelessly gauche one - A Map of Tulsa is a complex novel, elegiac in tone whilst still managing to criticise the nostalgia of its protagonist - Lytal's writing is both fresh and familiar - There's a hint of Springsteen in this story of small town aspiration and adventure, and something admirably blue collar about his style, straightforward and brisk - A confident and assured debut.' The Literateur -------- 'A romance of the West, an Oklahoma of glass skyscrapers, oil fortunes, and dive bars. Lytal's first novel is a love story and a tragedy and a stunning work of lyricism.' Christian Lorentzen, Bookforum

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Book SynopsisI was eight when my father brought me to one of the big houses at the top of Esperanza Street and left me with Mary Morelos. ‘I haven’t the time to fix broken wings,’ she said. ‘Does he have any trouble with discipline?’ My father glanced at me before answering. So begins the story of Joseph, houseboy to the once-wealthy Mary Morelos, who lives in the three-story Spanish colonial house at the top of Esperanza Street in a port town in the Philippines. Through Joseph’s eyes we are witness to the destruction of the community to which they are both, in their own way, bound. Niyati Keni’s evocative and richly populated debut novel Esperanza Street is about criminality under the guise of progress, freedom or the illusion of it, and about how the choices that we make are ultimately the real measure of who we are.Trade Review‘A rich, engaging, thought-provoking read from a gifted new voice. The inhabitants of Esperanza Street get under your skin and will not leave until they have told their story.’ -- Vanessa Gebbie (author of The Coward’s Tale)‘Joseph is a keen observer and a reluctant hero on the brink of adulthood. His measured and incisive voice, an encapsulation of love, curiosity and hesitant wisdom, brings to life the community he loves and already senses he will one day be forced to mourn.’ -- Joanna Luloff (author of The Beach at Galle Road)‘A port town in the Philippines is an evocative setting for this gentle, mesmerising novel which artfully tells a story that is both intimate and important. The rhythm of the prose is like waves rolling: narratives overlap, a whole community is painted, and stories knit, weave and feed into one another to create a whole of perfect harmony.’‘A port town in the Philippines is an evocative setting for this gentle, mesmerising novel which artfully tells a story that is both intimate and important. The rhythm of the prose is like waves rolling: narratives overlap, a whole community is painted, and stories knit, weave and feed into one another to create a whole of perfect harmony.’ -- Suzanne Joinson (author of A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar)‘Set outside Manila in pre-EDSA Revolution Philippines, Esperanza Street is a brilliant glimpse of a small community in the crux of change and upheaval. What brings its people together is bound to tear them apart.’ -- Jim Pascual Agustin (author of Alien to Any Skin)‘Niyati Keni is compelling at capturing the atmosphere of 1960s and '70s Philippines, with its Spanish influences, its heat and humidity, its street food and market vendors.’ * Booktrust *‘The true beauty of this novel, however, is in the way that what appears to be ‘just’ a series of evocative character vignettes inexorably builds to a subtly intertwined tale of a community on the brink of change.’ * Sussex Life *‘There’s hope for us all in Esperanza Street . . . The novel has the air of a photograph album . . . richly populated with fascinating characters and dramatic incidents.’ -- Michael Johnston * Akanos *‘The pungent smells, sounds, and flavours of Esperanza Street stand out from the spare and slow-to-unfold plot in Keni’s debut . . . What takes readers’ attention beyond each characters’ mundane particulars is Keni’s vivid portrayal of a crumbling yet vibrant barrio . . . It’s the fight between those who support the town’s revitalisation and those who rally against it despite the risks that turns pages.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘Esperanza Street is a wonderfully evocative novel, richly populated with curanderos, sorcerers, psychic surgeons, street vendors, illegal gamblers, Catholic priests and villains . . . and is filled with humour, young love and sadness. [T]he novel and its characters will linger long in the reader’s mind. Another success from the publishers And Other Stories.’ -- Jo Harding * We Love This Book *‘One of the many striking successes of the novel lies in the richness of its characters . . . It is the humanity and generosity of the characters, despite their circumstances, that offers hope in the novel. The narrative’s pace echoes that of the rhythm of the street. Keni’s writing style is sensual and textured, she precisely captures the smell of local foods or of the dust, flowers and camphor of the boarding house. Yet she avoids the trap of exoticism. The viewpoint is that of an insider, not a tourist.’ -- Caroline Maldonado * The Flaneur *‘This is a recently published debut novel that drew me in from the first page . . . It is a very engaging and supremely well-written book about a changing community. Niyati Keni gives us many vivid pen-portraits of the people Joseph meets.’ -- Margaret Fancy * Lancaster Guardian & The Visitor *‘The characters are rich and interesting, the story moving on a personal and a wider scale, and the writing truly beautiful.’ -- Kate Gardner * Nose in a Book *‘This is the sort of novel that small publishing house And Other Stories specialises in and this time they (and the individual sponsors on the novel's final pages) have discovered gold: they've discovered Niyati Keni.’ * Bookbag *‘The novel is full of fascinating vignettes of life in the Philippines . . . told with affection and warmth, in a hazy, lyrical style that perfectly captures the essence of the place and its people.’ * The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed *

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Book SynopsisA girl who repeatedly halves her boyfriend; a chip-shop waitress who turns into Elvis; a family of conceptual artists who truly live their art. Every story packs its share of explosive material, often with a side of magic. If Angela Carter is Readman's fairy godmother, does that make Patti Smith her wicked stepsister? Don't say you weren't warned.

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Book SynopsisThe significance of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book to our musical canon is well known; the remarkable story of its copyist and compiler, Francis Tregian, less so. Born into Cornish Catholic nobility and plumb into the choppy waters of the Elizabethan Age, he must rely on his surpassing skill as a musician to survive.In this Prix des Libraires (Booksellers Prize) winning novel, Anne Cuneo deftly recreates the musician’s journey across Renaissance Europe, which sees him befriending Shakespeare, swapping scores with William Byrd and Monteverdi, and playing in the court of Henri IV of France.The result is as gripping as it is authentic: an epic, transcontinental choreography in which Europe’s monarchs tussle with pretenders to their thrones, and ordinary people steer between allegiances to God, nation and family. Trade Review‘Francis Tregian’s extraordinary journeys through war-torn Europe keep readers riveted to the page and on the edge of their seats.’ -- Jean-Marie Volet * World Literature Today *‘Anne Cuneo’s magnificent book offers a humanist investigation of the most discerning kind.’ -- Philippe-Jean Catinchi * Le Monde *‘His adventures transport us, with a jangle of spurs, from one conspiracy to another, from Shakespeare in his playhouse, to the battle camp of Henri IV. At the invitation of Tregian's novelist biographer, no reader could fail to be swept up in the excitement.’ -- Laurence Liban * L’Express *‘Tregian’s Ground certainly has many cinematic qualities – of the best kind . . . The vivid, free-flowing translation here is by Louise Rogers Lalaurie and Roland Glasser. This more than does justice to what is a marvelously rich and multi-layered piece of work . . . Serious students of either history or music are not going to be disappointed here.’ -- Andrew Green * Classical Music Magazine *‘This novel is based on a historical figure and, as is the typical benchmark for works in the genre, Cuneo’s empathetic and informed immersion into Tregian’s world gives the novel its claim to prestige. Cuneo handles the historical detail with a deft touch — it is sufficient but not excessive — and intersperses it well with vivacious dialogue and an authoritative, carefully researched knowledge of old London.’ -- Ben Paynter * LA Review of Books *‘It's not always that a writer with an interesting life writes interesting fiction. In this case Anne and her equally talented translators have it sussed – this is totally engrossing . . . by the time we take our leave of Francis as he awaits my Lady Death we are breathless and amazed, not to mention chuffed, to have made his acquaintance. And the really good bit? Tregian's Ground is another novel from & Other Stories, the publishing house that proves once again crowd funding knows a good thing when it sees it.’ * Bookbag *‘Francis is a worthy main character and I wanted the best for him, even when I felt he made the wrong choices.’ * Historic Novel Review *‘[A] big, fat, absorbing historical novel that is by turns swashbuckling and tender . . . that sweeps us along excitingly and paints a series of vivid pictures . . . strongly cinematic . . . The English translation of Tregian’s Ground does full justice to this long book with its finely calibrated tone and many historical, literary and musical allusions, and it reads beautifully throughout. It’s a lovely, engaging novel that really is a song for tolerance and culture, especially music, and for talented, creative individuals thriving even in the most brutal of times.’ -- Jean Morris * Shiny New Books *‘an unparalleled contribution to the Bildungsroman genre.’ * Glasgow Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisA plague has brought death to the city. Two feuding crime families with blood on their hands need our hard-boiled hero, The Redeemer, to broker peace. Both his instincts and the vacant streets warn him to stay indoors, but The Redeemer ventures out into the city's underbelly to arrange for the exchange of the bodies they hold hostage.Yuri Herrera's novel is a response to the violence of contemporary Mexico. With echoes of Romeo and Juliet, Roberto Bolano and Raymond Chandler, The Transmigration of Bodies is a noirish tragedy and a tribute to those bodies - loved, sanctified, lusted after, and defiled - that violent crime has touched.Trade Review'The Transmigration of Bodies represents a highpoint in the genre of the novel. Herrera has been slowly building an oeuvre constructed on a singular conception of the world, in which literature's past and present form a continuum. Reading him gives one the sense of diving into his library, a place that is unashamed of belonging to a tradition and being well-read and much-underlined.' Alvaro Enrigue, author of Sudden Death ---------- 'The Transmigration of Bodies is a magnificent book and its author one of the few indispensable Latin American writers of our times.' Patricio Pron, author of My Fathers' Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain ---------- 'Bracingly unbookish ... The after-effect is more like that of a video game or Marvel comic, with both the brightness and unabashed flatness those entail. Darkly satisfying ... Swift, slick images and one-liners glitter at regular intervals.' James Lasdun, The Guardian ---------- 'Herrera packs his slim book with the sex, booze and nihilism of a better Simenon novella ... Dillman brings out a gritty, pulpy flavor in the writing.' Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal ---------- 'A novella in nine dramatic acts loaded with images, moments suspended in time that evolve into an extended dream, or rather a cautionary tale ... The author of playful, prophetic, unnerving books that deserve to be read several times, with dialogue so telling it eats into your brain rather like the worm in the Redeemer's preferred mescal, Herrera is a writer for our doomed epoch.' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times ---------- 'Herrera's brilliantly surreal turns of phrase mirror the strangeness of the world: he knows that brutal everyday truths are best revealed through dreams. Blood-soaked, driven deep and expertly written.' Jeff Noon, The Spectator ---------- 'Yuri Herrera [is] my favorite of the new Mexican writers. The Transmigration of Bodies goes straight for the soul. Unsettling and deep, Herrera transmigrates us to a Mexico that feels like a metaphysical condition, a timeless kingdom in which the living are forever dancing with the dead.' John Powers, NPR Fresh Air ---------- 'The Transmigration of Bodies takes the conventions of gumshoe fiction and transfers them to a charnel-house world that makes nonsense of the genre's habitual moral opposites ... There's plenty to admire about this allegorical vision of a country under lockdown, where violence and death have ceased to be the motors for fiction, instead becoming the backdrop of everyday life.' Bookforum ---------- 'Herrera's characteristic concision goes a step further here, his skill for expression more impressive in its restraint than its excess. This is a harsh novel, as are those from a borderland besieged by extreme violence, but it's also oddly comforting, in large part due to its exceptional literary quality.' El Pais -------- 'In Herrera's slim, amusing book, [he] strips Romeo & Juliet to its essence and sets it against a plague that symbolises Mexico's recent violent history.' Publishers Weekly ---------- 'Yuri Herrera's novels are like little lights in a vast darkness. I want to see whatever he shows me.' Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA ---------- 'This is as noir should be, written with all the grit and grime of hard-boiled crime and all the literary merit we're beginning to expect from Herrera. Before the end he'll have you asking how, in the shadow of anonymity, do you differentiate between the guilty and the innocent?' Tom Harris, Mr B's Emporium, Bath ---------- 'Both hysterical and bleak, The Transmigration of Bodies builds an entire world in 100 pages. Herrera's ability to express everything in so few words, his skill of merging the argot of the streets with the poetry of life is unrivalled. The world his characters inhabit is dangerous and urban, like a postcard sent from the ends of the earth. Reading his compact novels is both exhilarating and unforgettable.' Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX ---------- 'A fabulous book full of low-life characters struggling to get by. It's an everyday story of love, lust, disease and death. Indispensable.' Matthew Geden, Waterstones Cork, Ireland ---------- 'Reading The Transmigration of Bodies was akin to being enveloped in a dream state, yet one that upon waking somehow makes profound sense. Another truly magnificent novel from one of the most exciting authors to emerge on the world stage for aeons.' Ray Mattinson, Blackwell's, Oxford ---------- 'A microcosmic look at the lives of two families straight out of a Shakespearean drama. Pick it up and you won't put it down till you've finished.' Grace Waltemyer, Posman Books in Chelsea Market, NY ---------- 'A work replete with the gritty, informal prose first displayed in Signs - rooted firmly in the modern world yet evoking the feel of an epic divorced from time ... a cross between Cormac McCarthy and a detective novel, an incisive portrait evoking a Mexican Inherent Vice.' Marina Clementi, Seminary Co-op Bookstore, Chicago, IL ---------- 'The Transmigration of Bodies reads like a fever dream: an intense, enthralling examination of how people live in a city of the dying and the dead. It takes an extraordinary amount of skill to combine elements of noir, political commentary, hardboiled crime, and allegory (not to mention Shakespeare, with a seasoning of existential ennui) and keep the novel moving, or in this case, racing along. Herrera, clearly, has at least that much talent, and then some.' Thomas Flynn, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL

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Book SynopsisGathered for the first time in English and spanning his entire career, Vampire in Love offers a selection of the Spanish master Enrique Vila-Matas’s finest short stories. An effeminate, hunchbacked barber on the verge of death falls in love with a choir boy. A fledgling writer on barbiturates visits Marguerite Duras’s Paris apartment and watches his dinner companion slip into the abyss. An unsuspecting man receives a mysterious phone call from a lonely ophthalmologist and visits his abandoned villa. The stories in Vampire in Love, selected and brilliantly translated by Margaret Jull Costa, are all told with Vila-Matas’s delightful erudition and wit, and his provocative questioning of the interrelation of art and life.Trade Review‘A writer who has no equal in the contemporary landscape of the Spanish novel.’ -- Roberto Bolaño‘Highly original, both lucid and ludic.’ -- Valerie Miles * The Guardian *‘He absorbs the reader into a singular territory in which life and literature are a shared enterprise.’ -- Valerie Miles * New York Times *‘Arguably Spain’s most significant contemporary literary figure.’ -- Joanna Kavenna * New Yorker *‘Enrique Vila-Matas is a consistently rich and challenging contemporary Spanish-language novelist’ * World Literature Today *

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA woman on the run from her past. A child on the run from reality. A man on the run from himself. Carofiglio confronts the dark side of the human soul in this captivating story of fall and redemption. Every week, Roberto Marias crosses Rome on foot to arrive at his psychiatrist's office. There, he often sits in silence, stumped by the ritual - but sometimes crucial memories come to the surface. He remembers when he was a child and used to surf with his father. He remembers the treacherous years he spent working as an under-cover carabinieri, years that taught him how cynicism and corruption are not merely external influences, but also exist within us. He has lived an intoxicating and crushing life, but now his psychiatrist's words, the hypnotic strolls through Rome, and a meeting with a woman named Emma - who like Roberto is ravaged by a profound guilt - are beginning to revive him. And when eleven-year-old Giacomo asks Roberto to help him conquer his nightmares, Roberto at last achieves a true rebirth.Trade Review"A novel distinguished by the natural gift of prose as smooth and silent as a perfect wave." - Corriere della Sera "A literary jigsaw full of plot twists." - La Repubblica.

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