Fiction: literary and general non-genre
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Last Train to London
Book SynopsisTrade Review“The Last Train to London is painful and beautiful, absorbing and unforgettable. A wonderful tribute to courage, to a remarkable woman, to the ones she saved, and the ones she could not. Recommend this book to anyone who thinks no single person can make a difference.” — Karen Joy Fowler, author of the USA Today Bestseller We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves “The Last Train to London is an absolutely fascinating, beautifully rendered story of love, loss, and heroism in the dark days leading up to World War II. Clayton perfectly captures the tension and heartbreak of the times, which feel so relevant today. It is a glowing portrait of women rising up against impossible odds to save children.” — Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Alone and The Nightingale “What a delight it was to read this brilliant telling of the Kindertransport, a novel threaded with compassion, hope and love. Thank you, Meg Waite Clayton for reminding us of what can happen when good people conspire against evil.” — Heather Morris, #1 bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz “The Last Train to London is a rare thing: intellectually provocative and emotionally moving in equal measure. What a fine tribute to the victims and survivors of the Nazis’ early terrors, and to the woman who at great personal risk and sacrifice subverted Hitler’s will. Everyone should read this timely, gorgeous novel.” — Therese Anne Fowler, bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald “This is a standout historical fiction that serves as a chilling reminder of how insidious, pervasive evil can gradually seep into everyday lives.” — Publishers Weekly “Enlightening, meticulously researched ... Clayton’s story of the remarkable woman, known as Tante Truus, is enriched by a compelling cast of fictional characters.” — Booklist (starred review) “With its well-developed characters and race-against-the-clock plot, this fantastic novel should have broad appeal, especially with fans of historical fiction and thrillers.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Riveting … Clayton makes vivid Truus’s courage and resourcefulness in the face of growing danger as borders close throughout Europe.” — BBC “Glimmers with hope: the heroism of everyday people putting their own comfortable lives in jeopardy to help others.” — BookPage “An engrossing, heart-wrenching, and inspiring account of ordinary people making life-and-death choice in the darkest of times.” — Jerusalem Post “Excellent. . . clearly the product of prodigious historical research. . . serves as a reminder that even in dangerous times, every person can make a difference. . . . Ultimately, this historical novel offers great insight into the inspiring humanity of those who opposed the Nazis; Clayton brings Tante Truus to life at a timely moment when cruelty is once again on the march.” — San Francisco Examiner "Heartfelt and mesmerizing...takes the reader on an unforgettable journey...If you like books set in World War II featuring complex, courageous female protagonists who were ahead of their time, this book should earn a place at the top of the list." — Historical Novels Review
£10.44
Penguin Putnam Inc The Haunting of Hill House Penguin Classics
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Penguin Putnam Inc A Gentleman in Moscow
Book SynopsisThe mega-bestseller with more than 1.5 million readers that is soon to be a major television seriesOne of five Summer 2019 reading picks by Bill GatesThe novel buzzes with the energy of numerous adventures, love affairs, [and] twists of fate. —The Wall Street Journal He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to. From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel. In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
£12.00
Penguin Putnam Inc Dune Frank Herbert Penguin Galaxy
Book Synopsis• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTUREDirected by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier BardemA deluxe hardcover edition of the best-selling science-fiction book of all time—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman Winner of the AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books 50 Covers competition Science fiction’s supreme masterpiece, Dune will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become
£24.00
Penguin Putnam Inc The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin
Book SynopsisA deluxe hardcover edition of the queen of science fiction’s trailblazing novel about a planet full of genderless beings—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil GaimanWinner of the AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books 50 Covers competition A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose—and change—their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Exploring questions of psychology, society, and human emotion in an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of science fiction.Peng
£19.50
Hodder & Stoughton King Rat
Book SynopsisThe completely uncut edition of James Clavell's classic KING RAT, in fresh new packaging for a new generation of readersTrade ReviewA splendidly exciting and original story * Sunday Telegraph *Terrifyingly exciting suspense * Ian Fleming *KING RAT is the best novel in English to have come out of Japanese prisoner of war camps . . . James Clavell is a teller of stories. They are complicated and exciting, and you are desperate to know what will happen to his characters because they are like the people you know from your own life and experience, set in strange and sometimes terrible circumstances * John Simpson *
£10.99
Random House USA Inc The Nickel Boys
Book SynopsisPULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. * One of the most gifted novelists in America today. NPRNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD(R) FOR BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTED BY ACADEMY AWARD(R) NOMINEE RAMELL ROSS When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow ?delinquent? Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and ?should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best (Entertainment Weekly).
£10.35
Random House USA Inc The People in the Trees
Book SynopsisA thrilling anthropological adventure story with a profound and tragic vision of what happens when cultures collide—from the bestselling author of National Book Award–nominated modern classic, A Little Life “Provokes discussions about science, morality and our obsession with youth.” —Chicago Tribune It is 1950 when Norton Perina, a young doctor, embarks on an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumored lost tribe. There he encounters a strange group of forest dwellers who appear to have attained a form of immortality that preserves the body but not the mind. Perina uncovers their secret and returns with it to America, where he soon finds great success. But his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders, but for Perina himself. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.
£13.50
Penguin Putnam Inc We Were the Lucky Ones
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£13.50
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged
Book Synopsis
£12.59
Random House USA Inc Fleishman Is in Trouble
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ?NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST ??A masterpiece? (NPR) aboutmarriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambitionNow an Emmy Award?nominated FX limited series on Hulu, starring Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam BrodyONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly, The New York Public LibraryONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, USA Today Vanity Fair, Vogue,NPR, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vox, Refinery29, Elle, The Guardian, Real Simple, Financial Times, Parade, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Thrillist, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, BookRiot, Shelf AwarenessToby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this.As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things all that clearly in the first place.A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope.Alma?s Best Jewish Novel of the Year ? Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle?s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book
£12.75
Penguin Putnam Inc The Death of Vivek Oji
Book SynopsisA Good Morning America Buzz PickINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERElectrifying. — O: The Oprah Magazine Named a Best Book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, USA TODAY, Vanity Fair, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Shondaland, Teen Vogue, Vulture, Lit Hub, Bustle, Electric Literature, and BookPageWhat does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew? One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and s
£10.20
Faber & Faber Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
Book SynopsisShe writes with such panache, such extraordinary perception and wit.' Elizabeth DayA forensically brave writer, with a semantic virtuosity rarely equalled.' TelegraphUnmissable.' Marie ClaireHilarious and distressing, entertaining and wise.'' Roddy DoyleA brilliantly funny and sharply observant novel from one of the most acclaimed American writers of her generation.This novel follows the lives of two 11-year-olds intent on escaping childhood. As the strength of their friendship is tested repeatedly, they begin to take their first, exhilarating steps towards adulthood.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Transit
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE''A work of stunning beauty, deep insight and great originality.'' Monica Ali, New York Times''Tremendous from its opening sentence.'' Tessa Hadley, Guardian''A work of cut-glass brilliance.'' Financial TimesIn the wake of her family''s collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. The upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions personal, moral, artistic, and practical as she endeavours to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city, she is made to confront aspects of living that she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.Filtered through the impersonal gaze of its keenly intelligent protagonist, Transit sees Rachel Cusk delve deeper into the themes first raised in her critically acclaimed novel Outline, and offers up a penetrating and moving reflection on childhood and fate, the value of suffering, the moral problems of personal responsibility and the mystery of change.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Terrific Mother
Book SynopsisFaber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. Adrienne is living in a puritanical age, when the best compliment a childless woman can get is: You'd make a terrific mother'. That's when she goes to her friends' Labor Day picnic and accidentally kills their baby.The shock of this scene is expertly packed into two brief paragraphs. What follows is Adrienne's retreat from life and her attempt to return to it.Her sharp scepticism about the people around her is achingly funny. Yet beyond derision there is forgiveness and something along the lines of love.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.
£6.23
Faber & Faber Klara and the Sun
Book Synopsis*The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller**Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021**A Barack Obama Summer Reading Pick*''A delicate, haunting story'' The Washington Post''This is a novel for fans of Never Let Me Go . . . tender, touching and true.'' The Times''The Sun always has ways to reach us.''From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.In Klara and The Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?Kazuo Ishiguro''s book Klara and the Sun was a #1 Sunday Times Bestseller w/c 06-03-2021Trade Review'A masterpiece of great beauty, meticulous control and, as ever, clear, simple prose.' - Sunday Times'Another masterwork, a work that makes us feel afresh the beauty and fragility of our humanity' - Observer'Intelligent, beautiful, mesmeric and a breeze to read - what more could you want?' - Metro'A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope.'- The Washington Post'For four decades now, Ishiguro has written eloquently about the balancing act of remembering without succumbing irrevocably to the past. Memory and the accounting of memory, its burdens and its reconciliation, have been his subjects... Klara and the Sun complements [Ishiguro's] brilliant vision...There's no narrative instinct more essential, or more human.' - The New York Times Book Review'A prayer is a postcard asking for a favor, sent upward. Whether our postcards are read by anyone has become the searching doubt of Ishiguro's recent novels, in which this master, so utterly unlike his peers, goes about creating his ordinary, strange, godless allegories.' - The New Yorker'Few writers who've ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has - not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves.' - The Los Angeles Times
£9.49
Faber & Faber Small Things Like These
Book SynopsisAn exquisite winter tale of courage - and its cost, set in Catholic Ireland.
£8.54
Princeton University Press The Plum in the Golden Vase or Chin Ping Mei
Book SynopsisThis is the fifth and final volume in David Roy's celebrated translation of one of the most famous and important novels in Chinese literature. The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei is an anonymous sixteenth-century work that focuses on the domestic life of Hsi-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintaTrade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 One of The Wall Street Journal Bookshelf Best Books of 2013, chosen by Tash Aw "The story sprawls. There are more than eight hundred named characters, from high officials and military commanders to peddlers and prostitutes, with actors, tailors, monks and nuns, fortunetellers, acrobats, and many others, even cats and dogs, in between. Roy helps us keep track of everyone in a fifty-six-page 'cast of characters.'... In the original woodblock printing of the text, characters follow one another, without punctuation, no matter their source. Modern printings provide punctuation, but Roy goes further by devising a system of indentation and differing type sizes to set off allusions, poems, and songs. With this editorial help, the translation is actually easier to read than the original."--Perry Link, New York Review of Books "David Tod Roy, after more [than] 20 years of work, completed the fifth volume of his translation of the Chin Ping Mei, entitled The Plum in the Golden Vase. It's a masterpiece [and] an epic scholarly achievement... The world of the Chin Ping Mei is beautiful and dark, cheap and exalted, righteous and profane, gorgeous and lurid and stinking and glorious."--Stephen Marche, Los Angeles Review of Books "Roy's complete translation makes it possible for English readers everywhere to read and appreciate this work, one of the great, sophisticated masterpieces of world literature."--Choice "Roy's translation ... is both more complete and more readable than previous English translations... Roy's rendering deftly switches between registers along with the novel, carrying across both its refined language and its infamous vulgarities."--Scott W. Gregory, Ming Studies "One can only begin to appreciate the work that has gone into this volume, with its numerous pages of notes, bibliography and index, and to the five volumes as a whole... We are indebted to Professor Roy. The novel is a masterwork of Chinese fiction, and we celebrate the completion of his translation."--Andrew Lo, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Praise for the previous volume: "[A] book of manners for the debauched. Its readers in the late Ming period likely hid it under their bedcovers."--Amy Tan, New York Times Book ReviewTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Cast of Characters xiii CHAPTER 81 Han Tao-kuo Takes Advantage of a Chance to Appropriate the Goods; T'ang Lai-pao Defrauds His Master and Disregards His Benevolence 1 CHAPTER 82 P'an Chin-lien Makes an Assignation on a Moonlit Night; Ch'en Ching-chi Enjoys Two Beauties in a Painted Bower 17 CHAPTER 83 Ch'iu-chu, Harboring Resentment, Reveals a Clandestine Affair; Ch'un-mei Transmits a Note to Facilitate a Lovers' Rendezvous 35 CHAPTER 84 Wu Yueh-niang Creates a Stir in the Temple of Iridescent Clouds; Sung Chiang Uprightly Frees Her from the Ch'ing-feng Stronghold 54 CHAPTER 85 Wu Yueh-niang Surprises Chin-lien in the Act of Adultery; Auntie Hsueh Agrees to Sell Ch'un-mei on a Moonlit Night 72 CHAPTER 86 Sun Hsueh-o Instigates the Beating of Ch'en Ching-chi; Dame Wang Marries Off Chin-lien to the Highest Bidder 90 CHAPTER 87 Dame Wang Hungers after Wealth and Receives Her Just Reward; Wu Sung Kills His Sister-in-law and Propitiates His Brother 113 CHAPTER 88 P'an Chin-lien Appears in a Dream in Commandant Chou Hsiu's Home; Wu Yueh-niang Contributes a Gift to a Subscription-Seeking Monk 131 CHAPTER 89 On the Ch'ing-ming Festival the Widow Visits the New Grave; Wu Yueh-niang Blunders into the Temple of Eternal Felicity 151 CHAPTER 90 Lai-wang Absconds Together with Sun Hsueh-o; Sun Hsueh-o Is Sold to Chou Hsiu's Household 174 CHAPTER 91 Meng Yu-lou Is Happy to Marry Li Kung-pi; Li Kung-pi in a Fit of Rage Beats Yu-tsan 194 CHAPTER 92 Ch'en Ching-chi Is Entrapped in Yen-chou Prefecture; Wu Yueh-Niang Creates a Stir in the District Yamen 218 CHAPTER 93 Wang Hsuan Relies on Righteousness to Help the Poor; Abbot Jen in the Desire for Profit Invites Disaster 244 CHAPTER 94 Liu the Second Drunkenly Beats Ch'en Ching-chi; Sun Hsueh-o Becomes a Trollop in My Own Tavern 269 CHAPTER 95 P'ing-an Absconds with Jewelry from the Pawnshop; Auntie Hsueh Cleverly Proposes a Personal Appeal 289 CHAPTER 96 Ch'un-mei Enjoys Visiting the Pools and Pavilions of Her Old Home; Commandant Chou Hsiu Sends Chang Sheng to Look for Ch'en Ching-chi 309 CHAPTER 97 Ch'en Ching-chi Plays a Role in the Commandant's Household; Auntie Hsueh Peddles Trinkets and Proposes a Marriage Match 330 CHAPTER 98 Ch'en Ching-chi Opens a Tavern in Lin-ch'ing; Han Ai-chieh Encounters a Lover in a Bordello 349 CHAPTER 99 Liu the Second Drunkenly Curses Wang Liu-erh; Chang Sheng Wrathfully Kills Ch'en Ching-chi 370 CHAPTER 100 Han Ai-chieh Seeks Her Father and Mother in Hu-chou; Ch'an Master P'u-ching Rescues Souls from Perdition 391 Notes 421 Bibliography 501 Index 525
£31.50
Headline Publishing Group After Youd Gone
Book SynopsisMaggie O'Farrell's groundbreaking debut: a stunning, best-selling story of wrenching love and griefTrade ReviewMaggie O'Farrell keeps the reader guessing right up to the end in this engrossing psychological mystery... the characterisation is excellent and the dialogue immaculate * Sunday Telegraph *A memorable debut * Daily Telegraph *An engrossing study of loss and family ties, delivered with the page-turning pace of a thriller * Independent on Sunday *This weepy, now out in paperback, is guaranteed to leave you out of Kleenex... your life stands still as you turn the pages. An amazing study of love and grief as it poses the wrenching question: What do you do with all the love you have for someone when they're gone? * Glamour *
£8.99
Tor Books The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERUSA TODAY BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLERTHE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLERIn the vein of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab's genre-defying tour de force. Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine#1 Library Reads PickOctober 2020#1 Indie Next PickOctober 2020BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALISTBook of The Month ClubA Best Of Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot * Library Reads Voter Favorite *A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live foreverand is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.Also by V. E. SchwabShades of Magic A Darker Shade of Magic A Gathering of Shadows A Conjuring of LightVillains Vicious Vengeful
£16.99
Random House USA Inc Anything Is Possible
Book SynopsisTwo sisters, one who trades self-respect for a wealthy husband and one who discovers a kindred spirit in the pages of a book, struggle with intimate human dramas at the sides of their community members and a returned Lucy Barton. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge. Reprint. A New York Times best-seller and NYT Notable Book.
£10.62
Atlantic Books Death by Water
Book SynopsisAn astonishing interweaving of myth, fantasy, history and autobiography, Kenzaburo Oe's Death by Water is the shimmering masterpiece of a Nobel Prize-winning author.Trade ReviewNo Japanese novelist has ever written more brilliantly than Oe about the division that exists in the soul of his country. * Daily Telegraph *Here is someone with astonishingly free access to his own past and his own thinking, finding insight and exhilaration in the most unlikely places * Observer *Kenzaburo Oe's poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today. * Nobel Prize Committee *
£9.49
Atlantic Books The Magus of Hay
Book SynopsisPhil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the acclaimed author of The Heresy of Dr Dee, The Bones of Avalon, Midwinter of the Spirit (now a major ITV series), the Merrily Watkins series and the John Dee Papers. Visit his website at: www.philrickman.co.uk.Trade ReviewInterweaves the threads of murder, police procedure, the power of landscape and faint but potent wisps of the supernatural to produce a literary cloth of gold. A unique talent in cracking form. * Crime Fiction Lover *Rickman's writing style reflects his subject matter: spooky and indirect, elegantly crafted but always a sense of shadow behind you, that you've missed something you should have seen. * New York Review Of Books *Hell, it's good. I ended up turning the pages faster and faster, even though I wanted to stretch it out as long as possible. * Crime Review *
£10.44
Oneworld Publications Three Apples Fell from the Sky
Book SynopsisAn multi award-winning story of friendship and feuds in a remote Armenian mountain villageThe Russian bestseller about love and second chances, brimming with warmth and humour In the tiny village of Maran nestled high in the Armenian mountains, a place where dreams, curses and miracles are taken very seriously, a close-knit community bickers, gossips and laughs, untouched by the passage of time. A lifelong resident, Anatolia is happily set in her ways. Until, that is, she wakes up one day utterly convinced that she is dying. She lies down on her bed and prepares to meet her maker, but just when she thinks everything is ready, she is interrupted by a surprise visit from a neighbour with an unexpected proposal. So begins a tale of unforeseen twists and unlikely romance that will turn Maran on its head and breathe a new lease of life into a forgotten village. Narine Abgaryan''s enchanting fable is a heart-warming tale of community, courage, and the iTrade Review'I loved this! A tender and quirky tale of stoicism, resilience and love... The ultimate feel-good story of an unlikely romance and the warmth of a community, drawn with humour, empathy and an earthy, magical charm.' * Mary Chamberlain, author of The Hidden *'At the charming heart of Three Apples Fell from the Sky, pulses the certain knowledge that 'it takes a village' – a village to bleed, to weep, and, finally, to laugh and celebrate as one.' * Faith Sullivan, author of The Cape Ann and Goodnight, Mr. Wodehouse *'A charming novel... [It] teems with minor characters whose quirks are at times amusing and at times heartbreaking... A warm-hearted story about family, friendship, and community.' * Foreword Reviews *'Abgaryan's folktale [is] so improbably of the moment... [her] leisurely, painstaking prose — in Hayden’s lyrical translation — is an added gift for readers at the moment, because it prompts us to adjust to the 'measured pace of existence' that is now also our own.' * Asymptote Journal *'A poignant, bittersweet, fable-like story... The strongest message that shines through this finely translated novel is that resignation need not lead to cynicism.' * Asian Review of Books *'With finely phrased descriptions of daily activities and homes with 'chimneys that clung to the hem of the sky,' and indelible details of complex, humble characters, this magical tale transcends familiar mystical tropes with its fresh reimagining of Armenian folklore.' * Publishers Weekly *'Suffused with kindness, humour, subtlety and understated finesse.' * Eugene Vodolazkin, author of Laurus *'Read this book. It's balm for the soul.' * Ludmila Ulitskaya, author of The Big Green Tent *'Abgaryan's descriptions are beautifully written... I couldn't put this book down.' * Un Univers de Livres blog (France) *'A superb novel... I urge you to read it.' * Ma Lecturothèque (France) *'A perfect book for anyone who wants to learn more about Armenia: its customs, its beliefs, traditions and history... A heartfelt, delicate novel.' * La Couleur des Mots blog (France) *'Abgaryan’s work conveys a deep belief in the resilience of humanity without glossing over the horrors of human conflict.' * meduza.io *'A novel about ordinary life, written with extraordinary sensitivity and tenderness.' * Prestaplume (France) *'I loved this! A tender and quirky tale of stoicism, resilience and love. Set in a remote Russian village, it is the ultimate feel-good story of an unlikely romance and the warmth of a community, drawn with humour, empathy and an earthy, magical charm. Its characters spring from the page, with their flaws, trials and hardships, as their lives are resolved in a way that will bring a smile of satisfaction and contentment.' * Mary Chamberlain, author of The Hidden *'The novel’s plot consists of multiple stories of very ordinary but bold and beautiful people, with so much love and humour that you cannot fail to go away feeling positive and uplifted.' * Russia Beyond the Headlines *'A quiet song of a novel. A novel that opens and lingers... that sweeps over you like a wave on a beach.' * The Book Trail *'A magical novel. It manages to be life-affirming without descending into cheap sentimentality... Abgaryan achieves this challenging balance in part through the beauty of the novel's prose, which mimics the oral storytelling of myths and legends.' * End of the Word blogspot *'To render the richness of Maran’s culture, translator Lisa C. Hayden confidently navigates the linguistic complexities of this book... Her translation is visual and sensory... Dramatic and humorous.' -- The Common'Abgaryan's affectionate portrayal of rural rhythms and unlikely romance is an absolute joy.' -- New European, '30 Great European Books for the Beach''Charming… A celebration of community with a supernatural dimension that gives it the air of a fable, it's a compassionate, heartwarming novel.' -- Herald (Glagow)
£8.54
Oneworld Publications His Only Wife
Book SynopsisA captivating debut about defying expectations, hilarious and hopeful in equal measureTrade Review'This fierce young woman's struggle for independence in a city that is way out of step with the time-honoured traditions of the rural village in which she grew up is vivid, witty and utterly absorbing.' Daily Mail'I love this book so much I turned the pages so fast... It's all about the search for independence and being true to yourself and who you really are.' Reese Witherspoon'Mesmerising... This is not a book to read with one eye on a beach volleyball tournament; it’s a story to soak up in silence, on a long, cloudy afternoon when you have time to think.' New York Times'With characters making questionable decisions and a rather brilliant ending, this is a good old-fashion book club read that'll leave you arguing about character motivations and morals.' Stylist'Bursting with warmth, humour and richly drawn characters you can’t help but root for.' Cosmopolitan'A story that kept me tied to the page, told in masterful, seamless prose... Medie depicts a vivid and dazzling Accra, and it's impossible not to root for Afi as she finds her footing within it.' BuzzFeed'A unique and unapologetic marriage story that shines with honesty, humanity, power and grace: once you pick this book up, you won't be able to put it down. Medie's urgent, intimate voice is exactly what the world needs right now.' Mathangi Subramanian, author of A People's History of Heaven'This rich, rewarding debut novel follows a Ghanaian seamstress — forced into an arranged marriage with a wealthy man she has never met — on her journey of self-discovery.' New York Times, Notable Books of 2020'A refreshingly modern Ghanaian love story.' Marie Claire'[A] witty riff on the Cinderella fairytale.' Sainsbury's Magazine'A young Ghanaian woman embarks on a questionable marriage in this entertaining comedy of manners.' i, '30 great books for Easter''Engaging, provocative... A memorable debut from a writer whose frustrations with certain aspects of the culture of her homeland come brilliantly to life.' Irish Times'If you are looking to escape to another country, take a trip to Ghana with His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie... Best of all it's all underpinned by a warm coming-of-age-tale mixed in with a subtle takedown of the patriarchy.' The Sunday Times (South Africa)
£8.54
Oneworld Publications Dust Child
Book SynopsisA powerful, captivating tale of family secrets and hidden heartache from an internationally acclaimed authorTrade Review'Powerful and deeply empathetic... A heartbreaking tale of lost ideals, human devotion, and hard-won redemption.' Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Sympathizer'Beautifully crafted, haunting... A masterful display of Que Mai's capacity to evoke compassion through her lyrical prose.' Irish Times'Dazzling. Sharply drawn and hauntingly beautiful.' Elif Shafak, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees'Notable for its boundless compassion for all the characters, from young, brutalised US soldiers to the girls who pretend to love them and the dust children left behind.' The Times'Dust Child is satisfying, lyrical, and deeply empathetic. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a born storyteller.' Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow'Once again, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has written a beautiful novel that shines a light on the history of Vietnam... Dust Child is simply stunning.' Eric Nguyen, author of Things We Lost to the Water'A heartbreaking, beautifully told, utterly unique story of love, loss, and longing that speaks to the very heart of the human experience.' Kristin Harmel, New York Times-bestselling author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars'Well-researched, realistic, and compassionately written... This eye-opening and fascinating novel is a must-read!' Le Ly Hayslip, bestselling author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places'Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time... She creates plots which are Dickensian in their breadth and mastery, while bravely probing the complex emotional challenges of living in a modern world full of disruption and displacement.' Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society'Nguyen's novels, suffused with kindness and understanding, are an important and accessible tool to delve deeply into the perspectives of those whose lives were changed by the conflict. Her kaleidoscopic view opens doors of empathy and humanity.' Sydney Morning Herald'Phenomenally beautiful.' Australian Women's Weekly'Look for a reception akin to Min Jin Lee’s bestselling Pachinko.' LA Times'I truly cannot wait for the rest of the world to celebrate this book.' Chanel Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Know My Name'Quế Mai demonstrates a deep understanding of splintered lives. The compassionate treatment of her characters, insights into the period and eloquent prose are impressive.' FT
£9.49
Random House USA Inc George R. R. Martins A Game of Thrones
Book SynopsisA box set includes the first five books in the wildly popular series and basis for the HBO show, describing the machinations, infighting and war-waging between several powerful families vying for power and survival in The Seven Kingdoms. 100,000 first printing.
£63.75
Random House USA Inc Exhalation
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories—two published for the very first time—all from the mind of the incomparable author of Stories of Your Life and Others Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory. Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.
£10.35
Pan Macmillan Where You Once Belonged
Book SynopsisKent Haruf's honours include a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. Haruf's 2013 novel, Benediction, was shortlisted for the Folio prize. He died in 2014 at the age of seventy-one.Trade ReviewHaruf ’s heroes are small people weighed down with big hearts . . .He manages to find magic in the minutiae of ordinary lives. -- Mariella Frostrup on Plainsong * Mail on Sunday *Haruf ’s deceptively artless prose and unsentimental tales are driven by individuals, not incidents, as they choose between decency and cowardice, degradation and rectitude. -- Praise for The Tie That Binds * Times Literary Supplement *Haruf is one of the finest novelists at work today. * Time Out *
£8.54
Pan Macmillan The Man Without Qualities
Book SynopsisRobert Musil was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 1880. Trained in science and philosophy, he left a career in the military to turn to writing. The publication of his novel Young Törless in 1906 brought him international recognition and remains a classic parable on the misuse of power. After serving in the First World War, Musil lived alternately in Vienna and Berlin, with much of his time being dedicated to the slow writing of his masterwork, The Man Without Qualities. In 1938, when Hitler's rise to power threatened Musil's work with being banned in both Austria and Germany, he emigrated to Switzerland, where he and his wife lived until his death in 1942. The first complete German edition of The Man Without Qualities finally appeared in 1978.Trade ReviewThe Man Without Qualities is one of the towering achievements of the European novel * Observer *I would recommend Sophie Wilkins' translation as a conscientious attempt to give to the English reader a novel which is compared to The Remembrance of Things Past and Ulysses * The Times *Immensely rich and therapeutic, bristling with wit and a sly humour * Sunday Telegraph *At last, at last - the fully fleshed arrival in English of the third member of the trinity in twentieth-century fiction, complementing Ulysses and The Remembrance of Things Past . . . This last-waltz novel is amazingly contemporary * Wall Street Journal *There is scarcely a page that does not provoke new thoughts or offer new insights, not a chapter that, even read on its own, does not prove stimulating * Scotsman *
£17.09
Open Road Media The Physician
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Gordon’s compelling novel recreates the 11th century so powerfully that the reader is propelled through its several hundred pages by a tidal wave of imagination and authentic detail.” —Publishers Weekly“Populated by engaging characters, rich in incident and vivid in historical detail, [The Physician] is a pleasure.” —The New York Times“[The Physician]has the flavor of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, but with a deeper character development and story arc . . . . An insightful and unforgettable read.” —Zoltaire’s Blog“An adventurous and inspiring tale of a quest for medical knowledge pursued in a violent world full of superstition and prejudice.” —Library JournalTable of ContentsPart One: Barber's BoyPart Two: The Long JourneyPart Three: IspahanPart Four: The MaristanPart Five: The War SurgeonPart Six: HakimPart Seven: The Returned
£21.56
Headline Publishing Group All The Sinners Bleed
Book Synopsis***GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023*** THE TIMES - THRILLER OF THE MONTH****** MAIL ON SUNDAY - BEST NEW FICTION*** FINANCIAL TIMES - BEST NEW CRIME BOOKS***''A crackling good police procedural....fresh and exhilarating'' STEPHEN KING''Gripping'' MICHAEL CONNELLY''Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I''ve read in a long time.'' STEVE CAVANAGHA BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER.AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.But a year to the day after Titus''s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student iTrade ReviewPRAISE FOR S. A. COSBY:A top-notch tale about the dark side of small towns and racial politics * THE SUN *Exemplary * FINANCIAL TIMES *Cosby's growing body of work represents a muscular take on race relations in America. In All The Sinners Bleed, he again forces the reader to dwell on how prejudice lingers and shapes contemporary society, particularly in America's south. A powerful crime thriller that pulls no punches. -- VASEEM KHANThe very definition of a white-knuckle ride -- IAN RANKINCosby's talents for pungent dialogue and Chandler-esque phrase-making were praised in his previous novel,.. and they're evident again in this pulsating follow-up * SUNDAY TIMES *S. A. Cosby's novels always hit the grand slam of crime fiction; unstoppable momentum, gripping intrigue and deep character with a hard and telling look at culture and society. I hesitate to call All The Sinners Bleed his masterpiece because he has many more books to write and they only get better and better. Cosby no doubt carries the mantle of Faulkner with him as he uses the crime story to show us where we are and how far we still need to go. Sheriff Titus Crown lives in these pages and your heart. He's a character for the ages -- MICHAEL CONNELLYIt's a rare trick to combine violence with social commentary, but Cosby pulls it off * DAILY MAIL *Raw, powerful and pacey, Razorblade Tears more than fulfils the promise of Cosby's superb debut * THE GUARDIAN *Utterly brilliant....Beautiful, violent, operatic, relevant, poignant, gripping & important. Masterful. -- WILL DEANOne of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction. * WASHINGTON POST *An excellent, gritty novel about how eventually, all sins must be reckoned with...The action is nonstop and Titus has real depth...Layered. Dark. True. -- ROXANE GAYOnly S.A. Cosby could bring poetry to the darkness. A dark, disturbing and gripping masterpiece that reaches into the depths of your soul. -- NADINE MATHESON
£9.49
Atria Books The Lavender Garden
Book SynopsisNote to readers: In the UK, this book is published under the title The Light Behind the Window. An aristocratic French family, a legendary château, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire.La Côte d’Azur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinières, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent château and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions... Paris, 1944: A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent undercover to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation. Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she soon stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain elite members of the German military even as they plot to liberate France. But in a city
£16.14
Scribner It
Book SynopsisStephen King''s classic #1 New York Times bestseller and the basis for the massively successful films It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two as well as inspiration for HBO Max’s upcoming Welcome to Derry—about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled upon as teenagers...an evil without a name: It. Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that t
£29.75
Pan Macmillan Anna Karenina
Book SynopsisTrapped in a stifling marriage, Anna Karenina is swept off her feet by dashing Count Vronsky. Rejected by society, the two lovers flee to Italy, where Anna finds herself isolated from all except the man she loves, and who loves her. But can they live by love alone? In this novel of astonishing scope and grandeur, Leo Tolstoy, the great master of Russian literature, charts the course of the human heart.A masterpiece of realism and illuminated by irresistible characters, Anna Karenina is among the best-loved of all novels, penetrating to the heart of the ruling class in Tsarist Russia. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Anna Karenina is translated by Aylmer & Louise Maude, and features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
£12.34
Random House USA Inc Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones
Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work, the inspiration for HBO?s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon?The thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin?s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked, the whole trope table flipped.??Entertainment WeeklyCenturies before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen?the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria?took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why was it so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel?s worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when dragons ruled the skies? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty-five black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley?including five illustrations exclusive to the trade paperback edition.Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon?s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire & Blood is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.Praise for Fire & Blood ?A masterpiece of popular historical fiction.??The Sunday Times ?The saga is a rich and dark one, full of both the title?s promised elements. . . . It?s hard not to thrill to the descriptions of dragons engaging in airborne combat, or the dilemma of whether defeated rulers should ?bend the knee,? ?take the black? and join theNight?s Watch, or simply meet an inventive and horrible end.??The Guardian
£16.15
Random House USA Inc Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel
Book Synopsis#1NATIONALBESTSELLER? OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup?from the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto Is BackREESE?S BOOK CLUB PICK ? NOWANEMMY AWARD?NOMINATEDORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY REESE WITHERSPOON ?An explosive, dynamite, down-and-dirty look at a fictional rock band told in an interview style that gives it irresistible surface energy.??Elin HilderbrandONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Esquire, Glamour, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Parade, Paste, Shelf Awareness, BookRiot Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it?s the rock ?n? roll she loves most. By the time she?s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she?s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend. The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.
£9.60
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Cuddy: Winner of the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize
Book Synopsis**Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2023** **Shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize** **Chosen as a book of the year 2023 by The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and New Statesman** ‘An epic the north has long deserved’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘A sensational piece of storytelling … A singular and significant achievement’ GUARDIAN ‘Marvellous, artful, enchanted’ DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.Trade ReviewIt’s been a while since I’ve reacted as emotionally to a novel ... An epic the north has long deserved: ambitious, dreamy, earthy, dark, welcoming and not ... There are readers like me who will not just enjoy this book but feel deeply grateful for its existence * FINANCIAL TIMES *A millennium-spanning polyphonic flight through history ... Myers creates characters and voices so absorbing that when the timeline jumps forward you are reluctant to leave them, only for the next protagonist to become the centre of your world until it is time to move on again. A phenomenal achievement, Cuddy is by some distance my novel of 2023 * NEW EUROPEAN *A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape * GUARDIAN, Best books of the year *This bold, experimental novel, which uses poetry as much as prose, won this year’s Goldsmiths prize * THE TIMES, Books of the Year *A polyphonic hymn to a very specific landscape and its people. At the same time, it deepens his standing as an arresting chronicler of a broader, more mysterious seam of ancient folklore that unites the history of these isles as it’s rarely taught * OBSERVER *A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape. * GUARDIAN, Books of the Year 2023 *A genre-blending, millennia-straddling history ... A bold story about faith and nationhood that upends preconceptions of the ’’historical novel” * NEW STATESMAN, Books of the Year *Myers’ playful, form- and genre-bending tale about St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ... The author is known for his grasp of language and elegiac take on history and the natural world – all of which are put to excellent use in a novel that spans poetry, prose, historical accounts and more * MARIE CLAIRE, The best books of 2023 *A dizzyingly inventive retelling of St Cuthbert’s life * TELEGRAPH, Books of the Year *Myers is maturing into a serious writer rather than just a sombre one. Cuddy is an ambitious and accomplished novel that shows it’s not — necessarily — grim up north * THE TIMES *A bold novel that whirls us through a dizzying range of poetic and prosaic styles * Daily Telegraph, The 75 best books for summer 2023 *One of the best books I have ever read, easily top 5 status … Innovative, clever, engaging and fresh – and my book of the year * NEW WRITING NORTH, What we're reading 2023 *There’s much to enjoy in the novel’s linguistic beauty ... Cuddy explores the endurance of goodness and grace * SPECTATOR *A sensational piece of storytelling … The symbiosis of poetry and story, of knowledge and deep love, marks out Cuddy as a singular and significant achievement * GUARDIAN *Five atmospheric episodes – and an interlude – illustrate the mystical hold that Cuthbert has exerted over the north * STRONG WORDS, Books of the Year *Mesmerising, lyrical ... Stands in a genre of its own ... Serves as a reminder that we are but custodians of a world we inherited. Cuddy cements Myers’s standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers * I NEWS *Myers traces … the manifold threads of history to remarkable effect * IRISH TIMES *The cathedral is a wonder … in its elegance and grotesquery, its shimmering and its solidity, Myers captures it accurately. Indeed, that could be a description of his book * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY *As a work of literature and as a tribute to a man and his region, it will endure * INDEPENDENT.CO.UK *Marvellous, artful, enchanted ... With power and pathos, this novel follows the cult of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne from the 7th century to the present day * DAILY TELEGRAPH *One of the best books I have ever read -- TESS DENMAN-CLEAVERBrave, bold and brilliantly alive, Cuddy calls forth the voices and the places of the north in a kaleidoscopic portrait through time. Myers at his best: dark, sharp, earthy and superbly funny. Cuddy isn’t a novel, it’s an invocation -- ROB COWEN, author of Common GroundSpare, poetic, haunting, tenderly observed ... Myers is a natural storyteller ... [with] a poetic sensibility, and as a writer he enjoys the snap and crunch of words, and the way they can summon an atmosphere * PROSPECT *A wonder ... An accomplished and very moving novel * SCOTSMAN *Incorporates poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other * NORTHERN LIFE *Myers employs competing voices and different literary styles to pull together an ephemeral yet somehow tangible narrative that is both sweeping in its history and arresting in its style * YORKSHIRE LIFE *Myers chisels a cohesive and engaging portrait of a place laden with history * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *An absorbingly beautiful book ... There aren't many writers as attuned to the present state of this country and the history and landscape that made it as Myers, who succeeds repeatedly in harnessing time with compassion, kindness and a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era * NEW EUROPEAN *Cuddy is a work of art. Ben Myers has pulled off a kind of magic trick ... Daring, expansive and deeply satisfying, Cuddy is a truly original piece of writing which weaves a special kind of magic. I was left completely spellbound. I loved every minute of this dazzling and deeply original novel -- CLOVER STROUD, author of The Red of My BloodOnce again Ben Myers has built another time machine in words and I thoroughly enjoyed being humped around early medieval northern England alongside St Cuthbert's holy corpse via centuries of fisticuffs and up Durham Cathedrals tower to a sensitive take on issues of our own time. Most of all I appreciated how Myers explores faith and belief without the usual eyeroll and cynicism of our excessively secular age – I feel St Cuthbert's monks and masons looking down through history with a certain sense of pride -- LUKE TURNER, author of Out of the WoodsCuddy is another milestone marking Myers’ versatility as a writer * BUZZ *Rich, rewarding, dark and comic, Cuddy is, like that cathedral, a magnificent construction * BUZZMAG *To be able to move from the Dark Ages, to the Middle Ages, to the Victorian Era to Modern Times and so ably capture the zeitgeist of each is a rare feat of imagination -- GABRIELLE DRAKEPraise for Benjamin Myers: A writer of extraordinary and incandescent talent -- ALEX PRESTONA genre-melding experimental novel * GUARDIAN, Best Books of 2023 *Here is a strong, spiritual writer who sees and loves every dewdrop, old oak, soft little animal and buried sword, and offers them up to us like the precious treasures they are * THE TIMES *No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Benjamin Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art -- WENDY ERSKINEOne of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation * DAILY MAIL *No one writes about the atmosphere, beauty and brutality of the English countryside better than Ben Myers. And it's hard to think of many people who can write with with such attentiveness, tenderness and force about the importance of human connection and the redemptive power of art -- WENDY ERSKINEShot through with a romantic, even mystical radicalism of the kind that William Blake would have approved of * DAILY TELEGRAPH *What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous -- MAX PORTERBenjamin Myers is fast making the contested boundary between history and folklore his own -- JOHN MITCHINSONA powerful new voice * GUARDIAN *Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our times -- DAVID PEACEA draft of cool, clear water ... He’s such a good and brave writer * MONOCLE *Benjamin Myers is fast making the contested boundary between history and folklore his own -- JOHN MITCHINSONPowerful and moving * LITERARY REVIEW *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Held
Book Synopsis**The international bestseller** **A Guardian Book of the Autumn 2023** **Chosen as a book of the year by the independent.co.uk** 'Michaels’s writing continues to stand head and shoulders above most other fiction' OBSERVER 'Through luminous moments of chance, change, and even grace, Michaels shows us our humanity' MARGARET ATWOOD 'Michaels is exceptionally open to beauty' GUARDIAN The triumphant new novel from the author of the Orange Prize-winning Fugitive Pieces: a soaring and luminous story of chance and change _________________________________________________ 1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory – a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast – as the snow falls. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river – alive, but not still whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts whose messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations, moments of connection and consequence igniting and re-igniting as the century unfolds. In luminous moments of desire, comprehension, longing, transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later. Held is a novel like no other, by a writer at the height of her powers: affecting and intensely beautiful, full of mystery, wisdom and compassion. 'I am blown away by the scale, beauty, weave and thinking of this book ... It dances with words, time and ideas in a way that seems to reinvent everything I know about the novel' RACHEL JOYCETrade ReviewAnne Michaels' compelling novel Held couldn’t be more timely: war and its damages, passed through generations over a century. Through luminous moments of chance, change, and even grace, Michaels shows us our humanity - its depths and shadows -- MARGARET ATWOOD, via TwitterA warm, gentle and powerful novel; a book of moments, reimaginings, forgettings, disturbances and digressions. Anne Michaels has excelled herself once again. * International Times *Michaels' work ... is ferociously engaged in the fundamental universal difficulties of being alive * independent.co.uk *Michaels is a writer who moves gracefully between award-winning poetry and captivating fiction – and there is a lyrical beauty to this novel … with Anne Michaels, you know you are in the presence of a real and rich sensibility * independent.co.uk, Books of the year *Incredible ... Almost hallucinatory in its lyricism ... A novel of ingenious chronological invention based on four generations of women from the same family * New European, Books of the Year *There is an intense, mysterious beauty that infuses Michaels' precise prose with a compelling power that is exquisite … a profound literary experience that is executed with subtlety, grace and an exquisite intuition * Irish Times *Still a master of her universe… dazzling lyrical snapshots recall the dreamlike style of Fugitive Pieces in the poet’s third novel, a fluid examination of history, memory and generational trauma… The writing is always personal, hypersensitive and profoundly interior… Michaels’s writing continues to stand head and shoulders above most other fiction. At the heart of this book lies the question of how goodness and love can be held across the generations * Observer *A graceful, timely, resonant reminder of the trauma of war and the wreckage that it inflicts * Daily Mail *Michaels inhabits episodic moments with a quantum quality * Sunday Times *A beautiful work … shifting, merging and separating, wrapping itself around the reader * New European *The Canadian novelist’s complex, time-travelling new novel explores trauma, loss and the lasting impact of love … Few authors balance the atrocities of history with the consolations of human relationships quite so effectively as the Canadian novelist and poet Anne Michaels. She has an uncanny talent for finding curative connections and restorative emotions in hellish circumstances * Financial Times *Just as the characters are held by their love for others, readers are safely held in the utterly tactile and emotional embrace of this incredible novel * Quire & Quill *Anne Michaels , known for the award-winning Fugitive Pieces, returns with Held,, which spans generations in the aftermath of the First World War * GUARDIAN, Best books of Autumn 2023 *Compelling and well-crafted * independent.co.uk, Books of the month *Shows how pain and loss permeate generations * Country & Townhouse *A cleverly fragmentary tale of love, memory and time from the author of Fugitive Pieces shuffles the hopes and dreams of four generations ... Michaels demonstrates that fugitive pieces can make up a structure as strong and as meaningful as a finished monument ... Michaels’s intellectual toughness coexists with a tender heart ... Exceptionally open to the beauty of science' -- Lucy Hughes Hallett * Guardian *I am blown away by the scale, beauty, weave and thinking of this book ... It dances with words, time and ideas in a way that seems to reinvent everything I know about the novel ... and it’s such a transporting read too. It's exquisite - I am in awe -- RACHEL JOYCEHer stunning prose sustains the book’s enchanted mood from start to finish ... Each page of this masterpiece has a line worth savouring * Publishers' Weekly *A gorgeous meditation on whether the ghost in the machine is actually in our hearts ... A multi-layered and subtle discussion of what keeps animating the web of existence * Kirkus *Michaels brings her poet's finesse and soulfulness to this exquisite, deeply moving paean to love and life’s insistence and beauty * Booklist *Praise for Anne Michaels: 'Monumental ... The most important book I have read for forty years -- JOHN BERGER * OBSERVER *All except a handful of contemporary novels are dwarfed by its reach, its compassion, its wisdom -- GEOFF DYER * INDEPENDENT *This is a novel to lose yourself in; let the language pour over you, depositing its richness like waves lapping sand onto a beach. Michaels is a novelist of unusual and compelling power -- ERICA WAGNER * THE TIMES *Essential reading, both for its exceptional literary craft and for its exemplary and inspiring humanity * SPECTATOR *Extraordinarily magical * NEW YORK TIMES *Her writing goes way beyond games or fashion or politics ... It represents the human being entire -- MICHAEL ONDAATJEHas a quality of crystalline exactness ... A remarkable book * NEW STATESMAN *Exquisite ... There are many phrases to be underlined, remembered and savoured * FINANCIAL TIMES *Writing of dangerously beautiful intensity ... magnificent * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *Read this book like poetry, or rather hear it like music ... Anne Michaels guides us to the top of some extraordinary peaks of feeling and perception * INDEPENDENT *Michaels is a great poet of loss, and the challenges of memory in the face of it ... Michaels produces passages of lyrical beauty * GUARDIAN *
£16.14
Pan Macmillan The Forgotten Garden
Book SynopsisA moving and powerful mystery, The Forgotten Garden is the bestselling second novel from Kate Morton.1913. On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned after a gruelling ocean voyage from England to Australia. All she can remember of the journey is that a mysterious woman she calls the Authoress had promised to look after her. But the Authoress has vanished without a trace.1975. Now an old lady, Nell travels to England to discover the truth about her parentage. Her quest leads her to Cornwall, and to a beautiful estate called Blackhurst Manor, which had been owned by the Mountrachet family. What has prompted Nell’s journey after all these years?2005. On Nell’s death, her granddaughter, Cassandra, comes into a surprise inheritance. Cliff Cottage, in the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, is notorious amongst the locals for the secrets it holds – secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is at long-abandoned Cliff Cottage, and in its forgotten garden, that Cassandra will uncover the truth about the Mountrachets – and why the young Nell was abandoned all those decades before . . .
£9.49
S&s/Saga Press This Is How You Lose the Time War
Book Synopsis
£11.71
Marlowe & Co The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around
Book Synopsis A collection of twelve traditional tales from around the world that honor the "return of the light" that takes place on the winter solstice The winter solstice, the day the "sun stands still," marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year, and it comes either on December 20th or 21st. Celebrations honoring the winter solstice as a moment of transition and renewal date back thousands of years and occur among many peoples on every continent. The Return of the Light makes an ideal companion for everyone who carries on this tradition, no matter what their faith. Storyteller Carolyn McVickar Edwards retells twelve traditional tales-from North America, China, Scandinavia, India, Africa, South America, Europe, and Polynesia-that honor this magical moment. These are stories that will renew our wonder of the miracle of rebirth and the power of transition from darkness into light.
£13.30
HarperCollins Publishers Inc What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through
Book SynopsisThis second posthumous collection from Charles Bukowski takes readers deep into the raw, wild vein of writing that extends from the early 70s to the 1990s.
£9.49
The New York Review of Books, Inc Chess Story
Book Synopsis
£12.71
The New York Review of Books, Inc Stoner
Book SynopsisDiscover an American masterpiece. This unassuming story about the life of a quiet English professor has earned the admiration of readers all over the globe.William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar?s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a ?proper? family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.John Williams?s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.
£13.56
Inner Traditions Bear and Company Revelations of the Ruby Crystal
Book SynopsisIn her debut as a novelist, bestselling author and acclaimed spiritual teacher Barbara Hand Clow weaves an erotically charged story of romance, deep earth forces, psychic powers, aristocracy, and Vatican world control centered on an ancient ruby that inspires mystical visions. Set in Rome in 2012, the story follows Sarah Adamson, a beautiful young Catholic graduate student from Boston studying at the Vatican Library for her thesis on the first Christian heretic, Marcion of Pontus. She is being courted by two utterly different men: Simon Appel, a descendent of the kabbalist Isaac Luria who covers Vatican affairs for the New York Times, and Armando Pierleoni, the heir to an ancient Italian aristocratic family with strong ties to the Vatican. After a terrible encounter with the dark side at a castle in Tuscany, Sarah is given a ring set with a ruby crystal, a powerful stone that was once the third eye of an ancient Buddha statue in Nepal. With the mystic ring on her finger, Sarah's visionary abilities are ignited. She remembers her past life as the Sibyl of Cumae, a Roman oracle whose powers are now being channeled by the Vatican to maintain world control. As Sarah's research and visions reveal the cause of evil in the Church and Simon's reporting exposes the depth of the sexual abuse scandals surrounding the Vatican, the two form an alliance with an ex-lover of both Simon and Armando, Claudia, who describes secret priestly power rituals going on in Vatican City. Revealing the very nature of how evil gets into the world, this novel of romance, mystery, heresy, and spirituality uncovers the esoteric foundations for the emergence of a golden new age.Trade Review“Barbara Hand Clow has chosen a romance-style genre of fiction to take the reader deep into the hidden history, and profoundly disturbing practices, of the religious power center of the planet--the Vatican. With Hand Clow’s usual impeccable level of research and profound personal insights, Revelations of the Ruby Crystal reminds us that we have entered a time of awakening from a deep trance induced by the Church and other power structures around us. I look forward to a sequel!” * Regina Meredith, journalist and host of GaiamTV *“This book draws you in from the very first page with believable characters, stimulating interactions, and compelling subject matter. Truly a superb novel for everyone interested in the origins of civilization and the mysteries of the universe, and this is just the beginning! Make way for a powerful new literary saga in your life!” * Andrew Collins, author of Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods *“In the midst of this irresistible novel, Barbara Hand Clow weaves very real stories of the scandalous inner workings of the Vatican. Her inclusion of accurate information about the deep-seated sexual abuse issue, the corrupt power plays, and the equally corrupt churchmen who have sustained it only adds to the fascination of the main storyline.” * Thomas Doyle, Catholic priest and author of Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church&rsqu *“Barbara has done it again. She has given readers a great gift with this book. Revelations of the Ruby Crystal reveals her mastery of the written word. This book is a doorway into another place filled with great truths, relevant knowledge, and modern-day mysticism. The synchronistic magic she weaves within her characters’ adventures, and the love story that evolves between them, is an example of the full bloom of human potential.” * Hillary Raimo, founder of Love . . . Breathe . . . for Earth *“Played out in the story of uncovering the abusive power of male sexuality at the heart of the Vatican, this romance offers an introduction to what is a significant religious movement by providing insight into the character and attraction of the Gnosticism of New Age belief and practices. A page-turning novel of love and desire, abuse and corruption, and the cosmic quest for redemption, this is the best of introductions to the appeal of astrology and New Age spirituality over and against common perceptions of Christian faith and the Church.” * Timothy F. Sedgwick, Ph.D., Clinton S. Quin Professor of Christian Ethics at Virginia Theological Se *“Barbara Hand Clow’s Revelations of the Ruby Crystal is a unique revelation about deep cosmic processes and actors in the dimensional ecology of our planet as well as a page-turner story about loss, redemption, and transformation of beings who are deeply in love. As a legal advisor, I can vouch for the authenticity of the darker aspects at work in the action set in Rome and in the Vatican itself. It is truly a novel for our times.” * Alfred Lambremont Webre, author of The Omniverse: Transdimensional Intelligence, Time Travel, The Af *“Barbara Hand Clow’s book Revelations of the Ruby Crystal opened my eyes even further to the world-creating artistry--the ‘fictive power’--of the imagination to shape our world and influence our souls. The story that she weaves is a perfect example of how storytelling is the shamanic art par excellence that helps us to de-literalize our own reading of the world and remember who we are.” * Paul Levy, author of Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil *“Esoteric Christianity, buried secrets, psychic powers, karma, and kundalini entwine in this lush, vivid erotic romance set fittingly in eternally romantic Rome.” * Peggy Payne, author of Cobalt Blue and other novels of sex and spirituality *“As a software trainer and developer and a published author of two books on word processing, I often encounter many technology users who are longing for a vision of what might be possible as a ‘next step’ in our evolution. Revelations of the Ruby Crystal is a divinely inspired web of transcendent energy that has a magnetic appeal. This book is a visually rich, sensual, non-social-mediadriven trans-Atlantic adventure using revelatory information about the historical past that moves us through a complex romance quite unlike any that has ever been written. A must read!” * Marianne Carroll, business productivity consultant *“Revelations of the Ruby Crystal is a gift for anyone interested in unmasking a time line of deep secrets and hushed discoveries about the life of Jesus; the ossuary of Peter found in Jerusalem; the earliest years of Christianity; Marcion, a so-called heretic; and Christianity’s critical ‘wrong turn’ and its eventual takeover, distortion, and corruption by the Roman patriarchy. The intense dramas are played out against the backdrop of a powerful paradigm shift jolting world events into chaos, the Vatican into a meltdown, and a time of transformation into the ethers, finally welcomed in Rome by the surprising and sudden election of Pope Francis, the ‘revolutionary.’ It is an intense, exciting read.” * Jean Richard, polarity therapist for ritual abuse *Table of ContentsPart One The Sibyl of Cumae 1 Rome 2 Reviving the Sibyl 3 Borghese Gardens 4 The Vatican Museum 5 A Visitor in Rome 6 Dinner at Alfredo’s 7 A Dinner in Tuscany 8 The Golden World 9 Ossuaries and Etruscan Tombs 10 The Limestone Grotto 11 What about Marriage? 12 Shelter Island 13 Simon Magus 14 Summer Giulia 15 Sister Hildegard 16 A Home in Rome 17 The Lady of Villa Giulia 18 The Ruby Crystal Part Two Armando’s Redemption 19 The Parents’ Dinner 20 A Stormy Night 21 St. Peter’s Bones 22 Caves under the Vatican 23 Old Friends 24 Thanksgiving 2012 25 The Wedding 26 Sarah Meets Claudia 27 December 2012 28 Lake Avernus and Baia 29 Between the Sheets in Roma 30 The Shadow of Moloch 31 The Pierleoni Garden 32 Armando’s Analysis 33 Orvieto Cathedral 34 Two Fathers Part Three The End of the Mayan Calendar 35 The Pope Resigns! 36 Claudia and Armando 37 Via Lombardia 38 The First Quartet 39 The Conclave 40 The Painter and the Photographer 41 The Fonte Gaia 42 La Sagrada Familia
£16.14
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Legends of the Fall
Book SynopsisNew York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison was one of America's most beloved and critically acclaimed writers. The classic Legends of the Fall is Harrison at his most memorable: a striking collection of novellas written with exceptional brilliance and a ferocious love of life.The title novella, 'Legends of the Fall' - which was made into the film of the same name - is an epic, moving tale of three brothers fighting for justice in a world gone mad. Moving from the raw landscape of early twentieth-century Montana to the blood-drenched European battlefields of World War I and back again to Montana, Harrison's powerful story explores the theme of revenge and the actions to which people resort when their lives or goals are threatened, painting an unforgettable portrait of the twentieth-century man.Also including the novellas 'Revenge' and 'The Man Who Gave Up His Name,' Legends of the Fall confirms Jim Harrison's reputation as one of the finest American voices of his generation.Trade ReviewFast pace, enormous narrative power . . . Legends of the Fall stays firmly in the unputdownable class. * Daily Telegraph *Jim Harrison stands high among the writers of his generation. This book is rich, alive, and shatteringly visceral. A triumph. * New Yorker *Compelling . . . beyond question the work of a gifted and accomplished writer. * Washington Post *[Legends of the Fall] may well be the best set of novellas to appear in this country during the last quarter century. * New York Times Book Review *Legends of the Fall signalled that Jim Harrison was a writer who had the goods. * Los Angeles Times *So much American legend is packed into these brief pages that Jim Harrison must be admired as an almost sacred writer. * Chicago Sun-Times *
£9.49
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press The Man Who Spoke Snakish
Book SynopsisUnfortunately people and tribes degenerate. They lose their teeth, forget their language, until finally they're bending meekly on the fields and cutting straw with a scythe.Leemut, a young boy growing up in the forest, is content living with his hunter-gatherer family. But when incomprehensible outsiders arrive aboard ships and settle nearby, with an intriguing new religion, the forest begins to empty - people are moving to the village and breaking their backs tilling fields to make bread. Meanwhile, Leemut and the last forest-dwelling humans refuse to adapt: with bare-bottomed primates and their love of ancient traditions, promiscuous bears, and a single giant louse, they live in shacks, keep wolves, and speak to snakes.Told with moving and satirical prose, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a fiercely imaginative allegory about a boy, and a nation, standing on the brink of dramatic change.Trade ReviewThe Man who Spoke Snakish is a wild comic swoop through the histories of Estonia, magic, human-powered flight and man-bear relations. At once fantastic and emotionally engaged, underneath the narrative high-jinks lurks a deeply serious novel about how Europe became the way it is. -- Lawrence Norfolk, author of JOHN SATURNALL'S FEASTHow to describe the book? Imagine it is the end of the world, and Tolkien, Beckett, Mark Twain, and Miyazaki (with Icelandic sagas and Asterix comic books stuffed under their arms) have got together in a cabin to drink and tell stories around the last bonfire the world will ever see. * Le Magazine Littéraire *The sense of humour and the imagery resembles a graphic novel or animated film... Probably one of the best contemporary novels about what it means to be alone... Marvelous in all senses of the word. * Le Monde *Kivirahk provides a compelling and creaturely backdrop for the warring facets of Leemut's coming-of-age... This is an epic fantasy... I felt compelled to continue reading in the certain knowledge that I'd soon stumble upon a scene of great power and beauty or an elegantly aphoristic turn of phrase. -- Dustin Illingworth, Words Without BordersAn incredible novel, a mystifying treasure of a book. * Psychologies Magazine *This fantastical Bildungsroman has the feel of a classic... The novel shines... * New York Journal of Books *It is good, it is beautiful, you will read it in one sitting, it radiates intelligence... It is a true literary miracle. * L'Ivre de Lire *Somewhere near the realms of fantasy and science fiction there exists a much more thrilling and allegorical form of writing, bending the rules of the genre to suit itself... The Man Who Spoke Snakish is an allegory about fading eras and vanishing worlds, and laced with a good dose of black humor to boot. -- Jürgen Rooste, Estonian cultural critic[A] tumultuous Tolkien-like epic set in early medieval Estonia, where forces of modernity and tradition clash in a primeval struggle for the Baltic nation's soul - and it's future... At its essence, this book is a Bildungsroman, a coming of age saga about a young man reconciling with a world experiencing seismic change... A strange, wondrous book. * Robert Collison, Toronto Star *This translated Estonian treasure follows the adventures of a boy who is the last remaining speaker of Snakish, an ancient language by which he can command any animal. * Entertainment Weekly *Epic, fantastical... Most astonishing is the inventive imagery... Kivirähk's well-plotted story of language, loss, and fanaticism speaks powerfully to our world's ever present conflicts. * Kirkus *Lots of fun here...but Kivirähk is also concerned with the dangers of war, colonization...and idealizing the past. A big bestseller in Europe. * Library Journal *Fable-like, timeless... The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a great novel, one of those important books that speaks to your soul in its own language and which marks a milestone on your personal reading history and in the development of your opinions. * Blog des Bouquins *This novel is totally unusual; it has the same strangeness as La Locura de Dios by Juan Miguel Aguilera or Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Piñol. The author talks about Estonia (his country) in the 13th century, when 'iron men' invaded the country on a crusade. It jumps between philosophical fable, political pamphlet, Nordic saga, and includes some epic outbursts of violence. * Decitre.fr *This allegorical story spins an element of wistful longing for anyone who has struggled between the old and the new, its lessons as relevant today as ever. * Booklist *This novel slithers along like the snakes it so admires, agile and often unexpectedly compelling... Its irreverence for convention flows charmingly from its conversational prose... Readable and engaging, it's easy to see how this novel could become the delight of a nation. -- Emma Schneider, Full StopThe Man Who Spoke Snakish has the feeling of a folktale... This isn't to say that it's a work of light fantasy, however - like Margo Lanagan's 2008 Tender Morsels, there's an undercurrent of violence that keeps the more mirthful aspects at a distance. * Tobias Carroll, Literary Hub *
£10.44
