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** A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2023 ** 'Ward's most complex and brilliant book yet' - GUARDIAN 'A darkly moving and heartfelt exploration of obsession' - DAILY EXPRESS Writers are monsters. We eat everything we see... In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the shadowy figure of the Daggerman, who stalked the New England town where they spent their summers. Of a horror that has followed Wilder through the decades. And of Sky, Wilder's one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, The Sound and the Dagger. This book will be Wilder's revenge on Sky, who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why. But as he writes, Wilder begins to find notes written in Sky's signature green ink, and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? And who is the dark-haired woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see? No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder feels his grip on reality slipping. And he begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does. Discover the new dark thriller from the bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street. 'So beautiful, so dark and so vivid' - JENNIFER SAINT 'A beautifully sinister tale of perception and identity' - JOANNE HARRIS 'Enthralling and heartbreaking' - M.R. CAREY

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'An authority on sleep and stress' Mail on Sunday Not sleeping well and waking up tired? Can't sleep at all? This guide will help you understand and overcome sleep problems to have the energy you need for the life you want. Tired But Wired offers Dr Nerina Ramlakhan's proven Sleep Toolkit, which has helped thousands of people - from burnt-out executives to mothers struggling with the demands of a job and children - to get better sleep. Hectic lives and modern living directly impact our ability to sleep well but, overturning the myth that you need eight solid hours every night, Dr Ramlakhan says that you really need fewer hours of quality restorative sleep, and shows you how to get it. With practical steps towards changing your lifestyle to find better quality sleep, more vitality and an inner equilibrium that is physically and emotionally revitalising, Tired But Wired explains the science behind sleep and how to find your natural sleep rhythms. Providing the Sleep Toolkit Programme that anyone can use, adjusting it for your own lifestyle, needs and personality, it delivers the essential habits and routines you need for brilliant sleep.

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A book of two halves, Decarbonomics first sets the scene of current global economics, outlining the effect of the pandemic, the trade war between the US and China and the resulting fragmentation of globalisation. In the second half of the book, leading financial analyst Charles Dumas examines the economic reasons for action on climate change, and what form that might take. Dumas argues that investment to combat the changing climate will provide not only a boost to growth but also a rebalancing of geopolitics, benefiting those economies best placed to exploit the new technologies - possibly away from the oil-rich Middle East and towards the sun-rich Southern Hemisphere. He also examines the implications of a carbon tax, shifting economics to forge a financial solution to climate change. Drawing on original analysis by one of the world's leading macroeconomic forecasters, Decarbonomics shows how climate-change economics has shifted from a story of necessary sacrifice to one of opportunity.

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Discover how to connect with fairies, accept their guidance to your inner self and restore your unity with the natural world. Fairies are benign spirits who can speak to you, if you can reawaken your childhood self and recapture the sense of awe and wonder that we lose as adults. Only then can you approach the fairy realm and become the friend of fairy folk. This is a complete guide to finding and meeting fairies, explaining the most favourable days and times for meeting the fairies, the tests you will experience, the most likely places to search and the best way to win the goodwill of these elemental beings. Once our feelings are attuned, we can again learn the fairy lore of magic and herbal medicine and use these skills to restore the world. With a wealth of colour illustrations of Victorian fairy paintings, this book will show you the way back to fairyland.

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History is a construction. What happens when we bring stories consigned to the margins up to the light? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings? As in her fiction, the essays in Out of the Sun demonstrate Esi Edugyan's commitment to seeking out the stories of Black lives that history has failed to record. In five wide-ranging essays, written with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the background, Edugyan reflects on her own identity and experiences. She delves into the history of Western Art and the truths about Black lives that it fails to reveal, and the ways contemporary Black artists are reclaiming and reimagining those lives. She explores and celebrates the legacy of Afrofuturism, the complex and problematic practice of racial passing, the place of ghosts and haunting in the imagination, and the fascinating relationship between Africa and Asia dating back to the 6th Century. With calm, piercing intelligence, Edugyan asks difficult questions about how we reckon with the past and imagine the future.

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Big Snake Little Snake is a cascade of true stories by DBC Pierre, recorded while on his way to make a short film with a parrot in Trinidad, which not only examines the nature of gambling, the love affair between gambler and game and the mindset of obsessive practitioners, but aims to shed light on the invisible odds and outrageous chances of everyday life on Earth. Snakes symbolise a road in a Trinidadian numbers game based on dreams and superstition. The inquiry was prompted by a little snake on Pierre's doorstep. 'If writers were athletes, DBC Pierre would be hanging out with the skydivers, the stunt-snowboarders and the white-water rafters' Independent 'One of the most original and seriously funny narrative voices' Observer

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'Duncan brings a new way of seeing to the world of prose' Irish Times Michael has been away from Ireland for most of his life and lives alone in Bilbao after the death of Catherine, his girlfriend. Each day he listens to two versions of the same piece of music before walking the same route to visit Richard Serra's enormous installation, The Matter of Time, in the Guggenheim. As he walks, his thoughts circle around the five-year period of mental agitation spent in Leipzig with Catherine. This 'sabbatical', caused by the stress of his job and the suicide of a former colleague, splits his career as an engineer into two distinct parts. Intensely realistic, mapped out like Michael's intricate drawings, this is a novel of precision and beguiling intelligence.

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'Bold, dramatic and deeply unsettling' Guardian When Velveteen Vargas, an eleven-year-old Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn, comes to stay with a couple in upstate New York, what begins as a two-week visit blossoms into something much more significant. Soon Velvet finds herself torn between her hosts - Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic and Paul, a college professor - and her own tormented mother. Ginger longs for a child of her own, but Paul continues to refuse. Bemused by her gentle middle-aged hosts, but deeply intuitive in the way of clever children, Velvet quickly senses the longing behind Ginger's rapturous attention. Velvet's one constant becomes her newly discovered passion for horse riding, and her affection for an abused, unruly mare. A profound and stirring novel about how love and family are shaped by place, race and class, The Mare is a stunning exploration of the sometimes unexpected but profound connections made throughout our lives.

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'Topical and desperately urgent. I absolutely loved it!' DANIEL COLE, author of RAGDOLL 'Grabs you by the throat and carries you through to the explosive end' SARAH BONNER, author of HER PERFECT TWIN 'As dark and gritty as it is pacy and original' JANICE HALLETT, author of THE APPEAL To save your child you must open The Box... Ed Truman's family is falling apart. His daughter Ally is being targeted by an alt-right incel organisation, Men Together. His house is being picketed, former clients are accusing him of sexual assault, his son won't speak to him. And then Ally disappears. Frantic, Ed suspects that Men Together have abducted her. But before he can go to the police, his DNA is found on the body of a young woman. Suddenly he's the subject of a nationwide manhunt, led by the tenacious DCI Jackie Rose. Ed finds himself on the run with Ally's friend, Phoenix, who claims to know where Ally is. But what is the truth? Is Ed a violent sexual predator? Or is he the victim of a ruthless conspiracy? The answers are in The Box. But not everyone who goes in, comes out alive... From the bestselling author of The Regret, this heart-pounding thriller is perfect for readers of Harlan Coben, Mark Billingham and M.W. Craven.

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Winner of The Center for Fiction's 2021 First Novel Prize 'A gorgeously written, Franzen-calibre tale' O Magazine In this vivid, darkly funny and beautifully rendered debut novel, Kirstin Valdez Quade brings to life the struggles of five generations of the Padilla family. Amadeo, struggling to stay off the bottle, Angel, his pregnant fifteen-year-old daughter, Yolanda, the family matriarch, reeling from a recent discovery, Angel's mother, who Angel isn't speaking to and Tío Tive, keeper of the family's history. But amid the challenges they face individually and together, it is Connor, Angel's baby, who might just be the one to save the family from themselves.

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Discover the answers behind the mysteries of the countryside in all their fascination and beauty... Ever wondered about the masses of twigs in bare-branched trees that look like abandoned nests? Seen fuzzy red balls on roses? A stranded pond on a hilltop? Or even considered the shaded ways we walk along? One of Britain's best-known naturalists, John Wright describes and explores fifty of the natural (and unnatural) puzzles of the countryside that might confound the ever-curious. He reveals the histories and practicalities of those that are man-made and the astounding and intricate lives of the natural wonders around us. From the enormous to the truly tiny he illuminates the oddities that pepper our countryside and reveals the many pleasures of spotting and understanding them. Informative, entertaining and beautifully illustrated, this is for anyone who has ever gone outside and wondered what is that?

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'The man who coaches husbands on how to avoid divorce' The New York Times 'One husband's confession you might be tempted to hand to your other half next time he does something infuriating' Daily Mail 'Could genuinely help save a few rocky marriages' Literary Review One night during his divorce, after one too many vodkas and a phone-in-therapist's advice to 'journal his feelings,' Matthew Fray started a blog. As he tried to piece together how his ex-wife went from adoring to angry he realised that even though he was a decent guy, he was kind of a bad husband. From the raw, uncomfortable and darkly humorous stories he shared about the lessons he's learned from his failed marriage comes this strangely hopeful guide to saving relationships. This is How Your Marriage Ends offers immediately actionable advice to help readers identify toxic behaviour patterns in their own lives, and break them out of the cycles of dysfunction that ruin relationships. This is a must-read for people in any stage of a relationship, whether it's near the beginning or nearing the end. Good people can be bad partners - here's how to ensure that isn't you.

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'The man who coaches husbands on how to avoid divorce' The New York Times 'One husband's confession you might be tempted to hand to your other half next time he does something infuriating' Daily Mail 'Could genuinely help save a few rocky marriages' Literary Review One night during his divorce, after one too many vodkas and a phone-in-therapist's advice to 'journal his feelings,' Matthew Fray started a blog. As he tried to piece together how his ex-wife went from adoring to angry he realised that even though he was a decent guy, he was kind of a bad husband. From the raw, uncomfortable and darkly humorous stories he shared about the lessons he's learned from his failed marriage comes this strangely hopeful guide to saving relationships. This is How Your Marriage Ends offers immediately actionable advice to help readers identify toxic behaviour patterns in their own lives, and break them out of the cycles of dysfunction that ruin relationships. This is a must-read for people in any stage of a relationship, whether it's near the beginning or nearing the end. Good people can be bad partners - here's how to ensure that isn't you.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. described Stride Toward Freedom as "the chronicle of 50,000 Negroes who took to heart the principles of non-violence, who learned to fight for their rights with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth." On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Rallied by the young preacher and activist Martin Luther King, Jr., the black community of Montgomery organised a historic boycott of the bus service, rising up together to protest racial segregation. This was the first large-scale, non-violent resistance of its kind in America and marked the beginning of a national Civil Rights movement based on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s principles. Stride Toward Freedom is the account of that pivotal turning point in American history, told through Martin Luther King, Jr.'s own experiences and stories, chronicling his community's refusal to accept the injustices of racial discrimination.

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'The first, last, best, and only scientific guide to learning in the classroom' Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness In this revolutionary guide to learning, Professor Dan Willingham helps you study more efficiently and effectively, shrug away exam stress and make learning a skill you can master and enjoy. Based on the latest brain science, Outsmart Your Brain offers specific strategies for reading, listening and taking tests, covering the practical aspects like optimum note taking, how to read difficult books and good exam technique, coupled with the psychological challenges of dealing with anxiety, fighting procrastination and developing good focus. Smart, enlightening and immensely practical, this is a book for older children, university students and adult learners studying for the bar, medical exams and other professional qualifications. Also useful for teachers of all ages and stages, Outsmart Your Brain is a handbook for successful learning, teaching you how to battle your brain's own mechanisms to study more efficiently, vastly improve your grades and make learning a genuinely fun experience.

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A Spectator Book of the Year An Observer, New Statesman, Financial Times, Irish Times and Scotsman 2021 Non-Fiction Highlight 'Compassionate, beautifully written .. will only grow in importance and interest as the years go by' Jenny Colgan, Spectator 'Searing yet beautiful ... less a hot take that an astute manifesto for what matters most in life, as well as in medicine.' Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic and Your Life in My Hands 'Well written, often entertaining and occasionally deeply moving; an unmissable account of a year we will all try too hard to forget.' The Times 'Inspiring. I can't recommend it too strongly. You will learn a lot from it, and you will find much more that is encouraging.' Allan Massie, Scotsman Intensive Care is about how coronavirus emerged, spread across the world and changed all of our lives forever. But it's not, perhaps, the story you expect. Gavin Francis is a GP who works in both urban and rural communities, splitting his time between Edinburgh and the islands of Orkney. When the pandemic arrived in our society he saw how it affected every walk of life: the anxious teenager, the isolated care home resident, the struggling furloughed worker and homeless ex-prisoner, all united by their vulnerability in the face of a global disaster. And he saw how the true cost of the virus was measured not just in infections, or deaths, or ITU beds, but in the consequences of the measures taken against it. In this deeply personal account of eighteen months spent caring for a society in crisis, Francis will take you from rural village streets to local clinics and communal city stairways. And in telling this story, he reveals others: of loneliness and hope, illness and recovery, and of what we can achieve when we care for each other.

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* A WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD * 'As moving as it is gripping... I loved it' CHRIS BROOKMYRE 'Utterly compelling' MARION TODD 'Extraordinary' JAMES OSWALD 'Excellent' HERALD SCOTLAND There were good people in The Homes. But there were also some very, very bad ones... A thousand unwanted children live in The Homes, a village of orphans in the Scottish Lowlands on the outskirts of Glasgow. Lesley was six before she learned that most children live with their parents. Now Lesley is twelve, and she and her best friend Jonesy live in Cottage 5, Jonesy the irrepressible spirit to Lesley's quiet thoughtfulness. Life is often cruel at The Homes, and suddenly it becomes much crueller. A child is found murdered. Then another. With the police unable to catch the killer, Lesley and Jonesy decide to take the matter into their own hands. But unwanted children are easy victims, and they are both in terrible danger... Inspired by a true story, and introducing readers to the unforgettable voice of young orphan Lesley, The Homes is a moving and lyrical thriller, perfect for readers of Val McDermid, Chris Whitaker, Jane Casey and Denise Mina.

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* THE TIMES BOOK CLUB STAR PICK * * A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH * * A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK * 'Chilling and compelling' - THE SUN 'Turns a traditional crime plot to very modern effect' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Brilliant - creepily atmospheric and incredibly tense' - HARRIET TYCE THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST REALITY SHOW. A PRIZE WORTH KILLING FOR... Frozen Out is set to be a TV sensation. On a small ship off the coast of Greenland, six contestants will push themselves to breaking point for a £100,000 prize. The show is Tori Matsuka's baby. After years working her way up the ladder, she's finally launching her own production company and everything is riding on the show. For camerawoman Dee, it's a chance to start again after the tragedy that tanked her undercover journalism career. But as errors and mishaps mount on set, tempers among the cast and crew start to fray. And when one of the contestants is found dead, only Dee realises that the death wasn't natural - and from what she's seen from behind the camera, it won't be the last. As the Arctic ice closes in and all chance of escape is cut off, one thing becomes clear: although the world outside wants them dead, it's the secrets inside the ship that might cost them their lives... Packed with suspense from the first page to the last, Freeze is a must-read for fans of Shiver, The Sanatorium and One By One. This thriller isn't just chilling: it's sub-zero.

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SELECTED AS A NEW SCIENTIST 'BOOKS TO EXPAND YOUR MIND' 'THOUGHTFUL ... EXAMINES THE BOUNDARIES OF MOTHERHOOD THROUGH AN UNUSUAL LENS: ARTIFICIAL WOMBS. ... A SKILLED WRITER WITH A CAREFUL GRASP OF HER SUBJECT AND ITS FASCINATING HISTORY' Angela Saini, Telegraph 'AN ENGROSSING INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE OF BIRTH THROUGH THE LENSES OF THE MOST PRESSING WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUES OF OUR ERA' New Statesman Throughout human history, every single one of us has been born from a person. So far. But that is about to change. Scientific research is on the cusp of being able to grow babies outside human bodies, from machines, for the very first time. Claire Horn takes us on a truly radical and urgent deep dive into the most challenging and pertinent questions of our age. Could artificial wombs allow women to redistribute the work of gestating? How do we protect reproductive and abortion rights? And who exactly gets access to this technology, in our vastly unequal world? In this interrogative and fascinating story of modern birth, Eve imagines with eye-opening clarity what all this might mean for the future of humanity. AS HEARD ON RADIO 4'S TODAY PROGRAMME and TIMES RADIO

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE EAST ANGLIAN BOOK AWARD 2023 'Exceptionally well-written and intelligent ... if you are interested in this remarkable microcosm of England, the book will grip you; if you aren't, it will make you realise that you jolly well should be.' Simon Heffer, Spectator 'A deeply sensitive and engaging portrait of a misunderstood county and its people' Financial Times 'A stellar performance' Jonathan Meades Essex. A county both famous and infamous: the stuff of tabloid headlines and reality television, consumer culture and right-wing politicians. England's dark id. But beyond the sensationalist headlines lies a strange and secret place with a rich history: of smugglers and private islands, artists and radicals, myths and legends. It's where the Peasants' Revolt began and the Empire Windrush docked. And - from political movements like Brexit to cultural events like TOWIE - where Essex leads, the rest of us often follow. Deeply researched and thoroughly engaging, The Invention of Essex shows that there is more to this fabled English county than meets the eye.

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''Brilliantly written ... evokes the wonder of an entire civilisation.'' Tom Holland, author of Pax and co-host of The Rest is History''A wondrous, gorgeously-written book'' Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred''Splendid - an intimate portrait of the Viking Age. Highly recommended.'' Neil Price, author of The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings''Takes us beyond the familiar into a real, visceral, far more satisfying Viking world.'' Dan SnowImagine a Viking, and a certain image springs to mind: a nameless, faceless warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorise the hapless local population of a northern European country.Yet while such characters define the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. This is the history of all the other people - children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travellers, writers - who inhabited the medieval Nordic world. Encompassing not just Norway, Denmark and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, parts of the British Isles

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Longlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown 2022 Longlisted for the Polari Prize 2022 'The exquisite story of two women trying to make a life together in wartime Austria, and all the love, friendship and danger that implies.' Sophie Ward All of You Every Single One is an epic novel about family, freedom and how true love might survive impossible odds. When Julia flees her unhappy marriage for the handsome tailor Eve Perret, she expects her life from now on will be a challenge, not least because the year is 1911. They leave everything behind to settle in Vienna, but their happiness is increasingly diminished by Julia's longing for a child. Ada Bauer's wealthy industrialist family have sent her to Dr Freud in the hope that he can fix her mutism and do so without a scandal. But help will soon come for Ada from an unexpected quarter and change many lives irrevocably.

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'Wild and wonderful ... I doubt anyone will ever match Strandings for its sheer bravura, its wry insight, and its absolute, engulfing, and brilliantly enlivening whaleheadedness' PHILIP HOARE, ALBERT AND THE WHALE 'Addictive and scandalously fascinating' Caught by the River When Peter Riley was thirteen, a woman with blue hair and a comet tattoo asked him to help load the jaw of a sperm whale into the back of a Volvo 245. The encounter set Riley on a decades-long quest to make sense of what had happened. Enter the secretive world of whale scavengers. When a whale washes up on one of Britain's coasts, a fugitive community descends to claim trophies from the carcass. Some are driven by magical beliefs. Some are motivated by profit: there is a black market for everything from ambergris to whaletooth sex toys. But for others, the need goes much deeper. Join Riley on a tour of a stranded kingdom's weird outer reaches, where nothing is as it seems. Meet witches, pedlars, fetishists, conspiracy theorists and fallen aristocrats. And prepare for a final revelation, as the mystery of the comet woman tangles with the enigmatic symbol of Leviathan itself, beached on Britain's fatal shore.

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'Invaluable' - WATERSTONES BEST SPORTS BOOKS OF 2022 'Born to Run 2 is a must read for every runner out there' Rich Roll 'Amazing, really incredibly inspiring book' Joe Wicks on Born to Run Born to Run's Chris McDougall and long-time running coach Eric Orton show us how to join the global barefoot running movement and explore the world on our own two feet. Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide teaches every runner, new or experienced, how to master humankind's first true superpower and tap into hidden reserves of strength and stamina. With chapters dedicated to the Free Seven - Food, Fitness, Form, Focus, Footwear, Fun and Family - we learn exactly how to change our biomechanics, clean up our diets, heal our injuries, adapt to healthier footwear, and prepare for our dream challenge. Packed with advice and inspiring stories from runners who have made the transition, it includes: - A rock-solid food primer on optimum diet and power-packed On the Run recipes - Techniques for running with dogs and baby buggies to help you run with the whole family - 'Perfect Form' exercises that will overhaul your stride in less than ten minutes - A 90-Day Run Free Programme, designed to give everything you need to run faster and farther, forever.

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'Heart-swelling in its wholesomeness' - Gina Martin 'A reminder of the life-changing power of empathy' - Emma Gannon Why are you kind? Could you be kinder? The kindness we owe one another goes far beyond everyday gestures like taking out the neighbour's bins - although it's important not to downplay those small acts. Kindness can also mean much more. In this timely, insightful guide, Henry James Garrett lays out the case for developing a strong, courageous, moral kindness, one that will help you fight cruelty and make the world a more empathetic place. Building on his academic studies in metaethics and using his signature sweet animal cartoons, Henry explores the sources and the limitations of human empathy and the many ways, big and small, that we can work toward being our best and kindest selves. A world in which everyone was the fully-empathetic of version of themselves would be a very kind world indeed. And that's the world this book will move us toward.

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'Once you start reading this utterly fascinating book it is nigh impossible to put it down ... This is a gem' Dame Evelyn Glennie Vic Tandy was a level-headed scientist, but there was no denying it: at this late hour in his lonely lab at Coventry University, he kept seeing a grey apparition out of the corner of his eye. Bathed in a cold sweat, his heart pounding in his chest, he questioned his own rational mind - could this really be a supernatural encounter? What on Earth could be sending such an eerie shudder through his body? Strange frequencies are all around us - in fact, there may be no limit to the marvellous power of vibration. So catch a wave with musical adventurer Richard Mainwaring and take a wild ride across the keys of his infinite piano. Along the way, you'll join the quest for the world's loneliest whale, whose tragically out-of-tune song has haunted oceanographers for decades. You'll discover what strange melodies are hidden in rats' whiskers and rainbows. And you'll find out how vibrations good and bad govern more or less everything around you.

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'If you read one book about India, read this one.' Geeta Anand, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of The Cure 'Mountain Tales is a remarkable feat of immersive reporting and story-telling, a deeply-felt exploration of ideas, and a gripping chronicle of the fates of the garbage-pickers of Mumbai ... I loved this book.' Suzy Hansen, author of Notes on a Foreign Country All of Mumbai's memories and castaway possessions come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. And among these vast, teetering piles of discarded things - medical waste, rotten food, old clothes, broken glass and twisted metal - a small, forgotten community lives and works. Scouring the dump for whatever can be resold or recycled, waste pickers also mark the familiar milestones of babies born, love found, illnesses suffered and recovered from. Like a mirror image, their stories are shaped by the influx of unwanted things from the world outside. But now, as Deonar's toxic halo becomes undeniable, a change is coming. And as officials try to close it, the lives that the pickers have built on the Mountain seem more fragile than ever.

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Guardian's Best Paperback of the Month ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S and FINANCIAL TIMES' BOOKS OF 2020 'In intimate, often tender prose, Gevisser brings to life the complex movement for queer civil rights and the many people on whom it bears.' Colm Toibin, Guardian 'Powerful... meticulously researched' Andrew McMillan, Observer Book of the Week Six years in the making, The Pink Line follows protagonists from nine countries all over the globe to tell the story of how LGBTQ+ Rights became one of the world's new human rights frontiers in the second decade of the twenty-first century. From refugees in South Africa to activists in Egypt, transgender women in Russia and transitioning teens in the American Mid-West, The Pink Line folds intimate and deeply affecting stories of individuals, families and communities into a definitive account of how the world has changed, so dramatically, in just a decade. And in doing so he reveals a troubling new equation that has come in to play: while same-sex marriage and gender transition are now celebrated in some parts of the world, laws to criminalise homosexuality and gender non-conformity have been strengthened in others. In a work of great scope and wonderful storytelling, this is the groundbreaking, definitive account of how issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today.

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"A refreshing and enlightening new perspective on what it means to be powerful." - SUSAN CAIN, bestselling author of Quiet An eye-opening exploration of power and how we can harness it using performance techniques borrowed from actors. What if instead of worrying about getting more power, we focus on using the power we do have better? Stanford business professor Deborah Gruenfeld combines 25 years of social psychology research with personal experience to reveal the truth about power: that we all have more than we realise and what counts is what we do with it. Acting with Power shows anyone seeking greater professional and academic success what power is actually for, how to identify it within ourselves, and how to use it constructively using acting techniques. Some of us crave a bigger role, and many of us feel like imposters in our current ones. Acting with Power shows us how to be the best version of ourselves in any role, on any stage.

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'A beautiful little novel about books, history, ambition and the importance of literature.' Nick Hornby 'Truly potent ... Adimi confronts us with episodes that are simply never spoken of in France' The New York Times Book Review In 1936, a young dreamer named Edmond Charlot opened a modest bookshop in Algiers. Once the heart of Algerian cultural life, where Camus launched his first book and the Free French printed propaganda during the war, Charlot's beloved bookshop has been closed for decades, living on as a government lending library. Now it is to be shuttered forever. But as a young man named Ryad empties it of its books, he begins to understand that a bookshop can be much more than just a shop that sells books. A Bookshop in Algiers charts the changing fortunes of Charlot's bookshop through the political drama of Algeria's turbulent twentieth century of war, revolution and independence. It is a moving celebration of books, bookshops and of those who dare to dream.

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'A dark gothic delight' JANICE HALLETT, author of THE TWYFORD CODE 'Inventive, lavish, twisty... will keep you guessing until the very end' ALISON LITTLEWOOD, author of MISTLETOE Winter 1954, and in a dilapidated apartment in Brooklyn, Sam Cooper realises that she has nothing left. Her mother is dead, she has no prospects, and she cannot afford the rent. But as she goes through her mother's things, Sam finds a stack of hidden letters that reveal a family and an inheritance that she never knew she had, three thousand miles away in Yorkshire. Begars Abbey is a crumbling pile, inhabited only by Lady Cooper, Sam's ailing grandmother, and a handful of servants. Sam cannot understand why her mother kept its very existence a secret, but her newly discovered diaries offer a glimpse of a young girl growing increasingly terrified. As is Sam herself. Built on the foundations of an old convent, Begars moves and sings with the biting wind. Her grandmother cannot speak, and a shadowy woman moves along the corridors at night. There are dark places in the hidden tunnels beneath Begars. And they will not give up their secrets easily... A chilling read that will keep you turning the pages late into the night, Begars Abbey is a must-read for fans of Laura Purcell, C.J. Tudor and W.C. Ryan.

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New edition with a foreword by Bernardine Evaristo 'A brutal record of segregated America ... essential reading' Guardian 'An anti-racist classic' Bernardine Evaristo In the autumn of 1959, a white Texan journalist named John Howard Griffin travelled across the Deep South of the United States disguised as a working-class black man. Black Like Me is Griffin's own account of his journey. Published in book form two years later it sold over five million copies, revealed to a white audience the daily experience of racism and became one of the best-known accounts of racial injustice in Jim Crow-era America. Embraced by some and fiercely criticised by others, its legacy sixty years on remains problematic, but Black Like Me nevertheless stands as a fascinating document of its times. 'There is a saying among Negroes that no white man, no matter how hard he tries, can really understand what it's like to be black in America. John Howard Griffin has come closer to this understanding than any white man that I know.' Louis Lomax, Saturday Review 'If it was a frightening experience for him as nothing but a make-believe Negro for sixty-six days, then you think about what real Negroes in America have gone through for 400 years.' Malcolm X

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'Gripping' IAN RANKIN ***AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR *** A dead police officer. A murder that no-one wants to solve... Dublin, 1986. The murder of an off-duty officer in Phoenix Park should have brought down the full power of the Dublin police force. But Kieran Lynch was found in a notorious gay cruising ground, so even as the press revels in the scandal, some of the Murder Squad are reluctant to investigate. Only Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are determined to search out the difficult truth, walking the streets of nighttime Dublin to find Kieran's lovers and friends. But Gina has her own secret that means she must withhold vital evidence. When a fire rips through Temple Bar and another man is killed, she must decide what price she is willing to pay to find a murderer. A gripping mystery that will keep you hooked until the final page, perfect for readers of Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Tana French and Adrian McKinty. *** THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE ROSARY GARDEN *** ________________________________________ PRAISE FOR THE SERIES 'A mesmerising tale of secrets and lies' - VAL MCDERMID 'As good as it gets' - DENISE MINA 'A terrific new gem of Irish noir' - SUNDAY TIMES

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'If you're a fan of Sally Rooney's work, then you can't go wrong by picking up a copy of Topics Of Conversation ... She's a fresh voice, and one that it's certainly worth listening to.' Vogue 'Miranda Popkey's debut explores the paradox of longing to assert control and longing to lose it ... She depicts what it feels like to exist, actually live, at that intersection, which can so often bring about paralysis.' New Yorker What is the shape of a life? Is it the things that happen to us? Or is it the stories we tell about the things that happen to us? From the coast of the Adriatic to the salt spray of Santa Barbara, the narrator of Topics of Conversation maps out her life through two decades of bad relationships, motherhood, crisis and consolation. The novel unfurls through a series of conversations - in private with friends, late at night at parties with acquaintances, with strangers in hotel rooms, in moments of revelation, shame, cynicism, envy and intimacy. Sizzling with enigmatic desire, Miranda Popkey's debut novel is a seductive exploration of life as a woman in the modern world, of the stories we tell ourselves and of the things we reveal only to strangers.

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Is neoclassical economics dead? Why have the biggest industrial economies stagnated since the financial crisis? Is the competitive threat from China a tired metaphor or a genuine danger to our standard of living? Lord David Sainsbury draws on his experience in business and government to assemble the evidence and comes to some startling conclusions. In Windows of Opportunity, he argues that economic growth comes not as a steady process, but as a series of jumps, based on investment in high value-added firms. Because these firms are engaged in winner-takes-all competition, rapid growth in one country can indeed come at the expense of growth in another, contrary to the standard models. He suggests a new theory of growth and development, with a role for government in 'picking winners' at the level of technologies and industries rather than individual firms. With the role of industrial policy at the centre of the Brexit debate, but a significant intellectual gap in setting out what that policy should be, this book could not be more timely.

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When was smoking banned on trains? Which actor restored kippers to the menu of the Brighton Belle? What regular lineside event did Dickens describe as 'a shave in the air'? Perfect for a trivia night or a long trip, Train Teasers will both test your knowledge of this country's rail system and enlighten you on the most colourful aspects of its long history. Meet trunk murderers, trainspotters, haters of railways, railway writers, Ministers for Transport good and bad, railway cats, dogs and a railway penguin. This is NOT a book for number-crunching nerds. Many of the answers are guessable by the intelligent reader. It is a quiz, yes, but also a cavalcade of historical incident and colour relating to a system that was the making of modern Britain.

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Christmas is a season of overindulgence. For most of us, that means an extra mince pie, a second helping of turkey, or perhaps a third glass of mulled wine. But for some, the festive season is a time to settle old scores, dispatch new enemies and indulge ... in murder. Here, ten masters of the genre serve up mystery and mayhem aplenty. From a dowager's missing jewels to a festive dinner gone horribly wrong, these classic crime stories will delight, puzzle and satisfy long after the last strands of tinsel have been cleared away.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Timely ... a long and engrossing survey of the library' FT 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

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'Full of subtle poignancy ... each story is a trenchant exploration of race and class, vividly conveying the tension between social codes of masculinity and the vulnerable, volatile self' New Yorker A National Book Award Finalist 'Comfort' has been longlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award In the nine unforgettable stories of A Lucky Man, Jamel Brinkley explores the unseen tenderness of black men and boys: the struggle to love and be loved, the invisible ties of family and friendship, and the inescapable forces of race, class and masculinity. A teen intent on proving himself a man at an all-night rave is preoccupied by watching out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of young men who follow two girls home from a party face the uncomfortable truth of their desires. An imaginative boy from the inner city goes swimming in the suburbs, and faces the effects of privilege in ways he can barely grasp. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with their painful family history. Moving, lyrical and keen-eyed, A Lucky Man captures the inner lives of men and boys caught between hope and expectation, duty and desire.

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Winner of the Moore Prize 2020 In Going Home, Orwell Prize winning author Raja Shehadeh travels Ramallah and records the changing face of the city. Walking along the streets he grew up in, he tells the stories of the people, the relationships, the houses, and the businesses that were and now are cornerstones of the city and his community. This is, in many ways, an elegy. Green spaces - gardens and hills crowned with olive trees - have been replaced by tower blocks and concrete lots; the occupation and the settlements have further entrenched themselves in every aspect of movement-from the roads that can and cannot be used to the bureaucratic barriers that prevent people leaving the West Bank. The culture of the city has also shifted with Islam taking a more prominent role in people's everyday and political lives and the geography of the city. As he grapples with ageing and the failures of the resistance, Shehadeh notes the ways that the past still invades the presence from the ruins of the compound that was Yasser Arafat's home to the power of emigrated families to reshape neighbourhoods by selling their long-abandoned homes. This is perhaps Raja Shehadeh's most painfully visceral book.

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'Brilliantly funny ... the best satire of our contemporary nightmare that you will ever see, and very possibly the last' Alan Moore It's 2019 and America is ruled over by a billionaire reality TV star. Its media is owned by a transnational class of the shameless and the depraved. And its people have been silently robbed of their wealth, their dignity and their democracy. In this brave new world, going to see a superhero movie counts as activism, and arguing with the other serfs on social media is political engagement. BUT EVERYTHING'S FINE - as long as you never, ever ask yourself who makes money from the ticket sales and the ratings, or who owns Twitter. It's 2019 and Jarett Kobek has done the only thing a dissident American novelist can do in those circumstances: he's joined the party and written fantasy novel about an immortal fairy queen and a shadowy billionaire philanthropist sheikh called Dennis. Hilarious, provocative and unmissable, Only Americans Burn in Hell is the only novel for our certifiably insane times.

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Casey Gerald's story begins at the end of the world: on New Year's Eve 1999, Casey gathers with the congregation of his grandfather's black evangelical church to witness the rapture. The journey that follows is a beautiful and moving story of a young man learning to question the dreams of success and prosperity that are the foundation of modern America. Growing up gay in an ordinary black neighbourhood in Dallas, his parents struggling with mental health problems and addiction, Casey finds himself on a remarkable path to a prestigious Ivy League college, to the inner sanctums of power on Wall Street and in Washington DC. But even as he attains everything the American Dream promised him, Casey comes to see that salvation stories like his own are part of the plan to keep others from rising. Intense, incantatory, shot through with sly humour and quiet fury, There Will Be No Miracles Here is an extraordinary memoir that forces us to judge our society not on those who rise highest, but on those left behind along the way.

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Populism and Economics, Charles Dumas' latest book, examines the reasons for the rise in populism - Brexit and the election of Trump among other events - and how this discontent with the status quo has affected economics, both perceptions and reality. The book argues that while globalization and the influence of new technology have pulled the world economy out of recession and while the benefits of world trade are now spread more widely, there is a perception of injustice because of inequality within individual nations. In a detailed region-by-region analysis of the current state of the world economy and using exclusive research carried out by TS Lombard, Dumas shows how the perception of inequality now threatens to destabilize not only politics but also the economic order itself.

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Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong ...

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Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2019 'Anyone who wishes to understand why Brexit is so intractable should read this book. I can think of several MPs who ought to.' The Times For the past two decades, you could cross the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic half a dozen times without noticing or, indeed, turning off the road you were travelling. It cuts through fields, winds back-and-forth across roads, and wends from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle. It is frictionless - a feat sealed by the Good Friday Agreement. Before that, watchtowers loomed over border communities, military checkpoints dotted the roads, and smugglers slipped between jurisdictions. This is a past that most are happy to have left behind but might it also be the future? The border has been a topic of dispute for over a century, first in Dublin, Belfast and Westminster and, post Brexit referendum, in Brussels. Yet, despite the passions of Nationalists and Unionists in the North, neither found deep wells of support in the countries they identified with politically. British political leaders were often ignorant of the conflict's complexities, rarely visited the border, and privately disliked their erstwhile unionist allies. Southern leaders' anti-partition statements masked relative indifference and unofficial cooperation with British security services. From the 1920 Government of Ireland Act that created the border, the Treaty and its aftermath, through the Civil Rights Movement, Thatcher, the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement up to the Brexit negotiations, Ferriter reveals the political, economic, social and cultural consequences of the border in Ireland. With the fate of the border uncertain, The Border is a timely intervention by a renowned historian into one of the most contentious and misunderstood political issues of our time.

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'TIMELY' David Mitchell 'MOVING ... REMARKABLE' SUNDAY TIMES 'ONE OF THOSE RARE BOOKS I HADN'T REASLISED I'D BEEN WAITING FOR UNTIL I READ IT.' Owen Sheers 'OPEN-MINDED, THOUGHTFUL AND WISE... A LIBERATING BOOK' Colm Toibin In an age of polished TED talks and overconfident political oratory, success seems to depend upon charismatic public speaking. But what if hyper-fluency is not only unachievable but undesirable? Jonty Claypole spent fifteen years of his life in and out of extreme speech therapy. From sessions with child psychologists to lengthy stuttering boot camps and exposure therapies, he tried everything until finally being told the words he'd always feared: 'We can't cure your stutter.' Those words started him on a journey towards not only making peace with his stammer but learning to use it to his advantage. Here, Jonty argues that our obsession with fluency could be hindering, rather than helping, our creativity, authenticity and persuasiveness. Exploring other speech conditions, such as aphasia and Tourette's, and telling the stories of the 'creatively disfluent' - from Lewis Carroll to Kendrick Lamar - Jonty explains why it's time for us to stop making sense, get tongue tied and embrace the life-changing power of inarticulacy.

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WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR Both inventive and shocking, Trust Exercise became a sensation on publication in the USA for its timely insights into sex, power and the nature of abuse. Sarah and David are in love - the obsessive, uncertain love of teenagers on the edge of adulthood. At their performing arts school, the rules are made by their magnetic drama instructor Mr Kingsley, who initiates them into a dangerous game. Two decades on we learn that the real story of these teenagers' lives is even larger and darker than we imagined, and the consequences have lasted a lifetime. Trust Exercise is a brilliant, unforgettable novel about what we lose, gain and never get over as we're initiated into the mysteries of adulthood.

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