Search results for ""canongate books""

Nadolny's masterpiece, The Discovery of Slowness tells the incredible story of Sir John Franklin, a sailor and explorer who battled the frozen Arctic wastes and paved the way for the discovery of the Northwest Passage. Ridiculed for his slowness in his youth, Franklin's quiet calm later helps him to become an icon of adventure.A classic of contemporary German literature, The Discovery of Slowness is not only a riveting account of a remarkable life but also a profound and thought-provoking meditation on time.

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A man sits collect-calling strangers every day just to hear the sounds of the outside world; an inmate recalls his descent into addiction as his prison softball team gears up for an annual tournament; a prisoner is released and finds freedom more complex and baffling than he expected.In this stunning debut story collection, Curtis Dawkins, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole, offers a glimpse into the reality of prison life through the eyes of the people who spend their days and years behind bars.

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VIRGINIA VALLEJO:Top Colombian television journalist, cover model and socialitePABLO ESCOBAR:Head of the Medellin cartel, the founder of the global cocaine industry and one of the most ambitious - and brutal - criminals in historyOver the course of their tempestuous love affair, Vallejo witnessed first-hand the bloodshed, fear and corruption that accompanied the rise of Escobar's crime empire. In this explosive tale of drugs, sex, wealth and violence, Vallejo describes the man she knew and loved. But, increasingly plagued by threats of kidnap and death for her knowledge on Escobar's ties to the political establishment, Vallejo sought extradition to the United States. Her testimony would reopen one of the most important criminal cases in Colombian history.

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We are living in a modern world where falsehood regularly seems to overwhelm truth. The ability of billions of people to publish has created a vast amount of unreliable and false news which now competes with and sometimes drowns more established forms of journalism. So where can we look for reliable, verifiable sources of news and information? What does all this mean for democracy? And what will the future hold?Reflecting on his twenty years as editor of the Guardian at a time of unprecedented digital disruption; and his experience of breaking some of the most significant news stories of our time, Alan Rusbridger answers these questions and offers a stirring defence of why quality journalism matters now more than ever.

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Princeton. New Jersey. 14th March 1954 'Albert Einstein speaking.' 'Who?' asks the girl on the telephone. 'I'm sorry,' she says. 'I have the wrong number.' 'You have the right number,' Albert says. From a wrong number to a friendship that would impact both their lives, Albert Einstein Speaking begins with the meeting of two very different minds - the world's most respected scientist and a schoolgirl from New Jersey. Riotous, charming and tender, R.J. Gadney's novel spans almost a century and shines a light on the man behind the myth.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE McKITTERICK PRIZEDr James Darke has expelled himself from the world. He writes compulsively in his 'coming of old age' journal; he eats little, drinks and smokes a lot; he tries to console himself with the wisdom of the great thinkers and poets, yet finds nothing but disappointment. But cracks of light start to appear in his carefully managed darkness - the tender, bruised filaments of love for his daughter and grandson. With scalding prose, ruthless intelligence and an unforgettably vivid protagonist, Darke confronts some of humanity's greatest and most uncomfortable questions about how we choose to live, and to die.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE SOCIETY NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDLooking can be an act of empathy or aggression. It can provoke desire or express it. And from the blurry, edgeless world we inhabit as infants to the landscape of screens we grow into, looking can define us.In The Story of Looking, filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins takes us on a lightning-bright tour - in words and images - through how our looking selves develop over the course of a lifetime, and the ways that looking has changed through the centuries. From great works of art to tourist photographs, from cityscapes to cinema, through science and protest, propaganda and refusals to look, the false mirrors and great visionaries of looking, this book illuminates how we construct as well as receive the things we see.Brilliant and eclectic, The Story of Looking is a photo album and an art gallery, a road movie and a visual grammar: once you've read it, you'll never see things the same way again.

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Nothing else comes so I set the notebook beside me. What else is here? I ask myself and listen. This section of stream purls and riffles amid small stones. What word might be made for what I hear . . .Les Clary's final case has broken the still surface of his backwater town.Becky, a park ranger with her own mysterious past, shares Les's consolation in the natural world that lies just beyond their hopelessly broken town. As Les and Becky explore of the county's lyrically beautiful landscape, they finds themselves led deeper into the heart of the town's corruption, and into the darkness of their own ruptured histories. This haunting novel is a poetic journey into the wilderness of the heart.

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AS HEARD ON RADIO 4'Utterly wonderful' NINA STIBBE, author of Love, NinaTwenty hours have gone since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you. I shall think of you until I post this, and until you get it. Can you feel, as you read these words, that I am thinking of you now; aglow, alive, alert at the thought that you are in the same world, and by some strange chance loving me. In September 1943, Chris Barker was serving as a signalman in North Africa when he decided to brighten the long days of war by writing to old friends. One of these was Bessie Moore, a former work colleague. The unexpected warmth of Bessie's reply changed their lives forever. Crossing continents and years, their funny, affectionate and intensely personal letters are a remarkable portrait of a love played out against the backdrop of the Second World War. Above all, their story is a stirring example of the power of letters to transform ordinary lives.

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DISCOVER THE NEW MEMOIR FROM ALAN CUMMING. BAGGAGE: TALES FROM A FULLY PACKED LIFE PUBLISHES 28 OCT '21'One of the most memorable, heart-stopping autobiographies I have ever read' STEPHEN FRYWINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2015THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERATTITUDE MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEARA beloved star of stage and screen, Alan Cumming's life and career have been shaped by a complex and dark family past - full of troubled memories, kept buried away. But then an unexpected phone call from his long-estranged father brought the pain of the past hurtling back into the present, and unravelled everything he thought he knew about himself. Not My Father's Son is the story of his journey of discovery, both a memoir of his childhood in Scotland, and an investigation into his family history which would change him forever.'Equal parts memoir, whodunnit and manual for living . . . beautifully written, honest . . . I was completely sucked in' NEIL GAIMAN

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A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB READ AN OBSERVER NEW FACE OF FICTION 2015A HUFFINGTON POST 'ONE TO WATCH IN 2015'LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2015'I was gripped by Catherine Chanter's The Well immediately. The beauty of her prose is riveting, the imagery so assured. This is an astonishing debut' Sarah Winman, author of When God was a Rabbit'I loved this book!' JESSIE BURTON, author of The Miniaturist When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London in their grime-encrusted car and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place, a farm that appears to offer everything the family are searching for. An opportunity for Ruth. An escape for Mark. A home for their grandson Lucien. But The Well's unique glory comes at a terrible price. The locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours' produce withers and dies. Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth is less and less sure who she can trust.As The Well envelops them, Ruth's paradise becomes a prison, Mark's dream a recurring nightmare, and Lucien's playground a grave.

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Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society Writers' Prize'No one writes more movingly, or with such transporting poetic skill, about encounters with wild creatures. Its pages course with sympathy, humility, and wisdom' Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk From his home deep in a Scottish glen, John Lister-Kaye has watched and come to understand intimately the movements and habits of the animals, and in particular the birds, that inhabit the wild and magnificent Highlands. Drawing on a lifetime of observation, Gods of the Morning is his wise and affectionate celebration of the British countryside and the birds that come and go through the year. It is also a lyrical reminder of the relationship we have lost with the seasons and a call to look afresh at the natural world around us.

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The Peanuts gang celebrate the highs and lows of friendship in this beautifully produced gift book for all generations. Friendship can come in many guises and in this addition to the Peanuts Guide to Life series we learn from Linus that man's best friend is perhaps his blanket, Snoopy shows us that happiness is a thoughtful friend who brings supper and Lucy teaches us that a little friendly criticism can go a long way. But most of all, we learn that friendship is being one of the gang.

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Charlie Grant, an intense young student at Glasgow University watches his father die. Overwhelmed by the memory of this humble yet dignified death, Charlie is left to face his own fierce resentment for his adulterous mother. With shades of Hamlet and Camus, William McIlvanney's first novel is a revelatory portrait of youth, of society and of family.

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Monster. Murderer. Mother-to-be.After the death of her lover Jake, Talulla Demetriou finds herself to be the last living werewolf. Pregnant, grieving and on the run, she flees to an Alaskan hunting lodge to have her child in secret and keep the bloodline alive. It looks as if the worst is over. Until the door bursts open - and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .

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Ray Winstone's amazing talent for bringing out the humanity buried inside his often brutal screen characters - violent offender in Scum, wife-beater in Nil by Mouth, retired blagger in Sexy Beast - has made him one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. But how do these uncompromising and often haunting performances square with his off-duty reputation as the ultimate salt-of-the-earth diamond geezer? The answer lies in the East End of his youth. Revisiting the bomb-sites and boozers of his childhood and adolescence, Ray Winstone takes the reader on an unforgettable tour of a cockney heartland which is at once irresistibly mythic and undeniably real. Told with its author's trademark blend of brutal directness and roguish wit, Young Winstone offers a fascinating insight into the social history of East London, as well as a school of hard knocks coming-of-age story with a powerful emotional punch.

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A JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2014 WINNERShe's online.'I booked a hotel,' I say. 'Near Marble Arch.''That sounds great, hon. I can't wait to see you.''Yeah. Me too.''I'm vaguely nervous.''Don't be.'Do be. I'm a child.Lolito is a love story about a fifteen year-old boy who meets a middle-aged woman on the internet. When his long-term girlfriend and first love Alice, betrays him at a house party, Etgar goes looking for cyber solace in the arms of Macy, a stunning but bored housewife he meets online. What could possibly go wrong . . . ?Hilarious, fearless and utterly outrageous, Lolito is a truly twenty-first century love story.

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Liam has it all. A job he enjoys, a glamorous lifestyle and a girlfriend he is madly in love with. But after one night out he loses everything and finds himself on a plane to Buenos Aires. There he hopes to write the world's longest and truest love letter to the one person who still matters to him.

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While hosting a group of academics at Thorncroft House, Harriet and Matthew Rowsley find themselves confronted with bigger - and bloodier! - issues than unruly guests . . . The fifth instalment of the Harriet and Matthew Rowsley Victorian mystery series sets in England during the great Victorian era.June 1861, Victorian England. A house full of academics should imply calm and quiet, but much to housekeeper Harriet Rowsley''s dismay some of the guests seem to have problems with the estate''s unconventional practices and aren''t afraid of voicing their concerns. Having Harriet and her husband and interim estate manager Matthew as the hosts of Thorncroft House, while his lordship is ill and the trustees are seeking for his heir, is obviously not to everyone''s taste! But Harriet won''t let their patronising opinions get in the way of running the household as it was entrusted to her. She and her husband seem to have things under control until

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Court jester Will Somers is drawn into another gripping and entertaining mystery when malevolent forces strike again at the court of Henry VIII - and Anne Boleyn is the target.1536, London. Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is in peril. In the mid of night, court jester Will Somers is summoned to an urgent assignation when she discovers a body in her chamber. The queen wants Will to find out who the man is and how he ended up there. Is someone trying to frame her for his murder?Queen Anne has many enemies at court, and to make matters worse, Henry VIII is lining up his next conquest and suspects his queen of treason. Has the formidable Thomas Cromwell been whispering vile lies in the king''s ears, and could the queen be the target of a Catholic conspiracy? As further attacks plague the court, Will is determined to uncover the truth behind the plotting and devilry, but he will need to keep hold of all his wits to do so!

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What if you''re the only one who believes your son is missing? A chilling, twisty psychological suspense novel, perfect for fans of Laura Dave and Gillian Flynn.Maggie Lawson is the smart, capable dean of a boutique college, but even the most confident mother has a weakness - her child. When Maggie can''t reach her college senior son, Aiden, to tell him that his father has been shot, she starts to panic. She texts. She calls.Is Aiden ghosting her, or have the dangerous stories Aiden''s father, her investigative journalist ex-husband, pursues finally brought trouble to her door? Maggie is sure that something is very wrong, but no one believes her. As dark events unfold, she must rely on her own investigative instincts to find Aiden. But when Maggie uncovers a devastating secret, she faces a race against time to save him.

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Will history repeat itself?Moving from a London deep in the terror of the Blitz to the seemingly safer London of 2019, two women have to fight for their lives to survive a ruthless killer in this dual timeline psychological thriller that will make your hair stand on end!London, 1941. Amongst the air-raid sirens and horrors of bombings, artist Harriet Yorke manages Calla House: a small community of people from different backgrounds - but good friends who pull together in times of crisis. Like most Londoners contending with the Blitz, Harriet has grown used to withstanding danger, but when she goes on a late-evening stroll with her Cairn terrier, George, and finds herself face to face with a killer, she unleashes a series of events that will put more than just her own life on the line . . .London, 2019. Libby lives amongst her grandmother''s paintings in Calla House - works of art into which Harriet poured all the horr

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Another day, another grand scheme! The thieving Fitzglen family are back in this second instalment of the spellbinding Theatre of Thieves gothic mystery series set in Victorian England.London, 1908. The Fitzglens, one of London''s leading theatre families and part-time thieves, are plotting their next scheme when they receive terrible news about Great Uncle Montague. He''s been killed in a tragic accident at his Notting Hill home. Montague will be much missed, not just for his talent in art forgery, but his death provides an unlooked-for opportunity: the chance to search for his infamous iron box. No one knows what it contains - if, that is, it even exists - but Jack Fitzglen is certain it has to be something highly valuable . . . or extremely dangerous. Why else would the grand master of storytelling have refused to even drop a hint?Jack is amazed when he finds the box - and even more amazed by its contents. An unknown play by one of Ire

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Hannah Ives uncovers a deadly connection between disturbing discoveries in the past and present in this gripping mystery.Hannah Ives and her husband are staying at their idyllic vacation cottage on Maryland''s eastern shore when a young friend, Noel Sinclair, stops by for a visit. As Hannah shows Noel around the property, they notice some bald eagles in a neighboring cornfield who look seriously ill.Could these magnificent birds have been poisoned? Hannah''s investigation soon clashes with powerful commercial agricultural interests. Meanwhile, Noel uncovers some shocking news of her own when she and her sister receive the results of their DNA tests. As Hannah tries to discover who is tormenting the birds while also delving into Noel''s family tree, the last thing she expects to uncover is a deadly connection between the two . . .

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''Girl A'' was convicted of murdering three people when she was a child. Now she''s missing and a man is dead. The clock is ticking for Scottish detective DCI Christine Caplan to bring her to justice - but the truth may be darker than even she fears . . .When a body is discovered in the water at Connel Bridge, the police assume it''s an open-and-shut case of suicide. But when DCI Christine Caplan is called in to take a closer look, she discovers that darker truths lurk beneath the surface, and suspicion begins to turn to a young woman recently out of care.Known only as Girl A, her identity remains anonymous, protected under law. Her violent past includes an allegation of the murder of a younger sibling, so the timing of this new death seems too coincidental. Then a vigilante sets her home on fire and she flees, so the ''child killer'' is now on the loose - and at risk herself.As Caplan launches a search for the elusive teenager, lo

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In both the literary sense and content, this gospel differs dramatically from the others in that it expresses the movement towards agnosticism and is more concerned with explaining high concepts like truth, light, life and spirit than recounting historical fact. With an introduction by Blake Morrison.

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Angelo, a private in Mussolini's 'ever-glorious' Italian army, may possess the virtues of love and an engaging innocence but he lacks the gift of courage. However, due to circumstances beyond his control, he ends up fighting not only for Italy but also for the British and German armies.With his patron the Count, the beautiful Lucrezia, the charming Annunziata, and the delightful Major Telfer, Angelo's fellow characters are drawn with humour, insight and sympathy, making the book a wittily satirical comment on the grossness and waste of war.Eric Linklater, who served with the Black Watch in Italy in World War II, is one of Scotland's most distinguished writers. In Private Angelo he has written a book which demonstrates that honour is not solely the preserve of the brave.

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This hilarious novel charts the rise and fall (and perhaps the rise again) of Magnus Merriman-would-be lover, writer, politician, idealist and crofter-moved by dreams of greatness and a talent for farcical defeat.Convinced that 'small nations are safer to live in than big ones', Magnus becomes a Nationalist candidate for the parliamentary seat of 'Kinluce'.With details based on Linklater's own experiences in an East Fife by-election in 1933, the way is set for a satirical and irreverent portrait of Scottish life, literature and politics in the 1930s. Nothing is sacred and no-one is spared.

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How difficult it is to explain! The terribly mute hunger in our bodies! If I touch my thigh here in the near darkness of the tent my whole body is again instinct with the driving urge that brought me here, and I cannot explain it. As always, it is stronger than fear. For me it has always been that way . . . When the irrepressible Helen runs away from the small town she grew up in, she discovers a world of excitement and experience beyond even her imagination, from Sydney to Singapore, Bombay, Monte Carlo and the Sahara desert. A subversive and deeply suggestive masterpiece, Helen and Desire is Trocchi's greatest erotic novel.

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Ron Rash has been acclaimed as 'the best American novelist I have come upon in the last twenty years' (Scotsman), a writer with an 'exceptional quality of characterisation and storytelling' (Irvine Welsh). Set deep in the heart of the Appalachian mountains, this new collection of short stories confirms his reputation again and again. Nothing Gold Can Stay transports the reader to another place, and illuminates the world around us in unexpected ways.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME PRIZEALL IN THE MIND? - Can meditation fend off dementia? - Can the smell of lavender affect the immune system? - Can your thoughts ease physical pain? In Cure, award-winning science writer Jo Marchant travels the world to meet the physicians, patients and researchers on the cutting edge of mind-body medicine, asking how the brain can heal the body and how we can all make changes to keep ourselves healthier.

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The audio edition of Luke's Gospel from the widely acclaimed modern literary classic The New Testament in Scots. Tom Fleming's reading brings out the poetry, wit and humanity of William Lorimer's translation in a way which speaks to everyone.

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Jimi Hendrix 'transgressed many boundaries; both arbitrary musical definitions separating blues and soul or jazz and rock, and also those fundamental divides between the archaic and the avant-garde, between individualist and collectivist philosophies,between blacks and whites, between America and Britain, between passive acquiescence and furious resistance,between lust for life and obsession with death.' Charles Shaar MurrayCrosstown Traffic charts the routes Hendrix took to arrive at his 'unique musical formulation'. The result is a bravura study of his art and life that has become established as the definitive work on 'the most eloquent instrumentalist ever to work in rock.'Winner of the Ralph Gleason Music Book Award on first publication, this brilliant and ambitious book, hailed as 'the most compelling and literate essay on rock since Greil Marcus' Mystery Train, is being reissued with an updated introduction.

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His whole nation is celebrating what is the worst day of his lifeNineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is home from Iraq. And he's a hero. Billy and the rest of Bravo Company were filmed defeating Iraqi insurgents in a ferocious firefight. Now Bravo's three minutes of extreme bravery is a YouTube sensation and the Bush Administration has sent them on a nationwide Victory Tour. During the final hours of the tour Billy will mix with the rich and powerful, endure the politics and praise of his fellow Americans - and fall in love. He'll face hard truths about life and death, family and friendship, honour and duty. Tomorrow he must go back to war.

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'In the race to be first in describing the lost generation of the 1980s, Geoff Dyer in The Colour of Memory leads past the winning post. 'We're not lost,' one of his hero's friend's says, 'we're virtually extinct'. It is a small world in Brixton that Dyer commemorates, of council flat and instant wasteland, of living on the dole and the scrounge, of mugging, which is merely begging by force, and of listening to Callas and Coltrane. It is the nostalgia of the DHSS Bohemians, the children of unsocial security, in an urban landscape of debris and wreckage. Not since Colin MacInnes's City of Spades and Absolute Beginners thirty years ago has a novel stuck a flick-knife so accurately into the young and marginal city. A low-keyed style and laconic wit touch up The Colour of Memory.' The Times

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