Search results for ""canongate books""

Two apparently harmless women reside in cottages one building apart in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne. Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, cousins, have put their pasts behind them and settled into conventional country life. But when a mysterious foreigner, Theodore Cadmus - from Caldera, a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of - moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered.The fates of the two cousins and Mr Cadmus, and those of Little Camborne and Caldera, become inextricably enmeshed. Long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem . . . and murder.

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''Entertaining, affectionate and righteous'' Guardian''Says so much about being a woman'' Cosey Fanni TuttiA TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEARIn 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey''s music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock ''n'' roll love affairs.Morrison - a headstrong heroine blazing her way through a male-dominated industry - came to be a kind of mentor to Thorn. They shared the joy and the struggle of being women in a band, trying to outwit and face down a chauvinist music media. In My Rock ''n'' Roll Friend Thorn takes stock of thirty-seven years of friendship, teasing out the details of connection and affection between two women who seem to be either complete opposites

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THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON READERS' MOST LOVED BOOK OF 2021WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR FICTION'BEAUTIFUL' Jodi Picoult, 'UPLIFTING' i, 'BRILLIANT' Daily Mail, 'AMAZING' Joanna Cannon, 'ABSORBING' New York Times, 'THOUGHT-PROVOKING' IndependentNora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?

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Order THE COMFORT BOOK. Available now!THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERThe world is messing with our minds. What if there was something we could do about it?Looking at sleep, news, social media, addiction, work and play, Matt Haig invites us to feel calmer, happier and to question the habits of the digital age. This book might even change the way you spend your precious time on earth.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A gripping true story of violence, double-cross and corruption, Black Mass takes us deep undercover, exposing one of the most outrageous scandals in FBI history.Boston, 1975. Under a harvest moon, 'Whitey' Bulger, godfather of the Irish Mob, waits for an old school buddy. Since they last met, Little John Connolly has become a high-ranking FBI agent. Connolly needs an informant - someone with a good view of Boston's dark side. Whitey needs certain priority treatment. Soon the die is cast.

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'Gripping . . . Vividly evokes 17th-century Devon' Publishers Weekly'An engaging cast and plenty of genuine suspense' Booklist Starred ReviewDevon, 1607. Gabriel Taverner, former ship's surgeon turned country physician, is called to examine a rotting body found impaled on a blade. Identifying the corpse seems a hopeless task and the death is declared a suicide.But Gabriel is not satisfied and re-examines the body - making the first of a series of shocking discoveries that will lead him deep into the dark underbelly of the lucrative silk trade. As he investigates, Gabriel realises that not only was the death a murder - but even worse, he had a personal connection with the corpse.

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'Cooper . . . is no ordinary thriller writer, but one who asks big questions . . . Gripping' Daily Mail'Incandescent and explosive' JAMES ROLLINSAbruzzo, Italy: a young priest suffers the stigmata of the crucifixion. The Vatican, Rome: the Pope calls on Harvard professor Cal Donovan to investigate the truth of the priest's claim. Berlin, Germany: a neo-Nazi organisation believes the priest is the key to an earth-shattering secret. A secret that can be used as a deadly weapon.When the priest is abducted, a perilous race against the clock begins. Only Cal can track down the ruthless organisation and stop it, before an apocalyptic catastrophe is unleashed.

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'Belting Bristol-set cop story . . . Ingenious' Sunday Times'Packed with Bonner's sharp eye for detail' Daily Mail'Keeps you turning the pages long after you meant to put out the light' PETER LOVESEYDI David Vogel is first on the scene when Melanie Cooke's bruised and strangled body is discovered in Bristol's red-light district. The evidence points to Melanie's father being the killer, but Vogel's on edge. The quick arrest is too easy, too straightforward.When two new murders are reported, Vogel's team broaden the search: new evidence suggests that there are three different, disturbed criminals. Any one of them could have killed Melanie, but which one did? Vogel's team inch towards the answer, never suspecting that the killer is watching them too, waiting for his moment to strike.

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While patrolling his territory, Simon's Cat dips into the lives of the many dogs in his neighbourhood, including crazy poodles, a lovestruck bulldog and a pack of mischievous puppies. With characteristic style and wit, Simon Tofield's brilliantly observed illustrations capture the comical capers of different dog breeds, and some a-meow-sing encounters with their feline counterparts.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZEIn frantic flight from the Vietnam War, Jay Parini leaves the United States for Scotland. There, through unlikely circumstances, he meets famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges. The pair embark on a trip to the Scottish Highlands, and on the way the charmingly garrulous Borges takes Parini on a grand tour of western literature and ideas while promising to teach him about love and poetry.Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It's also a magical tour of an era - like our own - in which uncertainties abound, and when - as ever - it's the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

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SHORTLISTED FOR SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL NON-FICTION BOOK AWARD 2023No matter where you turn, it seems that the taut lines of borders are vibrating to - or even calling - the tune of global eventsToday, there are more borders in the world than ever before in human history. Beginning with the earliest known example, Crawford travels to many borders old and new: from a melting glacial landscape to the conflict-torn West Bank and the fault-lines of the US/Mexico border. He follows the story of borders into our fragile and uncertain future - towards the virtual frontiers of the internet and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change.As nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration all collide with ever-hardening borders, something has to give. And Crawford asks, is it time to let go of the lines that divide us?

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'Wide-ranging and eclectic' TLS'Seductively curious' Observer'A visual and intellectual journey' HeraldSee/Saw is an illuminating history of how photographs frame and change our perspectives. Starting from single images by the world's most important photographers - from Eugène Atget to Alex Webb - Geoff Dyer shows us how to read a photograph, as he takes us through a series of close readings that are by turns moving, funny, prescient and surprising.

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Selected as a Best Book of 2021 by the Observer, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Red and the Daily Mail Halfway through her PhD and already dreaming of running her own lab, computer scientist Asha has her future all mapped out. Then a chance meeting and whirlwind romance with her old high-school crush, Cyrus, changes everything.Dreaming big, together with their friend Jules they come up with a revolutionary idea: to build a social networking app that could bring meaning to millions of lives. While Asha creates an ingenious algorithm, Cyrus' charismatic appeal throws him into the spotlight. When the app explodes into the next big thing, Asha should be happy, shouldn't she? But why does she feel invisible in the boardroom of her own company? Why are decisions being made without her? Gripping, witty and razor-sharp, The Startup Wife is a blistering novel about big ambitions, speaking out and standing up for what you believe in.

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Are immigrants taking our jobs, or are they all slobs?What does 'I'm colourblind' mean and why does it make no sense?And just how can you spot a Karen from a mile away?This illustrated collection of verse tackles these issues and more. This is a delightfully caustic and refreshing book that will have readers thinking deeply and laughing out loud.

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A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2023A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2022: ENTERTAINMENTA MAIL ON SUNDAYS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022Alan Rickman remains one of the most beloved actors of all time across almost every genre, from his breakout role as Die Hard's villainous Hans Gruber to his heart-wrenching run as Professor Severus Snape, and beyond. His air of dignity, his sonorous voice and the knowing wit he brought to each role continue to captivate new audiences today. But Rickman's artistry wasn't confined to just his performances. Rickman's writing details the extraordinary and the ordinary in a way that is anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid. He takes us behind the scenes on films and plays ranging from Sense & Sensibility, the Harry Potter series, Private Lives, My Name Is Rachel Corrie and many more.The diaries run from 1993 to his death in 2016 and offer insight into both a public and private life. Here is Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveller, the fan, the director, the enthusiast: in short, the real Alan Rickman. Here is a life fully lived, all detailed in intimate and characteristically plain-spoken prose. Reading the diaries is like listening to Rickman chatting to a close friend. Madly, Deeply also includes a foreword by Emma Thompson and a selection of Rickman's early diaries, dating from 1974 to 1982, when his acting life first began.

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A SUNDAY TIMES BEST POETRY BOOK OF THE YEARIn this blistering anthology, poet, editor and DJ Kayo Chingonyi brings together a selection of exceptional Black British poets. This is his dream mixtape featuring a cross-generational span of current poets extending and inhabiting the spirits of the ancestors. Following in the tread of Lemn Sissay's The Fire People, More Fiya aims to lodge in the mind of its readers for a lifetime, radiating to touch the lives of many.Including work from: Jason Allen-Paisant, Raymond Antrobus, Janette Ayachi, Dean Atta, Malika Booker, Eric Ngalle Charles, Dzifa Benson, Inua Ellams, Samatar Elmi, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Keith Jarrett, Anthony Joseph, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Vanessa Kisuule, Rachel Long, Adam Lowe, Nick Makoha, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Momtaza Mehri, Bridget Minamore, Selina Nwulu, Gboyega Odubanjo, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Roger Robinson, Denise Saul, Kim Squirrell, Warsan Shire, Rommi Smith, Yomi Sode, Degna Stone, Keisha Thompson, Kandace Siobhan Walker, Warda Yassin, Belinda Zhawi

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WINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE'Usami so successfully depicts the consequences of pure obsession' Guardian'Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what it is like to be a teenage girl' Catherine PrasifkaHigh-school student Akari has only one passion in her life: her oshi, her idol. His name is Masaki Ueno, best known as one-fifth of Japanese pop group Maza Maza. Akari's dedication to her oshi consumes her days completely - until he disgraces himself and Akari's world goes into a tailspin.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARA TELEGRAPH BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARA NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave's inner life.Created from more than forty hours of intimate conversations with the journalist Seán O'Hagan, this is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave's own words, of what really drives his life and creativity.The book examines questions of belief, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave's life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years.Faith, Hope and Carnage offers ladders of hope and inspiration from a true creative visionary.

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A COUNTRYFILE CHRISTMAS GIFT BOOKWhat is home?It's a question that has troubled Marchelle Farrell for her entire life. A longed-for career in psychiatry saw her leave behind the pristine beaches and emerald hills of Trinidad. Until, disillusioned, she uprooted again, this time for the peaceful English countryside.The only Black woman in her village, Marchelle hopes to grow a new life. But when a worldwide pandemic and a global racial reckoning collide, the upheaval of colonialism that has led her to this place begins to be unearthed. Is this really home? And can she ever feel truly grounded here?Drawn to her new garden, Marchelle begins to examine this complex and emotional question through the psychotherapeutic lens of her work. As her relationship with the garden deepens, she discovers that her two conflicting identities are far more intertwined than she had realised.Full of hope and healing, Uprooting is a book about finding home where we least expect it, and which invites us to reconnect to the land - and ourselves.

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A WATERSTONES BEST HOME & LIFESTYLE BOOK OF 2023----------This is a guide to a life well-lived. It is about the wonder of the everyday and the lessons that age brings. Wear stripes. Eat chocolate. Don't leave empty-handed. But also embrace change, let go of what doesn't matter and take care of something or someone other than yourself.The Swedish Art of Ageing Well is a gentle and welcome reminder that, no matter your age, there are always fresh discoveries ahead and pleasures to be enjoyed every day.

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January 1987. Alix Bowen has moved away from London to Yorkshire. There, she regularly visits a mass-murderer in a high-security prison. But has her natural curiosity in his motives and character crept into obsession? Meanwhile, Alix's life continues to cross and uncross with her old friends Liz and Esther, now all in their fifties. As the years pass, they increasingly question the brutally prosperous and atrocity-hungry society they live in, and their complicity in it, as they navigate life in 1980s Britain. The second in a trilogy following on from The Radiant Way and finishing with The Gates of Ivory, A Natural Curiosity sees Margaret Drabble return with her brilliant and dark wit in this bold, generous and incisive portrait of the time.

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Sarah and Jack have never doubted that they are made for each other.But there is someone in Sarah's family who will not tolerate the relationship.The reason lies in both the past and the present, and it will take Sarah across an ocean to a place she never imagined she would be.Kate Grenville takes us back to the Australia of The Secret River in this novel about love, tangled histories and how it matters to keep stories alive.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BERNARD SHAW PRIZEA woman's life, erupting with brilliance and promise, is fissured by betrayal and the pressures of duty. What had once seemed a pastoral family idyll has become a trap, and she struggles between being the wife and mother she is bound to be and wanting to do and be so much more. The woman in question is Sylvia Plath in the final year of her life. As Plath's marriage to Ted Hughes unravels through the heady days of their first summer in Devon together, Sylvia turns increasingly to writing to express her pain and loss, yet also her resilience and power. She has decided to die, but the art she creates in her final weeks will set her name, and the world, ablaze.

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Goodbye to All That is Robert Graves' searing autobiography and an emotional first-hand account of life in the Great War trenches. A graphic storyteller, Graves begins with the petty cruelties of his public school upbringing. Then, almost in 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary style, he paints devastating portraits of war: of a young man's hell, of meaningless sacrifice, of everyday heroism, and of the idiocy of the military command. Even accomplishing some moments of humour, Goodbye to All That is an enthralling listen, bringing the listener into the midst of the battle. It is widely recognised as one of the most powerful insights into the trauma of war.Read by award-winning British stage, television and voice actor, Martin Jarvis

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Herman had often walked these streets, eyeing the forest of tall ships, their blackened strakes handsomely curved, masts like crosses, empty of sails . . .1841. A young Herman Melville is yet to write Moby Dick. He sets out on a voyage aboard a whaling ship. What happens on that trip will give him enough material for a lifetime of writing. But what of the dark things Melville encounters on his journey, and the illicit relationships he embarks upon that are to torment him once he returns home to his wife Lizzie? All is revealed as Jay Parini lifts the lid on one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century . . .

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Siân, troubled by dark dreams and seeking distraction, joins an archaeological dig at Whitby. The abbey's one hundred and ninety-nine steps link the twenty-first century with the ruins of the past and Siân is swept into a mystery involving a long-hidden murder, a fragile manuscript in a bottle and a cast of most peculiar characters. Equal parts historical thriller, romance and ghost story, this is an ingenious literary page-turner and is completely unforgettable.THIS EDITION ALSO FEATURES MICHEL FABER'S NOVELLA THE COURAGE CONSORT

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Since 1888, Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been locked into an intense and frequently explosive rivalry: Rangers the product of West Scotland's Protestant establishment, Celtic the team founded to raise money for the Catholic underclass of Glasgow.On 2 January 2010 the two teams met in the Old Firm's New Year Derby, a fixture that had been banned for ten years because of the trouble it brought with it. Richard Wilson puts that game at the centre of a book which delves into the history and widens out to the cultural resonance of the fixture within Scotland. It is a potent mix of close-up observation and big-picture thinking, with insight, understanding and depth.

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This is the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil.It is also the story of an extraordinary journey undertaken by a man named Henry. It begins with a mysterious parcel, and it ends in a place that will make you think again about one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. Once you have finished reading it, it is impossible to forget.

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George and Serena Pemberton arrive in the wilds of the North Carolina mountains to build a life together in a rural logging town. But Serena Pemberton is unlike any woman this town has ever seen: overseeing crews, hunting rattlesnakes and even saving her husband in the wilderness. So when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she is determined that her intensely passionate marriage will not unravel. A course of events unfolds that will change the lives of everyone in their rural community and bring this riveting tale of love and revenge to its shocking reckoning.

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Arranged as a diary around a calendar year, Those Who Marched Away tells many individual stories from many wars down the ages, with several compelling entries for each day of the year. The diarists come from every walk of life; from faceless foot solidiers to those charged with orchestrating battle, from the Home Front to the Holocaust, from famous writers, political leaders and fighting men and women to ordinary working people enveloped by events over which they have no influence. Together, they contribute an intimate insight into what has been described both as 'the most exciting and dramatic thing in life' and the 'universal perversion'.

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Squabbling siblings, misfit school-friends and life on the estates of West Dublin are trouble enough. But then a ghost starts haunting the family home and Denny's life starts getting properly complicated.Hilarious, warm and tragic by turns, Ghosts and Lightning is a refreshing tale of one young man doing the right thing when surrounded by all the wrong choices and finding love in the most unlikely places.

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'Eunoia', which means 'beautiful thinking', is the shortest English word to contain all five vowels. This book also contains them all, except that each one appears by itself in its own chapter. A unique personality for each vowel soon emerges: A is courtly, E is elegiac, I is lyrical, O is jocular, U is obscene. A triumphant feat, seven years in the making, Eunoia is as playful as it is awe-inspiring.

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Bloodshot Monochrome is a glorious poetic take on all things black, white and read. Reinventing the sonnet, Patience Agbabi shines her euphoric, musical lines on everything from growing up to growing old, from Northern Soul to contract killers, from the retro to the brand new. Whether resurrecting the dead in 'Problem Pages', playing out noir dramas in 'Vicious Circle', or capturing moments of her own life in perfect snapshot, Agbabi's verse is sublimely lyrical and spiked with gleeful humour.

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Underground, in the tunnels beneath New York, a young man is missing.Above ground, Ali Lateef of the NYPD is assigned the case. The boy's mother is reluctant to help and Emily, his girlfriend and only confidante, appears to have vanished too. Can Lateef find Lowboy before it's too late?An extraordinary chronicle of a desperate young man and the race to find him, Lowboy is a modern masterpiece.

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Collapsing stock markets, melting ice caps, floods, tornadoes, terrorism . . . When it comes to bad news, we've never had it so good. Perhaps it is time to be a little more optimistic? That's what Laurence Shorter decided. And that's why he set himself the challenge of meeting the world's most cheerful people. Surely with the help of Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton, Laurence can find the secret to inner happiness. But first things first - how on Earth is he going to get to meet them?

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At the dawn of the twenty-first century Adam Kellas finds himself hurled on a journey between continents and cultures. In his quest from the war-torn mountains of Afghanistan to the elegant dinner tables of north London and then the marshlands of the American South, only the memory of the beautiful, elusive Astrid offers the possibility of hope.With all the explosive drama of The People's Act of Love, this is a spellbinding tale of folly and the pursuit of love from one of today's most talented and visionary writers.

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May, 1831, and on a tiny island off the Isle of Man a lighthouse provides a harsh living for an unusual family. Lucy and Diya, husbandless and with three children between them, watch over the ancient light on Ellan Bride. Meanwhile the Scottish engineer, Robert Stevenson, is modernising the nation's lighthouses, and Ellan Bride and the future of the family, are under threat. When two surveyors arrive to assess the light, tension escalates to danger point.

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