Amid the harsh landscape of the Ozark Hills, sixteen-year-old Ree is taking care of her mother and two brothers. Her father has put their house up as bail and if he doesn't show up at court it'll be sold from under them. To save her family she needs to track him down but in a community riven with long-running feuds getting answers isn't easy.
Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band pr
A 2024 literary highlight for the Sunday Times, The Times, Observer, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, BBC, Grazia, Evening Standard, ELLE, Dazed, Sunday Express, GQ, i-D, Stylist, Bookseller and Literary Friction
''A thrilling debut . . . It''s very smart; it''s very silly; and the obvious fun never obscures completely the sheer, gorgeous, wild stretch of her ideas''
GUARDIAN
''Fast moving and riotously entertaining, a genre-busting blend of wit and wonder''
OBSERVER, 10 best new novelists for 2024
''Terrific, moving . . . Crack this book open and you''ll see how time can disappear''
FINANCIAL TIMES
''I loved its combination of extreme whimsy, high seriousness and cool understatement''
THE TIMES
''A high-energy story with thoughtful things to say about belonging''
INDEPENDENT
''Utterly winning . . . Readers, I envy you: There''s a smart, witty novel in your future''
WASHINGTON POST
''Clever, witty and thought-provoking''
KATE MOSSE, author of The Ghost Ship
''Make room on your bookshelves for a new classic''
MAX PORTER, author of Shy
''As electric, charming, whimsical and strange as its ripped-from-history cast''
EMILY HENRY, author of Happy Place
''Thought-provoking and horribly clever - but it also made me laugh out loud''
ALICE WINN, author of In Memoriam
''A feast of a novel - singular, alarming and (above all) incredibly sexy''
JULIA ARMFIELD, author of Our Wives Under the Sea
''A weird, kind, clever, heartsick little time bomb of a book''
FRANCIS SPUFFORD, author of Golden Hill
A BOY MEETS A GIRL. THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE. A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER. THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END. ENGLAND IS FOREVER. ENGLAND MUST FALL.
In the near future, a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ''expats'' from across history to test the limits of time-travel.
Her role is to work as a ''bridge'': living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as ''1847'' - Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin''s doomed expedition to the Arctic, so he''s a little disoriented to find himself alive and surrounded by outlandish concepts such as ''washing machine'', ''Spotify'' and ''the collapse of the British Empire''. With an appetite for discovery and a seven-a-day cigarette habit, he soon adjusts; and during a long, sultry summer he and his bridge move from awkwardness to genuine friendship, to something more.
But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the structures and histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy history when history is living in your house?
@2@Turn down Slade Alley - narrow, dank and easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but at your touch it swings open. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't quite make sense; too grand for the shabby neighbourhood, too large for the space it occupies. @3@@2@A stranger greets you and invites you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Later, you'll find that you can't.@3@@2@This unnerving, taut and intricately woven tale by one of our most original and bewitching writers begins in 1979 and comes to its turbulent conclusion around Hallowe'en, 2015. Because every nine years, on the last Saturday of October, a 'guest' is summoned to Slade House. But why has that person been chosen, by whom and for what purpose? The answers lie waiting in the long attic, at the top of the stairs . . .@3@
A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan`s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified `dinery server` on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation - the narrators of CLOUD ATLAS hear each other`s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.
Nick is an illustrator isolated by his tendency to observe rather than participate in life. But when bravely experiments with stepping outside the comforts of ''small talk'', he discovers that when he asks genuine questions of those around him, he unlocks the potential for mundane interactions to become meaningful, and sometimes even unforgettable. And when he does, when a person opens their world to him, he explores it as if it were a real place: a physical manifestation of each person''s true self and the meaningful conversation that Nick is having with them. Finally taking part in life, Nick is no longer watching from the outside. He''s in. And that new world literally bursts into colour.
As Maurice Hall makes his way through a traditional English education, he projects an outer confidence that masks troubling questions about his own identity. Frustrated and unfulfilled, a product of the bourgeoisie he will grow to despise, he has difficulty acknowledging his nascent attraction to men.
At Cambridge he meets Clive, who opens his eyes to a less conventional view of the nature of love. Yet when Maurice is confronted by the societal pressures of life beyond university, self-doubt and heartbreak threaten his quest for happiness.
'a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases'. BARACK OBAMA 'One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.' BILL GATES 'Hans Rosling tells the story of "the secret silent miracle of human progress" as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.' MELINDA GATES Factfulnes s: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - why the world's population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty - we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness , Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world.
''Both profound and addictively entertaining. I loved it'' CLARE CHAMBERS, bestselling author of Small Pleasures ''Beautiful, strange and otherworldly'' PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning ''Subtly powerful and utterly engrossing'' CLAIRE FULLER, bestselling author of Unsettled Ground Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, finding solace in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Australian outback. She doesn''t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.
As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of her new life, she ruminates on her childhood in the nearby town, turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can''t forget.
But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.
Marnie is stuck.
Stuck working alone in her flat - a half-eaten packet of feta and a half-dead cactus her only company - and stuck in a life that increasingly feels like it''s passing her by.
Michael is coming undone.
Separated from his wife (just temporarily?), increasingly reclusive (a momentary phase), taking himself on long, punishing walks (the perfect opportunity for some good, old-fashioned, solitary brooding).
Surely there must be more to life . . . but how to get there?
When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks - from the Lake District to the Yorkshire Dales, across the North York Moors and all the way to the North Sea.
And as the miles go by and their lives become unexpectedly entwined, what had begun as a fun little weekend away becomes the journey of a lifetime . . .
''How rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read'' MEGAN NOLAN, Sunday Times
''An exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life'' JENNY OFFILL
Pablo Picasso beat his partners. Richard Wagner was deeply antisemitic. David Bowie slept with an underage fan. But many of us still love Guernica and the Ring cycle and Ziggy Stardust.
And what are we to do with that love? How are we, as fans, to reckon with the biographical choices of the artists whose work sustains us?
Wildly smart and insightful, Monsters is an exhilarating attempt to understand our relationship with art and the artist in the twenty-first century.
''An incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time'' NICK HORNBY
''Part memoir, part treatise, and all treat'' New York Times
Following his hugely celebrated debut novel, The Yellow Birds , Kevin Powers returns to the battlefield and its aftermath, this time in his native Virginia, just before and during the Civil War and ninety years later. The novel pinpoints with unerring emotional depth the nature of random violence, the necessity of love and compassion, and the fragility and preciousness of life. It will endure as a stunning novel about what we leave behind, what a life is worth, what is said and unsaid, and the fact that ultimately what will survive of us is love.
A SMART, SEXY AND SPIKY MODERN LOVE STORY, FROM DEBUT NOVELIST JENNY MUSTARD
''Tender and spell-binding, Okay Days breaks you all the way open''
Annie Lord, author of Notes on Heartbreak
''A perfect Millennial love story . . . with its acidic dialogue and languid sex scenes. A charming and clever romance, a perfect summer read''
Irish Times
''Reminiscent of Sally Rooney . . . a complex and joyous ode to being in love, messing up and finding your way'' Stylist
''Razor sharp . . . nothing short of brilliant''
Glamour
''A fresh, sexy love story that''s set to become a classic'' Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable
''Fresh and sharply observant . . . One of the most intriguing books I''ve read in some time'' Elaine Feeney, author of As You Were
''A beautifully-observed portrait of self-discovery and uncertain love. Jenny''s sharp and evocative prose gave me a feeling of immense nostalgia for London''s long summer days'' Natasha Brown, author of Assembly
Sam is 28, Swedish, carefree and chaotic. Doing a work placement in London over the course of three sticky summer months, she falls hard for Lucas, a man she first met as a teenager.
Lucas, 27, sensitive and calm, is trying to get a foothold in the adult world while struggling to hold the pieces of his life together. Sam is a gorgeous distraction.
But you can only avoid reality for so long, and both Sam and Lucas know their relationship can''t last. Nobody can be this happy forever, surely?
Okay Days tells the story of the rise and fall of Sam and Lucas''s affection for each other, while looking unflinchingly at male body dysmorphia, women''s reproductive rights, and the pitfalls of modern love.
When is okay good enough? And what are we willing to lose in the search for a life that is much better than just okay?
''Reading Okay Days is like drinking the ideal lime cordial, sweetness clarified by sharpness'' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You
''A beautiful, bruising novel about love, sex and finding your place in the world. Okay Days is tender and humorous and ultimately uplifting. Sam and Lucas are unforgettable. Simply brilliant'' Molly Aitken, author of The Island Child
''Witty, observant, stylish, tender, sharp, and delightful'' Will Dean, author of First Born
''Okay Days is charming and clever and somehow manages to be both warm and affectionate and coolly detached'' Chloe Ashby, author of Wet Paint
Feminist philosophy meets family memoir in a fresh essay collection by Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling What I Loved and Booker Prize-longlisted The Blazing World. ''A wonderful essayist . . . Her new collection is replete with personal history and recollection, and sparkles with small descriptive gems.'' Martin Chilton, Independent Siri Hustvedt''s relentlessly curious mind and expansive intellect are on full display in this stunning new collection of essays, whose subjects range from the nature of memory and time to what we inherit from our parents, the power of art during tragedy, misogyny, motherhood, neuroscience, and the books we turn to during a pandemic. Drawing on family history as well as her own life and experiences, she examines the porousness of borders of all kinds in a masterful intellectual journey that is at once personal and universal. Ultimately, Mothers, Fathers, and Others reminds us that the boundaries we take for granted-between ourselves and others, between art and viewer-are far less stable than we imagine.
The complete Fleabag. Every Word. Every Side-eye. Every Fox. Fleabag: The Scriptures includes new writing from Phoebe Waller-Bridge alongside the filming scripts and the never-before-seen stage directions from the Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA winning series. ''Perfect'' Guardian ''Perfect'' Daily Telegraph ''Perfect'' Stylist ''Perfect'' Independent ''Perfect'' Evening Standard ''Perfect'' Metro ''Perfect'' Irish Times ''Perfect'' RTE ''Perfect'' Spectator ''Perfect'' Refinery29 ''Perfect'' Catholic Herald ''Perfection'' Financial Times *** HAIRDRESSER NO. (pointing to Claire) That is EXACTLY what she asked for. FLEABAG No it''s not. We want compensation. HAIRDRESSER Claire? CLAIRE I''ve got two important meetings and I look like a pencil. HAIRDRESSER NO. Don''t blame me for your bad choices. Hair isn''t everything. FLEABAG Wow. HAIRDRESSER What? FLEABAG Hair. Is. Everything. We wish it wasn''t so we could actually think about something else occasionally. But it is. It''s the difference between a good day and a bad day. We''re meant to think that it is a symbol of power, a symbol of fertility, some people are exploited for it and it pays your fucking bills. Hair is everything, Anthony .
Internationally acclaimed as a novelist, Siri Hustvedt is also highly regarded as a writer of non-fiction whose insights are drawn from her broad knowledge in the arts, humanities, and sciences. In this trilogy of works collected in a single volume, Hustvedt brings a feminist, interdisciplinary perspective to a range of subjects. Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, Susan Sontag and Knut Ove Knausgaard are among those who come under her scrutiny. In the book's central essay, she explores the intractable mind-body problem and in the third section, reflects on the mysteries of hysteria, synesthesia, memory, perception, and the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. With clarity, wit, and passion, she exposes gender bias, upends received ideas, and challenges her reader to think again.
@2@@20@Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2001@21@@3@@2@@20@The second novel from the critically-acclaimed author of @18@GHOSTWRITTEN@19@ and @18@CLOUD ATLAS@19@.@21@@3@@2@As Eiji Miyake's twentieth birthday nears, he arrives in Tokyo with a mission - to locate the father he has never met. So begins a search that takes him into the seething city's underworld, its lost property offices and video arcades, and on a journey that zigzags from reality to the realm of dreams. But until Eiji has fallen in love and exorcised his childhood demons, the belonging he craves will remain, tantalizingly, just beyond his grasp.@3@
PACHINKO meets THE NOTEBOOK in this transportive and heartrending novel about first loves, new beginnings and second chances, set between Shangai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and LA and spanning almost seventy years
@2@@20@LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014@21@@3@@2@The artist Harriet Burden, furious at the lack of attention paid her by the New York art world, conducts an experiment: she hides her identity behind three male fronts in a series of exhibitions. Their success seems to prove her point, but there's a sting in the tail - when she unmasks herself, not everyone believes her. Then her last collaborator meets a bizarre end. @3@@2@In this mesmerising tour de force, Burden's story emerges after her death through a variety of sources, including her (not entirely reliable) journals and the testimonies of her children, lover and a dear friend. Each account is different, however, and the mysteries multiply.@3@
A powerful and timely literary thriller by the Guardian Award-winning author of The Yellow Birds, a sinuous, edge-of-the-seat tale of treachery, the tentacles of war, and conscience.
One early morning on a beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim - Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US. Now, sure that the murder is connected with his past, he knows he''s still not safe.
Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her fresh-off-the beat partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the man''s pocket. It is to lead them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman by the Iraq war, who is investigating a nefarious corporation: one on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defence contract.
As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unravelling the truth and keeping Arman alive - even if it costs them everything.
AGENDA
