NEW RELEASES
The new novel from the author of Hamnet is one of the most anticipated books of the year. This one is set in 1560s Florence. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, heir to the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: Alfonso is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.
"Finely written and vividly imagined." —Guardian
>>On the inspiration for the novel.
>>On the inspiration for the novel.
Without a kink in the line there’s no story to tell. The kinks are the story. There is gridlock on the M40 and a banana skin on every pavement. Lovers are disturbed in bed and my father becomes a rain god. Complacency is mocked. Death hovers. Shit happens. How the messiness of life is translated into fiction is considered and no conclusions are reached. Why, anyway, setting out from A, am I so sure that B is where I want to get to? Interruptions push back, disrupting the status quo or derailing progress. 99 Interruptions – a cross-genre exploration of interruptions in both life and literature, and of the relationship between the two – attempts to take them in its stride.
"I can’t think of a wittier, more engaging, stylistically audacious, attentive and generous writer working in the English language right now." —Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Julio and Emilia, two Chilean students, seek truth in great literature but find each other instead. Like all young couples, they lie to each other, revise themselves, and try new identities on for size, observing and analysing their love story as if it's one of the great novels they both pretend to have read. As they shadow each other throughout their young adulthoods, falling together and drifting apart, Zambra spins a formally innovative, metafictional tale that brilliantly explores the relationship among love,art, and memory.
"The 'last truly great book' I read has to be Alejandro Zambra's Bonsai. A subtle, eerie, ultimately wrenching account of failed young love in Chile among the kind of smartypant set who pillow-talk about the importance of Proust. A total knockout.' —Junot Diaz
"Every beat and pattern of being alive becomes revelatory and bright when narrated by Alejandro Zambra. He is a modern wonder." —Rivka Galchen
After the Second World War, new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. But how committed was Britain? In the 1960s, its colonial instinct ignited once more: a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, create a new colony (the 'British Indian Ocean Territory') and deport the entire local population. One of those inhabitants was Liseby Elysé, twenty years old, newly married, expecting her first child. One suitcase, no pets, the British ordered, expelling her from the only home she had ever known. For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos, and the past decade Philippe Sands has been intimately involved in the cases. In 2018 Chagos and colonialism finally reached the World Court in The Hague. As Mauritius and the entire African continent challenged British and American lawlessness, fourteen international judges faced a landmark decision: would they rule that Britain illegally detached Chagos from Mauritius? Would they open the door to Liseby Elysé and her fellow Chagossians returning home - or exile them forever? Taking us on a disturbing journey across international law, The Last Colony illuminates the continuing horrors of colonial rule, the devastating impact of Britain's racist grip on its last colony in Africa, and the struggle for justice in the face of a crime against humanity. It is a tale about the making of modern international law and one woman's fight for justice, a courtroom drama and a personal journey that ends with a historic ruling.
"Rarely does a book combine erudition and empathy so eloquently." —Elif Shafak
In a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them. Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but helps those transformed maliciously — including Nettle. Recovered from entrapment in bird form, she is now his constant companion, and closest ally. But Kellen has also been cursed, and unless he and Nettle can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything — and everyone — around him. Another gripping and multi-levelled novel from this remarkable author.
Alvarez employs the cronica form — a genre unique to Latin American writing that blends reportage, narrative non-fiction, and novelistic forms — to illuminate a particularly turbulent period in Cuban history, from the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the US, to the death of Fidel Castro, to the convulsions of the San Isidro Movement. The Tribe shows a society in flux, featuring sportsmen in exile, artists, nurses, underground musicians and household names, dissident poets, the hidden underclass at a landfill, migrants attempting to make their way across Central America, fugitives escaping the FBI, dealers from the black market, as well as revelers and policemen in the noisy Havana night.
"A journalistically rigorous picture of Cuban life, The Tribe is characterized by the gaps between Alvarez's subjects. Using interviews and on-site reportage, Alvarez profiles people from various socioeconomic backgrounds, with contrasting political affiliations. The sketches he compiles demonstrate a wide range of experiences and perceptions of Cuba. Alvarez allows the juxtapositions between these profiles to reveal a country that looks different from person to person. A nation is, after all, nebulous — the only way to make an honest portrait is to approach it from myriad perspectives. In The Tribe, the resulting mosaic is rich for its nuance and contradictions." —Chicago Review of Books
Essays by William Atkins on Sizewell C, the proposed nuclear power station in Suffolk; travel essays by Jason Allen-Paisant and Ishion Hutchinson, memoir by Kevin Childs, Geoff Dyer, Alejandro Zambra (translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell) and Lars Horn. Fiction by Adam Foulds, Andrew Holleran and Maxim Osipov (translated from the Russian by Alex Fleming) and Rebecca Sollom. Photography by Phalonne Pierre Louis; Raphaela Rosella, introduced by Nicole R. Fleetwood; and Muhammad Salah, introduced by Esther Kinsky.
Where does the body end and the mind begin? Two texts run parallel: on one side the verbatim transcript of a cancer diagnosis, and on the other side fragments of the writer's past and present, catching on the future.
"Caroline Clark summons us, boldly and beautifully, to eavesdrop on a consultation and a life – and in doing this she illuminates the gap, both in understanding and language, between a medical history and the actual stuff of a person." —Sam Guglani, consultant oncologist
"It’s a conversation no-one wants to have: an oncologist explains a new cancer diagnosis, and begins a dialogue over treatment options. From the cool, brisk language of the clinic Caroline Clark has distilled the most extraordinary poetic reflections, creating book of great value for clinicians and patients alike – as well as anyone interested in the language of caring, and how we respond to life-threatening illness." —Gavin Francis
Peter Weiss's first prose work was unanimously praised as an original and perfect work of art by critics when it appeared in 1960. Weiss arranges a dark, vividly alive comedy of inert objects in a dismal boarding house—stones, buttons, hooks, needles, chairs, newspapers in an outhouse, clinking tin cups, celestial orbs, sewing machines, an overwound windup music box—which have oblique characters' shadows as their supporting cast. Described by Weiss as a 'micro-novel', The Shadow of the Coachman's Body can be obscene, trivial and brutal, and yet it is also peculiarly intimate and offers endless possibilities—like a telescope and kaleidoscope rolled into one.
"Exhilaratingly strange, compelling, and original." —Bookforum
Our postmodern world, re-examined: With an unwavering gaze on the absurdities and ironies of the larger world, the stories in Happy Trails to You recount the narrator's attempts to find a place of unspoiled nature on the once peaceful island of Nantucket, where power mowers, nail guns, and speeding trucks have blocked out the sounds of birdsong and crickets. A visit to a friend or restaurant touches upon every subject from the color of paint to the world situation and infinity.
"These aren't merely the worries of an eccentric middle-aged East Coast vegetarian; they're the all-too-common concerns of the mainstream liberal consciousness. In the new century, Hecht's narrator is suddenly less alone in her alarm and alienation, finding more kindred spirits than ever before. But Hecht plays with this stereotype on many levels, and the collection's strongest moments describe a frustration with civilization that can't be blamed solely on psychosis." —Bookforum
>>'The Emperor Concerto'.
A fully illustrated book of film, animation and video art made by Maori artists. Texts in English and te reo Maori by editors Melanie Oliver and Bridget Reweti, Maree Mills, Ariana Tikao, Nina Tonga and Matariki Williams, as well as interviews with artists Shannon Te Ao, Jeremy Leatinu'u, Nova Paul, Nathan Pohio, Rachael Rakena and Lisa Reihana.
In 1790s Jena a small group of friends — including Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, Novalis, Schlegel, Schelling and Hegel, and centred around a free-spirited, thrice married, single-mother named Caroline Michaelis-Boehmer-Schlegel-Schelling — began a revolution in thinking that has shaped culture since. Working in poetry, drama, philosophy and science, these first Romantics forged new ways of thinking of ourselves and of our relationship to others and to nature.
"This is a magnificent book, fascinating in its focus and breathtaking in its scope and sweep. It is a work of formidable scholarship worn lightly; of complex intellectual history told evocatively, absorbingly, compellingly. Wulf's superb prose draws us deeply into the lives and minds of this remarkable circle of people, who together explored the breathtaking possibilities — and tremendous risks — of free will, individual creativity and liberty." —Robert Macfarlane
In northern Japan, overlooking the spectacular view Hakodate Port has to offer, Cafe Donna Donna has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer.
How was the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi understood by the British in 1840? That is the question addressed by historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher, in this extensive work. With one exception, the Treaty sheets signed by rangatira and British officials were in te reo Māori. The Māori text, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, was a translation by the missionary Henry Williams of a draft in English provided by William Hobson, the Consul sent by the British government to negotiate with Māori. Despite considerable scholarly attention to the Treaty, the English text has been little studied. In part, this is because the original English draft exists only in fragments in the archive; it has long been regarded as lost or ‘unknowable’, and in any event superseded by the authoritative Māori text. Now, through careful archival research, Fletcher has been able to set out the continuing relevance of the English text. The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi emphasises that the original drafting of the Treaty by British officials in 1840 cannot be separated from the wider circumstances of that time. This context encompasses the history of British dealings with indigenous peoples throughout the Empire and the currents of thought in the mid-nineteenth century, a period of rapid change in society and knowledge. It also includes the backgrounds and motivations of those primarily responsible for framing the Treaty: British Resident James Busby, Consul and future Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson, and Colonial Office official James Stephen. Through groundbreaking scholarship, Fletcher concludes that the Māori and English texts of the Treaty reconcile, and that those who framed the English text intended Māori to have continuing rights to self-government (rangatiratanga) and ownership of their lands. This original understanding of the Treaty, however, was then lost in the face of powerful forces in the British Empire post-1840, as hostility towards indigenous peoples grew alongside increased intolerance of plural systems of government.
Traumatised by his failure to match the creative successes of his precocious younger siblings — early over-achievers in theatre, music and fine arts — Godfrey Cheathem never expects that his baffling experimental pottery will one day lead him to the unlikely heights of international book publishing. There he meets a mysterious artist, a pivotal encounter on a journey of self-discovery that points up some of the many absurdities of New Zealand life and culture, and culminates in Godfrey's comic yet anguished unravelling at a grand reunion at the Cheathem turangawaewae, the farm that has been in his wider family for generations. Godfrey Cheathem died not long after completing his last letter in his cell in Paparua prison, never living to see the publication of his great novel. Cheathem's letter is written to his sister, and tries to explain the events that led to his imprisonment. A tragically funny novel of father figures, bullshit and belonging.
"A comic novel – and, unusually in New Zealand, a very funny one – with serious themes underlying it. It is terrific, impressively inventive. It is so clever without being clever-dick." —Stephen Stratford
>>Surviving both Centrepoint and Christ's College.
>>Surviving both Centrepoint and Christ's College.
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks — young Trian and old Cormac — he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island, inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
"Haven is a beautiful and timely novel about isolation, passion and the conflict between obedience and self-preservation. The island setting and the characters stayed with me long after I finished reading." —Sarah Moss
"Emma Donoghue combines pressure-cooker intensity and radical isolation, to stunning effect. What is Divine Grace? Purity of soul? Virtue? Not what they think." —Margaret Atwood
Darwin is a down-on-his-luck gravedigger, newly arrived in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles to seek his fortune, young and beautiful and lost. Estranged from his mother, he is convinced that the father he never met may be waiting for him somewhere amid these bustling streets. Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide- the power to talk to the departed. Darwin and Yejide's destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the ancient cemetery at the heart of the city, where trouble is brewing and destiny awaits.
"Tender and lonely and powerful. A love letter to Trinidad and a vivid debut about romance and loss in the Caribbean. —Guardian
"Tender and lonely and powerful. A love letter to Trinidad and a vivid debut about romance and loss in the Caribbean. —Guardian
Where can you find Methuselah, the oldest tree in the world? Why is the baobab's trunk so fat? Can trees really warn each other that something is about to eat them? Including a stunning central gatefold that opens out to reveal all 80 trees and how they relate to each other, this book is a visual celebration of the huge variety of trees found across the world, from those you know to those you almost certainly don't. As the book takes the reader on a journey around the world, it reveals trees that give us food and medicine, trees with ancient legends, record-breaking trees and more.
>>Look inside.
Newly-bereaved, bookish and lonely in Turin, a young woman sets out to chronicle her father's secret lives — and her struggle to accept his loss. She is startled to discover that the gentle, mercurial doctor was sentenced to jail in 1986 for membership of an armed band. Her father, L.B, lived through the Years of Lead, a time of unrest when extreme factions of left and right took hostages, set bombs and murdered their countrymen. Unable to move on before she can understand her family's past, she goes in search of him — and ultimately of herself too — the only way she knows how, by reading everything she can. Through her search for the truth, a very different picture starts to emerge.
Our fossil fuel driven society has run out of time. Only by rapidly giving up our reliance on carbon can we pay down the debt of fossil capital and buy a liveable future without a mass extinction or global warming. In this manifesto, environmental scholars Vettese and Pendergrass outline the structural, economic, and social changes de-carbonisation will require. Drawing from detailed environmental modeling of our planet's many possible futures, Vettese and Pendergrass argue that we will need to give half of the earth's land, now used for agricultural and meat production, back to nature rewilding half the earth. The only political program that can give us a livable half-earth, they argue, is socialism — a planned socialist society can constrict the destructive industries ravaging our world fossil fuels, cars, aviation, meat, and real estate while expanding renewable energy systems, organic agriculture, public transport, and health and education systems. Half-Earth Socialism argues that we can consciously and democratically direct human society's interaction with nature and in fact, we must, if we want any kind of livable future on this planet.
"The best way to subvert a dystopia is to plan a utopia. In Half-Earth Socialism, Vettese and Pendergrass delve into this vital work of practical dreaming. So what does a better world look like? Blending science, history, philosophy and fiction, the authors thoughtfully chart a possible future to avert the worst impacts of the climate crises. Importantly, beyond climate mitigation and adaptation, this book tackles the critical need to address large-scale system change. Read this book if you not only dream of saving the world, but want a plan for how to do it." —Ziya Tong
The Moon goes around the Earth, the Earth goes around the Sun, the Sun goes around the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole. As you read this you are currently orbiting a black hole. Black holes make the universe go round, but what we think we know is largely wrong.