NEW RELEASES
In May and September 1976, two earthquakes ripped through north-eastern Italy, causing severe damage to the landscape and its population. About a thousand people died under the rubble, tens of thousands were left without shelter, and many ended up leaving their homes in Friuli forever. The displacement of material as a result of the earthquakes was enormous. New terrain was formed that reflects the force of the catastrophe and captures the fundamentals of natural history. But it is far more difficult to find expression for the human trauma, the experience of an abruptly shattered existence. In Rombo, Esther Kinsky’s new novel, seven inhabitants of a remote mountain village talk about their lives, which have been deeply impacted by the earthquake that has left marks they are slowly learning to name. From the shared experience of fear and loss, the threads of individual memory soon unravel and become haunting and moving narratives of a deep trauma.
"A tragic travelogue to the underworld-turned-world that recasts a newly lost Italian past with a climate-wise chorus straight out of the most harrowing Greek drama." —Joshua Cohen
"In Esther Kinsky’s new novel, language becomes the highest form of compassion and solidarity – not only with us human beings, but with the whole world, organic, non-organic, speaking out with many mouths and living voices. A miracle of a book; should be shining when it gets dark." —Maria Stepanova
>>Read Thomas's reviews of the excellent Kinsky's Grove and River.
>>Read Thomas's reviews of the excellent Kinsky's Grove and River.
If you have enjoyed cooking and eating and learning from Nicola Galloway's Homegrown Kitchen, or from her website, you won't be able to resist her much-anticipated new book, which is packed with mouth-watering recipes, deep food knowledge, lifestyle advice, and wonderful photography. This book, which is even better than her first, expands on her approach to cooking, and contains new seasonal recipes and in-depth sections on sourdough bread, preserves and fermentation. Whether you are familiar with Nelsonian Nicola Galloway's approach to food, or whether you are yet to enrich your life with it, this book will soon be a firm and frequent favourite.
The powerful new novel from the author of Home Fire contrasts the fates of two school friends whose lives are set on different tracks by an incident in their teenage years. Bridging Karachi and London, the novel unpicks the operations of power through class and gender, both in Pakistan and abroad, and explores the tensions and bonds of friendship and culture. Another subtle and insightful novel from this fine writer.
"A new Kamila Shamsie novel is always worth celebrating, but Best of Friends is something else: an epic story that explores the ties of childhood friendship, the possibility of escape, the way the political world intrudes into the personal, all through the lens of two sharply drawn protagonists." —Observer
>>Read Stella's review!
>>Read Stella's review!
A fast-paced story of two fugitives on the Trans-Siberian Railway, where a desperate Russian conscript hopes a chance encounter with an older French woman will offer him a line of flight. Eastbound breathes new life into the Russian literary archetype of the rebel soldier and revives the reality of disempowerment of the Soldiers’ Mothers of Saint Petersburg protest. Inspired by Kerangal’s observations on the ground, the novella developed from a France Culture radio commission for a short story, written whilst travelling on the Trans-Siberian from Novossibirsk to Vladivostok in 2010.
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi $55
Septology by Jon Fosse (translated by Damion Searls) $45
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova $33
"Richly atmospheric and full of suspense, Eastbound combines a vibrant account of one of the most magical train journeys in the world, with a narrative of a double escape, depicting an unlikely alliance of a French woman trying to leave her lover by travelling in the wrong direction, and a heartbreakingly young Russian draft dodger. It takes a great writer to manage all that so convincingly in one hundred and twenty thrilling pages." –Vesna Goldsworthy
"The whole thing has a unique rhythm, a sense of breathless speed: the sort of graceful rockslide that only she can pull off." –Le Monde des Livres
The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is the creative hub of the wonderful recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi and his associates, and an international crucible of culinary creativity. In this remarkable book, you will learn to 'cook it forward' and create dishes than can be used to enhance other dishes the next day.
"As with all Ottenghi cookbooks, there’s plenty of inventive play, excellent tips and recipes which invariably offer comfort and satisfaction, flavoursome twists and exciting ingredient combinations. And working your way through this will guarantee your pantry is full of excellent additions — those extra good things — ready to make your next meal vibrant and delectable. Flexible cooking at its best." —Stella
What makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life and not another? Asle, an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway, is reminiscing about his life. His only friends are his neighbour, Åsleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgängers — two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions about death, love, light and shadow, faith and hopelessness.
Fosse's masterpiece of 'slow prose' is now available for the first time in a single volume in English.
>>Read Thomas's review of parts I and II.
>>It writes itself.
>>Read Thomas's review of parts I and II.
>>It writes itself.
When Holly applies for a job at the Paradise — one of the city's oldest cinemas, squashed into the ground floor of a block of flats — she thinks it will be like any other shift work. She cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, avoids the belligerent old owner, Iris, and is ignored by her aloof but tight-knit colleagues who seem as much a part of the building as its fraying carpets and endless dirt. Dreadful, lonely weeks pass while she longs for their approval, a silent voyeur. So when she finally gains the trust of this cryptic band of oddballs, Holly transforms from silent drudge to rebellious insider and gradually she too becomes part of the Paradise — unearthing its secrets, learning its history and haunting its corridors after hours with the other ushers. It is no surprise when violence strikes, tempers change and the group, eyes still affixed to the screen, starts to rapidly go awry. From the author of The Doll's Alphabet.
I Paint What I Want to See by Philip Guston $30
The Unfolding by A.M. Homes $37
Salamati: Hamed's Persian Kitchen, recipes and stories from Iran to the other side of the world by Hamed Allahyari $50
Of Sunshine and Bedbugs: Essential stories by Isaac Babel (translated by Boris Dralyuk) $28
A History of Words for Children by Mary Richards and Rose Blake $35
Against Borders: The case for abolition by Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke de Noronha $25
Hiding in Plain Sight: How a Jewish girl survived Europe's heart of darkness by Pieter van Os $40
Blood and Bone: Revelations of an orthopaedic surgeon by Russell Tregonning $40
The Bastard Factory by Chris Kraus $38
"Camilla Grudova is Angela Carter's natural inheritor. Her style is effortlessly spare and wonderfully seductive. Read her! Love her! She is sincerely strange — a glittering literary gem in a landscape awash with paste and glue and artificial settings." —Nicola Barker
How does a painter see the world? Philip Guston, one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, spoke about art with unparalleled candour and commitment. Touching on work from across his career as well as that of his fellow artists and Renaissance heroes, this selection of his writings, talks and interviews draws together some of his most incisive reflections on iconography and abstraction, metaphysics and mysticism, and, above all, the nature of painting and drawing.
"Among the most important, powerful and influential American painters of the last 100 years. He's an art world hero." —Jerry Saltz
The Big Guy loves his family, money and democracy. Undone by the results of the 2008 Presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of America. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family and must take responsibility for his past actions. For his wife and daughter are having their own awakenings: self-denying Charlotte enters rehab, and eighteen year old Megan, who has voted for the first time, explores a political future that deviates from her father's ideology, while delving into deeply buried family secrets. Dark, funny and prescient, The Unfolding explores the implosion of the dream and how we arrived in today's divided world.
The Little Witch by Otfried Preussler, illustrated by Winnie Gebhardt-Gayler $40
"From her first book onward, A. M. Holmes has been challenging us to look at fiction, the world, and one another as we haven't done—because we haven't had the nerve, the eyes, the dire and dispassionate imagination. Gripping, sad, funny, by turns aching and antic and, as always, exceedingly well-observed and written, The Unfolding opens up another one of her jagged windows, at times indistinguishable from a crack, in the world that is always unfolding, and always vanishing, around us." —Michael Chabon
>>'The Day Before'.
Once upon a time there was a little witch who was only a hundred and twenty-seven years old that s how the story of the little witch and her talking raven Abraxas begins, and though one hundred and twenty-seven isn't at all old for a witch, Little Witch already has a big problem. Every year, on Walpurgis Night, all the witches of the land meet to dance on Brocken Mountain. Little Witch is still too little to be invited, but this year she decided to sneak in anyway and got caught by her evil aunt Rumpumpel! Little Witch is in disgrace. Her broomstick has been burned. She s been made to walk home. She s been told that she has a year to pull off some seriously good witchcraft if she wants to be invited to Walpurgis Night ever. And then there s an even bigger problem: What after all does it mean to be a good witch? A very nice hardback edition of one of Thomas's favourite books of childhood.
Hamed Allahyari’s refugee journey from Iran was dangerous and risky. He has made Australia his home and shares his love of food at his Melbourne restaurant, SalamaTea. His first book, Salamati, is a collection of his recipes from his life as a restauranteur in Iran, his cooking classes and his deep love of food and Persian culture. Food and people are at the core of his approach to cooking. “By eating my food, you come into my family. You are sitting with me, with my grandparents, parents and cousins, talking, sharing and enjoying the feeling of being together.” A wonderful introduction to this cuisine, there’s plenty of joy, inspiration and all-together deliciousness. Perfect for outdoor gatherings this season.
Isaac Babel honed one of the most distinctive styles in all Russian literature. Brashly conversational one moment, dreamily lyrical the next, his stories exult in the richness of everyday speech and sensual pleasure only to be shaken by brutal jolts of violence. These stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and lowlives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. This newly translated collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.
"Fractured, jarring, beautiful, alive to humour — they have the ring of contemporaneity, and probably always will." —Guardian
THis beautiful book, packed with fun and information, explores the uniquely human ability to transfer thoughts from one brain to another using words. Written in a lively narrative style, the book presents a history of the world and human development through the prism of language, introducing readers to the civilisations, inventions and wordsmiths who have shaped the way we communicate. Divided into themed chapters, the book explores what words are and how humans communicate using spoken language and sign; the development of written scripts and writing implements, including paper; the history of manuscripts and printed books, including worldwide bestsellers and famous libraries; the process of learning another language; dialects and accents and the way language can reflect our identity; the power of words to calm, inspire, rally crowds and rule nations; graffiti's role in spreading messages; codes and invented languages; the patterns of poetry; the future of words, including emojis; and languages facing extinction.
The government of mobility has become the central problem of the 21st century, as states develop new and terrifying ways to fix and manage unequal populations in space and in law. The violence of borders is everywhere visible — in the brutality of the UK's hostile environment, clarified in chilling detail by the Windrush scandal; in the so-called refugee crisis at Europe's borders; and in the violent caging and separation of migrant children and families in the U.S. Today's borders and walls are both cause and effect of the converging constellation of fascist movements across Europe, the U.S. and Australia, in which we see the cultural and political re-mainstreaming of overt forms of racism and white supremacy. In response to both left nationalisms and liberal campaigns for nicer immigration regimes, Against Borders argues for border abolition as the only viable response to the nightmarish realities of our present.
Polish Catholics believed she was one of them. A devoted Nazi family took her in as if she was their own daughter. She fell in love with a German engineer who built aeroplanes for the Luftwaffe. What none of these people knew was that Mala Rivka Kizel had been born into a large orthodox Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, in 1926. By assuming different identities, she was the only member of her family to survive the Second World War.
Russell Tregonning finished his fifty-year career in medicine as one of New Zealand's leading orthopaedic surgeons and as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Otago School of Medicine. This memoir takes the reader through his journey from medical student to orthopaedic surgeon - from introducing pioneering techniques in reconstructive surgery, to personal struggles with depression, medical mishaps, run-ins with senior surgeons, and sexism in the workplace. It is a fascinating look behind the facade of one of the most respected of professions.
"This is the best kind of memoir. It is very honest, including talking about mental health troubles. It doesn't skip the controversial bits, including outrageous bullying of women and junior staff by some senior surgeons. And it's interesting, taking readers into the operating theatre and describing the remarkable daily job of sawing and hammering people's bones." —Nicky Hager
A drama of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to 1975, taking us from Riga to Moscow, Berlin and Munich to Tel Aviv. Hubert and Konstantin Solm are brothers, born in Riga at the beginning of the twentieth century, they will find themselves — along with their Jewish adopted sister, Ev Solm — caught up in in the maelstrom of their changing times. As the two brothers climb the rungs of society — working first for the government in Nazi Germany, then as agents for the Allied Forces, and eventually becoming spies for the young West Germany — Ev will be their constant companion, and eventually a lover to them both. The passionate love triangle that emerges will propel the characters to terrifying moral and political depths. The story of the Solms is also the story of twentieth-century Germany: the decline of an old world and the rise of a new one — under new auspices but with the same familiar protagonists.