NEW RELEASES (20.9.24)
A wave of books is rolling towards your shelves. Take your pick!
With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang $40
Yesterday I slung my depression on my back and went to the museum. I only asked four attendants where the Agnes painting was and the fifth one knew. I walked into the room and saw it right away. From afar, it was a large white square.
With My Back to the World engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the celebrated abstract modern artist, in ways that open up new modes of expression, expanding the scope of what art, poetry, and the human mind can do. Filled with surprise and insight, wit and profundity, the book explores the nature of the self, of existence, life and death, grief and depression, time and space. Strikingly original, fluidly strange, Victoria Chang's new collection is a book that speaks to how we see and are seen.
”In Agnes Martin's grid paintings, each pale rectangle can feel like an hour, a day, or a year. The effect of all these small variations seen at once approximates the overwhelming fact of other lives. With My Back to the World gives Victoria Chang that same kind of quiet, intimate, constrained but infinite room to work in. This book is the record of an artful, attentive mind, full of startling insights ("My solitude is like the grass. I become so aware of its presence that it too begins to feel like an audience"), a testament to care, integrity, and persistence.” —Elisa Gabbert
”Victoria Chang's lucid and playful poetry surprised and moved me with its friendly abundance of Koanlike lines-stimulating yet calming news from the dreamy outskirts of human consciousness.” —Tao Lin
Lublin by Manya Wilkinson $35
On the road to Lublin, plagued by birds that whistle like a Cossack's sword, three young lads from Mezritsh brave drought, visions, bad shoes, Russian soldiers, cohorts of abandoned women, burnt porridge, dead dogs, haemorrhoids, incessant sneezing, constipation, and bad jokes in order to seek their fortune. Elya is the lad with the vision, and Elya has the map. Ziv and Kiva aren’t so sure. The water may run out before they find the Village of Lakes. The food may run out before the flaky crescent pastries of Prune Town. They may never reach the Village of Girls (how disappointing); they may well stumble into Russian Town, rumoured to be a dangerous place for Jews (it is). As three young boys set off from Mezritsh with a case of bristle brushes to sell in the great market town of Lublin, wearing shoes of uneven quality and possessed of decidedly unequal enthusiasms, they quickly find that nothing, not Elya’s jokes nor Kiva’s prayers nor Ziv’s sublime irritatingness, can prepare them for the future as it comes barrelling down to meet them. Absurd, riveting, alarming, hilarious, the dialogue devastatingly sharp and the pacing extraordinary, Lublin is a journey to nowhere that changes everything it touches.
”A true boy's own adventure with a deep heart set against a backdrop of ferocious world events, Lublin will charm and devastate readers in equal measure with its compulsive, funny and moving prose. Manya Wilkinson has given us a fable-like story whose characters live and breathe through the ages to speak to us of childhood dreams and the inequities of war today.” —Preti Taneja
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett $38
As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer, Cillian English, and County Mayo's enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night he finds Doll — Cillian's teenage brother — in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins and goaded by his dead mother's dog, Dev is drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.
”Strange and beautiful. A book to live inside.” —Sally Rooney
”A gift of true storytelling. Barrett's talent burns up the page.” —Anne Enright
”So consistently witty and inventive that one struggles to think of recent novels that could stand up to comparison.” —Guardian
Family and Borghesia by Natalia Ginzburg (translated from Italian by Beryl Stockman) $28
Two novellas chronicling domestic life, isolation and the passing of time. Architect Carmine and translator Ivana were once lovers. Their child died and their relationship ended but now, decades on, both with marriages and children of their own, they are friends. During a bout of pneumonia, Carmine – uneasy in his life of aspiration and materialism – begins to look back over opportunities missed and choices made. Set against postwar social breakdown, the melancholic, quietly dazzling Family elegantly examines the human condition and what brings happiness to a life. Borghesia is a delicate evocation of one life and the relationships that constrain and define it. In both novellas, underneath a subtle, stripped-down prose and a rich cast of characters, runs a seam of unhappiness and isolation, as Natalia Ginzburg explores the allure of memories and the complexity of family and relationships.
“Ginzburg gives us a new template for the female voice and an idea of what it might sound like.” —Rachel Cusk
”Ginzburg's beautiful words have such solidarity. I read her with joy and amazement.” —Tessa Hadley
”I'm utterly entranced by Ginzburg's style — her mysterious directness, her salutary ability to lay things bare that never feels contrived or cold, only necessary, honest, clear.” —Maggie Nelson
X-Ray (‘Object Lessons’ series) by Nicole Lobdell $23
X-rays are powerful. Moving through objects undetected, revealing the body as a tryptic of skin, tissue, and bone. X-rays gave rise to a transparent world and the belief that transparency conveys truth. It stands to reason, then, that our relationship with X-rays would be a complicated one of fear and fascination, acceptance and resistance, confusion and curiosity. In X-ray, Nicole Lobdell explores when, where, and how we use X-rays, what meanings we give them, what metaphors we make out of them, and why, despite our fears, we're still fascinated with them. In doing so, she draws from a variety of fields, including the history of medicine, science and technology studies, literature, art, material culture, film, comics, gender studies, architecture, and industrial design.
Mediterra: Recipes from the islands and shores of the Mediterranean by Ben Tish $60
More than a hundred mouth-watering Mediterranean dishes from Spain to Syria and everywhere in between — one delicious cuisine gives way to the next. From Spain and Italy, through Greece and Turkey and down to North Africa, the region is rich with deeply delicious food. With seven-spice falafel from Lebanon, gyros from Greece, classic tiramisu from Italy, and grilled smoky sardines from Crete, the full flavors of the region are on glorious display for recipes that work across diets and seasons. But while each country has its own unique dishes and distinct cultures, there is a distinct Mediterranean signature that brings them all together: hot summers, dry winters, coastal briny winds, alfresco eating, street markets, sacrosanct meal times, and bringing the best out of as many local seasonal ingredients as possible.
”Ben takes us across the Mediterranean and then back to his table. From Italy to Tunisia, Croatia to Morocco, capturing the heart of Mediterranean cooking. Simple, seasonal, and heartfelt. Count me in, Ben. “ —Yotam Ottolenghi
”Not only is Ben's Mediterra a beautiful book, but it is so well researched, with mouth-watering, accessible recipes.” —Georgina Hayden
”You probably think you don't need another book about Mediterranean food, but you need this one. I leaf through Ben's books thinking 'I want to make that, and that, and that!'. His food is rich, intense and alive.” — Diana Henry
Dictionary of Fine Distinctions, Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning by Eli Burnstein, illustrated by Liana Fink $40
What's the difference between mazes and labyrinths? Proverbs and adages? Clementines and tangerines? Join author Eli Burnstein on a hairsplitter's odyssey into the world of the ultra-subtle with Dictionary of Fine Distinctions. Illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, this humorous dictionary takes a neurotic, brain-tickling plunge into the infinite (and infinitesimal) nuances that make up our world. There is no distinction between precision and pedantry, after all.
The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the politics of work by Jason Read $40
In a world of declining wages, working conditions, and instability, the response for many has been to work harder, increasing hours and finding various ways to hustle in a gig economy. What drives our attachment to work? To paraphrase a question from Spinoza, "Why do people fight for their exploitation as if it was liberation?" The Double Shift turns towards the intersection of Marx and Spinoza in order to examine the nature of our affective, ideological, and strategic attachment to work. Through an examination of contemporary capitalism and popular culture it argues that the current moment can be defined as one of "negative solidarity." The hardship and difficulty of work is seen not as the basis for alienation and calls for its transformation but rather an identification with the difficulties and hardships of work. This distortion of the work ethic leads to a celebration of capitalists as job creators and suspicion towards anyone who is not seen as a "real worker." The Double Shift argues for a transformation of our collective imagination and attachment to work.
”Drawing on Marx, Spinoza, and popular film, Jason Read builds an illuminating analysis that not only astutely captures, but also helps to make sense of, our double experience of wage work as a locus of freedom and compulsion, hope and fear, self-actualization and self-impoverishment, love and hate. This book is a must read for students of contemporary capitalism.” —Kathi Weeks
Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia by Tim Tipene, illustrated by Nicoletta Sarri, translated by Kanapu Rangitauira $23
The boy at the centre of Tim Tipene's striking new story doesn't like reading, until one day he picks up The Book that Wouldn't Read. Suddenly the book takes on a life of its own, with sentences moving up and down, words changing colour and disappearing, and strange characters that get the reader jumping around, even burping — and before he knows it, he's finished the book. “What should I read next?”
Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison $40
Harlan Ellison's work shaped the science-fiction, fantasy, and horror genres in the twentieth century, and this collection of his best-known and most-acclaimed stories is a perfect treasury for old Ellison fans as well as those discovering this zany, polyphonic writer for the first time. Includes: '“Repent Harlequin!” said the Ticktockman’ (Hugo Award winner); ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’ (Bram Stoker Award winner); ‘Mefisto in Onyx’ (Bram Stoker Award winner); ‘Jeffty Is Five’ (British Fantasy Award winner); ‘The Whimper of Whipped Dogs’ (Edgar Allan Poe Award winner).
”In his stories of fantasy and horror, he strikes closest to all those things that horrify and amuse us (sometimes both at the same time) in our present lives. Ellison has always been a sociological writer and an affirmed liberal and freethinker. Most of all, we sense outrage and anger — as with the best Ellison stories, we sense personal involvement, and have a feeling that Ellison is not so much telling the tale as he is jabbing it viciously out of its hiding place. It is the feeling that we are walking over a lot of jagged glass in thin shoes, or running across a minefield in the company of a lunatic.” —Stephen King
Voyagers: Our journey into the Anthropocene by Lauren Fuge $45
From the beginning, humans have been wanderers. Our feet carried us out of Africa and propelled us to far-flung corners of the world, often through incredible feats of innovation and imagination. These explorations yielded great rewards: land and resources, food and knowledge. But in every landscape we have explored, we have become a force of change. Our appetites have pushed planetary systems to breaking point — yet still we seek new seas to fish, new oil deposits to drill, new forests to fell. Fuge takes the reader on a journey from the dramatic fjords of the Pacific Northwest to the shifting coastlines of Norway, from the ancient geology of outback Australia to the outer reaches of the known universe, and asks: what drives our urge to explore? How has it changed our relationship with the planet? And, in the face of imminent environmental collapse, can we find in our voyaging history the tools to reimagine our future?
Will You Care If I Die? by Nicolas Lunabba $40
In a world where children murder children, and where Swedish gun violence is the worst in Europe, Nicolas Lunabba’s job as a social organiser with Malmö’s underclass requires firm boundaries and emotional detachment. But all that changes when he meets Elijah — an unruly teenage boy of mixed heritage whose perilous future reminds Nicolas of his own troubled past amongst the marginalised people who live on the fringes of every society. Allowing Elijah into his home and then into his heart, Nicolas crosses one of his own red lines. With the odds stacked against them, and completely unprepared for the journey he and Elijah now set off on together, can Nicolas keep Elijah safe from harm and steer him towards a better future? Written as a letter to Elijah, Will You Care If I Die? is a disarmingly direct memoir about social class, race, friendship and unexpected love in the context of social polarisation and the rise of the far right.
Poetry Play Kit: Games to get your poems started by Joseph Coelho $25
Make poetry fun with Joseph Coelho: This activity kit is packed with games and activities - discover all kinds of ways to start writing poems. A compendium of literacy games and activities: Create endless poetic combinations with over 300 word cards! Spin the spinner for linguistic techniques and use the game and activity cards to start your poems off. Edutainment for children aged 6-9: Inspire your child's love of language and give them the tools they need to express themselves and succeed in school - and in life! Learning through play: Developed with the help of kids, parents and teachers, this kit contains 320 word cards, 15 double-sided game and activity cards, 28 rhyming dominoes, a poetry spinner and a rules and inspiration booklet.