NEW RELEASES (7.12.25)
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I Don’t Care by Ágota Kristóf (translated by Chris Andrews)
Here, in English at last, is a collection of Ágota Kristóf's short — sometimes very short — stories. Written immediately before her masterful trilogy (The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie), Kristof's short fictions oscillate between parable, surrealist anecdotes, and stories animated by a realism stripped to the bone, often returning to the theme of exile: the twin impossibilities of returning home and of reconstructing home elsewhere. The world of the book has very hard edges: cruelty is almost omnipresent, peace and consolation are scarce. Austere and minimalist, but with a poetic force that shifts the walls in the reader's mind, Kristof's penetrating short fictions make for extraordinary and essential reading. [Paperback with French flaps]
”Pure genius.” — Max Porter
”Mischievous and mournful… moves at a velocity that puts one in mind of Italo Calvino. Readers of modernist European fiction ought to snatch this up.” — Publishers Weekly
”Many of Kristóf's stark vignettes, reported in unflinching detail, have a cool, disturbing power—part documentary-like, part surreal that is fierce and distinctive.” — Kirkus Reviews
”Kristóf’s sentences are like skeletons, commemorations of indescribable sadness that have been meticulously scrubbed of gore and gristle. She seems to sculpt her stories by omission, the great unspoken throughout her books being Hungarian. One might think of Kristóf’s fiction as an act of recuperation, an expression of loss that preserves loss in the form. The brevity of The Illiterate alone tells you that this is not her whole story. It is simply the one she tells.” — Jennifer Krasinski, The New Yorker
”For Kristóf, fiction is the only thing that might provide an escape from solitude... Her novels likewise lead to an engagement with the world. They open things up because of how they undermine what we consider to be true; they shatter a supposed unity. Kristóf’s writing shows us both the pleasure and the necessity of literary refraction.” — Missouri Williams, The Nation
>>We can never express precisely what we mean.
>>Deprivation exercises.
>>The uses of illiteracy.
>>The Illiterate.
>>Read Thomas’s review of The Notebook.
Electric Spark: The enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson $55
The word most commonly used to describe Muriel Spark is 'puzzling'. Spark was a puzzle, and so too are her books. She dealt in word games, tricks, and ciphers; her life was composed of weird accidents, strange coincidences and spooky events. Evelyn Waugh thought she was a saint, Bernard Levin said she was a witch, and she described herself as 'Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes'. Following the clues, riddles, and instructions Spark planted for posterity in her biographies, fiction, autobiography and archives, Frances Wilson aims to crack her code. Electric Spark explores not the celebrated Dame Muriel but the apprentice mage discovering her powers. We return to her early years when everything was piled on: divorce, madness, murder, espionage, poverty, skulduggery, blackmail, love affairs, revenge, and a major religious conversion. If this sounds like a novel by Muriel Spark it is because the experiences of the 1940s and 1950s became, alchemically reduced, the material of her art. [Hardback]
”Joyously, brilliantly intelligent. In Wilson, Spark has met her true match.” —Anne Enright
”A revolutionary book. When Spark published her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957, it was recognised as unique — something that quite simply had never been done before. Wilson's achievement in Electric Spark is equally remarkable: an entirely original method of life writing which leaves conventional biographical techniques gasping in the dust. Electric Spark heaves with ghosts and furies, burglaries and blackmail. It is disquieting and absolutely mesmerising. I was possessed by this book in the same way that I suspect its author was possessed by Spark. It still hasn't put me down.” —Lisa Hilton
”Wilson is not any old biographer. Her books are intense, eclectic and wildly diversionary, her intelligence rising from their pages like steam — and in Spark, the cleverest and the weirdest of them all, she may have found her ultimate subject.” —Rachel Cooke, Observer
”I raced through Frances Wilson's whip-smart Electric Spark.” —Ali Smith, Guardian
>>Odd things happened when she was around.
>>World-beating buster-upper.
A State of Siege by Janet Frame $37
After the death of her invalid mother, a retired art teacher leaves her birthplace in the south for a beach cottage on a sub-tropical island in the north. Freed from endless lessons on still life and the dominating presence of her family, she hopes at last to be alone with nature and the ‘room two inches behind the eyes’. But the solitude she has sought mocks her with echoes of her past, when, one stormy night, an intruder pounds ceaselessly and inexplicably on her door. Propulsive yet poignant, A State of Siege is a mesmerising exploration of the artistic process, of selfhood and loneliness, and of death and its counterpart: the need to survive, to live. SoS was first published in 1966, and is now back in print with an introduction by Chris Kraus. [Paperback with French flaps]
”Intensely personal, Frame’s writing is always spiralling in on itself, towards the condition of myth, and yet it nails the moment, pins down experiences so fleeting that others would never grasp them. What eludes ordinary language, she can capture in the extraordinary argot of her imagination.'' —Hilary Mantel
>>Woman alone!
>>Wouldn’t you like to be normal?
>>The book was made into a film by Vincent Ward (1978).
>>Some other books by Janet Frame.
The Good Economy by Craig Renney $20
”The problems we face are a consequence of the economic model we have built up in Aotearoa over the past forty years. But that model is a choice — one that we can change if we wish to.” Aotearoa is grappling with tough economic challenges. The Good Economy asks what kind of economy we want – and who it should serve. Through sharp analysis that centres the experiences of New Zealanders, economist Craig Renney explores the values shaping our current system and asks what it would take to build a better one. Grounded, accessible and hopeful, this text invites readers to rethink the purpose of economic policy — and to imagine a future with wellbeing, fairness and opportunity at its core. [Paperback]
>>Other BWB Texts.
Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, and Rafeef Ziadah $25
A critical examination providing clarity on the intertwined relationships of global capitalism, energy politics, and racial oppression, and challenges readers to rethink their understanding of Palestine. Dismantling the simplistic narratives that dominate mainstream discourse, Hanieh, Knox and Ziadah present a nuanced materialist analysis grounded in anti-imperialism. The authors argue that the Palestinian situation cannot be fully understood without considering the broader historical and regional dynamics of Western imperialism and capitalist accumulation. By integrating the roles of imperialism, fossil capitalism, and racialisation, this book offers a thorough critique of the socio-economic and political forces that sustain the Israeli settler-colonial project and the unwavering support it receives from Western powers. [Paperback with French flaps]
>>We teach life, sir.
Rock, Paper, Incisors (A ‘Skunk & Badger’ story) by Amy Timberlake, illustrated by Jon Klassen $28
Skunk’s and Badger’s life together has an easy rhythm — Skunk cooks! Badger cleans! — when they take in two orphaned rat pups, Zeno and Zephyr. Badger is working on an Important Rock Work article for Rock Hound Weekly and needs focus, focus, focus to write it. But how much trouble could two tiny rats really be? Some scheduling, a few strategically placed naps, and all will be well! But it's winter, and nothing goes to plan. Hibernation threatens every routine. Articles refuse to write themselves. And rats in the rock room? It will take a North Twist village to raise these rats! Featuring cosy drawings and full-colour pictures by bestselling artist Jon Klassen, Amy Timberlake's delightfully off-kilter adventure explores the complexity of friendship and the meaning of family in a wintery world where chickens wear parkas and Yard Sheep host spaghetti dinners. And wait! Is that a dinosaur? [Hardback]
>>Look inside!
>>Read Stella’s reviews of the other ‘Skunk & Badger’ stories.
Legenda: The real women behind the myths that shaped Europe by Janina Ramirez $40
Ramirez peels back the layers of time to reveal how the identities of real women have been co-opted by those intent on crafting national identities. Their names are well known, and summaries of their achievements have been recited in classrooms for decades, but medieval women like Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva and Isabella of Castile have been misrepresented, their stories twisted and weaponised. Meanwhile, ground-breaking 18th and 19th-century women who blazed a trail through revolutionary Europe have been forgotten, their legacies too easily dismissed or ignored. Questioning established narratives and searching for the real women behind the legends, Ramirez interrogates what defines a nation and who gets to build it, shining a light on how history is so often hijacked to serve the ideological and political interests of the present. [Paperback]
"Janina Ramirez fearlessly deconstructs the dangerous historical myths and legends that have been shamelessly created to stoke division and hatred, finding complexity, truth and inspiration in this stunning — and shockingly relevant — new analysis of medieval history.” —Alice Roberts
”This is a history like no other, a top-down story of nationhood and mythology, a dazzling assessment of the past through the lens of the present and a rallying cry for the importance of history. Most of all, it's a plea to consider the real flesh-and-blood women who made the world rather than their sanitised, mythologised counterparts. A fabulous, invigorating and beguiling read.” —Kate Mosse
Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt $38
For the first time since university, James and Roland's paths through life — one drawn in straight lines, the other squiggled and meandering — began to cross. James Drayton has always found things too easy. By the time he leaves university, he's still searching for a challenge worthy of his ambitions, one that will fulfil the destiny he thinks awaits him. Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive risk-taker, a charismatic drifter with boundless enthusiasm but a knack for derailing his own attempts to get started in life. When a chance encounter in a pub reunites these old acquaintances, it sets them on an unpredictable course through the upheavals of the 21st century, and triggers an unlikely alliance. Against the backdrop of the financial crash and its aftermath, they strive to create something that outlasts them, something that will matter. Drayton and Mackenzie is an immediately engaging and ultimately moving novel both about trying to make your mark on the world, and about how a friendship might be the most important thing in life. [Paperback]
"Drayton and Mackenzie is simultaneously a breathtaking conspectus of the 21st century, an exciting rags-to-riches adventure and a deeply moving story of male friendship. A novel has not done so much so well since Michael Chabon's friendship epic, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)." —The Financial Times
>>Tidal power.
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos $38
In the fading glow of Australia's print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper-it's an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a poetic streak and a painful past, George is one of nature's loners. As George grapples with shifting newsroom dynamics, the legacy of clerical abuse at his childhood school resurfaces, and a late-night encounter with a journalist named Cassandra begins to unravel his carefully managed solitude. As his colleagues depart and the final decline of the paper plays out, George is obliged to navigate an affair, learn to care for a daughter who has only recently become part of his life, and reckon with his own childhood trauma. The Transformations is a witty, melancholic, and very human novel about the stories we tell of ourselves. With an anthropologist's eye for detail and a novelist's grasp of emotional complexity, he explores generational change, grief, guilt, and the strange intimacy of workplace life. [Paperback]
”Andrew Pippos is one of Australia's best novelists. The Transformations shows his perfect emotional pitch, his gift for folding big things into small baskets of domestic life in prose that goes straight to the heart. Who knew he could write another novel as good as Lucky's? Here it is.” — Malcolm Knox
”In this intelligent, disarming and capacious novel, Andrew Pippos pulls the covers back on the public and private self. As we follow the gloriously messy lives of George, Cassandra and Elektra, we're reminded that the antidote to solitude lies in what we long for or desire. With its mysterious undertow, its delight in human fallibility, its backdrop of momentous social and technological change, The Transformations is a searching, fate-filled epic for our times.” —Mireille Juchau
”A novel of great clarity, precision and feeling. Whenever I wasn't reading it I wished I was.” —Robbie Arnott
Sabzi: Fresh vegetarian recipes for every day by Yasmin Khan $57
Irresistible vegetarian and vegan recipes inspired by award-winning food writer Yasmin Khan s travels — and the cooking she does at home for family and friends. Lifting its name from the Persian word for herbs , Sabzi brings you more than 80 accessible plant-forward recipes that celebrate the best of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian flavours. From bountiful salads to fragrant soups, colourful mezze, and heart-warming mains, Khan invites home cooks to make delicious meals that are good for the health of both people and the planet, while staying connected to the traditional food cultures that make us who we are. With easy-to-make recipes that put vibrant vegetables at the heart of a meal, dishes in the book include- Halloumi Lasagne; Stuffed Aubergines with Pomegranates, Walnuts and Feta; Smoky Tofu Shakshuka; Sweet Potatoes with Pistachio and Mint Pesto; Rhubarb and Cardamom Tart... and many more. [Hardback]
“An invitation into Yasmin's treasure trove of a kitchen, Sabzi is a celebration of the life-affirming and nourishing power of plants. In the world of food, Yasmin Khan is a beacon of humanity and light. This generosity and kindness is represented on every page of Sabzi, resplendent with bountiful vegetable dishes that beg to be eaten and shared. There isn't a recipe that I don't want to devour!” —Hetty Lui McKinnon
”You need this book in your life. Yasmin Khan comes to our rescue with Sabzi, packed as it is with bright, fresh, faff-free recipes.” —Nigella Lawson
”Pure poetry and joy. When I ask people what they're cooking, Yasmin's name always comes up.” —Meera Sodha
>>Look inside.
>>Food is about connection.
>>Off to Sabzi school.
Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My adventures in neurodiversity by Robin Ince $40
A personal exploration of anxiety, ADHD and neurodiversity, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal reminds us all — no matter how weird we feel — that it’s OK to be a little different. We all are. What if being a bit weird is actually entirely normal? What if sharing our internal struggles wasn’t a sign of weakness, but strength? For over thirty years, broadcaster and comedian Robin Ince has entertained thousands in person and on air. But underneath the surface, a whirlwind was at play — a struggle with sadness, concentration, self-doubt and near-constant anxiety. But then he discovered he had all the hallmarks of ADHD and his stumbling blocks became stepping stones. In Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, Robin uses his own experiences to explore the neurodivergent experience and to ask what the point of ‘being normal’ really is. Packed with personal insights, intimate anecdotes and interviews with psychologists, neuroscientists and many neurodivergent people he has met along the way, this is a quirky and witty dive into the world of human behaviour. [Paperback]