NEW RELEASES (8.1.25)
New books for a new year! Start as you mean to go on.
These books have just arrived — we can have your copies ready to collect from our door or dispatched by overnight courier.
The Sleepers by Sophie Calle (translated from French by Emma Ramadan) $110
In one of Sophie Calle's first artistic experiments, she invited friends, acquaintances and strangers to sleep in her bed. Twenty-seven people agreed, among them a baker, a babysitter, an actor, a journalist, a seamstress, a trumpet player and three painters. Calle photographed them awake and asleep, secretly recording any private conversations once the door closed. She served each a meal, and, if they agreed, she subjected them to a questionnaire that probed their personal predilections, habits and dreams as well as their interpretations of the act of sleeping in her bed: a curiosity, a game, an artwork, or — as Calle intended it — a job. The result, comprising her first exhibition in 1979, was a grid of 198 photographs and short texts. Unlike the original installation, this artist's book version of The Sleepers contains not only all the photographs and captions but also her engrossing, novellalike narrative, untranslated until now. From the single, liminal mise-en-scène of her bedroom, Calle reports in text and photos, as if in real time, as sleepers arrive, talk, sleep, eat and leave. Their acute and sometimes startling, sometimes endearing particularities merge into something almost like an eight-day-long dream. Many seeds of Calle's subsequent works are embedded in The Sleepers: her exacting and transgressive methods of investigation, her cultivation of intimacy and remove, and her unrelenting curiosity. In this work, as she observes the sleepers, they observe her too — with reciprocal candour. [Clothbound]
Rosarita by Anita Desai $30
A young student sits on a bench in a park in San Miguel, Mexico. Bonita is away from her home in India to learn Spanish. She is alone, somewhere she has no connection to. It is bliss. And then a woman approaches her. The woman claims to recognize Bonita because she is the spitting image of her mother, who made the same journey from India to Mexico as a young artist. No, says Bonita, my mother didn't paint. She never travelled to Mexico. But this strange woman insists, and so Bonita follows her. Into a story where Bonita and her mother will move apart and come together, and where the past threatens to flood the present, or re-write it.
”It's been over a decade since Anita Desai's last work of fiction. She's a writer I've loved since my adolescence, whose sharp observations and elegant sentences I admire increasingly as the years go on. Every new work from her is a gift.” —Kamila Shamsie
”To compare Anita Desai's fiction with that of Chekhov or the short stories of Tolstoy is not extravagant; it is entirely warranted.” —Irish Times
”Anita Desai is one of the most brilliant and subtle writers ever to have described the meeting of eastern and western culture.” —Alison Lurie
Maranga! Maranga! Maranga! The Call to Māori History: Essays From Te Pouhere Kōrero, 1999—2023 edited by Aroha Harris and Melissa Matutina Williams $50
Leading Māori scholars, researchers and writers of history come together in this landmark collection of essays celebrating three decades of Indigenous scholarship. Examining histories that span from moko kauae and reo Māori to the myth of Māori privilege, these essays explore subjects that include the teaching of iwi history, the role of memory and storytelling, and the integration of mātauranga within historical scholarship. Wide-ranging in both form and scope, Maranga! Maranga! Maranga! presents transformative approaches to history and makes a significant contribution to our contemporary understanding of Aotearoa’s past.
Contributors: Alice Te Punga Somerville, Arini Loader, Aroha Harris (editor), Basil Keane, Danny Keenan, Hirini Kaa, Kealani Cook, Megan Pōtiki, Melissa Matutina Williams (editor), Nēpia Mahuika, Pareputiputi Nuku, Peter Meihana, Rachel Buchanan, Rawinia Higgins, Rawiri Te Maire Tau, Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Tiopira McDowell.
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zi (translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King) $48
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She's been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear. Soon a Taiwanese woman — who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name — is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko's travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It's only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the ‘something’ is. Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan's highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
Winner of the US 2024 National Book Award for Fiction in Translation.
”Reading the book is like peeling an onion: the smell is at first undetectable; but with each layer you peel, the smell gets more intoxicating, pungent, intense, and at the very end, it brings tears to your eyes." —Christina Ng
Stranger in My Own Land: Palestine, Israel, and one family’s story of home by Fida Jiryis $40
After the 1993 Oslo Accords, a handful of Palestinians were allowed to return to their hometowns in Israel. Fida Jiryis and her family were among them. This beautifully written memoir tells the story of their journey, which is also the story of Palestine, from the Nakba to the present-a seventy-five-year tale of conflict, exodus, occupation, return and search for belonging, seen through the eyes of one writer and her family. Jiryis reveals how her father, Sabri, a PLO leader and advisor to Yasser Arafat, chose exile in 1970 because of his work. Her own childhood in Beirut was shaped by regional tensions, the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Israeli invasion, which led to her mother's death. Thirteen years later, the family made an unexpected return to Fassouta, their village of origin in the Galilee. But Fida, twenty-two years old and full of love for her country, had no idea what she was getting into. Stranger in My Own Land chronicles a desperate, at times surreal, search for a homeland between the Galilee, the West Bank and the diaspora, asking difficult questions about what the right of return would mean for the millions of Palestinians waiting to come 'home'.
”Fida Jiryis's story, which at times reads like a thriller, has a unique trajectory which she negotiates with intelligence and eloquence, simultaneously illuminating profound and painful subjects about home and belonging.” —Raja Shehadeh
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller $38
December 1962, the West Country. In the darkness of an old asylum, a young man unscrews the lid from a bottle of sleeping pills. In the nearby village, two couples begin their day. Local doctor, Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage. Across the field, in a farmhouse impossible to heat, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He's been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm he bought, a place where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that's already faltering. There is affection — if not always love — in both homes: these are marriages that still hold some promise. But when the ordinary cold of an English December gives way to violent blizzards — a true winter, the harshest in living memory — the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel. Where do you hide when you can't leave home? And where, in a frozen world, could you run to?
”Andrew Miller is known for acute and unnerving historical novels such as Pure and Ingenious Pain, but in The Land in Winter, a study of two young marriages during England's 1962-3 Big Freeze, he may have written his best book yet. The shadows of madness, and of the second world war, extend into a world on the cusp of enormous social change. Miller conjures his characters and their times with a subtle brilliance that is not to be missed.” —Guardian
Reinventing Love: How the Patriarchy sabotages heterosexual relations by Mona Chollet $53
As feminist principles have taken wider hold in society, and basic ideas about equality for women can seem a given, many women still struggle in one of the most important areas of life: love. Whether it's finding a partner, seeking a commitment from one, or struggling in a relationship that is unfulfilling or even potentially abusive, women still find that deeply-engrained notions of gender and behavior can be obstacles to a healthy, loving relationship. In her new book, acclaimed French feminist Mona Chollet tackles some of these long-held and pervasive ideas that remain stumbling blocks for many women in heterosexual relationships. Drawing from popular culture, politics, and literature, Reinventing Love provides a provocative, accessible look at how heterosexual relationships can improve and evolve under a feminist lens. [Hardback]
"In this invigorating study Chollet makes a bold case that love itself is warped by patriarchy and in need of correction. Chollet's prose is both easygoing and erudite, maintaining an effortless flow as she seamlessly folds new thinkers and examples (from bell hooks and Simone de Beauvoir to Sally Rooney and Princess Leia) into her ever-expanding analysis. It's a must-read." —Publishers Weekly
Leaving the Twentieth Century: Situationist Revolutions by McKenzie Wark $47
The Situationist International, who came to the fore during the Paris tumults of 1968, were revolutionary thinkers who continue to influence movements and philosophy into the 21st century. Mostly known for Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle as well as other key texts, the group was in fact hugely diverse and radical. In Leaving The 20th Century McKenzie Wark explores the full range of the movement. At once an extraordinary counter history of radical praxis and a call to arms in the age of financial crisis and the resurgence of the streets, Wark traces the group's development from the bohemian Paris of the '50s to the explosive days of May '68, Wark's take on the Situationists is biographically and historically rich, presenting the group as an ensemble creation, rather than the brainchild and dominion of its most famous member, Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and the lives of those who made up the movement — including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein, Alex Trocchi and Jacqueline De Jong — Wark uncovers an international movement riven with conflicting passions. She also follows the narrative beyond 1968 to show what happened after the movement disintegration exploring the lives and ideas of T.J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René Vienet's earthy situationist cinema, Gianfranco Sangunetti's pranking of the Italian ruling class, Alice-Becker Ho's account of the anonymous language of the Romany, Guy Debord's late films and his surprising work as a game designer.
Understanding Brecht by Walter Benjamin $30
The relationship between philosopher-critic Walter Benjamin and playwright-poet Bertolt Brecht was both a lasting friendship and a powerful intellectual partnership. Having met in the late 1920s in Germany, Benjamin and Brecht both independently minded Marxists with a deep understanding of and passionate commitment to the emancipatory potential of cultural practices continued to discuss, argue and correspond on topics as varied as Fascism and the work of Franz Kafka. Faced by the onset of the 'midnight of the century', with the Nazi subversion of the Weimar Republic in Germany and the Stalinist degeneration of the revolution in Russia, both men, in their own way, strove to keep alive the tradition of dialectical critique of the existing order and radical intervention in the world to transform it. In Understanding Brecht we find collected together Benjamin's most sensitive and probing writing on the dramatic and poetic work of his friend and tutor. Stimulated by Brecht's oeuvre and theorising his particular dramatic techniques such as the famous 'estrangement effect' Benjamin developed his own ideas about the role of art and the artist in crisis-ridden society. This volume contains Benjamin's introductions to Brecht's theory of epic theatre and close textual analyses of twelve poems by Brecht (printed in translation here) which exemplify Benjamin's insistence that literary form and content are indivisible. Elsewhere Benjamin discusses the plays The Mother, Terror and Misery of the Third Reich, and The Threepenny Opera, digressing for some general remarks on Marx and satire. Here we also find Benjamin's essay 'The Author as Producer' as well as an extract from his diaries that records the intense conversations held in the late 1930s in Denmark (Brecht's place of exile) between the two most important cultural theorists of the twentieth century. In these discussions, the two men talked of subjects as diverse as the work of Franz Kafka, the unfolding Soviet Trials, and the problems of literary work on the edge of international war.
Eileen: The making of George Orwell by Sylvia Topp $33
In 1934, Eileen O'Shaughnessy’s futuristic poem, ‘End of the Century, 1984’, was published. The next year, she would meet George Orwell, then known as Eric Blair, at a party. ‘Now that is the kind of girl I would like to marry!’ he remarked that night. Years later, Orwell would name his greatest work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, in homage to the memory of Eileen, the woman who shaped his life and his art in ways that have never been acknowledged by history, until now. From the time they spent in a tiny village tending goats and chickens, through the Spanish Civil War, to the couple’s narrow escape from the destruction of their London flat during a German bombing raid, and their adoption of a baby boy, Eileen is the first account of the Blairs’ nine-year marriage. It is also a vivid picture of bohemianism, political engagement, and sexual freedom in the 1930s and ‘40s. Through impressive depth of research, illustrated throughout with photos and images from the time, this captivating and inspiring biography offers a completely new perspective on Orwell himself, and most importantly tells the life story of an exceptional woman who has been unjustly overlooked.
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany $25
Babel-17 is a language that can be used as a weapon by enemy invaders during an interstellar war. Chinese starship captain, linguist, poet, and telepath Rydra Wong begins to learn the language. After several attacks have been made by the invaders who speak Babel-17, she soon realizes the potential of the language to change one's thought process and provide speakers with certain powers, and she is recruited by her government to discover how the enemy is infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites. As her understanding of the language increases, she is able to predict where the next attack will be and gathers a team to go to the predicted location of the attack. Initially Babel-17 is thought to be a code used by enemy agents. Rydra realizes it is a language in and of itself. During their mission, Rydra realizes there is a traitor aboard the ship. After escaping the predicted attack, Rydra and her crew are captured by a pirate ship called a shadow-ship. While on the ship, Rydra meets a man called "The Butcher" who does not use the word "I". After teaching The Butcher the word "I," Rydra, The Butcher, and her crew leave the ship during a battle. Rydra and The Butcher, who already unknowingly spoke Babel-17, are rescued but seem incredibly altered. While their bodies are present, their minds seem elsewhere. Their ability to speak Babel-17 has altered their minds and we learn that it was Rydra who was the traitor on board the ship. Babel-17 is discovered to be a language that not only helps you understand the enemy, but become the enemy. The novel deals with several issues related to the peculiarities of language, how conditions of life shape the formation of words and meaning, and how words themselves can shape the actions of people.
The Outsider by Albert Camus and Ryota Kurumado $40
A manga version of Camus’ existentialist classic. When his mother dies, Mersault refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.
Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the curious world of plants by James T. Costa and Bobbi Angell $65
Charles Darwin is best known for his work on the evolution of animals, but in fact a large part of his contribution to the natural sciences is focused on plants. His observations are crucial to our modern understanding of everything from the amazing pollination process of orchids to the way that vines climb. Darwin and the Art of Botany collects writings from six often overlooked texts devoted entirely to plants, and pairs each excerpt with beautiful botanical art from the library at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. [Hardback]
The Bridge Between Worlds: A brief history of connection by Gavin Francis $45
In The Bridge Between Worlds, Gavin Francis explores bridges old and new, human-made or natural, musing on the view from the bridge through history, geopolitics, psychology and literature. Against the ever-growing obsession with national borders in politics and the media, bridges — whether seen as functional, emblematic or aesthetical — both unite and divide us. From Ponte Sant'Angelo to Brooklyn Bridge, from Victoria Falls Bridge to Tavanasa Bridge, The Bridge Between Worlds reflects on the bridges between nations and individuals, how they act as frontiers and reflects on the lives of people either side of the border. [Hardback]
”Gavin Francis has written an exquisite book on a human structure we usually take for granted. This is a fascinating and delightful read.” —Alexander McCall Smith"
”It's rare and interesting to see bridges explored both as metaphors and as structures. The Bridge Between Worlds is a valuable reminder that the physical environment we build has immense social and cultural consequences.” —Sarah Moss
Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls $23
Three very different young women make their way through late Victorian England — can they each find true happiness? Tirzah, Sophia and Polly are best friends who’ve left boarding school and gone back to very different lives. Polly is teaching in an orphanage. Sophia is looking for a rich husband at the London Season. And Tirzah is stuck acting as an unpaid companion to her grandmother. In a series of letters, they share their hopes, their frustrations, their dramas, and their romances. Can these three very different young women find happiness?
"Building on her previous historical fiction exploring the restrictions on women in society, the award-winning, always-excellent Sally Nicholls moves to the late Victorian era. This immersive, uplifting book is an absolute delight" —Irish Times
"The novel is heart-warming, intelligent and exciting, and thoroughly recommended for girls (and boys) hovering on the cusp of adolescence. I loved it." —Philip Womack
Freedom: Memoirs, 1954—2021 by Angela Merkel $55
For sixteen years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany. She led the country through numerous crises, shaping both Germany and international politics with her actions and attitudes. In her memoirs, co-written with her long-time political advisor Beate Baumann, she reflects on her life in two German states — thirty-five years in the German Democratic Republic, thirty-five years in reunited Germany. More intimately than ever before, she talks about her childhood, youth, and studies in the GDR and the dramatic year of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and her political life began. She also shares recollections and insights from her meetings and conversations with the world's most powerful people. Discussing significant national, European, and international turning points, she shows how the decisions were made that shaped our times. The book offers a unique insight into the inner workings of power.
An Uneasy Inheritance: My family and other radicals by Polly Toynbee $30
While for generations Polly Toynbee's ancestors have been committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, they could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the prosperous life of academia or journalism enjoyed by their own forebears. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality? Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family — which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell, and features ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop — Toynbee explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.[Now in paperback]
”Fascinating. Toynbee has spent a lifetime highlighting the need for social change, and her book fizzes with that continuing purpose.” —Spectator
The Passenger: South Korea $40
Eighty years ago, at the end of a devastating fratricidal war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, completely dependent on the United States for security and development. Today it's the tenth economy in the world, dynamic and innovative, a lively participatory democracy that nevertheless simultaneously shows both its vulnerability and its strength (as recent news has demonstrated). "Hallyu" — the Korean wave of contemporary entertainment — has reached every corner of the world. This rapid, astonishing transformation inevitably brought with it rifts and contradictions. If global youth look at Korea as previous generations looked at Hollywood and New York, young Koreans, on the other hand, view it as "Hell Joseon": an aging country, an economic system dominated by powerful families, with a fiercely competitive education system, a wide generational gap, and, at the centre of it all, the role of women — one of the keys that The Passenger has chosen to decipher a complex, fascinating country, central to the dynamics of the contemporary world, het little understood. The Passenger’s mix of articles, reportage and photography give insight and background to contemporary issues.