The eagerly anticipated (and very remarkable) new collection from the winner of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize.
"Davis is a master of the concise, the precise and the incisive: each sentence she writes is a scalpel wielded at the life of the emotions." - Thomas
"If what Lydia Davis does is writing, we need a new name for what everyone else does. She makes the impossible look easy." - Book Forum
There is an interesting interview with Davis here.
We've been drooling over (but not dribbling on) this wonderful book. It shows how to make all persuasions of pastry and other authentic French delights, and provides both the inspiration and reassurance to make them at home.
We've just received a substantial shipment of Popular Penguins (and put up some new shelves to put them on). It's time to read all those books you've always meant to read (or to read again)!
Remarkably good literature and timeless design at a remarkably affordable price (all true to the ideals of Penguin founder Allen Lane).
The long-neglected 'Turkish Ulysses', championed by Orhan Pamuk.
"Tanpinar’s elaborate bittersweet send-up of Turkish culture over a half-century ago speaks perfectly clearly to our own, offering long-distance commiseration to anyone whose life is twisted around schedules and deadlines — pretty much everyone, in other words." - New York Times
Why would New Zealand, a country that has never had a boatload of asylum arrivals in modern history, suddenly legislate for mass detention? Treading across the refugee camps of Burma and Thailand, to Australia's detention centres and back to New Zealand, Tracey Barnett looks hard at this controversial new policy, and asks, how ethical are we in our international relations?
"This handbook for rebooting modern civilisation is really just a way of framing what turns out to be something arguably more interesting: The Knowledge is a terrifically engrossing history of science and technology, a cunningly packaged yet entertainingly serious essay in the history of practical ideas." - Guardian
A terrorist bomb has forced 14-year-old Ruth's family to leave Indonesia and return to Takapuna Beach, Auckland, where she desperately tries to establish a life at her new school. But instead she finds herself inexplicably sharing the exploits of a mysterious airman who went missing during World War II.
Read an interview with the author.
Listen to an interview with the author.
Geering's insistence on rethinking religion without rejecting it put him in an awkward position with the Presbyterian Church.
In this delightful new picture book with a classic feel, Grasshopper's friend Tree renames the days of the week and introduces Grasshopper to some new friends and experiences!
>> There will be a launch for this book in the shop on Thursday May 29th and 5pm. The author and the illustrator will be present. Come along! RSVP.
"In this lucid, nicely written and well-paced work, Michael Axworthy provides a compelling overview of contemporary Iran and its relations with the outside world. Axworthy's perspective is far more persuasive, and interesting, than the neocon line that has dominated the Iran debate." - Independent
An accomplished novel of familial violence and female emancipation in Victorian Manchester.
"Moss's third novel confirms the richness of her concerns and it sharpens our sense of her steely, no-nonsense voice. Moss produces well-crafted, deeply researched, hard-working novels about hard-working women. A tremendously talented writer." - Guardian
As The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan, this compassionate novel gives insight into the human lives that underlie the news headlines about Palestine.
Book trailer here.
"This powerful memoir is a remarkably perceptive exploration of identity – of blood, language, religion and land – by someone intensely aware of the forces shaping European history and politics. His experiences of occupation, living under totalitarian regimes and genocide (he lived in Warsaw during the second world war) gave him 'an almost physical disgust' for nationalism and a deep conviction 'that as long as we live, we must lift ourselves over new thresholds of consciousness'." - Guardian
"This thoughtful and stylishly written book is perhaps the most serious and intelligent biography of a fashion designer ever written." - Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic
Given a new lease of life by an operation in 1941, but often too frail to get out of bed, the septugenerian artist began to make art with scissors and paper. The results rank amongst his greatest work. This is a vital and thoughtful account of the valedictory flourish of an important artist.
An important record of New Zealanders' experiences in World War One, first published in 1935; together with Burton's autobiography, now published for the first time.
Hannah's life is boring, boring, boring! Then Armitage Shank's Impossible Circus comes to town and Hannah's world is turned on its head when she meets Billy Shank, his astonishing camel, Narcissus, and a host of other bizarrely brilliant members of the circus. But all is not as it seems... This is a very silly book.
An interesting account. After Elworthy was liberated from the POW camp Stalag XIIID, he became an unofficial GI and entered Dachau. After seeing the concentration camp, he wrote of his "disbelief that there existed a kind of people who could gas rooms full of naked people and shoot rows of kneeling men, women and children, day after day".
According to current thinking, anyone who fails to succeed must have something wrong with them. The pressure to achieve and be happy is taking a heavy toll, resulting in a warped view of the self, disorientation, loneliness and despair. Why has social change taken such a psychological toll?
At last! The final volume of the trilogy recounting a 1930s journey by foot from Holland to Constantinople across a Europe undergoing rapid change. Patrick Leigh Fermor is an outstanding travel writer. Now in paperback.
Featuring an early appearance of the telegraph in the fight against crime.
"Reading this account of a real-life crime in 1845 is an experience close to time travel. Through impressive research and unshowy prose, Baxter whisks us back to the start of the modern age. Totally irresistible." - Independent
This book, a huge phenomenon in France, has garnered comparisons with The Elegance of the Hedgehog and The Little Prince.
"This is a very elegant novel. Its restraint is wonderful, with not a superfluous word. Gregoire Delacourt's keen eye pans deftly across the inner landscape of desire and longing, presenting a tender homage to almost unfashionable virtues - loyalty, duty, patience - without ever taking the high moral ground...These days, it is regarded as cliched and hyperbolic to describe a novel as a tour de force. But I can't think of a more appropriate description for this book." - Irish Independent
A charming pictorial record of changing fashions using colour illustrations and magazine covers from the 1930s to the 1970s.
This indispensable guide to clear writing has been updated for the twenty-first century by the author's great-granddaughter. All the wit, charm and authority of the original have been preserved.
What does it mean to be 'human', and how did these qualities of mind evolve?
"One of the world's most original and provocative thinkers." - Daily Telegraph
"A master class." - Guardian
