Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries. It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. For fans of John Green.
"I'm reading this right now and you are so going to love Finch & Violet." - Stella
'This powerful collection highlights D'Ambrosio's ability to mine his personal history for painful truths about the frailty of family and the strange quest to understand oneself, and in turn, be understood." - Publishers Weekly
"Charles D'Ambrosio’s essays are excitingly good. They are relevant in the way that makes you read them out loud, to anyone who happens to be around. Absolutely accessible and incredibly intelligent, his work is an astounding relief—as though someone is finally trying to puzzle all the disparate, desperate pieces of the world together again." - Jill Owens, Powell's
Aimed at younger readers, but excellent for the whole family, this book looks at the rich and fraught history behind our national day.
The kidnapping of a young woman in Haiti releases the brutality not only of her kidnappers but of a society riven with inequality and abuse.
"Breathless, artful, disturbing and original. I won't ever forget it." - Meg Wolitzer (author of The Interestings)
"An Untamed State is a gem, blasted into beauty by the world's harshest conditions." - Bookforum
"Gripping and brilliant." - John Green
"Unflinching." - Guardian
From the moment 15-year-old Amelia gets an after-school job at the local supermarket she is sunk, gone, lost, head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies - but he's 21 and in his final year at university. The six- year age gap may as well be a hundred. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien, but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to?
When Samuel wakes up on 1st January, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing exciting or unusual - until a strange visitor bursts into his flat, determined not to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a young stray cat, leads Samuel to a strange encounter with Valdemar and his neighbour Titus, with whom he had previously never exchanged a word, and is the beginning of the incredible transformation that is about to occur in the secluded world he has built around himself.
Make the most of your time on Earth. This book will show you how to make the best of everything from high-level interactions to casual visits.
"Astonishing." - Stephen Fry
Did you read The Humans?
Friday Barnes, girl detective, is back, with more mysteries and perplexities to solve! Perfect school holiday reading.
More than 600 of the world's leading chefs list their favourite places to eat, from neighbourhood eateries to high-end restaurants.
Back in the police force and with his wife Bridget out of hospital, Tate looks to be getting his life on track. Meanwhile, his former detective partner Carl Schroder is finding life a little more challenging. The bullet he took in the head six months ago hasn't killed him...but it's left him with time on his hands. When the body of a convicted rapist is found, obliterated by an oncoming train, and other criminals begin to disappear, it seems somebody might be helping their victims exact revenge...
Tells of the life and transformation of Frankie Landau-Banks who began her teenage years as a quiet member of the Debate Club and grew to become a sixteen-year-old criminal mastermind with an attitude to match.
From the author of the excellent We Were Liars.
Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train.
"The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl." - The New York Times
An excellent introduction to this hugely influential critic, essayist and philosopher (1892-1940): an eclectic collection of texts written for radio broadcast.
Some rabbits dream about lettuces and carrots, others dream of flowering meadows and juicy dandelions, but Ralfy dreams only of books. In fact, he doesn't just dream about them, he wants to read them ALL THE TIME. Soon his obsession sends him spiralling into a life of crime.
Includes an interview with Austrian filmmaker Michael Hanneke and a tantalising excerpt from the forthcoming fourth volume of Karl Olaf Knausgaard's self-obsessed epic 'My Struggle'.
When Will Boast's father dies he is alone in the world: an American with distant English roots, orphaned, and derailed by grief. Everything he thought he knew about his parents unravels when he discovers he has two half-brothers living in England. Boast sets about piecing together a new sense of himself, attempting as he does to understand, forgive and heal the mistakes of his father's past.
“Family tragedy leads to almost unbearable darkness but also renewal and hope for a young man in this excellent memoir… Boast writes with unsparing clarity, in precisely observed domestic scenes that reveal mountains of unspoken feeling. A finely wrought, wrenching yet lyrical study of a family that lives on past its seeming end.” - Publishers Weekly
Useful.
Ten-year-old Robert has questions. Is his neighbour, Monsieur Renoir, really evil? Why did he leave a Victoria Cross medal on Robert's doorstep? And why has his Zimbabwean Auntie Delphia disappeared?
"One of the most engaging novels about inter-racial love to be published this century. Entertaining, ambitious and packed with news from elsewhere, leavened by the precious optimism of youth. Don't miss it." - Independent
A heart-stopping epic journey across the Great Plains during the events that led up to Custer's Last Stand.
"Robert Bausch has produced a funny, intelligent, poignant novel that courageously explores the fundamental truths in all our lives." - New York Times
A welcome corrective to the parent-driven hyper-achievement trend afflicting modern childhood.
"Life on the Edge gives the clearest account I've ever read of the possible ways in which the very small events of the quantum world can affect the world of middle-sized living creatures like us. With great vividness and clarity it shows how our world is tinged, even saturated, with the weirdness of the quantum." - Philip Pullman
Bizarre, darkly funny and disconcerting, this collection of stories explores the surreal that lurks in everyday life. Deftly blending the everyday at its most uncanny with smatterings of sci-fi, these fourteen stories probe moments when family members move apart, or drift back together, when dreams crumble and convictions falter, moments when suddenly things fall in to place from a new perspective.
From the author of the excellent Familiar.
Until age five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of an educated, high-ranking government official. When the Kymer Rouge stormed the city in 1975, the young girl and her family fled from village to village. Fighting to hide their identity, the Ungs eventually were forced to separate to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans. Half her family died in labour camps by execution, starvation, and disease.
"Graceful. The best book I have read about exoplanets, and one of the few whose language approaches the grandeur of a quest that is practically as old as our genes." - New York Times
Interesting study of the commuting phenomenon and its subcultures. (How many commuters don't survive the journey?)
“Nadia Hashimi has written, first and foremost, a tender and beautiful family story. Her always engaging multigenerational tale is a portrait of Afghanistan in all of its perplexing, enigmatic glory, and a mirror into the still ongoing struggles of Afghan women.” — Khaled Hosseini, author of And the Mountains Echoed and The Kite Runner
"Highly entertaining, lucid and perceptive....It's a train lover's celebration of the great epic story of rail travel itself."- Los Angeles Times
Materialism makes us unhappy. What to do?
>> Wallman here.
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"The experience of photographing these birds made me realise how our perception of animals could be changed simply by getting to know them as individuals." - Ernest Goh
On 11 July 1963, a seemingly harmless dry cleaning van drew up outside a rural farm near Johannesburg, South Africa. Within seconds, heavily armed police had burst out and arrested the entire high command of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Together with the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela, they were put on trial and charged with conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government by violent revolution. Their expected punishment was death. In this compelling book, their defence attorney, Joel Joffe, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important trial in South Africa's history.
The world's longest man-made echo, a city where aliens are welcome, what the Royals really think of it, Britain's weirdest wig, the worst Scottish accents ever, the tallest hedge and oldest tree, Loch monsters nastier than Nessie, a road you can roll up, Scots in Space, Ruthven or Ruthven? Britain's loneliest bus stop (and its loveliest), a school for spies, the cost of burning witches, an aeroplane made from seaweed, and why the Queen needs rubber gloves.
