"A book this sad shouldn't be so much fun to read. It gives us the hurrahs and boos of daily life, of marriage and of parenthood, with exceptional originality, intensity and sweetness. It is the kind of book that you will be quoting over and over to friends who don't quite understand, until they give in and read it too." - John Self, The Guardian
These stories, from the author of The Flame Alphabet, take place in the uncertain territory between strange and stranger, in a world which is a distortion of our own, populated by characters full of longing and visible regret (though for what is not always clear).
"If you have any friends momentarily heartened by some transient piece of good fortune, this book would be the perfect antidote if it weren’t so thoroughly and perversely entertaining." - New York Times
"Not only a delight to read but also peppered with delicious recipes, facts and flavours from around the world." - Rachel Khoo
"A fascinating project, telling some fantastic stories about a broad range of cuisines. Mina's style is engaging and illuminating and the food cries to be cooked" - Yotam Ottolenghi
Pearl can be very, very good. More often she is very, very bad. But she's just a child, a mystery to all who know her.
"Davies's clear-eyed intent and steadfast rejection of the mawkish results in episodes that function both as exquisite miniatures to be marvelled at in isolation and as a collection of fine mosaics best viewed as a whole. Her heroine may be feral, psychotic or just a bit wild, but it is the reader who is permitted to decide." - Eimear McBride, The Guardian
"It's hard to believe, but this latest collection finds Lorrie Moore still improving. The stories are pretty much 100% brilliant, as usual. There's not a dud among them." - Geoff Dyer, The Guardian
What if the much-touted 'death of print' became a reality? In the not-so-distant future, books, bookshops, newspapers and libaraies have become a thing of the past, and the populace interact through hand-held devices that anticipate their every wish. Language itself is traded in a virtual marketplace called The Word Exchange. What would happen if language itself began to disappear?
"A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist." - Kate Atkinson
"A sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre. As soon as you have breathed with relief, much worse horrors begin. It's a skilled, assured performance." - Hilary Mantel
"I was drawn into gothic London and its gloom. It is better than frightening. A cliff-hanger of the best kind." - Sarah
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now...
"An extraordinary novel" - The Scotsman
Strange and exciting things are in store when Tom and his mum move to Prodigy Street one ordinary Thursday...
Aberhart's photographs of war memorials around New Zealand are themselves an eloquent monument to the immense cumulative loss suffered by ordinary communities.
Back in stock at last! This is a large and wonderful book from the creators of H.O.U.S.E. and D.E.S.I.G.N. Each map is a riot of beautifully drawn information. Irresistible!
The six complete works of this outstanding and unusual artist, first published between the depression and World War 2, and highly sought-after by artists and collectors since. Each work is a towering accomplishment in that most demanding of graphic story forms, the wordless novel in wood engravings. Very desirable (and a beautiful gift if you could bear to part with it).
Read Speigelman on Lynd Ward here (with illustrations).
A powerfully written novel providing insights into the 1978 Jonestown massacres that nonfiction could never achieve.
A monster with a one-track mind meets his match in an elderly lady called Mrs Mo. With Mrs Mo's help, the monster is surprised to discover that he can do more than he ever thought - but that's not the only surprise Mrs Mo has in store...
Another charming book from Gecko Press.
When a talking cat lets Alice into The Library, she enters a world of magic and discovers her powers as a Reader, able to enter worlds contained in books and to gain mastery of the creatures she finds there. Gripping and original.
A shocking expose (by an insider) of the treatment of asylum-seekers in the processing centre on Nauru administered by the Australian government. The depth of New Zealand's involvement in the processing of asylum-seekers through the centre is far from clear.
Bird Murder by Stefanie Lash
Heart Absolutely I Can by Michael Harlow
The first three poetry books in the new 'Hoopla' series from Wellington's Makaro Press. $25 each
Is Tom Milde – single-volume poet and freelance print hack – about to get his big break? Waking up in the wrong apartment, and hotly pursued for his life and back rent through the streets of New York, he ends up boarding a plane to Virginia as the man-on-the-spot reporting the latest American gun massacre...
The author was TVNZ's US correspondent for ten years.
"Very precise, very deliberate and extremely clever." - Angela Oliver
"A beautifully written portrait of a corrupt, violent and traumatised city growing so fast it is almost unrecognisable to its own inhabitants. An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers." - William Dalrymple
Yumiko returns to Tokyo for her father's funeral and finds herself confronting a decision she hadn't expected to have to make.
"A beautiful and observant graphic novel. Obata's drawings capture emotion very effectively, using colour to memorable effect." - The Guardian
The classic Polish children's book now in English for the first time. Butenko's illustrations are delightful.
Watch this!
"Presents an entertaining and very plausible challenge to some of the pseudo-scientific myths we have about our evolutionary past." - The Bookseller
"A necessary corrective to so much new-age nincompoopery." - BBC Focus
A readable and penetrating history of one of the world's most devastated and abused countries.
"Wonderful. The book has a truly African-centred point of view that other histories too often lack. Van Reybrouck achieves something that eludes most chroniclers of Africa's past. He escapes the constant need to treat Africa as a problem that plagues so much writing about the continent." - Book Forum
"Grandin has helped us understand autism not just as a phenomenon, but as a different but coherent mode of existence that otherwise confounds us.She excels at finding concrete examples that reveal the perceptual and social limitations of autistic and "neurotypical" people alike." - New York Times
"There are at least three excellent novels contained within the pages of Gerard Woodward's latest work. It is, at once, a gut-wrenching account of being gay at a time – the 1930s – when it was impossible to be gay without tearing yourself in two; an elegy to the lost pastoral landscape which made way for the construction of Heathrow Airport; and a beautifully written account of the Second World War's North Africa campaign." - The Independent
When her mum has to go to hospital, Gracie goes to stay with her grumpy grandfather on his distant farm. With the help of a new friend, she hatches a plan to run away...
Deep emotion is handled with a light touch in this book for older children.
This 'Arctic thriller' set in Lapland is both a gripping detective narrative and the story of a traditional culture struggling to survive in a ruthless modern world.
"Leckie's hugely ambitious novel tackles gender identity, imperialism, war crimes and more, and succeeds brilliantly in telling a fast-paced, moving and intellectually satisfying story of love and vengeance. By turns thrilling, moving and awe-inspiring." - The Guardian
Currently shortlisted for the 2014 Arthur C. Clarke awards.
One afternoon, police officers show up at Ben Silver's front door. When his parents arrive home, Ben and his little sister are bundled into the car and told they're going on a holiday. But are they? It doesn't take long for Ben to realise that his parents are in trouble. Ben's always dreamt of becoming a detective - what will he do about what he finds out?
"Gripping and unpredictable, with a hero you won't forget." - John Boyne (author of The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas)
When the tomb of St Tancred is opened, no one expects to find the body of the organist, lying in a pool of blood, his handsome features covered by a gas mask. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce is intrigued...
Two penguins learn all about opposites in this charming lift-the-flap book.
A richly illustrated guide to 88 of the most creative custom bicycle makers working today.
When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene...
"Will both delight and strike fear into bibliophiles’ hearts." - Boston Globe
"The master of the medical thriller" - New York Times
"A gripping, emotional and expertly plotted spy novel of the Cold War, inspired by a real story. Beautifully written and clever." - Kate Mosse
An original and provocative insight into human evolution, which makes connections between human origins, climate change and the environment, drawing on the latest theories and research.
