Peter Jernigan's life is slipping out of control. His wife's gone, he's lost his job and he's a stranger to his teenage son. Worse, his only relief from all this reality - alcohol - is less effective by the day. And when the medicine doesn't work, you up the dose. And when that doesn't work, what then? Jernigan's answer is to slowly turn his caustic wit on everyone around him - his wife Judith, his teenage son Danny, his vulnerable new girlfriend Martha and, eventually, himself - until the laughs have turned to mute horror.
"A bravura performance, sprawling and energetic, soused and noisy, with a bitter comic edge. A rambunctious and enthralling portrait of a man who, by looking too closely, has finally lost sight of himself." - Guardian
Don't wait until Christmas! "Nigel Slater's relaxed, thoughtful books are always a pleasure to read or cook from. His quiet intimacy with ingredients and processes makes his books constantly inspiring." - Thomas
Think about food as you have never thought about it before with this attractive infographic guide to production, consumption and everything in between, as well as the wider issues of food.
An enthusiast's guide to the classics: Lobster Thermidor to rarebit, Steak Diane to trifle, the very best bouillabaisse; constructing a cassoulet, boning and stuffing a pig's trotter, building a trifle. From the author of Food DIY: How to make your own everything.
At last, the paperback edition of this savagely intriguing Man Booker shortlisted novel! U has been commissioned to write a report on the operation of a control mechanism so vast and subtle is cannot be isolated from society itself. Is disaffection is just an extension of the status quo into new territory?
"Smart, shimmering and thought-provoking. McCarthy isn't a frustrated cultural theorist who must content himself with writing novels; he's a born novelist, a pretty fantastic one, who has figured out a way to make cultural theory funny, scary and suspenseful - in other words, compulsively readable." - The New York Times
"I will be in Satin Island's corner for the Heavyweight Man Booker Wrestling Championships in the shop on National Bookshop Day (31 October). I start reading tonight." - Thomas
>> This is amazing.
In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said - a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The house had changed. Nearly twenty years later Harding returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. Could it be saved? And should it be saved? Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out. The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy.
"History at its most alive." - A.D. Miller
>> Have you read Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation?
Everyone is sound asleep, but when Popov starts snoring, the others wake up. Nono wants a story, Zaza wants to switch beds, Kipp wants a drink of water... Will anyone sleep tonight? A delightful board book.
A remarkably beautiful large-format animal counting book with poetic texts that reveal the ways in which endangered creatures - including lions, elephants, giraffes, tigers, gorillas, penguins, Ethiopian wolves, macaws, turtles and zebras - live on Earth.
Feodora and her mother live in the snowbound woods of Russia, in a house full of food and fireplaces. Ten minutes away, in a ruined chapel, lives a pack of wolves. Feodora's mother is a wolf wilder, and Feo is a wolf wilder in training. A wolf wilder is the opposite of an animal tamer: it is a person who teaches tamed animals to fend for themselves, and to fight and to run, and to be wary of humans. When the murderous hostility of the Russian Army threatens her very existence, Feo is left with no option but to go on the run. What follows is a story of revolution and adventure, about standing up for the things you love and fighting back. And, of course, wolves.
"A triumph! Exciting, moving, highly original, fierce, completely convincing." - Philip Pullman
Patrick Evans follows Gifted with another troubling satire on the making and manipulation of literary fame. Raymond Thomas Lawrence was one of the great literary colossi to bestride the twentieth century. He turned his upbringing in conservative Canterbury and participation in the Algerian War of Independence into a series of novels that dazzled the world, and eventually won him the Nobel Prize for Literature. Seven years after Lawrence’s death, however, the four trustees of the literary trust set up to memorialise New Zealand’s greatest writer are facing rising costs and dwindling visitor numbers at the Residence. While fending off a self-appointed biographer, they find themselves confronting the secrets of their own intimate relationships with The Master.
"I was totally absorbed by this, the first book to examine the successes and failures of the secret war from the perspective of all combatants. Beginning in the 1930s we meet a worldwide cast of characters and fascinating and appalling background stories. Hastings goes on to plot the incredible espionage networks created by the Soviet Union in Germany and Japan, Britain and America. The 'boffins' of Bletchley Park are here, and also their German counterparts, as well as the famous players. It is the human interest stories that kept me turning the scholarly yet very readable 560 pages - one, a Russian spy called Richard Sorge, would have given 007 a run for his money, with his many wives and mistresses. Hastings is superb at painting portraits with his pen; I just had to keep reading, wondering what amazing character would turn up next." - Jan
an unknown writer with a handful of novels to his name, is seeking a way to escape a dinner with Estonian colleagues. Although things are plodding along quite happily, he cancels at the last moment "due to a rather difficult time for the family". A nasty feeling immediately comes over him: is he inviting trouble for his family in doing so? And what if a biographer stumbled on this? Would he not then suspect that something significant had happened in his life? The thought gives him a great idea for a new novel about a successful author, T, who becomes famous with an existential crime novel and increasingly worries about what his future biographer will write about him, so he withdraws entirely from public life. But Steegman's initial misgivings prove well founded. Because fate does strike.
Unauthorised by authoritative: brings new depth and understanding to poet whose work is often overshadowed by his relationship with Sylvia Plath.
Longlisted for the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
"This is Joe Bennett's first novel and fans of Joe Bennett will not be disappointed with this read. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and well-written, with Bennett's understanding of humanity and dogs (of course) coming to the fore in his writing. The novel is set in Christchurch just after the February earthquake and Annie Jones, who has been watching the drama of post-earthquake Christchurch unfolding on the news from London, decides she must return to find her father, who she has been alienated from since she was a schoolgirl. Enlisting the help of her father's old friends to help find him amid the chaos, she slowly pieces together what happened to her father, after her parents’ separation. This is a great read and I hope that this is not the only novel that Joe Bennett will write." - Peter
Our life is shaped and controlled by concepts. Where did these ideas come from, and how did they evolve? Matt Ridley's book is full of fascinating surprises.
An excellent introduction to climate change for young adult readers. We can't survive without Earth's atmosphere, yet most of the time we ignore it. We treat our atmosphere as a rubbish dump for our greenhouse gas emissions. Slowly but surely, what we are doing is changing Earth's climate. Atmospheric cuts through the many voices raised around climate change to tell the story of our atmosphere, what is putting our climate at risk and what we can do about it.
The Universe is the ultimate in extremes and superlatives. The biggest. The heaviest. The oldest. The most powerful explosions. Even black holes - which can literally lead to regions beyond our infinite Universe!
"Most men don't fear death. They fear those things - the knife, the shipwreck, the illness, the bomb - which precede, by microseconds if you're lucky, and many years if you're not, the moment of death." When Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in his fifties he was angry - not with death but with the disease that would take him there, and with the suffering disease can cause when we are not allowed to put an end to it.
A new novel from the author of Skippy Dies. Workaholic. French banker Claude is so busy making money from Ireland's economic crisis he has no time for romance. Then he meets mysterious writer Paul, who says he wants to put Claude in a book. Next thing Claude knows, he's falling in love with a Greek waitress, Augustina. But can an investment banker be turned into a romantic hero, even with a writer on his side?
Haunted houses, spectral chills, and the odd cat. Includes stories by Edgar Allen Poe, M.R. James, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link and Niffenegger herself.
"Rarely has a book on Jack the Ripper been written with such visceral anger as this one by Bruce Robinson, the director and screenwriter of Withnail and I: anger at Jack, at “Ripperology”, at the establishment, and anger at the police cover-up that allowed one of the world’s most infamous serial killers to remain free. From the outset, Freemasons and their secretive organisation are central to Robinson’s narrative. In the 19th century, virtually everyone who was anyone was a Mason, including the Metropolitan police commisioner, Sir Charles Warren. Robinson blames 'Her Majesty’s executive' for the concealment of Jack the Ripper, all the members of which happened to be Masons: 'It was a conspiracy of the system.'" - Guardian
In this novel Brooks takes on one of literature’s richest and most enigmatic figures: King David, a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
You might think than an elephant would not excel at the hiding part of hide-and-seek, but you'd be wrong.
Somebody wants this for Christmas. The first book in the highly desirable, wonderfully illustrated series is here.
"The most handsome and desirable gift book of the year. It is stunning ... with full colour illustrations throughout from Greenaway Medal winner Kay, who breathes incredible life into these much-loved characters and locations, staying faithful to Rowling's vision but revitalising the story for a new generation." - Bookseller
>> "I worried I'd ruin the most popular children's book in history." Not so.
Palfreyman, afflicted with Parkinson's himself, chronicles how scientists have laboured to crack the mystery of what was once called the 'shaking palsy', from the earliest clinical descriptions to the cutting edge of molecular neuroscience. He charts the victories and setbacks of a massive international effort to get the better of the disease, referred to as one of the best windows into the brain itself.
"These lovely stories about the imaginative Little Bear, his birthday soup, his trip to the moon and his winter clothes were some of my favourites as a child and were loved by my children. Now they've been reissued, and that is wonderful." - Thomas
We also have the charming Father Bear Comes Home.
One Sunday night in Sydney, Robert Dessaix collapses in a gutter in Darlinghurst. What follows are weeks in hospital, tubes and cannulae puncturing his body, as he recovers from the heart attack threatening daily to kill him. While lying in the hospital bed, Dessaix chances upon Philip Larkin's poem 'Days'. What, he muses, have his days been for? His often surprisingly funny recollections range over topics as eclectic as intimacy, travel, spirituality, enchantment, language and childhood, all woven through with a heightened sense of mortality.
Who else, but a writer, is really able to interrogate the work of other writers? From Christina Stead, Les Murray and Patrick White to Proust, Shakespeare and Charlotte Bronte, David Malouf reads and examines the work of writers who have challenged, inspired and entertained us for generations. He also explores his own work and the life of the writer, where the ever-present danger is spending too much time talking about writing and not enough doing it.
“My market-fresh flower van started as a vision to bring the very best quality flowers directly to my local community. I have become part of that community and my flowers have become an addictive part of their lives.” A New Zealand seasonal guide to the selection, combination and arrangement of the best fresh flowers.
The exploration of the natural world from the late fifteenth century to the early eighteenth century represents a period when European knowledge of the world was transformed by voyages of discovery to Africa, Asia, America, and beyond. It was also a time of great advances in illustrative technique and reproduction. This book displays treasures of natural historical art from the Royal Collection.
From the sizzling sharpness of freshly cut garlic to the cool tang of a father's aftershave; the heady intoxication of a fumbled first kiss to the anodyne void of disinfectant and death, this is a decadently original olfactory memoir. In sixty-three elusive episodes we roam freely across the countryside of Lorraine, North-East France, from kitchen to farm to a lover's bed. Recognising the bittersweet nostalgia of a scent that slips away on the summer breeze, Claudel demonstrates his grasp of the interweaving of the personal and the universal.
Royal Tudor blood ran in her veins. Her mother was a queen, her father an earl, and she herself was the granddaughter, niece, cousin and grandmother of monarchs. Some thought she should be queen of England. She created scandal by falling in love with unsuitable men. Throughout her life her dynastic ties to two crowns proved hazardous. She was imprisoned in the Tower of London on three occasions, once under sentence of death. She helped to bring about one of the most notorious royal marriages of the sixteenth century, but it brought her only tragedy. Her son and her husband were brutally murdered, and there were rumours that she herself was poisoned. She warred with two queens, Mary of Scotland and Elizabeth of England. She was instrumental in securing the Stuart succession to the throne of England for her grandson. Her story deserves to be better known (and possibly made into a film).
All three official prequel novellas to The Game of Thrones, with new illustrations by Gary Gianni, in one desirable volume.
With his mother missing and his father dead, 12-year-old Flip's new home is a remote storm-tossed Dutch island. Menaced by the local bullies and with a shadowy mute girl as his only friend, Flip tries to adapt to life on his uncle's farm - but his whole life changes when a sunken transport ship leaves a drowning stallion floundering in the waves. Risking his life to rescue it, Flip is told he can keep the troublesome horse if he can teach it how to work for its keep.
Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother's mysterious death, he's lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers. One day, he's tracked down by an uncle he's never met - a man his mother claimed was dangerous. His uncle tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god. The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years. A new series from the author of the 'Percy Jackson' books!
The sand, the shingle, the boards, the sun-bleached hair, the sun-darkened skin, the freedom and the challenge of standing upright on the sea, borne landwards by its great, capricious, exhilarating force - this book is a photographic tribute to a culture thriving on New Zealand's physical margins.
"It would be hard to find a better guide to the new 'Greek ruins'." - Wall Street Journal
Over hill, over dale, around and around the paddock, and in lots of other places - Hale has collected some wonderfully affectionate stories from tractor owners.
The fourth and final installment in the thrilling 'Tales of Fontania' quartet that began with The Travelling Restaurant. Rufkin, a perpetual no-hoper, is left to work in a salvage yard while his celebrity parents and talented siblings go on a summer acting tour. At the salvage yard, Rufkin meets Nissy and a small boy who can only say "Help!". Soon they are caught up in a magical adventure.
Matis was raped by a fellow student on her second night at university. Her overprotective and undersupportive parents discouraged her from taking action, and the university's conflict resolution programme was unsatisfying. Matis decided to seek the healing power of nature and undertook a 4200km trek along the Pacific coast of North America, from Canada to Mexico. As she tells the story of her journey, we see that it is a story of eroding emotional and physical boundaries to reveal the truths that lie beyond the edges of the map.
From his no-frills childhood in the icy wastes of Minnesota, to some of the hottest water Hollywood had to offer, via the cutting edge of '60s and '70s counter-culture in New York, LA and London, Terry Gilliam's life has been as vivid and unorthodox as one of his films. Telling his story for the first time, the director of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - not to mention co-founder of Monty Python's Flying Circus - recalls his life so far.
>> And now for something completely different...
Ariel, the sole survivor of an attack on his village in the Middle East is 'rescued' from the horrific madness of war in his homeland by an American soldier and sent to live with a family in suburban Virginia. And yet, to Ariel, this new life with a genetic scientist father and resentful brother, Max, is as confusing and bizarre as the life he just left. Things get even weirder when Ariel and Max are sent to an all-boys summer camp in the forest for tech detox. Intense, funny and fierce friendships are formed. And all the time the scientific tinkerings of the boys' father into genetics and our very existence are creeping up on them in their wooden cabin, second by painful second.
Featuring personal, never-before-published photographs, fan memorabilia and anecdotes, captions from Pete Townshend, newly discovered gems from The Who archive, an introduction by legendary Who manager Bill Curbishley and further contributions from friends, colleagues and family, this landmark illustrated book celebrates 50 years of anthemic, era-defining music and an extraordinary career.
>> He sure plays a mean guitar.
The concept of the magazine is simple: the first half is a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic and the second half explores one classic work of literature from an array of surprising and invigorating angles.
