"Pearlman’s majestic, fleet-footed new collection is cause for celebration. The stories in Honeydew excel at capturing the complex and surprising turns in seemingly ordinary lives. In these stories, the point of view flits nimbly from character to character, allowing the reader to absorb the world from a bird’s-eye perspective. The result is like a diorama, simultaneously intimate and removed: We are able to observe both how these characters perceive the world and how the world perceives them. If Binocular Vision launched Pearlman, rightly, into the spotlight, Honeydew should cement her reputation as one of the most essential short story visionaries of our time." - The New York Times
Short black anyone? To celebrate their 80th birthday, Penguin have published a mouthwatering selection of 80 extra-short classics by authors you've been meaning to read and by others you've yet to discover. Have one with a cup of coffee (it'll be cheaper than the coffee!).
"Where publishing meets public service." - The Guardian
>> Spin the dial to learn a little more, or spin by to learn a lot more and make your first selection.
The appearance of a childhood friend unsettles a widower's very ordinary life and causes him to confront a world in which his wishes are always compromised. A beautifully written exploration of loneliness and anxiety.
"Desires teem throughout the pages of this slim yet forceful second novel from the Man Booker prize-shortlisted author of The Lighthouse. Some are easy to fulfil yet others remain forever unattainable for the characters, and it is these that create the powerful poignancy." - Guardian
A 12-year-old girl befriends an elderly man, who turns out to be her estranged grandfather, at the local aquarium. Will he be able to rejoin the family? How will the secret she learns change her relationship with her mother? How much of the past can be healed? Another powerful book from this fine author.
"Unlike Vann’s other novels, which exist in a closed system of violence and despair, this story offers redemption. Vann’s novels are striking, uncompromising portraits of American life; here is another exceptional example." - Kirkus
>> Vann speaks about the book.
The opportunities and demands of modern Ireland collide with the forces of the past as a young electrician gets involved in the restoration of a decrepit manor.
"Humane, incisive, witty and beautifully written." - Donal Ryan
A truly remarkable children's classic, at last translated into English.
Tiuri must spend hours locked in a chapel in silent contemplation if he is to be knighted the next day. But, as he waits by the light of a flickering candle, he hears a knock at the door and a voice desperately asking for help. A secret letter must be delivered to King Unauwen across the Great Mountains - a letter upon which the fate of the entire kingdom depends. Tiuri has a vital role to play, one that might cost him his knighthood.
"Brilliant, extraordinary." - The Times
"Gripping, delightful." - The Guardian
Beverly Wardle-Jackson was first removed from her family and taken into Child Welfare care in 1952 at the age of eight. Four years later she was permanently separated from her brothers and sisters and made a state ward. She spent the next five years being beaten and locked up in state-run children's homes, before she was eventually admitted to Porirua Hospital for so-called psychiatric treatment. She did not regain her freedom until she was 17, at which point she was pregnant. Now a grandmother in her sixties, Beverly has decided to share the story of her lost childhood.
Before we can address the problem of child poverty we need to understand the context in which both the problem and the discussion occurs, and within which a solution must be forged.
>> Boston and Chapple's long book on the subject.
Who better than the inimitable Peter Sis to conjure the sort of melancholy dreaminess and gravity-defying imagination found in The Little Prince in an exquisite pictorial biography?
A stunning illustrated survey of the use of brick in all times and in all places, showing the versatility and decorative potentials of this often-overlooked but ubiquitous building material. An unexpectedly exciting book.
She is a shimmering, tattooed and acerbic angel, flown from Paradise to save him from the suburbs of Hell. He, an accountant worn down by the day-to-day struggles of the nine to five, is dreaming of a white Christmas, a little garden and someone to love. She attempts, with scornful wit, to shock him out of his commuter's habits and into an experience of ecstasy.
A wide-ranging poetic discourse from the author of Swimming Home.
>> The Booker shortlistee speaks in a shed.
While investigating a virus affecting the plots of books in the local library, a teacher happens to write a children's story and is invited to become the tenth member of a mysterious literary society whose practices include physical violence and a disinhibiting drug called Yellow.
"This wonderfully knotty novel is a peculiar metafiction, a very grown-up fantasy masquerading as quirky fable. Unexpected, thrilling and absurd, it is primarily an irreverent exploration of the art of writing itself, of how far a tale can credibly stretch." - The Telegraph
In a small town in western Nigeria, four young brothers use their strict father's absence from home to go fishing at a forbidden local river. The encounter a local madman who predicts that the oldest brother will be killed by another. This prophesy breaks their strong bond and unleashes a tragic chain of events of almost mythic proportions.
"Awesome in the true sense of the word: crackling with life, freighted with death, vertiginous both in its style and in the elemental power of its story. Few novels deserve to be called 'mythic', but Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen is certainly one of them. A truly magnificent debut." - Eleanor Catton
A sumptuously illustrated survey of this regional Turkish cuisine.
The ceasefire is barely holding. Southside waits, with a kind of hope that feels like defeat. Then Cityside blows up the bridge. And amid the chaos and rubble Nik and Lanya are drawn into a complex web of power, fear and betrayal. Who is the girl found crying out from the bombed bridge? What is her connection to the secret experiments taking place at Pitkerrin Marsh? And why does she cry 'havoc'?
The Christchurch writer's sequel to her gripping YA dystopian novel The Bridge.
Given that we are going to die, how can we make life worthwhile? Yalom recounts his own and his patients' stories.
A YA book sensitively exploring depression and suicide. For fans of John Green.
Emer O'Toole is on a mission to re-write the old script and bend the rules of gender.
>> O'Toole on women and body hair.
A chilling psychological thriller from the author of Before I Go to Sleep.
How well can you really know another person? And how far would you go to find out the truth about them? When Julia learns that her sister has been violently killed, she knows she must get to the bottom of things. Even if it means jeopardising her relationship with her husband and risking the safety of her son.
One woman's quest for belonging, to the land and to herself.
Wes Anderson's enjoyable film has broadened interest in Zweig's writing. Anderson has curated this excellent introductory smorgasbord that resuscitates this once hugely popular writer.
This novel vividly recreates the world and society of Iron Age Britain on the cusp of the Roman invasion.
Letherland's quirky hand-drawn illustrations give this large-format book huge appeal. Visit the penguins of Antarctica, join the Carnival in Brazil, take a canoe safari down the Zambezi River!
The fictional life of Prince Ferdinando Licata, founding father of the Sicilian Mafia.
"A seamlessly intricate plot and with striking effects, dirty dealings and sullied passions. Red-hot action, but treated with epic mastery." - La Repubblica
What do 1000 things look like?
Martin's school is no ordinary school. There are snowball fights, kidnappings, cakes, a parachute jump, a mysterious man called 'No-Smoking' who lives in a railway carriage, and a play about a flying classroom. As the Christmas holidays draw near, Martin and his friends are preparing for the end-of-term festivities. But there are surprises, sadness and trouble on the way - and a secret that changes everything.
>> Such was the popularity of Emil and the Detectives that the Nazi's dared not suppress it, though they ruined Kastner's career and forced him to watch his books other being burned. Watch this.
From Hitler's suicide to Himmler's, this book gives a day-by-day account of the uneasy transition from war in Europe.
“Money may be an evolutionary substitute for energy.” - Sehgal
Sztokman sees the increasing influence of the fundamentalist Orthodox Jewish faction as an assault on egalitarian principles in Israeli politics and society.
