"The four stories here — one is a long novella of shifting tone and focus; the others are short and more directed — differ widely from one another. But they are connected by a tension, an unease, a threat, a sense that things are off kilter but perhaps can be put right if the characters, and the reader, understand them more fully." - New York Times
"A moving exploration of empathy." - Guardian
"This superlative collection surely ranks among his finest work." - Telegraph
A war torn country - a town that is burning. A single ship waits at the port for those who can escape. How can a boy and his grandfather hope to get on board? And will they find his mother before it leaves? When Papa meets two old friends, he makes a deal that could save them all. But this is only the beginning of the journey for Malik. If he is to escape he will need all of his courage, his sense of right and wrong and a magic trick that he must practice till it's perfect.
"I can't recommend it highly enough." - Guardian
Take a trip through a fantastic world of underground cities, hot-air balloons, tree-top towns and haunted houses. Trace your way through each maze, spot the clues and solve the extra mystery challenges along the way.
A very impressive book on urban design and landscape architecture, considered through the lens of Isthmus, a design studio that has been reshaping New Zealand living environments for 25 years. How have our perspectives and attitudes changed (and how much should they still change)to the use of land and water, the way we organise our cities, the way we play, live and work? What lessons can we learn from the past that can influence the way we build new communities? A beautifully produced book.
"It hasn’t rained for years. A large proportion of America has become uninhabitable and a desert dominates large tracts of land. The story follows Ray, a disgraced soldier, and his girlfriend Luse. When Luse was born she became the picture child for environmental hope; however as she grew she exemplified humanity's failure to protect and repair the environment.They embark on a fated journey to find a fabled community reported to exist in the depths of the desert. The novel captures the desolation and despair of prolonged drought, and has interesting ideas about society, structure, resource limitation and resilience." - Sarah
Simplicity, comfort, high quality materials and attention to detail makes the new Nordic design exemplary in all fields. This book concentrates of furnishings, interiors and product design.
We can learn a lot about the self (whatever that is) by studying those who seem to have lost something we ordinarily think of as part of the self. This interesting book draws on the latest neuroscience of schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's disease, ecstatic epilepsy, Cotard's syndrome, out-of-body experiences and other disorders.
Mexico is currently producing some of the world's most vibrant and innovative fiction. This book presents the work of twenty Mexican writers under the age of forty.
Daniele Tamagni has tracked down and recorded some of the most surprising and colorful international fashion subcultures. Through documentary shots and staged portraiture, he's captured heavy metal rockers in Botswana, hipsters in Johannesburg, dandies in the Congo, female wrestlers in Bolivia, "bling bling" youth in Cuba, and Punks in Burma. Often marginalised on the fringes of their own societies or just down on their heels, these people fight back and express their creativity and joy through personal style. With essays by leading experts in fashion, photography, anthropology, and sociology, Fashion Tribes offers a broad view of world dress and shows the power that clothing can hold.
Award-winning author Philip Murdstone is in trouble. His star has waned. The world is leaving him behind. His agent, the beautiful and ruthless Minerva Cinch, convinces him that his only hope is to write a sword-and-sorcery blockbuster. Unfortunately, Philip - allergic to the faintest trace of Tolkien - is utterly unsuited to the task. In a dark hour, a dwarfish stranger comes to his rescue. But the deal he makes with Pocket Wellfair turns out to have Faustian consequences.
"The Murdstone Trilogy has instantly become one of my favourite books - right up there with Terry Pratchett and The Princess Bride for fantasy comedy. The writing is sublime and the humour is lacerating. I loved every warped sentence." - Eoin Colfer
"Read it whatever your age and find yourself laughing pretty well at every page - it really is that good." - The Independent
DI John Rebus is back from retirement (again!) to investigate the shooting of a long-time foe. He finds himself (again!) rubbing up against his rival, DI Malcolm Fox. This is Rankin on top form: playful dialogue, plot switch-backs, and a perfectly evoked, darkly brooding Edinburgh.
43 contributors have ventured through the city streets and delved into their intimate worlds to bring us portraits and glimpses of the many lives that hold London together, or at times tear it apart. Routes, maps and itineraries have been especially created, providing keys to London across time, in the hope of bringing closer to a city that can seem distant and indifferent, yet upon inspection celebrates diversity, insists upon acceptance and thrives on exuberant discussion.
An exciting array of radical design solutions to living in a world where rootlessness and transience are either options or necessities, and in which the impact of the individual on the habitat must be reduced.
A compulsive memoir of the lost year (well, maybe the word 'memoir' is misleading) between the end of his marriage and the end of his drinking. There is a lot of drinking in this book.
McCurry's lens has caught the variety and the unique depth of colour of India. With an introduction by William Dalrymple.
We've just received stock of the lovely hardback!
"A fascinating account of porcelain, its history and lineage, from the author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes. Focusing on its development in China, Dresden and Cornwall, de Waal’s insights reveal his journey as an artist, his intimate observation of people and places, and an obsessive love of the white object." - Stella
>> Edmund de Waal talks with Kim Hill 7.11.15 at 11:05
The Eiffel Tower is bored, so it decides to cut loose and fly over Paris! Sailing through the night air, it glides over the Seine; a short hop away, l'Opera. It weaves through the crowd and department stores, falls asleep in the sun, and wakes up to the jangling bells of Notre Dame.
Intricately die-cut silhouettes make this an exquisite book of whimsy.
Through a variety of different infographics it compares, for example, the range of materials and colours used by different architects, the relative locations of their buildings, who influenced who, and which architects are the most discussed. It also approaches architecture from more unconventional angles with spreads that show the kinds of architecture favoured by dictators, the networks of love affairs that architects got entangled in, and the defining facial features of famous architects.
A look-Mum-no-brakes memoir from the singer/guitarist of the band Sleater-Kinney.
"The author writes focused and uncluttered prose, choosing the best, most telling details, as she recounts stories that show what it means to perform for the first time and what it means for a woman to be both a fan and a star in a staunchly male-dominated world. Unlike many rock star memoirs, there's no sense that this book is a chore or a marketing effort. It's revealing and riveting. On the page as in her songs, Brownstein finds the right words to give shape to experience." - Kirkus
"Carrie Brownstein writes the way she plays guitar, with raw honesty, passion, and great humour." - Vanity Fair
>> 'Modern Girl'.
When Marie Marvingt decided to ride the 1908 Tour de France she was told 'absolument, non!' by M. Degranges and the Societe du Tour de France. Instead she rode each stage 15 minutes after the official race had departed and finished all 4,488 km of the parcours - a feat that only 36 of the 110 men who entered the race could equal. Her motto? "I decided to do everything better, always and forever." It's in the spirit of Breakneck Marie that this book has been written.
Children uncover the sinister operations of the makers of an addictive sugary drink in this thrilling and aware book by the author of Trash.
The world-roving Scott Schuman completes his trilogy of authentic, spontaneous, unscripted street style.
>> The blog.
Marci Washington's artwork subverts Victorian gothic imagery into a contemporary visual language all its own. Marci Washington's imagery creates a world of hidden stories, bloody handwritten letters, ghosts, forest threats, poisoned drinks, haunted manors, barren winters and betrayal.
>> Each image is a story.
On 21 March 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the Big Bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: we will never see the early Universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology, on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct. The map contains anomalies that challenge our understanding of the Universe. It will force us to revisit what is known and what is unknown, to construct a new model of our Universe.
A psychic fraud encounters something very real in this very chilling ghost story from the author of Gone Girl.
