Search

Presented for the first time in English, the recently discovered early manuscripts of the twentieth century's most towering literary figure offer uncanny glimpses of his emerging genius and the creation of his masterpiece.One of the most significant literary events of the century, the discovery of manuscript pages containing early drafts of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time put an end to a decades-long search for the Proustian grail. The Paris publisher Bernard de Fallois claimed to have viewed the folios, but doubts about their existence emerged when none appeared in the Proust manuscripts bequeathed to the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1962. The texts had in fact been hidden among Fallois's private papers, where they were found upon his death in 2018. The Seventy-Five Folios and Other Unpublished Manuscripts presents these folios here for the first time in English, along with seventeen other brief unpublished texts. Extensive commentary and notes by the Proust scholar Nathalie Mauriac Dyer offer insightful critical analysis.Characterized by Fallois as the “precious guide” to understanding Proust's masterpiece, the folios contain early versions of six episodes included in the novel. Readers glimpse what Proust's biographer Jean-Yves Tadié describes as the “sacred moment” when the great work burst forth for the first time. The folios reveal the autobiographical extent of Proust's writing, with traces of his family life scattered throughout. Before the existence of Charles Swann, for example, we find a narrator named Marcel, a testament to what one scholar has called “the gradual transformation of lived experience into (auto)fiction in Proust's elaboration of the novel.”Like a painter's sketches and a composer's holographs, Proust's folios tell a story of artistic evolution. A “dream of a book, a book of a dream,” Fallois called them. Here is a literary magnum opus finding its final form.

‘a stroke of genius'—Diana Reid, author of Love & Virtue and Seeing Other People ‘extremely relatable'—Sydney Morning Herald ‘wildly amusing, sharply relevant'– The Australian ‘Relatable AF.'– Pedestrian.TV ‘Both inhabiting and deconstructing the genre, it's meta and twisty, with a wry narrative voice.'– The GuardianA young woman tries to figure out if she's the best (a creative genius) or if she's maybe just the worst (completely delusional).I'd be in heaven but on the edge of a deeper misery than ever, I'd be on top of the world and then they'd ask me, Did you make the right choice Kim? Are you currently, still, making the right choices Kimberly Mueller? Over the course of a year in Berlin, an aspiring novelist, Kim, and her historian best friend, Bel, confront their twin acts of creation. Kim is becoming a writer, and is determined to write a bestseller. She's been convinced of this idea by Matthew, an American literary agent who is as emotionally unavailable as he is handsome (very). Kim lives in her own carefully constructed reality, which her imagination is constantly pumping full of hot air. As she attempts to buoy herself using other people for external motivation, they poke holes in her fantasies, leading her to wonder if she's going to come crashing down or somehow stay afloat. Meanwhile, Bel is becoming a mother, and gives birth, certain it will fulfil her in ways her career does not seem to. Kim and Bel support and deceive each other as only the best of friends can.In the face of probable failure, how do we convince ourselves to try and become something anyway? And how do we live with the choices we make? ‘Pip Finkemeyer has drawn such a unique, funny and painfully astute character in Kim. I could keep reading her inner monologue forever. It is rare to pick up a novel so simultaneously hilarious and moving. I loved it.'—Laura Kay, author of Wild Things and Tell Me Everything‘a beautifully crafted character with all the flaws we've come to embrace in our modern heroines.'—Sydney Morning Herald‘a humorous, heartfelt novel about finding one's identity and purpose, the expectations held against you, and following your dreams even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone.'—Readings Monthly ‘This book is a labour of writerly love, devoted to projects conceived and delivered.'—ArtsHub ‘Finkemeyer's novel stays one step ahead of the reader by critiquing the genre's tropes and trademarks along the way.'—The Guardian ‘a punchy satire'—The Saturday Paper ‘funny debut'—The Age

SHORTLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND FICTION BOOK AWARD ‘an illuminating reflection on what it means to live with pain.'–Publishers Weekly‘Body Friend is a deeply intimate tribute to the fragile and porous self, written in prose of rare clarity and tenderness. I felt everything reading this book.'—Claire Thomas, author of The Performance and Fugitive Blue‘Body Friend is a novel that clings to the mind long after it finishes.'—ArtsHUB ‘a tender and raw novel about friendship, chronic pain and the healing power of water.'— Harper's Bazaar ‘Katherine Brabon distinguished herself with her first novels, The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins, but she has surpassed these and reached an early career pinnacle with her enigmatically titled novel, Body Friend.'—Books + PublishingLate in the summer five years ago, when I was recovering from a surgical procedure, I met two women within a few weeks of each other and I saw both of them regularly, always separately, for some months afterwards. Summer did not give way easily that year, and even so we must force our bodies down to sleep in the heat, and even if experience does not give itself up easily to representation, I will lay it down anyway; frame the raw and exigent weeks, the untrustworthy months after the hospital, render it and them, Frida and Sylvia, as closely as possible to reality—or whatever is the feelingof a life and mind lived inside a body. A woman leaves the hospital after an operation and starts swimming in a pool in Melbourne's inner suburbs. There she meets Frida, who is uncannily like her in her experience of illness. Soon after, she meets another woman in a local park, Sylvia, who sees her pain and encourages her to rest. The two new friends seem to be polar opposites: Frida adores the pool and the natural world, Sylvia clings to the protection of interior worlds. What begins as two seemingly simple friendships is challenged by what each woman asks of her, of themselves, and their bodies. From the acclaimed author of The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins comes a new novel about the relationship between body and self, and how we must dive beneath the surface to really know ourselves. PRAISE FOR BODY FRIEND: ‘Body Friend shows that pain can be a friend and a friend can be a mirror, but what they reflect is more than just a mirror image, and contains many possibilities.'—Sydney Morning Herald‘Body Friend is tender and expressive. Brabon's writing is exquisitely constructed. Her prose holds quiet emotional weight – putting the reader in mind, particularly, of Elena Ferrante's style – which is extraordinarily effective in capturing the lived realities of the body. Body Friend is a novel that clings to the mind long after it finishes.'—ArtsHUB ‘Its language is startling for its poetic tendencies – it is rhythmic and observant, and liltingly musical – as well as its clarity and sharp concision. Brabon's prose is one of the deepest pleasures of the novel.'—The Saturday Paper ‘The plot unfolds artfully and with precision to surprise and exceed readers'expectations.'—Books + Publishing ‘Katherine Brabon's Body Friend is a tender ode to the recursive mysteries of the body a

'Sixty years later, Jaffe's classic still strikes a chord, this time eerily prescient regarding so many of the circumstances surrounding sexual harassment that paved the way toward the #MeToo movement.'-BuzzfeedWhen Rona Jaffe's superb page-turner was first published in 1958, it changed contemporary fiction forever. Some readers were shocked, but millions more were electrified when they saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. Almost sixty years later, The Best of Everything remains touchingly—and sometimes hilariously—true to the personal and professional struggles women face in the city. There's Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor's office; naïve country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; and Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Jaffe follows their adventures with intelligence, sympathy, and prose as sharp as a paper cut.

Ethel Lina White was born on the 2nd April 1876 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in Wales.Her family were wealthy due to her father's invention of a waterproofing material used, initially, for the London Underground.Ethel started writing when she was only a child and published essays and poems in children's papers. She was also a talented artist.As an adult she began to write short stories and, some years later, she started writing novels. At the time she was working for the Ministry of Pensions in London but resigned in order to accept an advance of ten pounds and begin a career as a novelist. It was this determination that helped her become one of the best-known crime writers in the English-speaking world during the 1930's and 40's.Perhaps her best-known books are the ‘The Lady Vanishes'and ‘The Spiral Staircase'both of which were originally entitled differently but were republished with new names after being filmed. Whilst today she lacks attention, in her day she was as popular and as highly regarded as Agatha Christie.Ethel Lina White died in London on the 13th of August 1944 of ovarian cancer. She was 68.In her will she made a bizarre condition in order for her sister to receive her estate of £5737. It read:'I give and bequeath unto Annis Dora White all that I possess on condition she pays a qualified surgeon to plunge a knife into my heart after death.'In life she had a fear of being buried alive.

Ethel Lina White was born on the 2nd April 1876 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in Wales.Her family were wealthy due to her father's invention of a waterproofing material used, initially, for the London Underground.Ethel started writing when she was only a child and published essays and poems in children's papers. She was also a talented artist.As an adult she began to write short stories and, some years later, she started writing novels. At the time she was working for the Ministry of Pensions in London but resigned in order to accept an advance of ten pounds and begin a career as a novelist. It was this determination that helped her become one of the best-known crime writers in the English-speaking world during the 1930's and 40's.Perhaps her best-known books are the ‘The Lady Vanishes'and ‘The Spiral Staircase'both of which were originally entitled differently but were republished with new names after being filmed. Whilst today she lacks attention, in her day she was as popular and as highly regarded as Agatha Christie.Ethel Lina White died in London on the 13th of August 1944 of ovarian cancer. She was 68.In her will she made a bizarre condition in order for her sister to receive her estate of £5737. It read:'I give and bequeath unto Annis Dora White all that I possess on condition she pays a qualified surgeon to plunge a knife into my heart after death.'In life she had a fear of being buried alive.

Dorothy Edwards, an only child, was born on the 18th August 1902 at Ogmore Vale in Glamorgan.Her father was a headmaster and an early activist in the Independent Labour Party. At age 9 Dorothy, dressed in red, welcomed Keir Hardy on to the stage at Tonypandy during the national coal strike of 1912. She was taught that revolution was at hand, that class barriers would be a thing of the past. Dorothy won a scholarship and boarded at Howell's School for Girls in Llandaff before moving to University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire where she read Greek and philosophy.Her early hopes to be an opera singer were set to one side after graduating and the death of her father. Instead she took on part-time work to supplement her mother's pension with whom she now lived.Dorothy managed to write a number of short stories which appeared in the literary journals of the day. She spent several months with her mother in Vienna, all the time revising or writing before embarking on ‘Winter Sonata', a short novel published in 1928.Introductions to several members of the Bloomsbury Group meant a move to London and a division of her time between child-care for the family of Bloomsbury author David Garnett and the promise of an advance payment for her work on a new volume of stories.However, Dorothy's life was starting to spiral out of control; she was attracted to the Welsh nationalist movement but felt that her Welsh provincialism made her, in London at least, feel socially inferior. Leaving her mother dependent on a hired companion consumed her with guilt as did the end of an affair with a married musician.On the 5th January 1934, having spent the morning burning her papers, Dorothy Edwards threw herself in front of a train near Caerphilly railway station. Her suicide note read:'I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship and even love without gratitude, and given nothing in return.'

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ERBD LITERATURE PRIZE 2024 A BEST NEW BOOK OF 2023 (THE NEW ARAB) A NOTABLE AFRICAN BOOK OF 2023 (BRITTLE PAPER) An unforgettable and eviscerating novel of human frailty, brutality, and resistance as told through the first-person prison narratives of a man and a womanHistory of Ash is a fictional prison account narrated by Mouline and Leila, who have been imprisoned for their political activities during the so-called Lead Years of the 1970s and 1980s in Morocco, a period that was characterized by heavy state repression. Moving between past and present, between experiences lived inside the prison cell and outside it, in the torture chamber and the judicial system, and the challenges they faced upon their release, Mouline and Leila describe their strategies for survival and resistance in lucid, often searing detail, and reassess their political engagements and the movements in which they are involved. Written with compassion and insight, History of Ash speaks to human brutality, resilience, and the power of the human spirit. It succeeds in both documenting the prison experience and humanizing it, while ultimately holding out the promise of redemption through a new generation.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens'across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.The ideas and inventions of mankind on many occasions have their roots in the minds of authors. From Interplanetary journeys, time travel, robots and cyborgs to voice control, organ transplants, mobile phones and even the internet are just some that began as mere inky black on paper as thrills and adventures.

L'Anatòlia és una dona abonyegada per les desgràcies que es refugia a la biblioteca del poble (amagant els llibres del comte Tolstoi, per qui professa un odi rotund); en Hovhannés es fuma el tabac de la seva collita enrotllant-lo amb el paper de la «premsa babaua» i de llibres vells, perquè no n'hi ha cap altre. I només són dos dels personatges inoblidables d'aquesta novel·la. Maran és un món que sembla que té els dies comptats, però aviat ens adonarem que, en realitat, aquest poble perdut al cim de la humanitat, en un racó del Caucas, està empès per una energia immortal. Premi Iàsnaia Poliana, fenomen editorial a Rússia i traduït a una vintena de llengües, la commovedora rondalla armènia de Nariné Abgarian arriba a casa nostra de bracet d'una traducció que fa obrir la gana.

Likóvrissi és un poble de grecs cristians sota domini turc, a principis del segle XX. Cada set anys, per Setmana Santa, s'hi interpreta un Misteri en què els paisans fan de Crist i d'apòstols. El pope els alliçona perquè s'impregnin dels seus papers: es tracta de llegir un xic, no gaire, els Evangelis i de fer una vida decent mentre preparin la Passió. Però la gràcia del text s'encomana a la viuda de vint anys que es prostitueix, al pastor que baixa de la muntanya, al cafeter i al marxant… Ella és Magdalena, ell Jesús, els altres Jaume i Pere; un sentiment nou els uneix com els dits d'una mà. I quan al poble arriba una corrua de gent famèlica que ha sobreviscut a una matança, aquell sentiment els dicta de plantar cara als notables que volen treure's de sobre els refugiats. El Crist de nou crucificat és, amb Alexis Zorbàs, la novel·la més llegida de Nikos Kazantzakis. La set de justícia que mou els seus personatges és la mateixa que va dur l'autor a explorar el cristianisme al mont Atos, el leninisme a Berlin i la revolució a la Unió Soviètica, amb Panait Istrati i Victor Serge. Idealista híbrid i actiu, l'Església ortodoxa el va declarar sacríleg, el Vaticà va inscriure a l'índex una de les seves novel·les i el jurat del Nobel li va negar nou vegades el premi. El públic d'arreu del món s'ha cuidat de consagrar-lo i és un dels autors més populars del segle XX.

A definitive edition of the groundbreaking feminist fiction of a nineteenth century pioneerLibrary of America presents the fullest selection ever of visionary American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman: two novels, forty-four brilliant short stories, nearly two-hundred poems, and both the published and manuscript versions of the landmark story “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” The short fiction presented here showcases Gilman's mastery of ghost stories, allegorical fantasy, and social realism and includes a virtuoso series of stories written in imitation of the most acclaimed authors of her day. The utopian novels Herland and With Her in Ourland—abouta remote and isolated society of women—are pioneering works of speculative fiction and still-incisive commentaries on the politics of gender. Gilman was known to her contemporaries first and foremost as a poet, and this volume brings together her collection In This Our World with more than fifty other poems, many written in support of suffrage and other causes.

Reissued with an introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a stunning and disquieting novel of heroism and cowardiceA masterful novel that was a huge bestseller in Europe, The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is a testament to the power of literature. Now with an introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who named it her “favorite book no one else has heard of” in the New York Times, the novel follows Irma Seidenman, a young Jewish widow in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1943, who possesses two attributes that can spell the difference between life and death: blue eyes and blond hair. With these features, and a set of false papers, she slips out of the ghetto, passing as the wife of a Polish officer, until one day an informer spots her on the street and drags her off to the Gestapo. At times a dark lament, at others a sly and sardonic thriller, The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is the story of the thirty-six hours that follow Irma's arrest and the events that lead to her dramatic rescue as the last of Warsaw's Jews are about to meet their deaths in the burning ghetto.

An American woman and her son unearth the buried secrets and past lives of an English manor house in this masterful and riveting novel from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Belfer.“Infused with the brooding, gothic atmosphere of Jane Eyre or Rebecca... a novel that must be savored, one page at a time.”—Melanie Benjamin, author of The Children's Blizzard ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times“How many lives can you imagine yourself living?”So Hannah Larson wonders. When a close relative falls ill, Hannah and her young son, Nicky, decide to join him for the summer at Ashton Hall, a historic manor house outside Cambridge, England. Hannah gave up her academic career to raise her beloved child, who is neurodivergent and experiences the world differently from others, and she's grateful to escape her life in New York City, where her marriage has been upended by a devastating betrayal.Soon after their arrival, ever-curious Nicky discovers the skeletal remains of a woman in a forgotten, walled-off wing of the manor, and Hannah is pulled into an all-consuming quest for answers. Working from clues in centuries-old ledgers and the personal papers of the long-departed family, Hannah begins to re-create the Ashton Hall of the Elizabethan era in all its color and conflict. As the secrets of her own life begin to unravel, and the rewards and complications of being Nicky's mother come into focus, Hannah realizes that Ashton Hall's women before her had lives not so different from her own. She confronts what women throughout history have had to do to control their own destinies and protect their children.Rich with passion, strength, and ferocity across the ages, Ashton Hall is a novel that reveals how the most profound hauntings are within ourselves.

A whirlwind romance between an eccentric archivist and a grieving widow explores what it means to be at home in your own body in this clever, humorous, and heartfelt novel.When archivist Sol meets Elsie, the larger than life widow of a moderately famous television writer who's come to donate her wife's papers, there's an instant spark. But Sol has a secret: he suffers from an illness called vampirism, and hides from the sun by living in his basement office. On their way to falling in love, the two traverse grief, delve into the Internet fandom they once unknowingly shared, and navigate the realities of transphobia and the stigmas of carrying the'vampire disease.'Then, when strange things start happening at the collection, Sol must embrace even more of the unknown to save himself and his job. DEAD COLLECTIONS is a wry novel full of heart and empathy, that celebrates the journey, the difficulties and joys, in finding love and comfort within our own bodies.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens'across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.For most of these women their fame more easily resides with their novels but each created short stories of such quality and verve that they simply had to be saved in inky type to paper. And each of these miniature gems is as near-perfect as their longer siblings. In their words literature is a many wondered treat.

When his girlfriend, Rosemary, asks about his life, Jim Moore, a successful salesman whose territory covers the entire continental United States and parts of Canada, doesn't think there is anything to say and so he tells her “nothing happened,” or maybe he doesn't know how to put it all into words or maybe he doesn't want to. Stuck in an airport because of blizzard conditions, and packed into a crowded terminal with other travelers, Moore has come to believe that his life is not worth reporting about because it has largely been a life lived without incident. However, chance encounters with a yoga instructor, a man traveling to bury his mother, and an enigmatic woodsman reawaken long dormant emotions about his father's suicide and cause Jim to newly reflect on his own life and on a memorandum that he later discovered in his deceased father's papers, which lists all the names of the clouds, and which Jim now, from time to time, recants as if it were his own private kaddish to memorialize his lost father. Like the pilgrims in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales who pass the time telling stories while stranded in the Tabard Inn, Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society tells the tale of a traveling salesman and what really happened over the course of his forty- six years.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two masters she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretary to Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. and immersed herself in his literary circle.Gale returned to her hometown in 1903 and saw that her old world was full of new possibilities. She now dedicated herself to full-time writing.Her first novel ‘Romance Island'was published in 1906 and she also began the popular ‘Friendship Village'series of stories. In 1920 came ‘Miss Lulu Bett', which depicts life in the Mid-West. Adapted into a play it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. It was a stellar achievement.After the deaths of her parents her works, both fiction and non-fiction, drifted towards mysticism and her belief that problems could be solved through a kind of transcendentalist enlightenment.Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat as well as an active member of the National Woman's Party and pacifist. Much of her time was taken up with advancing opportunities for women both at school and as writers. It was a problem she repeatedly emphasized in her novels: women's frustration at their lack of opportunities.'In the mid 20's she began caring for a girl, a relative, Leslyn, and later adopted her. At age 54, she married William L Breese, a childhood friend and a widower. He was a wealthy banker and hosiery manufacturer. She also became a step mother to his daughter, Juliette. In mid-December 1938 she went to Chicago for medical treatment and contracted pneumonia a few days later. Zona Gale died of pneumonia in Passavant Hospital in Chicago on 27th December 1938.

The Man Who Lost Himself (1920) is a novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. Although he is more widely known for his novel The Blue Lagoon (1908), which inspired the 1980 hit drama starring Brooke Shields, Stacpoole was a prolific bestselling author whose dozens of literary works continue to inspire and entertain a century after they first appeared in print. “With no financial foundation, Victor and a Philadelphia gentleman had competed for a contract to supply the British Government with Harveyised steel struts, bolts, and girders; he had come over to London to press the business; he had interviewed men in brass hats, slow moving men who had turned him over to slower moving men. […] [T]his morning their tender had been rejected.” In this thrilling tale of mistaken identity, Stacpoole moves away from his favorite setting of the South Pacific to the frenzied streets and barrooms of London's financial district. There, a desperate businessman learns that his proposal to secure a lucrative contract has been denied. With no money and a slew of creditors to appease, Victor Jones heads for the hotel bar to drown his sorrows. In his bleakest moment, he meets his doppelganger, an Englishman named Mr. Rochester. After a night of hard drinking, Jones awakens in a strange bedroom surrounded by the finest furniture money can buy. Before he can gather his senses, a servant enters with the paper and greets him as the Earl of Rochester. What he learns next will change his life forever. The Man Who Lost Himself was adapted into a 1920 silent film as well as a 1941 Hollywood feature starring Brian Aherne and Kay Francis. This edition of Henry De Vere Stacpoole's The Man Who Lost Himself is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Army cop-turned-small-town-investigator Mick Hardin returns to Appalachia in this propulsive thriller from the award-winning author of The Killing Hills. Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, when a body is found in the center of town. It's Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney's mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, it seems there's more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and most of all, staying out of the way of his sister's reelection as Sheriff—but he keeps on looking, and suddenly he's getting shot at himself. A dark, pacy crime novel about grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty's Boys is a tour de force that confirms Mick Hardin as one of the most appealing new investigators in fiction.Praise for The Killing Hills “[A] work of rural noir whose characters'singular codes lead to constant surprises.” —The Wall Street Journal “Dark, but deeply humane. The love in this book is deep and powerful. And winsome twinkles shine through the blackness throughout, thanks in no small part to Offutt's keen ear and eye.” —The New York Times “Sense of place also steams off the pages... Pitch-perfect in its tone and dialogue, if more interested in mood than in the business of plot, this is what Jack Reacher wants to be when it grows up.” —The Times [UK]

“Hypnotic.” – New York Times“Cinematic.” – USA Today'I gripped the covers of this book as though it might be blown from my hands...powerful.'- Ron Charles, The Washington Post'A full-throttle page turner.'– Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper PalaceAn adrenaline-fueled story of lives upended and transformed by an unprecedented catastrophe To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna—the world's first category 6 hurricane—upends everything they have taken for granted. When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return? A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world.

NPR Best Books of 2022The Christian Science Monitor 10 Best Books of JuneMost Anticipated Books of 2022: The Millions, Electric Literature, Brittle Paper, Open Country Magazine, Ms. MagazineWinner of the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, Ethiopian American author Meron Hadero's gorgeously wrought stories in A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times offer poignant, compelling narratives of those whose lives have been marked by border crossings and the risk of displacement.Set across the U.S. and abroad, Meron Hadero's stories feature immigrants, refugees, and those on the brink of dispossession, all struggling to begin again, all fighting to belong. Moving through diverse geographies and styles, this captivating collection follows characters on the journey toward home, which they dream of, create and redefine, lose and find and make their own. Beyond migration, these stories examine themes of race, gender, class, friendship and betrayal, the despair of loss and the enduring resilience of hope.Winner of the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, “The Street Sweep” is about an enterprising young man on the verge of losing his home in Addis Ababa who pursues an improbable opportunity to turn his life around. Appearing in Best American Short Stories, “The Suitcase” follows a woman visiting her country of origin for the first time and finds that an ordinary object opens up an unexpected, complex bridge between worlds. Shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize, “The Wall” portrays the intergenerational friendship between two refugees living in Iowa who have connections to Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. A Best American Short Stories notable, “Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin'Newton” is a coming-of-age tale about an Ethiopian immigrant in Brooklyn encountering nuances of race in his new country.Kaleidoscopic, powerful, and illuminative, the stories in A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times expand our understanding of the essential and universal need for connection and the vital refuge of home—and announce a major new talent in Meron Hadero.'Exquisite ….Sentences infused with attitude throw gut punches that land with enough power to bring on tears.'—Daphne Kalotay, The Washington Post“Witty and wistful, complex and heartbreaking, these stories capture lives caught between cultures and continents, past and present, truth and lies. As its displaced characters seek belonging, this collection explores the challenges of connection with empathy and nuance. A thrilling debut.”—Brit Bennett, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half and The Mothers“Debut books don't get much stronger than this. Meron Hadero's remarkable stories explore a diverse cast of people doing their best to find acceptance or at least stability…Hadero is deeply perceptive; her dialogue always rings true, and the regard she has for her characters is apparent. This isn't just an excellent first book, it's an excellent book, period.”—Michael Schaub, NPR Best Books 2022: Books We Love“This book heralds the arrival of a gifted, stunning writer. A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times held me spellbound…These stories unfold with an intensifying power, each of them a testament to what's possible when we move through this world insisting on the potential of hope, and love.”—Maaza Mengiste, author of Booker Prize finalist The Shadow King“This richly detailed, subtly impressionistic short-story collection—by the first Ethiopian-born writer to win the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing—pulls at threads of geography, language, generation, race, and gender…Hadero's page shines…expanding instead of narrowing the range and representation of

The bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel delivers a “provocative, enthralling, bang up-to-the-minute” thriller (Daily Mail). It all starts with a prize. The Price family wins a holiday trip to Florida and gets their photo in the paper. They're all there, the picture-perfect family in front of their gorgeous home. But it's awkward, adolescent, seventeen-year-old Hannah who catches someone's eye. And only days later, she's gone. Val and Morris Price try not to panic when Hannah doesn't return from Camden Market on Sunday night. After all, she is a teenager. But when Hannah still hasn't shown up on Monday, they start to think the worst—then the ransom note comes with a demand for £500,000 and no police. After days of tallying assets and scrambling for money, Val makes the drop. Hannah comes home. Only what should be the end of a nightmare is just the beginning... The Prices'have lost their business and their home. Their sudden change in fortune takes its toll, and family bonds slowly begin to disintegrate. Meanwhile, the desperate couple who kidnapped Hannah embark on a life of luxury that only fuels their twisted love. But what goes up must come down... with a crash. “A neat plot... [with] dark flashes of hubris and nemesis.” —The Guardian “Moggach's subject is the rickety edifice we call the family, which she comes at armed with both a wrecking ball and an insatiable curiosity to note the particular way it collapses.” —The Independent “Deborah Moggach is a delight to read—her characters are wonderfully alive, and their stories grip us unequivocally.... The novel is enjoyable from first to last.” —The Daily Telegraph “It is characterisation at which Moggach excels. Her gift is to perceive and describe our confusions about life... and to write with feeling about the continual quest for love and happiness that is part of the human condition.” —The Sunday Times

Rosa Ost grows up in Notre-Dame-du-Cachalot, a tiny village at the end of the world, where two industries are king: paper and Boredom. The only daughter of Terese Ost (a fair-to-middling trade unionist and a first-rate Scrabble player), the fate that befalls Rosa is the focus of this tale of long journeys and longer lives, of impossible deaths, unwavering prophecies, and unsettling dreams as she leaves her village for Montreal on a quest to summon the westerly wind that has proved so vital to the local economy. From village gossips, tealeaf-reading exotic dancers, and Acadian red herrings to soothsaying winkles and centuries-old curses, Rosa's Very Own Personal Revolution is a delightful, boundary-pushing story about stories and the storytellers who make them – and a reminder that revolutions in Quebec aren't always quiet. “By turns caustic, fierce and moving, this sinuous novel is chock full of interwoven stories, comical scenes and larger-than-life, hilarious characters. The novelist casts his spell to rework historical events in a magical world, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, between centuries past and the year 2000 … Brilliant and exhilarating.” (Suzanne Giguère, Le Devoir) “Delightful” (Marie-Claude Fortin, La Presse) “A gem” (Didier Fessou, Le Soleil) PRAISE FOR Eric Dupont's SONGS FOR THE COLD OF HEART “spectacular… original in every sense” (Literary Review of Canada) “masterful… heartbreaking and hilarious” (Publishers Weekly) “highly recommended” (Library Journal) “fiercely readable” (Toronto Star) This book manages to capture the cultural zeitgeist of Quebec culture in the twentieth century. It reminded me of all the great French Canadian novels I read as a child, but pushed them to new, delightful, hilarious, epic levels. […] I dare you not to read the first three pages and fall in love.” (Heather O'Neill, jury member, 2018 Giller Prize) “As magnificent a work of irony and magic as the boldest works of Gabriel García Márquez, but with a wholly original sensibility that captures the marvellous obsessions of the Québécois zeitgeist of the 20th century. It is, without a doubt, a tour de force. And the translation is as exquisite as a snowflake.” (Giller Prize jury) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eric Dupont was born in Amqui, Quebec, in 1970. He left his native Gaspé Peninsula at age 16 for Austria and other faraway locales, returning to Quebec in 2003 to accept a position as a lecturer in translation at the McGill University School of Continuing Studies. His fourth novel, La Fiancée américaine, released in 2012, won the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Prix littéraire des collégiens. Its English translation by Peter McCambridge, Songs for the Cold of Heart, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2018 and subsequently published by HarperVia, outside of Canada, under the title The American Fiancée. One of the hallmarks of Eric's writing is the juxtaposition of the supernatural and real worlds. The lighthearted tone of his work often belies undercurrents of deeper themes and meanings. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Originally from Ireland, Peter McCambridge holds a BA in modern languages from Cambridge University, England, and has lived in Quebec City since 2003. He runs Québec Reads and now QC Fiction. Life in the Court of Matane was the first novel he chose for this collection and the book that made him want to become a literary translator in the first place. His translation of the first chapter won the 2012 John Dryden Translation Prize. His translations have been World Literature Today Notable Translations, longlisted for Canada Reads, and finalists for the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for Translation.

“[A] social comedy with some brilliant people observations about ageing and a devilish plot twist” from the author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (The Times, London). After their elderly father's fall, Phoebe and her brother, Robert, couldn't be happier with his new caregiver, Mandy. She came to them with great recommendations and has given the brilliant, yet lonely, widower a new lease on life—though he is gossiping about the locals'love affairs instead of debating science and politics. But Phoebe and Robert soon become suspicious of Mandy—her rummaging about in their father's papers, her strange inheritance from a former client, her habit of speaking her mind no matter the consequences. Then Robert discovers that their father has changed his will. Suddenly Mandy seems more devil than angel... For the first time in years, Phoebe and Robert are bonding over something—even if it is their mutual distrust of Mandy. And what happens next will make the siblings question everything they thought they knew about their parents—and themselves. “Moggach addresses an all too common nightmare with ruthless honesty and sublime wit—The Carer is one of the funniest novels I have read for ages.” —The Times (London) “Unputdownable, fun and tender with characters that jump off the page. Perfection.” —Marian Keyes, international-bestselling author of Again, Rachel “Joyous... a sustained satire on smug middle-class mores.” —Daily Mail “The most endearing of humorists, Deborah Moggach casts a penetrating eye on our foibles and fantasies. Neither ageing, nor death—as The Carer so beautifully demonstrates—can resist her comic scrutiny.” —Lisa Appignanesi, award-winning author of Mad, Bad, and Sad

Rosa Ost grows up in Notre-Dame-du-Cachalot, a tiny village at the end of the world, where two industries are king: paper and Boredom. The only daughter of Terese Ost (a fair-to-middling trade unionist and a first-rate Scrabble player), the fate that befalls Rosa is the focus of this tale of long journeys and longer lives, of impossible deaths, unwavering prophecies, and unsettling dreams as she leaves her village for Montreal on a quest to summon the westerly wind that has proved so vital to the local economy.

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels“One of the greats.... Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon.” —Stephen King'Engrossing.... [Le Guin] is a philosopher; an explorer in the landscape of the mind.'—Cincinnati EnquirerIn celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, a commemorative edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award–winning classic, a profound and thoughtful tale of anarchism and capitalism, individualism and collectivism, and one ambitious man's quest to bridge the ideological chasm separating two worlds. This special edition includes a new foreword by Karen Joy Fowler.The Dispossessed is the spellbinding story of anarchist Shevek, the “galactically famous scientist,” who single-handedly attempts to reunite two planets cut off from each other by centuries of distrust.Anarres, Shevek's homeland, is a bleak moon settled by an anarchic utopian civilization, where there is no government, and everyone, at least nominally, is a revolutionary. It has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—defined by warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth. Now Shevek, a brilliant physicist, is determined to unify the two civilizations. In the face of great hostility, outright threats, and the pain of separation from his family, he makes an unprecedented trip to Urras. Greater than any concern for his own wellbeing is the belief that the walls of hatred, distrust, and philosophic division between his planet and the rest of the civilized universe must be torn down. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and explore differences in customs and cultures, determined to tear down the walls of hatred that have kept them apart.To visit Urras—to learn, to teach, to share—will require great sacrifice and risks, which Shevek willingly accepts. Almost immediately upon his arrival, he finds not the egotistical philistines he expected, but an intelligent, complex people who warmly welcome him. But soon the ambitious scientist and his gift is seen as a threat, and in the profound conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs even as he ignites the fires of change.

••'SO VIVID AND REAL, IT BROUGHT A THOUSAND MEMORIES RUSHING BACK'- Russell T Davies •• ••'AN INSTANT QUEER CLASSIC'- Jon Ransom, author of The Gallopers •• Set in London across a single, life-altering summer, Isaac explores masculinity and queerness in the digital age and offers a fresh take on desire and intimacy, adolescent obsession and dangerous first love. After inexperienced seventeen-year-old Isaac loses his virginity through a dating app - a disappointing yet addictive experience - he spends his final months before university escaping into a dizzying new world of casual sex with forgettable men. This all changes when he meets twenty-eight-year-old Harrison at a party. Isaac is immediately infatuated by the handsome, charismatic artist, but while they grow closer, his sense of self becomes increasingly hazy. Harrison's demands shift constantly, and after Isaac tries everything to prove his worthiness, he must take a hard look at his ideas about love, sex and men, and his relationship with himself. A powerful coming-of-age story for our times, Isaac is perfect for fans of Outline Of My Lover by Douglas Martin, What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell and 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell.'Truly impressive: funny, melancholic and acutely real. Isaac takes me back to my own adolescence in London... bracing and uncensorious'- James Cahill, author of Tiepolo Blue'A richly textured, tender and unflinching coming-of-age story about sex and sexuality, relationships and power, and the psychic toll of first love. Immensely readable'- Lara Williams, author of Supper Club'Garner's titular character encapsulates all the wide-eyed wonderment and boundless bruising of a queer awakening. Isaac will have you smiling and screaming in equal measure as he navigates his final summer before university'- Andrés N. Ordorica, author of How We Named the Stars'A beautifully crafted and clear-sighted exploration of a young man making sense of contemporary gay life'- Ben Fergusson, author of An Honest Man'Compulsively readable, Isaac is both an entertaining bildungsroman and a hyper-real snapshot of contemporary gay life'- Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men'Garner writes like a queer, twenty-first century Richard Yates: honest, uncompromising, fearless, and completely engrossing'- Alex Pheby, author of Playthings'Garner explores the confusion of casual sex and the brutality of domestic violence with unflinching honesty'- Nicholas Royle, award-winning author and editor'So carefully written, sexually candid but full of warmth and longing, populated by relatable, believable, flesh-and-blood characters. Deeply satisfying in its elegance and tenderness'- Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy'Isaac deals with the contemporary landscape of gay male experience... It covers sex, obsession and self-loathing, but is also sweet, tender and domestic'- Paul Bench'A frank and tender portrayal of young queer identity, interrogating masculinity, family and the body through vividly sensual language... I raced through it!'- Kerry Andrew, author of We Are Together Because'Isaac deftly captures adolescence in all its restlessness, uncertainty, possibility and pain'- Grace Flahive, author of Palm Meridian'Isaac thinks sensitively about masculinity, its potential for softness, beauty, and brutality. Scenes from this novel have lingered in my mind for months'- Lily Lindon, author of Double Booked This novel contains depictions o

This volume brings together scholarly theories and practices on speculative fiction from the Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, that are all rooted in similar values, culture, and history yet are independent and unique societies. The book exhibits both the convergences and the diversity of the Nordics in fiction and fandom as well as in research.It traces the roots of Nordic speculative fiction, how it has developed over time, and how the changes in Nordic environments and societies caused by overhanging shared global issues – such as climate change, mass migration, and technological acceleration – find space in speculative practices. The first of its kind, this book allows for deeper insights into the unique characteristics that make Nordic literature and art recognisable and allows for a better understanding of the place of the Nordics within wider global culture systems. The chapters range from literary critiques, film and television studies, creative works by three Nordic creative writers, transcultural text comparisons, and contributions on speculative art to theoretical and methodological discussions on fandom, worldbuilding, and semantics.Part of the Studies in Global Genre Fiction series, this book contributes to connecting Nordic speculative fiction scholarship to the wider global community within the field. It will be of interest to scholars and general enthusiasts of speculative fiction and those with interest in Nordic fiction; film and television studies; literary, culture, or media studies; comparative literature; and cultural history or art-based research.

Warlock by Oakley Hall is a gripping and profound Western novel that explores the complexities of law, justice, and morality in a volatile frontier town. Set in the fictional town of Warlock, the story follows the escalating tensions between townspeople, outlaws, and those who seek to enforce order in a lawless land. At the center of the tale is Clay Blaisedell, a legendary gunslinger hired to restore peace as the town's marshal. However, as Blaisedell confronts the town's corrupt forces and violent criminals, he finds himself entangled in a moral struggle between duty and self-preservation. The novel examines themes of authority, power, and the cost of violence as the line between good and evil blurs in the face of mounting conflicts. With its rich character development, psychological depth, and vivid depiction of the American West, Warlock is more than just a Western—it is a powerful meditation on the human condition and the timeless battle between chaos and order. Widely regarded as a classic of the genre, Oakley Hall's Warlock is both a thrilling tale of the Old West and a thought-provoking exploration of justice and morality.

New Orleans, 1853. A young Zapotec exile from Mexico named Benito Juárez disembarks at a fetid port city at the edge of a swamp. Years later, he will become the first indigenous head of state in the postcolonial Americas, but now he is as anonymous and invisible as any other migrant to the roiling and alluring city. Accompanied by a small group of fellow exiles who plot their return and hoped-for victory over the Mexican dictatorship, Juárez immerses himself in the city, which absorbs him like a sponge. He and his compatriots work odd jobs, fall victim to the cons and confusions of a strange young nation, succumb to the hallucinations of yellow fever, and fall in love with the music and food all around them. But unavoidable, too, is the stark trade in human beings. With the extraordinary linguistic play and love of popular forms that have characterized all of Herrera's fiction, Season of the Swamp is a magnificent work of speculative history, a love letter to the city of New Orleans and its polyglot culture, and a cautionary statement that informs our understanding of the world we live in.

Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of six short stories that explore themes of isolation, human resilience, and the search for meaning. Set in various locations, including Algeria and France, each story delves into characters facing profound existential challenges, struggling with their sense of self, or grappling with moral and societal dilemmas. Camus's writing captures the alienation and absurdity of modern life, offering a nuanced look at the complexities of the human condition. Included are: THE ADULTEROUS WOMANTHE RENEGADETHE SILENT MENTHE GUESTTHE ARTIST AT WORKTHE GROWING STONE Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian author, journalist, and playwright best known for his absurdist works The Stranger (1942) and The PlagueT (1947). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 at the age of 43, the second youngest recipient in history.

Als vint contes de «Si menges una llimona sense fer ganyotes» s'hi barregen situacions quotidianes i fantàstiques que aprofundeixen en emocions comunes. L'amor no correspost, la desconfiança, els lligams familiars, l'excés de solitud o de companyia són alguns dels elements que identifiquen aquest llibre. Amb una mirada irònica, penetrant i contingunda, Sergi Pàmies tracta de les servituds d'uns personatges vulnerables, esclaus d'unes circumstàncies que, com les llimones, combinen l'acidesa amb les propietats refrescants. El llibre ha rebut el Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2007 i el Premi Lletra d'Or 2007. «Un llibre inacabable, infinit… El miro al·lucinat. És com un pou inesgotable». Enrique Vila-Matas «Pàmies és un autor insubstituïble. I Si menges una llimona sense fer ganyotes una obra que sintetitza el seu talent narratiu … Alta literatura». Julià Guillamon, La Vanguardia

On a Woman's Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her request for divorce, Noenka flees her hometown in Suriname, on South America's tropical northeastern coast, for the capital city of Paramaribo. Unsettled and unsupported, her life in this new place is illuminated by romance and new freedoms, but also forever haunted by her past and society's expectations. Strikingly translated by Lucy Scott, Astrid Roemer's classic queer novel is a tentpole of European and post-colonial literature. And amid tales of plantation-dwelling snakes, rare orchids, and star-crossed lovers, it is also a blistering meditation on the cruelties we inflict on those who disobey. Roemer, the first Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize, carves out postcolonial Suriname in barbed, resonant fragments. Who is Noenka? Roemer asks us.'I'm Noenka,'she responds resolutely,'which means Never Again.'

Plato famously defined a human being as a “featherless biped.” It's hard not to sense the ironic humor in this definition, a reminder that, for all our talk about human dignity, our condition is contingent, vulnerable, and at some level even comic.Perhaps that's why the writer A.G. Mojtabai—known for her dry, understated, subtly humorous but ultimately honest and courageous depictions of the human condition—chose the name for her latest novel, set in the confines of Shady Rest Home for the Aged.Mojtabai offers us a varied cast of characters at Shady Rest, including: Eli, who fancies himself a ladies man; Elora, anxious about her wayward nephew; the aloof but lonely scholar Wiktor; and Maddie, a bit eccentric, true, but more wise and compassionate than most. At the center of it all is Daniel, an old soul in a young man's body, with a strange gift for caring for the elderly.Featherless is one of those rare books that brings us news from the final frontier, the end of life. Its unflinching but humane gaze—informed by the author's own experience—serves as a fitting capstone for a literary career of uncommon distinction.

At once an ode to birds, an elegy to space, and a journey into the most haunted and uncanny corners of the human mind, The Avian Hourglass showcases Lindsey Drager's signature brilliance in a stunning, surrealist novel for fans of Jesse Ball, Helen Oyeyemi, Yoko Ogawa, and Shirley JacksonThe birds have disappeared. The stars are no longer visible. The Crisis is growing worse. In a town as isolated as a snowglobe, a woman who dreams of becoming a radio astronomer struggles to raise the triplets she gave birth to as a gestational surrogate, whose parents were killed in a car accident. Surrounded by characters who wear wings, memorize etymologies, and build gigantic bird nests, and bound to this town in which young adults must decide between two binary worldviews—either YES or NO—the woman is haunted by the old fable of the Girl in Glass Vessel, a cautionary tale about prying back the façade of one's world.When events begin to unfold that suggest a local legend about the town being the whole of the universe might be true, the woman finds her understanding of her own life–and her reality–slipping through her fingers. A reflection on mental health, the climate emergency, political polarization, and the growing reliance on technology, The Avian Hourglass asks readers to reframe how they conceive of a series of concentric understandings of home: the globe, one's country, one's town, one's family, and one's own body.

The fate is unpredictable thing. For unknown reason she favors some of them and mercilessto others. Such unexpectable strike experienced Holden. A young guy, working in editorial office, an endless lover of literature, dreaming of writing his own book, gets a gift of fate. He meets a girl, a singer of the theater, who lights up in him until unknown for him feelings and emotions. She gets him up to the Heavens of love and happiness, but the fate brings own correct. And the falling from the high of his feelings, dreams and love becoming too hard.

••'A powerful, thoughtful novel about memory and how the past shapes the future'- Red Magazine (Best Books of October) •• An emotionally wrenching novel, set in today's London and 90s Ghana, exploring generational trauma and what it means to be Black British, surviving between the gaps of knowledge around familial migrant journeys. On the cusp of thirty, Ghanaian Londoner Whitney Appiah was born with a special gift. The massage therapist can physically sense where her clients'trauma lies and heal them. But Whitney has no idea that she too is suffering. Tragic events from her youth have left a terrible, unseen mark. When a dangerous encounter with the man she's dating triggers a wave of fragmented recollections, Whitney embarks on a journey to reclaim her memories and the truth that is buried deep in her early years growing up in Kumasi. Spanning three decades, told through the viewpoints of Whitney, her aunts, Gloria and Aretha, and their house help, Maame Serwaa, The Rest of You explores what happens when we try to resolve the mysteries of our past. Perfect for fans of Candace Carty Williams'Queenie, Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half and Anna Hope's Expectation.'A novel that doesn't shy away from the modern issues of being Black and female. At times heartbreaking, this portrait of a family coming to terms with a tragic past is vivid and tender'- Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City'A beautiful, compelling exploration of familial bonds, trauma and the secrets of the past. Maame Blue's tender, emotionally rich portrait of diasporic Black lives is a novel to return to. Highly recommended'- Irenosen Okojie, author of Hag'Maame Blue places vulnerability and emotional truth at the heart of this novel, interwoven between place, time and character... The Rest is You is surprising and tender, precise and free-ranging. A novel of layers, heartfelt meaning, and revelation'- Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time'A story of friendship, loss, trauma and hope, that explores multi-generational pain and the secrets and silences that families can fall into in a bid to move forward. The Rest of You is a quintessential immigrant story with a particular Black British twist'- Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of Azúcar'The Rest of You is sharply written and is a compelling read. In this book, Maame Blue is incisive in her exploration of friendship and family'- Peace A. Medie, author of Nightbloom'Maame Blue's skill at crafting characters that take bits of your heart with them as you read the final pages is a true gift... A wonderful book!'- Kelechi Okafor, author of Edge of Here'Gripping - you wonder what isn't being said, but you feel it anyway'- Gabriel Gbadamosi'Evocative prose and keen insights make for a compelling read, inviting reflection on the nature of trauma and the quest for identity. This powerful story affirms Blue's place as a significant voice in contemporary literature'- Booklist This novel contains depictions of violence and sexual assault.

Seventy-two men arrive in the Sicilian countryside. They are'immigrants','refugees'or'migrants'. But in Altino, they are called the ragazzi, the'guys'that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. And their presence changes the course of life in this small Sicilian town. While they await their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to offering them asylum, a man determined to refuse it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes. Each character, wherever they may come from, is forced to reflect on what it means to meet people they know nothing about. As each brings a different view, a cacophony of discordant voices resonates to the end, when the final one reduces the choir to silence.

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz's Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in what is now western Poland. Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior? Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings. As stories of shocking events in the nearby highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds. Someone – or something – seems to be watching them and attempting to infiltrate their world. Little does Mieczysław realize, as he attempts to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target. A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.

Looking for Her is set in Montreal, Ottawa and Nunavik, Northern Quebc, in 2019. It explores the intersecting lives of three women in search of themselvesCate, 43, is a university professor in an unfulfilling marriage. Moving lockstep with her husband Liam, she lives a measured life and keeps the peace, until she meets Isabel, 28, an attractive, biracial paramedic. Isabel is everything Cate is not: spontaneous, athletic, naturally beautiful. When Isabel learns that Cate is a teacher, she enlists her to mentor Nuna, 19, a troubled, urban Inuk living in Montreal.When the story opens, Nuna has gone missing. Feeling responsible for her disappearance, Cate and Isabel embark on a search to find her. Along the way, their friendship is tested, Nuna remains elusive, and Cate must contend with her ever-demanding husband, who resents her special relationship with the women. As lead after lead falls through and the search reaches a critical impasse, Cate and Isabel agree, reluctantly, to stop looking for her.When Cate and Isabel drift into each other's arms, Cate reads it as a sign that her marriage is over, that she must stop living for others and finally live life on her own terms. Isabel sees it as the rehashing of an old wound. Once the smoke settles, the two women go in separate directions.At the end of the novel, Cate and Isabel hear from Nuna who left Montreal to live her life on her terms, rather than fulfill the expectations of Cate and Isabel.

It is 1963, one year after Independence, and Trinidadians are beginning to wonder what they can expect. Anna takes a temporary post at a remote post office in a small coastal town, hoping to escape a failed relationship, and the drama, pressures and politics of her city life. But neither time or space is granted, as the life of Macaima passes through the post office, and Anna reluctantly begins to take on the villagers'stories – which prove to be just as complicated and enmeshed in the social, cultural and political issues that divide the nation as her own. Long before the year is up, Anna has been immersed in an intense seasoning in Macaima that will change her for ever. Macaima is a magical place of intense and unforgettable characters, which Jennifer Rahim draws with exceptional psychological subtlety. And Anna herself – flawed, a little prickly and sometimes too ready to jump to conclusions – is a complex narrator whom we ultimately trust and care for. As an historical novel it asks probing questions about the nature of the means and ends of the project of Independence and its failures with respect to race, class, gender and sexuality. Goodbye Bay is simply one of the very best Caribbean novels to have been written, and not just in recent years. Written in a seamless mix of sharply observed realism with moments of rich humour, and of numinous poetic intensity, it tells a gripping story with room for surprise, humour, tragedy and redemption.

A celebratory dinner and engagement ceremony is to be held at a large home in Our Village, in southeast Turkey. Halil, the cousin of the future bride, Leyla, is sent to a nearby village to buy the traditional cologne. Leyla's sister, Maral, is told to go door-to-door to remind everyone to attend. Throughout the long day, the other women of the household clean, cook and toil. Meanwhile, a dust storm descends out of nowhere and a menacing mist settles over the village streets. This harrowing tale, which spans sixteen hours and is told through the eyes of a mysterious narrator, delves into the bad blood between two timeless villages where most of the men are heavily armed village guards, and there is money to be made in agriculture, oil, fish farms and more. Geographical complexities, tangled relations, hazy memories and unreliable witnesses make for a story in which perhaps is nothing as it seems…

The Earth is Falling is a haunting and magical novel based around the existence of an abandoned village outside Naples. The deserted houses that still stand there are peopled with ghosts who live in a perpetual present from which time has effectively been abolished. The village appears to be semi-alive; the landslide which ominously awaits and which will eventually lead to the abandonment of the place has yet to arrive (yet its rumbles are heard). Pellegrino peoples Alento with eccentrics, luminaries, an eternally optimistic town crier. In the closing pages, the narrator Estella summons the remaining ghosts for a final dinner. The overall effect is unsettling, haunting and uncanny, the trapped souls doomed to repeat their circumscribed daily life for ever, cut off from the world but dimly aware of its continued presence outside.

What keeps and attractive academic tied to the memory of a man she marries when he is about to die? What do people who have been jailed without trial have to say to one another and to posterity? What do they really long for as they languish in detention? What is love? How does it survive persecution? Has the last word been written about Dr Banda? What really brought him to power and how did he manage to wield it for so long? In this, his first novel, the poet Felix Mnthali tries to answer some of these questions asked here. He also gives us brief vignettes of his own life as well as sketches of the history of his beloved country of Malawi....constructed in a fascinating way, like a musical symphony, one tune leading into another, merging and accumulating a harmony or discord to form a satisfying whole, it certainly stands the'test'of a literary work. Literature succeeds better than history in bringing to life the reality of that history. [Pat Bryden]