{"title":"Sale","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"color:#ed6d4d;\"\u003eA limited selection from our backlist at 40% off, while stocks last.\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThese are titles we believe in as much as the day we published them – literary fiction, poetry and short stories from Salt’s list, now at a lower price simply because our warehouse has more copies than readers have yet found. Prices shown are full price – the 40% Sale discount is applied automatically at checkout, so there's nothing to key in. \u003cstrong\u003eThis discount can’t be combined with other offer codes.\u003c\/strong\u003e Once a title sells out at this price, it’s gone from the Sale – so if something catches your eye, don’t wait too long.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"burnt-island-9781907773488","title":"Burnt Island","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor disillusioned author Max Long, the offer of a writing-fellowship on the mysterious-sounding ‘Burnt Island’ is a godsend. Max is determined that, inspired by his tenure on this windswept outpost, he will produce every writer’s dream — the bestseller. And this time, he plans to subvert his usual genre and write a horror story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut upon arrival, Max’s fantasies of hermetic island life are overturned when he encounters a potential rival living in close proximity – the famously reclusive James Fairfax, author of the internationally-lauded novel, \u003cem\u003eLifeblood\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Angela Carter crossed with the Scottish diffidence of Muriel Spark.’ —Ali Smith — on Justine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A high-wire act of a novel. Try to resist it and you can’t.’ —Fay Weldon — on Pandora’s Box\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Expertly combining compelling storytelling with a cleverly constructed, elegant and metaphor-ridden style.’ —Camilla Pia — on The Falconer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The Existential Detective is unsettling, unsettlingly erotic, and somehow sadly beautiful. Thompson is fast becoming one of the most original and formidable writers in the English language today.’ —Sunday Herald — on The Existential Detective\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Haunting, strange, Kafkaesque, poetic mystery.’ —Ian Rankin — on The Existential Detective\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A gothic music video of a novel that whirls with weirdness... madly energetic ... genuinely scary.’ —Stephen King — on Pharos\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘What makes a book happen? Where does literary inspiration come from? These are some of the underlying questions asked by Alice Thompson’s deliciously creepy tale that is almost an homage to surreal horror stories such as Angela Carter’s \u003cem\u003eThe Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman\u003c\/em\u003e and John Fowles’s \u003cem\u003eThe Magus\u003c\/em\u003e.... Her prose style tackles these questions in spare and simple language, devoid of drama and, it would seem, ambiguity, and in that sense, she avoids echoing the richness of both Angela Carter and John Fowles, even as she appears to be paying her tribute to both of them. It’s a wise decision, as this prose style also matches better the sparse landscape of the island itself. This is a simple yet clever tale, gently satirising literary ambition as it explores the darker sources of inspiration, and told with all the supernatural horror of the best Hammer stories.’ —Lesley McDowell\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Thompson’s gripping narrative invites the reader to solve the mystery of Burnt Island and the true purpose of Max Long’s fellowship. A dark, compelling novel with strong themes of paranoia and strange eroticism throughout.’ —Lizzie Greenhalgh\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Burnt Island is steeped in self-awareness, as a book about the process and effect of writing might be. It seems connected by literary electricity to other tales of isolation: \u003cem\u003eThe Shining\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePincher Martin\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Sea, The Sea\u003c\/em\u003e. It might resist \"character development\", but Max does learn that, however bad things can get for him, there is always someone who has had it worse: usually another writer.’ —John Self\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘At the end Thompson seems to be hinting that writing is a parasitic occupation, a form of vampirism even, writers taking the events of others’ lives and using them as raw material, and in the relationship between Fairfax and Long that is taken to an extreme. Exquisitely written, with a real feel for the wide open spaces and the indifference of nature, but at the same time showing how these things are mirrored in the human heart, this is a miniature gem of a book, one that tells us something of the gothic while remaining thoroughly modern in the telling, with a meta-fictional streak that places the practice of writing itself under the microscope.’ —Peter Tennant\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Fractured and lucid as a dream. Creepy and brilliant.’ —Ian Rankin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alice Thompson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892790785,"sku":"9781907773488","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781907773488.jpeg?v=1570475299"},{"product_id":"septembers-9781907773785","title":"Septembers","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Annabel was a black and white figure in the distance, going in through the front doors. She worked behind the reception. I was a history teacher.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs we meet Matt, lying across the backseat of his on\/off girlfriend’s car, he begins a long confession. It starts with wrestling moves and continues past statue fires, reaching bomb threats and assault via episodes in the life of Franz von Papen, the Chancellor of interwar Germany. Piece by piece, Matt presents us with a map of his failures. Or is he part of some grander, universal fuck-up? \u003cem\u003eSeptembers\u003c\/em\u003e, Christopher Prendergast’s debut novel, is a simmering tale of upheaval, revolt and loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Prendergast reanimates the ailing spaces of the City: with vision, tenderness and terrific writing.’ —James Sheard\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The pleasure of \u003cem\u003eSeptembers\u003c\/em\u003e lies in its wisdom, honesty and warmth. It isn’t a eulogy for lost worlds or ideas, or an attack on the world we’re confronted with. Prendergast’s England, hollowed by peak-capitalism, feels fraught with possibility. Life baffles his antiheroes, yet they’re stalked by hopeful conspiracies. \u003cem\u003eSeptembers\u003c\/em\u003e is the smartest, freshest novel I’ve read in some time. Prendergast is a new and important voice.’ —Joe Stretch\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Prendergast's debut is part love story, part social commentary on an urban world failing its inhabitants like history teacher Matt and his girlfriend Annabel. Prendergast cites Kurt Vonnegut as an influence, and some of that can be seen in the way he moves between the past and the present.’ —Lesley McDowell\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Christopher Prendergast","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892801153,"sku":"9781907773785","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781907773785.jpeg?v=1570476056"},{"product_id":"deaf-at-spiral-park-9781907773167","title":"Deaf at Spiral Park","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeaf at Spiral Park\u003c\/em\u003e is a book about a bear that shaves off his fur to join humanity. The novel uses a range of generic approaches, such as comedy and philosophy, to question the humanity of the bear, and conversely the animalistic behaviour of those around him. A cast of characters such as a clown, an invalid, a farmer and a philosopher transcend their stock types and become involved in the complex world of the bear. The antagonist, a recruitment consultant, dies several times, and, ultimately, this teaches her nothing. This is a fresh and original novel which remains accessible and funny in spite of its experimental and philosophical concerns.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Surreal, touching, and very very funny.’ —Rob Shearman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Kieran Devaney's brilliant first novel.’ —Nicholas Royle\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eDeaf at Spiral Park\u003c\/em\u003e leaves a lingering nausea familiar to anyone who has ever had a performance review. But the dark humour of the novel sustains it. Tiny flashes of joy are there though only fleetingly, the shafts of sunlight on a pavement, a minor victory for someone on the ‘shitlist’ (only called on for the worst of jobs), and an ‘impossibly moving’ moment for the bear at a concert. All soon swallowed up, but some moments to hold on to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerhaps what is most telling is that I read Deaf at Spiral Park on a long commute either side of a day’s work that at times felt like just another surreal episode in the novel.’ —Cultural Outpost\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘It takes a vivid imagination to come up with the central premise of \u003cem\u003eDeaf at Spiral Park\u003c\/em\u003e and Kieran Devaney clearly has that imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt follows the misadventures of a bear, who shaves off all his fur, clips his claws, buys the biggest clothes he can find, and tries to join the world. We find him trying to hold down a series of temporary jobs, while interacting with the recruitment consultant, whose frequent deaths have no educational value, and a myriad of other characters, add the human elements to this novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs you can probably tell, it is definitely in the genre of magic realism, but it is none the worse for that. This conceit, such as it is, allows for the very nature of what makes us human to be fully explored, and although the book does not have a strong plot (it is the whole grass is greener on the other side, no it isn't type hero quest) it does pose more questions and ideas than perhaps ninety percent of the books that find their ways onto the shelves of our bookshops do.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a worthwhile read, and if your reading tastes fall somewhere between \u003cem\u003eThe Life of Pi\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eVernon God Little\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThen We Came To The End\u003c\/em\u003e, then you should definitely give this book a try.’ —Ben Macnair\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kieran Devaney","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892827777,"sku":"9781907773167","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781907773167.jpeg?v=1570475329"},{"product_id":"the-best-british-poetry-2014-9781907773686","title":"The Best British Poetry 2014","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Best British Poetry 2014\u003c\/em\u003e presents the finest and most engaging poems found in literary magazines and webzines over the past year. The material gathered represents the rich variety of current UK poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a note by the poet explaining the inspiration for the poem.’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Mark Ford has gathered together poems born of London, in conversation with London, in combat with London, in awe of London, most of which were first published in London, centre of print and power. Covering six and a half centuries of wandering, whoring, watching, drinking, dancing, praying, building, courting, and cursing, here can be found Wordsworth’s ‘endless stream of men and moving things’, even when, as Fleur Adcock puts it, ‘the traffic’s as abominable as ever’. Packed as the Underground, this is as essential a guide to London as the A–Z.’ —Frances Wilson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘...the boy Ford done good, has done us proud, has played a blinder. I have never come across a London anthology... as rich, as bold, as multifarious as this... Olympic visitors should lug this brick back home for a pungent souvenir of the original \"maximum city\" in all it grot and grandeur...’ —Boyd Tonkin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mark Ford","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892834753,"sku":"9781907773686","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781907773686.jpeg?v=1571258718"},{"product_id":"clara-s-daughter-9781907773792","title":"Clara’s Daughter","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMichele is a successful business woman with a troubled private life. She has a high-powered job, a family, a husband, yet she is defined by a term of possession: she is ‘Clara’s daughter’. Nameless. When Michele moves her mother into the basement, her husband slams the door and disappears into the night. Michele increasingly hides away upstairs, as Clara weaves her conspiracies beneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eClara’s Daughter\u003c\/em\u003e begins in terraced houses and city parks of North London but develops, through sharp-edged monologues and surreal visions, into a primeval stand-off between mother and daughter. Eventually, Clara – the controlling matriarch – finds a way to release her daughter. But can Michele release herself?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeike Ziervogel is a master of suspenseful storytelling. In Clara’s clandestine power games and Michele’s increasingly fraught dealings with both her mother and her own highly-strung sister, Hilary, there emerges a chilling, yet poignant family tableau. Devastating in its psychological insights, \u003cem\u003eClara’s Daughter\u003c\/em\u003e reveals unnerving truths about relationship anxieties on many levels, which emerge not only from Ziervogel’s elegant, succinct descriptions, but build steadily from the tense, silent spaces between the unfolding of main events. A divinely-crafted, almost cinematic novella, \u003cem\u003eClara’s Daughter\u003c\/em\u003e is at once startling, moving and intensely enduring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘From the author of \u003cem\u003eMagda\u003c\/em\u003e, an incisive dissection of matriarchal power-play set in the leafy suburbs of North London. Ziervogel evokes the age-old mother-daughter struggle – cast in contemporary role anxieties. Is Michele destined to be mother, wife, high-powered business woman or merely ‘Clara's Daughter’? A moving read for our times.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMorag Charlwood, Shoreham Wordfest\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A taut and compelling drama about the place of the elderly in family life and about how, in one way or another, it's the destiny of the old to be hidden away. It’s also about how much a marriage can take, and what it eventually boils down to – clothes in bin liners. I enjoyed \u003cem\u003eClara's Daughter\u003c\/em\u003e hugely; in this novella length story Meike Ziervogel has achieved a lot with, relatively speaking, a little. Reading it was like watching a very good play.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eIsabel Wolff, Sunday Times bestselling author of ‘Ghostwritten’\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A quietly devastating book about the disintegration of a marriage. Moving the mother into the basement and then having the backwards and forwards structure creating a sense of the will-she-won't-she move in and detonate like a bomb down there or merely sit and rot like a huge dark fish while the marriage falls apart above is a stroke of genius.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNatalie Young, author of ‘Season to Taste’\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Meike Ziervogel is becoming one of the most interesting figures in the contemporary British and European world, not just because she is a publisher of imagination and daring, but a writer of grace, forensic precision, and power. Rarely has someone given so much from sheer enthusiasm, and talent, and been so worth watching.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas Lezard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Ziervogel is the brave woman who set up Peirene Press five years ago … Her own debut novel displays similar nerve … This is an ambitious and queasily unsettling novel.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDAVID MILLS\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This frank, disturbing novel is an intriguing mix of fact and fiction and pulls no punches. The author sets out to use the story to examine the psychological theory that unloved daughters destroy the people they love and then themselves … Ziervogel explores this disturbing theory with haunting originality and real flair.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCHRISTENA APPLEYARD\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Daily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is an intelligent, acute and horrifically intense book. It didn't so much take my breath away as make me gasp for air.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSAM JORDISON\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The deftly arranged sequence of scenes gradually reveals the fears and needs of each protagonist and their relationships with each other, outlined with a careful, thoughtful style that creates an unusual atmosphere of charged bleakness. 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Aware that his every action is being monitored by those reading the novel, Marguerite’s mind and world is at constant risk of disintegration. Disturbed by attempts to understand himself and the nature of the objects he encounters, Marguerite’s minute and comically digressive inquiries threaten his very existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs he follows and then is followed by Harold’s wife Isobel around the city, Marguerite discovers startling evidence of her involvement in the disappearance and becomes increasingly compromised by his feelings for her. Finding himself cornered by Isobel on a speeding bus, it emerges that Marguerite may be more closely implicated than we think. The resolution of the case brings a discovery that will shatter his world and well-being forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhatever Happened to Harold Absalon?\u003c\/em\u003e is a unique take on the world of category, cliché and identity and heralds the emergence of a truly original new voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I love your novel... It's very bold ... experimental but accessible.’ —Nicholas Royle\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘You embark on this book expecting a certain fictional route, then notice the author has taken a wrong turning, then another... Do you jump off, or stay on and enjoy the slow-motion ride and new perspectives? 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It’s a marvel of compression, not in the manner of Jean Echenoz and others who strip the detective novel down to its bones, but by taking a few minor, even meaningless moments of a larger investigation and exploding them to the point of rewarding absurdity.’ —Necessary Fiction\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon Okotie","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892866881,"sku":"9781907773341","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781907773341.jpeg?v=1571258885"},{"product_id":"sky-hooks-9781784630379","title":"Sky Hooks","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA young warehouseman, his promising football career cut short by injury, counts flanges, valves and couplings for a living. He longs for the warmth and women of the office, but the prostitutes who hang around the high-rise are easier to deal with. Drink provides relief, if not escape, and probably the last thing he should dream of becoming is a writer, but then he buys himself a note pad and pen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis debut novel by Neil Campbell, author of the short story collections \u003cem\u003eBroken Doll\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePictures From Hopper\u003c\/em\u003e, is a moving and darkly comic meditation on the challenge of trying to realise dreams in a harsh and unfair world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Neil Campbell’s \u003cem\u003eSky Hooks\u003c\/em\u003e is an unsentimental but empathetic and heartfelt book about an ordinary man who could’ve been a contender, a football prodigy whose destiny was irreparably waylaid by injury. It is a book about a working class Mancunian negotiating, in a kind of sustained daze, the pieces of a life subtly shattered by destiny, and how he takes those pieces and tentatively, waywardly, turns himself into someone else.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eColin Barrett\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The work it does is largely done through flat description and that description is as close to the interior monologue of a young Mancunian lad of a particular generation as it is possible to get and still end up with a saleable book. For that alone, this novel is surely already a regional classic of some sort.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Manchester Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A heartfelt account of one man’s journey of self discovery. It is at times moving and thought provoking, and it explores the challenges we face as we learn to adjust in what can be an unfair world.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Owl on the Bookshelf\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A vital writer, in touch with people and the natural and constructed worlds around us.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas Royle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The dialogue is note perfect and has a studied, savage banality.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Magrs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘These are stories not of love but of need and they ache with truth; they are as eerie and lonely as any Hopper painting.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNuala Ní Chonchúir\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Neil Campbell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":14531065479,"sku":"9781784630379","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784630379.jpg?v=1570476067"},{"product_id":"stanly-s-ghost-9781784630768","title":"Stanly’s Ghost: Book Three: The Bitter Sixteen Trilogy","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Guardian: Fresh voices: 50 writers you should read now\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCynical, solitary Stanly Bird used to be a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend was a talking beagle named Daryl. Then came the superpowers. And the superpowered allies. And the mysterious enemies. And the terrifying monsters. And the stunning revelations. And the apocalypse. Now he’s not sure what he is. Or where he is. Or how exactly one is supposed to proceed after saving the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll he knows is that his story isn’t finished.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot quite yet …\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ I'm not normally one for hyperbole, but I can quite honestly say that Stefan Mohamed has written one of the best Young Adult trilogies out there, and certainly, in my opinion, the best by a British writer. Here's hoping we don't have to wait too much longer for more from this author – you'll find me at the front of the queue!’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLuke Marlowe\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Bookbag\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★ This sparky debut puts the classic comic book origin story through the pop-cultural blender by gifting superpowers to a kid who just happens to be a massive sci-fi geek. For Smallville, substitute Tref-y-Celwyn, the mid-Welsh town where vowel-deficient teenage loner Stanly suddenly discovers a talent for flight and telekinesis. Accompanied by a potty-mouthed beagle (just go with it), Stanly up, ups and aways to London, where he throws his lot in with a bunch of Generation X-Men investigating a series of sinister child abductions. Zippy prose keeps the story barrelling along, the genre references come thick and fast (even the dog a Yoda impression does) and, in Stanly, Mohamed has created a hero you’ll really root for. A flying start.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Kirkley\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSFX Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ The plot is an absolute page turner – it is hard not to like Stanly, and Daryl (the talking dog) becomes an immediately likeable presence. The plot moves in a way that may seem relatively formulaic for those who have read a lot of Superhero tales, but the twists here are stonkingly big, and always surprising, making this a very fresh and original read. In addition, the villain is truly chilling – and one who I would love to see portrayed on screen.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLuke Marlowe\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Book Bag\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★ If you know your Calrissian from your Kobayashi, then YA novel \u003cem\u003eBitter Sixteen\u003c\/em\u003e is the most fun you can have in the superhero genre...’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAliya Whiteley\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDen of Geek\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eChildren’s Book of the Week\u003c\/strong\u003e: Never mind writing about superpowers, debut author Stefan Mohamed clearly has them himself – he’s produced a highly original novel for young adults that is clever and funny, with character you want to ask home afterwards.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex O’Connell\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘It’s part superhero fantasy, part comedy, with an underlying love story and a creepy twist in the tail, all served up with panache, pace and punch.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSally Morris\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Daily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Mohamed’s first novel is a thoroughly entertaining, charming and witty take on the crowded superhero subgenre.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEric Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Mohamed does everything right: the realistic tone, leavened by humour, is pitch perfect, as is the portrayal of Stanly as a precocious but vulnerable teenager. The plot careers from one dramatic set-piece to the next, with plenty of clever pop culture references along the way, before closing with a thrilling denouement. And Daryl the talking dog is an inspired creation.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEric Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ The long-awaited follow-up to Stefan Mohamed’s brilliant \u003cem\u003eBitter Sixteen\u003c\/em\u003e has arrived. 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I hope Williams has more up of this superb writing up his sleeve for us. And maybe next time I’ll figure out how he manages it.’ —\u003cem\u003eMurder Underground Broke The Camel's Back\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This novel by Tony Williams is completely magnificent. It's based on the Icelandic saga of Grettir the Strong and is set on a housing estate in Sheffield. It's horrifyingly, scabrously funny. It's one of the most distinctive and addictively readable prose voices I've encountered since Magnus Mills. If there was any justice it would be as big as \u003cem\u003eTrainspotting\u003c\/em\u003e.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLuke Kennard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eRead of the fortnight: \u003cem\u003eNutcase\u003c\/em\u003e by Tony Williams\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAidan is a violent thug, but also has a heartbreaking gentleness. We rattle through the plot at 100mph, but everything is described in vivid detail. Everything is ugly and sordid, but everything is captivating and beautiful. And this is achieved seamlessly. \u003cem\u003eNutcase\u003c\/em\u003e is one of those books that feels effortless; so natural that you don’t see the brushstrokes behind the masterpiece. I keep going back to reread sections to see how he pulls it off, and I’m honestly still not sure. But I do know that Williams is a writer on fire. There’s no escaping the fact that this is a brutal book.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnna Craig\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSheffield Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A powerful, if disturbing, book that will remain with you long after you finish it.’ —\u003cem\u003eBlue Book Balloon\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘One of the most remarkable things about the novel is that it never loses momentum. This isn't easy when one is essentially describing the lives of a bunch of druggie layabouts; it's a milieu that can soon become a deadly bore. That it does not is both a tribute to the author's handling of pace and a vindication of his choice of style; the saga-form really does suit the material.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSheenagh Pugh\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘These tiny fragile stories are stuffed to the brim with wit and energy and love. Their architecture is perfect, as if a thousand complex worlds had been painted onto a grain of rice. 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The emotion, humour and awkwardness in these tales is the closest thing to real-life I have read in an extremely long time and I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book that will keep you on your toes.’ —\u003cem\u003eSabotage Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘There are some perfect little gems in this work; my particular favourite was the two-page story about a man who is jealous of his girlfriend’s pet chickens and how he gets his revenge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt does give a funny, and sometimes wrenching view of the lives of us eccentric Brits.’ —\u003cem\u003eNewBooks Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tony Williams","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":32732614410,"sku":"9781784631062","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631062.jpg?v=1570475985"},{"product_id":"the-clocks-in-this-house-all-tell-different-times-9781784630935","title":"The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2018\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2017 Costa First Novel Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2018  \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA dark social-realist fairytale, spotlighting the shadowy underside of 1920s England\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSummer 1923: the modern world. Orphaned Lucy Marsh climbs into the back of an old army truck and is whisked off to the woods north of London – a land haunted by the past, where lost souls and monsters conceal themselves in the trees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a sunlit clearing she meets the ‘funny men’, a quartet of disfigured ex-soldiers named after Dorothy’s companions in \u003cem\u003eThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz\u003c\/em\u003e. Here are the loved and the damaged, dark forests and darker histories, and the ever-present risk of discovery and violent retribution. Xan Brooks’ stunning debut is heartbreaking, disturbing and redemptive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The assurance and skill with which Xan Brooks tells his tale in \u003cem\u003eThe Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times\u003c\/em\u003e makes it difficult to believe that this is a first novel. By turns funny and tragic, awful and lovely, terrifying and warming, it’s a book told with rare elegance and narrative zest. The post-Great War England the novel depicts is a land of exhausted decay and weird encounters, filled with fake spiritualists, war heroes turned into monsters, and repulsive aristocrats. Its twisted humour and dark satire reminded me above all of Graham Greene, and that is not a comparison one makes lightly. I absolutely loved it.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLloyd Shepherd, author of The English Monster\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e Fiction to look out for in 2017\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times\u003c\/em\u003e (Salt) by Xan Brooks – a fairytale wrapped within a historical novel, it’s as quixotic and dreamlike as Ishiguro’s \u003cem\u003eThe Buried Giant\u003c\/em\u003e.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Preston, author of In Love and War\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Thrilling, disturbing and somehow very funny … a bold, ambitious, weird novel with a lot of foliage to get lost in’ —\u003cstrong\u003eHannah Jane Parkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A book with heart and soul that is original, penetrative and engaging. It should be relished by every discerning reader.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNever Imitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Philly Malicka enjoys a strange fable about drugs. jazz and the scars of the Great War ... The year is 1923 and the trauma of the First World War has left Britain misshapen. Part of society hopes for social change, while others, ossified, look backward. This dark, magical tale explores the chasm between the two, and how a nation ravaged by “the storms of the things they once did, the people they once were” seeks redemption.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePhilly Malicka\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Genuinely amazing: quirky, thought-provoking, a wonderful read.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnne Goodwin\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The Pink Earl’s stately home, where the clocks all tell different times, may be a relic from a vanished past, but the future is massively present there – and it’s the one we recognise, in which everyone is “embarked on their own adventure” and in which the rhetoric of constant change at one level disguises the perpetuation of entrenched power at another.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eM. John Harrison\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This will be familiar to fans of \u003cem\u003eDecline And Fall\u003c\/em\u003e. But what Evelyn Waugh treated satirically isn’t so funny any more, and this well-written novel is more tender and sad than bitingly hilarious.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eFanny Blake\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘With its finely judged atmosphere of tainted innocence, Brooks’s novel frames the real horrors of post-conflict trauma as episodes of near-fairytale jeopardy: the grown-up terrors in the dark wood and the poisonous intoxications of the great house are trials in which his heroine’s strength of character is forged. As in fairy stories, the happy-ever-after consists of the simplest of fulfilled desires: a home, work, a family: love as ordinary and essential as bread.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJane Shilling\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The novel is a rich tapestry that interweaves the social fabric of interwar England with fairy tale touches. Lucy comes to feel that “the world is confusing, but the forest is not”, poignantly conveying the strangeness of the period. The author has a fabulously visual style, and I loved the ensemble of characters - some haunted, some scarred, all of them nimbly conjured by a debut author with considerable talent.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJoanne Owen\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLovereading\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The opening section and the overall premise of Xan Brooks’s debut novel is fascinating. Taken away from the pub she lives in with her grandfather for the afternoon, orphaned Lucy Marsh goes into the woods to meet ‘the funny men’. Alongside four other young people whose life circumstances have left them equally vulnerable, Lucy goes for a picnic with these funny men who she will soon know as The Tin Man, Toto, the Scarecrow, and The Lion. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that there is something sinister about five pre-teen children being taken to the woods to meet with four men who disguise themselves as characters from a children’s classic, but Brooks does a fantastic job of drip-feeding us the necessary information until we come to see the true nature of these interactions and realise that the ‘funny men’ are actually traumatised war veterans no longer comfortable in the real world.’ —\u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘I don’t know what I was expecting going in to this book, but honestly what I got wasn’t anything like I imagined. 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In Berlin in September 1939; in Norway when the Germans invaded. Sailed back to Orkney by a brave Norwegian, whose family was killed in retaliation. And he kept a diary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHolly has always known that. It’s the family story. But when her father finally passes on a transcript of the diary, she finds the ‘brave Norwegian’ has a name. He is real. But why was a spy writing a diary at all?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart war-time thriller, part exploration of the ethics of story-telling, \u003cem\u003eReconciliation\u003c\/em\u003e slips between Occupied Norway and Cambridge, London and the Highlands during the Iraq War and its aftermath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBased on truth but laced with errors and lies, as each layer of the story peels away, we discover just how easily we have been misled. Stories always lie, but sometimes they are the only truth we have. \u003cem\u003eReconciliation\u003c\/em\u003e is a clever, exciting and – ironically – honest account of its own bad faith.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eReconciliation\u003c\/em\u003e opens with an intriguing apology by the author ‘for the extent to which my characters fail to resemble their real-life models’. This indicates a central concern of Guy Ware’s novel: namely, how the fiction writer appropriates ‘facts’ to create a story. 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Read it and see for yourself.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRebekah Lattin-Rawstrone\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRead and Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Absent, slippery or suspect ‘facts’ are central to this unapologetically knotty novel.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eStephanie Cross\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Stories passed down through generations can shape a family but are also subject to the distorting lenses of memory and perspective. Author Guy Ware’s grandfather worked for MI6, escaped from Norway in 1940 and kept a diary, but his new book Reconciliation (Salt, £8.99) is fiction. It follows Holly Stanton, whose grandfather was a spy and happened to be in Norway when the Germans invaded, and who kept a diary. It’s a well-known family story but it only becomes tangible to Holly when she finally gets her hands on the diary. 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Themes like these emerge throughout the otherwise disconnected 20 stories in the Croatian author’s collection. They are introduced with a quote by Alberto Manguel from his novel \u003cem\u003eAll Men Are Liars\u003c\/em\u003e: “It is strange that no reader ever understood that my only subject is love.” The desire to be loved runs throughout \u003cem\u003eTemptation\u003c\/em\u003e, but there are no happily-everafters here.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAntonia Charlesworth\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBig Issue in the North\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘In these beautifully observed stories, Main deftly explores love’s myriad forms.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEmily Rhodes\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eLush Library Recommends: Anna James’ Books for 2018\u003c\/strong\u003e Another collection of short stories, this one from Croatian writer Main, these look at ideas of loneliness, passion and obsession and the sometimes gray areas between them. 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Although she has learned some handy lessons from Nathalie Sarraute and other, mainly French practitioners of the “new novel” Vesna Main here shows herself a highly distinctive, adventurous, and formally accomplished writer whose work should find many admirers.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eChris Norris\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Reader, the Writer\u003c\/em\u003e is a dialogue novel, a rare species which has roots in Plato’s , and has since been adopted by a small number of writers from Diderot through to Dave Eggers. Its format is well suited to the discussion of ideas in depth. \u003cem\u003eThe Reader, the Writer\u003c\/em\u003e is a pure example: there is only dialogue, without scene-setting, introduction to protagonists, description or exposition. 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I won’t say any more. To unpack the magic of this art would spoil \u003cem\u003eYou\u003c\/em\u003e for you.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNick Child\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Alienation Experience\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eYou\u003c\/em\u003e, by Phil Whitaker, tells the story of a father whose teenage daughter cut him out of her life after he left her mother. Told in flashbacks as he makes his way across the country to meet her for the first time in seven years, unsure if she will turn up at the rendezvous, it is a tale of inherited hurts and modern manipulation. The premise may sound familiar but its execution soars above similar tales, offering the reader an incisive portrayal of family breakdown and the damage caused by a vindictive parent from a father’s point of view.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The “you” of Whitaker’s emotionally charged novel is the narrator’s daughter. Stevie Buchanan, fiftysomething art therapist, is a victim of “parental alienation”, a severing of relations between parents and children as a result of marriage or relationship breakdown. In urgently, insistently addressing his daughter, a 21-year-old student, Stevie does the very thing he is prevented from doing in person, as he has been estranged from her for seven years. His desperation fuels flights of imagination in which, together, the pair revisit scenes of family history going back generations to examine the domino effect of traumas that repeat themselves with devastating effect.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJane Housham\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eYou\u003c\/em\u003e can be appreciated on a number of levels. Firstly the language and the writing which is of the highest quality. Whitaker seems to put his prose together effortlessly creating word pictures and word thoughts that stay with you for several pages. Secondly his ability to characterise again seems to be effortless. I’m sure it isn’t! But for the reader it’s the end result that resonates and the characters here, especially Stevie, are real and substantially drawn. Thirdly, and arguably most importantly the theme of this book, parental alienation. If it’s not a term you’re familiar with, take heart. Neither was I. But I am now and how!’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGill Chedgey\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNudge Book Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Whitaker is so genuinely inventive.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Whitaker is clearly a writer to watch’ —\u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Whitaker is an intelligent, sympathetic and eloquent writer.’ —\u003cem\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Phil Whitaker has gone where no novelist has dared to go before.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMarcus Chown\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Funny, engaging, insightful, and even moving. Masterful.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePhil Hammond\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A wonderful story. if literary thriller means anything it means \u003cem\u003eThe Face\u003c\/em\u003e. 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We’re always wondering about the detective as much as his quarry and this makes for a rather mysterious read, another very enjoyable debut from Salt.’ —\u003cem\u003eShiny New Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘[A] disturbing, self-reflective chiller. The shifting perspectives demonstrate how filtered any observation of people will be. Alexander seeks subjects for his art. The reader may find themselves captured by his gaze.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Mark Carew’s debut novel is written with a wit and compassion that is second to none. Alexander is about to embark on a remarkable never before attempted experiment – he will find who he is by writing a book as if he were a detective. 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Searing prose and caustic humour from a tramping Mancunian flâneur.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Kalu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Neil Campbell’s \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is a poetic, emotionally-charged reflection of what it means to live and work in the city today. Its Mancunian voice is so distinct it’s not like reading a novel at all but like having a conversation with modernity itself. \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is sharp, funny and moving – a wonderful evocation of Manchester life.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLee Rourke\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A 21st century Mancunian take on Post Office by Charles Bukowski. If you liked \u003cem\u003ePost Office\u003c\/em\u003e then you'll almost certainly like this.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eScott Pack\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell’s narrator is a young working-class man from Manchester. Throughout the novel he works a number of zero hours jobs, first at a mail-sorting depot, later at a number of libraries. There is nearly always something to dishearten our man, be it his duties, colleagues, managers, or just the constant uncertainty that comes with this kind of employment. Besides work, the narrator has a number of unsuccessful attempts at relationships, and sees the face of his city change, losing its character to gentrification. There’s a stop-start feel to reading the novel itself: as with zero hours work, the present moment is all, and even the immediate future uncertain.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Hebblethwaite\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDavid’s Book World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell is a realist writer, and \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is probably even more true to life and purposefully undramatic than its predecessor. And this is no bad thing, because he is a poet with a knack for describing ordinary episodes that strike an expectedly emotional chord. He is also deeply concerned with place and the indelible imprint left on a person by the sites that represent lodestones of their past.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRonnie McCluskey\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStorgy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is the second volume of Neil Campbell’s Manchester trilogy. Honestly, if ever a novel deserved literary accolades and bouquets it’s this one. Zero Hours possesses more energy, grind and determination than a decade of Bookers. If there was any justice it should be jumping off the bookshelves.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJoe Phelan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Surely already a regional classic of some sort … This book has its nearest equivalent in Mark Hodkinson’s northern writing. It is unpretentious and powerful, cuttingly honest … It tightens its grip on you by loosening its hold. It achieves high results by not trying … It silently slides its tentacles around you, showing you how life in structural poverty feels … All of this is achieved through very workaday description, interior monologue and dialogue … The author has mastered the art of tiny details that do massive amounts of work. 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Now 800 years old, John wants to tell his story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking back over his life, from its beginnings with a medieval anchoress to his current lodgings beside the deathbed of a Cold War spy, John pieces together his tale: the love that held him together and, in particular, the reasons for a murder that took place in Moscow fifty years earlier, which set in train a shattering series of events.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSamuel Fisher’s debut, \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e is a love story about books like no other, weaving texts and lives in a family tale that leads the reader on an extraordinary historical journey, a journey of words as much as of places, and a gripping romance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Riffle, rifle, browse, devour – an immersive and profoundly engaging debut, \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e demands a place on your bookshelf’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEley Williams\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A book narrated by a constantly transmuting, text-shifting book? 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It tells the story of the people who have owned it down the years.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eScott Pack\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘As well as being a new novelist, Fisher is also a founder of Peninsula Press, a small independent publisher whose list to date shows a predilection for innovative and experimental voices. It’s a partiality replicated in this wonderful, funny and audacious debut. Who knows what my copy of \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e will turn into while my back is turned but I look forward to discovering whatever voice or artefact Samuel Fisher will throw himself into next.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Boyne\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘You might expect a debut by a bookseller to be a hymn to the joy of books, but writing from the actual viewpoint of a book (here the narrator, who can transform himself into any combination of words, places himself at the centre of various events over the past 800 years) takes that love to a whole new level. Fisher has so much fun with this tricksy conceit that the very human story he settles on (amid nods to Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges and Dylan Thomas), of a cold war spy looking back on a life, takes time to hit home. That it eventually does is testament to his infectious enthusiasm for the power of the novel.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBen East\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Be it a love story, a thriller or a work of history, a written account makes those it depicts last forever. Revelling in its own wizardry, \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e weaves a captivatingly reflexive tale around the life-giving possibilities of the printed word … Fisher practices a deft sampling technique, mixing in snippets of literary classics into his tale and reflecting on their relevance. The result is a compelling narrative and a subtle meditation on literary history.’ —\u003cem\u003eHackney Citizen\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘It seems only natural that if a bookseller was going to write a novel, it should be about books. Fortunately that's exactly what Wivenhoe’s Samuel Fisher has done although \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e, which was released by cool indie publishers Salt this week, is a very different kind of book altogether. That’s because Samuel’s main character John can become any book, any combination of words, every though, act and expression that has ever been, or will ever be, written.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNeil D’Arcy Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eColchester Gazette\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is undoubtedly a literary novel about a family and relationships, but also it’s about a love of books and it’s a spy story. It’s not surprising that the author set up a bookshop, you can almost imagine him spending time rooting through the stock and absorbing stories for this novel.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNudge-Book Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The concept of a self-aware book is the kind of literary conceit that, in the wrong hands, could lead to the worst excesses of post-modern fiction. The book does, after all, identify with Borges’ tale of the infinite library as though it’s “an autobiography written by a future version of myself”. Roger’s story, in turn, is essentially quite a slight vignette that would struggle to fill a novel on its own. But by marrying them together, Fisher balances and intermingles the two strands so that they sustain an engrossing, satisfying and quite touching novel. 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The narrative of Roger and Margery’s relationship, and the affect of the wars of the 20th century on multiple generations of their family is compelling and genuinely pulls at the emotions, while the depiction of 1950s Moscow and London creates an atmospheric noir backdrop. The book’s playfulness and wit allow the novel time to breathe and to entertain. Its stylistic peculiarities augment and bring depth to the plot, rather than usurping its role as the main event.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRobert Greer\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLondon Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Like its namesake, this little book slithers and slips away from categorisation. Refusing to be pinned down, it is uniquely mischievous and marvellous. I’m quite sure Fisher could have made extremely good novels out of any one of its stories in \u003cem\u003eThe Chameleon\u003c\/em\u003e. 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Sunny’s parents seem inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and don’t blame him for it, but I’m not sure they really believe his tale of ghosts either. With a little help from his spectral friends though Sunny manages to track down the trouble maker, and find a way to settle the problem. Further stories are planned so this looks like being the beginning of quite an adventure for Sunny and the Ghosts.’ —\u003cem\u003eOur Book Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The story is set in an old junk shop in Devon stuffed with more than its fair share of ghosts, who arrive, wistfully attached to the bric-a-brac, in the state in which they died. There’s pyjama-clad Herbert; Walter, a miner who never learned to read (Sunny teaches him); Violet, who’s writing a novel (in a meta-literary touch, it turns out to be Sunny and the Ghosts); and many others, including a mischief-maker who fills the shop with cats. This is a gentle, intelligent and warm novel about friendship and imagination for children of seven and up.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePhilip Womack\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘There is an insistent, rhythmic quality to Moore’s writing, and a dark imagination at work.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGenevieve Fox\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Moore’s distinctive voice commands exceptional power.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDinah Birch\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Impressive and memorable.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMerric Davidson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New Writer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘It deserves to be read, and reread.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eIsabel Berwick\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alison Moore","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":5585955225631,"sku":"9781784631260","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631260.jpg?v=1570476088"},{"product_id":"your-fault-9781784631802","title":"Your Fault","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetro: Best Fiction of 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the Not the Booker Prize 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Elegant, unsparing, meticulously detailed novel in which a conscientious boy grows up with bedeviled parents. 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The narrative balances between a kind of universality and an arresting specificity, exploring the relationship between memory and guilt, as it builds towards its electrifying ending.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEmma Healey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Cowan’s writing is observant and unsentimental, wryly funny and tragic, and his portrait of post-war Britain finds humour and heart in the most unlikely details.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eD. W. Wilson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Andrew Cowan’s latest novel is a brilliant guided tour of a childhood, full of his typically sharp insights into family tenderness and regret. Technically daring, emotionally rewarding, I haven’t read anything quite like it.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRichard Beard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is an exceptional work of fiction.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNaomi Wood\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Written in the second person singular, and with a chapter devoted to each year of Peter’s life from two to 13, this is a terse, bitterly poignant novel about guilt and the art of retrospection.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eClaire Allfree\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Elegant, unsparing, meticulously detailed novel in which a conscientious boy grows up with bedevilled parents. Where do men come from? They come from boys. Look again.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMargaret Atwood\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Four things attracted me to Andrew Cowan’s \u003cem\u003eYour Fault\u003c\/em\u003e: its working class, ‘60s setting; its unusual structure; its length and its publisher, Salt Publishing whose list is never anything but interesting.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSusan Osborne\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Life In Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Cowan embraces every detail of the “buttery shades” of the Sixties with his trademark meticulousness, from the layout of the brand-new estate Peter lives on – “short terraces of four and six houses are oriented at a thirty-degree angle to the road” – to the rented television, the Tri-ang bricks, the ICI polyester slacks, the budgerigar (one in four British homes had one in 1966).’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMarkie Robson-Scott\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Tablet\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eYour Fault\u003c\/em\u003e is a fascinating novel in which a man looks back on his childhood with the self-awareness denied him at the time, and in which the act of remembering matters as much as the events themselves.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlastair Mabbott\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Herald\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Corby writer Andrew Cowan made a big splash with his 2002 debut, coming-of-age tale \u003cem\u003ePig\u003c\/em\u003e. His new novel, \u003cem\u003eYour Fault\u003c\/em\u003e, is just as good as that touching, insightful book. If clarity of recollection is an art, Andrew Cowan is a master.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJane Graham\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBig Issue\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Slowly, traumatic details emerge, as the novel builds towards the final tragedy that lies just offstage in the future. The quality of recall and, above all, the play with time, make this tightly focused book a small masterpiece.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePhil Baker\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eYour Fault\u003c\/em\u003e, Andrew Cowan’s sixth novel, is relentless in its attempt at recollection of a vanished time, and perhaps for this reason accesses a painful past that comes with a very bitter notion of home.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJonathan McAloon\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Andrew Cowan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020977377342,"sku":"9781784631802","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631802.jpg?v=1571259955"},{"product_id":"cracked-skull-cinema-9781784632076","title":"Cracked Skull Cinema","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePoetry Wales: Poetry Books of 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCracked Skull Cinema\u003c\/em\u003e offers poems on culture and society, colonialism and its legacies, media and power. Set between these are homages and reflections on middle age, on life’s loves and losses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘David Briggs writes sharp, intelligent poems that will move and intrigue readers in equal measure. These poems are both philosophic and very funny, and possess deep integrity. Keenly observed and making startling leaps of imagery, they invent scenarios that work through a unique (il)logic, to leave us ‘standing at a moment \/ that’s going to unfurl \/ in a great fathomless skein through our lives’. With characteristically rich language and a great sense of style, Briggs’s new poems are precisely shaped, yet various – from stanzaic verses, to witty prose poems, and experiments with layout. They also feel significantly contemporary in their political and historical concerns, their critique of ‘dyspeptic white men’ and their situatedness. A major step forward for this very exciting young poet.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAndy Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Nothing remains unexamined in this skilful negotiation of personal and political shifts, real and imagined states, unease and trauma, as we discover Briggs’s panoramic view on age and on the age. All of humanity's virtues and vices are at play in what is a sharp and entertaining collection. A new immediacy in the work marks a powerful stepping-up of Briggs’s momentum, and the result is timely.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRachael Boast\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Briggs casts an eye on the pressure-points and complicities of this late capitalist era with an appropriate mix of anger, wry nostalgia and gallows humour. The private sphere is represented by meditations on irretrievable selfhoods and the injustice of time, all of which makes for a worldly, humane, unflinching collection.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eA. B. Jackson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Being focussed and aware is not without pain, suffering and sacrifice for the narrator of these poems. The final poem ‘Lullaby’ concludes ‘we understood the cost of what eluded us.’ These poems are full of careful, taut observations and considerations, all within ‘the eager crosshairs of truth’s opportune rifle.’ If at times I longed for some linguistic carnage to shake things up, this is nonetheless a sure-footed, agile and wise group of poems.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRupert Loydell\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStride Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Briggs' \u003cem\u003eCracked Skull Cinema\u003c\/em\u003e is replete with dynamic poetic forms and musicality. Rather than invoking a detached speaker or catalogue of observations, Briggs engage with his subjects, colouring them with intriguing language and reflections that move beyond the sphere of the internalised self... \u003cem\u003eCracked Skull Cinema\u003c\/em\u003e contains multitudes. Through the tesserae of social commentary, humours quips, and artefacts of popular culture come moments of lucid beauty.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSarah-Jean Zubair\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePoetry London\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eCracked Skull Cinema\u003c\/em\u003e opens, in fact, with a near-dystopia (near in the sense, that the world it atomises is only \u003cem\u003enot quite\u003c\/em\u003e with us already) where ‘good little Puritan boys \/ from the suburbs who’ve snagged their trews \/\/ on the thorns of privilege ... haven’t a clue \/ how to unhook themselves.’ That word ‘privilege’ recurs in ‘Reader Response’, where we’re introduced to ‘those who see darkly through veils of privilege, \/ \/who cannot see the world as it is, \/ \/cannot cope with too much reality’. Anyone who has been trying to ‘see the world as it is’ through their own ‘veils of privilege’ (or indeed lack of it) in recent times will, of course, not find it difficult to identify specific candidates for the privileges kind that Briggs is referring to, yet the echoes of Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians (‘for now we see through a glass, darkly’) and Eliot’s \u003cem\u003eFour Quartets\u003c\/em\u003e (‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’) take these lines beyond the topical and connect immediately political situations with wider-ranging concerns, both philosophical and psychological.’ —\u003cem\u003eRaceme\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e","brand":"David Briggs","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020978229310,"sku":"9781784632076","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632076.jpg?v=1570475321"},{"product_id":"the-south-westerlies-9781784631956","title":"The South Westerlies","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe South Westerlies\u003c\/em\u003e is an attempt to know place (Gower) through the creation of a collection of short stories. Place is not a cosmetic backdrop, but an affecting agent in the lives of a wide cast of fictional characters. The collection is unified by the tone of the prevalent dank south-westerly wind that blows across the peninsula, the UK’s first designated area of outstanding natural beauty. However, the author chooses to let her gaze fall on the downsides of a much vaunted tourism destination and a place that is too beautiful, perhaps, for its own good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Fraser’s stories are compellingly told and carefully crafted. She shares a heightened, acute sense of language with Annie Proulx and the right to comparison with such a prose stylist is properly won. And just as Proulx claims the lodgepole pines and wide-skied landscape of Wyoming as her own so too does Jane Fraser take the wind-flensed land’s edge of north Gower and make it hers. She has given this reader, at least, what he so often desires, namely the tang and sharpness of savouring language seemingly newly minted.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJon Gower\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe South Westerlies\u003c\/em\u003e is obviously the work of a serious, committed and thoughtful writer, open to both inner and outer realms, the quivering sensitivities of the self, and the tactile, textured world outside, a kind of aesthetic elision between character and place.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlan Bilton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe South Westerlies\u003c\/em\u003e illustrate a landscape depicted with great specificity and detail, interfusing an exploration of place with the lives and perceptions of the characters who inhabit it… The stories display a sure grasp of the short story form and the techniques and processes of prose fiction … The collection is an original and valuable contribution to the literature of Gower and Wales.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eTristan Hughes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Similarly, Jane Fraser maps out the edge of north Gower in this supremely confident debut collection with its “farmhouses limewashed in the vernacular style,” its persistent grey rains and the dominant southwesterly winds which bonsai the hedgerow trees and equally shape the stubborn characters who work the land hereabouts. So many stories are shored up by fine, nuanced landscape-writing such as “Just in Case” which presents the reader with the burrows “brushed with the burnished bronze of sunrise and the conical dunes, a lunar landscape, sharply defined and stark with shadow that will lift with the rising sun.” Lovely stuff, and there’s lots of it but always balanced by shadow, the darkness seeping in like damp.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJon Gower\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNation Cymru\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘One of those books that arrives like a surprise, unexpected, a bolt from the blue, and knocks you back on your heels with the pleasure of reading it. A terrific debut short story collection.’ —\u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘4\/4 Fraser is a consummate short story writer. Each story conveys an aspect of life on the Gower; they are succinctly told, not a word wasted, and they are emotionally charged. They are simple tales beautifully told, sometimes utilising the lyrical Welsh language, they are layered and nuanced. Small moments that somehow make a vast landscape of human experience. This feels like a story from the heart, something of the place and people where Jane Fraser lives is conveyed to the reader.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘These pellucidly written stories have real range with all manner of material woven in, from marital differences and disappointments, funeral rites, the death of livestock, infidelity, cockling, the burdens of children and ageing parents, life in claustrophobic caravans and the difficulties of being blessed with the gift of prophecy. It is as if writing is a sort of beachcombing, never knowing what the next tide will bring in. Sometimes a mermaid’s purse, sometimes an oil slick. But always something there to demand our quick attention.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Gower\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNation.Cymru\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Fraser’s collection swells and falls with the tide, offering very human insights into many different aspects of untold – but very much lived – narratives. Every reader will find truth at least somewhere in these stories, though all share the same rocky piece of coastal Wales. The tales cycle through failing marriages, tragic loss, lifetimes of quiet suffering and pivotal moments for both the young and the old.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKathryn Tann\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWales Arts Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jane Fraser","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020978917438,"sku":"9781784631956","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631956.jpg?v=1571258831"},{"product_id":"flotsam-9781784631789","title":"Flotsam","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘By turns beguiling and unsettling, \u003cem\u003eFlotsam\u003c\/em\u003e examines grief and loss through the eyes of an extraordinary child’ Rachel Seiffert\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrine and her mother live in a cottage on the German coast. The mudflats that surround them disappear and reappear with the North Sea tides. The family leads a lonely existence, but each person has adapted in their own way. Anna roams the beaches collecting flotsam and jetsam to make art, while Trine loves playing on a wartime shipwreck. That is, until she loses her brother.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn her taut style, Meike Ziervogel tells a coming-of-age story from 1950s Germany – a place still haunted by war. A place where people pretend not to notice the ghosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘By turns beguiling and unsettling, \u003cem\u003eFlotsam\u003c\/em\u003e examines grief and loss through the eyes of an extraordinary child.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRachel Seiffert\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Ziervogel grew up in Germany and this taut, mysterious novel not only conjures female subjectivities and grief, but it also paints a haunting portrait of the country in the 1950s Germany, with its greater sense of loss, and the looming spectre of crimes committed during the war.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eArifa Akbar\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The writing has a dark and haunting quality yet there is much beauty in its concise construction. The story ebbs and flows with the ghosts of the past and the effects of the isolated location. Both Trine and Anna show a resolve that can be unsettling, beguiling – perhaps because young women are not expected to behave as they do. An astute and arresting tale…’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is not an easy book to write about without muffling the small shocks and perplexities which readers should experience for themselves. Told first from Trine’s perspective then Anna’s, it’s the briefest of novellas yet it provokes more thought than many books three times its length. Written in often lyrical yet spare, clean prose, \u003cem\u003eFlotsam\u003c\/em\u003e is haunted by grief, leaving much for readers to deduce for themselves.’ —\u003cem\u003eA Life in Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ If you’ve read Ziervogel before you will be aware of her ability to tell a dark, haunting story of loss and grief in mesmerising prose. Flotsam excels in this regard, it depicts the cruel way a separation is inflicted upon the living and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Flotsam looks at the psyche of the nation, the greyness of the post war world as the country attempts to modernise and leave the past behind. Heart breaking and thought provoking, this elegiac and insightful novella is poignant, timely and deeply intelligent.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Anna’s experience of World War Two and the consequences of an event in the War, dominates her daughter’s life. Flotsam asks how will the next generation live in the shadow of such destruction, when so much of that history is left silent? Wonderfully concise yet powerful, \u003cem\u003eFlotsam\u003c\/em\u003e seems simple while offering a layered intelligence that should be valued.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJames Doyle\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Haunting originality and real flair.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eChristena Appleyard\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Daily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Ziervogel goes bravely to the bleakest points of humanity and illuminates them with her lyrical and enthralling prose.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eClaire Kohda Hazelton\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Ziervogel shines a humanising light into the dark spots of her country’s history.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLucy Ash\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Meike Ziervogel","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020981702718,"sku":"9781784631789","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631789_bc5d9835-dd89-4b03-8601-eb024bb2546f.jpg?v=1570475384"},{"product_id":"lanyards-9781784631703","title":"Lanyards","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe third part of Neil Campbell’s Manchester Trilogy, in which our struggling young writer finds love with a girl called Cho. Where a love song to Manchester becomes a love song to Cho.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLanyards\u003c\/em\u003e explores how the jobs we wear around our necks dictate the ways we are identified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuilding on the previous novel in the trilogy, \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e, our protagonist finds himself on universal credit, taking agency jobs, moving from learning support work in schools and colleges to call centre jobs and back again, via a failed attempt at getting a job as a driver on the Metrolink tram network.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLanyards\u003c\/em\u003e portrays the comic and poignant moments of working life. All the time reflecting back on the football career the narrator might have had were he not injured, his life as a writer, his experiences of being in a mixed race couple with the Hong Kong born Cho, the Manchester Arena bombing, the continuing success of his beloved Manchester City, the child sex abuse scandals in football, the disparities of wealth in contemporary Britain, and the death of a childhood friend that continues to haunt him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eLanyards\u003c\/em\u003e is an understated work of authenticity \u0026amp; truth about those ordinary lives trucking on, trying to matter. A story of quiet ambition \u0026amp; never truly giving up on what life once promised, this is a love song to Manchester past and present, \u0026amp; an ode to aspiring writers everywhere.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLisa Blower\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eLanyards\u003c\/em\u003e is a warmer yet equally righteous \u003cem\u003eFactotum\u003c\/em\u003e for the 21st Century temp-contract, gig-economy UK.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGlen James Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell's capacity to make the ordinary absolutely fascinating continues in this, the third novel in the Manchester Trilogy. Blackly humorous, witty and brimming with powerful observation, \u003cem\u003eLanyards\u003c\/em\u003e is both touching and gritty, a must-read addition to the working-class genre.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKerry Hadley-Pryce\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘And yet, there is something within the tale that burrows into the mind of the reader – a spark of malcontent that demands attention. Within the ordinary life portrayed is a vibrancy, an insistence that good writing is worth pursuing. As readers we can be thankful that such attitudes persist amongst those whose voices should be heard.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNeverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell writes with great compassion and humour about relationships, friends and family, people the narrator meets in the pub, students he supports, some work mates. It’s hard to explain why all this is so compelling but it just is. Other reviews I’ve read call his style ‘authentic’ and I can’t better that. You can recognise a real life here. It’s not showy. There’s just a little tub thumping – see above – but I felt that a kind of tenderness for others and a humorous view of life is being revealed all the time.’ —\u003cem\u003eAltrincham Word Fest\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘An iconoclast of the first order. Searing prose and caustic humour from a tramping Mancunian flâneur.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Kalu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Neil Campbell’s \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is a poetic, emotionally-charged reflection of what it means to live and work in the city today. Its Mancunian voice is so distinct it’s not like reading a novel at all but like having a conversation with modernity itself. \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is sharp, funny and moving – a wonderful evocation of Manchester life.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLee Rourke\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A 21st century Mancunian take on \u003cem\u003ePost Office\u003c\/em\u003e by Charles Bukowski. If you liked \u003cem\u003ePost Office\u003c\/em\u003e then you'll almost certainly like this.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eScott Pack\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell’s narrator is a young working-class man from Manchester. Throughout the novel he works a number of zero hours jobs, first at a mail-sorting depot, later at a number of libraries. There is nearly always something to dishearten our man, be it his duties, colleagues, managers, or just the constant uncertainty that comes with this kind of employment. Besides work, the narrator has a number of unsuccessful attempts at relationships, and sees the face of his city change, losing its character to gentrification. There’s a stop-start feel to reading the novel itself: as with zero hours work, the present moment is all, and even the immediate future uncertain.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Hebblethwaite\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDavid’s Book World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell is a realist writer, and \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is probably even more true to life and purposefully undramatic than its predecessor. And this is no bad thing, because he is a poet with a knack for describing ordinary episodes that strike an expectedly emotional chord. He is also deeply concerned with place and the indelible imprint left on a person by the sites that represent lodestones of their past.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRonnie McCluskey\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStorgy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is the second volume of Neil Campbell’s Manchester trilogy. Honestly, if ever a novel deserved literary accolades and bouquets it’s this one. \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e possesses more energy, grind and determination than a decade of Bookers. If there was any justice it should be jumping off the bookshelves.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJoe Phelan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Neil Campbell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020982128702,"sku":"9781784631703","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631703.jpg?v=1570475929"},{"product_id":"haverscroft-9781784632007","title":"Haverscroft","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the Not the Booker Prize 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKate Keeling leaves all she knows and moves to Haverscroft House in an attempt to salvage her marriage. Little does she realise, Haverscroft’s dark secrets will drive her to question her sanity, her husband and fatally engulf her family unless she can stop the past repeating itself. Can Kate keep her children safe and escape Haverscroft in time, even if it will end her marriage?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHaverscroft\u003c\/em\u003e is a gripping and chilling dark tale, a modern ghost story that will keep you turning its pages late into the night.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘An atmospherically creepy ghost story that keeps you guessing till the end! Sally Harris is one to watch.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAngela Clarke\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The writing is taut and fluid. Both the atmosphere of the old house and the wider family dynamics are evoked with skill. Whatever one thinks of a place harbouring the spirit of past deeds this story could throw shade over certainties. Recommended, but exercise caution if reading after dark.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘There are some genuine spine chilling moments in this book which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, which is of course testimony to some great writing skills! There is a particular scene involving a mirror which had me steadfastly refusing to look into my vintage dressing table mirror for a good few hours I can tell you! If you’re in the market for a traditional haunted house mystery to have you listening just that little bit more closely to the creaking of your house at night … do yourself a favour and buy yourself a copy of \u003cem\u003eHaverscroft\u003c\/em\u003e. You won’t regret it.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAmanda Chatterton\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookish Chat\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★ \u003cem\u003eHaverscroft\u003c\/em\u003e is a very modern ghost\/psychological story. It’s written in an apparently effortless and easy style, which I’m sure this was a lot of hard work to achieve. The uncomplicated prose allows the mood and atmosphere of the novel to seep into your pores – this a genuinely gripping tale.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is a wonderfully atmospheric, creepy, ghost story, which kept me gripped throughout. The writing includes wonderful suspense and this kept the pages turning. I really wanted to discover the ending but enjoyed the build up to it. A great read!’ —\u003cem\u003eJera's Jamboree\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘As a seasoned reader of ghost stories and horror, I expect something a bit more innovative from the genre, and Haverscroft definitely isn’t that sort of book: it delivers familiar beats rather than genuine surprises. What it does do really well is to show how the inexplicable is so often entwined with the domestic. Kate’s role as a wife and mother is key to the events of the novel – one imagines this story could not have been built around a male protagonist. As well as Rebecca, I was put in mind of Kate Murray-Browne’s The Upstairs Room, Brandi Reeds’ Oak Avenue and some of Alison Moore’s short stories.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBlair Rose\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"S. A. 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Driven by his warped religious tendencies and mental illness, Peter is encouraged by none other than the singer Rick Astley, who instructs and leads him during most excellent recurring dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong the bizarre journey we explore a cult, infidelity, drug abuse, frustration, extremism, all tinged by a strong awareness of the weirdness of late-Capitalist society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Bizarre but impossible to put down, a truly original voice.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRebecca Newman, contributing editor, GQ Magazine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Tim Vine reminds me of a ten-day-holiday on a tropical island: concise, sunny, memorable, natural and expensive.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAugust Darnell aka Kid Creole\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tim Vine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020985372734,"sku":"9781784631727","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631727.jpg?v=1571258743"},{"product_id":"the-bothy-9781784631604","title":"The Bothy","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eTom is grieving for his girlfriend. Her powerful family, convinced he is responsible for her death, place a bounty on his head. On the run, Tom seeks refuge in the Bothy, a dilapidated moorland pub run by ageing gangster Frank. Tom tries to keep the bounty a secret, but news travels fast, even in the middle of nowhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrevor Mark Thomas’s first novel is a tense, violent drama involving desperate characters with little to lose apart from their lives. Amid moments of black humour and rare tenderness, buried fears and rivalries rise to the surface, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia that builds to almost unbearable levels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An absorbing debut – delightfully taut – a tender, gruesome villain at its heart.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJoe Stretch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘4\/4 \u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e is a confident debut novel, exciting and fast paced, an exhilarating read. It is also a very subtle exploration of grief, betrayal, love and loyalty, a thriller with real depth … Shovels, frost bite, guns, gangs, and cracked pipes all feature in this clever ensemble piece. The moorland pub at the dead of winter, hinting at horror, is a cracking setting. Tom begins to realise that it’s out of the frying pan into the fire! He will need all the guile and strength he can muster, and one or two friends, if he is to survive The Bothy.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e is horribly engrossing: a blackly comic gangster horror that reads like a northern cousin of Ben Wheatley’s \u003cem\u003eDown Terrace\u003c\/em\u003e. Its cast of strangely ambivalent villains will linger in your mind. And if you've never tasted pickled egg before, you certainly won't want to after reading this.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGregory Norminton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘After his girlfriend dies, and her family of gangsters blame him for the death, Tom goes into hiding in the Bothy, a remote pub on the Yorkshire moors. In the Bothy he finds another group of gangsters, led by Frank, and as the pub is cut off by snow (and food supplies dwindle to crisps past their sell-by date) the bodies begin to pile up. It is a classic set-up and The Bothy is a gripping read, Trevor Mark Thomas embraces the crime novel’s ability to create atmosphere from description: “After a while, Tom put the book down and watched the snow. It fell like ash.”’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJames Doyle\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Hiding out in a remote pub from a vengeful gang family, Tom finds his hosts are just as dangerous. Excellent darkly comic rural noir; a touch of Magnus Mills in the escalating body count. Lots to enjoy here!’ —\u003cem\u003e255bookreview.com\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In Mark Thomas's intensely gritty debut, Tom hides out in an isolated Yorkshire moors pub to escape his dead girlfriend’s criminal family, but sanctuary eludes him — what can he do to survive? Grim northern realism painted with heart and humour.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKaren Robinson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e by Trevor Mark Thomas, published last month, is the tale of an innocent man with a price on his head. He’s stranded in a truly grotty pub on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire that’s populated by some truly dodgy characters ... What will become of Tom, and how in fact did his girlfriend die, and will her criminal family find him?’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAndrew Wille\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This debut novel begins with Tom fleeing to a remote, run-down pub called the Bothy. His girlfriend’s family blame Tom for her death, and now there is a price on his head. He is taken in by Frank, the gangster in charge of the Bothy, but even this may not be enough to protect him. By keeping the focus tightly on Tom’s present predicament, rather than the background that led up to it, Thomas gives his novel a sense of urgency and drive which pushes the reader on. The Bothy is a hothouse of character that remains tense to the end.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Hebblethwaite\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDavid’s Book World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘There's a pervading sense of rot and decay which oozes from the pages and seeped into my pores as I read this one. A fantastic sense of place, one that left me in need of a cleansing shower after each session reading the book. Tom is a sympathetic character, one driven low by events which have now escalated and spiralled totally out of control. He's not quite without hope but his resolve is severely tested. Reading to the end, I was anxious to see what final hand fate dealt him. Setting, character, mood, plot, narrative and outcome – all ticks in the box. \u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e is Trevor Mark Thomas's debut novel – something I find hard to believe. It's very good.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eColman Keane\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCol’s Criminal Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This taut and extremely violent thriller, as claustrophobic as a single-setting play, is about characters whose desperation comes not so much from having nothing to lose but from their conviction that they have nothing to gain either. Lean, sharp writing supports a striking talent for uncovering the emotional lives of people who are determined not to have any emotions.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMat Coward\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMorning Star\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Thomas has absolutely nailed the sticky floor of the pub, the muddy yard and its ever-present smell of sewage, not forgetting the temperamental boiler. You can imagine the dankness of the inside of The Bothy and the tangle of untidy rooms in need of redecoration stretching out behind the bar – yet with a roaring fire going, bacon sizzling in the frying pan, even letting the sun shine for a bit, and you do get an illusion of being in ‘God’s country’, (well just about!). I also loved that the lack of mobile signal means that communications are via a proper telephone – it added to the old-fashioned gangster feel and there’s more menace in having to pick up the ringing phone without knowing who’s at the other end.’ —\u003cem\u003eAnnabookbel\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★ A compelling nervy tension runs through the back heart of the grity debut novel. Its bleak descriptions are cinematic, from Tom’s “haven” with its picked eggs and sticky carpets, to the moment our lead character crashes in the snow and has to pick freedom or protection… The tension builds to the final pages, so much so the shocking climax is almost a relief.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Lloyd\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ An original spin on the gangster crime novel and helps makes this book an original and compelling tale. While on some levels The Bothy is a story about gangsters, it’s not a gangster novel in the traditional sense. This is a much slower burn novel than many that feature gangsters, much more about the tension between the people living and working in The Bothy, their almost hand-to-mouth existence, the mounting suspicion and paranoia as things start to go wrong and both Frank’s enemies, and The Conways who have put a bounty on Tom’s head, start to encroach. I thoroughly enjoyed The Bothy and would recommend it highly.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJames Pierson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAdventures in Crime Fiction Land\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The isolation of the countryside is more complellingly rendered in Trevor Mark Thomas’s The Bothy. The novel’s hero, Tom, has a price on his head because his girlfriend has recently been killed in a car accident and her father, a notorious gangster, holds Tom responsible. \u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e succeeds on its own modest terms: there are no strained topical hooks or cod philosophical musings, just plenty of violence and dread. One noteworthy motif is its sporadic allusions to the lives of local strippers and glamour models. These vignettes are understatedly powerful, evoking a melancholic sympathy for the hidden human histories beneath the seedy glamour.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eHouman Barekat\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In reality the most memorable character here is The Bothy itself – the author does an amazing job of bringing the dingy and depressing place to life, expertly conveying the neglect, the assault on the senses and the sense of doom that imprisons the characters. He does a similarly powerful job in describing the rural surroundings and the horrendous weather conditions that only serve to cut it off from reality and civilisation even more. With a tale so explicitly based in a specific location, the characters speaking in regional dialect might have added even more authenticity, but that does not detract from what is a very fine read. You’ll want to find out what happens – but you might not thank your curiosity when you do!’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDelme Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStorgy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ This is a violent book, but with all gangsters there is a ‘shoot now, ask later’ attitude to their mentality. Whilst reading it I kept getting flashbacks of great films like \u003cem\u003eGet Carter\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Long Good Friday\u003c\/em\u003e and this is in a similar vein. \u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e was a wonderful unexpected surprise. Big, bold characters and a cracking plot. Not everything was tied up in a neat bow, but I wouldn’t expect any book with gangsters to be pretty. ‘The Bothy’ is raw and hugely enjoyable. I look forward to see what Thomas delivers with his second novel.’ —\u003cem\u003eCrimeSquad\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Described by yours truly on Twitter as akin to Magnus Mills on meth, \u003cem\u003eThe Bothy\u003c\/em\u003e proved to be something quite special from the outset. Tapping into the rising reputation and visibility of working class writing in the UK of late, Thomas has, with a limited cast of characters, constructed a dark, and unsettling book, packed to the gills with atmosphere and an overhanging miasma of violence.’ —\u003cem\u003eRaven Crime Reads\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Here is a situation rather than a plot. A doomed man waits for his pursuers to catch up. Action is subordinate to suspense and the burgeoning dread as everyone anticipates the outcome when the inevitable confrontation occurs.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGwen Moffat\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eShots Crime \u0026amp; Thriller Ezine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I’m always intrigued when a non-genre publisher puts out a crime novel and The Bothy more than delivers on its curious premise. Well-paced, well-written and peppered with random acts of violence, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing what Trevor Mark Thomas tackles next.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eTom Leins\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDirty Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Trevor Mark Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":18020985667646,"sku":"9781784631604","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784631604.jpg?v=1571258727"},{"product_id":"good-day-9781784631918","title":"Good Day?","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Life in Books: Books of the Year 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a world where we present our diverse selves through social media, chatbots and messaging, this dark novel listens in on intimate secrets, desires and adultery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis novel-within-a-novel charts the writing of a story about Richard and Anna, a middle-aged professional couple, who face the biggest crisis of their twenty-five-year marriage when he admits seeing prostitutes. The text unfolds through a dialogue between Anna, the writer, and her husband, Richard, the reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the story of Richard and Anna progresses, the tension between them increases and, on several occasions, they stop speaking to each other. The writer’s novel compels them to examine their own marriage. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGradually the differences between the characters in the novel on the one hand and the reader and the writer on the other appear to diminish to the point where we begin to wonder whether the reader, like Richard, pays for sex, and whether the writer, like her female protagonist, is coping with the situation by having several lovers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Vesna Main’s latest fiction offers proof that formal invention of the highest order may well go along with a fine gift for human interest and narrative power. Rarely can novelistic dialogue have managed to convey such complex nuances of meaning, motive and mood. A singular achievement.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eChristopher Norris\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Within the tale are many interesting diversions. The author explores themes such as: addiction, obsessive behaviour, rewriting memory when exposed to new information. There are threads on class and the affectations of the intelligentsia. There are challenges to thinking that places itself as the moral high ground. The writing is tense and compelling. Although nuanced and layered the story has the feel of a thriller. It is admirable that so much has been fitted into such a concise volume. This is a clever and thought-provoking read.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘It is thought-provoking and insightful, and, while it could prove uncomfortable reading for anyone who is part of a middle-aged married couple, I think it is an important book and one that I can imagine prize judges responding to very positively as the year unfolds.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eScott Pack\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This is the second jacket I’ve fallen in love with this year, another which fits its book perfectly. Always a joy when publishers use an image which is both strikingly original and appropriate. Vesna Main’s \u003cem\u003eGood Day?\u003c\/em\u003e recounts a daily conversation between a Writer and her Reader, who is also her husband, describing the progress of her novel about a couple whose marriage is strained to breaking point.’ —\u003cem\u003eA Life In Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The format might lead one to expect an ironic, fabular illustration of how unsophisticated readers get fiction wrong. But Main is more sophisticated than that. There are layers of fiction in \u003cem\u003eGood Day?\u003c\/em\u003e, each of them unstable.’ —\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Good Day? turns the structure of a typical novel inside out, and the experience of reading it is also transformed. The tale of Anna and Richard is disconcertingly fluid, because it hasn’t yet been settled – and the tale of the Writer and Reader is just out of our reach. There are also some nice touches that made me smile: it’s common enough for an author to incorporate one of their previously published short stories into a novel, but I’ve never seen it done quite like this… and I shall say no more about that!’ —\u003cem\u003eDavid’s World of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In \u003cem\u003eGood Day?\u003c\/em\u003e, Main has created a clever, and thought-provoking story which engages as it delights. Its deceptively simple prose slices through layers of thematic enquiry to address contemporary concerns over identity, gender and representation. For all this, it’s an easy and compelling read, as tense as a thriller, twisting and turning, right down to its last postscript.’ —\u003cem\u003eLitro\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Beautifully depicted and on point given the complexities of the society we live in today, this modern take on the contemporary nature of marriage entertains as much as it explores the myriad of emotions that run deep in all forms of human relationships. A good read indeed.’ —\u003cem\u003ePlatform\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In these beautifully observed stories, Main deftly explores love’s myriad forms.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEmily Rhodes\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eLush Library Recommends: Anna James’ Books for 2018\u003c\/strong\u003e Another collection of short stories … these look at ideas of loneliness, passion and obsession and the sometimes grey areas between them. In these experimental stories of different lengths and styles, her characters include a prostitute turned murderer, a self-destructive book collection and a perfectionist dinner party hostess.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnna James\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Main’s stories are vivid, strange, thrillingly brief and filled with sex, violence and the banal horror of daily life. 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But above all, it is a memoir of shock, discovery and reconciliation, all delivered in exquisite prose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eSon of Mine\u003c\/em\u003e is an engrossing account of two lives and how choices made years previously can ricochet down through the generations. This captivating memoir considers what it means to be a parent in the widest sense.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eClaire Fuller\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A beautifully written and incredibly moving book. The humanity, love, loss, and the compelling search for identity shine out from the pages. 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It’s a marvel of compression, not in the manner of Jean Echenoz and others who strip the detective novel down to its bones, but by taking a few minor, even meaningless moments of a larger investigation and exploding them to the point of rewarding absurdity.’ —\u003cem\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘… charming and fresh; indeed, the only recent comparable fiction would be Will Self’s Booker-shortlisted \u003cem\u003eUmbrella\u003c\/em\u003e, which also features a prolonged, digressive sequence set on a London bus. 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The poems in \u003cem\u003eHawthorn City\u003c\/em\u003e record the tales we tell ourselves to make a home in the lives we find ourselves living. They are songs to family, to stone and outlawry and refusal, and to the fevered memory which reaches back beyond birth, past early modern witches and shepherds’ songs, past medieval chronicles and Icelandic sagas, to the ancient city-states, homely and hellish, which part of the modern imagination still inhabits. Travelling darker and deeper towards the state which is both origin and grave, this grotesque comedy of a book intensifies into a bizarre, baroque vision of the world and our place in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Tony Williams’s \u003cem\u003eHawthorn City\u003c\/em\u003e is also a revelation. 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Ultimately, this is a tremendous debut, unique, as it combines ghastly laughter with deeply powerful observations of people, especially women, who are enlivened, empowered, and set free.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eZoë Brigley\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Brio, vim, panache, pizzazz, gusto—all words that could accurately describe the timbre of the voice(s) in Louise  Peterkin’s debut. Whether it be in the unsettled, unsettling, slightly surreal note struck in a fable such as ‘The Mouses’, or in the narratives conjured by Peterkin’s interest in film culture, reading this book, with its surprising images, its linguistic adroitness and rhythmical fluency, and this poet’s unabashed personifications and imaginative projections, is a rare pleasure. At once lively, unexpected and exhilarating, Peterkin’s first collection brings engagingly to mind Blake’s assertion: ‘energy is eternal delight’.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGerry Cambridge\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A lively, ambitious first collection with, already, a voice of its own and plenty to say.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSheenagh Pugh\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Louise Peterkin’s \u003cem\u003eThe Night Jar\u003c\/em\u003e contains poems that are incantatory and dreamlike but always bordering on nightmares … What is most striking about Peterkin’s approach is that often she draws her cues for poems from popular culture or fairy tales. This is nothing new, but most poets are praised for seeing the extraordinary in the quotidian (\u003cem\u003evide\u003c\/em\u003e Larkin). 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There’s pyjama-clad Herbert; Walter, a miner who never learned to read (Sunny teaches him); Violet, who’s writing a novel (in a meta-literary touch, it turns out to be Sunny and the Ghosts); and many others, including a mischief-maker who fills the shop with cats. This is a gentle, intelligent and warm novel about friendship and imagination for children of seven and up.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePhilip Womack\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ The plot moves along quickly, and once Sunny finds one ghost, more seem to appear every day, popping up in all sorts of odd places around the shop. It's all jolly, apart from the puzzle of who, or what, is behind the trouble in the shop. Sunny's parents seem inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and don't blame him for it, but I'm not sure they really believe his tale of ghosts either. 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She writes insightfully and thought-provokingly about the ways in which women’s access to head space and the physical and economic space for creativity can be restricted or blocked – sometimes by the people they love best and who love them best; and, of course, sometimes by themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This memoir is modern and radical, and sometimes uncomfortable, but it’s also warm and straightforward. The structure is exciting, expanding the story of one family and their experience of disability to cover so much, to connect it to the world, to feminism, to art and writing and the creative process. It feels like a brave book, an important book, one that many many people will find inspiring.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEmma Healey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Bryan writes with sensual precision and jaunty assurance in crisp, lively prose... a narrative that has plenty of swagger and sparkle.’ —\u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A heart-warming and poignant story of a young girl coming to grips with the world around her.’ —\u003cem\u003eOK magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Bryan has a keen ear for the idiosyncrasies of kid-speak, and this ... makes her ... creation so touchingly real ...  and ...  alive’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLiz Jensen\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Bryan reveals the tangled world of family relationships through Lily whose misunderstandings of adult... conversation raise many a smile.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnthea Lawson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘[Bryan's] take on the life of a fractured family is an honest and effective one.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJames Smart\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eGlasgow Herald\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A sweet and funny novel . . . a sustained act of ventriloquism.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘All very fantastic-elastic.’ —\u003cem\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A powerful new writer.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Daily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An utterly convincing portrayal of childhood’s more uncomfortable upsets, from wet pants to absent dads.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBoyd Tonkin\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lynne Bryan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":32691599835198,"sku":"9781784632236","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632236.jpg?v=1676631669"},{"product_id":"fox-fires-9781784632335","title":"Fox Fires","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA lost girl and a sprawling map of an unsettling city.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWren Lithgow has followed her concert pianist mother around the cities of Europe for almost two decades. When they arrive in the mysterious city-state of O, where Wren was conceived during a time of civil war, she resolves to find man she believes is her father.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the city closes in around her, Wren gives herself over to a place of which she understands nothing, but to which she feels a profound connection, in a story of the watchers and the watched, the ways in which we conceive of home and, finally, the possibility of living on our own terms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMeet the Author\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9nJEXr52Pvw\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eFox Fires\u003c\/em\u003e, Wyl Menmuir’s moving, mesmerising account of one bewildered girl adrift in a spy-soaked city, is like Kafka dished up by Calvino – that’s to say, it’s unnerving, magical, provoking, and the work of a fertile and powerful imagination.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJim Crace\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A sumptuously mysterious little masterpiece. I read it late into the night, biting my nails, entirely absorbed in the story of a lost girl in a sinister city.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCathy Rentzenbrink\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Wyl Menmuir’s gorgeously crafted new novel shows us the things we inevitably find when we’re trying to be lost.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Leipciger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This is an utterly absorbing hypnotic novel that is powerfully imagined and very strong on atmosphere. The strange, haunted city of O is the character in the book that dominates the tale. The city is uncanny, menacing and alluring all at once, for the city contains both a sinister, culpable past and an illusory tranquil present. It’s a city filled with unseen, unidentified eyes, that are always watching. The heroine, Wren, seeking for her lost unknown father, tries to read and map the city, an act that may well be her undoing.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePatricia Duncker\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Much as I enjoyed the author’s debut, Booker-longlisted \u003cem\u003eThe Many\u003c\/em\u003e, this tale has a more fluid and accomplished feel. There are similarities in the shadowy undercurrents, and the skill with which threads are woven together. Menmuir has spun a fascinating web that captured this reader’s attention fully. I was left sated while still thinking through issues raised. A piercing, thought-provoking and highly recommended read.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I have a particular love for books like this, constructed with such care and meticulousness; each image overlapping and reflecting the ones before and after. Maps, patterns, paths; attempts to see and attempts to blind; revelations and occlusions - all combine to create something rich, original and powerful.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCharlotte Hobson, author of “The Vanishing Futurist”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Menmuir evokes well an atmosphere of Stasi-like surveillance and paranoia. Although the novel is written in the third person, the pronoun ‘I’ suddenly appears, alarmingly, over halfway through, and we realise that Wren is being watched by a new narrator. The novel makes important points about identity and state bureaucracy — but how beguiling to do so through a haunting fairytale.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Peake-Tomkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eFox Fires\u003c\/em\u003e is a reading experience that feels like a dream. Author Wyl Menmuir is a wonderful writer and the story carries us along beautifully, but there’s always a sense we’re reaching for something just beyond our grasp, the way Wren is reaching for her father. \u003cem\u003eFox Fires\u003c\/em\u003e is the follow up to the extraordinary Booker-longlisted debut novel The Many, a tough act to beat.This is a fascinating and worthy successor, and Menmuir is carving out a delicious niche for himself as the king of multiple layers of meaning.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSheffield Telegraph\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAnna Caig\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Ominous, subtle and beautiful – an intensely resonant trawling of suffering’s deep currents.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Marshall Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Menmuir’s homespun horror has flashes of Daphne du Maurier’s ghost-gothic and John Wyndham’s dystopia while displaying its own individuality and flair … Menmuir steers a steady course; the result is profound and discomfiting, and deserving of multiple readings.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCatherine Taylor\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback of the Week\u003c\/strong\u003e It would be wrong to give away the precise reasons for his protagonist’s state, but as Menmuir’s allegory becomes decipherable, it is increasingly affecting, and the moment when we understand how the bay and its darkly looming ships might be the warped echo of an earlier, shattering scene is one of great power.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eStephanie Cross\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘He deserves 10 out of 10 when it comes to the creation of atmosphere, and Menmuir can certainly write… A writer to watch.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An intriguing, evocative and formally ambitious debut.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLuke Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘If it is possible to describe a book as being rich on spare detail then \u003cem\u003eThe Many\u003c\/em\u003e is it, like a stock reduced to its very essence, and I suspect it was this lack of extraneous waffle and digression in the company of Wyl Menmuir's beguiling writing style that grabbed my attention and kept me wedded to this novel in the days immediately after Port Eliot festival.’ —\u003cem\u003eDovegreyreader\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wyl Menmuir","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":32691600097342,"sku":"9781784632335","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632335.jpg?v=1614791757"},{"product_id":"the-retreat-9781784632212","title":"The Retreat","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince childhood, Sandra Peters has been fascinated by the small, private island of Lieloh, home to the reclusive silent-film star Valerie Swanson. Having dreamed of going to art college, Sandra is now in her forties and working as a receptionist, but she still harbours artistic ambitions. When she sees an advert for a two-week artists’ retreat on Lieloh, Sandra sets out on what might be a life-changing journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Novels set on islands have a habit of taking nasty turns, as this example slyly acknowledges. But readers of Alison Moore’s Booker-shortlisted \u003cem\u003eThe Lighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e will know that her speciality is slow-building unease rather than obvious jump scares. So it is with this, which follows two frustrated creatives, painter Sandra and novelist Carol, as they seek inspiration on two adjacent, isolated islands.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eStephanie Cross\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In this new book, a would-be painter called Sandra joins an artists’ retreat on an island called Leiloh where “contentment is assured”. In a parallel story, Carol, an aspiring writer, travels to a deserted island so that she can finish her novel. Although the worlds of these characters are contemporary and largely realistic, this is a story laced with the tropes of fairytale and myth. Emblematic and intentionally flimsy, Sandra and Carol are often described in terms of adverts, plays and books. The atmosphere of the islands is eerie and unsettling, the writing imbued with a deliberate simplicity and distance.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlice Jolly\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I’ve loved all four of Alison Moore’s previous novels for adults – the most recent being Missing published in 2018 – and this was no exception. I particularly admire the ability to make relatively ordinary situations seem macabre. I also love the visual imagery: how objects are planted, as they might be in film, as clues to how we might interpret the story. No doubt I missed several in \u003cem\u003eThe Retreat\u003c\/em\u003e, but picked up on doubles and mirrors; fantasy and fairy tale; and the small, smaller and smallest islands like matryoshka dolls.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnne Goodwin\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAnnecdotal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I very much enjoyed the writing and I feel that a lot more emotion was stirred up as I read than I was expecting.’ —\u003cem\u003eIntensive Gassing About Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘★★★★★ I had not read anything by this author before but I was captivated by the writing and I will be seeking out her other books. The bullying nature of the group and the sense of a lifelong dream turning into a nightmare for Sandra was really unsettling. I loved the references to other books set on Islands and to fairy tales.’ —\u003cem\u003eBook Blogging Bureau\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This is a fantastic book with great drama and plot and beautiful writing. I loved the characters the chemistry the sprit they had in this story. Every chapter exciting to read you love this book.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRhianydd Morris\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Whilst most of \u003cem\u003eThe Retreat\u003c\/em\u003e is given over to Sandra, personally I found Carol’s narrative to be the most compelling. Alison Moore has perfectly captured the unsettling feeling of isolation, combining this with a delightful sense of the weird to create a not-quite ghost story that revels in its atmosphere. As the novel progresses, Carol’s narrative also begins to shed new light upon Sandra’s predicament, creating a compelling yet uneasy narrative that left me feeling somewhat unsettled by the time I turned the final page.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Shelf of Unread Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Artists’ retreats are usually portrayed as places of solace and inspiration, but Alison Moore’s intriguing novel offers a bracing counterpoint. She depicts the island of Lieloh, home to the former movie star Valerie Swanson, as a strange and threatening place, full of enigma and artifice. When aspiring painter Sandra Peters joins the retreat, it proves to be anything but a relaxing trip away.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlexander Larman\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Moore was previously nominated for the Booker Prize. Her new book follows Sandra, a middle-aged receptionist and would-be painter who visits an artists’ retreat only for her ambitions to wilt under the backbiting of fellow residents. While narrative tension comes mainly from her social discomfort, there’s mystery, too, thanks to a secondary thread about an aspiring novelist in search of creative solitude. Darkly funny and poignant.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnthony Cummins\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I loved this book, which is effective and disturbing to a far more potent degree than any number of more deliberate or dramatic haunted house stories. The only problem with being a Moore fan is that the moment you’ve finished reading one of her novels you’re already looking forward to the next – and Moore, to her credit, is a writer who is prepared to give her books all the time they need to come into being.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNina Allan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Spider’s House\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Retreat\u003c\/em\u003e is a small masterpiece of disconnection.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKate McLoughlin\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTLS\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The two narratives tie up in unexpected ways, right down to the novel’s final disturbing revelation: Moore has wrapped her clever, devilish thriller around an elaborate study of artistic insecurity.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCatherine Taylor\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFT\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Alison Moore’s engaging fifth novel, in which things recur, mirror and nestle within one another, filling the pages to saturation.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnna Aslanyan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Immediately intriguing, this beautifully written novel hums with slowly building tension.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSheila Grant\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘She is both gifted stylist and talented creator of a new English grotesque.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eIsabel Berwick\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eBook of the day\u003c\/strong\u003e Dense, complex, thought-provoking, it manages to be at once a fairytale and a philosophical treatise, high-octane thriller and literary interrogation. Like the dreams that haunt Bonnie’s night-times, it holds its secrets close, and repays careful rereading. The end of the novel, abrupt and death-haunted, feels as neat and tight as a key in a lock, and sheds light on the mysteries that have gone before.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Crown\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘As losses accumulate and ghosts multiply, the book begins to resemble a gothic tale, conflating the tragic and the mundane, betrayal and cooking, loneliness and “newspapers and phones and children and meal deals”. You suspect that some of these leads might be false, but the current of Moore’s prose is stronger than the pull of any potential plot twists. The main narrative is interspersed with flashbacks to 1985 and with anonymous messages, in which someone tells Jessie they are coming home. The interruptions grow longer; the tension increases. And then, without breaking the rhythm, Moore swiftly brings the story to an end, reminding you that life can be a realist drama and a romance, a horror story and an existential novel – often all of these things at once, and more.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnna Aslanyan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eHe Wants\u003c\/em\u003e will easily be one of my books of the year... He Wants left me feeling both completely uplifted and utterly devastated, all at once.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSimon Savidge\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSavidge Works\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Alison Moore is very good on modern alienation... She doesn’t so much lay bare a life as shine blinding pinpricks into its darkest corners.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eClaire Allfree\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMetro\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Like Moore’s other works, \u003cem\u003eMissing\u003c\/em\u003e starts out as a spare and seemingly simple psychological drama. But stay with it and dig deeper, for beneath the surface lurk immensely satisfying hidden depths.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMalcolm Forbes\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Herald\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eMissing\u003c\/em\u003e is a triumph.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAnthony Cummins\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Alison Moore persuades you, gently, to look at words and language anew, to question the nature of the very structures you have inhabited for so long. She has marshalled a multitude of images, all sliding together under the surface, all apparently unstable, isolated, yet touching, like the infinite parallel universes that Jessie reads about. 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This critically acclaimed series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere. The editor’s brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking for the best of the bunch to reprint all in one volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis new anthology includes stories by Julia Armfield, A.J. Ashworth, Iphgenia Baal, Emma Bolland, Tom Bromley, Gary Budden, Jen Calleja, Robert Dewa, John Foxx, Josephine Galvin, Uschi Gatward, Meave Haughey, Hilaire, Alice Jolly, Isha Karki, Yasmine Lever, Simon Okotie, Mel Pryor, Douglas Thompson and Matthew Turner.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eBest British Short Stories 2019\u003c\/em\u003e is a dazzling and captivating collection that needs to be read!’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRoss Jeffery\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStorgy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In the \u003cem\u003eBest British Stories 2017\u003c\/em\u003e, a sense of loss, isolation and loneliness surfaces time and again; is given artistic expression. 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And not a moment too soon. With aviation grinding to a halt in the face of global climate meltdown, this is the last chance to connect with her absentee father, a US marine stationed in Okinawa. To mend their broken past Sol and her lovelorn friend Kit must journey across poisoned oceans to the furthest reaches of the Japanese archipelago, a place where sea, sky and earth converge at the forefront of an encroaching environmental and geopolitical catastrophe; a place battered by the relentless tides of history, haunted by the ghosts of its past, where the real and the virtual, the dreamed and the lived, are ever harder to define.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e Venetia Welby paints a terrifying and captivating vision of our near future and takes us on a vertiginous odyssey into the unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Venetia Welby has written an extraordinary and haunting novel, a dystopian vision of the not too far distant future with a dash of ancient Japanese magic thrown in. Beautifully written, thoroughly researched and frighteningly believable, it’s a love story for our times and a dire warning, dark, angry, seductive, enthralling.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLesley Downer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Intense, strange and fast-paced … Venetia Welby writes with verve and energy and takes us to places we never expected to go.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSally Emerson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A rich, surreal and dreamy exploration of a woman's quest to find her father, blended with an imaginative vision of a world wrecked by climate change, \u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e is filled with lovely sentences that made me jump at their beauty and strangeness. It's also a fascinating exploration of the folklore and history of the island of Okinawa.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSam Mills\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Brilliantly complex, emotional, and frightening … The crazy, raw descriptions of Japan are just miraculously beautiful at times.’ —\u003cem\u003eDragonfly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A gripping, terrifying novel, speculating on an imminent and horrific future post-climate disaster. \u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e ticks all the boxes: folklore, cults, drugs, travel, booze, robots, and most importantly, cats. Lots of cats.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNick Bradley\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eFiction to look out for in 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e A host of dazzling second novels in the offing … Venetia Welby’s exquisite and hallucinogenic \u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e is set in a near future in which we have lost the battle against climate change.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Preston\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Welby’s vision of our cobbled-together future—lives lost to the glamour of screens while civilisation corrodes—has an energy and charm of its own. Her descriptions of an earthquake-cracked Tokyo carry the noodley whiff and steamy press of Blade Runner’s neon-washed landscapes. And the hopelessly hybridised culture of Okinawa, where the stars and stripes jostles with local animist shrines, pulses with colour. It even left me with a hankering for “taco rice”, a dish as bastardised as its Tex Mex via Tokyo roots.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Diggins\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eExacting Clam\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Venetia Welby’s arresting blend of chaos, love, mystery, myths and the supernatural,  animals both real and shapeshifting, and the consequences of abuse in the private and public spheres, illustrate how human relationships are complicated and tricky. The world conjured by Welby is weird and elusive, as is the relationship of humans with Nature. Her beautifully stylized writing has a lyrical strange quality to it. The future is envisioned as being one of increased disempowerment.’ —\u003cem\u003eBookBlast\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Venetia Welby’s new novel, Dreamtime, is set in 2035, a time of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. It follows Sol as she completes a stint in rehab in Arizona, grappling with the trauma of her upbringing in a cult and searching for her absent father.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJemima Skala\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e is an often deeply disturbing, haunting and nightmarish read, and yet is complete and realistic in an organic way. Welby doesn’t pretend she has any answers. The novel is, in essence, a presentation of harrowing truths and the confusion they cause. It’s not the first book to wrangle such themes against the backdrop of environmental catastrophe, and it won’t be the last. But it is probably the best you’ll read this year.’ —\u003cem\u003eHigh Rise and Ink\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This remarkable, disturbing work of literary fiction is like \u003cem\u003eHeart of Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e meets \u003cem\u003eThe Tempest\u003c\/em\u003e. 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At the same time, true love between a man and a woman is capable of transcending the bleakness.’ —\u003cem\u003eWild Women Writing Club\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This uniquely multi-layered, multi-genre storyline, is wonderfully textured, brutally and frighteningly intense, deep and rich in atmosphere, ever evolving and written by an author who has complete confidence in the visual imagery of her words to lift the narrative and dialogue from the pages and make it come sickeningly to life.’ —\u003cem\u003eFiction Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Welby’s writing style is original and uncompromising – as she proved in her debut, Mother of Darkness. \u003cem\u003eDreamtime\u003c\/em\u003e is a step up but not away from this ability to conjure empathy for those whose behaviour is rebarbative. The sense of place – and how out of place incomers can be with their self-entitled behaviour – adds strength to a captivating tale tinged with regret. Man’s destructive behaviour continues despite the clear warnings of where it will lead. This is a disturbing journey exploring many varieties of abuse – of people and place – and the ripples triggered. A story laced with shadows and beauty that reminds the reader how much we look away when to see becomes challenging. An arresting window into a future that is worryingly believable.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eneverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This book is such a unique experience, it takes you to a place where you have to hand yourself over to the narrative, and trust that you will, more or less, return. 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Trust me, Venetia’s fictitious concepts for what’s instore for the world; are deliciously horrifying and if you thought the Covid-19 pandemic has been trying…then what might come next, will blow your mind, mine is still reeling from the possibilities.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Fallen Librarian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A clever and brilliant debut.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Last Word Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I loved this book – I read it twice.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJulia Sutton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Welby’s nimble prose and ambitious conceptual thrust reminds the reader of Will Self’s work (albeit in a more digestible form) and Soho-legend Sebastian Horsley’s phenomenal \u003cem\u003eDandy in the Underworld\u003c\/em\u003e.’ —\u003cem\u003eVolteface\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eMother of Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e is one intense piece of fiction, as Matty’s dreams evolve into the belief that he is the chosen vessel of a new god, Feracor. 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It makes a wholly satisfying mystery out of our sudden attractions and slow awakenings.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eWill Eaves\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The sense of dread that continually rises and falls in the opening chapters is nothing short of masterful.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCathie Hartigan, author of The Creative Writing Student's Handbook\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A novel that asks how responsible we are for each other, and how much control we have over our own lives, let alone the lives of other people.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMargaret James, author of The Silver Locket\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘At an English University in the 1980s, an undergraduate is asked to keep an overnight suicide watch on another student, Danielle. 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Scrupulous research and thoughtful historical referencing help to evoke 17th century Holland with an invigorating clarity.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eToby Lichtig\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe London Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Howell’s novel investigates authorship in a manner rather reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s \u003cem\u003eIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveller\u003c\/em\u003e.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eToby Lichtig\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe London Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘finely wrought depictions of Delft and of Vermeer’s family’ —\u003cstrong\u003eTrudi E. Jacobson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Historical Novel Society\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brian Howell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39728343613502,"sku":"9781784632618","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632618.jpg?v=1648290631"},{"product_id":"connective-tissue-9781784632526","title":"Connective Tissue","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSeries\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eName:\u003c\/strong\u003e Salt Modern Stories   \u003cstrong\u003eNumber:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis collection of short fiction aims to define the sometimes indefinable and to give voice to those struggling to make sense of what life throws at them. There are those who travel in a continuous loop on London’s underground and those who dance at night with the departed. A woman confronts herself in a bedroom mirror after decades of denial and a widow finds comfort in an osteopath’s consulting room. And then there is a strange creature who falls to earth; dreams and portents; crows and folklore, and much more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe stories are tragic and comi-tragic, but all reveal the strength and complexity of the human spirit. They bring poignant insights on grief, loss and longing and the depths and strangeness of the human psyche and how we manage to survive and just about cope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMeet the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1qGYDRp5U_U\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eConnective Tissue\u003c\/em\u003e is a mature, polished collection that evolves from its predecessor in pleasing and sometimes surprising ways. It will delight Fraser’s admirers and win her new fans. As a plus, it comes in a cute pocket format that makes it extra desirable.’ —\u003cem\u003eNation.Cymru\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Sinew, bone, and blood unite each narrative, like the widow whose ache for touch leads her to the massage table; in the corner of the consulting room is a yellowing human skeleton, raising questions about the body it inhabited, an echo of loneliness.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRuth McKee\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Jane Fraser maps out the edge of north Gower in this supremely confident debut collection with its “farmhouses limewashed in the vernacular style,” its persistent grey rains and the dominant southwesterly winds which bonsai the hedgerow trees and equally shape the stubborn characters who work the land hereabouts.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJon Gower\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNation Cymru\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘One of those books that arrives like a surprise, unexpected, a bolt from the blue, and knocks you back on your heels with the pleasure of reading it. A terrific debut short story collection.’ —\u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘4\/4 Fraser is a consummate short story writer. Each story conveys an aspect of life on the Gower; they are succinctly told, not a word wasted, and they are emotionally charged. They are simple tales beautifully told, sometimes utilising the lyrical Welsh language, they are layered and nuanced.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Burke\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNB Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Fraser’s collection swells and falls with the tide, offering very human insights into many different aspects of untold – but very much lived – narratives. Every reader will find truth at least somewhere in these stories, though all share the same rocky piece of coastal Wales. The tales cycle through failing marriages, tragic loss, lifetimes of quiet suffering and pivotal moments for both the young and the old.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKathryn Tann\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWales Arts Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Fraser’s debut, \u003cem\u003eThe South Westerlies\u003c\/em\u003e, a collection of 18 short stories set mostly in and around Gower, South Wales, is rife and woven with careful detail and design. I could ramble and try to find a multitude of words to describe it, but ultimately, the collection is a joy to read for all those who deeply love intricate prose. A writer who understands their setting so well – as Fraser does of Gower – each story is acute in its texture.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eEmily Harrison\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eStorgy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jane Fraser","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39728343679038,"sku":"9781784632526","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632526.jpg?v=1648290636"},{"product_id":"licensed-premises-9781784632502","title":"Licensed Premises","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSeries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eName:\u003c\/strong\u003e Salt Modern Stories   \u003cstrong\u003eNumber:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Nobody believes what they see on TV, so they want to look for something else, an alternate reality, or a conspiracy theory, and it’s interesting to explore it, Twitter is fucking full of it, especially now. It’s no wonder people round here are into it, but you don’t have to read all that shit, just have some mushrooms and wander round Lidl off your tits.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn these fourteen northern tales, Campbell takes us from the edgelands of Manchester to the cloistered villages of The Peak District, Northumberland and Scotland, and illuminates the lives of outsiders, misfits, loners and malcontents with an eye for the darkly comic. A wild-eyed man disturbs the banter in a genial bookshop. A fraught woman seeks to flee a collapsing reservoir. A failed academic finds solace in a crime writer’s favourite pub. A transit van killer stalks a railway footpath. A poet accused of plagiarism finds his life falling apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMeet the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fZfabRRdxJk\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘In \u003cem\u003eLicensed Premises\u003c\/em\u003e there is a greater willingness to take risks, to step outside the straitjacket of Carverian restrictions. There is even a stream-of-consciousness experiment in ‘Reeks’, after the style of Jack Kerouac, after the style of Marcel Proust! Yes, really. Although Campbell sees himself as a storyteller and not a social historian, these stories could stand as a record of our time as the work of Gaskell, Dickens, and Mayhew did to a previous century. If you want to understand our modern cities and modern work, let Neil Campbell be your guide.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eRichard Clegg\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A 21st century Mancunian take on \u003cem\u003ePost Office\u003c\/em\u003e by Charles Bukowski. If you liked \u003cem\u003ePost Office\u003c\/em\u003e then you'll almost certainly like this.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eScott Pack\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell’s narrator is a young working-class man from Manchester. Throughout the novel he works a number of zero hours jobs, first at a mail-sorting depot, later at a number of libraries. There is nearly always something to dishearten our man, be it his duties, colleagues, managers, or just the constant uncertainty that comes with this kind of employment. Besides work, the narrator has a number of unsuccessful attempts at relationships, and sees the face of his city change, losing its character to gentrification. There’s a stop-start feel to reading the novel itself: as with zero hours work, the present moment is all, and even the immediate future uncertain.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Hebblethwaite\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDavid’s Book World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is the second volume of Neil Campbell’s Manchester trilogy. Honestly, if ever a novel deserved literary accolades and bouquets it’s this one. \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e possesses more energy, grind and determination than a decade of Bookers. If there was any justice it should be jumping off the bookshelves.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBookmunch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘And yet, there is something within the tale that burrows into the mind of the reader – a spark of malcontent that demands attention. Within the ordinary life portrayed is a vibrancy, an insistence that good writing is worth pursuing. As readers we can be thankful that such attitudes persist amongst those whose voices should be heard.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Law\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNeverimitate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Campbell writes with great compassion and humour about relationships, friends and family, people the narrator meets in the pub, students he supports, some work mates. It’s hard to explain why all this is so compelling but it just is.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAltrincham Word Fest\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Neil Campbell’s \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is a poetic, emotionally-charged reflection of what it means to live and work in the city today. Its Mancunian voice is so distinct it’s not like reading a novel at all but like having a conversation with modernity itself. \u003cem\u003eZero Hours\u003c\/em\u003e is sharp, funny and moving – a wonderful evocation of Manchester life.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLee Rourke\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Neil Campbell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39728343744574,"sku":"9781784632502","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632502.jpg?v=1648290640"},{"product_id":"the-jazz-age-9781784632601","title":"The Jazz Age","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you can imagine William Blake playing Scrabble with Joni Mitchell, Catherine of Aragon booking into the Holiday Inn, or Cassius Clay meeting the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, you’re ready for the dreamworld created by Aidan Semmens in \u003cem\u003eThe Jazz Age\u003c\/em\u003e. After five books of intense – some would say difficult – poetry, he has produced something more accessible, surprising, and fun. In a series of prose vignettes he casts an array of historical figures into times and places other than their own, playing on anachronism and dislocation to surreal, witty, frequently comic, occasionally poignant or disturbing effect. Each brief episode is crystalline, the whole piece theatrical, enjoyably absurd. You might identify a questioning of belief systems, of social hierarchy, of human individuality and inter-relationship – but essentially this is, as it is billed, entertainment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMeet the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F4sBby26J14\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Aidan Semmens is a poet who has always been fearless in confronting the plight of the world with its disturbed ways and this volume is no exception.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGeraldine Monk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘There’s an exuberance of the poet in full stride. Typically, the phrasing and imagery are seductive and of the physical world being lived. 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As entertaining as they are impressive, these poems are in and of the physical world, brimming with ideas and passion and sharing it all with real panache.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMeet the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tnyLWHU3NyA\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Whether on love, raspberries, loss, long journeys or CAPCHAs Evans brings a mordantly funny and wise sensibility to bear on our lives. By which I mean our lives, the stories we tell about them and the scripts we tend to live by. Do we believe it, any of it, can we get off the script and see clearly? And yes, if we focus and write into that honesty, steer into the skid, breathe into the pain. 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For me, this is writing that’s not only beautiful but healing.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJohn McCullough\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This is poetry with energy and vision, displaying a forensic accuracy of metaphor and image to deliver writing which disturbs, delights and moves the reader, often all at once.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Harmer\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eOrbis\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eTo An Occupier Burning Holes\u003c\/em\u003e is above all a well-observed collection, in which Evans seems to “really see” what he writes about, yet here he acknowledges the limits of language and poetry. Within these confines, though, this is a poet who uses his considerable craft to treat of themes and issues in a carefully personal way. Overall, an individual and distinctive collection.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eTim Murphy\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Friday Poem\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘There’s a difficulty in reviewing a collection of poems in which the perspective shifts between an ostensibly dispassionate survey of international crises and the intimacy of human and family relationships, especially when the poet also displays considerable formal variety in response to the themes he explores. Yet the world as it is now seems to demand our attention, while our nearest connections, if we are fortunate, draw out our capacity for warmth and, inevitably, grief at loss. 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Formally dazzling, Beirne’s complex and textured meditations are  sobering, spiritual and, in the end, sustaining.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Gerard Beirne’s intense, unflinching visions of the grim and grizzly are not for the faint-hearted. His insistent focus on the detailed mechanics rather than the abstract condition of Death (more common in poetry) gives these poems the feel of some dark medieval compendium. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith echoes of Lear’s soliloquy on the heath, Beirne concludes What I Am Scared of Most is Nothing with the confession: “I sing when it’s stormy \/ when it’s calm I weep”. The singing here will chill you, without doubt, but the sheer intensity of the language in which these visions are related – despite or perhaps because of the subject matter – is unquestionably life-affirming.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePat Boran\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eDigging My Own Grave\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliant title for a first book of poems. It speaks of a wisdom beyond the author’s years … Beirne’s poems live up to the promise of the title … Beirne has a feeling for language and the power of language, a fine sense of where the poems ends, a rich imagination.’ —\u003cem\u003ePoetry Ireland Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘By far the most memorable novel of the year for me was Gerard Beirne’s wonderful \u003cem\u003eThe Eskimo in the Net\u003c\/em\u003e… Just like the central character, Jim Gallagher, the reader is drawn into the depths of both a mystery and a personal voyage of discovery … Wonderful clear prose and sensitive observation in a tough environment make this an outstanding debut work, scandalously ignored by this year’s Man Booker judges.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGraham Ball\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The haunting central image of this book provides an opening sentence that is easily the best I have read in a long time… a very ambitious first novel …this book is so good it is hard to believe that such a mature work is a first novel. 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Christ (renamed Dave) strolls down the King's Road in low-slung jeans and angels make several appearances.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eStephen Knight\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIndependent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Simmonds chillingly demonstrates how the intricacies of 21st century life both obscure our view of impending doom and protect us from thinking about it. The difficulties of living are also key to the book’s central section, 20 short poems called ‘Life Coach Variations’, which are a wry look at the irony of anyone thinking they have life licked: the life coach himself struggles on, not really knowing how to manage his own life.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCato Pedder\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWrite Out Loud\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eThe Visitations\u003c\/em\u003e is a collection of beautifully made poems invigorated by a special kind of wit… Simmonds’s dexterity, comic-seriousness and assuredness of touch are amply demonstrated.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Poetry Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This playful and knowing first collection is fuelled throughout by a strong sense of lyricism.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Quirky, witty, moving Kathryn Simmonds’ gift is to find joy and beauty in unexpected places. She invests the everyday world with an extraordinary luminosity.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Kay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An expansive imagination, a wide formal range, wit and humanity – \u003cem\u003eSunday at the Skin Laundrette\u003c\/em\u003e is a remarkable debut.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMichael Symmons Roberts\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Kathryn Simmonds’ first collection \u003cem\u003eSunday at the Skin Launderette\u003c\/em\u003e deservedly won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2008 (it also reached the Costa lists). The whole collection searches relentlessly: for meaning in graves (looking in vain for the grave of Ezra Pound); for elusive meaning in a Botticelli Madonna; and, in a really clever poem, ‘In Service’, for the meaning of a mother-child bond – somehow making the mother’s ‘service’ to the child like that of Mary (of Bethany) to Christ. She’s a droll writer – a droll in a stage sense, as well – sharing stray but vital banter, juggling in a kind of slow motion with ideas. This is a collection I wanted to read repeatedly. It’s wonderful.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBill Greenwell\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kathryn Simmonds","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39760140173374,"sku":"9781784632779","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632779_a2b6b87e-d6eb-410d-83cd-07c6d6d55d53.jpg?v=1667943249"},{"product_id":"reservoir-9781784632908","title":"Reservoir","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Hannah Rossier, formerly Annie Price, comes face to face with Neville Weir, someone from her childhood whom she never expected, or wanted, to meet again. As Neville’s reasons for attending the conference become clear, the dark waters of Hannah’s past start to rise. Hannah is a psychotherapist, with a specialist interest in memory and how connections are made between past and present. She has reinvented herself successfully, moving from a small northern town in England to Lucerne, Switzerland, with her husband, Thibaut. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNobody, not even Hannah, knows the full truth about herself. Her ‘memories’ consist of glimpses of the place where she played in childhood, known simply as ‘The Wild’. Over the three days of the conference she has to decide whether she can avoid Neville, or whether she should submit to an encounter with him and with her past. And in her keynote lecture about the neuroscience of memory, how much to conceal or reveal. But can her specialism save her from drowning?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Confronting themes of memory, trauma, childhood violence, criminality and responsibility, Michael uses informal conversations, dinner-table discussion, open fora and glimpsed flashbacks to show how much more than rational analysis is needed to unearth the “darkness of prior causes” and to give voice to our hidden, “unspoken” pasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe follow the keynote speaker Hannah Rossier as she attempts to maintain the authority and dignity of her scholarly credentials while being overwhelmed by a past she thought she had left behind. In a very good novel that somehow manages to create tension, even dread, in the build-up to the delivery of a lecture, Michael shows us that the professional pursuit of truth in an academic setting can act as a perfect cover for the burying of a personal truth too difficult to face. In our worthy intellectual pursuits, we are reminded, we had best understand our motives, lest we forget that all academic discovery – however methodologically sound – has its origins in subjectivity. Fiction, that is, reveals the true context for scholarship: not the university campus, but the flawed human being.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eHal Jenson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTLS\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cstrong\u003eBook of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e Michael is rare in taking on the ethical gravity of evil, turning it over and over in her stony prose…What more can we ask for in our fiction writers than such honesty, such fierceness.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eNatasha Walter\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIndependent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Livi Michael has her own unique vision: she can see in the darkness.’ —\u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Livi Michael takes the shoddiness of the world and transmutes it into grace…I cried. The book is not even dismal. I laughed, too.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eFay Weldon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A remarkable novel … a gripping, heart-rending, very touching story.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMargaret Drabble\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e is full of glittering revelation… giving ordinary things and ordinary life an unexpected lustre.’ —\u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A carefully wrought meditation on transience and survival.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Achieves the difficult feat of getting inside the heads of people so overlooked by society that their sense of their own identities is dwindling.’ —\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘One of the few English novels to tackle issues such as money, class and power head-on.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eDJ Taylor\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Has the colour and power of the best chronicles she uses.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Michael paints the Middle Ages in spare and elegant prose.’ —\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A deft fictional hand and a compelling compassion.’ —\u003cem\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Undercut with a brooding sense of dread and hints of the paranormal.’ —\u003cem\u003eIndependent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Livi Michael","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39845400444990,"sku":"9781784632908","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781784632908.jpg?v=1697893027"},{"product_id":"the-pastoraclasm-9781784632847","title":"The Pastoraclasm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeparting from Virgil’s \u003cem\u003eEclogues\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Pastoraclasm\u003c\/em\u003e is an urgent environmental address to humans, nature and vegetable gardens. During pandemic lockdowns, poet John Kinsella realised that he would have to garden not because he enjoys it but because his family, who live ‘in the bush, would need whatever he could grow. Fierce summers, fire danger, and only having access to rainwater tank water — refusing to drain the aquifer further by using one of the two bores at ‘Jam Tree Gully’, reinforced the realisation that gardening needs to be a careful negotiation with the limitations of time, place and conditions of presence. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat developed was a set of dialogues with the garden, and with the endemic plants and animals that surrounded it. Searching for a decolonising antipastoral ‘eclogue’, the poet continues his decades-long practice of investigating the nature of ‘pastoral’ and its failure to translate into the Australian environment\/s. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWriting to a poet in Wales, Kinsella said: ‘We’re in regional lockdown here, and trying to grow veggies in drought conditions. Lot of silvereyes, thornbills and gerygones out there today – overcast, which is unusual at the moment (still very hot), and that has them vigorous with hope, I guess... but no rain predicted. On emergency water supplies now.’ \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this cycle of eco-eclogues, a counter-pastoral of responsibility emerges – one that acknowledges the toxic impact of colonialism, and which seeks to address human rapacity through challenging consumerism and industrialism and offering an ‘alternative’ way of living. As garden and gardener, soul and self, all speak with each other, they are conscious of how close fire and other catastrophes are, and together they try to evoke a healing and a path through to justice for the biosphere. Known for his wide variety of poetic approaches and techniques, this collection is very much about utterance, place and a belief that there are no easy garden metaphors, that garden’s are also spaces of responsibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘John Kinsella’s work has always engaged explicitly with environmental issues and \u003cem\u003eThe Pastoraclasm\u003c\/em\u003e recounts lockdown gardening through the prism of the Eclogue. The poet’s drought-challenged garden provides the setting for a series of meditations on the biosphere and the pastoral genre. When seeds sold out during lockdown panic, the poet seeks out old packets of ‘organic heirloom seeds, and these I sow’. So, too, he sows the eclogue and works with what emerges. Kinsella has always been alert to the moral trail left by literary forms and, of course, he interrogates the pastoral eclogue to see if it’s an adequate vessel to describe contemporary environmental catastrophe.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eGwyneth Lewis\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePN Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Kinsella’s body of work now spans more than thirty collections. The first two substantial volumes of his trilogy of collected poems, \u003cem\u003eThe Ascension of Sheep\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHarsh Hakea\u003c\/em\u003e, bring together pieces published in pamphlets and major volumes, journals and out-of-print editions. His work is often described as political: he has used his poems to speak out against nuclear technology, capitalist greed, colonialism, cruelty to animals and the death penalty. He has written eloquently about land rights, chronicled the rough work of sheep farming, sketched Grantchester Meadows in verse and taken aim at Cambridge’s animal-testing labs and pesticide-laden crops. He has published triolets, sestinas and verse dramas, experimental shape-poems and landscape poems featuring “big oil”. His idylls involve chemical pesticides; his eclogues feature maggoty sheep. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pastoraclasm\u003c\/em\u003e is the next stage in Kinsella’s project to modernize pastoral poetry. Here he styles himself alternately as a “gardener” and a “pastoral elegist”. In ecologues, poetic dialogues, psalmodic couplets, a roundel and free verse, he tends his fragile garden. He acknowledges the difficulty and strangeness of trying to ensure that his seedlings survive the drought “as climate shifts and breaks down”. He acknowledges that this landscape fringed by volcanoes is “a land of conflagration”, and with fiery air comes a reminder that international travel fuelled the pandemic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e’ —\u003cstrong\u003eYvonne Reddick\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTLS\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A striking feature of Kinsella’s highly-political poetry [is that] while it is concerned with what Kavanagh termed the “local row”. . . it also takes a globalised view...so that the poems’ perspective never rests either on the particular or the abstract, but shifts constantly between the two.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCaitríona O’Reilly\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eInsomnia\u003c\/em\u003e, John Kinsella’s latest collection in what has been, over 30 years, a remarkable writing career, is a work of eco-activism. The Bulldozer Poem, its opening rallying cry, was written in response to the attempt to run a road through wetlands in Perth, Western Australia, and has been recited in the path of bulldozers. But is it a flimsy hope to think of poetry as a force in an ecological battle? What gives this important book its edge is that Kinsella worries at – and about – the relationship between art and an endangered world’ —\u003cstrong\u003eKate Kellaway\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eObserver\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In his latest collection [\u003cem\u003eArmour\u003c\/em\u003e], acclaimed WA poet John Kinsella sings neither of the hackneyed melancholy of the bush nor, as he writes in the poem Habitat, “false elegies turned on a lathe”. But there is something both melancholy and elegiac about Armour; it's as though each poem is one of those mannequins trapped in \"glass-fronted rooms\" (The Vitiation of Presence) or an emanation of the megamouth shark “'rescued' from death in shallows to depthless formalin\" (Megamouth Shark). 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Having boarded what he assumes to be his usual 8:08 service, he soon discovers that all is not as it first seemed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDoes this train stop at any station? Do the carriages ever come to an end? And where is the colleague he thought he saw, as he took his place in the quiet coach? Our narrator reflects on his job as salesman for a cat litter manufacturer as he wanders down-train in search of answers – yet the sliding doors that close behind him appear to be malfunctioning, and every person he meets seems to remember very little of their past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeduction, destiny and salvation all come into play as this relentless novel unfolds, and we discover precisely where the 8:08 is heading and just who is in charge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Previous Work\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Like Christine Brooke-Rose or Georges Perec, Ashton works within his self-imposed constraints with energy, wit and inventiveness. 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