A sumptuously cosy seasonal love story set in sparkling New York, from the queen of the 'what if?' romance Josie Silver.Isla's vibrant childhood was filled with bands, noise and travel, thanks to her mum Vivien being an 80s music icon. Vivien might not have been much of a cook, but her treasured homemade vanilla ice cream established a Friday-night tradition that outlasted jobs, boyfriends and rental houses. Even, sadly, Vivien herself.Now Isla is escaping her various heartbreaks to the one place that has always felt like home: New York. She finds a job, a flat, a friend. And then Isla tastes her mother's ice cream at a gelateria in Little Italy. She seeks out the owner and finds Gio, a man who, like Isla, is surrounded by people and yet feels entirely alone. But the most surprising thing? They've met before . . .So can the two of them untangle their pasts and find love in the present?
Alexander Jessiersky, Austrian aristocrat and shipping magnate, finds the Nazis distasteful - but in war and in business, distaste can lead to negligence. When Jessiersky's board of directors sends his mysterious neighbour Count Luna to a concentration camp on trumped-up charges in order to seize his land, Jessiersky can't shake the feeling that Count Luna blames him - and, after the war ends, that Count Luna will have his revenge. So begins a wild, weird and witty cat-and-mouse chase through windswept moors, shadow-filled houses and, eventually, the Paris catacombs, as an increasingly paranoid Jessiersky asks himself: who is Count Luna? Where is he hiding? And will he stop at nothing - not even the edges of the plausible and canny - to exact his bloody venegance?
'A country does not become corrupt and weak overnight. Rather, we are now reaping the evil harvest of what previous generations sowed.'The power, anger and fluency of Liang Qichao's writings make him one of the towering figures in modern Chinese literature. He saw his great, almost unmanageable task as an attempt to write China into the new era - to provide an ancient country, devastated by civil war and foreign predators, with the intellectual equipment to renew itself.Liang said that he wrote from an 'ice-drinker's studio', implying that underneath his dispassionate, disabused and rational tone lay an ardour and passion which only ice could cool. China could only recover through a clear-sighted, informed understanding of its enemies - and by engaging in a thorough-going self-critique. Liang did not propose aping the West but taking only what China needed to 'renew the people' and create 'new citizens'. Then China would be able to expel its invaders, reform its society and become a great power once more.This selection of pieces shows Liang's extraordinary range and the burning sense of mission which drove him on, attempting to galvanize and refresh an entire nation. Blending together Confucianism, Buddhism and the Western Enlightenment, Liang's ideas about nation, democracy, and morality had a profound impact on Chinese visions of the political order, though the China that eventually emerged from the further disasters of the 1930s and 1940s would be a very different one.
In the fourth century AD, a new faith exploded out of Palestine. Overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and converting the Emperor Constantine in the process, it resoundingly defeated a host of other rivals. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But, as Peter Heather shows in this compelling history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise to Europe-wide dominance.In exploring how the Christian religion became such a defining feature of the European landscape, and how a small sect of isolated congregations was transformed into a mass movement centrally directed from Rome, Heather shows how Christendom constantly battled against both so-called 'heresies' and other forms of belief. From the crisis that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, which left the religion teetering on the edge of extinction, to the astonishing revolution in which the Papacy emerged as the head of a vast international corporation, Heather traces Christendom's chameleon-like capacity for self-reinvention and willingness to mobilize well-directed force.Christendom's achievement was not, or not only, to define official Christianity, but - from its scholars and its lawyers, to its provincial officials and missionaries in far-flung corners of the continent - to transform it into an institution that wielded effective religious authority across nearly all of the disparate peoples of medieval Europe. This is its extraordinary story.
LUST, GREED, PRIDE, ENVY...WHATEVER YOUR SIN OF CHOICE, THIS BOOK WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT RIGHTIf there's one thing that Joanne McNally knows how to do, it's how to have a good time - and in Seven Deadly Sins, she explores how much fun being bad can be. Using each of the original seven deadly sins as a mirror, she blends stories from her life with wider observations about what it means to be a 'single, unfertilised female in her 30s' living in the modern world.This book is full of everything that the world throws at women with the expectation that they take it in their stride: from observations on celebrity, sex and wine, to stories of being an outcast, facing eating disorders and - yes - being ghosted by your therapist, this book shows that no woman is out there on her own.Raucously funny, relatable and infinitely insightful, Seven Deadly Sins is Joanne McNally's manifesto on womanhood, from an actual human woman, for other human women of every age.
Mr Marble is in serious debt, desperate for money to pay his family's bills, until the combination of a wealthy relative, a bottle of Cyanide and a shovel offer him the perfect solution. In fact, his troubles are only just beginning. Slowly the Marble family becomes poisoned by guilt, and caught in an increasingly dangerous trap of secrets, fear and blackmail. Then, in a final twist of the knife, Mrs Marble ensures that retribution comes in the most unexpected of ways ...First published in 1926, C. S. Forester's gritty psychological thriller took crime writing in a new direction, portraying ordinary, desperate people committing monstrous acts, and showing events spiralling terribly, chillingly, out of control.
Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel The Big Sleep in 1939. Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream. The hard-boiled detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in Farewell My Lovely, on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner.
GET READY FOR THE SWOONIEST, MOST HEARTWARMING FESTIVE ROM-COM OF 2023 - AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW!It's the perfect Christmas love story.Margot Murray is a newly single, high-flying businesswoman with no interest in a cutesy seasonal romance.Ben Gibson is an unlucky-in-love sweetheart in need of a woman to bring home for the holidays.Together, they make a pact: Margot gets two blissful weeks away from London in a picture-perfect manor, in exchange for posing as Ben's girlfriend.The story can only go one way. Margot is sure to fall in love for real.And she does.With Ben's sister, Ellie.
A pocketful of sunshine for those moments when life just feels like too much, this book is bursting with happiness hacks including recipes, puzzles, poems, crafting ideas, quotes and mindfulness exercises that anyone can do at home and on a budget in no time at all. These fun, illustrated pages include:- Head-scratching riddle to spark a fun debate over dinner- Wordsearches to enjoy with a cup of tea - The ultimate gooey mug cake recipe for a well-deserved treat- Instructions for how to build a fort with blankets and cushions for a bit of childhood escapism- Dad jokes that you can't help but laugh out loud atThe perfect gift to give a loved one, or yourself in an act of self-care, this book makes it possible to bring joy to every day, and who doesn't deserve that?
**PRE-ORDER NOW - THE QUEEN OF THE REVENGE COMEDY IS BACK WITH A HILARIOUS NEW NOVEL THIS SUMMER**Does she have the perfect life?Or is she living the perfect lie?Iris is happy, really. No, this isn't exactly what she thought her forties would look like...she's divorced. She hasn't had the baby she so wanted. She's had to rent out her spare room to help with the bills. But she has a job as a kitchen designer that she loves, and great friends. Things could definitely be worse.Social influencer Maddy Fulford's brand is happy families. She preaches loyalty and the sanctity of marriage, and is quickly becoming famous for her wholesome videos of family life. But she's also the woman who destroyed Iris's marriage, and Iris isn't sure she can bear the hypocrisy ...But what happens when not everything being posted is the complete truth?Jane's sharply hilarious novel explores the murky truths behind the versions of ourselves we project online, the lengths we go to when we feel we've been wronged, and the often unlikely places we find true friendship. PRAISE FOR JANE FALLON'Gripping, sharp and brilliantly twisty. Deliciously readable. A rollercoaster of revenge' DAILY MAIL'Her best yet!' MARIAN KEYES'This escapist gem is loud-snort funny' HEAT'Witty, smart, topical and full of heart. the sun-lounger smash of the summer' TAMMY COHEN'Impossible to put down. Fabulous characters and a story that just will not let you go!' RUTH JONES'Jane Fallon's wry observation and razor-sharp wit in this unputdownable page-turner will grab you from the first page and the action races along at breakneck speed' SUNDAY EXPRESS'Funny, fresh and clever...the perfect poolside read' CLARE MACKINTOSH'Her snappy, clever fiction . . . seems to slip down like a glass of nicely chilled white wine' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Witty, funny, beautifully written and dotted with life's truths like sprinkles on a birthday cake' CATHY KELLY'Totally brilliant' TONY PARSONS'Sharply observed, wickedly funny, with real depths of emotion too. Absolutely unputdownable' MILLY JOHNSON
The perfect rom-com to sink your teeth into from TikTok sensation Helena Hunting!-------Hazy Florence is on track to graduate top of her class but she's determined to have a little fun along the way.As soon as she lays eyes on her mysterious and swoony new neighbour - Godric Hawthorn - Hazy knows he is just what she needs and they instantly fall for each other.But this is no quintessential college romance. Godric has a secret . . . he's a vampire.Dating a vampire comes with its own messy complications. And then there's Hazy's jealous ex-boyfriend who's dangerously close to the truth.Can Hazy protect her boyfriend's blood-sucking secret?Or could there be more at stake then Hazy and Godric's hearts?
"The exciting, fascinating story of Len Lomell, an Army Ranger who on D-Day climbed the steep cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc and almost single-handedly knocked out the big German guns before they could start firing on the American invasion force"--
'An indispensable writer ... Calvino, possesses the power of seeing into the deepest recesses of human minds and then bringing their dreams to life' Salman RushdieThe difference between life and literature; the good intentions of holiday reading; the avante-garde; the fate of the novel; the fantastical; the art of translation: these are just some of the ideas in The Written World and the Unwritten World. A collection of essays, articles, interviews, correspondence, notes and other occasional pieces on writing, reading and interpreting books, this work gives us new insight into Italo Calvino's expansive, curious and generous mind.Translated by Ann Goldstein
WINNER OF THE AN POST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022The bestselling memoir of an Olympic champion is a knockout gift this Christmas!After Kellie Harrington won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the Irish public recognized her as not merely a sporting hero, but a deeply inspirational human being. Now, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely journey to the top, and of the many obstacles and setbacks she overcame along the way.Growing up in Dublin's north inner city, Kellie was in danger of going down the wrong path in life before she discovered boxing. The local boxing club was all-male and initially wouldn't let her join, but she persisted.She was not an overnight success. For years she struggled in international competition. At times she felt unsupported by the national boxing set-up. More than once she considered giving up the sport. But some spark of ambition and love for boxing kept her going, and gradually she made herself world class.Writing with Roddy Doyle, the award-winning author of The Commitments, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely rise to greatness and her continuing dedication to living a normal life - which has involved remaining an amateur boxer and keeping the job she loves, at a Dublin psychiatric hospital. She shares vivid and revealing details about being a woman in a historically male sport, and about how she manages her body and her mind. It is a vastly inspiring look inside the life and psychology of a woman who is both brilliantly ordinary and utterly exceptional.'Her voice is so radiant' Sunday Independent'The full Kellie experience, all heart and laughs and a mouth like a sailor' Malachy Clerkin'A terrific collaboration' Books of the Year, Irish Times
The world has reopened and so has the Poetry Pharmacy: the powerful final instalment in the hugely beloved seriesAfter the tumult of the last few years, William Sieghart is back to prescribe the perfect poem for a variety of life's ailments, offering hope and comfort to readers in need. Here, he draws on the emails from the public he received during multiple lockdowns, as well as tried-and-true classics from his in-person pharmacies, to create an essential anthology of poetry for our times. Through his expert curation and insightful commentary, he reminds us of the power of words to help us heal, to reconnect us with the world and to recover what has been lost. From weathering sorrow and sudden loss, to dealing with environmental despair and burnout, this new selection speaks directly to a society in greater need of comfort and compassion than ever before. Whether you're searching for guidance, hope, or simply a moment of beauty, The Poetry Pharmacy Forever is here to provide solace, joy and inspiration, one verse at a time.
It is 1940 and Mr Graham, a quietly-spoken engineer and arms expert, has just finished high-level talks with the Turkish government. And now somebody wants him dead. The previous night three shots were fired at him as he stepped into his hotel room, so, terrified, he escapes in secret on a passenger steamer from Istanbul. As he journeys home - alongside, among others, an entrancing French dancer, an unkempt trader, a mysterious German doctor and a small, brutal man in a crumpled suit - he enters a nightmarish world where friend and foe are indistinguishable. Graham can try to run, but he may not be able to hide for much longer ...
A spellbinding and often hilarious history of (almost) the entirety of science from world-renowned immunologist Luke O'Neill How did life begin?What does the warping of spacetime in a black hole actually look like?And what's happening on the 4,800 exoplanets beyond our solar system?In our muddled era of conspiracy theories, fake news and groupthink, science's only goal is truth. Like all human pursuits it can go wrong, but it has the great strength of being self-correcting. At its best, what lasts - after much deliberation, rigour and sweat - is the truth. The story of science is how we get there.Standing on the shoulders of giants, world-renowned immunologist Luke O'Neill (aka the People's Immunologist) tells the zigzag story of how we got to this moment in human history, and what the future might hold: from figuring out how the mind really works, space travel (for the sheer fun of it), and the discovery of extra-terrestrial life.With incredible wit and a talent for cutting through the noise, Luke O'Neill tackles some of the great questions of our age, from Artificial Intelligence to the climate catastrophe, with a keen eye on what science might discover next. The result is an awe-inspiring history and map for the future.
In the mistaken belief that he has killed his wife, Martim flees the city and arrives, in a state of both fear and wonder, at a remote ranch. There, he will have to remake himself, emerging, from the beast-like state in which his crime has plunged him, to the fullness of a reinvented humanity. Along the way, he will mark the lives of the two women who run the ranch, brambly, authoritarian Vitória and her weepy cousin Ermelinda. But the real drama is interior: Clarice Lispector's most wrenching, and most intoxicating, exploration of how a man becomes a human - and of how language can transform a life into a destiny. 'A highly sculpted, metaphysical book whose mysteries and allegories glow with a scintillating light, Apple in the Dark is a masterpiece by "one of the hidden geniuses of the twentieth century"' Colm TóibínTranslated by Benjamin Moser.
In poems exploring family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging, Manorism is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys. At the heart of the book is the ongoing pressure of code-switching - changing one's behaviour and language to suit radically different cultural contexts and environments. The violence of artists such as Caravaggio in seventeenth-century Rome and modern-day commentary by the likes of David Starkey and Piers Morgan provide a lens for considering differences of impunity afforded to white and Black people. Snippets of Yoruba interweave with English, and a moving final sequence - adapted for the Almeida stage in June 2021 to glowing reviews from the Guardian, Time Out and others - charts the dramatic reconciliations surrounding a death in the family. The result is a thrillingly original book that charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of Black masculinity in Britain.
A powerful, intimate memoir from writer and academic Charlotte Williams exploring the intertwined history of Wales, Africa and the CaribbeanAs the daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and black father from Guyana, Charlotte Williams's childhood world was one of mixed messages dominated by the feeling that 'somehow to be half-Welsh and half Afro-Caribbean was to be half of something but never quite anything whole at all.'Sugar and Slate tells the fascinating story of her journey of self-discovery, from the small north Wales town of her birth to Africa, the Caribbean and back to Wales. This is both a personal memoir and a story that speaks to the wider experience of mixed-race Britons. It is a story of Welshness and a story of Wales and above all a story for those of us who look over our shoulder across the sea to some other place.A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
A brilliant collection of short stories from Leonora Brito exploring race, identity, and loveLeonora Brito was a writer of exceptional stories. In Dat's Love, she soaks up the sights, sounds and colours of Cardiff to boldly explore race and history.With each electric story, Brito introduces a unique cast of characters, vibrantly elevating their everyday lives. From 59-year-old Dorothy taking up nude modelling to black aristocrat Dido Elizabeth Belle, from the assassination of JFK to what's going down at the Blue Bayou, Brito blends the surreal and the mundane to redress history and immerse the reader in a vibrantly painted world.Containing an unusual exactness and sense of place, Brito's stories are unique in Welsh fiction in presenting an insider's perspective on a black Welsh history only alluded to by other writers.Full of wry humour and startling originality, this collection features some of Brito's most acclaimed work.A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
Is the metaverse a brave new world? An immersive digital playground? The next generation of online gaming? Or just the latest manifestation of our human tendency to create other realities?Herman Narula argues that it is all of these things. His vision of the metaverse, deeply rooted in history and psychology, looks to the Egyptians, whose conception of death inspired them to build the pyramids, to modern-day sports fans whose fantasy leagues are as competitive as the real thing, and finds that humanity has always sought to supplement our day-to-day lives with a rich diversity of alternative immersive experiences. Rigorously researched, passionately argued, and written by a tech founder and creator of digital worlds, Virtual Society reveals why the metaverse offers a new universe of ideas that offers users unprecedented opportunities to create, explore and find meaning. It's an essential guide for anyone who wants to get beyond superficial headlines and understand the true shape of our virtual future.
Nine Greek biographies illustrate the rise and fall of Athens, from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, through Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, and Alcibiades, to the razing of its walls by Lysander.
Brought to you by Penguin. From the No.1 bestselling author of About Us, Seven Letters and The Baby TrailWhat's another branch on the family tree?Things are finally looking up for Anna. Fourteen miserable years of marriage to man-child Connor have left her drained and ready for a new start. So when they separate, she couldn't be more thrilled to move in with James, a handsome lecturer who is everything her ex-husband is not: kind, thoughtful, and above all, reliable. But Anna and James's kids hate living with the loved-up couple and the new set-up. Their teenage daughters - one a studious high achiever and the other a cool rich girl unbothered by grades or exams - have nothing in common. And Anna's wild football-mad eleven-year-old son declares war on bookish James. Nobody said step-parenting was easy; Anna and James are about to find out exactly how complicated it can be. With exes, new partners-of-exes and money all in the mix, home life is fast becoming a minefield and their new-found happiness hangs in the balance. Do they have what it takes to make their blended family work? (c) Sinead Moriarty 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
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