The radical, urgent new novel from the author of The End of Eddy – a personal and powerful story of violence.
I met Reda on Christmas Eve 2012, at around four in the morning. He approached me in the street, and finally I invited him up to my apartment. He told me the story of his childhood and how his father had come to France, having fled Algeria.
We spent the rest of the night together, talking, laughing. At around 6 o'clock, he pulled out a gun and said he was going to kill me. He insulted me, strangled and raped me. The next day, the medical and legal proceedings began.
History of Violence retraces the story of that night, and looks at immigration, class, racism, desire and the effects of trauma in an attempt to understand a history of violence, its origins, its reasons and its causes.
Read the book before you see the musical, coming to the West End Autumn 2019!
'Even in book form, Evan Hansen's story sings. Required reading, especially for anyone who's ever needed to be found' - Becky Albertalli, author of Love Simon
Dear Evan Hansen,
Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...
When a letter that was never meant to be seen draws high school senior Evan Hansen into the Murphy family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong.
He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell.
That the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore. And Connor's wealthy parents have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his 'closest friend'.
As Evan gets pulled deeper into their family, he knows that what he's doing may not be right, but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be?
No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose.
He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. But when everything is in danger of unravelling, he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself.
A simple lie leads to complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief, authenticity and the struggle to belong in an age of instant connectivity and profound isolation.
Lord of the Flies is a thought-provoking novel authored by William Golding in 1954. The book describes in detail the horrific exploits of a band of young children who make a striking transition from civilized to barbaric. Lord of the Flies commands a pessimistic outlook that seems to show that man is inherently tied to society, and without it, we would likely return to savagery.
The gripping story of an affair gone horribly wrong, from one of Japan's greatest twentieth-century writers
Koji, a young student, has fallen hopelessly in love with the beautiful, enigmatic Yuko. But she is married to the literary critic and serial philanderer Ippei. Tormented by desire and anger, Koji is driven to an act of violence that will bind this strange, terrible love triangle together for the rest of their lives. A starkly compelling story of lust, guilt and punishment, The Frolic of the Beasts explores the masks we wear in life, and what happens when they slip.
'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' New Yorker
Rzeźnik z Niebuszewa to swoista odyseja grozy. Błahy misternie łączy ze sobą literaturę konfesyjną, autobiograficzną oraz filozoficzną i niczym zręczny akrobata żongluje trzema rodzajami literackimi. Faktografia błyskotliwie miesza się tutaj z eseistycznymi talentami autora. Ten nietuzinkowy zbiór tekstów, który jest właściwie minipowieścią, fascynuje, wciąga i skrajnie przeraża. Błahy w sposób bezczelny i prowokacyjny łamie literackie schematy, oferując czytelnikom dużo więcej. W efekcie powstało dzieło wyjątkowo transgresyjne, które odważnie, bez żadnej autocenzury, sięga w głąb mroków ludzkiej duszy oraz pokazuje irracjonalny i niemal nieuchwytny charakter zła. Autor obsesyjnie powraca do szczecińskiej dzielnicy Niebuszewo, miejsca okrytego złą sławą i nieustannie pobudzającego wyobraźnię mieszkańców miasta. W książce nierzadko występują prozaizmy i ostre wulgaryzmy, ale są one konieczne, albowiem tylko w taki sposób można wiarygodnie oddać język ludzi z nizin społecznych oraz bunt wobec patologicznej rzeczywistości. Tytułowy Rzeźnik staje się poręczną metaforą bestii, tkwiącej w każdym z nas. Pojawiające się pod latarnią widmo legendarnego mordercy, odsłania również palimpsestowy charakter słynnej dzielnicy, w której nakładają się naznaczone traumami polska i niemiecka historia. Autor proponuje czytelnikom wstrząsającą podróż przez wewnętrzne piekło, trudny do zniesienia fetor rozkładu i śmierci, jednak na końcu tej budzącej grozę peregrynacji można osiągnąć katharsis.
Damian Romaniak
Osiemnastoletni Karol odsiaduje w zakładzie karnym drugi miesiąc dożywocia. Pogardzany przez osadzonych z nim więźniów, bezskutecznie stara się odnaleźć w trudnej więziennej rzeczywistości. Jedyną ucieczkę od niej stanowi pamiętnik, w którym opisuje wydarzenia poprzedzające jego skazanie. Z jego wspomnień wyłania się świat wakacji, pełen słońca i beztroski, w którym wszystko, jak okiem sięgnąć, stanowi wstęp do przygody. Karol stara się dociec, jak to możliwe, że stracił w nim wszystko, co miał? Czy była to cena pomylenia miłości z pożądaniem i obsesją? Czy można było uniknąć tragedii, czy też nosił ją w sobie na długo przed tym, nim się wydarzyła? Wreszcie: czy warto żyć dalej wyłącznie dla samego poczucia winy i ponoszenia kary za to, co zrobił?
Historia, w której wszystko co złe, brudne i pospolite z biegiem czasu staje się coraz bardziej wynaturzone i przerażające. Sylwia balansuje pomiędzy realnym a wymyślonym, pogrąża się w chaosie swojej głowy. Dziewczyna jest przebiegła, infantylna i zawistna. Ma plany i marzenia, ale brakuje jej predyspozycji i perspektyw na ich zrealizowanie. Popada w obłęd, a szary świat widziany jej oczami zmienia się w fantastyczną, chociaż groźną krainę.
Książka jest opowieścią o konfrontacji nadwrażliwej jednostki z bezkompromisowym światem, który usiłuje zwalczać każdą inność.
Katarzyna Kubicka – ur. w 1988 roku w Białej Podlaskiej. Ukończyła filologię polską na Uniwersytecie im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Mieszka na warszawskiej Ochocie. Debiutantka.
Struny pragnień autorstwa Moniki Chodorowskiej to opowieść o matce i dziecku dotkniętym autyzmem. O bezradności matki, o niezrozumieniu przez otoczenie, o lękach i frustracji.
Franek nie używa zwrotów grzecznościowych, bo nie rozumie zasadności ich użycia. Posługuje się krzykiem, bo wtedy dostaje to, co chce. Nie przytula się, bo ma nadwrażliwość dotykową. Dodatkowo jest bombardowany przez zapachy, dźwięki, światło. Jedzenie czasem staje się dla niego torturą. W kółko powtarza zasłyszane zwroty. Tylko tak potrafi się komunikować.
Autorka pracowała jako terapeutka pedagogiczna i chociaż jej bohaterowie są fikcyjni, pokazuje realne problemy, z jakimi mierzą się opiekunowie dzieci autystycznych. To cierpka, ale fascynująca podróż w świat zupełnie niedostępny rodzicom dzieci tylko czasami niesfornych.
Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.
When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave.
Question #1: Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt?
But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking… and what she’s hiding.
The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller
A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo. They work at home as freelance writers. They no longer have very much to say to one another.
One day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. She is a beautiful creature. She leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. New, small joys accompany the cat; the days have more light and colour. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife; they go walking together, talk and share stories of the cat and its little ways, play in the nearby Garden. But then something happens that will change everything again.
The Guest Cat is an exceptionally moving and beautiful novel about the nature of life and the way it feels to live it. Written by Japanese poet and novelist Takashi Hiraide, the book won Japan's Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, and was a bestseller in France and America.
Alfred Busi, famed in his town for his music and songs, is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days in the large villa he has always called home. Then one night Busi is attacked by a creature he disturbs as it raids the contents of his larder. Busi is convinced that what assaulted him was no animal, but a child, ‘innocent and wild’, and his words fan the flames of old rumour – of an ancient race of people living in the bosk surrounding the town – and new controversy: the town’s paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges, must be dealt with. Once and for all.
Lyrical and warm, intimate and epic, The Melody by Jim Crace tracks the few days that will see Busi and the town he loves altered irrevocably. This is a story about grief and ageing, about reputation and the loss of it, about love and music and the peculiar way myth seeps into real life. And it is a political novel too – a rallying cry to protect those we persecute.
A beautifully moving tale of loss and reaching out to the ones we love, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters in modern life.
Our narrator’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week . . .
Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself – and his beloved cat – to the brink. Genki Kawamura's If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters in modern life.
This beautiful tale is translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, who also translated The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. Fans of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles will also surely love If Cats Disappeared from the World.
Pomysł pierwszego opowiadania powstaje w roku 2010. I pod wpływem wielu zdarzeń zostaje ukończone w roku 2015. Postać Iwanowa została stworzona z losów wielu prawdziwych postaci. Fragmenty Artysty ukazują się drukiem na łamach jednego z czasopism literackich na kilka lat przed ukazaniem się książki. Między rokiem 1992-97 autor wraz z "Osą" podróżują po Europie i kiedy docierają do Berlina są oszołomieni jego rozmachem. To właśnie tam pewnej nocy, kiedy gubią się pośrodku tego miasta zostają wymyślone postacie Marty Degen, która z tylu nieoczywistych powodów pragnęłaby śmierci i Marka Feuera skłonnego poświęcić tak dużo dla sztuki.
A haunting novella of fame and disillusionment by a Japanese literary icon
All eyes are upon Rikio. And he likes it, mostly. His fans cheer from a roped-off section, screaming and yelling to attract his attention. They would kill for a moment alone with him. Finally the director sets up the shot, the camera begins to roll, someone yells "action"; Rikio, for a moment, transforms into another being, a hardened young yakuza, but as soon as the shot is finished, he slumps back into his own anxieties and obsessions.
Written shortly after Yukio Mishima himself had acted in the film Afraid to Die, this novella is a rich and unflinching psychological portrait of a celebrity coming apart at the seams as the absurdity of his existence comes sharply into focus. With exquisite, vivid prose, Star begs the question: is there ever any escape from how we are seen by others?
The exquisite last novel from Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata
Ineko has lost the ability to see things. At first it was a ping-pong ball, then it was her fiancé. The doctors call it 'body blindness', and she is placed in a psychiatric clinic to recover. As Ineko's mother and fiancé walk along the riverbank after visiting time, they wonder: is her condition a form of madness - or an expression of love? Exploring the distance between us, and what we say without words, Kawabata's transcendent final novel is the last word from a master of Japanese literature.
Mary Gaitskill's tales of desire and dislocation in 1980s New York caused a sensation with their frank, caustic portrayals of men and women's inner lives. As her characters have sex, try and fail to connect, play power games and inflict myriad cruelties on each other, she skewers urban life with precision and candour.
'Stubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don't expect it, these stories are a pleasure to read' Alice Munro
'An air of Pinteresque menace hangs over these people's social exchanges like black funereal bunting ... Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail' Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
In these vigorous stories, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling to a world in which storms, snakes and sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats are of a human, emotional and psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable conflicted wife and mother.
The stories in this collection span characters, towns, even centuries, but Florida – its landscape, climate, history and state of mind – becomes the gravitational centre. With shocking accuracy, Groff pinpoints the connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury – the moments that make us alive.
After hitchhiking from Brazil to nearly halfway around the world, Paulo stumbles across Karla, a young Dutch woman and like-minded soul, in Amsterdam’s famous Dam Square.
Together they decide to take the fabled hippie trail across Europe to Nepal, aboard the Magic Bus, in search of self-discovery. So begins a life-defining love story that will set the course for the rest of their lives.
Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, Paulo Coelho relives the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and challenged the established social order.
Tomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more.
Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one cheery, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question: do I have what it takes?
Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling – and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one’s purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation.
Mega-bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, selected by bookshop staff as the book they most wanted to hand-sell: A tender and uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler.
Over a million copies sold.
Istnieją historie skrywane przez całe życie. Pisane z palącej potrzeby wydobycia ich z siebie i ujrzenia przed sobą, na papierze. Zaraz potem przychodzi jednak myśl, że nie nadają się do rozpowszechnienia. Zostaną opublikowane po śmierci autora i staną się „literackim skandalem”. (...) „Ernesto”, choć niedokończony, może uchodzić za jedną z największych powieści włoskich dwudziestego wieku. Jest kluczem do zrozumienia dzieła i życia Umberta Saby (1883–1957), lecz przede wszystkim jest to powieść o nadzwyczajnej świeżości i swobodzie. To bezlitosna oraz ironiczna opowieść o skomplikowanym procesie dorastania, być może jedna z nielicznych włoskich powieści inicjacyjnych, godna sąsiedztwa z „Niepokojami wychowanka Törlessa” Musila. (Francesco Cataluccio).
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