Aimless Love is Billy Collins' first new compilation of poems in twelve years, and a wonderful successor to his first, the bestselling Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes. Aimless Love presents more than fifty new poems together with generous selections from his four most recent books. No poet writing today communicates so directly and effectively, and no living poet has managed to both enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and expand it so dramatically: his poems appeal to readers and live audiences across the globe, and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. By turns playful, ironic and serious, Collins's poetry unearths the wonder in the everyday: in his own words, his poems `begin in Kansas and end in Oz'. Weaving the themes of love, loss, joy
`Emma Donoghue writes books that are unlike anything I have ever seen before, and Astray is no exception. There is such a deep and compassionate imagination at work in every story in this collection that Astray feels almost like an act of clairvoyance.' Ann Patchett, Orange prize-winning author of State of Wonder
Counterfeiter. Dishwasher. Prostitute. Attorney. Sculptor. Mercenary. Elephant. Corpse.
The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue's latest fact-inspired fictions have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters. They cross other borders, too: those of race, law, sex and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress.
Donoghue describes the brutal plot hatched by a slave in conjunction with his
Hilarious, heart-warming and honest, Broken is about living, surviving and thriving with anxiety. A must-have for fans of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and David Sedaris.
San Francisco, 1876: a stifling heat wave and smallpox epidemic have engulfed the City.
Deep in the streets of Chinatown live three former stars of the Parisian circus: Blanche, now an exotic dancer at the House of Mirrors, her lover Arthur and his companion Ernest.
When an eccentric outsider joins their little circle, secrets unravel, changing everything - and leaving one of them dead.
Inspired by true events, Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue, author of the award-winning Room, is an evocative novel of intrigue and murder: elegant, erotic and witty. Time and again, Emma Donoghue writes books that are unlike anything I have ever seen before. -- Ann Patchett Frog Music is a roiling, simmering brew of a novel: dramatic, unexpected * Spectator * This is another smart and
When a couple are killed on an isolated road in North Carolina they leave behind an orphaned son and grieving relatives who must decide between them who will be his caretaker, in a compulsive novel exploring the nature of family.
For Picador's 40th anniversary we asked 40 writers to respond to the idea of 40 in whatever way they liked. The results are spectacular: thoughtful, funny, poignant, as brilliantly diverse as the Picador list.
Pieces include the temporal (what I was doing 40 years ago; the mid-life crisis of a 40-year-old whose lifespan coincides with Picador's), the quirky (gifts I'd like to receive for my 40th birthday; 40 things to do before I die; what it's like never to have been on any of those Best Under 40 lists), and the downright clever (40-word synopses of great works of literature), along with some astonishingly good short stories and poems touching on mortality and ageing.
The authors range from great established writers on the list, like Alice Sebold, John Banville
'Brilliant, disturbing . . . an important story that needed to be told. A fast-moving and most compelling read.' - Helen Rappaport, author of Four Sisters and The Race to Save the Romanovs
The gripping human story of how American volunteers fought famine in Bolshevik Russia, saving Lenin's revolutionary government from chaos and millions of people from starvation
In 1921, after six years of unrelenting war and revolution, Russia was in ruins. The economy had collapsed, the country was ravaged by disease and starvation claimed the lives of millions. People were so desperate for food that there were reports of cannibalism, reports that were revealed to be horribly accurate.
Remarkably, it was a young American aid worker who uncovered the truth and, even more
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021'A dazzling piece of historical re-imagining and a revolutionary sermon, a furious denunciation of inequality' The judges of the International Booker prize.The fight for equality begins in the streets.From the internationally bestselling author of The Order of the Day: Éric Vuillard once again takes us behind the scenes at a moment when history was being written.The history of inequality is a long and terrible one. And it's not over yet. Short, sharp and devastating, The War of the Poor tells the story of a brutal episode from history, not as well known as tales of other popular uprisings, but one that deserves to be told.Sixteenth-century Europe: the Protestant Reformation takes on the powerful and the privileged.
The often hilarious, at times horrifying and occasionally heartbreaking diaries of a former junior doctor, and the story of why he decided to hang up his stethoscope.
The often hilarious, at times horrifying and occasionally heartbreaking diaries of a former junior doctor, and the story of why he decided to hang up his stethoscope
From the multi-award-winning and million-copy bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt, comes Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas, a gift book that alternates between the hilarious and the heartbreaking, in a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line.
A riveting, thought-provoking and very timely account of the idea and the reality of quarantine around the world, examining not only the history but the implications of a system that our lives rely on.
We all dream, and 98 per cent of us can recall our dreams the next morning. Even in today's modern age, it is human nature to wonder what they mean.
Now, groundbreaking science is putting dreams at the forefront of new research into sleep, memory, the concept of self and human socialization. Once a subject of the New Age and spiritualism, the science of dreams is revealed to have a crucial role in the biology and neuroscience of our waking lives.
In Why We Dream, Alice Robb, a leading American science journalist, will take readers on a journey to uncover why we dream, why dreaming matters, and how we can improve our dream life - and why we should. Through her encounters with scientists at the cutting edge of dream research, she reveals how:
- Dreams can be
When Oscar Amalfitano begins an impulsive affair with one of his students at the University of Barcelona, he has no idea where it will lead. More than his turbulent revolutionary past, or the death of his beautiful wife, the scandalous exposure of this relationship will change him for ever.
Forced to flee with his seventeen-year-old daughter, Amalfitano finds himself in Santa Teresa, a sprawling town on the US-Mexico border. Haunted by dark tales of murdered women, this mythical place is populated by mysterious characters. We meet Castillo, who makes his living selling his forgeries of Larry Rivers paintings to wealthy Texans; Pancho Monje, a son born of six generations of foundlings; and Arcimboldi, a magician and writer whose work has been important to Amalfitano
