Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 1802060049 ISBN 13: 9781802060041
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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soft. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE'A deeply immersive portrait of daily life in Israel and the West Bank' The Best Books to Understand the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Financial Times'Brims over with just the sort of compassion and understanding that is needed at a time like this … a book that speaks with deep and authentic truth of ordinary lives trapped in the jaws of history' ObserverA gripping, intimate story of one heartbreaking day in Palestine that reveals lives, loves, enmities, and histories in violent collisionMilad is five years old and excited for his school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but tragedy awaits: his bus is involved in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, rushes to the chaotic site, only to find Milad has already been taken away. Abed sets off on a journey to learn Milad's fate, navigating a maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must face as a Palestinian.Interwoven with Abed's odyssey are the stories of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and pasts unexpectedly converge: a kindergarten teacher and a mechanic who rescue children from the burning bus; an Israeli army commander and a Palestinian official who confront the aftermath at the scene of the crash; a settler paramedic; ultra-Orthodox emergency service workers; and two mothers who each hope to claim one severely injured boy.A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is a deeply immersive, stunningly detailed portrait of life in Israel and Palestine, and an illumination of the reality of one of the most contested places on earth.A TIME, NEW STATESMAN AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 1802065415 ISBN 13: 9781802065411
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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soft. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) The new collection from 'one of America's most legendary living poets' (Ocean Vuong), written in the drive to fall in love with the world again not as it was, but as it iswhen the hammerapproached we thought is that thing coming this wayBreathing, moving, living on the page, CAConrad’s exhilarating work is centred on the (Soma)tic ritual, their celebrated practice which draws on nature, crystals, meditation and interactions with strangers to create an ‘extreme present’ of unfettered creativity from which poems can emerge.Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return gathers the results of a single new ritual, focused on fellow animals who have found ways to thrive in the Anthropocene, and spanning environments from Seattle – a city built in the midst of an abundant nontropical rainforest – to the Mojave Desert. The poet receives gifts from a crow; associates different parts of their body with nine different species encountered in the desert; and joins a woman each morning in feeding rats in the streets of Rome, taking turns looking out for the police.Written with urgency, hope, anger and joy, the poems that result are an ode to survival in a world that humanity has poisoned, and a testament to a love that knows no by-laws.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2020
ISBN 10: 0141030577 ISBN 13: 9780141030579
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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soft. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) A beautiful gift for the intrepid explorer in your life by one of the most acclaimed and beloved nature writers working today, the internationally bestselling, prize-winning author of Landmarks, The Lost Words and The Old WaysA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2019WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020'You'd be crazy not to read this book' The Sunday TimesA Guardian Best Book of the 21st CenturyIn Underland, Robert Macfarlane takes us on a journey into the worlds beneath our feet. From the ice-blue depths of Greenland's glaciers, to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet's past and future. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, Underland is a work of huge range and power, and a remarkable new chapter in Macfarlane's long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart.SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2020 'Macfarlane has invented a new kind of book, really a new genre entirely' The Irish Times'He is the great nature writer, and nature poet, of this generation' Wall Street Journal 'Macfarlane has shown how utterly beautiful a brilliantly written travel book can still be' Observer on The Old Ways'Irradiated by a profound sense of wonder. Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly' Independent on Landmarks'It sets the imagination tingling.like reading a prose Odyssey sprinkled with imagist poems' The Sunday Times on The Old Ways.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2013
ISBN 10: 0141030585 ISBN 13: 9780141030586
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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soft. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZEThe original bestseller from the beloved author of UNDERLAND, LANDMARKS and THE LOST WORDS - Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape'The Old Ways confirms Macfarlane's reputation as one of the most eloquent and observant of contemporary writers about nature' Scotland on SundayFollowing the tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles and beyond, Robert Macfarlane discovers a lost world - a landscape of the feet and the mind, of pilgrimage and ritual, of stories and ghosts; above all of the places and journeys which inspire and inhabit our imaginations.'Sublime. It sets the imagination tingling, laying an irresistible trail for readers to follow' Sunday Times'Read this and it will be impossible to take an unremarkable walk again' Metro'He has a rare physical intelligence and affords total immersion in place, elements and the passage of time: wonderful' Antony Gormley.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2022
ISBN 10: 0241566576 ISBN 13: 9780241566572
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) From the internationally bestselling author of Exit West , a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew. 'Gorgeously crafted . . . The Last White Man concludes on a note of hope, a door jarred open just enough to let transcendence pour through' O, the Oprah Magazine 'The electric premise, borrowed from Kafka's The Metamorphosis , looks set to update a classic to make it urgently relevant' Evening Standard ' A hypnotic race fable . . . In the hands of such a deft and humane writer as Hamid, a bizarre construct is moved far beyond any mere 'what if'' Guardian.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2025
ISBN 10: 180206706X ISBN 13: 9781802067064
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) ‘In this book, Nick Makoha has found an otherworldly, visionary voice and diction that arrest you from the first page and never let you go.’ Jason Allen-Paisant, Winner of the TS Eliot PrizeAn expansive new collection from one of the UK’s most daring and celebrated poetsIn The New Carthaginians, time – and with it the world – is out of joint. A hijacked plane lands at Entebbe International Airport in 1976, triggering the crisis that will lead to Idi Amin’s Uganda becoming a pariah state and, within a few years, to the young Nick Makoha’s flight from the country. A mysterious writer daubs poetic slogans on the walls of late-’70s New York City, signing them SAMO©. Three characters who are also one – the Poet, a Black Icarus and a resurrected Jean-Michel Basquiat – journey through a time that is both our own and not, watching TV, discussing art and literature and tucking their wings into their jackets on the way to airport security.Concerned throughout with flight and falling, the sample and the loop, The New Carthaginians is a poetry collection of staggering originality: a work by an author at the height of his powers, in which the familiar Western canons of art, history and philosophy are prised apart and reassembled in a new configuration. Drawing on Basquiat’s technique of the ‘exploded’ collage, our heroes’ odyssey gathers the symbols of a new mythos, through which the othering of Black life might be undone and the stage set for some fresh emergence, some transfigured understanding of myth and life. ‘Hold that note,’ writes the poet. ‘In this place you are no longer the chorus … In any future, remember you are a New Carthaginian.’
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2021
ISBN 10: 0241534992 ISBN 13: 9780241534991
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) 'Bernardine Evaristo is one of those writers who should be read by everyone, everywhere' Elif Shafak The powerful, urgent manifesto on never giving up from Booker prize-winning trailblazer, Bernardine Evaristo. In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the Booker Prize since its inception fifty years earlier - a revolutionary landmark for Britain. Her journey was a long one, but she made it, and she made history. Manifesto is her intimate and fearless account of how she did it. From a childhood steeped in racism from neighbours, priests and even some white members of her own family, to discovering the arts through her local youth theatre; from stuffing her belongings into bin bags, always on the move between temporary homes, to exploring many romantic partners both toxic and loving, male and female, and eventually finding her soulmate; from setting up Britain's first theatre company for Black women in the eighties to growing into the trailblazing writer, theatre-maker, teacher, mentor and activist we see today - Bernardine charts her rebellion against the mainstream and her life-long commitment to community and creativity. And, through the prism of her extraordinary experiences, she offers vital insights into the nature of race, class, feminism, sexuality and ageing in modern Britain. Bernardine Evaristo's life story is a manifesto for courage, integrity, optimism, resourcefulness and tenacity. It's a manifesto for anyone who has ever stood on the margins, and anyone who wants to make their mark on history. It's a manifesto for being unstoppable. 'Bernardine Evaristo is one of Britain's best writers , an iconic and unique voice, filled with warmth, subtlety and humanity. Exceptional' Nikesh Shukla 'Bernardine Evaristo is the most daring, imaginative and innovative of writers ' Inua Ellams.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2019
ISBN 10: 0241268028 ISBN 13: 9780241268025
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) One of the most exciting books of the year - this new masterpiece from Deborah Levy is the perfect gift LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2019 'An utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel. Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist' Daily Telegraph 'An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe' The Times 'The man who had nearly run me over had touched my hair, as if he were touching a statue or something without a heartbeat.' In 1988 Saul Adler (a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road. Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age. Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying The Man Who Saw Everything examines what we see and what we fail to see, the grave crime of carelessness, the weight of history and our ruinous attempts to shrug it off. 'Levy writes on the high wire, unfalteringly' Marina Warner 'It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules' Evening Standard 'Intelligent and supple.a dizzying tale of life across time and borders' Finanical Times.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2019
ISBN 10: 0241396565 ISBN 13: 9780241396568
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) Eerie, unsettling and hauntingly beautiful - a new collaboration from the bestselling creators of Holloway 'Ness goes beyond what we expect books to do. Beyond poetry, beyond the word, beyond the bomb -- it is an aftertime song. It is dark, ever so dark, nimble and lethal. It is a triumphant libretto of mythic modernism for our poisoned age. Ness is something else, and feels like it always has been' Max Porter, Booker-longlisted author of Lanny and Grief is the Thing with Feathers Somewhere on a salt-and-shingle island, inside a ruined concrete structure known as The Green Chapel, a figure called The Armourer is leading a ritual with terrible intent. But something is coming to stop him. Five more-than-human forms are traversing land, sea and time towards The Green Chapel, moving to the point where they will converge and become Ness. Ness has lichen skin and willow-bones. Ness is made of tidal drift, green moss and deep time. Ness has hagstones for eyes and speaks only in birds. And Ness has come to take this island back. What happens when land comes to life? What would it take for land to need to come to life? Using word and image, Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood have together made a minor modern myth. Part-novella, part-prose-poem, part-mystery play, in Ness their skills combine to dazzling, troubling effect. Robert Macfarlane is the author of The Lost Words with Jackie Morris , The Old Ways and Underland , among other books. Stanley Donwood is an artist and the author of Slowly Downward and Household Worms . His next books are There Will Be No Quiet and Bad Island .
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2025
ISBN 10: 024151746X ISBN 13: 9780241517468
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) Off-beat, irreverent and subversive – a Jewish family memoir about convenient delusions and unsayable truths, from the acclaimed author of the cult classic novel, Submarine'The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . A masterpiece' Financial Times‘A slippery marvel [and] a quixotic voyage into the heart of 20th-century darkness’ Observer‘Poignant and profound, comic and unconventional – and genuinely, searingly meaningful’ The New York TimesJoe Dunthorne had always wanted to write about his great-grandfather, Siegfried: an eccentric scientist who invented radioactive toothpaste and a Jewish refugee from the Nazis who returned to Germany under cover of the Berlin Olympics to pull off a heist on his own home.The only problem was that Siegfried had already written the book of his life – an unpublished, two-thousand page memoir so dry and rambling that none of his living descendants had managed to read it. And, as it turned out when Joe finally read the manuscript himself, it told a very different story from the one he thought he knew…Thus begins a mystery which stretches across the twentieth century and around the world, from Berlin to Ankara, New York, Glasgow and eventually London – a mystery about the production of something much more sinister than toothpaste. On the trail of one ‘jolly grandpa’ with a patchy psychiatric history and an encyclopaedic knowledge of poison gases, Joe Dunthorne is forced to confront the uncomfortable questions that lie at the heart of every family. Can we ever understand where we come from? Is every family in the end a work of fiction? And even if the truth can be found – will we be able to live with it?Children of Radium is a remarkable, searching meditation on individual and collective inheritance. Witty and wry, deeply humane and endlessly surprising, it considers the long half-life of trauma, the weight of guilt and the ever-evasive nature of the truth.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241646065 ISBN 13: 9780241646069
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) Born a vagabond, Tibb Ingleby has never had a roof of her own. But her mother has taught her that if you're not too bound by the Big Man's rules, there are many ways a woman can find shelter in this world. Now her ma is dead in a trick gone wrong and young Tibb is orphaned and alone.As she wends her way across the fields and forests of medieval England, Tibb will discover there are people who will care for her, as well as those who mean her harm. And there are a great many others who are prepared to believe just about anything.And so, when the opportunity presents itself to escape the shackles society has placed on them, Tibb and her new friends conjure an audacious plan: her greatest trickerie yet. But before they know it, their hoax takes on a life of its own, drawing crowds - and vengeful enemies - to their door.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241631270 ISBN 13: 9780241631270
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) From the critically acclaimed author of CECILY comes an intimate and gripping novel perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel, Madeline Miller and Maggie O’Farrell.'A triumph' The Times'Electrifying' Daily Mail'History at its most powerful' Jennifer Saint1461. Through blood and battle Edward has gained England’s throne – king by right and conquest – eighteen years old and unstoppable. Cecily has piloted his rise to power and stands at his shoulder now, first to claim the title King’s Mother.But to win a throne is not to keep it and war is come again. As brother betrays brother, and trusted cousins turn treacherous, other mothers rise up to fight for other sons. Cecily must focus her will to defeat every challenge. Wherever they come from. Whatever the cost.For there can be only one King, and only one King’s Mother.From the Wars of the Roses to the dawn of the Tudor age, this is a story of mothers and sons; of maternal ferocity and female ambition - of all they can build and all they can destroy.PRAISE FOR ANNIE GARTHWAITE:'Elegant and propulsive . . . I had to fight myself to put it down' A.K. Blakemore'Family dynamics at their most fierce - timeless and brilliant!' Kate Sawyer'Has the new Hilary Mantel arrived?' Sunday Telegraph'A vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses' Imogen Hermes Gowar.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2021
ISBN 10: 0241482798 ISBN 13: 9780241482797
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) The new novel from Salley Vickers, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian and Grandmothers Artist, Hassie Days, and her sister, Margot, buy a run down Jacobean house in Hope Wenlock on the Welsh Marches. While Margot continues her London life in high finance, Hassie is left alone to work the large, long-neglected garden. She is befriended by eccentric, sharp-tongued, Miss Foot, who recommends, Murat, an Albanian migrant, made to feel out of place among the locals, to help Hassie in the garden. As she works the garden in Murat's peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past life: the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions. But as she begins to explore the history of the house and the mysterious nearby wood, old hurts begin to fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and discovers other worlds. In her haunting new novel, Salley Vickers, the bestselling author of The Librarian and The Cleaner of Chartres, writes with the profound psychological insight and sense of the numinous power of place that is the hallmark of all her novels. 'Salley Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She's a presence worth cherishing' Philip Pullman ' The Gardener is a novel of regrowth & regeneration, of sisters overcoming a toxic parental legacy & of the healing power of seed packets. The perfect fictional promise to draw us through a harsh winter' Patrick Gale 'Steeped in a sense of the redemptive power of place, Sally Vickers's 11th novel is a paean to green-fingered regeneration that is both rigorous and charming' Observer.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2022
ISBN 10: 0241541344 ISBN 13: 9780241541340
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERThe unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartetOne day in post-Brexit, mid-pandemic Britain, artist Sandy Gray receives an unexpected phone call from university acquaintance Martina Pelf. Martina is calling Sandy to ask for help with a mysterious question she's been left with after she's spent half a day locked in a room by border control officials for no reason she can fathom: 'Curlew or curfew? You choose.'And what's any of this got to do with the story of a young and talented blacksmith hounded from her trade and her home more than five hundred years ago?Ali Smith's novel takes wing, soaring between our atomised present and our medieval past in the hope we can open our locked down homes and selves to all the other times, other species, other histories, other possibilities.'[An] entertaining and expert portrayal of the world we live in, seen by the most beguiling and likeable of novelistic intelligences' Telegraph'[Companion Piece] makes you look at the world afresh. For me, it turned a cold and depressing day into a bright one' New StatesmanLONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2022.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2021
ISBN 10: 0241480388 ISBN 13: 9780241480380
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The author of the celebrated bestseller The English and Their History puts Brexit in its historical context Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe. In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2020
ISBN 10: 0241454662 ISBN 13: 9780241454664
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) **The dazzling new novel from the prize-winning, bestselling author of Middle England** 'As good as anything he's written - a novel to cherish' Observer _______________________________________________________ In the heady summer of 1977, a naive young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good. While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history. In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema's most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia. When the world is catapulting towards change, do you hold on for dear life or decide it's time to let go? _______________________________________________________ 'A beautiful, bittersweet novel that is itself crying out for the silver screen treatment' Scotsman 'Effortlessly pleasurable and deceptively simple' The Times 'Utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting' Mail on Sunday 'A charming, bittersweet book, and a perfect reminder of art's value in stark times' Spectator 'A book more loving towards its readers or its subject is hard to imagine' John Self, The Critic.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2020
ISBN 10: 0241408814 ISBN 13: 9780241408810
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'A joy. Each chapter instantly became my favourite' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas 'Wonderful' Lucy Mangan 'The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.' This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls, mythical libraries, itinerant pedlars, radical pamphleteers, extraordinary bookshop customers and fanatical collectors, Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham uncovers the curious history of our book obsession - and his own. Part cultural history, part literary love letter and part reluctant memoir, this is the tale of one bookseller and many, many books. ' If ferreting through bookshops is your idea of heaven, you'll get the same pleasure from this treasure trove of a book' Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2020
ISBN 10: 0241295955 ISBN 13: 9780241295953
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel?' Sunday Telegraph ________________________________________________________ A producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. There are riots in Paris and the Vietnam War is out of control. While the world is reeling our three characters are involved in making a Swingin' Sixties movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. Elfrida is drowning her writer's block in vodka; Talbot, coping with the daily dysfunction of making a film, is hiding something in a secret apartment; and the glamorous Anny is wondering why the CIA is suddenly so interested in her. But the show must go on and, as it does, the trio's private world s begin to take over their public one s . Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will. From one of Britain's best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel that asks the vital questions: what makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't? ________________________________________________ 'Superbly wry and wise and funny and truthful . . Trio is a masterclass in artistic technique' Guardian 'One of our best contemporary storytellers. . . Trio embraces comedy, tragedy and redemption' Spectator 'His best novel in years' Red , The Best Books to Read this October 'Immensely readable . . . full of light and colour, its humour spot on, its mood a perfect mix of frolicsome and melancholy' Sunday Telegraph 'An elating read' Sunday Times 'Beautifully captures the chaos and exhilaration of a shambolic film set' Observer 'As charming as it is satisfying, a pleasure to read' i.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2025
ISBN 10: 0241721040 ISBN 13: 9780241721049
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) ‘A work of genius’ Philip Hoare‘One of the best things I’ve read in many many years’ Hilton Als'Beautifully provocative . the most compelling exploration of life, death, love and resistance that I've read for a very long time' Eimear McBrideA story of loss and grief, sex and love, and refusing to relinquish dreamsHe said he would understand if it was too much for me, that I could leave him, that I was young, I should be living, I said to him, I am living.Johnny Grant faces stark life decisions. Seeking answers, he looks back to his relationship with Jerry Field. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was 19, Jerry was 45. They fell in love and made a life on their own terms in Jerry’s flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today – but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew.As Johnny’s mind travels between then and now, he begins to remember stories of Jerry’s youth: of experiments in living; of radical philosophies; of the many possibilities of love, sex and friendship before the AIDS crisis devastated the queer community. Slowly, he realizes what he must do next—and attempts to restore ways of being that could be lost forever.Nova Scotia House takes us to the heart of a relationship, a community and an era. It is both a love story and a lament; bearing witness to the enduring pain of the AIDS pandemic and honouring the joys and creativity of queer life. Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original, it marks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction, and a writer with a liberating new story to tell.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241665574 ISBN 13: 9780241665572
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) O brave new world, that has such people in't.Once upon a time not very far from now, two children come home to find a line of wet red paint encircling the outside of their house.What does it mean?It’s a truism of our time that it’ll be the next generation who’ll sort out our increasingly toxic world.What would that actually be like?In a state turned hostile, a world of insiders and outsiders, what things of the past can sustain them and what shape can resistance take?And what’s a horse got to do with any of this?Gliff is a novel about how we make meaning and how we are made meaningless. With a nod to the traditions of dystopian fiction, a glance at the Kafkaesque, and a new take on the notion of classic, it's a moving and electrifying read, a vital and prescient tale of the versatility and variety deep-rooted in language, in nature and in human nature.'As always, Ali’s inventiveness and intelligence lit fireworks in my mind. Gliff is an irresistible invitation to rethink and reword our way to a truly brave new world' Michelle de KretserLONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241586917 ISBN 13: 9780241586914
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) IT WAS THE PERFECT DAY OUT . . .UNTIL THEY NEVER CAME BACK.READ THE EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT NEW DAVID RAKER THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING MASTER OF THE MISSING PERSON MYSTERY, TIM WEAVER ‘Fiendishly serpentine and utterly compulsive’ Louise Candlish ‘These books are unputdownable. If you haven't yet met Raker, you're in for a treat’ Mick Herron---One family . . . On a beautiful summer's day, at a remote lake in the middle of Dartmoor, three members of the Fowler family take a dinghy out onto the water, leaving mother Sarah at the shore.Less than sixty seconds later, she checks to see where they are.The boat is drifting in the middle of the lake. It's empty.Sarah's family have completely vanished.One killer . . .At the Skyline Casino in London, the security team have just made a headline-grabbing arrest: they've spotted and detained a man suspected of murdering a high roller.After locking him in one of their holding cells, the team station themselves outside and wait for the police. But when the cops arrive, they find something impossible.The killer is no longer inside the cell.Two detectives . . .David Raker is an expert at solving missing persons puzzles – but these mysteries are unlike anything he's ever seen.As he digs into the Fowler's, his long-time ally – ex-detective, Colm Healy – tries to get to the bottom of what happened at the casino.But the men are in danger. Because, buried in the shadows of both cases, is a deadly secret that was never meant to come out . . .---READERS CAN'T PUT IT DOWN:‘So cleverly plotted’ ***** Reader review‘A fabulous high octane thriller full of secrets and with a shocking climax’ ***** Reader review‘One of the best books I have ever read’ ***** Reader review‘There aren't enough superlatives to describe how good it is’ ***** Reader review‘Kept me guessing right up to its perfectly executed final chapter’ ***** Reader review‘Fiendishly well plotted’ ***** Reader reviewPRAISE FOR TIM WEAVER'Impossibly clever. Impossible to put down' CHRIS WHITAKER'Corkscrew twists. Impossible to read without breaking into a sweat' THE TIMES'The master of clever, unpredictable plots' CLAIRE DOUGLASTim Weaver, Sunday Times bestseller, May 2024.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2023
ISBN 10: 0241421314 ISBN 13: 9780241421314
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, TIME MAGAZINEThe mesmerising new novel from the twice Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming HomeAt the height of her career, concert pianist Elsa M. Anderson - former child prodigy, now in her thirties - walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance.Now she is in Athens, watching as another young woman, a stranger but uncannily familiar - almost her double - purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history.So begins a journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who bought the dancing horses.A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, August Blue uncovers the ways in which we seek to lose an old story, find ourselves in others and create ourselves anew.'A writer at the peak of her talents' Lisa Appignanesi'There's no one touching the brilliance of Deborah Levy's prose today' Lee Rourke'Levy's strength is her originality of thought and expression' Jeanette Winterson.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2021
ISBN 10: 0241004616 ISBN 13: 9780241004616
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2022 From one of our greatest living writers comes a sweeping novel of unrequited love and exile, war and family. The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism. He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that inspired his creativity. Through one life, Colm Toibin tells the breathtaking story of the twentieth century. ___________________________________ 'As with everything Colm Toibin sets his masterful hand to, The Magician is a great imaginative achievement - - immensely readable, erudite, worldly and knowing, and fully realized' - Richard Ford 'No living novelist dramatizes artistic creation as profoundly, as luminously, as Colm Toibin . . . reading him is among the deepest pleasures our literature can offer' - Garth Greenwell 'This is not just a whole life in a novel, it's a whole world' - Katharina Volckmer.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2021
ISBN 10: 0241401992 ISBN 13: 9780241401996
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2022 'To tell the story of a country or a continent is surely a great and complex undertaking; but the story of a quiet, unnoticed place where there are few people, fewer memories and almost no reliable records - a place such as Glen Conach - may actually be harder to piece together. The hazier everything becomes, the more whatever facts there are become entangled with myth and legend. . .' Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time. In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach . Generations later, in the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb is drawn to the Glen, and into the big house at the heart of its fragile community. In the present day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of a ghost he thinks he has seen. Reflecting on her long life, Maja believes him, for she is haunted by ghosts of her own. News of the Dead is a captivating exploration of refuge, retreat and the reception of strangers. It measures the space between the stories people tell of themselves - what they forget and what they invent - and the stories through which they may, or may not, be remembered.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2025
ISBN 10: 0241605989 ISBN 13: 9780241605981
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Uncommonly wise and honest. Love in Exile flooded me with a sense of continuity and hope. A masterpiece, from start to finish' - Maggie Nelson We ache for love, but love eludes us. Out of this crisis comes so much of what it means to be humanShon Faye grew up quietly obsessed with the feeling that love was not for her. Not just romantic love: the secret fear of her own unworthiness penetrated every aspect and corner of her life. It was a fear that would erupt in destructive, counterfeit versions of the real love she craved: addictions and short-lived romances that were either euphoric and fantastical, or excruciatingly painful and unhinged, often both. Faye’s experience of the world as a trans woman, who grew up visibly queer, exacerbated her fears. But, as she confronted her damaging ideas about love and lovelessness, she came to realize that this sense of exclusion is symptomatic of a much larger problem in our culture.Love, she argues, is as much a collective question as a personal one. Yet our collective ideals of love have developed in a society which is itself profoundly sick and loveless; in which consumer capitalism sells us ever new, engrossing fantasies of becoming more loved or lovable. In this highly politicized terrain, boundaries are purposefully drawn to keep some in and to keep others out. Those who exist outside them are ignored, denigrated, exiled.In Love in Exile, Shon Faye shows love is much greater than the narrow ideals we have been taught to crave so desperately that we are willing to bend and break ourselves to fit them. Wise, funny, unsparing, and suffused with a radical clarity, this is a book of and for our times: for seeing and knowing love, in whatever form it takes, is the meaning of life itself.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241674506 ISBN 13: 9780241674505
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) From twice Booker-shortlisted author Deborah Levy, a moving and revelatory collection exploring the muses that have shaped her life and work as a writerIn The Position of Spoons, Deborah Levy invites the reader into the interiors of her world, sharing her most intimate thoughts and experiences, as she traces and measures her life against the backdrop of the literary and artistic muses that have shaped her.From Marguerite Duras to Colette and Ballard, and from Lee Miller to Francesca Woodman and Paula Rego, we can relish here the richness of their work and, in turn the richness of the author’s own.Each page draws upon Levy’s life in exalting ways, encapsulating the wonderful precision and astonishing depth of her writing, as she seamlessly shifts between and meditates on questions of mortality, language, suburbia, gender, consumerism and the poetics of every day living. From the child born in South Africa, to her teenage years in Britain, to her travels across the world as a young woman, each page is a beautiful, tender composition of the questioning self: a portrait of Deborah Levy’s writing life and intellectual vitality in all of its dimensions.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241542057 ISBN 13: 9780241542057
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) In his most exhilarating novel yet, William Boyd transports you to the vibrant streets of sixties London, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession . . .‘William Boyd once again brings to the spy novel his particular storytelling genius. The result is brilliant fun’ MICK HERRON‘Wonderfully ambiguous with notions of twisted reality and uncertain memory’ ANN CLEEVES‘A wonderfully intricate novel of espionage and elegant skulduggery’ JOHN BANVILLE------An accidental spy. A web of betrayals. A mystery that will take you around the world . . .Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into the shadows of espionage.As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into duplicity. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story . . .------‘Engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him one of our greatest living novelists’ PETER JAMES‘I enjoyed it hugely. Boyd is one of my favourite authors – he never disappoints’ KATE ATKINSON‘Beautifully crafted and pleasingly unpredictable, the work of a man who knows what he is doing and makes it look effortless’ JAMES RUNCIE‘Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation’ SEBASTIAN FAULKS‘There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel’ SUNDAY TIMES‘For page-turning glamour, you can bank on a William Boyd novel to hit the spot’ GUARDIAN‘A gripping, must-read spy thriller. Boyd pulls out all the stops here for a gripping and galloping tale of murky espionage’ iWilliam Boyd, The Bookseller bestseller, April 2023.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241714907 ISBN 13: 9780241714904
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) DISCOVER THE MOST-TALKED ABOUT THRILLER OF THE YEAR . . .‘Reads like a lost le Carrè. Smiley is back at the Circus in the safest of hands’ RICHARD OSMAN‘Karla’s Choice is a note-perfect tribute to le Carré that feels fresh and new’ MICK HERRON‘Le Carre’s legacy is in good hands – Smiley is back with a vengeance!’ IAN RANKIN--- --- ---It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus.With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy.But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead.But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy…--- --- ---Set in the missing decade between two iconic novels starring George Smiley, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spymaster John le Carré, written by the author’s son and acclaimed novelist, Nick Harkaway.‘An exceptional espionage novel in its own right’ WILLIAM BOYD‘Harkaway has done an extraordinarily good job with his father’s legacy’ TELEGRAPH‘An accomplished homage and a captivating thriller’ THE ECONOMIST.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241639581 ISBN 13: 9780241639580
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed by the author (Signed by the author) THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER In his first cookbook, award-winning writer and broadcaster Jay Rayner offers delicious, doable recipes inspired by his favourite restaurant dishes for you to cook at home.___‘For the past twenty-five years, I have been reviewing restaurants across Britain and beyond, from the humblest of diners to the grandest of gastro-palaces. And throughout I’ve been taking the best ideas home with me to create glorious dishes for my own table. Now I get to share those recipes with you.’With 60 recipes that take their inspiration from restaurants dishes served across the UK and further afield, Nights Out at Home includes a cheat’s version of :The Ivy’s famed crispy duck saladThe brown butter and sage flatbreads from Manchester’s ErstThe cult tandoori lamb chops from London’s Tayyabs - a recipe which has never been written down before!Jay’s own personal take on the mighty Greggs Steak BakeSeasoned with stories from Jay’s life as a restaurant critic, and written with warmth, wit and the blessing, and often help, of the chefs themselves, Nights Out at Home is a celebration of good food, great eating experiences, and home cooking – with a twist!---‘Jay Rayner's love and profound understanding of food has been channelled into a wonderful book’ STANLEY TUCCI'A must buy for anyone who loves food, restaurants and cooking' TOM KERRIDGE‘This book is not just a collection of food memories but also of recipes that make you want to roll up your sleeves and start cooking’ MICHEL ROUX'With Jay as our guide, Nights Out At Home is a witty, mouth-tingling taste adventure' ANDI OLIVER.
Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, GB, 2024
ISBN 10: 0241426936 ISBN 13: 9780241426937
Language: English
Seller: Topping & Company Booksellers, Bath, United Kingdom
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hard. Condition: fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) ‘Enchanting’ Telegraph‘Miraculous’ Isabella Tree‘Exquisite’ FTFrom the No.1 bestselling author of The Shepherd's Life, an unforgettable story of friendship, redemption and a life-changing voyage of discovery on a remote Norwegian islandHow far do you have to go to find yourself?One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for gathering, like feathered gold.Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not what he had previously thought. What began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.*Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award*.