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Canongate
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For two centuries Jacob Marlowe has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he knows he can't go on. But as Jake counts down to suicide, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life. |
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If Kelsey Newman's theory about the end of time is true, we are all going to live forever. For Meg — locked in a hopeless relationship and creatively uninspired — this thought fills her with dread. But could there be an important connection to be made between a wild beast living on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe and the Cottingley fairies? And could a story offer a way through her own personal labyrinth? |
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Greedy, cruel and foolish, the Gods deserve to die... From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession and The Children's Book comes a mesmerising tale of the end of the gods and the destruction of life on this planet. Into her version of Ragnarok, surely one of the most thrilling and apocalyptic of myths, A.S. Byatt weaves the story of a young girl evacuated to the British countryside during the Second World War. Struggling to make sense of her life, she is given a book of Norse myths, and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. |
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London, 1806 — William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a man no better or worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life... |
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Beyond The Survival of the Fittest: Why Cooperation, not Competition, is the Key to Life If life is about survival of the fittest, then why would we risk our own life to jump into a river to save a stranger? Some people argue that issues such as charity, fairness, forgiveness and cooperation are evolutionary loose ends, side issues that are of little consequence. But as Harvard's celebrated evolutionary biologist Martin Nowak explains in this groundbreaking and controversial book, cooperation is central to the four-billion-year-old puzzle of life. Indeed, it is cooperation not competition that is the defining human trait. |
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In this startling book, David Eagleman shows us forty possibilities of life beyond death. With wit and humanity, he asks the key questions about existence, hope, technology and love. These short stories are full of big ideas and bold imagination. |
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How do you solve the problem of human happiness? It's a subject that has occupied some of the greatest philosophers of all time, from Aristotle to Paul McKenna — but how do we sort the good ideas from the terrible ones? Over the past five years, Oliver Burkeman has travelled to some of the strangest outposts of the 'happiness industry' in an attempt to find out. In Help!, Oliver presents his findings. It's a witty and thought-provoking exploration that punctures many of self-help's most popular myths, while also offering clear-headed, practical and often counterintuitive advice on a range of subjects, from stress, procrastination and insomnia to wealth, laughter, time management and creativity. It doesn't claim to have solved the problem of human happiness. But it might just bring us one step closer. |
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This is the story of two brothers — one impassioned and one reserved. One is destined to go down in history and the other to be forgotten. In Philip Pullman's hands, the story of Jesus is reborn as one of the most enchanting, thrilling and thought-provoking stories of recent years, asking the reader questions that will continue to resonate long after they've finished reading it. |
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Pippa seems to have everything in life. But suddenly she finds her world beginning to unravel. Amid the buzzing lawnmowers and suburban coffee mornings, she starts to wonder how she came to be in this place. The answer is a story of wild youth, unexpected encounters, affairs and betrayals, and the dangerous security of marriage. It brilliantly reveals the challenges of modern life — and all the possibilities that it holds. |
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With over 25 million hits on YouTube in little over a year, Simon's Cat, is a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon. Fans from all over the world have fallen for this adorable but anarchic feline who will do just about anything to be fed. This autumn, Simon Tofield's beautiful drawings and warm humour come alive on the page in the first of a series of irresistible stocking-filler humour books. |
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This book is not a story. It is a how-to book. This Stylelife Challenge is not meant to be read. It is meant to be performed. Whatever experience level you have, whatever strengths and weaknesses you may have, whether you're a virgin or a Don Juan, the stage has been set for you to perform at your highest capacity. The Stylelife Challenge is a simple, easy-to-follow guide to the basics of approaching and attracting women. The Challenge is simply what works best and fastest. Neil Strauss spent four years gathering this knowledge, living it and sharing it. He's tested the specific material in this book on over 13,000 men of varying ages, nationalities and backgrounds. Part practical application and part sequel, this is the further adventures of Style and his game techniques. The result: A month-long workout program for your social, attraction, dating and seduction skills. |
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The Game recounts the incredible adventures of an everyday man who transforms himself from a shy, awkward writer into the quick-witted, smooth-talking Style, a character irresistible to women. But just when life is better than he could have ever dreamed (he uses his techniques on Britney Spears, receives life coaching from Tom Cruise, moves into a mansion with Courtney Love and is officially voted the World's Number One Pickup Artist) he falls head over heels for a woman who can beat him at his own game. |
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In Lion's Honey, award-winning writer David Grossman takes on one of the most vivid and controversial characters in the Bible. Revisiting Samson's famous battle with the lion, his many women and his betrayal by them all — including the only one he ever loved — Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story and its climax, Samson's final act of death, bringing down a temple on himself and three thousand Philistines. In exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman reveals the journey of a single, lonely and tortured soul who never found a true home in the world, who was uncomfortable in his very body and who, some might say, was the precursor of today's suicide bombers. |
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Like all great cartoon creations, from Peanuts to Asterix, from Garfield to Tintin, Simon's Cat has continued to evolve by introducing new characters and developing new storylines. After the runaway success of the orignial book, Simon Tofield returned last year with the further adventures of his feline beyond the fence. Now we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon's Kitten. It's an adorable new chapter which is sure to delight Simon's millions of fans. |
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In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope — wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy — is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumours, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and — curiously — twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: 'What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?' In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the storytelling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality — and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery. |
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Bec Shepherd is a malaria researcher struggling to lead a good life. Ritchie, her reprobate brother, is a rock star turned TV producer. When Bec refuses an offer of marriage from a powerful newspaper editor and Ritchie's indiscretions catch up with him, brother and sister are forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal. |
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In the four years since Simon's Cat first leapt in to our lives he has stared in more than 15 films, appeared in three best-selling books and has entertained and delighted millions of fans across the world. Along the way he has swotted flies, pulled down Christmas trees, and generally terrorized his long-suffering owner, Simon. And for the most part, he has had things his way. Until now. This year the nation's favourite cat faces up to his toughest challenge yet. With a new kitten in the house, a new girlfriend for Simon and endless new visitors to the garden, it is time to reassert his position — once and for all — as the undisputed Top Cat. One hundred original cartoons (each one in full colour), one hundred hilarious encounters: this is Simon's Cat vs. The World! |
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In December 2010, Julian Assange signed a contract with Canongate Books to write a book — part memoir, part manifesto — for publication the following year. At the time, Julian said: 'I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.' In the end, the work was to prove too personal. Despite sitting for more than fifty hours of taped interviews and spending many late nights at Ellingham Hall (where he was living under house arrest) discussing his life and the work of WikiLeaks with the writer he had enlisted to help him, Julian became increasingly troubled by the thought of publishing an autobiography. After reading the first draft of the book at the end of March, Julian declared: 'All memoir is prostitution.' In June 2011, with thirty-eight publishing houses around the world committed to releasing the book, Julian told us he wanted to cancel his contract. We disagree with Julian's assessment of the book. We believe it explains both the man and his work, underlining his commitment to the truth. Julian always claimed the book was well written — we agree, and this also encouraged us to make the book available to readers. And the contract? By the time Julian wanted to cancel the deal he had already used the advance money to settle his legal bills. So the contract still stands. We have decided to honour it — and to publish. This book is the unauthorised first draft. It is passionate, provocative and opinionated — like its author. It fulfils the promise of the original proposal and we are proud to publish it. |
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They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms which open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered a dialogue which they cannot escape — a discourse defined and destroyed by the Helmet of Horror. Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. Victor Pelevin has created a mesmerising world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide. The Helmet of Horror is structured according to the internet exchanges of the twenty first century, radically reinventing the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur for an age where information is abundant but knowledge ultimately unattainable. |
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Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people — at work, at school, at home. It is wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his paradigm-shattering book Drive, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation, and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward. |
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