Granta July – December 2019
Cover concept @ Infographic.ly
Contents
Recently Published
2
The Collector of Leftover
The Collection 5
Souls 29
When Words Fail
Brilliant Maps 30
6
Nine Pints 7
Chamber Music
This Golden Fleece
10
Homeland 33
Whose Story Is It?
12
The Luminaries
32 34
Fly Already 13
Miami 38
Warrior 14
Salvador 38
The Summer Isles
Africa 39
18
Stillicide 20
GRANTA Editions
40
Make It Scream, Make Granta 147: Fortieth It Burn 21
Birthday Special!
42
Eat the Buddha
22
Granta 148: Summer issue
43
How the World Thinks
24
Granta 149: New Europe! II 43
The Topeka School
26
Backlist Highlights
Lake Like a Mirror
28
Selling Territories
Rights sl tn us au
44
Serial rights Translation rights US rights Audio rights
ncr nanz nnz nsa nea nsin nmyl ngr nind
Formats hb Hardback tpb Trade Paperback pb Paperback ome Open Market Edition ďœą
No Canada rights No Australia or New Zealand rights No New Zealand rights No South Africa rights No East Africa rights No Singapore rights No Malaysia rights No Greece rights No India rights
Recently Published
childless voices 978 1 78378 262 8 £14.99
convenience store woman 978 1 84627 684 2 £8.99
days of awe 978 1 84708 326 5 £9.99
four soldiers 978 1 84627 651 4 £8.99
hark 978 1 78378 321 2 £12.99
the heavens 978 1 78378 484 4 £12.99
hiking with nietzsche 978 1 78378 494 3 £14.99
natural causes 978 1 78378 242 0 £9.99
not working 978 1 78378 205 5 £14.99
the way to the sea 978 1 78378 413 4 £14.99
white houses 978 1 78378 174 4 £8.99
my enemy’s cherry tree 978 1 84627 658 3 £12.99
jellyfish 978 1 84708 667 9 £9.99
i will never see the world again 978 178378 515 5 £9.99
mama’s last hug 978 1 78378 410 3 £14.99
island song 978 1 78378 461 5 £12.99
the cow book 978 1 78378 418 9 £9.99
west 978 1 78378 423 3 £8.99
July – August 2019
The Collection Nina Leger When Words Fail Ed Vulliamy Nine Pints Rose George
July
The Collection Nina Leger
ORIGINAL
Translated from the French by Laura Francis
August
Announcing a bold and fearless new talent, this astounding novel is a candid exploration of sexuality, desire and compulsion. WINNER OF THE PRIX ANAÏS NIN
September
Jeanne moves from room to room. In the anonymous hotel rooms of Paris she undresses man after man, forgetting faces, names, pleasures, thoughts and all physical attributes but one. In her head, a palace of memories is being built, image by new image, lover by new lover. There is no pathologizing Jeanne; she resists it. There is no way to impose a story on Jeanne; she escapes it. There is no pitying Jeanne, no lusting after Jeanne, no uncovering the secret to Jeanne; she won’t allow it. The Collection is a brilliantly inventive novel that eludes, surprises and mesmerizes.
October
‘Leger captures pleasure, describing experience along a sensitive line, which is neither simple narrative nor pure description… The finesse that shapes the scenes is not the least of the surprises from this little textbook of comprehensive eroticism’ Le Monde
978 1 84627 686 6 (PB) 978 1 84627 687 3 (Ebook)
© Francesca Mantovani
December
laura francis was born in Bristol in 1992. She studied in St. Andrews, Paris and London, where she now lives. This is her first translation.
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, SL Agent: Editions Gallimard
November
nina leger was born in 1988 in Antibes. Her first novel, Histoire Naturelle, was published in 2014. Her second novel, Mise en Pièces (published in English as The Collection), won the Anaïs Nin Prize.
fiction £9.99 August B format 198 × 129mm flapped PB 112pp
July
When Words Fail A Life with Music, War and Peace PAPERBACK
August
Ed Vulliamy The most profound British music memoir of the decade, built around sixteen lifechanging gigs and concerts.
September
‘An intriguing, deeply felt book… When Words Fail portrays socio-political upheaval and (mostly) contemporary music not so much as uneasy bedfellows as dysfunctional co-dependents… Vulliamy ponders the ultimate role of music, musing on how and why a series of notes can reach, rouse, soothe and inspire’ Graeme Thomson, Mail on Sunday ‘When Words Fail is not only a testament to a life-long love of music, it also represents an indefatigable act of reportage… an assertion of the better world that we can create through music, however fleeting or fragile’ Financial Times
October
‘One of the most celebrated journalists of recent times explores why music can speak to us in a way that words cannot… An ambitious exploration of the soundtrack of Vulliamy’s eventful life’ Irish Times
Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL Agent: Wylie Agency
978 1 78378 337 3 (PB) 978 1 78378 338 0 (Ebook) previously published: September 2018 Royal 234 × 153mm HB £25.00 978 1 78378 336 6
© Luciano Ruocco
December
November
non-fiction £9.99 July B format 198 × 129mm PB 496pp
ed vulliamy is the author of Amexica and The War is Dead: Long Live the War. He has been an Observer journalist for 20 years and is the author of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50thanniversary liner notes.
July
Nine Pints A Journey Through the Mysterious, Miraculous World of Blood PAPERBACK
Rose George
REVEALED
September
‘Astonishing… George’s journalistic eye is combined with sharp moral judgement… This absorbing, vital book by one of the best non-fiction writers working today is a wonder in its own right’ Guardian ‘Rose charges down wholly unexpected avenues of medical history and global injustice, leaving the reader by turns giddy and appalled. And always, always in awe of the writing. Rarely does one encounter such beautifully crafted prose in the service of non-fiction. Bloody hell, this is a good book!’ Mary Roach
October
‘George’s nine chapters demonstrate that blood is a living tissue which defies our attempts to make it stand still’ Spectator
978 1 84627 614 9 (PB) 978 1 84627 613 2 (Ebook)
deep sea and foreign going £9.99 978 1 84627 299 8
December
© Karen Robinson
the big necessity £8.99 978 1 84627 070 3
previously published: October 2018 Royal 234 × 153mm TPB £14.99 978 1 84627 612 5
November
non-fiction £9.99 August B format 198 × 129mm PB 384pp Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL Agent: WME
rose george is the author of The Big Necessity and Deep Sea and Foreign Going, which was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’ and ‘A Good Read’ and won the Mountbatten Literature Award.
August
NEW COVER TO BE
From a prizewinning writer, a fascinating exploration of blood: the stuff of life, the stuff of nightmares and one of the most expensive liquids on the planet.
This Golden Fleece Esther Rutter Whose Story Is It? Rebecca Solnit Fly Already Etgar Keret Warrior Edoardo Albert with Paul Gething
September 2019
This Golden Fleece A Journey Through Britain’s Knitted History ORIGINAL
Esther Rutter
© Rachel Bradbury
A history of Britain’s long love affair with wool, told through a year of knitting garments from around the British Isles.
O
ver the course of a year, Esther Rutter – who grew up on a sheep farm in Suffolk, and learned to spin and knit as a child – travels the length of the British Isles to tell the story of wool’s long history here, and its influence on our landscape and culture. She unearths fascinating histories of communities whose lives were shaped by wool, from the mill workers of the Border counties to the stocking knitters of Wales, and the fishing villages of Britain’s coast from Shetland to the Channel Islands. Along the way, she explores wool’s rich culture by knitting and crafting culturally significant garments from our history, reminding us of the value of craft and our intimate relationship with wool.
non-fiction £16.99 September Demy 216 × 135mm HB 352pp
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, TN, SL, AU Agent: Jenny Brown Associates
978 1 78378435 6 (HB) 978 1 78378 437 0 (Ebook)
esther rutter studied English at Oxford University’s Magdalen College and is currently Writer in Residence at the University of St Andrews. Now living in Fife, she grew up on a Suffolk sheep farm and retains an affection for all things woolly. You can follow her knitting adventures on Instagram and Twitter @thisgoldenfleece.
I
nside a paper bag were four balls of wool – white, dove grey, charcoal, peaty black. Banded with paper round the middle, this was Shetland Heritage Yarn from Jamieson & Smith. Printed on the band was a line of tiny symbols: a shepherd’s crook, a hand dipped in water, an iron crossed though, and – my favourite – three tiny Shetland sheep with horns and curling fleeces, staring down the crook. Three renegades from Britain’s northeast edge, their horns a proud trumpet and a warning. I took a sniff. A strong outdoor smell, oiled and fusty, caught my nostrils. It was an unmistakeably sheepy funk. Woolly fibres waved and snaked away from the yarn’s central strand, black flecked with white, cream specks on brown. My four yarns, fading dark to light, yielded to the pressure in my palm then bounced back, comfortable in their shape. My fingers prickled with the urge to knit them up. What would I make from these strong skeins?
July
Whose Story Is It? Essays at the Intersection ORIGINAL
August
Rebecca Solnit The new essay collection from the bestselling author of the iconic Men Explain Things To Me.
W September
ho gets to shape the narrative of our times? The current moment is a battle over that foundational power. Women, people of colour and non-straight people are telling other versions, and white men in particular are fighting to preserve their own centrality. In this outstanding collection of essays by one of the most prescient and insightful commentators today, Solnit appraises the voices that are emerging, why they matter and the obstacles they face in making themselves heard. Praise for Rebecca Solnit:
October
‘Solnit is a compelling writer with a glorious turn of phrase who never wastes a word’ Evening Standard ‘Her work feels both timeless and timely [and is] essential reading’ Irish Times Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL, AU Agent: Abner Stein
‘Solnit is both a stylist and a fighter, distinguished by her rare combination of grit and grace’ New Statesman
978 1 78378 543 8 (HB) 978 1 78378 551 3 (Ebook
December
men explain things to me hb £12.99 978 1 78378 079 2
call them by their true names hb £12.99 978 1 78378 497 4
© Adrian Mendoza
November
non-fiction £12.99 September B format 198 × 129mm HB 208pp TBC
rebecca solnit is the author of, among other books, Call Them By Their True Names, The Mother of All Questions, Men Explain Things to Me, Wanderlust and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A Harper’s contributing editor, she writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Los Angeles Times. She lives in San Francisco.
July
Fly Already ORIGINAL
Etgar Keret Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen, Nathan Englander, Yardenne Greenspan, Sondra Silverston and Miriam Shlesinger August
A new collection of sharp, bittersweet and hilarious short stories from ‘a genius’ (New York Times) ‘who falls somewhere between Kafka and Seinfeld’ (Les Inrockuptibles). WINNER OF THE SAPIR PRIZE
Y
September
ou want to impress the girl you love with some weed? Don’t worry, just step into this courtroom and call the defendant a murderer. You’re a rich, lonely man and you want the joy of company? Just buy up people’s birthdays, and you’ll have friends calling every day. You’re standing on the edge of a very high building, with all your wretched sorrows? Don’t worry, fly already!
© Yanai Yechiel
Praise for Etgar Keret: fiction £12.99 September Demy 216 × 135mm TPB 224pp
‘If my Hebrew were up to scratch, I would happily translate Etgar Keret for the rest of my life, for free, for the benefit of mankind... He is one of the funniest, most exhilarating and delightfully surprising writers currently working in any language’ New Statesman
Selling Territories: NCR / NANZ Rights: SL Agent: ICM Partners
October
Wickedly funny and thrillingly smart, Fly Already’s 22 short stories are a collage of absurdity, despair and love, written by a veteran commentator on the circus farce that is life.
978 1 78378 049 5 (TPB) 978 1 78378 050 1 (Ebook)
November
Born in Tel Aviv in 1967, etgar keret is a leading voice in Israeli literature and cinema. He is the author of five bestselling story collections, which have been translated into 42 languages. His memoir, The Seven Good Years, was published by Granta in 2015. The Hebrew edition of Fly Already, published as A Fault at the Edge of the Galaxy, won the Sapir Prize in 2019. www.etgarkeret.com
the seven good years PB £8.99 978 1 78378 047 1
December
Warrior The Biography of a Man with No Name ORIGINAL
Edoardo Albert with Paul Gething
The remains of a nameless fighter unearthed by an archaeologist who can read the stories of those bones; the tumultuous reality of Anglo-Saxon Britain brought vividly to life. ‘Suddenly, the bones were speaking.’
I
n the late 1990s the archaeologist Paul Gething uncovered the remains of a man in the grounds of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. Blending Gething’s archaeological expertise with a gripping historical narrative of Britain’s bloody and tumultuous past, Edoardo Albert builds a vivid portrait of the nameless warrior and the times he lived in. From where this man might have been born to what kind of food he might have eaten and from the precise details of how he fought to the way he eventually died, Warrior is a pageturning landmark of popular history that reveals the thrilling science of archaeology. It is a mustread for anyone interested in the story of who we are and where we’ve come from.
history £18.99 September Royal 234 × 153mm HB 352pp TBC
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, TN, SL, AU Agent: The Robert Dudley Agency
978 1 78378 442 4 (HB) 978 1 78378 444 8 (Ebook)
edoardo albert is a writer from London. paul gething is the lead archaeologist at the renowned Bamburgh castle dig. This is their second co-written book. Their first, Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom ( The History Press), was published in 2014.
S
tanding in the trench, Paul looked round for something to protect the skeleton from the coming deluge and, as he did so, a thought came to him. It was Thursday. Thor’s day. He was excavating the skeleton of a man buried when people still worshipped the god of thunder in these isles, though for them his name was Thunor. The seax sat upon the bones shone dull. The thunder struck, so loud it was as if the world had cracked. The branches of the trees lashed in the sudden wind. Paul glanced up at the dark thunderhead above him. ‘I’ll look after him.’
October 2019 The Summer Isles Philip Marsden Stillicide Cynan Jones Make It Scream, Make It Burn Leslie Jamison Eat the Buddha Barbara Demick How the  World  Thinks Julian Baggini
I
n the mid-1990s, I spent several summers writing in a cottage in Sutherland. When my work was done at the end of the week, I would go west and climb one of the peaks that rose from the moors of Coigach and Assynt. They’re not particularly high, those peaks, but they represent some of the oldest and weirdest lumps of rock in all Europe. From their tops, in the late afternoon sun, I looked out over the Minch. Often it didn’t look like water at all, but a sheet of beaten silver, and the silhouettes on it were not islands but glyphs and ciphers tooled into its surface. Now whenever I think of mythical islands and their pull, it is that image that comes to mind and the name of the small archipelago, so redolent and evocative – the Summer Isles. This book is about places drawn by wishes, by longing and remembering, places that aren’t really there, and it’s about what happens when you set sail in search of them.
The Summer Isles A Sea Voyage
Philip Marsden
ORIGINAL
© Stephen Parker
A joyful sea voyage from Cornwall to the highlands of Scotland that blends memoir, history, nature writing and mythology.
T
he Summer Isles is the story of Philip Marsden’s thrilling sea voyage up the west coast of Ireland to the far north of Scotland. Landing on deserted and sparsely populated islands, dealing with the full force of the Atlantic, he recounts the perils and pleasures of single-handed sailing. But the journey also explores the long tradition of mythical islands and the more colourful corners of Irish and Gaelic folk belief. This is a glorious work of landscape and nature writing, celebrating the human imagination where it is at its most vibrant, out in the far west. Praise for Rising Ground: ‘Marsden is a born writer. Elegance seems as natural to his prose as the breeze from the west to his adopted homeland. He wears his learning lightly, and his curiosity is boundless’ Sunday Telegraph
memoir £20.00 October Royal 234 × 153mm HB 304pp TBC
‘Superb’ Robert MacFarlane, ‘Books of the Year’, Guardian
philip marsden is the award-winning author of several works of travel writing and nonfiction, including Rising Ground (Granta, 2014), The Levelling Sea and The Barefoot Emperor, as well as a novel, The Main Cages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Cornwall with his family.
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, SL, AU Agent: United Agents
978 1 78378 299 4 (HB) 978 1 78378 301 4 (Ebook)
rising ground PB £9.99 978 1 84708 630 3
July
Stillicide
ORIGINAL
Cynan Jones
August
From one of Britain's most innovative writers, a powerfully realized dystopian world, published to coincide with the BBC Radio 4 serialization.
I
October
© Vittore Buzzi
September
n the tangible future, water is commodified. Rising sea levels compress communities, packing people into vast population centres that suck up essential resources. A Water Train delivers water into the heart of the main city; a gigantic Ice Dock is under construction; armed wardens watch the streets from the rooftops. And, meanwhile, outside the city, there are those who choose to live a different way, in the increasingly untenable landscape.
fiction £12.00 October B format 198 × 129 mm HB 144pp TBC
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, SL Agent: A. M. Heath
Stillicide gives us a glimpse of individuals on either side of this divide, in interlocking stories from a writer whose taut, vibrant prose sings a different tune. Praise for Cynan Jones:
978 1 78378 561 2 (HB) 978 1 84627 562 9 (HB)
‘There is no doubt that he is one of the most talented writers in Britain’ Independent on Sunday ‘[His writing] will get in your bones, and haunt you’ Daily Telegraph
November
‘Jones is a highly accomplished writer in whose hands such elemental raw materials turn strange and fugitive’ Guardian
cynan jones is the author of The Long Dry (Betty Trask Award), Everything I Found on the Beach, The Dig ( Jerwood Fiction Prize, Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize) and Cove. A short story drawn from Cove was published in the New Yorker and won the BBC National Short Story Award 2017.
the dig PB £8.99 978 1 84708 880 2
December
cove PB £8.99 978 1 78378 386 1
July
Make It Scream, Make It Burn
ORIGINAL
Leslie Jamison
August
From the author of The Empathy Exams and The Recovering comes a startling new collection of essays about compassion, confession and how we define ourselves in relation to others.
L
September
eslie Jamison perfects the expansive, digressive, investigative and autobiographical essay style she so spectacularly showcased in The Empathy Exams. She maps and charts the ways in which we are now haunted, and have always been haunted, by our personal mythologies, by our choices, and by the choices seemingly given to us by our social or political contexts.
October
Make It Scream, Make It Burn is a feat of interlinked philosophical analysis and painstaking reflection. Ranging from the journalistic to the experimental, from deeply considered ethical reflection to sumptuous descriptive prose, Jamison turns and tests the essay in countless directions. The result is a deeply impressive and exciting tour de force of American literary non-fiction. Praise for Leslie Jamison: ‘She’s an incredible writer’ Florence Welch
non-fiction £14.99 October Demy 216 × 135mm Flapped TPB 272pp
‘Required reading’ Stephen King
Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL Agent: The Wylie Agency
978 1 78378 155 3 (TPB) 978 1 78378 157 7 (Ebook)
© Beowulf Sheehan
the recovering PB £10.99 978 1 78378 153 9
the empathy exams PB £8.99 978 1 84708 842 0
December
leslie jamison grew up in Los Angeles. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams, as well as a novel, The Gin Closet, and is a contributing writer at New York Times Magazine. She is currently the director of the graduate non-fiction programme at Columbia University.
November
‘A courageous and brilliant example of what nonfiction writing can do’ Chris Kraus
D
olma inadvertently witnessed the first of the self-immolations. She had been working at her stall in the winter of 2009, selling her counterfeit sneakers on a winter afternoon when she saw a burst of light streaking through the market. It was the monk, Tapey, in flames. Chinese soldiers surrounded him, then turned around as though fearful of being ambushed, their guns facing outwards towards the stunned onlookers. There was no place for Dolma to run and hide so she stood frozen in place. She was close enough to see the monk’s charred crimson robes and blackened face, only his nose left curiously untouched by fire. Then she watched as the Chinese soldiers picked him up and tossed him into the back of a truck. ‘Like an animal, they threw him in,’ she told her family later.
Eat the Buddha The Story of Modern Tibet Through the People of One Town
Barbara Demick
ORIGINAL
© Sarah Weal
From the Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of Nothing to Envy, the story of Tibet told through the lives of Tibetans from one town.
I
n 1950, China claimed sovereignty over Tibet, leading to decades of unrest and resistance, defining the country today. In Eat the Buddha, Barbara Demick chronicles the Tibetan tragedy from Ngaba, a defiant town on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau where dozens of Tibetans have shocked the world since 2009 by immolating themselves. Following the stories of the last princess of the region, of Tibetans who experienced the struggle sessions of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, of the recent generations of monks and townsfolk experiencing renewed repression, Demick paints a riveting portrait of recent Tibetan history, of Tibetan life today, and of the challenges Tibetans face while locked in a struggle for identity against one of the most powerful countries in the world. Praise for Nothing to Envy: ‘An utterly compelling account’ Mail on Sunday
non-fiction £16.99/£12.99 October Royal 234 × 153mm HB / Export TPB 272pp TBC
‘A revelation’ Financial Times
barbara demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea. She is also the author of Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street, which won the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in New York.
Selling Territories: NCR, NANZ Rights: SL, AU Agent: Abner Stein
nothing to envy PB £9.99 978 1 84708 141 4
978 1 78378 570 4 (HB) 978 1 78378 208 6 (TPB) 978 1 78378 240 6 (Ebook)
besieged PB £9.99 978 1 84708 411 8
July
How the World Thinks A Global History of Philosophy PAPERBACK
Julian Baggini NEW COVER TO BE
A global overview of philosophy: how it developed around the world and impacted the cultures in which it flourished, from the bestselling author of The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten.
August
REVEALED
September
‘An engaging, urbane and humane global philosophy… Baggini’s self-awareness, acuity and willingness to listen and learn point valuably away from parochial myopia and towards productive dialogue’ Guardian ‘Philosophy, supposedly, was the art of dying well. This ingenious and open-hearted book is about the art of living well, something the West’s philosophy has often neglected’ Scotland on Sunday
October
‘Such scope, and such lucid, lightly worn learning. Enlightening, perspective-shifting, mind-expanding – a superb tour through world philosophies with an erudite and friendly guide’ Sarah Bakewell
non-fiction £9.99 October B format 198 × 129mm PB 432pp
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, TN, SL Agent: David Higham Associates
978 1 78378 230 7 (PB) 978 1 78378 229 1 (Ebook)
freedom regained pb £9.99 978 1 84708 718 8
© Richard H. Smith
November
previously published: October 2018 Royal 234 × 153mm HB £20.00 978 1 78378 228 4
the pig that wants to be eaten pb £ 8.99 978 1 84708 128 5
December
‘A marvellous and original – now there is a Western concept – introduction to a complex field, highly personal, entertaining, fact-filled, and even entertaining. Worth reading and re-reading’ Arts Desk
julian baggini’s books include the bestselling The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten and The Ego Trick, among many others. He has written for various newspapers, magazines, academic journals and think tanks. His website is microphilosophy.net.
November 2019 The Topeka School Ben Lerner Lake Like a Mirror Ho Sok Fong The Collector of Leftover Souls Eliane Brum Brilliant Maps Ian Wright with Infographic.ly Chamber Music Will Ashon Homeland Walter Kempowski The Luminaries Eleanor Catton
ďœ˛ďœľ
The Topeka School
ORIGINAL
Ben Lerner
A radical new take on the American family saga – the highly anticipated new novel from the acclaimed author of Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04.
A
dam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His parents are psychologists, his mom a famous author in the field. A renowned debater and orator, an aspiring poet, and – although it requires a lot of posturing and weight lifting – one of the cool kids, he’s also one of the seniors who brings the loner Darren Eberheart into the social scene, with disastrous effects. Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is a riveting story about the challenges of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a startling prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the tyranny of trolls and the new right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.
fiction £16.99 November Demy 216 × 138mm HB 304pp TBC
Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL Agent: C+W
10:04 PB £8.99 978 1 84708 893 2
‘This is Lerner’s most essential and provocative creation yet’ Claudia Rankine
978 1 78378 536 0 (HB) 978 1 78378 538 4 (Ebook)
‘The Topeka School is what happens when one of the most discerning, ambitious, innovative, and timely writers of our day writes his most discerning, ambitious, innovative and timely novel to date’ Maggie Nelson
ben lerner was born in Topeka, Kansas. He is the author of two internationally acclaimed novels, Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04, as well as numerous poetry collections. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations.
leaving the atocha station PB £8.99 978 1 84708 691 4
N
ow I am going to show you a picture and I’d like you to make up a story about it. We call this the “Thematic Apperception Test,” or TAT. A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s a black-and-white photograph that appeared on the front page of The Topeka Capital Journal. (Who is this unsmiling seventeen-year-old boy whose hair is drawn into a ponytail while the sides of his head are shaved, a disastrous tonsorial compromise between the lefty household of his parents and the red state in which he was raised? His left hand is almost touching Bob Dole’s right, which clutches the pen; around his neck the teenager wears a medal won by speaking a nearly private language at great speed. The senator, who often refers to himself in the third person, whose campaign is advised by Paul Manafort, will be the only former presidential candidate to attend the Republican convention in 2016.) What are these people in this picture thinking? Feeling? Start by telling me what led up to this scene.
July
Lake Like a Mirror
ORIGINAL
Ho Sok Fong
August
Translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce
Nine unnerving short stories. Nine women in disturbing or destructive situations. Nine worlds unfolding in Malaysia and Taiwan.
A September
portrait of Malaysian society in nine stories, by an author described by critics as ‘the most accomplished Malaysian writer, full stop’, Lake Like a Mirror is a scintillating exploration of the lives of women buffeted by powers beyond their control. Squeezing themselves between the gaps of rabid urbanization, patriarchal structures and a theocratic government, these women find their lives twisted in disturbing ways.
October
In precise and disquieting prose, Ho Sok Fong draws her readers into a richly atmospheric world of naked sleepwalkers in a Muslim women’s home, mysterious wooden boxes, gossip in unlicensed hairdressers, hotels with amnesiac guests, and poetry classes with accidentally charged politics – a world that is both bizarre and utterly true.
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, SL, AU Agent: N.A.
978 1 84627 690 3 (HB) 978 1 84627 692 7 (Ebook)
November
fiction £12.99 November B format 198 × 129mm HB 144pp TBC
ho sok fong is the author of one other short story collection, Maze Carpet. She has a PhD in Chinese Language & Literature from NTU Singapore, and lives in Malaysia.
December
natascha bruce translates fiction from the Chinese. Her translations include short stories by the Hong Kong surrealist writer Dorothy Tse.
Dispatches from Brazil
July
The Collector of Leftover Souls ORIGINAL
Eliane Brum Translated from the Portuguese by Diane Grosklaus Whitty August
From Brazil’s answer to Svetlana Alexievich: a powerful glimpse into the lives of ordinary Brazilians.
W
elcome to the favela, welcome to the rainforest, welcome to Brazil.
September
This is a Brazil where a factory worker is loyal to his company for decades, only to find out that they knew the product he was making would eventually poison him. Where mothers of the favela expect their sons to die as victims of the drug trade while still in their teens. Where, away from the drugs and scalpels of the modern hospitals, women of the Amazon ‘pull’ babies from their mothers.
October
In the company of award-winning journalist Eliane Brum, we meet the individuals struggling to stay afloat in a society riven by inequality and violence, and witness the resilience of spirit and commitment to life that makes Brazil one of the most complicated and most exhilarating places on earth.
non-fiction £12.99 November Demy 216 × 135mm TPB 256pp TBC
978 1 84627 664 4 (TPB) 978 1 84627 666 8 (Ebook)
November
©Lilo Clareto
eliane brum is a Brazilian journalist, writer and documentarist. She writes regularly for El País and the Guardian and has won more than 40 international awards for reporting.
December
diane grosklaus whitty is a translator of Brazilian Portuguese. Her translations have appeared in the Guardian, the Lancet, History Today and Litro.
Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL, AU Agent: Graywolf
July
Brilliant Maps An Atlas for Curious Minds ORIGINAL
Ian Wright with Infographic.ly
August
See the world anew with this unique and beautifully designed infographic atlas.
W
hich nations have North Korean embassies? Which region has the highest number of death metal bands per capita? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the ‘wrong’ side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild?
October
September
Revelatory, thought-provoking and fun, Brilliant Maps is a unique atlas of history, culture, politics and miscellanea, compiled by the editor of the iconic Brilliant Maps website. As visually arresting as Information is Beautiful and as full of surprising facts and figures as any encyclopedia, Brilliant Maps is a stunning piece of cartography that maps our curious and varied planet.
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: US, TN, SL Agent: N.A.
978 1 84627 661 3 (HB) 978 1 84627 662 0 (Ebook)
November
non-fiction £20.00 November 245 × 190 mm HB 224 pp
ian wright runs Brilliant Maps, one of the most popular and most-visited cartographic sites on the internet. Originally from Canada, he now lives in the UK.
December
infographic.ly is a UAE based data design and visualization agency that focuses on helping companies communicate data to its stakeholders clearly and effectively. Clients have included MasterCard, TED, Reebok and Uber, with designs being featured in publications around the world.
Christmas Gift-Bringers of Europe Father Christmas
Christmas gnome
Christmas Goat
Old Man Frost
Saint Nicholas
Christmas Man
Old Man Christmas
Christ-Child (baby Jesus)
Christmas lads
Saint Basil
Grandfather of the New Year
Christmas Log
July
Chamber Music About the Wu-Tang (in 36 Pieces) PAPERBACK
Will Ashon
August
A book about one of the most important albums of all time, which becomes a book about… everything.
September
‘A high-concept journey across 36 themed “chambers”, exploring everything from the African precursors to battle rap, from the story of crack cocaine in America to the kung fu films that inspired the Wu… A collage of disparate but enticing fragments, like Wu-Tang’s music – rich with sampling, allusions, oblique references and confusing tangents… a lot more fun than any straight album biography would be’ Observer ‘Believe the hype… A clever, provocative, ambitious thrill-ride of a book’ Big Issue
November
October
‘Each of these chambers contains wonders of history, destiny and mythology… Through Ashon’s vibrant textured prose we watch in awe as these young men seize on whatever the culture has to offer, sampling leftovers and legacies, making themselves into ferocious artists’ Margo Jefferson
non-fiction £9.99 November B format 198 × 129mm PB 384pp Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL, AU Agent: PEW Literary Agency
978 1 78378 404 2 (PB) 978 1 78378 405 9 (Ebook)
‘Passionately written, diligently researched, lovingly rendered. A breathtaking effort that is as broad in its scope as all books about albums should be’ Kate Tempest
previously published: November 2018 Demy 216 × 135mm TPB £14.99 978 1 78378 403 5
will ashon is the author of Strange Labyrinth and two novels. He previously ran BIG DADA records where his artists included Roots Manuva, MF DOOM, Kate Tempest and Diplo.
December
strange labyrinth PB £9.99 978 1 78378345 8
July
Homeland PAPERBACK
Walter Kempowski Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins NEW COVER TO BE REVEALED
September
‘A truly remarkable work…The hero is a Hamburg-based journalist, who travels to Poland to scout out the route for a car rally and finds himself surrounded by the ghosts of his past, including his own parents. This polished gem deserves to earn Kempowski a large posthumous readership’ Mail on Sunday
August
A sharply evocative and nuanced novel of one man’s journey into his family history and the troubled legacy of World War II, from the author of All for Nothing.
‘A revelatory odyssey… Darkly excellent’ Sunday Times ‘A superb minor-key performance… This novel asks whether there can really be anything normal about a society that murdered six million Jews only a few decades previously’ The Times October
‘Homeland’s heart is a pathos-filled black comedy of errors … [Kempowski is a] great European writer we have come to rather late [whose] books refused to massage history’ Daily Telegraph
fiction £8.99 November B format 198 × 129mm PB 240pp
walter kempowski (1929 –
Selling Territories: NCR Rights: US, SL, AU Agent: Random House Germany
all for nothing PB £8.99 978 1 84708 721 8
December
© Peter Azbug
swansong 1945 PB £12.99 978 1 84708 641 9
November
previously published: November 2018 Demy 216 × 135mm HB £14.99 978 1 78378 352 6
2007) was one of Germany’s most important post-war writers. His critically applauded final novel, All for Nothing, was a bestseller in both Germany and the UK.
charlotte collins was a radio journalist in Germany before becoming a literary translator. She was awarded the Goethe-Institut’s Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for her translation of Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life
978 1 78378 353 3 (PB) 978 1 78378 354 0 (Ebook)
The Luminaries PAPERBACK
Eleanor Catton TV TIE-IN COVER TO BE
The virtuoso 2013 Man Booker Prizewinning novel, now a major BBC TV series scripted by Eleanor Catton, currently scheduled for autumn 2019.
REVEALED
‘Irresistible, masterful, compelling. It has a gripping plot that is cleverly unravelled to its satisfying conclusion, a narrative that from the first page asserts that it is firmly in control of where it is taking us’ Telegraph ‘Ambitious, intricate, spectacular’ Independent ‘Remarkable... A true achievement… The pages fly, a world opening and closing in front of us, a human soul revealed in all its conflicted desperation [and] glory... Dazzling’ New York Times ‘Every sentence of this intriguing tale is expertly written, every cliffhanger chapterending making us beg for the next to begin. [It] has been perfectly constructed as the consummate literary page-turner... Extraordinary’ Guardian Selling Territories: NCR, NANZ, No Samoa Rights: US, SL Agent: United Agents
the rehearsal PB £8.99 978 1 84708 139 1
978 1 78378 542 1 (PB) 978 1 84708 593 1 (Ebook) previously published: April 2014 B-format 198 × 129mm PB £9.99 978 1 84708 432 3
©Robert Catto
fiction £9.99 November B format 198 × 129mm PB 848pp
eleanor catton was born in 1985 in Ontario, Canada and raised in New Zealand. Her first novel, The Rehearsal, won the 2007 Adam Award from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel, The Luminaries, was awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2013.
‘The television adaptation re-imagines and re-invents the book completely: we turn the novel inside out and back to front, following different characters, and imposing different structural laws. I’ve had tremendous fun learning to write in a different medium and feel incredibly lucky to be working with such fantastic people across different art forms. Writing a novel is a solitary business, but writing for the screen is emphatically collaborative, and to see the world of The Luminaries enlarged and enriched in ways that go far beyond the scope of my own imagination has been a humbling and exhilarating experience. I couldn’t be happier with the actors we’ve cast, the crew, the art department, the production team. The hardest part is keeping the secrets until the show is released!’ E L E A N O R C AT T O N
More from Granta
January
Reissues Miami
PAPERBACK
Joan Didion February
A startling portrait of the pastel city from one of the most significant writers of the modern era.
M
iami may be the sunniest place in America but this is Didion’s darkest book, in which she explores American efforts to overthrow the Castro regime, Miami’s civic corruption and its racist treatment of its large black community.
March
‘To understand America… I recommend Miami’ New Statesman
non-fiction £9.99 February B format 198 × 129mm PB 240pp Selling Territories: ALL Rights: SL Agent: Janklow & Nesbit
978 1 78378 524 7 (PB) 978 1 78378 033 4 (Ebook) previously published: August 2005 B-format 198 × 129mm PB £8.99 978 1 86207 786 7
Salvador
PAPERBACK
April
Joan Didion A restless and unflinching masterclass in the art of reportage.
E May
l Salvador, 1982, is at the height of a civil war. Joan Didion travels from battlefields to body dumps and trains a merciless eye not only on the terror there but also on the depredations and evasions of US foreign policy. ‘It is quite impossible to deny the artistic brilliance of her reportage’ New York Times 978 1 78378 523 0 (PB) 978 1 78378 032 7 (Ebook) previously published: August 2006 B-format 198 × 129mm PB £8.99 978 1 86207 868 0
joan didion is a novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Her books include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album and the memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. She lives in New York.
June
non-fiction £9.99 February B format 198 × 129mm PB 272pp TBC Selling Territories: ALL Rights: SL Agent: Janklow & Nesbit
July
Africa
Altered States, Ordinary Miracles PAPERBACK
Richard Dowden August
A revised and updated edition of the landmark book about the miraculous continent by the finest living Africa correspondent.
E
September
very time you try to say ‘Africa is…’ the words crumble and break. From every generalization, you must exclude at least five countries. For every certainty, the opposite is also true. Country by country, Richard Dowden has sought out the local and the personal to tell the story of modern sub-Saharan Africa. ‘A remarkable, ground-breaking achievement, capturing the complex texture of a rapidly changing continent’ Independent
October
‘A wise, compassionate and understanding account of Africa… an inspiring gift of hope’ The Times ‘An enthralling journey, with a uniquely knowledgeable commentator’ Financial Times
previously published January 2015 B-format 198 × 129mm PB £10.99 978 1 84627 604 0
December
richard dowden is Director of the Royal African Society. In 1986, he became Africa Editor of the Independent, and in 1995 he took up the post of Africa Editor of the Economist. He has also made three television documentaries on Africa for the BBC and Channel 4.
978 1 86207 703 0 (PB) 978 1 86207 940 3 (Ebook)
November
non-fiction £9.99 August B format 198 × 129mm PB 672pp Selling Territories: NCR Rights: SL Agent: Curtis Brown Group
Editions
GRANTA Editions are outsider classics. Books which slip free of easy definition and convention; books which we believe are of lasting, transformative literary value.
mailman June 2019 978 1 78378 526 1 £10
imperium February 2019 978 1 78378 525 4 £10
texaco May 2018 978 1 78378 434 9 £12
‘exterminate all the brutes’ October 2018 978 1 84708 198 8 £10
all the devils are here January 2018 978 1 78378 433 2 £10
January
Edited by Sigrid Rausing
ORIGINAL
March
February
Granta 147: Fortieth Birthday Special!
£12.99 May Demy 210 × 145 mm PB/Ebook 224 pp TBC Colour illustrations Colour photo section Selling Territories: ALL Rights: Granta
May
April
978 1 90988 922 4 (Ebook) 978 1 90988 923 1 (PB)
It has been forty years since Bill Buford, Jonathan Levi and Peter de Bolla relaunched Cambridge University’s student publication as the internationally renowned literary magazine we know today. In that time, Granta has published 26 Nobel laureates, award-winning journalism from writers like Martha Gellhorn, Ryszard Kapuściński and Svetlana Alexievich, defined a new literary genre in ‘dirty realism’ and paved the way for several generations of young novelists.
June
In this special celebratory issue of Granta, we will be republishing a selection of our favourite pieces from the magazine’s distinguished archive, along with a selection of letters and photographs from behind the scenes. This will be a collector’s issue and is not to be missed. ‘The most highly praised literary magazine. Remarkably, praise is deserved’ New York Times
July
Granta 148: Summer issue
ORIGINAL
Edited by Sigrid Rausing
© Thomas Rousing
August
‘The neuropsychologist at department 123 concluded one of our brief, useless meetings by quoting a Chinese proverb. “You leave grief’s garden holding a gift,” he said, but he didn’t answer when I asked what happens if you refuse. If you prefer to stay.’ Caroline Albertine Minor, ‘Grief ’s Garden’, translated from the Danish by Caroline Waight ‘ Our star was born long-tailed, the old man liked to say. We were kingmakers and twin sires. Even our cows came in pairs.We made rain fall in Great Zimbabwe. ’ Magogodi oaMphela Makhene, ‘Innards’
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: Granta 978 1 90988 925 5 (PB) 978 1 90988 926 2 (Ebook)
£12.99 November Demy 210 × 145 mm PB/Ebook 224 pp TBC Colour illustrations Colour photo section
Selling Territories: ALL Rights: Granta 978 1 90988 928 6 (PB) 978 1 90988 929 3 (Ebook)
September
‘During the last days of the last Tsar, there lived a peasant named Pushkin in a small village one hundred miles from Moscow.’ Amor Towles, ‘The Line’
£12.99 August Demy 210 × 145 mm PB/Ebook 224 pp TBC Colour illustrations Colour photo section
The summer issue of Granta will feature excellent new fiction, memoir, poetry and photography from Tom Bamforth, Oliver Bullough, Adam Foulds, Andrew O’Hagan, Thomas Pierce, Elif Shafak and many more contributors.
October
Granta 149: New Europe! II ORIGINAL
Edited by Sigrid Rausing
© Lucille Clerc
November
In 1990, Granta published a groundbreaking issue called ‘New Europe!’, which looked at how Europe had changed since 1989. Thirty years on, what does Europe mean now? From the Urals to the Alps, from Brexit to Brussels to Putin’s Russia, read the world’s best writers on the forging, fracturing and reimagining of the old continent.
December
sigrid rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia:The End of a Collective Farm and the memoirs Everything is Wonderful and Mayhem.
Backlist Highlights
addlands 978 1 78378 166 9 £8.99
asymmetry 978 1 78378 362 5 £8.99
cove 978 1 78378 386 1 £8.99
dept. of speculation 978 1 84708 874 1 £7.99
do not say we have nothing 978 1 78378 267 3 £8.99
the end of days 978 1 84627 515 9 £8.99
go, went, gone 978 1 84627 622 4 £8.99
may we be forgiven 978 1 84708 323 4 £8.99
the radetzky march 978 1 78378 467 7 £9.99
sabrina 978 1 78378 490 5 £16.99
strange weather in tokyo 978 1 84627 510 4 £7.99
super sad true love story 978 1 84708 249 7 £8.99
train dreams 978 1 84708 662 4 £8.99
the vegetarian 978 1 84627 603 3 £8.99
the white book 978 1 84627 695 8 £8.99
when i lived in modern times 978 1 84708 261 9 £7.99
the balkans 978 1 78378 452 3 £19.99
the book of barely imagined beings 978 1 84708 244 2 £10.99
border 978 1 78378 320 5 £9.99
corvus 978 1 78378 448 6 £9.99
deep sea and foreign going 978 1 84627 299 8 £9.99
in defence of history 978 1 78378 459 2 £9.99
islander 978 1 78378 190 4 £9.99
londoners 978 1 84708 329 6 £9.99
love of country 978 1 84708 518 4 £9.99
mountains of the mind 978 1 78378 450 9 £9.99
negroland 978 1 78378 339 7 £8.99
stasiland 978 1 84708 335 7 £9.99
straw dogs 978 1 86207 596 2 £9.99
to be a machine 978 1 78378 198 0 £9.99
wanderlust 978 1 78378 039 6 £9.99
the wild places 978 1 78378 449 3 £9.99
Notes
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