Contents 2-3 I Hear the Sirens in the Street Adrian McKinty 4 The Last Girlfriend on Earth Simon Rich 5 The Middlesteins Jami Attenberg 6 Capture Roger Smith 7 Sila’s Fortune Fabrice Humbert 8-9 Petite Mort Beatrice Hitchman 10 The Face Thief Eli Gottlieb 11 The Second Life of Samuel Tyne Esi Edugyan 12 1985, Tremor of Intent, One Hand Clapping Anthony Burgess 13 Napoleon Symphony Anthony Burgess 14 Tomorrow I Will Be Twenty Years Old Alain Mabanckou 15 Apocalypse Baby Virginie Despentes 16 True Story Helen Humphreys 17 Different Every Time Marcus O’Dair 18 Clandestino Peter Culshaw 19 Dirty Wars Jeremy Scahill 20 A History of Football in 100 Objects Gavin Mortimer 21 Members Only Paul Willetts 22 Taming the Beast Emily Maguire 23 One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed Melissa P 24-25 Gone to the Forest Katie Kitamura 26 The Elimination Rithy Panh 27-28 Paperbacks 29 Recently Published 30-31 Backlist 32-33 Contact information
Introduction
Serpent’s Tail
I was delighted to join Serpent’s Tail as publisher earlier this year. I’d always admired Pete Ayrton for publishing brave, rebellious books, and for having a truly international outlook. The world came to London for the Olympics this summer, and though the games are over and the visitors have gone home, here at Serpent’s Tail we’re as committed as ever to bringing you stories from every corner of the globe.
An imprint of Profile Books Ltd. 3A Exmouth House Pine Street London EC1R 0JH 020 7841 6300 info@serpentstail.com www.serpentstail.com
Our fiction will drag you onto the mean streets of 1980s Belfast, immerse you in the Parisian silent cinema scene of the 1910s, draw you into a suburban Chicago fraught with family strife, seduce you in the Congolese capital and take you on a wild road-trip from Paris to Barcelona. We’re also publishing books on two of music’s legendary freewheelers – Manu Chao and Robert Wyatt – reissuing two of our best erotic classics, and much, much more. Enlightening, provocative and full of energy, these books open up other worlds and invite you on new journeys. Happy travelling. Hannah Westland Publisher 1
Praise for the first Sean Duffy thriller The Cold Cold Ground:
‘If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written’ The Times ‘A razor-sharp thriller told with style, courage and dark-as-night wit ... a brilliant novel with its own unique voice’ Stuart Neville ‘Fast-paced, intricate and crime to the core’ Guardian ‘A masterpiece’ Irish Times
I Hear the Sirens in the Street Adrian McKinty
New Title
There’s always a clue. Sometimes it’s just hard to see. Sean Duffy knows there’s no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close. Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood – however faint – that always, always connects a body to its killer. A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to block out the self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance. So from country lanes to city streets, he works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat ... Book two of the Sean Duffy Trilogy Author tour to Belfast, Dublin and London Major marketing campaign
Adrian McKinty grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. His debut Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and his novel Fifty Grand won the 2010 Spinetingler Award. Adrian lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.
Crime Fiction £12.99 Royal Trade Paperback 352pp ISBN: 9781846688188 eISBN: 9781847659293 January World ex USA, Can Tr
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The Last Girlfriend on Earth And Other Love Stories Simon Rich
New Title
It doesn’t matter if you’re a robot, an alien from outer space or a regular guy: sooner or later, some girl’s going to break your heart The sketches in Simon Rich’s new book are bizarre, funny and even familiar. Exploring love’s many complications and mortifications – losing it, finding it, breaking it and making it – Rich turns the ordinary into the absurd. From the invisible man’s compulsion to stalk his ex, to Sherlock Holmes’ only blind spot and how Darwin really formed his theory of evolution, The Last Girlfriend on Earth takes readers for a hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love.
Fiction £9.99 Demy Trade Paperback 224pp ISBN: 9781846689215 eISBN: 9781847659026 January UK Com ex Can
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Simon Rich is the author of Elliot Allagash and What in God’s Name and he has written film scripts for Lorne Michaels and Judd Apatow. His work has been published in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and the Believer and he was nominated for the Thurber Prize. Until recently, he was a staff writer at Saturday Night Live; he currently writes for Pixar.
Praise for Simon Rich: ‘Sharp, funny, blisteringly clever’ The Times ‘Hilarious’ Jon Stewart ‘Funny, smart and generally bloody brilliant’ Heat
The Middlesteins Jami Attenberg
New Title
They say the family that eats together, stays together ... Edie and Richard have been married for over thirty years. Everyone – even their children – agrees that Edie is a tough woman to love, but no one expects Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition. Edie is fifty-nine years old, she weighs 300 pounds, and her doctors have told her she'll die if she doesn’t stop eating. Her children are divided: Robin is dragged back home to help but would rather not, while Benny and his neurotic wife are trying to take control of the situation. But they are united in one thing: shutting Richard out. Written with sly humour, warmth and great insight, The Middlesteins is a novel about learning to satisfy our endless human appetites – for love, comfort and understanding.
‘The Middlesteins had me from its very first pages, but it wasn't until its final pages that I fully appreciated the range of Attenberg’s sympathy and the artistry of her storytelling’ Jonathan Franzen ‘Blazing, ferocious and greathearted’ Lauren Groff ‘Warm, tragic, funny and deeply, complexly, entirely human’ Stefan Merrill Block
Jami Attenberg is the author of two previous novels and a collection of short stories. She has written for The New York Times, Rumpus, Salon, and numerous other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her online at jamiattenberg.com or follow her @jamiattenberg
Fiction £11.99 Demy Trade Paperback 288pp ISBN: 9781846689321 eISBN: 9781847659439 February UK Com ex Can
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Capture
New Title
Roger Smith The truth won’t set you free ...
In a city where the lines between rich and poor are drawn in blood, the truth is just the lie you believe the most ... Capture tells the stories of three desperate people. A father who is broken by grief and guilt. A son still haunted by the ghosts of his past. And a mother, desperate to save her child. In Cape Town, these three are drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves them fighting for their sanity and their lives.
Crime Fiction £12.99 Royal Trade Paperback 320pp ISBN: 9781781250020 eISBN: 9781847658395 February World English ex USA, Can
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Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. A screenwriter, producer and director, his award-winning first thriller, Mixed Blood, was published in six countries. Both Mixed Blood and his second book, Wake Up Dead, are currently in development as feature films.
‘Roger Smith juggles inevitability and the utterly unexpected with a sure and steady hand’ Jack Ketchum ‘Roger Smith writes with the brutal beauty of Elmore Leonard in a very bad mood’ Washington Post ‘Smith grabs readers and plunges them into his nightmare visions’ The Times
Sila’s Fortune Fabrice Humbert
New Title
An attack on an immigrant waiter exposes prejudice in French society Paris, 1995. In an exclusive restaurant, a waiter is violently attacked by a diner. No one moves. Not the couple close by, not the two young traders celebrating their first jobs. Not even the wife of the aggressor. All actions have consequences. And on this occasion, the brutality, indifference or cowardice of those present will signal the beginning of their undoing. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the financial crash of 2008, the witnesses’ destinies are woven into a web of responsibility. At the web’s centre is Sila, the floored immigrant who refuses to be made a victim.
Praise for Fabrice Humbert: ‘Highly intelligent and moving ... a novel of rare scope, substance and strength’ Scotsman ‘Beautifully written’ Herald Winner of the Prix Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Born in Saint-Cloud in 1967, Fabrice Humbert teaches literature in a French-German lycée near Paris. His previous novel, The Origin of Violence was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2011 and won the first ever French Prix Orange and the Prix Renaudot for best paperback.
Fiction £8.99 B Format Trade Paperback 288pp ISBN: 9781846688249 eISBN: 9781847658487 March World English Language Translated by Frank Wynne US
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I surprised myself with my boldness in stepping up to him, and raising my chin so that it almost met his, asking for a kiss. He looked at me – eyes grey as the Pas-de-Calais – and we stood for a while. I placed hot palms on his chest; he laughed again, and then he did kiss me. The kiss said, look at you, a snake with your prey. It said, do you suppose this will secure you an acting role? And mine said, yes.
Petite Mort
Or, A Little Death Beatrice Hitchman
New Title
Scandal, intoxication and lies flourish in the silent film studios of Paris A silent film, destroyed in a fire in 1913, before it was seen by its director. A lowly seamstress, making the costumes she should be wearing, but believing her talent – and a secret she keeps – will get her a dressing room of her own. A beautiful house, with a curving staircase, a lake, and locked rooms. A famous creator of spectacular cinematic illusions, husband to a beautiful, volatile actress, the most adored icon of the Parisian studios. All of these fit together, like scenes in a movie. And as you will see, this plot has a twist we beg you do not disclose … Fingersmith meets The Artist in this sensational debut If you loved The Crimson Petal and the White, or Ed Wood, you'll love this novel Limited proofs available now! Request yours from readallaboutit@serpentstail.com
Beatrice Hitchman was born in London in 1980. She read English and French at Edinburgh University and then studied for an MA in Comparative Literature. After a year living in Paris, she moved back to the UK, trained and worked as a documentary film editor. She has written and directed short films which have toured festivals worldwide.
Fiction £12.99 Demy Hardback 288pp ISBN: 9781846689062 eISBN: 9781847658685 March World English Language US
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The Face Thief Eli Gottlieb
New Title
A driving, compulsive novel that explores human greed and loyalty corrupted by temptation Margot is a grifter, making her living preying on the weaknesses of men. She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts. The Face Thief draws vivid portraits of Margot and her victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud, an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student, and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption. Rich in suspense and psychological depth, The Face Thief swirls around predator and prey, creating a landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly and the well-intentioned hapless.
Fiction £11.99 Demy Trade Paperback 256pp ISBN: 9781846689086 eISBN: 9781847658777 April World English ex USA, Can
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Eli Gottlieb’s New York Times Notable Book, The Boy Who Went Away, won the Rome Prize and the 1998 McKitterick Prize. His second novel, also published by Serpent’s Tail, Now You See Him, has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in New York City.
‘A suspenseful, beautifully achieved example of what happens when a serious novelist wants us to keep turning the pages’ Francine Prose ‘A sublime thriller ... an elegant and profound novel of memory, perception and reinvention’ Salon
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne Esi Edugyan
Paperback
By the author of the Orange and Man Booker Prize shortlisted Half Blood Blues Samuel Tyne always believed he was destined for greatness. Emigrating to Canada from Ghana as a young man was his first step on this path, but fifteen years later his grand plans have stalled. And then, he is thrown a life line: his uncle Jacob dies, leaving him a grand, crumbling house in the town of Aster, so Samuel seizes this chance for a new beginning. At first, Aster seems perfect, but soon the town’s faultlines are revealed and the family feels the strain. Samuel’s business falters and his twin daughters drift into a private world of two. As their behaviour becomes ever more sinister the family splinters, even as Samuel and his wife try desperately to hold their world together. ‘Fine writing and subtle characterisation mark out this first work, reminiscent of early V. S. Naipaul’ Guardian ‘A powerful and melancholic story of one man’s unfulfilled life’ Big Issue ‘Elegiac, shimmering prose’ Publisher’s Weekly
Esi Edugyan's second novel, Half Blood Blues, was shortlisted for the Orange and Man Booker Prizes and won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize. Edugyan lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her husband and daughter.
Fiction £7.99 B Format Paperback 288pp ISBN: 9781846689390 eISBN: 9781847659576 June 2013 UK Com ex Can
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Fiction £8.99 B Format Paperback 240pp ISBN: 9781846689185 eISBN: 9781847658920 March UK Com ex Can
Fiction £8.99 B Format Paperback 240pp ISBN: 9781846689192 eISBN: 9781847658937 March UK Com ex Can
One Hand Clapping Anthony Burgess
Paperback
A comedy of game shows and greed, high stakes and the high life ‘A funny, pointed novel’ New Yorker
1985
Anthony Burgess
Paperback
Ingenious, chilling and darkly comic, 1985 is a terrifying vision of the future ‘Blazingly imaginative, furiously vital’ Financial Times
Fiction £8.99 B Format Paperback 240pp ISBN: 9781846689208 eISBN: 9781847658944 March UK Com ex Can
Tremor of Intent Anthony Burgess
Paperback
The deadly serious and the absurd combine in this morality tale of a Secret Service gone mad ‘A gleaming novel of ideas ... brazenly clever’ The New York Times Book Review
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Napoleon Symphony Anthony Burgess
New Title
A new edition of a long out of print, ambitious, experimental novel A tragi-comic symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, this novel unteases and reweaves Napoleon's life – from the first great days of his campaigns in 1796 to exile and death on St Helena a quarter of a century later. Burgess’ Bonaparte is a cuckold, afflicted with heartburn and halitosis while enacting a wily seduction of Tsar Alexander, conquering Egypt and crowning himself Emperor. Witty, sardonic, intellectual, Napoleon Symphony is Burgess at his most challenging and inventive. In creating a novel based on a musical form, Burgess is playing with structure, from the grand, ambitious shape of the novel itself, through to the finer composition of each sentence.
‘Essentially this book is not so much about Napoleon as about Anthony Burgess writing a novel. As such it has many pleasures. All of the Burgess embellishments are here, and they sing alluringly each to each’ The New York Times Published to coincide with transmission of Burgess’ play of the book on BBC Radio 3
Anthony Burgess (1917 – 93) was a novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. He is best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, but altogether he wrote thirty-three novels, twentyfive works of non-fiction, two volumes of autobiography, three symphonies, more than 150 other musical works, reams of journalism and much more.
Fiction £12.99 Demy Hardback 384pp ISBN: 9781846689161 eISBN: 9781847658913 November 2012 UK Com ex Can
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Tomorrow I Will Be Twenty Years Old
New Title
Alain Mabanckou
Humour and surrealism combine in this autobiographical coming of age novel Michel is ten years old, living in Pointe Noire, Congo, in the 1970s. His mother sells peanuts at the market, his father works at the Victory Palace Hotel, and brings home books left behind by the guests. Planes cross the sky overhead, and Michel and his friend Lounès dream about the countries where they’ll land. But worryingly for Michel, the witch doctor has told his mother that he has hidden the key to her womb, and it must be returned before she can have another child. Somehow Michel must find it. Tomorrow I Will Be Twenty Years Old is a humorous and poignant account of an African childhood, drawn from Alain Mabanckou’s own life.
Fiction £8.99 B Format Trade Paperback 352pp ISBN: 9781846685842 eISBN: 9781847657893 May World English Language Translated by Helen Stevenson US 14
Alain Mabanckou was born in 1966 in Congo. He currently lives in LA where he teaches literature at UCLA. He received the Subsaharan African Literature Prize for Blue-WhiteRed, and the Prix Renaudot for Memoirs of a Porcupine. He was selected by Vanity Fair as a writer to watch.
‘Africa’s Samuel Beckett ... Mabanckou’s freewheeling prose marries classical French elegance with Paris slang and a Congolese beat’ Economist With a foreword by J.M.G. le Clezio Mabanckou has been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de la Littérature Henri Gal for his body of work
Apocalypse Baby Virginie Despentes
New Title
A fearlessly feminist road-trip novel, packed with atmosphere and romance Valentine, the troubled daughter of a well-off but dysfunctional Parisian family, vanishes on her way to school. An inexperienced private detective, Lucie Toledo, is hired to find the missing teenager, and enlists the help of a formidable agent with a past, known to her friends as ‘The Hyena’. Their quest, from Paris to Barcelona and back, uncovers a rich cast of characters whose paths have crossed Valentine’s, leading to an alarming climax. Part political thriller, part road-trip, part romance, this latest novel by subversive writer and film-maker Virginie Despentes won the Prix Renaudot.
‘A gloriously fearless writer’ Lisa Hilton, TLS ‘Despentes argues compellingly about women’s guilt, men’s power and the way that both are still abused three decades after the supposed triumph of feminism’ Independent on Sunday
Virginie Despentes was born in Paris in 1969, and now lives in Barcelona. Her previous books include Les Jolie Choses, Teen Spirit, Bye Bye Blondie and King Kong Theory. She co-directed a screen adaptation of her controversial novel, Baise-Moi in 2002.
Fiction £8.99 B Format Trade Paperback 352pp ISBN: 9781846688423 eISBN: 9781847657909 June World English Language Translated by Sian Reynolds US
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True Story
On the Life and Death of My Brother Helen Humphreys
New Title
Written for her beloved brother, True Story is a memoir of grief, love and family Helen Humphreys’ brother, Martin, was her closest ally and friend. Two years ago, he suddenly became ill and died in just a few months. In the year that followed, Humphreys wrote this intense and affecting memoir. As time goes on, she absorbs the seasons, the landscapes, she gets a new dog, plants fruit trees. And she tells this story: moving fluidly between memories of childhood and adulthood, from life to death and its aftermath, she describes her loss and how she has come to terms with grief. Like Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, True Story is articulate, loving and exquisitely crafted. It will make you catch your breath with recognition and sorrow.
Memoir £8.99 B Format Trade Paperback 224pp ISBN: 9781846689147 eISBN: 9781847658890 April UK Com ex Can
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Helen Humphreys is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in England and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphreys’ first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the City of Toronto Book Award. She is the author of The Reinvention of Love, also published by Serpent's Tail.
Praise for Helen Humphreys: ‘Exquisite prose’ Emma Donoghue ‘Humphreys’ pacing and storytelling are well-honed’ Financial Times ‘Haunting, moving and stylish’ Times Literary Supplement
Different Every Time
The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt Marcus O’Dair
New Title
The first and definitive biography of a musician whose career spans five decades of cutting-edge music Robert Wyatt started out as the drummer and singer for Soft Machine, a band who shared a residency at Middle Earth with Pink Floyd and toured America with Jimi Hendrix. He brought a bohemian outlook and jazz sensibility to the 1960s rock scene, having honed his drumming skills in a shed at the end of Robert Graves’s garden in Mallorca. His life changed in 1973, when he fell from a fourth floor window at a party and was paralysed from the waist down. He reinvented himself as a singer and composer with the extraordinary album Rock Bottom. A dozen albums on, Wyatt remains perennially hip, guesting with artists such as Bjork, David Gilmour and Hot Chip. Marcus O’Dair has talked to just about everyone associated with Wyatt, and spent many hours with the man himself. Interviews include long-time collaborators Brian Eno and David Gilmour, and a cast list from Julie Christie to Geoff Travis Illustrated throughout with rare photos from Wyatt’s personal archive
Marcus O’Dair is a writer, lecturer and musician. He writes on music for the Guardian, Independent, Jazzwise, Arts Desk and Financial Times. He is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3 and BBC 6 Music. He is also one half of the Ninja Tune act Grasscut, who have performed across Europe.
Music/Biography £14.99 Demy Trade Paperback 448pp ISBN: 9781846687594 eISBN: 9781847656490 June World Tr
US
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Clandestino
In Search of Manu Chao Peter Culshaw
New Title
The first authorised biography of the Che Guevara of world music A decade ago, Manu Chao’s band toured Colombia by train, negotiating with government troops and rebels along the way – a journey described at the time as ‘less like a rock’n’roll tour – more like Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow’. Manu has always done things differently. He is a multi-million selling artist who prefers sleeping on friends’ floors to five-star hotels, a recluse who is at home singing in front of 100,000 people. Clandestino has been five years in the writing, as Peter Culshaw followed Manu around the world, invited at a moment’s notice to head to the Sahara, or Brazil, or to Buenos Aires, where Manu was making a record with mental asylum inmates. The result is a fascinating music biography.
Music/Biography £12.99 Demy Trade Paperback 304pp ISBN: 9781846681875 eISBN: 9781847656407 April World Tr 18
US
Peter Culshaw was described by Malcolm McLaren as ‘the Indiana Jones of world music’. His assignments have included reports from the Amazon and Siberia. He has profiled many leading classical, world and jazz musicians for the Observer and Daily Telegraph, as well as BBC radio. He is currently music editor for theartsdesk. com.
This is the first time anyone has got close (and stayed close) enough to record the extraordinary story of Chao’s life Fully supported by Manu and his label Because
Dirty Wars
The World is a Battlefield Jeremy Scahill
New Title
Exposing the USA’s undeclared actions in the ‘War on Terror’ In this remarkable story, Jeremy Scahill documents the new paradigm of American war: fought far from any declared battlefield, by units that do not officially exist, in thousands of operations a month that are never publicly acknowledged. From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries and elite Special Operations Forces who populate the many covert wars America is fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. He also meets the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes – including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government – who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden. Praise for Blackwater: ‘The most important and chilling book about the death throes of US democracy you will read in years … a triumph of investigative reporting’ Naomi Klein Blackwater was an international bestseller – this is Scahill’s next shocking investigation
Jeremy Scahill is the National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine and one of the world’s foremost experts on privatised warfare. He is the author of the international bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, also published by Serpent’s Tail. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Current Affairs £12.99 Demy Trade Paperback 352pp ISBN: 9781846688508 eISBN: 9781847658258 April 2013 UK Com ex Can
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A History of Football in 100 Objects
New Title
Gavin Mortimer
What does a turnip have in common with a pair of £500 sunglasses? A History of Football in 100 Objects begins on the momentous day in October 1863 when several men in frock coats formed the Football Association. If you’ve ever wanted to know when footballers started to feign injury, why an old sock helped Pelé become a global legend or how a draper’s letter changed football, you’ll find the answer in this fascinating history of invention, ingenuity, indiscipline – and sometimes inebriation. From the inaugural red card to a Buddhist statue, each of the objects gives us an intimate glimpse of an unexpected truth behind football mythology – and together they relate the larger history of the world's most loved sport.
Sport £9.99 B Format Hardback 224pp ISBN: 9781781250617 eISBN: 9781847659057 October 2012 World Tr
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US
Gavin Mortimer, who lives in Paris, is an award-winning writer and journalist. He is the football correspondent for the Week magazine (writing as Bill Mann) and also writes for the Sunday Telegraph, BBC History Magazine and Rugby World.
Full of fascinating nuggets of information, guaranteed to stimulate the palate of the most jaded fan Award-winning and bestselling sports author writes a weekly football column in the Week
Members Only
Paul Raymond, The Man Who Made Soho Paul Willetts
Film Tie-In
Film starring Steve Coogan on nationwide cinematic release 2013 For almost forty years, Paul Raymond was one Britain’s most scandalous celebrities. Best known as the owner of the world-famous Raymond Revuebar, he was a successful theatre impresario, property magnate and porn baron. Paul Willetts’s atmospheric book follows Raymond from his strict Catholic upbringing to his death in 2008, when his isolation, paranoia and extreme wealth had earned him a reputation as England’s answer to Howard Hughes. Film directed by Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) Stars Steve Coogan, Tamsin Egerton, Chris Addison and Anna Friel Cameos from stars including Dara O’Briain ‘Full of arresting incident and wonderful bits of period detail’ DJ Taylor, Independent on Sunday ‘A well-researched book, covering an exceptionally interesting slice of social history’ Lynn Barber, Sunday Times
Paul Willetts is the author of Fear and Loathing in Fitzrovia and North Soho 999. He has edited four collections of writing by Julian Maclaren-Ross and compiled Teenage Flicks, a celebration of Subbuteo. His journalism has appeared in the Independent, The Times, TLS, Spectator, Independent on Sunday and other publications.
Film tie-in £8.99 B Format Paperback 496pp ISBN: 9781846687167 eISBN: 9781847653024 April World English Language US
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Taming the Beast Emily Maguire
New Edition
It was never just sex … Sarah Clark’s life changes forever when her English teacher, Daniel Carr, seduces her after class. Their affair is erotic, passionate and dangerous – a meeting of minds and bodies. But when his wife finds out and he moves to another city with his family, Sarah is heartbroken. She drifts from one meaningless relationship to the next, seeking but never finding what she shared with Daniel. Seven years later, Daniel walks back into her life, and they fall once again into an irresistible spiral of desire, eventually leading her to places darker than she ever imagined she wanted to go.
Fiction £7.99 B Format Paperback 320pp ISBN: 9781781251003 eISBN: 9781847655202 August 2012 UK Com ex ANZ, Can
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Emily Maguire is an Australian novelist, essayist and English teacher. She lives in Sydney. Taming the Beast was her first novel: a worldwide sensation, it has been translated into ten languages.
‘Crackling with controversy’ Grazia ‘An uncompromising look at sex, desire and unrequited love’ City Life
One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed
New Edition
Melissa P
Love may be hard to find, but sex waits at every turn One very hot Italian summer, a young woman sits alone in her bedroom and writes in her diary: ‘I want love. I want to feel my heart melt. I want to sink into a river of passion.’ As the summer unfolds, she follows her desires wherever they lead her, often into the arms of men who set her world on fire. She is thrilled to discover the sexual power she wields. And yet, will any of these passionate encounters lead to the love she longs for?
‘A warm and erotic book, packed with intense sexual experiences’ Diva ‘This coming of age tale is the latest women-can-writeabout-sex-too bestseller’ Metro
When she was sixteen years old, Melissa P. began writing a diary recording her secret desires. That diary eventually became this novel, her debut. A worldwide sensation, it has been translated into twenty-five languages and adapted into a feature film.
Fiction £7.99 B Format Paperback 160pp ISBN: 9781846689369 eISBN: 9781847655738 August 2012 UK Com ex Can Translated by Lawrence Venuti
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‘Dark, obsessive prose, punctuated by images of strange, surreal beauty’ Salman Rushdie ‘Kitamura’s prose brings to mind Cormac McCarthy or Jean Rhys, but the music of these lines is all her own – lyrical, sharp-edged, spare, and unafraid’ Julie Orringer ‘So beautifully written, so balanced – there isn't a spare sentence or word in the whole thing’ Evie Wyld 'A stark, urgent, beautiful novel’ Siri Hustvedt
Gone to the Forest
The Clerkenwell Press
Katie Kitamura
‘Hemingway’s returned to life – and this time, he’s a woman’ Tom McCarthy Since his mother’s death ten years earlier, Tom and his father have fashioned a strained peace on their family farm. Everything is frozen under the old man’s vicious, relentless control – even, Tom soon discovers, his own future. When a young woman named Carine enters their lives, the complex triangle of intrigue and affection escalates the tension between the two men to breaking point. After a catastrophic volcanic eruption ignites the nation’s smoldering discontent into open revolution, Tom, his father and Carine find themselves questioning their loyalties to one another and their determination to salvage their way of life. Fierce. beautiful, stark: Kitamura weaves family drama with political turmoil Acclaimed by critics and writers on both sides of the Atlantic Kitamura will be in London on publication
Katie Kitamura is based in New York and London. She has written for The New York Times, Wired and the Guardian, and is a regular contributor to Frieze. She was a finalist in the 2010 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award for her debut novel, The Longshot.
Fiction £11.99 Demy Trade Paperback 224pp ISBN: 9781846689239 eISBN: 9781847659071 February UK Com ex Can
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The Elimination
The Clerkenwell Press
Rithy Panh
An eye-witness account of one of the darkest episodes of the late twentieth century From 1975 to 1979 ‘Comrade’ Duch was in charge of S21, the security prison at the heart of Pnomh Penh, where 12,380 people were tortured and executed. Rithy Panh interviewed Duch in prison, capturing 300 hours of film, trying to understand Duch’s personal history, his ideology, his methods. The process of confronting Duch every day draws Rithy Panh back to the past and the horrors of the Khmer Rouge era. Against the evil of Duch he holds up the good embodied in the person of his own father, who fought for justice and education, and perished in the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Memoir/History £12.99 Demy Trade Paperback 320pp ISBN: 9781846689291 eISBN: 9781847659248 April UK Com ex Can Translated by John Cullen
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Rithy Panh was born in Cambodia in 1965. He is a film-maker whose documentaries, including Rice People, S 21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell have achieved an international reputation.
Rithy Panh is a distinguished and award-winning film maker Film screening on publication
New Paperbacks
On the Floor Aifric Campbell
A Stone’s Throw Fiona Shaw
Lost Memory of Skin Russell Banks
Weirdo Cathi Unsworth
The Grief of Others Leah Cohen
‘Energetic and illuminating’ Independent
‘As subtle and delicate as gossamer ... a masterclass’ Financial Times
‘Electrifying’ Sunday Times
‘Works beautifully: memory traces, bad magic, sounds, smells’ Iain Sinclair
‘Wise and incredibly moving’ The Times
Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 ISBN: 9781846688096 eISBN: 9781847658012 £7.99 Paperback January UK Com ex Can
ISBN: 9781846688324 eISBN: 9781847657770 £7.99 Paperback April UK Com ex Can
A New York Times notable book ISBN: 9781846685774 eISBN: 9781847657855 £7.99 Paperback January UK Com ex Can
ISBN: 9781846687938 eISBN: 9781847658494 £7.99 Paperback June World
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Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 ISBN: 9781846686276 eISBN: 9781847658326 £7.99 Paperback March UK Com ex Can
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Paperbacks
You & I Padgett Powell
Albert of Adelaide Howard L. Anderson
What In God’s Name Simon Rich
The Girl in Berlin Elizabeth Wilson
In The Seventies Barry Miles
‘Utterly intriguing’ Grazia
A genuinely distinctive first novel: Watership Down meets True Grit
‘Rich knows how to balance the smart with the funny’ New York Times
‘Clever, well-written and carefully plotted’ The Times
‘Candid behind-the-scenes revelation and madcap humour’ Daily Telegraph
ISBN: 9781846688416 eISBN: 9781847657886 £7.99 Paperback May UK Com ex Can, ANZ
ISBN: 9781846688492 eISBN: 9781847658159 £7.99 Paperback June UK Com ex Can
Winner of the James Tait Black Prize ISBN: 9781846688171 eISBN: 9781847657930 £7.99 Paperback May World ex USA, Can
ISBN: 9781846688270 eISBN: 9781847658081 £7.99 Paperback May World
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US
ISBN: 9781846687006 eISBN: 9781847654946 £9.99 Paperback May World
Tr
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Black Bazaar Alain Mabanckou
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ISBN: 9781846687778 eISBN: 9781847656575 £8.99 Paperback July 2012 World English Language
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ISBN: 9781846689130 eISBN: 9781847652270 £7.99 Paperback September 2012 World English Language US
Hardback: 9781846689123 Export: 9781846688034 eISBN: 9781847658500 £14.99 Hardback £12.99 Paperback September 2012 UK Com ex Can
Peace, Love & Potatoes John Hegley ‘Hegley is to potatoes what Wordsworth is to daffodils’ Observer ISBN: 9781846688980 eISBN: 9781847658739 £9.99 Hardback October 2012 UK Com ex Can
Tequila Sunset Sam Hawken Hawken’s debut was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger 2011 ISBN: 9781846688539 eISBN: 9781847658265 £11.99 Demy Trade Paperback November 2012 World
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9781846687341 e 9781847651747 £7.99
9781846687761 e 9781847656568 £7.99
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Backlist
9781846687426 e 9781847656445 £9.99
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9781852421397 e 9781847652492 £7.99
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