Friday 3 August 2018


NEW RELEASES
(They're new.)
Our Life in the Forest by Marie Darrieusecq           $35
A novel that challenges our ideas about the future, about organ-trafficking, about identity, clones, and the place of the individual in a surveillance state. In the near future, a woman writes from the depths of a forest. Her body, like the world around her, is falling apart - she's down to one eye, one kidney, one lung. Before she was a psychotherapist, treating patients who had suffered trauma. Every two weeks she visited her 'half' ' a comatose double, whose body parts were available whenever needed. As a form of resistance the woman flees, along with other fugitives and their halves. But life in the forest is disturbing too - the reanimated halves behave like uninhibited adolescents, and when she sees a shocking image of herself on video, are her worst fears confirmed?
"‘Once again, Darrieusecq gives us a passionate investigation into the deficiencies, transformations and lapses in our humanity. A little like Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, she shows how literature is our best means to disrupt functionality." - Focus Vif
>> Read an extract
>> A dream of the forest
The Trilogy of Two by Juman Malouf         $25
Identical twins Sonja and Charlotte are musical prodigies with extraordinary powers. Born on All-Hallows-Eve, the girls could play music before they could walk. They were found one night by Tatty, the Tattooed Lady of the circus, in a pail on her doorstep with only a note and a heart-shaped locket. They've been with Tatty ever since, roaming the Outskirts in the circus caravans, moving from place to place.But lately, curious things have started to happen when they play their instruments. During one of their performances, the girls accidentally levitate their entire audience, drawing too much unwanted attention. Soon, ominous Enforcers come after them, and Charlotte and Sonja must embark on a perilous journey through enchanted lands in hopes of unlocking the secrets of their mysterious past. A wonderful illustrated story.
"Full of wonders. Vivid and attractive." - Philip Pullman
>> Watch the trailer, meet the characters and read the sample
Other People's Houses by Lore Segal           $20
An autobiographical novel of Segal's experience of leaving Austria for Britain on the Kindertransports, and of living as a refugee and finally getting visas for her parents to join her. 
"Moving and newly relevant. if you translate Segal's beautiful, elliptical prose into today’s terms, her story becomes both radical and unsettling." - Guardian
Wild Land by Peter and Beverly Pickford         $90
A stunning large-format book of stunning large-format photographs of stunning large-format landscapes devoid of even the slightest human impact. You will want this. 
The Button War by Avi        $28
World War One. A small village in Poland. After the Germans bomb the schoolhouse and the long-residing Russian soldiers prepare to leave the area, Patryk’s small, isolated village is suddenly a whirlwind of activity. Inspired by the frequent comings and goings of military men, Jurek, the cruel, conniving leader of Patryk’s group of classmates, declares a daring challenge: whoever procures the best button from a soldier’s uniform gets to be king. Patryk is determined to beat Jurek at his own game, but he is no match for Jurek’s determination to win at all costs, even as the game turns deadly. 
The Wind at My Back by Paul Maunder           $35
In this personal and lyrical exploration of what it means to ride a bicycle, Maunder explores how our memories have a dialogue with landscape and how cycling and creativity are connected. 
>> Flann O'Brien's atomic theory
What We Think About When We Think About Football by Simon Critchley       $18
What happens when Critchley's pointy head is focused on the inflated sphere of a football? How can the 'beautiful game' be a way of thinking about philosophy, society, identity and poetics? 
Bogotá 39 - New Voices from Latin America        $27
39 authors under 40 years old, from 15 countries, some known; many to discover. Exciting. Gabriela Jauregui, Juan Pablo Roncone, Diego Zúñiga, Martin Felipe Castagnet, Lolita Copacabana, Diego Erlan, Mauro Libertella, Samanta Schweblin; Luciana Sousa, Carlos Manuel Álvarez, Frank Báez, Laia Jufresa, Jesús Miguel Soto, Mauro Javier Cardenas, Mónica Ojeda, Natalia Borges Polesso, Mariana Torres, Liliana Colanzi, Damián González Bertolino, Valentin Trujillo, María José Caro, Juan Manuel Robles, Brenda Lozano, Claudia Ulloa Donoso, Giuseppe Caputo, Juan Cárdenas, Juan Esteban Constaín, Daniel Ferreira, Felipe Restrepo Pombo, Cristian Romero, Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, Carlos Fonseca, Alan Mills, Valeria Luiselli, Emiliano Monge, Eduardo Rabasa, Daniel Saldaña Paris, Gonzalo Eltesh, Eduardo Plaza.
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman         $33
A search for belonging turns into a riotous satire of identity politics in this wildly irreverent coming-of-age story.
"Lexi Freiman is a savage writer, hilarious and brilliant, and in Inappropriation, she has reframed the traditional coming-of-age story, tackling it with irreverence and acid wit. This is a daring book, thrillingly of our moment." - Emma Cline, author of The Girls
"Inappropriation is sly and risky, but also sweet, a wickedly funny machine built to make us laugh and think. The comic novel has a bold new voice in Lexi Freiman, and she could not have come along at a better time." - Sam Lipsyte, author of The Fun Parts
Alone by Christophe Chabouté     $37
An outstanding graphic novel. On a tiny lighthouse island far from the rest of the world, a hermit lives out his existence. Every week a supply boat leaves provisions, yet the fishermen never leave their boat, and never meet him.Years spent on this deserted rock, with imagination his sole companion, has made the lighthouse keeper something more than alone, something else entirely. For him, there is nothing beyond the horizon. But, one day, a new boatman steps onto the island...  


Cloud Hotel by Julian Hanshaw         $40
Remco knows he is special. He was chosen. He thinks that God took a shine to him, when a bright light in a clear northern sky brought him to the incredible Cloud Hotel. It’s a palace of wonders, an escape from the world, and a place to be alone. Well, almost alone. But now it’s time to check out, and the hotel’s last two guests must race against time to find what’s been lost, before they overstay their welcome. Graphic novel. 
"Crisp of line and hypnotically peculiar, Hanshaw deftly suspends us between dream and reality, as good comics do. As in life, the harder we look the more we see, and the stranger things invariably become." — Shaun Tan
>> From Julian's brain
>> Not to be confused with this "luxury budget" hotel
Family: New vegetable classics to comfort and nourish by Hetty McKinnon        $40
Build a repertoire of enjoyable vegetarian food loved by families of varying backgrounds. The family stories and then-and-now photographs are delightful, too. 
Sharp: The women who made an art out of having an opinion by Michelle Dean          $38
A sharp group biography of writers who demonstrated and importance and benefits of not holding their tongues. Includes Dorothy Parker, Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag and Joan Didion. 
"This is such a great idea for a book, and Michelle Dean carries it off, showing us the complexities of her fascinating, extraordinary subjects, in print and out in the world. Dean writes with vigor, depth, knowledge and absorption, and as a result Sharp is a real achievement." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times 
The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid by Oliver Byrne       $45
First published in 1847, Byrne's book of coloured illustrations of Euclid's Elements remains a design exemplar (and preceded Mondrian's investigations into colour geometry by almost a century. 
Floral Contemporary: The renaissance of flower design by Olivier Dupon        $60
38 floral designers. 
Tyrant: Shakespeare on power by Stephen Greenblatt     $45
As an ageing, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social and psychological roots and the twisted consequences of tyranny. What Shakespeare discovered in his characters remains remarkably relevant today. He shone a spotlight on the infantile psychology and narcissistic appetites of demagogues and imagined how they might be stopped. 
"Scholarly and highly entertaining." - The Guardian
Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds by Jeremy Lachlan            $23
Jane's father disappears during an earthquake and Jane must enter a dangerous place between worlds, a place with shifting rooms and magical traps, to search for him. But she is not the only one tracking her father, whose secrets have drawn the attention of sinister powers. Can Jane and her new friends prevail? The start of an exciting new series. 



Imperial Tea Party: Family, politics and betrayal, The ill-fated British and Russian royal alliance by Frances Welch            $33
Apart from the marriage of Tsarevich Nicholas to Victoria's favourite granddaughter Alix, the royal families met three times: in Balmoral, in Revel and on the Isle of Wight before Revolution removed the Russians from the equation. King George denied his Romanov cousins refuge in Britain in 1917. 


Bonkers About Beetles by Owen Davey       $30
Lots of insect information illustrated in an appealing retro style. 
>> Others in the same series
Tove Jansson: Life, art, words by Boel Westin         $33
Moomins! Sculpture! Painting! Design! Relationships! Fiction! An island!
When Galaxies Collide by Lisa Harvey-Smith        $37
The Andromeda Galaxy is rushing towards us at 400,000 kilometres an hour. This book is a guide to the night sky and its wonders (black holes, pulsars, red stars, blue stars) with a fresh urgency - when the Andromeda Galaxy collides with ours in 5.86 billion years, will we be prepared? 
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig        $30
The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. What can we do about this? 
Watched by Marina Budhos         $21
Naeem is a Bangledeshi teenager living in Queens, New York, who thinks he can charm his way through anything. But then mistakes catch up with him. So do the cops, who offer him an impossible choice - spy on his Muslim neighbours and report back to them on shady goings-on, or face a police record.
 “Watched will pull you into its world with magnetic, graceful power, and deeply touching scenes of immigrant life and relationships. A hauntingly perfect, potent story for this moment.”—Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Habibi 

Milkman by Anna Burns         $33
Set in an unnamed city but with an astonishing, breath-shorteningly palpable sense of time and place, Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. The story of inaction with enormous consequences and decisions that are never made, but for which people are judged and punished.
Long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker Prize
Front Desk by Kelly Yang         $20
Ten year-old Mia Tang moved from Hong Kong to the US for a better life, a freer life, but so far, it's a life where she runs the front desk of a motel while her parents clean rooms. And she's not even allowed to use the swimming pool. Based on the author's experience as an immigrant. 
No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Island by Behrouz Boochani          $38
Since 2013, Kurdish jounralist Boochani has been held by the Australian government of Manus island in contravention of international law. While there he has managed to surreptitiously write this book about his experiences. 
>> Boochani has also been involved in the making of this film
The Accidental Memoir by Eve Makis and Anthony Cropper        $28
A workbook of approachable prompts and exercises for life writing. 









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