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Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY, tel: +44(0)20 7494 2111, fax: +44 (0)20 7434 0151 |
Book division successes 2003 |
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Love that Dog, Sharon Creech 'Is it a diary? Is it poetry? Is it a novel? Who cares? It's simply the most original book I've read for years, and now I see it as my duty to tell the world that the book that cannot be pigeonholed has been written. Long live the author, may her imagination touch us all.' Benjamin Zephaniah |
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Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. "It is time," he said, "for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything." |
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Loot, Nadine Gordmimer A startling new work: ten fictions, each a revelation of our interior lives, each entering unforeseen contexts of our contemporary world. In the title story an earthquake exposes both an ocean bed strewn with treasure among the dead, and the avarice of the town’s survivors. In ‘The Diamond Mine’ a woman remembers her first, passionately erotic experience, hidden, in the company of her parents, with a soldier who may not be alive to remember her. The anopheles mosquito brings death to the saunas and other playgrounds of the developed with in ‘The Emissary’. ‘Mission Statement’ is the story of a Development Agency official’s idealism, the ghosts of colonial history, and a love affair with a government minister that ends with an irony that astounds her. ‘The Generations Gap’ turns the ‘gap’ upside down when a father’s bid for freedom shocks his adult children. In ‘Homage’ one of Europe’s aliens visits the grave of the politician he was paid to assassinate. In ‘Karma’, Gordimer’s inventiveness knows no bounds: in five returns to the earthly life, taking on different ages and genders, a disembodied narrator testifies to unfinished business— critically, wittily— and questions the nature of existence. |
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Frankie and Stankie,
by Barbara Trapido
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Hard Work, by Polly
Toynbee Could you live on the minimum wage? Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee took up the challenge: living in one of the worst council estates in Britain and taking whatever was on offer at the job centre. In telesales and cake factories, as a hospital porter or a dinner-lady, she worked at a breakneck pace for cut-rate wages, alongside working mothers and struggling retirees. The service sector is now administered by seedy agencies offering no prospects, no screening and no commitment. And, perhaps, most damning of all, Toynbee found that, despite the optimism of Tony Blair's New Deal, the poorly paid effectively earn less than they did thirty years ago. Britain has the lowest social spending and the highest poverty in Europe. As the income gap between top and bottom has widened, so social mobility has shuddered to a halt. The low-paid are caught in an economic double bind that victimises them and shames the rest of us. Is this the end of social progress? In this compelling, powerfully written and impassioned book, Polly Toynbee shows that — unless we acknowledge the poor and radically improve their prospects — it will be. |
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The Man with the Dancing
Eyes, by Sophie Dahl 'In the golden half light of a midsummer’s evening, the sort where any kind of magic can occur, and often does, in the midst of a party held in a wild and rambling garden stood Pierre, teetering on highly unsuitable heels, surrounded by overripe roses.' And on that midsummer evening, Pierre, the daughter of a bumbling botanist and a ravishing Italian soprano, sweet and shy and gangly as a baby giraffe, meets a man with dancing eyes. But in the midst of a glorious affair, an indiscretion is committed and Pierre flees to New York. Forgetting her beloved with his dancing eyes proves to be far harder than she imagines… |
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Everest, by Stephen
Venables This magnificent volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the first successful ascent of the world’s highest mountain, and chronicles the history of Everest exploration from the early years of the twentieth century to the present. It is the first and only book on the subject to benefit from complete access to the Royal Geographical Society’s astonishingly rich collection of photographs, documents, and artifacts. Painstakingly selected from over 20,000 subjects, the 400 photographs record the surveying, planning, reconnaissance expeditions, and actual attempts that the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club jointly launched from 1921 — culminating in Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic climb on 29 May 1953. |
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Oryx & Crake, by Margaret
Atwood Now, in Oryx & Crake, the future has changed. It’s much worse. And we’re well on the road to it now. The narrator of Margaret Atwood’s riveting new novel is Snowman, self-named though not self-created. As the story begins, he’s sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. Earlier, Snowman’s life was one of comparative privilege. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Was he himself in any way responsible? Why is he now left alone with his bizarre memories — except for the more-than-perfect, green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster? He explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes — into his own past, and back to Crake’s high-tech bubble dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief. With breathtaking command of her shocking material and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into a less-than-brave new world, an outlandish yet wholly believable space populated by a cast of characters who will continue to inhabit your dreams long after the last chapter. This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers. |
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Ash Wednesday, by Ethan
Hawke INTRODUCING James Heartsock, a soldier who’s done his best to lose his girl; and Christy Ann Walker, his dumped and pregnant lover, heading west on an Adirondack Trailways bus. Armed with only a ring and a prayer, Jimmy takes his Chevy Nova and goes AWOL, determined to win back the only good thing he’s ever had. But Christy is as scared at the prospect of a life with him as one without. Just because something’s your destiny, does that make it the right thing to do? |
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The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
An epic and extraordinary story of love, loyalty, secrets and vengeance, and of a country and a boy whose footsteps cannot be retraced. Winter, 1975: Afghanistan - a country hidden in the corner of Asia, ruled over by a fading monarchy on the verge of an internal coup. But in Kabul, twelve-year-old Amir has his own concerns. He is desperate to win the annual kite-fighting tournament to prove to his father that he has the makings of a man. Amir’s friend Hassan is a low-caste Muslim and the son of a crippled servant but nevertheless the two boys play together and defend each other against the neighbourhood’s bullies. However, during the tournament, Amir takes advantage of Hassan’s guileless devotion and commits a terrible act of betrayal which is to shatter their lives and define their future. |
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Death by Hollywood, by Steven Bochco
One evening, spying on his Hollywood Hills neighbours through his $4,000 electronic telescope, Bobby witnesses a beautiful woman making love to a handsome Latin actor called Ramon. As their pillow talk turns ugly, Bobby watches as the woman appears to bludgeon her lover to death with his own acting trophy. Instead of rushing to the cops, Bobby decides to find out more about the events that led up to the crime, and to use the material for his next movie screenplay. He sneaks into the actor's apartment, and the discovery he makes there changes his life for ever. Empowered by his secret knowledge, Bobbly is able to seduce the beautiful woman, while forging a unique friendship with Detective Dennis Farentino, the cop in charge of the investigation. Before long Bobby has dragged the detective, his wife, his lover, and his script-writing agent into a Hollywood fun-house hall of mirrors, where only the most manipulative player will survive. Steven Bochco is the Emmy Award-winning creator of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blues. |
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Our Lady of the Forest, by David
Guterson Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this a delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God? It is up to the new priest, Father Collins, to evaluate the veracity of Ann's sightings: delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God? Gradually word spreads and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann's visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. Our Lady of the Forest combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crisis. |
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Peter & The Wolf, by Gavin Friday,
Maurice Seezer and Bono Peter & The Wolf is the lastest creative collaboration in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation. This project brings together a unique recording of Sergei Prokofiev's masterpiece with a fully illustrated book. The recording features the musical talents of Gavin Friday and the Friday-Seezer Ensemble with the accompanying book showcasing Bono's unique style of illustration created with the assistance of his daughters Jordan and Eve. The result is a musical and visual experience that breathes new life into this timeless story. www.bloomsbury.com/peterandthewolf |
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Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany,
by Ben Schott Schott’s Original Miscellany was the publishing sensation of 2002. From the mind that brought you Schott’s Original Miscellany comes a collection of vital irrelevance and uncommon knowledge surrounding the worlds of food and drink. Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany is a snapper up of unconsidered trifles (in both senses of the word) — from food history to cooking terms; cocktail recipes to dining etiquette; grace before meals to after dinner toasts. What other book can tell you the accepted procedure when drinking from a Loving Cup; which potatoes are best for mashing; how to fold your napkins into a variety of pleasing shapes; the correct technique for lighting a cigar, or a Christmas pudding; or how to make the legendary ‘Monster Egg’? Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany offers all this… and more. It will inform you of the King who served foie gras to his dog; the feast where guests ate in fear of their lives; the socialite who spiked his punch with benzedrine; and the dining club whose members ate their meals in reverse. An ‘olla podrida’ of all that is pertinent to wining, dining and socialising, Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany offers everything for the food lover, wine-drinker, gastronome and glutton. |
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