I love science fiction for its ability to ask really big
questions, and tackle really important subjects; and Iraq + 100: Stories from a Century After the Invasion does exactly that. This collection poses a question
to ten Iraqi writers: what might your country look like in the year 2103 – a
hundred years after the disastrous American and British-led invasion, and 87
years down the line from its current, nightmarish battle for survival? How
might the effects reach across a century of repercussions, and shape the lives
of ordinary Iraqi citizens, or influence its economy, culture, or politics?
Might Iraq have finally escaped the cycle of invasion and violence and, if so,
what would a new, free Iraq look like? Covering a range of approaches – from
science fiction, to allegory, to magic realism – these stories use the blank
canvas of the future to explore the nation’s hopes and fears in equal measure.
We meet time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, macabre museum-worlds, even hovering tiger-droids, and all the time buoyed by a dark, inventive humour that, in itself, offers hope. As the city of Mosul begins its fight back, writers from all over Iraq are also fighting back with their visions of the future, and of a different Iraq. There has been publicity about this on the BBC World Service and also on BBC Arabic, and a post this week by its editor Hassan Blasim about Iraq + 100 on Twitter became a social media sensation, receiving over 2,000 likes in just a matter of hours. Iraq + 100 (pb, £9.99, 978 1905583669) edited by Hassan Blasim and featuring stories by Anoud, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Ibrahim Al-Marashi, Zhraa Alhaboby, Ali Bader, Hassan Blasim, Mortada Gzar, Jalal Hasan, Diaa Jubaili and Khalid Kaki is published on 17 November, by Comma Press.
We meet time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, macabre museum-worlds, even hovering tiger-droids, and all the time buoyed by a dark, inventive humour that, in itself, offers hope. As the city of Mosul begins its fight back, writers from all over Iraq are also fighting back with their visions of the future, and of a different Iraq. There has been publicity about this on the BBC World Service and also on BBC Arabic, and a post this week by its editor Hassan Blasim about Iraq + 100 on Twitter became a social media sensation, receiving over 2,000 likes in just a matter of hours. Iraq + 100 (pb, £9.99, 978 1905583669) edited by Hassan Blasim and featuring stories by Anoud, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Ibrahim Al-Marashi, Zhraa Alhaboby, Ali Bader, Hassan Blasim, Mortada Gzar, Jalal Hasan, Diaa Jubaili and Khalid Kaki is published on 17 November, by Comma Press.
Meanwhile back in the world today rather than the future
one, it’s another week, another US Presidential debate. I love this
- a fascinating look back at photos of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
through the years from Getty Images.
There was a terrific 4-star review in the Mail on
Sunday this week for Glen Maxwell’s Drinks with Dead Poets (hb, £12.99, 978
1783197415) published by Oberon: “Think Alice in Wonderland with a
bit of Narnia thrown in…thrilling…readers will emerge enlightened and
enthralled.” This follows an excellent piece in the Guardian
praising it as a “a wholly brilliant evocation of a mysterious university
campus, its students and visiting lecturers” – you can read that review here.
Drinks with Dead Poets is
a gorgeous gem of a book, which I think will strike a chord with many readers
and poetry lovers – it is truly written from the heart from the author who
Simon Armitage called “compelling, original, charismatic and poetic.”
Talking of drinking, you can tell we are now well and
truly in the run up to Christmas by the number of lavish alcohol adverts
flooding the airwaves and billboards; so it’s also the ideal time for
Birlinn to be publishing Whisky by
Aeneas MacDonald (hb,
£9.99, 978 1780274218) This is a terrific re-issue of what is – in the opinion
of most whisky writers and experts – the finest whisky book ever written. It is
certainly the first written from the point of view of the consumer and is thus
historically significant. But more than that, poetic and polemic in style and
with its emphasis on the importance of single malt whisky it remains fresh and
relevant to the interests of today’s whisky drinker. It is a remarkably
prophetic book, and with Ian Buxton’s
shrewd commentary and analysis, combined for the first time with 20 full-colour
period illustrations, it is brought bang up to date for today’s generations of
whisky aficionados. Previous editions have sold in excess of 10,000
copies in UK and the US and are highly collectable and this new edition
features extensive notes from Ian Buxton, pre-eminent among contemporary whisky
writers. His own book; 101 Whiskies to Try Before
You Die has now sold 200,000 copies worldwide. This beautifully
designed new hardback edition of Whisky is
published at the end of the month by Birlinn.
Who doesn’t love this - an iconic 15
seconds from the classic Ealing comedy Whisky Galore!
Well, while we’re on the subject of the auld country, what
is Scotland’s favourite book? I’m sure in the future many of our titles from
our wonderful Scottish indie publishers will be on the shortlist – but right
now it’s Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon as voted for in a poll for
the BBC's Love To Read campaign. You can see the full top ten titles here.
It was Super Thursday yesterday, when many
publishers bring out their “biggies”: a staggering total of 219 new books
are published on this one day alone, many of which are expected to be this
Christmas’s bestsellers. Have a look here
at an article in The Guardian on what bookshops think will sell well
for them in the next couple of months…
There has been loads of publicity for the new ITV Sunday evening series, Tutankhamun starring Max Irons and Sam Neill. You can watch a trailer for it here. The only edition available of the discovery of the tomb written by Howard Carter himself is The Tomb of Tutankhamun (hb,£14.99, 978 1 906251 10 9) published by Max Press. For more than 3,000 years, the tomb of the boy king lay undisturbed by grave robbers. When Howard Carter uncovered it in 1922, his find made a landmark in archaeological history. To its discoverers the tomb yielded a treasure of unimaginable significance and the story of this great discovery, first published in instalments between 1923 and 1933, is here told by Howard Carter himself, who led the excavation. Carter’s diary captures all the drama of the moment and in this book the events and consequences of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb are rivetingly traced in the discoverer's own words. There has always been huge interest in this fascinating subject; which of course has been re-ignited with the new ITV series. The Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter is available now.
The Velvet Cloak of Moonlight by Christina Courtenay (pb, £7.99, 978 1781893203) is book four in the Shadows from the Past series
and has just been published by Choc Lit. This author gets absolutely
rave reviews for her titles on Amazon – don’t let them scoop up all the sales –
she has many many fans and as one reviewer says: “If you like romance and
history then this book is perfect. The present and the past blend seamlessly to
engage and delight the reader. Believable characters, a steady pace and a real
page turner. I will seek out more of her books. Lost myself in the pages and
had a wonderful reading experience.” This title is a fantastic time-slip
adventure, combining drama, romance and mystery with plenty of skulduggery and
intrigue. It follows The Silent Touch of Shadows,
the Secret Kiss of Darkness and The Soft Whisper of Dreams.
I don’t think you expert booksellers will have any
problems with this
- a chance to see if you can guess the famous book from its cover image
alone. From those Friday funsters over at BuzzFeed!
The Life Assistance Agency (pb, £8.99, 978 1911129035) Thomas’s Hocknell’s debut novel just published by Urbane,
will be in the WH Smith Fresh Talent
promotion in January 2017. This entertaining story features Ben Ferguson-Cripps
who sets aside his literary ambitions to join the mysterious Life Assistance Agency. Their first case is to
trace a missing person with links to the Elizabethan angel-caller Dr John Dee.
Pursued by a shadowy organisation the trail leads through Europe into the
historic streets of Prague, where long-buried secrets are revealed, and Ben
discovers there is far more to life than simply living…
Speaking of Urbane, here is author Anne Coates at the launch party for Dancers in the
Wind (pb, £8.99, 978 1911129639), a gritty and gripping crime
thriller which was published last week – we love it when publication day
involves cupcakes with edible books on! You can read a great post about Dancers in the Wind and
an interview with its author Anne Coates on the Damp Pebbles book blog here.
The Adventures of Tintin is often considered to be one of the greatest series of
all time with an estimated 230 million copies of the titles sold worldwide –
over 100,000 a year are sold in the UK alone. So if you stock this iconic
series, then make sure you have Tintin in the Congo which is newly available in the UK from Casterman.
In this, the second of the Tintin books, the young reporter travels to Africa,
unearthing a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster
Al Capone (who he will meet again in Tintin in America). Tintin in the Congo has
not previously been widely translated into English or available in the UK, and
its publication has often led to heated discussions concerning accusations of
racism and censorship. However, many have argued that banning the book would
set a dangerous precedent for the availability of works by other historical
authors, and Tintin in the Congo should be read in its historical context – it was
first published in 1931. This new hardback edition will be shrink-wrapped and
have a bellyband saying “Collector’s Edition” and fans will certainly
want it to complete their collection of all 24 Tintin adventures. Tintin in the Congo (hb,
£10.99, 978 2203096509) was published this week. Reviewers have praised it for “showing
off the early spontaneity of Herge’s drawing style” and said it “provokes
thought rather than outrage.”
Here is an interesting 5 minute film from
the European Journal from 2012 when a Congolese man tried
(unsuccessfully) to get Tintin in the Congo banned in Belgium.
Where do you stand on the news that Bob Dylan has
won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature?
He is the first songwriter to win the literature prize; other contenders this
time included Salman Rushdie, Syrian poet Adonis and Kenyan writer Ngugi wa
Thiong’o. Author Karl Ove Knausgaard told the Guardian: “I’m very divided. I
love that the novel committee opens up for other kinds of literature – lyrics
and so on. I think that’s brilliant. But knowing that Dylan is the same
generation as Pynchon, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, makes it very difficult
for me to accept it. I think one of those three should have had it, really. But
if they get it next year, it will be fine.” However, so far Dylan has
responded with silence since he won the prize last Thursday, and has yet to get
in touch with the Swedish Academy, made any mention of the accolade or indicate
whether he will attend the celebrations! On 10th December, all the Nobel prize
winners are invited to Stockholm to receive their awards from King Carl XVI
Gustaf and to give a speech during a banquet. Sara Danius the academy’s
permanent secretary said “I have called and sent emails to his closest
collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly
enough. If he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in
any case and the honour belongs to him.” See if you agree with these - the Top
Ten Bob Dylan songs of all time!
Compass is on Twitter! Follow us
@CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this week...
Comma Press @commapress Did you see @commapress in @thebookseller yesterday talking
about #northern #indie #publishing, the #NFA and @Book_Fair!
Freight Books @FreightBooks Your publisher needs you! Walking the Lights
needs votes to win @GuardianBooks #NotTheBooker prize.
Matthew at Urbane @urbanepub Book sales of Tea & Chemo have provided
over £1,600 for cancer charities #charitytuesday #breastcancer
Gallic &
Aardvark @BelgraviaB Did
you know that Promeces longipes, encountered on #tablemountain were the models
for the mystery beetle that infests Nineveh? #bugs
BrookesPoetryCentre@BrookesPoetry Our #WeeklyPoem is 'Belle Étoile' by John Kinsella &
Alan Jenkins from their book 'Marine' pub by @EnitharmonPress: "Don’t
stretch out a hand to the drowned man I’ll roll like a pebble to the sea"
Booksaremybag @booksaremybag We love this write-up about Stromness Books and
Prints, one of the UK’s most remote and northerly bookshops http://bit.ly/2eFbqtC
#Orkney
And Other
Stories @andothertweets Retweeted
Chloe Turner: “The stitched together tapestry of over three hundred teasing
glimpses of love...” Lovely review of Emmanuelle Pagano's Trysting!
Polygon Books @PolygonBooks Jan-Philipp Sendker tours the UK next week with
latest mystery novel, DRAGON GAMES. Come along to meet him and hear all about
his writing.
Leah Moyse @LeahJMoyse There are books that sit within their genre.
#AnHonestDeceit smashes the boundaries of brilliance with its own genre. @urbanepub
@Gmankow
Freight Books @FreightBooks What does Friday afternoon at Freight mean?
#BookAndABeer of course! *opens can*
That’s all for now folks! More
next week!
This bog is taken from a newsletter which is sent weekly to over 700 booksellers as
well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any of the titles
mentioned, then please talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the office
on 020 8326 5696.
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