The first
three books have been announced in the Guardian’s annual Not the Booker Prize shortlist. They are The
Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas and Please Read This Leaflet
Carefully both of which are published by Dead Ink Books and also Skin (£8.99, pb, 978 1789550405) by Liam Brown which,
hurrah, is published by the fabulous Legend! The next stage is to
lengthen their shortlist to six books by announcing the final three choices:
one from last year’s judges and one from each of the two nominated book
champions for this year who are Storyhouse Library in Chester and Golden
Hare Books in Edinburgh; those choices will be announced next week. You can
see all the details on the award here. Reviewers have already heaped praise on Skin
calling it a “lyrical dystopian fever dream” and saying “If Brave New
World and 1984 were combined and whisked into this century, they couldn't be
more impressive than Liam Brown's superb story.” A strange virus is
sweeping the globe and humans have become allergic to one another. Simply
standing next to somebody could be a death sentence. A kiss could be
fatal. People are confined to their
rooms, communicating via their computers and phones. In some ways, very little
has changed…
Where do you stand on the Elgin
Marbles? Well, if you think of them as the “Elgin” Marbles at all, then that’s maybe
not a good start. The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns
the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or
colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want
them returned. A new book by the celebrated lawyer Geoffrey
Robertson QC, Who Owns History? (£20,
hb, 978 1785905216) offers a system for the return of cultural property based
on human rights law principles. It’s out from Biteback in November, and
we’ve just had a great endorsement from Stephen Fry who called it “A book
that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the Parthenon Marbles belong back
in Athens. Elgin’s heist prevents the modern world appreciating this ancient
wonder – created by the same people who gave us democracy, philosophy and (best
of all) comedy. Other cultural crimes must also be redressed, and in this
important book Geoffrey Robertson shows why, and how.” This title is going
to attract a huge amount of debate and I think many people will be very
interesting in reading Robertson’s arguments.
It's the summer hols, it’s time for
some light romance, and The Purrfect Pet Sitter (£7.99, pb, 978 1912550111) by Carol Thomas is
ideal! As readers have pointed out, this engaging and witty tale is the purrfect
read whether you’re cooped up in a caravan or lounging on a lilo! There’s been
a lot of publicity for its author Carol Thomas who was interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex this
week, featured on Female First and there’s more to come. If you’d like a
reading copy of this story of friendship, love and dogs which was published
this week by Choc Lit, then please email your name and bookshop address
to info@choc-lit.co.uk with Purrrrrrfect in the
subject line!
And staying on the canine theme, Pets by Royal Appointment: The Royal Family and Their Animals
(pb, £9.99, 978 1785905100), which is new from Biteback has just had a
feature in The Lady. With intimate anecdotes and fascinating detail,
royal author Brian Hoey describes the mini palaces provided for the Queen's
pampered corgis, Princess Anne's badly-behaved bull terriers and the wild
animals including crocodiles, hippos and an elephant presented to princes and
princesses. Exploring a seemingly eternal regal passion for all things canine
and equine, Hoey also turns his
attentions to the modern royal family's love of animals, celebrating the latest
arrivals to both William's and Harry's new households. From the corgi dynasty to
the Jack Russells rescued from Battersea Dogs Home, Pets
By Royal Appointment presents a very
British family besotted with all creatures great and small.
What a brilliant line up for the Cork
International Short Story Festival 2019 on 25 September including
events with two Comma authors. Nayrouz
Qarmout’s The Sea Cloak (pb, £9.99, 978 1905583782) is a collection of
fourteen stories by this author, journalist, and women’s rights campaigner.
Drawing from her own experiences growing up in a Syrian refugee camp, as well
as her current life in Gaza, these stories stitch together a patchwork of
different perspectives into what it means to be a woman in Palestine today. The
stories in Sara Maitland’s collection Moss Witch (pb,
£9.99, 978-1905583423) enact a daring kind of alchemy, fusing together raw
elements of scientific theory with ancient myth, folkloric archetype and
contemporary storytelling. Each of them sprang from a conversation with a
scientist and grew directly out of cutting-edge research; the Guardian
said of it “she has built bridges that may tempt new minds across to science.
How ingenious.” You can find out more about the Cork Festival here.
More great publicity for Safe Haven’s
A Field of Tents and Waving Colours: Neville Cardus
Writing on Cricket (hb, £14.99, 978 1916045309) with a massive
review in Wisden Cricket Monthly. This title has sold out in its first a
fortnight of publication and is now reprinting, thanks very much to all of your
booksellers who have supported it so far, and if you haven’t ordered it yet,
what are you waiting for?! This title ties in perfectly with the major new
biography of Cardus, The Great Romantic just published by Hodder and
this handsome small hardback should sell and sell.
Lots of publicity and events for Animals Eat Each Other by
Elle Nash (£9.99,
978 1912489169) which was published this spring by 404Ink. Picked by the
I Paper as one of the best debuts for 2019 and described by Oprah.com
as a “edgy, erotic fiction”; Animals Eat Each
Other tells the story of a young
woman with no name who embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a
tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mum. As she grows closer to
Matt, she begins to recognise the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that
her presence has created. With stripped-down prose and unflinching clarity, Nash
examines madness in the wreckage of love, and the loss of self that accompanies
it. It just got a great review in DIVA magazine who said that it "explores
sexuality, obsession, and hard lessons with an honesty and clarity that does
these topics justice." Elle will be in the UK (for the first time
since she was born here!) from 19th - 25th August and there are events for her lined
up across London and Edinburgh and central Scotland. You can see the details of
all those events here.
If you’d like an intelligent, curated
snapshot of the week’s most interesting news, then you may like to take a look
at Policy Press Weekly, the latest issue is here. Lots to look at from this independent,
not-for-profit academic publisher, focusing on social issues.
I am absolutely loving this superb
window display for The Therapist, the mesmerising
debut novella by Nial Giacomelli (£7.99, pb, 978 1912054909) at Foyles at the Royal
Festival Hall in London where it is their Book
of the Month for August. In this
bittersweet and hauntingly surreal tale, a couple finds the distance between
them mirrored in a strange disease sweeping the globe. Little by little, each
victim becomes transparent, their heart beating behind a visible rib cage, an
intricate network of nerves left hanging in mid-air. Finally, the victims
disappear entirely, never to be seen again. This is at once a haunting study of
grief, a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and ghost story of sorts. It’s
just been published by Fairlight Moderns.
The horrendous shooting in El Paso has
everyone looking for answers, and many are looking to Mike Wendling, expert on the Alt Right, to find
them. Author of Pluto’s Alt-Right: From 4chan
to the White House (£12.99, pb, 978 0745337456), this BBC journalist
has been covering the horrible underbelly on forums like 8chan since the
beginning, and writing up his finding on the Trending page he edits on the BBC. Mike
featured on BBC Radio 4's World
at One
and Beyond Today
this week and has a piece in the Metro coming out next week. Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House is a vital guide to understanding this white
nationalist, anti-feminist, far-right movement. It includes exclusive
interviews with members of the movement in order to gain a deeper understanding
of the movement's philosophy, history and role in politics today.
I’m looking forward to Bookshop Day
on Saturday 5 October, which of course is run by Book Are My Bag, a
nationwide campaign run by the BA to celebrate bookshops. It launched in 2013
and today comprises Bookshop Day and the Books Are My Bag Readers
Awards. At the centre of the campaign is the iconic BAMB tote bag and since
the campaign launched, over a million people have worn a Books Are My Bag to
show their love for their local bookshop. Every year over a thousand bookshops
around the country take part in Bookshop Day by holding special events,
creating bespoke window displays and more. Good luck to everyone planning for
this year’s event!
A big three-page feature entitled The
37 Therapies That Healed my Mid-life Crisis in Good Housekeeping for
My Life in 37 Therapies (£9.99, pb, 978 1910453773). As one reviewer has said,
this is a “disarmingly honest revelation of the author's middle-aged journey
through divorce, career and relationship challenges. For sure there’s a lot to
learn within the pages and the book is less expensive than therapy.” It’s
published by Red Door.
In Comma news, their latest
Reading the City title, The Book of Cairo
featured in the University of Nevada's End of Summer Reading List, you
can see full list here here. And
another title from the series, The Book of Tehran,
was included in The Book Satchel's #WITmonth list of 14 Books by Women in
Translation 2019, that’s here.
There
have been some amazing endorsements
coming in for The Dressing-Up Box by David Constantine which is out next month, you can see those here.
And
finally, many congrats to Comma’s CEO Ra
Page who has been once again shortlisted for a hClub
Award for his contribution to the
publishing industry, those details are here!
And in this week’s Hot Topics – here's Will Smith
performing Friend Like Me from the new Aladdin film, here are Love Island Winners Greg and
Amber telling us what happens next, and here
are
eighteen really inspiring quotations from the great Toni Morrison. That’s
all folks, more next week!
This weekly blog is written for the UK
book trade. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please
talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the Compass office on 020 8326
5696. Every Friday an e-newsletter containing highlights from the blog is sent
out to over 700 booksellers and if you’d like to receive this then please
contact nuala@compassips.london
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