In this, the second volume of a projected Manchester trilogy, the young writer takes a zero-hours job in a mail-sorting depot but struggles to cope with the demands of menial work & the attitudes of his colleagues. Only after rescuing & acquiring a pet tortoise does he realise what is most lacking in his life: intimacy. Embarking on a handful of sexual misadventures, he continues to struggle as a writer. He sees the city in which he was born & brought up changing all around him &, when he gets sacked from the sorting office, some hard choices lie ahead.A powerful indictment of austerity politics & Brexit Britain, the novel never loses sight of its working-class characters` dignity & humanity, & Campbell`s mordantly witty dialogue ensures that the next laugh is never far away. Gripping in its fascination with the everyday, Zero Hours is keenly observed, blackly funny & ultimately uplifting. ...

A Harper Perennial Modern Classics reissue of this unflinching examination of post-war French intellectual life, & an amazing chronicle of love, philosophy & politics from one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. An epic romance, a philosophical argument & an honest & searing portrayal of what it means to be a woman, this is Simone de Beauvoir`s most famous & profound novel. De Beauvoir sketches the volatile intellectual & political climate of post-war France with amazing deftness & insight, peopling her story with fictionalisations of the most important figures of the era, such as Camus, Sartre & Nelson Algren. Her novel examines the painful split between public & private life that characterised the female experience in the mid-20th century, & addresses the most difficult questions of gender & choice. It is an astonishing work of intellectual athleticism, yet also a moving romance, a love story of passion & depth. Long out of print, this masterpiece is now reissued as part of the Harper Perennial Modern Classics series so that a whole new generation can discover de Beauvoir`s magic. ...

` Shriver`s intelligence, mordant humour & vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining` FINANCIAL TIMES The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin. It is 2029. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America`s soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also
- as the effects of the downturn start to hit
- the challenge of sheer survival. Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can`t buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that`s unrecognizable. Perhaps only Florence`s oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets. This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive & topical author of our times.

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` Shriver`s intelligence, mordant humour & vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining` FINANCIAL TIMESThe brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin. It is 2029. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America`s soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also
- as the effects of the downturn start to hit
- the challenge of sheer survival. Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can`t buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that`s unrecognizable. Perhaps only Florence`s oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets. This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive & topical author of our times.

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Gower Street, London, 1882. Sidney Grice, London`s most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, & glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven`s sake
- she is wearing brown shoes. Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury & the stinking streets of London`s East End, THE MANGLE STREET MURDERS is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, & very, very funny. THE GOWER DETECTIVE SERIES: The Mangle Street Murders. The Curse of the House of Foskett. Death Descends on Saturn Villa.
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As a child, Robin Bayley was enchanted by his grandmother`s stories of Mexican adventures: of bandits, wild jungle journeys, hidden bags of silver & a narrow escape from the bloody Mexican Revolution. But Robin sensed there was more to these stories than anyone knew, & so he set out to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather. ” The Mango Orchard” is the story of parallel journeys, a hundred years apart, into the heart of Latin America. Undaunted by the passage of time & a paucity of information, Robin seeks out the places where his great-grandfather Arthur ` Arturo` Greenhalgh travelled & lived, determined to uncover his legacy. Along the road Robin encounters witches, drug dealers, a gun-toting Tasmanian Devil & an ex-Nazi diamond trader. He is threatened with deportation, offered the protection of Colombian guerrilla fighters & is comforted by the blessings of los santos. He falls in love with a beautiful Guatemalan girl with mystical powers & almost gives up his quest, until a sense of destiny drives him on to western Mexico & the discovery of much, much more than he had bargained for. ...

A unique walking guide to Manhattan, from the author of The New York Nobody Knows Bill Helmreich walked every block of New York City--six-thousand miles in all--to write the award-winning The New York Nobody Knows. Now he has re-walked most of Manhattan--721 miles--to write this new, one-of-a-kind walking guide to the heart of one of the world`s greatest cities. Drawing on hundreds of conversations he had with residents during his block-by-block journey, The Manhattan Nobody Knows captures the unique magic & excitement of the island & highlights hundreds of facts, places, & points of interest that you won`t find in any other guide. The guide covers every one of Manhattan`s thirty-one distinct neighborhoods, from Marble Hill to the Financial District, providing a colorful portrait of each area`s most interesting, unusual, & unfamiliar people, places, & things. Along the way you`ll be introduced to an elderly Inwood man who lives in a cave; a Greenwich Village townhouse where Weathermen terrorists set up a bomb factory; a Harlem apartment building whose residents included W.E.B. Du Bois & Thurgood Marshall; a tiny community garden attached to the Lincoln Tunnel; a Washington Heights pizza joint that sells some of the biggest slices in town; the story behind the ” Birdman” of Washington Square Park; & much, much more. An unforgettably vivid chronicle of today`s Manhattan, the book can also be enjoyed without ever leaving home--but it`s almost guaranteed to inspire you to get out & explore this fascinating metropolis. Covers every one of Manhattan`s neighborhoods, providing a colorful portrait of their most interesting, unusual, & unfamiliar people, places, & things Each neighborhood section features a brief overview & history; a detailed, user-friendly map keyed to the text; & a lively guided walking tour Draws on the author`s 721-mile walk through every Manhattan neighborhood
Includes: insights from conversations with hundreds of residents
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When the Manhattan came along, it completely changed the drinking landscape. Cocktail historian Philip Greene traces the evolution of this classic from the stories of its origin to its continuing influence. Richly illustrated with vintage artwork & deluxe photos, this definitive story of the iconic cocktail offers 65 recipes from the classic versions to the Manhattan`s many descendants
- including the almighty Martini itself.
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For Londoners of the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, debt was a part of everyday life. But when your creditors lost their patience, you might be thrown into one of the capital`s most notorious jails: the Marshalsea Debtors` Prison. The Marshalsea became a byword for misery; in the words of one of its inmates, it was `hell in epitome`. But the prison was also a microcosm of London life & it housed a colourful range of characters, including Charles Dickens` father. The experience haunted the writer, who went on to immortalise the Marshalsea in his work, most memorably in Little Dorrit. In Mansions of Misery, acclaimed chronicler of the capital Jerry White introduces us to the Marshalsea`s unfortunate prisoners
- rich & poor; men & women; spongers, fraudsters & innocents. We get to know the trumpeter John Grano who wined & dined with the prison governor & continued to compose music whilst other prisoners were tortured & starved to death. We meet the bare-knuckle fighter known as the Bold Smuggler, who fell on hard times after being beaten by the Chelsea Snob. And then there`s Joshua Reeve Lowe, who saved Queen Victoria from assassination in Hyde Park in 1820, but whose heroism couldn`t save him from the Marshalsea. Told through these extraordinary lives, Mansions of Misery gives us a fascinating & unforgettable cross-section of London life from the early 1700s to the 1840s.
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Timothy Buchannan buys an abandoned house on the edge of an isolated village on the coast, sight unseen. When he sees the state of it he questions the wisdom of his move, but starts to renovate the house for his wife, Lauren to join him there. When the villagers see smoke rising from the chimney of the neglected house they are disturbed & intrigued by the presence of the incomer, intrigue that begins to verge on obsession. & the longer Timothy stays, the more deeply he becomes entangled in the unsettling experience of life in the small village. Ethan, a fisherman, is particularly perturbed by Timothy`s arrival, but accedes to Timothy`s request to take him out to sea. They set out along the polluted coastline, hauling in weird fish from the contaminated sea, catches that are bought in whole & removed from the village. Timothy starts to ask questions about the previous resident of his house, Perran, questions to which he receives only oblique answers & increasing hostility. As Timothy forges on despite the villagers` animosity & the code of silence around Perran, he starts to question what has brought him to this place & is forced to confront a painful truth. The Many is an unsettling tale that explores the impact of loss & the devastation that hits when the foundations on which we rely are swept away. ...