Tells the story of M Francisco Fabrigas, explorer, philosopher, heretical physicist, who took a shipful of children on a frightening voyage to the next dimension, assisted by a teenaged Captain, a brave deaf boy, a cunning blind girl, and a sultry botanist, all the while pursued by the Pope of the universe and a well-dressed mesmerist.
Nearing sixty and needing to plan for his and his children's future, the author employed an accountant from a reputable firm. When the accountant recommended investing in a property scheme, he followed his advice - only to find out that the accountant was a fraudster and his entire life savings had vanished. This book tells his story.
Zora Neale Hurston's masterpiece is perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature. Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.
High up in the Conrad Flats that loom bleakly over Acton, two future stars of the literary scene - or so they assume - are hard at work, tapping out words of wit and brilliance between ill-paid jobs writing captions for the Cat Calendar 1985 and blurbs for trashy novels with titles like Brothel of the Vampire.
Heartlessness has become the law. In the wasted ruins of London, a woman pieces together fragments of her memory. As her past emerges, her own apocalypse begins. This is a novel of singular invention and bravery.
For decades, hobbits and the other fantastical creatures of Middle-earth have captured the imaginations of a fiercely loyal tribe of J R R Tolkien readers, all enhanced by the immense success of Peter Jackson's films: first 'The Lord of the Rings', and now his new 'The Hobbit'. This book explores the chief influences on J R R Tolkien's work.
Eight-year-old Pepper sees the world a little differently from most people. During a school field trip, Pepper is kidnapped by a stranger and driven to rural Arkansas. The man claims that Pepper's mother has died and they are to live together from now on - but the boy is absolutely certain his mother is alive, and he's going to find her
'There once was a man who, one night at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party...'. As time passes by and the consequences of this stranger's actions ripple outwards, touching the owners, the guests, the neighbours and the whole country.
A woman finds herself filling a pit in the forest in the middle of the night; a family lock each other in their bedrooms to battle a strange plague; a wizard punishes two beautiful ballerinas by turning them into one hugely fat circus performer; a colonel is warned not to lift the veil from his dead wife's face.
One of Barack Obama's best books of 2018, the New York Times bestselling novel about contemporary America from a bold new Native American voice`A thunderclap' Marlon James`Astonishing' Margaret Atwood, via Twitter`Pure soaring beauty' Colm ToibinJacquie Red Feather is newly sober and hoping to reconnect with her estranged family.
Raised in a household of monsters - human and make-believe, during the 1980s on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, the narrator takes refuge in the pages of books. This darkly humorous yet poignant account chronicles the journey of a resilient young woman battling to write her own story, in a community struggling with its colonial past.
In August 1943, Sergeant Craddock leads his battle-weary platoon down Via Garibaldi in Catania, Sicily. The next few weeks take on a dreamlike quality as newfound relationships flourish and the war itself recedes into the distance. Against this backdrop, the second book of Alexander Baron's War Trilogy meditates upon friendship, loyalty and love.
This remarkable novel about wartime life and work is a companion to Blitz Writing (2019), Handheld Press's edition of Inez Holden's novella Night Shift (1941) and her wartime diaries It Was Different At The Time (1943). This edition includes three pieces of Holden's long-form journalism, detailing wartime life.
A promising young football player returns home to his tiny village, his dreams in tatters and a dark secret haunting his conscience, in a beautiful, unforgettable novel about hope and redemption, when everything seems lost...
From the moment she walks from court having been charged with attempting to poison her husband, to her banishment, escape to Paris, and final years of solitude and waiting, the life of Therese Desqueyroux is passionate and tortured.