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Churchwell’s reconstruction of the months during which Fitzgerald returned to New York in 1922 gives some fascinating background to The Great Gatsby, published three years later. Combines biography and social history to explore the casual intersection of high society and organized crime and the growth of celebrity culture and the murder, which formed the inspiration for Fitzgerald’s great and enduring novel. Find out more...
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The 21st century will be the age of the city. Already over 50% of the world population live in urban centres and over the coming decades this percentage will increase. Blending anecdote, fact and first hand encounters Leo Hollis reveals that we have misunderstood how cities work for too long. He explores why cities can never be rational, organised places, a solution to the problem of slums and how ants, slime mould and traffic jams can make us rethink congestion. Find out more...
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From his first published story in the Paris Review in 1968, James Salter's short stories have won universal acclaim. Collected Stories brings together work over five decades that showcase his ability to show the subtleties of a character or situation and to command reversals of fortune or terrible revelations. The stories concern men and women in their most intimate moments, struggling with loss, desire, or the burden of memory. A collection to savour. Find out more...
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The year is 1977 and Reno arrives in New York from the mid west and is immersed in the vitality and strangeness of the art scene and culture of the East Village and SoHo. A time and a place where one could lose and find oneself. A world of art, poverty and experimentation. Reno’s affair with the older artist Sandro Valera takes her to Italy where she falls in with members of the radical movement that overtook Italy in 1977. The Flamethrowers is an intensely engaging coming of age novel that explores experience, idealism, art, love and politics. Find out more...
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In June 1989, Liao Yiwu witnessed the Tiananmen Square protest. The young poet, who had until then led an apolitical bohemian existence, found his voice in that moment and proclaimed his outrage in the poem ‘Massacre’. For a Song and a Hundred Songs captures the four brutal years Liao spent in jail for writing his incendiary poem and presents a stark and devastating portrait of a nation in flux. Find out more...
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In classical ballet Nijinsky is recognised as one of the greatest and most original artists of the twentieth century. His life encompasses a story of great talent, beauty and great tragedy. Adored and reviled in his lifetime, his phenomenal talent was shadowed by schizophrenia and an intense but destructive relationship with his lover, Diaghilev. Moore’s biography examines the fascinating and moving story of his life. Find out more...
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Featuring forewords by Malcolm Turnbull and Wayne Swan, Project Republic unites a range of passionate Australian voices to show why Australia must become a republic – and how we get there from here. Contributors include: Henry Reynolds, Thomas Keneally, Larissa Behrendt, John Hirst, Julian Morrow, Helen Irving, Mark Tredinnick, John Warhurst and George Williams. Find out more...
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The Nile is a river steeped in history, and as Twigger journeys to search for its’ source he discovers an ancient, biblical and murderous past. Whether tracking Cleopatra's great journey up the river by boat with Caesar, or exploring where, according to legend, Moses was left in his basket, or investigating the assassination of President Sadat, Twigger's history of the river is atmospheric, violent and quite fascinating. Find out more...
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Evocative, erudite and surprising, these narrative essays explore the places - real and imagined - that shape our lives. Whether wandering the familiar streets of her neighbourhood or getting lost in a foreign city, Valeria Luiselli lets her curiosity roam as she reflects on identity, the elusiveness of words that can't be translated, the way that city-dwellers evade eye-contact with their neighbours and the unexpected pathways between diverse ideas. Find out more...
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Intricately crafted and poetic Transatlantic traverses centuries and continents in a compelling story of war, an elusive Irish peace, poverty, ideals of freedom and democracy, exile and home. Weaving together personal stories McCann explores the many and varied ideas of reality and the tangled connections that make up our lives. A tour de force of storytelling. Find out more...
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'To play the country-game, we have to choose a country. Everybody wants to be the USA and Britain and Canada and Australia and nobody wants to be rags of countries like Congo, like Somalia, like Iraq, like Sudan. Darling and her friends live in a shanty called Paradise and they dream of the other paradises of America and Europe. That dream comes true for Darling but she finds this new ‘paradise’ brings it’s own set of challenges - for her and also for those she's left behind. Find out more...
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From the Arab Spring to the London riots and Occupy Wall Street; from the Christchurch earthquake and the Fukushima meltdown to the possible discovery of the Higgs-Boson 'God' particle; from Assange fighting extradition to the Murdoch empire on trial; from the last hours of Kim Jong-il and Vaclav Havel to the executions of Gaddafi and bin Laden – the events of 2011 are still sending shockwaves. Ellis draws on this tumultuous year and its aftermath in a meditation on the state of our world and its future. Find out more...
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