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House
of Memories Following his brutish father’s unlamented death, young Danny Conway strives to rescue the family farm from ruin; when all seems hopeless, help comes from the most unexpected quarter. House of Memories tells a story of resilience in the face of family tragedy; a story, too, of bereavement and grief, and of trying to cope with loss. “In Ireland, where scribblers are ten a penny, she has become the most popular and universally loved author in memory.”— Mail on Sunday “There is no writer more full of the milk of human kindness.”—Books Ireland
November 2007, 5½ x 8½, 288 pages (Brandon) |
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The
Demanding Dead With eight outstanding ghost stories, this collection highlights Edith Wharton’s ability to switch genres seemingly without effort. The same literary genius evident in her best known works such as The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth is here dedicated to giving the reader a damned good scare. Stories such as ‘Kerfol’ (adjudged by aficionados to be Wharton’s best ghost story) and ‘Pomegranate Seed’ are perfect illustrations of consummately crafted horror fiction. Wharton’s vivid sense of the supernatural betrays her deeper anxieties about the claustrophobia of domestic life and the pain of a failing relationship. Of Edith Wharton’s previous ghostly collection: “As with many of Wharton’s works, themes of individual challenge and power pervade these tales of terror and the supernatural.”—The Midwest Book Review
October 2007, 5½ x 8½, 214 pages (Peter Owen) |
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A
Haunting Touch Aspects
of haunted lives are explored in this fascinating anthology by writers
from America, Wales, England, and Zimbabwe. Whether it’s by time,
place, real or imagined, the concept of “haunting” is deftly
explored in prose and poetry. Ranging from darkly comedic to heartbreaking
to truly disturbing it is a collection not to be missed. “A collection that haunts beyond the page. It unsettles and intrigues.”—Menna Elfyn December
2007, 5½ x 8½, 148 pages (Parthian) |
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Guilty After years languishing in the archives of the University of Tulsa, Anna Kavan’s unfinished work, Guilty, is being published for the first time. Set in an unspecified time and landscape, Guilty is narrated by Mark, a man living in a country divided by war. A returning soldier, Mark’s father declares himself a pacifist and is exiled, leaving Mark in the care of a shady government agent who becomes a dominant, controlling force in Mark’s life. When Mark attempts independence to pursue an engagement with the docile Carla his life begins to unravel. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy, he begins to fall prey to the machinations and insecurities of his guilt-ridden mind. “Her stories are...rich with a fresh kind of peril.”—The New York Times “A writer of such chillingly matter-of-fact, unself-pitying vigor that her vision transcends itself.”—New Yorker “The author’s meticulous poetic analysis of her characters’ emotions...deflates pretense, hidden motives and inflated self-images with the lightest touch.”—Publishers Weekly “A writer always attuned to sensibility and mood.” —Kirkus Reviews
November 2007, 5½ x 8½, 220 pages (Peter Owen) |
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The
Beauty of History The Beauty of History is a novel of poetic intensity, of fleeting moods and captured moments. It is powerfully evocative of life within the Baltic States during the Soviet occupation, and of the challenge to artists to express their individuality whilst maintaining at least an outward show of loyalty to the dominant ideology. It tells the story of a young Estonian woman posing for a famous sculptor who is trying to escape to the West. Chance remarks overheard prompt memories of people and places, language itself becomes fluid, by turns deceptive and reassuring. Written on the cusp of independence, as Estonia and Latvia sought to regain their sovereignty in 1991, this is a novel that can be seen as an historic document—wistful, unsettling, and beautiful. Viivi Luik is one of the most highly-acclaimed and well-known writers in Estonia today. She has published eleven collections of poetry, as well as three novels.
November 2007, 5½ x 8, 151 pages (Norvik) |
