This
book lives on in my mind as if it’s my own memory.
LeGuin’s anarcho-syndicalist
utopia Annares is a convincing, very different kind of society, one without
possessions, and based on cooperation. In some ways, it is reminiscent of my
native Norway, for example, in how issues of ungenerous conventionality and
conformism war with higher ideals.
This book has a coolness to it, and the main
character, Shevek, who travels to another planet in the hopes of finding a connection and pursuing science, experiences profound loneliness.
It is the
best kind of science fiction. It addresses something unsayable that yet feels
familiar.
One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle
'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES
'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous…
Gideon the Ninth was recommended to me with its alluring tagline, “Lesbian
necromancers in space.”
It took me a while to get
into it, but when I did, I surprised myself with how invested I became in what
initially sounded like a pretty silly premise.
This delightfully byzantine
construction of a novel is full of easter eggs, of bizarre and gross bone magic,
but also of children who are isolated and deprived. It is, in the end, about
trauma and grief, about maintaining your dignity in impossible situations, with
great pathos and dirty jokes.
15+ pages of new, original content, including a glossary of terms, in-universe writings, and more!
A USA Today Best-Selling Novel!
"Unlike anything I've ever read. " --V.E. Schwab
"Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" --Charles Stross
"Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through." --NPR
The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.
Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as…
A writer friend recommended this book about a young
veteran of the First World War who spends a summer in a small Yorkshire
village to uncover a mural in a church. The peaceful setting, local friendships, and the simplicity of his life in the clock tower, as well as the focus on work, heals him.
This is a gentle embrace of a book, a reminder of beauty and
kindness that soothed me profoundly.
Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.
J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country was first published in 1980. Tom Birkin, a damaged survivor of World War One, is spending the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting in the village church of Oxgodby. Joined by another veteran, employed to look for a grave outside the churchyard, he uncovers old secrets…
Please Read This Leaflet Carefully is a life
told in reverse and a subversion of what we expect from stories of illness.
Having been diagnosed with endometriosis in her twenties, we follow Laura
Fjellstad in her struggle to live a normal life across New York, Paris, and
Oslo, fueled by her belief that to survive her chronic illness, she must be
completely self-reliant.
Moving backward from 2016 to
1995, we meet Laura’s younger selves: her healthier selves. Laura as a
daughter, a figure skater, a lover, and a mother. To be devoured intensely in
one sitting,
This is a remarkable debut novel
with bracing emotional insights and piercing descriptions of pain that linger
in one’s mind long after the last page.
