Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Memory Police – Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020″A masterpiece” GuardianA compelling speculative mystery by one of Japan`s greatest writers.Hat, ribbon, bird, rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough,
Jokes for the Gunmen
Longlisted for the 2019 International Man Booker PrizeA brilliant collection of fictions in the vein of Roald Dahl, Etgar Keret and Amy Hempel. These are stories of what the world looks like from a child`s pure but sometimes vengeful or muddled perspective. These are stories of life in a war zone, life peppered by surreal
A Guide to Berlin
We travel to find ourselves; to run away from ourselves. `A Guide to Berlin` is the name of a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1925, when he was a young man of 26, living in Berlin. A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an American and an Australian, meet in
The Last Children of Tokyo
Yoshiro celebrated his hundredth birthday many years ago, but every morning before work he still goes running in the park with his rent-a-dog. He is one of the many aged-elderly in Japan and he might, he thinks, live forever. Life for Yoshiro isn`t as simple as it used to be. Pollution and natural disasters have
Three Sisters
Three sisters struggle to change the course of their destinies in a China that does not belong to them. Yumi uses her dignity, Yuxiu her seductive powers, and Yuyang her desire for success. This breathtaking story vividly captures the demonic desire for power that possesses people. Whether it`s in the village of the Wang family,
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island
Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation`s heart and became the best-selling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll
Convenience Store Woman
Shortlisted for the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for Fiction, with a Sense of PlaceKeiko has never really fitted in. At school and university people find her odd and her family worries she`ll never be normal. To appease them, Keiko takes a job at a newly opened convenience store. Here, she finds peace and
The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino
Who loves Mr Nishino? Minami is the daughter of Mr Nishino`s true love. Bereaved Shiori is tempted by his unscrupulous advances. His colleague Manami should know better. His conquest Reiko treasures her independence above all else. Friends Tama and Subaru find themselves playing Nishino`s game, but Eriko loves her cat more. Sayuri is older, Aichan
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
Every time you try to say `Africa is…` the words crumble and break. From every generalisation you must exclude at least five countries. And just as you think you`ve nailed down a certainty, you find the opposite is also true. Africa is full of surprises. For the past three decades, Richard Dowden has travelled this
Liverpool 800 – Culture, Character, and History
Published to mark the 800th anniversary in 2007 of the founding of modern Liverpool by King John, ‘Liverpool 800″ is the definitive biography of this magnificent world city. Contributors explore the life of Liverpool over eight centuries, looking at the town’s early development, the eighteenth-century foundations of its mercantile economy, the golden period of the
Maphead
Powers and his son Boothe, alias MapHead, are visitors from the Subtle World – a world that exists side by die with our own. Previously, Boothe had an encounter with a woman from Earth. Now twelve, MapHead has come to meet his mother for the first time. Making his home in a tomato house, MapHead
The Search Warrant
`Missing a young girl, Dora Bruder, 15, height 1.55m, oval-shaped face, grey-brown eyes, grey sports jacket, maroon pullover, navy blue skirt and hat, brown gym shoes. All information to M. and Mme Bruder, 41 Boulevard Ornano, Paris.` The author chanced upon this notice in a December 1941 issue of Paris Soir. The girl has vanished
The Wet and the Dry
`I am taking a few months off to travel and wander, drinking my way across the Islamic world to see whether I can dry myself out, cure myself of a bout of alcoholic excess. It is a personal crisis, a private curiosity. I am curious to see how non-drinkers live. Perhaps they have something to
Ten
The Mafia and the Ten Commandments meet in these interlinked short stories about the undebelly of Naples. Ten uncovers the raw heart of a city, telling the stories of ordinary people forced to make extraordinary compromises in a place permeated by crime. We encounter a son who finds that he is capable of a terrible
Imagining Alexandria: Poems in Memory of C.P. Cavafy
Poetry was Louis de Bernieres` first literary love and Imagining Alexandria is his debut poetry collection. Here the author of the much-loved Captain Corelli`s Mandolin returns us to the vivid Mediterranean landscape of his fiction. De Bernieres was introduced to Greek poetry while in Corfu in 1983, and since then he has always travelled with
Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Brings You 90 Percent of Everything
There are 100,000 freighters on the seas. Between them they carry nearly everything we eat, wear and work with. And yet this massive global industry has remained largely unexamined: it passes by out of sight for most of us and, through the `flags of convenience` system, its dubious practices often slip under the radar of
Go, Went, Gone
One of the great contemporary European writers takes on Europe`s biggest issue Richard has spent his life as a university professor, immersed in the world of books and ideas, but now he is retired, his books remain in their packing boxes and he steps into the streets of his city, Berlin. Here, on Oranienplatz, he
The Black Lake
Amid the lush abundance of Java`s landscape, two boys spend their days exploring the vast lakes and teeming forests. But as time passes the boys come to realize that their shared sense of adventure cannot bridge the gulf between their backgrounds, for one is the son of a Dutch plantation owner, and the other the
Memoirs of a Polar Bear
Three bearsThe first, a diligent memoirist whose unlikely success forces her to flee Soviet Russia.The second, her daughter, a skilled dancer in an East Berlin circus.The third, Knut, a baby bear born and raised in Berlin Zoo at the beginning of the 21st century.Here, then, is the enchanting story of three extraordinary bears, brought to
