Books published by Random House

A gorgeous Beijing-set novel of music, secrets and self-discovery For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. With her marriage, she gave up on her own career as a concert pianist, but her husband Bowen has long rebuffed her desire to have a child.Instead, she must accommodate her mother-in-law, newly arrived from the province of Yunnan and bringing with her long-buried family secrets. Soon strange parcels start to show up on the doorstep and Song Yan's dreams become troubling and claustrophobic. Striking out alone through the winter city, she finds herself pulled into the ancient hutongs to confront the source of her unease. In a silent room within a timeless house, can she find the notes she needs to make sense of all the pain and beauty in her life?Praise for Braised Pork:'Startlingly original' Guardian'Intensely atmospheric' LA Review of Books'Otherworldly and deeply moving' BuzzFeed 'Real magic' LitHub'Shimmering' Wall Street Journal'Rich and wild' Observer'Enchanting' Shelf Awareness'Electric' TIME

'Groundbreaking... Part memoir, part guide, this is a must-have.' Independent, Books of the Year'A worthwhile tutorial.' Evening Standard, Books of the YearA revelatory work of non-fiction from one of the most popular and influential British musicians of today: part autobiography, part guide to creativity and part cultural history.What makes a song work? What element causes us to stop, to listen, to listen again? Is it a melody? Is it a beat? Is it the words that are sung, or spoken? Is it what they speak to in us? Is it a combination of all of the above?Wretch 32 is one of the most influential musicians at work in Britain today. He is also a lyricist of unparalleled ability, and an advocate of music as a tool to educate as well as to entertain. In an age of unprecedented social and political change, Wretch s music stands as a medium of protest and of progress, helping to explain and shape a new era. In Rapthology, Wretch provides a lesson in lyric writing, taking us through his own creative process, from the first flashes of inspiration to final edits and improvisation. Rapthology is also an anthology of the songs that have shaped Wretch over the last thirty years, from gospel music to dancehall anthems to the most innovative emerging young voices. Step by step, Wretch explains what each song means to him, why it matters and how it has become so popular, and so powerful. The result is a groundbreaking autobiography, a guidebook to the music that matters, and an insight into the artistic process of one of the most inspiring artists of a generation.

'The book that redefined travel writing' Guardian Bruce Chatwin sets off on a journey through South America in this wistful classic travel book With its unique, roving structure and beautiful descriptions, In Patagonia offers an original take on the age-old adventure tale. Bruce Chatwin s journey to a remote country in search of a strange beast brings along with it a cast of fascinating characters. Their stories delay him on the road, but will have you tearing through to the book s end. It is hard to pin down what makes In Patagonia so unique, but, in the end, it is Chatwin s brilliant personality that makes it what it is His form of travel was not about getting from A to B. It was about internal landscapes Sunday Times

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013** Ten-year-old Darling has a choice: it s down, or out To play the country-game, we have to choose a country. Everybody wants to be the USA and Britain and Canada and Australia and Switzerland and them. Nobody wants to be rags of countries like Congo, like Somalia, like Iraq, like Sudan, like Haiti and not even this one we live in who wants to be a terrible place of hunger and things falling apart? Darling and her friends live in a shanty called Paradise, which of course is no such thing. It isn t all bad, though. There s mischief and adventure, games of Find bin Laden, stealing guavas, singing Lady Gaga at the tops of their voices.They dream of the paradises of America, Dubai, Europe, where Madonna and Barack Obama and David Beckham live. For Darling, that dream will come true. But, like the thousands of people all over the world trying to forge new lives far from home, Darling finds this new paradise brings its own set of challenges for her and also for those she s left behind. Stunning New York Times Extraordinary Daily Telegraph A debut that blends wit and pain... Heartrending...wonderfully original Independent Sometimes shocking, often heartbreaking but also pulsing with colour and energy The Times

Read the greatest rediscovered classic of recent years 'A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life' Ian McEwan William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely.Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life. 'A brilliant, beautiful, inexorably sad, wise and elegant novel' Nick Hornby A terrific novel of echoing sadness Julian Barnes

'This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met' J K Rowling 'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fading glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time. I know of few novels that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers Joanna Trollope**One of the BBC s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**

From visionary director Jon M. Chu comes a powerful, inspiring memoir of belonging, creativity, and learning to see who you really are. Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parents' Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of twenty-first-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film school, and to be discovered by Steven Spielberg, but he soon found himself struggling to understand who he was. In this book, for the first time, Chu turns the lens on his own life and work, telling the universal story of questioning what it means when your dreams collide with your circumstances, and showing how it's possible to succeed even when the world changes beyond all recognition. With striking candor and unrivaled insights, Chu offers a firsthand account of the collision of Silicon Valley and Hollywood--what it's been like to watch his old world shatter and reshape his new one. Ultimately, Viewfinder is about reckoning with your own story, becoming your most creative self, and finding a path all your own.