Books published by Random House

Brought to you by Penguin.From the bestselling writer of Italian Ways, Europa and The Hero's Way, a story set during the first days of lockdown in Europe, about the unexpected kindness of strangers and one man's emotional reckoning.Milan, 2020. Drawn abruptly from his reclusive life in London for a friend's funeral, Frank finds himself in the eye of a pandemic he had barely registered on the news. From the relative comfort of his balcony at Hotel Milano, he surveys the train station across the piazza, seeing the mad dash for the last trains, hearing the sirens and watching the police stop people in the street. He feels himself remote from it all.Then, one night, the sound of a child's footsteps leads him to discover a family sheltering secretly above him: a family who need his help. As the days pass, this reserved and difficult man begins to open himself to others. Faced with the task of saving a life, he must also take stock of his own.(c)2023 Tim Parks (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Brought to you by Penguin.September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. The war's outcome is far from certain.An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, the world's smallest state, a neutral, independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. Here Hugh brings together an unlikely band of friends to hide the vulnerable under the noses of the enemy.But Hauptmann's net begins closing in on the Escape Line and the need for a terrifyingly audacious mission grows critical. By Christmastime, it's too late to turn back.Based on an extraordinary true story, My Father's House is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction. Joseph O'Connor has created an unforgettable novel of love, faith and sacrifice, and what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances.(c) Joseph O'Connor 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Brought to you by Penguin.'I'm black, so you don't have to be,' Colin Grant's uncle Castus used to tell him. For Colin, born in Britain to Jamaican parents, things were supposed to be different. If he worked hard and became a doctor, he was told, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden he believed his parents' generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different.This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits. We meet Grant's mother Ethlyn, disappointed by working-class life in Luton, who dreams of returning to Jamaica; his father Bageye, a small-time criminal with a violent temper; his sister Selma, who refashioned herself as an African princess; his great uncle Percy, estranged from his family through his own pride.Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grant's own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively these stories build into poignant and insightful testimony of black British experience. Written the intrigue, nuance, beauty and wit of short stories, and with the veracity and painful revelation of memoir, I'M BLACK, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE is a unforgettable exploration of family, identity, race and generational change.(c) Colin Grant 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Brought to you by Penguin.What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created?Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of spacetime. But as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, today new scientific tools are giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and test our theories about what is there. Her groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and whose topography holds the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of one such sibling universe in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton's theoretical work and offering humbling proof that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.A mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Beyond the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity's place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.(c) Laura Mersini-Houghton 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

'All Sorts of Lives is a beautiful, fastidiously researched and fascinating exploration of Mansfield's life and work' A.L. KENNEDYPublished to celebrate Katherine Mansfield's centenary, this is a compact but comprehensive new portrait of her life, work, relevance and wonderfully inspiring personalityRestless outsider, masher-up of form and convention, Katherine Mansfield's short but dazzling career was characterised by struggle, insecurity and sacrifice - alongside a glorious, relentless creative drive and openness.She was the only writer Virginia Woolf admitted being jealous of, yet by the 1950s was so undervalued that Elizabeth Bowen was moved to ask, 'Where is she - our missing contemporary?' Now, looking back over the hundred years since her death, it is evident how vital Mansfield was to the Modernist movement and how strikingly relevant she is today, helping us to see differently, to savour and to notice things.In this dynamic and perceptive study, Claire Harman takes a fresh look at Mansfield's life and achievements side by side, through the form she did so much to revolutionise: the short story. Exploring ten pivotal works, we watch how Mansfield's desire to grow as a writer pushed her art into unknown territory, and how illness sharpened her extraordinary vitality: 'Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small.'Inventive, intimate and informative, All Sorts of Lives is the perfect introduction for those who aren't familiar with Mansfield's work and, for those who are, it offers a new way of viewing and celebrating her and her legacy.

An extraordinarily brave and moving memoir from one of the world's most famous transparency activists and trans women.In 2010, Chelsea Manning was working as an intelligence analyst for the US Army in Iraq. She disclosed 720,000 classified military documents that she had smuggled out via the memory card of her digital camera. By far the largest leak in history, these documents revealed a huge number of diplomatic cables and footage of atrocities. She was sentenced to 35 years in military prison.The day after her conviction, Chelsea declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition. She was sent to a male prison, spent much of that time in appalling conditions in solitary confinement and attempted suicide multiple times. In 2017, after a lengthy legal challenge and an outpouring of support, President Obama commuted her sentence.README.txt is a story of personal revolt, resilience and survival. Chelsea details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence in Oklahoma and in her mother's native Wales. She writes revealingly and movingly about a period of homelessness in Chicago, living under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in the US Army, and the experience of coming to terms with her gender identity and undergoing hormone therapy in prison. We witness her Kafkaesque trial and heroic quest for release.This powerful, courageous and observant memoir sheds light on the big themes of today - identity, authenticity, technology, the authoritarian state - and will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.'Chelsea Manning is the biggest hero that ever lived' Vivienne Westwood'Searing ... uplifting ... redemptive' The New York Times'Electrifying ... an insider confessional turned inside out for the 21st century' Washington Post

This full-color activity book is based on the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ­– in theaters March 3, 2023!Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an upcoming high-fantasy heist film based on the popular role-playing game! Co-written and co-directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Game Night), and produced by Jeremy Latcham (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy), the film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis. Kids ages 3 to 7 will love this full-color activity book with more than 50 stickers.

This storybook is based on the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ­– in theaters March 3, 2023!Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an upcoming high-fantasy heist film based on the popular role-playing game! Co-written and co-directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Game Night), and produced by Jeremy Latcham (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy), the film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis. Kids ages 3 to 7 will love this storybook based on the film!

Shark and Bot are going to the GLO-NUTS WORLD theme park and they are pretty sure it's going to be the BEST DAY EVER. They plan to: Meet all six of the Glo-Nuts. Get their ultra-limited-edition glow-in-the-dark Glo-Nuts Epic Fun Super Patch. Ride the fastest, scariest doughnut shaped rollercoaster ever built-DOUGHNUT MOUNTAIN! The only catch? Bot's little sister has to come along! Can Shark and Bot still have the most epic day ever?