Books published by Sort of Books

An elderly caretaker at a large outdoor exhibition, called Art in Nature, finds that a couple have lingered on to bicker about the value of a picture; he has a surprising suggestion that will resolve both their row and his own ambivalence about the art market. A draughtsman's obsession with drawing locomotives provides a dark twist to a love story. A cartoonist takes over the work of a colleague who has suffered a nervous breakdown only to discover that his own sanity is in danger. In these witty, sharp, often disquieting stories, Tove Jansson reveals the fault-lines in our relationship with art, both as artists and as consumers. Obsession, ambition, and the discouragement of criti are all brought into focus in these wise and cautionary tales. Translated into English for the first time by Thomas Teal.

"e;Buckley is a mighty creative force."e; The Sunday Times "e;Jonathan Buckley's intensely compassionate, astoundingly observed novels unfold with exquisite power, and The river is the river is perhaps his most perfectly written book yet. The surprise of its haunting ending makes other plot twists look like childish games."e; James McConnachie, Editor The Author "e;A quietly brilliant writer, almost eccentric in his craftsmanship."e; The Sunday Times A dazzlingly inventive novel that explores the whole nature of storytelling and writing. A woman called Naomi arrives at her sister's house, intending, it seems, to say goodbye. She is abandoning her city life for a remote Scottish retreat, which she will share with a man named Bernat, whom she considers some kind of visionary. In a sequence of stories filtered through multiple retellings, she illuminates the character of this elusive individual. One story seems of special significance: about Afonso, an Amazon boatman, who could be the last speaker of his mother tongue, a language of apparently unique simplicity and precision. Bernat and Naomi are not, however, the only storytellers here. Naomi's sister, Kate, is herself working on a novel that begins as a ghost story, but ends up as something rather different: The river is the river.

One summer, writer and musician, Jasper Winn set himself an extraordinary task. He would kayak the whole way round Ireland -- a thousand miles -- camping on remote headlands and islands, carousing in bars and paddling clockwise until he got back where he started. But in the worst Irish summer in living memory the pleasures of idling among seals, fulmars and fishing boats soon gave way to heroic struggles through storm-tossed seas ... and lock-ins playing music in coastal pubs. Circling the country where he grew up, Jasper reflects on life at the very fringes of Ireland, the nature and lore of its seas, and his own eccentric upbringing -- sprung from school at age ten and left free to explore the countryside and its traditional life.Charming, quietly epic, and with an irresistible undertow of wit, Paddle is a low-tech adventure that captures the sheer joy of a misty morning on Ireland's coast. As the sun breaks through, you'll be longing to set off in his wake. Jasper Winn grew up in West Cork, where he left school at age ten and educated himself by reading, riding horses, learning rural skills and playing music. It was an upbringing that has shaped a lifetime of travel and writing.He has journeyed across the Atlas with nomadic Berbers, canoed along the Danube, and often crosses countries on horseback. He was story consultant on the IMAX film, Ride Around the World, about the world's horse cultures. Paddle is his first book.

A unique and authentic voice that speaks to the reader across time and culture, heart to heart.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent Aunt Gerda - the good listener - fears the encroaching forgetfulness of old age. Her solution is to create an artwork that will record and, inevitably, betray the secrets long confided in her. So begins Jansson's short story debut, a tour de force of scalpel-sharp narration that takes us from a disquieting homage to the artist Edward Gorey, to perfect evocations of childhood innocence and recklessness, to a city ravaged by storms, or the slow halting thaw of spring. These stories are gifts of originality and depth. In her first ever story collection, Jansson reveals the clarity of vision and light philosophical touch that were to become her hallmarks. The Listener was published in Swedish in 1971 but appears here for the first time in English. Sort Of Books have also published translations of seven other Tove Jansson books for adults: the novels The Summer Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver; and the story collections Travelling Light, Art in Nature, Sculptor's Daughter: A Childhood Memoir) and A Winter Book.

Dominic Pattison's life is one of level contentment. His marriage has proved happy and durable; his business is successful. And then Sam Williams, builder and ex-squaddie, enters his life. Sam claims to be his son. Yet is Sam who he says he is? After almost thirty years, Dominic can remember little of his affair with Sam's mother. His instinct is to recoil from this volatile and perhaps dangerous stranger. Sam, however, refuses to be dismissed. With its deft switches of sympathy between menaced 'father' and rebuffed 'son', Buckley's novel is both a thriller and a subtle exploration of the intricacies of memory. Jonathan Buckley's first five novels were published by Fourth Estate; The Biography of Thomas Lang (1997) Xerxes (1999) Ghost MacIndoe (2001) Invisible (2004) So He Takes the Dog (2006) Hi latest novel Telescope is also published by Sort of Books (2011)

If you're wondering what Chris Stewart did before he and Ana moved to El Valero, their Spanish farm, here's one of the answers. He took to the sea, landing a job as skipper for the summer, sailing a Cornish Crabber around the Greek islands. It was his dream job -- and there was just one tiny problem. He hadn't ever sailed before and had not the foggiest how to start. In a series of madcap and hilarious adventures we follow Chris from a shaky start in Chichester harbour to his epic Odyssey to Spetses (a bucket would have been handy), and then on to the journey of a lifetime -- battening down the hatches on a trip across the North Atlantic. It's a journey crackling with Chris's zest for life, irresistible humour, and unerring lack of foresight. Dry land never looked more welcoming. Chris Stewart shot to fame with Driving Over Lemons -- Sort Of Books' launch title in 1999. Funny, insightful and real, the book told the story of how he bought a Spanish peasant farm on the wrong side of the river, with its previous owner still resident. It became an international bestseller and together with its sequels -- A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society -- has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone. Chris prepared for life on his Spanish farm with jobs of doubtful relevance. He was the original drummer in Genesis (he played on the first album), then joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, went to China to write the Rough Guide, gained a pilot's license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cooking. Three Ways to Capsize a Boat fills in his lost years as a yacht skipper in the Greek islands and dodging icebergs in the Atlantic. It is that rare thing: a book about sailing equally fun for people without a trace of sea legs. Chris, his wife Ana and their daughter Chloe continue to live on their farm, with their numerous dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and misanthropic parrot.

A little girl is transported with the help of magic glasses from the tedium of a summer afternoon into an exciting world of mangrove swamps, spluttering volcanoes and sea where birds fly upside down and wild things threaten to pounce. But she is not alone.

THE ALMOND BLOSSOM APPRECIATION SOCIETY finds Chris and his family still living o their farm, El Valero, and with its easy 'Sun-Lit' charm and funny, evocative anecdotes, it will draw in new and old readers alike.You will find yourself laughing out loud as Chris is instructed by his daughter on local teenage mores; bluffs his way in art history to millionaire Bostonians; is rescued off a snowy peak by the Guardia Civil; and joins an Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. You'll cringe with Chris as he stries his hand at office work in an immigrants' advice centre in Granada, spurred into action by the arrival of four destitute young Moroccans at El Valero. And you'll never see olive oil in quite the same way again... In this sequel to 'Lemons' and 'Parrot', Chris Stewart's optimism and zest for life is as infectious as ever. Chris Stewart prepared for life on a mountain farm in Spain with jobs of doubtful relevance. After leaving Genesis (he drummed on the first album), he joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, crewed a yacht in Greece, went to China for the Rough Guides, gained a pilot's license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cooking. Despite the extraordinary success of his books, Chris, Ana and their daughter Chloe continue to live on their farm, with their numerous dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and misanthropic parrot.

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson* Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal* Introduced by Ali Smith A book of haunting suspense, a dark companion to The Summer Book, introduced by Ali Smith. In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in order to persuade her that she needs companionship. But what does she hope to gain by doing this? And who ultimately is deceiving whom? In this portrayal of two women encircling each other with truth and lies, nothing can be taken for granted. By the time the snow thaws, both their lives will have changed irrevocably. First ever publication in English, in a translation by Thomas Teal.

'THIS MAN HAVE COME FROM CHINA TO FIND HIS DAUGHTER WHO HAVE SOME TROUBLE. HE DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH' Inspector Jian is a Chinese cop from the Siberian border who thinks he's seen it all. But his search for his missing daughter brings him to the meanest streets he's ever faced -- in rural England. Migrant worker East Wind is distressed -- his gangmaster's making demands, he owes a lot of money to the snakeheads and no one will tell him where his wife has been taken. Maybe England isn't the 'gold mountain' he was promised... Two desperate men, uneasy allies in a baffling foreign land, are pitted against a band of ruthless criminals... there's BAD TRAFFIC ahead.

A Winter Book: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson Translated from the Swedish by Kingsley Hart, Silvester Mazzarella and David McDuff. *INTRODUCED BY ALI SMITH Following the widely acclaimed and bestselling The Summer Book, here is a Winter Book collection of some of Tove Jansson's best loved and most famous stories. Drawn from youth and older age, and spanning most of the twentieth century, this newly translated selection provides a thrilling showcase of the great Finnish writer's prose, scattered with insights and home truths. It has been selected and is introduced by Ali Smith. *The Winter Book features 13 stories from Tove Jansson's first book for adults, The Sculptor's Daughter (1968) plus 7 of her most cherished later stories (from 1971 to 1996), translated into English and published here for the first time. With afterwords by Philip Pullman, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Esther Freud.

A tale about a dream. The dream of running a restaurant. In Uckfield, East Sussex. Uckfield didn't actually appear in the dream. But for Christopher Nye it was the perfect choice: a small town, but not too small; a town crying out for American-style diner; a town without a McDonald's. Here's the story of how to make it big in small-town Britain.