Books published by Vintage Publishing

A powerful and gripping novel about love, loyalty and obsession set during World War I and the Irish Civil War.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE**The poems in Ephemeron deal with the short-lived and transitory - whether it's the brief, urgent lives of the first section, 'Insect Love Songs', the abrupt, anguished, physical and emotional changes during secondary school, as remembered in 'Boarding-School Tales', or parenting's day-by-day shifts through love and fear, hurt and healing, in 'Daughter Mother'.The long central section, 'Translations from the Pasiphaë', gathers these themes together in a blistering, unforgettable re-telling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, as seen from the point of view of the bull-child's mother - the betrayed and violated Pasiphaë. The familiar legend of the dashing male hero slaying the monster in the labyrinth is transformed here into a story of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary cycle of violence, power and the abuse of power. At the centre lies Pasiphaë calling for her son: 'They took him away from me/and they killed him in the dark, for years.'Telling uncomfortable truths, going deep into male and female drives and desires, our most tender and vulnerable places, and speaking of them in frank, unshrinking ways - these poems are afraid, certainly, but also beautiful, resolute and brave.

A BRAND NEW TRANSLATION OF LAXNESS' TALE OF POVERTY AND GREEDSet at the start of the twentieth century in a fictional Icelandic fishing village, Salka Valka follows the struggles of a penniless woman, Sigurlina, and her daughter, Salka Valka.

A suspenseful, surprising thriller for readers of THE COUPLE AT NO 9 and OUR HOUSE, about a woman who needs to solve the mystery of her husband's death... before it's too late'Twisty, dark and hugely gripping' - Sunday Times bestselling author Karen Hamilton'Impossible to predict with clever twists and gripping turns' - bestselling author Nicola Moriarty 'Had me hanging on every twist and turn' - Richard and Judy bestselling author Gytha LodgeSORRYThe only word scribbled on a note from Beth's husband before he disappeared.The police believe that Oscar took his own life and this last apology was his way of saying goodbye to his wife. But Beth knows there is more to the story. As disturbing secrets about his life emerge, and the lies of those closest to her begin to unravel, she realises she never really knew her husband at all.She wants to know what he was sorry for, and she's going to find out... but someone doesn't want her to discover the truth.And they'll do anything to stop her.What His Wife Knew is a gripping suspense which is not what it first seems. It is a tale of revenge and betrayal but also of family and loyalty, with a final showdown you won't easily forget.*PRAISE FOR JO JAKEMAN*'Revenge is a dish served with lashings of relish in this vivid suspense novel, as three women fight back against an abusive partner. I cheered them on to the bloody end.' - LOUISE CANDLISH, bestselling author of OUR HOUSE 'A cracking book. Darkly funny, yet also touching and emotive. Plus, full of suspense and twists. Buy it!' - C J TUDOR, author of THE CHALK MAN 'This is a cracker of a thriller...you will absolutely be up way past your bedtime' - JOANNA CANNON'I loved Sticks and Stones. A gripping story, sensitively told but also really funny: no mean feat given the subject matter!' - LAURA MARSHALL, bestselling author of Friend Request'I raced through this dark, tightly-plotted and satisfying thriller. Loved it!' - Roz Watkins, author of CWA Dagger shortlisted The Devil's Dice

He must race to find her...before they do. Perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo, Steig Larsson and Samuel Bjork - don't miss out on the latest Scandi-crime sensation. 'Roslund has two strong prose styles - dark and darker - and both are on show in KNOCK KNOCK' New York Times'A masterpiece of a thriller.

An ember storm of a novel, this is Booker Prize-winning novelist Richard Flanagan at his most moving-and astonishing-best.

In non-linear snippets and including photographs of Jarman's artwork, he describes his sexual awakening in post-war England, his early struggles to create and find recognition for his art, and vivid accounts of his friends, lovers, and inspirations.

*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021***Selected as one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021**'Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny. . . We need Pilgrim Bell.' TOMMY ORANGEWith formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, "what now shall I repair?" Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance - the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation - teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigour is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives - resonant, revelatory, and holy.America, I warn you, if you invite me into your homeI will linger,kissing my beloveds frankly,pulling up radishesand capping all your pens.There are no good kings,only burning palaces.-from 'The Palace''Very few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target' LAUREN GROFF

** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** 'Juliet Nicolson is brilliant at recapturing mood, moment and character . These shadows hung over a country paralysed by frozen heating oil, burst pipes and power cuts. And yet underneath the frozen surface, new life was beginning to stir.

Discover an exquisitely told, tragic tale of thwarted love.It is in 1950s' Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim in the shadow of the pier and Marion is smitten - determined her love will be enough for them both. A few years later in Brighton Museum Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted with Tom and opens his eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world. Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.'A moving story of longing and frustration' Observer

The second volume in his autobiographical quartet based on the seasons, Winter is an achingly beautiful collection of daily meditations and letters addressed directly to Knaugsaard's unborn daughterIt is strange that you exist, but you don't know anything about what the world looks like.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021**A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, 'one of the poetry stars of his generation' (Los Angeles Times).'We sleep long, / if not sound,' Kevin Young writes early on in this exquisite gathering of poems, 'Till the end / we sing / into the wind.' In scenes and settings that circle family and the generations in the American South - one poem, 'Kith', exploring that strange bedfellow of 'kin' - the speaker and his young son wander among the stones of their ancestors. 'Like heat he seeks them, / my son, thirsting / to learn those / he don't know / are his dead.' Whether it's the fireflies of a Louisiana summer caught in a mason jar (doomed by their collection), or his grandmother, Mama Annie, who latches the screen door when someone steps out for just a moment, all that makes up our flickering, precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them - of us - poetry can save.

A timeless, visionary collection of poems from one of China's most acclaimed poets-now available in English for the first time in a generation and featuring a foreword by his son, contemporary artist and activist Ai WeiweiOne of the most influential poets in Chinese history, Ai Qing is mostly unknown to Western readers, but his work has shaped the nature of poetry in China for decades. Born between the fall of imperial Manchurian rule and the establishment of the Communist People's Republic, Ai Qing was at one time an intimate of Mao Zedong. He would eventually fall out with the leader and be sentenced to hard labor during the Cultural Revolution, when he was exiled to the remote part of the country known as "Little Siberia" with his family, including his son, Ai Weiwei. In his work, Ai Qing tells the story of a China convulsing in change, leaving behind a legacy of feudalism and imperialism but uncertain what the future will hold. Breaking with traditional forms of Chinese poetry, Ai Qing innovatively adapted free verse, writing with a simple sincerity in clear lines that could be understood by everyday readers. Selected Poems of Ai Qing is an extraordinary collection that traces the powerful inner life of this influential poet who crafted poems of protest, who longed for a newer, happier age, and who wrote with a profound lyricism that reaches deep into the heart of the reader.

'Rich and moving' New York Times'A book that expands and breaks your heart' Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.A revelatory enquiry into selfhood, freedom, mortality, storytelling, and what it means to be a mother's daughterDuring one of the texting sessions that became our habit over the period I now think of as both late and early in our relationship, my mother revealed the existence of someone named Janis Jerome.So begins Michelle Orange's extraordinary inquiry into the meaning of maternal legacy - in her own family and across a century of seismic change. Jerome, she learns, is one of her mother's many alter egos: the name used in a case study, eventually sold to the Harvard Business Review, about her midlife choice to leave her husband and children to pursue career opportunities in a bigger city. A flashpoint in the lives of both mother and daughter, the decision forms the heart of a broader exploration of the impact of feminism on what Adrienne Rich called 'the great unwritten story': that of the mother-daughter bond.Through a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism, Pure Flame pursues a chain of personal, intellectual, and collective inheritance, tracing the forces that helped transform the world and what a woman might expect from it.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREPreviously published as 'The Beggar Maid'Born into the back streets of a small Canadian town, Rose battled incessantly with her practical and shrewd stepmother, Flo, who cowed her with tales of her own past and warnings of the dangerous world outside.

'Don't show proper feelin', does it, not turnin' up for 'is dad's funeral?'Siblings Sophia, Harry and Francis have lost both their parents in the last six months. Attending the funeral for their estranged father, they wonder what will become of them now that the last connection to their difficult childhood has been severed. What have they inherited - financially and emotionally - to guide them to adulthood, and build a new home together? Enbury Heath is a semi-autobiographical account of the years which Gibbons and her brothers spent living in a cottage in Hampstead Heath: a wonderfully astute, bittersweet novel about family, grief, money, and the pleasures of London.

Louis de Bernieres is the master of historical fiction that makes you both laugh and cry, in the perfect nostalgic read to escape with this autumn. Is it ever too late to change your story? Daniel Pitt was an RAF fighter in the First World War and an espionage agent for the SOE in the Second.

But biscuits are not only tasty treats to go with a cup of tea, the sustenance they afford is often emotional, evoking nostalgic memories of childhood. Lizzie Collingham begins in Roman times when biscuits - literally, 'twice-baked' bread - became the staple of the poor;

It is also a rallying cry, a call to appreciate how amateur theatre enriches communities and many people's lives - and how, if you join in, it might just do the same for you. '[A] joyous celebration of amateur theatre;

The second novel from Booker-longlisted Bill Clegg Following his acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Did You Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg returns with a profoundly moving, emotionally resonant second novel about the complicated bonds and breaking points of family and friendship.

It''s Christmas at London''s Theatre Royale and journalist Daphne King is determined to solve an extraordinary mystery...December 1935. Director Chester Harrison''s production of A Christmas Carol has had a troubled run on its tour of regional theatres. With tensions amongst the cast running high, the company reach their final stop - London''s Theatre Royale - a few days before Christmas.Catastrophe, however, strikes on opening night: ''Scrooge'' dies on stage, seemingly due to a heart attack. But the show must go on. Until, that is, an old rival of Chester''s is murdered in a dressing room. Are those associated with the production being picked off one by one? Journalist Daphne King is determined to reveal the truth...Readers love Ada Moncrieff''s Christmas mysteries:''Brilliant...full of twists and turns'' ''A modern rival to Agatha Christie''''A new festive favourite''

'Searing and timely' Tarana Burke, founder of the MeToo movement, and author of You Are Your Best Thing'Carefree Black Girls is the testimony I've been waiting to witness.'Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets; creator of Son of Baldwin'Standout... one you'll struggle to put down.'Bad FormINCLUDES A FOREWORD WITH CLARA AMFOIn 2013, film and culture critic Zeba Blay was one of the first people to coin the viral term #carefreeblackgirls on Twitter. As she says, it was "a way to carve out a space of celebration and freedom for Black women online."In this collection of essays, Blay expands on this initial idea by delving into the work and lasting achievements of influential Black women in Pop Culture - writers, artists, actresses, dancers, hip-hop stars - whose contributions often come in the face of bigotry, misogyny, and stereotypes. Blay celebrates the strength and fortitude of these Black women, while also examining the many stereotypes and rigid identities that have clung to them.In writing that is both luminous and sharp, expansive and intimate, Carefree Black Girls seeks a path forward to a culture and society in which Black women and their art are appreciated and celebrated.

From the renowned naturalist Stephen Moss comes the must-have gift for bird lovers this Christmas. ''Wherever there is a stretch of water for them to find food and make their nest, you will come across swans'' With beautiful illustrations throughout, this eye-opening biography reveals the hidden secrets of one of Britain''s best-known birds. The Mute Swan is not so much a bird, as a national treasure: the avian equivalent of Sir David Attenborough or the Queen. These huge and stately creatures are part of our urban and rural landscapes, a constant presence on lakes, rivers and ponds throughout Britain. Yet despite their familiarity, they are often misunderstood; and while many people love swans, others fear them. Swans also feature in myths and legends, art and literature, dance and music, not just in Britain but all around the world. Stephen Moss delves into the facts and fiction about these charismatic birds, describes their seasonal life cycle and examines their central role in our history and culture. He also includes stories about ''wild swans'' - Whooper and Bewicks - that visit us in winter; and the Black Swan of Australia. ''A superb naturalist and writer'' Chris Packham ''Moss has carved out an enviable niche as a chronicler of the natural world'' Daily Mail