Editorial Content for Clytemnestra
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
CLYTEMNESTRA, Costanza Casati's debut novel, is a feminist retelling of the story of Clytemnestra, a legendary queen of Greek mythology and the sister of the famed Helen of Troy. Always a side or supporting character in accounts of more famous mythological figures, this time the villain queen tells her own story from center stage. Read More
Teaser
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly you plot. But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
Promo
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly you plot. But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
About the Book
For fans of Madeline Miller's CIRCE, a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world, and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.
As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best…
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly you plot.
But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.
Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.
If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, hatred and love, and an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.
Audiobook available, read by Olivia Vinall
Editorial Content for In the Lives of Puppets
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In the woods, there is a quiet little home built into the branches of a grove of trees where three robots live, hidden and safe. The android dad, Giovanni Lawson, co-exists with a small vacuum wanting for love and a nurse named Ratched (yes, just like the one in the Cuckoo’s nest, only her name stands for Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill). She is constantly threatening the vacuum, yet somehow they all get along. Read More
Teaser
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots --- fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labeled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio --- a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission…or worse, reprogramming.
Promo
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots --- fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labeled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio --- a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission…or worse, reprogramming.
About the Book
New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots --- fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio --- a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission...or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi's THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA and UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR.
Audiobook available, read by Daniel Henning
Editorial Content for The Girl by the Bridge: A Detective Konrad Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
If you would like to take a trip to Iceland but do not want to deal with the long travel time or cold weather, there is no better way to experience the country than with a book. You can’t go wrong with the crime fiction of two authors in particular, Ragnar Jónasson and Arnaldur Indridason. This review covers the latter writer and his new Detective Konrad novel, THE GIRL BY THE BRIDGE. Read More
Teaser
An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention.
Promo
An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention.
About the Book
A brilliant, chilling tale of broken dreams and children who have nowhere to turn.
An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him.
Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention.
Editorial Content for The Rope Artist
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Fuminori Nakamura has been turning out mystery novels in the classic noir style for years. His detective series featuring the very Holmesian Hayama has been filled with complex storylines. The previous installment, MY ANNIHILATION, showed Hayama’s troubled side. This latest entry, once again translated by Sam Bett, goes to even darker and more controversial heights. Read More
Teaser
Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body --- then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan’s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage that bears a complex cultural history of spirituality, torture, cleansing and sacrifice. As Togashi, a junior member of the police force, investigates the murder of a kinbaku instructor, he finds himself unable to resist his own private transgressive desires. In contrast, Togashi’s Sherlock Holmesian colleague Hayama is morally upright to a fault, with a stalwart commitment to the truth and nearly superhuman powers of deduction. When Hayama notices a dangerous measure of darkness within Togashi, he embarks on a parallel investigation that soon spirals out of control.
Promo
Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body --- then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan’s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage that bears a complex cultural history of spirituality, torture, cleansing and sacrifice. As Togashi, a junior member of the police force, investigates the murder of a kinbaku instructor, he finds himself unable to resist his own private transgressive desires. In contrast, Togashi’s Sherlock Holmesian colleague Hayama is morally upright to a fault, with a stalwart commitment to the truth and nearly superhuman powers of deduction. When Hayama notices a dangerous measure of darkness within Togashi, he embarks on a parallel investigation that soon spirals out of control.
About the Book
The aftermath of the murder of a bondage teacher reveals the darkest corners of the human mind in this chilling new mystery from the master of Japanese literary noir.
Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body --- then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan’s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage that bears a complex cultural history of spirituality, torture, cleansing and sacrifice.
As Togashi, a junior member of the police force, investigates the murder of a kinbaku instructor, he finds himself unable to resist his own private transgressive desires. In contrast, Togashi’s Sherlock Holmesian colleague Hayama is morally upright to a fault, with a stalwart commitment to the truth and nearly superhuman powers of deduction. When Hayama notices a dangerous measure of darkness within Togashi, he embarks on a parallel investigation that soon spirals out of control.
Unflinching in its flayed-raw treatment of identity, violence, sexuality, power, the occult and the divine, THE ROPE ARTIST is both viscerally painful and unexpectedly hopeful --- a genre homage that shines a light on the most dangerous elements of the human psyche.
Audiobook available, read by Kurt Kanazawa and Brian Nishii
Editorial Content for Sisters of the Lost Nation
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Nick Medina’s debut novel is as emotional as it is genre-defying. SISTERS OF THE LOST NATION takes readers on a brief trip behind the curtain of Native American life and lore. Anna Horn lives on a reservation and is full of questions. She will get some of the answers during the course of this book, many of which are disturbing. Read More
Teaser
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step --- an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole. With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past. When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation are strong, and sometimes it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
Promo
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step --- an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole. With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past. When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation are strong, and sometimes it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
About the Book
A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation leads her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step --- an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.
With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.
When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation --- both ancient and new --- are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.
Audiobook available, read by Elva Guerra
Editorial Content for We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind of]
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In 2017, Hannah Pittard published an essay in The Sewanee Review about the affair that ultimately ended her marriage. “Scenes from a Marriage” resonated with readers and, as Pittard notes in her new memoir, led to a question from numerous curious readers: “But what’s the real story?” As Pittard notes, they may have been fishing for “the nasty bits,” but, as she writes, “I think they wanted to know how those details could be shuffled and reshuffled into the characters’ different perceptions of reality. Read More
Teaser
In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes recreating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with --- from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.
Promo
In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes recreating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with --- from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.
About the Book
WE ARE TOO MANY is an unexpectedly funny, unflinchingly honest and genre-bending memoir about a marriage-ending affair between award-winning author Hannah Pittard's husband and her captivating best friend.
In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage.
Blending fact and fiction, sometimes recreating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with --- from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.
Clever and bold and radically honest to an unthinkable degree, WE ARE TOO MANY examines the ugly, unfiltered parts of the female experience, as well as the many (happier) possibilities in starting any life over after a major personal catastrophe.
Audiobook available, read by Hannah Pittard
Editorial Content for The Gifts
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
THE GIFTS, Liz Hyder's adult debut, is a spellbinding concoction of historical fiction, fantasy and mystery set in Victorian England just as science and religion are starting to take separate routes for academics, physicians and the citizens in between. Read More
Teaser
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. In London, rumors of a "fallen angel" cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger. A spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of 19th-century London, THE GIFTS explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society, and the dark danger of ambition.
Promo
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. In London, rumors of a "fallen angel" cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger. A spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of 19th-century London, THE GIFTS explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society, and the dark danger of ambition.
About the Book
It will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are.
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.
In London, rumors of a "fallen angel" cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger.
THE GIFTS is an astonishing novel. A spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of 19th-century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society, and the dark danger of ambition.
Audiobook available, read by Tuppence Middleton