In this, his first volume of original verse since the award-winning Landing Light , Don Paterson is found writing at his most memorable and direct. In an assembly of masterful lyrics and monologues, he conjures a series of fables and charms that serve both to expose us to the unsettling forces within the world and simultaneously offer some protection against them. Whether outwardly elemental in their address, or more personal in their direction, these poems – to the rain and the sea, to his young sons or beloved friends – never shy from their inquiry into truth and lie, embracing everything in scope from the rangy narrative to the tiny renku.

Rain , which includes the winner of the 2008 Forward Prize for the Best Individual Poem and an extended elegy for the poet Michael Donaghy, is Don Paterson’s most intimate and manifest collection to date.

Moving from Chicago to New York to Paris, and from founding member Steve McCall’s kitchen table to Carnegie Hall, A Power Stronger Than Itself uncovers a vibrant, multicultural universe and brings to light a major piece of the history of avant-garde music and art. ]]> http://pileofbooks.ch/book/a-power-stronger-than-itself/feed/ 0 http://pileofbooks.ch/book/and-the-mountains-echoed/ http://pileofbooks.ch/book/and-the-mountains-echoed/#comments Tue, 28 May 2013 13:06:20 +0000 admin http://pileofbooks.ch/?post_type=book&p=665 An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

The meticulously composed, painterly tableaux of Tom Hunter (*1965 in Dorset) operate on various levels: for one, he references important paintings from art history; for another, he tells us stories of our time—stories that all take place in the London borough of Hackney, where Hunter lives. What is perhaps his best-known photograph is of a young woman in a setting that alludes to Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. However, Hunter’s photo portrays a Woman Reading a Possession Order—a neighbor from the squatter’s scene who has just received an eviction notice. The work attracted so such attention from the media that the eviction ultimately never took place.

With his eye for the unusual and exotic in everyday life, Hunter succeeds in capturing striking, remarkable snapshots of life in Great Britain today.

Photographer Iain McKell offers an extraordinary—and breathtakingly beautiful—glimpse into the lives of a real and raw group of present-day nomads whose culture is built around ideals of freedom, nature, and simplicity.

Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead
(Jazz Poetry SuperJam #1)

The historic 1962 experimental jazz and poetry event featuring some of the UK’s finest modern jazz musicians – Stan Tracey, Jeff Clyne, Laurie Morgan, John Mumford and Bobby Wellins – together with poets Pete Brown (co-writer/Cream) and Michael Horovitz (Britain’s Beat Laureate).

The magical events of that night were captured on a reel-to-reel tape recorder by the artists’ friend Victor Schonfield. To celebrate Record Store Day they are now released for the first time as a double 180gm vinyl individually numbered box set with a deluxe full size booklet containing photos, reminiscences, essays and memorabilia.

Artists:
Stan Tracey – piano, Jeff Clyne – double bass, Laurie Morgan – drums, John Mumford – trombone, Bobby Wellins – tenor saxophone, Pete Brown & Michael Horovitz – poetry performances

Side A

McTaggart’s Blues 14:51

Flying Home 4:13

 Side B

Night 3:56

Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead (Pt 1) 15:33

 Side C

Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead (Pt 2) 18:12

 Side D

Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead (Pt 3) 20:13

Afro Charlie 1:43

Limited to 500 copies only.

www.johnfrancismusic.com

Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators—Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown—set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War.

Dublin, 1845 and ’46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause—despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave.

New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland’s notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion.

These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space, and memory.

The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year.

Simon Kempston is one of Scotland’s best young songwriters and leading fingerstyle guitarists. Simon’s original, distinctive guitar playing is founded upon a complex, finger-picking style which technically reveals his classical training yet is steeped in the history of the folk, blues and celtic traditions and is complemented by Simon’s rich, powerful and compelling clipped vocal style.

http://www.simonkempston.co.uk/

Suspecting a disastrous conspiracy, Toby attempts to forestall it, but is promptly posted overseas. Three years on, summoned by Sir Christopher Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, and closely watched by Probyn’s daughter Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and his duty to the Service.

If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?

As they grow older Neil follows the conventional route of the American dream, but the eccentric, fiercely intelligent John William makes radically different choices, dropping out of college and moving deep into the woods. Convinced it is the only way to live without hypocrisy, John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, drawing his oldest friend into a web of secrets and agonising responsibility, deceit and tragedy – one that will finally break open with an unexpected, life-altering revelation.

‘Sentence for sentence, Salter is the master’ Richard Ford

A major new novel, his first work of fiction in seven years, from the universally acclaimed master and PEN/Faulkner winner: a sweeping, seductive love story set in the years after World War II. 

From his experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. In a world of dinners, deals, and literary careers, Bowman finds that he fits in perfectly. But despite his success, what eludes him is love. His first marriage goes bad, another fails to happen, and finally he meets a woman who enthrals him before setting him on a course he could never imagine for himself.

Romantic and haunting, All That Is explores a life unfolding in an unforgettable world on the brink of change – a dazzling, sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition, a fiercely intimate account of the great shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.

Twenty-one years ago, when a conductor was poisoned and the Questura sent a man to investigate, readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992′s Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon and her shrewd, sophisticated, and compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans, Leon’s novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens, a world of incomparable beauty, family intimacy, shocking crime, and insidious corruption. This internationally acclaimed, bestselling series is widely considered one of the best ever written, and William Heinemann is thrilled to be publishing the twenty-second installment, The Golden Egg, in April 2103.

When making routine enquiries into a possible bribery case that could embarrass the mayor – a humiliation Vice-Questore Patta is very keen to avoid – Commissario Brunetti receives a call from his wife, Paola, who is evidently very upset. The middle-aged deaf mute with the mental age of a child who helped out at the Brunetti’s dry cleaners has been found dead – an ‘accidental’ overdose of his mother’s sleeping pills – and for some reason Paola is distraught by the news. To the neighbourhood he was just the ‘boy’ who helped out, but nobody knew much about him – not even his name. That a soul could have lived such a joyless life is too much for Paola to bear, and she asks Guido if he can find out what happened.

It is a surprise to Brunetti ust how little was known about this man-child – there are no official records to show he even existed. The man’s mother is angry and contradictory when questioned about his death, and Brunetti senses that there much more to the story than she is willing to tell. With the help of Inspector Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra, perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth and find some measure of solace.