Neil Gaiman

A couple struggles through their unhappy marriage in this dark science-fiction comedy Claire and Mark are in the doldrums of an unhappy marriage. She doesn’t get out of her bathrobe and chain-smokes while slumped on the couch. Mark has lost track of the days and can’t get the kids to school on time. They’ve lost interest in family and have pizza and Chinese food delivered every night. Mark sleeps on the couch and has trouble remembering his son’s name. He feels like a fraud at work but somehow succeeds. Claire stalks an ex-boyfriend. How could he have left her to this life? Claire and Mark are both plagued by the idea that this is all a dream. Didn’t they have different lives? When reports of an imminent nuclear war come on the radio, the truth begins to dawn on them: This is not the life they chose. Why Don’t You Love Me? is a pitch-black comedy about marriage, alcoholism, depression, and mourning lost opportunities. Paul B. Rainey has created a hilariously terrifying alternate reality where confusion and pain might lead people to make bad choices but might also eventually led to freedom . . . maybe.

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a dazzling historical novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power. As Recommended By The TODAY Show * Washington Post * Goodreads * LitHub * Real Simple * Time * Popsugar * HuffPost * Los Angeles Times * Ms. Magazine * Book Riot * Elle.com * The Rumpus * Tor.com * Polygon * Debutiful * Electric Lit * Shondaland * When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband’s second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet. But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans―tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung’s alliance―have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung’s cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life. A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.

From one of the great modern masters of the fantastic, “A beautiful, brilliant, meditation on art, love, inspiration and what makes life worthwhile."-- Neil Gaiman "[Carroll's] prose is spare, polished and quick-moving, sometimes lightly comic, always immensely engaging... Mr. Breakfast is pure pleasure to read. It will surprise you, make you laugh and scare you — and then, just when you think it’s over, add several extra twists." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him and he literally has no idea what to do next. With nothing to lose, he buys a new car and hits the road, planning to drive across country and hopefully figure out his next moves before reaching California. But along the way Patterson does something his old self would never have even considered: he gets tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina. The decision sets off a series of extraordinary events that changes his life forever in ways he never could have imagined. Among other things, Patterson is gifted with the ability to see in real time three different lives that are available to him. The choice is his: The life he is leading right now, or two very different ones. In all of them there is love or fame and of course danger because once he has chosen, there is no telling what will happen next. Mr. Breakfast is a dazzling, absorbing and deeply moving novel about the choices that we have to confront and face, confirming Jonathan Carroll’s status as one of our greatest and most imaginative storytellers.

Signed Sterling Limited Edition. 1 of 100 copies. Signed by: Michael Marshall Smith. Neil Gaiman. Alan Clark Includes never before published works only available in this Spares Special Edition. STERLING EDITION FEATURES: The Sterling Edition of the Overlook Connection Press is limited to 100 copies. Original endpaper artwork only in this edition of 100 copies. Original signature page. Signed by Neil Gaiman, Alan Clark, and Michael Marshall Smith. Original red cloth binding with blue foil embossing for the Sterling edition. OVERVIEW:Spares: Special Edition features a Lost Chapter, and three short stories (one original to this volume) that relate to the novel. Introduction by Neil Gaiman, Afterword by Michael Marshall Smith. Original binding, with silver foil embossing. Signed by Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshall Smith and artist Alan Clark. Only 100 copies published in this format. THE STORY: Luck? Dont talk to Jack Randall about luck. He didnt keep up the payment on his, and it ran out a long time ago. The good fortune box is empty. A loner veteran of a savage war, hes spent the last five years buried deep, hiding out on a Spares farm with people who cant even spell luck. Forced to flee this last bolthole, Jack returns to the city that used to be his home. All he wants is to score a little money and disappear with the people hes trying to save. Unfortunately, hes got a talent for attracting trouble-the kind most people would run screaming from. Jack Randall isnt most people. Thats part of his problem. His escape from the Farm with six of its inmates (well, five and a half) brings him head to head with the man who destroyed everything he once held dear. He has to make a decision: take revenge or turn away? In a startling odyssey of fear, black comedy and the surreal, Jack Randall discovers that the choice has already been made. The demons in him take on the demons without, and all he can do is stand back and see who wins.

“An astonishing novel. Were Terry Pratchett not demonstratively a master craftsman already, The Amazing Maurice might be considered his masterpiece.” —Neil Gaiman The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits. For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets.... Set in bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's beloved Discworld, this masterfully crafted, gripping read is both compelling and funny. When one of the world's most acclaimed fantasy writers turns a classic fairy tale on its head, no one will ever look at the Pied Piper—or rats—the same way again! This book’s feline hero was first mentioned in the Discworld novel Reaper Man and stars in the movie version of his adventure, The Amazing Maurice, featuring David Tenant, Emma Clarke, Hamish Patel, and Hugh Laurie. Fans of Maurice will relish the adventures of Tiffany Aching, starting with The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky! Carnegie Medal Winner * ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age * VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror * Book Sense Pick

The Sandman was a groundbreaking and award-winning series that told the dark and tragic tale of Morpheus, the King of Dreams. A fascinating mythology of horror and consequence, this epic masterfully combined intriguing literature with captivating art. THE SANDMAN COMPANION is an exhaustive guide to this legend. Revealing hitherto undisclosed information and behind-the-scenes secrets, this book features in-depth interviews, never-before-seen illustrations, character origins, and story explanations and analysis. Also including excerpts from the original proposal for the series, this handbook is the perfect complement to the Sandman graphic novels.

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there. We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look? Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear. Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.

She seemed to have no body. She thought she might be a ghost. She did not even know her name. All she knew was that she was one of four sisters whose parents ran a boarding house in a boys' school -- but whether she was fat Cart, morbid Imogen, almost-normal Sally, or strange Fenella, she had no idea. Only one thing seemed clear: Her peculiar state had something to do with Monigan, the goddess Cart had invented a year ago. The ghost tried desperately to let the sisters know she was there. She tried to tell boys from the school and to attract her parents' attention. For a long time nobody noticed her except Oliver, the dog. When the sisters did notice her, they tried to deal with her in all sorts of ways, and nearly everything they did got someone into bad trouble. In fact it took a lot of trouble before everyone realized that Monigan was a real goddess, terrible and threatening, and that the ghost was somehow in her power. And it took a sacrifice from everyone before the ghost could discover who she was. But saving her from Monigan would be even more difficult.

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure. Far from Earth, two sister planets, Saint Anne and Saint Croix, circle each other in an eternal dance. It is said a race of shapeshifters once lived here, only to perish when men came. But one man believes they can still be found, somewhere in back of the beyond. In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Gene Wolfe skillfully interweaves three bizarre tales to create a mesmerizing pattern: the harrowing account of the son of a mad genius who discovers his hideous heritage; a young man's mythic dreamquest for his darker half; and the bizarre chronicle of a scientist's nightmarish imprisonment. Like an intricate, braided knot, the pattern at last unfolds to reveal astonishing truths about this strange and savage alien landscape. With a new introduction by O. Henry Award winning author Brian Evenson

A New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Book of the Year In this fresh new fairy tale, a wooden robot embarks on a quest to find his missing sister-- making for a memorable contemporary bedtime story in acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children. For years, the king and queen have tried desperately to have a baby. Their wish was granted twice, when an engineer and a witch gave them a little wooden robot and an enchanted log princess. But there's just one catch: every night when the log princess sleeps, she transforms back into an ordinary log, and can only be woken up with magic words. The princess and her robot brother are are inseparable, until the sleeping princess, mistaken for lumber, is accidentally carted off to parts unknown. Now it's up to her devoted brother to find her, and get them safely back home. They need to take turns to get each other home, and on the way, they face a host of adventures involving the Queen of Mushrooms, a magic pudding, a baby in a rosebush, and an old lady in a bottle. This is acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children, inspired by a bedtime story he made up for his daughters. In his words, "I was trying to make a book inspired by three different sets of books: The books that I remember enjoying as a child, the books that I watched my daughters enjoying, and the books I enjoy now as an adult. I wanted the book to have its own quirky feeling but also to function like a classic bedtime story." An ALSC Notable Children's Book A Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title A People Magazine Best Kids Book of the Year A Washington Post Best Children's Book of the Year A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Book of the Year An NPR 'Book We Love!' A Booklist Editors' Choice A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book of the Year A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book! A Publishers Lunch Best Book of the Year A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection An Evanston Public Library Great Books for Kids pick! A CCBC Choice A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!”—Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea. The tellers of Greek myths—historically men—have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil—like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world’s suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over. In Pandora’s Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman’s perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother-turned-lover-and-wife (turned Freudian sticking point), at once the cleverest person in the story and yet often unnoticed. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris “caused” the Trojan war—a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husband for another man. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce—getting her revenge on the man who hurt and betrayed her, if by extreme measures. And she turns her eye to Medusa, the original monstered woman, whose stare turned men to stone, but who wasn’t always a monster, and had her hair turned to snakes as punishment for being raped. Pandora’s Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place—and so eager to accept the stories we’ve been told?

'The joy of these scripts is in being able to appreciate the craft and ambition involved in the sharpness of the dialogue, the cunning of the plotting, and the desire never to repeat themselves, as Pemberton and Shearsmith build each episode into a miniaturist treasure. A must for anyone who wants to write for television, or who just wants to see how the magic is done.' - NEIL GAIMAN Take a further peek behind the door marked 'number 9' as the scripts from series 1-3 are collected here for the first time. An anthology of darkly comic twisted tales by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, read how each 30-minute self-contained story with new characters and new settings, sprang to life from the page. Each series is prefaced by a foreword from the show creators, giving readers and fans behind-the-scenes insight to this creative phenomenon. It is a beautifully written series, some stories comic, some tragic, all highly original and inventive. As well as Steve and Reece, it has featured guest appearances from a plethora well-known actors including Jack Whitehall, Peter Kay, Sheridan Smith, Gemma Arterton, Keeley Hawes, Alison Steadman, Conleth Hill, and David Morrissey. Relive the show's every enjoyable moment down to the stage directions with Inside No. 9: The Scripts: Series 1-3.

It is the late 21st century, and due to the economic breakdown and rising crime rate, nearly every citizen has fled Toronto. The city is a slum, populated by the homeless, the poor, and criminals like Rudy, who uses the power of voodoo to help him control the booming drug market. But also left behind are people like Ti-Jeanne, who hope to use voodoo to help rebuild the city, even as Canada's privileged population turns to Toronto to begin harvesting human organs. To uncover the future voices of science fiction, Time Warner Publishing sponsored a contest that attracted hundreds of submissions. Brown Girl in the Ring was the winning entry, announcing author Nalo Hopkinson to the world as a tremendous new talent. Amazon.com Review This is Nalo Hopkinson's debut novel, which came to attention when it won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest. It tells the story of Ti-Jeanne, a young woman in a near-future Toronto that's been all but abandoned by the Canadian government. Anyone who can has retreated from the chaos of the city to the relative safety of the suburbs, and those left in "the burn" must fend for themselves. Ti-Jeanne is a new mother who's trying to come to grips with her as- yet-unnamed baby and also trying to end her relationship with her drug-addict boyfriend Tony. But a passion still burns between the young lovers, and when Tony runs afoul of Rudy, the local ganglord, Ti-Jeanne convinces her grandmother Gros-Jeanne to help out. Gros-Jeanne is a Voudoun priestess, and it's clear that Ti-Jeanne has inherited some of her gifts. Although Ti-Jeanne wants nothing to do with the spirit world, she soon finds herself caught up in a battle to the death with Rudy and the mother she thought she lost long ago. --Craig E. Engler From Publishers Weekly The musical rhythms of Caribbean voices and the earthy spirit-magic of obeah knit together this unusual fantasy, the first winner of Warner Aspect's First Novel Contest. Toronto in the next century is a "doughnut hole city," its core collapsed into ruinous slums after much of the population left to escape rising urban crime and violence. Those who remain in the Burn are survivors like Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother Mami, who trade herbal cures and spells for necessities, or predators like drug-lord Rudy and the "posse" of men, including Ti-Jeanne's ex-lover Tony, who sell "buff" for him. Outside the Burn, Catherine Uttley, the premier of Ontario, needs a heart transplant and a boost in her approval ratings. To accomplish both, she announces support for a return to voluntary human organ donation, allegedly to prevent the spread of Virus Epsilon, sometimes found in the porcine organs grown for transplant. The heart she needs will have to come from someone in the Burn, and Rudy saddles Tony with the job of finding a donor. Tony has no stomach for the job, however, and goes to Ti-Jeanne and Mami for help, bringing the unpredictable and powerful spirits of Caribbean obeah into play. Though the story sometimes turns too easily on coincidence, Hopkinson's writing is smooth and assured, and her characters lively and believable. She has created a vivid world of urban decay and startling, dangerous magic, where the human heart is both a physical and metaphorical key. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal YA-An outstanding science-fiction novel by a Jamaican-born novelist. The setting is post-modern Toronto. The inner city's economic base has collapsed; the police and most of civilization have deserted and roadblocked the city, leaving the homeless, poor, and criminals behind. The heroine, Ti-Jeanne, and her infant son live with her grandmother on a small herbal "farm" from which they dispense folk-medicine treatments to the other disenfranchised inhabitants of the "Burn." The story combines African and Jamaican folklore, religion, and patois as Ti-Jeanne learns to understand the ancient spirits that are so important in her family's history. The tragedies of her mother and grandmother must be understood and corrected, and only Ti-Jeanne can do it, if she can face her own fears. A page-turner that builds to an exciting conclusion, this quickly read fantasy will have lots of appeal to young adults. Carol DeAngelo, Garcia Consulting Inc., EPA Headquarters, Washington, DC Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal In the ruined core of downtown 21st-century Toronto, a girl reluctantly embraces her heritage of spirit magic to save the lives of her child and her lover from a gang leader's evil sorcery. Hopkinson, winner of the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for this work, draws upon Afro-Caribbean myths to provide a rich, evocative background for a classic tale of salvation and sacrifice. Smoothly written, with memorable characters, this top-quality debut belongs in most libraries. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Toronto's economy has collapsed, and those who couldn't flee with big business must farm in parks, hunt pigeons and squirrels for meat, and avoid the Posse, the gang that controls the streets. Ti-Jeanne Baines lives with her grandmother, learning to make herbal medicines and raising her child, conceived in an affair with a former medical intern fired from the local hospital because of drug addiction. Ti-Jeanne fired Tony, too, because of his addiction and his involvement with the Posse. But when he comes, swearing his intent to quit the Posse and leave the city, to ask her help, Ti-Jeanne in turn asks her voodoo-practicing grandmother to help Tony escape before the Posse kills him for defecting. Unwittingly, Tony then involves Ti-Jeanne in his predicament, forcing her to come to terms with her spiritual heritage to defend herself and her child. Winner of the first Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for new sf and fantasy writers, Jamaican-born Hopkinson's exotically imaginative debut is just realistic enough. Bonnie Johnston From Kirkus Reviews Winner of the publisher's First Novel Contest (out of nearly 1,000 entries), Hopkinson's debut evokes Afro-Caribbean magic against a near-future Toronto damaged by riots and neglect and abandoned by all but the most desperate inhabitants. The inner city is run by ruthless gangster Rudy Sheldon and his ``posse.'' Ti-Jeanne Hunter lives with her herbalist grandmother, Mami, and her unnamed child (by Tony, one of Rudy's mob). Weak, untrustworthy Tony was fired from his hospital job because of his drug addiction. Now, Canada's premier, Catharine Uttley, has an ailing heart, and, for overwhelming political reasons, any replacement organ must come from a human donor. Word filters down to Rudy to supply the heart, and Tony gets the job: If he can't find a donor quickly, he'll have to murder someone and take the heart. Later, empty-handed and terrified of Rudy's lieutenant, Crack Monkey, Tony pleads for Mami to work magic and help him get out of the city undetected. Since Ti-Jeanne can't resist Tony's blandishments, Mami reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, Rudy also commands powerful ``obeah'': Trapped in his ``duppy bowl'' is a ravening spirit that will do his bidding when he feeds it blood. Tony, meanwhile, finds that Mami would be a compatible donor for the heart, and, unable to escape Rudy, he bashes in Mami's head and calls the paramedics. Ti-Jeanne learns that Rudy's captive spirit is her mother--and the only way to free her and defeat Rudy is to smash the bowl. A splendid if often gruesome debut, superbly plotted and redolent of the rhythms of Afro-Caribbean speech: ``You just don't let she go, or I go zap the both of allyou one time.'' -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review "Excellent...a bright, original mix of future urban decay and West Indian magic...strongly rooted in character and place."―Sunday Denver Post "A wonderful sense of narrative and a finely tuned ear for dialogue...balances a well-crafted and imaginative story with incisive social critique and a vivid sense of place."―Emerge "An impressive debut precisely because of Hopkinson's fresh viewpoint."―The Washington Post "Hopkinson lives up to her advance billing."―New York Times Book Review "Hopkinson's writing is smooth and assured, and her characters lively and believable. She has created a vivid world of urban decay and startling, dangerous magic, where the human heart is both a physical and metaphorical key."―Publisher's Weekly "Splendid....Superbly plotted and redolent of the rhythms of Afro-Caribbean speech."―Kirkus Review "Utterly original....the debut of a major talent. Gripping, memorable, and beautiful."―Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club About the Author Nalo Hopkinson is the author of The New Moons Arms, The Salt Roads, Midnight Robber, and Brown Girl in the Ring, among many others. She has won numerous awards, including the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, and Canadas Sunburst Award for fantasy literature. Her award-winning short fiction collection Skin Folk was selected for the 2002 New York Times Summer Reading List and was one of the New York Times Best Books of the Year. Currently, she is a professor of creative writing at the University of CaliforniaRiverside. From The Washington Post Brown Girl has the usual first novel faults in pacing and plotting but more than compensates with its richness of language. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpt Mami closed her eyes and whispered a prayer. The lamplight danced on her face,filling it with shadows. She looked at the cement head. "Eshu, is we here tonight; me, Gros-Jeanne, and my granddaughter Ti-Jeanne,and she baby with no name, and she baby father, Tony." Tony started; looked over at Ti-Jeanne, who ignored the surprised question inhis eyes. It made Ti-Jeanne mad. What Mami have to go and tell her business for? Mami kept talking: "Eshu, we ask you to open the doors for we, let down thegates. Let the spirits come and talk to we. Look, we bring food for you, rum andsweet candy." She took one of the candies out of the bowl, crunched it, and swallowed. "We bring a cigar to light for you, Eshu, to sweeten the air with thesmoke." She picked up the cigar and put it to her mouth. She lit it, cheeks sucking into draw it to life. She took a deep drag of the cigar and gently blew the smokein Eshu's face. "Eshu, we ask you to bring down the doors so the spirits could be here withwe tonight. Spirits, please don't do no harm while you here; is we, your sonsand daughters." Mami balanced the still-burning cigar on the candy bowl. She got creakily to herfeet, hooked the chicken down from the ceiling. She put the chicken on the floorin front of Eshu, and motioned to Tony to hold its wings and body. She stretchedits neck out long, so that the pinny neck feathers stood up, revealing the pinkpimpled flesh beneath. Then she took her kitchen knife out of the basket, andsliced clean through the sensé fowl's neck. Blood spurted in gouts fromthe headless body. Its legs kicked. It was no worse than they way they killedthe fowls for their supper table, but Tony made a sick noise in the back of histhroat and looked away. "Hold, it, Tony," Mami hissed, "Don't make it run 'way! Here,give it to me." Tony watched the grisly rite, curling his lips away from his teeth in disgustand fear. He seemed quite happy to relinquish the twitching, gushing body intoMami's hands. Mami directed the blood over the stone head. "We give youlife to drink, Eshu, but is Ogun wield the knife, not we." She laid the chicken and its head in front of Eshu. The hen's body jerked againfeebly, once, then was still. The air was heavy with the stench of chicken fleshand blood. Mami took her place on the stool, put the drum between her knees. With herfingertips and the heels of her hands, she began to beat out a rhythm. Ti-Jeannerecognised the pattern of sounds. She'd often heard that rhythm in the louddrumming coming from the chapel at nights. She hated it; it tugged at her blood,filled her head with sound until she thought it would burst from within, herskull cracking apart like an overripe pumpkin to reveal the soft, wet interior.Although Mami was rapping out the rhythm softly, the sound beat at Ti-Jeanne asloud as drums. It made her bones vibrate, her teeth ache. The small chapel wassaturated with the rhythm, dripping with it. And still Mami kept drumming.Ti-Jeanne felt as though the chapel bell was chiming and gonging in time, herheart pounding to the drum, the shadows in the chapel leaping to it. Mami wasrocking from side to side. So was Tony, not even seeming aware that he was doingso. He rolled up his sleeves to his forearms. Yes, it was hot now in the chapel.Ti-Jeanne could see the bufo drug slashes on his arms. Two of them looked hardlyhealed. She sighed, sadly. Tony was still using. Same thing they'd fired himfrom the hospital for. In Ti-Jeanne's arms Baby was wide awake, his eyes alert. He looked as if he waslistening, hard, with his whole self. Ti- Jeanne realised that she was swayingto the drumming too. She tried to stop herself, but her attention would waverand she'd find her body moving again. Ti-Jeanne's focus shrunk until all she could perceive was the sound of thedrumming, the sight of Mami's water-chapped fingers beating and beating theirrhythm. The cadence caught her mind in a loop, spun it in on itself, smaller andsmaller until she was no longer aware of her body, of her arms cradling herchild. She barely knew when she stood up. # Trying not to retch from the thick stench of raw chicken and fresh blood, Tonysat hunched between Ti-Jeanne and her crazy grandmother. He was terrified. Hecould still feel the warmth of the chicken's body on his hands. He wanted to runout of there and never come back. But if he did, he'd probably run straight intothe arms of the posse. His time was up. And Rudy was even crazier than MamiGros-Jeanne. If Tony didn't get out of Toronto, Rudy's vengeance would probablymake Tony wish for a death as quick as that of the throat-slit hen. Mami was hisonly chance. So he stayed, wrapping his arms around himself. He began rocking,rocking, praying this would be over soon. Beside him, Ti-Jeanne giggled, a manic, breathy sound that made Tony's scalpprickle. She rose smoothly to her feet and began to dance with an eerie,stalking motion that made her legs seem longer than they were, thin and bony.Shadows clung to the hollows of her eyes and cheekbones, turning her face into acruel mask. She laughed again. Her voice was deep, too deep for her woman'sbody. Her lips skinned back from her teeth in a death's head grin. "Prince of Cemetery!" Mami hissed, her eyes wide. She kept her rhythmgoing, but even softer. "You know so, old lady," Ti-Jeanne rumbled. She pranced on long legsover to Mami, bent down, down, down; ran a bony forefinger over the old woman'scheek. "Good and old, yes? Like you nearly ready to come to me soon,daughter!" To Tony's surprise, Mami Gros-Jeanne spoke sternly, drumming all the while, tothe spirit that was riding her granddaughter. "I ain't no daughter ofyours. Stop the foolishness and tell me what you doing with Ti-Jeanne. You knowshe head ain't ready to hold no spirits yet." Ti-Jeanne/Prince of Cemetery chuckled, a hollow sound like bones falling into apit. He danced over to Eshu's stone head and used a long, long finger to scoopup some of the chicken blood thickening there. Slowly he licked and sucked itoff his finger, smiling like a child scraping out the batter bowl. Tony'sstomach roiled. "But doux-doux," Prince of Cemetery said, "Yourgranddaughter head full of spirits already; she ain't tell you? All kind ofduppy and thing. When she close she eyes, she does see death. She belong to me.She is my daughter. You should 'fraid of she." The old woman sucked her teeth in disgust. "Man, don't try to mamaguy me,oui? You only telling half the story. Prince of Cemetery does watch over death,yes, but he control life too, when he come as Eshu. So why I should befrighten?" The spirit grinned wide, did a pirouette. "Well, if you know that, oldlady, tell Ti-Jeanne. Tell my horse to open she eyes good and see the wholething; death..." he stopped, seemed for the first time to notice Babystrapped to his chest. Baby stared up at him, no fear in his face. Prince ofCemetery chortled. He pulled open the velcro, took Baby out of the Snugli andheld him up in the air, grinning and cooing at him. Baby cooed back. "...and life," Prince of Cemetery continued. The words were now comingfrom Baby's lips. The booming deep man-voice lisped with the effort of formingwords through the baby's underdeveloped vocal apparatus. "Tell she when shego out tonight, she must carry something she man give she. She must conceal itsomewhere on she body. I go hide she halfway in Guinea land, where flesh peoplecan't see she. So long as she carrying Tony gift on she, nobody go see heeither. But only till sunup. Tell she that," the baby cooed, then laughed,a sound too deep and knowing for its young body. Copyright © 2000 Nalo Hopkinson. All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-446-67433-8

With colour artwork by Gillian McClure, a collection of Norse myths.

Love Is Blind meets You’ve Got Mail in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy following two thirty-somethings who meet on a blind dating app -- only to realize that their online chemistry is nothing compared to their offline rivalry. Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just five months after a lung cancer diagnosis, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and complicating matters further, a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome, but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout to turn the store into a parking garage. But Gracie can’t bear the thought of throwing away her father’s dream like she did her own. Overwhelmed and not wanting to admit to her friends or family that she’s having second thoughts about the shop, Gracie seeks advice and solace from someone she’s never met -- the faceless “Sir”, with whom she connected on a blind dating app where matches get to know each other through messages and common interests before exchanging real names or photos. But although Gracie finds herself slowly falling for Sir online, she has no idea she’s already met him in real life...and they can’t stand each other.

Since 1903, the escapades of Mole, his friend Water Rat, shy Badger, and Toad of Toad Hall have delighted children, and adults, too. Follow the winning foursome through the seasons as they sail the river, get lost in the Wild Wood, take off on a merry adventure in Toad’s colorful carriage, and rescue Toad Hall from a band of nasty marauding weasels.

A child of the Jamaican diaspora, Lenny Henry was one of seven children in a boisterous, complicated family. With honesty, tenderness and a glorious sense of humour, he conducts a jam session of memories - growing up in the Black Country, puberty, school, friendship, family secrets and unashamed racism. With his mother's mantra of 'H'integration' echoing in his ears, Henry set out on a glittering career - but at every stage wondering: Am I good enough? Is this what they want? Who am I, again? This book answers those questions.

The underground masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian fiction, this classic novel was written during Stalin’s regime and could not be published until many years after its author’s death. When the devil arrives in 1930s Moscow, consorting with a retinue of odd associates—including a talking black cat, an assassin, and a beautiful naked witch—his antics wreak havoc among the literary elite of the world capital of atheism. Meanwhile, the Master, author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in despair in a pyschiatric hospital, while his devoted lover, Margarita, decides to sell her soul to save him. As Bulgakov’s dazzlingly exuberant narrative weaves back and forth between Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, studded with scenes ranging from a giddy Satanic ball to the murder of Judas in Gethsemane, Margarita’s enduring love for the Master joins the strands of plot across space and time.

Contains 4 books in one volume: The Shadow of the Torturer (winner of the 1981 World Fantasy Award), The Claw of the Conciliator (winner of the 1982 Nebula Award), The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch. Blending the lyric extravagance of fantasy and the keen edge of science fiction, The Book of the New Sun weaves a powerful tapestry of awesome terror and dreamlike beauty. It begins in a future so distant our civilization is no longer even a memory, and the remnants of our science seem like magical forces. It is a time when the Sun is dying, and legend speaks of the return of the Conciliator, who will bring about the birth of the New Sun. It is an odyssey fraught with monsters and mysteries and woven about with strange portents.

Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian “Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” ―Neil Gaiman “One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and  Anaximander. One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious. As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness. Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.