Jane Rogers

'Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating' Hilary Mantel THE NEW NOVEL BY THE BOOKER LONGLISTED AND ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMB ADAPTED FROM THE HIT BBC RADIO 4 PLAY 'An ambitious and important writer' New York Times 'Unputdownable and often thought-provoking' Sunday Times 'Grimly plausible' Guardian In this version of London, there is a small, private clinic. Behind its layers of security, procedures are taking place on poor, robust teenagers from northern Estates in exchange for thousands of pounds - procedures that will bring the wealthy dead back to life in these young supple bodies for fourteen days. It's an opportunity for wrongs to be righted, for fathers to meet grandsons, for scientists to see their work completed. Old wine in new bottles. But at what cost? MORE PRAISE FOR JANE ROGERS AND BODY TOURISTS: 'Gripping' Mail on Sunday 'Very much a novel about human nature . . . an insightful examination of the things people truly value' SciFi Now 'A wonderfully versatile novelist' Penelope Lively 'Rogers' prose flows elegantly and with effortless power' Observer 'A compulsive and compelling slice of fiction' Sunday Express

Body Tourists

Jessie Lamb is an ordinary girl living in extraordinary times: as her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her towards the ultimate act of heroism. If the human race is to survive, it's up to her. Set just a month or two in the future, in a world irreparably altered by an act of biological terrorism, The Testament of Jessie Lamb explores a young woman's determination to make her life count for something, as the certainties of her childhood are ripped apart.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb

From the multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed author of The Testament of Jessie Lamb comes this riveting novel about the devastating secrets revealed in the midst of a disintegrating marriage. The story of a marriage, and of two lives in science. When Conrad fails to return from a conference, Eleanor wonders if it is because of the affair she is having? Or perhaps it is because his research into transgenic monkey hearts is stalling; perhaps he is sick of having the less successful career of the two of them? She is a leading expert in stem cell research. Their grown-up children suspect Eleanor of murdering their father; El secretly fears that what has driven Con away is his discovery of their daughter Cara’s parentage. While his family in Manchester, England, scrabble for clues and reasons, Conrad—alone, confused, and on the run from a crazed animal rights activist—loses himself in the cold foggy streets of Bologna. He revisits the stages of his long marriage to El, from the happiness of the year of Cara’s birth to the grief and anger he now feels. Both partners are forced to re-examine their relationship, and, in the process, to move closer to an understanding of what it is that matters most to each of them. Conrad and Eleanor is a radical, remarkably nuanced look at marriage.

A Novel

Conrad & Eleanor

Conrad and Eleanor

 Polly Clark

 Zoe Lambert

A bank manager arrives at work one day to find himself the new employer of his ex-wife. In the middle of a shift a divorced bus driver abandons his vehicle, to search for his estranged son. Two sisters come to terms with their father's disappearance with the help of a skeleton called Indira. The stories in Ellipsis 2 explore the inherent dysfunctionality of almost all relationships, their aftermaths, and the lengths people go to to redeem them. From the ingrained resentments of Jane Rogers' parent-child histories, to the twisted claustrophobia of Polly Clark's couples, and the absence that travels beside each passenger in Zoe Lambert's bus sequence these stories demonstrate the transforming, often alienating affect a relationship can have on the individuals in it, and remind us that being next of kin isn t always kind. Ellipsis is a unique series presenting linked or themed sequences of short stories by three writers in each volume. All three are previously uncollected as short story authors, two of them in each issue are established (as novelists or poets), the third, in this case Zoe Lambert, is previously unpublished.

Ellipsis 2

Promised Lands

Sara Maitland

Simon Ings

Sarah Schofield

Toby Litt

Gregory Norminton

Sean O'Brien

Justina Robson

Jane Feaver

Adam Marek

Dilys Rose

K.J. Orr

Annie Kirby

Simon van Booy

Programmable memories, fatherless reproduction, nano-tech implants, amphibian-powered scar treatment, full body modification, brain-scanning lie-detectors, inter-species reproduction, self-determining synthetic ‘green goo’… Which of these would you wager is pure science fiction, and which currently being developed in the lab? Such is the speed and excitement of today’s bio-medical research – sprinting from the starting gun that was the Human Genome Project – it’s sometimes hard to tell. In a unique collaboration, fourteen short story writers have been invited to explore the increasingly grey area between the fantastical and that which is already within our reach. Closely collaborating with scientists and ethicists working at the forefronts of their respective fields, each writer has been tasked with predicting some of the potential ‘ethical side-effects’ of this ground-breaking work. Not all progress, after all, is progressive. And dark forces are afoot that threaten to hi-jack what many declared would be ‘the century of biology’. 'Fascinating reading.' - Financial Times 'An exhilarating read.' - The Short Review Toby Litt's Bio-Punk story 'Call it ''The Bug'' Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title' short-listed for the 2013 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

Bio-Punk

Ramsey Campbell

Christopher Priest

Hanif Kureishi

Nicholas Royle

Etgar Keret

Alison MacLeod

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Ian Duhig

Gerard Woodward

A.S. Byatt

Mathew Holness

** Winner of the 2008 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology** In 1919 Sigmund Freud published an essay that delved deep into the tradition of horror writing and claimed to understand one of its darkest tricks. Like a mad scientist, he performed literary vivisection on a still-breathing body of work, exploring its inner anatomy, and pulling out mysterious organs for classification. His aim: to present to the world a complete theory of ‘das unheimliche’, the uncanny. In the spirit of this great experiment, 14 leading authors have here been challenged to write fresh fictional interpretations of what the uncanny might mean in the 21st century, to update Freud’s famous checklist of what gives us the creeps, and to give the hulking canon of uncanny fiction a shot in the arm, a shock to the neck-bolts... 'It’s not too great a stretch to see Comma as the literary equivalent of Factory Records.' - The Herald, 2 Dec. 'Delightful and disturbing' - The Independent on Sunday, 14 Dec. 'A masterclass in understated creepiness... a deliciously macabre collection that the old Austrian might well have enjoyed.' - Book of the Week, Time Out, 12 Jan. 'If we need the uncanny – and I suspect we do – then we also need it updating... laudable.' - Book of the Week, The Independent, 2 Jan. 'A bold idea.' - The Guardian, 3 Jan.

The New Uncanny

Betsy Gordon

A bold look at the creative, controversial, and vibrant history of skateboarding, and the amazing skaters who continually reinvent it Skateboarding isn't just a recreational activity, but a professional sport, lifestyle, art form, and cultural phenomenon. The striking book Four Wheels and a Board captures its spirited history, iconic skateboarders, diverse community, and the palpable passion of the people who love it. It includes contributions from the most influential names in the game, including Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Mimi Knoop, and more. The gorgeously designed book presents objects, artifacts, and photographs from the Smithsonian’s collections that exemplify the vitality and innovation of skate culture. Book chapters are organized chronologically by decade from the '60s to present day, starting with 20th-century surfboards, moving through technological changes, the disappearance of skate parks, the rise of social media and collaborations, and ending with never-before-seen objects from the 2020 Summer Olympics, where skateboarding made its historic Olympic debut. Largely invented by youth, skateboarding has attracted punks, misfits, and dreamers looking for somewhere to belong. The book features skateboards and skaters who open dialogues about race, the gender binary, queerness, the displacement of Native people, and so much more, shining a light on people and places not often represented in traditional skateboard history. Four Wheels and a Board is a fresh look at a transformative culture, and one hell of a ride.

The Smithsonian History of Skateboarding

Four Wheels and a Board

A missionary’s daughter confronts her father’s secrets—and her own life—in this “deeply poetic” novel by the award-winning author of Mr. Wroe’s Virgins (The Guardian). When her missionary father suddenly dies in Nigeria, thirty-seven-year old school teacher Anne Harrington makes the journey from London to retrieve his body. She decides to take the return voyage by container ship, giving herself time to come to terms with his death. She had no way of knowing what would await her onboard: that she would get involved with two stowaways (clandestinely), and the ship’s mate (sexually), and the journey would end in murder. Nor, for that matter, that reading her father’s diaries would reveal an illegitimate sibling, whose fate her father was seeking when he died and whom Anne must now attempt to find in order to make peace with herself. In The Voyage Home, Jane Rogers explores the themes of immigration and colonialism in “a lusciously written tale, rich in emotional nuance” (Publishers Weekly).

The Voyage Home

Tijdens de vlucht uit haar gezin schrijft een vrouw korte verhalen over vrouw zijn en moederschap om haar eigen situatie te verhelderen.

The Ice is Singing

When Conrad fails to return home from a conference one evening, Eleanor's first thought is one of relief. Their marriage has been a sham for over a decade, held together only for their children and by their separate lives in Cambridge. But when she is unable to contact him over the following days, Eleanor begins to worry. Conrad hasn't used his credit card, has left no message; he has just disappeared. As her investigation mounts, secrets from one summer, twenty-five years before, start to reveal themselves, as does Conrad's covert work as a whistleblower, unravelling both of their lives... Conrad and Eleanor is a sensitive, evocative portrait of estrangement, midlife crisis, and how love in a marriage, pushed to its limit, can endure.

Joanna Kavenna

Tim Maughan

Ned Beauman

Matthew De Abaitua

Adam Rothstein

Marek Kohn

Brendan Byrne

The second volume of Arc continues with an issue that wants to peel back the futuristic shine. So we bettered ourselves, had us a couple of revolutions - agricultural, industrial - and then before we knew it our inventions had raised the seas and fried the atmosphere, reshuffled our knowledge and commodified our pleasures; they even stole our privacy. Our lives are good, but not fair at all - and signs are we’re coming to a stormy end. Our masters tell us they’ll figure things out. With predictions and scenarios, models and forecasts, they’ll find a way through the coming storms and shortages. But what if they can’t? What if it’s all moonshine, and they’re just slapping on chromewash to cover their panic and powerlessness? In Chromewash original stories scratch and scuff the oh-so-shiny prediction business. Ned Beauman plays the markets, Jane Rogers puts a market price on identity, Tim Maughan games the art market, and Matthew De Abaitua wonders what happens when creatives get destructive. Also in this issue, Joanna Kavenna learns to mistrust Al Gore’s first-person plural, and M. John Harrison examines the special weapons and tactics of English Heritage. Medical ethicist Peter Hajek’s modest proposal tackles an ageing planet; Adam Rothstein spins a ghost story out of vapourware; Marek Kohn decides that the past has a future, too; and Brendan Byrne recalls the moment modern statecraft went cyberpunk.

Arc 2.2: Chromewash

Adam Roberts

Brian Aldiss

Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Stephen Baxter

Martin Edwards

What makes for a good short story? Being short, you might think the story's structure would yield an answer to this question more readily than, say, the novel. But for as long as the short story has been around, arguments have raged as to what it should and shouldn't be made up of, what it should and shouldn't do. Here ,15 leading contemporary practitioners offer structural appreciations of past masters of the form as well as their own perspectives on what the short story does so well. The best short stories don't have closure, argues one contributor, 'because life doesn't have closure'; 'plot must be written with the denouement constantly in view,' quotes another. Covering a century of writing that arguably saw all the major short forms emerge, from Hawthorne's 'Twice Told Tales' to Kafka's modernist nightmares, these essays offer new and unique inroads into classic texts, both for the literature student and aspiring writer.

Short Story Writers on Short Story Writers

Morphologies

In 1830, as the end of the world approached, the charismatic, hunchbacked prophet of a religious sect settled in Lancashire heeds the biblical injunction and chooses seven virgins 'for comfort and succour'. Basing her novel on the life of the real John Wroe, a leader of a group called the Christian Israelite Church, Rogers crafts an impeccable narrative, interweaving the diverse mindsets of some of the chosen women and the prophet during the nine months of complex interaction. Part morality tale, part history, packed with accurate details of early 19th century life, the stories of Leah, Joanna, Hannah and Martha unfold as they cope with the hypocrisy, blind beliefs and idealism of the sexually threatening prophet. Told with humour, irony and a generosity that embraces even the sinister Wroe, this is a compelling story of astonishing depth, elucidating religious idealism, the beginnings of socialism and the ubiquitous position of women as unpaid labourers.

Mr Wroe's Virgins

**Long-listed for the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize** **Short-listed for the 2013 Edge Hill Short Story Prize** A young textile designer quits Britain to work for a Nigerian women’s refuge, confident that this is her one chance to make a difference… A sixteen-year-old uses his first job, as a window-cleaner, to peer into other people’s lives and carefully plan his own… A leading scientist spends an evening trying to explain his latest theory to a man who could destroy him... The characters in Jane Rogers’ first short story collection are each blessed with an unwavering conviction. Buoyed up on self-belief, they enthuse, take calculated risks, and refuse to be deterred by the odds stacked against them. But just as Rogers’ compassion as a writer endears us to their cause, her keen eye shows how fine the balance can be between conviction and self-delusion. At times, her subject seems to be the fallibility of any point of view, the persistence of blind spots no matter how careful or intelligent the viewer. Hers are not unreliable narrators, merely human ones – diverse, contradictory, imperfect. Indeed it is often their flaws that beguile us. ‘There is nothing predictable about a Jane Rogers story. She has the confidence and skill to inhabit many different voices and different worlds. She slides the reader, in imagination, to a snow-bound France, to Africa, to the Caribbean: she takes us into offices and libraries, under the sea and into the forest, and also into the vast untrodden country of memory that we carry around inside. Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating.’ – Hilary Mantel 'Thrilling, ambitious stories that cross continents and soar from cells to stars.' – Maggie Gee ‘Warm, wise, insightful, sharply observed and beautifully written – each story is a world in microcosm.’ – Marina Lewycka 'This is her first collection of short stories, and it is beautiful.' - The Independent on Sunday

Hitting Trees with Sticks

Jane Rogers

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