Helen Oyeyemi

Margaret Atwood

Rachel Seiffert

Stella Duffy

Caroline O'Donoghue

Kamila Shamsie

Kirsty Logan

Emma Donoghue

Linda Grant

Ali Smith

Chibundu Onuzo

Eleanor Crewes

Susie Boyt

Claire Kohda

Cn Lester

DRAGON. TIGRESS. SHE-DEVIL.
For centuries past, and all across the world,
HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH.
there are words that have defined and decried us.
HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE.
Words that raise our hackles,
VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT.
fire up our blood;
FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO.
words that tell a story.

In this blazing cauldron of a book, fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.

Stories of the wicket, wild and untamed

Furies

"From the award-winning author of the Booker Prize-short-listed The Dark Room, a startling portrait of the Nazis' arrival in Ukraine as they move to implement the final solution Otto Pohl, an engineer overseeing construction of a German road in Ukraine, awakens to the unexpected sight of SS men herding hundreds of Jews into an old brick factory. Inside the factory, Ephraim anxiously scans the growing crowd, looking for his two sons. As anxious questions swirl around him--"Where are they taking us? How long will we be gone?"--he can't quell the suspicion that it would be just like his oldest son to hole up somewhere instead of lining up for the Germans, and just like his youngest to follow. Yasia, a farmer's daughter who has come into town to sell produce, sees two young boys slinking through the shadows of the deserted streets and decides to offer them shelter. As these lives become more and more intertwined--Rachel Seiffert's prose rich with a rare compassion, courage, and emotional depth, an unflinching story is told: of survival, of conflicting senses of duty, of the oppressive power of fear and the possibility of courage in the face of terror"--

A Boy in Winter

The Dark Room tells the stories of three ordinary Germans: Helmut, a young photographer in Berlin in the 1930s who uses his craft to express his patriotic fervour; Lore, a twelve-year-old girl who in 1945 guides her young siblings across a devastated Germany after her Nazi parents are seized by the Allies; and, fifty years later, Micha, a young teacher obsessed with what his loving grandfather did in the war, struggling to deal with the past of his family and his country.

The Dark Room

Follows the lives of three ordinary Germans, a boy who works as a photographer during the 1930s, a teenage girl who journeys through occupied Germany in search of her grandmother, and a young man seeking the truth about his grandfather, imprisoned by theRussians.

Lore

The history of twentieth-century Germany is revealed through the lives of three ordinary Germans--a boy born with a physical deformity who works as a photographer during the 1930s, a teenage girl who takes her younger siblings on a journey through occupied Germany in search of her grandmother, and young man seeking the truth about his grandfather, imprisoned by the Russians. A first novel. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room, powerfully evokes our need for human connection in this dazzling and haunting group of stories. Set against immense political upheaval, or evoking the intimate struggles between men and women, parents and children, this astonishing collection charts our desire for love, our fragility, and our strength. From the title piece, in which a young biologist conceals his discoveries at a polluted river from a local woman, to the family aided by an enemy in “The Crossing,” to the old man weighing his regrets in “Francis John Jones, 1924–” Seiffert’s acclaimed, refined prose movingly captures the lives of her characters in their most essential, secret moments.

Field Study

The new novel, another remarkable story of the complexities of guilt and moral responsibility, from the Booker-shortlisted author of THE DARK ROOM and FIELD STUDY.

Afterwards

Growing up in a Glasgow community haunted by Ireland's Troubles and religious divides, young Stevie finds his precarious family stability and sense of self threatened by his father's marching band's loyalist paramilitary ties. By the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Dark Room. 20,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Walk Home

Philippe Sands

Christy Lefteri

Robert Macfarlane

Dina Nayeri

Shami Chakrabarti

Simon Smith

Maurizio Veglio

Natalia Sierra

Khodadad Mohammadi

Amy Sackville

Kyon Ferril

Bidisha

Seventy years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UK is guilty of undermining the very principles of asylum, inhumanely detaining those seeking protection and ushering in sweeping changes that threaten to punish refugees at every turn. But the UK’s immigration system is not alone in committing such breaches of human rights. The fourth volume of Refugee Tales explores our present international environment, combining author re-tellings with first-hand accounts of individuals who have been detained across the world. As the coronavirus pandemic defies borders – leaving those who are detained even more vulnerable – this collection shares stories spanning Canada, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and calls for international insistence on a future without detention. Edited by Anna Pincus & David Herd. ‘Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Every page is filled with quiet dignity.’ – Shobu Kapoor ‘A courageous book’ – Jackie Kay Part of the Refugee Tales series.

Volume IV

Refugee Tales

To love someone, need you know everything about them? When Alice and Joseph meet, they fall quickly into a tentative but serious relationship. Both are still young and hopeful of each other, but each brings with them an emotional burden. Alice's family is full of absences and Joseph harbours an unspeakable secret from his time in the army in Northern Ireland. When Alice's widowed grandfather begins to tell Joseph about his RAF experiences in 1950s Kenya, something still raw is tapped in Joseph; his reaction to the older man's unburdening of guilt is both unexpected and devastating for them all.

In "The Dark Room," the experiences of three people are evoked with stunning emotional depth and psychological authenticity. A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer's assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera. In the weeks following Germany's surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother. Many years after the event, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him has his own tainted past to contend with. With dazzling originality and to profound effect, Rachel Seiffert has recreated one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century.

Early on a gray November morning in 1941, a small Ukrainian town is overrun by the SS. Penned in with his fellow Jews, a father anxiously awaits word of his two sons, while a young woman, come to fetch her sweetheart away from the invaders, must confront new and harsh truths about those closest to her. At the same time, a German engineer, here to avoid a war he considers criminal, is faced with an even greater crime unfolding behind the lines and no one but himself to turn to. And in the midst of it all, a boy determined to survive must throw in his lot with strangers. As their stories weave together, each of these characters comes to know the compromises demanded by survival, the oppressive power of fear, and the possibility of courage in the face of terror.

Stevie comes from a long line of people who have cut and run. Just like he has. Only he’s not so sure he was right to go. He’s been to London, taught himself to get by, and now he’s working as a laborer not so far from his childhood home in Glasgow. But Stevie hasn’t told his family—what’s left of them—that he’s back. Not yet. He’s also not far from his uncle Eric, another one who left—for love this time. Stevie’s toughened himself up against that emotion. And as for his mother, Lindsey . . . well, she ran her whole life. From her father and Ireland, from her husband, and eventually from Stevie, too. Moving between Stevie’s contemporary Glaswegian life and the story of his parents when they were young, The Walk Home is a powerful novel about the risk of love, and the madness and betrayals that can split a family. Without your past, who are you? Where does it leave you when you go against your family, turn your back on your home; when you defy the world you grew up in? If you cut your ties, will you cut yourself adrift? Yearning to belong exerts a powerful draw, and Stevie knows there are still people waiting for him to walk home. An extraordinarily deft and humane writer, Rachel Seiffert tells us the truth about love and about hope. This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

Rachel Seiffert’s first book, The Dark Room, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, announced the arrival of a major writer; Afterwards fulfills that promise with a stunning novel about war and its brutal after-effect. Alice is the protagonist of Afterwards, but this book is about the guilt harboured by people around her. There are two men in her life: her maternal grandfather, David, recently widowed, and her boyfriend, Joseph, each of whom keeps his past from his loved ones. David served in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion; Joseph, during a stint in the British army, served in Northern Ireland. Both, we learn, live with the memory of having killed in the line of duty. As Alice’s relationship with Joseph develops, she senses there is something about his past that he keeps hidden. This is particularly galling given the personal and emotional details she has revealed to him (namely, that Alice has never met her father, and her attempts to establish an epistolary relationship with him in adulthood foundered). After her grandmother’s death, Alice finds the time spent with her grandfather awkward. She doesn’t know him the way she did her grandmother, but feels obliged to visit and offer support. Gradually, it emerges that David’s cold manner is traceable to events in Kenya, where he and his wife met. And as Alice tries to get to the bottom of Joseph’s reticence, a series of heated family discussions brushes ever closer to David’s secrets.

La camera oscura

Rachel Seiffert verwerkte in Lore de ervaring van haar op dat moment elfjarige moeder en haar tante, die beiden na de capitulatie in de zomer van 1945 door het gedemoraliseerde en verwoeste nazi-Duitsland trokken. Met de roman kwam ze op de shortlist van zowel de Booker Prize als de Orange Prize. Nu is de roman verfilmd en weer raken velen in de ban van dit ongewoon krachtig en sensueel vertelde verhaal. Arnon Grunberg schreef in de Volkskrant: `We kijken naar de wereld door de ogen van daders en hun kinderen. Zonder onze kennis van nu, dus zonder de voorgeschreven afschuw. Lore is zeer de moeite waard.

Die dunkle Kammer

Stevie comes from a long line of people who have cut and run. Just like he has. Stevie's been to London, taught himself to get by, and now he's working as a labourer not so far from his childhood home in Glasgow. But he's not told his family - what's left of them - that he's back. Not yet. He's also not far from his Uncle Eric's house: another one who left - for love this time. Stevie's toughened himself up against that emotion. And as for his own mother, Lindsey ... well, she ran her whole life. From her father and Ireland, from her husband, and eventually from Stevie too. This is a powerful novel about the risk of love, and the madness and betrayals that can split a family. If you cut your ties, will you cut yourself adrift? Rachel Seiffert is an extraordinarily deft and humane writer who tells us the truth about love and about hope.

Rachel Seiffert

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