Books

Fiction

Learning to Talk to Plants

by Marta Orriols

“Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes” (Learning to Talk to Plants)by Marta Orriols – Debut novel (Literary/Upmarket) Original publisher/language: Ed. del Periscopi (Catalan, 2018) Rights sold: Lumen (Spanish), Seuil (French), Ponte alle Grazie (Italian), DTV (German), Hakursa/9Lives (Hebrew), Prometheus (Dutch), Sonia Draga (Polish), Dom Quixote (Portuguese, excl Brazil), Pushkin Press (World English), United Sky (Simplified Chinese), Kastaniotis (Greece). Paula, the narrator and main character, is 40 years old, she’s a neonatologist and she is alive. But her life-long boyfriend Mauro suddenly died in an accident. In the first pages of the novel, we are astonished by the intensity and the precision with which the narrator tells about losing a partner all of a sudden and how, before the accident, death was something so far away from them. But after a few pages, when we feel we are reading a very good novel about mourning a loved one, a very unexpected revelation comes to light: Only a few hours before he dies, Mauro tells Paula that he is in love with another woman and that their relationship has come to an end. It is at this point when the novel becomes something new, original, powerful and different. This unexpected death and the previous revelation leave Paula astonished and completely lost. The reader will witness how she walks a path that will confront her with her feelings of rage, fear, desire, grieve and the need to survive and reconstruct herself. Deeply moving and surprising, Learning to Talk to Plants is a delicate and intimate novel written from the point of view of a woman who needs to come to terms with a life she can no longer recognize.

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April 2021

TO THE MOON

by Jang Ryujin

TO THE MOON is centered around three young women in their thirties working mundane jobs at a snack manufacturer. Despite coming from different departments, they bond over their similar backgrounds of humble origins, being considered average performers, and lacking prestigious positions.The story follows Eun-sang, the eldest of the group, who constantly seeks ways to earn extra money but faces trouble for her office mini mart. Jisong, the youngest, dreams of a perfect romance with her Taiwanese boyfriend and spends her low salary on trips to Taipei. The narrator, Dahae, works in the Snacks department and endures an incompetent team leader while struggling to support her injured mother and find a better apartment.During a lunch gathering, Eun-sang excitedly reveals her discovery of Ethereum, a cryptocurrency rivaling Bitcoin. She invests her savings, hoping to make enough money to quit her job. Intrigued, Dahae opens an account, while Jisong remains skeptical. As the Ethereum price fluctuates, Dahae and Eun-sang’s friendship evolves, causing tension with Jisong. Despite threats of breaking up, Dahae and Eun-sang desperately want to share their newfound wealth with Jisong.And then, China outlaws crypto ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), and the market crashes......The title, TO THE MOON, symbolizes Eun-sang’s belief that they should hold on until Ethereum’s price skyrockets. Set in modern Seoul, the novel explores class divisions, gender inequality, and unattainable wealth. It unfolds with a thrilling pace akin to a heist movie, delving into the complexities of female friendship and materialistic desires. Jang aims to create a bittersweet experience, akin to consuming excessive sugar—initially sweet, but with an aftertaste that lacks pleasantness.

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Fiction

Sweet Introduction to Chaos

by Marta Orriols

Sweet Introduction to Caos, by Marta Orriols Full tex available in Catalan and Spanish German Rights sold to DTV What happens to the pain that arises from a feeling that we didn't even know we harbored? What about the silence that is created around a desire that we cannot share and that we can only repress? Marta and Daniel have recently been a couple and react differently to the news of an unexpected pregnancy. For a week they will feel lost, walking in a limbo of doubts and indecisions that will make them rethink themselves as individuals and as a couple. In a world obsessed with resolutions, this story does not admit polarities and forces us to flee from mere black and white debates. And to stop and closely look at nuances and uncertainties. An invitation to swim in the sea of contradictions that the possibility of fatherhood and motherhood becomes. The will, instinct, freedom, social and political structures that affect our privacy are questioned here by the gaze of a man and a woman and the masterly skill of Marta Orriols when it comes to dissect intimacy and emotions.

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This House of Clay and Water

by Faiqa Mansab

Set in Lahore, This House of Clay and Water explores the lives of two women. Nida, intelligent and lonely, has married into an affluent political family and is desperately searching for some meaning in her existence; and impulsive, lovely Sasha, from the ordinary middle-class, whose longing for designer labels and upmarket places is so frantic that she willingly consorts with rich men who can provide them. Nida and Sasha meet at the famous Daata Sahib dargah and connect—their need to understand why their worlds feel so alien and empty, bringing them together. On her frequent visits to the dargah, Nida meets the gentle, flute-playing hijra Bhanggi, who sits under a bargadh tree and yearns for acceptance and affection, but is invariably shunned. A friendship— fragile, tentative and tender—develops between the two, both exiles within their own lives; but it flies in the face of all convention and cannot be allowed. Faiqa Mansab’s accomplished and dazzling debut novel explores the themes of love, betrayal and loss in the complex, changing world of today’s Pakistan.

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The Silk Pavilion

by Sarah Walton

A steamy upmarket psychological thriller set in Deià on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Lucy’s on assignment. The wild reclusive writer awaits her arrival in his Mallorcan home. She wants the story of his life. He wants her to become part of it. Villa Rosa hides a dark secret. Beneath Deià’s sunny olive groves are the bodies of a generation. Spain’s unearthed shadow entwines with Lucy’s as her own skeletons start to rattle out of her closet. Will she uncover the truth before it’s too late, or replay the pattern of her childhood abuse?' The backstory of the book, those 'bodies of a generation', is the Spanish Civil War. The ruling that declared that no acts from the war, even rape and murder, can be investigated or guilt attributed, is being challenged in Spain just now. It's also a deep psychological thriller, a woman coming to see how her sexual behaviour is dictated by childhood trauma.

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Memoirs

July 2016

Shopped

A True Story of Secret Shopping and Self-Discovery

by Emily Stott

‘I headed alone for Knightsbridge – a strange choice for a skint teenager – and it was there that I fell in love for the first time. The dress was little, black and slightly frou-frou, and I knew on sight that it was the one.’ Ever wondered why you have three versions of the same top but want to buy another? Or why some shop mirrors are more flattering than others? And whether we really only wear 20 per cent of our wardrobe 80 per cent of the time? Emily Stott is passionate about high street fashion. Her Saturday morning shopping trips as a child led to jobs both on the shop floor and in the offices of upmarket stores. But it was while writing about fashion brands for magazines and simultaneously spying as a mystery shopper that she gained a whole new insight into fashion retail. Now a stylist, Emily Stott writes with warmth and wit on the pleasures of dressing up, the trials of growing up and learning how to shop for yourself. Full of insider knowledge, Shopped is a funny and engaging story about the pursuit of style. You’ll never shop in the same way again.

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Travel & holiday guides

November 2016

Oman 4

by Bradt Guides

Bradt’s is the most up-to-date and informative guide to Oman, the Arabian peninsula’s most welcoming destination, fully revised and updated by an author who has been living in Oman and Arabia since 1986. Oman is finally reaping the economic benefit of its location between Europe, Africa and Asia with substantial investment in major shipping ports and significant expansion of the national airline with new routes to Western Europe and East Asia. Despite being at the crossroads of great trade routes and empires, Oman has remained an independent country through much of its long history, and today tourism and travel are a major focus for Oman’s government. This new edition covers the recent substantial investment in new airport facilities and upmarket accommodation and also features the historic UNESCO towns of Sumhuram and Al Balid. If you want to live like a local, the guide also tells you how to slow cook the traditional spiced meat ‘Shuwa’ and how to be a perfect guest if invited into an Omani home. Oman is not merely a desert. While it has the classic sand seas – Wahiba Sands – home to the nomadic Bedouin and their camels, this sultanate also boasts lush monsoon-soaked valleys near Salalah, mountain villages surrounded by green terraced fields of fruit trees and rose bushes, and the reef-fringed Daymaniyat Islands. With such a varied wilderness there is huge scope for adventure. Oman is increasingly perceived as a high-end cultural destination. The new Opera House has opened, directly supported by the Sultan, with top-notch international performers like Placido Domingo. The guide includes advice on property buying, since Omani law changed to allow expatriates to buy, explaining the rules and regulations. There is also a detailed overview of language schools teaching Arabic, not found in other guides. With advice on cultural etiquette, basic Arabic phrases and political history – as well as full practical information on where to stay and eat, and what to see and do – this fully updated edition remains the essential guide for travellers looking to discover the real Oman.

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Romance

October 2014

The Perils of Skinny-dipping

by Julie Sandilands

Readership: Women's fiction Genre: Romance/adventure Manuscript length 65,000 words Abbey Harris is a successful, career woman and enjoys a comfortable life style in the leafy Cheshire suburbs. One Sunday, she spots an advertisement for volunteers to work on an ecological project in the north of Botswana, and impulsively applies. Abbey arrives in Kasane, ready to complete a one year contract with an international charity, working in the forestry unit. A few months into her contract, Abbey meets Darren, a diamond prospector, falls in love, and marries. As Abbey settles into her new life, she has to battle her way through black magic, arson and a poisonous snake lurking under her bed. To add to her problems she also has to contend with Anna, a stunning South African, who is determined to rekindle a relationship with Darren, undermining Abbey’s confidence whenever she can. Abbey has two colleagues, Richard and Phil, who have both run away from responsibilities and failures at home in the England. Richard is an emotionally dysfunctional man, who in a bid to dominate others, treats people, especially women, with disdain and suspicion. His attitude towards the Batswana women whom he uses for his personal gratification, demonstrates an inability to interact with the opposite sex in a meaningful way. Richard’s growing frustration of his two colleagues result in him devising a plot which he thinks will eliminate both of them out of his life forever. Just as Abbey thinks she is settled and her problems are behind her, the sudden death of her mother forces her to temporarily return to the UK. Here, she has to not only reassess her feelings, and come to terms the loss of her mother, but finds herself on a collision course with her estranged father. The rift between father and daughter is not just one of geographical distance, but deep rooted in an upbringing Abbey struggles to come to terms with. Local characters are also important to the story, their individual accounts intertwined around the two main characters. Each character is based on a person who was/is known by the author. Names and other personal details have been changed; however, both Botswana and the Batswana have been portrayed as a proud, gracious race of people who readily accept newcomers into their hearts and communities. The story takes the reader from Gaborone in the south, to Kasane in the north. The Perils of Skinny-dipping is a love story which documents one woman’s desire to find inner peace and create a meaningful life which has so far eluded her. It also describes the beauty and uniqueness of a country which enjoys both political and economic stability, and, reflects on its achievements as well as its problems. It observes the interaction between rich and poor, black and white, as they strive to live in harmony side by side

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Mon nom était écrit sur l'eau

by Olivier Bleys

Welcome to the Spautz family business, embalmers since 1857. Death has been part of young Gabriel Spautz’s life as far back as he can remember. At the age of four, he examined his first stiff. At the age of six, he was familiar with all of the cemeteries in the country. At the age of fifteen, and to his family’s great satisfaction, he could prepare a corpse for burial. And yet, despite (or perhaps due to) all of his father’s efforts, this is not Gabriel’s calling. He sincerely tries to become an undertaker, but he simply is not cut out for it. At the Training Center for Careers in Mortuary Services, his certainties give way to doubt. Betray his family? Gabriel will choose life.

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Adventure

The Assassin The Grey Man and The Surgeon

by D C Stansfield

It was all going so well for Peter Lee’s drug empire. He had a hold on the producers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His receiver network was increasing and the distribution was now being handled by four of the biggest gangs in London. With business so good, he was starting to expand. He was becoming very, very rich.The only small annoyance had come from a little old lady who owned of all things a corner shop. She had refused to accept any of his special parcels and wanted to go to the police, so she’d been given two bullets, the ‘double tap’, both to shut her up and to send a message to everyone else in the network.Unknown to Lee she was married to a specialist, a man who, in a former life killed men for a living. He had two friends, one a gatherer of information, the master in his field, one a breaker of men, who was so vicious that it was rumoured that each time he hit a man he cut him. Each of these three men had spent thirty years and more playing the ‘great game’. Inside the security company called ‘The Firm’ they were legends known only as The Assassin, The Grey Man and The Surgeon.Now living at the edge of the secret world and about to disappear into history, this atrocity had brought them back centre stage but the question is, do they still have what it takes to go up against today’s hard men?

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Fiction

The Picture Bride

by Lee Geumyi

AN UPMARKET COMMERCIAL NOVEL about three Korean women in 1910 who are mail-order brides ("picture brides") to Korean laborers in Hawaii. They escape their lives of oppression dreaming of better circumstances in America, but things in Hawaii don't quite turn out the way they expect. A great plot and voice, the descriptions of immigrant life in Hawaii in the early 20th century are so vivid, and I think you'll REALLY like these three women, they're kind of fabulous; strong female characters grappling with social change.Complete English translation available (400 pages)

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Fiction

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

by Satoshi Yagisawa

25-year-old Takako has lived a relatively easy life. Born and raised on the southern island of Kyushu, she went to a good university and got a graduate job at a company in Tokyo where she met her charming boyfriend, Kashikoi. However, when Kashikoi casually announces that he’s been cheating on her and is planning to marry somebody else, Takako’s life is suddenly in freefall. She loses her job and with it all of her friends and acquaintances. She ends up in a deep depression but just as her despair seems to have reached a new low, she receives a call from her distant uncle. Her uncle, who she refers to as Ojisan, is in his forties and has always lived something of an unconventional life, especially since his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years ago. He runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district which is home to hundreds of used bookshops, publishing houses and literary societies. Takako used to turn her nose up at Ojisan’s way of life but when he offers her the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store, she reluctantly agrees. In the months that follow, Takako surprises herself by discovering a passion for Japanese literature from the “Modern” period (1868–1945), partly thanks to recommendations from Ojisan and the bookshop’s loyal customers. She becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she befriends a graduate student who is waitressing there part-time, and she also meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup. Just as Takako is learning how to enjoy life again, Kashikoi gets back in touch which unearths all the negative emotions associated with their relationship. Ojisan notices the decline in Takako’s mood and when she finally tells him the whole story he is horrified at Kashikoi’s behaviour. Ojisan convinces Takako to take a cab to Kashikoi’s apartment at 11pm. They confront him and this gives Takako the closure she needs. Takako is infinitely grateful to Ojisan and her life starts to come back together again: she’s offered a job at a design company and she finds a new apartment. A year and a half later, Takako has the chance to return the favour and help Ojisan get closure on the mystery that has plagued him for the last five years: why his loving wife Momoko suddenly left him. When Momoko reappears and refuses to explain her absence, Takako senses that Momoko might not be comfortable sharing her reasoning with Ojisan but that she may open up to Takako. Momoko moves into the room above the bookshop and Takako visits often. They form a bond and go on a two-day trip to the Okutama Mountains in far western Tokyo. There, Momoko confesses that she left because Ojisan got so wrapped up in the bookshop that he was oblivious to the emotional turmoil she went through after the birth of their stillborn child. She always wanted children but had to have a hysterectomy. For her, it is all tied up in the guilt surrounding an abortion she had in her twenties. Takako tells Ojisan. He runs after Momoko, who is leaving again. She says she’ll return one day but he needs to get his own feelings in order before she comes back. When Momoko returns a year later, she and Ojisan enthusiastically embark on the next chapter of running the Morisaki Bookshop together, and Takako has begun to date the editor she met at the coffee shop.

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Scorpio

by Stella Andromeda

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Taurus

by Stella Andromeda

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Closer Than Breathing

A Light Gay Odyssey

by Alan. Keslian

The world of antiquarian book sales may seem light years away from that of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but events lead Ben, a young gay man, to forge a route between them. He navigates his way through a clutch of odd, eccentric people, including drug dealers, goths, psychics, veteran author Loyd Larcher and ageing rock musicians Rick Schwagger and Heath Prityards. Ben survives the dangers of the world of sex, drugs and rock and roll, engaging all comers with goodwill and good humour. Making use of opportunities along the way to achieve success, he ghost writes a rock star’s autobiography, and finds true love with a level headed and down to earth boyfriend. Together they deal with life’s distractions, enticements and challenges. Whilst the ‘straight’ world around them becomes ever more weird and out of control, the couple are determined to be true to themselves and each other.

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The Subscription Boom

Why an Old Business Model is the Future of Commerce

by Adam Levinter

In this clear and informed guide to the business model that’s set to dominate twenty-first-century commerce, Adam Levinter makes a compelling case that the phenomenal success of companies like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Salesforce wouldn’t be possible without the foundation they all have in common: subscription. A surge of subscription boxes in 2012 earned buzz for offering everything from razors to meal kits to underwear; since then the model has proven to be adaptable, profitable, and resilient, even as many traditional retailers struggle to stay relevant in the digital economy. Levinter takes a close look at the leaders of the subscription economy to pinpoint the essential elements of the model, and prove that while the basic concept may be as old as magazines, the ubiquity of the internet is enabling a new way for businesses to scale and succeed. The Subscription Boom shows that the appeal to both customers and businesses makes subscription a smart play for virtually any business. Author: Adam Levinter is the Founder and President of Scriberbase. He has extensive experience as a founder, operator, and advisor building companies and providing strategic guidance to senior executives. Adam also teaches at the University of Toronto, and is the creator and host of the popular podcast E2: Entrepreneurs Exposed.

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Food & Drink

September 2018

Brick Lane Cookbook

by Dina Begum

Brick Lane is famous for many things: for being home to the biggest Bangladeshi community in the UK, for its curry houses and Bengali sweet shops, for its graffiti, its long-running market and its beigel shops. Now, its also increasingly well known for its thriving art and fashion scene and the incredible street food available there. Dina Begum has been a regular visitor since she was a little girl eating lamb kofta rolls with her dad at the Sweet & Spicy cafe. In her first book, she celebrates Brick Lane's diverse food cultures: from the homestyle Bangladeshi curries she grew up eating to her own luscious and indulgent cakes, from Chinese-style burgers to classic Buffalo wings, from smoothie bowls to raw coffee brownies. With contributions from street food traders and restaurants including Gram Bangla, Beigel Bake, Blanchette, Chez Elles, St Sugar of London, Cafe 1001 and Moo Cantina, the Brick Lane Cookbook is a culinary map of the East End's tastiest street and a snapshot of London at its authentic, multi-cultural best.

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The Whiskey Handbook

The Essential Guide to All Things Whiskey

by Daniel O'Sullivan

Enjoy this world-wide celebration of whiskey. Discover the history of whiskey, learn how it is made, explore whiskey from all over the world, and learn how best to serve and drink it.

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Writing & editing guides

February 2014

101 Writers Short Blurb Examples

by Quentin Cope

101 Short Blurb Examples With a limited amount of space available on a web page and with only a ‘thumbnail’ size image to wet your potential reader’s appetite, the ‘short blurb’ of up to 100 words becomes more and more important in the process of promoting your work as a writer. It’s now recognized as part of the smart marketing process, inviting a browsing reader to delve more into your Web link, eventually opening up your book … and reading the first few pages. Some fortunate individuals, along with many traditionally published authors, will have professionals employed to write ‘blurb’ for them, but the rest of us simply have to buckle down and get on with what is considered by many to be one of the most difficult processes of being a self-published writer. So, this little book will hopefully provide you with some useful assistance along the way by offering up 101 actual ‘blurbs’ written in short form and containing no more than 100 words. They are loosely edited into ten different subject headings, or writer’s genre, with ten examples under each heading, except for the last one, where there are eleven. After each example, a further distillation of the same subject matter is provided, defined widely with a certain amount of writer’s license, as a ‘Single Sentence’ … and both containing a word count as a confirmation of size. This is the second in the 101 series by the same author and a follow on from the very popular 501 series books for writers, potential writers and simply those of us who have an urge to get that sometimes elusive story down on paper.

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Crime & mystery

October 2014

MALICIOUS

by JAMES RAVEN

THE KINDLE BESTSELLER - 70,000 DOWNLOADS IN ONE WEEKSEND! 'Cover up your webcams or suffer the consequences.' He calls himself the Slave Master. He spies on women through their webcams. Then he spies on those who unknowingly reveal their secrets to him. His last victim was brutally murdered. Now he's targeting the cop in charge of the investigation. To him she's perfect prey - because she has secrets of her own.

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by Marta Orriols

by Jang Ryujin

by Marta Orriols

by Faiqa Mansab

by Sarah Walton

A True Story of Secret Shopping and Self-Discovery

by Emily Stott

by Bradt Guides

by Julie Sandilands

by Olivier Bleys

by D C Stansfield

by Lee Geumyi

by Satoshi Yagisawa

by Stella Andromeda

by Stella Andromeda

A Light Gay Odyssey

by Alan. Keslian

Why an Old Business Model is the Future of Commerce

by Adam Levinter

by Dina Begum

The Essential Guide to All Things Whiskey

by Daniel O'Sullivan

by Quentin Cope

by JAMES RAVEN

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