Bird School by Adam Nicolson 10th April (£22.00)
Close to Adam Nicolson’s home in Sussex, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles which is the haunt of many birds – nightingales, the occasional cuckoo, ravens, robins and owls. This gorgeous book charts his attempt to encounter birds, to look and listen, to return to ‘bird school’ and see what it might teach him.
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori 24th April (16.99)
In our near-future world, children are solely conceived by artificial insemination. Even sex between married couples is viewed as taboo. But Amane's family is irregular; her parents copulated to create her and hope that she too will find love and have a child with the person she marries. But Amane falls in line with society's way of thinking and wants a regular 'clean' marriage. Then she hears of a place that is the subject of a social experiment. Everyone in Paradise-Eden will act as one big family. Could this be the perfect third way?
We Are Not Numbers by Edited by Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey 24th April (£14.99)
These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognised not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams and lives worth living.
Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli 24th April (£16.99)
Thomas, a young German musician, is dying. His older boyfriend, a renowned Italian writer named Leo, finds it impossible to watch the slow and inevitable demise of his lover; he condemns himself to moving cities every few weeks instead, in the hope of finding a semblance of peace. He travels through Europe where past and present overlap, years merge and faces emerge - and where reminders of the life he and Thomas shared are on every corner.
Wild Fictions by Amitav Ghosh 10th April (£20.00)
Wild Fictions brings together Amitav Ghosh's extraordinary writing on the subjects that have obsessed him over the last twenty-five years: literature and language; climate change and the environment; human lives, travel, and discoveries. Wild Fictions is a powerful refutation of imperial violence, a fascinating exploration of the fictions we weave to absorb history, and a reminder of the importance of empathy.
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix Translated by Helen Stevenson 23rd April (£12.99)
In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died. The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls.
38 Londres Street by Philippe QC Sands 3rd April (£25.00)
A blend of personal memoir, historical detective work and gripping courtroom drama unfolds a secret double story of mass murder, one that reveals a shocking thread that links the horrors of the 1940s with those of our own times.
Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who by John Higgs 10th April (£25.00)
From the politics of fandom to the inner struggles of the BBC, thousands of people have given part of themselves to bring this unlikeliest of folk heroes to life. This is a story of change, mystery and the importance of imaginary characters in our lives. In Exterminate/ Regenerate, John Higgs invites us into his TARDIS on a journey to discover how ideas emerge and survive despite the odds, why we are so addicted to fiction, and why this wonderful wandering time traveller means so much to so many.
Get tickets for our event with John!
Open, Heaven by Sean Hewitt 24th April (£16.99)
On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire threatens to unravel his shy exterior. Then he meets Luke. With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives.
The Expanded Earth by Mikey Please 3rd April (£22.00)
Humankind has been reduced to the height of handspan - a transformation that is both potentially lethal and exasperatingly inconvenient. On a remote coastal path, Giles awakes in his new body to discover a world reshaped and magnified into a place of astounding abundance and deadly peril. Elsewhere, one week earlier, Professor Elizabeth Goodwin makes a monumental discovery - God is alive and physically among us, but not in the form we've been taught to expect. Dark, witty, and wildly ambitious, The Expanded Earth is a high-stakes adventure packed with jeopardy and life-affirming beauty.
Mere by Danielle Giles 3rd April (£16.99)
Norfolk, 990 AD. Deep in the Fens, isolated by a vast and treacherous mere, an order of holy sisters make their home. Under the steely guidance of Abbess Sigeburg they follow God’s path, looking to their infirmarian, Hilda, to provide what comfort and cures she can. But when the mere takes a young servant boy, Sigeburg’s grip falters and Hilda quickly realizes this place holds secrets darker and more unholy than she can fathom. Then proud Sister Wulfrun, a recent arrival to the convent, has a vision: a curse is upon them and change must be brought.
The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes 10th April (£16.99)
Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983. Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument.
Her mother likes to bring conversation back to the War, although she was born after it ended. At the end of a visit, she reports 'the usual desire to kill'. A wry, propulsive, exquisitely observed story of a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them.
plus the books you've been waiting to come out in paperback!
Penguin are launching the 'Penguin Archive' series with the publication of 90 short books to celebrate 90 years of the publisher. The list has been curated by 16 Penguin Classics editors and covers authors from Poe, Austen and Wells in the 1930s to the 21st century, when Mary Gaitskill, Tove Ditlevsen and Wang Xiaobo joined the list.
