In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan. Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

South is a haunting and hallucinatory reimagination of life in a world under totalitarianism, and an individual’s quest for truth, agency, and understanding. B, a journalist, travels to the South of an unnamed desert country for a mysterious mission to write a report about the recent strikes on an offshore oil rig. From the beginning of his trip, he is faced with a cruel and broken landscape of drought and decay, superstitious believers of evil winds and spirits, and corrupt entities focused on manipulation and censorship. As he tries to defend himself against his unknown enemies, we learn about his father’s disappearance, his fading love with his wife, and his encounter with an unknown woman. A puzzle-like novel about totalitarianism, surveillance, alienation, and guilt that questions the forces that control us.

A fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save. Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles herself, avoiding relationships or allegiances, and throws herself into her work—disengagement that serves her when the war finally ends, and The New Society arises. To ensure a lasting peace, The New Society forbids anything that may cause tribal loyalties, including traditional families. Suddenly, everyone must live as Miriam has chosen to—disconnected and unattached. A researcher at heart, Miriam becomes involved in implementing this detachment process. She does not know it is the beginning of a darkly sinister program that will transform this new world and the lives of everyone in it. Eventually, the harmful effects of her research become too much for Miriam, and she devises a secret plan to destroy the system from within, endangering her own life. But is her “confession” honest—or is it a fabrication riddled with lies meant to conceal the truth?

A sleepy little town discovers its memories have become part of the water cycle in Naomi Salman's debut novella, Nothing but the Rain. The rain in Aloisville is never-ending, and no one can remember when it started. There’s not much they can remember. With every drop that hits their skin, a bit of memory is washed away. Stay too long in the wet, and you’ll lose everything you used to be. By the time Laverne begins keeping a journal, the small town she calls home has been irreparably changed. Every drop of water is dangerous, from leaky faucets to the near-constant rainfall, and a careless trip outside can mean a life down the drain. With mysterious forces preventing escape, calls for rebellion seem to be on every resident’s lips. But Laverne has no interest in fighting. She has no interest in rebellion. She just wants to survive.

A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro.She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget.Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation.Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered.Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers..'Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout.' THE GUARDIAN UK

A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen's club. Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she's vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she's been missing. But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile. If she's not careful, she'll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love.

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls, forced to wear strange uniforms, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious armed jailers and a 'nurse'. Doing hard labour under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each girl's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue - but when the food starts running out it becomes clear that the jailers have also become the jailed. The girls can only rescue themselves.

Learning, by poet and filmmaker Courtney Bush, is a teacher's account of a Monday in a progressive NYC private preschool and daycare. The narrator, Courtney, spends her days in The Blue Room guiding her three-year-old students through the early lessons of their lives. Her consciousness flickers between the chaotic joy of the classroom and her life outside of work: the failure of a recent psilocybin trip her boyfriend took in her apartment; her relationship with her tyrannical, insecure boss; and the resurgence of grief over the death of a childhood friend. Learning is an insightful, funny and sincere novella, tracking one woman's constantly shifting attention over the course of a single day.

A rakish law student inherits his late mother's practice—and its beastly secrets—in this sumptuous gothic graphic-novel debut from Riotbones, perfect for fans of James Tynion IV and paranormal crime dramas. In the wake of his attorney mother's sudden death, dutiful law student Jude Aguilar returns to the town of Lazaro to take over her practice—but the only thing stranger than the peculiar cases she left behind are the clients themselves. As the cases unfold, Jude uncovers a tapestry of family secrets and local monsters. Can he save Lazaro, his mother's legacy, and himself before it all goes up in flames? The new-adult debut from queer creator Riotbones Coming-of-age paranormal horror meets crime drama An uncanny world inspired by Filipino and European history Lush, atmospheric, gothic graphic novel art The gloom of Emily Carroll meets the socio-political drama of Jose Rizal Step onto the streets of Lazaro, where justice and monstrosity blur and leave an indelible mark.

Learning, by poet and filmmaker Courtney Bush, is a teacher's account of a Monday in a progressive NYC private preschool and daycare. The narrator, Courtney, spends her days in The Blue Room guiding her three-year-old students through the early lessons of their lives. Her consciousness flickers between the chaotic joy of the classroom and her life outside of work: the failure of a recent psilocybin trip her boyfriend took in her apartment; her relationship with her tyrannical, insecure boss; and the resurgence of grief over the death of a childhood friend. Learning is an insightful, funny and sincere novella, tracking one woman's constantly shifting attention over the course of a single day.

'This book is an act of excavation, and an act of remembering.'As Kim Willis drifts from the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, she yearns for a new set of stories to light her way. Here, she is pulled towards the source of the Severn, hearing whispers of ancient shape-shifting enchantresses, scaly nymphs and goddesses who once commanded our lands. These are no fair maidens, but powerful warrioresses and animalistic beasts, snaking along the edges of watery places where we meet the otherworld in the shadows.As she uncovers the ancient myths hidden in the rugged landscapes of the British Isles, the stories of women like Arianrhod, Melusine and Cerridwen awaken a forgotten power. Journeying from the Severn to Skye, Eryri to Northumberland, Kim discovers new magic in the tales of old, unveiling forgotten truths about grief and healing, while charting a new course through sisterhood and sexuality, fertility and freedom.Through the threads of folklore, history and landscape, Kim identifies a better way of being for modern women, and crafts a new vision for Britain where women are - and always were - a force of nature.

Head Chef Jun Li keeps a mermaid in a run-down Morningside Heights bathroom, where he carves him up, piece by piece, at the behest of the wealthy Winslow family who funded his rise from his parents’ Flushing restaurant to Michelin-starred chef. As he butchers to satisfy the family’s increasingly voracious appetite, the neurotoxic flesh drives the family toward paranoia, sexual obsession, and madness, while an unsettling intimacy blooms between chef and ingredient. Jun must decide how much of himself—and his captive—he’s willing to sacrifice to prove he belongs among Manhattan’s gilded elite, all with a second Michelin star hanging in the balance. For fans of Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and Mark Mylod’s film The Menu, this stunning literary horror, with a satirical edge, is a delightfully dark journey through desire and greed that begs to be talked about.