An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas. Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

In den lateinamerikanischen Ländern, in denen die Männer das Sagen haben, gibt es dennoch ein paar weibliche Ikonen - der Kunst, der Politik, der Revolution. Neben Frida Kahlo und Evita Perón gehört Gioconda Belli zu den exemplarischen Frauenfiguren des Kontinents. Blutjung heiratet die hinreißend schöne Nicaraguanerin aus guter Familie einen nichtssagenden Mann und schließt sich bald nach der Heirat, teils aus Abenteuerlust, teils aus Empörung über die krassen sozialen Gegensätze, dem Widerstand gegen die Diktatur in ihrem Land an. Von Anfang an ist aber auch die Liebe im Spiel - jetzt wie auch später vermischt sich bei Belli das Private mit ihrem Dasein als Revolutionärin. Lange führt sie ein Doppelleben: Sie ist ihren beiden kleinen Töchtern eine hingebungsvolle Mutter und unternimmt gleichzeitig gefährliche Kurierdienste, liefert Waffen ab, nimmt teil an klandestinen Treffen, beherbergt gesuchte Guerilleros. In einen von ihnen verliebt sie sich auch, und die Intensität ihrer Liebe wird noch erhöht durch die Ungewißheit, ob der Partner oder sie selbst den nächsten Tag erleben wird. Sie beginnt Gedichte zu schreiben und wird als Lyrikerin gefeiert, lernt Fidel Castro, García Márquez und Salman Rushdie kennen. Beschattet und verfolgt, flieht Gioconda ins Exil - erst nach Mexiko, dann nach Costa Rica. Als das Volk sich auf die Seite der sandinistischen Revolutionäre stellt und sich gegen die verhaßte Diktatur der Somozas erhebt - die 45 Jahre lang das Land wie ihren Privatbesitz regiert und ausgeplündert haben -, kehrt sie in die Heimat zurück. Als Direktorin des Fernsehens und in der politischen Bildung spielt sie eine wichtige Rolle im Kulturleben ihres Landes, erlebt aber auch, wie bitter die Früchte des Sieges sein können.

Für Irina ist der neue Job ein Glücksfall. Die junge Frau soll für die Millionärin Alma Belasco als Assistentin arbeiten. Mit einem Schlag ist sie nicht nur ihre Geldsorgen los, sondern gewinnt auch eine Freundin, wie sie noch keine hatte: extravagant, überbordend, mitreißend und an die achtzig. Doch bald spürt sie, dass Alma verwundet ist. Eine Wunde, die nur vergessen scheint, wenn eines der edlen Kuverts im Postfach liegt. Aber wer schreibt Woche um Woche diese Liebesbriefe? Und von wem stammen all die Blumen? Auch um sich von den eigenen Lebenssorgen abzulenken, folgt Irina den Spuren, und es beginnt eine abenteuerliche Reise bis weit in die Vergangenheit.

The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen, and so begins their tale. . . . Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts). When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it. The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.

High in the Accursed Mountains, in a village ruled by the ancient laws of the Kanun, Bekja escapes an arranged marriage by becoming a sworn virgin, renouncing her womanhood to live as a man. Her decision sets off a brutal chain of events, destroying her family and separating her from the one she loves the most. Years later, as Bekija – now Matija – tells their story to a visiting journalist, long-buried truths come to light, along with the realisation of all that might have been.

A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer. Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.” “Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today. With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.

Nach einem schweren Sturm wird in einem westafrikanischen Dorf ein kleines weißes Mädchen angeschwemmt. Während viele Dorfbewohner*innen es aufnehmen wollen, wehrt sich die alte Madame Oumou entschieden - zu tief sitzen die Wunden der Kolonialzeit und die Erinnerung an die »Weißen Soldaten«. Doch das Dorf widersetzt sich und Zeyna darf bleiben. Als eines Tages alle Fische aus der Lagune verschwinden und die Erwachsenen ein Monster verdächtigen, macht sie sich auf die Suche nach den Geheimnissen ihres Dorfes - und findet Ava und in ihr eine unerwartete Freundin...

‘A perfect Millennial love story ... with its acidic dialogue and languid sex scenes. A charming and clever romance, a perfect summer read’ – Irish Times ‘Utterly immersive ... it's reminiscent of Sally Rooney and is a complex and joyous ode to being in love, messing up and finding your way’ – Stylist Sam is 28, Swedish, carefree and chaotic. Doing a work placement in London over the course of three sticky summer months, she falls hard for Lucas, a man she first met as a teenager. Lucas, 27, sensitive and calm, is trying to get a start on adult life while struggling to hold the pieces of his life together. Sam is a gorgeous distraction. But you can only avoid reality for so long, and both Sam and Lucas know their relationship can't last. Nobody can be this happy forever, surely? Okay Days tells the story of the rise and fall of Sam and Lucas's affection for each other, looks unflinchingly at male body dysmorphia and women's reproductive rights, and the pitfalls of modern love. When is okay good enough? And what are we willing to lose in the search for a life that is much better than just okay? ‘Emotionally realistic ... desperately romantic. Simply brilliant’ – Irish Independent ‘Razor sharp ... nothing short of brilliant’ – Glamour ‘A beautifully-observed portrait of self-discovery and uncertain love. Jenny's sharp and evocative prose gave me a feeling of immense nostalgia for London's long summer days’ – Natasha Brown, author of Assembly ‘Fresh and sharply observant ... One of the most intriguing books I've read in some time’ – Elaine Feeney, author of How To Build A Boat ‘Sam and Luc ... live on inside my head, long after I closed the book. A fantastic debut from a promising literary talent’ – Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and The City ‘A gorgeous book – a fresh, sexy love story that’s set to become a classic’ – Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable ‘Tender and spellbinding, Okay Days breaks you all the way open’ – Annie Lord, author of Notes on Heartbreak