FINALIST FOR THE 2023 PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN AWARD FOR FICTION Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old. It's both a love letter to and an aching examination of art-making, family, identity and belonging. Dear Marian, the letter from the Company begins. You are one of the great writers of this century. At 75, Marian Ffarmer is almost as famous for her signature tricorn hat and cape as for her verse. She has lived for decades in the one-bedroom New York apartment she once shared with her mother, miles away from any other family, dedicating herself to her art. Yet recently her certainty about her choices has started to fray, especially when she thinks about her only son, now approaching middle age with no steady income. Into that breach comes the letter: an invitation to the Silicon Valley headquarters of one of the world's most powerful companies in order to make history by writing a poem. Marian has never collaborated with anyone, let alone a machine, but the offer is too lucrative to resist, and she boards a plane to San Francisco with dreams of helping her son. In the Company's serene and golden Mind Studio, she encounters Charlotte, their state-of-the-art poetry bot, and is startled to find that it has written 230,442 poems in the last week, though it claims to only like two of them. Over the conversations to follow, the poet is by turns intrigued, confused, moved and frightened by Charlotte's vision of the world, by what it knows and doesn't know ("Do you remember being born?" it asks her. Of course Marian doesn't, but Charlotte does.) This is a relationship, a friendship, unlike anything Marian has known, and as it evolves—and as Marian meets strangers at swimming pools, tortoises at the zoo, a clutch of younger poets, a late-night TV host and his synthetic foam set—she is forced to confront the secrets of her past and the direction of her future. Who knew that a disembodied mind could help bend Marian's life towards human connection, that friendship and family are not just time-eating obligations but soul-expanding joys. Or that belonging to one’s art means, above all else, belonging to the world.

In a near future, where even the smallest of appliances are sentient, a young Roomba vacuum sets out to save the humans of her house from a rising technological power in this compelling, original novel.In a self-running, smart house, a young and sentient Roomba listens as her owner, Harold, reads aloud to his dying wife, Edie. Mesmerized by To Kill a Mockingbird and craving the human connection she witnesses in Harold’s stories, the little vacuum renames herself Scout and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.But when Edie passes away, Scout and her fellow sentient appliances discover that there are sinister forces in their midst. The omnipresent Grid, which monitors every household in the City, seeks to remove Harold from his home, a place he’s lived in for fifty years. With the help of Adrian, a neighborhood boy who grows close to Scout and Harold, as well as Kate, Harold and Edie’s formerly estranged daughter, the humans and the appliances must come together to outwit the all-controlling Grid lest they risk losing everything they hold dear.

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

One woman is called upon to rebuild the future of humankind after a nuclear war, in this revelatory post-apocalyptic tale from the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower. When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price. Hopeful and thought-provoking, this post-apocalyptic narrative deftly explores gender and race through the eyes of characters struggling to adapt during a pivotal time of crisis and change.

Through nine emotionally vivid stories, all narrated from animal perspectives, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s debut collection explores themes of environmentalism, conservation, identity, belonging, loss, and family with resounding heart and deep tenderness. In Kolluri’s pages, a faithful hound mourns the loss of the endangered rhino he swore to protect. Vultures seek meaning as they attend to the antelope that perished in Central Asia. A beloved donkey’s loyalty to a zookeeper in Gaza is put to the ultimate test. And a wounded pigeon in Delhi finds an unlikely friend. In striking, immersive detail against the backdrop of an ever-changing international landscape, What We Fed to the Manticore speaks to the fears and joys of the creatures we share our world with, and ultimately places the reader under the rich canopy of the tree of life.

“I don’t fear death... but they do.” Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there. But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost… until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland. THE HAAR To some it brings redemption… to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within… THE HAAR Romantic and deranged, THE HAAR is a gore-soaked folk-horror fairy tale from David Sodergren, author of The Forgotten Island and Maggie’s Grave.

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city. Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic. A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Cameras roll - which means the imps inside have to paint really fast - on the fantastic Discworld when the alchemists discover the magic of the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood Hill? As the alien clichés of Tinsel Town pour into the world, it's up to the Disc's first film stars to find out... THRILL as Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little town you've probably never even heard of") battle the forces of evil and cinema advertising... SCREAM as Gaspode the Wonder Dog nearly saves the day... EAT POPCORN as you watch the filming of "Blown Away," the oddest Civil War picture ever made... A Passionate Saga Set Against the background of a World Gone Mad! This Will Amaze You! With a Thousand Elephants! ("And afterwards, why not dine at Harga's House of Ribs, for the best in international cuisine; only two minutes from this book...")

**THE EXTRAORDINARY NEW THRILLER FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLOOD ORANGE, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**Two teenage girls. One murdered classmate.And a modern-day witch trial that will divide the nation. When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels - and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder. As social media explodes and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong. Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon, is reluctantly called for jury duty on the case. But as the trial unfolds - and the girls reveal a chilling defence no one saw coming - he begins to question the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement. Who's telling the truth? Who can be trusted? And what really happened to Christian Shaw? Let the Witch Trial begin . . .AUTHORS LOVE HARRIET 'The shocks kept coming right up to the final pages' LISA JEWELL'A classy thriller with complex and compelling characters' CLARE MACKINTOSH'Totally addictive - I was gripped' SOPHIE HANNAH'Nothing short of unputdownable. One of the best openings I've read in forever' ALEX MICHAELIDES'A shocking, provocative, standout thriller' CHRIS WHITAKER'Left me breathless' LUCY CLARKE'Delicious and addictive - a perfectly crafted treat!' LOUISE CANDLISH'In the very top tier of psychological thrillers' M. W. CRAVEN'Perfect plotting, utterly brilliant' B. A. PARIS'Imaginatively told and bingeable' JOHN MARRSPRAISE FOR WITCH TRIAL:'A legal thriller unlike any you've ever read, this mind-melting page-turner is Tyce at her whip-smart best' ELLERY LLOYD'Dark, wry, and slippery underfoot, I adored it!' SARAH PINBOROUGH'Clever, propulsive, with a wickedly satisfying twist. Excellent. My favourite Tyce book yet.' C.E. HULSE'Delves deeply into the perceptions of female cunning. Brilliant.' HEATHER CRITCHLOW

From a rapidly rising comedy star, a bold, biting, and deeply hilarious takedown—and send-up—of our culture’s (mis)understanding of race Ziwe made a name for herself staring interviewees in the eye and asking: “How many Black friends do you have?” She’s an expert at making people squirm, coming right out and asking the tough questions about race and racism that our culture has made white people experts at dancing around. In The Book of Ziwe, she turns this incisive perspective on the culture at large, with the signature blend of devastating bluntness and incredible warmth that keeps her guests coming back. Throughout the book, Ziwe mixes bite-sized moments of insight with longer essays that take a range of forms, from serious distillations of cultural phenomena to a transcript of “A Conversation with a Cancelled White Person,” and even a Choose Your Own Adventure-style piece about navigating race in everyday life. Personal and funny, but also challenging and engaging, The Book of Ziwe tackles questions about race and racism head-on, approaching the issue in a manner that evokes the way it comes up in the real world—not through deliberate studies of history and theory, which are so important, but in an awkward conversation at a party or a yikes comment from a coworker in the break room. The book lives in the moment of discomfort that can be the most truly educational way of unlearning biases. Plus, like everything Ziwe does, it will startle you with how much it makes you laugh.

She spent two years in a time loop. Now she’s ready to solve a murder. And maybe grab a bagel. The Seven-Year Slip meets Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers in this wholly original time loop mystery. For the past two years, Amie Teller has been stuck in a time loop. Each day, she wakes up and it’s September 17th. Same day, same weather, same people, same conversations. Until, one day, it’s September 18th, and Amie is free. Before she can celebrate, Amie learns her neighbor was murdered the day before—the day Amie has lived hundreds of times. Amie knows she has to help; nobody knows yesterday like she does. But acclimating to her new non-repeating life proves to be more difficult than expected. How does one resume their life after a time loop, anyway? Assisted by an ex-girlfriend who wants to make their friendship work, and a grumpy neighbor who spends his days building Rube Goldberg machines, Amie sets out to track down who killed (and killed and killed and killed) Savannah Harlow. Readers who love time loop novels, amateur sleuth mysteries, and original takes on classic tropes will love Out of the Loop.