I'm a writer and a reader. I love getting lost in books. It has been the most consistent aspect of my life. I love audacious books whose beauty pushes all the way to the edge of absurdity, without ever slipping over. I love nothing more in life than sitting by a fire and dissolving into a good book. I'm the author of the Children of Paranoia series, the Memory Detective series, and the stand-alone novel List of Fears. My books have been published in seven different languages and have been optioned for both movies and television. I live in Brooklyn with my wife and two children, all of whom can be found reading at any given moment.
List of Fears is a novel about the purpose and meaning of life, all centered around a private detective who is hired by a rich movie producer to find a gorilla that has been kidnapped from the San Diego Zoo. The private detective follows the peculiar trail of clues, including the business card of a mysterious gypsy fortune teller, deep into the dark abandoned subway tunnels deep beneath New York City.
Meanwhile, a young boy in Brooklyn secretly keeps a list of his fears hidden in his closet, adding fears and crossing them off as he ages. Near the top of the list is one word that has never been crossed off, “God”. Their lives become mixed in this darkly relevant, heart-pounding adventure.
Lush, pulpy, and utterly beautiful, I first read this novel when I was in college. It was December in New York City and I was supposed to be studying for finals. I decided to take a break to peruse some books at the local bookstore. I still remember picking this book up and reading a quote from a New York Times book review on the back: “I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance.” I had to buy the book. Needless to say, I spent the next three days holed up in my dorm room, ignoring my studies, and falling completely into this ridiculously over-the-top and gorgeous adventure.
One night in New York, a city under siege by snow, Peter Lake attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks it is empty, the daughter of the house is home . . .
Thus begins the affair between this Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl dying of consumption. It is a love so powerful that Peter will be driven to stop time and bring back the dead; A New York Winter's Tale is the story of that extraordinary journey.
I had never heard of this book before when I walked into a small independent bookstore in a quaint town in upstate New York. Whenever I go to independent bookstores, I seek out the staff's recommendations. Well, love for Shadow of the Wind had spread in this bookstore like a virus, being recommended by at least four of the staff members. I bought the book immediately, not realizing that I was about to get lost in a gorgeous mystery set in historic Spain about a shadowy man trying to track down and burn every copy of a very specific book. A beautiful book for books lovers, I personally don’t know anyone who has ever read Shadow of the Wind and not loved it.
"The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero." -Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)
"One gorgeous read." -Stephen King
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been…
A novel so lovely that its footnotes alone would be worth a recommendation. Susanna Clarke somehow makes this epic novel about dueling magicians in 1800s England feel more real and relevant than the nightly news. Rarely does a book actually make my heart race, but I still remember how I felt when I read the words, “Tell Norrell I am coming.” From that line on, I don’t think I stopped reading even to breathe.
Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of…
When I read The Hungry Tide for the first time, it read to me like a fantasy novel set in a faraway world. Except it isn’t. The setting for The Hungry Tide is a real place, but it is as dangerous and as fantastic as something created by Tolkien. It takes place in the Sundarbans of India, a world where tigers hunt people and tidal floods come without warning and wipe out villages. Sometimes I read a book to get lost in a world that doesn’t exist. Other times I read a book to get lost in a world that does. I’ve never been to the Sundarbans, but I still periodically dream about them.
A profound and absorbing saga from the Internationally Bestselling and Man Booker Prize shortlisted author
'Amitav Ghosh is such a fascinating and seductive writer... I cannot think of another contemporary writer with whom it would be this thrilling to go so far, so fast' The Times
January 2001: A small ship, led by wealthy Scotsman Daniel Hamilton, arrives in the Sundarbans, a vast archipelago of islands in the mythical river Ganges, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea.
In the Sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland, and…
To describe this book is to lessen it. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is so unique, inventive, and well-constructed, that it made me feel like a kid again, discovering new adventures for the first time. That rippling of time is quite a feat for a book about a man who, each time he dies, returns to where his life began with the full knowledge of his past lives. Given that premise, anyone could imagine the myriad directions that an author could go. I guarantee you that nothing you imagine can match the tale that Claire North spins here. Get this book. Light your fire. Enjoy.
'ONE OF THE FICTION HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DECADE' Judy Finnigan, Richard and Judy Book Club
Featured in the Richard and Judy Book Club, the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and the Waterstones Book Club Winner of the John W. Campbell Award Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award
SOME STORIES CANNOT BE TOLD IN JUST ONE LIFETIME
No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before.
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over, and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?
Journey with Seb, Oz, and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?
From Kev Harrison, author of The Balance and Below, journey with Seb, Oz and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
