Canongate Books strana 2 z 21

Who says youth is wasted on the young? Jasper wants to get on in the world, but life is distracting. He's got his A-levels to contend with, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pre gnant one-night-stands. And then there's his step-dad - the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, GROW UP is the ultimate twenty-first-century coming-of-age novel. It paints a vivid portrait of the pills and thrills and bellyaches of growin g up today. Funny, smart and twisted, it is the story of one young man transformed.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second' 'It ain't the melodies that're important man, it's the words' Two quotes from Dylan himself that underline the importance of this book. Dylanology thrives. There is no shortage of books about him and many of them will be dusted off for his 70th birthday. This one, however, stands on its own both for its unusual approach and for the virtuosity of its execution. Ricks's scheme, aptly, is to examine Dylan's songs through the biblical concepts of the seven deadly Sins, the four Virtues, and the three Heavenly Graces. He carries it off with panache. Ricks may be the most eminent literary critic of his generation but nobody should feel his book is one of earnest, unapproachable exegesis, on th e contrary it has a flamboyance, almost effervescence about it that is captivating. Ricks boldly and successfully judges Dylan as a poet not a lyricist and in his tour-de-force makes endless illuminating comparisons with canonical writers such as Eli ot, Hardy, Hopkins and Larkin.

This is the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil. It is also the story of an extraordinary journey undertaken by a man named Henry. It begins with a mysterious parcel, and it ends in a place that will make you think again about one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. Once you have finished reading it, it is impossible to forget.

During the second world war Antonia Byatt was given a book of Norse myths by her father. She read it and reread it but there was one myth she was drawn to in particular and which has continued to hold her under its spell - the Myth of Ragnarok. The Ragnarok myth, otherwise known as the Twilight of the Gods, plays out the endgame of Norse mythology. It is the myth in which the gods Odin, Freya and Thor die, the sun and moon are swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Midgard eats his own tale as he crushes the world and the seas boil with poison. It is only after such monstrous death and destruction that the world can begin anew. This epic struggle provided the fitting climax to Wagner's Ring Cycle and just as Wagner was inspired by Norse myth (it was also Hitler's favourite myth!) so Byatt has taken this remarkable finale and used it as the underpinning of this highly personal and politically charged retelling.

'Sounding like one instrument, a wild whirling bagpipe, the Stones chugged to a halt. But the crowd didn't stop, we could see Hells Angels spinning like madmen, swinging at people. By stage right a tall white boy with a black cloud of electric hair was dancing, shaking, infuriating the Angels by having too good a time.' The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is not just the greatest book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band, it is one of the most important books about the 1960s capturing its zeitgeist - that uneasy mix of excess, violence and idealism - in a way no other book does. Stanley Booth was with the Rolling Stones on their 1969 U.S. tour, which culminated in the notorious free concert at Altamont. But this book is much more than a brilliant piece of journalism. It gives a history of the Rolling Stones from their early rhythm 'n' blues days in west London clubs to the end of the 1960s, and it interweaves with mastery the two tragic stories of the decline and death of Brian Jones and the terrifying Altamont concert itself, where the Hells Angels, supposedly providing security, ran amok and murdered a member of the audience. Although it took nearly fifteen years to write, the book that emerged has been rightly acclaimed as 'the one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' writing'.

Which one of you bitches is my mother? Four elegant, successful, and sophisticated women in their forties are called to New York's Pierre Hotel to meet Lili - a beautiful, young, and notoriously temperamental Hollywood movie star. None of the women knows exactly why she is there, each has a reason to hate Lili and each of them is astonished to see the others. They are old friends who share a guilty secret and who have for years been doing their best to keep that secret quiet. Their lives are changed forever, however, when Lili suddenly confronts them. When the women refuse to answer her, Lili proceeds to travel around the world through the playgrounds of the rich and famous, seeking to answer the question that has obsessed and almost destroyed her. LACE, Shirely Conran's frank, scandalous novel, follows a group of women, from adolescence to adulthood, as they negotiate the world of work, broken engagements, heartbreak and lasting friendship.

I feel its approach, Inevitable as death: Internet dating. Unsolicited relationship advice from relatives, disastrous dates, men who wear thumb rings, and the moments of deep satisfaction when a single girl realizes that (unlike her smug married friends) she can do whatever she wants with her time - it's all here in this brilliantly incisive and witty collection of haikus. Every woman - whether single or not - will laugh until she cries, and then start laughing all over again.

On this island your friends and your enemies quickly end up the same ...-1985- When fifteen-year-old Catherine sees her best friend slip from a wild cliff path she vows never to say a word. But Catherine was the last person to see her alive. -1940- Charlie is also holding back a secret from the adults on the island. As German soldiers arrive on Guernsey, he carries out an act of rebellion with consequences that will reach far into the future - and into Catherine's own life. The Book of Lies is a powerful novel about friendship, love and betrayal. Weaving together two lives across the decades, it proves that no truth is as simple as it seems.

This is a brilliant new collection of stories from the Nobel Prize-winning author, available for the first time in English. Written in the years between Solzhenitsyn's return from exile to Russia in 1994, and his death in 2008, they confirm the author's position as not only a visionary political commentator but also as a true literary giant. APRICOT JAM AND OTHER STORIES presents a series of astonishing portraits of a Soviet and Russian life across the twentieth century. In 'The New Generation', a professor promotes a student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In 'Nastenka', two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives - until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both. Through their unforgettable cast of military commanders, imprisoned activists and displaced families, these stories play out the moral dilemmas and ideological conflicts that defined the century. The most eloquent and acclaimed opponent of government oppression, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and his work continues to receive international acclaim.

Luke is twenty-five and allergic to the sun. He is stuck in his bedroom, where the world comes to him through TV, the internet and Julie's visits. Julie, meanwhile, is brilliant, kind and could be changing the world. Unfortunately she is too terrified of aeroplane crashes, road accidents and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her home town. When someone contacts Luke and claims that he can cure him, Luke and Julie have to deal with their fears and face the world outside. With four friends, wellies and a homemade space suit, they set off in a VW Camper van along Britain's B-roads. It is a journey that might just change their lives.

A pocket-sized collection of food-themed Simon's Cat cartoons selected from the first two Simon's Cat books. In full colour for the very first time and featuring 10 brand new cartoons, Simon's Cat is back, only smaller, cheaper and cuter.

Bright Young Things" wanted for Big Project.' They're in the prime of their lives but our bright young things are all burnt out. Six sparky twenty-somethings just out of university and working dead-end jobs, they are all bored to tears with their lives and looking for a way out. When a mysterious job is advertised in the newspaper, they all apply. What they least expect is to find themselves prisoners on a deserted island. There's food in the fridge and they have a bedroom each, but there's no telephone, no television, and no way to escape.

How Music Works is an unparalleled account of a life in music and an explanation of how and why music works from one of the world's most accomplished performers. With his albums for Talking Heads, his work with Brian Eno or his solo output, David Byrne has been consistently at the forefront of musical - and artistic - innovation. In this extraordinary book Byrne explores why the past matters and what the future might bring. From personal accounts of devising and performing his most famous work, to an exploration of the possibilities of new technologies, Byrne discovers that artistic creation is less about an internal creative spark than we thought and more about external factors such as history, architecture and technology. "The universe of music follows broad and basic evolutionary patterns-as does birdsong, to take one example. It seems the will only triumphs if the context is amenable, just as in Darwinian adaptation. What we hear is determined by what we want to hear, by what can be heard, and by the circumstances that allow it to come into being."

When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey--named Beatrice and Virgil--and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so beloved, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.

Four Meals is the extraordinary story of Zayde; his enigmatic mother, Judith; and her three lovers, Globerman, Jacob, and Moshe. Over the course of four meals, which take place intermittently over several decades, Zayde slowly comes to understand why these three men consider him their son and why all three participate in raising him. A virtuoso performance of spellbinding storytelling, Shalev's novel is a deeply satisfying read -- sensuous, hilarious, compassionate, and profound. [A]s though the Song of Solomon had been rewritten by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.... A master class in the storyteller's art. -- The Daily Telegraph (London) A book full of riddles, of love and sorrow, melancholy, feather light and deep with thought. -- Die Welt (Germany)

I am a sick person. I am a spiteful person. An unattractive person, too ...In the depths of a cellar in St. Petersburg, a civil servant spews forth a passionate and furious note on the ills of society. The underground man's manifesto reveals his erratic, self-contradictory and even sadistic nature. Yet in Dostoyevsky's most radical and disturbing character, there is the uncomfortable flicker of recognition of the human condition. When the narrator ventures above ground, he attends a dinner with a group of old school friends. It is here, paralysed by his own social awkwardness, that he carries out extraordinary acts and cements his status as a true and original outsider.