Penguin Books Ltd

A new selection of six short stories by one of Japan's most iconic twentieth-century writers An adolescent girl narrates her day in an existential masterpiece that explores what it means to be a forming person in a fomenting society. A woman writes a farewell note to her husband, an artist who has driven her away with his counterfeit profundity and naked ambition. A plain young woman steals a bathing suit for a handsome friend, only to find herself ostracised by her neighbours for her boy-crazed behaviour - and her refusal to be shamed. These six stories by Osamu Dazai are among his finest. Written during the Second World War, in the shadow of intense nationalism, they unpick the concept of the patriotic, productive or moral self. Including the novella 'Schoolgirl', which rocketed Dazai to fame on initial publication in 1939, this collection, newly translated by Polly Barton, is a perfect introduction to Dazai's work.

The new forbidden student/professor rom com from the New York Times bestselling author of What Happens in Amsterdam - available to pre-order now! 'So hot, so funny, so emotionally satisfying. The perfect romance' Laura Wood 'Rachel Lynn Solomon always delivers these quirky, thoughtful and just sweet romances- I simply cannot get enough' Reader Review 'I love love LOVED this! Pop star turned college student falls for her professor?! I didn't know I needed it!' Reader Review 'Cute, clever, and bursting with that irresistible 'this is probably a bad idea … but I'm doing it anyway' energy' Reader Review When a former popstar enrols at college, the last thing she needs is A-plus chemistry with her psychology professor . . . Three-time Grammy award-winner Ramona Wilder has spent her youth selling out arenas. Now at age twenty-six, she's done with the spotlight and inhumane lack of privacy. She just wants to be 'normal' - starting with a place at college. Professor Nick Navarro, recently divorced but determinedly optimistic, vows to treat this new celebrity enrolment the same as any other student. But when Ramona blazes into class and causes an uproar, he's rattled for the first time in his career. There's an undeniable spark between them - but they definitely shouldn't act on it. And when Ramona's old life comes calling her back, she's no longer sure where she fits. Is Nick just a brief distraction? Or a first chance at something real

HE ELECTRIFYING SEQUEL TO THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER HEAVENLY BODIES 'The Heavenly Bodies series officially has me in a chokehold' Thea Guanzon, The Hurricane Wars 'It wouldn't be a surprise if this follows in the hallowed halls of Sarah J Maas' iNews 'A deeply romantic quest beyond death... impossible to put down' Shalini Abeysekara, This Monster of Mine ******************************************************************************** Never make a bargain with a god. Elara is vengeful. Enzo is trapped between the realms of life and death and her enemy has vanished, taking her love's only connection to the waking world with him. But there is a darker force at play, one that even Ariete, King of the Stars, is afraid of. On the run with enemies at every turn, Elara must enlist friends, old and new, and learn to control her almighty powers if she has any hope of saving her soulmate. Whatever happens, there is one thing she is certain of: STARS WILL FALL. ******************************************************************************** TROPES: *Fated Mates* *Betrayal* *Found Family* *Revenge Quest* *Pirate Adventures and Mermaid Mysteries* *Touch-her-and-I'll-kill-you* JOIN THE OBSESSION: 'One of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE romantasies - ever. Infinity stars' ***** 'Hands down my favourite fantasy series. It has everything you would want in a fantasy romance' ***** 'Stunning, heartbreaking, EPIC. I implore you to pick this up.' ***** 'This is going into my book favourites of all time alongside Throne of Glass, ACOTAR and Six of Crows.' ***** 'Imani has done it again - she has ripped my heart and soul into a million pieces with this book.' 'MY HEAD IS SPINNING THAT PLOT TWIST' ***** 'This is a god tier series' ***** OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES: HEAVENLY BODIES

PRE-ORDER the paperback edition with stunning new bonus artwork of Devney Perry's #1 New York Times bestselling book, SHIELD OF SPARROWS. A TREATY SEALED IN MAGIC. A FATE BORN OF MONSTERS. A LOVE FORETOLD BY LEGEND. THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD ACROSS THE SERIES The ultimate slow-burn, high-stakes romantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros ?? ?? -- The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I've spent my life kneeling to their will and to my father's. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father's throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I'm crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him bound to a future I didn't choose and a husband I barely know. Everyone wants me to be something I'm not a queen, a spy, a sacrifice. But what if I refused the role chosen for me? What if I made my own rules? What if there's power in being underestimated? And what if for the first time I reached for it? -- Tropes: Enemies to Lovers Magic, Myths and Monsters Slow-Burn Forced Proximity Arranged Marriage Hidden Identity High Stakes Now a Feature Film in Development with Amazon MGM Studios!

The long-awaited new book on the essence of Zen practice from the beloved author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind "Our way of sitting is for you to become yourself." In this long-overdue book from one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the last century, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi shares simple, warmhearted teachings on a practice that is fundamentally about becoming yourself. In his inimitable style, filled with humor and insight, Becoming Yourself speaks directly to the newest beginners while also serving as a touchstone and a continual source of inspiration for even the most experienced practitioners and Zen teachers. Becoming Yourself is based on the late Suzuki's lectures and brings to light many of his unpublished teachings. Throughout, Suzuki Roshi's voice is clear and resonates with the unmistakable power of true wisdom.

A profound exploration of colonialism, from one of the Caribbean's most powerful literary voices 'A novel which adds a new dimension to contemporary fiction ... Natives of My Person is above all the story of a voyage … a voyage which as in The Odyssey and Moby Dick penetrates into the very depths of a civilization' C. L. R. James In the age of empire, the good ship Reconnaissance sets sail under its murderous Commandant. Yet this is no ordinary expedition for gold and plunder. It is a mission to create a new world in the virgin territories of San Cristobal, a fabled island shrouded in myth and promise. As the perilous voyage unfolds, however, it becomes a mirror of the colonial mind: avaricious, brutish, haunted by death and madness. With poetic intensity and philosophical depth, this is a novel that journeys far beyond the seas it charts. Through shifting perspectives and a richly layered narrative, Lamming unearths the deep scars of conquest and the personal and political dimensions of empire - its delusions, its violence, and the haunting legacy it leaves behind.

Show yourself who's in charge using the original art of persuasion, backed by contemporary pop culture examples that make transforming your habits and achieving goals easy, even fun-from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing Rhetoric once sat at the centre of elite education. Alexander the Great, Shakespeare and Martin Luther King, Jr. used it to build empires, write deathless literature and inspire democracies. Here, Heinrichs shows us how these persuasive tools, honed over more than three thousand years of use persuading others, can be turned on our most difficult audiences - ourselves. Using techniques invented by the likes of Aristotle and Cicero and deployed by some of history's most persuasive characters, we see how rhetoric can convert the gloomiest of situations into positive ones. Illustrated with examples from history and pop culture - Winston Churchill, Iron Man, Dolly Parton, and the woman who serendipitously invented the chocolate chip cookie - Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion tests the tools of self-persuasion and asks: Can the same techniques that seduce lovers, sell diet books and overturn governments help us achieve our most desired goals? Filled with entertaining and scientific studies that showcase the life-changing power of language, Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion will teach you how to be the most successful person you can be, just by talking to yourself.

From cinema's most distinguished and 'The best writer on film in our time' (Michael Ondaatje) comes a masterful assessment of the whole sweep of movie history 'The movies traded on the liberation of secret desires-drive that car as fast as you can; turn your humble abode into a palace; conquer all the mean spirits in the world; be as free and winsome as the Tramp yet as rich as Charlie … Every lowlife can be a Corleone.' Every flicker of light has its shadow. In this masterful reassessment of the whole arc of movie history, David Thomson, film's wisest and most penetrating critic, shows us how cinema has entranced and transported us, but also profoundly changed us. From the earliest days of the first picture shows to the screens of today, Thomson glories in the great movies. Sharp, arresting readings of films from Metropolis to Rear Window, The Godfather to Anora can be found in these pages. Yet there is unease, too, at how cinema suckered us into a fantasy neverland that only looks like life. Hungry for spectacle and happy endings, submitting to voyeurism and villainy, we have let films change the way we experience reality; a habit of passivity that may have even betrayed our culture and our politics. As Thomson says, 'This is our history, and our show.' The result of a lifetime of immersion and reflection, this book is a reckoning and a testament from a writer who sees like no other.

**SHORTLISTED FOR 2025 THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION** A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories of eighth-century concubines and ninth-century revolts, thirteenth-century slave soldiers who established dynastic rule over Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, eighteenth-century corsairs and twentieth-century pearl divers in the Gulf. It also has first-hand accounts of this legacy in the twenty-first century, including the depredations of Daesh and continuing hereditary slavery in Mali and Mauritania. Justin Marozzi traces the extraordinary variety of enslavement in the Islamic world, which ranged from agricultural labour and domestic toil to elite concubinage, guardianship of sacred spaces, political leadership and even military command. He shows how Africa bore the brunt of the demand for slave labour, fuelled throughout the nineteenth century by expanding global markets and commodity chains. Slavers plied African coasts, traders raided inland for human cargo, and millions were marched across the Sahara into captivity. Meanwhile, North African corsairs turned the Mediterranean into a slave-raiding 'free-for-all' between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Taking the reader on an extraordinary historical journey from Baghdad to Bamako, Tripoli to Timbuktu, Istanbul to the Black Sea, this is the riveting human drama of those caught up in one of history's most remarkable overlooked stories.

PRE-ORDER THIS SUMMER'S STORMIEST DEBUT ROMANCE NOWTwo storm chasers find a love that could blow them away... “The scorching summer romance of my dreams." B.K. Borison“Electric, tension-filled, and brimming with adventure." Chelsea CurtoWedding photographer Sloane Michaels spends most of her year running after brides, but she lives for the six weeks each spring she chases tornadoes instead. When a prestigious nature magazine announces a storm-cover contest, Sloane knows winning could be her chance to break into landscape photography. The last thing she needs is distraction in the form of reckless storm-chasing legend “Wild Wes” Talbot. Her close, personal frenemy for a decade, Wes is also the man to beat. Sloane isn’t surprised when Wes gets in an accident that jeopardizes his chances of winning. But when an active weather pattern emerges, she doubles down on her need to win fair and square and begrudgingly invites him to join her for the rest of the season. As they race through high winds and stormy skies, Sloane realizes Wes might be more than the flirty wildcard she thought she knew—and that the feelings brewing between them are even more charged than the storms they chase. "This book… this book right here. I loved it. I enjoyed every second I spent reading this and I can’t resist saying that this debut book really is going to take the romance world by storm this summer!"- ? Reader Review"Such a good book! The romance, the characters, the plot, everything was perfect. I read it so quickly, it was one of those books I won’t forget and will always recommend."- ? Reader Review

‘No one writes with more skill and honesty about the human condition and this book is possibly her finest’ ObserverTHE MESMERISING FINAL NOVEL BY THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF HOTEL DU LAC, NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY TESSA HADLEY‘He was haunted by a feeling of invisibility, as if he were a mere spectator of his own life, with no one to identify him in the barren circumstances of the here and now’Paul Sturgis – unmarried, retired, and coming towards the end of his life – lives alone in a small dark flat which has never felt like home. Each day, he walks the streets of London, passing brightly lit windows into other people’s lives and finding pleasure in fleeting exchanges with strangers: the cheerful hairdresser, the lady at the drycleaners, a café stop for a cup of coffee. When he longs for light and warmth, he takes short trips to the continent, but it is to London that he always returns. Fearing that his destiny may be to live and die among strangers, and longing for companionship or simply conversation, Paul finds himself drawn back to memories of his own failed relationships. But when a chance encounter with a recently divorced younger woman shakes up his routine, and an old girlfriend appears on the scene, he is forced to make a decision about how – and with whom – he wants to spend the rest of his days. ‘A novel of sober brilliance, and the unerring, unflinching Brookner is still a much underestimated novelist’ Helen Dunmore, The Times‘Nothing less than brilliant, often highly amusing and, ultimately life affirming’ Sunday Telegraph

THE NO. 1 BESTSELLERTHE SHOCKING TRUE CRIME THAT SHOCKED IRELANDFrom a producer of the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, A Deadly American Marriage‘Extraordinary and compelling’ Pat Kenny, Newstalk‘There is quite a twist in this’ Martin King, Ireland AMHow Molly Martens’ obsession with her stepchildren cost her husband Jason his life and legacy, from the producer of the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, A Deadly American MarriageWhen Limerick widower Jason Corbett hired a wholesome young American, Molly Martens, to care for his eighteen-month-old daughter and three and-a-half-year-old son, he could not have known that she was a troubled woman whose obsession with his children would end in his death. Three years after meeting, Jason and Molly married and settled in North Carolina. Four years later, Jason was beaten to death in their marital bedroom. Molly and her father, Tom, a former FBI agent, admitted to killing Jason but claimed self-defence. A Deadly Marriage reveals new information about this shocking case including the strange text Molly sent to Jason’s brother less than two hours after his death, how Jason told a friend he was planning to return to Ireland for good just two weeks before he died and Tom Martens’ pattern of cleaning up Molly’s mess. This is the story of how a wealthy and well-connected American family framed the victim as the aggressor in a horrific killing, blackened his name and served minimal jail time. Journalist Brian Carroll reported on the Martens’ court hearings for the Irish Times and is a co-producer of the Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage. He has thoroughly investigated the case, including conducting fresh reporting in North Carolina, to write the definitive account of a shattering story. ---‘Goes into the case in far more detail in a much more illuminating way’ Matt Cooper, Today FM‘Read this and you’ll get quite the education’ Elaine Crowley, Ireland AM

Ford Madox Ford's great masterpiece exploring love and identity during the First World War, in a Penguin Classics edition with an introduction by Julian Barnes. A masterly novel of destruction and regeneration, Parade's End follows the story of aristocrat Christopher Tietjens as his world is shattered by the First World War. Tracing the psychological damage inflicted by battle, the collapse of England's secure Edwardian values - embodied in Christopher's wife, the beautiful, cruel socialite Sylvia - and the beginning of a new age, epitomized by the suffragette Valentine Wannop, Parade's End is an elegy for both the war dead and the passing of a way of life. 'The finest English novel about the Great War'Malcolm Bradbury'The best novel by a British writer ... It is also the finest novel about the First World War. It is also the finest novel about the nature of British society'Anthony Burgess'There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them'W.H. Auden'The English prose masterpiece of the time'William Carlos Williams

PRE ORDER 2026'S HOTTEST MOTORSPORTS ROMANCE NOW! Rookie driver Skye is finally finding her groove at Revolution Racing. That is, until her new boss walks in and nearly makes her forget how to breathe. Denver Adams is the charming team principle, and the mystery man Skye spent one unforgettable night with four years ago. He’s under strict orders to keep it professional and get the team on the podium this season. She can’t risk her career or her hard-won place on the grid. But between stolen glances in the paddock and late-night strategy sessions, the line between business and pleasure starts to blur – at high speed. With rivalries heating up and the season’s end hurtling closer, Skye and Denver must decide if breaking all the rules is worth it. Because racing and love have one thing in common. You don’t win big without risking it all.

A warning to humankind from one of the world’s greatest physicists'What drives these pages is the guilty conscience of my profession, theoretical physics. My sole aim is to help avert what seems to me to be the unintended, yet scarcely avoidable, end point of the current politics of the governments we have elected: nuclear war.'The world is rearming and embroiled in endless conflict. The Doomsday Clock has now been set to 85 seconds to midnight, with the risk of nuclear war the highest it has ever been. Why do we always fail to learn from the pas? n this urgent book, acclaimed physicist Carlo Rovelli reframes the history of nuclear weapons: from how the atomic bomb was born to why Germany didn't build it and why the US used it, to the narrowly averted disasters of the Cold War and the political brinkmanship careering out of control today. As he grapples with the legacy of his scientific forebears, Rovelli spotlights the true nature of the decisions being made by leaders around the world today. A timely and ardent warning, this searing reckoning with short-sighted politics is essential reading for anyone seeking sanity at our moment of greatest peril.

A moving tale of resistance and renewal, from the acclaimed author of Twelve Words for MossTwo friends, Kenjo and Leah, swoosh through the lush forests at the edge of their village in Kenya. Imitating hornbills and lying on the mossy boulders that line the river, the young girls are watched over by a canopy of ancient trees, whose roots reach into the past, present and future. But this glittering countryside is quickly becoming a haunting. As the armed rebellion against the British colonial regime intensifies, the forest is subsumed in a destructive conflict, disturbing the profound balance of life it nourishes and knowledge it preserves. Forced from their homes, the friends are separated by oceans and decades. Like the branches that once sheltered them, they may be twisted and buckled by violence, but they will also, somehow, endure. This tale of courage, survival and restoration captures the healing – and destructive – power of time and unearths the hidden traces it leaves behind.