Awards

The 2020 Booker Prize Shortlist

The literary awards season is upon us! It’s like the Oscars—but better—because it’s all about books! And we’re getting into the spirit by celebrating the six titles just selected for the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist—one of the leading literary awards in the English-speaking world. Four out of the six finalists are debut authors introducing us to new and diverse voices covering topics that range from climate change to racism and heartbreaking familial relationships. The official winner won’t be announced until November, which gives us even more time to read and re-read these outstanding works of fiction.

Real Life

Real Life

Hardcover $21.99 $26.00

Real Life

By Brandon Taylor

Hardcover $21.99 $26.00

Real Life: A Novel
Brandon Taylor
Through the lens of higher academia, Brandon Taylor takes a look at race and queerness in this profound story of intimacy, loneliness, desire and trauma. A poignant coming-of-age debut that brilliantly captures the inner and outer struggles of an introverted, gay, Black graduate student, one that questions the real cost of overcoming private wounds. “Psychologically compelling, incisively satirical, told in a muted style that nevertheless accesses a full emotional range, this is a brilliant book, worthy of a wide audience.”—The Guardian

Real Life: A Novel
Brandon Taylor
Through the lens of higher academia, Brandon Taylor takes a look at race and queerness in this profound story of intimacy, loneliness, desire and trauma. A poignant coming-of-age debut that brilliantly captures the inner and outer struggles of an introverted, gay, Black graduate student, one that questions the real cost of overcoming private wounds. “Psychologically compelling, incisively satirical, told in a muted style that nevertheless accesses a full emotional range, this is a brilliant book, worthy of a wide audience.”—The Guardian

The Shadow King: A Novel

The Shadow King: A Novel

Paperback $17.95

The Shadow King: A Novel

By Maaza Mengiste

In Stock Online

Paperback $17.95

The Shadow King: A Novel 
Maaza Mengiste
Haunting, breathtaking and brutal, Maaza Mengiste crafts a fierce, indelible exploration of what it means to be a woman at war in this gripping tale set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. This novel has made its way to the top of several ‘best books’ lists and has been praised for its particular focus and perspective on a historical moment left out of the history books. “The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

The Shadow King: A Novel 
Maaza Mengiste
Haunting, breathtaking and brutal, Maaza Mengiste crafts a fierce, indelible exploration of what it means to be a woman at war in this gripping tale set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. This novel has made its way to the top of several ‘best books’ lists and has been praised for its particular focus and perspective on a historical moment left out of the history books. “The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

The New Wilderness

The New Wilderness

Hardcover $27.99

The New Wilderness

By Diane Cook

In Stock Online

Hardcover $27.99

The New Wilderness 
Diane Cook
In a world ravaged by climate change and a search for a new way of life, Diane Cook paints a picture of a mother’s love pitted against the forces of nature. “This manages to be a speculative novel about the future and a well-researched tale about living primitively… More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced—a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really about motherhood, and about the world we make (or unmake) for our children.”—The Washington Post

The New Wilderness 
Diane Cook
In a world ravaged by climate change and a search for a new way of life, Diane Cook paints a picture of a mother’s love pitted against the forces of nature. “This manages to be a speculative novel about the future and a well-researched tale about living primitively… More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced—a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really about motherhood, and about the world we make (or unmake) for our children.”—The Washington Post

Shuggie Bain (Booker Prize Winner)

Shuggie Bain (Booker Prize Winner)

Hardcover $27.00

Shuggie Bain (Booker Prize Winner)

By Douglas Stuart

In Stock Online

Hardcover $27.00

Shuggie Bain 
Douglas Stuart
A working-class mother and son in 1980s Glasgow grapple with addiction, sexuality and love in Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartrending debut. Stuart has a great love for his characters, evident in every word of this panoramic portrait of family and place, one where Shuggie and Agnes stay with you long after the story ends. “[B]lending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating… This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.”—James Walton, New York Review of Books

Shuggie Bain 
Douglas Stuart
A working-class mother and son in 1980s Glasgow grapple with addiction, sexuality and love in Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartrending debut. Stuart has a great love for his characters, evident in every word of this panoramic portrait of family and place, one where Shuggie and Agnes stay with you long after the story ends. “[B]lending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating… This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.”—James Walton, New York Review of Books

This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditions Trilogy #3)

This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditions Trilogy #3)

Paperback $17.00

This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditions Trilogy #3)

By Tsitsi Dangarembga

In Stock Online

Paperback $17.00

This Mournable Body 
Tsitsi Dangarembga
A psychologically charged novel from Tsitsi Dangarembga (one of Zimbabwe’s most notable authors) that uses a woman’s journey to independence as a means to reveal how toxic colonialism and capitalism can be. Here, Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, and examines how hope and potential can sour when caught in a never-ending struggle for survival. With great compassion, this “novel explores how race, gender, class, and age are at play in Zimbabwe, and the overwhelming strength of these forces in the face of even the most optimistic and ambitious women.”—Vanity Fair

This Mournable Body 
Tsitsi Dangarembga
A psychologically charged novel from Tsitsi Dangarembga (one of Zimbabwe’s most notable authors) that uses a woman’s journey to independence as a means to reveal how toxic colonialism and capitalism can be. Here, Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, and examines how hope and potential can sour when caught in a never-ending struggle for survival. With great compassion, this “novel explores how race, gender, class, and age are at play in Zimbabwe, and the overwhelming strength of these forces in the face of even the most optimistic and ambitious women.”—Vanity Fair

Burnt Sugar

Burnt Sugar

Hardcover $26.00

Burnt Sugar

By Avni Doshi

Hardcover $26.00

Burnt Sugar: A Novel 
Avni Doshi
Avni Doshi mixes intense empathy with caustic wit in a mother-daughter story where memories are questioned, bonds are tested, and love isn’t always enough. A searing debut that explores shifting power dynamics and questions the subjective nature of truth. “Raw, wise and cuttingly funny on love and cruelty, marriage and motherhood, art and illness, and one woman’s fight for her sense of self. A courageous novel written in spare, gleaming sentences.”— Tishani Doshi, author of Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods

Burnt Sugar: A Novel 
Avni Doshi
Avni Doshi mixes intense empathy with caustic wit in a mother-daughter story where memories are questioned, bonds are tested, and love isn’t always enough. A searing debut that explores shifting power dynamics and questions the subjective nature of truth. “Raw, wise and cuttingly funny on love and cruelty, marriage and motherhood, art and illness, and one woman’s fight for her sense of self. A courageous novel written in spare, gleaming sentences.”— Tishani Doshi, author of Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods