Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

LUCKY THING de Tom Baragwanath

In this follow-up to his award-winning debut novel Paper Cage, Tom Baragwanath delivers another bone-deep exploration of life in the margins of small-town New Zealand. LUCKY THING is a thrilling new instalment in the Lorraine Henry series.

LUCKY THING
by Tom Baragwanath
Text Publishing, September 2025

When brilliant young student Jessica Mowbrie is found beaten nearly to death in a remote patch of New Zealand bush, nobody has a clue what happened— or how to begin piecing it together. Except long-serving police records clerk Lorraine Henry.

Lorraine knows the Mowbries, like she knows everyone in her part of Masterton, and soon she’ll know a lot more. Because as something of an institution at Masterton police station, Lorraine is a woman people don’t expect much from. But sometimes, that’s an advantage. When her colleagues are busy stomping around making threats and accusations, Lorraine is listening and observing, quietly piecing together a different understanding of what happened to Jessica—an understanding that threatens everything she thought she knew about her community, her friends, and even her own family.

To get to the bottom of things, Lorraine must navigate fractured neighbourhood allegiances, and unearth all kinds of long-buried secrets—secrets that could provoke a danger hiding in plain sight and threaten those she loves the most.

In this follow-up to his award-winning debut novel Paper Cage, Tom Baragwanath delivers another bone-deep exploration of life in the margins of small-town New Zealand. Lucky Thing is a thrilling new instalment in the Lorraine Henry series.

Praise for Tom Baragwanath and Paper Cage:

‘Just the kind of dark, disturbing, gritty, and unusual treat thriller lovers are looking for.’ ―Kirkus [starred review]

‘Magnetic…This beautifully constructed plot has already won awards, and it is easy to see why with a protagonist who is impossible not to root for…Breathtakingly compelling.’ ―Daily Mail

Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Paris. His debut novel, Paper Cage, published in 2022, introduced the world to records clerk Lorraine Henry. It was the winner of the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize, shortlisted for Best International Crime Fiction in the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards and shortlisted for Best First Novel in the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards.

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA de Joseph Ogilvy

A cautionary tale of human exploitation and the consequences for our oceans.

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
by Joseph Ogilvy
Bloomsbury, Spring 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Look west from San Francisco, or Monterey, or Long Beach, past the pleasure boats and the surfers and the cargo ships. This is the California Current, the ocean system that made the Golden State; 1900 miles of the most productive waters on earth, flowing all the way from the Salish Sea to the furthest tip of the Baja Peninsula. For more than ten millennia generation after generation of Native Californians built their lives on the Current—delicately managed and exceptionally productive—home to innumerable sardines, tuna, and abalone galore.

But it was not to last. As modernity beckoned we could not resist the urge to plunder. As each stock collapsed we moved to seek another, reconstituting our economies around each new creature we found in plenty, until all were gutted in turn. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is the untold ocean story that brought California violently into the modern world, helped build its major cities, and brought thousands to its shores. At the heart of tremendous growth lay a remarkable boom-bust cycle, not just of the ocean, but of the human cultures that wrought it unwittingly on themselves, from Russian fur hunters tearing through territory in search of fresh otterskin, to the Chinese refugees seeking advantage in the ecological turmoil the Russians left behind, to the canning aristocracy born and destroyed by the sardine trade.

The world has vanishingly few untouched waters left to move into. At some point, we might want to start learning from our mistakes. BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA is a history of how we got here and a warning for what we may not wish to repeat.

Joseph Ogilvy is a writer and chef from London, based in Austin, TX. After graduating from Oxford University he spent several years working in London restaurants including Bocca di Lupo, while writing on his days off. His experience in kitchens led him to investigate both the tangled human and ecological history of food. He will do for the oceans what John Vaillant did for fire and has all the makings of the next Barry Lopez while appealing to the same readership as Mark Arax’s The Dreamt Land and Earl Swift’s Chesapeake Requiem.

THE ZORG de Siddharth Kara

From Pulitzer finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red: A notorious slave ship incident that led to the abolition of slavery in the UK and sparked the US abolitionist movement.

THE ZORG:
A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
by Siddharth Kara
St. Martin’s Press, October 2025

In late October 1780, a slave ship set sail from the Netherlands, bound for Africa’s Windward and Gold Coasts, where it would take on its human cargo. The Zorg (a Dutch word meaning both “care” and “worry”) was one of thousands of such ships, but the harrowing events that ensued on its doomed journey were unique.

After reaching Africa, The Zorg was captured by a privateer and came under British command. With a new captain and crew, the ship was crammed with 442 slaves, and departed in 1781 for Jamaica. But a series of unpredictable weather events and mistakes in navigation left the ship drastically off course and running out of food and water. So a proposition was put forth: Save the crew and the most valuable of the slaves―by throwing 140 people, mostly women and children, overboard.

What followed was a fascinating legal drama in England’s highest court that turned the brutal calculus of slavery into front page news. For the first time, concepts such as human rights and morality entered the discourse on slavery, in a notorious case that boiled down to a simple but profound question: Were the Africans on board the Zorg people or cargo?

The case of the Zorg catapulted the nascent anti-slavery movement from a minor evangelical cause to one of the most consequential moral campaigns in history. In this book, Siddharth Kara utilizes primary source research, masterful storytelling, and painstaking investigation to uncover the Zorg’s journey, the lives and fates of the slaves on board, and the mystery of who finally revealed the truth of what happened on the ship.

Siddharth Kara is an author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery. He is a British Academy Global Professor and an Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University. Kara has authored several books and reports on slavery and child labor, and he won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. He has also taught courses on modern slavery at Harvard University, UC Berkeley, and Cornell University. He divides his time between the U.K. and the U.S.

HUBRIS MAXIMUS de Faiz Siddiqui

The rise, fall, and revival of the Caesar of Silicon Valley.

HUBRIS MAXIMUS:
The Shattering of Elon Musk
by Faiz Siddiqui
St. Martin’s Press, April 2025

Elon Musk has cast himself as the savior of humanity, an altruistic force whose fortune is tied to noble pursuits from halting our dependence on fossil fuels to colonizing Mars. Once frequently heralded as a modern-day Edison, Musk has taken up a new place in the public consciousness with his growing desire to disrupt not just the automotive and space industries but the policies that shape our nation, placing him at the center of America’s most complex undertakings in manufacturing, politics, and defense and technology, even as his increasingly erratic personal behavior has raised questions about his stability and judgement.

Musk famously leads his companies from a bully pulpit, eroding guardrails and cutting through red tape whenever possible with little regard for the fallout as long as it serves his larger goals. Many in his orbit have seen their lives upended or their careers throttled by believing in his utopian vision. As the scale of the wagers he makes with his fortune and concerns about his credibility have grown in recent years, he alternately seems to be in complete command or on the verge of a meltdown. Yet in the long run, he has only become wealthier, and now the stakes have risen. Thanks to astute political maneuvering, Musk is no longer limited to gambling with a company’s bottom line or the livelihoods of his workers; he is poised to apply his uncompromising approach to business to the foundational rules and regulations that hold our society together.

At a moment when America’s tech gods are more influential than ever, Hubris Maximus is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of lionizing magnetic leaders. Washington Post journalist Faiz Siddiqui offers a gripping, detailed portrait of a singularly messy and lucrative period in Musk’s career, as well as a case study in the power of using one’s platform to shape the public narrative in a world that can’t turn away from its screens.

“Siddiqui blends insightful reporting with prescient analysis to give an authoritative look at one of the world’s most polarizing figures. He captures the ambition of Elon Musk’s innovations while also holding power to account, questioning the societal and cultural impact at the heart of his transformation. In this time, when Musk’s influence is tangible in everything from how information is shared to the race for space colonization, Siddiqui’s work could not be more vital.”
―Astead Herndon, host of the New York Times political podcast “The Run-Up”

« Siddiqui dissects the rise and psychological unraveling of one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Combining meticulous research with vivid storytelling, he reveals how Musk’s bold vision and unchecked ambition transformed industries, reshaped public narratives, and courted chaos. From Tesla’s triumphs to Twitter’s disasters, this gripping book exposes the cost of power without accountability in a world that idolizes innovation. »
―Bradley Hope, Pulitzer Prize finalist and coauthor of New York Times bestseller Billion Dollar Whale

“An electrifying masterpiece of investigative journalism, offering a riveting deep dive into the rise and fall of Elon Musk, and the definitive account of his transformation from inspirational entrepreneur to a dangerous and polarizing figure. With unmatched clarity and depth, Siddiqui dissects Musk’s power and influence. The book is a gripping cautionary tale and a masterful cultural critique―essential reading for anyone captivated (or confounded) by the most controversial billionaire of our time.”
―Taylor Lorenz, Author of Extremely Online and founder of User Magazine

Faiz Siddiqui is a technology journalist who writes for the Washington Post and has covered companies such as Tesla, Uber and Twitter (now X) for the Business Desk. His reporting has focused on transportation, social media and government transformation, among other issues. His work has been recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and he has earned multiple Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence and Hearst Journalism awards. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe and NPR.

THE PHONE SWAP de Lia Louis

When a scientist and movie star accidentally swap phones on a busy flight, they must oversee each other’s digital lives until they meet again to swap them back.

THE PHONE SWAP
by Lia Louis
Zaffre (UK)/Emily Bester Books (US), July 2025
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Private, never-been-love scientist Allie Lake is on a busy held-up flight on her way back home when she is seated next to troubled, hopeless romantic movie star Milo Ford. She is in no mood to talk. Her most recent project at a research station has just come to an end and she really doesn’t want to go home. Especially to what’s waiting for her.

As for Milo? Milo wants nothing more than to be at home hiding out with a little normality. Instead, he has to go and film a movie in the Romanian mountains… all the while, the press are getting closer, circling his secret. A secret he’s scared will come to light.

Allie lands and goes home.
Milo lands and heads to the mountains.

And both quickly realise they don’t have their phones – except they’re not lost. They’ve just picked up each other’s, forcing them to stay connected as they try to find a way to swap back.

Lia Louis has written five books, Better Left Unsent, The Key to My Heart, Eight Perfect Hours, Dear Emmie Blue and Somewhere Close to Happy. Somewhere Close to Happy was pre-empted in Italy and sold at auction in Spain, and Dear Emmie Blue took the rights world by storm and has sold in a total of 16 territories apart from the UK, including Germany where it became a bestseller.