Archives par étiquette : Pushkin Press

STRANGE BLOOMS de Darren Simpson & Keith Robinson

A fully illustrated, darkly gripping tale of a town suddenly invaded by mysterious and deadly plants – Thornhill meets The Owl Service.

STRANGE BLOOMS
by Darren Simpson
illustrated by Keith Robinson
Pushkin Press, September 2026

Fran is an ordinary teenage girl, living in an ordinary seaside town. But one day, something horrifyingly out of the ordinary begins to take root…

They start slowly, almost imperceptibly. But soon the strange, uncanny flowers have infiltrated the whole town. And every young person who smells the intoxicating blooms falls victim to a life-sapping illness. All except one: seemingly ordinary Fran.

Told in a dual timeline, Strange Blooms takes the reader on an exciting journey to discover the truth behind these deadly flowers, and uncover a mystery that rocked the town 40 years earlier.

Darren Simpson writes vivid, unruly fiction for older children and teens. His debut novel, Scavengers, was a Guardian Best Book of the Year and his latest book, Furthermoor, was a Waterstone Book of the Year. He has been nominated twice for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

Keith Robinson has created jackets for, among other projects, the Waterstones Book of the Year I Am Rebel.

PEARL BEACH de Beth Steiner

A poignant free verse novel about the challenges of growing up and the joy of connecting.

PEARL BEACH
by Beth Steiner
Pushkin Press, May 2026

This summer
I’ll grow up

For as long as Billie can remember, summer has meant one thing: Pearl Beach. The idyllic seaside home belonging to her old Aunt Edith, and the place where she met her best friend, Andy.

But this summer, everything seems to be changing. Andy is more interested in makeup and boys than in Billie, and Aunt Edith has decided to stay with them for the whole summer. Edith is a holocaust survivor, and whenever Billie tries to talk to her, her words seem to crumble under the weight of this knowledge.

But Edith was fourteen once too and knows all too well the pains of growing up. When Billie finds her old diary, she starts to realise just how much they have in common…

Beth Steiner is a debut writer, with a background as a primary school teacher. A passionate slam poet, she skilfully weaves poetry into her narratives, bringing a lyrical quality to her storytelling.

GHOST DETECTIVE d’Alice Arisugawa

A detective’s ghost investigates his own unsolved murder in this Japanese modern crime classic.

GHOST DETECTIVE
by Alice Arisugawa
Pushkin Press, Autumn 2026

The beach at night. A detective by the name of Tatsuya Kanzaki is summoned by his division chief and killed, but his lingering attachments and bewilderment at his sudden murder leave him unable to pass onto the next world.

Unfortunately, nobody can see Kanzaki—not his killer, Kyodo, nor his fiancée, Sumako—nobody except Hayakawa, his psychic junior.

While investigating his own murder through Hayakawa’s powers, Kyodo is found dead in a locked room. His death can only mean one thing. Somebody else is the mastermind behind Kanzaki’s murder…

Step by step, Kanzaki and Hayakawa inch closer to the truth. But reaching closure means passing on, and Kanzaki must brace himself for his final goodbyes.

Translated by Cathy Hirano.

Alice Arisugawa was born in 1959 in Osaka and graduated from Doshisha University. While there, he studied mystery novels and eventually debuted as an author in 1989. Ghost Detective, first published in 2000, is one of his best-loved novels and has been adapted for the stage in Japan.

ODE TO JOY de Sarah Gavron & Sophie Herxheimer

A gorgeous and moving graphic novel about one family’s struggle to survive in a concentration camp, and the persistence of art-making through the bleakest times.

ODE TO JOY
by Sarah Gavron & Sophie Herxheimer
Pushkin Press, May 2026

In 1943, Ib Katznelson was deported with the rest of his Jewish family to Terezín, also called Theresienstadt. Terezín was repurposed by the Nazis as a ‘show camp,’ a ghetto for the Jewish cultural elite, designed to deceive the prying Red Cross and conceal the horrifying truth behind Hitler’s death camps.

Ib didn’t speak about his experience for many years, but when he did, it was an incredible tale: in spite of the dreadful daily life of the camp, a rich cultural life proliferated. The incarcerated artists sustained their humanity by secretly continuing to make imaginative work that opposed the propaganda they were forced to produce for the ‘show camp’ by day. And, while many of these prisoners didn’t survive, much of their art does.

ODE TO JOY is a collaboration between Ib’s daughter-in-law, Sarah Gavron, and artist Sophie Herxheimer. Through stunning illustrations and text filled with pathos and peppered with wit, it blends the story of Ib and his parents and fellow prisoners along with that of his modern-day family, learning about the camp and their links to it for the first time.

Sarah Gavron is a British film director. Winner of a BAFTA and BIFA, among other awards, her films include Brick Lane, Suffragette, Village at the End of the World and Rocks.

Sophie Herxheimer is an artist and poet. Her work has been shown at Tate Modern, on a giant mural along the seafront at Margate and at her allotments! She has illustrated six collections of mythology and fairy tales. Her collection Velkom to Inklandt (2017) was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her book 60 Lovers to Make and Do (2019) was a TLS Book of the Year.

THE NIGHTLESS CITY de Callum McSorley

The first in a new series of historical thrillers set in nineteenth-century Japan, from the prizewinning author of Squeaky Clean.

THE NIGHTLESS CITY
by Callum McSorley
Pushkin Press, September 2026

Tokyo, 1886.

Chino Kunio, a male courtesan in Tokyo’s infamous Yoshiwara neighbourhood, the Nightless City, discovers his one and only client, a British diplomat, dead and himself in the frame for the man’s grisly murder.

Trying to save Chino from the judicial blade are his friend, samurai rebel turned reckless drunk Shimura Shingo, police inspector Tokuda Reiji, and the victim’s wife, Fiona Gordon, a Scottish teacher living a stifled life in the foreign concession, who is seeking her own answers.

But as more foreigners are slain, dredging up the shadow of shipwreck that led to a diplomatic scandal, Chino’s only hope may be to escape the Nightless City for good, before it explodes into violence between belligerent westerners and nationalist bully boys.

Callum McSorley is a writer based in Glasgow, where he grew up. His debut thriller, Squeaky Clean, the first book in the Alison McCoist thriller series, was published to great acclaim and went on to win the prestigious McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish Crime Book of the Year. THE NIGHTLESS CITY is the first in a new series of historical thrillers set in nineteenth-century Japan.