Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

THE DOGS de John Hughes

Michael Shamanov grapples with the idea of his mother’s life and her desire to finish it. Perhaps it’s her life he has been running away from and not his own. A haunting gem of family secrets and impossible decisions with a distinctly European focus.

THE DOGS
by John Hughes
Upswell Books/Black Inc. (Australia), October 2021

“The story of a life is as secret as life itself. A life that can be explained is no life at all.” —Elias Canetti

Is it possible to write about the living without thinking of them as already dead? Michael Shamanov is a man running away from life’s responsibilities. His marriage is over, he barely sees his son and he hasn’t seen his mother since banishing her to a nursing home two years earlier. A successful screenwriter, Michael’s encounter with his mother’s nurse leads him to discover that the greatest story he’s ever heard may lie with his dying mother. And perhaps it’s her life he’s been running away from and not his own.
Is the past ever finished? Should we respect another’s silence? And if so, is it ever possible to understand and put to rest the strange idea of family that travels through the flesh?

John Hughes is based in Sydney. He has published six books, all acclaimed and highly awarded, including the National Biography Award and Premier’s Book Awards. His previous novels, The Remnants and Asylum were critically acclaimed, and in 2019, No One was shortlisted in the Miles Franklin Award 2020.

DIE REBELLIN UND DER DIEB de Jan-Philipp Sendker

A moving story about a forbidden love, the courage of despair and humanity in the face of disaster.

DIE REBELLIN UND DER DIEB
(The Rebel Girl and the Thief)
by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Blessing/PRH Germany, August 2021

18-year-old Niri, his parents and siblings have a modest but secure existence as servants in the villa of a wealthy family. Until the pandemic comes, Niri’s entire family is laid off and stares into the abyss of deepest poverty.
The previously well-behaved monastic student does not want to wait for the mercy of an indifferent government and, in the face of growing hardship, rebels against his father’s resignation to fate. Sneaking past the patrols at night through a sealed-off city, he returns to the villa to get what the family needs to survive. Waiting for him there is his childhood friend Mary, who not only gives him food, but has a larger plan that will change the lives of the town and the two of them forever.
The universal story of two lovers from different worlds who learn what matters in the face of disaster: Courage to resist, will to change, and unconditional trust in each other.

Jan-Philipp Sendker, born in 1960, was the US correspondent for Stern magazine from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. His first novel, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and his other books are international best sellers. He lives in Potsdam with his family.

A HOUSE BETWEEN EARTH AND THE MOON de Rebecca Scherm

Rebecca Scherm’s long awaited new gripping story of one scientist in outer space, another who watches over him, the family left behind, and the lengths people will go to protect the people and planet they love.

A HOUSE BETWEEN EARTH AND THE MOON
by Rebecca Scherm
Viking, March 2022
(via Writers House)

Scientist Alex Welch-Peters has believed for twenty years that his super-algae can reverse the effects of climate change. His obsession with his research has jeopardized his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his own professional future. When Sensus, the colossal tech company, offers him a chance to complete his research, he seizes the opportunity. The catch? His lab will be in outer space on Parallaxis, the first-ever luxury residential space station built for billionaires. Alex and six other scientists leave their loved ones to become Pioneers, the beta tenants of Parallaxis.
But Parallaxis is not the space palace they were sold. Day and night, the embittered crew builds the facility under pressure from Sensus, motivated by the promise that their families will join them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, with much of the country ablaze in wildfires, Alex’s family tries to remain safe in Michigan. His teenage daughter Mary Agnes struggles through high school with the help of the ubiquitous Sensus phones implanted in everyone’s ears, archiving each humiliation, and wishing she could go to Parallaxis with her father—but her mother will never allow it.
The Pioneers are the beta testers of another program, too. As they toil away two hundred miles in the sky, Sensus is designing an algorithm that will predict human behavior. Tess, a young social psychologist Sensus has hired to watch the Pioneers through their phones, begins to develop an intimate, obsessive relationship with her subjects. When she takes it a step farther—traveling to Parallaxis to observe them up close—the controlled experiment begins to unravel.
Prescient and insightful, A HOUSE BETWEEN EARTH AND THE MOON is at once a captivating epic about the machinations of big tech and a profoundly intimate meditation on the unmistakably human bonds that hold us together.

Praise for Rebecca Scherm’s first novel, Unbecoming (Viking 2015):

“Startlingly inventive” —The New York Times Book Review
“terrific debut” —The Wall Street Journal
“a genuine work of art” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“A clever, engrossing thriller” —Huffington Post
“A marvel” —Buzzfeed

Rebecca Scherm is the author of Unbecoming, a novel. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she was also a postgraduate Zell Fellow. She lives in Michigan.

KID YOUTUBER by Marcus Emerson

Following the major self-publishing success of Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja – which has now sold over half a million copies to date! – Marcus Emerson launched KID YOUTUBER, a hilarious new 4-book series (with potential for more!) about a wannabe YouTube star.

KID YOUTUBER
by Marcus Emerson
Independantly published in 2020
Rights handled by Writers House

Davy Spencer might be the new kid in school, but that doesn’t mean he can’t start as the most POPULAR kid. With the help of his two best friends, Chuck and Annie, Davy throws himself into making viral YouTube videos with hilariously disastrous results. If he can pull this off, then everybody at his new school will know his name before even meeting him. Davy’s YouTube channel has everything – awesome pranks? Check! School lunch reviews? Check! Undercover detention missions? Check! Getting duct taped to the wall? Check – wait, what? Becoming a rockstar Youtuber isn’t easy, but Davy won’t give up… no matter how crazy things have to get.

Marcus Emerson is the author of the popular Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja series, Kid Youtuber, and the Super Life of Ben Braver. His goal is to create children’s books that are engaging, funny, and inspirational for kids of all ages.

AN UNTHINKABLE THING de Nicole Lundrigan

A stylish Mid-Century set that asks a shocking question: Can an eleven-year-old boy really be a cold blooded killer?

AN UNTHINKABLE THING
by Nicole Lundrigan
Viking Canada, Spring 2022

The residents of affluent Upper Washbourne certainly believed so when they charged and then tried young Thomas Ware for triple murder in 1958. All is not as it seems behind the hedgerow surrounding the lavish Henneberry estate where Tommie Ware’s mother, Esther, works as the live-in housekeeper. When Tommie is unexpectedly transplanted into this unfamiliar and rarefied world, he is left on his own to navigate the grounds, the massive house, and the twisted family inside. There’s the delusional pill-popping mother, Muriel, who takes a strange shine to Thomas; her husband, a respected dentist who may have known Tommie’s recently deceased aunt; and their entitled son, Martin, who reveals a dark and dangerous side as he cruelly torments the old widow who lives next door. High class comes with high stakes, and as Tommie is dragged deeper into the Henneberrys’ dysfunction, he can’t help but wonder: what does someone good and brave have to do to stop such people?
Alternating with Tommie’s vivid tale of that summer is the story of his murder trial, told entirely through newspaper and radio coverage, forensic reports, trial transcripts, and witness testimonies. The result is a masterful, mesmerizing dual-narrative that is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats and guessing until the very last page.

Nicole Lundrigan grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of seven published novels including her most recent, Hideaway (Viking/PRHC, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel conveyed by the Crime Writers of Canada and which was included on many best-of/must-read lists in 2019 including Globe & Mail, Chatelaine, Bustle, Toronto Star, Loan Stars, NOW, Post Media, and the CBC. Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door, called Hideaway « Authentic, disturbing and unbearably tense, [it] will leave you reeling.” In its starred review of Nicole’s earlier novel The Substitute (House of Anansi Press, 2017), Booklist noted Lundrigan’s writing, “is both elegant and darkly humorous, delivering bareknuckle social commentary that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn, Karin Fossum, and Laura Lippman.”