New Releases by Helen Dunmore

Celebrated for its creativity, communal spirit, and culture of resistance, Bristol is a city with a loud voice and progressive reputation. But it’s also a city that has experienced division and inequality. In this anthology, ten acclaimed and emerging writers portray a city full of secrets, scars, and stark contrasts. From the elusive angel who turns up at a stagnant café along the Malago River, to the jilted lover caught in the crosshairs of the police, the stories gathered here lean into the turbulent magic of Bristol and will leave readers with a renewed sense of the city’s complexity.

In this remarkable, innovative and moving final collection of stories, Helen Dunmore explores the fragile ties between familial love, motherhood, friendship and grief. Capturing the passion, joy, loss, longing and loneliness we encounter as we navigate our way through life, each story sets out on a journey, of adventure, new beginnings, reflection and contemplation.

Revolutionary turmoil in France threatens to cross the English border—and tear apart an increasingly tense marriage—in this "brilliant" gothic thriller ( Publishers Weekly, starred review). It is 1792, and Europe is seized by political unrest. In England, Lizzie Fawkes has grown up among Radicals who've followed the French Revolution with eager optimism. But Lizzie has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a developer who is heavily invested in Bristol's housing boom, and he has everything to lose from social upheaval and the prospect of war. As the strain of financial setbacks and the secrets of his past converge upon him, his grip on what he considers his rightful property—including Lizzie—only grows tighter...From an Orange Prize winner and Whitbread Award finalist, this is a novel with a "charged radiance" ( The New York Times) that explores romanticism and disillusionment, terror and love, and the dangerous lines between them. "Dunmore knows how to let a narrative move like an arrow in flight...A man rows from Bristol to a glade where he has left his dead wife overnight. He must bury her fast, where no one will find her. From the start, Birdcage Walk has the command of a thriller as we keep company with John Diner Tredevant, an 18th-century property developer building a magnificent terrace in Clifton, high above the Avon Gorge. Lizzie, his second wife, does not know the details of what happened to his first. Nor do we know as much as we might suppose...The novel's cast is marvelous and vivid."— The Guardian "Explores the impact of the French Revolution on 1790s England within the context of a gothic romance set in Bristol...[a] magnificently complex villain."— Kirkus Reviews

To be alive is to be inside the wave, always travelling until it breaks and is gone. These poems are concerned with the borderline between the living and the dead - the underworld and the human living world - and the exquisitely intense being of both. They possess a spare, eloquent lyricism as they explore the bliss and anguish of the voyage. Inside the Wave, Helen Dunmore's tenth and final poetry book, was her first since The Malarkey (2012), whose title-poem won the National Poetry Competition. Her final poem, 'Hold out your arms', written shortly before her death and not included in the first printing of Inside the Wave, was added to all subsequent printings. Her posthumous retrospective, Counting Backwards: Poems 1975-2017 (2019), covers ten collections she published over four decades up to and including Inside the Wave.

Per quale ragione «L’ho sposato, lettore mio» è una delle frasi più celebri e citate della letteratura inglese? La risposta, tutt’altro che ovvia, risiede nel capolavoro da cui è tratta: Jane Eyre (1847), la storia di un’orfana che, grazie alla sola intelligenza e caparbietà, riesce a convolare a nozze con il nobile signor Rochester. Per affermare il suo successo, e il cambiamento della propria condizione sociale, invece di dichiarare «mi ha sposata, lettore mio» – com’era da aspettarsi nella maschilista società vittoriana – Jane dice: «l’ho sposato, lettore mio». Una sfumatura nella forma verbale che ha lo scopo di rimarcare la coscienza femminile della protagonista, e quella dell’autrice Charlotte Brontë, e che si ergerà a manifesto, ispirazione e stimolo per tutte le scrittrici a venire. Quando Tracy Chevalier ha chiesto alle migliori autrici in lingua inglese di raccontare una storia ispirata a quella celebre battuta, non l’ha fatto solo per festeggiare i duecento anni della nascita di Charlotte Brontë, ma anche per ridare significato a quelle parole, per renderle di nuovo vive e attuali nella società odierna. «In alcuni racconti sono le nozze stesse a essere drammatiche, a causa di una dolorosa scheggia di vetro in Coppia mista di Linda Grant, o di un mutamento improvviso in Il matrimonio di mia madre di Tessa Hadley, o di un rapporto clandestino durante una cerimonia in Zambia, in Uomini doppi di Namwali Serpell, o di un incontro gotico nel fango della brughiera in Tenersi per mano di Joanna Briscoe», dice Chevalier. In altri, come La prima volta che vidi il tuo viso di Emma Donoghue, la frase di Jane Eyre diventa il trampolino di lancio per viaggiare indietro nel tempo, fino alla Germania di fine Ottocento, dove Miss Hall e Mary Benson, la moglie dell’arcivescovo di Canterbury, si macchiano del peccato di un amore saffico. Se in Lo scambio Audrey Niffenegger colloca Jane nel mondo contemporaneo, in un paese dilaniato dalla guerra, la penna originale ed eccentrica di Helen Dunmore si diverte a raccontare Jane Eyre dal punto di vista della governante ingelosita, mentre Tracy Chevalier – con la maestria che l’ha resa una delle scrittrici più lette e amate d’Italia, «in grado di donare il soffio della vita al romanzo storico» (Independent) – dipinge la relazione sentimentale di una coppia male assortita, «come margherite e gladioli, come pizzo e cuoio». Il risultato è una collezione di ventuno storie d’amore, diversissime per sensibilità, scrittura e intenzioni, che ruotano attorno a una medesima eroina dai mille volti: una donna determinata e coraggiosa, che combatte per vincere i pregiudizi e gli ostacoli della società. E che non ha paura di affermare la propria identità dicendo, a testa alta, con un sorriso affaticato ma fiero: io «l’ho sposato, lettore mio». Ventuno storie per celebrare Charlotte Brontë e Jane Eyre Racconti di: Tracy Chevalier, Tessa Hadley, Sarah Hall, Helen Dunmore, Kirsty Gunn, Joanna Briscoe, Jane Gardam, Emma Donoghue, Susan Hill, Francine Prose, Elif Shafak, Evie Wyld, Patricia Park, Salley Vickers, Nadifa Mohamed, Esther Freud, Linda Grant, Lionel Shriver, Audrey Niffenegger, Namwali Serpell, Elizabeth McCracken

Per festeggiare i 200 anni della nascita di Charlotte Brontë, Tracy Chevalier ha chiesto alle migliori autrici in lingua inglese di scrivere una storia ispirata alla celebre battuta di Jane Eyre: «L’ho sposato, lettore mio». Questo racconto fa parte della raccolta dedicata a Charlotte Brontë: L’ho sposato, lettore mio a cura di TRACY CHEVALIER

"An unconventional thriller [and] a page turner . . . As much a surprising love story as it is a tale of spies" ( The New York Times Book Review). In 1960 London, the Cold War is at its height, and a spy may be a friend or neighbor, colleague or lover. Two colleagues, Giles Holloway and Simon Callington, face a terrible dilemma over a missing top-secret file. At the end of a suburban garden, in the pouring rain, Simon's wife, Lily, buries a briefcase containing the file deep in the earth. She believes that in doing so she is protecting her family. What she will learn is that no one is immune from betrayal or the devastating consequences of exposure. "Dunmore's strategy, placing a triangle of past and present loves within a spy novel, yields an unexpected dividend. Even the most ordinary elements of life—the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children, meeting someone special, what remains unsaid within a marriage—become viscerally exciting." — The New Yorker " Exposure is many things at once—an espionage thriller, a forbidden-love story, an immigrant's tale . . . A novel you won't be able to shake." — Entertainment Weekly "One of those books that you read with your heart in your mouth, your mind fully engaged, and with a sense of desolation as you note the dwindling number of pages left before it comes to an end." — Chicago Tribune

From the award-winning author of The Siege, Helen Dunmore, comes The Lie; a spellbinding tale of love, remembrance, and deception, set against the backdrop of World War I. Cornwall, 1920. Daniel Branwell has survived the First World War and returned to the small fishing town where he was born. Behind him lie the trenches and the most intense relationship of his life. As he works on the land, struggling to make a living in the aftermath of war, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the traumas of the past and memories of his dearest friend and his first love. Above all, as the drama unfolds, Daniel is haunted by the terrible, unforeseen consequences of a lie. Set in France during the First World War and in post-war Cornwall, this is a deeply moving and mesmerizing story of the “men who marched away”.

The love affair between a neglected wife and a mysterious soldier is "a perfect ghost story" from the acclaimed author of The Siege and The Betrayal ( The Independent). In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her new husband, Philip, a doctor. While he spends long hours on call, Isabel finds herself lonely and vulnerable, trying to adjust to the realities of being a country housewife. One evening, Isabel is woken by intense cold. Hunting for extra blankets, she discovers an old Royal Air Force greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under the coat for warmth, she starts to dream and is soon startled by a knock at her window—where a young RAF pilot stands outside, wearing that same coat. His powerful presence both disturbs and excites Isabel. And soon, their unexpected connection sparks an affair that will change them both irreparably. "Written in crisp, enthralling prose," The Greatcoat is an atmospheric tale of love and war that blurs the line between the real and the imaginary ( The New Yorker). "Dunmore's gift, familiar from The Siege and The Betrayal, is to use a finely drawn domestic setting to show the great events of European history on a human scale. She doesn't need 'horror' to spook her readers; our past is bad enough." — The Guardian "The most elegant flesh-creeper since The Woman in Black." — The Times (London) "The sense of déjà vu surrounding the story makes it all the more chilling . . . Tense and engaging." — The New Yorker

As they search for their missing father near their Cornwall home, Sapphy and her brother Conor learn about their family's connection to the domains of air and of water.

The ways in which the present longs for the past, questions it, tries to get in touch with it, and stretches the power of memory to its limits, are central to this new collection by Helen Dunmore. These are poems and stories of loss and extraordinary rediscovery.

A "magnificent, brave, tender" novel of post-WWII Russia from the author of The Siege— shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize ( The Independent on Sunday). Leningrad 1952. Andrei, a young doctor, and Anna, a nursery school teacher, have forged a life together in the postwar, post-siege wreckage. But they know their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin's merciless Ministry of State Security. When Andrei is forced to treat the sick child of a senior secret police officer, his every move is scrutinized, making it painfully clear that his own fate—and that of his family—is bound to the child's. Trapped in an impossible game of life and death, Andrei and Anna must avoid the whispers and watchful eyes of those who will say and do anything to save themselves . . . With The Betrayal, internationally acclaimed author Helen Dunmore "vividly depicts the difficulty of living by principle in a tyrannical society, in which paranoia infects every act, and even ordinary citizens become instruments of terror" ( The New Yorker). "An emotionally charged thriller, The Betrayal unfolds breathlessly and with great skill. . . . You don't want to put it down. . . . Elegant yet devastating." — The Seattle Times "With precise period detail and astute psychological insight, Dunmore brings the last months of Stalin's reign to life and reminds us why some eras shouldn't be forgotten." — Publishers Weekly

The crossing of Ingo is an ancient and dangerous coming-of-age ritual: a journey to the bottom of the world. Sapphy and Conor have been called to take part, the first of human blood ever to make an attempt. But Ervys and his followers are determined to stop them: dead or alive. Helen Dunmore builds her classic, much-loved series up to a breathtaking finale.

Sapphire lives in two worlds. On land she walks the rocky shores of the Cornwall coast—but under the sea she can swim like a seal by the side of her Mer friend Faro. Now both of Sapphy's worlds are threatened. In the profound depths of the ocean, where the Mer cannot go, a monster called the Kraken is stirring. He has the power to sweep Ingo away and shake the land from its foundation. Because of her mixed blood, Sapphire can enter the Deep. With a great whale as her guide, she will journey to a place so far from the sun, no light can find it—and confront an evil that's even darker.

In a seaside town of sandy beaches and ocean breezes, Sapphy has never felt so far from the sea. The crowded shore at St. Pirans is nothing like the cove at Sapphy's old home, where she first found her way into the underwater world of Ingo. But Ingo's pull is strong, and it always finds a way. Soon Sapphy and her brother, Conor, are swimming beneath the waves again, riding the currents and teasing their Mer friend Faro. As Sapphy goes deeper into Ingo, she learns to feel more at home in the sea—even as she begins to be aware of its dangers. There's the danger of going in too deep, and breaking the delicate balance between Sapphy's life on land and her life in Ingo. There's the mysterious disappearance of Sapphy's father, an experienced sailor who should never have drowned. And then there's Ingo itself—a restless power as old as the world, as strong as the tides, and more dangerous than anything Sapphy has ever known.

In the heat of Rome's long summer, the poet Catullus and his older married lover, Clodia Metelli, meet in secret. Living at the heart of sophisticated, brittle and brutal Roman society at the time of Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar, Catullus is obsessed with Clodia, the Lesbia of his most passionate poems. He is jealous of her husband, of her maid, even of her pet sparrow. And Clodia? Catullus is 'her dear poet', but possibly not her only interest . . . Catallus' relationship with Clodia is one of the most intense, passionate, tormented and candid in history. In love and in hate, their story exposes the beauty and terrors of Roman life in the late Republic.

A celebrated winner of fiction's Orange Prize, Helen Dunmore is as spellbinding a storyteller in her poetry as in her novels. 'Glad Of These Times' is full of haunting, joyous and wry narratives.

Tara begins her visit with Gran unhappy and bored, but when the man in the apartment downstairs allows others in the building to use his garden, she not only has a place to play, she learns what it was like to be a child during World War II. Includes facts about evacuees and victory gardens.

In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane's vision of good books for all'. adults and she has received widespread acclaim for work. All ten books of her adult fiction have been published by Penguin, and in Rose 1944, we present several short stories that reveal the range, intricacy and depth found in one of modern fiction's great lyrical voices.

**FROM THE AUTHOR OF INSIDE THE WAVE, THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017** Rebecca was abandoned by her mother in a shoebox in the backyard of an Italian restaurant when she was two days old. Her life begins without history, in the dark outdoors. Who is she, where has she come from and what can she become? Thirty years later, married to Adam, she gives birth to Ruby, and to a new life for herself. But when sudden tragedy changed the course of that life for ever, and all the lives that touch hers, Rebecca is out in the world again, searching . . . Mourning Ruby explores identity and maternal ties and is bestselling author Helen Dunmore's eighth novel. 'Moments that bring the reader to tears . . . a fascinating - often brilliant - novel' The Times 'Bold and unusual . . . miraculously written, Dunmore's drama of loss and regeneration pieces together shattered lives' Daily Mail 'Emotionally restrained, beautifully observed' Daily Telegraph Helen Dunmore has published eleven novels with Penguin: Zennor in Darkness , which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize; Talking to the Dead ; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart; The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; Mourning Ruby; House of Orphan; Counting the Stars and The Betrayal, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010. She is also a poet, children's novelist and short-story writer.

In a collection of short works, a cafeteria cook confronts her pen pal, a boastful writer is put in his place, a future government ruthlessly controls conception, and a soulful woman remembers her past.

Katie and Zillah are in their last year at the local primary school, and looking forward to moving on. But then they discover that the school is threatened with closure, and they could be the last children ever to go there. Their class is determined - they have brothers and sisters in the school, their parents went there, the school is part of their community - they won't let it close, whatever it takes.

After the tragic death of her father, Katie and her mum go to live in the depths of Cornwall, as far away from their London life as possible. The countryside is beautiful, but coping with a cottage with no heating, an outside loo and a lot of spiders is more than Katie bargained for. Then she meets Zillah, from the farm up.

Katie and Zillah are looking forward to the Cornish summer that stretches ahead of them, all swimming and surfing and long, lazy hot days. Then travellers arrive at Zillah's dad's campsite and soon tensions develop. Katie makes friends with Rose, one of the travellers, and suddenly there's a chill between her and Zillah. It leads Katie to wonder about their friendship, until something happens that puts everything in perspective, something that could threaten their friendship for ever... "Dunmore is a wonderful storyteller" the Observer.

Livre-culte des années quatre-vingt enfin réédité dans sa version intégrale, chef-d'œuvre littéraire et document de premier plan sur la culture gay d'avant le sida, Le Danseur de Manhattan dépeint un âge d'or révolu, celui d'une fête permanente, sans tabous ni contraintes. Depuis qu'il a découvert son homosexualité, Malone, jeune homme de bonne famille d'une extraordinaire beauté, erre dans New York à la recherche de l'amour absolu. Guidé dans les méandres du milieu underground par Sutherland, une folle flamboyante, Malone s'enivre de plaisirs neufs, goûtant frénétiquement aux drogues, au sexe et à la danse. Des boîtes de nuit de Manhattan aux orgies extravagantes de Fire Island commence alors une lente déchéance dont l'issue ne peut être que la rédemption ou la mort... À la fois lyrique et poignant, ce roman au réalisme cru dit toute la souffrance d'un homme en quête de pureté dans un monde d'apparences où les rires tonitruants étouffent les larmes de désespoir.

Called "elegantly, starkly beautiful" by "The New York Times Book Review, The Siege" is Dunmore's masterpiece. Her canvas is monumental--the Nazi's 1941 winter siege on Leningrad that killed 600,000--but her focus is heartrendingly intimate.

During World War I, D.H. Lawrence and his wife moved to Cornwall where they became the subject of intense suspicion from the locals. This forms the inspiration for this first novel centering on Clare, a young girl who comes under the influence of the Lawrences.

Moving to Cornwall so her mother can rediscover her art after the tragic death of her father, Katie finds herself drawn to Zillah, a strange silent girl who spends her time restoring an old boat and wears a diamond ring around her neck.