New Releases by Michael Hurley

Eine Sammlung mit winterlichen Schauergeschichten in der Tradition von Charles Dickens – der perfekte Begleiter für lange Abende: spannend, atmosphärisch und very british! Schaurige Nächte Lange, kalte Winternächte: Zeit, um den Kamin zu entzünden, Zeit für Geistergeschichten. Ob in den wilden Mooren von Yorkshire, auf dem verschneiten Gelände eines Spukhauses oder auf dem belebten Londoner Weihnachtsmarkt – diese Geschichten, die von Gespenstern vergangener Tage erzählen, jagen den Lesenden die köstlichsten Schauer über den Rücken. So herrlich britisch wie ein Yorkshire Pudding, so stimmungsvoll und gruselig wie ›Eine Weihnachtsgeschichte‹ von Charles Dickens und so spannend, dass man dieses Buch kaum aus den Händen legen kann. ›Schaurige Nächte‹ vereint acht Erzählungen ausgewiesener Gruselexpert*innen, die eine alte Tradition neu beleben: Als Meister*innen des Unheimlichen und Makabren bescheren sie uns den köstlichsten Nervenkitzel. Wintergeister Die Tradition, zur kalten Jahreszeit Spukgeschichten zu lesen, hat sich über die Jahrhunderte hinweg bewährt. Denn was gibt es Schöneres, als es sich an langen, dunklen Winterabenden bei Kerzenlicht mit Geistergeschichten gemütlich zu machen? In ›Wintergeister‹ hauchen sechs hochgelobte Autor*innen und Expert*innen des unheimlichen Erzählens der Tradition des Schauermärchens neues Leben ein. Ein heimgesuchtes Herrenhaus, ein unheilvolles Theaterstück und eine Geisterbeschwörung zaubern eine wohlige Gänsehaut und bescheren Fans von Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe oder ›Downton Abbey‹ ein fesselndes Lesevergnügen. Diese atmosphärischen Spukgeschichten sind der perfekte Begleiter für frostige Nächte!

''Barrowbeck casts a real spell - or is it a curse?'' Mail on Sunday ''Thrilling, unsettling, ominous . . . like a knock at the door on a dark evening'' Irish Times ''Impeccable and beautifully drawn . . . Hurley has been rightly lauded in British folk-horror circles'' Big Issue For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river. A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy. A childless couple must make an agonising decision. A widower awaits the return of his wife. A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times. As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley. Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end. ''Hurley''s achievement is, like American craftsman of the weird H.P. Lovecraft before him, to put humanity in its place'' Northern Soul ''Hurley is the master of contemporary British folk horror'' Dazed **COMING SOON** SALTWASH, the disturbing new novel from Andrew Michael Hurley. Pre-order now!

From the creators of The Haunting Season comes a spellbinding new collection of never-before-seen ghostly tales, authored by twelve of the biggest names in historical and gothic fiction[Bokinfo].

«In questa spettrale raccolta di racconti, otto autori di bestseller creano l’atmosfera perfetta per la stagione natalizia con una serie di storie di fantasmi che incantano». Buzzfeed Quando le giornate si accorciano e i crepuscoli si fanno lividi, è il momento di raggomitolarsi sul divano, accendere le candele e lasciarsi conquistare da un racconto spettrale. Rese popolari da artisti del calibro di Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins e Henry James, le storie di fantasmi sono ricorrenti nella letteratura fin dall’antichità e sono tradizionalmente legate alle feste natalizie. In questa raccolta alcuni dei più grandi scrittori contemporanei – tutti maestri del terrore – riportano in vita questa antica tradizione con una serie di racconti che fanno venire i brividi. C’è un uomo ossessionato dal gioco degli scacchi che decide di prendere in affitto una singolare casa bianca e nera, con un sobrio giardino all’italiana in cui, disposti su due file, vi sono alberi potati in forme elaborate e familiari: torri, cavalli, alfieri, re e regine, con davanti i lunghi ranghi dei pedoni. Ma, se di giorno quel luogo è pervaso da una pacata quiete, di notte si trasforma nel più spaventoso degli incubi. Una donna in fuga da un marito violento sceglie, come rifugio per sé e suo figlio, la vecchia dimora di famiglia. Dovrebbe sentirsi protetta, tra quelle mura, ma fin dalla prima notte appare chiaro che qualcun altro abita quelle stanze polverose. Il giovane Walter Pemble, fotografo commemorativo di prim’ordine, si presenta nella residenza dei coniugi Wilt per il ritratto della defunta Lily, unica figlia di Rumold e Guinevere Wilt. La casa è sprofondata nel lutto, gli specchi oscurati, gli orologi fermi e le persiane alle finestre chiuse con il batacchio trattenuto con del crespo. Solo Lily Wilt, adagiata nel suo feretro, appare più viva che mai. La giovane Catherine Elizabeth Mary Blake, fresca sposa e signora di Blake Manor, nella campagna dello Shropshire, viene messa al corrente di una storia agghiacciante accaduta a pochi passi dalla sua tenuta. Una storia tanto torbida da lasciarle addosso un segno indelebile. Dalle penne di Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal, Natasha Pulley e Laura Purcell, otto racconti pervasi dal sinistro e dal macabro da leggere tutti d’un fiato. Magari con la luce accesa. «Il rigido clima invernale e l’atmosfera vittoriana accomunano questi otto terrificanti racconti, che piaceranno sia ai lettori di narrativa storica che agli amanti dell’horror». Publishers Weekly

Eight bestselling, award-winning writers return to the time-honoured tradition of the seasonal ghost story in this spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales. Long before Charles Dickens and Henry James popularized the tradition of supernatural horror, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a spooky tale. Now nine bestselling, award-winning authors—all of them master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre—bring the tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding new collection of original spine-tingling tales. Taking you from the frosty fens of the English countryside, to the snow-covered grounds of a haunted estate, to a bustling London Christmas market, these mesmerizing stories will capture your imagination and serve as your indispensable companion to cold, dark nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the ghostly spell of winters past . . .

A collection of readings and reflections for participants in the Inspiring Faith Communities program.

Ocho destacados escritores contemporáneos reinterpretan las clásicas historias de fantasmas en esta inquietante colección de relatos ambientados en las localizaciones más misteriosas de las islas británicas. Inglaterra es por excelencia la tierra de las apariciones y los lugares encantados. Para este libro, ocho prominentes novelistas británicos tuvieron la oportunidad de elegir un edificio perteneciente al English Heritage —una institución pública que protege y promueve el patrimonio histórico inglés— y permanecer en él después del horario de visita habitual. Inmersos en la historia, la atmósfera y las leyendas sobre esos emplazamientos, canalizaron la parte más oscura de su fantasía para crear las extraordinarias historias de fantasmas contemporáneas recogidas en este volumen. La mansión jacobea de Audley, el fuerte romano de Housesteads, los castillos de Dover, Kenilworth, Pendennis y Carlisle, el palacio de Eltham y un búnker de la Guerra Fría situado en York. Entre los muros de estos famosos lugares encantados, cada autor encontró la inspiración necesaria para reinterpretar a su manera las clásicas ghost stories, que llevan aterrorizando desde hace generaciones a cuantos lectores se acercan a ellas.

''The new master of menace'' Sunday Times A blizzard a century ago has passed into fable in the Endlands. Trapped by the snow, the residents of the valley found themselves at the mercy of the Devil, who brought death and destruction before being driven back to the moors. Now, the three farming families of the Endlands face a new test. The patriarch of the community, the Gaffer, has died and his grandson, John Pentecost, must decide if he will return and work the land in his grandfather''s stead. He feels the pull of duty, loyalty and tradition: obligations that his pregnant wife, Kat, finds hard to understand as an outsider. And as the celebrations of the Devil''s exile draw near, she realises that there is a darkness in this place which cannot be repelled. BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, FT, METRO AND MAIL ON SUNDAY ''A work of goose-flesh eeriness'' The Spectator

An eerie, suspenseful, gothic debut novel. Winner of the Costa First Novel Award “An amazing piece of fiction.”—Stephen King When Smith was a boy, he and his family went on an Easter pilgrimage with their local parish to the Loney, a bleak stretch of the English coastline, to visit an ancient shrine in search of healing for Smith’s disabled brother. But the locals were none too pleased to welcome them, and the two brothers soon became entangled in a troubling morass of dangerous rituals. For years after, Smith carries the burden of what happened that spring. And when he hears that the body of a young child has been found during a storm at the Loney, he’s forced to finally reckon with his darkest secrets—and the terror they carry with them. “A palpable pall of menace hangs over British author Hurley’s thrilling first novel, narrated by a London boy, “Tonto” Smith, whose affectionate nickname was bestowed by a parish priest who likened himself to the Lone Ranger. Tonto and his family undertake an Easter pilgrimage to the Moorings, a house overlooking a treacherous swath of tide-swept Cumbrian coast known as the Loney. Smith’s devoutly Catholic mother hopes that taking the waters at the nearby shrine will cure his older brother, Hanny, of his lifelong muteness. But the Cumbrian landscape seems anything but godly: nature frequently manifests in its rawest state and the secretive locals seem beholden to primitive rites and traditions that mock the religious piety of the visitors. Adding to the mystery is Coldbarrow, a spit of land turned twice daily by the tides into an island, where a man, a woman, and a pregnant teenage girl have taken refuge in a gloomy house named Thessaly. Hurley (Cages and Other Stories) tantalizes the reader by keeping explanations for what is happening just out of reach, and depicting a natural world beyond understanding. His sensitive portrayal of Tonto and Hanny’s relationship and his insights into religious belief and faith give this eerie tale depth and gravity.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Completely terrifying.”—Paula Hawkins “Vibrantly written.” —Entertainment Weekly “Stunning” —Jeff VanderMeer “The masterpiece by which Hurley will enter the Guild of the Gothic”—Guardian “Fans of Shirley Jackson are sure to savor . . . Tight, suspenseful writing makes this masterful novel unsettling in the most compelling way.”—Washington Post

‘De Loney is niet zozeer goed, het is geweldig. Het is literatuur van formaat.’ Stephen King De ontdekking van een kinderlijkje aan de stormachtige Engelse kust van Lancashire dwingt Smith, de verteller van dit verhaal, terug te denken aan de pelgrimsreis die hij in 1976 met zijn ouders en geestelijk gehandicapte broer Hanny ondernam naar dat kustgebied, dat daar de Loney wordt genoemd. De bewoners van de Loney zijn niet allemaal even blij met het katholieke gezelschap, en er gebeuren raadselachtige dingen. Niet alleen wordt er gebeden voor Hanny in de hoop dat hij zal genezen, de jongen raakt ook verzeild in andere verontrustende rituelen. Smith is de enige die weet wat er is gebeurd en legt zichzelf de loodzware last van het zwijgen op. Maar zal hij dat zijn leven lang volhouden? De Loney is een angstaanjagende roman over geloof, schuld, jaloezie en opoffering. Tegelijkertijd is het een gevoelig portret van de relatie tussen twee broers met realistische karakters en een observerende hoofdpersoon. Andrew Michael Hurley, een begenadigd literair debutant, voert ons langzaam langs de griezelige Engelse kustlijn mee naar een huiveringwekkende ontknoping. Andrew Michael Hurley groeide op in het graafschap Lancashire, waar tussen de rivieren de Wyre en de Lune het kustgebied ‘de Loney’ ligt. Zijn kennis van de katholieke symboliek komt voort uit zijn jeugd, toen hij misdienaar was. De Loney is zijn debuut. ‘Hedendaagse klassiekers in het genre spannende boeken zijn zeldzaam, en onmiddellijke klassiekers al helemaal, maar De Loney lijkt dit allebei te zijn.’ the Sunday Telegraph ‘De Loney is een meesterlijke uitweiding over doodsangst. Hurleys sterke, geloofwaardige karakteriseringen en levensechte dialogen zorgen ervoor dat je snel betrokken raakt bij de inwoners van de retraite. Zijn griezelige en atmosferische vertelling zit vol herkenning en scherpte.’ the Sunday Times ‘Direct door critici erkend als horrorklassieker. De Loney gaat over een ongelukkige familie, broederschap, geloof en adolescentie. Hurleys opvallende personages, een mix van sinistere inwoners en katholieke pelgrims, zijn perfect uitgewerkt. Het resultaat is een adembenemende en dubbelzinnige roman die je ’s nachts wakker houdt.’ Daily Express ****

Dory Delano, Charlotte Harris, and Turner Graham have been drifting through life since their days as roommates at Smith College, ten years ago. Dory is resisting taking the reins of her family''s legacy and fortune even as she relishes the fabulous lifestyle it affords her in the fashionable seaside resort of Martha''s Vineyard. She invites her old friends to join her for a summer on the Vineyard in hopes of rediscovering the innocence of old days and healing new wounds. But hidden in their midst and unknown to all but a few, a reclusive--some say dangerous--fisherman wanders alone, fueling wild speculation about his purpose and his past. None of these women can imagine the events their encounter with the fisherman will set in motion, the shadow he will cast over their destinies, or the transformation that awaits the world they know.

United States of America offers complete coverage of this fascinating country, including sections on history, geography, wildlife, infrastructure and government, and culture. It also includes a detailed fact file, maps and charts, and a traceable flag.

Canada offers complete coverage of this fascinating country, including sections on history, geography, wildlife, infrastructure and government, and culture. It also includes a detailed fact file, maps and charts, and a traceable flag.

This title takes a brief look back at the history of the World Cup, then turns to focus on Brazil, the 2014 host. Packed with information about Brazil''s sporting history, cities, and stadiums, as well as the teams and players to watch out for during the tournament.

This simple, motivational biography gives readers a glimpse into the life of double Olympic champion Mo Farrah, shining a light on his career, his upbringing, and his involvement in sport.

This simple, motivational biography gives readers a glimpse into the life of Olympic champion Jessica Ennis, shining a light on her career, her upbringing, and her involvement in sport.

"Stirring, romantic, and evocative of the sea''s magic." -Kirkus ReviewsThis sweeping allegorical tale begins with the escape of a Gypsy princess and her young lover from her father''s camp in 1851, recalling the flight of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The boy steals Prodigal, a sailing ship blessed with unnatural speed, and the lovers escape to sea, leaving the father to grieve for the loss and pine for the return of his child. More than 150 years later on Ocracoke Island we meet Aidan Sharpe, an aging lawyer, as he rises from the sand of a remote beach after a lost weekend. While struggling to rebuild his life in this lonely outpost of the Outer Banks, Aidan is caught up in a two-thousand-year-old mystery that unfolds with the sudden reappearance of Prodigal off the coast, adrift and unmanned. Its discovery will lead Aidan and those close to him into the deep, in a race between time and eternity. "[A]n intriguing, well-plotted, and multilayered novel. The supernatural elements-a religious relic, a gypsy woman out of legend-are thougtfully handled. Hurley writes beautifully, especially when depicting island and nautical life." -Kirkus Reviews

Are you interested in motor sports? Then this is the book for you! Discover some of the most fascinating and unusual facts about the sport. With facts about Formula 1, World Rally, NASCAR, and MotoGP this book reveals the fastest vehicles, unusual racers, the trouble a kangaroo can cause, great male and female drivers, and more! Themed boxes, captions and labels make the text in this book easy to read and absorb. The engaging design will draw readers in and keep them hooked.

Presents different facts about the sport of football and its players, including which game was known as the "Ice Bowl", who are the Cheeseheads, and which team holds the record for the longest winning streak.

Presents facts about motor sports, including races for different types of vehicle, pit crews, crowds, and notable drivers.

Presents different facts about the sport of basketball and its players, including who wears lucky shorts, how much the top players are paid, and the highest-scoring game in nba history.

Presents facts about baseball players, records, achievements, and crowds, revealing such information as the tallest player in baseball history and unique athlete superstitions.

Shares facts about soccer, including who the oldest professional soccer team is, who the youngest person to play in the World Cup is, and which team has won the World Cup the most times.

Presents different facts about the sport of hockey and its players, including what pucks are made of, which team holds the record for the longest winning streak and which was the longest game played.

Profiles ten of the world''s most distinctive bridges.

Wheel Sports shows readers different extreme wheel sports from around the world.

Wheel Sports shows readers different extreme wheel sports from around the world.