'There's a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .' Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life. For Mona, it's the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family's cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss. But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it's too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us? 'Devastatingly emotional. De Waal's storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself' Financial Times 'Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics' Emerald Street ' An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity' Sunday Times

THE TRICK TO TIME

Literature & Fiction

De Waal, Kit

Contemporary

Penguin

My Name Is Leon

Charnwood

MY NAME IS LEON

For fans of The Language of Flowers, a sparkling, big-hearted, page-turning debut set in the 1970s about a young black boy’s quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care. Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, “I’m your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.” Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can. But Leon isn’t in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can’t protect his little family from everything. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leon’s own journey—on his brand-new BMX bike—will carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureen’s cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as “The Zebra”; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists. Told through the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right, he stubbornly, endearingly struggles his way through a system much larger than he can tackle on his own. My Name Is Leon is a vivid, gorgeous, and uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what, in the end, ultimately makes a family.

Literary

Simon&Schuster

“Taut, emotionally intense, and wholly believable, this beautiful and uplifting debut” (Kirkus Reviews) about a young black boy’s quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care is a sparkling novel perfect for fans of The Language of Flowers. Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, “I’m your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.” Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can. But Leon isn’t in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black, nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leon’s own journey will carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureen’s cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as “The Zebra”; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists. Told through the perspective of young Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right. In the end, this is an uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what ultimately makes a family. My Name Is Leon will capture your imagination and steal your heart with its “moving exploration of race and the foster-care system that offers precious insight into the mind of a child forced to grow up well before his time” (Booklist).

My Name Is Leon: A Novel

Becoming Dinah

Teen & Young Adult

Orion Children's

Southword is a literary journal featuring new writing from around the globe. This issue includes new short stories from Deborah Levy, Kit de Waal and others, essays by Yoko Tawada and Simon Van Booy, a major interview with poet Matthew Sweeney and new poems by thirty poets.\nEssays\nSimon Van Booy 
Yoko Tawada\nInterview 
Matthew Sweeney\nFiction 
Deborah Levy 
Rachel Trezise 
Louise Nealon 
Rose Keating 
Valerie Lute 
Kit de Waal 
Danny Denton 
Poems 
Penelope Shuttle 
Matthew Sweeney 
Tomás De Faoite 
Julie Irigaray 
Norman Minnick 
Dean Browne 
Mercedes Lawry 
Breda Spaight 
P.C. Vandall 
Maria Isakova Bennett 
Astrid Alben 
Lily Cook 
James Owens 
James O’Sullivan 
Elizabeth Murawski 
Greg Rappleye 
Colette Colfer 
Jared Pearce 
Vincent Francone 
Scott Elder 
Michael Brown 
Emily Ellison 
Mike Head 
Kelsey Dean 
Jonathan Edwards 
George Angel 
AR Dugan 
Travis Stephens 
Annette Skade 
Carolyn Oliver

Southword 35: New International Writing.

Van Booy, Simon

LEVY, DEBORAH

Tawada, Yōko

Sweeney, Matthew

Cotter, Patrick

World Literature

Southword Editions

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses – who also contribute afterwords – these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance. In the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched, historically accurate) fiction.

Protest!: Stories of Resistance

Clanchy, Kate

Maitland, Sara

CONSTANTINE, David

Bedford, Martyn

Ross, Jacob

Evers, Stuart

GEE, Maggie

Alland, Sandra

Cottrell-Boyce, Frank

QUINN, Joanna

Rhydderch, Francesca

Cernow, Sean

Genre Fiction

Comma Press

Protest: Stories of Resistance

Green, Michelle

Jacques, Juliet

Hird, Laura

Newland, Courttia

Hedgecock, Andy

Holness, Matthew

Pester, Holly

Sayle, Alexei

Mainstream: An Anthology of Stories from the Edges

Inkandescent

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