Seventeen candid, refreshing stories tell the story of lives rarely seen in an unflinching tone that will challenge and delight Letters across the ocean tell a family’s story spanning 29 yearsA young Asian wife battles the silence that threatens herIn St Kitts, a son tries to pick the lock of his father’s reserveWhen cousin Jasvir visits, the world changes for a ten-year-old boy70s Rasta rhythms reverberate through a teenage love affairIn a defiant return to church, Lauren shows what she’s made ofHere are 17 stories from the pens and hearts of black and Asian writers in Birmingham. Stories that must be heard: tender whispers of family and rites of passage, harsher whispers of hurt and conflict  the emotions seep into the very walls around us. Sometimes these walls feel like barriers, but still the stories pervade the city and help define its uniqueness. Whispers in the Walls not only illuminates the lives of black and Asian people in Birmingham but addresses all communities  sometimes in rage, sometimes in joy. Refreshing, candid, funny and alive with rhythm  talented voices speak out with diversity and intensity. We tell the stories that show we are here.

Whispers in the Walls

Literature & Fiction

United States

Tindal Street Press

For fans of gritty British crime drama, here's a collection of 23 stories set in and around Birmingham. Like the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler or James Ellroy, Birmingham is industrial and multicultural, the ideal setting for noir fiction. These stories, by both newcomers and veterans (including John Harvey, whose Charlie Resnick series was set in Birmingham), demonstrate that it is possible to work almost infinite variations on a theme. They are all set in the same locale, with the same general theme, but each is unique. It's not just a matter of style, though each writer brings his or her own voice to the material; it's a question of point of view and context. The book is a like a collage in which all the photographs are of the same subject, but taken from various angles and distances under diverse lighting conditions: each photo makes the subject look entirely different from its companions. And, remarkably, there's not a dud in the bunch. Highly recommended for British noir fans.""--Booklist

Birmingham Noir

Genre Fiction

<b>Years after the death of toddler Adam, a family is bound together in sadness and joy as they fight to overcome feeling haunted by that tragic day</b> Meet the family: there's Luke at work at Paradise Meatpacking, out on the town with Jamie, hitting the bars with his unnerving mate Risley, and back in bed with his ex-fiancee. Despite his actions, he knows he can count on his parents to bail him out of trouble, or for his sister Kerry to have his back and give him sound advice, as they all struggle to understand and prevail above an untimely death years before.

The Afterglow

Cartwright, Anthony

Literary

Streetwise but innocent and suffused with Catholic guilt, Rebecca and Debbie are scamps whose favorite game is playing in a abandoned housewhich is how their lives comes to take a terrible turnNine-year-old Sparra is running out of places to play. It’s no fun at home, what with her Mom and Dad always snapping at each other and Auntie Mo gossiping about everyone in town. The street, however, is no better; that’s where all her mortal enemies prowlUffo and Lippo, mad Harold and his skinny wife, psycho-killer Stabber and old ladies going "tut tut tut." So Sparra and her best mate Debbie decide to make a bombed-out house on Piggy Monk Square their own special hideaway. When a policeman with a bad case of snuffles and a big set of handcuffs disturbs their games, he warns them to keep away from the house for good. But when they don't listen to him, they find that he’s at their mercyand they're pitched into trouble deeper than they could ever imagine.

Piggy Monk Square

Grace M Jolliffe

Light Falling on Bamboo

Trinidad, 1848. Michel Jean Cazabon returns home from France to his beloved mother's deathbed. Despite the Emancipation Act, his childhood home is in the grip of colonial power, its people riven by the legacy of slavery. Michel Jean finds himself caught between the powerful and the dispossessed. As an artist, he enjoys the governor's patronage, painting for him the island's vistas and its women; as a Trinidadian he shares easy wisdom and nips of rum with the local boat-builders. But domestic tensions and haunting reminders of the past abound. His fiery half-sister Josie - the daughter of a slave - still provokes in him a youthful passion; his flirtatious muse Augusta tempts him as he paints her 'for posterity'. Meanwhile, letters from his white, French wife and children remind him of their imminent arrival on the island.

Scott, Lawrence

When the writer, Oxford scholar and photographer John Jameson visits the home of his vicar friend, he is entranced by Daisy, his youngest daughter. Jameson charms her with his wit and child-like imagination, teasing her with riddles and inventing humorous stories as they enjoy afternoons alone by the river and in his rooms. The shocking impact of this unusual friendship is only brought to light when, years later, Daisy, unsettled in her marriage, rediscovers her childhood diaries hidden in an old toy chest. Inspired by the tender and troubling friendship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, After Such Kindness demonstrates Gaynor Arnold's extraordinary 'capacity to imagine the truth behind the facts'. With the same assured feel for the Victorian period displayed in her prize-listed debut, Arnold brings to scintillating life an idiosyncratic genius and his timeless muse.

After Such Kindness

Gaynor Arnold

From the winner of the 2002 Giller Prize comes Austin Clarke's much anticipated new novel, More. At the news of her son's involvement in gang crime, Idora Morrison collapses in her rented basement apartment. For four days and nights, she retreats into a vortex of memory, pain, and disappointment that unravels a riveting dissection of her life as a black immigrant to Toronto. Idora has lived in Canada for 25 years. She has struggled to make ends meet and her deadbeat husband Bertram has abandoned her for a better life in America. Left alone to raise her son BJ, Idora does her best to survive against very difficult odds. Now that BJ has disappeared into a life of crime and gang warfare, she recoils from this loss and tries to understand how her life has spiraled into this tragic place. In spite of her circumstances, Idora finds her way back into the light with a courage that is both remarkable and unforgettable. Perhaps the most political of all of Austin Clarke's novels, More is a p

More

CLARKE, Austin

The rise of a religious cult intertwines with the secret history of a family in this tale from a master of suspense at the top of her gameThe last time Dodie sees her mother alive, Stella is unusually busy, tattily splendid in an old red velvet dress. Soon after, Dodie's brother Seth goes missing: the only trace of him is through postcards signed "Yours in the Lord" addressed from the Soul Life Centre, New York state. When Stella hangs herself, Dodie must leave her baby Jake at home and cross the Atlantic to bring Seth beck from the mysterious Soul Life Centre. But when she arrives, Seth is always one day away from seeing her. She becomes drawn, not always willingly, into the Brothers and Sisters' communal living, meditation, fasting, and chanting—until baby Jake unexpectedly arrives at Soul Life and events take a shocking turn for Dodie. In a parallel narrative, Stella's sister Melanie tells the story of their teenage years in the 1970s and their shared affair with Bogart, a messianic hippy with shrewd ambition. These two compelling stories collide in a series of shocking revelations and an exhilarating conclusion.

Chosen

GLAISTER, Lesley

<p>A secret love which has a whole town talking…and a small boy very worried Lydia Weekes is distraught at the break-up of her marriage. When her young son, Charlie, makes friends with the local doctor, Jean Markham, her life is turned upside down. Charlie tells his secrets to no one but the bees, but even he can't keep his mother's friendship to himself. The locals don't like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer, the rumours start to fly and threaten to shatter Charlie's world.</p>

Tell it to the Bees

Shaw, Fiona

Astonishing Splashes of Colour

MORRALL, Clare

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