From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - WINNER of the 2022 British Book Awards Page-Turner. In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them... And repercussions are exactly what Guy doesn't need. His wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane's sanity, and now even God's gone quiet on him. As for Nina, she is having enough trouble with her son, James. He has exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he's on drugs. Nina certainly will not welcome any ghosts from the past. Life isn't going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable. . . ____________________ Praise for Clare Chambers: 'Bleak but funny, sharply observed characters and crisp dialogue make this a great read' Yorkshire Post 'Intriguing and thought-provoking' Katie Fforde 'A wonderful novel. I loved it!!' Nina Stibbe 'Gorgeous. . . If you are looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I couldn't recommend it more!' Pandora Sykes 'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating' Mail on Sunday 'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian 'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' Sunday Times 'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans

Goodlands, North Dakota, has been suffering a massive drought for the past four years. Farms are in foreclosure, people's livelihoods are on the wane, and the town's beleaguered mortgage lender, Karen Grange, is beginning to think she should pack up and go back to Minneapolis. Then Tom Keatley arrives. He calls himself a rainmaker. Karen thinks he's a drifter. And the townsfolk--well, the townsfolk aren't about to trust the tall, mysterious stranger who wanders their streets, visits their dying farms, and keeps his thoughts to himself. They don't need an out-of-towner surveying their land, hands in pockets, eyes looking at the sky. What they need is rain. What happens to Goodlands when Tom Keatley arrives is as mysterious as the elements. And what he unleashes is much more profound than a storm. There is a mystery behind this terrible drought, and a message, and its unrelenting fierceness can destroy the town of Goodlands. Tom knows this. But Karen does not. Not yet. Tom and Karen's love affair, elemental and profound, is intertwined with the story of a town gripped by fear, and paralyzed by the sickness at its core. Suspenseful and gripping from the first page, A Dry Spell is a mesmerizing read.

Chinese officials put considerable effort into managing the fiscal and legal affairs of their jurisdictions, but they also devoted significant time and energy to performing religious rituals on behalf of the state. This groundbreaking study explores this underappreciated aspect of Chinese political life by investigating rainmaking activities organized or conducted by local officials in the Qing dynasty. Using a wide variety of primary sources, this study explains how and why state rainmaking became a prominent feature of the late imperial religious landscape. It also vividly describes the esoteric, spectacular, and occasionally grotesque techniques officials used to pray for rain. Charting the ways in which rainmaking performances were contested by local communities, this study argues that state rainmaking provided an important venue where the relationship between officials and their constituents was established and maintained. For this reason, the author concludes that official rainmaking was instrumental in constituting state power at the local level. This monograph addresses issues that are central to the study of late imperial Chinese society and culture, including the religious activities of Chinese officials, the nature of state orthodoxy, and the symbolic dimensions of local governance.

Nina is worried about her son; he has a strange new girlfriend, and it looks like he's on drugs. Guy is worried about his wife, Jane, who's picked up some quite bizarre habits. But Jane is worried about herself; motherhood isn't working out and neither, it seems, is marriage. Then there's Hugo, out of the picture for seventeen years, ever since that terrible desert trip. If he returns he could destroy Jane and Guy's marriage. Unless Nina gets there first.

The award-winning “lively and excellent collection” (Los Angeles Times) about the South and its legacy, about African-American griefs and passages, from the author of Jelly Roll and Black Maria, a poet who has “set himself apart from his peers with his supple, variable, blues-inflected lines” (Publishers Weekly).

This book provides insights and a capacity to understand the climate change phenomenon, its impact on water resources, and possible remedial measures. The impact of climate change on water resources is a global issue and cause for concern. Water resources in many countries are extremely stressed, and climate change along with burgeoning populations, the rise in living standards, and increasing demand on resources are factors which serve to exacerbate this stress. The chapters provide information on tools that will be useful to mitigate the adverse consequences of natural disasters. Fundamental to addressing these issues is hydrological modelling which is discussed in this book and ways to combat climate change as an important aspect of water resource management.