'A very good read indeed' MATT HAIG 'Terrific, page-turning, slyly funny' INDIA KNIGHT 'As satisfying a novel as I have read in years' SARAH PERRY 'One of the most brilliant and entertaining novelists' ALISON LURIE Quentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded. Mud, mice and quarrels are one thing - but why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing, yet it conceals a dark side involving poverty, revenge, abuse and violence which will rise up to threaten them. Sally Verity, happily married but unhappily childless knows a different side to country life, as both a Health Visitor and a sheep farmer's wife; and when Lottie's innocent teenage son Xan gets a zero-hours contract at a local pie factory, he sees yet another. At the end of their year, the lives of all will be changed for ever. A suspenseful black comedy, this is a rich, compassionate and enthralling novel in its depiction of the English countryside, and the potentially lethal interplay between money and marriage. A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, EVENING STANDARD, SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES

The Lie of 1652 debunks the 'empty-land' myth and claims of a 'Bantu invasion', while outlining 220 years of war and resistance. It recounts the history of migration to the Cape by Africans, Indians, Southeast Asians and Europeans, providing a provocative perspective on the de-Africanisation of local people of colour.

The Lie of the Land is a novel set against the background of the German colonial wars in Namibia in the early 1900s. The central character is an academic in linguistics who occasionally acts as a British agent. He is a cynical, private individual who sees himself as a neutral observer but is eventually forced to take sides when he witnesses the atrocities of the Herero and Nama genocide and, above all, meets a young Nama woman who enchants him. The novel explores the shifting nature of the oppressor and the oppressed. Despite the unfolding tragic events, the story is lightened by surprising bursts of humour, and is ultimately a love story.

Questions the reasoning behind Western images of the environmental destruction taking place in Africa. This book addresses the issue of how environmental orthodoxies become established, and what the alternative and appropriate approaches for policy-making are. It shows that many of the established orthodoxies are ill-conceived or represent the interests of certain powerful groups. The editors draw together material from 11 key case studies across the continent which use first hand research in different ecological zones. Melissa Leach & RobinMearns are Fellows at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex Published in association with the International African Institute

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Independence Day and The Sportswriter brings back the unforgettable Frank Bascombe in this astonishing meditation on modern-day America. A sportswriter and a real estate agent, husband and father—Frank Bascombe has been many things to many people. His uncertain youth behind him, we follow him through three days during the autumn of 2000, when his trade as a realtor on the Jersey Shore is thriving. But as a presidential election hangs in the balance, and a post-nuclear-family Thanksgiving looms before him, Frank discovers that what he terms “the Permanent Period” is fraught with unforeseen perils. An astonishing meditation on America today and filled with brilliant insights, The Lay of the Land is a magnificent achievement from one of the most celebrated chroniclers of our time. Also available in the Bascombe Trilogy: The Sportswriter and Independence Day

English literature is studied, at some stage or other, by almost every middle and upper-class person in India. Its importance as a discipline, or as a body of texts, that shapes the minds, attitudes, behavior and social aspirations of India's educated urban elite is often fundamental. Yet some of the most basic questions about English literary studies in India--their relevance and validity, their social functions, their institutional contexts, their pedagogic and publishing practices--are never posed. The seventeen essays in this volume break the silence and ask why. This volume will be invaluable to those interested in sociology, history, colonialism and culture, and to all who teach or study English literature anywhere in the world.