The richly atmospheric new historical thriller featuring John Gower, poet and trader of secrets. Set in the turbulent 14th Century, this is perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom. London, 1386: young King Richard II faces the double threat of a French invasion and growing unrest amongst his barons - and now there's evil afoot in the City. Sixteen corpses have been discovered in a sewer, their wounds like none ever seen before. One thing is clear: whoever threw the bodies into the sewer knew they would be found - and was powerful enough not to care. Enter John Gower, poet and intellectual whose 'peculiar vocation' is dealing in men's secrets. Against the backdrop of medieval London with its grand palaces and churches, dark alleys and mean backstreets, Gower pursues his dangerous quarry. Seeking insights from his friend Geoffrey Chaucer and using his network of contacts, Gower comes to the shocking belief that the men have been killed by a new and deadly weapon of war. Known as 'the handgonne', it would put untold power into the hands of whoever perfected its design. But who has commissioned this weapon? A man who would stop at nothing to achieve his secret goal.

A sweeping exploration of the shaping role of animal skins in written culture and human imagination over three millennia "Richly detailed and illustrated. . . . An engaging exploration of book history."-Kirkus Reviews For centuries, premodern societies recorded and preserved much of their written cultures on parchment: the rendered skins of sheep, cows, goats, camels, deer, gazelles, and other creatures. These remains make up a significant portion of the era's surviving historical record. In a study spanning three millennia and twenty languages, Bruce Holsinger explores this animal archive as it shaped the inheritance of the Euro-Mediterranean world, from the leather rolls of ancient Egypt to the Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Holsinger discusses the making of parchment past and present, the nature of the medium as a biomolecular record of faunal life and environmental history, the knotty question of "uterine vellum," and the imaginative role of parchment in the works of St. Augustine, William Shakespeare, and a range of Jewish rabbinic writers of the medieval era. Closely informed by the handicraft of contemporary makers, painters, and sculptors, the book draws on a vast array of sources-codices and scrolls, documents and ephemera, works of craft and art-that speak to the vitality of parchment across epochs and continents. At the center of On Parchment is the vexed relationship of human beings to the myriad slaughtered beasts whose remains make up this vast record: a relationship of dominion and compassion, of brutality and empathy.

A stunning debut historical thriller set in the turbulent 14th Century for fans of CJ Sansom, The Name of the Rose and An Instance of the Fingerpost. London, 1385. A city of shadows and fear, in a kingdom ruled by the headstrong young King Richard II, haunted by the spectre of revolt. A place of poetry and prophecy, where power is bought by blood. For John Gower, part-time poet and full-time trader in information, secrets are his currency. When close confidant, fellow poet Geoffrey Chaucer, calls in an old debt, Gower cannot refuse. The request is simple: track down a missing book. It should be easy for a man of Gower's talents, who knows the back-alleys of Southwark as intimately as the courts and palaces of Westminster. But what Gower does not know is that this book has already caused one murder, and that its contents could destroy his life. Because its words are behind the highest treason - a conspiracy to kill the king and reduce his reign to ashes...

'Tense, claustrophobic, and all too imaginable' Diane Chamberlain, author of The Last House on the Street 'A gripping, full-throttle page-turner' Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace _________________________________________ An adrenaline-fuelled story of lives upended and privilege lost in a swiftly changing world. Daphne Larsen-Hall has every reason to believe that her life as an artist in a luxury Miami house with her surgeon husband, Brantley, and their family, will carry on forever. But Luna - the world's first Category 6 hurricane - changes everything. With Brantley missing in the aftermath of the massive storm, Daphne and their children find themselves in a vast shelter for the displaced a thousand miles from home, their finances abruptly cut off. As days turn into weeks, the family confronts losses and circumstances they never imagined, and a world that has changed beneath their feet. When tensions in the shelter reach a breaking point, Daphne's resilience is put to the ultimate test as she realises 'normal' will never return - and faces the shocking truths that threaten to tear her family apart once more. _________________________________________ Praise for Bruce Holsinger's The Gifted School: 'More than a touch of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies' Observer 'An incisive inspective of privilege, race and class' New York Times 'Snapping with tension, this is a book for our times' Shari Lapena 'Exposes how easily a mix of good intentions, self-delusions and minor sins can escalate' The New Yorker

Historical Fiction Now brings together prominent authors, scholars, and critics of historical fiction to explore the genre's character, fortunes, and potential in the twenty-first century. Gathering together the voices of novelists, critics, academics, and several authors writing across these categories, the volume explores the nature of reading, writing, and writing about historical fiction in the present moment while meditating on some of the myriad contexts of the genre. What inspires writers to choose particular moments, events, and personalities as the subjects of their fictional imaginings, and with what implications for their readers' understanding of the present? How do contemporary scholars approach the making and reception of historical fiction, and how do these approaches resonate with writers' own preoccupations in the process of invention? What might scholars of a genre with a long and complex history learn from its contemporary practitioners? Conversely, how do novelists understand their own historical fictions (if at all) in relation to the theoretical and critical traditions shaping the work of their academic colleagues? The collection features an original essay by Hilary Mantel on the making of the Wolf Hall trilogy as well as contributions from internationally known novelists such as George Saunders, Namwali Serpell, Maaza Mengiste, and Téa Obreht, among others.

Ambitious parents, wilful kids, and the pursuit of prestige... A gripping page-turner, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies. 'More than a touch of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies' OBSERVER How far would you go to protect your child's future? In the peaceful, privileged community of Crystal, Colorado, a group of close friends are raising their families in harmony. Until one day, news begins to spread that a 'gifted school' will be opening its doors in their town. There are only a few places, and the competition will be ferocious. As parents and children begin to compete, cracks start to show in their picturesque community as long-buried secrets threaten to detonate under the pressure... Praise for The Gifted School: 'Snapping with tension' SHARI LAPENA 'Wise and addictive' NEW YORK TIMES 'Timely and relevant' OPRAHMAG 'On the pulse of modern times' MAGIC BOOK CLUB 'Relevant and relatable' i PAPER 'Exposes how easily a mix of good intentions, self-delusions, and minor sins can escalate' THE NEW YORKER

In classic Marxism, the Middle Ages represent something of a paradox: both a prelapsarian pastoral in which peasants are "bound to the soil" with the "guarantees of existence" offered by feudalism, and an expropriative economy that adumbrates the most extreme exploitative tendencies of industrial capitalism. This special issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies is devoted to a general rethinking of the Marxist premodern: its contours, its literary and cultural effects, its theoretical afterlife, and its limitations.Contributors. Andrew Cole, Valerie Forman, Bruce Holsinger, Ethan Knapp, Maura B. Nolan, John Parker, Stephen H. Rigby, D. Vance Smith