**NOW A MAJOR TV DRAMA SERIES** 'A gentle comic crime story' The Guardian 'Poised and perceptive' Sunday Times 'a beautiful piece of writing with a great story and fantastic, full bodied characters. All this with glorious West Cork as its setting...irresistible.' Kathy Burke '... a deftly plotted story as moving as it is compelling' Sunday Mirror 'Deeply accomplished ... brilliantly observed' Good Housekeeping '... one of the more authentic debuts I've read in recent years ... in such an understated manner, eschewing linguistic eccentricity ... in favour of genuine characters and tender feeling ... this is a fine novel' John Boyne, Irish Times 'It's funny and wonderfully perceptive' Wendy Holden 'It is beautiful and yet devastatingly sad' Daily Express 'Strenuously charming ... surprisingly tender' Metro 'Heartwarming and observant' Stylist The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn't always been this overweight; mother of two Brid Riordan hasn't always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn't always felt that her life was a total waste. So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke - a former love of both Brid and Evelyn - the village's dark past begins to unravel. As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community's worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret. Darkly comic, touching and at times profoundly sad. Graham Norton employs his acerbic wit to breathe life into a host of lovable characters, and explore - with searing honesty - the complexities and contradictions that make us human.

The new novel from bestselling author Graham Norton.

Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland, her only son now grown. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging. The new relationship sparks local speculation: what does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who abandoned them all those years ago? But the gossip only serves to bring the couple closer.

When Declan becomes ill, things start to fall apart. His children are untrusting and cruel, and Carol is forced to leave their beloved home with its worn oak floors and elegant features and move back in with her parents.

Carol's mother is determined to get to the bottom of things, she won't see her daughter suffer in this way. It seems there are secrets in Declan's past, strange rumours that were never confronted and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance.

In his tense and darkly comic new novel Norton casts a light on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and truth and self-preservation with unnerving effect.

Wanneer Cazlee se pa een aand weer sy hande vir haar lig, slaan sy terug. Voor sy haar kom kry, veg sy elke naweek by ’n onwettige vegklub om kos op die tafel te sit en sy dobbelgewoonte te onderhou.

Sy droom van ’n matrieksertifikaat en ’n lewe ver weg van haar swakkeling-ma, dronklap-pa en ’n vegkryt waarin min reëls geld. Maar haar skoolwerk ly ál meer onder die laatnaggevegte.

Dan sien ’n voormalige martial arts-kampioen Cazlee se talent raak. Hy bied haar ’n beurs aan by die skool waar hy taekwondo afrig en die kampioentrofee in die visier het.

Ellamay, sy dogter, droom daarvan om in haar kampioen-pa se voetspore te volg. Dat haar pa uit sy pad gaan om eerder van Cazlee ’n kampioen te maak, lei tot wrywing tussen die twee meisies.

Dan gaan die wêreld van onwettige gevegte vir Ellamay ook oop. Dinge loop lelik skeef en Cazlee moet 'n besluit neem wat haar hele toekoms kan beïnvloed.

Hailed as "absolutely the best reference book on its subject" by Newsweek, American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle covers more than 250 years of musical theatre in the United States, from a 1735 South Carolina production of Flora, or Hob in the Well to The Addams Family in 2010. Authors Gerald Bordman and Richard Norton write an engaging narrative blending history, critical analysis, and lively description to illustrate the transformation of American musical theatre through such incarnations as the ballad opera, revue, Golden Age musical, rock musical, Disney musical, and, with 2010's American Idiot, even the punk musical.
The Chronicle is arranged chronologically and is fully indexed according to names of shows, songs, and people involved, for easy searching and browsing. Chapters range from the "Prologue," which traces the origins of American musical theater to 1866, through several "intermissions" (for instance, "Broadway's Response to the Swing Era, 1937-1942") and up to "Act Seven," the theatre of the twenty-first century. This last chapter covers the dramatic changes in musical theatre since the last edition published-whereas Fosse, a choreography-heavy revue, won the 1999 Tony for Best Musical, the 2008 award went to In the Heights, which combines hip-hop, rap, meringue and salsa unlike any musical before it. Other groundbreaking and/or box-office-breaking shows covered for the first time include Avenue Q, The Producers, Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys, Monty Python's Spamalot, Wicked, Hairspray, Urinetown the Musical, and Spring Awakening.
Discussion of these shows incorporates plot synopses, names of principal players, descriptions of scenery and costumes, and critical reactions. In addition, short biographies interspersed throughout the text colorfully depict the creative minds that shaped the most influential musicals. Collectively, these elements create the most comprehensive, authoritative history of musical theatre in this country and make this an essential resource for students, scholars, performers, dramaturges, and musical enthusiasts.

From the champion of reluctant readers, Jeff Norton, a new title in this fast-paced fantasy series, set in a medieval land where dinosaurs still roam. Now an established Dino Knight, Henry Fairchild sets off to find his lost parents, but is soon caught up in a battle to save the environment of the dinosaurs and to uphold the duty of conservation. This action packed adventure explores themes of family, conservation and duty, and contains a map, gallery of characters, playful chapter headings and a field guide to the different dinosaurs to be found in the book.

Many readers are convinced that the Psalms are hopelessly "masculine," especially given that seventy-three of the 150 psalms begin with headings linking them to King David. In this volume, Denise Dombkowski Hopkins sets stories about women in the Hebrew Bible alongside Psalms 42-89 as "intertexts" for interpretation. The stories of women such as Hannah, Rahab, Tamar, Bathsheba, Susanna, Judith, Shiphrah, Puah, and the Levite's concubine can generate a different set of associations for psalm metaphors than have traditionally been put forward. These different associations can give the reader different views of the dynamics of power, gender, politics, religion, family, and economics in ancient Israel and in our lives today that might help to name and transform the brokenness of our world. From the Wisdom Commentary series Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format to ministers, preachers, teachers, scholars, and students, will aid all readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. The aim of this commentary is to provide feminist interpretation of Scripture in serious, scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women. A central concern is the world in front of the text, that is, how the text is heard and appropriated by women. At the same time, this commentary aims to be faithful to the ancient text, to explicate the world behind the text, where appropriate, and not impose contemporary questions onto the ancient texts. The commentary addresses not only issues of gender (which are primary in this project) but also those of power, authority, ethnicity, racism, and classism, which all intersect. Each volume incorporates diverse voices and differing interpretations from different parts of the world, showing the importance of social location in the process of interpretation and that there is no single definitive feminist interpretation of a text.