Bøker utgitt av Little, Brown

'It has been hand-planted by Tsarinas and felled by foresters. It has been celebrated by peasants, worshipped by pagans and painted by artists. It has self-seeded across mountains and rivers and train tracks and steppe and right through the ruined modernity of a nuclear fall-out site. And like all symbols, the story of the birch has its share of horrors (white, straight, native, pure: how could it not?). But, maybe in the end, what I'm really in search of is a birch that means nothing: stripped of symbolism, bereft of use-value . . . A birch that is simply a tree in a land that couldn't give a shit.'The birch, genus Betula, is one of the northern hemisphere's most widespread and easily recognisable trees. A pioneer species, the birch is also Russia's unofficial national emblem, and in The White Birch art critic Tom Jeffreys sets out to grapple with the riddle of Russianness through numerous journeys, encounters, histories and artworks that all share one thing in common: the humble birch tree.We visit Catherine the Great's garden follies and Tolstoy's favourite chair; walk through the Chernobyl exclusion zone and among overgrown concrete bunkers in Vladivostok; explore the world of online Russian brides and spend a drunken night in Moscow with art-activists Pussy Riot, all the time questioning the role played by Russia's vastly diverse landscapes in forming and imposing national identity. And vice-versa: how has Russia's dramatically shifting self-image informed the way its people think about nature, land and belonging?Curious, resonant and idiosyncratic, The White Birch is a unique collection of journeys into Russia and among Russian people.

Love & Deception is the extraordinary story of how Eleanor, an able, cultured American living in the espionage hot spot of 1950s Beirut, fell in love with the kindest, most sensitive of men. Unknown to her, that man, a Lebanon-based journalist, Kim Philby, was under suspicion by the British and US intelligence services of having secretly signed up to help the Russians fight fascism in the 1930s, and of remaining in their pay at the height of the Cold War. Despite his mysterious past, Eleanor adored and married Philby, who later begged her to defy his difficulties. As the net closed in on Philby, he manoeuvred to save himself, but would their love survive?The outline of Philby's story is familiar to many, but Love & Deception breaks remarkable new ground - even for spy buffs. Through in-depth research, Hanning produces an eye-opening tale of friendship, politics, love, and loyalty.

This is a novel about betrayal: the tiny betrayals that get us all through life, the wider moral betrayals, the treasonable betrayals and the ones that may end a life. Set in Berlin, in a particularly chilly period in the Cold War of the late 1960s, the story has at its heart a young woman, newly arrived in the city, married to a reserved British junior civil servant she has not known for long and trying to find her place in a tightly knit expatriate community. But Lucy is also longing for independence and in her efforts to follow her ideals and find her own life brings herself and others into danger.Is Lucy is, as she first appears, innocent, lonely, out of her depth, unaware of what she is putting at risk, or is there something else? And what about those close to her? Her sensible, rather old-fashioned husband, Peter, who married her so hastily? Her parents, living a reclusive life abroad? Her new and overwhelming Berlin social circle? Peter's colleagues? German civilians, some hostile some apparently helpful? It is soon clear that Lucy has brought secrets with her but are they her own or ones she is keeping for others? Berlin is a walled city recently ruined and still in the shadow of guilt and atrocity. In a society where almost everyone is playing a part, who can Lucy turn to when it seems that someone, or the city itself, is out to destroy her? And why is she there in the first place?

'An enlightening page-turner, stacked with stories and stats that will have your jaw on the floor'Anna Smith, host of the Girls On Film podcast'The film history we need: one that gives leading roles to people who usually only get to be background players'Pamela Hutchinson, film historian and criticA call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field. The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner and Alice Guy-Blaché shaped the way films are made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside and their contributions written out of film history. Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that feeds on their talent, creativity and beauty but refuses to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now... The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens. There is plenty of work still needed before we can even come close to gender equality in film - but we're finally headed in the right direction.

A major study of how slavery and enslaved people shaped the modern worldFor the best part of four centuries, enslaved Africans were the human cogs in a vast machine which transformed the face of the Americas, enhanced the well-being of the Western world, and created cultural habits we are familiar with today. In A World Transformed, celebrated historian James Walvin presents a comprehensive history of slavery and its shaping of the world we know. It is a global story that ranges from the capitalist economy, labour and the environment to social culture and ideas of family, beauty and taste.Arguing that slavery can be fully understood only by stepping back from traditional national histories, A World Transformed collects the most recent scholarship to illustrate just how thoroughly slavery is responsible for the making of the modern world. The enforced transportation and labour of millions of Africans became a massive social and economic force, promoting the rapid development of multiple new and enormous trading systems which had profound global consequences which reverberate down to the present day. The labour and products of enslaved people changed the consumption habits of millions - in India and Asia, Europe and Africa, in colonised and Indigenous American societies. Across time, slavery shaped many of the dominant features of Western taste: items and habits or rare and costly luxuries, some of which might seem, at first glance, utterly removed from the horrific reality of slavery. A World Transformed traces the global impacts of slavery over centuries, far beyond its legal or historical limits, confirming that the world created by slave labour lives on today.

"A tender, spiky family saga about love in all its mysterious incarnations." -Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and Birds of America"Absolutely luminous... Weaves the transience of suburbia between the highs and lows of a family saga. . . Shocks, awes, and delights." -Bryan Washington, author of MemorialFrom the outside, the Chengs seem like so-called model immigrants. Once Patty landed a tech job near Dallas, she and Liang grew secure enough to have a second child, and to send for their first from his grandparents back in China. Isn't this what they sacrificed so much for? But then little Annabel begins to sleepwalk at night, putting into motion a string of misunderstandings that not only threaten to set their community against them but force to the surface the secrets that have made them fear one another. How can a man make peace with the terrors of his past? How can a child regain trust in unconditional love? How can a family stop burying its history and forge a way through it, to a more honest intimacy?Nights When Nothing Happened is gripping storytelling immersed in the crosscurrents that have reshaped the American landscape, from a prodigious new literary talent.

London, Burning is a novel about the end of the 1970s, and the end of an era. It concerns a nation divided against itself, a government trembling on the verge of collapse, a city fearful of what is to come, and a people bitterly suspicious of one another. In other words, it is also a novel about now. Vicky Tress is a young policewoman on the rise who becomes involved in a corruption imbroglio with CID. Hannah Strode is an ambitious young reporter with a speciality for skewering the rich and powerful. Callum Conlan is a struggling Irish academic and writer who falls in with the wrong people. Whilst Freddie Selves is a hugely successful theatre impresario stuck deep in a personal and political mire of his own making. These four characters, strangers at the start, happen to meet and affect the course of each other's lives profoundly.The story plots an unpredictable path through a city choked by strikes and cowed by bomb warnings. It reverberates to the sound of alarm and protest, of police sirens, punk rock, street demos, of breaking glass and breaking hearts in dusty pubs. As the clock ticks down towards a general election old alliances totter and the new broom of capitalist enterprise threatens to sweep all before it. It is funny and dark, violent but also moving.

When Amy Ashton's world fell apart eleven years ago, she started a collection.Just a few keepsakes of happier times: some honeysuckle to remind herself of the boy she loved, a chipped china bird, an old terracotta pot . . . Things that others might throw away, but to Amy, represent a life that could have been.Now her house is overflowing with the objects she loves - soon there'll be no room for Amy at all. But when a family move in next door, a chance discovery unearths a mystery, and Amy's carefully curated life begins to unravel. If she can find the courage to face her past, might the future she thought she'd lost still be hers for the taking?Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant and The Keeper of Lost Things, this exquisitely told, uplifting novel shows us that however hopeless things might feel, beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places

Ruth Furnival is a successful television executive with a seemingly perfect life: a nice house in London, a lawyer husband and two grown-up daughters. But at 54, with an empty nest and the menopause behind her, she feels restless and dissatisfied.After multiple rounds of failed IVF, her eldest daughter Lauren has been told that the only chance for her and her husband to have their own child is surrogacy. So when Ruth discovers that, with the right dose of hormones, she could carry their baby, out of desperation they agree.At first Ruth is buoyed up by her sense of purpose, but as the pregnancy progresses, long-buried events from her past resurface - and Lauren can't contain her corrosive envy. Isolated and alone, Ruth starts to unravel, and what started as an act of altruism begins to seem like an atonement for which she is willing to risk everything.

For the hundredth time since they'd made their promise, she wondered if she and Agnes were really going to go through with it, if she was brave and terrible enough.A thrilling debut novel of corruption and murder, set in the nightclubs, tenements and skyscrapersof 1930s New York.At the top of the Empire State Building, on a freezing December night, two women hold theirbreath. Frances and Agnes are waiting for the man who has wronged them. They plan to seek the ultimate revenge.Set over the course of a single night, One Night, New York is a detective story, a romance and a coming-of-age tale. It is also a story of old New York, of bohemian Greenwich Village between the wars, of floozies and artists and addicts, of a city that sucked in creatives and immigrants alike, lighting up the world, while all around America burned amid the heat of the Great Depression. It also marks the arrival of an exciting new talent on the Virago fiction list.

'Both moving and artful, rewarding its readers page after page' Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret and Me A gripping memoir and revelatory investigation into the history of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children, known commonly as the Foundling Hospital, and one girl who grew up in its care - the author's own mother. Growing up in a wealthy enclave outside of San Francisco, Justine Cowan's life seems idyllic. But her mother's unpredictable temper drives Justine from home the moment she is old enough to escape. It is only after her mother dies that she finds herself pulling at the threads of a story half-told - her mother's upbringing in London's Foundling Hospital. Haunted by this secret history, Justine travels across the sea and deep into the past to discover the girl her mother once was.Here, with the vividness of a true storyteller, she pieces together her mother's childhood alongside the history of the Foundling Hospital: from its idealistic beginnings in the eighteenth century, how it influenced some of England's greatest creative minds - from Handel to Dickens, its shocking approach to childcare and how it survived the Blitz only to close after the Second World War.This was the environment that shaped a young girl then known as Dorothy Soames, who was left behind by a mother forced by stigma and shame to give up her child; who withstood years of physical and emotional abuse, dreaming of escape as German bombers circled the skies, unaware all along that her own mother was fighting to get her back.'A riveting, heartbreaking, and ultimately healing journey of discovery' Christina Baker Kline, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train

Warfare, myth and magic collide in Legacy of Steel, the spectacular sequel to Matthew Ward's acclaimed fantasy debut Legacy of Ash. A year has passed since an unlikely alliance saved the Tressian Republic from fire and darkness - at great cost. Thousands perished, and Viktor Akadra - the Republic's champion - has disappeared. While the ruling council struggles to mend old wounds, other factions sense opportunity. The insidious Parliament of Crows schemes in the shadows, while to the east the Hadari Emperor gathers his armies. As turmoil spreads across the Republic, its ripples are felt in the realms of the divine. War is coming . . . and this time the gods themselves will take sides.Praise for the series:'A hugely entertaining debut' John Gwynne'Epic fantasy as it should be; big, bold and very addictive' Starburst'Incredible action scenes' Fantasy Hive'Magnificent and epic' Grimdark magazine

SHIRLEY HAZZARD's Collected Stories is a work of staggering breadth and accomplishment. Taken together, these twenty-eight short stories are masterworks ranging from quotidian struggles between beauty and pragmatism to satires of international bureaucracy, from the Italian countryside to suburban Connecticut. Hazzard's heroes are high-minded romantics who attempt to fit their feelings into the world of office jobs and dreary marriages. And yet it is the comedy, the tragedy and the splendour of love, the pursuit and the absence of it, that animates Hazzard's stories and provides the truth and beauty that her characters seek.This marvellous volume includes the stories from Cliffs of Fall and People in Glass Houses. Brigitta Olubas, Shirley Hazzard's biographer and editor of this collection has included two previously unpublished stories - `Le Nozze' and `The Sack of Silence' - found among Hazzard's papers. The remaining eight, formerly uncollected, stories were published in magazines, mainly the New Yorker, including her very first published story, 'Woollahra Road'.On winning the Miles Franklin Award for The Great Fire in 2004 Shirley Hazzard wrote: 'Our world that seems charged with war is also the world in which the frail filament of expression miraculously persists and the phenomenon of the accurate word . . .' Her stories themselves are miraculous expressions: understanding, probing, uncompromising and deeply felt.

A brilliant philosopher reimagines Stoicism for our modern age in this thought-provoking guide to a better life.For more than two thousand years, Stoicism has offered a message of resilience in the face of hardship. Little wonder, then, that it is having such a revival in our own troubled times. But there is no denying how weird it can be: Is it really the case that we shouldn't care about our work, our loved ones, or our own lives? According to the old Stoics, yes.In A Field Guide to a Happy Life, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers a renewed Stoicism that reflects modern science and sensibilities. Pigliucci embraces the joyful bonds of affection, the satisfactions of a job well done, and the grief that attends loss. In his hands, Stoicism isn't about feats of indifference, but about enduring pain without being overwhelmed, while enjoying pleasures without losing our heads. In short, he makes Stoicism into a philosophy all of us -- whether committed Stoics or simply seekers -- can use to live better.

From humble beginnings in Middlesex, where money was scarce but dreams were encouraged, to the award-winning godfather of electronica, Gary Numan has seen it all. His incredible story can be charted in two distinct parts . . .The first: a stratospheric rise to success quickly followed by a painful decline into near obscurity. At school, Gary fell through the cracks of the system and was expelled. An unlikely but determined popstar, he earned his first record deal aged nineteen and, two years later, had released four bestselling albums and had twice toured the world. But, aged just twenty-five, it felt like it was all over. Gary's early success began to hold him back and he battled to reconcile the transient nature of fame with his Asperger's syndrome.The second: a twenty-plus year renaissance catalysed by a date with a super-fan. Gary catalogues his fifteen-year struggle with crippling debts, his slow, obstacle-laden journey back to the top (and the insecurity that comes with that) and why Savage reaching #2 in 2017 meant more than the heady heights of 1979. Gary also candidly discusses the importance of his fans; why having Asperger's is a gift at times; the inspiration behind the lyrics; flying around the world in 1981; IVF struggles and the joy of fatherhood and his battle with depression and anxiety.(R)evolution is the rollercoaster rise and fall (and rise) of one man, several dozen synthesisers, multiple issues and two desperately different lives. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, this is Gary Numan in his own words - a brutally honest reflection on the man behind the music.