Canongate

Pippa seems to have everything in life. But suddenly she finds her world beginning to unravel. Amid the buzzing lawnmowers and suburban coffee mornings, she starts to wonder how she came to be in this place. The answer is a story of wild youth, unexpected encounters, affairs and betrayals, and the dangerous security of marriage. It brilliantly reveals the challenges of modern life — and all the possibilities that it holds.

'Sounding like one instrument, a wild whirling bagpipe, the Stones chugged to a halt. But the crowd didn't stop, we could see Hells Angels spinning like madmen, swinging at people. By stage right a tall white boy with a black cloud of electric hair was dancing, shaking, infuriating the Angels by having too good a time.' The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is not just the greatest book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band, it is one of the most important books about the 1960s capturing its zeitgeist — that uneasy mix of excess, violence and idealism — in a way no other book does. Stanley Booth was with the Rolling Stones on their 1969 U.S. tour, which culminated in the notorious free concert at Altamont. But this book is much more than a brilliant piece of journalism. It gives a history of the Rolling Stones from their early rhythm 'n' blues days in west London clubs to the end of the 1960s; and it interweaves with mastery the two tragic stories of the decline and death of Brian Jones and the terrifying Altamont concert itself, where the Hells Angels, supposedly providing security, ran amok and murdered a member of the audience. Although it took nearly fifteen years to write, the book that emerged has been rightly acclaimed as 'the one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' writing'.

White mule, white lightning, firewater, popskull, wild cat, stump whiskey, or rotgut? Whatever you called it, Franklin County was awash in moonshine in the 1920s. During Prohibition, the Bondurant Boys were moonshiners and notorious roughnecks who ran liquor though Franklin County, Virginia. The Wettest County in the World is their story, a white-knuckle fable of bootlegging, revenge and remorse. Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant's grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. Forrest, the eldest brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; Howard, the middle brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch the world they know crumble around them. In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men, their dark deeds, their long silences and their deep desires to life.

This title is now a major motion picture from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee. One boy, one boat, one tiger... After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

'No matter what, you cannot change human nature', exclaims a soldier in the final story of this collection, 'even under socialism'. Apricot Jam and Other Stories presents a series of astonishing portraits of Russian life before, during and after Soviet rule. In 'The New Generation', a professor promotes a student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In 'Nastenka', two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives — until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both. With an unforgettable cast of displaced family members, military commanders and imprisoned activists, these stories play out the moral dilemmas and ideological conflicts that defined Russia in the twentieth century.

In this wholly original and remarkably ambitious work, 'Atrocitologist' Matthew White considers man's inhumanity to man across several thousand years of history. From the First Punic War and the collapse of Mayan rule to the reign of Peter the Great and the cataclysmic events of the Second World War, White's epic book spans centuries and civilisations as it measures the hundred most violent events in human history. If we study history in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, then there can be no more important place to start.

Step into Victorian London and meet our heroine, Sugar — a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter any way she can — and the host of unforgettable characters that make up her world.

This is a story. In this ingenious and spell-binding retelling of the life of Jesus, Philip Pullman revisits the most influential story ever told. Charged with mystery, compassion and enormous power, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ throws fresh light on who Jesus was and asks the reader questions that will continue to resonate long after the final page is turned. For, above all, this book is about how stories become stories.

Presenting the Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington: Adventurer. Philosopher. Idiot. Karl Pilkington isn't keen on travelling. Given the choice, he'll go on holiday to Devon or Wales or, at a push, eat English food on a package holiday in Majorca. Which isn't exactly Michael Palin, is it? So what happened when he was convinced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Travel broadens the mind, right? You'd think so... Find out in Karl Pilkington's hilarious travel diaries. He is a moron. A completely round, empty-headed, part-chimp Manc. He'd have been happier in medieval times in a village where you didn't travel beyond the local community.

If Kelsey Newman's theory about the end of time is true, we are all going to live forever. For Meg — locked in a hopeless relationship and creatively uninspired — this thought fills her with dread. But could there be an important connection to be made between a wild beast living on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe and the Cottingley fairies? And could a story offer a way through her own personal labyrinth?

London, 1806 — William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a man no better or worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life...

With over 25 million hits on YouTube in little over a year, Simon's Cat, is a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon. Fans from all over the world have fallen for this adorable but anarchic feline who will do just about anything to be fed. This autumn, Simon Tofield's beautiful drawings and warm humour come alive on the page in the first of a series of irresistible stocking-filler humour books.

This book is not a story. It is a how-to book. This Stylelife Challenge is not meant to be read. It is meant to be performed. Whatever experience level you have, whatever strengths and weaknesses you may have, whether you're a virgin or a Don Juan, the stage has been set for you to perform at your highest capacity. The Stylelife Challenge is a simple, easy-to-follow guide to the basics of approaching and attracting women. The Challenge is simply what works best and fastest. Neil Strauss spent four years gathering this knowledge, living it and sharing it. He's tested the specific material in this book on over 13,000 men of varying ages, nationalities and backgrounds. Part practical application and part sequel, this is the further adventures of Style and his game techniques. The result: A month-long workout program for your social, attraction, dating and seduction skills.

In Lion's Honey, award-winning writer David Grossman takes on one of the most vivid and controversial characters in the Bible. Revisiting Samson's famous battle with the lion, his many women and his betrayal by them all — including the only one he ever loved — Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story and its climax, Samson's final act of death, bringing down a temple on himself and three thousand Philistines. In exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman reveals the journey of a single, lonely and tortured soul who never found a true home in the world, who was uncomfortable in his very body and who, some might say, was the precursor of today's suicide bombers.

Like all great cartoon creations, from Peanuts to Asterix, from Garfield to Tintin, Simon's Cat has continued to evolve by introducing new characters and developing new storylines. After the runaway success of the orignial book, Simon Tofield returned last year with the further adventures of his feline beyond the fence. Now we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon's Kitten. It's an adorable new chapter which is sure to delight Simon's millions of fans.

A handful of disparate lives converge at a remote seaside inn: a lovelorn professor, a renowned painter, an inscrutable seductress — and a beautiful young girl, fatally ill, brought to the sea by a desperate father's last hope. An intricate web of destinies and associations begins to reveal itself, but it is not until the arrival of a mysterious sailor called Adams that the truth in all its dreamlike beauty and cruelty becomes clear.Adams may furnish the key to the girl's salvation, but only the fulfilment of his obsessive secret purpose — to answer murder with murder — can conclude the journey that has brought him from the ends of the earth. Alternately playful and profoundly serious, Baricco's novel surges with the hypnotic power of the ocean sea.

The hottest summer of the twentieth century. A tiny community of five houses enclosed by wheat fields. While the adults shelter indoors, six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside. Whilst exploring a dilapidated and uninhabited farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he dare not tell anyone about it. To come to terms with what he has found, Michele has to draw strength from his own sense of humanity... It is Ammaniti's ability to inhabit the mind and perspective of his young hero that makes I'm Not Scared such an affecting and extraordinary novel. The book is a masterpiece of coming of age; a compelling portrait of losing one's innocence and a powerful reflection on the complexities and compromises inherent in growing up.

In December 2010, Julian Assange signed a contract with Canongate Books to write a book — part memoir, part manifesto — for publication the following year. At the time, Julian said: 'I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.' In the end, the work was to prove too personal. Despite sitting for more than fifty hours of taped interviews and spending many late nights at Ellingham Hall (where he was living under house arrest) discussing his life and the work of WikiLeaks with the writer he had enlisted to help him, Julian became increasingly troubled by the thought of publishing an autobiography. After reading the first draft of the book at the end of March, Julian declared: 'All memoir is prostitution.' In June 2011, with thirty-eight publishing houses around the world committed to releasing the book, Julian told us he wanted to cancel his contract. We disagree with Julian's assessment of the book. We believe it explains both the man and his work, underlining his commitment to the truth. Julian always claimed the book was well written — we agree, and this also encouraged us to make the book available to readers. And the contract? By the time Julian wanted to cancel the deal he had already used the advance money to settle his legal bills. So the contract still stands. We have decided to honour it — and to publish. This book is the unauthorised first draft. It is passionate, provocative and opinionated — like its author. It fulfils the promise of the original proposal and we are proud to publish it.

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people — at work, at school, at home. It is wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his paradigm-shattering book Drive, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation, and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.

Simon Tofield returns with a charming follow-up which sees the adorable but incorrigible cat embark on a series of adventures beyond the garden fence. Sharply observed and beautifully drawn, this new book promises to be an even bigger hit than the first.

When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey — named Beatrice and Virgil — and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so beloved, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.

From the cruel irony of A member of the Family to the fateful echoes of The Go-Away Bird and the unexpectedly sinister The Girl I Left Behind Me, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability, displaying the acerbic wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her unique talent. The Complete Short Stories is a collection to be loved and cherished, from one of the finest short-story writers of the twentieth century.

The companion guide to the hysterical television show of the same name, in which Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant force their arrestingly simple pal Karl Pilkington on a global journey «He'd have been happier in medieval times in a village where you didn't travel beyond the local community.» —Stephen Merchant A cult celebrity due to his role in The Ricky Gervais Show, the most-downloaded podcast ever, Karl Pilkington has been accused of being a comic creation, so unburdened is he by complex thought—but that is truly just him. The trio's newest project mines Karl massive provinciality: put simply, Karl is not big on traveling. Given the choice, he'll go on vacation to Devon or Wales or, if pushed, eat English food on a package tour of the Mediterranean. So what happened when he was convinced by Gervais and Merchant to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Does travel truly broaden the mind? Find out in Karl Pilkington's hilarious travel diaries.

I loved an anthropologist. She went to Mongolia to study the gays. At first she kept their culture at arm's length, but eventually she decided that her fieldwork would benefit from assimilation. She worked hard to become as much like them as possible, and gradually she was accepted. After a while she ended our romance by letter. It breaks my heart to think of her herding those yaks in the freezing hills, the peak of her leather cap shielding her eyes from the driving wind, her wrist dangling away, and nothing but a handlebar moustache to keep her top lip warm.