Barbican Press – förlag

The poetry of Petrarch, including the love poems to Laura, brought to the 21st Century ina new, direct and luminous verse translation. 670 years ago Francesco Petrarch settled down to write of his love for young Laura, spied by him on an April day and stolen by the plague exactly a year later. His work is one of civilization's most immaculate achievements, opening out into spirituality and nature and refining the sonnet form. Following his acclaimed translation of Dante's Inferno, which 'immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English' (Richard Lansing), Peter Thornton brings the poetry of Petrarch to the 21st Century in direct and luminous verse. Complete with introduction and explanatory notes. AUTHOR: The Italian poet Petrarch is one of the supreme love poets of world literature. Born in Italy in 1304, he moved with his family to Provence. On April 6, 1327, in a church in Avignon, Petrarch was smitten by the sight of a young woman named Laura. She did not return his love, but the love stayed with Petrarch even after Laura's early death. Love became a spiritual ideal, redolent in the natural world. Laura inspired the 366 poems that make up his Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarum fragmenta, translated here as Scattered Rhymes. Petrarch lived till 1374, and was writing and revising his sonnets into his last years. Peter Thornton grew up in New York City and attended a Jesuit prep school in Manhattan where the curriculum was still based on Latin and Greek. After graduating from Boston College, he originally set out to be an academic. He took a Ph.D. in English literature at Stanford and taught for several years at Bradley University in Illinois. Then, like his father and his three brothers, he decided to become a lawyer and spent the rest of his career happily practising law in Chicago, where he was recognised as a leading practitioner. The intellectual rigor of the law, however, did not satisfy his hunger for poetry and he spent decades translating Dante and Petrarch into English verse. Peter's translation of Dante's Inferno was acclaimed by Richard Lansing as a work that 'immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English.'

Joyful, wild, gay stories from award winning Martin Goodman.Meet his cast of characters:New York designer Arnold, whose lovely life blossoms from age 7. We watch him grow famous then learn from the bumps of life.A young priest who leaves uptight England to lose and find himself in Turkey.Queenie, scarred from her time as a beautiful boy, meets young Tom, who loves the fact that she's a wreck.A young Indian teacher meets an older London billionaire who’s not yet out.And the stunning finale is a gay version of Melville's classic Billy Budd, the tale of a beautiful doomed sailor."A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted."– Paul Russell, author of Immaculate Blue

A dystopian novel set around London’s disused Heathrow Airport.For sixteen years the Earth has baked and no girls have been born. Karen’s the last girl. Steven’s her gay twin. Dad turns their home into a fortress as women take their chance to rule the world. Their eyes are on Steven. Perhaps, with a little medical interference, he could be the saviour of the world. The boys of teensquad run the streets, insects clog the skies, the last chance to save the world is handed to a council of women, and scientists are cooking up a brand new Eden.

Longlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. A Morning Star 'Radical Book of the Year'.The Deconstruction of Professor Thrubb is a radical trek through twentieth-century history, with a stunning depiction of Ukraine's civil wars. It's also a brazan campus comedy, a medical drama and a cheery ride through the Scottish Highlands.A PhD student tracks the biography of Elsie Stewart from her job as a London maid and to the Spanish Civil War while true love runs far from smooth. His neurotic supervisor, Professor Thrub, is a bewildering mentor with secrets of his own.

Shortlisted for the Saltire Society SCOTTISH FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014Following in the tradition of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly, THE MONSTER'S WIFE is a literary gothic that re-envisions the classic Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster. To a tiny island in Orkney, peopled by a devout community of twenty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil's bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe.In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster's wife through the perspective of the doctor's housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor's linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor's trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close - but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine.

A contemporary classic from the Czech Republic.To support his family, a man submits himself to a solo science experiment in the High Andes. This is a cosmic adventure story of big ideas and murder.Your business is dead. It seems like a deal: leave your family behind in Prague for a year, isolate yourself in a research station in the Andes, and come home with a fortune. With a treatise on black holes for company, Jakob settles in at altitude. The air is thin. Strangers pass by on dangerous pilgrimage while his young wife and kids take life in his mind. In mountain starkness, the big questions take shape: like what happens to love inside a black hole?

2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist"McNeil's deeply felt observations offer a transporting, thought-provoking lens on nature. It's captivating stuff." Publishers WeeklyRelating thirty years of living in and writing about some of the world's last remaining wild places, Latitudes is a thrilling and thought-provoking exploration of a changing planet. At once memoir, journal and travelogue of Earth's wildernesses, Latitudes ranges across the Antarctic, the Arctic, the savannahs and deserts of Africa, the Southern and Atlantic oceans and the boreal forests of Canada.Latitudes is a powerful, innovative book of creative non-fiction that tracks one writer's life-long experience of reckoning with an age of dramatic ecological loss. It shows us the importance of listening to the living world that is speaking to us, if we open ourselves to hear its voice.

A startling debut noir. A Trail of Blood on the Snow is a chilling exploration of masculinity, madness, and the harrowing legacy of abuse."He remembers me. He remembers the screaming and the blood on the snow. He remembers everything, I can tell."Rex is 41. Halfway to death and no happier for it. Any promise of a better life got stifled decades ago, when Rex was a limping school kid and Max was the school bully.Then, a chance encounter. Max standing smug and handsome at a gas station with his oh-so-perfect family.Rex secretly follows them home. Watches them. Thinks about his own miserable life. What Max did to him, and how a real man would claim revenge.Rex acts.Is this the making of a monster, or the breaking of a man?

The Irish-American poet James Thornton is known globally as a world-leading environmental lawyer working to save the planet. In this second poetry collection he returns to the same French Pyrenean village every Spring. Over 25 years he has settled at his desk, the flanks of hillsides beyond his window, and captured in verse the life and nature of the French Pyrenean village that is his second home. James’s poetry conjures the lives of ancient villagers. snakes, turtles, fish, birds, flowers, crops, insects, hogs and children.

Red Hands is a deeply compelling tale of a woman caught inside the destruction of a regime. Iordana is a normal girl, brought up with all the perks of Romania's corrupt communist regime. Then she falls in love and marries the eldest son of her parents' arch-rival, Romania's monstrous dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. They become the in-laws from hell, but she brings them their only grandson. And then there's the 1989 revolution, when crowds will kill anyone with the Ceausescu name. In all the blood and chaos, can Iordana keep her little son alive? Drawn from eighty hours of unique interviews and told in Iordana's own voice; a true-life tale that spins readers into the pleasures, excesses and horrors of late twentieth-century Europe. AUTHOR: Colin Sargent is the founding editor and publisher of the award-winning Portland Magazine in Maine, USA. Colin teaches Creative Writing at William & Mary in Williamsburg and is the author of Museum of Human Beings and The Boston Castrato, currently optioned for film by Gideon Films. He has a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University and has also written 3 collections of poetry. Colin edited Approach Magazine, the US Navy's international flying magazine, whose contributors included Tom Wolfe. SELLING POINTS: . The remarkable fictionalised life of Iordana Ceausescu, who married Nicolae Ceausescu's eldest son,Valentin and became the mother of the Ceausescu's only grandson . A true-life tale that spins readers into the pleasures, excesses and horrors of late twentieth-century Europe . Drawn from 80 hours of unique interviews

"Miranda Miller’s novel, a first-person account of the life of the 18th-century Swiss neoclassical painter Angelica Kauffman, faithfully reflects the career of the somewhat overlooked founding member of the Royal Academy… A fascinating life and a fine painter in what’s a story well told by Miller."- Morning StarAngelica Kaufman is so successful that when she comes to England as a young woman in 1766 a word is coined: Angelicamad.‘Miller’s intricate fictions are lit by the dark flicker of a strong and original imagination.’ – Hilary MantelThis sparky, true life novel tells the life story of a woman who battled misogyny to become one of the greatest artists of the Enlightenment Period. After fifteen triumphant years in London, she flees to Italy following the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots.In Rome, as an old lady, a lively young artist and model names Lucia is Angelica’s guest. And she’s pregnant, ridded with the scandal Angelica has been trying to avoid all her life.She is the girl I trained myself not to be.Men can do as they like, but women risk losing everything. In her studio, Angelica relives her journey from a poor background to international fame. She paints her friends (Antonio Canova, Germaine de Stael, Emma Hamilton and Goethe among others) and draws us into her fascinating past. Angelica, Paintress of Minds tells of a gifted and powerful woman with a kind heart.

"Chris Westoby’s THE FEAR TALKING is truly important, beautifully written, and urgently needed. This book will save lives—especially the lives of young people, one of our most vulnerable and underserved populations when it comes to mental and behavioral health. Please give it to some anxious person you love (maybe that anxious person is you)." - Clancy Martin, author of How not to Kill YourselfA self-help memoir that takes an unflinching look at a young man's undiagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD.Chris Westoby takes us inside his past self, a teenager from a small English town. He's trying to be a good friend, student, son and boyfriend, but he struggles to be in company without wanting to hide. And things only get worse: it's nearly impossible to take the bus to college without catching the next bus home. His obsessive germaphobia begins to destroy his life. How can one boy overcome all this? Chris gives an unflinching, raw account of his troubles and offers what he's learnt. Some Expert Reactions"Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it's fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it's incomparable." – Peter Draper, professor emeritus of Nursing Education, University of Hull"Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships." – Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne"In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby's memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within." – Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor Creative Writing, University of Leicester

"Beautifully written and utterly transgressive." - Paul Simon, The Morning StarPatrick, the first Irish Pope, is sure of many things: his faith, the sanctity of life, that he is a man, that he is celibate.Then all he's held true is cast into doubt.How can he act as the moral heart of the church when his convictions falter and his secrets threaten to destroy all he's achieved? Catholicism and modern morality are held in tension, and Pope Patrick must make once unimaginable choices. When the truth begins to emerge, the Vatican wants him silenced. The Pope’s sheltered existence becomes a race of life and death.

It’s 2103 and Earth is baking. Scientists attempt to cool down the planet. With the coming of rain, a messiah is born.Eli is a technophobe haunted by premonitions of what will come. His strange magnetism draws many to his cause. For his brother Marek, Eli has always been a messiah. After his short and powerful life, Eli's most haunting prediction comes to pass: children stop being born.Thirty-five years later, only The Followers of Eli bear children. Marek leads his commune under the glare of the entire world, and recounts Eli’s story to his lover, Natalia. When she is snatched from him, Marek suspects both the followers and outside forces are to blame. Lessons from Marek’s past and revelations from his present inspire one final journey in his brother’s footsteps.My Brother the Messiah explores spirituality in the twilight of human civilization and presents a dark, vivid future of our world.

"A new and unique voice and an important addition to the canon of literature of the First World War." – Prof. Angela K. Smith, author of Women's Writing of the First World WarA 'lost' women's classic from World War I - discovered in the rare books room of the British Library, last seen in 1917!A Scottish woman sends funny, moving, compassionate and rousing letters to her younger brother, set to fight with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the trenches of WWI. Dunfermline, her hometown and the base for the Scottish regiment The Black Watch, morphs into an active home front.Letter by letter we watch the war unfolding. Her brother trains with his cavalry regiment on England’s Salisbury Plain and moves to frontline duty in France. Shocked by the war and those who inflame it, the sister’s letters are frank and also encouraging. Others are vanishing. She needs her brother, her young Canadian, to survive. Complete with an introduction, a closing biography, and original photographs of the author and the period.

One of the Best Books of the Year a Must Read Sunday Times In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus resurrected a beloved friend named Lazarus from the dead. Yet the Gospel of John which contains this episode does not tell us how Jesus accomplished this miracle or if he had a special purpose for saving his companion. In The Gospel According to Lazarus, Richard Zimler narrates this mysterious and influential story from Lazarus' own point of view. After he is awakened from death, Lazarus has difficulties regaining his previous identity and confidence. His experience of death has left him fragile and disoriented, and his newfound fame is a burden he does not want. Worse, his faith has been shattered because he remembers nothing of any afterlife. In compelling flashbacks, we learn of Lazarus' initial meeting with Jesus during their boyhood in Nazareth and discover how he came to earn his friend's trust and gratitude. Back in the present time during the Passion Week Jesus tells him, however, that their meeting as young boys was no accident and offers a surprising explanation for why he brought them together. After Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Lazarus concludes that his whole life may have been a test for this chance to save his beloved friend from crucifixion. But will Jesus accept Lazarus' final sacrifice? In Zimler's impeccably researched and highly moving novel, Jesus is presented as a mystical healer within the context of ancient Jewish practice and tradition. Indeed, one of the objectives of this novel was to restore to him and the other characters their Judaism. AUTHOR: Richard Zimler's eleven novels have been translated into twenty-three languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in twelve different countries, including the UK, United States, Australia, Brazil, Italy and Portugal. Five of his works have been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the richest prize in the English-speaking world, and he has won prizes for his fiction in the UK, America, France and Portugal. Richard has explored the lives of different branches and generations of a Portuguese-Jewish family in four highly acclaimed historical novels, starting with The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, now in development as a major film. He grew up in New York and since 1990 has lived in Porto, Portugal. For his contributions to Portuguese culture he was awarded the city's highest distinction, the Medal of Honour.

Though Tomas is half-German, he is taught by English war veterans. He walks the ruins of Coventry with his English Gran, still crumbling from the blitz. Later, when Tomas nears adulthood, he goes to Germany to stay with his enigmatic uncle, Herr Poppel. The blind, elderly man was once a German soldier. Tomas has more family out in Dresden, a city still maimed by Allied firebombs. What does a young man make of all this atrocity, guilt and his own disgust at the past? What might we inherit from the wars of our elders, and how might we move on? 'The novel's blunt, no-frills economy is part of its charm. Goodman writes with flare and panache, and the narrative fizzes along. Goodman's novel soars.' - The Times 'A perceptive, moving novel. Martin Goodman takes fierce delight in cutting through the easy cliches about the "new" Europe.' - Christopher Hope 'This excellent first novel's central character is so completely realised he could have walked out of one of those enigmatic Bruce Chatwin pieces about old mysterious European types.' - Time Out 'Heralds a new dawn for British writing.' - Daily Post AUTHOR: Born in Leicester, Martin's career in writing, teaching and publishing has taken him around the globe. 'All we can do is rattle the bars and look after him as he runs into the hills. We wait for his letters home.' The Los Angeles Times. He's published eleven books, including non-fiction. He is an Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hull. SELLING POINTS: . Critically acclaimed, Whitbread Shortlisted novel from Martin Goodman . A story about the inheritance of war guilt in a post-war Europe. Perfect for history enthusiasts fascinated by legacy, society and WW2 . It explores how the next generation reconcile the sins of the last; On Bended Knees remains relevant to the young generations of today

Waymarks tracks one man through significant encounters with the natural world, around the globe.An Ethiopian lake, an Australian rainforest, an American desert, an English beach: the stage keeps changing, but the intent stays the same. A poet enters a deep dialogue with birds, animals, people, plants, seas, and all the forces that threaten and churn this mix of life.James Thornton is a zen priest, and Waymarks sits alongside other classics of metaphysical writing in which poets bare their soul. Teachings from great figures along the way permeate the collection: a West Coast poet, a Japanese Zen Master, a spiritual leader, and the Dalai Lama.

What if the end of the world is the best thing that's never happened? As the apocalypse rolls on Donna and her eight-year-old daughter prepare for the worst. But despite the dying world, they find salvation with neighbours they never knew before. There's a chip shop fryer, student dropouts, a street gang, a disillusioned academic, an elderly Jehovah's Witness and a shopkeeper who dreamed of being a journalist. Ordinary people do extraordinary things, from sharing a cooked meal to restarting the water supply using wind power. They build a new world in the ruins of the old. But there's no paradise yet. Botched deals, armed survivalists and raids threaten to destroy progress. And the occasional screech of a fighter jet reminds them that the nuclear threat still looms... AUTHOR: Scottish novelist D.D. Johnston writes books that are "Funny as all Hell" (The Sunday Herald) and "unputtable-downable" (Northern Soul). The consistent theme throughout Johnston's writing is his love for ordinary people, and his faith in the extraordinary things we can achieve together. He lives in Cheltenham, England, where he cares for his infant son. He is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. SELLING POINTS: . 'DD JOHNSTON, one of this country's most principled socialist novelists, is also one of the most versatile and talented around.' The Morning Star. . Postapocalyptic but not bleak; Disnaeland is witty, moving and politically charged. The speculative fiction of Disnaeland dares to invert dystopia. . A proudly Scottish novel by a Scottish author. Worthy of a place among the very best Scottish literature.

A compelling fable of traditions and women's power, from an award-winning indigenous writer. Drawing on ancient tribal tales from Nagaland, northern India, Spirit Nights is the UK debut for a multi award-winning writer. An ancient prophecy is fulfilled when darkness envelops a number of villages for days on end. The only thing they know is that a terrible taboo has been violated in the spirit world. Only by crossing the borders between the natural world and the spirit world, and acting with wisdom and courage, can they get the light back. Who will dare to do that? AUTHOR: Dr Easterine Kire, poet, short story writer and novelist, was born in Kohima, Nagaland, a state in Northeast India.

Lucy is on assignment. A wild, reclusive writer awaits her. She wants his life story. He wants her everything. A whirlwind romance takes them to the highs and lows of Deia. But beneath them lie the bodies of a generation and as Lucy unearths the darkness, her own skeletons begin to rattle the closet. Is she doomed to repeat the patterns of her childhood abuse? Can narcissists change their ways? And what is that tapping on Villa Rosa's pipes? AUTHOR: The pandemic has restricted Sarah Walton to the Sussex Downs of late, but she is restless for encounters around the world. A digital pioneer in California, she remains a leading figure in digital innovation and corporate storytelling. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and lectures on Hull University's Online MA Creative Writing. Sarah also teaches her Soul Writing method, that combines meditation, free-writing and creative writing skills. This is her third novel. SELLING POINTS: . A powerful summer read Daphne du Maurier for the 21st century . A passionate journey takes the reader around Mallorca, and the fierce remains of recent Spanish history . A tale of a woman reclaiming herself from male abuse

A relentless nautical drama that would define, or end, men’s lives.The English port city of Hull was home to ‘three day millionaires’ – trawlermen on brief shore leave. They were spilling cash from record catches. With months out working fierce seas, who knew if the next trip would be their last?The St Finbarr was set to change all that.She was built as the perfect trawler, no cost spared. She was the future of the industry. She was on her thirteenth voyage.The Grand Banks, Christmas Day 1966.No holiday for the crew. They weren’t fishing. They were battling for their lives. Who can survive a fireball at sea? The families of the crew had a cruel wait to find out. Ships hit the fierce seas off Newfoundland to join a two-day rescue mission. From first sparks to gut-wrenching heroics, The Luckiest Thirteen tracks a true story from the far reaches of what fishermen can do.

A startling, character-driven debut of skilled writing and intelligence, Arx: City of Broken Minds is a standalone epic of grimdark fantasy.In Arx, no-one remembers anything. Not the Flame Protests. Not the Sightless executioner. Not even themselves.The story unwinds through the tales of three young characters:Caelan: His memories have been stolen. All he has left is instinct and fear. Fear of the Fog-Eyes, mindless and drooling. The emptiness that lies in his future unless he can quiet the nameless voice screaming in his head. And he will burn Arx to ashes to avoid it.Samantha: an asexual blacksmith and perpetual paternal disappointment, knows exactly what she'll be remembered for: Callisteel. A mythic metal that can pierce reality, it waits for her beneath the smog that scars the sky black. No matter the cost.Ruairi: a famer boy with a twisted spine, heads to Arx desperate to avoid being pitied. On the way, he rescues a man with violet eyes. His reward is a nightmare of blue fire and blood that pushes him to the edge of what his broken body can take – and beyond.Mindbreakers walk once more in Arx, drawn to the spire of unbroken metal that hangs like a blade against the rotten heart of the city. Now their master has returned, it is only a matter of time before it awakens and slices the connection between reality and memory for good...

"Music transcends war trauma in this important, aching, artful Holocaust novel." - The Toronto StarOtto, a young cello student in Vienna, is snatched from hishome and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau.Marched from the camp to the Nazi Adjutant’s house, he is forcedto play a Stradivarius cello, eyes closed, for the Adjutant’s wife. Move forward many decades, and Otto is world famous but inretreat on the coast of Big Sur. A young woman, Rosa, turns up with questions.And her own troubled story. "Secrets connect the two strangers, ones that will change their lives."Is it ever too late to step forward from the horrors of the Holocaust,and dare to trust again?

"In this unusual and exceptionally interesting work, James Thornton speaks as both a poet who has colonized science and a scientist who speaks a poetic tongue." - Edward O. WilsonPoems about the universe: from the sub-atomic level to the cosmic, from bacteria to complex life and exoplanets.The physicist Richard Feynman challenged poets to step aside from metaphor and capture the stark magnificence of the universe. Spurred to action, James Thornton opened himself to wonders and dived deep into the intricacies of science.Let his poetry open your eyes.Complete with an essay on Poetry and Science.

“Make this book your friend,” says Arianna Huffington.James Thornton’s Nature, My Teacher, is a powerful guide to being human in a time of eco-crisis.In Nature, My Teacher, poet, lawyer and founder of top global environmental group ClientEarth, James Thornton offers a meditation on being alive while the planet fights to survive. He explores topics such as memory, climate anxiety, and human consciousness through a series of short essays, arranged into twelve “books”, each closing with a poem and a photo to leave readers in a reflective space.As a Zen priest from Los Angeles, James contemplates what he has learnt from observing and listening to nature, and shows that when the planet is hurting, we too feel its pain.The way this book is opening hearts and minds is remarkable. Arianna Huffington found it “powerful and moving”, Zen abbot and author Joan Halifax sums: “A profound guide to discovering the great wisdom in the natural world, this book…is a treasure for all”.

"Högselius's curious and nimble mind leads readers down a captivating path." - SHELF AWARENESS, starred reviewA walk with Per Högselius, skirting shipwrecks and bodies, relics of war and vanished lives, is a deep-dive into landscape and culture. It leaves us fragile and shows us wonders.Holidaymakers go to the beach to play. The world's great writers, film makers and artists head there to tread the margins between life and death. In Death on the Beach, Per Högselius leads us in their footsteps.What do we find? Life-busting ideas, powerful landscapes, scenes to make you shiver, and an entry-gate to some of the most exciting books and films you've never heard of.Translated from Swedish by award-winner Agnes Broomé (The Gospel of the Eels), this gripping essay collection reveals that longing inside us that continues to draw us to the sea – even when so many have failed to return.

A novel that dares to take on some of the fiercest forces of our times—ones that use Biblical language to cast minorities as evil.Rory's life is built on secrets—from his childhood playing a Crusader in the vanishing woods of Memphis, through his passionate, hidden bond with his friend Drew, to his eventual life as a prominent megachurch pastor.When his carefully constructed world begins to collapse, Rory embarks on a reckoning that takes him from the pulpit to underground queer spaces, from respectability to radical honesty. The Angels Came to Sodom in the Evening is an audacious exploration of desire, faith, and the price of living authentically in a world that demands conformity. With echoes of Flannery O'Connor and James Baldwin, Paul Russell crafts a devastating portrait of American masculinity, religious hypocrisy, and the liberating power of embracing one's true self—no matter the cost.

A 'Writer's Review' BOOK OF THE YEAR - "Engaging, perceptive and compassionate, this is a novel that’s hard to put down."1953. Viola is three. The young Queen ofEngland is being crowned on a television in the corner of the room. Tubby littleViola gazes out at the party guests in this fancy London house, already alertto human drama.This is a genteel family in gentle crisisas they have to move from a large house to a tiny flat. Viola’s Anglo-Indianmother hoped for much more from life, while her father gets involved inghosting the memoir of a chorus girl who married a millionaire. Viola burrowsinto the adventures of storybooks and battles her three older brothers forattention. A decade passes, and Viola finds friendship and danger among the oldand the young. 1950s London with its bomb sites, air raid shelters andattitudes to gender, race, class and sex is vividly present. When I Was providesa delicious, memorable portrait of the writer as a young girl.