Canongate Books – serie

A NEW SCIENTIST PICK FOR 2026'Won't just shift your perspective but rather catapult it into another dimension' GAIA VINCEWhat if the present moment - the 'now' we all inhabit - isn't just a tick of the clock?We feel that the present is everything; all we can know. Yet physics finds no universal 'now'. To explore what a moment really is, In Search of Now draws on state-of-the-art discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, cosmology and quantum physics, revealing a dynamic, creative process in which we all play a part.Jo Marchant shows how we each carve out our lived experience - sensations and emotions, actions and decisions - through our interactions with the world. Far from being an illusion or a mere slice of time, she argues that this evolving, interconnected tapestry is the source of our lives and selves, and perhaps even reality itself.Join Jo to explore the secrets of how our lives really unfold - and rediscover the creative power of 'now'.'Illuminating . . . will change the way you think' CLAUDIA HAMMOND'Fascinating' Mail on Sunday

A NEW SCIENTIST PICK FOR 2026'Won't just shift your perspective but rather catapult it into another dimension' GAIA VINCEWhat if the present moment - the 'now' we all inhabit - isn't just a tick of the clock?We feel that the present is everything; all we can know. Yet physics finds no universal 'now'. To explore what a moment really is, In Search of Now draws on state-of-the-art discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, cosmology and quantum physics, revealing a dynamic, creative process in which we all play a part.Jo Marchant shows how we each carve out our lived experience - sensations and emotions, actions and decisions - through our interactions with the world. Far from being an illusion or a mere slice of time, she argues that this evolving, interconnected tapestry is the source of our lives and selves, and perhaps even reality itself.Join Jo to explore the secrets of how our lives really unfold - and rediscover the creative power of 'now'.'Illuminating . . . will change the way you think' CLAUDIA HAMMOND'Fascinating' Mail on Sunday

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Touching, thoughtful, a deeply affecting love story about time and regret' DAVID NICHOLLS'Steeped in yearning, melancholy and the reckoning with mortality that must come to us all . . . King's writing still pierces you' The Times'Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, here is a novel of piercing clarity' Independent'Beautifully written . . . I was hooked from the first page' Daily Mail'You knew I'd write a book about you someday'Our narrator understands good love stories - their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined - with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERPeople have lost hope that peace is possible. Talking about peace seems too vulnerable, too naïve, too dangerous. We have resigned ourselves to this unending war as the only way forward. But we have tried this. We have tried war. The only war that is won is one that leads to peace.On paper Aziz and Maoz should not be friends. Aziz's brother was killed by Israeli forces, and Maoz lost both his parents in the 7 October 2023 attacks. In The Future is Peace, these two lifelong peace activists take readers on a searing journey to understand this holy, bloodstained land and explore each other's personal and national histories. Pairing unapologetic candour and inspirational prose, Abu Sarah and Inon are sending a message to humanity that the people have the power to make change. Peace is achievable, not just between Palestinians and Israelis, but throughout the world.

'One of the most accomplished and important science writers of our time' ED YONG'Chanda Prescod-Weinstein brings light to our universe' ROBIN INCEIn The Edge of Space-Time, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein takes readers to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time - and about ourselves. Guided by her conviction that science is for everybody, Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics and draws on poetry and popular culture - from Queen Latifah to Lewis Carroll to Big K.R.I.T. to Sun Ra and Star Trek - to tell fascinating stories about the fundamental quantum nature of space-time and everything inside of it. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity.Through Prescod-Weinstein's clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of post-colonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Time argues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that 'the edge' is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture. Prescod-Weinstein also shows us how spending time with the cosmos is a vital human activity that enriches all our lives.

We're all in Sales nowParents sell their kids on going to bed. Spouses sell their partners on mowing the lawn. We sell our bosses on giving us more money and more time off. And in astonishing numbers we go online to sell ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and online dating profiles. Relying on science, analysis and his trademark clarity of thought, Daniel Pink shows that sales isn't what it used to be. Then he provides a set of tools, tips, and exercises for succeeding on each new terrain: six new ways to pitch your idea, three ways to understand another's perspective, five frames that can make your message clearer, and much more.

'You knew I'd write a book about you someday'Our narrator understands good love stories - their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined - with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

At some point, maybe twenty minutes after he'd begun refreshing Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Gmail in a continuous cycle - with an ongoing, affectless, humorless realisation that his day 'was over' - he noticed with confusion, having thought it was early morning, that it was 4:46PMTaipei is an ode - or lament - to the way we live now. Following Paul from New York, where he comically navigates Manhattan's art and literary scenes, to Taipei, Taiwan, where he confronts his family's roots, we see one relationship fail, while another is born on the internet and blooms into an unexpected wedding in Las Vegas.From one of this generation's most talked-about and enigmatic writers comes a deeply personal and uncompromising novel about memory, love, and what it means to be alive.

Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles, at the last count.No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It's about the schools, the music, the people - but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It's about a family who didn't see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories. It's also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

For the last decade, Rob Sears has been painstakingly combing the words of Donald J. Trump for signs of poetry. To the surprise of many, he has found riches. By simply cutting up and reordering lines from Trump's tweets, Truths and transcripts, Sears has unearthed a trove of exquisite verse that was just waiting to be found.In this expanded edition of a poetry classic, fans can rediscover a writer of rare conviction (thirty-four felony charges and counting), and for the first time ponder the full span of Trump's artistic flowering and the paradoxes it poses. Like: How can one and the same person unite critics with beautiful poems, yet prove so divisive in his 'other life' as a political leader? And how can a man many consider desperately flawed produce works of such grace as 'All I ask is fairness', 'My hands are normal hands' and 'Shithole countries'?The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump is a carefully curated collection for our times that will make a thought-provoking addition to any poetry-lover's library.

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICK 'A book of profundity, humanity and ravishing beauty - the only kind of book I want to read' - ANDREW SEAN GREER 'Glorious and captivating, with Eggers' signature humour and precision, Contrapposto tells a big and big-hearted story that counter-positions exquisitely the pain and exhilarations of love and the creative impulse. I loved this novel' - LILY KING'This book speaks to my heart. With wit, wisdom, and deep empathy, Contrapposto asks all the hard questions that haunt and enliven a creative life - about art and beauty, about commerce and class, about the cost of passion and the price of success' - RUTH OZEKICricket is just a shy kid who likes drawing when he first meets Olympia. She's older, more confident; she bullies him into some light vandalism and instantly he's in love. When they're together, they talk about their futures, how they're going to travel the world, the beauty and rapture of art.Then those futures start to arrive in unexpected ways, the years and decades pile up between them, the art world seduces and disappoints and frustrates them. And they have to figure out, again and again, what it is to be an artist, and who and what to love.This is a wild and beautiful novel about two friends who believe they can change the world, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTA BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS PICKA BEST SUMMER READING PICK FOR THE TIMES, DAILY MAIL, FINANCIAL TIMES AND GUARDIANA 2024 BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK FOR BBC R4 OPEN BOOK, THE OBSERVER, THE GUARDIAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, GQ, GRAZIA, HERO, i-D, NYLON, VULTURE, READINGS AND KIRKUS REVIEWSA semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.Miranda July's second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July's wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman's quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERPeople have lost hope that peace is possible. Talking about peace seems too vulnerable, too naïve, too dangerous. We have resigned ourselves to this unending war as the only way forward. But we have tried this. We have tried war. The only war that is won is one that leads to peace.On paper Aziz and Maoz should not be friends. Aziz's brother was killed by Israeli forces, and Maoz lost both his parents in the 7 October 2023 attacks. In The Future is Peace, these two lifelong peace activists take readers on a searing journey to understand this holy, bloodstained land and explore each other's personal and national histories. Pairing unapologetic candour and inspirational prose, Abu Sarah and Inon are sending a message to humanity that the people have the power to make change. Peace is achievable, not just between Palestinians and Israelis, but throughout the world.

As the 1950s close, Peanuts enters its golden age. Linus, who had just learned to speak in the previous volume, becomes downright eloquent. Charlie Brown cascades further down the hill to loserdom. But the rising star is undoubtedly Snoopy. He's at the centre of the most action-packed episodes. Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and life-long Peanuts fan, introduces the collection.

WATERSTONES AND FOYLES BOOK OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER 2026SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARD FOR FICTION 2026SHORTLISTED FOR THE WINSTON GRAHAM PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026LONGLISTED FOR SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2026LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK A BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2025 FOR THE GUARDIAN, THE OBSERVER, THE HERALD AND THE BBC'Crackles with creative rebellion' DOUGLAS STUART'immersive, intelligent, immensely sensual' ELIF SHAFAK'A tender and evocative act of resurrection' JAMES CAHILL, SPECTATOR'The greatest and truest story of two male lovers I have ever read' RUSSELL T DAVIES'Deeply affecting . . . vivid and moving' PETER PARKER, THE TIMESHe will stay like this forever, Robert's arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty. Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is off to the Glasgow School of Art. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls - and never leave his side. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent takes them all over Europe, partying, loving, fighting, painting. The pair become stars as the bombs fall in this stunningly re-imagined true story of devotion and obsession, art and class.

After living in China for five years, and learning the language, Peter Hessler decided to undertake an even more complicated endeavor: he acquired his Chinese driving licence. An eye-opening challenge, it enabled him to embark on an epic journey driving across this most enigmatic of countries. Over seven years, he travelled to places rarely explored by tourists, into the factories exporting their goods to the world and into the homes of their workers. Full of extraordinary encounters and details of life beyond Beijing, it is an unforgettable, unique portrait of the country that will likely shape all our lives in the century to come.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2026 SO FAR My name is Anna, and for some time now, I have been trying to account for certain events in my life - my adult life, that is - which, from this vantage point of forty-five years, I often find baffling . . .In 1985 Dublin, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Anna is introverted and naïve, and Peter's experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure captivate her. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal.As Anna's life becomes less predictable, she uncovers deeper layers of herself. Her journey gives an intimate portrait of a woman embracing herself as she is, claiming the life she yearns for.

The third volume in Canongate's acclaimed series, with a specially commissioned introduction from The Simpsons' Matt Groening. We travel into the mid-1950s as Linus learns to talk, Snoopy begins to explore his eccentricities, Lucy's unrequited crush on Schroeder takes final shape, and Charlie Brown becomes ... well, even more Charlie Brown-ish.

David Whyte's Consolations use everyday words to present us with a prism through which to better understand ourselves and the lives we walk through. At the request of readers globally, Whyte returns with fifty-two short, elegant meditations on a single word ranging from 'Anxiety' to 'Body', 'Freedom', 'Shame' and 'Moon'. He embraces their nuances, amplitudes and depths, and, in doing so, confronts realities that many of us would spend a lifetime trying senselessly to avoid.In Consolations II, anxiety might be more mercifully understood as the preparation for being hurt, fixed beliefs are recognised as the very places where we do not wish to understand, guilt is a friend compassionately waiting for us to catch up and routine becomes a form of ritual and worship. Each piece in this life-affirming book is an invitation to slow down, shift our perspective and find comfort. In these pages, Whyte explores the full constellation of human experience.

Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is the classic biography of Charles Bukowski, the hard-drinking barfly whose semi-autobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure across the globe. Extensive original research and unique contributions from friends, family and associates - including Mickey Rourke, Robert Crumb, Sean Penn, Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg - as well as personal photographs and drawings by Buk himself make this a must for Bukowski devotees and new readers alike.

THE READS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2026 - TimesBOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2026 - Guardian2026 FICTION HIGHLIGHTS - ObserverWHAT TO READ IN 2026 - Financial TimesBOOKS YOU NEED TO READ IN 2026 - BBC CultureTHE MOST HYPED BOOKS WE CAN'T WAIT TO READ IN 2026 - Elle MagazineThe past is never done with: always the song continues Harlow Donne has devoted his life to the Classical world. When a chance comes up to study an obscure collection of papyrus fragments at Oxford University, he seizes it. Though it means leaving his daughter and fracturing marriage back home in Canada, this is the kind of career break he desperately needs. In the depths of the Bodleian Library, Harlow discovers a lost account of the Trojan War, a glimpse into the founding of Western civilization itself. He names the epic poem The Psoad, after its protagonist, a Greek commoner identified as Psoas of Midea but known to all as 'son of nobody'. As sole translator and interpreter of the Psoad, Harlow dedicates the poem and its modern footnotes to his daughter, Helen. Under his gaze, the text unlocks echoes of Ancient Greece into the present day, and a personal message to his beloved child appears. Despite the three-thousand-year gap between the two, a thread hasn't frayed: the universal song of homesickness and regret, of ambition and grief. In this masterpiece of myth and history, Son of Nobody explores how stories become facts, the price we pay to share them and how we live - then, now and always.

In The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way, Charles Bukowski considers the art of writing, and the art of living as writer. Bringing together a variety of previously uncollected stories, columns, reviews, introductions, and interviews, this book finds him approaching the dynamics of his chosen profession with cynical aplomb, deflating pretentions and tearing down idols armed with only a typewriter and a bottle of beer.From numerous tales of the author's adventures at poetry readings, parties, film sets, and bars, to an unprecedented gathering of Bukowski's singular literary criticism, the author discusses his writing practices and his influences. The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way is a perfect guide to the man behind the myth and the disciplined artist behind the boozing brawler.

In this spellbinding book, the man described by the Daily Telegraph as 'possibly the best living writer in Britain' takes on his biggest challenge yet: unlocking the film that has obsessed him all his adult life. Like the film Stalker itself, it confronts the most mysterious and enduring questions of life and how to live.

There are still wild places out there on our crowded planet. Through a series of personal journeys, Dan Richards explores the appeal of far-flung outposts in mountains, tundra, forests, oceans and deserts. Following a route from the Cairngorms of Scotland to the fire-watch lookouts of Washington State; from Iceland's 'Houses of Joy' to the Utah desert; frozen ghost towns in Svalbard to shrines in Japan; Roald Dahl's writing hut to a lighthouse in the North Atlantic, Richards explores landscapes which have inspired writers, artists and musicians, and asks: why are we drawn to wilderness? What can we do to protect them? And what does the future hold for outposts on the edge?

When Pius Fernandes, a retired schoolteacher living in modern day Dar es Salaam, discovers a diary of a British colonial administrator from 1913, he is drawn into a provocative account of the Asian community of East Africa, and the liaisons, feelings and secrets of its people, over the course of a century.Part generational history, part detective story, part social chronicle, M.G. Vassanji's award-winning novel magnificently conjures setting and period as it explores notions of identity and exile.

What are we not seeing?Our naked eyes see only a thin sliver of reality. We are blind in comparison to the x-rays that peer through skin, the mass spectrometers that detect the dead inside the living, or the high-tech surveillance systems that see with artificial intelligence.And we are blind compared to the animals that can see in infrared, or ultraviolet, or with 360-degree vision. These animals live in the same world we do, but they see something quite different when they look around.In The Reality Bubble, Ziya Tong illuminates this hidden world and takes us on a journey to examine ten of humanity's biggest blind spots. What she reveals is not on the things we didn't evolve to see but, more dangerously, the blindness of modern society. Fast-paced, utterly fascinating and deeply humane, this vitally important new book gives voice to the sense we've all had - that there is more to the world than meets the eye.

NOW A MAJOR NEW FILMRECOMMENDED ON THE HIGH LOW PODCAST'There's no ceremony for friendship, is there?''Believe me, if I could marry you too, Tyler, I would.'Laura and Tyler are best friends and drinking buddies. But things are set to change when Laura gets engaged to the man of Tyler's nightmares. Can their friendship survive? Or will growing up mean growing apart?

'A terrific nuts and bolts account of the real business of cooking as told from the trenches. No nonsense. This is what it takes' ANTHONY BOURDAIN'One of the most informative, funny and transparent books about the restaurant biz ever written' BRET EASTON ELLISSous Chef takes you behind the swinging doors of a busy restaurant kitchen, putting you in chef's shoes for an intense, high-octane twenty-four hours. Follow him from the moment he opens the kitchen in the morning, as he guides you through the meticulous preparation, the camaraderie in the hours leading up to service and the adrenalin-rush as the orders start coming in. Thrilling, addictive and bursting with mouth-watering detail, Sous Chef will leave you breathless and awestruck - walking into a restaurant will never be the same again.

Winner of the 2013 British Psychological Society's Book Awards Popular Science category.Time rules our lives, but how much do we really understand it? In Time Warped, we meet the people willing to go to extreme lengths to find out. They travel to Costa Rica to find out if hummingbirds can sense the passage of time, they walk towards the edge of a stairwell blindfolded and one man spends two months in an ice cave in total darkness - all in an attempt to fathom the tricks time can play on our minds. Drawing on the latest research from psychology, neuroscience and biology, award-winning BBC Radio4 presenter Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of time perception. She shows us how to manage time more efficiently, why it speeds up as you get older and, ultimately, how to use the warping of time to our own advantage.