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Curtis Sittenfeld’s ‘Show Don’t Tell’ is a razor-sharp, glittering collection of stories exploring marriage and female friendship. In these twelve dazzling stories, Sittenfeld skewers our assumptions about fame, marriage and celebrity. Laying bare on the page what we’re all thinking but hesitate to say, she explores women’s lives at the intersection of sex, love, ambition and the entangled pursuit of a fulfilling life.
In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants – if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants. Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled.
Is there any bird more mysterious than the cuckoo? It is invariably heard, and not seen. And if seen, it is mistaken for a sharp-winged hawk. The female cuckoo – by a trick that borders on alchemy – is able to disguise its egg as another’s. In Greek myth the god Zeus assumed the form of a cuckoo to seduce Hera. But we forgive the cuckoo its con-artistry, because it is the true herald of spring. It is the bird that uplifts our wintered hearts, with that first two-note ‘cuk-koo’ unmistakable as it sounds across the country. John Lewis-Stempel explains one of nature’s greatest enigmas in vivid, lyrical prose, and celebrates this iconic bird.
On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness. Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?
When Inji takes a job at Wedding & Life, the popular matchmaking service, she never imagines her role will be with NM, their secretive marriage division that rents out ‘field husbands and wives’ to their wealthiest clientele for a limited time. Just like a real marriage, Inji’s assignments involve a wedding, some sex and a bit of housework, there is even a special helpline in case of any DV. It’s all tailored exactly to the client’s desires – no legal battles, no fights, no emotional baggage. In no way is Inji interested in finding real love, despite everyone trying to convince her otherwise – her brazen neighbour Granny, her flirtatious best friend Shi-jeong, and her failed blind date, Tae-seong. Then one of Inji’s old husbands, a mysterious high-profile music producer, requests her back for another year. Soon Inji’s own dark past will begin to unravel.
When a small bone at the centre of a famous sculpture is revealed to be human, three people become intimately connected by the secrets and lies that put it there. Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours each day, and home to only one inhabitant, ‘The Blue Hour’ asks questions of ambition, power, art and perception.
Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In ‘England’, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history. In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak.
Welcome to the Marigold Mind Laundry where we wash away the stains from your heart. After young Jieun accidentally misuses her powers, causing her beloved family to vanish, she lives a million restless lives in search of them. Overnight, in the village of Marigold on top of a hill, she conjures up her Mind Laundry, where she cleanses painful experiences from the heart, transferring them into stains on a T-shirt and turning them into dazzling red petals. We meet five wounded souls: a frustrated young filmmaker; a tortured social-media influencer; a distraught mother who has discovered her husband’s other family; a young woman two-timed by her lover, and Yeonghui, a victim of bullying, who works as a delivery man to escape his pain in routine. After washing the pain and ironing their creases, Jieun discovers an astonishing revelation that will change her life.
It’s 1945, there’s a brand-new Labour government, and Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is returning home from an undistinguished war, spent in the ranks. But following the death of his heroic older brother, and to his horror, Valentine is now Sir Valentine, seventh Baronet and extremely reluctant heir to Dimperley Manor, a gigantic liability, devoid of income, sodden with debt and half-filled with stuffed animals and dependent relatives – the latter intent on clinging to an impossibly outdated way of life. Despite Valentine’s efforts, it takes an outsider to finally work out that Dimperley can only be saved when the inhabitants accept that the world has changed irrevocably, and that they must make at least a tiny attempt to change with it.
On the top floor of an old building at the end of a cobbled alley in Kyoto lies the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Only a select few – those who feel genuine emotional pain – can find it. The mysterious centre offers a unique treatment for its troubled patients: it prescribes cats as medication. Get ready to fall in love: Bee, an eight-year-old female, mixed breed helps a disheartened businessman as he finds unexpected joy in physical labour; Margot, muscly like a lightweight boxer, helps a middle-aged callcentre worker stay relevant; Koyuki, an exquisite white cat brings closure to a mother troubled by the memory of the rescue kitten she was forced to abandon; Tank and Tangerine bring peace to a hardened fashion designer, as she learns to be kinder to herself; Mimita, the Scottish Fold kitten helps a broken-hearted Geisha to stop blaming herself for the cat she once lost.
Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed. In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom, his only case the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another and soon Jackson has uncovered a string of unsolved cases, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
A warm Sunday in November 1957. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn’t particularly happy in his job but he fulfils the role, playing golf with the partners, drinking in the bar, chasing the women. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion, with a key shot up her sleeve called ‘The Most’, is now a mother and homemaker. Somehow these two have fallen into the roles expected of them – the prescribed suburban dream they have been sold as something to covet, something that will fulfil their lives. But on this unseasonably warm, early November Sunday, Kathleen wakes up and decides that she will not be accompanying her family to church. No, she feels like a swim. She unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the apartment complex pool no other resident uses. And she doesn’t want to come out.
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