It is 1911, and a man boards a ship at the crowded docks in New York City. As he steps on board, the memories begin flooding back, and we learn he is no ordinary man, and this is no ordinary journey.This transatlantic sailing is the poignant final journey of Gustav Mahler, a renowned composer at the end of his life. He considers the joy and loss he experienced with his wife, Alma, the meaning of art, and the significance of legacy. This culminates in a humbling meditation on the en...

If the dead could speak, what would they say to the living?From their graves in the field, the oldest part of Paulstadt’s cemetery, the town’s late inhabitants tell stories from their lives. Some recall just a moment, perhaps the one in which they left this world, perhaps the one that they now realize shaped their life forever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved.These voices together – young, old, rich poor – build a ...

From the bestselling author of A Whole Life comes a moving account of an ordinary boy living through extraordinary times, and the lengths we will go to in order to protect what we love.When seventeen-year-old Franz exchanges his home in the idyllic beauty of the Austrian lake district for the bustle of Vienna, his homesickness quickly dissolves amidst the thrum of the city. In his role as apprentice to the elderly tobacconist Otto Trsnyek, he will soon be ...

Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood, his home.Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.

THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'How I loved this book . . . Seethaler is in his very own league' Elizabeth Strout‘[A] moving, charming novel about to what extent we must change as the world around us hurtles into the unknown’ObserverIt is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a café on the corner of a bustling Vienna market. He recruits a barmaid, Mila, and soon the customers floc...

If the dead could speak, what would they say to the living?From their graves in the field, the oldest part of Paulstadt’s cemetery, the town’s late inhabitants tell stories from their lives. Some recall just a moment, perhaps the one in which they left this world, perhaps the one that they now realize shaped their life forever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved.These voices together – young, old, rich poor – build a ...

THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'How I loved this book . . . Seethaler is in his very own league' Elizabeth StroutIt is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a café on the corner of a bustling Vienna market. He recruits a barmaid, Mila, and soon the customers flock in. Factory workers, market traders, elderly ladies, a wrestler, a painter, an unemployed seamstress in search of a job, each bring their stor...

Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood, his home.Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF O BROTHERIn a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from...

AN IRISH TIMES DEBUT AUTHOR TO LOOK OUT FOR 2025‘Beautifully written’ LOUISE KENNEDY‘Full of verve and wit and humanity’ MARY COSTELLO‘Clever and original’ TLS‘A tremendous new talent’ KEVIN BARRYMairéad works tirelessly in a run-down West End theatre’s wardrobe department – mending shoes, fixing broken zips and even handwashing underwear. She must als...

A GUARDIAN 'BOOK TO READ IN 2025' AND 'AUDIOBOOK OF THE WEEK'A WATERSTONES 'BEST PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT BOOK OF 2025''A truly inspirational and beautiful book with a powerful and timely message for today's society' - JIM AL-KHALILIOptimism, irrational though it might be, is central to the human psyche: it seems to give us an advantage both in everyday life and in the evolutionary race.

Gerard is 12. He hates his name, but loves flying round the streets of Glasgow on his bike, or mucking about with his gang, the Broncos. He’s a bright kid, but trouble seems to follow him. No one really knows what it’s like at home for Gerard; he’s used to carrying a lot on his small shoulders. Gerard doesn’t always make good decisions. And on one April morning, in the blink of an eye, he makes a very bad one – one that will upend his whole world. Now, he faces a bewildering stream of conc...