A PRESTO BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024'Gripping.' FINANCIAL TIMES'Breathtaking.' SIMON CALLOW'Vivid.' BBC MUSIC MAGAZINEA colourful and concise telling of the fascinating story behind Richard Wagner's extraordinary masterpiece, Ring of the Nibelung.The Ring is one of the most epic and compelling stories of the nineteenth century, created by...

Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) was one of Britain's leading composers: his music is frequently performed throughout Europe, the United States (where he lived and worked) and Japan. He is particularly renowned for his electro-acoustic music, an aspect on which most previous writing on his work has focused. The present volume is the first detailed study of music from Harvey's considerable body of work for conventional forces. It focuses on two pieces that span one of the most fertile periods in...

Queenie meets Frying Plantain in this courageous coming-of-age story, set in the 1990s, about a mixed-race Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.On the rain-swollen banks of the River Etsi in South Carolina, Ophelia Blue Rivers—six years old in 1992—catches frogs and stretches to reach the swaying sunflowers. She’s an orphan raised in a rustic cabin by her Grand...

**SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Speaker's Book AwardLONGLISTED for the 2021 Toronto Book AwardThe triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere--the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey."--Ian Williams, Giller Prize-winning author of ReproductionAn enthralling, deeply personal account of a young immigrant's search for belonging and Black identity amid the long-lasting effects of cultural dislocation.**...

Saddle up to take on the weird west in the Horror on the Range anthology!Headlined by tales from Undertaker Books' resident Western yarn-spinners, D.L. Winchester and C.M. Saunders, this anthology will bring new adventures from Aggie and Dylan Decker!But that's not all!Eleven other scribes join the fun, taking you on a horrific adventure all over tarnation and back again, facing varmints both human and monstrous. Zombies? Offal Monsters? Rattlesnakes? They're all wi...

**SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Speaker's Book AwardLONGLISTED for the 2021 Toronto Book AwardThe triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere--the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey."--Ian Williams, Giller Prize-winning author of ReproductionAn enthralling, deeply personal account of a young immigrant's search for belonging and Black identity amid the long-lasting effects of cultural dislocation.**...

Queenie meets Frying Plantain in this courageous coming-of-age story, set in the 1990s, about a mixed-race Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.On the rain-swollen banks of the River Etsi in South Carolina, Ophelia Blue Rivers—six years old in 1992—catches frogs and stretches to reach the swaying sunflowers. She’s an orphan raised in a rustic cabin by her Grand...

The youngest of nine children, Michael Downing was three when his father died — suddenly and inexplicably. No autopsy was performed. The family diagnosis was God's will.As a boy, Downing rigorously trained as a spiritual athlete, preparing to vault into heaven. But eventually he escaped the religious dogma, and the family arena — until one of his brothers died in 2003, suddenly and inexplicably. No autopsy was performed.Alarmed, Downing pursued a diagnosis: Drawn into a wor...

**“[A] love story for adults— wrapped in a sophisticated mystery about art, religion and the fragility of the human heart."— Elizabeth Benedict, bestselling author of AlmostA recently widowed woman of a certain age sets off on a tour of Italy in this moving and witty novel interwoven with art history and romance.**Recently widowed, unhappily stuck on a pricey whiplash tour of Italy, Elizabeth Berman comes face to face with the first documented painting of a teardro...

This hilarious, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately heartening novel is the companion to the critically acclaimed, national bestseller Perfect Agreement"Beautifully and economically written, and very funny." —Linda Wertheimer, NPRThis is your chance to enroll in English 10 at highly rated Hellman College—if you can find a place to sit in the fantastically overcrowded classroom.Mark Sternum, whom readers first met in Downing...

At the zoo, animals in action aren't always what they seem!When you're at the zoo, do you see scary crocodiles? Chimpanzees being silly? Look again! A young narrator makes the rounds of a zoo, pointing out that animals have special reasons for doing what they do. The crocodile is protecting her babies, and the chimpanzees are learning by trying new things. Animals protect, play, bathe, and communicate in different ways. Even the zookeeper isn't just a zookeeper. . ...