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.

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...

'Set at a time of lengthening shadows, this is a novel about the sparks that illuminate the dark: of wisdom, compassion, defiance and courage. It is wry, piercing and also, fittingly, radiant.' Daily MailFrom Robert Seethaler, the author of the Man Booker International shortlisted A Whole Life, comes a deeply moving story of ordinary lives profoundly affected by the Third Reich, in the tradition of novels such as Fred Uhlman's classic ...

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 for ever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved.These voices together – young, old, rich, poor – build ...

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 ...

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 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...

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...

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.

1854, Edinburgh.Respectable faces hide private sins.Apprentice Sarah Fisher is helping to fund Dr Will Raven’s emerging medical practice in exchange for being secretly trained as a medic, should the rules barring women ever change. Sarah needs no instruction in the inequalities that beset her gender, but even she has her eyes opened to a darker reality when a relative seeks her help in searching for her missing daughter. Annabel Banks was pr...

SHORTLISTED FOR SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2025'A deeper look into the loneliness of modern masculinity. Superb'DOUGLAS STUART'I was so moved'ANNIE MACMANUS'Far and away the best debut novel I've read in a very long time'JOHN NIVEN'Nobody writes wee guys like Chris McQueer'CALLUM MCSORLEY_________Since dropping out ...