VINTAGE BOOKS

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Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is almost seven. They are strangers to her. When she is born her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, and suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea. It’s a strange beginning. A Wild Swans for a new generation, Once Upon a Time in the East takes Xiaolu from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the everyday peculiarity of modern China: censorship, underground art, Western boyfriends. In 2002 she leaves Beijing on a scholarship to study in Britain. Now, after a decade in Europe, her tale of East to West resonates with the insight that can only come from someone who is both an outsider and at home. Xiaolu Guo’s extraordinary memoir is a handbook of life lessons. How to be an artist when censorship kills creativity and the only job you can get is writing bad telenovela scripts. How to be a woman when female babies are regularly drowned at birth and sexual abuse is commonplace. Most poignantly of all: how to love when you’ve never been shown how.

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Xiaolu Guo - One Upon a Time in the East

*Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award* 

*Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award*

*Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize*

*Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018*

*A Sunday Times Book of the Year*

'This generation's Wild Swans' Daily Telegraph

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We're beginning 2017 with a bumper podcast filled with classic goodness. Translator Robert Chandler and author Cathy Rentzenbrink join Alex Clark to discuss the Russian Greats, Will Rycroft chats with Samantha Ellis about the life of Anne Brontë and Edmund Gordon tells us more about the invention of Angela Carter.

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The debut novel from Karl Geary introduces us to Sonny and Vera, a young man and an older woman who meet and forge an unconventional relationship in the Dublin of the early 1980s Chance meetings become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. Casting off his lonely life of dreams and quiet violence for this new, intoxicating encounter, he longs to know Vera, even to save her. But what is it that Vera isn’t telling him? Unfolding in the sea-bright, rain-soaked Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is a beautiful, cinematic novel about desire, longing, grief, hope and the things that remain unspoken. It is about how deeply we can connect with one another, and the choices we must also make alone.

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Karl Geary - Montpelier Parade

Selected as a Book of the Year in 2017 in the Irish Times and The Times

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2017 

‘A delicate, crystalline, hugely impressive novel… He's yet another masterful younger writer coming through… Wonderful’ - Sebastian Barry

Her house is on Montpelier Parade – just across town, but it might as well be a different world. Sonny is fixing a crumbling wall in the garden when he sees her for the first time, coming down the path towards him. Vera.

Vera is older, wealthier, sophisticated, but chance meetings quickly become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. But there is something unsettling that Vera is keeping from him. Unfolding in the sea-bright Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is an indelible novel about the things that remain unspoken between lovers. It is about how deeply we can connect with one another, and the choices we must make alone.

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017

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Midnight approaches and we're about to welcome in a new year. The great news is that a new year means new books, oodles of them. Alex Clark and Will Rycroft are joined by Jen Campbell for part two of our bumper podcast. What books are they most looking forward to in the year ahead and have they made any reading resolutions?

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A stocking crammed full of goodness this month with a Books of the Year chat with Jen Campbell; Ruth Padel on her new collection, Tidings, and Jeanette Winterson on why she loves Christmas and some of the stories behind her new book Christmas Days. This is just part one; part two arrives before the new year to tell you all about the books we're looking forward to in 2017.

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Jeanette Winterson - Christmas Days

'Packed with charm and beautifully illustrated, it's a book that will solve your gift dilemmas and let you escape the less salubrious aspects of Christmas for a literary wonderland' Stylist

Everybody loves a Christmas story. The tradition of the Twelve Days of Christmas is a tradition of celebration, sharing and giving. And what better way to do that than with a story?

Read these stories by the fire, in the snow, travelling home for the holidays. Give them to friends, wrap them up for someone you love, read them aloud, read them alone, read them together. Enjoy the season of peace and goodwill, mystery, and a little bit of magic.

There are ghosts here and jovial spirits. Chances at love and tricks with time.

There is frost and icicles, mistletoe and sledges. There’s a cat and a dog and a solid silver frog. There’s a Christmas cracker with a surprising gift inside.

There’s a haunted house and a SnowMama. There are Yuletides and holly wreaths. Three Kings. And a merry little Christmas time.

And for the icing on the Christmas cake, there are twelve festive recipes from Yuletides past and present. Red cabbage, gravlax, turkey biryani, sherry trifle, Mrs Winterson’s mince pies and more.

Ruth Padel - Tidings

‘Come with me

to St Pancras Old Church, on a little London hill...’

It’s Christmas Eve and on this enchanted night Charoum, the Angel of Silence, can speak. As night turns to day, he unfolds a resonant story of a little girl, a homeless man and a fox...

In the tradition of Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas, Tidings takes us on a journey into the heart of Christmas, showing us celebrations down the ages and across the globe – as dawn sweeps from East Australia to Bethlehem, from London to the Statue of Liberty in New York.

This is Christmas in all its magic, reminding us that it is a time not only of good tidings, but of loneliness and longing, compassion and connection.

Beautifully illustrated and exquisitely musical, Tidings is a poem to be read out loud and cherished.

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To celebrate the publication of Haruki Murakami’s Absolutely on Music, VINTAGE held an afternoon of music and discussion at Spiritland in King’s Cross. This live edition of the VINTAGE Podcast featured James Rhodes, renowned concert pianist and author; Jeremy Warmsley, one half of the band Summer Camp; Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at VINTAGE and Murakami’s UK cover designer; John Mitchinson, Publisher at Unbound; Liz Foley, Murakami’s UK Publisher along with regular hosts Alex Clark and Will Rycroft; all sharing their thoughts on Murakami, music and reading. Absolutely on Music is transcribed from intimate conversations between Haruki Murakami and acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa. They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more. Ultimately this book gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.

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Haruki Murakami - Absolutely on Music

An unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.

Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest.

They discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more.

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One night last winter, Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his son while his wife, Hélène, was at a concert with friends. Suddenly he started receiving text messages asking if he was ok. Turning on the TV, Antoine watched the terrorist attacks in Paris unfolding around him and tried to call Hélène. She didn’t answer. That night Hélène was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre. Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his 17-month-old son’s life be defined by their acts. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. Instantly, that short post caught fire and was shared thousands of times around the world. You Will Not Have My Hate is an extraordinary and heartbreaking memoir about how Antoine, and his baby son Melvil, endured after Hélène’s murder. With courage, moral acuity, and absolute emotional honesty, he finds a way to answer the question, how can I go on? This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience. This book is a guiding star for us all in perilous times. What matters most in life? How do you build a happy life when terrible things happen? What is left behind when you lose the person you love the most?

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Antoine Leiris - You Will Not Have My Hate

'A beacon of hope in a dark world' Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Pool

One night in November 2015, when Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his baby son, his wife Hélène was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his baby son’s life be defined by their acts. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. Instantly, that short post caught fire and was shared thousands of times around the world. An extraordinary and heartbreaking memoir, You Will Not Have My Hate is a universal message of hope and resilience in our troubled times.

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Two authors take their inspiration from Shakespeare and create something entirely new. This month's podcast looks at transformations and allows you the listener to be in at least two places at once. Recorded at the Cheltenham and Manchester Literary Festivals and London's Southbank Centre, we hear from Margaret Atwood about her new novel Hag-Seed whilst she also teaches Alex Clark how to rap. Ian McEwan tells us more about Nutshell and we get to hear readings from both. Plus an interview with digital artist Zach Lieberman who allows people to interact with the very words on the page.

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Margaret Atwood - Hag-Seed

Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other. It will boost his reputation. It will heal emotional wounds.

Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. Also brewing revenge.

After twelve years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It’s magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall?

Ian McEwan - Nutshell

Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb.

Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world’s master storytellers.

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Winner of the Man Booker prize in 2015, Marlon James, met with Irvine Welsh at the Hay Festival this year and they both spoke with Alex Clark about their writing lives, violence in fiction, writing as a political act, and what comes next after winning a big prize.

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