A “vigorous and vivid and feisty” portrait of a traditional Scottish subculture from an insider (Dundee Courier & Advertiser). Scottish gypsies, known as travellers, have wandered Scotland’s roads and byways for centuries, and their turbulent history is captured in this passionate book by Jess Smith, the bestselling author of Jessie’s Journey. This is less a conventional history than a personal pilgrimage through the stories, songs, and culture of a people for whom freedom is more important than security and a campfire under the stars is preferable to a warm hearth within stone walls. Settled society has always discriminated against travellers, and Jess tells shocking stories of bullying, violence, the enforced break-up of families, and separate schooling. But drawing on her own and her family’s experiences, she also captures the magic and drama of days wandering the roads and working the land, and brings to life the travellers’ rich and vibrant traditions.

The “extraordinary” novel of a teenage gang in the 1960s Bronx, by the New York Times–bestselling author of Clockers and The Whites (Newsweek). The basis for the feature film, The Wanderers tells the story of teenagers on the streets of New York City, coming of age and drifting apart. Tormented by cold-hearted girls and cold-blooded ten-year-olds, maniacal rivals and murderous parents, they are caught between juveniles and adults in a gritty novel filled with “switchblade prose” and “dialogue [that] has the immediacy of overheard subway conversation”—from an award-winning author renowned for his writing on HBO’s The Wire and The Night Of, as well as such modern-day classics as Lush Life and Bloodbrothers (Newsweek). “A kind of teenage Godfather with its own tight structure of morality, loyalty, survival, and reprisal.” —Los Angeles Free Press “The flip side of American Graffiti . . . an amalgam of sex, violence, and humor, glued together with superb dialogue and unsentimental sensitivity.” —Rolling Stone “A superbly written book . . . insights that allow us—at times force us—to feel closer to other human beings whether we like and approve of them or not.” —The New York Times Book Review

This lucid and captivating book takes the reader back to the early history of all the sciences, starting from antiquity and ending roughly at the time of Newton — covering the period which can legitimately be called the “dawn” of the sciences. Each of the 24 chapters focuses on a particular and significant development in the evolution of science, and is connected in a coherent way to the others to yield a smooth, continuous narrative. The at-a-glance diagrams showing the “When” and “Where” give a brief summary of what was happening at the time, thereby providing the broader context of the scientific events highlighted in that chapter. Embellished with colourful photographs and illustrations, and “boxed” highlights scattered throughout the text, this book is a must-read for everyone interested in the history of science, and how it shaped our world today.

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. From the mind of Chuck Wendig comes “a magnum opus . . . a story about survival that’s not just about you and me, but all of us, together” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Polygon Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead. For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world. In development for TV by Glen Mazzara, executive producer of The Walking Dead • Look for the sequel, Wayward, now available! “This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away “A true tour de force.”—Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus “A masterpiece with prose as sharp and heartbreaking as Station Eleven.”—Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M “A magnum opus . . . It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand—but dare I say, this story is even better.”—James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible “An inventive, fierce, uncompromising, stay-up-way-past-bedtime masterwork.”—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World “An American epic for these times.”—Charles Soule, author of The Oracle Year

Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing—of being—articulated by ten pathfinding women writers. “A wild portrayal of the passion and spirit of female walkers and the deep sense of ‘knowing’ that they found along the path.”—Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path “I opened this book and instantly found that I was part of a conversation I didn't want to leave. A dazzling, inspirational history.”—Helen Mort, author of No Map Could Show Them This is a book about ten women over the past three hundred years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers. Wanderers traces their footsteps, from eighteenth-century parson’s daughter Elizabeth Carter—who desired nothing more than to be taken for a vagabond in the wilds of southern England—to modern walker-writers such as Nan Shepherd and Cheryl Strayed. For each, walking was integral, whether it was rambling for miles across the Highlands, like Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, or pacing novels into being, as Virginia Woolf did around Bloomsbury. Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing—of being—articulated by these ten pathfinding women.

The gunning down of her mother in a Richmond street sets young Helen Stockton Defoe on a journey of self-discovery. A physical feature she had first noticed when she was nine years old has made her feel apart and she has quietly capitalized on the privilege, never mind the aura, which surrounds her. She lives in her head and fills her thoughts – and days – with science, horses and art. The more intently she begins to observe her remote, detached father, the more she learns about her place within the rarefied world she inhabits. Just when it appears she is at last becoming closer to him, it all falls apart as he coldly undermines her abiding passions, which causes her to question the identity she has created. Her rebellion leads her to Europe on a disturbing path dominated by chance and an evolving self-realization. As a result of these experiences she gains an ability to feel deeply, something from which she had always felt somehow excluded. This most unusual coming-of-age novel with its impressive characterization, humor and vivid sense of place takes its clever, if barely street-wise and increasingly obsessive, teenaged narrator on a physical as well as psychological journey towards an astute, hard fought, and deserved, maturity.

The beautiful, questing second novel in Tim Pears' acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon and Cornwall 1912. Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might – and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons, horses and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on to Penzance, towards the western horizon... Lottie is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. And of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again? In The Wanderers, Tim Pears's writing, both transcendental and sharply focused, reaches new heights, revealing the beauty and brutality that coexist in nature. Timeless, searching, charged with raw energy and gentle humour, this is a delicately wrought tale of adolescence; of survival; of longing, loneliness and love.