Bøker utgitt av Pan Macmillan

'Head and shoulders above almost all other new books about China, this unflinching and yearningly compassionate portrait of the lives and loves of ordinary Chinese workers is quite unforgettable' Simon Winchester Every year in China millions of migrant workers leave their rural towns to find jobs in the cities. These people are the driving forces behind China's economic boom: they work very hard and for little money to make the trainers, ornaments, designer handbags and toys which we buy. Through the lives of two young women, Chang vividly portrays a world where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a cell phone; where lying about your age, your education, and your work experience is often a requisite for getting ahead; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. This is a powerful and humane portrait of the forces which are shaping China. 'Astonishing . . . Heartbreaking . . . As one tool in trying to understand today's China, this is a most valuable, if troubling read' Irish Times 'Engrossing . . . An exceptionally vivid and compassionate depiction of the day-to-day dramas, and the fears and aspirations, of the real people who are powering China's economic boom' Scotsman 'Chang's elegant book is evidence that the best trips home often require a circuitous approach' Nell Freudenberger, Financial Times

Wilbur McCrum has always been a drifter. Abandoned by his parents, one after the other, and subsequently passed from pillar to post, he was still a young lad when he first took to the road, and somehow he's never settled anywhere since. When he meets Ida May, however, that looks set to change: finally, Wilbur's dream of making a home, a family, and a future for himself, looks set to become reality. But fate's a funny old thing, and Wilbur never has had much luck . . . 'With a hugely likeable narrator, and a narrative that gallops along at the breakneck pace of a runaway steer, I loved the energy of the writing, and the way the world of the Wild West is painted so clearly in swift, deft strokes. A terrific and unusual voice' Kate Long 'Kita's gold-rush setting incorporates all the dusty heroism of the Wild West. But Wilbur McCrum is the book's truly unforgettable element. His folksy speech and wry humour are engaging and unrelenting, taking the reader from a troubled childhood to an old age of reminiscence. Few first novels have employed imaginative freedom and picaresque invention with such aplomb' Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Charlatan. Guru. Master of disguise. Ahead of his time, wise beyond his years, a simple opportunist or the great pretender; however you choose to see him, one fact is certain: Dr Ragab is a mysterious man. Talked about by pretty much everyone in 1920s Cairo, only a few get the chance to make his acquaintance, and fewer still -- one person, in fact -- get to study his life lessons. Hertwig is that lucky soul. Or not so lucky, perhaps: not when he finds himself, at the very end of the second world war, imprisoned in a bunker in Germany by a gang of thugs. To make matters worse, it's not just any bunker; it's the family bunker, built to be 100% escape-proof. And yet . . . there is a possible way out. Not in the conventional sense, it's true, but when you're holed up several feet underground, unsure of how long your captors plan to keep you alive, convention isn't necessarily a good thing, as Dr Ragab would be the first to proclaim -- and it's his universal language that may just provide Hertwig with the escape route he needs. As unconventional as the eponymous Ragab, Robert Twigger's novel takes the reader on a surreal journey. Clever, funny and thought-provoking, Dr Ragab's Universal Language is, in every sense, beyond belief: part tall tale and part self-help manual, it is, like Dr R himself, impossible to pin down -- or, indeed, to put down.

Long ago, in a distant land, a lonely young man struggles to discover who he is and where he belongs. He carries the blood and magic of two peoples, a sword of unimaginable power, and a staggering potential for great good . . . or greater evil. In the land of Corona, the roads are unsafe to travel, as goblins and bloodthirsty Powries seek out human prey; and, in this savage world, princes feast while peasants starve, and two religions battle for control. A monk, Bran Dynard, returns from his mission in a far-off land with two prizes: a book of mystical knowledge and a new wife, the beautiful and mystical Sen Wi. But the world he left behind has changed, and Bran must now decide who he can trust, and where he should place his faith . . .

1986, the last day of the summer holidays, and Christopher Hearsey is wondering why his best mate Arthur has suddenly disappeared, and whether lippy Gill Ross a few doors down might know anything about it. The border city of Carlisle is buzzing with rumours following an act of terrible violence, and in order to begin his search Chris must face down his own dread, not only of the consequences of his own actions, but of local big man Booby Grove, and his psychotic sidekick Carl 'the black' Hole. Populated by a menacing and hilarious cast of characters, and moving from the dark aggrieved streets of the city to the agricultural hinterland of the Solway Firth, this is the story of a boy desperate to get out of town, out of a bad situation, even out of his own skin . . . 'A fierce cry of talent, raw as a confession and tender as a poem. Polley's language is mercurial, his humour quick and surprising.' Chris Cleave 'A perfectly pitched quest for lost innocence' John Burnside, Guardian 'This is a disconcerting debut novel about how meaning is constructed from murmur, gossip and half-truth . . . Capturing the chaotic rhythms of these young lives in vivid yet unsentimental prose, Polley hits the perfect pitch.' Anita Sethi, Independent

50 Ways to Find a Lover is a hilarious, fun and unputdownable romantic comedy, from Lucy-Anne Holmes.I feel like a failure. It's now been 351 days since I had sex. That's a carnal drought. If Bob Geldof knew about it he'd hold a concert. Sarah Sargeant has been single for three years and nine months. She has just spent five months plucking up the courage to ask out a balding man with a paunch who works in her local pub. The gentleman in question informed her that he would rather stay in and watch the Narnia movie on DVD. Her pride has not just been bruised, it's been disembowelled. And she vows it's the last time she will ever reach out to a member of the opposite sex. But her family and friends have other ideas. They enter her into a reality TV show against her will, persuade her to go speed dating and even more radically, they encourage her to start a blog. Suddenly Sarah Sargeant is on a mission: a mission to explore 50 Ways To Find A Lover.

Yu Dan, a professor of media studies at Beijing Normal University, gave a series of lectures entitled "e;Yu Dan's Insights into the Analects"e; which was broadcast for seven days on China Central Television. Her highly personal interpretation of Confucian thought was rapturously received, An edited transcript of the lectures sold 10,000 copies on the day it was published in book form and by September the following year the book had sold 4.2 million legal copies in China and an estimated 6 million pirated ones, remaining at the top of the Chinese bestseller lists today. Simply written, and with a view to taking the wisdom of Confucius out of the hands of the academics and the philosophers and making it accessible to the general reader, Confucius From the Heart gives us a contemporary Confucius, one who can teach us how to attain spiritual happiness, adjust our daily routines and find our place in modern life. Yu Dan argues that his sayings, or Analects, are far from being merely interesting quotes from ancient lore, of little use in our hectic, stress-filled world. Instead, they are simple truths that can speak to each and every one of us and help us lead better, happier, calmer lives.

Ann More and her four sisters have been brought up in the beautiful country house of Loseley, near Guildford in Surrey, by their grandparents, Sir William and the Lady Margaret More. Their only brother, Robert, lives with his pompous father and shrewish step-mother nearby. But though the sisters are close, it is Ann who is the most unusual in character. Wilful, argumentative, challenging and fiery, she is handsome rather than beautiful, and has an indomitable spirit. It is this that endears her to her grandfather, who encourages her learning and lets her loose in his well-stocked library to browse the volumes of Latin and Greek. Once her favourite sister Bett is married, Ann is sent to live in York House in London, where her uncle is Lord Keeper of the Seal. Ann knows her father is endeavouring to find her a match in marriage, and she is to be presented at the Court of Queen Elizabeth yet the journey past Nonsuch Palace, through Southwark, the city gates spiked with the heads of recent traitors and across the shining river proves unimaginably exciting. Soon, Ann is quite at home at York House, and there, in the company of her young cousin, she meets the poet John Donne, a man older and wiser than her, whose verse and character she just cannot resist. Rich in period detail, vivid in description and character, THE LADY AND THE POET is an utterly irresistible, compelling historical novel. It is, above all, the passionate story of the love match between one of the most famous poets of all time, and his young bride.

Now she is eighteen, Barbara leaves home in Ireland hoping to escape from the memory of the tragic death of her little brother, and begin a new life as an au pair in London looking after young Matilda Finch. Almost as soon as she arrives in London, the family announce they are off to the Camargue in France for the summer taking Barbara with them. She is soon aware that she is one of a long string of au pairs and that the Finch family has problems: Olivia is beautiful but brittle; her husband John stiflingly affable, and their daughter is constantly ill.Over the summer, Barbara's sexuality is awakened by someone who leads her to believe that she could be falling in love for the first time. Yet when she confides her doubts about the Finches, she realises she has illuminated issues far beyond her own understanding, and that the consequences will be devastating.Set in the eerie salt marshes of southern France, inhabited by the famous white horses, flamingos and black bulls, I Remember is a remarkable story of deception, passion and ultimate redemption.

The seventies. Summer. Four students in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. Two young American women, one hell-bent on destruction. Alcohol, LSD, sex, jealousy, infidelity and poetry. At the end of the summer, one of the four students will be dead, and another will be destroyed by his inability to let go of past memories, guilt and bitterness. 'A cracker' Evening Standard 'Chills to the bone' Independent on Sunday 'Rich and powerful' Daily Mail 'Afterlife positively throbs with loss . . . It's a deeply absorbing novel that lingers in the mind like the ghosts it so ardently evokes' Claire Kilroy Irish Times 'A richly rewarding portrait of friendships under siege, full of vibrant characters and atmospheres that linger in the mind and the heart' Sunday Telegraph

Attorney Scott Finn has returned to the tough Charlestown streets of his youth, where he ekes out a living from any legal work he can get. But nothing has prepared him for a case as twisted as the one he now faces. Fifteen years ago doctor and illegal immigrant Vincente Salazar was convicted of a brutal attack on a female undercover cop. Now he finds support in his claim for a new trial and Finn is the only one able to fight to find the truth. Allying himself with maverick detective Tom Kozlowski, Finn uncovers a web of lies, corruption and secrets that stretch from Central America to Boston's suburbs which could threaten the security of the nation. Before Finn and Kozlowski know it, it will be their lives that hang in the balance as they search desperately for the thin line between guilt and innocence. 'A knock-out; Grisham with passion, even a touch of the great Michael Connelly thrown in . . . It crackles from the first page to the last and never lets up for a second' Daily Mail

Lorraine Mariner has long been one of the less well-guarded secrets in UK poetry, and her many admirers will be delighted by the appearance of her first full-length collection. Sometimes reading like an unholy alliance of Dorothy Parker, Stevie Smith and Frank O'Hara - but more often like nothing the reader will have encountered before - Mariner's poetry is sharp, quirky, disarming, disorientating, deceptively skilful and frequently hilarious. Her gift is to reveal how much of the everyday is purely surreal, and to articulate the strange and fleeting thoughts we often have, but rarely have the nerve or quick-wittedness to voice. Furniture is the work of an exciting and fresh new imagination in contemporary poetry.

The death of Michael Donaghy in 2004 at the age of fifty robbed poetry of one of its best-loved and most naturally gifted practitioners. A modern metaphysical, Donaghy wrote poetry of great wisdom, grace, charm, erudition and consummate technical accomplishment. This book gathers together all of Donaghy's mature poetry, and includes the full texts of his four published volumes, as well as a number of fine uncollected pieces. As the poet-critic Sean O'Brien has remarked, Donaghy will come to be seen as one of the representative poets of the age.

Suffragette Girl is an heart-wrenching tale of love and liberty by the author of The Clippie Girls, Margaret Dickinson.When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. She's imprisoned for her militant actions, and goes on hunger strike. With her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her - Gervase.After a brief stay in the countryside to recuperate, Florrie returns to London to continue her fight for women's rights. Only the outbreak of the Great War puts a halt to her activities. It is when James, her younger brother, is shamed by their father into volunteering, that Florrie enlists as a nurse and is sent to the Front. Amidst the fear and horror of the hospital close to the trenches, she finds love. But when her beloved brother is accused of desertion, help comes from a very unexpected source.

Searching for his long-lost father, Bransen Garibond is tricked into journeying across the Gulf of Corona to the wild lands of Vanguard, where he is pressed into service in a desperate war against the brutal Ancient Badden. On a lake just below Badden's magical ice castle, several disparate societies - dwarves, monks and barbarians - are caught up in the web of their own conflicts, and thus oblivious to his devastating plan to destroy them by releasing a tidal wave to wipe their island clean. Bransen finds himself becoming the link between these turmoils, and if he fails, all who live on the lake will perish - and all of northern Honce willl fall under the shadow of a merciless and vengeful oppressor.

Better Than God sees Porter working with a lyric engine tuned to perfection, and a mind that shows every sign of speeding up: Porter can make a song of what another writer might take an essay to cover. Whether working in the forms of epigram or narrative, or writing of memory, mortality, Renaissance intrigue or the surreal distortions of old age - Porter's faith in poetry as a road to the truth shines through. There are few other writers for whom contemporary events throw such long shadows or for whom the past is so present, and in Better Than God one has the sense of the poet attaining an increasingly commanding height. Porter remains one of the few poets we can open anywhere, and know that we will always be both enlightened and entertained.

Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez. Trouble is, Juarez isn't the most patient of men. And when he gets bored of waiting, he sends someone round to collect. Luntz doesn't actually plan to shoot the guy, but the way he sees it, it's shoot or be shot. Either way, though, Luntz is out of his league, and he knows it: nobody messes with Juarez -- or, at least, nobody messes with Juarez and lives to tell the tale. Against all the odds, however, it seems that somebody up there is looking out for Luntz, if only he can keep his cool. A story of mistaken identity, blackmail and murder, of bent judges, wronged alcoholics and colostomy bags, Nobody Move is No Country for Old Men as written by Denis Johnson. Praise for Denis Johnson's previous novel, Tree of Smoke, which won the US National Book Award 2007: 'A Catch-22 for our times' Alan Warner, Observer 'A heart-stopping reminder of what fiction can do' Sunday Telegraph

Public Dream, Frances Leviston's first collection of poetry, is one of the most eagerly-awaited debuts in years. Although still in her early twenties, Leviston has already received considerable acclaim for her superbly-crafted and pitch-perfect verse. However, in the apparently effortless balancing of its lyric and metaphysical concerns, in the penetration, range and originality of its thought, Public Dream shows her to possess the maturity to match that skill. This book does more than merely display promise: it announces the arrival of a singular and essential new voice.

By the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Cormac McCarthy's The Road is the story of a father and son walking alone through burned America, heading through the ravaged landscape to the coast. The film directed by John Hillcoat, features an all-star cast including Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall, and introduces major talent, Kodi Smit McPhee, with a soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Standard Operating Procedure is an utterly original collaboration by the writer Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families) and the film-maker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War). They have produced the first full reckoning of what actually happened at Abu Ghraib. Standard Operating Procedure reveals the stories of the American soldiers who took and appeared in the haunting digital snapshots from Abu Ghraib prison that shocked the world - and simultaneously illuminates and alters forever our understanding of those images and the events they depict. Drawing on more than two hundred hours of Errol Morris's startlingly frank and intimate interviews with Americans who served at Abu Ghraib and with some of their Iraqi prisoners, as well as on his own research, Philip Gourevitch has written a relentlessly surprising account of Iraq's occupation from the inside-out - rendering vivid portraits of guards and prisoners ensnared in an appalling breakdown of command authority and moral order. Gourevitch and Morris have crafted a nonfiction morality play that stands to endure as essential reading long after the current war in Iraq passes from the headlines. By taking us deep into the voices and characters of the men and women who lived the horror of Abu Ghraib, the authors force us, whatever our politics, to re-examine the pat explanations in which we have been offered - or sought - refuge, and to see afresh this watershed episode. Instead of a 'few bad apples', we are confronted with disturbingly ordinary young American men and women who have been dropped into something out of Dante's Inferno. This is a book that makes you think, and makes you see - an essential contribution from two of our finest nonfiction artists working at the peak of their powers.

As hilarious as it is perturbing, Jon Ronson's What I Do is a treat for everyone who has ever suspected themselves to be at the mercy of forces they can barely comprehend.In part one, read about the time Jon inadvertently made a lewd gesture to a passing fourteen-year-old girl late at night in the lobby of a country-house hotel. And about his burgeoning obsession with a new neighbour who refused to ask him what he did for a living, despite Jon's constant dropping of intriguing hints. And about the embarrassment of being caught recycling small talk at a party. In part two, read some of Jon's longer stories, which explore manifestations of insanity in the wider world: the tiny town of North Pole, Alaska, where it's Christmas 365 days of the year; behind the scenes at Deal or No Deal, which Jon likens to a cult with Noel Edmonds as its high priest; a meeting with TV hypnotist Paul McKenna, who has joined forces with a self-help guru who once stood trial for murder - but can they cure Jon of his one big phobia?

Buccaneer by Tim Severin is the second swashbuckling adventure in the Pirate series. Sailing across the Caribbean, Hector Lynch falls into the hands of the notorious buccaneer, Captain John Coxon, who mistakes him for the nephew of Sir Thomas Lynch, Governor of Jamaica. Hector encourages the error so that his friends Jacques and Dan can go free. Coxon then delivers Hector to Sir Henry Morgan, a bitter enemy of Governor Lynch, expecting to curry favour with Morgan, but is publicly humiliated when the deception is revealed. From then on, Hector has a dangerous enemy, and Coxon seeks to revenge himself on Hector . . .Befriended by Jezreel, an ex-prize fighter, Hector meets up again with his friends Jacques and Dan, and the four comrades join the great buccaneer raid, which marches through the jungle along the Panama coastline. But their expedition is soon interrupted - with deadly consequences.

Mary DiNunzio is strong, smart and has plenty of attitude. She's become a big-time business-getter at Rosato & Associates, but the last person she expects to walk into her office one morning - in six inch stilettos - is super-sexy Trish Gambone, her old high school rival. Trish was the head Mean Girl who flunked religion and excelled at smoking in the bathroom. Trish's life has taken a horrifying turn. She's terrified of her live-in boyfriend who is an abusing, gun-toting drug dealer for the South Philly mob. Mary remembers the guy from high school too - she had a major crush on him. Before Mary knows it, Trish vanishes. A dead body turns up in an alley, and Mary is plunged into a nightmare - that threatens her family, her job and even her life. Mary goes on a one-woman crusade to unmask the killer, and finds love in a very unexpected place. Along the way, she's forced to confront some very uncomfortable truths about her past and the profound effects of lifelong love - and hate.

I've seen her a thousand times. Running through the blue shadows in the rain. Stopped by a screech of brakes and my voice shouting. Stopped by the sudden boom of my heart. On a quiet road just outside London, in the blue half-light of dusk, a car accident will change the lives of two families forever.Jack Philips is a happily married policeman with two small daughters, but the accident forces him to reassess everything he loves - and to confront long-buried secrets. For Lisa Jenkins, the devastation seems almost unbearable. Until she discovers an inner strength she never knew she had - and the courage to change her life completely. This heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting debut novel explores the ripple effects of a single moment of tragedy - the journey from guilt to peace, from vengeance to forgiveness, from grief to hope - and even, ultimately, to joy.

From the bestselling author of the Cazelet Chronicles comes Elizabeth Jane Howard's Love All.The late 1960s. For Persephone Plover, the daughter of distant and neglectful parents, the innocent, isolated days of childhood are long past. Now she must deal with the emotions of an adult world . . .Meanwhile in Melton, in the West Country, Jack Curtis - a self-made millionaire - has employed Persephone's aunt, a garden designer in her sixties, to deal with the terraces and glasshouses of the once beautiful local manor house he has acquired at vast expense. He also has plans to start an arts festival, as a means to avoid the loneliness of the recently divorced.Also in Melton are the Musgrove siblings, Thomas and Mary, whose parents originally owned and lived in Melton House. They are still trying to cope with emotional consequences of the tragic death of Thomas's wife, Celia . . . as is Francis, Celia's brother, who has come to live with them and thereby, perhaps, to find his way through life.

The stories and classic novel collected here are the work of one of the most subtle and observant writers of our time. Drawing on haunting encounters, solitary lives, hours spent in longing, and the blossoming of unlikely friendships, Wyndham's writing is full of gestures that celebrate the day-to-day while at the same time reaching out for a more profound engagement, a larger truth. Just over the horizon is the War, its progression touching the lives of women left behind, of young men awaiting call-up, and of those people who have simply been passed by, left to spend their days in their own familiar worlds; all evoked with grace, wit, and luminous elegy. 'The Other Garden, so swiftly paced, is a gem' TLS 'A singular, particular, gentle, biting, vastly entertaining, original writer' Harper's Bazaar

In Hide Now, Glyn Maxwell shows how the times have begun to warp time itself: in the poet's vision, the past rears up again with its angry ghosts, the present is racked by its martial and climatic nightmares, and the future has already come and gone. All the stories of the earth seem menaced by just one - to which nations cover their eyes and ears, and from which the grown-ups run and hide. Scheherazade, Robespierre, Dick Cheney and the Reverend Jim Jones all have their place here, though the book's presiding genius is the lonely figure of Cassandra, cursed with knowing the fate of a world that finds her screamingly funny. Glyn Maxwell has established an international reputation as one of the most intelligent and stylishly original English poets since Auden, and he has never written with greater urgency or power. '[Maxwell's] astonishing technical facility can make syllables, vowels and consonants do absolutely anything. His energetic voice riffs through evasively ordinary speech taking on love, politics, comedy and bizarre narratives in brilliantly elaborate syntax and forms' Independent

At the heart of his story lies the Balloon Factory, a cathedral-sized shed overlooking Farnborough Common, and its most celebrated occupant, the remarkable long-haired gun-toting ex-cowboy, Sam Cody. Frater, in a work that is part history, part travelogue, goes in search of some of the most extraordinary pioneers, including Sam Cody, John William Dunne, Sir George Cayley and Geoffrey De Havilland. His richly described and wonderfully anecdotal journey brings those magnificent men, the rock stars of their time, and the places they knew vibrantly to life. 'Frater's book is a treasure chest of facts wrapped in anecdotes . . . The Balloon Factory should be purchased in bulk by BA and substituted for the glossy in-flight magazine' Literary Review 'The Balloon Factory is the rarest of things - a thorough overview of a subject that manages to remain enjoyable and entertaining throughout.' BBC Focus magazine 'Alexander Frater is a renowned travel writer with an infectious interest in early aviation, a strong practical grasp of aeronautics and a gift for lyrical description . . .' Sunday Telegraph 'This is a beautifully written, amusing and educational tome . . . The author succeeds in really bringing the characters and events to life by visiting scenes of British aviation history, creating a real feeling for the people behind the events and doing it all in a way that you don't need an anorak and binoculars to appreciate.' Flyer magazine 'One of my favourite non-fiction books of the year . . . ' Ham & High and the Wood & Vale

For better. For worse. Forget him. Over You is a compelling story of friendship pushed to its limits by bestselling author Lucy Diamond. What the fans say: 'Full of friendship, family and how when life throws something at you, you have to fight back!' Emily Josie, Nell and Lisa go back a long way - they were flatmates, soulmates and best mates back in their twenties when life was one long party.Five years later, things are different. Josie is married with kids in deepest suburbia, free-spirit Nell has travelled the world, and Lisa is on the path to career glory (and the salary Premiership). A reunion weekend in London seems a great idea to Josie . . . until she discovers something which will change the course of her life forever.Praise for Lucy Diamond:'A hugely satisfying read' Heat'An absolute treat' Katie Fforde, bestselling author of A Summer at Sea'Warm, witty and wise' Daily Mail

A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser is the first novel in the stunning Van Veeteren series.Janek Mitter stumbles into his bathroom one morning after a night of heavy drinking, to find his beautiful young wife, Eva, floating dead in the bath. She has been brutally murdered. Yet even during his trial Mitter cannot summon a single memory of attacking Eva, nor a clue as to who could have killed her if he had not. Only once he has been convicted and locked away in an asylum for the criminally insane does he have a snatch of insight - but is it too late? Drawing a blank after exhaustive interviews, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren remains convinced that something, or someone, in the dead woman's life has caused these tragic events. But the reasons for her speedy remarriage have died with her. And as he delves even deeper, Van Veeteren realizes that the past never stops haunting the present . . .The Mind's Eye is followed by the tensely gripping Borkmann's Point.