Bøker utgitt av Pan Macmillan

Twelve-year-old Anna is looking forward to the birth of her baby brother. Ben arrives, but is disabled and will never be like other children. Anna loves him with her whole heart, but she finds herself unable to admit the truth of Ben's condition to her school friends. Eventually the truth gets out and leads not to the ridicule Anna expected, but to sympathy and understanding.An emotional and wonderfully written story by Elizabeth Laird, Red Sky in the Morning was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal.

'It's good that I've found this secret place . . . No one can get to to me up there. It's totally safe.'In real life, Jake is never safe. He lives in constant fear of his mother's violent boyfriend. But in his imaginary tower he can dream up his own father - the stranger who gave him a cuddle and a fluffy duck the day he was born and went away for ever. Jake doesn't believe dreams ever come true. But sometimes they do - in strange and surprising ways.Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Jake's Tower by Elizabeth Laird is a powerful and moving novel that spotlights the issue of domestic abuse.

In Elizabeth Laird's A Little Piece of Ground, twelve-year-old Karim Aboudi and his family are trapped in their Ramallah home by a strict curfew. Israeli tanks control the city in response to a Palestinian suicide bombing. Karim longs to play football with his mates - being stuck inside with his teenage brother and fearful parents is driving him crazy. When the curfew ends, he and his friend discover an unused patch of ground that's the perfect site for a football pitch. Nearby, an old car hidden intact under bulldozed buildings makes a brilliant den. But in this city there's constant danger, even for schoolboys. And when Israeli soldiers find Karim outside during the next curfew, it seems impossible that he will survive . . .

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle is a fantastically spooky adventure from the author of Dial a Ghost, Eva Ibbotson.'We need proper ghosts,' said Ned, 'really scary ones with heads that come off and daggers in their chests!'When Madlyn and her younger brother Rollo arrive at crumbling Clawstone Castle, they can see that emergency action is needed before Clawstone falls down completely. With the help of a team of homeless, scary ghosts -including a one-eyed skeleton and Brenda the Bloodstained Bride - they hatch a spooky plan to get the money rolling in. But with a sinister scientist on the loose, money might not be enough to save the mysterious beasts of Clawstone Castle . . .

Which Witch? is a brilliantly witty tale of magic and marriage by Eva Ibbotson, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.'Find me a witch!' cried Arriman the Awful, feared Wizard of the North.Arriman has decided to marry. His wife must be a witch of the darkest powers - but which witch will she be? To find the most fiendish, he holds a spell-casting competition.Glamorous Madame Olympia performs the terrifying Symphony of Death and conjures up a thousand plague-bearing rats. The magic of gentle Belladonna, the white witch, goes hopelessly wrong. She produces perfumed flowers instead of snakes. And bats roost in her golden hair instead of becoming blood-sucking vampires.Poor Belladonna longs to be an evil enchantress - but how?'This kind of fun will never fail to delight' - Philip Pullman.

With beautiful cover illustration by Alex T. Smith, creator of the Claude series, Dial a Ghost is a wonderfully spooky young fiction title from the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson.'Get me some ghosts,' said Fulton Snodde-Brittle. 'Frightful and dangerous ghosts!'Fulton has gone to the Dial a Ghost agency with an evil plan. He wants to hire some truly terrifying ghosts to scare his nephew Oliver to death. The Shriekers are the most violent and sickening spectres the agency has, but a mix-up means the kind Wilkinson ghosts are sent in their place. Now Oliver has some spooky allies to help him outwit the wicked Snodde-Brittles . . .

With a beautiful cover illustration by Alex T. Smith, creator of the Claude series, Not Just A Witch is a wonderfully spooky young fiction title from the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson.'I want you to change the next wicked person you see into a tiger,' demanded Lionel. 'A very large tiger.' Heckie is not just a witch - she's an animal witch, who wants to make the world a better place by transforming evil people into harmless animals, using her incredible Toe of Transformation and her awesome Knuckle of Power. But when slimy Lionel Knapsack charms Heckie, her magic begins to take a darker direction. Her friends, including a cheese wizard and a boy called Daniel, must come to the rescue . . .

With a beautiful cover illustration by Alex T. Smith, creator of the Claude series, The Great Ghost Rescue is a wonderfully spooky young fiction title from the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson.'Nobody knew what had gone wrong with Humphrey. Perhaps it was his ectoplasm . . .' Humphrey the Horrible sounds scary, but he's actually a very friendly skeleton, with twinkling eye sockets and jangling finger bones. Humphrey dreams of being ghastly, like his brother - a screaming skull - or terrifying, like his bloodsucking vampire-bat cousins. But when Humphrey discovers an evil plot to exorcise his family, he finally realizes you don't have to be spine-chillingly fearsome to be a hero.

With a beautiful cover illustration by Alex T. Smith, creator of the Claude series, The Haunting of Hiram is a wonderfully spooky young fiction title from the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson.'I will buy your castle,' declared Hiram C. Hopgood. 'But only if there are no ghosts!' Alex MacBuff can't afford to keep his beloved Castle Carra, and an American millionaire has made him an offer he can't refuse. The castle is shipped all the way to Texas, but its ghostly inhabitants, including Krok the Viking warrior and a hell-hound called Cyril, follow their home across the Atlantic. How can Alex stop them haunting Hiram and also save the millionaire's daughter from an evil ransom plot?

Fly By Night is the stunning debut novel from Frances Hardinge, author of the Costa Award winning The Lie Tree. As the realm struggles to maintain an uneasy peace after years of civil war and tyranny, a twelve-year-old orphan called Mosca Mye and her loyal companion, a cantankerous goose, are about to become the unlikely heroes of a radical revolution. Mosca is on the run, heading for the city of Mandelion. There she finds herself living by her wits among cut-throat highwaymen, spies and smugglers. With peril at every turn, Mosca uncovers a dark plot to terrorize the people of Mandelion, and soon merry mayhem leads to murder . . .Winner of the Branford Boase award, Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge has an unforgettable cast of characters and an inspiring message at its heart - sometimes the power of words can change the world.Fly By Night is followed by its thrilling sequel, Twilight Robbery.'Everyone should read Frances Hardinge. Everyone. Right now' - Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls.

Molly Moon, the orphan who once took Broadway by storm, has vowed never to use her amazing hypnotic powers again. But when she learns that a megalomaniac master hypnotist called Primo Cell is rumoured to be controlling the minds of famous movie stars, she has to intervene. Arriving in Hollywood, Molly, Rocky and Petula the pug get to work. While Petula is being pampered at a beauty parlour for glamorous pooches, Molly and Rocky plan how to blag their way into Primo's famous Oscar-night party. Here they find that their enemy is far more dangerous and powerful than they suspected. Primo thinks it will be a breeze to control the minds of two kids, but he doesn't know that Molly has discovered an extraordinary new ability. Her hypnotic eyes can actually stop time itself . . .

Drawing on a wealth of unexplored material - available for the first time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union - Robert Service's biography of Stalin is the most authoritative yet published. It concentrates not simply on Stalin as dedicated bureaucrat or serial political killer, but on a fuller assessment of his formative interactions in Georgia, his youthful revolutionary activism, his relationship with Lenin, with his family, and with his party members. 'This is effectively the first full biography since perestroika to encompass the economic, political, diplomatic, military, administrative and, above all, ideological dimensions, as well as the personal aspects of Stalin's colossal life . . . Gritty and unshowy, but enlightened by Service's compelling characterisation, magisterial analysis and dry wit, this outstanding biography of lightly worn authority, wide research and superb intuition will be read for decades' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of STALIN: The Court of the Red Tsar Sunday Times

Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recently opened archives, he has been able to piece together the private as well as the public life, giving the first complete picture of Lenin. This biography simultaneously provides an account of one of the greatest turning points in modern history. Through the prism of Lenin's career, Service examines events such as the October Revolution and the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, the one-party state, economic modernisation, dictatorship, and the politics of inter-war Europe. In discovering the origins of the USSR, he casts light on the nature of the state and society which Lenin left behind and which have not entirely disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. 'Immensely scholarly but also vivid and readable. This is a splendid book, much the best that I have ever read about Lenin ...I was overwhelmed by the power and vividness of this portrait.' Dominic Lieven, Sunday Telegraph 'He has managed skilfully to depict the surreal life of an obsessive, brilliant and stubborn individual' Guardian 'Lenin's life was politics, but Service has succeeded in keeping Lenin the man in focus throughout . . . This book deserves a place among the best studies of one of the most fascinating figures in modern history' Harold Shukman, The Times

Everyone knows of the legendary quality and unbelievable price tag of a Stradivarius violin. In this, the first popular account of the Stradivari phenomena, Toby Faber explores the life and methods of this unsurpassed craftsman. Following the life of his instruments as they pass through the hands of many of the greatest musicians that have ever lived, we learn how and why they have become objects of such veneration and desire. It is a dramatic tale of grand artistry, fantastic music, shady dealers, forgery and science. 'Fascinating, accessible and enjoyable' - Tracy Chevalier 'A captivating book . . . An extraordinary accomplishment and a compelling read' - TE Cahart, author of The Piano Shop On The Left Bank 'An inspired idea for a book' - Telegraph 'Faber has found in the Strad a delightful leitmotif for an original comedie humaine' - Financial Times 'Faber pitches the story just right, neither patronising nor baffling the reader' - Times

A timely work of major historical importance, examining the whole spectrum of events from the 1916 Easter Rising to the current and ongoing peace process, fully updated with a new afterword for the paperback edition. 'An essential book ... closely-reasoned, formidably intelligent and utterly compelling ... required reading across the political spectrum ... important and riveting' Roy Foster, The Times 'An outstanding new book on the IRA ... a calm, rational but in the end devastating deconstruction of the IRA' Henry McDonald, Observer 'Superb ... the first full history of the IRA and the best overall account of the organization. English writes to the highest scholarly standards ... Moreover, he writes with the common reader in mind: he has crafted a fine balance of detail and analysis and his prose is clear, fresh and jargon-free ... sets a new standard for debate on republicanism' Peter Hart, Irish Times 'The one book I recommend for anyone trying to understand the craziness and complexity of the Northern Ireland tragedy.' Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

In this riveting book, Michael Burleigh sets Nazi Germany in a European context, showing how the Third Reich's abandonment of liberal democracy, decency and tolerance was widespread in the Europe of the period. He shows how a radical, pseudo-religious movement, led by an oddity with dazzling demagogic talents, seemed to offer salvation to a German exhausted by war, depression and galloping inflation. 'This is a monumental book.' Richard Overy, Sunday Telegraph 'If I had to recommend one book on the Third Reich, this would be it.' Daniel Johnson, Daily Telegraph 'It is a breathtaking achievement, at once broader and deeper than any other single volume ever published on the subject. Indeed I would go further: it is the product of authentic historical genius.' Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times 'Happily, Michael Burleigh now fills that bibliographical gap, with a readable and highly knowledgeable account of that ghastly period. You will never be bored by this extraordinary book.' Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday

Electricity is now a film starring Agyness Deyn.Lily's epilepsy means she's used to seeing the world in terms of angles - you look at every surface, you weigh up every corner, and you think of your head slamming into it - but what would she be like without her sharp edges? Prickly, spiky, up-front honest and down-to-earth practical, Lily is thirty, and life's not easy but she gets by. Needing no-one and asking for nothing, it's just her and her epilepsy: her constant companion. But then Lily's long-estranged mother dies, and Lily is drawn back into a world she thought she'd left behind. Forced to renegotiate the boundaries of her life, she realises she has a lot to learn - about relationships, about the past, and about herself - and some difficult decisions ahead of her.

Jim Foley loves his parents, his brother, his sister, Dickens and God; later, he loves Kate -- enough to make her his wife and to shape his life around her -- and later still, he loves his children, Jack and Hannah. Only Say the Word tells Jim's story, and the story of the people and places in his life, as he moves from childhood to marriage and fatherhood, from early days spent in County Clare to early adulthood in America, and back to Clare once more. Deeply personal and written in his lyrical, lilting prose, Niall Williams's fourth novel is about unspoken emotions, undying devotion and blind faith -- but, ultimately, about the redeeming, enduring nature of love.

In Lucky, a memoir hailed for its searing candour and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit - as she struggles for understanding ('After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes'); as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction. In a narrative by turns disturbing, thrilling, and inspiring, Alice Sebold illuminates the experience of trauma victims even as she imparts wisdom profoundly hard-won: 'You save yourself or you remain unsaved.'

'I loved it. The evocation of ennui and loneliness rings very true . . . great unexpected observations . . . very funny' Lesley Glaister Anna Raine is desperate: to escape Somerset, to evade her mother, and above all to find a model of adulthood on whom to base her future self. When Stella, her mother's reckless younger sister, offers her London flat, Anna's buried curiosity about Stella quickly becomes fascination: dark secrets, she is certain, lie within her reach. While by day Anna feigns efficient adulthood, by night she sinks into an increasingly heated world of discovery. As secrets rise to the surface she tries to focus on London - on anything other than her aunt. But the truth has its own momentum, and when Stella returns from Paris, something, or everything, is going to give . . . 'With her gift for light humour, Mendelson seems to be skipping across the surface. Then she'll suddenly dive into a world of obsession' Independent on Sunday 'A strange, stealthy, headily scented seethe of a book' Ali Smith, Glasgow Herald

WINNER OF THE 2006 FORWARD PRIZE In Scots, the verb 'swither' has two meanings: to be doubtful, to waver, to be in two minds; and to appear in shifting forms - indeterminate and volatile. From disarmingly direct poems about the end of childhood to erotically charged lyrics about the ends of desire, Robertson's powerful third collection is stalked and haunted by both senses. Hard-edged, pitch-perfect, effortlessly various, Swithering is a book of brave and black romance, locating its voice in that space where great change is an ever-present possibility. Swithering has just won the Forward Prize for Best Collection and is also shortlisted for this year's T.S. Eliot Prize.

February 2002. A helpless nation watches as the city of Ahmedabad in India is rocked by religious violence. Before sunrise the next day, more than a hundred Muslim men, women and children will be killed, most of them burnt alive. Above the smoke and flames, the dead decide to intervene. So begins Fireproof, Raj Kamal Jha's mesmerizing new novel, in which the murdered whisper from footnotes and photographs. At the heart of the novel is its narrator Jay - a man who carries with him an unspeakable secret and a newborn baby - and a mystery woman, who writes with her fingers on glass, drawing man and child out of their home and on a journey across the burning city. From the author of The Blue Bedspread and If You Are Afraid of Heights, comes a work of fiction that challenges the way we look at the most twisted events of our times. Evoking both terror and tenderness, Fireproof is a compelling testimony to the ordinary nature of collective evil, and to the extraordinary power of individual conscience.

Harold and Raymond McPheron are finally waving goodbye to their beloved Victoria, a young mother with a first chance at an education. Betty and Luther Wallace are struggling to keep their heads above water and their children out of care, and in the same town young friends Dena and DJ find solace away from their own troubled homes. As these stories unfold and entwine, tragedy strikes the McPheron household and life is thrown irrevocably off course. Heart-breaking yet hopeful, Kent Haruf's Eventide is an unflinching depiction of the hardships of small-town life, lit up by astonishing moments of redemption.

For several years now, Kathleen Jamie's work has addressed two principal concerns: how we negotiate with the natural world, and how we should define our conduct within family and society. In The Tree House Jamie argues - as Burns did before her - for an engagement of the whole being through a kind of practical earthly spirituality. These often startling encounters with animals, birds, and other humans propose a way of living which recognises the earth as home to many different consciousnesses -- and a means of authentic engagement with 'this, the only world'. Together they form one of the most powerful poetic statements of recent years.

The Body Artist begins with normality: breakfast between a married couple, Lauren and Rey, in their ramshackle rented house on the New England coast. Recording their delicate, intimate, half-complete thoughts and words, Don DeLillo proves himself a stunningly unsentimental observer of our idiosyncratic relationships. But after breakfast, Rey makes a decision that leaves Lauren utterly alone, or seems to. As Lauren, the body artist of the title, becomes strangely detached from herself and the temporal world, the novel becomes an exploration of a highly abnormal grieving process; a fascinating expose of 'who we are when we are not rehearsing who we are'; and a rarefied study of trauma and creativity, absence and presence, isolation and communion.

November 1836, and Aylmer Smith is making the voyage from his London home to coastal Wherrytown to deliver bad news. Once there he becomes embroiled with the American crew of the Belle, torn from their ship by a fierce storm and left stranded to wreak havoc in the village. A Dickensian cast of characters and Jim Crace's characteristically poetic prose make for an extraordinary novel: a historical yet timeless exploration of clashing cultures, communication and technology, which sees Crace at his illuminating and expansive best.

A coastal community live prosperously crafting fine stone tools. But their proud insularity is breached by raiders, and in the violence a boy loses his arm. Useless as a knapper, he finds a role as the village storyteller, roaming far and returning home with fantastically embellished tales. When the arrival of a new metal threatens all their livelihoods, his fearless imagination becomes a lifesaving gift.

Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city - one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city - one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.

The iron wheel began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The room grew darker. As the light lessened, so did the sound. Deeba and Zanna stared at each other in wonder. The noise of the cars and vans and motorbikes outside grew tinny . . . The wheel turned off all the cars and turned off all the lamps. It was turning off London. Zanna and Deeba are two girls leading ordinary lives, until they stumble into the world of UnLondon, an urban Wonderland where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people too. Here discarded umbrellas stalk with spidery menace, carnivorous giraffes roam the streets, and a jungle sprawls beyond the door of an ordinary house. UnLondon is under siege by the sinister Smog and its stink-junkie slaves; it is a city awaiting its hero. Guided by a magic book that can't quite get its facts straight, and pursued by Hemi the half-ghost boy, the girls set out to stop the poisonous cloud before it burns everything in its path. They are joined in their quest by a motley band of UnLondon locals, including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas, Obaday Fing, a couturier whose head is an enormous pincushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle.Winner of the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book, China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is an extraordinary vivid creation;is populated by astonishing frights and delights that will thrill the imagination.

Nineteen-year-old Megan Thompson is beautiful, cool, clever and sexy - and has consequently never been short of boyfriends. She has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Diana Duprey, an abortion doctor and, following the death of her younger brother, has mostly steered clear of family life. That is until the day her defense attorney father calls to tell her that Diana has been found dead in their pool. Young detective Huck Berlin is assigned to the case when the suspicious circumstances of Diana's death emerge. She's a national figure who, by virtue of her career, has made many enemies. Yet when relationships past and present are revealed, they prove to be far more key to understanding exactly what happened to Diana, than anyone has expected. Set in a small town in Colorado, THE ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER is a novel about people and their relationships. Raw emotion, basic need and, ultimately, fear lead to an extraordinary catharsis for those whose lives have become so strangely entwined. 'A remarkably lucid and authoritative novelist' John Irving 'Like Anne Tyler, Hyde captures the quirky, heartbreaking core of a character and puts it on the page with shining prose' Publishers Weekly