James Buchan
A Good Place to Die
Pbk published October 2000 by Harvill at £6.99
ISBN: 1860467423"Airy, graceful and big with truth, A Good Place to Die feels like a major statement of confidence, not just by an English novelist, but by the English novel. There is really no word for it but masterpiece." Philip Hensher, Spectator
A brilliant thriller set in an ancient civilisation smashed to pieces and celebration
of the power of love to break the tyranny of the past.
John Pitt has arrived in Iran, as a naive English teacher. It is 1974 and Iran is
changing, with the forces of religious conservatism and of liberal reform at collision
point. Amidst all this, he falls irresponsibly, but uncontrollably in love with one of
his students, Shirin. A Good Place to Die is the extraordinary story of what happens
to a country and to a couple swept up in its history.
'The book contains pages of stunningly beautifu lwriting, and nobody-but
nobody - tells a love story better' Paul Bailey, Daily Telegraph
"A complex and worldly revelation of a kind which none of Jamie Buchan's
contemporaries are offering" Francis Spufford, Guardian
James Buchan was for ten years a foreign correspondent of the Financial Times, reporting from the Middle East, Germany and Central Europe, and the United States. His first novel, A Parish of Rich Women, won four major literary prizes, including the Whitbread First Novel Award. His fourth novel, A Heart's Journey in Winter won the Guardian Fiction Award.
Pierre Magnan
The Murder House
Pbk published October 2000 by Harvill at £6.99
ISBN: 1860467407
'The Murdered House is a gripping novel, holding the reader through every twist and turn" L.W. Bailey, London Magazine
Fearful and unexpected secrets, long buried in the and hills of Provence,
resurface, setting in motion the dreadful unveiling of the past.
At the turn of the century, in a remote inn in Upper Provence, a family is violently
massacred on a night of deafening storms. A three-week-old baby miraculously
escapes the fatal blows and is handed over to the Sisters of Charity.
The orphaned survivor, Séraphin Monge, returns home in 1920 to discover the truth.
Scarred by the horrors of the war, he is increasingly disturbed by nightmare visions of
his murdered mother. In an attempt to free himself of his horrifying past, he in turn
'murders" the family's century-old inn, stone by stone. But in so doing, he unravels
fragments of the truth of those responsible for the crime. So begins his quiet march of
revenge, but for each murder he plots, another hand silently executes it in his place.
'A book for all is rare. A good book for all, even rarer. Pierre Magnan has written a fascinating, popular and literary novel, of a quality far superior to the norm. Whoever you are, read this book. It will not disappoint" Michele Gautheyrou, Figaro
Pierre Magnan is Provencal born and bred. He began writing thrillers when he was
14. The Murdered House is the first of a trilogy of Séraphin Monge novels.
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Henning Mankell
Sidetracked
Published October 2000 by Harvill at £16.99
ISBN: 1860467857
"If you haven't read Faceless Killers, you have something to look forward to. If you haven't bought Sidetracked do so a.s.a.p." Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times
Kurt Wallander is back, and this time he must discover why a girl has doused herself
in petrol and burned herself to death, and solve the mystery behind the appallingly
brutal killing of a former government minister.
As Midsummer approaches, Wallander clears his desk and prepares to set off on
holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his
ageing father will cope without him. But his plans are ruined when a teenaged girl
commits suicide before his eyes, leaving no clues as to who she was or why she chose
to end her life in such a hideous way. Then a former Minister of justice is butchered
in a bizarre murder that will prove to be the first strike of a killer who will kill again
then again. Wallander's search for the identity of the girl, and his hunt for a serial
killer who scalps his victims, will lead him to uncover corruption and scandal in high
society, and place him, and those he loves most, in terrible danger.
Sidetracked, winner of the award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Sweden is one
of the critically acclaimed Kurt Wallander novels that have taken Europe by
storm.
"A quintessential example of the hard-boiled European procedural"
Bill 0tt, Booklist
Henning Mankell was born in I948. He has worked as a playwright and theatre
director, and he is at present the head of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique.
Since 1990 he has devoted his time to writing the Kurt Wallander novels.
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Henning Mankell
Faceless Killers
Published October 2000 by Harvill at £16.99
ISBN: 1860467806
'Faceless Killers is an exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth and suspense' Los Angeles Times
Introducing Police Inspector Kurt Wallander: the hard-living, harddrinking, opera-loving, failure in love.
Kurt Wallander's personal life is falling apart. His wife has left, his daughter won't acknowledge him, even his ageing father barely tolerates him. Then he is confronted with a hideous crime which has devastating repercussions. An old couple are brutally murdered in their remote farmhouse and the suspicion falls on the immigrant community. Henning Mankell has created in Kurt Wallander an old style policeman who is trying to come to terms with modern Sweden, riven by violence and racial prejudice. In a unique mixture of American noir and almost existential European melancholia, Mankell describes a world where crimes are solved as much by tireless drudgery as the flash of inspiration.
Henning Mankell was born in 1948. He has worked as a playwright and theatre
director, and he is at present the head of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo,
Mozambique.
Daniel Pennac
Write to Kill
Pbk published December 2000 by Harvill at £6.99
ISBN: 1860467261 Artwork by: Cover illustration: Marcelino Truong
'Daniel Pennac's Malausséne novels have acquired a cult status in France. It's easy to see why" Allan Massie, Scotsman
Bernard Malausséne is a downtrodden employee at Vendetta Press. Used as her scapegoat by Queen Zabo, the redoubtable doyenne of Paris publishing, he has finally had enough. After one debacle too many he resigns, only for Zabo to offer him a starring role. All he has to do is impersonate the world's bestselling author, the hitherto anonymous J. L. B. Soon he is up to his neck in it: the theft of a manuscript, frenzied readers, intrusive media, a packed interview and a very public assassination attempt - Malausséne loses the plot.
'Pennac's work has all the undisciplined imaginative energy of his former
primary-school charges, hemmed in by a passionate love of story-telling' Lilian
Pizzichini, Independent on Sunday
'Pace, construction, sense of locale and wit all serve to keep the works firmly to
hand until finished and in mind once you've done so' Omer Ali, Time Out
Daniel Pennac has written stories for children and for adults, and a highly successful
book on the art of reading, Reads like a Novel, as well as the four humorous crime
novels set in the Belleville quarter of Paris, of which Write to Kill is the third volume.
The first two are The Scapegoat and The Fairy Gunmother.