2018 Catalogue

4 FRONTLIST Daunt Books Publishing 2018 2018 As ever, our books this year are inspired by our bookshops. Readers can find count- less guidebooks in our shops but they will also encounter an array of writers and perspectives to accompany them on their travels, real or imaginary. The authors on our list, whether classic or contemporary, writing in English or brought to us in translation, use individual lives to reveal untold stories, uncover hidden histories and illuminate our understanding of the world, in places big and small, from tiny islands to whole continents. Sujatha Gidla’s memoir Ants Among Elephants tells the story of modern India from the bottom up. Secrets are uncovered on the Danish island of Møn in Tomorrow and, in A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid confronts Antigua’s colonial past. In essays ranging across Italy and London, The Little Virtues introduces Natalia Ginzburg’s distinctive voice; her novel Family Lexicon transports us to a lively family home in Turin. In the Distance takes us on a journey across 19th century America while John McPhee leads us deep into the vast forests of New Jersey in The Pine Barrens. Finally, in Consider the Oyster, M.F.K. Fisher jumps off land and under water to explore the eternal allure of the delicious oyster. Happy reading! Contents 4 Tomorrow Elisabeth Russell Taylor 5 A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid 6-7 The Little Virtues Natalia Ginzburg 8-9 Ants Among Elephants Sujatha Gidla 10 In the Distance Hernan Diaz 11 Family Lexicon Natalia Ginzburg 12 The Pine Barrens John McPhee 13 Consider the Oyster M.F.K. Fisher 14 A Cat, a Man, and Two Women Junichiro Tanizaki 16-17 Limited Edition Short Story Series 18-26 Backlist 27 Contact Information 28 About Daunt Books Publishing 4 Tomorrow FRONTLIST Elisabeth Russell Taylor with an introduction by Alison Moore ‘A haunting, beautifully written lament for the isolating power of love.’ – Financial Times Every year Elisabeth Danziger travels to the Danish island of Møn to spend a week at The Tamarisks, a lavish hotel which was once her family’s second home. Elisabeth stays in the same room and walks familiar paths. She visits the local museum; she unscrews the panel of an old bath tub to retrieve the crumbling piece of paper on which is written her name and that of Daniel PUBLICATION DATE Eberhardt – her beloved cousin. February 2018 Elisabeth’s annual pilgrimage is part of a long-standing family promise to – meet again in Møn after their separation during the war. Only she fulfilled £9.99 the promise, and she has no reason to suspect this year will be any different 168 pages from all the others… B format paperback ISBN: 978-1-911547-12-9 ELISABETH RUSSELL TAYLOR was born in 1930 in London. She is the eISBN: 978-1-911547-13-6 award-winning author of six novels, three short-story collections, four books Fiction for children, and five works of non-fiction. BCN ex. Can PRAISE ‘Winningly written in unshowy but graceful prose, full of precise observa- tions and unexpected lines. A compelling book with a surprise ending.’ – Observer KEY POINTS • For fans of Rose Tremain, Penelope Fitzgerald and Julian Barnes • Elisabeth Russell Taylor is one of the most important English novelists of the post-war period; this reissue is a chance to reassess her contribu- tion to contemporary literature • Reveals the untold story of Jews in Denmark during WWII 5 FRONTLIST A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid with a new preface by the author ‘If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see…’ So begins Jamaica Kincaid’s powerful portrait of the damaged paradise that was her childhood home. The island of Antigua is a magical place of breath- taking beauty – with cloudless skies, dazzling blue waters, and majestic sunsets. PUBLICATION DATE But it is also a place of dramatic contrasts. What one doesn’t see while March 2018 visiting this ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies is the sweeping corruption, the dilapidated schools and hospitals and homes, and – the shameful legacy of its colonial past. In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid £9.99 candidly appraises where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of 96 pages European colonisation and tourism. B format paperback ISBN: 978-1-911547-09-9 eISBN: 978-1-911547-10-5 PRAISE Non-fiction ‘A jeremiad of great clarity and force that one might have called torrential BCN ex. Can were the language not so finely controlled.’ – Salman Rushdie ‘An unaffectedly sumptuous, irresistible writer.’ – Susan Sontag ‘Written with compassion, conviction, and a musical sense of language.’ – New York Times KEY POINTS • Jamaica Kincaid is a force: a masterful and award-winning writer, and this is her best book • A modern classic and an unflinching exploration of Britain’s colonial past • Non-fiction writing at its best: for fans of James Baldwin, Reni Eddo-Lodge and Geoff Dyer 6 The Little Virtues FRONTLIST Natalia Ginzburg with an introduction by Rachel Cusk ‘I really love and admire The Little Virtues.’ – Zadie Smith Natalia Ginzburg was one of the most important Italian writers of the twen- tieth century but her work has remained out of print in Britain for many years. In 2018 Daunt Books will republish Ginzburg’s greatest works – beginning with The Little Virtues. ‘As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be PUBLICATION DATE taught not the little virtues but the great ones.’ So begins the titular essay of April 2018 Natalia Ginzburg’s extraordinary memoir, which takes little things – shoes, – meatballs, moneyboxes – and turns them into subjects of great significance. Ginzburg’s gaze ranges across the haunting effects of World War II, the craft £9.99 of writing, the horrors of British food, and the Abruzzi – where she and her 168 pages husband lived in forced exile under Fascist rule. B format paperback ISBN: 978-1-911547-14-3 Written with the wisdom of a survivor and in a wry and poetically resonant eISBN: 978-1-911547-15-0 style, these essays are as contemporary and relevant as when they were origi- Non-fiction BCN ex. Can nally published in the 1960s. NATALIA GINZBURG (1916-1991) was born in Sicily. She wrote dozens of essays, plays and novels, including Voices in the Evening, All our Yesterdays, and Family Lexicon, which won the prestigious Strega Prize in 1963. She was involved in political activism throughout her life, and served in the Italian parliament from 1983-1987. KEY POINTS • For fans of Maggie Nelson, Rebecca Solnit and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and the novels of Elena Ferrante and Jenny Offill • Natalia Ginzburg is a major Italian writer and this publication will spark new interest in her work. Daunt Books will publish her novel Family Lexicon in Autumn 2018 7 FRONTLIST ‘A punch-you-in-the-stomach-with-grief-and-beauty masterpiece.’ Maggie Nelson 8 Ants Among Elephants FRONTLIST An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India Sujatha Gidla ‘The most striking work of non-fiction set in India since Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.’ Author Photo: Nancy Crampton – Economist Like one in six people in India, Sujatha Gidla was born an untouchable. PUBLICATION DATE While most untouchables are illiterate, her family was educated by Cana- May 2018 dian missionaries in the 1930s, making it possible for Gidla to attend elite schools and move to America at the age of twenty-six. It was only then that – she saw how extraordinary – and yet how typical – her family history truly £12.99 was. 352 pages Demy hardback Her mother and uncles were born in the last days of British colonial rule. ISBN: 978-1-911547-20-4 They grew up in a world marked by poverty and injustice, but also full of eISBN: 978-1-911547-21-1 possibility. The Independence movement promised freedom. Yet for un- Non-fiction BCN ex. Can touchables and other poor people, little changed. In rich, novelistic prose, Ants Among Elephants tells Gidla’s extraordinary family story, detailing her uncle’s emergence as a poet and revolutionary and her mother’s struggle for emancipation through education. SUJATHA GIDLA was born an untouchable in Andhra Pradesh, India. She studied physics at the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. Her writing has appeared in the Oxford India Anthology of Telugu Dalit Writing. She lives in New York City and works as a conductor on the subway. KEY POINTS • Instantly acclaimed on its US publication, this is a landmark new book on India sure to garner major publicity attention • Gidla is an endlessly fascinating author; when she’s not writing she works as a subway conductor in New York City • For readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, The Return and East West Street 9 FRONTLIST ‘One of the most significant, and haunting, books about India you’ll read.’ Financial Times ‘Unsentimental and deeply poignant… Gidla writes with quiet, fierce conviction.’ Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Book Review ‘Outstanding in the intensity and scale of its revelations… Gidla’s book achieves the emotional power of V.S. Naipaul’s great novel A House for Mr Biswas.’ Pankaj Mishra, New York Review of Books 10 In the Distance FRONTLIST Hernan Diaz A lyrical western about loneliness, companionship and wonder Håkan Söderström is a man who has become a legend. Giant in size, ru- moured to be bloodthirsty and fearless, he is known simply as ‘the Hawk’. But behind this myth is a tale of longing and survival. As a young man he is Author Photo: Jason Fulford sent from Gothenburg with his brother Linus, to seek their fortunes in New York.

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