Two new novellas from one of my favourite writers. Trust me, he should be one of your favourite writers too.
The first great south London novel of 2013. Signed copies available now.
Huge congratulations to Kerry Hudson for her shortlisting for the Guardian first book award. Entirely deserved. And we have (a few) signed copies left too.
One of my favourite novels, The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury. "Quite heartbreaking,laugh-out-loud funny, and always, absolutely convincing" - Jayne Anne Phillips.
I would also highly recommend Drury's last book The Driftless Area.
Now in paperback, the latest novel from one of my favourite writers and perhaps his most ambitious yet. An allegory, a fairytale, a bit Lewis Carroll a bit Calvino and entirely magical.
One of the most talked-about and blogged-about books of the summer. And deservedly so.The hardback has now gone out of print. We have two left.
Buy a signed copy of Driving Jarvis Ham the brilliant new novel by Jim Bob. 
This is being boosted in some quarters as the ‘new’ Beach. It’s not. It’s much better than that. Imagine, if you will, a cross between The Long Good Friday and Point Break. A physical novel closer to Tim Winton or Kem Nunn worth the price of admission for the diving scenes alone and a must for anyone who has ever dipped a toe in the water. Signed copies.
Now in paperback, the brilliant new collection of stories by Dan Chaon.
The latest McSweeney's with a poem from Bolano and a piece of Elmore Leonard.
A new collection of short stories from Tessa Hadley. The often unexpected, calmly told. Lovely cover too. Now watch them bork the paperback.
Lovely weed-fueled ramble across Britain in the dark. Fireworks, football, a bit of shagging, It could have been the worst thing I've ever read (not that not fond of all of the above). But it's not, it's good. Buy it for your boyfriend
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Buy a signed copy of Mark's very funny book.
One way or another the end of the world is coming. Beautifully, individually signed by Steven Appleby and Art Lester.
“In his own danceless life he couldn’t imagine anyone laughing on a November dawn but here it was. He tried to dismiss the image of three nude girls in the same bed but it was like trying not to think of a white horse.” Pete Dexter quoting Jim Harrison in his glorious review for the
Geoff Dyer's book of the year (The Guardian 26th Nov) It has a ramshackle loquacity, a down-home hyper-eloquence and an off-the-wallishness that is almost lapidary... And now James Wood reviews it in the
Books from America 
Website 
'Happy is a strong word.' The new, brilliantly written, novel from Dan Chaon.
Back then it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower-print bikini, faded Country Joe and the Fish Tshirt.
Wonderfully playful picture book featuring Tiny, Moonpie and Andre. Signed copies available.
Well aware that no animal has ever been sued for libel, Cheeta, star of Tarzan and Doctor Doolittle, tells it as it really was. Naughty boy.
Learn more about The Mousehunter - read the first chapter, buy a signed copy with exclusive free badge 
Now with added Booker and Costa. This is what I said in February. 
If you haven't already visited the website for this book, go there 
I woke up in a foreign armpit. Buy a signed copy 
The London boozer fully explained. Now smoke free. The funniest fucking book you will read all year. So funny in fact, that Steven Hunt is not allowed to carry a copy on public transport. Buy 
In this sequel to Devil's Kiss, Billi SanGreal teenage Knight Templar rescues a young girl from a savage attack by The Polenitsy, a band of all-female werewolves that have been sent to hunt her by Baba Yaga, the Dark Goddess of Russian mythology. The Templars take Vasilisa Bulgakov into hiding where it becomes clear that the young girl is an avatar, either blessed or cursed with special powers. Baba Yaga wants the powers that Vasilisa possess to help her engender Fimbulwinter, an ice age that will end the world.
Billi, her father and Vasilisa flee this latest attack via the London sewers and take the tube to Heathrow.The train starts up, and then the lights go out...
What is impressive about Sarwat's books is that although they are written for a mainly teenage audience they have a real depth to them. He had told me that he had written his first Baba Yaga story sixteen years ago
Sarwat explains:
I don't know when I first came across Baba Yaga, but I’ve a vague memory of hearing about her on Jackanory (remember that?) when I was about five or six.
A Russian witch who flies around in a pestle and mortar, lives in a hut that walks on huge chicken legs and eats naughty children.
Evil witch. Yes, we know all about those.
Then in the early 1990’s I came across her again, in a book called ‘Women Who Run with Wolves’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. The book investigates the ancient origins of a lot of female fairy tale and mythological characters, and at the heart of them was Baba Yaga. The most ancient. The most powerful. The most evil and most honest.
That book, though I didn’t know it at the time, would change my life.
Baba Yaga was a witch, a wise woman. She was the wild goddess, the Old Crone who delivered you and who will wrap your body in its burial shroud.
I love myths. I love the wild, larger-than-life stories where destinies are writ large in blood on the snow. When I created Billi SanGreal I wanted her to reflect the great mythological heroines. She’s got the blood of Boudicca in her veins. Of the Rani of Jhansi. She’s got a touch of Athene, not Austen.
These characters have been around for centuries, for millennia. But none so old as Baba Yaga.
DARK GODDESS uses the idea that Baba Yaga is part of the Great Goddess, the divine being worshipped by prehistoric man and early civilizations, before the rise of patriarchal societies and their masculine gods. Check out Robert Graves who deals a lot in the role of the goddess in early Greek myths. Baba Yaga is Demeter and Persephone, the goddess of both life and the underworld. She is the true power of the female and to grow all girls must face her, or forever remain children. Through Baba Yaga we learn about the responsibility we have to society and the greater world, our duties as adults. Don’t look to others to sort things out, she says, that’s childish. Look first to yourself. Baba Yaga’s lesson is as simple and fundamental as that. The same applies to men, but that’s another story (and it’s called ‘Iron John’ by Robert Bly).
I wonder, as children we want to be adults, then as adults we look with longing back at our childhood. Growing up is scary. We worship youth and despise old age.
Not so with Baba Yaga. Age has its advantages. DARK GODDESS is about Billi growing up and accepting responsibility for her actions and her effect on the wider world. In the first book, DEVIL’S KISS Billi’s self-absorbed by her own needs, she’s a child. In that book she must decide what sort of Templar she wants to be. In DARK GODDESS she decides what sort of woman she wants to be.
There’s no lesson in DARK GODDESS. It’s about tragic romance, it’s about werewolves and it’s about swordfights. I love stories where the stakes are high and success is never sure and all victories come at a terrible price. That’s what DARK GODDESS is. But it’s also about Baba Yaga, the wise woman, and what she teaches Billi. In their own way they’re both the dark goddess of the title. And that’s not a bad thing.
What a lovely voice. My son reads like Stephen Hawking, minus the nuances.
Posted by: Steerforth | July 09, 2010 at 08:25 PM
Thanks Steerforth, I shall pass on the compliment, although secretly I suspect that my iPhone has downloaded an app that turns 'south east London comprehensive' into 'posh girls' school next door'.
Posted by: JonathanM | July 10, 2010 at 07:41 AM