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Earlier this week we received the immensely welcome news that Chilean novelist Alejandro Zambra would be in Bristol this month and would be available for an event. Not only that, but Megan McDowell, who brilliantly translated The Private Lives of Trees as well as a number of Zambra’s other books, would be with him and would also be available. When we finally regained control of ourselves we immediately said we would be over the moon to host the two of them in conversation – in the shop on Monday 12th June, at 7pm. Tickets & more info are available here.

Earlier this year I wrote about The Private Lives of Trees which was then, and remains now, one of the best things I’ve read so far this year (and beyond). At the time I said it is ‘an absolutely brilliant novella about how our lives become intertwined with stories. It is richly imagined, inventive, and at the same time utterly human. It’s not an easy balance to strike, but it does it beautifully.’ I’m very much looking forward to re-reading this wonderful book, as well as deep diving further into Zambraland.

It is a very wonderful thing to have a talk featuring both author and translator – it allows for so much interesting exploration of the book, as well as the writing, translating & publishing processes. We’re enormously excited! Availability is limited for this one & tickets will go quickly so do please snap your place up quickly if you are interested.

On Tuesday night the winner of the Booker International Prize 2023 was announced – congratulations to Georgie Gospodinov & Angela Rodel, author and translator of Time Shelter. Inevitably, all our copies have immediately been snapped up but more are on the way soon once the publisher has reprinted. Place an order via our website to reserve your copy as soon as we receive stock.

We read Time Shelter for the first meeting of our new Translated Literature book club & it was a thoroughly facinating conversation about a complicated and enjoyable book. It was not the book I expected it to be – in fact throughout its 300 pages it repeatedly defied my expectations about the kind of story I thought I was reading. The book’s central obessions (and they really are obsessions) are time, nostalgia & forgetting – those most slippery of subjects. Gospodinov works across different registers, at points progressing the narrative or using one of the various rich set pieces to play out curious events, and at points it becomes a tapestry of musings while the characters and any sense of narrative simply fall away. It’s a thoroughly engrossing, challenging & enjoyable read and it comes highly recommended.

We are delighted to announce a new event:

The celebrated journalist and broadcaster, Kieran Yates is coming to Gloucester Road to talk about her essential new book, All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In. She will be joining us at Future Leap Event Space on June 8th at 7pm.
We’ve all had our share of dodgy landlords, mould and awkward house shares. But journalist Kieran Yates has had more than most: by the age of twenty-five she’d lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales.

In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. Drawing on interviews with marginalised tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.

All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change, a gorgeous coming-of-age story and a love letter to home in all its forms.

Kieran Yates is a London-based journalist, broadcaster and editor who has been writing about culture, technology and politics for over 10 years. She’s written everywhere from the Guardian, FADER, VICE, The Independent and beyond, had an acclaimed monthly column at VICE titled ‘British Values’, was nominated for Culture Writer of the Year in 2016 and regularly hosts events and panels discussing issues across music, politics, and news.

Kieran contributed to the award-winning book of essays, The Good Immigrant in 2017 about immigrant stories in the UK, where she wrote about ‘Going Home’. In 2015 she started a fanzine called ‘British Values’, a political satire and culture magazine that celebrates immigrant communities in the UK. She is the co-author of Generation Vexed: What the English Riots Didn’t Tell Us About Your Nation’s Youth.

Tickets are £5, available here or in store.

May is jampacked with good bookish stuff in the shop. Here’s a quick roundup:

Friday evening is our Bristol launch for David Roberts and the wonderful The Way the Day Breaks. David will be here to chat to us – it’s an informal event, so no seating or formal discussion. It’s free, just RSVP through our website here.

On Tuesday I sent out a very excited email about our new book subscription offer. In my overeagerness I sent the message before the link was fully live, so if you tried it on Tuesday before about 5:30pm, it will not have worked. Gah!

The link is now fully live so you can explore our subscription offer here. We are also offering a little temptation for anyone who would like to purchase a subscription in time to receive our June book selection. We’ll put the names of everyone who subscribes between now and May 25th into a hat and draw one winner. That lucky soul will have the length of their subscription doubled.

It’s not exactly Willy Wonka level marketing, but we’re really excited to get some brilliant books into new hands & hope this will help get that mission on its way!

Happy reading all,

Tom