Faber and Faber On with the Show Jones Pip

From the funniest voice in young fiction today, our first ever Squishy picture book sees Ava and her invisible cat go to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen • A day out with Squishy could never be boring! • When Squishy and Ava go on a trip to London, they can’t resist the chance to explore the palace, but when they accidentally find the Queen, will she be able to see how wonderful Squishy is?

From the funniest voice in young fiction today, the sixth in this irresistible series for young readers about imaginary friends in hilarious rhyming text and with adorable illustrations by Ella Okstad • Squishy McFluff has been blow-dried and primped to perfection. He must win the Country Fair prettiest pet competition – and will if Ava has anything to do with it • But not everyone can see he’s the winner. The Mayor seems to have a particular blindspot . . . That is until Ava and her invisible pet foil a dastardly robbery! • Another joyful, hilarious, instant classic of a tale for five year olds and upwards, stunningly illustrated by Ella Okstad

Can you see him? My kitten? Close your eyes tight. His fur is so soft and all silvery white Imagine him quick! Have you imagined enough? Oh, good, you can see him! It's Squishy McFluff! When Ava discovers an imaginary cat in the cabbage patch, she knows she's found a new best friend. Together, Ava and Squishy McFluff get up to all kinds of mischief...Bright new talent Pip Jones gives a hilarious, quirky twist to everyday experiences for readers aged 5+

The diary and essays of Brian Eno republished twenty-five years on with a new introduction by the artist in a beautiful hardback edition • At the end of 1994, musician, producer and artist Brian Eno resolved to keep a diary. His plans to go to the cinema, theatre and galleries fell through quickly. What he did do – and write – however, was astonishing: ruminations on his collaborative work with artists including David Bowie, U2, James and Jah Wobble, interspersed with correspondence and essays dating back to 1978. These ‘appendices’ covered topics from the generative and ambient music Eno pioneered to what he believed the role of an artist and their art to truly be, alongside razor-sharp commentary on his day-to-day tribulations and happenings around the world

The Unnamable – so named because he knows not who he may be – is from a nameless place. He speaks of previous selves (‘all these Murphys, Molloys, and Malones…’) as diversions from the need to stop speaking altogether. But, as with the other novels in the trilogy, the prose is full of marvellous precisions, full of its own reasons for keeping going • …perhaps the words have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on

The Book of Chocolate Saints follows the unforgettable character Francis Newton Xavier and his journey towards salvation – or damnation – or perhaps both. In the swooning, hypnotic prose for which his Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel was acclaimed, Jeet Thayil paints a hallucinatory portrait of an ambiguous soul: a self-destructive figure living a wild existence of excess in pursuit of his uncompromising aesthetic vision, a charismatic contrarian, and a tortured artist battling with his conflicting instincts. His paintings and poems embodying the decadent jeu d’esprit of his heroes like Baudelaire forged his reputation, which is celebrated at a show in Delhi. Approaching middle-age, Xavier leaves Manhattan following 9/11, and his journey home to India becomes a voyage into his past

The bestselling and heart-warming picture book that shows us ways to be affectionate while social distancing, from the team behind The Hug • Hedgehog and Tortoise were the best of friends • They wanted to give each other a great, big hug • But they weren’t allowed to touch • “Don’t worry,” said Owl. “There are lots of ways to show someone you love them.” • So the two friends wave to each other, blow kisses, sing songs, dance around and write letters. And even though they can’t hug and they can’t touch, they both know that they are loved • A gorgeous, uplifting, inspiring picture book that makes social distancing fun!

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles • This heart is sore and sad. Crossed in love? • The manuscript of ‘Giacomo Joyce’, written in James Joyce’s best handwriting and folded between the covers of a school notebook, was discovered in Trieste. Most likely written in 1914, some of it served as a rehearsal for passages in Ulysses. Had Joyce meant to pillage it or publish it? Either way, this fragmented evocation of unrequited desire is, in the words of Joyce’s biographer Richard Ellmann, a work of ‘small, fragile, enduring perfection’ • With a new introduction by Colm Toibin • Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work

The tiles become a dancefloor • The light a disco ball • It’s called the bathroom boogie – • The most splashy bash of all! • When the children go to school and the adults go to work . . . the Bathroom Boogie starts up – and all your favourite bathroom friends come alive! The shower creates a rain dance, whilst the mouthwash back-flips and the toothbrushes bop and rave to the hot tap’s funky beat! • Bathroom Boogie is the zany and hilarious rhyming picture book sequel to Kitchen Disco, with trademark cool artwork from Al Murphy

The vibrant energy of 1990s London. A year of passion and discovery. The anxiety and intensity of new love • An eighteen-year-old Irish girl arrives in London to study drama and falls violently in love with an older actor. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by demons, and the clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both. At once epic and exquisitely intimate, The Lesser Bohemians is a celebration of the dark and the light in love

The debut novel from award-winning author of Black Earth City: A Year in the Heart of Russia • When twenty-two-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess in early 1914, she has no idea of the vast political upheavals ahead, nor how completely her fate will be shaped by them • In 1917, revolution sweeps away the Moscow Gerty knew. The middle classes – and their governesses – are fleeing the country, but she stays, throwing herself into an experiment in communal living led by charismatic inventor Nikita Slavkin, inspired by his belief in a future free of bourgeois clutter and alight with creativity. Yet the chaos and violence of the outside world cannot be withstood forever. Slavkin’s sudden disappearance inspires the Soviet cult of the Vanishing Futurist, the scientist who sacrificed himself for the Communist ideal

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles • ‘My only concern’, John McGahern once said, ‘is that I get the sentence right and describe my world clearly and deeply.’ • ‘The Country Funeral’ witnesses three brothers, John, Philly and Fonsie Ryan, as they travel west from Dublin to Gloria Bog – the heart of the territory where so many of McGahern’s stories take place – to attend the funeral of their uncle. Depicting the customs and rituals of the day, McGahern exquisitely traces how the brothers react to the area in unexpected and tender ways, and face their own feelings about the transience of life • Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work