Oneworld Publications Things They Lost Oduor Okwiri

They’re not pets. Not ghosts or robots. These are kentukis, and they are in your home. You can trust them. They care about you… • They’ve infiltrated apartments in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of Sierra Leone, town squares of Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. Anonymous and untraceable, these seemingly cute cuddly toys reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls – but they also expose the ugly truth of our interconnected society • Samanta Schweblin’s wildly imaginative new novel pulls us into a dark and complex world of unexpected love, playful encounters and marvellous adventures. But beneath the cuddly exterior, kentukis conceal a truth that is unsettlingly familiar and exhilaratingly real. This is our present and we’re living it – we just don’t know it yet

A black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London church. Henry VIII dispatches a Mauritanian diver to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose. From long-forgotten records emerge the remarkable stories of Africans who lived free in Tudor England… • They were present at some of the defining moments of the age. They were christened, married and buried by the Church. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. The untold stories of the Black Tudors, dazzlingly brought to life by Kaufmann, will transform how we see this most intriguing period of history

In the wake of an infection that has left Baton Rouge unsettled and roiling with the ‘undead’, three young friends – Mazoch, Vermaelen and Rachel – band together to search for Mazoch’s missing father. Their mission is to visit all the places he once lingered: his favourite fast food restaurants, the movie theatre he frequented with his son and the city park • As hurricane season looms, uncertainty and suspicion of each other’s motives threatens to pull the group apart, but still, the friends’ search continues. Over the course of a week, day after day, they haunt the places Mazoch’s father once haunted, confronting the same persistent hope that faces all who grieve: that whomever, whatever they have lost, will return to them, in one shape or another

New writing from the literary master • Throughout Proust’s life, nine of his short stories remained unseen – the writer never even spoke of them. Perhaps he was not ready to share the early themes he was nurturing for his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Or perhaps, in dealing directly with gay desire, they were too audacious – too near to life – for the censorious society of the time • In these stories, published in English for the first time, we find an intimate portrait of a young author full of darkness, complexity and melancholy, longing to reveal himself to the world

Monty was just like any other dog. A scruffy and irascible Maltese terrier, he enjoyed barking at pugs and sniffing at trees. But after yet another dramatic confrontation with the local Rottweiler, Anthony McGowan realises it’s high time he and Monty had a chat about what makes him a good or a bad dog • And they don’t stop at ethics. Taking his cue from Monty’s canine antics, McGowan leads us on an enlightening jaunt through the world of philosophy • Will Kant convince Monty to stop stealing cheesecake? How long will they put up with Socrates poking holes in every argument? Do they have free will to pursue answers to these questions? Join the dutiful duo as they set out to uncover who – if anyone – has the right end of the ethical stick and can tell us how best to live one’s life

The epic literary adventure that has transfixed readers and critics alike in Spain • Almost four hundred passengers are on board the Boeing 747 en route from Los Angeles to Singapore. Only a handful will survive the crash • Washed ashore on a tiny island with no means of contacting the outside world, tension and fear threaten to overwhelm the group. But as they endeavour, day by day, to survive, they find themselves forced to confront the reality of the lives they left behind • Written in deftly cinematic prose, Andres Ibanez’s stunning novel is already considered a modern classic in Spain, expertly translated here by Sophie Hughes

The mayor and local officials of a small provincial town in Russia have got it made: corruption is rife and they have all the power. Yet, when they learn that an undercover government inspector is about to make a visit, they face a mad dash to cover their tracks. Soon, the news that a suspicious person has recently arrived from St Petersburg and is staying in a local inn produces a series of events and misunderstandings that lead to a hilarious denouement. Often quoted as Russian literature's greatest comedy, The Government Inspector is a trenchant satire of the corruption, greed and stupidity of petty officialdom, and the crowning achievement of Gogol's skills as a playwright • Alma Classics is committed to make available the widest range of literature from around the globe

Are psychopaths ‘evil’ and untreatable, or do they suffer from a form of mental illness comparable to schizophrenia? Do they have free will? Do we? • In this at once terrifying and exhilarating account, neuroscientist Kent Kiehl guides us through the dark world of a psychopath’s mind, a disconnected place where emotion is dead and guilt is absent. Drawing on groundbreaking research, including personality surveys and brain imaging scans of thousands of criminals, Kiehl pinpoints the biological machinery of psychopathy and offers a radical new perspective on identifying and treating the psychopaths in our midst

From an award-winning Scottish poet, an unforgettable novel about memory and radical forgiveness • How far would you go to overcome the limits of your own forgiveness? • Quinn is serving a life sentence for a crime he’s convinced he hasn’t committed. Surely the authorities have got it wrong, and when they find his childhood sweetheart, Andrea, his name will be cleared. His parole is drawing near when he receives an unexpected letter from Andrea’s mother, who invites Quinn to share her home • It soon becomes apparent that what appears to be a genuine act of forgiveness is influenced by more complex motivations. As they navigate the thorny terrain of guilt, justice and mutual need that underpins their relationship, the story of Quinn’s past is gradually revealed, setting in motion a final reckoning

It starts with a single black hair, growing thick and immovable from her spine • Marianne is grieving. Desperately trying to hold down some semblance of a normal life, she forces herself to go through the motions: cooking dinner with her boyfriend, showing up to work, calling her parents when she feels able to handle their reminders of all she has lost. And then, her body begins to betray her • When no one can explain what is going on, Marianne’s doctor directs her to Nede, an experimental health retreat deep in the Welsh countryside. By the time Marianne starts to suspect that all is not as it seems at Nede, it’s already too late • Dark and incendiary, The Weight of Loss is a moving novel about grief and resilience, full of surprising twists

Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today • The true history of science and religion is a human one. It’s about the role of religion in inspiring, and strangling, science before the scientific revolution. It’s about the sincere but eccentric faith and the quiet, creeping doubts of the most brilliant scientists in history – Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein. Above all it’s about the question of what it means to be human and who gets to say – a question that is more urgent in the twenty-first century than ever before • From eighth-century Baghdad to the frontiers of AI today, via medieval Europe, nineteenth-century India and Soviet Russia, Magisteria sheds new light on this complex historical landscape

Cross the threshold of these seven empty houses and enter the dark, destabilising world of Samanta Schweblin. Here, homes are not a place of safety. A person is missing, or a truth, or memory; some rooms are enticing, some unmoored, others empty. And in these tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back in: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, or the fallibility of parents • Seven Empty Houses offers an entry point into a fiercely original mind. In each story, the twists and turns will unnerve and surprise: Schweblin never takes the expected path and instead digs under the skin and reveals uncomfortable truths about our sense of home, of belonging, and of the fragility of our connections with others. This is a masterwork from one of our most brilliant modern writers