Francis Spufford

*** Available for pre-order now *** 'What a joy! A novel with endless ingenuity and enormous heart.' Kaliane Bradley 'One of the finest prose stylists of his generation.' The Times 'My God can he write.' Richard Osman It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand. And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.

*** Available for pre-order now *** 'What a joy! A novel with endless ingenuity and enormous heart.' Kaliane Bradley 'One of the finest prose stylists of his generation.' The Times 'My God can he write.' Richard Osman It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand. And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.

A spellbinding tale about an ambitious young woman who must thwart an occult plot by time-traveling fascists during the chaos of the London Blitz--from "one of our most powerful writers of wayward historical fiction" (The Washington Post). Following the acclaim of his previous novels Golden Hill and Cahokia Jazz, Francis Spufford delivers a masterpiece of literary fantasy, hailed by Joe Hill as "a book that scoops up all the wonder and hope and pleasure of the Narnia novels, and pours it into a story for grown-ups." It's the summer of 1939, and the air in London is thick with the tension of impending war. Iris Hawkins, a fiery young financial secretary, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a genius engineer from the new technology of television. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into a nightmare of otherworldly pursuit--into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes droning overhead. In a time when death falls randomly from above each night, when the streets are darker than the wildest forest and all the men are away in uniform, the defense of the city is in the hands of its women. But Iris has more to contend with than just the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, through the vast night sky and across the tiny screens of early television, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand, and only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever. Both a thrilling page-turner and a profound exploration of ambition, love, and the fight against tyranny, Nonesuch is a story that is as enchanting as it is urgent. Packed with twists, tension, and wonder, it is a triumph of storytelling.

* Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History * Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, The New York Times, Fresh Air (top 10 pick), NPR, the Los Angeles Times (top 15 pick), The Washington Post, and more The bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a "dazzling" (Los Angeles Times), "smoky, brooding noir set in the 1920s" (Slate) that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived. Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s--a fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot. One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. Yet that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth. "Atmospheric...many of us will recognize our own held-breath bafflement, caught, as we are, on the darkling plain of our own barely believable times" (The Washington Post).

A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the best-selling author of Golden Hill.'Utterly immersive.' Spectator'Thrilling.' Financial Times'Unlike anything else you will read this year.' Daily Express'A classic of alternative history.' Observer'A delight.' Sunday TelegraphIt's 1922 and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. In the ancient city of Cahokia - a teeming industrial metropolis, a tinderbox of every race and creed - peace holds. Just about. But on a snowy night at the end of winter, two roughshod detectives are called to the roof of a skyscraper. Their investigation will spill the city's secrets and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets, either to destruction or rebirth.What readers are saying:***** 'A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly.'***** 'Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging. What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as Golden Hill, which is praise indeed.'***** 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.'

* Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History * Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, The New York Times, Fresh Air (top 10 pick), NPR, the Los Angeles Times (top 15 pick), The Washington Post, and more The bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a "dazzling" (Los Angeles Times), "smoky, brooding noir set in the 1920s" (Slate) that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived. Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s--a fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot. One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. Yet that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth. "Atmospheric...many of us will recognize our own held-breath bafflement, caught, as we are, on the darkling plain of our own barely believable times" (The Washington Post).

'Utterly immersive' Spectator'Thrilling' Financial Times'Unlike anything else you will read this year' Daily Express 'A classic of alternative history' Observer 'A delight' Sunday TelegraphA Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the bestselling author of Golden Hill.In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. But in this 1922, things are a little different. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth. The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.What readers are saying:***** 'A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly.' ***** 'Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging. What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as Golden Hill, which is praise indeed.' ***** 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.'

Det evige lys er en fortælling om krigens ofre og en fejring af hverdagens stille skønhed. London, 1944. En lørdag i krigens sidste år stimler en menneskemængde sammen i begejstring over en sjælden leverance aluminiumskasseroller til stormagasinet Woolworths. I en hverdag, hvor alt ellers smeltes om for at ende som våben ved fronten, er skinnende nye metalprodukter en vaskeægte begivenhed. Men på et splitsekund er alt forandret, da en bombe rammer forretningen. Mange mister livet, heriblandt børnene Jo, Val, Ben, Verne og Alec. Hvem var de? Eller rettere, hvem kunne de være blevet? Og hvilken fremtid blev de berøvet? På baggrund af sande begivenheder udfolder Francis Spufford gennem romanen en alternativ virkelighed, hvor børnene får lov at leve. De fem vokser fra sønner og døtre til ægtefæller, forældre og bedsteforældre; de bliver billetkontrollører og udlejere, svindlere og lærere, patienter og indsatte; de gennemlever dage med personlige katastrofer og triumfer, med nye chancer, fortabelse og rådvildhed. Med poetisk virtuositet og fortællemæssigt overskud udfolder Francis Spufford de fem menneskeskæbner som et kalejdoskop over det 20. århundredes på en gang ufattelige og prosaiske begivenheder.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, Slate, Lit Hub, Fresh Air, and more From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Golden Hill, an "extraordinary...symphonic...casually stunning" (The Wall Street Journal) novel tracing the infinite possibilities of five lives in the bustling neighborhoods of 20th-century London. Lunchtime on a Saturday, 1944: the Woolworths on Bexford High Street in South London receives a delivery of aluminum saucepans. A crowd gathers to see the first new metal in ages--after all, everything's been melted down for the war effort. An instant later, the crowd is gone; incinerated. Among the shoppers were five young children. Who were they? What futures did they lose? This brilliantly constructed novel, inspired by real events, lets an alternative reel of time run, imagining the lives of these five souls as they live through the extraordinary, unimaginable changes of the bustling immensity of twentieth-century London. Their intimate everyday dramas, as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, grandparents; as the separated, the remarried, the bereaved. Through decades of social, sexual, and technological transformation, as bus conductors and landlords, as swindlers and teachers, patients and inmates. Days of personal triumphs and disasters; of second chances and redemption. Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, Light Perpetual "offers a moving view of how people confront the gap between their expectations and their reality" (The New Yorker) and illuminates the shapes of experience, the extraordinariness of the ordinary, the mysteries of memory, and the preciousness of life.

**Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021****Winner of the RSL Encore Award**From the author of Golden Hill 'My god he can write.' Richard Osman'Glorious.' Evening Standard'Exhilarating.' TLS'Brilliant.' Observer'Dazzling.' The Times'Extraordinary.' Financial Times'Superb.' GuardianNovember 1944. A German rocket strikes London and five young children are atomised in an instant. Here are the futures they might have known, had they experienced the unimaginable changes of the twentieth century - futures that illuminate the miraculous in the everyday, and the preciousness of life itself.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, Slate, Lit Hub, Fresh Air, and more From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Golden Hill, an "extraordinary...symphonic...casually stunning" (The Wall Street Journal) novel tracing the infinite possibilities of five lives in the bustling neighborhoods of 20th-century London. Lunchtime on a Saturday, 1944: the Woolworths on Bexford High Street in South London receives a delivery of aluminum saucepans. A crowd gathers to see the first new metal in ages--after all, everything's been melted down for the war effort. An instant later, the crowd is gone; incinerated. Among the shoppers were five young children. Who were they? What futures did they lose? This brilliantly constructed novel, inspired by real events, lets an alternative reel of time run, imagining the lives of these five souls as they live through the extraordinary, unimaginable changes of the bustling immensity of twentieth-century London. Their intimate everyday dramas, as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, grandparents; as the separated, the remarried, the bereaved. Through decades of social, sexual, and technological transformation, as bus conductors and landlords, as swindlers and teachers, patients and inmates. Days of personal triumphs and disasters; of second chances and redemption. Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, Light Perpetual "offers a moving view of how people confront the gap between their expectations and their reality" (The New Yorker) and illuminates the shapes of experience, the extraordinariness of the ordinary, the mysteries of memory, and the preciousness of life.

An irresistible collection of favorite writings from an author celebrated for his bravura style and sheer unpredictability Francis Spufford’s welcome first volume of collected essays gathers an array of his compelling writings from the 1990s to the present. He makes use of a variety of encounters with particular places, writers, or books to address deeper questions relating to the complicated relationship between story-telling and truth-telling. How must a nonfiction writer imagine facts, vivifying them to bring them to life? How must a novelist create a dependable world of story, within which facts are, in fact, imaginary? And how does a religious faith felt strongly to be true, but not provably so, draw on both kinds of writerly imagination? Ranging freely across topics as diverse as the medieval legends of Cockaigne, the Christian apologetics of C. S. Lewis, and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, Spufford provides both fresh observations and thought-provoking insights. No less does he inspire an irresistible urge to turn the page and read on.

'Anyone who reads or ever read children's books - read this. It's a joy.' Irish Times 'Exhilarating.' New York Times Book Review 'Sublime.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times ** An Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian and Irish Times Book of the Year. ** What would you find if you went back and re-read your favourite books from childhood?In The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford revisits all those childhood obsessions: fairy tales; Where the Wild Things Are; The Lord of the Rings; The Chronicles of Narnia; Little House on the Prairie; The Wind in the Willows; The Earthsea Trilogy and more. In these treasured tales Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness - the thrill as worlds of imagination opened up before him mixed with the memories of a boy who retreated into books when faced with a family tragedy.

'A truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination.' Jan Morris, The Times 'Shot through with crystalline brilliance.' Washington Post 'Fascinating.' Sunday Times When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the national imagination. Everyone remembers the doomed Captain Oates's last words: 'I'm just going outside, and I may be some time.' Francis Spufford's celebrated and prize-winning history shows how Scott's death was the culmination of a national enchantment with vast empty spaces, the beauty of untrodden snow, and perilous journeys to the end of the earth.Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Banff Mountain Book Prize.

A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Fiction Book of 2017 * A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year * A Seattle Times Favorite Book of 2017 * An NPR Best Book of 2017 * A Kirkus Reviews Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year * A Library Journal Top Historical Fiction Book of the Year * Winner of the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize * Winner of the New York City Book Award "Gorgeously crafted...Spufford's sprawling recreation here is pitch perfect." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air "A fast-paced romp that keeps its eyes on the moral conundrums of America." --The New Yorker "Delirious storytelling backfilled with this much intelligence is a rare and happy sight." --The New York Times "Golden Hill possesses a fluency and immediacy, a feast of the senses...I love this book." --The Washington Post The spectacular first novel from acclaimed nonfiction author Francis Spufford follows the adventures of a mysterious young man in mid-eighteenth century Manhattan, thirty years before the American Revolution. New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him? Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill is "a remarkable achievement--remarkable, especially, in its intelligent re-creation of the early years of what was to become America's greatest city" (The Wall Street Journal). Spufford paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later metropolitan self, but already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love--and find a world of trouble. Golden Hill is "immensely pleasurable...Read it for Spufford's brilliant storytelling, pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and gift for re-creating a vanished time" (New York Newsday).

I've no history here, and no character: and what I am, is all in what I will be... New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger fresh off the boat from England pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition -- he has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted? This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble . . .

Francis Spufford's Unapologetic is a wonderfully pugnacious defense of Christianity. Refuting critics such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the "new atheist" crowd, Spufford, a former atheist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, argues that Christianity is recognizable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the grown-up dignity of Christian experience.Fans of C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Karr, Diana Butler Bass, Rob Bell, and James Martin will appreciate Spufford's crisp, lively, and abashedly defiant thesis.Unapologetic is a book for believers who are fed up with being patronized, for non-believers curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century, and for anyone who feels there is something indefinably wrong, literalistic, anti-imaginative and intolerant about the way the atheist case is now being made.