Helen Oyeyemi

A fun and fearless anthology of feminist tales, by sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers.'Wonderful . . . all killer, no filler' Red Magazine'Dazzling stories, as inventive as they are inspiring' Daily Mirror'Where power and feminist rage meet' StylistBANSHEE. DRAGON. TYGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO.For centuries past, and all across the world, there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles, fire up our blood; words that tell a story. In this blazing cauldron of a book, sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.STORIES BY: Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Annie Hodson, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O'Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, with an Introduction by Sandi Toksvig

'Wonderful . . . all killer, no filler' Red Magazine'Dazzling stories, as inventive as they are inspiring' Daily Mirror 'Where power and feminist rage meet' Stylist______________________________A fun and fearless anthology of feminist tales, by fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers:Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O'Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie and Ali Smith - introduced by Sandi Toksvig. DRAGON. TYGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO. For centuries past, and all across the world, there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles, fire up our blood; words that tell a story.In this blazing cauldron of a book, fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.'A slick collection of clever tales, with something for bluestockings and banshees alike' Guardian'Delightful, thought-provoking' Louisa Young, Perspectives

Afrikanska kärleksberättelser – finns de? Ama Ata Aidoo skriver i sitt förord om hur afrikanska författare förväntas skriva om militärregimer, förlegade traditioner, hungersnöd. Så har föreställningen vunnit mark att det inte skrivs om kärlek i Afrika, både i västvärlden och bland de egna intellektuella. Kärlek x 21 visar tydligt att den afrikanska kärleksnovellen lever i vår samtid. Här skriver flera av kontinentens främsta kvinnliga författare om allt mellan födslosmärtor och begravningar; tonårens våndor och ålderdomens krämpor; samkönade relationer och förhållanden som drabbas av rasfördomar. Inte minst slår samlingen hål på myten om den afrikanska kvinnan som ett fattigt offer. Genom hela antologin bultar det mänskliga hjärtat: belägrat och blödande, oförskräckt och ibland triumferande. Närma dig novellerna en i sänder, då kan du höra kvinnornas inre röster var och en för sig.

The new novel from a literary star - brilliant and deeply relatable. 'Brilliantly fun.' OBSERVER 'One of the best writers alive today.' STYLIST 'Audacious, incisive and very funny.' DAILY MAIL Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There's a Kinga for every day: on Mondays, you can catch Kinga A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A-G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life - between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic. It's an arrangement that's not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all. Readers loved A New New Me: 'Gleeful . . . Reading this book is like being the kind of drunk where the night dissolves into a chaos of bizarre events.' 'This book was both kaleidoscopic but so real . . . desperately need to read more of Oyeyemi's writing!' 'Strange, bizarre, funny, so playful . . . There's slapstick comedy, meandering anecdotes, and a tantalising central mystery, which the Kinga's will work out, if they just all stop arguing for a minute.' 'I LOVED the writing . . . In 7 chapters you get to know Kinga in all her sarcastic glory . . . This was my first Helen Oyeyemi and I will look out for more to read.'

‘Funny, deep, shocking, wry, heartwarming and spine-chilling’ – The GuardianMr Fox, by award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi, is a beautiful and immersive exploration of the labyrinthine world of imagination, storytelling and love.It’s a bright afternoon in 1938 and Mary Foxe is in a confrontational mood. St John Fox, celebrated novelist, hasn’t seen her in six years. He’s unprepared for her afternoon visit, not least because she doesn’t exist. He’s infatuated with her. But he also made her up.Will Mr Fox meet his muse’s challenge, to stop murdering his heroines and explore something of love? What will his wife Daphne think of this sudden change in her husband? Can there be a happy ending – this time?‘Oyeyemi reveals a twinkling sense of humour . . . A delight’ – The Independent

The new novel from a literary star - brilliant and deeply relatable.'Brilliantly fun.' OBSERVER'One of the best writers alive today.' STYLIST'Audacious, incisive and very funny.' DAILY MAILKinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week.There's a Kinga for every day: on Mondays, you can catch Kinga A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath.Kingas A-G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life - between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic.It's an arrangement that's not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.Readers loved A New New Me:'Gleeful . . . Reading this book is like being the kind of drunk where the night dissolves into a chaos of bizarre events.' ?????'This book was both kaleidoscopic but so real . . . desperately need to read more of Oyeyemi's writing!' ?????'Strange, bizarre, funny, so playful . . . There's slapstick comedy, meandering anecdotes, and a tantalising central mystery, which the Kinga's will work out, if they just all stop arguing for a minute.' ?????'I LOVED the writing . . . In 7 chapters you get to know Kinga in all her sarcastic glory . . . This was my first Helen Oyeyemi and I will look out for more to read.' ?????

'There are few writers who can match Oyeyemi's creative glee.' Guardian'One of the best writers alive today.' StylistAVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOWKinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week.There's a Kinga for every day: on Mondays, you can catch Kinga A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath.Kingas A-G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life - between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic.It's an arrangement that's not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.

ONE OF BIBLIOLIFESTYLE'S "BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2024""A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories...Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper -- her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations." - The New York Times "A metatextual masterpiece." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW "Oyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges...A dizzying, dazzling romp." --Kirkus Reviews The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague In Helen Oyeyemi's joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing--one that can let you in or spit you out. For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she's arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it's being read and who's doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie's past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends' different accounts of the past reach a new level. An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?

'A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.' ALI SMITH'A writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

A collection of brand-new short stories written by prize-winning, bestselling writers and inspired by Kafka - published to commemorate the centenary of his death*Chosen as a 2024 highlight in the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, New Statesman, Esquire and the New European*Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the great geniuses of twentieth-century literature. What happens when some of the most original literary minds of today take an idea, a mood or a line from his work and use it to spark something new?From a future society who ask their AI servants to construct a giant tower to reach God; to a flat hunt that descends into a comically absurd bureaucratic nightmare; to a population experiencing a wave of unbearable, contagious panic attacks, these ten specially commissioned stories are by turns mind-bending, funny, unsettling and haunting. Inspired by the visionary imagination of a writer working one hundred years ago, they speak powerfully to the strangeness of being alive today.

ONE OF BIBLIOLIFESTYLE'S "BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2024""A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories...Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper -- her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations." - The New York Times "A metatextual masterpiece." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW "Oyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges...A dizzying, dazzling romp." --Kirkus Reviews The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague In Helen Oyeyemi's joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing--one that can let you in or spit you out. For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she's arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it's being read and who's doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie's past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends' different accounts of the past reach a new level. An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?

**AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW** 'A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.' ALI SMITH 'A writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.' INDEPENDENT The new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi. Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions. This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

'A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.' ALI SMITH'Entirely original.'STYLIST'Oyeyemi has mastered the art of bold, expansive storytelling.'IRENOSEN OKOJIE'A writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE'Intoxicating.' New York Magazine'Oyeyemi is a master.' New York Times'Welcome back to the magical, maddening milieu of Oyeyemi's singular fiction, in which trapdoors spring open and revelations emerge like Russian nesting dolls.' O, the Oprah MagazinePeaces is the story of Otto and Xavier Shin, a couple who embark on a mysterious train journey that takes them far beyond any destination they could have anticipated. As the carriages roll along they discover each is more curious and fascinating than the last, becoming embroiled in this strange train and its intrigue. Who is Ava Kapoor, the sole full-time inhabitant of the train, and what is her relationship to a man named Prem? Are they passengers or prisoners? We discover who orchestrated the journey, hurtling them all into their past for clues.

"Enchanting . . . the most surprising, confounding, and oddly insightful couple's trip in recent literary history." --Entertainment Weekly The prize-winning, bestselling author of Gingerbread; Boy, Snow, Bird; and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a vivid and inventive new novel about a couple forever changed by an unusual train voyage. When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment--and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people on board, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, and the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together. A spellbinding tale from a star author, Peaces is about what it means to be seen by another person--whether it's your lover or a stranger on a train--and what happens when things you thought were firmly in the past turn out to be right beside you.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE'Intoxicating.' New York Magazine'Oyeyemi is a master.' New York Times'Welcome back to the magical, maddening milieu of Oyeyemi's singular fiction, in which trapdoors spring open and revelations emerge like Russian nesting dolls.' O, the Oprah MagazinePeaces is the story of Otto and Xavier Shin, a couple who embark on a mysterious train journey that takes them far beyond any destination they could have anticipated. As the carriages roll along they discover each is more curious and fascinating than the last, becoming embroiled in this strange train and its intrigue. Who is Ava Kapoor, the sole full-time inhabitant of the train, and what is her relationship to a man named Prem? Are they passengers or prisoners? We discover who orchestrated the journey, hurtling them all into their past for clues.

Helen Oyeyemi, the prize-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and What is Not Yours is Not Yours, returns with a bewitching and inventive novel about motherhood, family legacy and . . . gingerbread.