Leone Ross

Defiant, humorous, empathetic and insightful, 'Not Quite Right For Us' pierces through the hierarchical mechanics of class, race, gender. A celebration of outsiderness and an ode to otherness, 'Not Quite Right For Us' is a singular collection of stories, essays and poems by a dynamic mix of established and surging voices alike, edited by Sharmilla Beezmohun and including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Aminatta Forna, Xiaolu Guo, Johny Pitts, Rishi Dastidar, Tim Wells and Rafeef Ziadah. This remarkable anthology marks the tenth anniversary of the live-literature organisation co-founded by Sharmilla, Speaking Volumes. Part cri du coeur, part warning shot, part affirmation, this is the book we need now.

'Powerful.' DAILY TELEGRAPH '[Ross] is a master of detail.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'A literary rollercoaster.' PEOPLE 'Chillingly real . . . unforgettable.' BOOKLIST From a singular voice: a gripping and deeply moving story of grief and memory. 1990s New York: Tony Pellar - a man of former style and fading beauty - now lives in the subway tunnels. From this place of darkness, Tony fights for his sanity as his mind overflows with memories of Agatha, a woman he calls the Soul Snatcher. Following the lost thread of his life story back to 1960s North Carolina, Ross unravels a tangle of hurt and lies with two interconnected tales: that of Mikey, his wealthy childhood best friend, and of Agatha - a complex woman with a heart full of painful secrets. Orange Laughter is a story of old prejudice and shattered innocence, and a vivid reminder of the importance of storytelling as a way to heal individual and collective memory. Readers loved Orange Laughter: 'Masterful! The ride is intriguing with twists and turns and a huge dose of the unexpected. This novel will enchant, surprise and mystify; but ultimately, it will satisfy.' ????? 'A page-turner! I could not put it down, I read it all in one sitting. The author's touch is as beautiful as it is sure. A masterpiece of storytelling. Her characters live. Her prose sings. She is a writer of visions.' ?????

AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW 'Noisy, sexy, profusely inventive, Ross's storytelling crashes over the reader like an invigorating ocean wave.' DAILY MAIL'Sensitive and skilful . . . deeply emotive.' PRIDE MAGAZINEDiscover this powerful, provocative novel about three young women whose lives are upended by a sexual assault case.1996, London. Nicola, tall and gorgeous, has re-birthed herself. She has landed a breakthrough role and her star is rising - she can feel herself blossoming, can see it in the melting eyes of the men, and the jealous eyes of the women. If Nicola is a flower, Alexandra is a closed bud. Crushed by heartache from a recent breakup, she just wants to succeed as a journalist.Jeanette has just landed from Manchester. She refuses to let her mother's warnings about London or her Doc Martens weigh her down: she's ready for uni - for life - to start. This is the story of three women - and the mysterious Mavis - as they reach for dreams the whole world seems to want to destroy. But when sexual assault ruptures their world view, they soon discover that those who wear the cloak of friendship - family, community, lovers, peers - often cause the greatest pain.Readers love All the Blood is Red:'A stunning book . . . it's about victory, even when it doesn't look the way we thought it would. Ross has a powerful writer's voice.''I was hooked from start to finish . . . marvelling at how she wrote these four distinct women who were joined by threads of vulnerability and strength.'

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.

SHORLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDSLONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS'Dazzling' Cosmopolitan'I deeply admire This One Sky Day - and also, not so secretly, bitterly envy it...' MARLON JAMES'Gorgeous' Financial Times'Haunting' Independent'Wonderfully fearless' New Statesman'Stunning' KEI MILLERDawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho. The world is stirring awake again, each resident with their own list of things to do:A wedding feast to conjure and cookAn infidelity to investigateA lost soul to set freeAs the sun rises two star-crossed lovers try to find their way back to one another across this single day. When night falls, all have been given a gift, and many are no longer the same.The sky is pink, and some wonder if it will ever be blue again.What readers are saying'Brimming with and life and love and just absolutely gorgeous writing. a one-of-a-kind novel.''I couldn't put it down and I will be recommending it to everyone.''A story luxuriously and confidently told, which is sumptuous from sentence to sentence. There is both literal and literary magic here.''This book is bursting at the seams with beauty! Magic! Love! Imagination! It is a burst of colour and flame.''It's hard to explain, but if you love getting lost in a story, this could be one for you.'

"Bold, iridescent . . . Dazzling and shocking . . . Ross's lyrical, rhythmic writing is something to be savored . . . Her] voice sings out loud and pure." --Eowyn Ivey, The New York Times Book ReviewAn uproarious, sensual novel, Leone Ross's Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits. Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something-something, boy, a little something extra. The local name was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing so inexpressibly your own. Somewhere far away--or maybe right nearby--lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change. Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long-lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor's daughter, Sonteine, still hasn't come into her cors, but her corrupt father is demanding the macaenus make a feast for her wedding. Meanwhile, graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, through their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters. Leone Ross's Popisho is a masterful delight: a playful love story, a portrait of community, a boldly sensual meditation on desire and addiction, and a critique of the legacies of corruption and colonialism. Inspired by the author's Jamaican homeland, inflected with rhythms and textures of an amalgam of languages, it is a dazzling, major work of fiction.

Dawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho. The world is stirring awake again, each resident with their own list of things to do A wedding feast to conjure and cookAn infidelity to investigate A lost soul to set free As the sun rises two star-crossed lovers try to find their way back to one another across this single day. When night falls, all have been given a gift, and many are no longer the same. The sky is pink, and some wonder if it will ever be blue again.

A brave, exciting and adult collection that entertains with wit, shocks with frankness, and engages both intellect and emotion. Richly varied, it ranges from extended stories to intense pieces of flash fiction.Stories may be set in realistic settings – but develop magical narrative twists that make us see all afresh. Others begin in fantasy – returnees from the dead, a man who finds discarded hymens – but are so skilfully realist we can only believe in their actuality.