Browse by category
1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray; Will Self (Introduction by)
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
Jock McLeish, failed husband, lover and businessman is alone in a hotel room, drinking whisky, fantasizing about sex and contemplating suicide. As he tries to distance himself from reality, his lonely, alcohol-fuelled fantasies are interrupted by a flood of memories, reminding him of his own shortcoming ...Show more
A Natural Curiosity by Margaret Drabble
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
The second in Margaret Drabble's trilogy, following The Radiant Way
A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
Witty and compassionate, the extraordinary debut from one of our greatest novelists, about lies and deceit, love and forgiveness. In her witty, masterful debut novel, Margaret Drabble conjures a gripping story of sibling rivalry. Louise, beautiful and sophisticated, marries wealthy novelist Stephen Fair ...Show more
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013.'Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.'Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the shore of her beach home. Within it lies a diary that expresses the hopes and drea ...Show more
Ask the Dust by John Fante; Charles Bukowski
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, ...Show more
Ask the Dust by John Fante; Charles Bukowski (Introduction by)
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, ...Show more
Beneath The Underdog by Charles Mingus
Category: Biography | Series: Canons Ser.
Bass player extraordinaire Charles Mingus, who died in 1979, is one of the essential composers in the history of jazz, and Beneath the Underdog, his celebrated, wild, funny, demonic, anguished, shocking and profoundly moving memoir, is the greatest autobiography ever written by a jazz musician. It tells ...Show more
Benjamin's Crossing by Jay Parini
Category: Fiction | Series: Canons Ser.
There is no such thing as history, you see. It's a dream, perhaps even a dream of a dream . . .Walter Benjamin is dead. One of the most radiant minds of the twentieth century has been snatched away by death in a small town on the border between Spain and France. His thousand-page manuscript, carried the ...Show more
Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Category: Languages and Reference | Series: Canons Ser.
Bird by Bird is the bible of writing guides - a wry, honest, down-to-earth book that has never stopped selling since it was first published in the United States in the 1990s. Bestselling novelist and memoirist Anne Lamott distils what she's learned over years of trial and error. Beautifully written, wis ...Show more
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West; Geoff Dyer (Introduction by)
Category: History | Series: Canons Ser.
A travel literature classic. Introduced by Geoff Dyer: 'As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating'
Blues People by Leroi Jones
Category: Music | Series: Canons Ser.
A rousing exploration of the blues and jazz music that formed much of American popular music culture, penned by the iconic Beat writer and critic.
Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen
Category: Poetry | Series: Canons Ser.
The poems in Book of Mercy brim with praise, despair, anger, doubt and trust. Speaking from the heart of the modern world, yet in tones that resonate with an older devotional tradition, these verses give voice to our deepest, most powerful intuitions.Internationally celebrated for his writing and his mu ...Show more