Painter as Poet A world of floating symbols For Marc Chagall (1887–1985), painting was an intricate tapestry of dreams, tales, and traditions. His instantly recognizable visual language carved out a unique early 20th-century niche, often identified as one of the earliest expressions of psychic experience. Chagall’s canvases are characterized by loose brushwork, deep colors, a particular fondness for blue, and a repertoire of recurring tropes including musicians, roosters, rooftops, flowers, and floating lovers. For all their ethereal charms, his compositions were often rich and complex in their references. They wove together not only colors and forms, but also his Jewish roots with his present encounters in Paris, markers of faith with gestures of love and symbols of hope with testimonies of trauma. Across scenes of birth, love, marriage, and death, this dependable artist introduction explores the many versions of Chagall’s rich vocabulary. From visions of his native Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to images of the Eiffel Tower, we explore the unique aesthetic of one of the most readily identifiable modern masters and one of the most influential Jewish artists of all time.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 96

Dimensions: 210 x 260 mm

Publication Date: 29-09-2016

“All our work is about freedom.” The universe of Christo and Jeanne-Claude The work of the artist couple Christo (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935–2009) resists categorization. It is a hybrid of art, urban planning, architecture, and engineering, but above all an aesthetic uniquely their own: surreal and ethereal environmental interventions that have graced monuments, public parks, and centers of power alike. This compact book spans the complete career of the couple who were born on the very same day, met in Paris, fell in love, and became a creative team like no other. With rich illustration, it spans Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s earliest projects in the 1950s right through to The Floating Piers, installed at Lake Iseo, Italy, in 2016. The book celebrates all of the couple’s most famous environmental interventions, such as The Gates in New York’s Central Park and the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin, while also featuring early drawings and family photos unknown to the wider public.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 96

Dimensions: 210 x 260 mm

Publication Date: 26-03-2016

A Line of Sight is a compelling whodunnit woven through a story community, family and an extraordinary eight-year-old boy. When Nick and Graeme set out rabbit shooting one August day neither of them realise their lives are about to change forever. They spot a couple of suspected cannabis growers on their land. Each fires in warning and one grower is killed. But who fired the fatal shot? And how far will each man go to prove himself not guilty? The story of a young man facing the biggest dilemma of his life, A Line of Sight is an affecting portrayal of male friendship, the links between generations, and Swan – a blind boy whose strange take on the events brings great danger and unexpected clarity.

Bind: paperback

A grand piano falls off a crane and by bad luck ends up the responsibility of Stefan ‒ piano restorer, illegal immigrant and victim of immigration fraudsters. His neighbours, a diverse bunch with their own messy lives, weigh in to help him rebuild it. The Score mines the rich world of the inner city – a block of council flats where migrants and misfits create their own community.

Bind: paperback

Marko has come to the ends of the earth to escape a once illustrious past in Bulgaria. So why does a Polish bookstore owner call him a traitor? And who covertly photographed him for the newspaper? Someone knows who he is. They are trying to expose him in his new country, and there is nothing he can do to prevent it. A Change of Key tells the story of a multicultural group of migrants living in an inner-city block of social housing flats in New Zealand. It explores themes of social change and the hardships associated with existing in isolation from one’s family and culture. As they struggle through the realities of living in deprivation, Marko and the other migrants find salvation in friendship, community and classical music.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 254

Dimensions: 128 x 198 mm

'A twisty and pacy thriller with an original cast of characters, and stakes and jeopardy that build right to the end'-- Philippa East 'Riveting, twisty and tense, Her New Best Friend will keep you guessing until the last sentence! A page-turning psychological thriller' --- E.C. Scullion 'A twisty look at obsession and motherhood. You're in for a treat!'-- Louise Mumford Mum-of-two Audrey is horrified when during a moment of distraction in the park, her pram with baby Wilfred in it rolls down the hill and into a pond. Fortunately for her, Claire Jones is nearby and rescues Wilfred, soothing Audrey and daughter Antonia with coffee and cake in a nearby cafe. No harm is done. However, the frightening experience dents Audrey's confidence and she replays the events over and over, convinced she can't have forgotten to put the brake on. To make matters worse she keeps spotting a shadowy figure everywhere she goes and becomes sure that someone is stalking her. Audrey's fears are escalating when a catastrophic reaction to a bee sting sends her into a coma - and into hospital - but once again her new best friend is on hand to step in. Does Claire really have Audrey's best interests at heart? And if not, why has she inserted herself so cleverly into Audrey's life? Will Audrey ever recover? And will her real friends be able uncover the truth before it is too late? A twisting tale of intrigue and deception - and of what happens when your worst nightmare comes true.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 05-08-2021

An unreliable first-person narrative in the tradition of noir writer, Jim Thompson, set in the world of art, wine, and provincial retail. Spurned by his lover and mentor, art student Keir Rothwell presents a gruesome effigy of her at his art school's end of year show and is promptly excluded. A job at a local wine shop, In Vino Veritas, gives Keir a lifeline and a delicious opportunity. Resolving to regain his place and his lover's attention, he plots to reinvent the shop as a working art installation under the noses of unwitting customers and colleagues. The repurposed wine critiques make grotesques of the shop's clientele and tension soon builds on both sides of the counter. When conflict turns to murder, the would-be artist is forced to fight a rear guard action against a tenacious detective and inquisitive customers. Will a long buried past now threaten the future of a Cornish seaside town? Murder by the Bottle is a compelling study in character, criminality and truth.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 17-06-2021

Every year the Boys plan a weekend away. A weekend of drinking, laughter and mickey-taking by the sea - it's been a tradition of the six of them for as more years than they can remember. Now, suddenly, the six has become five. Will - clever, funny, dependable Will - has died. In the months leading up to his death, Will plans the next Boys weekend, knowing he will be unable to be there with them. As always he researches the place, books the accommodation, and prepares his brainmelter quiz - the quiz that slots neatly into the drinking, laughing and mickey-taking and which is the centrepiece to the annual weekend away. Now, the remaining Boys assemble in the house by the sea in Dungeness that Will has booked for them. Already grappling with the grief of losing their friend, the Boys are dreading pressing play on the video, and when they do, their grief turns to horror as Will slowly reveals secrets about each of them in a series of increasingly provocative questions. During their stay the group has become entangled with a volatile local steroid dealer and his abused sister and when he challenges the group once more, just as they face the fallout from the quiz, there are dramatic and disastrous consequences. Some secrets are carried to the grave. Others don't make it as far. Peppered with barbed dialogue and pop cultural references, One Last Question is a blackly humorous story of friendship, loss and men ageing disgracefully.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 24-06-2021

A young Hungarian woman confronts her family's past in an engrossing quest for a stolen painting When Anika Molnar flees her home country of Hungary not long before the break-up of the Soviet Union, she carries only a small suitcase - and a beautiful and much-loved painting of an auburn-haired woman in a cobalt blue dress from her family's hidden collection. Arriving in Australia, Anika moves in with her aunt in Sydney, and the painting hangs in pride of place in her bedroom. But one day it is stolen in what seems to be a carefully planned theft, and Anika's carefree life takes a more ominous turn. Sinister secrets from her family's past and Hungary's fraught history cast suspicion over the painting's provenance, and she embarks on a gripping quest to uncover the truth. Hungary's war-torn past contrasts sharply with Australia's bright new world of opportunity in this moving and compelling mystery.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 15-07-2021

SATELLITES ARE FALLING OUT OF THE SKIES When rogue junk collides with a television satellite 22,000 miles above the Earth, blind cosmologist Harry Stones approaches Film Director Nathalie Thompson to make an investigative documentary. Undeterred by Harry's lack of sight, their quest leads them from the peaks of Arizona to a mile-deep mine in Yorkshire, and finally to a Launchpad in Kazakhstan. As more and more satellites keep falling out of the sky, their curiosity turns to fear. Forewarned of the possible outbreak of World War Three, can Harry and Nathalie prevent the space collision of all time?

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 14-05-2021