FORTHCOMING TITLES, 2008 - 2009

Coming in October — Fleck by Alasdair Gray

Two Ravens Press is privileged to be publishing Alasdair Gray's new play, Fleck, a contemporary reinvention of Faust, on October 31 2008 (for a sneak preview, see the excerpt in June's edition of Corvaceous, by clicking here). The book will be designed and illustrated by the author.

In the first instance, we will be publishing a 150 limited hardback edition of the book, signed by Alasdair Gray. The price will be £20 and it will be available direct from Two Ravens Press only. To reserve your copy, please email us. Books will not be available for mailing till the end of October; we will require payment in advance by cheque or by PayPal.

A paperback edition of Fleck will follow.

August 2008 titles

Senseless - a novel by Stona Fitch

American economist Eliott Gast is a man who treasures the finest things that life can offer – fine food, a good bottle of wine, beautiful music. Until the day that he is abducted in Europe by a shadowy and extremist anti-globalisation group. Eliott is held hostage for forty days, and each moment of his incarceration is broadcast on the internet. His captors inform him that his eventual release depends on the votes – and donations made to their cause – of the millions of people who are watching this most disturbing of reality shows. As Eliott battles to understand why he has been chosen, he unearths sins both small and large. Over the course of his captivity Eliott is deprived of each of his senses, one by one – deprived of everything except the choice of whether or not to survive.

'An existential thriller told with brutal clarity and dealing with cruelty, voyeurism, consumerism and globalisation. Brilliantly written with pace, style, confidence and insight, this unbearably tense and truly unforgettable novel will leave a lasting impression.' Doug Johnstone, The List

‘Startling in conception and disturbing in what it says about our times.’ JM Coetzee

‘A chilling psychological thriller and a brilliant political fable for our time … should be situated on the literary map between DeLillo and Coetzee.’ Russell Banks

ISBN 978-1-906120-31-3; £8.99 Publication date August 11, 2008

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September/October 2008 titles

Glenfarron - a novel by Jonathan Falla

Glenfarron is the tale of a rugged Scottish Highland landscape and the impact of three contrasted generations of outsiders: Polish aircrew at a British military hospital in the 1940s; young Glaswegians who inherit country property in the 1970s; African diplomats in 2006. There is a tragedy of illicit love, a psychological haunting, and a comedy of post-colonial hangovers.

These three histories overlap in a fine texture of place and memory, family passions and guilt. Nobody is left untouched, and by the end all have gone through startling changes. The wounded Polish servicemen arrive as heroes, and are then stunned by rejection. The Glaswegian couple are not what they seem, and their story – which begins with tenderness and creativity – implodes into horror. A collector of African artefacts draws his remote community into a farcical battle to defend their ‘heritage’ against foreigners. Jonathan Falla’s third novel is a triumph of storytelling, saturated with atmosphere and personality.

'...An intelligent, well-written, ambitious and often moving book. [Falla] writes well and vividly, and is no longer to be described as a promising novelist, but as an accomplished one. Glenfarron is a real achievement.' Allan Massie, The Scotsman

Praise for Jonathan Falla's previous novels:

‘It’s often quite easy to spot a first novel … Jonathan Falla’s Blue Poppies utterly confounds the stereotype. It is assured, self-confident, without a trace of self-indulgence.’ The Scotsman

‘A book saturated with loving detail, unpredictable and opulent.’ Roger Clarke, Sunday Times

‘Poor Mercy is a vivid, engrossing work of fiction.’ Michel Faber, The Guardian

‘Strongly plotted and electric with personality, Poor Mercy, which takes its title from The Pilgrim’s Progress, shows Jonathan Falla to be a mature storyteller in full command of his craft. Provocative and moving, it is an altogether memorable piece of writing.’ Scottish Review of Books

ISBN 978-1-906120-33-7; £9.99 Publication date September 15, 2008

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Piano Angel – a novel by Esther Woolfson

Following the recurrence of a brain tumour, Mark Blum chooses to return to his native Glasgow to die, leaving behind in New York his architectural practice, and bewildered friends and family. The processes of illness oblige Mark to re-assess his life and to re-establish contact with his brother Daniel, a successful photographer.

A legacy of bitterness and jealousy in the brothers’ relationship stems from their friendship as teenagers with a young Hungarian refugee, Anci Goldman. Anci, now a widow, reads of Mark’s death in a newspaper, and finds her feelings of loss inseparable from her own past and history. As she embarks on a commission to illustrate the work of Hans Christian Anderson she revisits her childhood post-Trianon Hungary, the precarious days of war, and the siege of Budapest in 1945.

As Daniel comes to terms with the aftermath, practical and political, of Mark’s death. Anci, encouraged by her sons, decides to contact him again after forty years of silence …

ISBN 978-1-906120-34-4; £9.99 Publication date October 20, 2008

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Meeting the Jet Man – a poetry collection by David Knowles

At some point soon after graduating in Philosophy and Physics at Oxford, David Knowles abandoned a long-standing ambition to become a philosopher – in order to train as a pilot in the RAF. During the whole of his twenty-five-year RAF career Knowles has been assigned to flying duties – they never managed to tie him to a desk. For most of that quarter-century he has been on front-line Tornado ground-attack squadrons, amassing over 3000 flight hours on one of the most potent airborne weapons systems of its day. From the closing years of the Cold War, through a decade of peace-keeping, the military victory in Iraq and then into its aftermath – Knowles has been strapped into the cockpit trying to make sense of what he is seeing, experiencing and participating in. Awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for actions during the opening phase of the invasion of Iraq, David Knowles has first-hand experience of aspects of modern warfare which have scarcely been touched upon in poetry before. This collection brings the sparse literature of aerial warfare bang up-to-date, aiming neither to glorify nor to apologise. Knowles’ dogged pursuit of himself in the guise of the Jet Man takes us into the aircraft with him, moving us beyond the CNN video-clips of surgical strikes and collateral damage. A twenty-first century reprise of High Flight or The Battle of Britain this is not. Meeting the Jet Man is about a young pilot growing up in thrall to these aviation icons – and following that vision into the heart of the high-tech killing machine that is modern warfare.

ISBN 978-1-906120-30-6; £8.99 Publication date October 20, 2008

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January-February 2009 titles

Grace — a novel by Alex Pheby

Grace tells the story of Peterman, an inmate at Greenwood Walls secure hospital, whose dramatic escape leaves him seriously injured, lost in the snow. Half-delirious, he encounters an old woman and a young girl who live deep in the nearby forest. Peterman stays with them as he convalesces, and an extraordinary relationship develops between the three tragically damaged people, until circumstances propel Peterman and the Girl back to the harsh world of the city. For Peterman, the Girl represents all the love, trust and beauty that has been missing from his life – she represents his second, and last, chance. How could he possibly survive her loss and to what lengths will he go to prevent it? In luminous, lyrical prose, Alex Pheby has created a powerful tale of love, danger and madness, in a world on the fringes of reality. With the urgency of hyper-realism and the rich strangeness of a fairy tale, Grace is an unforgettable work of literary fiction.

ISBN 978-1-906120-39-9; £9.99 Publication date January 14, 2009