{"title":"Mark Haddon","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"a-spot-of-bother","title":"A Spot of Bother","description":"\u003cp\u003eGeorge Hall doesn't understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. 'The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.' Some things in life, however, cannot be ignored.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eAt fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. Her family is not pleased - as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by all the planning and arguing the wedding has occasioned, which get in the way of her quite fulfilling late-life affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eUnnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eThe way these damaged people fall apart - and come together - as a family is the true subject of Mark Haddon's disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47263730598182,"sku":"9780224080460","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/59cb2abb-47b5-40e3-9b59-7a78fb7addec.jpg?v=1701084680"},{"product_id":"the-talking-horse-and-the-sad-girl-and-the-village-under-the-sea","title":"The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea","description":"\u003cp\u003eThat Mark Haddon's first book after \u003cem\u003eThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time\u003c\/em\u003e was a poetry collection perhaps came as a surprise to his legions of fans; that it is a collection of such virtuosity and range did not. The gifts so admired in Haddon's prose are in strong evidence here too - the humanity of his voices, the dark humour and the uncanny ventriloquism - but Haddon is also a writer of considerable seriousness, lyric power and surreal invention, and \u003cem\u003eThe Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e combines bittersweet love-lyrics, lucid and bold new versions of Horace, comic set-pieces, lullabies, wry postmodern shenanigans (including a note from the official board of censors on \"18\" certificate poetry), and an entire John Buchan novel condensed to five pages. Consolidating Haddon's reputation as our most powerful myth-weavers and spell-makers, \u003cem\u003eThe Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e also confirms him as one of the most outrageous and freewheeling imaginations at work in contemporary literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264421118246,"sku":"the-talking-horse-and-the-sad-girl-and-the-village-under-the-sea","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/c8cc57c3-a5ae-4cb8-9eec-a2c1fc9f9918.jpg?v=1701097297"},{"product_id":"dogs-and-monsters","title":"Dogs and Monsters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'A marvel of a collection' Kaliane Bradley, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Ministry of Time\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e'There is nothing more terrifying than the monster that squats behind the door you dare not open...'\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the bestselling author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ecome eight mesmerising stories exploring care, genetics, how we treat animals - and how we treat other people.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMark Haddon weaves ancient fables into fresh and unexpected forms, and forges new legends to sit alongside them. The myth of the Minotaur in his labyrinth is turned into a wrenching parable of maternal love – and of the monstrosities of patriarchy. The lover of a goddess, Tithonus, is gifted eternal life but without eternal youth. Actaeon, changed into a stag after glimpsing the naked Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about how humans use and misuse animals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom genetic engineering to the eternal complications of family, Haddon showcases how we are subject to the same elemental forces that obsessed the Greeks. Whether describing Laika the Soviet space dog on her fateful orbit, or St Anthony wrestling with loneliness in the desert, his astonishing powers of observation are at their height when illuminating the thin line between human and animal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'In sentences as precisely cut as paper sculptures, Mark Haddon fits ancient myth to the cruelties and wonders of the present' Francis Spufford, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eCahokia Jazz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49245782901030,"sku":"9781784745554","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/aa191291-5560-4381-87fd-adba54e09f3b.jpg?v=1721130187"}],"url":"https:\/\/goldsborobooks.pro\/collections\/mark-haddon.oembed","provider":"Goldsboro Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}