Showing results by publisher "Fourth Estate" in All Categories

"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." Gertrude Stein READ BY TOM BAIRD AND ARTHUR HOUSE. The world's a complex and bewildering place. Every day we are bombarded with far information than we can possibly hope to absorb. We don't have the time, energy...

The debut novel from the bestselling author of Women Talking, written with her signature wit and compassion. Lucy and her eight-month-old son live in a Winnipeg housing project filled with single mothers on the dole. Still dealing with her own mother’s sudden death, and new to the...

'Cat was everywhere at once, splayed in all directions but too soft to get in our way…' Discover this captivating, inventive debut, perfect for fans of The Guest Cat and If Cats Disappeared from the World. Every cat contains multitudes When a young couple accidentally come into possession of a...

From bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a taut and fascinating novel that examines the mysteries of human memory and personality In 1965, a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes, the subject of her study, a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the...

The debut novel by a British writer with nearly two decades of African experience – a compelling courtroom drama and a gritty, aromatic evocation of place, inspired by recent events. British lawyer Paula Shackleton is mourning a lost love when a small man in a lemon-coloured suit accosts her...

A story of class and corruption, sex and the Sixties, for fans of A Very English Scandal and The Trial of Christine Keeler Nik felt the mistake in his bones. The man in the snakeskin suit reached down towards him and pulled Nik upright by the collar of his coat. Nik didn’t see what happened...

Ten essays on how reading and meaningfully engaging with literature can help us live better, more purposeful lives. How do we live fully? How do we live successfully? Adrift in an anchorless world, we often worry about where we are heading. What meaning can we hope to find our modern, secular...

‘Nell Zink is a writer of extraordinary talent and range. Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know.’ Jonathan Franzen Virginia, 1966. The motionless deeps of the lake outside Stillwater College are being ruffled. Lee...

When Tim O’Brien became an older father, he resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him - a few scraps of paper signed ‘Love, Dad’. Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly ageing father, a man they might never really know. For the next 15 years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living. 

An uncanny, startlingly beautiful story collection steeped in the Cornish landscape, from the award-winning author of Diving Belles and Other Stories and Weathering. At the very edge of England, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the land and visitors flock in with the summer like seagulls, there is...

Hadley Freeman, Guardian features writer and author of the popular ‘Ask Hadley…’ column, presents the modern lady with twenty-three essays that remind us to BE AWESOME. ‘Being single is often awesome. You can leave a party when you want to, whether that be 9pm or 9am; you don't have to...

A tense and layered true-crime story about an all-American soldier boy turned bank robber Alex Blum was a clean-cut all-American kid with one unshakeable goal in life: to serve his country in the military. He was accepted into the elite Rangers regiment, but on the first day of his leave before...

Were our young adults mis-sold a future? In 1980s Britain, the line was that anything was possible if you worked hard enough, whether that be owning a home or going to university. Now, house prices are exorbitant and both student loans and childcare costs have skyrocketed. Birth rates are...

‘If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.’ The honesty and realism of Jonathan Franzen’s writings on climate have been widely denounced and just as widely celebrated. 

‘Unsparing and tender’ Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn ‘A brilliant novel from our most brilliant of writers’ Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon ‘A quietly stunning achievement’ Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous As the world changes around them, a family...

The Magic Border is the debut book from Mercury Prize-winning musician and poet Arlo Parks, combining never-before-seen poetry, song lyrics and beautiful, intimate images from collaborator, photographer Daniyel Lowden. Featuring twenty original poems, alongside an exclusive artist’s statement and the complete lyrics from her sophomore album My Soft Machine, this vital collection explores the queer experience, blackness, grief, trauma and love through the eyes of the remarkable young musician.

When Jozef is commissioned to paint a portrait of the younger daughter of Krakow's grand Oderfeldt family, it is only his desperate need for money that drives him to accept. He has no wish to indulge a pampered child-princess or her haughty, condescending parents - and almost doesn't notice Alicia's bookish older sister, Karolina. But when he is ushered by a servant into their house on Krakow's fashionable Bernadynska street in the winter of 1937, he has no inkling of the way his life will become entangled with the Oderfelts.

The debut book from writer and pioneer of digital culture Camille Charrière Ashamed is a painfully relatable, deeply honest and sharply funny memoir in essays from one of the most influential fashion voices in the world. From female friendship and the perils of dating to social media addiction...

The poignant, searching, haunting story of one family’s entanglement with twentieth-century history AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ‘Intensely involving … a fervent meditation on love and loss, with a remarkable cast of characters’ Financial Times ‘Rich, intriguing … Maybe Esther calls...

From the author of the bestsellers The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body, a new twist on a classic tale of passion. Set in Notting Hill, this modern day version of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, sees a banker’s wife awaken to the erotic possibilities of her life. It begins by describing...