The charming and original story of a small, declining community's struggle to survive in the shadow of the all-consuming metropolis, from the multi-million copy bestselling author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.
All over the world, people sleep blissfully in cosiest of Traumbett beds, made in Hamburg. They've successfully cornered the market everywhere except Sweden, which is why the new owner, Konrad Kaltenbacher Jr, is desperate to expand there.
Seeing an opportunity to attract 800 new jobs back to her small, decaying town of Halstaholm, new district councillor Julia Bäck jumps right into spearheading a persuasive campaign with an unprecedented charm offensive to win the contract over Stockholm. A roundabout is hastily renamed in honor of Angela Merkel and adorned with black, red, and gold flowers; a German school is quickly established under the leadership of three elderly pensioners; and the town swimming pool is rapidly transformed into a beerhouse – it had been empty for years anyway!
Julia's tenacity impresses the German dream bed boss Konrad Jr… but has she bitten off more than she can chew?
ISBN 9780008767372
After a near-death experience and life-changing injury, twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno goes to stay with his uncle on his small coastal farm a few miles from St Ives in Cornwall. Their existence is a simple one, their lives measured by the span of the days, the rhythms of the seasons and the animals they care for.
But lurking in the shadows is local villain, Bill Sligo, who has designs on Jacob's farm and in particular on a field near the cliffs housing a derelict mineshaft. Wanting to repay his uncle’s kindness, Jago determines to find out what Bill Sligo is up to. Jago is still vulnerable though, and in pursuing Sligo he delves into a murky world that he is ill-equipped to deal with.
How far will Bill Sligo go to get what he wants? Jago doesn’t know it yet, but once again he is in grave danger.
Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, filled with shafts of light and darkness as well as the beauty and harshness of the Cornish landscape, Jago's journey is one of hope, renewal and resilience as he comes to terms with this, his second life.
ISBN 9781529155259