
'In two I'll slice the hair-seat / of Helga's kiss-gulper'
In this epic tale from the Viking Age that ranges across Scandinavia and Viking Britain, two poets compete for the love of Helga the Fair - with fatal consequences.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.
The Icelandic Sagas were oral in origin and written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Other Icelandic Sagas available in Penguin Classics include Njal's Saga, Egil's Saga, Sagas of Warrior-Poets, Gisli Sursson's Saga and the Saga of the People of Eyri, The Saga of Grettir the Strong, The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale, The Vinland Sagas and Comic Sagas from Iceland.
All three of the Rosie novels made me laugh out loud. Ultimately the story is about getting inside the mind and heart of someone a lot of people see as odd, and discovering that he isn't really that different from anybody else
—— Bill Gates, 2020 Summer BooksWholly absorbing. Leaves you pining to be reunited with its characters every time you put it down - if you're able to
—— IndependentDon Tillman is the protagonist who keeps on giving. He is a gem, an empirical laser trained on human shortcomings, especially male ones, and even more especially his own. He is also utterly charming in his lack of guile and his belief in improvability . . . blissfully comic
—— Evening StandardSimsion is very smart at negotiating the line between a satire of the whole modern baby-rearing neurosis and drawing intriguing characters . . . this book is an intelligent piece of fun
—— The TimesOffers plenty more laugh-out-loud moments
—— GuardianTouching and entertaining
—— Mail on SundayQuirky and sweetly funny, you will want to join the Don Tillman fan club all over again
—— Sun on SundayGenuinely heartwarming, truly endearing, plenty of LOLs. You may end up a blubbing wreck
—— HeatThere is much to love in this comedy of errors
—— Sunday ExpressIf you loved The Rosie Project, I don't see how you could fail to love this funny, poignant sparkler of a novel too
—— Woman & HomeEqually heart-warming and hilarious
—— Good HousekeepingThe hilarious follow-up to The Rosie Project, one of the best novels I've read in ages. There's no sophomore slump here . . . It's a funny novel that also made me think about relationships. A sweet, entertaining, and thought-provoking book
—— Bill GatesPrime deck-chair material
—— The Times 'Our Favourite Comic Novels' on The Rosie ProjectAn impressive novel . . . In unadorned prose, Bezmozgis explores the dynamics of mercy, guilt and repentence
—— Sunday TimesAbsolutely gripping. Bezmozgis deftly explores themes of fidelity and morality
—— Mail on SundayThe Penguin Book of Russian Poetry ... dramatically changed the shape of Russian poetry. As you read on, the landscape becomes stranger and more unfamiliar, especially as you come to the late twentieth century. Almost 150 pages of post-war poetry, nearly thirty poets, most of them unfamiliar to many Englishspeaking readers. New names. A new poetic world. Our sense of Russian literature has changed dramatically in recent years
—— David HermanSumell’s compulsively readable novel in stories introduces a restless underachiever as irresistible as he is detestable, surely one of the most morally, violently, socially complex personalities in recent literature…. Sumell’s debut is humbly macho, provoking outrage, pity, and finally tenderness. Perhaps this is a book readers will hate to love, but only because it feels, like Alby, all too real
—— BooklistThere's a special alchemy here that you are going to want to witness...offhand and funny, and then the tender heart emerges from the shadows, so tender, and comes at us with a knife. Every story here is two: one the fun, the other the blade
—— Ron CarlsonFocusing on the single reality that human beings die, Sumell wakes up, and boy oh boy is he ever pissed off... Sumell, on Alby's behalf, fights back, and he fights dirty. Using cunning, reckless rage, and bravura comic timing, he kicks death's ass... Bystanders get hurt, the reader got hurt, but at least I was reminded that I was part of this whole shitty deal. You'd like to believe that there are consolations, and there are. Being sentient, for example. Being able to read, for instance. Having read Making Nice
—— Geoffrey WolffThe self-destructive narrator lashes out with reckless intimacy, random violence, and an often hilarious misplaced rage that shoots to wound rather than kill. What saves its victims and the reader is a naked rendering of a heart sorting through its broken pieces to survive. The result is an eloquent empathy, an uplift of hope-filled grace
—— Mark RichardMaking Nice will grab you by the throat, raise your blood pressure, and cause you to chortle in a crowd. It will also break your heart. When they're writing the history of the best characters of our time, Alby will be there, telling the others to get in line
—— Matthew Thomas , author of We Are Not OurselvesMaking Nice is a little bit special. A truly original portrayal of grief
—— Benjamin Judge , Book MunchMaking Nice has an anarchic humour and a goofy, ingenuous humanity that makes every page feel new… Some jokes…aren’t just funny, they are insightful, unexpected and hilarious. In its rampage to nowhere, Making Nice achieves the remarkable feat of making it feel better to travel hopelessly than to arrive.
—— Sandra Newman , Guardian






