Top 5 Paperbacks
Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair
A personal record of our borough, where Sinclair has lived for forty years. It is a documentary fiction, seeking to capture the spirit of place, before Hackney succumbs to mendacious green papers, eco boasts, sponsored public art and the Olympic Park gnawing at its edges. A must-read for Hackney lovers.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
A ghost story from one of Britain's finest and best loved writers. It's really good and really really scary!
A Journey Through Ruins: the last days of London by Patrick Wright
Ahead of his talk at Pages on 25 February, this was already a best-seller. A unique evocation of Britain at the height of the Thatcher era, viewing the transformation of the country through the prism of everyday life in East London to create a penetrating portrait of its age.
East End Chronicles by Ed Glinert
Always a rum place, the industrial revolution replaced rose bushes and hedgerows with metallic roads and iron railways, mud banks gave way to deep-water docks and sweatshops. This book tells the story of east London. It reveals the underbelly of the history of the East End.
The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book discusses what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work.
Our current recommendationsPages of Hackney presents a round-up of the latest releases as well as offering gift suggestions and bringing your attention to some old favourites.
If you would like to place an order for these books or any others, please email us on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call on 020 8525 1452. Orders received before 5pm can arrive next day.
Spring/Summer Reading Recommendations
The Lacuna Barbara Kingsolver Pages' book club choice for July, this is Barbara Kingsolver's latest, Orange Prize-winning offering. Set in Mexico, we are introduced to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky and more. A fantastic and important book - make sure you read it this summer!
Then We Came to the End Joshua Ferris Joshua Ferris made a bit of stir with this debut novel in 2007 but I didn't get around to reading him until this year. It's a novel all about working in an advertising agency, which didn't really endear it to me, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I loved it. Deceptively simple comedy devices conceal a dark undertone.
The Truth about These Strange Times Adam Foulds
OK, those of you who've asked me for recommendations in the shop have probably already read (or rejected) this book. Adam Foulds is my favourite discovery or 2009 and hasn't yet been replaced for this year. Originally published as a poet - check out the Costa Award winning volume The Broken Word - it isn't hard to discern his poet's ear in his fiction. This is his first novel, which won the 2008 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. Enter the world of the unlikely coupling of a 10 year old maths genius and a simple, overweight Glaswegian on the run together.
So Many Ways to Begin Jon McGregor
Let me begin by saying that this is Pages' book group selection for March 2010, and that's not entirely because the two main characters share names with two of the people who work in this shop. Jon McGregor is a master of quiet understatement. You'll read a chapter, think not much has happened, and then realise the significance of what you've read. Unmissable. If you'd like to join the Pages of Hackney Book Group, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - our first meeting is on Monday 22nd March.
From A to X John Berger John Berger is one of our greatest living writers and he has just further demonstrated his great commitment to humanity by donating (not selling at a vast price as many of his contemporaries have done) his entire archive to the British Library. Ways of Seeing is a seminal text and 2008's Hold Everything Dear is a far more political critique of the world today. However, many people miss out altogether on his novels. G won the Booker Prize way back in 1972 and, also in 2008, Berger published From A to X, which like so many of his books, I would urge everyone to read. Come in and have a look and I'll tell you more...
Newly Published
Trespass Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain has been one of Page's customers favourites since we opened and her latest novel doesn't disappoint. Set among the hills and gorges of the Cevennes, the dark and beautiful heartland of southern France, this is a thrilling novel about diputed territory, sibling love and devastating revenge. Highly recommended by both Polly and Eleanor!
The Unnamed Joshua Ferris
The second novel from Joshua Ferris, who doesn't receive enough attention in my opinion. Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, ageing with the grace of a matinee idol. He loves his work. He loves his family. He loves his kitchen. And then one day he stands up and walks out on all of it. He cannot stop walking.
The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves Siri Hustvedt
Recommended by Oliver Sacks as "one of our finest novelists... [she] has long been a brilliant explorer of brain and mind. But recently this investigation has taken a more personal turn: two years after her father's death, while speaking about him in public, she suddently found herself seized by convulsions. What this 'hysteria,' a 'conversion reaction,' or a 'coincidental' attack of epilepsy?"
The Museum of Innocence Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk's latest novel tells the story of Kemal, the son of one of Istanbul's richest families, and of his obsessive love for a poor and distant relation, the beautiful Fusun, who is a shop-girl in a small boutique. This novel depicts a panoramic view of life in Istanbul and captures the identity crisis experienced by Istanbul's upper classes.
Must You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser draws on her meticulously kept diaries and recollections in this portrait of her long and celebrated marriage to the great playwright and local Clapton man, Harold Pinter. A compelling and fascinating insight into their relationship, and into Pinter's art as a writer.
Newly Published in Paperback
Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire Iain Sinclair
A personal record of our borough, where Sinclair has lived for forty years. It is a documentary fiction, seeking to capture the spirit of place, before Hackney succumbs to mendacious green papers, eco boasts, sponsored public art and the Olympic Park gnawing at its edges. A must-read for Hackney lovers.
The Little Stranger Sarah Waters
A ghost story from one of Britain's finest and best loved writers. It's really good and really really scary!
The Children's Book A. S. Byatt
Olive Wellwood is a famous writer. For each of them she writes a separate private book, bound in different colours and placed on a shelf. In their house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their cousins, children of a city stockbroker, are already inscribed with mystery.
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel
The 2009 Booker Prize winner is now out in paperback. A romp through Henry VIII's England. If you think you've been overwhelmed with Tudor reproductions on tv or via Philippa Gregory, I urge you to re-consider. I finally started reading it last night (11 March) and may be staying in this weekend to finish it...
The True Deceiver Tove Jansson
The first English translation, with an introduction by Ali Smith. In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly woman to prove she needs companionship, but what does she hope to gain from this? This is next on my books to read (after Colm Toibin's Brooklyn), so let me know what you think!
Top Sellers of June and July 2010
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson 2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell 3. Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire Iain Sinclair 4. The Lacuna Barbara Kingsolver 4. Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 5. The Spirit Level: Why equality is better for everyone Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson 6. The Girl Who Played With Fire Steig Larsson 7. If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew Mike Marqusee 8. First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Slavoj Zizek 9. A Gate at the Stairs Lorrie Moore 10. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Philip Pullman |
Featured
Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire
by Iain Sinclair
Once an Arcadian suburb of grand houses, orchards and conservatories, Hackney declined into a zone of asylums, hospitals and dirty industry. Persistently revived, reinvented, betrayed, it has become a symbol of inner-city chaos, crime and poverty. Now, the Olympics, a final attempt to clamp down on a renegade spirit, seeks to complete the process: erasure disguised as 'progress'. In this 'documentary fiction', Sinclair meets a cast of the dispossessed, including writers, photographers, bomb-makers and market traders.
£10.99