Independent Bookshop, Hackney, since 2008
by Eleanor //
Set in the modern American South, this novels resides in the shadow of the terrible, and very real, Parchman prison, documenting some harrowing atrocities. An unflinching examination of race, poverty and love - my novel of the year.
by Eleanor //
Serenity is supposed to be one of the main characters in old-fashioned femininity’s cultural personality. She is serene and she endures. Yes, she is so talented at enduring and suffering they might even be the main characters in her story. There were not that many women I knew who wanted to put the phantom of femininity together again. What is a phantom anyway? The phantom of femininity is an illusion, a delusion, a societal hallucination. She is a very tricky character to play and it is a role (sacrifice, endurance, cheerful suffering) that has made some women go mad. This was not a story I wanted to hear all over again. It was time to find new main characters with other talents.
We were extremely fortunate to welcome novelist, playwright and poet, Deborah Levy, last year when she read from her Man Booker-shortlisted novel, Hot Milk. To celebrate the publication of her new memoir, The Cost of Living, we're making her our Author of the Month for April.
After dismantling her marriage, Levy starts again age 50, deliberately not choosing to be a minor character as a wife and mother, having built a home that is arranged for everyone except herself. Without pity Levy describes her transition to a new life outside of what is expected, despite patriarchy's need to diminish her powers. Levy writes sparingly but knocks you sideways with surreal and witty metaphors which illuminate her internal world, always with an understated wisdom and honesty.
Following the acclaimed Things I Don't Want to Know, Deborah Levy returns to the subject of her life in letters. The Cost of Living reveals a writer in radical flux, considering what it means to live with value and meaning and pleasure. This perfectly crafted snapshot of a woman in the process of transformation is as distinctive, wide-ranging and original as Levy's acclaimed novels, an essential read for every Deborah Levy fan.
Two women arrive in a village on the Spanish coast. Rose is suffering from a strange illness andher doctors are mystified. Her daughter Sofia has brought her here to find a cure with the infamous and controversial Dr Gomez - a man of questionable methods and motives. Intoxicated by thick heat and the seductive people who move through it, both women begin to see their lives clearly for the first time in years.
Through the opposing figures of mother and daughter, Deborah Levy explores the strange and monstrous nature of womanhood. Dreamlike and utterly compulsive, Hot Milk is a delirious fairy tale of feminine potency, a story both modern and timeless.
'Things I Don't Want to Know' is a response to George Orwell from one of our most vital contemporary writers. Taking Orwell's famous list of motives for writing as the jumping-off point for a sequence of thrilling reflections on the writing life, this is a perfect companion both to Orwell's essay and to Levy's own oeuvre.
'In her powerful rejoinder to Orwell, Deborah Levy responds to his proposed motives for writing - 'sheer egoism', 'aesthetic enthusiasm', 'historical impulse' and 'political purpose' - with illuminating moments of autobiography. A vivid, striking account of a writer's life, which feminises and personalises Orwell's blunt assertions.' - Spectator
A group of hedonistic West European tourists gather to celebrate Christmas in a remote French chateau. Then an Englishwoman is brutally murdered, and the sad, eerie child Tatiana declares she knows who did it.
The subsequent inquiry into the death proves to be more of an investigation into the nature of love, insatiable rage and sadistic desire. The Unloved offers a bold and revealing look at some of the events that shaped European and African history, and the perils of a future founded on concealed truth.
As he arrives with his family at the villa in the hills above Nice, Joe sees a body in the swimming pool. But the girl is very much alive. She is Kitty Finch: a self-proclaimed botanist with green-painted fingernails, walking naked out of the water and into the heart of their holiday. Why is she there? What does she want from them all? And why does Joe’s enigmatic wife allow her to remain?
Profound and thrilling, Swimming Home reveals how the most devastating secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves.
How does love change us? And how do we change ourselves for love – or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man; in London, a bird mimics an old-fashioned telephone; in adland, a sleek copywriter becomes a kind of shaman. These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.
Diary of a Steak, Levy’s witty take on the hysteria surrounding ‘Mad Cow Disease’ is both highly amusing and deeply disturbing. Written in the form of the diary of a steak in a butcher’s shop, the narrative charts a progression into madness. Using typographical errors, omissions and forays into other languages, Deborah Levy describes a ‘mind that has been symbolically culled’.
Referencing Freud, psychoanalysis, Jean-Martin Charcot, the English pride in madness and the herd mentality, Diary of a Steak is both thought-provoking and poignant.
Early Levy comprises two pioneering early works by Man Booker-shortlisted writer Deborah Levy.
BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS
Lapinski, a manipulative and magical Russian exile, summons forth a number of highly contemporary urban pilgrims. Through them, Levy explores broken dreams and self-destructive desires in a shimmering, dislocated allegory of its times.
SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY
Like her namesake Jack Kerouac, J.K. is always on the road, travelling Europe with her typewriter in a pillowcase. From J.K.'s irreverent, ironic perspective, Levy charts a new, dizzying, end-of-the-century world of shifting boundaries and displaced peoples.
by Eleanor //
We're beyond excited to announce that, thanks to the masses of support from our customers, Pages of Hackney has won the regional finals of Independent Bookshop of the Year 2018! This follows on the heels of our manager Jo's success last year in being Highly Commended for Individual Bookseller of the Year.
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us and told the Booksellers Association how you feel about the shop. We were genuinely overcome by how many of you did so, and this will have made all the difference. If you missed the first deadline, there’s still a chance! We’re now on the final shortlist for the national Bookseller of the Year award and they’re still taking votes and comments until 29 March. This is not a popularity vote, but rather an opportunity for you to say why the shop is special to you. We strive to make Pages a bookshop for everyone and we're very proud to still be here and going strong after nearly ten years.
When we first opened in 2008, our goal was to be a cultural community hub and we’re always working to build on that vision. Our priority is to be as friendly, welcoming and accessible as we can and to give everyone who visits as much time as they need from us. It’s also important to us to support the issues and authors we believe in.
Finally, we will be celebrating our ten year anniversary with a party for all our customers in September, so watch out for details of free readings and drinks!
Pages of Hackney
70 Lower Clapton Road
London
E5 0RN
+44 (0) 20 8525 1452
info@nullpagesofhackney.co.uk
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
