{"title":"Books by Catherine Chidgey","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781787703711","title":"Remote Sympathy: LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSHORTLISTED: THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLONGLISTED: WOMENS' PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA NOVEL OF DEVASTATING BEAUTY SET IN BUCHENWALD DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A powerful and disturbing study in terrible lies and the human need to believe them.\" \u003cbr\u003eANNIE PROULX\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving away from their lovely apartment in Munich isn’t nearly as wrenching an experience for Frau Greta Hahn as she had feared. Their new home is even lovelier than the one they left behind and life in Buchenwald would appear to be idyllic. Lying just beyond the forest that surrounds them is the looming presence of a work camp. Frau Hahn’s husband, SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn, has been assigned as the camp’s administrator.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Frau Hahn’s poor health leads her into an unlikely and poignant friendship with one of Buchenwald’s prisoners, Dr Lenard Weber, her naïve ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr Weber had invented a machine believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might save a life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, \u003cem\u003eRemote Sympathy\u003c\/em\u003e compels us to question our continuing and wilful ability to look the other way in a world that is in thrall to the idea that everything–even facts and morals–is relative.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57688205295989,"sku":"9781787702660","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787702660.jpg?v=1792686130"},{"product_id":"9781787705081","title":"Pet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"FAULTLESS.\" —\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e *** \"A SLY PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER.\" —\u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn’t quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, \u003cem\u003ePet\u003c\/em\u003e will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: \u003cem\u003eThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Go-Between\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHeavenly Creatures\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eAu Revoir Les Enfants \u003c\/em\u003eamong them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43595601215666,"sku":"9781787705081","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787705081.jpg?v=1786025633"},{"product_id":"9781787704619","title":"The Axeman’s Carnival","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this darkly comic work of literary satire by New Zealand’s most acclaimed and best-selling novelist Tama, a talking magpie and social media influencer, is the sole witness to a marriage in freefall.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie. ‘If it keeps me awake,’ says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer in the middle of a years-long drought, ‘I’ll have to wring its neck.’ But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama’s fame is growing, and with it, his earning potential. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds – and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them – bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama is the star of this story. And although what he says to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells makes disturbingly perfect sense. \u003cem\u003eThe Axeman’s Carnival\u003c\/em\u003e is Catherine Chidgey at her finest – comic, profound, poetic and true.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43605846163634,"sku":"9781787704619","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787704619_df2f0af2-160b-438c-a5d4-a5f62e6d895b.jpg?v=1786025613"},{"product_id":"9781399823616","title":"The Book of Guilt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMORNING, AFTERNOON, NIGHT. THE MOTHERS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING . . .\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eOriginal, dark, clever and compelling\u003c\/b\u003e' Mary Ann Sieghart, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Authority Gap\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This is a \u003cb\u003ecompelling and terrifying\u003c\/b\u003e novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. \u003cb\u003eNo one writes children better than Chidgey\u003c\/b\u003e. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together' Elizabeth Cook, author of \u003ci\u003eLux\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEngland, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government's Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.\u003cbr\u003eTheir lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.\u003cbr\u003eAnd their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGradually surrendering its dark secrets, \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Guilt \u003c\/i\u003eis a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682688672117,"sku":"9781399823647","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":55206289015157,"sku":"9781399823616","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399823647_e0f66803-33c8-4929-ac4c-c78e45e077fe.jpg?v=1792511578"},{"product_id":"pet","title":"Pet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"FAULTLESS.\" —\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e *** \"A SLY PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER.\" —\u003cem\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. 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Sieglinde lives in the affluent ignorance of middle-class Berlin. Erich is an only child living a lush rural life, aware that he is shadowed by strange, unanswered questions. Both children watch as their parents become immersed in the puzzling mechanisms of power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawn together as Germany’s hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, the children find temporary refuge in an abandoned theatre amidst the rubble of Berlin. 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Dumped by her boyfriend, fired from her job and estranged from her parents, Hazel Whitlock signs up for a sideshow act in Blackpool. The seaside resort has revived all the cancelled old favourites: the Wonder Midgets, Britain's Fattest Boy, the South Sea Cannibals . . . and the Starving Bride. On display in the iconic Blackpool Tower, with a ravenous lion prowling the enclosure, Hazel must lie in silence while spectators view her and pass judgement on her body. Time compresses and warps in this strange space, and the past returns to Hazel with full and shocking force. As the days tick down and the Showman entices ever larger crowds through the door, Hazel's old friend Gilda becomes increasingly worried for her welfare. Councillor Frank Marsh, meanwhile, investigating the stability of the Tower, is alarmed at his findings - but his concerns fall on deaf ears.   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