Voice of theBooks | December 2020

Date:

As I am writing this, we are just about to come out of the second lockdown and are massively looking forward to welcoming customers back.
Exciting things have been happening in the world of publishing and bookselling. Firstly, we have the long-awaited memoir from Barack Obama which will be an excellent gift choice for many loved ones, the reviews so far have been excellent praising his warmth, honesty and ability to write. This year’s Booker Prize Winner
has just been announced and has gone to a deserving debut novelist Douglas Stewart, and for children JK Rowling has written a magical fairy tale ‘Ickabog’ which will delight many a child this Christmas.
Wayne

A Promised Land by Barack Obama £35, £5 off at Winstone’s

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the
story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
“Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. It is not merely that this book avoids being ponderous, as might be expected, even forgiven, of a hefty memoir, but that it is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Booker Prize Winner 2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart £14.99

1981. Glasgow. The city is dying. Poverty is on the rise. Agnes Bain had always dreamed of greater
things: a house with its own front door. But she and her three children find themselves trapped in a mining town decimated by Thatcherism. As Agnes increasingly turns to alcohol, her children try their best to save
her.
It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. But despite all his efforts to pass as a ‘normal boy’, everyone has decided that Shuggie is ‘no right’. Agnes wants to support and protect her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse even her beloved Shuggie.
Laying bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride, Shuggie
Bain is a blistering and heartbreaking debut.

Ickabog by J.K. Rowling £20, ages 7+

The Ickabog is coming… A mythical monster, a kingdom in peril, an adventure that will test two children’s bravery to the limit. Discover a brilliantly original fairy tale about the power of hope and friendship to triumph against all odds, from one of the world’s best storytellers. “this is zinging storytelling with bite and a twist”

JK Rowling asked children from around the country to submit drawings to illustrate this fabulous new book; Evelyn aged 9 from Bristol was one of the lucky winners.

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