Tag: giveaway

Five years of And Other Stories – and your chance to win a subscription!

If you’ve read this blog for a while, or you follow me on social media, you will probably know that I’m a big fan of the publisher And Other Stories. I love that they champion adventurous writing; and I always know that I’m going to be engaged when I read one of their books. More than that: I’m now a reader who gravitates habitually towards works in translation, and AOS titles have played a key part in that evolution.

I received a letter from And Other Stories the other day, telling me that it was five years since they published their first title, Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (tr. Rosalind Harvey). Five years! In some ways, it seems that hardly any time at all has passed. Then again, AOS are so much a part of the landscape that it feels as though they’ve always been there.

Anyway, included with this letter were two gifts for long-time AOS subscribers like me. One was a limited-edition Down the Rabbit Hole mug (these are also available to buy here). The other was the chance to nominate someone to receive an And Other Stories gift subscription. I want to give that subscription to one of my blog readers.

The prize is a four-book subscription if you are based in the UK, or a two-book subscription if you’re outside the UK. If you’d like to enter, just leave a comment on this post. I will accept entries up to 23.59 UK time on Friday 9 December. I will then choose a winner at random; if you win, I will contact you by email and ask for your postal address, which I’ll give to And Other Stories. Your details will not be used for any other purpose.

Good luck!

Book giveaway: Win a set of Yoko Ogawa paperbacks

RevengeYoko Ogawa’s Revenge was one of my favourite books from this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The UK paperback edition of Revenge is out on Thursday 3 July, when Vintage Books will also be reissuing Ogawa’s backlist – Hotel Iris, The Diving Pool, and The Housekeeper and the Professor (all books translated by Stephen Snyder). To mark the occasion, and courtesy of Vintage, I have a set of the four paperbacks to give away to one lucky reader of this blog.

To enter, leave a comment on this post at any time up to 23.59 UK time on Sunday 6 July. Only one entry per person. Sorry, but the giveaway is open to UK residents only.

After the competition has closed, I will select a winner with a random number generator, and contact them for their postal address.

You can also read my blog reviews of Hotel Iris, The Diving Pool, and Revenge.

Book giveaway: Further Confessions of a GP

Further Confessions of a GPLast week, I wrote about how much I enjoyed reading Further Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels. Now, courtesy of those good folks at The Friday Project, I have ten copies of the book to give away to readers of this blog.

To give you more of a flavour of the book, I’ll quote the blurb:

Benjamin Daniels is back. He may be older, wiser and more experienced, but his patients are no less outrageous.Drawing on his time working as a medical student, a locum, and a general practitioner, Dr Daniels would like to introduce you to …

The old age pensioner who can’t keep his hands to himself.

The teenager convinced that he lost his virginity and caught HIV sometime between leaving a bar and waking up in a kebab shop.

A female patient Dr Daniels recognises from his younger, bachelor years.

The woman whose mobile phone turns up in an unexpected place.

A Jack Russell with a bizarre foot fetish.

Crackhead Kenny.

Not to mention the super nurses, anxious parents, hypochondriacs, jumpy medical students and kaleidoscope of care workers that make up Dr Daniels’ daily shift.

Further Confessions of a GP is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling Confessions of a GP. With more eyebrow-raising stories from the world of general practice, Dr Daniels will once again amuse, shock and surprise.

You’ll never feel the same about going to the doctor again…

Sound good? Here’s how you can win a copy:

  • To enter, simply leave a comment on this post.
  • Entries will be accepted up to 23.59 UK time on Sunday 9 February. Multiple entries will not be accepted. Sorry, but the giveaway is UK only.
  • After that time, I will use a random number generator to select ten winning entries.
  • If you are a winner, I will contact you via the e-mail address you leave with your comment, and ask for your postal address. I will then give your details to The Friday Project, who will send your prize to you directly. Your details will not be used for any other purpose.
  • I will publish the winners’ names, and the books they receive, on the blog.

Good luck!

Book giveaway: Three years of And Other Stories

Today is the third birthday of that fine publisher And Other Stories. I enjoy their books (see what I thought of Down the Rabbit Hole, Lightning Rods, All Dogs are Blue, and Quesadillas), and I love what they stand for as a publisher: they have a strong and distinctive editorial vision; they champion fiction in translation; they care about the design of their books. So when they asked if I’d like to host a giveaway to mark the anniversary, I was only too happy to say yes.

I wanted to choose a book from each of And Other Stories’ years, so the following titles are up for grabs:

shSwimming Home by Deborah Levy
Shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize

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.

zp

Zbinden’s Progress by Christoph Simon
Translated by Donal McLaughlin

Lukas Zbinden leans on the arm of Kâzim, as they walk slowly down the stairway towards the door of his old people’s home. Step by step, the irrepressible Lukas recounts the life he shared with his wife Emilie and his son.  Different in so many ways, what was the secret of their life-long love? And why is it so hard for him to talk to his son?

Gradually we get to know a man with a twinkle in his eye and learn his captivating story. Zbinden’s Progress is heart-rending, heart-warming and hilarious.

qjpvQuesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos
Translated by Rosalind Harvey

Anarchy in Mexico – a comic novel about screwed-up politics and families from the author of Down the Rabbit Hole.

Orestes’ mother prepares hundreds of quesadillas for Orestes and the rest of their brood. After another fraudulent election and the disappearance of his younger brothers Castor and Pollux, he takes to the road. With Quesadillas, Juan Pablo Villalobos serves up a madcap satire of politics, big families, and what it means to be middle class.

Here is how the giveaway will work:

  • To enter, leave a comment on this post, listing the three books in your order of preference.
  • Entries will be accepted up to 23.59 UK time on Saturday 12 October. Multiple entries will not be accepted. Sorry, but the giveaway is UK only.
  • After that time, I will use a random number generator to select three winning entries. The first winner automatically gets their first choice of book. The second winner will receive whichever of the two remaining titles is higher in their order of preference. The third winner will get the last remaining book.
  • If you are a winner, I will contact you via the e-mail address you leave with your comment, and ask for your postal address. I will then give your details to And Other Stories, who will send your prize to you directly. Your details will not be used for any other purpose.
  • I will publish the winners’ names, and the books they receive, on the blog.

Sound good? Then leave a comment and try your luck!

Various Authors giveaway winners

Thanks to everyone who entered to win a copy of Various Authors. I’ve pulled the names out of the hat (as it were), and the winners are:

  • Brionna
  • Ben Osborn
  • naomifrisby
  • Annoné Butler
  • Lois Bennett
  • HabibiBoo

I hope you all enjoy the anthology. If you weren’t lucky enough to win one yourself, though, you can buy Various Authors from The Fiction Desk, or take out a year’s subscription (highly recommended). And thanks once again to The Fiction Desk for kindly allowing me to give the books away.

Book giveaway: Various Authors from The Fiction Desk

To celebrate the launch of the Sunday Story Society, those good folks at The Fiction Desk have let me have six copies of Various Authors, their first anthology, to give away. It has twelve stories by authors including Charles Lambert and Danny Rhodes, and can be yours in exchange for a comment…

How to enter

If you’d like the chance to win a copy of Various Authors, leave a comment on this post, naming a favourite short story and saying why you like it so much. The explanation doesn’t have to be long, but I won’t accept your entry without one. You have until 11.59pm UK time on Sunday 29 July to enter, after which I’ll select six winners at random. The giveaway is open to anyone worldwide, but only one entry is allowed per person, and only on this comment thread.

And while you’re here, why not join with our current Sunday Story Society discussion, on Jennifer Egan’s Twitter story “Black Box”?

Giveaway: The Afterparty by Leo Benedictus

The Afterparty is a playfully self-referential novel about the events of one night, during a celebrity’s birthday celebrations; it spends enough time on the right side of the line between charming and annoying to be a very good read. The publishers ran several competitions in connection with the book, including one that would see two reader reviews quoted in the jacket of the mass-market paperback edition — and, as it turns out, one of those reviews is mine.

The first I knew of this was when a parcel arrived yesterday containing five signed copies of the new edition. One of them is personally inscribed to me, so of course I’ll be keeping that; but I want to give the other four away to readers of my blog. If you’d like the chance to win one, just leave a comment on this post.

A few notes:

  • Owing to postage costs, this giveaway is UK only.
  • Closing date for entries is 11.59pm (UK time) on Wednesday 29 February. I will select four winners at random shortly after.

Good luck!

 

Book giveaway: Numb by Sean Ferrell

Okay, time for something a little different on the blog: I have a spare (unread!) copy of Sean Ferrell’s novel Numb (reveiwed here), which I’d like to give away. To enter, just leave a comment below (NB. there’s no need to include contact information in the comment itself). I’ll accept entries until 23.59 (BST) on Saturday 23rd October, after which I will select a winner at random.

The giveaway is open to anyone worldwide; but only one entry is allowed per person. Good luck!

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