Böcker av Jane Rogers

Youth is wasted on the young, isn't it?

An intricate and revealing portrait of a dysfunctional marriage as it unravels in midlife crisis and estrangement, and the fallout from one summer, twenty-five years ago.

Winner of the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Book Award, 1996The year is 1788, the place New South Wales. Marine Lieutenant William Dawes has arrived in the Antipodes to build an observatory, reform the convicts and understand the Aborigines. He is a good man who will be subject to many temptations.In England, now, a child is born. His mother knows he has extraordinary powers; his father knows he is a helpless cripple. Olla, defending and nurturing her miraculous son, emerges as one of the strangest and most compelling characters of contemporary fiction.Jane Rogers intertwines the powerful dramas of the first year of the convict-colony with these present-day lives to make a rich and gripping novel.

The island is a place where things are not quite as they appear; a magical place where the murder of a reclusive woman is not a cut and dried case.'I thought I had come to the island to wrest control of my life back from the woman who had sabotaged it. But I was wrong. My mother was still writing my plot.'Nikki Black, intent on punishing the mother who abandoned her at birth, goes to the island with only one aim in mind: revenge. But her plans are confounded by the discovery that she has a brother. Not just any brother but a brother strangely possessed by their mother; a brother with a terrifying violent streak; an apparent simpleton whose head is filled with the stories of past islanders, Crofters, Vikings, Little People. A brother whose dangerous love and strange way of seeing the world transform Nikki's life.

In 1830, as the end of the world approached, the charismatic, hunchbacked prophet of a religious sect settled in Lancashire heeds the biblical injunction and chooses seven virgins 'for comfort and succour'. Basing her novel on the life of the real John Wroe, a leader of a group called the Christian Israelite Church, Rogers crafts an impeccable narrative, interweaving the diverse mindsets of some of the chosen women and the prophet during the nine months of complex interaction. Part morality tale, part history, packed with accurate details of early 19th century life, the stories of Leah, Joanna, Hannah and Martha unfold as they cope with the hypocrisy, blind beliefs and idealism of the sexually threatening prophet.Told with humour, irony and a generosity that embraces even the sinister Wroe, this is a compelling story of astonishing depth, elucidating religious idealism, the beginnings of socialism and the ubiquitous position of women as unpaid labourers.

Produced to honour the centenary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's birth, this anthology acts as a fund raiser for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.Original SF stories of precisely 2001 words from some of the biggest names in science fiction, including 10 winners of the Clarke Award and 13 authors who have been shortlisted, as well as non-fiction from thrice-winner China Miéville and former judge Neil Gaiman.Contents:IntroductionGolgotha - Dave HutchinsonThe Monoliths of Mars - Paul McAuleyMurmuration - Jane RogersOuroboros - Ian R MacLeodThe Escape Hatch - Matthew De AbaituaChildhood's Friend - Rachel PollackTakes from the White Hart - Bruce SterlingYour Death, Your Way, 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! - Emma NewmanDistraction - Gwyneth JonesDancers - Allen StroudEntropy War - Yoon Ha LeeThe Ontologist - Liz WilliamsWaiting in the Sky - Tom HunterThe Collectors - Adrian TchaikovskyI Saw Three Ships - Phillip MannBefore They Left - Colin GreenlandDrawn From the Eye - Jeff NoonRoads of Silver, Paths of Gold - Emmi ItärantaThe Fugue - Stephanie HolmanMemories of a Table - Chris BeckettChild of Ours - Claire NorthWould-Be A.I., Tell Us a Tale! #241: Sell 'em Back in Time! by Hali Hallison - Ian WatsonLast Contact - Becky ChambersThe Final Fable - Ian WhatesTen Landscapes of Nili Fossae - Ian McDonaldChild - Adam RobertsProvidence - Alastair Reynolds2001: A Space Prosthesis - The Extensions of Man - Andrew M. Butler (non-fiction)On Judging The Clarke Award - Neil Gaiman (non-fiction)Once More on the 3rd Law - China Miéville (non-fiction)

Youth is wasted on the young, isn't it?

Would you fight to save the world your parents have destroyed?