The February Competition [closed]
Jump head-first into your reading with a massive crop of fabulous fiction both contemporary and historical, tension-filled biography, studies of human behaviour, a horrifying alternate history, and signed copies of a not-so-old award winning favourite for adults and kids…
For three readers we have bumper book bundles of the latest titles, courtesy of Bookhugger’s publishers…
- Wilful Blindness, by Margaret Hefferman (Simon & Schuster UK)
- The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, signed copies (Bloomsbury)
- The Widow’s Tale, by Mick Jackson (Faber & Faber)
- 127 Hours, by Aron Ralston (Simon & Schuster UK)
- Monsieur de Montespan, by Jean Teulé (Gallic Books)
- The Hand That First Held Mine, by Maggie O’Farrell (Headline)
- SUM, by David Eagleman (Canongate)
- The Afrika Reich, by Guy Saville (Hodder & Stoughton)
- plus a Bookhugger mug each of course!
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Wilful Blindness, by Margaret Hefferman
In the 2006 case of the US Government vs Enron, the presiding judge instructed the jurors to take account of the concept of wilful blindness as they reached their verdict about whether the chief executives of the disgraced energy corporation were guilty. It was not enough for the defendants to say that they did not know what was going on; that they had not seen anything. If they failed to observe the corruption which was unfolding before their very eyes, not knowing was no defence. The guilty verdict sent shivers down the spine of the corporate world.
In this book, distinguished business woman and writer, Margaret Heffernan, examines the phenomenon of wilful blindness. Drawing on a wide array of sources from psychological studies and social statistics to interviews with the relevant protagonists she examines what it is about human nature which makes us so prone to wilful blindness. Taught from infancy to obey authority, and absorbing the importance of selective vision as a key social skill, humans exacerbate their tendency to become institutionalised by joining organisations which are run by like-minded people. Wilful Blindness looks at how hard-work and the information overload of the modern workplace add to the problem. And examines why whistleblowers and Cassandras are so very rare.
Ranging freely through history and from business to science, government to the family, this engaging and anecdotal book will explain why wilful blindness is so dangerous in the globalised, interconnected world in which we live, before suggesting ways in which institutions and individuals can start to combat it. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Margaret Heffernan’s thought provoking book will force open our eyes.
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The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
Winner of the 2010 Cilip Carnegie Medal, the Newbery Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Book Prize 2009, and shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award. Stunningly illustrated by Chris Riddell, who brings the ghouls, ghosts and hero wonderfully to life in this fantastic ghost adventure story, laced with menace and humour.
When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him – after all, he is the last remaining member of the family.
A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod’s life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?
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The Widow’s Tale, by Mick Jackson
A newly widowed woman has done a runner. She just jumped in her car, abandoned her (very nice) house in north London and kept on driving until she reached the Norfolk coast. Now she’s rented a tiny cottage and holed herself away there, if only to escape the ceaseless sympathy and insincere concern.
She’s not quite sure, but thinks she may be having a bit of a breakdown. Or perhaps this sense of dislocation is perfectly normal in the circumstances. All she knows is that she can’t sleep and may be drinking a little more than she ought to.
But as her story unfolds we discover that her marriage was far from perfect. That it was, in fact, full of frustration and disappointment, as well as one or two significant secrets, and that by running away to this particular village she might actually be making her own personal pilgrimage.
By turns elegiac and highly comical, The Widow’s Tale conjures up this most defiantly unapologetic of narrators as she begins to pick over the wreckage of her life and decides what has real value and what she should leave behind.
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127 Hours, by Aron Ralston
On Sunday April 27, 2003, 27-year old Aron Ralston set off for a day’s hiking in the Utah canyons. Dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, Ralston, a seasoned climber, figured he’d hike for a few hours and then head off to work.
40 miles from the nearest paved road, he found himself on top of an 800-pound boulder. As he slid down and off of the boulder it shifted, trapping his right hand against the canyon wall. No one knew where he was; he had little water; he wasn’t dressed correctly; and the boulder wasn’t going anywhere. He remained trapped for five days in the canyon: hypothermic at night, de-hydrated and hallucinating by day. Finally, he faced the most terrible decision of his life: braking the bones in his wrist by snapping them against the boulder, he hacked through the skin, and finally succeeded in amputating his right hand and wrist.
The ordeal, however, was only beginning. He still faced a 60-foot rappell to freedom, and a walk of several hours back to his car – along the way, he miraculously met a family of hikers, and with his arms tourniqued, and blood-loss almost critical, they heard above them the whir of helicopter blades; just in time, Aron was rescued and rushed to hospital.
Since that day, Aron has had a remarkable recovery. He is back out on the mountains, with an artificial limb; he speaks to select groups on his ordeal and rescue; and amazingly, he is upbeat, positive, and an inspiration to all who meet him. This is the account of those five days, of the years that led up to them, and where he goes from here. It is narrative non-fiction at its most compelling.
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Monsieur de Montespan, by Jean Teulé
The Marquis de Montespan and his new wife, Athénaïs, are a true love-match- a rarity amongst the nobility of seventeenth-century France.
But love is not enough to maintain their hedonistic lifestyle, and the couple soon face huge debts. When Madame de Montespan is offered the chance to become lady-in-waiting to the Queen at Versailles, she seizes this opportunity to turn their fortunes round.
Too late, Montespan discovers that his ravishing wife has caught the eye of King Louis XIV. As everyone congratulates him on his new status of cuckold by royal appointment, the Marquis is broken-hearted. He vows to wreak revenge on the monarch and win back his adored Marquise.
With this extraordinary novel, Jean Teulé has restored a ridiculed figure from history to the rightful position of hero…
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The Hand That First Held Mine, by Maggie O’Farrell
A gorgeously written story of love and motherhood, this is a tour de force from one of our best loved novelists.
When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don’t tally with his parents’ version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.
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The Afrika Reich, by Guy Saville
1952. It is more than a decade since the Dunkirk fiasco marked the end of Britain`s war and an uneasy peace with Hitler.
In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle and jet fighters patrol the skies. Britain and the Nazis have divided the continent but now the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg – architect of Nazi Africa – threaten Britain`s ailing colonies.
In England, ex-mercenary Burton Cole is offered one last contract. Burton grabs the chance to settle an old score with Hochburg, despite his own misgivings and the protests of the woman he loves. If Burton fails, unimaginable horrors will be unleashed in Africa. No one – black or white – will be spared.
But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton is forced to flee for his life.
His flight takes him from the unholy killing ground of Kongo to SS slave camps and on to war-torn Angola, finally reaching its thrilling climax in a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of the Reich itself.
Guy Saville has combined meticulous research with edge-of-the seat suspense to produce a superb novel of alternate history.
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SUM, by David Eagleman
In this startling book, David Eagleman shows us forty possibilities of life beyond death. With wit and humanity, he asks the key questions about existence, hope, technology and love. These short stories are full of big ideas and bold imagination. Eagleman’s next novel, Incognito, is published in April.
The Questions
To win, answer three question, the answers to which can be found somewhere on Bookhugger…
- Question 1: Who is the hero of 127 Hours author, Aron Ralston?
- Question 2: Whilst Jean Teulé was researching Monsieur de Montespan, how many toilets served 5,000 people in the Chateau de Versailles?
- Question 3: Who, according to Maggie O’Farrell, is the third character in The Hand That First Held Mine, a character that does not live or breathe or speak?
Terms and conditions
- Closing date for entries: 5th March 2011.
- Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
- Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
- The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
- Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookhugger. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The winner’s name(s) may be published on the Bookhugger website after the closing date of the competition.
- The competition is not open to Bookhugger employees and their families, or to employees of Bookhugger publishers and their families.
February 21st, 2011 at 5:20 pm
What a fascinating broad selection.
I’d have a go at all of them although I have only heard of a few.
February 22nd, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Great selection, I love books!
February 26th, 2011 at 6:02 am
[...] latest monthly competition has no less than eight titles including a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, [...]