The August Competition [closed]
A lovely selection of titles for three lucky Boohugger readers this month, courtesy of Headline, Simon & Schuster, Faber and Bloomsbury Publishing.
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A Serpent Uncoiled, by Simon Spurrier
A missing mobster. A bizarre spiritualist society. And three deaths, linked by a chilling forensic detail.
Working as an enforcer in London’s criminal underworld brought Dan Shaper to the edge of a breakdown. Now he’s a private investigator, kept perilously afloat by a growing cocktail of drugs. He needs to straighten-up and rebuild his life, but instead gets the attention of his old gangland masters and a job-offer from Mr George Glass. The elderly eccentric claims to be a New Age Messiah, but now needs a saviour of his own. He’s been marked for murder.
Adrift amidst liars and thugs, Shaper must push his capsizing mind to its limits: stalked not only by a unique and terrifying killer, but by the ghosts of his own brutal past.
- Read an extract on Bookdagger (strong language)
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Engage, by Paul Kimmage
‘Engage!’ was the last word Matt Hampson heard before dislocating his neck while in rugby training with other young England hopefuls.
On a cold, grey, overcast day in 2005, the cream of young English rugby gathered at a Northampton training ground. Matt Hampson, ‘Hambo’ to his mates, was one of them. He had dreamt of playing rugby for England ever since he had picked up a rugby ball at school. His skill, conviction and dedication had brought him to the cusp of realising that dream, in an England U21 team that included Olly Morgan, Toby Flood, Ben Foden and James Haskell.
But as the two sets of forwards engaged for a scrum on the training field, the scrum collapsed and Matt, who played tight-head prop, took the full force of two opposing sides. In that moment his life changed forever.
Paul Kimmage went to visit Matt as he recuperated, and wrote a piece for the Sunday Times which won him his third successive SJA sports interviewer of the year award. They struck up a friendship and here, Paul tells Matt’s whole story, in all its intimate detail. From the build-up to the dreadful day, to Matt’s recuperation, to his struggle to adjust to normal life again, to his family and friends, to other tragic incidents on the rugby field, to the response of the RFU, this is a story of terrible sadness yet unadorned triumph and joy, of anger yet of reconciliation and peace . . . of a boy who became a man.
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One Thousand and One Nights, by Hanan al-Shaykh
Erotic, brutal, witty and poetic, One Thousand and One Nights are the never-ending stories told by the young Shahrazad under sentence of death to King Shahrayar. Maddened by the discovery of his wife’s orgies, King Shahrayar believes all women are unfaithful and vows to marry a virgin every night and kill her in the morning. To survive, his newest wife Shahrazad spins a web of tales night after night, leaving the King in suspense when morning comes, thus prolonging her life for another day. Written in Arabic from tales gathered in India, Persia and across the great Arab empire, these mesmerising stories tell of the real and the supernatural, love and marriage, power and punishment, wealth and poverty, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate. Now adapted by Hanan al-Shaykh the One Thousand and One Nights are revealed in an intoxicating new voice.
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On Canaan’s Side, by Sebastian Barry
Narrated by Lilly Bere, On Canaan’s Side opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Dublin, at the end of the First World War, and follows her life through into the new world of America, a world filled with both hope and danger.
At once epic and intimate, Lilly’s narrative unfurls as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives she has touched. Spanning nearly seven decades, it is a novel of memory, war, family-ties and love, which once again displays Sebastian Barry’s exquisite prose and gift for storytelling.
The Questions:
To win, answer three simple questions, the answers to which can be found in a recent Bookhugger article…
- Question 1: What is the name of the brothel Madam in A Serpent Uncoiled?
- Question 2: What is the name of Shahrazad’s sister in One Thousand and One Nights?
- Question 3: In On Canaan’s Side, where does Lilly’s mother die?
Terms and conditions
- Closing date for entries: 1st September 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 from those correct entries received before the closing date. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookhugger.
- 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.
August 20th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
I love these competitions – they are a real challenge.
Thank you xx
August 22nd, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Fantastic books! I am keeping my fingers crossed!
August 27th, 2011 at 11:43 am
I still love reading real books, the feel of the paper as you turn the pages, the way you can get lost in the story. Love these competions.
August 27th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Love these type of competitions because it lets you read wonderful extracts of new books and helps make choices of what to buy/read
August 28th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Just read the extracts, they had me hooked, so really hope i win