Toby Litt

Always hated liner notes - always hated any kinda writing about rock'n'roll - I mean, why don't ya just shut up & listen to the music? - but here I am now, trying to catch in words what I think & feel about my good friend Clap & about these fine & dandy tales he's spun - tales of life on & off the road with a band called okay - a band in which I am lead singer - & in which Clap is drummer - not the world's greatest, technically, even he'd admit to that - but solid & deep & swingin' & truthful - & I suppose that's what I want to say this here book is - truth-full - if I'd written it, it would be all about high times & honeys - & Clap has gotten down that wild stuff - but he's also told the cold truth about the things you lose along the way - & I think he's done it just about as well as it coulda been done - & believe me, I should know: I wasn't there for most of it. [www.criticaliteraria.com] Stay cool, Syph

The end of the world doesn?t come with a bang or a whimper, but with the chukka-chukka of a helicopter coming into land... WELCOME TO HOSPITAL! Hospital is about blue murder and saving lives, having sex and surgery, falling in love and falling from a great height, crazy voodoo and hypnotic surveillance ? it?s about the last days and the first days. And the Rubber Nurse knows you?ve been very naughty and is going to teach you a well-deserved lesson. It?s the story of a lost boy wandering the corridors of a strange, antiseptic building, looking and hoping for a chance to get home. And also of a man who won?t wake up despite the best efforts of the hospital staff ? and while he sleeps, a threatening darkness settles over everything...

A vast generation ship hurtles away from a violent, troubled Earth to settle on a distant planet orbiting an alien star. Those who set out on this journey are long-since dead. Those who will arrive at their destination have yet to be born. For those who must live and die in the cold emptiness between the stars, there is only the claustrophobic permanence of non-being. Life lived in unending stasis. Then the unthinkable happens: two souls - Auguste and Celeste - rebel. And from the fruit of their rebellion comes a new and powerful force which will take charge of the ship's destiny. Journey into Space is science fiction at its most classic and beguiling: timeless, vast in scope and daring in execution.

Dear Friend, How would you like to come - this August - and stay, completely free, in a lovely seaside house I've rented? Good food and plenty of alcohol will also be provided, gratis. But (you knew there'd be a but) afterwards you must allow me to write up the events of the month in a semi-fictionalized form. (In other word: you promise not to sue) At the end of the book, you will have three full pages to say exactly what you like. If you think I've distorted things, told outright lies, etc., you can contradict me. I promise not to interfere editorially with your text in any way. Even if it is terribly libellous of me. I am inviting ten other people along, as well. Some of them you know; some of them you don't. I do so hope you can come. Love, Victoria.

Kumiko saw it first. A heart - a human heart - slithering down outside the window of a train travelling between London Bridge and Blackfriars. Someone must have thrown it out from a carriage in front. Kumiko is determined to find out who - and why.But Skelton was sitting next to Kumiko on the train and he saw it too, so he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Or he says he does, but really he just wants Kumiko back, because she's walked out on him, just like that, and left him heartbroken.Each for their own reasons, Kumiko and Skelton set out - separately - on a bizarre trail of discovery. Darting between dingy student pubs, the roofs of Borough Market and the corridors and car-parks of Guy's Hospital, they become embroiled in the seedy world of young medical students, until eventually the gossip and the stories lead them both to the hospital's infamous dissection lecturer - known behind his back as 'King Death' …

When Agatha and Paddy decide to leave London and buy a house on the coast, they are full of hope for themselves and their growing family. Three months later, when the builders move out and they move in, things look very different. A personal tragedy threatens to destroy all they have carefully built up and only a small miracle, it seems, will save them ...Ghost Story is a book both haunted and haunting, which asks how we can ever mourn something that hasn't lived. Emotionally resonant, beautifully crafted and ultimately redemptive, it is Toby Litt's finest, most mature novel to date.

Toby Litt meets Virginia Woolf meets Big Brother, this novel aims to be "the best beach book ever". Naughty, gossipy, with just the right ratio of tittle to tattle, it aims to provide the right amount of "oomph" while you're basting in your sun tan oil.

Why does Mr Kipling bake such exceedingly good cakes? Find out the answer to this and more in this journey into the epicentre of the consumer world. This is a place of weirdos and saddos, of over-indulgence in CDs and lottery tickets, and of Michel Foucault and a fluffy pink bunny rabbit.

When Agatha and Paddy decide to leave London and buy a house on the coast, they are full of hope for themselves and their growing family - baby Max and a new child on the way. Three months later, when the builders move out and they move in, things look very different. A personal tragedy threatens to destroy all they have carefully built up and only a small miracle, it seems, will save them. . . Ghost Story is a book both haunted and haunting, which asks how we can ever mourn something that hasn't lived. Emotionally resonant, beautifully crafted and ultimately redemptive, it will take you to the heart of suffering and desire.

The first bullet entered the body of my ex-girlfriend - gorgeous, slightly-famous Lily - two inches beneath her left breast. We were sitting at a table in Le Corbusier, Frith Street, Soho. As the first bullet went into her, I turned to look at the gunman. Wearing Day-Glo Lycra, a helmet, mirror shades and a pollution-mask - just like a bike courier - he had a black and silver gun in his hand. And he was shooting the woman I still loved ...

Desde 1983, la revista Granta elabora cada diez años una prestigiosa lista de jóvenes autores británicos que despierta todo tipo de rumores en los meses previos a su publicación. En la lista de 2003, sin embargo, habia un escritor de cuya presencia nadie dudaba: Toby Litt. En efecto, su obra gozaba ya de una solida reputacion, pues se la considera una de las mas renovadoras, y ha sido traducida en Francia, Holanda, Israel, Italia y Japon. Tras la buena acogida de Muerte en directo (Andanzas 490), y siguiendo la trayectoria literaria de este autor, Tusquets Editores se complace en presentar Canciones de los niños muertos, una magnifica y perturbadora novela sobre el lado oscuro de la infancia... y tambien de la madurez. Un verano, a finales de los años setenta, en un lugar perdido de la campiña inglesa, cuatro chavales, Matthew, Paul, Andrew y Peter, fundan lo que ellos denominan Pandilla y, como un juego mas, se preparan para luchar contra los rusos. Sin embargo, la tragica muerte de Matthew a causa de una meningitis desencadena, en efecto, la guerra, pero esta no sera la que planeaban librar en las calles y en los campos, sino que ahora tendra lugar en las propias casas de los miembros de Pandilla, en sus cocinas y sus dormitorios. Tras identificar a los abuelos de Matthew, que estaban a cargo de este, como el enemigo, la jerarquia del grupo se rompe, y la lucha por el liderazgo libera toda la capacidad de violencia y crueldad de los chicos. Litt compone de esta guisa un fascinante y estremecedor retrato de la primera adolescenciade los codigos compartidos, las ideas reprimidas y la brutalidad ocultacuyo terrible desenlace no dejara a nadie indiferente.

Toby Litt pertenece a la más reciente generación de narradores británicos. Su obra—que consta ya de dos libros de cuentos y tres novelas—ha sido recibida por la crítica inglesa como una de las más re

Victoria About, joven novelista de éxito, ha tenido una brillante idea para su próximo libro: inspirándose en Al faro, la novela de Virginia Woolf, ha convencido a su editora y confidente para reunir durante un mes, en una lujosa casa junto a la playa, a diez personas cuidadosamente seleccionadas. Asi, durante el mes de agosto, confluyen en la casa la propia Victoria y su novio; Simona, su editora, y su marido; Fleur, la hermana de Victoria; Alan, un intelectual marginal; Ingrid, amiga de Victoria, con su marido Henry y su hija Edith; Cecile, una mujer fascinante de la que Victoria espera ser su mejor amiga, y Marcia, una joven incapacitada de color. La experiencia de esta disparatada reality-novel puede empezar. Los problemas empiezan cuando la autora decide hacer trampas por su cuenta, como colocar camaras de vigilancia en las habitaciones de la casa. Ademas, la manipuladora se enfrentara a la creciente indignacion de unos cobayas poco dispuestos a respetar el guion; el acoso de los medios de comunicacion se hace insufrible y, por si fuera poco, un fantasma de verdad pulula a sus anchas por la casa.Redactado en forma de manuscrito anotado, Al encuentro de mi misma es una parodia divertidisima y cruel de los reality shows al estilo de Gran Hermano. Es tambien una satira feroz del mundo literario y una brillante reflexion sobre la novela contemporanea. Pero Toby Litt ha escrito, por encima de todo, un libro que habla de amistad, de sinceridad y de amor, en una caricatura de ese paisaje tan devastador del alma.