The Seren summer sale is here for this week only, so curl up in a comfy armchair and have a browse on our website for some book bargains.
We have something for everyone – everything from poetry to novels, short stories, art, history and biography. And with so much choice, we thought you might like a helping hand choosing what to read next. Take a look below for our summer sale suggestions.
Best for… reading on the beach:
Foreign Bodies by Candy Neubert
£7.99 £3.99
Deep down she had always known that the world was like this. It was incredible to think of all those people in their offices in London still living their grey lives, while here in the Philippines… this. Life bursting out everywhere.
Fresh from the UK, Emma thinks she has fallen in love with a place, a person, and pursues the man of her dreams with a colonial zeal. But for all her poetic sensibilities, she seems unaware of the destruction she is capable of leaving in her wake.
Best for… getting lost in, on a long afternoon:
The Roots of Rock by Peter Finch
£9.99 £4.99
‘This is a vivid and engaging read that breathes new life into some great old music.’ – The Welsh Agenda
Peter Finch follows the trail of twentieth century popular music from a 1950s valve radio playing in a suburban Cardiff terrace to the reality of the music among the bars of Ireland, the skyscrapers of New York, the plains of Tennessee, the flatlands of Mississippi and the mountains of North Carolina. From Etta James to Bert Jansch, Taylor Swift to Ray Charles, Finch’s world of music is as broad as the last six decades allows.
Best for… poring over on a rainy day:
A Boat Called Annalise by Lynne Hjelmgaard
£9.99 £4.99
‘Hjelmgaard brings the specialist knowledge of an experienced sailor to her understanding of the varied rhythms demanded by her poetry. Reading her, I begin to appreciate what a sea-journey feels like.’ – London Grip
A Boat Called Annalise is wonderfully evocative of life on a sailboat; the book recalls a journey this much-travelled author took on a sailboat to the Caribbean and back to Europe with her husband. Hjelmgaard’s poems are beautifully poised, full of clear-eyed and frequently humorous observations.
Best for… livening up long journeys:
Advantages of the Older Man by Gwyneth Lewis
£7.99 £3.99
‘A little gem of a novella with hidden depths. This light-hearted story of a young woman suffering from an unrequited passion explores life, love, death and the fine art of poetry.’ – Pamreader
A light-hearted story exploring the strange case of a Swansea woman who is apparently possessed by the spirit of Dylan Thomas. Naturally all is not as it seems. The woman, who works in the Dylan Thomas Centre, meets a rather different Dylan from the one she knows by repute, one who doesn’t really fit in with the ghosts of other poets in heaven and is desperate to train himself to join the fitter shades of the long distance runners instead. Her own life, which has been lonely and sad, is completely transformed by the encounter.
Best for… broadening your mind:
The Dragon and the Crescent by Grahame Davies
£12.99 £6.49
‘This is a fully annotated work of scholarship as well as an always readable, sometimes exciting book that opens out a previously neglected aspect of Welsh – and British – culture over more than 400 pages’ – Western Mail
In the early twenty-first century, the relationship between the West and Islam has, due to recent political events, become the subject of intense study, curiosity and tension. But to understand contemporary anxieties, we need to trace their historical roots. The Dragon and the Crescent does this for one small European nation, revealing for the first time, the full and surprising story of the Welsh relationship with Islam.
Best for… curling up with on a dark night:
Masque by Bethany Pope
£9.99 £4.99
‘A novel richly layered with both gothic appeal and intellectual depth. In Masque Pope has initiated an important dialogue about the value of art to the human soul, and the psychological masks we wear as we pick our way through life.’ –Wales Arts Review
A richly gothic retelling of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera . A promising young singer is torn between two loves. One, her patron, is a rich vicomte, who offers her a life of luxury and light. The other, the mysterious Phantom of the Opera, is a dark enigma who offers to help her further her art. One is a man, the other a monster. But truth and life are twisted things. A life of empty privilege can be ugly and monsters can be kind. And art exerts its own demands.
This is not the story you think you know.
We hope you enjoy browsing our summer sale. The half price offer ends at midnight on bank holiday Monday, 29th July, so hurry and fill your library for less before it ends.
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memoir, which won the Wales Book of the Year, Non-Fiction Category (2016), recounts the author’s struggles with identity and history after she stumbles upon the collusion of her family in the displacement of Palestinians in 1948. Biography, travel writing and birdwatching are all weaved together in this fascinating re-evaluation of memory, family and cultural identity.
