2012 CATALOGUE « Two Roads

TWO ROADS CATALOGUE 2012

TWO ROADS

Two Roads is a new imprint of Hodder & Stoughton which started publishing in 2011.

Our mantra is stories voices places lives – we publish strong narrative-led fiction and non-fiction. Books of distinction published in a distinctive way. Books that are compelling and wonderfully written, books that you want to press into the hands of your friends and say . . . you must read this.

Oh and in answer to those who’ve asked why is it called Two Roads? It takes its name from the famous Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken (you know, the one about two roads diverging in a wood and a road less travelled). I don’t know about less travelled, but we’re hoping to find a direct path to readers and bring our books to their attention, by doing things a little differently. Please visit our website and see what’s happening, there’s lots more information on the books there – maybe even send us a comment.

I hope you enjoy what we have coming up in 2012.

Lisa Highton

Publisher

February

THE SEA ON OUR SKIN

Madeleine Tobert

A debut novel from an exceptional writer. . .

In a small village on a remote island in the South Pacific, a young girl is married to a man who is her opposite in every way. The Sea on Our Skin is the lyrical story of their marriage, their children and the past that haunts them all. It’s about how those children live with what they inherit: a love of the island’s sea, its danger and magic, all told with the dreamlike rhythms of an island storyteller.

Madeleine Tobert was born in Scotland and travelled to the South Seas when she was just seventeen. She’s found it hard to leave ever since and now lives in Auckland with her Fijian husband.

February

FARANGI GIRL: a memoir of my mother, parties with princes and growing up in Iran

Ashley Dartnell

A complex yet loving mother-daughter relationship set against the dramatic backdrop of the Shah’s Iran. Ashley’s childhood, with her glamorous but flawed parents, was an extraordinary mixture of privilege, lies and betrayals. An emotional rollercoaster and a love story, brilliantly observed.

both a fascinating and a heartbreaking insight into a childhood interrupted . . . gripping.

Cosmopolitan

Ashley Dartnell graduated from Bryn Mawr and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in London with her husband and three children. This is her first book.

March

SIGNS OF LIFE

Natalie Taylor

A heart-breaking, funny and life-affirming story of a young woman moving from wife to widow to mother. This is an indie movie brought to life – one to recommend to friends, saying, ‘you have to read this!’

See if you can stop after page one.

Elizabeth Berg

Profound yet funny, painful yet hopeful. I couldn’t put it down.

Gretchen Rubin

Natalie lives in Michigan, where she is a teacher and a mother.

March

A KIND OF PRAYER: 100 years of wisdom from Alice Herz-Sommer, the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor

Caroline Stoessinger

Some of the valuable life lessons from Alice’s extraordinary and long life. A testament to both the human spirit and the power of music. The story of one woman’s lifelong determination – in the face of some of the worst evils known to man – to bring good to the world.

I am still grateful for life. Life is a present.

Alice Herz-Sommer

May

DREAM NEW DREAMS

Jai Pausch

Dream New Dreams is the remarkably frank and deeply moving memoir about death, dying and the grieving process, by the wife of the late Rnady Pausch. During Randy’s 23-month illness, Jai took on the responsibilities of being his carer and now lives with their three young children in Virginia.

I asked Jai what she has learned since my diagnosis. Turns out, she could write a book titled Forget the Last Lecture; Here’s the Real Story.

Randy Pausch, in The Last Lecture

Also available from Two Roads, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

April

THE VET: the big wild world

Luke Gamble

More heart-warming tales from Luke Gamble, a young vet from the West Country. With his new practice and his overseas charity, Luke’s busy from the New Forest to Gambia – a very 21st century vet.

Luke Gamble is a West Country treasure . . . like Dr Doolittle but real!

Martin Clunes

A gamut of emotions; laughter, serious weeping, but always enjoyable.

Clarissa Dickson Wright

Also available from Two Roads, The Vet: my wild and wonderful friends. In paperback November 2011.

May

THE PUPPY DIARIES: raising a dog named Scout

Jill Abramson

What happens when a smart New York Times editor decides to fill her empty nest with a puppy? Jill Abramson’s New York Times blog about Scout, her golden retriever puppy, was hugely popular. Think Nora Ephron meets Marley & Me. . .

Jill Abramson was recently made Executive Editor of The New York Times and lives in New York and Connecticut.

March

THE READING PROMISE: 3,218 nights of reading with my father

Alice Ozma

When Alice was little, she and her father decided to set themselves a task of reading for 100 consecutive nights. They sailed through that challenge and went on to notch up 3,218 nights without a break. As Alice says, the book is a quilt of the stories of their lives and a special bond between a father and a daughter.

Ozma’s exuberant paean to the joys and rewards of reading – and being read to – is a must-read treasure for parents, especially, and bibliophiles, certainly.

Booklist (starred review)

Ozma has written a thoroughly entertaining book with skill, intelligence and a delightful sense of humor.

Washington Post

Alice Ozma, named after her two favourite literary characters, lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

July

AFTER CLEO: a mother, a daughter and the insane family cat

Helen Brown

After Cleo is Helen Brown’s frank and often funny account of age and stage – a power struggle between a mother and a daughter, some major life events – from illness to weddings – and the added bonus of the insane family cat called Jonah.

Some say your previous cat chooses your new feline. If so, what in cat heaven’s name was our beloved Cleo thinking when she sent us a crazy cat like Jonah?

(excerpted from After Cleo)

Helen’s previous book, Cleo, was in international bestseller and is currently being made into a film. It is also available from Two Roads.

August

THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB: a book club with just two members – a mother and a son

Will Schwalbe

The moving and wide-ranging story of Will and his mother Mary Anne and their special book club in the last two years of her life undergoing cancer treatment. Joyous and inspiring, this unique book club discussion shows how books shape and define us and help make sense of it all.

If you love books about books, enjoyed The Last Lecture, Tuesdays with Morrie and Reading Lolita in Tehran, then The End of Your Life Book Club is for you…

Here are just some of the books they read and shared and loved:

A Fine Balance

A Long Way Gone

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Brooklyn

The Year of Magical Thinking

Crossing to Safety

St Joan

The Uncommon Reader

The Last Lecture

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Price of Salt

Mary Anne Schwalbe (pictured above) died in 2009. She was a tireless humanitarian worker whose last project was helping to build libraries in Arghanistan. Will Schwalbe worked in New York publishing for many years before founding the website Cookstr.

GREAT FICTION, ALREADY PUBLISHED…

Sara Gruen’s phenomenal bestseller Water for Elephants has now sold almost 5 million copies worldwide and is a book group favourite as well as a highly successful film. Her new novel, Ape House, is another study of our relationship with animals, this time with our nearest animal relative, the bonobo.