Books published by publisher Corsair

The Barnum Museum is a combination waxworks, masked ball, and circus sideshow masquerading as a collection of short stories. Within its pages, note such sights as: a study of the motives and strategies used by the participants in the game of Clue, including the seduction of Miss Scarlet by Colonel Mustard; the Barnum Museum, a fantastic, monstrous landmark so compelling that an entire town finds its citizens gradually and inexorably disappearing into it; a bored dilettante who constructs an imaginary woman - and loses her to an imaginary man! - and a legendary magician so skilled at sleight-of-hand that he is pursued by police for the crime of erasing the line between the real and the conjured.

1960 in America and thirteen-year-old Sophie is frustrated. Her mother has sent her to spend summer with Grandmama on their family’s old estate in the sweltering bayous of southern Louisiana. Once a grand plantation, a hive of activity, it is now ramshackle, run down and all-but abandoned.Bored, lonely and far too hot, Sophie starts exploring. When she discovers an overgrown maze, she makes her way inside, and lost among its pathways she finds a magical creature who promises her the adventure of a lifetime . . .Sophie is transported a hundred years into the past to the Oak River plantation in its heyday. Her own ancestors mistake her for a slave girl and set her to work alongside the hundreds of other slaves who tend to the fields, the house, and the white family’s every whim. As the reality of slave life becomes horribly clear, Sophie starts to wonder how long she’ll survive; and how – or if – she will ever get back home.Both exciting and truly heart-breaking, The Freedom Maze is a very special novel about slavery, survival and the many paths to freedom.

On March 11, 2003, in Brownsville, Texas - one of America's poorest cities - John Allen Rubio and Angela Camacho murdered their three young children. The apartment building in which the brutal crimes took place was already rundown, and in their aftermath a consensus developed in the community that it should be destroyed. It was a place, neighbours felt, that was plagued by spiritual cancer.In 2008, journalist Laura Tillman covered the story for The Brownsville Herald. The questions it raised haunted her, particularly one asked by the sole member of the city's Heritage Council to oppose demolition: is there any such thing as an evil building? Her investigation took her far beyond that question, revealing the nature of the toll that the crime exacted on a city already wracked with poverty. It sprawled into a six-year inquiry into the larger significance of such acts, ones so difficult to imagine or explain that their perpetrators are often dismissed as monsters alien to humanity.With meticulous attention and stunning compassion, Tillman surveyed those surrounding the crimes, speaking with the lawyers who tried the case, the family's neighbours and relatives and teachers, even one of the murderers: John Allen Rubio himself, whom she corresponded with for years and ultimately met in person. The result is a brilliant exploration of some of our age's most important social issues, from poverty to mental illness to the death penalty, and a beautiful, profound meditation on the truly human forces that drive them. It is disturbing, insightful, and mesmerizing in equal measure.

1960 in America and thirteen-year-old Sophie is frustrated. Her mother has sent her to spend summer with Grandmama on their family’s old estate in the sweltering bayous of southern Louisiana. Once a grand plantation, a hive of activity, it is now ramshackle, run down and all-but abandoned.Bored, lonely and far too hot, Sophie starts exploring. When she discovers an overgrown maze, she makes her way inside, and lost among its pathways she finds a magical creature who promises her the adventure of a lifetime . . .Sophie is transported a hundred years into the past to the Oak River plantation in its heyday. Her own ancestors mistake her for a slave girl and set her to work alongside the hundreds of other slaves who tend to the fields, the house, and the white family’s every whim. As the reality of slave life becomes horribly clear, Sophie starts to wonder how long she’ll survive; and how – or if – she will ever get back home.Both exciting and truly heart-breaking, The Freedom Maze is a very special novel about slavery, survival and the many paths to freedom.

'A witty portrayal of a certain type of uber-conscious New York millennial . . . a comic, self deprecatory illustration of the conflict between our projected self-image, versus the reality' Financial TimesFlora Goldwasser is private school perfection - all wrapped up in a vintage Grace Kelly dress. But when she leaves elite Manhattan for an academy of unwashed hippies and ironic hipsters in the Hudson Valley, Flora discovers that when it comes to popularity and approval there is no commutative property. Her love of Maison Kayser macaroons, perfect French conjugation, Jackie Kennedy sunglasses, and Audrey Hepburn movies make her the ultimate outsider in a land of kale, quinoa, and tattered tunics.Told through a collage of letters, emails and clippings, Everything Must Go is a thoughtful, nuanced story about identity, sex, friendship, and the bridges we cross (and burn) as we grow into ourselves. A budding Marxist, a Jenna Lyons doppelganger, and a jacked dude named Agnes come together with a vending machine full of vintage accessories as Flora throws off the mantle of expectations, assumptions, and perfection -- the trappings of her old life. Everything Must Go is an offbeat, modern novel with emotionally rich and compelling characters.

When fifteen-year-old Becs meets Bracken, she is convinced she's found her soul mate. So what if he's much older, and who cares about her exams? He's gorgeous, he gets her, she feels free with him, and when he holds her she feels safe. But is she? When her best friend is assaulted, one of a spate of attacks against girls from her school, the world suddenly seems a much more dangerous place. Who is it safe to trust? Should she follow her head or her heart? Becs is forced to make choices that will affect the rest of her life. Set during the summer of '76, to the music of David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, Pretty Thing is a powerful story of first encounters, dark obsession and last chances. It pits true love against real life and asks: is love really all you need?

Gabriel Merrick plays with fire. Literally. Sometimes he can even control it. And sometimes he can't. Gabriel has always had his brothers to rely on, especially his twin, Nick. But when an arsonist starts wreaking havoc on their town, all the signs point to Gabriel. Only he's not doing it. And no one seems to believe him. Except a shy sophomore named Layne, a brainiac who dresses in turtlenecks and jeans and keeps him totally off balance. Because Layne has a few secrets of her own...

'A witty portrayal of a certain type of uber-conscious New York millennial . . . a comic, self deprecatory illustration of the conflict between our projected self-image, versus the reality' Financial TimesFlora Goldwasser is private school perfection - all wrapped up in a vintage Grace Kelly dress. But when she leaves elite Manhattan for an academy of unwashed hippies and ironic hipsters in the Hudson Valley, Flora discovers that when it comes to popularity and approval there is no commutative property. Her love of Maison Kayser macaroons, perfect French conjugation, Jackie Kennedy sunglasses, and Audrey Hepburn movies make her the ultimate outsider in a land of kale, quinoa, and tattered tunics.Told through a collage of letters, emails and clippings, Everything Must Go is a thoughtful, nuanced story about identity, sex, friendship, and the bridges we cross (and burn) as we grow into ourselves. A budding Marxist, a Jenna Lyons doppelganger, and a jacked dude named Agnes come together with a vending machine full of vintage accessories as Flora throws off the mantle of expectations, assumptions, and perfection -- the trappings of her old life. Everything Must Go is an offbeat, modern novel with emotionally rich and compelling characters.