'Land of No Rain' by Amjad Nasser (author) & Jonathan Wright (translator)(Release Date: April 24)The novel takes place in Hamiya, a fictional Arab country run by military commanders who treat power as a personal possession to be handed down from one generation to the next.
The main character was forced into exile from Hamiya twenty years earlier for taking part in a failed assassination attempt on the military ruler known as the Grandson. On his return to his homeland, he encounters family, childhood friends, former comrades and his first love, but most importantly he grapples with his own self, the person he left behind.
'Land of No Rain' is a complex and mysterious story of the hardship of exile and the difficulty of return.
The Mosaic Rooms, in London, are hosting an evening with the London-based author for the launch of the novel with a Q&A to follow. Amjad Nasser is a Jordanian poet and 'Land of No Rain' is his first novel. The evening takes place on April 30, 2014. For more on this event click HERE.
'The Vagenda: A Zero Tolerance Guide to the Media' by Holly Baxter & Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett(Release Date: May 1)As students, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Holly Baxter spent a lot of time laughing at magazine pieces entitled things like '50 Sex Tips to Please Your Man' (particularly the ones that encouraged bringing baked goods into the bedroom). They laughed at the ridiculous 'circles of shame' detailing minor weight fluctuations of female celebs, or the shocking presence of armpit hair. And at the articles telling you how to remove cellulite from your arse using coffee granules. But when they stopped laughing, they started to feel a bit uneasy. Was this relentless hum about vajazzles and fat removal just daft - at worst a bit patronising - or was something more disturbing going on?
Was it time to say NO? They thought so.
So they launched The Vagenda blog in 2012 (although they are working on a proper website to be launched soon), and now they have written this laugh-out-loud book.
It is a brilliantly bolshy rallying call to girls and women of all ages: Caitlin Moran asked 'How to be a Woman'. The Vagenda asks real women everywhere to demand a media that reflects who we actually are.
