We are so sad to hear of the death of Tony Harrison. His work combines inspired poetic flight with demotic energy and a mastery of form. A towering figure, Faber has been publishing his work for stage and screen for over forty years. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

'Part of the joy of the road trip is the armadillo feeling it gives you, that your home is on your back – or in the car.' Ben Markovits, author of Booker shortlisted The Rest of Our Lives, discusses his favourite road trip novels.

Get your calendars ready – time for our events thread. Jodie Harsh is in conversation with Fatboy Slim on 29 September. Witness iconic noughties-era London pop culture as told by DJ Jodie Harsh, who saw, did and survived it all. theoldmarket.com/shows/jodie-harsh-in-conversation-with-fatboy-slim

'Memorable and disturbing.' John Banville's Venetian Vespers is the Guardian Book of the Day. theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/25/venetian-vespers-by-john-banville-review-a-haunting-honeymoon

‘I was hooked from the very first moment.’ Bridget Collins Strange things are afoot for a newlywed couple in Venetian Vespers, the haunting new novel from John Banville set in Italy's floating city. Pick up your copy now in hardback ❄️ linktr.ee/venetianvesp...

'My son had saved a chair next to him but he stood up to give me a hug before introducing me. I held him longer than he wanted me to.' Over on the Faber Journal you can read an extract from The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 📚

'Elms' affection for the ludicrous glories of the times is infectious.' Uncut 'The definitive volume on the subject.' Classic Pop Blitz: The Club That Created the 80s by Robert Elms is out now 🎶 www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

‘What we obviously had, even when things smoothed over, was a C-minus marriage, which makes it pretty hard to score much higher than a B overall on the rest of your life.’ The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, now shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, is out in paperback today 📚

'If your heart belongs to the dark side (and you're sick of having to apologise for it), you need this book.' Kirsty Logan Anna Bogutskaya charts horror's soaring popularity by diving into some of the most significant recent works of film and TV horror. Out now in paperback 🩸

'Magnificent... The characters are lovable and well written. And the story is perfect.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review Happy publication day to @nicolaupson.bsky.social! The Christmas Clue is out now in hardback 🎁 www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

From an International Booker Prize shortlistee to a former Thriller of the Month, you can pick up these five titles as part of the @waterstones.bsky.social Paperbacks of the Year 2025 offer 📚 www.waterstones.com/campaign/pap...

'Dark, profound.' @lisatimoneywrites.bsky.social 'Close to the bone.' Bonnie Burke-Patel 'Left me chilled.' @chrisbridgeswriter.bsky.social A nurse pushed to extremes makes a fatal choice in this thought-provoking new thriller from Nilesha Chauvet. Proofs in for The Good Patient, out 29 January 👀

✨ 'The very best of traditional literary fiction. . . We loved it. You: read it.' The Times We are so thrilled that The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. Huge congratulations to Ben and all the fellow shortlistees 🎉

Steve, based on the novel Shy by Max Porter, is now in select cinemas. On Netflix 3 October. 'This film – and Murphy’s devastating performance – exist in a class of their own.' Observer

On the London Review Podcast, listen to Richard Scott, Emily Berry and Jane Yeh celebrate Richard Scott’s collection, That Broke Into Shining Crystals. londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-video/richard-scott-emily-berry-jane-yeh-that-broke-into-shining-crystals

'A perfect Christmas crime story – atmospheric and chilling.' Elly Griffiths A party game goes horribly wrong in this festive murder mystery from @nicolaupson.bsky.social, set in a snowed-in country house and starring the real-life couple who invented Cluedo. Out this Thursday in hardback ✨

Eimear McBride appeared on Always Take Notes recently to discuss her new novel, The City Changes Its Face. Listen to the episode now: alwaystakenotes.com/episodes/221-eimear-mcbride-novelist

‘A twisty and gothic tale.' 'The writing is mesmerising.' 'Sublime and evocative prose.' 'A wonderful array of characters.' 'The plot is ingenious.' Five star reader reviews for Venetian Vespers by John Banville, out this Thursday in hardback 💫 linktr.ee/venetianvesp...

🚨 New Long Read on the Faber Journal 🚨 Paul McCartney on Delia Derbyshire, Tape Loops & Stockhausen: read an extract from Chapter One, ‘Yesterday, Fast-Forward, Click’, from Everything We Do is Music by Elizabeth Alker, which is out now. www.faber.co.uk/journal/long...

Announcing new events for Faber Members – including a Dublin event. Join us at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre for our first international Script Club where we’ll be discussing Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes over a drink. faber.co.uk/product/faber-members-script-club-the-burial-at-thebes/

Time for a round-up of upcoming events with our authors. On 21 September, Elizabeth Alker and Eleanor Chan discuss tracing histories of music from the perspectives of their books, Everything We Do is Music and Duet. Tickets available now. festivalofencounters.com/on-weaving-histories-of-music/

'John Banville’s odious narrator spins a chilling tale.' Financial Times Venice 1899, and strange things are afoot for a newlywed couple in Venetian Vespers, a haunting new standalone novel from bestselling author John Banville. Out 25 September in hardback ❄️ linktr.ee/venetianvesp...

‘Vogue photographed me in every position and light till I felt like a national monument.’ William Golding was born on this day in 1911. He wrote to his editor Charles Monteith following a shoot with Howard Coster in 1955, where this photo was taken.

'A truly astonishing thing...She has that extraordinary gift, shared by so few – Tolstoy, Chekhov, Maupassant, Elliot – of making you believe that what you are reading is real, as if all she has done is to wipe a window clean so you can see through it.' George Monbiot Sarah Hall's Helm is out now 🍃

On 19 October, join lennyhenryofficial.bsky.social and Marcus Ryder at the Black British Book Festival discussing their new book The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work. blackbritishbookfestival.com

'In A Year with Gilbert White, Jenny Uglow uses the nature-loving curate’s journals to reconstruct twelve months of vivid rural life.' Read about the nature writer who has never gone out of print since 1789 here: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Emma Warren is on the latest episode of the Field Ramble podcast discussing her new book Up the Youth Club. Listen here 🎧 www.buzzsprout.com/2035293/epis...

'A gem of period crime crossed with gothic horror.’ Sunday Times Venetian Vespers by John Banville is out next week in hardback ❄️ linktr.ee/venetianvesp...

Calling all graphic novel fans 🎨 Best-selling, award-winning graphic novelist Craig Thompson is visiting the UK. Join Craig for an evening at Century Club as he discusses his long-awaited latest work, Ginseng Roots. centuryclub.co.uk/illustrated-journeys-the-art-of-craig-thompson/

Have you got plans tomorrow night? Why not join us at our Non-Fiction showcase – use code Showcase5 to get tickets for just £10. faber.co.uk/product/non-fiction-showcase/

'There is the very, very beautiful and unique city of Venice, which everybody loves, and then there is the extremely eerie, not to say sinister Venice.' Venetian Vespers author John Banville joined BBC Proms to talk about his relationship with Venice and its music. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hxlb

Thank you for following along today as we celebrated The Country Girls and its legendary author, Edna O’Brien. We’ll close with the novel’s iconic opening lines.

‘It is true that writers, as I have always said, are the most consummate magpies. I mean they take a piece from here, and a piece from there.’ Watch Edna O’Brien, interviewed by Russell Harty about her writing and her relationship with Ireland: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYJ...

‘She was one of the greatest literary voices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A fearless wordsmith whose prose shimmered with truth, beauty and rebellion.’ A new two-part radio documentary on Clare FM explores the life and work of Edna O’Brien: soundcloud.com/clarefm/word...

The first volume of Edna O'Brien's groundbreaking trilogy, The Country Girls is available in hardback now, with a limited edition quote print from the Faber shop: www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

‘Roses were all very well but she wanted to talk about Joyce.’ Listen to Eimear McBride on her first meeting with Edna O’Brien, where McBride arrived with pink roses and the pair discussed James Joyce over tea: www.rte.ie/culture/2025...

‘Each book has made me that little bit more able to say, "Yes, I am living life."' Listen to Edna O’Brien on a classic episode of Desert Island Discs www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

‘The novel is autobiographical insofar as I was born and bred in the west of Ireland, educated at a convent, and was full of romantic yearnings, coupled with a sense of outrage.’ Edna O’Brien on The Country Girls in a 1984 interview with The Paris Review: www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2...

Caithleen is a romantic: she dreams of finding a handsome man who will sweep her away and look after her. Her friend Baba wants money and glamour. Life. As much of it as she can get. Here are two unforgettable lines from Cait and Baba in Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls.

‘We want to live. Drink gin. Squeeze into the front of big cars and drive up outside big hotels. We want to go places.’ Today we are celebrating the groundbreaking debut novel that set the world alight. The Country Girls from beloved author, Edna O’Brien. Here is the new hardback edition.

‘I had a vision for the shop that, if I’m honest, probably began percolating when I was sixteen.’ Our Independent Bookshop of the Month for September is Shrew Books in Fowey. faber.co.uk/journal/independent-bookshop-of-the-month-shrew-books/

Today is the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, one of the many iconic Nintendo games that @mackeza.bsky.social talks about in her upcoming book, Super Nintendo. Our super shiny proofs of Super Nintendo are in now and we can't wait to get them into the hands of early readers 👀

Time for upcoming events with our authors. First, join Simon Hall at Waterstones Leeds on Wednesday 24 September as he discusses Three Revolutions, his new history of the Russian, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions. waterstones.com/events/new-date-three-revolutions-an-evening-with-simon-hall/leeds

Michael Pedersen’s Muckle Flugga has been shortlisted for Scotland’s Fiction Book of the Year 🎉 thesaltires.org.uk

‘Pitch perfect.’ Observer ‘A mini- masterpiece.’ The Times ‘A geriatric Lord of the Flies.’ Spectator Alan Bennett’s glorious, darkly comic treat Killing Time is now out in paperback 📚

✨ The Sunday Times Bestseller ✨ ‘Exquisite and timely.’ Maggie O’Farrell ‘A total miracle.’ Max Porter Our beautiful expanded and updated edition of The Golden Mole and Other Vanishing Treasure by Katherine Rundell, with illustrations from Talya Baldwin and three new essays, is out now.

This evening artist Jocelyn McGregor hung her art in our windows as one of five Cumbrian artists commissioned by @faberbooks.bsky.social to create new work for Cumbria's indie bookshops to celebrate Sarah Hall's new novel #Helm, published tomorrow. Get your signed copy from tomorrow morning!

Swoon to a croon! Muckle Flugga has been longlisted for the Saltire National Book Awards – Best Fiction – alongside some of the best word-jumblers in the book world’s ballpit. Long live love & Scottish literature – you find it in fecund & fabulous form 💛🧡🩵💚🩷 @faberbooks.bsky.social

'A timely reminder of what we all truly crave as human beings – connection.' Doc Brown Up the Youth Club: Illuminating a Hidden History by Emma Warren is out today! www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...