I feel its approach,
Inevitable as death:
Internet dating.

Unsolicited relationship advice from relatives, disastrous dates, men who wear thumb rings, and the moments of deep satisfaction when a single girl realizes that (unlike her smug married friends) she can do whatever she wants with her time – it’s all here in this brilliantly incisive and witty collection of haikus. Every woman – whether single or not – will laugh until she cries, and then start laughing all over again.

• Read the extract

Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God. As she watches her world collapsing, Jessie Lamb decides she wants to make her life count. Would you let your daughter die if it would save the human race?

• Read the extract

Now we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon’s Kitten. It’s an adorable new chapter which is sure to delight Simon’s millions of fans.

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Have you ever had an unusual encounter with a stranger who responded to your ad? Have you ever turned up on the doorstep of a person who placed an ad to discover something you weren’t expecting?

In the summer of 2009, the filmmaker Miranda July obsessively read the PennySaver, an iconic classifieds booklet. She crisscrossed Los Angeles to meet and photograph a random selection of the sellers, and compiled her experiences in her new book, It Chooses You.

Now it’s your turn. Whether you placed an ad on Ebay or replied to a lonely hearts column, Miranda wants to hear all about it. Visit www.storybehindyourad.com to be in the running for some great prizes:

• Major prize – The opportunity to interview Miranda July, which will be published on www.canongate.tv and Miranda’s website, and a signed copy of It Chooses You.

• Ten runner-up prizes – A copy of It Chooses You, signed by Miranda July.

Miranda will be on hand to read your entries, so get sharing before 31 January 2012 to be in with a chance of winning.

We have placed 100 special Simon’s Cat toys around Britain, in all major cities. If you keep your eyes peeled for two little white ears soaking up the sights and attractions of the UK, you not only get to keep him, you win a set of five Simon’s Cat prints chronicling this escapade and signed by Simon, and a signed copy of Simon’s Cat: In Kitten Chaos. We’ll be posting up sightings and giving out clues on @canongatebooks to his whereabouts, so keep hunting right up until Christmas!

If you find Simon’s Cat, wandering far from home, please email a photo of yourself with the missing cat (ideally where you found him, so we can put it in his travel diary) to competitions@canongate.co.uk and you will win the signed prints of five drawings done by Simon Tofield, depicting Simon’s Cat’s adventure, and a signed copy of Simon’s Cat: In Kitten Chaos.

This is a brilliant new collection of stories from the Nobel Prize-winning author, available for the first time in English. Written in the years between Solzhenitsyn’s return from exile to Russia in 1994, and his death in 2008, they confirm the author’s position as not only a visionary political commentator but also as a true literary giant. APRICOT JAM AND OTHER STORIES presents a series of astonishing portraits of a Soviet and Russian life across the twentieth century. In ‘The New Generation’, a professor promotes a student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In ‘Nastenka’, two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives – until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both. Through their unforgettable cast of military commanders, imprisoned activists and displaced families, these stories play out the moral dilemmas and ideological conflicts that defined the century. The most eloquent and acclaimed opponent of government oppression, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and his work continues to receive international acclaim.

• Click here to read an extract from Apricot Jam.

• Click here to read an extract from Help!

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Now we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon’s Kitten. It’s an adorable new chapter which is sure to delight Simon’s millions of fans.

• Follow the link for the Canongate channel for Simon’s Cat.

[AMAZONPRODUCT=085786078X]

Now we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon’s Kitten. It’s an adorable new chapter which is sure to delight Simon’s millions of fans.

[AMAZONPRODUCT=085786078X]

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