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Category Archives: Publications
Dubliners
I’ve written the introduction to a new edition of James Joyce’s DUBLINERS, which is published today by O’Brien Press. The book has been selected as the One City One Book choice for Dublin this year. Dublin a UNESCO City of Literature so it’s particularly relevant that DUBLINERS is the book that everyone is encouraged to read during April 2012.
Body of Work
Last night I attended the launch party in London for BODY OF WORK, an anthology of writing edited by Giles Foden to celebrate 40 years of the creative writing M.A. at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, to which I have contibuted an essay.
I was a student on the course during ’94/’95 and returned as Writing Fellow a decade later in ’04/’05, while I was editing the book that became The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. It was one of the extraordinary, difficult, enjoyable, painful, creative, emotional years of my life but, of the 12 students on the course, four went on to be full time novelists with a lot of books to their name: Richard Beard, Janette Jenkins, Toby Litt and I.
Writers from many different years of the course have contributed essays to this new anthology, exploring our experiences of Norwich, of UEA, of the creative writing course and of how it helped us (or not) in our pursuit of publication, including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anne Enright, Rose Tremain, Glenn Patterson, Andrew Miller, Joe Dunthorne, Jane Harris – and me.
It’s available to order from Full Circle Editions, Waterstone’s and Amazon.
Noah Paperback
The UK / Ireland paperback edition of NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY is published today. It’s illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.
The hardback was published last September and reached no.1 on the Irish Bestsellers Chart. Since then, it’s been published, or is due to be published, in more than 20 languages.
You can buy the paperback from Amazon here.
Some reviews of the hardback edition:
“Timeless and imaginative. I don’t know how Boyne does it but his story is incredibly resonant.”
The Irish Times
“In this charming and cleverly plotted story that tiptoes with humor and compassion, two characters teach each other how to grieve, how to forgive, and how, eventually, to remember what has been lost.”
The New York Times
“The writing is lyrical yet spare and beautifully crafted. It’s inventive, wily and twisty. A carefully crafted, whimsical gem. A true publishing event.”
The Irish Independent
“Highly amusing, refreshingly original and extremely moving… written with such an assurance and lightness of touch… infused with such truths as to leave one with very real tears in the eyes.”
Philip Ardagh, The Guardian
“Destined to become something of a children’s classic.”
Charlie Higson, Mail on Sunday
“An audacious, reworked fairytale. It is ultimately positive, original and important and may well become a contemporary children’s classic.”
The Australian
“A beautiful and wonderfully written fairytale. Poignant, fantastical and charming.”
The Sunday Business Post
“A celebration of the consolations of storytelling. Spellbinding stuff.”
The Financial Times
“Reminicent of Roald Dahl’s writing… it is joyful and leaves one with hope, despite the darkness that can occur in life.”
New Zealand Daily Post
“Poignant and beguiling… it is written in such a poetic, sensitive and imaginative way that it leaves one feeling uplifted.”
Herald Sun (Australia)
Pinocchio
I’ve written the introduction to a new Puffin Classics edition of Carlo Collodi’s PINOCCHIO, which is published today. PINOCCHIO was one of my favourite books as a child and anyone who has read one of my more recent novels will see the influence that book had in one of them. It’s available to order from Amazon here.
First 2 Novels
My first two novels, THE THIEF OF TIME and THE CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS, are republished today in brand spanking new jackets by my UK publisher Transworld. Over the next 12 months all my novels are being rejacketed with this new style.
THE THIEF OF TIME was first published in August 2000 and tells the story of Matthieu Zela, whose life is characterised by one amazing fact: his body stopped ageing before the end of the eighteenth century. Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother’s brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash, and by the end of the twentieth century, Matthieu has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides.
THE CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS was published 18 months later at the end of 2001. William Cody grows up surrounded by his father’s tales of Buffalo Bill, to whom he is distantly related, and his fantasies of the Wild West. Though he escapes his heritage by fleeing abroad and starting a new life for himself, he finds that he is always drawn back to England and to his ancestry. When his father proposes that together they should recreate Buffalo Bill’s stage show, ‘The Congress of Rough Riders of the World’ for a contemporary audience, William refuses to have any part of it. When tragedy strikes, however, it is to his father that he must eventually return.
CRIPPEN and NEXT OF KIN will be published in similar livery in September.
The novels are available in paperback and for e-readers. You can buy them from Amazon here:
Little Lord Fauntleroy
I’ve written the introduction to the new Puffin Classics edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1886 novel LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. It’s published this week and, if you’re interested, you can order a copy from Amazon.
Letter to my Sixteen Year Old Self
I was in Eason’s bookstore last night for the launch of WITH LOVE FROM ME TO ME – A LETTER TO MY SIXTEEN YEAR OLD SELF, a collection of letters from various well known Irish people written, as the title would suggest, to their 16 year old self. Including me. Proceeds from the book go to the Irish Youth Foundation so it’s well worth picking up for Christmas. Other contributors include Miriam O’Callaghan, Maeve Binchy, Bill Cullen, Dustin the Turkey, Jennifer Johnston, Brian Keenan, Derek Landy, Colum McCann, Barry McGuigan, Senator David Norris, Ross O’Carroll Kelly, Joseph O’Connor, Patricia Scanlan and many others.
Noah Goes Dutch
The first of the foreign language editions of NOAH BARLEYWATER RUNS AWAY is published today in Holland by my Dutch publisher Boekerij, who also publish The Thief of Time, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Mutiny On The Bounty and The House of Special Purpose. In Holland the novel is published under the title NOAH BARLEYWATER GAAT ERVANDOOR.
The Aphrodisiac
A new short story, The Aphrodisiac, has been published in the Spanish language newspaper Publico. You can read it here, if you speak Spanish. I’ll put the English language version on the website soon.
Paperback House
The UK paperback edition of THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE is published this week. The novel received some great reviews when it was published last year: An exciting, fast-paced story… absorbing and richly satisfying (The Times); Boyne writes with consummate ease, and is particularly good at drawing the indecently rich world of the pre-revolutionary Romanovs (Independent); An engrossing read (The Mail on Sunday); A work that chimes perfectly with our times (The Irish Times); A wonderful, many-layered novel written with thought and tenderness (Irish Examiner). National Book Award winner Colum McCann said “John Boyne brings a completely fresh eye to the most impotant stories… He guides us through the realm of history and makes the journey substantial, poignant, real. He is one of the great craftsmen in contemporary literature.”
It’s already been on the bestseller charts in several countries and is published or due to be published in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada (Doubleday), Catalan (Grup 62), Holland (Arena), Spain (Salamandra), Brazil (Companhia das Letras), China (Tianjin Huawentianxia), Germany (Arche-Atrium), Italy (Rizzoli), Poland (Swiat Ksiazki), Serbia (Serbia), Switzerand (Arche), Taiwan (Crown) and Turkey (Dogan).
You can buy the paperback edition from Amazon, Waterstone’s, or any bookshop from this week.
