Canongate Books

Canongate Books Publisher. Always independent. And twice we’ve won Publisher of the Year.

Canongate is an independent publisher: since 1973 we’ve worked to unearth and amplify the most vital, innovative voices we can find, wherever they come from, and we’ve published all kinds of books – thoughtful, upsetting, gripping, beatific, vulgar, chaste, unrepentant, life-changing . . . Along the way there have been landmarks of fiction – including Alasdair Gray’s masterpiece Lanark, and Yann M

artel’s Life of Pi, the best-ever-selling Booker winner – and non-fiction too. We’ve published an American president and a Guantanamo detainee; we’ve campaigned for causes we believe in and fought court cases to get our authors heard. We’re still independent, and we’re as committed to unorthodox and innovative publishing as ever.

The past is never done with: always the song continuesHarlow Donne has devoted his life to the Classical world. When a c...
23/07/2025

The past is never done with: always the song continues

Harlow Donne has devoted his life to the Classical world. When a chance comes up to study an obscure collection of papyrus fragments at Oxford University, he seizes it. Though it means leaving his daughter and fracturing marriage back home in Canada, this is the kind of career break he desperately needs.

In the depths of the Bodleian Library, Harlow discovers a lost account of the Trojan War, a glimpse into the founding of Western civilization itself. He names the epic poem The Psoad, after its protagonist, a Greek commoner identified as Psoas of Midea but known to all as 'son of nobody'.

As sole translator and interpreter of the Psoad, Harlow dedicates the poem and its footnotes to his daughter, Helen. Under his gaze, the text unlocks echoes of Ancient Greece into the present day, and a personal message to his beloved child appears. Despite the two-thousand-year gap between the two, a thread hasn't frayed: the universal song of homesickness and regret, of ambition, love and grief.

In this masterpiece of myth, history and domesticity, Son of Nobody explores how stories become facts, the price we pay to share them and how we live - then, now and always. 

We're thrilled to reveal the beautiful global cover for Son of Nobody by Yann Martel, designed by   alongside our partners .w.norton   

We publish on 2nd April 2026, pre-order via the link in bio

Happy publication day  ! THE FATHERS is out now in all good bookshops & online: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the- ‘Bi...
17/07/2025

Happy publication day !
THE FATHERS is out now in all good bookshops & online: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-

‘Bitingly funny, inkwell black and surprisingly tender’ ADAM KAY, author of THIS IS GOING TO HURT

‘Niven is on fine form, inventive and excruciatingly funny, but beneath his darkly comic prose lurks a hitherto unseen tenderness’ Mail on Sunday

A hilarious and heart-breaking account of fatherhood, marriage, parenting, grief, class and masculinity, following two fathers from very different backgrounds

❤️📖 📚❣️

Happy publication day to John Niven! THE FATHERS is out now in all good bookshops & online: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/bo...
17/07/2025

Happy publication day to John Niven! THE FATHERS is out now in all good bookshops & online: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-fathers-john-niven/7835069?ean=9781837260515

A hilarious and heart-breaking account of fatherhood, marriage, parenting, grief, class and masculinity, following two fathers from very different backgrounds

‘Bitingly funny, inkwell black and surprisingly tender’ ADAM KAY, author of THIS IS GOING TO HURT

‘Niven is on fine form, inventive and excruciatingly funny, but beneath his darkly comic prose lurks a hitherto unseen tenderness’ Mail on Sunday

We are THRILLED to announce we’re publishing ’s instant New York Times bestselling WILD DARK SHOREA family on a remote i...
15/07/2025

We are THRILLED to announce we’re publishing ’s instant New York Times bestselling WILD DARK SHORE

A family on a remote island.
A mysterious woman washed ashore.
A storm gathering force.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.

eBook & Audiobook coming July 24th, paperback coming 6th November! Pre-order now, link in our bio.

‘Breathtaking’
HANNAH KENT

‘Spellbinding’
Washington Post

‘A wildly talented writer’
EMILY ST JOHN MANDEL

What price would you put on your body?Announcing Swallows, an acerbic, witty vision of contemporary Japan by Natsuo Kiri...
14/07/2025

What price would you put on your body?

Announcing Swallows, an acerbic, witty vision of contemporary Japan by Natsuo Kirino, acclaimed author of the smash hit Out

Twenty-nine-year-old Riki is sick of her dead-end job, of struggling to get by ever since she moved to Tokyo from the country. So when someone offers her the chance to become a surrogate in return for a life-changing amount of money, it’s hard to turn down. But how much of herself will she be forced to give away?

Retired ballet star Motoi and his wife, Yuko, have spent years trying to conceive. As Yuko begins to make peace with her childlessness, Motoi grows increasingly desperate for a child to whom he can pass on his elite genes. Their last resort is surrogacy; a business transaction, plain and simple. But as they try to exert ever more control over Riki, their contract with her starts to slip through their fingers . . .

Vibrating with the injustices of class and gender, tradition and power, Swallows is the story of a young woman’s fight to preserve her dignity – at any cost. Available to pre-order now at all good bookshops, and from the link in our bio.

‘The relentless beauty of her stories leaves me breathless’ –
MIEKO KAWAKAMI, author of Breasts and Eggs

‘A timely and engrossing drama about desire, precarity, and the uses of a woman’s body’ Ruth Ozeki, winner of the Women’s Prize

And happy publication day (2 of 2!) to Nicola GriffithsExhilarating and icily brilliant, The cult classic Aud Torvingen ...
03/07/2025

And happy publication day (2 of 2!) to Nicola Griffiths

Exhilarating and icily brilliant, The cult classic Aud Torvingen trilogy introduce the eponymous Aud, a rangy six-footer with eyes the colour of cement and a tendency to hurt people who get in her way.

Available in bookshops and online:
https://buythebook.online/the-aud-torvingen-trilogy

Happy (1 of 2) Publication day!THE EDGE OF SOLITUDE – Katie HaleAVOIDANCE, DRUGS, HEARTBREAK & DOGS – Jordan StephensTHE...
03/07/2025

Happy (1 of 2) Publication day!

THE EDGE OF SOLITUDE – Katie Hale
AVOIDANCE, DRUGS, HEARTBREAK & DOGS – Jordan Stephens
THE CREATIVE ACT – Rick Rubin
ODDBODY – Rose Keating

These 4 wonders are out now in all good bookshops & online: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/out-today/

Have you ever considered how you think about the future?We’re at a moment in time where more people than ever are thinki...
23/06/2025

Have you ever considered how you think about the future?

We’re at a moment in time where more people than ever are thinking about their futures – Google searches for ‘what will the future be like?’ have tripled since 2020. We’re all trying to imagine through the far-off fog of tomorrow, what our future could hold.

To do that we need a guide to help us untangle this webbed landscape, so we’re delighted to share the cover for ’s COULD SHOULD MIGHT DON‘T, a stirring exploration into the ways that we envisage the future. Exploring each of these modes of thinking - the could future, the should future, the might future, the don’t future, Nick gives us the tools to approach thinking about tomorrow with more balance, detail, integrity and rigor.

‘Rigorous, rationally optimistic and ultimately empowering’ OLIVER BURKEMAN
‘A deeply-considered - and funny - treatise on complacency’ ALEX McDOWELL
‘Essential’ DAVID EAGLEMAN
‘A rare and wondrous thing’ STEPHEN FRY

COULD SHOULD MIGHT DON’T should be in your future: it’s available to pre-order now, link in the bio.
Design by

‘The owl bobs a long loop over the field, a pale nacelle on wide wings. One lap, two . . . then the straw-faced fist jag...
20/06/2025

‘The owl bobs a long loop over the field, a pale nacelle on wide wings. One lap, two . . . then the straw-faced fist jags up, crumples over and disappears into tall grass. It’s approaching twilight. Behind the owl stands Silbury Hill, mysterious flat-topped tump outside Avebury. It’s Midsummer’s Eve. Tonight will be the second shortest night of the year. Tomorrow, the longest day. We’ve travelled here to witness and celebrate the solstice, as people have for thousands of years. Having climbed the half mile up to the long barrow we make a brew. I’m here with Roz, a dear friend from university days. The sort of brilliant mind who thinks of bringing along tea endorsed by Jarvis and Pulp. As we settle down to watch a purple thundercloud rage massive beyond Silbury’s cone, I raise a toast to the rain that’s passing us by. The tag on my Pulp teabag reads: ‘I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere in a field’ – a feeling perhaps familiar to the folk who built and tended the impressive Neolithic chambered tomb beneath me. As the cumulo-nimbus slugs away north, the sky clears and stars kindle in the deep blue heavens.’

To celebrate summer solstice tomorrow, we’re giving away 3 signed copies of OVERNIGHT by and a packet of the latest brew from British family company x ! Each tag on these special tea bags features a lyric from More, personally selected by Jarvis Cocker. A little thought-provoker to steep your senses and stir your soul. Consider the combination a perfect daily dose of wisdom and wit — no artificial intelligence, no shortcuts, just real words from real people. 

To enter simply tag a pal in the comments who you’d like to spend the Summer solstice with – or who you will be thinking of this weekend. Good luck!  
 
T&Cs: Each prize bundle contains one box of Sencha Style Green Tea (40g) one box of Monday Morning Black Tea (50g) and one hardback copy of Overnight, signed by author Dan Richards. Entrants must be 18 or older, this competition is not open to members of Canongate Books Ltd. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted. The winners will be chosen at 12pm on Monday 23rd June 2025.

We are delighted to share the beautiful cover artwork for THE NORTH SEA by Alistair Moffat, available to preorder now! 🌊...
20/06/2025

We are delighted to share the beautiful cover artwork for THE NORTH SEA by Alistair Moffat, available to preorder now! 🌊

‘As admirable in its simplicity as it is daunting in its complexity . . . Moffat peers into the farther corners of history’
HERALD

‘Moffat is a great storyteller and his stories are rich, full of interest’
OBSERVER



THE NORTH SEA, a maritime highway and the edge of the nation of islanders with a proud sea-faring past. Running from Kent and the Rhine estuary to the Norwegian coast and the tip of the Shetland islands, it has been home to warring tribes, foreign invaders, lost civilisations and holidaymakers. Its history spans millennia, since a seismic shift sent land retreating and water rushing in. Today, the North Sea continues to rise, claiming land mass as the east coast crumbles and sinks.

In The North Sea, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the white cliffs of Dover to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.

The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.

Happy publication day to these brilliant paperbacks!TRANSFORMER – Neil AtkinsonON REFLECTION – Richard HollowayBRIGHT I ...
19/06/2025

Happy publication day to these brilliant paperbacks!

TRANSFORMER – Neil Atkinson
ON REFLECTION – Richard Holloway
BRIGHT I BURN – Molly Aitken
THE LIONS' DEN – Iris Mwanza
THE SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY BOOK OF INTERVIEWS – Edited by Adam Biles

Out now: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/out-today

THIS IS THE STORY OF LOST DREAMS, of the fading American empire, of the history of film, and of the water that shaped it...
16/06/2025

THIS IS THE STORY OF LOST DREAMS, of the fading American empire, of the history of film, and of the water that shaped it.

‘Outrageously good . . . An unforgettable book’ – OLIVIA LAING

‘Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected . . . Chiara Barzini ducts and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey’ - GEOFF DYER

We’re delighted to reveal the cover for AQUA by , available to pre-order now!

In 1913, William Mulholland finished building the Los Angeles Aqueduct – a 233-mile engineering masterwork transporting water from the Owens Valley, across the desert, to a barren corner of California that would become the home of filmmaking.

Over one hundred years later, award-winning Italian author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini traces the geography of the aqueduct, from its source, across the desert, to the city that it helped into existence, all while reckoning with her personal history with the landscape. From the ‘fake’ waters of the Universal Studios Jaws attraction to Salton Sea – California’s largest lake and ‘the only man-made mistake visible from space’ – Aqua explores how water, and its absence, shaped both a modern landscape and the history of film.

A blend of travel writing, philosophy, cultural history and memoir, Aqua is a hugely entertaining and wide-ranging exploration of water, film, dreams versus reality and an empire on the brink of catastrophe.

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Fiercely independent

Since 1973 we’ve worked to unearth and amplify the most vital, exciting voices we can find, wherever they come from, and we’ve published all kinds of books – thoughtful, upsetting, gripping, beatific, vulgar, chaste, unrepentant, life-changing…

Along the way there have been landmarks of fiction – including Alasdair Gray’s masterpiece Lanark, and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the best-ever-selling Booker winner – and non-fiction too. We’ve published an American president and a Guantanamo detainee; we’ve campaigned for causes we believe in and fought court cases to get our authors heard. And twice we’ve won Publisher of the Year.

We’re fiercely independent, and we’re as committed to unorthodox and innovative publishing as ever.