James Meek Boeken

In a remote Siberian village, amid a lawless, unforgiving landscape, lives Anna Petrovna, a beautiful, willfully self-reliant widowed mother. A mystical, separatist Christian sect, a stranded regiment of restless Czech soldiers, and an eerie local shaman live nearby, all struggling against the elements and great social upheaval to maintain a fragile coexistence. Out of the woods trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia’s northernmost prison camp, with a terrifyingly outlandish story to tell about his journey. Immediately apprehended, he is brought before the Czech regiment’s megalomaniac, Captain Matula. But the stranger’s appearance has caught the attention of others, including Anna Petrovna’s. This stranger, his bizarre story—if it is to be believed—and the apparent murder of the local shaman quickly become a flashpoint for this village: temperatures rise, alliances shift, and betrayals emerge. Written with a commanding historical authority and remarkable grace, The People’s Act of Love is an epic of desire and sacrifice that leaves the reader utterly mesmerized through to the final heart-pounding pages.

The book delves into the privatization of essential British services and infrastructure over the past thirty years, revealing the human impact of these changes. Through compelling portraits and narratives, it illustrates how public assets have been transferred to private owners, leading to rising costs for consumers while the new owners profit. Meek's urgent and poignant exploration serves as a critical examination of the nation's transformation, appealing to those interested in social and economic issues.

The new novel about home, belonging, love, courage and identity, set in the fourteenth century, from the Booker-longlisted author of The People's Act of Love

The Museum of Doubt is a new collection of surreal and unnerving short stories from award-winning writer James Meek. The array of characters who populate Meek's vague and elusive worlds are driven by paranoia and doubts, as well as hopes and fears of things only half-glimpsed.

Reality-show producer and habitual liar Ritchie Shepherd can't stand his sister Bec's relentless honesty, while Bec helps a gene-therapy researcher build a family of his own, even as her ex-fiancé Val, a tabloid editor, plots to destroy Bec by exposing people close to her

From the prize-winning author of The People's Act of Love and We Are Now Beginning Our Descent

From the bestselling author of The People's Act of Love

Ritchie Shepherd, aging former pop star and wildly successful producer of a reality teen talent show, is starting to trip over the intricacy of his own lies. Gallingly, his sister, Bec, a scientist developing a crucial vaccine, is as addicted to truth-telling as Ritchie is to falsehood. Ritchie relies on her certitude even as he seethes with resentment. A devastating chain of events is set into motion when Bec tells her fiance, Val, a powerful tabloid editor, that she can't bring herself to marry him after all. Val has set himself up as the moral arbiter of the nation, which will turn out to be impeccable camouflage for an elaborate revenge plot intended to destroy Bec by exposing the people who are close to her - which now include Alex, a brilliant researcher in gene therapies who is so desperate to have a family of his own that Bec finds herself willing to lie and cheat in order to get him what he wants.

O manželství, lásce, dětech, smrti, věrnosti, zradě, hledání věčného mládí, pokrytectví a především o tom, co to znamená být dobrým člověkem. Sourozenci, kteří si v ničem nejsou podobní: Ritchie – bohatý a ze svého pohledu šťastně ženatý a milující muž ve skutečnosti sice v roli manžela, otce i bratra morálně selhává, přesto se mu daří své chování podle potřeby racionalizovat a ani ho nenapadne, že by snad nebyl v podstatě dobrým člověkem. Přitom je zřejmé, že je to slaboch, který nikdy neodolá čokoládovému pudinku a dvojité whisky, natož nymfičkám pod zákonem. Jeho cesta od bouřlivácké rockové hvězdy k televiznímu producentovi načančané reality show je lemovaná podvody a mimomanželskými vztahy. Bec – mladší sestra, se snaží i za cenu vlastního sebezničení objevit vakcínu proti malárii, žije si po svém, na společenské konvence a pokryteckou morálku kašle, přesto se snaží žít eticky. A katalyzátor příběhu – Val, bývalý přítel Bec, psychopat, fanatik, majitel „Žumpy“ – bulváru, který vytahuje špínu na známé osobnosti, které se nevykoupí tím, že mu poskytnou špinavé pikantnosti o někom jiném. V jeho osidlech uvázne záletný Ritchie. Jak daleko bude ochoten zajít, aby si zachránil svou vlastní kůži?