Éric Cantona’s 82 Goals
Valentin Deudon
translated from the French by Ian Monk
Éric Cantona is an enduring enigma. No Frenchman in the past 50 years has so successfully captured the British imagination. In scintillating essays that bring to life Cantona’s wild swings between hero and villain, this idiosyncratic catalogue of the footballer’s 82 goals for Manchester United in only five seasons describes the matches in which each goal was scored. It is a close-up portrait of an unparalleled artist which takes the reader back to some of footballing’s most cherished moments.
Manchester United was dominating English football during this period, a run of success which began with their first league title in 26 years during the 1992–3 season. Inspiring younger players such as Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and the Neville brothers, Cantona was, and remains, an iconic figure, known for his style and effortless grace, his exceptional flair and his unwavering, unapologetic non-conformity.
A-format paperback · 176pp · £12.99 · ISBN 978-1-9195033-0-1 · 11.vi.2026
The Winter Warriors (paperback)
Olivier Norek
translated from the French by Nick Caistor
November, 1939. A conscription officer arrives in the sleepy farming village of Rautjärvi. The Soviet Union has invaded. Finland is at war. Setting off into the depths of winter to face the Red Army, the group of childhood friends recruited from Rautjärvi cannot be confident that they will ever return. But their unit has a secret weapon: the soldier Simo Häyhä, whose lethal skill as a sniper in the snow-bound forests of the front line will earn him the nickname “The White Death”.
B-format paperback · 352pp · £11.99 · Paperback ISBN 978-1-9195033-2-5 · 18.vi.2026
Surface
Olivier Norek
translated from the French by Nick Caistor
Police capitaine Noémie Chastain has everything: a coveted position in Paris, a devoted team and a loving partner. On a dawn raid in a grimy Parisian banlieue, in an instant, she loses it all. Shot by the drug dealer she was about to arrest, she is left with serious scars on her face and deeper damage to her psyche.
Pushed out of her job in Paris by superiors concerned that her disfigurement would damage team morale, abandoned by her boyfriend, she is posted to a police department that serves six sparsely populated communes in the back of beyond. Her brief: to report back on the police department and give head office an excuse to close it altogether.
But when the body of a child floats to the surface of the man-made lake that hides the buried past of the village of Avalone, Capitaine Chastain is forced to take the chance to prove her worth and win back her job in Paris. To solve the case, she must lead a team more used to tracking down stolen combine harvesters – handsome Lieutenant Valant, the mayor’s son; ex-drug squad Brigadier Bousquet; and green local boy “Bambi” – through the twists and turns of what has become a murder investigation and uncover the secrets that have haunted the village for twenty years.
Royal hardback · 320pp · £18.99 · ISBN 978-1-9195033-3-2 · 03.ix.2026
Three Years on Fire: The Destruction of Ukraine
(paperback edition)
Andrey Kurkov
In this third volume of Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries, Ukraine’s greatest living writer chronicles the third year of the full-scale invasion from his home in Kyiv and from journeys all over the country – capturing moments of horror, resilience, absurdity and grace with an unmatched clarity.
Children on a contested border wear hooded bulletproof vests to school; soldiers write haiku; professional clowns go to war; and the mother of a young soldier killed in battle uses his compensation money to create a rehabilitation centre for veterans. Roses bloom across Ukraine in quiet tribute to a florist and soldier killed in Avdiivka, remembered by those who once bought his flowers.
The Dnipro River seems to run slow when the first missiles fall, as if nature itself had paused in shock. In Pokrovsk, 7,500 residents refuse to leave a city that no longer exists – their homes obliterated but their will unbroken. A general’s seventeen-year-old pet toad becomes an iconic symbol of defiance. And buried beneath a cherry tree, a murdered writer’s final diary is recovered, a haunting echo of a silenced voice.
From the home front to the trenches, Kurkov captures the rhythms of survival – the quiet rituals, unlikely joys, unexpected humour and appalling losses – in an intimate and very moving record of national endurance. Three Years on Fire is a luminous act of remembrance from a writer whose voice stands witness to everything Ukraine has lost – and everything it refuses to give up.
B-format paperback, with map · 224pp · £12.99 · 978-1-9195033-6-3 · Publication 27.viii.2026
Penguins and People
Marcel Haenen
translated from the Dutch by Alice Tetley-Paul
“Penguins and People is a book of profound beauty, movingly written, delightful, hilarious, and historically fascinating” De Tijd
It should come as no surprise that a man who holds the official title of “penguin editor” at a major Dutch newspaper has a particular love for penguins. Marcel Haenen has travelled the world to reconstruct the story of humanity’s relationship with penguins, consulting experts and meeting penguins around the globe. Penguins and People is not only a love letter to the world’s favourite flightless bird, but also an urgent call to action in the face of a collapsing climate.
Demy hardback, with map and colour/black & white illustrations · 320pp · £22.00 · April 2027