309AAD: Penguin book competition

The penguins book competition choices:

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

‘Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around’ Time Out

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marched into his life and he had to choose between the future and the past.

‘Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami’s writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility’ Guardian

‘This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s’ pop, it’s also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows’ Independent on Sunday

‘A heart-stoppingly moving story... Murakami is, without a doubt, one of the world’s finest novelists’ Herald 

The cover used in the briefing notes was created in 2012 by Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at VINTAGE and illustrator and designer Noma Bar.

The Establishment by Owen Jones

‘A dissection of the profoundly and sickeningly corrupt state that is present-day Britain. He is a fine writer, and this is a truly necessary book’ Phillip Pullman

Behind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westminster to the newsrooms, boardrooms and trading rooms of Fleet Street and the City. Exposing the revolving doors that link these worlds, and the vested interests that bind them together, Jones shows how, in claiming to work on our behalf, the people at the top are doing precisely the opposite. In fact, they represent the biggest threat to our democracy today - and it is time they were challenged.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

My name is August.

I won’t describe what I look like.

Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

Moving, uplifting and hopeful, Wonder was first published in 2012 to critical acclaim and quickly established itself as a must-read for children (and adults!)

With the nature of friendship, tenacity, fear and, most importantly, kindness at its heart Wonder explores fundamental truths about how people behave and how they should behave. 

The design for the original front cover was from designer and illustrator Tad Carpenter.