With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild.

One night, he hears voices in the valley – poachers, come to hunt his bear.

A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey – Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own.

Is he willing to lay down his life for a dying breed?

Is he willing to kill for it?

A unique cocktail of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history by the one and only Quentin Tarantino.

The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the number one New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.

In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films.

Now, with CINEMA SPECULATION, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans – and all movie lovers – could have hoped for.

Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.

At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.

Set on the south-western ranches in the years before the Second World War, Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing follows the fortunes of sixteen-year-old Billy Parham and his younger brother Boyd. Fascinated by an elusive wolf that has been marauding his family’s property, Billy captures the animal – but rather than kill it, sets out impulsively for the mountains of Mexico to return it to where it came from.

When Billy comes back to his own home he finds himself and his world irrevocably changed. His loss of innocence has come at a price, and once again the border beckons with its desolate beauty and cruel promise.

‘The Crossing is like a river in full spate: beautiful and dangerous’ – The Times

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild.

One night, he hears voices in the valley – poachers, come to hunt his bear.

A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey – Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own.

Is he willing to lay down his life for a dying breed?

Is he willing to kill for it?

Yip Tolroy and his fiery Mama run the general store in Heron’s Creek, Georgia. An uneventful life, until gold is discovered nearby and Yip is caught up in a bloody, grievous crime forcing him to flee. On the run, friendless and alone, he meets Dud Carter a savvy but unlikely companion. Together, they embark on a journey that thrusts them unwittingly into a world of menace and violence, of lust and revenge. And, as Yip and Dud’s odyssey takes them further into the unknown – via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men – the pull of home only gets stronger. But what will they find there if they ever return?

‘This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End, but Paddy Crewe’s take is startlingly original… Yip’s tale is immersive and beautiful in unexpected places. On the strength of this sensational debut, you will be hearing a lot more about Paddy Crewe.’ Antonia Senior, The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month

THE DELUXE HARDBACK EDITION FEATURING NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS, BONUS MATERIAL & AN EXCLUSIVE BOUNTY LAW SCRIPT BY QUENTIN TARANTINO

Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of fiction – at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal – is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.

The sunlit studio back lots and the dark watering holes of Hollywood are the setting for this audacious, hilarious, disturbing novel about life in the movie colony, circa 1969.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood tells the story of washed-up actor Rick Dalton. Once Rick had his own television series, a famous western called “Bounty Law.” But “it ain’t been that time in a long time” and now Rick’s only regular parts are as the heavy, ready to be bested by whichever young “swingin’ dick” the networks want to make a new star out of come pilot season. When a talent agent approaches Rick about starring in Italian Westerns (“Eye-talian Westerns”?), it only ignites a new crisis of confidence for the perpetually insecure actor.

And then there’s Rick’s stunt double, Cliff Booth, a war hero who killed more Japanese soldiers during the Second World War than any other American, and who never thought he’d make it back home. If Rick’s career has stalled, Cliff’s has flamed out. Already living under a cloud of suspicion after the strange death of his wife at sea, Cliff makes the mistake of picking the wrong fight on set, and is soon reduced to the status of Rick’s full-time gofer.

Right next door to Rick’s still glamourous Benedict Canyon home (“the house that Bounty Law built”) some Hollywood dreams are coming true, and these dreams belong to Sharon Tate. Not only is she Mrs. Roman Polanski – married to the only true rock star director – but Sharon is fast becoming a star in her own right, living life on the upswing in a tough town.

Only a few miles away, in the desert around Chatsworth, lives a different kind of dreamer. Charles Manson is an ex-con who has spellbound a group of hippie misfits living with him in squalor on an old “movie ranch.” Little do his young followers know to what degree Charlie himself is an industry striver, more desperate for Columbia Records and Tapes’s attentions than for the revolution he preaches.

These indelible characters – and many more: an acting child prodigy beaming with hope; a booze-drenched former A-lister who’s lost it all – occupy a vanished world from not so long ago that is brought to brilliant life in these pages. Here is 1969, the music, the cars, the movies and TV shows. And here is Hollywood, both the fairy tale and the real thing, as given to us by a master storyteller who knows it like the back of his hand.

FEATURING NEW PHOTOS AND BONUS MATERIAL:

– Two color inserts featuring never-before-seen photos from the set and posters and other memorabilia from Rick Dalton’s career

– An original, exclusive script for a Bounty Law episode by Quentin Tarantino titled “Incident at Inez”

– A Mad Magazine parody of Bounty Law titled “Lousy Law: Loser’s Last Ride”