An extract from Ian Marchant's new novel, Something of the Night...

'Night is our time of greatest playfulness and freedom, of love and romance. We go to pubs, nightclubs, and all-night drinking dens; we go to cinemas, theatres and bingo halls. We go to night classes, dance lessons, the football and the dogs.'

A short story from Rowena Macdonald's collection Smoked Meat, set in Montreal’s demi-monde. 'It was winter when Henry first went down to Rue Beaudry...'

'Ragnar was thinking about ravens. He had heard they were very wise and could be trained. There were ravens close by them; sometimes they fluttered overhead like pieces of ash from the volcano. They had voices made out of coal.'

 Otto, a twelve year old boy living in the Bavarian village of Frieberg in 1926, makes a new friend with whom he shares a common interest in entomology - this relationship leads to a revelation that has implications for his past as well as his future.