Some Arresting Fiction to Take Pleasure in
Discover arresting fiction for pure reading pleasure in this curated collection of captivating books, from Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union to Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Malcolm Gladwell's gripping narratives, and unforgettable literary gems by Anne Tyler and Paulo Coelho.
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Lily's Ghost
by Cheryl Drake Harris
Haunted by her horrific memories as a doctor in Vietnam, Lily has built a safe new life for herself in a small Maine town, until her husband leaves her and sues for custody of their son. A first novel. Reader's Guide available. Original. 25,000 first printing.
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The Law of Dreams
by Peter Behrens
After witnessing the deaths of his family, Fergus O'Brien leaves Ireland in search of a new life.
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Girls in Peril
by Karen Boren
Coming of age in 1970s Wisconsin, five teenage girls realize that their biggest challenges comes not from outside elements but from within their own communities and homes, where in the course of a summer they experience early sexuality and struggle with uncomprehending grownups who covet their time and freedom. Original. A first novel.
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Restless
by William Boyd
In this masterful and thrilling espionage story, the secrets of Sally Gilmartin's past still haunt her. Someone is trying to kill her and at last she has decided to trust her daughter with her story.
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The Dive From Clausen's Pier
by Ann Packer
How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer’s intimate and emotionally thrilling new novel, which has won its author comparisons with Jane Hamilton and Sue Miller. At the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it–and Mike–behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever. The Dive from Clausen’s Pier animates this dilemma–and Carrie’s startling response to it–with the narrative assurance, exacting realism, and moral complexity we expect from the very best fiction.
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Tangerine Dream
by Ken Douglas
Best friends Haley and Taylor must deal with a terrible loss when Taylor's twin sister, Dylan, is killed in a car crash. Meanwhile, Taylor and Dylan's father, a senator running for president and supposedly somewhere on the campaign trail, can't be reached because he is in the arms of a prostitute. While the girls and the twins' mother try to recover and avoid the press in New Zealand, Nick Nesbitt, a television news reporter, senses a story and will stop at nothing to get it.
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The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
by Billie Letts
Caney Paxton wanted his cafe to have the biggest and brightest sign in Eastern Oklahoma-the "opening soon" part was supposed to be just a removable, painted notice. But a fateful misunderstanding gave Vietnam vet Caney the flashiest joke in the entire state. Twelve years later, the once-busy highway is dead and the sign is as worn as Caney, who hasn't ventured outside the diner since it opened. Then one blustery December day, a thirtyish Crow woman blows in with a three-legged dog in her arms and a long-buried secret on her mind. Hiring on as a carhop, Vena Takes Horse is soon shaking up business, the locals, and Caney's heart...as she teaches them all about generosity of spirit, love, and the possibility of promise-just like the sign says.
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A Rose for the Crown
by Anne Easter Smith
AN UNFORGETTABLE HEROINE, A KING MISUNDERSTOOD BY HISTORY, A LOVE STORY THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD In A Rose for the Crown, we meet one of history's alleged villains through the eyes of a captivating new heroine -- the woman who was the mother of his illegitimate children, a woman who loved him for who he really was, no matter what the cost to herself. As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots to the luxurious palaces of England, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Although they could never marry, their young passion grows into a love that sustains them through war, personal tragedy, and the dangerous heights of political triumph. Anne Easter Smith's impeccable research provides the backbone of an engrossing and vibrant debut from a major new historical novelist.
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Twilight of the Superheroes
by Deborah Eisenberg
In her newest collection of short stories, Eisenberg demonstrates once again her virtuosic abilities in precisely distilled, perfectly shaped studies of human connection and disconnection.
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The Mists of Avalon
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The magical saga of the women behind King Arthur's throne. “A monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends . . . reading it is a deeply moving and at times uncanny experience. . . . An impressive achievement.”—The New York Times Book Review In Marion Zimmer Bradley's masterpiece, we see the tumult and adventures of Camelot's court through the eyes of the women who bolstered the king's rise and schemed for his fall. From their childhoods through the ultimate fulfillment of their destinies, we follow these women and the diverse cast of characters that surrounds them as the great Arthurian epic unfolds stunningly before us. As Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar struggle for control over the fate of Arthur's kingdom, as the Knights of the Round Table take on their infamous quest, as Merlin and Viviane wield their magics for the future of Old Britain, the Isle of Avalon slips further into the impenetrable mists of memory, until the fissure between old and new worlds' and old and new religions' claims its most famous victim.
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Traveler
by Ron McLarty
Visiting his working-class childhood home in Rhode Island after learning that his first girlfriend has passed away, part-time actor Jono Riley remembers his coming of age at the sides of three best friends, a period that was marked by a mysterious shooting. By the author of The Memory of Running. 75,000 first printing.
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The Royal Ghosts
by Samrat Upadhyay
A collection of short stories about characters in Nepali society struggling with their duties to their aging parents, an oppressive caste system, and the frustrations of arranged marriage.
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Once in a Promised Land
by Laila Halaby
Once in a Promised Land is the story of Jassim and Salwa, who left the deserts of their native Jordan for those of Arizona, each chasing mirages of opportunity and freedom. Although the couple live far from Ground Zero, they cannot escape the dust cloud of paranoia settling over the nation. A hydrologist, Jassim believes passionately in his mission to make water accessible to all people, but his work is threatened by an FBI witch hunt for domestic terrorists. A Palestinian now twice displaced, Salwa embraces the American dream. She grapples to put down roots in an unwelcoming climate, becoming pregnant against her husband's wishes. When Jassim kills a teenage boy in a terrible accident and Salwa becomes hopelessly entangled with a shadowy young American, their tenuous lives in exile and their fragile marriage begin to unravel. Once in a Promised Land is a dramatic an achingly honest look at what it means to straddle cultures, to be viewed with suspicion, and to struggle to find safe haven. "Laila Halaby is a deeply gifted writer. She describes complicated, culture-spanning lives in a poetic prose that is clean and compelling. There is no glossing over pain here, but the power of telling-richly human voices and the redemption of honesty." -Naomi Shihab Nye on West of the Jordan "Once in a Promised Land tells a story you won't find anywhere else. It gives the human scale to big events and with great fluency captures the heart and soul of what it's like to be living in America in these troubling times." -Larry Dark, director of The Story Prize "Set in the early days of post-September 11th America, ONCE IN A PROMISED LAND draws its structure from Arabian folklore and the western fairy tale, turning both inside out to illuminate the mythic search for home and identity, the universal hunger of the soul for the genuine, and the wounding yet redemptive nature of love itself. In this timely and utterly original novel, Laila Halaby has crafted a deeply resonant tale of our tangled and common humanity." -Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog "Once in a Promised Land is an intricate braid of secrets, some intimate, some the brutal and nasty ones abroad these days in a land whose promise and promises have been shattered by suspicion and hostility. Laila Halaby, who still dares to dream of an intact culture, has written a forceful novel that catches innocence and the hope for wholeness in the web of its complex plot and squeezes them until they bleed." -Rosellen Brown "Halaby has created a beautiful, poignant tale about America in a dark time and peopled it with exquisitely crafted characters who wring our hearts." -Chitra Divakaruni, author of Queen of Dreams and Mistress of Spices "Once in a Promised Land is a gem of a novel. Halaby creates an engaging social commentary on immigrant life in a post-9/11 America, but does not come off as preachy or disapproving. Rather, Halaby's fluid prose reads like an ethereal, modern-day fairy tale as she weaves in Arab myths and stories throughout the novel. The result is a richly layered tale and unique introspective into the immigrant experience that many will enjoy and savor." -Review, About.com Sometimes you run out of adjectives. Or the adjectives lose their luster. What if I say that Once in a Promised Land is brilliant, insightful, heartbreaking, enchanting-what does that even mean anymore? But this novel is brilliant because the prose glows, sends off heat. Insightful because it allows us to see into a place that most of us don't know about. Heartbreaking because you can feel the situation that these characters are trapped in. And enchanting because it's told in the form of a fairy tale that lets us believe that, somehow, these poor souls may be able to rescue themselves.-Carol
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Rules for Old Men Waiting
by Peter Pouncey
A brief, lyrical novel with a powerful emotional charge, Rules for Old Men Waiting is about three wars of the twentieth century and an ever-deepening marriage. In a house on the Cape “older than the Republic,” Robert MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland, creates a list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most important rule, to “tell a story to its end,” spurs the old Scot on to invent a strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the First World War. Drawn from a depth of knowledge and imagination, MacIver conjures the implacable, clear-sighted artist Private Callum; the private’s nemesis Sergeant Braddis, with his pincerlike nails; Lieutenant Simon Dodds, who takes on Braddis; and Private Charlie Alston, who is ensnared in this story of inhumanity and betrayal but brings it to a close. This invented tale of the Great War prompts MacIver’s own memories of his role in World War II and of Vietnam, where his son, David served. Both the stories and the memories alike are lit by the vivid presence of Margaret, his wife. As Hearts and Minds director Peter Davis writes, “Pouncey has wrought an almost inconceivable amount of beauty from pain, loss, and war, and I think he has been able to do this because every page is imbued with the love story at the heart of his astonishing novel.”
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Mr. Thundermug
by Cornelius Medvei
A wildly inventive novella, illustrated with the author's original lithographs, in which a baboon acquires the faculties of human speech and is put on trial by humans less civilized than himself.
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Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty
by Tim Sandlin
Reluctantly taking up residence at an assisted-living facility outside San Francisco in 2023, Guy Fontaine realizes that his aging-hippie fellow residents are living out their golden years in perpetual tribute to the 1960s and becomes involved in a media circus involving a resident's illegal pet cat, the facility's domineering administrator, and governor Drew Barrymore. By the author of Skipped Parts.
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Salaam, Paris
by Kavita Daswani
Tanaya Shah longs for the wonderful world of Paris, the world that she fell in love with while watching Audrey Hepburn in "Sabrina"--so when a proposal comes along for an arranged marriage with a man who is living in Paris, Tanaya seizes the chance, but then sets out on her own. "The culture-clash dilemmas ring heartbreakingly true."--"Entertainment Weekly."
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The Splendor of Silence
by Indu Sundaresan
Arriving in the west India state of Rudrakot where he hopes to find his idealistic brother, who went missing after joining the local struggle for independence from the British, wounded World War II army captain Sam Hawthorne finds his search complicated by his love for the daughter of a political agent. By the author of A Feast of Roses. 35,000 first printing.
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American Cookery
by Laura Kalpakian
Two strong willed women struggle to pull Eden from the comfy sloth of her parent's home.
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Tolstoy Lied
by Rachel Kadish
Headed for tenure at a major university, Tracy Farber is determined to demonstrate that Tolstoy is wrong in his argument that only unhappiness is interesting and sets out to prove that happiness and the search for happiness are complicated.
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The Devil and Miss Prym
by Paulo Coelho
A community devoured by greed, cowardice, and fear. A man persecuted by the ghosts of his painful past. A young woman searching for happiness. In one eventful week, each will face questions of life, death, and power, and each will choose a path. Will they choose good or evil? In the remote village of Viscos -- a village too small to be on any map, a place where time seems to stand still -- a stranger arrives, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him: Are human beings, in essence, good or evil? In welcoming the mysterious foreigner, the whole village becomes an accomplice to his sophisticated plot, which will forever mark their lives. Paulo Coelho's stunning novel explores the timeless struggle between good and evil, and brings to our everyday dilemmas fresh perspective: incentive to master the fear that prevents us from following our dreams, from being different, from truly living. The Devil and Miss Prym is a story charged with emotion, in which the integrity of being human meets a terrifying test.
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The News from Paraguay
by Lily Tuck
The year is l854. In Paris, Francisco Solano -- the future dictator of Paraguay -- begins his courtship of the young, beautiful Irish courtesan Ella Lynch with a poncho, a Paraguayan band, and ahorse named Mathilde. Ella follows Franco to AsunciĂłn and reigns there as his mistress. Isolated and estranged in this new world, she embraces her lover's ill-fated imperial dream -- one fueled by a heedless arrogance that will devastate all of Paraguay. With the urgency of the narrative, rich and intimate detail, and a wealth of skillfully layered characters, The News from Paraguay recalls the epic novels of Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.
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The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
by Alexander McCall Smith
Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld is mistaken for a veterinarian, and not wanting to call attention to the faux pas, begins practicing veterinary medicine without a license.
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Joe College
by Tom Perrotta
For many college students, Spring Break means fun and sun in Florida. For Danny, a Yale junior, it means two weeks behind the wheel of the Roach Coach, his father's lunch truck, which plies the parking lots of office parks in central New Jersey. But Danny can use the time behind the coffee urn to try and make sense of a love life that's gotten a little complicated. There's loyal and patient hometown honey Cindy and her recently dropped bombshell to contend with. And there's also lissome Polly back in New Haven--with her shifting moods, perfect thrift store dresses and inconvenient liaison with a dashing professor. If girl problems aren't enough, there's the constant menace of the Lunch Monsters, a group of thugs who think Danny has planted the Roach Coach in their territory. Joe College is Tom Perrotta's warmest and funniest fiction yet, a comic journey into the dark side of love, higher education and food service.
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Nowhere is a Place
by Bernice L. McFadden
Traveling across country together, a mother and daughter discover the assorted pieces of their family's past, which--when pulled together--reveal a history of amazing survival and abundant joy.
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Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
In 1956, toward the end of his life, Reverend John Ames begins a letter to his young son, sharing the story of his life and explaining how his faith influenced his choices and actions.
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
For sixty years, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Proud, grateful, and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful, and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. For sixty years they have been left alone, neglected and half-forgotten in a backwater of history. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown. But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears. At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
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The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.
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The Raw Shark Texts
by Steven Hall
Eric Sanderson wakes up in a place he doesn't recognise, unable to remember who he is. Attacked by a force he cannot see and confronted with memories he cannot ignore, Eric discovers he is being hunted by a psychic predator, a shark. This creature may exist only in his mind, but it soon starts making some very real appearances in his world. Loaded with letters from his past self, each signed 'With regret and also hope, The First Eric Sanderson', Eric embarks on a quest to recover his life. A love story, an adventure, a psychological drama - this wild, touching, modern tale is cut through with an understated humour and warmth. The depths of love, language, memory and the inevitability of loss have never been plumbed with such deep-hearted imagination.
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We Need to Talk About Kevin
by Lionel Shriver
The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
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Digging to America
by Anne Tyler
This luminous novel brims with tender observations about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdam, who after 35 years in this country must finally come to terms with her "outsiderness."