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The Story of the Cannibal Woman: A Novel
By Maryse Condé. 2005
One dark night in Cape Town, Rosélie's husband goes out for a pack of cigarettes and never comes back. Not…
only is she left with unanswered questions about his violent death but she is also left without any means of support. At the urging of her housekeeper and best friend, the new widow decides to take advantage of the strange gifts she has always possessed and embarks on a career as a clairvoyant. As Rosélie builds a new life for herself and seeks the truth about her husband's murder, acclaimed Caribbean author Maryse Condé crafts a deft exploration of post-apartheid South Africa and a smart, gripping thriller. The Story of the Cannibal Woman is both contemporary and international, following the lives of an interracial, intercultural couple in New York City, Tokyo, and Capetown. Maryse Condé is known for vibrantly lyrical language and fearless, inventive storytelling -- she uses both to stunning effect in this magnificently original novel.Mrs Queen Takes the Train: A Novel (P. S. Series)
By William Kuhn. 2012
“A witty, contemporary story of the Downton Abbey-esque tensions between servants and employers, the young and the old, and tradition…
and modernity.” — GlamourAn absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn—author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books—Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts. After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a colorful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.Comic and poignant, fast-paced and clever, Mrs Queen Takes the Train tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.Black Violin: A Novel
By Maxence Fermine. 2003
There were many musical souls adrift on that raft of silence that is Venice. There was the music of Johannes…
Karelsky.There was the music of Erasmus, the violin maker. And there was the music of war. But of that, the two men never spoke.From the internationally acclaimed author of Snow comes a timeless tale of love and music set against the romantic backdrop of eighteenth-century Venice.In 1797, the violin prodigy Johannes Karelsky arrives in Venice after fighting with Napoleon's army in the Italian campaign. After the war, he boards with an aged violin maker named Erasmus who created the legendary "Black Violin," which he forbids Johannes to touch because, as he says, "Once you have tasted it, you will never be the same again." Johannes becomes obsessed with the idea of playing this violin as well as finding the woman who saved his life when he was injured in battle.Beautifully written and highly evocative, The Black Violin interweaves Johannes's quest for love and the history of this mysterious instrument in a narrative that is sure to resonate long after the last page is turned.The Trouble with Brothers (Sleepover Squad #3)
By P. J. Denton. 2007
It's Kara's turn to host the Sleepover Squad's latest party, and she couldn't be more excited! Until her annoying brothers…
get wind of the event, and promise they're going to play all kinds of practical jokes on the Squad. That is, unless Kara agrees to be their slave. Oh no! Poor Kara is running herself ragged trying to keep up with her rotten brothers' demands, without letting her friends find out. She's worried her pals won't want to come to her house--or, worse, that they'll want to disband the Squad! But when the rest of the Squad finds out what's going on, they tell Kara to quit being the boys' slave and relax. After all, no matter what those creeps can do to them, these girls know something the boys don't: getting mad isn't the same thing as getting even....Girlfriend on Mars: A Novel
By Deborah Willis. 2023
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE**LONGLISTED FOR THE FOREST OF READING EVERGREEN AWARD*&“A sharp, funny take on capitalism, climate…
change, and our lifelong mission to be loved.&” —PeopleA funny, poignant, and page-turning debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least, she will be if she wins a chance to join MarsNow. She and twenty-three reality TV contestants from around the world—including a handsome Israeli, an endearing fellow Canadian, and an assortment of science nerds and wannabe influencers—are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile Kevin, Amber&’s boyfriend of fourteen years, was content going nowhere until Amber left him—and their hydroponic weed business—behind. As he tends to the plants growing in their absurdly overpriced Vancouver basement apartment, Kevin tunes in to find out why the love of his life is so determined to leave the planet with somebody else.An audaciously original debut from an &“immensely talented writer&” (Emily St. John Mandel), Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity&’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love.At the End of Every Day: A Novel
By Arianna Reiche. 2023
This haunting debut novel—perfect for fans of Mona Awad, Karin Tidbeck, and Julia Armfield—is a &“wild genre-and-mind-bending ride&” (Laura Sims,…
author of Looker) about a loyal employee at a collapsing theme park questioning the recent death of a celebrity visitor, the arrival of strange new guests, her boyfriend&’s erratic behavior, and ultimately her own sanity.Delphi has spent years working at a vast and iconic theme park in California after fleeing a trauma in her rural hometown. But following the disturbing death of a beloved Hollywood starlet on the park grounds, Delphi is tasked with shuttering it for good. Meanwhile, two siblings with ties to the park exchange letters, trying to understand why people who work there have been disappearing. Before long, they learn that there&’s a reason no one is meant to see behind its carefully guarded curtain… What happens when the park empties out? And what happens when Delphi, who seems remarkably at one with it, is finally forced to leave? Simultaneously &“a smart and surprising escape room of a novel&” (Matt Bell, author of Appleseed) about the uncanny valley, death cults, optical illusions, and the enduring power of fantasy, Reiche&’s debut is a mind-bending teacup ride through an eerily familiar landscape, where the key to it all is what happens at the end of every day.The Long Flight Home
By Alan Hlad. 2019
A USA Today Bestseller Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is…
a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours—a moving, masterfully written story of love and sacrifice. It is September 1940—a year into the war—and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan—loyal, intelligent, beautiful—but none more so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather&’s desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world. Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, young crop-duster pilot Ollie Evans decides to join Britain&’s Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert mission to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do will bring home crucial information. Soon a friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens, but when his plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on—and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.&“Hlad adeptly drives home the devastating civilian cost of the war.&”—BooklistThe Weeds: A Novel
By Katy Simpson Smith. 2023
A Best Book of the Year at The New YorkerA Must Read at The Boston Globe, Literary Hub, The Millions,…
and Garden & Gun“[A] lyrical incisive novel . . . [about] a changing climate, the invisibility of women’s work, and the perseverance of unofficial histories.” —The New YorkerIn Katy Simpson Smith’s The Weeds, two women, connected across time, edge toward transgression in pursuit of their desires.A Mississippi woman pushes through the ruin of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. She has escaped her life, signed up to catalog all the species growing in this place. Crawling along the stones, she wonders how she has landed here, a reluctant botanist amid a snarl of tourists in comfortable sandals. She hunts for a scientific agenda and a direction of her own. In 1854, a woman pushes through the jungle of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. As punishment for her misbehavior, she has been indentured to the English botanist Richard Deakin, for whom she will compile a flora. She is a thief, and she must find new ways to use her hands. If only the woman she loves weren’t on a boat, with a husband. But love isn’t always possible. She logs 420 species. Through a list of seemingly minor plants and their uses—medical, agricultural, culinary—these women calculate intangible threats: a changing climate, the cost of knowledge, and the ways repeated violence can upend women’s lives. They must forge their own small acts of defiance and slip through whatever cracks they find. How can anyone survive? Lush, intoxicating, and teeming with mischief, Katy Simpson Smith’s The Weeds is a tense, mesmerizing page-turner about science and survival, the roles women are given and have taken from them, and the lives they make for themselves.Hestia Strikes a Match: A Novel
By Christine Grillo. 2023
A Best Book of the Year at NPRA Must-Read at The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and The Orange County Register“Steamy,…
smart, and hilarious.” —Oprah Daily“Effervescent . . . Acerbically funny and tender . . . [A] supremely layered, emotionally and intellectually resonant novel for our time.” —Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston GlobeChristine Grillo’s Hestia Strikes a Match is the slyly funny story of a woman looking for love and friendship in the midst of a new American civil war.The year is 2023, and things are bad—bad, but still not as bad as they could be. Hestia Harris is forty-two, abandoned by her husband (he left to fight for the Union cause), and estranged from her parents (they’re leaving for the Confederacy). Yes, the United States has collapsed into a second civil war and again it’s Unionists against Confederates, children against parents, friends against friends.Hestia has left journalism (too much war reporting) for a job at a Baltimore retirement village on the Inner Harbor (lots of security). She’s single and adrift, save for her coworkers and Mildred, an eighty-four-year-old, thrice-happily-married resident who gleefully supports Hestia’s half-hearted but hopeful attempts to find love again in a time of chaos and disunion. She reckons with the big questions (How do we live in the midst of political collapse? How do we love people who believe terrible things?) and the little ones (How do I decorate a nonworking fireplace? Can I hook up with a mime?), all while wrestling with that simmering, roiling, occasionally boiling feeling that things are decidedly not okay, but we have to keep going, one foot in front of the other, because maybe, just maybe, we can still find the kinds of relationships that sustain a person through anything.Christine Grillo’s Hestia Strikes a Match is an irreverent, incisive, laugh-out-loud interrogation of modern love of all kinds, in all its messy beauty. Equal parts wise and hilarious, it fills the heart, fortifies the spirit, and will surely help to fend off despair. In the face of the everyday wildness of our times, it asks and answers that newly constant question: How do we make a full, wonderfully ordinary life when the whole mad world is clattering down around us?Kantika: A Novel
By Elizabeth Graver. 2023
A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family…
as home.A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries, Kantika—“song” in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way—a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge—her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old.Exploring identity, place and exile, Kantika also reveals how the female body—in work, art and love—serves as a site of both suffering and joy. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel from Elizabeth Graver celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life.Triangles: A Novel
By Ellen Hopkins. 2011
From the New York Times bestselling author of the sizzling romantic suspense Love Lies Beneath, three female friends face midlife…
crises in a no-holds-barred exploration of sex, marriage, and the fragility of life.Holly, filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. But will it truly bring the fulfillment she is searching for? Andrea, a single mom and avowed celibate, watches her friend Holly&’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for—a committed relationship with a decent guy. So would it be such a bad thing if Andrea picks up Holly&’s castaway husband? Marissa has more than her fair share of challenges—a rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts. As one woman&’s marriage unravels, another&’s rekindles. As one woman&’s family comes apart at the seams, another&’s reconfigures into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman&’s up is another one&’s down, and all of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness. Unflinchingly honest, emotionally powerful, surprisingly erotic, Triangles is the ultimate page-turner. Hopkins&’s gorgeous, expertly honed poetic verse perfectly captures the inner lives of her characters: Sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes you just get lost. Get lost in the world of Triangles, where the lives of three unforgettable women intersect, and where there are no easy answers.The Fuck Up
By Arthur Nersesian. 1997
Arthur Nersesian's underground literary treasure is an unforgettable slice of gritty New York City life.This is the darkly hilarious odyssey…
of an anonymous slacker. He's a perennial couch-surfer, an aspiring writer searching for himself in spite of himself, and he's just trying to survive. But life has other things in store for the fuck-up. From being dumped by his girlfriend to getting fired for asking for a raise, from falling into a robbery to posing as a gay man to keep his job at a porno theater, the fuck-up's tragi-comedy is perfectly realized by Arthur Nersesian, who manages to create humor and suspense out of urban desperation. "Read it and howl," says Bruce Benderson (author of User), "and be glad it didn't happen to you."Katerina: A Novel
By James Frey. 2018
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning comes Katerina, James Frey&’s…
highly anticipated new novel set in 1992 Paris and contemporary Los Angeles.A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America&’s most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018.At its center are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. Twenty-five years later, the writer is rich, famous, and numb, and he wants to drive his car into a tree, when he receives an anonymous message that draws him back to the life, and possibly the love, he abandoned years prior. Written in the same percussive, propulsive, dazzling, breathtaking style as A Million Little Pieces, Katerina echoes and complements that most controversial of memoirs, and plays with the same issues of fiction and reality that created, nearly destroyed, and then recreated James Frey in the American imagination.The Sun and Other Stars: A Novel
By Brigid Pasulka. 2013
From Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award-winning writer Brigid Pasulka comes a charming and compulsively readable modern day fable of one misanthrope’s journey…
from darkness into the light—told by one of the most radiantly talented new voices in fiction.In the seaside town of San Benedetto, soccer (or calcio) is more than just a sport: it’s an obsession. Twenty-two-year-old Etto, however, couldn’t care less about soccer. His beloved twin brother Luca, a rising soccer star, died tragically in a motorcycle accident, and their Californian mother, unable to cope with her grief, drowned herself on the anniversary of Luca’s death. This has left Etto alone to tend the butcher shop—where his father barely seems to take in his presence and entrusts him with only the most basic tasks. But then Yuri Fil, a Ukrainian soccer star who Etto’s father idolizes, takes refuge from the paparazzi in a nearby villa, and Etto accidentally falls into Yuri's orbit—and that of Yuri’s beautiful and tough sister, Zhuki. Under their influence, he begins to learn a few life lessons: that the game of soccer might not be a total waste of time, that he might not in fact be a total loser—and that San Benedetto, his father, love, and life itself might have more to offer him than he would have ever believed possible.Rhapsody: A Novel
By Mitchell James Kaplan. 2021
&“[A] shining rendition of Swift and Gershwin&’s star-crossed love.&” —Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author In the vein…
of the New York Times bestseller Loving Frank, this fascinating and compelling novel &“will have you humming, toe-tapping, and singing along with every turn of the page&” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) as it explores the decade-long relationship between the celebrated composer George Gershwin and gifted musician Katharine &“Kay&” Swift.When Katharine &“Kay&” Swift—the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and a serious pianist who longs for recognition—attends a performance of Rhapsody in Blue by a brilliant, elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin, her world is turned upside down. Transfixed, she&’s helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George&’s talent, charm, and swagger. Their ten-year love affair, complicated by her conflicted loyalty to her husband and the twists and turns of her own musical career, ends only with George&’s death from a brain tumor at the age of thirty-eight.Set in Jazz Age New York City, this stunning work of fiction explores the timeless bond between two brilliant, strong-willed artists. George Gershwin left behind not just a body of work unmatched in popular musical history, but a woman who loved him with all her heart, knowing all the while that he belonged not to her, but to the world.On the Edge of Reason
By Miroslav Krleza. 1938
From the great Croatian writer: a masterly work of literature—hilarious, unforgiving, and utterly reasonable Until the age of fifty-two, the…
protagonist of On the Edge of Reason suffered a monotonous existence as a highly respected lawyer. He owned a carriage and wore a top hat. He lived the life of “an orderly good-for-nothing among a whole crowd of neat, gray good-for-nothings.” But, one evening, surrounded by ladies and gentlemen at a party, he hears the Director-General tell a lively anecdote of how he shot four men like dogs for trespassing on his property. In response, our hero blurts out an honest thought. From this moment, all hell breaks loose. Written in 1938, On the Edge of Reason reveals the fundamental chasm between conformity and individuality. As folly piles upon folly, hypocrisy upon hypocrisy, reason itself begins to give way, and the edge between reality and unreality disappears.The Hotel (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)
By Elizabeth Bowen. 2024
It was an exciting time for young women of the 1920s as they embraced liberation from the pre–World War I…
traditions of their mothers. In the mild Mediterranean climate of the Italian Riviera, a rebellious young Sydney Warren cautiously tested her newfound freedom, developing an intimate relationship with the charming middle-aged widow Mrs. Kerr that caused rumors and speculation to stir among the wealthy British guests of a luxurious seaside hotel. A sapphic affair simmers beneath the surface of Elizabeth Bowen's captivating first novel, published in 1927. With its masterful storytelling, combined with Bowen’s keen observations and elegant prose, The Hotel beautifully illuminates the contrast between the tranquil Italian setting and the underlying tensions among the privileged characters. The novel is a thoughtful exploration of social norms, personal identity, and the subtle dynamics of group interaction, resulting in a rich story that often relies on what is left unsaid as much as what is written on the page.This is happiness
By Niall Williams. 2019
Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish unaltered in a 1,000 years. For one thing, the rain is…
stopping. Nobody remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard is a condition of living. But now - just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of the electricity - the rain clouds are lifting. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world. Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community - its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs - and a coming-of-age tale like no other. Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our worldThe girl they left behind: A novel
By Roxanne Veletzos. 2018
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A sweeping family saga and love story that offers a vivid and unique portrayal of life in war-torn…
1941 Bucharest and life behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Union occupation—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls and Sarah's Key . On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest. With Romania recently allied with the Nazis, the Jewish population is in grave danger, undergoing increasingly violent persecution. The girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy childless couple who name her Natalia. As she assimilates into her new life, she all but forgets the parents who were forced to leave her behind. They are even further from her mind when Romania falls under Soviet occupation. Yet, as Natalia comes of age in a bleak and hopeless world, traces of her identity pierce the surface of her everyday life, leading gradually to a discovery that will change her destiny. She has a secret crush on Victor, an intense young man who as an impoverished student befriended her family long ago. Years later, when Natalia is in her early twenties and working at a warehouse packing fruit, she and Victor, now an important official in the Communist regime, cross paths again. This time they are fatefully drawn into a passionate affair despite the obstacles swirling around them and Victor's dark secrets. When Natalia is suddenly offered a one-time chance at freedom, Victor is determined to help her escape, even if it means losing her. Natalia must make an agonizing decision: remain in Bucharest with her beloved adoptive parents and the man she has come to love, or seize the chance to finally live life on her own terms, and to confront the painful enigma of her pastThe queen of dirt island: A novel
By Donal Ryan. 2023
“From its opening pages, this book exerts a quiet, propulsive hold over its reader. The three generations of Aylward women…
will break your heart and then put it back together again.” – Maggie O'Farrell "This is a generous mosaic of a novel about the staying power of love and pride and history and family." –C olum McCann, author of Apeirogon and Let The Great World Spin From the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author Donal Ryan, a searing, jubilant story about four generations of women and fierce love The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it. You’d have to know them to know that—in spite of what the neighbors might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes—their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world. Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It’s a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love. Of all the things family can be and all the things it sometimes isn’t. The Queen of Dirt Island is an uplifting celebration of fierce, loyal love and the powerful stories that bind generations together