Composed of two companion novellas, The Empty Chair is a profound, heart-wrenching piece of spiritual storytelling from Bruce Wagner, the internationally acclaimed author of such novels as Dead Stars, I’m Losing You and Force Majeure. In First Guru, a fictional Wagner narrates the tale of a Buddhist living in Big Sur, who achieves enlightenment in the horrific aftermath of his child’s suicide. In Second Guru, Queenie, an aging wild child, returns to India to complete the spiritual journey of her youth. Told in ravaged, sensuous detail to the author-narrator by two strangers on opposite sides of the country, years apart from each other, both stories illuminate the random, chaotic nature of human suffering and the miraculous strength of the human spirit. A deeply affecting and meditative reading experience, The Empty Chair is an exquisitely rendered, thought-provoking, and humbling new work.** Views: 51
The second novel in award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe's William Posters Trilogyis an existential investigation of protest and revolution in 1960s North Africa and England Jewish dilettante Myra Bassingfield returns to England from Gibraltar with her four-week-old son. Frank Dawley, the child's father and the anarchist antihero of The Death of William Posters, has disappeared into the African desert, where he is fighting with the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) for Algerian independence against French troops. Greeting Myra quayside as she disembarks from the ship is Frank's friend, Albert Handley, an idealistic painter living in a chaotic house in Linconshire with seven kids, a bulldog, six cats, and two au pair girls. Albert's brother, John, is determined to break from the family and he sets off for Algeria to track Frank down—but not before burning the Handley house to the ground. The Handley... Views: 51
A memoir about the magic and inspiration of books from a beloved and best-selling author.In her admired works of fiction, including the recent The Book that Matters Most, Ann Hood explores the transformative power of literature. Now, with warmth and honesty, Hood reveals the personal story behind these works of fiction.Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn't foster the love of literature, Hood nonetheless learned to channel her imagination and curiosity by devouring The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment, and other works. These titles introduced her to topics that could not be discussed at home: desire, fear, sexuality, and madness. Later, Johnny Got His Gun and The Grapes of Wrath influenced her political thinking as the Vietnam War became news; Dr. Zhivago and Les Miserables stoked her ambition to travel the world. With characteristic insight and charm, Hood showcases the ways in which books gave her life and... Views: 51
Collection comprises of: Knots & Crosses; Hide & Seek; Tooth & Nail; Strip Jack; The Black Book; Mortal Causes; Let it Bleed; Black & Blue; The Hanging Garden; Dead Souls. Views: 51
Billionaire John Farrington is obsessed with the idea of offending God to the point that God would want to confront him in person. Farrington has abducted priests and nuns to commit sexual atrocities with the most grievously genetically deformed people he can find. Views: 51
In the early summer of 1944, France is in turmoil. The Allied invasion, bringing the promise of Liberation, is awaited, eagerly and nervously. The Vichy regime is in its death throes. Those who have served it and collaborated with the German Occupation fear the revenge of the Resistance. Atrocities are committed on both sides, and justice is blind. Superintendent Lannes, suspended from duty by order of the Boches, searches unofficially for a missing girl, and investigates cases of historic sex abuse. His marriage is experiencing difficulties and he worries about his sons, one with the Free French, the other in Vichy. The narrative of this tense economical novel switches between Lannes in Bordeaux and the young characters met in the first three books of this Vichy Quartet, now caught up in the terrible drama of these months - in France, London and on the Eastern Front - and brings Allan Massie's acclaimed series to its gripping climax. Views: 51
An eleven-year-old immigrant must clear her name when things start disappearing from a Boston settlement houseInnocenza Moretti's parents died in a fire when she was two. Ever since, she's lived with her grandmother and seven lodgers in the flat downstairs from her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a crowded tenement in Boston's North End. Innie's world changes when she and her cousin Teresa become members of a settlement house where immigrant girls can learn more about American life. Best of all, they'll get to participate in a library club. At school, Innie has to share books with two or three other girls. Having her own books would be like eating Sunday dinner every day. The girls' first assignment at the settlement house is unpacking books that had to be moved because of the recent fire that tore through the city. But now valuable things are vanishing: a pottery mug. A silver teapot. Money. And the prime suspect is Innie! With the help of Teresa and their... Views: 51
Father Andrew M. Greeley, one of America's best-loved and most widely read novelists, has delighted readers with his ongoing chronicles of the crazy O'Malleys, a rambunctious but resourceful Irish-American family caught up in the sweep of modern American history. The previous novels in the saga--A Midwinter's Tale, Younger than Springtime, A Christmas Wedding, and September Song--have taken the O'Malleys of Chicago from the aftermath of World War II through the tumultuous upheavals of the sixties. Now, in Second Spring, Charles "Chucky" O'Malley and his growing clan face the promise and pitfalls of the late seventies.It's 1978 and the whole country, exhausted from the twin traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, seems to be suffering from a massive hangover. Chucky O'Malley knows how the country feels; approaching fifty, he finds himself in the grip of a debilitating midlife crisis. Although he has much to be thankful for, including a loving wife and a... Views: 51
Savannah's friend Tamara Grimaldi was fourteen when her mom was murdered, and the body dumped along the side of Interstate 65 in Indiana. Since then, Grimaldi has kept an eye out for her mother's killer, first as a homicide detective in Nashville, and now as the chief of police for the city of Columbia, Tennessee, a few miles off I-65. When a new body with the old MO shows up along I-65 in Maury County, it looks like there might be a break in the case. But trying to find a serial killer who has been active for two decades, along an interstate that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, is easier said than done. Even though this time, there are indications that the culprit might be found closer to home... Views: 51
Lucy stole her friend Rose's 'happily ever after' because she wanted Rose's husband, Peter, and Lucy always gets what she wants. Big mistake. Rose was the ideal wife and is the ideal mother; Lucy was the perfect mistress.Connie – best friend to both Lucy and Rose – is stuck in the middle. She's got Lucy's worries about being wife, mother and career bitch in one ear and Rose's struggle at being a plain old single mum in the other. But Connie has her own troubles: she's just got the hang of family life when an old flame pops up to rekindle a bit of passion ... on the side.For Rose, Lucy and Connie – young wives all – it looks like there's a few more twists in the marriage tale still to come ... Views: 51
The Strange Bird—from New York Times bestselling novelist Jeff VanderMeer—is a digital original that expands and weaves deeply into the world of his "thorough marvel"* of a novel, Borne.The Strange Bird is a new kind of creature, built in a laboratory—she is part bird, part human, part many other things. But now the lab in which she was created is under siege and the scientists have turned on their animal creations. Flying through tunnels, dodging bullets, and changing her colors and patterning to avoid capture, the Strange Bird manages to escape.But she cannot just soar in peace above the earth. The sky itself is full of wildlife that rejects her as one of their own, and also full of technology—satellites and drones and other detritus of the human civilization below that has all but destroyed itself. And the farther she flies, the deeper she finds herself in the orbit of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm... Views: 51
A gripping story of friendship and betrayal from international best-selling author Adele Parks 'I invited her in... and she took everything.' When Mel hears from a long-lost friend in need of help, she doesn't hesitate to invite her to stay. Mel and Abi were best friends back in the day, sharing the highs and lows of student life, until Mel's unplanned pregnancy made her drop out of her studies. Now, seventeen years later, Mel and Abi's lives couldn't be more different. Mel is happily married, having raised her son on her own before meeting her husband, Ben. Now they share gorgeous girls and have a chaotic but happy family home, with three children. Abi, meanwhile, followed her lover to LA for a glamorous life of parties, celebrity and indulgence. Everything was perfect, until she discovered her partner had been cheating on her. Seventeen years wasted, and nothing to show for it. So what Abi needs now is a true friend to lean on, to share her grief over a glass of wine, and to... Views: 51
