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Marley: A Novel
Par Jon Clinch. 2019
The acclaimed author of Finn &“digs down to the bones of a classic and creates must-read modern literature&” (Charles Frazier,…
New York Times bestselling author) with this &“clever riff&” (The Washington Post) on Dickens&’s classic A Christmas Carol that explores of the relationship between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley.&“Marley was dead, to begin with,&” Charles Dickens tells us at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. But in Jon Clinch&’s &“masterly&” (The New York Times Book Review) novel, Jacob Marley, business partner to Ebenezer Scrooge, is very much alive: a rapacious and cunning boy who grows up to be a forger, a scoundrel, and the man who will be both the making and the undoing of Scrooge. They meet as youths in the gloomy confines of Professor Drabb&’s Academy for Boys, where Marley begins their twisted friendship by initiating the innocent Scrooge into the art of extortion. Years later, in the dank heart of London, their shared ambition manifests itself in a fledgling shipping empire. Between Marley&’s genius for deception and Scrooge&’s brilliance with numbers, they amass a considerable fortune of dubious legality, all rooted in a pitiless commitment to the soon-to-be-outlawed slave trade. As Marley toys with the affections of Scrooge&’s sister, Fan, Scrooge falls under the spell of Fan&’s best friend, Belle Fairchild. Now, for the first time, Scrooge and Marley find themselves at odds. With their business interests inextricably bound together and instincts for secrecy and greed bred in their very bones, the two men engage in a shadowy war of deception, forged documents, theft, and cold-blooded murder. Marley and Scrooge are destined to clash in an unforgettable reckoning that will echo into the future and set the stage for Marley&’s ghostly return. &“Read through to the last page of this brilliant book, and I promise you that you will have a permanently changed view, not just of Dickens&’s world, but of the world we live in today&” (Elizabeth Letts, New York Times bestselling author).Youngblood: A Novel
Par Matt Gallagher. 2016
&“An urgent and deeply moving novel&” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) about a young American soldier struggling to find…
meaning during the final, dark days of the War in Iraq.The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening—through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish. As Iraq plunges back into chaos and bloodshed and Chambers’s influence over the men grows stronger, Jack becomes obsessed with a strange, tragic tale of reckless love between a lost American soldier and Rana, a local sheikh’s daughter. In search of the truth and buoyed by the knowledge that what he finds may implicate Sergeant Chambers, Jack seeks answers from the enigmatic Rana, and soon their fates become intertwined. Determined to secure a better future for Rana and a legitimate and lasting peace for her country, Jack will defy American command, putting his own future in grave peril. For fans of Phil Klay’s Redeployment or Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Youngblood provides startling new dimension to both the moral complexity of war and its psychological toll.The River We Remember: A Novel
Par William Krueger. 2023
In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this…
dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and &“a work of art&” (The Denver Post). On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn&’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past. Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn&’s death threatens to expose. Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of mid-century American life that is &“a novel to cherish&” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), The River We Remember offers an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.Lives Like Mine
Par Eva Verde. 2021
&‘Londoner Eva Verde&’s Lives Like Mine explores the theme of a school-run affair and the complications and joys it brings to…
a dual-heritage mother struggling with her intolerant in-laws&’ Independent 'A bitter sweet story of longing and self-discovery, of deceit and regret. Visceral, authentic and funny, Eva&’s prose reads like something between a conversation and a confession. An exciting new voice and a joy to read' Kit de Waal &‘Eva's writing breaks new ground in a confident and original voice, with a sharp eye for detail, wonderful characterisation and some seriously badass humour&’ Yvvette Edwards, author of the Man Booker Prize longlisted novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats&‘Lives Like Mine is an assured debut from a writer who&’s going to go far' Red Online 'Londoner Eva Verde's breathtaking novel' New!Mother. To three small children, their heritage dual like hers. Daughter. To a mother who immigrated to make a better life but has been rejected by her chosen country. Wife. To a man who loves her but who will not defend her to his intolerant family. Woman… Whose roles now define her and trap her in a life she no longer recognises… Meet Monica, the flawed heroine at the heart of LIVES LIKE MINE. With her three children in school, Monica finds herself wondering if this is all there is. Despite all the effort and the smiles, in the mirror she sees a woman hollowed out from putting everyone else first, tolerating her in-laws&’ intolerance, and wondering if she has a right to complain when she&’s living the life that she has created for herself. Then along comes Joe, a catalyst for change in the guise of a flirtatious parent on the school run. Though the sudden spark of their affair is hedonistic and oh so cathartic, Joe soon offers a friendship that shows Monica how to resurrect and honour the parts of her identity that she has long suppressed. He is able to do for Monica what Dan has never managed to, enabling her both to face up to a past of guilty secrets and family estrangements, and to redefine her future.The Water Knife
Par Paolo Bacigalupi. 2015
WATER IS POWER In the near future, the Colorado River has dwindled to a trickle. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel Velasquez…
&“cuts&” water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that its lush arcology developments can bloom in Las Vegas. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with her own agenda, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north. As bodies begin to pile up, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger and more corrupt than they could have imagined, and when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.We The Animals: A Novel
Par Justin Torres. 2011
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER and an award-winning novel in stories surrounding a young, half-white, half-Puerto Rican boy grappling with life, love,…
and identity as he comes of age.In this groundbreaking debut, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become."A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it."??—??The Washington Post "We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.”??—??Michael Cunningham "A miracle in concentrated pages, you are going to read it again and again."??—??Dorothy Allison"Rumbles with lyric dynamite . . . Torres is a savage new talent."??—??Benjamin Percy, Esquire "A fiery ode to boyhood . . . A welterweight champ of a book."??—??NPR, Weekend Edition "A novel so honest, poetic, and tough that it makes you reexamine what it means to love and to hurt."??—??O, The Oprah Magazine "The communal howl of three young brothers sustains this sprint of a novel . . . A kind of incantation."??—??The New YorkerThe Glutton: A Novel
Par A. K. Blakemore. 2023
MOST ANTICIPATED by The Guardian • Paste Magazine • LitHub • The Millions • Library Journal From the prizewinning author…
of The Manningtree Witches, a subversive historical novel set during the French Revolution, inspired by a young peasant boy turned showman, said to have been tormented and driven to murder by an all-consuming appetite. &“There are few writers who can be truly likened to Hilary Mantel, but Blakemore is one.&” —The Observer1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetué has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it&’s killing him from the inside. But that&’s not all—he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite…an appetite they say tortures him still. Born in an impoverished village to a widowed young mother, Tarare was once overflowing with quiet affection: for the Baby Jesus and the many Saints, for his mother, for the plants and little creatures in the woods and fields around their house. He spends his days alone, observing the delicate charms of the countryside. But his world is not a gentle one—and soon, life as he knew it is violently upended. Tarare is pitched down a chaotic path through revolutionary France, left to the mercy of strangers, and increasingly, bottomlessly, ravenous. This exhilarating, disquieting novel paints a richly imagined life for The Great Tarare, The Glutton of Lyon in 18th-century France: a world of desire, hunger and poverty; hope, chaos and survival. As in her cult hit The Manningtree Witches, Blakemore showcases her stunning lyricism and deep compassion for characters pushed to the edge of society in The Glutton, her most unputdownable work yet.The Book of Salt: A Novel
Par Monique Truong. 2003
A novel of Paris in the 1930s from the eyes of the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice…
B. Toklas, by the author of The Sweetest Fruits.Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh.Winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award A Best Book of the Year: New York Times, Village Voice, Seattle Times, Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury News, and others&“An irresistible, scrupulously engineered confection that weaves together history, art, and human nature…a veritable feast.&”—Los Angeles Times &“A debut novel of pungent sensuousness and intricate, inspired imagination…a marvelous tale.&”—Elle&“Addictive…Deliciously written…Both eloquent and original.&”—Entertainment Weekly&“A mesmerizing narrative voice, an insider's view of a fabled literary household and the slow revelation of heartbreaking secrets contribute to the visceral impact of this first novel.&”—Publishers Weekly, starred reviewCollected Stories of Carson McCullers
Par Carson McCullers. 1997
In one volume, the complete short fiction of the author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, including her two…
most renowned novellas. Carson McCullers—novelist, dramatist, poet—was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. Here are nineteen stories that explore her signature themes including loneliness in marriage and the tragicomedy of life in the South. Included in this volume are &“The Member of the Wedding&” and &“The Ballad of the Sad Café,&” novellas that Tennessee Williams judged to be &“assuredly among the masterpieces of our language.&” &“McCullers patented the Southern gothic genre that embraces grotesque, morbid characters with such pervading themes as unrequited love and wounded adolescence. Largely set in the South and richly autobiographical, her writings have endured because of their great power and originality.&” —Library JournalThe Rector of Justin: A Novel
Par Louis Auchincloss. 2002
&“[A] certifiable masterpiece&” from the acclaimed chronicler of New York City&’s old money elite (The New York Observer). Widely…
considered Louis Auchincloss&’s greatest novel, The Rector of Justin is an astute dissection of the social mores of the Northeast&’s privileged establishment. The story centers on Rev. Frank Prescott, the charismatic founder and rector of a prestigious Episcopal school for boys. With laser-sharp insight, Auchincloss delivers a prismatic portrait of this commanding and complicated man through the eyes of those who knew—or thought they knew—him best. Seamlessly interweaving multiple points of view—from an adoring teacher to that of a rebellious daughter—The Rector of Justin presents a social history of the eighty years of his life: the sources of his virtues and failings, his successes, his love, and his crises of faith. As Jonathan Yardley put it in the Washington Post, &“Auchincloss is one of the most accomplished and distinctive writers this country has known . . . [and] Frank Prescott is one of the great characters in American fiction.&” &“A daring and ambitious book . . . Its poise and taste and intelligence strike one on every page, as do its unerring knowledge and literary skill.&” —The New Yorker &“[The Rector of Justin] should sit on the shelf of any serious reader of American fiction.&” —Jay Parini, The New York Observer &“A taut and elegant study of a distinguished American whose closest friends cannot decide whether they like or detest him.&” —The Times Literary Supplement &“Fascinating . . . We do come to feel the reality, the complicated reality, of Francis Prescott.&” —Saturday Review &“My favorite of Auchincloss&’s novels. Both decadent and demanding, high-hat and frank . . . A subversive in lace-up oxfords and rep tie.&” —Amy BloomWe, the Drowned
Par Carsten Jensen. 2010
Explore the wondrous sea and the oddities of human nature in this international bestselling, thrilling epic novel of a Danish…
port town. Hailed in Europe as an instant classic, We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, Denmark, whose inhabitants sailed the world from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. The novel tells of ships wrecked and blown up in wars, of places of terror and violence that continue to lure each generation; there are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, and miraculous survivals. The result is a brilliant seafaring novel, a gripping saga encompassing industrial growth, the years of expansion and exploration, the crucible of the first half of the twentieth century, and most of all, the sea. Called &“one of the most exciting authors in Nordic literature&” by Henning Mankell, Carsten Jensen has worked as a literary critic and a journalist, reporting from China, Cambodia, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, and Afghanistan. He lives in Copenhagen and Marstal.&“We, the Drowned sets sail beyond the narrow channels of the seafaring genre and approaches Tolstoy in its evocation of war&’s confusion, its power to stun victors and vanquished alike…A gorgeous, unsparing novel.&”—Washington Post &“A generational saga, a swashbuckling sailor&’s tale, and the account of a small town coming into modernity—both Melville and Steinbeck might have been pleased to read it.&”—New Republic&“Dozens of stories coalesce into an odyssey taut with action and drama and suffused with enough heart to satisfy readers who want more than the breakneck thrills of ships battling the elements.&”—Publishers Weekly (starred)Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, and So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away
Par Richard Brautigan. 1994
Three masterpieces by &“the counterculture&’s Mark Twain,&” collected in one volume, including the &“lost chapters&” of Trout Fishing in America…
(The New York Times Book Review). An author who began his career handing out his work on the streets of San Francisco and went on to become an underground icon of the 1960s and &’70s before his tragic suicide, Richard Brautigan gained a unique literary reputation for such works as In Watermelon Sugar as well as for his gentle spirit, satirical wit, and whimsical, elliptical style. This volume includes three of his most prominent works: Revenge of the Lawn: Originally published in 1971, these bizarre flashes of insight and humor cover everything from &“A High Building in Singapore&” to the &“Perfect California Day.&” This is Brautigan&’s only collection of stories and includes &“The Lost Chapters of Trout Fishing in America.&” The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966: A public library in California where none of the books have ever been published is full of romantic possibilities. But when the librarian and his girlfriend must travel to Tijuana, they have a series of strange encounters in Brautigan&’s 1971 novel. So the Wind Won&’t Blow It All Away: It is 1979, and a man is recalling the events of his twelfth summer, when he bought bullets for his gun instead of a hamburger. Written just before his death, and published in 1982, this novel foreshadowed Brautigan&’s suicide. &“It&’s very hard to label his work. Fairytale meets beat meets counterculture? Surrealism meets folk meets scat? The writing is bursting with colour, humour and imagery, mental flights of fancy, crazed and lurid details. . . . The more you read, the less there seem to be regulations and governing forces, ways of qualifying Brautigan. The mind of the author is simply too unbound, too childlike in its enormous, regenerative capacity to imagine.&” —The GuardianAvalon: A Novel (Coronet Bks.)
Par Anya Seton. 2013
A novel of England during the Viking era, from an author who &“has vividly and colorfully portrayed life during the…
tumultuous Dark Ages&” (Historical Novels Review). The last quarter of the tenth century was a time of conflict and exploration—while the Anglo-Saxons fought against the Vikings, Norsemen voyaged into the unknown looking for new lands to pillage, and so discovered America. Prince Rumon of France, descendant of Charlemagne and King Alfred, was a searcher. He had visions of the Islands of the Blessed, perhaps King Arthur&’s Avalon, &“where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow.&” Merewyn grew up in savage Cornwall—a lonely girl, sustained by stubborn courage and belief in her descent from great King Arthur. Chance—or fate—in the form of a shipwreck off the Cornish coast brought Rumon and Merewyn together, and from that hour their lives were intertwined. Bound by his vow to her dying mother, Rumon brings Merewyn safely to England, keeping hidden the shameful secret of her birth. He considers his responsibility ended. At court, he is dazzled by the beautiful Queen Alfrida—but when a murderous truth is revealed, he turns to Merewyn, only to discover that he may have lost her. And he will journey across the Atlantic to find her again . . . From the beloved bestselling author of Katherine and Dragonwyck, this is a romantic tale of history and adventure &“characterized by an authentic sense of time&” (The New York Times Book Review).The Welsh Girl: A Novel
Par Peter Davies. 2008
A WWII-era Welsh barmaid begins a secret relationship with a German POW in this &“beautiful&” novel by the author of A…
Lie Someone Told You About Yourself (Ann Patchett). Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Set in the stunning landscape of North Wales just after D-Day, this critically acclaimed debut novel traces the intersection of disparate lives in wartime. When a prisoner-of-war camp is established near her village, seventeen-year-old barmaid Esther Evans finds herself strangely drawn to the camp and its forlorn captives. She is exploring the camp boundary when an astonishing thing occurs: A young German corporal calls out to her from behind the fence. From that moment on, the two begin an unlikely—and perilous—romance. Meanwhile, a German-Jewish interrogator travels to Wales to investigate Britain&’s most notorious Nazi prisoner, Rudolf Hess. In this richly drawn and thought-provoking &“tour de force,&” all will come to question the meaning of love, family, loyalty, and national identity (The New Yorker). &“If you loved The English Patient, there&’s probably a place in your heart for The Welsh Girl.&” —USA Today &“Davies&’s characters are marvelously nuanced.&” —Los Angeles Times &“Beautifully conjures a place and its people, in an extraordinary time . . . A rare gem.&” —Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs &“This first novel by Davies, author of two highly praised short story collections, has been anticipated—and, with its wonderfully drawn characters, it has been worth the wait.&” —Booklist, starred reviewThe classic tale of marriage, infidelity, and homosexual yearning on a Southern army base by the acclaimed author of The…
Ballad of the Sad Café. Georgia, 1930s. Army bases are notoriously boring places during peacetime, but the quiet life of Captain Penderton is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of dashing ladies&’ man Major Langdon. Penderton&’s marriage has always been tempestuous, but when his wife Leonora begins an affair with Langdon, Penderton finds himself increasingly unable to mask his attraction to the handsome young private he has assigned to do his yard work. And tensions rise to explosive levels as that private develops a dangerous infatuation with Leonora. A scandal when it was first published in 1941, Reflections in a Golden Eye was later adapted into a film starring Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Robert Forester.Scenes from Village Life
Par Amos Oz. 2011
Linked short stories set in a town in the midst of change: &“One of the most powerful books you will…
read about present-day Israel.&” —The Jewish Chronicle &“&‘Scenes from Village Life&’ is like a symphony, its movements more impressive together than in isolation. There is, in each story, a particular chord or strain; but taken together, these chords rise and reverberate, evoking an unease so strong it&’s almost a taste in the mouth . . . &‘Scenes from Village Life&’ is a brief collection, but its brevity is a testament to its force. You will not soon forget it.&” —The New York Times Book Review Strange things are happening in Tel Ilan, a century-old pioneer village. A disgruntled retired politician complains to his daughter that he hears the sounds of digging at night. Could it be their tenant, that young Arab? But then the young Arab hears the digging sounds too. And where has the mayor&’s wife gone, vanished without a trace, her note saying &“Don&’t worry about me&”? Around the village, the veneer of new wealth—gourmet restaurants, art galleries, a winery—barely conceals the scars of war and of past generations: disused air-raid shelters, rusting farm tools, and trucks left wherever they stopped. Scenes From Village Life is a memorable novel in stories by the inimitable Amos Oz: a brilliant, unsettling glimpse of what goes on beneath the surface of everyday life. Translated from Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange &“Finely wrought . . . Oz writes characterizations that are subtle but surgically precise, rendering this work a powerfully understated treatment of an uneasy Israeli conscience.&” —Publishers Weekly, starred review &“Informed by everything, weighed down by nothing, this is an exquisite work of art.&” —The ScotsmanThis cult classic from the author of Trout Fishing in America &“reads like a spaghetti Western crossed with Frankenstein, viewed…
through an opium haze&” (The Sunday Times). The celebrated poet, novelist, and guru of the 1960s San Francisco literary scene, Richard Brautigan brings his highly original Gonzo style to this surreal parody Western. The time is 1902, the setting eastern Oregon. In the ice caves underneath Professor Hawkline&’s house, a deadly monster lurks. It&’s already turned the professor into an elephant foot umbrella stand, and now his two beautiful daughters have hired a pair of gunslingers to put a stop to the mayhem. But Hawkline Manor is full of curiosities and secrets, like the professor&’s underground laboratory where his work on The Chemicals remains unfinished. And as the gunslingers pursue their peculiar quarry, they encounter monstrous mischief, amorous advances, and evil that is all too human. &“Bursting with colour, humour and imagery, Brautigan&’s virtuoso prose is rooted in his rural past.&” —The GuardianOur Tragic Universe
Par Scarlett Thomas. 2010
This &“delightfully whimsical novel riffs on the premise that ordinary lives stubbornly resist the tidy order that a fiction narrative…
might impose on them&” (Publishers Weekly). Can a story save your life? Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend&’s only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. But who wants to live forever? Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what&’s the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever? Smart, entrancing, and boiling over with Thomas&’s trademark big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, how we can rewrite our futures (if not our histories), and how stories just might save our lives.Like Normal People: A Novel (G. K. Hall Core Ser.)
Par Karen Bender. 2015
"Bender has crafted a luminous, meditative novel on the boundaries between childhood, adulthood, and old age." -Entertainment WeeklyA tour de…
force of literary craft and emotional resonance, Like Normal People charts a family constellation that revolves around an off-kilter center: Lena, who is forty-eight but mentally locked in childhood. Moving deftly between present and past, the novel follows Lena's day-long escape from her residential home with her troubled twelve-year-old niece. While this odd couple takes refuge on a honky-tonk southern California beach, Lena’s widowed mother, Ella, goes in search of them. In the process, Ella relives her own life's dreams and disappointments: her marriage to a sweet, loving shoe salesman; her discovery of Lena's handicap and her aching attempts to give her daughter a "normal" childhood. For so long, Lena has been the focus of Ella's world. When Lena at last finds approximate normalcy -- by marrying a man much like herself -- Ella must contend with letting her daughter go.Covering three entire lifetimes in the course of one day, Like Normal People is tender, often hilarious, and deeply moving. Bender brilliantly enters into the consciousness of three women at very different stages of life, each on a private search for love and acceptance. Like Normal People is a novel about desire, about what constitutes normality, and, most poignantly, about the ways in which a family finds its strength in the face of adversity.Karen Bender's powerfully affecting first novel has garnered remarkable early attention. Portions of the novel have been published in The New Yorker, Granta and Story magazine. An excerpt chosen for The Best American Short Stories by Annie Proulx was recorded by Joanne Woodward and aired on NPR's Selected Shorts.Mary Reilly (Vintage Contemporaries)
Par Valerie Martin. 1990
From the acclaimed author of the bestselling Italian Fever and award-winning Property, comes a fresh twist on the classic Jekyll…
and Hyde story, a novel told from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll's dutiful and intelligent housemaid. "Part psychological novel, part social history, part eerie horror tale ... dark and moving and powerful." —The Washington Post Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor—scarred but still strong—familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on errands to unsavory districts of London and entrusted with secrets she would rather not know. Unable to confront her hideous suspicions about Dr. Jekyll, Mary ultimately proves the lengths to which she'll go to protect him. Through her astute reflections, we hear the rest of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and this familiar tale is made more terrifying than we remember it, more complex than we imagined possible.