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ATONEMENT

One of our recommended books is Atonement by Ian McEwan

The novel opens on a sweltering summer day in 1935 at the Tallis family’s mansion in the Surrey countryside. Thirteen-year-old Briony has written a play in honor of the visit of her adored older brother Leon; other guests include her three young cousins—refugees from their parent’s marital breakup—Leon’s friend Paul Marshall, the manufacturer of a chocolate bar called “Amo” that soldiers will be able to carry into war, and Robbie Turner, the son of the family charlady whose brilliantly successful college career has been funded by Mr. Tallis. Jack Tallis is absent from the gathering; he spends most of his time in London at the War Ministry and with his mistress.

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HUNDRED IN THE HAND

 Seeking to complete the compelling story of the American West, best-selling Lakota author Joseph Marshall brings a new slant to the traditional Western: historical fiction written from the Native American viewpoint. The first novel in this new series, Hundred in the Hand takes place during the Battle of the Hundred in the Hand otherwise known as the Fetterman Massacre of 1866, which was an important victory for the Lakota and a turning point for both sides. The story is told through the eyes of Cloud, a dedicated and able warrior who fought alongside a young Crazy Horse. A beautifully written and fast-paced Western,

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MIGRATION PATTERNS

 This beautifully drawn collection of short stories features characters living in or touched by the American West. Young and old, with heartbreaking pasts and uncertain futures, these characters lead lives filled with tender compassions and incidental cruelties. The stories deal with migration in all of its nuances: the self-imposed exile of a young crab fisherman from the life he desires; an aging flower child who experiences enlightenment while waiting in the express checkout line; a veterinarian watching birds fall mysteriously from the sky; an old man who sees his life come full circle in his garden harvest. Spare, yet emotionally engaging,

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EDGES

The feature film “The Fragile Mistress” is based upon Edges. With the release of the film the book has been reissued as The Fragile Mistress, by Hamilton Stone Editions containing about 75 more pages of text and narrative.

Edges is set in a pre-1967 Israel, during the Cold War. Liana Bialik is fourteen years old when the suicide of her American father forces her family to return to her mother’s native Jerusalem. A chance meeting with a runaway American diplomat’s son in the forest draws Liana into an odyssey of borders,

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THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE

 The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is the first in a series of books to follow the adventures of Mary Russell, a gawky, egotistical, recently orphaned young lady who literally falls into the lap of Sherlock Holmes. Though he appears long retired from crime fighting, and is quietly engaged in raising honeybees on his Sussex estate, Russell piques his interest and in short order impresses the detective with her intellect and powers of deduction. Under his tutelage, this very modern twentieth century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective, and in this first volume,

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THE LOST ESTATE (LE GRAND MEAULNES)

When Meaulnes first arrives in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring, and charisma. But when he attends a strange party at a mysterious house with a beautiful girl hidden inside, he is changed forever. Published here in the first new English translation since 1959, this evocative novel has at its center both a Peter Pan in provincial France—a kid who refuses to grow up—and a Parsifal, pursuing his love to the ends of the earth. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain- Fournier’s narrator compellingly carries the reader through this indelible portrait of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence.

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