Two misfits from warring clans come together in a rural Minnesota town of German immigrants during the tumultuous days of World War I. Liesel, the one girl in the upstanding family of Richter boys, harbors a secret about her body that thwarts all hope for a normal life. Her closest friend is Lester, the “slow” boy in the raffish Sutter family, a gentle, kind soul who spends his days trapping turtles in the lake. Yearning for human touch in the wake of her parents’ deaths, Liesel turns to her only friend – leading her brother, just returned from the war,
read more
When Jane Alison was a child, her family met another that seemed like its mirror: a father in the Foreign Service, a beautiful mother, and two little girls, the younger two—one of them Jane—sharing a birthday. With so much in common, the two families became almost instantly inseparable. Within months, affairs had ignited between the adults, and before long the pairs had exchanged partners—divorced, remarried, and moved on. As if in a cataclysm of nature, two families were ripped asunder, and two new ones were formed. Two pairs of girls were left in shock, a “silent, numb shock, like a crack inside stone,
read more
Now a Major Film, Leave No Trace, Directed by Debra Granik and Starring Ben Foster and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie
A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them,
read more
Already fast becoming a classic among coming-of-age tales, John the Revelator has garnered praise from Nick Laird, Colm Tóibín, Roddy Doyle, and John Boyne, and is a critical darling in the U.K.
This is the story of John Devine–stuck in a small town in the otherworldly landscape of southeastern Ireland, worried over by his single, chain-smoking, Bible-quoting mother, Lily, and spied on by the “neighborly” Mrs. Nagle. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town, John’s life suddenly seems full of possibility. His loneliness dissipates. He is taken up by mischief and discovery,
read more
In Amy Sohn’s smart, sexy, satirical peek into the bedrooms and hearts of Prospect Park West, the lives of for women come together during one long, hot Brooklyn summer. Frustrated Oscar-winning actress Melora Leigh eager to relieve the pressures of raising her adopted toddler, feels the seductive pull of kleptomania; Rebecca Rose, missing her formerly robust sex life, begins a dangerous flirtation with handsome neighborhood celebrity Lizzi O’Donnell, former lesbian (or “hasbian”), wonders what draws her to women despite her sexy husband and adorable baby; and Karen Bryan Shapiro consumes herself with a powerful obsession—snagging the ultimate three-bedroom apartment in a well-maintained,
read more
From the author of the runaway bestseller Best Friends comes an engaging new novel of love, loss, and enduring friendship.
Forty-something Genie Toledo has compensated for the mistakes she’s made by throwing herself into her work as a top cardiologist in Columbus, Ohio, and holding everyone-including her college-age daughter-at arms’ length. Only Mick Crabbe-the charming, famous, married college basketball coach with whom she’s had a decade-long affair-can penetrate her shell. That is, until an unexpected turn of events forces Genie to realize just how dependent she is on him and the other people in her life.
read more
