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WHAT IS THE WHAT

New York Times Notable Book

 

New York Times Bestseller

 

National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalist

What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States,

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WILKIE COLLINS

A gripping short biography of the extraordinary Wilkie Collins, author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, two early masterpieces of mystery and detection.

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely near-sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women—and avidly read by generations of readers. Peter Ackroyd follows his hero, “the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists,” from his childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his struggling beginnings as a writer,

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THE CHEROKEE ROSE

Tiya Miles’s luminous but highly accessible debut

novel examines a little-known aspect of America’s

past—slaveholding by Southern Creeks and

Cherokees—and its legacy in the lives of three

young women who are drawn to the Georgia

plantation where scenes of extreme cruelty and

equally extraordinary compassion once played out.

Set in modern-day Georgia, The Cherokee Rose follows three characters—

Jinx Micco, a Cherokee-Creek historian exploring her tribe’s complicated

racial history; Ruth Mayes, whose mother sought refuge from a troubled

marriage in her beloved garden and the cosmetic empire she built from

its bounty;

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COAL RIVER

In this vibrant new historical novel, the acclaimed

author of The Plum Tree and What She Left Behind

explores one young woman’s determination to put

an end to child labor in a Pennsylvania mining

town…

As a child, Emma Malloy left isolated Coal River,

Pennsylvania, vowing never to return. Now,

orphaned and penniless at nineteen, she accepts a

train ticket from her aunt and uncle and travels back to the rough-hewn

community. Treated like a servant by her relatives,

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THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS

Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone

survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks

solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of

Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri,

the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner

and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former

gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her

hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage

Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her

sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun

Ling as his apprentice “until the monsoon comes.”

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GIRL WAITS WITH GUN

One of our recommended books is Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation’s first female crime fighters.

Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from city to country fifteen years ago. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks,

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