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A luxury hotel in 1920s Berlin is a microcosm of modern society in this classic that inspired a hit Broadway musical and the classic film starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and John Barrymore.“Prefigures Downtown Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs by examining multiple characters from different classes.” —Shelf Awareness The luxury Grand Hotel is a revolving door for the stray souls of 1920s Berlin. Among the guests is Doctor Otternschlag, a World War I veteran whose face has been sliced in half by a shell. Day after day he emerges to read the paper in the lobby, discreetly inquiring at the desk if the letter he's been awaiting for years has arrived. Then there is Grusinskaya, a great ballerina now fighting a losing battle not so much against age as against her fear of it, who may or may not be made for Gaigern, a sleek professional thief. Herr Preysing also checks in, the director of a family firm that isn't as flourishing as it appears, who would never imagine that Kringelein, his underling, a timorous petty clerk he's bullied for years, has also come to Berlin, determined to live at last now that he's received a medical death sentence.All these characters and more, with all their secrets and aspirations, come together and come alive in the pages of Baum's delicious and disturbing masterpiece—a Weimar-era bestseller that retains all its verve and luster today.

A rural Kentucky teenager comes of age in the summer of 1969 in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.Nameless, Kentucky, in 1969 is a hardscrabble community where jobs are few and poverty is a simple fact—just like the hot Appalachian breeze or the pests that can destroy a tobacco field. RubyLyn Bishop is luckier than some. Her God-fearing uncle, Gunnar, has a short fuse and high expectations, but he's given her a good home ever since she was orphaned at the age of five. Yet now a month shy of her sixteenth birthday, RubyLyn itches for more. Maybe it's something to do with the paper fortunetellers RubyLyn has been making for townsfolk, each covered with beautifully wrought, prophetic drawings. Or perhaps it's because of Rainey Ford, her black neighbor who works alongside her in the tobacco field and with whom she has a kinship—despite the disapproval of others. RubyLyn's predictions are just wishful thinking, not magic at all, but through them she's imagining life as it could be, away from the prejudice and hardship that ripple through Nameless…“A voice rich and authentic, steeped in the somber beauty that defines life in the South.”—David Joy, author of When These Mountains Burn “Richardson's brilliant writing made me feel as though I were transported back in time…and actually there witnessing this poignant heartfelt story.”—Charles Belfoure, New York Times–bestselling author of The Fallen Architect “A reader always recognizes when the author has poured her soul into a body of work. [This] is a tender, beautifully written second novel.”—Ann Hite, author of the Black Mountain series

William Murray Graydon (1864-1946) was extremely prolific American writer for the juvenile market, Graydon moved to England around 1898, where he continued to write for the British story papers.

In 1587, the 118 men, women, and children of the'Lost Colony'were abandoned by their governor on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and never heard from again. In this fictional journal, Emme Merrimoth—one of the actual colonists of Roanoke—recounts the harrowing journey that brought the colonists to the New World. During the voyage, Emme becomes involved with Governor John White, who reassigns her to his household and then asks her to marry him. With no better prospects and happy to be free of her bland former employers, Emme agrees.Once on Roanoke, the colonist restore the village abandoned by former English settlers and realize, when faced with hostile natives, that they have been misled by White. White plots to return to England to avoid the hardship of the New World, and he and his supporters drive a hard bargain with the colonists: they will send back much-needed supplies from England if they allow White to flee without interference. Faced with little choice, the colonists agree, and are left to fare on their own.Emme, due to a scandalous past, is accused of witchcraft, shunned by the colonists, and enslaved by a nearby tribe. But throughout these dramatic turn of events, Emme commits herself to putting down on paper her every memory of the Lost Colony.

Mark Twain - a great collection. Including: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The innocents abroad Mark twain's (burlesque) auto-biography First romance Roughing it The gilded age (with charles dudley warner) Sketches new and old My watch Political economy The jumping frog Journalism in Tennessee The story of the bad little boy The story of the good little boy A couple of poems by twain and moore Niagara Answers to correspondents To raise poultry Experience of the McWilliamses with membranous croup My first literary venture How the author was sold in Newark The office bore Johnny Greer The facts in the case of the great beef contract Disgraceful persecution of a boy The judges'spirited woman'Information wanted Some learned fables, for good old boys and girls My late senatorial secretaryship A fashion item Riley-newspaper correspondent A fine old man Science vs. Luck The late Benjamin Franklin Mr. Bloke's item A medieval romance Petition concerning copyright After-dinner speech Lionizing murderers A new crime A curious dream A true story The siamese twins Speech at the Scottish banquet in London A ghost story The capitoline venus Speech on accident insurance How i edited an agricultural paper The petrified man My bloody massacre The undertaker's chat Concerning chambermaids Aurelia's unfortunate young man'after'jenkins About barbers'party cries'in Ireland The facts concerning the recant resignation History repeats itself Honored as a curiosity First interview kith artemus ward Cannibalism in the cars The killing of julius caesar'localized'The widow's protest The scriptural panoramist Curing a cold A curious pleasure excursion Running for governor A mysterious visit The curious republic of gondour and other whimsical sketches The curious republic of gondour A memory Introductory to'memoranda'. About smells A couple of sad experiences Dan murphy The'tournament'in a.d. 1870 Curious relic for sale A reminiscence of the back settlements A royal compliment The approaching epidemic The tone-imparting committee Our precious lunatic The european war The wild man interviewed Last words of great men 1601—conversation at the social fireside of the tudors The facts concerning the recent carnival of crime in connecticut The adventures of tom sawyer The loves of alonzo fitz clarence and rosannah ethelton and other stories The loves of alonzo fitz clarence and rosannah ethelton On the decay of the art of lying About magnanimous-incident literature The grateful poodle The benevolent author The grateful husband Punch, brothers, punch The great revolution in pitcairn The canvasser's tale An encounter with an interviewer Paris notes Legend of Sagenfeld, in Germany Speech on the babies Speech on the weather Rogers Some rambling notes of an idle excursion The stolen white elephant A tramp abroad The prince and the pauper Life on the mississippi A connecticut yankee in King Arthur's court The american claimant Extracts from adam's diary In defense of harriet shelley Fennimore cooper's literary offences Essays on Paul Bourget Tom Sawyer abroad The tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson Those extraordinary twins Personal recollections of Joan of Arc Tom Sawyer, detective Following the equator, a journey around the world The man that corrupted hadleyburg and other stories The man that corrupted hadleyburg My first lie, and how i got out of it The esquimaux maiden's romance Christian science and the book of mrs. Eddy Is he living or is he dead? My debut as a literary person At the appetite-cure Concerning the jews From the'london times'of 1904 About play-acting Travelling with a reformer Diplomatic pay and clothes Luck The captain's story Stirring times in austria Meisterschaft My boyhood dreams To the above old people In memoriam—olivia susan clemens What is man and other essays What is man? The

William Murray Graydon (1864-1946) was extremely prolific American writer for the juvenile market, Graydon moved to England around 1898, where he continued to write for the British story papers.

In the summer of 1859, Mrs. Stowe made her third and last journey to Europe. During the summer, the whole family was abroad, save the youngest; but in the autumn Mr. Stowe and one of the daughters returned to America, leaving Mrs. Stowe with two daughters and a son to spend the winter in Italy. The residence there was mainly to establish the health of the family; but Mrs. Stowe had entered into engagements with the New York Ledger and the New York Independent to furnish contributions, with a design ultimately of collecting the papers and recasting them for a volume to be published in the spring of 1860 in America and England, under the title of Leaves from Foreign Books for Home Reading. She had indeed entered into an agreement with Sampson Low & Co., the London publishers of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Dred, for the publication of the volume, but a sudden change of plans brought her home before she had perfected her book, and it was never published. Meanwhile her dramatic instinct had begun to work upon the material thus gathered. It was impossible for her, with her strong religious nature and her active interest in structural Christianity to avoid subjecting the great church so constantly in evidence to those tests of personal religion which had been familiar to her from childhood. Her stay in Florence brought vividly before her the figure of Savonarola, and her imagination, in seeking to recover the life of his day, instinctively invested it with the spiritual struggles so well known to her and her circle. There was no consciousviii protestantizing of the life, as one may say, but the story which she told naturally reflected the color of her own religious training. Agnes of Sorrento was begun in this Italian winter, and had its immediate origin, as she herself explains in the following note, in a friendly contest of story telling.

Daisy Lansing's ability to transfer images from people's thoughts onto paper was a novelty she used to trot out to amuse her friends. But when her “entranced drawing” begins to cause serious trouble for her guardians, she is banished to the country and forced to marry a man twice her age. After the joyless wedding, Daisy is determined to bury forever the strange skill that upended her life. However, she soon finds herself a widow and in dire financial straits. Suddenly, her curse may be her one chance at true independence.Jackson Gallway's reputation as a rogue has far surpassed his success as a lawyer. In the wake of yet another scandal, he decides to head west. But before he can escape Misty Lake, Jax makes a promise to find an elusive killer. When he encounters a lovely young artist with an unusual talent that could help him in his search, what he finds is something neither of them can escape...

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

William Murray Graydon (1864-1946) was extremely prolific American writer for the juvenile market, Graydon moved to England around 1898, where he continued to write for the British story papers.

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

It's 1870 and Dr. Otto A. Brandt is trapped in Paris disguised as a Spaniard while the city is besieged by his fellow Germans. His sister, Amelia, is in prison for spying somewhere inside the walls and is due to meet Madame Guillotine when her child is born. Otto faces winter in a hostile city as starvation grows. Even as he searches for Amelia, he is recruited by the American government mission in its desperate effort to run an escape route for his countrymen and women trapped behind the city's gates. Infatuated with the American spy, Eleanor, Otto is led into the battle zone when she tries to make contact with the Communards. The family mystery about the missing ship: Paper Moon and its Imperial passengers hangs over his head. Can he solve all these problems before time runs out for him and Amelia? This is untold history. There are real characters and real events here and The Angel Spies in Paris is woven into them. But can you spot the join?

Many know of Horatio Hornblower's exploits during the Napoleonic Wars through the novels of C.S. Forester, but how many know the true Hornblower – the man who rose from midshipman to admiral of the British Fleet? Using Hornblower family papers discovered in the 1970s, C. Northcote Parkinson has set the record straight in this authoritative biography. Drawn from the Hornblower series as well as from Parkinson's knowledge of the Royal Navy, this account of the popular fictional hero is as entertaining as the C.S. Forester novels themselves.

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

A boy returns home from seminary to a family on the verge of collapse For almost seven years, Mrs. Fury has done nothing but think of Peter. Of her five children, he is the youngest, her darling boy whose future she planned out long ago. It was for Peter that she took one child out of college and married another off—for Peter that she sent a third to work at sea. She has sacrificed everything so that Peter could return to Ireland to study for the priesthood. He is to be the family's salvation—but after seven years in seminary, Peter has failed. Mrs. Fury receives two telegrams: One telling her that Peter is coming home, the other bearing the news that her eldest son, Anthony, has fallen from his ship's mast and is in a hospital in New York. With two slips of paper, Mrs. Fury's hopes for the future are dashed. But this Irishwoman is strong as iron, and she will do whatever it takes to keep her family together—if only for Peter's sake. The Furys is the first book of James Hanley's acclaimed Furys Saga.

In three volumes, The Course of Fortune —A Novel of the Great Siege of Malta, follows the adventures of a young Spanish soldier-of-fortune Francisco de Barai over the course of fifteen of the most turbulent years in the most turbulent century in history, adventures that climax in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. During that most momentous of all sieges, tens of thousands of Turks descend on the island, defended by some 600 Knights of Malta and another few thousand mercenaries and Maltese civilians. The horrific and heroic events are recounted with the utmost attention to historical accuracy, just as the entire escalating chain of events is played out against a finely researched tapestry of Renaissance values, superstitions and culture. Tony Rothman is a physicist and writer. He received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College in 1975, and a Ph.D. from the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas, Austin in 1981. After leaving Texas, he did post-doctoral work at Oxford, Moscow and Cape Town. Rothman's scientific research has been in cosmology, the study of the early universe, and he has authored approximately sixty scientific papers on that subject. He has taught physics at Princeton, Harvard and elsewhere. Apart from his scientific work, Rothman is the author of eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction. The most recent is Firebird, a scientific suspense novel concerning a race for nuclear fusion (Wildside Press, 2015). He has also authored seven plays, contributes to a number of national magazines, including Scientific American and Discover, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

A la Barcelona modernista germina una història d'amor entre dos joves de classes socials diferents. Una gran novel·la històrica de passió, ideals i venjança. A final del segle XIX Barcelona viu una època d'esplendor. S'hi acaba de celebrar amb gran èxit l'Exposició Universal, i una burgesia pròspera i culta, que busca la inspiració en els salons parisencs, exhibeix la seva elegància en festes i vetllades musicals. Però a l'altra banda de la ciutat, on els carrers són estrets i fan olor de pobresa, la rancúnia i la injustícia estan forjant una revolució mitjançant la violència més descarnada. Pràxedes Ripoll dirigeix amb mà de ferro els obrers de la fàbrica que porta el seu nom, però no aconsegueix que els seus fills vagin pel camí que ell vol. El gran, Germà, és un vividor que gaudeix del favor de les dones i assaboreix els plaers que ofereix la Barcelona més canalla, mentre que el petit, Antoni, està decidit a abraçar el sacerdoci. I Candela, la neboda jove i rebel, que no està conforme amb el paper que la societat masclista de l'època destina a la dona, tampoc no està disposada a seguir els seus designis. I és que, des de fa temps, Candela es veu d'amagat amb Joan Pere Bonafont, el fill de la cosidora; un noi de mirada franca i amant dels llibres, de qui s'ha enamorat perdudament. Un amor impossible a causa dels rígids costums dels Ripoll, que no dubtaran a posar en joc tots els mitjans que tenen a l'abast per frustrar els plans de la parella. Amb l'habilitat dels grans mestres de la novel·la històrica, Chufo Lloréns teixeix un tapís geogràfic i humà apassionant. La seva ploma, àgil i perspicaç, ens porta als luxosos reservats del teatre del Liceu i també als soterranis tenebrosos on es tramen les conjures anarquistes, alhora que el destí de tots els personatges es trena en una Barcelona que es debat entre l'atracció per la modernitat i el temor davant d'uns canvis socials violents i inevitables. La crítica ha dit... «Aquesta lectura depara excel·lents pàgines que són pura crònica dels episodis més o menys feliços d'aquesta ciutat.» Lilian Nueman, Culturas, La Vanguardia «Descripcions minucioses, diàlegs precisos, una documentació que es dissol en la intriga, i uns personatges en tres dimensions fan de la lectura una addicció.» Víctor Fernández, La Razón

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

Master Humphrey is a lonely man who lives in London. He keeps old manuscripts in an antique clock by the chimney-corner. One day, he decides that he would start a little club, called Master Humphrey's Clock, where the members would read out their manuscripts to the others. The members include Master Humphrey; a deaf gentleman, Jack Redburn; retired merchant Owen Miles; and Mr. Pickwick from'The Pickwick Papers'

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

Alfred Henry Lewis was a Chicago journalist in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and though he would become an editor of the local paper, he's perhaps best known today for the Western novels he wrote.

Hugo Wilcken's first novel, The Execution—a taut, psychological mystery about an average person who commits an accidental murder—got the kind of rave reviews authors dream of: He was compared to Camus and Hitchcock.Now, in his second novel, The Reflection, the comparisons seem even more appropriate: It's a smart, creepy, steadily absorbing mystery about an average law-abiding citizen who finds himself inexplicably caught up in a case of mistaken identities—with one of his own patients.When psychiatrist David Manne is asked by a friend who's a New York City Police detective to consult on an unusual case, he finds himself being asked to evaluate a criminal who's the exact opposite of himself—an uneducated laborer from the Midwest who seems overwhelmed by modern day Manhattan circa 1948. But when that laborer tells David that he's not who the police say he is, David slowly begins to believe it may be trueUnable to stop himself, David begins to look into how the police handle the man, and the hospital they take him to... and begins to suspect that the man is caught up in some kind of secret governmental medical testing. Realizing he's got to rescue his patient, David quickly finds himself battling forces that seem to be even bigger than he suspected, and that now have him in their sights. When he suddenly finds himself caught with a patient's i.d. papers on him, he decides on a risky course that seems his only way out: To change his identity, and enter even deeper into the conspiracy, if he's to find out how to escape it.Written in relentlessly probing prose with a delicious plot complication seemingly on every page, this is one of the most thought-provoking, chilling, and suspenseful novels you'll ever read.

In this coming-of-age novel, a white, small-town Kentucky teen uncovers dark secrets while investigating her mother's suspicious death in 1972.In 1972, on Mudas Summers's seventeenth birthday, her beloved Mama, Ella, is found hanging from the rafters of their home. Most people in Peckinpaw, Kentucky, assume that Ella's no-good husband did the deed. Others think Ella grew tired of his abuse and did it herself. Muddy is determined to find out for sure either way, especially once she finds strange papers hidden amongst her mama's possessions. But Peckinpaw keeps its secrets buried deep. Muddy's almost-more-than-friend, Bobby Marshall, knows that better than most. Though he passes for white, one of his ancestors was Frannie Crow, a slave hanged a century ago on nearby Hark Hill Plantation. Adorning the town square is a seat built from Frannie's gallows. A tribute, a relic—and a caution—it's known as Liar's Bench. Now, the answers Muddy seeks soon lead back to Hark Hill, to hatred and corruption that have echoed through the years—and lies she must be brave enough to confront at last.“Glorious… Liar's Bench succeeds on many levels…. Much of any reader's delight will be rooted in savoring the sounds, smells, tastes, and fragrances that enhance her captivating vision of a typical Southern small town during two linked periods of its history.”—Southern Literary Review“This has southern small-town charm… includes recipes and discussion questions and may appeal to those who like Rebecca Wells or Jennifer Chiaverini.”—Booklist“A satisfying mystery with thought-provoking historical elements, written in a sassy Southern voice.”—Historical Novels Review

In three volumes, The Course of Fortune —A Novel of the Great Siege of Malta, follows the adventures of a young Spanish soldier-of-fortune Francisco de Barai over the course of fifteen of the most turbulent years in the most turbulent century in history, adventures that climax in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. During that most momentous of all sieges, tens of thousands of Turks descend on the island, defended by some 600 Knights of Malta and another few thousand mercenaries and Maltese civilians. The horrific and heroic events are recounted with the utmost attention to historical accuracy, just as the entire escalating chain of events is played out against a finely researched tapestry of Renaissance values, superstitions and culture. Tony Rothman is a physicist and writer. He received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College in 1975, and a Ph.D. from the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas, Austin in 1981. After leaving Texas, he did post-doctoral work at Oxford, Moscow and Cape Town. Rothman's scientific research has been in cosmology, the study of the early universe, and he has authored approximately sixty scientific papers on that subject. He has taught physics at Princeton, Harvard and elsewhere. Apart from his scientific work, Rothman is the author of eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction. The most recent is Firebird, a scientific suspense novel concerning a race for nuclear fusion (Wildside Press, 2015). He has also authored seven plays, contributes to a number of national magazines, including Scientific American and Discover, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Gritty, heartrending and unputdownable – the story of two sisters sent first to an English, then an Australian orphanage in the aftermath of World War II. Rita and Rosie Stevens are only nine and five years old when their widowed mother marries a violent bully called Jimmy Randall and has a baby boy by him. Under pressure from her new husband, she is persuaded to send the girls to an orphanage – not knowing that the papers she has signed will entitle them to do what they like with the children. And it is not long before the powers that be decide to send a consignment of orphans to their sister institution in Australia. Among them – without their family's consent or knowledge – are Rita and Rosie, the throwaway children.••• Readers love THE THROWAWAY CHILDREN:'I haven't felt so immersed in a book in a very long time and have recommended to just about everyone''Heart wrenching''A truly powerful book'•••Praise for Diney Costeloe:'Truly captivating.'Woman & Home'Diney Costeloe delivers an inspiring, heart-rending read with a wonderfully strong female protagonist.'Woman's Own'A treat from the very first page. I could not put it down!'Historical Novel Society'Historical fiction heaven... Anyone who feels that women's hist fict is a simplified genre sub-set would definitely need a rethink after this.'The Bookbag

In three volumes, The Course of Fortune —A Novel of the Great Siege of Malta, follows the adventures of a young Spanish soldier-of-fortune Francisco de Barai over the course of fifteen of the most turbulent years in the most turbulent century in history, adventures that climax in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. During that most momentous of all sieges, tens of thousands of Turks descend on the island, defended by some 600 Knights of Malta and another few thousand mercenaries and Maltese civilians. The horrific and heroic events are recounted with the utmost attention to historical accuracy, just as the entire escalating chain of events is played out against a finely researched tapestry of Renaissance values, superstitions and culture. Tony Rothman is a physicist and writer. He received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College in 1975, and a Ph.D. from the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas, Austin in 1981. After leaving Texas, he did post-doctoral work at Oxford, Moscow and Cape Town. Rothman's scientific research has been in cosmology, the study of the early universe, and he has authored approximately sixty scientific papers on that subject. He has taught physics at Princeton, Harvard and elsewhere. Apart from his scientific work, Rothman is the author of eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction. The most recent is Firebird, a scientific suspense novel concerning a race for nuclear fusion (Wildside Press, 2015). He has also authored seven plays, contributes to a number of national magazines, including Scientific American and Discover, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

A year and a half after entering her unusual marriage of convenience to British attaché and intelligence agent, Malcolm Rannoch, Suzanne Rannoch pays her first visit to her husband's home. England: the country her husband fled for reasons she does not fully understand; the country Suzanne has secretly spent the last five years fighting against as a French spy. The trip takes Suzanne and her husband to the heart of London society—the world Malcolm grew up in. A glamorous labyrinth of unwritten rules and unvoiced codes. Yet the glittering ballrooms of London are not free of the intrigues of the Napoleonic Wars. The search for stolen papers that could tip the international balance of power pits Malcolm and Suzanne against each other. Suzanne faces a stark choice between her loyalty to her cause and her love for the man she married—in order to spy on him.'Shimmers like the finest salons in Vienna.'—Deborah Crombie'Meticulous, delightful, and full of surprises.'—Tasha Alexander'Glittering balls, deadly intrigue, sexual scandals...the next best thing to actually being there!'—Lauren Willig'A superb storyteller.'—Deanna Raybourn

A researcher sits in the archive of the British Psychoanalytic Society in London, examining fragile pieces of paper, small notebooks, and diaries. A writer in Berlin finds himself haunted by the city's socialist-era buildings, and by their designer. Each begins to sketch the historical figure at the heart of his fixation. Joan Riviere was an early English psychoanalyst and Sigmund Freud's earliest translator. Hermann Henselmann was a German architect, famous for many of the post-war buildings of the German Democratic Republic. The two novellas about their lives form an incomplete history of Europe's 20th century—its wars, its politics and thought.

Jonathan Ascher, an acclaimed 1960s radical writer and cultural hero, has been dead for thirty years. When a would-be biographer approaches Ascher's widow Martha, she delves for the first time into her husband's papers and all the secrets that come tumbling out of them. She finds journals that begin as a wisecracking chronicle of life at the fringes of the New York literary scene, then recount Ascher's sexual adventures in the pre-Stonewall gay underground and the social upheavals that led to his famous book “JD.” As Martha reads on, she finds herself in a long-distance conversation with her dead husband, fighting with him again about their rocky marriage and learning about the unseen tragedy in her own apartment that ended with the destruction of their son, Mickey. Mickey comes to life in the space between Jonathan and Martha's conflicting portraits of him, while Martha and the biographer tangle over the continued relevance of Jonathan's politics and his unfulfilled vision of a nation remade. Martha learns about herself, finally, through her confrontation with a man who will not let her go, even in death. Mark Merlis's JD is a brilliant and harrowing view of a half century of the American experiment, acted out on a small stage by three people who cannot find a way—neither sex nor touch nor words—to speak their love for one another. Best Books of 2015: Fiction, Open Letters Monthly Finalist, Gay Fiction, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, Publishing Triangle Best books for public & secondary school libraries from university presses, American Library Association “Many years after a'60s New York writer's death, his widow confronts their tumultuous marriage and private identities through his journals.... JD's most masterful element is its treatment of these two characters, both of whom spent their lives groping for contentment like one trying to find a light switch in a darkened room. A great writer offers not just tight prose but also insight, a series of probing questions that extend from the fictional world into the real one. JD asks who its characters were, and in doing so, forces the reader to confront the intricate and fascinating politics of identity.”—Shelf Awareness for Readers, •starred review “A truly impressive work of literary fiction, JD documents author Mark Merlis as an extraordinary novelist able to deftly craft a complex plot and populate it with a roster of inherently fascinating characters and memorable events. The result is an entertaining and engaging read that will linger in the mind long after the book is finished. Very highly recommended for both community and academic library literary fiction collections.”—Midwest Book Review/Reviewer's Bookwatch “The fantastic JD (U. of Wisconsin), by acclaimed gay writer Mark Merlis (American Studies), is the writer's first novel in a dozen years. It's told in two voices. The first is that of the late gay writer Jonathan Ascher, and we hear from him through his journals. The second belongs to his widow Martha, who learns more about Jonathan than she ever imagined while reading the journals after agreeing to help a biographer of her late husband.”—Gregg Shapiro, Bay Area Reporter

It is the year 1852, and the origin of species remains a mystery. In a primitive hut in the remote Amazonian jungle, Alfred Wallace, a brilliant young collector of scientific specimens, lies wasted by tropical illness. He does not expect to survive. Healed by a village shaman, Wallace continues his pioneering fieldwork in the Malay archipelago, crystalising his ideas about evolutionary theory, which Charles Darwin had also secretly formulated but was reluctant to publish. In this new novel based on the scientist's extraordinary life, what unfolds is a dramatic tale of money, class, faith and discrimination. Reviews: “Wallace never attained Darwin's level of fame, perhaps because Wallace's radical ideas (including his belief in spiritualism) ran contrary to those of the scientific establishment. The Evolutionist brings to life a saga of passion for research, and the sharp divides of money, class, and discrimination. A strongly impressionistic portrait of an undeservedly little-known scientist, The Evolutionist is a raptly compelling read.” Midwest Book Review “Brimful of factual details … This novel will appeal to any reader interested in… the lives of the intrepid Victorian specimen hunters.” Historical Novel Society “A wide audience beyond the scientifically curious will find this an easy read and come away with a richer understanding of the rigours of early scientific research both in the field and in the halls of established theory.” Professor Gene J. Parola, author The Devil to Pay “An exciting adventure story well told.” Peter Hobson, Shiny New Books “Avi Sirlin has produced an enjoyable and thought-provoking work which should thankfully introduce a remarkable (yet remarkably unknown) scientific giant to a wider audience.” Rodney Munday, sculptor of the Alfred Russel Wallace wall relief in Hertford “A triumph of biographical fiction, an utterly convincing character study of one of the most poignant figures in the history of science. Wallace's status as social outsider, beside the more established standing of Darwin and his connections with Lyell and Hooker (the latter represented by the fictitious composite character Newcastle), conspired to deprive him of fuller credit for his accomplished work in advancing the controversial new theory, especially as the younger Wallace chose to go through Darwin himself to present his paper first explicating it. The genius of the novel is its convincing immersion in the language of its time, the mid-nineteenth century. Neither dense nor affected, however, the period piece reads as naturally as if its prose were our own. Particularly seamless is the blending of speech by the characters in Wallace's circle, and the narrative voice portraying the protagonist in third person (Bates and he had a devil of a time squeezing through the narrow channel … Along the way, the pacing of action, thought and dialogue keeps us engaged in the journey, whether in the muck of the Amazon and jungles of Borneo, or the salons, courtrooms and pubs of London. Sirlin has a deft touch with visual description to complement an unerring taste (A pill of memory stuck in his throat) and ear for authentic language… Sirlin uses his lawyer's skills to chart the mystery of the origins of Darwin's famous Origin of Species. While some of the blame for Wallace's obscurity lies with his self-effacing humility, and some for an accident at sea, and still more for the constricting mindset of established science, the machinations of Darwin and his associates clearly contrived to bring Darwin's long-simmering theory to the fore. In this drama, however, even these competitors show compassion and respec

In The Cut of Pride, Jim Misko's third novel, a group of interesting, cantankerous misfits attempt to run a mink farm in rural Oregon. The resulting black comedy lifts the characters off the page and into our hearts.—Leonard Bird, author of Folding Paper Cranes, an Atomic Memoir A home run. Misko's taut tale explores a life few people will ever glimpse: relationships and life on a mink farm in the Oregon hills. I want to know more of the hardworking, straight-up protagonist, Jeff Baker. Is there a sequel in the works? Sally Petersen, author of Tea, Pie, Love and Reality, memoir-essays Jim Misko's love of writing is evident in this richly detailed and closely observed account of the forces that hold a family replete with resentment, strength, weakness, and love in thrall to a life that leads inevitably to destruction. Lynn Schooler, author of Walking Home, a traveler in the Alaska Wilderness Jim Misko, in his new novel The Cut of Pride, does something that is really rare in modern literature; he writes about hard, brutal, unpleasant physical labor. And he does it with such vivid detail that the labor itself becomes one of the major entities in the story. His cast of complex, dysfunctional characters—owners and employees of a mink-raising farm in coastal Oregon—nearly destroys itself in its struggle with the endless, nasty toil. Their human worth is tested by it. And the brotherhood of men who work well together—like the brotherhood of fellow soldiers—is shown as old West Helner and the young hired man Jeff Baker become friends by slaving alongside each other, both nearly unmanned by West's domineering wife Rose, the owner of the mink enterprise. These are unforgettable characters, and their pride and distrust and bitterness make for grim drama. Like Hemingway, Steinbeck and Ruark, he writes close to the edge. James Alexander Thom, author of Follow the River

Many stories are told of ‘The Troubles'in Northern Ireland. The bombing, rioting, raids, curfews and killings have had hours of air time and paper, most from the point of view of the paramilitaries, security forces or politicians. Seldom do we hear how women coped or what their place in the history of Northern Ireland was. This book is based on five fictitious Nationalist women and their lives during this time. The characters may be fictitious but the background events were very real, to none more so than the women of West Belfast. The women were subjected to cruel, heart breaking experiences and life changing traumas on a daily basis. Others had loved ones interned, jailed, tortured or murdered. This is the story of their lives during this time, a story seldom given the importance it deserves. TESS: pretty, petite, quiet, with little interest in what happened outside her front door, until her husband was interned. Then the worm turned. HELEN: strong, beautiful, best friend to Tess; they shared the long journey together and supported each other through thick and thin. MARY: tough, loving mother of six, worn down by trauma, she fought tooth and nail to keep her family safe. LUCY: mother and wife, with hidden talents she would never have discovered had she not been left to fend for herself and her children. MARGARET: nothing she did was enough, until she found the courage to make life changing decisions for herself and her children.

Danger reigns supreme as Nazi Germany braces for a final showdown in this WWII thriller from the author of the Billy Boyle mysteries. On Desperate Ground is the story of men and women caught up in the death throes of Nazi Germany, struggling to maintain those things precious to them—life, an end to killing, and even sanity itself. Colonel Johann Faust has lost everyone he ever loved and feels he is going inexorably insane. He hears the haunting voice of his dead fiancée and the demons that roar through his mind as he perfects a plan to save Nazi Germany from defeat and insure a greater and deadlier new world war. Captain Dieter Neukirk, once a protégé of Faust's, is more concerned with saving the lives of his remaining men than sacrificing them in a fanatical last stand. Meanwhile, Elsa Klein, Dieter's lover and the chief social worker at a Berlin hospital, is engaged in her own dangerous work, providing medical care and identity papers to hidden Jews in the city. American Captain Mack Mackenzie, pulled from a military hospital before his wounds are healed, is assigned to investigate reports of a secret Nazi operation. Wanting only to make it home alive, Mack finds himself in a life and death struggle with unlikely allies and a ferociously determined opponent. Americans and Germans alike are drawn to a hilltop in the remote German countryside, where they find themselves between powerful armies and forced into a terrible decision that could end one war or begin a new one.

Winner of the Commonwealth PrizeNew York Times Book Review—Notable Fiction 2002Entertainment Weekly—Best Fiction of 2002Los Angeles Times Book Review—Best of the Best 2002Washington Post Book World—Raves 2002Chicago Tribune—Favorite Books of 2002Christian Science Monitor—Best Books 2002Publishers Weekly—Best Books of 2002The Cleveland Plain Dealer—Year's Best BooksMinneapolis Star Tribune—Standout Books of 2002Once upon a time, when the earth was still young, before the fish in the sea and all the living things on land began to be destroyed, a man named William Buelow Gould was sentenced to life imprisonment at the most feared penal colony in the British Empire, and there ordered to paint a book of fish. He fell in love with the black mistress of the warder and discovered too late that to love is not safe; he attempted to keep a record of the strange reality he saw in prison, only to realize that history is not written by those who are ruled.Acclaimed as a masterpiece around the world, Gould's Book of Fish is at once a marvelously imagined epic of nineteenth-century Australia and a contemporary fable, a tale of horror, and a celebration of love, all transformed by a convict painter into pictures of fish.

Shortlisted for the Creative Scotland and Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Fiction Award 2011An experimental novel on a grand scale, beautifully carried through. A Perth minister takes in a traumatised stranger who calls himself'the son and heir to being lost'. When the stranger disappears, the events leading up to and following on from this are revealed. Shifting perspectives from a contemporary mystery to a history of Shetland and emigration, it extends the idea of Scottish empire and diaspora imaginatively, while addressing notions of being and belonging in 21st century Scotland. BACK COVER Hit wis kynda da promised land in mony wyes, da Happie Laand across da sea...In the summer of the year of the Millennium, a barefoot stranger comes to the door of the manse for help. But three days later he disappears without trace, leaving a bundle of papers behind.Da Happie Laand weaves the old minister's attempt to make sense of the mysteries left behind by his'lost sheep'with an older story relating the fate of a Zetlandic community across the centuries - the tales of those people who emigrated to New Zetland in the South Pacific to build a new life in the promised land, and those who stayed behind. REVIEWS A work of complexity, a novel to be savoured and one that will only get better with age. NEW SHETLANDER Jamieson achieves something quite extraordinary - [he] combines a compelling modern mystery with 500 years of history in a typically experimental style that leaves many of his contemporaries lagging THE LIST Robert Alan Jamieson's strange masterpiece Da Happie Laand haunts dreams and waking hours, as it takes my adopted home of Shetland, twisting it and the archipelago's history into the most disturbing, amazing slyly funny shapes. THE SUNDAY HERALD

Joshua thought he'd left his past behind, but there's something in the darkness at Endersley. Joshua Endersley is glad to leave a broken engagement and his sordid desires behind in London and claim his inheritance on the rolling downs of Wiltshire. What he doesn't need is temptation in the form of artist, Daniel Wyndham, to remind him of all he wanted to forget. Joshua finds Daniel impossible to resist and the two men embark on a passionate affair that draws them ever closer. Joshua believes that he can find happiness and live his life the way he wants to in the peace and seclusion of Endersley. But nothing good can last forever. The very remoteness and solitude that Joshua loves about Endersley turns against him—the darkness at Endersley is deeper and more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.

A powerhouse novel about an idealistic young man's return to a rural Southern town simmering with prejudice and anger Separation papers in hand, Beau Jim Early sets out one hot, dry August morning in 1960 from Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for his brother's farm in Cocke County, Georgia. After six years in the army, civilian life is not as easy as it looks. In short order, Beau Jim gets conned by a shoe-shine boy, buys a Studebaker with bad brakes, and spends nearly every cent of the $400 he won in a crap game the night before. But Beau Jim is a man who can roll with the punches, and the drive into his hometown is as exhilarating as he thought it would be. His brother's farm, however, is a different story. Older by fifteen years, Dan Early has given up his apartment and gone into debt to buy a barren piece of land that his wife, Charlene, calls a “wore out patch of misery.” Sheila, their seven-year-old daughter, is unnaturally slow and shy and has been held back in school—a source of great shame. As Beau Jim hustles pool with Claire, a former high school classmate whose secret life is not as safe as he believes it to be, and makes time with Yancey, a voluptuous redhead finally looking to settle down, Dan's frustration and pity for himself mount. When Charlene sparks his rage, he commits an act so shocking and horrific it brings the whole county to its knees. A spellbinding tale of decent people fighting for their lives in a world overrun with poverty and ignorance, The Trapper's Last Shot is vintage John Yount—forceful, finely crafted, and absolutely unforgettable.

From the #1 New York Times author of Before We Were Yours!Tandi Reese and her sister, Gina, have always been bound by complicated ties. Amid the rubble of a difficult childhood lie memories of huddling beneath beds and behind sofas while parental wars raged. Sisterhood was safety... once. But now? Faced with legal papers for a fraud she didn't commit, Tandi suspects that her sister has done something unthinkable. With Tandi's wedding just around the corner, a trip to the North Carolina Tidewater for a reckoning with Gina was not part of the plan. But unraveling lies from truth will require confronting strained sibling bonds and uncovering a dark family secret that could free Tandi from her past or stain her future forever.

'An absolute masterclass in historical fiction writing.'Joanne Limburg What is the truth behind the mystery of the bastard boy? Ned Gudgeon wakes to find himself in a cell. He has no idea where he is or how he came to be there, but - seeing pen and paper - he begins to write. What follows is Ned's remarkable story, the story of his quest for his missing nephew, taking him from the corrupt and teeming slaving port of Bristol to the turmoil of the colonies on the brink of revolution. What is the truth behind the mystery of the bastard boy?

Based on a true story: the thrilling tale of a ship's 1879 journey to explore the North Pole—and the crew's desperate attempt to escape an Arctic ice pack. In the 1870s, newspaperman James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald drummed up excitement and publicity for his paper through highly publicized missions of exploration. In 1879, Bennett's idea for a voyage was his most audacious to date: the North Pole. To do this, he hired a team of naval veterans in addition to a smattering of civilians with specialized knowledge in meteorology, whaling, and naturalism. The men on board the Jeannette set off in September of 1879. This would be the last time anyone saw them for two years. The product of devoted research into personal histories, memoirs, and classified congressional investigation records, Hell on Ice is a remarkable document: a novelization of history, turning the horrible ordeal of the brave men of the Jeannette into a riveting narrative. Written with a weathered seaman's familiarity, the story brilliantly captures a most perilous voyage from the perspective of the ship's chief engineer. The men of the Jeannette endure months trapped in an Arctic ice pack, and then begin a desperate trek for home.

The New York Times bestselling author of Always and Blackberry Winter takes Goodnight Moon as inspiration for this remarkable story of friendship, love, and the mystery behind this beloved classic. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Songs) is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the “great green room” might have come to be. June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt Ruby's estate and determine the fate of Bluebird Books, the children's bookstore Ruby founded in the 1940s. Amidst the store's papers, June stumbles upon letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown—and steps into the pages of American literature.

In the heat and the dust of the Indian south, the last hangman of Travancore commits his life to paper. Into seven notebooks he remembers the men he has killed, calmly calling to mind the final struggles of the men he hung by the neck to die. The Last Hangman is a remarkable and haunting novel: a meditation on death and what it means to end a life. It is a challenging and harrowing book that explores a great moral question: when does someone who kills become a murderer?

The Hedge, set in early New England, is the story of an intelligent young governor's wife who is repressed by the severe attitudes of the Puritans, to the point where she withdraws from society, and is considered to have lost her mind. Anne Yale Hopkins comes to Hartford, Connecticut in 1638, delighted to have escaped the household of her stepfather Theophilus Eaton, a rigorous Puritan, by marrying Edward, who becomes governor of Hartford. She is a voracious reader, and has written several books. She can hardly wait to make a fresh start in a new land. Her first enthusiastic impressions of the community gradually change as she comes up against the rigidity and judgmentalism of some of the Puritans. Her strong reactions to their behaviour and ideas cause the community to think she is growing “distracted.” A number of events contribute to her decline: the unwarranted punishment of one of her Native friends, her mother's trial for heresy, the execution of King Charles, and the loss of two of her three confidantes: Nellie, her maid, and David, her brother, who returns to England. She corresponds cautiously with her beloved cousin, Jane, in London, but Jane's letters arrive infrequently. With the death of one good Hartford friend, and the departure of the other, she withdraws even more. Edward's friends advise taking away her books and paper, because they say her brain is overloaded, and that is why she is behaving so oddly. She is devastated, hides her journal and keeps writing. Throughout the story, certain incidents bring up flashes of lost memory. Finally, during her pregnancy, a crucial buried memory is uncovered, and the process of facing a new reality begins.

The Hedge, set in early New England, is the story of an intelligent young governor's wife who is repressed by the severe attitudes of the Puritans, to the point where she withdraws from society, and is considered to have lost her mind. Anne Yale Hopkins comes to Hartford, Connecticut in 1638, delighted to have escaped the household of her stepfather Theophilus Eaton, a rigorous Puritan, by marrying Edward, who becomes governor of Hartford. She is a voracious reader, and has written several books. She can hardly wait to make a fresh start in a new land. Her first enthusiastic impressions of the community gradually change as she comes up against the rigidity and judgmentalism of some of the Puritans. Her strong reactions to their behaviour and ideas cause the community to think she is growing “distracted.” A number of events contribute to her decline: the unwarranted punishment of one of her Native friends, her mother's trial for heresy, the execution of King Charles, and the loss of two of her three confidantes: Nellie, her maid, and David, her brother, who returns to England. She corresponds cautiously with her beloved cousin, Jane, in London, but Jane's letters arrive infrequently. With the death of one good Hartford friend, and the departure of the other, she withdraws even more. Edward's friends advise taking away her books and paper, because they say her brain is overloaded, and that is why she is behaving so oddly. She is devastated, hides her journal and keeps writing. Throughout the story, certain incidents bring up flashes of lost memory. Finally, during her pregnancy, a crucial buried memory is uncovered, and the process of facing a new reality begins.

Pamela Christie's sparkling historical mystery goes beyond the modest drawing rooms of Regency London in the company of the city's most esteemed and scandalous courtesan...Since the age of sixteen, Arabella Beaumont has been happily employed as a highly paid woman of pleasure. True, respectable ladies of the ton would never deign to call at Lustings, her delightful home. Then again, Arabella has no desire to make dreary small talk and sip tea when she could be enjoying the company of amusing, intelligent, and extremely generous gentlemen.But while Arabella's admirers are legion, she also has enemies. A paper knife stolen during one of her salons was discovered near the body of a former rival. Arabella was entertaining her wealthy benefactor on the night of the murder, but the engaged duke can't provide the alibi she desperately needs. It falls to Arabella and her resourceful sister, Belinda, to clear her good--or at least innocent--name. Utilizing all the talents in her arsenal, the irrepressible Miss Beaumont will endeavor to catch the real culprit, before the hangman catches up to her...Praise For Pamela Christie And Death Of A Courtesan'What a delicious and delightful tale! The Regency world is turned upside down--and much refreshed--by a decidedly unorthodox heroine. Pamela Christie writes with wit and verve, gifting readers with a vision of the period at once marvelously scandalous and oh-so tempting. I adore clever, spunky Arabella and look forward to her future adventures.'--Sara Poole, author of The Borgia Mistress'A clever, funny, engaging read reminiscent of Fidelis Morgan's Unnatural Fire. Pamela Christie deftly combines the conventions of the Regency-era novel with the fast pace and careful attention to characterization found in the best modern historical mysteries.'--Kate Emerson, author of The King's Damsel'With cleverness and humor, Pamela Christie brings to life a colorful world that would've been at the same time familiar and scandalous to Jane Austen and her readers.'--Anna Loan-Wilsey, author of A Lack of Temperance'A smart, witty and thoroughly entertaining read! It reminds me of some of my favorite series on Masterpiece Theater.'--Diane Haeger, author of I, Jane'A delectable treat for the historical mystery lover to savor. You will be left eager for Arabella's next adventure!'--Teresa Grant, author of The Paris Affair

A ride on the edges of history, with all its unanticipated connections, from the 1963 March on Washington to the 1993 chaos of Yeltsins Russia. When an ex-CIA agent convinces a bumbling law student to write a term paper on international rights on the high seas, the student and his roommates in Washington wind up with the whole Soviet Embassy coming to dinner. This happened on August 10, 1963, and has never been marked in the history books. Out of this encounter spins a story of revenge, counterpoint, and rollicking foolishness, ending on a railroad platform by the Russian-Finnish border in September, 1993. The Russian Embassy Party follows its sort-of-ordinary people in a not-so-ordinary web through the edges of history (the set for I Have a Dream, watching the fall of the Berlin Wall, revelations of the Katyn Forest Massacre, the last gasp failed Soviet coup of August 1991, stumbling attempts to shore up democracy in Yelstins Russia) until... Well, lets say only that there is a good dose of history in the story, and a larger dose of realism in the minds, environments, and conversations of both American and Russian protagonists and supporting cast. At the same time, the echoes of the 1963 Russian Embassy Party itself (when the students behaved and talked like the late-adolescents they were) cut veins through the story, linking its participants in ways they realize, bit by bit, as adults.

This ninth volume of The Flashman Papers finds that history's most unheroic hero, Sir Harry Flashman, is back in India, where his saga began. This time, our hero is sent by Her Majesty's Secret Service to spy on the corrupt court of Lahore, on India's Northwest Frontier. Flashy deals with a ravishing maharini and her equally sex-hungry maid, joins forces with an American adventurer with royal ambitions, and attempts to win the brightest jewel in England's imperial crown at the cost of something he will never miss—namely, his honor.

If ever there was a time when I felt that'watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet'stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman.'– P.G. WodehouseFraser revives Flashman, a caddish bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, and relates Flashman's adventures after he is expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830s. Flashy enlists in the Eleventh Light Dragoons and is promptly sent to India and Afghanistan, where despite his consistently cowardly behavior he always manages to come out on top. Flashman is an incorrigible anti-hero for the ages. This humorous adventure book will appeal to fans of historical fiction, military fiction, and British history as well as to fans of Clive Cussler, James Bond, and The Three Musketeers. Flashman is the first book of the famous “Flashman Papers” series.

A young journalist tries to find her way during the era of JFK's presidency, in a world that is not as innocent as it seems... Mary Springer, an up-and-coming reporter from a small paper in Belvedere, Maryland, is—by 1963 standards—way ahead of her time. After she manages to strike up an acquaintance with President Kennedy during an assignment to cover the White House, Mary's personal and professional lives begin to converge. She gets involved in a crisis involving city planners who want to raze a mostly black neighborhood and build luxury apartments; and while Martin Luther King Jr. prepares to march on Washington, racial violence erupts in Belvedere, and the president goes about his last days before tragedy strikes. Working beside Jay Broderick, a charismatic photographer, and Don Johnson, a young African American man recently returned from the Freedom Rides in the South, Mary must struggle to find her own identity amid the legacy of the Camelot years, in this novel filled with humor, heartbreak, and “all the elements of the sixties,” from the author of the international bestseller Virgins (Library Journal).

On April 10, 1994, PBS stations nationwide will air the first episode of a lavish six-part Masterpiece Theatre production of Eliot's brilliant work, Middlemarch, hosted by Russell Baker and produced by Louis Marks. The Modern Library is pleased to offer this official companion edition, complete with tie-in art and printed on acid-free paper. Unabridged.