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In this short story collection, the acclaimed author of Our Crowd offers fourteen darkly funny and poignant tales of the human heart. Stephen Birmingham is renowned for his penetrating examinations of America's upper classes. Here, he proves himself an equally deft hand at fiction, bringing the same knowing wit and piercing insight to the short stories in this collection. In “She Ate Grass?,” a boy navigates coming of age while buying whiskey for his mother's cocktail party. In “Race Day,” a shy woman endures her husband's ambition to join the board of an exclusive yacht club. In these and other stories, Birmingham peels back the layers of middle-class life in the late twentieth century.

Barsetshire gathers to celebrate a milestone birthday at the Old Bank House in this conclusion to the much-loved, long-running series.A home is saved from destruction, a budding romance takes steps toward the altar, a doctor experiences the return of a former love—and the fine people of Barsetshire make plans for a festive extravaganza to mark Mrs. Morland's seventieth birthday... “Triumphantly completed” by Angela Thirkell's close friend C. A. Lejeune after Thirkell's death, Three Score and Ten features a host of new and old friends from the author's acclaimed series spanning decades of English country life (The New York Times). “Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, dislike of fuss, and low-key irony.... Light, witty, easygoing books.” —The New Yorker“Where Trollope would have been content to arouse a chuckle, [Thirkell] is constantly provoking us to hilarious laughter.... To read her is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness,[and] dislike of fuss.... Light, witty, easygoing books.” —The New YorkerAs 1951 draws to a close, Christmas approaches—but the conservative upper class of Barsetshire have already received the gift they really wanted: Winston Churchill's re-election as prime minister. Nevertheless, their individual struggles carry on. A member of the House of Lords worries that marriage is not in the cards for him due to an insufficient fortune, while another man does manage to get engaged—but frets that his betrothed doesn't truly love him. The widow Lady Lufton misses her husband—as well as the money she's lost to taxes. And an aspiring scholar falls madly in love, but must choose between Oxford and the object of his affections... “[This] characteristically witty, nostalgic... novel in the beloved Barsetshire series describes the lingering effects of WWII on the fictional village that Thirkell adapted from its Victorian inventor and chronicler, Anthony Trollope.” —Publishers Weekly

A picturesque community in postwar England comes together when it counts in this witty, moving novel in the “beloved” Barsetshire series (Publishers Weekly).Edith Graham is still single when she returns from America to visit Mrs. Morland, and there's no shortage of interested men—until three suitors find each other such good company that they start socializing together and ignoring her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Morland has received a marriage proposal herself and needs to let the dear man down gently. But while these day-to-day problems preoccupy the two women and their Barsetshire neighbors, they will soon be united by a poignant loss... “Here are the familiar cross-county conversations, the disentangling of relationships, the good pieces of meddling and the criticisms and comments that embroider this ever-unfolding panorama of English life.” —Kirkus Reviews“Thirkell writes in a charmingly easy and intimate style.” —The New York Times“Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, dislike of fuss, and low-key irony.... Light, witty, easygoing books.” —The New Yorker

Amid food shortages and grumbling, Barsetshire is unsettled by the arrival of a pretty war widow in this “delicately humorous [and] entertaining” novel (The New York Times).World War II may be over, but its effects linger in the English countryside as the local ladies trade ration coupons for a paltry selection of provisions. It's feeling like a bleak summer—but it won't be a boring one, now that flirtatious young widow Peggy Arbuthnot and her sister-in-law, Effie, are on the scene. Peggy has quite a few admirers—including Noel Merton, which is rather unfortunate for his wife. Suspense reigns over who might win Peggy's hand—and whether the Merton marriage will survive... “Where Trollope would have been content to arouse a chuckle, [Thirkell] is constantly provoking us to hilarious laughter.... To read her is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews

A widow goes house-hunting in Barsetshire in this witty, moving novel by an author of “graceful stories of upper-class English life” (The New York Times).One rainy summer, amid the social and cultural changes of postwar England, Mrs. Macfadyen wrestles with the loss of her beloved husband after just five years of happiness. Life has left her uprooted—but where can she replant herself? The hunt for a new house (preferably not too close to her mother's) will involve everyone from friends and neighbors to an old suitor and the local clergy, but ultimately the decision—and her future—is up to her... Recreating Anthony Trollope's fictional county and bringing it into the mid-twentieth century, Angela Thirkell tells a tale filled with heartache, humor, and sharp social observation.“It is in [Mrs. Macfadyen's] fitful remembrance, quiet loneliness and gentle acceptance, that one realizes her author's sense of the poetry in life, and her sympathetic ear for the nuances of pain.” —The New York Times

The missing lord of the manor looms large in this quirky novel by an author who offers “a fresh, original, witty interpretation of England's social history” (The New York Times).Lady Graham is anticipating the long-awaited appearance of Sir Robert, finally retiring from his glorious military career and globetrotting adventures a decade after the end of World War II. In the meantime, life at Holdings goes on and Lady Graham's youngest, eighteen-year-old Edith, has her pick of suitors. It is unclear, however, if she will make up her mind about them any time soon—and if she will exit Holdings before her father enters... “Where Trollope would have been content to arouse a chuckle, [Thirkell] is constantly provoking us to hilarious laughter.... To read her is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews

Matches are being made among the cream of postwar English society in this novel of “warmth, whimsy, quirks, and vinegar with a dash of vitriol”(The New York Times).The England of old may be fading away (it's so hard to find good help these days!)—but that doesn't stop the prominent families of Barsetshire from producing a new generation of genteel brides and grooms in this funny, entertaining portrait of stubbornly cherished traditions in a changing world. “It is difficult not to become charmed, amused and engrossed. [Thirkell's] sense of the ludicrous is enchanting. Perhaps, above all, it is her basic human kindness and her remarkable insight into the delicate relationship between parents and adolescent and grown children, that endear her books to so many people.” —The New York Times“Thirkell writes with an asperity and wit and glorious clowning that are all her own.” —San Francisco Chronicle

As Elizabeth II's coronation draws near, the gentry of Barsetshire engage in preparations, committee meetings, and “their perennially amusing antics” (The New York Times).A new queen is about to be crowned, and the prominent families of Barsetshire intend to make a good impression amid the festivities. Fortunately, the highly capable Lydia Merton takes the helm of the local committee planning for the big event. All she needs to do is keep calm and carry on through the squabbling, the petty jealousies, and the occasional disaster... “The Thirkell wit presides with tongue-rolling malice.” —The New York Times“Where Trollope would have been content to arouse a chuckle, [Thirkell] is constantly provoking us to hilarious laughter.... To read her is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews

From a starry-eyed teenager to an elderly clergyman, it seems no one is immune to romance in the county of Barsetshire... In the long-running and beloved series that brings Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire into the mid-twentieth century and offers “a fresh, original, witty interpretation of England's social history,” the quirky inhabitants and well-bred families of the county find themselves navigating the delights and uncertainties of love (The New York Times). Lady Gwendolyn Harcourt, no spring chicken, is courted by the aging Reverend Oriel of Harefield. And on the other end of the generational spectrum, fresh-faced sixteen-year-old Lavinia Merton may have a future marriage prospect in her singing partner Ludovic, Lord Mellings... “Thirkell's gently meandering account of the diversions of Barsetshire society leaves nothing to be desired.” —New York Herald Tribune“To read [Thirkell] is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews

A “charming troupe” of Barsetshire inhabitants celebrate a spate of marriages—while one young woman bemoans her prospects—in this novel of 1950s English life (The New York Times).The locals are all talking about the upcoming wedding of the vicar of Hatch End to the much-loved Miss Merriman—in fact, the couple's friends and neighbors seem even more excited than the bride- and groom-to-be. But that's to be expected when a couple of a certain age tie the knot, because it reminds everyone that it's never too late for love. And though Edith Graham is increasingly gloomy about landing a husband, the romantic spirit of the event just might be contagious... “Where Trollope would have been content to arouse a chuckle, [Thirkell] is constantly provoking us to hilarious laughter.... To read her is to get the feeling of knowing Barsetshire folk as well as if one had been born and bred in the county.” —Kirkus Reviews“[Thirkell's] talent for easy, light characterization does not seem to be flagging.” —The Times Literary Supplement

In 1930s England, a beleaguered mother frets over her twelve-year-old's “skirmishes with the grown-up world and his schoolmasters... amusingly told” (Kirkus Reviews).Laura Morland loves her son, Tony, unconditionally... even when he's talking everyone's ear off, accidentally breaking a window, shelling peas in the bathtub, or desperately trying to convince her to buy him a bicycle—the thought of which terrifies her. And of course Laura cherishes their time together when Tony's home on break, while secretly counting the minutes until he goes back to school... This twentieth-century tale set in Anthony Trollope's beloved Barsetshire is a lighthearted and sharp-witted look at the life of the upper class in prewar England, and a funny portrait of the fraught relationship between a long-suffering mother and a demanding, rambunctious, and occasionally infuriating twelve-year-old boy. Praise for Angela Thirkell and the Barsetshire novels“Thirkell writes in a charmingly easy and intimate style.” —The New York Times“[Thirkell's] writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, dislike of fuss, and low-key irony.... Light, witty, easygoing books.” —The New Yorker

In this comic novel by a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a bachelor on a transatlantic cruise meets a group of runaway children who change his life forever. Martin Boyne is a cautious man of forty-six. The bachelor has been nursing a relationship with a widow for five years, and now he is crossing the Atlantic to be with her. He laments that he never meets interesting people in his travels, but that is about to change... The seven precocious Wheater siblings, traveling with their nanny, are running away from their parents. Their mother and father are always breaking up and reconciling, shuffling the children back and forth, and they have had enough. They simply want to be together... Moved by the children's plight and knowing of their parents, Boyne decides to help them as best he can. It is time to throw caution to the wind, and everyone, including Boyne, just may be better for it...

This collection of supernatural, fantasy, and sci-fi stories from the Nobel Prize–nominated author “presents a new side of a distinguished writer” (The New York Times). Novelist, essayist, and acclaimed author of A Room with a View and A Passage to India, E. M. Forster explores themes of the human spirit, social isolation, and technology in this unique book of short fiction. Written between 1903 and 1914, notable works included are the dystopian “The Machine Stops” as well as “The Point of It,” “Mr. Andrews,” “Coordination,” and “The Story of the Siren.” All are profound and prescient narratives revealing a futuristic world that will look remarkably and eerily familiar to modern readers. “E. M. Forster is for me the only living novelist who can be read again and again and who, after each reading, gives me what few writers can give us after our first days of novel-reading, the sensation of having learned something.” —Lionel Trilling

This modernist, experimental, and controversial novel examines gender politics in the lives of an American family. Lesbian poet, journalist, and illustrator Djuna Barnes's debut novel was a sensation when it was originally published in 1928. A bawdy parody of patriarchal repression, the book was heavily censored upon its release in America. An exploration of sexuality that is thought to be based on Barnes's own life, the novel depicts a family headed by polygamist Wendell Ryder through the eyes of his daughter, Julia. Employing a variety of literary styles, from parable, poetry, sentimental fiction, and drama, Barnes satirizes masculinity and femininity in one of modern literature's first and best examinations of gender and power dynamics.

A teenager moves to a remote farm in the Catskill Mountains in 1931 to raise her late aunt's baby in this novel from “a writer of talent and vision” (San Francisco Chronicle). Leenie is a precocious fifteen-year-old, but her hopes of going to college depend on her mother's scheme after a family tragedy. Leenie must travel to her late aunt's home and take care of her newborn cousin, lending support to the baby's grief-stricken father, Digger. As Leenie gradually, and with difficulty, grows into her new role, she and Digger form a surprising bond of affection. But the new love and community she's discovered are now at risk from New York City, which considers their remote, fertile valley a promising site for a future reservoir, and the ground under Leenie's feet could soon be swept away...Praise for Same Blood “Remarkable... Impressive.” —Publishers Weekly “The Catskill Mountains are full of myth and mystery in this striking first novel.” —The New York Times Book Review “Scenes that leap from the page and either wrench your heart or twist your guts.” —Chicago Tribune

The story of a Boston heiress who wishes for nothing—except happiness—by a New York Times–bestselling author who “never falters when it comes to storytelling” (Publishers Weekly). Caroline Ames is rich beyond imagining. But after a childhood with a cold, rejecting father, she is irrationally terrified of poverty, seething with hostility, and incapable of giving or receiving love. Those who cross her path tend to find themselves at the very least suffering, if not thoroughly broken.A Prologue to Love introduces three generations of the Ames family during the Gilded Age and the early twentieth century—painting a compassionate portrait of a difficult woman, those who have hurt her, and those she has hurt. It is a vivid, profoundly moving novel that explores the damage that everyday evil can do—and what it takes to overcome it.

New York Times Bestseller: In Victorian Britain, an affluent woman hosts a group of Catholic priests in her home—and listens as they tell their stories. Rose, a young girl visiting her grandmother, sits among eleven priests from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. As each guest shares the most challenging moments of their vocations, tests of faith that have brought them face-to-face with the miseries, temptations, and evils that lurk beyond the peaceful confines of the rectory, their worldly, wealthy hostess and her granddaughter come to learn the struggles and outcomes of these confrontations with the human condition. “The priests themselves represent a mixed lot—men of exalted backgrounds, culture, worldly experience, who have found their hardest task bringing themselves down to the humble people of their flocks; men who understand only the intellectual, realistic aspects of their faith—and must learn to accept the mystical as well; men who hide their saintliness under uncouth exteriors, who learn the hard way to love their fellow men, who encounter devils as well as saints, murderers, sinners.... Lively reading.” —Kirkus Reviews

Following WWI, an English aristocrat struggles to find peace as he attempts to rebuild his life in this conclusion to the Parade's End Tetralogy. The Great War is over. The ancestral home of Christopher Tietjens has been sold to an American. Christopher and Valentine Wannop now share a cottage with his brother and sister-in-law. A mathematician before the war, Christopher now earns a living selling antique furniture. It seems his world will be forever changed... Set over the course of one summer day, The Last Post follows its characters as they amble through a disorientating new world. Tensions arise for the inhabitants of the cottage. Valentine is pregnant and worried about her unmarried status as well as Christopher's money troubles. Then Christopher's estranged wife schemes to make their lives miserable. With the past haunting their present, the future seems uncertain for Christopher and Valentine. Praise for Parade's End “The finest English novel about the Great War.” —Malcolm Bradbury “There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them.” —W. H. Auden “The best novel by a British writer.... It is also the finest novel about the First World War. It is also the finest novel about the nature of British society.” —Anthony Burgess “The English prose masterpiece of the time.” —William Carlos Williams

The final novel of “a social satire of epic proportions and one that does not suffer by comparison with Thackeray's Vanity Fair” (The New York Times). From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932 Set against the backdrop of a post–World War I Britain, now rocked by a general strike, Swan Song captures the staunch resilience—and ridiculousness—of the British upper middle class, who view this new national crisis as just a minor inconvenience. As the ever-so-steadfast Winifred Dartie says, “If they could get this little fuss over, the coming season would be most enjoyable.” Especially since Jon Forsyte and his American wife have visited from France. Though eager to pitch in to help his homeland, Jon never expects his return will have such an effect on his former love, Fleur Mont, now married to a member of Parliament and a mother. Even when the strike abates, their reunion sends ripples through their friends and family, including Fleur's father. He knows his daughter wants nothing more than what she doesn't have—and to save her from herself—he sets out to stay one step ahead of her duplicitous heart... “It is such a joy to read a book which is unquestionably a good piece of work, that tells you on the first page that it is going to tell its story gracefully, with technical skill, and with that rare quality of fineness. Swan Song has quite literally greatness—to say more about it would be to spill gilt paint over a calla.” —Chicago Tribune

From the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance author of Passing, a novel of one mixed-race woman's far-reaching quest to discover identity and happiness. At twenty-three, Helga Crane teaches in 1920s Georgia at one of the country's finest colleges for African Americans, and she's engaged to a fellow teacher. Yet happiness eludes her. And when she can't take the snobbish, conformist atmosphere one second more, she breaks off her relationship with her fiancé and leaves for Illinois. Thus begins a pattern that will define her life, as Helga runs from her hometown of Chicago—where she faces rejection by the Scandinavian half of her family—to Harlem, where she finds understanding and friendship... for a while. Falling prey once again to restlessness and insecurity, Helga flees to Europe, where she is accepted with open arms by a wealthy aunt in Copenhagen. There she finds a physical freedom that she never knew existed, only to desperately hunger for the spiritual freedom that she left behind on Harlem's bustling streets. Quicksand captures both the strength and fragility of a woman who longs to be herself, and not defined by her race, yet who cannot escape the countless perceptions and expectations of people both Black and White. “Fine, thoughtful and courageous. It is, on the whole, the best piece of fiction that [Black] America has produced since the heyday of Chesnutt.” —W. E. B. Du Bois “Quicksand and Passing are novels that I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating and indispensable.” —Alice Walker, National Book Award–winning author of The Color Purple

An African American woman lives life on her own terms in the early-twentieth-century South Carolina Lowcountry from the Pultizer Prize–winning author. In this once-banned classic of 1928, Julia Peterkin introduces readers to a Black community in the post-slavery South—and to a woman who follows her own path in the close-knit world in which she's born. Mary is just fifteen and already used to the hard work of surviving off the land that used to be a plantation. She is strong, in love, about to be married—and already pregnant. It is this “sin” that marks her, an excuse for everything that goes wrong in her life, especially the failure of her marriage and the children who she continues to have out of wedlock. But Mary doesn't see it that way. She has learned to give her heart when and to whom she wants to—without apology. Though the portrayal of an unrepentant Black woman was shocking to some upon initial publication, the Chicago Tribune called it, “a rich, colorful, passionate panorama of a person who took life as she found it and achieved, despite everything, a personal peace of spirit,” and the New York Times said it “all but cries with color, scent, sound, in a style that is a happy combination of solidity, brilliance, and pure beauty.” “Reading Scarlet Sister Mary one should keep a pencil near at hand. Sentences in the text leap out to be marked, to be read again and again and held in memory for all time. Mrs. Peterkin's prose has a beauty and a richness which is balm to a distracted world.” —Boston Evening Transcript

The Harlem Renaissance sociologist explores early-twentieth-century attitudes toward race in this tale of romance, politics, and justice. Matthew Towns is a hardworking medical student with dreams of becoming an obstetrician, but his race prevents him from completing his required courses at a white hospital. Frustrated with America, he exiles himself to Germany. In Berlin, he meets the daughter of a maharaja, Princess Kautilya, of Bwodpur, India. She introduces him to a vibrant new world, inviting him to join her international coalition for people of color united for self-liberation while dismantling white imperialism. Soon the love between Matthew and Kautilya is undeniable, but their struggles in a whites-only world threaten to tear them apart... Originally published in 1928, Dark Princess blends a young man's journey with a tale of romance and Du Bois's own sociological theories.

A writer finds wealth, fame, and sorrow in midcentury Manhattan in “a tremendous novel... full of wisdom and pain” by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author (Los Angeles Times). Arthur Youngblood Hawke, an ex-Navy man, moves from hardscrabble rural Kentucky to New York, hoping to make his mark on the literary world. His first novel becomes an instant hit, and he is toasted by critics and swept along on a tide of celebrity. But as Hawke gives himself over to the lush life that gilds artistic success—indulging in an affair with an older married woman and a flirtation with his editor, dabbling in real estate developments as his second novel brings him massive wealth and even bigger opportunities—he soon finds himself in a self-destructive downward spiral. Inspired by the life of Thomas Wolfe, and spanning from the Manhattan publishing world to Hollywood to Europe, Youngblood Hawke is both a riveting saga of postwar glamor and a poignant tale of one man's rise and fall. “A big, powerful, exciting novel... Wouk has a tremendous narrative gift.” —San Francisco Chronicle “As searing and accurate a picture of New York in the late 1940s and 1950s as Bonfire of the Vanities was of its period.... And icing the cake are some marvelous Hollywood sections, including the best agent-in-action-on-two-telephones scenes ever captured in print.” —Los Angeles Times

An epic of Israel from its founding to the Six-Day War by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author: “Full of excitement.” —Entertainment Weekly From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Winds of War and The Caine Mutiny, this saga spans from 1948 to 1967, the early decades of the state of Israel as it struggles for its life, outmatched and surrounded by enemies—the first of the two-part epic that concludes with The Glory. Zev Barak, Sam Pasternak, Don Kishote, and Benny Luria are all officers in the Israeli army caught up in the sweep of history, fighting the desperate desert skirmishes and meeting the larger-than-life personalities that shaped Israel's fight for independence. The four heroes and the women they love weave a compelling tapestry of individual destinies through a grand recounting of one nation's battle against the odds. “Much of the dialogue is witty; the descriptions of back-channel diplomacy between the United States and Israel are fascinating and convincing.” —The New York Times Book Review “Solid historical research... fictional characters of Wouk's own invention rub shoulders with real-life historical figures like David Ben Gurion [and] Moshe Dayan.” —The Christian Science Monitor “Rich and satisfying... deftly portrays the human face of inhuman conflict.” —The Plain Dealer “An engrossing and often moving tale.” —Publishers Weekly

New York Times Bestseller: “A sprawling action-packed novel” of Israel by the author of The Hope (The Philadelphia Inquirer). This follow-up to The Hope plunges immediately into the violence and upheaval of the Six-Day War of 1967 and continues the stories of its multiple characters and of Israel's dramatic struggle for survival across the years. The Glory takes readers through the terrors of the Yom Kippur War, the famous Entebbe operation, and the airstrikes on Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor—and ending with a final hope for peace. Illuminating the inner lives of real Israeli leaders—including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and Ariel Sharon—the Pulitzer Prize–winning “master of the historical novel” tells the chronicle of Israel's fight to exist with a compelling sense of both the broad significance of this time in history and its personal impact on those who lived through it (Los Angeles Times). “A genuinely enjoyable read.” —The Detroit News “A top-notch storyteller.” —Time

Two Bronx boys take radically different paths in this novel about the limits of genius and the loss of home, by a “terrifically gifted” author (Anita Shreve, New York Times–bestselling author). Ralph Silverman was a foreign film buff, a victim of bullies, and a boy genius. He held long conversations with his pet parakeet and spent countless hours on a computer, creating mesmerizing music and solving problems in philosophy. He was a friend of great scholars and the son of a wealthy outer-borough businessman with shady associates and a secret second family. And, as he begins to take over the story from the narrator, Ralph finds himself in South Florida, physically abused and expelled into a frightening world of the unhoused—with a broken pair of glasses, no money, and no shoes. From the celebrated author of Searching for Bobby Fischer, Anything Is Good is a hypnotically compelling tale of a man haunted by the fate of his childhood buddy, and of that friend's pleasures and misfortunes as he navigates an unhoused life—a life more complex and dramatic than a bypasser might ever imagine. “Anything Is Good... offers a deeply affecting dive into the lives of the unhoused. Its shifting perspective and changing narrative voice builds to a clarion call for greater empathy and understanding.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March “Anything Is Good is the best portrait of homelessness I've read since George Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris.... Superbly written.” —Gabriel Byrne Praise for Fred Waitzkin's previous books “Very few writers can deliver a story with this much heart... A great novel.” —Sebastian Junger “I've seldom been so captivated by a book.” —Tom Stoppard “A gem of a book.” —The New York Times

A parade of people in need of solace find a mysterious sympathizer, in this uniquely moving classic by a New York Times–bestselling author. They come day and night to confess their troubles to an anonymous listener positioned behind a curtain. Could it be a priest, a psychiatrist, a friend, or a judge? Each person draws a different conclusion. From a businessman who feels betrayed by someone he trusted, to a society woman with contempt for her husband, to a scientist troubled by what his work has wrought, the visitors'situations vary widely as they struggle with grief, denial, prejudice, and fear. But in this small sanctuary, there are no office hours, the listener is always listening, and the visitors'lives are forever changed. This inspiring and inventive work of fiction comes from the award-winning author of Captains and the Kings, Testimony of Two Men, and many other bestsellers. “The gift of narration and characterization which Taylor Caldwell brings to each of her books is here in strong measure.” —Kirkus Reviews “I believe [Caldwell] wanted to instill hope, renew faith, and foster love in what she saw as a society on the decline. The year was 1960. But the issues can be universally applied today.” —The Book Cafe

The eighty-year anniversary edition of the once-banned, #1 New York Times–bestselling novel of interracial romance and discrimination in Georgia. Alice Walker said it best: “The South can hardly be said to recognize itself without this book.” Igniting controversy upon its publication in 1944, Strange Fruit was banned in Boston and Detroit and the US Postal Service refused to send it through the mail until Eleanor Roosevelt intervened—all because of its portrayal of a town divided along racial lines and the forbidden love that dared to cross them... Despite having left Maxwell, Georgia, to attend college, Nonnie Anderson returned to her hometown to work for a prominent white family—and to rejoin the man she had always loved, Tracy Deen. Tracy, the directionless son of the town's doctor, has come back from war and is being pressured to finally get his life in order. Across the street, his high school sweetheart desperately waits for a marriage proposal. On the other side of town, Nonnie offers him a safe place to land, asking nothing in return. But now, she's pregnant. As a Christian revival inspires the locals to cease their sinful ways, a heady and dangerous mix of passion, religion, and racism takes hold. And when a white man is killed in a Black part of town, the event exposes the evil simmering just below the town's placid surface—an inferno waiting to erupt...“A very moving book and an extraordinary one.” —Eleanor Roosevelt“Strange Fruit is so wide in its human understanding... [its] tragedy becomes the tragedy of anyone who lives in a world in which minorities suffer.” —The Nation“An absorbing novel, of high literary merit, terrific and tender.” —The Boston Globe

Cultural shifts of the late twentieth century reveal dark secrets at an elite prep school, in this posthumously discovered novel by the author of “Our Crowd.” Located in bucolic Connecticut, the Crittenden School has long held a venerable reputation as one of New England's premier preparatory schools. However, times are changing, and that change is coming to Crittenden. In the midst of social upheaval, the headmaster's wife, Clarissa Spotswood, is thrust into faculty and student intrigues—a role for which she is woefully unprepared. Clarissa has spent the past thirty years quietly standing by her husband, Headmaster Hobart Spotswood, projecting the image of the model society wife. But this meticulous façade is shattered when Clarissa uncovers horrific events within the school's insular community. And interspersed with the drama is Clarissa's own journal entries revealing a secret history of her own. Previously unpublished, The Headmaster's Wife was written by the late Stephen Birmingham, author of notable works such as Real Lace and Life at the Dakota. Discovered after Birmingham's death, the manuscript was transcribed and edited by his son, Carey Birmingham.