Early Reviewers: Free advance copies of books

Soon to be a major motion picture from Miramax Films, starring Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Ben Whishaw, and Matthew Good, and directed by Julian Jarrold. Opens July 2008.

Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated novel is a memory drama of extraordinary richness and depth. The novel Waugh thought of as his magnum opus, it is the story of the intense entanglement of a young, middle-class Englishman, Charles Ryder, with a wealthy, eccentric Anglo-Catholic family, the Marchmains: in particular, with Sebastian, the flamboyant young man Charles meets at Oxford in the 1920s; and Sebastian's sister Julia, who will become the great and unrequited love of Charles's life.

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David Liss's bestselling historical thrillers, including A Conspiracy of Paper and The Coffee Trader, have been called remarkable and rousing: the perfect combination of scrupulous research and breathless excitement. Now Liss delivers his best novel yet in an entirely new setting—America in the years after the Revolution, an unstable nation where desperate schemers vie for wealth, power, and a chance to shape a country's destiny.

Ethan Saunders, once among General Washington's most valued spies, now lives in disgrace, haunting the taverns of Philadelphia. An accusation of treason has long since cost him his reputation and his beloved fiancee, Cynthia Pearson, but at his most desperate moment he is recruited for an unlikely task—finding Cynthia's missing husband. To help her, Saunders must serve his old enemy, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle with political rival Thomas Jefferson over the fragile young nation's first real financial institution: the Bank of the United States. ... (show rest)

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"What would Emily Post do?" Even today, Americans cite the author of the perennial bestseller Etiquette as a touchstone for proper behavior. But who was the woman behind the myth, the authority on good manners who has outlasted all comers? Award-winning author Laura Claridge presents the first authoritative biography of the unforgettable woman who changed the mindset of millions of Americans, an engaging book that sweeps from the Gilded Age to the 1960s.

Born shortly after the Civil War, Emily Post was a daughter of high society, the only child of an ambitious Baltimore architect, Bruce Price, and his wellborn wife. Within a few years of his daughter's birth, Price moved his family to New York City, where they mingled with the Roosevelts and the Astors as well as with the new crowd in town—J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt clan. Blossoming into one of Manhattan's most sought-after debutantes, Emily went on to marry Edwin Post, planning to re-create in her own home the happiness she'd observed between her parents. Instead, she would find herself in the middle of a scandalous divorce, its humiliating details splashed across the front pages of New York newspapers for months. ... (show rest)

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Born with the face of an angel, Marget Barnardsen is blessed. Her father is a knight, and now she is to be married to the Earl of Lytham. Her destiny is guaranteed ... at least, it would seem so. But when her introduction to court goes awry and Queen Elizabeth despises her, Marget fears she's lost her husband forever. Desperate to win him back, she'll do whatever it takes to discover how she failed and capture again the love of a man bound to the queen.

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J.J. Spencer is one of the many hungry young lawyers eager to climb the corporate ladder to the great future awaiting him. With his first annual review approaching, J.J. is confident his keen work for the top Manhattan law firm he is employed by will be praised all the way to the bank. Until, that is, he gives in to a sudden surge of compassion during a chance encounter at a diner.

J.J. discovers how swiftly no good deed goes unpunished: the consequences of his generous impulse snowball and before he knows it, J.J. Spencer has been beaten bloody, arrested for drunk driving, and fired from his job. His perfect life seemingly over, J.J. decides he must dedicate himself to helping the very people who unwittingly lost him everything. It is through that journey—and the surprising battles contained therein—that a new life is allowed to rise from the ashes of the old, and J.J. emerges as the man he always should have been. ... (show rest)

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One by one, over a period of several years, the wife and children of prominent Hamburg citizen Maximilian Holler are being slain. The police are stumped. Are the murders connected? Why would someone want to destroy the family of a much respected businessman and philanthropist? Is there a serial killer on the loose? Is Holler as blameless a victim as he seems?

Trying to help an old friend-become-policeman discover who and what is at the root of these crimes, history professor Josef Stachelmann becomes embroiled in a tragic and shocking case that has roots stretching far back into the past, all the way to the Nazi regime that is his own area of expertise. By the time he realises that he is due to become the next victim of the mysterious murderer, it is almost too late. Can he find the truth in time to save his own life and that of the one surviving Holler child? Christian v. Ditfurth has crafted a breathtaking thriller that highlights in vivid detail how present the German past is today. ... (show rest)

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On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House–and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, "almost in opposition to itself."

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie. ... (show rest)

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Early 13th century Languedoc is a place of valor, violence, and persecution. At age 16, Babylonne has survived six bloody sieges. She's tough, resourceful, and - now that her strict aunt and abusive grandmother intend to marry her off to a senile old man — desperate. Disguised as a boy, Babylonne embarks on a action-packed adventure that amounts to a choice: trust the mysterious catholic priest —a sworn enemy to her Cathar faith—who says he's a friend of her dead father, Pagan. Or pursue a fairy-tale version of her future, one in which she'll fight and likely die in a vicious war with the French. Though Babylonne never knew her irreverent father, fans of Catherine Jink's novels about Pagan Kidrouk will be sure to see the resemblance in his fiesty daughter.

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With this spellbinding first novel about the destructive lies three immigrant generations of a Pakistani/Bangladeshi family tell each other, Roopa Farooki adds a fresh new voice to the company of Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arudhati Roy.

"[An] enjoyably breezy book....Despite its emphasis on deception, dislocation and the loss of love, [Farooki's] book retains a cheery consistency: It has managed to be sunnily devious from the start. And it delivers a refreshing message. Only by means of all their elaborate deceptions do these characters figure out who they really are." –The New York Times

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Shandell "Blackbird" Bird has everything going for him, or so he thinks. Recently selected number two overall in the NBA draft, the 6'8", 250-pound superstar has a gleaming new ride and a salary and athletic shoe contract that make him an instant millionaire. What he doesn't have is the ability to bury secrets from his past. When Shandell is found shot to death at mid-court, his best friend and college teammate Damion Madrid sets out to find the killer. Damion is well meaning but naive; luckily his godfather is gumshoe CJ Floyd. Floyd and his partner, Flora Jean Benson, are there to watch his back as Damion stumbles down a shadowy trail that leads to Shandell's purported peddling of steroids and big-game point shaving. When he discovers a "Blackbird" he never knew and is able to put a face on Shandell's killer, Damion finds himself in over his head. Will CJ be there in time to prevent his godson from joining Shandell? Featuring the vivid characters and streetwise dialogue that have made the CJ Floyd series a critical and commercial success, Blackbird, Farewell is a punch-packing whodunit that exposes the dark side of the pro-athlete good life.

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When surviving gets this hard, death comes easy...

Cross County's secrets run deep. Settlers first came here hundreds of years ago, taking the land from local tribes sworn to guard its dark secrets. The Cross family now holds the power in the region. When a grisly murderer, hearkening back to a series of killing from years ago, shakes the community, it's up to the local sheriff to get to the bottom of things before it's too late. ... (show rest)

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Feature film based on this book, starring Al Pacino as Dali is set for release in winter '09. Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, selling only one name: Salvador Dali. The surrealist painter's work was a hot commodity for people hoping to launder their black market cash. Stan didn't mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers looked the other way as well. The more successful Stan became, the closer he got to Dali's inner circle, until he found himself living next door to the artist. While hiding from Interpol's detectives, he learned more about Dali's secret history, the people who worked for the maestro himself, and the studio of artists that produced his work.

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What if your first love left town, without a word to anyone, days before graduation? What if, within months, he became one of the biggest recording stars on the planet, and every song he's famous for is about you? What if, after thirteen years of getting on with your life - walking past his face on newsstands, flipping past his image on TV, tuning him out on the radio - you get the call that he has finally landed back in your hometown for an MTV special two days before Christmas? What if you finally had the chance to confront him? What would you do? This is the dilemma faced by Kate Hollis, a woman on the threshold of her 30th birthday who discovers that the only way to become a well-adjusted, fully-fledged adult is to revisit 17.

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As Bette Davis once famously remarked, old age is no place for sissies. In Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth, Beth Teitell boldly goes where, well, eventually, all of us will go—and leaves us laughing, rather than crying.

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Fourteen-year-old Dorrie is the fourth wife of Erastus Hammer. Skilled in the art of taxidermy she happily secludes herself in a workshop, away from the rivalry between the elder wives.

But Hammer's recent kill, a family of wolves, is proving a difficult and she struggles with her craft. The new farm hand is the only one to offer her help, a dangerous game in a Mormon household. Outside, a lone wolf prowls the grounds looking for his lost pack, and his nighttime searching unearths the tensions and secrets of a complicated and conflicted family. ... (show rest)

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What would you do if you had to make a choice between God and your child? Many of the martyrs of the Bible were faced with that very decision. Yet when Simon Mason, the world's best known televangelist, discovers his daughter has been kidnapped by radicals, he is faced with the decision to save his daughter or denounce God (their only demand). Taylor Pasbury, a beautiful ex Secret Service agent has just come on the job as head of Mason's security and is determined to draw on all of her hard-knock toughness and training to save Simon's daughter and his faith and reputation. But can she?

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#1 Essence bestseller and "One of hip hop fiction's hottest authors- according to KING magazine, K'wan has been featured on MTV, BET, VIBE, Big News and many more. His latest book, Gutter, is the long-awaited sequel to his bestselling debut novel Gangsta.

Blood answers for blood on the streets of Harlem. It's been months since Gutter's best friend was brutally murdered yet the pain is still fresh. Against his loved ones' wishes, Gutter plans to avenge his fallen comrade in a suicidal mission to eradicate the entire Blood faction in New York City.

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Felix Hoffman's hunger is both physical and emotional. A Dutch diplomat with a checkered career behind him, he is now Ambassador in Prague in the late 1980s; his final posting. In Kafka's haunted city, Hoffman desperately feeds his bulimia and spends his insomniac nights studying Spinoza and revisiting the traumas of his past.

A child survivor of the Holocaust, Hoffman married and had beloved twin daughters, but a double tragedy has befallen his family; one daughter died as a young girl of leukemia, the other, who became a heroin addict, has committed suicide. This has wrecked Hoffman's marriage and his life; he has not had one decent night's sleep since the death of his daughter over twenty years ago, and his constant physical hunger reflects his emotional hunger for truth and understanding. When Carla, a Czech double agent, gets into Hoffman's bed, political and emotional mayhem ensues. ... (show rest)

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"If you wake up tomorrow and realize that you just might be worth something to someone, give me a call."

"I don't have a phone," I told Jack. I was being a jerk, but I couldn't help needling him closer to the breaking point. I wanted to crush the tiny, insistent longing that whispered, Someday, someone will stay. ... (show rest)

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Hurry Down Sunshine tells the story of the extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg's daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally's visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. "I feel like I'm traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to," Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her – her brother and grandmother, her mother and step-mother, and, not the least of all, the author himself.

Among Greenberg's unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, and Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

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With In Hazard, a thrilling tale of disaster on the high seas, NYRB Classics is proud to bring back into print all four novels by Richard Hughes, one of the masters of twentieth-century fiction.

Richard Hughes's first novel, A High Wind in Jamaica—one of the Modern Library's one hundred best novels of the century—describes a family of children taken captive by pirates, and shows that what happens on their adventure is no more tumultuous and primal than their own inner natures. In Hazard moves from the world of childhood into that of adulthood and continues Hughes's exploration of human nature in extremis. ... (show rest)

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Book One of the Jump 225 Trilogy.

Natch is a master of bio/logics, the programming of the human body. He's clawed and scraped his way to the top of the market using little more than his wits. Now his notoriety has brought him to the attention of Margaret Surina, the owner of a mysterious technology called Multireal. Only by enlisting Natch's devious mind can mulitreal be kept out of the hands of High Executive Len Borda and his ruthless armies. ... (show rest)

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ONLY ONE POWER COULD LEAD THEIR PEOPLE TO VICTORY. TAIREN SOUL

The magical tairen were dying, and none but the Fey King's bride could save them. Rain had defied the nobles of Celieria to claim her, battled demons and Elden manages to wed her. Now, with magic, steel, and scorching flame he would risk everything to protect his kingdom, help his truemate embrace her magic and forge the unbreakable bond that alone could save her soul.

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"This sleazy novel is not recommendable for ladies or gentlemen."

So reads the jacket of the Japanese edition of this collection of six dark, interrelated, tragicomic chapters dealing with themes of desire, inadequacy, and failure, using the underbelly of sex as its canvas. As misheard by one of the characters, "a lot of people," is "Lala Pipo." ... (show rest)

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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" begins one chapter of critically acclaimed Lee Siegel's new novel, Love and the Incredibly Old Man. "In the beginning" starts another. What else can a novelist do when hired as a ghostwriter by an elderly, irascible, conquistador-costumed man claiming to be the 540-year-old Juan Ponce de León? The fantastic life of that legendary explorer—inventor of rum, cigars, Coca-Cola, and popcorn—is the frame for Siegel's fourth chronicle of love, lies, luck, loss, and labia.

Summoned with cold hard cash and a pinch of flattery, a professor and novelist named Lee Siegel finds himself in Eagle Springs, Florida, attempting to give form to the life of the man who, contrary to popular and historical opinion, did indeed find the Fountain of Youth. Spending humid days listening to the romantic ramblings of the old man and sleepless nights doubting yet trying to craft these reminiscences into a narrative that will satisfy the literary aspirations of his subject, Siegel the ghostwriter spins an improbable tale filled with Native Americans, insatiable monarchs, philandering cantors, deliriously passionate nuns, delicate actresses, androgynous artists, and deceptions small and large. For de León, and for Siegel too, centuries of conquest and colonialism, fortune and identity, are all refracted through the memories of the conquistador's lovers, each and every one of them adored "more than any other woman ever." ... (show rest)

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Barber Guillaume Ladoucette has always enjoyed great success in his tiny village in southwestern France, catering to the tonsorial needs of Amour-sur-Belle's thirty-three inhabitants. But times have changed. His customers have grown older—and balder. Suddenly there is no longer a call for Guillaume's particular services, and he is forced to make a drastic career change. Since love and companionship are necessary commodities at any age, he becomes Amour-sur-Belle's official matchmaker and intends to unite hearts as ably as he once cut hair. But alas, Guillaume is not nearly as accomplished an agent of amour, as the disastrous results of his initial attempts amply prove, especially when it comes to arranging his own romantic future.

For every reader who adored Chocolat, Julia Stuart's The Matchmaker of Périgord is a delectable, utterly enchanting, and sinfully satisfying delight.

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When Lucy discovered that her charming, cheating husband was dying, she came home, opened up his little black book, and decided she wasn't going through this alone. After all, Artie's sweethearts were there for the good times—is it fair that Lucy should have to manage the hard times herself? In this wise, wickedly funny new novel, Lucy dials up the women in Artie's black book and invites them for one last visit. The last thing she expects is that any will actually show up.

But one by one, they do show up: The one who hates him. The one who owes her life to him. The one he turned into a lesbian, and the one he taught to dance. And among them is a visitor with the strangest story of all: the young man who may or may not be Artie's long-lost son. ... (show rest)

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Number Four will have a difficult life. These are the words that were uttered upon Ting-xing Ye's birth. Soon this prophecy would prove only too true. ...

Here is the real-life story about the fourth child in a family torn apart by China's Cultural Revolution. After the death of both of her parents, Ting-xing and her siblings endured brutal Red Guard attacks on their schools and even in their home. At the age of sixteen, Ting-xing is exiled to a prison farm far from the world she knows. ... (show rest)

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With Iran on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon, the state of Israel is forced to react. In a daring raid, Israel destroys Iran's two main nuclear facilities, creating radioactive tombs and an environmental disaster. An outraged United Nations condemns the attacks while Iran swears vengeance against Israel and her chief backer: the USA.

Enter Lebanese master terrorist Imad Mugniyah who's spent the past decade picking his targets and preparing his cells for this exact moment. When the US President dispatches CIA director Irene Kennedy to the region in an attempt to avert all–out conflict, Mugniyah seizes his chance. With Kennedy's life in jeopardy, the President calls on the one man ruthless enough to counter the fanatical terrorist bent on unleashing a torrent of violence against the US. Enter Mitch Rapp, America's terrorist hunter and one man wrecking crew. Meeting violence with violence, Rapp tracks Mugniyah across Europe to America, where they are pitted against each other in a hunt that only one of them can survive.

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Nicole Michelin avoids airplanes, motorcycles, and most of all, Japan, where her parents once were missionaries. Something happened in Japan. Something that sent Nicole and her father back to America alone. Something of which Nicole knows only bits and pieces. But she is content with life in little Mount Olive, North Carolina, with her quirky relatives, tank of lively fish, and plenty of homemade pineapple chutney.

Through her online column for the Pretty Fishy website, Nicole meets Harrison Michaels, who, much to her dismay, lives in Japan. She attempts to avoid him, but his e-mails tug at her heart. ... (show rest)

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A monstrous waking nightmare is pursuing graduate student Hailey Maniates across San Francisco where she is rescued by a towering homeless man. She seems able to read his mind, but is he and the evil chasing her just a delusion or could they possibly be one in the same? Against reason, Hailey finds herself trusting even being attracted to this man as they race through the streets and the under-ground gothic community fighting some type of Gypsy vampire.

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A brilliant new story that asks what happens when the villain becomes the establishment. Corvis Rebaine, retired Terror of the East, now a farmer and family man, becomes aware through the campaign of the evil Audriss that something is very wrong - namely that Audriss holds the plans for Corvis' own campaign twenty years before and is following them. The threat is designed to draw him out, but never let it be said that the (formerly) evil overlord will go quietly to his death and let the world fall with him.

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Chloe needs a holiday. She's sick of making wedding dresses, her partner Philip has troubles at work, and the whole family wants a break. Her wealthy friend Gerard has offered the loan of his luxury villa in Spain—perfect. Hugh is not a happy man. His wife Amanda seems more interested in her new kitchen than in him, and he works so hard to pay for it, he barely has time for his children. Maybe he'll have a chance to bond with them on holiday. His old friend Gerard has lent them a luxury villa in Spain—perfect. Both families arrive at the villa and get a shock—Gerard has double-booked. An uneasy week of sharing begins, and tensions soon mount in the soaring heat. But there's a secret history between the families—and as tempers fray, an old passion begins to resurface.... Following the incredible success of the New York Times bestseller, The Gatecrasher, Sleeping Arrangements is sure to cement Wickham as one of the most popular names in women's fiction today.

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The seventh and final delightful Depression-era mystery starring brother-sister duo Lily and Robert Brewster—and their decrepit Mansion, Grace & Favor—in the series that displays "a substance and depth not usually associated with cozy mysteries." -Los Angeles Times

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Smugglers. A Novel in Three Parts deals with a neglected chapter of history — the First World War in Poland during the period of the German occupation. The Jews in the Pale of Settlement, mainly small shopkeepers and poor craftsman, suffered from discrimination and persecution under the Russians. When the Germans conquered most of what was once Congress Poland, the Jews had some relief from Russian anti-Semitism, but the economic situation became even more grievous. Famine and typhus were rampant and the economic decline left the poor cobblers, tailors and tradesmen without work and with their meager savings depleted. They were desperate. And then they hit upon a scheme.

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In this powerful, sometimes harrowing, deeply felt story, Patrick Tracey journeys to Ireland to track the origin and solve the mystery of his Irish-American family's multigenerational struggle with schizophrenia.

For most Irish Americans, a trip to Ireland is often an occasion to revisit their family's roots. But for Patrick Tracey, the lure of his ancestral home is a much more powerful need: part pilgrimage, part investigation to confront the genealogical mystery of schizophrenia–a disease that had claimed a great-great-great-grandmother, a grandmother, an uncle, and, most recently, two sisters. ... (show rest)

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Last fall, Chelsea Cain took the crime world by storm with Heartsick, introducing two of the most compelling characters in decades: serial killer Gretchen Lowell and Portland Detective Archie Sheridan. The book spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and garnered rave reviews across the country. But the story of Archie and Gretchen was left unfinished, and now Chelsea Cain picks up the tale again.

When the body of a young woman is discovered in Portland’s Forest Park, Archie is reminded of the last time they found a body there: it turned out to be the Beauty Killer's first victim, and Archie's first case. This body can't be one of Gretchen's—she's in prison—but after help from reporter Susan Ward uncovers the dead woman's identity, it turn into another big case. Trouble is, Archie can't focus on the new investigation because the Beauty Killer case has exploded: Gretchen Lowell has escaped from prison. ... (show rest)

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The year is 1862, and the Civil War rages through the South. On a Virginia tobacco plantation, another kind of battle soon begins. There, Cassius Howard, a skilled carpenter and slave, risks everything—punishment, sale to a cotton plantation, even his life—to learn the truth concerning the murder of Emoline, a freed black woman, a woman who secretly taught him to read and once saved his life. It is clear that no one cares about her death in the midst of a brutal and hellish war. No one but Cassius, who braves horrific dangers to escape the plantation and avenge her loss.

As Cassius seeks answers about Emoline's murder, he finds an unexpected friend and ally in Quashee, a new woman brought over from another plantation; and a formidable adversary in Hoke Howard, the master he has always obeyed. ... (show rest)

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Jonathan A. is a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic and, of course, entirely fictional novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life writer Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man and What's Not to Love?

For the fictional Jonathan, writing and drinking come easy. The hard parts of life are love and hope. From a touching relationship between Jonathan and his aging great aunt, to an inebriated evening with an amorous, octogenarian dwarf, to the devastating aftermath of 9/11, Ames's first original graphic novel, with gritty, poignant art by Dean Haspiel (The Quitter), tells a story at once hilarious, excruciating, bizarre and universal, about how our lives fall to pieces and the enduring human struggle to put things back together again.

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The Baby Thief is the second book featuring Detective Jackson. A young woman disappears after visiting a fertility clinic. As her boyfriend and Jackson search for her, the obstetrician/religious cultist who has her captive begins to value her ovaries more than her life.

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"I'm on my way back. I was one of the first they took away." So begins Robert Kelly's remarkable science fiction novel about a literally divided self. "I" is Billy, the book's protagonist, a boy who is captured by a group of aliens who take him to a cave and meticulously, if seemingly by caprice, remove his "young pure smokeless lungs" and other internal organs to replace them with two gray squirrels, a live hawk, a shoe, and a variety of other bizarre objects. Billy's body and mind are spun off into a curious twin, one whose adventures Billy is forced by his captors to watch and try to make sense of—not a simple task when he sees his doppelganger stealing everything from him: body, name, family, his beloved Eileen. Complicating matters, and forcing Billy deeper into his ironic journey of self, is a mysterious pamphlet called "The Book from the Sky," written by what may be yet another variation of Billy himself, Brother William. This stunningly imaginative work, echoing the late novels of Iris Murdoch and the fantasies of Robert Charles Wilson and Jonathan Stroud while remaining inimitably Kelly's own, offers adventurous readers a "cabinet of wonders" not unlike the body of his beleaguered young hero.

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When he was a boy, Cotton Malone was told that his father died in the north Atlantic in November, 1971, when the submarine he captained went down while being tested for undersea rescue operations. And that was all he was told. Now, when his own son presses him for details, Cotton realizes he's never used his government contacts to find out the whole story. Retired and owed a short list of big favors, he decides it's time to find out. His old friend and ex-boss, Stephanie Nelle, secretly arranges for him to receive the file.

But when he takes the cable car to the top of Germany's highest mountain to pick it up from an agent, things immediately get out of hand. Taking the cable car back down, he is held at gunpoint by a woman who demands the report. Calling on his old government-op survival skills, Cotton takes out her accomplice and escapes. Alone with the file, he learns the truth of his father's demise: the sub was actually a secret nuclear vessel called the NR-1 and it was on a highly classified mission when it was lost beneath the Antarctic ice pack. ... (show rest)

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A humble man and a religious man, who worked as a presser in a laundry, Ezra Siman Tov was also a teller of stories, stories that enthralled and captivated his friends in their old Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem. His brother-in-law, Dr. Tawil, gave him a grudging respect, the Torah scholars listened surreptitiously and the Great Writer—SY Agnon?—took his stories and gave them form. But along with his stories, Ezra also had a shame and a secret, which overshadowed his family. And his secret suffering never left him quite free.

Haim Sabato, the award winning writer, recreates a lost world in which faith provides a framework for life and a deep source of comfort. A bestseller in Israel among both secular and religious readers, The Dawning of the Day is a solace and a comfort for all.

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From New York Times bestselling author James Reese comes an intricately layered, richly detailed novel of literary suspense. Set against the backdrop of the Victorian Decadence and the "infernal summer" of 1888, The Dracula Dossier tells the story of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker's encounter with and conquest of Jack the Ripper—events which pass from the all-too-real into the fictive, and foreshadow Stoker's later Dracula.

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At the end of what is (she cannot help observing) an extraordinary life, Elisabeth Rother has decided to write her memoirs. She recounts her narrow escape with her Jewish husband from the Nazis and the perilous voyage to the New World of New Jersey, but those, for her, are mere facts of life. For Elisabeth, bighearted and obstinate, the most bothersome and consuming subjects are the unconventional paths and waywardness of her daughter and granddaughter. The Empress of Weehawken is a curiously touching love letter to the difficult but sustaining love of mothers and daughters. It is "superb, razor-sharp, desert-dry and luxuriantly ironic" (The San Diego Union-Tribune).

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Katherine Neville's groundbreaking novel, The Eight, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville's long anticipated sequel: The Fire.

2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family's ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother's birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot. ... (show rest)

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Richly imagined, gothically spooky, and replete with the ingenious storytelling ability of a born novelist, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting new talents.

Twelve year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. He longs for a family to call his own and is terrified of the day he will be sent alone into the world. ... (show rest)

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Harlan Coben writes "The Killing Circle is one great read: darkly lyrical and atmospheric, it's as haunting as it is gripping. Highly recommended." A failing newspaper critic joins a local writing circle, only to discover that one of his fellow classmates may be involved in a series of brutal killings. Intelligent and chilling, The Killing Circle combines taut suspense with an examination of the darker corners of a writer's mind. Acquired for adaptation to feature film by the producers of the Oscar-winning THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Justin Chadwick, director of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, is attached to direct.

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A new thriller from the Booker Prize-winning and Edgar-nominated author of Christine Falls and The Silver Swan. John Glass's life in New York should be plenty comfortable. He's given up his career as a journalist to write an authorized biography of his father-in-law, communications magnate and former CIA agent Big Bill Mulholland. He works in a big office rent-free and goes home to his wealthy and well preserved wife. But when his shifty young researcher—a man he calls "The Lemur"—turns up some unflattering information about the family, Glass's whole easy existence is threatened. Then the young man is murdered, and it's up to Glass to find out what The Lemur knew, before any secrets come out—and before any other bodies appear.

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Blue Baker is writing a story — not all that stuff about wizards and fairies and happily ever after — a real story, about blood and guts and adventures, because that's what life's really like. At least it is for Blue, since his dad died and Hopper, the town bully, started knocking him and the other kids around. But Blue's story has a life of its own — weird and wild and magic and dark — and when the savage pays a nighttime visit to Hopper, Blue starts to wonder where he ends and his creation begins. Mysterious and utterly mesmerizing, this graphic-novel-within-a-novel pairs the extraordinary prose of David Almond with the visual genius of Dave McKean.

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On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries now, they have remained within the fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. They have become little more than a rumour.

In the vast world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire, a continent-spanning colossus. The Empire rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield. His word is law across the face of the earth. ... (show rest)

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The most infamous love affair of all times lives on with The Winds of Tara!

This unauthorised sequel captivatingly unfolds in a breath-taking continuation of Margaret Mitchell's all-time classic Gone With the Wind. Successfully breathing new life into the colourful and beloved characters, including favourites Scarlett, Rhett and the endearing Mammy, it is what the fans have long been waiting for. ... (show rest)

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Elegant, concise, and comically devastating, Two Marriages illuminates the ways in which love is inseparable from deceit. The Stoic's Marriage chronicles the life of newlyweds Gordon and Rita. Well-off, idle Gordon, a lifelong student of philosophy who has always had "a stunted capacity for happiness," first meets the enchanting Rita when she comes to his home as a nurse's aid sent to care for his dying mother. The attraction is instant and a marriage proposal ensues. Gordon turns to his diary to record his uxoriousness and to expound on the merits of Stoicism, the philosophy he's adopted as his "substitut religion." When Rita's cousin from the Philippines arrives one Christmas, setting in motion an outrageous and hilarious sequence of events, both Gordon's stoicism and marriage vows are put to the test. Eleanor, or, The Second Marriage recounts one seemingly golden weekend in the lives of Eleanor and Frank, whose Brooklyn townhouse is a gathering place for their circle of cultured, cosmopolitan friends. It is Saturday morning, and Frank and Eleanor are planning the dinner they will host to celebrate the visit of a famous actor friend. These preparations are interrupted by the arrival of Frank's son, a young man deeply troubled by his own aimlessness. Other guests arrive, and in the midst of great conviviality, simmering tensions erupt into raucous emotional dramas.

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According to Reginald Hill, White Nights, the second novel in Ann Cleeve's Shetland Quartet, is "a pleasure to read, great setting, intriguing plot...and the bonus when we finish is that we know we've got two more to look forward to."

An exhibition at the Herring House art gallery is disturbed by a stranger who bursts into tears and claims not to remember who he is. The next day the inscrutable Inspector Perez finds the man murdered. ... (show rest)

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Joe Bobker's easy-to-read, indispensable and educational tour de force of the complexities of the laws of Shabbas and the beauty of the lores of Shabbas!

Did you ever wonder? ... (show rest)

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In these clear and concise yet comprehensive essays, the author examines over 100 contemporary issues highlighting their timely relevance from the perspective of halacha - Jewish law. Never shy of controversy and flavored with humor -readers are sure to enjoy this fresh outlook on our daily tasks. With over 1000 references to a variety of classical Jewish texts, Dalet Amot is appropriate for laymen and scholars alike and facilitates further exploration of the issues in their original sources.

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Expand Your Clinical Practice with this Practical Hands-on Guide

• Teach conflict resolution skills to your couples
• Introspective quizzes expose more of couples' inner lives and past history to each other
• Real-life exercises let couples practice cooperative decision- making and compromise before a crisis happens.
• Couples will discover and have the opportunity to change bad habits which threaten the viability of the relationship.

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Join JOE BOBKER on a fascinating journey through the JEWISH FESTIVALS.

You'll laugh, you'll cry... but this roller coaster cyclical ride through Jewish history, holidays, halacha, lore and minhag is worth the trip! ... (show rest)

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"How to Write a Suicide Note is a haunting portrait of the daughter of an Black mother and a Chinese father. Sherry dares to be who she isn't supposed to be, feel what she isn't supposed to feel, and destroys racial and gender myths as she integrates her bi-racial identity into all that she is. Through her raw honesty and vulnerability, Sherry captures a range of emotions most people are afraid to confront, or even share. Her work is a gift to the mental health community."

-Beth Kyong Lo, M.A., Psychotherapist

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King of the Road is the Autobiography of an Israeli Scientist and a World Record-Holding Race Walker.

"One senses the anguish and the excitement, the sheer nerve and determination of a man who took on the Israeli athletic establishment and did it all, his way. He manifests the courage to push beyond his own limits and the reader will experience the anguish and the exuberance of the life that Ladany has led. He earned my admiration, my respect and my gratitude. He will earn yours as well." —Michael Berenbaum, Executive Editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica ... (show rest)

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