Narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard fortruth, The Last Life is a beautifully told novel of lies andghosts, love and honor. Set in colonial Algeria, and in the southof France and New England, it is the tale of the LaBasse family,whose quiet integrity is shattered by the shots from agrandfather's rifle. As their world suddenly begins to crumble,long-hidden shame emerges: a son abandoned by the family before hewas even born, a mother whose identity is not what she has claimed,a father whose act of defiance brings Hotel Bellevue-the familybusiness-to its knees. Messud skillfully and inexorably describeshow the stories we tell ourselves, and the lies to which we cling,can turn on us in a moment. It is a work of stunning power from awriter to watch.

Book De*ion Remember when flying was glamorous and sexy, even fun? Whenairline food was gourmet, everyone dressed up for a flight, andstewardesses catered to our every need-at least in ourimaginations? This classic memoir by two audaciously outspokenyoung ladies, who lived and loved the free-spirited stewardesslife, jets you back to those golden days of air travel-from thecaptain who's as subtle as a 747 when he's on the make to thepassenger who mistakes the overhead luggage rack for an upperberth; from the names of celebrities who were a pleasure to serve(and some surprising notables on the "bad guy" list) to the originsof some naughty stereotypes-Spaniards "are" the best lovers, actorsthe most foul-mouthed. This huge bestseller, a First Class jet-agejournal, offers a hilarious gold mine of outrageous anecdotes fromthe high-flying and amorous lives of those busty, lusty,adventuresome young women of the swinging '60s known as"stews." About Author Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones were name

Stephen W. Sears has delivered a masterwork in Gettysburg, hissingle-volume history of the Civil War's greatest campaign. Drawingon original source material, from soldiers' letters to the OfficialRecords of the war, Sears offers dramatic and informed accounts ofevery aspect of the campaign, from well-hewn portraits of thebattle's leaders to detailed analyses of their strategies andtactics. Sears depicts General Meade's remarkable performance inhis first week of army command and pinpoints General Lee'sresponsibility in the agonizing failure of the Confederate army.With characteristic style and insight, Sears brings the epic taleof the battle in Pennsylvania vividly to life.

'I am the enfant terrible of literature and science. If Icannot, and I know I cannot, get the literary and scientificbig-wigs to give me a shilling, I can, and I know I can, heavebricks into the middle of them.' With "The Way of All Flesh",Samuel Butler threw a subversive brick at the smug face ofVictorian domesticity. Published in 1903, a year after Butler'sdeath, the novel is a thinly disguised account of his own childhoodand youth 'in the bosom of a Christian family'. With irony, wit andsometimes rancour, he savaged contemporary values and beliefs,turning inside-out the conventional novel of a family's lifethrough several generations.

Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright, an illegitimate young girl,dreams of escaping her Greenville County, South Carolina, home, hernotorious, hard-living family, and the unwanted attentions of herabusive stepfather, Daddy Glen. A first novel. Reprint. NationalBook Award finalist. NYT.

This superb Pulitzer Prize-winning collection gives voice tofailure with a wry, deft touch from one of this country's mostengaging and uncompromising poets. In "Failure, "Philip Schultzevokes the pleasures of family, marriage, beaches, and dogs; NewYork City in the 1970s; revolutions both interior and exterior; andthe terrors of 9/11 with a compassion that demonstrates he is amaster of the bittersweet and fierce, the wondrous and direct, andthe brilliantly provocative. Filled with poems of "heartbreakingtenderness that go] beyond mere pity" (Gerald Stern), "Failure "isa collection to savor from this major American poet.

In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearinglyirascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa byrattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry,and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, heendures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers,missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightfulmeditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and itspeople, and "a vivid portrayal of the secret sweetness, the hiddenvitality, and the long-patient hope that lies just beneath thesurface" (Rocky Mountain News). In a new post*, Therouxrecounts the dramatic events of a return to Africa to visitZimbabwe.

From the author of "On The Road" comes this story of two menenganged in a passionate search for Dharma or truth. Their majoradventure is the pursuit of the Zen Way, which takes them climbinginto the high sierras to seek the lesson of solitude.

Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed historyteacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent acertain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But duringthe night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goesinto the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video.He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or,more specifically, exactly like he did five years before,mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleepsbadly. Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursuehis double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as awhimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation onidentity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displayshis remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versusreality.

city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which sparesno one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital,but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealingfood rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to thisnightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with nomother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barrenstreets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundingsare harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation anda vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century,Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayalof man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimatelyexhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will tosurvive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize forLiterature.

William J. Mann, author of the bestselling Kate: The WomanWho Was Hepburn, has now turned his attention to ElizabethTaylor, the quintessential movie star, and uses her biography toreveal the machinations of stardom and fame, from the studio era ofHollywood through the 1970s. How to Be a Movie Star isa totally fresh, brilliantly researched, and reported portrait ofElizabeth Taylor, as she became our first superstar. It isalso a fascinating revelation of cadre that got her there, from hermother to her managers, publicists, gossip columnists, and earlypaparazzi--and, not least of all, herself. Swathed in mink, sailing aboard her yachts, discarding husbandsnearly as frequently as she changed diamond earrings, Taylordominated the headlines for three glittering decades, rewritingrules, defying conventions, laying down the yardstick by whichcelebrity has been measured ever since. Focusing on the mostglamorous period in Taylor's career, Mann takes us inside herprivileged childhood in England to her schooling

In this, her first collection of nonfiction, Alice Walkerspeaks out as a black woman, writer, mother, and feminist inthirty-six pieces ranging from the personal to the political. Amongthe contents are essays about other writers, accounts of the civilrights movement of the 1960s and the antinuclear movement of the1980s, and a vivid memoir of a scarring childhood injury and herdaughters healing words.

Kenneth Trachtenberg, the witty and eccentric narrator of"More Die of Heartbreak," has left his native Paris for theMidwest. He has come to be near his beloved uncle, theworld-renowned botanist Benn Crader, self-described aplantvisionary.a While his studies take him around the world, Benn, arestless spirit, has not been able to satisfy his longings afterhis first marriage and lives from affair to affair and from ablissto breakdown.a Imagining that a settled existence will end hisanguish, Benn ties the knot again, opening the door to a flood ofnew torments. As Kenneth grapples with his own problems involvinghis unusual lady-friend Treckie, the two men try to figure out whygifted and intelligent people invariably find themselves aknee-deepin the garbage of a personal life.a

One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also anaccomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelveof his finest short stories many of which feature characters fromhis epic series of novels the Comedie Humaine. Compelling tales ofacute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate themastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks ofBalzac's genius. In The Atheist's Mass, we learn the true reasonfor a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religiousservices; La Grande Breteche describes the horrific truth behindthe locked doors of a decaying country mansion, while The Red Innrelates a brutal tale of murder and betrayal. A fascinatingcounterpoint to the renowned novels, all the stories collected herestand by themselves as mesmerizing works by one of the finestwriters of nineteenth-century France.

The enthralling international bestseller. We are in the centerof Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeoisfamilies. RenA(c)e, the concierge, is witness to the lavish butvacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms toevery stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted totelevision. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, RenA(c)e is acultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japaneseculture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives ofthe buildingas tenants, who for their part are barely aware of herexistence. Then thereas Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She isthe daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented andstartlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on thesixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she willcontinue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocrepre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not anoutstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma andRenA(c

The Door, Margaret Atwood's first book of poetry since Morningin the Burned House, is a magnificent achievement. Here inpaperback for the first time, these fifty lucid, urgent poems rangein tone from lyric to ironic to mediative to prophetic, and insubject from the personal to the political, viewed in its broadestsense. They investigate the mysterious writing of poetry itself, aswell as the passage of time and our shared sense of mortality.Brave and compassionate, The Door interrogates the certainties thatwe build our lives on, and reminds us once again of MargaretAtwood's unique accomplishments as one of the finest and mostcelebrated writers of our time.

Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financialcollapse, the Atlantic Monthly said: "Economic writings are seldomnotable for their entertainment value, but this book is.Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal ofsardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles andthe wondrous antics of the financial community." Originallypublished in 1955, Galbraith's book has risen once again asAmericans look for perspective on the current global financialcrisis. This new edition will be published on the 80th anniversaryof the Great Crash with a new introduction by the author's son,economist, James K. Galbraith. He is the author of "The PredatorState: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why LiberalsShould Too."

McCarthy's most celebrated novel portrays the experiences ofeight young women from Vassar College, Class of '33. As the storyopens, they meet in New York City for the wedding of Kay, one of"the group." The author then describes the lives, loves, andaspirations of these women until they reconvene seven years laterin the same city for Kay's funeral. "Juicy, shocking, witty, andalmost continually brilliant" (Cosmopolitan).

Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing just a poundat birth, at twenty-three weeks gestation. During the delivery shebegged the doctors to "let her babies go" she knew all too wellthat at twenty-three weeks they could very well die and, if theysurvived, they would face a high risk of permanent disabilities.However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter diedjust four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiplydisabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. ThisLovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of theForman family after the birth of the twins the harrowing medicalinterventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity oflife and death. In the end, the longdelayed first steps of afive-year-old child will seem like the fist-pumping stuff of atriumph narrative. Formans intelligent voice gives a sensitive,nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventualacceptance in this portrait of a mothers fierce love for herchildren.

Tiny Patrick Henry College, a Christian school just outsidethe nations capital, grooms ambitious young evangelicals intotomorrows conservative elite. The future front lines of politics,entertainment, and science will be commanded by these idealisticgraduates, who plan to lead the battle in reclaiming a godlessnation. Hanna Rosins "superb work of extended reportage" (ChicagoSun Times)takes us into the halls and dorms and hearts of PatrickHenry, following students from the campus to the White House,Congress, conservative think tanks, Hollywood, and other keycenters of influence. Lively and evenhanded, her account revealsthe evangelical movement at a moment of crisis and climax, itsfuture leaders struggling to resist the temptations of modern lifeeven as they try to remake the world in their image. Hanna Rosinhas crafted a vibrant, insightful look at kids who may very well bein charge of our country someday.