Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is out for a walk on thegracious streets of Bayhead Harbor with her two summer babysittingcharges when she's approached by silver-haired, elegant MarcusKidder. At first his interest in her seems harmless, even pleasant;like his name, a sort of gentle joke. His beautiful home, thechildren's books he's written, his classical music, the marvelousart in his study, his lavish presents to her -- Mr. Kidder's lifecouldn't be more different from Katya's drab working-classexistence back home in South Jersey, or more enticing. But bydegrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing forMr. Kidder's new painting isn't the lighthearted endeavor it oncewas. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go toget it? In the tradition of Oates's classic story "Where Are YouGoing, Where Have You Been?" "A Fair Maiden "is an unsettling,ambiguous tale of desire and control.
Together in one extraordinary boxed set- "Naked in Death,""Glory in Death," and "Immortal in Death"-the first three In Deathnovels featuring New York Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Naked inDeath Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant using herinstincts to hunt for a ruthless killer. Breaking every rule, Evegets involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire-and a suspect inEve's murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rulesall their own. Glory in Death Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas has noproblem finding connections between two violent crimes. Bothvictims were beautiful and highly successful women whose intimaterelations with men of great power and wealth provide Eve with along list of suspects-including her own lover, Roarke. Immortal inDeath A top model is dead, the victim of a brutal murder. PoliceLieutenant Eve Dallas puts her professional life on the line totake the case when suspicion falls on her best friend, the otherwoman in a fatal love triangle. And beneath the facade of glamour,Ev
The first book of the definitive three-volume collection ofshort stories by the prolific Isaac Asimov, whose tales havedelighted countless fans for over half a century--a must for everyscience fiction bookshelf.
From esteemed New Yorker writer Mark Singer comes thiscautionary tale of the Penn Square Bank, the oil and gas broker inan Oklahoma City shopping mall whose collapse in 1982 staggeredAmerica's banking industry. Recounting the whole spectacular storyand its colorful characters, Singer makes brilliantly (andhilariously) clear what actually happened and why it had to happenin boom-time Oklahoma. Nowhere else did money flow in quite thesame spontaneous fashion. " A] tale of wonderful verve" (New YorkTimes), Funny Money comes to life through Singer's vivid prose andcontinues to resonate in today's culture of corporatecorruption.
When Jane Alison was a child, her family met another thatseemed like its mirror: a father in the Foreign Service, abeautiful mother, and two little girls. The youngest girls fromeach family—one of them Jane—even shared a birthday. With so much in common, the two families became almost instantlyinseparable. Within months, affairs had ignited between the adults,and before long the pairs had exchanged partners—divorced,remarried, and moved on. As if in a cataclysm of nature, twofamilies were ripped asunder, and two new ones were formed. Twopairs of girls were left in shock, a “silent, numb shock, like acrack inside stone, not enough to split it but inside, silentlyfissuring.” And Jane and her stepsister were thrown into a state ofsilent combat for the affections of their absent fathers—a contestthat, for one of them at least, would prove tragic. Readers drawn to The Glass Castle will be moved by Alison’sstunning emotional insight as she recounts the intimatedevastations of family
Nine strokes from an old country church toll out the death ofan unknown man and call Lord Peter Wimsey to one of his mostbaffling cases. Set in the strange, flat fen-country of EastAnglia, this is a classic tale of suspense by a master ofmystery.
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.
The hilarious and well-traveled Sloane Crosley, author of the New York Times bestseller I Was Told There’d Be Cake , helms this collection of the genre’s gems.
In the town of Hawkins Hollow, itas called the Seven. Everyseven years, on the seventh day of the seventh month, madnessdescends on this small town. But three men bound by blood and threewomen bound by ancestry to a demon have pledged their soulsaandtheir heartsato stop it.
In one of his finest achievements, Nobel Prize winner SaulBellow presents a multifaceted portrait of a modern-day hero, a manstruggling with the complexity of existence and longing forredemption. Introduction by Philip Roth
Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen short storiesfrom one of the most original writers in American fiction. Thisseries of perfectly rendered vignettes, never before published inKurt Vonnegut’s lifetime, reveals a warm, wise, and funny portraitof life in post–World War II America—a world where squabblingcouples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, andsmall-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology,moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. Featuring a Forewordby author and longtime Vonnegut confidant Sidney Offit, Look at theBirdie is an unexpected gift for readers who thought thatVonnegut’s voice had been stilled forever—and serves as a terrificintroduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet toexperience his genius.
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.
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.
This bestseller covers a single momentous year during Nins lifein Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. Closer towhat many sexually adventuresome women experience than almostanything Ive ever read....I found it a very erotic book andprofoundly liberating (Alice Walker). The source of a major motionpicture from Universal. Preface by Rupert Pole; Index.
The Celestine Prophecy is one of the most widely read books ofour times. It s insights have proven to strike deep and universalchords. Now those insights have inspired this breathtakinglyhandsome illustrated book. Grounding her poetic story in the tenetsfound in James Redfield s remarkable work, Dee Lillegard tells thestory of Celestine, a young boy, who "finds his path but loses hisway" while wandering in the woods. How he uses the insights that hefinds on his journey to find his way back to the safety of his ownhome and bed is the core of this intriguing tale. Magnificentillustrations by Dean Morrissey not only depict the action but helpreaders understand the meaning of the song of then is a new andenriching treatment of James Redfield s themes that can beunderstood and relished by perceptive readers of all ages.
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.
Spanning a period of almost 50 years, the stories of Henry Jamesrepresent one of the most remarkable feats of sustained literarycreation in modern times -- a body of work that, for sheerrichness, variety, and intensity, is unsurpassed in its genre. Thiscollection includes all the major stories as well as many that areunfamiliar but equally fascinating and memorable.Volume II includesthe magnificent works of James's maturity -- "The Figure in theCarpet", "The Turn of the Screw", "The Beast in the Jungle", amongmany others -- in which the deepening darkness of the author's ownlife casts a tragic but heroic shadow on the themes of hisyouth.
First published in 1918, My ?ntonia is the unforgettable storyof an immigrant woman’s life on the hardscrabble Nebraska plains.Together here with O Pioneers! , a classic American tale ofpioneer life and the transformation of the frontier, this volume ofWilla Cather’s works captures a time, a place, and a spirit thatare part of our national heritage.
A 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
