A magnificent new collection of linked stories from a multiple prize-winning master of the short form. The State We’re In, Ann Beattie’s first collection of new stories in a decade, is about how we live in the places we have chosen—or have been chosen by. It is about the stories we tell our families, our friends, and ourselves; the truths we may or may not see; how our affinities unite or repel us; and where we look for love.Told through the voices of vivid and engaging women of all ages, The State We’re In explores their doubts and desires and reveals the unexpected moments and glancing epiphanies of daily life. Some of Beattie’s idiosyncratic and compelling characters have arrived in the coastal state by accident, while others are trying to escape. The collection is woven around Jocelyn, a wry, disaffected teenager living with her aunt and uncle for the summer, forging new friendships, avoiding her mother’s calls, taking...

The story of a family in crisis and the loyal dog that holds them together, from the author of The Dead Fathers Club and Reasons to Stay Alive "Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories." —Neil Gaiman, author of American GodsMeet Prince, the canine narrator of this tragi-comic tale of family life. As with all Labradors, he has devoted his entire existence to preserving the happiness and security of his human masters. Not that his human masters realise this, of course. After all, when the Hunter family rescued him, they had no idea that they were the ones who were really being saved. But as events unfold Prince realises he's got his work cut out. The trouble is that while he has no problem in remembering his duty, the Hunters themselves seem to have greater difficulty remembering theirs. Of particular concern is Adam Hunter, who forgets his...

Russian-born Alina Brosky, whose Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and a Favorite Read of the Year by both The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal, returns with a startling new novel about the difficult work of self-acceptance.After an encounter with a dog in which he was worsted, seventeen-year-old Marek begins attending a support group for young people with physical disabilities, which he dubs "the cripple group," led by an eccentric older man known as The Guru. Marek is dismissive of the other members of the support group, seeing little connection between their misfortunes and his own. The one exception to this is Janne, the beautiful young and wheelchair-bound woman with whom he has fallen in love. When a family cirsis forces Marek to face his demons, group or no group, he is in dire need of support. But the distance he has put between himself and The Guru's misshapen...

Broken Glass Park made a remarkable debut when it was published in Germany in 2008. Its author, the twenty-nine-year old Russian-born Alina Bronksy has since been hailed as a wunderkind, an immense talent who has been the subject of constant praise and debate.The heroine of this enigmatic, razor-sharp, and thoroughly contemporary novel is seventeen- year-old Sacha Naimann, born in Moscow. Sacha lives in Berlin now with her two younger siblings and, until recently, her mother. She is precocious, independent, skeptical and, since her stepfather murdered her mother several months ago, an orphan. Unlike most of her companions, she doesn't dream of getting out the tough housing project where they live. Her dreams are different: she wants to write a novel about her mother; and she wants to end the life of Vadim, the man who murdered her.What strikes the reader most in this exceptional novel is Sacha's voice: candid, self-confident, mature and childlike at the same time: a voice so like the voices of many of her generation with its characteristic mix of worldliness and innocence, skepticism and enthusiasm. This is Sacha's story and it is as touching as any in recent literature.Germany's Freundin Magazine called Broken Glass Park "a ruthless, entertaining portrayal of life on the margins of society." But Sacha's story does not remain on the margins; it goes straight to the heart of what it means to be seventeen in these the first years of the new century.

Someone wants revenge, and the target is the President's plane. When the mission looks impossible, the world calls upon UNACO.The world's most ingenious international criminal is bent on revenge... Two men with the same name and the same face And six of the most important men in the world aboard the President's plane...Who pushed the button that destroyed Air Force One?Why must everyone be killed?Are they really dead?In this game of deception only UNACO and its daring team can be trusted to join the gamble - but can they win?

In this beautiful collection of poems, remarkable for their plainspoken radiance, the bestselling author of The House on Mango embraces her first passion—verse. With lines both comic and sad, Sandra Cisneros deftly—and dazzlingly—explores the human experience. For those familiar with Cisneros only from her acclaimed fiction, My Wicked Wicked Ways presents her in an entirely new light. And for readers everywhere, here is a showcase of one of our most powerful writers at her lyrical best.

A long-lost bookmobile opens a wild new chapter in the lives of dysfunctional Texas detectives Hap and Leonard—stars of the hit Sundance TV series. Hap Collins is a straight, white, liberal, blue-collar tough guy. Leonard Pine is a gay, black, Republican combat veteran. Together, they're the truest Lone Stars living in America's most independently minded state. Best friends who've shared a succession of low-wage odd jobs that have gotten them into even odder situations dealing with lowlifes, now the duo delivers their own brand of ass-kicking justice as private investigators. In this brand-new story, a day's fishing lands Hap and Leonard their biggest catch ever: the Rolling Literature bookmobile. A pillar of rural African American communities in East Texas, the renovated school bus vanished fifteen years ago—along with its driver, Harriet Hoodalay, aka Hoodoo Harry—reappearing just in time to crash Leonard's pickup into a...

A fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. "Executed with brilliance and brio"(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Saxon Sinclair, the broodingly secretive Chief of Trauma at a busy Manhattan hospital is less than pleased to learn that her new resident is going to be the subject of a documentary film. The arrival of Jude Castle, a fiery independent filmmaker, soon sets sparks flying as the two driven women clash both personally and professionally. Both have secrets they have spent a lifetime guarding, and both have chosen careers over love. Forced together on the battleground between life and death, passion strikes without warning, and they find themselves struggling with both desire and destiny.

When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins? The two are impossibly and gloriously wedded, as Hill shows in Jacob's Room Is Full of Books. Considering everything from Edith Wharton's novels through to Alan Bennett's diaries, Virginia Woolf and the writings of twelfth century monk Aelred of Rievaulx, Susan Hill charts a year of her life through the books she has read, reread or returned to the shelf. From beneath a shady tree in a hot French summer, or the warmth of a kitchen during an English winter, Hill reflects on what her reading throws up, from writing and writers to politics and religion, as well as the joy of dandies or the pleasure of watching a line of geese cross a meadow. Full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired, this is a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of the nation's most accomplished authors.

Val was working as a land girl when the Americans arrived at the nearby airfield in 1944. Mike, a young American airman, came into her life soon after, and so too did Peter Woodhouse, a dog badly treated on a neighbouring farm and taken in by her aunt.Little persuasion was needed for Mike to take Peter Woodhouse to the airbase and over time he became the mascot of the American squad, flying with them whenever their Mosquitoes took to the skies. When their plane is shot down over Holland both Mike, and Peter Woodhouse are feared lost.But unknown to their loved ones at home, Mike, and Peter Woodhouse survived the crash. Taken in by the Dutch resistance and with the help of Ubi, a German officer, the pair to remain in hiding till the end of the war when they are reunited with Val. We then follow Val, Mike, and Peter Woodhouse as they rebuild a life in England. And Ubi as he returns to Germany at the end of the war and tries to build a new life for himself. His dream...