The Art of Hearing Heartbeats Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats Jan-Philipp Sendker

Reviewed by Malcolm Forbes

For http://wordswithoutborders.org

This debut novel, originally published in 2002 as Das Herzenhören in Jan-Philipp Sendker’s native Germany, went on to become a national bestseller, and it’s easy to see why. Sendker tells the story of an incorruptible love, forged by two kindred spirits, set against the rustic yet lushly exotic backdrop of Southeast Asia. Other Press has made it available in English, in an expert translation by Kevin Wiliarty.

From its start the tale shimmers with the allure of some “hidden realm,” as Sendker calls it, being freshly brought into view. Julia Win flies from New York to the remote village of Kalaw in Myanmar to track down her father who seemingly abandoned her four years ago and has absconded to Asia. Tin Win rose from his humble Burmese origins to become a top Wall Street lawyer. His successes and commitments have made it all the more baffling that he should disappear without a trace. Julia has a chance encounter in a tea house with an old man called U Ba who claims to be able to give her the answers she needs as long as she’s willing to listen. Sendker’s novel is the framed narrative that results: we read as a rapt Julia becomes engrossed in the story of her father’s tumultuous history in pre-war Burma.

Julia learns of two major events that blight her father’s childhood. First he is cast off by his superstitious mother who, after consulting the local astrologer, believes him to be “a harbinger of calamity.” Next, he loses his sight. Julia muses on that “catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next.” Blindness changes her father irrevocably. His urgent adaptations to these dual calamities – like his preternaturally improved hearing to compensate for his blindness - anticipate Julia’s own ongoing revisions of the image of her father. This overlap of adaptability, discovery and reformulation may be the book’s principal narrative charm. But it also presents certain problems.

As though bestowing a renewed power of sight, U Ba paints for Julia a hitherto unseen portrait of her father as a young man, which Julia supplements with her own memories. As a child she discovers a picture of Gandhi and marvels at the resemblance to her father. His voice “sounds like a musical instrument, a violin, a harp.” Worse, after a childhood accident his voice “settled gently on my wounds, covering and stanching them.” A doting daughter should conjure up a hallowed image of her father, but Sendker, in trying to salvage Tin Win in his daughter’s longing memory, elevates the man to deity status and thus strips him of his believability.

Later, at the crux of the novel, is the love between Tin Win and his childhood sweetheart Mi Mi, its fervour undiminished over decades of separation. The pull is so strong that eventually Tin Win had no option but to abandon his life and family in New York and fly home to reclaim her. But Sendker’s love-conquers-all message is sure to divide readers. At one point Julia dismisses the tale as “‘sappy nonsense’,” and it is hard to disagree. Sendker has written himself into a corner: he has to make this love so all-consuming as to destabilize the normally cool-headed Tin Win, but do we believe this Gandhi-like figure would succumb to selfishness and desert the daughter he loves with such all-or-nothing finality?

Our credulity is likewise strained with Tin Win’s talents. He can hear the heartbeats of an unhatched chick, and when encountering people it takes him a moment to understand what they are saying – “As always with strangers, he had listened first to their hearts and their voices rather than to their words.” Were the novel a Burmese fable or an attempt at magic realism we might happily suspend disbelief. But Sendker’s story is ostensibly one steeped in conventional realism, and this trope feels indulgent and ill-considered, jarring rather than charming us with its unlikeliness. Presumably this exaggerated flourish is an attempt to juxtapose Tin Win’s two lives – his loveless existence in the reality-grounded West versus his passion-filled memories of the otherworldly East. Even as a deliberately fantastical conceit, this excess tugs too insistently at the novel’s seams. As one dazzling miracle follows another, and the love between Tin Win and Mi Mi grows, Sendker strays perilously close to imitating the cod mysticism and fortune-cookie sentiment of a Paulo Coelho novel.

These infelicities notwithstanding, Sendker is adept at keeping both the reader and Julia on tenterhooks as to whether the lovers will be reunited. We are also riveted when Tin Win’s world is blacked out and, just prior to sailing for America, re-illuminated, as when he undergoes surgery that restores his sight. Sendker has cited Arundhati Roy as an influence, but his Burma, though colorful, lacks the teeming sensory thrill of the India of The God of Small Things. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats could have been a novel that performed linguistic magic with sound, as Patrick Süskind did with scent in Das Parfum, but again Sendker strikes a rather flatter note. Tin Win hears “buzzing and blowing, chirping and cheeping, rushing and rumbling” but it is seldom more excitingly conveyed. The one exception is a short bravura passage in which he listens to a ravenous spider under his bed and “the flies in their death throes, the breaking of their legs, the sucking and chewing sounds of the spider.” We yearn for more gritty interludes like that one.

“If our life as humans shall have meaning, we need to love and need to be loved no matter where we live. That’s what my book is all about.” So Sendker revealed in an interview. It is a pity the love he presents is so unremittingly saccharine. There is a notable section in which we are told “Money and power do not vanquish fear. There is only one force more powerful than fear.” The translation breaks from the original here, however; in the original Sendker felt he had to spell that force out for his reader and ended by invoking “die Liebe.” It would seem Kevin Wiliarty has judiciously trimmed as well as translated, disposing of the glaringly obvious. If only Sendker had reined in more of his excesses – thinning out his cloying emotion, toning those heartbeats down a pitch – then his novel could have convinced.

“The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a love story set in Burma…imbued with Eastern spirituality and fairy-tale romanticism…Fans of Nicholas Sparks and/or Elizabeth Gilbert should eat this up.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An epic narrative that requires…a large box of tissues.” —Publishers Weekly

“Sweetly tragic.” —Library Journal

“No matter what I even attempt to say, I can’t possibly capture the absolute magic of this book. Like a spell, it haunts. Like love, it’s going to endure.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

“A story at once both poignant and joyous, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats reaffirms how love can transform the harshest of realities into a mystical one. Sendker takes us from contemporary, upscale New York to impoverished Burma, weaving a complex tale that is part romance, part father-daughter story. Reading this book was like reading poetry, with full attention required for each sentence. A thoroughly immersive and enjoyable read.” —Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife

“Set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a rare novel. Telling the story of a young blind man’s journey through a world of auditory intensity, Jan-Philipp Sendker renews one’s faith in the possibility of real, pure love. I finished the book in tears.” —Shawna Yang Ryan, author of Water Ghosts

“This book has the right mix of romance, magic, heartache and inspiration that will make it a favorite for a lot of people.…This brilliant author, Jan-Philipp Sendker, has gifted us with a story that is so powerful and moving. It will touch your heart and you will want to share it, it is THAT good.” —Romance Book Reviews

“So intense and delicate at the same time that it takes your breath away. All human flaws become less important, all physical challenges are taken in dignity. The magic of the story evolves slowly…It will touch your heart deeply.”—Zuckerbuecherei

“A masterfully told tale of enduring love, the twists of fate and the journey life takes us on to discover what is truly important.”—SCLS Reading Suggestions

"I highly recommend The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, awarding it three grape clusters, the distinction of “Fine Literature” on the Literary Leisure rating scale."—St. Helena Star

"From beginning to end this book is captivating. Tugging at the heartstrings, the story reveals human connectivity and exercises the wide-range of human emotion."—MegSchuster.com

"It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a book so much and I’ll be recommending this one to everyone I know. The prose reads like poetry, the sentences sing, the tale transports completely. It’s a story within a story – a hero’s quest, a love story, a fairytale. If all books were written this way – with this much magic in the language and with this much to teach us about the natural world, more people would love to read – I’m sure of it."—Read Lately

"A poignant love story that spans a great distance and time." —Castle Rock Magazine

"A truly remarkable novel has the capability of being translated from its original language and still being completely and utterly bewitching. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is one of these novels... Sendker creates a story so powerful that readers will think back to it time and again." —Anderson's Reads

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America America Ethan Canin

America America Ethan Canin

Overview:

From Ethan Canin, bestselling author of The Palace Thief, comes a stunning novel, set in a small town during the Nixon era and today, about America and family, politics and tragedy, and the impact of fate on a young man’s life.

In the early 1970s, Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon, through the family’s generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth.

America America is a beautiful novel about America as it was and is, a remarkable exploration of how vanity, greatness, and tragedy combine to change history and fate.

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Shadow Country Peter Matthiessen

Shadow Country Peter Matthiessen

Overview:

2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER

Peter Matthiessen’s great American epic–Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone by Bone–was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly a third of the overall text and collapsed the time frame while deepening the insights and motivations of his characters with brilliant rewriting throughout. In Shadow Country, he has marvelously distilled a monumental work, realizing his original vision.

Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.

Shadow Country traverses strange landscapes and frontier hinterlands inhabited by Americans of every provenance and color, including the black and Indian inheritors of the archaic racism that, as Watson’s wife observed, "still casts its shadow over the nation."

Peter Matthiessen’s lyrical and illuminating work in the Watson narrative has been praised highly by such contemporaries as Saul Bellow, William Styron, and W. S. Merwin. Joseph Heller said "I read it in great gulps, up each night later than I wanted to be, in my hungry impatience to find out more and more."

“Shadow Country is altogether gripping, shocking, and brilliantly told, not just a tour de force in its stylistic range, but a great American novel, as powerful a reading experience as nearly any in our literature. This magnificent, sad masterpiece about race, history, and defeated dreams can easily stand comparison with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. Little wonder, too, that parts of the story of E.J. Watson call up comparisons with Dostoevsky, Conrad, and, inevitably, Faulkner. In every way, Shadow Country is a bravura performance, at once history, fiction, and myth–as well as the capstone to the career of one of the most admired and admirable writers of our time.” — The New York Review of Books

“Magnificent and capacious…. I'll just say right here that the book took my sleeve and like the ancient mariner would not let go. Matthiessen has made his three-part saga into a new thing…. Finally now we have these books welded like a bell, and with Watson's song the last sound, all the elements fuse and resonate….a breathtaking saga.” — The Los Angeles Times

“Gorgeously written and unfailingly compelling, Shadow Country is the exhilarating masterwork of [Matthiessen’s] career, every bit as ambitious as Moby Dick.” — National Geographic Adventure magazine

“Peter Mattiessen consolidates his epic masterpiece of Florida -- and crafts something even better…[He] deserves credit for decades of meticulous research and obsessive details and soaring prose that converted the Watson legend into critically acclaimed literature….Anyone wanting an explanation for what happened to Florida can now find it in a single novel, a great American novel.” — Miami Herald

“Matthiessen is writing about one man's life in Shadow Country, but he is also writing about the life of the nation over the course of half a century. Watson's story is essentially the story of the American frontier, of the conquering of wild lands and people, and of what such empires cost….Even among a body of work as magnificent as Matthiessen's, this is his great book.” — St. Petersburg Times

“Shadow Country is a magnum opus. Matthiessen is meticulous in creating characters, lyrical in describing landscapes, and resolute in dissecting the values and costs that accompanied the development of this nation.” --Seattle Times

“Shadow Country” is an ambitious, lasting, and meaningful work of literature that will not soon fade away. It is a testament to Mr. Matthiessen’s integrity as an artist that he felt compelled to return to the Watson material to produce this work and satisfy his original vision….a multifaceted work that can be read variously or simultaneously as a psychological novel, a historical novel, a morality tale, a political allegory, or a mystery. -- East Hampton Star

“Matthiessen’s Watson trilogy is a touchstone of modern American literature…this reworking…is remarkable….Where Watson was a magnificent character before, he comes across as nothing short of iconic here; it’s difficult to find another figure in American literature so thoroughly and confincingly portrayed.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review, Pick of the Week

“Matthiessen has reinvigorated and rejoined the trilogy’s novels…a mosaic about the life and lynch-mob death of a turn-of-the century Florida Everglades sugar planter and serial killer named E. J. Watson — into the 900-plus-page Shadow Country. This is no mere repackaging: Four hundred pages were cut from the novels, previous background characters now tromp to the foreground, and the books’ rangy, Faulknerian essence is rendered more digestible. Deliciously digestible, that is; this is a thick porterhouse of a novel.” — Men’s Journal

"The fiction of Peter Matthiessen is the reason a lot of people in my generation decided to be writers. No doubt about it. SHADOW COUNTRY lives up to anyone's highest expectations for great writing." -- Richard Ford

"Peter Matthiessen is a brilliantly gifted and ambitious writer, an inspired anatomist of the American mythos. His storytelling skills are prodigious and his rapport with his subject is remarkable." -- Joyce Carol Oates

"Peter Matthiessen's work, both in fiction and non-fiction, has become a unique achievement in his own generation and in American literature as a whole. Everything that he has written has been conveyed in his own clear, deeply informed, elegant and powerful prose. The Watson saga-in-the-round, to which he has devoted nearly thirty years, is his crowning achievement. SHADOW COUNTRY, his distillation of the earlier trilogy, is his transmutation of it to represent his original vision. It is the quintessence of his lifelong concerns, and a great legacy." -- W.S. Merwin

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Home Marilynne Robinson

Home Marilynne Robinson

Overview:

Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames's closest friend.

Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.

Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson's greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

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THE DESTINY OF VIOLET & LUKE Jessica Sorensen

THE DESTINY OF VIOLET & LUKE Jessica Sorensen 

Overview:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ever After of Ella and Micha comes a story of scars, courage, and new possibilities . . .

Luke Price's life has always been about order, control, and acting tough on the outside. For Luke, meaningless relationships are a distraction-a way to tune out the twisted memories of his childhood. He desperately wishes he could forget his past, but it haunts him no matter what he does.

Violet Hayes has had a rough life. When she was young, she was left with no family and the memory of her parents' unsolved murders. She grew up in foster homes, living with irresponsible parents, drugs, and neglect, and trying to fight the painful memories of the night her parents were taken from her. But it's hard to forget when she never got closure-and she can't stop dreaming about what happened that tragic night. To make it through life, she keeps her distance from everyone and never allows herself to feel anything.

Then Violet meets Luke. The two clash instantly, yet they can't seem to stay away from each other. Although they fight it, they both start to open up and feel things they've never felt before. They discover just how similar they are. But they also discover something else: The past always catches up with you .

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RIVER ROAD Jayne Ann Krentz

RIVER ROAD Jayne Ann Krentz

Overview:

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Dream Eyes and Copper Beach, a brand-new quintessential Jayne Ann Krentz romance.

It’s been thirteen years since Lucy Sheridan was in Summer River. The last time she visited her aunt Sara there, as a teenager, she’d been sent home suddenly after being dragged out of a wild party—by the guy she had a crush on, just to make it more embarrassing. Obviously Mason Fletcher—only a few years older but somehow a lot more of a grown-up—was the overprotective type who thought he had to come to her rescue.

Now, returning after her aunt’s fatal car accident, Lucy is learning there was more to the story than she realized at the time. Mason had saved her from a very nasty crime that night—and soon afterward, Tristan, the cold-blooded rich kid who’d targeted her, disappeared mysteriously, his body never found.

A lot has changed in thirteen years. Lucy now works for a private investigation firm as a forensic genealogist, while Mason has quit the police force to run a successful security firm with his brother—though he still knows his way around a wrench when he fills in at his uncle’s local hardware store. Even Summer River has changed, from a sleepy farm town into a trendy upscale spot in California’s wine country. But Mason is still a protector at heart, a serious (and seriously attractive) man. And when he and Lucy make a shocking discovery inside Sara’s house, and some of Tristan’s old friends start acting suspicious, Mason’s quietly fierce instincts kick into gear. He saved Lucy once, and he’ll save her again. But this time, she insists on playing a role in her own rescue . . .

"Best-selling Krentz returns to her classic romantic-suspense roots with a spine-tingling tale of a small town harboring deadly secrets. With its irresistible mix of scintillating humor, stunning suspense, and sexy romance, River Road is a complete page-turner."—Booklist

"Wonderfully appealing protagonists, a clever, skillfully crafted plot, soul-stirring sensuality, and delicious flashes of humor."—Library Journal (starred review)

"An intricate and engrossing plot. Another Krentz winner."—Kirkus Reviews

"The excitement of a thriller with the sweetness of new passion."—Publishers Weekly

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Hollow City Ransom Riggs

Hollow City Ransom Riggs

Overview:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike. Publishers Weekly called it “an enjoyable, eccentric read, distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.”

This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

“...a tasty adventure for any reader with an appetite for the…peculiar.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Riggs has created a fresh and original world in these Peregrine novels, with likable, quirky characters and a very readable style.”—Library Journal Xpress Review

“...fans will be thrilled to know that the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is as hauntingly sinister as the first and is unequivocally worth the wait. It’s a rare sequel that improves on the series’ beginning... A must-read!” -RT Book Reviews

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First Love James Patterson

First Love James Patterson

Overview:

An extraordinary portrait of true love that will move anyone who has a first love story of their own.

Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone that what she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson--who she also happens to be madly in love with.

When Axi impulsively invites Robinson to come with her on an unplanned cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out-of-control...

A remarkably moving tale with its origins in James Patterson's own past, First Love is testament to the power of first love--and how it can change the rest of your life.

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The Kiss James Patterson

The Kiss James Patterson

Overview:

Whit and Wisty Allgood, a witch and wizard with extraordinary abilities, have defeated the ruthless dictator who long overshadowed their world. But for the first time in their lives, the powerful brother and sister find themselves at odds as Wisty is drawn to a mysterious and magical stranger named Heath.

Wisty has never felt as free as she does with Heath, especially when the two of them share and test their magic together. But when a merciless Wizard King from the mountains suddenly threatens war, Wisty must make an excruciating choice. Will she unite with Whit to fight the mounting dangers that could return their world to a tyrant's domain? Or will she trust the beautiful boy who has captured her heart?

James Patterson's epic dystopian saga continues as the witch and wizard who have inspired countless imaginations must rally together before the world they fought to save collapses.

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American Wife Curtis Sittenfeld

American Wife  Curtis  Sittenfeld

Overview:

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president. In her small Wisconsin hometown, she learns the virtues of politeness, but a tragic accident when she is seventeen shatters her identity and changes the trajectory of her life. More than a decade later, when the charismatic son of a powerful Republican family sweeps her off her feet, she is surprised to find herself admitted into a world of privilege. And when her husband unexpectedly becomes governor and then president, she discovers that she is married to a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with–and that her private beliefs increasingly run against her public persona. As her husband’s presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer.

“A well-researched book that imagines what lies behind that placid façade of the first lady…Ms. Sittenfeld was not out to sensationalize but to sympathize.
–Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

“Brilliant…[A] triumph…Curtis Sittenfeld has provided a plausible secret history of an American embarrassment – and a grand entertainment.”
–Joe Klein, Time Magazine

“A smart and sophisticated portrait of a high-profile political wife…Sittenfeld has an astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers’ heads.”
–Connie Schultz,Washington Post Book World

“Sittenfeld boldly imagines the inner life of a first lady…an intimate and daring story…American Wife is a vicarious experience, an up-close portrait of the interior life of a very complicated woman…cinematic.”
–USA Today

“The novel, Sittenfeld’s most fully realized yet, artfully evokes the painful reverberations of the past.”
–New Yorker

“Compelling...enormously sympathetic...Sittenfeld’s remarkable gifts as a storyteller draw you back into the fictional world of Alice Blackwell. She writes in the sharp, realistic tradition of Philip Roth and Richard Ford–clear, unpretentious prose; metaphors so spot-on you barely notice them. Sittenfeld may have lifted the set pieces from a real woman’s life, but in the process she has created a wise and insightful character who is entirely her own.”
–Time Out New York

“Ambitious…Sittenfeld installs herself deep within the psyche of the tight-lipped wife of the president and emerges with an evenhanded, compassionate look at her mind and heart…powerfully intimate. Grade: A”
–Washington Post

“A masterful highbrow-lowbrow mash-up that satisfies as ass-kicking literary fiction
and juicy gossip simultaneously.”
–Radar

“With American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld has deftly crossed an extraordinarily high wire…I read American Wife in just two or three delicious sittings, struck by the granular clarity of the author’s descriptions and the down-to-earth believability of the story, bewitched by the charming, frustrating woman at the center of it: Laura Bush.”
— Ana Marie Cox, The New York Observer

“Curtis Sittenfeld is one of our best contemporary chroniclers of class and caste… Sittenfeld imagines this couple so deliciously and so plausibly… Curtis Sittenfeld invents a deep, messy, sympathetic life for a public person whose surface is all we'll ever know.”
— St Petersburg Times

“Immensely readable. It's a nuanced portrait of a woman in a singularly fascinating position.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A broad, deep and utterly convincing account…a portrait of a woman and a marriage that also brings the reader as close to the probable essence of the outgoing president as any other novelist, or any biographer, is likely to get.”
— Portland Oregonian

“We love Sittenfeld. We love her wry, razor-sharp observations. We love her funny, straightforward honesty…[American Wife] is an empathetic, fascinating, and gorgeously written story about a 30-year marriage. We devoured it in one night.”
— Boston Magazine

“Endearing and poignant, humorous and enlightening, American Wife is a must-read for Sittenfeld fans--and a good first read for would-be converts.”
— Fredericksburg Freelance Star

“An entertaining, racy tale that's inspired more than a bit by the life of our current president's wife, Laura Bush…A well-told tale that will leave many readers wondering: How much of Sittenfeld's story might be closer to fact than fiction?”
— St Louis Post Dispatch

“The scope and detail of American Wife are reminiscent of Richard Russo. Like Russo, she creates characters from the ground up, ancestry, neighborhood, culture and all.”
–LA Times

“American Wife  promises to be another sensation.”
- Dayton Daily News

“American Wife is a sparkling, sprawling novel…A ridiculously gifted writer…Sittenfeld has harnessed her talents perfectly in American Wife, producing an exhilirating epic infused with humor, pain, and hope.”
–BookPage

“Widely anticipated and vastly entertaining… An intelligent, well-crafted, psychologically astute novel”
–New York Sun

“Highly engaging…fascinating depth.”
— Seattle Times

“A well-researched, juicy roman a clef about the current first lady.”
— Boston Globe

“Ambitious…entertaining…a parable of America in the years of the second Bush presidency.”
–Joyce Carol Oates, cover of The New York Times Book Review

“With her first line - “Have I made terrible mistakes?” - Alice Blackwell (a fictional First Lady modeled after Laura Bush) reels us into a gripping epic of public and private lives. A gem.”
–Good Housekeeping

“This searing page-turner will make you wonder what unspoken promises lie behind the victory smiles of any power couple.”
- Redbook

“What is Laura Bush thinking? That’s the question Sittenfeld ponders in her novel,
loosely based on the life of our First Lady…Just as she did in Prep, Sittenfeld masterfully deflates
the middle-class fairy tale — rose gardens and all.”
–Marie Claire

“Bold…conveys in convincing, thoroughly riveting detail a life far more complicated than it appears on the surface…What she does here, in prose as winning as it is confident, is to craft out of the first-person narration a compelling, very human voice, one full of kindness and decency. And, as if making the Bush-like couple entirely sympathetic is not enough of a feat in itself, she also provides many rich insights into the emotional ebb and flow of a long-term marriage.”
–Booklist, Upfront and Starred review

“Terrific . . . an intelligent, bighearted novel about a controversial political dynasty.”
–Entertainment Weekly

“Remarkable . . . American Wife is about the long history of a marriage, and . . . the way we make decisions when we’re young that have consequences we couldn’t have anticipated. . . . Sittenfeld’s most ambitious and impressive work to date.”
–Chicago Tribune

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Big Brother Lionel Shriver

Big Brother  Lionel Shriver

Overview:

Big Brother is a striking novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity from Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin.

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that he’d savored through their courtship, and spends hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.

“As a writer, Shriver’s talents are many: She’s especially skilled at playing with readers’s reflexes for sympathy and revulsion, never letting us get too comfortable with whatever firm understanding we think we have of a character.” (Washington Post)

“The moving (and shocking) finale will have you thinking about the ‘byzantine emotional mathematics’ we all put ourselves through when overwhelmed with family responsibilities.” (Oprah.com)

“(A) delicious, highly readable novel . . . (which) raises challenging questions about how much a loving person can give to another without sacrificing his or her own well-being.” (People, People Pick (4 Stars))

“Big Brother is vintage Shriver - observant, unsettling, funny, but also, as Pandora admits, ‘Very, very sad.’” (Miami Herald)

“Lionel Shriver’s Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a conversation piece of impressive heft.” (New York Times)

“The ever-caustic Shriver has great fun at the expense of crash diets and a host of other sacred pop-culture, er, cows. Politically correct it’s not, but Big Brother finds the funny - and the pathos - in fat.” (USA Today)

“Her [Shriver’s] best work--Big Brother is her twelfth novel--presents characters so fully formed that they inhabit her ideas rather than trumpet them.” (New Republic)

“Pandora is a masterly creation.” (New York Times Book Review)

“The diet - the story of a heroically undertaken significant change - is pretty nearly irresistible. But what really powers this story, an outsize look at the most basic of human activities, eating, is a search for the definition, and appreciation, of ‘ordinary life.’” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

“The latest compelling, humane and bleakly comic novel from the author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.” (Evening Standard (London))

“A great plot setup that presents an array of targets for Shriver to obliterate with her knife-sharp prose.” (The Rumpus)

“A surprising sledgehammer of a novel” (The Times (London))

“A gutsy, heartfelt novel” (Sunday Times (London))

“What would you do for love of a brother? For love of a husband? For love of food? In Big Brother, Shriver’s new and wonderfully timely novel, her heroine wrestles with these vexing questions. Only the scales don’t lie.” (Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy)

“The fellowship of Lionel Shriver fanatics is about to grow larger, so to speak. Big Brother, a tragicomic meditation on family and food, may be her best book yet.” (Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story)

“A searing, addictive novel about the power and limitations of food, family, success, and desire. Shriver examines America’s weight obsession with both razor-sharp insight and compassion.” (J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Maine and Commencement)

“Brilliantly imagined, beautifully written, and superbly entertaining, Shriver’s novel confronts readers with the decisive question: can we save our loved ones from themselves? A must-read for Shriver fans, this novel will win over new readers as well.” (Library Journal)

“An intelligent meditation on food, guilt, and the real (and imagined) debts we owe the ones we love.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Shriver brilliantly explores the strength of sibling bonds versus the often more fragile ties of marriage.” (Booklist)

“[Shriver] has a knack for conveying subtle shifts in family dynamics. . . . Ms Shriver offers some sage observations. . . . Yet her main gift as a novelist is a talent for coolly nailing down uncomfortable realities.” (The Economist)

“Shriver is brilliant on the novel shock that is hunger. . . . Most of all, though, there’s her glorious, fearless, almost fanatically hard-working prose.” (Guardian)

“Shriver is wonderful at the things she is always wonderful at. Pace and plot. . . . Psychology.” (Independent)

“Would I recommend Big Brother? Absolutely. It confronts the touchy subject of American lard exuberantly and intelligently; it makes you think about what you put in your mouth and why.” (Bloomberg)

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

Unfinished Desires Gail Godwin

Unfinished Desires  Gail Godwin

Overview:

From Gail Godwin, three-time National Book Award finalist and acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Evensong and The Finishing School, comes a sweeping new novel of friendship, loyalty, rivalries, redemption, and memory.

It is the fall of 1951 at Mount St. Gabriel’s, an all-girls school tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina. Tildy Stratton, the undisputed queen bee of her class, befriends Chloe Starnes, a new student recently orphaned by the untimely and mysterious death of her mother. Their friendship fills a void for both girls but also sets in motion a chain of events that will profoundly affect the course of many lives, including the girls’ young teacher and the school’s matriarch, Mother Suzanne Ravenel.

Fifty years on, the headmistress relives one pivotal night, trying to reconcile past and present, reaching back even further to her own senior year at the school, where the roots of a tragedy are buried.

In Unfinished Desires, a beloved author delivers a gorgeous new novel in which thwarted desires are passed on for generations–and captures the rare moment when a soul breaks free. 

"A large, roomy story of love, loss, fidelity, secrets, rivalry and faith in the lives of a charming, flawed troupe of characters…. Provocative and rewarding."—Boston Globe

"This rich world…draws and holds the reader from the first to the final pages of the work. " —Denver Post

"Tender but clear-eyed …Godwin’s South has always been a place where charm and good manners can barely conceal the emotional drama pulsing beneath the surface…Recalls the fraught family bonds of Godwin’s best novels…"—San Francisco Chronicle

"Godwin’s reserved yet powerful new novel is set in a boarding school in the mountains of North Carolina…Though it’s a beautiful well-intentioned institution, the school is anything but serene…."—New York Times Book Review

"If you plan on reading just one great novel in 2010, this might be it… a big old-fashioned book about jealousy and passion at a Catholic girl’s school, written with Gail Godwin’s trademark depth and humor…."—Bookpage

"Godwin’s writing is … marvelous, engaging, clever." —Christian Science Monitor

"Poignant and transporting…convincing, satisfying."—Publishers Weekly

"Intoxicating… Godwin’s latest novel charms."—Asheville Citizen-Times

"Masterly."—Dallas Morning News

“A strong story populated by a host of memorable characters–smart, satisfying fiction, one of the author’s best in years.”—Kirkus Reviews starred review,

"If you plan on reading just one great novel in 2010, this might be it. Unfinished Desires is a big old-fashioned book about jealousy and passion at a Catholic girl’s school, written with best-selling author Gail Godwin’s trademark depth and humor … Godwin’s 13th novel is filled with penetrating observations on women’s friendships, family and faith … The wise, human story she tells reaches beyond the boundaries of region and religion, satisfying any reader looking for a good story."—Bookpage

"What better setting for exploring female bonds than a Southern Catholic girls’ school where epic feuds and forgiveness pass through generations? Godwin’s take is smart and intriguing." —Good Housekeeping

"Ten Titles to Watch For: This seasoned author revisits familiar territory. Fascinating, always."—O: The Oprah Magazine

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

I'll Be Seeing You Suzanne Hayes

I'll Be Seeing You  Suzanne Hayes

Overview:

"I hope this letter gets to you quickly. We are always waiting, aren't we? Perhaps the greatest gift this war has given us is the anticipation…"

It's January 1943 when Rita Vincenzo receives her first letter from Glory Whitehall. Glory is an effervescent young mother, impulsive and free as a bird. Rita is a sensible professor's wife with a love of gardening and a generous, old soul. Glory comes from New England society; Rita lives in Iowa, trying to make ends meet. They have nothing in common except one powerful bond: the men they love are fighting in a war a world away from home.

Brought together by an unlikely twist of fate, Glory and Rita begin a remarkable correspondence. The friendship forged by their letters allows them to survive the loneliness and uncertainty of waiting on the home front, and gives them the courage to face the battles raging in their very own backyards. Connected across the country by the lifeline of the written word, each woman finds her life profoundly altered by the other's unwavering support.

A collaboration of two authors whose own beautiful story mirrors that on the page, I'll Be Seeing You is a deeply moving union of style and charm. Filled with unforgettable characters and grace, it is a timeless celebration of friendship and the strength and solidarity of women.

"Engaging, charming and moving, a beautifully rendered exploration of WWII on the homefront and the type of friendship that helps us survive all manner of battles."
-Kirkus (starred review)

"Timeless and universal...[a] deeply satisfying tale."
-Booklist

"A wonderful affirmation of the life-enhancing potential of female friendship." -Margaret Leroy, author of The Soldier's Wife

"I devoured this story in one greedy, glorious gulp. Oh, the women! I love them. I love their families and their voices and their stories. I bet you'll love them, too." -Marisa de los Santos, bestselling author of Love Walked In

"A delight! I'll Be Seeing You made me want to get out a pen and paper and write a friend a good old-fashioned letter." -Sarah Jio, author of The Violets of March

"Original and heartfelt...Set in World War II, yet somehow timeless, this novel is as beautifully written as it is captivating. An absolutely terrific debut." -Sarah Pekkanen, author of The Opposite of Me

"Women on the WWII home front faced loneliness and terrible fears. But I'll Be Seeing You tells the compelling story of two women who endured, bolstered by duty, love and, most important, friendship. I read this sweet, compassionate novel with my heart in my throat." -Kelly O'Connor McNees, author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott

"Vivid and well-crafted, I'll Be Seeing You poignantly illustrates the hopes and struggles of life on the home front. Readers will laugh, cry and be inspired by this timeless story of friendship and courage." -Pam Jenoff, bestselling author of The Kommandant's Girl

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

The Daylight Gate Jeanette Winterson

The Daylight Gate  Jeanette Winterson

Overview:

The Daylight Gate, an instant bestseller in the UK, is award-winning Jeanette Winterson’s singular vision of a dark period of complicated morality, sex, and tragic plays for power in a time when politics and religion were closely intertwined.

After the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, every Catholic conspirator in England fled to a wild, untamed place far from the reach of London law. On Good Friday, 1612, deep in the woods of Pendle Hill, amid baptismal pools and low, thick fog, a gathering of thirteen is interrupted by the local magistrate. Two of their coven have already been imprisoned for witchcraft and are awaiting trial, but those who remain are vouched for by the wealthy and respected Alice Nutter.

Shrouded in mystery and gifted with eternally youthful beauty, Alice is established in Lancashire society and insulated by her fortune. Yet she is also plagued by rumors of a dark and torrid love affair with another woman, the matriarch of the notorious Demdike clan. As those accused of witchcraft retreat into darkness, Alice stands alone as a realm-crosser, a conjurer of powers that will either destroy her or set her free.

“More than a shivery treat… This harrowing novel, set in early-17th-century England, touches on nearly every aspect of witchcraft, both historical and imaginative. In little more than 200 pages, Jeanette Winterson depicts starving hags, gorgeous Renaissance orgies, alchemists searching for the secret of eternal life, horrific torture and even the Dark Gentleman himself. Much of the story, moreover, is true…. The Daylight Gate proffers a series of short, sharp shocks… the reader … is gripped by the realistic horrors and brutality Winterson describes… Winterson neatly shifts back and forth among various “realities” throughout… Yet she never tries to dazzle the reader, keeping her sentences sober, precise and solemnly beautiful as the novel moves along with a steady relentlessness…. utterly spellbinding.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“Mixing historical detail and dark horror, the author brilliantly brews a spellbinding take on the 1612 English witch trials.”—People

“A daring historical novel…a portal in prose, through which readers enter fully into the bloody, raucous England of the early 17th century….Any reader who crosses over into this novel will remember vividly where he or she has traveled — through the tumultuous years when English heroines and witches appeared interchangeable, and passion erupted at the gateway between love and despair.”—Alan Cheuse, NPR

"Winterson’s writing has an uncanny glow: Her pared-down, poetic prose serves as an artful yet unobtrusive foil to the quick, visceral cadence of a plot that walks a fine line between gothic horror and historical fiction, tempering the shock value of its sex and violence. From one gruesome development to the next, Winterson’s haunting imagery and narrative immediacy captivate...an engrossing story that’s sure to leave you shivering."—Catherine Straut, Elle

"Electrifying.... a nightmarish novella that burns like a hot coal."—Kirkus Reviews(starred)

"Absorbing...[there is] pleasure in its intensely visual qualities."—Publishers Weekly(starred)

"More than a re-imagining of a vanished moment. It is concerned with freedom, choice, and destiny, truth to emotion and to personal experience, the nature of conviction and belief, evil and, above all, good. . . . Winterson's intensely graphic descriptions of the witches' practices and their suffering create a fictional world of claustrophobic nightmarishness. . . . The Daylight Gate is angry, red in tooth and claw, bloody, suppurating, replete with an agony that is startlingly physical. . . . The novel is a tour de force of horror writing, but it never descends into shilling-shocker territory. It's an almost impossible balance for the writer to strike, but Winterson succeeds triumphantly. . . . Slips effortlessly between apparent realism and full-throttle fantasy, grotesquerie or burlesque. It makes for exhilarating if unsettling reading.”—The Saturday Times

“Sophisticated . . . Visceral . . . Utterly compulsive, thick with atmosphere and dread, but sharp intelligence too.”—The Telegraph

"Gripping . . . The narrative voice is irrefutable; this is old-fashioned storytelling, with a sermonic tone that commands and terrifies. . . . [Winterson] knows where true horror lies. Not in fantastical dimensions, but in the terrestrial world. Most grotesque and curdling are the visceral depictions of seventeenth century Britain—the squalor, inequality, and religious eugenics. . . . As well as being a gripping Gothic read, the book provides historical social commentary on the phenomenon of witchcraft and witchcraft persecution."—The Guardian

“Vigorous . . . Filled with Winterson’s characteristic intelligence and energy . . . This dark story with its fantastical trappings of magic and mysticism, its strong women and wild, Lancastrian setting is Winterson’s natural habitat and she maps it with relish.”—New Statesman

"Part history, part legend, part fairy tale, Winterson’s writing is vivacious and energetic. . . . Winterson has crafted a protagonist who is heroic and admirable but uncertain of her own destiny, a character who explores the emotional alchemy of ­female relationships. The Daylight Gate is a fast-paced, vivid novella that is every bit as dark, dangerous and sexually charged as one might expect from a storyteller of Winterson’s calibre."—Scotland on Sunday

"A story about the sacrifices people make for those they love . . . [Winterson]describes the area and the claustrophobic atmosphere beautifully. But her great skill as an author is most evident in the way she navigates past the cliches of the occult genre, while creating a novel of genuine horror. The Daylight Gate is an enthralling story unfussily told. I read it all in one sitting, only wishing there were more."—London Evening Standard

"Dazzling . . . Winterson is a deft storyteller and a writer of wonderful economy. . . . Amid the blood, mud, and violence, [it is also] intensely poetic. . . . One of the very few contemporary novels that I actually wished were longer."—Literary Review

"Winterson lavishly embroiders a tale rich in Gothic supernatural touches, but mainly accentuates the very real torment and degradation endured by [the] accused. . . . In a feverish climate, where fear of women and their sexuality often translated into rape and persecution, Winterson creates a deliciously dreadful tale that cleverly blurs the line between real and imagined horror."—Metro (4 stars)

"The beauty of the writing, exemplary in its pared-down simplicity . . . [is] so seductive that by the middle I was hooked."—The Independent

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

The Wicked Girls Alex Marwood

The Wicked Girls  Alex Marwood

Overview:

A gritty, psychological thriller that asks the question: How well can you know anyone?

On a fateful summer morning in 1986, two eleven-year-old girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, they will both be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside vacation town when her investigation leads her to interview carnival cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it’s the first time they’ve seen each other since that dark day so many years ago. Now with new, vastly different lives—and unknowing families to protect—will they really be able to keep their wicked secret hidden?

Gripping and fast-paced, with an ending that will stay with you long after you’ve read it, The Wicked Girls will appeal to fans of the Academy Award–nominated film Heavenly Creatures and the novels of Rosamund Lupton and Chevy Stevens.

“The suspense keeps the pages flying, but what sets this one apart is the palpable sense of onrushing doom.” – Stephen King, “The Best Books I Read This Year”, Entertainment Weekly

“Harrowing… while the received wisdom on violence committed by children seems to be that ‘some people just are born evil,’ Marwood makes a strong case that these crimes are more likely rooted in poverty, abuse and parental abandonment.” – Marilyn Stasio, The New York Time Book Review

“The swirling mass of perceptions and happenings behind the main drama of Kirsty and Amber’s past crime is what makes The Wicked Girls more than a plot-driven mystery novel. (Not that it isn’t also that; Marwood sacrifices no speed, no engaging details or cliffhangers for the sake of the book’s spiky undercurrent).” – The Rumpus

“In addition to being an excellent intelligent dark thriller in the vein of Gillian Flynn, The Wicked Girls presents an intriguing insider’s account of salacious British tabloid journalism” – BoingBoing
 
“[Alex] Marwood is equally at home with terrifying, potentially violent scenes and quieter ones revealing the tensions of work and family life. She is also adept at depicting the subtle and not so subtle ways differences in class shape the lives of the girls and the women they’ve become.”—Columbus Dispatch

“The pacing is whip-smart…The Wicked Girls makes a compelling novel not easily forgotten.” – South Florida Sun Sentinel

“Riveting from first page to last… A suspenseful, buzz-worthy novel.” – Kirkus (Starred Review)

“If Tana French and Gillian Flynn stayed up all night telling stories at an abandoned amusement park, this is awfully close to what they might come up with.” – Booklist (starred review)
  
"The Wicked Girls is ingenious and original -- a novel that surprises and rewards its readers, delivering a twist of an ending that I never saw coming, then realized it was the only ending that could truly satisfy. Real, chilling, true to its world and its characters. In short, a knock-out."—Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of And When She Was Good and What the Dead Know

“The Wicked Girls is utterly compelling. It's psychologically rich, complex and masterfully plotted. I couldn't put it down, even when I sensed it was taking me somewhere very dark indeed. I can't wait to see what Alex Marwood comes up with next.”—Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

The Accursed Joyce Carol Oates

The Accursed  Joyce Carol Oates

Overview:

Princeton, New Jersey, at the turn of the twentieth century: a genteel town for genteel souls. But something dark and dangerous lurks at its edges, corrupting and infecting its residents. Vampires and ghosts haunt the dreams of the innocent and a powerful curse besets the families of the elite–their daughters begin disappearing. And in the Pine Barrens that border the town, a lush and terrifying underworld opens up.

When a shape-shifting, vaguely European prince, who might just be the devil, abducts a young bride on the verge of the altar, her brother sets out against all odds to find her. His path will cross those of Princeton's most formidable people, including Grover Cleveland, fresh out of his second term in the White House, soon-to-be commander in chief Woodrow Wilson, a complex individual obsessed to the point of madness with his need to retain power, the young idealist Upton Sinclair and his charismatic comrade Jack London, and the most famous writer of the era, Mark Twain–all of whom are plagued by "accursed" visions.

“Joyce Carol Oates has written what may be the world’s finest postmodern Gothic novel: E.L. Doctorow’s ‘Ragtime’ set in Dracula’s castle. It’s dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it... Oates’s hypnotic prose has never been better displayed.” (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review (Cover Review))

“Spectacular. . . With its vast scope, its mingling of comic and tragic tones, its omnivorous gorging on American literature, and especially its complex reflection on the major themes of our history, The Accursed is the kind of outrageous masterpiece only Joyce Carol Oates could create.” (Ron Charles, Washington Post)

“A brilliant Gothic mystery that has the punch of historical fiction. Currents of race, class and academic intrigue swirl under the surface, but it’s the demonic curse that propels the action... Oates casts a powerful spell. You’ll close The Accursed and want to start it all over again.” (People (4 Stars))

“The Accursed is a unique, vast multilayered narrative; a genre bending beast of a book, utterly startling from start to finish, compulsive and engaging, the writing crackling with energy and wit. This is an elaborately conceived work.” (New York Review of Books)

“[The Accursed] is in addition to being a thrilling tale in the best gothic tradition, a lesson in master craftsmanship...The story sprawls, reaches, demands, tears, and shrieks in homage to the traditional gothic, yet with fresh, surprising twists and turns... Oates has given us a brilliantly crafted work .” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“Carefully and densely plotted, chockablock with twists and turns and fleeting characters, her novel offers a satisfying modern rejoinder to the best of M.R. James—and perhaps even Henry James.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

“Oates’ atmospheric prose beautifully captures the flavor of gothic fiction . . . In Oates’ hands, this supernatural tale becomes a meditation on the perils of parochial thinking. It demands we think - with monsters - about our failure to face the darkest truths about ourselves and the choices we’ve made.” (NPR)

“A lush, arch, and blistering fusion of historical fact, supernatural mystery, and devilish social commentary... A diabolically enthralling and subversive literary mash-up. ” (Booklist (starred review))

“A smart and relentlessly absorbing read.” (Library Journal)

“Joyce Carol Oates is at her gothic best… an astonishing fever dream of a novel.” (Los Angeles Times)

“For those who enjoy total immersion in this kind of historical fiction, The Accursed is good fun, as mesmerizing as a demon and as addictive as a patent cure.” (Boston Globe)

“A fascinating novel in which historical truth and imagination collide to create an unsettling vision of America as it entered the 20th century.” (Columbus Dispatch)

“The Accursed blends history, horror, fantasy and black comedy into a trippy literary brew. For fans of Oates’ gothic works, this is a heady draught indeed.” (Dallas Morning News)

“Regular readers of Oates will be familiar with the game. . . after [new readers make] their way through The Accursed, no one will find it easy to forget.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

“Joyce Carol Oates is at the top of her game in her glorious new novel, THE ACCURSED - a long, lush account of perhaps-preternatural happenings in Princeton, N.J., a century ago.” (Buffalo News)

“This latest effort looks like a belated candidate for the Great Oates Novel . . . The Accursed is a big, mad, colourful romp, respectful of the literary traditions in which it participates, leavened with a piquant humour.” (Financial Times)

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

An Evil Guest Gene Wolfe

An Evil Guest Gene Wolfe

Overview:

Lovecraft meets Blade Runner in a stand-alone supernatural horror novel. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants—and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner, Soldier of Sidon, and his stunning Pirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror.
 
Set a hundred years in the future, An Evil Guest is the story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious private detective and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, a man who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided—perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. The rich man is the angel of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils. As Lovecraft said, “That is not dead which can eternal lie.”

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

This Heart of Mine Suzanne Hayes

This Heart of Mine  Suzanne Hayes

Overview:

In this short prequel to I'll Be Seeing You, authors Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan introduce you to two extraordinary women who are worlds apart--but whose journals reveal they have more in common than they could ever imagine....

Chicago, 1921

Nineteen-year-old waitress Rita Strauss is trying to make it on her own in the big city, spending most of her time alone with her thoughts. The bright spot in her day is the handsome medical student who's a regular at her diner. Rita fantasizes about what to say to him, wishing she could be more confident--until she decides to take control of her life once and for all.

Rockport, 1940

Socialite Glory Astor thinks it's the best day of her life when her longtime beau, Robert, finally proposes. But everything gets complicated when her childhood friend Levi asks her to run away with him instead, forcing Glory to choose between the two men she cares about the most.

Find out how Rita's and Glory's lives intersect in I'll Be Seeing You. Told through their letters during WWII, this incredible story brings together two unforgettable women who have never met in person yet share an unbreakable bond of friendship.

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

The New Republic Lionel Shriver

The New Republic Lionel Shriver

Review:

Separating Fat from Fiction A novel takes on the social issue du jour

BY SARAH COURTEAU

We’re sitting on one of the biggest health epidemics of modern times, quite literally. Researchers recently identified the troubling creep of “desk derriere”— fat, flat butts whose size and shape are the product of too many hours spent planted on our behinds—a malady anatomically specific enough to cut through the constant drone of dire obesity warnings from the CDC. The fact is, even if we’re not the size of that poor fellow lumbering ahead of us in the supermarket checkout line, many of us could stand to lose a few pounds.1

Lionel Shriver is not the first novelist to tackle this weighty subject,2 but her latest book, Big Brother, promises a particularly shrewd fictional treatment. Shriver specializes in exploring contemporary issues that, in the hands of a less imaginative writer, would end up as thin “ripped from the headlines” stories or didactic set pieces. Her best work—Big Brother is her twelfth novel—presents characters so fully formed that they inhabit her ideas rather than trumpet them. We Need to Talk About Kevin, published in 2003, was a profound treatment not only of the scourge of school shootings but also of the anxieties that attend modern motherhood. So Much for That, a finalist for the National Book Award in 2010, was a blackly comic rendering of a couple’s experience negotiating America’s byzantine health insurance and medical systems—and their own difficult families—when the wife is diagnosed with a rare cancer.

Shriver doesn’t always hit the mark so squarely. For example, her 2012 novel about terrorism, The New Republic, was too droll and broadly satirical to achieve the emotional resonance of a book like We Need to Talk About Kevin. (She’d written The New Republic 14 years earlier but had trouble getting it published.) But even her lesser work is worth reading. Shriver is less concerned with the pretentious requirements of making art than she is with digging the dirt from under the fingernails of her subject.3

The cause of obesity is the very thing that, in moderation, is necessary to survival. Just where is that glutton-defined Rubicon? Why is it that many of us, even if we aren’t waifs, would never consider crossing it, and others can’t return from the other side?

Food itself is very nearly a character of its own in the book. An over-the-top chocolate-chip pancake breakfast, whipped up by Edison, arrives as an uninvited guest. There are vats of chili and five-cheese lasagnas and, when Pandora’s husband cooks, tempehs and quinoas. So it’s odd that the true pleasures and temptations of food don’t really feature in the book. In spite of the fact that Pandora is a bit pudgy herself, and once ran a catering company, she describes food, not quite credibly, as “the idea of satisfaction, far more powerful than satisfaction itself, which is why diet can exert the sway of religion or political zealotry.”

That cerebral analysis is typical of Pandora’s ruminations, which are rampant and often memorable. (“It is impossible to gauge what you owe people. … As soon as you begin to keep track, to parcel the benevolence out—you’re done for. In for a penny, in for a pound.”) But they emanate from a character who, while excellent literary company, is not quite believable. She’s too self-aware, too analytical, and far too articulate. If Shriver has a weakness, it’s that she can’t write a character who isn’t as sharply observant as she is, and that weakness is acutely evident in Big Brother because of the way Shriver concludes the book. In a sleight-of-hand reminiscent of her alternate-scenario novel The Post-Birthday World, Shriver asks us to look at the story she has just told very differently. But this is hard to do when Pandora’s hyper-descriptive narrative has presented such a precise and complete version of it. The result is an ending that’s a letdown—a rarity for Shriver.

Part of Shriver’s success owes to her gift for giving the social issues she takes on an intensely personal dimension. But there’s a peculiarly immediate and intimate hue to  Pandora’s agonizing choice about how far to go in her quest to save Edison. Perhaps that’s because Shriver’s own brother died a few years ago as a result of complications from morbid obesity. Before his death he faced the possibility of bariatric surgery, for which Shriver would have had to put her own life on hold in order to help him recover. Shriver’s own struggle may help explain why Big Brother feels messy, even truncated, the conclusion uneasy.

But at least Big Brother isn’t a quietly devastating novel, conscientiously offering a sensitive treatment of a tragic disease. Instead, Shriver confronts Pandora—and her readers—with the ugly spectacle of death by Cinnabon. It isn’t her style to let her characters go gentle into that good night. Shriver recognizes no sacred cows. At first that makes you trust her less; very soon you grow to trust her more, no matter how many dark  alleys she might lead you down.

Sarah L. Courteau is a writer living in the South Bronx. Her work has appeared in The Oxford American, the Wilson Quarterly, The American Scholar, and elsewhere.


Overview:

Acclaimed author Lionel Shriver—author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, The Post-Birthday World, and the vivid psychological novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, now a major motion picture—probes the mystery of charisma in a razor-sharp new novel that teases out the intimate relationship between terrorism and cults of personality, explores what makes certain people so magnetic, and reveals the deep frustrations of feeling overshadowed by a life-of-the-party who may not even be present.

“Shriver is a master of the misanthrope. . . . [A] viciously smart writer.” —Time

“Shriver’s whip-smart observations—about relationships, the role of the media, the cult of personality are funny and on the mark.” (People)

“In her latest novel, Lionel Shriver pays homage to Joseph Conrad—examining terrorism, media bloodlust, and the cult of personality through an unexpected lens of satire.” (Marie Claire, Four New Page-Turners to Keep Bedside)

“A very funny book, but the laughs are embedded in a deeply disturbing subject.” (NPR, "Weekend Edition")

“Shriver is cursed with knowing the human animal all too well. The New Republic is satire of a Shriver kind, that is to say biting.” (Miami Herald)

“Lionel Shriver, the author of the harrowing and patient We Need to Talk About Kevin, delivers something altogether different: a callous and romping political and journalistic satire.” (The Daily Beast-- This Week's Hot Reads)

“Shriver is one of the sharpest talents around.” (USA Today)

“Witty, caustic and worldly, [Shriver] is a raconteur who could show even Barrington Saddler a thing or two about entertaining a crowd.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Shriver has been a National Book Award finalist with good reason: Her page-turners examine serious issues.” (Reader's Digest Recommends)

“A wondrously fanciful plot, vividly drawn characters, clever and cynical dialogue, and a comically brilliant and verisimilar imagined land. . . . The New Republic is simply terrific.” (Booklist (starred review))

“The dialogue zings and the writing is jazzy. . . . [Shriver] can toss off a sharp sketch of a passing character in a phrase, and she’s got a gimlet eye for what’s phony, or affected, or even touchingly vain in human behavior.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Shriver is an incisive social satirist with a clear grip on the ironies of our contemporary age . . . [Her] take on journalism and international politics is wry, insightful and just over the top enough to be fun.” (Los Angeles Times)

“Shriver is uncannily perceptive[with a] vigorous capacity for compassion . . . [A] surprisingly tender novel disguised as a clever satire delivered in polished prose.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

“Part Scoop, part Our Man in Havana and part Len Deighton thriller, Shriver’s novel is not just about terrorism but also about journalism and the nature of charisma. . . . Shriver’s Barba is a wonderful creation.” (Financial Times)

ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!