“A tour de force of erotic realism, a romantic cliff-hanger; an opaline vision of Americans in France. . . . A Sport and a Pastime succeeds as art must. It tells us about ourselves.” —The New York Times Book ReviewTwenty-year-old Yale dropout Phillip Dean is traveling Europe aimlessly in a borrowed car with little money, until stopping for a few days in a church-quiet town near Dijon, where he meets Anne-Marie Costallat, a young shop assistant. Sh...

A novel about a lonely mountain climber from the author of All That Is: "Beautifully composed . . . will remind readers of Camus and Saint-Exupéry" ( The Washington Post).Vernon Rand is a charismatic figure whose great love—whose life, in fact—is climbing. He lives alone in California, where he combats the drudgery of a roofing job with the thrill of climbing in the nearby mountain ranges. Sure of only his talent and nerve, Rand decides to test hi...

"A charming book full of erudition and wit" that explores the human impulse to accumulate books ( Literary Review).Jacques Bonnet, a lifelong accumulator of books ancient and modern, lives in a house large enough to accommodate his tens of thousands of volumes, as well as some overspill from the libraries of his friends. While his musings on the habits of collectors from the earliest known libraries are learned, amusing, and instructive, his advice on cata...

**A brilliant portrait of a marriage from the PEN/Faulkner Award-winner and author of A Sport and a Pastime, with an introduction by Richard Ford.“Light Years is a novel of almost holy radiance to me. It is great in every sense of the word: vast, and timeless, and enduring.”—Lauren Groff, bestselling author of Fates and Furies**“Remarkable. An unexpectedly moving ode to beautiful lives frayed by time.”—James Wolcott, Esquire

**A spellbinding collection of stories about passion–by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating.“Life is a volatile mess, and no one portrays that mess better than James Salter. . . . All of the stories in Last Night are superb.”–The New York Times Book Review**In powerful stories, Salter portrays men and women in their most intimate moments. A book dealer faces the truth about his life–as it is and never will be again...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Book Review Notable Book • An NPR "Great Reads" Book • Here is PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter's dazzling, sometimes devastating portrait of love and ambition.“Shimmering. . . . Intoxicating. . . . Few can match Salter’s depictions of life’s physical pleasures, the sheer sensual delight of being in this world.”—San Francisco Chronicle**All That Is explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change...

In this brilliant book of recollection, one of America's finest writers re-creates people, places, and events spanning some fifty years, bringing to life an entire era through one man's sensibility. Scenes of love and desire, friendship, ambition, life in foreign cities and New York, are unforgettably rendered here in the unique style for which James Salter is widely admired.Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, sat...

**NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST: “A perfect novel” that chronicles the lives of a wealthy family in 1930s Kansas through the eyes of its matriarch (Meg Wolitzer, New York Times–bestselling author).The basis for Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward**In Mrs. Bridge, Evan S. Connell, a consummate storyteller, artfully crafts a portrait using the finest of details in everyday events and confrontations. The novel is compr...

The classic novel of courage and rivalry—a fighter pilot whose dream of becoming an ace is tested by combat, his fellow airmen, and his own faltering confidence during the Korean WarCaptain Cleve Connell has already made a name for himself among pilots when he arrives in Korea during the war there to fly the newly operational F–86 fighters against the Soviet MIGs. His goal, like that of every fighter pilot, is to chalk up enough kills to become an ace.But t...

First published nearly a quarter-century ago and one of the very few short-story collections to win the PEN/Faulkner Award, this is American fiction at its most vital—each narrative a masterpiece of sustained power and seemingly effortless literary grace. Two New York attorneys newly flush with wealth embark on a dissolute tour of Italy; an ambitious young screenwriter unexpectedly discovers the true meaning of art and glory; a rider, far off in the fields, is involved in an horrific accid...

From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and perfect hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.For instance...

"In Don’t Save Anything . . . Kay Eldredge Salter assembles her late husband’s bread–and–butter journalism—yet how delicious good bread and butter can be! . . . As always, Salter emphasizes simple, vivifying details." —Michael Dirda, The Washington PostOne of the greatest writers of American sentences in our literary history, James Salter’s acute and glimmering portrayals of characters are built with a restrained and poetic style. The author of se...