Flannery O'Connor was a writer of extraordinary power and virtuosity. Her strong supple prose blends humor, pathos, satire, and grotesquerie which leads the reader to the evil at the center of the self's labyrinth. There, she confronts that evil with originality and power, pulling the reader into consideration of the terrifying dependencies of love in the recesses of the heart.This study focuses on Flannery O'Connor's sense of the coincidence of the eternal and cosmic with worldly ...

Special Algonquin 10th Anniversary Edition. Set in the farmland of Owen County, Kentucky, PASSING THROUGH achieves that remarkable intimacy all fiction strives for. We watch the family of Pearl Thirwell White--"Mama Pearl"--move from comedy through tragedy, from bickering and broken hearts through generosity and love, until we are no longer guests in Pearl's kitchen or at her table. Soon we are family ourselves. "PASSING THROUGH is hilarious, but it's also poignant and deeply moving in the...

"Enlightenment meets On the Road in this witty, insightful novel." — The Boston Sunday GlobeWhen his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger—and amuse himself—he decides to show the monk some "American fun" ...

Heartbreaking in places, hilarious in others, Lunch with Buddha takes its readers on a quintessentially American road trip across the Northwest. That outer journey, complete with good and bad meals, various outdoor adventures, and an amusing cast of quirky characters, mirrors a more interior journey--a quest for meaning in the hectic routine of modern life.Otto Ringling, who's just turned 50, is an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a middle-o...

"With six unconventionally religious novels to date, this brave, meditative author has carved a unique niche in American literature." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)If life is a journey—with detours, paths from which to choose, and myriad roadblocks to overcome—then Otto Ringling is most certainly on the journey of a lifetime. His first fifty or so years were pretty good. He felt he had it all, until one day he didn't.

**From the New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage.With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist," author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle.**Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families—the public one and the secret...

Isadora Tattlin is the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana in the 1990s. Wisely, the witty Mrs. Tattlin began a diary the day her husband informed her of their new assignment. One of the first entries is her shopping list of things to take, including six gallons of shampoo. For although the Tattlins were provided with a wonderful, big house in Havana, complete with a staff of seven, there wasn't much else money could buy in a country whose shelves are nearly bare...

A man reminisces about growing up with an abusive father in a transient Southern family, in this debut novel by the author of How I Shed My Skin.On a snowy Thanksgiving Day in North Carolina, a dreamy eight-year-old Danny Crell is pushed headlong into the adult world by a violent quarrel between his parents, Bobjay and Ellen.Bobjay is no longer the man young Ellen married. A debilitating farm accident and a steady consumption of alcohol have seen t...

A young woman with cystic fibrosis travels the world after her best friend’s death, seeking meaning, identity, and freedom through a series of intense relationships and adventures.The friendship between Mary and Nix had endured since childhood, a seemingly unbreakable bond, until the mid-1980s, when the two young women embarked on a summer vacation in Greece. It was a trip initiated by Nix, who had just learned that Mary had been diagnosed with a disease that would...

AN AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION ADULT DEBUT HONOR BOOKWINNER OF THE AUDIE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE NARRATORLOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERA sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bern...

"Wonderful!” (Grace Paley).“Heartwarming and smart and wonderfully written” (Detroit Free Press).“Provides edifying advice, intimately given, like the best-selling Tuesdays with Morrie” (the Dallas Morning News).“Altogether original” (Dr. Laura Schlessinger).“This story will speak to the humanity of the reader” (Jewish Book World).The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness is that rare, magical book—a boo...

From the author of the USA Today bestseller The Girl Who Came Home comes an unforgettable historical novel that tells the story of two long-lost sisters—orphaned flower sellers—and a young woman who is transformed by their experiences."For little sister. . . . I will never stop looking for you."Among the filth and depravity of Covent Garden's flower markets, orphaned Irish sisters Flora and Rosie Flynn sell ...