“[A] rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war…an important and courageous book.”—Khaled Hosseini“An expansive work of literature” that portrays the oppressive nature of Afghan society toward women (New York Post)In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is belie...

'The book is like the spoon: once invented, it cannot be bettered' - Umberto Eco.These days it is impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution. Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles on the subject appear daily, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting ignorance of the future. Amidst the twittering, the thoughts of Jean-Claude Carrière and Umberto Eco come as a breath of fresh air.This thought-provoking book takes the ...

"With its fortuitous encounters and near misses, its moments of sweet affection and suicidal despair, Lecasble's tale manages to be both tender and appalling." Publishers Weekly 'There was a Lobster-shaped hole in world literature which has now been filled by this remarkable work.' Nick Lezard in The Guardian "A brief, bizarre, boiling broth of surrealism, romantic fatalism and slapstick. Not for the squeamish." - Kirkus Reviews "Agreeably unsettling, and avoiding the obvious turns, twists...

As a very young girl, Polina Oulinov is taken on as a special pupil by the famous ballet teacher Professor Bojinsky. He is very demanding and refuses to adapt his standards to the talents of his pupils, and Polina has to work hard and make great sacrifices in order to reach the level Bojinsky senses she has the talent for. When she graduates and is admitted to the official theatre school, she discovers that Bojinsky’s view of ballet is only one of many and that she can’t adapt to new rules...

In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, that absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse. But here, the Syngue Sabour is not a stone but rather a man lying brain-dead with a bullet lodged in his neck. His wife is with him, sitting by his side. But she resents him for having sacrificed her to the war, for never bei...

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.He introduces her to a...

Graham Greene meets Dostoevsky in a thrilling and atmospheric story of guilt and restitution set in postwar Vienna.Vienna, 1948. The war is over, and as the initial phase of de-Nazification winds down, the citizens of Vienna struggle to rebuild their lives amid the rubble.Anna Beer returns to the city she fled nine years earlier after discovering her husband's infidelity. She has come back to find him and, perhaps, to forgive him. Traveling on the same train from Switzerlan...

It's an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue—and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She's married to a good man, has two bea...

It’s 1975, and the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As city begins to fall in earnest, two lovers make their way through the chaos to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave not only of a war she is addicted to, but of a devastated country she has come to love. Nguyen Pran Linh, the man who loves her, must deal with his own conflicted loyalties, both of heart and homeland. As they race through the streets, they play out a drama of...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “absorbing” (Los Angeles Times) biography of one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in Russian history—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs“[A] compelling portrait not just of a Russian titan, but also of a flesh-and-blood woman.”—NewsweekONE OF ESQUIRE’S BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME • ONE OF THE BEST BOOK...

“A mesmerizing novel about a family in crisis.”— Miami HeraldA disquieting and ultimately uplifting novel about a marriage, a family, and human resilience in the face of tragedy, from Wally Lamb, the New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed and I Know This Much Is True.After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh—wife, mother, outsider artist—has fallen in love wit...

“An excellent novel. A lovely and moving portrait of society’s outcasts…affirms the essential humanity of its poor and stubborn residents, for whom each day of survival is a victory” (The New York Times Book Review).Set on the high ground at the heart of Cape Ann in the early 1800s, the village of Dogtown is peopled by widows, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans, and “witches.”Among the inhabitants of this hamlet are Black Ruth, w...