"Stern" follows the story of Irving Stern, a Jewish man living in New York City who finds himself disillusioned with his life and career. As an advertising executive, Stern is successful but deeply unhappy, feeling trapped in a world of superficiality and materialism.The novel explores Stern's existential crisis as he grapples with questions of identity, purpose, and authenticity. Feeling disconnected from his Jewish heritage and dissatisfied with his marriage and career, Stern embarks on ...

Leading to Our Future: A Guide to Establishing Children's CouncilsUnlock the potential of young leaders and shape the future with "Leading to Our Future: A Guide to Establishing Children's Councils." This comprehensive guide is a must-read for educators, parents, and community leaders dedicated to fostering leadership skills in students.Drawing from the author's inspiring experience as a representative in a national children’s parliament, this book provides a detailed roadm...

One day in early summer it seemed, miraculously, that Stern would not have to sell his house and move away. Some small blossoms had appeared on one of the black and mottled trees of what Stern called his Cancer Garden, and there was talk of a child in the neighborhood for his son, a lonely boy who sat each day in the center of Stern's lawn and sucked on blankets. Stern had found a swift new shortcut across the estate which cut his walking time down ten minutes to and from the train, and th...

An ex-NYPD clerk teams up with a shady Broadway producer for a disastrous musical comedy in this hilarious novel by the New York Times–bestselling author . . .In addition to his desk job at the precinct, Paul Gurney has long been in charge of the department newsletter known as The Homicider—covering workplace news, dispensing advice, and disseminating interoffice gossip. But now, in the wake of a divorce, he's decided to retire. What will he do ne...

First published in 1962, Bruce Jay Friedman's acclaimed first fiction novel, Stern, tells the story of a young Jewish man who relocates his family from the city to the suburbs, where they are besieged by voracious caterpillars and a bigotry that ranges from the genteel snub to outright confrontation."An iridescent tour de force...Mr. Friedman's style is pure delight-supple, carnal, humorous and at times slightly surrealistic."—The New York Times Book Review"What makes Friedma...

A few years ago, Christopher Buckley wrote of Bruce Jay Friedman in the New York Times Book Review that he "has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen," but that "he is: Bruce Jay Friedman, sui generis, and no mean thing. No further comparisons are necessary." We are happy to report that he remains the same Bruce Jay Friedman in his unique, unblinking, and slightly tilted essays—collected here for the first time—in Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos....

An "irresistible" collection of short fiction by an author who "has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen" ( The New York Times Book Review).Hailed by Newsweek as "a bona fide literary event," The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman brings together dozens of the New York Times–bestselling author's greatest stories, which originally appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, and other ma...

This classic comic novel about a midlife man whose life is spiraling out of control is a "heartbreaking delight . . . Nothing less than a joy" ( The Washington Post Book World).Screenwriter Harry Towns, a bicoastal playboy with a broken marriage and a child he rarely sees, has been reveling in the freewheeling atmosphere of the early 1970s. But when cracks start to appear in his perfectly constructed life, he has no option but to pick up the scattered piec...

New York Times -Bestselling Author: A Jewish man struggles in midcentury suburbia in this dark comic novel "in the tradition of the Charlie Chaplin movie."— TimeThe first novel by Bruce Jay Friedman, the author of such classics as The Lonely Guy and A Mother's Kisses, Stern tells the story of a young Jewish man who relocates his family from the city to the suburbs—where they are besieged by voracious cat...

The New York Times–bestselling author finds the pulse of the aging American male in two ingeniously funny novels. "I just laughed myself sick" (Neil Simon).Two classic works of comic self-help fiction by "one of the funniest writers in America" available together for the first time in a single ebook edition (John Gregory Dunne).With its "sparkling . . . winsome and true" look at the single male in America—from his sad new apartment furnishings to h...

Screenwriter Harry Towns continues his misadventures in this novel from a New York Times–bestselling author and "witty chronicler of urban angst" ( San Francisco Chronicle).Set in late-1980s New York, this novel continues the story of Harry Towns—who is well into his fifties and is feeling increasingly out of place in the world, but doesn't let that stop him from pursuing success as a playwright (or at least making some quick cash by selling a TV ...

Three Balconies brings together 17 new stories by the celebrated humorist, vintage Friedman all. In sumptuously simple language, the language of the street, the bar, the store, the office, Friedman gives us a collection of moral fables that explores friendship and faith and failure unswervingly, yet with compassion and, as always, tremendous humour.