“The Good Son is the work of an artist in full command, and those of you entering it for the first time can only be envied.” —From the foreword by Jonathan YardleyChip Mackinnon returns from World War II a changed man. After being shot down over the desert and imprisoned by the enemy, the world of privilege to which he belongs seems shallow. But in the shadow of his older brother’s death, the full weight of his father’s expectations falls on Chip. Pop Mackinnon—whose money...

What does it mean to be a decent man? To love well, with fidelity and constancy? These are the lessons that Jake's father, a wildlife biologist, tries to impart to his son, often on fishing trips to their beloved Furnace Creek. Bound up in the laws of Einstein's theories, these lessons will ultimately influence Jake's own career as an astronomer. Out on the creek, both father and son conquer their greatest challenges: marital infidelity, professional setbacks, and Jake's long term, passion...

As a child Frank Kohler learned of his mother’s brutal murder. Now, years later, he yearns for some affirmation that remains elusive. As a state trooper on the night shift, Russell Boyd cruises the highways of Vermont constantly reminded of the true depths of human misery. The lives of these two men will intersect only tangentially, until fate catches up with them.

Originally published in 1982 to wide acclaim, The Good Son remains Craig Nova's undisputed masterpiece. This classic explored the complicated entanglements of fathers and sons —expressed in the story of nouvue–riche father Pop Mackinnon, who used his wealth to manipulate his son Chip into the 'right' kind of marriage upon the young man's return from World War II.Chip eventually gave up the love of his life and married to secure his future and what were the consequences o...

Berlin in 1930 is a city of dark paranoia and covert power struggles, where violence can erupt at any moment. The Brownshirts dominate the streets, but the Red Front is building its insurgence.Gaelle, a beautiful but desperate young prostitute with a scar across one side of her face, trades in something far more powerful—and dangerous—than sex: information. To possess her, men will do more than pay—they will tell her secrets. What Gaelle wants is protection.Felix, ...

As a programmer for Galapagos Wetware, Hal Briggs is responsible for writing the genetic code for simple, efficient creatures to be employed in menial jobs–sweeping streets or washing dishes. But the demands for “wetware” are changing, and Briggs is given a project that calls for more sophisticated models: clients are demanding more human appearance and behavior.As the project progresses, Briggs finds himself endowing the new models with more than the specifications dictate, giving...

"It's a wonderful life . . ." Joy, fear, love, children, fishing, friends, and the constant writing of books are some of the elements of this revealing memoir by novelist Craig Nova. He began this book as a letter to his children but it soon became a credo, a belief in the way an American novelist can live in the modern age. He writes about falling in love with his wife, a devastating review of his first novel, the birth of his daughter, his restorative relationship with the stream and the...

Quinn Farrell is a modern-day fixer in Los Angeles. He cleans up other people’s messes—rich people’s messes—for a lot of money. He’s so good that he’s become indispensable to Hollywood moguls, and he’s managed to construct a working moral framework so that he can live with himself. That is, he did until a new neighbor moves in next door, Rose Marie, who works with terminally ill teens. Against all his survival instincts, Farrell falls in love with Rose Marie… and then her uncanny patients,...

Roger Rosenblatt’s dazzling comic gifts are on enviable display....Beet will settle the issue: is Roger Rosenblatt our most audacious comic visionary,or our most audacious visionary comic?”—Joyce Carol OatesBeet College is doomed...and nobody really cares. The Board of Trustees, led by developer Joel Bollovate, has squandered the endowment. Debutante-cum-self-styled-poet Matha Polite, an indiscriminate radical with a four-student following, wants to bring the institution down. Swee...

“Wickedly funny and always movingly illuminating, thanks to kick-ass storytelling and a poet's ear.” –Oprah.comThe New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation.The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in...

#1 New York Times BestsellerIn this gripping WWII historical nonfiction, Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground, a true story of survival by hiding in plain sight. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Naz...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic, beloved novel of two boy geniuses dreaming up superheroes in New York’s Golden Age of comics, now with special bonus material by the author“It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book WorldOne of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Ente...