The acclaimed author reflects on romance and disillusionment in childhood, young adulthood, and her marriage through a series of autobiographical essays."Smart, funny, and moving. . . . A gifted and gutsy writer. . . . This is what a first collection of stories should be." — The Boston GlobeCousins, mothers, sisters, dolls, dogs, best friends: these are the fixed points in Jo Ann Beard's universe, the constants that...

From the acclaimed author of The Boys of My Youth and Festival Days, a "mesmerizing… beautifully written" debut novel that evokes the wrenching, exquisite moment just before we step into adulthood (Ann Patchett).The fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer. She flies under the radar — a sidekick, a marching-band dropout, a disastrous babysitter. Luckily, she has a best friend with whom she shares the everyday adventure...

A searing and exhilarating new collection from the award-winning author of The Boys of My Youth and In Zanesville***,who “honors the beautiful, the sacred, and the comic in life” (Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner for The Friend).*A New York Times Notable BookA New York Times Bo...

A searing and exhilarating new collection from the award-winning author of The Boys of My Youth and In Zanesville***,who “honors the beautiful, the sacred, and the comic in life” (Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner for The Friend).*A New York Times Notable BookA New York Times Book Revie...

From the acclaimed author of The Boys of My Youth, a “mesmerizing… beautifully written” debut novel that evokes the wrenching, exquisite moment just before we step into adulthood (Ann Patchett, Pulitzer-Prize finalist)The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer. She is used to flying under the radar-a sidekick, a third wheel, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is t...

The "utterly compelling, uncommonly beautiful" collection of personal essays (Newsweek) that established Jo Ann Beard as one of the leading writers of her generation.Cousins, mothers, sisters, dolls, dogs, best friends: these are the fixed points in Jo Ann Beard's universe, the constants that remain when the boys of her youth -- and then men who replace them -- are gone. This widely praised collection of autobiographical essays summons back, with astonishi...

The fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer; a sidekick, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is the discovery that 'fudge' can't be said with an English accent. Luckily, she has a best friend with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood. In time, their friendship is tested - by their families' claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them, and by the first, startling, ...

Hurry Down Sunshine tells the story of the extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg’s daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally’s sudden visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,” Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away tow...

When Andrew Bridge was seven years old, he and his mother—a mentally unstable woman who loved her child more than she could care for him—slid deeper and deeper into poverty, until they were reduced to scavenging for food in trash bins. Welfare officials did little more than threaten to take Andrew away, until a social worker arrived with a police escort and did just that while his mother screamed on the sidewalk. And so began Andrew's descent into the foster care system—"care" being a terr...

""A loving testament to the work and reward of the best friendships, the kind where your arms can’t distinguish burden from embrace.” — PeopleNew York Times Bestselling author Ann Patchett’s first work of nonfiction chronicling her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Wri...

The unflinching true account of a teenage girl's descent into society's underbelly -- and her mother's desperate and ultimately successful attempts to bring her back.How does an honor student at one of Los Angeles's finest prep schools -- a bright, beautiful girl from a loving home -- trade school uniforms and afternoons at the beach for shooting up in the back of a van in rural Indiana? How does her devoted mother emerge from the shock of finding that her daughter has not only dis...

From the world-renowned singer-songwriter, a debut novel about a fatherless boy growing up in a family of outspoken women in contemporary Pakistan, The Wish Maker is a brilliant tale about sacrifice, betrayal, and indestructible friendship.Zaki Shirazi and his female cousin Samar Api were raised to consider themselves “part of the same litter.” In a household run by Zaki's crusading political journalist mother and iron-willed grandmother, it was impossible...