Originally published in 1965, The Painted Bird established Jerzy Kosinski as a major literary figure. Called by the Los Angeles Times “one of the most imposing novels of the decade,” it was eventually translated into more than thirty languages. A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned by his parents during World War II, The Painted Bird is a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love. It is th...

In sinister industrial England, fifteen-year-old Gustine is a "dress lodger," a prostitute who rents a beautiful blue dress from her landlord to attract a higher class of clientele. By day a potter's assistant, by night a courtesan of the streets, Gustine works to support her fragile only child, born with a remarkable anatomical defect.Surgeon Henry Chiver is a prisoner of his own past, implicated in a series of killings in Edinburgh in which beggars were murdered so that the corps...

Recovering from the death of her son and the end of her marriage, Kelsey Stewart goes to stay with her aunt at her seaside inn in Carmel, California, looking only for retreat. But a local emergency unexpectedly brings Kelsey’s troubled heart back to life again.When a young boy falls from one of the sea cliffs, Kelsey, a therapist specializing in brain-damaged children, is recruited to help rehabilitate him. Kelsey finds herself developing feelings for the boy as well as for his mys...

This Sequel to the Acclaimed Cult Novel Is Now a Major Motion PictureDarryl Ponicsan's debut novel The Last Detail was named one of the best of the year and widely acclaimed, catapulting him to fame when it was first published. The story of two career sailors assigned to escort a young seaman from Norfolk to the naval prison in Portsmouth, New Hampshire—and of the mayhem that ensues—it was made into an award-winning movie starring Jack Nicholson. Last Flag Flying, set thirty-four y...

Legendary writer Trevanian brings readers his most personal novel yet: a funny, deeply felt, often touching coming-of-age novel set in 1930s America.Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and his spirited but vulnerable young mother have been abandoned—again—by his father, a charming con artist. With no money and nowhere else to go, the LaPointes create a fragile nest in a tenement building at 238 North Pearl Street in Albany, New York.For the n...

An intimate early novel from James A. Michener, now remembered as the beloved master of the historical epic, The Fires of Spring unfolds with the bittersweet drama of a boy’s perilous journey into manhood. David Harper is an orphan, seemingly doomed to loneliness and poverty. As an adolescent con artist and petty thief, David spends his days grifting at an amusement park, the place where he first learns about women and the mysteries of love. Soon he discovers that his longing to e...

New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst pens evocative and urbane novels of World War II espionage. Focusing on the European theater, Furst writes about ordinary people struggling to cope with the chaos of the world around them.In the autumn of 1941 as German tanks approach Moscow, Stalin issues a desperate order: all secret operatives behind enemy lines must strike no matter the cost. Into this fray comes Jean Casson—once a wealthy Parisian film producer, now penniless and wa...

The Acclaimed Novel That Was the Basis for the Classic Movie Starring Jack NicholsonUnlike other branches of the armed services, the Navy draws it police force from the ranks, as temporary duty called Shore Patrol. In this funny, bawdy, moving novel set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, Virginia—Billy "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Mule Mulhall—are assigned to escort eighteen-year-old Larry Meadows from Norfolk to the brig in Portsmouth, New Ha...

A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiencesIn 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, Miranda's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two sensational unsolved crimes—one in the past, another in the present—are linked by one man’s memory and self-deception in this chilling novel of literary suspense from National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe Wall Street Journal • NPR • The New York Times • Los Angeles Times • The Washington Post ...

A hilarious debut novel about a wealthy but fractured Chinese immigrant family that had it all, only to lose every last cent-and about the road trip they take across America that binds them back together Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, lovable immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he's just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so that he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family's ...

First published in 1963, James A. Michener’s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set ag...