A college student moves in with his elderly history professor and soon discovers her connections with a mysterious abduction, WWII Nazi collaborators, the assassin of Rasputin and an unorthodox Benedictine convent. The true story of trans pioneer who fiercely defied stereotypes and forged her own path through the world.

"Do you know what is wrong with people? They have no passion for life. I might as well be surrounded by upright cadavers. The plague exists in church, at school, almost everywhere. It affects my friends, colleagues, many students... and it's an absolute catastrophe!" - Dr. Ellsworth, November 1999 "Babette: The Many Lives, Two Deaths and Double Kidnapping of Dr. Ellsworth" is the story of Ross Eliot's early years in Portland, Oregon, when he stumbled upon an unusual living arrangement with...

In this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding.**"Arresting lyricism and beauty" —**The New York Times Book ReviewWho says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes—it would be too awkward—and you...

An "affecting tale" of a romantic reunion and a midlife affair from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Pilot's Wife ( Publishers Weekly).Out of the blue, Siân Richards receives a letter from her first love, a boy she met at summer camp—and she sees no reason why she can't write back to Charles Callahan. After all, it's been thirty years and they are both married with families.But when they decide to meet again, an innoce...

From the best-selling author of How To Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee's award-winning debut is "One of the great queer novels . . . of our time."—Brandon Taylor, GQTwelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean-American boy growing up in Maine whose powerful soprano voice wins him a place as section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys choir. But when, on a retreat, Fee discovers how the director treats the boys he makes section lea...

"Fans of Griffiths, Gleitzman and Jennings will be thrilled to have this in their collection." Kids Book ReviewI'm Tom Weekly. If my life is an exploding chicken, this book is my attempt to glue it back together.I have a few confessions. I've done a runner from the dentist. I'm petrified of clowns. Giant headlice tried to eat me. A lost sock nearly killed me. And you're not going to believe this, but I was attacked by Library Ninjas whenmy book was...

From the author of Leaving Las Vegas, "a sensitive and understated novel" about a lonely law clerk yearning for human connection ( Booklist).Here is the simple life of Carroll, a middle-aged, unmarried, friendless man whose only joy is watching beautiful women dance. Terribly shy and unable to socialize with the people around him, Carroll's fascination with the women at his favorite strip club, Indiscretions, is totally innocent. He finds solace i...

The author who took readers into the strange and fascinating world of Salt Lake City escort services now returns to New York, where a single woman becomes inexplicably drawn to a college student accused of murder. Grace drinks alone in the same bar every night, confides in her longtime bartender, and observes New York City life from the sidelines. A copy editor in her mid-thirties, she is estranged from her family and, in many ways, from herself. But when a local coed is found dead, and a col...

What happens when a Korean-American preacher’s kid refuses to get married, travels the world, and quits being vegetarian? She meets her polar opposite on an online dating site while sitting at a café in Paris, France and ends up in Paris, Maine, learning how to hunt. A memoir and a cookbook with recipes that skewer human foibles and celebrates DIY food culture, Deer Hunting in Paris is an unexpectedly funny exploration of a vanishing way of life in a complex cosmopolitan world. Sn...

You're sitting in a darkened theater, waiting for the movie to begin when American culture explodes all around in I-Max, Sensurround, Technicolor-this is the experience of reading Lance Olsen's brilliant 10:01, a novel in frames that unreels the random thoughts of a random movie audience: a screening of our own moment that Olsen lights with the white heat of a a projector beam.

Since Hallie's father died and left behind ten children, money at the Palmer household is tighter than ever. And just when Hallie thought she was graduating from college, it turns out she's four credits short. A professor needs one more student for a project that will take her around the world, only longtime boyfriend Craig has another proposition for Hallie.Thus begins Hallie's great odyssey, for the first time she ventures outside the safety of Cosgrove County and the sixty-mile ...

David Gilbert's dark and daring collection of stories was admitted by critics and readers alike when first published in 1998. Gilbert's stories stretch from war-torn Bosnia to a college sorority house to kill-or-be-killed Hollywood. Gilbert's bold prose and perceptive wit paint a devastating picture of normal life on the brink of desperation and paranoia. His insights into the minor tragedies, disappointments, and desires that shape us reflect a deep understanding of human nature and a gen...