A comic novel of three young men who "borrow" an automobile for a hilarious journey in Memphis. Wild humor and frenetic action do not, however, obscure the development of moving and tender human relationships and moral insights into human conduct.

"When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition ... Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is [their center of gravity] Jude, ... by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body...

Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in Worchestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But author David Mitchell creates an exquistitely observed world that is anything but sleepy: a world of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigre; of first cigarettes, first kisses, and first...

The coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax (Rann for short), an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris, and Korea. While in Paris Rann falls for the beautiful and equally brilliant Stephanie Kung, who lives with her Chinese father and has not seen her American mother since she abandoned the family when Stephanie was six years old. Separated for long periods of time, their final...

"A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed and award-winning author Rebecca Makkai In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic...

A sweeping, Dickensian story of a young girl on a life-changing journey across nineteenth-century Ireland on the eve of the Great FamineEarly one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, "You are the strong one now." With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits her in men's clothing and casts her out. When her younger brother...

The Lemon Jelly Cake carries readers back to kinder, gentler times in small-town Central Illinois at the turn of the century. Evoking a forgotten America of lush lawns, bountiful summer picnics, shaded front porches, and gentle humor, the tale is set in an era when the day's toughest decision might have been what to serve for dinner or which suit or dress to wear. The Lemon Jelly Cake was a selection of the Literary Guild and was serialized in Woman's...

England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing and the Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren't convinced. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands. Inspired by the local vicar, they go looking for God--they believe that if they find Him they might also find Mrs. Creasy and bring her home. Spunky, spirited Grace and...

What are the boundaries between imagination and delusion? When Ella's father John dies unexpectedly, she learns that the past she believed in never really happened. For more than twenty years, Ella has learned to live without her mother, learned to forget the woman with paranoid delusions who abandoned their small family the summer Ella turned ten, learned to accept the likely scenario that her homeless mother died on the streets. But John's accident...

Jessica Darling is up in arms again in this much-anticipated, hilarious sequel to "Sloppy Firsts." This time, the hyperobservant, angst-ridden teenager is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her senior year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious and oh-so-compelling Marcus Flutie continue to distract Jessica, but her best friend, Hope, still lives in anther state, and she can't seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew,...