"Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Her mother has just passed away, her brother is newly married, and now that the Great War is over, she has been asked to give up managing the estate she helped to run when the men all joined the army. It is suggested to her that she become a governess. But first, she will act as caretaker to Mrs. Fog, an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside resort. Constance is soon swept up in the social whirl...

From the author of The Mosquito Coast and The Bad Angel Brothers comes a new novel exploring one of English literature's most beloved and controversial figures—George Orwell—and the early years as an officer in colonial Burma that transformed him from Eric Blair, the British Raj policeman, into Orwell the anticolonial writer. At age nineteen, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other...

"Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Redfeather's shooting in There There"-- Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found...

"'Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes . . . ' Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling an unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It's 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the...

In 1908 Manchuria, Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the identity of a dead courtesan, while a secretive woman named Snow, seeking vengeance for her lost child, navigates the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits to find a murderer.

"In 1941, beautiful Irvel Ellis is too focused on her secret to take much notice in the war raging overseas. She's dating Sam but in love with his brother, Hank, and Irvel has no idea how to break the news when the unthinkable happens-Pearl Harbor is attacked. With their lives turned upside down overnight, Sam is drafted, and Hank wants to enlist. But Sam insists Hank stay home, where he and Irvel take up the battle on the home front. While Sam fights...

As the United States enters World War II, seventeen-year-old Eleanor wants to do something to help her Jewish relatives in Poland, so she puts her brilliant math skills to work for the US army to fine-tune a top-secret weapon that will help defeat the enemy.

"Georgie ... impatiently awaits the birth of her baby. But she has plenty to occupy her: her new chef Pierre has arrived from Paris, and Sir Hubert, who owns Eynsleigh, is back from his latest expedition. It's time for Georgie to throw her first house party to celebrate his return and show off her new chef. ... Sir Mortimer Mordred--famous author of creepy Gothic horror novels--is one of the guests. He recently purchased a nearby Elizabethan manor...

"From Percival Everett-a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards-comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby...

"... Brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people"--From publisher description.