At the beginning of the 21st century, physics is being driven to very unfamiliar territory--the domain of the incredibly small and the incredibly heavy. The new world is a world in which both quantum
Even though former slaves Annie Coats and her son Gabriel have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice--to the extent that Annie secretly recalls
The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society, particularly the media,
"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (The Christian Science Monitor) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever i
In the wake of factory closings and his beloved wife's death, Lev makes his way from Eastern Europe to London, seeking work to support his mother and his little daughter. After a spell of homelessnes
From the Salem witch trials to Depression-era Chicago, from the exclusive country-clubs of the wealthy to the depths of today's toughest ghettos, this riveting collection traces the triumphs, defeats
Sarah Walters, the narrator of GIRLS IN TRUCKS, is a reluctant Camellia Society debutante. She has always felt ill-fitted to the rococo ways of Southern womanhood and family, and is anxious to shake
To end a history of World War II at VE Day is to leave the tale half told. While the war may have seemed all but over by Hitler's final birthday (April 20), Stafford's chronicle of the three months t
Upon its first publication, A Different Mirror was hailed by critics and academics everywhere as a dramatic new retelling of our nation's past. Beginning with the colonization of the New World, it re
Part Fast Food Nation, part Bobos in Paradise, STARBUCKED combines investigative heft with witty cultural observation in telling the story of how the coffeehouse movement changed our everyday lives,
Ever since renowned literary critic Anatole Broyard's own parents, New Orleans Creoles, had moved to Brooklyn and began to "pass" in order to get work, he had learned to conceal his racial identity.
Two years ago, singer-songwriter Wesley Stace blew onto the literary scene with his bold and free-wheeling Dickensian comedy Misfortune. Now, he is back with another wonderfully entertaining and inve
HERE IF YOU NEED ME is the story Kate Braestrup's remarkable journey from grief to faith to happiness - as she holds her family together in the wake of her husband's death, pursues his dream of becom
When 5-year old Sharla Cody is dumped on the doorstep of Addy Shadd, a 70-year old woman living in a trailer park, Addy does not know how completely her life is about to change. She's hardly used to
Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated novel is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the novel mourns
"Three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a Nantucket native home from college for the summer. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, t
Praised everywhere as a stunning work of reportage, TAKEOVER lays bare a hidden agenda, three decades in the making, to allow the White House to wield enormous powers, unchecked by Congres or the cou
Losing something is never easy - whether it's luggage, love, or the dream of something better - but it's even harder when someone takes it from you. These five seductive tales, rendered with striking
A volume of top-selected interviews with renowned celebrities and cultural figures, published in celebration of the magazine's fortieth anniversary, includes features about such individuals as Mick Ja
"Stunning. . . . The danger reaches a frightening pitch."--Rocky Mountain News "Mina offers us a complex plot with a shocking ending, all told in an amazingly original voice." -Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Deliciously dramatic... The Beautiful Fall crackles with excitement."-New York Times Book ReviewIn the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and lon
One murky night in 1816, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron, famed English poet, challenged his friends to a contest--to write a ghost story. The assembled groupincluded the poet Percy Bysshe Sh
Ree Dolly's father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on
Now that Materena is a big star with her radio talk show, Pito can't help noticing some changes in his wife. She's spending more and more time at work and with her girlfriends instead of coming home
Having so many choices, Caitlin Flanagan maintains, has torn women away from what many of them want most: to raise a family and run a household. It's a nearly heretical statement today, and, like so
With a deceptively simple yet graceful style, and in the tradition of Lara Vapnyar, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Gish Jen, Frances Hwang captures the thousand minor battles waged in the homes of immigrants--st
In the tradition of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," Leebaert tells the stories of small forces that have triumphed over vastly larger ones and changed the course of history--from the Trojan Horse to Al Qae
Exploring what it means to a school, a coach, and a player to be in the Final Four or even at The Final, this work features stories of players and coaches who thought they'd never make it to college
As soon as The Beatles became famous, the spin machine began to construct a myth--one that has continued to this day. But the truth is much more interesting, much more exciting, and much more moving.
When a drunken Pito proposes to Materena, she initially thinks it's just the booze talking. As she nevertheless starts planning, she juggles everyday life only to have Pito act as though he's forgott
Written with buoyant humor and a sharp sense of human desire, this is the story of love pursued at any cost, of how friendship and history unite people for better or worse, and of the hope for that r
Howard Kapostash has not spoken in thirty years. The small repertory of gestures and simple sounds that he uses to communicate lead most people to assume he is disturbed. No one understands that Howa
In the stories that make up Oblivion, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness--a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his. Th
With this rollicking novel-hailed equally for its satiric bite, its lightly borne scientific savvy, and its tender compassion for foible-prone humanity-one of America's preeminent storytellers return
David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions
Things like this don't happen to people like us. That's what Lachlan Harriot thinks as he watches his wife, Susie, led to jail in handcuffs. Yes, Susie, a psychologist, was found covered in blood nea
A flamboyant beauty who once partied with the Prince of Wales and who now, in her seventh decade, has "gone native" in a Ceylonese jungle. A proud, Oxford-educated lawyer who unwittingly seals his ow
In this Bracingly Honest, Page-Turning Memoir, what begins as a manic money chase-desperate to hang on to his home after his marriage breaks up. David Denby realizes he can buy out his wife's share o
Who was Harriet Tubman? To John Brown, the leader of the Harpers Ferry slave uprising, she was General Tubman. For those slaves whom she led north to freedom, she was Moses. To the slavers who hunted