DescriptionJan Karon's millions of fans can't wait to sit down with her heartwarming and hilarious characters, who have a way of becoming family. In fact, readers and booksellers across the country kept Out to Canaan and At Home in Mitford on The Ne…
DescriptionAfter an early career among the political elite of Cold War Russia, Alexander Ivanov has lived in the states for 40 years. He has built a successful business and has managed to bury the tragic memories surrounding his late wife, Katya - or so he believes. For into his life come two women: one who will start to open up the heart he has kept protected for so long, the other determined to uncover the truth about what happened to Katya all those years ago.
DescriptionIn this sequel to Harrison's True North, Donald Burkett, a middle-aged Chippewa-Finnish man, is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. While his wife, Cynthia, transcribes, Donald begins dictating his family history for the benefit of their children - stories that he has never before shared. As old crimes, dreams, wounds, and sacred moments are revived for the members of Donald's family, each is affected in different and profound ways. Each will describe in his or her own voice the inner journey catalyzed by Donald's death and legacy. This is a deeply moving book about origins and endings, about honoring life, honoring the dead, and finding redemption in unlikely places.
DescriptionAt Cold Mountain Penitentiary, along the lonely stretch of cells known as the Green Mile, killers such as "Billy the Kid" Wharton and the possessed Eduard Delacroix await death strapped in "Old Sparky". Guards as decent as Paul Edgecombe and as sadistic as Percy Wetmore watch over them. But good or evil, innocent or guilty, none has ever seen the brutal likes of the new prisoner, John Coffey, sentenced to death for raping and murdering two young girls. Is Coffey a devil in human form? Or is he a far, far different kind of being? There are more wonders in heaven and hell than anyone at Cold Mountain can imagine. In The Green Mile, Stephen King builds the tension page by page and then delivers a revelation that will truly blow your mind.
DescriptionEvery Friday night, the same seven Dublin workers meet to travel home in Tom Fitzgerald's lilac-coloured minibus. Each of them needs to return regularly to Rathdoon: Nancy Morris, a real "Miss Mouse", is known for her meanness and has to escape her flatmate's carping; Dee Burke is engrossed in her affair; Kev Kennedy has a side to his character hidden even from his family; Celis Ryan has to face her mother making a drunken exhibition of herself; and Tom has his reasons. Maeve Binchy's vibrant characters, with all their joys and sadness, are brilliantly brought to life by Kate Binchy.
DescriptionIs Richard James, the story's narrator, alive or not? What is the Halfway-House Hotel? Where do Jessica and Melanie fit into Richard's life - or death? Does such a place exist for us all? And what part does the hotel manager, Vince, play? This narrative is an absorbing tale of one man's journey to find peace, complicated by the traumas of his life so far. You can only find the answers by listening to this intriguing story to the very end.
DescriptionWhen the rector, Peter, and his wife, Caroline, decide to go to Africa for a year to work in a mission, they take their twins with them. The village inhabitants whose lives revolve around the church and this family are bereft. They don't immediately take to the woman locum, Anna, who has modern ideas, happy clappy hymns and so forth, but she does fill the church with parishioners determined to keep an eye on her. And then she brings Paddy, a down and out petty thief, into their midst. He lives at the Rectory and there is speculation as to whose bed he shares. However, Anna is smitten by someone else, but he is a married man. Once again Rebecca Shaw has given us a hugely readable and enjoyable novel. She is a master at mixing pathos with humour and the excitement she instils in this engaging story makes it one of her very best.
DescriptionQueenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when, or if, her husband, posted to India during the war, will return. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian, he finds himself treated very differently. Gilbert's wife, Hortense, too, had longed to find a better life in England. But when she joins him, she is shocked that London is far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was. Through the stories of these characters, Small Island explores a point in England's past when the country began to change. Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war, and love, with a superb lightness of touch and generosity of spirit.
DescriptionIn 29 years, Rose Darlen has never spent a moment apart from her twin sister, Ruby. She has never gone for a solitary walk or had a private conversation. Yet, in all that time, she has never once looked into Ruby's eyes. Joined at the head, "The Girls" (as they are known in their small town) attempt to lead a normal life, but can't help being extraordinary. Now almost 30, Rose and Ruby are on the verge of becoming the oldest living craniopagus twins in history, but they are remarkable for a lot more than their unusual sisterly bond.
DescriptionBetrayed by her lover, Bella Ford vows revenge. Instead her quest leads her to the home of the Wainwright family, where 3 brothers slowly restore her trust. Sharing in their pleasures and hardships, she once again finds happiness and love. But on the day of the traditional summer feast the past comes crashing back into Bella's life, bringing with it a violent and terrible tragedy. Feast of July is performed by actress Embeth Davidtz, who starred in the Merchant-Ivory movie version of this work.
