Adult

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer, who spends his days working at his father’s market stall, is determined to become a merchant prince. Even as a child, he is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming and brimming with self-confidence. James quickly rises through the ranks, proving himself both hardworking and trustworthy, and catching the eye of Henry Malvern, head of the most prestigious shipping company in London. But when threats against his reputation --- and his life --- begin to emerge, James will have to prove that he truly is the master of his fate.

In THE END OF THE END OF THE EARTH, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes --- both human and literary --- that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we’ve come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu.

Russia, 1968. When his father is assassinated by the KGB for defying the state, Alexander Karpenko and his mother must flee the country if they hope to survive. At the docks, they are confronted with an irreversible choice: should they board a container ship bound for America --- or go to Great Britain? In a single moment, a double twist decides Alexander’s future. But what if the epic events of his life had played out differently? How would his experience as a struggling immigrant have been on one continent versus the other? The only way for Alexander to answer these questions --- and learn his true destiny --- is to face the past he left behind in Russia. But is his need to settle the score with his old friend, Vladimir, worth the risk of losing everything…including his own life?

American historian Hannah intends to immerse herself in World War II research in Paris, wary of paying much attention to the city where a youthful misadventure once left her dejected. But a chance encounter with Tariq, a Moroccan teenager whose visions of the City of Lights as a world of opportunity and rebirth starkly contrast with her own, disrupts her plan. Hannah agrees to take Tariq in as a lodger, forming an unexpected connection with the young man. Yet, as Tariq begins to assimilate, he realizes that the country’s dark past and current ills are far more complicated than he’d anticipated. And Hannah, diving deeper into her work on women’s lives in Nazi-occupied Paris, uncovers a shocking piece of history that threatens to dismantle her core beliefs.

It is 1887, and Alma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency --- but dismissed for bad behavior and a penchant for going undercover as a man --- Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is tasked with tracking the thief and recovering the drugs. She’s enjoying her dangerous game of shifting identities and double crosses as she fights for a promotion and an invitation back into Delphine’s bed. But it’s getting harder and harder to keep her cover stories straight and to know whom to trust.

Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called WELCOME HOME. The work consisted of more than 20 chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In this publication of WELCOME HOME, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic and tragic life. From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin’s world was wide. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style, wit, heart and humor that readers fell in love with in her stories.

In 2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN, a posthumous story collection by a relatively unknown writer, to widespread acclaim. The book’s author, Lucia Berlin, earned comparisons to Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Alice Munro and Anton Chekhov. EVENING IN PARADISE is a careful selection from Berlin’s remaining stories --- 22 gems that showcase the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. From Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City, Berlin finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine.

Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Frances Welty, the formerly bestselling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back and a broken heart. The person who intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of the resort. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer ---- or should she run while she still can? It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking the same question.

Donny is a baby genius whose play for fortune is an algorithm that may allow people access to their "multiverses" --- all the planes on which their alternative life choices can be played out simultaneously --- to see how the decisions they’ve made have shaped their lives. He chooses Amy Reed to be his guinea pig. Amy’s husband, Dan, accepts a dare of his own, accompanying a seductive, award-winning photographer named Maryam on a trip to Fukushima, the Japanese city devastated by tsunami and meltdown. But when crisis hits at home, the extent of Dan’s betrayal is exposed. As Amy contemplates alternative lives, the couple must confront whether or not the distances between them in the here and now are irreconcilable.

“Time travel” --- and its hazards --- are made literal in Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America --- “Wainscotia, Wisconsin”--- that existed 80 years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of “rehabilitation” --- but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constraints of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating.