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Week of April 8, 2019

New in Paperback

Week of April 8, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of April 8th include the Man Booker Prize finalist WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan, a dazzling adventure story about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world; HARRY AND MEGHAN, royal expert Katie Nicholl's intimate and informative portrait of Prince Harry, his marriage to Meghan Markle, and how their union is modernizing the Royal Family; TWENTY-ONE DAYS, the beginning of an all-new series from Anne Perry, in which a young lawyer races to save his client from execution, putting him at odds with his own father: Thomas Pitt, head of London’s Special Police Branch; and PATRIOT NUMBER ONE by Lauren Hilgers, the deeply reported story of one indelible family transplanted from rural China to New York City, forging a life between two worlds.

Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt - Historical Fiction

April 9, 2019

Coming of age in the midst of a creative and cultural whirlwind in Vienna, young, beautiful Alma Schindler yearns to make her mark as a composer. A new era of possibility for women is dawning, and she is determined to make the most of it. But Alma loses her heart to the great composer Gustav Mahler, nearly 20 years her senior. He demands that she give up her music as a condition of their marriage. Torn by her love and in awe of his genius, how will she remain true to herself and her artistic passion?

The Eighth Sister by Robert Dugoni - Thriller

April 9, 2019

Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early 60s, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters. Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital. But when he finds the mastermind agent behind the assassinations --- the so-called eighth sister --- she is not who or what he was led to believe. Then again, neither is anyone else in this deadly game of cat and mouse.

Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss, and Love by Katie Nicholl - Biography

April 9, 2019

From his earliest public appearances as a mischievous redheaded toddler, Prince Harry has captured the hearts of royal enthusiasts around the world, while his marriage to Meghan Markle has only endeared him further. In HARRY AND MEGHAN, Britain's leading expert on the young royals offers an in-depth look at the wayward prince turned national treasure. Katie Nicholl sheds new light on growing up royal, Harry's relationship with his mother, his troubled youth and early adulthood, and how his military service in Afghanistan inspired him to create his legacy, the Invictus Games. She uncovers new information about Harry's past relationships and reveals the true story of his romance with Meghan Markle, the smart and spirited American who captured his heart.

Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura - Fiction

April 9, 2019

Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-50s, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman. In addition to her husband's infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing 80-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself guiltily dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother's happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of being a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.

Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Murder by Cutter Wood - True Crime

April 9, 2019

When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest --- her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island. Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum, and he was drawn steadily deeper into the case. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer.

The Magnificent Esme Wells by Adrienne Sharp - Historical Fiction

April 9, 2019

Esme Silver has always taken care of her charming ne’er-do-well father, Ike Silver, a small-time crook with dreams of making it big with Bugsy Siegel. In awe of her mother, Dina Wells, Esme is more than happy to be the foil who gets the beautiful Dina into meetings and screen tests with some of Hollywood’s greats. When Ike gets an opportunity to move to Vegas --- and, in what could at last be his big break, to help the man she knows as "Benny" open the Flamingo Hotel --- life takes an unexpected turn for Esme. A stunner like her mother, the young girl catches the attention of Nate Stein, one of the Strip’s most powerful men.

The Neighborhood written by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Edith Grossman - Thriller

April 9, 2019

One day, Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposés. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page. Meanwhile, Enrique’s wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique’s lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru’s unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embarks on their greatest exposé yet.

Our House by Louise Candlish - Psychological Thriller

April 9, 2019

When Fiona Lawson comes home to find strangers moving into her house, she's sure there's been a mistake. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern co-parenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down. Now Bram has disappeared and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly knew each other.

Patriot Number One: A Chinese Rebel Comes to America by Lauren Hilgers - Biography

April 9, 2019

In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar --- pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch.

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes - Fiction

April 9, 2019

In the ’60s, Athene Forster was the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was also beautiful, spoiled and out of control. When she agreed to marry the gorgeous young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme, her parents breathed a sigh of relief. But within two years, rumors had begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty-five years later, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her notorious mother's legacy. The only place Suzanna finds comfort is in The Peacock Emporium, the beautiful coffee bar and shop she opens that soon enchants her little town. The specter of her mother still haunts Suzanna. But only by confronting both her family and her innermost self will she finally reckon with the past.

Side Life by Steve Toutonghi - Science Fiction/Thriller

April 9, 2019

Vin, a down-on-his-luck young tech entrepreneur forced out of the software company he started, takes a job house-sitting an ultra-modern Seattle mansion whose owner has gone missing. There he discovers a secret basement lab with an array of computers and three large, smooth caskets. Inside one he finds a woman in a state of suspended animation. There is also a dog-eared notebook filled with circuit diagrams, beautiful and intricate drawings of body parts, and pages of code. When Vin decides to enter one of the caskets himself, his reality begins to unravel, and he finds himself on a terrifying journey that raises fundamental questions about reality, free will and the meaning of a human life.

Tin Man by Sarah Winman - Fiction

April 9, 2019

Ellis and Michael are 12-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them --- cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more. But then we fast-forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question: What happened in the years between?

Twenty-One Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry - Historical Mystery

April 9, 2019

1910: Twenty-five-year-old Daniel Pitt is a junior barrister in London and eager to prove himself, independent of his renowned parents’ influence. And the new case before him will be the test. When his client, arrogant biographer Russell Graves, is found guilty of murdering his wife, Daniel is dispatched to find the real killer before Graves faces the hangman’s noose --- in only 21 days. Could Mrs. Graves’ violent death have anything to do with her husband’s profession? Someone in power may be framing the biographer to keep damaging secrets from coming to light. It is a theory that leads Daniel’s investigation unexpectedly to London’s Special Branch --- and, disturbingly, to one of his father’s closest colleagues.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan - Historical Fiction

April 9, 2019

George Washington Black, or "Wash," an 11-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master's brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self.

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton - Historical Fiction

April 9, 2019

The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro's inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire to reclaim the life she lost. As the Cold War swells like a hurricane over the shores of the Florida Strait, Beatriz is caught between the clash of Cuban American politics and the perils of a forbidden affair with a powerful man driven by ambitions of his own. When the ever-changing tides of history threaten everything she has fought for, she must make a choice between her past and future. But the wrong move could cost Beatriz everything --- not just the island she loves, but also the man who has stolen her heart.