Adult

In WHERE THE PAST BEGINS, Amy Tan reveals the ways that our memories and personal experiences can inform our creative work. Drawing on her vivid impressions of her upbringing, she investigates the truths and inspirations behind her writing while illuminating how we all explore, confront and process complex memories, especially half-forgotten ones from childhood. With candor, empathy and humor, Tan sheds light on her own writing process, sharing her hard-won insights on the nature of creativity and inspiration while exploring the universal urge to examine truth through the workings of imagination --- and what that imaginative world tells us about our own lives.

It's just another day at the office for Washington Metro Police lieutenant Sam Holland when a body surfaces off the shores of the Anacostia River. But before Sam can sink her teeth into the new case, Secret Service agents seize her from the crime scene. A threat has been made against her family, but nobody will tell her anything --- including the whereabouts of her husband, Vice President Nick Cappuano. With a ruthless killer out for vengeance, and Nick struggling to maintain his reputation after secrets from his own past are revealed, Sam works to tie the threat to a murder that can't possibly be a coincidence.

Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed “Too Big to Fail” to almost every large corporation in America --- to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond. THE CHICKENSHIT CLUB --- an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs --- explains why. A character-driven narrative, the book tells the story from inside the Department of Justice. It spans the last decade and a half of prosecutorial fiascos, corporate lobbying, trial losses and culture shifts that have stripped the government of the will and ability to prosecute top corporate executives.

Springtime in the Hamptons comes late, but it’s worth it! Brisk walks on the bright chilly beach, cinnamon buns at tea time, blooming forsythia and...murder? East Hampton innkeeper and chef Antonia Bingham has settled in to town and taken on extra work as an estate manager, giving her entrée her into some of the area’s most glamorous homes. Once inside, Antonia checks the heat, looks for leaks or damage, and finds the occasional dead body. Since the police can’t be trusted, it’s up to Antonia --- a modern-day Miss Marple, with an overly enthusiastic adoration of carbs and a kamikaze love-life --- to put her skills of deduction to use.

In the aftermath of World War II, Charlie St. Clair is pregnant and unmarried. When her parents banish her to Europe so she can terminate her pregnancy, Charlie instead heads to London to find out what happened to her cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war. A year into World War I, Eve Gardiner is recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she is trained by Lili, who manages a vast network of secret agents. Thirty years later, Eve is still haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network. But then a young American barges into her crumbling London house and utters a name she hasn't heard in decades, launching them both on a mission to find the truth, no matter where it leads.

A retired couple, Gerry and Stella Gilmore, fly from their home in Scotland to Amsterdam for a long weekend. But over the course of these four days, we discover the deep uncertainties that exist between them. Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage, and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith. Things are not helped by memories that have begun to resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland. As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are --- and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.

Any of the Warners could have been behind a tragic Fourth of July weekend accident. Having spent the past three decades' worth of summers on Nantucket, the Warners are as much a part of the island as the crust of salt on the ferry. But this year is different: Tripp is no longer the father he was, and it becomes clear that nothing can survive the ravages of time. When tradition turns to tragedy, the creaky old house swirls with suspicion. There are just so many reasons to want someone gone. With no easy answers as to how, why or who, the Warners must face another frightening question: Do they really want to know the truth?

It started with a single child and quickly spread: you could get high by drinking your own shadow. At night, artificial lights were destroyed so that addicts could sip shadow in the pure glow of the moon. Gangs of shadow addicts chased down children on playgrounds and rounded up old ladies from retirement homes. Cities were destroyed and governments fell. One hundred fifty years later, Mira, her shadow-addicted friend Murk, and an ex-domer named Bale search for a possible mythological cure to the shadow sickness --- but they must do so before the return of Halley’s Comet, which is only days away.

Madeleine d'Leon doesn't know where Edward came from. He is simply a character in her next book. But as she writes, he becomes all she can think about --- his charm, his dark hair, his pen scratching out his latest literary novel. Edward McGinnity can't get Madeleine out of his mind– --- softly smiling, infectiously enthusiastic and perfectly damaged. She will be the ideal heroine for his next book. But who is the author, and who is the creation? And as the lines start to blur, who is affected when a killer finally takes flesh?

A public meeting becomes a battleground over plans to redevelop the once-proud Brooklyn Navy Yard. Local residents clamor for their own agenda in redeveloping 300 acres overlooking a sparkling downtown Manhattan, while business and real estate experts argue and city officials cower. Erica Donato witnesses the shocking murder of a power-broker that night on the Yard's condemned Admirals' Row. She uncovers the dead man's complicated history with the Yard, his road to wealth and a high-flyer lifestyle. When her daughter, Chris, visits her father's relatives for a family history project, Erica learns that the Donato clan was involved in the Navy Yard's glory days and its slow, politics-ridden death.