Adult

Laure Beausejour has been taken from her destitute family and raised in an infamous orphanage to be trained as a lace maker. Striking and willful, she dreams of becoming a seamstress and catching the eye of a nobleman. But after complaining about her living conditions, she is sent to Canada as a fille du roi, expected to marry a French farmer there.

In this follow-up to THE BOY IN THE SUITCASE, Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg doesn’t realize she is putting life and family on the line when she tries to treat a group of sick Hungarian gypsies who are living illegally in a Copenhagen garage. Nina has unwittingly thrown herself into a deadly nest of the unscrupulous and the desperate, and what is at stake is much more terrifying than anyone had realized.

Greyson Todd is a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter, and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years. This novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels; the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's eyes as a child; and the intimacies and estrangements of his marriage.

Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman’s powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collide with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can’t be denied.

In “Housewifely Arts,” a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother’s voice. A population-control activist faces the ultimate conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in “Yesterday’s Whales.” And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker.

As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of remarkable talent.

Wanting something personally fulfilling to do with her time, Jackie Hart starts a reading club and anonymously hosts a radio show, calling herself Miss Dreamsville. The racially segregated town falls in love with Miss Dreamsville, but doesn’t know what to make of Jackie, who welcomes everyone into her book club.

Marjorie Celona’s debut novel is about a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. Swaddled in a dirty gray sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss Army knife tucked between her feet, little Shannon is discovered by a man who catches only a glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view. That morning, all three lives are forever changed.

Eloise Hempel’s life is turned upside down when she must raise her sister's three children after her sister's untimely death. Nearly two decades after returning to Cincinnati and moving back into her mother's house, she is ready to resume her own life. However, when her mother creates a competition for which of the now-grown kids gets the house, their makeshift family starts to fall apart.

The subject of LOVE ANTHONY is autism, but that implacable disorder is only part of the story. Blending neuroscience and emotional insight, Lisa Geonva --- best known for 2008’s STILL ALICE --- delivers a heartfelt tale of two women who emerge from tragedy and betrayal to make a fresh start.

As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. To her great disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth in math. Yet castle life quickly proves more dangerous --- and deadly --- than Maggie ever expected.

Nestled in a picturesque corner of southern Australia, the Valley View Motel has been run by the Quinlans for years --- and nobody adores the place more than Lola, the family’s lovable and mischievous Irish-born matriarch. Plotting in secret and online, Lola thinks it would be fun to invite a select group of strangers to stay at the motel for Christmas. Will these guests become friends, ignite sparks, fall in love? As she counts down the days until their arrival, Lola’s own family dramas threaten to upend her best-laid plans.