Adult

Oona Kelly Webster has much to be grateful for. She has a loving family and a job she adores, editing a prestigious line of books. To celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, she and her husband, Charles, have planned a visit to France. But then Charles drops a bombshell. He has been living a lie --- hiding an affair for a year --- and he is leaving Oona for a younger male lover. Although devastated, Oona decides to travel to France without Charles. Just as she’s catching her breath, she’s dealt another blow: Her company’s merger will eliminate her job. The only silver lining is that she can remain in France, where the simple life in beautiful surroundings slowly begins to heal her, as does the little white dog she rescues and her friendly neighbor hailing from Trinidad, who delights her with his openness and warmth.

The Agarwals have gathered on a private, luxury island for a much-anticipated family reunion. Raj, a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillion-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is (unbeknownst to her family) on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies. They all have secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed?

Growing up, May Hanover was always a good girl. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond --- forged when May was just 12 years old --- has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry. When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder if Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.

Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show “The Nuclear Family” and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep --- along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach --- he's teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, 22 years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink --- whom he shares with his father, mother and younger brother, Oren --- Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.

Meg Russo and her husband, Justin, were driving their daughter, Lily, to Ithaca College. Then a car swerved up beside them, and Meg lost control of her vehicle. Justin didn’t survive the accident. Four months later, Meg works to distract herself from her grief and guilt, reopening her small local bookstore. But soon after she returns to work, bizarre messages and visitors begin to arrive, with strangers threatening Meg and Lily. They are obsessed with a young adult novel titled The Prophesy. An online group of believers are convinced that it heralds the apocalypse, and social media posts link the book --- and Meg’s reclusive musician father --- to Satanism. These conspiracy theorists vow to seek revenge on The Prophesy’s author: Meg. As the threats turn violent, Meg begins to suspect that Justin’s death may not have been an accident.

To Kaley Arens, a PhD student and an expert in folklore, fairy stories have always had a power and an allure beyond mere entertainment. It’s only when Kaley accompanies her lifelong friend, Jobi, on a visit to his home that she realizes how much she still has to learn. Bellis is another world --- a stunningly beautiful and seductive one, with its own royalty, its own rules, and inhabitants who breathe life into the tales she was taught were fiction. Kaley has a mysterious connection with Jobi and with Bellis, and abilities that may help determine this world’s fate. Tasked with locating a lost prince, Kaley and her companions journey through a land both thrilling and terrifying, where the uncanny and the familiar go hand in hand. But in fairy tales, heroes and villains are easy to discern. Here, nothing is quite as it seems.

The stories in Paul Theroux’s fascinating collection are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points --- a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing and the passing of time, once again reclaiming his status as a master of the form.

Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who seemingly can predict his every move. Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana --- unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several U.S. intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government.

Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, Isaac was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late-’80s Chicago, Isaac finally has carved out a life of his own. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts --- the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack --- collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy. At a therapist’s encouragement, Isaac begins to write down his story. In the process, he taps into a creative energy that will send him on a journey back to his family, his ancestral home in Arkansas, and the inherited trauma of the nation’s dark past. But a surprise discovery will either unlock the truths he’s seeking or threaten to derail the life he’s fought so hard to claim.

What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs --- Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm? The answer can only be chaos: There are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property damages, injuries, hospital visits, wellness checks, pure comedy, shocking tragedy and carnage that must be read to be believed. There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will, but most important of all, an explosion of love --- and the joy and recognition of family.