Luisa Voekler is expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments, Luisa’s work remains stuck in the past, decoding messages from World War II. Journalist Haris Voekler grew up a proud East Berliner but realizes that the Soviet promises of a better future are not coming to fruition. After the Berlin Wall goes up, Haris finds himself separated from his young daughter and all alone after his wife dies. There’s only one way to reach his family --- by sending coded letters to his father-in-law, who lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain. When Luisa discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she journeys to Berlin and risks everything to free him. As Luisa and Haris take turns telling their stories, events speed toward the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Luisa Voekler is expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments, Luisa’s work remains stuck in the past, decoding messages from World War II. Journalist Haris Voekler grew up a proud East Berliner but realizes that the Soviet promises of a better future are not coming to fruition. After the Berlin Wall goes up, Haris finds himself separated from his young daughter and all alone after his wife dies. There’s only one way to reach his family --- by sending coded letters to his father-in-law, who lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain. When Luisa discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she journeys to Berlin and risks everything to free him. As Luisa and Haris take turns telling their stories, events speed toward the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Bestselling author Katherine Reay returns with an unforgettable tale of the Cold War and a CIA code breaker who risks everything to free her father from an East German prison.

From the time she was a young girl, Luisa Voekler has loved solving puzzles and cracking codes. Brilliant and logical, she’s expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments --- especially in the exhilarating era of the late 1980s --- Luisa’s work remains stuck in the past, decoding messages from World War II.

Journalist Haris Voekler grew up a proud East Berliner. But as his eyes open to the realities of postwar East Germany, he realizes that the Soviet promises of a better future are not coming to fruition. After the Berlin Wall goes up, Haris finds himself separated from his young daughter and all alone after his wife dies. There’s only one way to reach his family --- by sending coded letters to his father-in-law, who lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

When Luisa Voekler discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she learns the truth about her grandfather’s work, her father’s identity, and why she has never progressed in her career. With little more than a rudimentary plan and hope, she journeys to Berlin and risks everything to free her father and get him out of East Berlin alive.

As Luisa and Haris take turns telling their stories, events speed toward one of the 20th century’s most dramatic moments --- the fall of the Berlin Wall and that night’s promise of freedom, truth and reconciliation for those who lived, for 28 years, behind the bleak shadow of the Iron Curtain’s most iconic symbol.

Audiobook available; read by Saskia Maarleveld, Ann Marie Gideon and P. J. Ochlan

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite --- and with help from these strong women --- Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite --- and with help from these strong women --- Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.

A gripping historical novel about a spirited girl who joins a sisterhood working to undermine the Confederates --- from the award-winning author of WE CAST A SHADOW.

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite --- and with help from these strong women --- Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.

THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.

Audiobook available, read by Lynnette R. Freeman

As a young girl growing up in Houston, Margaret Juhae Lee never heard about her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha. His history was lost in early 20th-century Korea and guarded by Margaret’s grandmother, who Chul Ha left widowed in 1936 with two young sons. To his surviving family, Lee Chul Ha was a criminal, and his granddaughter was determined to figure out why. STARRY FIELD chronicles Chul Ha’s untold story. Combining investigative journalism, oral history and archival research, Margaret reveals the truth about the grandfather she never knew. But reclaiming his legacy, in the end, isn’t what Margaret finds the most valuable. It is through the series of three long-form interviews with her grandmother that Margaret finally finds a sense of recognition she’s been missing her entire life.

As a young girl growing up in Houston, Margaret Juhae Lee never heard about her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha. His history was lost in early 20th-century Korea and guarded by Margaret’s grandmother, who Chul Ha left widowed in 1936 with two young sons. To his surviving family, Lee Chul Ha was a criminal, and his granddaughter was determined to figure out why. STARRY FIELD chronicles Chul Ha’s untold story. Combining investigative journalism, oral history and archival research, Margaret reveals the truth about the grandfather she never knew. But reclaiming his legacy, in the end, isn’t what Margaret finds the most valuable. It is through the series of three long-form interviews with her grandmother that Margaret finally finds a sense of recognition she’s been missing her entire life.

A poignant memoir for readers who love PACHINKO and THE RETURN by journalist Margaret Juhae Lee, who sets out on a search for her family’s history lost to the darkness of Korea’s colonial decades and contends with the shockwaves of violence that followed them over four generations and across continents.

As a young girl growing up in Houston, Margaret Juhae Lee never heard about her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha. His history was lost in early 20th-century Korea and guarded by Margaret’s grandmother, who Chul Ha left widowed in 1936 with two young sons. To his surviving family, Lee Chul Ha was a criminal, and his granddaughter was determined to figure out why.

STARRY FIELD chronicles Chul Ha’s untold story. Combining investigative journalism, oral history and archival research, Margaret reveals the truth about the grandfather she never knew. What she found is that Lee Chul Ha was not a source of shame; he was a student revolutionary imprisoned in 1929 for protesting the Japanese government’s colonization of Korea. He was a hero --- and eventually honored as a Patriot of South Korea almost 60 years after his death.

But reclaiming her grandfather’s legacy, in the end, isn’t what Margaret finds the most valuable. It is through the series of three long-form interviews with her grandmother that Margaret finally finds a sense of recognition she’s been missing her entire life. A story of healing old wounds and the reputation of an extraordinary young man, STARRY FIELD bridges the tales of two women, generations and oceans apart, who share the desire to build family in someplace called home.

STARRY FIELD weaves together the stories of Margaret’s family against the backdrop of Korea’s tumultuous modern history, with a powerful question at its heart. Can we ever separate ourselves from our family’s past --- and if the answer is yes, should we?

No one knows why Lucy's 14-year-old daughter, Eden, almost drowned in the lake after school one day. But now she’s safe and well. Lucy can start being a good mother. The mother she should have been all these years --- years that were fraught with grief over the loss of Eden’s twin during pregnancy. Yes, all that matters is that Eden is fine. But then Eden starts saying that Eden isn’t her name. Her name is Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin. Don’t worry, says the doctor. Eden is completely fine, says her husband. Of course I’m fine, Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here. But Lucy knows something is very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore --- this straight-backed, even-tempered and steady-eyed child in her house is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared.

No one knows why Lucy's 14-year-old daughter, Eden, almost drowned in the lake after school one day. But now she’s safe and well. Lucy can start being a good mother. The mother she should have been all these years --- years that were fraught with grief over the loss of Eden’s twin during pregnancy. Yes, all that matters is that Eden is fine. But then Eden starts saying that Eden isn’t her name. Her name is Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin. Don’t worry, says the doctor. Eden is completely fine, says her husband. Of course I’m fine, Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here. But Lucy knows something is very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore --- this straight-backed, even-tempered and steady-eyed child in her house is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared.

In this edge-of-your-seat psychological debut, a mother’s experience with Vanishing Twin Syndrome triggers disturbing changes in her teenage daughter, perfect for fans of THE PUSH and THE UNDOING.

One twin vanished. The other twin remained. Until now...

No one knows why Lucy's 14-year-old daughter, Eden, almost drowned in the lake after school one day. But now she’s safe and well. Lucy can start being a good mother. The mother she should have been all these years --- years that were fraught with grief over the loss of Eden’s twin during pregnancy.

Yes, all that matters is that Eden is fine.

But then Eden starts saying that Eden isn’t her name. Her name is Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin.

Don’t worry, says the doctor. Eden is completely fine, says her husband. Of course I’m fine, Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here.

But Lucy knows something is very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore --- this straight-backed, even-tempered and steady-eyed child in her house is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared.

Audiobook available, read by Lucy Price-Lewis

Sisters Samantha and Monte Waters are vacationing together in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, enjoying a festival and planning to meet with their brother, Cal. But the idyllic plans are short-lived. When terrorists’ attacks rock the city around them, Monte, a U.S. foreign service officer, and Samantha, an international television correspondent, are separated, and one of them is whisked away in the frenzy. The family mobilizes, using all their contacts to try to find their missing sister, but to no avail. She has vanished. As time presses on, the outlook darkens. Can she be found, or is she a lost cause? And even if she returns, will the damage to her and those around her be irreparable?

Sisters Samantha and Monte Waters are vacationing together in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, enjoying a festival and planning to meet with their brother, Cal. But the idyllic plans are short-lived. When terrorists’ attacks rock the city around them, Monte, a U.S. foreign service officer, and Samantha, an international television correspondent, are separated, and one of them is whisked away in the frenzy. The family mobilizes, using all their contacts to try to find their missing sister, but to no avail. She has vanished. As time presses on, the outlook darkens. Can she be found, or is she a lost cause? And even if she returns, will the damage to her and those around her be irreparable?

A terrorist attack. A kidnapping. The ultimate vacation gone wrong.

Sisters Samantha and Monte Waters are vacationing together in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, enjoying a festival and planning to meet with their brother, Cal. But the idyllic plans are short-lived. When terrorists’ attacks rock the city around them, Monte, a U.S. foreign service officer, and Samantha, an international television correspondent, are separated, and one of them is whisked away in the frenzy.

The family mobilizes, using all their contacts to try to find their missing sister, but to no avail. She has vanished. As time presses on, the outlook darkens. Can she be found, or is she a lost cause? And even if she returns, will the damage to her and those around her be irreparable?

Moving from Spain to Washington to Morocco to Gibraltar to the Sahara Desert, THE FAR SIDE OF THE DESERT is a family drama and political thriller that explores links of terrorism, crime and financial manipulation, revealing the grace that ultimately foils destruction.

Audiobook available, read by Robin McAlpine

For the last 17 years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block --- number 210, across the street --- whose occupant refuses to break his silence. As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed and why she disappeared.

For the last 17 years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block --- number 210, across the street --- whose occupant refuses to break his silence. As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed and why she disappeared.

Two parents conduct an increasingly desperate search for their missing daughter in “a clever, chilling thriller that is also unexpectedly moving” (Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of EVERYONE HERE IS LYING).

Someone is guilty.

For the last 17 years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block --- number 210, across the street --- whose occupant refuses to break his silence.

Someone knows what happened.

As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed and why she disappeared.

Someone will pay.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Harry and Zara, and in a dual timeline between the weeks after Sophie’s disappearance and a year later in the middle of a murder trial, Imran Mahmood’s taut yet profoundly moving novel explores how differently grief can be experienced even when shared by parents --- and how hope triumphs when it springs from the kind of love that knows no bounds.

Audiobook available, read by Lydia Bakelmun and Oliver Hembrough

Mysterious, graceful and ever-clever, otters have captivated our imaginations, despite the fact that few people have encountered one in the wild. In OTTER COUNTRY, celebrated nature writer Miriam Darlington captures the fascination she's had for these playful animals since childhood and chronicles her immersive journey into their watery world. Over the course of a single year, Darlington takes readers on a winding expedition in pursuit of these elusive creatures. As she’s drawn deeper into wilder habitats, Darlington meets biologists, conservationists, fishing and hunting enthusiasts, and poets --- enriching her understanding, admiration and awe of the wild otter. With each encounter, she reveals the scientific, environmental and cultural importance of this creature and the places it calls home.

Mysterious, graceful and ever-clever, otters have captivated our imaginations, despite the fact that few people have encountered one in the wild. In OTTER COUNTRY, celebrated nature writer Miriam Darlington captures the fascination she's had for these playful animals since childhood and chronicles her immersive journey into their watery world. Over the course of a single year, Darlington takes readers on a winding expedition in pursuit of these elusive creatures. As she’s drawn deeper into wilder habitats, Darlington meets biologists, conservationists, fishing and hunting enthusiasts, and poets --- enriching her understanding, admiration and awe of the wild otter. With each encounter, she reveals the scientific, environmental and cultural importance of this creature and the places it calls home.

A plan formed in my mind. I would explore the places in this land that hid my grail. I would spend a whole year or longer, if that’s what it took, wading through marshes, hiding between mossy rocks, paddling down rivers and swimming in sea lochs; recording my journey through the seasons as I searched for wild otters.

Mysterious, graceful and ever-clever, otters have captivated our imaginations, despite the fact that few people have encountered one in the wild. In OTTER COUNTRY, celebrated nature writer Miriam Darlington captures the fascination she's had for these playful animals since childhood, and chronicles her immersive journey into their watery world.

Over the course of a single year, Darlington takes readers on a winding expedition in pursuit of these elusive creatures --- from her home in Devon, England, and through the wilds of Scotland, Wales, the Lake District and the countryside of Cornwall. As she’s drawn deeper into wilder habitats, trekking through changing landscapes, seasons and weather, Darlington meets biologists, conservationists, fishing and hunting enthusiasts, and poets --- enriching her understanding, admiration and awe of the wild otter. With each encounter, she reveals the scientific, environmental and cultural importance of this creature and the places it calls home.

Full of wonder, hope and an abiding love for the natural world, OTTER COUNTRY is a beautiful and captivating work of nature writing, pursuing one of nature’s most endearing and endlessly fascinating creatures.

Coral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother. Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles --- and triples --- down on posing as her brother. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas and secrets dangerously into the present.

Coral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother. Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles --- and triples --- down on posing as her brother. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas and secrets dangerously into the present.

Coral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother.

Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles --- and triples --- down on posing as her brother, risking not only her own sanity but her relationship with her precocious niece, Khadijah. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas and secrets dangerously into the present.

A form-shifting and soul-crunching chronicle of grief and crisis, Venita Blackburn’s debut novel, DEAD IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, is a fleet-footed marvel of self-discovery and storytelling that explores the depths of humankind’s capacity for harm and healing. With the daring, often hilarious imagination that made her an acclaimed short-fiction innovator, Blackburn crafts a layered, page-turning reckoning with what it means to be alive, dead and somewhere in between.

Audiobook available, read by Lynnette Freeman