Adult

Relatively unknown during her life, the artist, filmmaker and writer Kathleen Collins emerged on the literary scene in 2016 with the posthumous publication of the short story collection WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INTERRACIAL LOVE? Said Zadie Smith, “To be this good and yet to be ignored is shameful, but her rediscovery is a great piece of luck for us.” That rediscovery continues in NOTES FROM A BLACK WOMAN’S DIARY, which spans genres to reveal the breadth and depth of the late author’s talent. The compilation is anchored by more of Collins’ short stories, which reveal the ways in which relationships are both formed and come undone. Also collected here is the work Collins wrote for the screen and stage.

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: her teenage daughter, Olivia, has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain dead, she is pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists. When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Nina Gregory has always been a good daughter. Raised by her father, owner of New York City's glamorous Gregory Hotels, Nina was taught that family, reputation and legacy are what matter most. And Tim --- her devoted boyfriend and best friend since childhood --- feels the same. But when Nina's father dies, he leaves behind a secret that shocks Nina to her core. As her world falls apart, Nina begins to see the men in her life --- her father, her boyfriend and, unexpectedly, her boss, Rafael --- in a new light. Soon Nina finds herself caught between the world she loves and a passion that could upend everything.

When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time. It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. The Skinner siblings emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, they find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds, forcing them to question the life choices they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love.

After 10 years in Paris, where she learned photography and became part of the movement that invented modern art, Chicago-born, Irish-American Nora Kelly is at last returning home. Her skill as a photographer will help her cousin Ed Kelly in his rise to Mayor of Chicago. But when she captures the moment that an assassin’s bullet narrowly misses President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and strikes Anton Cermak, she enters a world of international intrigue and danger. Now, Nora must balance family obligations against her encounters with larger-than-life historical characters. She moves through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and World War II, but it’s her unexpected trip to Ireland that transforms her life.

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that transforms her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the 19th century.

When her late grandfather’s dying deputy calls Mercy to his side, she and Elvis inherit the cold case that haunted him --- and may have killed him. But finding Beth Kilgore 20 years after she disappeared is more than a lost cause. It’s a Pandora’s box releasing a rain of evil on the very people Mercy and Elvis hold most dear. The timing couldn’t be worse when the man who murdered her grandfather escapes from prison and a fellow Army vet turns up claiming that Elvis is his dog, not hers. With her grandmother Patience gone missing, and Elvis’s future uncertain, Mercy needs help, and that means forgiving Vermont Game Warden Troy Warner long enough to enlist his aid. With time running out for Patience, Mercy and Elvis must team up with Troy and his search-and-rescue dog to unravel the secrets of the past and save her grandmother --- before it’s too late.

Julia Rodriguez and her teenage daughter, Beatriz, escaped bloodthirsty gangs, random violence and Julia's abusive husband back in El Salvador. Arriving in Miami, mother and daughter struggled to carve their own piece of the American dream. While life in the States is hard, it is safer, until Julia rejects her boss's unwanted sexual advances. Suddenly --- thanks to an "anonymous" tip to U.S. immigration authorities --- she is arrested, locked in detention with criminals and slated for deportation. Miami attorney Jack Swyteck’s only viable legal move to save her is asylum --- a long shot that’s become nearly impossible in today’s charged political climate.

Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary family member. But after Liza moved away, things grew more strained than anyone wanted to admit --- in the friendship and the marriage. When Daniel goes away on business, Molly and Liza plan to reconnect with a nice long video chat after the kids are in bed. But then Molly leaves the room to check on a crying child. What Liza sees next will change everything. Only one thing is certain: Molly needs her. Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side --- but when she arrives, the reception is icy, leaving Liza baffled and hurt. She knows there’s no denying what she saw. Or is there?

401 BC. In the ancient world, one army was feared above all others. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as 50 million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. Though the sons of Sparta are eager to play the game of thrones. Yet battles can be won --- or lost --- with a single blow. Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy’s empire, without support, without food and without water. Far from home, surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes’ legendary Persian warriors.