Adult

The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich and ready to marry. Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom.

On a small, unnamed coral atoll in the South Pacific, a group of troubled dreamers must face the possibility that the hopes they’ve labored after so single-mindedly might not lead them to the happiness they feel they were promised. By turns funny and tragic, THE LAST GOOD PARADISE explores our modern, complex and often self-contradictory discontents, crafting an exhilarating and darkly satirical story about our need to connect in an increasingly networked but isolating world.

In this first novel of a brand new series from New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery, three women at different stages in life come together in the beautiful seaside town of Mischief Bay, California, to provide solace and support through shared laughter and tears, proving that when all else fails, you always have your friends.

A FIFTY-YEAR-SILENCE is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda moves to their stone house; immerses herself in letters, archival materials and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent grandparents.

LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Alexandra Fuller’s delicate balance --- between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage --- irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia, Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. She soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father.

Twenty-two-year-old Raf spends his days walking Rose, a bull terrier who guards the transmitters for a pirate radio station, and his nights at raves in warehouses and launderettes. When his friend Theo vanishes without a trace, Raf’s efforts to find him will lead straight into the heart of a global corporate conspiracy. Meanwhile, he’s falling in love with a beautiful young woman he met at one of those raves, but he’ll soon discover that there is far more to Cherish than meets the eye.

Otto finds a note left by his wife in the kitchen of their farmhouse in windswept Saskatchewan. Eighty-three-year-old Etta will be walking 3,200 kilometers to see the ocean, but somehow, Otto understands. He took his own journey once before, to fight in a faraway land. With Etta gone, Otto struggles with his demons of war, while their friend Russell initially pursues the woman he has loved from afar. And James --- well, James you have to meet on the page.

DIRTY CHICK chronicles Antonia Murphy’s first year of life as an artisan farmer. Having bought into the myth that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling endeavor that allows one to commune with nature and live the way humans were meant to live, Antonia soon realized that the reality is far dirtier and way more disgusting than she ever imagined.

Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming dress shop appears quite ordinary to passersby. But with just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires. Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Before she knows it, she has set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.