Adult

In 1985 Dublin, 19-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Introverted and naive, Anna is captivated by Peter’s experience, his wide circle of friends and his thirst for adventure. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal. When Anna meets a kindhearted Algerian man, she finds herself falling in love with him. Life with Karim offers stability and renewed hope, and Anna slowly begins to uncover deeper layers of herself. Unfolding over 25 years, A BEAUTIFUL LOAN is about the loss of innocence, the shame and humiliations of love, and the psychological cost of seeking salvation in others. 

Martin and Lora Brier, with three young children, possess all the trappings of a perfect life…except Martin is having yet another affair. Without warning, he abandons the family for his mistress and a new house on the other side of town. Set in a prosperous midwestern town in the 1950s, FATHERLAND is a story about the effect of convenient lies and discovered truths. While Martin’s abandonment throws up new difficulties for bewildered Lora, a housewife who now must find a way to nurture and provide for herself and their children, it unleashes a swirl of emotions in their daughter, Josie, who struggles to come to term with his absence. The novel follows Josie from this fateful event, across many decades and milestones and through the phases of her tenuous, emotionally fraught relationship with Martin.

A police officer fresh out of the academy becomes acutely aware of the deadly consequences of prejudice and how biases color our actions, leading us to justify faulty choices. A teenager has lost her voice and resorts to violence to get heard, even against those she loves. A university student breaks a law on a night of youthful revelry, which soon has fatal consequences that plunge those involved into an abyss of remorse. A mother commits the very same crime her son is being prosecuted for, in order to protect him. A man extends a helping hand in defiance of state restrictions, keeping a refugee safe from the harsh Swedish winter and deportation. In STILL LIFE, Malin Persson Giolito sheds light on the lives of people at all levels of society through 10 thought-provoking and emotionally charged stories.

Lore Segal was a master of the short story, and this collection shows her in peak form. Profound, dark and often hilarious, Segal portrays her characters' foibles, eccentricities and passions with great compassion and exactness, as they grapple with life, aging and each other. Readers of LADIES' LUNCH will recognize the educated, urbane nonagenarian women who have been friends for a lifetime, as they tackle aging’s affronts with wit, grace and resourcefulness.

Phil is ordinary. A mid-level Washington lobbyist for a decidedly unsexy organization, unhappy in the way all mildly successful, minimally influential men are. That is until the spring of 2019, when Phil’s picks for the NCAA March Madness Tournament start panning out. He really may do it: predict a perfect bracket for a billion-dollar prize. At first, Cassandra is just along for Phil’s soaring rise --- she had foreseen it happening, after all. Despite moving in different circles since their shared university days and Cassandra never much liking him, she recognizes in Phil the making of a legend worthy of the highest art. What Cassandra fails to predict, though, is just how much she’d grow to care about Phil’s wife, Raleigh --- and that the grandest narrative arcs sometimes unfold at the steepest of personal costs.

In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ruby Falls. A famous mind reader and mystic agrees to launch himself into the Ruby Falls caverns where he will attempt to locate a hidden hatpin using only his psychic abilities. Ada and another guide, Quinton, have been asked to follow the mind reader’s party at a distance, staying out of sight. One of them will be dead before the end of the day.

Childhood sweethearts Rhett and Lucinda seem to have the perfect marriage, the child they always wanted, and even the white picket fence. But 15 years ago, the couple came very close to losing everything. When outsider Jennifer Moore arrived in their tight-knit Kentucky town, a brief but explosive affair between the newcomer, and the soon-to-be-married Rhett stirred up a violent storm of betrayal that ended with a dead body and a mystery riddled with corruption and deception. Now, new evidence has surfaced --- including an eyewitness who places Rhett at the scene of the brutal crime. Soon the carefully constructed life Rhett and Lucinda built starts to crumble --- and the truth waiting beneath the surface could destroy them both.

In the beautiful and dangerous landscape of Lake Geneva, in the shadow of the Swiss Alps, renowned writer Marceau Miller is found dead. In the wake of the tragedy, his wife, Sarah, discovers a manuscript he's left behind, entitled The Story of Marceau Miller. With the support of close friends, Sarah struggles to hold herself together while caring for her two children and coping with the mounting questions surrounding her famous husband's death. Was it an accident or part of some darker game? Compelled to find the truth, Sarah unravels secrets that make her question everything --- and everyone --- around her. Who can she possibly trust? Her journey from grief to revelation captures the nuance of marriage to a man who remains an enigma. Who is Marceau Miller, really?

It’s 1979 in Yorkshire, England, and 12-year-old Miv is panicking. Life has been complicated since her mom got sick, and now her dad is talking about wanting to move their family away from the town Miv has lived in her whole life --- because of the murders. Young women are dying, and no one knows who the culprit might be. But as far as Miv is concerned, leaving Yorkshire and her best friend, Sharon, simply isn't an option. Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all. So Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things on their street. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighborhood, within their families --- and between each other --- than they ever thought possible.

Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister. Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can't convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.