Fiction

"This engrossing exploration of gender dynamics, identity, and the spiritual quest for meaning will appeal to Buddhists and general readers alike." —Publishers Weekly

“This is an impressive tapestry of history, spiritual philosophy, and literary drama and an edifying look at the patriarchal limitations of Buddhism’s genesis…An intelligently conceived and artistically executed reconsideration of religious history.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Bride of the Buddha is an immersive novel about the founding of Buddhism, told in the voice of a woman who would not be excluded from the spiritual quest, nor from the presence of the man whom she loved.” —ForeWord Magazine

This is the story of Yasodhara, the abandoned wife of the Buddha. Facing society’s challenges, she transforms her rage into devotion to the path of liberation. The page-turner about a woman’s struggle in an unapologetic religious patriarchy, Bride of the Buddha offers a penetrating perspective on the milieu of the Buddha.

For four decades Rabbi Bonder was immersed in spirituality and sought out by people who needed comfort. He has now transformed some of these cases into fiction.

A Romanian woman, resident of Copacabana, wants to marry her dead fiancé. The discovery of a manuscript from the Inquisition, written to defame a woman, has the power to awaken lust and perversion in whomever reads it. A boy who scares his parents with paranormal powers prepares for his bar mitzvah. 

These are the subjects of Nilton Bonder’s imagination in this collection of short stories. He writes in the tradition of the best of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Each story comes from a place bordering reality with the unusual and inexplicable, revealing the little that’s required to transform the ordinary into extraordinary. With starting points from real situations (including the author himself as a young man, seriously bored in the house of Abraham Joshua Heschel), each story moves into another reality.

Previously published in Portuguese.

This beautiful new work of historical fiction was inspired by the diary of an 18th-century Roman Jewish girl who was imprisoned in a convent cell by the Catholic Church in an attempt to forcibly convert her.

“An intricately detailed novel of resistance and community.” —Kirkus Reviews

Anything but Yes is the true story of a young woman’s struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts. With no access to the outside world, she withstood endless lectures, threats, promises, isolation and sleep deprivation. If she were she to utter the simple word “yes,” she risked forced baptism, which would mean never returning to her home, and total loss of contact with any Jew—mother, father, brother, sister—for the rest of her life. 

Even in Rome, very few people know the story of the Ghetto or the abduction of Jews, the story of popes ever more intent on converting every non-Catholic living in the long shadow of the Vatican. Young girls and small children were the primary targets. They were vulnerable, easily confused, gullible. Anna del Monte was different. She was strong, brilliant, educated, and wrote a diary of her experiences. The document was lost for more than 200 hundred years, then rediscovered in 1989. Anything but Yes is also based on Davidow’s extensive research on life in the eighteenth-century Roman ghetto, its traditions, food, personalities, and dialect.

Includes Italian to English glossary

Braided medieval and modern stories of an anchoress, her handmaiden, and the adjunct professor searching for them across centuries as they each navigate ambition, confinement, and the patriarchy.

“The modern and medieval stories spiral in and out of each other, intricate and vivid as the letters of illuminated manuscripts, connected by the mysteries of paradox: confinement and freedom, loss and fulfillment.” —Elizabeth Cunningham, My Life as a Prayer and The Maeve Chronicles

 “Holt-Browning is adept at honing in on the passion for life, nature, and language that can sustain a person through the hardest times.” —Nerissa Nields, Plastic Angel and All Together Singing in the Kitchen

Twelve-year-old Elinor is enclosed with an anchoress, Lady Adela, in a cell at Wenlock Abbey, 14th century England. Centuries later, an adjunct professor of medieval studies discovers Elinor’s long-lost book of hours on a research trip to England. Holt-Browning explores women’s timeless struggle for personal agency as her unforgettable characters discover the burdens and rewards of faith and devotion. A must-read for fans of Julian of Norwich.

A tender, astonishing, and richly beautiful story cycle about remembering our shared histories and repairing the world.

"Each tale is a testament to never forgetting that the mountains, the sea, the rivers, animals and humans are all one. Osprey and abalone, wind and child, hummingbird and human—all unforgettable." —Susan Straight, author of Mecca

Perched atop Gravity Hill, two crow sisters—Question Woman and Answer Woman—recall stories from dawn to dusk. Question Woman cannot remember a single story except by asking to hear it again, and Answer Woman can tell all the stories but cannot think of them unless she is asked. Together they recount the journeys of the Forgetters, so that we may all remember. Unforgettable characters pass through these pages: a boy who opens the clouds in the sky, a young woman who befriends three enigmatic people who might also be animals, two village leaders who hold a storytelling contest. All are in search of a crucial lesson from the past, one that will help them repair the rifts in their own lives.

Told in the classic style of Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok creation stories, this book vaults from the sacred time before this time to the recent present and even the near future. Heralded as a "a fine storyteller" by Joy Harjo, Greg Sarris offers us these tales in a new genre of his own making. The Forgetters is an astonishment—comforting and startling, inspiring reveries and deepening our love of the world we share.

Published in hardcover for the first time in forty years, two classics of environmental science fiction.

"One of the most important utopian novels of the twentieth century that still has very important lessons to teach us. It will always convey to perfection the wild optimism of that moment: a feeling we need to recapture, adjusted for our time." —Kim Stanley Robinson

Collected in one handsome volume for the first time, The Complete Ecotopia presents an early classic of environmental science fiction in its entirety. Ecotopia (1975) and Ecotopia Emerging (1981), which paint detailed portraits of a healthier earth and a happier society, became foundational texts for a new wave of environmental activists, and they still contain an abundance of ideas yet to be realized. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopian saga anticipated climate fiction by more than a decade, sold approximately one million copies and was translated into one dozen languages, and predicted a host of innovations running from C-SPAN to widespread recycling. This edition includes two retrospective essays by the author, as well as an updated foreword by Heyday founder Malcolm Margolin. An important document of utopian ideas from the sixties and seventies, The Complete Ecotopia is also a stimulating read for environmentalists today—one that tells a bold, inventive, and adventurous story.

A groundbreaking new translation of the only historical novel by noted Polish writer Bolesław Prus.

“ . . . unique in world literature of the nineteenth century”--Czesław Miłosz

Imbued with poetry, leavened with humor, and graced with moments of transcendent beauty, Pharaoh offers a compelling picture of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society.  As the story unfolds, Egypt is experiencing internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young Pharaoh Ramses learns that challenging power leaves him vulnerable to seduction, defamation, intimidation and even assassination. The ultimate lesson learned by Ramses is the power of knowledge.

Prus is a distinctive voice in world literature and was Joseph Conrad’s favorite Polish writer. This new edition of Christopher Kasparek’s translation of Pharaoh vividly brings this extraordinary novel to life. It includes a detailed foreword and annotations, based on extensive research and textual refinements, that will enhance the reader’s appreciation not only for ancient Egypt, but also for Prus’ composition process.

Pharaoh has been translated into twenty-three languages and was adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film.  

KIRKUS’ BEST OF 2024 PICKS

Library Journal's Best Books of 2024

Named Booklist’s Top 10 Romance Fiction of 2024

"In a world with so many Pride & Prejudice adaptations, a new one has to be truly special to stand out, and this one is... A warm, sweet story with all the witticisms Austen fans savor." — Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews 

When perspiration meets privilege, love might just school them both. 

She’s working two jobs to get through college. He’s the golden boy who doesn’t know the meaning of struggle.

One fateful night at the family’s restaurant, Lissie Cheng accidentally serves a dish containing shellfish to an allergic customer, running afoul of the wealthy Lin family and wonder boy Preston in particular. Preston Lin, star swimmer and Stanford Ph.D. student, who is as handsome as he is self-righteous. When his response to the incident threatens the family livelihood, Lissie must scramble to outwit him. If only he didn’t keep popping up in her life, so she could despise him in peace!

Preston’s life hasn’t always been picture-perfect. Before Lissie came on the scene, he worked hard not only at school and at swimming, but also at burying a few things he’d rather forget. But that girl–! The past isn’t the only thing she’s stirring up.

In this sparkling contemporary riff on Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, the beloved story gets a fresh spin. Who will prevail over Lissie’s heart? Her pride or Preston Lin?

"Compulsively readable." — Publishers Weekly

"Like Crazy (not) Rich Asians meets Jane Austen, Pride and Preston Lin is a delightful retelling of a beloved classic that had me smiling from page one." — Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of The Hundred Loves of Juliet

Winner of the Asian American Writers' Workshop Pages in Progress Prize

"A delightful and perceptive jaunt into the heart of the Indian American community of New Jersey, Edison is a charming, often hilarious novel brimming over with life, laughter, and dreams worthy of the most outrageous Bollywood movies.”
—Chitra Divakaruni, author of Independence and Mistress of Spices

"A sparkling epic worthy of Bollywood's silver screens."
—Kirkus Reviews

Edison is a Bollywood-style epic tale brimming with song and dance, action and comedy, love and pathos, and cameos by dozens of real Indian stars of yesterday and today—a hilariously entertaining masala film in the guise of literary fiction. 

Along the way, we glean bits of Bollywood history and fall in love with an improbable cast of characters that inhabits Edison’s “Little India.” Edison is a wild, romantic, laugh-out-loud love letter to the Indian American community of Edison, New Jersey, where author Pallavi Dixit grew up.

The unlikely star of Edison is Prem Kumar, the hapless youngest son of a titan of New Delhi industry. Obsessed with Hindi movies—what the world calls Bollywood—he is uninterested in joining the family business or marrying the spear-wielding heiress chosen by his father. He runs away to chase his filmmaking dreams in America, but his plans are immediately derailed. Instead, he finds himself crashing on a mattress and working at an Exxon gas station in the Indian immigrant community of Edison, New Jersey.

Although life is not going according to script, Prem finds a happy rhythm in this bewildering setting. When the beautiful and ambitious Leena Engineer bursts onto the scene, she and her grocery store–owning father upend Prem’s short-term plan to do as little as possible, launching him on an epic adventure to make something of himself. Supported by an unruly cast of roommates, aunties, murderous yet orderly mobsters, and film stars at once glamorous and ludicrous, Prem test-drives the role of hero, and along the way, he witnesses around him the transformation of an ordinary suburb into a bustling "Little India."

Un texto clave del autor que mejor ha sabido radiografiar la historia norteamericana reciente, cuando se cumplen 20 años del 11-S.

Escrito con una fuerza y una urgencia que se mantienen intactas veinte años después, este texto contiene una breve e intensa reflexión sobre el atentado ocurrido el 11 de septiembre contra las Torres Gemelas que es extraordinariamente vívida y por momentos escalofriante.

DeLillo combina en este texto la emotividad de los hechos con la descripción del dolor de las víctimas. Documento valiosísimo sobre uno de los episodios más terribles de la historia reciente que es, al mismo tiempo, una pieza de un valor literario extraordinario que, con valentía y delicadeza, analiza el atentado como síntoma de una enfermedad religiosa, tecnológica, moral y económica: la guerra entre el pasado y el futuro.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

A key text from the author who has best captured the recent history of the United States, as we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Written with a force and urgency that remain intact twenty years later, this text contains a brief and intense reflection on the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers that is extraordinarily vivid and at times chilling.

In this text, DeLillo combines the emotionality of the events with the description of the victims' pain. It is an invaluable document about one of the most terrible episodes in recent history, which is, at the same time, a piece of extraordinary literary value that, with courage and delicacy, analyzes the attack as a symptom of a religious, technological, moral, and economic illness: the war between the past and the future.

SI ADORAS LOS LIBROS, ÉSTE NO TE LO PUEDES PERDER

Un verano. Dos rivales. Un giro de guion que no vieron venir...

Un fenómeno mundial de TikTok.

Más de 100 semanas en la lista de los libros más vendidos del New York Times.

Eran rivales.

Ahora coinciden todo un verano en el mismo pueblo.

La historia puede sorprenderles a ambos.

La vida de Nora Stephens son los libros; es una astuta agente literaria con fama de tiburón que pelea por las obras y los contratos de cada uno de sus autores. Solo existe una cosa en el mundo por encima de su trabajo: su hermana menor, Libby, de quien ha cuidado desde que su madre falleció cuando eran adolescentes. La adora, y por ello acepta abandonar Nueva York para pasar el mes de agosto con ella en el encantador pueblo de Sunshine Falls, un lugar de novela donde Libby pretende obligarla a desconectarse y, quizá, a conectar con alguien.

Sin embargo, con lo que ninguna de las dos cuenta es con toparse con Charlie Lastra, un editor con el que Nora ya ha tenido más de un encuentro y que amenaza con convertirse en una presencia constante durante sus vacaciones.

A veces, ni siquiera una agente literaria y un editor son capaces de escribir su propia historia.

PREMIO GOODREADS A MEJOR COMEDIA ROMÁNTICA.

«UNA DE MIS AUTORAS FAVORITAS.» Colleen Hoover

«La comedia romántica perfecta. Probablemente la mejor novela de Emily Henry.» Taylor Jenkins Reid, autora de Los siete maridos de Evelyn Hugo

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

IF YOU LOVE BOOKS, YOU CAN'T MISS THIS ONE

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming...

A worldwide TikTok phenomenon.

Over 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

They were rivals.

Now, they’re spending an entire summer in the same town.

The story might surprise them both.

Nora Stephens’s life is all about books; she’s a savvy literary agent known for her fierce dedication to her authors' works and contracts. There is only one thing in the world she values above her job: her younger sister, Libby, whom she has cared for since their mother passed away when they were teenagers. She adores her, and that’s why she agrees to leave New York to spend August with her in the charming town of Sunshine Falls, a storybook place where Libby hopes to force her to unwind and maybe even connect with someone.

However, neither of them expects to run into Charlie Lastra, an editor with whom Nora has already had more than one encounter and who threatens to become a constant presence during their vacation.

Sometimes, not even a literary agent and an editor can write their own story.

"ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS." Colleen Hoover

"The perfect romantic comedy. Probably the best novel by Emily Henry." Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Evaluation politics is one of the most critical, yet least understood aspects of evaluation. To succeed, evaluators must grasp the politics of their situation, lest their work be derailed. This engrossing novel illuminates the politics and ethics of evaluation, even as it entertains. Paul Reeder, an experienced (and all too human) evaluator, must unravel political, ethical, and technical puzzles in a mysterious world he does not fully comprehend. The book captures the complexities of evaluation politics in ways other works do not. Written expressly for learning and teaching, the evaluation novel is an unconventional foray into vital topics rarely explored.

Evaluation politics is one of the most critical, yet least understood aspects of evaluation. To succeed, evaluators must grasp the politics of their situation, lest their work be derailed. This engrossing novel illuminates the politics and ethics of evaluation, even as it entertains. Paul Reeder, an experienced (and all too human) evaluator, must unravel political, ethical, and technical puzzles in a mysterious world he does not fully comprehend. The book captures the complexities of evaluation politics in ways other works do not. Written expressly for learning and teaching, the evaluation novel is an unconventional foray into vital topics rarely explored.

Mark Neider, a young Ukrainian-born American IT specialist, finds himself in crime-ridden Yeltsin’s Russia, hot on the trail of wheeler dealers who swindled him out of a small fortune back in New York. In Moscow, Mark survives an aborted coup in October 1993 and encounters a mysterious stranger who claims to have had a hand in the recent constitutional crisis. Tasha, Mark’s Moscow daredevil girlfriend, helps him retrieve the money at a significant body count, but Mark is only allowed to leave the country with 10K, a mere fraction of the loot now in his possession. Tasha and her film scholar aunt hatch a plan. Tasha’s aunt keeps the money while her wealthy Chicagoan ex disburses the equivalent amount to Mark in return for Mark’s interviewing the elderly sister of Greg Davis, an American film director who is the subject of Tasha’s aunt’s scholarly interest. But there’s more than meets the eye to Greg Davis’s sister who takes Mark on a journey he may or may not return from.

Every solstice, Jupi—just as his father did before him, and his before him—must make a nearly impossible pilgrimage to light an oil lamp at the base of a remote cliff. There he must wait for Kipik, an ancient being who has bound Jupi’s family to a mammoth task: share a story every visit that appeases the fickle Kipik, or suffer unthinkable consequences.

For decades Jupi has made the trek, growing grey and exhausted carrying this burden. Nearing the end of his life, Jupi knows he must name a successor, someone from his bloodline who can carry this weight and pass it on to future generations. But Jupi’s life has not been easy. His three children, one deceased, one incarcerated, one addicted, are not suitable successors. So Jupi must connect with a granddaughter he barely knows, whose language he barely speaks, and convince her to carry the weight of their family, perhaps their whole community, for the rest of her life.

This moving collection explores shifting definitions of what it means to be accountable to others, how family and community are defined, and how the spirits and demons of the past (both personal and legendary) are very much alive today.

In the third installment of the Grace “the Hit Mom” Mysteries, a field trip to the New Haven Aquarium ends in disaster when a creepy chaperone falls to his death in the beluga whale tank…when Grace was the one who was supposed to kill him.

Per usual, Grace Adair is juggling it all—being a full-time mom, part-time lawyer, freelance editor, divinely-contracted assassin—and now, school chaperone.

Her son’s field trip to the local aquarium takes a dive when Eric Egan, a district curriculum administrator, is unceremoniously thrown off the aquarium’s Sea Otter Express into the beluga whale tank. Nobody’s especially upset to see the creep’s body sleeping with the fishes, but Grace is in trouble because Egan was supposed to be her next hit—and she sure wouldn’t have killed him in front of a bunch of first graders.

Now, Grace will have to solve the murder, settle decades-old grudges, and keep her own secrets—all while taking care of her family…and serving as flower girl at her handler Madge’s wedding. As the tasks pile up, Grace isn’t sure if she’ll live to see it all done.

Don't miss out on books 1 and 2 in the series: Wrong Poison and Hound of the Bonnevilles!

In the third installment of the Grace “the Hit Mom” Mysteries, a field trip to the New Haven Aquarium ends in disaster when a creepy chaperone falls to his death in the beluga whale tank…when Grace was the one who was supposed to kill him.

Per usual, Grace Adair is juggling it all—being a full-time mom, part-time lawyer, freelance editor, divinely-contracted assassin—and now, school chaperone.

Her son’s field trip to the local aquarium takes a dive when Eric Egan, a district curriculum administrator, is unceremoniously thrown off the aquarium’s Sea Otter Express into the beluga whale tank. Nobody’s especially upset to see the creep’s body sleeping with the fishes, but Grace is in trouble because Egan was supposed to be her next hit—and she sure wouldn’t have killed him in front of a bunch of first graders.

Now, Grace will have to solve the murder, settle decades-old grudges, and keep her own secrets—all while taking care of her family…and serving as flower girl at her handler Madge’s wedding. As the tasks pile up, Grace isn’t sure if she’ll live to see it all done.

Don't miss out on books 1 and 2 in the series: Wrong Poison and Hound of the Bonnevilles!

The Magnificent Lies of Madeleine Béjart transports readers to 17th-century France, a time when the stage was as full of intrigue as the lives of those who performed on it.

At the heart of this richly imagined historical novel is Madeleine Béjart—a bold, ambitious actress and theatre director navigating the world of French theater alongside legends like Molière, Pierre and Thomas Corneille, and Tristan L’Hermite. Richard Goodkin masterfully weaves history with a tale of ambition, love, and deception. From tangled family ties and secret romances to hidden pregnancies and the ruthless pursuit of artistic success, Madeleine’s life is as dramatic as the plays she brings to life.

Hui de un crimen involuntario.
Hui de los hombres que no me quisieron.
Hui de una guerra.
Esta es mi historia, entre España y Orán, junto al Mediterráneo.

Orán. Años 20, siglo XX. En esta ciudad africana, pulso español y administración francesa desembarca una joven con el falso nombre de Cecilia Belmonte. En apariencia, ha cruzado el Mediterráneo para escapar de la miseria, como tantos compatriotas. Su razón, sin embargo, es más turbia.

La urgencia por sobrevivir la obliga a dejarse la piel en plantaciones y lavaderos, como empleada doméstica y operaria de fábrica a destajo. Hasta que una madrugada, en la tabaquera Bastos, participa en un delito por el que paga con su sometimiento a un hombre despreciable. Su entereza será lo que la libere y le aporte el coraje para rehacerse y emprender un camino en ascenso, repleto de quiebros, logros y desafíos a lo largo de tres décadas vibrantes.

Esta es la historia de una mujer que vivió el auge colonial y el trágico fin de la Argelia francesa. Y, en paralelo, sus páginas rescatan la memoria de los desconocidos pieds-noirs españoles que, arrastrados por la emigración y el exilio, formaron parte de aquel mundo.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Oran, Algeria. In this African city, Spanish pulse, and French rule, a young woman by the name of Cecilia Belmonte arrives in a boat sometime in the 1920’s. She seems to have crossed the Mediterranean to escape misery, like so many others. But underneath her broken appearance lies a much darker reason: she committed a crime for which she paid by subjugating to the will of a despicable man.

Her journey towards reinventing herself and her destiny spans three vibrant decades and recounts a life filled with perilous twists and turns, set against the backdrop of French Algeria and the end of colonial rule in the region. Her life rescues the memories of the Spanish pieds-noirs who, dragged abroad through migration and exile, helped reshape the world as we know it.