In October 2005, only a few months after her Turkish husband and five-year-old son are detained by U.S. border patrol, Jeannie Wakefield disappears. She leaves behind in Istanbul a 53-page letter revealing a convoluted tale of political intrigue, intelligence operatives and Turkish teenage radicals, of a grisly murder and a dismembered body in a trunk. It is a grim and heartbreaking history of first loves shattered and best friends betrayed. Can Jeannie...

The Sorrows of an American is a soaring feat of storytelling about the immigrant experience and the ghosts that haunt families from one generation to another When Erik Davidsen and his sister, Inga, find a disturbing note from an unknown woman among their dead father's papers, they believe he may be implicated in a mysterious death. Siri Hustvedt's The Sorrows of an American tells the story of the Davidsen family as brother and sister uncover its...

Not even a blizzard can keep barrister Rex Graves away from Swanmere Manor, a secluded Victorian hotel in the English countryside. But instead of Christmas cheer, he finds a dead guest.

Haboring secret preoccupations with a magical land he read about in a childhood fantasy series, Quentin Coldwater is unexpectedly admitted into an exclusive college of magic and rigorously educated in modern sorcery.

When Jende Jonga journeys to New York City from Cameroon in 2004 on a visitors' visa in hopes of obtaining a green card, he's sure his life will only improve. After saving up enough money to bring over Jende's wife, Neni, and six-year-old son, the family moves into an apartment in Harlem. Then Jende hits the jackpot in 2007 when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a wealthy Lehman Brothers executive. But working for the Edwardses isn't...

Michael Hodge has been many things in life. A surfer. A husband. A father. A son. A business owner. A lover. "Abandoned." Ever since Michael's wife, Anita, ran off leaving him to raise their child on his own, he has been struggling to pick up the pieces. And after seven years, he's finally starting to put his life back together. He has given up his dream of surfing and now manages his own construction business, he works hard to be the best father...

"Beginning in the summer of 1939, fourteen-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and the locals hold the family in high esteem. On days when they aren't playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become...

On a summer evening in the blue-collar town of Amicus, Kansas, the Campbell family gathers for a birthday dinner for their ailing patriarch, retired judge Abel Campbell, prepared and hosted by their still-hale mother Hattie. But when Billy, the youngest sibling--with a history of addiction, grand ideas, and misdemeanors--passes out in his devil's food cake, the family takes up the unfinished business of Billy's sobriety. Billy's wayward adventures...

"Khong is a magician, and we are lucky to fall under her spell at the very beginning of her brilliant writing life." --Lauren Groff "This novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love."--Miranda July Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice. Freshly disengaged from her fiance and feeling that life has not turned out quite...