Literary Fiction

Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Recovering from a breakdown, Willow has nothing and nobody to go on for until she discovers a mysterious box of letters hidden in her mother’s belongings. She needs to know: who was the enigmatic Aunt Rosa who wrote, unanswered, for so many years, and why had she been living in Thailand? Could Willow have a cousin when she thought that she was alone?

On Thanksgiving 1849, the richest man in Boston vanishes. A Harvard Medical College janitor finds cut-up pieces of a human body in professor John Webster's privy vault beneath his laboratory. He is charged with murder despite only circumstantial evidence, and the notorious trial that follows offers a spectacle that is as riveting as the O.J. Simpson trial of the 1990s. A young doctor, James Winchell Stone, who takes down the entire transcript of the trial using an early form of stenography, decides to use his deductive reasoning to solve the mystery of who actually killed Dr. George Parkman.

Expansive.., and eloquent.., at once grave and majestic. In the final volume of the 'Home' trilogy, it is 1974 and we are in the windswept territories of the southwest USA. Written with terse lyricism, and cinematic detail, and wry humor, Dirt and Snakes is a tale of the American West like no other in contemporary literature. This searing, extraordinarily evocative narrative opens with Gus Alamo, a wayfarer; a Cowboy.

Cass Adams is crazy, and everyone in Deacon, Kansas, knows it. But when her good-for-nothing husband, Roland, goes missing, no one suspects that Cass buried him in their unfinished koi pond. Too bad he doesn't stay there for long. Cass gets arrested on the banks of the Spring River for dumping his corpse after heavy rain partially unearths it.

Buffalo, New York, 1901 … a muscular, young city, Queen of the Lakes … The Electric City … where the money that builds Newport mansions and Park Avenue townhouses is made, plays host to the world’s greatest fair, the Pan-American Exposition and its 8,000,000 guests … And less than a mile from the great spectacle, a web of love, lust, and intrigue is forming among the young, elite Ashwood Set.

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

In this immersive novel, Zuravleff weaves Russian fairy tales and fables into a family saga within the storied American landscape. The challenges facing immigrants-and the fragility of citizenship-are just as unsettling and surprising today as they were 100 years ago.

In the rural South, a retired colonel in an upscale retirement community grieves the sudden death of his wife on the tennis court. On the other side of the highway, an elderly Black woman grieves the murder of her niece by a white man. Between them lies an abandoned field where three centuries of crimes are hidden, and only she knows the explosive secrets buried there. When the colonel runs into her car, causing a surprising amount of damage, it sparks a feud that sets loose the spirits in the Field, both benevolent and vengeful.

Tilda has done everything she can to make her life neat, protected, tidy. No longer the girl who was scared of everything, whose family pushed her away, who hit rock bottom. Now she runs her life – as she does her successful business – with the utmost organization. As long as she keeps everyone at arm’s length, she will be fine. She will be safe. But then a chance encounter with a man who’s fallen on hard times changes everything.

Ten years ago, Keaton Young turned his back briefly on his four-year-old daughter, Vivian, during a family picnic at the beach. Minutes later, she was gone, her floaties found in the ocean. Drowned. But they never found a body. And Keaton has never given up hope that, somehow, she’s still alive.

Meet three women with contrasting partners: Lucy's husband is her beloved companion; Vera's husband bores her and she turns elsewhere; and Charlotte's husband is a horrifying bully who turns a high-spirited naive young girl into a deeply unhappy woman. This is the story of how those marriages shape the sister’s lives, the consequences of their decisions, and the sisterly love that hopes to save them from tragedy.

From the perspective of a small dog, the world can be a big place. More than anything, Hector just wants to be a good boy.

All of his life Benjamin hadn't noticed Sarah as anything other than his best friend's sister. The last thing he expected was to notice her as more than a friend, but he did. No sooner does he realize his love for her, America enters the war. War changes a man. He'd heard that dozens of times over his life but with every near miss, every new scar, every bullet he feels himself chipping away. Even if he survives to go home to his soulmate, what man would he be? How much of him would she recognize?

He was the everyman. He had a job. He had a wife. He had a kid. Then, stuff happened. What did he do? Did he give up? Did he roll over and die? Find out in the defining novel of the century. It might just change your life.