Home Fiction

From rediscovering an ancestral village in China to experiencing the realities of American life as a Nigerian, the search for belonging crosses borders and generations. Selected from the archives of Catapult magazine, the essays in A Map Is Only One Story highlight the human side of immigration policies and polarized rhetoric, as 20 writers share provocative personal stories of existing between languages and cultures.

A chance encounter in the wilds of the North brings more joy to Elizabeth and Mr Darcy than either of them dared hope for. But her world is rocked by blow after blow - and the truth would only cause him pain. ‘I must be cruel only to be kind’ is Elizabeth’s guiding precept, and she chooses her path. Yet time, circumstances and new acquaintances teach her she had made a terrible mistake. How can she regain what she had lost and rebuild a future with the only man she will ever love, but for whom disguise of every sort is his abhorrence?

In Victorian England, orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of 12, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency — an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results — and at 17, Mary’s about to join their ranks.

In her new collection of stories, award-winning New York Times Notable author Leila Aboulela offers us a rich tableau of life as an immigrant abroad. Shuttling between the dusty, sunbaked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life.

Elizabeth Ann is being carefully brought up by her Aunt Frances. Aunt Frances shares in all Elizabeth Ann's fears and slights, walks her to and from school each day, and conscientiously follows the most modern theories on child-rearing. She is the original helicopter parent. Not surprisingly, at nine years old Elizabeth Ann is timid and shy, friendless, and completely dependent on her doting aunt. Then an emergency occurs, and the fearful little girl is temporarily sent to other relatives who live on a farm in Vermont.

Joe, an ugly and unloved horse, trusts no one, and no one trusts him. Until Vicky. This is the story of a troubled horse and the little girl who loves him. Based on the true adventures of the author's childhood 50 years ago, Joe teaches the lesson that sometimes beauty is not skin deep, but heart deep. That the unloved have much to show us about the true nature of love.

Join Gio and Sacha, along with their merry band of former Green Berets and their partners, as they navigate misadventures and heartwarming moments in Winterhaven, where true love and the transformative power of Christmas await.

My life is as predictable as it comes: I go to work at my security job, I hang out with my friends, and I spend my free time alone. I don’t want or need anyone or anything else. Then I’m assigned a night contract with Jordan, who’s my complete opposite, and my world is flipped upside down. Jordan is friendly, outgoing, and nothing like the men I’m usually attracted to. He’s also big, confident, and can turn me to putty with just his words.

Salchar and the Free Fleet are tired, low on resources, man power and ships that should actually be flying. Yet they have a mandate, free those that are being oppressed. Sarenmenti, Humans, Kuruvians, Chaleelians, and the genetic creations of the AI called the Planner, Avarians, band together under the banner of the Free Fleet to go to the fleet’s birthplace - Earth. Life is nothing but a battle for a survival, and Salchar is going to have to use all of his skills to keep his people alive.

A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara's heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone - on foot.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, her “best book yet” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) about a woman confronting her dependence on pills. Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But...

1940. It's been a month since rector's daughter Billie Harkness left her rural village to make a fresh start in the northern city of Hull. Now she has a new home and an exciting new job as one of only two female police constables in the whole city. But Hull still feels like a foreign country, and some people are less than impressed by the idea of a woman doing a "man's job". But determined to do her bit for the war effort, Billie throws herself into her work. The chance to prove her worth comes during a search for a missing air raid shelter inspector, when Billie makes a shocking discovery.

This is the second story in the Anne of Green Gables series. Skinny little red-haired Anne has changed into a pretty 16-year-old and is all grown up - well, sort of grown up. The story opens with Anne as a school teacher at Avonlea school. When Anne reached the school that first morning, she was confronted by prim rows of "shining morning faces". She had sat up until nearly midnight composing a speech which she had revised and improved painstakingly. It was a wonderful speech with fine ideas. And then, she couldn't remember it!

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home, read by David Monteath. Cal McGill is an Edinburgh-based oceanographer, environmentalist and one-of-a-kind investigator. Using his knowledge of the waves - ocean currents, prevailing winds...

It's been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places. And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders. But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

In Where the River Begins, a confused and misguided youngster stays with a Christian family while his mother is institutionalized. They help him discover the source of the nearby river and the source of the Christian life.

Set in the author’s native Belfast, the ten stories in Sweet Home lay bare the heartbreak and quiet tragedies that run under the surface of everyday lives. A lonely woman is fascinated by her niqab-wearing neighbours; a middle-aged teacher becomes obsessed with a young Gaelic football player; and an employer covers for his two employees caught having sex in a public toilet.

Since losing his family in a tragic accident, building contractor Max Lambright can't seem to find purpose in anything but hard work...until he meets feisty newcomer, Willa Richards. As she struggles to make a new life for herself and her baby girl, she challenges him in just about every possible way. Dare he hope that, alongside this spirited woman, he might rekindle his lost faith, and find the path to love and the family he craves?

Poppy, Dash, Azumi, and Dylan may have made it out of Shadow House - but the grounds are a whole new nightmare. Someone they thought was a friend is hunting them, and there's no place that's safe now that they've woken the shadow creature. If they want to survive, they'll have to figure out once and for all what the house wants from them, and what - or who - they'll need to leave behind in order to escape...or risk being trapped within Shadow House forever.

When Jason Walker and his dog MMax are both badly injured in an IED explosion while serving in the European war in 2038, they are evacuated back to the United States for the chance to recuperate and heal. But before the two can reach the relative safety of their designated VA hospital in Tennessee an EMP blast creates havoc and brings down their plane, leaving them alone and vulnerable amidst the chaos of a country that is on the verge of complete and utter social collapse.