Rural Fiction

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, the U.P. Reader has offered a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The sixty-plus short works in this 8th annual volume take listeners on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo and from St. Ignace to Escanaba.

Lottery winner and ex-journalist Donal Fitzgerald joins forces with his girlfriend, DNR conservation officer Mercy Virdon, to solve the mysterious death of a beloved angler, Charlie, who was murdered in his tent in a state campground and who was known by all - and who may have known too much. Set in the engaging small town of Ossning on the Borchard River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula - an angler’s dream, filled with eccentric, believable, sympathetic, and unforgettable characters - Riverwatcher is a classic whodunit.

My name is Christine, and I'm on the run from a cult that wants me dead. Annabelle Lane is the cult's cunning and venomous leader, who forced me to commit crimes that are unforgivable. Annabelle's threats aren't to be taken lightly, and everybody knows that once you're in the cult, you're in it for life.

She ran to escape control. They want to give her freedom wrapped in love. Lydia never wanted the life her family planned for her—an arranged bond with a prestigious Alpha pack, where she'd be nothing more than a housewife, an obedient Omega stripped of choice. So she ran. Far from the suffocating traditions and cruel Alphas who sought to cage her, Lydia built a quiet life in a sleepy little town. Armed with scent blockers, suppressants, and sheer determination, she's managed to avoid pack dynamics for years—keeping her head down and her heart guarded.

After two back-to-back life-changing events, first grade teacher Katie McGrath leaves Albuquerque for a fresh start in Borden's Gap, Tennessee. She is finally back in the classroom where she belongs, but it will take a little while for her to heal and truly feel like herself. She'll need to dig deep to find the courage to try again—in life and in love—but with some help from her neighbor Sam Youngblood and his adorable twin daughters, her future is looking brighter than she dared imagine.

It’s been years since Abby O’Brien Winters set foot in Chesapeake Shores. The Maryland town her father built has too many sad memories, and Abby has too few spare moments - thanks to her demanding Wall Street career, the crumbling of her marriage, and her energetic daughters. Then one panicked phone call from her youngest sister brings her racing back home to protect Jess’ dream of renovating the charming Inn at Eagle Point. But saving the inn from foreclosure means dealing not only with her own fractured family but also with Trace Riley, the man Abby left 10 years ago.

Maeve McKenna is on the verge of a breakdown. Having worked herself into the ground as a sought-after interior designer in London, she’s in desperate need of a vacation. Philomena Duffy is a little lonely. After losing her husband, their crumbling mansion, Willow House, feels awfully empty. With the rugged shores of Ireland calling, Maeve visits her aunt Philomena in Sandy Cove, where she once, as a teenager, kissed a wild, mysterious boy - a kiss she has never been able to forget.

When Maggie Banks arrives to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to the small-town clientele. But with the town on the map as a top literary destination and the tourist society bent on keeping businesses historic, Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat. And in Maggie's world, bookish rules are made to be broken.

Conner Gilroy was my brother’s best friend. Popular. Smart. Gorgeous. With his cocky grin and perfect family, he was the fantasy of almost every girl I knew, including mine. And for some reason, he wanted me. Me, Henley O’Connell; the ugly bookworm with bright orange hair. Poor white trash with a quick temper and a chip on her shoulder. He confused me and made me angry. He treated me like I was something more than what I was. Like maybe what I wanted wasn’t just a silly fantasy.

When Jim Qwilleran's friend Polly decides to spend two weeks on vacation with an old girlfriend in Oregon, he finds himself at a loose end—but not for long. A visit from Nick Bamba brings news of a hotbed of mystery.

When Clay-Boy’s father fails to return home on Christmas Eve, Clay-Boy takes to the snowy Virginia hills in search of him, leaving his worried family to keep watch at the homestead. Along the way, he meets an irate deer, a threatening county sheriff, a congregation of African American churchgoers, and two elderly women who happen to be bootleggers. The story of Clay-Boy’s search for his father is told with warmth and intensity.

One of America’s most celebrated novelists, Cormac McCarthy announced his towering presence on the literary stage with his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. Within the pages of this classic work, John Wesley Rattner, his uncle Ather, and bootlegger Marion Sylder find their lives dangerously entwined in pre-World War II Tennessee. There, the men’s tragedies and struggles are mirrored by the looming specter of industrialization.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.

'A wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with' – Santa Montefiore An Island full of secrets . . . Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it...

Six-year-old Jaxon Lathan disappeared while playing in a park. Ten years later, he’s found wandering a deserted highway. The boy’s family races to the hospital to see him, but they are shocked at the sight. The bubbly youngster has been replaced by a scarred and emaciated teen. As they begin to bridge the lost years and rebuild their bonds, they must wrestle with their own guilt and demons.

In "A Taste of Murder," the third Bunburry book, a local beef farmer is found dead and Betty Thorndike, vegetarian and Bunburry's only Green Party member, is in the frame. Despite what everyone thinks, Betty is absolutely not Alfie McAlister's girlfriend. But Alfie knows what it's like to be wrongly accused, and enlists the help of his fellow amateur detectives, Liz and Marge, to find out who's responsible. There's just one problem about a farm-based investigation - Alfie's scared of cows.

Obra literária obrigatória para os vestibulares UEL 2025 e UFSC 2025. Um texto épico e lírico, realista e mágico que revela, para além de sua trama, um poderoso elemento de insubordinação social. Nas profundezas do sertão baiano, as irmãs Bibiana e Belonísia encontram uma velha e misteriosa faca na mala guardada sob a cama da avó. Ocorre então um acidente. E para sempre suas vidas estarão ligadas — a ponto de uma precisar ser a voz da outra. Numa trama conduzida com maestria e com uma prosa melodiosa, o romance conta uma história de vida e morte, de combate e redenção.

Random, Colorado, is just another stop on the road for solitary gunslinger Gabriel Valance. Known for his drinking, gambling, and womanizing, he prefers to remain a stranger to anyone who crosses his path. But when an upstart gunslinger catches Gabe off guard and shoots him down, he regrets his empty, lonely life with his dying breath....

Au premier jour suivant son quarantième anniversaire, Dolorès a une vie plus tumultueuse que jamais. Alors qu’elle jongle avec ses responsabilités et ses différents legs familiaux, un face à face avec le passé de sa mère entraîne des révélations et des complications aussi douloureuses qu’insoupçonnées.

Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.