Rural Life

Joe Starling, a man teetering on the edge of spectacular failures—as an artist, rancher, lover, and human being—is also a man of noble ambitions. His struggle to right himself is mesmerizing, hilarious, and profoundly moving.

Raven Cunningham has built a quiet life between the shelves of a small-town bookshop, ghostwriting stories for others while hiding her own. She’s long believed her father abandoned her, until a letter from her late grandmother reveals a shocking truth. Convinced the reclusive author J. C. Nevermore is her father, Raven sets out to uncover the real story. When her childhood friend Cole Walker, an Army Ranger medic wrestling with his own scars, offers to help, she’s not sure if she can trust him . . . or herself.

From the author of the “enthralling” (New York Times Book Review) and “beautiful” (Washington Post) debut novel The Vexations comes an exciting new story collection that is “perfect for fans of George Saunders and Karen Russell” (Booklist), moving boldly between the real and the...

After Kiran loses her mother, she escapes to the Welsh countryside—to allow herself to grieve away from turbulent city life in London, to leave her toxic family behind, and to find solace in the purity of the natural world. I Can Hear the Cuckoo is a tender, philosophical memoir about the beauty of a microscopic life, the value of solitariness, and respecting the rhythm and timing of the earth. This is a reflective book about finding friendship in the most unexpected places—and what nature and a small community in the Welsh Valleys can teach us about life.

The Black River flows from Missouri into Arkansas, east of Branson and west of the Bootheel. It meanders where the foothills of the Ozarks begin to rise out of the Mississippi plain. The area was sparsely populated when E. R. Coleman was a young man. Like the population they served, businesses were modest, mostly small, and scattered. Arkansas was still the Bear State; slogans boasting that it was - or predicting that it would become - the "Land of Opportunity" were yet to be conceived.

Better Than Mom's is a neighborhood diner in a small city in Wisconsin where good food and interesting people come together. Meet Brady, the warm-hearted owner who takes pride in making homemade food for his customers, Fay, the sassy morning waitress who cares for people more than she lets on, Naomi, the welfare mom who cooks like an angel and needs a job, Steve, who sits in the back booth and won't let anyone see what he's writing, and Officer Bates, who comes to investigate a crime but ends up sweeping Fay off her feet.

'Ghar-vaapasee' un visthaapit logon kee kahaanee hai jo behatar bhaviṣy ke lakṣy kaa peechhaa karate hue, apane samaaj se door hone ke baavajood, vahaan se pooree tarah nikal naheen paate. Yah kahaanee bihaar-uttar pradesh aadi ke gaanvon, chhoṭe shaharon se shikṣaa aur naukaree kee talaash men nikale yuvaa_on ke aantarik aur baahy sngharṣ kee kahaanee hai. Apane jadon kee ek chintaa se joojhate hue ki magar vo vaheen hote, to shaayad kuchh badalaav le aate.

On the rebound from being dumped after 10 years with the man she'd hoped would be the father of her children, Maggie Ellis buys a neglected cottage in Tingara on acreage to start her life over and fulfil her dream of owning a garden nursery. Divorced truck driver and single dad Nick Logan has his hands full enough raising three sons alone without getting distracted by his new neighbour.

El Jonás passa un cap de setmana a casa del seu pare, vidu i jubilat. No és una trobada com tantes altres: hi ha alguna cosa que la fa especial. Potser és el fet que el pare mateix ha demanat a en Jonás que hi vagi, potser és la presència d’un veí inquietant, potser la minyona que no diu el que sap, potser dels alemanys que escenifiquen la caiguda del mur de Berlín al jardí del costat... En aquella casa del poble de Malzinelles res no és ben bé el que sembla, ni tan sols els records familiars.

Der Übergang von der Kindheit zur Jugend im Ruhrgebiet der 1960er Jahre: Der zwölfjährige Julian Collien bleibt mit seinem Vater in den Sommerferien zu Hause, da das Geld nur für die Mutter und Schwester reicht, die an die norddeutsche Küste fahren. Die Zeit vergeht schleppend. Nachts, wenn der Vater im Schichtdienst arbeitet, muss Julian mit dem zudringlichen Hausbesitzer zurechtkommen. Und er entdeckt seine ersten eigenen erotischen Gefühle für das Nachbarsmädchen, auf das jedoch auch sein Vater ein Auge geworfen hat.

Celia Burrows thought she had it all - a handsome husband, two successful children, and a gorgeous beach house on the northern coast of Maine. But her perfect life cracks apart when her husband of 30 years informs her that he's leaving. In a note. And since problems come in threes, her adult children reveal they've both been struggling with issues of their own.

Seventeen-year-old Riggle is living in rural Indiana with his uncle and uncle's girlfriend after the death of both of his parents. Now his uncle has gone missing, probably on a drug binge. It's Monday, and $800 in rent is due Friday. Riggle, who's been suspended from school, has to either find his uncle or get the money together himself. His mission exposes him to a motley group of Opioid locals - encounters by turns perplexing, harrowing, and heartening. Meanwhile, Riggle marks each day by remembering the mythology his late mother invented for him about how the days got their names.

Peter Rock's stunning autobiographical novel begins in the '90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and swells carried by the rise and fall of the lake. The nature of these night swims, and of his relationship to Mrs. Abel, becomes increasingly mysterious to the narrator as the summer passes, until the night that Mrs. Abel disappears.

The Chinese Economic miracle is happening despite, not because of, China's 900 million peasants. They are missing from the portraits of booming Shanghai, or Beijing. Many of China's underclass live under a feudalistic system unchanged since the 15th century. Wu Chuntao and Chen Guidi undertook a three-year survey of what had happened to the peasants in one of the poorest provinces, Anhui, asking the question: have the peasants been betrayed by the revolution undertaken in their name by Mao and his successors?

Jenny Hayward cannot believe that she's become a divorced fifty-year-old woman with adult children. When did that happen? It wasn't that long ago that her three daughters were still young, and Jenny was following her dream studying for her nursing degree. In the last two years, since her husband walked out, Jenny hasn't had the time to be interested in other men until she is thrust unexpectedly into the world of dating when her daughters and her best friend secretly set her up with a profile on a dating app. Initially outraged, Jenny finally agrees that it's time to move on.

Nell'estate del 1999 un nonno e un nipote si incontrano per la prima volta, dopo che una lunga serie di incomprensioni li ha tenuti distanti. Il nonno, ebreo, nato il diciassette novembre 1938, giorno in cui in Italia vengono promulgate le leggi razziali, ha trascorso la propria vita senza sentirsi autorizzato a esistere. Andato in pensione al termine di una brillante carriera come consulente, si ritira nella borgata di montagna dove durante la guerra si era rifugiato con la sua famiglia e dove vuole morire.

Welcome to the quirky town of Cherico, Mississippi, where potluck meetings at the local library provide a feast for mind and stomach alike. . .If some folks had their way, the Cherico library would have shut down long ago. Councilman Durden Sparks aims to divert funding to a cause dear to his heart - and his wallet.

Il romanzo narra la storia di una famiglia di pescatori che vive e lavora ad Aci Trezza, un piccolo paese siciliano nei pressi di Catania...

At 34, Brian Duncan has it all. A trendy Manhattan life, a high-powered PR job, and a gorgeous fiancée with an exciting future of her own. Then, in a single moment of deception, Brian's world crumbles. Bitterly betrayed, he decides to toss away all he has worked for. Irresistibly drawn to the road, he leaves the city's busy streets behind. On a hillside along New York's Hudson River Valley, Brian is transfixed by the beauty of an enormous windmill. Running toward it is a lovely little girl and her alluring mother, Annie Sullivan.

For Patricia Curren, the summer of 1978 begins with a devastating discovery: an unfamiliar black pearl button in the bed she shares with her controlling husband, Jack. Seeking the courage to end her desolate marriage, Patricia spends a quiet summer alone on beautiful Kiawah Island. But when she meets Terry Sloan, a collegiate tennis player trying to go pro, their physical attraction sparks a slow burn toward obsession.