Short Marriage

'Vivid, memorable and beautifully crafted’ - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater 'A brilliant collection, from a remarkable talent' - Joseph O'Connor, author of Shadowplay Hearts and Bones is a book about relationships. It explores what love does to us, and how we survive it. A young woman...

Cale Landry: When the man from Wolf Creek leaves his secluded mountain refuge to seek revenge on the thief who robbed him, he never expected he’d end up taking home the wily old bandit’s gorgeous and spirited daughter, Raven. But Cale will never get back what he lost, until he learns to trust in love. Conn Benton: Conn Benton is shocked at the suggestion he should marry a Winthrop - especially that tall, redheaded Emaline - to end the feud between their families. He might marry her and bed her, but he has no intention of loving her.

The View from Mount Joy, Lorna Landvik’s delightfully quirky and intensely moving new novel, is about a man, a supermarket, the roads not taken, and the great, unexpected pleasures found in living a good life. When hunky teenage hockey player Joe Andreson and his widowed mother move to Minneapolis, Joe falls under the seductive spell of Kristi Casey, Ole Bull High’s libidinous head cheerleader, the kind of girl a guy can’t say no to, even when saying yes guarantees trouble.

In Kenya, when a young American man falls in love with the sophisticated daughter of an African chief, their marriage is strong. But tradition will soon put their union to the supreme test. Gripping and soulful, A Woman's Worth is a tale of cultural divisions, emotional wounds, and a love that struggles to transcend them.

It’s summertime in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ian has lost his job, while his wife, Parker, thrives in her e-commerce career. Parker’s days are frenetic and full. When she’s not in Zoom meetings, she’s doom-scrolling about the virus or hanging out on Houseparty with her friends. Meanwhile, Ian claims to spend his days looking for a full-time job, but he’s mostly goofing around on Tik Tok and taking their dog, Hutch, for longer-than-necessary walks. What he really wants is to start a family, but Parker still isn’t ready.

This selection of stories relates the many experiences and complexities of womanhood; sometimes joyful, sometimes sad but always enriching. With stories by Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth Gaskell - it includes 'Ladies in Lavender' by William J. Locke, the inspiration for the film of the same name starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

With one band of gold, Prince Andres of Petras can erase his past - albeit pleasurable - sins. But his prospective bride is untamable Princess Zara, so the playboy prince must seduce her into compliance and crown her by Christmas!

The ceremony itself is just two words: "I do". But lots more has been written about the anticipation, the event, and the aftermath, and The Voices of Marriage gathers the best poems ever written on this most extraordinary moment, at once the most private and the most public, in a person's life. From Shakespeare to our own day, here are poets whose lines sparkle with wit, or hush with mystery.

Annamae Hartman shouldn’t be alive. After nearly dying from a fever that addled her brain, she doesn’t take anything for granted and has found joy again in the simple things. No matter how much Sawyer Mills brings her joy, he is not simple! When she refuses to see him after a botched proposal, the last thing she expected was to be quarantined with him, alone, with the same fever that nearly claimed her life. When the minister insists, Annamae marries Sawyer for proprietary’s sake. She does it reluctantly and ends up half-married to a man who has no recollection of the wedding!

At thirty-five, independent, tenacious Texan Leah is happy with life as a successful weight-loss expert, but something is missing: her romantic side can’t help dreaming about the perfect wedding. The problem is, she’s missing the two main ingredients: a groom, and a father to walk her down the aisle.

When your cousin tells you he's gonna teach you about life...Get out of the truck and run as fast as you can. No, it's not what you think. But it's still pretty bad.

When did “parenting” become a verb? Why is it so hard to parent, and so rife with the possibility of failure? Sitcom families of the past—the Cleavers, the Bradys, the Conners—didn’t seem to lose any sleep about their parenting methods. Today, parents are likely to be up late, doomscrolling on parenting websites. In Long Days, Short Years, Andrew Bomback—physician, writer, and father of three young children—looks at why it can be so much fun to be a parent but, at the same time, so frustrating and difficult to parent.

After Phoenix discovers that all of her friends are either engaged or already married, she’s convinced that love is in the air for everyone except her. Cupid’s bow and arrow skip over Phoenix by happenstance as she struggles to accept her chances of walking down the aisle next to the love of her life are officially screwed, no thanks to her best friend Xay and ex-boyfriend Asher, who is keeping a few secrets of his own.

The true story. Within Manhattan’s oldest families, where money marries money and pedigrees have nothing to do with dogs, rebellious children are reeled in with arranged marriages under threat of disinheritance. But what if an arranged marriage brings you the man of your dreams and the girl you’ve always wanted?

FEAT DESC

Jim Stenson has been flown to the bohemian island of Formentera for a monthlong gig: writing a screenplay for a famous Spanish director, loosely based on the classic French film Contempt. With his career flagging, Jim is determined to make the most of the opportunity. But the director raises the stakes, pushing Jim to draw inspiration for the script from his strained relationship with his wife Anna.

Alan is able to imagine every way critical equipment might break during the launch and landing of Apollo 11. But his experience in preventing cosmic disasters does nothing to prepare him for the pressures of a hasty marriage to a woman he barely knows—or the strain of keeping up appearances amid the shifting social attitudes of the late ’60s. When a crisis at home forces Alan back to earth, he’s faced with a choice he doesn’t know how to make: whether to let go or move forward.

What causes a happily married Christian husband to commit adultery? How can the betrayed wife continue to honor her husband after the betrayal? What does a couple do when the other woman doesn't accept that the affair is over?

Mary Moon explores the landscape of long-married life - the hidden hurts and disappointments that lead women to consider leaving, and the tender weight of shared history that prompts them to stay. In "Into the Light," a wife and mother finds the idea that she might legally choose the moment of her death comforting, but how will she balance the finality of that choice against the little joys and inevitable tragedies of living?

Alice Lethbury, a young wife stuck in a dull, passionless marriage, decides to adopt a baby, Jane, with the consent of her reluctant husband. As Jane grows up, it becomes clear that she has entered the Lethburys' lives for a reason.