"The story of a young woman from Wisconsin who goes to Chicago, becomes an actress, marries and moves to New York, and when her husband loses his job, returns to the stage." ***"A powerful account of a young working girl's rise to the 'tinsel and shine' of worldly success, and of the slow decline of her lover and protector Hurstwood." Oxford Companion to Engl Lit. ***"Plain, unaffected, and unconventional story of the actual life of the lower middle-classes...

In a brawling Chicago of crooks, con artists, second-story men, extravagant dreamers, snappy dressers, and cold-eyed pragmatists, Augie March undergoes his sentimental education an education that, though imbued with reality, will take him into realms progressively stranger, more marvelous, more filled with indecipherable meaning.

Henry Shaw, a high school senior from an average upper-middle-class Chicago family, discovers that his mother, a pianist, is having an affair when he accidentally reads her E-mail.

An American police sergeant in post-World War II Germany attempts to save a family from being delivered to the Russians. The Russians claim the family is guilty of war crimes, but Charles O'Malley is skeptical that they will get a fair trial.

"For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer. "Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut."--Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild. Felicia "Fe Fe" Stevens...

Chuckie O'Malley attends the University of Chicago and becomes reacquainted with his foster sister Rosemarie in the years after World War II.

Class struggle and family tensions explode in this novel of life in a Chicago suburb in the 1950s, as a teenager watches his father's psyche crumble in the wake of union problems and marital difficulties.

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college; they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation; and they never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter: that was Olga's role. When a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead, Julia is left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her...

"Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and...

"On the last day of summer, a young college grad moved to Chicago and rented a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lived there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate...