"Willa Cather's third novel, The Song of the Lark, depicts the growth of an artist, singer Thea Kronborg, a character inspired by the Swedish-born immigrant and renowned Wagnerian soprano Olive Fremstad. Thea's early life, however, has much in common with Cather's own. Set from 1885 to 1909, the novel traces Thea's long journey from her fictional hometown of Moonstone, Colorado, to her source of inspiration in the Southwest, and to New York and the...

"Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins...

The bestselling Australian novel of all time, Thorn Birds is the sweeping saga of three generations of the Cleary family. Stoic matriarch Fee, her devoted husband, Paddy, and their headstrong daughter, Meggie, experience joy, sadness and magnificent triumph in the cruel Australian outback. With life's unpredictability, it is love that is their unifying thread, but it is a love shadowed by the anguish of forbidden passions. For Meggie loves Father...

"This first volume of G.K. Chesterton's mysteries marks the debut of a most unusual detective: Father Paul Brown, a short, stumpy priest with an extraordinary and uncanny ability to spot the evil that lies in human hearts. In these twelve stories, Father Brown uses his wisdom, common sense, and experience as a confessor to solve baffling, fascinating crimes -- and save lost souls along the way." --

Pastor and fireman Nick Foster found the body in the inferno engulfing his church. From the bullet wound in the head, it's clear this is no ordinary fire victim. The quiet community of Newpointe, reeling fom the shock of the dead man's identity, struggles with the agonizing question who did it--and why? Paramedic Issie Mattreaux is no icon of virtue, but she cares enough about her teenaged newphew, Jake, to track him down when he turns up missing....

"Reissue of the author's most famous and well-loved work, the Starbridge series, six self-contained yet interconnected novels that explore the history of the Church of England through the 20th century. Charles Ashworth is privileged, pampered and pleased with himself. As Bishop of Starbridge in 1965 he 'purrs along as effortlessly as a well-tuned Rolls-Royce' while he proclaims his famous 'absolute truths' to a society which he sees - with rage and...

A brash newspaperman in 1830s New Jersey must decide if redeeming his career is more important than a future with the intriguing woman he investigates, who turns out to be Ruth Livingstone--the daughter of a man involved in a high-profile trial.

Arthur's seduction of an innocent, young country girl results in remorse, suffering, and regret. According to The Oxford Companion to English Literature, "the plot is founded on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodist preacher, and the original of Dinah Morris of the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison." The story's plot follows four characters' rural lives in the fictional community...

What does it really mean to be a Christian? In His Steps was the first to ask "What would Jesus do? and quickly became one of the best-selling books of all times. A classic Christian novel. "I want volunteers from First Church who will pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly, for an entire year; not to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus do?'" The town Reverend never dreamed that among those who responded would be the...

Swedish immigrant Inga Linberg arrives in Uppsala, Iowa, in the late nineteenth century and takes a job caring for the sick mother and two young nieces of dairy farmer Dirk Bridger, and though she chides her sisters for their infatuation with the handsome and hardworking Dirk, she cannot hide the growing truth that she too would like to attract his attention.