Tom tried everything to get away from the world - but it had a way of getting back to him. When Tom was diagnosed with AIDS, he thought of it as a death sentence. His life was effectively over. He packed up everything and moved to a beach house in California. There, he could live out what remained of his life in peace. His landlord was kind, understanding - and interested in him romantically. Tom had found the safe haven he sought. That is, until...

Novel describes the shattering effects of twentieth century materialism on the life of Solon Barnes, a devout Pennsylvania Quaker. Also the story of how he turns to the spiritual core of his religion to reconcile his worldly failure as a businessman and the revolt of his five children.

An island estate off the coast of county Cork, Carriglas has been in the Rolleston family for centuries. Sarah Pollexfen, a distant relation of little means, remembers the magical summer she spent there as a child in 1904. But much has changed in Ireland since then. And when Sarah returns nearly thirty years later, she finds Carriglas much changed as well. World War I and the Irish Troubles have taken their toll on the Rollestons. Sarah's cousins,...

Raised by a career soldier, a working class Englishman tries to find his place-both in and out of uniform-in this compelling novel of love and war   Charlie Scorton sees his best friend killed beside him in the mine, and resolves to join the army. His father throws him out for deserting the coal miner's life, but Charlie never looks back. For twenty-four years, he roams the empire, a king's soldier who is finally left with no choice but to come home....

Beatrice and Henry-the parents of the protagonist of Dale Peck's debut novel, Martin and John-are first drawn together when the teenage Henry is battling a brain tumor he believes will soon claim his life. But forty years later they're still a couple, in a story that moves from Long Island to the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, and from love to hate and back again. Peck bisects the story of Henry and Beatrice's marriage with a stunning fifty-page...

Set in Paris, an offbeat and sweet novel about family, loss and recovery, and the magic of memory. When Mira takes a trip to Paris with her nephew, Bernard, she expects to ride bicycles through the picturesque streets and admire the parks and courtyards. But the trip takes a different turn when the two travellers try to rescue an injured pigeon from the sidewalk, and their journey becomes one of addressing the losses that define their lives. Mira...

May Sarton's sharp exploration of how men and women love-and how they clash-as shown through one tempestuous relationship Ned Fraser has never seen himself as a husband. His distinguished job at a Boston bank has kept him satisfied while a string of failed love affairs has concerned him little. But no woman has ever affected him the way Anna Lindstrom does. A concert singer of immense charm and beauty, Anna is possessed of a vibrant presence that...

A troubled European family struggles to make a life in India during WWII in this "absorbing" novel from a New York Times–bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). Eight years ago, Louise Pool left her husband, Charles, in India, fleeing a marriage marked by anger, disillusion, and mistrust. Now, with Europe engulfed in the flames of World War II and Germany's Nazi juggernaut rolling through occupied France, Louise is reluctantly returning to East Bengal,...

The son of a coal miner who went on to play professionally in the rugby league, British author David Storey drew heavily on his own background for his debut novel, This Sporting Life, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award and was made into a film with Richard Harris. Collected here, Storey's characters range from a seventeen-year-old compulsive note writer to a seventy-year-old suicidal art historian and a middle-aged sports columnist, but they...

Sheila Redden, a devoted mother and reserved wife of a busy Belfast surgeon, is awaiting the arrival of her husband at a Paris hotel. In a matter of days, they'll be celebrating a second honeymoon after sixteen years of marriage. But Sheila never could've imagined the chance encounter with Tom, a handsome and attentive American student-or that in one inexplicable moment, she'd abandon everything she knows to disappear into the unknown with an irresistible...