Winner of the PEN Center USA Award for translationAward-winning author Junzo Shono weaves a stunning tapestry of everyday life in this collection of short stories.A young man, having failed his college entrance exams, becomes obsessed with a family card game. A businessman stays overnight at an inn and drinks with the innkeeper. A family parakeet seems to be dead but then climbs back on its perch.This delicate collection of thirteen...

A masterpiece of quiet lyricism set against a backdrop of change and renewal in suburban Tokyo.The most celebrated work by one of Japan's master literary stylists, Evening Clouds is a book filled with delicate images of ordinary life, richly and precisely observed. A family moves into a new home on a windswept hilltop in western Tokyo. Around them are forests and farms. But the developers are coming, and the children are growing up. There are meals, quanda...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/FAULKER AWARD WINNER •The acclaimed author of The Swimmers and When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” a century ago in this "understated masterpiece ... that unfolds with great emotional power" (San Francisco Chronicle).In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the extraordinary lives of these wom...

**A Booklist Top 10 First Novels of 2012 pickA Bookpage Best Books of 2012 pick“A richly emotional portrait of a family that had me spellbound from page one.”—Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild**The night before Janie’s sister, Hannah, is born, her grandmother tells her a story: Since the Japanese occupation of Korea, their family has lost a daughter in every generation, and Janie is told to keep Hannah safe. Years later, when Hannah inexplicably cut...

From the author of The Keepers of the House, a "beautiful" novel following a black mother and daughter through the Great Depression and Civil Rights era ( The Boston Globe).Mary is an orphaned, homeless, African American child, abandoned by the rest of her family and left to care for her younger brother. She becomes a "roadwalker," a nomad who wanders across the rural south and quickly learns to rely on herself to survive.When she grows up ...

Jim Qwilleran and his extraordinary Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum have more than one fire to put out when a deadly arsonist sets Moose County ablaze in this mystery in the New York Times bestselling Cat Who series.The way Jim Qwilleran sees it, there’s nothing worse than being left high and dry. But that’s exactly where he’s been ever since a record-breaking drought hit Moose County. He’s bedraggled. Beleaguered. And, following a rash of fires at local his...

Originally published in 1976, Lady Oracle is a masterful achievement about the unravelling of one woman's many secret lives—and her escape from them—abound in Atwood's trademark wit, humour, and insight.Joan Foster is a woman of many secrets—and even more identities. To her husband, she is a loyal, uncomplicated wife. To her readers, she is the anonymous author of sweeping gothic romances. To herself, she is something far messier: a woman haunted by a mise...

The Velveteen Rabbit is the charming children’s tale about a stuffed rabbit who longs to become real, and the magic that makes his dream come true.HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Both familiar and strange, this story of a large Canadian city seen through the wide eyes of a naive and inexperienced young immigrant — wise in the culture of comic books — is both hilarious and heartbreaking.Samuel is just 17 when his mother dies and he is called to live with the father he has only heard of. He leaves his village in Trinidad and flies to Toronto, where he finds his father living in a place called Regent Park. Samuel is lonely in this “big mall of a country,” but ...

There's not much that upsets young Valli. Even though her days are spent picking coal and fighting with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she knows. The only sight that fills her with terror are the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks -- the lepers. Valli and the other children throw stones at them. No matter how hard her life is, she tells herself, at least she will never be one of them. Then she discovers that she is not living with...

An East German immigrant pleads with his estranged wife for mercy after kidnapping their daughter during a parental visit in this lyrical novel—A New York Times Notable Book—A Washington Times Book of the Year."Agile . . . transporting . . . a book that works as both character study and morality play, filled with questions that have no easy answers." —

Jim Qwilleran and his cats scramble for clues when peaceful Breakfast Island is turned upside-down by murder in this mystery in the New York Times bestselling Cat Who series.Qwilleran and the cats are visiting an island known by many names. Qwill has always called it Breakfast Island, but to the taciturn natives, it’s Providence Island. To the rich summer resident, it’s Grand Island—and to the developers and tourists who are turning this once-peaceful plac...