In this compelling novel, acclaimed author Robert Hough recreates the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are real-life revolutionists Emma Goldman and Alexander “Sasha” Berkman, whose passionate love affair fuels their commitment to creating a better world.Following their chance meeting at a New York café in 1890—Emma is fleeing a loveless marriage, while Sasha is becomin...

Meet the Tiger Queen—in this "extravagantly entertaining" novel based on the wild life of the famous animal trainer and circus celebrity ( The Boston Globe).In the 1920s, during the golden age of the big top, Mabel Stark was the superstar of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and one of America's most eccentric and unlikely celebrities. A tiny, curvaceous Kentucky blonde in a white leather bodysuit, Mabel was brazen, sexually adventurous, an...

The Stowaway is at once a thrilling maritime adventure and a thought-provoking morality tale based on real-life events. The novel begins in the spring of 1996 when Rodolfo Miguel, a bosun on the Taiwanese container ship Maersk Dubai, discovers a hungry and frightened pair of Romanian stowaways. He presents them to his officers, fully expecting that they’ll be put to work or else dropped off at the nearest port. Instead, he and his fellow Filipino crewmen watch in ...

In the 1910s and 1920s, when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America, Mabel Stark made her name in a man’s world as the greatest female tiger trainer in history, the centre-ring finale act for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Brazen, courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric, Stark survived a dozen severe maulings — and five husbands. Now, at age 80 and about to lose her job, she decides that there is one last thing she needs to do: Mab...

Hank Wallins is a broken man working the night shift in a meaningless job. Tormented by the tinnitus constantly ringing in his ears, he sleepwalks through life, too scarred by a tragic love affair to try again. When a madman pushes him into the path of an oncoming subway train, this scrape with death re-awakens Hank to the world. Craving a reengagement with passion, he reaches out to a young slightly cross-eyed Russian beauty who he locates on a website. He ventures by plane to meet the lo...

This high-interest, low-vocabulary novella is intended for adult basic education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) readers. The year is 1920, and all of Mexico is at war with itself. Gangs of rebels roam the country, stealing money, food, and horses. Carlos is twenty-eight years old. He works in his father's cafe. One day, a gang rides into Carlo's village. When the gang leaves, they kidnap Carlos. Weeks later, the rebels and Carlos ride into the town of Rosita. Suddenly, Carlos...

A groundbreaking novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of two of the Golden Age of Pirates’ most infamous women, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who dared to subvert the rules and gender roles of their time.1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he send...

Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny debut novel.“Bad Nature shows we’re getting selfishness all wrong. As uproariously funny as a takedown of our deadly society can be, the novel is also an urgent call to exchange possession for belonging.”**—Alissa Nutting, The New York Times...

"Portraits of an Artist: A Novel about John Singer Sargent is a work of historical fiction based on the life of a brilliant yet troubled artist of the late nineteenth century. A contemprary and associate of high celebrities such as Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Edwarde Burne-Jones and Sarah Bernhardt, Sargent's meteoric rise to fame followed by his striking fall from grace, and his retreat to London [from Paris], are the tragic underpinnings of his unforgettable career. The stories behind two ...

Like Winchester's Krakatoa, The Year Without Summer reveals a year of dramatic global change long forgotten by historyIn the tradition of Krakatoa, The World Without Us, and Guns, Germs and Steel comes a sweeping history of the year that became known as 18-hundred-and-froze-to-death. 1816 was a remarkable year—mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted wo...

#1 UK Bestseller. "A thoughtful, funny, companionable novel . . . executed with verve" from the bestselling author of Their Finest and Crooked Heart ( The London Times).1928. Riffling through a cupboard, Matilda Simpkin comes across a small wooden club—an old possession that she hasn't seen for more than a decade. Immediately, memories come flooding back to Mattie—memories of a thrilling past, which only further serve to remind her of her ...

" A compelling account of the lives of Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II . . . instructive and moving."—Nippon.comFrom the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C. Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account of the "Resettlement": the relatively unexamined period when ordinary people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during World War II, were finally release...