National BestsellerAn Oprah Daily Best BookAn Indie Next PickA LibraryReads Pick"A probing story about the reverberations of adoption, toxic friendship and what it means to be a mother."—Milwaukee Journal SentinelA stunning coming-of-age novel about friendship, mothers, and finding one's way in the world by the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Ruth and

A new classic from the author of Oprah's Book Club picks A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth."This is the book Jane Hamilton was born to write... [it is] magnificent." —Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of CommonwealthMary Frances "Frankie" Lombard is fiercely in love with her family's sprawling apple orchard and the tangled web of family members who inh...

Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel, this exquisite book confronts real-life issues of alienation and violence from which the author creates a stunning testament to the human capacity for mercy, compassion and love.

Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World brings us a rich and loving novel about a non-traditional family in the aftermath of a terrible accident.When Aaron Maciver’s beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers a head injury in a bicycle crash, she is left with the mental capabilities of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of the...

PEN/Hemingway Award Winner: An "enthralling" novel of a woman trapped within a tragically dysfunctional family ( Entertainment Weekly).From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Excellent Lombards and A Map of the World, this is "an extraordinary story of a family's disintegration [that] will be compared to Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres" ( People). It follows Ruth Grey, a young woman in a tiny Illinois f...

WIN, LOSE, OR DIE.Whether it's child's play or for the highest stakes, whether we stick to the rules or cheat, we all play games — for fun, for thrills, for love or money, to prove we're the best or make an opponent knuckle under. And the games we play, with cards or dice or nothing but our wits, reveal something deeply personal about the players.In this powerful new anthology, Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Lawrence Block has assembled an all-star ...

In this gritty anthology, fourteen mystery stories show the seedier side of the Wisconsin city beyond beer, butter burgers, and Laverne & Shirley.Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respect city. Now, fourteen authors who've experienced life in the Cream City share its my...

Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years. They share their nursery business in rural Wisconsin, their love for their animals, and their zeal for storytelling. Although Charlie's enthusiasm in the bedroom has worn Laura out, although she no longer sleeps with him, they are happy enough going along in their routine.Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show, and in Laura's mind is "the single most famous person in the Town of Dover." When Jenna happens to cros...

Walter McCloud is a boy with dreams unlike most. Introduced as a child to the genius of Balanchine and the lyricism of Tchaikovsky, Walter has always aspired to be a dancer. As he grows older, it becomes clear that despite his desire, he lacks the talent, and he faces the painful knowledge that his more gifted friends have already surpassed him.Soon, however, that pain is overshadowed when his older brother, Daniel, finds a strange lump on his neck and Walter realizes that a happy ...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of the widely acclaimed The Book of Ruth comes a harrowing, heartbreaking drama about a rural American family and a disastrous event that forever changes their lives."It takes a writer of rare power and discipline to carry off an achievement like A Map of the World. Hamilton proves here that she is one of the best." —Newsweek**The Goodwins, Howard, Alice, and their little girls, Emma and Claire, live on a da...

How could she have known, sitting behind that red-headed boy in a fifth-grade Oregon classroom, she’d follow him into the heart of Africa? It was a wild journey of faith, thrusting her into the Pokot people’s lives in a remote corner of Kenya. In Into Africa, author Jane Hamilton tells their story offering a look at the everyday life of a bush missionary.For Dick and Jane Hamilton, entering the “culturally protected” area of Kara Pokot, Kenya, in 1974, is like falling through time....

On the assumption that John Updike was correct when he asserted, in a 1978 letter to Joyce Carol Oates, that "Nobody can read like a writer," Why I Like This Story presents brief essays by forty-eight leading American writers on their favorite American short stories, explaining why they like them. The essays, which are personal, not scholarly, not only tell us much about the story selected, they also tell us a good deal about the author of the essay, about what elements of fiction...