This hilarious novel follows the continuing adventures of the simple peasant Ivan Chonkin, who has been arrested as a traitor to the motherland after spending World War II happily tending a garden. Lacking evidence against him, the bumbling bureaucrats base their case on a rumor in his home village that he is the illegitimate son of a prince. the comic case of mistaken identity escalates as they accuse this unlikely prince of working in league with Hitler to restore the monarchy.

In the surprising world that Sami Michael reveals, Shula, an Ashkenazic Jew, is the center of a web of brilliantly drawn characters: Israeli Arabs, Palestinian refugees, "black Jews," and "white Jews." Swirling in and out of Shula's story are poignantly drawn minor players - an Arab/Israeli couple, their ever-more-militant son, a seductive Arab poet, and political outsiders in a fragile society at war. Sami Michael was born in Baghdad in 1926, fled to Iran during WWII, and eventually made his way to Israel. His first novel, Equal and More Equal was published to critical acclaim. Refuge was his second major work, written originally in Hebrew but, he adds, "with the emotional baggage of the Third World."

An exploration of fidelity and identity, Lopate's novel follows the lives of three young New Yorkers caught in a tangled love triangle. Eric, returning to the Big Apple after years on the west coast, becomes infatuated with his best friend, Jack's, girlfriend, Marie. When Marie returns Eric's affections, and Jack discovers the affair, all three adults must confront their identities and choices they've made.

Skyline is a vibrant novel set in contemporary times in a run-down block of flats in Long Street, central Cape Town. Through this novel, narrated by an adolescent girl, the book explores the lives of African refugees who come to South Africa seeking a new life and better place, having fled wars and poverty in their own countries. The narrator and her sister befriend a warm and caring refugee from Mozambique called Bernard. They help him battle the terrible sadness and loneliness his country's civil war has inflicted upon him. He in turn, along with others from Zimbabwe, Sudan and Congo, introduces the sisters to the music, wisdom and energy of Africa. There is sadness in this story, for it gives a hard look at the emotional carnage caused by war. But there is also hope and humour and friendship.

Tova's lacklustre life - days spent running the Kwik Kleen Laundromat, nights spent brooding about being dumped by her girlfriend - picks up its pace when her friend Gina disappears. Gina works as a stripper in a local bar, and the cops don't show much interest when sex trade workers go missing. Reaching for a boldness she didn't think she possessed, Tova begins her own investigation. Throwaway Angels is a compelling whodunit, a fast-paced novel about friendship and living with courage.

After the sudden death of his wife, Daniel abandons home and security, setting off to find the freedom he knew as a boy. This novel follows his wanderings from a seaside boarding house to a hospital bed, introducing the strange characters he meets and recording his even stranger adventures.

Kathi Kamen Goldmark's first novel, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, earned praise from an assortment of well-known authors including Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Scott Turow, Judy Collins, Rita Mae Brown, Carl Hiaasen, and Roddy Doyle; and received positive reviews in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications. Completed shortly before her untimely death from breast cancer, Goldmark's Her Wild Oats is a honky-tonk road story about two unlikely pals: A smart young woman, Arizona Rosenblatt, leaves home and her role as assistant to a high-powered Hollywood executive when she discovers her husband is having an affair with a woman from Jews for Jesus; and thirteen-year-old Otis Ray "Wild Oats" Pixlie, boy genius harmonica player. In the end, Otis Ray learns what it means to be an adult, Arizona discovers the life she wants, and they both figure out the true meaning of love and family.

The Land that Touches Mine is the sixth novel by John Sanford, author of The Old Man's Place and Make My Bed in Hell. It is a gritty, hard-boiled tale about an army deserter, who hooks up with a carhop during World War Two, amid the brutal 100-degree heat of the California desert summer. Not only is the man on the run from the army; he's on the run from his own past. The novel, crackling with tough dialog, speeds toward a climactic choice: will he let the woman help him across the border to freedom in Mexico before his luck runs out? First published in 1953 by Doubleday (U.S.) and Jonathan Cape (U.K.), The Land that Touches Mine is arguably the finest of Sanford's eight published novels. The New York Times lauded the book's "muscular and economic prose," stating that "John Sanford makes a powerful bid for top billing in current fiction [with this] poetic, tragically intense tale," and concluded, "It is an absorbing narrative by a writer of great distinction and ability, guaranteed to hold the interest of every reader interested in the individual isolations and distortions of our modern world." In England, the New Statesman compared Sanford's use of language to William Faulkner's Soldier's Pay and Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, highlighting "the italicized flashbacks that Mr. Sanford uses with such skill." And the Manchester Guardian wrote that "the combination of the tough and the tender in the texture of the book is curiously real and satisfying."

From the critically acclaimed author ofThe Memory Cathedralcomes perhaps the most powerful, haunting, and unforgettable novel of the Civil War--or any war--ever written. Provocative, poetic, and disturbing, it introduces us to a young narrator, Mundy McDowell, whose voice rivals any in literature, bringing poignantly to life the surreal horrors of battle and its spiritual cost to human survival. I was scarce twelve the day the damn Yankees invaded the valley. I seen a lot that day I ain't never gonna forget. Men blown apart, screamin' and dyin' all around me. I was wandering in the woods like I wasn't supposed to and wound up right in the middle of the battle. And that's what I suppose saved me. When I got back home the main house was burning to the ground. I saw two men wearin' bits and pieces of 'Federate and Yank uniforms. They killed Poppa right off, and Mother they dragged into the front yard before they killed her too. I reckon that was the day I first got the knack of being invisible. The spirit dog seen me right off, though. He was big and black and smelled like burning. His eyes were like red coals and everywhere he went, it seemed death followed. Him and me, we mostly traveled together after that. I passed through midnight fields of dead and dying soldiers, reeking makeshift field hospitals worse than hell itself; climbed into the mountains where the runaway slaves hid; and walked through towns shattered by the passage of the war. I met a lot of people, some of them living and some of them just memories. There was Jimmadasin, the slave who died on my account, and Mammy Jack, who taught me to see visions; the gallant Colonel Ashby, who let me ride by his side, and, of course, the mulatto whore Lucy, who saved my life twice. Last but not least, there was mad but brilliant General Jackson, who was probably responsible for putting more men in their graves than any other during the Shenandoah campaign. Whether he was a hero or a demon I never did determine, but I wish I had never met him at all. And through it all I remained silent. The power of speech left me the day my parents were killed and I first saw the spirit dog. You see, the whole time I was wandering through that valley of death I was deciding on whether to go back to being human or to become a spirit myself, and that's what this book is all about. From the Hardcover edition.

'The Credit Draper', an original debut novel by J. David Simons, is more than just an immigrant's story about the search for identity in an alien land - it is also a book about whisky, football and waterproof clothing.

This outstanding family novel, set in a Jewish neighborhood of Chicago, is "the fullest articulation of the generational conflict between Jewish fathers and [sins]," writes Alexander Bloom in his 1986 book Prodigal Sons. The central character, a 15-year-old boy in rebellion against the petit bourgeois values of his family, engineers an affair between his flamboyant aunt and his easy-going Gentile cousin by marriage. He then leaves his father and moves into the house of this new couple, where he experiences the excitement and problems of an open relationship.

The Big Brokers is an explosive novel of America's jungle. Here is the story of three New York boys, Mitch, Larry and Bull, who took Las Vegas by storm-and then turned their guns against their bosses' bosses. Authentic and shocking, The Big Brokers exposes the inner workings of the syndicate. It is a masterful chronicle of men and women who choose crime as a way of life.

"...a coming-of-age story with a mind-blowing opening paragraph, the novel explores middle-class teenager Tommo's moves among the fading elite of society and the sinister undertow of their world, holding the reader in a vice-like grip all the way to the final page." - Sunday Post Tommo has just moved to a prestigious boarding school. A product of the middle class, and with new-found independence thrust upon him, he finds himself invited into fading crumbling country houses. It's the early nineties and the elite he is now surrounded by is struggling for relevance. Alienated from the mainstream, and running low on inherited wealth, his peers have retreated into snobbery and fatalism. Initially awed by their poise and seduced by their hedonism, Tommo gradually becomes aware of sinister undercurrents and a suppressed rage that threatens to explode into violence. In this world, half-remembered traditions mix with decadence and an awful lot of small dead animals. And sometimes, not just animals. When Tommo's friend Johnnie's brother is found dead, a shotgun at his feet, he realises there are secrets that everyone knows, but no one speaks about, or even acknowledges. And those secrets can no longer be hidden. 'Keeps the outrageous laughs and twists coming in equal measure' - Alexander Larman, The Observer

“The creative act par excellence.”—Denis Donoghue “ Extravaganza is the eeriest comic novel of our generation.”—Cynthia Ozick

"Gillian Freeman is among the finest contemporary novelists." - Brigid Brophy, New Statesman "It is altogether an astonishing novel for a young woman to have written. The story describes, convincingly and touchingly, the brief, sensual affair ... between a sailor on leave and a young schoolteacher ... their frank sexual attraction for each other is given a warm and compelling context ... a novel that has the ring of truth." - Times Literary Supplement "This novel is successful in an honest and unpretentious way." - The Guardian When Freda Mackenzie, an eminently respectable young schoolteacher with a stockbroker father and a background of tennis, riding and university, meets Derek Smith, a big blond sailor from the East End of London, she tells herself that she sees him only as a challenge, that she simply enjoys watching his reactions as she introduces him to good food, good films, good music. But their friendship develops into something more: Derek awakens in Freda a latent sensuality, a passionate joy in the act of love she has never before experienced or even imagined. As their affair becomes more intense, Freda and Derek find themselves torn between their feelings for each other and their very different social backgrounds-and they have only three short weeks in which to make their choice . . . Critically acclaimed on its initial publication and later recognized by critic Mary Cadogan as "considerably in advance of its time", Gillian Freeman's first novel, The Liberty Man (1955), returns to print for the first time in almost 40 years. This edition features a new introduction by Edward Thorpe and a reproduction of the original jacket art.

The subject of Frederick Busch's extraordinary fiction, The Mutual Friend, is Charles Dickens. First published in 1978, Busch's portrait of the Chief (or the Inimitable, as Dickens calls himself) was immediately hailed as a lively, accurate, and brilliantly imagined novel of the great Victorian and his age. Busch's guide to Dickens' world is George Dolby, the Chief's factotum in his last years. The reminiscence begins with the Great American Tour of 1867-68, Dickens is ill and crotchety but ever eager to dazzle the New World with his dramatic readings. Through Dolby we come to a circle of characters around Dickens, among them his long-suffering wife Kate and the actress Ellen Ternan, mistress to the Inimitable --

Bob Porter wants more from his life... Stumbling across some aged parchment in a local bookshop, an idea strikes him.The parchment is seemingly a journal that belonged to Don Jaime. The Captain of the sunken Santa Cruz.The Santa Cruz was sunk in battle 350 years prior. But what of the treasure she was reportedly carrying?Persuading his uncle to fund the search, he acquires a ship and crew to aid in his search.Whilst most find this venture to be pointless and doomed to failure, Bob is determined that he will literally strike gold.Weeks of searching the area indicated in the journal, he loses faith in his plan. Until one last tactic hooks the big fish.Divers are deployed, plans are made and excavation begins.Little does Bob know, this is not going to go as planned.Each time the divers descend, they are risking their lives. Delicate equipment, storms, unforgiving terrain and a submerged wreck are sure to make this voyage dangerous.But when his crew are acting suspiciously, Bob must wonder whether they are as trustworthy as originally thought.Can Bob keep this salvage secret? If the Peruvian government hear of his find, they will claim ownership and he will lose it all.With the nature of this trip kept secret until the wreckage was located, surely he has nothing to worry about?But when company arrives, he soon realises that the government is the least of his worries.Can Bob successfully salvage the hidden treasure from the depths of the sea? Will he be able to return home as a rich man?Or will he and his crew perish to the secrets of the sea? Thirty Fathoms Deep is a brilliant adventure novel, packed with action from beginning to end. Praise for Edward Ellsberg 'done in high adventure style' - Kirkus Reviews 'Authentic material in a good yarn' - Kirkus Reviews Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg returned to active service with the navy the morning after Pearl Harbour, after a life of hazardous adventure in salvage operations, during which he won the United States Navy's Distinguished Service Medal. He thereby became the first man to gain the award in peacetime. At Massawa he raised the two Italian Floating Docks, in spite of expert opinion that it was impossible. Later he served as Principal Salvage Officer under General Eisenhower in North Africa and afterwards in the Normandy Invasion. Rear Admiral Ellsberg was awarded the C.B.E. by His Majesty King George VI, and two Legions of Merit by the United States Government.

Originally published in 1913, When All Is Said and Done is one of the great novels of the twentieth century. Considered David Bergelson's masterpiece, it was written in Yiddish and until now has been unavailable in a complete and accurate English translation. This version by acclaimed translator Joseph Sherman finally brings the novel to a wide English-speaking audience. Bergelson depicts the lives of upwardly mobile, self-aware nouveaux riche Jews in the waning years of the Russian Empire. The central character, Mirel Hurvits, is an educated, beautiful woman who embodies the conflict between tradition and progress, aristocracy and enterprise. A forced marriage of convenience results in Mirel's emotional disintegration and provokes a confrontation with the expectations of her pious family and with Jewish tradition. In a unique prose style of unsurpassable range and beauty, Bergelson reduces language to its bare essentials, punctuated by silences that heighten the sense of alienation in the story.

From the internationally best-selling author Daniel Kehlmann, a provocative and wickedly funny novel about two unpredictable menone an artist and the other a journalist, who together embark on an unexpected adventure with uproarious results. Sebastian Zollner's failure as a journalist is matched only by his personal failures: his girlfriend is moving in a new lover before Sebastian even knows he's been dumped. Searching for the break that will redeem him in the eyes of his peers, he heads off on a wild goose chase into the mountains to interview the eccentric, legendary painter Manuel Kaminski, with the hope of writing his biography. Kaminski is going blind and is living in seclusion with his daughter. He could be working on his next masterpiece or easing into his final days, and his inconsistent career raises the question of whether he has been a fraud or a genius. His artistic reputation hinges on any number of factors but most prominently on a definitive biography. Enter Zollnerwho has no intention of writing a puff piece. He's out to dig dirt and to force Kaminski to confront the legacy of his work. But the secrets he uncovers will lead Kaminski, and Zollner himself, to places neither of them ever expected to go. With edgy wit and intelligence, Daniel Kehlmann dives into the problems of what is "truth" in our celebrity-crazed times and embraces the energy and humanity that lie beneath the pretensions of the art and journalistic worlds. A firecracker of a novel. From the Hardcover edition.

"Charlotte Dacre's debut novel Confessions of the Nun of St Omer (1805) was a bestseller in its day, launching the career of a woman who would go on to become one of the nineteenth century's most notorious female novelists. The work tells the story of the wilful Cazire, who recounts her passionate and destructive youthful adventures from the convent where she now lives in seclusion. Although Dacre's fame, then and now, rests largely on her sensationalist plots and portrayal of sexually self-possessed female villains, Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer shows a different side to her writing, one that is engaged in the political debate surrounding the French Revolution and eager to uphold the conservative moral line. Indeed, in many ways the novel strives to exemplify the moral and social orthodoxies of its time - dealing with themes of education, passion, seduction and the dangers of the radical 'new philosophy'. Yet even at this early stage of her career the author's frank exploration of the power of female desire reveals a willingness to experiment with themes left untouched by more conventional Romantic era novelists, themes that would dominate her writing for years to come. This edition of Charlotte Dacre's book is based on the Chawton House Library copy of the text from 1805 and contains textual notes. The book will be of interest to those researching the Gothic, women's writing and the development of the nineteenth-century novel."--