America's Horrible Histories are a rollicking read through the fascinating, the horrible, the absolutely awesome, and the positively wacky world of American history. Thoroughly researched, historically accurate, and hilariously illustrated, each book in this new series mixes facts and fun to tell the story of our glorious (and sometimes gory) past. There's even a wisecracking historical guide: a cockroach!

MACKINLAY KANTORPulitzer Prize-winning author of Andersonville A Novel of Escape During the Civil War BASIS FOR THE FILMTHE MAN FROM DAKOTA This is the story of three strange companions who attain what seldom has been won by any escaping prisoners. Two Yankee soldiers escape from Belle Island, the Confederate Prison, in 1864. As they make their way northward to the Union lines on the Rapidan they are joined by a woman who is fleeing from Richmond. The hazards of their painful flight are tremendous as they travel by night on roads as ominous as the incredible future awaiting them. Starvation and feasting, the swift beat of love, the primitive encounter, the hot cry of triumph-these elements are combined in this bold and valiant tale of sacrifice and high devotion. Arouse and Beware, first published in 1936, was widely praised by the critics and became a best seller. Now with the success of MacKinlay Kantor's great novel, Andersonville, and the enormous interest in the Civil War period, it is being re-issued again to be enjoyed by a whole new generation of readers.

A sweeping novel of love, passion, and freedom, Mitla Pass stands as an epic look at modern Middle Eastern history and is quite possibly Uris's most autobiographical work. Gideon Zadok arrives in Israel with every intention to research a new book, mend a broken marriage, and improve his dysfunctional family. But as political tensions escalate and his family is evacuated, Zadok asks to follow Israeli paratroopers to secure Mitla Pass and finds himself in the midst of one of the largest global crises of the twentieth century.

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “Breathtaking . . . a remarkable blend of murder mystery, love story, political intrigue, and tragedy of manners.”— USA Today The year is 1901. Buffalo, New York, is poised for glory. With its booming industry and newly electrified streets, Buffalo is a model for the century just beginning. Louisa Barrett has made this dazzling city her home. Headmistress of Buffalo’s most prestigious school, Louisa is at ease in a world of men, protected by the titans of her city. But nothing prepares her for a startling discovery: evidence of a murder tied to the city’s cathedral-like power plant at nearby Niagara Falls. This shocking crime—followed by another mysterious death—will ignite an explosive chain of events. For in this city of seething intrigue and dazzling progress, a battle rages among politicians, power brokers, and industrialists for control of Niagara. And one extraordinary woman in their midst must protect a dark secret that implicates them all. . . .

"In this Booker Prize-winning classic, a Casanova-esque young man searches for philosophical and sexual fulfillment as he seduces his way across Europe on the eve of World War I. John Berger's picaresque work, one of the author's best novels, is an inspired exploration of intimacy and loneliness set at the turn of the 20th century. In this luminous novel about a modern Don Juan, John Berger relates the story of G., a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of the last century as Europe teeters on the brink of war. With profound compassion, Berger explores the hearts and minds of both men and women, and what happens during sex, to reveal the conditions of the libertine's success: his essential loneliness, the quiet cumulation in each of his sexual experiences of all of those that precede it, the tenderness that infuses even the briefest of his encounters, and the way women experience their own extraordinariness through their liaisons with him. Set against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi's attempt to unite Italy, the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the dramatic first flight across the Alps, G. is a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in the turmoil of history"-- Provided by publisher.

Tells the unique story of a rabbi, his daughter, & their talking cat -- a philosopher brimming with scathing humor & surprising tenderness. In Algeria in the 1930s, a cat belonging to a widowed rabbi & his daughter, Zlabya. The cat eats the family parrot & gains the ability to speak. The rabbi vows to educate him in the ways of the Torah, while the cat insists on studying the kabbalah. Zlabya falls in love with a rabbi from Paris, & soon master & cat are accompanying the newlyweds to France to meet Zlabya¿s in-laws. Their trip invites countless opportunities for the rabbi & his cat to grapple with all the important -- & trivial -- details of life. Rich with the colors, textures, & flavors of Algeria¿s Jewish community, this book brings a lost world vibrantly to life. Illus.

This panoramic exploration of French life between the wars reads like a prequel to Irène Némirovsky’s international bestseller Suite Française. At the end of the First World War, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. Broken by the unspeakable horrors he has witnessed, he becomes addicted to the lure of wealth and success. He wallows in the corruption and excess of post-war Paris, but when his lover abandons him, Bernard turns to a childhood friend for comfort. For ten years, he lives the good bourgeois life, but when the drums of war begin to sound again, everything around which he has rebuilt himself starts to crumble, and the future—of his marriage and of his country—suddenly becomes terribly uncertain. Written after Némirovsky fled Paris in 1940, just two years before her death, and first published in France in 1957, The Fires of Autumn is a coruscating, tragic novel of war and its aftermath, and of the ugly color it can turn a man's soul.

From the acclaimed author of Suite Française comes Némirovsky’s third novel, a masterpiece of French literature, available for the first time in Canada. Le Bal is a penetrating and incisive book set in early twentieth century France. At its heart is the tension between mother and daughter. The nouveau-riche Kampfs, desperate to become members of the social elite, decide to throw a ball to launch themselves into high society. For selfish reasons Mrs. Kampf forbids her teenage daughter, Antoinette, to attend the ball and banishes her to the laundry room. In an unpremeditated fury of revolt and despair, Antoinette takes a swift and horrible revenge. A cruel, funny and tender examination of class differences, Le Bal describes the torments of childhood with rare accuracy. Also included in this volume is Snow in Autumn , in which Némirovsky pays homage to Chekov and chronicles the life of a devoted servant following her masters as they flee Revolutionary Moscow and emigrate to a life of hardship in Paris.

At the age of 14 Georg Koves is plucked from his home in a Jewish section of Budapest and without any particular malice, placed on a train to Auschwitz. He does not understand the reason for his fate. He doesn't particularly think of himself as Jewish. And his fellow prisoners, who decry his lack of Yiddish, keep telling him, You are no Jew. In the lowest circle of the Holocaust, Georg remains an outsider. The genius of Imre Kertesz's unblinking novel lies in its refusal to mitigate the strangeness of its events, not least of which is Georg's dogmatic insistence on making sense of what he witnesses-or pretending that what he witnesses makes sense. Haunting, evocative, and all the more horrifying for its rigorous avoidance of sentiment, Fatelessness is a masterpiece in the traditions of Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Tadeusz Borowski.

The first voice we hear in Gina B. Nahai's second novel is that of Lili, the grown daughter of a miraculous mother. When Lili was 5 and living in the Jewish ghetto of Tehran, her mother, Roxanna, "had grown wings, one night when the darkness was the color of her dreams, and flown into the star-studded night of Iran that claimed her." Thirteen years would pass, Lili informs us, before she would find her mother again. This short introduction serves as a framing device for the story of Roxanna's life, a life begun as a "bad-luck" child. According to her sister, Miriam the Moon, she "had been a runaway before she ever became a wife or a mother, before she came into existence or was even conceived."

A gripping story of survival and hope from acclaimed author Carol Matas. Ruth survived the Holocaust and the long journey to Palestine. Now she finds herself once again in a war zone as Israel battles for its existence. Her brother is on the front lines. Ruth and her boyfriend are injured and cannot fight, so they care for children in a hospital. Ruth tells the children stories to distract them and help them make sense of their situation. As she recovers, she too must return to the fight. A trauma forces her back to another time when she told stories: to her fellow prisoners in Auschwitz. We discover what Ruth went through in the camps, the horrors she saw, the friends she made and lost. Through it all Ruth comes to understand that she must find a new way to live, a way that does not give up on hope.

From the celebrated, New York Times bestselling author comes the twisted thriller of an MIT grad student who unwittingly uncovers the hidden connection between the Gardner Museum heist and the most fascinating secret in American history. THE CARD SHARK : Hailey Gordon is looking to make some fast cash to help pay her tuition when she's caught counting cards at the Encore casino in Boston. She grabs her winnings and makes her escape. With guards closing in, she dives into an unlocked room to hide . . . only to find a dead body. THE EX-CON : Recently released from prison, Nick Patterson hasn't felt hope in a long time, but the job he "inherited" in prison promises to change that. He enters hotel room 633 to find that the person he was supposed to meet has been murdered. Next to the corpse stands a terrified young woman--Hailey Gordon. THE PROFESSOR : American history professor Adrian Jensen learns of the death of his professional nemesis, Charles Walker, the night after he received Walker's latest research. Skeptical at first, Adrian nearly deletes the file. But when one small, new detail catches his eye, he makes it his mission to uncover what could be one of the biggest secrets of the Revolutionary War. All three strangers find themselves on the cusp of an incredible discovery--one that someone is willing to kill to keep buried.

Many years have passed since the end of the Trojan War, and Penelope is still waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return home. The city of Ithaka is overrun with uncouth suitors from the surrounding islands who are vying to win Penelope's hand in marriage, thereby gaining control of the land. When a naked, half-drowned man washes up on the beach, everything changes. . . . Told through the eyes of Klymene, a young girl who is like a daughter to Penelope--and who longs for more than friendship from the young prince Telemachus-- Ithaka captures the quiet strength and patience of a woman's enduring love for her husband and the ensuing chaos that threatens all as Penelope is pressured to remarry.

From Ben Elton, author of the hugely successful Past Mortem, a gut-wrenching historical drama which forces us to handle the truth. Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while he was recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, is charged with his murder. Douglas Konig is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction in the case. Forced to conduct his investigations amid the hell of the third Battle of Ypres, Konig soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. Ben Elton s tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama that explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally sanctioned and illegal murder becomes ever more blurred, Konig quickly learns that the first casualty of war is Truth. "From the Trade Paperback edition.""

A captivating novel that evokes the author s "New York Times" bestseller "The House at Tyneford " Natasha Solomons s breathtaking new novel has it all: a love triangle, family obligations, and rediscovering joy in the face of grief, all set against the alluring backdrop of an English country estate. "It's a terrible thing to covet your brother s girl" New Year s Eve, 1946. Candles flicker, a gramophone scratches out a tune as guests dance and sip champagne for one night Hartgrove Hall relives better days. Harry Fox-Talbot and his brothers have returned from the war determined to save their once grand home from ruin. But the arrival of beautiful wartime singer Edie Rose tangles the threads of love and duty, and leads to a devastating betrayal. Fifty years later, now a celebrated composer, Fox reels from the death of his adored wife, Edie. Until his connection with his four-year old grandson - a piano prodigy propels him back into life, and ultimately to confront his past. An enthralling novel about love and treachery, joy after grief, and a man forced to ask: is it ever too late to seek forgiveness?"

Two tales, The Manor and The Estate, chronicle the lives of three generations of the Jacoby family against the advent of modern civilization in nineteenth-century Poland

As messianic zeal sweeps through medieval Poland, the Jews of Goray divide between those who, like the Rabbi, insist that no one can "force the end" and those who follow the messianic pretender Sabbatai Zevi. But as hysteria and depravity reign free, it becomes clear that it is not the Messiah who has come to Goray. Praise: "Beautifully written by one of the masters of Yiddish prose, and beautifully translated, ''Satan in Goray'' is folk material transmuted into literature." - The New York Times Review of Books "A gripping parable of reason versus revelation, hysteria in the face of apocalypse" - Guardian "Whatever religion his writing inhabits, it is blazing with life and actuality." - Ted Hughes, New York Review of Books "Singer sets scenes with such vividness that there is almost a smell to his books, the smell of poverty and guttering candles and decaying lives and decaying souls. - Observer "His storytelling powers are so immense, so natural. He has more creative confidence than any living writer." - Financial Times

In The Establishment, Howard Fast pulls the listener into the turbulent and passionate lives of the Dan Lavette family story begun in The Immigrants and continued in Second Generation. Howard Fast again brings to life a cast of characters whose lives become a portrait of their time. Listeners will witness the events in the lives of the children of Dan Lavette: Follow daughter Barbara Lavette, a strong and magnetic personality, from tragedy to final fulfillment; observe the elder son, Tom, as he quests for and finally succumbs to his own unscrupulous drive for power; and feel the conflict as the younger son, Joe, struggles between dedication to his medical work to the poor and having no emotional strength left for his beautiful wife left alone.

When Avram became King of Detina, he intended to liberate the blond serfs. But the northern provinces would not accept him and seceded, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king. Avram sent his army in against Geoffrey and the war raged for three years until Avram's general moved against the northern army close to the mountain called Sentry Peak--and the battle became far more desperate than either side realized.

From the critically-acclaimed author of The Fionavar Tapestry comes an epic fantasy novel of love, both courtly and forbidden, and two kingdoms endlessly opposed... Blaise of Gorhaut is a warrior. He fought for his king and country, until the king died with an arrow in his eye at the battle of Iersen Bridge, and a dishonorable treaty ceded a good part of his country to foreign hands. He has broken relations with his father, adviser to the king of Gorhaut, and abandoned the use of his family name. Now, Blaise is a mercenary. He never expected to work for the lords of Arbonne, the warm, fertile lands south of Gorhaut, whose people praise the love of women—they even worship a goddess, instead of the god. They are a soft people, or so he thought. But for all their nonsense about love, their troubadours and songs, they will fight for their country, when invasion comes from the north.