The publication of 'Aurora Dawn' in 1947 immediately established Herman Wouk as a novelist of exceptional literary and historical significance. Today, Aurora Dawn's themes have grown still more relevant and, in the manner of all great fiction, its characters and ironies have only been sharpened by the passage of time. Wouk's raucous satire of Manhattan's high-power elite recounts the adventures of one Andrew Reale as he struggles toward fame and fortune in the early days of radio. On the quest for wealth and prestige, ambitious young Andrew finds himself face-to-face with his own devil's bargain: forced to choose between soul and salary, true love and a strategic romance, Wouk's riotous, endearing hero learns a timeless lesson about the high cost of success in America's most extravagant metropolis.

A group of six young Londoners--three men and three women--embark on a series of sexual adventures, misadventures, triumphs, and failures with one another, until these casual indiscretions begin to have profound and irreversible consequences for them all. Original.

Menahem-Mendl is one of Sholom Aleichem's richest characterizations. An incurable optimist, whose every venture ends in disaster, he is the perennial Luftmensch who never ceases to build castles in the air. The exchange of letters between Menahem-Mendl, trying his luck in the bigger cities of Czarist Russia, and his wife, who remains behind in a small town in the hinterlands, relates his hilarious, but frustrating, experiences as he seeks his fortune-first as a currency and stock speculator (who cannot speculate), as a matchmaker (who cannot arrange marriages), as an author (who cannot write), and as an agent (who buys what he cannot sell). As his hopes repeatedly rise only to vanish in smoke, as he becomes involved with rascals and rogues, rich men and poor, the reader is at once amused and astounded by the predicaments in which he becomes entangled. But no more so than his long-suffering, ever-faithful wife, Sheineh-Sheindl -- scolding and querulous, but ever ready to succor him in his most desperate moments. In re-creating a vanished way of life with warmth and considerable verve, the book reflects the eternal human condition, equally true and meaningful today. "The adventures of Menahem-Mendl" is a memorable achievement-a masterwork by an eminent figure of world literature.

These two novels together comprise one of the most fascinating, obsessive, and erotic works of contemporary French fiction. Philosophically and theologically concerned with "the tension between the form and its actuality," on the simple level of fiction they relate the amatory adventures of an elderly philosopher and his voluptuous young wife whom he is compelled to expose to temptations of the flesh on the premise that identity becomes actualized through interaction with a third person. Klossowski explores the nature of the ultimate relationship between body and soul in a rare combination of a surrealistic work with sadistic, philosophical, and theological overtones.

An adult novel about the world of children. In McCarthy-era New York City, fourth graders find a forgotten room in the foundations of a building, where they struggle to live their dreams. As the cold war of 1950s America envelops their school, they become radicalized. “Novels such as John Curl’s The Outlaws of Maroon, which capture a child’s point of view and examine the intersection of history and social justice, hold an important place in American literature. Think of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Books such as these both illuminate moments in history and remind us to pay attention to children: we can learn from them, for they are paying attention to the world.” — Lucille Lang Day