Eighteen-year-old Robbie Bookbinder is bummed out and bored, cut adrift in the mid-1970s – the decade he calls The Great Hangover. Sex feels outmoded, drugs don’t seem to deliver like they used to, and rock and roll’s a bust in tired old Montreal. Quebec’s arming up for a cultural revolution, and bike gangs are warring in the streets. In Robbie Bookbinder, we meet a character who embodies all the potential, self-delusion, and resilience of contemporary youth. All Robbie thinks he needs is a kick-start. What he gets is scared half to death, as he discovers that life only improves when you take a stand in it.

"Powerful . . . Fiction of a very high order . . . Frederick Busch at his best." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review "[These] provocative tales center around relationships gone awry, families grappling with loss, and lonely men and women struggling with remnants of love . . . . What Busch ultimately serves is a heady and rewarding brew made up of people as real as ourselves, groping for and sometimes even discovering the comforts of love." -- USA Today "Memorable . . . [The] stories leap off the page with astonishing resilience and vigor. . . . Busch is a chronicler of domestic manners whose insights into family hierarchies transcend the factual to attain poetry and truth." -- The Boston Globe

Ivan Klima has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as "a literary gem who is too little appreciated in the West" and a "Czech master at the top of his game." In No Saints or Angels, a Washington Post Best Book of 2001, Klima takes us into the heart of contemporary Prague, where the Communist People's Militia of the Stalinist era marches headlong into the drug culture of the present. Kristyna is in her forties, the divorced mother of a rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter, Jana. She is beginning to love a man fifteen years her junior, but her joy is clouded by worry -- Jana has been cutting school, and perhaps using heroin. Meanwhile Kristyna's mother has forced on her a huge box of personal papers left by her dead father, a tyrant whose Stalinist ideals she despised. No Saints or Angels is a powerful book in which "Mr. Klima's keen sense of history, his deep compassion for the ordinary people caught up in its toils, and his abiding awareness of the fragility and resilience of human life shine through.... Like Anton Chekhov, Mr. Klima is a writer able to show us what's extraordinary about ordinary life." (The Washington Times). "Ultimately, it's Prague, with its centuries of glory and misery, that gives No Saints or Angels its humane power." -- Melvin Jules Bukiet, The Washington Post Book World" A compassionate realist, [Klima] unflinchingly presents the problems facing modern Prague and civilization in general ... [and] fills it with mercy." -- Jennie Yabroff, San Francisco Chronicle "Stirring and valuable." -- Jules Verdone, The Hartford Courant

Blessed Is The Daughter is a book written by Meyer Waxman. The book is a captivating and inspiring memoir that tells the story of a young Jewish girl growing up in a traditional family in Eastern Europe. The story follows the life of the protagonist, who is the daughter of a rabbi. The book is set against the backdrop of the turbulent times in Eastern Europe during the early 20th century, including World War I and the rise of the Soviet Union.Despite the challenges and hardships that she faces, the protagonist remains steadfast in her faith and finds strength in her family and community. She is a model of resilience and perseverance, and her story serves as an inspiration to readers of all ages and backgrounds.The book is beautifully written and is a testament to the power of faith, family, and community. It is a must-read for anyone who is looking for inspiration and guidance on how to navigate the challenges of life with grace and dignity. Whether you are Jewish or not, this book will touch your heart and leave you feeling uplifted and inspired.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.