From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, an ingenious and captivating reimagining of Rudyard Kipling's adventure The Jungle Book that is a glorious meditation on love, loss, survival, sacrifice, and what it means to truly be alive―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would have been completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy--an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack--who has already killed Bod's family. . . By turns macabre, uplifting, sinister, and heartwarming, Neil Gaiman's #1 national bestseller―winner of the Carnegie and Newbury Medals and the Hugo Award―is a "novel of wonder . . . a tale of unforgettable enchantment" (New York Times Book Review).

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, an outstanding array of short fiction that surveys the terrain between the illusory and the ordinary and reveals the terrors and wonders reflected in the funhouse mirrors of our dreams―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee "He is a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him." --Stephen King Spanning the realms of dark imagination, Smoke and Mirrors surveys the terrain between the illusory and the ordinary, treating readers to a gift of wonder and delight from one of the most unique literary artists of our time. The miraculous inventions contained herein - stories, novellas, and poems - reveal Gaiman to be a writer of immense talent and sophisticated invention. In his deft hands, magic is no mere illusion, but a powerful means of illumination, revelation, and reflection on what it means to be human. Poignant and haunting, humorous and unorthodox, Smoke and Mirrors is an outstanding array of short fiction from one of the world's most distinguished literary masters.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, an astonishing collection of short fiction that stretches the boundaries of imagination, probes the depths of human experience, and reveals how the ordinary and the fantastical are intertwined―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee Fragile Things showcases the distinctive storytelling genius that has made Neil Gaiman one of the most admired literary artists of our time. The thirty-two gems of prose and verse in this astonishing collection stretch the imagination and engage the intellect even as they illuminate the vagaries of human experience. Whether he's conjuring a mysterious traveling circus, exploring the rarefied tastes of an exclusive epicurean club, or visiting a strangely altered Victorian England, Gaiman reveals how the ordinary and the fantastical are transmutable and intertwined. With breathtaking clarity, Fragile Things illumines Gaiman's brilliance as well as his terrifyingly entertaining dark sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, this volume is a gift of enchantments that will startle the senses and stir the soul.

A New York Times Bestseller A sparkling anthology starring Lady Whistledown--the elusive Regency-era gossip columnist popularized in # 1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix. Lady Whistledown Tells All! Society is abuzz when the Season's most promising debutante is jilted by her intended--only to be swept away by the deceitful rogue's dashing older brother--in New York Times bestseller Julia Quinn's witty, charming, and heartfelt tale. When the scandalous actions of his beautiful fiancée are recorded in Lady Whistledown's column, a concerned groom-to-be rushes back to London to win his lady's heart once and forever, in Suzanne Enoch's enchanting romantic gem. Karen Hawkins captivates with an enduring story of a handsome rogue whose lifelong friendship--and his heart--are tested when the lovely lady in question sets her cap for someone else. A dazzling and delightful tale by Mia Ryan has a young woman cast out of her home by an insufferable yet charming marquis--who intends to take possession not only of the house . . . but its former occupant as well!

Join the Bridgertons, and the rest of the ton, as they pore over (and gossip about) Lady Whistledown's latest musings. The elusive Regency-era gossip columnist -- popularized in # 1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix - reveals society's most recent secrets in this second glittering anthology, following the New York Times bestseller, The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown. Who Stole Lady Neeley's Bracelet Was it the fortune hunter, the gambler, the servant, or the rogue All of London is abuzz with speculation, but it is clear that one of four couples is connected to the crime. --Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, May 1816 Julia Quinn enchants: A dashing fortune hunter is captivated by the Season's most desired debutante . . . and must prove he is out to steal the lady's heart, not her dowry. Suzanne Enoch tantalizes: An innocent miss who has spent her life scrupulously avoiding scandal is suddenly--and secretly--courted by London's most notorious rogue. Karen Hawkins seduces: A roving viscount comes home to rekindle the passionate fires of his marriage . . . only to discover that his beautiful, headstrong bride will not be so easily won. Mia Ryan delights: A lovely, free-spirited servant is dazzled by the romantic attentions of a charming earl . . . sparking a scandalous affair that could ruin them both. You'll hear it first from Lady Whistledown!

A literary love story that rivals those celebrated in earlier classics. "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" In Helprin s rhapsodic rendering . . . "In Sunlight and in Shadow" is . . . the romance of life itself. " Los Angeles Times" In the summer of 1946, New York City pulses with energy. Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran, has returned home to run the family business. Yet his life is upended by a single encounter with the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale, as each falls for the other in an instant. They pursue one another in a romance played out in Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine s choice of Harry over her longtime fiance endangers Harry s livelihood and threatens his life. In the end, Harry must summon the strength of his wartime experience to fight for Catherine, and risk everything. In its storytelling heft, its moral rectitude, the solemn magnificence of its writing and the splendor of its hymns to New York City, ["In Sunlight and in Shadow"] is a spiritual pendant to Winter s Tale and every bit as extraordinary . . . Even the most stubbornly resistant readers will soon be disarmed by the nobility of the novel s sentiments and seduced by the pure music of its prose. "Wall Street Journal" [NO AUTHOR PHOTO] Mark Helprin is the acclaimed author of Winter s Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, The Pacific, Memoir from Antproof Case, Freddy and Fredericka, Ellis Island, and numerous other works. "

The seven stories collected here showcase McCarthy's formidable powers of observation, her deliciously witty writing style, and her celebrated talent for dissecting characters with biting acuity. A young woman looks for subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways to escape her unsatisfying marriage; an innocuous single man's friends realize his companionship has an enormous price; and an Italian guide puzzles a traveling pair of Americans.

This messy, painful, and hilarious collection of stories and illustrations is an exhilarating ride on the rollercoaster of love. In these thirty short, sharp, ingenious stories, Simon Rich conjures up some unforgettable romances. An unused prophylactic describes life inside a teenage boy's wallet; God juggles the demands of his needy girlfriend with the looming deadline for Earth's creation; and a lovestruck Sherlock Holmes ignores all the clues that his girlfriend's been cheating on him. As enchanting, sweet, and absurd as love itself, these stories are Simon Rich's valentine to readers, an irresistible collection of delights. All that's missing is the heart-shaped box. "No matter how zany things get, there's an endearing simplicity at the heart of these inventive tales.... Love doesn't always conquer all, but these stories suggest Rich thinks it certainly ought to." -- Daily Beast "One of the funniest books you'll read this year." -- Publishers Weekly

"One of the funniest books you'll read this year."--Publishers Weekly Love can be messy, painful, and even tragic. When seen through the eyes of Simon Rich it can also be hilarious. In thirty short, sharp, ingenious stories, Rich conjures up some unforgettable romances: An unused prophylactic describes life inside a teenage boy's wallet; God juggles the demands of his needy girlfriend with the looming deadline for earth's creation; and a lovestruck Sherlock Holmes ignores all the clues that his girlfriend's been cheating on him. As enchanting, sweet, and absurd as love itself, these stories are Simon Rich's Valentine to readers, an irresistible collection of delights. All that's missing is the heart-shaped box.

This is the author's first novel, which relates the experiences of a young bohemian intellectual. The six episodes create a fascinating portrait of a New York social circle of the 1930s. McCarthy's bold insight and virtuoso style won her immediate recognition as one of the most accomplished, versatile, and penetrating writers in americanca.

Warren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. Ken and Sheila Kramer have a comfortable life and loving marriage. But when Ken is introduced to Carol, the wife of his wife's major client, we discover that she is Ken's old flame, the love of his life and the object of his sexual obsession as a young man. Carol has totally reinvented herself and married a rich husband who has no knowledge of her early life. While unbeknownst to Ken, his wife is carrying on a steamy affair with her client, Carol's husband. When love and sexual obsession again bursts into flames between Ken and Carol, the plot of this masterful black comedy thickens as both couples embark on an African Safari with startling and tragic results. The author of The War of the Roses surpasses himself with this powerful novel of love and betrayal, sexual passion and emotional obsession. It is storytelling at its dramatic best and once again shows Warren Adler's indisputable mastery of contemporary marital relationships. "A masterpiece of gallows humor." .New York Daily News "Warren Adler does for infidelity and betrayal what his The War of the Roses did for incompatibility and greed. He has with delicious tension, carved out the state of matrimony as his exclusive theater of war." .Fred Mustard Stewart, author of The Glitter and the Gold "Adler at his steamy, schemey best if you enjoyed the nice nastiness of The War of the Roses, this is right up your dastardly alley. .Palm Springs Desert Sun

In his first collection of stories since Fabulous Small Jews , Joseph Epstein delivers all the pleasures his readers have come to expect: stories of ordinary men confronting the moments that define a life, told with the bittersweet humor and loving irony encompassed in the title of the book. These fourteen tales map a very particular world--Jews whose lives are anchored in Chicago--in rich, revealing detail even as they brim with universal longings: complex love affairs and unspoken rivalries, family triumphs and private disappointments. Epstein, who "happens to possess a standup comic's gift for punch lines" ( New York Times Book Review ), brings his emphatically grown-up characters to witty, rueful, and charming life. The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff is a marvelous collection from a master of the short form and one of the most distinctive writers working in America today.

Product Description Ivan Klima has been acclaimed by Booklist as "one of the most important literary voices of Eastern Europe, on a par with Havel, Konrad, and Haraszti." His novels Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light and The Ultimate Intimacy have established him as a writer with a uniquely wry perspective on human affection. In Lovers for a Day, he delivers a beautiful and masterfully crafted collection of short stories on the theme of love. In "Heaven Hell Paradise," a doctor who has escaped to London comes back to communist Czechoslovakia to be with his lover and realizes too late that he barely knows her. And in "A Baffling Choice," a young woman begins an affair with an older man who lives in her apartment building, right under the nose of his wife. The dreams and frustrations of the student cafeteria and the turmoil of political exile in the early 1960s evolve into portraits of people struggling with responsibility, fidelity, and absence, haunted by a terrible guilt when their desires begin to become reality. Klima's unique wisdom creates a personal political history of Prague that is an acute and moving examination of our attempts to find freedom in love. Amazon.com Review Ranging over nearly three decades, the stories collected in Ivan Klíma's Lovers for a Day offer a fine cross section of the Czech writer's career. Yet the book also traces the misunderstandings and frustrations, the hopes and disenchantments of an entire nation--where, ironically enough, Klíma's creations were banned until the mid-1990s. How does this fictional barometer work? The earlier tales, which tend toward dissections of private life, seldom mention the Communist regime--yet their protagonists are so thoroughly warped by political circumstance that even love becomes an avatar of control and constraint. In the later, post-perestroika stories, Klíma's characters explore their newfound freedom. Yet that, too, turns out to be something of a mixed bag, in both the public and private sector. No wonder the judge in "It's Raining Out" finds his new beat--divorce court--nearly as dispiriting as the old regime's political trials: He would divorce couples on grounds of infidelity or mutual incompatibility. Some of them were husbands and wives who had stopped living together long ago, but in spite of that, he could never rid himself of the conviction that most of the divorces were unnecessary, that people were attempting to escape the inescapable: their own emptiness, their own incapacity to share their lives with another person. For Klíma's countryman desire represents a zone of freedom: an assertion of the unique self in the face of a collective state. For Klíma, alas, eros is yet another venue for repression. Suggesting that national politics might inscribe itself onto the deepest contours of the individual, he's able to write about both at once. It's a grim equation, perhaps. But Klíma's mastery of the medium, and his rare emotional intelligence, make for a superb exposition of love among the ruins. --Burhan Tufail From Publishers Weekly Sophisticated readers may expect to admire anything new from the justly revered Czech novelist (Waiting for the Light, Waiting for the Dark). Many of them will be disappointed with these 12 short stories. Klima's tales are sorted into three unequal sections: "Lovers for One Night" collects five stories from the 1960s, while "Intimate Conversations" and "About Love and Death" hold seven from the '80s and '90s. All these dejected fictions concern the success or failure of hopeful myths of intimacyAbut they are not equally successful. The fiction from the '60s tends to drown in involuted rhetoric; sometimes it's trite, other times it's supercharged with languid enervations and prominent symbolism through which the characters barely appear. It's hard to know whether the translator or Klima is responsible for such clunky prose as "She knew everything. She knew precisely why it was w

Step back in time and immerse yourself in the vibrant social tapestry of Paris with Leonard Merrick's "To Tell You the Truth." This collection of short stories offers a glimpse into the romanticism and cultural nuances of Parisian life. Explore tales woven with the delicate threads of human connection, exploring themes of love, friendship, and the everyday dramas that unfold against the backdrop of the iconic city. Merrick's prose paints a vivid picture of Parisian customs and social interactions, capturing the essence of a bygone era. This meticulously prepared edition brings these timeless narratives to life, allowing you to experience the charm and allure of classic French culture. "To Tell You the Truth" is a literary journey into the heart of Paris, a celebration of its enduring romantic spirit and the complexities of its social life. Perfect for readers who appreciate literary fiction and stories steeped in atmosphere. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.