Ceremony Of The Innocent

New York Times Bestseller: The quest for the American Dream soars to new heights in this coming-of-age story of a young woman and her country. Living with her aunt in poor, rural Preston, Pennsylvania, thirteen-year-old Ellen Watson loves books and music and is completely oblivious to her own beauty. But her extraordinary looks arouse envy and malice in the female townspeople—and lust in the males. Hired as a housemaid in the palatial home of the village mayor, Ellen soon catches the attention of his son, Jeremy Porter, who captures her heart in turn. He offers to send her to school, and four years later he proposes marriage. As the years pass, Ellen’s life parallels the hopes, dreams, and fears of a no-longer innocent nation. As America’s enemies gather, Ellen must face her own demons. The wife of the scion of a powerful political family, she has everything she could ever desire: security, children, and a successful, adoring husband. But when tragedy rips her life apart, Ellen will be forced to confront some terrible truths about her marriage, her family, and herself. Played out against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America, Ceremony of the Innocent intertwines Ellen’s personal journey with America’s emergence from the devastation of World War I. It raises vital questions, such as: Are we as good as we believe we are? And is faith enough to keep us moving forward even in the face of unimaginable loss?

#1 New York Times Bestseller: A saga of power, greed, and illicit love set in the Gilded Age of upstate New York. Jerome Lindsey and his foster brother, Alfred, couldn’t be more different. The son of a wealthy banker in upstate New York, Jerome leaves home for a life of extravagance and adventure, seducing countless women along the way. Meanwhile, Alfred becomes an executive at the family bank and his adoptive father’s heir apparent. After his wife dies, Alfred shows little interest in remarrying—until he meets Amalie Maxwell, the ravishing and headstrong daughter of a tenant farmer. Fearing that his inheritance is at stake, Jerome returns home to expose Amalie as a shameless gold digger. But the more he schemes against her, the closer he’s drawn to her. Now, Jerome and Amalie will discover the thin line between love and hate—and that a moment of passion can have a lifetime’s worth of consequences. A mesmerizing tale of forbidden desire and a brilliant portrait of small-town America during the Reconstruction Era, This Side of Innocence is “a masterful piece of storytelling” from one of the twentieth century’s most beloved authors (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader’s interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In “A First-Rate Material,” Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can’t stand the conventional use of deceased people’s bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. “Lovers on the Breeze” is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child’s bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. “Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

New York Times Bestseller: In early 1900s Pennsylvania, the ambitious son of Irish immigrants pursues the American Dream in the face of injustice and intolerance. Fourteen-year-old Jason Aloysius Garrity is now of age to work full-time in a Pennsylvania coal factory, earning four dollars a week. His family left their hardscrabble life in Ireland to create a better one in America. But their shanty-like home on a street filled with outhouses, horse manure, and the ever-present odor of noxious gas is a hell all its own. Yet Jason possesses the passion and principles that will lift him out of the abject poverty surrounding his widowed mother, fanatically religious younger brother, and manipulative crippled sister. With World War I looming on the horizon, Jason begins to make his way in Belleville’s burgeoning business world. He marries beautiful, wealthy Patricia Mulligan, unaware that their union is built on a deception that will have far-reaching consequences not only in his life but in the lives of his three children. Filled with unforgettable characters, this masterful retelling of the Book of Job depicts one man’s will to succeed amidst the slings and arrows of fortune.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas hunts for the killer of a seemingly ordinary history teacher—and uncovers some extraordinary surprises—in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series. Eve Dallas doesn’t like to see innocent people murdered. And the death of history teacher Craig Foster is clearly a murder case. The lunch that his wife lovingly packed was tainted with deadly ricin. And Mr. Foster’s colleagues, shocked as they may be, have some shocking secrets of their own. It’s Eve’s job to get a feel for all the potential suspects—and find out why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant...so innocent. Someone Eve could easily picture dead is an old flame of her billionaire husband Roarke, who has turned up in New York and manipulated herself back into his life. Consumed by her jealousy—and Roarke’s indifference to it—Eve finds it hard to focus on the Foster case. But when another man turns up dead, she’ll have to keep in mind that both innocence and guilt can be facades...

The #1 New York Times–bestselling author’s “magnificent” tale of romantic intrigue in the gothic tradition of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (The New York Times). In the eyes of his daughter Melissa, Charles Upjohn can do no wrong. Where others see a minor novelist whose ego far outweighs his talent, Melissa sees a brilliant artist deserving of a wider audience. Where her sister and brother see a cold and inattentive parent who can’t provide for his family, Melissa sees a doting father whose intentions are beyond reproach. On his deathbed, Charles puts his eldest daughter in charge of her mother and siblings. Melissa will do anything she can to please him—even if it means marrying a man she hates. As Charles Upjohn’s publisher, Geoffrey Dunham holds the keys to the writer’s legacy. Dunham also has the means to provide for Melissa and her family, and the desire to do so. Melissa knows her life with Dunham will be grim and passionless, but she’s willing to sacrifice her own happiness in order to fulfill her father’s wishes. Dunham, however, refuses accept a wife in name only. To win Melissa’s heart, he must destroy everything she believes about her father—and herself. A darkly riveting portrait of the thin line between love and hate, Melissa confirms author Taylor Caldwell’s reputation as one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers.

Brutally honest, unflinching, exhaustively researched, and compulsively readable, 2"Until Proven Innocent"2excoriates those who led the stampede [in the Duke Lacrosse rape case] but it also exposes the cowardice of Duke's administration and faculty--John Grisham.

A thrilling anthropological adventure story with a profound and tragic vision of what happens when cultures collide—from the bestselling author of National Book Award–nominated modern classic, A Little Life “Provokes discussions about science, morality and our obsession with youth.” —Chicago Tribune It is 1950 when Norton Perina, a young doctor, embarks on an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumored lost tribe. There he encounters a strange group of forest dwellers who appear to have attained a form of immortality that preserves the body but not the mind. Perina uncovers their secret and returns with it to America, where he soon finds great success. But his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders, but for Perina himself. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.