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Willa Sibert Cather was born on 7th December, 1873 on her grandmother's farm in the Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. After several years and moves the family eventually settled in Red Cloud, Nebraska and for the first time Cather could now attend school.In Red Cloud Cather had her earliest writings published in the local Red Cloud Chief newspaper. Her time in the mid-West created a vivid tranche of experiences for the young woman. It was still, for the most part, the frontier; a landscape of dramatic environment and weather, the vastness of the Nebraska prairie, as well as the many diverse cultures of the local families. Attending the University of Nebraska she published a well received essay on Thomas Carlyle in the Nebraska State Journal and thereafter became a regular contributor to its offerings. After being hired to write for the Home Monthly, in 1896, Cather moved to Pittsburgh. Within a year she became a telegraph editor and drama critic for the Pittsburgh Leader as well as contributing poetry and short fiction to The Library, another local publication. Her first collection of short stories,'The Troll Garden', was published in 1905 and contains several of her most famous including'A Wagner Matinee,''The Sculptor's Funeral,'and'Paul's Case.'As a writer Cather was now taking immense strides forward. By 1912 she had finished her first novel'Alexander's Bridge'which was serialized in McClure's to favourable reviews. Cather now began her Prairie Trilogy:'O Pioneers!'(1913),'The Song of the Lark'(1915), and'My Ántonia'(1918). All three were popular and critical successes nationwide.Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Cather continued to establish herself as a major American writer and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for her novel'One of Ours'. A determinedly private person, Cather destroyed many old drafts, personal papers, and letters. Her will would also restrict the ability of scholars to quote from personal papers that remained. In 1932, Cather published her final collection of short stories,'Obscure Destinies'which contained the highly regarded'Neighbour Rosicky.'She now began work on'Lucy Gayheart', a novel that was rather darker than those before it.With her career settled as one of America's greatest writers honours began to flow. In 1943 she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The following year, 1944, Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. However, time was about to settle scores with her. On April 24th, 1947, Willa Siebert Cather died of a cerebral haemorrhage at her home at 570 Park Avenue in Manhattan. She was 73.

'Sixty years later, Jaffe's classic still strikes a chord, this time eerily prescient regarding so many of the circumstances surrounding sexual harassment that paved the way toward the #MeToo movement.'-BuzzfeedWhen Rona Jaffe's superb page-turner was first published in 1958, it changed contemporary fiction forever. Some readers were shocked, but millions more were electrified when they saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. Almost sixty years later, The Best of Everything remains touchingly—and sometimes hilariously—true to the personal and professional struggles women face in the city. There's Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor's office; naïve country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; and Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Jaffe follows their adventures with intelligence, sympathy, and prose as sharp as a paper cut.

Originally published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853, “Bleak House” is a novel by English author Charles Dickens. The story centres around Esther Summerson, the novel's heroine and omniscient narrator, and a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery which arises as a result of conflicting wills. Though brimming with arguably exaggerated satire, “Bleak House” helped further a judicial reform movement which led to legal reform in the 1870s. A classic example of Dickens's much-celebrated literature not to be missed by fans and collectors of his timeless work. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812–1870) was an English writer and social critic famous for having created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters. His works became unprecedentedly popular during his life, and today he is commonly regarded as the greatest Victorian-era novelist. Although perhaps better known for such works as “Oliver Twist” or “A Christmas Carol”, Dickens first gained success with the 1836 serial publication of “The Pickwick Papers”, which turned him almost overnight into an international literary celebrity thanks to his humour, satire, and astute observations concerning society and character. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an introductory chapter from “Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens” by G. K. Chesterton.

On April 10, 1994, PBS stations nationwide will air the first episode of a lavish six-part Masterpiece Theatre production of Eliot's brilliant work, Middlemarch, hosted by Russell Baker and produced by Louis Marks. The Modern Library is pleased to offer this official companion edition, complete with tie-in art and printed on acid-free paper. Unabridged.

A Haitian émigré's exposure to shallow suburbanites is “social satire at its slyest and best” from the New York Times–bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). When the heartbroken Simone flees her native Haiti, her best option to start a new life is a quick paper marriage to a Brooklyn cab driver and a job as an underpaid caregiver to two spoiled young children in the small community of Hudson Landing, New York. But her new boss is nothing like what she's been led to expect. The self-absorbed amateur sculptor Rosemary Porter and her morose, eccentric children George and Maisie—deserted by their philandering husband and father—rattle aimlessly around their crumbling suburban mansion. The people of Hudson Landing seem welcoming at first, but as Simone settles into this new home, her sense of unease grows. Rosemary's sarcastic best friend, Shelly, seems as suspicious of her as her shallow boyfriend, Kenny, a children's hair salon owner who appears eager to befriend the new au pair. A neighbor known only as “The Count” strings dead animals from trees for no reason anyone can understand. As the local community roils with secrets and attempts to outdo each other with self-importance, Simone begins to wonder just where on earth she has fled to—and if it's any better than the violence and betrayal she left behind. As always, National Book Award finalist Francine Prose “has a wickedly sharp ear for pretentious American idiom, and no telling detail escapes her observation” as Simone struggles to make sense of these odd people and this strange, new world (The New York Times Book Review).

A freaky tale of isolation and the porous membranes between us, Rebecca Gisler's slim novel renders a collapsing world with equal parts aversion, fascination, and tenderness—for readers of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sayaka Murata.At a time when she'd rather be making her own way in the world, an unnamed young woman finds herself moving to a small town at the seaside to care for her uncle. He's a disabled veteran with questionable habits, prone to drinking, gorging, and hoarding—not to mention the occasional excursion down into the plumbing, where he might disappear for days at a time. When the world begins to shut down, Uncle and his niece are forced even closer still. She knows his every move—every bathroom break he takes, every pill he swallows—and she finds herself relying on this man who is the last one person occupying an empty world with her. But then Uncle's health takes a final turn for the worse, he's sent to a hospital that cares for cats, dogs, and Uncles, and any way for her to make sense of this eerie new reality, and her place in it, falls apart.Poet-novelist Rebecca Gisler's debut novel, set against our increasingly disjointed world, welcomes readers into a home of shut-ins as cozy as it is claustrophobic. Gisler's bright, winding prose, masterfully translated from French by Jordan Stump, offers a rare witness to the complex ways in which we order our lives, for better or worse, inside and out.

An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld.Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she's in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears. Alternating between the two women's perspectives, Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America's own late capitalist mythos. Lyon's reinvention of Persephone and Demeter's story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.

'Someone rang my husband. Your wife is not well, the person said. Your wife is not well.'When Clara's parents transplant her from Paris to New York at the age of sixteen, a fleeting encounter with a young man seems, for a brief period, to open up new possibilities. As she strives to fulfil her vocation as a writer, and as she struggles in later years with the cumulative constraints of an unhappy marriage, Clara's imagination is strangely haunted by a life that might have been. Tracing Clara's story from her adolescence to her experience of motherhood, and then through to a pivotal bid for freedom, Two Hours is an exceptional novel. Witty, perceptive, and profoundly humane, this is the work of a writer at the height of her powers.Praise for Two Hours:'Alba Arikha takes us magically into the very heart of a woman's experiences—her loves, her art, her fears, and that brief, ecstatic moment that has watermarked her entire life.'—Edmund White'Arikha's Major/Minor is in my view a small masterpiece, and with Two Hours I believe she is making something of similar stature.'—Rachel Cusk'Out of a seemingly casual array of swift vignettes, fleeting encounters, cityscapes caught on the fly, and sudden, bright shocks of emotion, Alba Arikha has constructed a radiant story of loss and love, entrapment and freedom, and the strange patterns of fate and desire that shape our lives. Every piece of her mosaic shimmers with acute observation, and the whole comes together to form a powerfully singular account of the universal struggle to live a life of integrity and meaning. It is a rare and fine accomplishment.'—James Lasdun'A beautifully written, lyrical, and unflinching account of a woman's life, from teenage love to maturity and motherhood.'—Vesna Goldsworthy

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Named a Best Book of 2023 by Time, Huffington Post, Kirkus, and more • A New York Times Book Review Editors'Choice • A Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club Selection • A Marie Claire Book Club Pick A surreal novel with “a dark, delicious edge” (Time) about a woman in Silicon Valley who must decide how much she's willing to give up for success—from an award-winning writer whose work Roxane Gay calls “utterly unique and remarkable.”A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets. Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, growing or shrinking in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever closer as the world around her unravels. When she ends up unexpectedly pregnant at the same time her CEO's demands cross into illegal territory, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, unsettling yet darkly comic, Ripe portrays one millennial woman's journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

A ballerina at the height of her powers becomes consumed with finding her missing brother in this “striking debut” (Oprah Daily).“A compelling novel about the spiritual and bodily costs of the dogged pursuit of art.”—Raven Leilani, author of LusterLONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARDAt twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a ballet dancer when she's promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She's instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her “inspirational” role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company's history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn't belong. As she waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn't arrive, she begins to unravel the loose threads of her past—an absent father, a pragmatic mother who dismisses Cece's ambitions, and a missing older brother who stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own demons.Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the potential to derail her career and shatter the life she's cultivated for herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the traditional ballet world.Written with spellbinding beauty and ballet's precise structure, Dances centers around women, art, and power, and how we come to define freedom for ourselves.

Kairós és el déu grec del moment oportú, de les coincidències favorables, de la felicitat instantània. És el temps necessari perquè es compleixi la voluntat divina, segons els cristians. ¿Podríem considerar que la trobada fortuïta de Katharina, de dinou anys, i Hans, un intel·lectual de més de cinquanta, va ser provocada per Kairós? Passats els anys, la resposta és incerta encara. Amb el teló de fons d'una RDA decadent i el trasbals posterior a la caiguda del Mur el 1989, Jenny Erpenbeck narra amb el seu llenguatge inconfusible els abismes de la felicitat: el camí de dos amants a la frontera entre la veritat i la mentida, l'obsessió i la violència, l'odi i l'esperança. La seva història d'amor clandestí es desplegarà i s'ensorrarà en paral·lel a la dissolució de l'estat comunista, que l'un i l'altra viuran amb expectatives diferents. «Erpenbeck posseeix un do insuperable per mostrar com les nostres idees, passions i decisions es configuren —i reconfiguren— pel pas del temps i els canvis històrics.» — John Powers, NPR Traducció de Lourdes Bigorra Cervelló

'Middlemarch'by George Eliot is a literary masterpiece that immerses readers in the tapestry of a small English town during the 19th century. This novel presents a rich and intricate exploration of human lives, ambitions, and societal dynamics.The story interweaves the lives of various characters, notably Dorothea Brooke and Dr. Tertius Lydgate, as they navigate personal aspirations, love, and the challenges of their time. Dorothea, an intelligent and idealistic young woman, longs to make a meaningful impact in the world but finds herself constrained by the societal norms of her era.Dr. Lydgate, on the other hand, arrives in Middlemarch with the ambition to revolutionize medical practices. As he becomes entwined in the town's social fabric, he faces the complexities of balancing professional dreams with personal relationships.Eliot's eloquent prose delves into themes of marriage, politics, and personal growth against the backdrop of a changing society. The characters'individual journeys and interactions offer a profound exploration of human nature, highlighting the intricate interplay between personal desires and societal influences.'Middlemarch'is a novel of substance, challenging readers to contemplate the choices that shape lives and the impact of community on individual paths. Eliot's portrayal of intricate relationships and vivid character development ensures that this classic work remains a timeless exploration of the human experience.ABOUT THE AUTHORGeorge Eliot, the literary pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, graced the 19th century with her brilliant prose and profound insights. Born in 1819 in Warwickshire, England, she defied conventions of her era by adopting a male pen name to gain recognition in a male-dominated literary world. Eliot's novels, like'Middlemarch,''Silas Marner,'and'Adam Bede,'unravel the complexities of human nature, social mores, and the pursuit of individual purpose. Her storytelling prowess crafted characters that mirrored the human condition, exposing vulnerabilities and aspirations. With her wit and intellect, she navigated themes of morality, self-discovery, and societal change, capturing hearts and minds across generations. George Eliot's legacy is etched in her eloquent narratives, a testament to her courage and indomitable spirit that broke literary boundaries and enriched the world of literature.

This “gorgeous, electric” collection of short stories is about the inner lives of young women during their transformative twenties, navigating relationships, nostalgia for the past, and the uncertainty of the future (Mary-Beth Hughes, author of The Ocean House). With this sharp and witty debut collection, author Kate Doyle captures precisely that time of life when so many young women are caught in between, pre-occupied by nostalgia for past relationships—with friends, roommates, siblings—while trying to move forward into an uncertain future. In “That Is Shocking,” a college student relates a darkly funny story of romantic humiliation, one that skirts the parallel story of a friend she betrayed. In others, young women long for friends who have moved away, or moved on. In “Cinnamon Baseball Coyote” and other linked stories about siblings Helen, Evan, and Grace, their years of inside jokes and brutal tensions simmer over as the three spend a holiday season in an amusing whirl of rivalry and mutual attachment, and a generational gulf widens between them and their parents. Throughout, in stories both lyrical and haunting, young women search for ways to break free from the expectations of others and find a way to be in the world. Written with crystalline prose and sly humor, the stories in I Meant It Once build to complete a profoundly recognizable portrait of early adulthood and the ways in which seemingly incidental moments can come to define the stories we tell ourselves. For fans of Elif Batuman, Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood, and Melissa Bank, these stories about being young and adrift in today's world go down easy and pack a big punch.

'A Room with a View'by E. M. Forster is a captivating novel that takes readers on a journey of self-discovery, love, and societal conventions. Set in the early 20th century, the story follows Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman torn between societal expectations and her desire for personal freedom.Lucy's life takes a transformative turn when she travels to Italy with her chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. Amid the stunning landscapes of Florence, Lucy encounters George Emerson, a free-spirited and unconventional man who challenges her worldview. A stolen kiss in the Italian countryside marks the beginning of a passionate connection that defies the conventions of their time.The novel explores themes of class, social norms, and the clash between individual desires and societal pressures. As Lucy grapples with her feelings for George, she must navigate the complexities of her relationships with family, friends, and suitors. Through a series of engaging events, Lucy must ultimately choose between following her heart or succumbing to societal expectations.Forster's insightful prose and keen observations of human nature create a compelling narrative that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the pursuit of true happiness.'A Room with a View'remains a timeless exploration of love's ability to challenge conventions and transform lives, making it a captivating read for those drawn to themes of personal growth and romantic tension.ABOUT THE AUTHORE. M. Forster, a literary luminary of the 20th century, illuminated the world with his insightful prose and boundless imagination. Born in 1879 in London, England, Forster's works exude a unique blend of keen observation and compassionate exploration of human relationships. His novels, including'A Passage to India,''Howards End,'and'A Room with a View,'resonate with themes of class, social conventions, and the intricacies of personal connections. Forster's pen painted vibrant landscapes where characters grappled with the dilemmas of their time, inviting readers to contemplate the nuances of existence. A true wordsmith, his narratives bridge cultures and epochs, inviting us to ponder the intersections of love, identity, and society. E. M. Forster's literary legacy continues to kindle the fires of contemplation, reminding us that human experiences are universal threads woven into the tapestry of time.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A young woman pretends to be someone she isn't in this “spellbinding” (Vogue), “smoldering” (The Washington Post) novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls. “Under Cline's command, every sentence as sharp as a scalpel, a woman toeing the line between welcome and unwelcome guest becomes a fully destabilizing force.”—The New York TimesLONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, Glamour, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Slate, Time Out, Chicago Public Library, Electric Lit, Bookreporter“Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple of anxiety made her palms go damp. It seemed suddenly very tenuous to believe that anything would stay hidden, that she could successfully pass from one world to another.”Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline's The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.

“Hilarious and endearing...Shmutz is a dirty book with a pure heart.” —The New York Times In this witty, provocative, and “compulsively readable coming-of-age story” (Cosmopolitan), a young Hasidic woman on a quest to get married fears she will never find a groom because of her secret addiction to porn.Like the other women in her ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret. With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the expectations of the family she loves. “Clever, subversive, juicy, and surprising” (Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies), Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between the traditional and modern worlds.

A young woman discovers what lurks beneath the system that anointed her among the best and brightest of her generation“A smart, razor-sharp exploration of the precarious island of academic life and the cold unforgiving waters that surround it.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and WeatherLaura, a student from a modest background, escapes her small town to join the ranks of the academic elite on a Weatherfield fellowship to study at Oxford University. She enthusiastically throws herself into her coursework, yet she is never able to escape a feeling of unease and dislocation among her fellow chosen “students of promise and ambition.”Years later, back in the United States with a PhD and dissertation on Henry James, she loses her job as an adjunct professor and reconnects with the Weatherfield Foundation. Commissioned to write a history for its centennial, she becomes obsessed by the Gilded Age origins of the Weatherfield fortune, rooted in the exploitation and misery of sugar production. As she is lured back into abandoned friendships within the glimmering group, she discovers hidden aspects of herself and others that point the way to a terrifying freedom.Benefit is a vivid debut novel of personal awakening that offers a withering critique of toxic philanthropy and the American meritocracy.

“This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. You'll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both living and dead) and find yourself rooting for them right through the last page.”—Good Housekeeping (Book Club pick)A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake.ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Book Riot • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates PrizeIt was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best. Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she's lost her way. A medical school dropout, she's come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days. Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad's illness, her mom's judgment, and her younger brother's recent stint in rehab, but she's unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police say they don't spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma's dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Someone should look for her, at least. Emma isn't really trying to be a hero, but somehow she and her father bring about just the kind of miracle the town needs. Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost.

Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, Alcott wrote the book over several months, at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success, with readers eager for more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (titled Good Wives in the United Kingdom, though the name originated with the publisher and not Alcott). It was also met with success. The two volumes were issued in 1880 as a single novel titled Little Women. Alcott subsequently wrote two sequels to her popular work, both also featuring the March sisters: Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). The novel has been said to address three major themes:'domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity.'According to Sarah Elbert, Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in a totally new genre. Elbert argues that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the'All-American girl'and that her various aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters.

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA GRAZIA BOOK OF THE YEARSELECTED FOR MALALA'S BOOK CLUB'Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People'MEG MASON, author of SORROW AND BLISS'Haunting and bleakly compelling... A writer of promise'SUNDAY TIMES'An absorbing debut about sex and power'GUARDIAN'Elegant and witty... A precursor to great things'THE TIMES'One of the buzziest debut novels this spring'VOGUECHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY VOGUE AND ESQUIRE_____________________________________________________________________________A bitingly honest, darkly funny debut about love, sex, power and desire, by a major new British talentAnna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet. It's there that she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna's intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city. But Anna's fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly – whether he necessarily wills it or not – so does Max…_____________________________________________________________________________'Touching on feminism, power, finances and the pleasures and dangers of a new relationship, this book is an assured debut'CLAIRE FULLER, author of the Women's Prize-shortlisted UNSETTLED GROUND'Imogen Crimp captures the glittering thrill of being young and choosing your own life with a dark, unflinching undercurrent of desire, power and control'JESSICA ANDREWS, author of SALTWATER'A blazing, darkly funny debut that captures a young woman's search to find herself... It has an honesty and tenderness that will stay with me for a long time'RACHEL JOYCE

A boarding school deep in the forest carries the echoes of its past inhabitants. Hints of a disturbing history and the unfolding events of the present are refracted by the multiple voices of the girls who now live within its walls, their suggestive and enigmatic accounts interweaving in a rich and unsettling chorus.When the winter months are skewered by a terrible accident, cracks begin to appear between the teachers and pupils as the girls navigate adolescence, their place in the group, and their complex and shifting relationships with each other, as well as the natural world that surrounds them and the seasons that shape their existence.

Gems of literature in a luxurious and unique design by Marjolein Bastin.The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series is a chance to rediscover classic literature in collectible, luxuriously illustrated volumes. For the first time ever, the internationally celebrated artwork of Marjolein Bastin graces the pages of a timeless classic, Sense and Sensibility, the story of the Dashwood sisters. Beyond bringing these stories to life, Bastin's series adds elaborately designed ephemera, such as four-color maps, letters, family trees, and sheet music. Discover anew the dramatic world of Sense and Sensibility. The happy and carefree childhood of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood comes to an abrupt end with the death of their father. The family is suddenly penniless and pushed out of their home, leaving the two young ladies with one sole hope: a good marriage. After moving into the cottage of a remote relative, the spirited Marianne falls in love much too quickly. In the meantime, the more intellectual Elinor sees her chances for a happy marriage fade when she discovers the man for whom she's fallen is already engaged. Sense and Sensibility is the story of two dissimilar sisters fighting for their happiness in the face of the strict social conventions of early eighteenth-century England.

Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Controversial for its honest depiction of work, desire, and urban life, Sister Carrie has endured as a classic of naturalist fiction and remains a powerful example of social critique over a century after its publication. Despite poor reviews upon publication, the novel is now considered a landmark of American literature. Tired of the countryside, Carrie Meeber moves to Chicago to live with her older sister and her husband. On the train ride into the city, she meets an older man, a handsome traveling salesman named Charles Drouet. Despite their obvious attraction, she decides to focus on finding work in order to pay rent. Carrie struggles at a local factory and longs to pursue her interest in acting, but knows that her obligation to family requires she work diligently and without complaint. One day, she encounters Charles on the street and joins him for lunch. He offers to take her in, suggesting that she need no longer worry about factory work or her sister, and remarking on her natural beauty and effortless charm. Soon, however, she strikes up a relationship with an unhappily married man, risking her stability with Charles and tying her fortunes to Hurstwood, who soon proves arrogant and manipulative. This edition of Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

When two young married women dependent upon the instinctive exercise of their attractions and native wiles upon the make, come into conflict with a competent, cool-eyed young business woman, the result is a story of humor that verges ever so near to tragedy.

At Fault (1890) is a novel by American author Kate Chopin. Published at the author's expense, At Fault is the undervalued debut of a pioneering feminist and gifted writer who sought to portray the experiences of Southern women struggling to survive in an era decimated by war and economic hardship. Thérèse Lafirme is a Creole widow whose husband's death has made the Place-du-Bois plantation on the Cane River in northwestern Louisiana her sole responsibility. Struggling to survive in a region that, following the fall of the Confederacy, has failed to recover from the devastation of defeat, Lafirme agrees to sell her land's timber rights to a recently divorced businessman named David Hosmer. As the two begin to fall in love, Hosmer's sawmill causes tension in an agrarian community unaccustomed to modern industry. Hosmer proposes to Thérèse, she is forced to consider the prospect of marriage against the opinion her community as well as her own moral and religious values, to set her personal desires aside in order to appease tradition. When Fanny, Hosmer's alcoholic ex-wife, re-enters the picture, trouble ensues that threatens to ruin Lafirme's reputation as an honest, hardworking woman. At Fault, like much of Chopin's work, went largely unnoticed upon publication, but has since garnered critical acclaim as a work that explores the lived experiences of women and racial minorities during a period of political and economic upheaval. Both fictional and autobiographical—Chopin was a widow of French heritage who struggled to provide for her family following her husband's death—At Fault is an underappreciated masterpiece of nineteenth-century literature. This edition of Kate Chopin's At Fault is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Alvina Houghton is bored by her little town, and feels trapped after her plans to elope with her lover falls through. Though she had previously dreamed of training as a nurse, Alvina is unsure what to do with her life. Alvina comes of age as her father, James, faces the failure of his business. She has a difficult relationship with her father. He is a man who never fully indulged in his passions, but has made eccentric financial decisions. In attempt to secure his daughter's upbringing and save his fortune, James buys a theater. There, he employs many traveling artists, as well as a handsome and sensual Italian man named Ciccio. After meeting the man, Alvina feels drawn to him, especially since he is well-traveled. The two share a slow-burn courtship, and after a lifetime of being raised around stifled passion, Alvina feels alive. Seduced by Ciccio and desperate for adventure, Alvina decides to run away with Ciccio, fleeing to Naples. As she leaves behind her life of security, comfort, and predictability, Alvina starts to explore desire, spontaneity, and her sexual freedom. Free to do as she wishes with Ciccio, Alvina explores Naples and her own sexual awakening, feeling independent and unfettered. However, even as she finds herself, Alvina also faces the reality of such fleeting freedom. D.H Lawrence's The Lost Girl is an emotionally compelling narrative featuring strong characters, wit, and prose that is both beautiful and bitter. With themes of feminism, class divisions, and family, The Lost Girl is a relatable story that leaves readers considering fate and the future. Through meticulous detail, readers are given valuable insight on the class distinctions and societal expectations of the 1920s in Europe. D.H Lawrence's The Lost Girl was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1920 to congratulate its gripping narrative and compelling characters. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and with a striking new cover design, this edition of The Lost Girl by D.H Lawrence restores the novel to modern standards while respecting its original mastery. With these accommodations, contemporary audiences are treated to a reading experience that is both accessible and luxurious. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

A piercing howl of a novel and'a tart pleasure...with echoes of Zadie Smith and Sally Rooney,'about one young woman's endless quest for an apartment of her own and the aspirations and challenges faced by the Millennial generation as it finds its footing in the world, from a shockingly talented debut author (Kirkus, starred review).“A woman must have money and a room of one's own.” So said Virginia Woolf in her classic A Room of One's Own, but in this scrupulously observed, gorgeously wrought debut novel, Jo Hamya pushes that adage powerfully into the twenty-first century, to a generation of people living in rented rooms. What a woman needs now is an apartment of her own, the ultimate mark of financial stability, unattainable for many.Set in one year, Three Rooms follows a young woman as she moves from a rented room at Oxford, where she's working as a research assistant; to a stranger's sofa, all she can afford as a copyediting temp at a society magazine; to her childhood home, where she's been forced to return, jobless, even a room of her own out of reach. As politics shift to nationalism, the streets fill with protestors, and news drip-feeds into her phone, she struggles to live a meaningful life on her own terms, unsure if she'll ever be able to afford to do so.

In this “fun, page-turner of a novel” (Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author) that's perfect for fans of Mostly Dead Things and Goodbye, Vitamin, a morbidly anxious young woman stumbles into a job as a receptionist at a Catholic church and soon finds herself obsessed with her predecessor's mysterious death. Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she's there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace's old friend. She can't bear to ignore the kindly old woman who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can't bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace's death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence. With a “kindhearted heroine we all need right now” (Courtney Maum, New York Times bestselling author), Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling and “delightfully weird reminder that we will one day turn to dust and that yes, this is depressing, but it's also what makes life beautiful” (Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl).

One of the most popular novels released in the 1920s on the hedonistic Jazz Age, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was declared the great American novel by Edith Wharton. Told from the point of view of a blonde flapper named Lorelei in the form of her diary, this novel follows her adventures around the world in search of a gentleman companion who can elevate her position within society. As Lorelei cycles through multiple men, she discovers things about herself and the way that she lives her life in retrospection—while also chronicling her changing moods and petty disputes with her brunette companion, Dorothy. Hilarious and a true classic, this revered novel transcends decades and continues to be relatable in this day and age.

“Allende can spin a yarn with the grace of a poet.”—Entertainment WeeklyAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW WITH A NEW DEAR READER LETTERFrom the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The House of the Spirits, an enthralling and suspenseful coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who must unravel the mysteries of her past in order to save herself.Nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal grew up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with her grandmother Nini—a force of nature whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after she emigrated from Chile in 1973—and Popo, an African-American astronomer and professor whose solid, comforting presence helps calm the turbulence of Maya's adolescence. When Popo dies of cancer, Maya comes undone and turns to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime. When she becomes lost in the dangerous underworld of Las Vegas, Maya becomes caught in the crosshairs of deadly warring forces. Her one chance for survival is Nini, who helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile. Here, Maya tries to make sense of the past to discover the truth about her life and her family, and embarks on her greatest adventure: a journey of self-discovery and forgiveness.

The exquisite illustrations of Marjolein Bastin meet timeless text in this elegant special edition of an English masterpiece. The Marjolein Bastin Classics Seriesis a chance to rediscover classic literature in collectible, luxuriously illustrated volumes. For the first time ever, the internationally celebrated artwork of Marjolein Bastin graces the pages of the timeless classic, Emma, the story of the well-meaning matchmaker of Highbury village. Beyond bringing these stories to life, Bastin's series adds elaborately designed ephemera, such as letters, invitations, and more. Whether an ideal gift for an Austen devotee or a treat for yourself, The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series, as a set or individually purchased, is perfect for anyone who feels a connection to these enduring literary gems.Discover anew the dramatic world of Emma. Emma Woodhouse is the most influential young woman in the tranquil village of Highbury, where she lives with her father. As a rich heiress, she is absolutely determined never to marry, though she entertains herself with all kinds of matchmaking attempts for her friends and acquaintances. Doing so causes a number of misunderstandings and embarrassments, to the point that Mr. Knightley, the family's closest friend, intervenes and sharply criticizes Emma. While Emma admits her mistake and makes attempts at gradual damage control, she falls in love after all....

“When a girl leaves home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.” With Sister Carrie, first published in 1900, Theodore Dreiser transformed the conventional “fallen woman” story into a genuinely innovative and powerful work of fiction. As he hurled his impressionable midwestern heroine into the throbbing, amoral world of the big city, he revealed, with brilliant insight, the deep and driving forces of American culture: the restless idealism, glamorous materialism, and basic spiritual innocence.Sister Carrie brought American literature into the twentieth century. This volume, which reprints the text Dreiser approved for publication during his lifetime and includes a special appendix discussing his earlier, unedited manuscript, is the original standard edition of one of the great masterpieces of literary realism.

“The Great American Novel (at last!)” by Hollywood's first female scriptwriter, and the basis for the movie starring Marilyn Monroe (Edith Wharton). Meet 1920s flapper Lorelei Lee, aka Mabel Minnow from Little Rock, Arkansas. She has it all: a millionaire “benefactor,” a lavish lifestyle, and dazzling good looks. The problem is she may be falling in love with a man who is temporarily married—and permanently poor. Luckily, Lorelei is distracted when her current male companion sends her on an “educational” tour of Europe with her plucky friend Dorothy. Gaining admirers and jewelry but never losing her heart, Lorelei eventually returns to New York, where she learns she had better stick with what works: charming men into love—and out of their money. “A guilty pleasure it may be, but it is impossible to overlook the enduring influence of a tale that helped to define the jazz age.... Long before Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones, Loos hit on a young woman's diary as the perfect medium for satirical romance.” —The Guardian, “The 100 Best Novels” “Anita Loos has captured an extraordinary voice, and therein lies not only the novel's charm, but also its compelling force.... The novel resonates today, as it did nearly a century ago.” —Chicago Tribune, “Editor's Choice” “Loos'satirical reflection on all her lived experiences—marriages to men who undermined her, strong friendships with glamorous actresses like Constance Talmadge, and her perpetual battle against a patriarchal world that wasn't eager to make space for her career ambitions.” —The A. V. Club

The acclaimed novel of Jewish immigrant life on New York City's Lower East Side from the literary phenomenon known as the “Cinderella of the Tenements.” It is Manhattan in the 1920s, and the Polish American Smolinsky family struggles to survive in their home on Hester Street. At ten years old, Sara, the youngest daughter, is keenly aware of the family's precarious financial situation. With food scarce, her unemployed and domineering father, a rabbi who spends his days studying, depends on the wages of his daughters. After years of watching him destroy the hopes and dreams of her three older sisters, Sara runs away, but forging a life for herself is not easy. She faces obstacles due to her background and gender, while working long days in a laundry and studying to become a teacher at night. Constantly rising above her circumstances—and her father's grasping reach—Sara finally finds happiness and love. Written in 1925 by Jewish American novelist Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers describes “the emotional tone of an immigrant family in the dismal tenement of an overcrowded block of the east side of New York. It is a complex mood of grave joy and bottomless anguish, of Old World standards and New World values of hope and struggle and defeat and achievement” (The New York Times). “Paints real trials—and triumph—of immigrant women... The story of Sara's lonely struggles in an unforgiving world is a classic one. More than eight decades since its publication, this novel is a gem in Jewish-American literature.” —The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

Gems of literature in a luxurious and unique design by Marjolein Bastin.The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series is a chance to rediscover classic literature in collectible, luxuriously illustrated volumes. For the first time ever, the internationally celebrated artwork of Marjolein Bastin graces the pages of a timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice, the enduring story of the Bennet sisters and their quest for suitable marriages. Beyond bringing these stories to life, Bastin's series adds elaborately designed ephemera, such as four-color maps, letters, family trees, and sheet music. Whether an ideal gift for an Austen or Brontë devotee or a treat for yourself, The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series, as a set or individually purchased, is perfect for anyone who feels a connection to these enduring literary gems.

Originally published as a serial story, Wives and Daughters is told with an episodic narrative, following a young woman named Molly Gibson as she comes of age. Molly is the only child of a widowed doctor. Raised in an English provincial town, Molly's childhood is filled with trips to aristocratic mansions and bonding experiences with her father. As she grows older however, men become more interested in her because of her attractive appearance. When Dr. Gibson discovers a creepy crush one of his apprentices has on his daughter, he sends her away to live with another family. Though she misses her father, Molly enjoys her life with the Hamley family. Treated as if she were their daughter, Molly grows very close with Mrs. Hamley and the youngest son, Roger. Meanwhile, as domestic drama unfolds at the Hamley's, Dr. Gibson entertains the idea of remarrying. Thinking that another woman would have a good influence on Molly, Dr. Gibson decides to marry Miss Claire, who Molly had met once as a child. Though he had good intentions, Dr. Gibson was mistaken in his assumption that Molly and his new wife would get along. Already shy and a little awkward, Molly does her best to keep the peace, but feels that her stepmother is selfish and too social ambitious. Even though Molly misses living with the Hamley's, she soon finds joy in her new homelife as she grows close to her stepsister, Cynthia, who has a nearly opposite personality compared to Molly. Despite their differences, Molly and Cynthia form a unique bond that they must nurture as they grow together, enduring the unfair social expectations of 19th century England. With secret proposals, family drama, abusive men, and hurtful gossip, Wives and Daughters is a thrilling account of life as a woman in 19th century England. While Gaskell provides fascinating insight on home life and societal expectations during this period, Wives and Daughters also features strong and intriguing characters that have captured the hearts of readers for centuries. Regarded as one of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's most popular novels, this edition of Wives and Daughters features an eye-catching cover design and is printed in an easy-to-read font. With these accommodations, modern readers are able to experience this gripping classic with ease. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Regarded as one of the author's finest and most ambitious works, Bleak House all but overflows with the imaginative inventiveness unique to Dickens as it holds the reader fast to his most involved and involving plot. First published in 1853, Bleak House is a Victorian epic with a court case of fiendish difficulty at its center. The legal system's inability to resolve a will effects the lives of a broad swath of interconnected characters, revealing secrets and drawing out emotions ranging from selfless love to murderous hatred. The author mercilessly satirizes British law of his era while playing out a masterful chain of linked sub-plots. Esther Summerson, the only female narrator the author ever employed, is accompanied by a cavalcade of vivid, living characters as the story sweeps across Victorian society. Comic moments blend with tragic turns, hidden motives and relations come to light, and murder is committed before the question of inheritance is resolved. Arguably a proto-legal thriller and containing a genuine murder mystery, Bleak House is much more than that, and, in truth, much more than most any novel of its era. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Bleak House is both modern and readable. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

A sweeping tale of life in Sault Ste. Marie from the 1930s through the Second World War. Clara Durling and her teenage daughter, Ivy, move to Sault Ste. Marie in 1932, where Clara is starting a job as head nurse at the local residential school. As Clara adjusts to life in the Soo, she discovers the town is a many-layered society. Clara works with Indigenous children who have been ripped from their communities and now live frightening, lonely lives in a crumbling building. While Clara struggles to deal with the despair at the school, Ivy makes a friend from the working-class Italian community and has a brush with the bootlegging underworld. After high school, Ivy heads to nursing school in Montreal but finds society's expectations for young women do not foster their self-reliance. As Ivy struggles with sexism and societal norms, she and Clara seek to bring humanity to those living at the margins of society.

“A resolute deep dive into an inner self, a transcendent character study, and a timely reminder that there's an entire universe inside of everyone we meet. You will be moved.” —Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook“[N]uanced and uplifting.” —BuzzfeedAn unforgettable story of a fiercely original young woman, whose radical perspective illuminates a new way of being in the worldAs a full moon rises over Melbourne, Australia, a young woman gets ready for a party. And what appears to be an ordinary night out is—through the prism of her singular perspective—extraordinary. As the evening unfolds, each encounter she has reveals the vast discrepancies between what she is thinking and feeling, and what she is able to say. And there's so much she'd like to say. So when she meets a man and a genuine connection occurs, it's nothing short of a miracle. However, it isn't until she invites him home that we come to appreciate the humanity beneath the labels we cling to, and we can grasp the pleasure of what it means to be alive.The debut novel from the inimitable Madeleine Ryan, A Room Called Earth is a humorous and heartwarming adventure inside the mind of a bright and dynamic woman. This hyper-saturated celebration of love and acceptance, from a neurodiverse writer, is a testament to moving through life without fear, and to opening ourselves up to a new way of relating to one another.

E. M. Forster's 1908 novel'A Room with A View'narrates the story of a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century.

Three books in one volume by the author beloved for her smart, witty novels of Regency England. This collection of Jane Austen's novels includes three timeless classics.Sense and Sensibility: Torn between reason and passion, obligation and impulse, two sisters search for love in eighteenth-century England. Mansfield Park: A shy young woman of modest means is sent to live with her wealthy relatives—and discovers her true power—in this poignant love story.Emma: This enchanting romantic comedy stars one of literature's most delightful heroines, meddling matchmaker Emma Woodhouse.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “[E]ssential reading for our dismal times.” —The Wall Street Journal One of Bustle's “Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020” PopSugar's “26 Incredible New Books Coming Your Way This August” Good Housekeeping's “25 New Fall Books You Have to Read This Season” Lit Hub's “Most Anticipated Books of 2020” Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant, original novel about a woman going through a breakup…but really having more of a breakdown.Jenny McLaine's life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She's just lost her column at The Foof because she isn't the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny's mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood. Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman's body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box… But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny's life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?

Olive Higgins Prouty the author of Stella Dallas and Now, Voyager brings you the sequel to her wonderfully delightful novel Bobbie: General Manager. The Fifth Wheel follows Bobbie's sister Ruth as she navigates her way into young adulthood. Faced with the usual life choices of a young women of her time in her place she finds herself questioning the options she has and not wanting to be little more than a fifth wheel in her own life.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE SEASON BY VOGUEIn this alluring, melancholic novel—Peter Stamm at his best—a writer haunted by his double blurs the line between past and present, fiction and reality, in his attempt to outrun the unknown.“Please come to Skogskyrkogården tomorrow at 2. I have a story I want to tell you.” Lena agrees to Christoph's out-of-the-blue request, though the two have never met. In Stockholm's Woodland Cemetery, he tells her his story, which is also somehow hers. Twenty years before, he loved a woman named Magdalena—an actress like Lena, with her looks, her personality, her past. Their breakup inspired him to write his first novel, about the time they were together, and in its scenes Lena recognizes the uncanny, intimate details of her own relationship with an aspiring writer, Chris.Is it possible that she and Chris are living the same lives as Magdalena and Christoph two decades apart? Are they headed towards the same scripted separation? Or, in the fever of writing, has Christoph lost track of what is real and what is imagined?In this subtle, kaleidoscopic tale, Peter Stamm exposes a fundamental human yearning: to beat life's mysteries by forcing answers on questions that have yet to be fully asked.

“[A] kaleidoscopic narrative... Tenacious, wildly original, and full of insight.” —San Francisco Chronicle “An alluring, atmospheric debut.” —People A Belletrist Book Club Pick A Most Anticipated Book of the YearEntertainment Weekly • The Millions • Bustle On the eve of Evangeline's wedding on Winter Island, the groom may be lost at sea, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, and Evie's mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. From there, in this mesmerizing, provocative debut, the narrative flows back and forth through time as Evie reckons with her complicated upbringing—a weed-dealing, charming but neglectful father, a wild-child best friend—in this lush land off the coast of Southern California. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of family and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief—and exerts a pull as strong as the tides.

In HYSTERIA, we meet a young woman an hour into yet another alcohol-fueled, masochistic, sexual bender at her local bar. There is a new bartender working this time, one she hasn't seen before, but who can properly make a drink. He looks familiar, and as she is consumed by shame from her behavior the previous week— hooking up with her parents'colleague and her roommate's brother— she also becomes convinced that her Brooklyn bartender is actually Sigmund Freud. They embark on a relationship, and she is forced to confront her past through the prism of their complex, revealing, and sometimes shocking meetings. With the help of Freud—or whoever he is—she begins to untangle her Oedipal leanings, her upbringing, and her desires.

A lost literary gem of Hollywood in the 1930s, I Lost My Girlish Laughter is a thinly veiled send-up of the actors, producers, writers, and directors of the Golden Age of the studio system.Madge Lawrence, fresh from New York City, lands a job as the personal secretary to the powerful Hollywood producer Sidney Brand (based on the legendary David O. Selznick). In a series of letters home, Western Union telegrams, office memos, Hollywood gossip newspaper items, and personal journal entries, we get served up the inside scoop on all the shenanigans, romances, backroom deals, and betrayals that go into making a movie. The action revolves around the production of Brand's latest blockbuster, meant to be a star vehicle to introduce his new European bombshell (the real-life Marlene Dietrich). Nevermind that the actress can't act, Brands'negotiations with MGM to get Clark Gable to play the male lead are getting nowhere, and the Broadway play he's bought for the screenplay is reworked so that it is unrecognizable to its author. In this delicious satire of the film business, one is never very far from the truth of what makes Hollywood tick and why we all love it.

A young Russian woman comes into her own in the midst of revolution and civil war in this'brilliant'novel set in'a world of furious beauty'(Los Angeles Review of Books).After the loves and betrayals of The Revolution of Marina M., young poet Marina Makarova finds herself alone amid the devastation of the Russian Civil War -- pregnant and adrift, forced to rely on her own resourcefulness to find a place to wait out the birth of her child and eventually make her way back to her native city, Petrograd.After two years of revolution, the city that was once St. Petersburg is almost unrecognizable, the haunted, half-emptied, starving Capital of Once Had Been, its streets teeming with homeless children. Moved by their plight, though hardly better off herself, she takes on the challenge of caring for these orphans, until they become the tool of tragedy from an unexpected direction.Shaped by her country's ordeals and her own trials -- betrayal and privation and inconceivable loss -- Marina evolves as a poet and a woman of sensibility and substance hardly imaginable at the beginning of her transformative odyssey.Chimes of a Lost Cathedral is the culmination of one woman's s journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century -- the epic story of an artist who discovers her full power, passion, and creativity just as her revolution reveals its true direction for the future.

Considered by some to be her finest work, Edith Wharton's Summer created a sensation when first published in 1917, as it was one of the first novels to deal honestly with a young woman's sexual awakening.Summer is the story of Charity Royall, a child of mountain moonshiners adopted by a family in a poor New England town, who has a passionate love affair with Lucius Harney, an educated man from the city. Wharton broke the conventions of women's romantic fiction by making Charity a thoroughly independent modern woman—in touch with her emotions and sexuality, yet kept from love and the larger world she craves by the overwhelming pressures of heredity and society.Praised for its realism and honesty by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer remains as fresh and powerful a novel today as when it was first written.

Booth Tarkington was born in America's Mid-West in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 29th, 1869. He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize on more than one occasion. When you look through the quality of his work it is easy to understand why. ‘The Magnificent Ambersons', ‘Alice Adams', ‘Penrod'– all classics. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his Penrod series was as well-known and as highly regarded as Mark Twain's ‘Huckleberry Finn'. Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. Coming as he did from a patrician Midwestern family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 the foundations for that outlook are clear. Today, he is best known for his novel ‘The Magnificent Ambersons'but almost every book he published is a consummate literary example of his brilliance. Few authors can rival that.