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Three acclaimed novels plus collected short fiction by the New York Times–bestselling author of Rich Man, Poor Man.The Young Lions: Irwin Shaw's New York Times–bestselling debut is widely considered one of the four great World War II novels, along with From Here to Eternity, The Naked and the Dead, and The Caine Mutiny. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, this “masterpiece” is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of three ordinary soldiers: a Nazi sergeant, a Jewish American infantryman, and an idealistic urbanite from New York City (TheBoston Globe). Bread Upon the Waters: No good deed goes unpunished? The Strands are a happy family, though not without their financial struggles. When their daughter helps a mugging victim by bringing him home, he turns out to be a Wall Street lawyer whose gratitude is as boundless as his bank account. But with each successive “reward,” the Strand family moves farther away from the wealth of happiness they already possessed. Short Stories: Five Decades: Shaw's prolific output of short stories appeared regularly in the pages of the New Yorker and Esquire for over half a century. These sixty-three stories include such iconic works as “The Eighty-Yard Run” and “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses.” The Troubled Air: Five employees of Clement Archer's popular radio show are accused Communists. He will have to fire them to keep his show on the air. But it's not a simple choice—whatever Archer decides, he won't be able to keep his hands clean, in Shaw's provocative classic about courage and morality at the height of McCarthyism.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winner: the second installment, following Some Luck, of her widely acclaimed, best-selling American trilogy, which brings the journey of a remarkable family with roots in the Iowa heartland into mid-century America Early Warning opens in 1953 with the Langdon family at a crossroads. Their stalwart patriarch, Walter, who with his wife, Rosanna, sustained their farm for three decades, has suddenly died, leaving their five children, now adults, looking to the future. Only one will remain in Iowa to work the land, while the others scatter to Washington, D.C., California, and everywhere in between. As the country moves out of post–World War II optimism through the darker landscape of the Cold War and the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s and'70s, and then into the unprecedented wealth—for some—of the early 1980s, the Langdon children each follow a different path in a rapidly changing world. And they now have children of their own: twin boys who are best friends and vicious rivals; a girl whose rebellious spirit takes her to the notorious Peoples Temple in San Francisco; and a golden boy who drops out of college to fight in Vietnam—leaving behind a secret legacy that will send shock waves through the Langdon family into the next generation. Capturing a transformative period through richly drawn characters we come to know and care deeply for, Early Warning continues Smiley's extraordinary epic trilogy, a gorgeously told saga that began with Some Luck and will span a century in America. But it also stands entirely on its own as an engrossing story of the challenges—and rewards—of family and home, even in the most turbulent of times, all while showcasing a beloved writer at the height of her considerable powers.

One of the great World War II novels, this New York Times–bestselling “masterpiece” captures the experiences of three very different soldiers (The Boston Globe). Standing alongside Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions is one of the most powerful American novels to tackle the Second World War. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, Irwin Shaw's work is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers on both sides. The story follows the individual dramas—and ultimately intertwined destinies—of Christian Diestl, a Nazi sergeant; Noah Ackerman, a Jewish American infantryman; and Michael Whitacre, an idealistic urbanite from the New York theatrical world. Diestl first appears as a dashing ski instructor in Austria, mouthing his loyalty to Nazi ideals. As the war progresses, Diestl's character continues to erode as he descends into savagery. Ackerman must endure domestic anti-Semitism and beatings in boot camp before proving himself in the European theater. Eventually, as part of the liberating army, he comes face-to-face with the unimaginable horrors of the death camps. Whitacre, trading cocktail parties for Molotov cocktails, confronts the barbarism of war, and in fighting simply to survive, finds his own capacity for heroism. Shaw's sweeping narrative is at once vivid, exciting, and brutally realistic as well as poignant in its portrayal of the moral devastation and institutional insanity of war. Penned by a master storyteller at the height of his craft, The Young Lions stands the test of time as a classic novel of war and the human experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

An American opera singer travels to Naples and becomes embroiled in his strangest role yetMichael Ruane is an obscure American opera singer who arrives in Naples to play a small part in an important production of Tosca and star in his own staging of a little-known Benjamin Britten opera. The work comes at a particularly trying time, when he's still raw with grief after his New York lover's death from AIDS. As the productions get under way, Ruane is offered an unusual part: that of the “uncle from Rome” at a local wedding. According to tradition, the presence of the uncle from Rome at important events confers prestige on the family. However, Ruane is soon enmeshed in a drama that surpasses any role he has played on the stage.The Uncle from Rome is a brilliant and colorfully imagined novel filled with theatrics of operatic proportions.

In one of her most delicate and suspenseful novels to date, Anita Brookner brings us an exquisite story of friendship and duty. Rachel Kennedy and Oscar Livingston were not precisely friends or family. Rachel had been acquanted with Oscar for some time, first as her father's accountant, and then as her own. Part owner of a London bookshop, Rachel is thoroughly independent and somewhat distant, determinedly restrained in her feelings for others, but above all responsible. And it is this trait that leads Oscar and his wife Dorrie to seek out Rachel as a mentor for their twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Heather. Yet when Heather seems poised to make an unsuitable romantic decision, Rachel decides to speak out and intervene, causing an unwitting and devastating insight.

The complete uncollected fiction and nonfiction, including the five posthumously discovered “last” stories, published here in book form for the first time—from “one of the great short story writers of our time—of any time” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver's mature writing and give his devoted readers a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver's writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have already entered the canon of modern literature.