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At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and she writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true. Lima lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil where they'll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of people who are not dead. Once there, she speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences-of ambition, fear,...

On the day John F. Kennedy is inaugurated, Claire, a young wife and mother obsessed with the glamour of Jackie, struggles over the decision of whether to stay in a loveless but secure marriage or to follow the man she loves and whose baby she may be carrying. Decades earlier in 1919, Vivien Lowe, an obituary writer, is searching for her lover who disappeared in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. By telling the stories of the dead, Vivien...

"Fannie Flagg once said that what the world needs now is a good laugh. And that is what she gives us in these thirty warmhearted, often hilarious, always surprising stories about Americans finding clever ways of dealing with the curveballs life throws at us. We meet Velma from Kansas, a loving great-grandmother who struggles to bridge the generational divide with her great-grandchild in California. Why, for instance, does her great-grandchild sign...

From the national bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs—and a master of contemporary American fiction—comes “a funny, cohesive, and moving collection of stories" (The New York Times Book Review). 

In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled...

"Recognizing how common it is for crafters to start many projects and finish few, a group of women join together to form a guild -- Unfinished Projects Anonymous -- to keep each other on track and accountable. Three of the friends are tasked with the job of home visits for their guild. Laughingly called "the Cartel," they snoop around craft rooms and knitting baskets to report on progress for the members. They even expand their mission to include...

"An epic reimagining of the remarkable life of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the American heiress and trailblazing leader of the twentieth century, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sisi. Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. Such is Marjorie Merriweather Post's average evening. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Covered in diamonds and deemed American royalty, Marjorie nevertheless remains...

"In the euphoric months before and after the publication of This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the flapper's historian and poet laureate of the Jazz Age, wrote the ten stories that appear in this unique collection. Exploring characters and themes that would appear in his later works, such as The Beautiful and Damned and The Great Gatsby, these early selections are among the very best of Fitzgerald's many short stories. This original volume...

Two European siblings travel to New England to meet their American cousins in this classic satire. Henry James's short novel The Europeans, which made its debut in serial form in the Atlantic Monthly, is the beloved tale of Eugenia Münster and her brother, Felix Young, who travel to Boston after having spent most of their lives in France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. At the heart of the story rest the concerns that most intrigued the iconic author:...

"A deluxe hardcover edition of the most famous science-fiction novel of all time--part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman A human raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith has just arrived on planet Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while his own "psi" powers--including...

The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories is a collection of thirty comic short stories by the American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The stories contained span the course of his career, from "Advice to Young Girls" in 1865 to the titular tale in 1904. Although Twain had ample time to refine his short stories between their original publication date and this collection, there is little evidence to suggest he took an active interest in doing so. "A Burlesque...