The Honey Thief Elizabeth Graver ISBN:9780156013901 About the book:Elizabeth Graver’s first novel, Unravelling, was hailed on publication as "exceptional" (The New York Times Book Review), "a pleasure" (The New Yorker), and "exquisitely poignant and sensual" (The Boston Globe). Now, in her second novel, she proves herself to be a major voice in American fiction. The [...]
Archive of posts tagged contemporary
The Witch of Exmoor by Margaret Drabble
The Witch of Exmoor Margaret Drabble ISBN:9780156006040 About the book: In a “profoundly moving, intellectually acute” novel (Philadelphia Inquirer) that is “as meticulous as Jane Austen, as deadly as Evelyn Waugh” (Los Angeles Times), Margaret Drabble conjures up a retired writer besieged by her three grasping children in this dazzling, wickedly gothic tale. Discussion Questions: [...]
Lady of the Snakes by Rachel Pastan
Lady of the Snakes Rachel Pastan ISBN:9780156035057 About the book: Jane Levitsky is a bright light in the field of nineteenth-century Russian literature, making her name as an expert on the novels of Grigory Karkov and the diaries of his wife, the long-suffering Masha Karkova. Jane is also wife to sweet, reasonable Billy and mother [...]
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Paul Torday ISBN:9780156034562 About the book: What does it take to make us believe in the impossible? For Dr. Alfred Jones, life is a quiet mixture of civil service at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence and marriage to Mary—an ambitious, no-nonsense financier. But a strange turn of fate from [...]
Be Mine by Laura Kasischke
Be Mine Laura Kasischke ISBN:9780156033831 About the book: On Valentine’s Day, Sherry finds an anonymous note in her mailbox: be mine. As the notes continue, Sherry becomes more and more charged by the idea that she can inspire such feelings. Her twenty-year marriage is routine and she feels old, aimless, and empty now that her [...]
Breakable You by Brian Morton
Breakable You Brian Morton ISBN:9780156033176 About the book: Adam Weller is a moderately successful novelist, past his prime, but squiring around a much younger woman and still longing for greater fame and glory. His former wife, Eleanor, is unhappily playing the role of the overweight, discarded woman. Their daughter Maud has just begun a frankly sexual [...]
Seeing by José Saramago
Seeing José Saramago ISBN:9780156032735 About the book: On election day in the capital, it is raining so hard that no one has bothered to come out to vote. The politicians are growing jittery. Should they reschedule the elections for another day? Around three o’clock, the rain finally stops. Promptly at four, voters rush to the [...]
The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
The Red Queen Margaret Drabble ISBN:9780156032704 About the book: Barbara Halliwell, on a grant at Oxford, receives an unexpected package-a centuries-old memoir by a Korean crown princess. An appropriate gift indeed for her impending trip to Seoul, but Barbara doesn’t know who sent it. On the plane, she avidly reads the memoir, a story of [...]
The Double by José Saramago
The Double José Saramago ISBN:9780156032582 About the book: Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find [...]
Strange Fits of Passion by Anita Shreve
Strange Fits of Passion Anita Shreve ISBN:9780156031394 About the book: A turbulent, tragic story of domestic abuse from the bestselling author of The Pilot’s Wife. Everyone believes that Maureen and Harrold English, two successful New York City journalists, have a happy, stable marriage. It’s the early ’70s and no one discusses or even suspects domestic [...]
