Fiction - City Life

A piercing howl of a novel 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 "A woman...

Iceland is a land of stories; from the epic sagas of its mythic past, to its claim today of being home to more writers, more published books and more avid readers, per head, than anywhere in the world. As its capital (and indeed only...

Born and raised in Australia, Martha longs to return to Nadwodom, in a country called Czawa, where her parents and family grew up. As she stumbles upon the works of Marion Porter, an Australian photographer who once photographed the countryside in Czawa, Martha's own...

British actor Rupert Everett charmed his way into moviegoers' affections with his scene-stealing performance in "My Best Friend's Wedding." Everett is also the gifted writer of this scathingly funny novel of a down-and-out actor's zany misadventures amid a wildly colorful menagerie of madcap trendsetters.Fame...

For a generation, Ethan Mordden's tales about a tightly knit circle of friends who live within the shifting confines of gay Manhattan have entertained tens of thousands of readers and devoted fans. Now Mordden returns to his best-loved characters - the ultimate hunk Carlo;...

What unites us, all of us, surely is brotherhood, a sense that our friendships are historic, designed to hold Stonewall together, muses on character in Ethan Mordden's Buddies. This need for friendship, for nonerotic affection, for buddies, shines forth as an American obsession from...

Fourteen-year-old Trisha Driscoll is a gender-blurring, self-described loner whose family expects nothing of her. While her mother lies on the couch in a hypochondriac haze and her sister aspires to be on The Real World, Trisha struggles to find her own place among the...

In Los Angeles, struggling telemarketer-writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante is jobless again. The publication of his book of short stories has been put off indefinitely. Searching the want ads for a gig, he finds a chauffeur job. When Bruno calls the number in...

In this "masterpiece," LAPD detective Ren馥 Ballard joins forces with Harry Bosch to find justice in a city scarred by fear and social unrest after a methodical killer strikes on New Year's Eve (Publishers Weekly). There's chaos in Hollywood at the end of the...

"The tangiest literary-world roman à clef to emerge from the '80s--it is almost certainly the best of the past four decades . . . Gertler has a high style, a feel for social comedy and a deadly eye for detail." --Dwight Garner, New York...

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Book - When Ohio-born Pru Steiner arrives in New York in 1976, she follows in a long tradition of young people determined to take the city by storm. But when she falls in love with and...

In a Shot of Malaria, Charles Souby unfolds the twisted story of a young man, Daniel Martin, desperately hooked on heroin, alcohol and his own delusions. Set in San Francisco in the nineties and written as a deadpan, first-person narrative, the novel captures and...

This is the author's first novel, which relates the experiences of a young bohemian intellectual. The six episodes create a fascinating portrait of a New York social circle of the 1930s. McCarthy's bold insight and virtuoso style won her immediate recognition as one of...

An up-close account of the experience of inner city New York kids--black and Latino, from ghettos and projects--who spent a summer in an Amish and Mennonite farm community in Central Pennsylvania in the late 1970s, sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund. City Chidren, Country...

Raymond Donne wasn't always a schoolteacher. Not only did he patrol the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as one of New York's Finest, but being the nephew of the chief of detectives, he was expected to go on to bigger things. At least he was...

It's night time, and a young man sits writing at a table. He's afraid. Afraid of having to decide--on a woman, a group of friends, an annual holiday destination. He's afraid of becoming numb to emotion. Afraid of growing up. But all of that...

Two lost young Parisians discover new paths for their lives in this charming pair of novellas by the international-bestselling author of Billie. Twenty-four-year-old Mathilde has abandoned her studies in art history for a job leaving anonymous negative comments on websites. One day she loses...

This novel from the acclaimed author of Driftless is "an arresting work about the salvation of a disintegrating Iowa family" (The New York Times).Survival has been the Sledge way since Reuben Sledge's father first moved to Des Moines. Yet the family seems cursed, and...

Sparkling stories of love, longing and heartbreak in the city by Ravish Kumar, journalist, TV anchor and bestselling author of The Free VoiceA boy from Bihar living in Lajpat Nagar likes a momo-seller from the Northeast; she likes him too, but when he gifts...

Jen Nilsson has an MBA, a nice condo, and a fast-track job at a tech start-up in Silicon Valley. If her big product launch goes well next month, she may finally land the marketing director job she's been gunning for. But then her younger...

The context is Summer 2017, Vancouver, British Columbia, where economic imperatives are making space less and less accessible to lower-income individuals. The rental crisis is intensifying, ravenous real estate development is thriving and there is a province-wide forest fire emergency, which blankets the city...

It's a long way from a basement apartment in a Montreal suburb to a new life on a fictional planet, but that's the destination our unnamed narrator has set his sights on, bringing readers with him on an off-beat and often hilarious journey. Along...

A never-before-published early novel and stories by the legendary musician, songwriter, and poet Leonard CohenBefore Leonard Cohen's worldwide fame expanded to fourteen studio albums, Grammy awards, and late-career global tours, he yearned for literary stardom. The Canadian songwriter of iconic hits like "Hallelujah," "Suzanne,"...

Victoria Shorr's remarkable gift for depicting the inner lives of complex characters shines in two powerful explorations of family, ambition, class, and status.In "Great Uncle Edward," a family gathers for dinner. At ninety-three, Great Uncle Edward commands the table in his three-piece suit; Cousin...

A BEST OF SUMMER READ ACCORDING TO NEWSWEEK, PARADE MAGAZINE, NBC NEWS, LITHUB, AND POPSUGAR!An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.Widower...

The Ordinary Seaman, the second novel from acclaimed writer Francisco Goldman is a lyrical and spellbinding story of hope, despair, and the promise of love. The ordinary seaman is Esteban, a 19-year-old veteran of the war in Nicaragua, who has come to America with...

Uncovered along with Crazy Cock in 1988 by Miller biographer Mary V. Dearborn, Moloch emerged from the misery of Miller's years at Western Union and from the squalor of his first marriage. Set in the rapidly changing New York City of the early twenties,...

A redemptive, healing novel, Two Cities brings to brilliant culmination the themes John Edgar Wideman has developed in fourteen previous acclaimed books. It is a story of bridges -- bridges spanning the rivers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, bridges arching over the rifts that have...

ﾁgota Krist packs volumes into this elegant shape-shifting novella. It's simultaneously a sly exploration of storytelling and a powerful narrative about immigration and the pitfalls of starting over in a new country. Yesterday is a necessary and uncannily timely work by one of the...

An international literary phenomenon -- now available for the first time in English translation -- Candy is a hip, harrowing tale of risk and desire, the story of a young Chinese woman forging a life for herself in a world seemingly devoid of guidelines....

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector comes this charming, witty novel about a "professional" flirt."Unique situation for an attractive, well-mannered, morally flexible young man. Hours irregular. Pay generous. Discretion a must..."When struggling, out-of-work actor, Hughie Venables-Smythe sees the mysterious...

"Now I am going to tell the story of something that happened one night years ago, and the events of the morning and afternoon that followed."The Incompletes begins with this simple promise. But to try to get at the complete meaning of the day's...

"Here Until August tracks the shimmer of precarious moments and transient moods with devastating precision. In their steady excavation of intimacy, these spacious stories bring Alice Munro to mind. I underlined sentence after sentence as I read: for their beauty, their clarity, and their...

"The Schringer Girl illuminates, explains, and juggles complex concepts with ease, leaving readers pondering the multiple realities after the book is finished." --Electric LiteratureGarrett Adams, an uptight behavioral psychology professor who refuses to embrace the 1960s, is in a slump. The dispirited rats in...

Rich, beautiful and free to do as they please, Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert seem made for one another and the carefree world of Jazz Age America. But if the good times, the money and even the love run out, what remains?First published in...

A sea witch, a bossy Virgin Mary, and a lesbian widow's ghost walk into a short story collection ...Author: Kristyn DunnionISBN-10: 1771963867ISBN-13: 9781771963862Publisher: BiblioasisLanguage: EnglishPublished: 02/02/2021Pages: 224Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.60lbsSize: 8.20h x 5.20w x 0.70dReview Citation(s): Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2020Publishers Weekly 12/21/2020Foreword 12/26/2020

Fifteen-year-old Monk drifts through a monotonous existence in a grimy Chinatown apartment with her "grumpy brown couch" of a dad, until she meets high school senior Santa Coy (santacoyshotsauce@gmail.com). For a moment, it looks like he might be her boyfriend. But when Monk's dad...

"A stimulating anthology of 14 futuristic L.A. fables . . . Some of the best of these tales seem illumined by the humanistic spirit of the late Ray Bradbury, poet laureate of Southern California fantasy literature." --Wall Street JournalAs an incubator of the future,...

"Ms. Shriver portrays her characters] with psychological depth and wry humor, dramatizing a subject that's rarely been exploited in fiction, and pulling off a novel that not only works, but rocks." --New York Times Book ReviewFrom the author of the New York Times bestseller...

"Written with Caputo's customary style and razor-sharp prose, Equation for Evil is the rarest of novels: one that makes the reader think profoundly at the same time that he is driven to devour pages. Unflinching, compelling and engaging, it stands beside books like Presumed...

"Bosnak writes with a charming and original voice."--Chicago Sun-TimesA smart and bubbly romp, soon to be a major Hollywood motion picture starring Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Zachary Quinto, and Andy Samberg, What's Your Number? by Karyn Bosnak asks--and answers--the provocative question, how many men...

A violent mob disrupts the East Toronto funeral service for unemployed loner Paul Shoreditch. The riot attracts sensational media attention, especially online, but is soon forgotten. Meanwhile, aspiring journalist, film fanatic and Internet addict Jackie Roberts discovers a bizarre online community that has been...

A fast-moving novel that centers on Monica Woods, who at thirty puts her tragic experiences behind her. She was in a disastrous first marriage to an abusive alcoholic that ended in an accident taking the lives of her baby and husband. She then entered...

Christmas is not a joyous occasion for everyone. Not at the Cross. Yet hope and humour remain.Blaithnaid's relationship with Kieran is not good. She has allies in Nadina the prostitute who soothes her with potatoes and Yoichi a Japanese neighbour who offers tea but...

Manhattan Transfer is an American novel by John Dos Passos published in 1925. It focuses on the development of urban life in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age as told through a series of overlapping individual stories.It is considered...

Penelope Lively is one of England's greatest living writers. In City of the Mind, Matthew Halland is an architect intimately involved with the new face of London, while haunted by the destruction and loss in its history. Matthew has a rich and moving relationship...

"Chilling. . . . Day of Reckoning is dynamite."--Chicago Tribune John Katzenbach's third novel, now back in print, is the spellbinding story of a family in jeopardy and what happens when that family is pushed to the brink. Megan and Duncan Richards are no...

A vivid coming-of-age tale about a young man trying to make his way as a journalist and band leader in a big Nigerian city. When Chinua Achebe became the editor of the legendary Heinemann African Writers Series, one of the first books he chose...

"Sexy encounters, irreverent humor, and subtle twists keep up the pace of this quirky tale about a variety of French appetites" (Publishers Weekly). Sandrine works as a functionary in an employment office, but there is a lot more to her than one might suspect...

"An entertaining tale rich in schadenfreude as bad things happen to a hapless billionaire" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Jay Gladstone was born to privilege. He is a civic leader and a generous philanthropist, as well as the owner of an NBA team. But in...