Fiction - City Life

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

A charming, uplifting novel about love, loss, and finding your way in the world, perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Keeper of Lost Things.Emily can't remember the last time she left the house. Or spoke to anyone besides her...

Long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker PrizeShort-listed for the 2018 Gordon Burn PrizeShort-listed for the 2018 Goldsmiths Prize Inspired by the real-life murder of a British army soldier by religious fanatics, Guy Gunaratne's In Our Mad and Furious City is a snapshot of the...

For fans of Like Water for Chocolate and Woman on Top comes a deliciously magical and mouth watering story, filled with wonder, discovery, and new beginnings. Thirty-one-year-old Wynter Morrison long ago gave up on finding a suitable career and drifted into the role of...

High school was child's play for Arthur Wilberforce Cardel. But now the valedictorian is back home after his first term at Queens, and something is terribly wrong. Once perceived as destined for great things, he's now inexplicably sullen. His parents are frantic. Why won't...

An ominous, uncanny, and darkly hilarious descent into a paranoid, disaffected, and entirely relatable consciousness. Both a great New York novel, and a great novel about the myriad modern tensions between self and society, reason and unreason, boredom and transcendence, and, ultimately, sanity and...

Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (1892) is a novel by Israel Zangwill. Raised in London by parents from Latvia and Poland, Zangwill understood the plight of the city's Jewish community firsthand. Having risen through poverty to become an educator...

"I'd be twenty-nine at the end of the year," the narrator of Panic Years announces, "and playing bass was the only thing I was good at." Fueled by positive online reviews and a minimum of introspection, Paul and his bickering bandmates--beautiful Laney, hard-drinking Jeff,...

In 1980, B. J. Rosenthal's only mission is to find himself a boyfriend and avoid setbacks like bad haircuts, bad sex, and Jewish guilt. In post-AIDS 1986, B.J.'s world has changed dramatically -- his friends and lovers are getting sick, everyone is at risk,...

Twenty years of addiction to cloud, a drug which wipes the user's short-term memory, have left single mom Mellie with her mind in fragments. With the help of a tough-minded sponsor, and motivated by her own medically-challenged daughter, Mellie clings to a fragile sobriety....

The Chandaria family--emigrants from the Indian-enclave of Nairobi--have managed to flourish in America. Premchand, the father, is a doctor who has worked doggedly to grow his practice and give his family security; his wife, Urmila, runs a business importing artisanal Kenyan crafts; and their...

Elegiac, elegant, and more relevant than ever, this new edition of Sara Gran's debut novel is a modern literary classic. Cities and families make up our lives in equal measure: both never stop changing, and both can protect us, hold us--or cut us to...

In the summer of 1981, Maxine Cooper moves from the Midwest to San Francisco with her gay best friend, Chris, where she hopes to find love and community. But gay life in a big city is much more complicated than either of them ever...

Book 3 in de Giovanni's bestselling "Bastards of Pizzofalcone" series is set in contemporary Naples during season of cold winds, political hijinks, and murder. A heinous, double murder in a squalid apartment on the wrong side of town pits Inspector Lojacono, Di Nardo and...

Tyrone has a problem. Several problems, in fact: a girlfriend who sleeps around, a boss he's sleeping with, and various types of guilt (Catholic, Jewish, White) he can't live without. Plus, there's his deceased mother, his pill-popping father (who at least shares the good...

Michael Donahue has it all: a satisfying career as a physical therapist and a loving wife (his college sweetheart) who is pregnant with their first child. In less than a minute, all collapses when she dies in a car accident with him at the...