Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father's romantic and her mother's practical nature, struggles to survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century.

Step into the enchanting world of "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, a captivating novel that whisks readers away to the sunny shores of Italy. Set in the 1920s, the story follows the transformative journey of four diverse women who embark on a shared holiday to escape their mundane lives. Lottie Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot, two dissatisfied Englishwomen, discover an advertisement for a month-long rental of an Italian castle. Eager for...

The Last Chronicle of Barset is a novel by Anthony Trollope, published in 1867. It is the final book of a series of six, often referred to collectively as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The Last Chronicle of Barset concerns an indigent but learned clergyman, the Reverend Josiah Crawley, the perpetual curate of Hogglestock, who stands accused of stealing a cheque. The novel is notable for the non-resolution of a plot continued from the previous novel...

In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert masterfully unravels the tale of Emma Bovary, a young, disillusioned woman yearning for passion and excitement beyond her provincial French life. As Emma strives to escape the monotony of her existence through indulgence in romantic fantasies and lavish spending, her relentless pursuit of fulfillment drives her deeper into turmoil. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century provincial France, this novel explores...

"It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans. Their reunion sets her own life down a startling path. Vivid, tender, darkly funny, and beautifully rendered, The Five Wounds spans the...

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through...

A multi-generational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple -- still madly in love after forty years -- match wits, harbor grudges, and recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built. When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of...

"Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad -- a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago -- suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought...

"A new tour de force from the bestselling author of Free Food for Millionaires, for readers of The Kite Runner and Cutting for Stone. PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan....

Undine Spragg is a beautiful and ambitious, yet vain and socially dense young woman with dreams of marrying a rich man. Hoping for a life of prominence and luxury, Undine convinces her family to relocate to New York. The Spragg family, who have earned their modest wealth from shady practices, are happy to accommodate Undine's request. When Undine meets Ralph Marvell, an aspiring poet from a family of old New York high society, she is determined to...