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How could two hardworking people do everything right in life, a woman asks, and end up destitute? Willa Knox and her husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and an inherited brick house that is falling apart. The magazine where Willa worked has folded; the college where her husband had tenure has closed. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law...

"In Bleak House, competing claims of love and inheritance--complicated by murder--have given rise to a costly and decades-long legal battle that one litigant refers to as 'the family curse.' The insidious London fog that rises from the river Thames and seeps into the very bones of the characters symbolizes the pervasive corruption of the legal system and the society that supports it, targets of Dickens's satirical wrath."--P. [2] of cover.

"A decorated former Air Force pilot. A pregnant flight attendant. A dedicated TSA agent. The fates of these three, and many others, converge in Danielle Steel's gripping new novel--a heart-stopping thriller that engage sordinary men and women in the fight of their lives during a flight from New York to San Francisco. On a beautiful May morning at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, two planes have just departed for San Francisco--one a 757, another...

Taking chances is part of life, but when you bet your future against the odds, it's a high-risk game. Kate Madison's stylish resale shop has been a big SoHo success, supporting her and her four kids since her husband's untimely death. Now they are grown and ready to forge lives of their own. And they all choose to play against the odds, to their mother's dismay. Isabelle, a dedicated attorney, is in line to make partner at her Wall Street firm when...

Jude the Obscure, the semi-autobiographical final novel from Thomas Hardy explores notions of surprising candor; within the eponymous protagonist lies the tragic truth of failed ambitions and relationships. In a fierce exploration of the darkness of love and the intellect, this is one of the great tragic novels of English literature. Jude Fawley, an earnest boy from a rural English village, dreams of a life of academia despite his working-class background....

"From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut novel about a Palestinian family caught between present and past, between displacement and home ... On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is up rooted...

"When it comes to walking the mean streets, Dickens could give modern genre authors the tour of their lives." -Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times When a corpse is found in the Thames River and identified as John Harmon, many lives will be forever changed. John, who had been abroad and estranged from his miserly father for years, will no longer collect his inheritance. It will instead go to the miser's employees, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, transforming...

First published in 1917, "Summer" is one of only two novels by Edith Wharton not set in the upper-class society of New York. It is instead set in New England and was very controversial at the time it was published as it is the story of the sexual awakening of a young woman, named Charity Royall. Charity, the daughter of mountain moonshiners, was abandoned by her poor parents and adopted by her small town's most learned person, Lawyer Royall. Charity...

Somewhere in South America, at the Home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mezmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening-until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage.

"Jane Austen's final novel is her most mature and wickedly satirical. It follows the story of Anne Elliott, a teenager engaged to a seemingly ideal man, Frederick Wentworth. But after being persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that he is too poor to be a suitable match, Anne ends their engagement. When they are reacquainted eight years later, their circumstances are transformed: Frederick is returning triumphantly from the Napoleonic War, while Anne's...