More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss -- a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's...

"India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actress. Armed with a stack of index cards and a hell of a lot of talent, she goes from awkward 16-year-old to Broadway ingenue to tv star. But while promoting her most recent project, a film about adoption, India does what you should never do -- she tells a journalist the truth: it's a bad movie. Like so many movies about adoption, it tells only one story, a tragic one. But India's an adoptive mom herself and...

"The acclaimed, bestselling author -- winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize -- tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly -- thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining...

On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp -- an area known as "The Waters" to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan -- herbalist and eccentric Hermine "Herself" Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest -- the beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thorn...

There's a lot Jean hasn't said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. Now she's a widow, and there's no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. They want the truth -- but the one lesson Jean has learned in...

"When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn't just any camper, she's the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp -- as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara's...

Iris Lockhart is stunned to learn that a great aunt whom she never knew existed is being released from an institute where she has been locked away for years. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?

"A little girl shares secrets only she can tell"-- Provided by publisher. Did you know that trees make great umbrellas? An imaginative little girl shares secrets only she can tell, and each secret leads to another.

On a midsummer's night, Paula Hook lies awake, her family sleeping nearby. Contemplating a secret she will reveal to her children the next day, she begins a story that is both a celebration of love and a moving acknowledgment of the fragilities, illusions, and secrets on which even our most intimate sense of self can rest.

"Memphis, Tennessee, 1936. The five Foss children find their lives changed forever when their parents leave them alone on the family shantyboat one stormy night. Rill Foss, just twelve years old, must protect her four younger siblings as they are wrenched from their home on the Mississippi and thrown into the care of the infamous Georgia Tann, director of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. South Carolina, Present Day. Avery Stafford has lived...