A Blandings collection The ivied walls of Blandings Castle have seldom glowed as sunnily as in these wonderful stories - but there are snakes in the rolling parkland ready to nip Clarence, the absent-minded Ninth Earl of Emsworth, when he least expects it. For a start the Empress of Blandings, in the running for her first prize in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show, is off her food - and can only be coaxed back to the trough by a call in her own language. Then there is the feud with Head Gardener McAllister, aided by Clarence's sister, the terrifying Lady Constance, and the horrible prospect of the summer fête - twin problems solved by the arrival of a delightfully rebellious little girl from London. But first of all there is the vexed matter of the custody of the pumpkin. Skipping an ocean and a continent, Wodehouse also treats us to some unputdownable stories of excess from the monstrous Golden Age of Hollywood.

The author initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to Kundera, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry. Jaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent ("innocence with its bloody smile"!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a somber farce.

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere's museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe's psychiatric practice. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver's license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

After eight commanding works of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize winner now turns to memoir in a hilarious, moving, and always surprising account of his life, his parents, and the upstate New York town they all struggled variously to escape. Anyone familiar with Richard Russo's acclaimed novels will recognize Gloversville once famous for producing that eponymous product and anything else made of leather. This is where the author grew up, the only son of an aspirant mother and a charming, feckless father who were born into this close-knit community. But by the time of his childhood in the 1950s, prosperity was inexorably being replaced by poverty and illness (often tannery-related), with everyone barely scraping by under a very low horizon. A world elsewhere was the dream his mother instilled in Rick, and strived for herself, and their subsequent adventures and tribulations in achieving that goal—beautifully recounted here—were to prove lifelong, as would Gloversville's fearsome grasp on them both. Fraught with the timeless dynamic of going home again, encompassing hopes and fears and the relentless tides of familial and individual complications, this story is arresting, comic, heartbreaking, and truly beautiful, an immediate classic.

A spaceship's nothing without her crew.In the vastness of space, there's room for all types of adventures. Scientists seek to solve the mysteries of the universe. Explorers look for lost alien civilizations or new worlds to support life. Planet builders and planet smugglers create life and steal worlds. And some human spacefarers navigate with the help (or hindrance) of feline or feathered companions. The universe contains infinite possibilities—but while space is limitless, it's the people who travel it that make their adventures worth reading. And many of the decisions they make happen on the bridge of a spaceship.On these pages, you will meet:Revolutionaries struggling toward a better life.AI who take matters into their own, robotic hands.Cats and their crews (including those who clean the litterboxes).Voyagers seeking lost homeworlds or new worlds where they can begin again.New crews learning to work together.Astronauts facing their last...

With hints of magic and plenty of adventure, this seaside story of siblings on a hunt for treasure is perfect for fans of The Penderwicks and The Vanderbeekers.Not many kids have an island in their backyard, but suddenly, the Snolly sisters have three. They’re staying at Granddaddy’s seaside property for the summer, which includes the mysterious Fairy Islands: Fairy, Little Fairy, and Ghost. The people in Misty Cove call them “in-between places,” and say they’re full of magic—a magic that gets inside you.But ten-year-old Bee Snolly doesn’t believe in magic—she just wants to help her ill Granddaddy. And if she and her sisters can unravel the mystery of the Fairy Islands in time, they may discover a long-buried secret that could help them all.

"The Amazing Race" meets Around the World in 80 Days as a woman desperate to save her family bookstore falls for her competition. Born and raised in New York City, Ramona Keene dreams of attending photography school and traveling to Paris, but her reality never quite catches up with her imagination. Instead, she works at her uncles' quaint bookstore, where the tea is plentiful and all the adventures are between the covers of secondhand books. But when the new landlord arrives with his Evil Nephew in tow, Romy's quiet life comes crashing down. He plans to triple the rent, something her uncles can't afford. In order to earn the money to help save the bookstore, Romy applies for a job at ExLibris Expeditions, a company that re-creates literary journeys. Romy snags the oddest internship ever: retrace Phileas Fogg's journey from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days and plan a suitable, contemporary adventure for a client. The task is close to...

Let me get this straight. I'm on a trip with the following people:1) Bronte, a girl who makes magical 'Spellbinding' rings,2) Alejandro, a former pirate/current prince who can shoot arrows and make fire from stones,3) Imogen, who can read broken maps and is a kickboxing master,4) Esther, who saved her entire world from some kind of ancient monster, 5) Astrid, a smart ten year old who can read minds, and6) Gruffudd, a surprisingly speedy (and always hungry) Elf.And who am I? Just a kid who skips school to ride a skateboard.The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere is the account of Monday through Friday of last week. That's when Oscar found himself on a quest to locate nine separate pieces of a key, held by nine separate people, in order to unlock a gluggy silver spell that had trapped the Elven city of Dun-sorey-lo-vay-lo-hey. The quest was an urgent one. Friday at noon, the spell...

Sensing she's about to get bad news, Darcy, sixteen, feels herself—or her spirit, to be more exact—rise weightless, out of her body, lifting off the seat of the patio chair. How can this be happening? Her light-bodied airy self hovers high in a backyard tree. She is not alone! A beautiful teenage boy, shy as a deer, stands in the branches nearby. He sees her and vanishes—as she is pulled back into her body, again tight-packed in her skin. Her father is talking. Her parents are separating. She's stunned—the three of them always seemed special, unbreakable. Yet she's wildly excited by what just happened—though fears she's lost her family and her mind in the same afternoon. While her father is in his own religious crisis, she enters an entrancing spirit realm. Must she live a half-life in each of two worlds or must she make an impossible choice? Can the tree boy Risto ever pass as a regular guy? And what...

Ret McCoy was always the new kid, but after three years in the small town of Riverton, he thinks his family may have finally settled. He and his friends have the perfect summer planned before they start sixth grade, and his new job at the local mortuary promises enough pocket money for all the sodas they can drink.A dare from an older boy quickly ruins their plans. Everyone knows to stay away from the Crooked House, but after Ret and his friends take on the dare to spend the night in the abandoned house, they become caught up in the house's dark history.Later, an outsider buys the house. When people start to disappear, Ret is determined to solve the mystery before it swallows the entire town. His obsession with the Crooked House and its strange new owner threatens to put him and his friends in danger more terrifying than anything they could have imagined.

It's midnight and I'm alone in the kitchen eating a cold potato scallop. Coach O'Call would say something like, 'That's not what I expect from a scholarship girl!' because I have to be up for squad training in five hours and I'm not supposed to go near potato scallops, and—oh, yeah—it's my fifth. Cat has recently started at a new school on a sports scholarship, and she's feeling the pressure of early morning training sessions and the need for total commitment. Fanny loves to swim and she lives for racing, but family chores and low expectations for girls make it very hard for her to fit in even the occasional training session. Cat and Fanny have never met. They both live in the same Sydney suburb, but in different worlds, or at least different times: Cat in current-day Sydney, and Fanny in 1908. But one day, time slips and they swap places. As each girl lives the other's life, with all the challenges and confusion it presents, she comes to appreciate...

A unique blend of humor, suspense, and magic, unfolding through the instantly recognizable rivalries, affections and foibles of her characters, from Jaclyn Moriarty During a sleepover, a letter comes to five children begging for the urgent assistance of Esther Mettlestone-Staranise, the newly-realized Rain Weaver; she must arrive before 10am on Monday to save an entire town of elves. When they arrive, the children find two incredibly odd things: first, the town of elves, buried under layers of silver; and second, a regular-size boy who, soon after seeing the children, dies.Oscar is that boy who skipped school in our world on Monday to skate, and found himself in the city of the elves at just the wrong moment: He fled as fast as he could, but not fast enough because the silver wave struck him and he fell down dead.

An enlightening and deliciously witty collection of essays on Blackness, faith, pop culture, and the challenges—and rewards—of finding one’s way in the world, from a BuzzFeed editor and podcast host.“A memoir that is immense in its desire to give . . . a rich offering of image, of music, of place.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black PerformanceONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—The MillionsAt twelve years old, Elamin Abdelmahmoud emigrates with his family from his native Sudan to Kingston, Ontario, arguably one of the most homogenous cities in North America. At the airport, he’s handed his Blackness like a passport, and realizes that he needs to learn what this identity means in a new country. Like all teens, Abdelmahmoud spent his adolescence trying to figure out who he was, but he had to do it while learning...

From the acclaimed author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and Roads to Quoz, a dazzling collection of travel tales from the road. HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE draws together for the first time William Least Heat-Moon's greatest short-form travel writing. Personally selected by the writer, these pieces take us from Japan, England, Italy, and Mexico to Long Island, Oregon, Arizona, from small towns to big cities, ocean shores and inland mysteries. Including Heat-Moon's reflections on writing these pieces, HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE is much more than the usual collection of amber; it is a coupled summation of craft and memory. A perfect treasury of prose and provocation for readers old and new, Heat-Moon's most recent work reveals his absolute mastery across pages many and few.

The disappearance of a father and then his daughter, are of interest not only to the police, but to someone else nearby. But little does the man know, how much he, a complete stranger to the area, will be dragged into the events that have unfolded. That is until he finds himself recording the whole thing.... and what a strange story it is indeed.Johanna is the daughter of a rich merchant in Saardam. As only child and without a mother, she has grown up with notions, such as that she wants to take over her father's river trade business in her own name. Courtesy of her eastern mother, she has an unusual ability. She sees things in willow wood: whenever she touches wood, it shows her what has happened around the tree or wooden object. Any kind of magic is not common in Saardam, and the Church of the Triune, which rapidly gains influence in the city, forbids it.While she goes to church, Johanna also maintains a loose network of magic-enabled people. One of those people is Loesie, a farmer's daughter from out of town.One day, Loesie comes to town after having been struck mute by magic. She carries a basket made from willow twigs that tells Johanna that a group of bandits with demons is about to attack the city.But there is no non-magical proof, so she can't tell anyone or she'd be branded a witch. The time of witch-burnings was not that long ago. Never mind that the army is still approaching, and there are increasing signs that Saardam's embattled royal family might have done something that has angered magical forces in the east. Add to this that the royal family seems to have fallen out with the city's nobility, and that the recent death of the crown princess has left the family with only one heir: the mysterious prince whom no one has seen for years and who has suddenly returned home.At the annual ball, Johanna's father has brokered a dance for her with the prince. Johanna just wants to warn people of the impending attack.

Being a better person can be a lot harder than it looks.It's 1988, and former bully Astrid is forced to move from Queens to the small town of Elsewhere. Although this town is totally weird, Astrid sees the move as a way to reinvent herself. That is, until Candi—the teenage tyrant with supernatural powers who rules Elsewhere—decides she wants Astrid to be her new bestie.Having to choose between the perks and safety of being the Queen B's best friend and the desire to be a better person could literally cost Astrid her life. As Astrid and her new friends begin to dig into the dark history of Elsewhere and the source of Candi's powers, they form a dangerous plan to resist Candi's compulsion and to escape Elsewhere, or else be doomed to live under Candi's rule forever.

A psychologically gripping novel of estranged sisters, deep secrets, and tense twists from “an elegant and thrilling new voice” (Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals). At the height of summer, two sisters reunite at a remote cottage. They’ve long been distant from each other, literally as well as emotionally: Anna is a free-spirited wanderer and Catherine is career-focused and settled in one place. So, some tension is not surprising, but it rapidly escalates when odd things start happening during the all-night twilight on the wild peninsula. Who’s the watchful girl with a baby and what does she want from the sisters? Who bangs on their windows in the early hours then disappears into the woods? What does the sad-eyed Scottish man Anna is falling for know about it all? And how does it link back to an event twenty years ago that the sisters never talk about—the incident that created all this confusion, dislocation, and longing...

A comic novel about a Midwestern professor who tries to prop up his failing prospects for happiness by setting out on the Journey of a Lifetime.Louie Hake is forty-three and teaches architectural history at a third-rate college in Michigan. His second marriage is collapsing and he's facing a potentially disastrous medical diagnosis. In an attempt to fend off what has become a soul-crushing existential crisis, he decides to treat himself to a tour of the world's most breathtaking architectural sites. Perhaps not surprisingly, Louie gets waylaid on his very first stop in Rome—ludicrously, spectacularly so—and fails to reach most of his other destinations. He embarks on a doomed romance with a jilted bride celebrating her ruined marriage plans alone in London. And in the Arctic he finds that turf houses and aluminum sheds don't amount to much of an architectural tradition. But it turns out that there's another sort of architecture there: icebergs the size of...

From the secret places of the soul to sorcerous lands of faraway from hidden magical coves to vast and dragon-haunted plains: ELSEWHERE Fantasy worlds created by the masters of the genre, including original stories by: C. J. Cherryh — "Sea Change" M. John Harrison — "Virivonium Knights" Michael Moorcock — "Elric at the End of Time" Evangeline Walton — "Judgement of St. Yves" and other tales fo timeless fantasy — plus an "Islandian Tale" from teh unpublished writings of Austin Tappan Wright, author of the American utopia classic ISLANDIA. Come journey through realms of twilight and enchantment that like just beyond the everyday world... ELSEWHERE 30 short stories, poems and drawings from the best of fantasy literature. Introduction (Elsewhere) • essay by Mark Alan Arnold and Terri Windling The Green Child • short story by John Crowley Pooka's Bridge • short story by Gillian Fitzgerald The Hosting of the Sidhe • (1893) • poem by W. B. Yeats [as by William Butler Yeats] The Judgement of St. Yves • short story by Evangeline Walton Sweetly the Waves Call to Me • short story by Pat Murphy The Merman in Love • poem by Jane Yolen The Renders • short story by Janny Wurts The Golden Slipper • (1959) • short story by Antanas Vaiciulaitis A Spell for Sleeping • (1958) • poem by Alastair Reid The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship • (1972) • short story by Gabriel García Márquez? (trans. of El último viaje del Buque Fantasma) Pale Horse • (1969) • poem by Masao Takiguchi The Thunder Cat • (1965) • short story by Nicholas Stuart Gray Queen Louisa • (1972) • short story by John Gardner The Song of the Dragon's Daughter • (1977) • poem by Ursula K. Le Guin The Prodigal Daughter • novelette by Jessica Amanda Salmonson Little Boy Waiting at the Edge of the Darkwood • short fiction by Andrew J. Offutt The Tree's Wife • (1978) • short story by Jane Yolen Introduction (An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina) • essay by Tappan King (variant of Introduction (Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina)) [as by Tappan Wright King] An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina • [Islandia] • (1981) • novelette by Austin Tappan Wright The Unicorn Masque • novelette by Ellen Kushner The Succubus • (1971) • poem by John Alfred Taylor Ku Mei Li: A Chinese Ghost Story • novelette by M. Lucie Chin Tatuana's Tale • (1973) • short story by Miguel Ángel Asturias (trans. of Leyenda de la Tatuana 1930) Overheard on a Saltmarsh • (1912) • poem by Harold Monro Tales of Houdini • short story by Rudy Rucker Oh! My Name Is John Wellington Wells • (1877) • poem by W. S. Gilbert Elric at the End of Time • [Tales from the End of Time • 5] • novelette by Michael Moorcock Song of Amergin • (1948) • poem by Robert Graves Viriconium Knights • [Viriconium] • short story by M. John Harrison The Magician • (1971) • short story by William Kotzwinkle Sea Change • short story by C. J. Cherryh Contributors' Notes (Elsewhere) • essay by uncredited

Three novellas selected by Damon Knight:-Fiddler's GreenThe Saliva TreeThe Ugly Little Boy

The country of Massi is free! King Arsinol is dead; the Deutzani have been driven from the lands and Gwaynn Massi is going to be a father. Samantha Fultan is pregnant with his child and for one brief, glorious moment all is well throughout the land, but the drums of war will not be silenced. Caiman Mastoc, High King and husband to Audra, Princess of Deutzani, is furious and will stop at nothing to see the Massi and their Toranado allies fall. The vaunted Temple Knights are coming to Massi and bringing with them the armies of the Palmerrio, the Rhondono and the Deutzani. To protect his land, his people, and his unborn child, Gwaynn must face and defeat them all. But Gwaynn’s greatest danger does not lurk within the armies of his enemies. His greatest danger hides in the guise of a beautiful and seductive woman; a woman who loves him; a woman who needs him; a woman who will kill if she cannot have him, the treacherous and deadly Executioner Tarina Cyn de Baard.

Richly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear.Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning. Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in...

When Tourmaline's mother goes missing on a search for precious artefacts, Tourmaline sets off to find her with her best friend George, her new friend (former foe) Mai and her limitless determination. On their adventure, they encounter a band of female pirates, a maze of talking trees and a series of challenges that test the children and their friendship. But will it be enough to reunite Tourmaline with her mother? The first book in a fun, feminist fantasy adventure series, with a protagonist that flies off the page and into readers' imaginations. Perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell, Vashti Hardy and Abi Elphinstone.

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Ron runs away to Bordertown, a city between our world and the world of faerie, a place where elf and human gangs stalk the streets and magic works sometimes. If the city doesn't kill him, it just may teach him what it means to be human. An intriguing hybrid fantasy that mixes life on the street with magic and glimpses of unworldly beauty. —Kirkus Reviews

The Nowhere Emporium has been stolen. The shop from nowhere has vanished without a trace. Will it ever reappear? As they search for the lost Emporium, Daniel and Ellie encounter magical bookshops, deserted islands in the dead of nig

Eliza Tahan, Assistant Editor at J Press, worries she might become the target of a disgruntled author after her boss is murdered and a form rejection letter is found on the scene. Though her boss was the star of the company, it's Eliza that actually makes decisions for the department. And the murderer must have realized his mistake, because Eliza's suddenly a target.Toss in a tragic family history, an absent mother in Botswana, and a sister working for the Department of Homeland Security and stealing the family spotlight ... and Eliza can barely hold her life together at a level of normalcy. She's certainly not equipped to be solving murders. As she argues, "I'm not a detective. I'm a mystery editor. I don't know whodunit until I read the last pages of a manuscript."But when the editor of the local newspaper's Book Section becomes more than just a professional acquaintance, their growing passion urges Eliza to overcome her past and her passivity to find the...

Epub v4Elsewhere where a group of 'superior' scientists from Earth are unwittingly the playthings of the enlightened ones, where, on Judgement Day, selected millions of people begin to drop like flies... and where the Lizard of Woz, off on a brief terrestrial tour, most unfortunately falls in love with the most sylph-like, the most radiantly beautiful female he has ever seen; a Komodo dragon christened Kanna-Belle

The next book in the thrilling, chilling New York Times bestselling series!With no way into the McMartin house's magical paintings, and its three guardian cats reluctant to help, Olive's friend Morton is still trapped inside Elsewhere. So when Rutherford, the new oddball kid next door mentions a grimoire--a spellbook--Olive sees a glint of hope. If she can find the McMartins' spellbook, maybe she can help Morton escape Elsewhere for good. Unless, that is, the book finds Olive first. The house isn't the only one keeping secrets anymore . . .Review“Middle grade writing as it should be.”(Minneapolis Star Tribune )“A suspenseful read that leaves plenty of room for the next title in the series.”(School Library Journal )“A delightful tale filled with magic, adventure, danger and . . . [the] challenges of growing up.”(MonstersandCritics.com )“As Harry Potter fever takes over . . .The Books of Elsewhere is a great series for young readers who are interested in the world of spells, witches, potions and magic—plenty of fun, action and thrills.”(Examiner.com )“The Books of Elsewhere just blew me away.”(New Richmond News ) About the AuthorJacqueline West, a two-time Pushcart nominee for poetry, lives in Red Wing, Minnesota.

We first met Avery in two of the stories featured in Dana Johnson's award–winning collection Break Any Woman Down. As a young girl, she and her family escape the violent streets of Los Angeles to a more gentrified existence in suburban West Covina. This average life, filled with school, trips to 7–Eleven to gawk at Tiger Beat magazine, and family outings to Dodger Stadium, is soon interrupted by a past she cannot escape, personified in the guise of her violent cousin Keith.When Keith moves in with her family, he triggers a series of events that will follow Avery throughout her life: to her studies at USC, to her burgeoning career as a painter and artist, and into her relationship with a wealthy Italian who sequesters her in his glass–walled house in the Hollywood Hills. The past will intrude upon Avery's first gallery show, proving her mother's adage: Every goodbye aint gone. The dual–narrative of Elsewhere, California illustrates the complicated...

After eight commanding works of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize winner now turns to memoir in a hilarious, moving, and always surprising account of his life, his parents, and the upstate New York town they all struggled variously to escape.Anyone familiar with Richard Russo's acclaimed novels will recognize Gloversville once famous for producing that eponymous product and anything else made of leather. This is where the author grew up, the only son of an aspirant mother and a charming, feckless father who were born into this close-knit community. But by the time of his childhood in the 1950s, prosperity was inexorably being replaced by poverty and illness (often tannery-related), with everyone barely scraping by under a very low horizon.A world elsewhere was the dream his mother instilled in Rick, and strived for herself, and their subsequent adventures and tribulations in achieving that goal—beautifully recounted here—were to prove lifelong, as would Gloversville's fearsome grasp on them both. Fraught with the timeless dynamic of going home again, encompassing hopes and fears and the relentless tides of familial and individual complications, this story is arresting, comic, heartbreaking, and truly beautiful, an immediate classic.From BooklistPulitzer Prize–winning author Russo brings the same clear-eyed humanism that marks his fiction to this by turns funny and moving portrait of his high-strung mother and her never-ending quest to escape the provincial confines of their hometown of Gloversville, New York. All of her life, she clung to the notion that she was an independent woman, despite the fact that she couldn’t drive, lived upstairs from her parents, and readily accepted their money to keep her household afloat. She finally escaped her deteriorating hometown, which went bust when the local tannery shut down, by moving to Arizona with her 18-year-old son when he left for college and following him across the country right up until her death. His comical litany of her long list of anxieties, from the smell of cooking oil to her fruitless quest for the perfect apartment, is a testament to his forbearance but also to his ability to make her such a vivid presence in these pages. Part of what makes this such a profound tribute to her is precisely because he sees her so clearly, flaws and all. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Prizewinning author Richard Russo’s many fans will be lining up for his first nonfiction work, which has generated considerable prepublication buzz. --Joanne Wilkinson Review“One of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years... Russo's straightforward writing style is even more effective in Elsewhere [and his] intellectual and emotional honesty are remarkable.” —Michael Schaub, WFSU“Rich and layered... an honest book about a universal subject: those familial bonds that only get trickier with time.” —Kevin Canfield, Minneapolis Star Tribune“Russo conjures the incredible bond between single mother and only child in a way that makes his story particularly powerful.” —Nicholas Mancusi, The Daily Beast“Russo brings the same clear-eyed humanism that marks his fiction to this by turns funny and moving portrait of his mother and her never-ending quest to escape the provincial confines of their hometown.” —Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist“An affecting yet never saccharine glimpse of the relationship among place, family and fiction.” —Kirkus

Some places are too good to be true.Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different ...From one of our most talented and original new literary voices comes the next great American supernatural novel: a work that explores the dark dimensions of the hometowns and the neighbors we thought we knew. Review"American Elsewhere conjures up echoes of the best works of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. ... American Elsewhere manages to surprise, terrify and move the reader." (Los Angeles Times )"Highly impressive." (Kirkus Reviews )"Bennett gives the idealized image of the American dream a pan-dimensional twist with this alien invasion tale, part Bradbury and part L'Engle with a dash of Edward Scissorhands... Readers will be captivated from start to finish." (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on American Elsewhere )"The novel starts out curious and odd but quickly becomes terrifying and haunting, as the author reveals more about the people of Wink, who just may be the most curious and intimidating collection of folks you're likely to meet outside the pages of Stephen King.... A beautifully written, claustrophobic, and deeply memorable horror novel." (Booklist )"Bennett's novel may remind readers of the early works of Stephen King, presenting a small town where nothing is what it seems.... Bennett's work also evokes a mood similar to that of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, where every darkness may swallow a person only to spit them out into a place akin to Wonderland." (RT Book Reviews ) About the AuthorRobert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the Sydney J. Bounds Award, and an Edgar Award, he is the author of the novels Mr. Shivers, The Company Man, The Troupe, and American Elsewhere. Find out more about the author at www.robertjacksonbennett.com.

ReviewPraise for Wayne Johnston: "A wondrous writer--of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what's truly interesting to tell about life." — Richard Ford"Why I love reading Wayne Johnston: The reader goes skittering through Wayne Johnston's novels, driven inexorably forward on the force of his characters, on the power of his wit.... Wayne's stories have characters who move in and take up permanent residence." — Mary Walsh"A literary giant who has god-given talent." — Will FergusonFrom the Hardcover edition.Product DescriptionA love story like no other…A World Elsewhere has all the hallmarks of Wayne Johnston's beloved, entertaining novels: humour and emotion in fine balance, larger-than-life characters, dreams of ambition that threaten to overpower their makers, the rich evocation of place and history - and here an unexpected, unforgettable relationship between a father and his adopted child that forms the beating heart of the story.This sweeping tale immerses us in the life of St. John's, Princeton University and North Carolina at the close of the nineteenth century. Young Landish Druken is a formidable figure as he sets off from Newfoundland for the famed American university. Quick-witted, broader than most doorways, he is the only son of a notorious sealer who expects Landish to continue his legacy. But at Princeton, Landish is befriended, surprisingly, by "Van" Vanderluyden, son of the wealthiest man in America, and caught up in a life he had never imagined.Expelled in disgrace, he returns to St. John's where, in an odd twist of fate, he adopts an infant boy. Outcast, fighting off destitution, he raises Deacon alone with no knowledge or tools other than trust, humour and compassion. But when poverty overwhelms them, they make the long journey to North Carolina to seek help from Landish's one-time friend. There, living in the greatest American castle of the Gilded Age, they are swiftly pulled into a web of lies, deceit and murder that threatens the bond between them.A World Elsewhere is a beautiful, compelling novel that offers us new understanding of the meaning of love and loyalty, friendship and family.From the Hardcover edition.

A book about how Shakespeare became fascinated with the world, and how the world became fascinated with Shakespeare - the first book of its kindThere are 83 copies of the First Folio in a vault beneath Capitol Hill, the world's largest collection. Well over 150 Indian movies are based on Shakespeare's plays-more than in any other nation. If current trends continue, there will soon be more high-school students reading The Merchant of Venice in Mandarin Chinese than in early-modern English. Why did this happen-and how? Ranging ambitiously across four continents and 400 years, Worlds Elsewhere is an eye-opening account of how Shakespeare went global. Seizing inspiration from the playwright's own fascination with travel, foreignness and distant worlds, Dickson takes us on an extraordinary journey-from Hamlet performed by English actors tramping through Poland in the early 1600s to twenty-first century Shanghai, where...

From the acclaimed author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and Roads to Quoz, a dazzling collection of travel tales from the road. HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE draws together for the first time William Least Heat-Moon's greatest short-form travel writing. Personally selected by the writer, these pieces take us from Japan, England, Italy, and Mexico to Long Island, Oregon, Arizona, from small towns to big cities, ocean shores and inland mysteries.Including Heat-Moon's reflections on writing these pieces, HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE is much more than the usual collection of amber; it is a coupled summation of craft and memory. A perfect treasury of prose and provocation for readers old and new, Heat-Moon's most recent work reveals his absolute mastery across pages many and few.