Twenty-six-year-old college graduate, artist, and employee of the Ministry of Art and Culture, Hasti Nourian aspires to be a "new woman"-independent-minded, strong-willed, and in control of her own destiny. A destiny that includes Morad, an idealistic young architect and artist with whom Hasti is deeply in love. Morad is a sharp critic of Iran's Westernized bourgeois class, the one that Hasti's mother relishes. After Hasti's father died, her mother...

"A captivating and original story of two sisters caught in a moment of transformation, set against the vivid backdrop of modern India. Escaping her failing marriage, Grace Marisola has returned to Pondicherry from the United States to cremate her mother. Once there, she receives an inheritance she could not have expected-a property on the beaches of Madras-and discovers a sister she never knew she had: Lucia, who was born with Down Syndrome and has...

Welcome back to Wells Landing, Oklahoma, the tranquil Amish community where still waters run deep and a brave young woman sets out to discover her faith, her family, and herself. . . Lorie Kauffman is grief-stricken when her father passes away unexpectedly. But her heartache quickly turns to bewilderment when she discovers he'd been leading two lives--one of simplicity and hard work in Wells Landing, and one fraught with painful ordeals in Tulsa....

"From the acclaimed author of The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle comes the novel for our strange contemporary times. Beginning nine years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by chain retail, and London, where both frenzied riots and Olympic fever plague the streets, Middle England tracks a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through the transformation of their society. There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie,...

Set in the vineyards of Northern California the story of a young girl who, in the wake of a tragic accident, seeks solace in a damaging love affair with a much older man. Eva, a divorced and happily remarried mother of three, runs a small bookstore in a town north of San Francisco. When her second husband, John, is killed in a car accident, her family's fragile peace is once again overtaken by loss. Emily, the eldest, must grapple with newfound independence...

The story Betty tells is a simple one. She needed the perfect dress for a very special occasion. Betty describes in amusing detail how she found just the right one, spent more than she could afford for it, modeled it for admiring friends, felt absolutely transformed and then...never got to wear it. The story and Betty are witty, engaging and delightful. Then Betty is asked to tell her story again. This time the story is strikingly different. While...