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When the imaginary world she conjured up as an escape is claimed by a sinister horseman in the name of the King of Traumund, Abigail Crabtree turns to her godfather, Mr. Montefiore, and her giant owl companion for help.

Queen Victoria is on the throne when we find Hetty Littlewood, one of the few remaining wise women, tending her injured son Daryl who is the master of a canal narrow boat and a part-time prize fighter. Daryl subsequently fall's foul of gaming interests in the great industrial City of Manchester and returns home a fugitive from the law and with a charge of murder hanging over his head. Fearful for her son's survival and possessing formidable occult powers, Hetty sends her son to seek refuge in a distant reality called the Water- Realm, until able to clear his name. Daryl, accompanied by his sister Myra and a homeless boat hand called George, begins a long and dangerous journey across the breadth of the Water-Realm to discover a way that will bring them safely back to their home. During the journey they encounter the frighteningly non-human Hix, navigate a river that flows in both directions and battle in an arena for the pleasure of the cruel Kaa-Rom; whilst overall lours the unfathomable legacy of an extinct super-race known as the Ancient Dead'. Meanwhile penetrating the lower strata of Victorian Manchester, Hetty circulates amidst the city's underworld of gin palaces and bordellos. Joining the household of a brilliant but fearfully dangerous millionaire and encountering the British Secret service in every attempt to clear her son's name ready for his return. Will the family finally be reunited and will the reunion bring happiness or grief?

In the not too distant future, after the huge successes of role-playing games, virtual worlds and reality shows, it was only a matter of time before somebody went too far. Welcome to Gameworld, a remote island with a population unaware that they exist only to entertain players. People's lives are dictated by their "owners" and broadcast around the clock and around the globe. It's the world's biggest game and the stakes keep increasing. Dean 3012 is a good guy living on the Island with his girlfriend, Lily. With a baby on the way, life is perfect. But when things take a sinister turn, the couple are plunged into a world of darkness. In the real world, Lily's owner Amelia is more than a watcher of the game. Obsessed with Lily's happiness beyond reason, Amelia will threaten anyone -- real or virtual -- in a misguided effort to protect her. Dean must somehow find a way to gain self-determination and fight for all their lives, even if it means discovering that his life isn't real.

Dear Booklover: P J O'Rourke said, "Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words 'Write what you know' is confined to a labour camp . . . The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?" Like O'Rourke, William Faulkner had his own take on the Other Commandment for writers, the one that goes, "Thou shalt not quit thy day job." Faulkner, who won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, had, twenty-five years before, worked at the post office in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. Mister Faulkner was known to say, "One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours, is work. You can't eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours." He must have been determined to give something else (writing, we may assume, perhaps a glass of whisky on the side) a whirl when he tendered his resignation to the postmaster. "I reckon I'll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life", he said, "but thank God I won't ever again have to be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch who's got two cents to buy a stamp." The authors in this book have tried their hands at some of the same jobs you have held, or still keep. They've worked on the railroad, busted rocks with a sledgehammer, fought fires, wiped tables, soldiered and carpentered and spied, delivered pizzas, lacquered boat paddles, counted heads for the church, sold underwear, and, yes, delivered the mail. They've driven garbage trucks. And, like William Faulkner, they have quit those day jobs. And like Faulkner they write. They tell good tales. If you wonder what work preceded their efforts to produce a great pile of books, if you would like to know how they made the transition to, as William Gay said, "clocking in at the culture factory", then this is the book you have been waiting for. -- Sonny Brewer, Editor, Fairhope, Alabama. List of Contributors: Barb Johnson; Brad Watson; Cassandra King; Clay Risen; Connie May Fowler; Daniel Wallace; George Singleton; Howard Bahr; Janis Owens; John Grisham; Joshilyn Jackson; Larry Brown; Matthew Teague; Michelle Richmond; Pat Conroy; Rick Bragg; Silas House; Steve Yarbrough.; Suzanne Hudson; Tim Gautreaux; Tom Franklin; William Gay; Winston Groom.

New Labour's honeymoon is over, but the London bombings have provided an excuse for meddling in the public's affairs. While political correctness is gaining momentum, the country has lost control of its borders and is reeling under the influx of foreigners from the EU and beyond. Criminals from across the world are finding easy pickings while the police spend most of their time filling in forms. The prisons are overflowing and there are more guns on the street than ever, but now it's the police that are carrying most of them. While the country implodes, the government concerns itself with Respect Agendas, the fast-tracking of ethnic-minority candidates, banning smoking in public places, building super casinos, spying on household rubbish, and whether, in this land of the blind, the one-eyed man will be king sooner rather than later . . . crime rates are rising and people are still getting hurt.

This is the second in the medical mystery series, featuring Dr Barnabas, the forensic pathologist and police-surgeon at the Old East Hospital. In this story she is involved in investigating the harrowing case of suspicious deaths of small babies in the Maternity unit.

When a severed leg is found on the banks of the Thames, Dr George Barnabas, female forensic pathologist and determined investigator, is summoned to the macabre scene. But with no sign of the rest of the body, she cannot say how the man died. Her next case is equally bizarre: a terribly burned woman in a first-floor flat -- and the fireman thinks the fire started in the body itself. George, despite budget battles with the hospital boards and squabbles among her lab staff, desperately wants to pursue these with the local Detective Chief Inspector -- her lover, Gus Hathaway -- but he has been so tied up on another big case that she has barely seen him for a month. George has to surpress a guilty flash of relief that he must surely return to his own patch now and run the investigation. But he does not, and his deputy wont let her near the case. George, frustrated but feisty as ever, can only puzzle: is the arson victim linked to the missing body? Only when Gus himself gets into trouble can she at last begin to delve on his behalf. Soon she is on the trail of a crime more tortuous and criminals more dangerous than either she or Gus bargained for. This is the third of Claire Rayner's much praised mysteries featuring George Barnabas, now established as an exciting and engaging series from a master storyteller. The drama of life in hospital is interwoven with life on the streets and life on the beat in a tale that is compulsively clever and entirely readable.

Wally Gobbet discovers a medieval manuscript that unlocks a secret world on the Isle of Mist inhabited by wizards, witches, and dragons, as he and his friends help the Order fight an evil sorcerer and the Queen Malaficia, who threaten to destroy the Otherworld.

Johnny Future, lover of all that exists, hopelessly unrepentant and quixotic, knows that life is calling him. He can feel it, man. Inanimate objects, exterminator icons, street signs are all talking to him, telling him he's a loser. His grandmother, Dolly Flowers, the only mother he has ever known, is in a nursing home. He hasn't seen her since she got sick, but with a stolen car and a prostitute named America in tow, Johnny's adventure to save her from death takes him from the slums of Hollywood to a wild freeway chase with the LAPD to the doorstep of fate. Steve Abee taps the well of broken hope and tattered heroism that sits beneath his nihilistic generation. A heartening, hypersexual, punch-drunk tour de force, Johnny Future ushers the drug narrative into the new American century.

It is austerity-ridden, black-market-riddled, post-war England and MI5 has pushed Cockney cat burglar and jewel thief Jethro out onto the rooftops of London again in defence of The Realm. And if that was not bad enough, London's top villains want him to do a bit of burglary for them too. Ever looming in the background are the twin spectres of the growing communist menace and a resurgence of fascism. There are even rumours that an American OSS agent is roaming around London with his eagle eye set on someone who looks an awful lot like Jethro. Things turn decidedly deadly when Jethro stumbles across a Royal cover-up and an extreme right-wing plot to topple Britain's new Labour Government. And all this is a mere precursor to Jethro having to pull off a very dodgy and dangerous caper, the success or failure of which could save England from going to the dogs or spell curtains for Jethro.

When Yuvi's wife finds him in his underwear, standing on top of his desk, she isn't terribly impressed with him and his writing habits. But Yuvi worries. He has a wife who wants things he can't give, an editor who wants a book he can't deliver, a brother-in-law with a gut disease that he can't fix, and dead parents who stubbornly remain dead. As the structure of Yuvi's novel falls apart, so does his life. His novel and his life blend together as he struggles to pull out of the mess. He revisits the fragments of his unreconciled past and his pants-less present, travelling from his suburban Jewish home in Atlanta to the North Carolina mountains of his father's childhood, to several hospital waiting rooms, to the living room of a grieving Palestinian man. Heartbreaking and hilarious, "A Brilliant Novel in the Works" is the utterly original debut novel from Yuvi Zalkow.

This is a novel of journeys, of the paths four people take because their lives are lacking in some significant way. "The devout and the desperate start from different points, but meet along the road", one character says. "In the end, there is no difference in Bethlehem or the bath-houses. Both are pilgrimages that begin and end in faith". Anna has just turned fifty, widowed, estranged from her only child, and embittered by a life that is full on the surface but empty at its core. When her daughter, Poppy, calls after a twelve-year absence and asks if she and her family can visit, Anna reluctantly agrees. Soon after, Poppy's husband and their ten-year-old daughter, Flynn, show up on her doorstep without Poppy, to stay. As a favour to a friend, Anna agrees to help to co-ordinate a support group for HIV patients. On the first day she meets Jack, who must choose between his "considerable appetites" and Stuart, his partner who has been unwaveringly faithful for over a decade. Stuart, in turn, struggles with whether his deep love for Jack will survive the storms ahead. It is Flynn -- imaginative, inspired, and haunted by her convictions about the spirit world -- who becomes the centre of this unlikely but devoted family. Gorgeously written and imbued with wisdom and humour, "Above the Thunder" is a celebration of unexpected connections and the search for home.

This novel tells the absorbing story of the three Tumarkin siblings: reckless Shoe, reclusive Ida, and Johnny, their beautiful, ambivalent younger brother. When Shoe is murdered, her family gathers for her funeral and discovers a will with her final wishes a wife for Johnny and a son for Ida. Johnny refuses to marry a woman upon demand even if he happens to love her. Ida, however, embraces love. She adores her nephew, Moses, and falls for Max, the tall stranger who walks into their lives. Soon, Ida must choose between the dreams that have always offered her shelter and the bold suitor who threatens to dismantle them. And all the Tumarkins, still shaken from losing one family member, must face the threat of losing another. By turns enchanting and unsettling, poignant and wise, this novel marks the debut of a remarkably astute chronicler of the human heart.

An eccentric, exotic photographer is drawn to a beautiful psychic in a turn-of-the-century novel about love, possession, adventure, and greed. At the close of the nineteenth century, wheelchair-bound Augustus Auerbach's only interest is his extraordinarily lucrative business: manufacturing and marketing pornographic photographs. His outlook is forever altered, however, when one of his models pressures him to attend a seance. It is there that Augustus meets the medium Verena Swann, a beautiful widow who gives voice to the long-dead spirit of his mother. At the time of her first encounter with Augustus, Verena is close to nervous collapse, overwhelmed by the demands of her clients who are half-mad with yearning for their deceased loved ones. Her spiritual powers have begun to fail her, and now forced to fake her public trances, she wonders if her ability to converse with the spirits was ever more than self-delusion. Though initially reluctant, Augustus embarks on a series of private sittings with Verena, finding himself increasingly drawn to her as much for personal reasons as for the proof of immortality she offers him. Verena, meanwhile, is torn between three men: Augustus, the millionaire pornographer; Captain Theodore Swann, Verena's adventurer husband, killed on an expedition to the North Pole; and Leopold Swann, Verena's brother-in-law and business partner, who has decided that their next and greatest conquest will be Augustus himself.

The "Alumni Grill" showcases new stories by award-winning Veterans from the first two Blue Moon Café collections hand-picked by editors William Gay and Suzanne Kingsbury. In this stunning anthology of Southern prose and poetry, beloved authors such as Tom Franklin, Suzanne Hudson and Brad Watson take us from the deep South of Alabama, through back-country Mississippi, to the hills of Appalachia. We feel the aftermath of murder, marvel at motherhood, taste sumptuous Southern cooking, stay out all night fishing, and ache from lost love. For fans of the Blue Moon Café series and anyone who loves short fiction, this collection highlights the endlessly rich and varied voices of the South.

This volume features new Southern fiction, poetry, and essays by acclaimed veterans of the popular "Blue Moon Café" series, handpicked by editors Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin. Contributors: Matt Brock; Bev Marshall; Brock Clarke; Jack Pendarvis; Joe Formichella; Michelle Richmond; Juliana Gray; Donald Hays; Brad Vice; Bret Anthony Johnston; Daniel Wallace; Suzanne Kingsbury and David Wright.

Katherine Dennison lives on The Marindor, a beautiful old sailboat that has been her refuge since the death of her son and the end of her marriage three years ago. A master mariner, she would rather navigate the sea than her emotions or her troubling past. But removing herself from the world only draws it closer. Approached by a mysterious foreigner, Katherine agrees to retrieve the cargo of a downed airplane only to discover that she is a hostage on her own boat. Matched against an adversary as clever as she, Katherine is forced to negotiate an increasingly thin area of geography and culpability. A morally complex and dramatic nautical adventure, with an ending that roars, like the wind during Katherine's final race for shore.

A giant strides this land. A giant who builds robots, invents religions, and kisses like a dream. From the rocky coast of New England to the golden hayfields of Stockton, California, he searches for America's greatest treasures. You might recognise him by the twinkle in his eye or the lustrous derby hat perched on top of his boulder-sized head. But for a dude who has it all, he sure seems sad a lot of the time what's up with that? And what exactly does he plan to do with all of those wonderful treasures, besides cart them across the country in his enormous red wagon? Is there someone, a beautiful lady named Glorious Jones, perhaps who asked him to gather the bounty of America in order to prove his love for her?

This is a dazzling debut collection about the secret lives of girls and women. Told with irresistible humour and remarkable grace, these stories illuminate the search for love, friend-ship, connection, and identity. From the fierce bonds among sisters, to the discoveries of a girl who roams her neighbourhood in the wee hours of the morning, to the allure of a tropical paradise where anything feels possible, "Beautiful Girls" explores what it means to be a woman in the modern world, looking for a place to call home. At once magical, tender, and wise, this book establishes Beth Ann Bauman as a bold new literary voice.

In this intricate, psychological mystery, Joel Stabler takes the life of his beloved brother Danny in what appears to be a mercy killing. When Joel's lawyers assign a psychologist to determine his sanity at the time of the shooting, the full story of the brothers' past and long family history of mental illness begins to unfold. Told entirely through Joel's pre-trial interview sessions with Dr Andrews, this novel takes on the argument of nature versus nurture, closely examining the factors that prompted this murder. And as Joel responds to the doctor's probing questions, he in turn begins to evaluate the doctor, stealing glimpses of his notes and speculating about his personal life. As we listen in on their conversations, it becomes less and less clear whom to trust, what is certain, or where the truth actually lies.

A man kills his wife's loveralmost. The criminal is Gideon Banks, a sculptor of modest success who has finally realized that he is incapable of repairing his broken marriage. Now on the run from the law, Gid is joined by Merithis adopted, introverted sonand John Frederick White, and old turnip grower, the singer of a thousand songs, and Merit's best friend. For the length of a college football season the unlikely trio embarks on a quest along the highways and back roads of Alabama, laying bare in the process a landscape of poverty and isolation. This rural setting erodes when a rich stranger in Birmingham is enamored by their tale and agrees to take them in. Sheltered in a grand house, ever so close to being caught, Gid, Merit, and John Frederick must now confront both their personal struggles and a shocking past they have come to share. Prescient in its grasp of politics and social discontent in the present-day South, Carry My Bones is a bracing debut by a writer of rare empathy.

Tim Gautreaux. Fannie Flagg. Diane McWhorter. Charles Simic. Daniel Wallace. Steve Yarbrough. These are just a handful of the acclaimed writers whose work has appeared in the Blue Moon Café series since its 2002 inception. Now in the fifth instalment of the series, Sonny Brewer has selected a new crop of stories, essays, and poems that promise to satisfy even the most discerning of tastes. In these contributions from up-and-coming writers and seasoned prize-winners, we witness a man searching for redemption in the form of a fish, a young woman piecing together her life after tragedy, an adolescent's struggle with his changing body, and a portrait of a community in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This dynamic collection is a must-read, offering the best in contemporary Southern writing and a glimpse into the future of Southern literature.

A couple of years ago Nick Hartshorn tossed three baseball gloves (one a lefty), two cases of ramen noodle dinners, and a tape recorder into his hatchback and set out to talk with everyone willing to play a game of Catch. Through the summer months, he travelled seven major highways and beautiful web of country roads, introducing himself to the diversity of America and searching out the values that hold us together. From Post, Texas, and Langlois, Oregon, through Almena, Kansas, and Hot Rock, Tennessee, to Brooklyn, Rochester, and Cherryfield, Maine, the conversations he had took on the rhythms of the ball and the mitt. And Nick got to know a great many good people personally -- people of every age, colour, and calling. In this book he records for us the voices of a vast nation telling us who they are, what they believe in, and why they live where they do.

With a mix of traditional, literary prose and bold -- some might say irresponsible -- experimentation, Ben Greenman explores the ins and outs of modern romance. Expect tears, nudity and recrimination.

Cormac -- a dark-red Golden Retriever who has always been afraid of thunderstorms and lightning flashes -- runs away one stormy night while his master is away. So begins a strange adventure that lands Cormac in the back of a red pick-up truck driven by a mysterious woman, takes him to a series of dog pounds and rescue shelters, and ultimately brings him to the suburbs of Connecticut. Meanwhile, his owner, devastated and trying to juggle his family and his new novel, becomes determined to solve the "dog-napping" case, watching his small-town community come together in search of his lost companion.

From the author of "The Locklear Letters", this is an irreverent and hilarious story collection about the lives we lead. And the lives we wish we led. In tales filled with off-beat characters, we meet the proud winner of an inter-office e-mail contest; a mysterious, one-armed, Texaco attendant with a penchant for reading car manuals; and, in the title story, a misguided autobiographer with a tendency toward fabrication. With a voice that is both humorous and heart-breaking, Kun reveals the hidden side of human existence and shows us that the difference between what is perceived and what is real is often more significant than we would like to admit.

A fearless, unsettling story collection that captures its characters on the verge of vital decisions and follows their twists and turns into regret, loneliness, oblivion, and solace. Uncompromising, often dark, and always insightful, Dying Light explores the mysteries of duty, forgiveness, power, and love through a broad range of narrative voices. We meet a football coach who seeks to avenge his wife's affair, a delusional poet who escapes from a hospital as the bombing of Baghdad begins, a woman whose son was killed in a car accident, and an almost-widower wistful about his first love. In these and other stories, Hays illuminates his characters' most secret and human realisations with unwavering candour and clarity.