Bridgeworks – serie

A conservative Republican examines how and why America is losing the war against illegal drugs - and presents a case for carefully controlled legalization.

Not since A Separate Peace has the world of prep school and tortured adolescence been portrayed with the sensitivity and authenticity that distinguish this novel by a former headmaster of the prestigious Lawrence-ville School, near Princeton. All loves Excelling is a story of the fierce competition for admission to select colleges, of the equally fierce ambition of parents and school authorities—and how they combine to wreak havoc on one teenager and her family.

In this moving first novel, a Korean-American family faces not only intergenerational cultural conflicts between immigrant parents and their Americanized daughters, but also the results of a terrible prophecy, made by a fortune-teller 20 years earlier to Chinhominey, the long-estranged grandmother.

Set in Renaissance Italy, this classic of American popular fiction is the story of Andrea Orsini, a peasant boy who rises to perform delicate political, military, and romantic missions for Cesare Borgia.

A young, modern farm woman observes with a poetic and appreciative eye the transformation of the plant and animal life on her land through the changing seasons - and through the enroachment on the environment of residential development.

A dark comedy in which Danny Burke, a shy, destined-to-be-gay 11 year old produces a Catholic School play that goes hilariously awry.

This novel is set against the backdrop of Iran's turbulent modern history, is a saga of an indentured servant's devotion and love for his masters during the years 1928 to 1981.

A soldier's story, one particulary timely amid the news of abuse in Iraq. It is the beautifully and poignantly told story of Gabriel Cuttman, an aging Korean War veteran, a good man who has done bad things and is struggling by a terrible secret.

The short stories in this collection are about contemporary women, the frontiers they must cross to sustain close relationships, and their struggles to balance society's expectations with their own needs. The relationships examined in these stories are with husbands, lovers, parents, children, friends. Present at the same time are other relationships with careers, with the subtleties of corporate life, with parental and spousal obligations, with aging and the passage of time. The recurring issue: What happens when obligations to one's self collide with obligations to others and society's norms?

Still Life with Books is a novel of a doomed love affair, by young English author Simon Lane. Is is set in Paris. Lane's voice is fresh and hilarious, as welcome an addition to the postmodern landscape as Jay McInerny or Martin Amis.

On Becoming A Grandparent is an engaging, practical guide to the reality of an important rite of passage.

A witty satire of baseball and bigotry, about the major leagues' first all-gay baseball team.

_"-Washington Post_

An 'exhilarating prison novel' (says the Boston Globe) by a 1999 National Book Award Nominee

_"— New York Times_

A wistful comic novel, set in Paris, that explores the coupling of are and commerce as a struggling writer, on his woman banker's advice, undertakes an erotic novel to pay his debts.

This is the second in criminologist Aubert's series starring Ellis Portal, the disgraced former judge who solved the mystery in her 1997 novel Free Reign, praised by The New York Times as a "smart, successful who-dun-it "whose sleuth is "a character with great dignity and unusual moral depth."

An "exhilarating prison novel" (says the Boston Globe) by a 1999 National Book Award Nominee

The witty first-person narrative of a baby boomer's mid-life crisis, set in Baton Rouge.

House Work is the lyrical history of a family of five in working-class Pittsburgh.

With a nod to Kurt Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor, the author demonstrates the humanity of his odd-ball characters. His portrayal of a city neighborhood in transition also gives the story a distinctive sense of place.