WASHINGTON SQUARE – serie

Exploring three generations of the men in his family -- his father and his two uncles, his own two brothers, and his two sons -- Bret Lott spins a sweeping true saga of the ties that bind. With quiet grace and his trademark talent for finding powerful revelations in the most unlikely places, master novelist Lott delivers a bracingly personal and honest memoir that confronts the often inexpressible complexities of contemporary maleness. Fathers, Sons, and Brothers describes not only the ways men and boys relate to one another but also how their lives evolve over decades, endlessly imitative yet varied. In the end, these essays constitute a celebration of humanity, regardless of gender -- of joy and sorrow, of intimacy and distance, of lingering secrets and universal truths.

With captivating blue eyes and dark hair, Jenny Lauren looked as though she'd stepped out of one of the ads for which her uncle, Ralph Lauren, is famous. It was not long, however, before she found herself in a world where it was easy to see herself as less than perfect. She was ten years old when she first starved herself. After many years of bingeing, purging, and compulsively exercising, her body fell apart. Her colon herniated and she was forced to undergo surgery. At twenty-four, living in chronic pain, she wrote Homesick as a cautionary tale that she hoped would touch many. This unflinching account details her struggle with anorexia and bulimia, yet is also a much larger story that focuses on universal issues: the intricacies of family ties, the pressures of society, the search for selfhood, and ultimately the power of hope. With flashes of wit and a knowing beyond its young writer's years, Homesick is a riveting and emotionally complex story of pain and hard-won recovery that no reader will forget.

Ann Beattie, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bausch, and twenty-one other celebrated American writers contribute to this moving anthology of fiction, compiled by the editors of the Glimmer Train literary quarterly. In the ten-plus years since Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davies founded Glimmer Train, they have introduced an astonishing array of talented and innovative authors to a growing readership hungry for inspiring fiction. The stunning stories in this anthology -- many of which have never appeared anywhere except in Glimmer Train Stories -- explore one of the most complex emotional and psychological ties of all: motherhood, and its many facets. The writers in Mother Knows include established authors as well as up-and-coming talents like Junot DÍaz and award-winning writers like Robin Bradford, Nancy Reisman, Lee Martin, and Doug Crandell. Their stories demonstrate that motherhood is more than toilet training and tantrum control, as they portray the full, fierce, joyous, and frightening range of experience that marks this state of being. Mother Knows is a thoughtful and powerful exploration of the most mysterious bond in life.

For more than a decade, the literary quarterly Glimmer Train has sought out and championed the most compelling short fiction written today, by both established luminaries and fresh new voices. This stunning new anthology probes the whole range of human relationships -- lovers, friends, family members, spouses, even one's beliefs and dreams. In "Beneath the Earth of Her," acclaimed writer Karen E. Outen delicately probes the life of a loving, passionate married couple at odds over the prospect of having children. In "Gary Garrison's Wedding Vows," novelist Ron Carlson offers a poignant and delightful tale about a young woman who escapes the rigors of academia and finds love and purpose at a bird sanctuary in Utah. And in "The Marvelous Yellow Cage," O. Henry Award-winner Charlotte Forbes examines an elderly woman's relationships with her estranged children, her deceased husband, her loyal housekeeper, and a lifetime's accumulation of possessions. Stories by Quinn Dalton, Louise Erdrich, and a host of other writers dig deeply into the joys and sorrows of human connection -- enlarging our perspective and refining the language of the heart. Where Love Is Found is a valentine for literary lovers and a delicious treat for those who crave short fiction by some of today's finest writers.

Notified by police that her sculptor husband of ten years has vanished while swimming off the coast of Florida, magazine editor Sarah is aided by a team of investigators to discern the truth about her husband's fate. By the author of It Was Gonna Be Like Paris. Reprint.

Thirteen years after the love of her life abruptly leaves town hours before the senior prom only to become the world's biggest recording star, twenty-nine-year-old Kate Hollis decides to resolve her lingering resentments by confronting him during a home visit. By the authors of The Nanny Diaries. Reprint.

A Mexican-American journalist traces the role of ethnicity in her reportage of such cases as the murder of a prominent gay activist, the 2006 Mexican presidential election, and the teachers' rebellion in Oaxaca, in an account that also traces the author's visit to her mother's native home. Original.

A wise and triumphant novel about four women who’ve come of age together only to discover that—when it comes to the essentials—life’s little instruction book will always need revising. Penelope Cameron has convinced her husband and four closest friends to sign an outlandish pact. If she should die before her two daughters are eighteen, her husband will not remarry without the permission of Penelope’s sister and three college roommates. For years, this contract gathers dust until the unthinkable happens—a disaster that only lovable, worrisome Penelope could have predicted—and everyone she loved is left in a world without her. With the help of Penelope’s friends, her husband and children slowly build new lives. But just when things start to come together, the fragile serenity they have gained is suddenly threatened from within, and the unbreakable bonds they share seem likely to dissolve after all. Entertaining and uplifting, Everyone She Loved explores the faith one woman placed in those she held dearest, the care she took to protect her family, the many ways in which romantic entanglements will confound and confuse even the most determined of planners, but above all, the abiding strength of friendship.

Forging an unlikely and complex friendship while attending college in Sydney, Julia, Ralph, and Ingrid are separated when Ingrid marries and relocates to New York, where her disappearance on September 11 compels Julia and Ralph to explore their lost friend's secrets and mysterious final days. Original.

Masterfully evoking the breathtaking beauty of India, Manisha Jolie Amin’s lyrical debut novel follows a young boy whose life takes an unexpected turn when he is sent to live with a reclusive but renowned musician.“Kalu picked up the flute by his side and started to play. The sound was deep and full, as if he were translating his thoughts into music. It stayed in the air like dust floating on the sunlight, and each note held the promise of something not quite spoken but maybe heard in the darkness of a dream.”  Abandoned as a young child, Kalu, a cheeky street kid, has carved out a life for himself in rural India. In the quiet village of Hastinapore, Kalu has also found friends: Bal, the solitary boy who tends the local buffaloes, and Malti, a gentle servant girl, who with her mistress, Ganga Ba, has watched over Kalu since he first wandered into the small town. One day, perched high in the branches of a banyan tree, Kalu chooses a leaf, rolls it tightly, and as he’s done for as long as he can remember, blows through it. His pure, simple notes dance through the air and attract a traveling healer, whose interest will change Kalu’s life forever, setting him on a path he would never have dreamt possible and testing his belief in himself and his sense of identity. Rich in texture and atmosphere, Dancing to the Flute is a heartwarming story of a community’s joys and sorrows, the transformative powers of music, the many faces of friendship, and a boy’s journey, against all odds, to become a man.