Exley (42 page)

The past catches up with Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel, when after spending ten years in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson's house, the homes of other famous new England writers go up in smoke. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist.

“Funny, profound . . . A seductive book with a payoff on every page.”
—
People

“Wildly, unpredictably funny . . . As cheerfully oddball as its title.”
—The New York Times

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-614-5

Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform anxiously awaiting the arrival of the woman who answered his newspaper ad for “a reliable wife.” The woman who arrives is not the one he expects in this
New York Times
#1 bestseller about love and madness, longing and murder.

“[A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . Good to the riveting end.”
—
USA Today

“Deliciously wicked and tense . . . Intoxicating.”
—
The Washington Post

“A rousing historical potboiler.”
—
The Boston Globe

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-977-1

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski is tossed by fate onto a rickety train, home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Amid a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, Jacob becomes involved with Marlena, the beautiful young equestrian star; her husband, a charismatic but twisted animal trainer; and Rosie, an untrainable elephant who is the great gray hope for this third-rate show. Now in his nineties, Jacob at long last reveals the story of their unlikely yet powerful bonds, ones that nearly shatter them all.

“[An] arresting new novel . . . With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale.” —
The New York Times Book Review

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-560-5

Pete Dizinoff has a thriving medical practice in suburban New Jersey, a devoted wife, a network of close friends, an impressive house, and a son, Alec, now nineteen, on whom he's pinned all his hopes. But Pete never counted on Laura, his best friend's daughter, setting her sights on his only son. Lauren Grodstein's riveting novel charts a father's fall from grace as he struggles to save his family, his reputation, and himself.

“Suspense worthy of Hitchcock . . . [Grodstein] is a terrific storyteller.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A gripping portrayal of a suburban family in free-fall.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-61620-017-6

When his sister tricks him into taking her guru, a crimson-robed monk, on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But along the way, Otto is given the remarkable opportunity to see his world — and more important, his life — through someone else's eyes.

“Enlightenment meets
On the Road
in this witty, insightful novel.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe

“A laugh-out-loud novel that's both comical and wise . . . balancing irreverence with insight.” —
The Louisville Courier-Journal

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-616-9

Two women running away from their marriages collide on a foggy highway. The survivor of the fatal accident is left to pick up the pieces, not only of her own life, but of the lives of the devastated husband and fragile son that the other woman left behind. As these three lives intersect, the book asks, How well do we really know those we love, and how do we open our hearts to forgive the unforgivable?

“An expert storyteller . . . Leavitt teases suspense out of the greatest mystery of all — the workings of the human heart.” —
Booklist

“Magically written, heartbreakingly honest . . . Caroline Leavitt is one of those fabulous, incisive writers you read and then ask yourself, Where has she been all my life?” —Jodi Picoult

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-631-2

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, a biracial girl must cope with society's ideas of race and class in this acclaimed novel, winner of the Bellwether Prize for fiction addressing issues of social justice.

Winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction

“Affecting, exquisite . . . Durrow's powerful novel is poised to find a place among classic stories of the American experience.” —
The Miami Herald

“Durrow manages that remarkable achievement of telling a subtle, complex story that speaks in equal volumes to children and adults. Like
Catcher in the Rye
or
To Kill a Mockingbird
, Durrow's debut features voices that will ring in the ears long after the book is closed . . . It's a captivating and original tale that shouldn't be missed.” —
The Denver Post

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-61620-015-2

Hailed by the
New York Times
as “confirmation that no subject lies beyond the grasp of a gifted, committed imagination,” this highly acclaimed novel is a magical tale about the Holocaust — a fable inspired by fact. Not since Art Spiegelman's
Maus
has a work so powerfully evoked one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century with such daring originality.

“As magical as it is macabre.”
—The New Yorker

“Hugely enjoyable . . . A compelling tour de force, a surreal but thoroughly accessible page-turner.” —
Houston Chronicle

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-61620-018-3