The End of Vandalism
The End of Vandalism

Author: Tom Drury

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1555846289

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Set in rural Iowa, this “breathtaking . . . remarkable achievement” of a debut novel by the author of Pacific is “at once funny, sad, and touching” (New York Newsday). A New York Magazine and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year With extensive excerpts appearing in the New Yorker before its release, Tom Drury’s groundbreaking debut, The End of Vandalism, drew widespread acclaim and comparison to the works of Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner. With his fictional Grouse County, Tom Drury conjures a Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric—where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars. When Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an anti–vandalism dance, he goes on to marry the culprit’s ex-wife Louise. But while Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self—and all three find themselves in a love triangle that sets them on an epic journey. “A truly great writer.” —Esquire “Grouse County is unabashedly American, a setting both nostalgic and wittily contemporary.” —The Boston Globe

Love and Vandalism
Love and Vandalism

Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2017-05-02

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1492636061

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He calls it fate. She calls it blackmail. Rory has a secret: she's the vandal who paints graffiti lions all over her small town. If her policeman dad knew, he'd probably disown her. So when Hayes, a former screw-up on the path to recovery, catches her in the act, Rory's sure she's busted. Instead, he makes her a deal. If Rory shows him around town, he won't turn her in. It might be coercion, but at least the boy is hot. As they spend more time together, Rory worries she made the wrong choice. Hayes has a way of making her want things she shouldn't want and feel emotions she's tried to bury. Rory's going to have to distance herself from Hayes or confront a secret she can't bring herself to face...

Hunts in Dreams
Hunts in Dreams

Author: Tom Drury

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2013-05-14

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 0802194788

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The award-winning author of The End of Vandalism pens “a gorgeous, inexplicably sad and funny novel about screwups trying to do better” (Salon). In this mesmerizing novel, Tom Drury once again journeys to the quiet Midwest to spend an action-packed October weekend in the lives of a precarious family whose members all want something without knowing how to get it: for Charles, an heirloom shotgun; for his wife, Joan, the imaginative life she once knew; for their young son, Micah, a knowledge of the scope and reliability of his world, aided by prowling the empty town at night; and for Joan’s daughter, Lyris, a stable foot from which to begin to grow up. Sometimes together, sometimes crucially apart, father, mother, son, and daughter move through a series of vivid encounters that demonstrate how even the most provisional family can endure in its own particular way. “A beguiling novel . . . perceptive and captivating.” —The New York Times “Entrancing.” —The Guardian “Startling and utterly original.” —Newsday “Drury is an absolutely delightful writer who has carved out a world of his own in American fiction, one that is odd, revealing, and yet filled with love.” —Library Journal “The trick and true pleasure here are in the utterly ordinary context these extraordinary events occur in. Drury never misses a beat—the quiet moments dazzle as much the louder ones.” —Kirkus Reviews

Pacific
Pacific

Author: Tom Drury

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2013-05-07

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 080219480X

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“A truly great writer” returns to the Midwest characters and setting of his landmark debut novel, The End of Vandalism (Esquire). When fourteen-year-old Micah Darling travels to Los Angeles to reunite with the mother who abandoned him seven years ago, he finds himself out of his league in a land of magical freedom. He does new drugs with new people, falls in love with an enchanting but troubled equestrienne named Charlotte, and gets thrown out of school over the activities of a club called the New Luddites. Back in the Midwest, an ethereal young woman comes to Stone City on a mission that will unsettle the lives of everyone she meets including Micah’s half-sister, Lyris, who still fights fears of abandonment after a childhood in foster care, and his father, Tiny, a petty thief. An investigation into the stranger’s identity uncovers a darkly disturbed life, as parallel narratives of the comic and tragic, the mysterious and everyday, unfold in both the country and the city. “Pacific is a terrific book, and a strange one, as strange as the world and the great literature that helps us make our way through it.” —The New York Times Book Review “On the surface, Pacific is a disarmingly plain tale about people managing loss. But look closer, and you’ll see it’s as deep as the ocean it’s named after.” —San Francisco Chronicle “If The End of Vandalism provided a world for readers to slow down and catch their breath, Pacific is determined to knock it out of them.” —New York Observer

The Driftless Area
The Driftless Area

Author: Tom Drury

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2012-11-27

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 080219320X

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From the award-winning author of The End of Vandalism. “Equal parts heist caper, ghost story and romance . . . in prose that is spare and sly.” (The New York Times) Set in the rugged region of the Midwest that gives the novel its title, The Driftless Area is the story of Pierre Hunter, a young bartender with unfailing optimism, a fondness for coin tricks, and an uncanny capacity for finding trouble. When he falls in love, with the mysterious and isolated Stella Rosmarin, Pierre becomes the central player in a revenge drama he must unravel and bring to its shocking conclusion. Along the way he will liberate $77,000 from a murderous thief, summon the resources that have eluded him all his life, and come to question the very meaning of chance and mortality. For nothing is as it seems in The Driftless Area. Identities shift, violent secrets lie in wait, the future can cause the past, and love becomes a mission that can take you beyond this world. In its tender, cool irony, The Driftless Area recalls the best of neonoir, and its cast of bona fide small-town eccentrics adrift in the American Midwest make for a clever and deeply pleasurable read from one of our most beloved authors. “Drury is nothing less than a wizard . . . Not since Twin Peaks has he rural surreal had such an artful airing.” —The Boston Globe “Superb . . . by one of America’s finest, most imaginative authors.” —San Francisco Chronicle “With deceptively simple prose, Drury is able to evoke characters and scenes in just a few brush strokes.” —Los Angeles Times

The Black Brook
The Black Brook

Author: Tom Drury

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Published: 2015-03-10

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0802192343

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A small-time art forger runs afoul of the New England mob in this comic crime novel from the author of The End of Vandalism: “One of our living masters” (McSweeney’s). Paul Emmons has his faults—envy, lust, naiveté, money laundering, and art forgery to name a few. A fallen accountant and scamster, Emmons and his wife, Mary, are exiled abroad, though they enjoy inadvisable returns to New England to check on the property they own but cannot claim. Paul’s unfortunate association with Carlo Record, president of the fraudulent company New England Amusements, was always destined to get him into trouble. When Carlo and his cronies—Ashtray Bob, Line-Item Vito, and Hatpin Henry—try to coerce Paul into stealing the John Singer Sargent painting “The Black Brook” from the Tate gallery in London, Paul and Mary hatch a plan to trick the tricksters . . . Through it all, Paul searches for his true mission in life in this “irresistibly droll portrayal of an All-American liar, loser, and innocent” (Kirkus Reviews). This Grove edition features a new introduction in the form of a conversation between Drury and Daniel Handler.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley

Author: Sean Lusk

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1454950447

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The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley is a sparkling historical novel of wild and wonderful mechanical automata, love in a variety of forms, and gentle themes of identity, with a cast of fabulous characters. In 1755, Abel Cloudesley, a London watchmaker and creator of remarkable mechanical automata, is mourning his wife, Alice, who died giving birth to their son, Zachary. Six years later, Abel is further devastated when a freak workshop accident takes Zachary’s eye. With his new eye made of gold and lapis by Abel’s soft-spoken apprentice Tom, Zachary, now with an astonishing gift of second sight, is sent to live with his eccentric Aunt Franny in the country. Abel buries himself in work until he is coerced by shadowy figures into designing a chess-playing automaton and delivering it to Constantinople to spy on the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. After meeting the Sultan, Abel is not heard from again. Years later, teenage Zachary receives a letter suggesting that his father is still alive, a prisoner of the Sultan. Zachary sets off on a perilous journey to the Levant, determined to find Abel and bring him safely home. A BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick and London Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month, for fans of Pandora, The Essex Serpent, and The Night Circus. Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023 and the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2023.

The Neighbor's Secret
The Neighbor's Secret

Author: L. Alison Heller

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1250205824

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“Addictive, suspenseful and masterfully written...will delight fans of Big Little Lies.” —Michele Campbell “[A] witty, hyperlocal mystery...With a light, Liane Moriarty-esque touch...” —New York Times L. Alison Heller, whose work has been praised by Liane Moriarty as "warm, witty...refreshingly true to life,” explores the ultimate sacrifices of parenting in The Neighbor’s Secret, a propulsive and juicy novel filled with gripping twists and instantly recognizable characters. How well do you really know your neighbors? With its sprawling yards and excellent schools, Cottonwood Estates is the perfect place to raise children. The Cottonwood Book Club serves as the subdivision’s eyes and ears, meeting once a month for discussion, gossip, and cocktails. If their selections trend toward twisty thrillers and salacious murder mysteries, it’s only because the members feel secure that such evil has no place in their own cul-de-sacs. Or does it? What happened to Lena’s family fifteen years ago was a tragic accident, and she will never admit otherwise. Devoted wife and mother Annie refuses to acknowledge—even to herself—the weight of a past shame. And new resident Jen wants friends, but as always, worry about her troubled son gets in the way. When late-night acts of vandalism target the women of the book club in increasingly violent and personal ways, they will be forced to decide how far to go to keep their secrets. At least they all agree on what’s most important: protecting their children at any cost—even if it means someone has to die.

Paper Towns
Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 140884818X

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Quentin Jacobson has spent a lifetime loving Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo has disappeared.