Lila and Rose are going to spend the year with their grandmother, and they are not pleased. Their grandmother dresses like a hippie, she doesn't own a TV, and she runs a doll hospital. But then she begins to tell them the story of a doll named Tatiana... Long ago, Tatiana belonged to Anya, a wealthy Russian girl. When Anya's town became dangerous, her father decided she should go to America. Anya and Tatiana were supposed to be in the first-class section of the ship with family friends, but they ended up in third class -- by themselves. What would happen once they got to Ellis Island? Would Anya and Tatiana be all alone in America? Book jacket.
On vacation in Greece, Judith Kahn, a forty-five year old foundation executive from San Francisco, forms a friendship with Tatiana Starova, a foundation grantee from St. Petersburg, Russia. Staying at a converted windmill on an Aegean island, the two women become friends through sharing their life stories. Back in St. Petersburg, Tatiana discovers she is suffering from ovarian cancer. Judith puts together a group of women to help Tatiana -- Kay, Judith's dynamic boss; Gloria, an African-American family practitioner; and Carmen, a Hispanic oncologist. The women bring Tatiana to San Francisco and, with the help of a visiting Russian doctor, Stas Arnatov, shepherd her through treatment with an experimental drug. As each member of the group interacts with Tatiana, she begins, through Tatiana's guidance, to cope with her own life dilemma -- an unsatisfying romance and career; or a past break with family; or a daughter's anorexia; or a lonely personal life. In trying to heal Tatiana, the group members themselves are healed. Although Judith and Tatiana never return to Greece together, they return to the windmill in their hearts and find courage and peace as they face the end of Tatiana's life.
Don't miss the latest book in the Arkady Renko series, THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA by Martin Cruz Smith, ‘the master of the international thriller’ (New York Times) – available to order now! AN ARKADY RENKO NOVEL: #8 'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' Val McDermid 'Makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin’ Independent *** When the brilliant and fearless young reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow in the same week that notorious mob billionaire Grisha Grigorenko is shot in the back of the head, Renko finds himself on the trail of a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself. The body of an elite government translator shows up on the sand dunes of Kalingrad: killed for nothing but a cryptic notebook filled with symbols. A frantic hunt begins to locate and decipher this notebook. In a fast-changing and lethal race to uncover what this translator knew, and how he planned to reveal it to the world, Renko makes a startling discovery that propels him deeper into Tatiana's past - and, at the same time, paradoxically, into Russia's future. Praise for Martin Cruz Smith 'The story drips with atmosphere and authenticity – a literary triumph' David Young, bestselling author of Stasi Child 'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' Val McDermid ‘Cleverly and intelligently told, The Girl from Venice is a truly riveting tale of love, mystery and rampant danger. I loved it’ Kate Furnivall, author of The Liberation ‘Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' Mail on Sunday 'Smith was among the first of a new generation of writers who made thrillers literary' Guardian 'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' Sunday Times ‘Martin Cruz Smith’s Renko novels are superb’ William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier
A powerful story of grief and hope, a passionate and epic love story from the Russian-born author of the internationally bestselling novels TULLY and ROAD TO PARADISE.
From Hamas to America is a gripping memoir that follows the son of Hamas founder, Mosab Hassan, as he breaks away from his culture’s practice of terrorism to becoming a double-agent for Israel to finally fleeing to America and becoming a US citizen, and ultimately finding peace. “This is my opportunity to share my journey with others, to let go of both the traumas and the triumphs, to find freedom, to proclaim my truth.” Mosab Hassan Yousef has worn many labels: Hamas terrorist, Green Prince, spy, traitor, hero, Hollywood player, Muslim, Christian, yogi, stateless, refugee, deportee, citizen. But all these labels have one thing in common: they serve someone else’s agenda. Now, for the first time, the New York Times bestselling author of Son of Hamas tells the full truth of his story. In it we see him growing up as the son of one of the founders of Hamas, being imprisoned and tortured by the Israelis, growing to hate the Hamas tactics of rape and violence, working with the Israeli intelligence to expose suicide bombers and save lives, seeking asylum in the US, fighting with Homeland Security to avoid deportation, rejecting Islam and converting to Christianity and making international headlines for it, becoming a top speaker on Middle Eastern affairs and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, working with Hollywood to tell his story, and obtaining US citizenship and discovering the life-saving discipline of yoga. This is the inspiring story of someone who has been under threat of assassination or imprisonment for most of his life, but who somehow finds the path to freedom and peace. Few will walk in his shoes, but everyone can follow his example and make their own journey to find redemption and peace.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept comes an absorbing new novel about one woman's resistance during an époque that shook Paris to its very core. Paris, France: 1860's. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a "modern city." The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand. Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years. Tatiana de Rosnay's The House I Loved is both a poignant story of one woman's indelible strength, and an ode to Paris, where houses harbor the joys and sorrows of their inhabitants, and secrets endure in the very walls...
A globe-spanning thriller of love and betrayal about a mysterious first lady with an explosive secret. Paris, 1974. Lara Orlov and her family arrive from Moscow at the height of the Cold War, thanks to her father’s position as a diplomat. The years pass, and Lara becomes more and more enamored with the City of Lights. As a teenager in Paris, she falls deeply in love with a fellow Russian expat: the passionate, intellectual Sasha, who opens her eyes to the ills of the Soviet Union. Decades later and across the globe, journalist Sofie Morse is taking some much-needed time off after several chaotic years covering Washington politics. But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, her curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara—only that she was born in Soviet Russia and raised in Paris before marrying Henry Caine, the brash future president. After decades of silence, Lara is finally ready to speak candidly about her past: about her father’s work for the KGB and about her ill-fated relationship with Sasha—which may be long in the past, but which could have explosive ramifications for the future. As Sofie begins to write Lara’s biography, she can’t help but wonder: Why is Lara revealing such sensitive information? And why now? Caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, both Lara and Sofie must ask themselves what really matters—and confront their own power to upend the global political order.
In a fast-paced, bawdy, swashbuckling adventure in Central America of the early 1700s, Costa Rican novelist Tatiana Lobo lays bare the dark legacy of the Conquistadores and the Church.
