Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, this novel weaves together a series of devastating confessions about life in contemporary Arab society “Barakat isn't writing about ‘the immigrant.’ She's writing about the human.”—Rumaan Alam, 4columns “Spare and deep, Voices of the Lost captivates. Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature, and Booth allows her English audience to explore this painful and irresistible present.”—Amy Bloom, author of White Houses In an unnamed country torn apart by war, six strangers are compelled to share their darkest secrets. Taking pen to paper, each character attempts to put in writing what they can’t bring themselves to say to the person they love—mother, father, brother, lost love. Their words form a chain of dark confessions, none of which reaches the intended recipient. Profound, troubling, and deeply human, Voices of the Lost tells the moving story of characters living on the periphery, battling with displacement, devastating poverty, and the demons within themselves. From one of today’s most talented Arabic writers, Voices of the Lost is an urgent story of lives intimately woven together in a society that is tearing itself apart.
From London to Corsica to Paris — as a young woman pursues the truth about her late mother, two captivating love stories unfurl in this captivating novel from the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Paris Apartment and The Guest List. Kate Darling's enigmatic mother — a once-famous ballerina — has passed away, leaving Kate bereft. When her grandmother falls ill and bequeaths to Kate a small portrait of a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Kate's mother, Kate uncovers a mystery that may upend everything she thought she knew. Kate's journey to find the true identity of the woman in the portrait takes her to some of the world's most iconic and indulgent locales, revealing a love story that began in the wild 1920s and was disrupted by war and could now spark new love for Kate. Alternating between Kate's present-day hunt and voices from the past, The Book of Lost and Found casts light on family secrets and love — both lost and found.
The highly anticipated new book from the acclaimed author of The Accident Season is a gorgeous, twisty story about things gone missing, things returned from the past, and a group of teenagers, connected in ways they could never have imagined. One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away. Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets. When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights. Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found...
Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder? The first book in a trilogy, Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive. This book features a teaser chapter from Waking Storms, the sequel to this sensational debut novel.
A gripping and original debut collection of short stories from Michigan writer Dorene O’Brien. Voices of the Lost and Found is the first full-length collection of fiction from accomplished Metro Detroit writer Dorene O’Brien. In eleven first-person stories, a variety of authentic and unexpected voices come to the forefront to confess or retell stories of lost innocence or betrayal—from the urban graffiti artist who plots the downfall of a rival gang, to the middle-aged woman reliving a harrowing childhood abduction, to the young man who remodels his house in a misguided attempt to win back his wife, to the teenager who is lured into a crime spree after trusting a dark and disturbed friend. The startlingly real speakers of Voices of the Lost and Found are drawn directly from contemporary culture, and together they present a striking portrait of alienation, volatility, diversity, and violence in postmodern America. O’Brien’s characters inhabit diverse yet familiar landscapes, including abandoned buildings, convenience stores, university dorms, crisis intervention centers, Buddhist retreats, and psychiatrists’ offices. Here, the lonely and troubled characters face tremendous obstacles that will ultimately transform their lives. When they meet tragedy, as they often do, they are forced to confront their liability and the realization that faulty decisions have irrevocable consequences. Told with honesty and intense emotion, the stories allow readers to experience the full weight of each character’s particular burden and to understand his or her complex personal motivations firsthand. Though the voices change, the tone of the collection is consistently strong and convincing, bringing forth a fresh perspective on both contemporary social issues and modern angst. This adventurous and memorable collection of short fiction will appeal to a diverse audience.
Twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award and an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature, Christopher Koch returns with Lost Voices, a remarkable new novel that confirms him as one of our most significant and compelling novelists. Twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Christopher Koch returns with a remarkable novel of gripping narrative power. Young Hugh Dixon believes he can save his father from ruin if he asks his estranged great-uncle Walter- a wealthy lawyer who lives alone in a tasmanian farmhouse passed down through the family-for help. As he is drawn into Walter's rarefied world, Hugh discovers that both his uncle and the farmhouse are links to a notorious episode in the mid nineteenth century. Walter's father, Martin, was living in the house when it was raided by members of an outlaw community run by Lucas Wilson, a charismatic ex-soldier attempting to build a utopia. But like later societies with communitarian ideals, Nowhere Valley was controlled by the gun, with Wilson as benevolent dictator. twenty-year-old Martin's sojourn in the Valley as Wilson's disciple has become an obsession with Walter Dixon: one which haunts his present and keeps the past tantalizingly close. As Walter encourages Hugh's ambition to become an artist, and again comes to his aid when one of Hugh's friends is charged with murder, the way life's patterns repeat themselves from one generation to another becomes eerily apparent. Dramatic, insightful and evocative, Lost Voices is an intriguing double narrative that confirms Koch as one of our most significant and compelling novelists.
In this delicious companion volume to If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand, thirty-seven poems and miniplays celebrate elementary school life and the funny, poignant, wondrous, and telling moments that can happen only in a classroom.
The #1 international bestselling debut novel about the wisdom of the very young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that happens along the way Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie's father, leaves her in the big ladies' underwear department of a local store and never returns. United at this fateful moment with two octogenarians seekers, she embarks with them upon a road trip to find Millie's mother. Together they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.
As a mermaid versus human war looms on the horizon, Luce falls in love with her sworn enemy Dorian and assumes her rightful role as queen of the mermaids.