In her eagerly anticipated collection, Ochsner deftly examines the harrowing moments after a life or a love slips away, and discovers that the human heart can be large enough for anything.

“A beautifully spun tale” set in a tiny town in Latvia—“an astonishing alchemy of history, romance, and fable” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Maris was born knowing things: His very large, very special ears enable him to hear the secrets of the dead, as well as the memories that haunt his Latvian hometown. As a boy, he finds himself heir to an odd assortment of hidden letters, from which he would weave a story that could finally expose—and maybe even patch—the holes in the fabric of his family and their town. With humor, heart, and her characteristic “luminous writing [and] affection for her characters,” Gina Ochsner creates an intimate, hopeful portrait of a fascinating town in all its complications and charm. From the onset of World War II through the cold shock of independence, we see how, despite years of distrust, a community can come through love and loss to the joy of understanding (The New York Times). A finalist for the Oregon Book Awards Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, The Hidden Letters of Velta B. is “a captivating novel of secrets, love, and memory . . . This terrific novel knocked me out” (Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black). “Intimate, vibrant, and richly colored.” —Portland Monthly “A gift on par with Joanne Harris’s Chocolat . . . Quirky, ethereal, hilarious, and sorrowful.” —Shelf Awareness “[An] extraordinary feat of storytelling . . . A spellbinding novel as tough as it is beautiful.” —Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War

Women past a certain age often feel like they are fading into the background of life. The nest is emptying, limitations are increasing, and fear about aging and the years ahead grow. Even women of faith can feel a waning sense of value, regardless of biblical examples of godly women yielding fruit long after their youth is gone. But despite a youth-obsessed culture, the truth is that the second half of life can often be the richest. It's time to stop dreading and start embracing the wonder of life after 40. Here, well-known women of faith from 40 to 85 tackle these anxieties head-on and upend them with humor, sass, and spiritual wisdom. These compelling and poignant first-person stories are from amazing and respected authors including: Lauren F. Winner Joni Eareckson Tada Elisa Morgan Madeleine L'Engle Kay Warren These women provide much-needed role models--not for aging gracefully but for doing so honestly, faithfully, and with eyes open to wonder and deep theology along the way. Each essay provides insight into God's perspective on these later years, reminding readers that it's possible to serve the kingdom of God and His people even better with a little extra life experience to guide you. The Wonder Years is an inspiring and unforgettable guide to making these years the most fruitful and abundant of your life.

Eleven soulful stories span the globe, using folklore and myth to explore the territory separating life from death. Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

When thieves find an abandoned child lying in a monster’s footprint, they have no idea that their wilderness discovery will change the course of history. Cloaked in mystery, Auralia grows up among criminals outside the walls of House Abascar, where vicious beastmen lurk in shadow. There, she discovers an unsettling--and forbidden--talent for crafting colors that enchant all who behold them, including Abascar’s hard-hearted king, an exiled wizard, and a prince who keeps dangerous secrets. When Auralia’s gift opens doors from the palace to the dungeons, she sets the stage for violent and miraculous change in the great houses of the Expanse. Auralia’s Colors weaves literary fantasy together with poetic prose, a suspenseful plot, adrenaline-rush action, and unpredictable characters sure to enthrall ambitious imaginations.

Set on a Caribbean island in the grip of colonialism, this novel is “masterful . . . simply wonderful . . . [an] exquisite retelling of The Tempest” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). When Peter Gardner’s ruthless medical genius leads him to experiment on his unwitting patients—often at the expense of their lives—he flees England, seeking an environ where his experiments might continue without scrutiny. He arrives with his three-year-old-daughter, Virginia, in Chacachacare, an isolated island off the coast of Trinidad, in the early 1960s. Gardner considers the locals to be nothing more than savages. He assumes ownership of the home of a servant boy named Carlos, seeing in him a suitable subject for his amoral medical work. Nonetheless, he educates the boy alongside Virginia. As Virginia and Carlos come of age together, they form a covert relationship that violates the outdated mores of colonial rule. When Gardner unveils the pair’s relationship and accuses Carlos of a monstrous act, the investigation into the truth is left up to a curt, stonehearted British inspector, whose inquiries bring to light a horrendous secret. At turns epic and intimate, Prospero's Daughter, from American Book Award winner Elizabeth Nunez, uses Shakespeare’s play as a template to address questions of race, class, and power, in the story of an unlikely bond between a boy and a girl of disparate backgrounds on a verdant Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists. “Gripping and richly imagined . . . a master at pacing and plotting . . . an entirely new story that is inspired by Shakespeare, but not beholden to him.” —The New York Times Book Review “Absorbing . . . [Nunez] writes novels that resound with thunder and fury.” —Essence “A story about the transformative power of love . . . Readers are sure to enjoy the journey.” —Black Issues Book Review (Novel of the Year)

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design brings together the best of designer Michael Bierut's critical writing—serious or humorous, flattering or biting, but always on the mark. Bierut is widely considered the finest observer on design writing today. Covering topics as diverse as Twyla Tharp and ITC Garamond, Bierut's intelligent and accessible texts pull design culture into crisp focus. He touches on classics, like Massimo Vignelli and the cover of The Catcher in the Rye, as well as newcomers, like McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and color-coded terrorism alert levels. Along the way Nabakov's Pale Fire; Eero Saarinen; the paper clip; Celebration, Florida; the planet Saturn; the ClearRx pill bottle; and paper architecture all fall under his pen. His experience as a design practitioner informs his writing and gives it truth. In Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, designers and nondesigners alike can share and revel in his insights.