When Cookie Figowitz, the cook for a party of volatile fur trappers trekking through the Oregon Territory in the 1820s, joins up with the refugee Henry Brown, the two begin a wild ride that takes them from the virgin territory of the West all the way to China and back again. One hundred and sixty years later, Tina Plank, an unhappy teenager, meets Trixie, a girl with a troubled past, and the two become fast friends. But when two skeletons are accidentally unearthed from their common ground, the lives of Tina and Trixie, Cookie and Henry are brought together in unexpected and startling ways. Jonathan Raymond attended Swarthmore College. He was an editor at Plazm magazine and received his M.F.A. from New School University. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. "A marvelous novel...a mystery as rich as the history of the Oregon territory itself."-Vanity Fair "Raymond nimbly interweaves these parallel tales and manages to surprise...[a] subtle portrait of friendship and loss...[from] an astute, patient observer."-Entertainment Weekly "Raymond's debut novel teems with carefully researched period details, intrigue...yet it never feels overstuffed."-Washington Post "With The Half-Life, [Raymond] has come home prospecting for literary gold ...Oregon has given him something back."-San Francisco Chronicle "Quietly stunning...Raymond is a kind of stealth bomber of the epic."-Newsday "Terrific...The Half-Life gazes upon those fierce but ephemeral attachments that evade the history books. Multiple plots elegantly veer across the sprawling terrain."-Village Voice

A brilliant sliding-doors reimagining of the passionate life of the first woman to win a Nobel Prize – and the life Marie Curie might have led if she had chosen love over science. Poland, 1891. Marie Curie (then Marya Sklodowska) was engaged to a budding mathematician, Kazimierz Zorawski. But when his mother insisted Marya was not good enough, he broke off the engagement. A heartbroken Marya left Poland for Paris to study chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne. Marie would go on to change the course of science forever and become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. But what if Marie had made a different choice? What if she had stayed in Poland, married Kazimierz, and never attended the Sorbonne or discovered radium? What if Marie had chosen her first love and a life of domesticity, still ravenous for knowledge in Russian Poland where education for women was restricted, instead of studying science in Paris and meeting Pierre Curie? Seamlessly entwining the lives of Marya and Marie, Half Life is a powerful story of love and friendship, motherhood and sisterhood, fame and anonymity – and a woman destined to change the world.

Many people have written memoirs of childhood trauma but few have written as beautifully about the psychological obstacles and creative aids to healing. In midlife, well settled in marriage and motherhood, Helen Epstein is impelled to revisit her growing up in a family and community of Holocaust survivors. Epstein, the daughter of Czech anti-Communist refugees, contacts her first love, the son of blacklisted American Communists, to be her partner in the investigation of their adolescent past. In this twist on the age-old Romeo and Juliet story, the two uncover more than they bargained for.This memoir stands alone but can also be seen as the third of a trilogy, following Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors (Putnam, 1979) and Where She Came From: A Daughter¿s Search for Her Mother¿s History (Little, Brown, 1997), both still in print and widely translated. As Gloria Steinem wrote about the second, ¿In Epstein¿s hands, truth becomes not only stranger than fiction but more magnetic.¿Veteran journalist Helen Epstein employs a full arsenal of narrative and investigative techniques. She researches the literature of trauma and false memory, and draws on the tools of psychoanalysis, social and cultural history, and journalism. She also draws on her own eight years of work with a psychoanalyst. The story Epstein tells stretches back to the Holocaust that damaged everything in its path. This is a rare narrative, Sherry Turkle has written, ¿in which everyone becomes more human and multi-dimensional as it unfolds.¿

Presents a collection of stories that explores the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal, and the echoes of intimacy.

New insights from the science of science Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. Samuel Arbesman shows us how knowledge in most fields evolves systematically and predictably, and how this evolution unfolds in a fascinating way that can have a powerful impact on our lives. He takes us through a wide variety of fields, including those that change quickly, over the course of a few years, or over the span of centuries.

“A smart and unusual romance just about right for fans of John Green.” —Booklist Liana’s decided to boycott kissing this summer, hoping to lose her reputation and focus on planetary science. Hank has near-encyclopedic knowledge of music and Asperger’s syndrome. When they meet by chance in a hospital restroom, neither one realizes that their friendship will change everything. If Liana’s experiment goes as planned, she’ll learn to open up, using her mouth for talking instead of kissing. But Hank’s never been kissed and thinks Liana might be the one to show him . . . if he can stop spewing music trivia long enough to let her.

"In The Half-Life of Love, Brianna Bourne offers us a moving and enthralling story that reminds us that love lights our way as we all travel in death’s shadow." --Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of In the Wild Light and The Serpent King Flint Larsen has 41 days, 9 hours, and 42 minutes to live. He’s known exactly when he’s going to die since he was eight years old and half-lifed, a small twinge that tells a person when they’ve lived half their life. From that moment, Flint’s done everything he can to make his death more bearable. Cutting off all his friends, refusing to eat his favorite foods, reading only the most depressing literature by long-dead writers. He plans to spend his final days back in his hometown with his parents, quietly waiting to die. But then he meets September Harrington, an utter explosion of brilliance and fun, and all his plans fly out the window. September has dedicated herself to curing the half-life, landing a coveted internship at the world-renowned Half-Life Institute. She has her own past that she’s refusing to deal with, choosing instead to spend her nights living it up with her friends and her days deep in the lab, where she’s working to find a cure. When their worlds collide, it feels like the start of an epic, once-in-a-lifetime love. Only Flint can’t bring himself to tell September he’s dying, and September’s keeping secrets too. The closer they get, the less time they have together and the more their secrets threaten to destroy everything. Can September and Flint save each other, or are their days numbered from the start?

An intricately woven debut psychological mystery and a profound coming of age story for fans of Made You Up by Francesca Zappia and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. “Introduces a fierce new presence.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “5 out of 5 bright, beautiful stars.” —Teenreads.com “A fascinating debut...something original indeed. Readers will absolutely need to know the end of this unique inward-facing mystery.” —ALA Booklist For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she’s missed bits and pieces of her life. Her memory is perforated with holes and gaps. But then a horrible accident changes everything. Now she’s starting to remember her own disturbing secrets. And bit by bit, Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led—and the love that she can’t let go.

Annie and Peter decide to adopt, setting their sights on a child from Africa. But, when they receive surprising news from the adoption agency, their marriage is put to the test, secrets of the past are exposed, and this couple approaching midlife is left with an unexpected choice. Politically charged, funny and tack-sharp, THE CALL is a startling portrait of cultural divide, casting global issues into the heart of an American home.