"In this category-defying book, Katie Roiphe takes an unexpected and liberating approach to the most unavoidable of subjects: death. She examines the final days of five great writers and artists--Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud, John Updike, Dylan Thomas, and Maurice Sendak." --

A fledgling World War I-era publisher is trying to decide which work to choose as his imprint's first title, and the choice is further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious machine.

A pitch-perfect, emotionally riveting novel about the fracturing of a marriage and a family: “A gripping debut” (People) from an award-winning young writer with superb storytelling instincts. Life hasn’t always been perfect for Abe and Cassandra Green, but an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. Abe is a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new boat. Cassandra is a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, they’ve made things work. But then, tensions overflow, and they plunge into a terrible fight. In a fit of fury, Abe throws himself off the boat. “A bittersweet tale of breakup and forgiveness” (O, The Oprah Magazine), The Violet Hour follows a modern family through past and present. As Cassandra, Abe, and Elizabeth navigate the passage of time—the expectations of youth, the concessions of middle age, the headiness of desire, the bitterness of loss—they must come to terms with the fragility of their intimacy, the strange legacies they inherit from their parents, and the kind of people they want to be. Exquisitely written, The Violet Hour is “a rewarding family saga reminiscent of Anne Tyler’s novels...Hill’s story unfurls from the kind of sensational marital spat that makes you feel better about your own imperfect union…wonderfully witty and assured” (The Washington Post Book World).

At the Violet Hour offers a richly historicized, trenchant look at the interlocking of literature with violence in British and Irish modernist texts.

An excellently written heartbreaking read--a poignant account of unending love and hope.

An indispensable memoir by one of the most prominent writers of his generation Originally published in 1976, Christopher and His Kind covers the most memorable ten years in the writer's life—from 1928, when Christopher Isherwood left England to spend a week in Berlin and decided to stay there indefinitely, to 1939, when he arrived in America. His friends and colleagues during this time included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and E. M. Forster, as well as colorful figures he met in Germany and later fictionalized in his two Berlin novels—and who appeared again, fictionalized to an even greater degree, in I Am a Camera and Cabaret. What most impressed the first readers of this memoir, however, was the candor with which he describes his life in gay Berlin of the 1930s and his struggles to save his companion, a German man named Heinz, from the Nazis. An engrossing and dramatic story and a fascinating glimpse into a little-known world, Christopher and His Kind remains one of Isherwood's greatest achievements.

Selected by Library Journal as one of the best horror books of 2019 "The sheer, skin-crawling fright is masterful. Thomas has crafted an indelible story...all wrapped in a supernatural shroud that unfurls from the heart of America. Whether or not thoughts can breathe, books certainly can, and Violet does exactly that." —Jason Heller, National Public Radio "Don't let anybody tell you this book is a slow burn—Violet travels at the speed of horror." —Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box For many children, the summer of 1988 was filled with sunshine and laughter. But for ten-year-old Kris Barlow, it was her chance to say goodbye to her dying mother. Three decades later, loss returns—her husband killed in a car accident. And so, Kris goes home to the place where she first knew pain—to that summer house overlooking the crystal waters of Lost Lake. It’s there that Kris and her eight-year-old daughter will make a stand against grief. But a shadow has fallen over the quiet lake town of Pacington, Kansas. Beneath its surface, an evil has grown—and inside that home where Kris Barlow last saw her mother, an old friend awaits her return.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved author of the Vampire Chronicles, the first installation of her spellbinding Mayfair Chronicles—the inspiration for the hit television series! “Extraordinary . . . Anne Rice offers more than just a story; she creates myth.”—The Washington Post Book World Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery—aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches—finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him. As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and—in passionate alliance—set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, an intricate tale of evil unfolds. Moving through time from today’s New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the Louis XIV’s France, and from the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, The Witching Hour is a luminous, deeply enchanting novel. The magic of the Mayfairs continues: THE WITCHING HOUR • LASHER • TALTOS

JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • A rich, transportive guide to the world of Japanese cocktails from acclaimed bartender Julia Momosé of Kumiko ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe • ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vanity Fair, Food52, Wired • “A love letter to the art of preparing a drink.”—Vanity Fair With its studious devotion to tradition, craftsmanship, and hospitality, Japanese cocktail culture is an art form treated with reverence. In this essential guide, Japanese American bartender Julia Momosé of Kumiko and Kikkō in Chicago takes us on a journey into this realm. She educates and inspires while breaking down master techniques and delving into the soul of the culture: the traditions and philosophy, the tools and the spirits—and the complex layering of these elements that makes this approach so significant. The recipes are inspired by the twenty-four micro-seasons that define the flow of life in Japan. Enter a world where the spiced woodsy cocktail called Autumn’s Jacket evokes the smoldering burn of smoking rice fields in fall, and where the Delicate Refusal tells the tale of spring’s tragic beauty, with tequila blanco and a flutter of sakura petals. Perfected classics like the Manhattan and Negroni, riffs on some of Japan’s most beloved cocktails like the Whisky Highball, and even alcohol-free drinks influenced by ingredients such as yuzu, matcha, and umé round out the collection.

Twenty-eight-year-old Will, a teacher living in Montreal, has spent the last few months recovering from a breakup with his first serious boyfriend, Max. He has resumed his search for companionship, but has he truly moved on? Will's mother Katherine -- one of the few people, perhaps the only one, who loves him unconditionally -- is also in recovery, from a bout with colon cancer that haunts her body and mind with the possibility of relapse. Having experienced heartbreak, and fearful of tragedy, Will must come to terms with the rule of impermanence: to see past lost treasures and unwanted returns, to find hope and solace in the absolute certainty of change. In The Geography of Pluto, Christopher DiRaddo perfectly captures the ebb and flow of life through the insightful, exciting, and often playful story of a young man's day-to-day struggle with uncertainty.