In the Philadelphia neighborhood known as the Badlands, drug gangs rule absolutely. Each time a life is lost in the carnage of the local drug wars, a boldly drawn chalk outline of a body appears on the street leading up to City hall: a teenaged dealer, a priest, a little girl with a jump rope. Ofelia Santoro rides her bicycle through the dark, decaying streets, looking for her fourteen-year-old-son, Gabriel. She’s afraid of what she might find. Gabriel has fallen in with the most savage of the drug dealers, but now wants to get out—if he can. In this gritty, fast-moving novel, acclaimed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez brings home the violence that is scarring America’s vast urban wastelands, and the humanity that might save them. “An unfancy prose is streaked by strong, cinematic images . . . Lopez aims to prick consciences, in the tradition of the documentary novelist, and he does so with considerable style.”—The Daily Telegraph “Lopez has done what Balzac, Dickens . . . and Dostoevsky did so masterfully: he has taken a torch to the back of the cave and returned to tell us what he has seen.” –Pete Hamill, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Let Martone guide you through every inch of the amazing state that is home to the Hoosier Infidelity Resort Area, the site of Wendell Willkie's Ascension into Heaven, and the Annual Eyeless Fish Fry. All your questions will be answered, including many you never thought to ask (like: "What's a good recipe for Pork Cake?")."--BOOK JACKET.

Indiana often calls itself the Crossroads of the Nation. It's not also perhaps the very nexus of US weirdness. Armed with Oddball Indiana, you'll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Hoosier State, from brain sandwiches to square donuts. Indiana has monuments to Michael Jackson, the comic strip character Joe Palooka, and the World's Largest Egg. It's where Alka-Seltzer and Wonder Bread were invented, where A Christmas Story actually took place, and where the good but angry citizens of Plainfield conspired to dump President Martin Van Buren in a mud puddle. Along with humorous histories and offbeat observations, Oddball Indiana provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 350+ entries.

Listening for the Voice of Love After a serious van accident leaves Amish schoolteacher Jolene Yoder profoundly deaf, she leaves home to learn how to read lips and communicate with sign language. But two years later, a family with children who have been deaf since birth moves to Jolene’s hometown, and she is asked to return as their teacher. Lonnie Hershberger has lost faith in God and in women ever since his girlfriend broke up with him when he lost his hearing during an explosion. When he starts falling in love with Jolene, love-shy Lonnie sees no future in becoming emotionally tied to Jolene. For how could he hope to protect her, if he can’t even hear? Besides, Jake Beechy seems to be taking up most of her free time. Meanwhile, Ella Miller is worried Jake will end up breaking her cousin Jolene’s heart. Little does Ella know that Jake is interested in her—not Jolene. What drastic measures will God use to bring these couples together? Indiana Cousins Series: Book #1: A Cousin's Promise Book #2: A Cousin's Prayer

Welcome to Heartland America circa right about now, when the union jobs and family farms that kept the white on the picket fences have given way to meth labs, backwoods gunrunners, and bare-knuckle brawling. Frank Bill's Southern Indiana is haunted by a deep, abiding sense of place, and his people are men and women pressed to the brink - and beyond. They are survivors, and in Frank Bill's hands, their stories bristle with noir energy.

"Full of gorgeous language and wild insights."—Nick Flynn Set in the beleaguered heart of Indiana’s opioid crisis, Brian Allen Carr’s timely and tender novel about a teen struggling to find his place in the world—and come up with $800 rent—is at once a moving rumination on the hopeful power of story and a harrowing insight into modern America. It is a book you won’t soon forget. Seventeen-year-old Riggle is living in rural Indiana with his uncle and uncle’s girlfriend after the death of his parents. Now his uncle is missing, probably on a drug binge. It’s Monday, and $800 in rent is due Friday. Riggle, who’s been suspended from school, has to either find his uncle or get the money together himself. His mission exposes him to a motley group of Opioid locals—encounters by turns perplexing, harrowing, and heartening. With empathy and insight, Carr explores what it’s like to be a high school kid in the age of Trump—a time of economic inequality, addiction, Confederate flags, and mass shootings. Through the voice of its unforgettable protagonist—charismatic, confused, searching, by turns cynical and naïve, wise and impulsive—Opioid, Indiana pierces to the heart of our moment.

Gary Indiana, a 'huge satirical talent' (The New York Times), presents a darkly comic novel fueled by the virtuoso con artist Evangeline Slote and her extravagant life of chicanery and petty crime. Inspired by the case of Sante and Ken Kimes, the real-life mother/son grifters, the novel is a dissection of the mind of a charismatic sociopath and a satire of the society that appeases and abets her.

Discover the places in Indiana where tourists usually don't venture-- it's chock-full of oddball curiosities, ghostly places, local legends, crazy characters, cursed roads, and peculiar roadside attractions.

Many of North America’s most beloved regions are artfully celebrated in these board books designed to soothe children before bedtime while instilling an early appreciation for the continent’s natural and cultural wonders. Each book stars a multicultural group of people visiting the featured area's attractions and rhythmic language guides children through the passage of both a single day and the four seasons while saluting the iconic aspects of each place. Covering many of Indiana’s most interesting places and features—including the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Colts, and activities such as ice fishing—this book is a celebrations of the Hoosier State.

An assistant D.A. and an ex-FBI agent navigate the world of corrupt political campaigns in Philadelphia.