The stories in The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, a collection from Ethan Rutherford, map the surprising ways in which the world we think we know can unexpectedly reveal its darker contours.

In stories that are alternately funny, persuasive, and compelling, unforgettable characters are confronted with, and battle against, the limitations of their lives.

Rutherford’s work has been selected by Alice Sebold for inclusion in the volume of The Best American Short Stories that she edited, and also published in Ploughshares, One Story, and American Short Fiction.

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 TitleSummer, 1978. Brezhnev sits like a stone in the Kremlin, Israel and Egypt are inching towards peace, and in the bustling, polyglot streets of Rome, strange new creatures have appeared: Soviet Jews who have escaped to freedom through a crack in the Iron Curtain. Among the thousands who have landed in Italy to secure visas for new lives in the West are the members of the Krasnansky family — three generations of Russian Jews. There is Samuil, an old Communist and Red Army veteran, who reluctantly leaves the country to which he has dedicated himself body and soul; Karl, his elder son, a man eager to embrace the opportunities emigration affords; Alec, his younger son, a carefree playboy for whom life has always been a game; and Polina, Alec's new wife, who has risked the most by breaking with her old family to join this new one. Together, they will spend six months in Rome — their way station and purgatory. They will immerse themselves in the carnival of emigration, in an Italy rife with love affairs and ruthless hustles, with dislocation and nostalgia, with the promise and peril of a new life. Through the unforgettable Krasnansky family, David Bezmozgis has created an intimate portrait of a tumultuous era.Written in precise, musical prose, The Free World is a stunning debut novel, a heartfelt multigenerational saga of great historical scope and even greater human depth. Enlarging on the themes of aspiration and exile that infused his critically acclaimed first collection, Natasha and Other Stories, The Free World establishes Bezmozgis as one of our most mature and accomplished storytellers.

Four-time

New York Times

bestselling author and talk show host Bethenny Frankel makes her fiction debut with the novel

Skinnydipping

: “A totally fun, dishy read. This is the kind of book that is perfect to pack in your beach bag” (

Hollywood Reporter

).

Beloved by countless fans for being devilishly dishy, outrageously funny, and always giving it to us straight, four-time

New York Times

bestselling author Bethenny Frankel now makes her fiction debut with the story of Faith Brightstone. Faith is an aspiring actress just out of college who moves to LA determined to have it all: a job on the most popular TV show, a beach house in Malibu, and a gorgeous producer boyfriend. But when reality hits, she finds herself with a gig as a glorified servant, a role that has more to do with T&A than acting, and a dead-end relationship. Finally, Faith decides she’s had enough of La La Land and moves back to New York with just a suitcase and her dog, Muffin. Five years later, Faith has finally found her groove as an entrepreneur and manages to land a spot on a new reality TV show hosted by her idol—the legendary businesswoman and domestic goddess, Sybil Hunter. Diving into the bizarre world of reality TV, Faith’s loud mouth and tell-it-like-it-is style immediately get her in trouble with her fellow contestants, and she learns about betrayal. As the show comes to a dramatic close, Faith discovers that the man of her dreams may have just walked into her life. Will she choose fame or love? Or can she have it all?

Joe Faber’s a funny guy, good with his hands, and great with words – until the stroke which leaves him severely disabled. But this is more than his story. Wife Fran has a job she loves. Daughter Jess, a wedding to plan. There’s heartbreak and absurdity along the way - but humour is the family’s greatest asset in the drive to get Joe back on his own two feet.Written by a caregiver. Truthful, balanced, warm.

'Administering hope and regular hearty laughs, it's a powerful antidote to despair...'

- Susan Elderkin, co-author,

The Novel Cure

‘Things I love about it: the drama, the humour – particularly Joe's – which made me laugh out loud, the richness of the wider family, the tangible fierce love and passion between Fran and Joe, the eccentricity of the wider family, the evocation of the Scottish landscape, the immersion in the language and culture of the fiddle… It’s a very lively book that is VERY hard to put down’

– Pippa Wainwright

'A thoroughly enjoyable read whether or not you've been affected by stroke, Joe Faber and the Optimists really ought to be recommended reading in stroke clinics around the world.'

– Michelle Ryles,

The Book Magnet

'Engaging and uplifting.... Moving, funny and unexpected.' 'A wonderful read... It feels very real and very poignant... It's also very funny.' '... told with humour and grace.' 'A story of determination, optimism and love.' 'A book I will definitely share.'

“Oates is a fearless writer.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Oates is a master of the dark tale—stories of the hunted and the hunter, of violence, trauma, and deep psychic wounds.”

—Booklist (starred review)

Sourland is a gripping, haunting, and intensely moving collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates, one of America’s preeminent authors. Unforgettable tales that re-imagine the meaning of loss—often through violent means—Sourland is yet another extraordinary read from the literary icon who has previously brought us The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Blonde, We Were the Mulvaneys, and numerous other classic works of contemporary fiction.

Three novellas filled with “gallows humor and a sense of real peril,” by the acclaimed author of

The Book of Strange New Things

(

The New York Times

).

The bestselling author of

The Crimson Petal and the White

“draws his characters with assured comic efficiency” (

The Guardian

), using “evocative language” to offer up “intriguing glimpses of unfamiliar worlds” (

Los Angeles Times

), in these acclaimed novellas.   In “The Courage Consort,” an a cappella vocal ensemble is sequestered in a Belgian château to rehearse a monstrously complicated new piece, but competing artistic temperaments and sexual needs create as much discordance as the avant-garde music. In “The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps,” a lonely woman joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey and unearths a mystery involving a long-hidden murder. And in “The Fahrenheit Twins,” strange children, identical in all but gender, are left alone at the icy zenith of the world by their anthropologist parents to create their own ritual civilization.   From a wildly inventive author whose novel

The Book of Strange New Things

was named one of 2014’s best reads by everyone from the

New Yorker

to io9,

The Courage Consort

is an eclectic collection of well-told tales, in which Michel Faber “marches on, establishing himself as one of the most versatile fiction writers working today” (

Kirkus Reviews

).   “Readers will again be immersed in the intense worlds he creates.” —

Publishers Weekly