From The New York Times best-selling author of Paris to the Moon and beloved New Yorker writer, a memoir that captures the romance of New York City in the 1980s. When Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. At the Stranger's Gate builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey—from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family. Gopnik transports us to his tiny basement room on the Upper East Side, and later to SoHo, where he captures a unicorn: an affordable New York loft. He takes us through his professional meanderings, from graduate...

Chronically questioning, funny, and bold, a young American writer explores the majority-Muslim lands that scare him most.Armed only with college Arabic and restless curiosity, Adam Valen Levinson set out to "learn about the world 9/11 made us fear." From a base in globalized and sterilized Abu Dhabi, he sets out to lunch in Taliban territory in Afghanistan, travels under the watchful eye of Aleppo's secret police, risks shipwreck en route to Somalia, investigates Yazidi beliefs in a sacred cave, cliff-dives in Oman, celebrates New Year's Eve in Tahrir Square, and, at every turn, discovers a place that matches not at all with its reputation.While politicians and media eagerly stoke the flames of Islamophobia, Valen Levinson crosses borders with abundant humor and humanity. Seeking common ground everywhere, he finds that people who pray differently often laugh the same. And as a young man bar mitzvahed at twenty-one (instead of the usual thirteen), he slowly...

The age of exploration is not over. When Adam Shoalts ventured into the largest unexplored wilderness on the planet, he hoped to set foot where no one had ever gone before. What he discovered surprised even him. Shoalts was no stranger to the wilderness. He had hacked his way through jungles and swamp, had stared down polar bears and climbed mountains. But one spot on the map called out to him irresistibly: the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a trackless waste of muskeg and lonely rivers, moose and wolf—an Amazon of the north, parts of which to this day remain unexplored. Cutting through this forbidding landscape is a river no hunter, no explorer, no Native guide has left any record of paddling. It is far from any important waterways, even further from any settled land, and about as far from civilization as one can get. It was this river that Shoalts was obsessively determined to explore. It took him several attempts, and years of research. But finally,...

When former journalist Adeline Loh could no longer endure the brain-deadening routine of work, she did what any sensible person would do: flee Malaysia with a paranoid vegetarian named Chan and go ambling in the lion-infested wilderness of southern Africa. However, upon arriving in Zambia, the bush virgins realised nothing from the Animal Planet documentaries had prepared them for survival in the savannah. With baboons, hippopotamuses and buffaloes conspiring to tear them into pieces, our addled heroines rattled along crater-pocked tracks, canoed through the crocodile-infested Zambezi River, flew over Victoria Falls on a little tricycle with wings, stalked incestuous rhinoceroses and peed amidst thorny shrubbery. And in more life-preserving moments, they pondered antimalarial druggies, sleazy hunters and muscle-bound native women while hoping to achieve their main goalnot to get eaten alive!In Peeing in the Bush, Loh recounts in candid prose her fun and engaging misadventures...

An illuminating debut following three women in sub-Saharan Africa as they search for home and familyLeona, an isolated American anthropologist, gives birth to a baby girl in a remote Maasai village and must decide how she can be a mother, in spite of her own grim childhood. Jane, a lonely expat wife, follows her husband to the tropics and learns just how fragile life is. Simi, a barren Maasai woman, must confront her infertility in a society in which females are valued by their reproductive roles. In this affecting debut novel, these three very different women grapple with motherhood, recalibrate their identities and confront unforeseen tragedies and triumphs.In beautiful, evocative prose, Adrienne Benson brings to life the striking Kenyan terrain as these women's lives intertwine in unexpected ways. As they face their own challenges and heartbreaks, they find strength traversing the arid landscapes of tenuous human connection. With gripping poignancy, The...

With these words Ailsa Piper's journey begins. Less than a month later she finds herself hiking through olive groves and under translucent pink blossoms, making her way from the legendary city of Granada, towards the cliffs at Finisterre in the far north-west of Spain.On her back she carries an unusual cargo - a load of sins. In the tradition of medieval believers who paid others to carry their sins to holy places, and so buy forgiveness, Ailsa's friends and colleagues donated sins in order to fund her quest. She's received anger and envy, pride and lust, among many.Through glorious villages and inspiring landscapes, miracles find her. Matrons stuff gifts of homemade sausages into her pack. Angels in both name and nature ease her path.Sins find her too. Those in her pack and many others tempt her throughout her journey.And she falls in love: with kindness, with strangers, and with Spain.Sinning Across Spain celebrates the mysteries of faith, the possibilities...

Dear Ailsa, Sometimes I wonder whether the friendship that has caught us both-a most unlikely friendship I must confess-might find an echo in a far off Irish village somewhere in the wild, windy hills of old Donegal. Or am I allowing that uncontrollable imagination of mine too much slack?This is the story of an unlikely friendship.When priest and Sydneysider Tony Doherty emailed Melbourne-based writer and performer Ailsa Piper to say how much he had enjoyed her latest book, he was met with a swift reply from a similarly enquiring mind. Soon emails were flying back and forth and back again. They exchanged stories of their experiences as sweaty pilgrims and dissected dinner party menus. They shared their delight in Mary Oliver's poetry and wrestled with what it means to love and to grieve. This energetic exchange of words, questions and ideas grew into an unexpected but treasured friendship.Collected here is that correspondence, brimming with empathy, humour and a...

Praise for the original Haiti Noir: "Danticat has succeeded in assembling a group portrait of Haitian culture and resilience that is cause for celebration."- Publishers Weekly "This anthology will give American readers a complex and nuanced portrait of the real Haiti not seen on the evening news and introduce them to some original and wonderful writers."- Library Journal "While the publisher defines the term 'noir' broadly - requiring sinister tales or crime stories that evoke a strong sense of place and do not have happy endings - the Haiti book offers its own spin with plenty of grisly crime, dire poverty, and references to magic and religion. There is also some tenderness."- The New York Times Classic stories by: Danielle Legros Georges, Jacques Roumain, Ida Faubert, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Jan J. Dominique, Paulette Poujol Oriol, Lyonel Trouillot, Emmelie Prophète, Ben Fountain, Dany Laferrière, Georges Anglade, Edwidge Danticat, Michèle Voltaire Marcelin, Èzili Dantò, Marie-Hélène Laforest, Nick Stone, Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell, Myriam J.A. Chancey, and Roxane Gay. The original best-selling Haiti Noir comprised all-new stories by today's best Haitian authors. This new volume collects the true classics of Haitian literature - both short stories and excerpts from longer works - and will be an integral piece of understanding how Haitian culture has evolved over the past fifty years. Editor Edwidge Danticat, one of the most respected Haitian writers, has a well-deserved sterling reputation, and here she follows on the success of the original first volume. Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the editor of Haiti Noir and author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and the novel-in-stories The Dew Breaker. She lives in Miami, Florida.

A century has now gone by, yet the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still infamous as arguably the most ill conceived, badly led and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. The brainchild of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its ultimate objective was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, thus allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean and increase pressure on the Central Powers to drain manpower from the vital Western Front.

Tom dreamed of being an adventurer. But people told him he was crazy, so he decided to prove them wrong by cycling round the world! Books One and Two follow Tom crossing Europe and descending Africa, then pedalling through the Americas to Alaska. In Part Three - the final leg of his journey - he continues to have amazing experiences. He tackles the freezing temperatures of Siberia, rides behind reindeer in Russia, floats in a Japanese pool watched by monkeys and follows the Great Wall of China. Finally, he bikes back home to England. Tom learns about the world, and himself, as he tackles this epic journey. Based on the author's personal adventure and with engaging illustrations, maps and handwritten journal entries throughout, this book provides an immersive experience for any young adventurer.

Tom dreamed of being an adventurer. But people told him he was crazy, so he decided to prove them wrong by cycling round the world! The first book followed Tom across Europe and through the mysterious landscapes of Africa. In Part Two, Tom pedals north from the tip of South America up through the Americas towards Alaska. Based on the author's personal experiences and with engaging illustrations, maps and handwritten journal entries throughout, this book provides an immersive experience for any young adventurer. He must contend with deserts, jungles and the massive mountains of the Andes. He meets grizzly bears, fascinating locals, and even a memorable guinea pig. Tom learns about the world, and himself, as he tackles this epic journey.

Discover Africa by bicycle in book one of a delightful children's adaptation of Alastair Humphrey's journey around the world. In this charming caricature of Alastair Humphreys’ infamous circumnavigation of the world on his bike, children are swept along with the character of Tom, an adventurous boy who feels there must be more to life than school. The first part of The Boy Who Biked the World follows Tom leaving England, cycling through Europe and all the way through Africa to the tip of South Africa. Along the way, young readers are introduced not only to the various fascinating landscapes he passes through, but also to the various people who so happily embrace him as he traveled on his journey. With engaging illustrations and journal entries throughout, this book provides an immersive experience for any young adventurer.

In 1924, the irrepressibly curious Alberto Denti arrived in Libya to work in Italy's African colonies. With a natural ear for a story and a passionate interest in his work, he must have been as good a doctor as he was a writer. Though equally at home in an embassy or a brothel, Denti appears to have preferred the company of Berbers and Eritreans to that of his fellow Italians. He conjures up the dignity of local chieftains, the palpable charms of celebrated courtesans, the excitement of Tuareg entertainers and the love lost between himself and a wounded lion cub with all the charm of a man who boasted of the 'inestimable satisfactions known only to those who have lived in Africa'.

"The very aptly named Mr Pong had the kind of breath that could stun at over ten feet... This wasn't just bad – there was something rotten down there. Something had crawled in and died. Gunter howled with laughter as he saw the look of horror on my face. It was the best entertainment he had seen since he had watched Chef chasing yaks through the kitchens."Few foreigners are lucky enough to set foot on Tibetan soil, but Alec Le Sueur spent five extraordinary years there, working in the unlikeliest Holiday Inn in the world. Against the breathtaking beauty of the Himalayas unfolds a highly amusing and enlightening account of his experiences. Fly infestations at state banquets, unexpected deliveries of live snakes, a predominance of yaks and everything yak-related, the unbelievable Miss Tibet competition, insurmountable communication problems and a dead guest are just some of the entertainments to be found at the 'Fawlty Towers' of Lhasa.Le Sueur, the only Westerner since the...

Born in London to a Turkish mother and British father, Alev Scott moved to Istanbul to discover what it means to be Turkish in a country going through rapid political and social change, with an extraordinary past still linked to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and an ever more surprising present under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.From the European buzz of modern-day Constantinople to the Arabic-speaking towns of the south-east, Turkish Awakening investigates mass migration, urbanisation and economics in a country moving swiftly towards a new position on the world stage. This is the story of discovering a complex country from the outside-in, a candid account of overturned preconceptions and fresh understanding. Relating wide-ranging interviews and colourful personal experience, the author charts the evolving course of a country bursting with surprises - none more dramatic than the unexpected political protests of 2013 in Taksim Square, which have brought to...

A hypnotic, spellbinding novel set in Greece and Africa, where a young Liberian woman reckons with a haunted past.  On a remote island in the Aegean, Jacqueline is living alone in a cave accessible only at low tide. With nothing to protect her from the elements, and with the fabric between herself and the world around her increasingly frayed, she is permeated by sensory experiences of remarkable intensity: the need for shade in the relentless heat of the sun-baked island; hunger and the occasional bliss of release from it; the exquisite pleasure of diving into the sea. The pressing physical realities of the moment provide a deeper relief: the euphoric obliteration of memory and, with it, the unspeakable violence she has seen and from which she has miraculously escaped.Slowly, irrepressibly, images from a life before this violence begin to resurface: the view across lush gardens to a different sea; a gold Rolex glinting on her father’s wrist; a glass of gin in her mother’s best crystal; an adoring younger sister; a family, in the moment before their fortunes were irrevocably changed. Jacqueline must find the strength to contend with what she has survived or tip forward into full-blown madness.Visceral and gripping, extraordinary in its depiction of physical and spiritual hungers, Alexander Maksik’s A Marker to Measure Drift is a novel about ruin and faith, barbarism and love, and the devastating memories that contain the power both to destroy us and to redeem us. ReviewAdvance Praise for A Marker to Measure Drift “Gorgeously written, tightly wound, with language as precise as cut glass, Alexander Maksik’s A Marker to Measure Drift is a tour de force. Maksik renders the soul of his heroine, a Liberian refugee, with stark honesty so that we understand both the brutality of what she has run from and the terror she experiences as she tries to build her life back. I was undone by this novel. I challenge anyone to read it and not come away profoundly changed.”      —Marisa Silver, author of Mary Coin and The God of War“This novel is spellbinding. In its tenderness, grandeur and austerity, it reminds us that there is no country on earth as foreign, as unreachable, as the frantic soul of another human being.”      —Susanna Sonnenberg“A Marker to Measure Drift is a haunting, haunted novel. Things get stripped down to essentials—food, water, where to sleep for the night, a state of solitary desperation brought on by the most profound kind of loss. Every line of this excellent novel rings true as Maksik leads us toward the catastrophe at the story’s core. This is one of those books that leaves you staring into space when you finish, dazed from the sheer power of what’s been said.”        —Ben Fountain“A moving, deeply felt and lyrical novel about past and present.”      —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“A vivid depiction of disillusionment, shock, and resilience . . . Sheds light on a setting great in both its beauty and violence . . . An exploration of terrible brutality and the effort it takes to survive.”      —Library Journal“Readers will be rewarded by Maksik’s gorgeous and evocative prose.”      —Publishers WeeklyAbout the AuthorAlexander Maksik is the author of the novel You Deserve Nothing and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper’s, Tin House, Harvard Review, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and Narrative Magazine, among other publications, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He lives in New York City.

Set in the Pacific Northwest in the jittery, jacked-up early 1990s, Shelter in Place, by one of America's most thrillingly defiant contemporary authors, is a stylish literary novel about the hereditary nature of mental illness, the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligations of family, and the dramatic consequences of love. Joseph March, a twenty-one-year-old working class kid from Seattle, is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his future beckons, unencumbered, limitless, magnificent. Joe's life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of bipolar disorder, and, not long after, his mother kills a man she's never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Washington, where his mother is serving time and his father has set up house. He is followed by Tess Wolff, a fiercely independent woman with whom he has fallen in love. The lives of Joe, Tess, and Joe's father fall into the slow rhythm of daily prison visits followed by beer and pizza at...

William Silver is a talented and charismatic young teacher. His unconventional methods raise eyebrows among his colleagues and superiors, but his students are devoted to him. He brings ideas into the classroom that profoundly affect how they conduct their lives. His discussions of Camus, Faulkner, Sartre, Keats and other kindred souls breathe life into his students' sense of social justice and their capacities for philosophical and ethical thought. But unbeknownst to his adoring pupils, Silver proves incapable of living up to the ideals he encourages in others. Emotionally scarred by failures in his personal life and driven to distraction by the City of Light's overpowering carnality and beauty, Silver succumbs to a temptation that will change the course of his life. His fall will render him a criminal in the eyes of some, and human, all too human, in the eyes of others.In Maksik's stylish prose, Paris is sensual, dazzling and dangerously seductive. It serves as a fitting...

Sara Alexi weaves an entrancing story of the burgeoning relationship that develops between two people from very different backgrounds and cultures, an English woman living in Greece and the Pakistani illegal immigrant who becomes her gardener and house boy. Each comes with their own problems, their own past baggage, and she explores these with sympathy and understanding as well as the many nuances of the differences in cultures as they become more and more dependent on each other.

ParisDear Alice,Each morning I am awakened by the sound of a tinkling bell. A cheerful sound, it reminds me of the bells that shopkeepers attach to their doors at Christmastime. In this case, the bell marks the opening of the hotel door. From my room, which is just off the winding staircase, I can hear it clearly. It reminds me of the bell that calls to worship the novice embarking on a new life. In a way I too am a novice, leaving, temporarily, one life for another.Love,AliceIn the tradition of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea and Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, in Without Reservations we take time off with Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Steinbach as she explores the world and rediscovers what it means to be a woman on her own."In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Alice Steinbach, a single working mother, in this captivating book. "For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own...

Archon has been a soldier for the United Federation of Earth (UFE) since the day the first race of aliens invaded. Archon has learned to despise all the Aliens. So what happens we discovers half of his life force in a Venusian? Will he chose to continue to live as half a man or will he chose to accept an alien for a life mate?

A moving memoir about growing up with a gay father in the 1980s, and a tribute to the power of truth, humour, acceptance and familial love.Alison Wearing led a largely carefree childhood until she learned, at the age of 12, that her family was a little more complex than she had realized. Sure her father had always been unusual compared to the other dads in the neighbourhood: he loved to bake croissants, wear silk pyjamas around the house, and skip down the street singing songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. But when he came out of the closet in the 1970s, when homosexuality was still a cardinal taboo, it was a shock to everyone in the quiet community of Peterborough, Ontario--especially to his wife and three children.Alison's father was a professor of political science and amateur choral conductor, her mother was an accomplished pianist and marathon runner, and together they had fed the family a steady diet of arts, adventures, mishaps, normal frustrations...

From playing it safe...To falling for her rebel boss!In this Bondi Bay Heroes story, ER nurse Samantha Braithwaite has learnt never to put limits on herself. But working with Dr. Blake Cooper is her biggest challenge yet. He thinks she's shy, but that makes her more determined to prove she can make the Specialist Disaster Response team. And as days spill into nights, the chemistry they've tried to hide is about to explode!

When a storm throws a rural New Zealand town into chaos, Dr. Jennifer Tremaine's professional prowess is put under pressure.Understaffed and overworked, she is relieved to see surgeon Andrew Stephenson step into the fray. She and Drew haven't seen each other since medical school, where they were in constant competition. But now things are different, as beneath the rivalry stirs a new sensation...

He's the only one with the key to unlock her heart... SAS medic and emergency specialist James 'Jet' Munroe thrives on danger. Physical danger...never emotional. Beautiful helicopter pilot Becca Harding has spent long years trying to forget Jet, but she's never been able to forgive him. Now, trapped together for the first time in years, it's time to stop running from the shadows that have marked their relationship...and the scorching attraction that lingers between them.

Welcome to the world of Sydney Harbor Hospital (or SHH...for short--because secrets never stay hidden for long!>Teaching Zoe how to love againFor single mum Zoe Harper, trying to be the best mother ever to beautiful baby daughter Emma is a challenge--until gorgeous pediatrician Teo Tuala comes to her rescue. Behind his larger-than-life personality, he's wary of letting anyone close, but Zoe and her baby's plight breach the barriers around his heart--and it scares the hell out of him...

There's no one else I would want to be the mother of my children Pip Murdoch is torn. She is finally, for the first time in her life, experiencing real love. Toni Costa, the new Italian doctor on the ward, is making her feel things she's never known. But she can't give in to her heart. She has responsibilities that just won't allow it. The gorgeous Italian knows he can help Pip heal the rift between her and her young daughter. He's determined to show her that he'll never leave them, and that together they can be a real family.

Coming soon! Her Emergency Knight by Alison Roberts will be available Mar 14, 2016.

Bound by their little girlLeaving Anahera Kopu was the hardest thing Dr Luke Wilson ever did. He was torn by duty and desire, and his decision devastated them both...Now Luke's reappearance on Wildfire Island threatens to turn nurse Anahera's life upside down. She lost her heart to him before, but now she has something even more precious to guard. Their young daughter!Luke doesn't know he's a dad, but their child holds the key to unite them. This time...forever?

The man she has been waiting for... Jake Logan may be ex-military, but recently he'd been more at home among the glitterati of Hollywood's finest. So different from where he is right now: seeking shelter from a powerful storm with the most beautiful woman he's ever met. She's a breath of fresh air! Ellie Sutton doesn't trust easily; she's discovered that the hard way. With nowhere to run, for some reason she feels safe with the handsome enigmatic stranger. But as rescue draws closer, they realize they don't want their time together to end.... The Logan Twins: One storm--two happy endings!

Copy to come.

A family--in time for the holidays? When Alice McMillan arrives at a French chateau, searching for long-lost family, she doesn't expect to be confronted by deliciously brooding Julien Dubois--or the bombshell that the tiny baby nestled in his arms is her orphaned half brother! New guardian and celebrity chef Julien is completely out of his depth. Alice's help is like an answer to his prayers. With snow falling all around, it's a cozy Christmas and the start of something wonderful...their own fledgling family!

Her secret Christmas wish Dr. Grace Forbes's dramatic first day in Manhattan Mercy ER is unforgettable—especially when she runs into her old flame, ER chief Charles Davenport, again! That spark is still there between them but they're different people now—after losing his wife, Charles is a single dad to adorable twin boys, while Grace has survived cancer but lost her dream of having children. Yet, as the weather gets colder, she is drawn into the warmth of his family—could he make her Christmas wish come true?

Surgeon Luke Anderson let her go once...But this time around he'll get down on one knee!Seeing pediatrician Kate Saunders again, Luke can feel the chemistry that still sizzles between them. But bruised from his failed marriage, he doesn't believe in happy-ever-afters anymore. Until he's reminded of the marriage pact they made in college...and realizes Kate may be the one woman who was worth waiting for!

It started with just one night...But Dr. Matteo Martini is in for a double surprise!Paramedic Georgia Bennett has never forgotten the night of no strings she shared with delectable Matteo, but never expected it would lead to the most surprising of consequences. And as he walks toward her at her best friend Kate's wedding, Georgia knows she has to tell him the truth...