After nearly losing the election to a geriatric but wildly popular donkey named Maurizio, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can’t help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarina Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara’s cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo—even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that’s left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina’s volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they’ve spent their entire lives.
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THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE MORE I LOVE YOU
In this evocative and deeply inquisitive literary memoir, singer-songwriter Neko Case paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary life, one forged through a strained, poverty-stricken childhood in “slummy, one-horse towns”; obsessive desire; violence; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships—all of which carried her on a singular journey in becoming a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.
“When music and art are not too exclusive or made on an oppressive industrial scale, they mend the world and light the fires that burn off the toxins in our souls. We want to love you in this way, and we want to pass this feeling on, and we want you to pass it on, too.”
Neko Case has long been revered as one of music’s most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans. In The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, Case brings her trademark candor and precision to a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisible girl “raised by two dogs and a space heater” in poor, rural Washington state to her improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed artist.
In luminous, sharp-edged prose, Case shows readers what it’s like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, to channel that monotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience.
The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You is a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face: “I hope my words will cast a different spell of love and unreality, break down barriers… and invite everyone inside.”
THE UNWEDDING
The ‘White Lotus’ meets Agatha Christie in The Unwedding, the adult fiction debut from #1 New York Times’s bestselling YA author Ally Condie, about a recent divorcee whose vacation at an exclusive Big Sur resort unravels when she discovers a dead body on the day a wedding was set to occur.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
A love song one hundred years in the making…
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time, and for some people, it will change their whole life:
Ricki Wilde has always felt like she was born into the wrong family. As the daughter of a funeral home dynasty, she is the complete opposite of her poised, excelling, and perfectly quaffed sisters. Instead, Ricki is creative, spontaneous, and dramatic. She knows that a different kind of life must be waiting for her just around the corner.
When Ricki meets the regal 90-something Ms. Della, they have an instant connection. Ms. Della invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, and Ricki knows this is her chance for something new. She leaves behind her family, wealth and disastrous romantic decisions to live her dream of owning her own flower shop. In February 2024, with the magic of the leap year and the heady, unseasonable scent of night blooming jasmine filling the air, Ricki encounters a mysterious, handsome stranger who will knock her world off balance.
In 1928—many leap years earlier— Ezra “Breeze” Walker is the toast of the town. After fleeing a brutally painful past in the South and moving to Harlem, he’s now one of the most celebrated jazz pianists of the Renaissance. In Harlem, there’s beauty, talent, and music on every block, but Breeze can’t shake the grief he left behind. When he becomes romantically entangled with Felice Fabre, a volatile and irresistible dancer who’s also been rumored to dabble in Voodoo, his life is turned upside down.
Like so many before them, Ricki and Breeze are both drawn to Harlem—to the magic, romance, and opportunity—and their lives are uniquely linked. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is an epic, swoon worthy love story, one that’s perhaps been a hundred years in the making…
A HISTORY OF BURNING
At the turn of the twentieth century, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor on the East African Railway for the British. One day Pirbhai commits an act to ensure his survival that will haunt him forever and reverberate across his family’s future for years to come. Pirbhai’s children are born and raised under the jacaranda trees and searing sun of Kampala during the waning days of British colonial rule. As Uganda moves towards independence and military dictatorship, Pirbhai’s granddaughters, Latika, Mayuri, and Kiya, are three sisters coming of age in a divided nation. As they each forge their own path for a future, they must carry the silence of the history they’ve inherited. In 1972, under Idi Amin’s brutal regime and the South Asian expulsion, the family has no choice but to flee, and in the chaos, they leave something devastating behind. As Pirbhai’s grandchildren, scattered across the world, find their way back to each other in exile in Toronto, a letter arrives that stokes the flames of the fire that haunts the family. It makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy to secure their own place in the world. A History of Burning is an unforgettable tour de force, an intimate family saga of complicity and resistance, about the stories we share, the ones that remain unspoken, and the eternal search for home.
The Light Pirate
From the author of Good Morning, Midnight comes a hopeful, sweeping story of survival and resilience spanning one extraordinary woman’s lifetime as she navigates the uncertainty, brutality, and arresting beauty of a rapidly changing world.
Sink
“A brilliant and brilliantly different” (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture by Joseph Earl Thomas, winner of the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize.
These Impossible Things
A razor sharp debut novel of three best friends navigating love, sex, faith, and the one night that changes it all. It’s always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their parents, and countless aunties and uncles, they’ve learned to live their own lives alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. Staying over at a boyfriend’s place is disguised as a best friend’s sleepover, and tiredness can be blamed on studying instead of partying. But as they grow older and the stakes of love and life grow higher, the three young women find this delicate balancing act between rebellion and religion increasingly difficult to navigate. As their lives begin to take different paths, Malak, Kees, and Jenna—now on the precipice of true adulthood—must find a way back to each other as they reconcile faith, family, and tradition with their own needs and desires. These Impossible Things is a paean to youth and female friendship—and to all the joy and messiness love holds.
With Prejudice
For fans of John Grisham and Richard Price, a debut high-stakes legal thriller about a murder in Miami with no body, no weapon, no eyewitnesses—and the prejudice that hangs over every trial in America. Gabriel Soto is a social recluse accused of murdering the free-spirited Melina Mora. At the center of the media spotlight is Sandy Grunwald, an ambitious young prosecutor whose political fortunes depend on her using the limited evidence to secure a conviction. But the criminal justice system is complicated, and everyone has a story—especially the jury. With striking originality and expert storytelling, the ensemble cast comes alive on the page, and as their stories are revealed, their own experiences, biases, and beliefs—not the facts of the case—are what ultimately shape the verdict. You’ve never read a legal thriller quite like this. There’s never been a thriller writer quite like Robin Peguero. And you will not be able to predict how it all ends.
Imaginary Friend
Christopher is seven years old. Christopher is the new kid in town. Christopher has an imaginary friend. The epic work of literary horror from the #1 bestselling author of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.