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After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, A Daughter's Search
by Sarah Perry"Stunning." —Entertainment Weekly | "Raw and perfect." —Laura Miller, Slate"Heartbreaking yet hopeful." —Samantha Irby, Marie Claire A fierce memoir of a mother’s murder, a daughter’s coming-of-age in the wake of immense loss, and her mission to know the woman who gave her life. When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But that brief moment of darkness ultimately foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine, just a few feet from Sarah’s bedroom. The killer escaped unseen; it would take the police twelve years to find him, time in which Sarah grew into adulthood, struggling with abandonment, police interrogations, and the effort of rebuilding her life when so much had been lost. Through it all she would dream of the eventual trial, a conviction—all her questions finally answered. But after the trial, Sarah’s questions only grew. She wanted to understand her mother’s life, not just her final hours, and so she began a personal investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, taking her deep into the abiding darkness of a small American town. Told in searing prose, After the Eclipse is a luminous memoir of uncomfortable truth and terrible beauty, an exquisite memorial for a mother stolen from her daughter, and a blazingly successful attempt to cast light on her life once more.
After the End: The powerful, life-affirming novel from the Sunday Times Number One bestselling author
by Clare MackintoshHave you read the book that everyone's talking about?'If I could give this book 10 stars I would' (Reader review)'This book touched my soul' (Reader review)'I could not put it down. What a story. What a storyteller' (Reader review)'This is in my top five books of all time. Absolutely incredible' (Reader review)'I have never felt so emotionally wrapped up in characters in a book' (Reader review)No. 1 bestseller Clare Mackintosh brings you the most moving book you'll read this year. After the End is powerful, uplifting and full of hope.__________________________Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. Only now they're facing the most important decision of their lives - and they don't agree.With the consequences of an impossible choice threatening to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.But anything can happen after the end . . .Clare Mackintosh returns with an unmissable thriller this summer - Hostage is out now.***********'The most moving book you'll read this year' LISA JEWELL'Life-affirming . . . richly drawn' SUNDAY TIMES 'Compelling and clever, tender and true. I can't stop thinking about it' LIANE MORIARTY'Heart-wrenching . . . an absolute must-read' MIKE GAYLE'Put this on the top of your list. You won't regret it' JANE CORRY'One of the most moving stories I have ever read. It's perfect' JOANNA CANNON
After the End: The powerful, life-affirming novel from the Sunday Times Number One bestselling author
by Clare MackintoshHave you read the book that everyone's talking about?'If I could give this book 10 stars I would' (Reader review)'This book touched my soul' (Reader review)'I could not put it down. What a story. What a storyteller' (Reader review)'This is in my top five books of all time. Absolutely incredible' (Reader review)'I have never felt so emotionally wrapped up in characters in a book' (Reader review)Powerful, uplifting and full of hope, AFTER THE END is the most moving book you'll read this year - from number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh__________________________Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. Only now they're facing the most important decision of their lives - and they don't agree.With the consequences of an impossible choice threatening to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.But anything can happen after the end . . .***********'The most moving book you'll read this year' LISA JEWELL'Life-affirming . . . richly drawn' SUNDAY TIMES 'Compelling and clever, tender and true. I can't stop thinking about it' LIANE MORIARTY'Heart-wrenching . . . an absolute must-read' MIKE GAYLE'Put this on the top of your list. You won't regret it' JANE CORRY'One of the most moving stories I have ever read. It's perfect' JOANNA CANNON
After the Fall: A Novel
by Julie Cohen"Give this perfect blend of laugh-out-loud and heart-tugging moments to readers who like complicated, realistic relationships joyously rendered, like those from Jojo Moyes or Jill Mansell." -Booklist (Starred Review)From the author who brought you Dear Thing, Julie Cohen, comes After the Fall--a poignant, beautifully heartbreaking novel about what it means to be family, the ties that bind us, and the secrets that threaten to tear us apart.When an unfortunate accident forces Honor back into the lives of her widowed daughter-in-law, Jo, and her only granddaughter, Lydia, she cannot wait to be well enough to get back to her own home. However, the longer she stays with Jo and Lydia, the more they start to feel like a real family. But each of the three women is keeping secrets from the others that threaten to destroy the lives they’ve come to know. Honor’s secret threatens to rob her of the independence she’s guarded ferociously for eighty years. Jo’s secret could destroy the “normal” family life she’s fought so hard to build and maintain. Lydia’s secret could bring her love—or the loss of everything that matters most to her. One summer’s day, grandmother, mother and daughter’s secrets will be forced out in the open in a single dramatic moment that leaves them all asking: is there such a thing as second chances?
After the Fall: A Novel
by Victoria Roberts"This is a wonderful, forever book." —George Booth, cartoonist for The New YorkerAfter the Fall introduces us to a brilliantly eccentric family from New York’s Upper East Side. Pops, a self-made millionaire, is a mad inventor who gleans his inspiration from popovers and Raquel Welsh. Mother is a fabulously dressed but mercurial socialite from Buenos Aires whose weapon of choice is a croquet mallet. Young Alan, our earnest and studious narrator, and his drama-queen little sister, Alex, love their parents but must turn to their good-natured housekeeper and cook for a better sense of reality.One fateful day, Alan returns home to find that the family has gone bust, not even a penny to be found. The next morning, to the children’s surprise, the family wakes up in Central Park along with the entire contents of their penthouse arranged just as before—art, furniture, pugs, and all. Aided by their two loyal housekeepers and fed by the maitre d’ from their favorite restaurant, the family makes Central Park into a comfortable and creative home.But soon the strains of life—and the weather, which is getting chilly—threaten to tear apart the parents’ marriage. As the holiday season approaches, the children rise to the challenge of bringing their family back together.With more than two hundred drawings and featuring kimono-clad squirrels and a visit by a Yeti, this delicious tale is a love letter to family, creativity, and New York.
After the Fire
by Becky CitraMelissa is waiting for the "new life" that her mother Sharlene has promised her since a fire devastated their family. But nothing ever seems to change. Melissa has difficulty making friends at school, they never have enough money and her little brother Cody is a brat. When Sharlene announces that they will be spending the month of August at a remote cabin on a wilderness lake, Melissa is less than thrilled. But there is more to do at the lake than she expected, and she is surprised to learn that her mother knows how to paddle a canoe, fish and make bannock and s'mores. On an island in the middle of the lake, Melissa meets Alice, a strange girl who is writing a fantasy novel. Alice shares her tree fort on the island with Melissa, and while at first Melissa is attracted to Alice's strong personality and her stories of her "perfect family," she becomes increasingly uneasy around Alice. As Melissa's relationship with her mother improves and her confidence increases, she is able to hold her own with Alice and start to appreciate her own imperfect family.
After the Fire
by Henning Mankell Marlaine DelargyHenning Mankell's last novel about an aging man whose quiet, solitary life on an isolated island off the coast of Sweden is turned upside down when his house catches fire. Fredrik Welin is a former surgeon who retired in disgrace decades earlier to a tiny island on which he is the only resident. He has a daughter he rarely sees and his mailman Jansson is the closest thing he has to a friend, and to an adversary. He is perfectly content to live out his days in quiet solitude. One autumn evening, he is startled awake by a blinding light--only to discover that his house is on fire. With the help of Jansson, he escapes the flames just in time wearing two left boots. Dawn reveals that everything he owns is now a smoldering pile of ash and his house is destroyed--forcing him to move into an abandoned trailer on his island. A local journalist, Lisa Modin, who wants to write a story about the fire, comes into his life. In doing so, she awakens in him something that he thought was long dead. Soon after, his daughter comes to the island with surprising news of her own. Meanwhile, the police suspect Fredrik of arson because he had a sizable insurance claim on his house. When Fredrik is away from the archipelago, another house goes up in flames and the community realizes they have an arsonist in their midst. After the Fire is an intimate portrait of an elderly recluse who is forced to open himself up to a world he'd left behind.
After the Game: A Field Party Novel (Field Party #3)
by Abbi GlinesThe third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Field Party series—a southern soap opera with football, cute boys, and pick-up trucks—from USA TODAY bestselling author Abbi Glines.Two years ago, Riley Young fled from Lawton, Alabama. After accusing the oldest Lawton son, Rhett, of rape, everyone called her a liar and she had no option but to leave. Now she’s back, but she’s not at Lawton High finishing up her senior year. She’s at home raising the little girl that no one believed was Rhett’s. Rhett is off at college living the life he was afraid he’d lose with Riley’s accusation, so Riley agrees to move back to Lawton so she and her parents could take care of her grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. But the town still hasn’t forgotten their hate for her, and she hasn’t forgotten the way they turned on her when she needed them most. When town golden boy Brady Higgens finds Riley and her daughter, Bryony, stranded on the side of the road in a storm, he pulls over and gives them a ride. Not because he cares about Riley, of course, but because of the kid. But after the simple car ride, he begins to question everything he thought he knew. Could Brady believe Riley and risk losing everything?
After the Hurricane: A Novel
by Leah FranquiNamed by Etaf Rum as one of the Best Beach Reads of All Time for "Read with Jenna!"Reminiscent of Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt, Leah Franqui brings us an engrossing, deeply personal novel with a mystery at its heart as a daughter returns to Puerto Rico to search for her troubled father, who has gone missing after Hurricane Maria. From the outside, Elena Vega’s life appears to be an easy one: the only child of two professional parents, private school, NYU. But her twenties are aimless and lacking in connection. Something has always been amiss in her life: her father, the brilliant but deeply troubled Santiago Vega. Born in rural Puerto Rico, Santiago arrived in New York as a small child. His harsh, mercurial father returned to the island, leaving Santiago to be raised by his mentally ill mother and his formidable grandmother. An outstanding student, he followed scholarships to Stanford, then Yale Law, marrying Elena’s mother along the way. Santiago is the shining star of his migrant family—the one who made it out and struck it rich. But he is a haunted man, plagued by trauma, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism. He’s lost contact with Elena over the years and returned to San Juan to wrestle his demons alone.Then Hurricane Maria strikes, and Santiago vanishes. Desperate to know what happened to the father she once adored, Elena returns to Puerto Rico, a place she loved as a child but hasn’t seen in years. There she must unravel the truth about who her father is, crisscrossing the storm-swept island and reaching deep into his family tree to find relatives she’s never met, each of whom seems to possess a clue about Santiago’s fate.A compelling mystery unfolds, as Elena is reunited with family, and with a place she loved and lost—the island of Puerto Rico, which is itself a character in this book. It’s a story of connection, migration, striving, love, and loss, illuminated by humor and affection, written by a novelist at the height of her gifts.
After the Moment
by Garret Freymann-WeyrA new novel by the Printz Honor author Garret Freymann-Weyr, about a boy who discovers what happens when love fails us-or we fail love.Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She's smart. She's brave. She's also a self-proclaimed train wreck. Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He's also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland. Their young love starts off like a romance novel-full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love. Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love.
After the Ocean
by Lauren E. RicoHow do you find your way back when you&’ve left yourself behind?A painful unsolved mystery resurfaces after decades of confusion, sending one woman and her daughters on a journey of redemption in this emotional story about intergenerational trauma, family, and the beauty of Puerto Rico for fans of Nina LaCour, Xochitl Gonzalez, Elizabeth Acevedo, Jodi Picoult, Celeste Ng, and Julia Alvarez.Thirty years ago, musicians Emilia Oliveras and Paul Winstead were married in Puerto Rico. Forty-eight hours later, Paul vanished from their honeymoon cruise, leaving Emilia devastated—and the prime suspect in his disappearance. So, she ran for her life, leaving behind her love, her dreams, and her identity.Today &“Emily Oliver&” is a divorced music teacher and mother of two daughters who know nothing about her past: Gracie, a talented attorney who excels in the courtroom but grapples with personal relationships, and Meg, a gifted concert pianist who wrestles with her ambition and purpose.When a cryptic caller claims the unthinkable—that Paul is alive, Emily returns to Puerto Rico in search of the truth. What she doesn&’t know is that her daughters aren&’t far behind. Shocked to find their mother isn&’t the woman they thought she was, Gracie and Meg wonder how much of their lives have been a lie.As the paths of the three women intertwine, they are compelled to confront their pasts, reevaluate their relationships, and seek forgiveness. Together they embark on a quest to unravel the mystery of Paul&’s disappearance and redefine their futures on their own terms, navigating a maze of family ties, secrets, and redemption.&“Lauren Rico's absorbing story touches upon social injustices and moral ambiguities, but at its heart, After the Ocean is a poignant reminder that healing cannot begin without truth and forgiveness." —Jamie Beck, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author&“A vivid tale of love, power, family, secrets, and the power of music. I was completely swept away by the characters and their emotional journeys.&” —Ellen Meister, author of Divorce Towers
After the Party: A Novel
by Lisa JewellFrom the internationally bestselling author of Ralph's Party comes a delightful new novel about the power of starting over.Eleven years ago, Jem Catterick and Ralph McLeary fell deeply in love. They thought it would be forever, that they'd found their happy ending. As everyone agreed, they were the perfect couple. Then two became four, and an apartment became a house. Romantic nights out became sleepless nights in. And they soon found that life wasn't quite so simple anymore. But through it all, Jem and Ralph still loved each other. Of course they did.Now Jem is back at work part-time as a talent agent. Ralph, a successful painter, is struggling to come up with new, hopefully groundbreaking, work for his upcoming show. But the unimaginable has happened. Two people who were so right together are starting to drift apart And in the chaos of family life, Jem feels like she's losing herself, while Ralph, stuck on the sidelines, feels like he's lost his muse altogether. Something has to change. As they try to find a way back to each other, back to what they once had, they both become momentarily distracted--but maybe it's not too late to recapture happily ever after...
After the Rain
by Aisling SmithMalti Fortune is uneasy. She has turned away from her birthplace of Fiji to make a new life in Melbourne. But all that she thought was certain is now in danger of being swept away. Her husband, Benjamin, a linguist, is a conundrum. He has changed. Or has she? The stories and superstitions of her childhood are telling her something she knows but doesn't want to hear - about being a trespasser, about not belonging.In the years to come, Malti and Benjamin's daughters are also to learn some hard truths. For Ellery, the hands-on father of her memories vanishes for months on end and the remembered fragments of good times aren't enough to sustain her anymore. Verona, on the verge of adulthood, can't imagine a world without her beloved Dad. He is her rock and hero. But Malti and Ellery both know that you can't depend on Benjamin.What makes a family? What does home look like? All three women are seeking answers. Each is haunted by her own ghosts. And by Benjamin. To find what they are looking for, they need to be honest with themselves and make peace with their own unreliable memories.After the Rain is a moving, exquisitely observed novel about marriage and family, dislocation, culture and belonging, from an exciting new voice in Australian literature.'A beautifully realised exploration of family, identity and dislocation. Smith beautifully captures complicated feelings around building a home in a new country, choosing your own path in life and realising your parents are just people, too' Books and Publishing'A thunderous debut full of life, love and legends. A truly sensational read!' WINNIE DUNN
After the Rain
by Karen WhiteFreelance photographer Suzanne Paris has been on her own since she was fourteen--and she has no intention of settling down, especially not in a tiny town like Walton, Georgia. She's here to hide out for a little while, not to form connections. <P><P>Her survival depends on her ability to slip in and out of people's lives, on never staying in one place for too long. But no one in Walton plans on making things easy for Suzanne. For one thing, it's a town where everyone knows everyone else--and they all seem intent on making Suzanne feel right at home. For another, Suzanne can't help but feel drawn to this tight-knit community--or to the town's mayor, Joe Warner, and his six kids. But Suzanne can't afford to stick around, even if she's finally found a place where she belongs. Because someone is looking for her--someone who won't stop until her life is destroyed... CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED
After the Rice
by Wendy FrenchMegan Ismore's bungalow isn't big enough to house her problems---or her relatives.Married just ten months, Megan's life with Matt would be grand if it weren't for a fast-growing secret she can't bear to share. As if that weren't enough, she's dealing with Matt's belching Uncle Tony, who is residing on an air mattress in the basement, and her sister Andrea, a roving hippie, who is nesting on their couch. Plus dueling mothers-in-law hell-bent on double-booking the newlyweds, an incontinent terrier, and a randy best friend. As midterm exams are about to begin, Megan's unweaned infant niece (a.k.a. The Pink Tyrant) is left in her care, and there's no time to spare for reexamining her life. Between the demands of her family and a gigantic decision only she and Matt can make, Megan finds herself in a state of marital chaos that she never imagined but must somehow manage.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
After the River the Sun
by Dia Calhoun Kate SlaterWith a little help from a friend, Eckhart learns how to rise above what weighs him down in this stunning companion to Eva of the Farm.When Eckhart Lyon arrives at Sunrise Orchard, all he wants to do is play video games and read about King Arthur's knights. Anything that helps him forget that his parents drowned in a river, forget his own cowardliness. Eckhart doesn't want to clear the dead orchard, or explore the canyon, or do anything else that stern Uncle Al asks. After all, Uncle Al is only taking him in on trial, and Eckhart can't imagine the orchard ever becoming his real home. Then, up in the canyon, he meets Eva--a girl with a wild imagination and boundless hope who knows all about King Arthur's knights. With her help, Eckhart sees that he is on a knightly quest of his own: a quest for home and courage. But what if he's forced to choose between a new home and his most treasured possession--a gift from his mom? In this companion to Eva of the Farm, author Dia Calhoun shows that with friendship, determination, and the grace of nature, we can overcome tragedy and rise toward the sun.
After the River the Sun
by Kate Slater Dia CalhounWill Eckhart find the courage to rise from his past--and climb to his future? This quest for home is a stunning companion to Eva of the Farm.When Eckhart Lyon arrives at Sunrise Orchard, all he wants to do is play video games and read about King Arthur's knights. Anything that helps him forget that his parents drowned in a river, forget his own cowardliness. Eckhart doesn't want to clear the dead orchard, or explore the canyon, or do anything else that stern Uncle Al asks. After all, Uncle Al is only taking him in on trial, and Eckhart can't imagine the orchard ever becoming his real home. Then, up in the canyon, he meets Eva--a girl with a wild imagination and boundless hope who knows all about King Arthur's knights. With her help, Eckhart sees that he is on a knightly quest of his own: a quest for home and courage. But what if he's forced to choose between a new home and his most treasured possession--a gift from his mom? In this companion to Eva of the Farm, author Dia Calhoun shows that with friendship, determination, and the grace of nature, we can overcome tragedy and rise toward the sun.
After the Storm: Postnatal Depression and the Utter Weirdness of New Motherhood
by Emma Jane Unsworth"How did it come to this? I am tough, I am smart, I have lived alone. Now I am cracking, right down the middle..."Six months after the birth of her son, Emma Jane Unsworth finds herself in the eye of a storm. Nothing - from pregnancy to birth and beyond - has gone as she expected. A birth plan? It might as well have been a rough draft! Furious and exhausted, her life is the complete opposite of what it used to be. She's swapped all night benders for a grazed labia and Whac-a-Moling haemorrhoids. How did she end up here?In this brave and hilarious account of postnatal depression, Emma tells her story of despair and recovery. She tackles the biggest taboos around motherhood and mental health, from botched stitches and bleeding nipples to anger and shame. How does pregnancy adapt our brains? Is postnatal depression a natural reaction to the trauma of modern motherhood? And are people's attitudes finally changing?Dazzling and vital, After the Storm is a celebration of survival, holding out a hand to women everywhere.
After the Train
by Gloria WhelanPeter Liebig can't wait for summer. He's tired of classrooms, teachers, and the endless lectures about the horrible Nazis. The war has been over for ten years, and besides, his town of Rolfen, West Germany, has moved on nicely. Despite its bombed-out church, it looks just as calm and pretty as ever. There is money to be made at the beach, and there are whole days to spend with Father at his job. And, of course, there's soccer. Plenty for a thirteen-year-old boy to look forward to. But when Peter stumbles across a letter he was never meant to see, he unravels a troubling secret. Soon he questions everything-the town's peaceful nature, his parents' stories about the war, and his own sense of belonging.
After the War
by Alice AdamsIn her final novel, published posthumously, Alice Adams returns to the Southern college town of Pinehill, the setting for her acclaimed Southern Exposure. Even after five years in Pinehill, Cynthia Baird is still considered a Yankee. And life has become more difficult since the beginning of the war. With Harry stationed in London, Cynthia finds life in a small town complicated not only be loneliness but also by a growing awareness of local racism and anti-Semitism. Their daughter Abigail is about to return north for college, and the two generations are forced to determine what they cherish and what they must leave behind. And as Abigail heads off to college, where she faces all the traditional complications of youth, we are drawn into an America caught between past and future, and two generations forced to determine what they cherish and what they must leave behind. Alice Adams's depiction of her native South--full, rich, affectionate, and always one of her many strengths--is at its most subtle and engrossing in After the War.
After the War is Over: A heart-warming story from the queen of saga writing
by Maureen LeeA heart-warming tale set in Liverpool and London during the post-war years, from bestselling author Maureen Lee'Queen of saga writing' My WeeklyLiverpool, 1945. Three women, firm friends, return home from the war and try to fit back into their old lives after they've been demobbed. They've been thrown together by the war, and have shared all sorts of good and bad times. Now their old lives seem dull in comparison. But not for long...The younger women, Maggie and Nell, are both twenty-one and are full of hope and excitement; Iris, on the other hand, is feeling apprehensive about returning to civilian life. At the age of thirty,her only wish in life is to have a baby, but sadly this wish has yet to come true.When one of the women falls pregnant, there begins a dramatic sequence of events so far-reaching that the three friends' lives will become more intricately interwoven than they could ever have imagined. Over the next quarter of a century, this story of three remarkable - and very different - women unfolds into an uplifting tale of how three ordinary families become extraordinary.
After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families
by Matthew J. Friedman Laurie B. SloneTwo experts from the VA National Center for PTSD provide an essential resource for service members, their spouses, families, and communities, sharing what troops really experience during deployment and back home. Pinpointing the most common after-effects of war and offering strategies for troop reintegration to daily life, Drs. Friedman and Slone cover the myths and realities of homecoming; reconnecting with spouse and family; anger and adrenaline; guilt and moral dilemmas; and PTSD and other mental-health concerns. With a wealth of community and government resources, tips, and suggestions, <i>After the War Zone</i> is a practical guide to helping troops and their families prevent war zone stresses from having a lasting negative impact.
After Tupac and D Foster
by Jacqueline WoodsonD Foster showed up a few months before Tupac got shot that first time and left us the summer before he died. <P><P> The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend's lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are crazy about Tupac Shakur's rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where he's coming from, and through knowing D, Tupac's lyrics become more personal for all of them. The girls are thirteen when D's mom swoops in to reclaim D--and as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone, too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply. <P> A Discussion Guide to After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson .<P> Newbery Honor book
After The Wall: Confessions From An East German Childhood And The Life That Came Next
by Jana Hensel Jefferson ChaseJana Hensel was thirteen on November 9, 1989, the night the Berlin Wall fell. In all the euphoria over German reunification, no one stopped to think what it would mean for Jana and her generation of East Germans. These were the kids of the seventies, who had grown up in the shadow of Communism with all its hokey comforts: the Young Pioneer youth groups, the cheerful Communist propaganda, and the comforting knowledge that they lived in a Germany unblemished by an ugly Nazi past and a callouscapitalist future. Suddenly everything was gone. East Germany disappeared, swallowed up by the West, and in its place was everything Jana and her friends had coveted for so long: designer clothes, pop CDs, Hollywood movies, supermarkets, magazines. They snapped up every possible Western product and mannerism. They changed the way they talked, the way they walked, what they read, where they went. They cut off from their parents. They took English lessons, and opened bank accounts. Fifteen years later, they allhave the right haircuts and drive the right cars, but who are they? Where are they going? InAfter the Wall, Jana Hensel tells the story of her confused generation of East Germans, who were forced to abandon their past and feel their way through a foreign landscape to an uncertain future. Now as they look back, they wonder whether the oppressive, yet comforting life of their childhood wasn't so bad after all.
After We Were Stolen: A Novel
by Brooke Beyfuss"Not a typical cult novel...Despite Avery's clear trauma and struggle for closure, her voice is strong and clear." – Booklist "Avery's voice resonates...Powerful and moving." – New York Journal of BooksAn emotionally wrought, psychologically twisty coming-of-age story perfect for book clubs about a girl who escapes from a cult after a deadly fire destroys her family's compound, only to be haunted by That Night as she tries to build a new life for herself.A fire. Her escape. And the realization her entire life has been a lie.When nineteen-year-old Avery awakens to flames consuming her family's remote compound, she knows it's her only chance to escape her father's grueling survival training, bizarre rules, and gruesome punishments. She and her brother Cole flee the grounds for the first time in their lives, suddenly homeless in a world they know nothing about. After months of hiding out, they are arrested for shoplifting and a shocking discovery is made, resulting in the pair being separated.Avery is alone and desperate. She is uncertain if her "parents" survived the fire and is terrified to find out. But when the police investigation reveals there may be more survivors, Avery must uncover the truth about the fire to truly be free.Suspenseful, emotionally charged, and deeply thought-provoking, After We Were Stolen delves into the idea of family—those we're born into and those we make—resilience, and the lengths a cult survivor will go to finally be free of her painful past. Praise for After We Were Stolen:"Brooke Beyfuss's After We Were Stolen kept me feverishly turning pages, anxious and eager to find out what happened to Avery and Cole as they emerge from a life they never asked for and into one they're totally unprepared to navigate." —Melanie Abrams, author of Meadowlark"After We Were Stolen is an intelligent and heartrending story of vulnerability, power, resistance, and redemption. An excellent read that is sure to be a favorite book club pick." —Rebecca Taylor, author of The Secret Next Door