A picaresque adventure and spiritual coming-of-age tale -- On the Road crossed with Henderson the Rain King Deeply affecting. --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction A captivating, often hilarious novel of family and wilderness from the bestselling author of The Circle , this is a powerful examination of our contemporary life and a rousing story of adventure. Josie and her childrens father have split up, shes been sued by a former patient and lost her dental practice, and shes grieving the death of a young man senselessly killed. When her ex asks to take the children to meet his new fiancées family, Josie makes a run for it, figuring Alaska is about as far as she can get without a passport. Josie and her kids, Paul and Ana, rent a rattling old RV named the Chateau, and at first their trip feels like a vacation: They see bears and bison, they eat hot dogs cooked on a bonfire, and they spend nights parked along icy cold rivers in dark forests. But as they drive, pushed north by the ubiquitous wildfires, Josie is chased by enemies both real and imagined, past mistakes pursuing her tiny family, even to the very edge of civilization. A tremendous new novel from the best-selling author of The Circle , Heroes of the Frontier is the darkly comic story of a mother and her two young children on a journey through an Alaskan wilderness plagued by wildfires and a uniquely American madness.
Thomas, a man in search of answers, interrogates a varied group of people he has captured, including an astronaut, a policeman, and his own mother, in his quest to resolve questions concerning injustices.
New York Times Notable Book New York Times Bestseller What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children --the so-called Lost Boys--was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
The Monk of Mokha is the exhilarating true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sanaa by civil war. Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemens central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the countrys rugged mountains and meet beleagured but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.
"This is a beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book." --San Francisco Chronicle National Bestseller Pulitzer Prize Finalist A book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.
