Eight linked stories tracing the history of a painting by the 17th century Dutch artist, Vermeer. In one, he paints his daughter to pay off debts, a second story describes the loss of the ownership papers, a third takes place on the eve of its theft by the Nazis. By the author of What Love Sees.

"Burning bright" is a novel about the 18th-century English poet/painter William Blake and the children who sparked his "Songs of innocence" and "Songs of experience." In March of 1792, young Jem Kellaway and his family move from their small rural village in the Piddle Valley to the bustling city of London. Jem's father, a chairmaker, has agreed to hire on as a carpenter with Astley's Circus.

Over a twenty-five period, Gore Vidal created a series of seven novels, which together are referred to as his American Chronicle novels. These novels capture American history in fiction in a way in which few writers have attempted, let alone succeeded. Lincoln is the fourth volume in the series. In this profoundly moving novel, a work of epic proportions and intense human sympathy, Lincoln is observed by his loved ones and his rivals. The cast...

A “revelatory” (The Boston Globe), “exhilarating” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of twelve stories that “[redraw] the boundaries between fiction and memoir” (O: The Oprah Magazine), from Nobel Prize–winning author Alice Munro
 
“Munro really does know magic: how to summon the spirits and the emotions that animate our lives.”—The Washington...

Regarded by many as the most luminous example of Twain's work, this historical novel chronicles the French heroine's life, as purportedly told by her longtime friend - Sieur Louis de Conte. A panorama of stirring scenes recount Joan's childhood in Domremy, the story of her voices, the fight for Orleans, the splendid march to Rheims, and much more. An amazing record that disclosed Twain's unrestrained admiration for Joan's nobility of character, the...

"In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise. Life magazine covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she's attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. Then she meets a fellow law student named Bill Clinton. A charismatic Southerner, Bill is already laying the groundwork for his political career. In each other, Hillary and Bill find a profound intellectual, emotional, and...

When beautiful, reckless, seventeen-year-old Zelda Sayre meets Lieutenant Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald at a country club dance, he isn't rich or settled; no one knows his people; and he wants, of all things, to be a writer in New York. After Scott sells his first novel, Zelda defies her parents to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is the Jazz Age, and for Zelda and Scott the future will be grander and stranger than they could...

"A novel about New York's "Swans" (socialites) of the 1950s--and the scandalous, headline-making, and enthralling friendship between literary legend Truman Capote and peerless socialite Babe Paley"-- Provided by publisher.

"George Sand was a 19th century French novelist known not only for her novels but even more for her scandalous behavior. After leaving her estranged husband, Sand moved to Paris where she wrote, wore men's clothing, smoked cigars, and had love affairs with famous men and an actress named Marie. In an era of incredible artistic talent, Sand was the most famous female writer of her time. Her lovers and friends included Frederic Chopin, Gustave Flaubert,...

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, this story evokes a dramatic existence in a distant tme and place. Here the author brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to...