Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker.

Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Life after crime from the International Booker-shortlisted author of Elena Knows. Fifteen years after killing her husband's lover, Inés is fresh out of prison and trying to put together a new life. Her old friend Manca is out now too, and they've started a business – FFF, or Females, Fumigation, and Flies – dedicated to pest control and private investigation, by women, for women.

But Señora Bonar, one of their clients, wants Inés to do more than kill bugs – she wants her expertise, and her criminal past, to help her kill her husband's lover, too.

Crimes against women versus crimes by women; culpability, fallibility, and our responsibilities to each other—this is Piñeiro at her wry, earthy best, alive to all the ways we shape ourselves to be understandable, to be understood, by family and love and other hostile forces.

Aliocha is racing toward Vladivostok with other Russian conscripts packed on a trans-Siberian train. Soon after boarding, he decides to desert. Over a midnight smoke in a dark corridor of the train, the young soldier encounters an older French woman, Hélène, for whom he feels an uncanny trust. He manages through pantomime and a basic Russian that Hélène must decipher to ask for her help.

As they hurry from the filth of his third-class carriage to Hélène’s first-class sleeping car, Aliocha becomes a hunted deserter and Hélène his accomplice with her own recent memories to contend with. Eastbound is both an adventure story and a duet of vibrant inner worlds. In evocative sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal tells the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness, sharply contrasting the brutality of their surrounding world.

By Your Side by Kasie West is an irresistible story that explores the timeless question: What do you do when you fall for the person you least expect?

When Autumn Collins finds herself accidentally locked in the library for an entire weekend, she doesn't think things could get any worse. But that's before she realizes that Dax Miller is locked in with her.

Autumn doesn't know much about Dax except that he's trouble. Between the rumors about the fight he was in (and that brief stint in juvie that followed it) and his reputation as a loner, he's not exactly the ideal person to be stuck with. Still, she just keeps reminding herself that it is only a matter of time before Jeff, her almost-boyfriend, realizes he left her in the library and comes to rescue her.

Only he doesn't come. No one does. Instead, it becomes clear that Autumn is going to have to spend the next couple of days living off vending-machine food and making conversation with a boy who clearly wants nothing to do with her. Except there is more to Dax than meets the eye.

As he and Autumn at first grudgingly, and then not so grudgingly, open up to each other, Autumn is struck by their surprising connection. But can their feelings for each other survive once the weekend is over and Autumn's old life, and old love interest, threaten to pull her from Dax's side?

Amanda Wilson is all geared up for an exciting gap-year, travelling across Europe. She soon finds her plans thwarted when she is abandoned in France with only a cellarful of Chateau Plonk, a large, orange Space Hopper, and Old Ted, the dog, for company.

Fate has intervened to turn Amanda's life on its head. First, the campervan breaks down. Then her dopey son, Tom, who is staying in their house in the UK, begins wrecking it, one piece at a time. The jaw-dropping video Skype calls that her irrepressible mother insists on making are, by contrast, making Amanda's humdrum trip even less palatable.

Finally, she discovers that her new-found, French friend, Bibi Chevalier, had engineered a plan to ensure that her philandering husband would never stray again; unfortunately, Amanda is unwittingly drawn into the scheme, becoming a target.

Meanwhile, on a beach in Sydney, a lonely Todd Bradshaw realises that his first true love, Amanda Wilson, is definitely the only woman for him. Can he get back into her good books and hopefully back into her arms with his latest plan? Or will fate intervene yet again and turn everyone's lives upside down?

Friends for Life is a timeless and uplifting book about friendship, filled with humor and heart. When Jessica sits next to Francis on a bench during recess, he's surprised to learn that she isn't actually alive—she's a ghost. And she's surprised, too, because Francis is the first person who has been able to see her since she died.

Before long, Francis and Jessica are best friends, enjoying life more than they ever have. When they meet two more friends who can also see Jessica, the question arises: What is it that they have in common? And does it have something to do with Jessica being a ghost?

Twenty-one-year-old Neka is a bit of an introvert, and she also happens to be stunningly beautiful. When she discovers her friend James is about to be dumped, she sees the perfect opportunity to escape from her quiet life. Can she summon the courage to leave it all behind?

James Copley comes from a ruthless family. It’s rubbed off. Years ago, he disengaged from his brother’s smear campaign, but now his father has offered him an ultimatum: “Get married or lose your seat at the table.” Plotting to stamp his design on the family business, he proposes to a woman, even though he doesn’t love her. But his carefully laid plans start to unravel when she leaves him on the day she’s due to meet his family. Could years of planning his comeback vanish with her departure?

A possible solution comes in an unexpected form: Neka. She’s not only a friend, but the daughter of his benefactor. And she’s right there, offering to support him. But will her support stretch to marriage? He attempts to win her over to his plan but collides with her powerful father who wants to leverage the situation for his own gain. In their fight for survival and love, they are forced to face some uncomfortable truths.

Can they overcome thwarted dreams and missed chances to find true love, or does forcing destiny’s hand only lead to misery?

The Year I Met You is a thoughtful, captivating, and ultimately uplifting novel by the uniquely talented Cecelia Ahern.

Jasmine knows two things: she loves her vulnerable sister unconditionally and will fight to the death to protect her from anyone who upsets her. She's only ever been good at one thing – her job helping business start-ups. So when she’s sacked and put on gardening leave, Jasmine realizes that she has nothing else to fill her life. Insomnia keeps her staring out of her bedroom window, and she finds herself watching the antics of her neighbour, shock jock Matt, with more than a casual eye.

Matt is also taking a forced leave of absence from work, after one of his controversial chat shows went too far. Jasmine has every reason to dislike Matt, and the feeling appears to be mutual. But not everything is as it seems, and soon Jasmine and Matt are forced to think again.

In the year that unfolds, Jasmine learns more about herself than she could ever imagine and more about other people than she ever dreamed. Sometimes friendship is found in the most unexpected of places.

Ciera

All I wanted was to be able to make it through my senior year. I didn’t need the stares, the jokes, or the bullies. I thought I could do it all on my own, but I was wrong. He filled my veins like a poison, the kind you can’t run from. Harsh and uncaring, he was broken, but somewhere along the way he seeped into my pores. There was no way out, so that left me with one choice: to open his eyes to the beauty around him. To help him live.

Topher

She wasn’t on my agenda; it was fate’s cruel way of telling me I needed to get my shit together. To be fair, my head was so far up my ass, I’m not sure how we extracted it. I knew the power I held over my peers, I exuded it daily. I could have any girl I wanted at the snap of my fingers, and yet I found myself fantasizing about her—someone so far off my radar it wasn’t even funny. She helped me understand that sometimes you need to let go to really live. Sometimes being alive means taking risks.

Learning to Live is the first book in the Infinite Love series.

When I was little, I believed in Jesus and Santa, spontaneous combustion, and the Loch Ness monster. Now I believe in science, statistics, and antibiotics.

So says seventeen-year-old Zac Meier during a long, grueling leukemia treatment in Perth, Australia. A loud blast of Lady Gaga alerts him to the presence of Mia, the angry, not-at-all-stoic cancer patient in the room next door. Once released, the two near-strangers can’t forget each other, even as they desperately try to resume normal lives.

The story of their mysterious connection drives this unflinchingly tough, tender novel told in two voices.

Author note: This is NOT a dark romance.

Delilah “Lily” Flynn is used to her drab existence. Lily’s been living it for twenty-two years. Her boring life is suddenly turned on its head when she’s rudely kidnapped from her bedroom. Or so she thinks.

Nox Taylor is far too high up in his field to be assigned a babysitting job. There’s nothing more he wants than to complete his mission so he can be rid of the smartass tomboy, Lily. Day after day, Nox watches Lily and her strange ways. She’s unlike any woman he’s ever met. Getting close to the girl is purely for her own protection…right?

Lily never imagined she’d make her first real friends in captivity. What lengths would she go through to keep them?

This is a stand-alone novel and is unrelated to Friend-Zoned.

You Are My Sunshine is the sequel to All My Love, Detrick, set during the Holocaust. When Helga Haswell becomes pregnant by a married SS officer who abandons her, she finds herself alone and desperate. Afraid to tell her parents that she is pregnant out of wedlock, her doctor suggests that Helga check into Heinrich Himmler’s home for the Lebensborn. This program, instituted by the Nazis, aims to create perfect Aryan babies. Helga, being of pure German blood and the child's father an SS officer, is accepted. Her child will have a good life because adoption is available only to the finest of Hitler’s Elite. During her pregnancy, Helga will have the finest food and medical care available, and instead of a life of shame, she will be honored for her efforts in producing a perfect Aryan child for the new world that Hitler is creating.

However, by the time Helga feels life stir within her womb, it is too late. She has already moved into Steinhoring, home for the Lebensborn, and there is no possibility of turning back. The papers are signed, and she cannot escape. Hitler owns her unborn child. On a cold day in January, Helga’s little girl is born. But instead of being sheltered by her mother’s arms, she is torn away by the nurses at the home for the Lebensborn and thrust into a treacherous world where the very people sworn to protect her are not what they seem. The little girl grows amongst some of the cruelest people on earth, subjected daily to the ideology of the Third Reich.

But as Hitler, convinced of his invincibility, goes to war on two fronts, Germany begins to fall. The Nazis become fearful as America enters the war, joining Churchill against them in the west, while Stalin, a formidable enemy with brutal Russian winters on his side, rips them apart in the east. The tables turn on the Third Reich. The cruel Nazis, who believed they could not be defeated, are about to swallow their pride and surrender at the feet of the Allies. The superior race proves to be inferior after all. Hitler’s elite run for cover, some commit suicide, some are tried in Nuremberg for crimes against humanity, while others escape with their tails tucked between their legs to South America or other friendly ports.

But God has other plans for Helga’s tiny innocent child, born on that January morning. The child’s life is about to change in a very strange but significant way. Instead of becoming whom and what the Nazis had hoped to create, this child will be befriended and nurtured by the most unexpected people.

From the quintessential author of wartime Germany, A Time to Love and a Time to Die echoes the harrowing insights of his masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front. After two years at the Russian front, Ernst Graeber finally receives three weeks’ leave. But since leaves have been canceled before, he decides not to write his parents, fearing he would just raise their hopes.

Then, when Graeber arrives home, he finds his house bombed to ruin and his parents nowhere in sight. Nobody knows if they are dead or alive. As his leave draws to a close, Graeber reaches out to Elisabeth, a childhood friend. Like him, she is imprisoned in a world she did not create. But in a time of war, love seems a world away. And sometimes, temporary comfort can lead to something unexpected and redeeming.

Seven minutes inside a hotel room with a complete stranger. A friendly greeting where we pretend to know each other well and are genuinely happy to see each other; then straight to business. None of it meaningful. None of it real. All of it rehearsed, choreographed, and expected.

My life isn't my own anymore. I pretty much go wherever I'm told and put on the show. It's my life and whether I chose it or not, it's the life I've got. It's the world I live in. And, I'm searching. Always searching... I just don't know what for.

Cab Stone has it all—fame, fortune and the adoration of millions of women across the globe. When the constant attention from fans and expectations from his handlers becomes too much, he escapes the craziness of press junkets and movie sets and retreats to Asheville, North Carolina to hide away for the summer. He expects peace, quiet, and solitude. What he doesn't expect is to meet a fiery redhead who changes everything he knows about the world.

The daughter of missionaries, Kei Sallee lives a life of service to others. She has little, expects less, and helps heal the hearts of thousands in Uganda, where she grew up. When she finds herself staying in the same guesthouse as Cab Stone, she vows to ignore his Greek god good looks and spend the summer as she had planned—in peace, quiet, and solitude.

Cab and Kei's lives couldn't be more different...or more the same. Despite, or perhaps because of, their vastly different yet startlingly similar backgrounds, Cab and Kei strike up an unlikely friendship that could possibly blossom into something more. But Kei fears that the truth about her past will prevent pretty-boy Cab, who is used to getting everything he wants, from fully committing to her.

When two completely different worlds experience a Collision, can they exist as one?

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut.

Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel, he will steal your heart.

The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village.

Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is a captivating multi-generational tale with dark aspects and a touch of witchcraft. It tells the story of Truly, a girl grown massive due to a pituitary problem, who finds her calling and a future that no one expected.

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting on how record-breakingly huge the baby boy would be. The girl who turned out to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth and was ill-equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister, Serena Jane.

Separated after her father's death, Serena Jane lives a life of privilege, while Truly lives on the outskirts of town, enduring constant abuse. Serena Jane's beauty becomes both a blessing and a curse, leading to an obsession by Bob Bob Morgan, a classmate from a line of doctors. The town's history is intertwined with witchcraft, as the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson.

When Serena Jane flees a loveless marriage, Truly must become the woman of an unwanted house and mother to her nephew. Her brother-in-law is relentless in his cruelty, but Truly's discovery of her ability to heal with herbs offers her a path to regain control over her life.

Unearthed family secrets lead to betrayals that threaten to break the Morgan family apart forever. However, Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for an uprooting of Aberdeen County and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

Risa Koizumi is the tallest girl in class, and the last thing she wants is the humiliation of standing next to Atsushi Otoni, the shortest guy. Fate and the whole school have other ideas, and the two find themselves cast as the unwilling stars of a bizarre romantic comedy duo.

Rather than bow to the inevitable, Risa and Atsushi join forces to pursue their true objects of affection. But in the quest for love, will their budding friendship become something more complex?

When the news went out that Sylvester Rayne, the elegant, impeccable Duke of Salford, was seeking a wife, all England was aflutter! Lord Sylvester is a polished bachelor who has stringent requirements for his future wife — she must be well-born, intelligent, elegant, and attractive. And of course, she must be able to present herself well in high society.

But when he is encouraged to consider Phoebe Marlow as a bride, Sylvester is taken aback by the coltish woman who seems to resent him. The first time Sylvester met Phoebe, he found her dull and insipid. Phoebe was a hoydenish country miss with literary aspirations. And when she was snubbed by the Duke, she thought he was insufferably arrogant. In fact, she deemed him the most arrogant rake she'd ever met. In secret, she'd fashioned the villain and a knave in her romance novel unmistakably after Sylvester!

Phoebe meets none of the Duke's criteria for a fiancée. But when Phoebe ran away, she got his attention and fancy. Intrigued, Sylvester decides that if Petruchio could tame Katherine, he had no doubt he could tame Phoebe. And when a series of unforeseen events leads them to be stranded together in a lonely country inn, they are both forced to reassess their hastily formed opinions, and they begin to discover a newfound liking and respect for each other, finding themselves striking up an unusual friendship.

Phoebe discovers that the Duke isn't the villain she first thought. And Sylvester stumbles upon something he never dared hope for... But what Sylvester doesn't know is that Phoebe has just published a novel — a novel in which all London will recognize him. But how could she guess her book would be a scandalous success? Or that the man she had cast as a villain would become the heartbreaking hero of her dreams?

In a Pennsylvania meadow, a young fireman and an angry gambler are forced to build a wall of fifteenth-century stone. For Jim Nashe, it all started when he came into a small inheritance and left Boston in pursuit of "a life of freedom." Careening back and forth across the United States, waiting for the money to run out, Nashe met Jack Pozzi, a young man with a temper and a plan.

With Nashe's last funds, they entered a poker game against two rich eccentrics, "risking everything on the single turn of a card." In Paul Auster's world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a shifting and powerful force, there is redemption, nonetheless, in Nashe's resolute quest for justice and his capacity for love.

Rupert didn't especially want to be a prince. And he certainly never asked to be the second son of a royal line that really didn't need a spare. So he was sent out to slay a dragon and prove himself—a quest straight out of legend. But he also discovered the kinds of things legends tend to leave out, as well as the usual demons, goblins, the dreaded Night Witch—and even worse terrors hidden in the shadows of Darkwood.

Rupert did find a fiery dragon—and a beautiful princess to rescue. But the dragon turned out to be a better friend than anyone back at the castle, and with the evil of Darkwood spreading, Rupert was going to need all the friends he could get.