Showing results for "Living" in Coming of Age

One of New York’s finest saves brilliant and debonair (but drug-addicted) Daniel Topler from his suicide attempt on the George Washington Bridge. In court, the judge entrusts the young man to the care of Dr. Jacob Bernstein, an elderly psychiatrist at an upscale rehab clinic. The doctor issues these commands: Obey the no-drugs rules and join the geriatric temple men’s group he leads - or face incarceration. Dan has no choice but to comply. Dan’s prep school friends initially lure him back to the drugs, booze, and women. But all that changes when he meets Bernstein’s daughter, Laura....

In 1975 Lucinda Marsh throws herself in front of a speeding train leaving her 12-year-old daughter Kitty alone, confused and abandoned – save for a selfish aunt, a violent father and her childhood sweetheart Harry Jenkins. When Kitty is sent to an orphanage after the death of her father, she meets Georgie, a lively cockney girl who, through the following difficult years, becomes her loyal friend. Convinced that her feelings for Harry will ruin the brilliant future that lies ahead of him, Kitty turns her back on his love.

It’s the final years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Bríd and her sister, Ina, try to maintain a stable life in a divided country. Pushed by her mother’s fanaticism and a family tragedy, Bríd joins the IRA and makes a devastating choice. Frightened and guilt ridden, she flees, leaving behind Ireland and her family for America. Years later, her guilt and tragic history still buried, Bríd is an overprotective mother raising her sensitive daughter, Bernie, in Southern California.

Conrad Aybinder is a boy with a secret; 16 and ready for anything. A chemistry genius, he has spent the summer on an independent-study project with his favorite teacher, Sammy Tampari. Sammy is also Conrad’s first love. But the first day of senior year, the students are informed that Mr. Tampari is dead. Rumors suggest an overdose. How can it be? Drugs are for unhappy people, Conrad is sure, not for people who have fallen in love.

A young woman climbs the tallest tree in Istanbul’s centuries-old Gülhane Park, determined to live out the rest of her days there. Perched in an abandoned stork’s nest in a sanctuary of branches and leaves, she tries to make sense of the rising tide of violence in the world below. Torn between the desire to forget all that has happened and the need to remember, her story, and the stories of those around her, begins to unfold.