Showing results for "The Secret of Life" in Literary Fiction

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.

Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of the aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty, that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian—no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.

A poignant and irresistible story about an improbable hero and the woman who saves him. Sam Holloway is a survivor, but he’s not really living. His meticulous routines and quiet lifestyle keep everything nice and safe—with just one exception… Three nights a week, Sam dons his superhero...

SOON TO BE A NETFLIX SERIES! Award-winning author Lola Shoneyin delivers an irresistible and entertaining story of marriage, family, power, and heartache set in modern-day Nigeria in her debut novel. When Baba Segi woke up with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do...

A NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HENNA ARTIST, A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Good Morning America’s “27 Books for June" PopSugar’s Best Summer Reads of 2021 In New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to...

Thirty-two-year-old Jess Abbot has lost everything: her job, her apartment, and - most heart-wrenching - her eight-year-old son, Chance, to a tragic accident. Haunted by memories and grief, Jess packs what’s left and heads for the small mountain town of Pine Lake, where she takes a position as caregiver to an eccentric old woman. A rumored clairvoyant, Lucy is strange but welcoming and immediately intuits Jess as a “loose end” in need of closure. But Jess isn’t the only guest in Lucy’s large Victorian home.

Packed with authentic Southern flavor and characters as colorful as an azalea in full bloom, The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes serves up stinging one-liners and earthy wisdom in equal measure.

Ae-ran Kim's My Brilliant Life explores family bonds and out-of-the-ordinary friendships, interweaving the past and present of a tight-knit family, finding joy and happiness in even the most difficult times. Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang - his 60-year-old neighbor and best friend - and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see.

In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true.

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.

There was so much anger brewing in the child that sometimes Alicia feared for all of them. And now she had gone and done this terrible thing. This terrible, terrible thing. Tara has lost her voice. She knows there was pain and fear, but she cannot remember anything else. Now she can answer the questions only with silence. Minnie has buried her voice for years, losing herself in silence and isolation, keeping her secrets safe and her broken heart concealed. Liam finds refuge in silence; it is a place to go to when he cannot get the words out.

Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi - her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant - who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.

At 37, Tessa Harlow is still working her way down her list of goals to "fall in love and have a family". A self-described rolling stone, Tessa leads hiking tours for adventurous vacationers - a job that's taken her around the world but never a step closer to home. Then a freak injury during a trip already marred by tragedy forces her to begin her greatest adventure of all.

When Jill's husband discovers he can never have children, it tears a hole in their marriage that Jill doesn't know how to repair. Frustrated, she seeks comfort in her friends: fierce Leigh, with her high-powered career and doting family, and sweet, uncomplicated Wendy, who has a rock-solid marriage any woman would envy.

Colette est de retour dans son Morvan natal, après de longues années d’absence, pour y veiller sa mère mourante. Confrontée une fois de plus au mutisme familial, elle décide de faire la lumière sur l’évènement qui, un soir de juillet 1969, a tout fait basculer. De découverte en découverte, elle obtiendra des réponses qui iront bien au-delà de sa quête et feront voler en éclat ses certitudes.

In the blink of an eye, life as Gabbie knows it crumbles. With her deceitful husband gone and her family shattered, she's left with no choice but to return to her childhood home – a house haunted by the woman who shattered their lives. Her stepmother. Her father's final wish was for his second wife to reside in their home indefinitely, a fact her stepmother clung to without a hint of leaving. Their relationship, strained and distant, must now weather an unexpected storm as she seeks her stepmother's help – for her daughters' sake, Olivia and Alice.

For Emily Rossi, life may not be perfect, but it's pretty close. She has a great career, a house in the country, a solid marriage to Eric and two wonderful children - tennis superstar Daniel and quiet, sensitive Zara. But when her fourteen-year-old daughter brings home a toxic new best friend, Emily’s seemingly perfect family starts to spiral out of control.

At the Valley View Motel in South Australia's picturesque Clare Valley, 84-year-old Lola Quinlan is up to her usual mischief. She's sent her family away for Christmas and invited a number of mystery guests to come and stay. But who are all these people, and why aren't they spending the festive season with their own loved ones? As the big day draws closer and Lola's personal family dramas threaten to unravel her plans, she discovers that at a special time of year, magic can happen in every family.

Treize ans après un accident tragique qui avait coûté la vie à son père, Malo revient sur la presqu'île de Crozon de son enfance. Sa mère Emeline avait quitté discrètement le petit port breton de Camaret-sur-Mer avec Malo, alors âgé de dix ans, pour s'installer à Marseille. Le jeune homme est décidé à établir la vérité sur l'accident qui a changé le cours de leur existence. Les découvertes qu'il va faire vont bouleverser sa vie.

On the surface Sloane has the perfect life - an adoring husband, a precocious daughter, and enough financial security to be a stay-at-home mom. Still, she can't help but feel as though something - or someone - is missing.