Joe Faber’s a funny guy, good with his hands, and great with words – until the stroke which leaves him severely disabled. But this is more than his story. Wife Fran has a job she loves. Daughter Jess, a wedding to plan. There’s heartbreak and absurdity along the way - but humour is the family’s greatest asset in the drive to get Joe back on his own two feet.Written by a caregiver. Truthful, balanced, warm.

'Administering hope and regular hearty laughs, it's a powerful antidote to despair...'

- Susan Elderkin, co-author,

The Novel Cure

‘Things I love about it: the drama, the humour – particularly Joe's – which made me laugh out loud, the richness of the wider family, the tangible fierce love and passion between Fran and Joe, the eccentricity of the wider family, the evocation of the Scottish landscape, the immersion in the language and culture of the fiddle… It’s a very lively book that is VERY hard to put down’

– Pippa Wainwright

'A thoroughly enjoyable read whether or not you've been affected by stroke, Joe Faber and the Optimists really ought to be recommended reading in stroke clinics around the world.'

– Michelle Ryles,

The Book Magnet

'Engaging and uplifting.... Moving, funny and unexpected.' 'A wonderful read... It feels very real and very poignant... It's also very funny.' '... told with humour and grace.' 'A story of determination, optimism and love.' 'A book I will definitely share.'

“Oates is a fearless writer.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Oates is a master of the dark tale—stories of the hunted and the hunter, of violence, trauma, and deep psychic wounds.”

—Booklist (starred review)

Sourland is a gripping, haunting, and intensely moving collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates, one of America’s preeminent authors. Unforgettable tales that re-imagine the meaning of loss—often through violent means—Sourland is yet another extraordinary read from the literary icon who has previously brought us The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Blonde, We Were the Mulvaneys, and numerous other classic works of contemporary fiction.

Three novellas filled with “gallows humor and a sense of real peril,” by the acclaimed author of

The Book of Strange New Things

(

The New York Times

).

The bestselling author of

The Crimson Petal and the White

“draws his characters with assured comic efficiency” (

The Guardian

), using “evocative language” to offer up “intriguing glimpses of unfamiliar worlds” (

Los Angeles Times

), in these acclaimed novellas.   In “The Courage Consort,” an a cappella vocal ensemble is sequestered in a Belgian château to rehearse a monstrously complicated new piece, but competing artistic temperaments and sexual needs create as much discordance as the avant-garde music. In “The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps,” a lonely woman joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey and unearths a mystery involving a long-hidden murder. And in “The Fahrenheit Twins,” strange children, identical in all but gender, are left alone at the icy zenith of the world by their anthropologist parents to create their own ritual civilization.   From a wildly inventive author whose novel

The Book of Strange New Things

was named one of 2014’s best reads by everyone from the

New Yorker

to io9,

The Courage Consort

is an eclectic collection of well-told tales, in which Michel Faber “marches on, establishing himself as one of the most versatile fiction writers working today” (

Kirkus Reviews

).   “Readers will again be immersed in the intense worlds he creates.” —

Publishers Weekly

Roland Marks is a Nobel Prize winning novelist with a penchant for younger women and four marriages behind him. Lou-Lou Marks, his grown daughter, is a successful academic in her own right. But her real career lies in attending to her father. An egomaniacal and emotionally manipulative man, he demands of her absolute filial loyalty and an uncompromising acquiescence to his every need—her only reward is his approval, which she feels she never fully receives, but desperately desires. When Roland falls in love with a woman fifty years his junior, Lou-Lou senses the precarious decline of her power. Intent on preventing Roland from marrying for a fifth time and signing away his estate—and her inheritance—the relationship takes a darkly comical turn. Astute, insightful, and mordantly hilarious,

Patricide

is Joyce Carol Oates at her best.

A juicy, sprawling comedy of manners about a group of thirtysomethings navigating friendship, love, and their fledgling careers among Houston’s high-powered, oil-money eliteThirty-year-old Vivienne Cally is wealthy in name only. Orphaned as a child and raised by a cold but regal aunt, Vivienne was taught to rely on her beauty and Texas tradition, and is expected to marry a wealthy and respectable man who will honor the Cally name. Friends with Houston's richest and most prominent families, she's a beloved fixture at the social events big and small, and suffers no shortage of access to some of the city's most eligible bachelors. Preston Duffin has known Vivienne and her set since childhood. He's never shared their social aspirations or their status but is liked and respected for his sharp wit and intelligence. About to graduate from a prestigious architecture program, he is both fascinated and repelled by this group of friends he sits on the cusp of. He's long admired Vivienne's beauty and grace, but isn't sure he holds any place in such a traditional life. Intrigued by Preston's ambitions and the extent to which he challenges the only way of life she's ever known, Vivienne both courts Preston's attention, and rebuffs his critiques of her predictable and antiquated priorities and values. Inspired by Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Yvonne Georgina Puig's A Wife of Noble Character shares the original novel’s astute social commentary at the same time that it illuminates the trappings and rewards of coming of age that are wholly unique to the twenty-first century. Charming and shrewd at once, this Texas love story takes readers from Houston to Paris and Switzerland and back again, and will speak to both fans of Wharton and anyone who has every struggled to find their way in life.

Thirty-something midwesterner Mark Fife believes he has successfully moved past the accidental death of his young son Brendan, as well as his subsequent divorce from his college sweetheart Chloe. He's successful, he's in love again, and he believes he's mastered his own memories. But then he is contacted by a strange woman who tells him not only that she owns his old house, but that she believes it to be haunted by Brendan's ghost. Will Mark--who does not believe in ghosts--come to accept the mounting evidence that Brendan's is real? Will his engagement to his new love Allison be threatened by the reappearance in Mark's life of Chloe--who does believe? If the ghost is real, what can these two wounded parents do to help their son?

You Came Back

examines the beauty and danger of belief in all its forms--not only belief in the supernatural, but in the love that binds parents and children, husbands and wives.