Set in a sun-drenched Sicily, among the decadent Italian aristocracy of the late 1950s, Steven Price's Lampedusa explores the final years of Giuseppe Tomasi, the last prince of Lampedusa, as he struggles to complete his only novel, The Leopard. In 1955, Tomasi was diagnosed with advanced emphysema; shortly after, he began work on a novel that would fail to be published before his death four years later. When The Leopard at last appeared, it won Italy's...

Polyamorous Love Song, a novel of intertwined narratives concerning the relationship between artists and the world. Shot through with unexpected moments of sex and violence, readers will become acquainted with a world that is at once the same and opposite from the one, in which they live. With a diverse palette of vivid characters, from people who wear furry mascot costumes at all times, to a group of 'New Filmmakers' that devises increasingly unexpected...

"Most novels don't have footnotes," said a friend.True, but most novels aren't overtly based on real people. This one is. Carmelo and Nellie Tosto were my parents. Why is it a novel, a work of fiction? Because there wasn't enough documentable evidence about them to constitute a typical biography.Unlike today, with its surfeit of personal data – photos, videos, correspondence, diaries, and the like – the period between 1901 and 1939 afforded few...

Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled...

"[This story] is about Marilyn Monroe- voiced by her dog, Mafia Honey, or 'Maf,' for short. Maf is, naturally, versed in the classics, and as he and his owner spend time with such notables as Natalie Wood, Frank Sinatra, and JFK, he offers erudite commentary, sometimes in dialogue with other dogs, on such subjects as interior decorating, celebrity, authenticity, religion, and death. The strangeness of the scenario becomes more sensible as the book...

"With clear, vivid prose, this meticulously researched novel draws an intimate, moving portrait of the most famous living English painter. Born in 1937 in a small town in the north of England, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After leaving his home in Bradford for the Royal College of Art in London, his career flourished, but he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalized,...

First published in 1907, "The Shepherd of the Hills" is Harold Bell Wright's mostly fictional tale of people living in the foothills of the Ozarks. The story is principally concerned with the relationship of Grant Matthews, Sr., affectionately known in his community as "Old Matt", and "The Shepherd of the Hills", a wise old man who has chosen the peace of the backwoods over the hustle and bustle of the city. The Shepherd is a quiet and mysterious...

"Queen of diverse historicals Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti"--

A lush, dramatic biographical novel of one of the most glamorous and alluring legends of Hollywood's golden age, Marlene Dietrich-from the gender-bending cabarets of Weimar Berlin to the lush film studios of Hollywood, a sweeping story of passion, glamour, ambition, art, and war from the author of Mademoiselle Chanel. Raised in genteel poverty after the First World War, Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. When a budding career...

"In one of her most ambitious works, Joyce Carol Oates reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jean Baker - the child, the woman, the fated celebrity - in Norma Jeane's own voice. This most intimate portrait reveals a fragile, indiosyncratically gifted young woman who makes and remakes her identity, ever managing to survive against crushing odds to become the definition of stardom ... Blonde is a sweeping novel about the elusive...