Virginia Woolf's third novel, Jacob's Room (1922) differs from its two predecessors in its experimental, abstract approach to writing. Jacob Flanders' life is examined largely through the impressions and accounts of others in his life, mostly women, creating a portrait of a young man both representative of and victimized by Edwardian society. The novel coincided with Woolf's emerging interest in feminism and is critical of the righteous patriarchy...

Determined to overreach his humanity and assert his untrammelled individual will, Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the Tsars, commits an act of murder and theft and sets into motion a story which, for its excrutiating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its profundity of characterization and vision, is almost unequaled in the literatures of the world. The best known of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, Crime and Punishment...

"With this brilliant novel, the bestselling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys gives us an exhilarating triumph of language and invention, a stunning novel in which the tragicomic adventures of a couple of boy geniuses reveal much about what happened to America in the middle of the twentieth century. Like Phillip Roth's American Pastoral or Don DeLillo's Underworld, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a...

This Irish bad-boy thriller, set in the hardest streets of New York City, introduces us to Michael Forsythe, an illegal immigrant escaping from the Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Clever, fearless, and handy with a pistol, young Michael is just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a New York crime boss, to join his gang of thugs fighting for their turf. But just as Michael is being anointed Darkey's rising star, he inadvisably seduces

...

Devastated by the suicide of his prep-school roommate and disdaining the trappings of his affluent Manhattan life, Jason transfers to another school and bonds with a troubled classmate whose subsequent death compels Jason to uncover the truth, in a tale set against a backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse

Thomas's problems are more serious than those of a typical young Victorian gentleman. His elder brother may be sabotaging the family's bank. His childhood friend has died under mysterious circumstances. Far worse, leaves are sprouting on Thomas's skin. Perhaps it is all the fault of the long-rumored "Peculiarities" lurking in London's grey fog? Proper society scoffs at the notion of magic, even as it seeps into their buildings, transfiguring the rich...

Gods should never meddle in the affairs of mortals, but Xie Lan is not one to follow the rules when lives are at risk. He spits in the face of heaven and its laws and descends in a fury to save his country from drought and civil war. Yet this golden child gets a harsh dose of reality when he discovers just how little one individual--even a god--can do to save a crumbling nation. As the people reject and betray him, one young soldier stands by Xie...

Collects three early novels by the influential English author. Burmese days: In the hermetic world of 1930s colonial Burma, a corrupt Burmese politician uses the powers of his office to win membership in a British club. Keep the aspidistra flying: A poor young Londoner, who disdains conventional lifestyles and goals, works by day in a bookstore and writes by night in a cold rented room. Coming up for air: An insurance salesman's win of a small sum...

"An autobiographical novel about growing up gay in a working-class town in Picardy. "Every morning in the bathroom I would repeat the same phrase to myself over and over again. Today I'm really gonna be a tough guy." Growing up in a poor village in northern France, all Eddy Bellegueule wanted was to be a man in the eyes of his family and neighbors. But from childhood, he was different -- "girlish," intellectually precocious, and attracted to other...