"Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment,...

Albert Corde, newspaperman turned academic, accompanies his wife to visit her dying mother in Bucharest. At home in Chicago, his magazine articles and involvement in a student murder scandal have him in the middle of a raging controversy.

"Alex Cohen, a twenty-six-year-old Jewish Bostonian, is living in southern China, where his father runs their family-owned shoe factory. Alex reluctantly assumes the helm of the company, but as he explores the plant's vast floors and assembly lines, he comes to a grim realization: employees are exploited, regulatory systems are corrupt and Alex's own father is engaging in bribes to protect the bottom line. When Alex meets a seamstress named Ivy, his...

Eleven stories by an Indian woman on subjects ranging from caste to erotica. They include Lucky Dip, a romance between two girls of different class, and Just Between Indians, on a clash of Indian and American values. The author lives in the U.S.

As the Wanteds, Unwanteds, and Necessaries struggle to adjust to changes in their society, Mr. Today begins training fourteen-year-old Alex to replace him as Artime's leader one day while Alex's disgraced twin, Aaron, connives to take over Quill.

Sixteen-year-olds Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since childhood, but now, as their involvement with girls, gangs, and drugs increases, their relationship seems to gradually disintegrate.

Alternate chapters follow teenagers Todd and Viola, who become separated as the Mayor's oppressive new regime takes power in New Prentisstown, a space colony where residents can hear each other's thoughts.

"In a series of overlapping stories, John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer takes us from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age in a narrative collage that brings the complexity of the urban environment to life. From Wall Street to the waterfront, from the Bowery to the Village, from the city's grand avenues to its gritty alleys, its wealthy power brokers and its struggling immigrants, this kaleidoscopic novel conveys the restless energy of life in Manhattan....

"The author of South of Superior returns to that same territory and landscape with this story of a woman who, on the verge of losing the land and home that defines her, finds her way to a brighter future when she learns the power of giving to and accepting help from the community around her"--