A Year of Cats and Dogs

"Hawkins spins an offbeat and delightful tale of a midlife anti-crisis. Maryanne is the 49-year-old owner of Clement, an orange cat, and Bob, a seven-year-old Rottweiler. Ex-boyfriend Phillip has just moved out, ending their 10-year relationship, which leaves Maryanne feeling blah, so she resolves to 'go AWOL from the productive world.' Then she realizes she has a gift for speaking with animals, which segues into a part-time gig at an animal shelter. As Maryanne recasts her life, Hawkins inserts quirky recipes (Quitting Your Job and Vowing to Be Frugal Stew, Chicken Soup for the Sad) into the unhurried and lighthearted narrative. A pleasant departure from the standard midlife crisis story." —Publishers Weekly

"Hawkins, a Chicago critic and writer, has a fashioned a first novel that deftly traces the eruption and easing of emotional incoherence, while addressing serious questions of life and death with jaunty and edgy humor not unlike that of best-selling Jennifer Weiner." —Booklist

"Hawkins seamlessly weaves together many eclectic elements: soup recipes, I Ching meditations, bits of maudlin poetry, a pet's simple request for toast, the heartache of death. You don't have to be an animal lover to enjoy this funny and moving debut novel." —Joy Humphrey, Library Journal

"When I call Margaret Hawkins's debut novel original and ambitious, it is the highest praise I can give, because not only has Hawkins produced one of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking novels I've read, she's done so using a premise that is utterly fresh and interesting. This is an engaging yet reflective story of a likable woman searching for meaning in her cluttered life, and I highly recommend it." —Allison Campbell, On My Bookshelf

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Seducing the Spirits

“Anthropologist Louise Young has turned her nearly two decades working with the indigenous Kuna people of Panama into a compassionate and passion-filled debut novel of a white woman’s journey into this unique culture. Grad student Jenny Dunfrey is an ornithologist studying the harpy eagle when she’s sent off to do her research in a remote area near the Colombian border where she knows neither the language nor the culture. Her only directive: 'don’t piss off the natives'. Slowly, as Jenny makes progress on her research of the eagles, so, too, does she learn about the Kuna, who are fascinated with her: a tall, blonde American from Montana. Young does an excellent job with the supporting cast. Pedro is a protector; Litos, the devoted friend; Eulogio 'the most handsome man' Jenny has ever seen; and Ceferino, the community healer. As Jenny navigates these new friendships—and avoids the one American, a caricature of a violent white missionary—she gets herself into trouble, but also absorbs the culture in many unexpected ways. Young’s narrative is enthralling and entertaining—a decidedly fun, exotic read.” —Publishers Weekly (Book of the Week on 9/7/09)

“While at first overwhelmed by the cultural divide, Jenny is able to find comfort and friendship among some of the townspeople, although she struggles to resist handsome and mysterious Ceferino. Through their evolving relationship, the reader is able to divine the region’s dangerous and seductive beauty, and the nature of the indigenous outlook, while Jenny battles spirits that seem intent on conquering her very soul. It is clear from her gorgeous descriptions that Young knows this wild place and its people intimately. Her striking debut is a seductive, exciting, and eye-opening tale of cultural collision, revelation, and understanding.” —Booklist

"Louise Young writes in living botanical color, providing breathtaking visions of a perfect paradise. You will find yourself unable to avoid the seduction and allure she has created.” —Wisteria Leigh in BlogCritics.org

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Houri

An autobiographical novel that looks at changes in Iran between the late 1960s and the early 1980s through the eyes of a 12-year-old Iranian boy and the boy as a man some 14 years later. The childhood scenes are sharply rendered. Baba, Shahed's father, is a selfish, greedy spendthrift and perpetual debtor who literally takes food off Shahed's plate; other men fare no better, from Shahed's opium-addict uncle “E” to a school principal who uses his blindness as an excuse to grope schoolgirls. But then there's the houri (Persian for “nymph of paradise”) of the title, the sexy, wealthy neighbor who was the object of the preteen Shahed's fantasies. Iran's struggles under a repressive regime provide the backdrop to this revealing story, but the book succeeds more as a fictionalized memoir. —Publishers Weekly

Journalist Balali’s bitter first novel about Iran, from which he is now banned, contrasts his native country before and after the Islamic revolution. Comparisons to The Kite Runner are unavoidable. —Kirkus

As with many other Iranian novels and memoirs, the violent political turmoil is vividly rendered, the cruelty and suffering both before and after the revolution. But what sets this autobiographical novel apart is the personal detail, the intimate vignettes that show how the past affects Shahed now. Always he is haunted by sexy Houri, the woman he fantasized about as a boy. The father-son standoffs are unforgettable in this wrenching coming-of-age story. —Booklist

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Small Kingdoms

"Hobbet's compelling novel is set in Kuwait between the Gulf Wars, with the country poised for the next wave of unexpected terror while coming to grips with the last: 'He'd expected to see some scars of the war. But there was nothing that spoke of the violence, not even a tank posed as a public memorial.' Hobbet's disparate protagonists come from different classes, countries and faiths: devoutly Muslim, wealthy Mufeeda; her young Indian cook, Emmanuella; California doctor Theo; Theo's Arabic teacher, Hanaan (a Palestinian); and timid American housewife Kit (also Mufeeda's neighbor). Each character is, to varying degrees, a misfit in a society beset by violence and ancient practices. When news of murdered maids begins circulating, several characters undertake a precarious plan to save a maid in danger, a dangerous mission with the potential to change all their lives permanently. Hobbet's extensive knowledge of Kuwait's people, customs and political landscape combine to make an immersive, authentic novel about Middle East life." — Publishers Weekly

“A gripping book, written with clarity, grace and insight. I’m in awe of the way Anastasia Hobbet moves so smoothly, comfortably and convincingly between so many worlds—whether you’re with the servants or at the hospital, whether you’re with the Kuwaitis or the Americans or any other nationality, one seem perfectly at home, and all these interconnected worlds are rendered with great respect and become real to us because of her precise observation. Hobbet handles the politics very deftly, and has the knack of creating good people who are also interesting people, which is far from easy to do” —Hilary Mantel, winner, 2009 Man Booker Prize for Wolf Hall

“A story of tangled East-West relations in Kuwait six years after the first Gulf War. Hobbet (Pleasure of Believing, 1997) employs a deft touch as she moves into delicate areas of cultural misunderstanding and romantic complication.” —Kirkus

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The Chester Chronicles



Both charming, funny, innocent, and touching, each chapter chronicles a pivotal moment in his life, in settings that vary from the Far East to the Wild West, over a time period that includes the birth of rock n’ roll, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"An eloquent, stylish novel-in-stories, 16 tales narrated by Chester Patterson, an “Army brat,” who highlights his life from his sixth-grade crush in 1954 through the mid-1960s, when he’s “officially an adult,” and, finally, his father’s interment at Arlington National Cemetery. The short stories in this evocative coming-of-age cycle bring to mind the stories of Lorrie Moore." —Publishers Weekly

“Kermit Moyer is one of America's undiscovered treasures. I find myself periodically imagining a parallel world that's exactly like this one, except that in the other world, Moyer occupies his proper place in the literary universe. I can only hope that world is on its way.” —Michael Cunningham

“Both heartbreaking and funny, Moyer has absolute perfect pitch when it comes to Chester’s voice and the times in which he lives.” —Alice McDermott

" Kermit Moyer is a master craftsman, each story in this volume exactingly wrought and righteously rendered." —Lee K. Abbott

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A Theory of All Things

Tragedy tore the Bennett children apart when their mother walked out on them after the birth of her last child, followed by the suicide of a brother. Now, the five grown siblings, each brilliant, troubled and a little wacky, face personal crises that will bring them back together in a new way.

Mark, a student at Stanford University is brilliant at String Theory but a novice at relationships. Having made a fatal faux pas at a university function, he now must have “sessions” with the university’s formidable psychologist, Dr. Himmel, and family issues—as well as the hopeless love he carries for a co-worker—emerge.

Mary, the eldest sister and surrogate mother, struggles with caring for their father Frank, a once famous furniture- maker, whose dementia is spiraling beyond Mary’s control.

Luke, the fragile youngest brother has been latched onto by a tattooed nymph named Willow.

Ellie, artist and free spirit, whose much younger lover has left her pregnant and alone on a far-flung Greek island, asks Mary to come get her and bring her home to Santa Barbara to have her baby.

Sarah, Ellie’s identical twin, and up and coming New York photographer, has a drama of her own. She has discovered a homeless woman who may or may not be her mother, Jean.

Told in e-mails, missed phone messages, and their unique and sometimes heartbreaking voices, A Theory of All Things weaves a lyrical, mesmerizing story of a family, who has loved and lost, who is broken, but is mending.

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