Struggling to maintain a grasp on reality after his wife's suicide, a soul-searching and inebriated traveling salesman peddles beauty wares and quickies to lonely southern England housewives while his son waits in their car.

"Preston and Constance Whittier have built a happy life together, with a brood of six children raised in a beautiful historic Manhattan mansion. Now, with a nearly empty nest, it's easier than ever for the Whittiers to maintain their tradition of a solo romantic 'Wintermoon' ski trip. But this year's trip leads to tragedy, and suddenly the Whittiers' adult children find themselves reuniting in the family home without their parents for the first time...

"Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances--in their house, on the roadway, in the market..... Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, independent young woman, she is like a breath...

Leopold Bloom King, the narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death. Eventually he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe,...

Disillusioned by romance and love since her bitter divorce, a single mother has avoided personal relationships and abandoned her dream of opening a catering business, until she meets a widowed doctor who has come to Cape Light to build a new life for himself and his teenage daughter.

It looks like a familiar story: A woman reeling from a great loss with too much time on her hands and too much booze in her glass watches her neighbors, sees things she shouldn't see, and starts to suspect the worst. But looks can be deceiving. Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to her family's lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes...

Annie Dawson's discovery of a diary in the attic of Grey Gables has set her on a mission. The diary reveals a poignant love story from World War II, a story cut short when young Peter Lambert goes off to the European Theater, leaving his young girlfriend, Lilly Pryce, with a promise: He will come back to her. But that promise is smashed when Peter's mother receives notice from the War Department that Peter is missing and presumed dead while on a mission...

"Dave Robicheaux is a haunted man. From the acts he committed in Vietnam, to his battles with alcoholism, to the sudden loss of his beloved wife, Molly, his thoughts drift from one irreconcilable memory to the next. Images of ghosts pepper his reality. Robicheaux's only beacon remains serving as a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana. It's in that capacity that Robicheaux crosses paths with powerful mob boss, Tony Nemo. Tony has a Civil War sword he'd...