Brave Enemies (46 page)

Saving the World
,
a novel by Julia Alvarez

While Alma Huebner is researching a new novel, she discovers the true story of Isabel Sendales y Gómez, who embarked on a courageous sea voyage to rescue the New World from smallpox. The author of
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
and
In the Time of the Butterflies
, Alvarez captures the worlds of two women living two centuries apart but with surprisingly parallel fates.

“Fresh and unusual, and thought-provokingly sensitive.” —
The Boston Globe

“Engrossing, expertly paced.” —
People

AN ALGONQUIN READERS ROUND TABLE EDITION WITH READING GROUP GUIDE AND OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES • FICTION • ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-558-2

Water for Elephants
,
a novel by Sara Gruen

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski is tossed by fate onto a rickety train, home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Amid a world of freaks, grifters, and mis?ts, Jacob becomes involved with Marlena, the beautiful young equestrian star; her husband, a charismatic but twisted animal trainer; and Rosie, an untrainable elephant who is the great gray hope for this third-rate show. Now in his nineties, Jacob at long last reveals the story of their unlikely yet powerful bonds, ones that nearly shatter them all.

“[An] arresting new novel. . . . With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale.” —
The New York Times Book Review

“Gritty, sensual and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder and a majestic, mute heroine.” —
Parade

AN ALGONQUIN READERS ROUND TABLE EDITION WITH READING GROUP GUIDE AND OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES • FICTION • ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-560-5

On Agate Hill
,
a novel by Lee Smith

A dusty box in the wreckage of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina contains the remnants of an extraordinary life: diaries, letters, poems, songs, newspaper clippings, court records, marbles, rocks, dolls, and bones. It's through these treasured mementos that the irrepressible Molly Petree comes alive. Spanning half a century,
On Agate Hill
follows Molly's journey through love, betrayal, motherhood, a murder trial—and back home to Agate Hill under circumstances she never could have imagined.

“Smith is such a beautiful writer, tough and full of grace, that soon you are lost in the half-light of Molly's haunted landscape, listening to the voices of the ghosts, wishing they'd let you stay longer.” —
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“The willful Molly is no hot-house flower, and her determination to live her own life—for better or worse—is the driving force of this powerful novel.” —
USA Today

AN ALGONQUIN READERS ROUND TABLE EDITION WITH READING GROUP GUIDE AND OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES • FICTION • ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-577-3

The Ghost at the Table
,
a novel by Suzanne Berne

When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include her sister, Cynthia. But tension mounts between them as each struggles with a different version of the mysterious circumstances surrounding their mother's death twenty-five years earlier.

“Wholly engaging, the perfect spark for launching a rich conversation around your own table.” —
The Washington Post Book World

“A crash course in sibling rivalry.” —
O: The Oprah Magazine

AN ALGONQUIN READERS ROUND TABLE EDITION WITH READING GROUP GUIDE AND OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES • FICTION • ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-579-7

Responsible Men
,
a novel by Edward Schwarzschild

When a divorced man from a family of mostly upstanding salesmen decides to change his less-than-honorable ways, things do not go exactly as planned. This is the story of three generations of men struggling to be good sons and good fathers in a world of big dreams and bigger temptations.

“Marvelous. . . . It's impossible to avoid falling for Max.” —
Entertainment Weekly

“A compassionately and deftly told story.”
—William Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
Ironweed
and
Roscoe

AN ALGONQUIN READERS ROUND TABLE EDITION WITH READING GROUP GUIDE AND OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES • FICTION • ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-543-8

“Readers of Morgan's Brave Enemies . . . are unlikely ever to take their eyes off the page—or even take a breath.”

—The Christian Science Monitor

“Morgan . . . writes terrifically well of battle, portraying the tactics, equipment and close-range terror of 18th-century fighting.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“A vivid, sometimes brutal, portrait of life in the Southern states during the war.”

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“With a plot that tears through the Carolina underbrush like a spooked rabbit, Morgan's novel of the American Revolution traces the gender-switching drama of Josie Summers, a pioneer girl raised in the same hardscrabble landscape of his 1999 bestseller, Gap Creek.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Powerful tale of American rebellion. . . . The novel starts with a bang and never stalls in its narrative pace. . . . Morgan has once again delivered a powerful and compelling novel that is certain to gain him more readers than ever.”

—Greensboro (NC) News and Record

“Scenes fly off the printed page, burning themselves into a willing imagination to ‘dominate memory.'”

—The Orlando Sentinel

“With tremendous narrative pace, a meticulous eye for colorful detail and a tight grasp of historical setting and military action, poet and novelist Morgan delivers a rousing and affecting tale of the American Revolution. [A] gripping story of love and desperation.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Morgan brings the past to life. . . . [His] eye for detail makes compelling reading whether he is describing working on a farm or fighting with muskets and bayonets.”

—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Resonant. . . . Military history buffs will appreciate the first-person account of the Battle of Cowpens. Romantics will enjoy reading John and Josie's love story and their continual faith that the other is alive and that they will someday be reunited.”

—Winston-Salem Journal

“Gripping. . . . A riveting story of romance and a testament to the notion that in any honorable conflict, both sides can be hailed by the term ‘brave enemies.'”

—BookPage

“A colorful, historically realistic novel. It is a story of desperation, love and shocking events that occurred during the Revolution.”

—Daily Somerset (PA) American

“An important and deeply original novel, ambitious in its sweep, a love story set against a gritty and gripping backdrop of history that gives us a better understanding of ourselves.”

—Creative Loafing

“While the historical context of this story is stirring, the principal characters make it compelling. We have such an emotional investment in them because they are vulnerable yet courageous, resilient, and complex.”

—Our State
(NC)