Two childhood friends from Scotland and two illegitimate half-brothers from the American South suffer and enjoy all manner of bizarre experiences which, as it turns out, are somehow interconnected and, surprisingly enough, meaningful. An eclectic cast of characters includes Carl Jung, Fatty Arbuckle, Virgil, Marat, Socrates, and Tony Randall. Love, greed, hope, revenge, organized religion, and Hollywood are alternately tickled and throttled as Craig...

"Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let's get started"--...

While they are discussing the possible illnesses they may have, Jerome, Harris, and George all realize they suffer from the same thing-working too much. Upon the realization, the three best friends decide that they must go on a vacation. After rejecting the ideas of a sea trip or country stay, because Jerome doesn't like the sea, and Harris finds the country to be dull, the men decide on a boat trip. With their bags packed and with the company of...

Based in part on the author's schooldays at Lancing and then Hertford College in England and subsequently as a teacher in North Wales, "Decline and Fall" is Evelyn Waugh's debut novel, first published in 1928. In the socially satirical style for which the author is known, Waugh brilliantly lampoons British society of the 1920s. The story tracks the life of Paul Pennyfeather, who following expulsion from Oxford, the result of a drunken prank, is forced...

A “brilliant and hilarious” novel of the end times in America and one psychiatrist’s quest to save mankind, from a New York Times–bestselling author (Dallas Morning News).
 
The United States seems to be on the brink of catastrophe. From the abandoned cars littering the highways (no one remembers how to fix them) to the endless hours spent on the golf course (now open twenty-four hours...

"Welcome to the office building at night, an eerie ship helmed by one woman desperate for connection." —Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark
Every night, she cleans. On the fourth floor of an unnamed office in an unnamed city, the night cleaner comes and does what she does best—sorts out the messes of the daytime employees. None of them know her, but she knows everything about them: Sad Intern's...

He thinks he's a deadly ninja. He's not. He's Barry Harris and he still lives with his mum. Barry's been patient, but after twenty-seven years of trimming hedges for people he hates, he's had enough. All he wants to do is to find his missing father and to discover his inner ninja. But life's not done with throwing him curveballs. A fatal mistake catapults Barry into the adventure of a lifetime. With talking hedges, samurai ghosts, meddling psychotherapists,...

Rachel Klein is sacked from her job at the White House after she sends an email criticizing Donald Trump. As she is escorted off the premises she is hit by a speeding car, driven by what the press will discreetly call "a personal friend of the President." Does that explain the flowers, the get-well wishes at a press briefing, the hush money offered by a lawyer at her hospital bedside? Rachel's recovery is soothed by comically doting parents, matchmaking...

Loss. Grief. Centipedes. Silence. The word "no." The word "yes." A high school poetry contest that may or may not be linked to the end of the world. The characters in this collection are under attack. A grief-baffled son hopes to save an innocent insect from a toxic genocide, a daughter struggles to accept loss while visiting a community overwhelmed by denial, a sorrow-stricken father recalls his bizarre final conversation with his only child; the...

Portia Kane is escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, running back to South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else-- a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident. With the 'help' of a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict,...