"In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowa preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend...

Follows four generations of the Montrose family, who have been living with a curse that leaves any person they fall in love with dead, stemming back to a Voodoo sorceress in 1950s New Orleans' French Quarter. "Generations of Montrose women--Augusta, Victoria, Willow--have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is...

Marilynne Robinson's mythical world of Gilead, Iowa--the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack--and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Jack is Robinson's fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead's Presbyterian minister, and his...

When her younger brother commits suicide, Sayre Lynch returns to her hometown for the funeral and finds herself drawn into a web cast by her controlling and tyrannical father.

When Olympia Rubinsteins' twin daughters are invited to a debutante ball chaos erputs. One twin and Olympia's ex-husband are anxious to go, while the other twin and Olympia's current husband refuse to go.

"Spanning from World War II to the present, three generations of women struggle to find freedom and happiness in their small Midwestern college town as they face trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks; marital disappointments and infidelities; familial dysfunction; mortality"--

In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it. Agnes's desperate...

While helping to restore the family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Tessa MacCrae reevaluates her marriage and discovers an old wedding-ring quilt that holds the key to forgiveness, hope, and healing.

"An epic generational saga from New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray, based on the true story of an extraordinary castle in the heart of France and the remarkable women bound by its legacy in some of humanity's darkest hours. Most castles are protected by powerful men. This one by women ... A reluctant resistor ... 1940. French schoolteacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone has an orphan's self-reliance and wants nothing to do with war....

"A grandmother-granddaughter duo are eager to spend their summer together on peaceful Nantucket, but the season that unfolds brings about unforgettable surprises in New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer's magical, multigenerational novel. Eleanor Sunderland loves living on the Nantucket cliffside, in a charming home that has been in her family for decades. Now widowed, she looks forward to the arrival of her children and grandchildren for...