A Girl Returned

A Girl Returned
Author: Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Publisher: Europa Editions
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2019-07-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1609455290

“One of the best Italian novels of the year” in a pitch-perfect rendering in English by Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante’s translator (Huffington Post, Italy). Winner of the Campiello Prize A 2019 Best Book of the Year (The Washington Post Kirkus Reviews Dallas Morning News) Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes, A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving. Without warning or explanation, an unnamed thirteen-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. “An achingly beautiful book, and an utterly devastating one.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “Di Pietrantonio [has a] lively way with a phrase (the translator, Ann Goldstein, shows the same sensitivity she does with Elena Ferrante) [and] a fine instinct for detail.” —The Washington Post “A gripping, deeply moving coming-of-age novel; immensely readable, beautifully written, and highly recommended.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Captivating.” —The Economist

A Girl Returned

A Girl Returned
Author: Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Publisher: Europa Editions UK
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2019-07-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787701778

Without warning or a word of explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother, and deprivation. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy's most prestigious literary prizes, A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving, pitch-perfect in Ann Goldstein's English translation.

The It Girl

The It Girl
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2023-03-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982155272

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “claustrophobic spine-tingler” (People) One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder. April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead. Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder. “The Agatha Christie of our generation” (David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author) proves once again that she is “as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post) with this propulsive murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Girl Who Was Taken

The Girl Who Was Taken
Author: Charlie Donlea
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2018-03-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0786041455

The bestselling author of Twenty Years Later delivers a chilling thriller where nothing is at it seems and each reveal is more shocking than the last…right up to the jaw-dropping final twist. “A gripping thriller that will blow readers away." –Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author on Don’t Believe It “A superb storyteller.” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author Two abducted girls—one who returns, one who doesn’t. The night they go missing, high school seniors Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are at a beach party in their small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. Police launch a massive search, but hope is almost lost—until Megan escapes from a bunker deep in the woods. . . . A year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal has made Megan a celebrity. It’s a triumphant story, except for one inconvenient detail: Nicole is still missing. Nicole’s older sister, Livia, a fellow in forensic pathology, expects that one day soon Nicole’s body will be found and her sister’s fate determined. Instead, the first clue comes from another body—that of a young man connected to Nicole’s past. Livia reaches out to Megan to learn more about that fateful night. Other girls have disappeared, and she’s increasingly sure the cases are connected. Megan knows more than she revealed in her book. Flashes of memory are pointing to something more monstrous than she described. And the deeper she and Livia dig, the more they realize that sometimes true terror lies in finding exactly what you’ve been looking for . . . “A fast-moving page-turner. . . . Donlea skillfully maximizes suspense by juggling narrators and time all the way to the shocking final twists.” —Publishers Weekly “Well worth the read.” —Booklist “Donlea’s sophomore effort is solid. He keeps the reader guessing and second-guessing until the end, thanks to an expertly crafted abundance of potential suspects.” —Library Journal

The Girl the Sea Gave Back

The Girl the Sea Gave Back
Author: Adrienne Young
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2019-09-03
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1250168503

From Adrienne Young, New York Times bestselling author of Sky in the Deep, comes her new gut-wrenching epic The Girl the Sea Gave Back. For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse. For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again—a home.

Girl in the Afternoon

Girl in the Afternoon
Author: Serena Burdick
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2016-07-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250106680

"A tale brimming over with secrets, betrayals and redemption. Burdick keeps readers riveted." -RT Book Reviews (4 Stars HOT) "Moving, surprising, and thought-provoking." -The Emerald City Book Review "Burdick brings the sights and sounds of the Paris of the Impressionists to life." -Historical Novel Society “A provocative tale of family secrets, betrayal, and the renewal of self-discovery.” -Heather Webb, author of Rodin's Lover "Girl in the Afternoon is a love story, a mystery, a tragedy, and a moving study of the human capacity to contain both reckless error and surprising redemption.” -Carrie Brown, author of The Stargazer's Sister Born into a wealthy Parisian family at the center of Belle Epoque society, 18-year-old Aimée Savaray dreams of becoming a respected painter in the male-dominated art world; and secretly, she also dreams of being loved by Henri, the boy her parents took in as a child and raised alongside her. But when Henri inexplicably disappears, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian war, the Savarays’ privileged lives begin to unravel. Heartbroken, Aimée tries to find him, but Henri doesn’t want to be found—and only one member of the family knows why. As Aimée seeks refuge in the art world, mentored by the Impressionist Édouard Manet, she unwittingly finds her way back to Henri. With so many years gone by and secrets buried, their eventual reunion unmasks the lies that once held the family together, but now threaten to tear them apart. A rich and opulent saga, Girl in the Afternoon brings the Impressionists to life in this portrait of scandal, fortune, and unrequited love.

The Cut Out Girl

The Cut Out Girl
Author: Bart van Es
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2018-08-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0241978718

'Luminous, elegant, haunting, - I read it straight through' Philippe Sands, Author of East West Street The enthralling story of a man's search for the truth about his family's past The last time Lien saw her parents was in the Hague when she was collected at the door by a stranger and taken to a city far away to be hidden from the Nazis. She was raised by her foster family as one of their own, but a falling out well after the war meant they were no longer in touch. What was her side of the story, Bart van Es - a grandson of the couple who looked after Lien - wondered? What really happened during the war, and after? So began an investigation that would consume and transform both Bart van Es's life and Lien's. Lien was now in her 80s and living in Amsterdam. Reluctantly, she agreed to meet him, and eventually they struck up a remarkable friendship. The Cut Out Girl braids together a powerful recreation of Lien's intensely harrowing childhood story with the present-day account of Bart's efforts to piece that story together. And it embraces the wider picture, too, for Holland was more cooperative in rounding up its Jews for the Nazis than any other Western European country; that is part of Lien's story too. This is an astonishing, moving reckoning with a young girl's struggle for survival during war. It is a story about the powerful love and challenges of foster families, and about the ways our most painful experiences - so crucial in defining us - can also be redefined. 'Remarkable, deeply moving' Penelope Lively 'An awe-inspiring account of the tragedies and triumphs within the world of the Holocaust's "hide-away" children, and of the families who sheltered them' Georgia Hunter 'A complex and uplifting tale' Kirkus

A Sister's Story

A Sister's Story
Author: Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Publisher: Europa Editions UK
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2022-01-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787703509

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A GIRL RETURNED, COMES A MOVING NEW NOVEL ABOUT SISTERHOOD, THE PAST AND ITS INDELIBLE MARKS * NATALIE PORTMAN'S BOOK CLUB PICK FOR JULY 2022* *A Strega Prize 2021 finalist * It's the darkest time of night. Adriana, a baby in her arms, hammers on her sister's door. Who is she running from? What uncomfortable truth will she deliver? Like a whirlwind, Adriana breaks into her sister's life bringing chaos and cataclysmic revelations. Years later, the narrator gets an unexpected, urgent summons back to Pescara. She embarks on a long journey through the night, and through the folds and twists of her memory, from her and her sister's youth, their loves and losses, their secrets and regrets. Back in Borgo Sud, the town's fishermen's quarter, in that impenetrable yet welcoming microcosm, she will discover what really happened, and perhaps make peace with the past. Donatella Di Pietrantonio, expert chronicler of the bonds between mothers and daughters, revisits the places and characters of A Girl Returned with a novel focussed on the ambivalent, ambiguous, wavering but steadfast relationship between sisters.

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line
Author: Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2021-08-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1728230934

For fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII—in and out of uniform—for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come. From daring spies to audacious pilots, from innovative scientists to indomitable resistance fighters, these extraordinary women stepped out of line and into history, forever altering the world's landscape. This page-turning narrative, crafted with meticulous historical accuracy by retired U.S. Army Major General Mari K. Eder, provides a fresh perspective on the integral roles that women played during WWII. Liane B. Russell fled Austria with nothing and later became a renowned U.S. scientist whose research on the effects of radiation on embryos made a difference to thousands of lives. Gena Turgel was a prisoner who worked in the hospital at Bergen-Belsen and cared for the young Anne Frank, who was dying of typhus. Gena survived and went on to write a memoir and spent her life educating children about the Holocaust. Ida and Louise Cook were British sisters who repeatedly smuggled out jewelry and furs and served as sponsors for refugees, and they also established temporary housing for immigrant families in London. Whether you're a history enthusiast, a lover of powerful women's stories, or an avid reader of WWII nonfiction, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line is a must-read and a poignant testament to the forgotten women who stepped up when the world needed them most.

Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again
Author: Thanhha Lai
Publisher: Univ. of Queensland Press
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0702251178

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.