First published in 2001, Bel Canto is possibly Ann Patchett's most beloved novel. Set in an unnamed South American country, at the home of the vice president, it is the story of a lavish birthday party honoring Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has enthralled the international guests with a mesmerizing performance. The evening is perfect--until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire...

Isabel, 13, is on a perilous, life-altering journey in search of her brother, who has disappeared in the big city where he had gone to try to make a better life for himself and his poverty-stricken family by becoming a musician. As she braves the chaos of the modern urban environment, the indignities of the shantytowns, and the terror of gang warfare, Isabel never gives up hope of finding Isaias.

Letts offers the tale of Nicky Jack Harjo, who mysteriously disappeared from DeClare, Oklahoma, as a baby and then puts in an appearance 30 years later. Dr. Mark Allbright arrives in town. Mark has just learned that he is adopted and that his mother was Gaylene Narjo, from DeClare, and he now wants to confront her and ask why she didn't want him.

Reena Hale achieves her goal and joins the arson unit after a devastating fire destroys her family's pizzeria; however, as she continues to trace the origin of threats against her and unsolved arson cases, she struggles with her relationship with Bo Goodnight.

When "Lord Jim" first appeared in 1900, many took Joseph Conrad to task for couching an entire novel in the form of an extended conversation - a ripping good yarn, if you like (one critic in The Academy complained that the narrator 'was telling that after-dinner story to his companions for eleven solid hours'). Conrad defended his method, insisting that people really do talk for that long, and listen as well. In fact his chatty masterwork requires...

"Following the twists and turns of an unimaginable crime, The Widow is an electrifying debut thriller that will take you into the dark spaces that exist between a husband and a wife. When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on when more bad things began to happen. . . But that woman's husband died last week. And Jean doesn't have to be her anymore. There's a lot...

A portrait of a charming, opportunistic preacher turned real estate agent, presented through chronicles of his three marriages and glimpses into the life of his abandoned son, Charlie.

Murder doesn't take a holiday. No one knows that better than Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles, who is summoned to a murder scene on Christmas Eve. Later teaming up with Detective Jane Rizzoli, they link the victim to psychologist Joyce O'Donnell, whom they follow to a cabal called the Mephisto Club, where the members devote themselves to the analysis of evil. The members are now wondering if a killer is in their ranks, or if they've summoned an...

"In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart. Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing...

Dr. David Henry, forced to deliver his own twins during a snowstorm in 1964 with only a nurse to help him, makes a decision that has far-reaching effects on his life, and the lives of his wife and son, when his infant daughter is born with Down Syndrome, and in a vain attempt to protect his wife, he orders the nurse to take the baby to an institution.