O Caledonia is a dark, unhappy, witty Scottish novel that delights and teases the reader. Populated by a family of unlovable malcontents whose motto is “Dying but Unconquered,” it is a murder mystery, although the murder—and its rebellious and disrespectful 16-year-old victim, Janet—doesn’t gain much attention in the grand scheme of things. Instead, the novel focuses on the people around poor dead Janet, who are self-absorbed and short-sighted. They regularly inflict casual cruelties on each other and themselves, often with results that are both sad and humorous. By the end of the novel, I was pretty sure I was related to most of these Scots, whose dry, unflinching humor seemed much too familiar to me.
In the tradition of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a darkly humorous modern classic of Scottish literature about a doomed adolescent growing up in the mid-19th century—featuring a new introduction by Maggie O’Farrell, award-winning author of Hamnet.
Janet lies murdered beneath the castle stairs, attired in her mother’s black lace wedding dress, lamented only by her pet jackdaw…
Author Elspeth Barker masterfully evokes the harsh climate of Scotland in this atmospheric gothic tale that has been compared to the works of the Brontës, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edward Gorey. Immersed in a world of isolation and…
A witch, mythological beings, sea monsters, lovers, and pigs—what’s not to like? Circe resonates with the power of the feminine, in both her vulnerability and in her anger. Madeline Miller depicts a societal hierarchy of lesser Greek gods in her novel, all of them wrangling for some favor or ascendance from Zeus or another of the great gods. Exiled to an island, Circe adheres her own rules and way of living and ignores what is over the sea. Yet the gods cannot be escaped, and she must play the game that they have demanded of her, while trying to avoid the traps they have set.
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens…
Inspired by Donald Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency in 2016 and the almost immediate comparisons of Trump to a Shakespearean dictator, James Shapiro traces the history of Shakespeare’s plays and productions as viewed by an American audience. Surprising details emerge: John Quincy Adams’s arguments of miscegenation with a famous actress over the marriage between Othello and Desdemona; Ulysses S. Grant’s portrayal of Desdemona while a young officer in the U.S. Army; Abraham Lincoln’s love of Shakespeare and John Wilkes Booth’s obsession with the character of Macbeth. Shapiro traces the connections between Shakespeare’s plays and the politics of America to 2017 and the current divide between left and right.
One of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year * A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist * A New York Times Notable Book
A timely exploration of what Shakespeare's plays reveal about our divided land.
"In this sprightly and enthralling book . . . Shapiro amply demonstrates [that] for Americans the politics of Shakespeare are not confined to the public realm, but have enormous relevance in the sphere of private life." -The Guardian (London)
The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes-presidents…
Life in fictional Pindall, Wyoming, population 658, is tough. Tourists rush through town to the gates of Yellowstone National Park, only an hour up the road, and the town's sole industry, a sawmill, has been taken over by a multinational corporation that cares only about the bottom-line. For Shari Brock, who loses her on-again-off-again husband, Brad Brock, in a tragic accident, it's tough to listen to the stories that the townspeople, who consider him a legend, tell about him. It's even harder when his illegitimate daughter, Erica, arrives in town. Meanwhile, Shari's son, Jason, embarks on a cockeyed crime spree that makes him the laughingstock of the town. But that isn't all: Erica fully expects to be welcomed into the family, a wolf appears out of nowhere, and the yearly town celebration becomes a battlefield. Add to this a cast of colorful characters who lend this romance of the western heart both grace and humor: Ronald Dailey, a sawmill manager who falls in love with a mysterious environmentalist; Lex Stacy, a microbiologist with a passion for Yellowstone, art and muscle cars; Shari's prickly mother-in-law, Marguerite Brock, who accepts the lonesome choices that have made her the richest woman in town until an old love reawakens her sense of longing; Dave Phillips, a cowboy whose horse has tragically betrayed him; and many more!
