National Network for Equitable Library Service

Montague Small, an obsessive writer of detective thrillers, mourns his lately dead wife, who may or may not have been unfaithful to him. His attempts at meditation are a failure. He detests his fictional detective. His interest in his neighbour's difficulties and his neighbour's wife appear to be his only consolations after all. The neighbour, Blaise Gavender, is an amateur psychotherapist who has seen through himself. Has Blaise the courage to change his life and become an honest man? What is honesty in any case?

A story about a nineteenth-century woman's search for a meaningful life through work outside the family sphere, Work is at once Alcott's exploration of her personal challenges and a social critique of America. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

Un couple qui dure serait-il la plus grande aventure des temps modernes ? Alice et Jules vivent ensemble depuis soixante ans. Par un tour de force littéraire, Eliette Abécassis remonte le cours de leur relation amoureuse, étape par étape, pour nous en révéler les nuances, les rêves, les désirs, les trahisons et les regrets. Vieillesse, routine, retrouvailles, désamour, haine, jalousie, enfants, mariage, passion : le film défile à l'envers, par une série de rebondissements, passant de l'ère des réseaux sociaux à la chute du mur de Berlin, Mai 68, la guerre d'Algérie...

Partie en Allemagne comme jeune fille au pair, Laura, à dix-sept ans, découvre tout d’abord qu’elle ne connaît pas si bien la langue de ce pays étranger. Puis c’est au tour de la famille qui l’accueille, un couple et deux enfants, de la troubler par leur simple mode de vie, leur comportement, leurs habitudes. Est-elle venue pour s’occuper des enfants, pour effectuer des tâches ménagères, pour parfaire cette langue ou tout simplement pour grandir enfin ?

As an Israeli secret service agent, Yoel Ravid's ability to sense the truth made him invaluable. Now widowed and retired, he lives with his mother, his mother-in-law, his daughter, and the haunting memory of his wife. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Translated by Nicholas de Lange. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

“This charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world” (Publishers Weekly). A fable for all ages and a massive bestseller in the author’s home country of Vietnam, Ticket to Childhood captures the texture of childhood in all of its richness. Narrated by a man looking back, it explores the small miracles and tragedies, the misadventures and misdeeds, that made up his life. We meet his long-lost friends, none of whom can forget how rich their lives once were.

A New York Times Notable Book. "A rich, seductive meld of characters real and fictive, of history and fancy." -New York Times Book Review.

Peter Stamm's best-selling debut novel, Agnes, now available for the first time in paperback. "Write a story about me," Agnes said to her lover, "so I know what you think of me." So he started to write the story of everything that had happened to them from the moment they met. At first, he works with Agnes to create a narrative that is most true to life, but as time passes and he grows more enamored with the narrative he has begun, he continues writing on his own, imagining a future for them after he reaches the present.

Cinq filles, n’ayant en commun qu’un père et la tante préférée de ce dernier, arrivent peu après leur naissance sur l’une des îles d’un archipel du Saint-Laurent, où la tante Adélaïde a élu et nourri son sanctuaire solitaire durant des décennies. Nouées par un amour profond et par la nature insatiable les entourant, sous la garde tantôt omnisciente tantôt lunatique de leur aïeule aux dons fabuleux, les sœurs entament des destins insulaires que leur père se figure aussi spectaculaires que bizarres.

As neighborhoods have grown up around the subterranean home of the narrator of Man, Underground, the city has initiated a review of his dwelling. Intent on ignoring the review process, his life is interrupted by a seventeen-year-old punk-inspired, Honor's student.