The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It...

One little secret between a married woman, her lover, and a killer. In this thrilling standalone from the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, a married woman's affair with her boss spirals into a dangerous game of chess with the police when she discovers he's been murdered and she clears the crime scene of all evidence. It should have been just a mid-life fling. A guilty indiscretion that Neve Connolly could have weathered....

In the stern, unforgiving world of Puritan New England, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" unfolds a drama of guilt, repression, and insurrection against societal norms that has captivated readers for over a century. This enduring masterpiece delves deep into the human heart, exploring the complexities of sin and redemption through the lives of its unforgettable characters.At the heart of the story is Hester Prynne, a woman who defies the...

"Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home--a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse--but John's not here. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb. Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world's master storytellers"--...

Translated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, Ties is a compulsively readable and provocative novel about marriage and family by one of Italy's bestselling novelists. Like many marriages, Vanda and Aldo's has been subject to strain, to attrition, to the burden of routine. Yet it has survived intact. Or so things appear. The rupture in their marriage lies years in the past, but if one looks closely enough, the fissures and fault lines...

Scorned housewife Nancy Hadley leaves her cheating husband, Roger, and invests in a racing sailboat on which to live, but when a real estate development deal involving her husband threatens the harbor and her new home, Nancy prepares for battle and makes a bet with Roger--a showdown in the Border Dash Race from Newport Harbor down to Ensenada, Mexico with the winner of the race getting everything they want from the other--which for Nancy means she...

The place: central Florida. The situation: a sensational murder trial involving a rich, white teenage girl--a twin--on trial for the horrific murder of her toddler brother, and the sequestered jury deciding her fate. . Two of the jurors sequestered (she, Juror C-2; he, F-17), holed up at the Econo-Lodge off I-75. As the shocking and numbing details of the crime and its surrounding facts are revealed during a string of days and seemingly endless court...

"The highly-anticipated, provocative debut novel from the "fearless" (New Yorker) and "distinctive" (San Francisco Chronicle) Jamie Quatro, Fire Sermon charts with bold intimacy and immersive sensuality the life of a married woman in the grip of a magnetic affair"--

Irish novelist Anne Enright won the coveted Man Booker Prize for her eloquent novel The Gathering. In The Forgotten Waltz, Enright crafts a stunning tale about a Dublin woman's affair and its heartrending consequences. Gina Moynihan is already married when she meets Sean Vallely. But longing and desire soon overtake them-and their lives begin to crumble shortly after.