Pines and Plains Libraries

In Dublin, an evening class of Italian language and culture changes the lives of its students. A girl finds love, a boy abandons crime, a man regains a reason for living. It is the work of the teacher, an Irish woman who followed a married man to Italy and returned to Ireland on his death. A tale of one woman's gift for helping others. By the author of The Copper Beach.

Successful composer Clive Linley and prestigious editor Vernon Halliday, both former lovers of the recently deceased Molly Lane, make a pact that has disastrous consequences for them, as well as foreign secretary Julian Garmony, yet another of Molly's men.

A Holocaust survivor who is suffering from an incurable disease, recounts his concentration camp experiences to his son who feels compelled to travel to his father's native land in search of truth and meaning.

A calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of Paul Rayment's leg. His feelings for his nurse, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart.

The violent and vengeful lives of three sons are exposed when their despicable father is murdered, and each man struggles to come to terms with the guilt over his involvement in the crime

On a nontypical day in 1946 North Carolina, local schoolteacher Joe Robert Kirkman is dealing with a series of incidents: an unfortunate encounter with a treed bobcat, a courageous rescue of a drowning child, discovering the humanity of the black schoolhouse janitor, trying to get a goat off the roof, and several unsettling metaphysical discussions. Most troubling is the late afternoon meeting with the local school board -- called over Joe Robert's...

A voice on the telephone warns, "Remember, you must die." The recipient of the grim message is elderly Dame Lettie Colston, but soon ten of Lettie's oldest friends also become targets of Death's anonymous herald. A bizarre investigation lays bare an intricate network of deception and disloyalty that binds together the vulnerable group of aging eccentrics.

Bradley Pearson, an unsuccessful novelist in his late fifties, has finally left his dull office job as an Inspector of Taxes. Bradley hopes to retire to the country, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retirement. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquent brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations;...

Edmund M. Kern argues that the attraction of these stories to children comes not only from the fantastical elements embedded in the plots, but also from their underlying moral messages. Children genuinely desire to follow Harry, as he confronts a host of challenges in an uncertain world, because of his desire to do the right thing. Harry's coherent yet flexible approach to dealing with evil reflects an updated form of Stoicism, says Kern. --from publisher...

An exquisitely beautiful young man in Victorian England retains his youthful and innocent appearance over the years while his portrait reflects both his age and evil soul as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption.