Books with title A: A Novel

A riveting, gorgeously written debut novel—a contemporary Romeo and Juliet saga with great emotional power, set in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. When we first meet Zwazo Delalun—Zo—he is a young orphan in a fishing village. Although he’s been told he may be the “poorest boy in the Western Hemisphere,” he possesses every trademark of a hero: he's strong, honest, and courageous, and he dreams of a better life. As he grows up, Zo travels the island, working in the cane fields and almond orchards and out at sea—but he longs for something work can’t earn him: love. Then one morning, while hauling cement under the broiling sun, he meets Anaya, a beautiful nursing student sipping cherry juice under a tree. Their attraction is instantaneous, fierce. Anaya uses her knowledge of medicine to cure Zo of the malaria that's plagued him for months, even as she intoxicates him with a love more potent than any he could have imagined. But Anaya’s father, a prominent doctor, cannot accept that a poor, uneducated man is destined for his daughter, and he takes measures to stop their union. Zo and Anaya nevertheless find a way to be together—making a new home in the hills outside Port-au-Prince—until the unthinkable happens: an earthquake roils the ground. Homes, hospitals, and churches topple; roads crack. Zo watches as the city—where Anaya is in class—is reduced to rubble in a searing instant. Even before the dust has settled, Zo is ready to risk his life to rescue her—if he can only find her, and keep himself alive in the meantime. Suspenseful, heartrending, written in lyrical prose, Zo captures the sensory splendor of Haiti at a moment of historic crisis and transformation, as it tells the unforgettable story of one remarkable man’s life and love.

[Read by Johnny Heller] The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more. San Francisco. Summer, 1947. A dame walks into a saloon … It's not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy ''Two Toes'' Tiffin tends bar. It's love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. 'Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he's got the connections on the street. Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast in Washington State near Mount Rainer, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But the real weirdness is happening on the streets of the City by the Bay. When one of Sammy's schemes goes south and the Cheese mysteriously vanishes, Sammy is forced to contend with his own dark secrets -- and more than a few strange goings on -- if he wants to find his girl. Think Raymond Chandler meets Damon Runyon with more than a dash of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes All Stars. It's all very, very Noir. It's all very, very Christopher Moore.

It is 1939. Paula Becker, thirteen years old and deaf, lives with her family in a rural German town. As rumors swirl of disabled children quietly disappearing, a priest comes to her family’s door with an offer to shield Paula from an uncertain fate. When the sanctuary he offers is fleeting, Paula needs to call upon all her strength to stay one step ahead of the Nazis.

97 is a story of a Dominican teenager named Yovanny Cedeno. He is a 17 year old from the Washington Heights section in New York. He is a High School dropout with a god given 97 MPH fastball. Yovanny must choose whether to listen to his parent’s old school mannerisms in putting education first or following the ghetto fabulous lifestyle of his best friend, Niko. Yovanny is innocent in life. He doesn't fit with his fellow classmates and only finds confidence whenever he is on the mound. Chasing his dreams will bring him the biggest joy in life. He will learn that one bad decision can take it all away. Yovanny's life decisions will affect everyone in his circle as fast as his 97 MPH fastball. This is a story of self-discovery in which learning from past mistakes can lead you into your true greatness. This is a story everyone can relate to. We all know of a Yovanny because he is in all of us.

A riveting, gorgeously written debut novel—a contemporary Romeo and Juliet saga with great emotional power, set in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. When we first meet Zwazo Delalun—Zo—he is a young orphan in a fishing village. Although he’s been told he may be the “poorest boy in the Western Hemisphere,” he possesses every trademark of a hero: he's strong, honest, and courageous, and he dreams of a better life. As he grows up, Zo travels the island, working in the cane fields and almond orchards and out at sea—but he longs for something work can’t earn him: love. Then one morning, while hauling cement under the broiling sun, he meets Anaya, a beautiful nursing student sipping cherry juice under a tree. Their attraction is instantaneous, fierce. Anaya uses her knowledge of medicine to cure Zo of the malaria that's plagued him for months, even as she intoxicates him with a love more potent than any he could have imagined. But Anaya’s father, a prominent doctor, cannot accept that a poor, uneducated man is destined for his daughter, and he takes measures to stop their union. Zo and Anaya nevertheless find a way to be together—making a new home in the hills outside Port-au-Prince—until the unthinkable happens: an earthquake roils the ground. Homes, hospitals, and churches topple; roads crack. Zo watches as the city—where Anaya is in class—is reduced to rubble in a searing instant. Even before the dust has settled, Zo is ready to risk his life to rescue her—if he can only find her, and keep himself alive in the meantime. Suspenseful, heartrending, written in lyrical prose, Zo captures the sensory splendor of Haiti at a moment of historic crisis and transformation, as it tells the unforgettable story of one remarkable man’s life and love.

Winner of the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/TeensA 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor BookCowritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world.Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

First edition (1963) of what many consider to be the finest American novel of the 20th century. The wild, macabre tale of two men -- one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose -- and "V.," the unknown woman of the title. From the "Noiseless Chatter" blog: "This edition of V. contains different text from all later printings. The reason is that Pynchon changed his mind about a few things after it went to the printer. It's not uncommon for spelling or formatting errors to be corrected in later printings, but in this case they were actually rewritten passages. Oddly, this unique text wasn't discovered until just a few years ago, when Pynchon's novels were being prepared for release as ebooks. Due to the rarity of first edition copies, and the fact that nobody expected anything different there, decades worth of scholarship missed the fact that the V. we were reading wasn't V. as it was originally published." 492 pages. (Note: This book was published before 1973 so it has no ISBN number.)

Winner of the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/TeensA 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor BookCowritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world.Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

Amazon Review Having just been released from the Navy, Benny Profane is content to lead a slothful existence with his friends, where the only real ambition is to perfect the art of "schlemihlhood," or being a dupe, and where "responsibility" is a dirty word. Among his pals--called the Whole Sick Crew--is Slab, an artist who can't seem to paint anything other than cheese danishes. But Profane's life changes dramatically when he befriends Stencil, an active ambitious young man with an intriguing mission--to find out the identity of a woman named V., who knew Stencil's father during the war, but who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "Filled with wild humor, inventive wordplay and a darkly imaginative power." -- Philadelphia Inquirer "This work may well stand as one of the very best works of the century." -- Atlantic Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

97 is a story of a Dominican teenager named Yovanny Cedeno. He is a 17 year old from the Washington Heights section in New York. He is a High School dropout with a god given 97 MPH fastball. Yovanny must choose whether to listen to his parent's old school mannerisms in putting education first or following the ghetto fabulous lifestyle of his best friend, Niko. Yovanny is innocent in life. He doesn't fit with his fellow classmates and only finds confidence whenever he is on the mound. Chasing his dreams will bring him the biggest joy in life. He will learn that one bad decision can take it all away. Yovanny's life decisions will affect everyone in his circle as fast as his 97 MPH fastball. This is a story of self-discovery in which learning from past mistakes can lead you into your true greatness. This is a story everyone can relate to. We all know of a Yovanny because he is in all of us.