I don't often read short stories, but I'm such an admirer of Towles' novels (Rules of Civility, Gentleman in Moscow, Lincoln Highway) that I couldn't resist this collection. There's a wonderful old-world formality to these stories––such a nice change from the gritty crime fiction I often read. The characterizations are so rich and true that the people come alive in only a few short passages. Many of the stories end with an ironic twist or observation that's almost reminiscient of O'Henry.
“A knockout collection. ... Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner.” —The New York Times
“Superb ... This may be Towles’ best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef’s main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart.” —Los Angeles Times
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.
Migrations is set in the near-future in a climate-ravaged world in which many species have gone or are going extinct. The lead character is a woman who's suffered great loss in her live and has now embarked on a desperate quest to save a dying species of bird. There's a mournful mood throughout the novel and tragic circumstances are gradually revealed, yet there's a glimmer of hope at the end.
'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read' Emily St. John Mandel
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.
Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.
As animal populations plummet, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool.
It's hard for thriller writers to surprise me anymore––I know all their tricks and usually see the twist coming from a mile away. Not this time. Cavanaugh took the Strangers on a Train trope but reworked it in such a brilliant way that I gasped out loud when I realized what was happening. It's worth it for that alone, but I also admire how he treated the two main characters reactions to the terrible trauma each has suffered in her life.
Two ordinary women make a deadly pact to take revenge for each other after being pushed to the brink in this “unguessable and unputdownable” (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Alfred Hitchcock.
One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, including an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect plan: if you kill for me,…
A brilliant page-turning thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind––and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.
Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.
But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.
Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.
Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?
As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .
Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.
