"Brilliant. . . . A structural tour de force. . . . A classic Southern tale of dysfunctional and marginal madness. The author's gift for giving life to so many voices leaves the reader profoundly moved."- Seattle Weekly The companion novel to Rebecca Wells's celebrated #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Who can resist the rich cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda-a...

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction.

During a visit to her grandfather's plantation in Virginia during the summer of 1775, Felicity's loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father's apprentice who needs her help as he runs away to join George Washington's army of Patriots.

Even while Randall was speaking, it was Pietro I saw, the tenderness in his dark eyes looking at me, the caress in his soft voice. In Randall's voice there was not a shred of emotion; nor was there any in his expression. How should I respond? What should I say? I knew this was the hardest decision I would ever have to make. Either choice would demand a different price. Was I prepared to pay it? Was love enough in the one to bridge all the other differences...

"Why, Cara, why did you do it?" "Maybe no one wants to see me as I really am. Maybe in this family it isn't all right to be different. And I am different, Kitty, whether anyone wants to admit it or not." "But, Cara,--it just seems like tonight you set out deliberately to cause trouble." "Even you don't understand, do you, Kitty?" "I do, I mean I'm trying to. You're my twin, I want to understand!" "Yes, I know we're twins, but who am I?" demanded Cara...

"You see I must go, don't you, Kitty?" Kip asked. Everything in her cried out, No, I don't understand. What about her dreams, her desires, the life they had planned together? Then she remembered the epitaph on the head-stone in the old hillside cemetery, the one that had made such a lasting impression on her: "What I gave, I have; what I spent, I saved, What I kept, I lost." It had been true a hundred years ago, and it was just as true now. If she...

For Rod it was a moment out of a thousand dreams. Yet the reality was more than he could have imagined. "Blythe!" He said her name and in his voice was all the hope he'd thought was lost. The woman he saw was even lovelier than the girl he remembered. She was still as beautiful -- tall, slender, the glorious auburn hair, the soft, vulnerable mouth and peachbloom skin -- as when he had first met her at Montclair. At sixteen, Blythe had been shy, eager...

Grau's Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, about the racial prejudice and long-buried secrets that threaten to destroy a distinguished Southern family   The Howland dynasty began after the War of 1812, when a young Tennessee solider fighting for Andrew Jackson settled in Alabama. Over the next century, the Howlands accumulated a fortune, fought for Secession, helped rebuild the South, and established themselves as one of the most respected families...

Slowly she turned to face the door just as Graham came through at full stride. At the sight of him a wild kind of joy seized her. Graham halted on the threshold. He drew in his breath sharply, and in spite of himself, his pulse thundered at the sight of the tall, willowy figure. The last time he had seen Avril she had been a child. Here in her place was a graceful young woman. "Avril, my dear," he said, finding his voice. "Welcome home!" Fortune's...

"Sara! You must come out! You're wanted downstairs right away," Lucie hissed through the keyhole on the locked bedroom door. "Stepmama is furious and Father has sent word that he's coming home early from the Exchange. She says he's in a rage over what you've done!" "I haven't done anything! It's not my fault if those two hotheads decide to fight a duel!" came her sister's indignant voice from the other side of the door. "Oh, Sara, please!" Lucie pleaded....