A timeless, utterly charming Christmas fable, beautifully illustrated and destined to become a classic When Paul Auster was asked by The New York Times to write a Christmas story for the Op-Ed page, the result, "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story," led to Auster's collaboration on a film adaptation, Smoke. Now the story has found yet another life in this enchanting illustrated edition with Argentine artist Isol. It begins with a writer's dilemma: he's been asked by The New York Times to write a story that will appear in the paper on Christmas morning. The writer agrees, but he has a problem: How to write an unsentimental Christmas story? He unburdens himself to his friend at his local cigar shop, a colorful character named Auggie Wren. "A Christmas story? Is that all?" Auggie counters. "If you buy me lunch, my friend, I'll tell you the best Christmas story you ever heard. And I guarantee every word of it is true." And an unconventional story it is, involving a lost wallet, a blind woman, and a Christmas dinner. Everything gets turned upside down. What's stealing? What's giving? What's a lie? What's the truth? It's vintage Auster, and pure pleasure: a truly unsentimental but completely affecting tale.

A magical culinary getaway: New York Christmas: Recipes and Stories takes you on a getaway to the magical New York of the pre-Christmas period when coloured lights decorate the buildings, Jingle Bells rings out everywhere and culinary delicacies tempt you to indulge. Who doesn't dream of strolling down a snowy 5th Avenue, ice-skating around the imposing Christmas tree outside the Rockerfeller Center and to cap it off, enjoying a delicious slice of pumpkin pie in an inviting cafe? Live the dream of a White Christmas in New York: Authors Lisa Nieschlag, Lars Wentrup and photographer Julia Cawley have created a cookbook of recipes and Christmas stories from the Big Apple that takes readers on a winter trip to New York. Christmas recipes and stories: Included among the fifty mouth watering recipes in New York Christmas are Blueberry Brownies, Maple Glazed Ham and an unforgettable cheesecake. Also included in the book are three beautiful Christmas-themed stories, so you can read yourself into the spirit of Christmas. Each of the three stories has, in its own way, become part of popular Christmas folklore in the United States: - Paul Auster's Auggie Wren's Christmas Story - The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry - And, Virginia O'Hanlon's Is There a Santa Claus? If you are a fan of Nigella Lawson's Nigella Christmas, Donna Hay's Simple Essentials Christmas, or Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook; you will want to own New York Christmas: Recipes and Stories.

A collection of 180 personal, true-life accounts from NPR's National Story Project reflects the work of men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life and is accompanied by a look at the role of storytelling in our lives.

From the bestselling author of Oracle Night and The Book of Illusions, an exhilarating, whirlwind tale of one man's accidental redemption Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Nathan finds his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, working in a local bookstore—a far cry from the brilliant academic career he'd begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the charismatic Harry Brightman, whom fate has also brought to the "ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York." Through Tom and Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new set of acquaintances—not to mention a stray relative or two—and leads him to a reckoning with his past. Among the many twists in the delicious plot are a scam involving a forgery of the first page of The Scarlet Letter, a disturbing revelation that takes place in a sperm bank, and an impossible, utopian dream of a rural refuge. Meanwhile, the wry and acerbic Nathan has undertaken something he calls The Book of Human Folly, in which he proposes "to set down in the simplest, clearest language possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I had committed during my long and checkered career as a man." But life takes over instead, and Nathan's despair is swept away as he finds himself more and more implicated in the joys and sorrows of others. The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving and unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.

This unique anthology of 12 compelling mysteries of Christmas and murder spotlights well-known, bestselling mystery writers such as John Mortimer, James Powell, Alice Scanlan Reach, Julian Symons, Georges Simenon, and others. Perfect for mystery fans who love solving mistletoe mayhem.

A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico-supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.

This major anthology brings together the best literary writing about New York--from O. Henry, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck to Paul Auster and James Baldwin.