From the award-winning author of All the Broken Pieces and Serafina's Promise comes a breathtaking new novel that is her most transcendent and widely accessible work to date. The day Grace is called from the slave cabins to work in the Big House, Mama makes her promise to keep her eyes down. Uncle Jim warns her to keep her thoughts tucked private in her mind or they could bring a whole lot of trouble and pain. But the more Grace sees of the heartless Master and hateful Missus, the more a rightiness voice clamors in her head-asking how come white folks can own other people, sell them on the auction block, and separate families forever. When that voice escapes without warning, it sets off a terrible chain of events that prove Uncle Jim's words true. Suddenly, Grace and her family must flee deep into the woods, where they brave deadly animals, slave patrollers, and the uncertainty of ever finding freedom. With candor and compassion, Ann E. Burg sheds light on a startling chapter of American history--the remarkable story of runaways who sought sanctuary in the Great Dismal Swamp--and creates a powerful testament to the right of every human to be free.

This book covers all Bernardine Evaristo’s major works: Lara (1997) and Lara (2009), The Emperor’s Babe, Soul Tourists, Blonde Roots and Hello Mum. Each chapter focuses on a particular novel, combining a close analysis of the author’s technique with a penetrating understanding of the basic themes which underlie all of Evaristo’s work. This monograph exposes that Evaristo is not simply interested in “multicultural” issues; to label them as such is to overlook her achievement as a novelist. It shows instead how Evaristo combines apparently disparate elements—for example, historical research with late-twentieth century allusions in a narrative such as The Emperor’s Babe—to show how African-Caribbeans have been coming to Britain for thousands of years. Yet Evaristo is not just interested in the African-Caribbean experience; this book shows how she tries to question those basic concepts—for example “Englishness” or “patriotism”—which lie at the heart of mainstream white culture in contemporary Britain. It argues that Evaristo is interested in alternative constructions—not only of nationalism, but of other basic issues such as race, gender and class. Her books give the chance for hitherto marginalized characters—slaves, women, or victims of a patriarchal world—to tell their stories and postulate alternative views of the world they live in. Above all, this monograph shows how Evaristo refuses to be pigeon-holed; she is not simply “a black British writer,” but someone who focuses on the interconnectedness of society. This book calls for readers to adopt a more enlightened approach, not only to issues of culture and identity, but to the work of Evaristo as a whole.

A critical evaluation of Philip Roth—the first of its kind—that takes on the man, the myth, and the work Philip Roth is one of the most renowned writers of our time. From his debut, Goodbye, Columbus, which won the National Book Award in 1960, and the explosion of Portnoy's Complaint in 1969 to his haunting reimagining of Anne Frank's story in The Ghost Writer ten years later and the series of masterworks starting in the mid-eighties—The Counterlife, Patrimony, Operation Shylock, Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, The HumanStain—Roth has produced some of the great American literature of the modern era. And yet there has been no major critical work about him until now. Here, at last, is the story of Roth's creative life. Roth Unbound is not a biography—though it contains a wealth of previously undisclosed biographical details and unpublished material—but something ultimately more rewarding: the exploration of a great writer through his art. Claudia Roth Pierpont, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has known Roth for nearly a decade. Her carefully researched and gracefully written account is filled with remarks from Roth himself, drawn from their ongoing conversations. Here are insights and anecdotes that will change the way many readers perceive this most controversial and galvanizing writer: a young and unhappily married Roth struggling to write; a wildly successful Roth, after the uproar over Portnoy, working to help writers from Eastern Europe and to get their books known in the West; Roth responding to the early, Jewish—and the later, feminist—attacks on his work. Here are Roth's family, his inspirations, his critics, the full range of his fiction, and his friendships with such figures as Saul Bellow and John Updike. Here is Roth at work and at play. Roth Unbound is a major achievement—a highly readable story that helps us make sense of one of the most vital literary careers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

"The author makes the case for teaching and allowing middle and high school English students to write fiction, a genre that fades away in the upper grades. This is the writing students want to do, and their practice of writing fiction strengthens all types of writing in the end"--

Find out what happens to Connor, Risa, and Lev now that they've finally destroyed the Proactive Citizenry in this collection of short stories set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman. Connor Lassiter's fight to bring down Proactive Citizenry and find a suitable alternative to unwinding concluded in UnDivided. Now Connor, Risa, and Lev are free to live in a peaceful future--or are they? Neal Shusterman brings back his beloved Unwind characters for his fans to see what's left for those who were destined to be unwound.

Her greatest pursuit is freedom. Her greatest fear is love. He knows the two go hand in hand. • Kit is a strong and independent woman; it’s what the world tells her she can be, so she owns it. Even as a junior in college she has never needed or had any desire for a boyfriend; he would just tie her down. She definitely wouldn’t be able to fly so freely to Costa Rica for her internship at the human trafficking restoration home. Upon arrival, Kit Immediately finds her heart encircled and enlivened by the Latin rhythms, but she quickly encounters another disturbance there too—one that’s not so welcome. While she may be calling this place home for now, it really belongs to Dash; this is his language, his ocean, his territory. The only thing she can lay claim to is her solitary backpack, the simple room she’s been given, and her heart. That is still definitely, unquestionably, undoubtedly hers. It's easy for Kit to understand that the girls at the restoration home cling to distrust and fear when it comes to love, but she is quickly realizing that her own steady heart seems to be buried alongside the girls’ she came to work with, and only the purest of loves can really set them all free. • • While the content is meant to be clean and guarded in nature, there is some information about human trafficking, and content around this subject, which may make some readers uncomfortable. Suggested reader age: 15+