The year is 1429 and the English have been attempting to annex France since long before Joan can remember, and since 1419 trying to illegitimize its crown prince (the Dauphin). Joan, 17 years old and a pious young woman, runs away from home in order to attempt an impossible mission from God—have herself appointed as a French field general and lead her country to victory over the English. She knows she’s small in stature, of low birth, illiterate, and has no knowledge of war or politics. Nonetheless, like her hero, the Blessed Virgin Mary, she says “yes” to God and, determined to succeed, sets off to prevent a major English victory at Orléans. Like Michael and Jeff Shaara’s historical fiction models, this book chronicles Joan’s every perilous step from the harsh road away from her parent’s farm to the Dauphin’s heavy-handed investigation to determine if she’s a witch or virgin. It also portrays the indignity she suffers at the royal court as well as the anger and hysteria among veteran French generals with the announcement of her elevation to knighthood. Then, at its heart, Maiden General takes readers through the week long Battle of Orléans—Joan’s failures, her wounds, her indomitable courage, and finally her impossible and miraculous victory.

Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR

Anna, a girl growing up in a Saxon village in seventh-century Mercia, finds a golden horn in the ruins of a Roman villa. Soon an ugly dwarf, a beautiful sorceress, and even her own people are after her to gain the powers of the horn.

A bus full of children is taken hostage in this “screaming hit” (The New York Times Book Review) from the author of The Never Game and The Bone Collector. Along a windswept Kansas road, eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: One hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met. Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI’s best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages—a beautiful teacher who’s willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.

The subject of this book by one of the Church of England's most respected Anglo-Catholic priests could hardly be more central. The rekindling of devotion to Mary has been one of the many gifts of the Catholic movement to the Church of England, and there are few better exponents of it than Roger Greenacre. He was keen to foster a greater appreciation of Mary among Anglicans, as part of a renewed emphasis on the Church of England's catholic identity and relationship with the wider Church. He traces the way that Mary has been perceived throughout Anglican history, from patterns of Marian devotion in the Middle Ages to her portrayal in today's liturgical texts, and examines her role in ecumenical dialogue. In a selection of homilies he presents Mary to an Anglican and ecumenical audience. The book opens with a biographical account of Roger Greenacre's life and work by his literary executor, Colin Podmore.