The Big Sur Trilogy is the story about one of the last pioneer families in America who lived freely and self-sufficiently in a remote area of the central California known as Big Sur. The Trilogy spans over 100 years and depicts the hard but rewarding life of three generations of the Zande Allan family. The Big Sur Coast extends 100 miles from Carmel to San Simeon and is bordered by the Santa Lucia Mountains and Pacific Ocean. This remote wilderness contains some of the most rugged terrain in the American continent. From the beginning of time the south coast was accessible only by foot, mule or horseback. Although inhabited by three nomadic American Indian tribes, the Spaniards refused to travel along the coast because of the high mountains, steep canyons and deepwater crossings.In the 1870s a wagon road was built from Mal Paso Crossing to Bixby Creek Ranch. The next 74 miles of the Coast was not accessible by auto until 1937 with the opening of Highway One, which took eighteen years to build, mostly by convict labor using dynamite and steam shovels.When completed, it became the only road in the United States that went directly from a horse trail to an auto road, thus bypassing the traditional, interim wagon road. The road changed forever the lives of the Big Sur homesteaders as the mainstream modern American culture motored into their once-private coast.Before the road, few 'outlanders' visited the south coast because travel was strenuous, the trail precarious and the homesteads were few and far between, but those who ventured there were greeted with coast hospitality, lively conversation and ranch grown food.The Big Sur pioneer families worked long hours and full days with little time for frills or fancy things, and they had no patience for what was not plain spoken. A trip to Monterey to buy supplies or to Salinas to sell cattle took three hard days by horseback along narrow trails at the edge of granite cliffs often falling straight to the sea some 2000 feet below. Twice a year the ranchers would gather for a coast barbecue with neighbors on the beach while waiting for the cargo schooner to arrive and winch ashore their load of hard stock supplies too bulky for pack mule or horse.The third novel of the Big Sur Trilogy begins in 1909 on the 21st birthday of the third Zande Allen, who grew up under his Grampa's sharp eyes and stern ways. Zan revered his grandfather as the wisest of men and his Grampa fancied Zan as the finest fruit from his family tree.Enroute to the annual roundup, Zan helps the road survey crew and earns his first three dollars. Zande gives Zan land and stock, if he can fence it in thirty days. Feeling flush, Zan promises to buy his sister, Maria, a bed, but is shocked by the price. To keep his word he earns money working on the road while he also builds fence. When Old Zande discovers his split loyalties, they clash and Zan gives back the ranch and cattle, then goes to work on the road. Maria invites Zan to dinner as thanks for her bed but enroute Zan hears a shot and discovers his flirty young cousin Tillie had killed her beau because she carried his child but he refused to marry her. To save her reputation, Zan confesses to the crime and goes to prison. Seven years later Zan returns and realizes his love for Lara, a child adopted by his parents and ten years younger, but thinking that no respectable woman would want a convict for a husband, he withholds his feelings. Lara's friend is arrested for running rum and leaves the Coast again to help build Boulder Dam.Upon his next return to Big Sur, to his dismay Lara is not there but may return on July 4, 1937 for Pioneer Day, the grand opening of the new road. Grampa Zande, now a hundred, still curses the road and plots to stop if from opening, which conflicts with young Zande's eagerness for the road to be open. The fateful day of opening Highway One brings many surprises for the road, Grandpa and the love between Zan and Lara.

The Big Sur Trilogy is the story about one of the last pioneer families in America who lived freely and self-sufficiently in a remote area of the central California known as Big Sur. The Trilogy spans over 100 years and depicts the hard but rewarding life of three generations of the Zande Allan family. The Big Sur Coast extends 100 miles from Carmel to San Simeon and is bordered by the Santa Lucia Mountains and Pacific Ocean. This remote wilderness contains some of the most rugged terrain in the American continent. From the beginning of time the south coast was accessible only by foot, mule or horseback. Although inhabited by three nomadic American Indian tribes, the Spaniards refused to travel along the coast because of the high mountains, steep canyons and dangerous water crossings. In the 1870s a partial wagon road was built from Mal Paso Crossing to Bixby Creek Ranch. The next 74 miles of the Big Sur Coast was not accessible by auto until 1937 with the opening of Highway One, which took eighteen years to build, mostly by convict labor using dynamite and steam shovels. When completed, it became the only road in the United States that went directly from a horse trail to an auto road, thus bypassing the traditional, interim wagon road. The road changed forever the lives of the Big Sur homesteaders as the mainstream modern American culture motored into their once-private coast. Before the road, few 'outlanders' visited the south coast because travel was strenuous, the trail precarious and the homesteads were few and far between, but those who ventured there were greeted with coast hospitality, lively conversation and ranch grown food. The Big Sur pioneer families worked long hours and full days with little time for frills or fancy things, and they had no patience for what was not plain spoken. A trip to Monterey to buy supplies or to Salinas to sell cattle took three hard days by horseback along narrow trails at the edge of granite cliffs often falling straight to the sea some 2000 feet below. Twice a year the ranchers would gather for a coast barbecue with neighbors on the beach while waiting for the cargo schooner to arrive and winch ashore their load of hard stock supplies too bulky for pack mule or horse. The second novel is named after Zande and Hannah's daughter Blaze Allan who took her headstrong ways from her father and her tender feelings from her mother. She was a beautiful young woman who could sit a saddle as good as any man on the coast. When her father demanded that she marry Joe Williams, whom she detested and rejected. One day she met a stranger on the trail and began to dream about him. A neighbor, Pete Garcia, teased Blaze into hunting Abalone on a remote beach, but once there, his interest quickly changed from Abalone to Amore. As a proper coast girl, reputation meant everything, and she rejected his advances. As the tide came in they were trapped in the cove and such an overnight stay was forbidden. Pete knew that folks would assume the worst and ruin her reputation so he decided to swim for help. Blaze tried to stop him but he drowned in the powerful surf. Pete's parents and even her own suspected she was now a ruined woman and blamed her for Pete's death. Joe Williams, her rejected suitor, spread the rumor that he had also been with Blaze. Devastated that her reputation was shattered simply by rumor, she fled Pete's funeral and rode to Monterey but, once again, she came upon the stranger, who arranged for her safe passage on his tanbark cargo schooner. In Monterey, alone and hungry, she struggled to survive by working for food and shelter, but the town folks suspected she was a fallen woman who had been cast from the coast by her kinfolks. After a shopkeeper tried to take advantage of her youth and beauty, she bolted from Monterey and headed back to the Coast on foot where, once more, the handsome man of her dreams appeared on the trail and rescued her from herself.

The Big Sur Trilogy is the story about one of the last pioneer families in America who lived freely and self-sufficiently in a remote area of the central California known as Big Sur. The Trilogy spans over 100 years and depicts the hard but rewarding life of three generations of the Zande Allan family. The Big Sur Coast extends 100 miles from Carmel to San Simeon and is bordered by the Santa Lucia Mountains and Pacific Ocean. This remote wilderness contains some of the most rugged terrain in the American continent. From the beginning of time the south coast was accessible only by foot, mule or horseback. Although inhabited by three nomadic American Indian tribes, the Spaniards refused to travel along the coast because of the high mountains, steep canyons and dangerous water crossings. In the 1870s a partial wagon road was built from Mal Paso Crossing to Bixby Creek Ranch. The next 74 miles of the Big Sur Coast was not accessible by auto until 1937 with the opening of Highway One, which took eighteen years to build, mostly by convict labor using dynamite and steam shovels. When completed, it became the only road in the United States that went directly from a horse trail to an auto road, thus bypassing the traditional, interim wagon road. The road changed forever the lives of the Big Sur homesteaders as the mainstream modern American culture motored into their once-private coast. Before the road, few 'outlanders' visited the south coast because travel was strenuous, the trail precarious and the homesteads were few and far between, but those who ventured there were greeted with coast hospitality, lively conversation and ranch grown food. The Big Sur pioneer families worked long hours and full days with little time for frills or fancy things, and they had no patience for what was not plain spoken. A trip to Monterey to buy supplies or to Salinas to sell cattle took three hard days by horseback along narrow trails at the edge of granite cliffs often falling straight to the sea some 2000 feet below. Twice a year the ranchers would gather for a coast barbecue with neighbors on the beach while waiting for the cargo schooner to arrive and winch ashore their load of hard stock supplies too bulky for pack mule or horse. The second novel is named after Zande and Hannah's daughter Blaze Allan who took her headstrong ways from her father and her tender feelings from her mother. She was a beautiful young woman who could sit a saddle as good as any man on the coast. When her father demanded that she marry Joe Williams, whom she detested and rejected. One day she met a stranger on the trail and began to dream about him. A neighbor, Pete Garcia, teased Blaze into hunting Abalone on a remote beach, but once there, his interest quickly changed from Abalone to Amore. As a proper coast girl, reputation meant everything, and she rejected his advances. As the tide came in they were trapped in the cove and such an overnight stay was forbidden. Pete knew that folks would assume the worst and ruin her reputation so he decided to swim for help. Blaze tried to stop him but he drowned in the powerful surf. Pete's parents and even her own suspected she was now a ruined woman and blamed her for Pete's death. Joe Williams, her rejected suitor, spread the rumor that he had also been with Blaze. Devastated that her reputation was shattered simply by rumor, she fled Pete's funeral and rode to Monterey but, once again, she came upon the stranger, who arranged for her safe passage on his tanbark cargo schooner. In Monterey, alone and hungry, she struggled to survive by working for food and shelter, but the town folks suspected she was a fallen woman who had been cast from the coast by her kinfolks. After a shopkeeper tried to take advantage of her youth and beauty, she bolted from Monterey and headed back to the Coast on foot where, once more, the handsome man of her dreams appeared on the trail and rescued her from herself.

Jesse and Lee share a house owned by a very nice Chinese dentist, where it rains in the hall. They move to cabins on the cliffs at Big Sur where the deafening croaks of frogs can be temporarily silenced by the cry, 'Campbell's Soup'. Ultimately, we learn how the frogs are permanently silenced . . . and dreams disperse around a fire into 186,000 endings per second. In anticipating flower power and the ideals of the Sixties, Brautigan's debut novel was at least at decade before its time and remains a weird and brilliant classic.

Big Sur embodies much of what has defined California since the mid-twentieth century. A remote, inaccessible, and undeveloped pastoral landscape until 1937, Big Sur quickly became a cultural symbol of California and the West, as well as a home to the ultrawealthy. This transformation was due in part to writers and artists such as Robinson Jeffers and Ansel Adams, who created an enduring mystique for this coastline. But Big Sur’s prized coastline is also the product of the pioneering efforts of residents and Monterey County officials who forged a collaborative public/private preservation model for Big Sur that foreshadowed the shape of California coastal preservation in the twenty-first century. Big Sur’s well-preserved vistas and high-end real estate situate this coastline between American ideals of development and the wild. It is a space that challenges the way most Americans think of nature, of people’s relationship to nature, and of what in fact makes a place “wild.” This book highlights today’s intricate and ambiguous intersections of class, the environment, and economic development through the lens of an iconic California landscape.

THE INSTANT NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The stunning new novel from the bestselling author of global phenomenon Tuesdays with Morrie 'Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary' Cecelia Ahern ____________ Adrift in a raft after a terrible shipwreck, ten strangers try to survive while they wait for rescue. After three days, short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him on board - and the survivor claims he can save them. But should they put their trust in him? Will any of them see home again? And why did the ship really sink? The Stranger in the Lifeboat is not only a deeply moving novel about the power of love and hope in the face of danger, but also a mystery that will keep you guessing to the very end. ____________ What real readers are saying about The Stranger in the Lifeboat: 'Enthralling storytelling as always from this brilliant writer' FIVE STARS 'Just when I thought I had things figured out . . . plot twist. One that was not expected. And another and another and another. Mind. Blown . . . You just just have to read it' FIVE STARS 'Albom can always be depended on to not only write a book that is written well and entertaining, but compels the reader to look within themselves and feel something new' FIVE STARS 'A very exciting, thrilling and poignant tale of trying to survive against the odds' FIVE STARS