"In the end," writes Tori McClure, "I know I rowed across the Atlantic to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing." During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. Unfortunately for Tori, 1998 is still on record as the worst hurricane season in the North Atlantic. In deep solitude and perilous conditions, she was nonetheless determined to prove what one person with a mission can do. When she was finally brought to her knees by a series of violent storms that nearly killed her, she had to signal for help and go home in what felt like complete disgrace. Back in Kentucky, however, Tori's life began to change in unexpected ways. She fell in love. At the age of thirty-five, she embarked on a serious relationship for the first time, making her feel even more vulnerable than sitting alone in a tiny boat in the middle of the Atlantic. She went to work for Muhammad Ali, who told her that she did not want to be known as the woman who "almost" rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. And she knew that he was right. In this thrilling story of high adventure and romantic quest, Tori McClure discovers through her favorite way—the hard way—that the most important thing in life is not to prove you are superhuman but to fully to embrace your own humanity. With a wry sense of humor and a strong voice, she gives us a true memoir of an explorer who maps her world with rare emotional honesty.

Thirty-six major contemporary writers examine life in a deeply divided America—including Anthony Doerr, Ann Patchett, Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, Hector Tobar, Joyce Carol Oates, Edwidge Danticat, Richard Russo, Eula Bliss, Karen Russell, and many more America is broken. You don’t need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world’s most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people.

Discover the first in the epic trilogy by New York Times bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Sun Born, Morning River), which vividly recounts the devastating clash of cultures that occurs when Native Americans and Europeans make first contact. The pale, bearded newcomers who call themselves “Kristianos” fascinate Black Shell, an exiled Chickasaw trader, and not even the counsel of Pearl Hand, the beautiful, extraordinary woman who has consented to be his mate, can dissuade him from interacting with them. Only after a firsthand lesson in Kristiano brutality does Black Shell fully comprehend the dangers these invaders pose to his people’s way of life. While his first instinct is to run far from the then, Black Shell has been called to a greater destiny by the Spirit Being known as Horned Serpent. With Pearl Hand by his side, Black Shell must find a way to unite the disparate tribes and settlements of his native land and overcome the merciless armies of the man called Hernando de Soto. Using archeological data, ethnographic records, and historical journals, the authors bring to vivid life the beliefs, technologies, and daily experiences of lost American civilizations.

“Deeply atmospheric, breathlessly suspenseful, with a ticking clock like no other—a terrific thriller.”—Lee Child Haunted by dark secrets and an unsolved mystery, a young doctor returns to his isolated Adirondacks hometown in a tense, gripping novel in the vein of Michael Koryta and Harlan Coben. Burying the past only gives it strength—and fury. Nate McHale has assembled the kind of life most people would envy. After a tumultuous youth marked by his inexplicable survival of a devastating tragedy, Nate left his Adirondack hometown of Greystone Lake and never looked back. Fourteen years later, he’s become a respected New York City surgeon, devoted husband, and loving father. Then a body is discovered deep in the forests that surround Greystone Lake. This disturbing news finally draws Nate home. While navigating a tense landscape of secrets and suspicion, resentments and guilt, Nate reconnects with estranged friends and old enemies, and encounters strangers who seem to know impossible things about him. Haunting every moment is the Lake’s sinister history and the memory of wild, beautiful Lucy Bennett, with whom Nate is forever linked by shattering loss and youthful passion. As a massive hurricane bears down on the Northeast, the air becomes electric, the clouds grow dark, and escalating acts of violence echo events from Nate’s own past. Without a doubt, a reckoning is coming—one that will lay bare the lies that lifelong friends have told themselves and unleash a vengeance that may consume them all. Praise for The Storm King “Brendan Duffy’s second book mingles horror, historical fiction, supernatural suspense and old-fashioned murder mystery, the rare phantasmagoria whose pieces click into a satisfying resolution. . . . This is a gutsy, intricate, evocative piece of mischief, much closer than anyone usually gets to that particular spell cast by Stephen King.”—USA Today “Duffy follows his debut, House of Echoes, with a stunning literary thriller, which combines accomplished wordsmithing with startling twists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An elaborately layered, creepily atmospheric story that blends haunting legends and the psychological terror of a murderer on the hunt. A winning thriller sure to draw readers of Jennifer McMahon, Ruth Ware, and Michael Koryta.”—Booklist (starred review)

When fourteen-year-old Abby Kate boards the train in Austin to spend three weeks with her grandmother in Galveston, she's full of excitement--about the train ride and the prospect of days on the beach, exploring Galveston with her cousin Jane, family picnics, and her grandmother's good food. But things go wrong even before she gets to her grandmother's house. Abby Kate gets off the train briefly in Houston--and the train leaves without her. Stranded in the railroad station, she is befriended by a man traveling with his two sons and eventually reaches Galveston safely. Then word comes that Abby Kate's young brother, Will, has diphtheria, and she will have to stay in Galveston indefinitely. Abby Kate is still in Galveston on September 8 when a massive hurricane strikes the city. At first the prospect of a storm is exciting. But as Abby Kate takes an ill-advised trip to watch the waves crash on the beach, the storm turns into a terrifying monster. Unable to make it back to Grandmother Linden's house, Abby Kate, her older cousin Ellen, and Ellen's friend Ian take refuge in the home of one of Ian's teachers. When the house falls apart, Abby Kate is on her own, clinging to a plank in swirling waters with the wind howling around her head. With vivid descriptions, Julie Lake plunges the reader into the storm right along with Abby Kate. The Galveston hurricane of September 8, 1900, remains the worst national disaster to hit the United States. And Abby Kate? She's spunky, mischievous, kind and caring, courageous when she has to be, and absolutely irresistible!

Teenage stowaway Jack Sparrow and his band of hoodlums are on a mission to find the legendary Sword of Cortâes which will grant them unimaginable power, but first they have to survive the power of the sea, vicious pirates, and ancient curses.

“Unlike Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Tori Murden McClure’s true story of a woman and the sea and a boat named American Pearl is one of victory. . . . If you want to be inspired, read this book. You won’t stop till you’ve finished.” — Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife In this thrilling memoir by the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Tori McClure finds that what she is looking for lies not in a superhuman show of strength, but rather in embracing what it means to be human. "In the end, I know I rowed across the Atlantic to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing." In June 1998, Tori McClure began rowing across the Atlantic Ocean solo in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore but decided to forge ahead -- not knowing that 1998 would turn out to be the worst hurricane season on record in the North Atlantic. When she was nearly killed by a series of violent storms, Tori was forced to signal for help and head home in what felt like disgrace. But then her life changed in unexpected ways. She was hired by Muhammad Ali, who told her she did not want to be known as the woman who "almost" rowed across the Atlantic. And at thirty-five, Tori fell in love. A Pearl in the Storm is Tori's enthralling story of high adventure—and of her personal quest to discover that embracing her own humanity was more important than superhuman feats.