Disgraced Secretary Ku has been banished from the Party - it has been officially proved he does not have a fish-shaped birthmark on his bottom and is therefore not the son of a revolutionary martyr, but the issue of a river pirate and a prostitute. Mocked by the citizens of Milltown, Secretary Ku leaves the shore for a new life among the boat people on a fleet of industrial barges. Refusing to renounce his high status, he maintains a distance - with Dongliang, his teenage son - from the gossipy lowlifes who surround him. One day a feral little girl, Huixian, arrives looking for her mother, who has jumped to her death in the river. The boat people, and especially Dongliang, take her to their hearts. But Huixian sows conflict wherever she goes, and soon Dongliang is in the grip of an obsession for her. He takes on Life, Fate and the Party in the only way he knows . . .

The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concubine of a wealthy merchant. Crushed by loneliness, despair, and cruel treatment, Lotus finds her descent into insanity both a weapon and a refuge. "Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is an account of a family's struggles during one momentous year; plagued by disease, death, and the shady promise of life in a larger town, the family slowly disintegrates. Finally, "Opium Family" details the last years of a landowning clan whose demise is brought about by corruption, lust, and treachery -- fruits of the insidious crop they harvest.

Michael Cosgrove had a beautiful family, a successful career, and a lovely Southern California home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the age sixty, he decided to leave that all behind to sail around the world. In spite of his romanticized vision of rugged individualism and salty tales to share with his grandchildren, Cosgrove quickly realizes that sailing around the world isn’t going to be as easy as he’d imagined. From a psychotic crewmate, sleep deprivation, and mental breakdowns, to stormy weather and hallucinations, Cosgrove rides the waves, holding on as best he can to his dream of “doing something grand.” Alone, and thousands of miles away from everyone and everything he loves, he is forced to ask himself one question: what in God’s name am I doing here? In his attempt to avoid the inevitable (growing old, weak, frail), Cosgrove runs amok. He breaks his budget to outfit the boat and then refuses to read the manuals. He enters unfamiliar harbors in the dead of night, hires a violent first mate, and sails headlong into ferocious storms. In the midst of his adventures, he longs for the simpler days when his four daughters were still children, when his first marriage was still intact, and when his future still seemed bright and expansive. Though driven by scenes of sheer terror, absurd folly, and deep inner searching, Cosgrove keeps his sense of humor throughout his harrowing journey. Imperfect Passage is the story of one man’s perseverance against Father Time and Mother Nature, proving that with enough will, one can, in his or her own way, conquer the unconquerable. Michael Cosgrove will be donating a portion of his profits to the Navy Special Warfare Family Foundation.

It was a desperate mission that made front-page headlines and captured the attention of millions of readers around the world. In January 1998, in the dead of an Alaskan winter, a cataclysmic Arctic storm with hurricane-force winds and towering seas forced five fishermen to abandon their vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and left them adrift in thirty-eight-degree water with no lifeboat. Their would-be rescuers were 150 miles away at the Coast Guard station, with the nearby airport shut down by an avalanche. The Last Run is the epic tale of the wreck of the oldest registered fishing schooner in Alaska, a hellish Arctic tempest, and the three teams of aviators in helicopters who withstood 140-mph gusts and hovered alongside waves that were ten stories high. But what makes this more than a true-life page-turner is its portrait of untamed Alaska and the unflappable spirit of people who forge a different kind of life on America's last frontier, the "end of the roaders" who are drawn to, or flee to, Alaska to seek a final destiny.

Learn to live and lead with enthusiasm and optimism, impact your team, and transform your culture In Row the Boat, Minnesota Golden Gophers Head Coach P.J. Fleck and bestselling author Jon Gordon deliver an inspiring message about what you can achieve when you approach life with a never-give-up philosophy. The book shows you how to choose enthusiasm and optimism as your guiding lights instead of being defined by circumstances and events outside of your control. Discover how to put the three key components of row the boat into practice in your life: The Oar: The energy. Only you can dictate whether your oar is in the water or whether you take it out and decide not to use it. The Boat: The sacrifice. The more you give, serve, and make your life about helping others, the better and more fulfilled your life will be, and the bigger your boat gets. The Compass: The direction. The vision you have for your life and the people you surround yourself with help create the dream of where you want to go. Perfect for athletes, coaches, business leaders, and anyone else who hopes to squeeze a little more enjoyment and productivity out of life, Row the Boat will propel leaders, teams, and organizations to greater heights than they have ever reached before.

By the author of Raise the Red Lantern and Rice

National Bestseller: An “astute and riveting” novel of a Dutch teenager thrust into the dangers and moral perils of his country’s Nazi occupation (The New York Times). In the summer of 1939, fourteen-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and locals hold the family in high esteem. On days when they aren’t playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their Uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become a common sight. But conflict still seems unthinkable, even as the boys’ father naively sends his sons to a Hitler Youth camp in an effort to secure German business for the factory. When war breaks out, Jacob’s world is thrown into chaos. The Boat Runner follows Jacob over the course of four years, through the forests of France and the stormy beaches of England, and deep within the secret missions of the German Navy, where he is confronted with the moral dilemma that will change his life—and his life’s mission—forever. Thrillingly written, The Boat Runner tells the little-known story of the young Dutch boys who were thrown into the Nazi campaign, as well as the brave boatmen who risked everything to give Jewish refugees safe passage. Through one boy’s harrowing tale of personal redemption, it reveals the power of people’s stories and voices to shine light through our darkest days, until only love prevails. “An ambitious coming of age story . . . Murphy’s debut novel is a purposely limited view of war, as was The Red Badge of Courage, but strong characters and compelling narrative convey the impact well beyond one family. An impressive debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)