"Jackie Newsome's best friend is dead, and everyone knows who killed her. Jackie is an ex-emotional eater and mother of four, who has finally lost the weight she long yearned to be free of. But leaving her old self behind proves harder than she ever imagined. She believes she should be happier, but misery still chases her, and motherhood threatens to consume her. Her only salve is Theresa, her best friend whose life she desperately covets. Their bond...

"William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing. Who took Avery Wooler?"--

Former college sweethearts reconnect decades later after each has married, raised a family and forged careers and embark on an intense affair that forces them to confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other.

"Exacting yet unpredictable, pithy yet complex, Coetzee's The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, extravagantly white-haired pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold and his "gleaming dentures," she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept...