In 1798, Daniel Dickinson, a young Quaker father and widower, leaves his home in Pennsylvania to establish a new life. He sets out with two horses, a wagon full of belongings, his five children, a 15-year-old orphan wife, and a few land warrants for his future homestead. When Daniel suddenly trades a horse for a young slave, Onesimus, it sets in motion a struggle in his conscience that will taint his life forever, and sets in motion a chain of events that lead to two murders and the family's strange relationship with a runaway slave named Bett. Stripped down and as hard-edged as the realities of pioneer life, Spalding's writing is nothing short of stunning, as it instantly envelops the reader in the world and time of the novel, and follows the lives of unforgettable characters. Inspired by stories of the author's own ancestors, The Purchase is a resonant, powerful and timeless novel.

The author of The Follow offers an account of her encounter with murder and its aftermath while serving on the jury for the murder trial of Maryann Acker, accused with her husband of a crime spree that left two men dead, her decision many years later to meet the woman in prison, and her personal investigation into the forces that drove Maryann to crime. 15,000 first printing.

(view table of contents)

From the editors of Brick: A Literary Journal comes a collection of essays by seventy-four distinguished writers--including Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, and Bill Richardson--who offer personal reflections on some of their favorite overlooked, under-read, out of print, lost, or otherwise unavailable books. Original. 25,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

The annual collection of essays, excerpts, and interviews includes work from Isabel Huggan, Alice Munro, Edmund White, Pico Iyer, Alice Walker,John Berger, and Barry Lopez, among other notable authors. Original.

(view table of contents)

Recounts Spalding's journey to locate Birute Galdikas in Borneo's threatened jungles, where Galdikas has been working to study and protect the endangered orangutans (view table of contents)

This work examines the impulse to 'save' a species, combining issues of natural history, travel writing and reflections on motherhood, the reforming zeal of the 1960s and ethics of being 'Green'. It looks at why a woman such as Birute Galdikas committed her life to studying a group of orang-utans.

Amid the changing political and social environment of a Colorado college campus, three friends--Lily, Kate, and Turner, a young man drawn to both women--must confront such issues as loneliness, pregnancy, and the disintegration of friendships

Jesse Quill finds herself grappling with her husband's infidelity and the sanctity of one of the world's greatest taboos when they move to the Hawaiian island of Oahu to reclaim an inherited ancestral estate