Follows the adventures of the Berrybenders, a large, noble English family traveling the Missouri River in 1832. This deeply self-absorbed and spoiled family leaves England for the unknown of the American West, based solely on a "whim" and Lord Berrybender's desire to "shoot different animals from those he shot at home." The novel joins the family as they make their way toward Yellowstone aboard a luxury steamer, accompanied by a motley assemblage...

Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . . In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects...

In 1812, Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner mark the return of Nathaniel's daughter Hannah, while her half-brother Daniel joins the militia and his twin, Lily, falls in love with a dark and dangerous stranger.

Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages?and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money?more than you've ever dreamed of?to spend a few seasons in this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored. Your former life will seem a world away as you dedicate yourself to the...

An unforgettable novel about a young woman's journey into the heart of the unknown from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.

Callie James learned to survive in the squalid back alleys of Dublin. Tough, spirited, and possessed of a singular beauty, she was sent to New York to find her fortune. But everywhere she turned there were men who saw only what they wanted to see in her. Byrch Kenyon offered friendship and encouragement,

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"O Pioneers! (1913) is the story of Alexandra Bergson, a fiercely independent and clear-headed young woman whose passionate faith in the Nebraska prairie makes her a wealthy landowner." "Willa Cather's second novel is imbued with the democratic utopianism of Walt Whitman and the serene regionalism of Sarah Orne Jewett, but it is not merely an elegy for the lost glories of America's pioneer past. In its rage for order and efficiency, O pioneers! also...

"The year is 1848, and Kristin Eikaas has traveled from Norway to Wisconsin with dreams of a new life. But when she arrives, she finds one disappointment after another. Worse, her superstitious uncle now believes that his neighbor's Oneida Indian wife has put a curse on Kristin. Everyone knows the Sundbergs put spells on people-- Everyone except Kristin. Her run-ins with Sam Sundberg only prove that he is a good man from a Christian family. but when...

The extraordinary biographical novel about a Chinese-American woman who fought for independence and dignity in the American West—“an important contribution to the history of pioneer women” (Ms. Magazine)
 
Lalu Nathoy’s father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his “thousand pieces of gold”—yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly,...

A successful lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with an immigrant Bohemian girl.

A woman must come to terms with the circumcision she endured as a child in Africa In Tashi's tribe, the Olinka, young girls undergo circumcision as an initiation into the community. Tashi manages to avoid this fate at first, but when pressed by tribal leaders, she submits. Years later, married and living in America as Evelyn Johnson, Tashi's inner pain emerges. As she questions why such a terrifying, disfiguring sacrifice was required, she sorts through...