Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.

Set in England, The Golden Bowl is Henry James's highly charged exploration of adultery, jealousy, and possession that continues-and challenges? James's characteristic exploration of the battle between American innocence and European experience. Maggie Verver, a young American heiress, and her widowed father, Adam, lead a life of wealth and refinement in London. They are both getting married: Maggie to Prince Amerigo, an impoverished Italian aristocrat,...

Told in alternating voices, this novel follows the events leading up to the violent dissolution of Jodi and Todd's marriage, a union steeped in lies, infidelity, jealousy, and denial.

Tiring of commitment-phobic boyfriends, Lottie readily accepts her ex's offer of marriage in fulfillment of a safety pact made years earlier that they would marry if they were still single in their thirties, a rushed arrangement that prompts family disapproval and an unexpected renewal of passion.

"Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill's heroine, referred to in these pages as simply "the wife," once exchanged love letters with her husband, postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines...

When the ringleader of a group of former college friends dies suddenly, the survivors gather at his Catskills estate to memorialize his life, pitting Iraq war protestor Ned against his wife, who believes that the deceased did not truly value Ned's friendship.

Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife; and his ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets.

"Divorcing his wife to marry his girlfriend, Audra, is the one impulsive thing Graham Cavanaugh has ever done. Audra is charming and spontaneous and fun, but life with her can be exhausting, constantly interrupted by phone calls, burdened by houseguests, and populated by old men with backpacks full of origami paper. As Graham and Audra struggle to define their marriage and raise a child with Asperger's, they decide to establish a friendship with his...

From the "dean of Western writers" (The New York Times) and the Pulitzer Prize winning–author of Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety, his National Book Award–winning novel

A Penguin Classic
Joe Allston is a retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "just killing time until time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors...

"Alone in an empty house, Lucy tries to imagine the lives of her two young children. They have been gone for seven years, and she is tormented by the role she played in that heartbreaking loss. You can hardly see a glimpse of the sexy, edgy woman she used to be. Back then, she was a magnet for men like Matt, who loved her beyond reason, and Griffin, who wouldn't let go but always left her wanting more. With shattering, unthinkable turns that will...