Literary

Beloved

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1988

by Toni Morrison

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped...

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel

by Jamie Ford

BONUS: This edition contains a Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet discussion guide and an excerpt from Jamie Ford's Songs of Willow Frost.

"Sentimental, heartfelt….the exploration of Henry’s changing...

My Sister's Keeper: A Novel

by Jodi Picoult

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting...

The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, a heartwarming coming of age tale set in 1960s South Carolina, a multi-million copy New York Times bestseller, now an award-winning film starring Dakota Fanning, Queen...

The Midwife's Confession

by Diane Chamberlain

Dear Anna,

What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason...

Snuff

by Chuck Palahniuk

In the crowded greenroom of a porn-movie production, hundreds of men mill around in their boxers, awaiting their turn with the legendary Cassie Wright. An aging adult film star, Cassie Wright intends to cap...

Left Neglected

by Lisa Genova

Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children—Lucy, Charlie,...

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt: A Novel

by Beth Hoffman

Read Beth Hoffman's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.

Steel Magnolias meets The Help in this Southern debut novel sparkling with humor, heart, and feminine wisdom

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt...

Atonement: A Novel

National Book Critics Circle for Fiction 2002, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction 2002

by Ian Mcewan

The novel opens on a sweltering summer day in 1935 at the Tallis family’s mansion in the Surrey countryside. Thirteen-year-old Briony has written a play in honor of the visit of her adored older brother Leon;...

In One Person: A Novel

by John Irving

A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual...

Norwegian Wood

by Haruki Murakami

First American Publication

This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences...

What Alice Forgot

by Liane Moriarty

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE HYPNOTIST'S LOVE STORY...

A "cheerfully engaging"* novel for anyone who's ever asked herself, "How did I get here?"

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant...

The Affair

by Colette Freedman

After eighteen years of marriage, Kathy Walker has settled into a pattern of comfortable routines--ferrying her two teenagers between soccer practice and piano lessons, running a film production business with...

The Namesake: A Novel

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have...

The Yellow Birds: A Novel

Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award 2013

by Kevin Powers

A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.

"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of...

Child of God

by Cormac Mccarthy

In this taut, chilling novel, Lester Ballard--a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape--haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail.  While telling his story, Cormac...

The Pale King

by David Foster Wallace

The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive...

Russian Debutante's Handbook

by Gary Shteyngart

The Russian Debutante's Handbook introduces Vladimir Girshkin, one of the most original and unlikely heroes of recent times. The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately...

The Masters of Atlantis

by Charles Portis

This unforgettable novel centers on Lamar Jimmerson, a man in the front ranks of the modern-day Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of...

The Memory Keeper's Daughter: A Novel

by Kim Edwards

A #1 New York Times bestseller by Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted novel of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love

Kim Edwards’s stunning novel...