This collection includes five of his best-loved tales in one volume.

    With "echoes of Of Mice and Men" (The Bookseller, UK), The Motel Life explores the frustrations and failed dreams of two Nevada brothers — on the run after a hit-and-run accident — who, forgotten by society, and short on luck and hope, desperately cling to the edge of modern life.

    Respected and admired for her obvious parenting success, she leads a popular mothers’ group at her church, passing along wisdom gained through years of experience. until she woke up in a mother’s worst nightmare. Then the unthinkable happens. Sixteen-year-old Tristan, the quiet “good girl” of the family, disappears–and the search brings to light unpleasant truths that prompt Serena to question nearly everything she believes about her children, her marriage, and her faith. “Where did we go wrong?” Brokenhearted by her daughter’s behavior and her husband’s angry response, Serena struggles to see God’s hand of grace in their lives. Initially determined to rescue Tristan from whatever trouble she’s in, Serena learns the painful lesson that true strength won’t be found in regaining control of her daughter’s choices but in finally learning when to let go.

    On ragtag scraps of paper, his mother carefully copied snippets of Scripture. Was this Shoebox Bible related to why his father ran away? Years later, on her deathbed, his mother may help solve the mystery. Sad, funny, and inspiring.

    He begins with a group of light but haunting fables, populated by figures like the King, a tiny creature in ermine who has lost his desire to rule, and by the poet’s own alter ego, who recounts the fetching mystery of the title poem: “I sat on the porch having a smoke / when out of the blue a man and a camel / happened by.” The poet has Arctic adventures and encounters with the bearded figure of Death; in his controlled tone, he creates his bold visions and shows us, like a magician, how they vanish in a blink. Gradually, his fancies give way to powerful scenes of loss, as in “The Mirror,” where the face of a beautiful woman stares past him into a place I could only imagine . . . as if just then I were steppingfrom the depths of the mirror into that white room, breathless and eager,only to discover too latethat she is not there.Man and Camel concludes with a small masterpiece of meditations crafted around the Seven Last Words of Christ. Here, this secular poet finds resonance in the bedrock of Christ’s language, the actual words that have governed so many generations of thought and belief. As always with Mark Strand, the discovery of meaning in the sound of language itself is an act of faith that enlightens us and carries us beyond the bounds of the rational.

    Gibson and Lester Dent (writing as "Maxwell Grant"), and artists George Rozen and Edd Cartier.The first volume of this new series reproduces both original covers by George Rozen, plus all of the original interior illustrations by Edd Cartier. This book also includes new historical background articles by popular culture historians Anthony Tollin and Will Murray (who collaborated posthumously with Dent on Seven new Doc Savage novels previously published by Bantam).

    Fiction. Cultural Writing. Keith Taylor's collection of poems, short stories and creative non-fiction, GUILTY AT THE RAPTURE delights readers with its austere and gentle sensibility. "All things good would rise / into air, pulled from dirt and sky, / from cars left driverless / below, slamming into trees" Taylor coordinates the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan and formerly managed Shaman Drum, a leading independent book store. Author of five poetry chapbooks and a collection of very short stories, LIFE SCIENCE AND OTHER STORIES, his work has appeared in such publications as Story, The Alternative Press, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Witness and HANGING LOOSE.

    It reminds me how vacuous, banal and insipid most highly-touted fiction is. Craig Davidson asks—and answers—some big, uncomfortable questions about the nature of our humanity. The Fighter is an essential novel, destined for cult status at the very least.”—Irvine Welsh “While the novel’s brutal fights will entice readers of other virile allegories like Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Davidson’s story takes a more nuanced, realistic approach.”—Kirkus Reviews Everything has been handed to Paul Harris, the son of a wealthy southern Ontario businessman. But after a vicious beating shakes his world, he descends into the realm of hardcore bodybuilders and boxing gyms, seeking to become a real man, reveling in suffering. Rob Tully, a working-class teenager from upstate New York, is a born boxer. He trains with his father and uncle, who believe a gift like his can change their lives, but he struggles under the weight of their expectations. Inevitably, these two young men’s paths will cross. Craig Davidson was born in Toronto and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. He is the author of the acclaimed short story collection Rust and Bone, which was published by W.W. Norton in the United States, Penguin in Canada, Albin Michel in France, and Picador in the United Kingdom.From the Trade Paperback edition.