Describes his years at medical school, his practice in a small town and his devoted self-sacrificing wife who works to make their marriage a success. Some strong language. Some explicit des. of sex.

    WICKFORD POINT follows "The Late George Apley as the second of Marquand's acclaimed and bestselling novels that Back Bay has restored to print.- John P. Marquand is regarded as one of the 20th century's masters of sophisticated domestic fiction, occupying a midpoint on the spectrum between Edith Wharton and John Cheever. On the heels of The Late George Apley, the novel for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1939, John P. Marquand turned his gently satiric gaze on his own profession-the writing life-in this delectable portrait of a stagnant yet distinguished literary family in early 20th-century Boston. Jim is the only member of the extended Brill family at Wickford Point ever to have any money in his pocket. The rest of the Brills siphon gas from his car and overdraw their accounts with the cheerful abandon of those who have always been taken care of. In New England the Brills are cultural and literary royalty with an intellectual lineage that hasn't so much been inherited by the younger generation as it has fed an attenuated languor. The Brills are content to live off the implications of their name alone. And even as Jim laughs at his eccentric cousins, he cannot help being drawn back to Wickford Point, home to a gentle northern air that fills him with an inexorable sadness, but a place to which, ultimately, he belongs.

    144 pp. Ages 14 and up. Pub: 3/98.

    The stories of these three men are narrated by Pan Viadomsky, an anti-Semitic Polish scholar who claims to have discovered the lost Fifth Gospel, containing the life of Christ according to his betrayer, Judas Iscariot. With unparalleled historical immediacy, Asch's inspired work presents a sweeping panorama of the Holy Land nearly two thousand years ago.

    It was Saturday and a half-holiday; it was that one day of all the year when the seasons change places when winter is visibly worsted and summer with warmth and relaxation bathing and tennis and motor trips in the moonlight becomes again a reality.

    Phoebe's father was killed in gang warfare and she and her family share a deep hatred for the Paxman brothers - whose lawless ways strike terror into the whole community.Despite her English mother's feckless ways, Phoebe is fiercely protective of Annie. Then just as the family are about to go to Italy for the winter, Phoebe discovers Annie is in trouble - and the Paxmans are involved. Phoebe is determined not to betray her mother's trust and, giving up her own chance of happiness, she stays behind to care for her. But when Phoebe and Annie are forced to leave London and Annie falls dangerously ill, Phoebe has little choice but to turn to the man she holds responsible for all her family's troubles...

    

    Or so the story runs-it was in the early days of settlement and the town had never heard of the Sobbin' Women then. But it opened its eyes one day, and there were the Pontipees. They were there but they didn't stay long-just time enough to buy meal and get a new shoe for the lead horse. You couldn't call them unsociable, exactly-they seemed to be sociable enough among themselves. But you could tell, somehow, from the look of them, that they weren't going to settle on ground other people had cleared. They were all high-colored and dark-haired-handsome with a wilderness handsomeness-and when you got them all together, they looked more like a tribe or a nation than an ordinary family. I don't know how they gave folks that feeling, but they did. Yes, even the baby, when the town women tried to handle him. He was a fine, healthy baby, but they said it was like trying to pet a young raccoon. Well, that was all there was to it, at the start. They paid for what they bought in good money and drove on up into Sobbin' Women Valley-only it wasn't called Sobbin' Women Valley then. And pretty soon, there was smoke from a chimney there that hadn't been there before. But you know what town gossip is when it gets started. The Pontipees were willing enough to let other folks alone-in fact, that was what they wanted. But, because it was what they wanted, the town couldn't see why they wanted it. Towns get that way, sometimes.

    But only in one direction—from simple to complicated. When he was nine, Morris Bird III learned the meaning of bravery. Now, at seventeen, he's on the verge of adulthood . . . and he's fallen in love. But it's 1952 and the Korean War hangs over his head like a dangling sword—and his prickly, complicated relationship with his cold and silent father has never been satisfactorily resolved. When Morris's own mortality stares him in the face, he learns what it truly means to become a man. The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened is the final book in Don Robertson's classic trilogy featuring one of the most endearing characters in American literature.

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    Within her own lifetime she had become almost a legendary figure -- stormy, glittering, tragic, but never dull.Married at 17 to one of the most colorful and ruthless of the great robber barons, she had known both the famous and interestingly infamous of two continents; had seen the gaudy world of the great Fifth Aeneue chateaux come into being, flourish, and decay; and now observed with wise, weary eyes the mad, turbulent world of the 20th century. At 84, she still had more zest for life than any of her descendents, all of whom--with the exception of her great-grand-daughter Janie--she privately despised.

    In her gatherings with the young men of the island, Chrysis probes what is precious about life, and how we live, love, and die in a harsh world, themes that Wilder revisited eight years later in his play, Our Town. Pamphilus, the only son of a prominent villager, fathers a baby out of wedlock with Chrysis's sister, whom he wants to marry. The questions faced by Pamphilus, his family and the other "respectable" citizens of the island also explore themes of social class and status.

    While home on his unit’s month-long furlough, he murders the man he believes has stolen his beloved. In doing so, he sets into motion three intensely dark journeys—his own as a soldier returning to a brutal and hopeless war; his sweetheart’s as she seeks absolution; and the brother of the murdered man, whose quest for revenge propels him into the most violent of worlds. When the three find each other amid the chaos and brutality of the Battle of the Wilderness, they’re faced with figuring out if they are tempered enough from their own redemptive ordeals to face whatever uncertain future awaits them after the bloody fighting is over.

    In his tales of terror, ordinary people find themselves in the most extraordinary circumstances—and, as readers, we share their spine-tingling tension every step of the way. Here, collected for the first time, are four of his most nail-biting novellas.Eyes That Watch YouGreedy Vera Miller plots her husband’s murder right under the nose of her mute, paralyzed mother-in-law. After all, the old lady won’t be able to tell anyone about the crime. Or will she?The Night I DiedNice guy Ben Cook, goaded by his scheming common-law wife, fakes his own suicide and moves to another town—all to trick his life insurance company into making a large payout. No one en route or at the new address will recognize him, will they?You’ll Never See Me AgainEd Bliss’s new bride, miffed by her husband’s insults about her biscuits, promises that Ed will never have to see her again—and storms out! When she doesn’t return within a few days, Ed begins to suspect foul play—but when he reports the crime to the police, he’s the first one they suspect!Murder Always Gathers MomentumFor his wife’s sake, Dick Paine approaches a former employer for back wages he is owed—but things go terribly wrong and the old boss ends up dead. Now the guilt-ridden Paine, who’d never before committed a crime, is convinced that people will figure out what happened. As his paranoia gathers momentum, anyone he meets is at risk of becoming his next victim.

    Born in 1926 in Dublin, he was educated at Presentation College, Dun Laoghaire. He is an award winning playwrite and screenwriter, and was literary Editor at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1976-77. He now lives in Dalkey in County Dublin.