A low-level Amsterdam criminal named Cunning Pete is found murdered on the outskirts of the city. Detective DeKok has a hunch that Cunning Pete's murder is part of a web of crime that stretches all the way to the top of Amsterdam's social hierarchy.

Nicholson Baker's novel about phone sex, told mostly in dialogue, was made notorious by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It features Abby and Jim, who talk endlessly on the phone coast-to-coast--about sex, of course, but also about life's trivia, Baker's greatest subject. As always, his real theme is language, and his greatest gift as a writer is his eccentric examination of it as part of a close observation of the human condition.

While casing the safe in a billionaire's mansion, Luther Whitney witnesses the brutal murder of a woman. To further complicate matters, the woman is the mistress of the President of the United States. Immediately, the cover-up is set in motion by the president's most trusted aides...and Luther is running for his life.

After a doctor has a series of dreams about a river that will bring water to the Sahara, one almost magically appears. Believing that his dreams caused its creation, the doctor--along with a small group ranging from a young girl to a documentary filmmaker--sets out to find its source. In typically Ballardian fashion, these events allow the author to expound on his themes of media, loss, and disintegrating in society in ever new and disturbing ways.

This series of interconnected stories--which describe often-poignant situations in the snarky narrative voice of Jane Rosenal--follows Jane through her young life. The first story begins with Jane as a wise-beyond-her-years 14-year old. In subsequent stories, she copes with a series of Mr. Wrongs, an affair with a much older man, the death of her beloved father from cancer, and her doomed career in publishing. When THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING was first published, in 1999, it was a huge bestseller as well as a critical success; it was perhaps the book that ushered in the now highly popular genre known as "chick lit." But Melissa Bank's story cycle is not only fun to read--it's a literate and observant tale of a young woman's coming of age and beyond.

In a pair of parallel stories, two foreigners--one a doctor and one a soldier--each arrive in different cities and manage to maneuver themselves into positions of influence with the political rulers there. Though this is a science fiction novel, it is not set within the borders of Banks' Culture series. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.

A series of savage, "punishment-fits-the-crime" assaults carried out by a self-styled avenger seems to implicate Cameron Colley, a journalist at an Edinburgh newspaper. Detained by the police as a suspect, Cameron protests that he's being set up, though he can't hide a certain admiration for the avenger's violent justice. Cameron knows that the only way to prove his innocence is to lead the police to the vigilante himself--a good plan until it becomes clear to him that the culprit is uncomfortably close to home.

As he lies comatose following a near-fatal accident, a man has a series of very odd experiences in an alternate dreamworld where time and space have very little basis in reality.

In a pair of parallel stories, two foreigners--one a doctor and one a soldier--each arrive in different cities and manage to maneuver themselves into positions of influence with the political rulers there. Though this is a science fiction novel, it is not set within the borders of Banks' Culture series. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.

The story of a tragic accident involving a school bus full of children is told by four people: the driver, a father, a lawyer, and one of the children who survived. Their versions of the event add up to a complex portrait of a close-knit small-town society. THE SWEET HEREAFTER was made into an acclaimed film in 1997, starring Ian Holm, by the Canadian director Atom Egoyan.

A collection of essays by prominent novelists, journalists, and nature writers celebrating 'the last great places.' Includes pieces by Louise Erdrich, William Kittredge, Paul Theroux, Annick Smith, William Warner, Linda Hogan, Carl Hiaasen, Victor Perera, and 22 others. A portion of the proceeds raised by sales of this book will go toward a campaign to preserve outstanding ecosystems in the United States, Latin America, and the Pacific.

A collection of five erotically charged horror stories from genre master Clive Barker.