by (by) Belva Plain (1980)
**8 Months on the N.Y. Times Best-Seller List. The Best-Loved Best-Seller of the Year:** A young Polish immigrant woman, in love with the scion of the German-Jewish banking family for which she works as a maid, marries fellow immigrant Joseph Friedman and lifts him from poverty to a real-estate fortune by one act of illicit passion.**--WorldCat** **Born into poverty and fear, Anna is desperate to leave her native Poland**. Determined to make something of herself, Anna moves into a cramped New York slum and finds a job in a sweatshop. When two very different men fall in love with her, Anna is destined to be forever torn in love and loyalty.**--GoodRead**
Mohsin Hamid
A portrait of contemporary Pakistan featuring an adulterous romance between two ultra-rich jet setters. He is a banker and she is the wife of his best friend, and she is escaping the constraints of marriage and motherhood by prowling the city as a journalist.
Betsy Byars
As twelve-year-old Bingo Brown strives for the triumphs of today and steels himself against the tribulations of tomorrow, he discovers that he will have to undergo a few more trials and triumphs before growing up.
Nathaniel Rich
From a precociously talented young writer alreadywidely admired in the literary world, TheMayor's Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novelthat unfolds in two complementary narratives,one following a young man and the other an oldman. The young man is Eugene Brentani, aflamewith a passion for literature and language, and adevotee of the reclusive author and adventurerConstance Eakins, now living in Italy. The oldman is Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, and,confused and terrified, he longs to confide inhis dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford hasdisappeared, and his letters, postmarked fromItaly, become more and more ominous as theweeks pass.In separate but resonating story lines, bothmen's adventures take them from New York Cityto the mountainous borderlands of northernItaly, where the line between reality and imaginationbegins to blur and stories take on a life oftheir own. Here, we are immersed in Rich's vivid,enchanting world full of captivating characters—the despairing Enzo, who wanders looking for anameless love; the tiny, doll-like guide, Lang; andthe grotesque Eakins. Over this strange, spectrallandscape looms the Mayor, a mythic and monstrousfigure considered a "beautiful creator" byhis townspeople, whose pull ultimately becomesirresistible.From a young writer of exceptional promise, thisrefreshingly original novel is a meditation onthe frustrations of love, the madness of mayors,the failings of language, and the transformativepowers of storytelling.
Meghan Daum
A lifestyle correspondent for a New York morning television program, Lucinda Trout is tired of reporting on thong underwear, so she heads to the Midwest. There she begins a series of dispatches called "The Quality of Life Report." The reports are intended to feed city slickers' appetites for anecdotes about a simpler life. But as Lucinda finds out, the heartland isn't quite the paradise it seems.