A Long Time Gone

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Tradd Street novels comes an enthralling southern gothic saga about one woman's quest for the truth... When Vivien Walker left her home in the Mississippi Delta, she swore never to go back. But in the spring, nine years to the day since she’d left, Vivien returns, fleeing from a broken marriage and her lost dreams for children. What she hopes to find is solace with her dear grandmother who raised her, a Walker woman with a knack for making everything all right. Instead Vivien is forced into the unexpected role of caretaker, challenging her personal quest to find the girl she once was. But things will change again in ways Vivien cannot imagine. A violent storm has revealed the remains of a long-dead woman buried near the Walker home, not far from the cypress swamp that is soon to give up its ghosts. Vivien knows there is now only one way to rediscover herself—by uncovering the secrets of her family and breaking the cycle of loss that has haunted them for generations. READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

Originally published: New York: Doubleday, 1988.

The "New York Times" bestseller called "quietly gripping" by "USA Today" demonstrates how impulses can fracture even the most stable family. Despite her loving family and beautiful home, Jo Becker is restless. Then an old roommate reappears, bringing back Jo's memories of her early 20s. Jo's obsession with that period in her life--and the crime that ended it--draws her back to a horrible secret.

Fifty years ago, when she was five, Sister Mary Katherine witnessed something terrible . . . A former Seattle policeman now working for the Washington State Attorney's Special Homicide Investigation Team, J.P. Beaumont has been hand-picked to lead the investigation into a half-century-old murder. An eyewitness to the crime, a middle-aged nun, has now recalled grisly, forgotten details while undergoing hypnotherapy. It's a case as cold as the grave, and it's running headlong into another that's tearing at Beau's heart: the vicious slaying of his former partner's ex-wife. What's worse, his rapidly unraveling friend is the prime suspect. Caught in the middle of a lethal conspiracy that spans two generations and a killing that hits too close to home -- targeted by a vengeful adversary and tempted by a potential romance that threatens to reawaken his personal demons -- Beaumont may suddenly have more on his plate than he can handle, and far too much to survive.

"...everything a reader could want in a novel. It is a deep dive into faith and doubt, brimming with insights into the current crisis in Christianity." -Faith Eidse, Tallahassee Democrat In her pursuit of justice in the wake of priest abuse revelations, Grace forges a new spiritual path and a more centered and happy life. At the age of eighteen, soon after her mother’s early death, Grace Schreiber makes a desperate choice to flee Buffalo, NY for San Francisco. Some years later, unsettled and disappointed by love, she escapes to work in Los Angeles, where she meets the open-hearted and honest Frankie, recently released from prison. Frankie’s essays about his childhood relationship to an abusive priest will change his life and hers. At the behest of her estranged sister, Grace leaves LA and returns to Buffalo to care for her aging and very conservative dad. She volunteers at St. Laurence House and becomes enamored by its world-weary residents. She finds solace in new friendships with her neighbors Brian and Mountain, the radical Sister Genevieve and the gregarious and charming Father Luke, all of whom encourage her to challenge the intransigence of the Catholic Church. Her relationship to the pregnant runaway Crystal forces her to face her own life choices and embrace a whole new world of possibilities. Long Time Gone is the story of how Grace’s journey into the Catholic Church of her childhood enables her to confront her troubled past and unlock its many difficult secrets, find love in unexpected places, and cultivate a renewed spirituality.

Long Time Gone is the story of two young men from a small Rhode Island village who find themselves on opposite sides in the epic struggle of the Civil War. Les Rolston brings the story -- from the first shots at Manassas to surrender at Appomatox -- to life."--

A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. "Baldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers." —Saturday Review At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.