The Crooked Line

A young Indian woman searches for her own identity as her country fights for independence in this novel from the award-winning Urdu Indian author. The Crooked Line is the story of Shamman, a spirited young woman who rebels against the traditional Indian life of purdah, or female seclusion, that she and her sisters are raised in. Shipped off to boarding school by her family, Shamman grows into a woman of education and independence just as India itself is fighting to throw off the shackles of colonialism. Shamman’s search for her own path leads her into the fray of political unrest, where her passion for her country’s independence becomes entangled with her passion for an Irish journalist. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Ismat Chughtai explores the complex relationships between women caught in a changing culture, and exposes the intellectual and emotional conflicts at the heart of India’s battle for an uncertain future of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.

A first-hand account of the genealogy of the discipline, and of the rise of a new era of social history, by one of the leading historians of a generation

This magisterial work of scholarly reconstruction restores the entirety of William Everson's early poetry in a single volume.

Deputy Sheriff Jim Finne and an FBI informant are gunned down. A sinister, interstate drug cartel that stretches from southeast Indiana to the eastern Kentucky hollers is paying off local cops. Ruthless dope dealers and crooked cops become reckless murderers. Cops can't trust cops. Criminals can't trust criminals. Bodies stack up like fat cattle in a slaughter house. Garfield County has become a haven for the lawless-where justice is doled out to the highest bidder. Enter rookie FBI Special Agent Charles Simmons, recent Yale law school graduate and hometown boy. In Garfield County, Indiana, Charles finds a town he'd never known-a good-for-nothing underclass, drug pushers and junkies, cops on-the-take, and a community mired in mediocrity. Still, Charles rekindles friendships and repairs family bonds. But, a little good fortune brings the revelation of a dark Simmons' family secret. And, in the middle is Caroline Mattell, the alluring young fianc'e of a deputy, who leads Charles to the threshold of death. The Crooked Blue Line is the story of a man-son, brother, friend, lover, federal agent-desperate to define himself in a world of unfulfilled romantic expectations and inconceivable harsh realties.

Drawing Straight With Crooked Lines is a novel about how God uses flawed and imperfect people to carry out his perfect plan. The main character, Rocky Gates, is a disbarred, drug addicted lawyer who has lost all hope and tries to end his life. However, God personally intervenes and informs Rocky that he has been chosen to deliver a special to all the inhabitants of Earth. The message is imparted to Rocky over the course of one week, while he walks through a series of self-imposed crisis and tribulations. The book illustrates how the power of God can transform a human life, no matter how far down the ladder we may have fallen. It also demonstrates the unique love the Heavenly Father has for all His children and the lengths He will go to show us this love. This cleverly written book mixes humor and wit to carry its timeless message of hope.

“A masterful debut” that follows four generations of Cherokee women across four decades—from the Plimpton Prize–winning author (Sarah Jessica Parker). It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women, presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church—a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter, until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever. Crooked Hallelujah tells the stories of Justine—a mixed-blood Cherokee woman—and her daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma’s Indian Country in the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust of the 1980s. However, life in Texas isn’t easy, and Reney feels unmoored from her family in Indian Country. Against the vivid backdrop of the Red River, we see their struggle to survive in a world—of unreliable men and near-Biblical natural forces, like wildfires and tornados—intent on stripping away their connections to one another and their very ideas of home. In lush and empathic prose, Kelli Jo Ford depicts what this family of proud, stubborn, Cherokee women sacrifices for those they love, amid larger forces of history, religion, class, and culture. This is a big-hearted and ambitious novel of the powerful bonds between mothers and daughters by an exquisite and rare new talent. “A compelling journey through the evolving terrain of multiple generations of women.” —The Washington Post

Into the Crooked Place begins a gritty two-book YA fantasy series from Alexandra Christo, the author of To Kill a Kingdom. The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive. Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her. Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him. Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself. And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge. Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.