The Loner

Wandering westward, picking fruit for wages, a lonely boy cannot remember his name or his family and takes care of himself until he meets a woman sheep farmer who provides him with a loving home.

“Powerful.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air Named a best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and BookPage David Federman has never felt appreciated. An academically gifted yet painfully forgettable member of his New Jersey high school class, the withdrawn, mild-mannered freshman arrives at Harvard fully expecting to be embraced by a new tribe of high-achieving peers. Initially, however, his social prospects seem unlikely to change, sentencing him to a lifetime of anonymity. Then he meets Veronica Morgan Wells. Struck by her beauty, wit, and sophisticated Manhattan upbringing, David becomes instantly infatuated. Determined to win her attention and an invite into her glamorous world, he begins compromising his moral standards for this one, great shot at happiness. But both Veronica and David, it turns out, are not exactly as they seem. Loner turns the traditional campus novel on its head as it explores ambition, class, and gender politics. It is a stunning and timely literary achievement from one of the rising stars of American fiction.

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning. A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you're as good as dead. And David has no gang. It's just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school. In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don't fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

A sharp and unlikely coming-of-age debut novel from Australia’s Sally Rooney

When a bitter man leaves behind a life of gambling to return home and claim the ranch that is his inheritance, can his hardened heart be soothed by the woman he once left behind? Reissue.

Adopted as a baby, Mei Clayton never felt like she belonged in her family. She left tiny Clayton, Colorado, the moment she could. Now, to fulfill the terms of a will, she must move home for a year. But when she reunites with handsome Jack McCord--the mountain-rescue expert she once secretly loved--she has to keep her distance. Their relatives have feuded for years. She'll never fit in with the Claytons if she gives in to her feelings for Jack. Unless faith and love can help open hearts in time for Thanksgiving.

Josie was touched that her brothers had arranged a holiday for her-she certainly needed one. Only, the location isn't the lively resort she'd expected, but a rustic cabin in a beautiful but isolated Australian idyll.… Her only neighbor for miles is the taciturn, if incredibly attractive, Kent Black. Following a family tragedy, Kent cut himself off from the world. Josie can't help but be intrigued by this solitary man, and with her bubbly, warm personality, she's determined to pick away at the iron padlock around his heart.