The Long Drive Home

Gay middle-aged hit men, a pathological interior designer, an idiot savant child and a gun-toting donut shop manager are some of the disparate characters that populate Stan Rogal's first novel. Beginning at vastly different points, geographically and emotionally, these seemingly unconnected people are woven together in the taut fabric of a story that follows the sweet sadness of the search for lost youth. The characters' paths move together gradually until they ultimately converge in an explosive showdown in a sleazy, road-side motel parking lot in Magog, Quebec. Peppered with beauty, absurdity and Rogal's typical rapid-fire dialogue, The Long Drive Home makes for a wonderfully disturbing read.

Nicole awoke to her own screams, shrieking at the very top of her lungs. Her voice was distant to her, as though she was in a cave. Her throat burned with each wail, from days of the same. The dream awakened her at the same time every morning. She lay in a puddle of sweat, the perspiration and tears soaking her eyelashes. Her heart beat without any rhythm, just hurriedly. It was like someone striking a key of a typewriter over and over as quickly as possible until the chime would ring, announcing the margin had been reached. Her whole body ached as though it had been running a race that it was not conditioned for. It would only be a moment before her aunt would burst through the doors to make sure she was okay. She began taking deep breaths to calm herself and wiped her face furiously. She looked around the strange room that was to become her own and felt like a flower that had sprung up in a desert. She was wilting in a foreign land, dying in a place where she was not supposed to be, where she could not breathe.

Ryder Christianson is a bright, adventurous young man who is discontent with the good life he has. He and his older brother, Bobby, live on a North Dakota cattle ranch where his dad, Mike, has been raising them on his own since his wife died. Since then, Ryder has been getting into fights, performing poorly academically, and rebelling against all authority. Although Mike’s faith in God is strong and he unconditionally loves his son, Ryder’s constant irresponsible behavior is making him more frustrated by the day. Even a near death experience is not enough to dissuade Ryder’s rebellious attitude and desire for freedom from all authority and responsibility. While Mike finds comfort in the scripture and his relationship with God, Ryder eventually decides to move in with his aunt in California where he believes he can live without restrictions and responsibilities. Against Mike’s better judgment, he lets Ryder go. Will Ryder’s strong spiritual upbringing be enough to hold him together in a new place or will he stray down the wrong path in pursuit of other desires? In this uplifting story of forgiveness, faith, and hope, a prodigal son on a long road to maturity must detour away from selfishness, greed, and rebellion to find his way back to God.

In this riveting novel, a happily married man makes a mistake that results in a teenager's death and sends his own life into a devastating tailspin.

On a crisp October day in 2002, Lindsey O'Connor woke from a 47-day medically induced coma. She heard her ecstatic husband's voice and saw his face as she emerged from the depths of unconsciousness. She was bewildered by the people around her who looked so overjoyed and were so thoroughly attentive and attuned to her every move. Then came the question: "Do you remember that you had a baby?" Lindsey drifted in and out of consciousness again for weeks. When she finally and gradually surfaced permanently from her long submersion, she struggled to understand that the day her baby came into the world was the day she left it. Her awakening was the happy ending for her family and friends--the miracle they had been praying for--but it was just the beginning of Lindsey's long and frightening journey toward a new reality. With visceral images and richly layered storytelling, Lindsey O'Connor vividly tells the poignant true story of the struggle to reenter her world and rebuild her identity. Underlying this life and death battle is a story of lost and found love, the effort to make sense of life-altering events, and the continuing search for self. This moving memoir paints a powerful picture of pain, beauty, and the unsurpassable gift of finally knowing who you are.

From 1954 to 1981, Maeve Brennan wrote for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" department under the pen name "The Long–Winded Lady." Her unforgettable sketches—prose snapshots of life in small restaurants, cheap hotels, and crowded streets of Times Square and the Village—together form a timeless, bittersweet tribute to what she called the "most reckless, most ambitious, most confused, most comical, the saddest and coldest and most human of cities." First published in 1969, The Long–Winded Lady is a celebration of one of The New Yorker's finest writers.

From the author of the internationally-selling novel The Long Road North comes Quentin Super's next journey into the unknown. The Long Road East captures Super's 2017 cycling adventure that took him and his best friend Sam 1,800 miles across the United States. Over the course of seven weeks the two encounter a litany of roadblocks, both physical and emotional. Whether it's a near-death experience in Michigan or internal battles with maturity and promiscuity, Super takes you through the most harrowing and revelatory moments of his life. Discover what has made Quentin Super one of the most intriguing up-and-coming writers of his generation, and why personal growth sometimes presents itself in the strangest ways.