When We Danced On Water

A conversation between a Tel Aviv waitress and her elderly customer sparks a journey of healing in this compelling novel by the author of Light Fell. At eighty-four, Teo, one of the world’s most influential choreographers, is ready to withdraw from the bombast and romance surrounding his long and illustrious career. But then he meets Vivi, a waitress at a Tel Aviv café, and the slumbering passions of his youth are rouses once more. Suddenly and unexpectedly, his desire for a woman’s touch, his anguished memories of World War II, and his complex, soulful engagement with dance all come rushing back. Vivi’s life will change, too, as Teo’s affection forces her to confront her guilt over an illicit relationship during her days as a soldier. Soon their interactions with art, their very investment in living, will reawaken ghosts of their painful, suppressed pasts—from Warsaw to Copenhagen, from Berlin to Tel Aviv—that cry out for forgiveness and peace.

An eight-year-old is sent to live in a community of widows in India, and finds a new purpose there, in a novel by “a writer of enormous talent” (Newsday). Set in 1938, against the backdrop of Gandhi’s rise to power, Water follows the life of eight-year-old Chuyia, abandoned at a widow’s ashram after the death of her elderly husband. There, she must live in penitence until her death. Unwilling to accept her fate, she becomes a catalyst for change in the widows’ lives. When her friend Kalyani, a beautiful widow-prostitute, falls in love with a young, upper-class Gandhian idealist, the forbidden affair boldly defies Hindu tradition and threatens to undermine the ashram’s delicate balance of power. This riveting look at the lives of widows in colonial India is ultimately a haunting and lyrical story of love, faith, and redemption. “Sidhwa’s humor and compassion glow in Water.” —Houston Chronicle “A deeply moving story, elegantly told, with all the assurance of a master.” —M.G. Vassanji, author of The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. “This potent book about America’s most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist.”—San Francisco Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, directed by Nia DaCosta, and produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • Vanity Fair • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Paste • Town & Country • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen. Praise for The Water Dancer “Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoir, Between the World and Me. So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectations—and then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer . . . is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance. . . . What’s most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal. . . . Timeless and instantly canon-worthy.”—Rolling Stone

Bounded by the Great War on one side and by the looming shadow of the Second World War on the other, the inter-war period has characteristically been portrayed as a time of great and unrelenting depression. In Martin Pugh's lively and thought-provoking book, however, the acclaimed historian vividly shows how the British people reacted to the privations of wartime by indulging in leisure and entertainment activities of all kinds - from dancing and cinema going to smoking, football pools and paid holidays. He explodes the myths of a nation of unwed women, revealing that in the 1930s the institution of marriage was reaching its heyday, and points to a rise in real incomes, improvements in diet and health and the spread of cheap luxuries. The result is an extraordinary, engaging work of history that presents us with a fresh perspective and brings out both the strangeness and the familiarity of this point in time.

The Grace of God and the extraordinary world of modern medicine, as well as love, hope and strength made our miracle possible. Each year, we would recall exactly what we were doing when the phone rang that morning. We would reminisce over each incident, right up to the time when the surgery doors swung closed behind him. It was all so remarkable; we never wanted to forget even the smallest detail. And Then We Danced will tell you how two people loved more deeply, drawing from each other's strength as their shared hope became a reality. Along with the miracle, however, came new challenges. Three years after Zann lost her mother to lung disease, she realized it was that experience that would help her prepare for a brand-new challenge. Her husband, who had also been diagnosed with lung disease, began to consider a lung transplant. She knew that, as the primary care giver, she would need an outlet to record the events that would transform their lives. She would need time for quite reflection, so she began writing in a journal. Over the years, Zann wrote hundreds of pages dealing with the treatment, its crises and successes, as well as the ordinary family and social events that fill up our lives, which she shares through her book. Zann currently spends her free time writing, as well as volunteering with Carolina Donor Services and Lung Transplant Patient Support groups. Her professional career includes finance and health insurance.

Marriage is like dancing. To learn to dance, you follow the steps on a paper chart, placing each foot in the footsteps on the floor as indicatedbut it takes lots of practice to dance fluidly with great finesse. Often when we marry, we believe we are in love and marriage cant get any better. However, there will be times where we swing and our partner sways. There are going to be times when both partners are fighting for the lead. At other times we just melt together and everything is totally synchronized. Is it possible to keep that synchronization forever? In We Danced, author Lin Sons presents a story-like couples devotional using her 40-year marriage intertwined with a theme of dance. Lin offers life lessons applicable to any couple, whatever their own personal story. Each life lesson is followed by a dance tip designed to bring couples finesse in their dance of marriage. The message in We Danced is clear: the marriage dance takes lots of practice. By invitation, the Lord provides the strength, joy and finesse.

From the bestselling author of Pawprints On Our Hearts comes a captivating story of love and redemption that will leave you cheering for second chances and stay with you long after the final page. Emma Wright’s world came crashing down when her husband blindsided her with divorce papers on their anniversary and left her for a younger woman. Starting over at forty, she moves into a quaint beachfront cottage on the other side of Hadley Cove with her beloved rescue dog, Riley. But just as she’s picking up the shattered pieces to her life, Riley goes missing. Meanwhile, in Chicago, widowed father Luke Grayson vows to repair the strained relationship with his teenage son, Jeremiah. In search of new beginnings, he moves them to the picturesque small coastal town of Hadley Cove, Georgia. While they're getting settled, an unexpected visitor arrives at their doorstops, and seems to believe this is his home. As destiny weaves Emma and Luke’s paths together in unforeseen ways, their lives will change forever. Will they find the courage to open their fragile hearts to a second chance at love? Or will the scars of the past keep them from their happily ever after? ---------------------------------------------------------- Each book in the Hadley Cove Sweet Romance series can be read as a stand-alone novel that ends with a happily-ever-after and no cliffhangers. If you enjoy sweet, clean and wholesome, swoonworthy romance stories, you'll want to binge them all. ❤️Book 1: Since the Day We Danced ❤️Book 2: Since the Day We Fell ❤️Book 3: Since the Day We Kissed ❤️Book 4: Since the Day We Wished ❤️Book 5: Since the Day We Left ❤️Book 6: Since the Day We Promised

Nothing is more important to Jane Darling than her family. She's dedicated her life to raising her children, and they all appear to be doing well. She can finally relax and enjoy life. But when her husband becomes seriously ill, Jane finds herself taking on the most difficult role of her life. Laura Darling moved away to escape the expectations of her family. Ever since she went through rehab, they watch her like a hawk. Now she has a good job, new friends, and no one to criticize her or comment on everything she's doing. But when everything begins to unravel, Laura's heart turns toward home. Follow the Darling family through triumph and tragedy as they struggle with an uncertain future.