Asa, as I Knew Him (19 page)

Ten miraculously accomplished stories that not only astonish and delight but also convey the unspoken mysteries at the heart of human experience.

“She is our Chekhov, and is going to outlast most of her contemporaries.”

—Cynthia Ozick
0-679-72957-7

BAILEY’S CAFE
by Gloria Naylor

Set in a diner where the food isn’t much and the ambience veers between heaven and hell,
Bailey’s Cafe
is a feast for the senses and for the spirit. It is home to Sadie, a ladylike alcoholic; Sweet Esther, who caters to unspeakable appetites; Jesse Bell, who once disgraced her high-minded in-laws by turning to drugs and other women; and to Mariam, the Ethiopian child who just might be the bearer of a miracle.

“Absorbing, poignant and wise … Naylor has crafted a heart-rending testament to the human spirit.”

—Cristina Garcia,
Philadelphia Inquirer
0-679-74821-0

ANYWHERE BUT HERE
by Mona Simpson

An extraordinary novel that is at once a portrait of a mother and daughter and a brilliant exploration of the perennial urge to keep moving.

“Mona Simpson takes on—and reinvents—many of America’s essential myths … stunning.”

—
The New York Times
0-679-73738-3

THE JOY LUCK CLUB
by Amy Tan

“Vivid … wondrous … what it is to be American, and a woman, mother, daughter, lover, wife, sister and friend—these are the troubling, loving alliances and affiliations that Tan molds into this remarkable novel.”—
San Francisco Chronicle

“A jewel of a book.”

—
The New York Times Book Review
0-679-72768-X

PHILADELPHIA FIRE
by John Edgar Wideman

“Reminiscent of Ralph Ellison’s
Invisible Man
” (
Time
), this powerful novel is based on the 1985 bombing by police of a West Philadelphia row house owned by the Afrocentric cult Move.

“A book brimming over with brutal, emotional honesty and moments of beautiful prose lyricism.”

—Charles Johnson,
Washington Post Book World
0-679-73650-6

VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES

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BLACK ICE
by Lorene Cary

The story of a bright, ambitious black teenager from Philadelphia, who, when transplanted to an elite school in New Hampshire, becomes a scholarship student determined to succeed without selling out. In recounting her journey into selfhood, Lorene Cary creates a universally recognizable document of a woman’s adolescence.

“Probably the most beautifully written and the most moving African-American autobiographical narrative since Maya Angelou’s
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
.”

—Arnold Rampersad

Autobiography/African-American Studies/0-679-73745-6

THE ROAD FROM COORAIN
by Jill Ker Conway

A remarkable woman’s clear-sighted memoir of growing up Australian: from the vastness of a sheep station in the outback to the stifling propriety of postwar Sidney; from an untutored childhood to a life in academia; and from the shelter of a protective family to the lessons of independence.

“A small masterpiece of scene, memory and very stylish English. I’ve been several times to Australia; this book was the most rewarding journey of all.”

—John Kenneth Galbraith

Autobiography/0-679-72436-2

TRUE NORTH
by Jill Ker Conway

In this second volume of her memoirs, Jill Ker Conway leaves Australia for America, where she becomes a renowned historian and, later, the first woman president of Smith College. She enters a lively community of women scholars and examines the challenges that confront all women who seek to establish public selves and reconcile them with their private passions.

“A thinking woman’s memoir … it resounds with ideas about nature, culture, and education.…
True North
shines with the lasting luster of hard marble.”

—
Philadelphia Inquirer

Memoir/Women’s Studies/0-679-74461-4

THE SHADOW MAN
A Daughter’s Search for Her Father
by Mary Gordon

This is the memoir of a woman who, after thirty years of unflinching love for a memory, sets out to discover who her father really was. Gordon finds an immigrant who lied about his origins; a Jew who became a virulent anti-Semite; and a devout Catholic who was also a pornographer.

“Stunning … a painful and luminous book … that somehow, amazingly, reconciles Ms. Gordon’s feelings of love and horror, guilt and forgiveness, and transforms them into art.”

—
The New York Times

Memoir/0-679-74931-4

AN UNQUIET MIND
A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison is one of the world’s most renowned authorities on manic-depressive illness; she is also one of its survivors. It is this dual perspective—as healer and healed—that makes her bestselling memoir so lucid, learned and profoundly affecting.

“Written with poetic and moving sensitivity … a rare and insightful view of mental illness from inside the mind of a trained specialist.”

—
Time

Psychology/Memoir/0-679-76330-9

RIDING THE WHITE HORSE HOME
A Western Family Album
by Teresa Jordan

A haunting memoir about the generations of women who learned to cope with physical hardship and loneliness in the beautiful yet grim landscape of the West.
Riding the White Horse Home
is at once Teresa Jordan’s family chronicle and a eulogy for the West her people helped shape.

“Spellbinding.… the emotional scope of Jordan’s prose is as vast as the ranch she grew up on—succoring one moment, shattering the next.”

—
Seattle Times

Memoir/Travel/0-679-75135-1

GIRL, INTERRUPTED
by Susanna Kaysen

Set in the exclusive grounds of McLean Hospital, Kaysen’s memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. In this brilliant evocation of a “parallel universe,” Kaysen gives a clear-sighted depiction of various definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

“Poignant, honest and triumphantly funny … [a] compelling and heartbreaking story.”

—Susan Cheever,
The New York Times Book Review

Autobiography/Psychology/0-679-74604-8

REFUGE
An Unnatural History of Family and Place
by Terry Tempest Williams

Through tragedies both personal and environmental, Utah-born naturalist Terry Tempest Williams creates a document of renewal and spiritual grace that is a moving meditation on nature, women, and grieving.

“Moving and loving … both a natural history of an ecological phenomenon, along with a Mormon family saga … a heroic book.”

—
Washington Post Book World

Women’s Studies/Nature/0-679-74024-4

Available at your local bookstore, or call toll-free to order: 1-800-793-2665 (credit cards only).