Tolstoy and the Purple Chair (21 page)

The Musical Illusionist
, by Alex Rose

My House in Umbria
, by William Trevor

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
, by Frederick Douglass

Never Let Me Go
, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Newton
, by Peter Ackroyd

The Nick Adams Stories
, by Ernest Hemingway

Nobody Move
, by Denis Johnson

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
, by Rainer Maria Rilke

Nothing to Be Frightened Of
, by Julian Barnes

Oh Joe
, by Michael Z. Lewin

The Old Man and Me
, by Elaine Dundy

Olive Kitteridge
, by Elizabeth Strout

On Chesil Beach
, by Ian McEwan

One Dog Happy
, by Molly McNett

One Foot in Eden
, by Ron Rash

Onitsha
, by J. M. G. Le Clézio

On Kindness
, by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor

On the Line
, by Serena Williams with Daniel Paisner

On the Pleasure of Hating
, by William Hazlitt

The Open Door
, by Elizabeth Maguire

The Orchid Shroud
, by Michelle Wan

Out of Captivity
, by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes with Gary Brozek

The Palestinian Lover
, by Sélim Nassib

Pastoralia
, by George Saunders

The Patience of the Spider
, by Andrea Camilleri

Payback
, by Margaret Atwood

People of the Book
, by Geraldine Brooks

The Peregrine
, by J. A. Baker

The Perfectionists
, by Gail Godwin

Petey & Pussy
, by John Kerschbaum

The Picts and the Martyrs
, by Arthur Ransome

Pilate's Wife
, by H.D.

The Pisstown Chaos
, by David Ohle

The Plated City
, by Bliss Perry

Please Kill Me
, by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Poisonville
, by Massimo Carlotto and Marco Videtta

Polaris
, by Fay Weldon

The Poorhouse Fair
, by John Updike

Pressure Is a Privilege
, by Billie Jean King

The Private Patient
, by P. D. James

The Provincial Lady in London
, by E. M. Delafield

The Public Prosecutor
, by Jef Geeraerts

Pulpy and Midge
, by Jessica Westhead

The Pursuit of Love
, by Nancy Mitford

Rage
, by Sergio Bizzio

Rancho Weirdo
, by Laura Chester

Respected Sir
, by Naguib Mahfouz

Revelation
, by C. J. Sansom

Revolutionary Road
, by Richard Yates

Rhino Ranch
, by Larry McMurtry

Rimbaud
, by Edmund White

River of Darkness
, by Rennie Airth

A Rogue's Life
, by Wilkie Collins

Rome Noir
, edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski

Ronald Reagan
, by Andrew Helfer, illustrated by Steve Buccellato and Joe Staton

Roseanna
, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Ruins
, by Achy Obejas

The Rules of Engagement
, by Anita Brookner

Russian Journal
, by Andrea Lee

The Salt-Box House
, by Jane de Forest Shelton

Salvation and Other Disasters
, by Josip Novakovich

The Samurai's Garden
, by Gail Tsukiyama

Say You're One of Them
, by Uwem Akpan

Scat
, by Carl Hiaasen

Seize the Day
, by Saul Bellow

Self's Murder
, by Bernhard Schlink

The Servants' Quarters
, by Lynn Freed

The Session
, by Aaron Petrovich

The Seven Deadly Sins
, edited by Angus Wilson

Sex
,
Drugs
,
and Cocoa Puffs
, by Chuck Klosterman

The Shadow of the Sun
, by Ryszard Kapuściński

A Short History of Women
, by Kate Walbert

Silks
, by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

Silverwing
, by Kenneth Oppel

The Simulacra
, by Philip K. Dick

The Sin Eater
, by Alice Thomas Ellis

Six Early Stories
, by Thomas Mann

Six Kinds of Sky
, by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Sixth Target
, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

The Skating Rink
, by Roberto Bolaño

The Slippery Year
, by Melanie Gideon

Smile as They Bow
, by Nu Nu Yi

A Smile of Fortune
, by Joseph Conrad

Snakehead
, by Anthony Horowitz

Something Nasty in the Woodshed
, by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Somewhere Towards the End
, by Diana Athill

Songs My Mother Never Taught Me
, by Selçuk Altun

Son of Holmes
, by John Lescroart

Speak
, by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Spoke
, by Friedrich Glauser

Spooner
, by Pete Dexter

A Sport and a Pastime
, by James Salter

Stardust
, by Neil Gaiman

Stitches
, by David Small

Stolen Children
, by Peg Kehret

The Sun Field
, by Heywood Broun

A Sun for the Dying
, by Jean-Claude Izzo

The Swap
, by Antony Moore

Tamburlaine Must Die
, by Louise Welsh

The Tempest Tales
, by Walter Mosley

Ten Poems to Set You Free
, by Roger Housden

A Terrible Splendor
, by Marshall Jon Fisher

The Thanksgiving Visitor
, by Truman Capote

They Who Do Not Grieve
, by Sia Figiel

The Thing Around Your Neck
, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Things Fall Apart
, by Chinua Achebe

The Third Angel
, by Alice Hoffman

The Thirty-Nine Steps
, by John Buchan

The Three of Us
, by Julia Blackburn

A Toast to Tomorrow
, by Manning Coles

The Tomb in Seville
, by Norman Lewis

To Siberia
, by Per Petterson

The Touchstone
, by Edith Wharton

Towards the End of the Morning
, by Michael Frayn

Twenty Boy Summer
, by Sarah Ockler

Twice-Told Tales
, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Twilight
, by Stephenie Meyer

Two Marriages
, by Phillip Lopate

Under the Frangipani
, by Mia Couto

The Unknown Masterpiece
, by Honoré de Balzac

Vanessa and Virginia
, by Susan Sellers

The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder
, by John Bellairs, completed by Brad Strickland

The Venice Train
, by Georges Simenon

The Vicar of Sorrows
, by A. N. Wilson

Victorian Tales of Terror,
edited by Hugh Lamb

Waiting in Vain
, by Colin Channer

Wake
, by Lisa McMann

Walk the Blue Fields
, by Claire Keegan

War Dances
, by Sherman Alexie

Watchmen
, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Watership Down
, by Richard Adams

The Weekend
, by Peter Cameron

What I'd Say to the Martians
, by Jack Handey

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
, by Haruki Murakami

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
, by David Sedaris

Where Angels Fear to Tread
, by E. M. Forster

Where the Money Went
, by Kevin Canty

Where Three Roads Meet
, by John Barth

Where You Once Belonged
, by Kent Haruf

The White Tiger
, by Aravind Adiga

The Whore's Child
, by Richard Russo

Willful Behavior
, by Donna Leon

Will War Ever End?
by Paul K. Chappell

Will Work for Drugs
, by Lydia Lunch

Winning Ugly
, by Brad Gilbert and Steve Jamison

Wizard's Hall
, by Jane Yolen

The Wright 3
, by Blue Balliett

The Writing Life
, by Annie Dillard

The Yellow Leaves
, by Frederick Buechner

The Yellow Wallpaper
, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Permissions

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and works for excerpts used herein; it is only by reading the complete text of these books that their full beauty and importance can be appreciated:

 

The Book of Chameleons
by José Eduardo Agualusa, translation by Daniel Hahn, copyright © 2008, published by Simon and Schuster.

Man in the Dark
by Paul Auster, copyright © 2008, published by Henry Holt and Co.

The Peregrine
by J. A. Baker, copyright © 1967, published by HarperCollins Publishers.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson, copyright © 2008, published by Europa Editions.

Nothing to Be Frightened Of 
by Julian Barnes, copyright © 2008, published by Vintage International, Random House, Inc.

Hannah Coulter
by Wendell Berry, copyright © 2004, published by Counterpoint Press.

Fight Scenes
by Greg Bottoms, illustrated by David Powell, copyright © 2008, published by Counterpoint Press.

Where the Money Went
by Kevin Canty, copyright © 2009, published by Nan A. Talese, Doubleday.

Little Bee: A Novel
by Chris Cleave. Copyright © 2008 by Chris Cleave. Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Originally published in Great Britain 2008 by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. All rights reserved.

The Master of Petersburg
by J. M. Coetzee, copyright © 1994 by J. M. Coetzee. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Goodbye Without Leaving
by Laurie Colwin, copyright © 1990, published by Poseidon Press, Simon and Schuster, Inc.

By Chance
by Martin Corrick, copyright © 2008, published by Random House, Inc.

Under the Frangipani
by Mia Couto, translation by David Brookshaw, copyright © 2008, published by Serpent's Tail.

The Provincial Lady in London
by E. M. Delafield, copyright © 1933, published by Harper and Brothers.

Spooner
by Pete Dexter, copyright © 2009, published by Grand Central Publishing.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz, copyright © 2007 by Junot Díaz. Used by permission of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
by Charles Dickens, published in 1848.

Alice Fantastic
by Maggie Estep, copyright © 2009, published by Akashic Books.

Harriet the Spy
by Louise Fitzhugh, copyright © 1964, published by Harper & Row.

The Good Soldier
by Ford Madox Ford, The Bodley Head, London (1915).

A Lesson Before Dying
by Ernest J. Gaines, copyright © 1993, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer, copyright © 1979 by Nadine Gordimer. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Madame de Staël: The First Modern Woman
by Francine du Plessix Gray, copyright © 2008, published by Atlas & Co.

The Love Song of Monkey
by Michael Graziano, copyright © 2008, published by Leapfrog Press.

How to Paint a Dead Man
by Sarah Hall, copyright © 2009, published by HarperCollins Publishers.

Laura Rider's Masterpiece
by Jane Hamilton, copyright © 2009, published by Grand Central Publishing.

Dreamers
by Knut Hamsun, published by Alfred A. Knopf (1921).

The English Major
by Jim Harrison, copyright © 2008, used by permission of Grove/Atlantic Inc.

Twice-Told Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lupton Publishing (1890).

Grief
by Andrew Holleran, copyright © 2006, published by Hyperion.

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
© Nick Hornby, by permission of United Agents Ltd
. (www.unitedagents.co.uk) on behalf of the author.

Walk the Blue Fields,
by Claire Keegan, copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss, copyright © 2005, published by W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.

Onitsha
by J. M. G. Le Clézio, translation by Alison Anderson, copyright © 1997, published by University of Nebraska Press.

The Scarlet Ruse
by John D. MacDonald, copyright © 1973, published by Fawcett Publications, Inc.

The Open Door
by Elizabeth Maguire, copyright © 2008 by Elizabeth Maguire. Used by permission of Other Press.

The Books in My Life
, by Henry Miller, copyright © 1969, published by New Directions Publishing Corp., by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

The Pursuit of Love
by Nancy Mitford, copyright © 1945, published by Hamish Hamilton.

The Assault
by Harry Mulisch, translation by Claire Nicolas White, copyright © 1985, published by Pantheon Books, Random House, Inc.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami, copyright © 2008 by Alfred A. Knopf.

Female Trouble
by Antonya Nelson, copyright © 2002, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, used by permission of the author.

Ruins
by Achy Obejas, copyright © 2009, published by Akashic Books.

Better
by John O'Brien, copyright © 2009 by the Estate of John O'Brien, published by Akashic Books.

To Siberia
by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born, copyright © 1998, published by Picador.

On Kindness
by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor, copyright © 2009, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

The Picts and the Martyrs
by Arthur Ransome, copyright © 1943, published by Macmillan.

My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
by Becky Reyher, copyright © 1945, published by Howell, Soskin, Publishers.

Indignation
by Philip Roth, copyright © 2008, published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Pastoralia
by George Saunders, copyright © 2000, published by Riverhead, Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Self's Murder
by Bernhard Schlink, translation by Peter Constantine, copyright © 2009, published by Random House, Inc.

A Celibate Season
by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard, copyright © 1991, published by Penguin Books.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
by Alan Sillitoe, copyright © 1959, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

The Curriculum Vitae of Aurora Ortiz
by Almudena Solana, translation by David Frye, copyright © 2005, published by Harvill Press, used by permission of The Random House Group Ltd.

The Lotus Eaters
by Tatjana Soli, copyright © 2010, published by St. Martin's Press, used by permission of the author.

A Hope in the Unseen
by Ron Suskind, copyright © 1998, published by Broadway Books, Random House, Inc.

The Forged Coupon
by Leo Tolstoy, published by J. S. Ogilvie (1912).

My House in Umbria
by William Trevor, copyright © 1991, published by Penguin Books.

Bombay Time
by Thrity Umrigar, copyright © 2002, published by Picador, used by permission of the author.

The Laws of Evening
by Mary Yukari Waters, copyright © 2003, published by Scribner.

The Touchstone
by Edith Wharton, published in Scribner's Magazine, 1900.

Kitchen
by Banana Yoshimoto, copyright © 1998, translation by Megan Backus, copyright © 1993, published by Washington Square Press.