Coming of Age

1943. Alice Fafard, vingt ans, étudie à l’École normale pour devenir enseignante. Elle suit avec un mélange de résignation et de désenchantement une voie déjà toute tracée. Son Brevet obtenu, elle cherche un poste dans une école de la région, en attendant de trouver un prétendant en cette époque où les hommes de son âge se font rares. Pourtant, derrière ses airs tranquilles se cache une grande passionnée de mathématiques, un domaine dans lequel elle excelle. Plus que tout, Alice veut vivre pleinement, goûter à la liberté au-delà des limites imposées aux femmes.

Success by design is infinitely better than a win by chance. Vasu Bhatt is 14 years old when a mysterious old man spots him at a chess tournament and offers to coach him, on two simple but strange conditions: he would not accompany his student to tournaments, and there was to be no digging into his past. Initially resentful, Vasu begins to gradually understand his master’s mettle. Over eight years, master and student come to love and respect each other, but the two conditions remain unbroken–until Vasu confronts and provokes the old man.

From the author of the global breakout bestseller The Last Love Note comes the story of a young woman struggling to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragic accident, and the man who gives up everything to help her. When Evie Hudson wakes in an unfamiliar hospital room, she thinks she’s fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend, Bree. Except, Bree isn’t around anymore and high school was years ago. Evie had just survived the crash that killed her husband, Oliver—whom she can't remember either.

With her final novel, Villette, Charlotte Brontë reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Brontë's most accomplished and deeply felt work. Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There, she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquette.

After her mother invites a new man to live with them, tensions quickly rise in the cramped house. Gunner is kind but strange, too—a one-eyed shoplifter with more than a few hidden secrets. But when tragedy strikes shortly after, Cora rebels against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance, and a path to something good. If only she can learn to navigate her grief and everything she thinks she knows about who she is and what she might be capable of, she may finally find the way forward.

Most days, Magda is fine. She has her routines. She has her anxious therapy patients, who depend on her to cure their bad habits. She has her longtime colleagues, whose playful bickering she mediates. She’s mourning the recent loss of her best friend, Sara, but has brokered a tentative truce with Sara’s prickly widower as she helps him sort through the last of Sara’s possessions. She’s fine. But in going through Sara’s old journal, Magda discovers her friend’s last directive: plans for a road trip they would take together in celebration of Magda’s upcoming seventieth birthday.

Set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo, Set My Heart On Fire tells the story of Izumi in her turbulent twenties. Through a series of disarmingly frank vignettes, author Izumi Suzuki presents an unforgettable portrait of a young woman encountering missteps and miscommunication, good music and unreliable men, powerful drugs and disorientating meds. Izumi usually keeps her relationships short but complicated, until she meets Jun.

A surfing, boy-crazy teenager comes of age in the summer of 1957 in this classic novel that inspired movies, television, and created an American pop culture icon. This is Franzie, part Holden Caulfield, part Lolita. The guys call her Gidget—short for girl midget. Based on the experiences of his daughter, Frederick Kohner's novel became an international sensation with an irrepressible heroine whose voice still echoes every thrill, every fear, and every hope that every teenager ever had about growing up.

Nestled between the smoky, rolling peaks of Southern Appalachia lies the town of Brevard, North Carolina. When Chris Avery's family moves to Brevard in the early 1970s, Chris quickly becomes immersed in a world untouched by the mire of life outside the mountains.

Milena Cervi ha quindici anni quando sua madre Angelica entra nella Chiesa della Verità e ne diventa vittima incapace di riconoscerne le ambiguità. Così a vent’anni Milena decide di trasferirsi a Roma. Qui incontra Emanuele, un uomo più grande di lei nel quale crede di vedere la cifra del suo riscatto. Presto la relazione assume i contorni di un rapporto manipolatorio, di un legame tanto più doloroso quanto più difficile da spezzare. Alice Urciuolo racconta le infinite distorsioni dell’amore.

Prue Sarn es una joven a la que todos rechazan por tener labio leporino. Así las cosas, las Parcas pronostican que nunca conocerá el amor. Sin embargo, es fuerte y poseedora de una gran belleza interior. La superstición hace que muchos la rechacen y la acusen de ser una bruja, pero la dulzura de su espíritu hace que se enfrente a todo eso para superarlo. Su hermano, que también se enfrenta al mundo, lo hace por motivos muy distintos; está harto de ser pobre y lo que quiere es hacer dinero. Su ambición es tan fuerte que casi resulta lujuriosa.

Jim Provenzano's sixth novel, "Now I'm Here," is set in the small town of Serene, Ohio, in the 1970s and 80s. Two boys from different families Joshua, with his stable middle-class home in town, and David, raised by his alcoholic and abusive father on their isolated farm - discover, then lose, then find each other again. Thirty years later, as the town's history is slowly erased by fading memories and encroaching suburbia, their childhood friend, Eric Gottlund, tells the tale of their quiet heroism with poignancy and a sharp eye for detail.

Forced by her family's poor financial situation, Agnes Grey takes a job as a governess. Young, full of hope, and eager to broaden her own horizons, she wishes to win the favor of her employers and their children. However, her new charges turn out to be difficult and spoiled, while their parents are demanding, haughty, and unpleasant. Will a change of position bring her more happiness? Will she find the love she longs for in a new place.

È possibile inseguire il proprio sogno senza perdere la parte più autentica di sé stessi? Sfuggire a un destino già scritto senza che questo finisca per bruciarci? Francesco cresce nella periferia di Milano, figlio di meridionali e con il sogno di scrivere: un ragazzo ai margini di un paese ai margini. O almeno questa è la sua sensazione per dieci mesi l’anno, finché non arriva l’estate e lui torna con i genitori in Basilicata, dove la vita sembra più autentica.

When you're embarrassed to step out your own front door, is happiness even possible? Jennifer's life is falling to pieces. She's out of work. Her brother's in a coma. Her mom just died. And despite stellar qualifications, every job interview ends in rejection. Also, she's heavier than she's ever been.

When jobs are scarce, a hard working father is let go to make way for the boss's son. An opportunity opens to look for work on the mainland, but when the family arrives they encounter more difficulties than they had first planned on. Bullied and beaten, the teen son goes through a rough transition. Not wanting to further trouble his parents, he is soon faced with a decision of whether or not to join a gang?

Christmas Town is a modern story of a socially awkward and disadvantaged tween boy who is ordinary in most every way, except for one major difference. This particular boy decides to take one simple action to help somebody; and his good deed ends up changing the entire town in the most epic ways. Christmas Town is a story that can happen in any town. It is a story of what happens when the best of humanity comes out of at least one person who is willing to try. It is a story that will pull at your heartstrings, make you laugh, and make you cry.

Sophie Delavallois is the new companion to the ageing Dowager Marchioness, but she also has another reason for coming to the infamous Wyverne mansion, one that will shake the family to their core. Lord Drake left his childhood home many years ago, and only returns now to see his beloved grandmother. He takes little interest in the goings on of the house, until the arrival of Mademoiselle Delavallois. There’s something about her that he can’t put his finger on; it's as if he’s seen her before, but surely, that is not possible…

After nine years of dating, Holly is sure her boyfriend Will is going to propose. But instead of popping the question, he shocks her by suggesting they open their relationship to date other people. For the last three years, Fliss and her boyfriend Ash have been in a happily open relationship. But now that they’re turning 30, he wants to close it, throwing Fliss’s whole ethos of living life on her terms rather than society’s expectations into question. When Fliss overhears Holly crying in the toilets during her first date in nine years, they decide to ditch their dates and have dinner together.

UNA STORIA PER RISENTIRE LA LEGGEREZZA DEI MIGLIORI ANNI DELLA NOSTRA VITA. PER IMPARARE A VOLARE E NON VIVERE SEMPRE CON I PIEDI PER TERRA. Alice e Viola sono gemelle identiche. Viola si è affacciata per prima al mondo, Alice l’ha seguita da vicino stringendole forte la caviglia. A unirle, un legame che loro soltanto sono in grado di comprendere e una promessa che si sono scambiate da piccole, intrecciando i mignoli: "Non ti mentirò mai". Per tutti, sono indistinguibili: hanno gli stessi amici, frequentano gli stessi posti, hanno le stesse abitudini e gli stessi sogni.

Natalie James was excited for all that being a high school senior promised for years. Senior Week. Varsity Tennis. Parties. Dates. Prom. Most importantly graduation and the escape from her small town that college would bring. But one party, one night, that night would change all her plans.

Billy Lockett: He was the king of rock ‘n roll - until a shocking accident cut short his spectacular career. Iris Ames: A nubile beauty who was the latest to be promoted by Billy from groupie to bedmate. Al Fenstra: Billy’s manager who guided his career like a father. His reaction to Billy’s accident: “Jesus Christ, I’m wiped out!”

Zwei Frauen, zwei Hautfarben, Tochter und Mutter, die mit ihrem Glauben aneinander Berge versetzen. Mutig verfolgen sie ihre Träume in einer weißen Männerwelt voller Demütigung und Ausgrenzung.

Téhéran, 1953. Pour leur fille, les parents de Roya veulent le meilleur : ils l'inscrivent dans le meilleur lycée de la capitale, espérant bien faire d'elle la future Marie Curie de ce monde. Une savante, une intellectuelle, une femme capable de changer le cours de l'histoire. Après ses cours, la jeune fille fréquente régulièrement la librairie de M. Fakhri, où elle trouve de quoi étancher sa soif de poésie persane et de littérature étrangère. C'est là qu'elle va faire connaissance de Bahman, jeune activiste politique, bien décidé à changer le monde.

Ania hears the explosion of gunshots before she sees the Nazi soldiers approach her beloved home. Her family don’t have time to run, but she does. Hiding nearby, she listens to her sister’s screams and – stroking the red ribbon she keeps tied around her wrist – she begins to plot her revenge… Taunted her whole life for being smarter than anyone else in the village, now living in war-torn Poland, being governed by Nazis who think Poles are subhuman and women only good for one thing… Ania now only has her wits to rely on, if she's going to survive.