New Books to the Store

A Free Life: A Novel by Ha Jin

Ha Jin is one of my favorite authors. I was introduced to his work with his collections of short stories The Bridegroom and I have gone on to read The Crazed, Waiting, and War Trash. All excellent, excellent! I especially liked The Crazed. I highly recommend his work.

Ha Jin's prodigious talents are evident in this powerful new book, which brilliantly brings to life the struggles and successes that characterize the contemporary immigrant experience. With its lyrical prose and confident grace, "A Free Life" is a luminousaddition to the works of one of the preeminent writers in America today.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England: A Novel by Brock Clarke

As a teenager, it was never Sam Pulsifer's intention to torch an American landmark, and he certainly never planned to kill two people in the blaze. To this day, he still wonders why that young couple was upstairs in bed in the Emily Dickinson House after hours.

After serving ten years in prison for his crime, Sam is determined to put the past behind him. He finishes college, begins a career, falls in love, gets married, has two adorable kids, and buys a home. His low-profile life is chugging along quite nicely until the past comes crashing through his front door. As the homes of Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and even a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, go up in smoke, Sam becomes the number one suspect...