The Taste of Salt (24 page)

“The perfect book club book.”

—The Washington Post Book World

“[A] haunting page-turner … [A] compelling look at what it means to be a mother and a wife.”
—Working Mother

“Extraordinary … This is a story that needs to be told.”
—Elle
, #1 Reader's Pick

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-932-0

Every Last Cuckoo
, a novel by Kate Maloy

In the tradition of Jane Smiley and Sue Miller comes this wise and gratifying novel about a woman who gracefully accepts a surprising new role in life just when she thinks her best years are behind her.

Winner of the ALA Reading List Award for Women's Fiction

“Truly engrossing … An excellent book club selection.”
—Library Journal

“A tender and wise story of what happens when love lasts.” —Katharine Weber, author of
Triangle

“Inspiring … Grabs the reader by the heart.”

—The New Orleans Times-Picayune

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-675-6

Mudbound
, a novel by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound
is the saga of the McAllan family, who struggle to survive on a remote ramshackle farm, and the Jacksons, their black sharecroppers. When two men return from World War II to work the land, the unlikely friendship between these brothers-in-arms—one white, one black—arouses the passions of their neighbors. In this award-winning portrait of two families caught up in the blind hatred of a small Southern town, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and ruthless.

“This is storytelling at the height of its powers …

Hillary Jordan writes with the force of a Delta storm.” —Barbara Kingsolver

Winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-677-0

Saving the World
, a novel by Julia Alverez

While Alma Huebner is researching a new novel, she discovers the true story of Isabel Sendales y Gómez, who embarked on a courageous sea voyage to rescue the New World from smallpox. The author
of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
and
In the Time of the Butterflies
captures the worlds of two women living two centuries apart but with surprisingly parallel fates.

“Fresh and unusual and thought-provokingly sensitive.”
—The Boston Globe

“Engrossing, expertly paced.” —
People

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-558-2

Coal Black Horse
, a novel by Robert Olmstead

When Robey Childs's mother has a premonition about her husband fighting in the Civil War, she sends her only son to find him and bring him home. At fourteen, Robey thinks he's off on a great adventure. But it takes the gift of a powerful and noble coal black horse to show him how to undertake the most important journey in his life.

“A remarkable creation.” —
Chicago Tribune

“Exciting … A grueling adventure.”
—The New York Times Book Review

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-601-5

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
,

a novel by Brock Clarke

The past catches up with Sam Pulsifer, the hapless hero of this incendiary novel, when after spending ten years in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson's house, the homes of other famous new England writers go up in smoke. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist.

“Funny, profound … A seductive book with a payoff on every page.” —
People

“Wildly, unpredictably funny … As cheerfully oddball as its title.”
—The New York Times

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-56512-614-5

A Blessing on the Moon
, a novel by Joseph Skibell

Hailed by the
New York Times
as “confirmation that no subject lies beyond the grasp of a gifted, committed imagination,” this highly acclaimed novel is a magical tale about the Holocaust—a fable inspired by fact. Not since Art Spiegelman's
Maus
has a work so powerfully evoked one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century with such daring originality.

“As magical as it is macabre.”
—The New Yorker

“Hugely enjoyable … A compelling tour de force, a surreal but thoroughly accessible page-turner.”
—Houston Chronicle

An Algonquin Readers Round Table Edition with Reading Group Guide and Other Special Features • Fiction • ISBN 978-1-61620-018-3