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Julia Alvarez's popular novel is a fictional account influenced by the real lives of the Mirabal sisters, who grew up in the Dominican Republic and were involved in the rebellion against dictator Rafael Trujillo in the 1930s. Read more
One of the most respected works of Chicano literature, Rudolfo Anaya tells the story of Antonio Juan Márez y Luna, a young boy who grapples with faith, identity, and death as he comes of age in New Mexico. Read more
In one of literature's most haunting denunciations of censorship, Ray Bradbury uses the materials of science fiction to tell the story of Guy Montag, a fireman forced to burn books. Read more
The spirited daughter of a Bohemian immigrant family plans to farm the untamed Nebraska land. Willa Cather's tale comes to us through the eyes of Ántonia's childhood friend, Jim Burden. Read more
Edwidge Danticat was raised by her uncle in Haiti then moved to the United States with parents and siblings she hardly knew. This memoir explores the contrasting lives of her uncle in Haiti and her father in America, delving deep into themes of family, home and tradition. Read more
Although virtually unknown during her life, this visionary New England poet is now praised as one of America’s most original writers. Read more
An eclectic range of comic and tragic voices narrate this powerful book about the enduring power of love. Erdrich leads the reader through the interwoven lives of generations of Kashpaws and Lamartines in North Dakota. Read more
Told through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald's lyrical masterpiece recounts Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love as he struggles to recapture the past. Read more
A frustrated schoolteacher in 1940s Louisiana tries to give a condemned man back his dignity before he dies. Vivid and compassionate, this novel asks: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? Read more
Detective Sam Spade becomes embroiled with a mysterious client, avenges the death of his partner, and chases a priceless treasure in this classic American private-eye novel. Read more
A story of love and pain, loyalty and desertion, Ernest Hemingway's World War I novel features the tragedy of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful nurse. Read more
This anthology presents a superb selection of the finest Mexican short stories ever written, and offers a glimpse into a diverse and fascinating culture. Authors include Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Rosario Castellanos, and Carlos Fuentes. Read more
Zora Neale Hurston's vibrant novel presents Janie Mae Crawford's growth from a voiceless teenage girl into a woman who takes charge of her own destiny. Read more
The timeless story of a young girl's desire to please both her disapproving father and the man she loves, this novel follows Catherine Sloper's remarkable transformation from a meek wallflower to a steadfast woman true to her convictions. Read more
A great poet of the Western landscape, Jeffers celebrated the heartbreaking beauty of existence and reminded humanity of its responsibility to the natural world. Read more
With penetrating insight, Jhumpa Lahiri follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. Read more
In the first book of Ursula K. Le Guin's widely admired fantasy series, only the power of language can restore balance to a dangerous world. Read more
As Harper Lee's narrator, Scout Finch, tries to draw out a reclusive neighbor, she bears witness to a racially charged trial that shapes the character of her Alabama community. Read more
Abducted from his comfortable home and sold as a sled dog, Buck battles the elements to become leader of the pack. This story of a struggle for survival is an unforgettable adventure. Read more
The most popular American poet of the nineteenth century, this remarkable writer helped create the songs and stories that gave a new nation its identity. Read more
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's psychological thriller follows a thief's quest for revenge down the boulevards and back alleys of Cairo. Read more
A teenage outcast, a drunken socialist, a black doctor, and a sad café owner confess their secrets to a deaf-mute, in Carson McCullers's dramatic story of poverty and racism in a 1930s Georgia mill town. Read more
Dinaw Mengestu tells the story of Sepha Stephanos, who fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a better life in America, and examines how an immigrant's expectations match up to the reality of American life. Read more
Tracing the tour of one American platoon this book is not just a tale of the Vietnam War, although it's considered one of the finest books ever about combat. This award-winning book is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure, and what it can endure. Read more
In this powerful and concise novel, Julie Otsuka describes the grim experiences of a Japanese-American family forced to live in an internment camp during World War II. Read more
Rosa Lublin is a Holocaust survivor whose memories of a Nazi death camp continue to traumatize her thirty years later. Cynthia Ozick's heartbreakingly empathic novella achieves one of fiction's loftiest goals, giving readers insight into a stranger's heart. Read more
Combining stylistic virtuosity with a deep understanding of the darkness of the human heart, Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems have haunted readers for more than 150 years. Read more
A classic Western, True Grit recounts the backcountry adventure of a one-eyed marshal, "Rooster” Cogburn, and a spirited fourteen-year-old, Mattie Ross, as they seek to avenge the death of Mattie's father. Read more
When Ruth and her sister Lucille are abandoned in the isolated Idaho town of Fingerbone, their lives become intertwined with the legacy of loss that haunts the Foster family. Read more
A Dust Bowl saga of the Joad family's rough passage to California and the rougher treatment they find there, John Steinbeck's novel is tragedy and comedy, story and allegory, editorial and epic. Read more
In sixteen interwoven stories, Amy Tan's characters—four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters—struggle to connect despite the ghosts and secrets of the past. Read more
Leo Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich is a Russian judge and middle-class everyman. Struck down by disease at forty-five, Ivan discovers a horrifying truth: He has not lived a meaningful life. Read more
Humor, trouble, and adventure follow Tom Sawyer everywhere—from the banks of the Mississippi to the brink of death and back in Mark Twain's first full novel. Read more
Filled with radiant depictions of the Mexican landscape and unforgettable characters, Luis Alberto Urrea's novel chronicles a young woman's quest to protect her hometown from banditos. Read more
In 1870s New York, Newland Archer and his fiancée seem the perfect match. But when the alluring Countess Ellen Olenska returns home from Europe, Newland must make the most important decision of his life. Read more
Thornton Wilder is the only writer to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. His novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and his play Our Town ask us to examine how we live our precarious, precious lives, whether in small-town America, eighteenth-century Peru, or anywhere else. Read more
At a New England prep school where keeping up appearances is everything, Tobias Wolff's youthful narrator learns the painful difference between truth and fiction. Read more
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