Lillie knew the empty nest would be hard when her son left for college, but then her husband announced that he was in love with another woman and he would be leaving, too. What surprised Lillie most was that she wasn't sad-- she was furious. Alone for the first time in her life, she's going rogue. Is it too much to crash her ex-husband's wedding dressed like the angel of death? Lillie find unexpected help from her not-quite-estranged sister, and from...

The eight stories in this new book are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball, to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator may or may not be Murakami himself. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides. Philosophical and mysterious,...

The enemy wants us to feel rejected ... left out, lonely, and less than. When we allow him to speak lies through our rejection, he pickpockets our purpose. Cripples our courage. Dismantles our dreams. And blinds us to the beauty of Christ's powerful love. In Uninvited, Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences with rejection -- from the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father to the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman...

"Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely...but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another. Anxious, Sloane...

In Holt, Colorado, widower Louis Waters is initially thrown when the widowed Addie Moore suggests that they spend time together, in bed, to stave off loneliness. They are soon exchanging the confidences and memories of lives now empty of family, and their hopes for the imminent future.

"Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's a list...

Bad things don't happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett-- until her disappearance became the one fascinating mystery the sleepy town of Griffin Mills has ever had. Hawthorn is convinced she'll turn up at any moment, and comes up with her own theory for Lizzie's disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously ... at first. She decides to immerse herself in Lizzie's life, getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with...

Experiencing her world through the evocative sounds she collects, 11-year-old Maybelle becomes convinced that a new radio DJ is her absent father before entering a singing contest that the DJ will be judging in Nashville.

"When Harry Westcott shipped off to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, he was near-fatally wounded. After recovering, the once cheery, light-hearted boy has become a reclusive man. Though Harry insists he enjoys the solitude, he does wonder sometimes if he is lonely. Lydia Tavernor, recently widowed, dreams of taking a lover. Her marriage to Reverend Isaiah Tavernor was one of service and obedience. Sometimes, she wonders if she is lonely. They find themselves...

When A learns he is not the only person waking up in a different person's body every day, he gains new understanding of the extremes where love and loneliness can lead. Told from multiple perspectives.