One of the world's most original works of fiction from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. • "No one ever wrote better about the power struggles of sex and love." —Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize-winning Author of The Golden Notebook

Gertrude Morel is a refined woman who married beneath her and has come to loathe her brutal, working-class husband. She focuses her passion instead...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The bestselling author of Nobody's Fool and Straight Man delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace.
“Rich, humorous ... Mr. Russo’s most seductive book thus far.” —The New York Times
Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned...

"A story about growth, failure, and redemption, Ghosts of Tom Joad traces the rise of the working poor and the don't-have-to-work-rich as it follows the fortunes of the protagonist Earl. A product of the post-Korean War era, Earl witnesses his parents' kitchen table arguments over money-echoed in thousands of other Rust Belt towns-experiences bullying, relishes first kisses, and comes of age and matures as a man before the economic hardships of the...

An ALA Notable Book, Joe has earned critical acclaim nationwide, and Larry Brown has been compared to great Southern writers such as William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. In the Mississippi countryside, a friendship between a middle-aged, alcoholic contractor and an abused teen-aged boy becomes a bizarre rite of passage for both of them. The characters are riveting, and the conclusion is shocking in this latest work by a major talent.

"Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can't seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it"--

"Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's war on heavy industry has put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for his artistic brother and practical sister ... Agnes's older...

"In the 1950s, Ellie and Brick are teenagers in love. A basketball star, Brick could escape his abusive father and be the first person in his working-class family to go to college. But when Ellie becomes pregnant, they marry, she gives up her dream of nursing school, and Brick gets a union card instead. This riveting novel tells the story of three generations in a working-class family; especially Brick and Ellie's daughter Samantha. Illuminating issues...

From humble beginnings in a working-class neighborhood, Ebb and Eula managed to raise their children with the confidence and work ethic that took them Straight Outta Lonsdale into successful careers, independent lives, and many opportunities to contribute to society.

A journalist describes the years she worked in low-paying domestic work under wealthy employers, contrasting the privileges of the upper-middle class to the realities of the overworked laborers supporting them. Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, took classes online...