Richard Poe

This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks' and the Hamilton's--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworking father. Cal is a rebellious loner, sternly rejected...

Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway. Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives-sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent--Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe...

Analyzes the multinational conflicts that set the stage for World War II, the Chinese communist revolution, and the Korean War, documenting Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 diplomatic mission in the Pacific through which the United States forged ill-fated covert agreements.

A dog without a human companion fetches his own slippers and curls up at his own feet but cannot reach a certain itchy spot in the middle of his back, compelling him to leash a poor lonely human who will loyally offer a helpful scratch.

"The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; the score stood four to two with but one inning more to play." Thus begins one of the most famous poems in American history: Ernest L. Thayer's Casey at the Bat. When the powerful Mudville baseball team enters the ninth inning of their game behind by two runs, things seem pretty grim. And when the first two batters make outs, it looks like their best player, the mighty Casey, won't even...