Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone is the enthralling story of two women—one famous, the other not; one drawn from history, the other mostly imagined—and how their unlikely relationship changed their lives.

Dwindling resources, bribery, and corruption—issues as current as this morning's newspaper—mix with optimism in Little Century, Anna Keesey's briskly romantic, nontraditional Western set in central Oregon circa 1900.

Authors love to rewrite classics, but the result is usually parlor-game fiction, fun mainly for references to the original. A happy exception is Francesca Segal's good-natured The Innocents, which pays homage to but deviates in significant ways from its inspiration, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

When his boy Zach was born, on one "suffocating" August day in 1983, Buzz Bissinger "just felt like walking away." The younger (by three minutes) of twins born 13 and a half weeks premature, Zach was severely mentally disabled, and his father, a journalist who would one day find fame with Friday Night Lights, could hardly handle it.

Deni Y. Béchard's masterful debut sweeps through North America from rural early-20th-century Quebec to an ashram in 21st-century New Mexico, following several generations of a French-Canadian family in which "children were born alternately brutes or runts.

Radio Iris tells the story of this 20-something's daily schedule and her interactions with two cryptic male characters: her boss, whose erratic behavior makes Iris question the company's future, and a stranger who is living in the office next door, setting off the fire alarm and bathing in the men's room.

In this engaging novel, a Manhattan man finds romance—and a few other surprises—when he goes to settle the estate of an old friend.

Fun, smart, and warmhearted, this story revolves around a fictional suburban mom whose first boyfriend suddenly reappears, sparking—naturally—big trouble.

This memoir of a young widow's quest to transform urban education by establishing the groundbreaking Harlem Village Academies will inspire readers everywhere.

An expansive coming-of-age novel about a 15-year-old boy forced to survive on his own after his parents are sent to prison for robbing a bank.

Notes from the best-selling columnist in whose writing women have long seen themselves.

So much for the honeymoon stage. A comic memoir by an American who endures endless frustrations after moving to the city he'd long romanticized.

In this literary thriller, inspired by real female agents during WWII, an Englishwoman is recruited into a dangerous espionage mission.

What does a woman in 21st-century London have to do with missionaries in 1920s China? Find out as this charming novel toggles between past and present.

From the evolution of our "aquatic ancestors" to the trauma of bathing suit shopping, these essays examine the sport of swimming from every angle.

An irreverent comedy about an affluent couple who, in a bid for cultural cachet, take in a dissident writer, only to have sex complicate everything.