Hoping to get out of Russia and return to his adopted home in the U.S., Misha Vainberg, the obese son of a wealthy Russian, makes his way to Absurdsvani, a small unstable country on the brink of civil war. "From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook comes the uproarious and poignant story of one very fat man and one very small country Meet Misha Vainberg, aka Snack Daddy, a 325-pound disaster of a human...

"Daniel Torday is a two-time National Jewish Book Award recipient and winner of the 2017 Sami Rohr Choice Award for The Last Flight of Poxl West. Torday's work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, The Paris Review Daily, Esquire, The Kenyon Review, and Tin House, and has been honored in both the Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays series. He is the Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College."-- Provided by publisher. ""Torday...

He dog who thinks of himself as 'Bailey' knows one thing for sure: all dogs go to heaven after they have fulfilled their purpose on earth. But Bailey's work on earth is far from finished, there are still so many more humans that need a dog's talent for unconditional love. There is one family in particular that needs Bailey's help, a family that is on the verge of breaking apart. But if Bailey helps this family he won't remember his previous lives,...

Simon always has a lot to say. And sometimes he can't stop talking, even in the middle of class. When Simon gets in trouble for jabbering at school, his best friends, Molly and Rosie, think up a plan to keep him from getting grounded at home! It involves cars, suds, and pink plastic flamingos! But will their big plan turn into an even bigger disaster?

"Meet Lou. Lou has an important job...as the neighborhood toilet for dogs on their walks. Useful as he may be, he gets the feeling that deep down inside, there might be more to him than that. He just doesn't seem to know exactly what yet. When disaster strikes, will Lou find out what he's made of and save the day?

For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a reader as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world's piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success. "Look," a character begins to explain, laying out some gambit reasonably enough, even if facing a world of boomeranging...

Georgette Castle's family runs the best home renovation business in town, but she picked balloons instead of blueprints and they haven't taken her seriously since. Georgie loves planning children's birthday parties and making people laugh, just not at her own expense. She's determined to fix herself up into a Woman of the World... whatever that means. Maybe if people think she's having a steamy love affair, they'll acknowledge she's not just the little...

After Mercy Watson follows the delightful scent and delicious taste of the pansies her thoughtful neighbors plant to beautify their yard, animal control officer Francine Poulet is called out to handle the case, which brings unexpected results.

A small-town girl fresh out of an Ivy League college lands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine, but wonders if the glamorous perks are worth working for the editor from hell

Popular television personality Valerie Adler turns to her long-forgotten, Illinois hometown friend Addie Downs when she runs into a bit of trouble involving betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets.