Meet Frederick Madrigal: the seventh son of a struggling woman on welfare who already had three sets of male twins spaced two years apart. A one-time child prodigy, Frederick was the subject of the benevolent index finger of God. While his older brothers ran wild, the sensitive and musically gifted Frederick began to sneak out of the house to sing for spare change in front of city bars and nightclubs, his repertoire learned from his mother's secret midnight singing. Through the intervention of a number of well intentioned benefactors, he ends up in a church choir, and from there, at the age of twelve, is drafted into a choir school in Toronto. He's happy to go, and leaves his mother and brothers behind without a thought. But just after his eighteenth birthday, in public, Everything Crashes Down, and in another miraculous escape, he chooses against his musical destiny. In mid-life, Frederick is deliverer of Canada Post mail; teacher of Voice; keeper of secrets; caretaker of his demented mother; lousy with dates. Still, it appears that everything is more or less satisfactory and under control ... until God once again starts pointing- but this time He seems a little cranky. The Madrigal is a work of literary fiction that explores the experience of solitude, the meaning of extraordinary talent, and the role of memory throughout our lives. Rather than a coming of age story, it is a "coming to terms story," as Frederick must let go of the unfulfilled expectations of his childhood and find deliverance from the tragic end-of-childhood events he believes he carries responsibility for. In doing so, Frederick brings a unique twist to a timeless journey of self-forgiveness and relationships with others.

The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects. His meandering route to happiness includes work as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackfor Squeers ill-treats his impoverished pupils, and a spell as an actor with the absurdly melodramatic Crummles troupe.

As Larry, a Native American, grows up in the small town of Fort Simmer, he lives according to his own rules and becomes involved in several activities that could cause danger to his future. When Johnny Beck moves to town, however, the two quickly become friends and Larry finds the courage to confront his past, as well as his future.

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly, Time.com, Bustle, BuzzFeed, The Millions, and Nylon.com. "The Leavers is courageous, sensitive, and perfectly of this moment."-Barbara Kingsolver An emotionally harrowing debut novel that explores assimilation and loss, immigration and homeland, independence and connection. One morning, Deming Guo's mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an "all-American boy." But far away from all he's ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother's disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It's the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he's loved has been taken away-and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past. This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.

Winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction. Peter Behrens's bestselling novel is gorgeously written, Homeric in scope, and haunting in its depiction of a young man's perilous journey from innocence to experience. The Law of Dreams follows Fergus O'Brien from Ireland to Liverpool and Wales during the Great Potato Famine of 1847, and then beyond -- to a harrowing Atlantic crossing to Montreal. On the way, Fergus loses his family, discovers a teeming world beyond the hill farm where he was born, and experiences three great loves.

An almost-true story about a small town in Texas that ought to exist if it doesn't, with characters like Sam the Lion, the delectable Jacy, and Ruth Popper, the coach's wife.

Recounts the last summer of innocence for nine-year-old Susan, who witnesses the disintegration of her parent's marriage, and learns of people's cruelty from the visiting nephew of a neighbor.

An arrogant medical student renders himself invisible in an experiment and terrorizes a small town in England while attempting to reverse the procedure. An iconic fleshing out of Plato’s parable, “The Ring of Gyges.”

"Friendships, family, grief, joy, rage, faith, doubt, poetry, and love-this complex and sensitive book has room for every aspect of growing up!"-Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor-Winning author of The Surrender Tree Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it's senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal's not who he thought he was, who is he' This humor-infused, warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging is a triumph.