NCW Libraries

A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he's dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations...

A divine twist of fate causes Constance Rivers and her son Douglas to open their hearts to ex-convict, Benjamin Sparks. While on the brink of losing her battle with kidney disease, Constance's near death confession causes her past and present to instantly collide. Somebody's Child is a heartwarming story about a son losing hope, a mother gaining faith, and God's divine and perfect plan.

A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies.

Mark Helprin's powerful, rapturous new novel is set in a present-day Paris caught between violent unrest and its well-known, inescapable glories. Seventy-four-year-old Jules Lacour-a maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widower, veteran of the war in Algeria, and child of the Holocaust-must find a balance between his strong obligations to the past and the attractions and beauties of life and love in the present. In the midst of what should be an effulgent...

"Karen Neulander has always been fiercely protective of her son, Jacob, now six. When Jacob's father, Dave, found out Karen was pregnant and made it clear that fatherhood wasn't in his plans, Karen walked out of the relationship, never telling Dave her intention was to raise their child alone. But now Jake is asking to meet his dad, and with good reason: Karen is dying. When she finally calls her ex, she's shocked to find Dave ecstatic about the son...

A septuagenarian leftist documentary filmmaker gives a last interview from his mythologized life to a former star student to whom he discloses his experiences as a draft dodger who fled to a new life in Montreal.

A man bears witness to his grandfather's deathbed confessions, which reveal his family's long-buried history and his involvement in a mail-order novelty company, World War II, and the space program.

"It's New Year's Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. The party's host, Tess, diagnosed with a terminal illness, saw this as a chance for her to make things right...in more ways than one. To organize a vow renewal with her drifting husband, Tess recruits her best friend and circuit court judge, Sylvie. Stalked by guilt, Sylvie struggles with the memory of a decade-old incident. She and Tess both know time...

From the moment Kit Montgomery walked into Ashton Robertson's life, she knew her heart would always belong to the dashing English rogue. Years later, her brother is determined to see Ashton married to Kit in order to fulfill her greatest dream. And though Ashton knows that Kit will never love her, in his arms she finds the freedom that's been denied her all her life. But will a few days in paradise be enough to satisfy a lifetime of denial? Kit was...

"Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia by her grandmother, only to then flee the political upheaval of the late 1970s with her family. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. Against all odds, she became a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, a life. Then, at age thirty-seven, with...