A PBS Great American Read Top 100 PickThe beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life-from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children of Francie’s neighborhood traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiences—a truly remarkable achievement for any writer. Read more

WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONA New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2022 * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post Bestseller "Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient." —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick"May be the best novel of 2022. . . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love." (Ron Charles, Washington Post)From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturitySet in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind. Read more

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • OVER 80 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE“Translated into 80 languages, the allegory teaches us about dreams, destiny, and the reason we are all here.”—Oprah Daily, “Best Self-Help Books of a Generation”“It’s a brilliant, magical, life-changing book that continues to blow my mind with its lessons. [...] A remarkable tome.”—Neil Patrick Harris, actorA special 25th anniversary edition of the extraordinary international bestseller, including a new foreword by Paulo Coelho.Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom, and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.“A magical little volume.”—San Francisco Chronicle“[This] Brazilian wizard makes books disappear from stores.”—The New York Times“A sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.”—Publishers Weekly Read more

Questions linger about Theo, a pleasant but mysterious stranger, after his arrival in the southern city of Golden.Who is he, and why is he here?He arrives early one spring and by chance — or is it? — he visits a coffee shop where 92 framed pencil portraits are on display. Inspired, Theo sets out on a mission of purchasing all the portraits one at a time and quietly bestowing them on their 'rightful owners.'Stories are told; friendships are born; and lives are changed.Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted story about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the far-reaching possibilities of anonymous kindness. Read more

Available in English for the very first time, a powerful, poignant novel about three half sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow Country.With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father’s first child—haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together—seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan’s greatest writers. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL. Read more

For generations of enthralled readers, the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby has come to embody all the glamour and decadence of the Roaring Twenties. To F. Scott Fitzgerald’s bemused narrator, Nick Carraway, Gatsby appears to have emerged out of nowhere, evading questions about his murky past and throwing dazzling parties at his luxurious mansion. Nick finds something both appalling and appealing in the intensity of his new neighbor’s ambition, and his fascination grows when he discovers that Gatsby is obsessed by a long-lost love, Daisy Buchanan. But Daisy and her wealthy husband are cynical and careless people, and as Gatsby’s dream collides with reality, Nick is witness to the violence and tragedy that result. The Great Gatsby's remarkable staying power is owed to the lyrical freshness of its storytelling and to the way it illuminates the hollow core of the glittering American dream.With a new introduction by John Grisham. Read more

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The animals of Manor Farm have revolted and taken over. Upon the death of Old Major, pigs Snowball and Napoleon lead a revolt against Mr. Jones, driving him from the farm. The animals embrace the Seven Commandments of Animalism and life carries on, but they learn that a farm ruled by animals looks more human than ever. Read more

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels“A coming-of-age masterpiece. . . . Sylvia Plath has become one of the influential writers of her time.” —Boston GlobeSylvia Plath’s masterwork—an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressuresEsther Greenwood is bright, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her neurosis becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic. Read more

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family.Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack, with a “head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair...features as bunched as kissed fingertips,” is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. An aunt convinces Quoyle and his two emotionally disturbed daughters to return with her to the starkly beautiful coastal landscape of their ancestral home in Newfoundland. Here, on desolate Quoyle’s Point, in a house empty except for a few mementos of the family’s unsavory past, the battered members of three generations try to cobble up new lives. Newfoundland is a country of coast and cove where the mercury rarely rises above seventy degrees, the local culinary delicacy is cod cheeks, and it’s easier to travel by boat and snowmobile than on anything with wheels. In this harsh place of cruel storms, a collapsing fishery, and chronic unemployment, the aunt sets up as a yacht upholsterer in nearby Killick-Claw, and Quoyle finds a job reporting the shipping news for the local weekly, the Gammy Bird (a paper that specializes in sexual-abuse stories and grisly photos of car accidents). As the long winter closes its jaws of ice, each of the Quoyles confronts private demons, reels from catastrophe to minor triumph—in the company of the obsequious Mavis Bangs; Diddy Shovel the strongman; drowned Herald Prowse; cane-twirling Beety; Nutbeem, who steals foreign news from the radio; a demented cousin the aunt refuses to recognize; the much-zippered Alvin Yark; silent Wavey; and old Billy Pretty, with his bag of secrets. By the time of the spring storms Quoyle has learned how to gut cod, to escape from a pickle jar, and to tie a true lover’s knot. Read more

"Flowers for Algernon" is a poignant science fiction novel by Daniel Keyes that explores the complexities of human intelligence, love, and the ethical implications of scientific experimentation. The story revolves around Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged man in his thirties, who is chosen to undergo an experimental surgery aimed at increasing his intelligence. As the procedure is conducted, readers are introduced to Charlie's journey through progress and regression, told through a series of journal entries that reveal his evolving self-awareness and emotional depth.The title references Algernon, a laboratory mouse who undergoes the same procedure and serves as both a companion and a metaphor for Charlie's own struggles. As Charlie’s intelligence blossoms, he grapples with new relationships, the isolation it brings, and the painful awareness of his past and present. However, the narrative takes a heart-wrenching turn as the effects of the surgery begin to fade, prompting profound questions about the nature of intellect, the value of human connections, and the inevitability of change.Keyes’ profound exploration of human dignity, the importance of memory, and the quest for understanding makes "Flowers for Algernon" an enduring classic that resonates deeply with readers. It's a powerful reflection on what it means to be truly human and the fragility of our existence. Read more

Raised together on the Yorkshire moors, Heathcliff and Catherine become lovers and soul mates so utterly inseparable that their destiny seems inevitable. But when Catherine’s desire for social status results in her marriage to Heathcliff’s wealthy rival, Heathcliff is consumed by revenge. And no one in his path will be spared.Admired for its stark originality and condemned for its fiendish affront to the senses, Wuthering Heights polarized critics. For generations of readers since, its themes of gender inequality, religious hypocrisy, social climbing, and the violent extremes of romantic obsession resonate to this day.Revised edition: Previously published as Wuthering Heights, this edition of Wuthering Heights (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions. Read more

The groundbreaking Victorian-era fantasy from the Scottish literary master. “Without question one of the cornerstones of the genre.”—Black Gate   George MacDonald’s first major fiction work, in MacDonald’s words “a sort of fairy tale for grown people,” Phantastes was published in 1858. This unusual fantasy, subtitled a “faerie romance,” is one of MacDonald’s most mysterious and esoteric titles. The book’s narrator, Anodos, enters Fairy Land through a mysterious old wooden secretary. From that beginning, he embarks on a dream-like series of encounters that follow the form of an epic quest, though the purpose and destination of his journey remain obscure and are never fully clarified.   Sales of Phantastes proved a disappointment, until young atheist C.S. Lewis discovered it in 1916. Within a few hours he said he knew he “had crossed a great frontier.” MacDonald’s unusual fantasy set Lewis on the road toward his eventual conversion to Christianity, and forever after he referred to MacDonald as his “master.” In spite of its poor initial reception among Victorian readers, Lewis’s affection for it established Phantastes as one of MacDonald’s most enduring and studied works in literary and academic circles. This new edition is one of six fantasy titles in The Cullen Collection that has not been edited or updated in any way and is reproduced exactly in its original text.   “It can be exquisitely beautiful . . . from time to time I was caught by MacDonald’s enchantment, by his underlying concept that we can build a land of Faerie in our minds, and travel there.”—Tor.com Read more

“Catch-22" is a satirical novel written by Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The book is set during World War II and follows the experiences of Captain John Yossarian, an American bombardier stationed on a fictional Mediterranean island. The title refers to a paradoxical military regulation that states if a pilot requests a mental evaluation to avoid dangerous missions, they are deemed sane, but their desire to avoid danger proves their sanity, thus trapping them in a cycle of illogical reasoning. The novel explores the absurdity and bureaucracy of war, highlighting the struggles and moral dilemmas faced by the characters. Through dark humor and sharp wit, Heller critiques the dehumanizing effects of war and the illogical systems that perpetuate it. Read more

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Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Read more

“Far more than a conventional novel. It is a meditation on life, on the erotic, on the nature of men and women and love . . . full of telling details, truths large and small, to which just about every reader will respond.” — PeopleIn The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of two couples, a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing, and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.This magnificent novel is a story of passion and politics, infidelity and ideas, and encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, illuminating all aspects of human existence. Read more

Winner of the Pen/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation PrizeThe award-winning translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel of psychological realism.The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons—the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture. This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbalinventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel. Read more

The red letter A on her dress marks young mother Hester Prynne among her Puritan neighbors, who demand to know who fathered her child. Rumors swirl, but the shunned and shamed Hester keeps her secret—and his—for years, until a guilt-ridden confession reveals the truth, with unexpected consequences.Set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s masterwork was originally subtitled “a romance,” though its themes include the limits of law, the power of religion, and the nature of sin. Equal parts tragic love story and social commentary, The Scarlet Letter brings to life the undying human need to keep secrets.Revised edition: Previously published as The Scarlet Letter, this edition of The Scarlet Letter (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions. Read more

Isolated from society in a tenement basement in St. Petersburg, a malicious former civil servant vents his resentments. In the rambling notes that follow, we are exposed to the inner turmoil of the Underground Man, who represents the voice of his generation. An emotional, paranoid knot of contradictions, the spiteful narrator is also desperate to join a society he loathes, if only to prove his superiority to it.Exploring themes of free will versus determinism, Dostoyevsky’s existential exploration was written to challenge increasingly popular Western egoist philosophies. In the Underground Man, he found the embodiment of the antihero, whose behavior—like all human behavior—defies rationalization.AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to read a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.Revised edition: Previously published as Notes from the Underground, this edition of Notes from the Underground (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions. Read more