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Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
A quietly beautiful novel of one man’s life as he encounters the harsh landscape of the New Mexico desert and the people who inhabit it. Introduction by Kali Fajardo-Anstine.
The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
A sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg. Foreword by Sofia Coppola, introduction by Sarah Blackwood.
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
A lucid tragedy exploring the distance between money and happiness. Foreword by Brandon Taylor.
America is in the Heart - Carlos Bulosan
A 1946 Filipino American social classic about the United States in the 1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream. Foreword by Elaine Castillo.
Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
A coming-of-age novel that explores the cultural and spiritual conflicts experienced by a young boy as he navigates the complexities of his multicultural identity in 1940s New Mexico.
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature. Foreword by Kiese Laymon.
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s classic novel of post-war disillusionment. Introduction by Amor Towles.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nick Carraway, a World War I veteran who moves to New York with the hope of making it big, finds himself attracted to Jay Gatsby and his flamboyant lifestyle. Notes by Philip McGowan, introduction by Min Jin.
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
An engulfing portrait of one day in a woman’s life. Notes by Elaine Showalter, foreword by Jenny Offill, edited by Stella McNichol.
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Russian dystopian novel of totalitarian mass surveillance that inspired George Orwell’s 1984. Foreword by Masha Gessen, introduction by Clarence Brown.
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents - Julia Alvarez
A modern Latinx classic that gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. Foreword by Elizabeth Acevedo.
In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
A modern Latinx classic about four sisters known as Las Mariposas, or the Butterflies, who fought to liberate the Dominican Republic from Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. Foreword by Maxine Hong Kingston.
The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories - Gloria Naylor
A contemporary classic that deftly portrays many of the realities of black life. Foreword by Tayari Jones.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave - Frederick Douglass
An updated edition of a classic African American autobiography, with new supplementary materials. Edited and introduction by Ira Dworkin.
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes
The great African American poet’s award-winning first novel about a black boy’s coming-of-age in a largely white Kansas town. Introduction by Angela Flournoy.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirly Jackson
A beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret. Afterword by Jonathan Lethem.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
An acclaimed novel of love, duty, and half-known truths in Gilded Age New York society. Foreword by Elif Batuman, introduction by Sarah Blackwood, notes by Laura Dluzynski Quinn.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women. Foreword by Patricia Lockwood.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The beloved portrait of a nineteenth-century New England family in wartime. Foreword by Patti Smith, introduction by Anne Boyd Rioux.
The Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin
A groundbreaking depiction of a woman who dares to defy the expectations of society in the pursuit of her desire. Introduction by Claire Vaye Watkins.