Anne Stewart Mark

Hemingway’s biographer Hotchner (Papa Hemingway) has written a wonderful and touching account of the loves and lives of one of our favorite authors. Taken from the words of Papa himself, entrusted to Hotchner, this lovely little memoir tells of his very personal struggle when choosing between his two great loves: Hadley and Pauline. After his near-death experiences  surviving two consecutive plane crashes, Hemingway and Hotchner spent the next eight months together as Papa told him of the painful period, never before discussed, when he lived in Paris, wrote The Sun Also Rises, and was in love with two women at the same time. Beautiful reminisces and frank confessions take us to the bohemian world of Paris in the 20s, the bullfights in Spain, the sultry days of Key West, and of Cold War Cuba. We see inside the mind of someone who struggled with his knowledge of his own mortality and existence of his immortal soul during the 100 days when he had to decide between his first and second wives. Photographs from Hotchner’s own collection grace the pages and we hear from one of his dearest friends of Hemingway’s greatest mistake. – Anne Stewart Mark

In this delightful sequel to Me Before You, Lou finds herself drifting in the wake of Will’s death, unable to move on, unable to live the life he charged her with at his death. After an extraordinary accident she wakes to discover she must return to more judgments from her family, her friends and everyone who knows her. Lou has been resigned to her grief support meetings, her dreadful job and her barely lived-in apartment until her complacency is disturbed by a knock on her door. A young woman inserts herself into Lou’s sloppy existence; forced back into the Traynors' lives, she must once again find a way to carve an identity for herself. Surprises abound as we sail along on this funny, affecting ride as Lou tries to find her happy-ever-after. – Anne Stewart Mark

Mitchell does it again in this compact thriller that may or may not be a sequel to The Bone Clocks. Companion piece or spin-off is perhaps a better description. Slade House is tucked away down an alley behind a pub with a small, mysterious iron door that only appears every nine years. Invited in by a strange brother and sister, the unique and unfortunate souls who enter that door are never heard from or seen again. Spanning 50 years from the late 70s to the present, this little novel will make you feel as if you have dropped inside an Escher drawing and will keep you up at night as you hurtle to the conclusion discovering the secrets of this haunted-house story as only Mitchell can reveal them. – Anne Stewart Mark

Set in a beautiful, ancient capital city in the fictional middle-eastern country of Mazrooq, this is a sensuous tale of a portrait artist developing her craft in the midst of the Muslim culture that forbids the drawing of the human figure. Miranda falls in love and marries the British ambassador Finn. Both are surrounded by luxury, their every need attended to. When she is kidnapped, their world crumbles, and each must search for his or her truest sense of self. How complicit is Miranda as she involves her devout Muslim female students in creating work abhorrent to the men and elders of Islam? How can she possibly return to her husband and daughter while forced to care for the infant girl who will surely die if she escapes? How has Finn’s idealism and that of the Western allies threatened to alienate and subjugate the very people they are there to help and advise? A harrowing love story about the meaning of trust, friendship, and ongoing colonialism in our age. – Anne Stewart Mark