A journal account of a wealthy, educated pioneer woman who, with her husband, joined the goldrush to California and raised a family in the American West.

A journal account of a wealthy, educated pioneer woman who, with her husband, joined the goldrush to California and raised a family in the American West.

Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century – an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainier struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West – its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge-builders – Train Dreams captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.

This is Larry McMurtry's ballad in prose: his heartfelt tribute to a bygone era of the American West. Larry McMurtry has done more than any other living writer to shape our literary imagination of the American West. With The Last Kind Words Saloon, he returns to the vivid and unsparing portrait of the nineteenth-century and cowboy lifestyle made so memorable in his classic Lonesome Dove. Evoking the greatest characters and legends of the Old Wild West, McMurtry tells the story of the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Long Grass, Texas. Once hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge - more often with a mean look than a pistol - the taciturn Wyatt now idles away his time between bottles, while the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc is more adept at poker than extracting teeth. With the buffalo herds gone, the Comanche defeated, and vast swaths of the Great Plains enclosed by cattle ranches, Wyatt and Doc live on, even as the storied West that forged their myths disappears. McMurtry traces the rich and varied friendship of the heroic pair from the town of Long Grass to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Denver, then to Mobetie, Texas, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, culminating with the famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral, rendered here in McMurtry's stark and peerless prose. As harsh and beautiful, and as brutal and captivating as the open range it depicts, The Last Kind Words Saloon celebrates the genius of one of the most original American writers.

William Sydney Porter known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories are known for their surprise endings. "Heart of the West" is a collection of humorous and sentimental stories of sheepherders, cowpunchers, trail cooks, prospectors, outlaws, and Texas Rangers offer the modern reader a window into the often mythologized American West. Perhaps reflecting O. Henry's own experience as a young man in the middle of nowhere, where women were few and far between, many of the stories are comic tales of romantic rivalry.

William Sydney Porter known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories are known for their surprise endings. "Heart of the West" is a collection of humorous and sentimental stories of sheepherders, cowpunchers, trail cooks, prospectors, outlaws, and Texas Rangers offer the modern reader a window into the often mythologized American West. Perhaps reflecting O. Henry's own experience as a young man in the middle of nowhere, where women were few and far between, many of the stories are comic tales of romantic rivalry.

Sarah Grimke is the middle daughter. Her mother says she's difficult and her father says she's remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimke is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows that what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept another person as a present. And so, indeed, the trouble begins ... A powerful, sweeping novel, inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, The Invention of Wings evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of otherwise respectable people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognise; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.

Sarah Talbot Jennings, a young American living in New York, has fled to Bangkok to disappear. Armed with a suitcase full of cash, she takes up residence at the Kingdom, a glittering complex slowly sinking into its own twilight. There, against a backdrop of shadowy gossip and intrigue, she is soon drawn into the orbit of the Kingdom's glamorous ex-pat women. But when political chaos and a frenzied uprising wrack the streets below, and Sarah witnesses something unspeakable, her safe haven begins to feel like a trap. From a master of atmosphere and suspense comes a brilliantly unsettling story of cruelty and psychological unrest, and an enthralling glimpse into the shadowy crossroads of karma and human greed.

There was something in the air that night. . . Sarah has had enough of men. It’s time to rekindle her first true love – travel – so she books a sailing trip around the Greek islands with a group of strangers. The very last thing Sarah wants is to meet someone new, but then a gorgeous American man boards her yacht… And when she also encounters a handsome silver fox who promises her the world, she realises that trouble really does come in twos. Will Sarah dive into a holiday fling or stick to her plan to steer clear of men, continue her love affair with feta and find her own way after all?

Ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is extremely highly trained. Clever, ruthless and very effective, it is no surprise that he is hired by British Intelligence. On deniable operations - one of the most dangerous lines of work. Sarah Greenwood is beautiful, intelligent and cunning - and the only woman Stone has ever truly opened up to. But now he has been ordered to hunt her down. Hotly pursued through the American wilderness, Stone finds himself at the centre of a deadly game of cat and mouse. He must get to the heart of a terrifying conspiracy theory to which only Sarah holds the key. But will he manage to before the tension reaches boiling point?

Mark Twain was an American writer, journalist, and publisher. Among his most famous novels are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers. "A Double-Barreled Detective Story" is a somewhat unusual short story. Twain takes Sherlock Holmes, world-famous detective, the creation of Sir Arthur Doyle, and puts him in an unusual setting, a small town in the American west, where our hero must solve a mystery.

Mark Twain was an American writer, journalist, and publisher. Among his most famous novels are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers. "A Double-Barreled Detective Story" is a somewhat unusual short story. Twain takes Sherlock Holmes, world-famous detective, the creation of Sir Arthur Doyle, and puts him in an unusual setting, a small town in the American west, where our hero must solve a mystery.

Mark Twain was an American writer, journalist, and publisher. Among his most famous novels are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers. "A Double-Barreled Detective Story" is a somewhat unusual short story. Twain takes Sherlock Holmes, world-famous detective, the creation of Sir Arthur Doyle, and puts him in an unusual setting, a small town in the American west, where our hero must solve a mystery.

The second novel by the great American novelist, now the subject of a major new film, Genius, starring Jude Law, Colin Firth, Dominic West and Nicole Kidman. It is 1920 and Eugene Gant leaves the American South for Harvard, New York and Europe, determined to make his way as a writer. On the boat home, he meets Esther Jack, the woman who is to dominate his life. Autobiographical, vital and passionate, Wolfe's second novel blazes with energy and life. Wolfe's first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, is also now available in Penguin Classics. Together, the two novels tell the story of Eugene Gant, Wolfe's fictional alter-ego, as he grows up in a dysfunctional family in the American South and discovers his true vocation as a writer.

The American West, 1860-1890: years of broken promises, disillusionment, war and massacre. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos and ending with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, this extraordinary book tells how the American Indians lost their land, lives and liberty to white settlers pushing westward. Woven into a an engrossing saga of cruelty, treachery and violence are the fascinating stories of such legendary figures as Sitting Bull, Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo. First published in 1970, Dee Brown's brutal and compelling narrative changed the way people thought about the original inhabitants of America, and focused attention on a national disgrace.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American writer, journalist, and publisher. Among his most famous novels are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Most of his finest work includes many genres such as humor, satire, and philosophical fiction. "A Double Barreled Detective Story" is a somewhat unusual short story. Twain takes Sherlock Holmes, world-famous detective and the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and puts him in an unusual setting, a small town in the American west, where our hero must solve a strange mystery.