This extraordinary Californian garden was the creation of Ganna Walska, a Polish opera singer who bought the estate of Montecito in 1943 while briefly married to her sixth husband. Thereafte... read more
Following on from his The Prime Ministers, here is a series of essays on all 46 presidents of the USA by various academics, journalists, politicians and historians.
MG's absorbing new micro-history focuses on a Crucible-esque event in Springfield, Mass. in 1651, when a young couple were condemned by their peers as witches. Drawing on detailed primary so... read more
A detailed, careful attempt to understand the changes in the United States over the last decade that sees Trump's election not so much as the cause of fracture but rather as the bitter fruit... read more
A bravura upending of the clichés of the 'Great American Novel' from the author of Then We Came to the End. Set in early C21st America, Ferris's protagonist is a romantic in the style of Up... read more
A 600-page behemoth of a novel, Crossroads is a cross-generational saga set in 1970s suburban Chicago. The paterfamilias is a pastor wondering whether to leave his failing marriage before hi... read more
Although not well known in the UK, Lewis is one of the best conteporary US novelists. This, set on the coast of Maine, is a sort of parable of contemporary American society.
A mysterious philanthropist travels up and down a stretch of Canadian coast delivering books to people who live too far from libraries. This novella was first published in 1933.
The much-anticipated new novel from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow. Three ex-cons and one teenager attempt to make their way from Kansas to San Francisco. A paean to the American West o... read more
A furniture salesman, who tries to keep to the straight and narrow with only the occasional foray into fencing a pilfered gewgaw for a cousin, finds himself drawn into a much bigger heist. A... read more