Most Popular Books by Maile Meloy

Fourteen remarkable stories that combine strong Western settings with a subtle and distinct female voice. This critically celebrated debut collection marks the exciting beginning of prize-winner Meloy’s promising career. Lean and controlled in their narration, abundant and moving in their effects, Maile Meloy’s stories introduce a striking talent. Most are set in the modern American West, made vivid and unexpected in Meloy’s unsentimental vision; others take us to Paris, wartime London, and Greece, with the same remarkable skill and intuition. In “Four Lean Hounds, ca. 1976,” two couples face a complicated grief when one of the four dies. In “Ranch Girl,” the college-bound daughter of a ranch foreman must choose which adult world she wants to occupy. In “A Stakes Horse,” a woman confronts risk and loss at the racetrack and at home. And in “Aqua Boulevard”—winner of the 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction—an elderly Parisian confronts his mortality. Meloy’s command of her characters’ voices is breathtaking; their fears and desires are deftly illuminated. Smart, surprising, and evocative, Meloy’s brilliantly observed stories fully engage the mind and heart.

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2009-- now adapted into the feature film Certain Women, starring Kristen Stewart-- award-winning writer Maile Meloy''s short stories explore complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers. Don''t miss her new novel, Do Not Become Alarmed. Meloy''s first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade. Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields-and fields of victory-that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly- and reluctantly-in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire. Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloy''s singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.

The moving and suspenseful new novel that Ann Patchett calls "smart and thrilling and impossible to put down... the book that every reader longs for." “This summer’s undoubtable smash hit… an addictive, heart-palpitating story.” —Marie Claire The sun is shining, the sea is blue, the children have disappeared. When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The adults are lulled by the ship’s comfort and ease. The four children—ages six to eleven—love the nonstop buffet and their newfound independence. But when they all go ashore for an adventure in Central America, a series of minor misfortunes and miscalculations leads the families farther from the safety of the ship. One minute the children are there, and the next they’re gone. The disintegration of the world the families knew—told from the perspectives of both the adults and the children—is both riveting and revealing. The parents, accustomed to security and control, turn on each other and blame themselves, while the seemingly helpless children discover resources they never knew they possessed. Do Not Become Alarmed is a story about the protective force of innocence and the limits of parental power, and an insightful look at privileged illusions of safety. Celebrated for her spare and moving fiction, Maile Meloy has written a gripping novel about how quickly what we count on can fall away, and the way a crisis shifts our perceptions of what matters most.

A young woman from the Santerre clan accompanies her family to Argentina, where their lives become entwined with an uninhibited rich girl, an aging French playboy, a young Eastern European prostitute, and an orphaned child.

A richly textured novel tells a story of sex and longing, love and loss, and of the deceit that can lie at the heart of family relationships. “Each chapter…has the seductive aura of a finely crafted story. Liars and Saints is instructive and bittersweet and yet somehow never nostalgic” (Los Angeles Times). Set in California, Liars and Saints follows four generations of the Catholic Santerre family from World War II to the present. In a family driven as much by jealousy and propriety as by love, an unspoken tradition of deceit is passed from generation to generation. When tragedy shatters their precarious domestic lives, it takes astonishing courage and compassion to bring them back together. By turns funny and disturbing, irreverent and profound, Liars and Saints is a masterful display of Maile Meloy’s prodigious gifts and of her penetrating insight into an extraordinary American family and into the nature of human love. “Meloy may be the first great American realist of the twenty-first century: The Santerres aren’t real but they feel like they are, and the reader will not soon forget them” (The Boston Globe).

Sequel to: The apprentices & The Apothecary.

It''s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows - a fascinating boy who''s not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy. When Benjamin''s father is kidnapped, Janie and Benjamin must uncover the secrets of the apothecary''s sacred book, the Pharmacopoeia, in order to find him, all while keeping it out of the hands of their enemies - Russian spies in possession of nuclear weapons. Discovering and testing potions they never believed could exist, Janie and Benjamin embark on a dangerous race to save the apothecary and prevent impending disaster. Together with Ian Schoenherr''s breathtaking illustrations, this is a truly stunning package from cover to cover.

From a New York Times bestselling author comes this poignant, lyrical tale about nature''s great escape artist—perfect for fans of the Oscar-winning documentary film My Octopus Teacher. The octopus is happy in his undersea cave until one day, a diver captures him and takes him to live in an aquarium. The humans give him food and tests that look like toys. But every day is the same, and the octopus soon tires of captive life. And so, under the cover of darkness, he makes his daring escape... Maile Meloy and Felicita Sala bring us a story full of excitement and heart, about the thrill of hard-won freedom and the pull of home.

From one of the most popular and acclaimed story writers of her generation, a single-volume short story from the author of 2017''s Do Not Become Alarmed, a beautifully packaged palm-sized gift book. “That the yellow house was thrillingly affordable might have been a warning sign, if Eleanor had known how to read it. But she’d been desperate. She was sharing a room with her four-year-old daughter, Hattie, in her parents’ house, and she had to get out.” From the award-winning novelist and short story writer Maile Meloy, Devotion: A Rat Story is an exquisitely unsettling tale about a young single mother whose new home becomes a kind of nightmare she must resolve on her own. Eleanor is in such a rush to move away from her parents that she allows an imperious realtor to rush her to close on the too-good-to-be-true home without an inspection. Shortly after the house becomes legally hers—with every cent and all of her pride and future tied up in the property—the giant rats show themselves. In the yard, in the kitchen, on her daughter’s bed. A walk around the block reveals a decrepit neighboring house where two elderly sisters are feeding and fostering thousands of unusal “pets.” What has Eleanor done? What action can she possibly take now? In Meloy’s characteristically clean, assured style, she captures the hopes and horrors of domestic life with an element of suspense that drives the reader feverishly to the end.

"Two years after parting from Benjamin and Janie reunites via magical communication to prevent a global catastrophe"--

De una autora best seller del New York Times surge este conmovedor y lírico relato sobre el gran artista del escape en la naturaleza, perfecto para los fanáticos del documental ganador del Oscar My Octopus Teacher. El pulpo vivía feliz en su cueva submarina hasta que un día, un buzo lo captura y lo lleva a vivir a un acuario. Los humanos le dan comida y le ponen pruebas que parecen juguetes. Pero todos los días son iguales, y el pulpo pronto se cansa de la vida cautiva. Y así, al amparo de la oscuridad, emprende un escape audaz. Maile Meloy y Felicita Sala nos traen una historia llena de emoción y sentimiento, sobre la exaltación de conquistar la libertad con tanto esfuerzo y el llamado del hogar.

Blijf rustig van Maile Meloy is een ijzersterke, psychologische thriller over de nachtmerrie van iedere ouder: wat als je kind opeens verdwijnt? Voor de liefhebbers van Paula Hawkins en Ruth Ware. Blijf rustig van Maile Meloy is een ijzersterke, psychologische thriller over de nachtmerrie van iedere ouder: wat als je kind opeens verdwijnt? Voor de liefhebbers van Paula Hawkins en Ruth Ware. In een opwelling besluiten Liv en Nora met hun gezinnen op een cruise naar de Cariben te gaan. De vakantie begint perfect: iedereen geniet van de luxe op het schip en van het mooie weer. Maar tijdens een stop in Costa Rica gaat het mis. De mannen gaan golfen, de vrouwen naar het strand met de kinderen. Liv doezelt wat in de zon en Nora flirt met de gids. En opeens zijn de kinderen weg... Een familiecrisis in een warm vakantieland die genadeloos onder je huid kruipt. Wat zou jij doen? Meloy combineert een uitzonderlijk schrijfniveau met een commerciële plot die klinkt als een klok. Niet weg te leggen!

Jane, qui a grandi à Los Angeles, vient de s''installer à Londres avec ses parents. Dans son nouveau collège, elle rencontre un garçon rebelle et fascinant, Benjamin Burrows. Elle fait aussi la connaissance du père de Benjamin, un apothicaire qui tient une échoppe près de chez elle. Poursuivi par de redoutables espions, M. Burrows confie un grimoire à Jane et Benjamin avant de disparaître. Les deux amis deviennent à leur tour la cible de ces hommes prêts à tout pour s''emparer du mystérieux livre. Cependant, ils disposent désormais d''une arme précieuse car le grimoire recense des formules magiques qui permettent de devenir invisible, de se transformer en oiseau, ou encore de ralentir le cours du temps...

À la veille de Pearl Harbor, Yvette et le beau pilote de chasse Teddy se marient en Californie. Ensemble, ils rêvent de bâtir une famille exemplaire. Ainsi commence la saga des Santerre, une lignée qui, de rupture en zigzag, se déploie en une cinquantaine d''années riches de fous rires, de guerres, de secrets de famille, de pieux mensonges et de coups de théâtre... L''aventure d''une famille américaine pas comme les autres.

Presents a volume of eleven short works that explores the complexity of life in austere landscapes of the American West, from the tale of a ranch hand who falls for a reluctant newcomer to the story of a young father who is shocked by the reappearance of his late grandmother.

O ano é 1952, e a família Scott muda inesperadamente de Los Angeles para Londres. Janie Scott se sente desconfortável na nova escola, até que o boticário local lhe promete um remédio para tratar a saudade de casa. Mas a verdadeira cura só acontece quando conhece o filho do boticário, Benjamin, um menino curiosamente desafiante que sonha se tornar um espião. O pai de Benjamin, no entanto, não é um boticário comum, e, quando ele é sequestrado, cabe a Benjamin e Janie cuidar de seu livro sagrado, a Farmacopeia, pois espiões russos não veem a hora de colocar as mãos nele. Que segredos o livro contém? Descobrindo elixires transformadores que nunca imaginariam existir, Janie e Benjamin embarcam numa perigosa missão para salvar o boticário e evitar uma iminente catástrofe nuclear.

In der wilden Schönheit des amerikanischen Westens verlieren sich die kleinen Orte, in denen der Alltag ganz eigenen Gesetzen folgt. Doch auch in dieser Abgeschiedenheit ringen die Menschen mit den Unwägbarkeiten des Lebens, wie seit jeher und überall: Liebe erwacht und mit ihr die Furcht, sie wieder zu verlieren; Geburt und Tod setzen unwiderrufliche Zäsuren ? und immer wieder klopft das Schicksal an und stellt die Menschen vor eine Entscheidung, die alles verändern wird.

Segunda Guerra Mundial, Guerra da Coréia, Vietnã, Guerra do Golfo, anos dourados, morte de Kennedy, movimento hippie, ambientalismo. Tudo isso cabe no primeiro romance de Maile Meloy, que, entre muitas resenhas positivas, foi chamado de espetacular pelo The New York Times. Mas Santos e mentirosos não se trata de um romance histórico. É mais do que isso. Os fatos são apenas o pano de fundo para a autora contar a história de uma família americana por mais de cinco décadas. Os Santerre, com origens franco-canadenses e também tipicamente americanas, bem poderiam ser uma família perfeita. Católicos de classe média, bonitos, bem-educados, os membros desse clã, no entanto, acabam por não cumprir o roteiro do American Way of Life. Uma mentira, inventada pela matriarca Yvette para proteger a filha mais velha, Margot, muda a vida de todos os descendentes. Mas não é só Yvette que mente. Todos os personagens da história, de alguma forma, fazem jus aos adjetivos do título do livro.

Het lange huwelijk van een Frans-Canadese vrouw en haar Amerikaanse man is goed, maar ettelijke geheimen en leugentjes zijn ook hen niet vreemd.