Most Popular Books by Paula Fox

One of The Atlantic''s Great American Novels One of the New York Times'' 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 Years "A towering landmark of postwar Realism…A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved." —David Foster Wallace Otto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods'' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage—and a society—wrenching itself apart. First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller''s craft in postwar American literature — a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with "Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day."

A Newbery Honor Book and Winner of the Christopher Award: A young boy fires a forbidden rifle—and must face the consequences. Ned Wallis’s minister father made him promise not to touch the rifle until he turns fourteen. But the eleven-year-old can’t resist sneaking outside and trying it out, just once. Ned takes aim, and fires—just as a dark shadow passes in front of him. When he looks up, a flickering face passes across the attic window. Someone was watching. When a feral cat appears outside the house of an elderly neighbor, with dried blood on its matted fur and a missing eye, Ned begins to wonder: Could he have shot this animal that night? Full of guilt and terrified that his secret will come out, Ned starts caring for the one-eyed cat. But will he be able to come clean about his broken promise and the shot in the dark? Spring brings the chance for redemption and a surprising revelation from an unexpected source in this New York Times Outstanding Children’s Book of the Year.

Fifteen-year-old Catherine and her father take their first joint vacation in Nova Scotia and finally get to know each other.

Eleven-year-old Clay must find a home on the streets of New York City in this award-winning, heartbreakingly honest novel. He was eleven years old, and he had never felt so alone in his life. Clay Garrity lived a normal life until his father lost his job and abandoned the family. Now his pregnant mother has deserted him too, leaving Clay alone in a welfare hotel with a jar of peanut butter and half a loaf of bread. Fearing being placed in foster care, Clay runs away. Alone in the city, Clay wanders down streets with boarded-up buildings and through dark alleys, until he comes to a small triangular park that looks like an island in a stream. In the light of a street lamp, he sees cardboard boxes, blankets, bundles—and people. Some are lying on benches, others inside boxes. Two of the men, Calvin and Buddy, offer to share their shelter, and Clay is grateful to have a place to stay during the bitter November cold. Before long, Calvin, Buddy, and Clay form a family amid the threatening dangers and despair of the streets. Clay knows that leaving the streets and going into foster care means that he may never see his parents again. But if he stays, he may not survive at all. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, this acclaimed novel offers an intensely moving and candid look at the all-too-real lives of homeless teens.

In this powerful historical novel a thirteen-year-old boy is kidnapped and brought aboard a slave ship, where he is forced to play music that will entice the slaves to exercise.

National Book Award Winner: A grieving teenager wonders if she’ll ever understand anything—especially the big things—in life. Time passed, and all the minutes hurt . . . After her father’s death, Victoria Finch’s life changes completely. To save money, she and her mother move from Boston to a small house in the town of New Oxford. There, Victoria attends school in a building that resembles a train station, where no one pays her much attention. Then she meets Hugh Todd, the rich kid who runs the school’s theater club. He’s charming, adventurous, and encouraging, and he takes particular interest in Victoria’s writing. Hugh’s presence reinvigorates Victoria’s life. But he needs something as well, and as the months pass, Victoria realizes that his friendship comes at a high price. A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, A Place Apart is a lyrical novel of loss, friendship, and moving on.

An exotic, heartbreaking memoir that should finally earn Paula Fox, a distinguished novelist and children''s book writer, the audience she has for decades deserved Paula Fox has long been acclaimed as one of America''s most brilliant fiction writers. Borrowed Finery, her first book in nearly a decade, is an astonishing memoir of her highly unusual beginnings. Born in the twenties to nomadic, bohemian parents, Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, then cared for by a poor yet cultivated minister in upstate New York. Her parents, however, soon resurface. Her handsome father is a hard-drinking screenwriter who is, for young Paula, "part ally, part betrayer." Her mother is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. How, Fox wonder, is this woman "enough of an organic being to have carried me in her belly"? Never sharing more than a few moments with his daughter, Fox''s father allows her to be shunted from New York City, where she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother, to Cuba, where she roams freely on a relative''s sugar-cane plantation, to California, where she finds herself cast upon Hollywood''s grubby margins. The thread binding these wanderings is the "borrowed finery" of the title-a few pieces of clothing, almost always lent by kind-hearted strangers, that offer Fox a rare glimpse of permanency. Vivid and poetic, Borrowed Finery is an unforgettable book which will swell the legions of Paula Fox''s devoted admiriers.

"Vividly rendered…haunting…[Paula Fox] writes with silken ease and a sensitivity to nuance." —Newsday In 1941, twenty-three-year-old Helen Bynum leaves home for the first time and sets out from rural New York to find her Aunt Lulu, an aging actress in New Orleans. There she finds a life of passion and adventure, possibilities and choices. Falling in with a bohemian group of intellectuals, she discovers romance and sex, friendship and risk, her world mirrored by the steamy mystery of the French Quarter.

Newbery Medal winner Paula Fox depicts a fateful summer on the mysterious Greek island of Thasos in this “haunting tale” (TheNew York Times Book Review). Lily Corey and her older brother, Paul, have been summering on the Greek island of Thasos with their parents. For Lily, it’s been fun hanging out with her brother, exploring the island, and studying ancient mythology and archaeology—until they meet Jack Hemmings. When Paul and Jack become friends, Lily feels left out. She thinks Jack is a show-off and a fake. She also knows he’s sad and lonely, yet she still wishes the boys would include her on their wild adventures. Then, one day, Jack shows off too much and something terrible happens . . . Amid the wilds of an exotic Greek island, Lily and the Lost Boy is the “beautifully crafted” (Kirkus Reviews) story of a young girl coming of age and discovering her courage and compassion.

Luisa de la Cueva and her family leave their home on a small Caribbean island and try to start a new life in the barrios of New York.

"The best first novel I''ve read in quite a long time...A merciless uncovering of the exurban wastelands of the spirit." --New York Review of Books

A little boy who can''t spell or ever seem to please his parents spends a week with a kooky babysitter and makes a special friend.

An evening dining out with the family in New York City escalates into a feast of vicious innuendo and subtle cruelty for Laura Maldonado Clapper, her husband, her browbeaten daughter, her flamboyant brother, and an editor she has not seen in over a year.

Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award:A young girl learns some hard truths about human nature in this thought-provoking, beautifully crafted novel. Tomorrow, Emma’s uncle is coming to take her to his house on Long Island while her father undergoes surgery and her mother stays with him in hospital. For two whole weeks, Emma will be stuck with her father’s half-sister: the strange, bossy Aunt Bea. Luckily, Emma makes a friend at the beach, Bertie, and the two girls begin building a village made entirely of shells. There’s the mayor’s house, constructed of sand dollars and with a roof of pinecones, and the main street with white bubble shells. Every day the girls add to their village by the sea. Then, just before Emma is to return home, something awful happens. In this thoughtful novel, Newbery Medal and Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Paula Fox offers an unflinching and candid depiction of forgiveness and unconditional love.

Annie Ginfala is a young woman cast adrift in Hollywood with World War II looming. Defending herself against personal catastrophe, she tries to save her life and escape.

“Not only can Fox see, she can hear, she can feel.”—Zadie Smith, Harper’s This gathering of Paula Fox’s short work spans her illustrious career, from 1965 to the present including perfectly turned stories; pointed, engaging essays; and raw yet eloquent memoir.

Newbery Medalist Paula Fox''s poignant, sensitively written story of a boy who finally faces his buried emotions. Black-and-white illustrations.

Fox describes her movements across Europe''s scrambled borders as a journalist in 1946: unplanned trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals, a stint in bombed-out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist election takeovers, and each place echoing with the horrors of the war.

A hilarious tale from Newbery Medal winner Paula Fox: Maurice loves to collect things—but what happens when he collects too many things? Eight-year-old Maurice is a collector. It doesn’t matter how big or how small it is—if he likes something, he’ll bring it home with him. His newest addition is a dried octopus hanging by a string from the ceiling. There’s also a bottle of dead beetles, four painted turtles, and practical stuff like nails, screws, and wires. His parents have tried everything to persuade Maurice to get rid of the junk, giving him trumpet lessons and even a dog, but nothing can compare to the pleasure of discovering treasures in the nooks and crannies of New York City. Then one day, his parents tell him they have a surprise . . . A humorous and heartwarming story from Hans Christian Andersen Award–winning author Paula Fox, Maurice’s Room is perfect for kids of all ages marching to the beat of their own drums.

A young boy who skips school to go to his secret place, a deserted house, is forced to join three older boys in their dognapping ring.

Carrie''s half brother Ben has long felt rejected by his father until, on a strange visit in Boston, he is able to see that his father really needs him.

With the help of a falcon an ineffectual medieval king trades the troubled, boring life of royalty for the freedom of a falconer.

In the form of a fable, five stories within a story are full of wisdom & humour and feature animal protagonists. 8-11 yrs.

An eleven-year-old boy gains a new understanding of himself and his father after a trip to Florida with unusual people.

From Newbery Medal–winning author Paula Fox,an isolated young girl discovers surprising revelations about her grandmother—and herself. Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Elizabeth Benedict is furious when she finds out she’ll be spending a month with her grandmother in Maine. She’s sure she’s being packed off to a remote island to live in a cottage without electricity or plumbing so that her parents can be alone with her new baby brother. While her grandmother spends her days painting, Elizabeth explores the island. She is drawn to Aaron, the strange son of their only neighbors. One day, something happens that changes everything—and reveals the real reason she was sent to Pring Island. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, this incandescent novel takes on themes of isolation, creativity, and family as an elderly woman confronts her own mortality with acceptance and dignity.

The retelling of three Italian folktales: Amzat and His brothers, Mezgalten and Olimpia, Cucol and the Door.