In a striking debut, three piercing, powerful novellas that unveil the hazards of love and desire.The men, women, and even animals in this enthralling collection live at the mercy of their hearts. Young and old, on two legs or four, they grope for love and tenderness, knowing that all connection is fraught with danger and all relationship random and evanescent. Yet the heart wants what it wants.The title novella, a wrenching account of the end of love, traces a gentle dog's transformation into a vicious beast as the couple who owns him breaks apart. In "The Happiness Game," the tenuous bonds between husband and wife are undermined by black crows and weak hearts, while "Matti" presents a chorus of voices — doctors, nurses, jilted wife, dying husband — that recounts an old man's passion for his lover, a fifteen-year-old Lolita.Wise and deft, tart yet tender, written in supple, beautifully inflected prose, Yael Hedaya's Housebroken...

From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a "Best Book of the Summer" by Glamour and USA TODAY—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever. Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling...

'Speechless at just how breathtaking this book really is.' Rachel Gilbey Three best friends. Three continents. Three months to live. How long can you keep a secret? Three best friends are embarking on an all-expenses paid trip of their dreams. The only catch? Every moment will be documented on film. Lizzie's battle with cancer is coming to an end, and now she's ready to embrace adventure for the very first time. There are only three months, but it is Lizzie's time to finally start living! Jaddi is known for her stunning looks, flirtatious attitude and many conquests. But Jaddi has a secret and on this last trip together she needs to decide whether her best friends will ever know the real her. Samantha has always been the 'grown up' of the group, the one with a five year plan. What Lizzie and Jaddi don't know is that Sam is trapped, and her perfect life isn't quite what it seems... As they trek across the globe Lizzie, Jaddi and Samantha must come to terms with loss, love and...

Inspired by Rimbaud and Ashbery, the Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun is now inspiring the younger generation of American poets—and Woods and Chalices will secure his place in the ranks of influential, experimental twenty-first-century writers. Šalamun's strengths are on display here: innocence and obscenity, closely allied; a great historical reach; and questions, commands, and statements of identity that challenge all norms and yet seem uncannily familiar and right— “I'm molasses, don't forget that." Coat of ArmsThe wet sun stands on dark bricks.Through the king's mouth we see teeth.He sews lips. The owl moves its head.She's tired, drowsy and black.She doesn't glow in gold like she'd have to.

Nick and Lisette O’Connor need a change. They leave New York City for a semester as artists-in-residence at a college upstate, professional leads in a campus production of Hamlet. Threats and accidents follow Lisette, and Nick worries it might be more than just petty jealousy. Maggie Ryan, a student running lights for the show, helps investigate a mystery steeped in the turmoil of 1967 America.