DAVID GUTERSON

In 1962, actuary Walter Cousins makes the biggest mistake of his life. When mild-mannered Walter - 'a man who weighs risk for a living' - sleeps with the sharp-tongued, not-quite-legal British au pair, Diane Burroughs, he can have no sense of the magnitude of his error. For this brief affair sets in motion a tragedy of epic proportions, upending Sophocles's immortal tale of fate, free will, and forbidden desire. At the centre is Ed King, an infant given up for adoption who becomes one of the world's richest and most powerful men. But beneath the sizzling story of Ed's seemingly inexorable rise to fame and fortune is a dark and unsettling destiny, one that approaches with ever-increasing suspense as the book reaches its shattering and surprising conclusion. An assured, propulsively written epic novel of unstoppable force, Ed King is a classic of contemporary American life: a daringly told story of a man and a myth, of blindness and narcissism, and of the precarious foundations on which carefully constructed lives are built - and timeless stories are created. From the bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling, darkly funny, extraordinary modern take on an ancient tragedy, quite unlike anything we've seen before.

Seattle, 1972: two teenage boys are standing at the start line of an 800m race. Neil Countryman is from the public high school in the north of the city. He slumps at his desk all day and gets high in the park at lunchtime, and wears a moustache that makes him look like the guy in the Camel cigarette ads. John William Barry is from Lakeside, a private academy for the more privileged of Seattle''s youth. He is an earnest, fiery young man, and his family background is one of material wealth and emotional deprivation. As John William wins the race by a hair''s breadth, their lives collide for the very first time, and it is the beginning of a friendship that is both fraught and intimate. Both boys have a taste for the wilderness, and they explore together the most remote areas of the mountains, the places ignored by guidebooks, where tracks and roads fade to nothing and all that can be seen is an endless unbroken density of trees. But as they grow older, John William''s intense intelligence and craving for isolation mark him out as an eccentric, and as Neil begins to accumulate the more conventional comforts - a wife, a steady job - their lives begin to take radically different paths.Eventually, John William is to retreat permanently into his own self-made wilderness, and in doing so presents his oldest friend with a gift which will change his life for ever, bringing them both a notoriety that Neil had neither dreamed of nor hoped for. A moving exploration of the mixed blessings that friendship can bring, and the choices we make about how to live our lives in the twenty-first century, The Other is an extraordinary novel from a masterful storyteller.

Una deslumbrante nueva novela sobre la amistad entre dos muchachos. Un amor que los lleva a las remotas regiones vírgenes del estado de Washington, donde han de confiar en su ingenio, así como cada u

Contemporary / British English (Available June 2008) It is 1954 and Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for murder. He is a Japanese American living on the island of San Piedro, off the north-west coast of America. The Second World War has left an atmosphere of anger and suspicion in this small community. Will Kabuo receive a fair trial? And will the true cause of the victims death be discovered?

Sólo en casos muy excepcionales una primera novela que sorprende y gusta a los críticos más exigentes y recibe un premio tan prestigioso como el PEN/Faulkner pasa a ser, además, una de las obras más vendidas en el mundo. Este es el caso. Un joven pescador es hallado muerto, atrapado entre las redes de su barco, en las aguas de una pequeña y tranquila isla del Pacifico Norte. La sospecha de asesinato perturbara la calma existente entre los habitantes de la isla, para los que las heridas de Pearl Harbor y la confrontacion entre norteamericanos y japoneses en la guerra parecen no haberse cerrado. Kazuo Miyamoto, amigo de la infancia del joven pescador asesinado, es el principal sospechoso. Ishmael Chambers, director del periodico local, se encarga de cubrir el caso y observa como el juicio consigue sacar a la luz ciertos acontecimientos ocultos. En este ambiente, Ishmael se reencontrara con Hatsue, su gran amor de adolescencia y esposa del acusado. El juicio y una espiral de acontecimientos despertaran viejos fantasmas y revelaran rencores soterrados. Mientras, la nieve sigue cayendo sobre los cedros y la historia va descubriendo perversas ambiguedades, arreglos de cuentas con el pasado y sentimientos subyacentes, como el racismo, la culpa, la moral individual y el amor.

Tras haber enviudado recientemente y enfermo terminal, el doctor Givens decide plantarle cara a su destino y sufrir lo menos posible. Para ello, prepara una excursión de caza cuya auténtica finalidad sera morir donde quiere y sin molestar a su familia. Pero la coartada acaba transformandose en un inesperado viaje a traves del mitico oeste norteamericano en su viejo coche. Pues mientras que, como cirujano cardiovascular, su principal preocupacion solia ser la planificacion, ahora no ha tenido en cuenta la capacidad de persuasion de la memoria, y la promesa que le hizo a su esposa Rachel, el amor de su vida, vuelve recurrentemente. Al este de las montañas es una poderosa y hermosa novela de descubrimiento personal, llena de humanidad, pasion y honestidad. Una novela que se pregunta como enfrentarse a lo desconocido cuando se sabe todo, como tratar de comprender cuando casi nada tiene ya sentido.

These ten wise, extraordinary tales explore the mysteries of love and our complex desire for connection. Spanning wide and diverse geographies--America, Nepal, South Africa, Germany--they showcase Guterson's gifts for psychological nuance, emotional suspense, and evocation of the natural world. In these pages, we meet, among others, a lonely landlord trying to reach out to his tenants; a middle-aged widower looking for love online; an American Jew traveling to Berlin to confront his haunted past. Celebrating the surprises that lurk within the dramas of our daily lives, "Problems with People" marks the return of a contemporary American master to the form that launched his literary career.

It is 1954 and Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for murder. He is a Japanese American living on the island of San Piedro, off the north-west coast of America. The Second World War has left an atmosphere of anger and suspicion in this small community.Will Kabuo receive a fair trial? And will the true cause of the victim's death be discovered?

This is the story of a teenage girl who sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God? Gradually word spreads, and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who''s been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann''s visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. As Father Collins searches both his own soul and Ann''s; as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions; as Tom alternates between despair and hope. "Our Lady of the Forest" combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crossroad.

Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God? Gradually word spreads, and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who''s been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann''s visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. As Father Collins searches both his own soul and Ann''s; as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions; as Tom alternates between despair and hope; "Our Lady of the Foreset" combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crossroad.

It is 1954 and a young man is on trial for murder. He is Kabuo Miyamoto, one of the many Japanese Americans living on the island of San Piedro, off the coast of America. Is he responsible for the mysterious death of the fisherman, Carl Heine? Some islanders are happy to think so.

By the author of "Snow Falling On Cedars", this collection of short stories are mainly narrated by older men, recounting the wrong turns and lost opportunities that have occurred in their lives. They remember their mistakes, their lies and their first loves with intense and lingering recollections.