Detective Dave Robicheaux's world isn't filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier's rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director. Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, it isn't to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered...

A portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the straitened confines of her domestic situation. Highlights the treatment of marital infidelity and an illicit relationship.

Over one long, languid summer Edna Pontellier, fettered by marriage and motherhood, becomes acquainted with Robert Lebrun. As the days shorten and the temperature begins to drop Edna succumbs to Robert's devotion. But in the thrall of this ever-strengthening desire Edna begins to realise the true extent of her psychological, social and sexual confinement and its devastating consequences for her future. This tender, brilliant, and seductive novel is...

From one of the country's most acclaimed and popular novelists comes a selection of a dozen short stories set in James Lee Burke's most beloved milieu, the Deep South. James Lee Burke has become a dedicated voice for the people of Louisiana, especially post-Katrina. This collection demonstrates the depth of his feeling for the state that has always been such a study in contrasts: rural and urban, old and new, wild and civilized. In this moving collection...

"When Kate Chopin's classic was first published in 1899, charges of sordidness and immorality seemed to consign it into obscurity and irreparably damage its author's reputation. But a century after her death, The Awakening is widely regarded as Kate Chopin's great achievement and a celebrated work of early feminist literature. Through careful, subtle changes of style, Chopin shows the transformation of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother, who...