NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2022 Publishers Weekly Top 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022 “Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature." —Imani Perry Legendary writer Gayl Jones returns with a stunning new novel about Black American artists in exile Gayl Jones, the novelist Toni Morrison discovered decades ago and Tayari Jones recently called her favorite writer, has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. Now, for the first time in over 20 years, Jones is publishing again. In the wake of her long-awaited fifth novel, Palmares, The Birdcatcher is another singular achievement, a return to the circles of her National Book Award finalist, The Healing. Set primarily on the island of Ibiza, the story is narrated by the writer Amanda Wordlaw, whose closest friend, a gifted sculptor named Catherine Shuger, is repeatedly institutionalized for trying to kill a husband who never leaves her. The three form a quirky triangle on the white-washed island. A study in Black women’s creative expression, and the intensity of their relationships, this work from Jones shows off her range and insight into the vicissitudes of all human nature—rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers.

Margret Snow is the quintessential New York woman. She dresses the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue by day and mingles in the downtown art world by night, always searching for her niche in a city intent on capturing The Next Big Thing as it flies into view. Married to Charles, a professor at Columbia, and living on the Upper West Side, the backdrop to Margret's life is made up of the poetic rhythms and colors of the Manhattan day: slow-running buses, the gray morning light striking the Hudson, the winter landscape of Riverside Park, the endless round of gallery openings, cocktail parties and grand dinners in the palatial apartments on Manhattan's upper east side. Against this metropolitan whirl, Margret and Charles pursue a lifelong hobby of bird watching, a passion for which was kindled by her grandfather during long-past summers near the shore in Gloucester, Massachusetts. As they shuttle between their Manhattan apartment, birding in the city's parks, and weekends out of town in their house near Cape May, a violent upheaval pushes Margret beyond the boundaries of her hobby. Overnight, she becomes an art world sensation and just as suddenly has fame ripped from her. As Laura Jacobs proved in her first novel, "Women About Town", she understands the natural habitat of the New York Woman in all its complexity. In The Bird Catcher, her second, she moves deeper into that territory with the story of a remarkable woman who is as rare and special as the birds that fill the skies above her.

Set in Bangladesh and the United States, the eight stories in The Bird Catcher address gender expectations, familial love, and questions of identity and belonging. In "The Anomalous Wife," when Nirjhara decides she wants to walk into the ocean, her husband of thirty years is confused: she has the perfect life, he insists, the life of a dutiful housewife and mother who wants for nothing in her adopted country. The staff at the psychiatric facility can't even pronounce Nirjhara's name, let alone understand her mordant humor and her use of wide-ranging literary references (from Rabindranath Tagore to Sylvia Plath to The Ancient Mariner) to describe her despair. The other stories are equally resonant and thought-provoking. A college professor has to contend with a student who "laughed every time I struggled on a word that didn't want to come out of my forked tongue: one part third world, one part hyphenated American." A young woman enjoys a loving but complicated relationship with her mother-in-law, a Bangladeshi immigrant who is both ebullient and opinionated, charming and exasperating. In the title story, drawing on fairy tale motifs, string theory, Sufi philosphy, and other traditions, a bird and a recluse argue over the nature of time and the meaning of freedom. The Bird Catcher offers wide-ranging variations on the theme of diasporic identity, intriguing glimpses into suppressed, fragmented, and resilient lives, and a meditation on the power and limitations of language. As Nirjhara explains in "The Anomalous Wife," "Life is all about right word choices, right verbs, and right prepositions. If you walk by the ocean, you are a lover of life. If you walk into it out of your love for the ocean, you are kept here as a prisoner until you learn the correct use of prepositions."

In 1998, Marie Ponsot was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, confirming the praise that has been bestowed on her by critics and peers--among them Eavan Boland and Carolyn Kizer (who are quoted on the back of the book jacket) and Amy Clampitt, who had this to say of Ponsot's last book: "She is marvelously attuned to the visual and to the audible. She is no less precisely a geographer of the interior life, above all the experience of being a woman."

Nell Pestowsky takes risks. Like the night she jumped from a rooftop into a lake at a party--in nothing but her underwear. She wasn't trying to cause trouble, but that jump set off an unstoppable chain of events, ending with her boyfriend, Toby, crashing his bicycle and fracturing his skull. Everyone is talking about Nell--and not in a good way. But no one knows what happened right after Nell's infamous jump. That's when she met the Birdcatcher for the first time. Nell has blocked it from her mind. Now, trying to put it all behind her, Nell is excited to be going camping with her friend Ida. With a backpack full of champagne and Nell's adorable dog, Rocky, along for the trip, Nell and Ida are far, far away from everyone they know. They're free...or at least they should be. But Ida has a secret, one that could put the both of them at risk. The Birdcatcher lurks....

With a heavy heart, sixteen-year old Alice Davison boards a transatlantic steamship heading toward an unknown life in post-Civil War America. This dread soon blossoms into terror when she senses that there is someone, or something, lurking in the dark crevices of the ship. When a new friend mysteriously dies, Alice finds that her worst fears have come true: she and the other passengers are trapped on board with a creature straight out of a Gothic novel. Vampires, it seems, are all too real.Unfortunately, danger doesn't only prowl in the dark bowels of the ship. It also thrives in the sparkling rooms of first class and even hides in the murky waters of the Atlantic. And when she finds herself ensnared by a first-class passenger, enchanting Sir Henry Falkner, she can't even be sure whether he is her suitor or her enemy.

"Volinworks, in two volumes, is a comprehensive method for the adult beginner, taking students carefully from the very first steps to around Grade 3 standard. The approach suits self-taught beginners as well as those who have teachers, and emphasizes the importance of good habits from day one, of using your ear, and of always aiming for the best sound. Each volume contains a wide selection of repertoire, plus detailed descriptions and photos to demonstrate correct playing positions. The accompanying CD includes play-along tracks for all pieces, with piano, string quartet, or band backings, plus aural exercises and downloadable PDFs of piano accompaniments. There are supporting video clips and additional resources on a dedicated website, making Violinworks a complete resource for all new learners."--Publisher's description.