Instant New York Times Bestseller Longlisted for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence 2020 New England Society Book Award Winner for Fiction “The Guest Book is monumental in a way that few novels dare attempt.” —The Washington Post The thought-provoking new novel by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Blake An exquisitely written, poignant family saga that illuminates the great divide, the gulf that separates the rich and poor, black and white, Protestant and Jew. Spanning three generations, The Guest Book deftly examines the life and legacy of one unforgettable family as they navigate the evolving social and political landscape from Crockett’s Island, their family retreat off the coast of Maine. Blake masterfully lays bare the memories and mistakes each generation makes while coming to terms with what it means to inherit the past.

Twenty-five years after she began exchanging drawings with a mysterious boy in the guest book of a Carolina beach house, Macy Dillon is back at Sunset Beach—this time toting a hurting heart and a broken family. Questions of childhood, loss, and longing for love are explored in The Guest Book. When Macy Dillon was five years old her father encouraged her to draw a picture in the guestbook of a Carolina beach house. The next year, Macy returned to discover a drawing by an unidentified little boy on the facing page. Over the next eleven years the children continue to exchange drawings … until tragedy ends visits to the beach house altogether. During her final trip to Sunset, Macy asks her anonymous friend to draw her one last picture and tells him where to hide the guest book in hopes that one day she will return to find it—and him. Twenty-five years after that first picture, Macy is back at Sunset Beach—this time toting a broken family and a hurting heart. One night, alone by the ocean, Macy asks God to help her find the boy she never forgot, the one whose beautiful pictures touched something deep inside of her. Will she ever find him? And if she does, will the guestbook unite them or merely be the relic of a lost childhood?

This propulsive post-apocalyptic thriller “in which Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None collides with Stephen King’s The Shining” (NPR) follows a group of survivors stranded at a hotel as the world descends into nuclear war and the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks. Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC, has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange. Two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Jon and the rest try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when he goes up to the roof to investigate the hotel’s worsening water quality, he is shocked to discover the body of a young girl floating in one of the tanks, and is faced with the terrifying possibility that there might be a killer among the group. As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind the girl’s death. In this “brilliantly executed...chilling and extraordinary” post-apocalyptic mystery, “the questions Jameson poses—who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?—are as haunting as the plot itself.” (Emily St. John Mandel, nationally bestselling author of Station Eleven).

WELCOME TO THE ANCHORAGE, FOR A HONEYMOON YOU'LL NEVER FORGET . . . Charles and Grace wanted a quiet staycation honeymoon, but when their train terminates early due to a storm up ahead, they wonder if they made the wrong decision. Forced to take shelter in the nearest seaside town, Saltwater, they discover that there is only one guesthouse left. Unlike the rest of Saltwater, The Anchorage is entirely deserted. That night, with the storm howling relentlessly, Grace is woken by a child crying. She is haunted by the sound, until Charles convinces her it was only her imagination. But the next day, she finds a warning scrawled in the guest book: Leave now. Do not trust them. As the storm rages on, phone lines are down, transport links cut off. Grace is desperate to leave, but Charles remains unaffected by the eerie stillness of the house. Is it just Grace's imagination or do the owners, and Charles, have something to hide? THANK YOU FOR STAYING AT THE ANCHORAGE. WE HOPE YOU'LL BE BACK SOON... Perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce, Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware. _________________ READERS LOVE THE GUEST BOOK: 'An excellent electrifying thriller... Dark and pacy. I loved it' 'A scary thriller, perfect for the winter months... A terrific read!' 'I had to read this in one sitting and still wanted more. The ending is amazing' 'So well written, the story jumps straight in from the first page and doesn't let up until the very end. 'Atmospheric, claustrophobic and creepy. A great read for this time of year when the nights are drawing in'

Based on actual events, The Guest is a profound portrait of a divided people haunted by a painful past, and a generation's search for reconciliation. During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American military, but in truth they resulted from malicious battling between Christian and Communist Koreans. Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Besieged by vivid memories and visited by the troubled spirits of the deceased, Yosop must face the survivors of the tragedy and lay his brother's soul to rest. Faulkner-like in its intense interweaving narratives, The Guest is a daring and ambitious novel from a major figure in world literature.

A wonderful sui generis novel about a visiting cat who brings joy into a couple’s life in Tokyo A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife — the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens…. As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."

When’s the last time you picked up a business book that was so engaging you couldn’t put it down? Steve Difillippo was only 24 when he opened his first Davio’s restaurant. Since then, he’s wowed Julia Child with his pomodoro, overlooked some triple-X rated shenanigans at Table 7, taken on American Express, gotten himself into Time and Newsweek (for taking on American Express), cooked a rabbit for Stevie Ray Vaughn, inadvertently gotten a guest divorced, whipped up some tasty eats at the Super Bowl--and that’s just the beginning. The money hasn’t been bad, either: that first restaurant is now the hub of a rapidly growing $50 million restaurant brand group and a $10 million Davio’s brand food line. With guests constantly asking how he did it, Steve has written the ultimate guide to starting a restaurant, running a successful business, enjoying food, and living life. The 5.9 million restaurant workers who say they want to open their own restaurant will go nuts over this book, but so will anybody who loves food and the restaurant world--heck, anybody who wants to make money and have a blast doing it. As a special bonus, Steve includes twelve classic Davio’s recipes.