Howard Fast

On the eve of the American Revolution, one battle changes a boy's life-and a nation's history-forever On April 18, 1775, musket shots ring out over Lexington, Massachusetts. As the sun rises over the battlefield, fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper stands among the outmatched patriots, facing a line of British troops. Determined to defend his home and prove his worth to his disapproving father, Cooper is about to embark on the most significant day of his...

Howard Fast's bestselling historical novel about a man who was a voice of the people and a prophet of democracy Thomas Paine's voice rang in the ears of eighteenth-century revolutionaries from America to France to England. He was friend to luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and William Wordsworth. His pamphlets extolling democracy sold in the millions. Yet he died a forgotten man, isolated by his rough manners, idealistic zeal, and...

The dazzling conclusion to Fast's Immigrants saga brings a memorable close to the story of the Lavette family In the sixth and final installment of the Immigrants saga, Fast revisits the charismatic Barbara Lavette. In this emotional farewell, Barbara, the rock and matriarch of her family, marries a Unitarian priest, and together they travel the world. Though Fast wrote over eighty books, including Spartacus, April Morning, and Freedom Road, his Immigrants...

When the love of his life is accused of murder, a university professor will stop at nothing to prove her innocence On a late night drive home, Ike Goldman, a retired Columbia University law professor, saves a woman from killing herself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The woman's name is Elizabeth Hopper, and Ike, a widower, unexpectedly finds himself falling in love. But everything changes when Elizabeth's estranged husband, a rich Wall...

The inspiring story of Max Britsky, who grew up in the slums of New York and became one of the most powerful men in the American movie industry Max tells the story of the rise of Max Britsky, entwined with the film industry's beginnings near the turn of the twentieth century. When he was twelve, Max's father died, leaving him to scrape out a living in Manhattan's Lower East Side slums to provide for his mother and siblings. But Max was a natural entrepreneur,...

"Howard Fast is fiercely American, he is one of ours, one of our very best."

—The Los Angeles Times

One battle will determine the fate of Boston

Three thousand soldiers from the world's greatest army are cornered in Boston, surrounded by farmers and doctors turned rebel soldiers and generals. For a week both sides are at an impasse, until June 17, 1775, when the standstill comes to a violent, bloody end on Breed's and Bunker

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Detective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star-with deadly consequences On the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him...

A hard-boiled insurance investigator upends New York in search of a perfect diamond necklace Death follows the Sarbine necklace. Its eleven diamonds are flawless, and all cut from the same stone-one of the largest ever unearthed from the mines of South Africa. But lately this most elegant piece of jewelry has become a bad luck charm. Its original owner killed himself, and his daughter, who was meant to inherit the piece at eighteen, died shortly after....

A PR man investigates the tortured life of a mysterious acquaintance-and winds up knee-deep in the wrong kind of trouble For a public relations guru like Al Brody, witnessing death is not part of the job description. But that is just what the call from Andrew Capestone requires. When Brody arrives at his old friend's bedside, it's not long before the man dies. Brody has not thought of Capestone, his onetime Harvard acquaintance, for decades. In the...

Howard Fast's controversial essay on the proper role of literature, offering insight into his life and works In this 1950 essay, Howard Fast argues that all writers have a duty to reflect the truth of the world in their works, particularly regarding social justice. Fast's treatise on literary criticism allows for a fuller understanding of his early novels, in which his political beliefs remain inseparable from his writing.   Literature and Reality,...