At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly...

Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as a teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize pups.

After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world.

"Gitty looked up and her eyes met her mother's. It was a conversation that could be pushed off no longer. Rivkah headed toward the table, sat down across from Gitty, and with seeming simplicity, asked, "Gitty, what do you think of having a new father around here?" Devory looked down at her prosthesis and made the effort to smile. "People think I've gotten over it," she said. "But the truth is that it still hurts. A lot. I see myself in the mirror...