Kirby Heyborne

A twelve-year-old boy, worried that his parents may divorce, discovers that an island in the middle of the lake where he's spending the summer is the testing ground of the mysterious Dr. Libris, who may have invented a way to make the characters in books come alive.

"Before the critically acclaimed novels Await Your Reply and You Remind Me of Me, Dan Chaon made a name for himself as a renowned writer of dazzling short stories. Now, in Stay Awake, Chaon returns to that form for the first time since his masterly Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have...

In this novel the author explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances in their house, on the roadway, in the markets. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken,...

Since entering fourth grade, Benny Barrows worries that he will never be good at anything, that he is responsible for an accident that sent his father to the hospital, and that his attempts at winning a school contest will never be noticed.

Told from the perspective of precocious fourteen-year-old Peter, The Elephant Keepers' Children is about three siblings and how they deal with life alongside their eccentric parents. Peter's father is a vicar, his mother an artisan, and both are equally and profoundly devout. The family lives on the fictional island of Finø, where people of all faiths coexist peacefully. Yet nothing is at it seems.

When Peter's parents suddenly go missing,

...

Arthur Pfefferkorn, is a middle-aged college professor with long dead literary aspirations. When his oldest friend, William de Vallee, is lost at sea, Pfefferkorn is torn between envy and grief, for de Vallee not only outshone Pfefferkorn professionally, but married the woman Pfefferkorn loved. Pfefferkorn's decision to reconnect with de Vallee's widow sets in motion a surreal chain of events, plunging him into a shadowy realm of double crosses and...

An anthology of stories reflecting more than twenty years of writing explores a diverse range of topics, from Oscar Wilde and murder to dementia and romance.

Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him.