Love Stories . . . For Happy Hearts Day!

Especially for you, in honor of Valentine's Day, check out these NEW and EXCEPTIONAL novels about romance and love:

American Dervish: A Novel  by Ayad Akhtar (January 2012)

Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes. Through Hayat Shah, Akhtar shows readers the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel.

The Stranger's Child  by Alan Hollinghurst (October 2011)

From the Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Line of Beauty: a magnificent, century-spanning saga about a love triangle that spawns a myth, and a family mystery, across generations.

The Marriage Plot: A Novel  by Jeffrey Eugenides (October 2011)

It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides creates a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.

The Forgotten Waltz  by Anne Enright (October 2011)

In this extraordinary novel, Anne Enright explores the momentous drama of everyday life; the volatile connections between people; the wry, accurate take on families, marriage, and brittle middle age.

The Night Circus: A Novel by Erin Morgenstern (September 2011)

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. Behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck (September 2011)

Unfolding over a single night, Nina sits at the bedside of her husband, Philip, whose sudden and unexpected death is the reason for her lonely vigil. Too shocked yet to grieve, she lets herself remember the defining moments of their long marriage, beginning with their first meeting in Paris.

This Must Be the Place: A Novel by Kate Racculia (July 2010)

A sudden death, a never-mailed postcard, and a long-buried secret set the stage for a luminous and heart-breakingly real novel about lost souls finding one another.

Say Her Name: A Novel by Francisco Goldman (April 2011)

In a novel based on the author's real-life tragedy, Goldman, consumed with grief and guilt over the accidental death of his wife just before their second anniversary, obsessively collects every memory of her, especially her writings, with the hope of keeping her alive in his mind.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel by Helen Simonson (March 2010)

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.

The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain (February 2011)

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.