RetailFrom one of America’s most accomplished and acclaimed fiction writers, a spectacularly riveting novel based on a real-life multiple murder by a con man who preyed on widows— a story that has haunted Jayne Anne Phillips for more than four decades In Chicago in 1931, Asta Eicher, mother of three, is lonely and despairing, pressed for money after the sudden death of her husband. She begins to receive seductive letters from a chivalrous, elegant man named Harry Powers, who promises to cherish and protect her, ultimately to marry her and to care for her and her children. Weeks later, all four Eichers are dead. Emily Thornhill, one of the few women journalists in the Chicago press, becomes deeply invested in understanding what happened to this beautiful family, particularly to the youngest child, Annabel, an enchanting girl with a precocious imagination and sense of magic. Bold and intrepid, Emily allies herself with a banker who is wracked by guilt for not saving Asta. Emily goes to West Virginia to cover the murder trial and to investigate the story herself, accompanied by a charming and unconventional photographer who is equally drawn to the case. Driven by secrets of their own, the heroic characters in this magnificent tale will stop at nothing to ensure that Powers is convicted. Mesmerizing and deeply moving, Quiet Dell is a tragedy, a love story, and a tour de force of obsession and imagination from one of America’s most celebrated writers.**

In her highly acclaimed debut novel, the bestselling author of Shelter introduces the Hampsons, an ordinary, small-town American family profoundly affected by the extraordinary events of history. Here is a stunning chronicle that begins with the Depression and ends with the Vietnam War, revealed in the thoughts, dreams, and memories of each family member. Mitch struggles to earn a living as Jeans becomes the main breadwinner, working to coplete college and raise the family. While the couple fight to keep their marriage intact, their daughter Danner and son Billy forge a sibling bond of uncommon strength. When Billy goes off to Vietnam, Danner becomes the sole bond linking her family, whose dissolution mirrors the fractured state of America in the 1960s. Deeply felt and vividly imagined, this lyrical novel is "among the wisest of a generation to grapple with a war that maimed us all" (The Village Voice), by a master of contemporary fiction.From the Trade...

From Publishers WeeklyThese seven stories, which include two that use characters and situations from her novel Machine Dreams, demonstrate the evolution of the author's gifted style. PW was dazzled, stating that "it seems as though there's nothing Phillips can't do." (February) BANDITS Elmore Leonard. Warner, $4.95 An ex-jewel thief, ex-nun and ex-cop and others cast their greedy glances on the millions of dollars being raised secretly by a Nicaraguan on behalf of the contras. PW's contribution: "This is a top-notch thriller with a real moral resonance." Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalPhillips's writing has developed chiefly through the voice of her characters: first in the collection Black Tickets ( LJ 1 0/1/79), then the novel Machine Dreams ( LJ 7/84), and now in Fast Lanes , a collection of seven stories. (A limited edition presenting only the story "Fast Lanes" was published under that title by Vehicle Edns. in 1984.) A West Virginian, Phillips is often strongest when treating the isolation of that state's rural communities, as in "Bess," a woman's reminiscence of life in turn-of-the-century Coalton. But the author's voice now broadens, exploring in fluid style a rock star's life and love ("How Mickey Made It"), a woman's yearnings for her unborn child ("Bluegill"), and the drifter's dreamy possession of reality ("Fast Lanes"). Phillips's perspective on contemporary life is refreshingly honest, her style engaging. Paul E. Hutchison, English Dept., Pennsylvania State Univ., University ParkCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jayne Anne Phillips's reputation-making debut collection paved the way for a new generation of writers. Raved about by reviewers and embraced by the likes of Raymond Carver, Frank Conroy, Annie Dillard, and Nadine Gordimer, Black Tickets now stands as a classic.With an uncanny ability to depict the lives of men and women who rarely register in our literature, Phillips writes stories that lay bare their suffering and joy. Here are the abused and the abandoned, the violent and the passive, the impoverished and the disenfranchised who populate the small towns and rural byways of the country. A patron of the arts reserves his fondest feeling for the one man who wants it least. A stripper, the daughter of a witch, escapes from poverty into another kind of violence. A young girl during the Depression is caught between the love of her crazy father and the no less powerful love of her sorrowful mother. These are great American stories that have earned a privileged...