Winner of the 2009 Bakeless Fiction Prize, Mattaponi Queen is a confident debut collection about life on and around the Mattaponi Indian Reservation in Virginia.

Set on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation and in its surrounding counties, the stories in this linked collection detail the lives of rural men and women with stark realism and plainspoken humor. A young military couple faces a future shadowed by injury and untold secrets. A dying alcoholic attempts to reconcile with his estranged children. And an elderly woman'Ős nurse weathers life with her irascible charge by making payments on a decrepit houseboat—the Mattaponi Queen. The land is parceled into lots, work opportunities are few, and the remaining inhabitants must choose between desire and necessity as they navigate the murky stream of possession, love, and everything in between.

Eleven-year-old Kimberly Chang has her world turned upside-down when political tumult and her father's death force her and her mother to flee Hong Kong and move to America. Living in a vermin-ridden apartment in Brooklyn, the pair only have each other and a sometimes working oven to keep warm. Neither of them speaks a word of English.

While Kim's mother spends her days earning two cents a garment at a sweatshop, intellectually gifted Kim faces a new and trying challenge: school. Exiled by language, estranged in a new culture, Kim fights for dignity, acceptance and survival against the bleakest of odds. And through it all, she struggles to piece together a picture of a father she hardly knew and longs for terribly. In this powerful story, Jean Fong Kwok spins a moving tale of hardship and overcoming, of heartbreak and love, of all that gets lost in translation and all that's said without words.

Jean Fong Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn, New York as a young girl. This is her first novel.

In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret -- the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to raise the child as a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows to adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self -- a girl he thinks of as Annabel -- is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life.

Haunting, sweeping in scope, and stylistically reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, Annabel is a compelling debut novel about one person's struggle to discover the truth in a culture that shuns contradiction.

From nationally acclaimed political commentator and multimedia personality Farai Chideya comes an intense and darkly funny debut novel about a woman who learns what you stand to gain—and lose—if you follow your dreams.

Sophie Maria Clare Lee is no stranger to reinvention. A book-smart black girl from blue-collar Baltimore, she remade herself into a Harvard hipster, and finally into an indie rock musician touring America with her mesmerizing classmate (and now ex-husband) Ari Klein.

Now, ten years after graduation, a one-night musical reunion with Ari spurs Sophie to snatch back the mic. She lands a record deal—with the help of new manager and paramour Leo Masters—but quickly discovers that her celebrity status brings new risks for her sense of self and even her safety. As she and Ari play music together again, a complicated love triangle begins. With a Greek chorus of advice from her two best girlfriends, Sophie tries to figure out how she relates to these two men, the music business, her loving but demanding extended family, and her penchant for alcohol and melancholy. As the band tours the world, will Sophie's faith, family, and friendships crumble under the weight of her dogged fight for fame?

After losing her infant daughter in a freak accident, Maya Lange opens The Red Thread, an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. Maya finds some comfort in her work, until a group of six couples share their personal stories of their desire for a child. Their painful and courageous journey toward adoption forces her to confront the lost daughter of her past. Brilliantly braiding together the stories of Chinese birth mothers who give up their daughters, Ann Hood writes a moving and beautifully told novel of fate and the red thread that binds these characters' lives. Heartrending and wise, The Red Thread is a stirring portrait of unforgettable love and yearning for a baby. Ann Hood is the author of ten books, including The Knitting Circle, Comfort, and Do Not Go Gentle. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, O:The Oprah Magazine and elsewhere.

The linked short stories in For the Love of Strangers feature prairie girl Kathy, but they wind through the working lives and the complicated cultural terrain of a handful of folks who could be anywhere.

These people are tied together in one way or another by the cattle trails on a farm in the Coteau Hills, the alleys of the city, the sandy paths of a lakeside resort, and all the roads in between.

The stories weave through more than twenty years, from 1980 to 2002. They take place in blizzards and barns, northern lakes, weathered towns and prairie cities; at a folk festival, a monastery, a protest march and on a whirlwind tour of the British Isles.

In this breathtaking and beautiful novel, author Anna Quindlen creates an unforgettable portrait of a mother, a father, a family, and the explosive, violent consequences of what seem like inconsequential actions.

Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother, whose three teenaged children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. And so, when one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterwards is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination, and to the invisible line of hope and healing that connects one human being with another. Ultimately, in the hands of Anna Quindlen's mesmerizing prose, Every Last One is a novel about facing every last one of the the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, to live a life we never dreamed we'd have to live but must be brave enough to try.

It is 1933. A journalist travels to the small mining town of Rouyn in northern Quebec—a community that has become a refuge for Russians, Finns, Ukrainians, Chinese, and Jews. While there, he crosses paths with famed Canadian Marxist Jeanne Corbin, who has come to rally a group of striking workers, and sees his life forever changed. Jeanne's Road is an essential read, bringing to life a lost era of Quebec history through its powerful yet unsentimental love story.

Jocelyne Saucier has written two novels. Her previous novel, La vie comme une image, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award. Les hérioters de la mine was also met with critical acclaim and was a finalist for the Prix France-Québec Philippe-Rossillon. She was born in New Brunswick, and has lived in Honduras, Peru, and Togo, and now lives in the Abitibi region of Quebec.