A terrorist attack--a kidnapping--the ultimate vacation gone wrong Sisters Samantha and Monte Waters are vacationing together in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, enjoying a festival and planning to meet with their brother, Cal. But the idyllic plans are short-lived--when terrorists' attacks rock the city around them, Monte, a U.S. foreign service officer, and Samantha, an international television correspondent, are separated, and one of them is whisked away in the frenzy. The family mobilizes, using all their contacts to try to find their missing sister, but to no avail. She has vanished. As time presses on, the outlook darkens. Can she be found, or is she a lost cause? And, even if she returns, will the damage to her and those around her be irreparable? Moving from Spain to Washington to Morocco to Gibraltar to the Sahara Desert, The Far Side of the Desert is a family drama and political thriller that explores links of terrorism, crime, and financial manipulation, revealing the grace that ultimately foils destruction. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Daniel Silva

A modern-day Romeo and Juliet--set against the backdrop of deadly weapons smuggling When ten-year-old Elizabeth West's father dies in a tragic plane crash over the Persian Gulf, her family uproots their life in Washington, D.C., and moves to London. Her mother marries a knighted British businessman who has two children, and Elizabeth (Lizzy) and her two sisters move in with their new family. At age sixteen, while attending the American School of London, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Adil Hasan--but when Adil's father, a noted arms middleman, is deported, Lizzy and Adil are separated. Lizzy's family has also become involved with French-German industrialist Gerald Rene Wagner. Little does she know that Adil's family has ties to the man, as well. When a member of her family is murdered in Berlin under mysterious circumstances, questions surface about Wagner's dealings, and Lizzy reexamines what really may have happened to her father. All the while, she endeavors to reunite with her lost love, Adil, and reclaim the connection that was ripped away. Set in the years before and after the first Gulf War, Burning Distance is a journey through family secrets and competing loyalties, contemporary history, and the dark world of arms trafficking. Jane Austen meets John le Carré in this cross-cultural love story and political thriller

The year 2021 marked the centenary of PEN International and English PEN, and 2022 marks the centenary of PEN America, PEN France and many other PEN Centers around the world. For a century, PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) has brought together writers to celebrate and share literature and to defend those who write. PEN has laid the foundation for a global community of writers who seek out facts, celebrate the creative imagination and champion freedom of expression. For over 35 of those years, journalist and novelist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman has been engaged with PEN as a member, as the President of one of the large centers (PEN USA West) during the year of Tiananmen Square and the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, as Chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee (1993-1997), as International Secretary (2004-2007), and continuing as an International Vice President since 1996. She has also served on the Boards and as Vice President of PEN American Center (2008-2015) and the PEN Faulkner Foundation (1996-2021).PEN Journeys: Memoir of Literature on the Line reflects a time when the world was opening up-the Berlin Wall fell; the Soviet Union broke apart; democracies were ascendant around the globe-and PEN was often at the forefront. In many countries writers like Václav Havel led the way as they were being released from prison. PEN Journeys spans three decades and tracks PEN's centrality to many of the events, to the individual writers, and to Joanne's own story as she moved to Europe with nine and eleven-year-old sons who also intersected with this time and with events to come. The period was also a time when this sprawling organization, now with 157 centers in over 100 countries, was finding it needed to reorganize and so had its own revolution. PEN Journeys is filled with anecdotes of the writers, including those well-known like Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Günter Grass, Ken Saro Wiwa, Anna Politkovskaya and others and those less known but courageous writers. Writers set the guardrails for free societies. Their freedom and freedom of expression are vital for a democratic citizenry. PEN, the only literary organization with consultative status at the United Nations, holds watch. Proceeds from PEN Journeys will go to PEN International's work, particularly its work for writers in prison and at risk. "This memoir covers a crucial time in the history of freedom of expression... filled with daring adventures, philosophical debates and meetings with some of the bravest writers and journalists who have risked so much to tell the truth." -Jennifer Clement, President, PEN International 2015-2021 "I kept reading Joanne Leedom-Ackerman's PEN Journeys and said, These need to become a book. They tell the story of the important organization PEN from the ground and through the insightful eyes of someone who has worked and led the organization with passion, commitment and friendship with writers around the world. PEN Journeys addresses many important philosophical and political issues of the day with narrative flair so that I wanted to keep reading and then had to wait for the next instalment." -Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination "Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is the history of PEN incarnate. As president of a center, Chair of the Writers-in-Prison Committee, International Secretary, and a PEN International Vice President, she has been a steady and guiding force in the organization and its dedication to freedom of expression for more than one-third of PEN's first century. Her dedication to literature and human rights personi

In 2009 the Chinese government put Liu Xiaobo, a celebrated poet, essayist, critic, activist, and thinker, into a cage. He was labeled as "an enemy of the state," charged with "inciting subversion of state power," and sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment. His insistence on individual liberty in his own 1000+ essays and 18 books, his relentless pursuit of ideas, and his last statement to the Chinese court: "I have no enemies, no hatred," had threatened the Chinese Communist Party and government in a way few other citizens had. The Journey of Liu Xiaobo explores, analyzes, and celebrates the life and legacy of Liu Xiaobo. The book presents a unique portrait of Liu Xiaobo from many who knew him during his life, from childhood to his final days. This collection of over eighty short essays and reflections are likely the largest gathering of writers from the Chinese Democracy Movement in one volume, and contribute basic texts to understanding the man who has been compared to Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, and Aung San Sui Kyi in his importance to the development and progress of China toward a free society. These rich offerings from leading Chinese writers and intellectuals within and outside the mainland as well as from noted China scholars and journalists and political leaders around the globe present a personal as well as an intellectual portrait. Most of the texts were written at a seminal moment - in the days, weeks and months right after the death of Liu Xiaobo. The essays in the book are arranged by chronological focus: Youth and University Days, Tiananmen Square, Prison, Independent Chinese PEN Center, Charter 08, Nobel Peace Prize, Death ... and Beyond. The reader is treated to a trove of original and poignant memories as well as insightful analyses of China's history and the period in which Liu lived and an evaluation of Liu's impact on his times.

A political thriller about strong-minded women and men, The Dark Path to the River tells a love story that moves between Wall Street and Africa.

Characters in No Marble Angels struggle to close distances between each other, distances of race, sex, age.