THE BOOK: Gilbert Grape has a lot going on. He is a grocery store assistant, the son of a hugely obese woman, brother to five clashing siblings and lover to a middle-aged married mother-of-two. He also has a killer crush on the beautiful mysterious girl who has just arrived in his dwindling hometown. But by far his biggest burden - and his greatest love - is caring for his mentally-disabled brother Arnie: a sweet, fun-loving, obstinate boy, an accidental daredevil, a near constant flight risk and a serial scaler of water towers. Told through the eyes of its wryly-humorous hero, What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a heartfelt, sardonic story of a dysfunctional family, brotherly love and the desires of a young man stranded by his sense of duty, but dreaming of escape. "An elegy for those outsiders and misfits who find themselves side-tracked from the American Dream..." - The New York Times THE AUTHOR: Peter Hedges is an American novelist, playwright, film director and screen-writer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay About a Boy. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is his debut novel and was turned into a 1993 film starring Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juliette Lewis.

Just about everything in Endora, Iowa (pop. 1,091 and dwindling) is eating Gilbert Grape, a twenty-four-year-old grocery clerk who dreams only of leaving. His enormous mother, once the town sweetheart, has been eating nonstop ever since her husband's suicide, and the floor beneath her TV chair is threatening to cave in. Gilbert's long-suffering older sister, Amy, still mourns the death of Elvis, and his knockout younger sister has become hooked on makeup, boys, and Jesus -- in that order. But the biggest event on the horizon for all the Grapes is the eighteenth birthday of Gilbert's younger brother, Arnie, who is a living miracle just for having survived so long. As the Grapes gather in Endora, a mysterious beauty glides through town on a bicycle and rides circles around Gilbert, until he begins to see a new vision of his family and himself....

With this wry portrait of small-town Iowa -- and a young man's life at the crossroads -- Peter Hedges created a classic American novel "charged with sardonic intelligence" (Washington Post Book World).

New in the acclaimed series--the new film starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette, adapted from the acclaimed novel by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity). Coming from Universal Pictures in April 2002, produced by Tribeca Productions and Working Title Films. Based on Nick Hornby's popular novel, About A Boy is a comedy-drama starring Hugh Grant as Will, a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in search of available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single parent meetings. As a result of one of his liaisons, he meets Marcus, an odd 12-year-old boy with problems at school. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, and as Will teaches Marcus how to be a cool kid, Marcus helps Will to finally grow up. The cast also includes Toni Collette (Sixth Sense, Shaft), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns, Sunshine), and Nicholas Hoult. 20 b/w photos.