This account of several lower class citizens of Dublin describes their activities and tells what some of them were thinking one day in 1904.

"Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation ... Helena discovers an American paratrooper stranded outside their small mountain village ... Risking the safety of herself and her family, she hides Sam--a Jew--but Helena's concern for the American grows into something much deeper ... [as] Helena is forced to contend with the jealousy...

"Benjamin Gold is damaged goods. After he cracked up in the war and was discharged into a psych ward, his rich wife dumped him. Right after that, the white-shoe law firm that never hired Jews dumped him too; without powerful in-laws, it didn't matter how many cases he won or how much he shortened his name. Unemployable as a lawyer, he wound up working as a private eye - and not exactly at the top of the profession. Drunk and anorectic, his only remaining...

It's 1830s England, and Culinarians--doyens who consult with society's elite to create gorgeous food and confections--are the cr̈me de la cr̈me of high society. Helena Higgins, top of her class at the Royal Academy, has a sharp demeanor and an even sharper palate--and knows stardom awaits her if she can produce greatness in her final year. Penelope Pickering is going to prove the value of non-European cuisine to all of England. Her contemporaries...

"Twenty something Daniel Friedman's debut hit novel, Don't Ever Get Old, was a huge critical and word-of-mouth success. Friedman's unforgettable protagonist Buck Schatz is back, and, once again, this 88-year-old retired Memphis cop refuses to go gently into that good night. Having sustained injuries in Don't Ever Get Old, Buck is living at a retirement home with his wife, and he's downright miserable being treated like the elderly person he is. But...