New Releases by CHRISTINA BAKER

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam. When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge. Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined. Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.

In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start--but the past won't let her go. Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family's tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation. But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined. Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends--a free-spirited couple living on the property--can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off. As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous.

“Each entry sings with one theme: Christ is present. And it is this present God we can trust to sustain us, draw us closer, and sanctify us, no matter what.” –Sojourners Magazine “Particularly in this time of difficulty and grieving, this compilation floods the shadows with the light of our risen Lord without condescending or contrition. Rather, the twenty-two women of faith–Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant–describe in concrete stories their own epiphanies and encounters with God, offering sincere and simple ways to contemplate the words of scripture.” –The Unmooring Journal “If you’re looking for a devotional that paints real life pictures, I highly recommend this one. It’s set up for nine weeks of reading but would be good for Advent. These Orthodox women display such grace and beauty in the darkness, even as they long for deliverance. The way God meets them in these pages… I want that.” – Traci Rhoades, Author of Not All Who Wander (Spiritually) Are Lost About the Book In the beautifully illustrated and highly acclaimed devotional Darkness is as Light, twenty-two established and emerging Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant women authors bear witness to help readers see God with them in suffering, recognize hope in the hardest of experiences, and learn to reach sideways in the darkness to those companions who are alongside them in their struggles. A Compassionate Women’s Devotional for Persisting in Hard Places Every Christian woman encounters resistance to knowing God during times of trial, whether from external sources like death, abuse, illness, and the economy, or from her inner struggles for holiness in the context of a womanly body. While most devotionals avoid talking about the hard places in life, Darkness is as Light highlights moments of revelation and companionship with God and the saints in the midst of suffering. In nine weeks of narrative devotions, twenty-two faithful Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christian women bear witness to God with them in hard places. These insightful stories grounded in scripture and tradition hold out hope to women going through difficult times, including: Surviving spousal abuse Surviving childhood abuse Suffering miscarriages Enduring poverty Going through depression Experiencing grief Feeling shamed Learning to revive after prolonged caretaking Living with illnesses and disabilities Being overcome by bodily processes Feeling out of control Questioning God Darkness is as Light is a poignant gift for readers in times of hardship who need a reminder that God sees them and is with them in their suffering. It empowers those who feel lost in their mourning, burdens, or shame to know that they are not alone and to recognize the healing, freeing presence of Christ right where they are. Inside you’ll find: High contrast illustrations inspired by Gothic Christian women mystics Poetry to introduce each week of devotions Themes drawn from traditional women’s spirituality that pairs joy and suffering: Provision, Sweetness, Healing, Death, Balm, Help, Trial, Consolation, and Closeness When we experience suffering, it can be easy to think that we are caught in a closed net of loneliness and isolation. Though we will inevitably encounter hardship, Darkness is as Light bears witness to the freedom we have in Christ even in the midst of our struggles, for our darkness is as light to God. More of What Reviewers Are Saying “WE ARE LIVING in dark times. A perfectly timed and distinctive new devotional, Darkness is as Light, wrestles with the dark, and from its many entries emerges a clear chronicle of the real power and meaning of God’s grace for us even—especially—in the dark. Each entry sings with one theme: Christ is present. And it is this present God we can trust to sustain us, draw us closer, and sanctify us, no matter what.” –Julie Vassilatos, reviewer for Sojourners Magazine “It is beautifully curated by Summer Kinard and contains little deeply honest gems of encouragement, hope, and the wisdom that comes of hard-earned life experience.” –Miss Bates Reads Romance “This collection of reflections written by 22 different women explores the complexities of life, death, faith, and doubt with a winsome honesty.” – Charlotte Donlon, Author of The Great Belonging

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPTIONED FOR TELEVISION BY BRUNA PAPANDREA, THE PRODUCER OF HBO'S BIG LITTLE LIES “A tour de force of original thought, imagination and promise … Kline takes full advantage of fiction — its freedom to create compelling characters who fully illuminate monumental events to make history accessible and forever etched in our minds." — Houston Chronicle The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel about three women whose lives are bound together in nineteenth-century Australia and the hardships they weather together as they fight for redemption and freedom in a new society. Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel—a skilled midwife and herbalist—is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors. Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land. In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

Christina Olson világa nem terjed túl családja Isten háta mögötti farmján a Maine-i tengerparton. A súlyos betegsége miatt mozgáskorlátozott nő napjai csendesen telnek, miközben két világháború és egy gazdasági világválság söpör végig a Földön. Ám ez az átlagos, akár jelentéktelennek is tűnő élet lesz az ihletője a 20. század egyik leghíresebb festményének, az amerikai vidéket megragadó Christina világának. Az Árvák vonatával világhírnevet szerző Christina Baker Kline új regénye nem csupán az ikonikus festmény keletkezésének történetét meséli el, hanem egy hétköznapiságában is rendkívüli életet idéz meg: egy nő történetét, aki a család, a kötelesség és a saját beteg teste csapdájában vergődik. A regény ugyanazt nyújtja, amit Andrew Wyeth remekműve: a szeretet és a vágyódás egész univerzumát ábrázolja egy látszólag egyszerű jelenetben.

Orphan TrainBy Christina Baker Kline

This young readers’ edition of Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel Orphan Train follows a twelve-year-old foster girl who forms an unlikely bond with a ninety-one-year-old woman. Adapted and condensed for a young audience, Orphan Train Girl includes an author’s note and archival photos from the orphan train era. This book is especially perfect for mother/daughter reading groups. Molly Ayer has been in foster care since she was eight years old. Most of the time, Molly knows it’s her attitude that’s the problem, but after being shipped from one family to another, she’s had her fair share of adults treating her like an inconvenience. So when Molly’s forced to help an a wealthy elderly woman clean out her attic for community service, Molly is wary. But from the moment they meet, Molly realizes that Vivian isn’t like any of the adults she’s encountered before. Vivian asks Molly questions about her life and actually listens to the answers. Soon Molly sees they have more in common than she thought. Vivian was once an orphan, too—an Irish immigrant to New York City who was put on a so-called "orphan train" to the Midwest with hundreds of other children—and she can understand, better than anyone else, the emotional binds that have been making Molly’s life so hard. Together, they not only clear boxes of past mementos from Vivian’s attic, but forge a path of friendship, forgiveness, and new beginnings.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A must-read for anyone who loves history and art.” --Kristin Hannah From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World. "Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden." To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century. As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists. Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

Since the publication of her smash international bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline has met with countless readers and book clubs and is often asked the same question about a key decision one of her protagonists makes in Orphan Train. Christina has longed to write a scene in which she clarifies Vivian’s motivations. Now, in this newly released scene and within the book itself, she gives her readers new insights into Vivian’s thoughts and feelings behind that fateful decision.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train comes a novel of love, risk, and self-discovery. Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn’t want and a life that seems to have, somehow, just happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it—these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine—a charming reminder of a life that could be hers, if she could only muster the courage to go after it. On a hope and a chance, Angela decides to pack it all up and move to Maine, finding the nudge she needs in the dating profile of a handsome sailor who loves dogs and Italian food. But her new home isn’t quite matching up with the fantasy. Far from everything familiar, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up. Working at a local coffeehouse, she begins to discover the pleasures and secrets of her new small-town community and, in the process, realizes there’s really no such thing as the way life should be.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train comes a novel about friendship and the memories that haunt us. On the night of her high school graduation, Kathryn Campbell sits around a bonfire with her four closest friends, including the beautiful but erratic Jennifer. “I’ll be fine,” Jennifer says, as she walks away from the dying embers and towards the darkness of the woods. She never came back. Ten years after Jennifer’s unexplained disappearance, Kathryn is a grad-school dropout living in Virginia, stuck in a dead-end writing job and marriage. She has few close friends; most people have learned not to depend on her. When she decides to leave her husband, she ships her boxes to her mother’s house in Bangor, Maine. She has nowhere else to go. When Kathryn returns home, her former classmates are preparing for their ten-year reunion. Old questions about graduation night surface. Jennifer begins to dominate Kathryn’s life, just as she did in high school. Enigmatic and troubled, Jennifer had always depended on Kathryn’s devotion and asked for sacrifices. A decade after Jennifer walked into the woods alone, Kathryn decides that she must follow her friend’s lead, one last time. Involving herself in the daily rhythms of small-town life, Kathryn begins an investigation into her past. She renews contacts with old friends and teachers, using her skills as a journalist to reconstruct the life that she and Jennifer shared. Kathryn knows that she must examine what she knew about her friend, and what she didn’t. She must decide what she is willing to risk to know the truth. She must decide what her own future is worth. With nothing left to lose, she is determined to answer one simple question: What ever happened to Jennifer Pelletier?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train, and the critically acclaimed author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be, comes a novel about buried secrets and the redemptive power of forgiveness—includes a special PS section featuring insights, interviews, and more. Cassie Simon is a struggling artist living in New York City. When she receives a call from a magistrate in Sweetwater, TN, telling her she has inherited sixty acres of land from her grandfather, whom she never knew, she takes it as a sign: it’s time for a change. She moves into the house where her mother, Ellen, was born—and where she died tragically when Cassie was three. From the moment she arrives in Sweetwater, Cassie is overwhelmed by the indelible mark her mother’s memory had left behind. As she delves into the thicket of mystery that surrounds her mother’s death, Cassie begins to understand the desperate measures the human heart is capable of.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles comes a novel about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how they can change them forever. Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: Everything is about to change. It was dark. It was raining. It was just an accident. On the drive home from a rare evening out, Alison collides with another car running a stop sign, and—just like that—her life turns upside down. When she calls her husband, Charlie, from the police station, his accusatory tone reveals cracks in their relationship she’d never noticed were there. Now she notices everything. And she begins to realize that the life she carefully constructed for herself is as tenuous as a house of cards. The only thing Charlie can focus on these days is his secret, sudden affair with Claire, Alison’s best friend. Bold where Alison is reserved, vibrant where Alison is cautious, Claire has just had her first novel published, a thinly veiled retelling of her childhood in North Carolina. But even in the whirlwind of publication, Claire can’t stop wondering if she should leave her husband, Ben, an ambitious architect who is brilliant, kind, and meticulous. And who wants nothing more than a baby, or two—exactly the kind of life that Charlie and Alison seem to have. As they set out on their individual journeys, Alison, Charlie, Claire, and Ben explore the idea—each in his or her own way—that every moment of loss contains within it the possibility of a new life. Alternating through these four intertwined perspectives, Bird in Hand is an exquisitely written, powerful, and thrilling novel about love, friendship and betrayal, and about the secrets we tell ourselves and each other.

Feeling stuck in her personal life and career, thirty-three-year-old Angela pursues a seemingly idyllic online relationship with a sailing instructor from Maine, relocates there, and learns important truths about understanding her own heart in finding happiness.

The first book to take an honest, in-depth look at the difficulties and rewards of being a feminist mother and to ask prominent feminist daughters whether their mother's vision was successfully or unsuccessfully transmitted to them while growing up. Sisterhood, not motherhood, has been the focus of American feminism for the past twenty-five years. In fact, during the 70s many feminists viewed motherhood as a hindrance to women's progress toward equality, an attitude that alienated legions of potentially feminist women by ignoring--even disparaging--the needs and concerns of those who were mothers. Nevertheless, many of those women had daughters who now have come of age and are reshaping the women's movement to suit their needs. The passing of the torch has not been entirely smooth, however. As young women define an agenda of their own, they also find themselves having to assess the legacy of their foremothers--for better and for worse. In "The Conversation Begins, Christina Looper Baker and her daughter, Christina Baker Kline, draw on talks with a diverse range of over sixty women of both generations, asking provocative, often painful questions in an attempt to bridge the gap between them. Revealing first-person narratives based on interviews with twenty-two sets of feminist mothers and daughters--including Paula Gunn Allen, Letty Pogrebin, Naomi Wolf, Barbara Ehrenreich, Marilyn French, Tillie Olsen, Joy Harjo, and many others--comprise the heart of this magnificent testament to the strength of American feminism and the bond between feminist mothers and daughters.