New Releases by Elizabeth Gundy

Sara and Daniel, two New Yorkers used to the buzz of the Big Apple and the Metropolitan Museum, pack their books and cats in a pickup and set off for the backwoods of Atlantic Canada, their lovely young heads filled with lovely rustic dreams. From the start, things go haywire and the homesteading couple discover Law #1 of the wilderness: Nature goes its way and folks go crazy. The process is alternately hilarious and devastating. The main catalysts are the splendid locals, who first appear as uproarious rednecks, but gradually emerge as very affecting characters in their own right. Another is a much longed-for baby, who crystallizes Sara and Daniel''s feeling for each other and the land. At the center of the book is the story of what happens to the child–a stunning section of quiet, simple intense writing that goes straight to the heart of what love is all about. Gundy draws deeply on her readers feelings; she is a writer who can make you weep on one page and laugh hilariously on the next. LOVE, INFIDELITY AND DRINKING TO FORGET chronicles a spiritual change that resonates long after the last page. "...a great pleasure. Elizabeth Gundy is such an intelligent and affecting writer. As she did in BLISS, she has created characters whose sorrows you suffer and whose joys you celebrate." –Hilma Wolitzer

"Let me make clear from the outset, I detest adventure. It''s tasteless, showy, vulgar, and uncalled for." So begins this delicious thriller about a gay interior decorator who joins his super-wealthy clients for a Caribbean cruise, only to find himself shanghaied by pirates. Bound hand and foot and tossed unceremoniously into a quaint, Paul Gauguin sort of hut picturesquely thatched with banana leaves, Gregory fears he will be boiled à la langouste and served without so much as a creative sauce. But one night, as he lies in the dark with his face in the dirt, he hears a digging, snooting sound coming from the ground outside . . . Enter the most endearing sidekick in fiction, the brave pig Savarin. High adventure is turned on its head in this affectionate satire of yuppie values. "It is as if Oscar Wilde had been parachuted into the jungle," says the New York Times. "You will find yourself picking out and stowing away your favorite lines. There are enough twists in the story to make a yogi sore. Under the spell of Gundy''s droll and accomplished prose you will end up smiling through the whole thing."

Shy and plain, Leona writes books on 17th Century love poetry, but her own experience of love is meager. Her last affair, if you can call it that, was nine years ago. Into her lonely scholar''s world walks Bliss, who''s one step from illiterate, a gap-toothed bumpkin, a hillbilly. And married. He''s also physically beautiful, and doesn''t seem to know that Leona isn''t. "His lips searched hers; her answer was urgent. She reveled in her need. Nine years...How could I have gone so long? It''s a wonder I didn''t rape the janitor...But I am raping the janitor. Soft kisses were pressed to her breast, and in the rush of her pleasure, she felt his tenderness. She hadn''t waited nine years, she realized. She''d waited all her life." Bliss should never have happened to Leona. And Hazel-Bliss''s rural wife who has her own romantic dreams of TV soaps and malls and a husband in a suit and tie-should never have happened to Bliss. But in a sleepy Canadian campus town, these three lives devastatingly collide. Originally compared to Edith Wharton''s ETHAN FROME and D.H. Lawrence''s LADY CHATTERLY''S LOVER, BLISS was made into a movie starring Lynn Redgrave.

Professor Kompressor has a cure for Walter the farting dog''s "digestive Disorder." He shows Mother how to mix a special formula for Walter in his Kompressatron. But after a few days, Walter''s farts are worse than ever. Father decides to mix the formula himself. "it''s working!" cries Mother. "The air smells so fresh." Walter is pleased, too, until something strange happens - he blows up like a balloon and floats out the window! Will Walter''s paws ever touch earth again? Plenty of laughs and cheers will arise from this story that takes Walter to new heights.