Amor Towles shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of compromise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles's novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves...

During World War II, Sophia Alexander, after her mother dies and her father is sent to a concentration camp, becomes increasingly involved in the resistance and while working with the convent nuns, the Sisters of Mercy she risks everything to help those in need—no matter what the cost.

In the summer of 1919, Constance, sent as a lady’s companion to Hazelbourne-on-Sea, is welcomed by Poppy Wirrall, a baronet’s daughter who operates a taxi and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club, but as the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, the club realizes the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

"With the Great War finally behind them, thousands of civilians and business moguls alike flock to South Florida with their sights set on making a fortune. When wealthy industrialist Robert Barnes and his wife, Anna, build Marbrisa, a glamorous estate on Biscayne Bay, they become the toast of the newly burgeoning society. Anna and Robert appear to have it all, but in a town like Miami, appearances can be deceiving, and one scandal can change everything....

"Set in Syracuse, Sicily, during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish dialect, Glorious Exploits follows Lampo and Gelon, best friends since childhood. Thrilled to have survived the Athenians' recent invasion and as shocked by the Syracusan victory as everyone else, these unemployed potters are in a mood to celebrate. Of course, they hate the Athenians. Still, that doesn't mean you can't love the theatre of their great playwright Euripides,...

1346: For Thomas Blackstone the choice is easy - dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or take up his war bow and join the king's invasion. As he fights his way across northern France, Blackstone learns the brutal lessons of war - from the terror and confusion of his first taste of combat, to the savage realities of siege warfare. Vastly outnumbered, Edward III's army will finally confront the armoured might of the French nobility...

While staying at Elm Creek Manor to finish her thesis, Summer, the youngest founding member of Elm Creek Quilts, instead researches the antique quilts on display for a fundraiser to renovate the headquarters of the Waterford Historical Society, discovering its troubled history of racism, economic injustice and political corruption, past and present.

881 AD, Northumbria. Hundr, a Northman with a dog's name, sails England’s coastline raiding and challenging Viking champions to single combat. His wife and child died in a savage war with Rollo the Betrayer and Hundr seeks to soothe his grief in the fog of war. Hundr is lost in a violent sea storm and falls foul of fellow Vikings who force men to fight in the hjaldr-garth slave fighting pit. Einar the Brawler searches for his lost friend and must...

Hunlaf battles peril and intrigue on a dangerous voyage to Muslim Spain. AD 796. Sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates. After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the jewels of the Emirate of Al-Andalus and the true destination of their voyage....

Coming of age in recording studios, backstage and on tour, rising folk musician Jodie Rattler, trying to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, feels like something is missing and sets out on a journey in search of herself.