Shirley Ann Grau's Books

The Keepers of the House

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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A “beautifully written” Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about prejudice and a distinguished family’s secrets in the American South (The Atlantic Monthly). Seven generations of the Howland family have lived in the Alabama plantation home built by an ancestor who fought for Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Over the course of a century, the Howlands accumulated a fortune, fought for secession, and helped rebuild the South, establishing themselves as one of the most respected families in the state. But that history means little to Abigail Howland. The inheritor of the Howland manse, Abigail hides the long-buried secret of her grandfather’s thirty-year relationship with his African American mistress. Her fortunes reverse when her family’s mixed-race heritage comes to light and her community—locked in the prejudices of the 1960s—turns its back on her. Faced with such deep-seated racism, Abigail is pushed to defend her family at all costs. A “novel of real magnitude,” The Keepers of the House is an unforgettable story of family, tradition, and racial injustice set against the richly drawn backdrop of the American South (Kirkus Reviews). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247203

ISBN 13

9781453247204

Selected Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Selected Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

Grau's "reader's banquet offers character sketches of Chekovian poignance and insight, a hilarious love story, excursions into the gothic and hauntingly apocalyptic, the elegiac and experimental, and stories that feel like compressed novels in their lapidary polish, depth, and emotional weight"--Back cover.

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Page Count

294

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080712883X

ISBN 13

9780807128831

Roadwalkers

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Roadwalkers

By: Shirley Ann Grau

From the author of The Keepers of the House, a “beautiful” novel following a black mother and daughter through the Great Depression and Civil Rights era (The Boston Globe). Mary is an orphaned, homeless, African American child, abandoned by the rest of her family and left to care for her younger brother. She becomes a “roadwalker,” a nomad who wanders across the rural south and quickly learns to rely on herself to survive. When she grows up to become a successful artist and a designer, she has a daughter of her own, Nanda, and she’s determined to hold her child close. But when Nanda is accepted into an elite school on the East Coast, integrating the all-white Catholic girls’ academy, Mary finds she can’t keep some of the world’s cruel realities at bay forever. Told from the perspective of both mother and daughter, Roadwalkers is the story of a special bond forged by savage history, and a tale of extraordinary loyalty and sacrifice. From a National Book Award finalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, it is “a bold novel [that] seduces us with its vigorous prose, enthralls us with its narrative—and disquiets us with its defiance of our expectations” (The New York Times Book Review). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247254

ISBN 13

9781453247259

The Condor Passes

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Condor Passes

By: Shirley Ann Grau

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist: A family saga of a wealthy man’s rise and his children’s fight for his fortune in 1920s New Orleans. Like many people in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Thomas Henry Oliver came to the city to escape a dull life—in his case, a childhood in the backwoods of the Midwest. But few New Orleans immigrants find as much prosperity as Oliver does amongst the city’s lively streets, amassing an enormous fortune built from brothels and speakeasies. By the time he’s ninety-five, Oliver has created a dynasty in Storyville, the city’s notorious red-light district, but as his wealth grows, so does his family’s desire to control it. After a series of strokes, Oliver must choose an inheritor, even though his two entitled daughters and ambitious adopted son don’t always seem worthy of his legacy. His first daughter, an introverted perfectionist, marries a greedy, alcoholic, and adulterous Cajun, and his second daughter fosters a secret desire for her brother-in-law. On his deathbed, Thomas learns that the gold that built the Oliver name now corrupts his legacy and threatens to tear his family apart. In this simmering dynastic saga by the author of Keepers of the House, three generations collide in their battle to control an empire. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

430

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247238

ISBN 13

9781453247235

Nine Women

Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Nine Women

Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

A “luminescent” collection of stories about nine Southern women from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Keepers of the House (The New York Times). The nine namesake women of this collection come from widely disparate worlds, from isolated bayou towns to New Orleans high society. All, however, struggle with grief, longing, and hope. In “Widows Walk,” Myra Rowland tries to make sense of life after the death of her husband. “In the Beginning” depicts a daughter trying to understand her own mother’s determination to raise her up from abject poverty. “Ending,” meanwhile, tells of a couple whose union dissolves just as their daughter marries. In many cases, these protagonists are struggling to accept the sudden loss of life and love in a land teeming with both. In this unforgettable volume, one of America’s most masterful storytellers writes with an eye for the female experience and the teeming diversity of life in the Deep South. “Grau’s tremendous powers of description, ability to conjure atmosphere, and impeccable prose elevate her to the top tier of American short story stylists” (Booklist). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

206

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

145324722X

ISBN 13

9781453247228

The Hard Blue Sky

A Novel

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Hard Blue Sky

A Novel

By: Shirley Ann Grau

“An arresting and beautifully written novel” about a young woman who yearns to escape her life in Louisiana, by a Pulitzer Prize–winning author (The New York Times). West of New Orleans among a few small Gulf islands lies the Isle aux Chiens, a tiny, impoverished strip of land burdened by intolerable heat and roaming packs of wild dogs. Here a handful of Creole families eke out a meager existence by fishing the Gulf waters. Such is the fate of Al Landry and his seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie. All Annie has ever known is the wild sea, but she longs for other people and places, including the glamor of life in the Big Easy. When a cruel, handsome sailing boat pilot from the city passes through, he kindles Annie’s fantasies for a life beyond the island. Soon, the young girl faces a decision: remain planted in the predictable life she has always known, or toss it all aside for her dreamed-of adventure. Elsewhere on the island, eighteen-year-old Henry Livaudais disappears on a hunting expedition, sparking a feud with a neighboring settlement of Yugoslavian oystermen. As the summer heat intensifies, his father tries to discover why Henry left the isolated fishing settlement. By the author of The Keepers of the House, this novel follows two teenagers on the cusp of adulthood as they look for an escape from their Southern homes. The National Book Award–shortlisted author establishes herself as the master chronicler of bayou life in this debut novel that captures the complexities of the Deep South’s most impoverished corners. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

616

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247246

ISBN 13

9781453247242

The Black Prince

And Other Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Black Prince

And Other Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

National Book Award Finalist: A stunning collection of Southern short fiction by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Keepers of the House. A family hides its poverty behind a façade of gentility. A mysterious stranger sows discord in a backwoods hamlet. A man leaves prison only to be drawn back into the darkness of his past. A young bride faces the choice of informing on her husband and his family or enduring a lifetime of deceit. These nine stories by Pulitzer Prize winner Shirley Ann Grau traverse the landscape of the American South, from New Orleans to the Louisiana bayou to the pine woods of Alabama, but their true territory is universal: the mysteries of the human heart. A dazzling portrait of the lovers and the criminals, the rich and the outcasts of the Deep South, these tales of passion, conflict, and destiny come from “a born writer if ever there was one . . . One reads these haunting, strikingly original stories with pleasure and excitement, enthralled by their power, amused by their melancholy irony” (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

204

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504047230

ISBN 13

9781504047234

Selected Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Selected Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

This magnificent summation of the short stories of Shirley Ann Grau, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Keepers of the House, gathers together eighteen gems ranking with the finest of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. Grau possesses a range representing a master course in the craft of this most demanding art form. Her reader's banquet offers character sketches of Chekovian poignance and insight, a hilarious love story, excursions into the gothic and hauntingly apocalyptic, the elegiac and experimental, and stories that feel like compressed novels in their lapidary polish, depth, and emotional weight. Grau belongs in the company of the great southern short story writers, and the author's own choices of her best work remind readers of the unmatched capacity of the brief fictional form to depict character epiphany and such timeless themes as redemption and rebirth, the struggle between power and love, and the persistence of the past.

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Page Count

300

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807132012

ISBN 13

9780807132012

Roadwalkers

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Roadwalkers

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247254

ISBN 13

9781453247259

The House on Coliseum Street

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The House on Coliseum Street

By: Shirley Ann Grau

A provocative novel of a New Orleans woman’s heartbreaking decision, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Keepers of the House. Joan Mitchell has two suitors, and can’t decide whom to marry. A witness to her mother Aurelie’s less than successful romantic history, she’d like to skip marriage altogether. Joan and Aurelie live together in a beautiful French Quarter home on Coliseum Street in New Orleans, along with Joan’s many half-sisters born of Aurelie’s five disastrous marriages. Joan lives a mostly carefree life, but when she becomes pregnant, she chooses to end her pregnancy rather than marry a man she doesn’t love—a decision with grave consequences in conservative 1950s New Orleans. The second novel by a National Book Award finalist and one of the most acclaimed voices of the American South, The House on Coliseum Street is a brave, heartbreaking love letter to New Orleans and “a sad, wistful, young, timeless story, graced by [Shirley Ann Grau’s] fine drawn perceptions . . . and by the still, soft enchantment of her prose” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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Page Count

220

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247211

ISBN 13

9781453247211

The Condor Passes

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Condor Passes

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

430

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247238

ISBN 13

9781453247235

The Hard Blue Sky

A Novel

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Hard Blue Sky

A Novel

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

616

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247246

ISBN 13

9781453247242

The Keepers of the House

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Keepers of the House

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453247203

ISBN 13

9781453247204

The Black Prince

And Other Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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The Black Prince

And Other Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

204

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504047230

ISBN 13

9781504047234

Nine Women

Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Nine Women

Stories

By: Shirley Ann Grau

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Page Count

206

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

145324722X

ISBN 13

9781453247228

The Magic of Shirley Jackson

The Bird's Nest, Life Among the Savages, Raising Demons, and Eleven Short Stories, including The Lottery

By: Shirley Jackson

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The Magic of Shirley Jackson

The Bird's Nest, Life Among the Savages, Raising Demons, and Eleven Short Stories, including The Lottery

By: Shirley Jackson

This collection is a generous selection of Shirley Jackson's work, consisting of three complete books: The Bird's Nest, Life Among the Savages, Raising Demons, and eleven short stories--including the world-famous "The Lottery.

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Page Count

753

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

146680050X

ISBN 13

9781466800502

Myra

The Girl... the Woman... the Legend

By: Shirley Proctor Twiss

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Myra

The Girl... the Woman... the Legend

By: Shirley Proctor Twiss

Cotton in Augusta, Joy in the Morning, and From Myra to Laura spanned the life of Myra-the girl, the woman, the legend-and endeared her to readers. The legend continues in this new book by author Shirley Proctor Twiss. Eight short stories delve into the lives of featured characters who interacted with and influenced Myra's life. The ending novella shows glimpses of the impact she had on the life of her granddaughter, Laura.

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