Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself.

In The Dead Beat, Johnson revealed the stories behind obituary writers. Now, the author celebrates libraries and librarians while trying to answer the question: What is worth saving?

From the acclaimed author of Troublesome Young Men comes a major new World War II history that describes the developments of America's crucial wartime alliance with England that became so decisive in defeating Hitler.

From the author of the bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love comes a stunning novel about two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles.

From a young writer who radiates charisma and talent comes a sweeping, stylish historical novel of Jamaican slavery that can be compared only to Toni Morrison's Beloved.

This New York Times bestseller reveals how books in the Bible were actually forged by later authors and that the New Testament itself is riddled with contradictory claims about Jesus.