DISCUSSION GUIDES

When Cora provides a safe haven for Jewish refugee children, she discovers that opening her doors means risking everything, including her heart.

In 1939 Georgia, far removed from the war brewing overseas, Cora Cain's world feels small--and shrinking. There, she runs The Brunswick, her family's once-grand hotel, which is now struggling as the town's general store. When Thomas Watkins arrives seeking work and solace after his mother's death, a connection sparks between them. Through Thomas, Cora glimpses a life beyond obligation and her war hero father's unpredictable moods.

But everything changes when Cora is asked to turn The Brunswick into a sanctuary for Jewish children fleeing persecution in Germany. As Cora and Thomas prepare for the children's arrival, they struggle to confront their pasts--and the prejudice of their neighbors--as their fragile hope is put to the test.

Meanwhile, in Vienna, ten-year-old Charlotte is offered refuge in America. But even with the horrors she sees around her, she wonders how her parents could possibly send her away. As war's shadow begins to reach small-town Georgia, each person must face what love demands and decide what to hold on to and what to let go.

"A beautiful bit of art."--Allen Levi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Theo of Golden

"Brilliantly executed."--Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shelterwood

Inspired by true events, Callie Murray weaves a Southern World War II historical novel set in Georgia with themes of wartime romance, parenthood, foster care, adoption, reconciliation, faith, and found family. Fans of Allen Levi, Amy Lynn Green, and Sarah Sundin will savor this stirring novel.

One of the Library of Congress’s “Books That Shaped America”

One of The Guardian's 100 Best Novels in English

"A perfect work of the American imagination."—D.H. Lawrence

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. A groundbreaking tale of injustice and perseverance that grapples with the founding history of this country, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells the tale of one woman's dignity in the face of persecution, the threat she poses to Puritan power, and the desperate lengths people will reach to maintain the status quo.

A tale of sin, punishment and atonement, The Scarlet Letter exposes the moral rigidity of a 17th-Century Puritan New England community when faced with a "fallen" young mother and her illegitimate daughter. Forced to wear the scarlet “A” after committing adultery, Hester Prynne lives on the outskirts of society. Visited only by the Reverend Dimmesdale and watched over by Roger Chillingworth, she is both at the mercy of and defiantly against the immutable value system that shapes her fate and that of her child. Regarded as the first real heroine of American fiction, it is Hester Prynne's strength of character that Hawthorne champions, and that has inspired feminist literature for the nearly two centuries since the novel's publication.

• A BEAUTIFUL PACKAGE WITH FLAPS: Featuring French flaps and a unique vivid cover design, each book in the collection is published as a deluxe trade paperback that is a part of a stunning series look.
• HARPER COLLINS AMERICAN CLASSICS: This series includes timeless novels, poetry, children’s books, and groundbreaking nonfiction that has shaped American thought, literature, and identity across generations.
• AMERICA’S PUBLISHER: Since its founding in 1817, no American publisher has been so entwined in the history of American letters. Our books enrich, challenge, and defined the American spirit.
• AMERICA 250: The HarperCollins American Classics arrive in time for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

"Fascinating...I hope you'll read it!"--Oprah

An instant sensation when first published--A New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller--First Person Plural chronicles Cameron West's desperate journey to understand his fragmented mind and ultimately achieve the triumph of a regular life. The 25th Anniversary Edition features a powerful new afterword by the author about his journey since that time, illuminating remarkable progress in the treatment of a rare mental illness.

"What the hell is happening to me? I feel possessed. I'm talking gibberish in the mirror and somebody else's voice is coming out of my mouth."

Cameron West was in his thirties, a successful businessman, happily married and the father of a young son when he spoke these words. The "voice" he heard belonged to Davy, the first of twenty-four alter personalities to emerge over a period of several months as West began to recall memories of horrific abuse he'd repressed since childhood. With distinct characteristics, mannerisms, and memories, all twenty-four were created by West to protect his psyche from the trauma of repeated sexual abuse at the hands of family members.

In addition to a spellbinding story, West provides rare and unprecedented insight into the fascinating condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, the working of the mind of a multiple, and his alters' coexistence with one another and with the world "outside." Heart-wrenching, humorous, and ultimately hopeful, First Person Plural is a story that will make you stand in awe of the power of the mind to protect itself and cheer for West as he struggles to gain control of his life.

A searing and poignant memoir of parental love, unthinkable loss, and the power of grief to open our hearts and connect us to others.

Grief can be profoundly disorienting and traumatic. Yet it can also open our hearts, strengthening our empathy, affection, and compassion for others. It may even open us up to new forms of joy. In this heartrending memoir, business executive and Buddhist Bryan Welch movingly recounts his own journey through deep grief at the unimaginable loss of his 25-year-old son. In unflinching detail, the book describes the pain of parents grappling with their adult son's addiction, and his eventual death from the disease.

As Welch begins the monumental process of recovering from devastating parental grief, his vulnerability transforms into unexpected feelings of warmth, kinship, and compassion toward other people. This, as much as debilitating grief, is part of his son's legacy, and he begins exploring practical, psychological, and spiritual ways of honoring that legacy and sustaining a more compassionate, less egotistical view of the world.

Grief is a part of every human life. We desperately try to avoid it, but it can also provide profound guidance for how we can experience life, and love, more deeply. This book explores how our own vulnerability as human beings can help us heal the traumas that separate us from one another, and may even lead us toward a more loving and connected world.

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • "An unputdownable adventure that was both heartwarming and thrilling! Everything I've come to expect from Gillian McAllister!" —Freida McFadden, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

How far would you go to rescue your child? A mother races against the clock—and finds herself on the wrong side of the law—in a desperate fight to save her teenage daughter in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time.

There is nothing that Simone won’t do for her daughter, Lucy. The two have always been close, and with Lucy about to leave home for university, they depart the UK for a vacation to Texas to spend some quality time together. But when Simone awakens on their first morning in the desert, Lucy is gone, missing from their rental cabin. In her place is a cell phone, and a voice on the other line issues a shocking ransom demand. Don’t tell the police. Come to this location. And be prepared to do a deal…

Though Simone’s husband urges her to bring in the authorities for help, she knows she can’t take any chances. The kidnappers might kill Lucy if she tells anyone. No mother would take that risk. Instead, that night, she drives to the isolated meet-up.

What she finds there changes everything. The mysterious kidnapper doesn’t want money. They want Simone to do something. The unthinkable.

A catastrophic chain of events is set in motion, with chilling consequences that extend beyond Simone and her family. What follows is a heart-pounding journey through the small towns and punishing deserts of remote Texas, in which Simone’s courage—and morality—is pushed to the brink as she discovers what it truly means to be a mother.

Unbearably tense, compassionately told, and full of well-crafted moral dilemmas, Caller Unknown proves once again why Gillian McAllister’s thrillers are “the best of the best” (Lisa Jewell).

Pregnant and with a whole new list of enemies to kill, Izzy and Baal flee south.

Venice, 1710, Poinsettia Girl is based on the story of Agata de la Pieta, an orphan musician of the Ospedale de la Pieta.

Grabtown is a gripping dual-timeline thriller that exposes the dark underbelly of small-town secrets, where sisterhood and courage become the only weapons against those who prey on the vulnerable. Perfect for fans of Kellye Garrett's Like a Sister, Shari Lapena’s Listen for the Lie, and Amy Gentry's Good as Gone.