Nicholas Rinaldi

An irresistible novel that "charts a harrowing tour through the Civil War" (Connecticut Post) and chronicles the life of Tom Thumb--the tiny man who became, in his time, America's most famous entertainer."I was four years old when Barnum discovered me, and soon to turn five when I first appeared on the big stage of his American Museum." So begins the story of Tom Thumb, who at just twenty-five-inches tall, rises to global fame as America's most beloved entertainer. With his parents' blessing, Tom comes of age in Barnum's five-story gallery of oddities, exploring its mystical artifacts and exotic animals between his performances to sold-out crowds. One day in the museum's basement menagerie, Tom meets a new performer, Lavinia Warren, who stands three inches shorter than he. It's love at first sight, and Barnum quickly arranges the largest wedding reception New York City has ever seen. As cannon fire echoes across Bull Run and Antietam, both North and South are briefly united by their fascination with "General" Tom Thumb and his beautiful, petite wife. Despite the Civil War, Tom and Lavinia embark on a honeymoon tour, where they encounter cities and people ravaged by the ongoing conflict. But as the tour winds down, an unexpected danger follows Tom and Lavinia back home. Witty, lyrical, and with a colorful cast of notable figures of the period, The Remarkable Courtship of General Tom Thumb is an evocative, poignant imagining of one man's story, from a "master of elegant prose and psychological insight" (Entertainment Weekly).

and the young widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens - finches, canaries, a defanged cobra, and a monkey named Joe - that had been the subject of her dead husband's research. Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets.

Farro Fescu is the proud and observant concierge of Echo Terrace, a condominium in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: an Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who specializes in gender reassignment, a fighter pilot who flew for Nazi Germany during World War II, an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous quilter with whom he's having an affair, the adulterer's son who dreams of becoming an undertaker, and the widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens.Farro Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. Yet he does not know what is in his own heart -- why, after a long, hard life, he is still alive, and still alone. Nor does he know what he will be capable of in the face of sudden, overwhelming tragedy.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

It is 1942 and Malta is under siege. Rocco Raven, a native of Brooklyn, New York, is left to wander the devastated streets of Valetta in a bewildered daze until he sees an apparition, Melita, a beautiful, ethereal woman. It is the beginning of an extraordinary relationship.