Hardcover Fiction

by A. J. Cronin · Little, Brown

Originally published in 1945, The Green Years is one of A. J. Cronin’s best-loved novels. It tells the story of Robert Shannon, a young Irish Catholic boy, who is orphaned at the age of seven and sent to live with his mother’s estranged family in Scotland. As he grows up in a dour Presbyterian town, only his great-grandfather, an incorrigible, swaggering, charming, larger-than-life character, seems able to rescue him from the narrow interests of the people who try to shape his life in their own image. Disappointed in love and in his burning ambition to study medicine, the eighteen-year-old Robert sees his future as a blank wall. But, once again, he is saved from despair by his fiery relative, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family. This compassionate story of a boy’s growth to manhood, set against the harsh reality of life at the turn of the century, shows A. J. Cronin at his masterly best, creating a vivid gallery of characters with his customary blend of imagination, insight and tenderness. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, The Green Years is a great book by a beloved author.

by Gwenthalyn Graham · Lippincott

by Samuel Shellaburger · Little, Brown

by John Steinbeck · Viking Press

Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945.It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there: Lee Chong, the local grocer; Doc, a marine biologist; and Mack, the leader of a group of derelict people. Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are to do something nice for their friend Doc, who has been good to them without asking for reward. Mack hits on the idea that they should throw a thank-you party, and the entire community quickly becomes involved. Unfortunately, the party rages out of control, and Doc's lab and home are ruined-and so is Doc's mood. In an effort to return to Doc's good graces, Mack and the boys decide to throw another party-but make it work this time. A procession of linked vignettes describes the denizens' lives on Cannery Row. These constitute subplots that unfold concurrently with the main plot. Steinbeck revisited these characters and this milieu nine years later in his novel Sweet Thursday.

by Edna Ferber · Doubleday, Doran