Books published by Open Road Media

This wild, magic-realist ride of a novel, originally published in 1994, is funny, sexy, satirical, linguistically exuberant, and utterly unique. Written as a fictional biography, it tells the life story of a woman with magical sexual powers that she uses to heal people. The story follows our heroine from her miraculous birth through her childhood in a magical orphanage to adulthood, when she uncovers sinister conspiracies among political and well-hidden foes. Woven into The Magic Touch is that of her grandmother, whose mysterious background propels the story forward in ways that begin as Faustian and end up as spiritual. The story culminates in a spectacular-and hilarious-showdown between the forces of good and evil.The Magic Touch is Rachel Simon's second book and first novel. It was a 1994 selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program, which highlights books of exceptional literary quality from authors at the starts of their careers.

A slice of underworld life, ''57, Chicago is a fact-based fictional thriller.The banker''s dead-a mob killing with repercussions. Money''s tied up. Three men are on a collision course:Al. He''s a layoff bookie, thinks he can live as a middleman between his customers and the Outfit. His credo: Never take a position.The Lip. Desperate and dangerous, he''s a fight promoter trying to create the fight of a lifetime.The Hammer. A great black hope. He''s a boxer, thrust into an uncomfortable limelight. A potential heavyweight champ, his biggest fight is with himself.The cops swarm. The gangsters rage. One night. One fight. No way they can all win. The heat''s intense, the stakes are high and the outcome''s impossible to predict. The mystery: Who makes it out alive? It''s a bloody, savage night in ''57, Chicago.

Dateline Chicago, 1946: Policy, the illegal lottery, makes millions of dollars for racketeers in Chicago''s black community. But the numbers don''t add up when kingpin Ed Jones is kidnapped. Who grabbed him? The mob? Another policy wheel operator? And why? Gus Carson, World War II veteran, a survivor of the sinking of his ship in the Pacific. A Chicago cop, he''s suspended for a late night shooting at a brothel. Enter wealthy politico Arvis Hypoole. He hires Gus to find Jones. The caveat: He''s got one week to do it. The challenge: Everyone''s looking for Jones and most don''t want to find him alive. Author Steve Monroe offers another slice of underworld life told through fact-based fiction. And his protagonist, Carson, is the conduit to the intrigue. Haunted and violent, he staves off pressure with a wisecrack or a hard cross to the jaw. He navigates through a world of gambling, nightlife, shady politics and murder, all the while seeking much more than the kidnapping victim. He''s seeking redemption. And there is only one time and one city in which he can find it: ''46, Chicago.

Tyler Spotswood, an alcoholic campaign manager, helps elect a corrupt Southern politician to the U.S. Senate. When his boss, Chuck Crawford aka "Number One," pins a scandal on Spotswood, Tyler is too drunk to blow the whistle. Number One draws many comparisons to Robert Penn Warren''s All the King''s Men. Crawford reminds many of Louisiana politician Huey Long, a figure studied in person by Dos Passos.

A record of his childhood, young adulthood, and twenties, The Best Times is a collage of cherished memories. He reflects on the joys of an itinerant life enriched by new and diverse friendships, customs, cultures, and cuisines.Luminary personalities and landscapes abound in the 1920s literary world Dos Passos loved. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Horsley Gantt-they are his beloved friends. Spain, the French Riviera, Paris, Persia, the Caucasus-they are his beloved footpaths.

An extremely well-written, compassionate guide for the millions of people who come face to face with a death in their own families When a brother or sister dies, surviving siblings often receive little support or recognition of their pain. But their grief is real, and there is a way to recover from it. Through intimate, true stories and interviews with brothers and sisters who have lost a sibling, expert-on-grief Katherine Fair Donnelly provides valuable insight on how to survive this traumatic experience. Recovering from the Loss of a Sibling is the first guide dedicated to those who have lost a brother or sister, and presents practical ways they can take the necessary steps toward recovering from their devastating loss.

An extremely well-written, compassionate guide for the millions of people who come face to face with a death in their own families Losing a parent is a traumatic blow, and the grief can seem unbearable. But you are not alone, and you can get through this. In this first book dedicated to the experience of adults who have lost a parent, expert-on-grief Katherine Fair Donnelly shares intimate, telling interviews with surviving sons and daughters, and presents practical ways in which surviving family members can take steps toward recovering from their devastating loss.

An extremely well-written, compassionate guide for the millions of people who come face to face with a death in their own families The pain and shock when a child dies can seem unbearable. But expert-on-grief Katherine Fair Donnelly, who has suffered many personal losses, has gained wisdom and strategies for emotional recovery. By sharing, understanding, and accepting this tragic loss, bereaved parents, siblings, and others can cope with this intense grief. Intimate, telling interviews with survivors present practical ways in which surviving family members can take the necessary steps toward recovering from their devastating loss.

A compelling portrait of one of Hollywood's most invincible women, the late Barbara Stanwyck. A most unusual movie star, Stanwyck was an actress of considerable and neglected talent who elevated every role she had, a woman whose personal life matched the rocky road of her career. Whispered to be among Hollywood's scandalous "sewing circle," a group of internationally famous actresses who hid their potentially career-ending lesbianism and bisexuality, Stanwyck kept her liaisons a secret. Despite her steely resolve and her image as a take-control kind of woman, Stanwyck suffered from turbulent marriages and relationships, including her sensational marriage to, and divorce from, the abusive Robert Taylor. Madsen provides a fresh look at this fascinating, complex screen goddess, offering provocative and shocking details from one of Hollywood's most interesting lives.

The authorized biography of the celebrated film director William Wyler, a giant in his craft, who directed such classics as Ben-Hur, Funny Girl, and Roman Holiday.

Set in the world of classical music and opera in the 1970s, Love Song is the story of a marriage between young, rising stars that is wrenchingly affected by a young prodigy and by the specter of a serious illness. Moving from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera to the glamour and wealth of Paris and Venice and its titled patrons, Love Song tells how triumph can rise from tragedy, in the face of impossible odds.

Seeking rejuvenation and rest, six very different people converge at a lush Caribbean spa on the island of St. Christoph and find more than they had bargained for: mystery, intrigue, and romance. Successful and single journalist Joyce Redmond, who is on assignment to root out the nitty gritty on the other guests, has been so busy working on her career that she has forgotten to work on her life. Cliff Eastman, the romantic over-the-hill movie star and heartthrob, is watching his career fade through the bottom of a bottle. Cathy Stewart, the overweight, frustrated housewife, who cringes each time her husband calls her his "big mama," is intent on finding a way to shed that name. Maxine Kraft, married for twenty-five years needs only a little more courage to face the world as a single woman. Finally, there is Belle Taylor and her famous teen idol daughter, Regina, who both need to find a way to stop hating each other. Fortunately, the Spa at St. Christoph has something for everyone. Yet, behind the luxurious façade of this retreat awaits a mystery for which they had not bargained.

Romance and high comedy in the heat of the summer.

Ann Birstein''s account of her adventures in the New York male literary scene as a woman and as a female writer.

Young Daisy Learner is a newcomer to the hijinks and sexual machinations of the academy.

A dual biography of the two most influential socio-political moralists of the twentieth century, whose lives were intertwined personally and intellectually for more than forty-six years. Madsen provides an engrossing view of the luminously transparent relationship that was unconventional yet faithful to its ideals.

The authorized biography of the most important man of letters in twentieth century France: André Malraux, French novelist, art theorist, and France's Minister of Cultural Affairs.

One of the most influential men of the twentieth century, Jacques Cousteau was an eco-emissary whose own life of derring-do brought him fame and the means to proselytize his cause. Ecologist, adventurer, celebrity, businessman-Cousteau was a brilliant and complex individual, and Madsen's biography captures him in style. Madsen, who knew the Cousteau family for over two decades, interviewed Cousteau personally for this book.

The ultimate Hollywood story revealed: the sizzling relationship between Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of America's most influential political family, and Gloria Swanson, one of the most prominent silent film stars of her day. Gloria and Joe were in love with each other and with the movies, especially Queen Kelly, which completed the real-life ménage à trois. Starring along with the star of the screen and the Boston Brahman in this exposé are Erich von Stroheim, Kennedy's wife Rose, Swanson's husband, and a cast of colorful hangers-on. Madsen recreates their love, scandal, and world, which in its extravagance and intrigue has never been surpassed.

A sweeping novel of the 1930s that captures the essence of a golden, lurid era when Hollywood became the fantasy capital of the world

One of the greatest art theft stories of the 20th century: André Malraux, French novelist, art theorist, and eventually France's Minister of Cultural Affairs, and his wife, Clara, traveled to Cambodia in 1923, planning to steal and smuggle artifacts out of the country and sell them in America. The Cambodian treasure hunt promised to be a mix of cultural sleuthing for important antiquities and risk-taking on the fuzzy edge of the laws that governed historical sites. The jungle expedition ended in arrest and, for André, trial and conviction. But it also led to a second Asian venture: the launching of a Saigon newspaper, L'Indochine, dedicated to the aspirations of the indigenous population. Madsen follows the couple from this fateful adventure that so shaped their future to the end of their marriage, and after.

At each stage of their lives-from infant cribs to teen dropouts to welfare dependents to basement shelters for the elderly-the people of the underclass are shunned by the rest of the population, even by the working poor. The cycle is vicious: Underclass children get little help in their own homes (when they have homes); they are shoved aside at school until they drop out like their parents did; they are unable to find decent work without an education; they have children of their own for whom they cannot provide adequate care; and finally, they are dumped into human (but inhumane) warehouses for the not-quite-deceased. America cannot afford to do this to its poorest citizens; we cannot afford not to rescue the underclass. In the richest country on earth, the people of the underclass are not merely a problem, they are a scandal.

In the words of Mehmet Oz, MD: "An Arrow Through the Heart is an epiphany for women who mistakenly believe that they are immune from the ravages of heart disease. Using her heart as a magnifying glass, Deborah Daw Heffernan provides readers with a window into their souls."

Author John Hanson Mitchell recounts a marathon bicycle trek from Andalusia to the Outer Hebrides, tracing solar myths, sun cults, birds, and flowering plants all along the way.

An eccentric billionaire, a best-selling author, and a beautiful, self-destructive woman: three lives linked by the tragic sinking of the Titanic April 11, 1912: The gala sailing out of Southampton of White Star Line's peerless luxury liner, the R.M.S. Titanic. Among the dazzling, doomed names on the passenger list for this, the Titanic's maiden voyage, is Clair August Ryker, the lovely and dissolute wife of billionaire industrialist William Ryker, and her ten-year-old daughter, Eva. Also present is a young couple, obviously newlyweds, the Eddingtons, who are drawn to Clair and her child. Beneath the decks, in the cargo hold, is a crate marked Ryker Industries. November 30, 1941: In Honolulu, the apparently accidental death of tourist Albert Klein and the brutal murder of his wife confound the promising career of a rookie cop. Norman Hall will never be able to forget the grisly sight of the dismembered body of Martha Klein. Decades later, a best-selling author, he is still haunted. What could possibly link these events? A faded film, capturing the sunny pleasures of a ship-board party, and a terrifying recording of a voice describing a night of darkest infamy and moral outrage? It is Norman Hall's assignment, fifty years after the sinking of the Titanic, to cover for World Magazine William Ryker's multimillion-dollar salvage expedition to recover the lost riches of the Titanic. Norman Hall is determined to understand the reclusive billionaire's motives for the expedition, but as he delves deeper into the past, he finds himself in grave danger. To solve the mystery, he must somehow unlock the memory of the deeply troubled Eva Ryker.

In these five profiles, four of which originally appeared in the New Yorker, the author evokes the life and work of seven gifted artists. Among those presented, often through lively conversations, are Jean Hélion, Mark Rothko, R.B. Kitaj, and Dennis Creffield. Chief among those portrayed however is Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), the great French photographer and photojournalist who, famed for dodging contact with the press, is here sketched in rare and fond detail. Of all these artists, only two still live: what emerges from this book is a picture, often bizarre, often hilarious, of a bygone bohemian world.

Two completely separate novellas about putting right the mess two men have made out of their lives.

The story of a father and son-and is it true, as Wordsworth claimed, that "the child is father of the man" or can one's character actually change as one grows older?

The first year of the Reagan administration finds all manners of scoundrels and supplicants scrounging for favors and position.

A story of a coup d'etat in Central Africa, Rogue's March is about the men on all sides of the conflict, men caught up in events beyond their control or understanding.