What kind of shadow does a family secret cast over the child?
Mark Aherne is a middle-aged, married man living in Chicago. He's estranged from his parents in Boston, his father having bullied and belittled him throughout his childhood.
One Sunday he receives a desperate phone call from his sister who has been caring for their parents for many years. She needs help: his parents are sick and have started drinking again. Mark soon finds himself back with his sister dealing with their parents' loss of independence.
While caring for his parents, he remembers the past when he dealt with his father's emotional effect on him and the family. His memories include many childhood events that filled him with guilt and a sense of separation.
As he slowly comes to understand his family's dysfunction, he discovers secrets in his parents' lives that led to their own unhappiness. With his mother's dementia and his father's stubborn isolation, Mark fears his own aging as he learns to lay to rest the experiences of his childhood.

"A powerful story of seldom-sung heroines in humanity's darkest days and a vivid reminder of the power of conscience." -- Edgardo David Holzman, author of Malena

Throughout the occupied territories, Catholic Sisters were active members of The Nazi Resistance.

Based on letters and documents written by Catholic Sisters during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, this book tells the remarkable story of these brave and faithful women, and how they served to resist the German forces.

From running contraband to hiding Jews, from spying for the allies to small acts of sabotage, these courageous women risked their lives to help defeat the Reich.

This is a story that needs to be told.

"...an engaging account of World War Two as told through the voice of a fictional Belgian nun... fascinating and valuable." -- Donald Lystra, Author of Season of Water and Ice

"…a generous recounting of the deeds of marvelous nuns living in the midst of mortal danger. It's also a great read!" -- Father James Heft, Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2018

July 1969. While men are walking on the moon, life in London for sixteen-year-old Jane takes unexpected turns. On the point of falling in love with her best friend Karl, she discovers that there's more to her father's spectacular girlfriend than at first meets the eye. In the sweltering heat of a fast-moving evening, other revelations quickly follow, reconciling Jane with her father but also reopening wounds from the past, laying bare raw emotions kept suppressed for too long. And as the evening draws to a close, the night's drama has only just begun, unfolding in a sequence of violent events that threaten to have lasting repercussions for Jane and the people she loves...

Lightened by music and humor and darkened by Kafkaesque dreams, with magic tricks, sexuality, and family secrets all playing a prominent part, The Madness of Grief is a coming-of-age tale of friendship, betrayal and loss.

Contains Mature Themes

For centuries, poets have argued that unrequited love is love in its strongest form. From Afar is a timeless tale of Morgan Stanfield's search for love in the far northern city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Leaving the warm climate of Santa Barbara, he embarks on a four-day odyssey where he encounters a Russian beauty, a prostitute, a wise old babushka, an American chauvinist, intellectuals, the Russian mafia, and the 'face' of love, and comes to know how love from a distance can be more captivating than love close on hand.

After a loved-up adventure in a wood in North London, sixty-odd-year-old Lily drives off in her Classic Mercedes and takes a wrong turn. The day is unbearably hot, and the snazzy car's air-con is broken, blowing out hot air instead of cold. Lily follows the meandering road in a state of dehydration, and experiences a series of encounters with angels and demons and ghosts from the past.

From Kampala to London. From despair to hope. The power of kindness and love.

The year is 1972. President Idi Amin has a prophetic dream and evicts thousands of Asians from their homeland of Uganda. They are to lose everything. Among them is Birdie who arrives in England with her Cambridge educated husband Jack and their young son Mohin.

From a life of comfort and the beauty of East Africa, they are now penniless refugees in cold, grey London. A new life. A fresh start.

But Birdie’s plans to succeed are put to the test when an innocent victim reaches out for help and the reverberations from Idi Amin’s reign of terror are felt once again…

An uplifting tale of triumph over despair – and not turning away from our true path.

Some Reader Reviews:

‘Riveting and emotional’  

‘Read the whole book in a day. Absolutely could not put it down!’  

‘This will be the book I recommend to our Book Club when we resume meeting… It is magical’

‘Beautifully written, a real page turner’ 

‘Her family and acquaintances will touch your heart and have you thinking about them in between reads’  

‘Wonderful story-telling, rich with colour and detail. A compelling read.’  

‘I'm recommending it to all my friends’  

***Winner*** The Jemma Prize for Speculative Fiction 2019

International Book Award 2019 Finalist

"...author Isabella Ides has written what will surely become a classic." IndieReader: Judges Verdict

A rogue order of nuns, in tucked away in Humboldt County, are raising an undocumented deity on the down-low. Persecuted by the patriarchs of the Great Church and decimated by a plague of prayer eaters, The Sisterhood is on the verge of extinction when a white monkey appears in a snowstorm and makes a special delivery.

It is a holy night like no other—complete with a wandering star, three disreputable magi, and a babe mangered in a cardboard box.

Scandal alert!

The mere existence of the misbegotten baby god is a provocation. In celestial realms, the reputations of celebrity A-list Gods are at stake. On Earth, the undocumented deity is a threat to the birdmen of the Great Church—Cardinals, Hooded Crow, Cloistered Ravens, and gay Budgies, plus a malevolent Cassowary and an ancient Hierophant: His Holiness, the Divine Mallard of All Mysteries.

Luckily, a white monkey with impeccable spiritual credentials has broken out of bounds and jumped into this world!

Expect literary enchantments!

• Discover the cognate soul-group at the heart of the Sisterhood.
• Enter the Byzantine world of the Birdmen of the Great Church when the seven-year-old boy is kidnapped and brought to Mount Quoborium. Witness the heartstopping moment when the Hierophant questions the boy. Thrill to the astonishing spectacle when the divine monkey attempts a rescue. And don't miss a spirituous whiff of Humboldt Snow #9, a psychedelic game-changer like no other.

   

  OUT OF THIS WORLD(Literary Review)

  "WHITE MONKEY CHRONICLES shows author Isabella Ides to be a self-assured, equal-opportunity paradigm demolition expert. Storming entrenched temples of orthodoxy, shattering icons, upending conventions—the eponymous monkey blinks his eyes and worlds collide.

  But it’s in the reconstruction that the story wins our hearts. When bohemian Sister Merry Berry fires up her pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible, top down, in preparation for heavenly ascent, readers will aspire to hitch a ride, relishing the mind-expanding experience the transit has in store."

  Alexandra Bonifield

  Critical rant.com

  NEA/Annenberg and O’Neill Critics Institute Fellow

  A CLASSIC(Literary Review)

  "WMC: The Complete Trilogy is a delightful and thought-provoking walk along a multi-faceted road of philosophy, spirituality, and dystopia. Its pages are filled with marvelous word play, intriguing characters, and most importantly, a phenomenal plot surrounding the offspring of two transgressing gods and a group of lovable, resolute nuns. Funny, intellectual, and insightful, author Isabella Ides has written what will surely become a classic." --IndieReader: Judges Verdict.

•  

Maxy Awards "Book of the Year" 2019

Pencraft Awards "Best Fiction Book of 2019"

“Witty, occasionally crass, and an unqualified delight.” –KIRKUS REVIEWS

Is it too much to ask that a managed care facility refund a year’s advance payment when your grandfather dies before he can move in? Frank Johnson doesn’t think so, which is why the thirty-three-year-old now lives in a nursing home, locked in a chess match feud with management that doesn’t occupy nearly enough of his time.

When foster kid Elroy is thrust into his life, Frank decides to turn this forced relationship to his advantage – launching a string of absurd decisions, inappropriate behaviors and unexpected glimpses of tenderness that ultimately turn a New Jersey suburb upside down. A laugh-out-loud celebration of bad choices for good causes, Managed Care is an offbeat story about three misfits on the social fringes of suburbia and their ridiculous campaign to introduce an unfiltered version of intimacy to their stale, impersonal community. Because, according to Frank, it’s probably what Jesus would have wanted.

I'll get away from Hades–I have to. Even if it costs me everything. And it will cost me everything.

He takes me in the middle of the night, his eyes cruel in the moonlight. It's a deal, he says. My life for another.

I expect him to kill me. He doesn't.

I expect him to lock me away. He doesn't.

What happens is next is darker than midnight.

And worst of all?

I like it.

"Breathtaking, intense, and scorching hot, King of Shadows is the modern myth I've been waiting for." –Skye Warren, New York Times bestselling author

“Excuse me. Do you mind if I squeeze past?”

And so it begins.

Two strangers meet on a plane. 

One has a terrible confession to make. But is it safe to tell a stranger?

The other is haunted by past mistakes and looking for a fresh start.

Over the course of their ten-hour flight they come to know each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. 

Is confession good for the soul or is it better to keep your crimes bottled up inside?

Discover what becomes of Lee, Tamsin and Jake.

Rated FIVE STARS by real readers:

Praise for The Adulterer’s Handbook: A Novel

“Wow. This book is fantastic! I had absolutely no idea when I started reading that I'd be taken on this journey. The writing is great.”

“I really enjoyed this book. I'm not sure how to categorize it -- a thriller or just good fiction? Regardless, I highly recommend it! I didn't want to put it down!”

“The tale weaves its way down a winding path so beautifully that, before you know it, you're at this bizarre place in the story where every character is not who you thought they were!”

“I was drawn to this novel because I was interested to see how the author handled the subject of infidelity, purely from a male perspective. He’s done an excellent job.”

“The humour and author’s style are reminiscent of David Nicholls.”

“There is much to admire in this entertaining read. The dialogue is natural, the editing is well done and the narrative flows. All in all, a good debut novel and I feel sure we’ll see more from this promising new writer. I recommend you give it a try.”

“The book just becomes fun. It's like a puzzle that you're trying to figure out.”

“The internal dialogue is so hilarious that I literally LOL'd a few times.”

Putting the will in willpower.

Josh McCain has two years to reinvent himself. Stripped of everything that made life a swanky, booze and babe-filled breeze, Josh embarks on a grueling and often hilarious two-year regimen of self-discipline that targets his mind, body, and spirit.

Along the way, skeptics mock him; his own past taunts him; and saboteurs resolve to stop him. But Josh is determined to complete his "bucket list from hell," and prove that who he was is not as important as who he can become.

Operating in unfamiliar territory, Josh turns to a cast of quirky characters to aid him on his secret journey; persons he'd have previously shunned. Upbeat and inspiring, The Will is an enthralling story of goofs and grit, of the regenerative power of friendship--and if Josh doesn't blow it--real love.

A Boomer, an Xer, and a Millennial walk into a book...

Hammerhead Hirsch, a charismatic middle-aged boho known as The Pugilist Poet for his boxing medals and Beat poetry chops, is an ecstatic new dad—until the mom bolts. Can Head last fifteen rounds as a single dad with a paltry income, scanty prospects, biting demons, and a "ball-and-chain" kid? The tale is told by a worshipful youth who accompanies Head on a turbulent yet often hilarious ten-year journey of struggles, missteps, love, and growth.

What some fine authors say:  

"This is a rollicking, big-hearted tale, full of laughter, bravery and unflinching humanity. The touch is light, but the questions are big ... in this deeply funny and deeply felt novel." (Emily Kiernan, author of The Great Divide)   

"...Jon Sindell's big fat juicy love letter to literature, Los Angeles and, most of all, love. With prose that zings, swings and frequently sings, Sindell tells a tough yet tender tale of brazen heartbreak amid '90s bohemian hipsters." (Tracy DeBrincat, author of Hollywood Buckaroo)

"Funny, sad, relatable, and engrossing" (Stephen D. Gutierrez, American Book Award winner)  

"With unflinching honesty, humor and a keen eye for detail, Sindell brings unforgettable characters to life." (Martin McCaw, author of The Low Road)

"Dark twists and delightful turns follow this unique look at infidelity, cuckolding, jealousies, and a craving for redemption." –Authors Reading

Sylvia Sumner is meeting her lover, Jim Hart. From an alleyway, she dashes across the road and hurries down a pathway crossing a field. Tucker Stewart, who has loved Sylvia since one, brief encounter in the woods back in high school, sees her from his office window and follows her. He fails to acknowledge that her husband, the detective-obsessed Forty Sumner, is watching them from a distance. Forty takes his gun to go after Tucker. In the aftermath of that night, Sylvia revisits the past overshadowed by her father’s estrangement. Tucker faces his own father’s tragic legacy, inadvertently befriending Forty. When Jim Hart is found dead, the town is in a mad scramble to rectify the wrongs laid bare when Sylvia disappears to go in search of her father. The lesson they must learn is that the only way to their salvation is forgiveness.

"A superb, captivating work from a promising new literary voice." –Kirkus Reviews

“An excellent, must-read novel about a man who returns home to confront his past, filled with memorable characters and written in a style that will draw you in, entertain you, and leave you wanting more.” –Sublime Book Review

On a beautiful summer morning at the Jersey Shore, 4-year-old Sarah Carpenter wanders toward the ocean and never returns. The police think she drowned, but her babysitter Amy claims Sarah was abducted. The only other witness, 17-year-old Donnie Marcino, didn’t see a thing. A narcoleptic since birth, he was fast asleep.

Twenty years later Sarah’s disappearance still haunts Donnie, as does his lingering bond with Amy. When she calls from the hospital after a failed suicide attempt, Donnie returns to his hometown, but how can he help Amy, and help himself, without changing the past? In The Revolving Heart, love and redemption collide as the adult Donnie struggles to atone for his youthful mistakes.

Three unlikely allies unite on a lonely stretch of Galway Bay, Ireland.

Clint Westerly has it all; that is, until he makes a fateful decision that turns his life upside down. He no longer knows how to live with himself and with the awful knowledge of what he has done.

Tanya Wilshire has sheer determination to fulfill her mother's dying wish, although she seemingly has now lost the means to do so.

Seamus Harrington, eighty-four years of age, is determined to right an old wrong before it is too late, even though the odds are heavily stacked against him.

As the three unexpectedly find themselves bound together in an attempt to bring hope to the tiny village of Gailemore, Ireland, where none has existed for way too long, they might just find it themselves.
 

Joe Wallace returns to this remote Oregon valley from self-imposed exile to bury the father who abandoned him a decade ago. Sad, alone and drinking, Joe has nearly given up on life and love.

Things change when Joe meets Ana, whose Nez Perce ancestors once called this valley home. Joe joins Ana’s cause to restore a lost sockeye salmon run to the lake where he grew up. As their relationship deepens, their peril grows. Somebody wants them gone – or dead.

The escalating threats rekindle a fire Joe thought was dead or buried in him. When his jealous brother tries to develop the family’s land, Joe must make a stand.

In the end, Joe discovers a life worth living, with a woman he was meant to love, in the place he was meant to live. And he realizes the redemption possible in a deep connection to the land.

Love and Money are two important ingredients in a man’s recipe for happiness. Unfortunately, those same two ingredients under the wrong circumstances can be a man’s recipe for disaster.

Unlucky at love, unemployed and drowning in debt, Thomas Murphy is a man in need of salvation.

When an unexpected gift arrives from an unknown source, Tom is confused, yet elated about his new-found fortune. His luck continues when he runs into an old flame he hasn’t seen in years and sparks begin to fly. Strange how a man’s fate can change when he least expects it – one moment he’s miserable and struggling to make ends meet, and the next he’s back on his feet and looking forward to a bright future… or so Tom thinks.

Then Tom’s rediscovered love reveals the shocking skeletons in her closet and he must decide to forgive and forget or turn his back and walk away. An innocent search on the internet turns up a problem that could stand between Tom’s good fortune and ultimately, him and the love of his life. If he chooses to stay, he must find a way to live with what he has to do to keep her in his life.

They say that love is blind and money is the root of evil, but sometimes you don’t realize the truth of those adages until it’s too late.

A Fool for Love & Money is a novel about love, desire, greed, murder and forgiveness.

INCLUDES BONUS STORIES: Things You Can’t Control and No Return Address

NOTE TO THE READER: The original story of 'A Fool for Love & Money' was published as a novella in 2014 under the title 'A Fool and His Money'. Like many authors, every time I read the story over (and I read it many times), I recognized places where rewriting would make it better. After several years I decided to rewrite the story to its full potential. What you hold in your hand is the final result. I hope you enjoy the revised, expanded and enhanced storyline.

A secret lies buried at the heart of her family—but it can’t stay hidden forever.

When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew.

The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? With her father sinking into Alzheimer’s and her brother reluctant to help, it seems Cara will never find the answers to her questions. One thing is clear, though: someone knows more than they’re letting on.

Torn between loyalty to her family and dread of what she might find, Cara digs into the early years of her parents’ troubled marriage, hunting down long-lost relatives who might help unravel the mystery. But the picture that begins to emerge is not at all the one she’d expected—because as she soon discovers, lies have a habit of multiplying . . .

Revised edition: This edition of Postcards from a Stranger includes editorial revisions.

A place you will never forget

Rosamunde Pilcher's Scotland...where the fields flourish with greenery, the bills bloom with purple, and the lochs glitter with the bright blue of the sky.

A time you will never forget

September...when the heather is in full flower, the first chill of autumn cools the air, and the countryside stirs with the hunt, balls, dinner parties, and dance.

A novel you will never forget

Rosamunde Pilcher's September...a story of homecomings and heartbreaks, friendships, betrayals, forgiveness, and love. From the author of the classic multimillion-copy bestseller The Shell Seeker, it is a book you will fall in love with...

A main selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club