When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.  (A/YA)

Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, escapes the hospital before he can be sent back to war. Still weak, he heads for the mountains, where a minister's daughter named Ada is his objective. Inman's return could hardly be timelier for the Charleston-raised Ada: her father has died, and she finds she knows little about operating a farm.  (A/YA)

Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house in Kyoto. There, she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.  (A/YA)

Roman engineer Marius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. But something is wrong. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line - somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Marius is about to discover there are forces that even the world's only superpower can't control.  (A/YA)

Sethe tries to rebuild her life in Reconstruction Era Ohio, but she is haunted by the horrors of her former life as a slave and by the fate of her daughter, Beloved.  (A/YA)

Sula and Nel, childhood friends who once shared everything, reunite as adults and find that they have grown apart in such a way that their friendship may be unsalvageable.  (A/YA)

Jamie Lockhart's mother takes on a boarder to help her eke out a living until her husband returns from the Civil War. When the boarder assaults Jamie's mother, Jamie kills him. In the boarder's personal effects Jamie discovers a cryptic map and sets out to solve its mystery.  (A/YA)

In nineteenth-century China, Lily is the daughter of a farmer in Puwei Village, and Snow Flower is the daughter of a respectable family from Tongkou. Though the two girls have very different backgrounds, Madame Wang pairs the two as laotong, or "old sames," a bond that will last them a lifetime. The two begin to exchange messages in nu shu, a secret language known only to women. Their friendship is cemented during their youth and then put to the test when the girls prepare for marriage and Lily discovers a startling secret about Snow Flower's family.  (A/YA)

Abused and unloved, Celie finds self-worth through faith and with the help of a beautiful woman named Shug.  (A/YA)