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The Douglas Kennedy Collection #2

Temptation, The Woman in the Fifth, and Leaving the World

LIST PRICE $33.99

About The Book

Three outstanding novels in one amazing eBook by internationally bestselling author Douglas Kennedy.

Temptation: Like all would-be Hollywood screenwriters, David Armitage wants to be rich and famous. After eleven years of failure, luck finally comes his way when one of his scripts is bought for television. Suddenly a player in Tinsel Town, he finds he's reinventing himself at great speed, especially when it comes to walking out on his wife and daughter for a young producer who worships only at the altar of ambition. But David's upward mobility takes a strange turn when a billionaire film buff barges into his life, proposing a curious collaboration.

The Woman in the Fifth: Now a major motion picture starring Ethan Hawke and Kristen Scott Thomas. Harry Ricks is a man who has lost everything. A scandal at the small college where he used to teach has cost him his job, his marriage, and his relationship with his only child. He flees to Paris in the bleak midwinter, where a series of accidental encounters lands him in a grubby room in a grubby quarter, and a job as a nightwatchman for a sinister operation. And then romance enters his life. Her name is Margit, an elegant, cultivated Hungarian emigre, widowed and alone. But Margit is guarded about her work, her past, and her life. Before he knows it, Harry finds himself waking up in a nightmare from which there is no easy escape.

Leaving the World: Jane Howard is a professor in Boston, in love with a brilliant, erratic man, and finding motherhood to her young daughter an unexpected delight. But when a devastating turn of events tears her existence apart she has no choice but to flee all she knows. Just when she has renounced life itself, the disappearance of a young girl pulls her back from the edge and into an obsessive search for some sort of personal redemption. Convinced that she knows more about the case than the police do, she is forced to make a decision - stay hidden or bring to light a shattering truth.

About The Author

Photograph by Christine Ury

Douglas Kennedy is the author of eleven previous novels, including the international bestsellers The Moment and Five Days. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He divides his time among London, New York, and Montreal, and has two children. Find out more at DouglasKennedyNovelist.com.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (March 26, 2013)
  • Length: 888 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781451689167

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Raves and Reviews

“Kennedy is such a nimble storyteller... the pages fly.”

– Entertainment Weekly

“Two hours and 300 pages later, the glass was empty, the fire was ashes and I was finished. And I thought: Oh, that’s why people read this stuff.”

– Jesse Kornbluth, Headbutler.com

“Kennedy is a skillful and very entertaining writer.... A page-turner with real emotional heft.”

– Booklist

“Riveting.”

– Publishers Weekly

“As Kennedy continues to tackle the theme of upended lives, Temptation demonstrates a literary confidence that lifts his stories above much of the competition.”

– Ron Hogan, Shelf Awareness

“Author Douglas Kennedy is an artist.”

– Blogcritics.org

"A thriller for people who don’t like thrillers; a romance for people who don’t like romances; a philosophical enquiry into the nature of truth and a thumping good read.... Nail-bitingly compulsive. Kennedy has done it again.”

– The Times (London)

"Classic Kennedy... extraordinarily compelling... Kennedy handles a morally complex, yet also surprisingly satisfying, ending with consummate skill, proving what a master he is."

– Daily Mirror (London)

Leaving the World is a classy page-turner from a novelist who has become a cultural icon in Europe. This is a novel about guilt, uncertainty, redemption, and the fact that we build the roads upon which the accidents of chance occur. Kennedy's characters embark on long, complex, provocative journeys, and their ultimate strength is that—like the writer—they can throw off bright sparks in the dark.”

– Colum McCann, author of the 2009 National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin

“The tough, bright heroine of Leaving the World barrels ahead through life, with pluck and acerbity, bruises and injustices not always stepping out of her path. In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes. Wonderful.”

– Lorrie Moore, New York Times bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs

"Smart, stylish, and emotionally penetrating. Kennedy is a master storyteller, who never fails to keep you gripped until the last page."

– Sarah Dunant, New York Times bestselling author of Sacred Hearts

“It’s high time American readers discover or rediscover the masterful storytelling abilities of Douglas Kennedy. His new novel, Leaving the World, shows that he knows all the ways that women, men, love, lust, and money collide and explode. Sophisticated, beautifully written, and full of heart, this one could well be his best yet.”

– Colin Harrsion, national bestselling author of Risk

“Set aside the first weekend of summer to devour Leaving the World, then stock up on Kennedy's backlist. Happy reading!”

– Joanna Coles, Marie Claire

“This riveting book is one you will not want to put down. An international bestseller, the story follows Jane's life and all that fate throws in her path. Beautifully written, this novel exemplifies the resiliency of the human spirit.”

– The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)

"This is a book with lasting impact: powerful, provocative, and tender."

– Publishers Weekly

“Best-selling author Kennedy has created a shape-shifting hero, a brilliant, harrowed, and profane goddess who transcends every infernal trial. In this surging epic, a veritable decathlon of the spirit, Kennedy incisively dramatizes the enigma of chance, petty cruelty, and catastrophic evil, 'unalloyed grief,' and the tensile strength concealed beneath our obvious vulnerability.”

– Booklist (starred review)

"Readers who enjoy well-written mainstream works like those of Richard Yates, Richard Russo, Jodi Picoult, and Jane Smiley will be happy to add Kennedy to their list of favorites."

– Library Journal

“If you read only one book this summer, make sure it’s Douglas Kennedy’s Leaving the World. This riveting, poignant page-turner explores how our childhoods affect the choices we make in life, how we make sense of life when tragedy strikes, and the randomness of destiny. Kennedy dexterously combines a fast-paced plot with complex characters, provocative themes, and difficult moral questions about family, love, loss, betrayal and the impact of the past upon the future.”

– BookPage

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