Mohawk, New York, is one of those small towns that lie almost entirely on the wrong side of the tracks. Its citizens, too, have fallen on hard times. Dallas Younger, a star athlete in high school, now drifts from tavern to poker game, losing money. His ex-wife, Anne, is stuck in a losing battle with her mother over the care of her sick father. And their son, Randall, is deliberately neglecting his schoolwork - because in a place like Mohawk it doesn't pay to be smart.

Orphaned at a cruelly young age, little Hugo Dinsmore is torn from his pampered life and plunged into the nightmare world of brutish country relatives, a world where his refined ways and small stature are a constant source of mockery and torment. Survival means learning to be sly, and Hugo soon finds his talents for retribution and petty thieving. His pure singing voice soon brings him to the attention of the Eggman, a much-feared local gangster who gets Hugo to perform for him and his cronies at their late-night poker sessions. Hugo becomes a well-dressed mascot, travelling with the Eggman and his enforcers in the back of a pink Cadillac. Gradually he breaks away from his old, wretched life, but as the Eggman's grip tightens and a criminal price must be paid for all the fine clothes, Hugo decides to make a spectacular and hazardous break for freedom.

St Petersburg, 1899. Obsessive gambler Rubashov has played every game in town. Now on New Year's Eve, he finds himself on the brink of ruin, and decides to make a bid for the ultimate rush, the biggest gamble ever, to challenge the Devil to a poker game.The Devil accepts the invitation and unsurprisingly Rubashov loses. However, the price is not straight to hell as he expected (hell is full and has been for years), the punishment is immortality. Rubashov has great difficulty coming to terms with his ever-lasting life; he now sees no end to what is already a miserable existence. Unsuccessful suicide attempts lead him to take up Russian roulette, but before long the money is piling up and he has amassed a small fortune, enabling him to embark on a very different way of life...In this bizarre trip through Europe, Rubashov encounters some of the twentieth century's most notorious characters. Vallgren

St Petersburg, 1899. Obsessive gambler Rubashov has played every game in town. Now on New Year's Eve, he finds himself on the brink of ruin, and decides to make a bid for the ultimate rush, the biggest gamble ever, to challenge the Devil to a poker game.The Devil accepts the invitation and unsurprisingly Rubashov loses. However, the price is not straight to hell as he expected (hell is full and has been for years), the punishment is immortality. Rubashov has great difficulty coming to terms with his ever-lasting life; he now sees no end to what is already a miserable existence. Unsuccessful suicide attempts lead him to take up Russian roulette, but before long the money is piling up and he has amassed a small fortune, enabling him to embark on a very different way of life...In this bizarre trip through Europe, Rubashov encounters some of the twentieth century's most notorious characters. Vallgren

In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A TIME TO KILL.·Wheelchair-bound Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who's been locked away on death row for 11 years.It could well be their last visit.·Mack Stafford, a hard-drinking and low-grossing run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer gets a miracle phone call with a completely unexpected offer to settle some old, forgotten cases for more money than he has ever seen.Mack is suddenly bored with the law, fed up with his wife and his life, and makes drastic plans to finally escape.·Quiet, dull Sidney, a data collector for an insurance company, perfects his blackjack skills in hopes of bringing down the casino empire of Clanton's most ambitious hustler, Bobby Carl Leach, who, among other crimes, has stolen Sidney's wife.·Three good ol' boys from rural Ford County begin a journey to the big city of Memphis to give blood to a grievously injured friend. However, they are unable to drive past a beer store as the trip takes longer and longer.The journey comes to an abrupt end when they make a fateful stop at a Memphis strip club.·The Quiet Haven nursing home is the final stop for the elderly of Clanton.It's a sad, languid place with little controversy, until Gilbert arrives.Posing as a lowly paid bed pan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an uncanny ability to sniff out the assets of those 'seniors' he professes to love.·One of the hazards of litigating against people in a small town is that one day, long after the trial, you will probably come face to face with someone you've beaten in a lawsuit.Lawyer Stanley Wade bumps into an old adversary, a man with a long memory, and the encounter becomes a violent ordeal.·Clanton is rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family has finally come home, to die.Of AIDS. Fear permeates the town as gossip runs unabated.But in Lowtown, the colored section of Clanton, the young man finds a soul mate in his final days.Featuring a cast of characters you'll never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller.

Orphaned at a cruelly young age, little Hugo Dinsmore is torn from his pampered life and plunged into the nightmare world of brutish country relatives, a world where his refined ways and small stature are a constant source of mockery and torment. Survival means learning to be sly, and Hugo soon finds his talents for retribution and petty thieving. His pure singing voice soon brings him to the attention of the Eggman, a much-feared local gangster who gets Hugo to perform for him and his cronies at their late-night poker sessions. Hugo becomes a well-dressed mascot, travelling with the Eggman and his enforcers in the back of a pink Cadillac. Gradually he breaks away from his old, wretched life, but as the Eggman's grip tightens and a criminal price must be paid for all the fine clothes, Hugo decides to make a spectacular and hazardous break for freedom.