Debra Spark

For as long Daniella has been married to Joel, they’ve received phone calls at odd hours, and late at night. Daniella knows the caller as Liesel, Joel’s first wife, a woman whose sudden departure devastated her husband. After years of disruptive, long-distance phone calls, Liesel rings to tell Joel she’s letting Idzia, the seventeen-year-old daughter he has never met, visit for the summer. Daniella and Joel prepare for Idzia’s arrival, but when Joel goes to pick her up from the airport, Idzia isn’t there. Back at home, the phone calls suddenly stop, and Joel and Daniella become haunted by the absence of someone who was never part of their life to begin with. Debra Spark’s fourth novel, Unknown Caller, tells the story of a brief, failed marriage and its complicated aftermath. Leaping effortlessly across decades and continents, it works to uncover the reasons for Idzia and Liesel’s disappearance and the deeper puzzle of Liesel’s identity. Spark’s candid, intricate novel highlights the near-impossibility of truly knowing another person, the pain in failing relationships, and the joy in successful ones.

A Novel

Unknown Caller

A funny, sexy novel about Jewish families in the Midwest

Good for the Jews

"Twelve bell towers with twelve clocks with twenty-four spindly hands telling the time."

Novella and Stories

The Pretty Girl

Deborah Joy Corey

Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul A collection of essays by top literary talents and food writers, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class. Here, you’ll find Lily King on chocolate chip cookies, Richard Russo on beans, Jennifer Finney Boylan on homemade pizza, Susan Minot on the non-food food of her youth, and Richard Ford on why food doesn’t much interest him. Nancy Harmon Jenkins talks scallops, and Sandy Oliver the pleasures of being a locavore. Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend, and the pleasure of buying a prized chocolate egg for a child. Profits from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a nonprofit combating food insecurity by delivering healthy food from local farmers to those in need.

Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family

Breaking Bread

Maria Elena faints near a bakery, falls in love with the baker, and is drawn into his family's mysterious past.

Coconuts for the Saint

Nine essays discuss topics of fiction writing that include finding inspiration, devleoping a personal style, and creating a resonating closing line.

Essays on Fiction Writing

Curious Attractions

Fiction-writing guru Debra Spark brings us another collection of brilliant essays on the craft of plotting novels and stories.

And Then Something Happened

Stories tell of funeral plans, an unknown grandfather, a young dreamer, a foster child, an absent father, loneliness, a carnival ride, and a Rumanian translator

Debra Spark

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