Friendship, love, and misplaced hope drive the characters who populate a new collection of Maeve Binchy stories.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else's shoes? Nisha Cantor and Sam Kemp are two very different women. Nisha, 45, lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband inexplicably cuts her off entirely. She doesn't even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That's because Sam--47, middle-aged, struggling to keep herself and her family afloat--has accidentally taken Nisha's gym bag. Now Nisha's...

Tully Hart has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and memories of a painful past. She thinks she can overcome anything until her best firend, Kate Ryan, dies. Tully tries to fulfill her deathbed promise to kate--to be there for Kate's children--but Tully knows nothing about family or motherhood or taking care of people.

The story of a down-on-her-luck Southern teen who, after gaining 15 minutes of fame for giving birth to "The Wal-Mart baby", begins to put her life together with the help of the kind, quirky strangers who become her surrogate family.

It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson--a sensible schoolmarm and lonely spinster--is just trying to get through life. But one day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and her tidy, circumscribed life, to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of an insect that may or may not exist: the golden beetle of New Caledonia, Margery's childhood obsession ever since her father gave...

Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated...

Cecilia Ross is looking for a change. She has decided to take time off from her job as a successful motivational speaker and sell her home. She moves in to a beautiful old house in St. Paul, Minnesota, complete with a big front porch, a wild garden, a chef's kitchen--and three roommates. The four women are different ages, but all are feeling restless, and want to take a roadtrip to find again the people and things they miss.

"Drawn by a promise of "wisteria and sunshine," four English ladies rent a medieval castle on the Italian Riviera. Although each is very different from the others in personality, all find common ground and renewed feelings of love and hopefulness amid the countryside's natural beauty. This bestselling tale of self-discovery ; recounted with warmth, wit, and charm; was adapted several times for stage and screen"-- Provided by publisher.

"An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences in a chilling new novel from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd. Emily is having the time of her life--she's in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker...

Inseparable best friends Kate and Tully, two young women who, despite their very different lives, have vowed to be there for each other forever, have been true to their promise for thirty years, until events and choices in their lives tear them apart.