Stolen Goods

Two days before the wedding, Anna Karavejian's fiance dies in a car crash. Anna goes numb, a central part of her psyche remaining that way for the next 15 years, first as she teaches math in the Bronx and later when she takes over her father's lower Manhattan printing firm. Even as she becomes a successful business figure, Anna holds no further expectations for her personal life. She remains close to her family, especially to her father and her two older sisters, the pristine and organized Lucia, married to a prominent cellist, and Mary, a political activist from the '60s, whose husband will serve a prison term 20 years after the fact for his protest activities. Through a client, Anna meets Charles, a crippled writer and teacher from Vermont. The stormy path of their romancetheir first meeting involves a bizarre robberyrequires considerable accommodation on both sides before they are able to trust either themselves or each other. With force, verve and dramatic immediacy, screenwriter Dworkin spins a compelling tale of a family that is close-knit and modern at the same time. Her charactersflawed, disparate and admirablewill enjoy a lengthy afterlife in readers' minds. 15,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate; major ad/promo. (July 6)