Louis Begley’s perceptive novel hums with emotional energy and shimmers with haunting images. A National Book Critics’ Circle Award finalist, About Schmidt is a powerful meditation on loneliness, desire, and transformation. Old-school lawyer Albert Schmidt has spent years carefully climbing the ladder of success. But now, at what should be the pinnacle of his career, his life is in chaos. Within months, he is widowed and forcibly retired from his firm. He harbors painfully mixed feelings about his ambitious daughter’s impending marriage. Suddenly, in the midst of this turmoil, a seductive young woman asks Smitty what he wants. Far from being a time of satisfaction and complacency, the middle age encountered by Begley’s hero is the beginning of a new journey tantalizing, yet unnerving. From the first step, Begley draws the reader deeply into a man’s quest for new ways to understand an unstable world.

The man who brutally murdered Uncle Harry is dead. In an effort to recover from the confrontation and collect himself, Jack takes refuge on Torcello, a small island in the Venetian lagoon, to return to his writing career. Even more urgently, he wants to win back Kerry, the beautiful lawyer who rejected him after the bloody episode with Harry’s assassin.
But events beyond Jack’s control intervene: Kerry loses her life in circumstances that contradict everything Jack thinks he knew about her. Soon death begins to stalk Jack himself. It is impossible not to recognize in its drumbeat the machinations of Abner Brown, the man who orchestrated Harry’s demise.
Jack fights back, driven by cold rage and determination to complete his revenge. At his side is Kerry’s best friend, the glamorous and enigmatic Heidi Krohn. Their quest will force Jack to plumb the abyss of depravity into which Kerry had sunk and face one of his fellow Marines who has embarked on a violent feud of his own.
Reprising memorable characters from Killer, Come Hither and introducing dangerous new ones, Begley concludes Jack’s harrowing vendetta with one last shocking twist.

A PEN/Hemingway Award winner, Louis Begley creates multi-faceted characters that come to life under the spell of his crystalline prose. Returning his readers to the wealthy and privileged world of About Schmidt, he introduces them, this time, to an especially poignant protagonist. “A happy man, as the world goes,” Thomas Mistler feels an odd sense of liberation now that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This hard-driving Madison Avenue mogul suddenly has an excuse to live for the moment. But spending time alone in Venice is not the free-wheeling, self-indulgent experience he had hoped for. As growing evidence of his physical decline intrudes, Mistler’s sense of control diminishes. With one final impulsive purchase, though, he boldly plans his exit on his own terms. Bitingly candid and sometimes funny, this small gem of a novel addresses the complexities of responsibility, pleasure, and suffering. Narrator Paul Hecht renders the subtle, understated, and intimate prose with amazing ease. The last tape contains an interview with the author.

Best-selling author Louis Begley created a beguiling icon of middle age in About Schmidt. Recently widowed, pushed into retirement by his law firm, at odds with his family, Albert Schmidt captivated readers with his cautious courage. Now he is facing ever mounting challenges of life, love, and age. Schmidt is happy living with his affectionate young girlfriend, Carrie. His grumpy daughter, on the other hand, seems to want only money from him. What really disturbs Schmidt, however, is the growing attention of his neighbor, the exotic Michael Mansour. Wealthy and persistent, Mansour seems determined to draw Schmidt into his lavish personal and financial affairs. Louis Begley’s aim is perfect as he targets the joys and pitfalls facing our graying hero. Audie Award-winning narrator George Guidall brings out all the wry humor of a man who is fully aware of his flaws and weaknesses, yet remains strong.

A PEN/Hemingway Award winner and finalist for the National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and National Book Critics’ Circle Award, Louis Begley offers listeners the third novel starring retired lawyer Albert Schmidt. “Schmidtie” (to people who know him) is languishing alone, with only two real friends and his daughter in contact. Readying his home in the Hamptons for a visit from his estranged friend Alice, Schmidt hopes to resurrect a relationship he left in shambles a decade ago.

As the world slips into the throes of war in 1939, nine-year-old Maciek’s once closeted existence outside Warsaw is no more. When Warsaw falls, the orphaned Maciek escapes with his sharp-tongued aunt Tania. Posing as Catholic Poles to hide their Jewish identity, they endure the war together—running, hiding, changing their names, forging documents to secure their temporary lives—as the insistent drum of the Nazi march moves ever closer to them and to their secret wartime lies.

This exquisite, acclaimed novel of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of a young Polish boy was chosen by the New York Times as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year, nominated for the National Book Award, and won the 1991 Irish Times–Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize.