Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.

"My name is Lillian Leyb. I speak Yiddish very well, as you can hear, and I also speak Russian very well. If you prefer it. My English is coming along.... And I am fluent in sewing of every kind."

--FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF Away, IN WHICH LILLIAN IS LOOKING TO BE HIRED AS A SEAM-STRESS FOR A YIDDISH THEATER. BLOOM'S REVIEWS HAVE BEEN AMAZING, INCLUDING A STARRED ONE IN PW ("ABSOLUTELY STUNNING"). HER 15-CITY TOUR BEGINS SEPTEMBER 5 AND RH REPORTS 84,000 COPIES IN PRINT AFTER FOUR PRINTINGS.

Khoury set part of his second novel, The Sanctuary, in 2006 Beirut. On his Web site, he explains why: "I'd been thinking of setting the story in Iraq, in Baghdad, …