Barbara Braun Associates, Inc.

Publishers interested in receiving a manuscript or proposal for any of these titles, please email barbara@barbarabraunagency.com.

THE BLACK DRESS
by Anne Dimock
The author of the delightful “Humble Pie,” a hit two years ago, overcame breast cancer not once but twice. In this touching and uplifting memoir Dimock writes of how she learned to come to terms with a disease that affects millions of women. She tells movingly of what cancer means to a woman’s sense of her body, to her parenthood, and ultimately to her sense of life itself.

THE RIVER WHAT
by Michael J. MacLeod
In this remarkable account of his coming of age in the wilderness, MacLeod's writing is viscerally powerful, fresh and vigorous, communicating the harsh shocks of weather, solitude and big, angry animals with uncanny immediacy. in a series of magnificently described encounters with elk, wolves, deer and mountain lions, and hair-raising adventures on the water, on motorbikes and snowmobiles and in the air, this brash young man with a distant girlfriend turns into a married veteran of the forests.

THE SUNFLOWERS
by Sheramy Bundrick
Everyone knows Van Gogh cut off his ear, some know he gave it to an Arles prostitute. But who was she? In this tender, beautifully researched debut novel, art historian Bundrick creates a moving and believable love affair between the tormented painter and Rachel Courteau, in which she desperately tries, and fails, to save him from his demons.

THE BLACK ISLE
by Sandi Tan
This first novel by Singapore-born film maker Tan is described by its talented author as “a ghost history of modern Asia from a distinctly female point of view.” Ranging from the early 1930s, through the horrors of WWII to the economic dislocations of the present, it is the story of a “ghost hunter,” a peculiarly Asian designation, from girlhood to old age. A startling mix of “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Interview with the Vampire.”

Thicker Than Water
by Janet Majerus
Jessie Schroeder, a children’s author returned to her small Midwestern hometown of Riverport, finds murder on her doorstep. A large bequest in an eccentric family, a fatal case of arson, a strange auto accident and a sinister priest – these are just a few of the threads that she’s forced to unravel as she attempts to crack the case. Add to this her own oddball family and her ongoing affair with the police chief, and Majerus, author of “The Best Laid Plans,” has created another sprightly, engaging mystery.

On Desperate Ground
by James R. Benn
The author of the popular Billy Boyle series of WW II mysteries has a terrific standalone thriller set in the closing days of the war. Desperate to avert defeat as the Allied armies close in, the Nazis concoct a scheme, with Hitler’s approval, to set the American and Russian armies against each other. Racing against the clock, a young American intelligence officer has to make a fraught decision to avert disaster. Benn’s vast knowledge of men at war on both sides, and his skill at handling a fast-moving plot with a fascinating cast, make for a gripping read.

BLUE HORSES
by Michael Dean
Munich in the early 1930s, the years of Hitler’s ascent to power, was the scene of a passionate struggle for the soul of German art in which the Fuhrer joined. An artist himself, he championed mediocre Nazi artists and banned the Expressionists. Against this fascinating background, debut novelist Dean has fashioned a brainy thriller in which an art-loving public prosecutor pursuing Hitler over the mysterious death of his niece and lover is eventually drawn into a plot to assassinate him.

THE GIRLS OF SANTA CLAUS LANE
by Sandi Tan
The surprising personalities and relationships of a group of oddly assorted people living in a distant suburb of Los Angeles star in this witty, hip and ultimately touching novel by Singapore-born film-maker Tan. With a flawlessly contemporary eye and ear for the California melting pot, she spins a hugely readable and often startling tale that is by turns mysterious, sexy and funny.

"Splendid and wonderfully readable."
- James Ellroy

"There are many ways to be lost in multicultural America, and Sandi Tan has an unerring eye for all of them. By turns hilarious, sexy and shrewd, this novel has more surprising turns and collisions with reality than a bumper car gone wild."
- Phillip Lopate

MARCEL AND ME
by Stewart Buettner
In this wildly inventive debut YA novel, Stewart Buettner pairs a charming, physically awkward, and verbally hyperactive teen with the famed Dada artist Marcel Duchamp. Wallis Mayne is considered "slow" by his teachers and peers, he’s picked on at school, and his domestic situation is a mess -- divorced parents and an alcoholic father. His mother is studying French (and having an affair) with the as-yet unknown Duchamp. Duchamp and Wallis become pals, recognizing each others’ value -- the young boy is helped to achieve his dream of baseball glory, while Duchamp is encouraged to pursue his uncompromising vision of "ready-made" sculptures.

HOUDINI PIE
by Paul Michel
Paul Michel’s HOUDINI PIE is a picaresque tale of bootlegging, baseball and buried treasure, set in Depression-era southern California. The premise for the tale is based in fact; a madcap hunt for a legendary cache of gold supposedly buried by an ancient tribe of Indians beneath the streets of downtown Los Angeles. By turns rollicking and mysterious, the novel paints a colorful picture of greed, gullibility, loyalty, intrigue and even love in early 20th century America.

A SMALL SACRIFICE
by Dana King
To Chicago P.I. Nick Forte it looks like a hopeless job to take on: prove that a wealthy construction tycoon didn’t kill his small son, as the media is hinting—but the cops can’t prove. Nick comes up with his proof, but by doing so he puts his own life in great danger, and it takes a combination of luck, deadly conflict among the city’s criminal kingpins and a healthy sense of self-preservation to bring him through alive. Shrewdly plotted, narrated with edgy wit and an undertow of strong feeling, this is the first in what promises to be a notable series that revives the world of Chandler for today’s readers.