The Iron Heel of Oligarchy

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.

Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Anti-Catholic and anti-cleric policies in the Mexican state of Tabasco lead the revolutionary government to persecute the state's last remaining priest.

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.

Dovlatov charts six days in the life of a brilliant, ironic writer who saw far beyond the rigid limits of 70s Soviet Russia. Sergei Dovlatov fought to preserve his own talent and decency with poet and writer Joseph Brodsky, while watching his artist friends got crushed by the iron-willed state machinery.

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.

Contemporary Russia. After he flubs a penalty kick, a humiliated national soccer player quits the game. He flees to a small town, where he decides to coach their local team.

Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.

A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.

Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.

The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

The holidays of Vince Adamek, a student of the agricultural school in his native village in South Moravia, are purely working. He likes his job as a zootechnician so much that he seems to turn down an assistant position at the university...

Three separate short stories by Jan Drda from the collection The Dumb Barricade: The Dynamite Watchman, Hatred and Traces.

A doctor from provincial town in Tsardom of Russia meets his former student in Ward 6, where the story takes place. Impressed by his rebellious spirit and clever remarks, he tends to spend more time with him while also indulging in meditation, only to be ridiculed by his fellow colleagues. Based on a Chekhov's work of the same title.

Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.

A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.

Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.

Three college students set out to document what other people dread the most. However, one of the three turns out to secretly be a sadistic psychopath who uses this knowledge to gruesomely torture the subjects.

A Pacific Northwestern woman experiences profound technological shifts over several decades. The protagonist encounters advances in nanotechnology, brain-machine interfaces and space exploration through personal encounters rather than global events, moving from initial resistance through gradual acceptance while maintaining her essential identity.

Mountaineer Álvar Toledano falls into an isolated valley inhabited by a community that has been blind for generations. Initially convinced of his superiority, Toledano soon discovers that his ability to see is considered a disturbance rather than advantage among the people of the valley. As he struggles to adapt, Toledano falls in love with Medina, the woman caring for him, leaving him to decide whether to renounce who he is in order to belong, or whether the price of seeing is to flee the valley of shadows.

Two scientists investigate the root of environmental changes and strange animal behavior at a remote site where a cult committed atrocities. The isolated location, the unraveling of their relationship, and the biome itself begin to lead them down a path of doom where primeval forces threaten to consume them. An adaptation of Laird Barron's short story "–30–".

Harvey and Janet Stevens are living the perfect life in the perfect house or so it seems. Janet has been secretly having an affair with Harvey's best friend Frank. What they don't know is Harvey may not be as in the dark as they suspect.

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

During the Yugoslav break-up, Federal Army officer is fed up with war and takes some leave in Belgrade. However, it turns out that he is less haunted by war horrors than with some sentimental skeletons in the closet. He meets his former comrade and best friend who is AWOL, but can't report him because he had an affair with his wife.

Based on the short story 'Coffee, Coffee, Coffee,' Last Stop is a story about observation and contradictions. A surreal look into a young photographers world as she documents her daily commute through a train station.

An introspective dentist's suspicions about his wife's infidelity stresses his mental well being and family life to the breaking point.

Angus is a large, pathetic 14-year-old whose thoughts are most often filled with the image of only one girl, Melissa Lefevre. Angus is shy and thinks that he has no chance of ever 'getting' her. Being especially uncool, he is incredibly surprised (along with the rest of the school) that he is chosen to dance with her at the Winter Ball. The only one not surprised is the cool kid who set him up to fail, but Angus' best friend is going to help him win the heart of Melissa by developing a new look for him