#hardcover #fiction #literaryfiction #transcendentkingdom #yaagyasi #contemporary 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

North Carolina

A Novel

"A novel about faith, science, religion, and family that tells the deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief, narrated by a fifth year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford school of medicine studying the neural circuits of reward seeking behavior in mice"--

Transcendent Kingdom

37ad0395-cef4-41a9-afe2-164b5e8c9f65-1

Minnie Darke

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Iowa

A sparkling romantic comedy about one woman's decision to tinker with the horoscopes of the man of her dreams--with far-reaching consequences "A bright, brilliant, joyful love story."--Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December When childhood sweethearts Justine (Sagittarius and serious skeptic) and Nick (Aquarius and true believer) bump into each other as adults, a life-changing love affair seems inevitable. To Justine, anyway. Especially when she learns Nick is an astrological devotee, whose decisions are guided by the stars, and more specifically, by the horoscopes in his favorite magazine. The same magazine Justine happens to write for. As Nick continues to not fall headlong in love with her, Justine decides to take Nick's horoscope, and Fate itself, into her own hands. But, of course, Nick is not the only Aquarius making important life choices according to what is written in the stars. Charting the ripple effects of Justine's astrological meddling, Star-Crossed is a delicious, intelligent, and affecting love story about friendship, chance, and how we all navigate the kinds of choices that are hard to face alone. Advance praise for Star-Crossed "Swoon-worthy . . . a smart, sweet love story about friendship, destiny, and the power of choice."―Bustle "[A] juicy romance novel."―Good Housekeeping "This cleverly structured first outing from the pseudonymous Darke will appeal to fans of romantic comedy, astrology, and chaos. Utterly charming and ripe for development as a film."―Booklist "Winning . . . Unpretentious, well-drawn characters and the fresh twist on the childhood sweethearts reunited setup make this perfect for fans of romantic comedies."―Publishers Weekly "Darke creates a world of stargazers whose destinies eventually collide. . . . Funny and enticing."―Library Journal

Star-Crossed

a1aadaf6-b9ba-4275-9fb1-9d895d103514-1

Myriam J. A. Chancy

Georgia

"Sublime. A striking and formidable novel by one of our most brilliant writers and storytellers." --Edwidge Danticat The earth had buckled and, in that movement, all that was not in its place fell upon the earth's children, upon the blameless as well as the guilty, without discrimination.

What Storm, What Thunder

08bc0df3-60c0-4bb0-8182-b5c6cb0b68b5-1

Yaa Gyasi

Pennsylvania

Richard Russo

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

South Carolina

Miles Roby tries to hold his family together while working at the Empire Grill in the once-successful logging town of Empire Falls while dealing with the imperious Mrs. Whiting, the heir to a faded logging and textile legacy, in this evocative novel by the author of Nobody's Fool. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

Empire Falls

838d9b03-8346-4d4f-8969-d55090ec6f8a-1

#hardcover #adult #brazil #cultural #drama #fiction #historicalfiction #literaryfiction 

California

A FALL 2018 HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SELECTION BY * PEOPLE * O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * VULTURE * CHICAGO TRIBUNE * THE MILLIONS * FAST COMPANY * SEATTLE TIMES * ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH * BOOKPAGE * BOOKRIOT * CONDE NAST TRAVELER * "[A] luminous mother-daughter saga."—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY "Lovely and heartbreaking."—PEOPLE "A beautiful testament to [Park’s] extraordinary talents as a storyteller…A ferocious page-turner."—KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW) From the critically acclaimed author of This Burns My Heart comes a gorgeous, emotionally wise tale about a daughter who unearths the hidden life of her enigmatic mother. Mara Alencar's mother Ana is her moon, her sun, her stars. Ana, a struggling voice-over actress, is an admirably brave and recklessly impulsive woman who does everything in her power to care for her little girl. With no other family or friends her own age, Ana eclipses Mara's entire world. They take turns caring for each other—in ways big and small. Their arrangement begins to unravel when Ana becomes involved with a civilian rebel group attempting to undermine the city's torturous Police Chief, who rules over 1980s Rio de Janeiro with terrifying brutality. Ana makes decisions that indelibly change their shared life. When Mara is forced to escape, she emigrates to California as an undocumented immigrant and finds employment as a caregiver to a young woman dying of stomach cancer. It’s here that she begins to grapple with her turbulent past and starts to uncover vital truths—about her mother, herself, and what it means to truly take care of someone. Told with vivid imagery and subtle poignancy, The Caregiver is a moving and profound story that asks us to investigate who we are—as children and parents, immigrants and citizens, and ultimately, humans looking for vital connectivity

The Caregiver

5e81bebf-d8a8-4933-a88a-6cdba29fb617-1

Miranda Popkey

New York

For readers of Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, and Jenny Offill--a compact tour de force about sex, violence, and self-loathing from a ferociously talented new voice in fiction Miranda Popkey's first novel is about desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt--written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism. The novel is composed almost exclusively of conversations between women--the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage--and careens through twenty years in the life of an unnamed narrator hungry for experience and bent on upending her life. Edgy, wry, shot through with rage and despair, Topics of Conversation introduces an audacious and immensely gifted new novelist.

Topics of Conversation

73b085ad-aa67-4b15-9c5d-758fef95e289-1

Kai Harris

Arkansas

Named A Most Aniticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* Buzzfeed* Essence* Bookbub and more! In the vein of Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones and Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, a coming-of-age novel told by almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB), as she and her sister try to make sense of their new life with their estranged grandfather in the wake of their father's death and their mother's disappearance. An ode to Black girlhood and adolescence as seen through KB's eyes, What the Fireflies Knew follows KB after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon thereafter, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a single sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down. Her father has been labeled a fiend. Her mother's smile no longer reaches her eyes. Her sister, once her best friend, now feels like a stranger. Her grandfather is grumpy and silent. The white kids who live across the street are friendly, but only sometimes. And they're all keeping secrets. As KB vacillates between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, she is forced to carve out a different identity for herself and find her own voice. A dazzling and moving novel about family, identity, and race, What the Fireflies Knew poignantly reveals that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up--the realization that loved ones can be flawed and that the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.

What the Fireflies Knew

13d132c9-9fe4-414f-a72d-801b9ca46cb7-1

Eley Williams

Wisconsin

An exhilarating and laugh-out-loud debut novel from a prize-winning new talent which chronicles the misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world. Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement. Peter Winceworth, Victorian lexicographer, is toiling away at the letter 'S' for Swansby's multi-volume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. His disaffection compels him to insert unauthorised fictitious entries into the dictionary in an attempt to assert some sense of individual purpose and artistic freedom. In the present day, Mallory, a young intern employed by the publisher, is tasked with uncovering these mountweazels before the work is digitised. She also has to contend with threatening phone calls from an anonymous caller. Is the change in the definition of 'marriage' really that upsetting? And does the caller really intend for the Swansby's staff to 'burn in hell'? As these two narratives combine, both Winceworth and Mallory discover how they might negotiate the complexities of the often nonsensical, relentless, untrustworthy, hoax-strewn and undefinable path we call life. An exhilarating debut novel from a formidably brilliant young writer, The Liar's Dictionary celebrates the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language.

The Liar's Dictionary

b1d15d43-f0bd-44e0-a07f-13e2819b57e0-1

Illinois

Jess Walter

Washington

"Orphans Gig and Rye Dolan don't have a penny to their names. The brothers work grueling, odd jobs each day just to secure a meal, and spend nights sleeping wherever they can with other day laborers. Twenty-three-year-old Gig is a passionate union man, fighting for fair pay and calling out the corrupt employers who exploit the working class. Eager to emulate his older brother, Rye follows suit, though he can't quite muster Gig's passion for the cause. But when Rye's turn on the soap box catches the eye of well-known activist and suffragette Elizabeth Gurley, he is swept into the world of labor activism-and dirty business. With his brother's life on the line, Rye must evade the barbaric police force, maneuver his way out of the clutches of a wealthy businessman-and figure out for himself what he truly stands for. The Cold Millions is a stunning portrait of class division and familial bonds. In this masterful historical take on the enduring saga of America's economic divide, Jess Walter delivers nothing less than another "literary miracle" (NPR)"--

The Cold Millions

b5801b84-99d3-4e59-a25c-e361686c95a0-1

Carly Nugent

Ohio

Perfect for fans of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and Waiting for Normal, this charming middle grade mystery is full of heart, humor, and more than a few surprises.

Eleven-turning-twelve-year-old Cassie is an expert Peacock Detective.

Her sharp eye for details is why the Hudsons from across the street call her every time their pet peacocks wander away.

But there are some things even the greatest Peacock Detective can't figure out, like why her best friend is so angry lately; why her older sister is cutting her hair off; or why her parents are acting like they don't know each other anymore.

Cassie is an expert at solving things. But what's a master detective to do when her whole world is changing, and all the answers are out of reach?

The Peacock Detectives

126bb7ff-9587-4499-89d3-1d49ad01e545-1

#hardcover #academia #fiction #literaryfiction #comingofage #school #1960s #boyhood #nostalgia 

Sam has spent more than half his life at the prestigious Leverett high school, which lies at the heart of an affluent Connecticut town of the same name. First as a student in the late 1960s, before coeducation, then as an English teacher, he developed a keen sense of loyalty to this vaunted institution that shaped his identity. But when the headmaster reveals that a former classmate of Sam's has raised allegations of long-concealed sexual abuse, Sam finds himself reliving those formative years, forced to confront the dark underside of a seemingly enviable world of wealth and intellect.

School Days

8227a1bd-7e10-4517-bc21-b3e0fcfaba77-1

#paperback #ethanjoella #fiction #family #contemporary #indie #literaryfiction #drama #realisticfiction

From the author of A Little Hope--a Read with Jenna Bonus Pick--comes an enormously powerful and life-affirming novel about three individuals whose lives intersect in unforeseen ways.

Set in a close-knit Pennsylvania suburb in the grip of winter, A Quiet Life follows three people grappling with loss and finding a tender wisdom in their grief.

Chuck Ayers used to look forward to nothing so much as his annual trip to Hilton Head with his wife, Cat--that yearly taste of relaxation they'd become accustomed to in retirement, after a lifetime of working and raising two children. Now, just months after Cat's death, Chuck finds that he can't let go of her things--her favorite towel, the sketchbooks in her desk drawer--as he struggles to pack for a trip he can't imagine taking without her.

Ella Burke delivers morning newspapers and works at a bridal shop to fill her days while she anxiously awaits news--any piece of information--about her missing daughter. Ella adjusts to life in a new apartment and answers every call on her phone, hoping her daughter will reach out one day.

After the sudden death of her father, Kirsten Bonato set aside her veterinary school aspirations, finding comfort in the steady routine of working at an animal shelter. But as time passes, old dreams and new romantic interests begin to surface--and Kirsten finds herself at another crossroads.

In this beautifully crafted and profoundly moving novel, three parallel narratives converge in poignant and unexpected ways, as each character bravely presses onward, trying to recover something they have lost. Emotionally riveting and infused with hope, A Quiet Life celebrates humanity in the midst of uncertainty.

A Quiet Life

07fb0449-ef30-4aa5-988c-12b2dcd27832-1

#hardcover #literaryfiction #JonasJonasson

Michigan

Jonas Jonasson's picaresque tale of how one person's actions can have far-reaching--even global--consequences, written with the same light-hearted satirical voice as his bestselling debut novel, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

On June 14th, 2007, the King and Prime Minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the Royal Castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill: the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes her way up to the position of chief advisor, at the helm of one of the world's most secret projects.

Here is where the story merges with, then diverges from reality. South Africa developed six nuclear missiles in the 1980s, then voluntarily dismantled them in 1994. This is a story about the seventh missile . . . the one that was never supposed to have existed. Nombeko Mayeki knows too much about it, and now she's on the run from both the South African justice and the most terrifying secret service in the world. She ends up in Sweden, which has transformed into a nuclear nation, and the fate of the world now lies in Nombeko's hands. 

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

18335e25-fc74-4c07-b039-3648b1b5af4b-1

Ian McEwan

From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it.

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means--music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times--a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.

Lessons

22964da5-e2e5-4856-80a6-1bc789856b41-1

#hardcover #fiction #romance #anywhereforyou #literaryfiction #contemporary #mentalhealth 

"A stylish and confident new voice--readers are going to love discovering Abbie Greaves." -- Louise Candlish, internationally bestselling author of Our House and Those People A poignant and thrilling love story about one woman's decade-long search to reconnect with the love of her life who disappeared without a trace--a stirring and heartfelt page-turner from the critically acclaimed author of The Silent Treatment. The straphangers of Ealing Broadway station are familiar with Mary O'Connor, the woman who appears every day to watch the droves of busy commuters. But Mary never asks anything from anyone. She only holds out a sign bearing a heartrending message: Come Home Jim. While others pass her by without a thought, Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, asks Mary to tell her story. Many years ago, Mary met the charming and romantic Jim Whitnell. She was certain she'd found her other half, until one day he vanished without any explanation. But Mary believes that Jim isn't a cad, that he truly loved her and will return--especially because she's recently received grainy phone calls from him saying he misses her. Touched but also suspicious, Alice quietly begins her own investigation into Jim's disappearance, unraveling a decade-long story filled with desire, heartbreak, and hope. With Greaves's signature warmth and charm, Anywhere for You is a romantic and immensely moving novel about the enduring power of love and finding happiness in unexpected places.

Anywhere for You

a27b8fac-0c5f-4a73-aa90-0694125aadd5-1

Jonathan Franzen

Utah

Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads. It’s December 23, 1971, and the Hildebrandt family is at a crossroads. The patriarch, Russ, the associate pastor of a suburban Chicago church, is poised to break free of a marriage he finds joyless—unless his brilliant and unstable wife, Marion, breaks free of it first. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college afire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has veered into the era’s counterculture, while their younger brother Perry, fed up with selling pot to support his drug habit, has firmly resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. Universally recognized as the leading novelist of his generation, Jonathan Franzen is often described as a teller of family stories. Only now, though, in Crossroads, has he given us a novel in which a family, in all the intricacy of its workings, is truly at the center. By turns comic and harrowing, a tour-de-force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, Crossroads is the first volume of a trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, that will span three generations and trace the inner life of our culture through the present day. Complete in itself, set in a historical moment of moral crisis, and reaching back to the early twentieth century, Crossroads serves as a foundation for a sweeping investigation of human mythologies, as the Hildebrandt family navigates the political, intellectual, and social crosscurrents of the past fifty years.

Crossroads

6a27831b-4887-4598-a558-7414c5a78808-1

Megan Hunter

Book has never been read. Pet friendly home. 

Louisiana

Part revenge tale, part fairytale, The Harpy is an electrifying story of marriage, infidelity and power by the author of the #1 Indie Next Pick, The End We Start From, Megan Hunter

The Harpy

deaa3f3e-d989-460d-98ac-95d60eb7f4be-1

Lisa Harding

"Shocking--and shockingly good. It is thought-provoking, anger-provoking, guilt-provoking, and--most importantly--it is a brilliantly written novel."--Roddy Doyle 

Thrown together by a harrowing twist of fate, two girls will find hope and redemption in friendship in this award-winning, emotional gut punch of a novel from the author of Bright Burning Things.

Sassy, streetwise Sammy is a teenage girl who is falling through the cracks. Neglected by an alcoholic mother, the problems she endures at school and home lead her into the hands of adults who don't have her best interests in mind. Failed by them at every turn, Sammy acts out, seeking attention from boys, then men, when what she wants most is protection.

Meanwhile, in a small village in Eastern Europe, preternaturally beautiful and naïve Nico is about to turn thirteen and as her family falls upon desperate times, her father is approached to marry her off. Her family knows that the nice life this stranger seems to be offering Nico is too good to be true, but they and Nico hope for the best as she's shuttled across the border into Ireland, where she and Sammy find one another in their new home, a suburban brothel.

As Nico and Sammy journey into this dark underbelly and out the other side, their friendship--and the unexpected acts of kindness they give and receive--form a potent bond.

Heartbreaking and breathtakingly beautiful, Cloud Girls exposes the failings of polite society and the cruelty that exists beneath its surface, yet reminds us that goodness and love can flourish in the darkest times.

Cloud Girls

1f302422-7226-4d91-a496-5925b800e8b8-1

Rachel Joyce

"It's 1988. The CD has arrived. Sales of the shiny new disks are soaring on high streets in cities across the country. Meanwhile, down a dead-end street, Frank's music shop stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. It attracts the lonely, the sleepless, the adrift. There is room for everyone. Frank has a gift for finding his customers the music they need. Into this shop arrives Ilse Brauchmann - practical, brave, well-heeled. Frank falls for this curious woman who always dresses in green. But Ilse's reasons for visiting the shop are not what they seem. Frank's passion for Ilse seems as misguided as his determination to save vinyl. How can a man so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of helping himself? And what will it take to show he loves her? The Music Shop is a story about good, ordinary people who take on forces too big for them. It's about falling in love and how hard it can be. And it's about music - how it can bring us together when we are divided and save us when all seems lost"--

The Music Shop

44701c1c-3b04-42dc-980e-c20036ace3d7-1

Zadie Smith

An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North-West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty Two brown girls dream of being dancers but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighborhood behind, traveling the world as an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one percent live. But when Aimee develops grand philanthropic ambitions, the story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey the same twists, the same shakes and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time."

Swing Time *Ex Library Edition* 

7c65f8a5-ee65-4368-aa75-4e93c9320a3b-1

Emma Jane Unsworth

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “[E]ssential reading for our dismal times.” —The Wall Street Journal One of Bustle’s “Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020” PopSugar’s “26 Incredible New Books Coming Your Way This August” Good Housekeeping’s “25 New Fall Books You Have to Read This Season” Lit Hub’s “Most Anticipated Books of 2020” Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant, original novel about a woman going through a breakup…but really having more of a breakdown. Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood. Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman’s body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box… But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny’s life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?

Browse by categories

Save this search

Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

Minnie Darke

Star-Crossed

Myriam J. A. Chancy

What Storm, What Thunder

Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

Richard Russo

Empire Falls

Samuel Park

The Caregiver

Miranda Popkey

Topics of Conversation

Kai Harris

What the Fireflies Knew

Eley Williams

The Liar's Dictionary

Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom

Jess Walter

The Cold Millions

Carly Nugent

The Peacock Detectives

Jonathan Galassi

School Days

Ethan Joella

A Quiet Life

Jonas Jonasson; Rachel Willson-Broyles

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

Ian McEwan

Lessons

Abbie Greaves

Anywhere for You

Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads

Megan Hunter

The Harpy

Miranda Popkey

Topics of Conversation

Lisa Harding

Cloud Girls

Rachel Joyce

The Music Shop

Zadie Smith

Swing Time *Ex Library Edition*

Emma Jane Unsworth

Grown Ups

Swing Time Ex Library Edition