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Fiction A to Z January 2021
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| The Opium Prince by Jasmine AimaqStarring: Afghan-born American Daniel Abdullah Sajadi, posted to Kabul in 1970 to help eradicate the opium trade; Taj Maleki, local drug kingpin.
What happens: the accidental death of a young girl forces Daniel to compromise his mission; both men must contend with rising Soviet influence and increasing political chaos within their chosen realms.
Why you might like it: This debut -- by an author who grew up in Afghanistan and who has a background in foreign affairs -- effectively captures the dynamics of a complex nation. |
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| Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon HanWhat it is: the sobering story of a hardworking Chinese family in Texas, whose fragile, happy-enough façade falls apart in the wake of a misunderstanding.
Read it for: themes of belonging and loyalty; fully realized characters suffering through discontent and disillusion; a leisurely paced unfolding of an immigrant experience in the United States.
What to read next: Akhil Sharma's Family Life, about an Indian family whose immigration to the U.S. is similarly challenged by tragedy. |
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Dear Ann by Bobbie Ann MasonWhat it is: a beautifully crafted and profoundly moving novel which follows a woman as she looks back over her life and her first love. What it's about: Ann Workman, a woman facing a life crisis, reflects on her past as a naïve graduate student who set aside her educational ambitions at the height of the Summer of Love to pursue an obsessive relationship. Praise for the book: "Captures the poignancy of first love, its effect on everything that follows, and the naïveté and uncertainty of youth in the chaos of cultural change..... Highly recommended."-- Library Journal
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The Blind Light by Stuart EversWhat it's about: Emerging from a mid-20th-century British training-center recreation of an atomic bomb site, two traumatized soldiers forge a pact that has devastating consequences for their family in subsequent decades. Why you should read it: Stuart Evers writes with literary flair and intellect without ever abandoning the pleasures and emotional intensity of great storytelling. He explores the psychological legacy of nuclear war and social inequality yet finds a delicate beauty in the adventure of making a life in the ruins of the one you lived before.
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The Wrong Kind of Woman by Sarah McCraw CrowWhat it is: a powerful exploration of what a woman can be when what she should be is no longer an option What it's about: A late-1970s widow becomes increasingly dependent on the feminist activists her professor husband and she once disdained, before a frat party and a Vietnam War protest gone wrong threaten her daughter’s prospects. Reviewers say: Readers will soar through the smoothly written prose and empathize with the strong characters. Suggest to those who loved Jennifer Weiner's Mrs.Everything." --Booklist
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Jack by Marilynne RobinsonWhat it is: A conclusion to the story that began with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead traces the story of prodigal son John Ames Boughton, who pursues a star-crossed, interracial romance with a high school teacher who is also the son of a preacher. Reviewers say: Jack is the fourth novel in Robinson's Gilead series, an intergenerational saga of race, religion, family, and forgiveness centered on a small Iowa town. But it is not accurate to call it a sequel or a prequel. Rather, this book and the others-- Gilead, Home, and Lila--are more like the Gospels, telling the same story four different ways." --Casey Cep, The New Yorker
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| The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi DaréStarring: Adunni, a 14-year-old rural Nigerian girl who longs for an education in a place where girls are meant to marry young and serve their husbands.
What happens: When Adunni flees her marriage and escapes to Lagos, she finds more degradation and abuse, but is just as determined to find her way.
For fans of: compelling, hopeful stories about fearless young women, like Shobha Rao's Girls Burn Brighter. |
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| All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana MasadWhat happens: Maggie's mother, Iris, dies unexpectedly, putting an abrupt end to their complicated relationship, which was strained by Iris' discomfort with Maggie's sexuality.
And then: Maggie delivers five sealed letters to men from her mother's past, learning more than she ever thought possible about her mother, her parents' marriage, and herself.
For fans of: road-trip novels and stories of self-discovery. |
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| The Cactus League by Emily NemensAt the plate: star left-fielder Jason Goodyear, who's at his peak but is spiraling out of control.
What happens: Narrated by an unnamed sportswriter, we follow along as the 2011 spring training season in Scottsdale, AZ unfolds -- and the cast is full with players, owners, trainers, wives, girlfriends, and assorted fans and hangers-on, all with their own flaws and fallibilities.
Reviewers say: "Like the best sportswriting, this bighearted, finely observed novel is about far more than the game" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong WashburnThen: As a child, Nainoa fell overboard and was retrieved and returned by a pack of sharks, entering local Hawaiian lore.
Now: Nainoa is a paramedic in Oregon, his sister and brother similarly scattered. After he fails to save a young mother and her child, Nainoa returns to Hawaii and disappears.
Why you might like it: Covering 14 years and narrated in alternating sections by four of the five members of Nainoa's Filipino Hawaiian family, this lush debut tinged with magical realism explores the difficulties of modern Hawaiian life. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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