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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 faรงade 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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| Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; translated by Geoffrey TrousselotIs time travel possible? It is in a tiny Tokyo cafรฉ, where one particular chair allows its occupants to visit past experiences (though several rules apply).
Is it for you? The physics of time travel is not addressed here; instead, four characters simply get a second chance to revisit lost loved ones.
Book buzz: This English-language debut by Japanese playwright Toshikazu Kawaguchi was a bestseller in Japan.
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The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
Featuring: twin sisters Stella and Desiree, who last saw each other as teenagers when they fled the Louisiana hometown where their father had been lynched.
Over the years: Stella has built a life for herself in which everyone, including her husband, believes her to be white; Desiree is the mother of a daughter so dark-skinned the hometown gossips stare.
Why you should read it: Spanning decades (from the 1940s to the 1990s), this is a compassionately drawn tale of family, colorism, and identity.
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The truants by Kate WeinbergWhat happens: Truants is about a group of clever and eccentric misfits who yearn to break the rules.
Featuring: Jess Walker has come to a concrete campus under the flat grey skies of East Anglia for one reason: To be taught by the mesmerizing and rebellious Dr Lorna Clay, whose seminars soon transform Jessโ thinking on life, love and Agatha Christie.
Why you might like it: A compulsively readable literary debut with a twist โ and a dead body to boot. ๐
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The book of echoes
by Rosanna Amaka
What happens: A young African woman has both her children torn from her. Her spirit is destined to roam the earth in search of them. She will make her way to England where Michael is trying to stay out of trouble as riots spit and boil down the streets of South London, and all the way to a sun-baked village in Nigeria, where a servant girl named Ngozi struggles to escape her low-caste status.
What you'll see: All the invisible threads that draw people together are pulled ever tighter through this debut novel.
What it asks: how can we overcome the traumas of the past when they are woven, so inextricably, with the present?
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| Tiny Imperfections by Alli Frank and Asha YoumansFeaturing: Josie Bordelon, former model and now the head of admissions at a tony private school in San Francisco.
What happens: With pushy parents to contend with at work (it's admission season), Josie's also got tension at home stemming from her daughter's impending high school graduation and their clashing ideas for her future.
Why you might like it: Though there's a romantic sub-plot, the focus of this charming, humorous debut is on the family bond between Josie, her aunt, and her daughter. And don't miss the snarky commentary on competitive West Coast high achievers.
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Real Life
by Brandon Taylor
Starring: biochem grad student Wallace, who is black, gay, and whose research is potentially being sabotaged.
What it's about: Wallace is not truly comfortable at his midwestern university, where all of his friends and colleagues are white and straight...including Miller, with whom he's just begun a turbulent relationship.
Reviewers say: "a sophisticated character study of someone squaring self-preservation with a duty to tolerate people who threaten it" (The New Yorker).
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Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid
Starring: Emira, a college-educated babysitter, who is black; her wealthy employer Alix, who is white.
What happens: An accusation of kidnapping shakes and terrifies Emira, shocks Alix, and leads to a complicated situation when well-meaning (but clueless) Alix proceeds to implement a "solution" for her own feelings of guilt -- regardless of what Emira wants.
Read it for: An upending of the white savior trope; a thought-provoking examination of contemporary race relations; nuanced characters; and even some humor.
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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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