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Fiction A to Z September 2017
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Paris in the Present Tense
by Mark Helprin
When faced with a series of challenges to his principles, livelihood and home, Jules—a 74-year-old maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widow, veteran of the war in Algeria and child of the Holocaust—must confront his complex past and find a way forward. By the author of Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War.
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In the Midst of Winter : A Novel
by Isabel Allende
A minor traffic accident becomes a catalyst for an unexpected bond among a human rights scholar, his Chilean lecturer tenant and an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, who explore firsthand the difficulties of immigrants and refugees in today's world. By the best-selling author of The House of the Spirits
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| Stay with Me by Ayobami AdebayoDespite cultural pressures for her husband to take a second wife, Yejide knows that Akin would never do so. Until, after four years of failing to conceive a child, he does. Mimicking Nigeria's unstable political system, their marriage falters. Under the intense pressure to provide a child, both husband and wife keep secrets from the other in their efforts to save their relationship. Told in alternating chapters from both characters' perspectives, and taking place in the late 1980s and 2008, this is an "emotionally powerful first novel" (Library Journal) that captures both the agony of infertility and the turmoil of life in Nigeria. |
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The It Girls
by Karen Harper
Promoting themselves from genteel poverty to fame, two beautiful sisters, one a daring fashion designer and the other a writer of scandalous novels, become each other's most staunch supporter and harshest critic in the face of misunderstandings and confidences. By the award-winning author of Dark Angel.
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The Party
by Elizabeth Day
Ben, who hails from old money, and Martin, who grew up poor but is slowly carving out a successful career as an art critic, have been inseparable since childhood. Ben's wife Serena likes to jokingly refer to Martin as Ben's dutiful Little Shadow. Lucy is a devoted wife to Martin, even as she knows she'll always be second best to his sacred friendship. When Ben throws a lavish 40th birthday party as his new palatial country home, Martin and Lucy attend, mixing with the very upper echelons of London society. But why, the next morning, is Martin in a police station being interviewed about the events of last night? Why is Lucy being forced to answer questions about his husband and his past? What exactly happened at the party? And what has bound these two very different men together for so many years?
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Smile
by Roddy Doyle
Approached by a man he does not remember who claims they attended secondary school together, a man on his own for the first time in years reluctantly reflects on unhappy memories from the past, including those of a brutal teacher who left him traumatized and struggling to hold fast to his sanity. By the award-winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
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Stolen Marriage
by Diane Chamberlain
Impulsively ending her engagement to another man to marry a mysterious stranger from a small North Carolina community in 1944, Tess rapidly discovers that she is trapped in a loveless relationship and is treated with suspicion by secretive neighbors before discovering her talents as nurse during a devastating polio outbreak.
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| The Heart's Invisible Furies by John BoyneIn 1945, Cyril Avery was born to an unmarried teenager (the book opens with a dramatic scene in a rural Irish church that sets this up with relish) and adopted by a wealthy if rather eccentric Dublin couple. As readers, we visit Cyril every seven years, as he grows and comes to terms with his homosexuality in a violently repressive Ireland, flees his home country, and falls in love. With richly drawn characters, plausibly life-altering choices, and an absorbing, often humorous writing style, The Heart's Invisible Furies may well appeal to fans of John Irving's work (it is, in fact, dedicated to him). |
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Manhattan Beach : A Novel
by Jennifer Egan
Years after she is placed in the hands of a stranger vital to her family's survival, Anna takes a job at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during the war while meeting with the man who helped them and learning important truths about her father's disappearance. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
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The Ballad of Black Bart
by Loren D. Estleman
Between July 1875 and November 1883, a single outlaw robbed the stagecoaches of Wells Fargo in California’s Mother Lode country a record of twenty-eight times. Armed with an unloaded shotgun, walking to and from the scenes of the robberies, often for hundreds of miles, and leaving poems behind, the infamous Black Bart was fiercely hunted. Between robberies, Black Bart was known as Charles E. Bolton, a distinguished, middle-aged man who enjoyed San Francisco’s entertainments in the company of socialites drawn to his quiet, temperate good nature and upper-class tastes. Meanwhile, James B. Hume, Wells Fargo’s legendary chief of detectives, made Bart’s apprehension a matter of personal as well as professional interest. The Ballad of Black Bart is a duel of wits involving two adversaries of surpassing cleverness, set against the vivid backdrop of the Old West.
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| Rebellion by Molly PattersonStraddling several generations and two continents, this sweeping, sprawling debut tells the stories of several strong women who rebel against cultural expectations. In 1890, Addie becomes a missionary in China, while her sister Louisa moves to Ohio and avidly reads her letters...until they stop arriving in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion. In the 1950s, Louisa's daughter Hazel fights for her independence when she is prematurely widowed, a struggle that begins again when she moves into a nursing home in 1999. And in present-day China, college graduate Juanlan falls into an affair while trying to figure out what to do with her life. "Addictive reading," says Kirkus Reviews. |
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The Prague Sonata : A Novel
by Bradford Morrow
Coming into the possession a mysterious 18th-century sonata manuscript, a young musicologist is astonished by the mastery of the music and embarks on a search for the identities of the composer and the manuscript's true owner. By the author of The Foragers.
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The Rules of Magic
by Alice Hoffman
A prequel to the best-selling Practical Magic traces the story of the children of Susanna Owens, who, in spite of their mother's fierce edicts against witchcraft, develop powerful abilities while struggling to escape the family curse that leads to tragedy if they fall in love.
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Enchantress of Numbers : A Novel
by Jennifer Chiaverini
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada’s father, who was infamously “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Ada’s mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes. When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage—brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly—will shape her destiny. Intrigued by the prototype of his first calculating machine, the Difference Engine, and enthralled by the plans for his even more advanced Analytical Engine, Ada resolves to help Babbage realize his extraordinary vision, unique in her understanding of how his invention could transform the world. All the while, she passionately studies mathematics—ignoring skeptics who consider it an unusual, even unhealthy pursuit for a woman—falls in love, discovers the shocking secrets behind her parents’ estrangement, and comes to terms with the unquenchable fire of her imagination.
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The Revolution of Marina M.
by Janet Fitch
St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn. As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times. This is the epic, mesmerizing story of one indomitable woman's journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century.
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Fresh Complaint : Stories
by Jeffrey Eugenides
A first collection of short fiction by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Virgin Suicides features some of his most acclaimed pieces including the title story, in which a high school student, desperate to escape the strictures of her immigrant family, makes a drastic decision that upends the life of a British physicist.
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The Relive Box and Other Stories
by T. Coraghessan Boyle
A raucous collection of one dozen short stories by the best-selling author of The Terranauts includes the title piece, in which a "relive box" allows users to re-experience almost any moment from their past.
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Focus on: Fathers & Fatherhood
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| War Dances by Sherman AlexieComposed of short stories and poetry, this collection isn't really all about fatherhood, but the bits that are prove to be powerful. Following one poem, National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie outlines all the lies he has just told about his father; a Native American narrator is forced to recall his father's death as he faces his own mortality. Read it for the poetry, read it for the Native American perspective, read it because you're already a fan. You're not likely to be disappointed. |
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| Perfume River by Robert Olen ButlerThis painful, often thought-provoking novel is about war and its effects on family -- in this case, the Vietnam War and the North Florida family of veteran Robert Quinlan. Though the war is nearly 50 years in the past, its hold is strong on the Quinlans: while Robert enlisted, his younger brother Jimmy fled to Canada, where he's been living ever since, out of touch with his family. Their now-elderly father's shattered hip brings them together for the first time in decades. Robert himself hasn't come to terms with his own actions during the war, which continues to affect him every day. |
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| The Precious One by Marisa de los SantosTaisy Cleary has long been estranged from her father, a demanding college professor, ever since he abandoned his family for a new one decades ago. So when he calls from his deathbed, asking her to visit (and ghostwrite his memoirs), she is surprised -- but agrees. Both Taisy (age 35) and her half-sister Willow (16) have pretty strong preconceptions of each other (and view each other as rivals for their father's attention), and the novel is as much about their burgeoning relationship as it is about their father. Character-driven and moving, The Precious One features authentic, well-developed characters. |
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| Winter Street by Elin HilderbrandWinter Street was bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand's first Christmas novel, but there are now four of the holiday-oriented series set in Nantucket (the latest, Winter Solstice, will be published this October). This one begins with a family reunion at Kelley Quinn's inn, which is upset by the personal dramas of his four adult children and his wife's infidelity -- with Santa, no less (or, OK, the guy who's played him for years at the inn). Dramatic but heartwarming nevertheless, this family-oriented tale is a good one to save for the run-up to Christmas. |
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| China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin KwanCrazy Rich Asians introduced readers to the over-the-top lifestyle of unimaginably wealthy Chinese expats. In China Rich Girlfriend, an impending wedding brings together the disparate (and in some cases, unknown) elements of the bride's and groom's families. Specifically, future-mother-in-law Eleanor shows up with bride Rachel's heretofore unknown birth father. But that's only one of many high-drama sub-plots; there are makeovers, potential betrayals, and gossip galore. And it's hard to ignore the top-notch dialogue and detailed depictions of lavish spending. If you've read and enjoyed both, pick up the 3rd, Rich People Problems, which was published earlier this year. |
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| Two by Two by Nicholas SparksNicholas Sparks is known as an author whose work will tug at your heartstrings, but his stories tend to be built around (successful) romantic relationships. That's not the case here. Not only does Two by Two center on the love of a father for his child, but the relationship between the parents seems to be falling apart. So be warned when you open this one -- you may be reaching for a hanky, but this tearjerker is different than the romantic ones Sparks is known for. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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