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Fiction A to Z November 2020
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Shelter in place : a novel
by David Leavitt
Unsuccessfully challenging her influential friends in New York to perform an online search for tips on how to assassinate Donald Trump, a salon hostess impulsively purchases a grand if dilapidated apartment in Venice, triggering an unexpected affair.
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| Leave the World Behind by Rumaan AlamWhat happens: A white family staying in a rented Hamptons home finds their idyllic vacation cut short by the arrival of the owners, an older Black couple hoping to take refuge from a power outage in New York City.
Then what? Though suspicion and resentment (on both sides) are their initial reactions, the two families form an uneasy alliance as it becomes clear that the blackout -- and other disquieting occurrences -- may be a sign of societal collapse.
Reviewers say: "This illuminating social novel offers piercing commentary on race, class and the luxurious mirage of safety" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Missionaries by Phil KlayWhat it is: the debut novel from the author of the National Book Award-winning short story collection Redeployment.
What it's about: Set in Colombia and following the interconnected lives of four individuals -- two Columbians and two Americans -- affected by and connected to the turmoil there, Missionaries examines the globalization of violence and the realities of modern war.
Want a taste? "To talk about this part of my life is to talk about another person, like a person in a story." |
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A wild winter swan : a novel
by Gregory Maguire
The best-selling author of Wicked reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Wild Swans” in the story of an Italian-American rebel who encounters a handsome swan boy during the Christmas season in 1960s New York.
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| Cobble Hill by Cecily Von ZiegesarFeaturing: some of the privileged denizens of Brooklyn's upscale Cobble Hill, all hiding secrets (an illicit crush, a lost job).
Why you might like it: With an ensemble cast and told through a series of vignettes, the shifting perspectives reveal the tensions of ordinary life with breezy humor.
Author alert: Cecily Von Ziegesar is the writer behind the popular Gossip Girl series; this is her adult debut. |
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| Memorial by Bryan WashingtonStarring: Mike, a Japanese American chef, and Ben, a Black daycare teacher; their rocky relationship is further tested when Mike goes to Japan to spend time with his estranged and dying father, leaving his visiting mother with Ben.
Why you might like it: Set in a vividly depicted Houston and told in three distinct sections narrated by either Mike or Ben, this bittersweet, complex novel portrays the messy, passionate, and sometimes painful relationships between lovers; the two men's difficult relationships with their fathers are also key to the story. |
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Hieroglyphics : a novel
by Jill McCorkle
Bonding over the mutual losses of their parents in childhood, a couple determined to leave a history for their own children respectively sift through family records and obsess over a possible childhood home before uncovering troubling memories.
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Inside story
by Martin Amis
An autobiographical novel by the author of Experience draws on his close friendship with the late philosopher Christopher Hitchens and follows their relationships and journalistic endeavors against a backdrop of 20th-century history.
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Only Truth
by Julie Cameron
Surviving a violent assault she cannot remember, a successful artist relocates to the country with her husband to recuperate from her injuries before uncovering dark secrets and noting the return of an eerily familiar stranger from her clouded past.
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The wonder boy of Whistle Stop : a novel
by Fannie Flagg
Taking a final visit to the ghost town where his mother Ruth’s Whistle Stop Café made its famous fried green tomatoes, Bud Threadgoode discovers new friends and surprises about the community’s women while triggering unexpected changes in his daughters’ lives.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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