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Fiction A to Z August 2017
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| The Windfall by Diksha BasuMr. and Mrs. Jha have come into a sum of money that will allow them to move to a wealthy community, leaving behind the long-time friends of their humble Delhi apartment complex. But keeping up with the Chopras proves more difficult than expected: while Mr. Jha is eager to fit in (making extravagant purchases at every turn), Mrs. Jha is less enthusiastic. This debut, an engaging comedy of manners, gently skewers India's upwardly mobile middle classes while emphasizing the importance of family bonds. |
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| What We Lose by Zinzi ClemmonsRaised in the U.S., Thandi is the daughter of a mixed-race mother from South Africa and an African-American father. The privilege that her father's career as a professor affords their nuclear family stands in stark contrast to those family members still living in post-apartheid Johannesburg, but it is the death of Thandi's mother that forms the center of the novel. In a life shaped by not-belonging, the loss of her mother threatens to overwhelm Thandi, especially as she deals with an unplanned pregnancy. Written in short chapters punctuated by photographs and other ephemera, this collage-like debut has been garnering praise from sources from The New York Times to Vogue. |
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| Less by Andrew Sean GreerLess than a year after their breakup, midlist novelist Arthur Less is invited to his ex-boyfriend's wedding. Not wanting to go but lacking (so far) a compelling reason to RSVP his regrets, he accepts every other invitation that comes his way, traveling to New York, Mexico, Morocco, and other far-flung destinations. In his efforts to run away from facing the fact that he has irrevocably lost the love of his life, however, he finds other reasons to live -- though of course he's got to endure some comically wrong turns first. With a surprising narrator (you'll find out at the end who) and flawed but sympathetic characters, Less is a poignant meditation on the universal search for love and happiness. |
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| Hum if You Don't Know the Words by Bianca MaraisThis heart-wrenching debut is set in Johannesburg in the 1970s, a time of great upheaval and violence. It features a young white girl, Robin, whose parents have been killed, and a visiting Xhosa woman, Beauty, searching for her own daughter, who has disappeared in the Soweto uprisings. When Beauty is hired as a caretaker for Robin, they build a tentative bond despite the restrictions of apartheid. Both Robin and Beauty share narrative duties, often relaying their perspectives of the same events, and bearing a moving message of equality. |
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| The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo by Ian StanselAs the title suggests, this compelling, brooding debut novel will appeal to fans of modern Westerns, with its themes of justice, vengeance, and rivalry...as well as plenty of horsemanship. Set in modern-day Marin, in northern California, it opens as Silas Van Loy has killed his brother, saddled up his horse, and begun making his escape. The relationship between the two brothers -- antagonistic, resentful, and competitive -- unfolds through flashbacks as Silas flees, with his sister-in-law in hot pursuit, intent on revenge. |
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| Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó CrucetCuban-American student Lizet Ramirez has deeply upset her family by choosing to attend a private college far from home -- a school where she feels unmoored both socially and academically. At home, her quickly splintering family has been pulled into the story of orphaned Cuban immigrant Ariel Hernandez (modeled on real-life Elian Gonzalez) and the heated debates that surround him. These two stories -- the racist undertones of a privileged private college and the treatment of immigration on a national scale -- "play off each other in a masterful way" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Devil and Webster by Jean Hanff KorelitzNaomi Roth is the first woman president of an elite progressive college; her first major challenge had been a transitioning transgender student living in a women-only dorm, so this year's protest against a denial of tenure seems easy enough to handle at first. But that's before a charming student activist steps up to take the lead in pushing things ever further. The students believe the denial is racially motivated (it's not, but Roth can't share the real reasons), and the debate soon captures media attention. Dramatic and centered on very real issues, this novel could be torn from the headlines; for another academia-centered novel from the same author, try Admission. |
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An uncommon education : a novel
by Elizabeth Percer
"When a tragic event introduces her to Wellesley's mysterious Shakespeare Society, Naomi Feinstein finally finds herself among friends, but as she immerses herself in this liberating new world, a scandal with irrevocable consequences calls into question everything she has ever believed in.."
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| Dear Committee Members by Julie SchumacherSly and satirical, this novel is told entirely through the biting letters of one overwhelmed college professor, who claims that the demands of academia require more letters of recommendation than published articles. Budget cuts, staff eliminations, favoritism, and other small indignities find their way into his endless stream of comical, frank, and sometimes passive-aggressive letters. Pick this up if you enjoyed Aaron Thiel's similarly college-set Ghost Apple. |
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| Loner by Teddy WayneDavid Federman is pretty smart but not particularly memorable. Overlooked in high school, he hopes to make a name for himself at Harvard, but (unsurprisingly) things don't get off to a great start. Ignoring friendly overtures from another girl, he becomes enamored of fellow freshman Veronica, and does everything and anything he can to ingratiate himself with her. Soon, his self-absorbed attempts move from pathetic to disconcerting to downright creepy, and we're left wondering exactly what is going on. Readers who appreciate psychological discomfort (think Sebastian Faulks' Engleby) will relish the increasingly unsettling nature of David's actions. |
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Small Blessings: A Novel
by Martha Woodroof
In this character-driven debut novel, English professor Tom Putnam is resigned to a quiet, small life spent caring for his heavily dependent wife, Marjory, whose neuroses were exacerbated by his infidelity a decade ago. But in short order, Tom's life is upended by Marjory's sudden death, a new friendship with the charming new bookstore manager, and the arrival of the son he never knew about. (This last is especially complicated -- it is immediately obvious that Henry is not Tom's kid, but he needs a home, and his backpack contains only one change of clothes and half a million dollars.) With help from his spirited mother-in-law, Tom builds a stable home environment for Henry and a new life for himself; fans of Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry or Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand may enjoy this humorous story of the creation of an unusual new family.
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Wildalone by Krassi ZourkovaA freshman at Princeton, Thea Slavin, away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, falls into a romantic entanglement with two brothers who draw her into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous where she uncovers a terrifying truth about her own family.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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New Hanover County Library
201 Chestnut Street Wilmington, North Carolina 28401 910-798-6301 www.nhclibrary.org |
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