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Fiction A to Z October 2020
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| Homeland Elegies by Ayad AkhtarWhat it is: a thought-provoking literary novel-in-stories about being Pakistani-American before and after 9/11, with clear parallels to the author's own life.
About the author: Ayad Akhtar is, like his protagonist, the son of Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and a Pulitzer-winning playwright known for a complex, controversial play about being Muslim-American after 9/11.
What reviewers say: It's "a provocative and urgent examination of the political and economic conditions that shape personal identity, especially for immigrants and communities of color" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa GyasiStarring: Ghanaian American Gifty, a neuroscience PhD candidate studying neural pathways in mice as a way of understanding the loss and suffering in her family -- though she insists that's not what she's doing.
Why you might like it: Gifty's a reflective and observant narrator, nimbly moving from analyzing previous relationships or her childhood church's entrenched racism to noting her lab mate's quirks or her mother's struggles.
Read it for: a complex, non-linear story that examines faith and science, addiction and grief. |
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| Sisters by Daisy JohnsonStarring: September and July, teen sisters who are perceived to be abnormally close by their teachers. After an incident so destructive that July, who helps narrate, cannot remember it, their mother moves them back to a tumbledown family home on England's North York Moors.
What happens: essentially abandoned by their mother, who is fighting her own demons, the relationship between the two girls shifts...but to say more would ruin this unsettling novel.
For fans of: dark, character-driven stories with overtones of Gothic fiction or horror. |
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| The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie LyonsWhat it's about: the end-of-life decisions of a world-weary octogenarian, who unexpectedly forges a bond with an exuberant child, who drags her out into a brighter world.
Read it if: you can't get enough of cantankerous older characters and their unlikely friendships, such as in Frederik Backman's A Man Called Ove, Elizabeth Berg's The Story of Arthur Truluv, or Beth Morrey's The Love Story of Missy Carmichael. |
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The girl in the mirror : a novel
by Rose Carlyle
Taking her successful identical twin’s place in the aftermath of a suspicious accident, cynical Iris endeavors to conceive a child with her twin’s unknowing husband to secure a multi-million-dollar inheritance. A first novel. 100,000 first printing.
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| The Turner House by Angela FlournoyWhere it's set: The Turner family has owned their home on Detroit's East Side for more than 50 years, but their historically Black, working-class neighborhood has deteriorated badly and it may be time to let go of the now empty house.
What it's about: focusing on three of the 13 Turner siblings, this engaging family saga traces both family and social history, incorporating a family ghost and flashbacks of their late father's early years in Detroit after the Great Migration.
For fans of: the sweep of history found in Ayana Mathis' The Twelve Tribes of Hattie; the importance of home in Naima Coster's Halsey Street and Ann Patchett's The Dutch House. |
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| Lost and Wanted by Nell FreudenbergerWhat it's about: Wealthy, stylish Charlie (who is Black) and nerdy scholarship student Helen (who is white) were best friends and roommates in college. Twenty years later, Charlie is dead...but Helen continues to receive texts from her.
Is it for you? This complex, leisurely paced novel is as much a character study of Helen, now a respected scientist, as it is a story of female friendship. Deep discussions of physics add an intriguing layer of appeal. |
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The Christmas spirits on Tradd Street
by Karen White
A woman’s holiday season with her husband and twin babies is upended by the unearthing of a Colonial-era cistern on her property that unleashes restless ghosts throughout her historic home. By the best-selling author of Dreams of Falling.
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The invited
by Jennifer McMahon
When an inspired effort to build her dream home is overshadowed by discoveries about her rural property's violent past, a former history teacher becomes obsessed with the stories of three generations of local women who died under suspicious circumstances.
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| Past Perfect by Danielle SteelWhat it's about: a wealthy family has moved from Manhattan to San Francisco, but their new home, grand as it is, seems still to be occupied by a family who used to live there...a century ago.
What happens: The 21st-century Gregory family and the ghostly Butterfields of the early 1900s get along just fine, dressing for dinner, sharing the gossip of their day, and learning about each other's times.
Read it for: a story of family and friendship, and detailed depictions of life for the rich and famous in 1917 -- just be willing to suspend your disbelief before jumping in to this fantastical tale. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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