Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/08/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062232502
ISBN-10: 0062232509

The U.S. is drought-ravaged, overpopulated, relentlessly urban, and intellectually stifled. In a world where animals are a rarity and water is strictly rationed by a totalitarian government, Nadia Stepan's only pleasure is dreaming of Lighthouse Island, a most-likely-mythical utopia in which people are free and water is abundant. But when a workplace disaster forces her to flee, she begins a search for the island, aided by a disfigured mapmaker. The dystopian setting is reflected in the author's prose; not everyone will appreciate this dark and detailed novel, but fans of dystopian fiction won't want to miss it.

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2013
ISBN-13: 9780865477735
ISBN-10: 0865477736

This compelling debut novel mixes psychological suspense and elements of magical realism with fears of aging and isolation; Booklist refers to its "eerie aura of foreboding." It concerns Ruth, a widow living alone in an isolated beach house on the Australian coast, who hears tigers in her living room and allows Frida, a woman who claims to be a governmental care worker, into her home. Plagued by memories of her childhood in Fiji, Ruth is also uncertain that Frida is who she says she is -- a concern that readers will also come to share.

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Publisher: Henry Holt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/08/2013
ISBN-13: 9780805091816
ISBN-10: 0805091815

Newly retired and recently widowed, English bus driver Dermot Lynch has headed off on his very first international trip, to visit his son, Eammon, in beautiful Lomaverde, Spain. But Eammon's housing development is falling apart as Spain's economy crumbles, his girlfriend has fled back to England, and he himself is seriously depressed. The two men -- never particularly close -- haltingly navigate around each other, struggling to connect and provide support. A compassionate and understated tale, Mr. Lynch's Holiday is a "rare love story between a father and a son" (The Telegraph).

First Chapter  

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2013
ISBN-13: 9781476729084
ISBN-10: 1476729085

Don Tillman is an extremely logical, efficient, and socially awkward genetics professor who has never been on a second date. But having completed a scientifically rigorous and evidence-based questionnaire setting out his expectations (she must eat meat, be punctual, not smoke, and so on -- it runs to 16 pages), he believes it's only a matter of time until he finds the perfect wife. Instead, he finds Rosie Jarman, a disorganized and fiercely independent bartender who is on a quest to find her biological father -- and needs Dr. Tillman's help. Appealing characters and heartwarming humor shine in an award-winning debut that's already headed to the big screen.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/01/1996
ISBN-13: 9780684836058
ISBN-10: 068483605X

Whether you consider it an allegory, a classic adventure story, or a fantasy, a kids' book or for adults, this novel has enchanted readers for more than 40 years. It follows a group of wild rabbits as they leave their home den to find a safer -- and more humane -- society. Prompted by Fiver, a young rabbit with a gift for prophecy, and led by his brother, Hazel, the rabbits encounter much danger along the way, including from their own kind. Their society, language, and mythology are exceedingly well-detailed, which will appeal to readers who enjoy other worlds.

First Chapter  Table of Contents  

Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2001
ISBN-13: 9780375709104
ISBN-10: 037570910X

Though it begins with a nocturnal walk, The Feast of Love is exactly what it sounds like -- an assortment of intertwined and deliciously told stories of love flavored by everything from passion to regret. They feature a man working to get over his first -- and then his second -- wife, a young couple madly in love, and a professor who longs for his missing son. The 2007 movie had an all-star cast (including Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear), but you should read the book to get a true taste of "the seemingly effortless ebb and flow of the author's clear-sighted yet deeply poetic vision" (Publishers Weekly).

First Chapter  

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/18/2010
ISBN-13: 9780316034012
ISBN-10: 0316034010

Happy at work and at home, successful attorney and family man Tim Farnsworth is nevertheless unaccountably compelled to literally walk away from it all -- and to continue walking until he collapses in exhaustion. Having suffered through two bouts of this undiagnosable and untreatable illness, his wife knows how to prepare Tim and how to find him, but his compulsion is growing stronger, affecting his work and home life more than ever before. As an allegory for any condition that forcibly takes away an individual's control over his own life -- illness, addiction, or even stress -- The Unnamed is "utterly compelling" (Booklist).

Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/24/2012
ISBN-13: 9780812993295
ISBN-10: 0812993292

Harold Fry really likes his routines. So it's a bit shocking when, jolted by a letter from a dying friend, he goes to drop off a response in the mailbox down the street...and keeps walking. Ultimately, he decides to hand-deliver the letter, wearing what he'd left the house in (boat shoes and a jacket and tie). Though the 500-mile walk stirs up memories of unhappy marital and parenting experiences, it also affects (for better and worse) his relationship with his wife, the widower next door, and those in England who begin to follow his journey. Charming and poignant, this debut is a sure bet for readers who appreciate tales of relationships, regret, and last chances to set things right; if you enjoy it, the author's second book, Perfect, is due out this month.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/26/2006
ISBN-13: 9780307265432
ISBN-10: 0307265439

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is one of the best-known works of post-apocalyptic fiction: in addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize and being selected for Oprah's book club, it was made into a movie starring Viggo Mortensen. Set in a futuristic and definitively post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son are making their way on foot through a devastated American landscape. The sun is obscured by ash and the land is dead; many of the few survivors have resorted to cannibalism, and father and son have only each other in this violent, horrific world. Though beautifully written, The Road is not for the faint of heart.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/04/2008
ISBN-13: 9781416571308
ISBN-10: 1416571302

In 19th-century Canada, a local trapper has been viciously killed, his throat cut and his head scalped. A teenage boy who was friends with the dead man is missing, and his footsteps lead away from the cabin into the cold, unforgiving wilderness. Determined to find him, his mother sets out from their snow-covered settlement, aided by a half-Indian trader. But they aren't the only ones interested in finding the boy; others are on the move, too. This debut novel -- written by an agoraphobic author who had never been to Canada -- won Britain's prestigious Costa Book of the Year Award in 2006.

First Chapter