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Fiction A to Z August 2025 |
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The other wife
by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
"A big-hearted novel of nostalgia and longing, and a poignant exploration of how we choose to love. Zuzu met her best friend Cash on the first day of college, and nothing was ever the same. Tall, witty, and popular, his friendship represented a kind of belonging for Zuzu, who had always felt like an outsider growing up mixed race in her rural hometown. Though their friendship was charged with longing, it never progressed to romance. Now approaching her forties, Zuzu has built a stable life with her wife Agnes, a steadfast and career-driven lawyer. Yet Zuzu is haunted by the choices that have shaped her: living with her mother instead of her father in childhood, pursuing law over art, and marrying Agnes while harboring complex feelings for Cash. When a sudden loss pulls Zuzu back to her hometown, the 'what ifs' in her mind become louder than ever, and she begins to unwind the turns that have led her here. Will she embrace the choices she's made, or risk everything for a chance to chase the past? A novel that speaks to unfulfilled desires and the euphoric nostalgia that's particular to the beginning of middle age, The Other Wife is as heartfelt as it is daring in its deep reckoning with the past and quest for true joy"
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| The Catch by Yrsa Daley-WardAfter their mother's belongings were found near the Thames River in 1995, young twins Clara and Dempsey were adopted by different families. Now 30, successful author Clara meets a woman who looks exactly as their mom did in the 1990s. While Clara thinks somehow this woman is their mom, administrative clerk Dempsey doesn't, leading to tension between the estranged sisters in this thought-provoking debut novel by a poet and memoirist. Read-alike: August Blue by Deborah Levy. |
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| Kakigori Summer by Emily ItamiThree sisters -- ambitious London finance expert Rei; single mom Kiki, who works at a care home; and young pop star Ai -- reunite at their Japanese childhood home after Ai is caught up in a scandal. Over the summer, they support each other and navigate memories of their troubled mother and their early years, where being half-British and half-Japanese made them outsiders. For fans of: Emily Giffin's The Summer Pact. |
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| The Homemade God by Rachel JoyceNot long after their larger-than-life 76-year-old artist father suddenly marries a 27-year-old they've never met, the four Kemp siblings learn he has drowned in an Italian lake he'd swam in for decades. Descending on the vacation villa during a sweltering heatwave, they meet their enigmatic stepmother, question their dad's mysterious death, hunt for his unfinished masterpiece, and confront long-hidden familial wounds. Read-alike: Lynn Steger Strong's Flight. |
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| The Accidental Favorite by Fran LittlewoodGathering to celebrate their mother's 70th birthday at a posh rented house in the English countryside, three middle-aged sisters, each with their own families and issues, are shocked when an unexpected event indicates who their father's favorite child is. Told from multiple points of view over various time periods, this is the moving latest by the author of Amazing Grace Adams. Read-alike: Catherine Newman's Sandwich. |
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| These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLeanAfter their billionaire patriarch's death, the Storms come together at their New England island. There, they are introduced to Jack, their father's right-hand man and daughter Alice's recent one-night-stand, who says they must all complete individual tasks or no one inherits anything. Bestselling historical romance author Sarah MacLean delivers a fun contemporary family novel that will please fans of HBO's Succession. |
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| The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila MottleyIn the Florida Panhandle, young mothers support each other amid upheavals while others judge and put obstacles in their paths. Three of them narrate: de facto leader Simone, a 20-year-old mother of twins who's pregnant again; newcomer Adela, a champion teen swimmer from Indiana who's been sent to live with her grandmother; and determined Emory, who brings her infant to high school with her. Read-alikes: Sarai Johnson's Grown Women; Brit Bennett's The Mothers. |
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The art of vanishing : a novel
by Morgan Pager
"Jean's life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life. Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean's painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness, and gazingadmiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse--is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her most profound secrets? Did he just move? In an extraordinary twist offate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean's painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of the First World War. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery's other paintings come to life--glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs--which they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only outside visitor, alone in possession of this gift. But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they've hardly dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?"
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What will people think? : a novel
by Sara Hamdan
Mia's Almas' secret comedy career, forbidden office crush and a long-guarded family secret take center stage, threatening her newfound confidence and her one shot at fame.
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| Vera, or Faith by Gary ShteyngartHighly intelligent ten-year-old Vera loves words and lists. She also worries a lot, including about money, her Jewish dad and WASP stepmother divorcing, that they love her brother more, and how to find her Korean mom. This highly anticipated satirical latest from an acclaimed author explores a modern New York family in a politically troubled world. Read-alike: Alice Franklin's Life Hacks for a Little Alien; Eiren Caffall's All the Water in the World. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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