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Fiction A to Z October 2026 |
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Migrations
by Charlotte McConaghy
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WILD DARK SHORE Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Book of the Year in FictionVisceral and haunting (New York Times Book Review) - Hopeful (Washington Post) - Powerful (Los Angeles Times) - Thrilling (TIME) - Tantalizingly beautiful (Elle) - Suspenseful, atmospheric (Vogue) - Aching and poignant (Guardian) - Gripping (The Economist) Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny's history begins to unspool--a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime--it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption? Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.
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The beauty of your face : a novel
by Sahar Mustafah
What's happening: Enduring the harrowing minutes of a shooting attack on her school by a radicalized assailant, a school principal and daughter of Palestinian immigrants experiences flashbacks about the bigotry she faced as a child and the disappearance of an older sister.
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Before I Forget
by Tory Henwood Hoen
A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back--and in moving us forward--for fans of The Collected Regrets of Clover and Maame.
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I Love You Don't Die
by Jade Song
Acclaimed author Jade Song (Chlorine) returns with her latest literary exploration: a lyrical, poignant, and heartfelt novel about the meaning of love, friendship, debt, depression, and death in New York City--a coming-of-age for a new generation, in the vein of Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh. For as far back as she can remember, Vicky has been fascinated and obsessed with death as the only inevitable thing in life. From living above a Chinatown funeral parlor to working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns, she has surrounded herself with death--in her home, in her work, and in her ever-growing collection of zhizha, paper creations meant to be burned for the dead, adorning the walls of her apartment. Yet, though living in Manhattan and working her dream job is all she ever wanted, she still struggles to have meaningful connections--or find any meaning at all--in her life. Too often she spends the day in bed, only drawn out from time to time by her best (and only) friend, Jen.That changes when a dating app leads her into a throuple with an artist and a labor organizer, who offer exactly the kind of love she needs. For some time, it's perfect, but no one understands better than Vicky that all things must end. As doubts grow over the love in her life, her friendship with Jen, and her professional success, the oddly comforting abstraction of death starts becoming something else altogether. With everything beginning to feel hollow and temporary, Vicky must decide how to keep moving forward. To try and hold on to what she has, or to once again do what she does best: destroy.
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The Surrogate Mother
by Freida McFadden
A story of monstrous motherhood. She gave you a life. Now she wants yours. Abby wants a baby more than anything, but to no avail. Her assistant, Monica, makes a generous offer, but has a unspeakable secret and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
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The Storm
by Rachel Hawkins
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins is back with a thrilling new gothic suspense about a Gulf Coast beach motel that has survived a century of hurricanes-and has also been the site of multiple mysterious deaths.
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Is This a Cry for Help?
by Emily Austin
Emily Austin, the bestselling queen of darkly quirky, endearingly flawed heroines (Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus), returns with a luminous new novel following a librarian who comes back to work after a mental breakdown only to confront book-banning crusaders in an empowering story of grief, love, and the power of libraries. Darcy's life turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She is a librarian at the local branch, while her wife Joy runs a book binding service. Between the two of them, there is no more room on their shelves with their ample book collections, various knickknacks and bobbles, and dried bouquets. Rounding out their ideal life is two cats and a sun-soaked house by the lake. But when Darcy receives the news that her ex-boyfriend, Ben, has passed away, she spirals into a pit of guilt and regret, resulting in a mental breakdown and medical leave from the library. When she returns to work, she is met by unrest in her community and protests surrounding intellectual freedom, resulting in a call for book bans and a second look at the branch's upcoming DEI programs. Through the support of her community, colleagues, and the personal growth that results from examining her previous relationships, Darcy comes into her own agency and the truest version of herself. Is This a Cry for Help? not only offers a moving portrait of queer life after coming of age but also powerfully explores questions about sexuality, community, and the importance of libraries.
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The Last Human Bear
by Greg Sarris
Lush and gripping. --Rebecca SolnitIt's revelatory on every page. --Dave EggersThe grand return of a master storyteller. --Peter Maravelis, City Lights BooksellersAn epic story of curses, love, hard-won independence, and healing--and the first novel in 28 years by a widely acclaimed Native writer.Mary Hatcher lives with a curse--or is it a power that could make her life whole? A Native Pomo woman who comes of age in 1930s California, Mary keeps trying to make sense of her enigmatic family. Strange rumors spread about her. Her stepmother may have taught her how to become a Human Bear, a shapeshifter who can menace and poison enemies. Two men may love her--or love who they think she is. A mystery even to herself, Mary learns to pass between Native and white societies, tenaciously carving her own path as an independent woman. But as she explores love and desire, family inherited and chosen, and the secrets of the natural world, one question gnaws at her: Is she fated to do harm?Wry and richly lyrical, The Last Human Bear follows Mary from the Great Depression to the twenty-first century, when she commits a haunting final act. Inspired by the Native women elders who shaped Greg Sarris in his youth, it is the triumphant and revelatory return of an eminent novelist. With illustrations by Obi Kaufmann.
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Save What's Left: A Novel (Good Morning America Book Club)
by Elizabeth Castellano
GMA BOOK CLUB PICK - ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER - An outrageously funny debut novel about a woman who moves to a small beach town looking for peace, only to find herself in an all-out war with her neighbors. Irreverent and unexpectedly tender, this story takes neighborhood feuding to new heights and finds beauty and reinvention in unlikely places. --Oprah Daily Brings a tongue-in-cheek tone to the beach read genre.--TIME When Kathleen Deane's husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage, Kathleen is confused. They live in Kansas. They've been married thirty years. Who said anything about being happy? But with Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thoughts lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year. It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie's letters. Kathleen's new neighbor, Rosemary, is cantankerous, and the town's supervisor won't return Kathleen's emails, but worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen's absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in the fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it just might be exactly what she needed. Save What's Left can best be described as the un-beach read. It pulls back the curtain on life in a beach town, revealing the true cost of a pretty view. Told from the candid and irreverent perspective of a newcomer turned local, this is a story of forgiveness, fortitude, and second chances.
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Black Candle Women: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Diane Marie Brown
A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women, a family curse, and one very complicated year of heartache, miscommunication, and learning to let go. Generations of Montrose women--Augusta, Victoria, Willow--have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them. But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it's even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies. Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, the family is set on a collision course dating back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans's French Quarter--where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love...--
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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