Fiction A to Z
January 2026

Recent Releases
Cursed Daughters
by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Years ago, a man's first wife cursed a later wife, plus all of the women in her family for generations. Ebbing and and flowing in time, this moving Read with Jenna pick from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer follows three of the cursed Nigerian women: Monife, who drowns herself after losing her lover; her cousin, Ebun, who has a child the day of Monife's funeral; and Ebun's child, Eniiyi, who looks and acts like Monife. Read-alike: Olufunke Grace Bankole's The Edge of Water.
House of Day, House of Night
by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

This reissuing of a book first published in Polish in 1998 by a Nobel and Booker Prize winner explores life in a small village along the Polish-Czech border. Stylistically complex and using a variety of elements (stories, gossip, recipes, etc.), Tokarczuk's "scattered fragments are beautifully tied together to form a unified whole" (Library Journal). Try this next: Vaim by Jon Fosse.
When the Fireflies Dance
by Aisha Hassan

On the edge of Lahore, Pakistan, seven-year-old Lalloo's family lives in modern indentured servitude, making bricks by hand with no hope of freedom. When his brother is murdered, young Lalloo is spirited away by his father to be a mechanic's apprentice. As Lalloo grows, he makes friends and saves money, wanting to free his parents and sisters in this slow-burn, haunting debut that examines grief, hope, and family love. For fans of: Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.
The Eleventh Hour
by Salman Rushdie

A New Yorker best book of 2025, this bestselling collection of five stories thoughtfully and wittily explores life and death for a variety of characters (older men, a ghost, a musician, and more) who live in various locations (India, England, and the United States). Try this next: The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories by Denis Johnson; An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories by Ed Park.
This, My Second Life by Patrick Charnley
This, My Second Life
by Patrick Charnley

After a near-death experience and life-changing injury, twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno goes to stay with his uncle on his small coastal farm a few miles from St Ives in Cornwall. Their existence is a simple one, their lives measured by the span of the days, the rhythms of the seasons and the animals they care for. But lurking in the shadows is local villain, Bill Sligo, who has designs on Jacob's farm and in particular on a field near the cliffs housing a derelict mineshaft. Wanting to repay his uncle'''s kindness, Jago determines to find out what Bill Sligo is up to. Jago is still vulnerable though, and in pursuing Sligo he delves into a murky world that he is ill-equipped to deal with. How far will Bill Sligo go to get what he wants? Jago doesn’t know it yet, but once again he is in grave danger.
Galentine's Day by Rebecca Anderson
Galentine's Day
by Rebecca Anderson

13th February 2013. Alicia, Marnie and Hannah have a sleepover on Galentine's Day, the day before Valentine's Day, for the first time. They're eighteen, single, and the world is at their feet. Tomorrow, they'll go their separate ways, to university, to a job, to a different country. But they promise that every year, they'll have their annual sleepover. 13th February 2026. After thirteen years of faithful attendance at their annual sleepover, only two women are attending this year. Their friendship has seen partying, breakdowns, marriages, kids, divorces, and everything in between, but are their best Galentine's Days now behind them?
The Secret of Snow by Tina Harnesk
The Secret of Snow
by Tina Harnesk

Meet Máriddja: eccentric, eighty-five years old, and facing a cancer diagnosis. She's determined to keep the truth about her illness from her husband Biera, while also finding someone who can take care of him once she's gone. Meet Kaj: a new transplant to the village, recently engaged to Mimmi, and mourning the death of his mother. One day, when Kaj unexpectedly finds a box of Sámi--the indigenous people of Scandinavia--handicrafts belonging to his mother, he unlocks something he never anticipated, something that will change his life for years to come.
Vigil by George Saunders
Vigil
by George Saunders

An electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next. 
The Year of the Wind by Karina Pacheco Medrano
The Year of the Wind
by Karina Pacheco Medrano

A lyrical novel depicting the devastating effects of political violence in Peru on three women's lives.
A Complete Fiction by R. L. Maizes
A Complete Fiction
by R. L. Maizes

With little evidence, would-be author P.J. Larkin serves a nibble on the trendy new social-media app Crave, accusing editor George Dunn of stealing the novel she submitted to him for publication.The nibble shoots to the top of the site's Popular Menu Items and before you can say unpaid literary labor, George is embroiled in a scandal, his job and book deal in jeopardy. P.J.'s novel is snapped up amid the publicity, but has she revealed her sister Mia's secrets in the book? Some diners on Crave think so, and now it's P.J.'s turn to feel the public's scorn.Told in the humorous vein of Where'd You Go Bernadette?, A Complete Fiction examines the very serious questions of who has a right to tell a story, and has cancel culture gone too far in our social media-drenched world?
Contact your librarian for more great books!