|
Fiction A to ZJanuary 2015
|
"There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die." ~ Robertson Davies (1913-1995), Canadian novelist
|
|
New and Recently Released!
|
|
| The Heart Has Its Reasons: A Novel by María DueñasWhen her husband leaves her for his much-younger, pregnant mistress, Madrid professor Blanca Perea can think of nothing but escape. She jumps at the opportunity to take a fellowship in far-away California, where she gets deeply involved in researching the life of a Spanish writer who died decades earlier. Through her research, and in finding the parallels between his life and hers, she is able to come to terms with her losses. Though the novel is set in the late 1990s, historical fiction readers may appreciate the lush descriptions of life in 1930s Spain. |
|
| Butterflies in November by Auður Ava ÓlafsdóttirIn this offbeat but appealing novel, an Icelandic woman is dumped by both her husband and her lover in the same day -- in both cases because of her unwillingness to commit. Fortunately, a winning lottery ticket means she can start anew elsewhere, along with the hearing-impaired son of her best friend, for whom she's temporarily responsible. Their road trip takes them all over Iceland, but they eventually settle in a countryside bungalow (another prize), where the unnamed narrator finally risks her heart. |
|
| The Remedy for Love by Bill RoorbachA devastating snowstorm throws two distrustful strangers together in this reflective character study. Eric's a good-hearted small-town lawyer who's unhappily separated from his wife; "Danielle" is a squatter who can't afford groceries. After he helps her home -- and gets stranded when his car is towed -- there's nothing they can do but try to get through the life-threatening storm together, dangerously unprepared. Though drama derives from their genuine struggle to survive, what's just as riveting is the pair's move from distrust to intimacy. Fans of snappy dialogue will enjoy their battle of wits, while the author's descriptive writing style will draw readers in. |
|
| Skylight by José SaramagoWhen bestselling Portuguese author José Saramago wrote Skylight and submitted it to a publisher, he was an unknown. He never received an answer, and he published nothing for another 20 years. The manuscript resurfaced after he'd made a name for himself, but he never accepted an offer to publish it; it was finally published after his death, and this is its first English translation. Centering around the residents of a Lisbon apartment building in the late 1940s, Skylight reads like a collection of linked short stories. |
|
| Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas ButlerLittle Wing, the fictional Wisconsin town that serves as the setting of this debut novel, is as much a character as are the friends who share narrative duties. Hank, a farmer, has never left; Kip has returned after making a fortune in Chicago; Lee visits whenever his music career allows it; Ronnie is recovering from both an addiction to booze and a few rough years on the rodeo circuit; all of them have been friends since childhood. Heartfelt but not sentimental, Shotgun Lovesongs is the story of these friends and the town they call home. Told in a straightforward manner, it will appeal to anyone who has found "his life reflected in a Bob Seeger song" (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
| The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing: A Novel by Mira JacobWedding photographer Amina Eapen has returned home to New Mexico upon hearing that her father, Thomas, has been acting oddly. Stricken with a brain tumor, Thomas believes that he is communicating with the dead, including Amina's brother, who died years before. This prompts Amina to look into the family's painful history, which all seems to have started with a truncated visit back to India in 1979. Those who loved Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You or Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland will enjoy this haunting, reflective novel, which portrays the struggles of an immigrant family in a new community as well as the rifts within their own home. |
|
| Redeployment by Phil KlayThe last few years have seen an influx of debut novels that depict the horrors of the Iraq war, from Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds to Michael Pitre's Fives and Twenty-Fives, but Redeployment earned the distinction of winning the 2014 National Book Award. A collection of short stories by a former Marine captain and Iraq veteran, it focuses on the complexities of life for soldiers on the front lines and after their returns stateside, veering from the mundane to the horrifying and back again. Try it with Hasan Balasim's The Corpse Exhibition, a collection of short stories about the war from the Iraqi perspective. |
|
| I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney MaumBritish artist Richard Haddon has lost his way, both as an artist and as a husband. He's sold out, creating commercially viable work instead of the provocative pieces of his early career, and he's just been caught cheating on his wife. Set for the most part in Paris, this realistic love story follows Richard as he attempts to rekindle his relationship with his wife and restore their marriage. Readers who enjoyed the male perspective of a broken marriage in Elizabeth Berg's Say When may also appreciate the quirky humor of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You. |
|
| We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew ThomasOver the course of this leisurely paced 600+ page debut, which spans nearly 60 years, Eileen Tumulty, her family, and her version of the American dream act as a microcosm of 20th-century America. Raised by Irish immigrant parents in 1940s Queens, in a home where alcohol, rather than love, held sway, Eileen wanted more out of life, but her marriage to an unambitious scientist does not bring the status she craves. One of this book's many appeals is the changing character of New York City neighborhoods over the decades; another is the deeply realistic characters and the "unforgettable narrative" (Publishers Weekly) they provide. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
West Babylon Public Library 211 Route 109 West Babylon, New York 11704 (631) 669-5445http://wbpl.us |
|
|
|