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Fiction A to Z
April 2026

Recent Releases
Mass Mothering
by Sarah Bruni

Nannying for a young boy during the day, A. hits the dance floor at night, where she connects with N. Among the few possessions at his place, she finds a slim book, Field Notes, which documents the grief of the mothers of disappeared boys in his unnamed homeland. Fascinated, A. begins translating the book and even takes a trip to that country in this stylistically complex novel that's made up of both A.'s story and excerpts from Field Notes. 
Belgrave Road
by Manish Chauhan

Newly arrived in Leicester, England from India, Mira finds her arranged marriage and new life isn't what she'd hoped. But away from her husband and in-laws, she works at a sweet shop and meets another newcomer, Somalian refugee Tahliil. Though they are drawn to each other, many things stand in their way in this powerful debut exploring love, family, and home. For fans of: Kiran Desai's The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny; Aube Rey Lescure's River East, River West.
Python's Kiss
by Louise Erdrich

This latest from Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich collects 13 stories written over the past two decades. Taking place mainly in a vividly depicted Midwest, the tales include a range of characters, such as a young girl concerned for a dog and a group at a bar. Enhanced by woodcut artwork by Aza Erdrich Abe, the author's daughter, this thought-provoking book "puts Erdrich’s powers on full display" (Publishers Weekly).
The Secret of Snow
by Tina Harnesk

As she and her husband both have memory problems, 85-year-old Máriddja doesn't tell him she's dying from cancer, even as she tries to find someone to care for him once she's gone. Meanwhile, Kaj and his girlfriend arrive in the small village, where he unexpectedly finds a box of Sámi handicrafts among his recently deceased mother's belongings. This heartwarming debut novel is translated from Swedish. For fans of: Fredrik Backman; Lisa Ridzen's When the Cranes Fly South.
The End of Romance
by Lily Meyer

Having left her emotionally abusive husband, Sylvie Broder attends graduate school to study philosophy. She heals and ponders if straight women can only be happy once romance is eliminated as she enjoys no-strings-attached sex with a variety of men. But then she meets warm, kind Robbie and disarming, dynamic Abie, and falls for both. For fans of: spicy literary novels with philosophical musings and flawed characters.
Eating Ashes
by Brenda Navarro; translated by Megan McDowell

Our unnamed narrator grieves her younger brother and carries his ashes home to Mexico from Spain. Growing up, the siblings are raised by their grandparents while their mother cleans houses in Madrid. Eventually, their mom sends for them, but the adjustment is hard and the narrator's teenage brother dies by suicide. Exploring loss, love, and migration, this moving novel is being adapted into a film by actor Diego Luna.
Where the Wildflowers Grow
by Terah Shelton Harris

When a South Carolina prison bus crashes into a surging river, everyone is presumed dead. But Leigh Wilde survives and eventually makes her way to a rural Alabama flower farm where Jackson, the owner, takes her in. Working the land, Leigh finds strength, friends, and hope for the future, but the past is never far away. With strong romantic elements, this lyrical and moving novel explores survival, grief, and healing. 
The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen
by Yuta Takahashi; translated by Cat Anderson

The mysterious Chibineko Kitchen lets customers enjoy a meal with someone who's died. In this 2nd standalone novel in a bestselling Japanese series, a man wants his mom to know he's okay, a divorced couple want to see their son, a terminally ill young woman needs advice from her mother, and a septuagenarian wants to meet a specific singer. Recipes are included. For fans of: Hisashi Kashiwai's The Kamogawa Food Detectives;  Nagi Shimeno's Messenger Cat Café.
The Future Saints
by Ashley Winstead

Tight-knit California band the Future Saints are flailing and playing to empty clubs after the death of their beloved manager, who was lead singer Hannah's sister. They all feel the loss, but Hannah starts to self-destruct, even as she channels her pain into a stunning new song that goes viral. Music executive Theo is sent to get the band on track, which isn't going to be easy, especially when he falls for Hannah. For fans of: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; Deep Cuts by Holly Brickely.
All the World Can Hold
by Jung Yun

Days after September 11, 2001, a nostalgia cruise celebrating a Love Boat-esque program sets sail for Bermuda, with now-sober actor Doug reuniting with the cast for the first time in years. Meanwhile, Manhattanites Franny and her husband disagree about taking the trip during the 9/11 tragedy, but as it’s her Korean mother's 70th birthday, they do. Also on board is MIT student Lucy, who accepted her roommate's family's free invite. 
Upcoming Bookclubs
Life of Pi: A Novel by Yann Martel
Life of Pi: A Novel
by Yann Martel

Pi Patel is 16 when his father decides to leave his zoo in Pondicherry, India, and move the entire family to Canada. But only a few days into the trip, the boat carrying the Patels capsizes and Pi is tossed into a life raft. The raft, which also holds an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and eventually Richard Parker -- a 450 pound Bengal tiger -- will be his home for the next 227 days. Pi, nurtured by an encyclopedic knowledge of animals and equal love for Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, must sustain himself as he and the hungry tiger struggle to survive.
 
Page 2 Screen
Saturday, May 02 at 11:00 a.m.
Denmark Library 
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir

A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery--and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could imagine it, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
 
Novel Realities
Tuesday, May 12 at 7:00 p.m. 
Sharon Forks Library 
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
The Night Tiger
by Yangsze Choo
 
An utterly transporting novel set in 1930s colonial Malaysia, perfect for fans of Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master's dying wish: that Ren find the man's finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master's soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible. 
 
Novel Diversions
Wednesday, May 13 at 10:00 a.m.
Post Road Library
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
The Lost Apothecary
by Sarah Penner

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary's in a stunning twist of fate--and not everyone will survive.
 
Hooked On Books
Saturday, May 16 at 10:30 a.m.
Hampton Park Library 
A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb
A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue
by Dean Jobb

A captivating true-crime caper about Arthur Barry, a jewel thief who charmed celebrities and millionaires, stole from Rockefellers and royalty, and pulled off the most audacious and lucrative heists of the Jazz Age.
 
Crime Time
Thursday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Sharon Forks Library 
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
The Ghostwriter
by Julie Clark

From the instant New York Times best-selling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller. June, 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. After 50 years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.
 
Book Sleuths
Tuesday, May 26 at 2:00 p.m.
Post Road Library 
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Three Days in June
by Anne Tyler

Gail Baines is long divorced from her husband Max, and not especially close to her grown daughter Debbie. Today is the day before Debbie's wedding. To start, Gail loses her job--or quits, depending who you ask. Then, Max arrives unannounced on Gail's doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay and without even a suit in which to walk their daughter down the aisle. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding itself into question but also send Gail back into her past and how her own relationship fell apart.
 
 OverBOOKed
Thursday, May 28 at 10:00 a.m.
Cumming Library
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Forsyth County Public Library
585 Dahlonega Street, Cumming, Georgia 30040
770-781-9840

https://www.forsythpl.org