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| Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThis long-awaited latest by the author of Americanah centers on four African women in America. Nigerian travel writer Chiamaka isolates alone in the Maryland suburbs during COVID, pondering her exes. Meanwhile her Washington, D.C. lawyer best friend longs for marriage, her practical cousin starts an MBA program, and her beloved housekeeper is sexually assaulted by a powerful man. Read-alikes: Nikki May's This Motherless Land; Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi's Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions. |
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Everybody says it's everything : a novel
by Xhenet Aliu
Estranged in adulthood, adopted twins Drita and Pete are drawn together by Pete's young son, leading Drita on a journey to uncover their Albanian roots, the truth about their adoption and the chance to rebuild their fractured family.
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Tartufo
by Kira Jane Buxton
After narrowly defeating a popular donkey in the mayoral election, Delizia Miccuci faces the decline of the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino, but when local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza discovers a colossal truffle with mysterious potential, the villagers are thrust into an uncertain future.
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| Theft by Abdulrazak GurnahThis acclaimed latest from 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah follows three interlinked young people navigating uncertain futures in Tanzania: Karim, whose mother left his abusive father when he was three; beautiful Fauzia, who'd been sick as a child; and Badar, who was sent to work as a servant boy in his uncle's household. "Gurnah is at the top of his game," raves Publishers Weekly. |
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Theory & practice : a novel
by Michelle De Kretser
In 1986 Melbourne, a Sri Lankan graduate student studying Virginia Woolf navigates love, jealousy, and shifting beliefs while confronting unsettling revelations about her literary idol, exploring the tension between ideals and desires in the bohemian arts world of St. Kilda.
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| Twist by Colum McCannIn 2019, off the west coast of Africa, Irish writer Anthony Fennell plans a longform article about the people who mend underwater fiber optic cables to keep the internet going. But there's danger ahead for Fennell, his fellow Irishman captain, and the captain's Black actor girlfriend, who's in England for a job. This lyrical latest by Colum McCann is "another astounding novel from a fiction master" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy
On a remote island between Australia and Antarctica, widowed dad Dominic and his three kids live in an old lighthouse and try to keep a United Nations seed vault safe. During a powerful storm caused by climate change, a mysterious woman washes ashore, changing all of their lives in this suspenseful tale. Read-alikes: Jessie Greengrass' The High House; Eiren Caffall's All the Water in the World.
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Hot air
by Marcy Dermansky
Single mother Joannie finds herself caught in a whirlwind of desire and confusion when her billionaire childhood crush crash-lands into her life, leading to a chaotic and hilarious exploration of love, lust and the complexities of modern relationships.
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| The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson WalkerPresented as a doctor's case study notes and as letters written by the subject to her young son, this thought-provoking, slow-burn novel focuses on single Brooklyn mom Jane, who'd previously had a strong memory but now suffers from amnesia and hallucinations. Her psychiatrist, who has his own troubles, looks for answers in this "haunting and sublime" (Booklist) tale. |
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Rosarita
by Anita Desai
While studying in El Jardin de San Miguel, Bonita is approached by a woman who claims she knew her mother as a young painter in Mexico; days later Bonita finds the woman she calls The Trickster and follows her on a tour of what may or may not have been her mother's past.
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The thirty names of night : a novel
by Zeyn Joukhadar
Five years after his ornithologist mother dies in a suspicious fire, a trans Syrian American boy isolates himself as he cares for his grandmother and receiving visits from his mother's ghost. His only escape is painting neighborhood murals in the middle of the night. After discovering the journal of a missing Syrian American artist whose story is tied to his family and community, he finds inspiration to claim his own identity. Motivated by his discoveries and a series of mysterious bird sightings, he teams up with loved ones to confront the past and ultimately discover the support that surrounds him.
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Bride of the sea : a novel
by Eman Quotah
In snowy Cleveland, newlyweds Muneer and Saeedah await their first child, but Muneer secretly contemplates divorce. When Muneer returns to Saudi Arabia alone, Saeedah becomes fixated on the idea that she will lose her new daughter, Hanadi; she ultimately goes into hiding without sharing their whereabouts with Muneer. This abduction creates rippling effects, dividing their families and friends. As Hanadi grows up and realizes her position, she grapples with her identity torn between two worlds. Prominent themes include culture, immigration, religion, family, and the complexities of love and loss.
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The wrong end of the telescope
by Rabih Alameddine
Lebanese doctor Mina arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp in Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from most of her family, she has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp's children. When a boat brings a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer to the camp, Mina not only jumps into action, but confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.
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An unlasting home : a novel
by Mai Al-Nakib
A philosophy professor in Kuwait is accused of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death, and realizes she must reconcile her place in the world in a multigenerational saga spanning from Iraq to India to the United States.
Sara, a philosophy professor at Kuwait University, navigates her complex relationship with with the city after returning from Berkeley following her mother's death. Her main companions are her grandmother's talking parrot, Bebe Mitu; the family cook, Aasif; and Maria, her childhood caregiver. But when an accusation of blasphemy arises from teaching Nietzsche, Sara is forced to confront her feelings about her life and identity. Covering a century, An Unlasting Home intertwines with stories of her grandmothers, Yasmine and Lulwa, and her mothers, who each face their own challenges and shape Sara's journey.
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Our next meeting:
Tuesday, May 20, 6:30 pm
Library Meeting Room on Lower Level
If you're a regular reader of contemporary and historical fiction, consider joining our Fiction Book Club! The club usually meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book are on reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there!
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Some luck : a novel
by Jane Smiley
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres follows the triumphs and tragedies of a farm family from post-World War I America through the early 1950s.
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Our next discussion:
Tuesday, May 13, 6:30 pm
Library Conference Room on the Lower Level
If you're a fan of poetry, consider joining our Poetry Readers Discussion Group! The club usually meets on the second Tuesday of the month at 6:30, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book are on reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there!
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On the Bus With Rosa Parks : Poems
by Rita Dove
The Pulitzer Prize-winning former Poet Laureate of the United States offers a poetic celebration of the complexities of human life in a collection that includes such works as "Cameos," "The Camel Comes to Us from the Barbarians," "The Enactment," and "Black on a Saturday Nightz."
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