| The unlikely adventures of the Shergill sisters by Balli Kaur JaswalWhat it's about: Fulfilling the last wishes of their dying mother means that three very different British Punjabi sisters must reluctantly travel through India -- together.
Why you might like it: The sisters' distinct personalities, the secrets they're hiding, and the tension between them means there's plenty of fraught family dynamics, while India's vibrant sights provoke insight into and empathy for their mother's history -- and their relationships with each other. |
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Ironopolis
by Glen James Brown
The Burn Council Estate is doomed. Stranded on the outskirts of Ironopolis - nickname to a bygone industrial Middlesbrough - the estate is about to be torn down to make way for regeneration. For the future... But these streets know secrets... Jean holds the key to the disappearance of a famous artist... Teenager Jim's youth is shattered during the euphoric raves of '89... A brutal boyhood prank creates a scar that marks three generations of one family... Hairdresser Corina's gambling addiction costs her far more than money... And limping misfit Alan unravels the darkness of his terrifying father, a man whose shadow has loomed large over the estate for 70 years. And who-or what-is the ageless, malevolent entity known as Peg Powler? Why is she stalking them all? Set against social and industrial upheavals both past and present, Ironopolis bursts with life and vivid prose as it portrays a proud community reckoning with its own private apocalypse. | |
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Mother country : a novel
by Irina Reyn
Struggling with demeaning work and racism in her Brooklyn community, Russian immigrant Nadia takes matters into her own hands when the daughter she unwillingly left behind is denied life-saving medicine. By the author of What Happened to Anna K.
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| Orange world and other stories by Karen RussellWhat it is: a collection of stories of the weird and wonderful, peopled with equally inventive characters, from a teen in love with a mummy to a retired tornado farmer.
Who it's for: readers who enjoy vivid, unconventional tales marked by bizarre twists, as seen in stories by George Saunders or Aimee Bender
Reviewers say: "wonderfully off-kilter" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Bangkok wakes to rain: a novel
by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
A house in the centre of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music that will pacify resident spirits, even as he's haunted by ghosts of his former life. Not long after, a young woman gives swimming lessons in the luxury condos thathave eclipsed the old house, trying to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in the post-submergence Bangkok of the future, a band of savvy teenagers guides tourists and former residents past waterlogged, ruined landmarks, selling them tissues to wipe their tears for places they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by blood, memory, yearning, chance, and the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibian, ever-morphing city itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a wildly imaginative, mesmerizing reading experience from an author at the beginning of what promises to be a thrilling career.
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Machines like me: A novel
by Ian McEwan
Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda's assistance, he co-designs Adam's personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong, and clever--a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan's subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: What makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns against the power to invent things beyond our control"
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The ice house: A novel
by Laura Lee Smith
What it's about: Facing the ruin of his business as well as surgery for a potentially malignant brain tumor, Johnny MacKinnon decides that now is the best time to track down his estranged son, a recovering heroin addict with no marketable skills who is now raising a young daughter alone.
Why you might like it: Set in Florida and Scotland, this engaging novel features flawed but likable characters, a sense of urgency, and humour.
For fans of: introspective family dramas told from multiple perspectives, such as Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.
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| Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieWhat it's about: Ifemelu left Nigeria for the U.S. as a college student; now, many years later, she contemplates returning to Nigeria. Consider this a love story -- but also a tale of culture clashes and a hard-won battle for success.
Why you might like it: Ifemelu is an outspoken and courageous observer of racial restrictions and conventions; neither the U.S. nor Nigeria (nor England, where her first love lives illegally) escape her gimlet eye.
Coming soon to a (small) screen near you: Americanah will be adapted into a television miniseries by Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira. |
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| A man called Ove by Fredrik BackmanFeaturing: cranky, ill-tempered Ove, and his annoyingly chatty, over-familiar neighbours.
What happens: Ove is mourning a deeply felt loss, but his desire to keep to himself gradually gets undermined by the aforementioned friendly neighbours.
The movie: While there's already a Swedish film version of this charming and beloved novel, Tom Hanks will be starring in a forthcoming U.S. remake. |
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| Catch-22 by Joseph HellerWhat it is: First published in 1961, this satirical, near-surreal classic is set on a Mediterranean island during World War II. It boasts a bizarre array of characters from the 256th Squadron and a non-chronological (some might say chaotic) narrative.
What it's about: the horrors and incomprehensible incoherence of war.
Already on screens near you... available at TVNZ on demand there are six episodes depicting the illogical "adventures" of the 256th bombing squadron. George Clooney directs, produces and acts. |
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| The Rosie project by Graeme SimsionStarring: Don Tillman, an extremely logical, efficient, and socially awkward Australian genetics professor who's never had a second date.
What happens: Having completed a scientifically rigorous and evidence-based questionnaire setting out his expectations (16 pages of them), he believes it's only a matter of time until he finds the perfect mate. Instead, he finds Rosie Jarman, a disorganized and fiercely independent bartender who needs his help.
Film potential: It continues to be a long road to development, but the latest rumours have Ryan Reynolds set to star as Don Tillman. |
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| The goldfinch by Donna TarttWhat happens: After an explosion at a museum kills his mother, 13-year-old Theo Decker drifts, his only constant a painting stolen the day his mother died.
Read it for: the nuanced characters, Dickensian plot, and complex themes of loss and loyalty.
Coming soon to a screen near you: Starring Ansel Elgort as Theo, and featuring Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, and Jeffrey Wright (among others), the film will be released in September. |
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| Native son by Richard WrightWhat it is: First published in 1940, this classic novel follows the life of Bigger Thomas, a young black man in 1930s Chicago, as his options narrow around him.
Why you should read it: Native Son frankly depicts the racial divide in the U.S. in the 1930s; though it's violent and at times hard to read, it's also a thought-provoking take on the impact of systemic racism.
Already on (small) screens near you: While Oprah appeared in the 1986 film, an HBO film set in the present day was released in April 2019. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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