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Fiction A to Z August 2023 |
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| The Librarianist by Patrick deWittMeet: Bob Comet, a 71-year-old retired librarian who has lived alone for nearly 50 years in the same Portland, Oregon, house he grew up in.
What happens: A chance meeting with a confused elderly woman leads to Bob volunteering at a senior center, which offers him a place to belong as well as a few surprises.
Why you might like it: Award-winning author Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers) also revisits Bob as a recently wed (and quickly betrayed) young man in his 20s and as an 11-year-old runaway in this "quietly effective and moving character study" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Promise by Rachel Eliza GriffithsCoastal Maine: In their small town, the teenage Kindred sisters are growing up loved and happy in the 1950s, friends with the daughter of the only other Black family around and a poor white girl. But as the girls become teens and the civil rights movement accelerates, their relationships are tested and racism and violence become all too real.
Don't miss: the lyrical, richly detailed writing that saturates this powerful debut novel by an acclaimed poet.
Try a sample: "We mourned summertime’s ending and made predictions about autumn and ourselves." |
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| Loot by Tania JamesCalled to the palace: In 1794 in the Kingdom of Mysore (now part of India), talented 17-year-old toymaker Abbas is ordered to work with French clockmaker Lucien Du Leze to craft a life-sized wooden tiger that growls and makes music.
What happens: In 1799, the British defeat Mysore's ruler, prompting Lucian and his daughter to flee to France. Abbas follows a few years later, eventually ending up in England where he hunts for the looted tiger.
Reviewers say: "At once swashbuckling and searing, this is a marvelous achievement" (Publishers Weekly); "rich, sprawling, picaresque" (Booklist). |
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| No One Prayed Over Their Graves by Khaled Khalifa; translated from the Arabic by Leri PriceSyria, 1907: A flood destroys a small village outside of Aleppo, leaving almost everyone dead, but young fathers Hanna, a Christian, and Zakariya, a Muslim, were out carousing together and survived.
What happens: Tormented by the tragedy and trying to make sense of their lives, the men struggle in a novel that ebbs and flows between the past, present, and future.
Why you might like it: Examining change, love, and death, this moving novel by an acclaimed Syrian writer is lush and thought-provoking. |
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| Excavations by Kate MyersFeaturing: Elise, Kara, Zara, and Patty, four very different women with varying problems (including issues with each other).
The discovery: While working on an archeological dig in Greece where ancient sporting events occurred, they unearth a stunning find and must come together to deal with their obnoxious boss and save it.
Why you might like it: This evocative debut expertly depicts excavation details and is "fresh, funny, intelligent, and deeply satisfying" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Only One Left by Riley SagerCoastal Maine, 1983: After her last job ended badly, live-in caregiver Kit McDeere takes the only position open to her: working with elderly Lenora Hope, who everyone thinks murdered her family when she was a teen.
What happens: At the large cliffside home where the killings occurred and now-disabled Lenora still lives, Kit settles in, though with some misgivings. Then Lenora says she's going to tell her the truth.
Read this next: For other suspenseful novels with twisty plots and mysterious mansions, try Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key, Jess Kidd's Mr. Flood's Last Resort, or Simone St. James' The Book of Cold Cases. |
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| Watch Us Dance by Leila Slimani; translated by Sam TaylorWhat it is: a compelling look at a biracial French Moroccan family against the turbulent backdrop of late 1960s and early 1970s Morocco.
What happens: Middle-aged married couple Amine and Mathilde are wealthy but unhappy, and then the installation of an inground pool divides them further. Meanwhile, their adult daughter Aicha studies, hoping to be a doctor, while their son Selim hangs out with hippies.
Series alert: Though Watch Us Dance is the atmospheric 2nd in a trilogy following In the Country of Others, it can still be enjoyed on its own. |
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| Holding Pattern by Jenny XieHome again: After her fiancé ends things, Kathleen takes a leave of absence from her doctoral program and goes home to California.
What happens: While her formerly depressed mother is now fit, sober, stylish, and planning her wedding to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, Kathleen wonders what her own future holds while working as a cuddle provider for a new therapy startup.
Read this next: Kristen Mei Chase's A Thousand Miles to Graceland, another funny, heartwarming novel starring a mother and daughter. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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