Beyond Bestsellers - Fiction, Fall 2023

Great recent titles you may have missed, selected by our librarians.

October - December 2023 Issue

       

See also:

Basham, Brendan Shay.  Swim Home to the Vanished.
In this story filled with magical realism, a Dine/Navajo Indian man, grieving after the death of his brother, quits his job and embarks on a long dreamlike journey that lands him in a poor Mexican fishing village, where he gets a job at a  beach cafe run by a family of witches.

Blaché, Sin and Helen Macdonald.  Prophet.
In this imaginative and fast-paced science fiction thriller, a man with unusual abilities is hired to investigate a series of mysterious deaths at a military base, which seem to be caused by an aerosol spray developed by a mysterious organization that makes nostalgia lethal.

Brinkley, Jamel. Witness.
Ten short stories, set in Black neighborhoods in New York City undergoing gentrification, explore how the lives of their characters are affected by racism and exploitation, and how past traumas continue to shape the lives of families and communities.

Chidgey, Catherine.  Pet.
In this novel from New Zealand, a woman visiting her father in a nursing home finds that his nurse resembles a charismatic teacher she had when she was twelve years old; flashbacks tell the story of how she became one of the teacher's pets, and how the teacher began an affair with her widowed father.  Ebook

Cravens, Claudia.  Lucky Red.
In this unusual queer Western, set in the 1870's, a redheaded woman comes west with her father, who dies on their way through Kansas; she makes it to Dodge City and gets a job in a brothel, but her interest in other women leads to complications and betrayals.  Ebook

Duncan, David James.  Sun House.
This lengthy philosophical and spiritual novel set in Montana follows the story of a number of characters who overcome their personal tragedies to find power and hope in community.

Erpenbeck, Jenny.  Kairos.
In this novel set in 1980s Germany, around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and told in flashbacks, a young woman meets a married man, a writer much older than she is, and they begin an intense and complicated relationship.

Etter, Sarah Rose.  Ripe.
A young woman leaves her dysfunctional family behind to become a tech worker at a startup in Silicon Valley, but she is increasingly troubled by the cult-like culture and opulent wealth of the company, contrasting with her own situation as she struggles to pay for basic necessities.  Ebook

Ford, Richard.  Be Mine.
In this final installment of a five-volume series, the main character, Frank Bascombe, in his 70's,  has moved from New Jersey to Minnesota to help his son, who is at the Mayo Clinic for therapy for ALS, and then to take a road trip with him to Mount  Rushmore.

García, Cristina.  Vanishing Maps.
This sequel to Dreaming in Cuban continues the stories of members of the del Pino family, including the family's matriarch, 90 years old and still living in Havana; her daughter, a baker in Miami; and grandchildren in Berlin, Moscow, and Los Angeles. Ebook

Griffiths, Rachel Eliza.  Promise.
In 1958, as the Civil Rights Movement begins, the two Black families in a small Maine town are faced with violence and hostility from the town's white residents.  Ebook

Hoke, Henry.  Open Throat.
This novel, inspired by a true story, is narrated by a wild mountain lion who lives alone in a park near Hollywood, California, for ten years.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

James, Tania.  Loot.
In this historical novel set in the 18th and 19th centuries, a young Indian woodworker apprentices with a French clockmaker in order to create an automaton for a local ruler, but after the ruler is overthrown by the British, the automaton disappears from India.  Ebook

Kitasei, Yume.  The Deep Sky.
In this science fiction tale set in the near future at a time of global warfare, terrorism, and ecological collapse, a spaceship is sent to colonize a new world, but an act of sabotage nearly ruins the mission, and one crew member, who is wrongly suspected, sets out to uncover the truth.  Ebook

Kraus, Daniel.  Whalefall.
In this deep-sea thriller, a teen-aged boy attempts a dangerous dive to find the body of his father, a famous diver who committed suicide by drowning, but is swallowed by a sperm whale, with only one hour of oxygen in his scuba tank.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Leckie, Ann.  Translation State.
In this stand-alone science fiction novel which takes place in the universe the author developed for previous books, a powerful and corrupt empire which spans galaxies is disintegrating, and three people who have been discarded by their own societies band together to fight it and free themselves.

Levy, Deborah.  August Blue.
A classical pianist, who was at the top of her profession until a concert in Vienna turned disastrous, travels aimlessly around Europe, teaching piano to children, and realizes she is being followed by a mysterious woman who looks like her.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Lynch, Molly.  The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman.
A woman living in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband and son disappears mysteriously one night, one of hundreds of mothers her age all over the world who have gone missing. When she reappears two weeks later, she has no memory of where she has been or what happened.

Manazir Siddiqi, Ayesha.  The Centre.
A Pakistani woman, living in London and working as a translator, learns about an elite language school that guarantees fluency in any language within ten days; however, when she attends, she learns shocking truths about the program.  Ebook

Mangan, Christine.  The Continental Affair.
In this romantic thriller set in the 1960's, an English woman meets an Algerian man in Spain and steals money he has been hired to protect, setting them on a cat and mouse chase across Europe.

Menéndez, Ana.  The Apartment.
This novel tells the stories of a number of tenants who have lived over the last 70 years in Apartment 2B at the Helena, an art deco apartment building in South Miami Beach.

Moore, Lorrie.  I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home.
In this unusual novel, a man returns home to the Midwest from New York City and takes a road trip with his ex-girlfriend, who had committed suicide, and yet is not entirely dead. A secondary but related plot involves letters written by a woman after the Civil War to her dead sister.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia.  Silver Nitrate.
A man and woman working in Mexico's horror film industry in the early 1990s meet a legendary filmmaker of the 1950's who asks them to help him reverse a curse on his unfinished film.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Murphy, Dwyer.  The Stolen Coast.
In this offbeat heist novel, a man who has a job relocating fugitives is convinced by an ex-girlfriend to break into a safe in a home in a Massachusetts beach town and steal a collection of jewels worth millions.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Murray, Paul.  The Bee Sting.
In this family drama set in Ireland, a financial recession and customer complaints lead to business failures for a formerly successful car salesman; meanwhile, his wife, who misses their former wealth, has an affair, and their teenage daughter sinks into alcoholism.  Ebook

Nelson, Caleb Azumah.  Small Worlds.  
In this richly detailed novel set in a British Ghanaian community in London, a young man who wants to make a life as a jazz musician faces his father's opposition when he tells him he's dropping out of college.  Ebook

Oh, Temi.  More Perfect.
In this science fiction thriller, set in London in the near future when a brain implant has been invented which connects people directly to the Internet, a man and woman meet in a manufactured dream, fall in love, and become caught up in a political conspiracy.
 
Power, Mona Susan.  A Council of Dolls.
The difficult lives of three generations of Dakota and Lakota girls are described through their relationships with their dolls, which are inhabited by spirits which try to protect them from forced assimilation and other traumas.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Raymer, Beth.  Fireworks Every Night.
A Florida woman, who grew up in a poor and dysfunctional family, gets engaged to a wealthy and self-confident man from Connecticut, in this novel which jumps in time between her childhood, her past, and the present day.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Rudnick, Paul.  Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style.
In this stylish and witty novel, a young Jewish writer falls in love with a fellow student from a powerful WASP family at Yale in the 1970s, but his boyfriend's family ends their relationship. After five years apart, during which the writer finds work in New York and then in Hollywood, the two are reunited, during the early days of the AIDS epidemic.  Ebook

Somtochukwu, Ani Kayode.  And Then He Sang a Lullaby.  
In this coming-of-age story from Nigeria, set in the 1970's after homosexuality was prohibited, two young gay men meet at University and fall in love, but one of them is open about his sexuality, and the other is bisexual and closeted.

Thai, Thao.  Banyan Moon.
This is the story of three generations of Vietnamese-American women, and the secrets that complicate their relationships. After her beloved grandmother dies, Ann, an illustrator who lives in Michigan, finds that she and her mother, whose relationship is strained, have inherited her deteriorating old house in Florida.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Tremblay, Paul.  The Beast You Are: Stories.
A collection of 15 psychological horror and speculative fiction stories from a versatile and imaginative writer.

Watkins, LaToya.  Holler, Child: Stories.
A collection of eleven short stories about Black men and women from rural West Texas that explore the lasting effects of traumatic childhoods, depicting fractured family relationships and secret resentments.  

Xie, Jenny.  Holding Pattern.
A young Chinese-American woman who has been dumped by her boyfriend drops out of a Ph.D. program and goes back to her mom's house in California, where she is amazed to see that her mother, who had suffered from depression and alcoholism, seems to have become a new person and is about to remarry.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook