Beyond Bestsellers - Fiction, Fall 2018

October - December 2018 Issue

See also:

• Featured Review: Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
• Nonfiction Recommendations
• Previous Issues

Abbott, Megan.  Give Me Your Hand. 
In this thriller, a woman is shocked when a former high school classmate, whose disclosure of a dark secret ended their friendship, gets a job in the same laboratory she works in. 

Arthurs, Alexia. How to Love a Jamaican. 
The eleven short stories in this collection depict the lives and experiences of Jamaican immigrants, both in the United States and back home in the Caribbean.

Atkinson, Kate.  Transcription.  
A young woman is recruited by the British spy agency, MI5, during World War II, and becomes a valuable undercover agent; years later, after living abroad and working for the BBC, she is forced to return to work as a double agent.

Barker, Pat.  The Silence of the Girls. 
This retelling of Homer’s Iliad concentrates on the lives of the women: queens, prostitutes, and servants, who are caught up in the Trojan War.

deWitt, Patrick.  French Exit.
In this dark comedy, a wealthy American woman, who has come to the end of her money, sells what she has left and takes her son and their cat to Paris, where they live in a friend’s apartment, and meet a variety of eccentric characters. 

Dey, Claudia.  Heartbreaker.  
In this novel, told in three sections from three perspectives, a woman living in a secluded town founded by a cult figure suddenly disappears, and her daughter goes in search of her.

Donkor, Michael. Housegirl. 
Two girls in Ghana are sent to work as maids for an elderly couple; when friends of the couple visit, they decide to bring the older girl back home to London with them to be a companion to their own rebellious teenager.

Dybek, Nick.  The Verdun Affair. 
In the French city of Verdun after World War I, a former ambulance driver meets a woman searching for her husband, who disappeared during the war; months later, they meet again at a hospital, attracted by the story of an amnesiac patient.

Edugyan, Esi.  Washington Black.  
A slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados in the early Nineteenth Century is chosen by the cruel owner’s brother to be his servant and assistant; the two later escape the island in a hot air balloon, which begins a series of adventures.

Evans, Diana.  Ordinary People.  
Set in the time period between Barack Obama’s election and the death of Michael Jackson, this novel tells the story of two English couples whose lives and relationships are not as happy as they had expected.

Gessen, Keith.  A Terrible Country. 
When a Russian-born professor who has been living in America since his childhood returns to Moscow to care for his grandmother, he struggles to understand post-Soviet Russian society, and ponders his future.

Gowar, Imogen Hermes.  The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock.  
In this novel set in London in the 1780’s, a sensible middle-aged merchant acquires what is believed to be a mummified mermaid, which leads to big changes in his life, including a romance with a beautiful courtesan.

Headley, Maria Dahvana.  The Mere Wife. 
This retelling of the old English tale of Beowulf is set in a planned suburban community, where a boy who lives in a cave with his mother, a troubled ex-soldier, makes friends with a child in town.

Jones, Sandie.  The Other Woman.  
In this psychological thriller, a young woman falls in love with a handsome man she meets in a bar in London, but their growing relationship is threatened by the other woman in his life, his controlling and nasty mother.

Kiesling, Lydia.  The Golden State.  
A young American woman, raising her daughter alone after her Turkish husband loses his residency status, abandons her job in San Francisco, and takes her daughter with her to a mobile home she owns in California’s high desert. 

Kim, Crystal Hana.  If You Leave Me.  
A teenaged girl, who lives in a South Korean refugee camp with her family, falls in love with a childhood friend, but agrees to help her family by marrying her true love’s wealthy cousin. 

Kumarasamy, Akil.  Half Gods. 
This collection of interlinked stories centers on a family from Sri Lanka, who settle in New Jersey during their homeland’s violent civil war.

Li, Lillian.  Number One Chinese Restaurant. 
This is the story of the Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, which, after its founder dies, is taken over by his sons, who disagree on the future direction of the business.

Lim, Thea.  An Ocean of Minutes.   
In this dystopian and romantic novel, set at a time when the U.S.A. has been divided into two different countries, a woman signs a contract agreeing to travel through time to rebuild the future.

Ma, Ling.  Severance. 
This novel set in an alternative 2011 concerns a young woman living and working in Manhattan when a  pandemic strikes – a disease that causes its victims to perform the same action over and over until they die.

Makkai, Rebecca.  The Great Believers. 
This novel, which depicts the early days of the AIDS crisis, begins in Chicago in the mid-1980s among a group of gay friends, and then moves to Paris in 2015 as it continues the interconnected stories of two characters.

Markley, Stephen.  Ohio.  
Four former high school classmates, all friends of a soldier who was killed in Iraq, gather together on a summer night in their hometown in Ohio, to try to change their futures by coming to terms with their pasts.

Martin, Andrew.  Early Work.  
In this philosophical comedy, a man who wants to be a writer, but doesn’t work at it, meets a woman with the same vague ambition.

Moshfegh, Ottessa.  My Year of Rest and Relaxation. 
In this dark novel, a troubled young woman living in New York decides to take a break from her unhappy life by spending a year primarily alone and asleep.

Murata, Sayaka.  Convenience Store Woman.  
The narrator of this Japanese novel is a 36 year-old woman, who has worked at a convenience store for exactly half of her life, and who copies the habits of her coworkers in an attempt to appear normal.

Novik, Naomi.  Spinning Silver.  
This complex story, inspired by Eastern European folklore, centers on the daughter of a Jewish moneylender, whose skill at collecting payments from debtors attracts the attention of a fairy who orders her to change fairy silver intro gold. 

Patel, Neel. If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi. 
These eleven short stories feature first or second generation Indian-Americans growing up in the Midwest, and their struggles to make their own lives despite the demands of their families.

Pearson, Allison.  How Hard Can It Be?  
In this sequel to the author’s influential 2002 novel I Don’t Know How She Does It, Kate Reddy, now middle-aged, is struggling to raise her teenagers, care for her aged mother, and find a job to support the family, while at the same time starting to experience menopause.

Rojas, Ingrid.  Fruit of the Drunken Tree. 
In Bogota, Colombia, during the drug wars of the 1990s, a young girl in a wealthy family becomes intrigued by a teenager who comes to work for them, and seeks to learn as much as she can about the violent world their servant comes from. 

Rosenberg, Jordy.  Confessions of the Fox.  
In this novel which combines academic intrigue with historical adventure, a literature and gender studies professor finds an old manuscript that suggests that Jack Sheppard, an 18th Century London criminal, was a trans man, like the professor himself.

Shteyngart, Gary.  Lake Success. 
A wealthy New York hedge fund manager finds his life and marriage unravelling when he is investigated by the SEC, and suddenly takes off on a Greyhound bus.

Tokarczuk, Olga.  Flights.
This unusual novel by a Polish author is a collection of story fragments, with different characters and situations, but all tied together by the idea of travel.

van den Berg, Laura.  The Third Hotel.  
In this surrealist novel, a woman, whose husband, a professor of horror film studies, has been killed in a car crash, takes his place at a film festival in Havana, and sees her husband, or his ghost, in the streets.

Walker, Nico. Cherry.
A man from suburban Cleveland falls in love with a high school classmate; after she breaks up with him to go to college, he joins the army, becomes a medic in Iraq, returns with PTSD, reunites with his girlfriend, and follows a downward spiral of drug addiction and crime.

Wilson, Kevin.  Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine: Stories. 
Many of the characters in these darkly humorous short stories about family relationships are young people struggling with the process of maturing.