Intemperance (2025) Sonora Jha "Sonora Jha's celebration of the pursuit of desire as a feminist act is a subversive storytelling feat: as full of heart and humor and delight in the world as its determined and brilliant heroine. Intemperance is so full of surprising pleasures and gorgeous prose that you'll be torn between turning the pages as fast as possible and savoring every word. Buy it for your sisters and daughters and wives - and brothers and sons and husbands, too."
A Lesser Light (2025) Peter Geye "In A Lesser Light, Peter Geye paints an unforgettable picture of Minnesota, one in which history leaps to life. This wonderful book presents a completely immersive and absorbing world, masterfully rendered. With tenderness, humor, and deep insight, Geye traces the paths of a community living around and in service to a lighthouse, among them a stern and religious keeper; his prickly, lonely new wife; a local man unexpectedly a guardian to his orphaned niece; and the niece herself, each of them keeping secrets and struggling to face the future. Their choices make for a surprising literary page-turner that - like all good historical fiction - teaches us how to live in the present."
Theft (2025) Abdulrazak Gurnah "Theft is marvelous - a book of incredible scope and unflinching intimacy that leaps fearlessly among its varied cast of characters, written with absolutely devastating emotional precision. Abdulrazak Gurnah has written another classic."
A Thousand Times Before (2024) Asha Thanki "In a debut as powerful as it is tender, Asha Thanki sculpts an unforgettable story of art, love, family, and home. A Thousand Times Before offers a luminous vision of history, one you'll want to return to again and again. Follow this book's brave generations of heroines wrestling with fate and politics, and you'll appreciate not only the power of Thanki's imagination, but also the possibilities of your own."
There's Going to Be Trouble (2024) Jen Silverman "An unbelievably satisfying read - a beautifully paced page-turner with memorably flawed and sympathetic characters, heart-stopping ethical dilemmas, a deeply imagined and absorbing world, and descriptions of activism so painfully accurate you'll gasp . . . It's masterful, taut, funny, and sad - full of canny insights on how the political plays out in our personal lives. There's Going to Be Trouble is an absolutely perfect book for this moment, and also one that will stay with you well beyond it."
The Mayor of Maxwell Street (2024) Avery Cunningham "A page-turner, with an incredible cast of characters you'll want to follow from one surprising, suspenseful turn to the next! Her fresh, unflinching vision of history and the undeniable richness of this story will make this not only a book you'll love, but also one you'll return to again and again."
The Goth House Experiment (2023) SJ Sindu "What a fantastic, imaginative, subversive set of stories - probing the world and its people with questions and narratives that feel pulsingly alive and urgent, grounded in the world we know and also beautifully strange. In SJ Sindu's hands, you will not only upend your assumptions but also name ideas and feelings you didn't know you had. Read this and emerge changed and hungry."
Every Rising Sun (2023) Jamila Ahmed "A beautifully imagined and fiercely feminist retelling of a cherished classic . . . You won't want to miss Ahmed's gorgeous writing, this rich and vibrant world, and of course, Shaherazade, a timeless heroine who speaks with an urgency it's impossible to deny. I turned the last page grateful to be reminded of how during humanity's darkest nights, stories are what keep us alive."
The History of a Difficult Child (2023) Mihret Sibhat "An unexpected and hilarious voice with a velocity all its own. You won't soon forget brutally frank Selam, or Mihret Sibhat's razor-sharp wit. The History of a Difficulty Child is tender and merciless, full of human and political insight. I couldn't stop turning the pages."
Sirens & Muses (2022) Antonia Angress "With wit, tenderness, and insight, Sirens & Muses explores why art matters, who gets to make it, and what it's worth. Antonia Angress's portrayal of the art world and its politics is stunning in its detail and inventiveness--and Louisa Arceneaux is a heroine to remember."
