We Burn Daylight (2024) Bret Anthony Johnston "With bravery and compassion, Bret Anthony Johnston takes on a watershed moment in American history, cutting through the myth and messiainism to reveal a story that is profoundly - and tragically - human."
Tell It to Me Singing (2024) Tita Ramírez "The concept alone is brilliant--telenovela meets novel. The result is a book so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you'll have trouble pulling yourself away."
The Great Reclamation (2023) Rachel Heng "The Great Reclamation is a truly wondrous book. In telling the story of one country confronting the forces of change, one community caught between the pain and the promise of transformation, and one young man who must decide whether to live in the past or give it all up for a chance at a different future, Rachel Heng has written one of the most extraordinary novels I have read in some time."
The Days of Afrekete (2021) Asali Solomon "This is a masterful novel, a controlled and aching exploration of how choices made long ago echo throughout our lives and how the bonds of true affection strain but do not break. I have always loved Asali Solomon's work, but The Days of Afrekete may well be her sharpest, most trenchant, most brilliant book yet."
Agatha of Little Neon (2021) Claire Luchette "Claire Luchette is so wildly talented that I would follow her anywhere. Here, it’s to Woonsocket along with four women who are searching for meaning and a sense of belonging from each other and the world beyond. The result is a novel that’s blazingly original, wry, and perfectly attuned to the oddness-and the profundity-of life."
Kept Animals (2020) Kate Milliken "Like the winding canyon road that runs through the heart of this story, the world of Kept Animals is both harrowing and beautiful, full of hairpin turns that bring characters face-to-face with what lurks in the darkness—both within themselves and the people around them. Kate Milliken has written a devastating, impeccably crafted book."
Those Who Knew (2018) Idra Novey "Genius. That’s what I kept thinking as I read this novel that somehow combines an invented island, a political bookstore, fragments of a stage production, and a story that's at once a damning critique of craven self-interest and a tale about our inescapable connectedness. Idra Novey has written an irreverent, magical, perfect puzzle of a book."
The Air You Breathe (2018) Frances de Pontes Peebles "Prepare to lose yourself in this sweeping, lush novel about two girls in 1920s Brazil brought together by circumstance and kept together by love—of song, of success, and, in the end, of each other. As rich and complex and moving as music itself."
Fruit of the Drunken Tree (2018) Ingrid Rojas Contreras "Set against the backdrop of Pablo Escobar's stranglehold on the fate of a nation, Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a spellbinding story of two girls whose realities collide and who are forced to make nearly unbearable choices in the name of survival. The thrum of mystery and danger haunts every page, and you won't be able to look away until you turn the last one."
Stray City (2018) Chelsey Johnson "A winsome novel about love and belonging—and the possibility of discovering both in the most unlikely of places, and among the most unexpected people. Tender and smart, Stray City is a fantastic debut from a huge talent."
Brass (2018) Xhenet Aliu "Xhenet Aliu is ferociously talented. She’s written a story so scathingly honest with characters so perfectly real, it left me breathless with admiration. There is no false sentiment here, no misplaced word, just a novel that pulses with a restless energy, a novel that pulses with life."
The Twelve-Mile Straight (2017) Eleanor Henderson "The setup is simple: Two babies - one of them black and one of them white. But the story of how they came to be is one of the deepest and most nuanced explorations of our shared humanity that I've read in a long time. The characters are so vivid that you will feel as though they exist unbound by the pages of the book; the writing is so extraordinary it will make your teeth ache; the story is so compelling that you may gasp out loud - as I did - as the revelations unfold. This is no ordinary novel. It is art of the highest order."
Lucky Boy (2017) Shanthi Sekaran "A fiercely compassionate story about the bonds and the bounds of motherhood and, ultimately, of love."
Finny (2010) Justin Kramon "A magnificently odd and fantastic book, bursting with whimsy and humor. Finny is a heroine you will never forget."
