John of John (2026) Douglas Stuart "Like Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, Douglas Stuart explores the visible and invisible chains of love forged between a parent and child - as each grapples with his respective faith and complex humanity. Stuart's characters yearn and yield tenderly as they struggle with fate and free will. The inimitable world of John of John is passionate, liberating, and gorgeous."
The Stone Home (2024) Crystal Hana Kim "It is a priviledge to read Crystal Hana Kim fiction, which both edifies and enlightens."
Our Country Friends (2021) Gary Shteyngart "In the backdrop of the pandemic, Gary Shteyngart gathers his memorable characters in a shelter where they cook, seduce, and reconsider life’s meaning. A modern-day Boccaccio, Shteyngart offers both heartbreak and hilarity in life’s travails and black swans. Like The Decameron, Shteyngart’s Our Country Friends reminds us that even in darkness, light promises to return if we reach for love and art."
The Queen of Tuesday (2020) Darin Strauss "The Queen of Tuesday is a beautiful cinematic story about three people: the beloved actor Lucille Ball; a real estate builder, Isidore Strauss; and his grandson, the author, Darin Strauss. In a gorgeous imagined history of a not-long-ago world, the novelist Strauss allows us to remember our deeply held wishes to invent our lives and memories for our privately held loves. Like The Great Gatsby, Strauss's novel reminds us that ghosts unseen who remain deeply felt renew our hearts' most passionate yearnings and ambitions."
The Kinship of Secrets (2018) Eugenia Kim "The Kinship of Secrets is a beautiful allegory of loss and recovery. Through the parallel growth of two separated sisters, Kim bears witness to the fall and rise of nation and its resilient and generous people. The Kinship of Secrets is a gorgeous achievement."
A River of Stars (2018) Vanessa Hua "Vanessa Hua’s compelling A River of Stars is a story of resistance, survival, and self-determination in a world that is seemingly indifferent to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised."
Paris by the Book (2018) Liam Callanan "Liam Callanan's Paris by the Book is much more than an elegiac portrait of an artist who has vanished. Here we witness the sacrifices and yearnings of the ones left behind as they continue to love, live, and flourish. Like James Salter's Light Years, Callanan depicts the once seemingly simple conditions of a young marriage and what it takes to let such conditions go."
The Weird Sisters (2011) Eleanor Brown "Eleanor Brown has written a compelling novel about love, despair and birth order-the themes the Bard himself had claimed and burnished."
