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Emma Donoghue's luminous story of three days in an Irish maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a tale of death and life, of history, of feminism, of determination, of all kinds of love, painted in gorgeous prose that at times made me stop to copy down passages — not just because of their beauty but because of the heart-in-the-throat feeling of being reminded that, in the midst of such brutal reality, can be stunning moments of joy. — Gigi L.

Your attention will be captured from the very first sentence as you are introduced to our mysterious and engaging narrator, who longs to write. It's a book about choices and finding fulfillment. Written in hauntingly quiet and elegant prose, this deceptively slender book is my book find of the year (to date)! — Sheila N.

Enright weaves her incredible story of the great (fictional) actress Katherine O’Dell into the equally fascinating history of the Troubles. Stuck in the middle — and telling the tale — is O’Dell’s devoted daughter, Norah, who comes of age in an Ireland made both vibrant and terrifying by the violence on the national stage and the domestic theater of her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior. Captivating, wry, and so intimate that it feels like biography, Actress is a beautifully wrought novel by a master stylist. — Rhianna W.

Funny and yearning, A Small Crowd of Strangers explores what it means to “live your truth,” even as you seemingly do everything in your power to stunt, quiet, or ignore it. Following her ill-thought-out marriage to a devout Catholic, Pattianne finds herself on the run to the West Coast, aging mutt in tow. A coming-of-age-when-already-grown-up novel (who doesn’t need that?), A Small Crowd of Strangers entertains and soothes in equal measure.

The resplendent beauty of Andrés Neuman’s prose, the thoughtful, reflective nature of his ideas, and the depth and vulnerability of his characters coalesce to make his writing among the finest in the world. His new novel, Fracture (translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia), is the story of Yoshie Watanabe, survivor of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings both — and stranger to neither loss nor love. Spanning decades and continents, Fracture reckons with fragility and breakage, deftly employing the Japanese art of kintsugi as metaphor in a masterful, tenderly told tale. — Jeremy G.

Brit Bennett, who’s been a writer to watch since The Mothers debuted, excels at intergenerational storytelling and articulating the forceful, conflicted emotions of characters dealing with the constraints of small-town life, racial identity, and the types of secrets that forever alter a life’s trajectory. In The Vanishing Half, which follows the adult lives of identical twins Desiree and Stella and their daughters, these concerns make for a deftly plotted, addictive book that raises vital questions about colorism, kinship, identity.

The perfect novel for the lit fan who can’t quite admit their abiding love for romance novels, Beach Read personifies the tensions between the genres and proves that great books can explore dark themes (loss, suicide, serious angst) and still thrill with a happily ever after. Writers January and Gus are stuck in a rut with their respective novels and make a deal to write in each other’s chosen genre. The writing exercise inspires frustration, artistic breakthroughs, and of course love.

A family of four have rented a vacation house outside of New York City, but their relaxing week is cut short when an older couple arrives late at night, bearing news of a catastrophic blackout. Without access to the news or Internet, the two families must parse increasingly surreal glimpses of what's happening in the world, while navigating a shared space. This timely novel explores what it means to feel safe, and how personal moments are affected by class, race, and generational factors — and how those meanings are amplified by the tensions of survival. — Michelle C.

Circe (paperback release)
by Madeline Miller

Circe is wondrously lush and lyrical, and the depth and carefulness with which her story is drawn is breathtaking. It comes so freshly alive that I found myself completely caught up in what would happen next, even already knowing the Greek myths. After finishing, I immediately went out and bought a copy of Madeline Miller's first book, The Song of Achilles, in order to be able to reenter the tapestry of world that she so elegantly weaves. — Aubrey W.

My Dark Vanessa came into the world mired in social media controversy, but if you have the stomach for Russell’s very dark and uneasy account of the relationship between a teenage girl and her high school teacher, it’s worth overlooking the industry drama. Vanessa is in her thirties when Strane is accused of serial sex abuse of minors, and the revelations intensify Vanessa’s already entrenched inclination to defend, romanticize, and in other ways twist the dynamics of their former relationship. While Vanessa’s mental gymnastics make the novel a tough read, Russell’s illumination of the depth, mess, and longevity of trauma is important and compelling.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi delivers a mesmerizing, panoramic snapshot of Ugandan history and culture through the eyes of an unforgettable protagonist and adolescent storyteller. When we are first introduced to 12-year-old Kirabo, her two driving forces in life are to meet her mother and to control the urge to fly out of her body. Ablaze with these purposes, she desperately confides in Nsuuta, the village witch, who happens to hold more knowledge about both of these secrets than Kirabo could ever have imagined. Thus begins the trajectory of a wildly aware and resolutely independent young girl determined to write her own narrative and defy the gender and class constraints imposed on her at birth. Perhaps there is a bit of Kirabo in each of us. — Aubrey W.

Gilbert’s newest novel really is everything the cover art promises: sex, spectacle, and Broadway-sized fabulousness cut with Gilbert’s insightful approach to exploring women’s inner lives, and an attention to historical detail that brings postwar NYC blazing into life. Sent to live with her theater-owning aunt as a “punishment,” Vivian Morris finds all of the drama, love, and sorrow an adventurous girl could hope for, and a reader could desire from this irresistibly juicy and wise novel. — Rhianna W.

C Pam Zhang breathes life into an often untold story of the American West with this fiercely stunning debut novel. I didn't realize how much I needed How Much of These Hills Is Gold until it was in my hands and I was unable to put it down. As Chinese as it is American, Zhang's reimagining of 19th-century history still feels relevant today as it chews through the complexities of being an immigrant in this country. — Rachel M.

This is a very engaging reimagining of the life of Shakespeare's wife, Agnes (in this version), whom O'Farrell presents as a free-spirited and forthright young woman who entrances the future playwright. Filled with wonderfully rich details, O'Farrell also does a brilliant job of depicting village life in Renaissance England. Makes for poignant reading. — Sheila N.

Little Gods is the story of a scientist, Su Lan, whose brilliance both attracts and alienates the people who love her. While her husband, child, and friends circle around her like planets to a sun, she struggles to use her fire to light the way forward and incinerate the past. Set against the backdrop of the 1989 student uprisings in China, and later in the anonymity and dislocation of the American immigrant experience, Little Gods is a beautiful exploration of how the political is the personal, and of the invisible cords that tie us to our histories — both private and collective — despite our best efforts to only look forward. — Rhianna W.

I admit, the gorgeous cover on this one drew me in and I’m so glad it did. The Flores family is struggling to survive in Hawaii even as one of the kids has a gift from the gods. All three kids end up moving to the mainland to try to find a better life, but can’t seem to shake the hold the island has on them. This book is beautiful, heartbreaking, and I can’t stop thinking about it. — Jennifer H.

I discovered this novel because of Hilary Mantel, and she's quite right to categorize Madeline St. John's delightful novel as a gift that cheers the reader up. It's a perfectly joyous book, written with wit and charm. Sadly, Madeline St. John only wrote four novels and they are not easy to track down, so hang on to them if you manage to find them! — Sheila N.

A dark, literary, funny, impossible-to-put-down book, Luster is centered on 23-year-old Edie. The novel covers a period of her life intersecting with a much older lover, his wife, and their adopted teenage daughter. In phenomenal prose (Edie's descriptions and observations about the world are impeccable), Raven Leilani has captured complex, intimate ways that people help and hurt each other, the drudgery of modern workplaces and the gig economy, twisting paths of finding creative passions, the pains of IBS, and so much more. — Michelle C.

Powers’s poignant kid-detective novel revolves around the mystery (and lingering presence) of a ghost. Ten-year-old Clarke is obsessed with movies and finding the cause of his mother’s sudden death. Written from multiple perspectives, Rules for Being Dead gradually reveals the fragility and tumult in Clarke’s family, as well as Clarke’s burgeoning sexual identity. Sometimes funny, very sweet, and clear-eyed in its focus on loss, Rules for Being Dead will warm your heart right up, and then douse it in the righteous chill of a totally unexpected conclusion.

One of Turkey’s preeminent authors and dissidents, Elif Shafak has long been an advocate for women and children. Her beautiful Booker-shortlisted novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World opens with the death of the protagonist, a murdered prostitute named Leila. That sounds bleak, but through the narrative conceit of Leila’s last thoughts, Shafak shares a difficult life enriched by deep friendships and personal courage. Focusing on the urban “water family” Leila creates to replace the abusive, backwater nuclear family she flees, Shafak emphasizes the moments of beauty, joy, humor, and self-actualization that elevate a life cut short, while offering an incisive critique of the Turkish Muslim treatment of girls and women.

Governed by a humor so black it borders on the surreal, Kingdomtide is the most unusual survival novel you’ll ever read. Narrated in turns by Cloris Waldrip, the hilarious, elderly sole survivor of a plane crash that kills her husband, and Debra Lewis, the tenacious, dysfunctional ranger trying to find her, Kingdomtide alternates between a hysterical send-up of Waldrip’s churchy Texas life and an exploration of Lewis’s bizarre backcountry community. Cloris’s adventures fighting bobcats and hypothermia and Lewis’s cringe-inducing behavior make the novel compulsively readable, and surprisingly tender. Drawn out of her narrowmindedness by the perils of survival, Cloris reflects that it’s not up to her to judge how people live their lives. Does the reader believe this acid-tongued old lady? Not entirely. But given the tampon earrings, dead-skunk-in-hot-tub sex, and everything else Lewis’s crew gets up to, Cloris’s expanded notion of acceptability seems quite generous.

When an eccentric evangelist arrives in the parched city of Peaches, California, with promises of rain and salvation, the locals are quick to form a flock. But soon one of the devout goes missing; the secret “assignments” Pastor Vern demands of his parishioners come into focus; and 14-year-old Lacey May discovers there are things more worrisome than drought. Godshot is a cancel-your-plans/forget-to-eat/fail-to-notice-it’s-nighttime-till-you-glance-out-the-window-and-the-sun’s-gone-down kind of book. A fervent, layered debut that made me thirsty for whatever else Chelsea Bieker has in store. — Tove H.

Walking on the Ceiling is a beguiling novel about memories — how tricky they are and how they can affect one's perception — and loss. It's also a book about the fragility of relationships. Aysegul Savas's haunting and powerful debut is a treat not to be missed. — Sheila N.