Fiction

October - December 2024 Issue

See also:

• Featured Review: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark
• Nonfiction Recommendations
• Previous Issues

Anderson, M.T.  Nicked.
In this rollicking historical adventure set in the 11th century, an Italian monk travels to a Byzantine city in search of the bones of St. Nicholas, which are believed to have the power to cure the sick.

Anthony, Jessica.  The Most.   
In this novella set in Delaware in the 1950's, a young couple's marriage is on the brink, and the secrets and past mistakes that complicate their relationship are revealed.

Askaripour, Mateo.  This Great Hemisphere.
This dystopian science fiction/adventure is set 500 years in the future, when society is divided into a majority privileged population and a minority who are invisible and disenfranchised. An invisible becomes an apprentice to a wealthy and eccentric inventor, but leaves her job to look for her brother, who has been accused of assassinating an important public official.

Bacigalupi, Paolo.  Navola.  
In this dark fantasy set in a fictional world that resembles Renaissance Italy, a kind young man who would rather live peaceably and study nature is forced to follow in the footsteps of his father, a powerful and ruthless banker. Ebook

Balibrera, Gina María.  The Volcano Daughters.  
Two sisters born to an indigenous woman in El Salvador in the early 20th century are taken away from their home, one at a time, by their father, a wealthy landowner. Eventually, they both flee the country and build successful lives in California, but neither knows the other has survived. Ebook

Barry, Kevin. The Heart in Winter.
In this gritty western set in Montana in the 1890's, an Irish drifter who's been working as a photographer's assistant meets and falls in love with an Irish mail-order bride and escapes with her to San Francisco, pursued by a band of outlaws hired by her husband.

Butler, Halle.  Banal Nightmare.
In this satirical novel, a young woman leaves Chicago and a toxic relationship to return to her hometown and her old friends, who are mostly stuck in stressful jobs and unfulfilling relationships and who are not as supportive as she had hoped.

Cameron, Briony.  The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye.  
This adventure novel, inspired by true stories of women pirates in the Caribbean in the 17th century, tells the story of a lesbian of Haitian and French heritage, who takes to the open sea with a group of refugees fleeing after a political coup, and later turns pirate to regain her freedom. Ebook

Chidgey, Catherine.  The Axeman’s Carnival.
In this tragic novel set in New Zealand, a woman adopts a young magpie and teaches him to speak; the bird becomes an internet sensation and a moneymaker for her and her husband, a farmer and competitive woodchopper, but when the husband returns to heavy drinking, conflict among the three arises.

Cusk, Rachel.  Parade.  
This experimental novel is divided into four sections and tells four stories: a male artist named G begins to paint upside down; a woman is attacked by a stranger on a street in Paris; a painter named G, who is a woman, leaves home for a new life in another country; and a mother dies and her children confront her legacy.

Daré, Abi.  And So I Roar.
In this novel from Nigeria, a young woman must choose between learning a secret that her dying mother hid from her for two decades and protecting a teenaged girl who has run away from her rural village in hopes of getting an education. Ebook

Espinoza, Alex.  The Sons of El Rey.
The lively story of a Mexican-American family, whose patriarch was a famous luchador, a Mexican wrestler, told by his son, grandson, the ghost of his deceased wife, and by the persona he created.

Fuentes, Marcela.  Malas.
This novel, set in a little border town in Texas, connects the stories of two strong-willed Mexican-American women: a wife and mother in the 1950s, who believes she has been cursed by a woman claiming to be her husband's first wife, and a teenager in the 1990s, who is lead singer in a punk band and ambivalent about her upcoming quinceañera. Ebook

Grames, Juliet.  The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.
An idealistic young American woman comes to a poor and isolated village in Calabria, Italy, in 1960, to open a nursery school and puts herself in danger when she begins to investigate the identity of a skeleton recently uncovered by a flood.

Heller, Peter.  Burn.  
In this suspense story set in the near future, two young men who have come to northern Maine for their annual camping trip discover a string of towns destroyed by fire or explosions and find themselves in increasing danger as a result of the country's violent politics. Ebook

Hur, Anton.  Toward Eternity.  
In this metaphysical science fiction story set in the near future, scientists have developed a method to rescue a chosen few from early death by replacing every diseased cell in their bodies with a bioengineered healthy cell. Ebook

Iglesias, Gabino.  House of Bone and Rain.  
After his mother, a low-level drug dealer, is murdered, a Puerto Rican teenager and his friends set out to avenge her, while at the same time, Hurricane Maria attacks the island, bringing with it ghosts and demons.

Khakpour, Porochista.  Tehrangeles.
This is the story of a wealthy Persian family with four grown daughters living in Los Angeles, who are just about to land a reality television show, when the Covid 19 pandemic hits. Ebook

Manguso, Sarah.  Liars.  
A woman who is beginning to experience success as a writer falls in love with a filmmaker and marries him, despite realizing that he is too competitive to ever be supportive of her career. Ebook

Mengestu, Dinaw.  Someone Like Us.
An Ethiopian-American writer, who now lives in Paris with his wife and son, arrives at his mother's house in Washington, DC, to find that a close family friend has died. Knowing that the man was actually his father, although it has never been acknowledged, the writer flies to Chicago, in hopes of learning more about his life.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia.  The Seventh Veil of Salome.  
In this historical novel set in Hollywood in the 1950s, an American actress who believes she was passed over for the starring role in an epic movie about the Biblical character Salome sets out to punish the young Mexican actress who got the part.

Ogawa, Yoko.  Mina’s Matchbox.
After her father dies in 1972, a 12-year-old Japanese girl is sent to live with her wealthy relatives for a year while her mother takes classes in Tokyo; the girl quickly bonds with her asthmatic cousin, a bookworm and matchbook collector.

O’Hagan, Andrew.  Caledonian Road.
In this critique of contemporary Britain, a well-known art historian in London anonymously writes a self-help book for money, and tries to get an actor to pose as the author, but his scheme leads to a series of tragicomic events, amid a cast of Russian oligarchs, British aristocrats, drug dealers, and human smugglers.

O’Neill, Joseph.  Godwin.  
This novel explores the somewhat murky world of international soccer and the legacy of colonialism through the story of a writer asked to help his half-brother, a sports agent, find a promising young African soccer player named Godwin.

Perry, Sarah.  Enlightenment.
In this book about faith, love, and astronomy, a man and woman who live in a small town in Essex, England, are soul mates despite thirty years difference in their ages, until new relationships interfere; later, the man becomes obsessed with a  19th century astronomer.

Phillips, Helen.  Hum.  
In this dystopian novel set in a future dominated by climate change and technology, a young unemployed woman agrees to participate in a paid experiment, in which her features are altered just enough to confound facial recognition software. She uses the money for a visit to a beautiful Botanical Garden with her husband and two children, but then the children wander off and get lost.

Porter, Regina.  The Rich People Have Gone Away.
As the Covid-19 pandemic takes off, a professional musician and her husband, a real estate consultant, leave New York City to head for her mother's cabin upstate. While stopping for a hike, they get into an argument; the woman runs away, and disappears. Ebook

Shafak, Elif.  There Are Rivers in the Sky.  
In this philosophical novel about history and the recovery of history, a single raindrop becomes a link to four human characters living in different times and different countries.

Talty, Morgan.  Fire Exit.  
A white man, who was raised by a stepfather on the Penobscot Nation reservation, tries to help his mother, who is sinking into dementia and depression, and thinks about telling his daughter, who doesn't know his true identity, that he is her father. Downloadable audiobook
 
Thorpe, Rufi.  Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
After a young woman has an ill-advised affair with her professor and becomes pregnant, she decides to keep the baby, and finds she can support herself by posting explicit pictures on an adult website, a decision that alienates most of her friends. Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Todd, Ruby.  Bright Objects.  
A woman who lives in a small town in Australia, and who lost her husband two years earlier to a hit and run driver, plans to commit suicide on the day a comet appears in the sky, but before this can take place, she falls in love with the American astronomer who discovered the comet.  

Van den Berg, Laura.  State of Paradise.  
In this unsettling speculative novel, narrated by a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author, the writer and her husband are stranded by Covid while visiting her mother in Florida, and find themselves plagued by sinkholes, floods, and increasingly bizarre and inexplicable events.  

Vlautin, Willy.  The Horse.
A sixty-year-old former musician and songwriter, living alone in the Nevada mountains, wakes up one morning to find a blind and injured horse standing outside his shack.

Yoon, Nicola.  One of Our Kind.
A Black public defender, her husband, and small son move to Liberty, a wealthy Black community outside of Los Angeles, where it is safer than in their old working class neighborhood, but she soon begins to feel uncomfortable, as their neighbors seem set on conformity and complaisance. Downloadable audiobook

Zaher, Yasmin.  The Coin.  
The narrator of this novel is a young, rich, and beautiful Palestinian immigrant who teaches at a middle school in Brooklyn, New York, and is obsessed with expensive designer clothes, until her isolation and cultural estrangement lead her to start washing and scrubbing herself compulsively.