Beyond Bestsellers - Fiction, Summer 2024
Get ahead of the crowd with these great recent releases that may not be on the New York Times bestseller list, but that have critics and readers talking.
July - September 2024 Issue
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See also:
- Featured Review: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
- Nonfiction Recommendations
- Previous Issues
Alvarez, Julia. The Cemetery of Untold Stories.
A retired professor and writer leaves the U.S. and returns to her native Dominican Republic, where she uses a piece of land she has inherited to create a cemetery for her unfinished manuscripts and notes. Ebook. En Español: libro, Ebook, audiolibro
Banks, Russell. American Spirits.
This dark novel in three sections tells the stories of three working class families in Sam Dent, New York, a run-down rural town dependent on wealthy vacationers.
Barrett, Colin. Wild Houses.
In this novel set in a small town in Western Ireland, two brothers kidnap a teenage boy, bring him to their cousin's isolated house and threaten to kill him unless the boy's brother pays back the money he owes them.
Beams, Clare. The Garden.
In this gothic horror novel set in Massachusetts in the 1940's, a pregnant woman with a history of miscarriages checks into a private hospital which specializes in cases like hers; and discovers a hidden garden with supernatural properties.
Bullwinkel, Rita. Headshot.
In this unusual novel with vivid characterizations and detailed backstories, eight teenage girls compete for a title at a women's boxing tournament at Bob's Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada.
Croft, Jennifer. The Extinction of Irena Rey.
In this philosophical and sometimes funny novel, a group of translators, who have gathered at the home of a famous Polish author to translate her latest novel into their respective languages, are mystified when the author suddenly disappears.
Crucet, Jennine Capó. Say Hello to My Little Friend.
The two main characters in this unusual and vibrant novel set in Miami are a young Cuban-American man looking for a new job, and a female orca whale, who, though she has been in captivity for almost 50 years, still remembers her life with her pod. Ebook
Cunningham, Vinson. Great Expectations.
In this novel set during the presidential campaign in 2008, a young Black man from New York gets a job as a campaign staffer, and as he travels around the country, he thinks about his life, family, religion, and race.
Davies, Carys. Clear.
In this novel set in Scotland in 1843, during the last days of the Highland Clearances when poor farmers were evicted to make room for sheep, a poor minister accepts the job of clearing the last inhabitant off of a remote Northern island.
Freudenberger, Nell. The Limits.
While her mother, a French marine biologist, studies the impact of climate change on corals in Polynesia, and her father, a cardiologist in New York City, is struggling with the impact of COVID-19 on his hospital, their teenage daughter, already distressed by their divorce, is pulled between them.
Garvin, Eileen. Crow Talk.
A graduate student in ornithology, whose father has died and whose studies have ended, seeks comfort in solitude at her family's remote lakeside cabin, until she meets a young couple with a son, and rescues an injured baby crow.
Gonzalez, Xochitl. Anita de Monte Laughs Last.
A working class Puerto Rican art student, studying in the United States and researching her thesis on a white sculptor, finds convincing evidence that he murdered his wife, a Cuban-American artist, whose talent and fame he found threatening. Ebook, downloadable audiobook
Howard, Scott Alexander. The Other Valley.
In this speculative fiction, a teenage girl, who lives in a place where the next town on one side is the same place twenty years before, and the town on the other side is the same place twenty years ahead, accidentally discovers an upsetting event in the future, and tries to change it. Downloadable audiobook
Hughes, Caoilinn. The Alternatives.
In this Irish story, a geology professor, who raised her three younger sisters after the death of their parents, disappears after they have all grown into successful adults in different fields, and her sisters come together to find her.
Huston, Charlie. Catchpenny.
In this supernatural thriller/urban fantasy, a washed-up thief who uses magic to travel through mirrors is asked to help find a missing teenage girl; as he searches through a mystical version of Los Angeles, the past he has tried to cover over comes back to haunt him.
Kim, Crystal Hana. The Stone Home.
This is a look at life in the Korean rehabilitation centers of the 1980s, which were actually forced-labor camps, through the interconnected stories of two people – a young woman who was arrested for begging, and a young man who was falsely accused of a crime. Ebook
King-Miller, Lindsay. The Z Word.
In a small town in Arizona, gearing up for its annual Pride Fest, which is sponsored by a local hard-seltzer business, the queer cast of this romance/horror novel try to cope with relationship problems, as well as zombies.
Ko, Lisa. Memory Piece.
In this novel which starts in 1983 and continues into the 2040s, three Asian-American girls meet in a New Jersey suburb and remain friends as they grow up and largely go their separate ways.
Lu, Wenyan. The Funeral Cryer.
A woman who lives with her abusive husband in a small Chinese village, supporting them by performing at funerals, lives a boring and unhappy existence until she meets two new people who lead her to question her assumptions about her life. Ebook
Martínez, Layla. Woodworm.
In this novel from translated from Spanish, a grandmother and granddaughter live together in an ancient house haunted by spirits, family secrets, and angels, unable to leave or to escape their family's past.
Medina Mora, Nicolás. América del Norte.
A young Mexican journalist from an elite family moves to the United States to attend prestigious universities, but political changes in both countries complicate his life, and he comes to realize that though he is considered white in Mexico, he will always be perceived as a dark-skinned member of an underclass in the U.S.
Messud, Claire. This Strange Eventful History.
In this multi-generational saga based on the author's own family history, the story begins with a family of “pieds-noirs”, French people born and living in Algeria, who lose their homeland after World War II when Algeria wins its independence from France.
Mukherjee, Abir. Hunted.
This thoughtful thriller depicts the aftermath of a terrorist bombing in a shopping mall, exploring the motives of the terrorists, the effect on their families, and the actions that an FBI agent and other law enforcement take to try to find the identities of the bombers.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Butcher.
This gothic novel, which describes procedures actually carried out by several real-life 19th century American doctors, is a fictional biography of a gynecologist/psychiatrist who performed gruesome experiments on the inmates of a women's lunatic asylum in Trenton, New Jersey.
Obreht, Téa. The Morningside.
In this surrealistic and dream-like novel. which takes place in an east coast city in the near future after flooding has reshaped the geography, a girl and her mother move from abroad to live with the girl's aunt in a once-luxurious apartment building that the aunt manages. Ebook
O’Connor, Elizabeth. Whale Fall.
In this novel set on a small Welsh island in 1938, a teenage girl who has lived on the island all her life, and sees little possibility of anything changing for her, meets a pair of ethnographers who have come to study the island and its people, and gains a new appreciation for her home.
Oyeyemi, Helen. Parasol Against the Axe.
In this experimental novel set in Prague, three women end up with copies of a mysterious book by an Australian author which is supposedly a history of the city, but actually tells a different story every time it is opened.
Parsons, Kimberly King. We Were the Universe.
In this book told in a stream of consciousness narrative, a young woman who lives in a Fort Worth/Dallas suburb with her husband and their four year old daughter tries to come to terms with the death of her younger sister and her difficult relationship with her mother.
Pulley, Natasha. The Mars House.
In this imaginative dystopian science fiction with a complex plot, a dancer with the Royal Ballet in London becomes a climate refugee after flood waters destroy the city, finds his way to a Chinese colony on Mars where he gets work as a laborer, and forms an alliance with an anti-immigrant senator.
Richards, Diane. Ella.
This is a fictional biography of the great jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, focused on her life as a teenager in Harlem in the 1930s, and her struggle to survive, and eventually triumph, despite poverty, abuse, and racism.
Sahota, Sunjeev. The Spoiled Heart.
In this novel set in England during the COVID-19 pandemic, two men of East Indian descent vie for the position of general secretary of their union, and the campaign becomes increasingly heated over issues of race and class.
Smiley, Jane. Lucky.
This is a the story of a folk singer and songwriter, who becomes fairly successful during the folk-rock era of the 1970s, and then, after traveling around the world with her music, returns home to St. Louis to care for her family.
Tang, Jiaming. Cinema Love.
In this story, which begins in China in the 1980s, the characters are all connected to a movie house where gay men go to meet each other in their small village; later, after some of them immigrate to the United States, they find each other again in New York, in Chinatown.
Waldman, Adelle. Help Wanted.
In this novel set at a big box store in a deteriorating town in Upstate New York, the members of the store's blue collar logistics team hatch a plan to get their manager, who they hate, a promotion, in order to get rid of her and give a member of their team the chance to move up.
Westerbeke, Douglas. A Short Walk Through a Wide World.
In this novel set in the late 19th century, a nine-year-old French girl develops a strange illness which causes her to bleed uncontrollably unless she moves to a new place every few days, leading her to travel all around the world. Ebook, downloadable audiobook
