Literary Fiction

Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Yefim Shulman, husband, grandfather and war veteran, was beloved by his family and his coworkers. But in the days after his death, his widow Nina finds a letter to the KGB in his briefcase. Yefim had a lifelong secret, and his confession forces them to reassess the man they thought they knew and the country he had defended.

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

In this immersive novel, Zuravleff weaves Russian fairy tales and fables into a family saga within the storied American landscape. The challenges facing immigrants-and the fragility of citizenship-are just as unsettling and surprising today as they were 100 years ago.

In the rural South, a retired colonel in an upscale retirement community grieves the sudden death of his wife on the tennis court. On the other side of the highway, an elderly Black woman grieves the murder of her niece by a white man. Between them lies an abandoned field where three centuries of crimes are hidden, and only she knows the explosive secrets buried there. When the colonel runs into her car, causing a surprising amount of damage, it sparks a feud that sets loose the spirits in the Field, both benevolent and vengeful.

With her first novel, Alana S. Portero strikingly underscores the ties between gender and class, the search for identity, and the power of sisterhood and community. Gentle but blistering, Bad Habit is a mesmerizing story of self-realization that speaks to the outsider in all of us.

Ten years ago, Keaton Young turned his back briefly on his four-year-old daughter, Vivian, during a family picnic at the beach. Minutes later, she was gone, her floaties found in the ocean. Drowned. But they never found a body. And Keaton has never given up hope that, somehow, she’s still alive.

Meet three women with contrasting partners: Lucy's husband is her beloved companion; Vera's husband bores her and she turns elsewhere; and Charlotte's husband is a horrifying bully who turns a high-spirited naive young girl into a deeply unhappy woman. This is the story of how those marriages shape the sister’s lives, the consequences of their decisions, and the sisterly love that hopes to save them from tragedy.

From the perspective of a small dog, the world can be a big place. More than anything, Hector just wants to be a good boy.

All of his life Benjamin hadn't noticed Sarah as anything other than his best friend's sister. The last thing he expected was to notice her as more than a friend, but he did. No sooner does he realize his love for her, America enters the war. War changes a man. He'd heard that dozens of times over his life but with every near miss, every new scar, every bullet he feels himself chipping away. Even if he survives to go home to his soulmate, what man would he be? How much of him would she recognize?

From acclaimed author Ai Jiang, follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. to the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go. This edition includes a foreword by Yi Izzy Yu, Translator of The Shadow Book of Ji Yun, the essay "A Ramble on Di Fu Ling & Death" by the author, and two bonus short stories from Jiang: "Yǒngshí" and "Teeter Totter."

Isobel has always yearned to uncover the mystery surrounding her birth and why her adoptive parents have refused to share what they know with her. About to enter vet school, Isobel’s life takes an unexpected turn after the death of Maggie O’Connor, Isobel’s de facto grandmother. Fueled by an ache to belong, and willing to sacrifice her college plans and a burgeoning relationship, Isobel embarks on a quest.

Emily rents a room in a boarding house in London where she makes a modest living as an assistant to aristocratic ladies. One summer, Lady Maria Bayne asks Emily to her country estate and it’s there that Emily receives a very surprising offer of marriage from a wealthy widower in need of a wife. But Emily’s new life is not without its own obstacles and challenges.

These stories explore almost every aspect of English domestic life during the Second World War: separation, fear, and obsessions with food, sewing parties, evacuees’ journeys, and the camaraderie of the Blitz. Above all, Panter-Downes portrays the changes and social revolutions which took place during wartime.

Dolly is twenty-three and about to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Her wedding day is filled with hasty and chaotic preparations for the entire household. Matters are complicated further by Dolly swigging from a bottle of Jamaica rum, which she later transfers into the folds of her white dress. Will she arrive at her own wedding on time, or will the fumbling advances of Joseph, the man she really loves, get in the way?