Purchase a copy for yourself here! Donna Tartt’s debut novel, The Secret History, which has been out for almost three decades now, is still the standard-bearer for that niche genre of stylish New England academic novels. The novel’s haunting narrator, Richard Papen, a scholarship student from California who becomes involved with a small group of… Continue reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Category: Fiction
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Purchase a copy for yourself here! It is hard to recall a recent book that received as much pre-publication hype as Sally Rooney’s sophomore effort, Normal People. The follow up to her bestselling debut, Conversations with Friends, this novel became a sort of trendy accessory upon its publication, a must-read companion for culturally elite millennials.… Continue reading Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Purchase a copy for yourself here! “I was surprised to find how little there was about servants written by servants, given that a sizable proportion of people in this country were employed in service right up until the Second World War. It was amazing that so few of them had thought their lives worth recording.… Continue reading The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Purchase a copy for yourself here! In Lily King’s fifth novel, she takes up the task of writing about the experience of writing a novel. The protagonist of Writers and Lovers, thirty-one-year-old Casey Peabody works as a waitress at an upscale restaurant outside of Boston, spending her time off working on her novel. Casey is… Continue reading Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Weather by Jenny Offill
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Weather, the latest novel from Jenny Offill, leans into the impending doom. Like Offill’s bestselling Department of Speculation, the novel is structured in diary-like paragraphs, or quick thought bursts featuring some of Offill’s classic one liners. (A woman who nearly hits a family of pedestrians with her car mumbles,… Continue reading Weather by Jenny Offill
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Purchase a copy for yourself here! On the evening of her 25th birthday, Libby Jones receives a letter that comes to totally transforms her understanding of her origins, and open the doors to her mysterious past. Lisa Jewell’s 17th novel, The Family Upstairs, tells the story of Libby’s efforts to answer the questions posed by… Continue reading The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Purchase a copy for yourself here! In 1946, during the height of Jim Crow South, the Mississippi Delta was a community still beholden to the values of the Antebellum South: racial discrimination and violence were the norm. It is in this fraught landscape that Hillary Jordan set her debut novel, Mudbound, which explores the lives… Continue reading Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Purchase a copy for yourself here! In 1990’s England, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines a dystopian alternate reality—a boarding school beset with human clones. This school, Hailsham, is the setting of Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go. The novel is constructed as a sort of memoir, narrated by Kathy, an adult female “carer” (the meaning of… Continue reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Purchase a copy for yourself here! The community of Shaker Heights, Ohio was the first fully planned community to spring up in America. The Shakers built a town beholden to strict aesthetic and moral codes, laying out residential streets, schools, and businesses according to rigorous family-friendly standards. This suburban oasis is the setting for Celeste… Continue reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Few nations experienced as much political turmoil as Iran did in the twentieth century. Colonialist interests and corrupt government robbed the country of its main natural resource and profit generator, oil, sparking years of unrest and bloody conflict. For a brief history lesson: after the Second World War, Iran… Continue reading The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi