“They had an unspoken understanding not to press one another about the past and its pain, but to keep trying to live in the present, offering silent understanding and respect.” ‘They’ being the five members of the family at the center of Ishmael Beah’s novel, Little Family: a group of five young people from different… Continue reading Little Family by Ishmael Beah
Tag: newfiction
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
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
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Kiley Reid’s debut novel, Such a Fun Age, is concerned with the rise of “woke” culture, a self obsessive tendency of privileged white liberals to perform progressive ideals of racial and gender equality. The novel is told from the perspectives of two women, one of whom is Alix, a… Continue reading Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid