Evanson, Tanya, 1972-
2021
In this sweeping, allusive novel, the celebrated poet, dervish, and oral storyteller Tawhida Tanya Evanson comes to terms with what it means to stand on one's own two feet in an uncertain world. The acclaimed Antiguan-Canadian artist traces a global journey from Vancouver to the United States, Caribbean, Paris, and Morocco as a relationship with her lover and travel partner disintegrates and she finds herself on a path toward personal discovery and spiritual fulfillment that leads her deep into the North African landscape.
Peters, Torrey, author
2020
Reese almost had it all. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier. When Ames' boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby, Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family - and raise the baby together?
Hannah, Kristin, author
2021
Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance. In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli-like so many of her neighbors-must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.
Flynn, Laurie Elizabeth, author
2021
A lot has changed in the years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she's worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads, "We need to talk about what we did that night." It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia's past-and the people she thought she'd left there-aren't as buried as she'd believed. Amb can't stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane "Sully" Sullivan, Amb's former best friend, who could make anyone do anything. At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they're being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused--the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding.
Kawakami, Mieko.
2021
Mieko Kawakami's new novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters. These raw and realistic portrayals of bullying are counterbalanced by textured exposition of the philosophical and religious debates concerning violence to which the weak are subjected. Author of "Breasts and Eggs."
VanderMeer, Jeff, author
2021
"From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Annihilation, comes a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the end of all things"-- Provided by publisher.
Harris, Zakiya Dalila.
2021
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. But she's thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. Then a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust followed by notes on Nella's desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW. As Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there's a lot more at stake than just her career. Print run 150,000.
Skeslien Charles, Janet, author
2021
Paris, 1939. When World War II breaks out, Odile Souchet stands to lose everything she holds dear - including her beloved library. But by war's end, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal. Montana, 1983. Odile's solitary existence in gossipy small-town Montana is unexpectedly interrupted by her neighbour Lily, a lonely teenager craving adventure. Odile helps Lily navigate the troubled waters of adolescence, never suspecting that Lily will be the one to help her reckon with her own terrible secret. Based on the true story of the American Library in Paris.
Pearse, Sarah, author
2021
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Once a sanatorium treating tuberculosis patients, it was abandoned years ago and had fallen into disrepair. Long plagued by troubling rumours, it has recently been renovated into a lavish hotel. And an imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place detective Elin Warner wants to be. But having received an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she had no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin is immediately on edge. Though it's a stunning retreat, something about the hotel makes her nervous -- as does her brother, Isaac. When Elin wakes the following the morning to discover Isaac's fianceĢe Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's alarm grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the more the remaining guests start to panic. Yet no one has realized that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're all in...
Philyaw, Deesha, author
2020
"The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions."-- Provided by publisher.
King, Thomas.
2021
Jeremiah Camp can look into the heart of humanity and see the patterns that create opportunities and profits for the rich and powerful. Ash Locken, head of the Locken Group, the multinational consortium that Jeremiah had fled, arrives on his doorstep with a simple proposition. She wants our hero to formulate one more forecast. Before he left the Locken empire, Jeremiah had created a list of twelve names, every one a billionaire. The problem is, the people on the list are dying at an alarming and unnatural rate. And Ash Locken wants to know why. Residence: Guelph, ON. Print run 16,000.
Lawson, Mary, 1946- author
2021
New York Times bestselling author Mary Lawson, acclaimed for digging into the "wilderness of the human heart", is back after almost a decade with a fresh and timely novel that is different in subject but just as emotional and atmospheric as her beloved earlier work. As A Town Called Solace opens, we meet a family in crisis: their rebellious teenage daughter, Rose, has disappeared. Weeks have passed with no word, but still Rose's little sister, Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping that Rose will come back. Feisty and fierce, Clara is not only missing Rose; she is also missing her elderly friend and next-door neighbour, Mrs. Orchard, a retired schoolteacher who is away in hospital. While standing at the window, Clara keeps an eye out for Rose and an eye on Mrs. Orchard's house. Then, one afternoon, a strange young man in a strange car pulls into Mrs. Orchard's driveway and proceeds to move into the house as if he owns the place. Which it turns out he does: Mrs. Orchard has died and left it to him. Soon we discover that Clara's beloved Mrs. Orchard has a complicated and tragic past, and the real mystery at the heart of this novel is what happened between her and Liam, the man in the car. A Town Called Solace is told in three distinct, compelling voices--Clara's, Mrs. Orchard's, and Liam's--cutting back and forth to carefully uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose, and steadily building towards an assured, heart-wrenching and (despite its losses) uplifting ending. A beautifully written, masterful, suspenseful and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers.
Hawkins, Rachel, 1979- author
2021
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates--a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates' most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can't help but see an opportunity in Eddie--not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she's always yearned for. Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie's heart before her past--or his--catches up to her?
Imamura, Natsuko.
2021
Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched - by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. The Woman in the Purple Skirt is single, lives in a small apartment, and is short on money - just like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who lures her to a job as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she too is a housekeeper. Soon the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss, and all eyes are on her. But no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt.
