In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar
Several countries are represented in this dazzling debut collection of stories that explore borders both real and imagined. A New York City pharmacist smuggles drugs to his ailing father in Manila; a college student’s writing career is supported by her brother in Saudi Arabia, and a Filipina teacher in Bahrain discovers how unhappy she is with her marriage. Whatever the country, these stories all share the universal messages of love, loss, and hope.
Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg
Mazie Phillips is a big-hearted resident of Depression-era New York City. She sits in the ticket booth of her family’s theater every day, where she gets to know the city’s inhabitants. Mazie rejects society’s conventional ideas of marriage and children for women and instead spends her time helping the less fortunate. Attenberg has taken her writing to a whole new level of wonderful with “Saint Mazie.” Mazie is based on a real woman Attenberg read about in a Joseph Mitchell story, and we are lucky to have Attenberg’s sharp wit and compassionate writing finally bring Mazie into the spotlight.
The Meursault Investigation by Kamal Daoud
Daoud has taken a literary classic and turned the tables in this tense, riveting novel. “The Stranger” by Albert Camus is narrated by Meursault, a young Algerian who, through a series of bad decisions, ends up murdering a man. (You know — the guy The Cure sang about?) In “The Meursault Investigation,” Daoud tells this story from the perspective of the murdered man’s brother, lending the tale an entirely different viewpoint, but still capturing the absurdness and tension of the original story. A highly inventive and fantastic read.
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Books about books are right in my wheelhouse, and this one is exceptional! Carolyn and other orphans have been taken in by a man they call Father and raised according to Father’s ancient customs. They have all studied the books in Father’s library and suspect he may even be a deity. When Father goes missing, they must turn to his library for the answers to his disappearance, and possibly the secrets of all creation. A wildly imaginative tale of the power of learning and personal belief, and what it is that makes us human.
The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
Another fantastic book-riddled novel! Simon Watson is a young librarian living alone in his family’s home in Long Island. His parents are long dead and his sister has run away to be a fortune teller in the circus. When an ancient journal belonging to a carnival owner mysteriously appears on his doorstep, full of tales of real-life mermaids and other magical events, Simon is drawn into a history that might hold the answer to his mother’s mysterious drowning years earlier. Are the women in his family cursed, and if so, will he be able to save his sister? For fans of “The Night Circus,” “Water for Elephants,” and people who generally enjoy fun.