Nora Seed wants to die, but instead she finds herself in a library where she could live alternate versions of her reality, with different choices to live a life
How Beautiful We Were is, in a word, fatalistic. The villagers are fighting a lost cause,– The David vs. Goliath story slowly morphs into a nuanced conflict.
Solovyov and Larionov by Eugene Vodolazkin (translated from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden) – A Russian novel which is part military history, part academic satire.
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina is a novel about a Tartar widow who has been exiled to Siberiawinner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award & other Russian book awards
The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona tells of young boy is stranded at Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel Airport in 2010. He speaks no German, it seems as if he was abandoned
American Spy tells of Marie Mitchell works as an FBI intelligence officer, but cannot break into the old boys club being an African-American woman.
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal (translated by Sam Taylor) is a fictional biography of Mauro, a young man who dreams of working as a cook / chef.
While the story is told from the view point of several people, it is about Mrs. Ella May Wiggins, and her struggles in work and personal life.
An alternative history novel which asks an question: what if America had elected a fascist government before World War II?
Nat Jaffe and Archy Stallings are the owners of Brokeland Records, one of the few bastions of vinyl record stores left in Oakland, CA circa 2004. In comes Gibson Goode, ex-NFL star, multi-millionaire and entrepreneur who wants to open his Dogpile megastore in the area. The megastore will force Brokeland Records, who are struggling as it is, to close