Archives de catégorie : Fiction

MEANT TO BE d’Emily Giffin

A restless golden boy and a girl with a troubled past navigate a love story that may be doomed before it even begins, in this “glorious, satisfying” (Adriana Trigiani) new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted and The Lies That Bind.

MEANT TO BE
by Emily Giffin
4th Estate, May 2022
(via Park & Fine)

The Kingsley family is American royalty, beloved for their military heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. In 1967, after Joseph S. Kingsley, Jr. is killed in a tragic accident, his charismatic son inherits the weight of that legacy. But Joe III is a free spirit—and a little bit reckless. Despite his best intentions, he has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation, as well as those of his exacting mother, Dottie.
Meanwhile, no one ever expected anything of Cate Cooper. She, too, grew up fatherless—and after her mother marries an abusive man, she is forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout at age sixteen, Cate decides that her looks may be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has always inhabited. Before too long, Cate’s face is in magazines and on billboards. Yet she feels like a fraud, faking it in a world to which she’s never truly belonged.
When Joe and Cate unexpectedly cross paths one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense. But can their relationship survive the glare of the spotlight and the so-called Kingsley curse? In a beautifully written novel that captures a gilded moment in American history, Emily Giffin tells the story of two people searching for belonging and identity, as well as the answer to the question: Are certain love stories meant to be?

Emily Giffin is the author of ten internationally bestselling novels: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You’re With, Heart of the Matter, Where We Belong, The One & Only, First Comes Love, All We Ever Wanted, and The Lies That Bind. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and three children.

YONNONDIO de Tillie Olsen

The hopes, struggles, and dreams of a poor Wyoming family in the 1920s are revealed in their quest for a better life. Written by the author in the 1930s and rediscovered by her in the 1970s.

YONNONDIO:
From the Thirties
by Tillie Olsen
Delacorte Press, 1974
(via Frances Goldin Literary Agency)

YONNONDIO follows the heartbreaking path of the Holbrook family in the late 1920s and the Great Depression as they move from the coal mines of Wyoming to a tenant farm in western Nebraska, ending up finally on the kill floors of the slaughterhouses and in the wretched neighborhoods of the poor in Omaha, Nebraska.
Mazie, the oldest daughter in the growing family of Jim and Anna Holbrook, tells the story of the family’s desire for a better life – Anna’s dream that her children be educated and Jim’s wish for a life lived out in the open, away from the darkness and danger of the mines. At every turn in their journey, however, their dreams are frustrated, and the family is jeopardized by cruel and indifferent systems.

Tillie Olsen (1912-2007) was an American author of fiction and nonfiction whose slim body of work was very influential for her treatment of the lives of women and the poor. She was one of the first writers to draw attention to why women have been less likely to become published authors (and why they receive less attention than male authors when they are published). In April 2021, A.O. Scott, New York Times critic at large and co-chief film critic, included her in his essay series of the most influential authors, and credited her with changing the « study of American literature, opening its canon to neglected voices and traditions. »

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF de Grace D. Li

Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in this lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF
by Grace D. Li
‎ Tiny Reparations Books, April 2022
(via KT Literary)

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism.

Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Marie Claire, Veranda, PopSugar, Paste, The Millions, Medium, Crimereads, Goodreads, Bookbub, Boston.com

Grace D. Li grew up in Pearland, Texas and is a graduate of Duke University, where she studied biology and creative writing. She lives in Northern California and attends medical school at Stanford University. PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is her debut novel and is currently in development at Netflix, with Grace serving as an executive producer for the series.

SUPER BLOOM de Megan Tady

For fans of Emily Henry’s Beach Read and Maria Semple, SUPER BLOOM is a heartwarming and hilarious debut novel about a 30-something massage therapist enlisted by an infamous romance novelist to dish the dirt on the not-so-pristine world of luxury spas.

SUPER BLOOM
by Megan Tady
‎ Zibby Books, Summer 2023
(via The Friedrich Agency)

Icing her hands. Grieving her boyfriend. Trying not to get fired. Each day feels the same for Joan Johnston. Her life gets a boost of excitement when a new massage client—Carmen Bronze, a high-maintenance romance novelist—corners Joan into becoming her research assistant for her next bestseller.
Joan’s notes start off as expected—demanding clients, inane spa rules, wacky colleagues— but she soon finds herself journaling about the sudden death of her boyfriend. What’s more, she starts writing their relationship back into existence through a romance novel of her own. But the longer she spends crafting her own fictional happily ever after, the more she risks losing the possibility of that in real life…

Megan Tady is a writer and editor running the company Word-Lift, and her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post and Ms. Magazine, among others. She was a finalist for the 2021 Penguin Random House Student Fiction Award. Megan lives in Western Massachusetts with her family. SUPER BLOOM is her debut novel.

GEMINI FALLS de Sean Wilson

A gripping, sweeping and unforgettable debut from a writer whose talent cannot be contained.

GEMINI FALLS
by Sean Wilson
Affirm Press Australia, October 2022
(via Kaplan/Defiore Rights)

Australia, 1930, at the peak of the Great Depression: Detective Jude Turner is assigned to investigate a murder in his home town of Gemini. With fear and polio swirling through the city and his wife long passed, Jude decides to take his children, Morris and Lottie, with him to the small town he gladly left many years before.
Thoughtful and a little anxious, twelve-year-old Morris Turner sometimes feels more at home gazing at the stars than with his busy father and distant older sister. Arriving at the ancestral farm he meets relations that are strangers to him – an uncle, an aunt and a cousin, Flo, who has an unhealthy obsession with detective novels. The family is drawn into a community reeling from a murder and a financial crash. Without a clear suspect in the murder, the town’s suspicions turn to the downtrodden, huddled in camps outside the town.
But Morris is sure there is more to this case. With the help of new friends, he turns his attention instead to the people around him, confronting his fears and searching for a killer in a town full of mysteries – a search that will bring secrets old and new to the surface, and leave someone else fighting for their life.

Sean Wilson is an emerging writer and playwright from Melbourne. His short stories and plays have been recognized in many awards including a shortlisting for the 2016 Patrick White Playwrights Award (Sydney Theatre Company).