Dark yet beautiful, far reaching but still intimate, and being hailed as O'Brien's masterpiece, this is a powerful novel about migration and reinvention, small lives and big issues. Marvelous for book groups, and my book of the year.
I was hooked at 'super-powered female assassins.' This book is badass and intense, but funny. Definitely a new favorite.
The Fires of Autumn is one of bestselling author Irène Némirovsky’s later works; first published in France in 1957, many years after her death at Auschwitz. In this novel she tells the story of idealistic young Bernard Jacquelain, who fought in World War I only to return home to Paris a changed man. Estranged from those around him, and desperate to achieve success, he moves into a world of excess and corruption.
Nathan
If you start highlighting what stuns you about Yuri Herrara’s debut novel in English, Signs Preceding the End of the World, every page will be mottled with fluorescent lines. Herrera writes in prose that feels like you are standing on both sides of the uncanny valley while something beautiful happens below and above you, creating a delectable unease, cut through with the simple joy of precise and surprising images. Herrara will draw the obvious comparisons to Roberto Bolano, but Signs Preceding the End of World should also find a should also find a home next to Jesse Ball and Italo Calvino.
Josh
Lee Lien -- newly minted PhD, absolutely no job prospects -- sets out to solve a mystery that includes Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Lien family's history in Vietnam and the U.S.
Sarah
This book beautifully walks the fine line between historical fiction and biography. It depicts Fitzgerald's troubled and frustrating last years in Hollywood, struggling against being a has-been and desperately trying to get work to pay for Zelda's sanitarium and their daughter Scottie's education, all while dealing with his own alcoholism and trying to live a "normal" life with his mistress Sheila Graham. Half of the literary and film worlds of the 1930s makes an appearance, and O'Nan intersperses flashbacks of Scott's and Zelda's lives for rich background and context.
David
Simply put, this book is as lovely as it’s cover.
Robin
I enjoyed this book so much that I tried to take my time finishing it in an attempt to make the pleasure last a little longer. I met with very limited success. Douglas and Connie Peterson embark on a month long excursion in Europe with their almost adult son Albie. Their marriage is shaky and Albie is chafing at the idea of another family trip especially one that seemingly has so much at stake. If you liked Nicholls' previous book One Day or are a Jojo Moyes fan you are going to want to read this one.
Anne
A young journalist whose family and friends are all Russian Jewish immigrants living in Brooklyn gets roped into a scheme of writing (made-up) stories to submit to the committee that is awarding restitution claims to Holocaust survivors. This debut novel is funny, intelligent and wonderfully written, exploring the mysterious bonds of family and the often obscure line between fiction and reality.
David
