Mary is the general manager of Skylight Books.
Set in 1963 in Saigon, among the wives of American military and intelligence officers, Absolution is a fascinating portrait of women whose purpose is to be a "helpmeet" to their husbands, and who know almost nothing about their husbands' work or Vietnam. The wives are put-upon, certainly, but they also indulge their impulse to intervene in the "wretchedness" of the locals' lives in ways that may or may not be helpful. Lots of thorny ethical questions!
A funny, deftly plotted novel about our our modern, desperate search for meaning and our vast capacity for self-delusion. Taking on wellness culture, the art world, social media, gentrification, and a host of other targets, this novel is also a poignant, beautifully crafted portrait of two people who have lost their sense of themselves as individuals and as a couple.
This novel is a treat: there’s a killer sentence on every page. Crook Manifesto is the sequel to Harlem Shuffle (also a delight), but you don’t need to have read that one to enjoy the many pleasures of this evocative depiction of ’70s New York and the band of crooks Whitehead brings to life.
With The Vaster Wilds, Groff continues her planned “triptych” of novels about women, religion, and survival. Matrix (also so, so good) was set in a 12th century abbey; this one begins during the starving time at Jamestown, as a young girl with nothing to lose makes a desperate escape into the wilderness. Propulsive, visceral, and lyrical.
A fascinating consideration of what we should do with the great art of terrible people. Dederer tackles this thorny question from a variety of angles, avoiding easy answers and cut-and-dried conclusions. Read this one before you give it—whoever you give it to will need to talk about it.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
This is Hernan Diaz’s first novel, a finalist for the Pultizer (his second novel, Trust, won). This beautifully written Western centers on a Swedish boy who is separated from his brother as they travel to the U.S., and the many exploits he has as he grows up in a country he doesn’t understand. Absolutely haunting!
James McBride writes wtih such warmth and exuberance that his novels are impossible to resist. This one is bursting with the vibrantly portrayed lives and voices of the community he depicts -- a pre–World War II enclave of Black and Jewish families living in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, united in protecting a deaf orphaned child from being sent to a hellish state institution.
I'm ready to jump on the Claire Keegan bandwagon! This novella is absolutely perfect. Precise details and observations, and a gorgeous ending.
A truly remarkable collection, from the author of the story adapted into the movie Arrival. These nine stories are perfect little jewels—mind-benders filled with moral quandaries and dawning realizations. Totally brilliant, and perfect both for sci-fi aficionados and those who last dipped into the genre five years ago with Annihilation.
Two bored teens—aspiring artists—write and illustrate an enigmatic poster and plaster it all over their small town. No one knows what it means, and everyone freaks out. In addition to writing an entertaining satanic-panic-style story, Wilson beautifully captures the longing of a young person who desperately wants more from life, and the confused feelings that come from seeing something you started—and still love—get wildly out of hand.
This is a quiet novel that packs a punch. William Stoner is a college professor whose life may seem small and unremarkable from the outside, but this novel vividly explores the depth of feeling, the hopes, and the disappointments he experiences from his childhood through his final days. He may not have made a big mark on his colleagues and students, but you will never forget him.
A beautiful book for anyone who loves the Sierra. In addition to his own history as a Sierra fanatic, Robinson (better known for his sci-fi, including The Mars Trilogy) gives a smattering of Sierra history and geology, and sprinkles full-color photos throughout. It’s a vivid, personal account of a love affair with a mountain range.
New from the author of Hamnet, my favorite book from 2020. O'Farrell's prose is vivid and beautiful, as she evokes all the sights, sounds, and smells of her 16th century Italian setting. Like in Hamnet, her protagonist is a historical woman about whom little is known—in this case, the 15-year-old de' Medici daughter given in marriage to a duke, who may be trying to kill her. Considering that she tells you up front how it's going to end, this is a captivating, page-turner of a novel!
For the Denis Johnson fan in your life. Winter in the Blood is a gorgeously written novel about the hard lives of imperfect people, including a narrator whose grief and sense of detachment lead him to act with an aimlessness that merges into recklessness. First published in 1974, this is a classic of Native American literature and a must-read.
These linked short stories are each great in their own right (“It’s the Great Wall!” is a particular highlight), but together their narrators (at turns wistful, bewildered, and annoyed) beautifully illustrate the fast-changing relationship between China and the U.S., from the ’70s to the present day.
A classic summer novel, with one of the great first lines in literature: "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." Leo is a naive middle-class schoolboy invited to a much wealthier friend's estate in the summer of 1900, where he's enlisted to act as go-between between two participants in an illicit affair, with consequences he can't anticipate or comprehend.
The making of a vast fortune told four ways -- as a novel-within-a-novel; as a memoir of questionable reliability; as a first-person account from someone who was there; and in a final, honest depiction that I won't spoil here. This novel is a twisty little puzzle about money, who makes it, and how.
If you loved A Visit from the Goon Squad, you're going to love The Candy House, too. Written in the same style—internlinked stories, each told in a different voice or format—this novel is incredibly impressive. It's just so, so well done! It also keeps getting better as you go, with my two favorite sections coming toward the end. And don't worry if you've forgotten most of Goon Squad; you don't need to remember that book to love this one.
These linked short stories are each great in their own right (“It’s the Great Wall!” is a particular highlight), but together their narrators (at turns wistful, bewildered, and annoyed) beautifully illustrate the fast-changing relationship between China and the U.S., from the ’70s to the present day.
A beautiful, bittersweet novel set during the last minutes of a dying woman's consciousness, surveying the events in her past that brought her to that moment, and at the same time painting a fascinating portrait of life in Turkey from the '40s to the '80s.
An entertaining (and anxious) novel about a group of old friends quarantining together at a ramshackle country estate. It's as funny as Shteyngart's previous work, but much more expansive, with an omnicent narrator flitting into the minds of six characters and the ocassional groundhog. It's a fun read but also really very good.
A novel about a medieval nun may be a hard sell, but this book is fantastic. The illegitimate daughter of a king, deemed unmarriageable, is banished to a failing abbey. In her isolation, she charts a path to power and riches, while setting her nuns to work on bizarre building projects. Unlike anything else I read this year, and so satisfying.
This novel, originally published in 1980 and just reissued this year, caught me completely by surprise. It has one of the most sophisticatedly structured endings I’ve ever read—all perfectly foreshadowed, and yet still a heartbreaking surprise—as well as drop-dead-gorgeous sentences, sly satire, and an intricate plot. Delight the literary fiction lover on your list with this modern classic!
After winning Pulitzers for The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, Whitehead’s latest is a crime novel set in vividly rendered late-’50s/early ’60s Harlem. Ray Carney is a “slightly bent” used furniture dealer who gets in over his head after a caper gone awry, and the pull between his criminal past and his hard-won present is a morality tale told in subtle shades of gray.
This novel is just as delightful, sad, and strange as Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. A boy loses his father, and as he grieves, he begins to hear the objects around him speak to him—including the very book you’re reading, which both narrates and carries on a dialogue with its main character. It’s a big-hearted and lovely novel.
A beautiful examination of family, addiction, and mental health, told from the perspective of a young doctoral student from an immigrant family who is searching for the answers to her family's struggles in science and faith.
A moving, bittersweet, elegant little novel about a single day in 1924 -- featuring a clandestine meeting between two longtimes lovers from very different social classes -- that becomes a major turning point in the life of the main character, an orphaned maid. It's a novel about the end of an era, in more ways than one.
The perfect novel for a hot summer weekend. A World War I veteran takes a summer job restoring a medieval painting in a church. Living in the bell tower, surrounded by idyllic English countryside, and uncovering the mural's depiction of the apocalypse, he begins to come to terms with his memories of the war and his failed marriage. It's a beautiful and haunting treasure of a book.
Two young girls go missing one August day in the isolated Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. What follows is a fascinating exploration of the lives directly and indirectly affected by the kidnapping over the following year. It's a window into a one-of-a-kind place, where the issues facing women and girls are all too recognizable.
Narrated by the ghost of a man who migrated to Tokyo to work on the preparations for the 1964 Olympics, fell into homelessness, moved into the enormous encampment in a public park, and ultimately died there. A humanizing portrait of homelesness, and a beautifully told story filled with love, luck, coincidence, and tragedy.
A family saga set in Vietnam, starting in the 1940s. It's a beautiful portrayal of perseverance and the will to survive in unimaginable circumstances, with an emphasis on our shared humanity. Bonus: It really puts 2020 into perspective.
A vivid rendering of the marriage between William Shakespeare and his wife (traditionally known as Anne, here as Agnes) and the death of their son Hamnet. Agnes is a fascinating central character, and between her premonitions and deep connection to the natural world, the novel shimmers with magic and possibility and fear and unknowability. For appreciators of beautiful descriptive language.
Set in 1960s London, this novel is a highly literary take on the classic rise-of-a-rock-band-and-ensuing-craziness story, as only David Mitchell could write it. Fans of Mitchell will find the genre-bending (and callbacks to earlier novels) that he’s famous for, and fans of the music will enjoy his evocative depiction of a scene like no other.
At the center of this novel are Mike and Ben, separated suddenly by an ocean and not sure what’s happening with their relationship. From this, Bryan Washington spins a deeply affecting, beautifully crafted examination of love in many forms: relationships, family, the challenge of truly knowing those in our lives, and the act of caring for others.
This tightly plotted page-turner starts with a terrorist attack on a train in West Bengal, and follows the lives of three characters swept up in the aftermath: Jivan, a young Muslim woman from the slums; Lovely, a hijra with dreams of being a movie star; and PT Sir, a teacher with nationalist political ambitions. Timely, and a great read.
This book grabs your attention from the first page. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman who is either the last creature on earth or just insane. She repeats tidbits from the lives of historical figures (painters, composers, etc.) but changes the details every time, and jumbles them up with her own life story. By the end of book, you can piece together the truth about what happened to this woman, which makes for a beautiful, satisfying conclusion.
This book starts out pretty simply, with a man looking for his wife's missing cat. Then the man's wife goes missing. As his search continues, he meets one fascinating character after another, and gets dragged into the surreal netherworld of Tokyo. It's a page-turning mystery story that's also a beautifully written surreal novel. If you're looking for a fresh read, this is it.
David Vann is a fantastic, underappreciated novelist. His writing is gorgeous, and his stories are dark and fascinating. This novel is a study of a marriage gone horribly awry, set in the unforgiving, rural Alaskan landscape. Not a book for the feint of heart, but so very worth it.
One of my favorite short story collections. Haunting, surreal, and so deeply human -- these ones will stick with you long after you're done reading.
I’m not a dog book person, but this isn’t your typical dog book. It’s also the funniest book about grief that I’ve ever read. A woman’s mentor dies, leaving her his Great Dane, a dog she doesn’t want and which is decidedly too large for her apartment. But as time passes, she and the dog grieve together, bond, nearly unravel, and finally heal. The novel is an absolute delight.
Written in jaw-droppingly beautiful prose, and framed as a letter from a son to his illiterate mother, this novel was my favorite of 2019. Vuong (who’s also a poet) draws from his own life in telling the story of a boy raised by a mother and grandmother who’d survived the Vietnam War, and the cycles of violence and trauma that follow their family to the U.S.
An incredibly powerful novel about two boys sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow–era Florida. Whitehead is a masterful storyteller, and through the experiences of idealistic Elwood and his cynical friend Turner, he explores the durability of the human spirit in the face of cruelty and evil. A dark book, yes, but one of the very best novels of the year.
Anyone who's read Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy of novels won't need convincing to pick up her essays; her beautiful, precise sentences are just as captivating in her nonfiction. My favorite is the title essay, in which Cusk starts with an anecdote about her parents not speaking to her and expands that into an examination of the many kinds of silence in relationships. A great gift for anyone who wants to be wowed by perfect sentences and piercing insights.