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MARY


Mary is the general manager of Skylight Books.


Book Recommendations: 
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Absolution: A Novel By Alice McDermott Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780374610487
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - October 31st, 2023

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!


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Wellness: A novel By Nathan Hill Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593536117
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Knopf - September 19th, 2023

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.


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Crook Manifesto: A Novel By Colson Whitehead Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780385545150
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Doubleday - July 18th, 2023

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.


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The Vaster Wilds: A Novel By Lauren Groff Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593418390
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - September 12th, 2023

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.


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Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma By Claire Dederer Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525655114
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - April 25th, 2023

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.


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In the Distance By Hernan Diaz Cover Image
$18.00
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9781566894883
Published: Coffee House Press - October 10th, 2017

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!


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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel By James McBride Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593422946
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - August 8th, 2023

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.


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Foster By Claire Keegan Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780802160140
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - November 1st, 2022

I'm ready to jump on the Claire Keegan bandwagon! This novella is absolutely perfect. Precise details and observations, and a gorgeous ending.


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Exhalation By Ted Chiang Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781101972083
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - June 30th, 2020

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.


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Now Is Not the Time to Panic: A Novel By Kevin Wilson Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062913517
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Ecco - August 1st, 2023

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.


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Stoner By John Williams, John McGahern (Introduction by) Cover Image
By John Williams, John McGahern (Introduction by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781590171998
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYRB Classics - June 20th, 2006

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.


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The High Sierra: A Love Story By Kim Stanley Robinson Cover Image
$40.00
ISBN: 9780316593014
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown and Company - May 10th, 2022

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.


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The Marriage Portrait: A novel By Maggie O'Farrell Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593315088
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 11th, 2023

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!


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Winter in the Blood By James Welch, Louise Erdrich (Introduction by), Joy Harjo (Foreword by) Cover Image
By James Welch, Louise Erdrich (Introduction by), Joy Harjo (Foreword by)
$16.00
ISBN: 9780143105220
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Classics - July 29th, 2008

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.


Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories By Gish Jen, Gish Jen Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593314098
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - November 1st, 2022

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.


Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel By Anthony Marra Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780451495211
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth - June 27th, 2023

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The Go-Between By L.P. Hartley, Colm Toibin (Introduction by) Cover Image
By L.P. Hartley, Colm Toibin (Introduction by)
$17.95
ISBN: 9780940322998
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYRB Classics - March 31st, 2002

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.


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Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner) By Hernan Diaz Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593420324
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - May 2nd, 2023

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.


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The Candy House: A Novel By Jennifer Egan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781476716770
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - March 7th, 2023

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.


Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories By Gish Jen, Gish Jen Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593314098
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - November 1st, 2022

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.


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10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World By Elif Shafak Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781635575811
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - October 13th, 2020

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.


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Our Country Friends: A Novel By Gary Shteyngart Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781984855145
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - September 6th, 2022

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.


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Matrix: A Novel By Lauren Groff Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781594634505
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - September 6th, 2022

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.


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The Transit of Venus By Shirley Hazzard, Lauren Groff (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Shirley Hazzard, Lauren Groff (Introduction by)
$18.00
ISBN: 9780143135654
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Classics - March 9th, 2021

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!


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Harlem Shuffle: A Novel By Colson Whitehead Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525567271
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - August 9th, 2022

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.


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The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel By Ruth Ozeki Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780399563669
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - June 14th, 2022

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.


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Transcendent Kingdom: A novel By Yaa Gyasi Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781984899767
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 6th, 2021

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.


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Mothering Sunday: A Romance (Vintage International) By Graham Swift Cover Image
$15.00
ISBN: 9781101971727
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Vintage - January 10th, 2017

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.


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A Month in the Country By J.L. Carr, Michael Holroyd (Introduction by) Cover Image
By J.L. Carr, Michael Holroyd (Introduction by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9780940322479
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYRB Classics - October 31st, 2000

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.


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Disappearing Earth By Julia Phillips Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525436225
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - April 7th, 2020

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.


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Tokyo Ueno Station (National Book Award Winner): A Novel By Yu Miri, Morgan Giles (Translated by) Cover Image
By Yu Miri, Morgan Giles (Translated by)
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593187524
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - June 22nd, 2021

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.


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The Mountains Sing By Que Mai Phan Nguyen Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781643751351
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Algonquin Books - March 16th, 2021

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.


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Hamnet By Maggie O'Farrell Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781984898876
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - May 18th, 2021

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.


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Utopia Avenue: A Novel By David Mitchell Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812987218
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - May 4th, 2021

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.


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Memorial: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) By Bryan Washington Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593087282
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - October 26th, 2021

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.


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A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick By Megha Majumdar Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593081259
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - June 29th, 2021

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.


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Wittgenstein's Mistress By David Markson Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781628973914
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dalkey Archive Press - July 11th, 2023

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.


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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel (Vintage International) By Haruki Murakami Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780679775430
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - September 1st, 1998

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.


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Caribou Island: A Novel By David Vann Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780061875731
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Harper Perennial - January 3rd, 2012

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.


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Tenth of December: Stories By George Saunders Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812984255
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - January 7th, 2014

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.


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The Friend (National Book Award Winner): A Novel By Sigrid Nunez Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780735219458
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - February 5th, 2019

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.


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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel By Ocean Vuong Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525562047
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - June 1st, 2021

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. 


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The Nickel Boys: A Novel By Colson Whitehead Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780345804341
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - June 30th, 2020

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.


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Coventry: Essays By Rachel Cusk Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781250619587
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - July 14th, 2020

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.


The Topeka School: A Novel By Ben Lerner Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250758002
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - September 29th, 2020

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Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) By Bernardine Evaristo Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802156983
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press, Black Cat - November 5th, 2019

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Interior Chinatown: A Novel (National Book Award Winner) (Vintage Contemporaries) By Charles Yu Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780307948472
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - November 17th, 2020

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The Memory Police: A Novel By Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translated by) Cover Image
By Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translated by)
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101911815
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Vintage - July 28th, 2020