| | | |  | | | | Flashlight by Susan Choi | | | | A story told from multiple points of view spanning decades and continents and authored by Yale University creative writing professor Susan Choi, “Flashlight” is a character-driven and well-researched tale about a family impacted by loss, war and deep familial secrets. We begin by meeting Serk, the family’s patriarch, who is Korean but was born and raised in Japan and has been emotionally and physically adrift from his birth family. Louisa is Serk’s daughter, and her mother is Anne, also estranged from her own American Midwestern parents after choosing to keep an illegitimate child that she conceived as a teenager. One night Serk, flashlight in hand, takes a 10-year-old Louisa for a night walk along the beach in Japan, carefully avoiding the water, given his inability to swim. But hours later, Serk is gone, and Louisa is inches from death, completely soaked from the water. What happens next is a dive into grief, loss and a growing divide between surviving mother and daughter. They too have many unanswered questions, not just about where Serk went, but also about the sudden reappearance of the child Anne had long ago. | | | |
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 | | | | The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri | | | | The Mikkola sisters are enigmatic in their own way — either chaotic, beautiful or obsessive — and each is the daughter of a Tunisian carpet seller and a peculiar Swedish man who abandoned them when they were very young. Their story unfolds across decades and countries, told to us in six parts, to complete this family epic that book reviews have called “astonishing,” “ambitious” and “transformative.” In one chapter, Ina, the tall, stern and methodical one of the three, meets her future husband, Hector, at a party in Stockholm. With both of her sisters in attendance, Ina is determined to keep Hector away from them, worried that he’ll be captivated by one of them instead of her. Evelyn is a stunning, aspiring actress with her head in the clouds, while Anastassia is mercurial and reckless. This is how the sisters operate: at a constant flux of trust between themselves and others, seemingly forever at the mercy of their sibling rivalry, the complexities of their identity and mixed heritage, and a special curse that’s plagued them for decades. Then there’s the matter of Jonas, a distant, yet inextricable character whose life frequently intersects with the lives of the Mikkolas and who just might be the key to helping the sisters break their curse. | | | |
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 | | | | Weepers by Peter Mendelsund | | | | Meet Ed, a paid mourner and member of a union that contracts out fellow “weepers” to display all the telltale signs of grief at funerals by the hour. It’s a necessary job in a world that seems to be stunted in its ability to exhibit emotional range in the same way Ed and his fellow weepers can. All of the nihilistic despair seems to have had a creeping effect on the country, and it’s even starting to slowly take its toll on Ed, as he takes on the burdensome load of sorrow that the people around him seem no longer able to give. But one day, a kid with zero outside connections comes to town, and his arrival suddenly brings feelings back into everyone’s lives. Inexplicably, people are experiencing the full range of emotions, except maybe now they’re feeling too much. Is this scrawny stranger some sort of emotion-triggering messiah here to remind us of the importance of empathy? “Weepers” will prove to be a fever dream of a tale featuring modern-day conversations about belief systems, epidemic hysterias and the current | | | |
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 | | | | Homework: A Memoir by Geoff Dyer | | | | Author and journalist Geoff Dyer’s memoir is his coming-of-age story, depicting a snapshot of his upbringing in an English town during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Dyer, who was the child of working-class parents living in Cheltenham, would grow up to do the unimaginable for many at that time: He would go on to use his academic drive and work ethic to attend the prestigious University of Oxford, an institution usually reserved for individuals born with much more access than Dyer had. The bulk of the memoir focuses on his postwar world, his primary school days and his relationship with his family. He witnessed how his mother fought insecurities surrounding the family’s financial situation and the growing distrust his father felt surrounding the politics and British government, as they all braced for the economic collapse that would forever be remembered as The Great Depression. He details a period of rapid cultural and social change as we enter into his teenage years, replete with prog-rock shows, disastrous first flings and other foibles before his entrance into Oxford. | | | |
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 | | | | It's Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage | | | | Set in the near future, Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s “It’s Not the End of the World” is a queer family saga and climate thriller that takes aim at the mega-wealthy and their disastrous role in the present and future environment. As Mason Daunt dwells in his L.A. compound mansion, he is content to disassociate from the raging fires around him. His very existence serves as a barrier between himself, the unpredictable weather patterns and the violent extremist right-wing militias that have taken over. Daunt continues on with his life, planning an ostentatious baby shower for his soon-to-be newborn, all while feeling secure that nothing can get to him inside the bubble that wealth has afforded him. But when a catastrophic event strikes on the day of his party, he and his partner refuse to give up their special day. Daunt continues as if nothing is happening, and as he makes his way through the city running errands, he finally recognizes that his protection is slipping and there are very real consequences for his willful ignorance and disregard for the planet and everyone in it. This dark and incredibly timely satire shines a light on the complicity of insulated existence while shining light on capitalism, greed and white supremacy. | | | |
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 | | | | Lush by Rochelle Dowdon-Lord | | | | In Rochelle Dowdon-Lord’s “Lush,” we meet four wine aficionados: Avery, Cosmo, Sonny and Maëlys. These refined sommeliers have been invited to an exclusive South of France vineyard to drink the oldest known bottle of wine. The invitation was mysterious, but the promise was too enticing to decline. Avery took the trip not only for the taste of something completely unique but also to escape his job as a wine influencer for a boundary-less, toxic workplace. Cosmo was already floating through life disconnected and in a spiral, so why wouldn’t he take the trip? Sonny is seemingly there only to irritate Cosmo and disrupt his obvious attraction to Avery, and Maëlys is a journalist ready to snarkily observe the spectacle before her. Each of the guests is drawn in for the novelty of the bottle, and their mutual love of wine, but they all share more in common than they realize as the trip unfolds. Secrets spill throughout this sumptuous debut as the four companions begin to view the wine as something more than just a rare libation, but rather something sacred, layered and complex. | | | |
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