International fiction
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
From acclaimed poet Jill Alexander Essbaum comes this debut novel, Hausfrau. She brings with it her poetic inclinations: passages are fleeting, moving through past and present, but measured and curated with care. The experiences of her troubled heroine, Anna…
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler writes about families; usually they are quite ordinary, middle-class families. They might have a few quirks but mostly they, like the rest of us, are trying to navigate their lives as best they can. In short, they are…
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
Miranda July’s first book, No One Belongs Here More Than You, was a collection of short stories that, while not linked in the traditional ways through character or plot, was bound into a cohesive whole by its voice. Now…
Mobile Library by David Whitehouse
Twelve-year-old Bobby Nusku has been having a hard time. He’s a prime target for the school bullies, friends are hard to come by and he and his dad just haven’t been getting along since the accident when his mother disappeared…
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
Nobody writes short fiction like Kelly Link. Get In Trouble, her first collection for adults since 2005’s Magic For Beginners, showcases the author’s unique brand of magical realism, blending fantasy, sci-fi and American fiction, and is brimming with…
The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Grieving, guilt-stricken, forty-something solo mum Sarah St John is cleaning out her son’s room after his death in an avalanche. Reflecting on the choices he made and on her own choices that led to his birth and untimely death, her…
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay has made her name as a professor of creative writing, feminist essayist, and commentator on politics and popular culture. She embodies the feminist precept, ‘the personal is political’. Her book of essays Bad Feminist came out this year…
Summertime by Vanessa LaFaye
The threat of havoc to social order and a general sense of impending danger loom large in this novel, with tensions building right from the opening pages when an alligator drags a baby in a bassinet down to the river…
See How Small by Scott Blackwood
It’s late evening in a small town in Texas. Three teenage girls are finishing their shift at a family-run ice cream store when two strange men appear. The girls are stripped and bound, the store is set alight, and the…
Portrait of a Man by Georges Perec
The works of the late Georges Perec are as difficult as they are sundry. Portrait of a Man was written several years before Perec’s first published novel, Things, a book which also has the distinction of being one of…
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