New Book Browsing A - Z: V
These are all the titles you would currently find on our New Fiction bookshelf by author A-Z. Mouse over the "i" button to read the jacket flap and click on the book to place a copy on hold.
In the vein of Graham Greene and John le Carré, The Matchmaker delivers a chilling Cold War spy story set in West Berlin, where an American woman targeted by the Stasi must confront the truth behind her German husband's mysterious disappearance. Berlin, 1989. Protests across East Germany threaten the Iron Curtain and Communism is the ill man of Europe. Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her husband disappears, and the CIA and Western German intelligence arrive at her door. Nothing about her marriage is as it seems. She had been targeted by the Matchmaker--a high level East German counterintelligence officer--who runs a network of Stasi agents. These agents are his "Romeos" who marry vulnerable women in West Berlin to provide them with cover as they report back to the Matchmaker. Anne has been married to a spy, and now he has disappeared, and is presumably dead. The CIA are desperate to find the Matchmaker because of his close ties to the KGB. They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking Soviet defector. They need Anne because she's the only person who has seen his face - from a photograph that her husband mistakenly left out in his office - and she is the CIA's best chance to identify him before the Matchmaker escapes to Moscow. Time is running out as the Berlin Wall falls and chaos engulfs East Germany. But what if Anne's husband is not dead? And what if Anne has her own motives for finding the Matchmaker to deliver a different type of justice?
"The Hummingbird is a remarkable accomplishment, a true gift to the world." --Michael Cunningham "Long considered one of Italy's leading writers, Sandro Veronesi has re-written the family saga. Ardent, gripping, and inventive to the core, it has already been hailed a classic."--Jhumpa Lahiri "The Hummingbird is a masterly novel, a brilliantly conceived mosaic of love and tragedy."--Ian McEwan The #1 international sensation from a master of European literature--winner of Italy's Premio Strega--a saga of a Florentine family from the 1960s to the present that brilliantly captures the power of history and the multi-faceted experience of life itself as it explores how we contend with uncontrollable forces that both buffet and buoy us. Marco Carrera is "the hummingbird," a man with an almost supernatural ability to remain still amid the chaos of an ever-changing world. Though his life is rife with emotional challenges--suffering the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; caring for his elderly parents; raising his granddaughter when her mother, Marco's own child, is no longer capable; loving an enigmatic woman--Marco carries on with a noble stoicism that belies an intensity for living. As the years pass and the arc of his life bends, Marco finds himself filled with joy for the future as the baton passes from him to the next generation. A beautiful and compelling journey through time told in myriad narrative styles, The Hummingbird is a story of suffering, happiness, loss, love, and hope--of a man who embodies the quiet heroism that defines daily life for countless ordinary folk. A thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end, Sandro Veronesi's masterpiece--eminently readable, rich in insight, and filled with interesting twists and revelations--is a portrait of human existence, the vicissitudes and vagaries that propel and ultimately define us Translated from the Italian by Elena Pala "A great novel, vibrating with life and death, happiness and pain, nostalgia and hope for the future." --Vanity Fair "Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here ... magnificent - moving, replete, beautiful." --The Guardian
For animal lovers and fans of The Art of Racing in the Rain, this heart wrenching yet uplifting novel from the bestselling author of An Unexpected Grace tells of one woman's journey to healing and love after trauma--through the devotion of an unforgettable yellow Lab named Hope. On San Julian Island, across Puget Sound from Seattle, Tessa Jordan works as a bookmobile librarian, recommending books and poems to her patrons. In her spare time, she cares for a colony of feral cats. But Tessa's simple, satisfying life is shockingly upended after she meets Nick Payne, a respected community leader, and he invites her to dinner. Far from a pleasant first date, Tessa's evening with Nick leaves her feeling confused and upset. After deep soul-searching, she decides to step forward and accuse him of assault. Her distress grows when local prosecutor Will Armstrong declines to pursue her case, citing lack of evidence. Her main solace is Hope, a courthouse dog, trained to comfort victims through the difficult judicial process. As she lays her head in Tessa's lap, her gentle brown eyes seem to say, Don't worry. Everything will be all right. Will, who is Hope's primary handler, longs to get justice for Tessa, yet knows how rocky the path will be. It's Hope who, true to her name, shines a bright ray through the darkness. With Hope by their side, Will and Tessa find surprising strength in each other as they learn just how resilient a heart--whether human or canine--can be.
Amid the oppressive heat, and in the aftermath of the exuberance of Seville's Expo '92, Marina spends a chaotic summer with her grandmother while her mother receives hospital treatment for a grave but unnamed illness. There are no rules--swearing, talking about lovers, eating treats and staying up late are all allowed, and it is a summer with endless possibilities. Marina still plays with dolls, but also watches pornographic movies and fantasises about sex and violence. And as she faces the challenging transition to adolescence, she is torn between the safe world of childhood and the sexual feelings that obsess her. InOldladyvoice, debut author Elisa Victoria presents a fresh and vivid take on growing up, through the eyes of a funny, perceptive and endearing narrator.
From a bold new voice in literary fiction comes a compelling story of three mothers whose lives intersect during a generation-defining period in South Africa's history. The year is 1994, and South Africa is in political turmoil as its first democratic election looms. Against a backdrop of apartheid and racial violence, traumatized artist Yolanda Petersen returns from the Appalachian foothills to the land of her youth at the behest of her mother. While there Yolanda longs to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Ingrid, the product of an illegal mixed-race affair with a white man. But Ingrid is missing, and as Yolanda quickly discovers, she isn't the only woman in Cape Town desperate to protect her own. Ingrid's very existence is proof of a white man's crime, and that man's mother will do anything--even kill--to ensure the truth remains buried. An evocative debut novel set during a defining period in history, A Conspiracy of Mothers tells a gripping story of love and betrayal from multiple perspectives while deftly balancing the painful legacy of apartheid with the trials of motherhood.
Sophie Valroux is making her mark in the culinary world. She's running the restaurants of Chateau de Champvert, the estate that she inherited from her grandmother. Her career is on the up and she's getting closer to her dream of achieving a Michelin star. But her world crumbles when she suffers a fall and loses her senses of smell and taste. Certain that her career will vanish if people find out, she keeps it a secret. She fakes it all: the menus, the taste of fresh figs, the juicy cherries. All she must do is get through the event without missing a single step. Fake it 'til you make it... right?
Louise Erdrich meets Karen Russell in this deliciously strange and daringly original novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble: set in 1926 Nashville, it follows a death-defying young Cherokee horse-diver who, with her companions from the Glendale Park Zoo, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries. Two Feathers, a young Cherokee horse-diver on loan to Glendale Park Zoo from a Wild West show, is determined to find her own way in the world. Two's closest friend at Glendale is Hank Crawford, who loves horses almost as much as she does. He is part of a high-achieving, land-owning Black family. Neither Two nor Hank fit easily into the highly segregated society of 1920s Nashville. When disaster strikes during one of Two's shows, strange things start to happen at the park. Vestiges of the ancient past begin to surface, apparitions appear, and then the hippo falls mysteriously ill. At the same time, Two dodges her unsettling, lurking admirer and bonds with Clive, Glendale's zookeeper and a World War I veteran, who is haunted--literally--by horrific memories of war. To get to the bottom of it, an eclectic cast of park performers, employees, and even the wealthy stakeholders must come together, making When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship.
An Instant National Bestseller! An Indie Next Pick! A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for Oprah Magazine | USA Today | Buzzfeed | Greatist | BookPage | PopSugar | Bustle | The Nerd Daily | Goodreads | Literary Hub | Ms. Magazine | Library Journal | Culturess | Book Riot | Parade Magazine | Kirkus | The Week | Book Bub | OverDrive | The Portalist | Publishers Weekly A Best of Summer Pick for TIME Magazine | CNN | Book Riot | The Daily Beast | Lambda Literary The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Goodreads | Bustle | Veranda Magazine | The Week | Bookish | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Den of Geek | LGBTQ Reads | Pittsburgh City Paper | Bookstr | Tatler HK "Gatsby the way it should have been written--dark, dazzling, fantastical." --R. F. Kuang "A vibrant and queer reinvention of F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age classic. . . . I was captivated from the first sentence."--NPR "Vo has crafted a retelling that, in many ways, surpasses the original."--Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW) Immigrant. Socialite. Magician. Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society--she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her. But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how. Nghi Vo's debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.
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In this witty and heartfelt rom-com debut for fans of Jasmine Guillory, Emily Henry, and Tessa Bailey, an Indian American woman signs herself and her boyfriend up for a matchmaking site to prove they're a perfect match, only to be paired with her ex instead. High school sweethearts Rita Chitniss and Milan Rao were the golden couple, until the day he broke her heart. Now, six years later, Rita has turned her passion for furniture restoration into a career and has an almost-perfect boyfriend, Neil. The last thing she needs is for Milan to re-enter her life, but that's exactly what happens when her mother, an unfailing believer in second chances, sets them up. Milan is just as charming, cocky, and confident as he was back in school. Only this time, he actually needs her business expertise, not her heart, to flip a hard-to-sell house for his realty agency. While Rita begrudgingly agrees to help, she's not taking any risks. To prove she's definitely over him, she signs herself and Neil up on MyShaadi.com, a Desi matchmaking site famous for its success stories and trustworthy enough to convince everyone that she and Neil are the new and improved couple. Instead, she's shocked when MyShaadi's perfect match for her isn't Neil...it's Milan. Ignoring the website and her mother is one thing, but ignoring Milan proves much more difficult, especially when she promises to help him renovate the beach house of her dreams. And as the two of them dive deeper into work--and their pasts--Rita begins to wonder if maybe her match wasn't so wrong after all....
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