Fiction

As a boy, Nico once accompanied his mother on a research trip to investigate a stalled migration of monarch butterflies. One night, upon hearing her sneak out of their rented cabin, he followed her to a clearing in the forest where a famed mansion once stood, and watched his mother climb a staircase and vanish, along with the stairs and the strange glowing door at its peak. No one believed his story, and as he grew older, he too stopped believing it was real. As an adult, Nico returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father, but something strange is happening to the town. There are unexplained power fluctuations, people are going missing, and, reportedly, phantoms are roaming the woods. When Nico finds his mother's field journal from the week she disappeared, including her account of the vanishing staircase, he begins to pick apart the mystery. All the tangled strings trail back to the same starting point: the Gilded Age family whose mansion burned down under mysterious circumstances in those very same woods where his mother vanished.

When Sally, an American living in San Miguel de Allende, meets Louise outside her children's school, she's eager to immerse herself more deeply in the city. Having lived in Mexico for a year with her architect husband, Sally is entranced by Louise, and especialy by her stories about Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. The two become inseparable, and soon enough, Louise has begun calling her Mia and then playfully introducing Sally as her daughter to friends. Sally loves the idea of a new identity, but is troubled by Louise's hold over her, so attempts to keep the relationship a secret from her husband. But the specter of Sally's childhood looms, and Louise tightens her grip, leaving the two women testing the limits of reinvention.

Carwyn and his wife, Rhian, have been sheep farmers on his ancestral land in the Welsh mountains for decades. But recent years have taken their toll. They've lost friends lost to old age or rising prices, as well their own debts of farming. English tourists still come--littering, camping on private property, needing to be rescued when they misjudge the elements. Then Carwyn finds a stone head in a corner of the farm, realizing it must be one piece of something larger, and something old. Despite Rhian's protests, he becomes obsessed with unearthing the structure, neglecting the farm to dig. The sheep are falling, and an accident on market day threatens to leave Rhian with no way to pay creditors. But Carwyn is convinced that uncovering the site will be the key to solving everything.

For her entire life, Bridget "Big" Ackerman Petty has struggled to hold everything together. It all seems easy for her sister Lily, a woman with a magnetic personality, a thriving business, and adoring husband. When Lily uncovers a secret, her perfect life implodes. Devastated, she flees to Alaska to lose herself on a hardcore survival trek, dragging her reluctant sister along. No cell service, no easy exits. Just grizzlies, outdoor plumbing, and a group of strangers who know how to read a compass. As the sisters navigate freezing rivers, unmarked trails, and more than one near-death experience, the defenses they've used to protect themselves begin to crumble, and they're forced to face resentment, regret, envy, and the possibility that the other's life might not be as easy as it looks.

All throughout the week, customers flock to the Marble Café that's tucked away behind the trees--except when it's closed on Mondays, when the Matcha Café opens in its place, offering its clientele a warm cup of matcha and restoration to start the busy week ahead. On this one day of the week, people from all walks of life frequent this cozy haven and experience the joys of human connection. Among them include: a singer who has just broken up with his lover, an unsociable young owner of a tea wholesaler, a husband who has made his wife angry, a designer and owner of a lingerie shop, a Kamishibai artist who doesn't get along with his grandmother. Spanning Tokyo and Kyoto over twelve months, this novel brings together a community of untold unfolding lives.

Samuel Thomas is a young magician convinced that he is destined for greatness in a far-off land. He journeys from India to London to the fog-shrouded streets of Boston in 1816 -- the infamous Year Without a Summer. Samuel arrives in a city alive with ambition, contradiction, and tension. Enter Walter Mepham, a world away from Samuel, hailing from the upper echelons of Boston society, but also nursing a problem of his own. Proprietor of the New Boston Museum which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Walter is desperate to find ways to keep it open, and Samuel is an ideal fit for the first live addition to the collection. Though they solve each other's problems, the relationship between them becomes complicated as Walter is fascinated--obsessed--with the foreigner. As Samuel becomes more dependent on Walter, he learn what he's willing to give up for success.

Martha's Vineyard, 1923. Lena Jameson's father, Earl, is a successful rumrunner who's built a small fortune smuggling liquor. When he and his crew are lost in a shipwreck that some whisper was no accident, his loved ones are left reeling and penniless. Lena, weeks away from entering college, sees her future slipping away. She decides to take over the business, and finds a crew. There's Walter, her big brother, who leans too hard on the bottle. And Sam, her boyfriend, who wants her tethered to shore. Then there's Dee, a woman summering from Boston, offering Lena a glimpse of the future she wants. Their journey leads them through from the colorful streets of Oak Bluffs, gangland Boston, and the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem in its early Renaissance, looking for money--and answers. As secrets rise to the surface, and the criminal underworld pulls Lena in deeper, she fins herself precariously holding on to her heart, her family, and her place in a world ready to condemn women who want more.

Once upon a time, Walter was Hildy's favorite person, until he crushed her teenage dreams. A decade later, her beloved is the magazine she built from the ground up. But getting rid of Walter isn't as easy as shedding her romantic illusions. He's always around, vying for scoops on the wedding circuit and provoking her into unhinged public displays. When she scores exclusive access to the wedding of the season in southern France, it's a chance for her magazine to make its mark. Except Walter's right there in France, trying to steal Hildy's story. Again. It's a head-to-head battle to see whose coverage will make it to print. But between the champagne and the chateaux, it's easy to lose sight of the prize. Hildy doesn't believe in fairy tales, but Walter is doing his best to convince her they could have a part deux.-- Provided by publisher.

Do not go into the attic, the note warned. But that's what sisters Mickie and Delilah do when they inherit a distant relative's house in Savannah, Georgia. The plan is to sell the property, divide the proceeds, and go their separate ways once and for all. But 724 Hartford Street has other ideas. The sisters' past wounds fester and spill into the present. And tensions flare between the sisters and the community, who are keeping silent about the house's history. When Delilah's behavior turns strange and then alarming, selling the home is no longer an option. Mickie must fight to save her sister, or they will both succumb to the house and its hunger.

In April 1994, Zahara watched her twin sister, Annica, get hustled into a stranger's car and disappear--only to return to a world where no one remembers Annica ever existed. Not her mother. Not the police. Now, as the world braces for the looming Y2K crisis, Zahara finds evidence that proves her sister was real. Determined to uncover the truth, she hires a private investigator and begins digging into her family's shadowed past. When the investigation leads to two charismatic men who once served with her father in Vietnam, Zahara realizes she and her sister may be pawns in a dangerous power struggle. Zahara learns her reunion with Annica will come at a price, one with unthinkable implications.

Verdella "Dell" Rodgers is at the top of her game. She's a chef at San Francisco's hottest restaurant and on the cusp of marrying the mayor's son in the social event of the season. Then the week before her wedding she wakes up and find herself dead. Cole, a bumbling clerk in Afterlife Administration, has confused Dell for a 95-year-old woman with the same name, reaping the wrong soul. When he tries to fix his mistake, their worlds collide in life--and death--changing ways. Now in the city as a ghost only visible to Cole, Dell is frantic to get back to her life but soon learns some awkward facts, particularly when it comes to her fiancé and his high-profile family. And Cole has no memory of who he was before working for the Afterlife Administration. With time running out, they race to uncover Cole's past and remedy Dell's future, they realize the mistake that brought them together might just be the twist of fate she didn't know she needed.

Death pays well for Olive Hunt, a crime scene cleaner who channels her traumas into erasing the suffering of others. After nearly ten years, she's seen it all. Nothing rattles her anymore. Until now. Two back-to-back suicides, one at a seedy motel, the other a fancy Atlanta hotel. Apparently no connection, except Olive finds the same strange item at each scene. Then a third body appears. Olive knows these aren't suicides, they're murders staged to perfection. Then a vase of blood red blooms on her doorstep with an anonymous note: "Thank you." A serial killer is been leaving breadcrumbs for her. A killer who knows she'll clean up after him. A killer who wants her to follow. And follow she must, no matter how terrifying the trail becomes.

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken came from a mining family in Hreodwater, an isolated salt town in England. At 16, after a mining disaster killed his family, he left. When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent to investigate. The town's doctor, Jericho, tells him that there have been more strange cures, and he thinks people are in danger from something in the mine that they call "salt light." And strange happenings are occuring at mines around the world. At an archaeological dig on the Dead Sea, electrical devices froth salt, while at a huge salt works in Poland, communication is lost. As salt light devastates cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what to believe--and whether his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

Cyprin grows perfect apples. But sick of living in a megacity where she's never alone, she dreams of a job in the Divine Gardens, tending to the plants overseen by God. The way in is winning an annual flower pageant, which has been dominated by the Divine Gardens' head gardener for five years running. When Cyprin plays dirty and wins, she jumps headfirst into the gardens, and her rivalry with the head gardener. Pranks, backstabbing, and a lot of heated glaring unite them, until they're both drawn into a plot to take down God. As they spiral through layers of the city's history and a rebel group, Cyprin and her rival will find they understand each other like no one else does.

Gwen Wexloff might be able to see the future, but not when it's useful. Which means--unlike most oracles--she's spent her life predicting for humans instead of power brokers. After a clutch of zombies escapes from their compound, Gwen experiences her first genuinely world-altering vision. Now she needs help. But that help comes from Hugh Blacke, the same demon who watched her bomb her oracle verification test decades ago. The two of them will need to work together to unravel the deadly conspiracy behind the zombie breach, despite their past and their secrets. But the clock is ticking, and with the fate of humanity at stake, Gwen and Hugh will have to decide how much they're willing to risk for a future that might prove very short indeed.

Steamy, seedy, swampy south-central Florida once again serves as the backdrop for the duo of tattooed, trash-talking Maggie Moore and laconic Detective Silas Gabriel Jackson, genius detective. Now operating their own agency and using their skills in forensic semiotics, and good old-fashioned observation, the pair decode clues embedded in words and symbols to uncover a sadistic criminal who preys upon unsuspecting men. The troubled and painful pasts of them both come into play as they try to track down bad guys and old friends, figuring out how to trust, and who to love.

Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die? These questions haunt Magnolia, a Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. Hearing gunfire at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Safely home, she keeps this experience from everyone. But now she sees everything more clearly: her bond with her daughter Z︠o︡; her relationship with Z︠o︡'s father; her troubled mother's mental health; her father's affair resulting in a child. Magnolia must come to terms with the losses that day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti. Can love protect us? Does optimism or fear win? These questions involve high-stakes choices, and Magnolia is a narrator flitting and shimmering between different worlds.

Jemma can't stop herself from thinking about murdering her stepmother, Marianne Upton. She decides to confess before she snaps and does the unthinkable. But while Jemma is still giving her statement, a call comes in: Marianne has just been found stabbed to death, killed in exactly the way Jemma described. The woman desperate to prevent a murder has an unshakeable alibi--as well as a disturbingly accurate description of the crime she couldn't have committed. Is Jemma an innocent bystander? Or a brilliant, cold-blooded killer who planned everything down to the minute?

Decades ago, Tess Wynne was attacked and at the brink of death. Desperate, she vowed she would do anything to live. The devil heard her and offered a bargain: she would be ageless, but tethered to the land at the edge of Burrsville in Appalachia. She turned her new home into a wildlife sanctuary, weaving spells to keep it safe. But when Tess saves a strange fawn, her protection of it puts her at odds with Burrsville's residents. Then a new pastor arrives, and he begins to chip away at the little trust she's gained. The sanctuary is now threatened, and Tess's world is beginning to fray. The devil, returns, offering another bargain, and Tess is caught between trusting her magic, or surrendering to his will.

Spring of 1985. Emil Wilson's father, Donald, invites his coworker Jim and his two Pomeranians, Henny and Penny, to move into his family's home. What he doesn't tell his family is that Jim has AIDS. Months before Rock Hudson's diagnosis ushered in a new era of awareness for the crisis, AIDS is a news story that happens in faraway places, and Jim's presence in the house turns this small-town Oregon family upside down. As Annemarie's fear and resentment grows, resulting in fights with the gentle and stubborn Donald, so too does Lou's unlikely friendship with Jim and the dogs, a friendship that buoys Jim through his illness, and is a catalyst for Lou to pursue her truest self in the world. The Nightingales is a portrait of an imperfect family grappling with extraordinary circumstances, and an example of how confronting the unknown with compassion is the first step to building a better world.

Berry has it figured out, juggling her vice principal role while raising her sixteen-year-old autistic son, Leo. When a promotion opportunity conflicts with her family's needs, she must confront whether she's been fighting the wrong battles all along. And college student McKenna is drowning, caught between caring for her grandmother with dementia, losing her swimming scholarship, and facing homelessness. Her only lifeline is teaching swim lessons to children with autism, including Leo. As the two women's paths converge in the most unexpected way, they discover that sometimes the people who need saving the most are the ones who end up saving you.

Venice, Italy, 1800's. The only survivor on a ship, Mercy disembarks in Italy, carrying two precious possessions: the first-ever daguerreotype camera and a letter from a dead slave holder. It takes her to Umberto, an Anatomist, and in his basement, she learns he hired the man who formally owned her to capture images of dissected corpses. Now he's dead, Mercy takes up the position. Then Umberto takes her to the home of the Contessa, and charmed by Mercy, she invites the young woman to stay for the season to take pictures. Mercy finds this life of freedom heady, becoming a photographer and guest in a house of aristocratic pleasure, bonding with friendly and strange individuals. But something stalks the canals of the city, biting at her heels. The death that rode the waves with her now surrounds her in this strange place. She finds herself grappling with the fear that what endangers her friends is herself.

An archaeologist travels to a distant planet to study the mysterious Mulai, descendants of a forgotten human space mission who have lived in isolation from Earth for centuries. Their long separation has transformed nearly every aspect of their society, including their language, food, writing, reproduction, burial practices, and understanding of gender. As the archaeologist attempts to document and make sense of their unfamiliar world, he confronts difficult questions about translation, meaning, cultural change, identity, and the fragility of civilization.

Thought-provoking, heartbreaking, and wonderous are some of the many ways the tales in this collection will engage readers, from the titular story about a painter who fears she’s failing as an artist to the twelve other examples of captivating science fiction. Ken Liu continues to delight and challenge your perceptions as one of the most accomplished and lauded American short story writers of our time.

1941, London. When DCI Lilian Wyles finds a young woman murdered at King's Cross Station, she needs the help of someone she can trust, but Richard Davidson, her former Scotland Yard partner, has joined MI5 and is busy tracking black market routes outside of London, so she is on her own. Having met the four queens of crime during a murder investigation two years earlier, DCI Wyles has kept in touch. But Agatha, Dorothy, Margery, and Ngaio are all involved in the war effort and have problems of their own. Agatha is volunteering at the University Hospital Pharmacy, where a dangerous anesthetic has been stolen. Dorothy has heard unsettling information from her connections at the BBC regarding members of the Royal Navy. Margery, who has been in the countryside helping families escape the city from the bombing, is worried about one of her charges whose older sister has gone missing. And Ngaio, who has relocated to New Zealand has begun gathering secret intelligence from wounded soldiers and sailors that may put her in danger.

Marlowe Jenkins and Priscilla Covington-French hated each other in high school. Sixteen years later, Marlowe is barely scraping by, while Priscilla is wildly successful. Their rivalry should be dead, but they remain connected through their mutual mentor, drama teacher Dallas Winthrop. When Dallas goes missing, each believes she can figure out where he is. But Dallas has found a way to explore alternate versions of reality, and while trying to follow him, Marlowe and Priscilla find other versions of themselves instead and learn not all of them are fueled by hate. The more Marlowe and Priscilla are forced to rely on each other, the harder it becomes to ignore their attraction. But with each alternate reality, they get further from their real lives. Do they play it safe and hide behind their rivalry or take a chance that could permanently change the world as they know it?

It's 1916. President Woodrow Wilson sits in the Oval Office. Racial tensions, economic inequality, support for unionization, and the rise of both a reactionary far right militia and a radical opposition shake the foundations of America. A group of real political cartoonists is working for the magazine The Masses, as well as a fictional German immigrant from Cleveland. They rub elbows with opposition voices of the day, like Max Eastman and John Reed, and Emma Goldman. What they note in their illustrations is a country spiraling into darkness, under attack by German saboteurs and private militias, plagued by racism, and rocked by class war. For the crime of documenting what they see, the cartoonists are indicted for sedition and put on trial by the U.S. government.

Ruth Pearl has lived in the small New England town of Wells, Connecticut on the shore of Lake Topaqua for much of her adult life. Decades back, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister Sophia. Her view of Lake Topaqua, in the wake of such loss, has long been a deep comfort to Ruth. But in the winter of 2000, Ruth's neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth's lake view, disrupting her peace and sense of control. She seeks a legal resolution and finds none. Her helplessness sparks fear that her past is happening again. Ruth heads out one day to skate on the lake only to spot a boy, in the distance, falling through the ice. County judge Arthur Cantrell also witnesses the fall, and together Ruth and the judge save sixteen-year-old Ian Lima's life. The act is, for all of them, redemptive. Over the days to come Ruth and Arthur help to heal Ian, both physically and mentally, and all three find unexpected solace. Ruth even feels able, at long last, to share the story of her life during the Holocaust with her adult daughter.

As an acolyte on the Isle of Apples, Braithe never dreamed she'd become a handmaid to Morgana, the most powerful priestess in all Camulod. When the two learn the king is cursed by powerful magic, they journey to the White City deep in fae country to investigate. The magical city is nothing like Braithe imagined. The fae are cold and callous and quick to bewitch. Moreover, Morgana's magic is unreliable, and it falls to Braithe to uncover who is behind the curse. But she will have to believe herself capable of more than she ever imagined.