Ghost-Eye
by Amitav Ghosh
FSG/Macmillan
You don't need to believe in a spiritual dimension, reincarnation, or even like to eat fish in order to fall under the spell of this beautiful novel. It is a family story, a coming of age story and a search for a world that is just beyond our everyday senses.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Maggie O'Farrell
Knopf/PRH
This is such a brilliant novel - warm, magical, funny and heartbreaking. The horrors of the recent Famine and the occupation by the British begin the story of these amazing people who survive by helping each other as much as they can. People starve and others "go away" leaving a very small but strong group on this west Ireland peninsula. Family and land come together to produce something beautiful - a place and a time you'll want to return to often.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Katherine Arden
Del Rey/PRH
A lovely adult fairy tale vaguely based on history - featuring castles, knights, strong women, dead women and much sorcery. What the history of Brittany might have been if there had been a bit more enchantment around.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Jess Kidd
Atria/S&S
Jess Kidd has written several wonderful novels - Himself is my favorite. She has also shown herself to be a very good mystery novelist. Nora Breen is a quietly believable ex-cloistered nun finding her way in a small seaside village. Murders do seem to abound in the area of Gore-on-Sea, with that name, of course.
This is the second of what I hope will be many more.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
Suzanne Palmer
DAW/PRH
Palmer creates a post-apocalyptic world that is perhaps too recognizable. She peoples it with wonderfully real humans, robots and cyborgs who develop strong feelings and manage to find ways to confront their loneliness and the horrors that surround them.
And there's a retro-fit steam engine VW Bus!
I am hoping for a sequel.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.