Clear                        

by Carys Davies

Scribner/S&S

    In the late 1700s, the Scottish Clearances began. The landowners, deciding it was cheaper to keep sheep on their land than farmers, forcibly evicted the people. Davies imagines a naive clergyman sent to a northern island to remove a last straggler. This is the story of Ivar and John, learning to communicate and to understand each other. And of  John's brave wife Mary who will find a way forward. A beautifully written, without a spare word, account of a strange, sad time.

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

    

Heart, Be at Peace

by Donal Ryan

Viking/PRH

     Many of the people of a small Irish town are here telling their own stories, which, inevitably collide. The anger and fear of parents raising children in a world very different from what theirs was. Violence, pain, hope and love. This is a Spoon River Anthology-like telling with as much poetry as Edgar Lee Masters gave.

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

Twelve Post-War Tales                  

by Graham Swift

Knopf/PRH

    Swift is an amazingly quiet writer - even when he's talking about war and the way it changes, hurts, destroys and toughens people.  These stories are not without humor and joy. And beautiful language.

    If you haven't read Swift's Mothering Sunday, please do. It's a short novel but a very powerful one.

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

The Paris Express                          

by Emma Donoghue

Summit Books/S&S

    Perhaps the most amazing part of this book is how easily Donoghue presents the trains' occupants. There's not a word too many and you end up feeling like you know these people in that wonderfully simple way you might know fellow riders on a train.

    The narrative is fast and compelling, like a wreck that you can't look away from. This is fun escape reading.

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

The Dream Hotel                  

by Laila Lalami

Pantheon/PRH

    If you could get guaranteed great sleep with a small implant, would you worry about what else it could do? In our time of lack of due process - this is a beautifully written and very frightening book. 

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