Flashlight
Susan Choi
A ten-year-old girl survives a drowning on a breakwater; her father vanishes, leaving only questions and the wreckage of a family already fractured by exile and secrets. Choi traces how loss ripples through generations of people running from their pasts.
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Trust Exercise
Susan Choi
High school theater kids, a love affair, and then a second section that pulls the rug out. A slippery, smart novel about who owns a story.
★ 5Sandwich
Catherine Newman
Sandwich, by Catherine Newman, describes a family’s week-long vacation in Wellfleet and instantly transported me back. It’s funny, moving, and relatable, much like Newman herself (Aliza and I saw her speak in Boston a few weeks ago.) If you just finished All Fours and aren’t ready to stop thinking/reading about menopause, try Sandwich next.
★ 5Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
A strange, beautiful novel about a man who lives alone in a labyrinthine house filled with statues and tidal halls… and slowly comes to realize he doesn’t know who he is or how he got there. It’s unlike anything else, and somehow both deeply weird and deeply moving.