domestic fiction

To free herself from her dysfunctional family in Kingston, Jamaica, and join her beloved aunt in Paris, 13-year-old Pumkin Patterson turns her passion for baking into a way to raise money for her French exam, but when word gets out, she stands to lose everything she's worked so hard for.

"Twins Raquel and Lucinda Mendoza used to be inseparable, but since their parents divorced Raquel has become bossy and obsessive, while Lucinda has immersed herself in her ice skating lessons, and the pandemic and its enforced isolation has only made things worse; but then they are sent to their father's ranch in central California and while Raquel thinks that this is a chance to get their parents back together by driving his girlfriend away, Lucinda discovers she likes his new family, and wonders if trying to bring the Mendoza family back together is really worth the struggle"--Provided by publisher.

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.

"[This book] reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other, and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another's distress. A search for understanding about some of the most critical matters of our time, [it] is also an inquiry into the nature and purpose of writing itself"--Dust jacket.

"April 5th, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are slowly drifting apart--and both, it seems, are a little bit in love with Isabel's younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, is living vicariously through a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house--and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. And then there is Nathan, age ten, taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while his sister, Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents. April 5th, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the cozy brownstone is starting to feel more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled slights and frustrated sighs. And dear Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts--and his secret Instagram life--for company. April 5th, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality--and with what they've learned, what they've lost, and how they might go on"--Provided by publisher.

Life was supposed to be better after the war. Seventeen-year-old Henry Knights knows different. Henry's older brother returns from overseas a changed man just as his father decides to run for public office. Within days, his brother's PTSD and his father's campaign turn life upside down, as does the arrival of a famous war reporter. Caught in chaos, Henry and his twin sister, both adopted, consider finding their birth family.

"In this collection comprised of fifteen . . . stories . . . [Margaret] Atwood speaks to our times with her characteristic wit and intellect. Of special significance are the seven works revolving around the long-term married couple Tig and Nell. Acting as bookends for the collection, these stories look deeply in the heart of what it means to spend a life together, with the four stories in Part I relating tales from their married life, and the three stories at the end showing Nell's reality in the aftermath of Tig's death. In other works, two sisters grapple with loss and memory in 'Old Babes in the Wood'; 'Impatient Griselda' reprises the folkloric role of Griselda in Bocaccio's The Decameron, exploring alienation and miscommunication; and 'Evil Mother' touching on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch"--Provided by publisher.

"Fourteen-year-old Eva Brown is coping with difficulties at home and at school, most significantly her mother's alcoholism. When Eva's nohkum (grandmother) is hospitalized, her mother struggles to care for Eva and her younger brother. After Eva's brother wanders away, he is sent to live with a foster family and Eva finds herself in a group home. Furious at her mother's weakness, Eva struggles to adjust to the group home--and reuniting with her family seems less and less likely. During a visit to the hospital, Nohkum gives Eva Shirley's diary. Can Eva find forgiveness for her mother in its pages?"--Provided by publisher.

Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao?s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance?a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.