The Mountain
Paul Yoon (Simon & Schuster)
Yoon’s wonderful collection is bound
by the longing for meaning and connection experienced by its mostly migrant
protagonists, each of whom has suffered
trauma stemming from wars fought by
previous generations. These stories span
the globe—including the Hudson Valley,
France, and China—and time periods to
arrive at truths about how
greatly lives are affected and
influenced by shared history.
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee (Grand Central)
Lee’s immersive novel tells
the story of one Korean family’s search for belonging,
beginning in the Japanese-occupied Korea of the 1910s,
when young Sunja accidentally becomes pregnant and a kind,
tubercular pastor offers to marry her and
act as the child’s father. The novel, which
follows four generations of the family,
exquisitely explores questions of history,
legacy, and identity.
Reservoir 13
Jon McGregor (Catapult)
McGregor’s momentous, haunting
novel begins with a 13-year-old girl’s
disappearance from an English village,
and then tracks the village through the
following years—teenagers become
adults, babies are born, people grow old
and die, and couples get together and
separate while what happened to the girl
remains a mystery. McGregor portrays
individuals and the community as a
whole, marked by a strange darkness
after the girl’s disappearance.
See What I Have Done
Sarah Schmidt (Atlantic Monthly)
Schmidt’s suspenseful, nearly unbear-
ably claustrophobic debut novel recounts
the events surrounding the 1892 mur-
ders of Andrew and Abby Borden from
the perspectives of Lizzie Borden; her
older sister, Emma; the family’s maid,
Bridget Sullivan; and a mysterious man
known only as Benjamin. Equally suc-
cessful as a whodunit, “whydunit,” and
historical novel, the book honors known
facts yet fearlessly claims its own striking
vision.
The Seventh Function of Language
Laurent Binet, trans. from the French by
Sam Taylor (FSG)
Binet (HHhH) ups the metafictional
ante with this detective story
about the death of French
philosopher Roland Barthes,
who was hit by a laundry
van after lunch with then–
presidential candidate
François Mitterrand. The
mystery is really just an
excuse for a loving inquiry
into 20th-century intellectual history; Binet folds historical moments into an
illustration of the possibilities left for
the modern novel.
What It Means When a Man Falls
from the Sky
Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead)
In one story in Arimah’s powerful and
incisive debut collection, a deceased
mother magically reappears in her family’s life. In another, a reckless teenage
girl is sent from America to her aunt in
Nigeria, only to get caught up in the life
of her equally reckless cousin. Arimah
shuttles between continents and realities
to deliver stories of loss, hope, violence,
and family.
A Working Woman
Elvira Navarro, trans. from the Spanish by
Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines)
In Navarro’s brilliant mindbender of a
novel, Elisa, a struggling writer in
Madrid, becomes increasingly fascinated
by her roommate, the more willful and
dramatically unhinged Susana. Susana
and Elisa set out to combine their artistic
endeavors, only to become ensnared in
each other’s madness in the process. This
exceptional novel defies easy interpretation and culminates in a breathtaking
and surprising ending.
