Books You May Have Missed 2021: Adult Fiction

"Sinead Hynes is a tough, driven, funny, young property developer with a terrifying secret. No-one knows it: not her fellow patients in a failing hospital, and certainly not her family. She has confided only in Google and a shiny magpie. But she can't go on like this, tirelessly trying to outstrip her past and in mortal fear of her future. Across the ward, Margaret Rose is running her chaotic family from her rose-gold Nokia. In the neighbouring bed,...

HONORABLE MENTION CRIMEREADS' THE BEST DEBUT NOVELS OF 2022

NAMED ONE OF THE "40 NEW BOOKS FOR SUMMER READING 2021" BY THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

A riveting debut novel from an unforgettable new voice that is literary, suspenseful, and a compelling story about identity and how you define "home".

Masha remembers her childhood in the former USSR, but found her life and heart in Israel. Anna was just an infant when her family

...

At a boarding school in Pennsylvania, a deathbed request from the school's dean brings three former students back to campus, where secrets and betrayals from the past are brought out into the open - secrets that could have a catastrophic effect on the dean's eighteen-year-old son. Told in alternating points of view and time frames, "Attachments" is the story of best friends Stewart ("Goody") Goodman, Sand ("Pick") Piccolo, and Laura Appleby, the girl...

"Welcome to Comfort Notch. Following the death of her estranged mother, Kat Somerville and her daughter Sybil flee a difficult life in Chicago for the quaint--and possibly deadly--town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire.

"An account of an immigrant family's struggle and the lessons learned about diversity Writing at the height of her powers, The Bad Immigrant cements Sefi Atta's place as one of the best storytellers of our time. Through the voice of her first male protagonist, Lukmon, Atta peels away nuanced layers to expose the realities of migration from Nigeria to the USA, such as the strains of adjustment and the stifling pressure to conform without loss of identity....

"When a young journalist prompts a reclusive musical superstar to finally break his silence, he pours out an astonishing saga of rivalry and regret, starring child prodigies and bitter old men, beautiful dancers and demonic managers, Nazi commandants, compassionate nuns, and lifesaving animals. Ballad for Sophie is a sweeping tale that spans the twentieth century, packed with all the drama of a rock & roll biopic and more twists than a night at the...

"Set in Barcelona in the years leading up to the financial crash of 2008, these poignant interlinked stories follow ordinary people whose lives will be changed forever. Like Robert Altman's film Short Cuts, Barcelona Dreaming is made up of three interconnected stories that are bound by time and place, and by the way characters weave in and out of them. A crime that remains unreported in one story has light shed on it in another. Exploring addiction,...

"Basil St. Florian is an accomplished agent in the British Army, tasked with dozens of dangerous missions for crown and country across the globe. But his current mission, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, might be his toughest assignment yet. He will be searching for an ecclesiastic manuscript that doesn’t officially exist, one that genius professor Alan Turing believes may hold the key to a code that could prevent the...

"Maureen Doherty and her golden retriever Finn have taken possession of a charming old inn--only to discover that it's already possessed by tenants whose lease on life already ran out . . . Maureen's career as a sportswear buyer hits a snag just before Halloween, when the department store declares bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Finn's lost his way as a guide dog after flunking his test for being too friendly and easily distracted. Sadly, only one of them...

"Inspector Chen is excluded from a poetry case as he awaits possible disciplinary action, leaving him to reflect on his career . . . but does his past hold a clue to the poetry case? After a number of grueling cases Chief Inspector Chen is facing mounting pressure from his superiors, many of whom are concerned with where his loyalties lie. What's more, he is excluded from an investigation into an incendiary poem posted on an online forum. Wracked...