Bookshop Santa Cruz staff recommendation:

Can you judge a book on the way it makes you feel? If so, Anthony Doerr, author of the beloved All the Light We Cannot See, delivers one of the most potent novels I’ve read in many years, about the power of storytelling and our personal legacies. Epic in scope, the book follows characters during the siege of Constantinople, in present-day Idaho, and into the future in space. Ultimately, their stories connect through one ancient Greek manuscript, in what can only be described as a transformative reading experience, one filled with adventure, history, and a multilayered examination of our shared humanity. —Casey

Franzen’s new novel opens on a precarious moment in the life of the Hildebrandt family. Two days before Christmas in 1971, the parents, Russ and Marion, have grown widely apart and are exploring other options. Meanwhile, their three older children are navigating personal and spiritual difficulties that may help define them as people and possibly ruin their lives. The novel represents a turn for Franzen, away from the eviscerating social critique of The Corrections and Freedom and toward a deeply compassionate realism. The novel’s depth of character, powerful exploration of morality, and astounding scope suggest it’s time to stop comparing him to his contemporaries and start comparing him to Proust and Tolstoy.—Rico

Three stories are woven together in this masterful, wise, and empathetic novel. Mina, an Arab American trans woman doing medical work with refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. A Syrian migrant family led by their dying matriarch Sumaiya. And the writer of the story, struggling to convey the depth of so many unanswerable questions. Alameddine writes with care and precision about existence in the midst of impossibility. This is a special, moving book. Don’t miss our event with Rabih Alameddine on December 1st. —Trey

Everything you would expect from the amazing Amor Towles. Lincoln Highway is immersive, captivating, and rich with descriptions of an era gone by. Young Emmet Watson and his plans to travel West on the Lincoln Highway with his 8-year-old brother are laid out on page 1, but very quickly, new characters are introduced and well-laid plans are diverted East. With the best and worst of humanity on display, Towles helps us look with empathy as young people care for even younger people navigating deception, misunderstandings, innocence, and denial on their way to very different destinations. This is the novel you’ve been waiting for; the characters that will stay with you long after the journey ends. —Jenny