Fiction Recommendations

Music is Momo's refuge, a gift that he hopes will shelter Junie through her childhood and an ocean of separation. It's a trans-Pacific love letter set amidst China's cultural revolution. Love exists in the unexpected everyday moments: music drifting from windows, flower bulbs, and hushed hellos. These small moments alter lives in profoundly meaningful ways. - Charlotte

Set in Nigeria, this beautiful and heartbreaking exploration of sexuality and gender identity is a story of family secrets, love, and grief. Vivek Oji is dead, found wrapped in cloth on his mother's doorstep. How this came to be is a riveting tale that Emezi tells with simple, evocative, profound prose. A rich, emotionally rewarding read, I found this difficult to put down. - Trey

Full disclosure: I used to be a bookseller with Maryse. When she moved on my life got a little less weird. If you, too, are missing a little weird in your life, or feel like you haven't recently read enough books that feature ossophilia and radical environmental activism, then check out this wonderfully strange book. It brought my weird quotient up by seven points! - Dave

When it comes to the classics, none is more lighthearted and clever than the tome of all tomes, Don Quixote. However, many readers are turned off by the first modern novel’s incredible girth. Fortunately, its intimidating length is balanced by its short, digestible chapters, which are perfect for today’s social-media-addled attention spans. - Aric

Lillian is a poor and apathetic twenty something working mundane jobs with little sense of purpose. When the past comes calling in the form of her former posh boarding school roommate asking a favor, curiosity gets the better of her. That favor? Nannying her friend's step-children who happen to catch on fire when they get upset. - Celeste

Murakami's writing is a dreamscape that floats before your eyes. His tone is calm and steady; no matter what's happening, you can depend on the voice to be matter-of-fact. For those familiar with his work, his Oedipus complex is as predictable as the surrealist nature of the storytelling as we follow multiple POV's through our world and another. - MJ

Munro is my favorite short-story writer of all time and this is probably my favorite of her collections. As with all of her collections, her writing is somehow both casual in feel but devastatingly precise, and her emotional register never fails. Three or four of the stories here are among the best written by anybody anywhere. - Rico

A comedic masterpiece by the king of postmodern satire. The son of one of the inventors of the atomic bomb is a dwarf who paints only stark black canvases. Around his neck he wears Ice-nine, a Weapon of Mass destruction that could freeze the world. Can Bokononism (a fictional religion) show us the way out of this violent age? - Jason

This timeless classic about an American bombardier in WWII fighting a system in which everything is against him is perfect for those of us who have felt trapped in an endless cycle of defeat this past year. Confusing and frustrating in the most coherent way possible, Catch-22 excellently embodies the absurdity of trying to navigate between survival and duty. - Magnolia

This debut novel got a lot of hype and I’m glad to say it deserved every bit of it. The narrator is a young Black woman who, among other bad decisions, takes up with a married man. That he’s wealthy, White and much older only adds to the trouble. Just when you think you know where the story is going, it goes somewhere very different—and much more interesting. Loved it! - Rico