International Fiction

The Water Dancer | Ta-Nehisi Coates | $32.99 | Penguin Random House Lyrical, haunting, beautiful; Ta-Nehisi Coates tackles one of America’s darkest periods with elegance and inventiveness. Coates is one of the US’s most incisive intellectual thinkers about race, and in this, his first work of fiction, he unpacks the lasting, damaging effects of slavery. Laced with elegant, gorgeously evocative descriptions of a vanished world and steeped in its own vivid vocabulary, The Water Dancer is a powerful lament against the enduring trauma of families torn apart in the name of slavery. With this book, Coates has taken on the mantle of such writers as Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and Octavia Butler.

— Sarah I have very high expectations for The Water Dancer and can’t wait to get my hands on it. One of the most exciting writers of today, Ta-Nehisi Coates combines his astute racial and social analysis with the kind of vivid storytelling and imaginative prose I have no reason to expect from him—as a debut fiction writer—but do. If the rumours are true, this is the best book of 2019!

— Emma Co.

The Divers’ Game | Jesse Ball | $24.99 | Text This is a novel that increases in power and resonance like a reversed echo. It seems more fitting to call Ball’s work an assemblage rather than a novel because of the way it seems to function in my mind’s eye. The form is four separate, though connected parts written in a style that is so open, spacious and poetic, that it contrasts wholly to the vicious allegory presented. Characters are vicious, power systems are unquestioned, and morality is entirely disconnected from itself and shamelessly selfserving. This novel is tremendous, grasping towards what it is to be alive right now. — Virginia

Before the Coffee Gets Cold | Toshikazu Kawaguchi | $18.99 | Picador My absolute favourite genre to read, this serves everything that I adore about magical realism; a meditative approach to writing, a gentle slip from the very real and a detailed quirk of character that warms your heart. In the back table of a basement café sits a lady reading, she is a ghost. Once a day she rises from her seat and if you take this seat you can travel to the past but only while the coffee you are served stays warm. At first this story appears quite simple but upon later pondering the many layers reveal a much deeper spellbinding tale. — Dean

The World That We Knew | Alice Hoffman | $32.99 | Simon & Schuster Hoffman employs her unique brand of magical realism and signature lyricism to express the agony of the Holocaust in this moving story of love, loss and resilience in the face of immense tragedy. At the heart of the novel is Ava, a mythical golem of Jewish folklore, who has been created by a mother desperate to grant protection to her teenage daughter during the darkest days of the Nazi regime. This is a book about the power of love, and the challenges redeeming or retaining humanity under the most horrific circumstances. — Sarah

Olive, Again | Elizabeth Strout | $29.99 | Penguin Random House Strout’s prose is exquisite, gentle and calm, inviting us once more into the mind of Olive Kitteredge and into the lives of the people in Crosby, Maine, even as those lives are consumed with grief and loneliness and dread and guilt. Her composure makes the occasional emotional gut punch all the more impactful. Here Olive is in her 70s and 80s, and as she grows older she is relentlessly confronted with her own mortality. Strout’s observations are sharp and refreshingly brazen. I am thrilled that I was able to spend more time in Olive’s company. — Kate

The Topeka School | Ben Lerner | $29.99 | Granta Shifting perspectives, fragmented time periods The Topeka School offers a fresh take on the family saga. Adam’s parents Jonathan and Jane are psychiatrists each with their own hidden secret. This gives the reader additional knowledge about their social responses surrounding a devastating situation that arises at a seniors party. Adam is popular, one of the cool kids (who also suffers from anxiety). When loner Darren Eberheart (one of his father’s patient’s) is brought into the cool gang it has disastrous effects. Riveting, intelligent, and compelling commentary on toxic masculinity, this is a must-read for the summer.

— Dean

A Tall History of Sugar | Curdella Forbes | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin Jamaican writer Forbes is incredible in this haunting, unforgettable Caribbean epic which follows Moshe, a man born with skin not fully developed. Neither black nor white, Moshe is bluish, with veins visible beneath his translucent skin. The narrator, Arrienne, strives to protect Moshe from the social consequences of his strange appearance, as they navigate the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica, from post-Independence to a world of Brexit and Donald Trump. Hypnotic, compelling and like nothing you’ve read before. — Emma Co.

The End of the Ocean | Maja Lunde | $32.99 | Simon & Schuster A novel timelier than ever given the current climate crisis, Lunde provides a meditation on the sheer power and importance of the ocean, our intrinsic fascination with it and our horrifying ability to destroy it. Lunde masterfully crafts a storyline which oscillates between 2017 and 2041 and follows three passionate individuals. Fundamentally, this book is a beacon of hope, as it reveals the capability that humankind may have to rewrite the course of our future.

— Katherine

Grand Union | Zadie Smith | $32.99 | Penguin Random House Ever since I read White Teeth I’ve been absolutely enamoured with Zadie Smith and her ability to explore complex themes in nuanced ways, so I was super excited for the release of her first short story collection, Grand Union. And I was blown away. Grand Union covers so many different themes, styles and genres—it is an impressive and intelligent collection that is both emotionally and intellectually engaging. I particularly loved ‘The Lazy River’ and ‘Kelso Deconstructed’. There are so many layers of meta across this collection which I adored because not only does it set me off an almost detective-like tangent to discover meaning, it also makes me feel like all of those hours I’ve spent with my head in books has paid off (see Mum!). Honestly, one of my favourite reads of 2019.

— Lucy H.

Akin | Emma Donoghue | $29.99 | Picador A novel of an unlikely friendship or kinship drawn from traumatic circumstances, Donoghue has crafted the impossible. The protagonist, Noah, a recently retired chemistry professor regards life as known, orderly and essentially complete. He plans to visit his birthplace in Nice for the last time when he is contacted by a social worker that has found he is the only living relative available to care for his surly 11-year-old great-nephew. The boy’s father is dead and mother incarcerated. What follows is a tense comedy of errors, a frustrating learning curve on both sides of the relationship that ultimately points to the possibility of connection and formation of new bonds against all expectations.

— Virginia

Fly Already: Stories | Etgar Keret | $27.99 | Scribe In his subversive and captivating new collection, Keret breaks the boundaries of short fiction to create a collection that is truly unique in its presentation and enthralling for the reader. As his stories range from a father protecting his son to the connection of two unlikely people on the beach, they all seamlessly combine to create a reflection on a shared human experience in a way that is unique to Keret himself.

— Lucy V.

The Confession | Jessie Burton | $29.99 | Picador Moving between 1980 and 2017, I was amazed by the authenticity of Burton’s protagonists and their worlds. From the very first page we’re introduced to this complex cast of characters in a way that makes them so incredibly real, human and familiar. The story flows with a steady pace as it ruminates on marriage, family, and the often disappointing nature of everyday life, all the while maintaining a sardonically self-aware voice. I would recommend this one for fans of Donna Tartt and Joan Didion. — Angelita