Contemporary fiction genre books (1023)


881.

The Swan Book by Alexis Wright EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute teenager called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans driven from other parts of the country, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawle... continue

882.

The Swimmers : A novel by Julie Otsuka EN

0 Ratings
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE WINNER • From the award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine comes a novel that "starts as a catalogue of spoken and unspoken rules for swimmers at an aquatic center but unfolds into a powerful story of a mother’s dementia and her daughter’s love" (The Washington Post). The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines (slow lane, medium lane, fast lane) and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cas... continue

883.

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Ireland flag Ireland
Description:
From the twice Man Booker longlisted author of From a Low and Quiet Sea 'A force of nature ... a life-enhancing talent' SEBASTIAN BARRY While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns. Set over the course of one year of Johnsey's life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonizing self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale... continue

884.

The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Sophia Siméonidis, A Greek Opera Singer, Wakes Up One Morning To Discover That A Tree Has Appeared Overnight In The Garden Of Her Paris House. Intrigued And Unnerved, She Turns To Her Neighbours: Vandoosler, An Ex-Cop Fired From The Police For Having Helped A Murderer To Escape, And Three Impecunious Historians, Mathias, Marc And Lucien - The Three Evangelists. They Agree - Both Because They Need The Money And Out Of Sheer Curiosity - To Dig Around The Tree And See If Something Has Been Buried There. They Find Nothing But Soil. A Few Weeks Later, Sophia Disappears And Nobody Worries Too Much U... continue

885.

The Trio by Johanna Hedman EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Sweden flag Sweden
Description:
Hugo has lived in New York for many years, mostly alone, when he receives an unexpected visit from a young woman. She is the daughter of two strangers he once knew very well, in a beautiful city he once called home. The young woman has come to ask him about her parents, about the past. And as Hugo sits across the table from her, still afraid after all these years, the memories rise to the surface, as luminous and intoxicating as ever . . . From New York to Stockholm, Paris to Berlin and Belsize Park to Brighton Pier, Johanna Hedman traces the restless choreography of a love triangle. Bitterswe... continue

886.

The Vanishing Half : A Novel by Brit Bennett EN

Rating: 4 (6 votes)
Description:
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP BESTSELLER #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 'An utterly mesmerising novel..I absolutely loved this book' Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the Booker Prize 2019 'Epic' Kiley Reid, O, The Oprah Magazine 'Favourite book [of the] year' Issa Rae Perfect for fans of Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larson. The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is dif... continue

887.

The Vaster Wilds : A Novel by Lauren Groff EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, TIME, ESQUIRE, VOGUE, LA TIMES, SLATE, HARPER'S BAZAAR and others “Part historical, part horror, part breathless thriller, part wilderness survival tale, The Vaster Wilds is a story about the lengths to which we will go to stay alive."—NPR staff pick “Lauren Groff just reinvented the adventure novel."—Los Angeles Times “Glorious…surroundings come alive in prose that lives and breathes upon the page." —Boston Globe A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling auth... continue

888.

The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
'What did she expect of him? What was her quest? Did she have an unfulfilled desire?' Transgressive desires and sexual encounters are recounted in these four pieces from one of the greatest writers of erotic fiction. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbin... continue

889.

The Villain's Dance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
"The Democratic Republic of Congo, otherwise known as Congo-Kinshasa or DRCongo, has had a series of names since its founding. The name of Zaire best corresponds to the experience of the novel's characters. The years of Mobutu's regime were filled with utopias, dreams, fantasies and other uncontrolled desires for social redemption, the quest for easy enrichment and the desecration of places of power. Among these events: Zairians' immigration to Angola during the civil war boycotting the borders inherited from colonization, as if the country did not have its own diamonds, and the occupation of ... continue

890.

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / India flag India
Description:
This heartbreaking and haunting novel takes a timeless tragedy and hurls it into present-day Afghanistan, when a woman asks for the return of her brother's body in the midst of a war. Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother’s body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic, or is she what she claims to be: a grieving young sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? Single-minded in her mission, she refuses to move from her spot on the field in full v... continue