A new novel of startling intelligence from prizewinning Australian author Michelle de Kretser, following a writer looking back on her young adulthood and grappling with what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art. It's 1986, and "beautiful, radical ideas" are in the air. The narrator of Theory & Practice, a young woman originally from Sri Lanka, arrives in Melbourne for graduate school to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In the bohemian neighborhood of St. Kilda she meets artists, activists, students--and Kit. He claims to be in a "deconstructed relationship." They become lovers, and the narrator's feminism comes up against her jealousy. Meanwhile, an entry in Woolf's diary upends what the narrator knows about her literary idol, and throws her own work into disarray. What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is shamed when the truth is told? Michelle de Kretser's new novel offers a spellbinding meditation on the moral complexities that arise in the gap between our values and our lives

"Są takie chwile, kiedy tracimy nadzieję i potrzebujemy kogoś, kto zagości w naszym życiu niczym smak uzdrawiającej jaśminowej herbaty. Życiowe scieżki koleżanek ze szkolnych lat los splata ponownie na jubileuszu w liceum. Honorata to zabiegana matka trójki dzieci. Gabrysia, żeby zaopiekować się siostrą, musiała porzucić swoje artystyczne zamiłowania i pracuje w agencji ubezpieczeniowej. Alicja jest przedszkolanką i uwielbia swoją pracę, ale cieniem na jej codzienności kładzie się zerwana relacja z rodzicami. A bibliotekarka Dagmara, choć otoczona na co dzień ukochanymi książkami, skrycie marzy o miesjcu, w którym herbata i dobra powieść stworzą niezapomniany duet. Powrót do wspomnień sprawia, że kobiety zaczynają patrzeć na swoje wybory przez pryzmat utraconych szans i niewykorzystanych okazji. Każda z nich ma swoje problemy i smutki, które topi w filiżance niespełnionych marzeń. Brakuje im ciepła i otuchy. Po spotkaniu rozkwita w nich potrzeba zmiany swojego życia. Pod wpływem łańcuszka zbiegów okoliczności stają się dla siebie nieoczekiwanym wsparciem i dają sobie wzajemnie siłę, by zadbać o własne związki, zdrowie i błogi spokój. Ż̇adna z nich nie spodziewa się jednak, jakie konsekwencje przyniesie szalony pomysł wypicia tajemniczej mikstury przygotowanej prze matkę Dagmary... Czy kobietom uda się pokonać codziennie trudy, by znów poczuć, że naprawdę żyją? Czy poznają smak mocnej przyjaźni? Jaką rolę w ich życiu odgra przytulna Herbaciarnia pod Jaśminem? Odpowiedzi poznacie w słodko-gorzkiej historii o tym, że jednak chwila może odmienić przyszłość i przywrócić wiarę w lepsze jutro."--Page 4 of cover

A novel about black Americans in Florida that centers on the life of Janie and her three marriages

"Sanjana Satyanandais trying to recover her life. It's been a year since she walked out on her husband, a struggling actor named Killian, at a commune in India, after a disagreement about whether to have children. Now, Sanjana is struggling to resurrect her busted anthropology dissertation and crashing at her annoyingly perfect sister's while her well-adjusted peers obsess over marriages, mortgages, and motherhood. Sanjana needs to move forward--and finalize her divorce, ASAP. There's just one problem: Killian is missing. As Sanjana tries to track him down, she's bombarded with unnerving calls from women seeking her advice on pregnancy and fertility. Soon, Sanjana comes face to face with what her life might have been if she'd chosen parenthood. And the road not taken turns out to be wilder, stranger, and more tempting than she imagined." -- Publisher annotation

"The women of this beguiling, darkly fabulist, new story collection grapple with the question "What do we owe our family and friends in times of wild uncertainty?" as they strive to be good mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives, and companions in a world that is constantly shifting around them"--

"From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Jio comes an escapist timeslip contemporary book club novel following a young woman stuck in a "time loop" of one-day relationships with romantic partners from her past, perfect for readers of Rebecca Serle's In Five Years and Josie Silver's One Day in December. "An ingenious and heartfelt love story. I absolutely adored this novel!" -Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Pact What if you could have a second chance to say "yes" to the one who got away? Lena Westbrook, a perfectionist and workaholic, has carefully planned and orchestrated every detail of her life. So when her boyfriend of two years breaks up with her on the night she expects him to propose, she's heartbroken and confused. Lena flees to her beloved aunt's home on Seattle's picturesque Bainbridge Island to lick her wounds and recalibrate. That night, she falls asleep in the guest house. But when she awakens the next morning, she's no longer in a cottage nestled on the Puget Sound, but rather in a chic Parisian apartment-wearing an expensive silk nightgown in bed with a handsome French man who seems to think that Lena is his wife. From the elegant neighborhoods of Paris to the charming landscape of Kinsale, Ireland, to the sparkling skyline of New York City, and many other unexpected destinations in between, each time Lena awakens, she finds herself somewhere else with someone else. In each experience, she's given a glimpse of what life might have looked like had she chosen the "road not taken." And as she becomes more clear-sighted about her past decisions, Lena begins to wonder, were any of these former romantic encounters actually...significant? Marrying the wish-fulfilling romance of Emily in Paris with the high-concept premise of Groundhog Day, Insignificant Others is a lively, surprising, and enchanting novel that explores the relatable and resonant "what ifs" of life, but most especially, love"--

"Meet the Valiat family. In Iran, they were somebodies. In America, they're nobodies. First there is Elizabeth, the regal matriarch with the famously large nose who stayed in Tehran during the revolution. She lives in a shabby apartment, paranoid and alone. Except when she is visited by Niaz, her Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter who takes her debauchery with a side of purpose, and yet somehow manages to survive. Elizabeth's daughters left for America in 1979: Shirin, a charismatic yet outrageous event planner in Houston who considers herself the family's future, and Seema, a dreamy idealist-turned-housewife languishing in the chaparral-filled hills of Los Angeles. And then there's the other granddaughter Bita, the self-righteous but lost law student spending her days in New York City eating pancakes and quietly giving away her belongings. When an annual vacation in Aspen goes wildly awry and Shirin ends up being bailed out of jail by Bita, the family's brittle status quo is cracked open. Shirin embarks upon a grand but half-baked quest to restore the family name. But what does that even mean in a country where the Valiats never mattered? Will they ever realize that life is more than just an old story?"--

From Booker Prize-shortlisted author David Szalay, comes a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. Fifteen-year-old Istvan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour -- a married woman close to his mother's age -- as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that Istvan himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control. As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the currents of the twenty-first century's tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London's super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it

"Andi Salazar's hard work at the local women's shelter makes a big difference in her small town, but at the end of a long day, Andi can't wait to blow off some steam as her sexy, voluptuous bombshell singer persona. Andi burns down the stage with her fiery spirit, catching the eyes of Galway High's popular new math teacher, Kevin Mahoney. After his ex dubbed him as too "vanilla", Kevin's on a mission to find the real version of himself. One look at Andi and he nearly bursts into flame. After colliding in the hallway, their chemistry leads to a hot, sweet hookup that leaves him wanting more. But when their work brings them together again, Andi and Kevin can't stay apart for long. Kevin is the first man Andi feels like she can trust, and conversation with Andi makes Kevin truly enjoy opening up to her. Although friendship may be safer, romance could be everything and more, especially when an unexpected variable changes their lives in the best way possible"--

"A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones."--

"What would you do if you were shipwrecked, swept ashore, and menaced by a horde of ravenous crabs, only to be saved by an eldritch being and welcomed into a tower of secrets by an even more enigmatic host? As a scientist and traveler, how would you assess a situation that could only be a nightmare such as no human has ever experienced? Join Avery Mothmere on the adventure of a lifetime! This charming story is by turns Gothic horror, strange romance, unfathomable mystery, and weird fever dream. Features 30 original illustrations by the author"--Page 4 of cover

Lucy Snowe makes her way by teaching, as she unhappily watches John Bretton's infatuation for the flirt, Ginevra Fanshawe, but then she falls in love with and transforms the professor, Monsieur Paul Emanuel

"Sloane Caraway is a liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting. So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself - she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot. With this lie, and chance encounter Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged life of Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island. But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years. The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and twisted prison of a world. And in COUNT MY LIES, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the picture perfect images we spend so much time trying to maintain. Careful what you lie for"--

"In the small town of Gold Springs, Calliope Petridi and her two sisters carefully guard the secret of their magic and the price they must pay to practice it: memories. Luckily, all Calliope wants to do is forget: the mother who left without a trace, the sisters from whom she feels increasingly distant, and most of all, the way the love of her life shattered her heart two years ago. But when a mysterious evil awakens, the fragile thread that holds the sisters together breaks. As their magic slowly begins to fade, Calliope accidentally binds herself to the handsome leader of a rival coven infamous for their ruthless pursuit of power. Battling the sizzling chemistry with a man she can't trust, Calliope must confront memories of her past, family secrets, and ancient magic in order to protect the town and all she loves. But will she have anything left of herself?"--

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train's crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more