November 1, 2025
Four works of fiction are marked by their authors’ uncanny abilities to dig into the minds of their characters. We find ourselves thrown into the lives of several haunted women from a troubled Lagos family; meet a solitary woman visiting a seaside Grecian village; are taken inside an extraordinary weather phenomenon through the ages; and discover new stories from a prize-winning writer who continues to surprise and enthrall in only his second collection of a long career. Additionally, we offer another tender memoir from one of our most versatile cultural icons.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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One Boat
By Jonathan Buckley
Published by W. W. Norton
Shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, Buckley’s spare, engrossing novel sneaks up on you. Like Rachel Cusk’s fiction, the story is told by a singular woman trying to work her way forward. Teresa, divorced and grieving, has come to the coastal town in Greece that she visited nine years prior (after the death of her mother). Now her father has died, and she returns to the place she found solace, both in the healing waters and the unchanging nature of the village. She reconnects with two men: Petros, who works as a car mechanic, and the diving instructor, Nikos. Intimate philosophical reflection and animal attraction make this quiet novel utterly compelling.
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The Eleventh Hour
By Salman Rushdie
Published by Random House
Rushdie’s last story collection came out three decades ago, so this is a rare treat from the 2023 recipient of our Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award. Of the five marvelous stories about life and death, three are previously unpublished and of novella length. The title of this selection emphasizes a sense of exigency. Most of the characters are in their later years, rushing to capture life’s moments “in the nick of time.” “The Musician of Kahani,” set in the Mumbai neighborhood we read about in Midnight’s Children, evokes the supernatural. A ghost features in “Late,” set in academic Cambridge. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a fitting end to the quintet, focusing on freedom of speech—a subject dear to the author’s heart.
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Helm
By Sarah Hall
Published by Mariner
Helm tempts one to describe this ambitious and utterly idiosyncratic novel with clichés: hold on to your hat! That is because Helm, the main character, is a tremendous wind from Cumbria, England. As all good climate-change books conclude, humanity is threatening to destroy another natural and elemental force. Through several narratives spanning centuries, we are taken from Neolithic times to the Dark Ages, the Victorian era, and up to the present day, encountering scientists, meteorologists, and even astrologers. Hall has much to say about man versus nature, and she does so in a spirited, sometimes winking manner in this inventive dystopian novel.
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Cursed Daughters
By Oyinkan Braithwaite
Published by Doubleday
Braithwaite takes us inside the misfortunes of a Lagos family whose women fear that they are destined for heartbreak. We meet a despairing Monife on the last day of her life, as she walks into the ocean. When her cousin Ebun gives birth to Eniiyi, everyone swears she looks exactly like her aunty. Would Eniiyi continue the legacy begun generations before by a relative who stole another’s husband? (“No man will call your house, home,” was the curse handed down.) Her determination to break the chain—turning to spiritual juju—fills Braithwaite’s story with pathos and humor amid the vivid Nigerian setting.
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Bread of Angels
By Patti Smith
Published by Random House
Smith, who will introduce Haruki Murakami at our Benefit this year, has published six intimate, poetic memoirs. Here, she peers inside, sifting through her Midwestern childhood and her development as an artist, lover, wife, poet, and, of course, musician. From her first moments—born in a Chicago blizzard—to her curiosity-seeking travels through Italy, Eastern Europe, Colombia, and beyond, she experiences happiness as well as tremendous loss (of husband, parent, brother, Mapplethorpe, Shepard): “Bit by bit I piece together an ever-expanding mosaic of my pre-existence.” The title, which refers to ‘manna from heaven,’ exemplifies the grace and gratitude that mark her introspective writing. Also, don’t miss the beautiful new book commemorating her time in 1976 Paris when the album Horses was released.
