August 21, 2021
The recommendations this week naturally fell into two categories that often overlap: women and nature. We have a feminist retelling of ancient historical fiction, an autobiographical novel inspired by an inspiring woman, an aging Russian woman’s last memories, women in big nature in the American West, and women in Scotland running with wolves. Each novel is rich with strong characters and beautiful settings.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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The Women of Troy
By PAT BARKER
Published by DOUBLEDAY
Barker’s historical fiction pivots from documenting World War I (read her brilliant Regeneration trilogy) to a fascinating retelling of The Iliad. Her 2019 novel The Silence of the Girls featured Briseis, the Trojan queen and Achilles’s slave. Here Barker continues the story, set after the Trojan War, as Briseis gathers her forces, planning revenge against the Greeks who destroyed their world. Barker’s captivating feminist reimaginings are catnip to readers of both the classics and the wealth of recent fiction like Circe, A Thousand Ships, and Ariadne.
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More Than I Love My Life
By DAVID GROSSMAN
Published by KNOPF
Translated by Jessica Cohen
Another fiction about strong women, but set in more recent times and inspired by the life of a close friend to Grossman. A woman is imprisoned and tortured on an island off the coast of Croatia for the crime of refusing to give up her husband. She returns two generations later to revisit the place where many secrets are still buried, along with her daughter and filmmaker granddaughter who attempts to document their journey in order to comprehend the past. This striking novel about the bonds between the women has both the personal and political resonance we’ve come to expect from one of Israel’s most revered writers.
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Red Crosses
By SASHA FILIPENKO
Published by EUROPA EDITIONS
Translated by Ellen Vayner
A bittersweet and heartening story of an unlikely friendship. Tatiana is slowly losing her memory to Alzheimer’s but has lived an extraordinary life. Her personal history encompasses some of the largest moments in Russia’s history, including the reign of Stalin. As she struggles to remember her own past she recounts her experiences to a young neighbor who, on the contrary, is striving not to remember his violent past. It is a beautiful way to present both history and the essential human connections that make life, no matter how painful, worth living.
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The Guide
By PETER HELLER
Published by KNOPF
In Heller’s fiction, nature looms large with a capital N. Following his recent novel, The River, The Guide is another heart-stopping read featuring his hero Jack as the guide at an exclusive Colorado fishing lodge for the very rich. A simple assignment to help a famous singer find the best trout becomes a dangerous game in a setting complete with rampant viruses. Heller’s background as a literary adventure writer extraordinaire (and surfer) has many facets, but I love that he was part of the covert expedition to take down the dolphin and whale killers in Japan.
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Once There Were Wolves
By CHARLOTTE McCONAGHY
Published by FLATIRON
The author of the beautiful novel Migrations lives in Sydney, Australia. Her previous was about a woman following Artic terns on their last migration and struck a chord with readers across the globe. Now she returns with an equally powerful work on the subject of fierce women confronting the natural world. Twin sisters travel from Alaska to the Scottish Highlands with a team of biologists to reintroduce gray wolves to the region. What transpires challenges them to face the difficulties of man and beast living peaceably together. Again, McConaghy succeeds when she focuses her lens on humanity’s connection to the animal kingdom.