Normal People
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they […]
Macbeth
Set in the 1970s in a run-down, rainy industrial town, Jo Nesbo's Macbeth centers around a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem. Duncan, chief of police, is idealistic and visionary, a dream to the townspeople but a nightmare for criminals. The drug trade is ruled by two drug lords, one of whom—a […]
New Boy
The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11 year olds – Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant ‘girlfriend’ Mimi […]
The Vegetarian
“Surreal…[A] mesmerizing mix of sex and violence…vivid, chiseled…Like a cursed madwoman in classical myth, Yeong-hye seems both eerily prophetic and increasingly unhinged.” —Alexandra Alter, The New York Times
Human Acts
"Compulsively readable, universally relevant and deeply resonant… It lacerates, it haunts, it dreams, it mourns… ‘Human Acts’ is, in equal parts, beautiful and urgent."—New York Times Book Review
Hag-Seed
Publishers Weekly š 08/22/2016 In The Tempest, Prospero is not just exiled king, magician, and father, hefs an impresario staging multiple shows: the storm that strands his enemies on the island; his pretended disdain for Ferdinand, whom he intends for his daughter, Miranda; the play within the play; and, some critics argue, the play itself. […]
Dear Mr. M
From alternating points of view, where no one is to be trusted, Herman Koch weaves together an intricate tale of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love, a missing teacher, and a single book that entwines all of their fates. Thanks to M's novel, supposedly a work of fiction, everyone seems to be […]
Vinegar Girl
“An effective retelling, while nodding to the original text, stands on its own as a story in the way Iris Murdoch’s 'The Black Prince' responds to 'Hamlet' and Aldous Huxley’s 'Brave New World' plays with 'The Tempest.' Tyler succeeds in creating a world we believe in…Charming…Clever"–Boston Globe
Viper Wine
Publishers Weekly 02/16/2015 Set in 1630s England, a country heading for civil war, Eyre’s confident debut novel expertly combines historical fact with modern-day invention. Sir Kenelm Digby is an alchemist, a man at the crossroads of magic and science; in Eyre’s imagination, “sometimes his mind was double hinged, and could go forward as well as […]