September 3, 2021

New Fiction

The Rise of Light by Olivia Hawker – 1975.  In the town of Rexburg, Idaho, aspiring artist Aran Rigby, his younger sister, Tamsin, and their two brothers are locked in orbit around their emotionally abusive father.  Gad is the kind of man who soothes the failures of his own life by controlling the lives of others.  But Aran and Tamsin are united in rebellion against their father.  They understand each other.  They have dreams beyond their small town.  Arriving in Rexburg is Linda Duff, an outsider from Seattle hoping to plant new roots far from the bitter ones of her childhood.  She’s quickly taken with Aran, in no small part because of his talent.  But when they fall in love, Linda is drawn into a family more damaged than the one she left behind.  She also becomes privy to a secret Aran and Tamsin share that could dismantle everything everyone holds dear.  Upsetting the precarious balance in the Rigby home, Linda becomes an unwitting catalyst for the upheaval of Gad’s oppression.  Now it’s time for them all to break free of the past, overcome the unforgivable, and find a new way forward – whatever the price.

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding – Thomas and Viv Adler are the envy of their neighbours: attractive, successful, with well-mannered children and a beautifully restored home.  Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs.  It’s a prank, Thomas insists, the work of a few out-of-control kids.  But when a smoke bomb is tossed onto their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry.  Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies.  And the police dismiss the attacks, claiming they’re just the work of bored teenagers.  Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adler’s are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse.  And each new violation brings with it a growing fear.  Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret – not just from the outside world, but from one another.  And secrets can be very dangerous…

The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable – In 1942 London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies.  Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career.  On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.  Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war.  Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing.  But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.  Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford.  For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri – Living on the island of Cyprus, Nisha is far from her native Sri Lanka.  Though she longs to return home, she knows that working as a “maid” for a wealthy widow is the only way to earn money to support her daughter left behind to be raised by relatives.  Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe and selling them on the illegal market.  He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha.  But one night, Nisha makes dinner, an aromatic dahl curry, for the family that pays her: Petra and her daughter, Aliki.  Then, after she cleans the kitchen and tucks Aliki into bed, Nisha goes out on a mysterious errand, and vanishes.  When the police refuse to pursue the case, Petra takes on the investigation herself, a path that leads her to Nisha’s friends – other workers in the neighbourhood - and to the darker side of a migrant’s life, where impossible choices leave them vulnerable, captive, and worse.