February 8, 2025
Past and present intertwine in several of these fine books, two of which are story collections. We have a sensitive memoir of grief by one of the most accomplished Australian writers; a Scottish novel that searches for meaning in an indefinite future; an indigenous author’s stellar collection of stories; one of our most treasured writers encapsulating the ups and downs of love and marriage; and a celebration of The New Yorker‘s centenary with two books (comprising over 2,100 pages) that note the passage of time through enduring fiction and poetry.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Memorial Days
By GERALDINE BROOKS
Published by VIKING
“Tony died on Memorial Day, the American holiday that falls on the last Monday in May….” Like Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, this feels like an instant classic about grief. Brooks’s husband, the historian Tony Horwitz, died in Washington, D.C., on a book tour while she remained in Martha’s Vineyard to work on her novel (Horse). The phone call no one wants to get came in 2019. What follows is her account of the aftermath of his unexpected death and how, three years later, she realized she had not properly grieved. She heads to Flinders Island, Australia, to regroup. A beautifully sensitive book for anyone experiencing a loss.
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Waiting for the Long Night Moon
By AMANDA PETERS
Published by CATAPULT
The Berry Pickers, Peters’s highly praised debut, told the story of an Indigenous family being torn apart. About these seventeen stories, she has said that she hopes they “may reflect the history of this land now called Canada.…” She draws upon her own Mi’kmaq ancestry in powerful tales of trauma, racism, and loss. In the award-winning title story, an aging recluse lives alone in a cabin in the woods built by his father and communes with the forest creatures. He remembers his long-dead sister who stayed in town and married an abusive husband who murdered her. The flip side to the darkness within the stories is the strength and spirit of Peters’s characters, and their determination to survive the many challenges they face
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Gliff
By ALI SMITH
Published by PANTHEON
This is the first of two books that plays on the word Gliff (a Scottish word meaning a fleeting moment)—the second, Glyph, will follow. Smith’s speculative novel concerns two siblings, Rose and Brice (and a gray horse named Gliff), whose lives are upturned when their activist mother is forced to leave the country. They are considered outcasts by the 1984-like powers that be. Smith’s talents in combining literary allusions with political agenda (as in her Brexit tetralogy of the seasons) are fully evident. A bit of Orwell, some Dickens, and a Lord of the Flies-like setting all contribute to her atmospheric study of “how we make meanings and […] are made meaningless.”
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Three Days in June
By ANNE TYLER
Published by KNOPF
In her 25th(!) novel, Tyler revisits themes that have made her one of the finest purveyors of family-centered fiction. Focusing on three days before and after a wedding, we are plunged into mother Gail’s life as she loses her job as assistant headmistress on the day of the rehearsal dinner; then her ex turns up with a cat. Soon we know so much about Gail we feel like she’s an old friend. But don’t rush through this slim, delicious novel. Tyler’s enormous empathy for her characters makes reading her fiction feel like she is sitting right next to you telling you a story.
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A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker
Published by KNOPF
EDITED BY KEVIN YOUNG
Two essential anthologies collect the best of the best from the magazine’s pages from 1925-2025. In poet Kevin Young’s capable hands, you can read work by Seamus Heaney, Dorothy Parker, Louise Glück, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Czeslaw Milosz, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Strand, E. E. Cummings, John Ashbery, Sandra Cisneros, and Kaveh Akbar.
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A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker
Published by KNOPF
EDITED BY DEBORAH TREISMAN
In the magazine’s fiction editor Deborah Treisman’s superb selection, you will find classic and contemporary fiction by the likes of J. D. Salinger, Edwidge Danticat, Shirley Jackson, Jamaica Kincaid, John O’Hara, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edward P. Jones, Raymond Carver, and Rivka Galchen, many at the early stages of their careers. These books are a no-brainer for any serious bibliophile.
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