September 6, 2025
The four novels here explore versions of class: one about the hopes and dreams of formerly enslaved siblings; a rediscovered satire about artistic English expats in Bruges; a novel about a struggling young Japanese woman who resorts to becoming a surrogate; and a gimlet-eyed skewering of the debauched New York art world. For fans of Virginia Woolf and the brilliant Mrs. Dalloway, we also have a Columbia University professor’s critical analysis of the novel.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Amity
By NATHAN HARRIS
Published by LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
It’s 1866 in New Orleans. Coleman, formerly enslaved, remains a servant to the Harper family, seeking solace in their pet terrier. His sister, June, was taken away by Mr. Harper, who never returned to his family after a trip to Mexico. The contrast of the Harpers’ contentious marriage and the siblings’ loving relationship is beautifully balanced with the harshness of their lives. Harris’s research into formerly enslaved Black people in post-Civil War Mexico inspired him to weave together this powerful narrative complete with surprising plot twists, hair-raising travel, and unforgettable characters.
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Happiness and Love
By ZOE DUBNO
Published by SCRIBNER
Following the death of a close friend, our narrator has returned from London due to visa issues. Readjusting to New York City’s cultural scene, which she now finds to be rather insufferable, she reluctantly attends a dinner party thrown by former friends. Instead of the expected memorial, the guests are instead excitedly awaiting the arrival of a famed actress. In a whoosh of narration, with lots of italics and little other punctuation, she offers up the pretensions of that milieu. “In a rapture of cognitive dissonance, they love great art but derive great shame from hoarding artwork, they are embarrassed by their riches….” Sharp, funny, and spot-on.
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Swallows
By NATSUO KIRINO
Published by KNOPF
Translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
At her wits’ (and money’s) end, Riki, a 29-year-old office temp living in Tokyo, decides to raise some cash by donating her eggs. Better yet, an opportunity to become a surrogate for a wealthy couple arises. But the Japanese law concerning the arrangement is complicated, as is the couple’s marriage, and everyone involved has conflicting ideas about what it is to be a parent. Not to mention, Riki has lost agency over her own body. Kirino’s 2005 literary mystery Out won Japan’s Grand Prix for Crime Fiction—she knows how to move the action along, but also how to keep the reader utterly compelled with investigations of gender and class.
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The Unspeakable Skipton
By PAMELA HANSFORD JOHNSON
Published by MCNALLY EDITIONS
A maliciously delicious literary satire from 1959, Johnson’s book is a revelation. She gleefully eviscerates the expats in Bruges where Daniel Skipton has fled to attempt to finish “the greatest novel in the English language.” Skipton is a schemer and a paranoiac, befriending and conning a group of tourists, including a Venetian count, for money and material for his novel. He also attempts to extort his London publishers for a loan. The descriptions of his social circle are ruthless “[he] has a tongue like a tap with a withered washer, it never stops dripping.” It put me happily in mind of both Jane Gardam and Evelyn Waugh’s dark comedies.
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The Inner Life of Mrs. Dalloway
By EDWARD MENDELSON
Published by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Virginia Woolf’s enduring classic is lovingly dissected by the respected and widely published literary critic and Columbia University professor. Given the perennially popular reading groups at The Center about Woolf’s work, it is clear her books have a timeless appeal. Mrs. Dalloway, a marvel of structure and psychological insight, which takes place in only one day, is forever ripe for discussion and revisiting. Mendelson fixes his erudite scholarly gaze upon the woman behind the novel and behind the endlessly fascinating Clarissa Dalloway, raising this study from academic criticism to a reminder of the pleasures of reading the novel anew.
