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TIME OF THE CHILD

One of our recommended books is Time of the Child by Niall Williams

From the author of This Is Happiness, a compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha.

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the Advent season of 1962,

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THE PLAYERS

One of our recommended books is The Players by Minette Walters

From the author of The Swift and the Harrier comes The Players, a gripping historical tale of espionage, treason, and surprising alliances set against the backdrop of the Bloody Assizes–the trials that would determine the fate of over one-thousand treasonous rebels.

England, 1685. Decades after the end of the English Civil War, the country is once again divided when King Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle.

Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth’s army is quickly defeated by King James II’s superior forces and charged with high treason.

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POOR DEER

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy,

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FLORES AND MISS PAULA

A wry, tender novel about a Peruvian immigrant mother and a millennial daughter who have one final chance to find common ground

Thirty-something Flores and her mother, Paula, still live in the same Brooklyn apartment, but that may be the only thing they have in common. It’s been nearly three years since they lost beloved husband and father Martín, who had always been the bridge between them. One day, cleaning beneath his urn, Flores discovers a note written in her mother’s handwriting: Perdóname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise. (“Forgive me if I failed you.

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THE SEED KEEPER

One of our recommended books is The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

Minnesota Book Award Winner, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year

A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.

Rosalie Iron Wing grew up in the woods with her father until one morning he didn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to foster care—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.

Many years later,

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THE HOUSE OF DOORS

One of our recommended books is The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

The “masterful” (San Francisco Chronicle) Booker longlisted novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption.

The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert’s, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.

Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings-and the freedom to travel with Gerald.

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