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We're always excited to greet each season's best new books, but this winter's batch is especially wonderful. We've highlighted 20 of them below, including new page-turners from big names like Stephen King and Lisa Gardner, as well as books from literary lights such as Joyce Carol Oates and Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer. Then there are the lesser-known or first-time authors with absolute must-reads, including Chris Whitaker's We Begin at the End and Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors. You can't go wrong adding any of these to your winter reading list.
The Dead of Winter: Three Giordano Bruno Novellas by S.J. Parris
Acclaimed British author S. J. Parris brings back her beloved monk-turned-spy Giordano Bruno in three spectacular novellas, The Secret Dead, The Academy of Secrets and The Dead of Winter. All stories in the trio are set in the fascinating world of 16th-century Italy, where Bruno takes his vows in the deeply religious Dominican order, working in the infirmary, not completely sure that he made the right choice. But then patients start mysteriously dying. Suspicious, he begins to investigate, putting both his life and his career on the line, and forcing him to choose between his religious order and justice.
Dec. 1
Eddie's Boy by Thomas Perry
As soon as you turn the first page of Edgar Award winner Perry's dark and dramatic novel, you'll see why he's been called the master of suspense. In this third sequel to Perry's The Butcher's Boy, hit man Michael Schaeffer, now in his 60s, finds himself peacefully retired with his wife in a Yorkshire manor, his glory days as an apprentice assassin and taking down the mob with a thug named Eddie seemingly over. But the past comes back to stalk him when a younger, deadlier new crop of mafia tries to take his life, propelling him into a frenetic cat-and-mouse game from Australia to the United States. Could his very survival depend on a return to the brutal ways of his youth?
Dec. 1
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
This beautifully written debut novel — and likely award magnet — is a love story about two enslaved men, Isaiah and Samuel, whose devotion to each other leads to trouble on a brutally run Mississippi plantation. Voices of their African ancestors are woven throughout the book, Toni Morrison-style, with a complex mix of characters, including an older enslaved man, Amos, who embraces the plantation owner's Christianity and becomes a preacher. This draws attention to what's now viewed as a sinful kind of love between the two men, and the tension builds toward an inevitably violent reckoning.
Jan. 5
The Push by Ashley Audrain
One of the most buzzed-about books of the season, The Push is reminiscent of Lionel Shriver's ultra-disturbing and supersmart We Need to Talk about Kevin. Told in the form of a letter ("I want to tell my side of the story"), a mother, Blythe, reveals the distressing history of her troubled daughter, Violet. Is something innately wrong with Violet, or is Blythe unable to bond with her because her own dysfunctional mother and grandmother have ruined her for any kind of real attachment? As Blythe's marriage falls apart from the stress, Violet's actions grow increasingly unsettling. Written by a former Canadian book publicist, this psychological page-turner will have book clubs talking.
Jan. 5
The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
Readers will want to curl up with a warm blanket by the fire for this novel inspired by real events from beloved best-selling author Benjamin (known for her megahit The Aviator's Wife). She uses her prodigious gifts for bringing history to life in this story of the devastating 1888 storm that buried the Great Plains, threatening immigrant children whose horrifying choice was to remain in an increasingly freezing schoolhouse or risk their lives and set out for home in a blinding storm. Based on actual stories of survivors, Benjamin weaves in a diverse cast of characters, including two schoolteacher sisters — one becomes a hero, the other a pariah — a servant girl struggling to survive, and a newspaperman who discovers hope and redemption among all the loss.
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