Reader's Choice: Fiction: Egan - Ishiguro

A startling portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event.

The very odd, but believable story of Cal, 41-year-old hermaphrodite, born as baby girl, Calliope. Tenderhearted saga of a Greek-American family harboring a genetic oddity.

A reimagining of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” shines a different light on Mark Twain's classic, revealing new facets of the character of Jim.

This witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas in 1985, Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Three sisters with secrets; a summer house in Maine to be sold off (or not); a sexy stranger from out of town who’s looking to buy; and no problem that can’t be satisfyingly resolved before the story ends.

This Is How It Always Is explores the travails of a modern family, where challenges about a child's gender are the same as any other struggles of growing up.

A seasoned hiker disappears deep in the Maine woods—200 miles from her destination. As Valerie Gillis fights to survive and pours her soul into haunting letters, a relentless game warden and an unlikely sleuth—a 76-year-old birdwatcher—race to unravel the truth.

In 1960s California, Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant scientist in a world that thinks women belong in the kitchen. When life upends her plans, she becomes the host of America’s favorite cooking show—teaching women more than recipes. With wit, grit, and a dash of chemistry, Elizabeth is about to change everything.

This unique love story is set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.

After a devastating hurricane hits Puerto Rico, Olga is visited in New York by her mother, who abandoned her as a child to advance a militant political cause.

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

In 1610, a servant girl flees into the wilderness surrounding the Jamestown, Va., colonial settlement, where all are starving. The narrative hurtles along as she sustains herself among a multitude of dangers.

Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his 50th birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself and making connections with the past.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

Nora Seed finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have lived.

Halliday, recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award, crafts a stellar and inventive debut, a puzzle of seemingly incongruous pieces that, in the end, fit together perfectly.

As dust storms roll during the Great Depression, Elsa must choose between saving the family and farm or heading West.

The dying wish of a loving father ignites a family drama that brings two sisters and their acid-tongued, Russian-born mother together in a story that reaches back to WWII Leningrad.

Two brothers freed by the Emancipation Proclamation hope to reunite with their mother while the forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers causes chaos.

A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots a day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space-not toward the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet.

Set in the harsh Puritan environment of 17th century Boston, The scarlet letter describes the plight of Hester Prynne, an independent-minded woman who stands alone against society.

A story of summer, secrets, love and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades. The Paper Palace unfolds over 24 hours and across 50 years, as decades of family legacy, love, lies, secrets, and a childhood tragedy lead Elle Bishop to the precipice of a life-changing decision.

A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there.

In a seaside town in Maine, a former Major League pitcher and a grieving widow assess their pasts.

A forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro the Father of Impressionism"

Eleanor Oliphant struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.

Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.

An “Artificial Friend” named Klara is purchased to serve as a companion to an ailing 14-year-old girl.