The Wolf Road, Beth Lewis, Crown – In the post-apocalyptic north country, Elka is tossed into the woods during a storm, taken in, and raised by a man she calls Trapper.

Invincible Summer, Alice Adams, Little, Brown & Co. – Eva, Sylvie, Lucien and Benedict became friends their first semester in college.

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter, Graywolf Press – A father and his sons try to live through their grief after the death of their wife and mother.

Goodnight, Beautiful Women, Anna Noyes, Grove Press – Joni’s husband drowns in a quarry, a dad fears for his daughter when another girl is raped, ten-year-old Collette learns of her sister’s affair with an older neighbor – Noyes’ debut collection follows women through times of change and discovery.

The Atomic Weight of Love, Elizabeth J. Church, Algonquin Books) – Meridian loved studying birds and hoped to get her Masters in ornithology. She also loved Alden, a brilliant professor of physics.

Born on a Tuesday, Elnathan John, – When Dantala leaves his Quranic studies and falls in with a street gang, he experiences firsthand the violence of Nigerian politics.

The Alaskan Laundry, Brendan Jones, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Grieving her mother’s death and her father’s rejection, Tara leaves her Philadelphia home for an uncertain Alaskan future with only a promised job in a fish hatchery.

The Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt –Tragedy throws a young Minnesota farm girl with an incredible voice and equestrian skills in with a circus bound for Europe.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Katrina Bivald, Sourcebooks – Sara and Amy are pen pals – Amy in small town Iowa, Sara in Sweden. Across the seas, they share their love of books and Amy’s stories of the inhabitants of Broken Wheel.

This is Why I Came, Mary Rakow, Counterpoint – A woman waits to go into confessional after decades of being away. She carries a small volume of Bible stories as she has embellished them, filling in the blanks.