Africaville, Jeffrey Colvin, – Amistad. Kath Ella grew up in a black community on a rocky bluff in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the early 1900s. It is a tightly-knit community settled by families going back to the 1700s, whose ancestors ranged from American slaves to Jamaican rebels.
Mary Toft, Dexter Palmer, Penguin Random House – One day in 1726, Mary Toft started giving birth to rabbits. Well, parts of rabbits, confounding the local physician, John Howard, and even physicians sent by the king from London to investigate this strange phenomenon.
Metropolitan Stories, Christine Coulson, Penguin Random House –
The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri, Ballantine Books – Nuri and Afra and their young son live on a lovely hill overlooking Aleppo. Nuri and his cousin, Mustafa, tend bees in the fragrant fields of flowers nearby. Then war comes.
Stay and Fight, Madeline ffitch, Farrar, Straus and Giroux – Helen comes to homestead in Appalachian Ohio with her boyfriend, Shane, who deserts her before they face the first winter.
The Travelers, Regina Porter, Hogarth – The Travelers tells stories of mostly interconnected families starting in 1946 with “the man James” when he was a four-year-old boy who wanted to know why people need sleep.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins, Harper Collins – Frannie grew up a slave on a Jamaican plantation. Her master, Langton, chose her as his assistant in his experiments on cadavers.
Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton, Harper Collins – To say that 12-year-old Eli Bell lives an unusual life would be a gross understatement. His brother, Gus, communicates by writing words in the air, some of which seem prophetic …
A Woman is No Man, Etaf Rum, Harper Collins – Three generations of women in a Palestinian family deal with a culture that considers girl babies a curse and boys a blessing, that teaches that women are inferior to men.
Trying, Emily Phillips, Hodder & Stoughton – Olivia and Felix want to have a baby. Most of Olivia’s friends and co-workers are somewhere on the same continuum – trying, pregnant, babe in hand.
