Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel, Fleishman is in Trouble, a story of a Brooklyn couple’s bitter divorce from two very different perspectives, was one of the most talked-about books of 2019 and was made into an equally talked-about TV show starring Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes. In the sequel, Brodesser-Akner moves to suburban Long Island to write a story inspired by the real-life kidnapping of wealthy businessman Jack Tyke in the 1970s. In Long Island Compromise, Styrofoam factory owner Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway. But the book isn’t about the crime itself, but rather the ripple effects it had on this wealthy Jewish-American family, examining the intergenerational trauma that occurs before and after the crime.
The Ministry of Time by Karian Bradley
On the surface, The Ministry of Time is a quirky time-travel romance in which a civil servant in near-future London ends up living with a Victorian polar explorer thanks to a secret new government program. But British-Cambodian author Karian Bradley’s debut novel is not only a page-turner, it also tackles bigger themes, including climate change, colonialism, corruption, immigration and genocide. TV rights were snapped up months before the book was released, and A24 has produced a series for the BBC, with a screenplay by Alice Birch, who also wrote the acclaimed film adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Ordinary People. Now’s the time to read it before it’s made into a movie.
You Are Here by David Nichols
If your idea of ​​a great holiday isn’t lounging in the sun, but long walks through windswept landscapes, there’s a lot to like in David Nicholls’ latest novel. Marnie and Michael are strangers who end up walking miles together across northern England, with differing levels of passion, thanks to a trip arranged by a mutual friend. Both are nearing middle age, in failed marriages, and struggling with a life that’s lonelier than they expected. As anyone who cried while reading One Day knows, Nicholls is a master of creating beautifully drawn characters, flawed and all, whose lives you can’t help but empathize with. You’ll be rooting for them to succeed, and not until the end of the grueling hike.
“Enlightenment” by Sarah Perry
Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth, combines complex ideas and multi-layered storylines with beautiful, vivid prose to create an immersive world. Her latest book is perhaps her most ambitious to date, drawing on a narrative that spans two decades and tackling themes of love, faith and astronomy. Set in the fictional Essex town of Aldrey, it follows the unlikely friendship between 17-year-old Grace Macaulay and 50-year-old newspaper columnist Thomas Hart. It’s an old-fashioned story in the best sense, and Perry’s “A precise ability to make earthly things new and strange.”
Wedding People Alison Espac
Newly divorced, Phoebe Stone arrives alone at a luxury Rhode Island hotel feeling like she has nothing to live for. Bride-to-be Lila, who thinks she’s commandeered the hotel for her meticulously planned overseas wedding, is initially terrified. But the two women forge an unlikely friendship, and even as they crash the celebration, Phoebe finds reason to feel hopeful again. Released in midsummer and already a New York Times bestseller and with film rights already acquired, The Wedding People’s dark humor has drawn comparisons to Meg Mason’s Sadness and Bliss.
