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August 26, 2022

First of all, thanks to the dozens and dozens of you who wrote last week about my mom’s passing. I am reading each note and responding. I took a break from answering to write this newsletter. And to those who donated to First Book in her name, thank you; notes will be coming to you as well. (In the last newsletter, I failed to share that her name is Sylvia Cicetti for those who wanted to recognize her with a donation.)

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

August 2022

I typically am a very quick reader, but I found myself really slowing down to read FELLOWSHIP POINT by Alice Elliott Dark. Why? The beauty of her writing is as special as the story. And, ah, the story.

We have two very different women. Agnes Lee is an author, now in her 80s, who is best known for her children’s book series about a young girl named Nan. But unbeknownst to anyone, she also is the author of the bestselling Franklin Square novels, and she has one more story there that she would like to tell. Her childhood friend is Polly Wister, a well-off married woman with children. Polly’s life has been devoted to the happiness of her husband, who is demanding of her time and rather egotistical. And her children challenge her world, where she just wants peace and harmony.

Jillian Medoff, author of When We Were Bright and Beautiful

Cassie Quinn knows a few things. One: money can’t buy happiness, but it’s certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother, Billy, is not a rapist. When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie joins forces with her big brother, Nate, and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile --- white, athletic and privileged --- that makes headlines and sways juries. As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building, Cassie vows she’ll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?

Fox Creek by William Kent Krueger

The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters fill the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to the healer for shelter and the gift of his wisdom.

Debbie Macomber, author of The Best Is Yet to Come

A new beginning in charming Oceanside, Washington, is exactly what Hope Godwin needs after the death of her twin brother. There are plenty of distractions, like her cozy cottage with the slightly nosy landlords next door, and a brewing drama among her students at the local high school. But Hope still feels that something is missing. That is, until her landlords convince her to volunteer at their animal shelter. There she meets Shadow, a rescue dog that everyone has given up on, though Hope believes he’s worth saving. Like Shadow, shelter volunteer Cade Lincoln Jr. is suffering with injuries most can’t see. A wounded ex-marine, Cade identifies with Shadow, assuming they are both beyond help. Hope senses that what they each need is someone to believe in them, and she has a lot of love to give.

Sarah Addison Allen, author of Other Birds

Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp, and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written. When one of them dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there.

Mohsin Hamid, author of The Last White Man

One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders’ skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Reports of similar events soon begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends and family will greet them. Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders’ father and Oona’s mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading.

Editorial Content for The Family Remains

Teaser

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families and deadly obsessions in this stand-alone sequel to THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS.

Promo

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families and deadly obsessions in this stand-alone sequel to THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS.

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families and deadly obsessions in this stand-alone sequel to the “brilliantly chilling” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS.

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion 30 years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock --- news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London 30 years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they never could have imagined.

In this masterful stand-alone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate and affecting novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth.

Editorial Content for The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

Teaser

The New York Times bestselling author of HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

Promo

The New York Times bestselling author of HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

About the Book

The New York Times bestselling author of the “mesmerizing and evocative” (Sara Gruen, author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS) HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who has loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

Editorial Content for A Map for the Missing

Teaser

An epic, mesmerizing debut novel set against a rapidly changing post–Cultural Revolution China, A MAP FOR THE MISSING reckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives we leave behind.

Promo

An epic, mesmerizing debut novel set against a rapidly changing post–Cultural Revolution China, A MAP FOR THE MISSING reckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives we leave behind.

About the Book

An epic, mesmerizing debut novel set against a rapidly changing post–Cultural Revolution China, A MAP FOR THE MISSING reckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives we leave behind.

Tang Yitian has been living in America for almost a decade when he receives an urgent phone call from his mother: his father has disappeared from the family’s rural village in China. Though they have been estranged for years, Yitian promises to come home.

When Yitian attempts to piece together what may have happened, he struggles to navigate China’s impenetrable bureaucracy as an outsider, and his mother’s evasiveness only deepens the mystery. So he seeks out a childhood friend who may be in a position to help: Tian Hanwen, the only other person who shared Yitian’s desire to pursue a life of knowledge. As a teenager, Hanwen was “sent down” from Shanghai to Yitian’s village as part of the country’s rustication campaign. Young and in love, they dreamed of attending university in the city together. But when their plans resulted in a terrible tragedy, their paths diverged. While Yitian ended up a professor in America, Hanwen was left behind, resigned to life as a midlevel bureaucrat’s wealthy housewife.

Reuniting for the first time as adults, Yitian and Hanwen embark on the search for Yitian’s father, all the while grappling with the past --- who Yitian’s father really was and what might have been. Spanning the late 1970s to 1990s and moving effortlessly between rural provinces and big cities, A MAP FOR THE MISSING is a deeply felt examination of family and forgiveness, and the meaning of home.