EVERYBODY'S FOOL BY RICHARD RUSSO

The irresistible Sully, who in the intervening years has come by some unexpected good fortune, is staring down a VA cardiologist’s estimate that he has only a year or two left, and it’s hard work trying to keep this news from the most important people in his life: Ruth, the married woman he carried on with for years . . . the ultra-hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren’t still best friends . . . Sully’s son and grandson, for whom he was mostly an absentee figure (and now a regretful one). We also enjoy the company of Doug Raymer, the chief of police who’s obsessing primarily over the identity of the man his wife might’ve been about to run off with, before dying in a freak accident . . . Bath’s mayor, the former academic Gus Moynihan, whose wife problems are, if anything, even more pressing . . . and then there’s Carl Roebuck, whose lifelong run of failing upward might now come to ruin. And finally, there’s Charice Bond—a light at the end of the tunnel that is Chief Raymer’s office—as well as her brother, Jerome, who might well be the train barreling into the station.

Everybody’s Fool is filled with humor, heart, hard times and people you can’t help but love, possibly because their various faults make them so stridently human. This is classic Russo—and a crowning achievement from one of the greatest storytellers of our time. 

THE STORY OF A NEW NAME BY ELENA FERRANTE

The second book, following last year’s My Brilliant Friend, featuring the two friends Lila and Elena. The two protagonists are now in their twenties. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. Meanwhile, Elena continues her journey of self-discovery. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at times, and drives them apart at others. Each vacillates between hurtful disregard and profound love for the other. With this complicated and meticulously portrayed friendship at the center of their emotional lives, the two girls mature into women, paying the cruel price that this passage exacts. 

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND BY ELENA FERRANTE

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

WE WERE LIARS BY E. LOCKHART

The book begins with a story told by Cadence Sinclair, the book's protagonist. She talks about her life and her summers, before Summer Fifteen, that she spent on a private island, owned by her grandparents. The island, which is near Martha's Vineyard, has four houses for each child and their family. and staff facilities. She then tells how she got to know an Indian boy named Gat and how she fell deeply in love with him.

In Summer Fifteen (as in the fifteenth year Cadence has spent the summer on the island) they have a relationship, but they reach a rocky road when the accident happens. Cadence is found seriously injured in the water, near the beach. She suffers migraines since then and is not able to remember much of Summer Fifteen except details of her accident. Even with this information, her mother refuses to disclose what happened in Summer Fifteen. Because of the accident, Cadence is held back one year and retakes her classes, but in constant pain and as a significantly different person.

In Summer Sixteen, Cadence is told by her mother that she will be travelling Europe with her father. Despite resisting, Cadence goes on the trip; next Summer, she returns to the island.

When she does return, just about everything on the island is different. Everyone, including the Liars, (the cousins and good friends of Cadence who also go to the island) acts nervously and secretively around Cadence; and one of the houses on the island is remodeled to a modern, sleeker aesthetic. Over time, Cadence remembers more and more about Summer Fifteen and her relationship with Gat. She eventually remembers that her family and her extended family were arguing over who gets the inheritance. She also remembers that her grandfather towards Gat and his uncle (implied from how he reacted to Gat and Cadence kissing in an attic in one of the houses; and how he acted toward's Gat's uncle marrying a family member).

Towards the end of the book, Cadence remembers what happened during Summer Fifteen. While drinking wine, the Liars drunkenly plan to stop their families from tearing each other apart by burning down one of their grandfather's house using gasoline from the boat house. The plan was to soak a number of objects around the house in gasoline, soak the second floor in gasoline, light the second floor on fire using paper towels, and then light the first floor on fire. However, the plan quickly goes awry as Cadence lights the living room on fire first. This traps and kills the family dogs, and the Liars. Suffering from burns gained from escaping the fire, Cadence dives into the water in her underwear, explaining why she was in the water earlier in the book. Upon this realization, she quickly realizes that the Liars were "ghosts", formed out of Cadence's guilt. She comes to terms with the Liars one-by-one and with Gat. The book ends with Cadence significantly better than she was after her injuries sustained Summer Fifteen.

HOMEGOING BY YAA GYASI

Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and will live in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising children who will be sent abroad to be educated before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the empire. Esi, imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, will be sold into slavery.

Stretching from the wars of Ghana to slavery and the Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the American South to the Great Migration to twentieth-century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's novel moves through histories and geographies.